At this week’s Toledo City Council meeting, many things were discussed, but one of the first big items was the discussion of 103 Business Highway 30 West, aka the Alvarez Auto building. Juli Sanford and Dave Bral are looking to buy the property, but before they purchase, they wished to speak to the council about filling in the ditch that sits at the front of the property. The council saw no problem with helping fill in the ditch, and they seemed to look forward to the property getting new life. The council approved moving forward.

A public hearing for the Woodlawn First Addition was held with little comment. The council then approved a resolution approving the disposition of city-owned property in the 2022 Toledo Urban Renewal Area (Woodlawn First Addition) agreement as to Right of First Refusal and Option to Purchase and Economic Development Grant Agreement. They went on to approve another resolution supporting Toledo Ventures LLC to apply for Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Workforce Housing Tax Credit and pledging local financial assistance.

All in all, this is an agreement to move forward with Toledo Ventures LLC, aka John (Andy) R. Anderson, to develop the Woodlawn Addition.

The council approved to pay for a bill for a sewer repair at 702 South Church.

Half of the meeting was taken up by a single subject, wine slushies. The local owners of the franchise Lucky Wife Wine Slushies, Amelia Kemper, Nikki Kemper, and Shannon Crawford, attended the council meeting to read a letter and talk about miscommunication and an incident that occurred at the Toledo Farmers Market the Friday before.

The crux of the issue is Lucky Wife complying with the rules and regulations set by the area and by the Iowa Alcohol and Beverages Division (ABD). The City of Toledo required Lucky Wife to set up their trailer in the street adjacent to the farmers market, not right next to the curb like other vendors, due to the courthouse lawn being owned by the county, not the city, and the county previously not allowing alcoholic beverages on the property. Since the trailer would be set up in the street, barricades were left for Lucky Wife to put up and take down at their convenience, shutting down the street while they’re in operation. It was required as well that Lucky Wife set up a small roped-off area for their customers to enjoy their beverages. If the customers left the roped-off area while still enjoying their alcoholic beverage, they’d be subject to receive a ticket for having an open container.

An altercation occurred at the Friday farmers market between the operators of Lucky Wife, City Administrator Kendall Jordan, and Toledo Police Chief Dan Quigley, apparently over who places the barricades. Nikki Kemper was reported to have said, “I’m not setting up barricades. I don’t work for the city.”

Kendall Jordan talked about the barricade issue.

“So, we suggested putting it [the Lucky Wife Wine Slushy trailer] out in the street. You agreed to that, okay? It’s perfect because that’s the way it’s been done in the past. That trailer, to my knowledge, has never been right up against the curb; it’s always been out in the street. When it’s out in the street, there is a road closure. Whoever wants the road closure sets up the barricades; that’s the way it’s always been done,” he said. “You can ask the Stoplight Festival Committee Chairman right there. We dropped the barricades off; we don’t close it. Why don’t we do that? You can show up with your trailer at three in the afternoon and slap them barricades up cause you have the closure. Slap them up and then you take them down when you’re done. If you wanna serve until seven o’clock at night at the end of your farmers market and take them down, go ahead. If you wanna hang out there a little later, nobody’s pushing you out. You just take them down and open the road back up; you’re good to go. If we have to come up and do it, the city, I have to call in guys on overtime; it’s gonna take a couple of them because they work in tandem; they don’t ever go out alone. They’ll work in tandem; they’ll come up, they’ll set up the barricades. They are gonna get two hours’ show-up time for five minutes’ worth of work. They’re gonna leave, and they’re gonna come back at seven o’clock to take them back down. At seven o’clock, you’re done. We don’t wanna do that. We want you to serve as long as you can. That’s the reason why the closure was short.”

As the barricade issue persisted, Quigley stated the Lucky Wife operators could call dispatch and have the on duty police officer help place the barricades.

Nikki Kemper talked about how other towns do things, as well as took partial credit for the turnout at the farmers market.

“So, can we explain how this works in other cities? Every city is different, and it really bases off the city and the law enforcement. So Marshalltown, for example, takes Oktemberfest and they block off all the courthouse area, they barricade it, and that’s where people are allowed to walk around freely, go to the other vendors, participate in activities, as long as the alcohol is contained in that area,” she said. “Same in Guttenberg, Albion, we were just there this weekend, every place is different and its really up to your own cities and I think that’s where Tama-Toledo lacks in moving forward in new age things is as long as there is a market and people want to shop we want to be there we want to bring other, people came to the market for us and then likely bought from vendors in town. The farmers’ market said that they had a great turnout, which I don’t think is probably the case every weekend. And I’m not saying that’s all for us, but it’d be a two way street that they support us, and they support the other vendors. No one is drinking our wine slushes and getting out of control and belligerent, and I think that’s something we hope the city looks at too, as this is done differently in every city.”

The Lucky Wife owners stated that the previous owners and operators of the Lucky Wife trailer didn’t have to deal with all this red tape. It was stated by the city clerk and others that the previous owners didn’t set up their trailer in an ABD compliant fashion. This is an issue they are trying to rectify going forward. The city attempted to address all of the questions and complaints the Lucky Wife operators had and to set them forward on the right foot.

The public works department reported working on street patching.

Toledo EMS reported having 69 runs in May.

The city attorney reported waiting for a judgment in a trial over a nuisance property.

Quigley reported that between May 25 and June 7, the PD responded to 141 calls to service and affected five arrests.