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Home My WebLink About2008-01-24 TranscriptionJanuary 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 1 January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session 8:00 A.M. Council Present/ Bailey, Champion, Hayek, O'Donnell, Wright, Correia, Wilburn Staff/ Helling, Dilkes, Yapp, Karr, Fosse, Davidson, Tharp, Fowler, Miklo, O'Malley, Hargadine, Rocca, Knoche, Trueblood, Mansfield Other/ Volland, UISG Rep CIP's: Bailey/ So, just a heads up. We are going live on Channel 5 and web streaming with this meeting, just FYI, and you can see that we had some problems with the microphones last night. Marian really couldn't hear, so attach yourselves and be aware if you're on mic or not when you're speaking. Okay? You had some things.. . Helling/ I just...I passed out an outline. We just...just a brief outline so we could describe what we're going to do today. Um, and of course, the primary purpose is to familiarize you with all of these projects so you have somewhat of a working knowledge of them when you go back and you start prioritizing, making decisions on what to include. Uh, some of the projects are more complex than others, but hopefully by the time you leave you will have an understanding of what they are, so please, while...as we're discussing each project, if you have questions about it, do ask those, um, we'll have little later then this afternoon we'll, uh, maybe have some time to go over and start to prioritize, but we do want you to be familiar and have your questions answered with, from the projects as we go through them. You'll just that I've, uh, indicated what the primary funding sources are for these projects, and they include GO and revenue bonds. I don't know how many other revenue bonds this year, but uh, cash reserves and that would be operating cash as well in some cases. Road Use Tax, federal and state grants, contributions and donations, reimbursements, and so forth. Um, the main thing we want to do today is...is go through all the projects, um, so you can be familiar with them, and then hopefully you'll have time left this afternoon to do a couple of things. Number one the first thing I'd like to do after you're finished with...with going through the projects is to talk a little bit about your 25% debt levy, because it will have an impact on the way you perceive the C1P, particularly in the coming years, and uh, on the decisions you would make in terms of what to leave in and what to keep, what to keep in, what to leave out, um, there are some implications if you stay with your policy that we will have to shave (coughing, unable to hear) CIP program, particularly in the out years. Um, and then once we've gone through that, we'll, uh, just have a general discussion, and you can start prioritizing, um, picking the projects you can move them around, you can delete some, you may have others that you want to, that aren't covered that you may want to add or talk about ones that are on the unfunded list, um, so that's what we hope to accomplish today, and I believe Madame Mayor if there's time and you wanted to maybe go into the other budget too, depending on what time we finish? That's it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 2 Correia/ And I just want to apologize in advance. I do have to leave a little bit around 9:00 and be gone not longer than 45 minutes for an unforeseen work meeting. Fosse/ Well, what I'll do is...is talk a little bit more specifically about how our days going to be organized and the tools that you have to work with on this. As Dale pointed out, this review of the Capital Budget versus the...the operating budget. It's a little different animal. Uh, you all have a copy of the...of the PowerPoint that we're...you're going to see today, and that they're in the same order, all the slides that you'll see up there are on your handout. You also have a copy of the large map there, in an 11 X 17 format, so you've got something to take home with you, a map card. Um, the presentation today's going to follow right along in the budget book that you have, beginning on page C-1, um, and we've organized the projects, uh, into categories for a couple reasons. One is because there are so many, it just helps you get your arms around it, and secondly, uh, many of the categories have specific funding sources and again helps to have a good understanding of that. So, in order of how we're going to see things today, we've got the Airport, uh, Landfill...Parking, Parks and Recreation, and that includes trails, Public Safety, Public Utilities, uh, Streets, Bridges and Traffic Engineering, uh, and we have some miscellaneous other projects that are, don't really fall cleanly within one of the other groups. And then we have some recurring projects. These are smaller things that happen every year, usually fall in the category of...of incremental expansions, growth or uh, preventative maintenance. Talk in more detail about that later. Uh, then we have a list of projects that are scheduled for completion in 2008, and...and those are outlined on pages C-24 and C-25 of...of your, uh, budget in front of you. We're not going to review all those projects. We just have some pictures highlighting a few of them. Really what determined which ones got included here is ones we had good pictures of. Um, for those of you, uh, who have been through this before, this is a new category called "on the radar" and these are the projects that, uh, we think about when we're lying in bed at night, that's why we have this picture, but these are...these are projects that are not proposed to be funded; however, uh, they...they warrant some consideration, warrant thinking about a little bit, and these are just ones that staff has suggested. You all may have other prof ects that you have on your radar as well that you want to discuss today, and...and we're certainly prepared to do that. Wilburn/ You want to know what we think about at night when we're sitting home too? Fosse/ Yeah, that's right! (laughter) Wilburn/ Okay, all right! (several talking and laughing) Fosse/ And then we'll wrap things up with questions and discussions, but as Dale pointed out, if you have specific questions about projects along the way, please be sure and ask so that we give you all the information that you'll need, so at the end of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 3 the day when you start to make decisions and juggle things around, you have the tools that you need. And, uh, but before we embark on all that, we've got a little bit of financial stuff that...that Dale and Kevin will review, uh, for us. There's...let me know when you want me to switch to the next one, Dale. Helling/ I don't want to go into any detail on this at all, because you can take a look at it. Just break the projects down by category, and then gives you the numbers over the total of twelve years, and a total number at the end. It's just something you can look at, uh, if you want to just get an overall picture of the CIP in one snapshot. That's why we put it in there; we don't have any reason to go over it in detail, and then the next slide, uh, we've broken the projects down by category in a pie chart. May be a little easier to read this way, but I want to just point out that this is...this is the total of the five years. In any given year, uh, those proportions can change because of one major project in one area so we thought it was more accurate to...to, uh, average out the...these proportions over the five years of the CIP that you're looking at, uh, so that's just a breakdown, another way to look at it. Uh, again, nothing to dwell on right now. The important thing is that you...you review each project, so...but you have those to take a look at. Fosse/ Any questions before we lead off with Airport? Go ahead, Mike. Airport: Tharp/ All right, uh, as far as the Airport goes, I think we should first discuss how the Airport projects are funded, and the Airport really has two, um, basic methods of...of funding it's major, um, major projects. One's through the Federal Aviation Trust Fund, um, that's paid for through fuel sales, fuel taxes, um, airline ticket taxes, uh, lots of other, um, passenger taxes that are on the, uh, aircraft and...and every airport that's part of the Federal, um, system is eligible for grants and also eligible for entitlement funds. The entitlement funds that Iowa City receives are approximately $200,000 a year and if there are any, uh, Federal projects going on at that time, the entitlement funds are directed by Federal rules to, uh, be used on those projects. Um, the other funding source is the State funds. There's a State Aviation, uh, fund that's been set up just recently and fiscal year 2009 will be the first year it's fully funded through the State sales taxes, fuel taxes, and basically a similar set up to the Federal system. Um, another important aspect is the matching funds. The Federal system right now operates at a grant of 95% of the cost, where the Airport and City is required to fund 5% as a local match, and the State system operates really depending on what the category of improvements you're asking for. Um, new building construction and things of that nature, typically a 50/50 split where, um, rehabilitation and improvements can range from 70/30 to 85/15, um, as far as the projects, uh, the Airport over the past few years has systematically been...been rehabbing the pavements that the local users use, mainly the taxiways, the pavements around the hangars, and it's a pretty good judgment call when half of your revenues come from your local users. Um, now that we've got that phase pretty much taken care of, we're starting to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 4 branch back to the runway environment, um, we are finishing up the runway 7 extension. That's scheduled to be completed this spring, and then we proceed with our FAA, uh, grant programs, which call for a rehabilitation for the rest of 7/25, the existing pavements that are fifty years old, fifty to sixty years old, and, uh, overlays a program for there. 12/30 has, um, some rehabilitation maintenance, and then the near future, I believe that's scheduled for...uh, fiscal year 11, it's a basic rehab which calls for an overlay of the system. In the next couple years you'll see some work done for just patching the concrete, doing some crack sealing, things like that, to keep the runway up to par until the overlay's completed. Um, the other major project would be parallel taxiway to 7/25, um, it's both a safety and a capacity, um, issue. The parallel taxiway and low visibilities allows the aircraft that have just recently landed to get off the runway so that anybody else coming in in low visibility doesn't have to, uh, potentially worry about them being still on the runway. Um, the other major things are expansion and capacity, the general aviation apron, as our runway comes online and we'll be...expect to have an increase of traffic flow, um, we're targeting an increase in the general aviation ramps so we can have places to park, uh, the aircraft. (mumbling) As you can see by these pictures, um, this, it was actually game day when it was...it was Ohio State and Iowa, the year Ohio State was number one, uh, I think Iowa was rated 13`" at the time. We had 75 planes on the ramp, and as you can tell by this picture, uh, they were parked all over the place. Um, we'd like to keep `em as close to the terminal as possible, both for safety issues and access issues. Um, we can keep track of the planes a little better, um, as you can see on the closed runway at the very top right of the picture there's two planes way out there, and it's just a pretty big security issue when we start getting planes spread out that far. The picture on the left, basically at this point doubles the size of the apron, and adds a taxiway so that they can get to the future parallel taxiway. Going back, the other thing that the Airport's focusing on is expansion of its facilities to house aircraft. Um, as you maybe aware, we are...we are about to lose the United Hangar as far as storage capacity goes, um, the United Hangar can, right now is not arevenue-generating facility anymore due to its condition, um, but it is usable for emergency situations, like storms that roll through the area, so we can put planes in there to prevent any damage through hail or winds or, um, anything of that nature. Uh, a new hangar of this type would serve as both a storage facility, and also to help ease the, uh, waiting list that we currently have for hangar space, um, and would be able to generate more revenue for the Airport. Bailey/ What is your waiting list for hangar space? Tharp/ Right now it's...it's about fifteen people, um, most of them are T-hangar space. We do have four or five that are looking for corporate type space that have either larger, um, aircraft or maybe possibly some office space attached to `em, so...and, as we discussed a little bit last night, uh, Aviation Commerce Park South, we do have a study going on to, um, plan out the next forty years of Airport needs related to the land that's available down there, and you know, what potentially This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 5 could be available for commercial development, lease, rent, sale, um, anything of that nature, and I think Jeff has a little more information.. . Davidson/ Yeah, I just...wanted to make sure Council is aware that, you know, as Mike's alluded, the...one of the important things about this project is that several City Councils ago when the potential relocation of the Iowa City Airport was being discussed at that time, fairly controversial issue, uh, a decision was made by the Council at that time that the Airport would remain in this location, and that it would remain within the boundaries of its existing size, and because of that, it's very significant that the Airport master planning be allowed to determine what potential expansion into this area, I mean, the bottom line here is that this area may not be as large as we had originally hoped in terms of Aviation Commerce Park South, because of the Airport's needs in this area, and of course, you know, the...the Airport Commission as well as Council will ultimately make those decisions, but we're still hoping to have some area, similar to Aviation Commerce Park North, uh, which is, you know, slowly starting to sell some lots up there. We have had expressions of interest down here. Of course the area to the west of this, it's in private ownership, will be developed eventually in some type of industrial or commercial type development, but you know, this area maybe constrained in size, based on what the Airport ultimately needs for their uses, because there's nowhere else for them to expand, basically it's this area. Bailey/ So, the item in the budget, development of property, that's more of a placeholder for whatever we need to do to make this.. . Davidson/ I think that...I think that's primarily addressing the flood plain issue, in terms of either filling or a dike-type system. I think both are being evaluated right now. I think that's the majority of that expense. Bailey/ Okay, thanks. Correia/ And is this area zoned industrial? Or... Davidson/ Right now I think it's zoned P, because of the Airport. Correia/ So, but I mean, is the plan more industrial or.. . Davidson/ The plan is some type of, what's left for commercial or industrial development, yeah, it would be (unable to hear). Correia/ Right. I was just wondering on the...intensity ofthe use. Davidson/ Yeah, you know, very likely the CI-1 type use, which is the more, um, well, commercial-industrial is obviously what that stands for, I mean, you know, we'll go through the typical legislative process that we do with the rezoning, but...but that's likely to be the type of use. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 6 Fosse/ Any questions on Airport before we move on to Landfill? Correia/ I just had a question. Since we've been talking about the, uh, and you mentioned the match required, so in...in the information that we have, we just have the funding that's the grant...is the bond then the matching? Or is there additional funds that would be from our General Levy that match that, that's not reflected here? Tharp/ I believe right now the plans, as we know it at this point, it gets wrapped up into the General Obligation bond outlay. Um, typically we use the, um, the General Levy matching availability for the State grants due to the odd schedules that we have between our budget season and when the State grant process happens. Correia/ Okay. Great. Landfill: Fosse/ Anything else? Okay, we'll move on to Landfill next. Uh, we have two projects in this category. Uh, the first is the East Side Recycling Center, and that's a project that's budgeted for FY08 and 09, and about $3.2 million and you've seen a couple presentations on this already, so I won't go into a lot of detail, other than to share with you that the design is perceived nicely, uh, we are on track to get LEED certification before this facility, hopefully at a platinum level, which is...which is quite a rare thing, but, uh, we think because of the nature of this facility, it's something that we want to pursue, and uh, there's a shot of a 3-D rendering of it, and in the foreground there is the education center, and that's...that's an exciting part of this, and in addition to the physical improvements, one of the parts of the design is...is working, uh, with a consultant to develop some education activities for this education center, so that we have things to do in there from the get-go. Our other project... Bailey/ I have a question about that. Fosse/ Oh, you bet! Bailey/ Um, it says that the classroom space, now that'll be added to sort of our...our inventory of meeting room space in the City, is that correct? Fosse/ Yes. Bailey/ People...so the, that'll be available for the public, not just for us to use for particular activities that we generate out there. Fosse/ That's correct. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 7 Bailey/ Okay. Thanks. Fosse/ Our next project is the, uh, FY09 Landfill cell, and that's a $7 million project, and let me outline it here with the mouse. The cell is on the west side of the Landfill, and extends out onto the property that we recently purchased earlier this year, and uh, compared to other cells, it's quite a large one, uh, we completed the last cell is this one right here, and to get a feel for the scale, that's...that's the size of this cell that...that we last completed, and since around 1990, we've built a series of cells in relatively quick succession, and let me back up and show you the reason for that, is that it now serves as the base for a large area where we can begin to go up vertically. So we built the base, and now after this next cell is in place, we should be good for the fifteen to twenty year range without building an additional cell. And that's a good thing for us. Um, a few of you had questions about the...the Landfill reserve funds. So I just wanted to share with all of you about that, uh, there's fairly substantial amount of money there. A good portion of that is required by the State of Iowa for closure, post-closure, fund, and it's part of the financial responsibility of operating a landfill, and they set forth minimum standards for that. LTh, we have more money in that reserve fund than that minimum, and that's...that's there for a couple reasons. Uh, and most significant is...is that just because of the nature of the landfill business, that if...if you have problems in the landfill that need to be rectified, they're usually not very inexpensive to deal with, and...and we see that as part of our financial responsibility as being prepared for that, um, all of our cells, uh, on the west side of the Landfill have liners and leakage collection systems. One cell on the east side has liner leakage collection. Everything north of here, uh, were built at a time when...when the technology didn't include liners and leakage collection. So that's an area that we really keep an eye on. We have a number of ground water monitoring wells out there, and we...we keep track of what's going on so if we need to take action, we can do that. Wilburn/ So you monitor the leakage, in case there's something poisonous leaking into the ground. Fosse/ Yes, yep, we monitor the ground water to make sure that leakage is not going where...where we don't want it to go. And...and if you were, uh, remember back to the late 1980's we did have that situation, and uh, put in an extensive the system that hopefully has corrected that, in the long term, and that was an expensive project for us. Um, other uses for those funds, if properties become available adjacent to the Landfill, uh, we can purchase those for the long-term viability of the operation, and then also, uh, the closure, post-closure requirement funds by the State really don't include any money for redevelopment of the site afterwards, so if we wanted to do things like develop it into a park or do things like that, that would take additional funds than what's just in that minimum required by the State. Any questions on Landfill? Wright/ What is the, uh, State requirement on that reserve fund? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 8 Fosse/ Kevin, do you know that off the top of your head? Regenia, is it twelve? Bailey/ That's what I read. O'Malley/ Yeah, we currently have about $12 or $13 million, but it's calculated each year based on the amount of tonnage remaining and the area of the Landfill. Bailey/ So that'll expand with the new cell, that requirement. Fosse/ Yes, it's grows with the Landfill. Anything else? Hayek/ Have you ever calculated sort of an annual per acre consumption of land for our refuse needs out there? Fosse/ No, that's a...that's a statistic we've not compiled. Hayek/ How...how many acres is a given cell, and I know they vary in size, but... Fosse/ It does vary, um, I want to say eight to ten acre range, but I can follow up with you and get you...get you something more accurate than that, rather than shot from the hip. Bailey/ And I'm assuming if we, um, address the methane and have a deal with the methane and received any funds for that, that will go into Landfill reserves? Is that.. . Fosse/ Probably, yes. Bailey/ Okay. Fosse/ And what Regenia's talking about is we're currently working with four different entities that are interested in utilizing the gas, uh, that's produced by landfill. Landfill, as the garbage decomposes it produces methane gas. We collect that gas and...and right now we flare it, because methane is a significant greenhouse gas. It's about twenty-one times more potent to greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, so, um, what we're doing is...is collecting, dealing with it, but there's an energy resource there that's untapped, and we're looking for ways to tap that and turn it into a revenue source for the City. Champion/ Would those reserves qualify, I mean, could you use those for the old Landfill in case we ever decided to develop that property for commercial purposes? You know, the one that keeps coming up out of the ground. Fosse/ LTh-huh, Kevin, do we have that flexibility? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 9 O'Malley/ Yes, you do. Fosse/ Okay. Champion/ Because that's valuable space. Fosse/ Yes. And we'll talk more about that later in a couple other projects -the Riverside Drive redevelopment, that's near the end of the day, so that's on there. Anything else? Champion/ Um, one more question, just a...are we going to be raising Landfill rates again, to cover all this? Fosse/ This time we don't anticipate raising them. Joe, would you like to come up? Parkin Fowler/ iJh, the following parking projects are...are funded, uh, with the parking, uh, reserve account, and uh, parking impact fees that have been collected from developers and the near southside, and uh, parking ended up the last fiscal year with a cash balance of approximately $2.5 million and we anticipate, uh, increasing that by approximately a half million dollars, uh, this year. So, we anticipate a...a $3 million parking reserve fund at the end of this fiscal year, and uh, the impact fees that have been calculated for development in the southside are, uh, approximately $1.5 million. So, that...that's the funding that we're working with as we go through these projects. Um, the first project...is our parking, uh, control access equipment, and um, we have currently have funding for the Capitol Street facility, to upgrade that, um, and this funding request is for access equipment in the Dubuque Street and Tower Place facilities. And the, what we're doing is upgrading the equipment at the entrance and exits, and it will include ticket dispensers and gates, card access control, and cash registers. And when we're complete with this, all facilities will be, uh, credit card, uh, acceptable. And uh, some of this equipment, as you can see by this picture, is pretty old. It is original equipment from, uh, when the facilities opened in approximately 1980 at Dubuque and Capitol Street, so...we've done a good job of maintaining the equipment, but, uh, it is kind of at the end of its life. And, uh, what we'd like to do is get this, uh, project funded so that we can bid the Capitol Street equipment, which is already funded and then put this in as an option for right afterwards, so we can bid all the equipment at once and get a more favorable price, and uh, it also ensures that we'll have the same vendor so we don't have a problem with software, uh, compatibility back and forth between the equipment. And, uh, with favorable bids we hope at the same time to be able to replace some of the cashier booths that we have in our facilities because they're also, uh, original equipment, and uh, in need of replacement. We have problems with the heating in them and the electrical and so we'd like to upgrade the facilities as much as possible. Uh, the next project is, uh, the garage maintenance and repair, and this is basically This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 10 finding the bad concrete, uh, removing the, uh, steel that's corroded in the concrete, and uh, replacing it, replacing our joints that, uh, are leaking and allowing water to get down into the concrete, and uh, running through, as you can see, from one floor to the other. Uh, the one thing that would like to do on this project is we have money funded in FY08 for repair. Would like to move that money from FY08 to FY10, delay that repair for a couple years. Those pictures were what we did just recently, not work that needs to be done right now. And then move the FY10 project out to FY12. And, that's because we just completed, uh, major repairs this year which due to product failure, not installation by the contractor, but the product that was put down, needed to be put down three times, and it took two years to get it complete, so, um, we don't want another major disruption in the facility right away. In addition, we want to be doing the, uh, entrance and exit equipment, um, which will cause some inconvenience, and uh, we'd like to minimize the inconvenience to the people that use the facility, so we...want to restage when we would do our next phase of major repair in the facilities. Wilburn/ (several talking) salted inside the garage is that what accelerates maintenance repair, I presume. Fowler/ Yes, we don't use any salt in the facilities, um, usually we just go in and...and push the snow and at times when it gets deep enough we have to dump it over the edge. Our problem is when we have an ice storm, then our top floor is covered basically until it thaws enough, and we just keep working that until we can get it cleared, but we don't put any salt, but we do get quite a bit of salt that comes in off the cars and then it drops off once it gets inside. Champion/ What is the life expectancy of those two older ramps that we have? They're how old now? Fowler/ Um... Champion/ Thirty? Twenty-five? Fowler/ We've already basically exceeded the life that they told us when we built `em, and we think we can probably get another twenty years out of `em. Champion/ Too bad. I was hoping we could knock `em down and make `em better. Davidson/ Well, you can. Fowler/ We can! Any time you tell us to, we can knock `em down, but...um, we prefer to keep `em as they are, since they're paid for (laughter and several talking). Champion/ I know! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 11 Correia/ So, Joe, in the, um, in our budget book for the garage maintenance and repair, you want to move that, what's in FY08 to 10, and move 10 to 12? Fowler/ Yes. Correia/ So that 961 is not going to be in FY08. Fowler/ No, and we would anticipate in 10 that that number will be lower than the 961. Correial Okay. Fowler/ Um, the next, uh, project is the near southside and we put a picture in here of Tower Place, just to show what we had done recently, and we would use basically the same type concept, and uh, this is a picture of Eau Clair? Davidson/ La Crosse. Fowler/ La Crosse, Wisconsin, and what they have done, and this is similar to what we would anticipate doing, in a development, and uh, we put this project on because we've had, we've done the calculations and the parking demand in the near southside, uh, shows that we have a shortage of parking spaces as projects unfold, and we would like to be ahead of the curve, and be able to be building at the same time other projects are built in the near southside. And this would be funded with $1.5 million in parking impact fees, and $1.5 million in a inter-fund loan to parking, and it would be the goal of parking to recover as much of that $1.5 million as possible from sale of land in the commercial and air rides to develop above, so it would be our goal to recover as much of that $1.5 million as possible, uh, during the development, but we would need the loan to secure property and start the process. So, basically this request is just to get your permission to begin to pursue, uh, purchase of property for development in the near southside, and that would be the facility that Jeff and I talked to you about that would include parking, commercial space, and work force housing, and uh, hopefully some artist residents if we can develop that part of the proposal too. Correia/ So, as we're putting together plans...the housing that we're looking to develop would be responding to the need that we just heard from the housing study last night, and the specific sectors of our... Davidson/ Yeah, Steve Long and I had a chance to sit down with Eric from Mullin & Lonergan, kind of pick his brain a little bit about this project yesterday afternoon. He thinks it's an excellent idea, given the conclusions of the affordable housing study. Correia/ Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 12 Davidson/ He gave us some really good pointers that Joe and I can take, um, you know, obviously the...as Joe's indicated, the property acquisition's the big dollar ticket in FY09 here, but you know very important then will be the concept planning that Joe and I are just starting to get going with the consultant on. Of course you'll be involved in that, uh, as well, um, according to what we outlined for you last month. Um, you know what...one of the interesting things that we haven't done before that will come out of this hopefully is, we want to partner with a private housing developer for the housing aspect of that project, and so Joe and I will be making sure that we get the, uh, expertise from the consultant that we need to prepare an 1ZFP, basically, and determine how we want to go about that and get the housing element of it worked out. We want to get it worked out this next fiscal year, probably will be the following year when we actually execute it. Hayek/ Have you...have you, uh, identified more than just an extremely broad geographic area in which you'd want to locate this? Davidson/ The near southside. Hayek/ Yeah, but I mean...that's about as specific as... Davidson/ That's the limits right now. Until we complete the property acquisition, we want to keep our options open, uh, we do believe we have a couple two, three options in the area, uh, once we land on what we consider to be the preferred option, and you know, we're focusing in on that right now. We'll bring that to you for, uh, an Executive Session to discuss it. Hayek/ But for now, basically somewhere between Burlington and Benton? Davidson/ Well, Burlington and the railroad tracks, Gilbert and the river. That'd be the near southside. Fowler/ And, uh, last project we have is uh elevator upgrades, and uh, Capitol Street is in the plan for FY09, uh, to upgrade it, and uh, Dubuque Street is in FY11, and basically I would ask if you would move the FY11 project to FY10, and um, these elevators are twenty-eight years old, they're the original equipment, uh, the cars and the controls are in great need of replacement. The equipment, due to its age, it's becoming very difficult to find parts to, uh, keep `em running and we've been told by the elevator companies that we need to make major upgrades and we...we don't want to spend a lot of money to upgrade atwenty-eight year old system. We would rather get your okay to go ahead and replace it with modern technology, uh, and, uh, put a better, better quality service out there for our customers. Bailey/ Questions about parking? Thanks, Joe. Fowler/ Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 13 Parks and Recreation and Trails: Trueblood/ Morning. Bailey/ Morning, Terry. Trueblood/ Seems like I might have just seen you last night. (laughter) Wilburn/ Was that one of those dream things, or were you actually here? Trueblood/ What's that? Wilburn/ Never mind! (laughter) Trueblood/ Well, as this pretty picture shows you, we're about to embark upon the Parks, Recreation and Trails segment of the Capital Improvement Budget, if I can figure out how to work this thing. Hey, magic! Uh, you've all, or at least maybe all but, uh, Matt and Mike have seen this before. This is a concept that was presented last year for the development of the Sand Lake Recreation Area. Uh, the one thing that it is missing on this, is the, uh, new acquisition that you, uh, generously approved, which basically goes on a line from approximately right in here, up along the river, back across there and then up to the north end of the park. It's about thirty additional acres. So, that particular part of the development is not, uh, designed into this yet. The, uh, funding of course is multiple years. Total amount, uh, projected right now is $6.6 million, uh, with $3.5 -that includes acquisition by the way. Uh, right now the plan shows $3.5 million from the GO bonds, $2 million from grants, $350,000 from the General Fund, and $750,000 from, uh, contributions. LJh, I can tell you that the projection we have, uh, for the total cost of the project, according to this plan, uh, is going to exceed $7 million, especially with the new acquisition. So this means we either need to, uh, pare that back, which is one option, uh, come up with new sources of funding, another option, uh, and/or extend this out another year or two beyond FY12, or a combination of those three. One thing I wanted to mention is that this will become the south terminus of the Iowa River Corridor and the south trailhead, uh, for that trail, which is now approximately six miles long within Iowa City north to Water Works Park. If you include the Dubuque Street trail and West Overlook Road to the Coralville Reservoir, it's about anine-mile long, uh, trail system. Uh, next the Iowa City Kickers Soccer Park. This is actually four projects rolled into one. Um, phased out over years, actually FY08 through FY11, about $890,000. Uh, the first of these scheduled for FY09 is, uh, to construct a pond down there at the soccer park, uh, primarily for irrigation purposes. Uh, as many of you may recall, we currently use effluent for irrigation, from the adjacent waste water plant, which works out quite well, except that it's very high in sodium, and puts way too much sodium on the, uh, on the fields, on the athletic turf, which means then that we have to counteract it with other chemicals, and we're fighting a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 14 losing battle. So what the pond would do would allow us to irrigate with just, uh, raw water, uh, but supplemented with effluent. We wouldn't be, uh, proposing to take the effluent completely out of the equation, and of course we think this could also be a nice amenity for the park. Uh, the second of these scheduled for FY10 is to construct two large open-air shelters down there, uh, primarily to accommodate large user groups. When they have big tournaments that kind of thing. Right now we just have two small shelters down at the soccer complex, and two large ones could make it, uh, not just for tournaments, that kind of thing, but could even make it for, you know, a destination point for large, large gatherings of, uh, family reunions, service clubs, whatever that might want to use the area for picnic. Uh.. . Bailey/ Restrooms included in those? Trueblood/ I'm sorry? Bailey/ Restrooms included in those? Trueblood/ Well, it depends on the location, which we haven't pinpointed yet. If they're close enough to the existing restrooms, they wouldn't have to be, but if...if not then we would want to put small restrooms with them, yes. iJh, the third of these scheduled for FYl 1 is, uh, field renovation of four of our, um, medium size fields, uh, which are four of the most heavily used ones that just simply need to be rebuilt and crowned better, so that... so that the kids aren't always playing in a large mud puddle after a rain. Uh, and also in FY11 some general improvements, uh, soccer park, which has been on the list for a number of years now, uh, large part of which would include a system of trails and walkways around through the park to make it more accessible. Also to extend the, uh, South Sycamore trail down completely through the soccer park. Currently it ends at the north parking lot. Bailey/ And this was the area that, um, some people had expressed concern that the gate was closed. Trueblood/ That's right. Bailey/ Is that now open, or would that be open if we developed these trails and these other opportunities down there? I mean, how...how would we work that out? Trueblood/ Well, we're currently looking at options for that right now, and currently it's...it is open when we have either soccer activities, or maintenance personnel on site at the soccer park. Otherwise it is closed. Uh, but we're considering quite strongly just keeping it open during all daylight hours. Wilburn/ That would be good. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 15 Champion/ Why do you keep it closed? Trueblood/Pardon me? Champion/ Why...why is it kept closed? Trueblood/ Well, when nobody's down there, we have experienced, uh, let me back up a bit. When it was first built, we didn't have a fence or gates around it, and we thought we might be able to get by with that, but we didn't. We started experiencing vandalism right away. We experienced, uh, situations with cars going out, thinking it was great fun to spin around on the soccer fields, because it is so remote. Our crews would go down maybe, uh, first thing in the morning and find, uh, dozens of beer cans in the parking lot, that kind of thing, so we had to put up the fence. Champion/ (unable to hear) Trueblood/ It's a whole lot more fun to fix up what they damage. LJh, trails, less likelihood of that certainly, but we...we did want to...we do have concerns about vandalism, just keeping it open, uh, day and night, because of the buildings, the public art, fields, so forth that we have down there. But when we do get it open, what we'll...what we're going to have to do is come up with some system that can allow pedestrians and bicycles through, but hopefully not allow motorcycles through. Let's see...the next project is the Butler Bridge Pedestrian Trail. Uh, this one has been on there for, uh, for a while now, and as you'll notice, it's scheduled currently for FY09, total amount of $550,000. Just to acclimate you a little bit, this of course is North Dubuque Street going down toward the river. So the bridge would go right along through there. Over here's a schematic, which would show it right there. This is the parking lot, uh, the Park parking lot for the Water Works Prairie Park, and uh, one of the primary reasons for this is, uh, right along the bridge, right there, it is almost always, uh, has a great deal of, uh, sand and gravel and that kind of thing, which makes it difficult for bicyclists, and that's because primarily because of the quarry operation. Their entrance and exit is just north of that bridge, yeah, right up there. iJh, but, I'd also call your attention to the fact that, uh, the primary source of funding for this, Federal grants of $440,000. LTh, GO bonds is only $82,500, so this is one of those which appears unlikely at the moment that we would get the Federal grant money for FY09, so it's one of those projects that we just keep delaying for a year, until such time that we do get the Federal grant money. And if that never happens, then we may have to talk about some other method of funding. John, did you have anything on that? Yapp/ This project has partially been funded, uh, through Johnson County Council of Governments. And I can get you that exact number. Correia/ Because this was on our CIP for FY08. So we didn't receive those grants that we had estimated. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 16 Trueblood/ And it was pitched back...pushed back to FY09. Correia/ Okay. Trueblood/ It may have to be pushed back to FY10. Yapp/ And for those of you on the JCCOG Board, in the next couple months we will be, uh, developing what we call the Transportation Improvement Program, which will put some of the JCCOG funds into a funded year, uh, so you can match that with any local funds. Trueblood/ Next project is what we call the City Park Trail Lighting. LJh, currently schedule for FY12, in the amount of $280,000. Uh, this particular slide, I just, uh, wanted to show this trail lighting right here, actually is along that, uh, Terrell Mill Park Trail, goes along North Dubuque Street, but I just wanted to show that as an example of what the trail lighting might look like with the downcast, uh, lighting, that sort of thing, if you've ever driven by there at night, you can see that it lights up the trail pretty well, uh, without casting a lot of, uh, spillover lighting. This was actually done just as a reminder in cooperation with the University of Iowa. Uh, they paid for part of it, we paid for part of it, because they had concerns with Mayflower dorms, with that being so dark in that area. So we just extended it all along the trail and then, uh, reimbursed them for approximately half the cost. LTh, the lower left-hand, uh, slide, this is actually the trail in City Park, uh, and I just wanted to show you, because of some safety concerns, show you there's certain parts of it where it goes so close to the river and it's not lit at all. That's...that's the safety consideration, as well as just having trails lighted. Uh, but also we think it would be nice aesthetically and make it much more usable early morning and after dark, uh, for people. It does get a lot of people bicycling, walking, jogging, that kind of thing. Uh, the, uh... Bailey/ Terry, I was surprised to see this so far out. I know it's not in your top ten projects that you presented last night, but is that just a funding consideration, that it's so far out... Trueblood/ Well, when the CIP committee gets together, of course, you try to balance things out per year, on a per year basis. And it's just where this one happened to land. Uh, and of course, you know, this is, uh, final determination will be made by City Council. If the majority of you want it moved up and something else moved back, then that's what we'll do. Bailey/ Well, with our discussions about safety issues and the fact that some of those trails aren't lit at all, I think that that might warrant some discussion. Trueblood/ Uh, just wanted to point out here that basically what we have is, uh, coming from the west end, uh, over here on the Normandy Manor Drive area, entrance to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 17 the park, this is what we would, uh, be proposing for the lighting, coming along there, the trail goes along here, and then you can go either there or there. Proposal would probably have both of them lit, and then the trail comes all the way along, uh, the riverbank, and then comes around...around here, and then the main trail comes over along...along Park or along the Park roadway, but a branch over here as well. This would be the kind of thing if we had enough funding we'd probably do both. If we didn't, it would probably be just this one right here. Uh, okay. Correia/ So this...placeholder amount is to do how much of... Trueblood/ Hopefully all of it. Correia/ So, I mean, this amount here covers all of that? Trueblood/ Hopefully, yeah. Correia/ Okay. I mean, you...