Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon City Council will hold a special meeting at 7 a.m. this Friday December 30th with three items on the agenda. The first item is a public hearing on an amendment to the amended and restated Sheldon Urban Renewal Plan. This action is necessary to correct an error when an urban renewal amendment was done in 2007. At that time the intention was to remove the land that the Super 8 Motel is located on from the Urban Renewal District. However, for some reason the entire auditor’s subdivision of Robinson’s Addition was removed from the District. Two other amendments were passed to put lots in that Division back into the Urban Renewal District, but that was never recorded at the county level. As a result the Sheldon School District has been receiving tax dollars from those lots. A letter from School Superintendent Robin Spears did not directly address these extra tax dollars, but did call attention to the fact that Sheldon ranks as the 9th highest school district in the State of Iowa with regard to the percentage of Tax Increment Financing valuation to total valuation.
Spears also stated that the school district is both aware and supportive of the economic development activities of the City of Sheldon but his letter claimed that any increase in the school district’s tax levy rate for Fiscal Year 18 will be due to the increase in the TIF valuation. City Manager Sean Hutchison responded to the letter from Spears, assuring him that the City as he put it, “Will consider balancing the need for support of economic development activities that help the entire community with the ultimate goal of increasing tax valuation that will benefit all taxing entities”.
Another public hearing Friday morning will be on the First Reading of an ordinance which details a proposed new franchise agreement with HTC Communications. The current agreement is nearing the end of its 25 year term. The proposal is to follow this up with a new ten year franchise. Under the new franchise the city would continue to collect franchise fees totaling five percent of the Company’s annual gross revenues derived from the operation of the system to provide multichannel video programming services to subscribers within the corporate boundaries of the City.
And, the Council will also discuss Management of the Crossroads Pavilion Events Center.
Friday’s seven a.m. meeting will be held in the upper level of the Sheldon Community Services center.
