Street project to start early Aug.

LIME SPRINGS - City Council members took a leap and approved the $1 million-plus bid from Skyline Construction for 2022 street and utility improvements on A-23 (which goes by the A&K bin site) and part of West Jackson St. during the regular monthly meeting on July 5.

Drew Weber, engineer for Bolton & Menk, told Council both submitted bids, Skyline ($1,061,773.76) and Mehmert Tiling ($1,099,097.75), were significantly over his $887,439.50. “I reached out to the bidders asking if there was anything out of the ordinary in the figures.” They indicated the bids around $200,000 over the estimate are because of the rapid increase in material and fuel.

After hearing the high bids, Council was quiet as members processed the information. Finally Jeff Burnikel made the motion, seconded by Michael Leverson. Jennifer Kalsta-bakken and Mary Bielefeld voted aye. Richard Cottrell  voted aye after asking, “Can we really afford this?”

Weber said the crushing of the roads, from Chester to Merrill St. in Lime Springs, was starting in mid July. He noted it would be at least three weeks before work would begin in Lime Springs.

• In other business, Dr. Don “Doc” Lyon was on the agenda, as he is every year or two, about the swampy property to the east of his house.

He said for 20-30 years, the land has been wet. A tile line had been installed at one time to get rid of the excess water, but it has since collapsed. Leverson said he had some tile work done and was pleased with his contractor. He gave 

Lyon the name.

• Mayor Brian Johnson gave some figures on garbage pickup from a company from Shimek  Sanitation of Spillville. He and other council members had mentioned getting negative feedback from the residents about the big garbage cans and increase in fees from Hawkeye Sanitation.

Representatives will be attending the special July 19 meeting.

• Eddie Miller gave the Library report, noting the four Howard County Library Directors attended the Howard County Fair on June 24, for a special program.

The Summer Reading Program ended on June 30. There were 55 children registered. The roller skating party had 70 in attendance. Sixteen individuals attended the Maria Klingsheim program.

The tricycle/bicycle contest had 20 children, while the bicycle safety program had 30 in attendance.

In May, 203 patrons from town and 172 from the country visited the library.

Jeff Burnikel is the new liason for the library.

• Sharla Lieder of the Park & Rec Board updated council. Night swims on July 8 and 30 were planned. The pool had received its credit card, which was convenient for ordering items.

Lieder said she has had complaints about not having the concession stand open at the ball park during ball games. She said part of the problem was the food inspector will not allow hotdogs to be sold there. “Also, the pool is where the restrooms are located, so we figured people could just get their concessions at the pool.”

• Public Works Director Tyler Smith reported he had approved allowing Lydia Harvey and J.J. Miller to remove their sidewalks without replacing them.

“I got a call about two maple trees at Lydia’s house. I talked to Tarzan. They said they are not dead and not dying, but the branches are touching the roof. It would cost $950 to trim them or $2,500 to remove them. They are boulevard trees, so we have to take care of them.” Les Opat’s boulevard tree also needs to be trimmed.

Smith said he had picked up two loads of cold patch to fix potholes and could probably get some more.

He was told by Mehmerts the company put in a locate for July 7, since the previous one had expired.

Council voted to order the new truck from H&S Motors. There was no date on when it would arrive.

Miller asked if Jones St. could get some rock added to it. It was destroyed when trucks were using it.

• Street closures were approved for as needed for Sweet Corn Days.

• The liquor license for the festival was also approved on a vote of 4-1, Cottrell against.

• Council approved moving some funds around to make sure the general fund was not in the negative. This led to a discussion on extra funds and where they could or could not be used.

• City Clerk Jane Tibbals brought up a few outdated City Ordinances or some with wrong wording.

Council asked her to get examples of other towns’ ordinances to compare. The issue will be discussed at the next meeting.

In addition, a few items in the employee handbook were reviewed.

Council will meet on Tuesday, July 19 at 6:30 p.m. and possibly change the August meeting to Wednesday the third.