Waukee City Council Charges Ahead on Community Projects

Members of the Waukee City Council were charged up and ready to make decisions Wednesday night during their work session at Waukee City Hall.

On the agenda? Six topics of discussion that have, as of recently, received little to no attention in light of former city administrator Jeff Kooistra's sudden resignation.

Wednesday night it was full steam ahead. Here's what you missed:

1. Council members began a preliminary discussion about how the city should go about filling Kooistra's position. Interim administrator Brad Deets said preliminary projections show the search for a new city administrator could cost upwards of $12,000. The last search cost the city about $21,000. The city will continue to explore how it should conduct a search for the new city administrator.

2. In March, the Waukee City Council voted down a proposed increase in the cost of renovating the old fire station at 355 Seventh St. The original cap on the project was $400,000. When the dust settled, city leaders found the project could have cost almost twice that.

Wednesday, city leaders announced a proposal for the community center that would reduce construction costs to just $407,332 by allocating public works staff for the project. Total combined cost, city leaders estimate, would be about $539,000.

Deets said the city has been working to find ways to cut down on improvements, "and come up with something the city can be proud of."

3. Also under consideration at the meeting was the much-talked about sidewalk assessment program. Public Works Director John Gibson said there had been 819 sidewalks assessed and 243 property owners were sent repair letters. Gibson said only 15 of those notified still needed to be repaired.

Councilman Casey Harvey said he would like to see the properties grouped by the severity of the repairs.

"When government’s coming in there and forcing somebody to do something, it’d better be severe," he said. "We are overreaching what we need to repair.”

The Waukee City Council will meet again for its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday at 5:30 p.m. in Waukee City Hall. To read the agenda, go to the city of Waukee's website.