Council approves plans for water tower repainting project

   The City of Monticello is ready to repaint the south water tower.

   During the Jan. 16 Monticello City Council meeting, the council approved the proposed plans, specifications, estimate of cost and form of contract associated with the project. A public hearing on the project will be held on Monday, Feb. 5, at 6 p.m.

   The stripes must remain on the water tower due to its proximity to the Monticello airport. The council previously opted for a single “M” versus the entire name of the city painted on the tower. The “M” logo will be painted on the southwest side of the tower, visible to northbound traffic on Highway 151. A second logo, painted on the east side, is a bid alternate. This would be visible to southbound traffic.

   Snyder & Associates estimates $360,000 for the total project. The bid alternate for a second logo is estimated to cost $5,000.

   Bid will be due on Feb. 14, with the contract awarded Feb. 19.

   Council member Mary Phelan asked if the water tower would be out of commission during the repainting.

   “How will this affect operations?” she asked.

   City Engineer Patrick Schwickerath said the city has two water towers, and water can be drawn from the north water tower during the short timeframe the south tower is out of commission.

   “There might be a slight impact on water pressure the closer people live near the tower,” warned Schwickerath. “But at the end of the day, it’s not a huge impact.”

   Council member Dave Goedken explained that the north water tower holds enough water for a three-day emergency, pending no major fires in town.

   “We should be able to operate on one (tower),” he said.

   Goedken also asked Schwickerath about the amount of corrosion within the south tower.

   “That’s normal for the environment it’s in,” offered Schwickerath. “The north tower had more (corrosion).”

   Schwickerath said he didn’t anticipate any major repairs to the tower itself, but there are contingency funds built into the project estimate if needed.

   “We need to do this project now versus kicking the can five to 10 years down the road,” urged City Administrator Russ Farnum of the price increase later on.

In other city business:

   • The council approved several appointments/re-appointments: Dave Goedken to the Solid Waste Management Commission, Katie Farrowe to the Park Board, Tom Yeoman to the Park Board (filling the remainder of Josh Brenneman’s term), Angie McDonough and Charlie Becker to the Airport Board, Tom Osborne to the Board of Adjustment and Planning and Zoning, Gary “Butch” Pratt to the Cemetery Board, Joey Ellison to the Library Board, and Marv Kelchen to the Tree Board.

   • Mayor Wayne Peach read a proclamation declaring January Human Trafficking Prevention and Awareness month.

   • Parks and Rec Director Jacob Oswald said they have 15 more kids for their first- and second-grade basketball clinic compared to last year. This is the second year they’ve offered the PreK-K basketball clinic.

   “Grace (Dupuy, P&R coordinator) is in the middle of her second week now and she’s doing awesome,” reported Oswald. “A lot of things she’s already done to help us provide more communication and materials for our volunteer coaches and info for parents to take home and work on skills at home with their kids.”

   • Faith Brehm, library director, offered some library facts for the council. Every October, all public libraries in Iowa submit a report to the State Library of Iowa. In July, data from those reports are made available. In the most recent report, she shared that there are 53 size “D” libraries in Iowa. The Monticello library is a “D” library.

   Of those 53, Monticello ranks third highest in terms of the number of books that are shipped to other libraries.

   “If another library requests a book that we have in our collection that they don’t have, we can ship it to them,” said Brehm. “We get state funding from the state library based on how many books we ship out every year.”

   Monticello is the sixth highest in program attendance.

   “We had 6,800 attendees at programs that year.”

   • The council approved a tax abatement application from Kevin and Alison Bergman for residential improvements constructed at 1000 Northridge Dr.

   • Publishers Note: Last week it was mentioned at the city council meeting, by a citizen in the open forum, that they believed our city council articles are inaccurate, in comparison to the city council minutes we publish. For the record, all of our meetings are audio recorded and transcribed from those recordings, thus, it’s pretty unlikely that we would have inaccuracies. We do to report on every agenda item covered during the meeting. The city council minutes are given to us from the city clerk and contain all topics discussed in those meetings but in a short-hand form. We are paid to publish them as is. The chances of both our reporting of the meeting and the publication of the minuets being exact are slim to none, but as far as accuracy goes, should complement each other. (Mark Spensley)