HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-01-16 Transcription Page 1
Council Present: Cole, Mims, Salih,Teague,Taylor,Thomas,Throgmorton
Staff Present: Fruin,Monroe,Andrew,Dilkes, Fruehling, Bockenstedt, Fleagle,
Knoche, Havel, Seydell-Johnson,Nagle-Gamm, Ralston,Tharp,Matherly,
Carman, Grier, Hightshoe, DeLoach
Review of Proposed Budget:
Throgmorton/ So,uh, we're gonna begin our Iowa City City Council budget work session for
Wednesday, January the 16th, 2019. So....um,we would like to end no later than 3:45.
So, in order...so that some of us can go to the Cross Park open house. If we can't,well, I
don't know,we'll see but I'm pretty sure we can work our way through it in....in a very
adequate way. So the first topic is to review the proposed budget.
Fruin/Yeah, I'm going to make a suggestion that we just hold this for Tuesday's work session.
You're waitin'on a couple,uh,memos for us on outstanding budget items. That's mostly
operating stuff. So, I'd suggest we skip past that and jump right into CIP, unless there's
something new that we need to talk about. (several responding)
Capital Improvement Projects (CIP):
Throgmorton/Any objection to that? (several responding) All right, so we'll move on to the
next item, Capital Improvements Projects. Are you gonna start, Geoff?
Froin/Yeah,uh,Dennis is gonna lead off. I just wanna call attention to the handouts,um,you
have seen these handouts before. These are just updated versions of the bike and park
master plan, and those will be talked about,uh,through the presentation. Uh,what you
have not seen before is this big white spreadsheet,um, as somethin'that, uh, you had
requested from me earlier in the year, and that is a....a report on the changes from last
year's CIP, and you can see kinda the magnitude of changes that we go through. Uh, so
this will call attention to projects that have increased or decreased in price,projects that
have shifted,uh, so as we go through the different divisions, you'll be able to see and ask
questions,uh, if you have them, about why a project has,uh, changed from last year's
CIP.
Throgmorton/Okay. Very good! So, Dennis, are you gonna be the first to speak?
Bockenstedt/I'm gonna go ahead and kick it off and (mumbled) Jason Havel and Ron Knoche.
Uh, I'm Dennis Bockenstedt,the Finance Director, and I'm gonna start with the brief
overview of the entire program and....and,uh, the process that we went through to...to
develop this program, um, and just kinda talk about,you know, overall how the money's
being spent,where it's coming from, and then I'm gonna hand it off to Jason and Ron, and
uh, the rest of the department heads to talk more specifically about the projects that are
within that plan. Um, so,uh, as you can see, uh, the first slide is the schedule. Uh,we
started this prog....or process,uh, late summer,um, and this process runs fairly parallel to
the City's budget process and at September 4th,uh,the Finance Department sent out
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forms to each of the departments, along with instructions, uh, to update the current
program and to get new projects. Uh, on September 25`11 those forms, uh, with the new
projects and amended projects were due back, uh, to the Finance Department. Uh, and
then once those are back we assemble them into a preliminary report and through the
month of October, uh, there's a committee that meets several times and we, uh, discuss
those projects,how they work together, the timing of'em, and update and make changes
to those projects and the overall program. Uh, and then actually that's running parallel
with the budget process and then in early December,uh, we start pulling the operating
budget and the capital budget together, to...to see how they work together and....and....
and pull all that information to one document and then, uh, on December 2151,uh, we
released, uh, the....the budget book, which included the operating budget and the capital,
uh, CIP program into that. Uh, and that leads us to today, where we're here to talk about,
uh, the program and all the projects that have been assembled, uh, in that budget book,
and...and so, um, in the budget book there is....includes the five-year program. It has the
overview reports and then detailed work sheets, um, and you should be able to follow
along or read for additional information in that budget book, uh, as we present today.
Um, and so I'm gonna move into the, uh, overall, uh, spending program. Uh, this is a pie
chart,uh, for the spending by division, and uh, as usual, uh, Streets is the number one
spending division, and that's primarily, uh, the asphalt overlays, the largest portion of
that, and we also have, uh, handful of major reconstruction projects, uh, that are also
incorporated into that total. Uh, the second largest pie in there is the Waste Water
Treatment. Uh, and there's a couple major, um....uh,prog...or projects in there for
reconstruction of portions of the....the plant, some of the older portions,uh,that it puts
that number up a little bit, and then the third largest is the, uh,Transit,uh, which is
almost entirely made up of a future, uh, replacement of the Transportation facility. Um,
and so this kinda gives you a general idea of which departments, uh, which projects and
dollar amounts in the program. I will point out that the City Manager's slice of 16....$6.5
million is (mumbled) 5:00 there I guess you could say on the....on the pie chart, uh, that
is for the Access Center. So that is in this...uh, this year's CIP program. Urn, so how we
are paying for these projects, uh....for the...the funding sources and, uh, about $163.5
million worth of funding sources. Uh, the number one funding source is our general
obligation bonds. So,uh, that....other than the water and sewer and the enterprise fund
projects, GO bonds is our number one funding sources for,uh, most of the, uh, street and
parks and other types of improvements that are being presented today. Uh, the number
two source is,uh, federal funds. Um, I will note that there is a large portion of those
federal funds,uh, that we are anticipating that would be for the replacement of the Transit
facility,uh,but also it's primarily for,uh, street reconstruction, uh, like Dodge Street
would be a large portion of that or American Legion Road. Um, and that also includes
another,uh,portion of that would be Airport, which is about 90% of the Airport projects
are funded from, uh, federal funding. Uh,the third largest piece of that is the road use tax
funding. And when I talked about, you know,bonding for lot of road projects, um, most
of those are the major reconstruction, uh, the road use piece is primarily for asphalt
overlay and....and other kind of miscellaneous like the ADA curb ramp, uh, traffic
signals, and some of the other types of improvements. Urn, the next slide is for the
program by year, and it's typical that,uh, we see more dollars or more spending in the
first year of the program, and it reduces down to the fifth year. Um, now in this scenario
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as you look at that pie...or that bar chart, uh, 2022 is very high, uh, and that's because of
the$18 million that's in there for the Transit facility, uh, has pushed that....that higher
than you would typically see in this, uh, this former presentation, and then the 2023 it's
also high and there's pretty much two projects planned out there that are pushing that
number,uh, and one of that is the Dodge Street reconstruction project,which is a pretty
significant project that we'll be doin'joint with the State, and then also so I mentioned the
waste water, uh, reconstruction project, uh,to rebuild the....the (can't hear) complex.
Um, but this is how we anticipate as far as dollars and spending and when these projects
(mumbled) how that looks graphically. Uh, so if you don't have any questions about the
overall program, I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to Jason here and...and then Ron
and they can start to take you through the rest of the program.
Knoche/ Sure. Ron Knoche, Public Works Director. Uh, obviously we thank you for the time to
sit down and walk through the capital projects with you. Urn, the...the location that this
starts on in the budget book is page 49, is the capital projects section. Um, and that, uh,
about around page 513 is where the detailed descriptions of the projects begin. So,uh,
we have 100....about 143 slides left to go through in regards to the ongoing projects. We
have it split up into three sections. There's an ongoing section, so those are the projects
that are under construction now or will be shortly. Uh, we have a section that is split up
by departments, and then we have an on-the-radar section, which we'll go over projects
that are...that we will are....are ones that will potentially come up here in....in a short
time frame that weren't included in the program itself. So, uh, we'll go ahead and start off
with the ongoing projects. Urn, the first project is a permitting software upgrade. So this
is, uh, a joint, uh, venture between NDS and Public Works,uh, to update our building,uh,
permitting software, and then also incorporate, uh, our....some of our right-of-way
management permits in with that software. Urn, this, uh,project was actually just kicked
off at the last, uh, Council meeting, the....the contract for the, moving forward with this
was approved. Uh, second ongoing project is a Public Works facility, urn, this one, they
have started, uh, putting the footings in. Urn, they'll actually move into the warm storage
area here next week and start, urn, renovating that for the use of Public Safety. Urn, in
this project we do have an additional $700,000 as we move into the solar,urn, facilities,
or addition of solar array, to this project,urn, and we'll be, urn,working with Neumann
Monson to...to get the details of that project worked out here in the next month.
Havel/All right, moving on to the landfill leachate pumping system, so this is the dual extraction
system out at the landfill that looks to, uh, remove not only leachate but also, uh, landfill
gas from the area. So, urn, this is one that is more or less complete,just finishing up with
a few small items with this project. The Myrtle and Riverside intersection signalization,
so this is the project that is being completed in conjunction with the overlay on Riverside
Drive. This is...will include signalization of the intersection, as well as a median that'll be
installed on Riverside Drive. Uh, right now that project sits....the median has been
installed,uh, the overlay will be completed in the spring, uh,we're hoping that some of
the signalization will occur this winter, but again it just really depends on weather and...
and what the contractor's able to complete. Looking at completion probably late spring,
uh, early summer for that one. The Riverside Drive pedestrian tunnel, so as a reminder,
this is along Riverside Drive,just south of the Myrtle intersection. This'll be on the west
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side of Riverside Drive. The intent of the project would be to put a pedestrian tunnel
through the railroad embankments, uh, that would....as part of the project, would then
complete the sidewalk connection basically from Benton up to Myrtle Avenue. Um, we
are proceeding with design. This one's been on hold for a little bit as we've been working
through some delays with the railroad, um, and some issues there. Uh, at this point we're
kind of full speed ahead with design,hopefully lookin' at construction yet in 2019. Uh,
the Riverside Drive and Governor Street overlay, again this is kind of all of these projects
are kind of in that same area. This is the overlay that will be essentially from the Rocky
Shore. So the Iowa City city limits, down to, uh, Sturgis Corner, and that'll be that
overlay on Riverside Drive. It also includes the overlay on Governor Street, basically
from Burlington up to the Dodge intersection. Uh, along with that Governor Street work,
we'll also be,uh, including bicycle lanes on Governor Street, as well as bicycle lanes on
Dodge, uh, kind of for that same stretch.
Throgmorton/Jason,with regard to both of these Riverside Drive projects, I don't see 'em listed
in this big master matrix or whatever one calls that.
Havel/Yep! And I think part of that is because it would have actually been past-year money, is
that correct? So....
Bockenstedt/Are you talkin' about the changes, or just in the current program? (several talking
in background)
Throgmorton/So I should not expect to see(both talking)just described on this.
Bockenstedt/These are things that have changed from, again the 19 program would have
changed and I believe much of that program is in 18. For the overlay.
Throgmorton/Okay!
Havel/The Burlington and Madison intersection improvements, this is one that we're, uh,
working to wrap up design and hopefully lookin' at construction for 2019. Um, this will
include,um, improvements at the intersection, new signal at the intersection, new curb
ramps, um....we are also looking at including bike lanes that will, uh, cross the Iowa
River. So basically bicycle lanes from Madison over to Riverside Drive. As part of this
project we'll also be restriping Madison...four-lane to three-lane conversion.
Cole/When is that gonna be done anyway?
Havel/Uh, right now we're looking at completion hopefully late 19, depending on where we end
up with the, um, the DOT bidding cycle. That may slide, but that's...we're really shooting
for, uh, getting that bid late spring and then hopefully that would allow us to get
construction yet this year.
Thomas/And the...and the bike lanes will run north-south from where(mumbled)
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Havel/ So it goes from, I believe, Court north to Market, I believe is the scope of that. The
Idyllwild storm water drainage diversion, so this is a project near the Idyllwild
development, uh, essentially what this will do is it will allow for, um, lower flow events
to still drain through the Idyllwild development and that's important because they need
that....that turnover for those ponds and just to keep water moving through that
development,but for those larger rain events, it will actually divert the...the runoff
directly to the Iowa River. Looking at finishing design here, uh, again probably looking
at spring completion for....for bidding and then construction in 2019. The Normandy
Drive storm sewer replacement, this will....replace some, uh, storm sewer that's in poor
shape. It will also make some modifications to the existing structure. Essentially what
that will allow us to do is, uh, improve the ability to pump during flood events from this
structure. So pretty minor improvements but should hopefully, uh,help with operations
for future events. The Burlington and Clinton intersection improvements, this is one that
we started construction in 2018, um,right now as it stands, for the most part,the signal
work has been more or less completed. There's a few things they'll have to do to kind of
tie over to the new signal completely, uh, and then they'll be back in the spring to finish
up with the permanent paving of the curb ramps, uh,but most of the...the water main and
a lot of the paving work has been completed.
Throgmorton/Can....can people cross the street safely now?
Havel/They should have at least temporary paving for all the curb ramps out there now. So, yes,
they should have existing curb ramps. Uh, and I should also note that this will, in the
spring also, include the four-lane to three-lane conversion on Clinton Street and then the
inclusion of bike lanes from Church down to Benton.
Salih/And when this will be completed?
Havel/I would say early spring. It's gonna really depend on temperatures. I think they can start
as soon as it gets warm enough to do the, um, pouring the curb ramps and doing the
striping. The pedestrian mall reconstruction, uh, as many of you know this is a two-year
project, so they were focusing on sort of the north-south section this year. We'll look at,
uh, reconstruction of the pedestrian mall, uh, new paver surface,it,revised and
improved planting areas, as well as new stage and canopy. Next year we are, or I guess
this year now, 2019, uh, we'll continue with the east-west section and looking at
completion of the project this year.
Seydell-Johnson/All right,moving on to some of the Parks projects. Creekside Park on the east
side of town, um, is under construction as we speak. Urn, the park is...is fenced off and
unfortunately not open to the public right now. Um, got a lot of clearing done along the
creek, cause this includes creek access, a new shelter, a new restroom, and then
community orchard space next to it on some of the new,uh, newer flood property.
