Garbage pickup will be on Saturday

Due to the midweek storm, our city's garbage provider has been pushed back a day in their usual route. So garbage pickup in Roland will be on Saturday, Feb 2. No need to set your stuff out on Friday.

Jan 16 Council Meeting

I'd like to post something about it, but I wasn't there. The meeting for Story County Emergency Management was at the same time. As mayor, I am Roland's representative to the board. I have been ditching those in the past and letting my proxy go (these meetings are held on a 3rd Wednesday-which conflict with city council). But this Emergency Management meeting had to approve a budget, and do some bylaw changes, and it required an elected official to vote on the EM budget for a given political entity. And they need to assure a quorum, so it helped if I was there. I do not count as part of the quorum for city council, as I am not a voting member.

So Duane Canny is my Mayor Pro Tem, and he ran the city council meeting. Here are the minutes of that meeting.

Back to the Story County Emergency Management Board. All incorporated cities, the Story County Board of Supervisors, and I think the Sheriff's Dept all have a seat on the board. There are two employees in this agency, and they handle the prep for and dealing with emergencies of all kinds in Story County. I know they were up in Roland for our gas leak a year or so ago, and also were on hand for the scheduled elevator burn. They do a nice job for the county.

So anyway, we elected officials set their budget and provide oversight. For this meeting, I think every city in Story County had someone there except Ames, and maybe Collins. We also had a Story County Mayor's meeting prior to the Emergency Management meeting. We don't really do much with that, other than eat and socialize. At this meeting I sat by Mayor Jensen of Story City and had a good chat with him. Obviously both of our communities have aligned interests, so it is always good to touch base with what is going on in Story City.

Council opening

As mentioned in my previous post, we got a little tidbit of news in the council comments. Council Member Jeri Neely announced she was resigning her position. Jeri mentioned various family and work issues taking a bunch of her time. And they were good things, new grandbabies, more hours at work, and road trips upcoming to see her youngest play her senior year of college softball.

Jeri's term was up the November, and I kinda expected she would not run for re-election. So I guess she will be done a little sooner. I'm thinking she started as an appointed mayor, maybe 9 years or so ago. Nobody ran for Mayor, none of the write-ins wanted the job, so we found her (I was on the council at the time), and she was mayor for a year or so. A bit later, I think there was a council opening, and we appointed her to the council, and then found somebody else for mayor. (shows you what a great gig mayor is! The appeal of council is that you can vote on stuff, the mayor cannot). Anyway, she maybe was re-elected to council twice I'm thinking. So Jeri has definitely put in her time.

So we have our 2nd council opening in about as many months. If you recall, Chad Proctor resigned due to a job move late last year.

While we could not, as a council, make an official decision on how to fill the position, there was a consensus to again appoint a replacement rather than hold an election. We will formalize that at the next city council meeting. My understanding of this position, since it was up for election this fall, is that the highest vote getter in the race for the 4 year terms will take office immediately after the election is certified. The other winners will then take office at the usual time of January 1, 2014. At least that is my non-legal take on it.

So anyway, if you are interested in being appointed to the city council, please notify me, or the staff at City Hall.

HERE is the official link to the notice on the city website.

January 2 Council Meeting

A reasonably short meeting, and we had all council members and city staff, so that was nice. We had a little discussion about the plans for asbestos testing at the property north of the old library building. We received a grant for that, and I signed a contract with the DNR regarding those tests.

The council had a discussion on whether to waive a high water/sewer bill at a property that apparently had water running for awhile while unattended. The council denied that on 4-1 vote. There were a couple reasons for the deny based on statements by the council members. For me, I don't have a vote, but in the request, the "lawyer bomb" was dropped. I don't dig that. Our council has been very gracious in the past on such requests, and work with homeowners for something equitable for all parties. But when the request comes and before the conversation even begins, it includes a "lawyer bomb", my attitude turns very sour. Even before the council says yes or no, somebody asking something starts threatening lawyers---my interest in helping you really wanes.

That was pretty much it on the agenda. During mayor/council comments, I proposed a work session to do some general planning for 2013--to think about where we want to go. And then tie it in with budget work, which is beginning now for the 2013/2014 budget year. Since we have a 5 Wednesday month, it looks like we will have that meeting on Jan 30.

In the council comments, we were notified of something, which I will touch on in my next post.

Snowmobiles-No nos

Just a reminder that operation of snowmobiles in the City of Roland is generally prohibited, and riders are subject to a fine. There is one time it is allowed, and that is on a city street after a snowfall, but before the street has been plowed.

The reason for the ordinance prohibiting their operation is the damage that has been done in the past by snowmobiles driving thru people's yards, in particular on the arteries in and out of Roland (namely Cottonwood and Maple).

So anyway, if you operate a snowmobile, please do the right thing, and not drive in the yards of your neighbors. If you see someone being a problem, and breaking this law, feel free to contact our city's police force, the Story County Sheriff's Department.

HERE is the link to the ordinance.

Former City Clerk Deneen Frost passes away

Our former City Clerk Deneen Frost passed away last Friday after a 25 year fight with cancer. Yeah 25 years. She had a bout with cancer at around age 20, and they were able to get it in remission. It came back a bit in 2004 I think, and they were able to get it knocked down there too. But in late 2010, it came back with a vengeance. It got to be a big enough problem they she needed to retire from work in early 2011. And she fought it right up to the end, until she finally passed away at home, surrounded by her human family and her beloved 4 legged family too.

Deneen was City Clerk from 1995 to 2011. I first met her when I moved to town in 1997, and started working with her when I first got on the city council in 1999. It was quickly obvious she loved being City Clerk and took great pride in dotting all the "i"s and crossing all the "t"s that need to be done in running a city.

Even though she retired, she was a great help in the transition we needed to do to get our new clerk Jodi up to speed. She had her up and down days with the cancer, but if she was up, she always took a phone call to help out.

She leaves her husband Larry here in Roland. Deneen was buried in her home town of Rockwell City. She was 47 years old.

Here is a cached photo of Deneen from a few years ago that I found on the net.

Here is a link to the obituary on the funeral home's website.

December 19 Council meeting

Record time. This regularly scheduled meeting took 4 minutes and 47 seconds. We had 5 people there. 1 visitor, 3 council members (just enough for a quorum), and me.

City staff were missing due to returning from Rockwell City from the funeral for former City Clerk Deneen Frost. Council Members Sargent and Ford were absent, and CMs Balmer, Neely, and Canny were able to make it. At $15 a meeting, the council members earned their pay at $180 an hour. That might make more people run for council!

Typically we have cancelled the late December meeting, because there is not much going on. But we decided to have this to knock a couple things out. The two biggies were having the council authorize me to sign a contract with the DNR for asbestos checking in the Slagle building on Main Street. That is the one just north of the old library. It will cost $3200 for the inspection, but we will get that back in a grant. We have been offered the building for free, but the council would like to know what we are getting into. If we do take the building, it will be to tear it down. It is pretty much beyond repair.

We also set the Public Hearing for January 16 to renew our tax abatement for new construction. Abatements need to be renewed, so I would expect the council will do that. It is a great incentive to get people to build new houses, and do big upgrades of existing houses.

No other issues of note, other than I taught CM Canny how to use the voice feature to send text messages on his smartphone. That probably won't make the official minutes.