Council starts over on ordinance space

    The Washington City Council was to vote on the third reading of an ordinance Wednesday night until it learned it will have to go through all the readings again. The ordinance before the council would have changed speed limit signs on Highway 92 on the east side of town, lowering the speed limit from 55 to 50 mph near Walmart but raising it from 30 to 35 mph east of Seventh Avenue.

    Councilman Fred Stark said that there was a problem when the council passed the first reading of the ordinance in late April. At that time, the council voted 3-1 to approve the ordinance, which sent the ordinance to a second reading. The council then approved the second reading of the ordinance in early May, which passed it to the third reading Wednesday. At Wednesday?s meeting, Stark objected that the first reading of the ordinance should not have passed because a majority of the full council, which is six members, did not approve the reading. The council would have needed four ?yes? votes to do that. 

    Stark said that he became aware of the law because he read it in his Iowa League of Cities Manual. He said that the council could not count the passage of the first or second readings and would have to start over with the first reading at the next meeting.

    City Attorney Craig Arbuckle agreed with Stark that the first reading should not have passed because a majority of the full council needs to vote in favor of a resolution or ordinance in order for either to pass. He said the council will hear the first reading of the ordinance at its next meeting.

    The vice president of Mercy Iowa City spoke at the meeting about building a new medical clinic for the company two blocks south of the current Mercy Medical Clinic, which is adjacent to the Washington County Hospital and Clinics. The new location will be on Iowa Avenue and just south of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. William Downing, an architect who helped design the plans for the new building, said that construction on the new facility is scheduled to begin July 1 and be completed in September of 2011.

    ?Mercy will have its family practice clinic in there, and will offer things like cardiology and orthopedics,? said Downing. ?It?s an extension of what they?re doing now. They hope to move from four doctors to potentially eight.?

    City Administrator Dave Plyman said that he was pleased to learn that the $4 million facility will be taxable.

    Another matter discussed at Wednesday?s meeting was the proposed development near Walmart on Highway 92. Greg Wiley is a developer who owns property both east and west of Walmart. Wiley said he is trying to sell four lots on Wiley Avenue west of Walmart along with two more lots east of Walmart. He told the council that the lots he owns east of Walmart do not have access to city water or sewer lines.

    Duane Musser is a landscape architect hired by Wiley, and Musser said that a few issues with the city need to be resolved before the lots east of Walmart can be developed. 

For the full story, see the May 20 edition of The Washington Evening Journal