Riverfront Crossings Park,um,just down there yesterday. The restroom and shelter are
coming along very nicely. Um, it was starting to turn green before the snow came in, so
we're looking forward to a July 20th grand opening party down there. Um,the final mon
.....money in the funding for this is primarily for the traffic circle, inside the traffic circle,
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and as you remember gonna relocate the Snelson sculpture, urn, to the inside of the traffic
circle and then we'll finish up with a....make a park sign and some,urn, landscaping in
that area. Uh,most of the lights are in. There's a few more signs to be placed there.
Mims/ Quick question, if you went back one real quick. Is that supposed to be 1.2 million?
(male)/Correct! (laughter)
Mims/ I just, cause I was gonna ask if we can have this, the whole slide thing available and then
available for the public, so....might want to add a zero!
Havel/Thank you! (several talking)
Seydell-Johnson/And then Hickory Hill Park trail and bridge project,uh,just successfully bid
this part of the...part of the project,um, and they will start working this spring, um, and
probably complete most of it this spring. Um, the REAP grant work though started last
week, and there's been significant invasive species removal just in the last week, so the
park's already starting to look different, um,just better....better shape, but looking a little
bit different.
Havel/All right, so the next section we'll move on to annual projects, and so these are the
projects where there's money available annually, so every year in the program, and we'll
kick things off with the bicycle master plan.
Ralston/Good afternoon, Kent Ralston,Transportation Planner. Um,knowing time is of the
essence, I'll run through some of the bike master plan projects, uh,relatively quickly. Uh,
I think most of you know that the bike master plan was adopted in August of 2017. Uh,
and I think we've made a lot of,uh, good progress since then. Uh, the planning process
was about nine months long, um, and also we have since, uh, implemented a standing
bicycle advisory committee. Uh, that same bicycle advisory committee that helped
implement(mumbled) excuse me, helped plan for the, uh, planning document is now in
place to help us implement it as well. So we meet with them about every other month,
um, at a minimum quarterly, to talk about a lot of the policies, educational components,
uh, and encouragement components of the plan that...that really we won't discuss today,
through the capital projects. Uh, what I'd like to do quickly is....is quickly orient you. I
believe you all have this in front of you, um,just to orient you fairly quickly, there's a lot
of information on this graphic. Uh, what you'll see first are two different colors of tags,
which represent projects. Uh, in orange are the projects that were identified in the master
plan for 2017 and 2018, and then the blue, the projects that were identified in the plan for
19 through 22, which was the five-year CII', uh, at the time the plan was adopted. Um,
very quickly, I just want to,uh, note that 2019 is going to be a really big year,uh, for the
bicycle master plan. Uh, Jason already covered a number of projects, uh,that will be
occurring as part of larger capital improvement projects, uh,but there's a host of other
projects as well that'll be completed in 2019, uh, really going to be an exciting year, and I
think with all the bike master plan,urn,bike lanes and other projects that'll be completed,
it's really going to add more on-street facilities, uh, in one capital year than, uh,we have
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to date, uh, in total in Iowa City. Uh, quickly just running through some of the projects,
uh, I'll start with some of the projects, uh, that were to be completed in 2017 and 2018,
are now being pushed to 2019 for,uh, various reasons. Uh, Jason had already mentioned
the Clinton and Madison four to three-lane conversions, uh, that include bike lanes. Uh,
also we have the Mormon Trek, uh, four to three-lane conversion project that was started
last fall, and will be completed this coming year. Uh, which add bike lanes from
Melrose, uh, essentially down to Highway, uh, 1. Uh, also we have the Myrtle and
Riverside intersection, which is another project that Jason mentioned. Uh, along with
that project we also are installing a number of bike components, uh, the pedestrian refuge
island that was....that was identified, as well as a climbing bike lane, we call it, up the
Myrtle hill. So Myrtle's not actually wide enough to have bike lanes on both sides,but
because it's a challenge getting up the hill, we'll actually have one bike lane,uh, for those
folks heading west, going up the hill. Uh, also a number of bike wayfinding signs will be
installed, so folks can find their way from the Iowa River Corridor Trail on to, uh, Benton
Street, which will be also slated for bike lanes, uh, in coming years. Uh, a couple of the
other major,uh,bike lane projects, uh, again that Jason mentioned were the Governor and
Dodge Street, uh,bike lanes. Uh, what's interesting about those two is they'll both be
buffered bike lanes, which'll be our first buffered bike lanes, um, for the most part in
town. Uh, so rather than just a single white stripe, we'll actually have a couple feet of,
um, pavement markings to sort of get that,uh, bicyclist a little bit further away from the
adjacent travel lane, uh, which'll be a...a really good project. Uh, a few other projects I
just wanted to make note of is the Highway 1,uh, side path. I'm assuming that will come
up later in the presentation today. Um, but that'll be the trail that runs from Sunset to
Mormon Trek. Uh, years ago, uh,the ....the portion from Orchard to Sunset was
complete,but this completes that loop onto Mormon Trek, which then gets bicyclists to
the existing sidewalk and the future bike lanes. So we're really starting to org, uh,
develop this, um, this sort of bike path around, uh, the metro area, which was a major
component of the bike master plan. Um, the other one that I wanted to mention quickly
is Gilbert Street. Uh, that is in 2020,but I wanted to mention that we have a functional
design for the four to three-lane conversion on Gilbert Street complete. Uh, the
Engineering department is now hiring someone to complete the final design, which they'll
be able to bring to you, uh, in the coming months. Um, so... most of these projects are
nested in larger projects, some of which you've already heard about, some of which will
be coming later in the presentation, uh,but I'm happy to answer any questions you have.
The other thing I wanted to mention quickly is the$900,000 that's, uh, identified in the
CIP really is just a fraction of the actual overall funding that you all are putting into bike
and pedestrian planning, uh,because again, a lot of these bike improvements are part of
much bigger capital improvements. Any questions for me now?
Cole/Do the buffered bike...for the buffered bike lanes, how much more expensive is it to put the
little white posts up on the bike lanes, is....
Ralston/Uh, I don't know if I know (both talking)
Cole/ ...here,but just in general cost-wise,how much bigger of a cost is that?
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Ralston/You know I don't know for sure, uh, Rockne. I think the cost would be relatively low
when compared to the overall capital project. Uh, we did look into whether or not we
could use those on Dodge and Governor,but because there are so many driveways, uh,
along both those corridors, it would have been hard to....to actually use those, um,
bollards I call them, but year.
Cole/Okay.
Throgmorton/Any other questions for Kent? Thanks!
Havel/All right,moving on, the annual storm water improvements, this is, again, an annual, uh,
account that helps with basically improvements throughout the storm water system, so
this could be everything from intakes to manholes, uh....uh, storm sewer pipe, any of
those improvements. Also looks at ditches and other, um, methods of conveying storm
water. Urn, it varies throughout the city,based on the...the projects of need. The annual
traffic signal projects, this account looks to, uh, provide for, whether it's new signals, uh,
replacement of signal equipment, or it can be updating of signal equipment. Um, that
happens from time to time, and it can be related to other projects or stand-alone,um,
again, as needed. Traffic calming, so obviously you know we have our traffic calming
program, uh, that relies on neighborhood,uh, input and...and that process, for those
projects that do make it through that process, and we look to construct something, this is
essentially how we would pay for that. For our annual curb ramp program, this is one
that looks throughout the city and picks several locations annually to go in and install
new or updated curb ramps. Uh, historically what we've focused on was, are those areas
where there may be pedestrian facilities,but there are no curb ramps, um,but there are
other areas where we update those to meet current requirements.
Teague/Are there lots of, urn, areas that still need curb....uh, curb ramps?
Havel/I think there's certainly some areas that need curb ramps. There's certainly a lot more
areas that need them to be updated.
Teague/And is there like a greater plan to meet some of that in the future, to....uh, so some of
this?
Havel/Yeah, we have, uh....but we have information that basically lists, I guess you could say,
uh, the condition of curb ramps throughout the city, or curb locations, urn, and so we look
at those, whether it's through this program or through other projects, ways that we can...
can improve those.
Teague/And if someone came and made a, urn, like a complaint about access,what would be the
response to that?
Havel/So typically we...what we would do is we would take those complaints and we would
include those on our list for future projects for consideration, and again, uh, whether
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those could be incorporated a number of different ways,but we would look to incorporate
those as we're able to with future projects.
Teague/Thank you.
Throgmorton/(both talking) Sony, Maz, go....(both talking) No! Please!
Salih/You know the budget like 500,000 is the....is just like, uh, for certain(unable to
understand) you gonna do it or what this for then? If we have like many as Bruce said
that need to be like, to have a (unable to understand) is this gonna take like...the budget is
for all of them or is for some of them or are you gonna do it all this year or....
Havel/ So I think this would be an ongoing process. So this would not be for all ramps
throughout the city, but this is also not the only pot of money I guess that is used for curb
ramp repairs, but it is one way that we focus on....this project focuses specifically on
curb ramps at various locations.
Salih/Okay. That means this budget is gonna use only(unable to understand)
Havel/Correct, yep!
Salih/And maybe you're not gonna finish all of them. Next year you do another one.
Havel/Yeah, so we....yep, we basically spend this money, or the annual allowance for, urn, only
curb ramps.
Salih/ Sure.
Fruin/And I don't ever see this line going away, even if we get curb ramps everywhere. Over
time they fall out of compliance,just like you have potholes in road, you get the heave,
uh, heaving of concrete, um, and just general cracking and....and, uh, state of disrepair.
So we'll always be going in and rehabbing them.
Salih/This is like(unable to understand)
Fruin This is an every-year deal.
Salih/ Sure!
Throgmorton/At some point in the past, the staff has presented us with a map of showing,uh,
curb ramps throughout the city, at least the sites where curb ramps are needed, or they
need to be upgraded. It's a pretty extensive, or pretty large number of sites that need to be
improved. So we're just tryin'to do it year by year by year by year by year. (several
coughing, talking)
Teague/ ...new projects I'm assuming we do it in the beginning, as a part of the project.
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Havel/Correct. Yep!
Thomas/I'll just ask because...the thought came, uh, what about sidewalk infill? Is there a line
item for sidewalk infill?
Havel/So there is no longer a....a dedicated line item for sidewalk infill. Um,the way we've
been approaching that, uh, now is that we would look at those projects and propose them
as individual projects. So there's still the ability to do those, but there's not the....the line
item that was there previously. Our annual pavement rehabilitation program, uh,
obviously a big portion of this every year is the asphalt overlay,but it also includes PCC
patching, um, crack sealing, urn....other I guess sort of pavement management projects.
Uh, one thing I wanted to make sure and point out with this one, we actually are in the
process,we have an RFP out there right now looking to get a consultant onboard, to help
us take a fresh look at this and....and really kind of an overarching look at, urn, our
program, not only current condition, urn, but what we want things to be long term, and...
and have them come in and help us with,urn, tryin'to set sort of that baseline level that
we want our facilities to be maintained at, and....and help us get a better understanding of
what that initial cost might be to get us there, and then also what the annual cost would be
to....to keep us there, urn, as well as helping to plan out longer term for projects that we
would wanna look at, urn, and certainly that would be helpful come budget time, and also
if we ever were to pursue a discussion on,uh, local option sales tax. So good information
to have.
Cole/I was just gonna get in that, urn, you know every community's different, um, but
sometimes they're helpful for sort of point of reference. I think Cedar Rapids, correct,
uses a substantial portion of their local option sales (both talking)
Havel/I think Waterloo may as well.
Cole/And we always sort of compare property taxes, when you're sort of trying to pick that
amount, of course we have to respond to the local needs here, but to how much do we
compare with other cities in terms of percentage of our budget that's focused on that,
because certainly anecdotally, you know, you guys are looking at the whole picture. We
tend to look at things very narrowly, but there certainly do seem to (mumbled) some
streets we've talked about in the past that, you know, Washington, College, I think need
some work. Urn....how....how do we compare with other cities?
Havel/ I don't know the answer to that offhand. I think it's...you certainly could take a look at it,
but I think it's going to be difficult to have an apples-to-apples comparison,just given that
there's so many different ways that....you know, streets are impacted. So you have not
only your, you know, your annual, but you may have other projects, you know, you may
have some places that spend more on maintenance and more....and other places that may
spend more on new construction or reconstruction. So, urn, I....I don't know if there's,
urn.....one answer to that, but I think based on just, again, anecdotally, the conversations
we've had with consultants,both for this RFP and other discussions, it seems like we're,
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um...I don't know if we're the best,but we're certainly not the worst. I think we're at least
in that ballpark.
Cole/Thanks, Jason. (several talking)
Thomas/When do we expect the, uh, that study to be completed?
Havel/Uh,those are....or the proposals are due the end of this month. So I think we'd probably
be looking at getting underway, uh,here the next month,month and a half, and then I
would say probably maybe end of the summer, somethin' like that,might have something
ready to review.
Taylor/Your list includes the brick, and I remember from the discussion when....since we
worked on the streets,brick streets,recently, uh, that that was very costly to do that. So
this $11 million probably includes that, uh, exorbitant amount for that. Is there a plan
like street A will be done this year, street B next year, street C the following year?
Havel/Well really what this includes is more spot repairs of brick streets. So it wouldn't really
be, uh, a situation where we would be replacing entire blocks of brick street. Typically
those would be separate projects.
Taylor/ (mumbled) on its own. Okay. Thank you!
Teague/Are there plans to like when I think about the Brown Street and all that stuff, are there
plans to replace all those streets, or maintain maybe a few of those brick streets
throughout, um, on certain streets?
Havel/ I would say there's not any current projects to reconstruct any of those. I think, uh, at
least my understanding is...is more or less we'll maintain what we have.
Teague/ Sure!
Havel/ (mumbled)
Teague/They're beautiful streets! (several talking)
Throgmorton/This has been an issue for a long time, because it's so costly to re....repair and
rebuild brick streets, while retaining them as brick streets, but they're...for the most part,
really crucial parts of the historic character of particular neighborhoods, and then there're
a few brick streets, I guess, that are really kinda outside of the normal....parts of the city
we think of(mumbled) as historic. So we could just kind of rip 'em out and pave 'em
over, and that would be less expensive, but....
