Mayor's Corner

MAYOR'S CORNER February, 2010

It has been nice to be able to avoid some of the winter weather for a while and enjoy a little bit of warmer climate but, unfortunately, we are not able to avoid ALL of the winter since we will be back home by the time you read this article. We will enjoy seeing all of our friends and family again, though. We hope all of you have stayed healthy and safe throughout the many storms that you have had to endure in the recent months.

City Hall When I return to God’s country (Readlyn, of course) we will begin an evaluation on a new City Hall/Community Center. You can express your views on this subject to any council member, task force member, or me or e-mail me at hjclemen in relation to this subject.

Recycling While traveling through some of the southern states, it is very disappointing to see that most of these states don’t recycle at all. We have seen and experienced what a difference there is in the amount of trash that is generated when you don’t separate the tin, plastic, and paper from your trash and recycle that material. To me, throwing away pop cans, bottles, plastic, tin cans, etc. does not make sense at all. I gave my opinion to the state parks and campgrounds that we visited that do not recycle. When you travel, one can truly appreciate what we have in Iowa, however, the climate in Central Florida was great compared to Iowa in mid-to-late February.

Herbert Clemen Mayor, City of Readlyn

MAYOR'S CORNER January, 2010

Recreation. In writing this article this month, my wife and I are enjoying some beautiful weather and southern hospitality in Gulf Shores, Alabama. We have spent last week in Mississippi and Louisiana also with some excellent weather. That is, compared to Iowa weather. For this reason this will be a somewhat short article.

Snow Removal. Hopefully everyone is dealing well with the snow and ice that is happening in Readlyn as I have heard. Please be cognizant of the fact to avoid parking on the street while the plows are out. Tickets will be issued to those vehicles that are parked on the streets during snow removal. For those do not “dig it”, hope you are enjoying the southern weather as well we are.

Recycling. We have had some favorable increases with the recycling market during the last two months. Hopefully, in about 6 months, I can tell you that we are getting paid for the investment the city has made along with Tripoli and Sumner. Due to the new recycling with Tripoli and Sumner we are unable to continue accepting plastic bags such as grocery bags, softener salt bags, milk bags or any other bags. It has gotten to be a problem at the recycling shed. No recycler wants to take the plastic grocery bags. We have been taking these bags and putting them in the trash for the last few months. You should take them back to the Wal-Mart’s or any other retailer that will accept these bags. We will discontinue accepting these bags on April 1st this year. Use recyclable bags if possible. We are getting very lax in sorting into proper containers and breaking down the cardboard. Only with your help and support will this recycling program work.

City Hall. A task force has been formed to evaluate the feasibility of a new city hall/community center. Grants and other economical evaluations are in process. This task force may be asking you for your input and opinion on this project. If you have an opinion on this, send me an e-mail at hjclemen

Herbert Clemen Mayor, City of Readlyn

MAYOR'S CORNER December, 23 2009

Recreation Trail. The recreation trail from Denver to Readlyn will become a reality in 2010. The successful bid was awarded to Heartland Asphalt out of Mason City. It came in at approximately $110,000 under budget. Construction must be completed by the fall of 2010. A special thank you goes out to all that have put their time and money toward this project. It would be nice to have this project so it could be used this summer.

Recycling. We have been operating with our new recycling program for almost two months now. EBRRA has sold a truck load of cardboard last week. This is 42,000 lbs of cardboard that did not go to the landfill and that we were paid over $50 a ton. We will also be selling a truckload of newspaper before the end of the year. The EBRRA facility will ship the corrugated cardboard and newspaper direct to the mill in semi load quantities. The plastic, tin and other material will be bailed and shipped to a recycler. We have been having some problems with garbage being put in containers at the recycling facility. We have also seen that the cardboard material is not broken down and put into the green containers outside. Please help us police this area.

Snow Removal. As everyone knows we have had a lot of snow fall this winter. We must be aware that when we get so much snow early in the season it becomes more difficult to keep up the removal. To help our city employees and ourselves we must keep the vehicles off the streets when we are plowing snow. Tickets will be issued to anyone that has parked their vehicle during snow removal. On Sunday afternoon the 20th of December the city crew started snow removal in early afternoon. The snowing had stopped and the crew started removing it during daylight. I know some people had Christmas gatherings that afternoon when we were plowing snow. If there is any way to get these vehicles of the street so the city crew can clean these streets effectively it would be greatly appreciated. There is too many chances that accidents can happen when cars are parked on the streets when there are not supposed to. We must also be aware that fire hydrants need to be cleared away. It is the responsibility of the adjacent property owners to keep these hydrants visible and the snow removed from around them. We have also had some complaints about property owners not having the snow removed from the sidewalks. As a note the snow on the recreation trail in city will be removed when the crew gets to it. We will not use overtime to get this snow removed of this trail. The first priority is the streets and intersections.

Thanks. A big Thank You. I would like to thank Jeff Brunscheon for his dedication and service to the community. Jeff has served on the city Council for almost 13 years. He has been instrumental in helping this community go forward and has been involved in the creation of two city subdivisions which have been very successful. Thanks for everything Jeff.

Jackie and I would like to wish all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Herbert Clemen Mayor, City of Readlyn