Council annexes property into city limits

IMPROVEMENTS

Moving forward, we would like to fence the entire location. I’m sure you have concerns about the sales and upkeep of the area, but I can assure you that it will not look anything like it does today as far as upkeep.”

Jim Huff, Merit Auction Services

FORT MADISON – The Fort Madison City Council paved the way for an auction firm to take over property on the city’s west side.
At Tuesday’s abbreviated council meeting, the council voted 6-0 to approve the voluntary annexation requested by Circle M Inc., to absorb the property into the city limits.
Merit Auctions, a company that moved into the Fort Madison market, is looking at purchasing the property from Circle M and transitioning it into an auction lot and inventory storage area.
Jim Huff, an auctioneer and real estate broker with the firm, told the council their intentions were to build a 3,600 square foot office with a 6,400 square foot attached shop on the property.
The location is east of Reve Court and up to the boundary of where a trailer court used to be between the bypass of Hwy. 61 and Avenue O.
“Our intentions are to hold maybe four or five auctions there, but it would be more of a staging area for farm machinery,” Huff said.
“Moving forward, we would like to fence the entire location. I’m sure you have concerns about the sales and upkeep of the area, but I can assure you that it will not look anything like it does today as far as upkeep.”
Huff said it would be unlikely that the facility would be built this year and further said he would be surprised if any concrete is being poured.
The company currently has offices in the Avenue O mall, but plans would include moving out of that location when construction is completed on the other property.
Mayor Matt Mohrfeld thanked Huff and Merit Auction for choosing to invest in Fort Madison.
The city also approved setting a public hearing to rezone the same property from R-1 family residential to B-3 wholesale business district. That hearing is set for Sept. 19 at 5:30 p.m.
In a related issue, the council also voted 6-0, to approve the voluntary annexation of property on 48th Street where the new PAW Animal Shelter is being constructed.
City Public Works Director Mark Bousselot said the shelter is paying to connect to sewer line already on the property. But the city will be running water lines to the construction at the shelter’s cost. The city will be extending a main to the facility rather than hooking up with a waterline across the street. Bousselot didn’t have a dollar figure on the improvements, but said the shelter was absorbing the cost.
The new shelter is a projected $8 million facility that will expand the services and housing for the area’s largest no-kill animal shelter.
In other action, the council approved, 6-0, the second reading of an ordinance that will reduce some smaller minor misdemeanor offenses as citations rather than criminal filings. The measure needs a third and final approval before being added to city code.
The council also:
• approved seal coat bids from W.L. Miller Co. of Hamilton for .60 per square foot of single layer sealcoating and $1.17 per square foot of double layer seal coating for the city’s 2023 street sealcoat program. Bousselot said the city will be spending about $160,000 for the year on seal coating. He said the city won’t use the full amount out of the Road Use Fund, but the remainder will be carried over into next year’s budget.
• approved a $2,000 contribution to the Mexican Fiesta by a 5-1 vote with Councilwoman Rebecca Bowker voting against the contribution, after asking if the Fiesta organization had done any private fundraising for the event.