Salib/Nice!
Throgmorton/So anyhow, we....we have no formal plan, is the bottom line.
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Teague/Great. Thanks!
Havel/Underground electrical facilities, so what this project looks to do is those circumstances
where we have, urn, often if we're relocating electrical facilities,we would look at taking
those from overhead to underground. Urn, a little bit about how the process works. A lot
of times if we have, say we have a project where we'll need them to relocate electrical
facilities, the utility would pay to relocate those to another aerial, uh, location, and we
would pay for any up-charge to basically go from overhead to underground. Urn,
sometimes that occurs, again, without projects it may, there may be opportunities where
redevelopment occurs and we can kind of coordinate with them and help to make that
little more economical to go from, uh, again overhead to underground. Our annual bridge
maintenance and repair project, so, uh, one big piece of this is every other year we go
through and do bridge condition,uh, inspections,just to try and, again, kinda keep a
handle on the condition of our existing structures. With that, a lot of times through that
process,we'll get some minor repairs and maintenance that's recommended. That would
come out of this account as well. Um, this is not meant to handle the large-scale, uh,
replacement or....or larger rehab projects. Those would be individual projects,but again,
this is just kind of annual money to help us maintain those structures.
Salih/And this budget been like a steady, over the years, or sometime you use the whole thing?
Sometime you don't, or....
Havel/ I think it's something where the use will vary, again, kinda depends on what's needed.
Urn, so I think sometimes....there'll be some years where we won't use it at all and it'll
roll over and then we'll use it in a future year,but certainly it's all used in the end.
Salih/ Sure.
Teague/ So the bridge that's currently,urn, I think the block that's already blocked off, the
little...I....I forget the name of the bridge, but over by Jefferson(several talking)
Governor Street!
Havel/Yep!
Teague/That would not come out of this 900,000?
Havel/No, but that's actually a little different because that's actually on Highway 1, so that's
actually a DOT project.
Salih/Okay!
Havel/But if it were our project then correct, that would come out of its own project.
Teague/Okay.
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HaveU Annual sewer main replacements, so this project does a few different things. It...can be
everything from point repairs, so if you have a....an issue with a, uh, sanitary sewer, it
would go in and do that repair. It could repair manholes. Uh, in addition we also do
preventative maintenance. So we do sewer lining to help extend the life of our....our
sewer system.
Nagle-Gamin/Hi there, Darian Nagle-Gamm with the Transportation Services Department. We
have two annual recurring projects—the first of which is our parking facility restoration
and repair, and this is an annual project that includes concrete repair, sealants,urn, repair
of joints, more or less it's just upkeep and upgrades to the facilities to keep them in good
shape and make sure we can extend their lifetime, um, as far as we possibly can. And the
second one is the transit bus shelter replacement...replacement and expansion program.
Uh, phase one, urn, is going to occur this spring. We're going to be installing nine new
shelters,uh, five on the east side, four on the west side. This will happen,um, we'll begin
that project in April, and then phase two, we'll add another six new shelters, um, four on
the east side, two on the west side, and that will take us through the first two phases, and
we'll pick that back up again after the transit study is completed. We didn't want to invest
too heavily, um, until we know what our transit system of the future is going to look like.
Salih/For the transit, I just remind me, I thinks I mix it up, all this budget for everything that you
do is coming from enterprise budget or from the GO bond? Which one?
Nagle-Gamm/ I believe this would come out of the enterprise fund.
Salih/Enterprise fund, okay.
Seydell-Johnson/All right, so I'm gonna move you through several of the Parks and Rec projects,
so we'll first talk about the annual projects in our Parks and Recreation, and then we'll
move on to the specific projects. Urn, this first one is City Hall, other projects. These are
small projects throughout this building, uh, carpet repair, carpet replacement and
painting, urn, new....the new signs you're seeing, some of those kind of things, uh, other
repair,the....the historic bell outside, those kind of things come out of this budget. Okay,
and then our, um,parks annual improvement follows along with our master plan, uh, of
2017, and I just wanna thank you. We made great progress, uh, with the maintenance
and....and renovation of our parks throughout the city, following this plan. Uh, this chart
shows how we're following it and as you can see, we are on track, uh, with many of the
projects. Projects completed this year,uh, Happy Hollow Park; Pheasant Hill Park, uh,
got a playground the year before but got new paths to the playground this year as part of
the ADA path work. Mercer Park, small paths by the playground were completed to help
with accessibility to the new playground there. Tower Court, same thing,paths to get to
the playgrounds, uh, and nearly all of our older playgrounds, they had the railroad ties
around the out....or the landscaping ties,timbers, around the outside edge of the
playground. Uh,makes it so that someone using, um, some assisted devices can't get into
that area. So what we're doing is taking those out and providing paved paths to get to the
play areas. Um, Highland Park, same thing, added pathways to that park. That actually
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came from CDBG funding, uh, not from the CIP budget, and then Riverfront Crossing,
we already talked about, and Cardigan Park was, uh, completed on the east side.
Teague/I do see some of these don't have, um....well I see accessibility improvements, is what,
um, so I'm assumin' all of these have accessibility, um, already in place that aren't bein'
improved?
Seydell-Johnson/Yeah, well two things. So first of all some of them are larger full park
renovations and of course any time we would renovate a park, we would address
accessibility issues at the same time(mumbled) larger renovations. The smaller ones are
typically where we're just going back in and retrofitting to help make the area more
accessible.
Teague/Okay.
Seydell-Johnson/Okay, and then this is the project that actually addresses a number of the ADA
concerns. Uh, as part of the park master plan in 2017 we had, uh,the park inve....parks
inventoried and assessed for accessibility needs, um, and we are slowly going around and
getting those addressed, um, two or three parks each year.
Cole/One of the things you may wanna briefly comment on, we've had a lot of discussions with
the difference between the padded playground and....and sort of the wooden chips. We
know that the padded is...is more effective,but it's substantially more, uh, expensive,
correct? Could you give us approximate dollar figure and...even though it is really more
expensive, are there some parks where we've been able to find the funds to do the top of
the line?
Seydell-Johnson/First of all I would back up though and say effective....possibly more effective.
There's a lot of debate out there about playground surfacing right now, and it may be
more effective for certain wheelchair users, but it may not be as effective as a fall
attenuation service, uh, surface for a lot of other things, so we're trying to get a mix along
with the School District, throughout the....throughout the city. Urn, a real ballpark cost
estimate, Creekside Park, which we're under...in progress right now, is getting engineered
wood fiber, uh, wood chips underneath the playground. I wanna say it's $4,000 to $5,000
that we're using,uh, for that part of that project. It was gonna be about$110,000 if we
would have poured in place. Urn, however, two of the projects I'll talk about soon,uh,
Willow Creek and Lower City Park playgrounds will have some areas of poured in place
surface. So...
Cole/Thank you!
Seydell-Johnson/Annual Rec Center improvements, uh,just slowly chipping away at a very long
list at both of our rec centers,uh, trying to keep them well maintained. We're seeing, you
know, a lot of use through our centers,uh, they're becoming more welcoming spaces.
Along with that use comes a lot of deferred maintenance that we're trying to address.
You've seen a lot of it at Robert A. Lee and Mercer in the last two years, and this fund
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allows us to do the smaller projects, uh, as we continue with those buildings. Inner-city
bike trails, not much to say. This follows up with Kent's presentation. These are for
smaller, um,projects to do connections and some small infill trails at different places.
Okay,now I'm gonna take over driving(laughs) Okay, so on the Parks projects, you have
them all listed in your book. I'm just gonna highlight, there's so many of them I'm going
to highlight the...the newer ones that are coming up and then some of them that have been
added in 2023. Um, so first of all the projects that are,we're working on right now.
Willow Creek Park will be on the next Council agenda. This is replacement of the
Willow Creek restrooms, shelter, and playground, and as I just mentioned, the playground
here focuses on inclusion,uh, it will actually have a music theme, a marching band
theme, which is gonna be....I can't wait to show you some of those drawings, um, and
it....but it will focus on accessibility, have poured in place, and uh, a lot of things for
people to do that....that don't necessarily involve climbing to the top heights of the
playground. So I think it's going to be really interesting space. Um, we'll set the public
hearing at the next Council meeting, take bids, and have this next summer will be under
construction.
Salih/And when you say replacing the bathroom for Willow Creek Park, what was wrong with
the bathroom that you wanna replace?
Seydell-Johnson/Um, it's the age. The age of the restroom and the shelter. So it'll be replaced
with structures, almost identical to what's being put in at Creekside, um, similar to what
was done at Happy Hollow, following the park master plan.
Salih/Okay.
Seydell-Johnson/Uh, the other large playground that we're working on right now is Lower City
Park. Um, this will be what we're calling an adventure playground, and what that means
is it's going to be built into the slope area of the park, between Upper and Lower City
Park. Urn, and it will have,uh, numerous slides and kind of towers to climb on. We're
still working on kind of final design and concept on that. Uh,kind of on the site where
the old zoo buildings were, for those of you that have been around Iowa City for a long
time, um, so same thing. We hope to have, uh, this out to bid,um, in the next few months
and then we will have construction over the summer. New on the list is some
improvements to the City Park ball fields. Baseball is still an exciting, fun sport here in
Iowa City, lots of people playing it. Uh, these are improvements to the fields. The first
year, uh, focusing on player safety, so things happening around the dugouts, and the
fencing, uh, we have some...we wanna make sure people are safe when they're in the
dugouts. Moving on to some lighting, um, some, urn, lighting improvements and some
other projects over the next three years, um, at City Park...ball fields. The Eastside Sport
site, on the very far southeast side of town,um, this is where we're doing tree planting. If
you remember the discussion from last year, um, this site was...has a master plan and that
was done to look at building ball fields and soccer fields at this site. Um,no matter what
we end up doing at this site, what we are doing now is going along the railroad edge of
the property and we'll be planting trees. So no matter what the eventual use is of the
project,we'll have that growing and in place to, um,buffer it from the railroad. Uh,bids
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are...I mean specs are done on this and we'll be bidding it soon, uh, for spring planting of
the trees. In this building we have a large project coming up in 20 and 21. Uh, it is warm
in here today. I have to tell you though we are currently operating on only one of two
boilers, and even with that there's a little bit of duct tape and shoelaces involved maybe.
Uh (laughs) so, uh, we're keeping it running. This will replace those systems and get
them on the BAS,uh, the building automation system, for monitoring, as our other
buildings are. So, uh, the design is complete now. We hope to complete the first, uh,
boiler replacement over the summer, when we don't actually need heat in the building.
Okay, moving on to 2020 projects, um, the next park for a larger renovation is Wetherby
Park. Uh, the plans here are to replace the restrooms, shelter, and playground, similar to
what we've done at Creekside, urn, and Willow Creek, although not nearly as large of a
playground as what we're doing at Willow Creek. Um, the intent is not to do anything
with the splash pad, to leave it as it is; the community garden space, the sport court, all
those things will remain the same. This will just simply address the shelter, the
restrooms, and the small playground that's there. And we would do, uh, community
meetings for this this summer to work on design with the neighbors in that area.
Fairmeadows Park, also in that general area is we're gonna replace the playground there
with a smaller playground that's aimed at toddlers or preschool age, urn, kids. We don't
actually have a lot of playgrounds throughout our system that are specifically targeted to
that age group, uh, this is kind of a unique site because being right next to Grant Wood
Elementary, um, that playground is very large and very expansive, and quite....quite fun.
Urn,but it doesn't have any of the smaller preschool-type area, so we're gonna add that,
do that part in the park, along with replacing the shelter at this site. Once again, not
doing anything with the splash pad there. Just the shelter and the, um,playground. Urn,
this picture shows exactly why we need to replace this playground(laughs) This is the
Napoleon playground. It's the playground in the middle of the softball complex. If you
played softball down there last summer you know it was closed a majority of the time
because we had such drainage issues and issues with the sub-soil underneath it. Um, this
will replace it and address those drainage issues, as well as providing a better access path
to the playground area. Okay and then the projects are in 2023, um.....Terrell Mill Skate
Park redesign,this is a....this is several years out, but it's....it's a park feature that hasn't
been touched since it was installed several years ago. So this would....we do get requests
almost every year, as the new students move in (laughs)um, can they have, you know,
they want bigger,better, different ramps and different, uh, features in the skate park. This
will give us a chance to look at that and see what might be possible. It is used. Uh,
it's....it's not an area that we often think about too much in our park system,but it is used.
Uh, there's a project listed for the Mercer ball park, diamond#4,uh, and this includes
artificial turf. This would need to be in partnership with the School District, urn, and at
this time they haven't....they haven't,uh, committed funding to it, but we do have it
sitting out there as a 2023 project, um, so that if that happens we can partner with them
on that. Okay and then, um, renovations of Hunter Run Park on the very west side of
town,uh,playground, shelter, similar to what we're doing in the other park renovations. I
see one project that I didn't mention that would be coming up in the next year, uh, this is
at the Recreation Center, Mercer Park. Uh,we...we just did the HVAC repairs or
replacement this past year. Uh, this takes it to the next step. So if you've been in the
entryway in the lobby area, Mercer's always very humid in there, and although sometimes
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that's nice on a cold winter day, what it's doing is eating away at the building, urn, the
envelope of the building. So we wanna add a de...humidification system to the building
and then we'll re....redo the tuckpointing and some roof repairs that are being caused
because of all the excess moisture there. All right, so I didn't quite hit all the projects,but
I'd be happy to answer questions you might have on other ones.
Throgmorton/I'd just like to mention, uh, couple years ago I did a Mayor's Walk out in the
general vicinity of Hunter's, uh, Run...Park, and every time I'd knock on a door and talk
with somebody, I'd ask'em if they use the park, do they like it, and that kinda thing, and
the answer was, 'Yes! I love it. Absolutely, I love it,' so...I'm really happy to see more
work being done on it,making it an even better part of that neighborhood, and course
that's the basic principle behind all the work we're doing(clears throat)with regard to
neighborhood parks, really enhancing the quality of neighborhoods by improving the
quality of the neighborhood parks.
