This meeting, the Cedar Rapids City Council will come to order.

Welcome everybody to the Cedar Rapids City Council meeting for Tuesday, December 16th, 2025.

Councilmember Marty Hager is absent today.

I'd like to welcome our city manager, our city clerk, and our city attorney, and thank you as always to city staff for being here and willing to answer questions after the meeting today.

A reminder to those of you here to turn off any cell phones or electronic devices that might distract us from our proceedings.

And note that all of our city council meeting minutes, agendas, videos are always available on our city's website.

And you can also uh watch our regular sessions live and on replay via Facebook.

We'll begin now with an invocation by Mayor Pro Tem and Poe, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you, Mayor.

Dear God, grant us gratitude for your gift of this day, as we look forward to celebrating this holiday season together with family, friends, colleagues, and community.

God, please continue to bless the people of our community with hope, peace, joy, and love.

Guide this council as servant leaders to do your people's work with open hearts and hands now and in the new year.

During this holiday season, God, you we ask that you remind us to let compassion, kindness, patience, and understanding lift us all in our hearts with mercy and grace.

We pray God that you keep our police and fire personnel and first responders safely in the palm of your hand and carry with them the shield of blessings from a grateful community for their service.

We ask God that you bless and keep our city employees and their families.

It's just not the big things they do for our city, but the everyday little things that may not even be noticed, but have a large impact for the citizens of Cedar Rapids.

It's with a grateful heart we ask these blessings in your heavenly name.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States.

Our first presentation will be on the variable cart program.

Roy Hessman and Patricia Hall are here with props with a big prop.

I'll recognize you both.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good afternoon, Council.

Uh Roy Hessman and Patricia all with Utilities Department.

So this afternoon, both presentations are really going to be presenting on items that have been long coming.

I don't want to steal Mike Slender here, but some items that the community has really been asking for and that we feel is a service to the community.

Patricia's going to do the main presentation, but we feel that this is really something that's long been overdue and uh will be great for both our citizens as well as our employees.

So, Patricia, go ahead.

Thank you.

I'm very excited to talk about this variable cart program.

As Roy said, is a long time coming.

So this program stems from trying to meet the diverse waste needs of our residents.

Obviously, we know that the 35-gallon cart works for some, but not all.

If you live in a multi-generational household or you have a large family, that 35-gallon cart is probably not meeting your needs.

So we wanted to make something else more convenient for our residents that they wouldn't have to worry about going to a store to buy tags or having to worry if they had enough for that week that they could just not think about it anymore.

We also want to reduce the contamination in our diversion programs.

Some people, instead of buying the tags, have alluded to putting the trash in those other programs, which contaminates those programs.

Also reducing our work-related injuries, reducing litter in our neighborhoods.

Obviously, the bags can get torn open by animals, and that produces litter and it doesn't make our neighborhoods look as nice.

Predictable revenue source, and then reducing financial burden on our residents, and we'll talk about that a little bit later.

So the rates that for the carts, the standard 35-gallon cart is no additional charge.

That's a standard billing.

If you want a 65-gallon cart, it'll be about $6 per month, and that is the size of our current Kirby cart, the blue cart.

Uh, the 95-gallon cart, which is the size of our yard waste cart, will be an additional $9 per month.

This cart right here.

And so when we talked about reducing financial burden, currently, if a family is purchasing three tags a week, it's about $6.75.

The 65-gallon cart would fit that waste need at only $1.50 per week.

And if a resident was buying six bags uh tags per week, it'd be $13.50.

The 95-gallon cart here would fit that waste need at $2.25 per week.

So our project timeline right now, we are gonna open the MyCR request portal on January 5th.

So residents can go online and start to request what size cart they would like.

We're gonna close that portal on February 27th.

After that, we're gonna bill the $25 cart exchange fee in March.

We anticipate delivery of carts to begin in April and go through June.

And billing for those carts will start in July.

So the this is the first round, the second round.

If residents don't get in and registered by February 27th, we are gonna open that portal back up, but the delivery won't be till the fall of 2026.

