Com of the Whole Minutes from 3/3/09 Meeting (Part 1)

Minutes of the Committee of the Whole meeting held on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at city hall pursuant to notice duly given.

1. Meeting called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor Nerenhausen.
2. Roll call: Mayor Nerenhausen, Ed Young, Lloyd Heier, John Wittkopf, Al Schreiber, Joe Stiloski, Marlene Zahn, Dick Doeren, Jim Lacourciere, Sue Exworthy, Jack Maas and Atty. Mraz. Linda Belongia, Administrator and as recording secretary also present.
3. Mayor stated item ‘c’ will be removed, as it’s a duplicate of item ‘h’; and item ‘h’ will be amended to read Recommendation from on IDC to approve of the design for changing Cook Avenue with the map showing where the services are and will be for the properties in this area.
Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Heier to approve of the agenda as amended.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes
4. Public appearances/correspondence: Mayor stated anyone present wishing to speak on an agenda item will be allowed two minutes at that time; Victoria Bostedt stated she is very supportive of agenda item ‘b’ the draft ordinance amending the dog ordinance…also requested that some signage be put up in the parks that dogs will not be allowed in the parks;
5. Discussion/recommendation on:
a. Letter from Betty Wagner stating she would still like to develop on the former Bond Pickle property, co-branding with McDonald’s and Shell in addition to her existing Shell Station, which would not close. The Industrial Development Commission is recommending Wagner’s request.
Betty Wagner stated she doesn’t have any plans yet, as she needs to know that the city will sell her the property for her proposed development… this station will be in addition to her other Shell station which she will continue to operate… proposed new bldg will be 6,000 sq ft including the new McDonald’s…the proposed Shell station will have a diesel island but no overnight parking… stated all city’s grow towards the highway’s… city granted two stations for the Citgo… currently have two nationally brand stations… city purchased the property to create more jobs… help the economy; Zahn questioned Wagner on how many jobs her proposed development will add? Wagner stated minimum of ten… her current station has twenty-five but that’s because of the deli… proposed station will not have a deli, but will sell munchies, etc… in addition the McDonald’s will have additional employees; Jenny Hamann stated Citgo went uptown with their second station… the request for the Shell station was already denied, so this should be a dead issue… stated with the economy and local lay off’s her station has seen 300 less transactions daily… has invested in the community… but if this is the intention of the city… doesn’t know if she wants to continue anymore… has taken a full time job to help support her family income and put more money back into her station… people traveling through stopping into the station have questioned the city’s intent on the Bond Pickle property… she stated they’ve been responding the city has been considering allowing another gas station… Hamann stated people laugh at having another station; Schreiber stated he spoke with a developer who asked if the city had an RFD, to put out for developers to look at… this developer looked at our property… we should not start selling pieces of this property… lot we’re looking at tonight would be about dead center on this property… we’re spending a lot of money on redoing Cook Avenue… also spoke with two representatives who advised Schreiber to be careful with creating a TIF district… recommends this go back till we have a plan… another gas station might not be what we need…would like to table Wagner’s request; Mayor stated we have an RFD… map on back wall; Schreiber stated this isn’t what the developer meant; Mayor stated we have a plan; Schreiber stated we need to have a developer tell us what he would do with the entire lot … has to be put out to developers for their thoughts… agree this is probably the worst time for the city to try and develop property… have to get this out to developers… developers can tell us what they will do that will work; Maas stated we are working with a firm on this property… they may even put up a spec bldg; Exworthy stated we have other items on the agenda regarding Cook Avenue and Hwy 22 with development of a Park… we have no plans before us… Wagner’s request should come after these other items; Mayor stated doing agenda item ‘a’ is the most important … need to decide do we want to go with redesigning Cook Avenue; Lacourciere stated agreement with Schreiber… a 6th station all within 500’ of each other… expanding roads… no decision…doesn’t agree with Schreiber on selling entire parcel to a developer… should have a lease with developer for this property… that way we control what goes there;

Moved by Lacourciere seconded by Schreiber to deny request from Betty Wagner.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote.
7 ayes three no: Stiloski, Doeren and Maas.


b. Mayor stated the draft amending the dog ordinance was just provided today by Chief Carper… asked for motion to table this to next Com of the Whole meeting to allow time to review and come back with any comments or suggestions.
Moved by Maas seconded by Lacourciere to table.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

c. Removed from agenda.
d. Discussion on recommendation from Park & Rec to approve of moving Hwy 22 approx 30’ to make a viable park area that includes a walkway/bike trail; Exworthy stated there is no budget for this; Wittkopf stated the discussion at the Park & Rec meeting on creating this area included information that the city will be doing hwy 22 in 2009 with jurisdictional transfer money, along with the DOT completing the by-pass project; Wittkopf stated he met with Pat Scanlan who agreed this work on hwy 22 will have to be done this year; Mayor stated to move road the city will have to deed over approx 1/10 of an acre to the county for the proposed deviation to the current hwy 22; Exworthy stated with no plans before us… what are the costs… what about the utilities … if we are going to do this work in 2009 need to have our ducks in order; Maas stated we have no plans that are workable…moving the street over doesn’t know where the funds will come fun… don’t know what or where utilities have to go; Mayor stated the utilities stay within the existing ROW…we are not changing the ROW; Wittkopf questioned how wide is the ROW? Mayor questioned back to back is how curb & gutter is determined…ROW is 60’ or 66’… and at one point will be approx 90’ ROW; Atty. Mraz stated what has been discussed and presented by the Mayor is that approx 1/10 of an acre would have to be deeded over to the county to redo hwy 22 as what is being proposed; Young stated we have a lot of things up in the air… have nothing in front of us as a plan … what will the costs be; Mayor stated Wittkopf gave the costs estimate earlier; Young stated we have a lot of parks… this would add another one; Mayor stated in the discussion had thus far we’ve been considering a river walk… and maybe in the future a park in this area… that would be for the future; Wittkopf questioned if there is enough room to do the river walk without changing hwy 22; Mayor stated we need to make some decisions… have been discussing the maybes… need to make some decisions; Maas stated agreement with Wittkopf, why change hwy 22…leave it just as is and let county do the work; Lacourciere referenced we’re loosing properties…stated he has seen the listings that Pamida and Dollar General are up for sale; Wittkopf again questioned why can’t we leave as is…if we aren’t going to build a park today… re-do hwy 22 with the state by-pass project…leave park area as proposed until this area is done; Mayor stated the committee is loosing the foresight…;

Moved by Wittkopf to send the recommendation from Park & Rec to the BPW and OUC for true costs on what is being proposed.

Mayor stated we have the costs… $158,000 to re do the road… questioned are we going to forget laterals;

Maas stated this should go back to Park & Rec as that is where recommendation came from.

Wittkopf withdrew his motion.

Moved by Maas seconded by Wittkopf to deny the recommendation from Park & Rec on moving hwy 22 approx 30’ to make a viable park area that includes a walkway/bike trail.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 10 ayes

Minutes submitted by
Linda M. Belongia,
Administrator