Nursing home expansion worries Spring Valley citizens

The Spring Valley City Council heard a concern from a citizen during the regular council meeting on February 10.  Members present included Mayor Tony Archer, Luan Ruesink, Chris Danielson, John Dols, and City Administrator Deb Zimmer.  Mike Hadland was absent.  

Bruce Kraut addressed the council, and said he was speaking on behalf of his “Jones Street neighborhood” with concerns.  He stated, “We’re concerned about the construction going on at the nursing home, the truck traffic on the road… I feel as a citizen of Spring Valley that whoever is damaging the road should be responsible for it, not the city… The road is rated for five tons.”  

Kraut continued, “It’s a $10 million project… basically equivalent to building 50 $200,000 family homes… The other reason why I’m here is the main entrance to the place is now off Jones Street.  None of us knew that… it’s a residential neighborhood, and now it’s not anymore.  We just feel like we’re being violated as a neighborhood.”

Mayor Archer said he would check into any damage to the road, and he said the heavy truck traffic would likely only impact the top layer of the roadway, not the underlayment.  After a reply from Deb Zimmer that, “It is an allowed use in a residential neighborhood, according to the zoning,” Kraut went on, “There should be an impact study… I think the value of our homes are going to go down.”

Regarding the new driveway and parking lot, Mayor Archer then said he believes the traffic will be “very minimal” and Zimmer added, “It is for the memory care visitors and their adult day care to drop off.  It’s not even for staff working.”  Kraut said he appreciated hearing that.

Library Director Jenny Simon gave an update on events at the library, and added, “We will also be a questionnaire assistance center for the 2020 census.”  She said library staff will be trained on how to assist patrons needing help with the census, and the library will have one computer specifically designated for census purposes.  She also said the library’s patron computers have Windows 7 software, which will soon be obsolete, but since it was purchased through SELCO (Southeastern Libraries Cooperating, an 11-county regional public library system), it appears the library will qualify for an affordable upgrade of roughly $50 per computer, as opposed to having to purchase new Windows software licensing for each computer, at a much higher cost.

Sue Puffer informed the council of two potential new hires for the ambulance crew, Kevin Geer and Melanie Tomzak.  The council formally approved the hiring of them, contingent upon them passing a certification class and being on the registry.  Puffer also informed the council, “In addition to hiring those two folks, we’ve been busy.  We had 42 calls in January, and 15 so far this month.”  Fire Chief Troy Lange stated, “Pretty quiet month in our world…We’ve had three calls so far (this month).”

Park & Recreation Director John Fenske stated, “Everything’s going well.  We had our third youth basketball tournament this weekend.  We have two to go.  The community center is busy, as always.  And I wanted to thank Chad (Hindt) and his guys for taking care of all the sidewalks, clearing them off.”

Deb Zimmer informed the council that, “I’m just working on finalizing the audit.  Planning to have the audit presentation at the next council meeting, if all goes well.”  She said she’s awaiting some final numbers from the county.

The council approved annual tobacco license renewals for Dollar General, Kwik Trip, Sunshine Foods, and Casey’s, contingent on all required paperwork and payment being received by the city.  The next regular meeting of the council will be Monday, March 9.  As always, the public is welcome.