The Clarion City Council had an unusual hiccup during their regular meeting on Tuesday, November 19.
With barely a quorum, as only council members Dave Maxheimer, Andy Young, and Dan Hennigar were in attendance, the council was faced with an issue of how they were going to approve resolutions for change orders and pay requests to Hennigar Construction for the 3rd Street water main replacement. A majority of the council is needed to approve a resolution and council member Hennigar would have to abstain from the vote.
The issue was rendered moot however as several of the resolutions on the agenda were missing from the council packets. Unable to locate them, the resolutions to accept the pay requests from Hennigar Construction, along with a pay request from Wicks Construction for the work done on the airport runway and the review and approval of the annual financial report, were tabled for a special meeting on Monday, November 25.
Moving on from those tabled items, the council was able to approve a contract with Impact 7G for an environmental audit on 110 Central Ave. E. The audit will look for environmental hazards in the property, such as asbestos, giving the city needed information when applying for grants to help bring the building down.
The environmental audit will cost $4,750, which will be paid by the city and be reimbursed by the DNR through the Brownfield Program
The council also approved a resolution to call for a public referendum that will authorize the continuation of the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) in the city and surrounding area. LOST, sometimes known as the "one cent sales tax," is an optional sales tax that generates revenue for communities across the state and must be continually re-approved by voters. The council urged people to vote in favor of the referendum, as those funds contribute greatly to public service expenses.
"If you call 911 and somebody answers, that's because we have local option sales tax," said council member Andy Young.
The council also set public hearing dates for the next stages of the city's Water Line Improvement Project. On Tuesday, December 3 the city will invite discussion on the project, including plans to borrow a total of $2.5 million to finance various aspects.
In other business, the council approved the purchase of a 12TB storage server for police video at a cost of $4,282.50. The new storage server will replace the current computer, which is both an outdated machine and no longer capable of holding enough footage to be useful.
Wrapping up the meeting, the council welcomed new city administrator Clint Middleton, who has been settling in to his new role with numerous meetings.
Mayor Duane Asbe concluded the meeting by reminding people that the 2020 Census is coming up and that an accurate count of Clarion's true population is vitally important to the city.
"There could be more grant opportunities for a town of 3000 than a town of less than 3000," said Asbe. "It's of the utmost importance to get an accurate reading."