So we're really gonna do our communications that if you really want the cart right away to get in on the portal as soon as you can when it opens up.

So the $25 exchange fee for the larger cart, that's for the delivery fee and to remove the old garbage cart from the resident's household as a minimum term of 12 months.

And then after that, if a resident wants to exchange their cart for either a larger or smaller cart, it's a $50 exchange fee and then another 12 months.

Um there will be an unregistered cart penalty fee of 150.

So if somebody takes somebody else's cart and is using it and they're not paying for it, there will be that 150 fee for that.

Some anticipated questions on this is will this increase the amount of waste produced?

No, the waste is already produced.

We're trying to put it into a container and we're trying to make sure that the right items are going in the right containers.

Um how will we know who's paying for the larger size carts?

Our routing technology allows us to have cart sizes on each resident's address.

So when we go to service each address, it'll say what size cart they're supposed to have.

Uh, and then as we discussed, the penalty for using a larger cart would be 150 for that.

And so with that, I'll turn it back over to you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Council, Councilmember Olsen.

Thank you, Mayor.

What do you anticipate the demand?

Because you uh it's something we've talked about for a while.

I mean, how many are you estimating how many residents?

Because you're I know you've pre-ordered carts, uh, that you might want to use these.

Yeah, so we anticipate it, we budgeted for 22,000 residents.

We won't order the carts until we get the request when the MyCR portal opens up.

So we have ordered a few uh in the beginning, so we can have these on hand and to switch out people that are currently paying for a second Garby that we can get them onto one cart size.

Um, so we won't order anything, so we won't go over, but once we get those requests, we're anticipating hopefully 22,000.

Councilmember Van Orney.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Um, really thoughtful presentation.

I certainly appreciate the um the empathy in in terms of understanding the burden of larger families.

Um, I was just remarking before that that that's a huge can because for myself, I mean, I'm probably putting out in the small can, maybe especially in the winter months, like once a month.

I mean, it's just not, I mean, my recycling is full every week.

Um, but the amount that I'm using for garbage is just not there.

Part of that was because we were a six you know, person household who like we couldn't afford the extra bags, and so I certainly appreciate that.

Um, the only question that I would have is just really monitoring the the total cost savings on this because ultimately we're all cost-sharing uh landfill use.

And we know that we're getting kind of to the end of the life of the current uh one here.

And so I want to make sure that those who are really working hard to I mean, it's a practice, it's something that I have to do where I'm like washing my recyclables because that's the way that you can actually successfully recycle them.

Um, and that is something that my family has always role modeled from a young age.

And so I want to reward people who have done that.

Um, and and I think uh correctly distribute those who either just can't or are not participating in that uh reduction of garbage to have a maybe the more of the burden of the cost share of like the landfill use that will inevitably come.

Does that make sense?

So one of the things that we found is people are gonna get rid of the garbage one way or the other.

So if they don't have space and aren't able to buy the tags or don't want to buy the tags, then they throw the garbage into the recycle, and then we end up paying that that balance, that difference to take it from the recycle centers to the landfill.

So it's still a lot of it still ends up in the landfill.

It's just a matter of who's paying for it and whether or not it's it, you know, most people aren't as conscientious as you are about the recycle process.

Yeah, so I'm just incredibly interested in in kind of the long-term tracking of how this works.

I think especially with employee injuries, we know that some of those bags that are the extra bags are so overloaded that it is absolutely contributing to um staff injuries as well.

And so just interested in in the future follow-up of that.

Yeah, not only are they grossly overloaded, but they also with the automated arms, the drivers have to lift up the lift those bags up and over shoulder height.

So we're seeing a lot of rotator cuff injuries and a lot of other upper body injuries where the older trucks, when they were throwing them into the back, they were more at waist height.

So we are seeing tremendous amount of uh worker injuries that we really want to reduce in this program as well.

So it it's a grand total uh savings that we're looking at.

Council Pope.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, just a real quick question.

Do we anticipate with the larger containers um a reduction in the amount of recyclables going into the recycling bins?

