The city council approved having Fort Madison Tourism Director Chi Eastin housed at the Passenger Depot and Freight Office on a year-round basis.
The office will be subleased from the North Lee County Historical Society for $350 a month.
She has been located in that office over the summer months.
Kathy Burkhardt, with the NLCHS, said Eastin saw just two visitors her first year as Tourism Director at the Fort Madison Partners/Chamber of Commerce offices in the Cattermole Library.
“And she’s seen over 1,400 people down there, and she’s able to give out information for all city events and community events, as well as surrounding areas,” she said. “She sees a lot of people that come in who are waiting for the train, getting off the train, not sure what to do for a couple hours or whatever. So she has been very beneficial to the historical society, as well as to the tourism.”
Council member Angela Roller said having Eastin down at the depot and able to make contact with people coming into the community is “very beneficial, so she’s kind of in the forefront right there.”
REMOVING SIGNAGE
The city also approved amending parking restrictions by removing signage associated with the now-vacataed school zones at the former Lincoln and Richardson elementary school buildings.
Mark Rohloff, recently-retired from his position as police chief, told the council this is something that has been on the radar since the school buildings closed last spring.
“We delayed action in trying to anticipate what the new usages would be for those properties and the placement of bus stops that the school district would still need,” he said. “All things in consideration, we recommend removal of the regulatory science pertaining to the school zones. We’ve been through the properties. We’ve found those that were listed on the last resolution that’s contained in the city code. That pertains to the parking regulations, crosswalks, no turn on red, speed zones, everything customary to that type of usage for the school zones there and then returning that to regular usage for the city streets.”
NEW FIRE STATION
Fire Chief Joey Herren reported the bond issue for the new fire station passed and a task force has been put together to get everything lined up to move forward with the new station and the public works building.
“Thanks to the citizens, it passed at 70%; wasn’t expecting that,” he said. “So thank you all those folks.”
Herren said a firefighter has also been sent to “car seat school.”
“Because we’re always getting called about, can we put car seats in,” he said. “You’ve got to be certified to do that,” he said.
The class was pretty much paid for Herren said, “because they only had one other person — a Burlington fireman — in this region, and maybe one more other one some other county in this area,” he said. “So we went through the four day class. We’re going to start doing those (car seat checks) probably quarterly, and have everybody come in, and we’ll just take the trucks out and let people drive through, and we’ll certify the car seats.”
The timeframe of doing car seat checks has yet to be determined.
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