By Jill Fennema –

Last week Wednesday, the Edgerton City Council approved two new city ordinances – a special assessment ordinance and a snow emergency ordinance. A summary of both those ordinances will be published in future editions of the Edgerton Enterprise.

The special assessment policy outlines how the city can apply special assessments to improvement projects throughout town. Special assessments are frequently used in large scale improvement plans like Edgerton’s Capital Improvement Plan and the Safe Routes to School project.

When a city determines that they want to use special assessments to pay for portions of a project, they have specific steps they must follow before assessments are made. Those steps include preparing a feasibility report and holding a public hearing. Notice of such public hearing must be provided in writing to all landowners in the assessment area.

Residents are welcome to read the entire new ordinance at city hall. They can also read the updated snow emergency ordinance there. This policy is pretty straight forward and outlines when the city will declare an emergency and rules for parking, and what ramifications there are when people do not move their cars off the street during a snow emergency. Vehicles that park on the street during a snow emergency will be ticketed and towed.

The city’s snow removal costs are burgeoning this winter. The clerks office has been investigating ways to lower costs, including billing some of the cost of snow removal on Main Street to the local businesses affected. DeBoer Chevrolet and Roger’s Auto Sales have agreed to pay for snow hauling because they have large parking areas that they clean each snow event. That snow is put in the windrow and hauled away by Hulstein Excavating.

The council discussed whether all Main Street businesses should have to pay something, but no official decision was made on this matter.

The bid documents for the first phase of the Capital Improvement Plan – the refurbishing and painting of the water tower- have gone to the USDA. The next step when those documents are approved will be to get bids.

Edgerton anticipates the delivery of the new fire truck next week.  The fire department is also in the process of renewing their Insurance Services Office (ISO) score. Because the Edgerton Fire Department has good equipment and a backup pumper truck, Edgerton residents enjoy a lower insurance rate for their homeowners insurance. Their score is based on their equipment, training, and our local water supply. An additional component to this scoring is that the city needs to pressure check their fire hydrants.

Lloyd Zwart applied for a building permit for a new house in the Northwest First Addition. He plans to build a new home at 560 Hillcrest St. The permit was approved by the council.