The City Council Finance Committee voted unanimously Aug. 18, 2025, to pre-authorize a series of expenditures over $2,500 across city departments, including environmental mitigation credits and an emergency demolition contract, the committee record shows.
Committee members approved pre-authorizations that included: the airport’s $10,865 HVAC work; building maintenance’s $18,128 door and frame replacement; community planning and development’s $8,400 appraisal review for the La Porte Road Phase 2 reconstruction project; a $139,800 emergency demolition contract with DW Zinsser Company for the building at 325 West Park Avenue; engineering’s $160,797 purchase of 5.46 acres of emergent wetland credits to compensate for wetlands lost in the 2400 block of MLK Jr. Drive; and a $260,000 blanket pre-authorization for concrete and asphalt repairs in the street department.
Other approved items read into the record included annual subscriptions and equipment for fire, leisure services repairs at Riverfront Stadium, Young Arena ice-system parts and retrofit lighting kits, police surveillance cameras and ballistic plates, sewer agreements with the U.S. Geological Survey for Cedar River stream gauging station operation and maintenance, replacement motors and mixer parts for wastewater facilities, and replacement of walkway grating around the Easton Aeration Basin ($71,850 plus freight).
A council member thanked the staff member who read the list and the committee proceeded to a unanimous vote. One substantive discussion point during the pre-authorization section involved staffing titles in the street department that had been raised earlier during the travel requests; staff reiterated that two individuals share leadership responsibilities in the street department and that one position is expected to be converted from interim to full time.
The motion to pre-authorize the listed expenditures passed by unanimous vote among members present; the record shows no amendments or conditions attached to the approvals.