Council sets stage for downtown TIF

    The Washington City Council approved a motion to move forward with a development agreement with Jeremy Patterson to create a TIF district on North Iowa Avenue. The council voted 3-2 to provide Patterson $40,000 in an upfront grant, which would come out of future property taxes paid on the Mills Seed Building. Council members Fred Stark, Bob Shepherd and Merle Hagie voted for the motion while Mike Roth and Karen Wilson-Johnson voted against it. Councilman Russ Zieglowsky was absent from the meeting.

    After the meeting, Wilson-Johnson commented that she was comfortable with the original figure of $25,000 that City Administrator Dave Plyman presented to the council in January. 

    ?I?m not comfortable giving $40,000 when we haven?t discussed where we?re going to get the money,? said Wilson-Johnson.

    Roth declined to comment on the vote.

    The ordinance establishing the TIF district must go through three readings and a public hearing before it becomes law.

    A few residents who own property along the building?s route had a few issues with the move. Ira Wagner, who lives in the 400 block of Third Street, said that neither the building?s owner nor a city official had informed him of the move.

    ?I talked to some people at Alliant Energy and it happens that two feet south of the street there are utility poles that feed the whole eastern half of Washington,? said Wagner. ?They told me they would not be removed for this building move. I?d like to know exactly how this building is going to go down East Third because if it?s going in my yard I?m going to protest.?

    Wagner said he was also worried about the possibility that Patterson would remove trees on his property in order to make room for the building. Patterson told the council that there is a chance he may have to remove trees in the parking, which is owned by the city, and if he does he will replace all of them in the spring. He said that he will not have to cut down any trees that are on private property.

    In other news, the council heard a formal request from Washington High School Principal Shane Ehresman to close Sitler Drive.

The council voted 4-1 to move their meeting time from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. Stark cast the only no vote.

For the full article, see our Feb. 18 print edition.