I I just am wondering if that's going to have an impact.

So people instead of they'll just throw it in the garbage instead of actually, as um councilmember Van Orney said, washing it out and putting it in recycling.

I'm I'm wondering.

I'm I'd be interested.

Are we gonna monitor that in any way or follow up with that in any way to see if there's extra recycling that's actually going into garbage garbage now?

Yeah, absolutely.

And we're also gonna monitor our contamination rates at the recycling center.

So the hope of this program is to reduce the contamination rates from the people that aren't following the program's rules and regulations that should be putting it in the garbage.

We will also monitor to see what our landfill tonnage is and what it's looking like on the opposite end too.

Uh sometimes if people aren't willing to wash those containers out and they're putting it in the recycling, they're contaminating the recycling as well.

So we will monitor that, and we are definitely going to make sure that we advertise our recycling program more, that we're educating more on it so that we continue to keep on our high recycling levels because our city does an amazing job of recycling.

We have extremely high recycling rates, and we want to make sure that we continue that.

Thank you, Roy Patricia.

Uh, next up, we've got a presentation on our snow removal route map.

Mike Duffy, Dane Atkins, gentlemen, I recognize you.

Uh Mike Duffy, public works, development works directory.

Uh I'm very excited to come in today.

Um to really talk to you about uh a tool that we're uh gonna have available to next goal, whatever that is, not where it's uh quickly, right?

So uh this tool will allow our our residents who are in council, any business owners anybody to really reach out and be able to see what it is that we're doing out in the fields.

This is not on my dashboard.

Sorry about that.

No, I'm not gone.

Okay.

So uh this this this dashboard will allow all uh everyone to be able to have that in their pocket in our cell phone or actually log into their computer, uh, see the progress and what our operational response is during an emergency event.

So our overall goals for this project, and we really wanted to make sure we got this right.

There's a lot of different tools out there, different agencies that have things available.

Uh the DOT has one, Lynn County has one as well as well.

Uh we wanted to make sure that you know, our our system is very complicated.

We have traffic signals and downtown business districts, residential areas, a lot of things that we face with traffic and that that a lot of these other agencies don't.

So we wanted to make sure that we had a very robust user-friendly tool that we could put out.

Uh, we've been tracking our equipment for a number of years, and we use that in that information internally.

Now we're providing that information out to the public.

So we really wanted to enhance our communication with the public about our operational response.

So show everybody what we're doing so that they can make decisions about what works best for them.

They see our equipment out on our main arterials, for instance, they'll know that those roads are clear.

They'll be able to see you know where that plow's been when it was last there, how often it's actually been down that roadway.

It's also improved oversight uh for our winter operations.

So it's not just us looking at it, it's other departments.

So solid waste, for instance, they have access to this as well.

They'll be able to see and make decisions about trash collection and pickup, where we've been, what we've done, how much you know how much we covered on the overnight as opposed to how much we're actually working out uh on a daily basis.

So some of our um things that we recognize right away is there's really three components to this.

People wanted to really know where we've been and where we currently are.

And we're currently able to provide both of those.

So we're at near real-time tracking.

And what that means is that we do have a real-time tracking information of our equipment.

There is a delay in the upload of that.

So when residents look at that information, it's gonna be about 20-minute delay, and and Dana will talk a little bit more about that.

The more important thing is people really want to know where we've been.

And so this will actually show where we've been out on the system, and and those lines and those that those points are all accessible through the app.

And so the residents will be able to look and say, okay, there would plow is there, you know, an hour ago.

The other thing that uh is important to point out in this is that we have four different um stages of this right now, you know, and and we have an off component, so that's when we don't have a snow active snow operation or response going.

We will turn that system off.

So if you log in, you're gonna see that the system is currently off.

The pre-treatment is uh is is designated to show the public where we are with our brine uh routes and any pre-treatment that we have ahead of an ice event or ahead of any major snow event.

We don't always pre-treat.

I mean the conditions have to be uh right for us to do that, but when we do, everyone will be able to look in there and see where we've been.

