The city of Mount Vernon is looking into applying water based herbicides to the Nature Park quarry this spring.
City administrator Chris Nosbisch said that was the recommendation from both the Iowa State University Extension Services and Iowa Department of Natural Resources when it comes to next steps.
“We could continue to throw non-chemical based projects to tackle the issue, but they’re just not going to have as much impact,” Nosbisch said.
Council member Scott Rose asked if the city were to apply chemicals to the quarry, if the city would lose the ability to restock the quarry with fish from the DNR.
Nosbisch said as long as the DNR is serving as an advisor on the treatment plan for the quarry, that will not impact the restocking of fish.
“If we were to hire a third party or try to manage this on our own, that’s a different story,” Nosbisch said.
The treatments would be applied during the warmer temperatures in early spring and summer, when they have a better chance of working.
Nosbisch said the options for the city are to apply chemicals to get the issue under control or stop mitigation efforts altogether.
Council member Paul Tuerler compared the situation to an ectopic surgery for gall bladder removal. Sometimes, the surgery works fine, but if there are complications, they’re still going to open you up for an invasive surgery to correct the problem.
The city will look into the costs for the herbicide treatments and present those costs at a meeting this spring.
Council approves franchise fee with IPL
Mount Vernon has approved a franchise fee agreement with Interstate Power and Light for the next 25 years.
Mount Vernon city administrator Chris Nosbisch said that the agreement is not as extensive as Alliant Energy’s agreement, but IPL is responsible mainly for the transmission lines.
“When we signed our agreement with Alliant, they had the transmission lines themselves,” Nosbisch said. “Alliant outsourced this to IPL.”
Nosbisch said no other company is coming to the community with an agreement if the city doesn’t pass this. IPL can also operate under Alliant’s franchise fee agreement until that one sunsets in roughly 15 years.