City plans for temporary offices during Charles City Hall renovations

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council discussed temporary city office locations during its work session meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 13, as the remodeling of City Hall draws closer.

Anticipating 16-18 months for the renovations to be complete, the city has examined several potential spots for city and police offices to be located during the construction.

“It’s unlikely that we’re going to find a spot to house all of us in one location,” said City Administrator Steve Diers.

For the Police Department, the city plans to rent out the available space at 623 Beck Street, which was previously occupied by the USDA and NRCS offices. This location also has space for City Code Enforcement and the Parks & Recreation Department.

The city also considered utilizing the Beck Street property for City Hall offices, but the available space was not well suited. The city’s own property at 813 North Main St., the former Oliver Tap building, was also considered, but it was determined that converting the building into suitable office space would require too much work. Instead, that property will be used for storage while City Hall is under renovations.

Ultimately, the city’s current top choice for its temporary City Hall is the office building at 507 Clark St. Recently vacated by First Security Bank, which has since consolidated several of its offices in the commercial space at Union House, the property is already furnished with office equipment and meets the city’s storage and security needs.

“It will certainly serve the purpose,” said Diers.

As for public meetings, the city has made arrangements to use the Zastrow Room at the Charles City Public Library, though other options like the NIACC Career Center and Charles City Community Center were brought up as options to consider in case of a conflict.

In other business, the council met with Tami Vetter and David Rottinghaus to discuss a South Grand Avenue billboard.

The billboard, currently owned by Vetter, who owns the Rustic Corner, is non-conforming with the city’s ordinance prohibiting off-site advertising. However the city, which last year renewed the 10-year lease for the property the billboard sits on, has grandfathered it in under the condition that it be used to direct people downtown and promote downtown businesses.

Vetter is now seeking to have the billboard and lease assigned to Tiffany and David Rottinghaus. While Rottinghaus also owns downtown businesses Cardigan and Mara Bridal, the question has been raised whether the sign could also be used to promote the Rottinghaus’ Sherman Creek housing development, which is nearing completion and getting ready for advertising for residents.

Some on the council were in favor of removing the stipulation that the billboard be limited to promoting downtown businesses.

“I think Sherman Creek is an amazing development, but it’s not very visible where it is,” said council member Keith Starr.

“We’ve got a lot of good people that are doing a lot of things that aren’t downtown,” said council member Patrick Lumley.

Offering a counterpoint, Mayor Dean Andrews raised a concern that reducing the restriction could put the city on a slippery slope to creating an unenforceable ordinance, resulting in off-site advertising in other locations.

This sparked discussion about whether the city’s ordinance should be more strongly enforced as is, or if it was too strict and should be eliminated all together, with the discussion reaching beyond the case of the South Grand billboard specifically.

Ultimately, the council asked Rottinghaus to come back with a mock-up of what a potential Sherman Creek advertisement could look like that would also continue to direct people downtown.

Moving into regular city business, the council welcomed the city’s new street superintendent, Tony Stonesypher.

Stonesypher now has a farm near Floyd, but has spent much of his career working in municipal service in Missouri.

“I’ve had a long career in public service and I’m so excited to conclude it in Charles City,” said Stonesypher. “You have a great system already going. I’m happy to keep it running.”

On the subject of public works, the council reviewed the final completion of the 5th Avenue Water Main Extension project.

The project, which connected two city water mains under a railroad right of way, was completed with just one change order requested after the contractor’s drill struck an unmarked and abandoned utility conduit during the bore process. This required additional excavation to dislodge the conduit from the drill.

Other than that one complication, SEH engineer Rustin Lingbeek reported, “Overall, the project went really well.”

The contractor and city will split the additional costs, resulting in a change order of $4,966.45, bringing the total cost of the project to $169,310.65.

The council also reviewed change orders for the ongoing repairs to Lions Field Pool. Three change orders, amounting to $12,126.52, have been requested to account for unanticipated joint work and additional crack repair.

The additional work is not expected to affect the re-opening of the pool for its regular summer season.