[0:07] Call this meeting to order of the Haywards City Council. This is a regular

[0:10] City Council meeting on Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 at 5:30

[0:16] p.m. We are in the City Hall the City offices in the Council Chambers

[0:22] room. Uh, we have approval of the June 10th,

[0:26] 2026 regular meeting minutes. Could I get a motion for approval,

[0:31] please? >> So moved.

[0:32] » Second. >> [snorts]

[0:36] [laughter]

[0:40] » Do you want to Did you get that?

[0:43] » Oh, yeah. >> Okay.

[0:44] » [laughter] >> No.

[0:45] » Oh, okay.

[0:49] Uh, Derek, you made a motion, didn't you?

[0:51] » Yes. >> Christie, did you second it?

[0:55] » Sure. >> Okay.

[0:57] » Love it. >> I thought I heard you.

[1:01] Uh, all those in favor, please say I. >> I.

[1:03] » I. >> Opposed?

[1:05] Passes 5 to 0. Okay. Approval of the June 24th, 2026

[1:12] claims for payment. Motion, please.

[1:16] » Motion. >> Okay, Trevor has got the motion.

[1:19] » Second. >> Second

[1:23] was Ben. All those in favor, please say I.

[1:27] » I. >> I.

[1:28] » Opposed? >> Abstain.

[1:30] » Passes 4 to 0 with a one abstention. The claims have been approved.

[1:37] At this time, we have open business from the community. Would anyone like to

[1:41] speak up at the podium at this time?

[1:47] » My time again. Every 2 weeks. John Gress still living

[1:51] in Hayward. Um, let's see. I still haven't received

[1:56] any reason from the council why they um um

[1:59] did not advance my desire to buy a street. I think it's 26th Street off

[2:05] Avenue D that dead ends to my property. Serves no other useful purpose.

[2:11] And the city has stated that they would do maintenance on our request and I had

[2:17] told them previously it would be 1 year, 2 year

[2:21] before that happened. Well, now I'm going to ask that

[2:25] the city put that on the next agenda to open that street because I do not

[2:31] believe the city staff uh by Iowa law

[2:36] is authorized to obligate the city to that. So, it would come up for a council

[2:42] vote to open that paper street up so that it can be used as a public

[2:47] right-of-way, which it is. Um the next item I would like to discuss

[2:53] is I've been uh

[2:57] not confronted. Several people have come up to me and asked why the city or what

[3:02] the city has against me. And I

[3:07] tell them I don't know innocently. And uh that's concerning the sale or

[3:13] stopping the normal statutory process of having a public meeting to sell that

[3:18] street. And the only thing I can think of is as

[3:22] a concerned citizen when I saw a problem and brought it to the city council

[3:28] the meeting prior to that had to do with the catalyst grants of

[3:32] the four buildings downtown when I showed the city council

[3:37] that all of the grants were out of compliance with the agreement

[3:41] that uh

[3:44] it had with IEDA and the serious issue with the conflict

[3:51] of interest that wasn't uh recused

[3:56] or mitigated. Now, a very wise man told me that

[4:02] if every small town in Iowa had to recuse from grants that

[4:08] they would never get grants. And that sort of goes in line with

[4:15] what happened uh

[4:18] at the soccer meeting or the soccer game that the announcer said that uh

[4:24] all the people's names similar and the same name, whatever,

[4:29] that we must be marrying our cousins and it's got to be pretty interesting at the

[4:32] dinner table. And that

[4:36] was left up to be dealt with by the school board, which I think is wrong.

[4:42] They can deal with it, but I think city government,

[4:45] the ones we elect to represent the city, should also address it in a council

[4:50] meeting. So, what I think what it looks like is

[4:56] the following meeting after I brought up that grant

[5:00] the grant problems, when I asked you guys just to clean up

[5:04] the paperwork concern that IEDA would claw it back,

[5:11] um nothing was done. In the next meeting, I had that request for a open

[5:16] meeting or a public meeting to buy that land,

[5:21] and it was shut down. The people are uh

[5:26] coming to me, like I said, and they um say it appears to be retaliatory.