Uh the main routes is really the the sort of that meet on the bone kind of place.

That's what we're doing the most of when we're out there responding to a snow event.

So when we start out, we're starting on our main arterials.

So we're getting to our um you know, bus routes around the hospitals, schools, places like that.

You'll see our response on that.

And then once we go to an all plow when we declare an all plow, that's when we get into the residential areas.

That's us plowing everything in the city, public streets within 12 hours of the end of snowfall.

So that's what that's showing.

All right, thank you for that context, Michael.

Um, my name is Dane Atkins, and I'm the GIS analyst in the information technology division.

And I just wanted to add a few notes to this from my perspective.

So this project has been a technical challenge, starting from the GPS hardware on our trucks to the GIS system that processes that data into a map.

And it's worth repeating here that whereas many other organizations have a system that shows us where their plows are, this system shows us where we've been, and that's a big step up.

And today, we're actually proud to invite you to give our new tool a look for yourself.

Now, of course, there's no snowfalling today.

So we'll have to use a bit of imagination if you do see some points or some tracks out there.

That's just public works' daily activities out there today.

Just a couple of more practical user-based notes.

So, again, the map is only near real time.

It typically takes us about 20 minutes from the GPS system on the truck to the processing of the servers to the display on the public map.

And second, the plow tracks or lines that most people want to see when they get in there, are contingent on high quality GPS point sequences.

And there's many reasons as to why, but the short of it is we don't always know which road a plow might have followed between two of our GPS points.

So we can't always draw those lines with accuracy.

So that's one of the things you may notice right off the bat.

And third, we've tried to keep the feature set simple and intuitive.

But even so, there are more tools than we have time to cover here today.

You can customize the layers in the map, you can review the legend, you can try the geolocation tools, but maybe most importantly, you can just try clicking on the various points in the map, and you might get a better idea of which plow was where and when.

To wrap this up here quickly, it's worth mentioning that the system has been tested with tracking of more than 50 vehicles simultaneously in operation with stable operations over 20 hours in duration and collecting over 50,000 GPS points for that single event.

And of course, we also tested the user experience.

We're using an industry standard mapping system provided by Esri, ArcGIS, and we've conducted internal staff user testing and then incorporated their feedback and revisions into this project.

Oh, and we're having fun with the plow names this year, too.

But next year, we're hoping that maybe we could turn this naming component over and integrate this with the paint to plow program that we're already running.

Well, last but not least, I'd like to share the names of the few of the folks who would help push this project as far as it's come.

But I really have to stop and extend a special thank you to our street supervisors, plow operators, and the administrative staff, all of whom have been exceptionally patient as I've asked them questions about what they do.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you so much, council.

Thoughts?

Councilmember Todd.

Thank you for the informative presentation.

Uh Mike, we during the uh Duracio, we an incident command we had a screen that in real time could tell you sort of the percentage of streets that were completed or cleared.

Is there any reference to anything like that in future iterations of this?

Yeah, so I appreciate the question.

So what we were doing during that time is reporting out on you know the pickup and the process of that, and we're really trying to put that information out so that residents would be ready when we were in their neighborhood.

They'd know what sort of what phase we were in because we we did that in multiple uh phases.

Um with this system, we're actually tracking things like uh plow up, plow down.

We're tracking the amount of material that's going out uh internally.

That's helping us be in very cost effective with our material use.

It also allows us to look at our snow plow routes.

So one of the things that's really important with snow removal, and particularly when you're treating the roadways is that cycle time.

How soon are you getting back to that location?

When does that material dilute out?

So that's one of the things that we're able to track with that.

Um, and really keep an eye on how much material we're using.

Okay.

Councilman Van Horty.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Um, really appreciate the presentation.

Uh I had a question just this weekend where somebody said, has have they gone down my street?

Yeah.

And so I love that this is gonna be a tool that we can turn people on to um because they're going to ask that.

I really uh I like the idea of having the the names branded because somebody will see that one and know that it's been by.

Um, and just want to also commend you all.

I mean, we got just pummeled there.

