The Hawk Eye
The Burlington City Council may violate one of its own financing policies several times in the next 10 years.
It has been a goal of the city council to not use more than 70% of its total debt capacity. Based on current projections, however, the city will violate this policy in four of the next 10 years. That is our goal and there are going to be times when we are under and times when we are over, Burlington Mayor Jon Billups said.
In Iowa, cities are limited in their ability to borrow debt to 5% of their total assessed property valuation. For Burlington, the Fiscal Year 2022 limit is set at $72.5 million and the city is expected to carry $51 million, which amounts to 70.5% of its limit.
The Hawk Eye
During a meeting with Assistant City Manager Nick MacGregor discussing future construction projects, the Burlington City Council gave the green light to progress to the next step replacing Cascade Bridge.
Interim city manager Jim Ferneau said Cascade Bridge is the equivalent of two to three years worth of roads projects. If you want a Cascade Bridge, we are going to have to pay for it, said councilman Robert Critser.
Cascade Bridge was built in the late 1800s and was open to traffic until 2008, when the city council closed it to all traffic after an engineering report said the bridge was likely to collapse due to its deterioration. A later city council reopened the bridge to foot and bike traffic, but on MacGregor s advice, the bridge was closed again in 2019.
January 26, 2021
Burlington, Ia- The City of Burlington is hosting a public reception for the 3 finalists for its City Manager position.
The reception is scheduled for Friday, January 29, 2021, from 6-7 PM at Burlington Memorial Auditorium 200 N. Front Street Banquet Room A. All participants will be asked to wear masks and observe social distancing protocols to protect against transmission of COVID-19.
The finalists for the position are:
Sam Anselm is the former City Administrator of Wildwood, Missouri, and former City Manager of Joplin, Missouri. He has served in local government positions in Missouri for the past 22 years. He holds a Master of Public Policy Administration degree from the University of Missouri- St. Louis.
The Burlington City Council has selected an outside hire as Burlington s new chief of police.
Marc Denney will assume his position at the helm of the Burlington Police Department at a yet-to-be-announced date. Denney accepted the city s offer for the position ahead of a meeting Monday during which the council was set to approve his appointment.
“This is just formalizing it,” mayor Jon Billups said of the meeting.
Denney now is the police chief of La Center, Washington, a town with a population of 3,281 as of 2018. Prior to that, according to his LinkedIn profile, he was a deputy sheriff commander for 23 years in Cochise County, Arizona, which had a population of 125,922 in 2019.