(both talking)...but that's what this estimate's based on, all of it? Trueblood/ Yes. Correia/ Okay. Which is about what amount of miles...or feet...or however you calculate it? Trueblood/ That would be, uh, a little over a mile in trails. Okay, the next one, uh, Frauenholtz-Miller Park development. You might not recognize the name of this park because it's not there yet. Uh, this is the one where, uh, shows it here on this, Lower West Branch Road comes down and we have the square in the middle there, and that's where Frauenholtz-Miller Park will be located. To acclimate you a little bit, uh, this -correct me if I'm wrong you guys -this is the, uh, St. Patrick's Church site, uh, this picture down here is basically showing from looking from the northeast to the southwest corner of the park. It's about three acres in size, which would be, uh, just a little bit larger than College Green Park. iJh, in the funding you might notice it is projected at $280,000. We kind of got stuck on that figure without three projects, but uh, $221,000 is proposed to come from GO bonds and then we would use Neighborhood Open Space fees of $57,000 to help develop that, uh, the $57,000 is what we currently have. That could go up, before the time of the development. Miklo/ If I could just add a few things. Um, when we did the northeast district plan, the citizens who participated in that asked for some sort of focal point, organize the new neighborhoods that were going to be occurring in this area, around and what's now Frauenholtz-Miller Park was identified as the best location for that. As we've, uh, approved subdivisions in this area, um, you'll notice that the streets lead to the park, uh, and when we, uh, recently amended the Comprehensive Plan, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 18 the Northeast District Plan, to accommodate the annexation of St. Patrick's, uh, that continued that theme of using the park as a focal point for the future neighborhoods in the area. The Board of Adjustment next month will be reviewing a plan for St. Patrick's uh Church, and they have, uh, taken advantage of that park to design their church as a, using the prominent location of the park as a focal point, so this is, uh, um, a good implementation of the District Plan that we put together almost two years ago now. Trueblood/ The next project on our list is relatively small one by CIP standards, $50,000 project finally scheduled for FY11, Hickory Hill Park bridge. This is the actual bridge that's (several talking) we'll do that again, Bob. Uh, at any rate, this is the actual bridge. This is the one that's closest to First Avenue, you'll recognize it. This was constructed by our employees, uh, over twenty years ago is all I can tell ya. The support structure are telephone poles, uh, and uh, if you want to get just a tiny little buzz, go out there and jump and down on it a little bit and it's kinda like you're on a suspension bridge, uh, but the, uh, the next slide, this is in there. This is actually in south Hickory Hill, and I wanted to show you this one because this is the, uh, essentially this is the type of bridge that's there right now, and this is the type that we would be putting in there. This one that was replaced in south Hickory Hill just a few years ago, but we left the old one in until we got the new one built, and then tore the old one out, so it's not there anymore. iJh, we'd actually -this one and some other bridges we have around town -have been what you might call recycled bridges. Uh, there's some primarily that Public Works and Engineering had built for street projects, where they needed a temporary pedestrian bridge, while a new one was being rebuilt or whatever, and then we recycle them and use them in parks wherever we can. We would do it this time, except that the only one they have left is about thirty-five feet long and we need one fifty feet, so it'd be fine on one end, but the other end wouldn't work out too well. (laughter) Uh, next project here is the, uh, Napoleon Softball Field renovation. This is where Iowa City Girls' Softball plays. Uh, this is basically two things. One of them is to regrade, uh, fields three and four I believe it is, ones over here, for better slope, uh, we have a lot of problems with the drainage coming in to the infields, which then makes, uh, problems with, uh, rainouts and just general maintenance and that kind of thing, so we want to regrade them a little bit, but we also want to do a little relocating, uh, you can't really tell it so much in here, but this is very...there's four fields in this particular area, and it's pretty tight space in between for the spectators. So when we regrade it, we also want to move these two fields out a little ways so there's more space in there, providing, uh, well, more comfort for the spectators, but primarily a safety issue being so tight in there, with the foul balls and that kind of thing. iJh, next one is the North Market Square Park redevelopment. LTh, this one's targeted right now for FY10, $280,000. We're working with the Neighborhood Association, and Horace Mann School, which is right next to it. Our second meeting is actually tonight with them, when the firm that we hired to do the plan for it will actually be presenting their first conceptual plan to them. Met once before just to get ideas, now they're going to be presenting the actual plan tonight, and then that'll This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 19 have to be massaged as well. Uh, this cost us, the one for Frauenholtz-Miller, by the way, which are identical, came about basically from what was done with both the Benton Hill Park and the Brooklyn Park renovation, took those costs and put an inflation factor in, so hopefully this is going to do it for us. LJh, by the way, the money for the concept plan that we're working on right now came, uh, the bulk of it came from a PIN grant, uh, the school is contributing towards it, and then our, uh, just our regular Park budget, under that recurring projects, is paying for part of it. Next project -outdoor ice rink. Of course you recognize the top picture. That's several of your department directors having a good time, uh, couple of pictures down below. One is because there's basically a couple of concepts here. One is, uh, is to develop it in the downtown area, so we've superimposed an ice skating rink here in downtown Iowa City, as you can tell from the buildings right there. But the other concept is to have it in a park setting, much like this one right here and you can, once again, you can see Iowa City in the background there, but no, actually we've been talking about downtown. We've been talking about in a park setting. LJh, and that determination hasn't been made yet, and of course, this is currently scheduled for FY12, so we have some time for that. Uh, but as...as you all know, the only outdoor ice skating we have right now is in City Park, and it is...it is a terrible chore to try to keep that open, and our guys can work on it for a week to finally get it in decent shape and then one day of bad weather -that can be warm temperatures, that can be snow - and it's gone, you know, even if it gets below zero the next day, it's another week of trying to get it up and running again. Plus, we have safety issues out there as well, not so much for the public, but for our guys trying to maintain it. Some of you may recall, we came close to losing somebody a few years ago when a small tractor went through the ice into about eight feet of water. Our safety coordinator became concerned after that happened. Bailey/ And what is an ice rink in warm weather? Are there recreational uses, but what are those? Trueblood/ I'll get to that on the next slide. Bailey/ Okay. Thanks. Correia/ Well, and that... Miklo/ A little more background on this. The proposal for an ice rink was originally proposed on the near southside design plan, which covers the area south of Burlington, um, the thought was it will be a very urban area and there's not a lot of open space or green space, uh, we currently have several projects in the works or planned in that area -Hieronymus Square, you'll see the two buildings going up just north of the Courthouse. LTh, we're anticipating redevelopment of the old St. Patrick's site, so the thought would be that this being a pretty dense area that some active recreational use ice rink might be one of those. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 20 Correial And so it was...has it been on the unfunded list? And it's not in the top... Trueblood/ No. This was a new project, submitted this year. (both talking) Correia/ And so, did the Parks and Rec Commission have conversations about it, I mean, like I said, it's not in their top ten or even in their list of projects proposed to... Trueblood/ Yes, they...they had, they were presented with a list of all of the capital projects, and then they voted on their priorities, and they've been apprised as we go, as to what the CIP committee feels about these projects and that sort of thing. To be honest with you, on the outdoor ice rink concept, which was first presented to me by the Parks' Superintendent, and then went from there to the Parks and Recreation Commission, but when they prioritized their list, they really didn't have all the information, uh, about possibilities for downtown and, you know, that sort of thing, because at that time, I either wasn't aware of it or I had forgotten about it. Not sure which, but uh, so in fairness to them, and whether or not it would have made any difference on their priority list, I don't know. But they weren't aware at that time that, uh, planning had been having these conversations about the possibility of an ice rink downtown. May have made adifference - I'm not sure. Wilburn/ An urban ice rink has been discussed over the years. Correia/ Yeah, it's just, you know, it hasn't been on the unfunded, you know, so it sort of jumped from above other unfunded (several talking) Miklo/ I think one of the reasons we've brought it back to, uh, towards the top is because we are seeing all the development activity proposed in the near southside. Hayek/ With respect to City Park, and I supposed abandonment of that spot as a possible skating rink, is it due to weather, climate changes, or fluctuations in the water table or something down there? I mean, it used to be a place that was used every single year for skating. Trueblood/ Both, uh, the large pond, uh, definitely has the...the biggest problem there is probably the fluctuation in, uh, in the river, because that feeds that pond. When that small tractor with the man on it went through, uh, a number of years ago, there was actually six inches of ice on there. You know, we measure it before we let them go out there, but then the river dropped about an inch or an inch and a half, as I recall, so when that ice, even at six inches, eight inches, twelve inches, if it doesn't have the water supporting it, it's not nearly as stable. Plenty safe enough for people to ice skate on, uh, but not safe enough to get a small tractor out there to remove the snow. That kind of thing. Uh, so, and then the smaller pond is more difficult because, uh, because of its location. There's a lot of times that...that it doesn't have a sufficient amount of water in it to really get good ice on it, and uh, people just seem to prefer the larger one, for one reason because it's This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 21 closer to the warming house, the shelter that we use for a warming house. So there are multiple problems with it. Hayek/ Could you...could you fill those ponds and then create a rink on that spot? That's not subject to water table fluctuations and these safety concerns? Trueblood/ That...that could be possible for the smaller one, but probably not for the larger one. Correia/ With, um, are there plans to staff that and rent skates? I mean, `cause you're thinking of having an ice skating rink in the near southside and...and have that be part of our urban downtown area, um, most cities that have ice rinks rent skates. I mean, a lot of people, unless they're avid skaters, aren't going to have ice skates and therefore it wouldn't be used by the population in that area, if that's what we're thinking, um, in that near southside, downtown area, because of the...of the population density, you know, I'm not sure how many folks would be going out and buying ice skates, but they might go and ice skate if there were rentals and it was staffed, and you know, that sort of thing, so is that part of as we're thinking about this. I mean, I know it's a few years out, but I mean, it seems like that would guarantee more use. Trueblood/ We haven't gotten to the operating budget aspect of it yet. I can tell you our initial thoughts at Parks and Recreation would be not to do that. We're simply thinking of an outdoor ice skating rink that could be there without the...all the maintenance problems and the up and down problems and all of that, but just to let people go there and skate, and it would probably be...it could very well be that, uh, you know, that there would be times it's reserved for hockey. Other times where it's reserved for, uh, figure skating. Uh, typically where they rent skates and have that inventory and so forth is more the indoor, uh, venues. Correia/ Right, but in Chicago in the outdoors...I mean, I think in the urban centers where you have outdoor skating rinks there are rental capabilities, and I guess if we're thinking about this being that type of amenity in the near southside, downtown area because of our population, more population density down there. mean, I would like us to consider that, whether we build the facility and contract it out to somebody who wants to do that, the City doesn't need to do that, um, necessarily because I think it would be an income-generator, people would be renting the skates, um, I would like that to be considered as we move forward, that there would be that built in. Trueblood/ That's something that could certainly be considered, uh, if we get to a point where we're close to this project, then we need to start considering operating budgets and those types of things. Wilburn/ And I presume you also checked with some other cities in terms of operations at that, by the time you get to that point, because I know Des Moines has one near This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 22 City Hall, and I'm not sure they...I'm not sure they rent out skates, but there is like a shelter and restroom around it type thing. Trueblood/ Those are the types of things we'd have to consider, as we get closer. You asked what maybe summer uses might be this. This is what we at Parks and Recreation had projected is that in the summertime it could be a second skate park, but that depends a lot on where the ultimate location is too. Uh, another possibility is for, uh, roller hockey in the warm-weather months, which is an increasingly popular activity. LTh, roller hockey and skateboard, probably not both of them, but...(laughter)...uh, next project... Wilburn/ You could be on (unable to understand) Trueblood/ What's that? Wilburn/ You could be, uh, extreme sport there, Terry. Trueblood/ There you go, I could. We'll let you set that up and demonstrate it for us! Uh, next project, which, uh, you're all quite familiar with, uh, is the, uh, the proposal for a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian/bicycle bridge, uh, leading from Peninsula Park, uh, to Rocky Shore, uh, this just kind of shows, uh, the trail and uh, right here along Rocky Shore from Crandic Park, you know, we have that eight-foot sidewalk along Rocky Shore. This is a segment of the Iowa River Corridor Trail, and then it goes around through quiet residential area on...on the streets, through City Park, and uh, on down past Hancher, connecting in to the rest of the Iowa River Corridor Trail. Uh, it also shows this is Foster Road coming out and around to Terrell Mill Park, and uh, location for the proposed bridge would be somewhere along here. LTh, as you heard from, uh, John Westefeld last night, uh, the...I didn't know it did that, John...(laughter)...that would be the bridge right there (laughter). Except we'd probably have it a solid line (laughter). John or Bob? Miklo/ One of the reasons for...for this slide is to show, let me have the mouse there, that we have two major parks, Peninsula Park and City Park, and then also some minor parks, Terrell Mill and Crandic, and that by connecting, uh, pedestrian bridge, not only provides better access to the Peninsula Dog Park and possibly relieving traffic and parking congestion there, but it also creates a loop that connects these, uh, major park spaces, um, and it also, the loop would then connect into most of the major trails in the city, so providing community-wide benefit, uh, by creating this loop. Bailey/ How long is that loop? Miklo/ John, do you have... Yapp/ I've not measured it, but it, uh, I would guess approximately 2.5 miles. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 23 Miklo/ One of the things that our...our neighborhood open space, um, plan emphasizes is that our greatest deficits in neighborhood open space are in our Central Planning District, and some of the other close-in neighborhoods, and as we're doing the District Plans for those areas, we're finding that it maybe nearly impossible to, uh, fill those deficits because those neighborhoods are pretty much built out and the only way to provide more open space would be to take down development and, um, the expense of that is likely prohibitive. So one of the possible solutions that, uh, we're considering in the Central Business Plan is to make the open spaces we currently have that aren't in the district but near the district more accessible and projects like this, uh, would help fulfill that goal. Trueblood/ This, uh, same project, uh...(several talking)...okay, same project, aerial photo of, uh, the Peninsula parkland area, and one thing that I would like to, uh, alert you to is that some of you may know that a couple years ago, the Parks and Recreation Commission had indicated an interest in accepting this, uh, land all along the trail here, if it were to be offered, uh, by the developer, and let them know that and we think it will be some day. LJh, so if we can...if we can get that, uh, this would go all the way up, connect to the Water Works Prairie Park trail, and provide a beautiful trail system, all along the river through there to connect in with Peninsula Park. Of course, we have, uh, this is the disc golf course, uh, gazebo. We have increased activity, uh, increasing in popularity with the disc golf and the dog park, uh, parking is becoming a real issue, uh, and we think that to do the pedestrian bridge would help to alleviate that. Would it alleviate all of it? No, probably not, but it would help to alleviate it. Uh, so essentially, we're looking at an important connection for the Iowa River Corridor Trail, and uh, to also help with access to and parking problems at, uh, the Peninsula parkland area. Yes? O'Donnell/ It looked to me like you had the pedestrian bridge coming in, uh, across and hitting the river. Is that right? River Street? Trueblood/ You know the exact location has not been pinpointed yet. We were given actually four different options at one time, and that's one of the options. O'Donnell/ Why wouldn't it have been down farther, or why wouldn't it connect with Crandic Park? (both talking)...parking available. Trueblood/ One of the options is to put it just right next to Crandic Park, not...maybe not right into Crandic Park, but right next to it, where it would be convenient for that. O'Donnell/ And then you'd have to expand that parking area, probably. Trueblood/ Yeah, yeah, and there's not much room for expansion, but there is room to expand it to get probably another, maybe as many as ten cars, somewhere...at This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 24 least five, maybe as many as ten cars in there, without taking up the entire green space. We don't want to make the whole park a parking lot. O'Donnell/ Okay. Trueblood/ LTh, the next one, still on Peninsula Park but a different project, and this one is the Peninsula Park development, uh, and uh, it's currently targeted for FY12, uh, $300,000, and it's primarily for the development of some natural areas, like over in here -prairie grasses, wild flowers, that kind of thing -more over in here, uh, and several areas throughout the park, uh, to finish that development as it were. The other thing that we want to do. This is showing the Iowa River Power bridge, is to develop a canoe portage around the dam, and this is, uh, below the dam and the canoe portage would come around and...and under the bridge and over to get above the dam, or vice versa. LTh, we are currently pursuing some grant opportunities to do that canoe portage. So we might be able to do that ahead of schedule. That's what we're hoping for. There are grant monies for that type of thing. Uh, next project, Recreation Center roof replacement. LJh, this, uh, we were having problems with the roof prior to the tornado, and then a lot of problems with the roof after the tornado. All of these marks on here are...are showing problem areas with the roof, uh, and it had to slip in there with our number one priorities because it's just something that has to be done. iJh, $66,000 comes from, uh, insurance monies, uh, that was a long time of Kevin and his folks negotiating and, uh, with the insurance companies for what we'd get paid back, and we felt that should be a whole lot more, but that's what we ended up with. So, we just had to budget for it. Next, uh, is a new project that's really three projects rolled into one. It's Recreation Center improvements. LTh, what we'd like to do is really improve the east entrance, which is the main entrance to the Recreation Center, uh, you can see from these photos that, uh, some of the problems we're having, uh, with concrete breaking out, that kind of thing, and you can see the steps, problem areas there and there, this is up by the door. We'd like to, you know, we did this for accessibility. This is actually metal, and we'd like to get rid of that and rebuild that whole entrance, the railing and everything. LJh, the...another part, uh, of the project is the what I call the balcony area for the swimming pool. It's what this is right here. We have never been able to use that for its intended purpose, just because it's not a good situation. We can't allow people up there without supervision, uh, causes problems, and it's, uh, safety concern. My understanding is, before I came to Iowa City, is that it was locked on a permanent basis when our pool staff decided he, on a dare, that he could dive from there into the pool, and uh, he did live through it. Hasn't worked for us for a long time now, but he did live through it (laughter) but anyway, the proposal is to...is to get this opened up in such fashion that probably would entail removing the door and this glass here, and basically moving it back to, uh, and take it up to the ceiling, so that people can actually, this actually would become a part of the lobby area, but they can get right out there to the edge, be a great place for parents to watch their swim lessons for example. LTh, but, uh, I can't tell you how many little kids we have come up there when their moms or dads are at the counter and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 25 they want to get through that door. LTh, the third part of the project is this collapsible wall that we have in the social hall that has never worked very well, uh, this is the social hall area right in here, looking back towards some offices and storage space and maintenance stuff and so forth. Now here's actually showing four panels of the collapsible wall coming out. It's actually designed to come all the way down so that we can separate the social hall into, uh, two sizable rooms. If we can get a collapsible wall put in there, preferably one that's electrically operated, uh, then we can, it gives us another room to reserve, it gives us more options, uh, for the Recreation Center. Right now, it takes, uh, two people anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half to put that wall up, and then about that much time to put it back, because it just, it's just a bear. That's the only way I can put it. It just...we can do it, we do do it on rare occasion, but we can't do it, for example, if there's going to be, if we have two reservations in there that run from say 5:00 to 7:00 P.M. and...and then another reservation that needs the whole, uh, social hall after 7:00 P.M. It just isn't possible to do that. It's not very soundproof either, which we would hope to improve upon. Uh, next is Water Works Park hospice memorial. Uh, it's a proposal we've been working on for a while, uh, actually, uh, the funding is, uh, projected to be $90,000 from GO bonds and $25,000 from contributions. This hospice memorial area, and I have a conceptual plan to show you in a moment, would likely be right in here, in the park, or it might go on the other side of that trail, right in there. Haven't exactly decided yet, um, this is the...the concept that we have right now, a very preliminary concept, uh, that hospice, the hospice organization paid for by the way, but uh, it's just designed to be a very quiet, passive area for people to go there, enjoy, reflect, uh, and also they're talking about, uh, maybe an area with the engraved brick concept with people's names on `em, so that, uh, they can go there and visit. The next one I know you've heard about before is the Wetherby splash pad. LTh, this, uh, top picture is showing an actual splash pad in existence somewhere. I pulled it off the web - I can't remember where it was now. (laughter) But, uh, I looked for Cedar Rapids because they've got five or six of them, but they didn't have any pictures of them on their web site. The, uh, lower picture, this one down here, is one of two concepts that the neighborhood, the Wetherby...Friends of Wetherby Neighborhood...actually had done. LTh, I do want to call your attention to the fact that, uh, contrary to what your budget book shows, the funding is broken out into several sources, uh, the total amount is correct, but it's actually GO bonds of $100,000, which your budget book shows, uh, projected donations of $29,800, uh, the two neighborhood groups, there are two neighborhood groups working on this by the way. Ones the Wetherby and the other one's Grant Wood, uh, have secured a CDBG grant of $30,000, uh, there's PIN grant of $3,200, and then, uh, Neighborhood Open Space fees to go towards this of $37,000, and that could go up, as well. LTh, at any rate, this is...this is the concept and uh, our Commission made a commitment to them last year that if they could do some fundraising, that...that the Commission would put this, uh, would submit this in the CIP budget. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 26 Bailey/ Are there other parks that we have this kind of amenity...would be appropriate? I mean, you said Cedar Rapids has five of these. I think that this is really a great... great thing for a neighborhood park. Trueblood/ I think there are several parks where it could be appropriate. Uh, we have to start with one. Bailey/ Right, and will that come out maybe in your Master Plan? Is it... Trueblood/ It might very well. Bailey/ Okay. Wilburn/ Once...I suspect once it got going to when other people saw it, then other neighborhoods would want to chip in (mumbling) Davidson/ Yeah, I just wanted to add quickly that the neighborhood coordinator in...in the Wetherby Neighborhood has asked that I really emphasize to all of you what an important priority this is for them, and they're prepared to do additional fundraising. They're trying to do that now. They're trying to contact some of the business and industries in the area, uh, to continue their fundraising, but it's a really high priority for the neighborhood. Trueblood/ Our, uh, our Parks and Recreation Foundation is actually acting as a holding account, if you will, for the donations being raised, because our...the neighborhoods are not a... a tax-exempt organization, but the Foundation is, and we have received a couple checks, not much so far -maybe $1,000 -something like that so far. Bailey/ Any questions? Okay, we're going to take aten-minute break. (BREAK) Public Safety: Rocca/ Ready? Okay, great. All right, well, we'll jump right in to Fire Station #4. I think you're familiar with the project generally speaking, uh, in that the budget booklet does call out that we have purchased the land up on the side of north Dodge and Scott Boulevard. Currently price tagged at $1.7, and uh, a drive- through facility and uh, I believe scheduled in FY10 currently as well. Pretty straight forward. I don't know if you have specific questions about the facility or timing or... Bailey/ Um, we did talk a little bit about timing and Amy wanted me to make sure that we talked a little bit more about moving that up, to fiscal year 09. What would that entail, and would...would it be possible, and is that a responsible sort of move in the budget.. . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 27 Rocca/ Well... Bailey/ ...staffing wise. Rocca/ ...likely would be, um, you know, the inflation factor continues to plague us, each year that passes, and...and so that's one implication. Um, I think it's practical. Right now we have it as schematic design. You know, we need the go-ahead in order to get to construction documents and then of course bid out, uh, but, uh, based on our experience with Fire Station #2, uh, our give is probably three to six months to finish up the design work and get it out to bid, and uh, you know, we probably could be going next construction season. Feasibly. O'Donnell/ Andy, I know you've probably addressed this, but with the location of the, uh, garage going out, several times a day the traffic on this intersection is just horrendous up there. How...how are you going to handle if we have a fire call and you have a long line of cars there? Roccal Very similar to what we currently do here at Station #l, and as well at Station #3 with Lower Muscatine and First Avenue. We have the ability to capture the traffic signal there and give us green in either direction, and so the traffic that's cued can clear, and then we can proceed on the emergency response. And so we would look at that the same...same way here at this intersection. O'Donnell/ Okay, great. Davidson/ Um, Ron and I hadn't planned on talking to you much today about it, but you bring up a point, Mike, that probably should be added to the on-the-radar projects and that is the capacity at that intersection, and that link of Scott Boulevard between First Avenue and Dodge Street. You know, I mean, everybody remembers that was a very, very highly politically charged matter at the time that it was constructed, and you know, probably there was some capacity things there that in retrospect we'd do a little bit differently, and we're probably going to have to bring a prof ect to you for consideration, you know, in the next three to five years certainly to look at the capacity of that link, because it's...it's already, during certain peak times, and a lot of it is contributed to by the shift change, patterns at ACT and NCS. Everybody leaves at once, everybody comes at once, that doesn't help things, but we've not been successful in getting them to look at shift adjustments so that it would be more spread out. We'll still try and do that, but that's probably on the radar, Mike. O'Donnell/ All right, thanks. Rocca/ Any other questions related to Fire Station #4? Fire apparatus, and for the benefit of the new Council Members, just give you a little brief history. Fire apparatus typically has about afifteen-year life here in Iowa City. We try to run them seven years front line so they're first out, and then seven years in reserve. Uh, prior to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 28 that they were ten and ten, and what we found was that fire apparatus were virtually worn out when they went into reserve status, with about 90,000 miles on them, and so, uh, this accelerated schedule, seven and seven, uh, we found that we get much more in-service life, good quality service ability from the fire apparatus going seven-seven, and with the plan that you have before you, you can see that virtually in the next four years, we're going to get one pumper each year, as well as the option for Fire Station #4, a new apparatus there in FY10, and so that's why you see that at a million, just over a million dollars. Uh, the apparatus schedule has been projected out, once we buy a new piece of fire equipment, we go ahead and project that...that life span out to include some inflationary cost factors there, so we can replace as per the schedule. Questions about fire apparatus? Champion/ Um, my only question is, when you buy a. Bailey/ Connie, mic. Champion/ Oh, sorry. When you buy a pumper every year for, how many years did you say? Rocca/ Uh, actually it'll be five years in a row if you think of what we're doing current year. Champion/ Okay, do you save money if you buy five of them at once? Rocca/ Um, yes and no. We tried to do that with the last one actually, we bought two of them and then we ran into some issues with, uh, some new EPA standards and the like and we're trying to work through that. We had to return a pumper actually to a vendor, um, what we've found is that the standards seem to be changing enough with emission quality and things like safety features that we're probably better off staggering them, so we can take advantage of the new technology and safety features as they become available. The core specification pretty much remains the same, but just a lot of the changes on the accessories. Champion/ Who makes fire trucks? Rocca/ Well, there's a number of...of custom vendors out there, um, probably could fill the sheet of paper with...with vendors. There's a number of them in the Midwest that we've worked with, with some success, um, but you can go just about any state and they're all over the place. Other questions? Thank you. Hargadine/ One of the projects we started last year was, is, uh, um, looking towards gutting just all of our software internally, um, on the police records side, that you'll commonly hear that as "RMS" for Records Management System. And then the other half of that is the CAD side, Computer Aided Dispatch, on the dispatch center. Um, both of those are independent, but they're also highly integrated in that when a call comes in to the CAD, that automatically populates This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24,2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 29 fields on the RMS side. And we've got a number of things that, uh, we would like to upgrade in-house, uh, and what we've started...the project's already underway is identifying how to best do that on the RMS, the Records Management side. Uh, as you're aware, we've got a Joint Dispatch Center, uh, project underway, so we would not be interested in purchasing any software on the CAD side of things, because that responsibility will go to the new dispatch center at some point. So, if we were to, um, um, get ahead of that project on the CAD side, we would be looking towards a lease, uh, for a year, two years at the most, depending on how long it takes to get the new dispatch center up and running. On the RMS side, Records Management, we're looking for a purchase, uh, just a couple of things to illustrate the need for it, um, we're PC-based, we network into the City just like every other department. Um, and we network into our Records Management. As the needs have grown within our department, um, for instance with our investigative unit. That commander went and bought a PC package that helps him manage cases. When a case comes and is assigned an investigator, he enters into his own database, it's capable of running all kinds of statistics. When the press or a victim calls and says, `Who's working my case?' he can pull it up quickly, and um, almost any kind of tracking you want to do, you can do on that PC on his desk. It does absolutely no. good for me when I get a call that says, `Who's working my case?' and that happens on a daily basis. Likewise, out in the patrol cars. Um, if it was an integrated system, when a police officer comes in contact with someone, if there was an active case assignment where this person is a "person of interest," it should notify anybody who looks that person up, not just the investigative commander sitting at his desk. So, that's one example of a third-party application that was purchased. It benefits the person who needs to manage that tool, but it does very little towards sharing information department-wide. iJh, another one is our evidence unit. He bought athird-party, uh, PC software that helps him manage the evidence unit. Does absolutely no good for anybody else within the department. Um, it's functional for the one person, but as we're moving towards abar-coding system, um, it really needs to be integrated into the Records' Management System. Those are just two...two brief applications. Um, we are...Iowa City is the only department that is not utilizing a...a vendor, um, common to the other agencies. Uh, Johnson County, Coralville, North Liberty are using one particular vendor. We are strongly considering, um, that same vendor so that we would have our independent record system, however, we would share things like names, vehicles, property so that if any officer county-wide were to write a report, if any agency has entered someone, we'd be able to pull that information in, uh, and share information county-wide. That's kind of where we're heading, is...is the same vendor that the other departments are currently using. Any questions on either of those? Wright/ Is the private vendor who supplies software, or supplies the whole service? Data storage.. . Hargadine/ The storage would be maintained on City equipment, City servers, uh, it is a private company that...that tailors towards, um, public safety. Their product is This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 30 public safety. One of the weaknesses in this system is on the fire side, and um, well, Regenia listened to a presentation, uh, in regards...since it does have overtones on the CAD side, which...which dovetails with...with the Joint Communications project, um, we are interested in them developing their fire side, bringing it up to speed, uh, they are interested in doing that, as well. Andy's department is going through an accreditation process. If they meet the product specs for a department that's accredited, that's more marketable for them. LTh, we wouldn't do business with them, until they do bring the fire side of things up to...up to snuff. So, um, that collaboration is currently ongoing. Wright/ If you're talking to them, does it mean it's a fire side chat? (laughter) Every so often I'm overcome (several talking and laughing) Hargadine/ And that's mainly the CAD side of things that, um, they need to develop for fire. Uh, all of the police agencies within the County are already in agreement that this is a worthwhile project to undergo, that the sharing of...it'll help us become a little more, um, savvy on criminals that...that, uh, are operating between here, North Liberty, Coralville, um, they don't really care where the jurisdictions are when they're committing crimes, yet, um, our goal is, if...if someone that lives in North Liberty comes to Iowa City, uh, does a crime, whoever the officer is, within their car, if they pull that person up, they'll be able to read each agency's, um, records on that particular person. That currently isn't going on right now. Hayek/ I don't know if there's a much of a nexus between the software your investigative, uh, unit's need and use and the sort of software that, uh, emergency communications and dispatch would use, but if we are going to a county-wide dispatch system in the near future, do we need to be thinking about whether software needs of that new system, uh, would need to integrate or somehow communicate with what you're talking about here? Hargadine/ That's where we're headed. If they meet fire's...they already meet because they've tailored their product to law enforcement. Uh, and they've got probably fifty clients within the nation, but they're tailored towards the smaller agencies. They're looking at, um, developing a product that for the more-medium sized cities, like we are, um, but their weakness is with fire, and we've been working with fire all along, um, as...I've mentioned several times, um, we're a police agency right now, that dispatches fire. That doesn't meet all of fire's needs as a dispatch...I mean, we make it work, but it's not best care scenario for him. Rocca/ If I could. Hargadine/ Sure. Rocca/ Um, in terms of time tracking. You know, we look at call processing and, you know, that sixty-second timeframe and turnout time, and then the time, travel time This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 31 from when units are responding until they get on scene, uh, a lot of what we do has multiple units responding, and the current CAD, while it does some very basic tracking, what it doesn't do is...is if we have units, particularly in a joint communications environment, if you have units that are busy, the CAD will automatically recommend replacement units to fill out that assignment, and those are some of the issues that currently cannot be done with the CAD in its present form, and as Sam points out, we are working with the CAD vendor to try to look at...at fire needs, not only right now in the short-term, but long-term for the Joint Communication Center project. Hargadine/ The vendor wants to position himself by developing what we're wanting developed now. He will automatically be positioning himself to be really competitive when this new center is up and running, especially if every public .safety agency in the county is already using their product. So, we are thinking ahead, uh, along those lines. Any questions about this side of the project? Another project we're already underway is a public safety broadband system. Um, what we're doing now currently is the data that gets pushed through the laptops in the cars, that's pushed through the radio. Uh, never was a very good way of doing it. The, uh, the data transmission rate is very slow. If you were to think about the old...remember the old, uh, 300 up to 1,200 baud modems that we used to do back when you had a Commodore 64? That's kind of where we are, pushing data through the radio. LTh, it's text only, uh, and a limited amount of text, as well. And this data is constantly going back and forth between the car and the station, even if you're not transmitting anything, there's constant communication back and forth, and it's just...it was an inefficient way of doing it and we cause a lot of problems, um, the...the, on the CAD side right now, it's so old that...the software product is so old, we don't get programming support for it anymore. Um, the vendor said, you know, we've developed this ten times, ten versions beyond what you guys have. We're not putting any more programmer time into fixing your problems. This has occurred back two years ago. Um, prior to my arrival, um, this broadband project has been kicked around for a while. When we start buying new radios for this new dispatch center, one of the things we decided early on is we're not going to push the data through the radio, like we're doing now. Um, there's other ways to do it. There's cellular is one way, or a broadband. You can think of it kind of as a wi-fi, but it's not. It's not...it's not accessible to citizens in the wi-fi band. Most people with a laptop won't even be able to see the, you won't be able to see that it's there, but it functions a lot like a wi-fi in that, um, it's got to be spread out all over the city, uh, the two things that you have to have are power and, um, access to a fiber, uh, fiber network. Uh, most of the street lights, they all have power, uh, and at some point the goal is that they'll all have access to the fiber, because they're actually controlled, um, there's computer controls for them. Um, the other things we're looking at is partnering with schools, because they have both high-speed Internet and power on those, so we've already identified the schools that are spread out, uh, we have a tentative verbal agreement that schools are interested. Um, to formalize this a little more, we're going to, we'll probably need a 28E agreement with the schools, um, to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 32 place antennas on their...on the roof tops. Um, but they're aware of it. We have had an initial meeting with them, and they're, uh, thus far, interested. Um, one of the things that, it's kind of exciting about this, um, there's already a lot of cameras within the City. I want to say some of the parking, transit cameras are on IP. They're IP-based cameras where you can pull up a web browser and see what's going through that...that camera. Um, there's other cameras throughout the city. I think there's one on the, uh, um, the water pumping, where you can see what the weather is from anywhere in the world. These are the kind of things that you can now start pushing through the cars, uh, if they've got high-speed connectivity into the cars. Uh, and vice versa, um, there's cameras mounted in the car, as well. They're capturing a digital, uh, signal that's stored on a hard drive. As they get closer to the City Hall, that automatically uploads to the City servers. It's not beyond the realm of technology where, if there was a pursuit anywhere in...in, within this broadband network, you could view it, looking through a web browser, live through the dash cam, um, because of the...the high-speed connectivity. lJh, likewise with...if you had a major incident with police or fire, um, you point that camera that's on the front dash of a police car, we'd be able to watch it from anywhere in the world, because of that connectivity. Any questions on this? Correia/ This is the Metro Area Wireless Broadband? Hargadine/ Yes. Correia/ I don't think that made it into this book. Hargadine/ I think it's out of order a little bit. O'Malley/ Actually it's in FY08. Bailey/ FY08 (several talking) Correia/ Well, no, I think that's... O'Malley/ Page C-24. Correia/ Oh, because it's in the current, or set to be finished? Gotcha. Okay. Hargadine/ Any questions? One of the things we're, it's designed for public safety. I think there will be fire access, as well, on the cars, but that's not to say we couldn't bring on other governmental partners, um, that need to get a signal back to home base. Correia/ Would that be something the University... Hargadine/ Absolutely, from a law enforcement standpoint... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 33 Correia/ Right, that's what I mean. Hargadine/ ...because they've got a lot of high buildings that we'd like to hang stuff off of, so, um, they would be a likely partner. O'Malley/ One comment I'd like to make, this projects been, the concept's been around for several years, and originally not only the police and fire were going to use this, um, wide-area network, but also housing inspections and transit, and...and a couple other divisions were going to be walking around with, uh, notebooks or in the car, and they would be able to access this network and be fed back to the City's computers. Correia/ It looks like the cost was a significant increase from what was budgeted or expected last year. Is that just technology or... Hargadine/ LJh, combination. It's probably, uh, the initial funds, uh, we got from one of the vendors, but as...as, um, similar to the radios, as more sites were added, that added to the price. Correia/ And so was that all from bonding? That...um, it's... (male)/ Sorry, I didn't hear the question. Correia/ Was the... from the funds from bonding in the, uh, in our budget last year, it said the funding was 03 GO bonds? And so, on C-24 it has, for $500,000 that it, 944? O'Malley/ I think it's on...believe it's on page C-51. It shows original funding of $500,000 from 03 GO, and then this year there was an amendment to add $450,000 to the 08 GO issue. Correia/ Okay (unable to hear). All right, thank you. Hargadine/ The other jurisdictions are interested in our project, as well. The County is interested from a law enforcement standpoint. They're not happy with the way that their mobile data terminals are connecting back, um, so the other jurisdictions are just kind of sitting back and watching, looking at our design. All of our IT heads have met together over this, and um, Coralville is interested, as well. Coralville always was a likely partner, um, Johnson County not so much in that they get out to the rural areas, but um, we were contacted by the Johnson County IT -they are interested, so, um, should...should we partner with the other municipalities, that could bring our cost down because of antenna placement. If there's antennas, um, from the same vendor out in...in the county that reaches our cars on the outer fringes, that's...those are tower placements that we won't have to...they're not really towers, they're just antennas. But, um, those are antennas that we wouldn't have to...do, so there is some possibility for partnerships there, but we're taking the lead on the design. Anything else on broadband? Um, radio This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 34 system upgrade, um, we've talked about the Joint Communications project, uh, off and on, and um, one of the contingencies that was put in early on was if we don't go to a Joint Communications, uh, concept, uh, I want to say it's a done deal, uh, but there's still a lot of things that could go wrong with this. I mean, or are not...things are still tentative, I guess, is the best way to put it. So we have to have afall-back position. What if we have to replace our existing equipment? And that's why that bookmark is put in there, um, I...I'm, if I were a betting man, I'd say the Joint Communications is going to, uh, is going to work, uh, and it's going to happen, but, uh, we've planned for the contingency that its not, and that's what these funds were set aside for. Bailey/ We also talked about the opportunity of using these funds, as you probably saw in today's paper, the amount of the Emergency Management Levy, given the preliminary concept designs that we have and the system that we really need to build out for the County came in a lot higher than our original, uh, thoughts, and one of the opportunities is for the different entities to contribute, to sort of buy down that Emergency Management Levy. It's like buying a house, you know, the greater your down payment, um, the lower your loan amount, so, we could also potentially use that if we wanted to move ahead in that way. I think Coralville's exploring some options about how they could put some initial funding toward it, as well. People have some concerns about the amount of taxes it would, this would require. So, that's a discussion that we can also have regarding this. Do you have anything to add to that? Hargadine/ There are also funds that have been added every year, um, for operating and maintenance of the equipment, and one of the things I'd like to remind you of, is that we have a lot of municipal users that are non-public safety. For example, public works. They're on our existing radio system. Uh, and at some point we're going to migrate them to the new, uh, that's our intent, but we wont'...we don't know yet if we'll be able to migrate them the first year. So we may have to operate our existing system longer than anticipated, because we've got other customers besides police and fire on our radio system. There are contract users, as well. Um, and...and the design is on the new that there will be contract users, but to simplify things, the Joint Communications is a public safety priority. Wilburn/ I was just going to say that, uh, the consensus when we started talking...well, um, I mean the point was brought up about our communication system, uh, before we even started talking about the joint facility, and as we proceeded with the discussions about the joint facility, that we would try and do a regional collaboration, um, but to continue to plan, if that were to fall apart, there's no question that the radio system needs to be upgraded, so...we're... Rocca/ And I think as was pointed out, the obligation to maintain the existing system and we lose a major component to have the ability to get it repaired. Wilburn/ Right, right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 35 Bailey/ Thank you. Public Utilities: Fosse/ Well, we're on to public utilities now. Um, this segment is comprised of three of our enterprise funds. That's our water, waste water, and storm water, uh, utilities. So projects in this category are typically funded from those enterprise funds, or revenue bonds that are retired from revenues from those enterprise funds, and occasionally there's some GO money spent on these projects, as well. So that background, let's take a look at the first one, and that `s the Highlander lift station force main, and if you'll look at the location map up front, the Highlander lift station is right up here, serves NCS, Northgate Corporate Park, and, uh, pumps back in to our sewer system on the south side of the interstate. And to give you some background there -sanitary sewers typically flow by gravity, and when the terrain of the land doesn't permit that, then you need to build a force...a lift station, and then a force main and a pump, in much the same way as our water system is. And...and when those force mains rust out you get breaks and sewage geysers, which is not something you want to experience. And, uh, we have had some breaks on the Highland lift station force main, and this is a segment of that force main that's been taken out, uh, so that we can see what's -going on there, and we have rust going on, and also on the, uh, take a close up of the...of the joints, you'll see that the bolts that hold it together are also rusting out. Those are more narrow than your pencil. Um, so that's...that's one that needs to be replaced and we've got that in FY09 at a cost of about $431,000. Our next project is, uh, actually a design study, looking at the Rapid Creek Watershed, and again, if you'll look at the location map, Rapid Creek enters the Iowa River at this point, and goes up stream. And we've seen a fair amount of interest in development in this region, in here, developers are interested in City services, uh, the City has an interest in the water quality from these developments, because if you follow Rapid Creek downstream, goes into the Iowa River, just upstream from our water plant. Um, so we certainly have an interest there, and...and what this, or what this study would do is develop alternatives for different ways to provide sanitary service to that area. Uh, do we pump it into town? Do we put a satellite plant out there? Uh, do we have on-site treatment? Uh, some combination of those, and how do we phase the implementation of that, and along with that, but will become some of the information that you all will need, uh, to make some decisions on what are reasonable growth boundaries, uh, for the future because if you look at that watershed by itself, it's a full twenty-five square miles, which is larger than Iowa City is right now. So it's not reasonable to think that we're going to build a satellite plant there that's going to serve the entire watershed. So we need to make some planning decisions related to that. Davidson/ And I would like to emphasize, uh, Rick's indicated the sanitary sewer, uh, issue here. The sanitary sewer area has since the 1997 comp plan, Comprehensive Plan, was established, determined where the growth area of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 36 City was, and so this is an enormous Comprehensive Plan amendment possibility, that you will have to consider. So, I just...I want to take the perspective Rick's given you and...and just make sure you understand the enormity of it, and that is that if we make a determination to expand the City's growth area to the north, right now Rapid Creek -well, you can see the boundary -it's pretty much Rapid Creek, and when that was established in 97, we knew that eventually this moment would come because we knew we would like want to expand the growth area to the north so that we could flow into both sides of the Rapid Creek watershed, which is what...part of what we'll be evaluating. The question is, how far north do you go, because that then impacts police and fire and schools and parks and bus service and basically everything that the City provides in terms of...of services. You already have an adopted agreement with the County and with Coralville for Oakdale Boulevard, and the extension of Oakdale Boulevard through this area. Um, it is going to be constructed over to Dubuque Street within the next year, uh, and then the decision to eventually extend it from Dubuque Street, through this area, to eventually loop around, cross the interstate, and connect with...with Scott Boulevard, uh, is one that will be done incrementally in the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty years, and as Rick has said, with...with great regularity, we are contacted by property owners in this area, some of whom want to develop in the County, and some of whom want to be annexed into Iowa City and develop, and so these will all be considered. The sewer service study is the first component which will then lead to this...consideration of aComprehensive Plan amendment. That'll of course go through the public input process and the Planning and Zoning Commission and eventually to you for a decision. Wilburn/ So this is one of those things you think about at night. Davidson/ Um, it's down the priority list a bit, Ross, but yeah, eventually it does take some thought. I just want to make sure you understand kind... Wilburn/ It's a big deal, yeah. Fosse/ This growth boundary that you see on the drawing, uh, up here, that is established by the service area of the Highland lift station. That's how that was put together. Any questions on this? Okay. Ron, you (unable to hear) Knoche/ The Sandusky storm sewer project is one that's, it's been on the radar for a while, um, it was brought back to the forefront in June when we had some major rains in Iowa City and had some backyard flooding, and the neighbors actually came in and spoke to the Council at that time. LTh, the Sandusky basin is one of the first storm...or the first storm water basins, or storm water areas, built in Iowa City, and one of the first ones in the state, and the idea was at that time for storm water management, um, the storm sewer on Taylor comes down and goes into the backyards and the backyards are used for the storm water basin. We no longer do that today, and now they're outlots and they're separate areas altogether, but at the time it was thought it was a good dual use of backyard and also have water This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 37 sitting there, um, and also with this, there's also, um, some areas that do pond out in Sandusky itself. Our project would, uh, take and bypass a large amount of the storm water, um, through storm sewers down Taylor to Sandusky, um, over to where the current outlet of this basin is and take it to an existing basin, um, that is, um, behind K-Mart, and that basin itself has the capacity to store some of the water from these backyards. It won't reduce the flooding completely, um, but it will take a majority of the water out of the backyards for the smaller events, the more frequent events that do occur. And that's, uh, the two screen shots that were there were from, uh, the presentation that the neighbors gave in June. Bailey/ How long will this project take? Knoche/ Uh, the project will take a full summer to build. Um, we are in the process now of setting up the neighborhood meetings, uh, if we can, uh, after we get the neighborhood meetings done, there probably will be a pretty lengthy property acquisition, uh, period that occurs and then, uh, we'll be looking at slating to, for construction to begin, uh, a year from now, which would be spring of 09. Wilburn/ And you'll make it clear in the neighborhood meetings that it will not totally eliminate.. . Knoche/ We will make it clear with.. . Wilburn/ Is there...can you figure out some way to...quantify that for them, or I don't know how you'd do that, but uh, in terms of the capacity and... Knoche/ Well, we'll be able to do some modeling and kind of show what, uh, what the extents are going to be. You know, one of the issues, um, with this is with it being in the backyards, um, over time people have planted their gardens and put their fences in, and back in 99 when this project came up, the idea was to...to just put a bigger storm sewer in the backyards and deal with it that way. And it'd be pretty cumbersome on the neighborhood, and everybody's fence would be torn out, all their landscaping, and so with...with this project we'll actually be doing it with the street rather than the backyards, so, um, I think it'll help things along. Uh, North Gilbert Street box culvert, this is the box culvert that goes underneath Gilbert Street, just south of Kimball, the Kimball intersection. The City's required, um, to do bridge inspections every two years. It's a Federal mandate. Uh, we also include our small...a bridge by definition through the Feds is any structure over twenty feet long. Obviously this one is less than twenty feet, but we include the smaller structure just to make sure that we do a good job of keeping inventory of what we have. This one showed up in this year's group of inspections and needing replacement, um, in the next five years is kind of what the put in there. What you can see is, uh, there's some cracks in the structure where there's some construction joints, uh, we also have some undermining of...of the, uh, side walls of this culvert, um...I would assume that once upon a time there was a floor in this culvert and the floor is no longer there in certain This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 38 areas, so there's been some deterioration of the materials that are in that, and uh, that project will be paid with storm water, uh, user fees. Hayekl There's another culvert where that creek hits Dubuque and goes into the river. think that's about...that's pushing a hundred years old, as I recall. What's the condition of that? Knoche/ Um, that one... Hayek/ If you call it a culvert at that point. Knoche/ That one...that one hasn't come up as being one of the structures that we need to look at, as far as maintenance. I do know that along Kimball, we've had some maintenance issues with the...the drainage way and we need to do some re- abutment there. Um, but as far as the structure itself, nothing's come up. Fosse/ Kevin, would you like to assist... Correia/ Can I just...I just have a quick question on the Sandusky storm sewer. The...so this cost, the 635, that covers the acquisition, the property acquisition as well as the work itself? Knoche/ That's correct. This is the most up to date cost estimate that we have that includes.. . Correia/ All of that. Knoche/ Yep. Correial Great, thank you. O'Malley/ Uh, as you may recall, uh, from last year, this is Customer Information Management System. It's going to be done over two years and that's why it's in this plan again. Uh, we're looking at maybe hiring a consultant to help us get started on this project. Essentially it's going to be paid for by the utilities -water, wastewater, storm water, and refuse. Fosse/ Any questions there? Okay, we'll move on to our next category, streets, bridges, traffic engineering and occasionally we have some... Wilburn/ I'm sorry. I do have a question. Kevin, will, uh, I don't know if you implemented this already, uh, but will the new software have the capacity for, uh, and arrangements with, uh, billing vendor for anyone who wants to be billed wireless and pay, you know, paper free? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 39 O'Malley/ Yes, that will be included in this system and currently we are working on that right now. We were hoping to have that done at the end of September, to have emailed billing, and our, uh, IT consultant with the bank, that they hooked us up with, um, has now pushed it to the end of March. So that if you, uh, desire emailed billing, and...and that'll take you to our web site to pay your bill. So, be able to have friction free, uh, utility billing. Fosse/ Other questions? Streets Bridges Traffic En ing eerin~ & Public Utilities: Fosse/ Okay, uh, moving on to streets, bridges, traffic engineering, and also some public utilities are blended in on some of our paving projects. Uh, these are typically paid for with road use tax revenues, State and Federal grants, and occasionally some GO funds blended in with that. Ron, would you like to lead off there? Knoche/ The first project -there's actually three projects listed together here -the Burlington Street traffic control improvements, um, this is the Madison and Burlington intersection, um, the...in the southwest corner is where the new Rec Center's going to be built by the University, um, currently under construction. iJh, through their impact studies that they've done as far as traffic, uh, it's shown that there's some need for additional lanes on Madison Street, uh, for some turning movements. So we're going to work with the University, um, to...to rebuild this intersection. There'd be, um, it'd be five-lanes wide on Madison, be two lanes north bound, two lanes south bound and a left turn lane, and then also with this project at the same time we're looking at, uh, starting to build the median project. So we would build the median on Burlington Street from the Madison Street intersection, back to the, um, back to the river bridge. Um, the...what you see kind of straight to the west, you can see that they've moved the sidewalk back from the back of curb. I mean, that was done with the utility project that the University did last year. This is the area where the pavement would be moved to, so it'd be slid to the north to create the room for the median, um, in this block. Uh, we would be looking at this project being done in construction year 2010. Wright/ How wide is the street going to be? Knoche/ On... Wright/ With the median and...pushed back? Knoche/ I'm not sure of the exact width of that, but it would be, um, it'd be two lanes east bound, two lanes west bound, and then there'd be a median, and then within that median is where the left turn lanes would be created, um, in the corridor. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 40 Davidson/ But not significantly wider than it is currently. The University is very supportive of this project. They want to make sure that pedestrian movements are channelized in this block. I mean, that's why they've moved the sidewalk back, put in the plantings as a barrier so that people will be channelized to either the Front Street intersection or the, um, Madison Street intersection here and not just be a wave of pedestrians across Burlington Street. The median itself then will also be a barrier so that hopefully pedestrians will be channelized to the two crosswalk locations. Madison of course will be controlled with a pedestrian signal, so it should be quite safe. Wright/ Will there be any kind of traffic control at Front Street to assist pedestrians? Davidson/ I think at the present time, Mike, will probably likely just be a crosswalk on Front Street. Um, I don't think it'll be a controlled location, but they're also going to have their entrances set up for...the main entrance will be at the corner, right here, so that hopefully, um, you know, it'll be logical for pedestrians to come up here and use that location. Um, but you know, I think everyone knows, the University certainly knows, you know, they considered at one time some type of an overhead, uh, to get people either down at the Burlington Street intersection or up on this end, to get them over Burlington Street. They've since gotten away from that. I don't know exactly their thought process as to why they did, but they do feel that the at-grade crossings will...in a controlled manner such as this, the at-grade crossings will be adequate. Bailey/ (several talking) I mean, I understand channelizing pedestrians as thought to make it safer, but I mean, are we looking at anything else? Besides you know, timing lights and those sorts of things? That's a really difficult intersection now. I can't imagine how it's going to be... Davidson/ Nothing overhead planned at this time. (several talking) Bailey/ Well, not overhead, but, I don't...I don't know-what else you do, but it's a really difficult intersection for pedestrians and traffic now. There's a lot of, might not be a high crash, you know, rating intersection, but it's tough down there. Wright/ Also, is there going to be anything to try and slow the traffic on Burlington down. With a median, that almost creates an expressway feel, and it's pretty fast now. Correia/ Where's...what's Front Street? Davidson/ Front Street's the street, it's actually a platted street, although we have vacated it, so it's no longer a street. It's now University property, but it's basically the street that runs parallel to Madison one block to the west. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 41 Correia/ So you're saying that there would be anon-signalized crosswalk, almost between, um, Madison and Riverside? Davidson/ I don't know that. Correia/ Oh, I thought that's what you just said. Davidson/ No, I was speculating. Correia/ Oh, okay, because that seems like that would be a tricky crosswalk (both talking) Davidson/ Make sure everybody's clear. That's no longer a public street. That's now University property on both sides. Correia/ But the street's public, I mean, in terms of planning for pedestrians to cross there right after people are turning.. . Bailey/ Will the median extend? Davidson/ There will be a median break there, so that people can get into the library parking lot. Bailey/ So that would encourage pedestrian crossing there. Davidson/ That's what I'm thinking. Correia/ Could...could there not be a median break there, and have it...people are coming (several talking) well, I know, but if people are coming down that street, they can go around the corner and get into the parking lot. (several talking) Bailey/ Could you eliminate... Correia/ ...eliminate the left hand there. What I'm saying is if people are coming from that direction, they would just have to come to the light, turn left,. go the library parking lot where they would have access. Davidson/ Yeah, I don't know that that's been evaluated, Amy. I'm not recalling that it's been evaluated in the capacity studies we've done for the Madison Street intersection. I think we've always assumed there would be alert-in movement there. Now, I don't think there's a left out. I think it's aright-out only, from...from that, so you could turn west on Burlington. You would not be able to turn east. That'll really simplify that intersection to do that. Correia/ But if there's a break, even though it says you can't turn left. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 42 Davidson/ Well, it has to be physically constructed such as you can't turn left. Yeah, if you do it and people can physically do it, they will. For example, at the right-in, right-out that we put in, course that doesn't have median breaks. Maybe that's not a good comparison, but it is...it is possible to construct those such that you cannot make a left out. Correia/ I just think if we're, if one of the...of the goals is to try and eliminate pedestrians from kind of crossing in an area that's heavily trafficked by having a break there, I understand it's convenient for people who want to get into the library parking lot, but they can go around. Davidson/ I mean, the issue that I think nobody is certain of yet is the degree of the pedestrian traffic from the west. I mean, my understanding is that...uh, Slater and Reinow and...and Quad and Hi1lCrest, this will be a recreational facility that those residence hall, uh, people will use, and so, you know, how well it works, I think you're not going to know until it's online, and...and we see how well it works. Um, and we may have to take additional strategies at that time, and you know, it maybe, Amy, that you reopen the whole discussion of some type of an overhead walkway to get people across Burlington Street. Fosse/ Certainly one of the things the University's doing with the design of the Rec Center is taking away incentive to cross at mid-block, because the only way into the Rec Center is at the intersection. So you don't really gain anything by sporting across at mid-block. You've got to get clear down to Madison to get into the building anyway. Davidson/ And you know, this...this...these channelization features are much more substantial than the ones they've used between...on Jefferson Street between Clinton and Capitol, and those have been fairly successful. I mean, you...they really have channelized pedestrians to the Cleary walkway, and...and the Clinton Street intersection and I...I think these will be even more successful. Volland/ I'm curious on Clinton...there's no turn lanes there. Are you suspecting that there's going to be a lot of parking, too? Davidson/ The next slide that we're going to show, on Clinton. Knoche/ It'll be the next slide. Volland/ Well, maybe not...Madison I'm thinking. There's no turn lanes, are there? Do they have turn arrows at that intersection? Davidson/ Clinton does not have turn lanes. Madison, um.. . Volland/ Does this one? This one doesn't either. So are you expecting there's going to be...I'm just thinking there's going to be a lot of parking. I mean, that back lot This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 43 clears at 4:30? Back behind Court. I'm just wondering if you're expecting any more like parking traffic, to come through this intersection, as well. Davidson/ There...there is currently an issue with the northbound to westbound left turn movement. That's the difficult movement. We get a lot of complaints, almost exclusively from University-related people, the U.S.B. and other places. Now that lot that you're referring to, Abbie, is one that is, the University has plans for that, either a parking structure or...or um, academic buildings. So, so that's not going to be there forever. The...the other things that's on the radar that's going to impact this intersection is possible reopening of the Capitol Street intersection, if that property redevelops. If that property redevelops, the University's very interested in opening up the view shed to Old Capitol from the south, uh, by opening that up and establishing that as a four-way intersection again, and so that would draw off a lot of the eastbound, you know, traffic that's destined to the eastbound, up the hill, from this intersection. But...but there is an issue with the left...left, the northbound to westbound left turn that we hope to rectify with this project. Wright/ Um, just going back to something you just said. The University has plans for those two big surface lots down the road? Davidson/ Uh-huh. I don't think they know exactly what those plans are yet, but they do have plans. Wright/ So, could we be solving a problem that's going to go away? Davidson/ Um, no, because likely what will happen there, Michael, I know one of the plans, and in fact I think it's probably at the present time, well, certainly one of the high priority plans is for a very large parking structure on that location. Uh, it could be 2,000 vehicles, 2,000 spaces which, you know, by comparison, ours range from 500 to 800 so, um, if that happens, traffic's just going to...and if you look at the University's campus master plan, the growth in that area, south of Burlington Street, is substantial with the University facilities. They're trying to clear out all the back office type stuff, the laundry and the motor pool and that kind of thing, and establish this as an expansion of the academic campus, and so I think the intensity of use is not going to go down. It's going to increase. Correial Which would mean there might be more of a reason to look at those, the capacity of that corner because there aren't, when you come from on Madison, from there, there's no left turn lanes, so you sit, or arrow or anything. Davidson/ We have emphasized to the University, and...and we've had some very serious discussions with them, but we want a solution here that isn't something that we're going to be faced with having to reconstruct it again in three to five years. We want something that's going to be a little bit longer term solution, and we feel like we have that here. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 44 Correial So, we are proposing...you said that's the next slide, to expand the capacity of the whole intersection? Okay. Knoche/ Just one item that I want to go back and touch on is the pedestrian crossing. One of the issues that we're going to have in this comdor is...there is railroad crossing of Burlington Street. So even if we tried to eliminate pedestrian crossing at Front Street, there's still going to be that opportunity for them to cross on the railroad tracks. Just...just to point that out. I mean, there's still going to be a break in the median there, um, you know, because of the railroad going through that area. Wright/ Knowing that stretch pretty well because I work right there, um, unless you build an eight-foot wall, there's going to be pedestrians going across at Front Street, so I think there needs to be something built in there to assure a safe crossing for pedestrians. Davidson/ As Michael alluded to, during class change times there are limits to what we can do in terms of attempting to channelize pedestrians. Knoche/ The next project in the Burlington Street corridor is the Burlington and Clinton intersection. Uh, this is a look at the intersection from, uh, the new parking ramp. The idea here would be to, um, add, uh, a left turn lane, uh, there it is. Um, we would...this side of the intersection, we would add a right turn lane, um, have a through left, and then we would have the two northbound lanes. Um, on the south side of the intersection, we would have, uh, the single southbound lane and then a left turn lane, and uh, two northbound lanes. Uh, this project would be done in conjunctions with the Hieronymus Square project, so it...the timing is kind of, it's kind of out there, depending on what the time frame of their project ends up being, um, but the idea would be while they need the right-of--way to be able to do, um, their work as far as storing materials and getting their building put up, um, the following construction season then as they're doing the interior work, we would be doing the street work, um, at this intersection. Davidson/ This intersection is different from the Madison Street intersection in that we are trying to solve some north-south operation problems for motor vehicles at this intersection. This is a relatively high crash rate intersection, and it is a relatively high crash rate pedestrian-vehicle intersection, and so we're trying to rectify all those things by making this intersection more understandable for motorists so that they aren't taking chances and doing things they're not sure of, which then jeopardize pedestrians. We think that's going to help. Um, it will increase the width of the, uh, north and south approaches to the intersection by twelve feet, by one lane, but that's still consistent with the other intersections in this corridor, and...and we feel like with the controlled pedestrian signals and the countdown timers, it will result, we think, in a much safer situation because it'll be a much This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 45 more clearly understood intersection, uh, in terms of vehicle movements, that we think that will actually bring that pedestrian-vehicle crash rate down. Bailey/ Where are you getting the twelve feet? Davidson/ Uh, it's off of both sides. Knoche/ A majority of the widening would happen to the west, um, MidAmerican has some underground vault work right in this corner, and it'd be very costly to...to move them, and so a majority of that would come off of the west side of the road. Uh, so with that, the on-street parking that we currently have in front of the parking structure would be removed, um, but with the Hieronymus project, the...there will be some expansion of the on-street parking, um, in front of...on the south side of the intersection, on the east side of the street. Davidson/ In fact, I think it's a net gain overall, the on-street parking. Hayek/ What's the impact of the current in limbo status of Hieronymus on all this? Davidson/ Well, they're hoping to get going shortly. I mean, they're still evaluating some cost numbers, but they hope to get going shortly. Hayek/ Oh, okay. Davidson/ Yeah, they're...they do have a couple of, uh, of, uh, not permit but contractual things with the City that they need to iron out, in terms of balconies extending into the right-of--way and that sort of thing, but um, the basic plan, Bob, correct me if I'm wrong, but the basic plan is approved for Hieronymus Square, yeah, and so it's kind of in their court, Matt. Hayek/ That's what I'm getting at. My understanding was that, whether it was financing or investors or some portion of what they are doing is on hold, um, I could be completely mistaken about that, but if that slows that project down, I don't know what impact that would have... Davidson/ Yeah, it will...we're kind of following their lead in terms of this, as Ron's alluded to, making sure that we're coordinated. When they're in the second...you know, they've got a 24-month construction project. When they're in their last twelve months is when we'll be undertaking this project, whenever that happens to occur. Hayek/ Okay. Knoche/ Uh, Burlington Street median project -this is the remainder of that project, that would take it from the Madison intersection, uh, up to Gilbert Street, um, along with this project, there'd be, um, a sewer relocation. The sanitary sewer currently This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 46 runs down the middle of Burlington Street, um, which then would put it underneath the, uh, the median, and so we're looking at relocating the sewer and also reworking some of the water mains in the corridor. Davidson/ And...and we've got some additional design work to do on this project. I know some of you are interested in further evaluation of the impact on bicycle traffic in the corridor. That's being prepared by the Johnson County Council of Governments. You know, the principle benefits of this project are in terms of pedestrian safety and creating refuge areas on Burlington Street so that a pedestrian halfway out does have a refuge area, as opposed to being stranded in the middle of the street, and then clearly the aesthetics of the area is the other thing that we're trying to improve. We also think there's a traffic safety benefit because, and of course it depends on your perspective whether or not you think this is a good idea, but from a traffic safety perspective, making the allies right-in, right-out and not left-out. You wouldn't be able to do a left-out. You would have to basically go down to the signalized intersection and... and make your movement, uh, but...but that will increase traffic safety in the corridor, as well, but...but it is still just a concept design. This portion of it is just a concept design project. We've got a lot more design work to do before we, you know, this would be under consideration to build. Knoche/ The next project is the 420t" Street improvements, um, from Highway 6 over to Taft Avenue. Um, this project is...is being looked at in anticipation of the expansion of the industrial park on the southeast side of town. Um, it's atwo-fold project. The first one would be to extend sanitary sewer service, uh, into the area. LTh, it could be done by one of two ways. There's a north alignment that is an alternative, and there's also a south alignment. The south alignment would allow for a little bit larger service area, um, but it could be done either way. And then, uh, the street improvement would be upgraded to an urban cross section. It would be curb and gutter, um, currently it's achip-sealed road, and storm sewer would also be added to that. Um, the...the anticipation of this would be a RISE grant. Um, and so there'd, some State funding would be involved in this project. Davidson/ We have had some ongoing discussions with the major property owners in this area about their inclination to annex into the City, you know, your policy right now is strictly voluntary annexations, um, so we have talked to recently to two of the property owners that probably represent 500 acres of property in this vicinity, and that basically these infrastructure improvements would benefit and allow them to be annexed and come into the City, and I just want to accurately represent to you that they're not ready to come in tomorrow. Um, they've both expressed interest, um, but I do want to emphasize...and certainly these infrastructure improvements being made then heightens the market interest in the property and the likelihood that it would be annexed. But both property owners have, uh, indicated...one of them is in a trust and the other one or two existing residents of the area, uh, they're trying to buy additional property. They are, um, you know, hoping to bring an annexation proposal to the City shortly, but they, um, they This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 47 aren't ready to come in tomorrow, and I just want you to understand the timing of that. Knoche/ Now, there's some photos of the current, uh, current, uh, configuration of the 420t" and Highway 6 intersection, and then the existing street. And some of the construction that's going on down in the industrial park itself. Next project is the American Legion Road; Scott Boulevard to Taft Avenue project. Uh, this one would upgrade the road to curb and gutter, storm sewer, and then also would add an eight-foot sidewalk, uh, along one side, um, this project, the current...the current road is in pretty good shape. It's serving its purpose very well, um, it's out, this project is in the out-years of the program. Um, to be able to collect some developer fees as, uh, new development occurs in the corridor. Davidson/ And that's really the critical reason to leave this in in FY12, is so we can continue to collect exactions from developers. Knoche/ Uh, First Avenue, Iowa Interstate Railroad, uh, overpass, uh, project that obviously we're looking currently in the process of getting CDF funds for this one, uh, currently with the way the budget's set up, we...we wouldn't be able to finance it ourselves. Uh, this project would, um, raise the railroad by about seven feet at the crossing, and lower the road about nine feet at the crossing, to give us the sixteen-foot clearance that we need for, uh, road going underneath the, underneath the railroad. Um, we would put eight-foot sidewalks in, um, on both sides. We would have a pretty substantial retaining wall along the, uh, west side of the roadway, uh, we are in the process of going through design right now on this. Uh, one of the hang-ups that we've had is the, since there's no Federal funds in the project yet, the DOT has been reluctant to get into their hopper to be able to start reviewing the necessary stuff that they need to look at, and so, uh, we did have some conversations with them within the last couple of months, and they are going to start reviewing the concept statement and figure out, uh, you know, what we're going to need to do as far as environmental impact statements and those types of, uh, things we can do prior to having the Federal funds for the project. Champion/ How do you raise a railroad? Davidson/ Just have to go out a ways. Knoche/ Yeah, the... Davidson/ Have to go out a ways. Knoche/ I didn't hear your question? Champion/ How do you raise the railroad? