Clean-Up Days Coming to Oskaloosa April 2–5

Posted on March 26, 2018March 26, 2018 by Rick Watts

(OSKALOOSA, Iowa) – Spring is here and with it comes the ritual of spring cleaning. City clean-up days for Oskaloosa will be April 2–5, 2018.

The following guidelines will be used for the pickup, as scene in The Shopper:

1. Oskaloosa will be divided up into four quadrants.
• The southeast quadrant – which includes south of A Avenue East and east of South Market in Oskaloosa – will be retrieved on Monday, April 2.
• The northeast quadrant – north of A Avenue East and east of North Market Street – will be picked up on Tuesday, April 3.
• The northwest quadrant – including north of A Avenue West and west of North Market Street – will be picked up Wednesday, April 4.
• The southwest quadrant – south of A Avenue West and west of South Market Street – will be taken on Thursday, April 5.

2. Items must be placed on the curb or edge of the property by 7:00 AM on the morning of pickup for that area in town. Each quadrant will only be picked up on the day scheduled.

3. This event is open to all Oskaloosa residents.

4. Only the following items will be picked up during these scheduled days:
• Mattresses & Box Spring (Limit: 1 mattress & 1 box-spring per household);
• Furniture;
• Appliances: Limit of 3 per household, including refrigerators, stoves, hot water, heaters, microwaves and freezers;
• Other large, bulky items the garbage haulers cannot pick up.

5. The City will not pick up any garbage bags, yard waste, paint cans (unless open and dried out), batteries, hazardous waste items, or construction material.

6. Business waste is not accepted through this program.

7. Tires will neither be picked up by the City or accepted by the County Landfill.

8. Items not picked up must then be removed by the owner or renter within 24 hours.

This is not a complete list of rules and regulations and the City of Oskaloosa has the right to refuse removing any items. To ask questions or for more information, call Oskaloosa Public works at 641-673-7472.

– By Hailey Brown, KBOE/KMZN

At-Large Incumbents Reign Victorious In City Elections

Posted on November 8, 2017 by Rick Watts

Aside from the Mayoral race with the city elections, there was also the vote in for first and third ward, as well as the at-large candidates.

Neither Diane Ottosson, the elected candidate for first ward, nor Doug Yates, elected incumbent for third ward, were present at the courthouse last night.

The At-Large candidate race was a four way battle with two incumbents squaring off against two fresh faces in the world of city council.

Scottie Moore and Tom Walling were both seeking re-election with the city council. While young Charlie Comfort and Wyatt Russell wanted come in as a fresh face for Oskaloosa.

“But the neat thing about this year, compared to four years ago is it’s not a one topic year. And we were able to talk about a lot of different topics in depth and get that message out and get those waves made. Charlie and I kind of brought a different perspective.”

Russell choose to have a hands off campaign and really focus on friends and family. “We’re family, we’re neighbors. It was more so responding to Facebook and responding to text messages from my friends. I had a lot of people pulling for me they were talking to their friends and family and that’s what I really wanted to get back down to was the roots of the community.”

Comfort, on the other hand, did some campaigning and was active on facebook as well as posting signage throughout the city. In 2011, Comfort ran for school board and was elected, he spoke about the differences between that campaign and the run for city council.

“Not a whole lot different I mean more people voted obviously, for the city election than the school board election. I’m a little disappointed i got less votes for city council than I did for school board.”

As for the future, Comfort did not declare he would run again for city council. “I’m not going to commit myself to another campaign tonight.. I know my girlfriend is ready to have me back it’s been a long six weeks,” said Comfort. “Never say never, it’s always possible in the future.”

Russell felt the voter turnout was decent this year, “It was lower but I expected it to be lower because it wasn’t a controversial year. We didn’t have the big topics like we did four years ago. But it also made for a more fun campaign.”

Looking at statistics, 1,942 ballots were tallied for the At-Large candidates. Moore received 659 votes followed by Walling’s total of 561 votes. Rounding out the four candidates, Comfort tallied 422 ballots with his name and Russell claimed 294. *

Russell continued to speak of the incumbent candidates and how he had personal ties to them, reverting back to the idea of being family in this community. “You know Scottie and Tom are great people. Tom was my boss at one point in time at Cunningham and Scottie was my high school teacher. I know both of them and that’s the family tie right there, the roots.”

“I appreciate the support the voters gave me tonight, we move on from here. The sun still rises tomorrow and I congratulate Tom and Scottie on their victory tonight,” commented Comfort.

Russell says in two years, his ward seat, which is currently occupied by Jimenez will be up for re-election, he will be keeping his eyes on that.

“Thanks for everyone for coming out and voting. It was a great year and hopefully we will come back in two years and see if we can do something different,” stated Russell.

*Re-elected Mayor, David Krutzfeldt, speaks to fellow victor, Scottie Moore, after results.*

Note: Walling was not present at the courthouse at the time of the auditor’s announcement. Moore left shortly after results were announced. An update to this story will occur within the next few days. Stay tuned…

*All results from the municipal elections will remain unofficial until the Board of Supervisors confirms the votes.

Facade Improvements May See Second Phase

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Rick Watts

Construction on the Downtown Facade Improvement Project began in May of this year, while the discussion on the project is dated back to September of 2015. This project has made leaps and bounds to improve the presentation of the downtown square.

At the October 16 City Council meeting, Development Services Director Andrew Jensen, presented an update to the council about the facade improvements. Noting the direction of improvements being made as Christner Contracting Inc. moves east across North Market Street.

Soon the contractors will be rounding the corner of N. Market and High Avenue East, starting at the ReMax Office.

The contractors will continue down High Avenue East and turn north on South 1st Street to finish up the 16 building facade project.

With the current project set to wrap up by June of 2018, so far the contractors have spent $434,351.33 of the over $1.13 million that was awarded to the project, according to Jensen.

The source of funds for this project are allocated from a variety of different areas including a Block Grant through the IEDA; Tax Increment through the City of Oskaloosa; a percentage from the property owners involved with the project; and the George Daily Family Trust.

In the council meeting, the idea of pursuing a second phase was also discussed. This second phase would begin on North Market street along the corridor including Brown’s Shoe Fit, Smokey Row and Bridal Dreams. From there, this anticipated project will diverge onto First Avenue East and touch Big Ed’s BBQ and Tropical Rayz Salon.

The funds for the second phase will also come from similar sources. During the second phase, Jensen noted that approximately 10 to 14 buildings will be included on the next installment. That number, however, will be dependent on how many businesses wish to be involved and the amount of funds that can be accumulated.

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