Buying, selling and trading land occupy Riverside council

It was mainly a for land’s sake meeting for Riverside’s council Monday.
The council, in four separate items of business, approved land re-zoning, exchanged land with a local business, received a purchase offer for city owned land and agreed to buy some land to create a secondary road near the elementary school.
Approval of the ordinance for re-zoning of property owned by Larry Tener from A-1 to C-3 followed a public hearing in which no objections were raised. The property is on Highway 22 east, near Bud’s Custom Meats business.
A second Public Hearing, in which no objections were raised, dealt with an exchange of city property with Ed Pechous, Riverside Grain and Feed, that involves approximately 4,500 square feet of land. The exchange also provided for easement agreements between Pechous and the city regarding downtown property.
The third land item is an offer from Brad Acker and Dan Sweeting to purchase Lot 2 in the cityÕs Eastside Commercial site. The two, who offered $2 per square foot, plan to build a hotel on the site. There will be a 120-day period during which a feasible study will be done. Action on the offer will not come until next year.
The fourth land issue was approving an offer of $7,000 from the city for .44 acres of Schnoebelen property for a secondary road near the Riverside Elementary School. The roadway would provide two access/exit points for the school.
In other business, the council:

• received an update about Communicatons and Emergency Management in the county from T.K. Philips and Bill Halleran;
• approved hiring a part-time office assistance, a position that will be filled by Christine Kirkwood who, among other duties, will do website updates and a city newsletter;
• approved the third reading and passage of the amended Riverside Zoning Ordinance;
• approved a formal purchasing policy for the city;
• approved the purchase of a snow bucket, weight balancer, trailer bracket, expenditures of about $1,500 total. The welding work will be done by Thomann Welding, rural Riverside;
• received payment from the contractor for the expenses incurred when a water line was cut; and
• approved a pay increase of 75 cents per hour for Water/Wastewater Superintendent Kevin Engel who recently received his Grade 3 water/wastewater certification. The increase was approved following a closed session for employee performance evaluation.