Lisbon is looking at a $0.02 per thousand levy rate increase for the coming fiscal year, rising to $12.50 per thousand.
According to mayor Doug O’Connor, the state average is $12.71 per thousand, which places Lisbon $0.21 per thousand below the state average. The council took no action during the public hearing, but the council voted unanimously to approve the Budget Statement for FY27 during the regular city council meeting that followed. No public comments were made on the levy rate.
Public Hearings, Ordinances, Resolutions
Following the public hearing on the levy rate, the council moved on to voting on various subjects, the first one being the approval to move funds from TIF to the downtown reinvestment that has already been paid out. The council voted unanimously to approve the movement.
The council went on to approve a public hearing on the engineer’s report for the preliminary plan for the City of Lisbon EMS District. According to Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service director Jake Lindauer,
“This is the last step before the approval of the plat that will set the timer for the sixty days for the election,” Lindauer said.
According to Lindauer, once timing is figured out with Johnson County, Linn County, and Mount Vernon, there will be one election held, rather than each municipality having to hold their own. Cedar County still isn’t on board.
“They are still holding to their 422D levy. I think there’ll be conversations at some point. Right now, we’re focusing on what we have direct control over, and then we’ll be looking to have more conversations with Cedar County,” Lindauer said.
The council went on to set two more public hearings: one for the FY27 Budget on April 13, 2026, and one for Budget Amendment Number Two on April 27, 2026.
Correspondences
There were two correspondences to address at the Monday, March 23 City Council Meeting, including a letter from Historic Preservation, and the Municipal Leadership Academy (MLA) Part 3 Invite.
“The letter was just showing that they did submit their annual report, and they are considered an active certified local government commission,” city clerk Christina Eicher said, regarding the Historic Preservation Letter.
Moving along to the MLA Part 3 Invite, Eicher said, “They’re not required. They’re just nice to have for council members.”
Reports
Parks and Recreation Director Drayton Kamberling shared that spring soccer began last week for second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. The PreK, AK, kindergarten, and first graders will begin their season on Tuesday, March 31. In total, 130 kids are signed up for spring soccer this year. As of the Monday, March 23 city council meeting, Kamberling was still looking for one more coach for the spring soccer season.
Kamberling concluded by sharing that, coming on Saturday, April 4, Lisbon Parks and Rec will be hosting an Easter event at Lisbon City Park.
According to Police Chief Jason Blinks, there was a “small incident” involving a dog recently, which the city attorney is aware of and will be sending a letter to the department shortly.
At the moment, the police K9 is at training and will be back on April 3, 2026.
Although the department is not quite fully staffed right now, there are three officers who are either at the academy or will be soon.
“Officer Macke has only got six weeks left, and then he’ll be back from the academy. Then, once he goes, we’ll have one—hopefully two—going to the academy starting May 4,” Blinks said.
For the Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service, it was a busy week while they had an ambulance that had an issue, causing it to be taken out of service.
“We were fortunate enough that Mechanicsville loaned us one of their ambulances, because we knew it was going to be out all weekend. We were pretty thankful for that,” Lindauer said.
Although City Administrator Brandon Siggins was absent, notes by Siggins to city clerk Christina Eicher were shared during the meeting.
For Siggins, Eicher shared that brush pick-up will be per code, spring seeding will begin soon to fix up areas that got messed up by plows clearing snow, and trash pickup is back to normal following the adjustment for the blizzard Monday, March 16.
Following reports, councilman Rawley Alger asked about the status of the Mexican food restaurant, Los Cuñados, that was supposed to come to downtown Lisbon in early December.
“They have had no contact with the city at this time for a while now. They were close, and then all of a sudden, they just stopped, and they stopped paying and now they’re shut off and haven’t contacted [the city]. We have disconnected the water. The utilities are shut off with the city at this time,” Eicher said.
Concluding the meeting, mayor Doug O’Connor extended thanks to all crews who took part in keeping streets clean following the blizzard on Monday, March 16.