North Iowa Reporter

The Mason City Council met on January 17 where City Administrator Aaron Burnett presented his monthly report, noting that the city staff is deep into drafting and approving the financial budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

“We believe we’ve got a good budget put together addressing a lot of priorities and city staff has been working diligently to make sure we are continuing to take care of issues that exist within the community and budget for those appropriately,” said Burnett.

Burnett said the city has already finished the Capital Improvements budget and are now working on the general operating budget. They are in discussions with two labor unions that represent the city and will work to create a contract for the upcoming fiscal year. Burnett also said he will be presenting about the Destination Iowa Grant that the city received at an upcoming meeting. He also said they are waiting to hear back about DOT grants, as well.

Burnett said the city is struggling with securing heavy duty trucks and utility vehicles, much like the rest of the country’s municipalities. Maintenance is doing well at keeping the vehicles the city has running well, but this still presents a challenge, he said.

“We are making do with what we have,” said Burnett.

The city of Mason received a housing grant for the west of downtown area. This is a partnership with various non-profit organizations like Habitat for Humanity in an effort to improve housing quality, as well as quality of life for residents.

“There's multiple facets of that housing grant,” Burnett told the council. “One of those is owner occupied. So obviously in that case, there's no potential for that. It's just helping those owners improve their own properties. And then there's a second facet that's working with Habitat for Humanity on taking dilapidated housing and improving that into owner occupied housing. I don't believe that there'll be any displacement that occurs as part of that process. And for many of these housing situations and rental units, really the housing is at a substandard level. So, it's really bringing it to where it's a solid quality housing unit. And so, I think the reality is, is that we need to have quality housing within the community. So, if it is substandard and the landlord, you know, is keeping it at that state, I think that it's really going to depress the overall neighborhood when you have housing like that.”

The city is also seeking blight remediation and nuisance abatements in the area. Burnett said a focused task force has been created for the nuisance abatement and blight remediation as part of their commitment to clean up the area.

Intern Tyler Trout, who is the son of previous City Administrator Bent Trout, is working on the task force and was introduced at the meeting. He is in his last semester at Arizona State seeking a degree in public service and is looking forward to a full-time position with the city after graduation.