The Atlantic City Council, Wednesday evening, heard from City Administrator John Lund, who told them he’s been stressed out from crunching the budget numbers to make it work for the City. Lund said “We’ve had a really good run the past six-years of being basically on a property tax starvation diet, and not raising our utility fees, but the budget is really not fun for me anymore. It used to be…when I felt like if I spent all my time and creativity that there is a solution that is going to make a win-win for everyone, I actually enjoyed it no matter how many hours I spent working on it.”

Lund said he’s not getting to that point anymore, and the stress level is getting to high for him. Councilman Gerald Brink said “This too shall pass,” and that “We’re not always going to be stuck in the situation that we are right now. We’re all aware of what the financial woes are going to be. We’ll be very supportive of what you do.” Councilman Pat McCurdy agreed they would help him all they can.

Mayor Dave Jones said compared to other cities of our size, “There are a lot of cities that are worse [off] than we are.” He said we can get by without all the “Bells and whistles” we’ve been doing. Lund said on the bright side, it appears the City’s Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) revenues will not be as drastically off as feared at the onset and height of the coronavirus. He said State calculations show a LOST decline of just 4.2-percent, which surprised him, and is in-line with the modest growth the City has experienced over the past 10-years.

He said “Atlantic’s incredibly stable and predictable. There’s very little that happens here that you can’t immediately point to… that explains any explosive growth.” He said recovery falls into the same pattern. Lund said an official with the Iowa Department of Revenue said Cass County has not been nearly affected as other areas of the State in terms of sales tax, and that there may actually be a reconciliation check in November, which Lund said he was not expecting, and there may even a been a slight amount of growth over the past fiscal year.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council approved the final readings of amended ordinances pertaining to:

1. A curfew for persons under the age of 18 (a change in wording from Midnight to 6-p.m. for the end of curfew instead of 6-a.m.)
2. The division of taxes levied on taxable property in the June, 2020 addition to the North Urban Renewal District (with regard to the Whitney Group’s Historic Hotel Whitney Building project).

The Council also approved the second reading of amended ordinances that include:

1. Licensing of Tree Trimmers (to include proof of Worker’s Comp Insurance [if applicable])
2. Peddlers, Solicitors and Transient Merchants (to include mobile food vendors & insurance requirements)
3. Truck and Large Vehicle parking (to allow boats, boat trailers, campers, RV’s or travel trailers to be parked on the front yard of a property, but behind a sidewalk on private property, and not projecting into the right-of-way).
4. and, an amended Ordinance requiring specific types of insurance and a dollar amount of coverage, for individuals and businesses who wish to perform work for the City.

They also approved an Order to close 9th Street between Plum and Cherry Streets on July 18th, for a Neighborhood Block Party. The street will be closed-off to vehicle traffic from 5-until 9-p.m. on that date.  They approved Mayor Dave Jones’ nomination of Neal Webb to the Board of Adjustment. Webb replaces Dave Knudsen, who has resigned from the Board. He will hold the position until at least February, 2023. His appointment also preserves the gender balance on the Board.