City, Liberty Group 5 reach accord, Riverside to get medical clinic

Just an hour and half before Monday’s council meeting, Liberty Group 5 accepted the city’s counter offer of $2.75 per square foot and will buy three acres of land for a new medical clinic. Total price is $359,370 for the site in the city’s commercial park along Highway 22, just east of the Highway 218 interchange.
Part of the deal includes the city waiving all building fees, estimated at $8,968.
Liberty will build a clinic for the University of Iowa Community Medical Services (UICMS), and earlier told the council it planned to open the facility in June.
Initially, Liberty had offered $2.25 per square foot and after a counter offer by the city and a counter to that, the city last month approved a $2.75 price. Negotiations between the city and Liberty continued last week, ending Monday with Liberty’s acceptance.
If there are no further problems, officials noted Monday that documents could be signed within 30 days.
In other business, the council:

• approved the Communications Contract with the Washington County Communications Commission for an annual fee of $35,257, an increase of $5,000 from last year. T. K. Philips, Riverside’s representative to the Commission, said each service call costs the city $120 and cautioned that people should not dial 911 for non-emergency calls. The communications fee is based on assessed property valuation, population and number of calls. He suggested talking to a neighbor before calling the Safety Center, especially in regard to barking dogs, loud music and burning leaves
• learned from Chris Kirkwood, Veterans Memorial Park Committee, that there has been good response from people in the community to the idea. However, it is still in the planning stage. “We want a memorial that is a asset to our community,” she said. The city has committed $10,000 to the project
• approved a request from the Planning & zoning Commission for updated zoning maps from the city’s consulting engineer
• approved a liquor license for Casey’s.