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 48 Knoche/ From...from the conversations that we've had with Iowa Interstate Railroad, they claim that they'll be able to just, they have a machine that comes in that can raise the tracks, and then they'll put ballast underneath and they claim that they'll be able to raise the tracks a seven feet by doing that. I...I have some concerns with that. We'll see how, how it works out as far as the design goes. iJh, but that's the way that they view that they'll be able to raise the...raise the tracks. O'Donnell/ How far do you say you're going to lower First Avenue? Knoche/ It'll be lowered approximately nine feet. O'Donnell/ Do you anticipate any water problems under that? Knoche/ Um, right now with the preliminary design, it appears that we'll be able to still have gravity flow of the storm sewer, out of that...out of that little dip area. Um, if we cannot get gravity flow out of there, we will put a storm sewer pump station in there, a lift station, to get the water out of there. Davidson/ That railroad does not exceed a 1% grade between the Quad Cities and Des Moines. It's really amazing. Champion/ Yeah, I mean, that's why I can't see how you're going to raise it up six feet. Davidson/ To keep the grades low like that, you have to go out a ways, and that's all built into the cost of the project. Champion/ Wow! Correia/ So how long have we been attempting to receive Federal funds on this? Davidson/ Four years. Federal and State. We've applied twice for State funds and been denied through the ICAP program. Correia/ Is it...time to try and fund this in a different way? Davidson/ It...it's certainly something we can evaluate. I mean, it, you know, we're going to be trying our chances at least one more time, out in Washington. Um, and we've gotten kind of mixed messages. Regenia and Ross may want to elaborate on that, but we've gotten mixed messages in terms of the prospects for that. Um, this is something that it is possible to put together a more local funding package. This, the STP funds that you receive through JCCOG would be eligible for this project, but at the present time, we're still trying to fund it from outside sources. Correia/ I mean, I think this is a priority for the area, I mean, both from the pollution standpoint, um, to the safety, public safety standpoint, um, both getting public This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 49 safety vehicles through there, but even just for junior high students that walk, um... Davidson/ And the projections from the railroad with the ethanol plants coming on line, and then the fuel costs basically making more a case for moving lower order commodities by rail, um, they're projecting increase in their traffic, which means an increase in the blockages here. Correia/ Yeah, I mean, I'd be interested after this last time, if you know, fifth time doesn't do it, that we should look for other funding sources and...and try and move this along. Wilburn/ Almost $5 million is the...the $5 million gap is a big ticket item, so short of...dramatically eliminating other capital improvement projects, or a sugar momma or sugar daddy out there. Correia/ Well, I understand that, but I mean, we've been waiting five years on this already, um, you know, it's usually not.. . Wilburn/ I understand your point, I'm just saying, if it's going to be internal funds because it's not just a matter of writing a grant, if it's internal funds and...and borrowing, that type of thing, then it would have a dramatic impact on maintenance and growth of the community. Bailey/ When I spoke with Loebsack's staff yesterday, I indicated that we would even be open to phasing funding, 2.5, 2.5 or whatever, and they seemed a little bit more interested in that. That might be a little bit more possible. I think we all know the condition of congressionally designated funds and...and that budget is really tight, so I think we need to take it out one more time and then we'll have a better idea budget time next year and if that's something we want to try to do, but it would have a huge impact on our other capital projects. Champion/ A lot of money. Bailey/ It's a lot of money. Correia/ Well, I mean, I know it is a lot of money, but it's something that is incredibly important, um, for this area of the City, and you know, if something is so important, just hoping that we're going to get... Bailey/ We're doing more than hoping. Correia/ Well, I know, I know that we are, but I'm just saying, just to continue to wait for a grant. I understand what the implications would be. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 50 Champion/ (several talking) It's a short amount of time when you think how long that railroad has been there. And Southeast Junior High was built when...50's? 60's? 59, so, I mean, it's...the amount of time we've been trying to get this Federal money in a city's lifetime is really a short amount of time. And I...I would not be willing to sacrifice other projects, which might also include the new Fire Station, to build this project. Um, I keep thinking....gotta try for other monies... Bailey/ Well, we'll have an idea by the time we're talking about next year's budget, and then we can have this discussion. Wright/ If it's not funded next year, I would certainly agree with Amy that we need to start looking for the money someplace else. Hayek/ I assume the railroad has no financial responsibility on this? Davidson/ That is correct. It's safe to assume. (laughter) They're cooperating with us and we're delighted. (laughter) Knoche/ The next project here is the Gilbert Street streetscape. This would basically taking an extension of the streetscape that's been done on Gilbert Street, uh, north of Burlington, and extending it down to, uh, the Gilbert-Bowery-Prentiss intersection. Bailey/ Um, wasn't that included when we did the construction? I mean, wasn't that included in last year's budget when we did the construction along here, because I remember we talked about that, the streetscape aspect of it. So what happened? Knoche/ The streetscape aspect in...this far, in this area was not part of the Gilbert- Bowery-Prentiss project. `Cause Gilbert-Bowery-Prentiss was just in the area south... Bailey/ Right, and what have we done streetscape wise down there, I mean, that's to continue this spring? Knoche/ Yeah, the...the, um, the streetscape aspect here was just, was just the brick in the median area, and there may also be some possibility of putting some benches in, in front of the Mansion area. Bailey/ People miss the trees, a lot. (several responding) Lot of calls. Knoche/ As we were going through the planning process for this, um, I think the landscaping side of it's going to have to be done through the redevelopment by the neighbors. Um, the Mansion, I know they're going to do a landscaping plan, um, in front of their building. Uh, there's just not enough room in the right-of- way to plant trees. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 51 Bailey/ ...really hard, cold, I mean, it really changed the feel of that area, and I think, I mean, diminished the quality down there. I mean, the traffic quality is great, but the feel and the look. So I mean, softening that up with some landscaping would be good. Knoche/ Some of the...one thing that has to be completed yet is the, um, the limestone veneer that's going to be put on the retaining wall in front of the Mansion, and also on the retaining walls in front of the Clark's project, um, just to the north of the Mansion. Bailey/ So does Clark have some intent of doing some additional landscaping, that you know of? I mean, if it's going to be left to the property owners, are we going to see it all along there, and is it, I mean, and what are we doing north and how will that relate? Knoche/ Um, they've...Clarks have done the landscaping, um, that was required as part of their development. You know, there's some trees that are planted in front of there. You know, they are going to keep the same concept as far as the retaining wall, um, that we've did at the intersection. Um, also, this area, this southeast corner of the intersection will also redevelop, um, in a matter of time. The, um, it's...during the process of us building the project, um, that area was sold to a developer. Champion/ I would like to...I agree with Regenia. It's really cold, and I think the City should take some initiative, at least, maybe there's not enough room for even urban trees, but then, I mean, maybe we could provide some of those planters like we have out here, and maybe get some, I mean, I would like to see is softened up a little bit too. I don't...(coughing, unable to hear) cold and uninviting. Yapp/ Yeah, part of the motivation for the extending streetscape elements into this area is to address both softening, uh, the appearance, as well as adding what we call "hardscape" elements, bike racks, benches, potentially lighting improvements, um, those kinds of things. Fosse/ Certainly the constraint there is right-of--way width, like you noted. You can only stuff so much in without buying additional.. . Champion/ Well, if I'd known it was going to look like that, I might not... Bailey/ I agree with you! (laughter) Wright/ There was actually quite a bit of anger in the community over what that intersection became. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 52 Bailey/ It doesn't look like Iowa City. It looks like another community, and...and...and our streetscapes generally look very good, is what I'm saying. So, I think that we really need to look at doing something there. Correia/ People get a better sense of the feel of it once this spring comes and other... Bailey/ Sure, but it's... Champion/ It's going to be bare-er. Bailey/ Yeah, it's...it's not, it doesn't look like us. So... Wilburn/ A few of those trees were diseased in that area in front of the Mansion, weren't they? That was what the owner told me. Knoche/ In the original plan, the trees along, uh, Bowery Street were going to stay, and the owner made the decision to cut those trees down, due to some, due to some issues, uh, that the trees had. The next project is the, uh, Lower Muscatine Avenue, Kirkwood Avenue to First Avenue project. Uh, this, uh, project has some STP funds already allocated for it. Um, the, uh, the project would, um, reduce the four-lane piece in front of Sycamore Mall down to three lanes, um, which will allow us to, um, extend the sidewalk in front of the mall. Currently there's no .sidewalk in front of the mall now. Um, and then the area from... and that three-lane would be back to Sycamore Street, and then from Sycamore Street back to Kirkwood Avenue. Would just be a reconstruction of the existing pavement. Uh, the, we've overlaid that, uh, I believe it was nine years ago, and there's some degradation of that going on, so we just would like to upgrade that, uh, that pavement now, with it as part of this project. Also as part of the project, all the overhead utilities would also be placed underground. Davidson/ The other real important aspect of this is the pedestrian enhancements. You can...we deliberately put the slide in showing the terminus of the sidewalk here. Uh, we hope to have aneight-foot sidewalk on one side of the street. There's a lot of pedestrian movements between the Mall parking lot and Kirkwood, uh, that cross the street. Obviously having the turn lane in at the Kirkwood intersection will be a big help with, I mean, actually I think it'll actually help pedestrian movements there, as well. Uh, we have been telling Kirkwood every step of the way though that's it not going to totally solve their issues of having, during class change times, having that large of a parking lot with one way in and one way out. There still needs to be a solution for them to come out the back, either through the Mid-American property or through the, uh, through the, whatever it's called now - the toothbrush...(several responding)...Oral-B property, uh, out to Mall Drive. We have not...they have not been successful in negotiating that yet. Maybe that the City might need to be involved in that. We...we think there's a good solution there. We just can't get Oral-B to...to listen, uh, to our concerns. So, you know, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 53 just everybody should be aware, it will improve things for Kirkwood, but not make it perfect. It will really improve things for pedestrians in the corridor. Hayek/ (several talking) Go ahead. What are the downsides to reducing to three lanes on that stretch? What are the cons? Davidson/ Well, we've looked at it from a traffic capacity point of view, um, and, I mean, the negative aspect, Matt, is obviously just the capacity of the road. Now that being said, we think we still have enough capacity. What happens in a lot of, particularly when you get down to the Mall Drive and Mall entrance intersection, is those inside lanes become defacto left turn lanes anyway because a through vehicle just gets cued up behind left turners, and so you really don't lose that much capacity. The ability to put in protected left turns is something that, I wouldn't say we get a ton of requests, but we get fairly routine requests. The Mall management has been requesting it with some regularity. We have told them with this project we'll at least be able to entertain (unable to hear). We just feel the positives outweigh the negatives, I think that's the best way to put it. Champion/ It basically functions as a three-lane road anyway. Bailey/ There's a lot of, um, as you indicated, a lot of pedestrian traffic from that parking lot, across, just...just sort of wide range. Are we going to, is this going to address that in any way or will we just have pedestrians crossing all along there? Davidson/ Well, it'll complete the sidewalk system. It'll make the sidewalk system wider, um, you know, hopefully the traffic will be more organized, but again, not perfect, but more organized, such that pedestrians will be able to chose gaps and...and that type of thing with more clarity than they can currently. So, I mean, the way I would characterize it is that it will improve things, but there won't be a...unfortunatelythere'S not a signalized controlled intersection other than at Mall Drive, there's a signalized controlled intersection, but down at the Kirkwood entrance, there's not a signalized controlled intersection, so, you know, there are limits to...to a pedestrian being able to cross with vehicles stopped. Uh, we'll enhance the crosswalk treatments and that kind of thing, and of course in the future, we can always consider some type of control at that location. I think you're all aware that, you know, we have some larger scale plans for that area, if there was additional redevelopment of the land use activities, and we're kind of following Kirkwood's lead there a little bit in terms of what their ultimate Master Planning is for the area, um, they've had some change in personnel recently and so I think they've kind of stepped back a little bit with what they're trying to accomplish in that area. Knoche/ This project is, um, looking at adding turn lanes on Mormon Trek. Basically looking at it from Abby Lane, um, up to Melrose Avenue. Um, the...the Benton Street intersection has, uh, come up as one of the high crash, um, collision rate intersections, and it's in the top ten. Um, one of the, what we're looking at as far This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 54 as the concept would either be a fifth lane in the whole corridor or just adding the left turn lanes at the intersections, and not doing, not increasing the whole corridor. What we need to figure out is, you know, if we put a left turn lane in here, how far does that take us to the next intersection? Do we start getting back- to-back and end of having to just pave it all the way through. Um, obviously the overhead power in this corridor is going to be very tough to deal with. At the Benton Street intersection, this...this overhead power line actually goes to the, uh, west side of the road, and so it's not a matter of being able to widen all to one side or all to the other, um, and we may end up having to work with MidAmerican to get them to move the power line, um, one way or the other. Davidson/ The impetus to this project is to reduce the crash rate in the corridor. This is a high crash rate related to rear-end crashes, uh, from yielding vehicles being rear- ended by other vehicles. That's the main thing we're trying to accomplish here. This is also predicated on receiving some Federal funds. As you can see in the budget, uh, there's $1.5 million that's identified as...as Federal, so that would need to come through JCCOG. Likely it would come through JCCOG. The State's changed their policy on traffic safety funds. We used to be able to access those. They've since increased it such that they basically award high-speed collisions, which means it rewards collisions in the rural areas. So lot more of that money is going to the rural areas that used to come to the urban areas, `cause those are the more severe type crashes, the high speed crashes. Um, so...so we will have to do a little work in terms of trying to get some Federal funds by FY11 to do this project. Fosse/ Wanted to point out there are parallels between this project and Gilbert-Bowery project. They're both...were driven by accident records and...and both working within constrained right-of--ways, so it...it's good to know up front what your expectations are for... for, uh, streetscaping along here and that sort of thing, `cause we will be working in tight quarters. Champion/ What is the crash rate? I mean, how...how long do we continue to spend millions of dollars on widening roads for bad drivers. I...I really have problems with it. (laughter and several talking) Davidson/ We try and highlight...when Isay "we" JCCOG produces a crash data. We try and at least highlight for you the high crash locations, so that we can attempt to do public improvements that bring those crash rates down, but obviously, politically, the seven of you are going, you know, believe more or less depending on the specific situation, but we're going to continue to at least bring them to your attention so that we can try and resolve... Champion/ I mean, has there been anybody killed at this intersection? Um, I...I think I like Texas' approach. They say they're not building or widening anymore roads. I just think we widen roads constantly for minor things. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 55 Davidson/ The crash rates all determined, as Connie's alluded to, fatalities, injuries, and property damage. Those are the things that go into calculating a crash rate. Correia/ And...and you're saying that there are...is a history of crashes all along this road? At specific intersections...at the intersection specifically? Yapp/ There is...um, with the Benton Street intersection being the highest. Correia/ So I guess that's my question. Is it mostly related to specific intersections where there's a light, or is it all along... Davidson/ All the intersections. Yapp/ It's turning, collisions related to turning movements, at intersections or driveways, uh, such as the, uh, Kum `n Go. Davidson/ The higher volume you have in an intersection, such as Benton Street, then the more propensity there are for those crashes to occur, but it occurs...we've identified the whole corridor, because the whole corridor stands out in the crash data. Champion/ So why don't we just simply during rush hours or whenever these accidents are occurring, and say no left turn, and then... Davidson/ You can do that. It's just that then you have capacity issues with, all right, well, where are all those left turners going to go then? Correia/ Can we do protected left turn...not protected left turn move lanes, but the lights? Davidson/ Yeah, we've looked at protected lefts here. We get calls fairly frequently to do that, and it's just...it's, again, it's, yeah, you make things better for those left turners, but they're a small enough percentage of the total intersection volume, that...that you would end up with a whole big long cue of traffic in the other lane that wouldn't be able to get through on a single... Correial Oh, no, I mean the type of light at Kirkwood and... Champion/ Gilbert. Davidson/ Right, yeah, it becomes a capacity issue for the opposing traffic that then has to stop and can't proceed. Correia/ No, no. When, at that Kirkwood and Gilbert, when the whole of one, the northbound, they're all going straight and left, and everybody's stopped on the other side, and then they stop. So you're saying, and that seems like there's even more street in this corridor than we have, you know.. . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 56 Davidson/ Well, this is an easier intersection, because it's athree-way intersection. Correia/ Right. I mean, is that sort of an interim measure to test that out over a year, and see does it bring the crash rate down? Before deciding to.. . Davidson/ Right, it creates some capacity issues for us though. That's why we've resisted doing it. Correia/ But, if we tested it out for a year, would we have a sense of. Davidson/ Well sure. Correia/ I mean, that seems like an expensive way to get data. Davidson/ It's a matter of what kind of calls do you get. You know? Do you get calls from people...you would no longer get calls from people who had trouble making left turns there, um, southbound to eastbound, but you'd start getting calls from people who were impeded by the overall congestion there. Correia/ I guess I'm interested in the crashes, so if we find out, I mean, if we're going to get calls one way or the other, we're sort of switching that, but if we're finding that it's decreasing crashes, and we didn't have to rip up the street and create maybe a look that doesn't feel like Iowa City, I mean, I think...and doesn't spend the kind of money that we.. . Davidson/ There's just...there's always an impact from what you do...you may alleviate one problem, create another problem. Bailey/ Yes, but if our objective is to reduce the crash rate, it seems inconvenience is a minor, um... Davidson/ You may reduce the crash rate for one movement. You may increase the crash rate for another movement. Correia/ But we wouldn't know unless we tried it. Yapp/ I might suggest that....could be something that you ask JCCOG to evaluate, in the FY09 work program, which will be part of your JCCOG agenda in the next couple months. Correia/ But would evaluate mean actually put the lights in place and evaluate? Yapp/ You could...evaluate initially...what Imean by evaluate is...is give...we would be able to, with some time to study it, give you a better idea of the pros and cons, and then let you decide whether you want to implement it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 57 Champion/ Do these...because you have an incline here, are these actions happening as people go over that hill and start coming down? I mean, where are the accidents happening? Davidson/ There is a site distance issue here in the one direction. You know, we'd have to look more closely at the data, Connie, to know exactly if that was a significant contributing factor. Champion/ Why couldn't you just put a flashing light like you have on the highway, around that curve, um.. . Davidson/ I think we do have, uh, signal ahead warning signs because of the site distance restriction. Not a flashing light, but it's a warning sign.. . Champion/ I think it...I understand now. Wright/ I'd also be curious to know how much, how often those crashes involved excessive speed. Volland/ I don't think...I mean, I live off Mormon Trek. I don't think there's that much speeding on...it's just a really complicated area. I mean, even going to the grocery store. I mean, you already have capacity issues if someone turns left anywhere, because that other lane backs up. I don't have a good solution, but I can tell you from driving on it every day that it's a pain in the rear. Davidson/ Yeah, and with the continued extension of Mormon Trek around the south side of the community, it's going to be more and more of a traffic thoroughfare, and...and the capacity is going to be needed there. I mean, this is the major traffic circulation street for... for west Iowa City, and soon, south Iowa City. Bailey/ But recently, I mean, we deal with people in that neighborhood who want to get across this so we widen it. I mean, it just seems like, you know, the calls are going to come in different areas about what this area is and what people want out of this area. I mean, do we want a very easy place for traffic to get through, or do we want to create a neighborhood over there? Davidson/ I'll tell you, delayed...the delayed green for this pedestrian crosswalk that we put in, was that last year, John? That has really worked well when...the way that works in case you've forgotten is, that when there's a delay of, I think it's three seconds for the green light for Benton Street that allows a pedestrian, or in my case a bicyclist. Igo through here all the time, to get out into the middle of the intersection so that the vehicle making that left turn yields, because the pedestrians have had three seconds to get out. Works really well. In fact, John, haven't we put in a couple other places.. . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 58 Yapp/ Pedestrian lead phase, yes, it's something we're starting to do, uh, at certain intersections. It works very well at T-intersections, because you don't have the right turn on red, uh, movement. Bailey/ So is that something we would look at at the Burlington and Madison, pedestrian lead phase? Because, I mean, that might address some... Yapp/ We could. Uh, that...that's a little more complicated intersection, but sure. (several talking at once) And as Jeff described it, it gets pedestrians out into the intersection, um, which sets a tone for the intersection that...that the pedestrians have the right-of--way, uh, before the vehicles can begin their movements. Champion/ I can think of a lot of intersections where that would be...even as a driver. Wright/ Most intersections even! Champion/ Yeah! (laughter) Davidson/ But with four-way intersections, you have much more severe capacity issues than you do at a T-intersection like this, where there's no opposing traffic for that traffic that's waiting. Bailey/ So, when you say capacity, what's our standard? I mean, it sounds like there's some kind of timing standard to get... Davidson/ ...level of service D. Bailey/ Okay. Davidson/ Out of A through F, level of service D is our standard. A delay measurement. Champion/ When you do those lights, those walker lights or whatever you call them, do those, are those computerized? I mean...yeah. Knoche/ The next project is the Park Road bridge, and intersection improvements. Uh, the existing bridge over the Iowa River on Park Road was built in the late 1950's. It was, had a deck overlay done in the 70's, and the deck overlay now is starting to, what they call "delaminate." It's starting to basically pothole. And we've...we did a repair on it this summer, uh, to, uh, repair a large pothole area and uh, the idea here would be to reuse the existing, uh, piers that are already in the river and put a new bridge deck on it. iJh, that would allow us to, un, reconfigure the lanes that are in existence today, uh, we would then at that time also add a right turn lane off Dubuque Street onto Park Road, uh, and then one of the other ideas that came up this year was to actually do a third lane improvement, uh, from the Park Road bridge, up to Riverside Drive, uh, to allow a left turn into This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 59 the Rancher, uh, parking lot. LTh, the bridge itself is scheduled for FY11 and then, uh, third laving is in FY12. Bailey/ Will this allow any, um, improvements to the pedestrian or sidewalks on the bridge? Those are really, really close to the, um, street, and.. . Knoche/ Yes, that would...that would be one of the design criteria that we would look at is...is some type of barrier rail. Um, at the time when this bridge was built, um, barrier rails weren't a requirement in the standards of that day, um, obviously today we would have a...a barrier rail in there. Bailey/ Any opportunity for greater width on the sidewalk? Knoche/ That, we would review that, uh, and obviously, the only concern there would be, uh, if the existing, uh, substructure couldn't support that much additional load, um, but that would be part of the design. Davidson/ The University's very interested in the aspect of this project, carrying the four lanes up to Riverside Drive, uh, I think their motivation is the Hancher events and having more capacity for the in and out movements. A lot of times, frequently, depending on the size of the event, those have to be controlled by police officers, um, when they let out, and so they're...they've indicated a lot of interest in working with us on that. LTh, it would be a good project from the standpoint of the City owns the ground on one side, the University owns the ground on the other side, so we wouldn't have to do property acquisition in terms of if we made a decision to enhance, uh, the sidewalks and/or the street. Champion/ That just sounds like a great idea because even if it's a big event, uh, because there's no good way to make a left hand turn into Hancher, it can back up traffic on Dubuque Street, and then it could back up on the other side of Dubuque, because people can't make their left hand turn because it's (unable to hear). I actually like this road project! Bailey/ Well then it must be a good one! (laughter) Hayek/ How much are you, um, replacing on the bridge itself? You taking everything off except the piers? Knoche/ That's correct. Uh, we would also look at reusing, they're pre-stressed concrete beams is what are, as far as what's holding the deck up. We would look at reusing those. Um, the only...one of the issues with that is the beams are a little bit lighter, as far as the design loads of that time frame. They're, as they say, HS- 15, so it was a fifteen thousand pound axle limit at that time, um, the current design standards a 20,000 pound axle load, so, um, we would...and then the other issue with that is, um, to be able to reuse the beams, you would, uh, have to somehow preserve them when you tear the deck off, and so, um, one...what This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 60 we've actually seen, a similar type of project was, uh, the Coral Ridge overpass, I- 80, overpass, and that...what we were told by that bridge contractor, which is a similar type of project, that he actually bid into that project having to replace all the beams because he wasn't sure how it was going to come apart. So, it...and that's what we have factored in here is that type of, that price...actually redoing the beams. Hayek/ Okay, I mean, I'm no civil engineer, but $1.6 million seems low to me for a project of that... Knoche/ A lot of the cost, um, in the bridge is the substructure, you know, putting the piers in, uh, putting the piling in, and with reusing a majority of that, there's a pretty good cost savings. Correia/ Now how long does it take...will it, will the road, or the bridge, be unusable, the whole thing? During the construction? Knoche/ We would have to look at that during the design. There would be the possibility that we might be able to maintain two lanes of traffic, you know, as far as it coming apart, obviously, it...that extends the construction, uh, by doing it that way. Correia/ Are there safety concerns doing that? Knoche/ We would look at it, and if we, if that was the concept we would want to go with, we would make sure that it was designed properly. Fosse/ You'll recall we did that with the Melrose Avenue bridge, we maintained vehicular and pedestrian traffic on that. Typically, on our river bridge crossings when we reworked Burlington and Iowa Avenue, as a minimum we want to keep pedestrian traffic across there in some manner, and...and that's where some of our temporary pedestrian bridges have come from. It's projects like that, and then they get reused in parks. Terry was talking about that earlier. Davidson/ Not a real handy detour out here, if we take the bridge out of service. Correia) I know, that's what I'm thinking, but maybe Oakdale will be finished by then and people can... Fosse/ How's everybody doing? You want to talk salt storage or take a break or.. . Champion/ I didn't think we had any salt to store! Fosse/ No, you're getting a memo today on that, as a matter of fact. It's going out in the packet, but, did you want to take a little break? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 61 Bailey/ Yeah, we'll take ten minutes. Fosse/ Okay. (BREAK) All ready? Well, let's see. We'll go back and begin talking about salt storage. Let me get the lights here. Uh, the is a facility that was built back in the 70's and... and obviously it's something that we've outgrown, um, and it's not only is it undersized, but we have structural problems with it. This is a problem, or a site that we've seen too many times this winter, and that's our cupboards are bare, uh, by having a small facility like this where we don't have enough to store for the entire winter so we're subject to, uh, shipping delays that can occur, and also it doesn't allow us to take advantage of lower prices in shipping costs that we can get in the off season. With a larger facility we can fill it up and then we're good to go for the season. Uh, we've been nursing this building along, as long as we could. We had some beams across the top that we're concerned about coming down, and we replaced those just before the winter, and uh, when we were doing that, one of the side walls, started to buckle. Actually, two did, this side and the other side, but some quick work with plywood and a big beam and some dirt, uh, is holding it up and it's going to get us through another season, so we think we're in good shape there. Wilburn/ Got some duct tape in there too? Fosse/ Yeah! And we stopped short of duct tape! (laughter) We also want to improve the run-off around the building. This slide, it's tough to see the color here, but the magnesium chloride that we treat the salt with is...gets into the run-off and our new facility will contain that run-off and direct it to the sanitary sewer, so that doesn't become part of the storm water run-off. Um, and that dovetails with our next project and that is the, uh, the public works facility site work, and it...we are in the midst, actually toward the front end actually of...of a transition of the public works facilities from the Riverside Drive location to the Sand Road location. And, right now, our trucks are kind of in a dirt lot, um, during the summer. In the wintertime, we rent spots around town for them. Uh, but what we want to do with this site work component is, uh, design...we have a concept of how the new public works facility would be laid out, but we're going to design it and get some of the grading done, and we've got the administration building is built there. If you'll recall, the old building they were in was one of the temporary buildings from downtown, and we got them out of there just before it gave up the ghost, but the...the new facilities will be in this area. The salt storage will be over in this area. We want to get the site work done, get things in place, and also get some screening established along Sand Road over there, because we've got residential on the other side and we want to get some stuff growing up in between there. Um, there's an aerial view of it, and here is the administration building that's in place, salt storage go approximately in this area, and long-term, this is not in the budget or even on the radar screen yet, are the moving equipment division over and, uh, an indoor facility for all of our equipment. Between the two, that's about $15 million worth of work, and that's not in the present budget. Now the next two items that we'll talk about will be the vehicle wash system and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 62 the vehicle fuel station over here. Excuse me, and those are set out separately because those are services that we provide to other entities in the area. Johnson County, the School District, and that sort of thing, so that they can come in, get fuel, wash their vehicle, and leave without ever entering our public works facility. So they can get in and maneuver and get back out again. So, the, uh, vehicle wash system is...is the next component in there. This is a shot of Dubuque's system, and it includes enough width that you can clean large vehicles. This is not for cars. This is for dump trucks, garbage trucks, street sweepers -that sort of thing, and the rack's up there so that you can get up and clean the tops of the trucks out, the insides of the trucks out, uh, to extend the vehicle life, and then besides that, it's just a part of the daily operations of things like street sweepers and garbage trucks. You've got to clean them out every day or they're going to go nasty on you, uh, we have gotten away from doing it on the river bank with the...these things don't happen, uh, inside. We have a vehicle wash building now, but there isn't enough room in there for our tall vehicles, and...and also it's so small that you're right up next to the vehicle so it blasts back in your face. So it is something that we do outdoors, year round. We now do it at the waste water plant and capture the flows from this and treat it with our waste water, rather than just letting it run off as storm water. But it's, if you can imagine, like at the end of the day today, cleaning out your garbage trucks with a hose, it's just a difficult, nasty job. Um, and then also a part of this would be an automated wash for large vehicles. It's not like Westport, but something for garbage trucks and dump trucks, that sort of thing, and this would be located as I pointed out earlier, next to our fuel facility, because we have had interest from other entities to use a wash system like this, and we already have the technology in place where we bill back for fuel, we can bill back for washes, as well. So that helps support the cost of this. Um, then the next public works component is the fuel facility, and as I pointed out, it serves, uh, all of Iowa City's fleet, except for transit, they have their own diesel tank over there, uh, we serve all of Johnson County, except their secondary roads department, uh, SEATS and school buses, ambulance, that sort of thing, and the problem we're running into, other than it's just being old and outdated, is the, um, where it's a facility we're outgrowing. Our diesel tank is roughly 10,000 gallons underground, and the, uh, the tanker trucks are about 7,250 gallons. So the net effect is that you need to basically empty your underground storage tank before you order more fuel, and that worked when we could get fuel shipments on a regular basis, but now we're finding we can get three or four day delays before we can get fuel in, and it's...it's unpredictable, and...and the result is, we come close to running out of fuel, and we're drawing off the bottom of that tank, and uh, even though we clean our tanks annually, uh, you still have a problem with sediments that are on the bottom of that. It's tough to see in this light, but on the bottom...this is diesel fuel that we took out of a fuel filter of one of our trucks, we were having some fuel problems with it, and were surprised at the amount of sediments that were in there. Um, so, it's...we're in a situation where we're outgrowing a facility, the functional aspects of it are becoming obsolete, and as things evolve, we may ask to swap this project with the vehicle wash to do it quicker than the wash system, depending on just exactly This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 63 what our needs are there. Any questions on that public works stuff, before we go on to some other roads? Okay. Knoche/ The next project is an overlay project of Scott Boulevard, uh, be from Rochester to Court Street. LTh, this, you can see in this picture there's some faulting of the joints, the panels are starting to shift a little bit and what this...what this ends up doing is a lot of road noise. As the semis use this corridor to get down to the industrial park, uh, area, um, the neighbors have complained about, uh, excessive noise and feeling vibrations in their homes, uh, this project is scheduled FY11. We would come in, either just overlay the existing pavement, or um, do a crack and seat, which is you take a big hammer and you crack the pavement up, and then you overlay it with asphalt, and it helps prevent some of the reflective cracking that occurs in the joints of the concrete. (male)/ How old is that pavement? Fosse/ About twenty years. Davidson/ Part up here would be about twenty years. Knoche/ Um, one of the, at the time of the design of this pavement, they didn't do a whole lot of what they call "doll baskets" so the joints aren't reinforced, and so with the larger truck loads on it, it's allowed those joints to start to come apart a little bit. Another one of the issues that we have with the pavement here is, uh, what they call de-cracking, and uh, at that time, there was some issues with materials, rock and air and...and uh, that's also led to some degradation in the joints that are starting to just fall out and starting to pothole. Uh, Sycamore Street project-Burns Street to the City limits, uh, this would, uh, um, basically extend Urban Street down into an area that's already been developed. This is a picture of the Southpointe subdivision here, uh, just to the north of Southpointe is where Brookwood Pointe is...is located. Um, General Quarters is to the east, um, obviously it's an area that's really starting to develop, and we need to get an approved street down here, um, this one is, uh, scheduled FY09-10, um, this is one of those projects that was kind of held out there and some developer fees were, uh, were, um, maintained, or acquired on that through the development process for this area. Miklo/ And I'd also like to add that the Planning and Zoning Commission has, um, identified this as a high priority for them. Uh, we have approved, as Ron had said, several subdivisions in the area. We put some restrictions on the number of units that could be built in the area until this road is upgraded. It is an area of the City where all the other infrastructure is pretty much in place, and they're not, there are not a lot of sensitive areas that would, uh, limit, um, additional development around this, around this arterial street, so for those reasons, Planning and Zoning has consistently encouraged the construction of this project. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 64 Bailey/ Will there be a sidewalk on the east side, as well? Knoche/ Yes, um, it would be afour-foot walk on the, or depending on what the standard is at the time, it'd be four or five foot, yeah. Now, the...depending on...depending on what occurs, we may not put the five-foot walk in...with the road project, because as the development occurs next door, they end up driving over it and tearing things up. So the five-foot walk, um, may not be put in all the way down throughout the corridor, um, there is no development, um, on this, uh, east side, um, yet towards the City limits. Bailey/ But we wouldn't get in a situation where down the road we don't have a sidewalk where we need a sidewalk? Davidson/ Eventually there will be a sidewalk there. Knoche/ Correct. Bailey/ We have a plan for that? Davidson/ Right. Similar, for example, Scott Boulevard that we just finished. It has a walk on one side, or is it on both sides on that one? Knoche/ It's on one side. Davidson/ It's on one side, and then as development occurs on the other side, it'll get put in. Once it's built out, it'll have a sidewalk on both sides, same here. Knoche/ The only, the only thing that I do want to point out here is...is, as far as property acquisition goes, the...through the development process we have acquired the construction easements necessary, um, through, as the subdivisions have occurred, um, down at the very southeast end of the project, there is a home there, and so there could be some property acquisition issues there, but um, that's something we'll work through as...as, uh, you know, as we meet with the neighbors and meet with, actually it's Bill Langenberg who lives in that house, and meet with him during the process. Davidson/ That's the approximate vicinity where Mormon Trek, well, will be McCollister Boulevard by that point will come across and have an intersection right there, and if you look at the Comprehensive Plan for that area, there'll be some commercial development at that intersection. Knoche/ Uh, the Burlington Street pedestrian bridge - as you recall, a couple years ago we, uh, we did some maintenance work on the Iowa Avenue pedestrian bridge, um, we've...through the bridge inspection process that the DOT does, um, there's been some issues that have come up. You can see some of the, uh, the concrete's starting to come off the edge of the bridge. There's also an issue with the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 65 connection of the spiral up to the bridge that goes across, uh, Highway 6. Um, this is a joint project with the University, and with uh, the DOT, as a 50% DOT cost, 25% City, and 25% University. So we're going to work with them to...to do some rehabilitation here. Um, the hope is that we'll be able to just do some...some repair work, rather than having to reconstruct the whole thing, so that we don't have to...bring it up to the current ADA standards, um, you can see some of the edge work...or some of the edges that are falling, and that's the connection to, uh, to that pier, where the spiral comes up. The Rochester Avenue bridge -this is a bridge that's been in the program for the last couple years, um, the...the goal here is to be able to, um, tap into some State bridge funds that are out there. Uh, the bridge itself, although it...it looks to be in very dire straits, it...the bridge is actually, it's structurally sound. Um, you know, it hasn't been posted yet as far as weight limits, um, or there's no concerns as far as it falling down, um, with this project we will, um, take the existing sidewalks on the south side of the road and extend those up to 7`" Avenue, um, probably would replace this structure with a box culvert rather than a bridge, um, so as you, you know, as you're standing up here on top and looking up the street, it would be, you know, sidewalk, grass or some type of, uh, parking treatment, and then the road, and then grass and sidewalk treatment, so you wouldn't have the bridge rail or those types of things there. So the sidewalks would be maintained out, uh, in the actual alignment that they should be. And this one here, we would, um, it'll stay in the program, um, and then we'll...we've been slowly creeping up the list as far as the State bridge funds list. Um, this last year we, instead of moving up, we stayed flat because of some other major bridge projects in the State that jumped above us, but so...that's kind of the status on that project. Fosse/ We have recently heard from the DOT that the bridge money that will be available is tapering off a little bit on their end, so hopefully it won't push this bridge project back, but that possibility exists. Shall we go through... Bailey/ Yeah, let's go through these at least. Miscellaneous: Fosse/ These are projects that just haven't fallen into any other category, so we have a miscellaneous, and we'll lead off with a, uh, Parks project. Trueblood/ Actually it's a cemetery project, but that's in our department. Uh, originally, uh, we had thought that $50,000 would cover us for what we need to do for overlays and so forth, and we got to thinking about it further so you'll see, uh, $50,000 targeted for FY10, and another $50,000 for FY12. Two or three years ago, we did approximately half of the cemetery roads, not rebuilding them but putting an asphalt overlay on them. That's what we intend to do as well, but this...this particular picture is of the entrance to Oakland Cemetery, and you can see what sad shape the concrete entrance is in, and then right down here you can see, if I can get it to work right, yeah, the brick street that goes right there, and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 66 that adds to the complexity and expense of, uh, trying to tie in the concrete to that so it makes it a more expensive project. LTh, and we also, uh, possibly not this one, but with the roadway, we typically try to piggyback onto the biannual asphalt overlay program and just include it with that when it goes out to bid, get a better price on it. Fosse/ That it? Just let me know when you want me to change slides, Kevin. O'Malley/ Thank you, Rick. This, as you know, is our information desk, as it currently looks. We have a couple of functions here. We greet customers, uh, and tell them, answer questions as to where they want to go in the building. We also have our phone system here, uh, centralized phone system, um, and then behind the cashier, or the information person there is a internal, I'm sorry, incoming mail system. We have three types of mail in the City. We have incoming, internal, and outgoing, and hopefully with this project, we'll be able to combine them into one room, instead of three separate places within the City. Thank you, Rick. This is a view, uh, towards the west. What we want to do with that wall is kind of square it off and instead of using those windows as windows there, we'd like to, uh, make that an area to put, uh, maybe a map on there of the City, and maybe some awards that the City has, so when you come in the building, uh, as customers are waiting in line, they'll have something to read or look at. And also, it's...I don't know if you can see very clearly, but that room used to be an open space when the building was originally designed and our revolving door was the center of that area, and what I'm trying to do is just pick up a couple of feet off that wall and kind of square it off. Uh, next one...this area is kind of a congested area too, and here's where I'd like to maybe put in, um, a computerized, uh, payment station, so some of that other stuff could be, uh, handed out by the cashier, by the cashier in the front. That's all. Bailey/ (several talking) Did you have a question, Amy? Correia/ So, um, the, one of the intentions would be to have a cashier, uh, available, can you go back? One slide...at the desk, so instead of going up the stairs, people can come in... O'Malley/ Correct. We...we did a study about three years ago as to who, when people come into the lobby what, where they wanted to go, and 70 to 75% wanted to go to a cashier to either, uh, pay their utility bill or buy some lawn bags or pay some parking tickets. Correia/ So that would just move those stations from the second floor or whatever floor it is down to here. O'Malley/ Correct. Correial And then have the option of the 24-hour automatic pay bill, is that.. . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 67 O'Malley/ Yes, while we would continue to have an ATM machine, but we'd like to also, uh, have a place for people to pay their parking tickets. Correia/ That's what I mean, I mean that ATM's just for cash, but I mean there would be some way to...(both talking)...24/7 at that station, that you're proposing? O'Malley/ Correct. Bailey/ And then what would the second floor space be used for, if... O'Malley/ We're going to remodel that area to provide better customer service. Bailey/ So there will also be customer service up stairs, as well as... O'Malley/ Yes, the cashiering function would probably bring two cashiers down here, and then we have seven other people upstairs that provide customer service. Correia/ So is that service someone's coming in to connect their service or.. . O'Malley/ Right, so... Correia/ ...question about their bill, they need... O'Malley/ ...yeah, this area would just be the cash transaction side of things, and people go upstairs for anything other than paying a bill. So like signing up for utilities, making payment arrangements. We do have, uh, credit card machines upstairs so they don't have to come back down and get in line, and we will have other things upstairs like a lot of times people come in and pick up recycling containers, or they'll pick up their, uh, yard waste stickers, those kinds of things. Hayek/ Does it impact our personnel levels in anyway, or are you dust moving... ' O'Malley/ No, I'm just moving people around. Uh, this is predicated on, uh, remodeling the lower level. The lower level is now quite dysfunctional from its original standards. It's in the FY08 budget, and uh, that's where I hope to combine the mailing operations, the incoming, uh, internal and outgoing mail. Fosse/ Any other questions on that? Correia/ So then this will be designed...will this be designed in-house? And then be brought to Council... O'Malley/ Yes. I'm not sure if the design will happen in-house, but be brought to Council. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 68 Fosse/ That it? Correia/ Uh-huh, thank you. Fosse/ Okay. Knoche/ In 2001, 2002, the City hired a company to come in, a consultant, a planned graphics, to look at a GIS system for the City, and through that there is some studies were done and some, uh, recommendations were made, um, unfortunately, at that time there wasn't any money available to start building the GIS system, although some of the recommendations that were made have been incorporated, for example, permit plan that HIS is using for their, um, building permits, uh, was one of the recommendations and that can be incorporated into a GIS system. Um, and when the City, uh, got their storm water permit, we were required to start mapping our storm sewers, and that's what this, this is actually a screen shot of the...the green lines are the storm sewers, uh, the boxes are intakes, and then the circles are manholes. Um, this is just one application of what a GIS system would look like, uh, then you'd be able to click on those lines and pull up the information on the pipe itself, whether it's concrete or plastic, um, and that...we would do that system-wide, both water, sanitary, um, bring those aspects in, and then also use it for the permitting requirements, um, that the City has on developers and uh, and uh, the citizens. Fosse/ One thing to keep in mind on a GIS system is, you have two costs. You have your initial upfront cost, and then the cost to keep it running. Uh, so that's something to go into with your eyes wide open, um, however, we do view it as a necessity and compared to other communities our size, we're quite behind the curve on this, um, the good news there is, uh, that we didn't pay for that learning curve, uh, let other people get through a lot of the stakes out there so we can implement it with a high degree of success. Um, the payback from something like this comes in primarily in asset management, you know, we've got miles and miles of roads and sewers and water mains and that sort of thing out there, and... and helping us to manage those assets better, it's also a good development tool as far as getting information to developers and that sort of thing. So, want to point those things out. Any... Wilburn/ I forgot, how many miles of streets do we have? Ballpark? Fosse/ It's, uh, roughly 440, in there. I don't know exactly, because we don't have a GIS system, but uh (several talking at once and laughter) No, but those types of queries are very easy to make with a GIS system. How many miles of eight-inch sewer do we have, you know, those types of things. Wilburn/ Sure. Wright/ What's the annual maintenance fee? Roughly. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 69 Fosse/ The maintenance fee is...is pretty much a staff position. You know, somebody who's going to keep the data current, keep things going, and then you have the maintenance fees with the software providers, which would be roughly, what? $7,000 a year, I would guess. (several talking) Higher than that? Okay. Um, you know what they might be? (several talking) Correia/ The County has a GIS. Fosse/ Yes, and that...that was the next point, is that we hope to be able, we're already sharing information with them now, and we hope to be able to piggyback with them to the extent possible to get economies there. Correia/ Well, even in terms of getting costs, you know, how much...and estimates on what it's costing. Fosse/ Uh-huh. Yeah, what we've been doing in the meantime, before we have GIS, is the data that we gather, the spatial data, is where, we're putting it in a database that's going to migrate as easy as possible into a GIS system, so we don't have a lot of those upfront costs. So that's one of the ways we've been positioning ourselves. Bailey/ So, if we have this in the FY11 budget, we can also expect to have another, um, we need a staff position. Fosse/ That's very possible, unless we're able to...to work things out. I don't know if we'll ever get to the point to work things where the County can help fill that gap for us or not. Bailey/ Okay, but that's good for all of us to know. That's sort of part of the decision. Fosse/ Yeah. On a much smaller scale, it's that same fire station thing. You got the capital outlay, and then (both talking at once) nine would be nice! No! Hayek/ Would you still, um, would this entail any sort of property based information, like the County GIS system, or is this purely infrastructure facilities? Fosse/ It's...we would not look to duplicate anything that the County's doing, um, so you know, our emphasis would be on...on infrastructure, uh, housing permits, those types of things. Hayek/ So if I'm a developer looking at an area of town and I want to, and I'm doing some planning, I go to the County site to look at property and then I would go to the City site to look at infrastructure and services? Fosse/ iJh-huh. Anything to add, Ron? Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 70 Bailey/ Any other questions? I think we'll break for lunch, forty-five minutes. You don't want an hour, right? Forty-five minutes, that'll...(LLJNCH BREAK) Recurring Proiects: Fosse/ Okay, want me get started? Uh, we're on to recurring projects now, and that's on page C-23 in your budget. Now these are annual expenditures and, uh, that we make on a regular basis and as I said earlier, they really fall into two categories. Uh, one is for incremental growth of the City, like additional curb ramps and overwidth paving, sidewalks, parkland, that sort of thing, and the other is preventative maintenance. Uh, we've got, um, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure in the community and that preventative maintenance is...is a big part of keeping it going. Uh, it's some of your best dollars spent. You get the most value for your dollar, but they're also a very easy and tempting place to look for additional money, and that's really for two reasons. One is, uh, the effects of deferred maintenance really aren't felt for three to five years, so you add the delayed impact, and also, uh, they really don't impact your level of service immediately, uh, so that's, those are easy targets. I...I equate it to like dental work, where you can get the filling now or wait a couple years and have the root canal and crown and the whole works. So think about it in that context. So with that introduction, we'll get started, and Terry, do you want to lead off? Trueblood/ Well, now that Rick has you all thinking about your teeth, uh, I just wanted to call your attention to the title of this, where it says parks recurring projects, uh, parks bike trails. It's not just parks bike trails. As a matter of fact, most of the time, it's not in parks, but it can be. Uh, this is a $50,000 a year budget that's used for a variety of things related to intra-city bike trails for the most part, and is put in there for smaller type CIP projects that don't really, uh, qualify or maybe even deserve astand-alone CIP. Uh, items such that can be used for small segments of trails here and there, that might either need some fairly major maintenance or maybe even just a small, uh, new trail segment. Uh, very often some heavy-duty repairs, uh, we've used it for bike racks on trails. We've used it for some accessibility projects related to trails. LJh, even some signage, but uh, again, typically this is for a variety of projects each year that don't have that stand-alone CIP funding, uh, requirement. Davidson/ Another real effective use of this fund is we'll get calls periodically from a person with disabilities who's able to get from their residence to a bus stop or a place of employment, depending on where it's located; except there's one place where there's, where we need a curb ramp, and so we're able to spend $2,000, $3,000 from this fund to put that one or two curb ramps in, to enable that person to then make the whole trip, so it's really an effective means of funding those types of things. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 71 Knoche/ Brick street repair is, uh, $20,000 annually, uh, we use, uh, to...to, um, try to patch up the brick streets in Iowa City. Uh, this is actually a picture from Bowery Street that we did a couple years ago, um, pretty labor-intensive work, uh, and...and fairly costly for, you know, what it is...it's about $25.00 a square foot to...to do brick repair, versus about $5.00 a square foot to overlay with asphalt. So, um, but it's...you know, obviously it, um, the historic nature of it's a priority for Iowa City, so um, this is something that we do annually. Correia/ Isn't there sort of a traffic calming effect on brick streets? You can't drive as fast on them, so...right. Champion/ Well, they're very slippery with snow. Fosse/ Yes they are. In the foreground here, this does a good job of showing why, how labor intensive it is, and why it's expensive. These are not Legos, they're not precise in their measurements, especially after they're worn and... and when you take it apart and put `em back together, there's a lot ofhand-fitting and cutting that goes on. Hayek/ But how much, you know, what's the longevity of a restored, functional brick street? Or section of street? I've got to imagine it's a lot longer than.. . Fosse/ This one's actually starting to go again already, and one of the things we're going to talk about later on the radar projects is...is doing perhaps an entire block at a time with a curb to curb replacement where you put in new concrete base underneath these, because what we have out there now are grab bag of different types of bases, from aloes-grade concrete to gravel to sand, and, um, the durability just is not there for the types of loads that are put on those roads today...for that base. Did I do an accurate job of explaining that, Ron? Davidson/ Yeah, I mean the street may last, but it's in a condition that's really not, at least some people would say, not suitable for modern day traffic, uh, bicycles, as Connie mentioned, pedestrians even, sometimes have problems with them. Fosse/ The bricks themselves are very durable. It's the base that we struggle with. Hayek/ Well, and I live on a brick street, so there's your full disclosure, but...but where I live, I don't think it has been upgraded in decades probably, and it's just fine, and I don't know if that's a difference of underlay, and just the technological.. . Davidson/ Believe your street...your street also definitely has the traffic calming effect that Amy was referring to. You drive down it from Dodge Street to Church Street, certainly there's a...can't exceed twenty miles an hour on that street, which is great. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 72 O'Donnell/ How much more expensive is it to take care of a brick street versus a concrete or asphalt? Champion/ Twenty dollars more per square foot. Bailey/ Twenty dollars per square foot versus $5.00 per square foot. Fosse/ And... Correia/ Does it seem like people that are living on brick streets like that they're...like their streets? Fosse/ Yes they do! Occasionally we get complaints about the roughness, especially this time of year when...the snowplows, of course, are flat and the brick streets are not, so there's, it's really difficult to get...to clear them very well, uh, but beyond that, most people like `em. Uh, on the bridge maintenance, our bridge maintenance - we keep about $60,000 a year in there for preventative maintenance and minor repairs. LTh, this is another shot of the Park Road bridge. That seems to be a regular victim of...of cars, going over the sidewalk there, so we do look forward to getting some barrier rails on that, um, and in some cases, we're able to recover these costs from the insurance company of the vehicles. In other cases, it's just something that we need to spend, and...and we do other minor repairs as they come up. Correia/ I just had a question on bridges. So, Ron said earlier that we inspect all bridges every two years? And so then you have, sort of maintain a list of, okay, these bridges - we have a watch list for any bridges, you know, kind of give us the.. . Knoche/ What we do, um, we hire a consultant to come in and do the bridge inspections, uh, and then what they do is they come back and we, they give us an inventory list of every structure, but then they also have the top five or top ten maintenance needs, whether it be, um, downed trees in front of the structures or a lot of times on the Iowa River there'll be trees that'll be up against the piers, those types of things, and uh, so that, that's the, that's what they prioritize for us, and then we send our streets guys out to take care of things. Fosse/ Structurally they're very close cousins to the parking ramps that Joe talked about earlier today. They...they're structural concrete steel that sort of thing and they just require regular maintenance to keep them in a...in a good and safe condition. This is a shot of the, uh, the delamination of the bridge deck that Ron was talking about earlier, where it starts to come apart. Trueblood/ Okay, why you might ask is Terry Trueblood talking about City Hall and other projects? I ask myself that same question every year, but no, for the new Council Members particularly, uh, under City Hall, the care and maintenance of City Hall is part of the Parks and Recreation responsibility. Uh, much like the, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 73 uh, inter-city bike trails account, here again, $50,000 a year is what we try to budget and it's for a variety of projects that, uh, again are not large CIP projects. This particular photo, uh, shows some, uh, chimney repair that was, uh, needed. It's just one example of, uh, what could go on. Uh, how'd that go backwards? There we go. This particular one also, just another example, and I'm really not entirely certain if this, uh, person is doing some tuck-pointing or window repairs, but uh, something that we have to hire out to get done. Uh, again, just another example, and then, uh, a lot of times out of this budget come repairs, upgrades, whatever to HVAC systems. That's what this picture is designed to depict, but just to give you an idea, uh, can be used to hire painting contractors, flooring projects, as a matter of fact, just recently we painted, hired to have painted the...a large portion of the Planning offices and there's new carpeting on order for those offices. Contrary to some other ones, like what Kevin talked about earlier, and what there is, I believe, the City Attorney's office, are some major renovations. Those will go on their own as a CIP project. LTh, and these other, carpentry, electrical, that kind of thing will be, uh, on an as-needed basis. Knoche/ With the curb ramp projects we do a $50,000 every other year for this program. Uh, we inventory, um, as we do the sidewalk inspections every year in the ten areas that we do, we also do an inventory of the curb ramps, and see if they're current with truncated domes and the red panels, or if they're, you know, if there's a full curb through the curb ramp or...or what the need'll be, um, and then we prioritize those. We also do get, um, citizen complaints, they'll call in, you know, there's a gentleman in the neighborhood who uses a wheelchair and there's some issues with some curb ramps and we'll also get those...those will end up being the high priorities for us. IJh, $50,000 is about ten intersections, eight ramps basically and then the intersection's set up, so it's about ten intersections that we can do. Trueblood/ Uh, the open space land acquisition is the parkland acquisition fund, which is, uh, running out in two or three years, uh, but this is just a good example of, uh, this Benton Hi11 Park I'm sure you're all familiar with, but uh, when this parkland was purchased, uh, it actually came out of three sources -the parkland acquisition fund, uh, Community Development Block Grant funds, and then dedication of part of the property through the Neighborhood Open Space ordinance. Uh, so this is just an example of one of those acquisitions, it also just happens to be a good example of a collaborative project of public art, since this public art project was paid partially out of the project budget and partially out of the Public Art Fund. Knoche/ Um, the overwidth paving and sidewalks is, um, money that's set aside as subdivisions are built, and they're required to put a collector street in versus a local street, and so a thirty-one foot wide street versus atwenty-eight foot wide street -the City pays for that extra concrete that goes in there. Um, also the same with sidewalks. If during the planning process we decide an eight foot walk would be better suited for a neighborhood, um, and four foot is all they'd be required to put in, we pay for the extra four feet of the sidewalk, um, a recent This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 74 example of this is the Old Town Village subdivision. There are some eight-foot walks, both along Scott Boulevard and internally within the subdivision that the City paid for four feet of the sidewalk. Trueblood/ Under the parks maintenance and improvement projects, uh, $200,000 a year, and I might just say that, uh, in many ways this is perhaps our most important line item as far as capital improvements go, because it's...uh, such a versatile budget, if you will. One of the things I chose to do this year is to show a couple pictures of sort of leveraging this money. This is the disc golf course, uh, just to give you an idea, uh, on this particular...this particular facility, we ended up using about, approximately $20,000 in City funds, uh, through this particular budget, and ended up with what we estimate to be about a $75,000 facility, and that's because, uh, we had over a thousand hours of volunteer labor that went into this. The group also raised $7,000, $7,500 in private funding, and also another $2,500 or so in donated materials and equipment use that they had. So, uh, but again, that came out of this budget so using $20,000 got us roughly a $75,000 facility. Uh, this is another example. This is the, uh, Scott Park vehicular entrance, uh, that's overlaid there, and was in terrible shape before, frankly, and we used some of this funding to...to asphalt the entrance down into the park. We've had a number of projects over the years...a number of parking improvement projects over the years that came out of this budget, and like I mentioned before, we'll piggyback on the biannual asphalt overlay program to get it in with that. Here's just another example of kind of leveraging some of the funds. This playground is down at the Kicker soccer park, uh, they wanted a playground down there, and they were willing to contribute $10,000 so they did that, and then we used, uh, I think it was between $15,000 and $20,000 more out of this particular budget, in order to get that, uh, that playground put in. Knoche/ For the pavement rehabilitation, uh, project, we have $400,000 annually for that, and this year we'll be doing ahot-mix asphalt overlay program, which is what you see a picture of here, um, we're starting to put that project together now and it'll be out to bid here in the spring. LTh, the other component of that is...is the PC rehabilitation, and this is a picture of when we did Rochester Avenue. Um, this is a diamond-grinding project. They use a machine that comes in and grinds the pavement smooth, and uh, it helps for ridability, obviously, and then also, it also increases the longevity of the pavement because when you have the joints and the roughness, the semis and the buses and the larger traffic will...and start beating a pavement apart, and so that's why you'll see us out doing some diamond grinding, and this last summer we did Benton Street from Sunset to Mormon Trek, was a project that we did diamond grinding on. Davidson/ $50,000 annually for the public art program, a combination public/staff committee that develops projects, uh, goes out and requests for proposal. Ultimately all of the projects are brought to the City Council for approval, but the funding comes from this source. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 75 Knoche/ The railroad crossing projects -there's $25,000 annually for these. Uh, these are joint projects with the railroads, uh, the DOT has money set aside for crossing improvements, whether it be cross bucks, lights, um, median bifurcation type of stuff. The railroads then go in and apply for the grant money. It's an 80/20 match - 80% DOT funds. The City pays 10% of the match and then the railroad company pays 10% of the match. So this isn't a project that we do every year, but the money's set aside so that when those needs do come up, we're able to...to partner with them. Fosse/ Uh, next item is, uh, sewer main replacement. Because of the age of our sewer system, we...we have a few collapses every year, and when that occurs, these sinkholes show up, uh, one place or another and the repairs are usually pretty disruptive. You know, you gotta dig it up, fix it, and it has significant impact on a neighborhood. Uh, one of the things that we're doing now as part of our...our sewer system asset management is, uh, some pro-active type things and that is, uh, cured in place liners. And we can...we can look at our sewers from the inside using remote cameras, so we can go through, identify problem areas before they collapse, and then this...this, uh, thing that looks like a just a blanket that's going down in there is actually a fabric sock that you fill with hot water and then that cures it, and basically you end up with a pipe within a pipe, and you can...this is the equivalent of an asphalt overlay for a sewer, if you will. Get additional life out of it. (several talking) What's that? Yeah, there you go. That's a good analogy. I like that. Um, oh, go ahead, Ron. Knoche/ Sidewalk infill program was something, it was initiated with the last budget. Um, the idea here is to identify sidewalk needs in the community where development probably isn't going to fill those needs in a timely manner. Uh, this is a picture of a sidewalk along, uh, Dubuque Road, up around the Hy-Vee area. This section, and then there's a section along Rochester, um, from Amherst back towards, I can't think of what street it is, but uh, Mt. Vernon...that those two are going to be our first projects, and those...we'll be constructing those this spring. Correia/ Then are we looking at...are you looking at the, uh, the Riverside Drive, Highway 1 out past the Airport? Davidson/ That's not really an infill project. Correia/ No? Davidson/ That's a (several talking at once) CIP but it would likely be done as a large project, sort of a large stand-alone project. This money, Amy, would just make a dent. Correia/ Okay. Davidson/ ...a project of that size. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 76 Correia/ Okay. Wright/Did you say you use this for neighborhoods which are completely developed? Or are not? Knoche/ That...it's a combination. You know, there are areas that are developed that sidewalks weren't required when those...when those subdivisions were built, or areas that have developed recently, but there's pieces that probably aren't going to develop in the near future. Davidson/ These are both good examples of that latter, where there's some fairly well established neighborhoods in these areas, but for one reason or another, some intervening properties haven't developed. Knoche/ There's $185,000 annually for street, pavement markings. These are durable markings, uh, epoxy, some type of, uh, a more durable product than a latex paint that our streets guys paint. Um, of the...of the $185,000, currently $125,000 is set up for the Continental Crosswalk Program, and then the remaining $60,000 is used for the long lines and I believe we're in...we started athree-year program of getting the durable, uh, continental crosswalks put in so we maybe able to make a shift to start, to doing more of the long line versus the continentals, in the coming years. Wright/ Are those continental crosswalks holding up pretty well in most locations? I mean... Davidson/ They definitely hold up better than the parallel lines because we...we try and be a little bit scientific and place the big squares such that the wheel tracks, you know, go on either side of them, so you don't get the broken up, uh, longitudinal lines like you used to get. Wright/ There's one in front of my office building that's essentially gone, and it's only a couple years old. Davidson/ Yeah, and of course by this time of year, you know, depending on how much, when you put the sand down, that's just like sandpaper and it starts, you know, this is not the greatest time of year for pavement markings, but we're quite satisfied with the durability of the permanent type material that Ron's referring to. You know, if we can stay on that three-year or four-year rotation and keep putting them down on a regular basis, you know, it's going to be better than it has been. Wright/ You'd anticipate about a three or four year rotation on those. Okay. Champion/ When we do new roads, why don't we do something with the pavement? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 77 Budget/ You mean build it in? Champion/ Yeah. Davidson/ Yeah, pavement markings are usually included, part of any new road project. Champion/ I mean permanently. I'm talking about permanent. (several talking) Fosse/ Well, there's the reflectivity component of it that...that they just don't manufacture permanent installation for that, and uh, we've tried different products. When we did Melrose Avenue we tried a plastic, uh, glue down strip there, uh, that had some durability problems. Some of the iron on stuff, we call it, that goes down on hot asphalt. We...we get good life out of, but...did you want to add more to that Jeff? Were you going to say something? Davidson/ Yeah, there's a, what Rick referred to, is the retroreflectivity. What retro- reflectivity is is when headlights catch it and then reflect it back to your eye. There are looming Federal standards that we have to adhere to, that basically what it means is you got to periodically replace stuff out, whether it be a sign or a pavement marketing, you have to replace it periodically to keep that standard high enough. Champion/ So you just couldn't make the concrete white there or whatever? Okay. Knoche/ This is Rochester Avenue on the left, uh, just a few hours after it went down and you can see how it catches the sunlight and brings it back, and...and that just begins to degrade from that first day, uh, and I would point out that this year since we're running lower on salt, we're blending a lot more sand in, uh, what we put on the roads this winter, and that's going to have an impact on the durability of our pavement markings, because of that additional abrasion out there. So, it'll be a bad year for those. Davidson/ Oh, I'm sorry, lost my place. Uh, the traffic calming program, I think, uh, you're familiar with, uh, $30,000 a year. Um, you know, we did have a record year here just recently which was the first time that it's been instituted that we actually went over, um, and we're continuing to get projects to evaluate. I think we've got a couple out right now, um, that, uh, are looming for the spring, and we just wrapped up a couple in the fall. So, uh, again, this is strictly the City Council's program. A lot of the stuff you've heard us talking about -federal standards and that -this one is your program, and we have periodically, uh, manipulated it a couple times, evaluated whether or not to change some things. You will continue to have that flexibility if you'd like, but in the meantime, it sure helps us at the staff level to have some criteria for evaluating these requests which typically come from neighborhood groups and we think it's been a very successful program. