The mayor was not in attendance as he is out of town on vacation; Alderman Ebersohl is serving as mayor pro-tem while Hutchinson is away. Alderman Stumpf arrived at about 7:12pm. Alderman Oberkfell was not in attendance as there was a death in his family.
Refuse Collection & Recycling
• Refuse & Recycling Contract Presentation/Discussion
Tim Schiebe (sp) was in attendance to give a presentation on the contract the city has with Reliable Sanitation. He proposes that the city not use the CPI to determine the increases in his contract anymore. He noted that Columbia had no increases in sanitation costs last year and throughout all of the high fuel prices he held his pricing to the city.
Tim proposed that the new contract Reliable would have with the city would include a $0.29 increase (2.7%) for his costs and a $0.05 increase in the landfill costs. This would bring the current $10.71 amount up to $11.05. He then proposed instead of using the CPI as is used now the contract would simply increase each year by 3%.
The discussion then moved on to improving the recycling program in Columbia. The council would like to see more businesses recycle and to see an increase in resident recycling. Some council members find the recycling bin to be too small. They discussed with Tim the idea of a second 65 gallon can for recycling or maybe a larger bin for recycling. Nothing was decided on.
Tim then said that at the end of Skyline Drive his driver used to turn around in a driveway at the end of the street. That owner has decided recently that Reliable cannot use his driveway anymore and the trash trucks have to back down Skyline Drive. The owner told the driver that if Reliable fixes the culvert under his driveway then they could use it to turn around again. Time proposed that Reliable could buy all of the material and maybe the city could install it for the owner. He did not have many firm details in regards to an agreement with the owner so he will discuss it with them and then come back to the council for more direction.
Streets Sidewalks, Drainage, and Public Utilities
• Old Town Project – Davenport (404 E. Cherry) Driveway Issue Discussion
It was decided that the city will have the contractor working in Old Town replace his driveway all the way to the garage with 6” concrete and rebar to make the grade in his driveway a continuous 5.6% from the street to the garage. The council was obviously swayed by Mr. Davenport taking time out of his schedule to make a presentation at the Oct. 5 city council meeting. At the previous committee meeting the council was split in support of repairing the driveway. The wording in the easement that said something to the effect that things would be put back the same way as before changed the mind of some alderman. The driveway will run around $5,300 to replace at this time.
Seems to me the council is doing the right thing, but the city should maybe proactively look for other areas of possible issue in the Old Town project.
• Breidecker Street Discussion
The council discussed leaving Breidecker open once the road work is completed. No action was taken and they will continue to think about this possibility and discuss it more in the future.
Committee of the Whole
•Meadow Ridge West Condo Association Agreement Request Discussion
The agreement is almost complete. There will be no street improvements by the city and the city will not be responsible for their upkeep in any way. The condo association will pay for all of the legal fees accumulated before the city signs off on the agreement. The agreement had one item that caused concern for the council. It stated that there is to be no parking on the street. There was also a provision for no cars parked after midnight if I remember correctly. These provisions seemed redundant and didn’t make much sense to much of the council. The council was concerned that maybe the residents were not aware of these provisions.
•Other Items to Be Discussed
Alderman Row brought up the idea that the city should have a policy in place for returning soldiers to have a small processional down main street if they so desired one.
There had been a citizen requesting a while back that she wanted to organize a parade for some returning soldiers. She gave a presentation at an earlier committee meeting and was told of some requirements including the need for an insurance certificate.
Alderman Niemietz asked who would be responsible for organizing the processional. Alderman Row said it didn’t have to be large or even shut down the street; it could be as simple as a fire truck and maybe two cop cars providing an escort down Main Street. Alderman Stumpf mentioned that Waterloo does it for soccer teams and you basically call and a cop meets the group at one end of town and leads or follows them to the other and that’s it.
They decided that a policy would need to be in place for contacting Chief Edwards or the fire department to organize a processional. This policy would be for sports teams as well as returning soldiers.
Personnel
All of issues below were discussed in executive session.
•Discussion on employment and compensation of a specific city employee (City Hall Office)
•Collective Bargaining
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