Due to the Christmas holiday falling on the fourth Monday of December, the Marshalltown city council met on Friday at noon for its final regular meeting of 2023 and moved through a light agenda relatively quickly, passing a trio of ordinance changes tied to recent discussions.

At long last, the third and final reading of the garbage ordinance change came up for review, and Public Works Director Heather Thomas did submit one additional update stipulating that garbage outside of approved containers cannot be picked up by licensed haulers. If haulers do pick the garbage up, they can charge extra for doing so, and households that “excessively violate” the section can be reported to the city via the hauler for possible enforcement action.

Thomas again stressed that the change doesn’t require anyone in Marshalltown to change the way their garbage is collected, but it will allow for curbside pickup since it was learned that Moler Sanitation was using an automated truck for some routes earlier this year.

“Again, this does not require anyone in Marshalltown to change what they’re doing today. It’s going to be up to the haulers whether they’ll do toters curbside in the future,” she said.

City Administrator Joe Gaa mentioned receiving a call from a resident who was upset about trash bags being required to be placed within containers to get picked up, and he noted that it wasn’t actually a change as it had already been the city ordinance in the past.

“What’s interesting (is that) most of the things that I have heard about this ordinance are already in the ordinance,” Gaa said.

He added that there are currently four licensed haulers within city limits, and while there have been conversations about a fifth company potentially applying for a license, nothing else has changed on that front. Councilor Gary Thompson, asking a question on behalf of a resident who emailed him, wondered when the changes would take effect, and City Clerk Alicia Hunter said it must be published in the newspaper after the final reading passes, which would likely happen sometime next week.

After seeking clarification on whether they would be voting on the amendment or the third reading, Councilor Jeff Schneider motioned to add in the amendment, and it was carried by a 6-1 vote with Al Hoop opposed. The third reading of the ordinance with the amendment then passed by a 5-2 tally, with Hoop and Thompson opposed.

From there, the council moved on to formalizing actions on a few changes regarding parking rules that have been discussed at previous meetings, including increasing the time limit for parking in city-owned lots from 12 hours to 72 hours. The other change to Chapter 72 was that leased parking stalls need to be in accordance with a lease agreement on file with the city.

With no discussion from the council or the public, the first reading passed unanimously, and Schneider then moved to waive second and third readings so it could take effect on a more expedited timeline. Thompson asked if the people who use the parking lots would be notified of the change, and Thomas responded that because it only allows more time to park in a spot, she didn’t feel it was necessary.

“We have no way to send letters out to know who parks there,” she said. “I think, when it comes to the next chapter where we talk about no parking, some of those restrictions, I think there’s gonna be some proactive efforts we can make by putting fliers underneath windshield wipers or something or other related to that change. But this change, in particular, I don’t think we were planning a communication effort.”

The motion to waive the second and third readings also passed unanimously. As Thomas alluded to, the council then moved to the first reading of amending a different chapter of the parking ordinance regarding schedules in city-owned lots both downtown and on 13th Street. The new ordinance will keep overnight parking prohibited at four lots — the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the library, the City Hall/Carnegie lot and the farmers market. The rest will go to parking restricted to allow for winter snow removal and parking lot maintenance on a notification basis.

“And that is where we talked about this concept of the sistering of lots. So when those notifications go out, you can park in a lot one night, and the next night you cannot and you have to park in the lot that’s sistered up with it,” she said.

In all, Thomas said there are about 1,500 total city-owned parking stalls downtown. With no council or public comments, the first reading of that change passed unanimously, and Schneider again subsequently moved to waive second and third readings. Before that vote, Thompson asked Thomas how long she would need to get notifications out to the people using the lots.

She said the city would do its best with proactive communication during the winter, but she didn’t anticipate doing much enforcement until signage has been placed. She expects the signs to be made in house.

The motion to waive subsequent readings passed 6-1 with Thompson opposed.

At the conclusion of the meeting, incumbents Hoop and Thompson and newcomer Mark Mitchell were sworn in for their upcoming terms, which begin on Jan. 1. Thompson will serve his second term, and Hoop, the longest serving current councilor, will start his fifth.

In other business, the council:

Recognized Casey Madison for five years of service to the streets department.

Approved the consent agenda as listed.

Approved a new Class C alcohol license for Mojitos by a 5-2 vote, with Thompson and Hoop opposed, after some discussion on the status of the license in relation to the owner of the adjacent hotel and the major health code violations that resulted in the restaurant temporarily being shut down last month.

“I will vote to approve this, but I think it should serve as a warning to other restaurants in town (that) while we want great restaurants, we also need upstanding citizens to be operating with liquor licenses,” Schneider said.

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

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com