At their October 14 meeting, Drew Weber, of Bolton and Menk, updated the council on the city’s various street projects.
“The 2024 trail improvement in Willow Park has been completed. The turf grading around the trail is to be completed by city staff,” Weber shared.
The 2025 Tracy Road project, which received a local road improvement grant, is in the final design phase.
“As we near completion, the construction plans will get submitted to various agencies for review. Our plan is to present final plans and specifications for approval in December or January,” Weber said.
The Waste Water Treatment Plant project is moving along in it’s final design phase, as well. According to Weber they will be having a large site walk through with city staff and various team members including staff from Bolton and Menk, mechanical engineers and electrical engineers.
Weber told the council they are in the process of compiling the post-demonstration data that was received through the surveys regarding the proposed Downtown Project.
“After we’ve compiled all the survey data the plan is to have the committee get back together to meeting in January,” Weber explained. “They would review the survey data, talk about project scope and potential next steps.”
Finally, Weber advised the council that there was “a federal mandate that every community in the country needed to complete a water service inventory. Basically, to find what material are all the water services in your community. Public Utilities has completed that and submitted it. The next step is to notify residents that are served by lead, galvanized or unknown services and those letters will be going out within the next month.”
Staff Reports
Parks and Recs Director John Fenske shared the playground equipment is going up at Tower Park. The fencing and benches around the new Kolling Courts will be going up, as well.
Youth football will be wrapping up this week, with basketball set to begin the week after Thanksgiving.
The new dugouts are now completed. Fenske thanked the community for their generosity and support in making this project a reality.
The South Park bathrooms, along with the pool, have been winterized for the season.
Economic Development Authority (EDA) Director Chris Hahn shared, “The EDA did approve doing a comprehensive housing study for Spring Valley and the surrounding areas. The amount for that was roughly $13,500, which the EDA approved with the contingency that we get most of that funded through grants. We did get $5,000 from Compeer Financial and we were also approved for the National Association of Realtors grant for $7,500, and that is a reimbursable grant.”
Hahn noted there will be a kickoff meeting for the assessment and the EDA is looking for interested persons to sit on the committee for the study.
Co-Ambulance Director Lucy Drinkall said the ambulance service had one of their busiest months with 56 calls and 58 patient contacts.
The service is looking for nurses who would be interested in the RN to EMT Bridge Program.
Drinkall reported that the service has been using their new system Twiage, which allows the ambulance crews to communicate with the hospitals live through a laptop, with great success.
Fire Chief Dustin Johnson told the council there was one lift assist, two car accidents, one helicopter landing and two structure fires, which turned out to be false alarms. The department completed an EMR refresher training and a search and rescue training.
Johnson thanked all who came out to help make their pancake breakfast a success.
Council members Luan Ruesink and Greg Brooks congratulated all the local businesses who won the Best of the Best awards. Ruesink congratulated Citizen of the Year Steve “Springy” Volkart and thanked him for all he has done throughout the community. She also thanked the Kingsland Booster Club for their fun side-by-side ride.
Other Business
- After holding a public hearing, the council voted to move the possible ordinance violation at 547 Anson Avenue to the city attorney to take further action.
- The council approved Territorial Road and Broadway Avenue 2023 Improvement pay estimate 4 for a cost of $16,978.35.
- Pay estimate nine for the for the Farmer Street and CSAH 8 project, which totaled $8,898.12, was approved.
- The council agreed the Downtown Project delineators and flower pots will be taken down and moved by November 1.
- A resolution was approved imposing a $15,000 special assessment on First Baptist Church per their purchase agreement.
- The ambulance purchase of a new air lift and a new Lucas Chest Compression System was approved.
- The council approved the fire department’s new attendance policy.
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