City may use rebate funds to rehab two more parking lots

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - City officials are still looking at options to spend almost a million dollars of a bond interest rebate from the state.

At Tuesday's regular meeting of the Fort Madison City Council held via teleconference, Public Works Director Mark Bousselot told the council that the city got some good bids on replacing two city lots with permeable pavers, but still had about $1 million of $1.6 million in rebates to spend on other projects.

The two lots will get permeable pavers to allow storm water to run through the pavers and into the subsurface rather than going into the city's sanitary sewer lines.

That's the crux of the rebate. It comes from money that the city spent rehabbing the waste water treatment plant several years ago at a cost of about $27 million. The city took out state bonds to pay for the work and the state rebates part of the interest paid on the bonds to the city to help mitigate additional storm water runoff through sanctioned projects.

The snag is that the city can only use the rebated funds to pay for projects approved by the Department of Natural Resources. The fund aren't allocated to the city's general fund and cannot be used on any other projects.

City Manager David Varley also cautioned the council that there is time constraints on getting projects approved, and the funds are "use it or lose it".

"We've got a one chance shot at it and that's it. You don't get more out of it," Varley said. "If we don't use it in a certain time frame we lose it and it goes back into a state pool that others can use. So basically it's use it or lose it."

Back in 2017 and 2018 the city was looking at redoing all the sidewalks from 6th Street to 10th Street on Avenue G with permeable pavers but the project got tangled up with bids that were outside the scope of estimates from the city's engineering provider HR Green out of Cedar Rapids.

After going back to the drawing board several times to rework the project and make it fit the $1.6 million available, the city finally cut the project and looked for other options, eventually settling on the two city lots. The first is the city lot behind City Hall at 8th and Avenue D. The second is the city lot at 8th Street and Avenue F.

Meller Excavating and Asphalt of Fort Madison had the low bid for the project, which includes both lots, at $429,533. After engineering fees and other associated costs, Bousselot said the city had about a million bucks left.

City councilwoman Rebecca Bowker asked what happens to the remaining money and how can it be repurposed.

"We've tried to figure out how to reallocate the funds," Bousselot said. "We're working with engineering and we've put together a plan for the DNR and we're looking now at lot on 8th and Avenue H, which is a city lot, and the parking lot in front of council chambers."

In an unrelated issue, Bousselot told the council that he's not concerned a recent finding of old timbers under the subsurface of the Hwy. 61 reconstruction project underway in Fort Madison will slow the project.

Bousselot told the council his last conversations with Bear Creek Archeaologists was that they were going to take some samples from the timbers back to be analyzed, but they think it may be a part of an old railroad spur in the area. But because they confirm the material on site, they have to treat it like it's part of the old fort.

"This is week 5 and they have a five-week contract. They anticipate taking some pieces back, but they plan on sticking to their schedule," Bousselot said.
"They think it has to be tied to a rail spur but they can't confirm that so they have to treat it as fort material."

Fort Madison City Council, parking lots, Pen City Current, rebate, waste water treatment plant

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