RIVERSIDE

The City Hall chambers on North Greene Street might be in for a renovation.

Or a complete move.

City Council members discussed the possibilities at its regularly scheduled meeting July 5 held in the chambers, which has encountered moisture problems and still is absent of interior walls due to ongoing work.

The council is considering upgrading its video and sound system so that videos of meetings have a higher quality online and also whether to do a high-cost renovation of the entire room itself.

“Do you spend money to renovate this, do we need it, or leave it and just put it back to where it was?” asked Council Person Tom Sexton, who served as mayor pro-tem during the meeting in place of mayor Allen Schneider, who was absent.

“To redo this whole thing is going to cost us quite a bit versus just fixing it,” said Council Person Edgar McGuire. “I’d rather invest more money into making sure that our sound system and video camera and that recording stuff is top notch. We can move that to a new building.”

“Don’t spend a whole bunch of money in here,” said Council Person Kevin Mills.

One option the council is considering is moving City Hall Chambers to a community center that has been proposed but not yet acted on.

The council set a public hearing of July 18 for a rezoning request on a property located on Commercial Drive. Scott Kerkhoff of Midwest Surplus has a purchase agreement with the city for the property, on which he is requesting a rezoning (C-3 to C-2) so that outdoor storage is approved. His company decommissions buildings for AT&T and Verizon, resulting in the storage of communication units. The project received a verbal consensus from members of the Riverside Planning & Zoning Commission.

The council approved payments of $165,989.86 to All American Concrete of West Liberty for work done on the Railroad Park improvement project and $8,000 to Copper Creek Ridge, a wedding and event venue in Riverside, as part of a development agreement.

Brian Boelk, a civil engineer with Axiom Consultants of Iowa City, provided an update on the Third Street water main project and other work. Project construction alongside Highway 22 will result in a lane closure of the highway, beginning July 18 and lasting about two weeks, Boelk said. Temporary traffic lights are scheduled to be installed on Highway 22.

“Things are really starting to move along,” Boelk said.

Most of the work on Railroad Park improvements is completed, but reseeding in the rain garden will wait until mid-August, Boelk said.

After going into closed session, the council hired Drake Hotz as a full-time public works maintenance worker, at the pay rate of $20 per hour.

At a special meeting held June 27, the city council went into closed session to conduct annual reviews of City Administrator Christine Yancey, City Clerk Becky LaRoche and Bryan Lenz, Parks and Streets.

Yancey’s annual salary was increased to $80,233.24, per a 4-1 vote. Pay increases for LaRoche ($24.50 per hour), Lenz ($23.50 per hour) and Don Mullinnix ($15 per hour) were approved per a 4-1 vote.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the City Council will be Monday, July 18 at 6 p.m. at City Hall.