Kalona Council accepts shelter repair bid

By Mary Zielinski
The Kalona council Monday, accepted the low bid of $16,210.58 from Yoder Roofing & Construction to repair the roofs for all five shelters in the Kalona City Park. Yoder was one of five bidders for the project that will be paid through local option sales tax funds. All bids had a breakdown for individual costs for each shelter. Other bidders were Chris Schlabach Construction, $18, $122.50; Bluefield Trust Construction, $17,734.37; JB Roofing & Construction, $20,400 and Duwa Construction & Roofing, $16,779. Work is expected to start this summer.
In other business, the council also approved:

• payment No. 8 for C. L. Carroll Co., Inc. of $289,150.10 for the 6th Street Lift Station Project;
• payment of $75,002.50 to All-American Concrete, Inc., the first payment for the 10th Street and F Avenue Paving Project;
• a Plat of Survey for Bill Young, owner of Kreekside subdivision to allow dividing a lot to provide adjoining ones with large areas. The approval was required by the county;
• a resolution establishing the temporary closing of B Avenue from 4th to 6th Streets for the River Junction Tractorcade Saturday, July 11. Approximately 175 units are expected for a morning stop in Kalona during the annual event;
• approved new updated job descriptions for the Public works Director and the Recreation Superintendent, which provides more detail outlines of duties and responsibilities as well as qualifications for the positions. Additionally, both positions are under the direction of the city administrator.
  City Administrator Doug Morgan who will leave the job at the end of September, told the council that there have been 15 or 16 inquiries for the position which has been advertised. Council member Dave Kempf asked if a job description was still being formulated, how could a position be advertised, that applicants “need to know what the job is they are applying for.” He was told there is current description in the employee handbook, a copy of which he said he does not have.

Resident Stuart Yoder asked the council to consider installing an entrance from A Avenue for the horse and buggy-parking barn that is now accessed from A Place through the parking lot that is owned by Yoder. He had photos showing the slope and grade to show where a possible entrance could be made that would mean the Amish buggies “would not have to go across my property.” The lot is used by Yoder’s tenants and he said that a vehicle, in the past, had been “clipped” by a buggy.
He added that parking is increasing in the area, that the new business (restaurant) is increasing in customer volume.
Mayor Jerry Kauffman said that the agreement to use the parking lot as access to the city owned Amish parking lot had been a verbal one with the previous property owner, Steve Reif. He added that creation of an A Avenue entrance “was looked at before.” Yoder said he had walked the slope and that the “grade is not that steep.” Kauffman said it could be different with a buggy.
Later, at the close of the meeting, Yoder asked about the petition field to obtain an injunction against the city to halt work on the Community Center repairs, that he wanted to know what the city was doing about it since as a resident taxpayer, “that’s my money, too.”
Kauffman said the council cannot discuss a matter in litigation.