The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by Christy Kienast, The Quill
The La Harpe City Council members passed an ordinance for the yard waste composting site which will charge violators fines for dumping illegal items in the burn pile. The fines will rage from $150 to $1000.
The action was taken at the regular meeting Monday, May 12th at the La Harpe City Hall.
Gary Ziegler from W.I.R.C was present to get the resolution passed for the CDAP grant. The Community Development Assistance Program grant is for work on the water mains, valves, and fire hydrants in the southeast part of town. The total cost of the project is $600,000 with the city paying 25% of the cost or $150,000. The total on the grant would be $450,000. The council passed the resolution of support and the resolution to commit local funds.
Eric Moe of McClure Engineering was present to announce the winner of the bids that were opened last week for work on the intersections. Over all, 4 bids were placed. All of the bids received were over the estimate, concluding that the estimate may have been a little low. All of the bids were for around the same amount. The winning bid was Midwest Bridge and Crane out of Good Hope with a bid of $90,690.40 with a total of around $100,000 with engineering costs. The resolution was passed to accept the bid and proceed with the project. Projected start date is mid June with the project concluding in late July.
City workers were running a test at sewer plant noticed sewage running across the ground and into the creek. Someone working with a bulldozer crushed the top of the pipe allowing mud to get in an back up the line. The EPA has been notified and the problem has been resolved.
On Saturday afternoon, South C street a resident's sewer wasn't draining. After checking a few areas, they found the problem, got a jetsetter from a local company and drained and cleaned it out. Turns out it contained a lot of excess grease from the residential homes in the area.
City wide clean up went well. A reminder that TVs are not taken on this day. They are collected on the first Friday of the month IF they have a sticker which can be bought at the city hall. The new landscape business in town is doing well and so is the new retail business at the East end of town.
The next Supervisor's meeting will be June 5th. The end of April signaled the end of the fiscal year for the city. A budget meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th at 4:30 p.m.
Summerfest is July 23 thru the 27th. On Saturday, July 26th the one block race will begin at 8 a.m. and the parade down main street will begin at 11a.m. A motion to contact IDOT about closing the highway for these activities was passed. The city will pay the $425 for the kids games in the city park as well as donate the same amount to the La Harpe Classic Car Show reunion held on Saturday, August 2.
The next meeting for the council was to be held on Monday, May 26th, but with that being Memorial Day, it was canceled. The next city council meeting will be Monday, June 9th 7 p.m.
Guests at the meeting were Wayne Humphrey, Dan Gillett, Dan Carpenter, David Little, Kenny Foster, City Attorney Kurt Dittmer, Tim and Monalisa Graves, Gary Ziegler, Eric Moe, Doug Endres and Christy Kienast. All council members were present.