Oskaloosa City Council Approves 28E Agreement For Regional Airport
Oskaloosa City Council
by Charlie Comfort
The Oskaloosa City Council met in regular session Monday evening with Mayor Krutzfeldt presiding. The major issue on the agenda was that of the approval of a 28E Agreement between the Pella, Oskaloosa, and Mahaska County for the purposes of building a regional airport. During public comments, Mayor Krutzfeldt limited each speaker to three minutes. Only two people rose to speak about the airport.
Jimmy Carter was the first to speak. Carter spoke about the previous vote on this issue in 2005. “We was hoping that once we voted on it, and we didn’t want to combine, we didn’t want to join, and we didn’t want to close our present airport. That vote was resounding.” Carter also asked about “new information” in the airport venture. “It has been stated, that new airport has been arrived at, debated, talked, in a joint venture is looking into. How has the public been aware of any of this?”
Daryl Petty also spoke. Petty spoke in favor of the 28E Agreement. “Airports and highways are probably the two infrastructure items. And I think the agreement you’re working with affects both of those. And I’m sure that in the long run, it’s much cheaper to share the costs of an airport with Pella, than having an airport by Oskaloosa all on its own.”
During the City Council discussion portion of the airport, Council Member Tom Walling spoke. Walling said that the funding will be in place for the building of a new regional airport. “Yes we are going to sell that airport [the Oskaloosa Municipal Airport]. That’s where the money’s coming from. If we didn’t have that money, we probably wouldn’t be talking about this but the money’s there. The Federal Government gave it to us. We can sell it, use it for another airport, combined joint effort.”
Council Member Aaron VerSteeg also spoke about keeping the public informed on this issue. “It was brought up about the vote that we had in I think ’05 and negative vote, the city voted the airport down. I was one of those. I voted it down. I voted no because of misinformation. And I can almost guarantee you that the people that voted no are like me. They were misinformed. They weren’t told the true facts.” In the end, the Council voted 7-0 to approve the 28E Agreement with Pella, Oskaloosa, and Mahaska County for the purpose of building a regional airport.
The Council also took up the issue of approval of the optimist club encroachment agreement. The Optimist Club had previous met with the Planning and Zoning Commission last Monday and Wednesday to discuss the issue. The Commission recommended on a 5-0 vote that the City Council approve the agreement. Staff was recommending that the agreement not be approved. After some discussion on the issue, the Council voted 2-5 to reject the agreement. Council Members Doug Yates and Tom Jimenez voted in favor. Council Members Tom Walling, Aaron VerSteeg, Scottie Moore, Joe Caligiuri, and Jason Van Zetten voted against it.
In other business, the Council:
· Approved the 1st reading of an ordinance establishing a no parking zone on both sides of North Green Street from M Ave West 2,950 feet north.
· Approved a resolution adopting the revised fee schedule for the City of Oskaloosa
The next meeting of the Oskaloosa City Council will be on April 2nd at 7:30 PM in the City Council Chambers