Uh, there's somebody that I follow on Reals who kind of screams out into the open sometimes and says, I think we've had enough.

Uh, and I think we're all kind of feeling that right now.

Um, so appreciate the warmer days.

But your team has done a tremendous job.

I just want to uh extend that.

Um, while I appreciate those who can stay home, it's a lot of my colleagues who can't uh because they are going into those 24-7 health care jobs.

So just really appreciate that.

And you've made it really easy on our patients not having to reschedule a bunch of appointments too, which is very much appreciated.

So just thank you uh to all your team for the the hard work that you put in the last couple of weekends.

Kudos all around.

Thanks, gentlemen.

Thank you.

It's now time for public hearings.

So I'll remind everybody who wishes to speak today, uh, whether during a public hearing or during one of our public comment input periods of a few matters to ensure we have an orderly meeting today.

First, remain at the lector.

And if you have documents, please give them to the officer.

She will get them to us.

Second comments are limited to five minutes.

So when the light on the console turns yellow, you'll have one minute.

And when it's red, we'll ask you to take your seat once again.

And please be aware that all comments must be directed to the matter of the public hearing.

So no abusive, obscene, loud, threatening, irrelevant comments are allowed.

And finally, we need to hold an orderly meeting.

So we ask for no applause, cheering, booing, or other disruptions from the gallery today.

Thank you in advance.

Does the clerk have any written comments or objections in regard to any of the public hearings on our agenda today?

Your Honor, there were no comments or objections filed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Number one is a public hearing to consider the resolution of necessity proposed uh for the replacement of sanitary sewer services with a 34th Street Southeast from Beaver Avenue to Cottage Grove Avenue project.

Doug Wilson is here.

Doug, I will recognize you.

Thank you, Mayor Doug Wilson, Public Works Department.

Uh, respectfully request to combine uh agenda items one and two into one presentation.

Sure thing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So these resolution of necessities related to two pavement for progress projects expected to start construction next year and authorize preliminary assessments for Orangeburg or failed sanitary sewer services ahead of the roadway projects.

We replace these sewer services now to ensure that we maximize the long-term life of the street.

The property owners do have the options to fix their services on their own prior to the project starting, but if they do not, they will be fixed by the city and the cost will be assessed.

This is a diagram of the sewer service and where it uh goes from the main to the city to the home.

And with the project, we would replace from the sewer main to the property line.

The remainder of the service would be uh the option for the property owner to replace.

As I said, there are two projects that uh we will be doing next year.

The first one is 34th Street from Beaver Avenue to Cottage Grove, and then uh Nancy Jane Lane and Richard Drive Northeast, Richard Drive from Evergreen Street to Nancy Jane Lane, and Nancy Drainane from Jane Lane from Richard Drive to Brooklyn Drive.

These assessments are consistent with chapter nine of the city code.

We're assessing five parcels for a total of $30,200 and they range from $4,100 to $7,900.

And each property owner has the option to pay off their uh assessment with property taxes with their property taxes over 10 years.

Today the council has four options uh to act on these resolutions of necessities.

First one is to adopt without amendment, adopt with amendment, defer action on the resolution necessities or abandon the assessments overall.

The public works department recommends adoption of the resolution necessity without amendment.

Thank you.

Thank you, Doug.

This is time and a place for public hearing on this matter.

Does anyone here wish to address the council?

Let the record show a public hearing has been held with no objections for the record.

That brings us to council.

Council member Wilson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Doug, in these projects, as we get into older neighborhoods or core neighborhoods, uh, we find more of the Orange Burger course.

Of the projects we've recently had, how many people get it done themselves versus the assessment project?

You have just a feel for that.

I'm just kind of curious.

You know, about two-thirds of the people do it themselves, and then about a third do it with the city.

I have a question.

How does this coincide with scheduled road construction?

When I see 34th, are you is are these does this project have that in mind?

Yes, it does.

Okay.

We do these uh in this these uh for this project for these two projects.

We'll actually do them.

The contractor who gets the bid will actually do these sewer service replacements with the project themselves with the annual uh curb gutter milling project that we do.

