Tagged: Burlington City Council

The Burlington Animal Shelter is up and running again at a temporary location.

An expansion and renovation of the facility is scheduled to get underway in a couple of weeks.

Des Moines County Humane Society Co-President Susan Denk says the shelter is slated to nearly double in size.

She says the most important improvement will be a new ventilation system that separates between sick animals, health animals and humans.

The shelter had to be cleared out in anticipation of the upcoming construction.

Burlington’s non-union employees are in a “wait-and-see” mode when it comes to their salaries for the upcoming fiscal year.

The city’s union workers are in line for 3.5% raises as part of the budget that takes effect July 1.  The raises are included in the current union contracts, which are in the fourth year of five.

In May, the city council signed off on a new employee manual for non-union workers.  The manual includes wage increases that are similar to the union raises.

Burlington will need to take out a very short-term loan to get through the current fiscal year, which ends June 30th.

The city council has authorized the borrowing of up to $2-million to cover payroll and operations through the end of the month.

City Manager Jim Ferneau says the city will need about $700,000 to cover the final payroll of the year, so he does not anticipate needing to borrow the full amount.

He says it is good to have the authority to do so, though, in case an ongoing capital project runs into trouble.

An expansion and renovation of the Burlington Animal Shelter could get underway this summer.

The city council voted 3-2 to hire Myers Construction to do the work.  The $820,000 bid from the firm out of Sperry, Iowa was the lowest of the three received by the city.

Burlington will split the cost of the project with the Des Moines County Humane Society.  The organization has raised more than $500,000 for the shelter since its fundraising campaign began in 2010.

Burlington could soon have a better idea of what to do with Cascade Bridge.  The bridge, which is about 115 years old, has been closed to vehicular traffic for about 4 years.

The city was ready to spend several million dollars to tear it down and build a new one.  It even had received a $1-million grant to help cover the cost.

The state stepped in, though, to make sure Burlington considered restoring the structure.

The city council has agreed to have Shuck-Britson, Inc. out of Des Moines study the bridge.

Burlington continues to wait for information in regards to the future of Cascade Bridge, which has been closed to vehicular traffic for several years.

The city was ready to start building a new roughly $4-million bridge months ago.  The project was delayed, though, to allow for a new study to be done to determine if the roughly 120-year-old bridge could be repaired or if replacement is required.

The recommendation for the new study came from the State Historic Preservation Office and was supported by several local preservation groups.