Council approves parades, talks public safety

The Fairfield City Council approved a pair of parades during its meeting Tuesday night at city hall.

The first was the Greater Jefferson County Fair Parade, which will start at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 25 during the week of the Greater Jefferson County Fair. As usual, the parade will start at Fairfield High School and proceed west on Broadway Avenue before turning north on North Main Street and then returning to the high school.

The second parade was for Kiwanis Kids' Day on Saturday, Sept. 17, which will follow a similar route from the high school to Central Park. The council approved Kiwanis's request to block off some parking around the square and to use Central Park for the pedal pull and other activities that day. The theme of this year's Kids' Day is 'Honoring the past, envisioning the future.” Floats in the parade will be decorated according to the theme.

The council set a public hearing for 7 p.m. June 10 on replacing a water main at North Eighth Street and Stone Avenue.

Gear and Kelp intersection

At this most recent council meeting and the one before on May 13, councilor Michael Halley addressed the board about a couple of issues the public safety and transportation committee has been working on. One of those is the intersection of Gear Avenue and 18th Street (where 18th Street becomes Kelp Avenue). The intersection witnessed four vehicle crashes in 2016, and 1-2 crashes per year since.

Residents present at the May 13 public safety committee where this was discussed mentioned that the crashes tended to arise from the north-south drivers on 18th/Kelp striking vehicles on Gear. Vehicles on Gear do not have a stop sign at that intersection but the north-south traffic does.

City Engineer Melanie Carlson found evidence that more traffic travels north-south along 18th/Kelp than along Gear. Halley wrote in his report to the council that in similar situations, it's common to switch the stop signs to the less traveled road, which would mean making Gear traffic stop but not 18th/Kelp traffic.

Another idea is to change the intersection to a four-way stop. Halley mentioned that any changes to the north side of Gear would need to be approved by the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors since that portion of the road is in its jurisdiction.

At the May 13 council meeting, Halley said the accidents do not appear to be caused by line-of-sight problems, but rather by motorists in a hurry to beat cross traffic. Mayor Ed Malloy suggested that perhaps the motorists on 18th/Kelp did not see the stop sign, and asked if the city should put flashing lights around the perimeter of the sign to attract drivers' attention.

'I'm not sure if drivers are not seeing the stop signs or simply choosing to roll through them,” Halley responded.

The city will add reflective tape to the stop sign on 18th Street, and an additional sign below it reading 'cross traffic does not stop.” The county has agreed to do the same thing to its stop sign on Kelp Avenue.

The public safety and transportation committee plans to look at other ways of increasing safety at that intersection.

Bicycle ordinance

The other piece of business the public safety committee took up was a series of proposed amendments to the city's bicycle ordinance. Local cyclists Greg Titus and Jim Freeman presented a list of recommended amendments to the ordinance, which sought to modernize city code, maximize rider safety and hold both riders and drivers accountable to safety standards. In particular, it requires motorists to move into the other lane when passing a cyclist. The council hopes to have the new ordinance in place by RAGBRAI's overnight stop on July 25.

City attorney retainer

The council approved increasing the retainer for the city attorney from $3,300 per month to $4,900 per month. A retainer is a fee paid to an attorney in advance. City Administrator Aaron Kooiker said the city wants to increase the workload City Attorney John Morrissey is performing.

Morrissey told the council he is about to hire an attorney who will dedicate 10 hours to city business per month. Kooiker said this is on top of the 22-25 hours Morrissey is doing for the city on a monthly basis now.

Kooiker said the city wants to more aggressively enforce its nuisance ordinance, and it wants to file legal paperwork (such as property easements) in a more timely manner, the two main reasons for giving the city attorney's office more work.

'We want to ensure that properties in town are maintained and do not fall into disrepair,” Kooiker said. 'That has been a problem. A number of rental properties and homes have been purchased in town, and then the buyers don't maintain them.”