[5:32] I don't know if it is. I have no no take on it,

[5:37] but that's what the public is thinking. Now,

[5:43] with that, uh I'm not going to stop coming to meetings. I'm going to be here

[5:46] every Wednesday unless I'm dead or what? I'm at a funeral. That's it. Every

[5:52] Wednesday. And I'll be up here for my 5 minutes, 3 minutes, whatever.

[5:57] Now, at that same meeting that they had the

[6:01] you shut down the sale or not the sale, but the statutory

[6:05] requirement for a public meeting. I um

[6:11] had requested the meeting prior to that that the city administrator put on the

[6:15] agenda Catalyst Grant so that the council could discuss it legally, right?

[6:21] He came back at that meeting, I believe it was that meeting, and said that

[6:26] because it was on the agenda that he had been in contact with IEDA. IEDA said,

[6:32] this is not a direct quote, that everything was fine.

[6:36] Where is it in writing? If it's not on paper, in writing, then

[6:41] as far as I'm concerned, it didn't happen. I don't know what questions were

[6:45] asked of IEDA. I'm sure he didn't say, "Hey, is it all right if the our grant

[6:51] writer is writing a grant for a building that her husband owns

[6:56] and that those two buildings are sold now or two buildings from the grant are

[7:00] sold now and we haven't done any ownership change to you, is that all

[7:05] right?" Cuz they're not going to go ahead and

[7:07] put it in writing that yes, we don't care about federal law, we don't care

[7:11] about state law, conflict of interest means nothing to us.

[7:15] I think that's not going to happen. So,

[7:19] that's all I got. Thank you.

[7:25] » Okay. Anyone else?

[7:28] We'll move on to the mayor's report. I had the opportunity to be on the Daily

[7:33] Grind show on Sioux County Radio 93.9 FM, I think it is. Um

[7:41] got a chance to talk about uh some of the good things that are happening in in

[7:44] Haywood and and uh got to uh brag

[7:49] up our uh economic development uh director and uh our police chief.

[7:55] So, I was happy to be able to do that. Um

[8:01] and um would like to congratulate Carol.

[8:06] Um the Northwest Iowa development

[8:11] is um was uh announced that Carol

[8:16] was one of the persons that has officially earned

[8:20] her certified zone specialist credentials

[8:24] through the National Association of Foreign Trade Zones.

[8:28] This certification strengthens the region's capacity to support

[8:32] manufacturers, streaming trade operations, and enhance

[8:37] global competitiveness across Northwest Iowa.

[8:41] Her achievement reflects a shared commitment to providing high-quality

[8:46] guidance to businesses engaged in importing, exporting, and value-added

[8:52] production. We

[8:54] I'm sure we at least I uh

[8:58] am not aware of all of the things that uh would fall under that category, but

[9:04] to think that, you know, we are um

[9:08] in the global market is exciting. And uh we thank you, Carol, for

[9:14] all of your work on that.

[9:19] Moving on to staff reports.

[9:25] » I just want to say thank you to all the residents that are working on their

[9:28] properties and getting stuff cleaned up. Uh it is noticeable and very

[9:32] appreciated. I know that we have uh a lot of work to go and uh

[9:37] but I just want to say thank you to those that are putting in some effort.

[9:41] » Yeah, it's been noticed. Travis.

[9:46] » Um our tree pile, the chippers are here. That's great news.

[9:50] Um also good news, SCS engineers, they're

[9:54] working on an environmental covenant for our landfill. Uh this will be the last

[9:58] step in ending the post closure. We had a good walk-through last two Thursdays

[10:03] ago. Um with the Iowa DNR, and everything

[10:06] looks good. They are um

[10:09] willing to sign that uh environmental covenant once uh the engineers get that

[10:13] written up. Uh so, what that means to us is we still

[10:17] need to city staff needs to inspect and maintain the area. And but we don't we

[10:23] don't have to do any more um water samples or testing. Um and we just

[10:28] have to do one engineering inspection every 2 years.

[10:32] And then give that report to the DNR, so.

[10:35] It's good It's good time. Uh more good news, uh new sport court

[10:40] for French Park uh will ship this week, and it'll be installed sometime in the

[10:45] next couple weeks. Uh same company that did our basketball courts out here.

[10:50] Um one caveat is we went with red

[10:53] uh red courts with blue outline, so just kind of opposite the colors here.

