AROUND MAQUOKETA AS OF 5-12-03 by Judy Carr

The Maquoketa City Council approved the FY 2002-2003 Budget Amendment.  The amendment was done in part because of the State requirement to convert from four programs to nine programs.  Because of the new division of funds within each program, the City shows that it has overspent in two programs.  The amendment is also needed because of the SRF loan for the treatment plant and the Carlisle Project. 

The City Council has been approached by Reichling Oil with a proposal to help with the clean-up of the Reichling property on South Main Street.  In return for a potential monetary contribution, Reichling Oil is willing to give the City of Maquoketa a twenty year lease to purchase for $1.00.  The Council discussed what it wanted the City’s participation to be and responded back to Reichling Oil with an offer of $10,000 to help with this clean-up.  The Council wants clarification that there will be no future liability for the City, the City will not have to perform any annual testing and monitoring, and Reichling Oil’s confirmation that if contamination is found within the next 20 years, the property would go back to Reichling. 

The ARC Committee met and discussed the location of the future ARC site so that a recommendation could be made to the City Council.  The Council approved two recommendations from the ARC Committee.  The Committee recommended, on a 4-3 vote, to continue with the current Goodenow site as the location for the ARC.  The Committee also voted to continue working with Savage Ver-Ploeg as the engineer for the ARC Project. 

The Finance Committee has been working with John Thola and Lloyd Thola who represent Shoreline Development.  Shoreline has asked the City for $65,000 in funding or one-half the cost of public infrastructure for the eastern half of their development.  Shoreline would provide the other half of this funding.  Shoreline has proposed to build enough homes by the end of 2003 so that the City’s $65,000 in funding could be supported by Tax-Increment Financing or TIF. 

If the City completes this additional investment, this would be on top of the original $135,000 City investment approved for Shoreline a few years ago.  After several meetings, the City Council voted to proceed with the additional $65,000 investment but no payments will go directly to Shoreline.  Payments will go to Shoreline’s contractor as actual invoices for public infrastructure are submitted.  However, Shoreline will use its $65,000 before the City injects its funding.  The City Council also voted to waive the preliminary platting procedures for Shoreline Development. 

There has been a lot of discussion regarding what the upcoming Western Avenue Project will consist of.  The City will be using Federal Highway Grant funds to replace the south portion of Western Avenue including the water main.  With Federal Highway Grant funds, the City is allowed to save money for a particular project.  Council members requested the City Manager and the engineer look into whether or not the City could get more funding and do all of Western Avenue from Platt Street to Summit Street.  If more funding is available, the City would have to continue to save the money for 3-4 years and then look at doing the project. 

The City has received a proposed plans and specifications from our local NRCS Office regarding a water run-off problem on the Robert Martin property on East Summit Street.  The City Council has authorized staff to go out for bids for this project in the hopes that the water problem can be taken care of. 

The City Hall office staff has just completed two weeks of training for new computer software.  The financial and the payroll systems were upgraded to a Windows based program to make the systems more user friendly.  In October of this year, the Utility Billing software will be upgraded and staff will receive three weeks of training to learn how to use the software.