Coffee & Conversation kicks off with YMCA, E911 services

Jan. 22—OSKALOOSA — Coffee and Conversation, the newly-renamed incarnation of popular public forum series Eggs and Issues, made a wintery return to Mahaska County over the weekend.

It was a bitterly cold Saturday, but a group of Mahaska County's most dedicated residents still ventured through the weather for a word with the county's board of supervisors and the Mayor of Oskaloosa. Topics of the forum included traffic patterns in Oskaloosa, progress on the pool at the county's new YMCA, countywide 911 services, community housing needs and more.

Krutzfeldt addresses traffic camera implementation

The forum kicked off with a question about the potential implementation of traffic cameras in Oskaloosa. Mayor David Krutzfeldt called the rumor that city council is considering the use of cameras a "misinformation piece." He explained that data collection of traffic patterns at certain locations within city limits has been conducted by a third party speed camera vendor, but denied the existence of any recommendation put before council.

The traffic studies performed were done near Oskaloosa's schools. Krutzfeldt says the results of the studies do point toward "a lot of excessive speed" or "occasional excessive speed" in those areas, but repeated that no presentation or recommendation has been made to city council about the implementation of cameras.

"At this point, it's all about the data," he said.

"I can't count the number of people that have come up to me and said 'You know, I was headed north out of town on North Market [Street]. I crested the hill, and there was somebody in the crosswalk from William Penn. And so, that was a near miss, and something's got to be done about that.' Well, one of the things that we can do is at least get the data and find out is it a big problem, or is it not? Is it something that needs to be addressed or not?" Krutzfeldt said.

Status of the long-awaited YMCA pool

Conversation then moved on to a question about the status of the swimming pool at the new Mahaska County YMCA, the completion of which has experienced an extended period of delay due to a pending lawsuit between the City of Oskaloosa and contractor Graphite Construction.

The city's concerns about the workmanship of the pool go back to the start of construction in 2020. In December of 2022 Graphite vacated the construction site, and in February of 2023, the company sued the City of Oskaloosa for breach of contract after the city declined to fully pay for work done on the $31 million construction project. Less than a month later, the city filed a countersuit against Graphite claiming work on the project had not been completed in accordance with contract documents, and that Graphite had damaged city property and caused the city to incur unnecessary expenses.

"Where we're at right now is that the pool, as far as the City of Oskaloosa is concerned, we consider that to be a failure," Krutzfeldt told the crowd. "So the contractor was fired, and we have severed our relationship with them. When that sort of thing happens, then what you do is go back on the bonding company that stood behind the contractor ... So we had agreement from the bonding company to say 'Yes, we see where there are problems. Let's see what we can do to get this building open. Let's get things done.' And to some degree, we're generally there."

The new YMCA celebrated its ribbon cutting in August of 2023, opening its doors to the public for the first time. However, the pool remains incomplete. Krutzfeldt says the court date for the lawsuit is July of 2025, and that in the meantime the city is pursuing alternative options for completing the pool.

"What we're doing right now is going through the process with our legal staff, saying: 'Okay, how do we do that?' And it's about a four-month process that we need to go through," Krutzfeldt said. "We already have the design done, so all we have to do is then go through the process of saying: 'Okay, do we do the request for qualifications and let people know that we're intending to bid this job out, then finally get the bids, then accept the bids, and then start the work?' That's about a four month process to get going."

In the meantime, the old YMCA's pool remains open for water activities.

E911 services in Mahaska County

Chair of the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors Mark Groenendyk took the mic to address a question on the status of E911 services in Mahaska County following an evaluation completed in February of 2023.

Following the receipt of the evaluation, which recommended that Emergency Management staff be downsized and that either the city or the county should take over management of the E911 dispatch center, city and county government began working to place the E911 center under the direction of Oskaloosa Police Chief Ben Boeke. The move proved controversial, and concerns were raised about accountability to taxpayers if an unelected city employee was placed in charge of a countywide service. However, officials have continued to work toward the transition.

"The county supervisors and the city are working together to come to an agreement to provide the service and hopefully stabilize things, because this is public safety," Groenendyk said. "It is the first call that is made to receive police or fire service for your benefit, and safety, and protection."

Groenendyk expects the county supervisors to take action on an agreement that has currently been tabled by the county that would transition E911 to Boeke's direction in the next two to six weeks.

"Hopefully by the first of July there is a stable agreement back in force to continue that service," he said.

"The draft that is out there is one where the City of Oskaloosa would have administration of the dispatch," Krutzfeldt added. "Chief Boeke would step into the position that Jamey Robinson formerly had before he resigned, and so in terms of changes, I wouldn't expect much. We have a pretty good running system now. I would expect it to run about the same as it is."

The next Coffee and Conversation event will be held at Smokey Row on Jan. 27 from 8:30-9:30 a.m. The panel will include Sens. Ken Rozenboom and Adrian Dickey and Reps. Helena Hayes and Barb Kniff-McCulla.

Editor Kyle Ocker contributed to this report.

Channing Rucks can be reached at crucks@oskyherald.com.