The Jefferson City Council met Tuesday night in regular session.
The Council approved two development agreements following the public hearings. One agreement is with Mark Bauer Development Company for 80 percent of tax increment financing, over seven years, not to exceed $900,000 for the housing lots at Lincoln Ridge Estates. The other agreement is with Tri-County Cash Lumber Mart for 100 percent tax increment financing, over seven years, not to exceed $600,000 for the lots at Briarwood Subdivision.
The Council also approved Greene County Development Corporation’s quarterly funding request, hiring Ethan Woodruff as a seasonal general service worker at $11 per hour from May 23rd to the fall, a resolution in support to continue the Jefferson Matters: Main Street program and contribute $15,000 as a financial commitment and gave authorization to work with GCDC and possibly the Greene County Board of Supervisors to conduct a housing assessment.
The Council also heard a tourism update with Angie Pedersen and Deb McGinn. They talked about the importance of bicycle tourism and how to attract those visitors to Jefferson as a way to increase local tourism.
A presentation was made to the Council from Iowa Department of Natural Resources District Forester Jason Walker about the urban forest management plan. His report included 1,731 trees inventoried in the City’s right-of-way. Of those trees, he recommended removing 32 as an immediate need, but that only five of those were ash trees. 15 percent of the total trees in the study were ash and Walker gave suggestions and recommendation about how to proceed to eventually cut all of those trees down when the Emerald Ash Broer is found in the county. The Council took no formal action on the topic.
During the reports, Councilperson Lisa Jaskey said that GCDC has proposed taking over the Welcome Center project and requested the money that was in the second tier of the City’s hotel/motel criteria been given to them to offset the debt cost for finishing the building. No final decision has been made.