The Minonk City Council agreed to buy two buildings located on West
10th Street from SMF for $135,000 at their Monday night meeting. One of
the building has offices in the front.
In another motion, the council also agreed to enter into an option with
SMF to exercise an option to purchase 3 buildings on North Chestnut
Street for $115,000.
City Administrator Trent Smith said to enter into
the option, the city will give SMF $1000 initially. If at any time during the
two years SMF has someone interested in those buildings, they would
then give the city the first right of refusal to purchase the property
for this price or whatever the offer. The city would have a period
of 30 days to purchase the property if so desired. This option gives
the City that first right.
Variance request approved
The City Council approved the
Zoning Board recommendation to approve an application from Ken Rogers
for a 7 foot side yard variance to construct a 30 foot by 36 foot
garage addition at 834 Maple Avenue. The normal variance is 10 feet.
Amendment to Zoning Code
The council approved an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance that would
allow a structure to be put on a lot that may exceed 60% of the size of
the primary structure on the lot as long as the total of all structures
do not exceed 10% of the total lot size.
City Administrator Trent Smith said that what brought this about was that a
particular lot was 70 to 80 feet wide and 350 feet deep. A typical R-1
Residential lot is 9000 square feet and this lot is over 27,000 square
feet. The owner of the lot has a small house on it which with the 60%
clause he would not be able to put any structures on it. It has a
garage on it now, but he wanted to bring in a small 12 by 20 foot shed
to store things way at the back of the lot. With the 60% clause he
would not have been able to do it. He was only covering about 6% of the
entire lot including that addition. Using common sense, the Zoning
Board recognized that the code be changed to allow situations like that
be deferred. The new ammendment reads as follows: “Notwithstanding
section 17.03.15 Maximum Building/Structure Coverage of this code, the
sixty (60) percent of the primary structure maximum size allowable for
the combination of all detached structures stated above shall be waived
if the total of all buildings and structures located on a lot do not
exceed ten (10) percent coverage of the total lot area.”
The council approved the ammendment with Alderman Petersen voting no.
City Administrator Comments
• Reported that the new
generator has been installed behind City Hall and will provide backup
power for our emergency services including power to the tornado warning
sirens.
• New carpeting for the library will be installed the week of
November 20th while the library is closed. The present carpet is over
20 years old and very much in need of replacing.
• The new water service to Durre Brothers Welding has been installed and is now in service.
Mayor's Comments
• Thanked everyone for their patience during the SMF purchase of property deal.
• Stated that the purchase of the SMF buildings is overhauling our
public service infrastructure (public works, police, and ambulance) and
gives us some breathing room that we have not had in the past. It will
allow for the storage of equipment inside and provide more room to do
training.
• Reminded the public to vote on Election Day (tomorrow) November 7, 2006.
• Reported that all of the donated trees by Gerdes Nursery are planted and again thanked him.