Salih/For the west side, I....I used to live in the west side and my kids go all the time to Willow
Creek Park,uh, but I was all the time thinking about another park, like the....close
by....by City High, by West High I mean, where like many of the Pheasant Ridge people
and as a neighbor they can like do something. I'm just wondering is,um,the land in front
of West High, does that belong to the school or the City?
Seydell-Johnson/It's the schools.
Salih/Really?
Seydell-Johnson/Yeah, that is...it is kind of a difficult area for us. Couple things that are
happening there though is the Walden, uh,Walden Green Area is going to have
community gardens placed there. So that is one small green space that we own, kinda in
that neighborhood. Um, I know that the....the Christ of King Church on the corner of
Mormon Trek and, uh, Melrose, they have their own little park that serves the community
over there, and though that doesn't count as one of our City parks, I know that that does
serve similar purpose. Urn, there really isn't any other land for us to....that we found to
develop in that area.
Salih/(mumbled)because I really see a lot of kids in the neighborhood, they're like by the
neighborhood center and uh, Pheasant Ridge there is many, many kids over there, and uh,
the....the park at Pheasant Ridge is not enough for them. I been seeing like kids fight
over the playground and....yeah! But I thought maybe we owned, uh, land in front
(laughs) of the City High...West High I mean, we can do something there but it
still....okay!
Throgmorton/Maybe we could do a little tactical urbanism, John, and just take possession of
(laughter) in front of West High! (laughter)
Thomas/I have advocated, uh, for joint use agreements, and I still advocate, would advocate for
that between the School District and the City of Iowa City. There are parts of town
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where, as Juli just said,there aren't....there isn't land, uh,Twain is another neighborhood,
which other than Highland there's no neighborhood park in....in Lucas Farms or Twain
neighborhood. So I'm....I would support that,you know, if, um....because in some cases
there really isn't any other option, and I would further say that my observation would be
that the School District tends to focus more on the built facility, not so much on the
outdoors. So it...I think we could help kind of fulfill the full potential of these sites if we
were to address the outdoor spaces. (both talking) But that's another discussion (both
talking)
Salih/ ....big space and don't use it, yeah (laughs) Thank you!
Throgmorton/Okay! Thanks! Next!
Havel/All right! So we'll move on to Public Works, and this'll cover all the different divisions
within Public Works. Starting off with the....out at the landfill. The equipment building,
this is a building that's, uh, in poor condition. Currently isn't able to house all the
equipment indoors, so this would look to replace that and...and really not only update it,
but again, allow for storage of equipment indoors. The compost pad improvements, this
is a....a location where there's been settlement and damage to the existing pad,um, again
just being on a landfill site, uh, a lot of that settlement. This would look to address that
and, uh, provide a new compost pad. South side recycling site, so this will look to install
a new location for recycling facilities on the south side. We're looking at potentially
couple different sites here, one being kind of the southeast quadrant of the McCollister,
Old Highway 218 intersection. Uh, also looking, um, up there at, um....the boat launch,
kinda on the north end there,uh, in that area as well as a potential location. So I don't
know that a final decision's been made,but we'd look at probably one of those two
locations for a....a new site. The landfill dual extraction system, so I had mentioned a...a
similar project earlier, the one that we just completed. This will look to expand on that. I
think depending on pricing, we're probably looking at in the neighborhood of about eight
or nine wells additional that would be completed with this project. The Lower Muscatine
area storm sewer improvements, what this will do is look to build off of the Lower
Muscatine reconstruction project that was done a few years ago. Um, we'll look to
extend some of the storm sewer that was done with that project into the surrounding
neighborhood. There's really little to no storm sewer in that neighborhood, and this will
look to help collect that water before it all gets down to Lower Muscatine. Um,
Sycamore's another location that would be included with this project. Uh, for those of
you familiar with that area, there's a lot of water that comes down Deforest and then,uh,
Sycamore as well. North Westminster area, this is an area where a couple years ago we
had done a....a study to look at localized flooding in this area. What this project would
do would be to implement some of the recommendations and recommended
improvements that were done with that study. West riverbank stabilization, this is one
that you've seen recently. Uh, we recently rejected the first round of bids for this one,
urn, so this will install a retaining wall and...and rip-rap and other kind of stabilization
measures along the west side of the river,just north of Highway 6, urn, and will also set it
up for a future trail project. Equipment shop parking lot overlay, this is one that's been in
there, um, previously and will really just look to overlay the existing parking lot, um,
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again this is one that's'really showing its age, and uh, up for the wear and tear, so,uh, a
new parking lot overlay for that one! Salt stan....uh, salt and sand storage bunkers, this
would be out at the new Public Works' site. This is, uh, an item that was included
originally in the project and then was cut as we were trying to bring that project within
budget. Urn, really what this would do is provide some covered storage for salt and sand,
uh, could also be used to top soil and other materials that are used,urn, for kind of daily
operations for....for streets and other divisions. Brine maker and blending station, this
would help to allow the City to use brine. A lot of times this is used for pre-treating of
roadways for...for winter maintenance. Urn, and so this would be adding that capability.
American Legion Road, this will look to reconstruct American Legion Road from Scott
Boulevard to Taft Avenue. It will include a roundabout at the Scott and American Legion
Road intersection. It will reconstruct this section of street as a,uh, two-lane section,but
it will go from a rural cross section to an urban cross section so we would add curb and
gutters, storm sewer, urn, also we'll look at adding a....a wide sidewalk on the north side,
as well as a standard sidewalk on the south side. Urn, also includes the pedestrian
underpass near the Barrington Road intersection. The McCollister Boulevard extension,
this will extend McCollister Boulevard, urn, from where it currently ends,just east of
Gilbert Street. This will extend it to the...the northern roundabout on Sycamore. Urn, it
will also include some utility work, as well as that, and then also looking to include the
signalization of the McCollister, Gilbert Street, uh, intersection. Prentiss Street bridge
replacement, you can see here it currently is triple, uh, corrugated metal culverts that are
in extremely poor condition. We have, uh, ongoing issues with, um, settlement and
voiding occurring under the pavement. So looking at replacing that with a...a new
structure, lookin' at, uh, workin'through design of that right now. The next two projects
kinda go together. The first one being Melrose Avenue improvements. Also IWV. So
this'll be a joint project with the County, that will reconstruct the two-lane section that is
there now. It will actually stay a....a rural section, but we're looking at adding wide
shoulders to help for kinda, uh,bicycle facilities out into the county. Urn, it will
reconstruct it from where the County had recently done a project at Hebei near the
Landfill entrance, and extend that to basically just west of Highway 26...uh, Highway
218, and then with that we will also look to extend water main to the Landfill. Dubuque
Street reconstruction, this is a project I...I would say is similar to what was done on
Washington Street. It'll be for a block of Dubuque Street,basically between Washington
and Iowa Avenue. So again, uh, street reconstruction as well as utility work, and
streetscape improvements for this section. Kirkwood Avenue and Capitol Street
extensions, so this will be in Riverfront Crossings area, uh, it...extends Kirkwood Avenue
approximately, uh, a block, as well as Capitol a....approximately a block, and then they'll
have some sort of intersection. This will be there right by the Riverfront Crossings Park
and will, uh,help to accommodate some of the, uh, anticipated redevelopment in this
area. With that, that will also...was gonna mention that it'll also include removal of the
existing railroad spur that is, that crosses Benton Street, that is no longer used. First
Avenue and Scott Boulevard, lookin' at installing a roundabout in this location. Uh, it's
currently a four-way stop. We, uh, pretty regularly get complaints about this area for,
from a queuing and....and delay standpoint. So, uh, looking at this project to help
address those issues. Court Street reconstruction, this will look to reconstruct Court from
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Muscatine to First Avenue. So this would be not only street paving, it would be new
sidewalk,utility work, urn, all of that, uh, in this stretch.
Cole/Would it widen the...Court Street?
Havel/I don't know that we've looked at....at,have a final answer to that yet. I don't think that
we would look to necessarily widen it, um,but we would evaluate that with part of the
design.
Cole/Okay.
Havel/Benton Street rehabilitation, so this would look at some concrete patching, as well as an
asphalt overlay, basically from Mormon Trek down to....uh,just short of Greenwood.
Some of you may remember a couple years ago we actually did the hill on Benton Street,
re...uh, overlaid that so we would kind of fill in that section. Urn, also would focus on
ADA improvements, so new curb ramps,urn, with that as well. And then also I wanted to
mention,uh, currently out there there's a....a shoulder that is striped. It's not technically a
bike lane. This would actually widen that to allow for,uh, an official bike lane to be
included on, urn, Benton Street as well.
Thomas/Would that be buffered?
Havel/I don't think we'd be able to fit buffered in there,because we wouldn't be changing the
curb lines, but it will be, uh, the proper width for a bike lane. Second Avenue bridge
replacement, this is essentially, urn, replacing the structure that's there. Uh, also would
look for some street paving to tie that back in. Uh, one of the, couple of the other
improvements that would be done with this project is to provide a sidewalk, uh, crossing
here as well, and then tie into some of the sidewalk that's in the neighborhood, existing as
well as a, uh,water main connection under the creek in this location. Rochester Avenue,
so this would be a reconstruction from essentially Ralston Creek to First Avenue, urn, a
few years ago we had reconstructed the bridge over Ralston Creek, so we would take off
from that project and then to the east to First Avenue. Again, uh, complete reconstruction
—street, sidewalk, utilities, uh, with that one as well. Highway 1, Highway 6 intersection,
um, this is a....a study to look at the intersection. This is one that we've,urn,been
looking at for a little while. It's certainly, uh, not ideal with the skewed intersection, uh,
really no pedestrian accommodations, so this is a kind of a study to look at what we
might want for a long-term solution, and then once we had that study we could look at a
future project to...to construct those improvements. Dodge Street reconstruction, so this
is one that was mentioned earlier. We're actually working on the....the functional design
for this right now, to....to figure out what the overall design might look like, but this
would be for actual construction of that section. With this bein' a....highway route, this
would be one that we would share with the DOT, so there would be some cost-sharing
there as well, urn, but it would be complete reconstruction—again, uh, street, sidewalk,
utilities, all of that included in the project. Market Street and Jefferson Street two-way
conversion, this is one, again, that has been mentioned previously. We'd be looking at
going from one-way to two-way. With that we'd have to do some signal improvements
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and some other improvements that may be needed, obviously restriping, uh, would also
be looking at the additional bicycle facilities in this location. Uh, I believe the bicycle
master plan calls out buffered bike lanes. Uh, I think it's going to depend on what we
have for street width there. Uh, right now it's, with it bein' one-way, you have essentially
a bike lane in one direction on each one so....whether or not we can fit 'em in both
directions, I think that's yet to be seen, um,but we would fit in what....what we're able to.
Teague/I'm assumin'there are conversations about why the change from a one-way to a two-
way.
Havel/Uh huh.
Teague/Um....can you give me a brief....
Havel/I....I think in general there's been a....a movement away from one-way streets. Uh, I
think they, in the past, were viewed as a way to move traffic through town. I think, you
know, when you start talking about neighborhoods and that kind of stuff, they have been
viewed as....as not as conducive to that, and so I think that's kinda the general thought is
that it....it would have a more neighborhood feel and a better fit within an urban
environment when it's two-way traffic.
Teague/Okay.
Throgmorton/Bruce, also by taming traffic speeds on roads like those two, you have an
opportunity to increase the economic value of businesses along those streets. If...if
they're treated, I'm gonna use the word sewers, if they're treated like sewers through
which vehicles run, I...I don't mean to have too much of an analogy there,then that has
the tendency to decrease the value of property, because all the people are tryin'to do is
get through very quickly, instead of treating it as a place where people can walk,people
can sit outdoors, and locale businesses can thrive.
Mims/I think when we get to that point, there will be a lot of discussion, cause I think this is...I
think this is a very controversial issue within the community. I don't think it's...I don't
think you're going to see 100% of the people that say this change is good. So I think
there'll be a lot of public discussion.
Throgmorton/Yeah, absolutely that's true.
Cole/Bruce, I see some Jeff Speck videos in your future. He was the urban planner that came
two or three years ago and he's written a lot about walkable city. Um, and he's at least
persuaded some of us that,um, it does really give a more neighborhood feel, the safety
improvements are dramatic,the safe...the....the reduction in speeds is significant, urn,
which of course does mean some delay in, um, going across town. It's relatively
marginal, but I think that's where some of the controversy comes, and we've seen that I
think on Mormon Trek, although that's not necessarily conversion, um, it's narrowing the
street. It's not necessarily narrowing here,but I think the reduction in speeds that I think
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causes some of the controversy,but I'll send ya some Jeff Speck videos for...for your
watching.
Throgmorton/Well on that point, Bruce, I think what Rockne's really saying is that he's gonna
give you a gift,which is most, uh,recent....a copy of the most recent book that Jeff
Speck has written. It's called The Walkable City, but it's an update of that book, and it's
probably would be very enlightening for you to read, and then you'd form your own
judgment about what you think,but uh, it'd be really helpful to read. Jason, I wanna ask
you a question. Could you go back to Highway 6 and Highway 1, cause my question
really....
Teague/ I do have one last question on that.
Throgmorton/ Sure, go ahead!
Teague/Uh, will there only be, uh, parkin'on one side of the street?
Havel/ I don't know that that's been decided at this point. I think we kinda look at various
options.
Teague/All right. Thanks!
