The regular meeting of the Clarion City Council on Tuesday, April 21 was again held via conference call. The council again passed several resolutions during the meeting. One of the resolutions was to approve the city’s fiscal year 2020-2021 budget. This was preceded by a public hearing for the budget. No public comments had been submitted. The budget approval had been delayed from last month to fully meet public notice requirements. City Administrator Clint Middleton noted that nothing in the budget had changed from last month.
Other resolutions included one to get the ball rolling on the airport runway lighting project. A public hearing was set for May 5 to approve plans and specifications. Director of Public Works Jon DeVries reminded everyone that with the recent federal CARES Act, the project will be 100% funded by the FAA. He also reported that due to that legislation, the city will be receiving an additional $20,000 in airport funding for other projects.
A resolution was passed amending the city’s leave policy during the COVID-19 emergency. The policy now reflects that employees who need to be gone due to a COVID-19 issue will be paid and it will not go against their leave or vacation. This is the same policy many other cities are adopting.
A public hearing was set for May 5 for a Small Business Associations Paycheck Protection Program loan to be received by Iowa Specialty Hospital. ISH CFO Greg Polzin noted that this is a necessary step to approve the hospital’s ability to get the loan through. The hope is that the loan will be forgivable if the hospital meets certain requirements for its use.
In other agenda items, a pay request was approved for $4655 for Thompson Electric Company for the well project. The ISG engineer noted that the set completion date for that project is the beginning of June. The council approved a motion from the Hotel/Motel Committee for a $5,000 grant to go to the Clarion Chamber for the new corridor welcome signs and $1000 to the Clarion Lions from the Parks and Recreation side of the funding. The Lions plan to use the money on new picnic tables for Clarion parks.
In individual reports, Middleton announced that Clarion was standing at a 56% response rate for the 2020 Census, just below Iowa’s rate of 57%.
At the end of the meeting, the council went into closed session, pursuant to Iowa Code to discuss the purchase or sale of particular real estate.
