April 3 Council meeting

Been kinda busy lately, especially last weekend, so I didn't get to blogging about Mayor Stuff. So finally getting around to notes about the April 3 meeting. Had everybody there but CM Canny who was a bit under the weather.

Got an update on bids for a new backhoe tractor. I think the current one is 12 years old. Trading in our old one, we are getting a new Case for 39,000. That came in a couple thousand less than what we had budgeted, so that is good. Our current one has served us well. It digs our water and sewer lines, and moves snow out of the downtown area.

We heard a report about some digging work that will be done around the intersection of Poplar and Linn. We need some underground maintenance there, so that intersection will be closed for a few days. It will go best when it is drier, so no word yet on when that will happen.

City staff moved our speed signs, if you haven't noticed. Speaking of speed, we talked about putting a stop sign at Industrial and Progressive. CM Hill was interested in putting a stop sign there to protect truck traffic coming off Industrial. The other 3 Council Members and myself were not prepared to take that step, so we talked about getting the portable radar from the Sheriff's department on that street. I will talk more about this in another post.

The council agreed to talk to our city attorney about starting the process to acquire the property at 220 N Main. (building just north of the old library). The owners have offered to give it to the city. While this is no particular prize to us, it will save us a lot of hassle in trying to obtain it. It needs to be torn down. If we don't acquire it, it may sit there in it's current decrepit state. So we are starting the process.

We heard from RADC rep Jim Taylor about that group's effort to promote our industrial park on a state economic development website.

The city council agreed to join the Story City Greater Chamber Connection as an associate member. I think this is a good idea. Lacking a business type chamber in Roland, this will be an opportunity to get some more publicity of things in Roland in front of the larger Story City audience.

We also went forth in hiring a 2nd engineering firm to give a 2nd opinion on what to do with sewer and storm water issues in Roland. The council decided that with the potential expense, it would be good to get a 2nd opinion. So we are getting that input from Veenstra and Kimm out of West Des Moines. We've never worked with them, but the two Council Members who interviewed with them spoke highly of them during their meeting. So we shall see what they come up with.

We also found out that CM Balmer is continuing to work on coming up with ideas for a new city website, so then we can put out that request to various companies, to see what they might want to do. And finally, the City will be flushing hydrants on Monday and Tuesday the 15th and 16th.