Throgmorton/ So I wanna make a point about this intersection. Right now it's an intersection of
flows. It's....it's just traffic. What I think we have an opportunity to do is to treat it as a
place. And to try to make it into a place that in itself has appeal, instead of just being a
place through which traffic moves. It's a big opportunity. I wish we would really think
about it seriously, and so to do that, you can't think only in terms of moving traffic. You
have to think about urban design. You have to think about all the other aspects associated
with that. So....Jeff Speck and others, uh, have a lot of advice about that,but I
hopeful....I'm hoping that ahead, looking ahead, when staff gets to this particular topic in
a very serious way, that you will take into account, and the Council will take into
account, the idea of place-making there instead of just facilitating flow.
Teague/ I guess I don't understand what that exactly means, but maybe readin'the book it'll kinda
help me(laughs)because, urn, it seemed like we would do some type of a structure to
make, urn, that corner look good, and for me that would be distractive(laughs) you know,
in my mind right now from what I'm hearing,but I'll read the book and maybe you can
talk to me about this later.
Throgmorton/Yeah. Good!
Thomas/I...I have suggested before,uh, I can't remember the context,but...we are talking budget
of,urn, having a small library available to Council and staff of books like Jeff Speck's
new book,um, that could be loaned out to...to yourself or anyone who was interested in
whatever the topics that would be covered by...by the books in there.
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Salih/Nice!
Taylor/I think we've talked about the pedestrian lack of friendliness along Highway 1, Highway
6 quite a bit and there had been some talk at times that along that stretch, somewhere,
having more of a pedestrian overpass kind of a thing that would make it easier for
pedestrians, cause you do see people, and...and bikers too, uh, trying to cross there, not
necessarily at that Highway 1, 6 intersection, uh,but we do see a few, and now there's a
Starbuck's goin' in there and there's gonna be more people in the new, where Joanne's was
and Paul's was,there's going to be probably some more pedestrian traffic. So, uh, I...I
think maybe we can keep that in mind as part of that too, is some kind of overpass for the
pedestrians.
Throgmorton/If you're on a bike or on foot, that intersection is insane. It's just....it's totally
unsafe to try to cross it. On bike or on foot.
Havel/Moving down to waste water, the clarifier repairs, uh, this is really, uh, repairs of original
equipment to the plant. We've actually replaced a couple of'em, so this would replace,
uh, two more of those clarifiers. The Scott Boulevard trunk sewer, this is out on the east
side of town,just north of the railroad tracks, east of Scott Boulevard. It would look at
extending the sanitary sewer that's there existing, extending it to kind of the northeast, up
to American Legion Road. There's actually a lift station on the north side of American
Legion Road in that location. Uh, that would go away as part of this project, and allow it
to be fed, uh, gravity sewer, urn, instead of having that...that pump station. Um,
obviously with the new school out there, there's likely to be significant interest in
development in this area and that, this project would help with that as well.
Throgmorton/I was just gonna make a point about that. Looking at the photograph on the left
shows the new school on the upper right, right,the new Hoover School. So you know
we've just commissioned Opticos to do a form based code for the area around Alexander
Elementary, and when we first started thinking about that, our idea was to use the
information they come up with and the code they come up with, for application in the, in
this area, that, like Jason just said, is gonna be developed (laughs) once there's this sewer
line and so on in the general vicinity, or serving the area. Yeah, so you gotta see these
things as part of a whole.
Havel/Nevada Avenue sanitary sewer, this one should be,knock on wood,hopefully pretty
straightforward. Just replacing a, an existing sanitary sewer that's in...in poor condition.
West Park lift station,this will be a....a replacement or...and upgrading, updating of the
existing lift station that is located in City Park. Digester cover renovation, this is
replacement of a couple of the covers of a couple of the digesters down at the waste water
plant. Again just in poor condition, at the end of their useful life.
Knoche/Uh, the digester complex,this....this is,uh, a project that's driven by, um, some of the
nutrient removal that's bein' done to the sludge process, uh,mainly phosphorous that's
creating a by-product called struvite, which is plugging up all the piping. Um, this will
also, uh, so this project will look at the process to remove that struvite, um, we'll also be
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looking at potential, uh, as we, uh, look at the methane gas production and ways of reuse
of potentially incorporating that into this project also.
Cole/I certainly know what a digester is,but just for the public, could you explain what is a
digester?
Knoche/ So....so the digester, so the....the by-product that's created, urn, during the...the
treatment process is sludge, urn, and so in these digesters that sludge is broken down so
that there's no more, urn, potential for...for ill health results of that. Urn, that that product,
that breaks down into what we call bio-solids and that's actually land appli.....land
applied,urn, to some farm fields on the southern side of Iowa City.
Cole/Perfect!
Havel/The influent rake and screen replacement, so this is kinda the first line of defense for the
waste water plant, uh,,again it's reached the end of its useful life and more or less
replacement of what's there. The Hawkeye lift station rehabilitation project, uh, similar
to the previous one, this is one that will be,uh, replaced or updated,uh, with a new lift
station in this location. The Rohret south sewer, so this is near, or....will cross Mormon
Trek. It will also extend sewer along Abbey Lane, across Highway 218. The significant,
or the significance of this project really is that this is one of the main hurdles for
development west of Highway 218. So this has kind of been that sticking point of once
the sanitary sewer,uh, crosses the highway here, then that would potentially open up
development of the Carson Farm area,urn, on the west side of 218.
Throgmorton/Would that be gravity fed?
Havel/Yes!
Throgmorton/And it's within the, uh....the development area, the planned development area of
the city?
Havel/It's been part of the...of the long-term plan of the...of the sewer system.
Fruin/Right now we're....we're kind of reaching capacity on our west side in terms of buildable
lots. The....the Country Club Estates subdivision is going through their last phase.
Camp Cardinal's startin' to...to fill out. After those two areas build out more, we really
don't have much growth on the west side. So this...that project's out a few years. I think
it was in the fourth or fifth year of our CIP,but it really looks at that next growth,urn,
opportunity on our west side and with that comes a lot of discussions about,urn, other
needs. So are there school sites needed? Are we lookin' at a west side recreation center?
Uh,there's a large storm water, um...uh....uh, detention basin that's needed, uh, for that
side, whole number of things will require a lot of master planning, uh,but this is at least
the identifying the dollars to get that sewer underneath 18....218.
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Throgmorton/Yeah, there's no neighborhood commercial area out there. The nearest one is
where the Fairview Grocery Store is. Uh, yeah, there's a lot of work that needs to be
done on that, and again this form based code that we're developing for Opticos, or with
Opticos'help, could be very beneficial for that area.
Havel/Uh, First Avenue water main replacement, uh,really just water main replacement of these
two blocks,just south of Court Street. Spruce Street water main, again, replacing a
couple blocks of water main that has a history of....of breaks.
Knoche/So, as....as nutrient and nutrient-loading nitrogen starts becoming an issue for us in the
Iowa River, which urn, which then, you know, Iowa River basically is our source water,
whether it's through direct removal or through our, um, collector wells that we use. Um,
what we're seeing is as....as nitrogen levels increase in the river,they're not returning
back to the lower levels that they were, and so, um, the...this, uh,project will be, uh,
investigating what we can do to....deal with the nitrogen removal, or...or other ways to
off-set the nitrogen in our, uh, source water.
Havel/Dill Street water main replacement, this is, again, is a water main replacement project,but
along with that we'll look at installing sidewalk on one side of Dill Street. This is an area
that currently doesn't have sidewalk. If you're familiar with the area, it will be
challenging to add sidewalk in this location, so I think that's why we're focused on one
side of the street, again just to try and provide that pedestrian connection from Rocky
Shore to the adjacent neighborhood. Bradford Drive water main replacement, this will be
• replacing a water main just north of Southeast Junior High.
Knoche/Uh, the water distribution pressure zone improvements, we...we worked on a study with
HGR, uh, to look at pressure zoning of our system. Um, with this,uh, study, uh, they've
identified basically two pressure zones for us, one would be kind of the northeast part of
our community,uh, and then the remainder of the community would be,uh, would be in a
different pressure zone. Urn, the...the reasoning for this is as we look at the east side of
our, or the northeast side of our community,because of the elevation being about the
same as the elevation of our water plant,we have issues with being able to keep the
pressures up to service these areas. Urn, so with this,um, project, they've identified
where we need to add pieces of infrastructure to....to separate the pressure zones. Urn,
this helps fund those pieces,but we're also, urn, using other projects, uh,American
Legion Road,uh, the First Avenue water main project, to also,uh, implement the features
into the system that we need to create that pressure zone.
Havel/The Jordan well rehabilitation project will, uh,basically make improvements to the, it's
shown in the blue there,up at the water plant, the Jordan well. Deforest Avenue water
main replacement, again, uh, replacement of a block of water main. Collector well
capacity improvements, so this'll focus on collector well one, uh, will replace the
collector well; also look at ways to improve the capacity of the collector well. Highway
1 water main replacement will include, or...uh, reconstruction of a stretch of water main
there, kind of across the street from Walmart.
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Throgmorton/Jason , I wanna toss ya a softball. So why do we need to replace water mains?
Havel/Uh, a lot of times it's in areas where we have a history of water main breaks. So it gets to,
sometimes it's due to age, sometimes it's just due to,we have certain eras where
construction methods at the time resulted in....in sections of pipe that just result in...in
more maintenance, uh, oftentimes that's water main breaks.
Throgmorton/Thanks!
Taylor/Well that kind of answers my question. I think we've talked about that before. You don't
necessarily wait until there's an issue, the water main's broken. Just kind of the history of
it and maybe,uh, if you know the date of when it was actually installed, you're thinking
it's outliving(both talking)
Havel/Yep, and a lot of times it's...yeah, we get a pretty good idea. We start seeing patterns of
certain era of pipe or a type of pipe that's maybe being used, whereas if we see a history
of breaks then we'll be more proactive with replacement of those areas.
Teague/And are you routinely lookin' at this, I'm assuming, uh, for areas to replace it?
Havel/Correct. Yep! It's an ongoing process. The high service pump VFD replacement, this
replaces the variable frequency drives on the high service pumps, and just really makes
them more efficient,um, during pumping operations. The Peninsula well field power
redundancies, so now that the Peninsula neighborhood has been built out, this allows for
basically, uh, an additional power feed to this area, um, that will allow for essentially a
loop system, so should something happen, it will allow for some redundancy there.
Throgmorton/Excuse me,uh, Geoff, has...uh, am I right in thinking that Peninsula's now fully
built out or is there like one lot left or somethin', do you know?
Froin/Pretty...pretty darn close if it's not full.
Throgmorton/I was wondering if they were going to have a celebration about, you know,
completing the...the project. If there is, I'd like to go! (laughs)
Fruin/I have not heard anything, but I'll let you know.
Throgmorton/I....I once assigned students to go out there when it was still a,the remnants of a
farm, and they did things like collected, um,bedrock, soil samples, water samples,
walked all over the place. I camped out there, well sorta camped out there one night in
the middle of winter. It was really great fun. Uh, but that was before the Peninsula
development was built, of course. (laughs)
Havel/The chlorine feeder system, so this'll be an upgrade to the water plant and really replacing
the existing system. With that,that's it for Public Works. So well move on to Airport!
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Teague/ I did have one question. Urn, so the First Avenue and Scott Boulevard, they're gettin'the
roundabout?
Havel/Yep!
Teague/As well as, urn,American Legion Road and Scott Boulevard? They're both gettin' a
roundabout, urn, so....with like Scott,American Legion Road and Scott Boulevard,
seemed like there's, uh, the school is there and there's neighborhoods there and....urn, and
I know I've been on the, uh, First Avenue, you know, tryin' to get through there at like,
urn, high volume times, and it seems challengin'to get through there. Urn, has there been
studies done about roundabout....I'm assumin'there, I mean, you've done roundabout
studies,uh, versus,uh, lights. Urn, do you find that that's gonna really move traffic at a
nice pace or....what....would lights be....more advantageous?
HaveU I...I think what you're gonna find, and certainly there's been some analysis that's been
completed, I think what you're gonna find is that during those peak times, they're still
gonna be some delay and some queuing that occurs, uh, where you really see the benefit
is those off-peak times. So I...I think it'll still move traffic during those peak times,but
really during the off-peak times you'll be able to have essentially free flow, whereas for
signals, you're still gonna have times where even if there's not other people there, you're
havin' to stop to wait for the light to change or....or whatever, so....I think overall it's
gonna be an improvement,urn,but certainly it's not going to be a situation where there's
no queuing or delay.
Teague/I think maybe more....if we see more and more in our community, cause they're really
new, and uh, people are just stalled, don't know what to do (laughs) myself included, urn,
and so I think right now even when they're in use from people within our community, urn,
they may not be goin' at the pace that they could be goin',urn,because people don't, you
know, they don't quite know who...who has the right-of-way to go and all that other stuff
but,um, I just wondered about that,because, um....those, you know,those high use
times, um, can be a little frustrating, urn, but I...I do get the point of, you know, the
benefits when it's not that peak time.
Cole/Jason, isn't there also substantial environmental benefit from the roundabout, that you're
not having as much acceleration when you're moving(both talking)
Havel/Sure and whether it's queuing or whatever, emissions are certainly cut down when you're
not having people just sitting at intersections. But I think to that point, there's certainly
an educational component that goes with that and I think as you do get more, people
become more familiar with them and they become, urn, more popular.
Mims/ I think there's two things with those, to Bruce's point. One, that the roundabout itself is
physically large enough, urn, so you...you've got that radius that there's actually some
space,when we've talked about one in the area that's really small (laughs) not in Iowa
City, and two, I've seen 'em in other cities where they actually put up signs that simply
say yield to the left. And so people gradually get the idea of, okay, I don't need to look at
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the right. I just need to see what's coming from my left and yield to any cars coming
around. So I think that could be helpful as well.
Havel/And both of these are intended to be full size roundabouts, not minis or other designs.
Yeah.
Teague/I have to say the first time I ever saw a roundabout was in Hilton Head,um, and I was
scared to death (laughter)because they were goin' really fast! (laughs)
Taylor/Well having had driver's ed many,many, many years ago, prior to roundabouts, I think
there are a lot of us in that age range that...that don't know for sure, and I have seen the
signs that say yield to the left and I think that would be extremely helpful.
