Creston council meeting over pool funding

Three days after its decision about not approving funds for improvements to the McKinley Park Pool, Creston City Council will meet 5:30 p.m. today to review a possible funding source.

According to the single-item agenda, city council will take action on approving a contribution of $50,000 every 10 years for the firs phase of the McKinley Pool Aquatic Center improvement project. Funding is expected from the city’s franchise fee fund. Last October the city began the process of converting its agreement with Alliant Energy to a franchise fee. The energy company made a proposal to the city stating Creston pays about $160,000 in local option sales tax a year on the utility. The conversion was approved earlier this year.

Those funds, along with other retail sales tax revenue, is put in an account managed by the state. The state then returns a portion of those funds to taxing entities. At the time, Creston received about 57% of the local option sales tax revenue. A 1% franchise fee with Alliant allows Creston to keep all of the $160,000.

The committee behind the pool project had requested earlier this summer of $487,000 from the city for the project. The funds would complement grant applications that require matching funds. Tuesday, Creston City Council unanimously approved not to take any action on the request.