Charles City Council closes streets for events, moves to take ownership of abandoned house

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council moved quickly through a noncontroversial agenda at its regular meeting Monday evening, taking less than half an hour to agree to close city streets for a couple of events, approve plans for electrical improvements at one of the city’s public housing sites, make the latest payment on the new wastewater plant, and agree to begin the procedure to take ownership of an abandoned house in the city.

Specifically, the council:

• Approved a request to close Kelly and Jackson streets from 8 a.m to 5 p.m. by Central Park for Art-A-Fest on Saturday, Aug. 21. Emily Kiewel, director of the Charles City Arts Center, said the event “has a good lineup” and “should be a fun day.”

• Approved a request from the Charles City Police Department to close North Jackson Street, Blunt Street and Kelly Street around Central Park from 2 to 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 3, for National Night Out.

• Approved plans and seeking bids on a project to improve the electrical, lighting and security cameras at North Cedar Terrace. City Housing Director Katie Nolte said the project will include new transformers, fiber lines through the complex, converting lighting to LED lights and adding additional lighting, new security cameras and wireless connectivity for the entire complex.

The project has $263,000 available in new capital funds for fiscal year 2021 and a $250,000 Safety and Security grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. If the bids come back higher than that, operating reserve funds will be used to cover the remaining costs.

Nolte said the project will likely begin in September.

• Approved beginning the process to ask the court to allow the city to take ownership of an apparently abandoned house at 515 6th Avenue. City Attorney Brad Sloter said the owner of the property died in August 2018 and there has been no action seen to transfer ownership.

The property isn’t being maintained and the city has had to remove snow and cut the lawn on numerous occasions, he said. Property taxes have also not been paid.

Sloter said the interior of the home has not been inspected, so it is unknown whether the home can be repaired or will need to be demolished.

• Approved appointing Linda Lindaman and Jim Davis to the Charles City Library Board.

• Approved the latest pay application to Portzen Construction Inc. for $638,779 for work done on the new city water resource recovery facility. City Engineer John Fallis said that brings the total paid to Portzen so far on the project to $13.775 million.