Perry Firefighters Called to Put Out Routine Fire at Wiese Manufacturing
The Perry Volunteer Fire Department responded to what the Chief says was relatively common fire Wednesday.
Fire Chief Chris Hinds tells Raccoon Valley Radio, they were called to the Wiese Manufacturing plant shortly after 3pm. A nearby resident reported heavy smoke and an occasional flame coming off the roof of the building. Firefighters were on scene by 3:18pm to contain the fire to a chimney that comes off a ventilation system that removes smoke and hot air from inside the plant.
Hinds says this exhaust system catches fire roughly two to three times per year because of the “crud” that builds up inside the chimney, much like a creosote fire in a residential fireplace. He says damage is usually minimal. Their job in instances like this is to spray water up inside the exhaust unit to cool it down and then put a foam solution down the chimney from the roof.
The Chief says Wiese Manufacturing had a little cleanup to do after the fire but were soon back to business as usual.
Fire crews were on scene for roughly 30 minutes.
Perry Makes Plans for Gas Tax Increase Funds
The City of Perry’s street department is expected to see an increase of nearly $140,000 annually after a ten cent per gallon gas tax increase was approved by the state legislature.
City Administrator Butch Niebuhr says the public works department is already making plans.
“They’re starting to put together their priorities for streets. We will be bringing that to the front doors of people’s houses and show that we are going to do that work within the City with those funds that will be allocated to us. So we’re going to start doing that as soon as possible. As soon as we start seeing the funds come in we’ll be targeting and looking to do some work in the city limits of Perry” says Niebuhr.
Niebuhr says overall, the increase will be beneficial for Perry.
“That ($140,000 per year) is about two and a half blocks of overlay. So it doesn’t sound like a lot but what you can do is leverage that, so we can do larger projects. In a two year period, a quarter of a million dollars worth of projects, you know maybe we could do five or six blocks. Or we could do a note with a local bank that maybe runs for three or four years and maybe do 15 blocks or 18 blocks, and do a larger project and try to take advantage of a bigger project to get lower prices and then use those funds to pay that off as they come in.”
The City Administrator says a lot of people may not realize those road use tax fund monies are what funds the public works department, in terms of projects and equipment.
Perry City Council Meeting Recap
The Perry City Council held their first meeting of March Monday.
At the meeting, representatives from the state Auditor’s office presented the City’s fiscal year 2014 audit report. City Administrator Butch Niebuhr says overall the audit went well.
“We had less money coming in, but we also spent less money, which was good” says Niebuhr. “A lot of times our projects are catching up, especially when we’re doing federal projects with grants and loans. Some of that money is back ended, we have to spend it to get it, so this was a year that showed we spent more money than we took in but some of that money was coming through grants that we’ll get reimbursed this next year. So that will be catch up in 2015-2016.”
Also at the meeting the Council approved the 2016 budget, approved the final retainage pay request for the 908 Willis Avenue Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) project in the amount of $7,433 to Wolin and Associates and approved a perpetual easement for Interstate Power and Light Company for a land parcel located behind McDonalds.
Next an HVAC maintenance agreement with Wolin Mechanical was approved for the Security Bank Building, Town Craft, Carnegie Library, Perry Public Library, Public Safety Building and McCreary Community Building. The Council also approved a Bock Family Foundation grant application for the Perry Area Swim Team who is looking to purchase lap timers for the recreation center.
Administrative Assistant Sven Peterson was then promoted to Assistant City Administrator with a wage increase to $49,000 annually. Finally, Aimee Bane was approved as an addition to the Perry Volunteer Fire Department.
Perry Chamber Looking for BRR Feedback
The Perry Area Chamber of Commerce is in the process of collecting feedback from members, business owners and cyclists as they look at ways to improve their annual fundraiser.
Two quick, online surveys have been created, one for local residents and another for those who registered for this year’s Bike Ride to Rippey.
Executive Director Bob Wilson says it’s all part of the Chamber Board’s efforts to analyze current programs and how they impact members.
“Also a very important thing is how can we better align with your business to benefit you while we’re bringing all these people to town? So that’s one of those things, BRR is obviously a fundraiser for the Chamber but also, what it does is it opens up a lot of avenues for local businesses to capitalize on it. So what we’re going to try and do is figure out how we can do that, how we can better communicate and really make these events bigger and better every year.”
The surveys were sent out via email this week. If you’d like to complete one and haven’t received an email, contact the Chamber at 465-4601.
Little Precipitation Received in the Raccoon River Valley This Week
While snow and ice storms were in the forecast for the Raccoon River Valley over the last week, it didn’t end up amounting to much in terms of precipitation for our local area.
According to the National Weather Service, Perry received 1.1 inches of snow since our last report and just a few hundredths of an inch of total precipitation. Jefferson saw 0.14 inches of precipitation and a trace amount of snow and Guthrie Center also just saw a trace since last week.
Typically, just over two inches of precipitation is recorded in the area during the month of March, with snow totals between 3.8 and 4.9 inches.
Right now, there’s no precipitation in the forecast and the weather is expected to warm up to highs in the fifties and even sixties next week.