The Oskaloosa City Council met Tuesday night for a study session and their regularly scheduled meeting.

The study session was an update and discussion on the community needs assessment for the indoor recreation and early childhood education by the Mahaska Community Development Group and the Mahaska County YMCA.

The idea is for the proposed facility to be funded by an increase in membership and be self-sustaining. The membership for the facility would need to increase by around 40 percent in comparison to the current Mahaska County YMCA. Jason Van Zetten thinks that is very possible and the numbers thrown out financially are reasonable and should be very attainable.

The main issue of concern at this point is the participation from the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors. The Supervisors have been reluctant to sign off on the project, believing the facility benefits he city of Oskaloosa more than it does the county. City Manager Michael Schrock, Jr. said the project will likely not be completed without the support of the Board of Supervisors and their use of the one-cent sales tax.

In the regular meeting, bookkeeping was the main theme of the evening.

The council rejected all project bids for the updated prices of the 2015 Sanitary and Storm Sewer Improvements Project, as all of the bids were too high. This was done by the suggestion of the city staff. This will delay the project for a few months.

The council unanimously approved TK Concrete as the company to carry out the B Avenue East Pavement Rehabilitation Project, which was passed earlier in the agenda.

The council also unanimously passed a resolution directing Mayor David Krutzfeldt to negotiate and execute a 28E Agreement between the city of Oksaloosa and the city of University Park. This will be for improvements on Burlington Road.

Finally, the council rejected all bids for the municipal improvements for the fire station renovation and expansion. The bids for the project exceeded the money that was projected for the project by 37 percent, which is an abnormally large increase. The council discussed the issue and stated that there will likely need to be better timing with the process and potentially some changes with the project to fit in the budget that was approved by voters.

The interesting item that was brought to the meeting was a discussion of the idea of the Board of Supervisors adding a County Administrator position. Supervisor Mike VanderMolen stated at the August 17th meeting of the supervisors that he was in favor of adding a County Administrator to help with the bookkeeping issues and other smaller items in the Supervisor office. This would allow more people to run for the office, in VanderMolen’s eyes, because it would free up more time for those who have other full-time jobs. Mayor Krutzfeldt and Council Member Tom Walling put this on the agenda to show support for that idea, as they believe the “City Manager” style of government has worked well for the City of Oskaloosa. This vote of support was unanimous from the attending council members.

The Board of Supervisors stated that they would talk about that idea in depth at a later time.

The unanimous votes were 6-0, as council member Doug Yates was not in attendance.

The next scheduled meeting of the Oskaloosa City Council is set for September 21 at 6 PM at the Council Chambers in City Hall.