2012 Council Meetings Summaries Jan- Mar.

Since there really isn't regular media coverage of University Heights council meetings, in January 2012, I started sending brief summaries to anyone who wanted them. Here are those summaries from 2012. I'll continue to also publish 2013 updates here also.  Anyone who wishes to receive these as an email may do so by sending a request to me at mikehaverkamp1960@gmail.com

January 2012

Fellow residents,

The U-H city council held its first meeting of the year last night. Members were sworn in at our orientation earlier in the evening. Mayor Louise From announced city department assignments:

Finance- Jim Lane
Building/Zoning/Sanitation- Brennan McGrath
Streets & Sidewalks- Jan Leff
Community Protection- Rosanne Hopson, chair, Mike Haverkamp, member
eGovernment- Mike Haverkamp

In business we voted to uphold the city housing inspector's decision regarding over occupancy of a rental house. Brennan McGrath made a motion that the landlord would face the over occupancy fine if the house is over occupied after Tuesday, January 17th. Jim Lane made an amendment to allow the extra tenants until February 1st to relocate, which I supported, but that was defeated on a 3-2 vote. We did then both vote to uphold the main motion which passed 5-0.

Brief tidbits:

Thursday Jan. 12th from 5:30 to 7:30 will be the Horn Elementary Dance Marathon Fundraiser. The theme is "Hoedown" Food will be served and fun will be had! All residents are welcome to stop by.

Did you miss getting your Christmas tree put out on the curb the last two weeks? Johnson County Refuse WILL pick up any trees next Tuesday, January 17th.

The council's next regular meeting will be on Feb. 14th. At that meeting we will be discussing the 2013 Fiscal Year budget, despite the date it will be important! By state law we must pass our budget and submit it to the state by March 15th.

I will send an email in the coming weeks once the city website updates are completed. If you have suggestions for information to include on the page, please let me know.

The video stream of last night's meeting will soon be available online as well as rebroadcast on cable TV. I'll include those dates when they are known.
Sincerely,
-Mike Haverkamp
315 Golfview Ave.

February 2012

Fellow U-Heights residents,

City Council had their regular February meeting last night at Horn Elementary. Here are a few highlights:

FY13 Budget- Council began the process of setting the 2013 budget. By statute we must have a final budget approved by March 15, 2012. The budget year begins July 1, 2012. There will be a public hearing on the 2012 budget at 7:00 PM Tuesday March 13, 2012 in Fellowship Hall of the St. Andrew Church. To see preliminary budget proposals go to the U-Heights Finance Committee webpage. The budget listed there will be updated in the next few days to reflect last night’s discussions.

http://university-heights.org/Finance/index.html

Sunset Street wide sidewalk- We received the initial plans for the Sunset wide sidewalk but didn’t go into any detail at the meeting due to a motion being proposed that would terminate the project. After discussion that motion was pulled in favor of a motion stating the council would suspend current progress on the project. That motion passed. Council also directed the Mayor to schedule a public information session so that sidewalk plans could be presented to interested residents. That meeting should be scheduled sometime in the next 6 weeks. Notice will be published on the U-Heights website. I will send an email to all of you as well.

I strongly support the sidewalk project. We currently have a funding grant to cover 80% of the project costs up to a total of $213,000. It is predicted that our portion would be in the neighborhood $65,000- $90,000. If we terminate the project the City will have to pay for all work done to date. Those costs are approximately $17,000. To see project plans and a timeline go to the Streets & Sidewalks Committee webpage.

http://www.university-heights.org/Streets/index.html

Johnson County Animal Shelter- The council unanimously declined to support the request to participate in the planned Johnson County Animal Shelter. If we had done so we would be responsible for a construction assessment of $10,833 due in FY14 and $2790 in yearly operating expenses after that. U-H residents brought a total of 4 animals to the shelter in 2011. Council is interested in exploring ties to the Cedar Valley Humane Society’s shelter.

Next Council meeting:

Tuesday March 13, 7:00 PM, St. Andrew Fellowship Hall, 1300 Melrose Ave.

As always it is a pleasure to serve as your representative, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.

-Mike Haverkamp
 315 Golfview Ave.

March 2012

Fellow U-Heights residents,

Reminder: Please attend the Sunset Sidewalk project informational meeting on

Tuesday, March 20th 7:00 pm, University Club 1360 Melrose Ave.

for more information about the project go to:

Sunset Wide Sidewalk Info

Here are a few highlights from tonight’s meeting:

Council adopted the FY2013 budget. We now will submit it to the Iowa Department of Management for certification prior to the March 15, 2012 deadline. Our fiscal year will start on July 1, 2012. A summary of the adopted budget is here:

FY 2013 Proposed Budget Summary

The other major item of discussion was U-Heights support for the Johnson County Animal Shelter. We were able to come to a compromise by agreeing to support the shelter in a similar manner to that already proposed by the City of Coralville.

Finally, citizens who have Mediacom cable TV can now watch U-Heights City Council meetings at your own convenience thanks to Iowa City Cable’s InfoVision. Just tune your TV to Channel 5, and dial 356-5478 on your touchtone phone. You then can use your PHONE to navigate to U-Heights council meetings and view them. For step by step directions:

Watch U-Heights City Council meetings on Cable Channel 5 InfoVision

If there is any questions you have, or are interested in more information, please don't hesitate to contact me.

-Mike Haverkamp
 315 Golfview Ave