OSKALOOSA — During the City Council meeting on July 5, Mayor David Krutzfeldt gave a report from the Recreation and Early Childhood Education
facility committee.

“You may remember that we had the votes that have taken place for Local Option Sales Tax, and there is roughly $18] million worth of funding that
can be worked with to create this facility,” he said. “So with that in mind, it’s time we start designing and putting that together.”
Krutzfeld stated that Mark Cartledge, interim CEO of the Mahaska County YMCA, mentioned to the committee that it’s not uncommon for YMCAs to
be built for around $11 million.

“We’re working on building with an $18 million budget,” said Krutzfeldt. “So, if we could find a way to do the childcare and early education piece for
about $7 million, we’re well on our way.”
The committee is investigating what the best practices are for the construction of a facility such as the one on the table.

“We also spent a significant time talking about the sustainability of this,” said Krutzfeldt.

“If you think about all of the public questionnaires that were out there, all of the input that was received; the building designed at $24 million had
everything everybody was asking for in it. We’re going to go back to the public another time, asking ‘ok, now that we know that $24 million was what it was going to cost for you to have everything you want, what is it that you really, really want,’ so hopefully we’ll have the kind of guidance from the public for them to tell us what the highest priorities are going to be so that we can design the facility in that manner.”
The committee has been communicating with architects and getting input from a variety of sources, and is in the process of selecting a firm that will
handle getting public input and working with the architect.

Committee members are also putting together some field trips, where they’ll be looking at other YMCA and community recreation facilities, with the
intention of “building ours to fit our community using the best practices that we observe from some other communities,” said Krutzfeldt.

A council member inquired about having a recreational pool in the facility and what that might mean for the Edmundson pool. “There hasn’t been an official design yet,” said Krutzfeldt. “One of the things I’m pushing for is that one of the questions we would ask is ‘should a recreational pool be in that facility; if so, should we keep the recreation pool at Edmundson park open’. That was a fairly controversial thing back when the discussion was
going on and the vote was being held, so as far as I’m concerned, let’s go ahead and get input from the public, as long as we’re asking them questions
anyway.”

“If you’ll remember, the original blue prints it had both, so if the public tells us that they don’t need a recreation pool inside that facility then we build accordingly,” said Krutzfeldt. “If the public wants to have a recreational pool that is accessible year-round, it strikes me that that’s the better use of public money, but I’m willing to listen and I think the committee is as well.”

Councilman and committee member Doug Yates shared that he had some early concerns about spending more money to do another market analysis. However, “As we continue to meet as a committee, I get more comfortable with doing it for a simple reason: I look at it as refinement of what we need to build, and just as importantly – or more importantly – that people are going to be willing to join it so it can sustain long-term,” he said. “We
don’t have $24 million, and whatever we do spend the $18 million on, it’s got to be what people are willing to join so that we can have membership
dollars.”

At this time, the committee is tentatively looking at the facility being open in mid- to late-2019.

Story provided by Angie Holland

The Alley, a newly created gathering space project downtown, will host its ribbon cutting ceremony and Grand Opening on Saturday, July 16th. The Ribbon Cutting, set for 10:30 AM, will be the official opening and will coincide with Christmas in July on the downtown square. A soft opening, allowing the community early use of the space, began this week on July 7th, where the Questers group have already reserved a space to host their monthly meeting on opening day.

The Alley KADTS; Karen Hafner, Ann Brouwer, Deb Beach, Theresa Grahek, and Sherry Vavra, have planned a special theme for the grand opening event. The morning will begin an hour before Christmas in July , at 10:00 AM, with What Women Want. “We will have eight stations set up along the alley that include essential oils, permanent make up , hair styling fun, beauty products, positive thinking, Omni health, coffee tasting, and massages. To go along with what women want, we will serve festive Christmas in July champagne samples!” , said Grahek. “We invite all you ladies to come check it out!” she added. “The alley will be open without activities for the lunch hour in order to promote eating at local businesses, but we invite all to grab and go and bring lunch into the alley to rest at one of the 16 tables”, stated Beach. After lunch, from 4:00- 6:00 PM, the alley will re-open with What Men Want. “Oh that’s happy hour,” laughed Brouwer. “We will serve beer and brats for sure”. She added that after 6:00 PM the evening activities will be geared to the square with Christmas in July and several adult activities will take place.
Free will donations will be taken for activities in the alley with all profits given over to the Christmas in July fundraiser for purchasing new Christmas lights in the square. “We can’t wait to open and we invite everyone to come out on the 16th for the grand opening,” stated Beach. “I love what is happening downtown and in the square”, said Vavra, “the alley is special to to all of us [KADTS]. I also give kudos to main street for all the events and activities happening downtown.” Hafner ended by saying “the KADTS have worked hard to create a special gathering place for the community. A little more gets done everyday. I am happy for these girls, I have loved working on the project with them.” The KADTS were quick to say “We are so happy to see it open and for the community to get to use it!”

Oskaloosa Fire Chief Mark Neff spoke with the media following another house fire in Oskaloosa this week.

With several house fires in recent months, some citizens in and around Oskaloosa are fearful that there may be an arsonist on the loose. Chief Neff says that is not the case with these recent fires.

“We have no reason to suspect at all that there is anybody out there starting fires,” said Neff.

The most recent fire, located at 604 North E Street in Oskaloosa, which occurred early Thursday morning, was started by electrical problems.

“It was determined that overload electrical circuits caused that fire,” explained Neff. “There were three window air conditioner units in operation on an older home that still had knob and tube wiring.”

Oskaloosa Fire Chief Mark Neff addressees the media Friday morning

This has been a theme with recent fires in the area, with electrical units on older housing overloading with too many air conditioners in the hot weather. The only known arson case occurred at 610 North C Street, with two fires at the condemned structure. The first fire was started in late March.

“They weren’t very good at it,” according to Neff. “They used some oil soaked rags. They didn’t have enough other material in there to sustain the fire. The fire was out upon our arrival.”

Neff says that the State Fire Marshall was not called after this fire, but that is typical protocol in that situation.

“The State Fire Marshall’s office, unless there’s a fatality or a large insurance claim for over a million dollars, they won’t come in,” said Neff. “We had been in contact with them on this, we knew what we had, and the investigation was ongoing. We had no witnesses that came forward to help us out with that.”

The second fire was much more serious ten days after the first.

“On April the 7^th, we had another structure fire there,” recalled Neff. “That one we extinguished with the aid of the Pella Fire Department coming in and the Cedar Township [fire department] coming up assisting with that. We called the State Fire Marshall on that one after we had had conversations, so now we knew we had something working. The State Fire Marshall’s report came back after our investigation with them. It has been determined arson.”

Neff said anyone with any information about that particular fire should contact local authorities.

“If anybody has any information, please contact the Oskaloosa Police Department or the Oskaloosa Fire Department,” said Neff. “We will take any information.”

Chief Neff encourages everyone in the area to be aware of the surroundings and to report any suspicious activity.

There is NOT cause for concern, as the fire department is on pace for their normal amount of structure fire calls in 2016, and only those two fires at 610 North C Street were found to be arson.

If you have any information about that or any other suspicious fires, you can reach the Oskaloosa Fire Department at 641-673-3541.