Public invited to ‘Coffee with the City Administrator’ Friday in Fairfield

FAIRFIELD — The public is invited to share their thoughts about city government with Fairfield’s City Administrator Aaron Kooiker Friday morning.

Kooiker will host “Coffee with the City Administrator” from 9-10 a.m. that day at Café Paradiso in Fairfield. Kooiker said this will be the first time he has hosted an event of this type. The Fairfield Police Department has hosted similar events before, where it has invited the public to join officers over cups of coffee while talking about their concerns.

Kooiker said he got the idea to hold a coffee hour with the public after visiting a friend who is a city administrator in Georgia.

“I thought it was a great idea,” he said. “I want to listen to people to get their ideas, and possibly take those ideas to the city council. I think it’s important to do this in a casual setting. I’ll be there with a cup of coffee, and we can talk about whatever.”

Kooiker said he has been busy lately with a number of new projects, such as making plans for the construction of a new fire station at the corner of West Briggs Avenue and North Fourth Street. In March, the city’s voters approved bonding up to $5 million to build a new fire station. In the months since, city staff and the city council have been working with the architectural firm Klingner & Associates to create a more detailed floor plan of the building, which has not been finalized.

The new station will be 19,000 square feet, and have enough space to accommodate all the department’s vehicles, which cannot fit in the current station on North Second Street.

Kooiker said he has also spent a lot of time working with the city’s new code compliance officer, Weston McKee, who was hired in June. The city council approved making the code compliance officer a full-time position this year. The city’s previous code compliance officer was Scott Vaughan, who did the job part-time because he was also the city’s fire chief, but he stepped down in March.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com