At the Clarion City Council meeting Tuesday, July 21, the council again weighed increasing the speed limit on 2nd St SW/Co. K in front of Iowa Specialty Hospital (ISH) Clinic. The proposed ordinance would raise the speed limit from 25 mph to 35 mph starting at the Meadows parking lot heading south. Asst. Police Chief Bret Thompson noted that the average speed in that area is around 38 mph, according to a traffic study he conducted a few months ago.
Various representatives from ISH were present to oppose the change. President and CEO Steve Simonin presented a letter to the council. The letter said in part, “We are concerned that this poses a significant safety hazard to our residents and visitors to the Meadow’s complex, also to our patients, visitors and staff to ISH and the clinic….a lot of our patients are elderly and/or ill. Why make a currently safe situation potentially less safe.”
The council all noted that they appreciated the input from the hospital. Councilmember Andy Young added that he had heard a lot of support for the change and suggested that they let it go to a third reading in case others wanted to come to the next meeting to comment. However, though Young motioned for the ordinance to go forward to a second vote, it died for a lack of second. Thus, the ordinance will not be adopted.
The council discussed a policy change that would require a minimum fee for a “lift assist” call to the police department. Police Chief Steve Terhark explained the department gets these calls frequently, several times a week often. With each call, they have to deploy EMTs and the ambulance to respond. If the person being lifted does not take the ambulance to the hospital, there is no one to foot the bill for the call. Terhark says that since the beginning of the year, such calls have cost the city about $500. The council agreed to establish a minimum fee of $75 for those calls, to be started a few months down the road so as to make people aware of it. The official policy change will take place at a later meeting.
In other agenda items:
-A public hearing was set for the next meeting on a proposed real estate contract for the sale of City owned property located at 715 1st St SE in Clarion.
-City attorney Zach Chizek said they are making headway with the county to achieve a tax abatement and thus getting back ownership of two lots in the Gates Subdivision.
-The council discussed how to move forward on nuisance violations on various properties on Highway 3.
