Montgomery remains half-closed

Montgomery Street will remain open, despite a request from business owner Daniel Coen.

Issues in the stability of the north wall of Coen’s Home Furnishings resulted in engineer Erik Raker of Raker Rhodes Engineering investigating what needed to be done to ensure safety.

According to Raker’s recommendation, the west half of the wall “should be shored from top of basement slab to the underside of the roof framing.” Until work on the north wall is completed, Raker said building access and parking on that section of Montgomery should be restricted.

From 108 to 110 W. Montgomery St., parking and the sidewalk on the south side of the street have been blocked off. However, Coen requested through written correspondence the whole block be closed.

Creston City Council discussed his request Tuesday, though Coen was not present. General sentiment was to follow the guidelines from the engineer, which only suggested the closing of the sidewalk and parking.

Creston Street Superintendent T.J. Parsons asked for help regarding the lack of rule-following with the barricades already placed.

“We go out there and set the barricades up and every single day the businesses on the north side spin the barricades around and they all drive in there. I have a picture where the barricades are set up and every single parking spot inside the barricades is full of vehicles,” Parsons said.

The city has had constant issues with citizens disregarding the barricades. Parsons said during the lighted parade, someone moved the barricades off the road, resulting in a complaint from Coen.

“Dan sent me an email wanting to know why we did it,” Parsons said. “We did not do it. People come out there at all given times.”

He also asked why the city was providing barricades for this project, when typically contractors provide their own barricades.

“Does the city have to provide their own barricades for this? Another thing, if we have a non-annual event we charge $25 per barricade,” Parsons said. “We’re not charging nothing and we have to go up there multiple times a week to change the barricades around. It’s costing us time and money to provide barricades for this.”

Councilmember Kiki Scarberry suggested providing barricades, but leaving Coen in charge of monitoring them.

“If he’s calling and saying, why’d you move them,” Scarberry said. “I say we don’t charge him for them but also tell him that the street department isn’t responsible for them, he’s in charge of them.”

The council agreed and decided against closing the entire road. It was suggested Coen could come back to the council when construction starts to close the road. The closures will be valid until March 1, at which time Coen would have to come back to the council to request additional time for the closure.

In other council news...

The Creston Fire Department has received an Iowa DNR Volunteer Fire Assistance Grant of $4,470 to use for equipment.

The hiring of Angela Patterson as a full-time dispatcher for the Creston Police Department was approved, pending completion of testing.