City of Maquoketa Weekly summary February 17th through February 21st, 2025

City Manager’s Office:
Hopefully this is the last week of a total ice over and our snow melt begins next week. I helped ECIA’s
Strategic Planning by meeting with other City Managers. This was a deep session meant to help guide ECIA’s
next Executive Director. Chief Zeimet and I met with the Department of Homeland Security CISA program to
pre-plan site assessment activities. This program is designed to help Cities identify physical security risks and
can lead to broader physical safety grants if the City wanted to make perimeter protection investments at the
Water Plant as an example.
City Staff held CPR/First Aid/Allergy training at City Hall with our much-appreciated Safety Sandy. Turns
out these things are great team builders for the staff. You never know when there is an emergency and there’s
plenty of real examples in the City over the last several years. BeeGees Staying Alive is the perfect beat
cadence for compression

Community Development:
The Community Development highlight of the week was the City’s Parks Board meeting on Wednesday
evening. Several measures were taken up. First, the School District transaction for a portion of Little Bear
Park closed allowing the Parks Board to take credible steps towards the replacement of two park shelters and
new parking lots at Grove Ballfields (West) and 5th Ward Parking lot. Second, the Parks Board came to a
resolution and recommendation for City Council to pursue a Splash Pad at the City owned property next to the
YMCA on the West side. The YMCA is willing to test chemicals for a recirculation unit for the City. The
improvement will be viewed as a City park with YMCA contractual support. It’s a win-win. The analysis
leading to this decision was deep. The Cities of Solon and Tiffin contributed significantly to the Finance study.
The YMCA Executive Staff of the IMV should also be thanked for giving this scenario FULL consideration.
It was a great week for Parks and future direction of outdoor water recreation in the City of Maquoketa.
On Thursday morning, Maquoketa Art Experience coffee had their largest turnout on record. There were
multiple speakers and topics including the above mention splash pad. It was a wonderful time.

Water-Wastewater:
Well, it looks like we’re on our way out of the deep freeze. We spent this week getting equipment prepared
for a gorgeous week next week jetting and running the camera. We replaced the chain on our root cutter for
the jet/vac, put a new O2 sensor in our gas monitor and prepared a list of concerning or follow up areas

will be addressing next week, such as Jones Street, Maple Street in front of Sonac and S 4th street where we
had a pretty major root problem on Thanksgiving of 2023.
I recertified my backflow license this week with a 5-hour refresher course.
Tri-con thought we had a plugged drain line after starting up the new grit pump so on Monday we rented a
sewer rat and the guys spent almost 4 hours trying to get through the plug only to find out construction had
filled it with concrete. We ran our push camera down after clearing the grit to find the concrete plug. They
will now re-route the drain.
Police Department:
On Monday, February 17th Mayor Tom Messerli administered the Oath of Office to Sgt Jayson Heiar. Sgt
Heiar’s appointment came back in December but due to some scheduling conflicts we weren’t able to have the
official swearing until this week. Sgt Heiar was promoted after successful completion of an Assessment

Center, and appointment to the Civil Service list by Maquoketa’s Civil Service Board. Sgt Heiar is a hard-
working dedicated member of our agency and has been with the Maquoketa Police Department for 12

years. Congratulations Sgt. Heiar!

On Thursday the Maquoketa Police Department received 32 tourniquets and seven stop the bleed kits. The
tourniquets and stop the bleed kits were provided by Jennifer Warren from MercyOne Genesis VNA Jackson
& Clinton County Public Health. Jennifer is the Jackson County Emergency Management Public Health
Officer. Each officer will be issued 2 tourniquets and a holder so they can carry one on their duty belt or vest.
Tourniquets are important because they can save lives by stopping severe bleeding from an arm or leg
injury. Tourniquets work by squeezing large blood vessels to stop blood loss. Just recently Maquoketa
Officers used two tourniquets to stop the bleeding while on a medical call. A big thank you to Jennifer Warren
for providing us with some additional medical supplies.

Public Works:
This week has been bitterly cold, so we have been doing inside work. We have been doing maintenance work
on our seasonal equipment. Here at Public Works we have around 30 pieces of equipment. All sizes and
shapes. From our asphalt roller to our street sweeper. They all need checked over before we begin the spring
season. Hopefully winter is coming to an end soon. So we can start sweeping the town by mid-March. That
usually takes around 4 to 5 weeks. Especially the first time. With all of the residue left from the winter months.
This can be a huge challenge and it just takes time. Let’s hope spring is just around the corner.

Library:
This past Sunday we held our 4th Galentine’s Day Celebration at Moore Local. We had made buttons, vision
boards, friendship bracelets, and paint crafts. Moore Local was generous enough to donate a snack tray. This
week is book club week, we discussed Persuasion by Jane Austen Tuesday night and will be discussing it at
noon today, Friday, as well.