Sitler Drive becomes one-way

The Washington City Council passed the third and final reading of an ordinance Wednesday to make Sitler Drive a one-way street going west. The street will be one way from South Iowa Avenue to South Avenue B. There will be no-parking signs on both sides of Sitler Drive from South Iowa Avenue to South Avenue E, both sides of South Avenue E from West Tyler Street to Sitler Drive and on both sides of West Tyler Street from South Avenue E to 70 feet east of the centerline of South Avenue E.

Washington Schools Superintendent Mike Jorgensen said the school district requested the city convert Sitler Drive into a one-way street for safety reasons.

?My biggest concern was the intersection of Sitler and Iowa,? he said. ?The visibility for the traffic at the stop sign on Sitler is very poor, and I was concerned about students pulling out into oncoming traffic. We can avoid that if Sitler is one way going the other direction.?

Jorgensen said Sitler Drive is rarely used now except for baseball and softball games. He said the change was prompted by the new high school, which may increase traffic on Sitler.

He said the addition of the softball field south of Sitler increased traffic on the street, and he could see the problems caused by the narrowness of the street.

?We didn?t have the parking lot ready and so there was quite a bit of parking along Sitler,? he said. ?That was not a good situation.?

There will be a parking lot west of the new high school and parking spaces to the south and east.

?That parking lot will be just under 500 spaces,? Jorgensen said. ?With the exception of a few events, it should be adequate parking. It might be a tight fit for graduation.?

In other news, the council received its audit, which was done by CPA Associates PC of Burlington. Kim Hunsaker of CPA Associates PC presented the findings of the audit to the council. Hunsaker said that one of the things the city should work on is segregating duties so that multiple people are involved in a transaction. She said that is often difficult for small towns with few city staffers.

Hinson said he was making progress on that front. He said he and city clerk Illa Earnest now sign payroll checks instead of city accountant Joe Myers, who is responsible for preparing payroll and who until recently was also signing the checks.

Hunsaker said the city might have a problem with its utility billing. She said she looked at only 13 accounts but of those three had billing errors. She did not know the nature of the error and whether they related to overcharges or undercharges.

She said the council has three areas in its budget where the expenditures exceeded the budget. She also found an instance of a city spending money on a contract where there was not a competitive bidding process. She said that was not necessarily a conflict of interest but that it could be construed that way.

Hinson said the audit showed that the city has room for improvement on handling its finances.

?We will always have some comments, but this is a lot more comments than I?m comfortable with,? he said.

Hinson said he has received the budgets from the department heads and that they are all reasonable. He said he would talk more about the budget at the next couple of meetings.

?We?re going to see a sensible budget that is going to put us in a lot better financial shape,? he said. ?I?m working on the fund balances now. We?re going to come close to bringing the general fund out of deficit, and all other funds will be out of deficit. The water and sanitation funds will be fixed as well.?

Councilor Bob Shepherd said that even though the council got bad news at its Jan. 11 meeting, when it learned of the extent of its debt, he had a good feeling knowing that the situation was going to be under control.

?I felt comfortable at the end of the last meeting because of the work Brent has done,? he said.

Councilor Fred Stark said, ?On the positive side, if you [Hinson] get this all done you could become the city manager of the year.?

?I just want to help the city,? Hinson responded. ?It?s not for any personal glory.?

The council will also install three street lights on East Washington Street between the Airport Road and Wiley Avenue. Councilor Merlin Hagie said the new lights will have 250-watt fixtures. He recommended the lights be installed in order to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists who use East Washington Street.