Loyal council approves building contract extension, refers items to utility committee

By Valorie Brecht At its last meeting, the Loyal Common Council voted to act on some matters that had been unresolved for some time, while sending other matters back to committee for further discussion.

For one, the council decided to give City View Estates property owners additional time to build. Back on Aug. 16, 2022, the city council approved Robert and Jackie Loos purchasing four lots along Bluebird Lane from the city for $18,000, with the condition that they had to complete the building within two years. According to city clerk Shannon Toufar, the Looses actually signed the contract on Sept. 21, 2022, so they had two years from that date to complete the building.

The Looses came back to the city council this summer asking for an extension on the project, as they had been delayed for various reasons. In closed session at their last meeting Aug. 20, the council agreed to extend the deadline to complete the building to July 1, 2025. After they returned to open session, they voted unanimously to that effect.

The council also briefly discussed allowing a holding tank for the new school concession stand.

“You cannot gravity-feed it to the nearest manhole,” said council member Tim Froeba. “I asked them to come back with the cost. They’re putting in bathrooms and looking to save money by putting in a holding tank. We’re waiting to hear back on the cost analysis.”

“What if we do it for the school and then someone else later on wants one?” asked council member Jenae Weyer.

They agreed to discuss the issue further in the utility committee meeting, Sept. 4 at 5:30 p.m.

Also at the meeting, council member Tom Bobrofsky reported that the police committee discussed golf carts, a dog limit and greenhouses, but no action was taken on any of those items. For greenhouses, the issue was brought up because a resident had a soft-sided shed that was not allowable under city ordinance.

“We will allow them to have it for the remainder of this year, but next year they can’t put it back up,” said Police Chief Matt Kubista. “It was nothing we felt we had to change the ordinances for.”

A report was given on fire and ambulance services. The fire department is hosting a junior firefighter program for students. The ambulance did 55 runs this year. Also, they received a $50,000 anonymous donation that could only be used for equipment. They opted to purchase a training mannequin for $22,000 that records the student’s hand pressure and even makes noises if CPR is not done correctly. They also plan to purchase a Raizer lift chair for $25,000.

The council also discussed allowing RVs in the trailer park. The trailer park owner recently sent a letter to Toufar requesting RVs be allowed in the park.

“My question is, what is a camper as opposed to an RV?” said Bobrofsky.

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“I know the idea is it would be for construction guys or traveling workers,” said council member Dave Geier.

“The only thing that red-flagged me was the word ‘campers’ in there, because it depends how you define it,” said Bobrofsky.

City officials brought up other questions as well.

“The only question I’d have is, he has a ‘minimum of three months.’ What if they want to become a permanent resident and stay for 10 years?” said Police Chief Matt Kubista. “We haven’t updated our ordinance or talked about it in a long time. That’d be something too if you drove in there, you might want to start looking at conditions. There are certain places, I’m not suggesting we should, but there are certain ones that say, so when you leave, you can’t bring anything older than 10 years or seven years old, rather than having some of them that have been here 28 years or longer. And they’re in rough shape.”

He said it depended on how much the city wanted to restrict RV use and whether they would allow hooking up the city water, etc.

Council member Curtiss Lindner said he would like to see what the city already has in writing on the topic. He felt there was more information needed to make a decision. “Can we tax an RV?” asked council member Tim Froeba. “No,” said Toufar.

“So the only advantage to the city would be, it would be people in town that would stop at our businesses,” said Froeba.

“I will say, it’s becoming an issue at the county level where people are literally selling their homes and living on county land,” said Lindner.

The council agreed to refer this matter to the Sept. 4 utility committee meeting as well.

In his report on the library, Bobrofsky said the air conditioning had gone out. The library committee received five bids and chose the lowest one, from House of Heating, for $5,356. The new unit was already installed and the cost split between the city and library. The library committee was asking for a motion by the council to officially approve the purchase.

“I will make that motion, with the caveat that in the future, can we please not have the work done until it’s approved?” said Lindner.

Library Director Teresa Hall said that was fine, but questioned the practicality if, for example, the furnace were to go out. She asked if the library would have to wait to get council approval before getting it repaired, being that it’s time-sensitive. She said the library committee had held an emergency meeting this past time.

“We can call an emergency meeting (as a council) too if we need to,” said Lindner. “Just let us know. We do the same thing at the county level if something comes up.”

Hall said she could do that.

“We just did what we did before, but we won’t in the future,” she said.

She also reported that the library had won a contest through Box of Books and received more than $1,000 of books for free. The books are mainly encyclopedic information such as on cats, dogs, sports and decades.

Lindner reported that the permit for the splash pad was approved, with construction planned for 2025.

The next full council meeting is scheduled for Sept. 17 at 6:30 p.m.