At the Tuesday, November 17 meeting of the Clarion City Council, a public hearing for a hospital loan agreement was held. Iowa Specialty Hospital plans to borrow an amount not to exceed $4,000,000 to build a new clinic in Webster City. They have outgrown their current space there. ISH CFO Greg Polzin said that even with COVID, the hospital is doing well and does not anticipate problems paying the note back. There was no public comment during the hearing, and the council subsequently passed the resolution to proceed with the issuance of the hospital revenue note.
ISG Engineer Kelly Evans updated the council on the city’s various water projects. He noted that the well project is close to completion with only a few punch list items and some seeding left. The watermain project is mostly done with a final completion date slated for early next summer. He added that if unused grant funds for that project are available at the end, he would recommend adding a couple more blocks of watermains to be replaced. Regarding the upcoming water plant, Evans said that funding options are still being explored. The reverse osmosis pilot plant test will soon be completed. So far, it has yielded very positive results that will likely reduce the city’s need for some pretreatments and filters.
A few additional resolutions were also passed, including one for the CDBG housing revitalization program. Another two resolutions set up later actions for the city to proceed on the sale of the spec building located in the Clarion Industrial Park. The potential buyer of the building has not been made public yet.
In his written report, City Administrator Clint Middleton noted that the city had received the full $64,000 applied for through the CARES Act for COVID relief.
