Riverside council year in review

The Riverside City Council experienced a number of changes this year. The most notable of those was the death of councilor Betty Kaalberg on May 4. The council filled Kaalberg?s seat by appointing Christine Kirkwood, who would go on to win a special election in August and who later won a seat on the council through a general election in November.

In 2011 the council was also concerned with issues such as whether to partially fund a church?s remodeling project and whether to give money to TrekFest. The city built a new trail in 2011, the Riverside Trail, and approved a plan to build a splashpad. The council had to tackle issues such as the departure of city administrator Tina Thomas and public works director Brad Herrig.

Kaalberg suffered a stroke in late April and was hospitalized. At the May 2 meeting of the council, the councilors hung a yellow ribbon on Kaalberg?s chair to show their support. When Kaalberg passed away two days later, the council was faced with replacing her by appointment or by special election. The council appointed Kirkwood. A citizens? petition called for a special election, which was held Aug. 2. Kirkwood won the election over Samuel Torrey and James Strabala.

Kirkwood was one of seven candidates to run for three open spots on the council for the general election. Kirkwood, Bob Schneider and Nate Kasdorf won the three seats. Former mayor Bill Poch defeated current mayor Brian McDole in the mayoral race.

The council discussed the issue of separation of church and state at its meeting Feb. 7. St. Mary?s Church applied for a $25,000 grant from the city?s hotel/motel tax fund to remodel its parish hall. Jim Rose, a member of St. Mary?s Parish Council, told the council that the grant would not fund ?spiritual? activities but instead would improve the Parish Hall as a community center for the public?s benefit.

Riverside City Attorney Les Lamping wrote to the council and advised it that the courts would likely find such state support of a church unconstitutional, in violation of the establishment clause in the First Amendment. The council voted 2-2 to give St. Mary?s the grant. Because a majority did not support the expenditure, the church did not receive the money.

One month later the council heard another request for a grant from the hotel/motel tax fund, this time from the Riverside Area Community Club for $6,000. The money would have gone to support events associated with TrekFest, the annual celebration with a Star Trek theme.

Members of RACC announced in March that if the group did not raise $10,000 by April 20, there could be no TrekFest. RACC was able to raise that amount of money and TrekFest was held June 24-25.

In early May, the city took council member Ralph Schnoebelen to court over alleged nuisance violations at his business. Magistrate Judge Daniel Kitchen ruled that Schnoebelen would have to pay a civil penalty of $100 and that he would have until Aug. 15 to clean up the pallets, barrels and scrap iron on his property.

Before a council meeting Oct. 3, members of the council, including Schnoebelen, walked around his business to review the progress on abating the alleged nuisances. Councilor Kevin Kiene motioned to continue the case against Schnoebelen but that motion died for lack of a second.