T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Two weeks after his neighbor Monte Eaton received council approval to sever his property from the city limits, Max Moldmann, who resides at 102 College View Lane, had his request to do the same granted by a 4-3 vote during Monday night’s Marshalltown city council meeting.

Two weeks after voting 5-2 to grant a severance request from Monte Eaton for his property on the southern edge of town past the MCC campus, the Marshalltown city council — by a slightly tighter margin at 4-3 — approved a similar request from Eaton’s neighbor Max Moldmann, who resides at 102 College View Lane.

Public Works Director Heather Thomas noted that the 6.74 acre parcel is assessed at $556,320 before opening up the matter for further discussion. Moldmann recalled Eaton’s comments from the previous meeting about the 55-year history of his property and its annexation into the city, and he also responded to a comment made during the prior meeting about the severance potentially setting a bad precedent.

“I think these two properties are the most unusual cases within the city limits, and in fact, I believe it would set a good and right precedent by showing everyone that the city was correcting things that were wrong and making them right,” Moldmann said.

With no further public or council comments, a motion to grant the severance passed 4-3 with Councilors Gary Thompson, Al Hoop, Mark Mitchell and Greg Nichols in favor and Councilors Barry Kell, Mike Ladehoff and Jeff Schneider opposed.

As explained during the last meeting, Moldmann’s parcel is surrounded entirely by properties outside of city limits except for the MCC campus to the north. After handling that business, the council moved onto another resolution to allot $15,000 in Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) funds for stair and masonry repairs at city hall and the Carnegie building.

“I think we should move ahead with all of these,” Schneider said. “We need to take good care of our buildings and especially with a safety issue, take care of that. If we let these windowsills languor, they’ll just get worse too. I say we proceed with everything.”

With no public comments, the resolution passed by a unanimous vote. The council then proceeded, in rapid fire order, to approve the sale of five vacant city-owned lots after brief public hearings: 310 N. 5th St. to David Heddens for $1,550; 102 N. 22nd St. to Dan Oswald for $2,001; 107 E. Lincoln St. to Councilor Thompson, who abstained from voting on the resolution due to a conflict of interest, for $1,510; 719 N. 4th Ave. to Lavern Wickam for $5,025; and 901 N. 5th Ave. to Oswald for $3,000.

In other business, the council:

• Approved the second reading of an ordinance change to increase the stormwater rate from $4 to $4.20 per ERU.

• After pulling it from the consent agenda, voted 5-2 to approve an amendment to the agreement with Bolton and Menk for the design of the 6th Street trailhead by a 5-2 vote, with Thompson and Mitchell opposed.

• Approved the remainder of the consent agenda as listed by a unanimous vote.

• Recognized Sandy Gowdy for five years of service to the library and Lance Greazel for 30 years with the Water Pollution Control Plant.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.