Throgmorton/All right, everybody, let's remember we're leavin' at 3:45 (several talking and
laughing)
Airport
Tharp/Well, good afternoon. I'm Mike Tharp, I'm the Airport Operations Specialist. Um, as
Dennis alluded to earlier, uh, when he was givin' the overview presentation with Airport
projects, um, our funding sources are basically three...three areas. We get $100,000 from,
uh,the general levy, which we use for matching grants. Uh, those grants come from
either the State DOT or the Federal Aviation Administration, and when the FAA, the
Federal Aviation Administration participates, we get, uh, they give us 90% of the project
costs. When the State participates at the DOT level, it's anywhere from 70 to 85% of the
project costs, depending on...on the,uh, particular grant and particular project. Because
of that, when we don't get funded via grants, those projects usually just shift down the
line, and that's...that's what you've probably seen a great deal of...or moved around
somewhat in that, uh, in that project matrix where you can see the changes over the last
few years. Uh,with the projects that we've got on the list, uh, the first one, the Airport
parking lot expansion, this is one just to try to increase the availability of parking spaces
at the terminal building, when we have, uh, days where we have heavy charter use or
even when we're trying to host a, you know, community meetings, community events,uh,
parking is at a premium. So we're trying to do a....a couple of projects there to just
increase the availability of parking spaces, uh, close to the building. Um, the airfield
pavement rehab, this is actually our last section of 1950's era pavement, um, you know,
it's....it's pavement that's' not in great condition. It's definitely water marked, or weather,
uh, weather marked and...and does have some cracking and....and we're seeing some
joint, uh,joint, uh, unraveling,uh, with it, so we're going to take that out and replace it,
um....uh, project number three and four, both of these kinda tie together. This is coming
from the Airport's master plan, and this one is to add about 210, 215 feet to the end of
runway 7. What that do...what that pavement does is if you're landing on the opposite
direction, you actually get a full 5,000 foot of landing distance that you can use for, uh,
aircraft landing calculations. Urn, runway 25,uh, this is one that's coming from our,
again, our Airport master plan and is part of the broader obstruction mitigation projects,
but because we've, uh, changed some design criteria based on the Airport's usage over the
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last 20 years, urn, we're able to shift the landing threshold back about 700 feet and
reclaim some of that existing pavement for landing calculations. Uh, the runway 12-30
(mumbled) again, coming from the....the master plan, uh, this is a project that....that ties
into some of our obstruction mitigation. Uh, we are displacing the threshold on the
northwest, uh, side of the Airport about 500 feet, in order to kind of maintain the same
landing distance that's on that runway. We're gonna add pavement to the opposite end,
uh, to keep those calculations going. A self-serve fuel kiosk, this is one that we went
after State grants, uh, last year and unfortunately weren't funded, but we may try again.
Um...uh, the fuel system kiosk right now just needs to be updated so it can better handle,
uh,the....the chips in the cards and that kind of stuff. So right now it's just a magnetic
feed, uh....uh,point-of-sale system. And our apron expansion, this is our larger
expansion, you can see in the picture the two colors of the pavement. Uh, that smaller
section was added last year, in preparation for this, for the rehab project, but this one is...
is a much larger one so that we can better accommodate especially the larger aircraft that
come in. If we get a, kind of the max end of our aba...uh, ability to handle aircraft, it can
take up anywhere from a third to a quarter of our ramp, so it really cuts down on...on the
available parking for other aircraft that might show up. And that's....the Airport projects!
(laughs)
Throgmorton/Thank you, Mike.
Tharp/Thank you!
Fire Department
Grier/ Good afternoon, John Grier, Fire Chief. Mine are pretty straightforward. For stuff! Our
apparat...our apparatus replacement program, we've,uh, you'll notice in your document
that you have we did switch some things around. So for, uh, 20 we have coming up the
replacement of an engine and our safety house, and then in 22, that would be a
replacement of our quint, which is a ladder-type device, and then in 23 would be our
actual aerial device, for 1.9 million. And then the other one I have on there is Fire Station
#5, that lot purchase we just did, uh, not too long ago, so....I'd entertain any questions
you might have.
Cole/One super quick question, one of the things that pops up in urban planning questions a lot
are the size of fire,um, trucks themselves. And,um, for, urn, the Peninsula, do we have
smaller trucks for that area,urn, is that something we look at in terms of possibly looking
at smaller strucks...trucks,because when you talk about street width,that usually comes
up as an issue,um, in terms of the size of the fire trucks, and obviously have reasonable
concerns. We all wanna make sure we can access. Is that something that comes up or
you think about?
Grier/Yeah, it has come up more in the recent past, yes. It's on our radar for this next round of
purchases, as far as the engines.
Cole/Okay.
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Grier/Seems the bigger your engine gets the more you put on it and think some of it we could
not carry. We are cognizant of the shrinking street.
Cole/Yep!
Grier/We are able to access all the streets. Sometimes it just takes a little, uh,maneuvering.
Cole/Cause you guys always get a hard time a lot about the Fire Chief expressing concerns, so I
just thought I'd bring that up!
Grier/Yes.
Cole/You do a great job!
Grier/Thank you.
Throgmorton/Thanks, Chief; that was easy!
Grier/Great, thanks!
Library
Carman/Good afternoon, I'm Elsworth Carman, Library Director. We're gonna keep this short
and sweet, as well. Um, we've got two projects to talk about. The first is, uh, the first
half of a carpeting and furnishing upgrade at the Library. This will be on the second
floor,um,just for context the carpet and furnishing is original to the 2004 building. Urn,
I think it's a testament to our building maintenance crews that it's in the shape it's in. Um,
so mostly wear and tear, but also interestingly we know much more about how
furnishings affect access now and the pattern that we chose, that was chosen in 2004
actually could be a barrier for some folks coming in the building because it has sort of a
3-D pattern, um, so we'll know better for selecting this next time. Urn, and the second
one is,uh, continuation of the HVAC repairs. This is just, uh, expected and general
operational maintenance.
Throgmorton/Okie dokie (both talking)
Carman/ ...questions?
Throgmorton/Any questions for Elsworth?
Mims/Pretty easy!
Throgmorton/Thanks!
Carman/Thanks!
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Fruin/Why don't you skip through Senior Center and go to the next one? (several talking)
Throgmorton/Hi, LaTasha!
Senior Center
DeLoach/Hi! My apologies! I'll be here for 90 seconds! (laughter) Urn, so the Senior Center,
uh, for this fiscal year,we have a plaster issue. If you've been to our grand staircase you
know we have some plaster coming, uh, down, urn, that we need to get that repaired, as
well there's a window with some water retention happening in there and then also to
specifically look at, urn, doing some type of ADA study to make sure our building is
really bein' able to do what it is we need to specifically for our population, but the
community in general. So those are two asks (laughs)that we have for,urn, amendment
for this year. (mumbled) Um, for the, uh, next year, we're looking at, we have some of
the oldest carpet in, urn (laughs) probably the City, urn, some of our carpet is over 40
years old, and so just thinkin' about health, urn, issues that can happen, especially as
people have lung issues, etc. I mean our staff does an amazing job of trying to maintain
and keep it clean,but I just know even in my office it's about,uh,40 years old carpeting.
So we have some requests for carpets. Um, and we need to start looking at, urn, some
kitchen redesign. I know you all know we have a, kind of defunct kitchen,but um,
there's some ideas of how do we make that kitchen more accessible as a rentable space
for small businesses or,uh, as a catering kitchen, a space where public can use it, urn, so
there's some, uh, thought about getting someone to come in,uh, some contractors and
some....some design happening to...to look at it, um, so that we can come up with a good
plan about how we can better utilize City,uh, facility,urn, as well as is that a revenue
opportunity for the Senior Center,um, is that an opportunity to build some inter-
generational programming, urn, etc., that we kind of have in mind to utilize in that space,
and then there's some other building repairs, some wallpaper, painting, uh, different
things that we're looking at in 2020. Um...we have four floors, so there's a lot of this is
mostly just, urn,building,uh....uh, removal of, um, some paint and then our hope is to
eventually, uh, as time goes on, to start looking at some of the exterior of our building,
urn, trying to, uh,kinda, uh, reflect the vibrancy of what's happening inside the building
on the outside of the building, uh, little bit more with potentially putting in some,um...
um....I'm trying...I'm losing the word (laughs)but to do some....some more with our, uh,
landscaping, so that people can understand a little bit more, maybe bein'more clear about
what the Center is,um, so there's a little bit of outside work,but that's further down as
we're looking, um, into it. Um, those...those are mostly our main...our main goals is to
get the building updated, urn,just because it's an older building it doesn't have to go
without the repair that's needed, and I don't think we've asked for a CIP request, I don't
think, in a really, really long time,uh, at least looking back at our files. So this is kind of
our first time really saying we really need to make some changes and to do some things.
I mean eventually at some point, um, I think we're also gonna have to look at, urn,
replacin' our elevator. Cause it's been there for a really, really long time as well, so....a
lot of these things are about safety. Some of them are definitely looking at, you know,
improving the look, updating the look,but some of them are in regards to safety.
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Cole/ Can I just comment on the kitchen? I was so glad to hear you say that, cause that's gonna
be huge.
DeLoach/Yeah.
Cole/ I think that's gonna be really exciting project. I know Mazahir and I have talked a lot of
about possible Robert A. Lee. There's some complexities of makin' that happen at Robert
A. Lee,but in terms of the food entrepreneurs, community programming, I think...and the
location, I'm so excited, uh,that you guys are proposing that, and so I'm really excited to
see what you have in store for that particular project.
DeLoach/Yeah, we....I'm really excited about it,that it can potentially....my goal is it will be
really great to do a cooking show, like what does that look like to know(both talking)
Yes, we already got YouTube! (laughter) We have Senior Center TM so we already have
the staff that's available to do that,but to partner with local chefs or folks that wanna
come in and show how to make some meals, and kinda combine that with our pantry that
we've opening. Um,how is it to make a low-budget meal, um, to kind of stretch your
dollars. So just some ideas there about like how we can incorporate the use of that
kitchen, as well as potentially some small entrepreneurs who need a space, uh, later in the
evening, afternoon, when we're not utilizin' it. So those are just some ideas on the table.
Obviously there's....we're open to other ideas and suggestions about what that looks like,
but getting someone to come in specifically to kind of give us an idea of how we can do
that,uh,will be really helpful.
Teague/Do you all currently use the commercial kitchen?
DeLoach/So....(several talking) not really. So we have the space. We have, uh,these
refrigerators and things, but they're not up-to-date. They're not in use. So right now the
only use of the kitchen is our sanitation space, uh, which is still functioning and fine,um,
and then we have a refrigerator,but that's with our collaboration with Elder Services, to
specifically still provide our meals at the noon hour. Um, so they have a refrigerator
that's in there. So some of the stuff in there is in there as well because it kinda got left
over from when that contract kinda changed. So we'll be working with them also about
what to do with those items, as well as how we can update that space,urn, to actually get
a functioning stove and refrigerator,uh, etc. I think it'd also be a great space as we look
to potentially in the future partnering with Public Health, if there's ever a disaster, that we
can have a place specifically for,urn, elders in our community to go, to get medication,
etc., so that's also a part of hoping to put that in a plan about how...how we become a
point of distribution site, um, down the line, that we can help if there's ever a disaster. So
we'll need a functioning area for refrigeration. Um, but that's....
Teague/The reason I (both talking) the reason I asked is because,um, it sounded like you were
planning,um, if there was going to be use for it, for the community to come in, it would
be after hours when the senior....when the Center isn't usin' it, and so currently there, urn,
is, uh....a, um, agency in town that allow, uh, entrepreneurs to go in, um, but the
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challenge that I've been told is that they have to go in super-early, or after like 5:00, and
so most catering, uh,businesses, they need to be typically durin'the day, you know, um,
and so that was one of the challenges. So just keep...I wanted to just mention that,
because that is, uh, somethin' that's been told to me by, urn, a few people that
want...that...that do have a caterin'business, and they have a challenge in finding(both
talking) a usable, commercial space.
DeLoach/Okay! I mean it's definitely something we can look at. Right now it's...it's mostly
being used to just be able to serve food out of during that noon hour. So it's not being
utilized in the morning. It's not being utilized in the afternoon. So I think there...there
could be some possibilities. Obviously I need to find more details. I'm not tryin to sell
y'all somethin'that I don't know about! (laughs) So I'm just sayin' that...you know, we're
open to whatever we can do, um, to make that space available, cause it is quite a bit of
square footage that we could be utilizing.
Teague/Well the one good thing is that there is somebody already doin' it, so that would be a
connection for ya.
DeLoach/Yes! Great. Please(both talking)
Salih/And I'm assuming (both talking) it will be a license kitchen, right?
DeLoach/Well yeah, we would have to just(both talking) in general, if we're gonna do that
(mumbled)
Salih/Yeah, if we're gonna allow somebody else to come(both talking) their food, so it'd have to
be a license kitchen.
DeLoach/Yeah. So there's some work and some challenges of getting that up-to-date.
Salih/Uh huh.
Throgmorton/Okay! Sounds good. Thank you, LaTasha. (several talking in background)
While Chief Matherly's comin'up,uh, LaTasha's comment about a plaster repair reminds
me that, of a job apprentice opportunity. There are lots of older buildings in Iowa City
that need plaster repair on the interior, and there's only one person who does plaster repair
in Iowa City. And that one person is somethin' like 80 years old. Uh, so it would be great
if as an economic development kind of, uh, activity, we would reach out to that one
individual and try to find some way to get an apprentice or more than one apprentice to
work with him. Okay, Chiefl Hi!
