The Reinbeck City Council at their regular meeting on August 3. The council voted 4-0 to approve a building and enterance permits for a new Dollar General store to be built on Highway 175. Darvin Graham/Sun Courier

Plans for the City of Reinbeck to welcome in a Dollar General store took another step forward at the Reinbeck City Council meeting on August 3.

Before the council was an entrance permit from the Iowa Department of Transportation and a building permit that would allow Dollar General to construct a new building on the north side of Grundy Avenue across from Casey’s General Store.

Darren Trunck, owner of Trunck’s Country Foods grocery store in Reinbeck, spoke at the meeting against the proposed new business. Trunck felt that introducing a national retailer like Dollar General into Reinbeck would be a “detrimental mistake to the community.” He believes Dollar General entering the rural market in Reinbeck could force his business to discontinue their Save-N-Share community non-profit program and impact his ability to retain the workforce he employs currently.

Susie Petersen from rural Gladbrook was also present at the meeting and spoke in favor of the new development.

“I think Dollar General can bring a lot of great things to our community,” Petersen said.

She cited the convenience of being able to shop for a wide variety of products during longer business hours rather than having to travel to Grundy Center or Waterloo.

Petersen owns the parcel of land that is being sought for the new Dollar General and said she intends to close the sale by the end of August.

After hearing comments from the floor, council members discussed some of their opinions on the matter and relayed feedback received from citizens.

“I’ve been pretty strongly encouraged by citizens that they don’t want this,” Councilman Kyle Rasmussen said. “I don’t think it’s good long term for our community. But with that being said, I don’t think there’s anything for us to say but that they’ve met all the requirements, unfortunately.”

Councilman Nathan Ragsdale stated he believed a legal battle could ensue if the city declined the building permit despite Dollar General meeting all of the permit requirements.

“I believe if we were to decline it we would end up in a year long law suit and it would end up being built anyway,” Ragsdale said. “That’s just my personal opinion.”

Dollar General approached the city two years ago with an application for a building permit on the same parcel of land but concerns about water runoff from a new building worsening flooding conditions in the area as well as the absence of a required sustainability report stalled the project.

The company has since hired a new development firm to coordinate the acquisition and this time completed all of the prerequisite steps before submitting a building permit application to the city.

“I wish there was somebody here from Dollar General so that we could talk to them,” said Councilwoman Michele Knaack. “I’m with Kyle in that I’ve had people reach out to me also to discuss that they were not in favor it. I’ve also had a couple people reach out to say that they don’t think it would be a bad idea. That being said, I don’t know what rights we have to decline something when they have checked all the boxes that are required to be checked.”

There were no representatives from Dollar General or its’ contracted development firm present at the meeting on Monday.

The entrance permit and the building permit for the Dollar General project were both passed on 4-0 votes with Councilman Shawn Murphy abstaining because the company he works for may bid on the future project.

Dollar General has been quickly expanding across the state in recent years, nearly doubling its stores since 2015. The national variety store chain now operates over 250 locations in Iowa. The location in Reinbeck would make the second Dollar General to open in Grundy County with the store in Grundy Center open since 2005.

In other business…

The council tabled action on reproofing the Memorial Building in order to seek further quotes.

Approved street closings on Broad Street and Main Street for the upcoming Reinbeck Art Festival to be held on September 19. As of now the annual art show is still on schedule but organizers will look towards the outcome of other art shows in region before making a final determination.

Accepted resignations from Dean Larsen and Dean Snow from the cemetery board and appointed Ray Rannfeldt and Sue Messerly as replacements.

Approved a nuisance abatement extension for the property on 405 Pine St. owned by Misti and Michael Ellis. The extension requires that the dilapidated residential property be demolished or repaired by September 30 and for a plan of action be presented to the council at their September meeting.

Approved a rental request from John Stull who sold his building at 410 Main St. and is seeking to retain an office space in the downtown area. He will rent an office in the city hall building at $150 per month.

Approved contracts for the Highway 175 and Chestnut Street Stormwater Improvement project.

Approved the third reading of an ordinance to change city wastewater rates. The rates will be increasing to $22.29 for the first 150 cubic feet of water used and $ 0.0962 per cubic foot after 150.

Approved the 2020 street finance report.

Approved an annual membership to the Iowa Northland Regional Council of Governments organization.

Set the next regular council meeting date to September 8 in observance of the Labor Day holiday.