April OBC Meeting Minutes

President Linda Godbersen called the Odebolt Betterment Committee meeting to order on April 8, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall. Present were Linda Godbersen, Kerry and Deb Reinhart, Jack Bensley, Carol Raasch, Carol’s Sister , Butch Hemphill, Joel Ahart, and Madeline Meyer.

Carol motioned to accept the minutes of previous meeting as written, Jack seconded. All ayes.

Treasurer report at this time is $9,611.83. Breakdown as followed.
Undesignated: $ 3.36
City Park: $2,893.72
Greenspace: $141.08
Sign Landscape: $61.00
Peterson Pioneer House: $5,367.37
Brochures: $1020.30
P.Dale Gronemeyer Memorial: $125.00

There is $6,662.00 for the Peterson Home Project at the City, because they are the fiscal agent, also there is $302.49 in savings at Iowa State for the update of the Triangle Park. Bills that have been paid at this time is Lundell Plastic $480.00 for cutting boards, and $52.50 to Chronicle for cutting board ad. We have received $100 donation from Jerry Reynolds and $20 in memory of Ron Rex, and we have sold 7 cutting boards for a total of $140. Jack made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report, Carol second. All ayes.

We welcome Mayor Hemphill to our meeting tonight. He thanked us for the City Hall sign that we donated to the City for the use of the building for our meetings. The sign will be hung sometime in April after the roof is repaired.

Carol gave an update on the Rural School museum. The committee has applied for their own tax I.D. #. Their committee is making plans for a Mother’s Day High Tea to be held May 10. Watch for further details. The hours that the museum will be open starting on Memorial Day are: Wed. 10-4, Sat and Sun. 2-4. If anyone is interested in touring the building at another time they can contact Carol Raasch or Jack Bensley. If anyone is interested in being on the committee they meet the 4th Tuesday of the month at the Rural School Museum at 7:00. There will be a webinar on Community Bathroom April 24th, Carol and Deb will set in on this at City Hall. Joel will move the outdoor class room benches this week some time.

Kris stated that there are no new updates for the Peterson Pioneer Home. She will contact Mark Horsley around the 1st of April to see when he can start on the window/siding project. She stated that the plan is to have it done by Creek Days.

Kris and Deb will try to make plans to attend the Western Iowa Tourism meeting on April 16th in Emerson, Iowa. The brochures are finished and Kris has been contacting the Welcome Center to have the brochures mailed to them. So far we have sent to 8 Welcome Centers a total of 775 brochures. We will continue getting them to other tourist attraction around the area. .

Carol has not heard anything on the Hwy 20 advertising.

Kerry has talked to Greg on the use of the Fire Station for Creek Day. Carol will talk to 4-H to see if they will help us at the Pancake Breakfast. Deb will work on the schedule of workers and send them to members to be sure that things will work ok. If anyone is interested in helping with the breakfast please let Deb know. Pam Arrigo has asked permission to sell her family book at the pancake breakfast and the committee stated that this was fine. Deb will contact her. We will also have the cutting boards for sale at this time. Linda will see about getting permission to sell them at the all school reunion. Kerry has ordered 40 more cutting boards. If anyone is interested in purchasing one of the boards please contact Joan Godbersen or Deb Reinhart.

Madeline and Jim Meyer, Jim Mickleson and Elaine Rex went to Johnston for the Tree City Luncheon. Madeline gave a report on this meeting and shared information on the Emerald Ash Borer and what we need to do when it comes to our area. The City is looking at preparing for this to happen, some of the OBC members will attend the Council meeting in May to discuss this problem. Madeline also shared an email that she received from Jeff Jensen with Trees Forever and he would like to come to our next meeting to talk about visioning. We will contact him to let him know when the next meeting will be.

Someone is interested in purchasing a bench, so some discussion was made on the location. Kerry has talked to Greg about pouring a picnic table pad at the City Park which will be done this summer. Kerry will get a building permit for this project.

We will be cleaning the Shelter houses and bathroom at the Park on May 3 at 10:00 and on May 14 at 7:00 we will be planting hostas. Watch for reminders on these date.

The possibility of doing something to the Monument Circle was discussed, but nothing decided at this time.

The City Clerk is putting the finishing touches on a Pool Survey that she will have available for the public to fill out. Please watch for further details on where to pick these up. We would like as much public input on this as possible.

 We have decided to move the meeting to the 2nd Thursday of the month thru the summer months.

The next meeting will be held on May 8th at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall. Please feel free to attend if you are interested in being part of this group.

Secretary/Treasurer
Deb Reinhart