The Osceola City Council approved 5-0 the rescheduling of two city council meetings at their Oct. 1 meeting.
The original meeting date that had been brought up for discussion prior was Nov. 5, which falls on Election Day. It had been proposed to move that meeting to Nov. 12.
However, as there are five Tuesdays in October, by moving the Nov. 5 meeting back a week, that would leave a four-week gap between the Oct. 15 meeting and Nov. 12.
City Administrator Ty Wheeler explained having that large of a gap between meetings would create difficulty from an administrative perspective.
He also added that by bumping back other Tuesdays, the meetings would start to run into upcoming holidays.
Mayor Thomas Kedley voiced his support for moving the Nov. 5 meeting to Nov. 12.
“We want people to not have their voting rights infringed [upon], and being able to see what’s going on in public meetings,” he said.
Councilman Dr. George Fotiadis made the motion to change the two dates, and the motion was seconded by councilman Dan Hooper.
Council meetings will return to their regular schedule starting with the Nov. 19 meeting. A council work session will likely be planned for Oct. 29.
Reservoir project
Clarke County Reservoir Commission (CCRC) project manager Dave Beck attended the meeting, and updated the council on the progress of the reservoir project.
Beck explained that the commission has most all of the necessary components pulled together for the reservoir plan, and are working on pulling the last details of the mitigation work.
Beck also updated that Tall Grass Archeology has been working drilling holes in the project area for several months now, and while they have found a few items, he doesn’t foresee those being of any historical significance to hinder construction of the project.
Beck said the plan should be done sometime about Dec. 1, with the plan ready to go to the next level of review by the National Water Management Center. It is expected for that to take a couple of months, after which the plan goes out for inter-agency review, which takes 60 days.
“Target date…should have the plan ready for NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) approval just about a year from now,” said Beck.
When asked by Fotiadis if other lake projects had as many issues as this one had in regards to governmental agency roadblocks, Beck said he wasn’t sure, but said that most federally assisted water projects in Iowa are relatively smaller compared to this one.
Kedley mentioned that once the Farm Bill is passed, it should help as well, to which Beck agreed as this project program is part of the USDA, which is heavily involved with the Farm Bill.
Additionally, Beck pointed out the water issues that Osceola and Clarke County faced last year got a lot of attention, which showed the need for water in the area. As of the meeting, the water levels at West Lake were 3-feet below the spillway.
“I told Mayor [Fred] Diehl a couple days before he passed, come hell or high water, we’ll make sure Osceola has water,” said Kedley.
Other council news
Council approved 5-0 the third readings of the ordinance amending Chapter 40 of the Osceola Code of Ordinances as it pertains to noise, Chapter 69 as it pertains to parking, and Chapter 99 as it pertains to rates and charges.
Council also approved 5-0 a special events permit for the Clarke High School band and Timber Ridge Country Market for a drive-through meal fundraiser to be held from 5 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 23. A portion of West Washington St. will be coned off for the event.
Minutes of the Oct. 1 meeting can be found on the city’s website.