An area city council adjourns after a two hour meeting without approving anything on the agenda.
Now they'll have to hold a special meeting.
People in Marble Rock say this isn't the first time their council has had problems.
You may remember home video footage from last September. It shows a heated marble rock city council meeting.
Then mayor, J.R. Ackley called the Floyd County Sheriff's Department saying the meeting was "out of control."
The man behind the camera at that fiery meeting in September is Doug Merfeld. Last November he edged out incumbent Mayor J.R. Ackley by just eleven votes.
His reason for running was to take back control of the council meetings. Some folks in Marble Rock say so far he isn't having much success.
"If I could pick up my house and move the hell out of town I would.” These are the words Florence Shook used at a Marble Rock City Council meeting last fall. Now her perspective has changed. "That's how I felt at that time, now I'm gonna stay and fight it, there's a better way to run this community," she said.
Florence has called Marble Rock home all her life and was even on the council herself, now she says, things have gotten ugly. "It's just been a nasty vicious thing for a year, year and a half," she said.
In the summer of 2006 there was a controversy over where a military cannon should go, and that’s when problems for the
Marble
Rock
City council began.
Some people thought the problems would be over with a new mayor in town. "I think everybody hoped that maybe a change would be for the better so to speak, but right now I would say no it hasn't changed," said Brian chambers. He’s a member of the Marble Rock fire department.
He says telling people where he lives has become painful. "You know you go to a different town and if somebody finds out that you're from Marble rock the first thing they ask you, 'why are you fighting, or what are you fighting about," said Chambers.
The latest conflict arose because council members wanted to amend the agenda. Mayor Merfeld wouldn't allow the amendments, so the issue sat for two hours.
Now the city is waiting. "They can't pay the bills, they can't approve the liquor license that needs to be renewed, stuff like that," Shook said.
Chambers just hopes his town can move on. "We're a good little city and we've always got our projects accomplished, and we do work together, we just need to get this stopped and get rid of the black eye," he said.
Marble Rock Mayor Doug Merfeld says the reason he didn't want to amend the agenda is because it was out of order.
He says he is trying to hold a special meeting Saturday morning at 8:00am.
One of the major items on the marble rock council agenda is a $300,000 bridge project.
The Iowa Department of Transportation says the bridge needs to be replaced as soon as possible.
|
