Engine testing is out but using a snow blower during the very early morning is in under a new noise ordinance. The Jefferson city council approved the first reading of the ordinance at its July 14 meeting. The ordinance will go into effect after the council approves two more readings and publishes it as a legal notice.
The first reading came four weeks after the ordinance was first presented to the council. The agenda item to hold the first reading was tabled at the outset of that meeting based on public comments after information about the proposal was published prior to the meeting. Instead, the council spent more than an hour listening to residents’ concerns.
Most of those concerns were addressed in revisions made after the June meeting. “I think we’ve landed on something that’s doable,” mayor Matt Gordon said Tuesday. “That’s why we’re comfortable with holding the first reading.”
The revisions included striking a limit on the hours residents can use motorized equipment for snow removal. An exclusion that would have allowed the noise of engine repair and testing was also deleted.
The unamplified noise of children younger than 16 at play was added as an exclusion after parents worried they could be cited for loud, rowdy play. Gordon said that exclusion was unnecessary, that it goes “above and beyond” what the police committee found in any other city’s ordinance. “We have to trust our law enforcement to use discretion about what’s a violation,” he said.
The council approved the first reading of an ordinance amending zoning regulations to allow upper story living units in the central business district. The council waived the second and third readings to have the ordinance in place by July 31.
Historically, upper story living has been allowed. It was learned while preparing a grant application that upper story living violates the city’s zoning ordinance.
It was an application for a $500,000 community development block grant (CDBG) that brought the discrepancy to light. The grant would provide funding for five new upper story rental units at 200 E. State St and 216 N. Wilson Ave. Per the terms of the grant, the household income of the residents in the new units would need to be at or below 80 percent of the median income.
Region XII Council of Governments is preparing the grant application. The deadline is July 31.
Also the council’s agenda was a resolution setting a public hearing on the sale of 200 E. State St, now owned by the city, to local developer Chris Deal. Deal plans to restore three upper level apartments in the building. A third party appraiser set the value of the building at $205,000, after the city completes renovation of the east bay of the vintage building.
Gravitate intends to lease the east bay as a coworking site. The city is currently leasing the west bay to Heartland Bank. The appraiser will set a fair market value of the two leases. That amount will be added to the purchase price.
Also included in the sale of the building to Deal will be an economic development agreement for a 10-year forgivable loan of $150,000 from the city for the second story renovation. The city will fund the loan via tax increment financing.
The public hearing on the sale of the building will be held July 28 at the beginning of the council’s regular meeting at 5:30 pm.
The sale of the building will not be finalized if the city doesn’t receive the $500,000 CDGB.
The council held a public hearing on the detailed plans and specifications, form of contract and estimate of cost on reconstruction of Arch Alley (the north-south alley behind the municipal building) and municipal building parking lot improvements. Beautification of the half-block north of State St is a project of Jefferson Matters: Main Street. The city’s role in the project is a new concrete surface.
Bids were let with the alley as the base project and the parking lot improvements as an alternate, city engineer Jim Leiding explained. The engineer’s estimate was $38,297 for the alley and $74,470 for the parking lot.
Caliber Concrete LLC of Adair had the low bid on the alley, at $37,382. The company’s bid on the parking lot was $95,551, making a total bid of $132,933. Harland Concrete of Perry submitted a base bid of $38,492 and an alternate bid of $78,900. State law requires the city to award the project based on the base bid, not the total bid, Leiding said.
The council accepted the bid of Caliber Concrete but will not proceed as planned with the parking lot project. Instead, city crews will do as much of the project as possible and the remainder may be re-let at a later date.
Leiding also reported the city was eligible to receive $30,000 from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act through the FAA via the airport runway expansion project. The council approved accepting the grant. Palmer said when asked by council member Matt Wetrich that there were “no strings or stipulations attached,” that the city could use it in any way.
Later in the meeting, during discussion of T-N-R of cats, several persons suggested the $30,000 be put toward a T-N-R project. Palmer then clarified that the $30,000 must be spent on the runway project.
The council approved a monthly service contract for $310 per month with Computer Concepts for new computers at the municipal building.
