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Carroll City Council To Hold Special Meeting To Address Pending Library Project Litigation In Closed Session

Photo: Richard Collison as he addressed the Enhance Iowa Board and CAT Grant Committee at a previous meeting

The Carroll City Council is holding a special session tonight (Wednesday) to formally address the recent lawsuit filed by Carroll resident, Richard Collison in reference to the current Carroll Public Library project. On Wednesday, Aug. 8, council members and City Manager, Mike Pogge-Weaver, learned of the filed lawsuit right before a meeting of the Enhance Iowa board of directors convened in Danville. Pogge-Weaver and Library Director, Rachel Van Erdeweyk, attended that meeting to provide an update that would have likely resulted in the award of a grant just shy of $500,000 for the project. The pending litigation, however, meant that the board could not make any movement forward on the request, even though they were impressed with the community’s work to raise over $300,000 to close a nearly $207,000 gap in funding and to lower construction estimated costs by around $100,000. Collison and his attorney, John W. Blyth with Nyemaster/Goode PC, were also in attendance and said that it is their belief that the citizens of Carroll were mis- or under-informed during the pre-referendum campaign last year. The lawsuit is asking for the city to live up to promises made during that time. Mainly: that there be no more public funds used as project funding—and they assert the Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grant is public money; that there be no increase to taxes; that the renovation not exceed the $3.8 million that was presented during the campaign; and that all donations be in hand before the first bond dollar is used. The lawsuit against the City of Carroll, the Carroll City Council and Pogge-Weaver lists four different counts: negligent misrepresentation and non-disclosure; fraudulent misrepresentation; fraudulent non-disclosure; and breach of fiduciary duty. Tonight’s 5:15 p.m. meeting of the Carroll City Council will be called to order as usual at the Farner Government Building, then immediately go into closed session to address the pending litigation. They will then reconvene the open meeting and discuss a resolution to hire Ahlers & Cooney, PC, attorneys based out of Des Moines, for representation.

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