City approves lease changes, but not unanimously

By John Howell
City officials scuffled over Polar Express’ lease agreement Tuesday, finally voting for its approval but without their usual unanimous consent.
“The elephant in this room is the food trucks, and it’s not an issue,” Sheila Pounders said, speaking up during October’s Third Tuesday meeting after over 20 minutes’ discussion among Pounders’ partner, Don Clayton, the mayor, aldermen and city attorney.
Clayton’s Court Street Patio LLC is the local event manager for Iowa Pacific Railroad’s 2016 production of the Polar Express Train Ride.
“My only issue is the new plat,” Alderman Eddie Nabors had said earlier in the discussion, after assistant City Attorney Colmon Mitchell asked for input from the elected officials as they pulled from their meeting packets copies of the agreement by which the city licenses Iowa Pacific’s use during Polar Express of certain public property in the Square and approaches. The packet included aerial photos of the Public Square and approaches marked to define the space that Polar Express sought to have included.
Mitchell had some months earlier sent Polar Express an agreement similar to the 2015 licensing document with minor changes including parking direction priorities and having the train’s engine stop short of the main pedestrian rail crossing in the center of the Square.
Nabors noted that Polar Express is also asking the city for both gazebos and the areas around them to be included.
“I understand that there is a reasoning. I’m not necessarily opposed to it but I’d like to understand it, about excluding food trucks that were there last year from that area,” Nabors said. “My experience with it last year was that it was very popular, it was viewed as a positive part of the ride experience. If there’s something that opposes that, I don’t mind entertaining that concept (relocating food trucks) at all. I would like to know why.”
Nabors reminded fellow aldermen and the mayor that after last year’s Polar Express, the city had installed 220 electrical outlets at the 2015 food truck site, responding to liability concerns about food trucks generating their power from portable generators.
“There’s no tents this year,” Mayor Jerry Autrey said, referring to the large tents on the east side of the Square used last year to house the Polar Express gift shop and ticketing area. “They’ve got the office and everything right there in Teddy’s building (the old Sterlings building owned by Alderman Teddy Morrow’s mother-in-law, Jan Williams) and that’s the reason they want it unobstructed,” Autrey said. “They’re not against the trucks,” he continued. “They want a clear view to the train,” he added later.
“They just want it visible all the way across,” Morrow said.
“Why don’t we have some kind of compromise and move them (food trucks) somewhere?” Alderman Bill Dugger asked.
Dugger also questioned why the Iowa Pacific required control of both “gazebos” (the round, sheltered structure on the west side of the Square and the rectangular, trackside structure on the east side), a question also raised by Morrow.
“What about if they have it leased and something’s going on with open house, can we still use it for that?” Morrow asked. “If they just don’t want food trucks there because of the visibility, fine, let’s find somewhere else for them and don’t include that (gazebos) in the lease,” he continued.
“What is the railroad going to put in that spot?” Dugger asked during further discussion.
“They don’t want anything in that spot, they want a clear view where people walk to the train,” the mayor replied.
“That’s what I’m saying, we don’t have to lease that to them, … we can agree to move the food trucks somewhere else. I think we’re in control of this,” Dugger said.
“If you move it, what’s the big deal?” Alderman Ted Stewart asked.
“If there’s not something going on and we wanted to use it, I would want to make it clear that we could use it for something,” Morrow said.
“I’m okay if you’ve got to take it (gazebos) out, but there’s got to be something in there (the agreement) that there can’t be anything when the train’s coming,” Autrey said.
“I think that’s the main concern is when the train’s coming, when people are here,” Alderman Stan Harrison said.
“Just because Iowa Pacific is on this lease does not mean that the city can’t use it (gazebos) for a memorial ceremony, a picnic, people who take photos; we’re not excluding the people of Batesville,” Clayton said. He said that IP’s main concern is the visibility and that Court Street Catering’s concern is “to make this event as easy on everyone as possible.”
Duggar sparred briefly with Clayton, asking if IP had no problem with public use of the gazebo space, why would IP insist on including it in the lease?
“If you were to exclude it from the drawing (diagram showing proposed lease area) how does Iowa Pacific know that they’re going to have total use of it,” Clayton said, and cited an example of an non-permitted obstruction of the view.
“If y’all have it, how do we know — you say we can use it — how do we know that? There has to be trust on both sides,” Dugger said.
“It’s taken a month to get where we are today;” Clayton said. “They (IP) were kind of looking for an answer today,” he continued, citing a long-turnaround if the agreement was amended, submitted to IP for review and resubmitted to the city for final approval.
Replying to a question from Batesville Main Street Committee member Sue Labrano Womble, Clayton said that food trucks would be relocated to the Square’s opposite side, in front of the old Shackeroff’s building now leased by Iowa Pacific.
“There is water and electricity there; it is actually being worked on now at the moment so that they can put numerous water outlets there and power outlets,” Clayton said.
Batesville Main Street Manager Colleen Clark said that she would be concerned about pedestrian safety for visitors trying to walk from the proposed food truck location across the Eureka Street/Panola Avenue rail crossing against heavy vehicle traffic. Deputy Police Chief Jimmy McCloud agreed.
“I will agree with Colleen about the safety aspect; … there is a huge safety concern,” McCloud said. He said he anticipated faster traffic from Eureka entering the Square when the current street paving and realignment are completed.
“If we would have an opportunity as a police department to work with Colleen and Don and do a little walkthrough and then bring back to the board some things we can put in place as far as making the Square pedestrian friendly — at least during this event and if it works out maybe go further. I think it’s very workable if we just do some safety planning,” the deputy chief continued.
“We’re not against any food truck; we are all for food trucks, that’s not the issue,” Pounders said. “We just want to put them in that spot, citing proximity to the boarding side of the train and public bathrooms.
“Those people who are going to that ticket office to get a ticket are going to probably have a 30 to 40-minute wait … so that gazebo area gives them a place to sit and to wait and to go into a store and buy something,” Pounders continued. “That’s the look we’re trying to get — the whole Christmas experience — we want it to be very productive for merchants.”
“While we’re on food trucks … ,” she said; “when a food truck comes into your town — as a sitting restaurant, we pay a three percent tourism tax to you; when we go anywhere else and cater, like we go to Oxford or somewhere else, we have to pay the tourism tax before we leave town — did the food trucks pay tourism tax to you last year?” Pounders followed that with more questions: “Did they pay a permitting fee to you last year? Did they pay for the use  of your electricity or your generators or your water?”
“That’s something to think about, she continued. “And I want them; I want them to be here, but you’ve got to establish some guidelines for what they’ve got to do,” Pounders said.
The Court Street Patio asked city officials to remember the established downtown restaurants. “They will be here when the train’s gone.
Dugger continued to state his position to take the gazebos out of the new agreement.
“I wish we had had this conversation when the concept first came up of changing something that was a positive part of the event last year; I think everybody agrees with me: we didn’t hear,” Nabors said, after about a half hours’ back and forth.
However, Nabors said he was ready for the city to sign the agreement to avoid further delay, as did Harrison.
Dugger said that he still had reservations about including the gazebos in the agreement.
Forty-one minutes after the discussion began, Harrison made the motion to accept the agreement as written. Morrow, Stewart and Nabors approve with a “aye” vote; Dugger abstained.