The Mason City City Council held its regular meeting on August 6, 2024, at 7:00 PM in the Mason City Public Library. Mayor Bill Schickle presided. Roll call showed Councilmembers Lee, Adams, Latham, Yesky, Simmons present; Councilman Massan joined via Zoom. The agenda was adopted unanimously. No public comments were made. The meeting included a City Administrator’s monthly report, approval of a consent agenda, separate votes on the June 2024 Financial Report and the 2024 Pavement Marking Program, and a final reading (second reading) of an ordinance amending sewer rates.
City Administrator’s Monthly Report – Administrator Aaron reported on housing efforts (home grant projects completed, EPA grant application submitted for $16‑17 million to expand target area), river walk progress (rubble/soil remediation but still on track for opening next year), police and fire department construction progress, economic development (Amazon building underway, biofuels/data center inquiries, downtown apartments leasing fast). Council questions addressed:
June 2024 Financial Report (Item 5) – Approved separately. Councilman Yesky asked about arena financial performance. Administrator and Finance Director cited ongoing learning from pandemic opening; high utility costs; lease with hockey being renegotiated (current lease runs through March 2025). Councilman Yesky also asked about ambulance service; Chief Brinkley said revenue timing is variable, and out‑of‑county call volume has decreased, improving financial outlook. Councilman Adams noted reduction in out‑of‑county costs. The report was approved unanimously.
2024 Pavement Marking Program (Item 15) – Approved separately. Final cost $203,103, about 7% over contract. City Engineer Mark explained the increase came from adding parking lots that needed painting since the contractor bid low. Councilman Adams asked about the cost overrun; Mark stated the contractor was a previous vendor with better quality, and the city added work because it had budget room. Councilman Latham asked for the dollar amount. Approved unanimously.
Ordinance Amending Sewer Rates (Item 22) – The council considered an ordinance correcting a rate table discrepancy discovered after the March rate increase. The correction aligns the minimum charge table with the actual calculation (administrative fee plus two units of usage). No material impact on bills; a 5/8‑inch meter user would see an $0.83 per month difference. Councilman Lee moved to waive only the first reading instead of both first and second. A motion to waive first and second readings failed (4‑2? Actually the vote was 4 yes, 2 no, but Mayor declared it failed – possibly a miscount; however the council then proceeded to waive only the first reading). A motion to waive the first reading passed unanimously. The ordinance was then approved on second reading (unanimous).
And good evening, everyone. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Mason City City Council. This is the meeting for August 6th of 2024. I'm Mayor Bill Schickle. We're very happy to have you with us this evening. The first item of business is the roll call. Diana, would you call the roll? Lee. Adams. Present. Latham. Here. Yesky. Here. Simmons. Present. Is absent. Let the record reflect that we do have a quorum present and uh Councilman Massan will be checking in by Zoom. Is he on, Aaron? Ms. Councilman Massan, can you hear us? Okay. All right. Thank you, Councilman. The next item of business is the adoption of the agenda. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? So move. We have a motion by Councilman Yusheski. Second. Second by Councilman Latham. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All those opposed, same sign. The motion carries. Next we'll move to the public forum. This is your chance to comment on any item on the agenda. If there's an item on the agenda you would like to comment on, uh please approach the podium, state the number, and the floor is yours. Seeing no public comment at this time, we'll move to the next item of business, which is the city administrators monthly report. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh just want to run through uh a few items and then answer any questions uh regarding the report. Uh first off, just wanted to mention the uh housing efforts we continue to work on. Uh the home grant projects, you'll see that those have come through the the council, several of those have been completed. Uh occupied dwellings. So a lot of positive momentum there and continuing those efforts into uh furthering those efforts with the EPA grant that came before the council at the previous meeting, uh hoping to secure those housing funds to to further those efforts in a wider target area. Um but really starting to see those that success. Uh you'll notice there's actually some signs that have been placed out in front of some of those properties to show uh the improvements in that neighborhood. Uh furthermore, uh talking about city projects, uh we've had the river walk is making substantial uh improvements. We've run into some issues with uh rubble that was buried uh in the ground that had to be removed and the the soils had to uh be remediated in those areas, but uh still making great progress. Uh still on uh the same timeline, so even though we've run into a little bit of headwind there, uh still should be able to be opened uh next year. Uh the fire department and police department are both progressing very well. Uh those projects, the police department's getting obviously closer to completion.