Also approves Grow Greene County grant application for water tanker truck and hears update on the vacant Forge
The Jefferson city council at its regular meeting Jan. 25 cleared the way for Dennis and Terry Murphy to open a meat locker with retail sales near downtown. The council not only agreed to sell the vacant lot at 210 W. Washington St to the Murphys for $25,000, but according to council member Harry Ahrenholtz, the council will be partners in assuring the success of the business.
The council approved the sale after a public hearing on the sale. City attorney David Morain and Ahrenholtz said they had received information from Chris Henning, longtime Greene County farmers market manager. After listening to comments from people at the hearing, Ahrenholtz said he had contacted Janis Hochstetler, a meat and poultry inspector with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, with contact information Henning provided. Ahrenholtz reported talking at length with Hochstetler.
During the hearing, Dave Tilley, a rural Greene County resident who works in Des Moines, said people have already told him they’d come to Jefferson to buy meat. “This is a good thing, people,” he told the council.
Greg Irving of Bagley told of a group of about 200 people who visit meat lockers in southern Minnesota, throughout Iowa, and into northern Missouri. He said people do it as a hobby and because they like quality meat. They often frequent other businesses on their trips.
“It brings people to the community,” he said about meat lockers. “You’d be surprised how many of these are right on Main Street, right in the heart of town… I think it would be a great addition to Jefferson… I can’t see it being but a win-win for you guys.”
Terry Murphy said the Jefferson HyVee manager, who began his grocery career as a butcher, has offered assistance from HyVee and from himself. She reported an “outpouring” of support for the project from the community.
Dennis Murphy chatted with the council about the possibility of creating a paved north-south alley on the east side of the property, adjacent to a building owned by Tim Pound. He said he’d put gates at both ends and then use the alley for access to the mechanical and the offal rooms, as well as for unloading animals.
(Murphy’s mention of an offal room is the only reference at a public meeting to the parts of an animal that are considered waste – hide, internal organs, bones, blood, etc.)
Before the hearing closed, Ahrenholtz spoke of a partnership with the Murphys. “Once we’ve cleared this first hurdle (the purchase agreement), we become partners… Then it’s how do we get to the end game and make it the most successful for the business that’s going to go on that property, for the city and for the community as a whole.”
The purchase agreement approved by the council includes an 18-month deadline for having a building on the property.
The council also held a public hearing regarding the maximum property tax levy in compliance with state law. If a city’s revenue growth from certain levies increases more than 2 percent for the coming fiscal year (starting July 1, 2022, in this instance), the council must pass a resolution approved by at least two-thirds of its members. In Jefferson’s case, the levy will decrease by 2.02 percent. The resolution states that the levy is not more than 102 percent of the levy in the current fiscal years.
After hearing a short presentation by Jefferson fire chief Jack Williams, the council approved the Jefferson fire department applying for a grant from Grow Greene County to fund the purchase of a tanker truck.
Williams said the goal of the project is to improve fire protection for rural residents and for the small towns in the county. The Jefferson department is applying for the grant because it has more manpower to take on the project, he said.
The grant would cover the cost of purchasing a used semi-tractor and a used stainless steel 8,000 gallon tank. The tank would be stored, filled, in the heated building at the fairgrounds formerly used as a bus garage.
There are currently nine firefighters on the Jefferson department with a Class A CDL endorsement, the license needed to drive such a rig. Those firefighters would respond to rural fires, likely arriving after the smaller, closer departments. The water from the large tank would be used while other departments left the fire scene to refill their tanks.
Williams priced the project at $120-$130,000.
Chris Deal updated the council on The Forge, which is still empty, although it opened nearly 2-1/2 years ago. Deal served as developer on the project and owns the building in which The Forge is located.
He reminded the council that the project was initiated with Pillar Technology, which had a total of 400-500 employees. Before the building was complete, Pillar Technology was acquired by Accenture, which employees 500,000 persons world-wide. The goal remained the same: to provide skills to local residents that would allow them to enter the computer software industry, and to expose students at early grades to coding and programming.
Post high school training provided by Accenture was to be at no cost to students. Accenture changed the program so the training is not only free, but students are paid “a generous hourly rate” for six months as interns, according to Deal, and then are eligible for apprenticeships that include employee benefits.
The concept was for the interns to come directly from the Career Academy. The first Accenture interns have been from Des Moines Area Community College or Iowa Central Community College. The internship program will include more Career Academy students as that program grows.
The pandemic impacted use of the E. State St building. Deal said Accenture has all employees working remotely globally and intends to remain that way for the foreseeable future. Accenture continues to lease and maintain the building, and Accenture will determine how the building is used, Deal said.
The project hasn’t gone as initially planned, but Deal isn’t concerned. “With the goal of providing pipeline opportunities and career trajectory opportunities, we’re still very optimistic about some of these programs and possibilities that are coming through, and the effort Accenture has made up to this point and what we think and hope will continue in years to come,” Deal said.
He said the building will remain a resource in Jefferson. “It might not look like we thought it would years ago, but it also is such a resource. I think there’s a lot of opportunity and we continue looking for what that might be.”
