Council Looks To Review EMA/911
September 21st, 2022
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa City Council met on Monday evening, with Mayor Dave Krutzfeldt and Councilmember Steve Burnett absent. Councilmember Janet Hermsen was available by phone.
Pulled from the consent agenda by Councilmember Charlie Comfort was a proposal to send out an RFQ, which was posted “to seek such expert to conduct a thorough needs assessment of both 911 and Emergency Management operations and present recommendations on efficiency and equitable distribution of the services cost.”
Oskaloosa City Manager Amal Eltahir said the request for the RFQ is to hire a consultant is to review EMA/911 services being provided. Eltahir says the proposal is because the cost for those services “appears to be significantly higher” than other communities.
Eltahir will attend the October 3rd Mahaska County Board of Supervisors meeting to ask the County to share the cost of the RFQ.
Comfort responded by saying, “compared to other counties, it seems to me just the data that I’ve
seen, shows that we might be coming in pretty comparable or less than what other counties are.”
“Are we going to be getting a true apples-to-apples comparison,” Comfort added.
Comfort said he couldn’t support the measure that night “because of the process.”
The EMA Board and the 911 Board haven’t been approached about the RFQ and proposal by the City.
The measure passed to submit the RFQ and to hire a consultant to review EMA/911.
Shawn Christ with the City of Oskaloosa presented information on vacant buildings and the appearance it gives to Oskaloosa.
Christ said the City has heard that the community wants its buildings to be attractive and cleaned up.
The City says they want attractive properties that are safe and clean.
According to information provided by the City, there are 4000 residential buildings and 1100 commercial buildings in Oskaloosa. It’s estimated that 130 residential and 35 commercial buildings are currently vacant.
A potential program would have building owners registering their commercial properties with the City of Oskaloosa so as to have contact information for potential inspection or future plans for the property.
“We could require a plan for the property,” said Christ, as they would initially focus on vacant buildings in the City.
The plans for vacant properties are in the early stages of exploration by the City.
The Council also approved a resolution approving a contract for the wastewater plan and improvement project and pre-design of the new wastewater treatment facility.
The cost for the project has ballooned by nearly 100% since initial conversations in March of 2017, when the estimated cost of the wastewater project was 30.23 million dollars.
Estimates now put the new wastewater treatment facility at nearly 70 million dollars.
