The City Council of Webster City approved Monday night a development agreement with Brew Oil of Storm Lake to extensively renovate the former Doc’s Stop convenience store.

The agreement puts in writing a number of tenets guiding the $5.5 million project. Webster City will put in as much as $1.2 million in tax increment financing (TIF) as an incentive. TIF uses projected gains in taxable value of a defined area to pay for infrastructure improvements.

The agreement calls for Brew to own and operate the site as a truck stop, open 24 hours a day seven days a week, include a minimum of two fast casual restaurants in the development and to complete all construction by Oct. 26.

Development Director Ariel Bertran confirmed Brew has signed agreements with Dunkin’ Donuts and Arby’s.

Brew has been excavating, removing old concrete and installing new oil storage tanks on the site since January. Bertran believes work on the project may be finished “well before Oct. 26.”

The council agreed with a staff proposal to waive a third reading of additions to the Webster City Riverview urban renewal area. The process began last fall with the council approving roughly double the size of the original 1986 district, which was focused on funding improvements.

The present measure adds three parcels: the brew oil site at 407 Closz Drive; 2307 Superior, the site of a K-Mart store that closed in January 2019; and a smaller parcel at 1827 Superior, once the site of Casey’s General Store.

As anticipated, both base and usage rates for all classes of electricity customers will increase 5% on April 1, as the city deals with increases in wholesale electricity costs passed on by Corn Belt Power Co-Op of Humboldt.

Corn Belt itself was reacting to very large increases from its suppliers. Electric rates across the country have increased an average of 30% since 2010, far faster than inflation.

The World Resources Institute, which has studied the matter, says a combination of increasingly severe weather, mostly from hurricanes and thunderstorms, volatile prices for oil and natural gas, and a pressing need to rebuild outdated electricity generation and transmission facilities, have all contributed to the rise in rates.

Council also approved a further 4% increase to take effect Jan. 1, 2027, and a 2% increase on July 1, 2027. If no other economic factors intervene, the plan is to return to 1% annual increases beginning July 1, 2028, a plan followed by the city since 2017.

Councilman John Marvel commented, “Constituents aren’t happy about this, but our hands are tied.”

The matter may not rest there, however. City Manager John Harrenstein added.

“We continue to look at our costs on a kilowatt-hour basis,” he said. “If increases continue, we may be forced to reduce costs in the electric utility, or even look at cuts to city staff.”

The council agreed to join a group of five other cities in Hamilton County: Blairsburg, Ellsworth, Jewell, Randall and Stanhope and apply for membership in Keep Iowa Beautiful’s Hometown Pride program.

If approved, the cities would receive a formal invitation to join, which usually is announced in May each year.

Hometown Pride requires each city in the group to help cover expenses of a “community coach,” a trained advocate who will recruit volunteers, develop a new generation of local leaders, and complete projects that express pride in the cities.

Webster City will pay $500 a year for five years, and agree to help raise $20,000 each year to pay for both the community coach and improvement projects.

In the 14-year history of Hometown Pride, both large and small cities have benefitted from the program.

“From the city standpoint, this isn’t a big ask, and there could be significant upside,” said Marvel.

In other action, the council:

• Approved a second, and waived a third reading to establish fines for those causing four or more false fire alarms in a calendar year.

• Approved downtown street closures for Junquefest, Market Nights and the Hamilton County Fair Parade, all of which will take place this spring and summer.

The Daily Freeman Journal will publish details of the closures in advance of the events as they occur.