City discusses Serenity Park Addition
The Tea City Council met May 1 and discussed various aspects of the Serenity Park Addition.
The council reviewed the developer’s agreement with Kelly Nielson. Nielson and adjacent landowner Gerry Goldammer have been meeting to try to work out an agreement about putting in the street in the development. As of the council meeting, they had not reached an agreement.
The city’s attorney said as long as there’s no public access to the half of the street that is on Goldammer’s side, they could approve the developer’s agreement with only Nielson’s half of the street.
Goldammer asked about the sanitary sewer plans. Planning and zoning administrator Kevin Nissen said the entire development flows south to Brian Street.
The council approved the developer’s agreement for the Serenity Park Addition.
They also approved the plats for lots 2-4, block 1; lots 1, 2, 16, 17 & 18, block 5; lots 7-12, block 6; lots 10-18, block 7 in Serenity Park Addition. This is developing the furthest northern part of the development.
The council approved the construction site and building plans at 210 Beech Avenue in Landmark Industrial Park. It calls for a 6,000-square-foot building.
Council members Ruby Zuraff, Joe Weis and Aaron Otten were sworn in with the oath of office. Jim Erck was elected council president and Terry Woessner was elected council vice president.
The council approved the appointments of Dawn Murphy as finance officer, Jessica Quigley as chief of police and Thad Konrad as utility superintendent. They designated Meierhenry Sargent as city attorney, HDR as city engineer, Tea Weekly as official newspaper and Valley Exchange Bank and Reliabank as official depositories.
They approved the committee appointments of Jim Erck to water, Zuraff to police, Lynn DeYoung to fire, Woessner to parks, Weis to library and Deanna Ernster, Holly Hank and Jeri Birger as public representatives to the library, Otten to TEDC and Erck to HRC.
The bids came in for the Bakker Landing traffic signals quite a bit higher than the council originally thought. The low bid came in at $509,553.72. The council rejected the bids because it came in a lot higher than thought and other projects have a higher priority.
The council approved the pay application for the regionalization wastewater pump station and force main from Metro Construction for $26,216.17.
They approved the application for abatement of property taxes for Arlin Olson in Hammerstrom Subdivision, lot 5, block 3.
The council discussed options to make the intersection of First and Main Avenue safer. Citizen Michael LeVan was excited about the possible changes to the intersection. He suggested painting bumpouts and crosswalks at the corner to help make it safer for pedestrians. Weis thought they should put in stop signs there to slow people down.
After lengthy discussion, the council formed a committee to address the corner and will be made up of LeVan, Weis, Otten, Woessner, HDR’s Ben Scholtz, planning and zoning administrator Kevin Nissen and Konrad.
City administrator Dan Zulkosky noted that the speed limit on Heritage Parkway was going to be changing north and south of town this week.
The council went into executive session at 8:28 p.m.