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The Fort Madison City Council met Tuesday evening for what ended up being an unusually long meeting for the city leaders. The meeting lasting over two hours.
The evening began with Mayor Bradley Randolph presenting a proclamation on domestic abuse and domestic violence.
The rest of the over two-hour meeting was mostly focused on financial issues with the cities ever-shrinking budget. City Manager Doug Varner told the council that sales tax revenue is running about 14% under last year and property tax income is just beginning to come in. One bright spot, TIF money from two sources will revert back to the city this year.
Dennis Fraise, C.O.O. of the Lee County Economic Development group was at the meeting to renew a request from a few months ago for funding for the city. Fraise walked the council through the work the group does and the high level of success they have attained. The council had neglected to provide promised funding in this years budget, Fraise had hoped to secure that money as well as secure future funding through 2023. The council was unable to fund the group in this year’s budget but did make a motion that was approved unanimously to seek to fund the group in the coming years in the amount of $25,000.
The final major item was a discussion by Mayor Randolph and the council on the future of the Depot Building and the ongoing plans for an Amtrak stop in Fort Madison. The project has been a heavy focus of the city and the mayor since 2012. There have been a number of issues and the mayor asked the council if they wished to continue with the project. Currently, they are waiting on an agreement from Amtrak and some other documents to finalize the process for the State DOT to let the project out for bid. The council decided to continue the project for the time being, after already investing an estimated 3 million dollars. It is estimated that around $400,000 is still required to complete the project. Currently, around 18 people a day on average use the train station in Fort Madison, the hope is that the completed depot will bring in more people. Some members of the council have concerns about completion dates as well as the lack of a serious commitment from Amtrak beyond around one year.
The council plans to keep an eye on the project, which will be updated at the next meeting on November 5th.
