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Bronwyn's Council Preview |
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Usually some of the agenda items will have a period where members of the public may briefly speak to Council.
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Send email to MayorCouncil@AmesCityCouncil.org
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MEETING OF THE AMES CITY COUNCIL
The Ames City Council meeting is at 6 p.m. at City Hall. The regular council meeting agenda includes the following. Note that you can generally click on individual agenda items below to get the full staff report or other explanation.
- 21. Resolution approving Professional Services Agreement with WHKS & Co. of Ames, Iowa for the 2024/25 Traffic System Capacity Improvements (13th & Grand) in an amount not to exceed $326,750.
This is the highly anticipated first step in updating the intersection at 13th and Grand Ave., and Council is being asked to approve a contract with a consultant to assist with engineering and public input meetings for this project. The preliminary design includes widening each approach to the intersection to 5 lanes instead of the 4 lanes that currently exist along 13th and Grand, so some land acquisitions may be required.
- 34. Request to Modify Downtown Facade Grant Funding Eligibility for Maintenance Activities and Rear Facades.
Council has a Facade Grant program in Downtown to assist property owners in replacing non-historic elements of their front facades. Council is being asked to expand this program to include regular maintenance of buildings (without historical improvements) and to allow the backside of buildings to be eligible for this funding. If Council is to consider these changes, staff recommend seeking public and stakeholder input before proceeding. - 35. Initiation of Voluntary Annexation in West Ames along Ontario Street and Lincoln Way.
This request is for a 100% voluntary annexation of several properties in west Ames. Since there are no non-consenting property owners, this annexation will be simpler than some that require review by the State's City Development Board.
- 36. Motion approving/denying a Class C Retail License - Celaya, 217 South Duff.
This request is a follow-up to a June 11th meeting, where Council recommended that the State Alcoholic Beverages Division revoke Celaya's license due to 4 failed compliance checks that occurred in the fall of 2023 through late winter of 2024. - 37. Water Pollution Control Facility Nutrient Reduction Modifications Phase 1.
This topic was tabled from Council's July 9th meeting, at which time I wrote:
This is a huge $ item for the City, and this staff report indicates it is about to get even more expensive. When bids were put out for this project, our engineer's estimate was just under $45 million. The most favorable bid came back around $10 million higher than that. As a reminder, this is because of Gulf-hypoxia, caused by massive amounts of nutrients (nitrates and phosphorus) that flow from farm fields to rivers to the Gulf of Mexico, killing massive amounts of marine life as bacteria feed on the nutrients, consume all the oxygen, and suffocate everything else. Cities, as point sources for testing and regulation, are bearing the financial burden of this upstream pollution.
Staff recommend awarding the bid, but working to reduce costs via change-orders, reducing costs on other WPC department projects, and considering annual rate increases to the sewer and water rates. - 38. Motion to reject the bid for the FY 2022/23 Story County Edge of Field Project.
In a way, this is related to the previous item. This watershed based nutrient reduction program is funded at a level of $200K annually, which would be halved in order to pay for nutrient reduction modifications at the treatment plant. This new annual allocation of $100K would still cover the City's portion of this particular project, but the bids received on this project were significantly over the engineers estimate due to the desired construction timeline. City staff recommend rejecting bids and then rebidding the project with different construction timeline parameters. - 40. Resolution authorizing staff to enter into an agreement with a consultant for up to $12,000 to assist with hosting community conversations around homelessness.
Council is being asked to consider funding for a consultant that would assist the City in hosting community discussions about the topic of homelessness and housing insecurity, with a goal of coming up with a comprehensive community strategy to help.
Communications to Council: The following items are requests and communications to Council that aren't published on the agenda, so we won't deliberate them substantially. This includes staff reports and communications or requests from constituents and developers. Typically, Council will ask city staff for more information, put the item on a future agenda for deliberation and possible action, or just accept the communication, taking no further action.
- Electric rate changes.
- Pool racility fall-winter.
- Whole Food store.
- Annexation 2126 State Ave.
- Tailgate parking Stuart Smith Park.
- Energy efficiency.
- Campustown pillar art project.
- Homeless camp.
- Vacant lot and bus.
Thanks for reading,
Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen
Ames City Council, Ward 1
