City gives initial $250K to Old Fort group

CITY SUPPORT

How can we get other people to donate to our effort if our city council doesn’t support us?”

Bill Napier, OFMP board member

FORT MADISON – A lengthy conversation about the amount of funding the city should appropriate to the Old Fort Madison Preservation efforts resulted in a $250,000 initial commitment and promise to talk about more.
The commission presented to the Fort Madison City Council two weeks ago and then showed up for Tuesday night’s meeting to advocate for funding for the efforts to restore the historical Old Fort museum on the city’s riverfront.
Bill Napier, an OFMP member, gave a full-throated plea to the council during the public hearing on a proposed 25-year lease agreement with the city.
“How can we get other people to donate to our effort if our city council doesn’t support us?” Napier said as councilmembers jockeyed on how to fund the group’s efforts.
"No one up here doesn't want you to do well," Mayor Melinda Blind said. 
"We just have a responsiblity to be good stewards of taxpayer funds."
The city had originally proposed a 25-year lease agreement with $37,000 a year in operational support. That number was moved to $50,000 after discussions two weeks ago in a proposal submitted by City Manager Laura Liegois.
But Councilor Dustin Yager took issue with the city committing $50,000 a year for the next 25 years.
“That stresses me out,” Yager said. “I have trouble committing to $50,000 a year for that long when we don’t know what we’ll be facing.”
Napier said the commitment shows that the city is behind the OFMP effort and supportive of the work the new commission is doing to rehab the Old Fort. He said people are leaving Fort Madison and the city needs something to bring people back to the community.
Yager said he would be more in favor of a 5-year commitment on the funding part of the agreement but didn’t have a problem with the 25-year lease agreement.
The council, after nearly 75 minutes of debate, amended Liegois' lease agreement to a five-year commitment of funding with renewal review triggered after five years where the commission would provide financials to the city and discuss funding at that time.
Napier told Councilor Nicole Merschman that the $250,000 commitment will help the commission with future grant writing as matches. Merschman asked if that could be on a year-by-year basis with $50,000, but Councilor Rusty Andrews said the commission will likely have obstacles getting going and needed a firmer commitment from the city.
The funding will come from the city’s share of hotel/motel tax money. City resident Barb Asay asked during the public hearing if the city had an extra $50,000 a year in that fund.
Liegois answered no, but said the city will be moving an expense of $50,000 for parks maintenance to the general fund to free up the money.
In an unrelated issue, Merschman said there is a winter coat, hat, and mitten drive underway. Coats can be dropped off at several locations including Vinnie's and Avenue O Laundry, who is also washing all the winter gear.