Traer City Council holds regular meeting

The Traer City Council held their regular meeting on Monday, June 1, at 7:00 p.m. Mayor Russell Drinovsky called the meeting to order. Council members Mark Mason, Ray Mundt, Patty Guzman and Jake Schmitt were present. Dorothy Weida filled in for City Clerk, Jon Panfil. Also present were several concerned citizens, city employees John Novak and Brian Lyons.

Schmitt made a motion to approve the minutes of the previous meeting, Mundt seconded and the motion carried. Mundt made a motion to approve the bills as presented. Mason seconded and the motion carried.

Lou Rausch came in to the meeting at 7:05

The next item on the agenda was the Beer and Liquor license. Having none applied for the council discussed future license applications. Mundt shared with the council members a report that he had put together telling of how many hours, in the last year, the Sheriff’s Department had spent at one local tavern. Questioning if the taxpayers of Traer could recoup some of the money that it costs to pay the Sherriff’s department for the hours. The report was a total of hours spent at the Wind-up for the time period of July 2008 to present. A total of 27 hours and 41 minutes had been accumulated, not including the time spent this year for a call on May 2 that required several deputies. Sheriff Kucera said that he was not aware of anyway to recoup that money and his suggestion was to simply not renew their Beer and Liquor license. Schmitt said that he didn’t feel that the city could not start charging people for excessive calls to the Sherriff’s Department and this is no different. Mayor Drinovsky said that he didn’t think that anything should be done without the advice of the City Attorney. The council agreed to seek his advice before taking any formal action.

Sheriff Kucera gave his report to the Council saying that there was 198 hours or 60 calls for service. Of those 60 calls there was five residential burgularies. Items that were stolen were coin jars and the residents were unsure of the time of the bugulary so at this time there are no leads on those. All of the residents homes were unlocked. There was also a vehicle theft and it was later recovered in Souix City. A bicycle theft that led to an arrest. Kucera also told the Council that the city park had seen some vandalism of spray painting.

Patty Calderwood was present to thank the council for the local option tax money that they donated to the bleachers project. Calderwood showed pictures to them of before and after the renovation. The bleachers are at the complex.

Mason asked the Council to approve a one-year leave of absence for city employee Chris Cooper for medical reasons. In a roll call vote the Council all agreed and granted the leave. Guzman asked if they had filled his position as of yet. Novak said that they had several applications but that they were looking at the pros and cons of a temp agency to fill the postition while Cooper is off.

Novak gave a report to the Council telling them that the clean-up went well except for one freezer they encountered on Vista Street. The freezer had been Duck Tapped shut and when they removed the tape to open the freezer it was full of black water and rotting stuff. One employee vomited and after dumping the contents and letting it air out for several hours they were able to remove the freezer. Novak felt that they should not have had to remove the freezer with it being in the state that it was in. The rules of appliance removal state that the doors must be removed and not only was this door not removed it was still full. The Council agreed that they don’t have to remove anything like that again. Novak told the Council that they had trimmed trees throughout the city and that the one tree located on Second Street next to L.L. Owens property was orginally just going to be trimmed but after closer inspection felt that it needed to come down instead so they went ahead and removed the tree.

Novak asked the Council to approve the purchase of a new mower to hook behind the John Deere Tractor. He told