The Perry City Council met in regular session last night.
At the meeting the Council accepted an Iowa Living Roadways project grant in the amount of $19,900 with a local match of $14,000 of volunteer time and in-kind contributions, approved a development agreement amendment with Nudgers and set a public hearing date for March 4th at 6pm to discuss the fiscal year 2014 city budget.
During discussion on the budget public hearing, Councilman Dr. Randy McCaulley brought up the funding needed to help the police department hire a part time officer to help fill the void. With the recycling department currently running on a 2 ½ person staff instead of three, he wonders if some of that money could be used to help with the part time staff hiring. City Administrator Butch Niebuhr says asking the recycling department to operate with less than three people will be difficult once we get to vacation season. Niebuhr said Police Chief Dan Brickner is working on numbers and he feels the issue will be figured out before the budget is approved.
The council then voted to approve a debt service levy to pay for the principal and interest on the upcoming general obligation bonds in the amount of $31,900. A special Fly Iowa event fund was created to hold funds needed to put on the event this August and a public hearing was set for March 4th to discuss a development agreement with Perry Economic Development.
An agreement with Iowa State was then approved for design of an informational kiosk at the Brownfield site, the council voted to waive building permit fees for a garage at 908 Willis Avenue which will be used to house the police department’s unclaimed property – such as bicycles. The current holding space at the police department will then likely go to the Perry Bicycle Coalition who hopes to set up a small volunteer shop along the trail to help cyclists.
The council then approved a professional services agreement with Bolton and Menk for the lighting project in an amount not to exceed $18,000. An insurance administrator contract with Wellmark was also approved – with employees continuing to pay 10% of the costs with a 5.2% increase this year.
Finally the council approved the appointment of Kevin Kanealy, Corey Steadman and Doug Bonjour to the Perry Volunteer Fire Department.