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 78 Knoche/ The traffic signal program, we have $120,000 set aside annually. This is, uh, money that's for a new, basically $120,000 would pay for a new signal installation. Just the signal equipment itself. It wouldn't, it doesn't pay for pavement widening and those types of things, but uh, mast arms, signal faces, uh, controller -that's what that money would be for. Um, the left picture is a picture of the video detection that we're using now at intersections, versus cutting in the loops in the pavement, and then, uh, right picture is just the inside of a controller and kind of the brains of the...of the signal operation. Fosse/ Use this slide to point out that...that we're also just finishing up a project to inner- connect the traffic signals within the community. Been working close with Planning and the Traffic planners there, and once that's in place, then we can begin to do more optimization for... for getting traffic through and having fewer delays and the related pollution associated with that. That cover it okay on that, Jeff? Okay. The last recurring project we have are water main replacements, and our water distribution system is perhaps our oldest utility out there, and there's some very old water mains, and we don't have the means to televise those from the inside, as you might imagine. We just need to judge when to replace them based on the amount of breaks that we've experienced, and here you can see, get my mouse going here, uh, there's where the break was in this one, and when they dug it up, they could see a repair sleeve that was put on just adjacent to that, uh, indicating that this is a bad piece of pipe in here. This one is underneath the Ped Mall downtown, along Dubuque Street portion of it. So, uh, we've not had the opportunity to replace that entire thing, but we do replace a fair amount of water main each year, and get that updated. Projects Scheduled for Completion 2008: Fosse/ On to projects scheduled for completion. These are projects underway, just to show you some of the things that are getting done, and we'll lead off with Airport. Tharp/ Well, this is a view of the runway 7 extension. We, uh, received the last phase of Federal funding late last year and didn't quite get the, uh, electrical work done that was necessary to open it, so we're looking at early this spring to have the runway 7 extension completely finished and opened for use. Trueblood/ Okay, the Brooklyn Park project is done. It was completed this last summer, except that there's a problem that we need to take care of, which wasn't intended to be part of the project in the first place. There's, we have a drainage problem over by the railroad, and we're working with Engineering to, uh, try to get that rectified. What happens is after a heavy rain, the uh, small stones off the railroad bank come washing down into the creek and fill our creek and the park full of rock, and then we have to clean it out and that kind of thing. So we're working on that, uh, there is a little bit of money, there's a little balance left in this budget and that's what we...we hope that's enough to cover rectifying this other problem. LJh, Court Hill trail is a project that was just put out to bid, as a matter This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 79 of fact, and uh, they got very good bids on it. Something under $100,000 less than the engineer's estimate. This will be, I think, a very nice, uh, addition to the City's trail system and it will extend all the way from Scott Park over to Creekside Park. LIh, most of which is off-street trail. There are a couple areas where we just can't, private property involved and it has to come out on the street and sidewalk for a block or two and then go back onto the trail itself. Correia/ Will there be signs so people know that it'll be continuing, or will...we have signage on the trail? Trueblood/ Yeah, there's going to have to be signage on there. I don't...I don't know that that's part of the project. That's probably something that Jeff and his folks will take care of...when it's near completion. Am I right, Jeff? Did I obligate you to something you didn't want to be obligated to? Davidson/ That's exactly right. Trueblood/ LTh, the next project FY08, here's the Lower City Park improvements, uh, this project is completed, except for some very minor items. This particular part, it was actually three projects, this particular part shows the new restrooms and the attached open-air shelter next to the Riverside Festival Stage, uh, it also, another component of the project, uh, was a lighted, uh, walkway from the main parking lot over to the stage, which has been very well received. Uh, and the third component actually had nothing to do with the stage, but it was in Lower City Park and that was installing a water main over by the boys' baseball complex, uh, because we had a situation where we...we couldn't fill the swimming pool and water the ball diamonds at the same time. It was...or flush the toilets, I might add. LTh, now that's corrected. And this one, the Napoleon Park restroom project, um, the new one is the one on the left, the bigger one, and then the one on the right is the old restroom building that the original plan was to just demolish that and build a new one, and then after we had more and more conversations with the girls' softball folks, it was determined, you know, we could really make good use of that old building for storage, mostly. LTh, also, you know, keep the little open- air shelter on the end of it with picnic tables under it, uh, we're also going to retain the restrooms in there. They can be used for overflow during big, uh, that's bad term to use for toilets, I guess (laughter) but you know what I mean. Extras...uh, during, during the larger tournaments, but also I'm told that quite a few of the trail users that go right past Napoleon Park like to make a restroom stop. So, uh, we're going to keep those, but the...the new building is going to have much more concession space, much more storage space, and most importantly, much more restroom space in there, and that should be finished by the end of March. Fosse/ I think one of the neat things about this project is that a year ago at this session, this project was on the unfunded list, and that was when the decisions you made was let off of that, and when we don't need to acquire easements, which is a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 80 lengthy process, can do things pretty quickly. Terry's done a great job of getting this built. Trueblood/ Actually I had very little to do with it, but I'll take the credit. (laughter) Uh, another one that's, uh, is complete for all intents and purposes, but has for whatever reason a long list of, a long punchlist of items, things that don't meet the eye, that you wouldn't notice, something like a window latch here and a door latch there and that kind of thing that needs to be replaced. Uh, but and I also want to call your attention to the fact that this summer there will be a fence, a privacy fence, uh, like there used to, but not like there used to be, I mean... Correia/ A prettier privacy fence. Trueblood/ Prettier one, yeah, that'll be in this summer. Champion/ That's one of the best improvements to any City building. Trueblood/ Well that, you know, that was maybe the lone silver lining in the tornado, so...uh, this one is the Lower City Park river bank protection, or where...my Park Superintendent tells me that we're losing anywhere from four to six inches a year on that, on the bank, right over there along City Park, and he gauges that right over through here, from how close...the trees keep moving closer and closer to the bank. I think we finally figured it out, actually, the bank's moving closer to the trees. But, uh, at any rate, this is one of those projects that's largely Federally funded, and so it keeps...it's not going to be done in FY08 because that funding isn't there. Maybe in FY09. It's one of those things that sometime in the next few years if we don't get that Federal funding, uh, we're probably going to have to go ahead and do it anyway. Trail connectivity, I don't recall...Jeff, John, was I going to talk about this or do I not know enough about it? Correia/ I'm sensing that you (laughter and several talking) who took the photo? Fosse/ That's in Madison. I took that picture outside of Madison. Correia/ Oh, so it's not our trail. Fosse/ No. (several talking) Davidson/ But we want to build one like it. (several talking) Trueblood/ I guess I can...I can lead off, uh (several talking). Council may require that a year ago you placed in, uh, kind of a holding account a million dollars for trail connectivity projects, but it was never determined where that was going to go, specifically. Some of it, uh, was used for the Court Hill trail, uh, but now some of it gets to be put back in there because we got such good bids. Uh; so it's something that's going to require further discussion, you know, from you and get This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 81 some direction from you. We did some staff from Parks and Recreation, Planning, and Engineering, uh, got together to talk about where we felt this money, uh, where some good possibilities would be. I'm sure you're going to be happy to hear that our first priority came to the Peninsula-Rocky Shore bridge, so apply it towards that project (laughter) with a close second being the Highway 1 trail, north side of Highway 1, essentially -help me out, John -from Riverside to Mormon Trek? Yapp/ Well, there's a few, uh, options for segments, but looking at trail connectivity and...and when we had that discussion with Council that these funds should be used to connect people to destinations and to connect trail segments together. Um, the Riverside Drive pedestrian bridge was one that, uh, fulfilled those objectives by connecting two destination of the Peninsula Park (several talking) Rocky Shore Drive, excuse me, thank you...uh, connecting that Manville Heights area to the Peninsula Park, as well as completing, uh, a loop trail, which, uh, this morning we double checked the length of that loop, and it would be about four and a half miles. So I was about 50% off in my estimate. Um.. . Trueblood/ He's getting better! (several responding) Yapp/ Yeah, uh, segments of the Highway 1 trail would connect some population to some commercial destinations in the Highway 1 corridor. Some logical segments would be from Hawk Ridge Drive, which is where the Lodge is, uh, from Hawk Ridge Drive either to Orchard Street or Riverside Drive to connect into the Iowa River Trail system, um, and then heading west from Hawk Ridge Drive to Sunset Street, which would connect to the, uh, Sunset Street sidewalk network, and from Sunset Street to .Mormon Trek Boulevard, uh, all in the Highway 1 corridor. It would look very similar to the Highway 6 trail, uh, in front of Pepperwood Plaza. And...and at some points, not now certainly, but at some point, uh, we will look to you for some direction as to where to direct these funds, what project to attach them to. Correia/ And so when you were talking about that...the...that stretch that I had mentioned earlier, that corner of Riverside up towards the Airport and the McCollister Boulevard, and that would connect, I mean, and I think there's population.. . Yapp/ That'd be part of that same...network, yes. Correia/ Yeah. I mean, that's something that I'm interested in. Yapp/ We're still refining some cost estimates for these different segments, and we can bring that back to you when we have... Correia/ So could you include that...stretch, as well? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 82 Yapp/ ...sure. Trueblood/ I might just take a brief moment to mention some of the other areas that we also talked about at that staff meeting that day were the Highway 6 trail extension from Broadway to Sycamore Street, uh, the Riverside Drive, uh, railroad- pedestrian tunnel. The, uh, Willow Creek Trail, Highway 218 or under Highway 218 as mentioned before. iJh, taking the Court Hill trail, uh, in an eastward direction through Scott Park. Uh, the Iowa River Corridor extension down to Sturgis Ferry Park. Sand Lake trails, behind Hills Bank as opposed to the other Sand Lake, go around the lake, and uh, the need for more wide sidewalks along, uh, Rochester Avenue. Those are the various ones that we've talked about that this money could be used for. Correia/ Wide sidewalks long Rochester? Where? Trueblood/ Uh.. . Correia/ We have sidewalks on Rochester. Trueblood/ Uh, yeah, on... Yapp/ Part of it, part of this are the segments being done, uh, this summer. Correia/ Oh, so new sidewalks. (several talking) Yapp/ And then eventually, uh, east of Scott Boulevard, because of Old Town Village development and some newer residential development in that area, that would be the next phase, for those sidewalks. Davidson/ There's already a small link of wide sidewalk, Amy, from Mt. Vernon Drive past, I can't think of the name of the subdivision, um, that...that will pick up with in the next (unable to hear) down to Amherst. Correia/ But you're not talking about the part of Rochester that's already sidewalked and.. . Yapp/ No. Correia/ Right, okay. Trueblood/ Andy, do you want to talk about fire station, or should I handle this? Champion/ (several talking and laughing) Can I ask a question first? On that, uh, part...that bridge, where is that silly thing? Bailey/ What page are you on, Connie? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 83 Champion/ I'm looking. Bailey/ Oh, okay. Champion/ (several talking) Yeah, right, I mean, I did laugh at that when it first came to us, but now (several talking) I've become a true believer in it. Um, I think it will.. . Bailey/ C-9. Champion/ Okay. So, the cost of that is $1.3 million about? And was there any other funding besides this funding that you, the trail connectors? Davidson/ Funding... Champion/ Any other funding available for that? Trueblood/ Not that we have corralled at this time. There are other possibilities. Champion/ Can you just give me an idea? (several talking) Trueblood/ Well, there's trail funding possibilities out there which this would certainly qualify for. Most of those aren't very big (unable to hear) could be a possibility. The maximum there, I believe, is $200,000 and I'm not sure that you can use them both. I'd have to check into that. Uh, but at any rate, yeah, there are some other possibilities. Unfortunately, there aren't any that we're aware of that are big possibilities, where you could go out and get like a half million dollars or a million dollars for such a project. But, uh, something that we continue to look for. Champion/ Well, and I'm just curious because I'm wondering now that we have all these facilities out there, I mean like the, that thing you throw? Trueblood/ Frisbee golf disc? Champion/ Yeah, the Frisbee (laughter) and all those dogs, and um, and Foster Road is also, there's a lot of development along there, uh, that I think this is a real valid prod ect now. Correial Well, I think what I like too is that the connectivity in this whole 4.5 or however miles in that loop, especially if it's...there's signs and then, you know, that would be a destination for people to go and bring their bikes and do a loop to connect in from the Coralville bridge, not just from Crandic. I mean, I think those are things.. . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 84 Davidson/ It also makes the Peninsula neighborhood definitely walkable and bikable to the University Hospitals employment center. Champion/ Yes (several talking) Davidson/ That's like 14,000 jobs there so...some would say it's walkable without the bridge or bikable without the bridge, but it definitely is with the ped bridge. Champion/ How long is it from Dubuque and Foster to the Peninsula neighborhood? Has anybody ever...it seems like a long drive to me. Davidson/ Dubuque and Foster, oh, it's probably not much more than a mile, mile and a half. (several responding) Correia/ So what you're...so this $690,000 that's in trail connectivity that was that million that we set aside last year? That's 08 bonds? So you're saying if we wanted on this C-9 page, we might decide to put some of those dollars in there, because right now we're looking at 11. Trueblood/ That's what we're suggesting, yeah. Keep in mind too that that's $690,000. Probably add about $100,000 to that.. . Correia/ Oh, right, because of the Court Hill.. . Trueblood/ I think...am I right, Kevin? I know you get nervous when I talk about money. O'Malley/ Won't know till the job's done. (laughter) Hayek/ At any point in the future, is there anticipated, um, discussion about a second vehicular entry from Rocky Shore, Coralville... Davidson/ We have talked about it, Matt, and basically the determination when we talked about it was not to evaluate it further, um, I mean, you could always bring it up for discussion again. Basically, what we had looked at was just taking Park Road, continuing it straight west over into the Peninsula, which would also provide you the pedestrian connection, as well, but it...given what's happened on the Peninsula that we really didn't anticipate it, at least at one time, in terms of the Frisbee golf course and the...the, uh, Dog Park, uh, any road like that would have significant disruption to those facilities, as well as the two golf holes that we negotiated with Elks Club that were moved down on to City property. Um, it would just disrupt all that to put a street through there at this point. Hayek/ But if we're, I mean, if a street is in the future for that area, and I don't know that it is. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 85 Davidson/ At the current time, it is not in the plan. Hayek/ Because I wouldn't want to build a pedestrian bridge and then a street bridge, which.. . Davidson/ And the action there essentially, Matt, since Park Road is an arterial street, would be action as part of the amendment to the JCCOG arterial street plan if you were to do that. Certainly a river crossing like that would be a major thoroughfare like an arterial street, so that's...that plan is a community plan, involving all of the municipalities of JCCOG, and JCCOG's the venue where you would discuss that. Champion/ And what's the cost of the bridge we're putting across the river now? Does anybody know off the top of their head approximately? Davidson/ Ron does. (several talking) $3 million did you say, Ron? Three and a half, three million. We're going to talk about that just in a second. Rocca/ Okay, if you think back about a year and a half ago, you had, most of you had a tour of our old Fire Station #2, and you can remember what a beautiful facility it was, and you can probably still remember what it smelled like. At any rate, this is what we're going to end up with, the new Fire Station #2, and we've got a construction site slide as well, but...but the amenities of this, of course, are the larger apparatus bay, uh, that will accommodate not only the County hazmat vehicle, but our fire pumper, as well as a reserve pumper, and um, of course, the men and female locker room facilities, work out facilities, and all that, again sized accordingly to, uh, to accommodate not only athree-person fire crew, but potentially atwo-person EMS crew, and what you don't see here and you'll see in the next slide, uh, is..~.there's a basement structure under this as well for additional storage and growth. Um, a couple things to point out here. LTh, we did have a water main relocation, uh, that kind of ran along the back edge of the property in here and we, uh, as I understand it, we're about two weeks behind schedule with this project, and we had some valve issues or fitting issues, wrong ones came in, and then again on the back, uh, (mumbling) on this back side here, we ran into some large concrete mass, probably footings, from potential apartment buildings that were going to be constructed there a number of years ago, and so that slowed us down a little bit to pull those out of there, but uh, as you'll see on the next slide here...uh, we had our crews go out and they set up our aerial ladder over there on the fence line, parking area and were able to take an aerial photo of this. You can see that...I believe two of the basement walls are poured and if we were over there today, I believe all the walls are poured. In the next probably ten days, the perimeter footings for the rest of the footprint of that building will be, um, poured and so we'll start to see some additional building activity, and at some point, things will actually come up out of the ground, out of that hole, and uh, we're still on target for July, mid-July, to reoccupy that facility. So, that's currently where we're at. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 86 Champion/ How long s the temporary stuff working? Rocca/ Funny you should ask that. (laughter) Probably the only drawback is that, you know, the pumper's stored in one of the Public Works facilities down on south Riverside Drive, and so in weather like this, the crew goes from the temporary quarters to that garage facility to turn out with the apparatus, and then this morning's crew woke up to frozen pipes, which was, you know, kind of a curve out of nowhere. I mean, we suffered some cold weather earlier and no problems, so I haven't heard if we have water back there yet or not, but I'll bet we do. But we're making it work. Correia/ And we're going for LEED certification on this building? Rocca/ That's correct. That's correct. (several talking) Uh, boy, I think what is it, John, can you help me with that? Is that a silver? Yapp/ I don't remember. Rocca/ It's...it's a lower level, but it is LEED certified. Other questions? Champion/ Looks great! Rocca/ Looking forward to it! Knoche/ All that I'll add to this one is Dodge Street's done. (laughter and several responding) Yes, it's a long time coming, but uh, we are complete, so it's nice...it only took them, well, three years to get the construction complete for us, but uh, but we are done. Unfortunately this year, uh, the DOT will be replacing the bridges over top of the interstate, uh, so they will have some more construction going on in the corridor. So...and so this year both the interstate bridges will be redecked, so they'll do `em a bridge at a time, and then next, not...the next construction season of 2009, they'll be doing some of the overlay work on Highway 1 north to Solon, so there's some construction in this corridor, but it'll be (several talking). It won't be use, exactly. (several talking) Fosse/ And then a little further out, they'll be urbanizing those intersections. Further in time that is. What is that? Four years out. Davidson/ Uh, FY11... Correia/ Will there be bike lanes or sidewalks on those bridges, as they reconstruct them? Davidson/ No, that's the ped bridges that we hope to get added, uh, Amy, uh, what the strategy we have is to do like the Coralville-First Avenue, uh, interchange is set up, where there's a separate ped bridge. We want to do that at Dubuque Street This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 87 and Dodge Street. I certainly encourage any of you as you talk to DOT officials, to tell them that that is our intention for the project. The way they've left it with us right now is that yes, we're willing to add that to the project, the interstate project, but we have to come up with money. So we're trying to come up with the money, but we also haven't given up on them providing the money. Correia/ And how much is it? Davidson/ Well, we've estimated it at $2.5 million per bridge, at this time. Correia/ Oh, for the...just for the ped. Davidson/ Just for the ped part, yeah, and they did all those bridges in Des Moines, and we, with the 235 project, and we feel like we should receive the same treatment. Correia/ They paid for those? Oh. Maybe I'm not following, so $2.5 for each side? Davidson/ No, for each...it'd just be on one side. Yeah, it'll connect with the sidewalk on either end. Knoche/ It's unfortunate that, uh, the DOT didn't let us know that they were going to be redecking these bridges, because we...we got in right at the end. They sent us some traffic control plans -can you review these, and that was just last year, and...and so we never got in on the front end of it, where had we got in at the front, I think we could have asked them, can you look at widening the bridge deck to allow for the pedestrian aspect of it, um, it...and it just didn't work out, unfortunately. Fosse/ And, Mike, in answer to your question about the intersections out there. It's the interchange between I-80 and Dodge Street, and then I-80 and Dubuque Street, and those will be taking on more of an urban flavor which will be signalized, and then that will facilitate getting pedestrians through those intersections, rather than...right now, each of those legs have movements at (unable to hear) are tough to traverse. It won't... Davidson/ Going from a rural design to an urban design. Again, like Coralville First Avenue, where the ramp approaches come up to a signalized intersection. That's what we're trying to do. Fosse/ We'll be covering that on the radar projects, as well. O'DonnelU Who's responsibility is it, they're going to deck the bridge, but for about a block before you get to the bridge, the road's just terrible. I mean, the potholes there and also going out Dubuque Street's bad. Whose responsibility is that? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 88 Knoche/ The Dubuque Street...the bridge approaches are the City's responsibility, um, on Dubuque Street the City limits kinda go down the middle of the bridge, so the north side is Johnson County, the south side is the City's. Um, those areas are going to, especially Dubuque Street, is one that will be in the asphalt overlay program this year. Um, it's just...it's unfortunate because of the timing, um, with I-80 widening project going on, they're could be some throw-away expense there, in the next four or five years, um, but obviously it is in need of something. And our guys have been out to do some patching, you know, this winter, but obviously the cold patch doesn't last as long as the hot-mix does. O'Donnell/ Okay, thank you. Knoche/ We spoke a little bit earlier, the Gilbert-Bowery-Prentiss project is...is on the end of completion. Um, this is just showing the brick work that as put in, uh, in front of the Vine. Um, we will be doing the veneer work this spring, and then as we talked a little bit earlier, we'll be looking at the streetscaping part of this project. The Lower West Branch Road project is mostly complete. There's some finish work that they have to do out there. This was the artist's concept of what the head walls were going to look like on the culvert, and then this is the finished product. The medallion area that you see there will be some bronze plaques that go in there, kind of the public art flavor, um, and I...the artist had completed his mold and he took it to the foundry to have it taken care of, and it blew up on him, so, um, we...he, actually the foundry has said, `No, we'll make the mold for you this time rather than you make it,' so he's in the process of getting those...getting those done, so...uh, those will be put in this spring. As we mentioned before, the McCollister Boulevard project is, uh, one that will be under construction this year, and probably next. Uh, it...it was set up for atwo-year construction period. Uh, they will be starting the river work, uh, end of January, early February, and uh, then they'll be doing the grading work this spring. The...had very good bids on this project. The engineer's estimate was $6.5 million, and it came in at $6 million, and that seems to be the bidding environment right now, there's not a lot of work out there for contractors and uh, they're becoming very competitive for the work that is out there. Davidson/ I just wanted to add one thing quickly to this project. This is a real enhancement for the pedestrian trail network. Right now the Willow Creek Trail ends in the vicinity of the West Park subdivision, uh, and what...what a pedestrian or bicyclist would be able to do is come up Westside Drive to Mormon Trek Boulevard, and come down the wide sidewalk along Mormon Trek, and then McCollister Boulevard cross the river, and then, uh, interchange basically with the Iowa River Corridor Trail, so that it basically takes two of our regional trails and connects them. Uh, there'll be pedestrian and bicycle accommodations to allow, uh, the two trails to connect right here. You see Sand Lake and you can remember from the earlier presentation that Sand Lake will now be the south, or eventually be the south trailhead for this, so connecting those two regional trails, as John alluded to earlier, as we keep adding mileage, the...some of the Economic This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 89 Development people tell us that if we can add a regional trail in that ten to fifteen to twenty mile range, then you can start attracting people to come in, spend the weekend on a trail, stay over night, spend some money, go to restaurants, and so that's a real enhancement for us to have that. We still eventually hope to put the Willow Creek Trail along Willow Creek, south of the Airport property, but in the meantime, this is a real good connection. Knoche/ And then south Grand Avenue, roundabout project, is...is complete. You know, this is just a photo of that. Uh, we've had a lot of good comments on the project, uh, it seems...people seem to be able to traverse it very well, um, and I think we had some early issues with the semis not wanting to get up on the truck apron area. They...they, this is meant for the semis to be able to get up on this and get through the intersection. What they were doing is trying to stay out around on the paved area and they were rutting up some areas, but they're, um, starting to get the feel of it. Fosse/ That's it for projects for 08. We could go on all afternoon with other projects, but recognizing that there's limited amount of time. On the Radar (page C-55): Fosse/ Now we're on to "on the radar" projects, and as I said earlier today, these are projects that are not proposed for funding. That doesn't mean that they can't be funded, and that restroom project is a good example of that, from last year. LTh, these are simply some projects that are on staff's radar, and you may have others that are on yours, so let's go ahead and get started, and get into some of these. The first one we talked about earlier, and that is, uh, the brick streets, rather than doing just a...patches on existing streets, it's perhaps taking it a block at a time, curb the curb replacement, and putting a new full base under that, uh, it's really quite expensive because you've got the, basically you're building a regular street and then you're putting brick on top of it. And, uh, so we're looking in the neighborhood of $400,00 per block, but if it's a commitment we want to make long term to the brick streets, this may be a good approach to do that, and uh, there maybe an opportunity this summer to do a pilot project of this, in that block just west of Dubuque Street in front of the President's place on Church, at the University there. The University has expressed an interest in redoing that block of brick street, and...and we maybe able to partner and do that one together, and we'll have a good feel on just what's...what's entailed in doing something like this. Some of the tough decisions we'll have to make will pertain to materials. For instance, a lot of our old brick streets have sandstone or limestone curbs, and whether we want to be that authentic to go back with that, or...or simply go with the buff color concrete to mimic that. Those will all impact, uh, the project cost and scope and that sort of thing. So, we'll be back in touch as that evolves more. Champion/ Is the, you know, kind of the limestone effect on the Summit Street bridge? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 90 Fosse/ Uh-huh. Champion/ Is that what you're talking about? Fosse/ Well, on the barrier rails? That you're talking about? Yeah, that's structural concrete that's mimicked to look like limestone, and...and we can do a similar thing with the curbs. Davidson/ Our thought with this project is just if we're going to commit to preserving the brick streets that we have, we're going to have to do some periodic significant maintenance like this, and we think it would be a great idea to start with one block, and then be able to establish that as kind of acost-estimate for what a block costs. You know, we contacted the city of Pella. They did several blocks in their community at quite a cost savings. Well, we found out they used prison labor for a lot of it. You know, that may not be an option that's available to us. So we'd love to do a block and actually find out what it costs to do a block here in Iowa City, and be able to use that in the future for planning. Wright/ Is it a possibility that you still use those sandstone curbs over again, or are they.. . Fosse/ Our experience is...is not been good with getting them out, because what we're finding is...is when they were stood on end, they often had some concrete holding them upright, so getting them out in one piece is difficult. They tend to come apart. Um, so you can, you might be able to salvage 10, 20% of them, but then you've got that 80% to replace, and then we do that with either new or...or...new limestone or concrete made to look like limestone. Any other questions here? Jeff, you want to cover that one? Davidson/ Sure, this is a project we wanted to let you know about because we're really hoping to with the interstate reconstruction, you know, it's a significant thing for us that the green median that you see so prominently here goes away, with the six- laning project. That's where the lanes are being added. And that aesthetically, even though the...the area on the outside of...of the right-of--way is very attractive, as well. What we hope to do is be able to enhance that area, enhance some of the structures -that is the bridges in terms of doing some coloring and...and some decorative treatments, um, but...but just making sure that we can enhance the green areas since the middle of the median will be going away. Uh, we are also, there will be a barrier rail down the middle of, uh, where the median formerly was, and we're going to do again, not just have it be a bare jersey barrier, but have it be something that's enhanced somehow aesthetically. Uh, and make a little bit of improvement there. What we're doing is we're partnering with the City of Coralville, uh, we're going out right now for an RFP to have a design consultant come in, and uh, just lay out some designs for us. What we want to be able to do is the State has some grant programs that we can take advantage of, specifically for this sort of thing, and if we have our plan in place and some cost This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 91 estimates in place, we can go after some of that money, and maybe even before the interstate project is completed, uh, do some of those things, get some of those things implemented, uh, or certainly do it after the project's completed. So, uh, that's what this project is. (several talking at once) Um, this is a project we talked about earlier, so we don't need to belabor it. Uh, when the delegation goes to Washington D.C., Council established this is our number two priority behind the First Avenue railroad overpass, uh, for CDF fundings, and you know, you never know. Sometimes there may be a fit for a project like this, uh, and we could end up with some CDF funds. Certainly we want to keep it, well, on the radar as I guess that's what we're trying to cover here, and make sure that one way or another, this is part of our overall strategy for this area, to make sure that we have good pedestrian access. LTh, quite frankly I guess my own opinion is Dodge maybe the higher priority if we have to do one after the other, because of the employment center on the north side. We know there are a lot of people, not a lot of people, there are some people riding bicycles and attempting to walk through that area, very inhospitable for a pedestrian or bicyclist. So, uh, definitely want to keep this a priority, and as I've indicated, I haven't given up yet in thinking the DOT will help us pay for this. Keep trying at least! Knoche/ We're working with the DOT now doing the concept work. Um, they're looking at the two options, one option would be just the deck widening and doing the...the sidewalk that way, or similar to the way we did it over Highway 218, and having a separate pedestrian bridge. Um, obviously there'd be some cost savings in being able to attach the existing structure, um, the only concern that comes up there is...since the City will be required to maintain that, where does the maintenance requirements end at, you know, not that big of a deal, but uh, that was just one of the...one of the aspects that went into the thought process for doing a separate pedestrian bridge over Highway 218. Um.. . Wilburn/ Just out of curiosity, um, with that example. I know like, um, in terms of snow removal for the pedestrian bridge, I know like on the, on our bridges across the river, I believe you're not supposed to dump the snow into the river, um, but is there any problem with that over the highway, or...does it blow off naturally or do we plow those and nobody says anything? Knoche/ L ..I don't know the process there. Wilburn/ Oh, okay. Am I right that we're not supposed to shovel the snow off into the river, is that correct? Trueblood/ That's why I personally have to go out there with my shovel and my wagon and haul the snow off of there. (several responding) And if you believe that (laughter). No, our crews are responsible for snow removal on this, and you're right, we can't just blow it out onto the highway, but it's also something that you can't prevent it 100% so what we use there basically are the, uh, brooms on the tractors, keep plowing it out in front of you, there is some residue that will go off, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 92 but not a great deal, and when we get a real heavy snow, that's when it's a problem, and we have to actually go out there with a small, uh, endloader with a scoop on it and scoop it, haul it off, scoop it, haul it off, so it's pretty maintenance intensive, when the snow gets deep. When it's light snow, it's not too bad. Wilburn/ All right, thank you. I was just kind of curious there. O'Donnell/ Why wouldn't you cover that, Terry? If you covered the top, it seems like you could eliminate that problem. (several talking) What's that? (several responding) No, just the top. (several talking) Yeah, put a roof on it, yeah. Seems like you'd eliminate that problem. Trueblood/ We'll come back to you with another CIP project. O'Donnell/ (laughter) Thank you! (several talking) Fosse/ This is an example of an interchange after it's been urbanized. LJh, so you see they come up and just T into the cross road, and then they're signalized, and...and it's much more organized for getting pedestrians through those intersections than what you see in the, our existing one at Dubuque Street and Dodge Street. Davidson/ Go back to...you can see it pretty clearly there...how, that one is actually realigned. (several talking) We'll do the one to the north, as well, and then Dubuque Street ones, and uh, you know, the significant part of the urbanization is putting the signalized intersection in. Fosse/ For these type of interchanges, like this movement right here is virtually impossible for pedestrians, because these cars are coming at speed. There's no slow down at all, and they just go on through. That's where the urbanization layout is a good one. Champion/ So we'll have to have a light to enter the interstate too? Is that what you mean? You have to have a green light to enter the interstate? Fosse/ No, it's not like at, uh, Minneapolis, but there's...these, the intersection here and here will be signalized. Correia/ When you exit. Fosse/ When you exit, and uh, the signals will be in all four directions. Champion/ That's what I meant. Fosse/ Yep. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 93 Trueblood/ Okay, unfunded number fifty-four is Willow Creek Trail west. Of course you heard John Westefeld last night indicate, uh, that this is a high priority of the Parks and Recreation Commission. We'd like to keep it on the radar, move it forward if possible, but, uh, just to get you acclimated -this is Highway 218 of course. Here's Hunter's Run Park. Over, uh, this side, let's see here, the trail...trail currently ends right there, the Willow Creek Trail. So what we'd like to do is take it on over and under Highway 218, to and through Hunter's Run Park, and that's our new Hunter's Run Park, right there. Uh, at any rate, we know it's an expensive project and it's just one that we'd like to keep on the radar. We have looked at three different options by the way. Actually, uh, Jeff's folks up in Planning put together three different options, and this is the preferred option. Uh, one of the other ones included using the existing culvert; which isn't big enough, especially for that long of a stretch, and uh, the other one was an overpass, as I recall. This is the one that we would prefer. Davidson/ And the uh, just to give you the full perspective. The longer range strategy here is for the trail to extend off of this diagram, through the subdivision, that is around Weber Elementary School, and then on to the County, uh, farm property, and up to the original old County Poor Farm, which would be, uh, I mean, not just solely converted to a trailhead, but one of many uses of it could be as a trailhead at that location then, and that would then complete the Willow Creek Trail, at least for the time being. Correia/ Where's this on my map here? Is this on my map here? Davidson/ Uh, we could use this map here, Amy. The main problem being I don't have my glasses on so I can't locate (several talking) there, there's the County Farm, so the Poor Farm is actually up in the corner, right there, so that would be the location, ultimately. Fosse/ These projects are not on the location map (several talking) Now for our next slide as a point of reference, we're moving one water shed to the south, so Rohret Road which is at the bottom of the slide here is now at the top of the slide, and this is an area that's largely, well, it's undeveloped right now. Davidson/ Yeah, we wanted to include this project, again, it's just something that's on the radar, because even though this is labeled Rohret Road south sewer, what we're trying to illustrate to you here is for this area between Rohret Road and to orient you basically down to where the new Menard's is located, it's a currently undeveloped area, and for it to develop and be annexed into Iowa City, this sewer needs to be constructed underneath, uh, the interstate. Um, you know, particularly for the new Members here. You know, road, sewer, municipal water - those are the three things to allow development in the City to occur. The sewer and the road is typically the two most expensive things. Well, the road is basically in here, and the Rohret Road is...is constructed and there would be access from Rohret Road into this area, although clearly there would be, as you This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 94 can see, a road infrastructure that comes up from the south as well, and...and in fact, the road that, the extension of Naples Avenue that goes into the new Menard's site eventually that is a road that would connect as a collector street up to the collector street that you see right there, up into this, uh, area, and we just wanted to illustrate this to you, that...that basically there's a decision for Council to make, if at which point you decide you want to fund this sewer, then development can start happening in this area. Until that is done, we would resist development in the County in this area, because we see it being annexed into Iowa City, and developed at urban densities. Now the proposal you see here with the water feature is just a concept plan. It's one idea that could combine some storm water management, with a public, you know, asset to the neighborhood. You can see there's a mix of densities. The light orange areas indicate, uh, commercial and multi-family. The yellow is more single family residential, but basically, uh, a mixed use neighborhood that would develop in the City. None of it will happen until the sewer is extended, um, and so again, that is something that if a majority of Council decided you wanted to, you know, provide some impetus to development in this area, then you'd want to make a decision to put this sewer into a funded year. Fosse/ Right now the sewer that's necessary to serve this area ends right at this point here, and it would need to be extended down Abby Lane, through Mormon Trek Village, and then underneath the interstate. So we're looking at somewhere between $800,000 and $1 million to...to get to that point. Anything else on that one? Trueblood/ Okay, this is another one we'd like to keep on the radar, that's currently unfunded, and that's the Sand Prairie enhancement. This is the area - I'm sorry I don't have a, uh, very old photo for you, but if you're not familiar with it, it's right across the street from Napoleon Park. LTh, originally we required...acquired in round figures about eighteen acres as a neighborhood open space dedication for that Sand Hill Estates, and then subsequent to that time, we purchased another twenty-two acres from the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, and paid $22,000 for it. So we've got about forty acres down there. We do currently, as I mentioned last night, have a $38,000 grant, uh, from the REAP program, and that's primarily for clearing trees. Right in through here, that's just an example of a lot of honey locust trees that are down there. Very undesirable, not to mention painful if you get too close to them, but uh, clear the trees and then we can subsequently start doing our, uh, our burning. We have decided, by the way, we're working with the Friends of Sand Prairie Preservation quite closely on this, and we've decided that the best way to determine what's needed down there is to first burn what's there and see what comes back, in the way of, uh, native sand prairie species. Um, it's uh, we will, by the way, go for another REAP grant probably next year of a larger amount in order to help with the development of the area. It's planned to be low impact development, just prairie grasses and that sort of thing, with a nature trail and a parking area and some signage and uh, that's about the extent of it. There will be a trail connection, coming off of that, uh, This represents only. a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 95 over toward, um, Wetherby Park, because this is very close to Wetherby Park and that'll be the responsibility of the developer to do that, when they get to that point in the development. Correia/ This would connect by trail to Wetherby? Is that what you said? Trueblood/ There is some land in between that doesn't belong to the developer or the City, but some day will be developed, so this'll give that trail connection so that then when that happens through a neighborhood open space dedication, we can get that land to connect... Correia/ Okay, that's what I'm saying. There is a possibility (both speaking) okay. Hayek/ Is the old John Gilbert trading post anywhere near this? Trueblood/ Yes it is. Where is it, Rick? LTh, L..John Gilbert trading post. Hayek/ That's the origin of Iowa City. Trueblood/ Yeah, yeah. Hayek/ ...(unable to hear) Trueblood/ I know it's down in that area somewhere, but I don't know where. Miklo/ It was a little farther south. Hayek/ I don't know if there's any way to incorporate that part of our heritage into something like this, but...it'd be an idea. Trueblood/ Either this, or Sand Lake. Yeah. (several responding) Wilburn/ Is there a Native American burial ground down there somewhere? Trueblood/ Yes there is. A small one, uh, it wouldn't be in any of the areas shown here, but the best I can describe it is sort of in the upper, in uh the northeast corner of the property that we're... and that's something else I neglected to mention. That's something that we will want to include, like in the signage and whatever type of protection (unable to hear). This is also a home, former home, of the box turtles. Champion/ What happened to them? Did they run away? Trueblood/ Well, they were transplanted and...and I understand that occasionally you can see one along I-80, trying to make its way back to.. . Champion/ Were they native to there or did somebody bring them in? