Council Approves 28E Agreement With Oskaloosa School

Oskaloosa City Hall

Oskaloosa City Hall

28E Agreement Moves Early Childhood and Recreation Center Forward

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa City Council met on Monday, January 7, 2018, for their first meeting of 2019.

The Oskaloosa City Council approved a 28E agreement for the joint acquisition, design, construction, equipping, use, and operation of a recreation and early childhood education center project.

The project for the early childhood development center and recreation center have been in serious discussion since 2015 and was the subject of a heavily debated Local Option Sales Tax debate within the county and cities.

Ultimately, the rural residents felt that roads were where they wanted their sales tax money to go, while the City of Oskaloosa residents agreed to put the majority of their LOST money towards the project.

The Oskaloosa School District was the third partner in the planning, and they expressed their desire to continue with the project, even after the county had withdrawn.

For the city of Oskaloosa, the money collected from the sales tax is being deposited into an account until the project moves forward.

The amount the city will be able to provide to the facility is an estimated 10 to 11 million dollars, depending upon sales within the community.

The project cost in early estimation is believed to be 19.5 million dollars, with the Oskaloosa School District providing a significant portion of that amount.

The 28E agreement with the Oskaloosa School District passed unanimously.

Oskaloosa Sanitary Sewer rate change schedule.

Oskaloosa Sanitary Sewer rate change schedule. (click on image to make larger)

The council also approved the second reading of an ordinance amending Oskaloosa Municipal Code 13.08 for the purpose of providing necessary funding associated with the operation and maintenance of the city’s wastewater treatment works.

According to documents provided by the city of Oskaloosa, “the average residential customer utilizes 4.37 units of sewer per month (down from 4.54), and based upon the recommended increase to both the base and consumption rates of 8%, the average sewer customer can expect their monthly bill to be $3.88 per month higher than it is today.”

The document goes on to say, “the city’s infrastructure, specifically the sanitary sewer system, has been expected to face critical failures and the need for expensive improvements due to age, deferred or minimal amounts of maintenance, mandates received from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As a result, over the past four fiscal years (five calendar years) our organization has embarked upon multiple designs, studies, improvement projects, and operational changes for the sanitary sewer system. All of the required system work and operational changes have come at a sharp cost to ratepayers in the form of significant rate increases year over year due to the compressed schedule to complete such work. In addition, average billed consumption is down which further creates pressure on the rates paid by customers.”

The second of three readings required for an ordinance change was passed unanimously.

Appointments to various boards and commissions went as follows;

Mayor Pro Tem – Doug Yates

Finance Committee: Caligiuri (Chairperson), Yates, Drost

Public Safety Committee: Ottosson (Chairperson), Caligiuri, Moore

Planning Committee: Yates (Chairperson), Moore, Burnett

Public Projects Committee: Burnett (Chairperson), Drost, Walling

Emergency 911 Board- Tom Walling

Forest Cemetery Board – Scottie Moore

Joint County Mahaska Disaster Services- Tom Walling

Law Enforcement Center Board- Diane Ottosson

Mahaska Community Recreation Foundation- Scottie Moore

Oskaloosa Housing Trust Fund- Joe Caligiuri

Oskaloosa Area Chamber and Development Group- Steve Burnett

Nicholas Jones was appointed to the Oskaloosa Water Board. Jones applied to the board stating he believed he could use his “previous and current professional experience in the utility industry to serve my new community.”

The council then went into closed session.

The next scheduled meeting would be January 22, 2019 inside the council chambers of Oskaloosa City Hall. This is a change from the 21st, as the council will be holding their budget retreat on that day.

Posted by on Jan 9 2019. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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