HILLS

In an effort to provide faster, more consistent service, Johnson County Refuse asked the Hills City Council to move their garbage pickup day to Wednesday instead of Tuesday at the April 22 city council meeting.

Johnson County Refuse originally had an unbalanced workload between Tuesday and Wednesday and is trying to evenly distribute work between the two days. Lone Tree also approved to move their pickup date to Wednesday to help ease the Tuesday workload.

The move was approved and will be implemented beginning Wednesday, May 8.

The council also approved their budget for the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1, 2024, and ends June 30, 2025.

Additionally, the council approved their contract with the Johnson County Sheriff department, which provides a set number of hours providing sheriff presence in Hills each week.

Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel visited Hills in December 2023 to propose the town remain at 15 hours a week at a rate of $53 – an increase of $4 to set Hills on a path to cover 100% of the department’s cost to operate in Hills.

Hills Coalition 2.0

The Hills City Council met with the Hills Coalition 2.0 at their April 8 City Council meeting.

The Hills community originally had a Hills Coalition in the early 2010s and this is a revival of said coalition with some of the original members.

Hills Coalition 2.0 decided to reunite after the closing of Hills Elementary School. They’d like to work with the community, gathering insight to help guide the council.

“We would like to coordinate our efforts with both city and business leaders,” Hills resident Jody Bailey presented to the Hills council on April 8. “We want to have good communication, we’re not here to step on the city’s toes. We want to know how we can assist the city.”

Hills Elementary School update

Hills Coalition 2.0’s insight should help the council make a decision about Hills Elementary School, namely if they’ll stay in ICCSD, leave, or solely retain the property to use differently.

But this future of Hills Elementary School is a waiting game.

Hills Mayor Tim Kemp recently met with ICCSD Superintendent Matt Degner to express interest in retaining the Hills Elementary property.

According to Kemp, Degner believes the Iowa City School Board will address future plans for the site sometime in May during their board meetings.

Thus, the town of Hills must wait for this information.

Next council meeting: The Hills City Council will next meet on Monday, May 13 at 7 p.m. in the Community Center.