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 96 Trueblood/ I really don't know. (several talking) Hayek/ Bob, you know more about the trading post, that's south of this area. Is it on private property somewhere? Miklo/ I'm not sure of the exact location, but I do understand that it was farther...it was closer to the intersection with Napoleon Lane, which goes east-west. Hayek/ Well, it'll be interesting to try to keep that on a...on the radar of this radar. Trueblood/ Rick...Rick probably excavated that when he built their new public works office down there. Uh, another unfunded project is the Scott Park development. It is...has been unfunded for a number of years and we're thinking that it's about to the point where, uh, we may need to bring in forward to a funded year because primarily because of all the growth there (unable to hear). Scott Park is, uh, rather odd shaped, going up around like so and all the way back down here, it's about forth-three acres in size, and what we'll do when it comes time to develop a plan, of course, is to get the neighborhood involved, which is what we try and always do with regards to either new parks or renovated parks, and uh, because it's large for a neighborhood park and yet it's going to have to serve, and does serve, as a neighborhood park, as well as a regional park. Um, I might just mention while I've got it here that in case any of you have heard, uh, we just recently determined to carve out an area right down in here, about three acres in size, just this small section of the park, uh, to work with Dog PAC in creating what would be a neighborhood style dog park. Nothing like Thornberry. It would just be, uh, fenced in area of about three acres in size. And, uh, we did put out the word to the neighborhood, asked for their input, had it on the Parks and Recreation Commission agenda. I think we had eleven people (unable to hear). Did have a couple of phone calls from people who were opposed to it, but everybody who was at the meeting was in favor of it. And so it looks like that'll proceed, but Dog PAC is paying for it. O'Donnell/ Terry, is it just for that neighborhood or... Trueblood/ No, no, it's...anybody can use it. O'Donnell/ Okay. Trueblood/ But what Dog PAC would like to do is to start developing what they term anyway as neighborhood dog parks, so that, and I'm not talking about a ton of them, but maybe three or four eventually, so that different... so that everybody doesn't have to go to one large dog park and they can have something closer to home. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 97 Wilburn/ I did about a month ago heard from a couple folks, complaining about that, the location, and I said it hadn't come across our desk, it's probably at the Parks and Rec Commission level, um, so are you planning any further input sessions or...I did...they were folks that hadn't been at that meeting, but... Trueblood/ We're not planning any more at this time, with help form Marcia Klingaman, we did send a letter, uh, to everybody within x-number of blocks that lived out in that particular area. Notifying them and sending a drawing of where it would be located and that kind of thing. LTh, only received strong, what I would call, strong opposition from one individual. Wilburn/ I presume they would get... Trueblood/ Of the five letters I got, he wrote three of them. So... O'Donnell/ What was the opposition? Trueblood/ What was the opposition? O'Donnell/ Yeah. I mean, noise? Um, cars? People? (several talking) Wilburn/ What I heard was cars and taking away from the neighborhood park, people first, so that's what (several talking) Trueblood/ ...strongly opposed to it was under the impression that we were going to take this, uh, this entire section of Scott Park down here, which not even close. It's roughly about one-third of that, and uh, heard some, uh, comments about noise, some about just taking away the activities of the kids, which we're not. One expressed parking difficulties, uh.. . Correia/ The idea though with the neighborhood dog park, is that mostly caters to people that live in the neighborhood, that would be walking to the dog park (several talking). I mean, that's sort of the idea of a neighborhood.. . Trueblood/ That's the idea. Now, that's certainly not going to prevent people from driving there and using it, that's the idea. Correia/ And so would this, would folks using that also be required to have a dog park tag? Trueblood/ Yes. Correia/ Yes, okay, and so if they didn't have, there'd be that little kiosk that you pay your $5.00 or whatever it is, if you didn't have. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 98 Trueblood/ What it's going to take is folks from animal control to make occasional, uh, runs by there so if somebody is using whatever dog park without a tag, then they're in violation of the lease law and can be ticketed. Correia/ But I mean, I think there's the ability to have a, get a like one-day pass actually when you're there. Trueblood/ There is at Thornberry right now, but I'm not sure yet if that'll be possible at neighborhood parks. Correia/ Okay, that was my question. Fosse/ One thing to keep in mind about Scott Park is it was originally acquired back in the 70's as part of a flood control project, uh, for Ralston Creek, the north branch basin that's in Hickory Hill Park so this area does flood and that's quite intentional. The park, uh, aspect of it is a secondary use that came along later, and as the park has redeveloped, one of the things that we'll be doing is surveying it, to find out what impact thirty years of sedimentation has had on that flood controls, uh,.it's an ability to control floods, and we maybe taking soil out of there, uh, before the improvements are made, just to reestablish that original volume for flood storage. Davidson/ This is a project... Wilburn/ I'm sorry, when that happened, we'd do a public notification through the neighborhood centers so, or so people wouldn't think that we're taking away a park? Fosse/ Yes, we would. Wilburn/ Okay. Davidson/ Project unfunded eight-one is neighborhood pedestrian lighting. This is a project that was originally brought to you by the Goosetown Neighborhood as part of the PIN grant process, and Council expressed a desire...it was quite frankly a prof ect that needed to be a little more fully developed than it was in the form that you received it as part of the PIN grant process, so what you asked us to do is...is develop sort of a concept project that could be used in any neighborhood in Iowa City, uh, hypothetically, um, and that's what we're in the process of doing. We'd hoped to be a little bit further along, but we're simply kind of in the middle of it right now. We have a design consultant who's assisting us. We're trying to come up with a design. This is obviously Linn Street right around Pagliai's Pizza there, um, just wanted to show a sample ped light. Uh, these are actually real nice, I think, in terms of the feeling they have in the area down there. Um, but what we'll do is we'll come up with a block or a couple of hypothetical blocks that could then be used to extrapolate out a project for a neighborhood if This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 99 there was a desire on Council's part to enhance neighborhood lighting in a particular neighborhood. So, we'll hopefully in another month or two have that ready for you, and uh, certainly with next year's CIP or for that matter, the PIN grant process, although I don't think there's probably adequate money in the PIN grant process, but one way or another, you would be able to consider projects for any neighborhood. Correia/ So you're saying that that wouldn't be ready until... Davidson/ It'll be ready before the next CIP process if you wanted to consider it. But, you know, I think we're likely to be into an amount of money per project that you would want to consider as part of the CIP, because of the amount of money it would take to really enhance certainly several blocks in a neighborhood. It's not going to be something you do for $25,000. Fosse/ The next project is the Riverside Drive redevelopment, and we talked about that, touched on it earlier in the day, and that is the intersection of Riverside Drive and Highway 6, and we've got the equipment division work down there, uh, the refuse, traffic engineering, and here's the temporary fire station, shows up on this, and then transit is in this location right here. Now, what's on the unfunded year is about $2 million for the redevelopment of this and that just includes demolition of the existing facilities and preparing the site for development. And it does not include the new facilities that these operations would need to move into. As I touched on earlier today, it'd be about $15 million to build those things on another site and uh, there are two options for developing this corner. One leaving transit in place, and the other would be moving transit as well, and I'm guessing that moving transit, Joe, I'm guessing it'd be roughly another $15 million to build a facility of that magnitude? So, one of the things we've done is we've made application to the EPA brown fields, uh, grant program to see if there are opportunities to help us finance some of this. This whole area was part of the old City dump, and right about in here, is the line where they quit burning the stuff as it was put in place, to just putting it in place and burying it. So, uh, these buildings here are on fairly good footing. These to the south, uh, we have a lot of subsidence in methane production under those. Wilburn/ Didn't um, didn't a few years ago, didn't you have to put some temporary footings in to stop it from sinking, or something like that? Fosse/ Yes, well, there's this little building right here, and uh, that is, uh, a building that there's a big vacuum in that sucks some methane out from underneath the transit facility, and then treats it before it's released into the atmosphere, and then, um, just repairing things routinely around the transit building, um, caused by subsidence is...is a constant upkeep, and that's another contributor to our salt storage building problems, which is right down there. Jeff, did I miss anything? Hayek/ When you say development of that area, you're talking commercial, residential? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 100 Davidson/ Commercial, likely, and we...we occasionally have some inquiries. I mean, there's 32,000 vehicles a day, which is the kind of traffic count that gets national franchise type business interested so, I think it would be a site, you know, the post-soil issues would obviously have to be, uh, dealt with, but as Rick's indicated, the area between Highway 6 up to Benton Street has similar type soils, and special structural systems for those buildings, so it is possible to redevelop in the area. Um, obviously the City would have to get its facilities out of the way. Um, for the new Members of Council, the transit building itself is built on a structural system that goes down to the bedrock. The...the...although there have been some issues with some of the utility systems in the transit building, the building itself is not in any danger of sinking into the landfill system, but the area around it, the parking area and that, if you go down there, there's a lot of subsidence routinely has to be filled, and there has been ongoing maintenance issues. Joe could highlight those if you ever desire to know more about them, but...um, that building, believe it or not, the transit building, I can remember when we built it, but it's going on almost twenty-five years ago, so it's probably, in terms of it being a Federally funded building, reached the end of its useful service life and if Council were to make a decision to want to build a new facility, you know, we could attempt to go after Federal funds for that. Hayek/ You and I talked a long time ago about riverfront development and uh, way down the road this may be part of that, it would seem to me. Davidson/ Yeah, hypothetically, Imean, the Central District Plan which you'll be getting, well, it'll probably go to P&Z, I think Bob intends to take it to P&Z in March, so you would probably get it in April or May, uh, it's been an ongoing process. That goes down as far as Highway 6, so it doesn't actually get into this area, but we'll have some specific strategies for you for that area immediately north of this. Champion/ What did you say a new, um, transit building would cost? Fosse/ Probably in the neighborhood of $15 million. Champion/ Really? Fosse/ Yeah. Champion/ But we could get some help with that. Fosse/ Possibly. Davidson/ It's eligible for Federal funding, Connie, it just has to compete with everything else. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 101 Champion/ And uh, what else on there would have to move? The salt building, which is already going to be moved. Fosse/ Yeah, we have the equipment division, uh, traffic engineering operations, uh, and refuse, recycling, those folks are all stationed out of that corner there. And those are all slated to be relocated... Champion/ They're already going to be moved, I mean, we plan on moving them already. Fosse/ Right, right, and that's where our fuel system is, present fuel system, and...and vehicle wash. Champion/ And would the new transit building be down also on, um.. . Bailey/ Near public works? Fosse/ Yeah, potentially. We have the room down there, and we could possibly accommodate that or they may have another site that they like better. So we...oh, I'm sorry. I was going to say we've had some very aggressive interest in this corner, but we've never been able to afford to get out of it, to go some place else. Champion/ Well, maybe we could talk -not today or tomorrow -about the possible, what is that land really worth, I mean, what's the actual...what could we sell it for. Correia/ That was my question. Champion/ And then what would it cost us to replace what we have to replace, if we can get Federal aid, because I think that's kind of an eyesore. Wright/ That's being polite about it, yeah. Champion/ Oh, I've seen worse! And, um, but I think it's very highly commercial area, and that it would be an asset to the town to do something else there besides putting public facilities on it. Bailey/ Well, and it might be something we could talk about...if that's our goal, how...how long would we want to phase that sort of process. We've got some of the public works phasing through fiscal year 11, so what else would need to be moved and what else would we need to do, and how long do we want to, you know, create a plan that goes out to 15 perhaps. (several talking at once) Wright/ ...take that plan down a ways, down at especially the roadway, but this is an important gateway into town and it's really unattractive. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 102 Fosse/ We do have an appraisal on this, but it's getting somewhat dated and I don't remember the figures off the top of my head, and as you work your way south here, um, you'll see the end of the runway right here, so we have a fairly significant no-build zone, but as you pointed out, Mike, it's still a gateway into our community and... and a part of that. Correia/ So you can give us the figure though of the most recent appraised value? Fosse/ Yes, yes I can get that for you. Well, we're down to three projects. We're in the home stretch here. Shall we keep moving? Bailey/ Oh, absolutely! Fosse/ Okay. Davidson/ LTh, before any of you come over to the table to strangle me, uh, this was my idea (laughter) I take full responsibility and we don't have to belabor the discussion here. This is a project that Council made a decision, uh, the past year to not go ahead and construct, however, I think realistically it is still on the radar. Um, we in Planning continue to be contacted with some regularity with people interested in redevelopment in this area. Uh, particularly the nursery corner. Um, and everyone who calls wants to know what the City's ultimate plan is. We do have the project designed far enough that we could essentially accommodate a development project, and also accommodate what we still intend to do. Um, and so you know I just think we're going to be faced with some decisions here, between the traffic issues and the redevelopment issues, uh, we're going to be faced with a decision on this project at some point in the upcoming, two, three to five years. Bailey/ (several talking) current businesses down there? Davidson/ Pardon me? Bailey/ Have we heard from current businesses down there about.. . Davidson/ I have heard from one current business interested in the redevelopment of their site, yes. O'Donnell/ Jeff, I don't think anybody really had anything against improving the intersection. My, well I shouldn't speak for everybody, my problem was the two hundred and fifty foot median. I mean, where if you were going north, you could only turn right, and if you're going south you could only.. . Davidson/ The medians are clearly atrade-off, Mike, between getting the dual left turns in there, and that...that, you must have the medians with the dual left turn. I mean.. . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24; 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 103 O'Donnell/ But how long? Does it have to be two hundred and fifty feet long? Davidson/ No, that's a design detail that would be refined, as we finalized the plans. Champion/ And why do we have to have a median? Davidson/ For the dual left turn lanes, it's just a design feature that's required, um... Champion/ By law? Davidson/ Yeah. Well, design standards. (several talking) Yeah, not by legislation. Champion/ Okay, so you really don't have to have it. Davidson/ Well, if you use Federal funds you do have to have it. Champion/ Oh. Okay. Davidson/ Eleanor's going to... Dilkes/ Well, and especially for you new folks, um, the City has immunity when we design in accordance with recognized traffic, engineering, etc. standards, so we don't want to stray too far from. them. Wright/ Immunity from? Dilkes/ Liability, claims that the design caused an accident, caused injury, etc. Fosse/ Functionally there are good reasons to have those medians there, to make that whole intersection work, but as Jeff pointed out, there are trade-offs with the local functionality for adjoining properties. O'Donnell/ Well, once again, the two hundred fifty feet was the problem. I...I don't know. What's required? What's the, uh, what's the length that's required by law? Or by the State? Fosse/ Well, the, our designers worked on this and their best judgment was this was what fit best and what worked best. Correia/ And that was the design standard, like Ron said? Okay. Knoche/ They were designing it in accordance with the design standards the DOT holds for Federal aid projects. Correia/ Okay, and so as Eleanor said, that would be, we would want to follow that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 104 Davidson/ Yeah, and I mean, it's basically asafety-driven design standard, where if you have people trying to make left turns across that number of lanes of traffic, you simply end up with a...with a crash. Champion/ I can understand that. The reason I didn't like it was because I didn't want to disrupt all those businesses, um, for traffic because I think we're talking about fifteen minutes a day in the morning, and fifteen minutes at night. So lucky for you, I'll only be here two more years. Davidson/ And again... Champion/ Because I'm not going to support this project. Davidson/ Again, just on the radar. Wilburn/ I was ready to go it. (several talking) Davidson/ LTh, Washington, Van Buren intersection is right outside the window here. This is a project that we're just now are putting the finishing touches on, and uh, what we'll...this'll be more complete when you consider it next year. Couple of things we're trying to accomplish here, this is a...whoops...okay. This is a really big wide open intersection, and I was a little bit surprised when we had our designers looking at this, uh, this crossing right here is the equivalent of a seven- lane street, because of the, there's...the Ralston Creek bridge comes down through here, so there's just a lot of paving out there, and what we hope to do with this project is...uh, bulb out these intersections so that the pedestrian crossing on all the approaches is greatly reduced, and formalized, so that it's much more clear than what we have out here right now. LJh, we also want to do some safety-related things. There's an off-set to this intersection, as you drive across it, uh, kind of a dog-leg and so we want to do some realigning, and at the same time, establish some speed tables here, so that we can achieve a reduction in the speed of vehicles, and again, increase the visibility of pedestrians in this area, make it a little bit more pedestrian friendly, uh, we would then formalize some of the on-street parking. Like you can see the bay that's created right here, formalize some of the on-street parking along here. We also want to do some things up in this block. You can see now we've gone to angled parking on both sides of the street. There's currently parallel parking along here. We'd have angled on both side. It would mean moving the sidewalk out slightly in this area, but fortunately we have enough room that we wouldn't have to change any of the parking, the same number of parking spaces in the City lot, increase the number of spaces here, eliminate a couple down here so that you no longer have people essentially backing across the crosswalk into the intersection, which is not a good idea, uh, so we'd clean that up as well. We would extend this median out, and I have to tell you, not necessarily as it's shown here with these plantings, as we would really want to keep everything low for visibility sake, but right now we have semis This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 105 parking in this area, which really causes some hazard for pedestrians with the visibility with a semi parked there. Uh, New Pioneer has formalized, uh, this driveway through here. I'm using my left hand on this, sorry. Uh, so that you can now go out to Johnson Street. So they're encouraging their trucks to stage in this area here. We've talked to New Pioneer, they're really excited about, uh, the prospect of, uh, enhancing this area aesthetically and for pedestrians. I think over half of their business they say comes from bike in and walk in. I mean, it's a tremendously high percentage for a supermarket like this. Um, so they're, but they said right up front, no net loss of parking. We don't want to lose a single parking space. So we have a strategy here that actually gains one parking space, um, again, we're...another thing that we'll work with Terry and his folks, but we think this area right in here could be formalized into a little pocket-park area. It's...some people use it already, informally, that way. (several talking) Is there a bench down there actually? Okay, well, there's a possibility we could formalize this down here as well. We'll have a more specific proposal. We're, just like I say, in the process of refining it. We'll want to have a good thorough staff review of it, but again, on the radar. Bailey/ So, once you have a more specific proposal, you'll have a dollar amount and we could put this on an unfunded list at least? Davidson/ Right. Yeah, it'll be on the unfunded list with a...with a specific dollar amount tied to it, possibly something that you could do, you know, it's great when we can do the whole thing at once, but possibly something you could do in increments, as you could afford different parts of it. Bailey/ `Cause I think this is, this would be really helpful, especially for the...for the pedestrian traffic that results on Saturday mornings, with Farmer's Market. Davidson/ There's also the possibility, let me get my arrow to come up, possibility of a speed table here, and...and basically these speed tables, one here, one here, one here, you could do one of them, you could do all of them, you could do none of them. It's an option. Correia/ It would be the speed table/pedestrian walkway? Davidson/ Yeah, they're...pedestrian walkway on the top and if you've gone across the one on Newton Road, that's the design we're talking about. Champion/ I frequently use Van Buren, not just to come to the City, but also when I go to work downtown, I use Van Buren to get to Iowa Avenue to get to Tower Place, and that intersection is really bad in the morning if there is a delivery truck parked there. You can not see, well, you can kind of judge because you can see cars coming from a distance, so you know there's going to be a car coming down that right hand side of the road, but it's impossible to see bicycle and pedestrians who are walking along on the other side of that...of that truck. So, I think we should This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 106 have a no-parking truck sign there anyway, because it...a lot of people use that road to go across, and I think it's really dangerous. Several times...I always stop before I pass the truck to make sure there isn't a bicyclist coming down there, but you just can't...you can't see at all. It's a...the visibility is not good. Hargadine/ Police firing range -normally when I bring this topic up, my buddies all abandon me, but uh, I appreciate you hanging around. (laughter) Um, we still have the need. Um, this is an actual slide of Cedar Rapid's range. They are, the situation that I reported to you last time I brought this up, um, they're going through, they've got a Chief retiring soon and um, one thing that we...what we usually get is reservations a year in advance for when we need to train, and they will no longer guarantee those any more. So it's slowly...our relationship with this, uh, on this range here, is slowly going away. We've known that for a while. Um, as you're aware, the site that we preferred and had some preliminary, uh, design work done fell through. Uh, but that doesn't negate the need for it. Um, all of the law enforcement agencies in Johnson County, to include now UIPD. They're a new partner in this, um, have a need to be able to train somewhat close to where we work, and um, so we've kind of put it on a back burner during the cold winter months, but as the spring, um, gets here, that's going to be...we're going to start looking for land again, and possible options. We've got funding figured out, um, it's just a matter of finding the perfect spot. Bailey/ And what's the funding? Hargadine/ Drug seizure, forfeiture funding. Correia/ And tell me, the barrier of having an indoor firing range? Because I mean I think the outdoor firing range, the issues for people that live in the vicinity, whether it's close enough or not close enough type of....or be bothered by it, um... Hargadine/ Certainly through the winter months, indoor is preferred. Cost is going to go way up. Correia/ But what's the cost? Hargadine/ Um, multi-millions. Mainly for the lead abatement. Correia/ From the bullets? Hargadine/ Uh-huh. Uh, indoor ranges have to have, um, certain air flows that bring...when you shoot, the air is sucked basically out and filtered before it hits the atmosphere, and that's the main cost towards doing an indoor facility. The other thing is, um, long guns. It's usually hand guns only for an indoor facility. Uh, for shot guns, rifles, it's a little less...(unable to hear). So, there's times when This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 107 an indoor facility's nice, especially when the weather's like today, but um, for, uh, SRT, SWAT type training, it's...it's not large enough. You need to be outside. Correia/ And how much of that do we do? Hargadine/ Every month. Correia/ Of all that, not just the... Hargadine/ SRT trains every month (unable to hear) Correia/ Are there any indoor firing ranges in Iowa? Hargadine/ LJh, Brownell's has astate-of--the-art facility. Correia/ Where's that? Hargadine/ Uh, it's a couple hours from here on I-80, west. Champion/ What does SRT... Hargadine/ Special Response Team. SWAT. Correia/ And so you have different types of weapons that they have to practice with? Hargadine/ We do. Hayek/ There used to be a firing range in that building. (several talking) Was the Rec Center. (several talking) Hargadine/ And for lead abatement, that's...yeah, I can't imagine it was good for anybody that works in this building. (laughter) But that was probably built before that was known. Correia/ There were less officers probably then, less (unable to hear; several talking) Hargadine/ Ideally we'd...we're looking for between fifteen to twenty-five acres...as ideal. Depends on the site as well, um, doesn't...if it floods once or twice a year, it's not a huge problem. Um, crop suitability ratings, of course that affects price. Um, the...the a previous piece of property we were looking at had a crop suitability of zero, so (coughing, unable to hear) around. It's a matter of finding them. It maybe on a piece of acreage that's for sale that's two hundred acres, and...and can we slice off a piece of that. Bailey/ Have you talked to West Liberty? The gun.. . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 108 Hargadine/ I've not. As spring gets here, um, when we can actually see ground, um, but that's an option we'll explore. Bailey/ They have a firing range down there, there's a gun club down there. Hargadine/ It's private. Bailey/ It's private, but they were, they're interested in partnering with law enforcement, so... Hayek/ What about the Landfill area? Is that at all possible? We have the land, we can't really use much of it. Fosse/ Well, some of the things we've had some discussions about, um, part of this comes with working with the neighbors out there and, uh, when we acquired the property, we acquired it (difficult to understand, garbled recording) so we need to work with them. Champion/ What about the old part? Fosse/ What's that? Champion/ What about the old part, that's been filled in? Fosse/ Yes, that's...(several talking) Bailey/ There's still neighbors in the proximity, the sound I think is the concern, correct? Hargadine/ One of the things, uh, that we would do no matter where we put it, is engineer it in a way that minimizes sound as much as possible, and there are ways to do that. There are engineers that specialize in reducing the noise. Champion/ All right. Bailey/ So, go ahead. Fosse/ Turn it over to you, and... Bailey/ Well, does anybody have any specific questions about any specific projects before we start general discussion? So, let's take aten-minute break and then we'll come back and discuss first of all this question that Dale posed initially, this, uh, debt levy, because that'll form most of the rest of the discussion. Then I'd like to talk about, um, any unfunded projects we might want to move to a funded year, as we did with the Napoleon Park project last year, and then talk about, um, you know, the timing of some of the projects, if there are things that we want to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 109 move...propose some of those kinds of things, and any other general discussion that we'll have. Okay? (BREAK) Debt Levy Policy (P26 & 27): (recording started late) Helling/ ...has remained fairly constant. The, uh, valuations are going up and so you are, in terms of...of, uh, measuring your allowable debt, you're shrinking down away from that total margin. So what's happening is, you look better and better in terms of your debt health, uh, the health of your debt situation because you're not borrowing as much as your total margin would allow, um, but still by...by even remaining constant, you're pushing up against your own self-imposed, uh, cap. So, I think that's what you have to take in mind, uh, we don't think that from the standpoint of your financial health or the, uh, um, your bond rating or anything, that by bumping that cap up a little bit, that you'll hurt that because you are still borrowing less and less each year, the percentage of your allowable margin. Correia/ So that...so my question is, with this chart on page 27. Helling/ Uh-huh. Correia/ The, uh, polka-dotted graph, line, that represents the allowable amount of debt we can...potentially could occur, based on Iowa law? Helling/ Yes. Correia/ Okay. Wilburn/ That's our state credit (both talking) Correia/ Right, so...is there...like you said, it seems that we go down in how much we are actually incurring in debt, based on what we would be allowed to incur. Helling/ The percentage goes down because your allowable margin's going up and your actual debt is... Correia/ Could there be a policy that's based on, um, a percent of the allowable amount? Helling/ Oh, you could... Correia/ But I mean, would that be something that would make sense? So it wouldn't be... Helling/ I think that's up to you, how...how strictly you want to govern yourselves in that. If...if you do a percent of the allowable margin, then that goes up every This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 110 year. Um, all we're saying is, if you continue to borrow at the level that you have been borrowing, you look good as far as your allowable margin. It's only the self-imposed 25% policy that you're violating, and that 25% policy may not be...may not be a good policy at this point in time. Wilburn/ Based on...I was going to say, based on, uh, changes in practice, uh, the example that you gave in terms of, uh, purchasing fire apparatus, that type of thing. Is there a recommendation that you or Kevin might have, uh, given those changes in practice, that might give us some guidance as to a figure - is 30% too high, uh, does that...um, does that create any, um, any essentially a problem with your day-to-day practice as you try and implement.. . Helling/ No, I don't think 30% would be a problem. Bailey/ And does it make sense to continue to frame it in a percentage figure of total.. . Wilburn/ Right, this, yeah that gets at what Amy was (several talking) Wright/ ...essentially a moving, uh...(several talking) Champion/ I prefer...I personally prefer the percentage because it's a definite limit, because it's a percentage of your levy. Wilburn/ But I think the question I'm getting at is...uh, and what's evolved as a question here, um, there...there are reasons you have certain policies, and one, it's...it's clear that at least the number associated with this policy, well, not even...logistically the number associated with this policy provides some constraints and isn't responding to some changes in actual practice, but does the nature of this type of limitation make sense, is it applicable? If it is applicable now, then what's...what is an appropriate figure? So in other words, rather than...we have an indicator, uh, continuing to say, well, why do you have this indicator? Well, we've always had this indicator, rather than saying that what makes sense in terms of showing that we are, uh, trying to be, um, responsive both to State law, but trying to get some type of local flavor indication that we want to be responsible with, um, our finances. Bailey/ Right, is this the way we want to monitor it locally. Matt, you had a question. Hayek/ Uh, yeah, and it escapes me. Wilburn/ Sorry, I guess I just raised more questions, looking for some guidance. Hayek/ No, my question was this, what is, uh, what is the industry municipal standard? What are other communities in similar situations doing, and further more, what was the genesis of our 25% policy back in the day? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 111 Helling/ (coughing, unable to hear) I think it was just a matter of just capping, some way limiting how much money was borrowed. O'Malley/ That's correct. The genesis of it is more like in maybe twenty years ago, we might have had three other types of tax levies. You had machinery and equipment tax levies and a couple other tax levies, so there's more tax levies in the mix and it was good policy back then, not only to have recognize that you're doing a good job against the State, but making aself-imposed standard. Well, since those twenty years have expired, we're down to only about five levies, and four...or six levies and four of them are frozen. So it pretty much doesn't make much sense mechanically to keep beating your head against that 25% levy. You need to come up with another best practice on debt. Bailey/ So what is the industry standard, as Matt asked? O'Malley/ I'd have to do some research. I don't know the industry standard, because this is something that Iowa City decided. Champion/ You know, even if we funded everything that was recommended and... and didn't touch anything or didn't move anything in, we would only be at 27%, and...isn't that true? Helling/ Yeah...for, up to 2011, yeah. Now, if nothing happens in terms of State policy on property taxes and local revenues, um, debt still could inch up further. Frankly, my personal opinion is, looking at your budget, I think you don't have a lot of room to keep borrowing for other things, without borrowing for operations, which I think is, you know, a practice you don't want to get into. Um, so from that standpoint, a lot of it depends on what happens over the next one, two, three years in terms of...if the State gives you any opportunities for more diverse, uh, revenue stream. Otherwise, you could...you could say 30 and you could start bumping up against that in a couple years, but I think you're very limited on how much more you can borrow for...for, um, capital expenses and so forth. Correia/ Well so...I think, that's why I was asking the question related to what would be the pros and cons of having a policy that something like not go more than, uh, whatever percent of the allowable debt margin, because then that's something that we can, uh, we can, uh, calculate and have a reason behind that we're not comfortable going more...more than whatever percent we come up with, where if we say the current policy is 25% and we've decided 30%, just because it's more than 25 and we think that that's fine. It's not really based on any kind of objective number, and that doesn't mean, even if we have whatever percent, that wouldn't mean we would have to go up to that amount. We could say, and only used for capital, you know, debt; not to be used for operational expenses. So it's not that we would say, well, we could go this high, we'll go ahead and use it for something else we need and not capital. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 112 Helling/ Yeah, well, first of all the 25% is, I don't think it's just pulled out of the air, but.. . Correia/ But the increasing feels like, I don't know how would I decide (several talking) 30 or 35, just because this year it's 27 and we think it's going to go higher. I mean, that's not really based to me on anything that's related to what we're allowed to do by law or what we think is healthy, based on some other objective criteria. Helling/ I think it was based as a percentage of your total levy, just for the purpose of making sure that, like you watched your total levy, you also...there's...making that kind of a decision, you're also making a decision on your...on your debt levy. Champion/ Well, you could separate voter approved bond referendums from Council approved bond referendum. Helling/ You did that when you did the Library. And if you look back here in 2004, when it went up to about 26%, that's exactly what happened there. Champion/ Because voter approved levies, people know (unable to understand) where we're in control of capital improvement projects. Um, so I think it's healthy to have a limit. I mean, we all have limits in our own budgets, and I think it's healthy for the Council to have limits. Bailey/ Right, but I mean, Amy's not proposing not having a limit. She's just proposing framing the limit, based upon the allowable debt margin, versus the.. . Champion/ Well, that could get to be a lot (several talking) Correia/ Yeah, but that doesn't mean we would have to...that doesn't mean we would have to, um, go into debt at that level. That...that we couldn't go any more. But it gives us that flexibility. Bailey/ She's just suggesting basing it upon a different criteria. (unable to hear) So...what do others think? Bump that up to 30 or look at our debt, our percentage of...of allowable debt margin? Which makes a little bit more sense to me, as well. Hayek/ Although then it's just easier to accumulate more debt, right? Bailey/ Depends on where you set the percentage. I mean, if you look at our history. Hayek/ I guess the way I look at it is, in the short-term, in the near-term, our hands are somewhat tied. You know, it's almost February. We've got a lot of good projects there, and we haven't gotten sort of relief from the State that maybe coming down the pike - we don't know, but over the long run to rely increasingly on the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 113 issuance of debt to pay for our...for what we want is...is going to come with a cost, the borrowing cost, um, and that maybe unavoidable, but I'd like to...I'd like to think we can over the long run minimize our reliance on credit to pay for these things, because it seems to me the cost to do so is...is going to be significant, and I'm sure (unable to hear). Wilburn/ And along those...along those lines is the direction that I was going, and similar to what happened with the Library, one thing that we could do, uh, again with that short-term, long-term perspective is, uh, we could say, uh, if there's consensus to approve, uh, these projects, this budget -these projects, the amount of borrowing as is, with the understanding we know on this particular year we may violate our self-imposed policy by whatever it ends up...1 or 2%, with the understanding that we give, uh, we ask Dale to give Kevin direction to collect information from other cities on the types ofself-imposed indicators that they use, uh, do you see where I'm going? Um, that way we're also telling our credit...credit rating folks, uh, we're telling Moody's that, uh, we understand it's gone up. We're evaluating the policy so that we can set a new policy based on other practices, um, similar to the way that we said...so in other words, there's a plan in place. We're not just...one we're not just artificially picking a number, 30%, 27...but we're saying something's going to be going on in the meantime, just like when the Library thing happened, we came up with a plan. We said this year it's going to be up, this year will be slightly up. The next year it'll be back down. I don't know if that's where you were headed, but that's kind of what I was thinking in terms of... Bailey/ So basically develop a policy after some additional study, because you feel like we can't make a decision that would be relatively informed on benchmarks or best practices today? Wilburn/ We'll approve...with this budget, we'll approve, um...I would say no more than what is presented in terms of total buy in this time, with the understanding that we are going to be evaluating the policy. Bailey/ So that precludes us adding projects, really, if we're at our ceiling. I mean... Wilburn/ Is this...so this, I thought this went up to 27? Champion/ In 2011. Wilburn/ Oh, okay. Bailey/ Yeah, we go up to 25 it looks like in 2009, so it would preclude us adding other projects onto Funded, if we want to remain within our policy this year. Wilburn/ Well, I guess, um, not wanting to pick the number right now if this is where we want to go, um, I mean, if...