Council--This week's Irony

             Ironic? If you check my Ponzi scheme blog entry after the last city council meeting, you’ll see that Nos. 11 and 12 on the agenda were TIF payments in the amount of $26,395.13 to River Bend and McDermott LLC.

         

            Nos. 11 and 12 must be the magic, ironic numbers. This week the city paid (Nos. 11 & 12) on the agenda (!) $74,000 to two companies. The lion’s share ($70,000) for a community match to Brian Bock for an IEDA (Iowa Economic Development Authority) grant for a downtown housing grant that most of the people in the neighborhood were against. For good reason—lack of parking, fire and snow removal problems building a several homes above the New City Park.

  Not to mention the predictable, incremental effects on drainage in the park, parts of which become unusable in heavy rains. But the people weren’t listened to: the only person who voted against it was Bill Hosch.  Next time it could be your neighborhood.

Pie in the Sky Ponzi Scheme--TIF (Tax Increment Financing)

         Numbers 11 and 12 on last night’s Cascade City Council agenda were to pay Callahan Construction $19,345.60 and McDermott Industrial LLC $7,049.60 in Tax Increment Financing money.

            When I got up and objected to paying very profitable businesses our taxes, the new City Administrator Lisa Kotter launched into a long-winded, inept analogy of pies in a freezer that she thought proved we all have more “pie” from TIF. It that respect, it is a bit of a Ponzi scheme, too—I hadn’t realized!

            TIF is simply identifying an area of the community—usually with businesses in it—and pulling a portion of the taxes away from the normal recipients of those tax $. On the bottom of your tax bill is the list: WD School District 41%, City of Cascade 32%, Dubuque County 21%, NICC, 3% and four others receiving less than a 1%.

            So the schools are the biggest loser here. Of course, the percentage of school funding has gone down every year. In spite of the reality that Iowa schools must provide services for an increasing number of foreign language and service-needy students, i.e. those with autism.

            TIF is simply taxes denied to the regular recipient and turned over to businesses with certain provisos—that they hire a given number of people at a given rate—things they would do anyway if they are running an honest business—a living wage, etc!

            Presumably, everybody in the community loves giving the most well-off people in the community and a couple outside it, $26,494. No wonder we can’t afford a library.

Counting the Blessings of a Sunless Spring

Which, first and foremost, makes me think I am back in Ireland, because daffodils have been in bloom since Easter, and are still going strong.  The tulips will follow on their heels, who knows when, but if this weather persists will bloom all of May.

The one summer I spent in Dublin, a rose in the neighbor’s front yard bloomed all of six weeks. I believe, because the searing sun’s rays never hit its fragile petals. Until then, I never realized how destructive the sun can be.

The magnolia tree outside my library window has been trying to bloom for about as long as the daffodils have been. 

Usually, we have some awful frost, but it is my own fault: planting a magnolia tree in this climate is the purest form of wanting roses in winter, which Shakespeare himself warned against.

While it has been chilly, only the wind, admittedly brutal some days keeps one out of the garden. The peas are up, and in the break between showers yesterday I fenced them from the rabbits. The leeks, cabbage, kohlrabi and other cool season crops are in, so I am counting my blessings.

Also reveling in the pure yellow of the willow trees south and west of the house, which are sometimes, in sunny springs only that brilliant bright yellow for a week in sunny springs. 

Q. Where Does the Rubber Meet the Road?

 Answer: At the library. In fact, last night at a Joint Library Board and City Council meeting. The meeting finally got quite specific about the sites—there seem to be only two under serious condition— behind Cheryl’s and across from the Riverview Park. The latter, most preferred by the community, is the  more expensive of the two because it entails acquiring three parcels of property and demolishing 2 houses. The city already owns the first, but it is also being eyed as a parking lot.

Toward the end of the meeting, exasperated Head Librarian Melissa Kane said, “We have been doing studies and talking about building a new library for 30 years.”

Long-time Library Board member CeAnn Brickley expressed similar sentiment, as did the newest board member Marie Thomas.

At the end of the meeting, both Councilmen Andy Kelchen and Riley Rausch expressed reservations. “What scares me,” said Kelchen “is the money.”  In so many words Rausch concurred.

