MINUTES OF THE ROLAND CITY COUNCIL

REGULAR SESSION

OCTOBER 24, 2005

 

The Roland City Council met in regular session on Monday, October 24, 2005, at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall with Mayor Jerry Spencer presiding.  Council members present at roll call were:  Roger Fritz, John Lee, Jeri Neely and Terry Rasmusson.  Absent was council member Bob Hanson.  Also present were 16 visitors and members of the community.

 

Motion by Lee, second by Fritz to approve the consent agenda containing the following items: agenda, minutes from the October 10, 2005, meeting as written, clerk’s reports, and claims as submitted.  All in favor.

 

There was no public input at this time.

 

The Department Heads report were as follows: 

 

Streets - Street Superintendent Harold Hovick reported Manatt’s was in town today asphalting the designated streets and the work at the Industrial Park is complete except for the seeding.

 

Water/Wastewater - Water/Wastewater Superintendent Dean Uitermark reported Hall’s finished the N. Main Street and N. Cottonwood 2” water main replacement project.  Council member Fritz asked if he’d received anymore comments on the bird squawker.  Dean and Harold both said that they have not heard anything in a couple of weeks.  Council member Neely asked if anyone had talked to Harlan.  Both said not really.

 

City Clerk- City Clerk Deneen Frost reported the auditor will be here on Tuesday and Wednesday and that the RADC is requesting the Mayor and Council members attend the November 3, 2005 RADC meeting to visit with Perry and Kenny Gjersivik on community development issues.

 

Greg Olson, 202 Duea Circle, was present to request permission to remove a Walnut tree from the City right-of-way and plant a new Maple tree in its place.  Currently there is a Walnut tree in the right-of-way.  Greg would like to cut down the Walnut tree and replace it with a Maple tree.  He said it would probably be a year before he’d plant the tree.  Council member Neely asked if there was sidewalk in the area.  Greg said no.  Council member Lee said he had not problem with it.  Motion by Lee, second by Fritz to allow Greg Olson to remove the Walnut tree and replace it with a Maple tree.  All in favor.

 

There was a short discussion on whether or not to repeal the section of the Tree Ordinance that pertains to the planting of trees, shrubs and bushes in the City right-of-way.  Council member Fritz doesn’t feel it is necessary to repeal it at this time.  Motion by Rasmusson, second by Neely to leave the Tree Ordinance as is.  AYE:  Fritz, Neely, Rasmusson;  NAY: Lee.  Whereupon Mayor Jerry Spencer declared the motion carried.

 

There was discussion on five (5) properties in town that need to have some clean-up done to them .  City Attorney Tom Wynia was present and told the council that they would need a detailed list of what needs to be cleaned up, picked up and/or fixed.  Street Superintendent Harold Hovick ent through the list of items for the different properties.  Motion by Rasmusson, second by Neely to have City Clerk Deneen Frost call the property owners and ask that they clean up their properties within ten calendar days.  If the properties are not cleaned up within the ten days, City Clerk Frost is authorized to send out the Municipal Infractions notices.  All in favor.

 

Motion by Lee, second by Fritz to approve Resolution No. 05-13 entitled, TO FIX A DATE OF MEETING AT WHICH IT IS PROPOSED TO APPROVE A DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT WITH INNOVATIVE LIGHTING, INCLUDING TAX INCREMENT PAYMENTS IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $55,000.00.  The roll was called for and is as follows:  AYE:  Fritz, Lee, Neely, Rasmusson;  NAY:  none.  Whereupon Mayor Jerry Spencer declared the resolution duly adopted and the same placed on file.

 

Motion by Fritz, second by Lee to approve Pay Estimate #2 for Scharnweber Water Conditioning in the amount of $142,415.55.  All in favor.

 

Motion by Rasmusson, second by Lee to approve Mayor Jerry Spencer’s appointment of Russ Neely to the Board of Adjustments.  The term will expire 6/30/2010.  All in favor.

 

There was discussion on upcoming council meeting dates.  City Clerk Deneen Frost stated she will be unable to attend the meeting on November 28, 2005 and asked if it would be ok to take the minutes off the tape.  Consensus of the council members was yes.  There was discussion on the meetings in December.  Motion by Fritz, second by Rasmusson to cancel the meetings on December 12^th and December 26^th and replace them with one (1) meeting on December 19, 2005 at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall.  All in favor.

 

Tammy Shadlow, NLAC Co-Chair, was present to update the council on what they have been working on .  She thanked the council for purchasing the Wright’s building.  The council members were provided a copy of the structural study that was done on the building.  Tammy quickly went over the four options the committee is looking at for the building.  The options presented are 1)  Remodel the building and add on to the South (Boyd’s building) and to the rear of the existing building;  2)  Demolish both buildings and build new;  3)  Remodel the building and add a second floor;  4)  Demolish both buildings and build a new two-story building.  Tammy gave an estimated cost of 1 to 1.4 million dollars.  This cost does not include any of the furnishings.  Tammy was asked how they were going to pay for the project.  She stated that a Foundation has been formed since the last time NLAC was at the council meeting.  They have been in contact with other Cities that had success with fundraising and will be getting information from them on fundraising ideas.  They have also created a Grant Writing committee.  Librarian Laura Urbanek has a list of grants received by other communities for libraries.  The remaining funds would be requested from the City.  Tammy said that there are several new members on the committee and she feels NLAC should be ready to finalize some of the plans at their meeting on November 7^th. 

 

Council member Terry Rasmusson left at 7:51 p.m.

 

Mayor Jerry Spencer asked why they can’t use the building as is with some minor remodeling that would need to be done.  Tammy stated that the building as it is is not big enough.  Council member Jeri Neely asked what their timeline is.  Tammy stated they don’t have one at this time.  She hopes that by the December meeting there will be more information on fundraising and grants and if a referendum will be needed.  At this time NLAC is not ready to discuss any dollar figures.  Council member Lee stated that the building would make a nice City Hall.  Tammy said she thought the whole idea was to have City Hall move into the current Library building when they moved into the new one.  Tammy said they are going to issue a press release on the project in the next couple of weeks to help the citizens know what’s going on with the project.

 

Tammy also wanted the council to know that the property is not just sitting there.  The windows have been painted and some of the children’s programs have been held over there, and the book sale will be held there in November.

 

There was no Council/Mayor comments.

 

There was no public input at this time.

 

With no further business at this time, Fritz moved adjournment of the meeting at 8:02 p.m., second by Lee.  All in favor.  The next regular council meeting will be Monday, November 14, 2005, at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall.