Jennifer Perry Middleton/Jefferson Jimplecute
City Council voted to update their lease with the Marion County Chamber of Commerce during Tuesday’s regular meeting, agreeing to have the lease renew on the former Jefferson Police Department building on Austin Street in a 2-year term with annual review and a 90-day opt-out clause.
Alderman Richard Turner said he didn’t think the city “should be in the landlord business” at all, and wanted to change the proposed three-year lease to a six-month period, and for the city to have a 90-day notice if they need to staff the building with City employees. This would give the Chamber time to find another location if necessary.
Mayor Rob Baker said the organization had put in about $14,000 in the building over the past few years, and that since the structure itself was worth significantly less when they started, that the lease should reflect the amount of money, time and effort that the Chamber has put into it. After a bit of discussion, Council also approved paying for the replacement of the building’s air conditioning system.
Members also approved for JEDCO to pay up to $6,000 for professional services/legal advice for property adjacent to the city. Bubba Haggard told Council that it had been brought before JEDCO and the laws changed in 2019. It was also agreed that JEDCO be the contact for any services associated with potential property annexation information.
Underbrush clearing on the Jefferson Howe Train Trestle was also approved during Tuesday’s meeting. It was cleared a few years ago at a cost of around $7,000, and the Council approved $5,000 for the work to be done as soon as possible.
“The structural engineers can’t do their job until it’s cleared is the point,” Baker told the council.
Baker also gave an update on the Jefferson 2022 Street Campaign, and said that last year, the city authorized $452,000 of work on city streets, which was not a typical year. He suggested that work could be done on two or so streets in each ward to total around $280,000. Council approved bidding out work on several of the streets, with a notice to be published for bid acceptance in the Jimplecute.
The streets campaign slated work to be done on the following streets:
• Dan Terry from Line to Cass Streets
• S. Douglas from Alley to Line
• Willard from Broadway to Dixon
• Xrawford from Dixon to Broadway
• E. Dixon from Alley to Main
• Bridge from Jefferson to Delta
Council also tabled a petition to declare the alley behind Lot 9 and Lot 10 of Block 74 in the Urquhart Addition of the city to be closed. The petition also included the potential conveyance of the alley to the adjoining owners. Jeff Sofitch addressed the council asking why the process was filled with red tape, as he has cleaned up the seven he owns and that the owner of the aforementioned property had previously been on the city’s agenda, but was removed for some unknown reason. Sofitch also told Council that the adjacent owner had been given conflicting information by the previous city administrator about acquiring the alley and that she simply didn’t understand the difficulty with the process.
Following the meeting, City Attorney Mike Martin was asked by the Jimplecute about the possibility of creating a set of forms for individuals to fill in the blanks so all the necessary information for purchasing property from the city was easier and less costly. Martin indicated it would be easy to do and could be taken from the last couple of sales as a basis.
Mayor Baker also told the Council and the public to go to their aldermen first with ideas and suggestions, as this would eliminate some paperwork, as it is inefficient for the Mayor’s office to take care of these matters, as it falls under each alderman’s jurisdiction.
He also reminded Jefferson residents to do their neighborly duty this summer, and especially during the current heat wave.
“Folks, it’s getting really hot out there and I think every one of us has neighbors above the average age. Check in on those people if you have’t seen them for the last day or so just do the neighborly thing,” he said. “It’s getting too hot to let someone with an electric or ac problem go unattended. Do your neighborly share.”