OTTUMWA — The majority of councilmen agreed that trees should be prohibited from every right-of-way, with no room for consideration.

At Monday night’s City Council work session, the council and mayor discussed a proposed ordinance that would amend city code to prohibit private property owners from planting trees in the city right-of-way.

The suggested ordinance puts the city at no obligation to commit to a specific tree replacement program, said City Attorney Joni Keith.

“I tried to keep that part very vague so you could do all kinds of different programs,” Keith said.

Mayor Frank Flanders said the ordinance simply sets policy that the city will work with residents to get their trees replaced in the non-city right-of-way.

“Programs come and go, but the policy is to work with programs that do exist; that’s the intent of this ordinance,” Flanders said.

Councilman Mitch Niner said the ordinance should be straight-forward: No trees allowed in the city right-of-way.

The proposed ordinance suggested that on a limited basis, the Parks Department could give written consent to plant in the right-of-way, which “would be beneficial for the downtown area and those areas where the right-of-way is extensive, leaving limited private yardage for trees and shrubs.”

“I don’t think it should be worded in such a way that a certain person could ask for a tree and get granted one when somebody else doesn’t,” Niner said. “You’re opening up a can of worms.”

City Administrator Joe Helfenberger suggested that there are some residences with unusually large right-of-ways, where it extends all the way up to the house.

Councilman Brian Morgan noted the damage tree roots can do to sewer and water lines.

Keith said when she originally wrote the ordinance, it was worded to prohibit trees from every right-of-way, but Park Maintenance Supervisor Chris Cobler asked her to reconsider.

“His view was we have the downtown where we like to put bushes, shrubbery, trees in those areas, and the ordinance [as it was written] would limit us there,” Keith said.

Morgan noted the “downtown area” would have to be clearly defined and suggested instead that it be switched to “commercial districts.”

Morgan, Niner and Councilman Bob Meyers agreed there should be a simple statement of no trees in the right-of-way, while Councilman Jeremy Weller agreed that Parks and Public Works could determine where a tree could be planted when necessary.

“I like the idea of the parks and public works directors being able to approve, I don’t have a problem with that,” Weller said. “In reality, that’s what we’re doing as a council, is five people telling everyone that they can’t plant trees.”

Niner disagreed.

“It still boils down to me that there would be two people who say who gets to have trees in their right-of-way and who doesn’t,” Niner said.

Parks Director Gene Rathje said he has found a few projects that could help replace trees on private property, including Operation ReLeaf and Branching Out through Alliant Energy, and Trees Please! through MidAmerican Energy.

Operation ReLeaf allows private property owners to apply for a maximum of two trees per year, at $25 a piece, which would help them replant behind the city right-of-way.

Rathje suggested that The Beach Ottumwa be the drop-off and pickup point for the trees. Rathje said a resident would send in their application to Alliant, then Alliant would deliver the trees to The Beach, where the resident would pick it up.

“There is no cost to the city other than providing the drop site,” Rathje said.

Niner suggested that any resident affected by the sewer separation project should be given notice that the program is available.



Council agrees OPD needs to change radio frequencies for better communication

Police Chief Jim Clark presented to the council the OPD’s Interoperable Communication Project, which would switch the department’s current UHF radio frequency to VHF, which is used by all other area public safety agencies.

“We do need to do narrowbanding by the end of the year, but it’s going to degrade our signal considerably and is frankly going to make it, in certain parts of town, dangerous for officers with no communication whatsoever,” Clark said. “In a critical incident, they won’t be able to communicate with each other, let alone other agencies.”

Clark said the OPD began using UHF 35 to 40 years ago, before he came on the department.

Finance Director Bob Jay, a former police officer, said officers had to communicate via the scanner system in their cars.

“We have to do narrowband, which is going to degrade our signal more than it is now, so now would be the time to change the whole radio system we use,” Clark said.

Clark said he now has two-thirds of the nearly $200,000 necessary, with nearly $60,000 left to be funded by the city. He suggested that remainder be figured into the 2013 CIP program.

“It isn’t something that just came up in the last couple months,” Weller, a jail administrator, said. “UHF does not give a good coverage map. When it narrowbands, it will cut it even worse. I hate to bring this scenario up, but we had an officer attacked by three to four gang members on the west end of town. Had he been two to three blocks further west, he may not have been able to get out at all.”

Clark said there have been several incidents where OPD has gone to assist area agencies and had no communication with them in critical situations, such as shootings.



Finance director explains importance of LOST

Jay spoke to the council to try to quash worries he’s heard throughout the community about the use of Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) funds.

Prior to 2004, LOST monies were used to fund the law enforcement center, and have since been used to pay off Bridge View Center bonds and to fund street repairs and the sewer separation project.

“The thing people need to understand ... is if this doesn’t pass, you’re going to have tremendously higher sewer bills,” Niner said.

The Expanded Street Repair Program is an absolute necessity, Jay said, and without LOST, the city would not have the money to go through and repair streets as it currently does.

“We realize the streets need to be worked on,” Jay said. “Our two big priorities here are streets and sewers.”

When the council decided to raise sewer rates this winter — choosing the lowest increase possible — it was calculated using the projection that LOST would be approved this November.

“Theoretically, if everything goes well, we could use LOST to basically cash flow a lot of these projects coming up and thereby not have to pay any interest,” Jay said. “There has been over $5 million in interest and fees we have paid and will be paying.”

Meyers noted that because Ottumwa is a regional hub, many out-of-towners shopping here help pay for street and sewer repairs through LOST.

Councilman J.R. Richards was not at the work session.