March 7 Council meeting

Barely had a quorum, but with 3 council members there, we were able to have our meeting. About a 70 minute meeting.

We had final approval of our budget for 12-13.

We had input from a citizen interested in buying a city owned lot on North Cottonwood for duplex construction. The council was favorable to that concept. The land is currently zoned industrial, but would need rezoned to residential-2. That would have to go thru planning and zoning. Assuming the neighbors are good with it, it is next to other residential, so I don't see it as a big issue.

We heard about an issue with our sewer line at the intersection of Maple and Cottonwood. (not a good place, as I presume that is the busiest or 2nd busiest intersection in town). We have some issues with the main line that goes from North Cottonwood to West Maple (it is 19 feet deep) and how the main from South Cottonwood ties in (12 feet deep). So far it appears we can get it fixed without a major excavation, but still is going to cost us a couple thousand bucks.

Speaking of sewers, we passed the first reading of a proposed sewer rate increase effective July 1. Depending on how much water you use, it will be a couple bucks a month increase. This is all part of starting to get our sewer lines fixed around town.

The council approved my appointment of Jeremy Heaberlin to the Pool Board.

We had a little discussion about the public meeting regarding our sewers. The council is going to get a special meeting together to talk about how we are going to forth, based on the public input. We will also talk about the separate issue of sump pumps entering our sanitary sewer.

We had a little Ragbrai discussion. Not really going to do anything until after the meeting with the Register folks on March 31--until we know a little more and get some ideas from them. If you are interested in helping on Ragbrai organization, some co-chairs are already lined up. But they will be looking for more folks to help them. I will post more on this topic in a future blog post.