by Carrie Moritz, Gazette
On Monday, Dec 28, the Garretson City Council held a special meeting to approve supplemental appropriations. Due to a computer issue, they were unable to approve it at the December council meeting. At the same time, they had a second reading regarding joining Tree City USA, discussed a variance requesting steel siding on an outbuilding, and had a first reading on changing the setback ordinance from 30 feet to 25 feet.
The supplemental appropriations request was large for 2020, but as City Finance Officer Anna Uhl explained, it went hand in hand with the CARES Act funding.
The City had received $259,000 in CARES Act funds, which was more than the City was able to utilize, which means some will be sent back. This is due to the restrictions placed on amounts allowed for different areas and the required use by date of January 31, 2021.
With the funds, Uhl was able to cover the Sheriff's Department salary and cover radio upgrades for the ambulance and the fire department as well as upgrade the City's computer system to a professional grade, purchase tablets for the council so they can work from home as needed, and upgrade City reporting systems with those funds.
The Sheriff's Department did not require any extra amount from the City this year; this means that being able to cover their salary with this funding opened up an extra $60,000 the City could use elsewhere.
The radio systems are required to be upgraded, and they are an expensive endeavor for our two volunteer departments, Uhl explained. The City was limited on the proportions they were able to spend on the two departments. Otherwise, Uhl said, they could have easily spent the entire CARES Act funding on upgrading the radios due to their expense.
The City was able to purchase eight radios for the ambulance and nine radios for the fire department.
Some of the reporting systems that were upgraded included nuisance reporting, code enforcement, and building permits. They will be utilizing a service called Text My Gov, which allows citizens and the city to more easily communicate over mobile phones.
With this service, they will be able to "answer questions, send links to their website, and provide details on garbage pickup, utility payment, city news, events, office hours, department locations, and more," according to the TextMyGov website. It also states that " Citizens can easily report code violation, public works issues like potholes, sign down, drainage problems, tree trimming, sewer smell, and more. Agencies can engage citizens, start a workflow, and ask specific guided question regarding location, address, street name and more."
All other appropriations were as normal, with budgets that went over being supplemented by budgets that were under-utilized.
The council approved the supplemental appropriations and the contingency transfer unanimously.
They then had a second reading of Ordinance 662, which created a tree board and approved joining as a Tree City USA member, which they also approved. Further explanation regarding this program created by the Arbor Day Foundation can be found in the December 17, 2020 Gazette.
City discusses, passes new setback ordinance
The council also approved this ordinance, then moved on to the question of changing the setback ordinance from 30 feet to 25 feet citywide. As this was a first reading, no decisions were made, but the council had a lively discussion.
This issue came about due to the variance request that was denied at the December 7 meeting, where Nielsen Construction had requested a variance of 25' setbacks after the foundations were laid in the new development off Sarah C Street.
After some further research done by Mayor Greg Beaner, council member Richelle Hofer had requested the ordinance be changed. Beaner had checked with the Southeast Council of Governments (SECOG) regarding other communities' setbacks, and found the vast majority of them had 25' setbacks.
"I stand by my vote last meeting to not approve a variance for Nielsen, because variances are supposed to be for extenuating circumstances," Hofer said. However, she was proposing the ordinance change in order to fall in line with other communities in the area. This would also allow Nielsen to continue with the development.
City Maintenance Supervisor Craig Nussbaum expressed the community's gratefulness for standing on its principles with regards to not granting the variance. He had not heard a single negative comment on the issue. He noted that changing the ordinance now was a bit of bad timing.
"Everybody I talked to is, you guys made a great decision for standing up to Nielsen like you did," he said. "You can't just let anybody come into town and do whatever. If you go with this 25' setback, now would not be a good time to do that. I think you need to finish out this development with the setbacks you've established, because it's going to come right back to you on the street again. If you change your plans on Nielsen's because this is a way out for him, I don't think that would be a good decision on your part."
Mayor Beaner said that SECOG representative Patrick informed him each city is allowed to set its own setback ordinances to whatever they desire, as there isn't a real standard. His real issue was the allowance of the 5' setbacks on each side which had been granted for four properties, as Nussbaum had already encountered issues with getting equipment behind those foundations for infrastructure installation.
Other concerns were the line of sight with regards to frontage, but as this is a minimum setback, the line of sight could be different regardless.
Council member Dave Bonte encouraged a "meet in the middle" approach, due to the mistakes made by both Nielsen and the former building inspector. He wanted to make sure, however, that Nielsen understood that the behavior of asking for forgiveness instead of permission was not acceptable.
"There just CAN NOT be any more of this. He's gotta speak to his employees just like we took care of ours," Bonte said. He did note that Garretson doesn't have developers knocking down doors to build in the community, and wanted to keep good relations with the ones who are. The other council members agreed, with the caveat that no further allowances can be made.
The overwhelming opinion appeared to be that they wanted to ensure that the City was not implementing this change to allow Nielsen to "win," but to keep the development moving forward instead of getting caught up in litigation. It would also give developers a few more feet of area to build upon. There was no mention of any other type of repercussions for Nielsen.
At the regular meeting of the City Council on January 4, the council passed the ordinance change with minimum fuss. All members of the council voted yes without further discussion.
Metal siding requested
At this time, the council moved on to examining a variance request from new community member Rollie Peschon, who was looking to place steel siding on an outbuilding on his property. Existing city ordinance does not allow for steel siding. Peschon was not at the meeting due to a miscommunication, and appealed the City's decision at the January 4 meeting.
Council member Bonte was concerned about aesthetics for current and future development in that area, and requested an amendment that the north and west sides have wood siding. The variance passed 4-2 with the amendment, but further discussion pointed out that the east side, which already faces developed area, was not included in that amendment. However, the council took no further action.
Mayor Beaner then expressed his gratitude to the council for the hard work that Uhl had been doing over the past year, and wanted the council to be aware of it. He requested to appoint council members Jodi Gloe and Hofer to serve on a newly-created salaries and benefits committee, to ensure that forward progress was made on those issues. The council agreed, then adjourned.