Uh we actually go out early for that one and have those services replaced uh prior to starting the project.

Okay, I just know that neighborhood's been very patient and is anxiously awaiting construction on that street.

Okay.

Absolutely.

Anyone else on council?

All right.

Um seeing no further questions, the adoption of this resolution.

Item number one has been moved by council member Olson, seconded by councilmember Todd.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And the motion carries now a public uh this is a time and a place for a public hearing on item number two, which is the replacement of the sewer lines and Richard Drive from Evergreen Street to Nancy Jane Lane.

Uh, does anyone here wish to address council?

Let the record show a public hearing has been held with no objections for the record.

Council.

All right, seeing none, the adoption of this resolution has been moved by Todd, seconded by Van Orney.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

Thank you, council.

Here in the city of Cedar Rapids, we do have two public comment periods.

The first is a chance for the public to address the city council on any subject pertaining to council action that is scheduled for today.

A second public input period comes at the end of the meeting for residents, property owners, and business owners to speak on issues that are germane to the city, but may not be on the agenda today.

So council members and city staff, as we mentioned at the top of this meeting, do make themselves available by phone or email at this time during public comment.

We are here to listen.

So a reminder that all the matters we addressed prior to the first public hearing today also apply to these public comment periods.

Remain at the lectern.

If you have documents given the officer, their five-minute time limit.

If you've signed up to speak, we ask you to approach the microphone when called upon.

And it looks like oh, we don't have anyone signed up.

Okay, that will officially close out then our very first public comment period.

See manager Pomrance, do you have changes to the agenda?

One change, your honor, council members.

Uh item 14A.

The estimated cost should be 4,600,000 instead of what's indicated on the agenda of 4,560,000.

Okay.

14A.

14A, 4.6 million.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do any council members need to recuse themselves on agenda items or make changes?

Councilmember Poe.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'd like to recuse myself on item 16C.

Uh ID numbers 45, 301, and 302.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Poe.

That will bring us for a motion to approve the agenda.

The approval agenda has been moved by Van Orney, seconded by Overland.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

Thank you, Council.

That brings us to the consent agenda.

The approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Overland, seconded by Councilmember Tyler Olson.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye, aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

Thank you very much, Council.

That brings us to ordinances.

23 is an ordinance relating to the collection of tax increments within the tractor supply urban renewal area along Williams Boulevard Southwest.

The adoption of this ordinance on its third reading has been moved by Councilmember Tyler Olson, seconded by Councilmember Meyer.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

A new major streets map and clarification of property owned responsibilities for maintaining sidewalks and underground vaults in the right of way.

The approval of this ordinance on its second reading has been moved by Meyer, seconded by Councilmember Scott Olson.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

Thank you, Council.

Councilmember Poe.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move the rule requiring three readings on three different days be suspended and the ordinance be adopted on its third and final reading.

The adoption of the ordinance on its third and final reading has been moved by Poe, seconded by Todd.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

25 is an ordinance relating to the collection of tax increments within the big cedar east number one urban renewal area, which is formerly known as Big Cedar East.

The approval of this ordinance on its second reading has been moved by Overland, seconded by Councilmember Tyler Olson.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries thank you, Council.

Councilmember Poe.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move the role requiring three readings on three different days.

Be suspended, and the ordinance be adopted on its third and final reading.

The adoption of the ordinance on its third and final reading has been moved by Poe, seconded by Meyer.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

26 is an ordinance relating to the collection of tax increments within the big cedar east number two urban renewal area.

The approval of this order set this ordinance on its second reading has been moved by Meyer.

Seconded by Councilmember Scott Olson.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

Thank you, Council.

Councilmember Poe.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move the role requiring three readings on three different days be suspended and the ordinance be adopted on its third and final reading.

The adoption of this ordinance on its third and final reading has been moved by Poe, seconded by Todd.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries 27 is the ordinance relating to the collection of tack tax increments within the big cedar east number three urban renewal area.

The approval of this ordinance on its second reading has been moved by Todd, seconded by Van Orney.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye aye.

