Sheldon, Iowa — Recently, the City of Sheldon asked for proposals on the acquisition and improvement of three nuisance properties. No qualified offers were received before the deadline, but now the city has received several. The only offer on the burned out property at 428 West Park Street has been submitted by Kent Lohrenz, and city officials are working out the details on that property.
The city has received two offers regarding the old Sunset Motel and the property at 1023 Garfield Avenue. Tim Pottebaum has offered to take care of the problems with the house on the Sunset Motel property and move it to the Garfield Avenue location where he would add a two stall attached garage. Then the motel property would be cleared of all debris and leveled. He is working on plans for the use of the property. An offer was submitted by Kerwin and Kathy Sterler for the removal of the asbestos, demolition of the motel and garages, with the house being restored to a livable condition. The cleared area would be used to expand their present rental business with 6 additional new mobile homes. Their plan is to clear the Garfield property and move a house from outside the city limits to that location.
City Manager Sam Kooiker said that working with the details on the Park Street agreement will help the city develop criteria for making a decision on the Sunset Motel and Garfield Avenue proposals. Further discussion was deferred to the next council meeting.
In other business, the council approved the five-year Capital Improvement Plan and the 15-year Emergency Services Plan. Both will be subject to approval of the city budget.
The council set January 15th as the date for a public hearing on a plan for changing the process of hearing public comments at council meetings. The new process would be based on suggestions from Iowa State University Extension.
The last item on the agenda was a closed session to consider labor negotiations and employment conditions.
