The old addage of “build it, and they will come,” turned into more of a “help us so we can move forward, so they will come” plea from business and building owners of the damaged North Saunders Ave., business district in Sutton. The meeting was in light of a July 29 tornado that left more that a dozen buildings on the west and east sides of the street in distress.
Little communication has been received from the City of Sutton leaders, outside of a few emails and calls in the aftermath of the storm that left the business district, at best, crippled, with all but two businesses on the west side relying on the outstanding support of other Sutton businesses lending a hand, by offering open spaces for those affected by the storm to work out of.
Those displaced businesses, remain displaced, and following a gathering of those business and building owners, and employees affected by the damaged, buildings, held Thursday, Nov. 9, owners decided it was time to meet with city leaders, after the City of Sutton reached out and invited those affected to have an open discussion with members of the council, the mayor and staff of the City of Sutton Monday, Nov. 13.
Loren Huber, who stepped up as the leader to gather building and business owners affected by the storm, opened the agenda item with a thank you. “We thank you for the invitation to talk with you about the situation at hand,” said Huber.
“As you know, we’re hear to talk about what many of us are dealing with in regards to our buildings. It’s been 100 days since that storm, and we all feel like we’re stuck with no direction to go.”
Tory Duncan of the Clay County News shared, “This has been a frustrating time over the course of the past 16-17 weeks. We’re disappointed in the lack of leadership from the city’s standpoint, and the lack of taking on the role of our situation and leading conversations to help us all get to a point of being able to make any decisions on the future of our buildings and livelihoods,” said Duncan.
Brooke Marshall, another owner of a damaged building, noted, “I feel like the city doesn’t care. We’re all hurting right now, with no direction, and many of us are still waiting on answers from our insurance adjusters. I’m frustrated that the city has shown very little interest in helping us out, in leading the efforts to come to a resolve and helping us move forward.”
Sutton mayor Tim Anderson offered his apologies and shared that it would be the city’s goal to move forward with businesses owners to help find some resolve. He said the city would take a more active role in moving forward from the damage and be a stronger aid to owners from here on out.
“We’ll do some research, work with our city attorney and see what we can do to lend a hand,” said Anderson.
Councilman Larry T. Nuss added, “I feel we, as a city, should help with the cost of a structural engineer to go through the entire block and see of we can’t come up with a plan for these businesses.” In fact, council members approved, in closed session their intentions to support and pay for a structural engineer to survey the entire west side of the North Saunders Ave business district.
The productive conversation between the city leaders and businesses was left with city leaders sharing that they would do whatever it is that they can, within legal means, to help the downtown district move forward in and effort to aid in finding direction and answers to what lies ahead for the future of the district.
LEADING OFF THE MEETING Discussions related to the new housing development, known locally as the “Schwab Ground,” led off the November city council meeting.
A public hearing was opened in relation to a redevelopment plan for the ground. The short hearing then led to the consideration and passage of two resolutions, #2023-16, and 2023-17, which in short, officially establishes the 51-lot development to move forward with TIF (Tax Increment Financing) options for the development, which according to TIF attorney, Michael Sands, could yield just under $5 million of funding for the development over an extended period of time, helping market the $40,000 estimated lot rates to purchase lots, and ultimately build new homes on the ground.
The resolutions were unanimously adopted by council members to help move the development forward.
Key expenses were then discussed, with the largest expense, thus far, related to the Schwhab Ground, coming from land developer, Van Kirk Bros. Contracting at a cost of $544,270.92, which covers the expenses of a large variety of land developing on the site, located just east of the Fox Hollow Golf Course in southeast Sutton.
Electrical quotes to install electrical service to the ground were then approved by council members, selecting RESCO (Rural Electric Supply Cooperative) as the bid “winner,” at a cost of $13,182.40, which according to electrical department supervisor, Eric Aksamit, would be more than sufficiant to help he and his staff bring electrical services to the development.
IN OTHER BUSINESS
Council members approved a liquor license timeframe extension for the Sutton American Legion for the New Year’s dance for the Sutton Volunteer Fire Department’s dance to 2 a.m. That request was approved.
Council members then went into executive session to talk with Huber about an LB840 application Huber filed with the city for improvements to his building, which houses Farm Bureau Insurance.