Those opposed say no.

And the motion carries.

Thank you, Council.

Councilmember Poe.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move the role requiring three readings on three different days be suspended, and the ordinance be adopted on its third and final reading.

The adoption of this ordinance on its third and final reading has been moved by Poe, seconded by Overland.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And the motion carries.

Thank you, Council.

Councilmember Poe.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move the role requiring three readings on three different days be suspended, and the ordinance be adopted on its third and final reading.

The adoption of this ordinance on its third and final reading has been moved by Poe, seconded by Meyer.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And the motion carries.

29 is an ordinance repealing ordinance numbers 041-03, 078-14, 047-16, and 033-20 relating to the collection of tax increments within the Council Street Urban Renewal Area.

The approval of this ordinance on its first reading has been moved by Councilmember Scott Olson, seconded by Todd.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And the motion carries.

Thank you, Council.

And that will close out our formal business today and bring us to our final public input period.

This is a chance once again for Cedar Rapids residents, property owners, and business owners to address the city council on any subject pertaining to council business.

So if you are not a resident, a property owner or business owner, you will not be invited to speak.

But we do encourage you to email or call council members and city staff with your comments.

As with earlier public comment periods, we're here as a council to listen.

I'll remind everybody to reign at the lecture.

And if you have documents, give them to the officer.

Comments are limited to five minutes.

And it looks like our first person signed up to speak is Tom Pape here to speak on fire access signs.

Good afternoon.

Most of you have recognized me.

I've been here several times.

We had a meeting again, the third one this last Sunday.

Um and I get elected as being the speaker for the for the group.

But I live on 1624 Row Avenue Northwest.

Um I wanted to personally thank some of the council members that that helped help us try to find resolution to the problem of uh four parking signs seven foot tall in our yard.

Um however, it was in vain.

I Saturday I received uh two thousand two hundred and fifty dollar fine plus court costs for not putting the signs up.

My neighbors they got fifteen hundred dollars uh fines for not putting the signs up.

Has the city clerk passed out uh yes, sir.

Okay, we'll just start there.

Page I'll go fast.

Page one.

Page one is the mission, the mission statement of the fire marshal.

And if you notice I underline, it said establish minimum requirements.

That's not the case here.

We have the maximum.

If you go to page two, here's an example.

House 1702.

The city code, the city code uh uh 61-090-b says the signs 50 foot apart.

These signs are 37 foot apart.

Violation of the code.

Okay.

Page three.

Page three is uh uh citations we received.

And we're these citations were filed in the with the clerk of court on November 20th.

We received them Saturday, Saturday night is when we received these.

Doesn't give you a lot of time because the date is for the court appearance is January 8th.

But we'll be ready.

Uh page five is the resolution 2173-12-93.

City passed this in 1993.

Um, what I'm asking was is here at that time it was a 10 foot wide access road.

When did this become a fire access road?

And why did it take 31 years before we decided to uh take the action you've taken against us?

I'm showing you this is we had talked in our meetings about, including in the agreement, that none of us would use the road for parking.

We don't use the road for parking, okay.

Um Amazon or high V or different people come and deliver stuff.

Uh they don't stay there that long, even though they're technically they're still parking, but we don't use so we wanted to have sign an agreement that none of us would park on the road.

We're looking for solutions to solve this problem.

Page eight is a view out of my front yard.

The city replaced all of the concrete you see here.

This is O Avenue, and this is the uh section leading in a driveway.

If you if you look at this, the uh this was done in 1922.

There's two code violations for the fire marshal.

One is the corner where the arrow points at, that's supposed to be uh 28 foot radius.

Number two, the width of this road right here is supposed to be 26 foot according to the to the code.

In consistency.

Page nine, it shows it shows a little better picture of this.

This is an overview of of the property there, and the radius is supposed to be 28 foot and the width 26 foot.

And that's a violation of code D 103.1 and 103.

Um, page 10.

I showed this picture to the council before.

It shows the veterans uh memorial building over there.

