Sheldon, Iowa — When the Sheldon City Council met Wednesday they approved a resolution to sell the old Can Redemption Center building at 428 Park Street to Kent and Janet Lohrenz.
This has been the only offer the City has received with regard to this property. The contract states that the property will be sold for one dollar, and the City will pay the buyers eight thousand dollars upon fulfillment of the asbestos removal requirement. A public hearing will be held on this sale at the February 5th meeting.
The council also took action toward resolving the disposal of the old Sunset Motel and 1023 Garfield properties. Since there are two active offers, and possibly others, the council decided to open a “Last Best Offer,” with sealed proposals being received until 12 p.m. February 5th. These proposals will be opened at the February 5th Council meeting.
Only one objection was heard during a public hearing to hear comments on a proposal to change the way public comments are heard at city council meetings. The only comment was from Marv Van Riesen who spoke out against the change. Without discussion, the council approved the changes that would require all comments except those related to a public hearing, be heard at the beginning of the meeting. It also sets procedures that need to be followed including a time limit of four minutes for each speaker. These procedures will be in place for the upcoming budget meetings.
When the council began the discussion of the merger of the two unions representing City employees, the Mayor of Sergeant Bluff, John Winkel spoke on their experience with the merger of three unions. He stressed the importance of keeping the concerns and welfare of city employees in mind, because it is often difficult to find replacements if they leave for other employment. Only two comments were heard from the public. Fred Grein spoke in support of the merger and Marv Van Riesen spoke against it, reading from a full-page handout expressing his views. The council voted unanimously to support the merger.
In other action, the council passed to the budget process a resolution to establish a Sheldon Fire Department Depreciation Fund. This would be funded by a portion of the fees paid to Sheldon by townships in the area for fire protection. City Manager Sam Kooiker reported that new negotiations with the townships have resulted in an increase of over thirty thousand dollars per year.
And, the council heard a report from the Sheldon Community Ambulance Team. They said that SCAT answered 677 calls in 2019, compared to 625 in 2018. The number of team members has also increased from 29 to 34. Of the 677 calls, 397 were 9-1-1 calls and 280 were transport calls.
