Council declines pocket park lease opportunity

A proposal to lease the downtown Monticello pocket park to a local business was met with dissention from the City Council. 

Monticello City Administrator Russ Farnum said Blind Pig owner Ryan Evans approached him and Monticello Parks & Recreation Director Jacob Oswald about leasing the pocket park a couple nights a week to sell mixed drinks and other items. 

Farnum thought Evans would be in attendance at the July 21 to discuss the potential agreement, but he was not. 

Evans could not be reached for comment. 

Farnum said the trio came up with a framework of what an agreement could look like, but some changes would need to be made to the park to fall within the state’s health codes for drink services -- a prspect that was not met with enthusiasm from the council. 

“He needs sanitation facilities inside the hut (in the park) to serve cocktails and for bartenders,” Farnum said. “He would like to have a permanent restroom instead of a Porta Potti and expected the city to build that for him. Jacob and I resisted having any taxpayer funding to use for a trial run.

Farnum said he and Oswald proposed placing a portable toilet and hot-water dispensers similar to what’s done for other events in the pocket park. 

“The Chamber runs beer sales out of that hut just fine,” Farnum said. 

Council member Mary Phelan wondered why the Blind Pig couldn’t use their brick-and-mortar facility for restrooms. 

“If they are coming from the blind pig, why can’t they just walk from the park two doors down and use the restrooms there?” she asked. “I am not in favor of building restrooms (in the pocket park). I was on the original pocket park committee and that park was never intended to be an extension of a private business, and that’s what this feels like to me.

Council member Scott Brighton asked if Evans was interested in buying the park lot. Farnum said when the park was originally built it was somewhat available for possible redevelopment, but Phelan said as the park materialized and was in use, that prospect never materialized. 

“But that was 10 year or so ago,” she added.

Council member Dave Goedken also said he was not in favor of moving forward with an arrangement with the Blind Pig, but was willing to hear Evans’ plans before making a final decision. 

The council agreed to not approve any sort of agreement but said it Evans wanted to attend a future meeting they would hear out his plans. 

Police cams

Monticello Police Chief Britt Smith told the council the office-worn body cameras the department uses will soon become obsolete, as the company that supplies the technology in January notified his department that it will no longer support the cameras. 

“They are starting to fall into some financial hardships, and I don’t believe they will be around much longer,” Smith said, adding that the in-car cameras are also affected. 

Since January, Smith said he and his staff have founds ways to keep the cameras working and touted their tech savviness to get them to this point. 

“We are getting to the point where these failures will be beyond my capabilities,” Smith said. 

This news will require the police to purchase a new cameras system through a new vendor, Smith said. 

“We are getting to the point wehre we are going to need to take action sooner rather than later,” Smith said, estimating it would cost around $75,000 to reoutfit the department’s three patrol cars and officers. 

“We ended up with a sizable surplus from last fiscal year,” Smith said. “I’m nor proposing we take all of it, but … I would like to come ot the council and suggest we utilize that surplus and buy down the initial cost of the equipment and make it a smaller fee for years two through five.”

Smith said the new camera systems use cloud-based storage which requires a licensing fee. 

“It’s all a little more streamlined as far as the equipment goes but is costly with licensing and data storage,” he said. 

Smith said he would in August bring in the new equipment to demonstrate to the council how it works and seek official approval to purchase the technology later in the month. 

Airport runway

A maintenance project at Monticello Regional Airport got the green light from the Federal Aviation Administration and will be paid for primarily with federal funds. 

The council at its July 21 meeting approved an agreement that paves the way for the near-$400,000 project. 

Ninety-five percent of the cost for the project, or $386,683, will be covered through a federal Airport Improvement Program grant. 

The city’s share of the cost will be paid for using airport revenues. 

The work will provide maintenance services to the airport’s taxiway, apron and runway. 

In other business, the council: 

• Approved the promotion of Police Officer Eric Honda to school resource officer. 

   • Approved a temporary construction easement and a permanent sewer easement with Wheels of Progress LLC to help facilitate the sewer construction on South Main Street, including a sewer crossing of the road. 

   • Approved the final acceptance of the Northridge Estates Fifth Addition improvement project and released a $92,000 retainage to Highland Corporation.