It shows three violations of your of your fire signs, okay.

Inconsistency in applying the code.

That that was the example.

You can see the signs from here.

Okay.

I'm gonna try to include.

I got 43 seconds left.

Um never once did the fire marshal tell any of the residents or have any meetings with us at all that we were not following the law.

We have new residents that uh moved into our uh four houses there, knew absolutely nothing.

Nothing, and this could have been solved by just talking to them.

Also, on 12 uh 5, uh Jose Vasquez had a meeting with uh uh fire marshal, and he said that it was a meeting scheduled for the first 8th of January with the city attorney.

That is not true, it was actually a court hearing.

Stephen Mass also told a man in Corey, Martin, uh, when they talked to him that a fire truck would not use the access road because they weigh 75,000 pounds and they wouldn't want to damage it.

And most of the residents are well within reach from the front access, 150 is the code.

Mr.

Pape, that's time.

I'd like to invite 18 seconds left.

I like it.

Oh, that's all our next speaker, Abby Ferenzi here to speak on fire access.

Sure.

Uh hello, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Abby Ferenzi.

I live at 3618 Wenig Road Northeast.

Tom Pape and Leslie Pape are my parents.

Um, I'm here today um to make some comments and some asks uh on behalf of the situation.

Uh, when my parents uh first started telling me about the situation with their neighbor and some of the harassment and various odd requests.

Um, you know, I always say, be reasonable, talk to them, talk through it, we can figure it out.

And then when things came up and they told me that they were going to be required to put seven foot signs in their front lawn, I was like, that doesn't sound reasonable to me.

You make sure you you talk to the fire marshal, you talk to the city council.

This this doesn't seem reasonable.

Um so I've encouraged my parents to do that, supported them through this ordeal.

Um they're both retired, as you know.

Um, they were uh born in Cedar Rapids, their parents were born in Cedar Rapids.

This whole situation has been incredibly, incredibly distressing for them and our family.

Um so they told me that even though they had these discussions with the fire marshal and asked for reasonable solutions, they were repeatedly told no.

And then I got the phone call this weekend that my parents had received a large fine for not having signs in their yard.

It's devastating to them.

I am uh not asking uh for, and my dad is not asking.

My parents are not asking to not be safe.

They are not asking to not follow the marshal's orders and requests.

Nobody will park on that street.

Um, my dad's a very safe person.

I am 47 years old, and he still calls me and tells me to bring a coat when the weather is cold outside.

I drive to Des Moines two days a week.

He just called me on Monday and said, please pack up, make sure you have a shovel just in case.

I routinely catch him uh checking my smoke detectors in my house.

I heard him talking to my teenage sons the other day about our fire extinguishers.

This is a safe person.

This is a good citizen.

He is not asking to not be safe.

He is asking for a reasonable solution that does not involve seven foot signs in front of their home, a home that they're very, very proud of that we're proud of to come and visit my parents and his neighbors are proud of.

We are asking for a reasonable solution that does not involve these signs, um, but that does satisfy the fire fire marshal's requests and lets my parents and his his neighbors uh again find a resolution to this situation to where they can all be proud to be Cedar Rapids citizens and be proud of their homes.

Whether that solution is a meeting, whether it's an agreement, whether it's an understanding, they are willing to talk to whoever, and I would be happy to talk to whoever is willing to talk to them.

And we are really, really hopeful that by being reasonable and talking uh about um the impact this has on them, the impact on their home value, the impact on their pride to be homeowners on that private lane in their private property.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And that will close out our second public input period.

City Manager Pomrance, do you have communications today?

No communications.

All right.

Uh, since this is our last and final meeting of 2025, I just like to wish all of uh citizens here and uh maybe watching online live in a recording to have a wonderful holiday season.

Um keep the families of our two um Iowa National Guard members lost, um protecting our freedom in your prayers as they navigate um you know a difficult, difficult future.

So again, best wishes for a blessed holiday season.

And if there's nothing further, Councilmember Tyler Olson moves to adjourn, seconded in by Councilmember Overland.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And we are adjourned.