Council approves final development agreement for expansion of MinnTex

A Monticello business that is expanding its footprint with a 7,300 square-foot addition will receive property tax rebates to help facilitate the project. 

At the Monticello City Council regular meeting on Feb. 16, the council approved tax increment financing incentives for the expansion of the MinnTex/Eastern Iowa Sports Facility following a public hearing on the matter.

The five-year property tax rebate for the business will include 100% for the first year. The rebates will then decline 10% each of the following years for an estimated total rebate of $32,500. The expansion will increase the business’s property value by an estimated $350,000, according to council documents. 

City Administrator Russ Farnum wrote in Council documents that the expansion would be beneficial to the community and in line with both the city’s comprehensive plan and urban renewal plan.

Business owner Bud Johnson said the expansion will include storage space to house trucks and vans during the fruit-packing season.

This will be the third addition to the original facility and will expand it south toward John Drive. 

Harm Reduction Vending Machine

Monticello city officials are discussing the installation of a vending machine in town that would provide harm-reduction materials, such as opioid reversal drugs, for free. 

Funding for the machine comes from a portion of a $1.48 billion settlement with opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers. These funds were collected and allocated to each state’s health and human services department to combat opioid abuse.

Jones County was a recipient of those funds and used them to purchase a harm reduction vending machine that supplies a variety of items, including Narcan -- an opioid reversal drug -- sharps containers, first aid items and condoms. The first machine was placed at the Jones County Courthouse and has been in operation for almost a year. 

In council documents, Monticello Chief of Police Britt Smith said that at a recent Jones County Board of Supervisors budget meeting, the supervisors had a discussion on ideas for the remaining $172,000 that the county was allocated in the settlement, and it was suggested that a second vending machine be placed in Monticello.

Smith also said he has been in contact with Becky Cooper, who owns the property at 417 E. First St. Smith said Cooper is supportive of having the machine in town and added that her property is a possible location for it. 

The Council voted 6-1 to approve the installation of the vending machine. 

Smith said he would approach the county board of supervisors, which would review and vote to approve the use of the funding.

Smith said the Supervisors’ decision to acquire the machine didn’t necessarily need the Council’s approval since it’s possibly going on private property. He said he brought it up so the Council could act as a “voice of the community in determining whether or not this type of assistance is something that is needed within our community.”

“In the past five years, the Monticello Police Department has responded to and investigated two opioid-related deaths,” Smith said. “The subjects involved in these deaths were not local to Monticello, nor obtained their opioids from someone in Monticello … “I have no intentions of either continuing to support or to sway, should the council decide that this is not a direction they want to go, but that wouldn’t stop someone else in the community from going to the supervisors and making such a proposal and bypassing the City Council.” 

Before the Council voted to approve the machine, Council Member Dave Goedken said he was not in favor of having the machine in Monticello. 

“I’ve got the opposite opinion,” Goedken said. “If it’s going to promote drug use, I’m not going to support it.”

Goedken acknowledged that the community is not immune to drug use, but believes “if we start dispensing stuff around, I think it’ll just bring more of it to Monticello.”

Council Member Scott Brighton said the vending machine is there to help in case a person may need it.

Other council news

• Council approved a pair of pay requests. The first was for $148,049.49 to Bill Bruce Builders, Inc. for the Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvement Project ,and the second was for $28,407.38 to Roger Stephen for the Stephen Addition Trunk Sewer Project.

• The council also approved a program independent contractor agreement for the parks and recreation department.

In council documents, P&R Director Jacob Oswald said that the agreement will streamline the process for future programs while maintaining proper oversight and eliminating the need to return to council for each new contract.

• After presenting at the Feb. 2 council meeting regarding the police department’s process in acquiring a police canine, Police Chief Britt Smith requested the approval to enter into a purchase agreement with Tree Town Kennels for the purchase and training of a K-9, which was approved.