The Oskaloosa City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday night, and the Fire Department Renovation and Re-bid was front and center on the agenda.
The project was described in full two weeks ago in a study session by the architects who put the plan together from Rohrbach Associates. They went back through the plan Monday night and said that a decision needed to be made regarding the issue so they could go forward with their plan on time.
The council kicked around the issue, which was mainly centered around the roof. The city-wide vote prior to the beginning of the project allotted 3.195 million dollars for the addition and renovation, but did not promise any specific features with the plan.
Council Member Jason Van Zetten made a motion to send the project back to the voters, because the single sloped roof that was proposed to save money was too different from the models that the voters were shown in the meetings held about the project. Van Zetten was joined in support by Aaron Ver Steeg, who had the same concerns. This motion failed due to the remaining four council members voting against that.
The architects explained that if the project went back to the voters, the timeline would be compromised, and the building wouldn’t be ready to bid until after the February date. This would also affect the total cost for the project.
Council member Scottie Moore followed that by putting in a motion to have a single sloped roof in place and for the architects to move forward. That passed on a 4-2 vote, with Van Zetten and Ver Steeg against. Council member Joe Caligiuri was absent from the meeting.
Rohrbach Associates will be back with more information as they prepare the project for bids in February.
The other major issue in the meeting was a presentation from Oskaloosa Main Street regarding a market study.
The findings included reports from several area business and citizens regarding their opinions and daily habits downtown. This found that there are plenty of ways that Oskaloosa can grow and provide new and exciting ways to incorporate new business and housing in the downtown area.
The next scheduled meeting of the Oskaloosa City Council will be held on Monday, November 2nd, at 6 PM at City Hall.
