Kalona discusses possible 28E sharing agreement with Wellman

KALONA - The City of Kalona discussed entering into a 28E agreement with the City of Wellman for the sharing of their street sweeper. Under this agreement, Wellman city employees could potentially use the City of Kalona's street sweeper on their streets for a set fee.

'It's basically a sharing agreement that does have some financial benchmarks on it,” explained Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh. He explained the reason for City of Wellman employees using the equipment is that it leaves City of Kalona workers in the area.

'Right now, if we go over and do their streets, there's a charge, but we lose staff,” he said. 'So what's being proposed, is they would be trained on our piece of equipment, they would transport it, it would be $650 per day, or per usage.”

Schlabaugh said Wellman estimates they will use the equipment April through October approximately twice a month. The scheduling would be worked out between both city staffs to ensure both towns are clean.

Matt Jacoby, with Kalona Public Works, said the plan for training is to have Wellman staff operators come over one-by-one to train on the equipment. The City of Wellman employee will drive the vehicle with a City of Kalona staff member in the front seat, effectively teaching them how to work the machine and cleaning the streets of Kalona at the same time.

'Instead of us going over there to them, and training them on their own town, we can get ours caught up (and) train them at the same time,” he said. 'The main thing is having them come to us and train here on our town, where we're comfortable before taking it over there.”

At this time, there is no plan to enter into an agreement for any additional equipment. Jacoby explained to the council that he felt comfortable with the agreement and felt it was the neighborly thing to do.

'It's a neighboring town and it's a good gesture. If they need some help, we can help them out and we go over, we help them out,” he said.

Schlabaugh said the Wellman City Council approved the terms of the possible agreement and a draft of the agreement will be written up soon.

The next meeting of the Kalona City Council will be Monday, May 20, at 7 p.m. in the Kalona Community Center.