EV charging station to be installed in fall

CRESCO - Council members learned the EV (Electric Vehicle) charging station has been ordered and will be installed this fall, according to City Clerk Michelle Elton.

She explained a VW Settlement Grant is paying for 90% of the cost. The charging station will be located in the southeast corner of Fareway’s parking lot. It had originally been planned to install it in the northeast corner, but it was more costly.

• In other business from the July 6 meeting, the only organization that applied for second quarter tourism grants was Cresco Tourism, which asked for and received $3,000 from the Hotel/Motel Tax.

The money will be used to print new regional brochures, update the website and look for new marketing opportunities to promote Cresco. It was noted in just over 13 years, $254,500.15 has been paid out to promote tourism in Cresco through the tax.

• Council members approved street closings for Ridiculous Day on Thursday, July 21. They include portions of North Elm St. and South Park Place.

Jason Passmore of Howard County Business & Tourism listed some of the activities taking place for Ridiculous Day from 9 a.m.-7 p.m., including moving the Open Air Market to the Courthouse lawn from Beadle Park, many vendors and downtown businesses.

He also mentioned Family Fun Night will be held on Thursday, July 28 from 4-8 p.m. at Evans Park, and volunteers are needed for the Fly-In Breakfast on Sunday, Aug. 7.

• Public Works Director Nate Widell reported, “We received a letter of noncompliance from the Iowa DNR.”  They included:

~ Effluent violations for copper which were corrected by replacing copper piping in the WWTP. 

~ Some violations were due to Cresco Food Technologies FOG spills. 

~ “Four violations were due to bypass issues in wet weather at the lift stations, three of which were the South lift station, where we have been working on I/I issues.” 

~Widell and Mike Born will submit the response letter.

He added, most of the sludge out of the digestor building was hauled, giving staff room and time to address the high selenium sludge in the storage tank.

• Council approved declaring the $1,250 paid to Helping Services should go to providing substance abuse and domestic abuse services to individuals and families.

• Council approved declaring the $3,888 paid to Northeast Iowa Community Action Corporation should go to advance community development and improving social and economic conditions for individuals and families with limited resources in Howard County and the City of Cresco.

• Council approved the change order for the runway drainage improvements, which gave a credit of $1,600 to the City for using single wall pipe rather than dual wall.

• Kelly and Samantha McCarville were approved for a Tax Abatement under the Urban Revitalization Plan.

• Some projects planned for Fiscal Year 2022 were not completed, so the funds budgeted for them were moved to FY2023.