Police
Matherly/Hi, good afternoon, uh, Jody Matherly, Police Chief. Uh, we have three projects that
we're looking at. Um (clears throat) we've spent a lot of time looking at the, uh, the
physical structure of our building, uh, the efficiency of the building, and then technology
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related to that. Uh, some of the things we found are, urn (clears throat) that we need to
improve on a more visitor-friendly design and incorporate safety as a priority. We have
no interview rooms. Folks that come in to talk to us to make a complaint have to sit in an
officer report area and near the break room, and so there's no privacy and safety there for
anybody. Urn, the interior space for training and meeting rooms, we've evaluated, um,
the, uh, areas for appropriate and secure prisoner movement; uh, fingerprinting and
detention are sub-standard. Uh, lack of storage and records space, we have two off-site
storage areas, as you well know, that we deal with, uh, for evidence and things of that
nature, and then just room for staff expansion. Much of this is not gonna be addressed
through,uh, some of the remodeling that we're talking about now. It'll take a new facility
for that,but we know that's way down the road,but um, we're able to do some of these
things that are relatively inexpensive costs right now and still enhance safety and
efficiency and make it more accommodating for our customers, those who come in and
talk to us. So that's the first project here. Um, this...these are all 2019 projects,by the
way,but there's three offices as you walk in our...our front entrance. Uh, the watch
commander's office where the supervisors sit,uh, for patrol, and then two office report
writing rooms, which is really where we talk to our....our, uh...um, community members
that come in. So we're gonna remodel the three of those to make them into two interview
rooms that will have some privacy and the technology,uh, that's related to taking proper
complaints and reports, and then, uh, update the...the watch commander's office and also
the officers'report writing room. Uh, there'll be some funding from another source,
through our abandoned money funds that was targeted several years ago for building
improvements, and so we'll use some of that money with this project as well. The next
thing is the, um, the body camera replacement. So we....we use a system now that's
antiquated. It's eight years old. It's no longer supported by the manufacturer, so it's time
to replace the in-car camera systems. Um, our body cameras are just three or four years
old,but those really take a beating. Um,they have new systems now where the body
camera talks to the car camera, so if I activate the body camera, the car camera turns on
and vice versa. So there's less chance of saying I had to jump out of my police car, chase
after a person, and I didn't have a chance to activate this. If I activate one, it'll activate
the other.There's also systems out there that are recording in the background. So if I do
not have a chance to activate my body camera or the car camera, these systems are still
recording, and we can go back and download off the hard drive and still get that
information if we need it. So it....it kind of, uh, takes the....takes the, uh, takes the....the
chance that we have unrecorded incidents happening,which really enhances things for us,
and it also makes things more transparent for our community. So those are the new
systems we're looking at for this project. And then the last one is crime scene mapping.
We have what's called,um....uh, it's a total station. So it's really designed initially for
....for engineers and things of that nature, for road construction projects, urn, it's worked
well for evidence scenes, but it's...it's labor-intensive, uh, takes a lot of manpower, and
also just takes a lot of time. The new systems, it's almost a one to two person show, and
literally will do within minutes what has taken us hours with the old system, and these
systems are designed to measure crime scenes, to scale, and be able to reproduce it in the
court room and use it for investigations. So we're really looking forward to that. Half of
this project is also going to be funded by the University of Iowa Police Department,
who's budgeted, and then we'll have a.....MLU to share this device, so it's not just
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(mumbled) two agencies are using it in a shared concept. So it'll save us some money.
That's all I have!
Throgmorton/Chief, what will happen to the replaced camera systems?
Matherly/Um...you know, because they're not supported any more, um, that's a good question. It
wouldn't be good for resale. We could maybe find a small agency that says we'll use'em
till they absolutely die, uh, and....and do that, but short of that, uh, somebody that really
is dependent upon these devices (mumbled) use 'em ongoing, uh, they wouldn't be worth
a whole lot to anybody, because of their age.
Throgmorton/So you'd give it to Ron? (laughter)
Salih/ I just wanna ask you about the, something really unrelated. The...the body camera that the
police have, is this, um, something like you record and download it later, or it could be
live with the department or something like that?
Matherly/ So the...these are not, uh, designed to be live, uh, at all. Um, they are downloaded
automatically when we return to the station. So when we get back and we...we dock the
body cameras, or with the cars,just parking them. Then they're wireless....wirelessly,
easy for me to say, downloaded into the system. Um, so...we don't have the, urn, the
ability to sit there and watch them live at this point. Um, there are systems that could do
that. That's a whole different, uh, system,but...but these aren't designed to do that.
Salih/ Okay.
Matherly/But we can absolutely bring'em up in minutes of....of recording, if we....if we needed
to.
Throgmorton/Okay. Thanks, Chief
Matherly/Thank you.
Throgmorton/Darian,phase two (laughs)
Transportation
Nagle-Gamin/Hello there! I thought I would start with our parking projects. First one is the
EMV parking equipment. I had to look up what EMV means and it means Euro
MasterCard Visa, and it's adopting the, of course, European standards for the chip
technology, which we're starting to see widespread. Um, there's been a lot of chatter in
the last couple years about, um, whether the requirement will come for us to be,um, chip-
friendly in all of our parking facilities.The requirement hasn't come yet,but this project
is to prepare us so when that comes we have the funds to retrofit the equipment, if need
be. Uh, truth be told,we'd rather let our equipment age out, and then as we purchase new
equipment, of course that, um, that EMV or that chip technology will be included in that
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new equipment. The second project is the Rec Center parking lot overlay and creek
improvements, and this is consolidating a few different needs and a few different, um,
more or less projects into one project, and this would be a redesign and a reconfiguration
of the Rec Center parking lot, um, to improve circulation. Also, urn, it would include
stabilization of the Ralston Creek bank, which is right along the parking lot's edge, and it
would also involve resurfacing of the parking lot, which is,uh, the parking lot's seen
better days. So it's sort of wrapping all those three needs into one project. Uh, the third
project is just, uh, replacement of our electronics and our smart parking meters. They
look like your average parking meter,but now they have brains and,um, we're able to use
them with our, or use credit cards with them. We're able to use Passport, and they each
have a little computer,um, that uploads to the internet, um, for all transactions, and in a
few years they're gonna be reaching the end of their useful life, so this project is planning
for their eventual replacement. The casings seem to be holding up pretty well,but um,
we're anticipating that we're gonna need to replace that electronic equipment.
Teague/How often do they need replaced?
Nagle-Gamm/This would be the first replacement, um, and by 2021, which is when this project
is slated for, they will be about 10 years old. Uh, the fourth project is video cameras for
our parking facilities, and this is sort of,urn, two-fold project as well. Urn, both for, you
know, safety and security,but we also, um, are seeking ways that we can, um, we can
elevate our ungated facilities, say across the street at Chauncey Swan, so that we have
some of the benefits of our gated facilities, but without the gates, so people can drive in
and out, urn, for example you can do license plate, uh,permits, things like that. Urn, so
this is a project that would help us, um, to, um, control,better control the facility,
especially with all the growth in the area at our ungated facilities and also provide that
security, as well.
Cole/I...I don't understand, what...what is the particular benefit that would...in order to you or...
or the facility with the, um....video?
Nagle-Gamin/So it could be a(both talking)
Cole/The gated versus ungated.
Nagle-Gamin/Okay. Urn, you could use cameras not just to record what's happening,but they
could be license plate reader cameras as well, so when a car enters a facility, for anyone
who has a parking permit, for example, across the street. Um, you would drive into the
ramp, um, if you have a City permit. We would read your license plate with a camera. It
would know, the system would know you're parked there and you have a permit, and
you're allowed to be there. If you're not, if you're just a guest, say I don't have a parking
permit and I drive in, it reads my license plate and it knows within 15 minutes we should
expect a transaction at one of our pay-on-foot stations.
Cole/Okay.
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Nagle-Gamm/So then....it aids in enforcement.
Cole/That...that's actually a very significant issue. Do we have privacy, we're not uploading that
license plate information to any other law enforcement agency, that would not be used to
track, correct? Cause anytime someone talks about license plate reading, privacy alarm
bells, I think, goin' off, so this'd just be just related to payment to ensure that payment
occurs. It would not be shared with law enforcement, correct?
Nagle-Gamm/Well, I guess that's to be determined. Um, the capacity would be there. I mean in
terms of sharing with....with police enforcement....
Cole/In other words, would this be....all of a sudden you get a report on a license plate number,
urn, we would then share this with other agencies.
Nagle-Gamm/I guess that's a good question!
Cole/Well that's somethin' I'm gonna follow (both talking)
Nagle-Gamm/I hadn't thought that through, but it was....from our perspective, I think the
primarily it would allow us to control, um, it would allow all the benefits,the user
benefits of having an ungated system, um, meaning you don't have to stop in front of the
gate (both talking) get your ticket, yeah. It makes it more efficient to get in and our of the
system, and it allows us to,urn,use it for parking enforcement.
Froin/Rockne, I would follow up on that. I...we haven't had any conversations about directly
feeding that and proactively looking for, uh, violations other than,uh....uh,parking
violations. Urn, but we do...we do have a need, urn, to....to better monitor our decks for
public safety purposes. We've had, uh, several incidents in decks, and then we've had
some very high profile cases where cameras in the decks, um, could of really helped our
police investigation. So some of the, urn, recent murder cases involved trying to track
vehicles around decks, so there may be cases in which investigations lead us to...to want
to access some of the...those....those cameras, and....and look for that stuff. Urn,
certainly as we get more into the planning for this particular project, we can have that
public discussion. Frankly we're gonna have to have some of that discussion here soon as
we get ready to...to launch some of the downtown, uh, public safety cameras that we're
proposing.
Cole/And I can follow up, yeah.
Salih/You mean unless there is a problem you are not gonna go and investigate all those (several
talking) Okay!
Nagle-Gamm/Uh, the number five project is parking enforcement vehicles, and this is,uh,this is
an example of one of our current vehicles that's got license plate reader technology that
we just use for...to determine if there's, urn, vehicles in the...it's basically used for parking
enforcement is what I should say. So we're hoping to expand, urn, to another parking
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enforcement vehicle with this license plate technology, and that would also help us,uh,
improve our enforcement in our....and again, in our ungated facilities. So this would be
more or less partnered with the cameras in the ungated facilities to help improve our
enforcement and make it more efficient. And we could also use it for street storage and
odd/even parking and some...to help address some of our neighborhood parking issues in
the near downtown areas. And the last project in terms of parking is simply just updating
our automated parking equipment. Um, it's been about 10 years, maybe 11 years by the
time we get to this project, that we automated our first facility and I think it's been very
successful, um, it helps people get in and out faster, urn, there's been many reasons it's
been great but the equipment is aging out and so we have, um, a project to, uh, ramp-by-
ramp start to replace that equipment, about 10 years is about the expected life span.
We're at a point now where we're starting to invest a lot more staff time, um, due to
customer service issues related to our equipment. So I think we're...we're experiencing
sort of the back side of the,uh, the efficiency and the savings with the...with the
equipment, so it's really getting time, urn,to make these....make these equipment
upgrades. All right, moving on to transit, uh, number seven is our transit equipment
facility relocation. So this project involves construction of a new transit and equipment
facility for our maintenance, operations, and storage. Um, the storage area, the plan is to
expl...expand the storage area, allowing for increased fleet size. We're really hamstrung
at this current point. We've, urn, we can't expand at all at our current location. We are...
based on our building size we just aren't able to expand. We've outgrown it, urn, the
equipment has reached the end of its useful life. The builtin equipment at the facility.
And um, due to the substinance issues on the property, we're not really able to expand,
um, to accommodate future growth for our transit facility. So that's why we have a transit
facility project, uh, within the CIP. This is also a project where we are actively seeking
federal funds. Um, we did submit a grant proposal last August. We did not receive that
grant, um, but we're gonna keep at it. So this is, um, this is...we'll just keep looking for
federal funds where we can find 'ern, under whichever rock we can find them under, so
we're stayin' on the case! Um, again, due to the substinance issues, uh, this is our transit
facility parking lot asphalt overlay, um, you can see this is the....I can't remember if this
is the back of the building, this looks like the back of the building. Because of the
substinance issues, we have to periodically keep putting down asphalt so that the buses
do not get hung up,um, as the land around, uh, the actual building sinks. So we, uh, have
to come through every few years and just lay down some more asphalt so that, um, the
buses can get in and out easily. So that's' what this project is. Uh, transit mobile column
lift. If you can believe it, we have lifts that lift buses just like that. Uh,the one that we're
using currently is in our facility and it was original with the 1983 facility and it's
reaching, certainly reaching the end of its useful life, and we're getting to the point where
we're afraid we will not be able to repair it...we won't be able to find replacement pieces
for it, more or less. Um, this is why the transit mobile column vehicle lift would be, urn,
be a wise purchase at this point,because we can move this, we could replace our one in
our facility currently,but when we, um, eventually hopefully get a new facility, this can
go with it. So it's a piece that we would be able to move, urn, rather than, uh, duplicating
that expenditure. And last but not least, uh, the Muscatine Avenue pedestrian and transit
amenities. Um, we've heard concerns from pedestrians in the Muscatine corridor, and
we're talking east of First Avenue, that it can be difficult to get across the street north and
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south. Urn, there's not a lot of dedicated, urn, crossings and, urn, so this project really ties
in two things. One it's...it's, urn, installing an accessible mid-block crosswalk, with
pedestri.....excuse me,pedestrian refuge area on Muscatine, between Wade and Williams.
So this is more or less adjacent to the Hy-Vee, and also,um, installing new bus shelters at
this location. So it would really help the pedestrian amenities and the transit amenities in
a very high-use corridor.
Throgmorton/Okay, any questions for Darian? Thank you.
