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City Council sets public hearing for CCADC agreement

City Council sets public hearing for CCADC agreement

Partnership brings lasting development to town, officials said

A Nov. 16 public hearing is set for the Charles City Council to approve a new three-year contract with the Charles City Area Development Corporation (CCADC).

The city and CCADC have had a long-standing agreement in which the city helps pay for CCADC’s development services through Tax Increment District funding, City Administrator Steve Diers said, which the city pays out for in June. New tax-increment financing reporting guidelines will now require the city to provide more specific accounting of where TIF dollars will be spent by Dec. 1. “We have to incorporate this in the plan over the next several years, (that) we’ll be paying X amount of dollars that we see to (CCADC) for their economic development services,” Diers said following the council meeting. “If we’re going to utilize those funds, we need to pass this so we can certify and say we want to use that money.”

Charles City currently has three active TIF districts, with a fourth, South Grand, expiring at the end of this year. CCADC’s services are part of wider city Urban Renewal Area services, which aim to promote economic development through new business and initiatives within Charles City. The partnership has been in place for around 20 years, Diers said, contracting in three-year increments and successfully encouraging employers like Mitas, Cambrex and Zoetis to take root.

“They’ve been very successful at bringing businesses to town and keeping businesses in town, which is even more important, and expanding those improvements,” Diers said.

“Any of our major employers, any of their expansions or locating has been an economic development boom … it’s money very well spent.”

IN OTHER BUSINESS

The council and three members of the Charles City Police Department also witnessed the swearing in of new reserve police officer Hunter Ortmayer at the beginning of Monday’s meeting, and the council approved final payment for the 2014 North River Walk Project. The end cost of the project totaled $32,938.50, about $5,000 over the bid price submitted by contractor Buildings & Grounds but still below the original probable cost opinion of $38,000. The project overrun was due to increasing the concrete pathway’s thickness from five inches to six inches, the council heard, to allow maintenance access to the river bank and retaining wall.

By Kate Hayden khayden@charlescitypress.com

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