The Oskaloosa City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday night, and it was very routine in nature.

The meeting was preceded by a study session, which included a review and discussion of the redesign efforts for the Oskaloosa Fire Station. The Council received information on the specifics of the new design and the changes that will be made. This is leading up to the bidding process, which will take place in early February for the project.

Also in the study session, the Council reviewed Oskaloosa’s Hazard Mitigation Plan. Bradley J. Grefe, Regional Planner of the Area 15 Regional Planning Commission, went through the updates that were made to the plan with new goals. The adjustments were made to the previously updated plan, which was drafted in 2010.

In the regular meeting, there were just a few items, and one of them included levying a special assessment against private property for cutting and removal of weeds, which were defined by the city code. One landowner contested his fines in the public hearing on the matter, stating that he had not received a full week to take care of the weed issue himself.

The Oskaloosa City Code states that the landowner should have a full week of notification before the city takes care of the weeds. In this particular instance, the weeds were cut by the city on the same day that the notice was issued.

This led to the fines being lifted by the council, and the landowner only had to pay the $50 rate for the actual labor from the city staff. The Council discussed the issue and will take a look at how to adjust the code to make the same rules across the board for all of these types of citations within the city.

The Council will next meet for a study session on Monday, November 9th. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Oskaloosa City Council is slated for Monday, November 16th, at 6 PM in the Council Chambers of City Hall.