The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
The Oquawka Village Board held its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, March 5th, and present were Trustees Don Rice, Brock Miller, Tammy Bundy, Troy Jern, Scott Ray, Shawn Hurt; Village President Lori Lipes; Village Attorney Andy Youngquist; Village Clerk Callie Thacker; and Village Water Clerk Carey Thacker.
Resident Barry McClintock addressed the board to follow up on an issue involving people having permanent RV campsites in the Village. Barry explained he has addressed the board on this issue in the past and had submitted a written ordinance for them to consider banning permanent campsites.
Barry asked if the board has made any progress on the issue since he had last addressed the board a few months prior. Lipes responded by saying the campers have been there a long time.
McClintock stated the campers don’t comply with a single Village ordinance.
Barry stated the Village has an enforcement officer that is supposed to be enforcing the ordinances and asked Zoning Officer John Newton if he was the enforcement officer. Newton replied he was the Zoning Officer.
Bundy asked McClintock to address his comments to the board. McClintock answered Bundy by saying the Zoning Officer is supposed to enforce these ordinances and he has the ability to implement fines of up to $200 per day.
McClintock reiterated there is not a single thing in the ordinance that allows a camper to be permanent. He went on to say campers are using plastic tanks for their sewer and are not hooked up to state approved sewer systems.
Rice asked if McClintock knew for sure that they were hooked up to plastic tanks. McClintock answered by saying you could see the tanks.
Rice then asked if McClintock had a permit for some construction that had been done on his own property.
McClintock said he did not, and he wasn’t there to talk about that, but was there to talk about permanent campsites. Rice told McClintock maybe he should come to the board with “clean hands”. Miller stated he had a camper in his yard.
McClintock said you can have a camper, but you can’t have it hooked up and you can’t live in it.
McClintock stated he was frustrated the city won’t enforce its own ordinances. He went on to say the Village didn’t need to make new ordinances, they just need to enforce the ones they already have.
McClintock explained he has a rental property that is across the street from a property that looks like it is set up to have a couple campsites and his tenant doesn’t want to live next to campers and people sitting outside at picnic tables and having fires at night. He explained his tenant has to get up for work in the morning.
McClintock went on to say he didn’t think it was fair and the Village wasn’t getting taxes on campsites.
He stated the lot across the street from his rental pays $105 per year in taxes for the lot with the campsites. He said it’s a business model in Oquawka to have a camper and install permanent power and water to it and then rent it out. He said he didn’t think that was intended to go on in a residential neighborhood.
Bundy asked if the property owners across from his rental have had any campers there yet.
McClintock answered by saying there have been no campers there yet but there is power and there is water, and he didn’t think they put those utilities there just to run a sprinkler system.
Carey Thacker informed the board they have been training on the new water billing software and that it should be live in about a month. Thacker went on to say she felt it was going to be a much better system for them and for the customers.
Lipes stated the Citizen of the Year plaque had been updated to include Cathy Rima Andersen’s name and that more donations for Citizen of the Year had come in. Two from anonymous donors and one from the Muddy Cup.
Lipes also said she thought the swimming pool would be open Memorial Day weekend.
Streets Supervisor Jeff Peterson stated in his report that they replaced a fire hydrant that had been hit by a car at the intersection of 5th and Clay streets.
Jern asked if they were still considering buying a new truck for the Village Streets Department. Rice stated he has been saying for 6 months that when the water project gets going, the workers were going to need an extra truck because they are going to be spread out with normal duties while also dealing with the water project contractor. Rice said every time he brings it up it just seems to be forgotten about. Different types of vehicles were discussed, both new and used.
Lipes said she felt they need to pre-approve a dollar amount for the purchase in order to speed up the process. After more discussion of pricing and the process of purchasing a vehicle, the issue was tabled until the next work session meeting.
It was noted that the first phase of the water project could possibly start as early as April 1st with the second phase possibly beginning in August.
Lipes stated Greg from Test Company, a company that assists in testing the Villages water, asked Lipes to tell the maintenance workers, that while replacing the broken hydrant that had been hit by a car, they did a great job and did it quickly and that they are a “heck of a crew”.
During his report, Oquawka Police Chief Tim Edwards stated 2 vehicles had been towed and one was in the process of seizure.
After a discussion about illegal parking on Schuyler Street, it was decided that if Edwards sees an illegally parked vehicle, he will issue a verbal warning for 1st offense, a citation for 2nd offense, and the vehicle would be towed on the 3rd offense.
After a discussion about fireworks around the 4th of July, it was decided the police will get involved if there is a complaint or damage.
Lipes stated she had talked with a boat mechanic about coming to the harbor to see if he could help fix the motor on the houseboat that has been docked there since mid-December. I offered to tow the boat to Bluff Harbor Marina at no charge, in order for the owner to get his boat fixed there. It was decided that if the mechanic couldn’t be there within a few days, then we would set up a time to tow him to Burlington, IA.
Mike Cook will remain the baseball commissioner.
After some discussion, Jern made a motion to pay the Pool Manager $16/hour, Assistant Manager $15/hour and lifeguards $14/hour, seconded by Miller. All members voted yes. Motion passed.
Oquawka's Community Wide Yard Sales will be May 17-19.
City Wide Clean Up will be May 25.
The meeting was adjourned.
Jeff Tee
River Rat News
“Just the Facts, Ma’am”