Council renews Sunnyside License amid calls for stricter compliance
The Lennox City Council met Monday, August 10.
The City Council previously issued a 90-day extension on the license for Sunnyside Mobile Home Park.
“Back in June, you issued a 90-day extension on the license for this mobile home park, given documented concerns with the conditions of the park. Since that time, Sunnyside had made improvements to the park, trash and debris has for the most part been removed, as of last week when I looked, all the vehicles appear to be operable. There was an engine hoist over there today though by one of them. The overall appearance of the park has improved to the point where we’re comfortable with the renewal of the license. I will note that regardless of that recommendation, I remain confident that the future renewal processes will be a carbon copy of this year’s,” City Administrator, Nate Vander Plaats said stating he will continue to monitor the property frequently.
“I want to start by saying that this is not the only mobile home park that we’ve had issues with and I am also very concerned that we will have this come up in the future. I would really like to look at a plan moving forward, even though what that looks like is really hard to determine,” said Alderman Laura Thiesse.
“What I get irritated about is they know they have to have a license every year and they know when it expires every year. So why is it that we’re having to grant extensions the last two years when they know that they’re license is expiring and that they need to meet certain qualifications and code requirements?” asked Alderman Lauren VanDriel.
“It’s my perspective only, but to me it’s a lack of park standards and rules and holding people to whatever those rules might actually be. I think we have an example of a very well-run mobile home park in town, Long Creek Park, where there are very clear standards. Those standards enforced and everyone’s aware of them. We never had any real issues down there,” Vander Plaats said.
“I think what we need to do is say now we’re not going to do the extensions anymore. There’s really no reason to be granting these extensions. You know what is required of you to get this license and you know when your license is expiring,” VanDriel said.
“Absolutely. I feel like the reason why we granted those extensions were for the citizens, not the management,” Alderman Thiesse added.
Motion was made to approve the full license of Sunnyside Mobile Home with the expectation they maintain compliance throughout the licensing period by Thiesse, seconded by Billy Welch, motion carried unanimously.
The City of Lennox is preparing a surplus resolution for disposition of equipment that is no longer needed. At the most recent City Council meeting, the City Council directed staff to work with Big Iron Auctions to dispose of surplus equipment that is not being recycled and/or destroyed.
Motion was made to approve by Rob Peterson, seconded by Thiesse, motion carried.
The Council authorized the City Engineer complete a Base Flood Evaluation Study in 2026, City Engineer, Mitch Mergen was present to share the results.
“Our study area was the larger area of Long Creek and Long Creek itself. We’re simply trying to establish the FEMA flood rate maps that all banks utilize. So if you have a mortgage on a property and you’re getting a federally backed loan, they require you to have flood insurance if you are within proximity of what they deem a flood risk. FEMA puts out the maps of where they expect those floods risks to occur and we’re building on that,” Mergen said.
“The study has added information to arrive at what area can be filled with that flood plane while still meeting FEMAs regulations or federal regulations,” he continued.
In the meat of the report, Mergen identified 100 and 500 year flood plains off the Northern edge of the tributary of Long Creek.
“We’re close to the countryside subdivision and they’re planning a road connection out to Highway 17. Before this may, we really couldn’t permit that fill until someone went through this process and now that it’s done, we can understand that better and permit that road crossing,” Mergen said.
President Chad Swier questioned if there was anything that jumped out as surprising in the study.
“No, FEMA had preliminary maps that they’ve been working on for the past 15 years. We had a meeting with them two years ago that these new maps were going to come out. The analysis that we’ve done here, we’ve taken the same model that they’re using to develop their preliminary maps and are supposed to be effective in the next year or two, so we took the same model, added the culverts, and added the extra data just to arrive at this flood wave because that’s not part of their preliminary mapping,” Mergen responded.
“Will this affect any FEMA relief if a 500 year flood comes and it’s not in the bounds that we’ve identified?” asked Alderman Bill Daugherty.
“No, if anything it makes us more compliant with the federal flood insurance program,” Vander Plaats responded.
Motion was made to accept the base elevation study by VanDriel, seconded by Daugherty, motion carried.
The Council was asked to consider Resolution 2026-08-10-01. The resolution would approve a new fee for commercial public records requests that come from out of state entities.
“I hope this is a one time hit at this. We are getting an influx of public record requests from out of state commercial entities. Since I wrote this memo, we’ve received four new ones. On occasion we will receive a public records request from a resident or local entity. A vast majority of the time those are filled out quickly and simply returned without much ado largely because so many of those documents are already publicly available online,” Vander Plaats said.
“Each request requires staff time to respond, research it, compile it, and respond with closure. In an effort to limit the requests or alternatively cover the cost of the requests, we’re asking council to approve a new fee for commercial public record requests that come from out of state entities at $100 per request,” he continued.
Alderman VanDriel asked what information the companies were requesting.
“Vendor records, purchases made between 2022-2026, specific purchases, contracts with Motorola,” were a few examples Vander Plaats gave.
“Is there a law requiring us to respond to these requests,” President Swier asked.
“Yes, we have to respond,” VanderPlaats answered.
Motion was made to approve by Daugherty, seconded by VanDriel, motion carried.