MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Hawarden Public Library
Monday, April 23, 2001 at 7:00 P.M.

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.

Present: Mayor Porter; Councilmembers: Harvey, Cauwels, Dorhout, Woodley, Kallsen

Absent: None

Staff Present: Craig Coffey, City Administrator; Tom Kane, Public Works Director; Tom Sedgwick, Telecommunications Director; Jim Pickner, City Attorney; Mike DeBruin, Police Chief.

Standard Agenda Items

Item 1. Approval of April 9, 2001 Minutes. Moved by Woodley/Cauwels to approve the Minutes of April 9. Motion carried unanimously.

Item 2. Approval of Claims for Payment. Moved by Kallsen/Cauwels to approve the Schedule of Claims for payment. Motion carried unanimously.

Item 3. Open Business from the Community (limited to a maximum of 5 minutes per item). There was no open business from the community.

Item 4. Staff Reports/Discussion.

• Police Chief, Mike DeBruin reported that Mike Ludwig is leaving the Hawarden Police Department to accept full time work at Waukee.
• The Police Dept. is also planning on hosting a bike rodeo on May 19th.
• Tom Kane told the Council that Monday would be the last day for handing out the orange recycle bags. This will be replaced with trash containers with coupons for these being made available at the City Offices.
• He also reported that the street crew would be working on Spring Clean Up this week and that the City’s street sweeper would be running from 5am to 4:30pm everyday.
• Tom Sedgwick, Telecommunications Director, told the Council that he would be attending a conference and taking a tour of a call center.
• Craig Coffey reported that he had submitted a $50,000 grant for Phase I for the Community Center Grant and that Brad is working on another grant of $20,000 for fire prevention/life safety assistance.

Item 5. Mayor Report. Mayor Porter presented a City Proclamation supporting the week of April 23 through April 28 as “City Beautification Week”. He also stated that he had given a reading at Wee Care, spoke at the Elementary School about citizenship, and also the Hospital Foundation Dinner.

Other Agenda Items

Item 6. Discussion and Approval of the Purchase of a Mini-Trencher. A bid sheet was presented with comparisons of different features to the Council. Discussions were held about the quality of the various machines. Staff recommended the Vermeer. Moved by Dorhout/Woodley to approve the purchase of the Vermeer trenching machine at a cost of $26,000 because it will better serve the purposes and needs of the City. Motion carried unanimously.

Item 7. Resolution No. 2001-12, Architect Selection for CDBG Grant and Phase I of the Community Center Project, Replacing Resolution No. 2001-10. The architects initially selected for this project could not start until September with construction next April. The new architect proposed can start immediately and will be able to move construction forward this fall. Also fees are expected to be less and fit within our budget. Moved by Cauwels/Dorhout to accept In-Vision Architect Firm for Phase I of the Community Center Grant. Aye: Harvey, Cauwels, Dorhout, Woodley, Kallsen. Nay: None.

Item 8. Approval of Proposed Budget Amendment, Setting Public Hearing and Publishing Notice of Public Hearing on said Amendment. Mr. Coffey presented the Council with amendments to the current budget and discussed some of the changes to be made. He presented the various expenditures and sources of the money for the expenditures. He covered the following:

Project	Amount	Source of Funds
Electric Transformer Repair	$ 95,000	Electric Plant Fund
Natural Gas Purchases	$ 600,000	Gas Charges
HAPP Support	$ 20,000	Transfer-In/ Extra Interest
Purchase Middle School	$ 10,000	Transfer-In/ Extra Interest
RISE Grant Penalty	$ 11,686	Transfer-In/ Extra Interest
Hawarden Machine Grant	$ 30,000	Capital Improvement Fund
HAPP Bomgaar's Grant	$ 52,500	Capital Improvement Fund
Road Grader	$ 46,500	Capital Equipment Fund
Sewer Plant Grinders*	$ 30,000	Sewer Plant Fund
Early Debt Payoff - Joe's Ready Mix*	$ 22,168	TIF Fund
Playground	$ 70,000	20K grant & 50K Donations
Purchase of Future Property (as discussed)	$ 36,000	Electric Plant Fund/TIF
Total	$1,023,854

Moved by Cauwels/Dorhout to approve the Proposed Budget Amendment, Setting Public Hearing and Publishing Notice of Public Hearing on said Amendment. Aye: Harvey, Cauwels, Dorhout, Woodley, Kallsen. Nay: None.

Item 9. Discussion of Iowa Lamb Project Assistance. Mr. Coffey presented some options to the City Council for assisting Iowa Lamb with a planned 1.2 million dollar plant expansion. He discussed tax abatements or reversing a tax abatement as an economic grant, and assisting them in writing value added agricultural grants. He explained that the first two types of assistance would amount to over $90,000 adding that he believed an economic grant would actually be cheaper for the City and should benefit Iowa Lamb the most by offsetting upfront capital costs.
The money for the grant would be paid for by future taxes of the addition. Staff was directed to get the paperwork in order to give an economic grant of $90,000 to Iowa Lamb.

Item 10. Discussion on Telecommunications Issues (Closed Session under Iowa Code Sect. 388.91 if necessary). At 7:40 p.m., moved by Kallsen/Woodley to enter into closed session for discussion on telecommunications issues. Motion carried unanimously. At 9:06 p.m., moved by Kallsen/Woodley to adjourn Closed Session and resume Regular Session. Motion carried unanimously.

Staff was directed to prepare individual telecommunications agenda items for an upcoming meeting.

At 9:07 p.m., moved by Woodley/Kallsen to adjourn the Council Meeting. Motion carried unanimously.

__________________________
Richard Porter, Mayor