Yager tapped for open council seat

FORT MADISON – Fort Madison’s Dustin Yager has been appointed to the 5^th ward seat after a half-hour discussion Tuesday night prior to the regular Fort Madison City Council meeting.
After about 20 minutes of questions from Fort Madison City Council and an added question from Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Mike Norris, the council voted 4-1 to appoint Yager to fill the position vacated by Chad Cangas who moved out of the 5^th Ward in May.
A motion by Councilwoman Donna Amandus to appoint Angela Salazar died due to lack of a second. Then Councilwoman Rebecca Bowker offered a motion to appoint Yager which was seconded and then voted upon. Councilmen Rusty Andrews, Jack Gray, Bowker, and Angela Roller all voted in favor of Yager. Amandus voted against the opponent.
Fort Madison Mayor Matt Mohrfeld encouraged both Yager and Salazar to look to this fall’s election as the position was appointed only until the general election on November 7, so it will be open for candidates during the campaign season.
Yager was immediately installed as the new councilmember and then the board went into formalizing plans to attract and hire a new City Manager to replace David Varley, who also resigned in May.
Mohrfeld had requested that Norris, in his capacity as director of SEIRPC, help structure what the search for Varley’s replacement, as well as the position itself, should look like.
Mohrfeld said he would like the process to be a quick one and put several councilmen on a committee along with Lee County Economic Development Group’s Emily Benjamin and Norris.
Bowker said she would like to see the city do a lot of the framing internally before funds are spent on a search firm so that investment is sharpened prior to the retainer.
In an unrelated matter, City Building Director Doug Krogmeier gave an update on renovations currently underway at the Old Fort.
“As you saw, we took some buildings down,” Krogmeier said.
Volunteeers were on the property this weekend helping pull down a couple of the Old Fort structures that were crumbling. They’ve also worked on some fencing.
“Most of the primary stuff is done. We’ve worked 36 of the last 72 hours securing the buildings. That was essentially our goal. Now that the primary stuff is done, we have to do some chinking and other extra work that will require extra costs.
“But they’re up and operational and good to go.”
Bowker said the council should work up a recognition event for volunteers that have helped and are helping with the renovations.
The council also appointed former City Councilman Chris Greenwald to the Fort Madison Housing Authority with a term expiring in 2024.
Fort Madison contractor Michael Mohrfeld gave an update on the Fort Madison Marina.
Mohrfeld said things are progressing well, but some of the dock work is two to three weeks behind schedule.
The current work is on Dock B, which is the last large covered dock.
“As soon as that is done, they will be moving on to the jet ski docks and then the commercial docks,” Mohrfeld said.
The new restaurant and hospitality center is getting closer to reality. That project is being privately funded and has been hung up on a flood certificate from FEMA. Mohrfeld said progress is being made on that and he hopes ground is broken on the facility yet this summer.
“The non profit side things are progressing well. We had a promising phone call with FEMA and they agreed to have another call next weekend.”
He said seeding and tree planning will begin in the fall and light pole foundations are already in place.
“It’s really starting to come together and there is a lot of activity going on out there,” Mohrfeld said.
Matt Mohrfeld said people should be pleased by the optics of it all.
“As parking develops, people will be pleasantly surprised at what we’ve blocked out as observation points – on the east parking lot specifically to see the bridge,” Mohrfeld said.