BOONE, Iowa—The Boone City Council has identified goals for the city and staff in the next fiscal year beginning in July 2023. The first goal is to continue efforts dealing with nuisance abatement and demolition of property. Most of the focus has been on residential properties, but Council Member Eli Stines wanted to also include vacant and blighted commercial property.
A second goal was to find a use for the city owned property west of the Goldwaite-Garvey Family Resource Center. Specifically the suggestion was to make it available for recreational use, such as soccer.
A third goal was to consider the number of parks in the community and their usage. That would mean working with the Parks Commission to determine if all the parks are needed. Franklin Park is a park that has some federal funding ties and there was interest expressed in seeing a plan developed for future park improvements.
One of the current council goals is making funds available to help buy down the cost of installing new sidewalks in residential neighborhoods. No body has applied to take part in the program and the council would like to change the program to also include repairs of existing sidewalks.
City Clerk/Finance Officer Ondrea Elmquist did update the council on the city’s five-year financial plan and said that the city was in a good position. But that could change depending on future legislative action. She said previous planning for changes implemented by the legislature on commercial property taxes will soften the impact on the city’s general fund. She also reported that there have been some pretty big swings in Hotel-Motel Tax receipts and Local Option Sales Tax receipts. A concern she said is the legislature’s discussion about changes to the Local Option Sales Tax. Voters in Boone put the Local Option Sales Tax in place in 1990, identifying that 75% be used for capital purchases and projects, 20% for property tax relief and 5% for human service programming. Elmquist said changes by the legislature could have an impact on property taxes in the city.
About the Author