[10:58] That was uh funded by the Siouxland Foundation grant, community foundation

[11:02] grant. Um

[11:05] Iowa Homeland Security, uh we did a audit um with them, and just

[11:11] finalized that on Tuesday. Everything went well for one of the um projects

[11:16] for the FEMA funding, so all the paperwork, everything was good there.

[11:20] They were happy to get that closed out. So.

[11:24] That's it. >> Good.

[11:26] You've been busy. Misty.

[11:30] » Nothing to report. >> Thank you.

[11:33] Uh Jenny is not with us tonight. Chief De

[11:35] Priest. >> Uh yeah, just a quick update on nuisance

[11:38] abatement. Uh so far this year we've sent out 139 letters

[11:43] uh to property owners about nuisance conditions on their property. But as

[11:46] mentioned by the city administrator and the mayor, um there has been lots of

[11:50] progress. Still a ways to go, but looking much better.

[11:53] Uh also we are putting the finishing touches on a scooter uh bicycle safety

[11:58] program and keeping an eye on the weather, but if it cooperates we're

[12:01] looking at the end of next week. And so once we have the details hashed out, we

[12:06] will uh push that out to the public and get those details available.

[12:12] » Very good. Thank you. Carol. [clears throat]

[12:15] » Uh thank you for those kind words. Um yeah, being a certified zone specialist

[12:20] has um definitely been a a great achievement. I'm thankful to have

[12:24] accomplished that. We are definitely in the global market here in Hawarden. Um

[12:30] one of our largest employers does use our trade zone um very effectively, so

[12:34] we'd like to continue that with other businesses within our Northwest Iowa

[12:38] region. Um also our annual partner meeting for

[12:41] Northwest Iowa is July 31st. It's a luncheon at the Grand Falls Casino. I'd

[12:45] like to invite everyone to attend. It's a great event. I can get any RSVPs out

[12:50] to any of you. Um also we've had quite a few uh I

[12:54] shouldn't say quite a few. We've had a few residents come in and take advantage

[12:57] of the housing trust fund kind of going along with the nuisance abatement um

[13:01] getting some new roofs, paint, and windows put in one particular home um

[13:06] moving forward with two others. So the the trust fund is available to all. So

[13:11] please let me know and I'll point you in the right direction.

[13:15] » Great. Thank you, Carol.

[13:18] At this time we have council comments. >> Thanks for working so hard on the

[13:23] nuisance abatements. Uh glad to see that's moving forward right directions.

[13:27] » Do they Do they track how um many of those have been resolved?

[13:32] Do they follow up on those? >> Yeah, so I everything that gets an

[13:35] initial letter, I go back by the property after the given timeline that

[13:40] they begin that they they received, and then if further communication, then we

[13:45] send them a follow-up letter with uh a new timeline, and then we can move to

[13:50] either a municipal infraction on it or um

[13:54] have the city crew

[13:57] uh take care of it and assess the cost to the property owners.

[14:00] » Have you had to take that step in any of the properties yet?

[14:02] » I'm So, yeah, so I'm really trying to work with

[14:06] folks. Um there is one property that

[14:10] I just had a conversation today about um getting some junk vehicles removed, but

[14:16] uh we haven't actually had to uh issue the citation as of yet.

[14:25] » I just want to say good job, Carol. Thanks for all the hard work you do. Uh

[14:29] you really are an asset to us, and I'm thankful for everything you do.

[14:35] » Jacob, was April 8th the council packet where we discussed the cattle grant?

[14:41] » Uh do not know off the top of my head, but

[14:44] I can check. >> Okay.

[14:46] And in that there was some correspondence shared with the

[14:49] economic development the Iowa Economic Development Council, correct? Okay, I

[14:54] just wanted to reaffirm that.

[15:01] » Okay. [clears throat] Seeing nothing else, we will move on.

