Riverside council tables weapon resolution

    RIVERSIDE ? The Riverside City Council met Monday night and discussed a grant application from St. Mary?s Catholic Church. St. Mary?s applied for a $25,000 grant from the hotel/motel tax fund to go toward rebuilding St. Mary?s educational center, which is adjacent to the church. The councilors elected to table the resolution until they had a chance to ask City Attorney Les Lamping if the city could give funds to a church.

    The council also tabled a resolution to ban guns from city buildings and parks. City Administrator Tina Thomas said the council wants to wait a little while to see what happens at the state level on the issue.

    At the Dec. 20 meeting, the council passed the first reading of an ordinance to ban weapons from city-owned buildings and parks.

    At the council?s Jan. 4 meeting, Washington County Sheriff Jerry Dunbar spoke about the new ?shall carry? law that went into effect Jan. 1. The new law says a county sheriff ?shall? issue a gun permit a qualified person, which is different from the old law which said the sheriff ?may? issue a permit. Dunbar said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller advised against passing an ordinance that bans guns in public buildings because it may conflict with state law. The council decided to table the ordinance at its Jan. 4 meeting.

    The council also discussed the E911 Board and Communications Commission, both of which cover Washington County. The council voted to reimburse the mileage for the Riverside representatives on the two bodies. The reimbursement rate will be 51 cents per mile, which is the same as the federal rate. Terry Philips represents Riverside on the Communications Commission while Bill Halleran represents it on the E911 Board.

    The council also approved a contract with the Kalona Public Library. The contract, which the city of Riverside has had with the library for more than a decade, allows Riverside residents to use the Kalona Public Library. Not only that, but it allows the residents to use any city library in the state that takes part in the ?open access agreement.? This includes the city libraries in Washington, Iowa City and Coralville.

For the full story, see the Jan. 18 edition of The Washington Evening Journal