The Jefferson City council at its July 28 held a public hearing and then approved the sale of 200 E. State St to Chris Deal, doing business as Jefferson City View Properties.
Sale price is $205,000. Money the city has spent on improvements to the building for tenants Heartland Bank and Gravitate will be paid to the city under the existing lease. The sale is contingent on Deal receiving a $435,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Iowa Economic Development Authority to convert the upper story of the building to apartments, as well as Deal obtaining historic tax credits, and bank financing.
If Deal’s CDBG application is successful, the $435,000 will be a granted to the city by IEDA. The loan is forgivable after five years. The city will, in turn, make a $435,000, 5-year forgivable loan to Jefferson City View Properties. The city is potentially liable for the loan for five years. City attorney Bob Schwarzkopf said the amount will be included in the city’s total debt, but it represents only 3 percent of the city’s debt limit. The council passed a resolution approving the forgivable loan to City View Properties.
City attorney Bob Schwarzkopf estimates the sale of the building won’t close until November or December.
Karla Janning, a CDBG specialist with Region XII Council of Governments, is assisting in the grant process. She addressed the council to verify that two of the three rental units in the building must be designated for tenants at or below 80 percent of the low-to-moderate income level, and that the total project cost is $982,706, of which $435,000 is the CDBG. The CDBG includes $25,000 in grant administration costs.
The council approved Region XII as grant administrator, and acknowledged federal requirements pertaining to HUD funds (CDBG funds come from Housing & Urban Development funds), federal contracting requirements, and environmental review.
Tenants in the two designated LMI apartments will not be eligible for housing subsidies, Janning said. The income limit for LMI for a single person is about $38,000. “That covers a large percentage of your population. At those incomes, there would not be any type of subsidy,” she explained.
Deal told the council in June he was looking at a second building and a total of five upper level apartments. He said as the deadline for the CDBG application neared, two buildings was too much to put together.
The council split a vote on hiring retired city clerk Diane Kennedy as a temporary, part-time utility billing clerk. The city is in the process of hiring someone for the position, but utility billing doesn’t wait. The proposed wage for Kennedy was $25/hour. City council member Dave Sloan said the wage is too high, particularly since a police officer was recently hired at a wage of $22 an hour. Council member Pat Zmolek said he’d like more consistency in setting wages.
Council member Harry Ahrenholtz agreed the wage is high, but said it does not include benefits and that Kennedy will be able to begin immediately without training. Also, since the full time clerk left, the city wouldn’t be spending additional money.
Council member Darren Jackson said he agrees with Zmolek, but it’s too late to negotiate the wage with Kennedy.
On the roll call vote, Ahrenholtz, Jackson, and council member Matt Wetrich voted in favor of a motion to hire Kennedy at $25/hour. Sloan and Zmolek voted against the motion.
Kennedy anticipates working about 30 hours a week.
The council approved the second reading of the new noise control ordinance. Sloan mentioned waiving the third reading, but mayor Matt Gordon said he preferred holding all three readings because the first draft, presented early in June, was contentious.
The third reading will be held Aug. 11. It will then be posted as a legal notice and will go into effect then.
The council approved the certificate of final completion of the relocation of 243rd St, which is the first step in lengthening the runway at the municipal airport. The council also approved resolutions accepting a pair of grants from the FFA – one for $1,705,790 and the second for $298,043 – for the runway expansion project
During the reports portion of the meeting, Ahrenholtz reported the recycling committee is considering asking for a fee increase. Water and sewer rates are increased often, Ahrenholtz said, but the recycling fee hasn’t been increased in many years.
