Minutes-03/03/1965

Minutes of Regular Council Meeting, March 3, 1965, Tiffin, Iowa Present: Bill Verry, Bill Bream, Wayne Stratton, Glenn Potter Absent: Ted Spivey The meeting was called to order by Mayor O'Toole and minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. OLD BUSINESS: Water. The well is producing just over 10 gallons a minute and will probably continue to produce that. This is not enough for the town; however, the quality of the water is good, and if we had two or three wells about this amount, we would have enough water. The casing situation is unchanged. The geologist hasn't assembled his data to the point where he would want to commit himself. Sewer. Sammons has about two hours' work left to install parts which were not yet delivered. The backfill will be done on the basis of warmer weather, because the ground is too frozen at this time. In addition, the stream itself should be surveyed and dredged. We hope to get the assistance of the Soil Conservation Service who have recommendations for shaping this creek. The debris in the stream will be an impediment to the outflow of the sewer during high water. Should be prepared to make an announcement that the plant will be ready to receive sewage before the 1st of April and rental fees should be set up to be collected from everyone simultaneously. After discussion, Wayne made the resolution that rentals will accrue from the 1st of April, will be due on a monthly basis starting May 1, with overdue bills being charged after the 15th and each subsequent month on the basis of 5%. Bill Bream seconded the resolution. Carried. Streets. Mayor talked with Powers at some length about this, going back to our attempts to get the street problem ironed out last September. Mayor made it clear to him that the $1500 or $1600 that we put on these streets is not going to be borne by the Town, because this really revolves around the attempts that we made to get together with Glenn Construction, and through the use of our Road Use Tax and their responsibility to put the town in shape to evolve a plan that would preserve these streets over the winter and spring season. It was the Mayor's feeling that they fell short of this because no concrete plan was evolved. The recommendations of Pelling and those of Powers were not followed by Glenn Construction; instead, they began a job which they didn't complete. They made a haphazard attempt and dumped a lot of poor grade material on the roads which didn't do anything but create more mud. They didn't follow the recommendations of Powers in which they had an alternative--instead of scarifying and topping, they could have filled with stone the lateral trenches, but they didn't. It is the Mayor's opinion that this is their responsibility...the cost that we have had to bear in maintaining these roads in the poor shape they are in and the additional cost we will have to bear in bringing them up to substandard grade for spring. Powers is sympathetic with Glenn Construction, and Mayor told him he was also. They did a fine job for us, but Mayor said they fell far short of finishing up the job and we had no intention of letting them off the hook. As it stands now, Powers and Mayor are in agreement that the cost of this outlay in the majority will be borne by Glenn Construction. A lot of contractors will attempt to dodge the point in the contract which states that the streets are to be left in the condition in which they were found. We have a comparison of crowns on the east-west streets that were not dug up. We have carried our streets in pretty good shape on an annual budget of $3,000 a year, and that would be our guideline. Whether we will be successful in holding that position, it is hard to say, but we are going to try to. We have 10% of his contract in escrow, which means $3400. We have to recognize in all fairness that there are expenses that are almost by-products of this kind of project.