By Mari Radtke
Fire Chief Cory Crouch spoke to the City Council on at the September 9 regular meeting. He has worked hard since taking the chief position to secure funding for a new tanker truck. The effort to replace an aging tanker has been underway for a long time. Crouch reported that the cost of the tanker has rising by $1000 in just 1 year. The current starting purchase price is $443,000.
Crouch shared images of the current truck plans with Council. He explained changes the department has agreed to in order to bring down the price. The changes so far have brought the price to under $400,000.
Funding for the truck purchase comes from agreement with the townships in the Primghar fire district for additional funding for the purchase as well as an additional $10,000 for a two-year period from the City.
Crouch expects to receive the truck in early 2027. He also cautioned that fire department funds would be depleted in that fiscal year due to the purchase. He asked for a short-term loan from the city for the remainder of that fiscal year, ending June 30, 2027. Council members agreed to the arrangement each echoing, “We’ll figure it out. We can’t afford to wait,” when approaching the topic of actual budget structure.
A discussion by council with City Clerk Jaynee Rushton brought attention to parking in yards. City ordinances require all vehicles to be parked on cement or gravel. There is a requirement for how much property must be grass. The directive was to notify property owners in violation and remind them of the requirements.
The Orange City Sanitation contract was briefly reviewed. When the contract was accepted the term was unclear. It was decided to accept a five-year contract with them.
Payment 18 for the lagoon was in the claims. It brought discussion. Several punchlist items remain and council is concerned that the payment might include getting that work done while paying for it again. Some of the punchlist items are work council considers should be done by the contractor and/or engineer and already paid for by the city. They declined to make the payment until there is more clarity about what work payment 18 pays for.
The large number of water softeners and the high salt use to soften the water in Primghar is creating higher than normal chloride in the water supply according to IDNR. A suggestion from IDNR was to conduct a mixology study. Staff is looking into the details of such a study. Other suggestions given were to upgrade water softeners to reduce the cycling frequency. Primghar is taking on a 2-year trial period measure the chloride in their water.