Glenda Heithus, a long time Paullina resident on South Maple Street attended the March 6 City Council meeting with intending to have council find proposals to slow down traffic on Maple Street as the volume of traffic increases with the detour.
Iowa Department of Transportation is closing Highway 10 just west of Paullina between Pierce Avenue and Polk Avenue. The bridge will be removed for replacement beginning anytime. The construction contract begins in March 2023. Eastbound Highway 10 traffic will be routed south on Highway 143, 5 miles east of Paullina, to County Road B62. The detour then travels east to County Road L48 (Redwing Avenue or Maple Street within the Paullina city limits). A north turn on L48 (Redwing Avenue) brings the detour to Maple Street, within the Paullina City limits.
Maple Street was rebuild at great expense to the property owners less than a decade ago. Traffic is heavy and does not slow properly through town on that street. Much of the traffic is farm equipment and commodity trucks.
Council was to determine speed signage for that street at the council meeting. Other options were considered including radar flashing speed signs, cross walk pennant signs and the possibility of slowing traffic further away from city limits. More investigation will be done to find a mechanism that will successfully slow traffic on Maple Street.
Paul Struve with ISB Insurance attended the Council meeting to share his findings of an insurance request made by Fire Chief Ryan Harper in October 2022. The request for coverage of a new fire truck for replacement cost rather than actual cash value. The Paullina Volunteer Fire Department just acquired its first brand new truck.
Struve reported that a meeting in November followed with himself, Harper and Council members Carol Honkomp and Jean Unrau. Honkomp and Unrau are council appointees to the public safety committee. Struve explained that the meeting in November was for assurance that the City did want this option investigated. He was told at that time to prepare a proposal.
Struve gave an overview of his journey of providing the requested quote. It began with Struve working with a company that meets the requested coverage wanting to wait until April renewal. It turns out that that company not currently Òcommissioning any new cities.Ó Struve stated, ÒSo in Iowa there are about three options for municipal insurance and now it sounds like there is going to be two.Ó
Struve identified EMC Insurance as one of the carriers and stated that EMC is the current carrier of PaullinaÕs insurance. Struve explained that he is an agent for ISB Insurance and that ISB Insurance does represent EMC Insurance. He said, ÒWe have other cities, I donÕt have them myself the agency does, so I know that there is an option to provide a replacement cost option on fire trucks that are newer than 20 years old.Ó He added, ÒÉif you are a current carrier.Ó
In February Struve took up the search again. He asked a colleague to contact the current agent to verify these options. He does not know if there was an answer.
Struve made a point to say that he was not there to cause a conflict or to make any accusations but that he was there to fulfill the request that was made of him.
Struve explained that if the City would like to pursue an agent of record change it could do so. Premiums would not change. Struve make it clear that he would need to meet with the (city) clerk or a committee to make sure that the policy is correct and the coverage are what council wants. He also noted that such a task is the insuredÕs responsibility to maintain. Struve went on to describe a vehicle count of vehicles that would qualify for the type of coverage Harper requested.
Due to the changes of insurance availability a short deadline is in place. The policy changes are effective March 23 or 24. The renewal is March 19 giving the city 11 days to change its agent of record for the coming insurance year.
Before a change could be made a complete inventory of the cityÕs insurance needs for property, liability, umbrella and work comp, all of it, would need to be determined. It was also clarified that all city property would need to be covered in a single policy, that EMC will not split the coverage.