          City Administrator Lisa Kotter gave a very informative thumbnail explanation of the difference between “general obligation” and “revenue” bonds.  For revenue bonds a city pays lower interest and can borrow a larger amount because it is offset by monthly payments—water, sewer, etc. Streets, pools and public libraries are financed by general obligation bonds.

Serious money going to have to be borrowed to build a library and the city, and I have the same reservations as Kelchen and Rausch, but I truly believe if we weren’t giving millionaires free streets, passing out so much TIF money, it wouldn’t be such an issue.

Bwk! Bwk! Bwk! Backyard Chickens

 At Monday night’s council meeting Patrick Leitzen who lives down on 5^th Ave. asked council to authorize chickens in Cascade backyards. Not a new request. Several years ago the same request was denied, and who knows why.

Mr. Leitzen made the pertinent point that especially in the wake of the bird flu, eggs and chicken have become very pricey. A grocery store I visited last week was cleaned out of frozen chicken and eggs—right before Easter!

       Police Chief Fred Heim, spoke vociferously against the chicken idea, saying it caused his department endless grief. Apparently, he was forever running over there because people were phoning that the chickens were out on 136.

            We know police work is endless, (You could sit on my road 24/7 and have plenty of business!), but that’s the job. We also know it takes a certain mindset, so I am terribly glad Heim expressed his opinion. I am even more pleased we live in a town where we can express an idea. I don’t want chickens, (I can barely manage a cat!) but I want a town where a guy has the right to have them if he wants to do the work.

            Of course, no right is without obligation, so the city ordinance will have to specify a sufficiently large back yard, no roosters and regular manure removal especially in summer when it can get smelly.

            If you want democracy, you have to provide it.

           

Basic Questions of Democracy on Council

 Thank God Bill Hosch is back on council. Right off the bat, he caught a $3,000 expense that wasn’t authorized. Even if you have never watched a council meeting, I urge you in the strongest terms NOT to miss Monday night’s. There was much discussion of the problems that routinely confront the city, and you will get a good sense of councilmember’s stances on them.

Terri Wollenberg, who objected to the Storm Water Ordinance and the issuing of building permits, which are responsible for the flooding we experience in rain years, was told she was “grandstanding.” New City Administrator, Lisa Kotter, informed her she may be in violation of Robert’s Rules of Order.

Which brings up questions very basic to democracy—can elected officials take actions that disregard (even sabotage) some citizen’s rights and not expect blowback? Is Council’s function to protect all citizens’ rights or promote development? Level the playing field?

During last year’s Storm Water Ordinance discussion, I encouraged Council to take Cascade’s hilly topography into consideration, but the 80-20 (80% hard surface and 20% green space) was retained. I am certain that is not workable in some hilly spots.

To make matters worse, the builder may have reneged on his drainage responsibilities. We will find out next Monday night if that is the case. There will be a meeting to discuss future project priorities. That’s also why I introduced an ordinance to enable the city to claw back TIF, Façade Reimbursement or any other city money a company might be getting.

Since last year I have been urging council to install the technology to allow the audience to see back up documents—especially maps, because we never know what they are talking about. Mr. Delaney has finally gotten on board with doing it. Question is: should somebody so slow on the democratic uptake be representing us?

 

 

Garden Talk: Vigorous Asparage Crowns & Leeks

 

Anybody interested in big, vigorous asparagus crowns, please drop by 209 Tyler St., Cascade. If you order from a catalog, you get a 5-to-8 root crown packed in peat moss that may have sat on the shelf for a week or 2,  then time in the mail, and cost $15, + tax. Only green (no purple) right now.

If you want me to dig them, will do. If you can get down two feet plus where the ends of the roots go, you can do the digging. Some of these are over 20 years old, and I have had decent 2nd spears in one year. Next spring?

They will only do well in sandy loam, not clay soil. Lots of fiber and fertilizer increase yield. Chicken or cow manure in  fall and horse in spring. 

Also available: horseradish root, Chinese cabbage,  (aka Napa)

horseradish root, black hollyhocks, a couple cauliflower, surpise lilies and a few leek starters. Also tons of old fashioned lilac/blue irises.

I have leek seeds and can part with this many. I find them superior to onions because you can leave them in the ground until the first hard frost. Onions should not see the August sun, they say, and if you leave them out there, they don't grow anyway, so you might as well pull them, dry them and use them.  Usually, I am out there after dark, before the first hard frost digging leeks