The Toledo City Council held their regular city council meeting on Monday March 23. Present at the meeting were Mayor Dave Svoboda, City Clerk Janet Kriegel, and council members Brian Sokol, Travis Mullen, Joe Boll, and Terry Goodhart. Councilman Jeff Filloon was absent.

Tama County Tourism Group President Ellen Young was at the top of the agenda with a funding request on behalf of the Tourism Group. This year in an effort to further raise the visibility of Tama County amongst potential tourists, the TCTG is looking to launch a TV and digital marketing campaign through Iowa Source Media Group in Cedar Rapids. Iowa Source Media is the parent organization that operates the KCRG television station along with the Cedar Rapids Gazette newspaper. In previous years the TCTG has focused primarily on print ads in tourism guides and regional magazines. The group hopes that a more ambitious marketing campaign will make a splash and better reflect the county motto, “Tama County – We’ve Got It!”. Tama County ads would run on KCRG’s television stations and online as targeted pre-roll advertising in early summer 2015. Young informed the council that the total cost of the project was just under $20,000 and that the group was looking to secure half of that funding from city governments and city chamber of commerce organizations before reaching out to area businesses to raise the remainder. The request was presented as an avenue for the city to direct some of it’s hotel/motel tax dollars into, as there are regulations in place that require a portion of hotel/motel tax funds to be allocated for tourism. Young stated that the TCTG would not be requesting funding assistance from any other Tama County city governments since Toledo is the only town in the county that is able to collect the hotel/motel tax. After Young’s presentation the council decided to table the request for further discussion.

Future of the Iowa Juvenile Home Facility

Rep. Dean Fisher, R-Garwin, was present at the Monday meeting and spoke to the council regarding the former Iowa Juvenile Home facility in Toledo. With the conclusion of the Iowa Supreme Court hearing on the closing of the Iowa Juvenile Home, the Iowa Department of Human Services was now able to more directly address the future of the Toledo facility. Fisher reported that he recently met with DHS Director Charles Palmer and discussed a potential five year plan that would take effect once a tenant was secured for the facility in Toledo. The plan would allow the state to continue ownership and liability of the property for the first five years of the new tenant’s occupancy. At the conclusion of the five year period the city of Toledo would be given the opportunity to accept the property, along with it’s assumed liability, as a gift from the state. Fisher stated the city would be under no obligation to the state unless the council voted to take on the property following the five year period. The Chin Baptist Bible college was mentioned as the only current prospect for the currently vacant facility. When asked if he had heard of any other potential parties interested in the property, Fisher quickly responded that there were “none” and that Palmer had also communicated the same response to him from the state level. Councilman Mullen inquired about the potential enrollment numbers for the Bible college and where the tuition funds would be coming from. Fisher responded that if they waited until August 2016 to begin classes they could have 50-100 students and that students would look to secure federal aid to help with tuition costs. A final question was raised regarding the public’s use of the newly constructed basketball courts on the former Iowa Juvenile Home campus. The courts are fenced in and have remained locked since the closing of the juvenile home. Mullen stated that multiple community members have inquired about being able to use the courts and that it was a shame the courts were just sitting there unused. Fisher reiterated to the council that the state’s position about the use of the grounds has not changed and that liability issues continue to be the driver of their decisions on the matter. Fisher recommended that a small group of city officials have a sit down meeting with Governor Branstad in the near future to acknowledge their support of the proposed 5 year plan.

Toledo Heights Park clean up

South Tama Baseball Club Organizer Dave Chubb was present to speak with the council regarding the Toledo Heights Park and ball fields. The youth club teams call the Toledo Heights Park home for their activities that run through the summer months. Chubb began by thanking the council for their expedient response to his previous request to have the lights at the park turned back on after the winter season and informed the council that the club recently held a park clean up day to begin prepping the grounds for practices. A handful of current issues were brought to the council’s attention including dogs being brought to the park without leashes, owners failing to clean up after their dogs, park restrooms that needed deep cleaning, and the security of the concession stand buildings. Chubb asked the council to look into posting signs at the park about keeping dogs on leashes and for owners to pick up after their dogs. He also requested for the park restrooms to be unlocked and for motion lights to be installed on the concession buildings. Public Works Superintendent Mark Zmolek agreed to attend to the restroom facilities, to post the requested signs, and said he would work with Chubb on the possibility of having motion lights installed. The South Tama Baseball Club continues to be a growing organization with 10-11 local teams. Chubb stated that the club looks to host their first ever baseball classic in June that would draw in a number of out of town teams. With the club’s regular practices and games, the Toledo Heights facilities would be getting use by at least 50 kids during most nights of the summer.

Community Foundation Update

Mary Fasse-Shaw gave Toledo City Council members on update on the Tama County Community Foundation. The Community Foundation is a public charitable foundation that holds many named funds, is supportably by individuals, families, organizations and businesses, and channels gifts from donors to non-profit organizations in the community. Anyone can give back to the community through the Community Foundation.

In Other Business

The council approved Pay Request No. 7 to Kleiman Construction in the amount of $213,665.45 for work completed from February 28 through March 31, 2015 on the Water Treatment Plant Improvement Project. A representative from Snyder & Associates was present at the meeting and informed the council that progress remains on schedule for late summer 2015 completion. Once work has been completed on the new facility there will be a 30 day period where both facilities will operate simultaneously to ease the transition of the old plant being shut off and the new one brought online.

The annual city wide spring clean up dates were approved by the council. City clean up will take place on Friday April 17 with the brush clean up date on Friday April 24.

It was approved for Mayor Svoboda to attend the 2015 Leadership Summit in Des Moines on hosted by the Iowa League of Cities organization. The event will take place on April 10 and 11.

Upon recommendation from Zmolek, the council approved the hiring of Murray Stevenson for summer mowing work at 30 hours per week.

The City of Toledo will soon have their own dedicated Facebook page. The council approved the startup of the page and recommended Jill Van Dee as the account administrator. Van Dee previously requested a city Facebook account to be set up as it was a requirement for a grant the city was applying for.

Councilman Sokol gave the group an update on the Electronic Council Packet project. The council is looking to purchase six tablets that would allow council documents such as meeting minutes and memos to be transmitted electronically rather than printed on paper. Sokol stated the city has raised $1200 of the $2000 total cost of the project through an $800 grant and a $400 donation from Snyder & Associates. Discussion was had wether to wait for additional funding to come in or for the city to cover the remaining $800 to get the tablets ordered. No decision was reached on Monday.

The council approved Resolution 2015-06R which is a resolution to transfer funds to pay outstanding and upcoming obligations.

It was approved for Public Works staff member Garrett Schissel to be sent to Manhattan, KS for sewer system training.

Zmolek informed the council of two city vehicles and a city mower that were in need of disposal and sought the recommendation of the council on wether to send the equipment to an auction or to a scrap yard. It was decided that Zmolek could make the call on how to ultimately dispose of the vehicles but that the scrap yard option may be less hassle than an auction.

John Lackey came before the council to inquire about overnight parking for the Hotel Toledo building tenants. Discussion was raised regarding an empty lot owned by the city near the Hotel Toledo building that could possibly be sold to Mr. Lackey for use as a parking lot. No further discussion or decisions were made.

The council heard comments from Loren Dostal of Dostal Construction and Excavating regarding an ongoing issue with demolition contracts from 2014.

Lastly, Councilman Boll updated the council on a new measure the city safety committee and the public safety committee are working towards that would establish a pre-employment work capacity test for prospective new hires. The test would give the city a more precise method of assessing the potential risk when hiring new employees.