The Marshalltown City Council and the Marshall County Board of Supervisors held a joint meeting at Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Thursday night and primarily covered two topics — the city’s plans for Main Street reconstruction and how they will affect the courthouse and annex, and the more controversial issue of a proposed rent increase for the 911 Commission at the city’s Police/Fire facility.

After a several year hiatus, the two governing entities met together last spring, and Thursday’s meeting was the first of 2023. According to discussions that occurred during the meeting, everyone in attendance seemed to agree on gathering quarterly going forward.

Bolton and Menk Landscape Architect Casey Byers was the first presenter of the night as he showed off the downtown improvement plan and mentioned the opportunity for collaboration between the city and county.

Byers said the idea was to add “decorative elements” to downtown and “change the character of the streetscape” for each individual road in the area. Bolton and Menk is designing up to the property line on the north side of the courthouse square, and the plan is to have parking on the street, a buffer zone and an “amenity zone” where street trees, decorative pavement, benches and site furnishings could be placed.

He cited other examples such as Springfield, Ill. with downtown common areas like a courthouse square and called that a unique opportunity for Marshalltown and Marshall County to create a hub for community events.

“The message is about finding opportunities to expand that pedestrian space, and doing that right in the heart of downtown is going to be really vital to the vitality of the downtown,” Byers said.

After he opened up the floor to questions, City Councilor Gary Thompson asked about converting to entirely angle parking in the area around the courthouse, and Byers said it would be on three sides total. Because the public entrance to the courthouse will now be on the south side of the building, Thompson also suggested a permanent bandshell on the north side for performances and events.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Jarret Heil thanked Byers for his presentation and noted the sense of excitement as county department heads are planning their return to the courthouse. He also asked that County Buildings and Grounds Director Lucas Baedke be kept in the loop on any future developments.

“We’re just excited to be getting close to getting back into the courthouse, getting those fences down and getting those grounds back to being a central place of community and place of entertainment and something we can all celebrate,” Heil said. “We know that the more open layout makes the most sense for flexibility, and we’ll be happy to work with all of us here to have a great place for the community.”

Thompson then asked Heil if he was willing to commit to a new official reopening date. He respectfully declined, and Baedke joked that he “no longer makes commitments.”

“I can tell you (that) the fact that we’re starting to have move-in plans with department heads means it’s coming close,” Heil said.

“We’d like to surprise you,” Supervisor Steve Salasek added.

The board and council then moved on to the thornier matter of the city council’s decision to terminate the current $1 a year lease agreement along with one-third of the internet for the 911 Commission — which is neither a city nor county entity and has its own levy — and discussions about raising the organization’s rent to as high as $18,000 a year at the Police/Fire building. When the building was first opened, the dispatchers were still city employees, but the creation of the commission required a new agreement.

In the absence of Mayor Joel Greer, Mayor Pro Tem and Councilor Mike Ladehoff offered an explanation of why the city opted to make the move, which was first discussed as one of several potential budget deficit remedies. Ladehoff said annual electricity expenses at the facility are around $93,000 on top of $28,000 for natural gas.

“I think it’s just that the residents of Marshalltown are carrying more of the burden, and we have all of our expenses and lots of needs that we’d like to be meeting as well. So I’m just glad we’re having this meeting and talking it through,” Councilor Jeff Schneider said.

Councilor Barry Kell reported that he could not find a similar arrangement anywhere else in Iowa and characterized the situation as “pretty unique,” and both Ladehoff and Thompson mentioned the possibility of metering out electric and gas usage to see how much the commission is using.

“I just can’t believe that we can’t, in the very least, buy little units to put in every socket, plug them in and then plug their equipment into them to just read what they’re using for electricity,” Thompson said in an exchange with Public Works Director/City Engineer Heather Thomas.

Thomas said she has not been instructed to perform any sort of an energy audit yet, and Thompson wondered if Alliant Energy would do it themselves. He also opined that if the 911 Commission is required to pay a higher rent, its employees should have full access to the fitness center along with police officers and firefighters.

Currently, the 911 Commission occupies 1,800 square feet, or about three percent of the building, and because the lease requires a one-year notice before termination, the entities have until the end of February next year to either come up with a new agreement or part ways.

Heil noted the board’s decision to waive radio access fees, and Thompson highlighted several collaborations between the public safety agencies. Heil lamented the possibility of falling into a “tit for tat” situation in the future, and Thompson worried about the city and county “nickel and diming” each other.

911 Communications Director Rhonda Braudis provided insight on the potential for regionalization in the coming years and said she is positioning Marshall County to serve as a “Mecca” for a combined operation with Tama, Grundy and Hardin counties. She expects it to happen within the next decade.

“It is something that is coming,” she said. “We’d probably be taking them in because no one would be going to them. They would be coming to us as the Mecca, and that’s why I built it to be what it is as of right now. So if this happened tomorrow and the state flipped the switch, we’re ready.”

Braudis added that she would like Phillips and his deputies to have access to the facility without being buzzed in, and she also wondered if the rent would include utilities. She also asked that she be notified of any official decision on rent by Jan. 1, 2024 so she could plan her budget and levy accordingly.

Everyone in attendance agreed that more information was needed before an official decision could be made, and Councilor Dex Walker expressed optimism that a new deal could be reached.

“I think most of us around this table think the right place for this center is where it is currently. I just think we’re asking good questions to come up with what is reasonable and shared, and I think we’re all gonna get somewhere where we’re nodding along with that and we’re asking good questions,” Walker said. “I think we’ll have more to discuss in a few months.”

Schneider said the goal was not to recoup any capital investment but simply to split the operational expenses more fairly, and Braudis offered to reach out to Alliant to get a more accurate picture of how much energy the 911 Commission is using.

“I think in the end, we can come to an agreement that may not be perfect dollar for dollar because things do fluctuate, but it’s something that we can agree upon that’s fair to all,” Heil said.

Neither the board nor the council took official action on either of the agenda items. Before they adjourned after just shy of an hour, Ladehoff brought up the possibility of sharing fireworks expenses for the Fourth of July, and Marshall County VA Director Kevin Huseboe’s request for additional handicapped parking in front of the annex building was briefly discussed.

When Heil asked for a show of hands on who would be interested in making the joint meetings quarterly going forward, everyone in attendance raised his or her hand.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.