[15:05] Item number three is a public hearing for authorizing the final disposition of

[15:09] real property. Uh I will declare that the public

[15:13] hearing is open at this time, and uh Jacob, do you have anything to um

[15:19] refresh our memories what this is? >> Yeah, so this is uh basically we are

[15:24] going to be doing uh a land swap with the property next to those uh FEMA lots,

[15:29] giving them just a little bit more section

[15:32] uh on the their west side uh the FEMA lots east side, and then acquiring the

[15:38] same amount of land on the north side of their lot, which is technically our farm

[15:43] ground that we've been using and that we lease out and uh have a an an exchange

[15:48] with those uh uh residents as well for for that land

[15:51] cuz they own part of it, so this will just kind of make some of that better.

[15:57] » Okay. Uh would anyone like to speak at this

[16:01] time?

[16:05] Okay. Uh then I will declare the public

[16:09] hearing closed and we will move on to item B, which is the resolution um of

[16:15] that same disposition uh 2026-22,

[16:20] authorizing the final disposition of real property.

[16:26] » So moved. >> Okay, we've got

[16:29] a motion by Klucky. >> Second.

[16:32] » And a second by Allen. We will do a roll call

[16:37] starting with Boza. >> Aye.

[16:40] » Klucky. >> Aye.

[16:42] » Skelling. >> Aye.

[16:44] » Warner. >> Aye.

[16:47] » Allen. >> Aye.

[16:49] » Passes 5 to 0. Thank you. That resolution passes.

[16:55] Moving on to number four is a public hearing on ordinance 764 amending zoning

[17:00] regulation. I declare the public hearing is open.

[17:05] Um do you have any

[17:08] uh opening comments?

[17:10] » Uh not really. Again, this is just uh changing a lot of that stuff associated

[17:15] with the detached accessory buildings, increasing the size, allowing more for

[17:18] the roof, but keeping a lot of the regulations still the same, allowing a

[17:22] second additional accessory building as long as it stays under I believe it's

[17:26] 144 square foot inside that ordinance, so that doesn't need to have

[17:29] a special exception hearing just to have that.

[17:32] Um and then adjusting the heights, uh it was 2/3 primary buildings, now it is

[17:37] going to be either equal with the primary building or um 23 ft. Uh

[17:44] » Covers lower. >> And whichever one is lower of that one.

[17:47] So, that kind of helps out people that have one-story buildings, so that they

[17:50] if they build a garage that's not attached, it lets them have a

[17:53] normal-size garage not attached and not 2/3 the height of their house, so.

[17:59] Um >> 22 ft.

[18:01] » 22 ft. >> [clears throat]

[18:02] » Just for >> clarification.

[18:06] » At this time >> Yeah.

[18:07] » Did you have more? Uh at this time is there anyone else that would like to

[18:11] speak to this ordinance change?

[18:16] If not, I will declare that the public hearing is closed and will move on to

[18:21] item B, which is the final reading of ordinance 764 amending the zoning

[18:27] regulations.

[18:31] Is any any further discussion? If not, I'd take a motion.

[18:36] » So moved. >> Second.

[18:38] » From Allen, motion from Allen and a second from Skilling.

[18:43] Uh we will also do a roll call vote on this. We'll start with Klucky.

[18:48] » Aye. >> Skilling.

[18:50] » Aye. >> Warner.

[18:51] » Aye. >> Allen.

[18:53] » Aye. >> Bosa.

[18:55] » Aye. >> That ordinance change has passed 5 to 0.

[19:01] Thank you. Moving right along.

[19:05] Item five is the approval of a street closure for

[19:09] one crazy night downtown block party. By the chamber.

[19:17] » Yeah, so this is the party's downtown. They are

[19:20] requesting to have that street closed during the party to

[19:26] ensure that people can walk to and from and all around it just like prior years.

[19:30] So.

[19:35] » We've got a motion by Clucky. >> Second.

[19:38] » A second by Warner. All those in favor of approving the

[19:43] street closure, please say I. >> I.

[19:46] » Opposed. Passes 5 to 0.

[19:50] We don't have anything on the consent agenda tonight. So we're down at

[19:54] adjournment. Could I have a motion, please?

[19:57] » So moved. >> Moved by Boza and a second.

[20:01] » Second. >> By Allen. All those in favor, please say

[20:04] I. >> I.

[20:05] » Opposed. Passes 5 to 0.

[20:09] Thank you for your time and your work >> today.

[20:13] » We are adjourned.

Hawarden City Council Meeting 6/24/26

Transcript