[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.