Riverside Park took center stage for much of Monday’s Iola City Council meeting.
Council members unanimously agreed to provide city support for the upcoming Rotary Day at the Park and Neil Westervelt Memorial Car Show as part of the Allen County Fair.
The Iola Rotary Club will host the barbecue cookoff and car show all day long.
Rotarians Judy Brigham and Bob Hawk asked Council members to allow overnight camping Friday, provide added trash dumpsters, increase police patrols of the park during the day, install panels for increased electric service to accommodate the large crowd, and give up to 100 free swimming pool passes for cookoff participants.
Most of those services are provided anyway, Council members noted, because of the fair, which kicks off tonight with a Friends of 4-H Picnic and Style Revue. Activity goes into high gear at the park Thursday and runs through next Monday.
COUNCIL MEMBERS also voted, 8-0, to allow overnight camping at the park Aug. 18-20 for the Kansas Speleological Society, a group dedicated to the exploration of caves.
The campers will be in town then in part to explore the legendary John Brown Cave located on land owned by Iola Industries along Elm Creek. The cave lies just outside Iola’s city limits.
Likewise, the Council authorized five vacation days to be offered as prizes at Iola’s annual city employee picnic Aug. 8 at the Recreation Community Building at the park.
FINALLY, Donna Houser, a member of the Iola CITF/PRIDE Committee, gave an update on ongoing improvements to the football stadium at Riverside Park.
Among the improvements: a thorough cleaning of the stadium’s concrete concourse, which is being coated with a sealant to prevent cracking along the seating area; USD 257 crews have installed a new electrical panel to improve lighting throughout the stadium, and the concessions area also is being upgraded.
People are noticing, Houser said,
Houser shared her vision for the rest of the park, including improved baseball and softball facilities, and taller bleachers for spectators attending Iola swim meets.
“We could have a really nice complex down there,” Houser said. “We have a nice one, but it could be better.”
TWO major items before the Council — the 2018 budget and whether Iola will grant a request to help a hotel developer buy a parcel of land near the intersections of U.S. 54 and U.S. 169 — will be discussed more in depth at the Council’s Aug. 14 meeting.
The hotel discussion had been on Monday’s agenda before city officials announced Friday it would be pushed back to Aug. 14. Both Mayor Joel Wicoff and City Administrator Sid Fleming were absent Monday.
Iolan Bob Chase, in a public forum segment of Monday’s meeting, spoke out against any city involvement in the hotel land purchase.
If the hotel developers are that confident their venture will be successful, they should be able to secure financing privately, Chase opined.
