Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Mason City City Council.

This is the meeting for October seventeenth, twenty twenty-three.

The first order of business is the roll call.

Diana, would you call the roll?

Lee.

Present.

Adams.

Present.

Simmons.

President.

Yeski.

Here.

Let the record reflect that we do have a quorum present.

Next item of business is the adoption of the agenda.

Is there a motion to adopt the agenda?

So motion by Councilman Massan, a second by Councilman Simmons.

Additional uh discussion.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, same sign.

The motion carries.

Next, we have a special item of business.

I'd like to invite John uh Derry Berry from Forty-Tree North Iowa to please uh step forward along with your colleagues uh at this time.

It's really a b an honor to be able to um declare disabilities awareness month uh in Mason City.

And uh John, uh you and the team at Forty-Tree North Iowa, thank you for all your great work uh in that area.

And this is the proclamation that I'll be reading and presenting to you.

Whereas Forty-Tree North Iowa is unique in how it combines disability assistance and employment services for the people and places of work in Mason City, and whereas Forty-three North Iowa last year made more than 100 new job placements and helped dozens of young people transition successfully from school to adult life.

And whereas Forty-three North Iowa has received the Iowa Top Workplace designation and is investing in the West Downtown neighborhood improvement by purchasing and transforming the former Globe Gazette building, and whereas people with disabilities bring a wide range of benefits to the workplace uh in Mason City.

And whereas study shows these benefits include adaptability, increased productivity, enhanced employee morale, and improved customer service.

Now therefore, I Bill Shickle, mayor of Mason City to hereby proclaim the month of October in the year 2023 as disabilities awareness month in partnership with the seventy-eighth anniversary of the National Disabilities Awareness Month.

We further acknowledge the important message that people with disabilities add value and talent to our workplace and community.

Anyone seeking to be recognized via Zoom, please use please use the raised hand feature.

Mayor, no one seeks to be recognized via Zoom.

We'll move with the rest of the agenda then.

Next up is the city administrators' monthly report.

Aaron, go ahead.

Of course, as soon as this comes up, then I get a frog in my throat.

So I apologize.

But um Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council.

Uh today we had the uh uh opportunity to meet with folks out of Indiana, the mayor and I and and Brian Paulia had gave them a tour.

They're here from Grant County, Indiana, uh as part of a chamber uh city exchange, uh looking at the the great things that we have going on within the community.

It's an opportunity as we go through that to reflect on uh the progress that we've made and the the goals that we've set out and uh it was uh nice to see uh folks taking interest in in those achievements and and really appreciating uh what we've got here in Mason City and and they'll be here for the next three days.

We'll have an opportunity to share our thoughts with them and and also learn from them uh also.

Uh beyond that, over the last week I had the opportunity to go to the Iowa Trail Town Summit, uh Trailstown Summit, and learn about some uh economic development opportunities that are linked to outdoor recreation and furthering the goals that the county council has set out and really developing outdoor recreation within Mason City with the destination Iowa efforts, and also look at how that plays into workforce attraction and amenities for quality of life.

Um along those lines, we've got the ribbon cutting coming up uh next week for the Highline Trail.

Uh that information is coming out, and we'd look forward to uh hope folks can attend and celebrate the the opening of the Highline Trail.

The city was fortunate enough to receive a grant for the Monroe Park basketball courts.

This grant uh was pursued by our uh grant administrator uh Rachel Van Hewen and with facilitated the it will facilitate the replacement of those uh courts and the basketball hoops.

They receive a lot of use and uh will be a great amenity for uh uh for the neighborhood.

We're continuing to uh prepare prepare numerous projects for bid.

Uh this work really happens behind the scenes working with engineers and and architects uh from the river walk to uh continue to rebidding the fire department dormitories uh along with many other projects linked to Destination Iowa that works ongoing.

Uh we're hopeful that we've seen that we're seeing a better uh bid environment as we go into uh winter for the next construction season.

Um those projects will be coming before the council to go to bid.

Uh one thing I wanted to mention that you'll see in in some of the reports is that the finances of the city continue to be strong.

Uh we're hitting revenue projections or exceeding in many areas.

Um one area that's particularly of note is uh interest income.

Uh the city is performing very well in that.

Uh uh basically hitting its number for the year almost in the first few months of of this fiscal year.