MINUTES - CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Hawarden Public Library
Monday, May 21, 2001 at 7:00 P.M.

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m.

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

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.

Others Present: Mr. and Mrs. Gary Kuence, and Mr. Bob Case

Standard Agenda Items

Item 1. Approval of May 7, 2001 Minutes. Moved by Harvey/Cauwels to approve the Minutes of May 7, 2001. Motion carried unanimously.

Item 2. Approval of Schedule of Claims for Payment. Moved by Kallsen/Woodley 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 on the Bike Rodeo hosted by the Police Department on May 19 and he also told the Council that Justin Daale was hired as a part-time police officer for the Hawarden Police Department.
• Tom Kane reported briefly on the completion of the playground and community efforts made in setting up the equipment.
• Mr. Coffey told the Council that the City has purchased all of our gas supply through March of 2002.
• The City auction was postponed and is to be rescheduled for sometime in July.
• A Housing Initiative Meeting will be held Friday, May 25 for local building contractors at the Pizza Ranch, and Mr. Coffey encouraged everyone to attend.
• He stated that a sewer flushout machine had been received and also a customer drop-off box which will be installed in the upcoming weeks.
• He reported that a normal maintenance agreement contract has been received from the Dept. of Transportation asking us to maintain sidewalks, drainage and curbing. The City is working with them so that we are not liable and financially responsible for these items.
• Sharole Rens attended a clerk’s meeting in Spencer, Lonnie Johnson, electric lineman, attended training in Ankeny.
• Mr. Coffey reported that he had attended a NW Iowa League of Cities meeting in Akron and also attended a Sioux County Revolving Loan Fund Meeting in Sioux Center.
• He encouraged the Council to look over the Resolution regarding salaries before the next regular Council Meeting.

Item 5. Mayor Report. Mayor Porter congratulated the upcoming 2001 West Sioux Graduates and he also thanked all the volunteers that helped with the playground equipment in the park.

Other Agenda Items

Item 6. Request for Renewal of a Class “C” Liquor License with Sunday Sales and Outdoor Service by the Eagles Club. Moved by Cauwels/Kallsen to approve the Class “C” Liquor License Renewal with Sunday Sales and Outdoor Service for the Eagles Club. Motion carried unanimously.

Item 7. Request for Renewal of a Class “B” Beer License with Sunday Sales for the Pizza Ranch. Moved by Dorhout/Woodley to approve the renewal of the Class “B” Beer License with Sunday Sales for the Pizza Ranch. Motion carried unanimously.

Item 8. First Reading of Ordinance No. 592 - Zoning Ordinance Change - to Add Bed and Breakfast Establishments as a Special Exception with Conditions in the R-1 and R-2 Zoning Districts. AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF HAWARDEN AMENDING USES IN CHAPTERS 4 AND 5 AND BY ADDING “HOME OCCUPATIONS” AS A PERMITTED USE AND “BED AND BREAKFAST ESTABLISHMENTS” AS A SPECIAL EXCEPTION; AND AMENDING CHAPTER 15 BY ADDING A NEW SECTION “15.7 BED AND BREAKFAST ESTABLISHMENTS” WITH CONDITIONS FOR THE SPECIAL EXCEPTION; AND PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE AND AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Moved by Woodley/Cauwels to amend Ordinance No. 592 by leaving "duplex residential" instead of "Two-Family Residential" in Section 5.2 and leave "Two-Family Residential" in section 5.3. Aye: Cauwels Dorhout, Woodley, Kallsen, Harvey; Nay: None Motion carried unanimously. Moved by Cauwels/Harvey to pass Ordinance No. 592 as amended on First Reading. Aye: Cauwels Dorhout, Woodley, Kallsen, Harvey; Nay: None. Motion carried unanimously.

Item 9. First Reading of Ordinance No. 593 - Zoning Ordinance Change - To Add Recreational Vehicle Parks as a Special Exception with Conditions in the M-H District. AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF HAWARDEN AMENDING SPECIAL EXCEPTION USES IN CHAPTER 6 MOBILE HOME (M-H) PARK DISTRICT BY ADDING A NEW SPECIAL EXCEPTION USE "RV PARKS" AND AMENDING CHAPTER 15 BY ADDING A NEW SECTION "15.8 RV PARKS" WITH CONDITIONS FOR THE SPECIAL EXCEPTION; AND PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSES AND AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Discussion ensued about the need and the appearance of an RV Park. The guest present also spoke. Various spelling and grammatical errors in the ordinance were corrected. Moved by Harvey/Kallsen to approve Ordinance No. 593 on First Reading. Cauwels Dorhout, Woodley, Kallsen, Harvey; Nay: None Motion carried unanimously. Motion carried unanimously.

Item 10. Resolution No. 2001-14, a Resolution Authorizing the Mayor and City Administrator to Sign an Architectural Contract for Phase 1 of the Community Center Project. The City Attorney and City Administrator have reviewed this contract and made the necessary changes, which the architect has agreed to. The fee is 7% plus expenses, and an hourly rate for certain historic assistance and environmental testing if needed. Moved by Kallsen/Cauwels to approve Resolution No. 2001-14 and authorizing the Mayor and City Administrator to sign this contract. Motion carried unanimously.

