July 18 Council Meeting

Had everybody but Council Member Sargent at the meeting, which took about an hour. We heard that water tower painting is going to be delayed a little bit until Minerva Wireless gets the hardware needed to do standoffs on their transmission lines. Also street repairs will be starting on Bryan Ave in a couple weeks. Cracked and busted concrete will be replaced, with tile lines going underneath. This is on the older section of Bryan.

Our city tractor had something go bad in the hydraulic system. That will cause a slight delay on the infield construction at Britson Park. The tile installation has started under the fields.

The council approved payment for electrical work in the community center. There are a lot of unknown runs of wire that previously went to the refrigerator units that were in that building. They will be pulled out, and will get it up to code. I should add these are in the basement.

We had more discussion about the sump pump inspection implementation. All homes will have inspections start in September. They will be at times convenient to home owners, including on weekends. The goal is to make sure no sump pumps are discharging into our sanitary sewer system. If they are, they will fail the inspection, and the homeowner will have to fix, or arrange to have that fixed.

The council approved the zoning change for the property at the corner of Cottonwood and Walnut from I-1 to R-2. Previously that was zoned industrial, which made sense, as it was right next to where the railroad track used to be, and it is adjacent to the Key Co-op property. However, it is also next to housing, so this change is not spot zoning. R-2 is also that neighborhood, so it fits right in. The property owner also intends to build housing properties similar to his on South Main Street. Always nice to see people investing in Roland.

We had more discussion on the trunk line sewer. The council gave the go ahead to do core drilling along the route of the proposed trunk line sewer. It will be done where property owners have given permission. Knowing what is in the ground and soil types would help any potential bidder make a more informed judgment on how to bid. With reports of a past landfill in that area, I was hoping all property owners would be favorable to having that small 10 inch hole dug in their backyard so we can get a better feel of what is in there before making a decision on whether to proceed. As of now, that has not happened, so that is unfortunate.