Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon City Council has moved the proposed ordinance establishing a Crossroads Pavilion Board to a first reading, with some slight wording changes.
The proposed ordinance, as written, requires the Crossroads Pavilion Board to make recommendations to the city council about the operation of the new events center, but not make actual decisions about its operation. Councilman Greg Geels, and Councilman Pete Hamil both expressed concerns that the city council would get bogged down having to approve everything related to the everyday operation of the Crossroads Pavilion. Councilman Zach Sawyer said he didn’t want to handcuff the center’s general manager or board in their efforts to operate the events center. After much discussion, City Attorney Micah Schreurs suggested adding a provision to the proposed ordinance that would allow the council to delegate certain operational authorities to the Crossroads Pavilion Board and general manager, at the council’s discretion. Once the wording changes are made, the council members will have the opportunity to take a look at the proposed ordinance before it comes up for the first of three required readings to pass it into law.
In other action, the council heard reports from each of the city’s emergency services departments about their activities during 2016. SCAT EMT/Paramedic Coordinator Kevin Miller told the Council that the ambulance team currently has 19 members, and all have completed their required training, as well as all being CPR certified during 2016. Miller told the council that SCAT’s average response time, the period between the team being paged, and the ambulance rolling out, is 4.3 minutes, with a 13.4 minute time from page to arriving on a scene. Miller says the ambulance team is down about 1 or 2 members from a year ago, and their recruiting efforts continue.
The Sheldon Fire Department answered 98 calls in 2016, with an average of 17 people responding to each call. The department’s response time, the council heard, was 2-1/2 minutes from time of page until the trucks began to roll out, and 5-1/2 minutes from page to arrival on scene. The council also learned that the fire department purchased a new commercial washer and dryer from their bingo fund for use on department clothing.
The Sheldon Emergency Management Agency was paged out 100 times during 2016, with 26 of those pages for training meetings. The EMA announced that they are fully staffed, with 12 adult members, and 2 students.
The council set Wednesday, February 8th at 5:15 pm as the date and time for a budget workshop.
The final action at Wednesday’s Sheldon City Council Meeting was to adjourn into closed session to discuss the initial contract proposal from the union representing the City’s employees.
