The Guthrie Center City Council met in regular session Monday night.

The Council approved a liquor license for the Guthrie County Arts Council, and heard some concerns from The McNeils about a neighboring property owner. The property in question has many out buildings that don’t meet the requirements for “accessory building” under City Code, and an electrical cord runs from the main building to provide power to one of the sheds, causing a fire and electrical code violation. Compliance Officer Wes Clark stated he had been in contact with the property owner about the violations, which he had photographic evidence of, and said that the Trustee of the property had a roll-off dumpster delivered to the property earlier that day and the tenants were instructed to clean up the property immediately. Clark said he would continue to follow up on the property to make sure things were progressing.

The Council then heard from Main Street Guthrie Center Board President Steve Smith, in which he informed them of future events, shared updates on downtown businesses and thanked the Council for their continued support. The Council then set a date for a public hearing for the proposed fiscal year 2024/25 tax levy on April 8th. They heard an update from Clark, who shared that there had been a party interested in purchasing the property at 801 Grand Street, but that they had backed out. He also asked that wording on the accessory building permit be changed to include a clause about allowed materials for the construction of said building, and City Clerk Kris Arrasmith said she would bring an altered version to the next meeting for Council approval.

Public Works Superintendent Darin Sloss gave a report. He said that there had been recent maintenance to the tornado siren, a few sewer repair assists and funerals, along with removal of some ash trees in Riverside Park. He also shared that he’d been working with Guthrie County Quality Meats to make sure wastewater samples were in compliance, and that the electricity project in Mitchell Park should be finished soon, weather permitting. Sloss added that he and Arrasmith had been working on a new dump body and blow for the department’s blue dump truck, and Arrasmith shared that payment would be split between fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

Arrasmith shared the City Hall update, informing the Council that the software migration is getting closer to being finished, and that the budget figures had been submitted to the state for the proposed tax levy to be published. She mentioned that the Guthrie County Auditor would prepare a notice that would be mailed to all tax-payers informing them of the public hearing on April 8th.

The Council decided to move forward with the Homes for Iowa process through Region XII Council of Governments, and asked that for the City’s workman’s compensation policy, State Street Insurance Owner Becky Benton go through EMC. Arrasmith will have a checklist for the Region XII Program and a quote for the workman’s compensation policy available for the next city council meeting.