By Elaine Rassel
This was the last meeting for the Marcus City Council for the month of April. I’m going to put some of the last important items as first in this write-up.
RAGBRAI will NOT be coming through Marcus. Their route has been re-directed to turn south off HWY 3 at the HWY 140 intersection east of Remsen (Golden Pheasant corner) and then go on to C38 leading them into Cherokee. They have only that morning of their RAGBRAI trip on that Sunday to be on Highway 3 from Le Mars to Remsen. I understand that No bikes (connected with RAGBRAI) are to be on Highway 3 in the afternoon.
The MMCRU High School students will be busy on Friday, April 30 when they take to cleaning ditches of garbage. They will be sorting pop cans for the Chamber. (On Friday, some were seen painting handrails at Municipal Building and at the Fair Grounds.) No matter what they did, THANK YOU for your services!
City Code Enforcement person, Dave Christensen turned in his list of homes that he would be sending letters to asking them to clean up or make repairs on their properties.
At 5 p.m. there was a Public Hearing on “Proposed Sale of Real Estate on the Marcus Business Park, the City of Marcus, Iowa”. This Real Estate was Lot 11 in the Marcus Business Park. The real estate sale is between City of Marcus and MidAmerican Energy Company. The City Council had determined the fair market value of this real estate to be $37,426.50. They are offering a rebate of $4,158.50 should a building be completed on the premises within one year.
No one from MidAmerican was present at this Public Hearing as far as to present their future plans to the Council. There were no written objections but there was one citizen that was not against selling this lot but was interested in knowing just what MidAmerican plans to do with this lot. With the Public Hearing exiting in two minutes, the City Council continued with their meeting.
United Bank of Iowa representative, Logan Patterson came before the Council with the Bank’s desire to build a new bank. They are contemplating buying Leo Schwarz’s house and was asking to purchase the City owned land north of Leo’s house with an offer of $10,000. (This is the ground that has the MAC sign on it just across from the Post Office.) The bank would be able to be a “drive-through” bank. It was questioned as to if the parking that people use when they go to the Post Office, would be affected.
Patterson had no plans at this time other than to be able to have a place for this future bank. City Attorney will be negotiating a purchase agreement with United Bank of Iowa in the near future.
Resolution #21-19, “Resolution Approving Proposed Sale of Real Estate Along Eagle Avenue and Progressive Drive in the City of Marcus, Iowa” was tabled at this time.
The first reading of Ordinance #348, “An Ordinance Designating a One-Way Alley in the City of Marcus, Iowa,” was approved and approved was to waive second and third reading of Ordinance #348. This is the alley next to Mike’s Barbershop. The cafe’ east of the Barbershop is having a drive-up window using this alley.
Approved was Resolution #21-20, “Resolution Setting Public Hearing Regarding Proposals to Rehabilitate Abandoned Properties”.
The Council approved the hire of Jackie Stephens to help on the Marcus Police Department part-time.
The next two items on the agenda, “Job Descriptions for Municipal Swimming Pool” and Resolution #21-21, “A Resolution Setting Wages and Fees for the Municipal Pool for the Summer of 2021”, I did not hear being discussed. I don’t know what the job descriptions are or the wages those hired for the swimming pool will be getting so I cannot write on these two issues.
The Council approved a Class C Liquor license with Sunday and Outdoor Sales for the Hawkeye.
The Special Meeting of the City Council was April 26, 2021 at 5 p.m. Mayor Hansen presided with Council Members present: Ebert Jenness, Enneking, Klassen, and Frangione. Absent: No one.
The following police report was not given at a Marcus Council meeting but was given to media following our meetings in April. It involves a Le Mars man that was charged with having a long-term sexual relationship with a girl that began after she turned 13 years old. The girl’s mother has been charged because she knew of the relationship and encouraged the daughter to stay with the man.
Marcus police arrested Rashawn Dailey, 22, on April 21 (Wednesday) on two counts of felony third-degree sexual abuse. The girl’s mother, 40, is not named by media to protect the victim’s identity. The mother was arrested Monday and charged with misdemeanor child endangerment.
Court documents state that the mother encouraged her daughter and the girl’s older brother to befriend Dailey in the summer of 2017. After the girl turned 13 years old, the mother allowed Dailey to move into their Marcus home. This is where he supplied marijuana to all the residents of this home.
It was in February of 2020 and again in May, that officers executed search warrants for the home and found marijuana and drug paraphernalia in Dailey’s bedroom. There was also evidence that the girl and he were sharing this (his) bedroom.
The girl had been interviewed in March by authorities and at this time told authorities she had been in a sexual relationship with Dailey from summer of 2017 until October 2020. It was at this March interview that the girl admitted she had NOT been honest at an earlier interview because both her mother and Dailey had told her not to tell anyone because they would get in trouble.
Court documents state that the girl had said she had told her mother she didn’t want to be with Dailey, however her mother encouraged her to stay with him and give him another chance.
Although the following was NOT in the latest media report, I’m going to report that “criminal charges are merely an accusation; all subjects are innocent unless proven guilty in the court of law”.
(Earlier information in the aforementioned report can be found in February, March, May (2020) Marcus Newspapers. All of any police reports that Police Officer Brian Flikeid reports to the Marcus City Council always state at the end of the report Criminal charges are merely an accusation; all subjects are innocent unless proven guilty in the court of law.)