Item 11. Resolution 2001-15, a Resolution Establishing a Tax Increment Revenue Fund and Authorizing Loan to Fund for $90,000 for Iowa Lamb Case Ready Expansion Project. The approval of this resolution would reverse the tax abatement and give Iowa Lamb a $90,000 economic grant. Moved by Dorhout/Woodley to approve Resolution No. 2001-15 subject to the following conditions: that Iowa Lamb construct the 1.2 million dollar project as presented to the City; that Iowa Lamb enter into a minimum assessment agreement for the project of 1 million dollars; and that Iowa Lamb not be eligible for any tax abatement on the proposed project. Aye: Kallsen, Dorhout, Cauwels Woodley. Nay: Harvey. Motion carried.

Item 12. Resolution No. 2001-16, a Resolution Authorizing the Mayor and City Administrator to Proceed on the Purchase of the Grain Bin Property (Hwy 12 and 7th Street), to Have Pests Removed, to Conduct Further Environmental Testing and to Have the Property Cleared and Smoothed for an Amount Not to Exceed $40,000; In Addition to Place a Value on the Property Not to Exceed $70,000. Discussion ensued about the site and the fact that a clean bill of health still cannot be obtained without further testing. Several options were presented to the Council as to whether we should walk away, seek a brownfield grant, or do further testing.

Moved by Cauwels/Woodley to conduct further environmental testing on the property Motion carried unanimously. Resolution 2001-16 was tabled until further testing can be completed.

Item 13. Resolution 2001-17, a Resolution Establishing a Tax Increment Revenue Fund and Authorizing Loan to Fund for $40,000 for Purchase, Clean-Up and Demolition of Property. This item was also tabled pending further testing of the property.

Item 14. Discussion of Airport Study Participation. Mr. Coffey discussed the City's participation in the study. He said he was told that a condition of participating in this study was the closing of the local airport if the regional airport came about. By general consensus of the Council, it was recommended that the City Administrator write a letter of support, forgoing any future runway expansion if a regional airport is constructed, but not agreeing to close our local airport.

Closed Session. Council members decided to enter into Closed Session to discuss proprietary information about Items 15, 16, & 17 prior to discussing the items in open session.

At 8:24 p.m., moved by Cauwels/Harvey to enter into Closed Session under Iowa Code 388.9(1). Motion carried unanimously. At 8:46 p.m., moved by Dorhout/Woodley to adjourn Closed Session and resume Regular Session. Motion carried unanimously

Item 15. FCC End User Charge. The FCC end user access charge, also called the Customer Access Line Charge (CALC) and Subscriber Line Charge (SLIC) is assessed each month to both residential and business customers. This charge compensates the local exchange carrier for having to provide local access to long distance service. This charge is mandated by the FCC and is subject to review and adjustment each year. Current HITEC charges are $3.50 to each residential line, $3.50 to each business with a single line, and $6.00 for each line to any business with two or more lines. Recently the FCC has raised the amount that can be charged. Heartland and other incumbent and competitive local exchanges around us have raised their rates between $3.50 to $4.35 for each residential line, and around $4.35 for each business with one line, and $9.05 for each line to any business with two or more lines. Moved by Harvey/Cauwels to increase our FCC end User Charge for a single business line from $3.50 to $6.00, leave the multi-line FCC Business Charge at $6.00 and lower the basic business line rate from the current price of $28.15 for any line to $26.65 for a single line and $26.05 for all lines if a user has multi-lines. Motion carried unanimously.

Item 16. PICC Charge - PICC (Primary Inter-exchange Carrier Charge or Long Distance Access Charge). This is an amount charged to the Inter-exchange carriers by Local exchange carriers to recover some of the loss due to lower access charges. The Inter-exchange carriers are free to recover this PIC or CAC charge from the business line user. The amount appears on the bill as an additional charge. This charge can increase or decrease over time. The FCC ruled in July 2000 that this charge was not to be levied on residential consumers. The current monthly amount is $3.65 and HITEC has not been adding this cost to business accounts with our long distance each month.

Moved by Harvey/Dorhout to charge $3.65 per month, per business line with HITEC long distance to cover this cost. Motion carried unanimously.

Item 17. Universal Service Fund Charge. HITEC currently does not meet the requirements to submit payment directly to the Universal Service Fund. The City’s share is being tabulated by MCI/WorldCom (our long distance provider) and passed to Pioneer. Pioneer is then passing the charge onto HITEC. This amount varies each month and is being absorbed by HITEC and averages $0.30 per line per month.

Moved by Kallsen/Woodley to charge $0.30 per month, per line to cover this cost. Motion carried unanimously.

Moved by Kallsen/Woodley to adjourn. Motion carried. The Council Meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m.

__________________________
Richard Porter, Mayor