Finance
Bockenstedt/Hi there, I'm gonna talk a little bit about,uh, the one Finance project we have
and...and,uh, this is an IT project. It's a city-wide software project. Urn, an infrastructure
asset management system. Like I say it's a software package that we're really, uh,
working jointly with the Public Works department on it, and it's in order to track, uh, the
underground utilities and other infrastructure assets, uh, track maintenance, replacement,
and this will help coordinate,uh, the management of those assets citywide. Urn, and we
currently do not have a single citywide management systems, and so this will really,uh,
work across all the departments and also work with our geogra....uh, geographical
information system, excuse me, geographical information system. I don't know if you
want to add anything, Jason or Ron, to that?
Knoche/ So currently our Water Division uses Cartograph, which is, you know, is that...is a
system which, as we...as we look at vendors, would be a potential vendor for this system,
urn, but we have...in Public Works we have two intense users, and that's for our sign
inventory and then also the...the Water Division, and so as we....as we move into a better
way to know where our facilities are, but then also know what the life, urn, dealing with
water main breaks, it's been a...a huge asset, um, for us there, but then also as...as we look
at expanding those systems,urn,being able to pass that information on to the designers.
Throgmorton/Okay! What's next?
Fruin/Uh, you're familiar with this one, this is the Behavioral Access Center. You see a total
cost of 6.5 million. That's just an estimate, our contribution is only 2.5 million, and that's
(clears throat) cash on hand, ready to go, uh, when all the agreements are worked out.
Teague/Are there any, urn....recurring, uh, contributions to the Behavioral Access Center?
Fruin/Uh, not that's been discussed...to date.
Teague/Okay. I think all of their services should be billable, urn, with the exception of maybe
....one or two of them, but most of the services would be billable.
Mims/They're still workin'through that.
Teague/Yes!
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Mims/A lot!
Teague/Agreed! (laughs)
On the Radar
Havel/ So the last section is the'on the radar' section. So these are the projects that aren't in the
current plan but they're ones that we see as significant projects coming up in the next
five, 10,plus or minus years. Uh, first one being the Burlington Street bridge. Urn, this
was one that we actually had looked at potential federal funding for a grant program.
Urn, in the end it ended up not bein' a good fit and didn't receive,urn, funding with that
program,but what we'd be lookin' at here is, uh, as you maybe aware, there's actually
two bridges in this location. The north one is actually the DOT's bridge. The south one
is the City-owned bridge. Urn, so what we would look at is improvements here,
potentially combining those, so going with one structure; would be a joint project with
the DOT. Urn, we've had preliminary discussions with them to see if that might be a
good fit. Seems like at this point they'd be receptive at least in having that conversation.
Urn, there's also with the dam and University utilities, City utilities, there's a lot of stuff
going on in that corridor. So, um, will be a significant project when it comes time, urn,
and I think as far as funding, we'd probably be looking,um, in the ballpark of what was
with the recent Park Road bridge, uh, that was completed. Not necessarily the same
design,but it's going to be that scale of project. McCollister Boulevard, as we mentioned
earlier,the extension from Gilbert Street to Sycamore, this would be the next section to
the east, so it would extend McCollister from Sycamore to Scott Boulevard. Park Road
reconstruction,this is one that unfortunately didn't make it into the program,but this is
one that we, especially with the, uh, recent completion or....or significant portions of the
Gateway project being complete, this is one that gets a fair amount of attention from time
to time from local residents, of needing, uh, significant work from pavement, as well as
some utility upgrades in the area. This one has been mentioned a little bit as well. This is
the Carson Lake regional storm sewer, so this'd be a...a regional storm, uh, storm water
basin, um, again this is south of Rohret, uh, west of Highway 218, as that development
occurs. I think the plan really is a...a regional storm water facility in this area. Taft
Avenue reconstruction, urn, this again is one that comes up from time to time. We
receive comments, complaints, uh, about the current condition of Taft Avenue. We've
actually split it into kind of three sections. I think with whatever project we end up
doing,would likely have to be broken up into segments, um,but that would be all the
way from Herbert Hoover Highway down to 420th Street. Uh, currently it's a rural
section. There's portions that are chip-seal, portions that are gravel,urn,those would
be....this project would include reconstruction of that to an urban standard. The Highway
6 trail from Broadway to Sycamore Street, this would really be extending, uh,pedestrian
and trail facilities along the south side of Highway 6, um, again for this stretch.
Seydell-Johnson/(mumbled) first one is Eastside Sports Complex, urn, as we talked about
before,uh, it has a master plan that was done in 2015 or completed in 2015. Uh, the site
sits out there,uh, we'll be doing tree planting,but the question of what, or when, or what
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happens there. Lower City Park, also a master plan completed in 2015, urn, to flood-
proof or make it more flood tolerant, we've been slowly doing parts of this plan, um, the
baseball fields have some renovations coming up. The playground is being moved,um,
three of the unused or low-use fields were moved out, uh, last spring. So we're slowly
making progress there,but this,uh, plan and the larger project would raise the road and
make even more of the park usable no matter...or during most flooding situations. Uh,
this is a general category for swimming pool renovations, and as you know we have three
pools—Robert A. Lee downtown, Mercer Park indoor pool, and then the City Park pool.
The City Park pool's one of the oldest pools in the state of Iowa. Urn, we've been kept
operational for a long time,but I just wanna have it on the radar screen that eventually,
especially Robert A. Lee and City Park Pool will need some, um, renovation or some
replacement at some point in the....not too far down the road.
Havel/That's it!
Fruin/ I'll just point out a few,uh, I don't have the exact page, un...unfunded list,but we have
identified dozens and dozens of unfunded projects. These are things that we've
identified or perhaps that we've had, um, residents call and inquire about. We note those
and we try to provide a rough estimate of cost. Uh, so it's....it's kind of interesting to flip
through. Um, you'll see a lot of projects that I think you'd shake your head and say, yeah,
that'd be great if we could do that, and it just goes to show the,urn, resources that we
could put to use if....if we had.
Monroe/It's page 588.
Throgmorton/Okay, does anybody have any questions or observations they wanna make about
the CIP? The draft CIP?
Mims/ I just think staff, as usual, has done a great job of prioritizing, you know, where we need
to spend our money and I think with Dennis'help, trying to put together a CIP program
that kind of spreads out our GO bonding, so that we don't have super highs and super
lows. Urn, I don't know, two or three years out we've got one that's a little bit lower,but
we'll probably find a way to fill it. (laughs) There's always things to do. So I just
appreciate the work because, urn, it's kind of like puttin' together a puzzle, I mean we
have more work to do than we can possibly fund or than we have personnel to handle, for
a lot of these things, and so it's kind of prioritizing. I'm...I'm glad that we're going to
have a consultant come in and help us with kind of the analysis of the streets and maybe
....maybe a better plan there. I mean there's things I didn't hear today that, you know, I
always hear about Prairie du Chien and now other roads and stuff like that. I hear people
complain about Rochester, etc., and so to be able to have a little more concrete plan and
say, yeah, this analysis has been done. This is kinda when...when that's um, gonna be
planned out for,but overall I just really wanna thank staff for a great plan.
Cole/My only comment too is I...I feel that the, these projects are really spread evenly
throughout the community. You've always done a good job of that, but I think this year
really underscores that you really prioritize the needs throughout the community, and as
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we looked at those, the map and the coloring in terms of the numerical projects that you
put in here, it really did get the sense that the east side, west side, north side, south side—
we really got an equal share of the funds. I think you did a great job of that. Urn, also
briefly related to the pool, you know I love our City Park pool. I sort of say its elegant,
and part of me likes that (laughter) urn....but it really does need some more stuff, and you
think for like young families, as they're looking at evaluating whether they move to a
community, that experience at a pool is a big part of it,urn, I love going there,but I'm
like in my 40s (laughs) um, so hopefully we can get it a little bit more where, you know,
the 10-year-olds and teenagers will have a few more bells and whistles. I know that will
be a long time in the future,um, and finally the Burlington Street bridge. Um, that's sort
of been one of the holy grails for the, um,biking community, in terms of getting that
access. So, urn,hopefully in the future you really sort of think about that and work with
them, and it's good to see that we have been working with the bike community in terms
of these various projects, um,to make sure that we're really implementing the bike master
plan. So, urn, great work. I second Susan!
Throgmorton/So I'm struck by a couple things, as usual. One is....from the outside it's hard to
recognize how much money has to go into the maintenance and repair and upgrading of
basic infrastructure, that has to do with water, sewer, roads....you name it. Um, so it's
only by going through a presentation like this that...that we can really get a sense of
the....the scope and cost of doin'that kind of upgrading and maintenance and repair. So
that's one thing. The second thing that leaps out at me is the interaction between the
provision of basic infrastructure—water, sewer, roads—and the development of land. So
the...the....the fact that there's that sewer, um, you showed us a map of the one sewer
crossing over Highway 218 or I-380, whatever it's called, um, is a huge step,uh, I know
there are property owners and developers who've been wanting to build on that land.
They can't do it without water and sewer. So....this opens up a big....big swath of land,
once that sewer line is built. Likewise the one that runs by new Hoover and goes
southwest from new Hoover School. Again, that opens up land, uh, in a particular way.
So it's really important to recognize how important those bits of infrastructure are for
what happens to the overall shape and form, etc., of the city over time. Yeah, those are a
couple thoughts that come to mind.
Thomas/(clears throat) I'll add a couple too. It's sort of along the same themes, and uh, that
would be...you know, for every asset we have it's a liability(laughs) so we're...as we
expand our...our infrastructure and....and address issues such as parks and bike lanes and
so forth, uh, all of these....have a cost associated with them, and so it becomes a question
of managing those liabilities,making sure we have the revenues to (laughs) maintain
them,uh, and can keep them in good repair and replace them when necessary, in a timely
fashion. It's, uh....it's kind of a scary situation(laughs) I have to say, I mean I forget
what the overall...amount was for the unfunded projects. I was (several talking) yeah, it's
kind of(several talking) it's kind of...and it went up quite a bit from last year(laughs) so,
uh, it's almost because it's unfunded we don't really pay a great deal of attention to it. I
guess we pay some, but um....uh,these things aren't going away. Um, and in fact their
costs are escalating. So, um, I'm pleased to see, as Susan said, we're....and I mentioned it
earlier on in our budget discussions that I...I feel we are....we are improving on our
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oversight in terms of this question of costs, revenues, developing a plan so that we can
when asked say, oh yeah, we'll be getting to that in (laughs) you know, 2030 or
something, urn, as we are with the bike plan and the park plan. I think, you know, that's a
great model.
Mims/One clarification I think I know the answer,but Dennis, when we bond for any water and
waste water improvements, those are all paid off out of the enterprise funds, out of the
fees (both talking)
Bockenstedt/Those are covered with those revenue bonds, which are covered by those utility
fees.
Mims/Okay. Thank you. That's what I thought!
Throgmorton/I wanna make an observation about the photograph we see here of the Burlington
Street bridge. The part that's owned by the City of Iowa City, I...I would hope that once
funds are available to do that reconstruction and it's done, and once Dodge Street is
rebuilt,that we work with the State to have the ownership and responsibility for Highway
1, or that part of Highway 1, Dodge Street and Burlington Street, transferred to the City
of Iowa City. Now, Ron, I know you and I have(several talking)because that would
enable us to do all sorts of things to Burlington Street, in terms of, uh, transforming it into
a boulevard, rather than, uh, a...just a thing full of fast-moving traffic. (both talking)
huge opportunity there and we can't take that opportunity, you've persuaded me, Ron. We
can't take that opportunity until we get ownership of the bridge. I'm, yeah, you know
what I mean. Yeah. Sorry, go ahead.
Mims/ I would just disagree because I think what we take on, in the short-term it sounds great,
but that means 20, 30, 40, 60 years out the City has all of the financial responsibility for
all of the maintenance and repair of very expensive bridges and very expensive roads. So
while it gives us some opportunity to do some things, I think the financial liability on the
City in the decades and decades to come, urn, would not be worth it.
Throgmorton/But some other traffic route would become Highway 1. I don't know what that
route is. I know there...Kent, you know better than I do, but there have been possibilities
explored. Yeah, so I don't wanna make a big deal out of it (both talking)
Thomas/I think the, perhaps another....another option, and I know other state DOTs have
programs within their, urn, their capital plans for addressing context sensitivity. So it's
not just this Burlington reaming out the downtown,but Burlington adapting as it moves
through the downtown. I think, you know, I worked on a project in San Francisco which
won a CalTrans award. It was the, um, replacement of the central freeway by a surface
boulevard. It was a transformative project. Burlington could be a transformative project.
Throgmorton/Yeah, that'd be a better solution, uh, to have the State enable us to do the (both
talking)
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Thomas/ ....allow us to acknowledge that it's moving through the center of Iowa City.
Throgmorton/Okay, other comments or questions for staff?
Teague/Thanks for makin' it in usable terms for the newbie! Um, and even (laughs) Ron, in the
digester(laughter) explanation. Now like Rockne I can tell people(both talking and
laughing) what it means!
Throgmorton/Have you done a tour of the waste water treatment plant?
Teague/I have not!
Throgmorton/ Sign him up, seriously! Get 'em out there! (laughter) Water plant too! Okay
Fruin/Just point out that the presentation that you see here is, uh, will be available on the web.
We'll probably need to, um, clean up a few small things, uh, wanted to make sure that you
were comfortable with where projects lay, so we'll give that a little bit of time in case you
think of something as you digest all this information. Urn,but then we'll make it
available to the public and it's really slick to use. Just click(mumbled) you can kinda go
to your neighborhood and view the projects, urn, that are upcoming.
Mims/ It's great! I just have to say, and I think this is my 10'h or 11th budget session I've sat
through, and they keep getting better and better in terms of...just the way they're
organized and now with technology of the locations and stuff that we asked for two or
three years ago, so....great job!
Cole/The map is new. When did we start doing the map? Was that two years ago (several
talking)
Fruin/ ...experimented with it.
Cole/Cause I know we had talked about that as an equity toolkit piece and to see that in...in
picture, I think, is fantastic, so great work!
Throgmorton/I also like the change summary(several talking) Okay, folks, thanks for the great
job. Thank you for your help!
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 16, 2019.