(several talking)...yeah, so I guess there has to be This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 114 some type of consensus agreement or informal agreement, well, in the end we'll approve the budget, but um, that we're not going to, I mean, we're not going to add on twenty projects. We're not going to add on ten projects. I guess, just some type of indicator that yes we understand we're out of sync with our self- imposed policy this year. We're collecting information, going to make a policy decision, uh, within the next year, based on the information that we got...received. Bailey/ So is everybody comfortable... Helling/ You're not out of sync this year, but you're programmed for (several talking) Correia/ ...we're out of sync with what we approved because of the three-year budget. Helling/ You're out of sync in 10 and 11 (unable to hear). Wilburn/ Okay. Bailey/ People comfortable with that? Hayek/ Yeah, I mean the way I look at it over the long run, you either pay for your projects through a tax and you're taking the money and you're funding it directly to the projects, and there's not a whole lot of operational expense to get the money from the taxpayer to the parking ramp or whatever you're building, but if we are doing it through debt over the long run, you're still taking money from the taxpayer to pay the debt levy. There's an additional margin that you're paying, essentially, for interest and so less of that then gets into the parking ramp. It's just, there's a cost to the City, and some of that's unavoidable. The City's always issued debt, but minimizing that if we can, you know, in 2008 and over the next ten years... Bailey/ Well, and that's how we approach most of our projects is we do, we issue debt, I mean.. . Hayek/ Right, but we've limited that, and in the slow and steady expansion of that concerns me because that just means our costs go up, you know, increase over time. So I don't think it's something we can solve today or this month. I...I tend to agree that we should probably move forward with these for 09, but we're going to have to put our heads together going forward, so we're not repeating this year after year after year. Bailey/ And so what kind of information would it take for this group to make a decision. I mean, what are we...what are we charging Kevin and Dale with information gathering? (several responding) We're going to have to make a decision at some point. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 115 Correia/ I'd like to know when, um, Moody's gives us our credit rating, when they're looking at debt, are they evaluating... are they evaluating our debt based on our policy? Are they evaluating our debt based on a percent of allowable debt that we're allowed to have? Is it a combination of both things? That's something that I' d like to know. O'Malley/ I think it's a combination of things, and especially your valuations, and sitting here listening to you talk, I do remember another city that had a debt policy, and what they did is they had a certain dollar amount, like $4.50, and they never went over that. What that means is, you live on your growth and your revaluation, so they had some sort of cap and just like we have an arbitrary cap, that was their arbitrary cap. That way the tax rate didn't change for the taxpayer. And they had to live, they had to fashion their projects within that $4.50 per thousand valuation, so rather than measures, it's a matter ofself-discipline, and so some projects would then have to be pulled off the table, uh, in any event. Wilburn/ So, what I'm asking for, Dale and Kevin, other staff to come up with is to take a look at what some of those other self-imposed, uh, whether it's a cap, self- imposed policies related to the amount of borrowing that you do, and it may, we may come back at the end and say, looking at what some of the others may do, and say, you know, ours is better, there's really not much significant difference, we'll hold to this, um...there maybe, you know, there may be a number...if it's our, there may be a number associated with it or it may stay the same, but at least we'll have...had a year, some research done, some information, to kind of bang our heads together and say, `yeah, we'll go ahead and hold to this,' or we'll... Helling/ That's fine. I think that gives us the direction we need. We can come back and we can look at what other policies are. The main thing is that between now and next fall we make that decision so when we put a CIP together for you next year, it'll be within the policy that you adopt, and you'll...this clearly is not within your existing policy. Wilburn/ So would it be likely that, uh, you know, that might be a decision this summer coming into fall that we would take a look at the information presented and make a decision then. Okay. Helling/ Yeah. Or sooner... Bailey/ Well, and I think we'll also want to have this three-year plan in front of us, because a decision will have an impact on what we are able to do in the future, and I think that that's...it's one thing to make a decision about percentages or dollar amounts, and it's another thing to have your projects in front of you and look at the opportunities that you may or may not be able to take advantage of, because of a policy we're developing. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 116 Hayek/ In lieu of actually identifying a new percentage cap or...or changing the policy to something concrete, can we just decide to abrogate the policy for FY09, essentially leave the 25% in there for the next time around so it holds our feet to the fire and we know we've got to do some work over the next, you know, ten or twelve months to figure these things out? Correia/ I don't understand what you're saying. Hayek/ Well, instead of, well, in terms of our policy, which under the current funding scenario we would violate. Wilburn/ In the out-years. (several talking) Not in the current (several talking) Hayek/ All right... Bailey/ Three year plan, you're right, we would. Helling/ Unless you chose to add to your CIP today. Hayek/ Oh. What I'm saying is our options are for those years, we either go up to 30 or 35%, or we tie it to the allowable margin, but we really...I don't know if we have enough information sitting here today to make that decision, or is there a way to punt on that, uh, until we can? Helling/ That's what you're doing. (several talking at once) Yes. Correia/ We're keeping it in, we're deciding it might change next year. And for fiscal year 08, or fiscal year 09 in related to anybody...Moody's looking at us, we are within the constraints of our policy for 09, but it's really more thinking of those next years. Hayek/ It's a balanced budget thing as much as anything, isn't it? O'Malley/ That's correct. Unfunded Proiects: Bailey/ Okay? All right, let's move along. Let's look at unfunded projects that we talked about. Is there any feeling about moving some of these unfunded to funded years. We've done it before. Anything that seems compelling in the presentation? Champion/ Well, I think the firing range is...is fine if they can find a place to put it because that's not going to come out of our (unable to hear) Correia/ Well, some... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 117 Champion/ ...I think things should be explored, like you talked about... Bailey/ Well, actually the firing range isn't on our unfunded list yet. Correia/ ...some things like the firing range, because they're not related to debt. If that, if an opportunity comes to the City or to the...or if they find something, they'll come to us and ask us like they did last time. I don't think necessarily we need to insert it, do we? (several talking) Wright/ The money is in hand, if I understood what Sam was saying correctly, so...that just, if there's a piece of land, we can say yeah. Correia/ Is that a correct assumption? Helling/ Uh, Kevin, do you have those copies of the, just the GO debt portion of the CIP? It might be helpful if you have, um, copy which will be in the budget once it's all put together. What it does it just shows each year, what your GO debt is, based on the CIP. The other projects that are not funded through GO debt, uh, you have more flexibility there, because you're not affecting your levy by putting them in or taking them out, like the firing range, as long as you don't spend more than the $300,000 that's available. Or if you fund it out of the fund balance or whatever. Correia/ I guess what my question is, if we don't put the firing range in here, that doesn't mean that.. . Bailey/ We don't lose track of it. Helling/ Oh, no. Correia/ No, no, I mean, no that's not what I mean. I mean, if it doesn't prohibit the Police Chief from coming to us, at any point during a year to say we have this land, we have this money, can we do this, and for us to say yes. Helling/ Right. Correia/ Okay. That was my question. Bailey/ Any other unfunded projects that people want to discuss? Correia/ I'm interested in moving the neighborhood pedestrian lighting. Champion/ I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Correia/ Neighborhood pedestrian lighting, number eighty-one, on to the...I think this is an issue that's come up as part of the Violence Against Women Task Force. I think it's...it came up in the PIN grant application this past year, uh, so I would... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 118 Davidson/ So would you suggest, Amy, that the City would develop a project, or you would just have a placeholder amount for neighborhoods to request? Correia/ Yes, a placeholder amount for neighborhoods, similar to the traffic calming, where neighborhoods request. Champion/ I don't...you're going to bring us a plan for that, or some kind of plan. Davidson/ Bring you a cost estimate, a hypothetical one-block, here's about what it costs to do a block. Champion/ Because we're going to talk about a lot of money here. It's not going to be $50,000.. . Wilburn/ When did you anticipate bringing that in front of us? Davidson/ Um, we're kind of in the middle of it, so you know, March, April maybe. Bailey/ Are others interested in moving that onto a funded year? Champion/ I'm not. Wilburn/ In lieu of something, or just adding to? Bailey/ Adding to, and then we can juggle things around. Wilburn/ L ..I would be. Wright/ I think I am if we can figure out, um, some logical placement for those lights, rather than just having neighborhoods step forward and. saying we're interested. Bailey/ That seems real (unable to hear) Correia/ Well, and I think...yeah, I think when I envision it, it's similar to the traffic calming, where thee would be certain, I mean, we would develop something that said, it would say...certain... Davidson/ I think also there's a process question there, you know, with the traffic calming program, that's been very successful because we have a process to make sure the neighborhood buys in to the project. Correia/ Yeah, the whole... Davidson/ And I think...I can tell you from past experience when we've done, when we've had requests for street lights, uh, that were not part of the street lights we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 119 install for...for traffic safety, and we put it to a card survey of a neighborhood, we've had, we have had as many that the neighborhood didn't want because of light sensitivity than we've had that they did want. So, I think having a process to make sure you've got buy...you know, with the traffic calming program, it's at least 60% of the neighborhood has to say we want it, and I'm not sure you wouldn't want a similar kind of a program. Correia/ That's what I imagine. Hayek/ The problem I have with that is that if we're looking at near-downtown neighborhoods, you know, those are largely populated with students, who I would assume are less inclined to mobilize and be heard on the issue of lights, and in terms of the squeaky wheel getting the lights, you know, I mean, in traffic calming we were able to conduct some studies and confirm objectively what the traffic speeds were and that sort of thing. I don't know if you look at crime data to justify lights in a certain area or what, but it...I just wouldn't want us to be putting an investment like this into areas that are not as in need of lighting as other areas. Bailey/ Right, people feel that they need some level of amenity, rather than issues of safety or something, yeah. Wilburn/ Well, that could be part of the criteria, that we would develop, and I wasn't suggesting that it be moved into the 09, but I was thinking into a funded year, until we talk through what that process might look like. Davidson/ And you...some of you at least remember the process we went through in developing those criteria for the traffic calming program. I think we'd want to sit down with you and you know, maybe sit down with the neighborhood council and...and go through an input process to come up with the... Bailey/ I heard three interested in moving it into a funded year. Is there another...okay, so... Hayek/ ...like second or third funding (several talking) three years, right? Wilburn/ Yeah. Champion/ The thing that I think would be important for us, um, in the...for economic development, um, would be to ask staff to look into the possibility of money to build a new bus...what do you call it? Bus barn? Bus building? Davidson/ Transit garage? Champion/ Right. Transit garage. Since we have plans to move the other facilities that are there, and have moved a lot of the facilities out of there, um, just as an This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 120 economic development move. We'd free that land up for...for future, for other development. Bailey/ You're talking about number eighty-five, right, the Riverside Drive redevelopment? O'Donnell/ Were we talking $5 million to build transit building, is that what I heard? Davidson/ Oh, no. Fosse/ Closer to $15 million. O'Donnell/ $15 million? Fosse/ Yes. (several talking) Davidson/ Yeah, what Joe said from the audience is there would be 80% Federal funding, once you became eligible. You know, there's a lot of people, the State has a management program, basically where they take requests for Federally-funded projects and it's... Champion/ So we don't know when we... Davidson/ It is possible, Connie, no, we don't know when we would get it. It is possible also, I mean, we've had a scenario as well, basically taking out everything on that corner, except for Transit. You know, Transit is not the real visible part of that corner, and so, you know, again, you're going to want to hear from Joe and Ron Logsdon in terms of exactly what their intentions are, but there is a possibility you could redevelop that corner, you know, Transit is a relatively attractive building, certainly, compared to the other buildings down there, and so I think it would be possible to redevelop it and leave Transit there, at least hypothetically you could do that. Champion/ Oh, I understand that, but I'm thinking about economic development of that corner, not as public use but... Davidson/ Certainly taking the whole corner and having Iowa City Transit move to another location is...is feasible to consider. Bailey/ So could we put that on a work session, to talk about phasing that project, and...and bring some of the ideas that you've developed, and see what that time line could look like, and what that (coughing, unable to hear). Would that be possible? Correia/ It seems like that's longer than a, than the next two years (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 121 Bailey/ Okay. Other, um, items from the unfunded list that you want to discuss? I do wonder about number sixty-six, it's the leisure pool development of City Park. Last year the Council generally expressed that there was an interest in that retro- fit. I was wondering if that continues to be the case, and if we could just remove that placeholder? Champion/ I'm sorry, what... Bailey/ Number sixty-fix, the leisure pool development? Champion/ I'm not interested in disturbing the City Park Pool. Bailey/ Right, and I was wondering the implications of just removing that from the unfunded... Terry? Correia/ Can always bring it back! Trueblood/ Actually, uh, well, the implication would be that it disappears. Bailey/ Yeah, that would be okay with me. Trueblood/ Actually, there's been further discussion on that, although not recently, that there is still an interest in developing a water park, leisure pool -whatever terminology you use -for the citizens of Iowa City, but not necessarily City Park. Champion/ Okay, so can we leave it on there as another pool? How's it worded? Bailey/ It's retrofit City Park Pool into a leisure pool facility. We could just put leisure pool facility, could we get one for $5 million? Trueblood/ Yeah, leisure pool, leisure pool is something like...like a building. Depends on how big you want it. You could do a pretty nice one for $5 million. Correia/ Is there, um, is Tiffin considering a leisure pool? Did I hear that, in sort of their...I guess I'm just wondering in a county of our size, there's Coralville, there's North Liberty, I mean, Williamsburg has a leisure pool, I mean, is there market necessarily for it? I think...I think we need to have the pool that we have at City Park because frankly you can't really swim at Coralville. I mean there's a lot of playing, some swimming, but.. . Wilburn/ Well, I think if we built one, would people use it? Yes, you know, the question is whether you ...I mean, if we don't build one, are people going to be going to the other areas? Well, that's what some of them are doing now. Um, that's separate from...no, and that's separate from the question, do }you retrofit, and there, at least there wasn't support then to change City...City Park, and I'm one of those who doesn't support that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 122 Bailey/ Well, and I would be more than happy to have a placeholder that was a leisure pool facility, if that's something we feel like, but I would just like to remove that retrofit and take that idea sort of off the table, if that's agreeable to the majority...do we have, okay. Let's do that. Hayek/ City Park used to have a leisure pool, sort of a wading pool, across the street that was ripped out at one point. Is any of that water and.. . Champion/ It was kind of a little wading pool. (several talking) Trueblood/ Uh, that was gone long before I was in Iowa City, but I have heard about it, yeah. O'Donnell/ I remember it, it was...and it was used a lot. (several talking) Hayek/ It was, you know that old sort of, that abandoned road between the southeastern end of the swimming pool and the big rock that you, that you pass when you go into City Park in your car, that used, that actually used to be a road, and it culminated in a wading pool that was there until the mid-80's, I think. (several talking) Just had a spigot and it just sprayed water. (several talking) It was a splash pad. Like a 1950's splash pad. Anyway, I don't know if any of the infrastructure's still there that could be used for that. I rather doubt it. Trueblood/ Not to my knowledge. (several talking) Champion/ But it was kinda like our fountain downtown, only it had an indentation so water actually collected. Correia/ Well, I'm interested in talking about number fifty-two. It's that ten-foot sidewalk along south Riverside Drive. Champion/ Too expensive. Correia/ I mean, I think that's an area where you see the path worn by folks that are walking or riding a bike along that area. I mean, I think there's...documented use of that as a throughway for pedestrians and bicyclists, and folks that I think are generally coming in for jobs or services. Bailey/ So we've talked about this before, why isn't it showing up in our, I mean, it just hasn't risen to the top. Is there a particular reason? We talked about this quite a few times. Fosse/ No, and in fact some of the discussions that we've had internally, and I think also with the JCCOG regional trails and bicycling committee is, and I'm just giving you my understanding of it, would be that we talked more about the Highway 1 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 123 trail that we had outlined earlier than this one. Um, you know, a factor I think for the City Council is that the housing development south of the Airport, which the City recommended against, and is in the County and are not Iowa City residents, has created a lot of the demand for that, created the worn path that you refer to, Amy, and to the degree that that's a, you know, a political factor for you in this project. I guess it's something you all will have to weigh, and there's also been requests for transit service and requests for street lights that, you know, we have resisted because those are not Iowa City residents. O'Donnell/ Does the County ever mention any (unable to hear) Davidson/ Not... Correia/ Have we approached them? Okay. O'Donnell/ Maybe we should. Correia/ Well, but certainly this...it goes past the Airport, that's in the City limits; it goes, it would be going to the, um, that (several talking) in the City limits. It also connects, yeah, it connects to the McCollister Boulevard, that could then be a trail, you know, over on the Sand Lake. I mean, I think that there's... Davidson/ It would certainly be consistent with City arterial street policy, again, eight- foot walk along that street. Bailey/ Are others interested in...in doing something about this? Wright/ Could that be the beginnings of some streetscape work through there? Fosse/ Again, that's something we're going to look at comprehensively with that brown fields application that we've made to the Feds. Bailey/ Any other projects on this list? Okay. Hayek/ What about the, uh, Rohret south sewer? Bailey/ Number? Hayek/ Fifty-eight. Pretty big ticket, but...no development south of that street until we make a move like this. Davidson/ You know, a parallel to this project is the initiative that the City did in east Iowa City, very similar to this, where the City at a developer's request, now we don't have a specific developer's request at this time, but a specific request was made for the City to extend some street and sewer infrastructure across a property that a developer could not obtain, which led to Windsor Ridge development. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 124 Correia/ (several talking) Well, I guess thinking about doing things that would...create more growth on the out...outlying parts of the City or increasing the City limits, I mean, I think we would need to talk about what that means for other City services, fire, police, that sort of thing, so it's not only the cost of putting the sewer out there, it's that then if we, then if we have that development, do we want to concentrate on more in-fill development, versus, so I'm not sure. Bailey/ Has there been interest in developing that area? Davidson/ Periodically, but quite frankly the developers in that area, the people who have developed property in that area, they know full well the sewer, nothing happens until the sewer... Bailey/ Okay, of course. Champion/ Right, if a developer came to us, I mean, that's another story, for us to just assume that there would be development, I don't want...I don't particularly want to move that up, but I do...I would certainly listen to the Planning Department if they came to us and said we have a developer that's very interested in developing this land and we need to put the sewer in or water or whatever. Davidson/ We don't have that at the current time. Champion/ Then I don't want to spend money. Davidson/ We've had expressions of interest over the last five years. Wilburn/ And I would think, too, I mean something that would get me thinking that way would have to be something major and planned and thought out, kind of like, uh, with the Southgate develop on the west side, um, we have in the last few years, well, we're still finishing up, some major growth potential type things with, you know, Mormon Trek, McCollister, um, the development I just mentioned, and there's several other in-fill projects that I would think of before something...that is going to open up some side development on the fringe like that would, that I would consider before that. Hayek/ The, uh, I think it was sewer and water upgrade along the industrial cone, southeast side. Are those, I forget, are those on unfunded or are those actually in the operating... Fosse/ Oh, the 420th Street? I think that's in funded. Bailey/ That's funded. Hayek/ That is funded, okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 125 Davidson/ Yeah, that's in a funded year, okay, FY10, but part of that is the State grant, that we don't have in hand yet, so that would push it out until we got that. I mean, actually there's $900,000, a combination of waste water user fees and GO bonds in FY09, so basically we would begin work on that next fiscal year. Hayek/ What page you on there? Davidson/ I'm in an old copy of the budget, can you guys tell what page...(several talking) Fosse/ C-17, top of C-17. We're starting to set aside those funds, in 09, for this project. (several talking) Davidson/ For all intents and purposes, you can't accelerate it much more than this, you know, starting it next year. Bailey/ Okay, are we done with unfunded? Correia/ Well, I'm interested in the Highway 6 trail, Broadway to Sycamore, and then Sycamore to Lakeside. We talked about that... Wright/ Which number is that one? Correia/ Thirty-seven and thirty-eight. I think that's a highly mobile area, folks are on foot or on bicycle, um.. . Davidson/ The one that we did between Gilbert and Broadway, which this would be an extension of, those two extensions that Amy just outlined, and of course we eventually want to go clear out to Scott Boulevard with it, uh, you know, it gets used a lot. It...it had a storm sewer component to it, as well as the sidewalk over the top, um, but it was a very expensive project, so...(several talking) Bailey/ Are others interested? Hayek/ Interested, but (several talking) Bailey/ The price tag is sort of stopping me right now. Wilburn/ That would be in, that would be in...infill type thing that I would look at, but I would need to know it was coming off before I'd.. . Bailey/ You'd want to take something off if you put that on? Wilburn/ Yeah, because it is such a big ticket. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 126 Wright/ Actually I think thirty-six is...is one that probably merits some attention at some point, as well, but... Correia/ These two though, I mean, are ahead of.. . Parking• Bailey/ Okay. So they stay where they are. Anything else? We're not really moving anything, so let's move on. Let's move on to, uh, the funded projects. There was some proposals from parking about moving some funding around to different years, let's look at that first and...whoever gets a page first would be great. Which one? C-5. So the garage maintenance repair, moving from the FY08 to FY10, and the 10 to 12. Are we okay with that? (several responding) And then the Capitol and Dubuque, moving, um, the FY11 to FY10. I think I got that right. (several responding) Are we good with that? Champion/ Those are elevators, right? Bailey/ Yes, the elevator upgrades. Okay. Are there other, other requests about moving things around? Pedestrian Bride-Rocky Shore: Correia/ Well, I guess based on...um the conversation towards the end, I don't know if that was the radar, that on C-9 the pedestrian bridge, Rocky Shore Drive to Peninsula. I mean, I would...if there's...fiscal year 08 bond capacity for trails to put into there, and move that, to get that done sooner, um, I mean, I think the costs for a bridge are only going to go up over the next few years, potentially. I mean, is that fair to assume? Bailey/ So last year there was, we moved this into an out-year, there wasn't interest in pursuing this project very quickly. Has the sentiment generally changed? Wilburn/ There wasn't enough interest (several talking) I was interested (several talking) Champion/ I'm very interested. Bailey/ Okay, so what are you suggesting? Champion/ Well, I suggest that we reserve some of the funding and that we ask Parks and Rec to look into other funding for that bridge. Bailey/ So, Amy talked about the trail connectivity funding, from the capacity from FY08, which was...(several responding) Champion/ 790? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 127 Bailey/ Right, because of the bid came in. Helling/ What is the total amount that would be available, if we...left over from FY08 that we could transfer in? O'Malley/ Right now it, it says 690, and there's possibility you may save $100,000 on the (unable to hear) would be, uh, $790,000. Helling/ I'm just thinking, we never know for sure what a project's going to cost until we (several talking) but the 690 is...is for sure. O'Malley/ And $100,000 savings at this point. Champion/ So that's more than half of what we need. Helling/ So you've still got about $600,000 in GO bonds. Champion/ I think we should look at other funding besides, um, it was mentioned a, what did you call that? (several talking) REAP? (several talking) For the pedestrian bridge. Helling/ Typically if we don't have that committed by, what, April when we sell the bonds, we wouldn't sell the bonds this year, so...are you saying that we should go ahead and sell that, and...or, because I don't know that we can get any kind of a commitment on other funding, grant funding or anything in that short of period of time. Wilburn/ So most likely we're going to FY10 at the earliest, is what you're suggesting? Helling/ That's what it...that's what it sounds like. Correia/ Or, FY08, 690 FY09, 610. Bailey/ But you would be suggesting that we go ahead and sell the bonds, even if we don't have other funding committed? Champion/ ...have to spend that money...(several talking) Helling/ Two years, we have to... O'Malley/ That's correct. Helling/ ...or otherwise we have Federal (unable to understand) issues that...we can't sell the bonds and just set it back and make money on it. We have to use it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 128 Bailey/ So there are three people who are definitely interested in moving this around. Is there another person who's interested in moving this? Okay. So, that was a yes. Champion/ Well, I don't know if I want to sell bonds I don't know if we're going to be able to spend. Um, so if we could move it.. . Wilburn/ FY10? Champion/ Yes, and because it's going to, well...what if we replaced it with a project, like um, I saw one in here, um, that we wouldn't do that, like the soccer park improvements. About the same amount of money, uh, create a system of trails, to enhance accessibility - it doesn't have anything really to do with soccer, right? It's, uh, what do you call it? It's beautification or more usability of the park. So, I was halfway not willing to fund that, since I'm trying to look at ways to cut our bonding, but if we could bond for this bridge, and if it turns out we can't do it, then we could do this. (unable to hear) Bailey/ So we were going to do those trail enhancements for the soccer park in FY11, so that.. . Champion/ Well, that doesn't help, does it? Bailey/ What'd you say? What did you say, Connie? Champion/ Well, that doesn't give us, never mind. Correia/ Well, it gives us half, I mean, so if we did the FY08, the 690 that we have, if we transferred, if we moved 337,000 of this FY09 to FY11, because we're taking off the FY11 on page C-9, move that 300,000, we have another 300,000 left to try and get. Do we bond another 300,000, do we have that total? Bailey/ What are REAP grants generally? (unable to hear) Trueblood/ I think $200,000 is the max, yeah. Maybe 250. Correia/ And this bid might come in low. Bailey/ So, there's an agreement to move this to 10, is that what we're doing? I don't think we have to necessarily figure out the funding mechanism. Champion/ No, I think 10 is early enough. Correia/ (several talking) Are we using the fiscal year 08 bonds or not? Champion/ I think we could reserve that money and not spend it, and then bond for it next year. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 129 O'Malley/ That's correct, Connie. If you want to take the $690,000 and then whatever potential savings on Court Hill Trail, and move it into 10, and then hopefully find another project, and then you could reduce 11 by that difference, you could do that, till you find another project. That's fine with me. Correia/ And so that...just so I'm clear, that would take out, where's that page that it says 690? So, on page C-24, where it says trail connectivity, we're essentially crossing that off because we're going to assign that.. . Bailey/ It's taken, it's spent. Correia/ Right, that's...okay. Champion/ It's being held, right? O'Malley/ That's correct. At this point, it's a placeholder, and...and until you identify a project, and I think John Yapp and Terry were feverishly working toward identifying another project to use that on, but if you want to now on the table use it to move up this other project, that's acceptable. Champion/ Great, great, I mean, I think it's a great idea. Bailey/ Is that the source of funding that you all want to use for that, the trail connectivity funding? At least part of it? Wilburn/ Yeah. Champion/ Yes. Hayek/ Making trails, isn't it? Wilburn/ Yeah it is. Champion/ And I think it'll save a lot of gas and I think it's a great energy saver. Bailey/ What a difference a year makes! Okay, um, (laughter) Champion/ There are a lot of people using those facilities. Trail Lighting: Bailey/ C-8, I was wondering if we could move the City Park, if there's interest in moving some of this trail lighting up. It's in 12. Once again, I think it's in, um, this is a safety issue from my perspective. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 130 Champion/ It would be okay with me because we're taking that money out and putting it in a placeholder for.. . Bailey/ Is anybody else interested (several talking) Wright/ ...a safety issue, especially given the past year. Hayek/ One caveat of that though, aren't there some unfunded City Park trail projects out there on the wish list? Champion/ But this is for trail that's already there. Hayek/ Right, but I thought we're talking about some trail relocation, as part of those unfunded projects? Trueblood/ It wouldn't be a trail relocation, it would be, uh, trail...well, one of them would be replacement of a sidewalk/trail along Park Road. Another one is adding trail to the Park. It's not, uh, you know, more of a, more of an inner-park trail instead of a part of the Iowa River Corridor Trail System. Hayek/ So none of this lighting would be on a trail we would then relocate or abandon or anything like that. Wilburn/ Light to nowhere. (laughter) Correia/ You can move lights though, can't you? Is it expensive...yeah, probably. Bailey/ I'd like to move this up to 10, if people are in agreement. O'Donnell/ I would too. I think that's a good idea. It's a safety issue. Helling/ Do we want to take something out of 10? (several talking) O'Malley/ We're just trying to keep track here on accounting wise. So you're moving on page C-8, you're moving the $240,000 of City Park trail lighting from FY12 to FY 10. Bailey/ And I would move the park development below that, out. That's what I would swap out probably, the Frauenholtz-Miller Park development. I would just move that to an out-year, swap these. (several responding) For 11 or 12, yeah. Wilburn/ What'll that, um, when will that church and the neighborhood develop out there? Fiscal year. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 131 Davidson/ They've indicated to us they hope to start construction March of 08, and have about an 18-month construction season. Construction project. So that would get them finished up, you know, fall of 09, November of 09. Wilburn/ Which is fiscal year 10, right? Bailey/ So if we moved it to 11.. . Champion/ And there's not a lot of development there now. Davidson/ Well, there is on half of it, half of the square is surrounded, the north half will be surrounded once the church gets there, so...but there's not a lot of ground currently in the City to the north. The St. Pat's property is kind of carved out into the City. Bailey/ So is there concurrence to move that out? (several responding) O'Malley/ Which year is that? Wright/ To 11. Bailey/ 11, it looks like that would come on line. Helling/ Then... Davidson/ Can I just add one possibility to that Frauenholtz-Miller Park, and Terry, correct me if I'm not on the right line of thought here, is that as additional property comes into the City, around the church, um, that we'll collect impact fees for parkland that could be used for the parkland development. Trueblood/ That's entirely possible. Champion/ That'd be great. I'd like to go to C-7. Trueblood/ ...was it moving Frauenholtz from 10 to l l ...okay. You moved the other one from 12 to 10. (several talking) Helling/ Either that or we should move something... Champion/ Move it to 12. Bailey/ Just swap it out, okay, fine, that's easier. We're going to move it to 12 because it's easier...to swap out. Champion/ I want to talk to Terry a little bit about the soccer park. Um, I mean, that's almost a million dollars, and it's already a beautiful park, it really is, um, although This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 132 I certainly agree with the water business, because we're going to keep replacing that, and I'd like to see some more development in other parks, um, like for instance the Sand Hill Park or, I know it's not a lot of money, but every little bit helps, or the pond, the lake quarry park, I can't remember names. Um.. . Wilburn/ The only thing I would say, and I see what you're saying, Connie, but both the soccer and the softball complex, the places where they have these tournaments, um, there's lots of people coming in now for these tournaments every week and there...there are times it's, and maybe it's convenience for the folks coming to them, but that's, the sooner that convenience is there, the more hooked they are to coming back. Oh, that was a great tournament we had, we want to go back to that tournament, so it...it does impact, uh, programming and not just local programs, but people coming here for the purpose of those...those tournaments, so that would, I mean, Terry, you can say what it is you were...imagine you were going to say in response to Connie's question, but that's, uh, L ..for me, it feels like more than just amenity because of the nature of those tournaments that go on at both the softball and the soccer complexes, but... Trueblood/ Yeah, I'm sure you're aware that, oh, maybe two or three years ago, the Convention and Visitors Bureau started up a Sports Authority, where they're trying to attract many different sporting events to Iowa City on various venues. Matter of fact, one of my staff is chairing that right now, so part of this is part of our effort to try to enhance facilities so it is more of an attraction to get those many teams from outside of town to come to those types of events. That's part of the impetus behind this, uh, certainly the irrigation is not just that, but the everyday use with the kickers and everything too, as well as the soccer field renovation. The soccer park shelters is more of an impetus from the Sports Authority kind of event. Champion/ Okay, you can have it. (laughter and several talking at once) All right. Well, and I really want to see this stuff, I love this park and I want to see it...yeah, I think it's going to be an asset for us who live here and who don't play soccer anymore. (laughter) Fire Station #4: Bailey/ Okay, any other projects or questions? We had asked about the Fire Station #4 up. I'll just put it on the table and... Champion/ I think by the time we get it staffed, and by the time, uh, we get it designed, we don't even need to move it up. I think it's going to be (unable to hear) Bailey/ Okay. (several talking) It would be on C-12 if we're talking about the fire station. Correia/ So, my question...so the construction's in 10, okay, where am I? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 133 Bailey/ Andy, you're going to have to be at a mic. Correia/ So if the construction is in 10, does that mean it'll be ready to go? Champion/ In 11. Correia/ In 11; so...I mean... Rocca/ I think we need authority to move it to construction documents through this next fiscal year. Champion/ Yes. You could always do that. I don't see any reason to move it up, because it is going to take a while for us to absolutely decide where that money's going to come from. He wants to bring in three firemen at a time and get them trained, bring in three more, bring in three more, and by the time all that gets filled and everything gets done, it's going to be that time, time for that fire station to open and function. Helling/ The way we have it set up, the timing is such that it will be ready to go when the staff is (several talking) Bailey/ So we're clear. I just want to make sure that we're all clear about this -this has been a big deal and I want to make sure that we're all in agreement. Champion/ I think the time. line is perfect. Hayek/ Would either of you suggest an improvement on the time line? The means of going about this another way, or are you very comfortable with this approach, both staffing and construction wise? Helling/ Andy would say, give him... Rocca/ Yeah, certainly sooner's better than later, but recognizing the dilemma you're faced with, the three-year phase in is what I proposed in my budget, and I think we'll be there. Champion/ It's been a fifteen year (several talking at once) Bailey/ Okay, good, anything else here? You have any questions...this is pretty clear. Do you have what you need? On the CIP projects? Helling/ So far, Kevin, Deb, do you have everything so far? Bailey/ Okay, all right. I'd like to take about aseven-minute break and then talk about events funding. I'd like to make as many decisions as we can today, so... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 134 Champion/ Have we gone through all these? Bailey/ Well, did you... Champion/ Well, can I just have a minute, I mean, I thought we were going to go through these page by page. Bailey/ Oh, gosh, I didn't think about that approach. Does anybody want to go through them page by page? (several responding and laughter) Wilburn/ Maybe a compromise might be category by category, rather than page by page. Bailey/ So, the Airport projects, any questions, concerns, or changes in those? They start on C-2. And then we have the two Landfill projects, East Side Recycling and the new landfill cell, and then we talked a little bit about the parking projects and moved some of that funding around. Okay. We talked a little bit about some of the Parks and Rec's and trails projects. Were there other ones you wanted to talk about? Okay. Public safety. Hayek/ Are there any residual concerns about the two public safety, uh, proposals, in light of Joint Communications? Champion/ They're going to be tied together, I mean, they're not...they're essential, even though we will have the Joint Communications, the radios...isn't that true? Bailey/ The system will be compatible. Go ahead, Sam. Hargadine/ The only thing that may not be necessary is the radio upgrade, if the Joint project proceeds fully. The other two projects are independent of the Joint Communications. They're improvements to our current operations. Bailey/ But they will be compatible with the Joint Center. Hargadine/ Correct. Bailey/ So everything can talk, everybody and... Hargadine/ And we've got that, as we're designing things now, we're actually thinking of things, assuming that we're going to go to a Joint Communications. Hayek/ Well, if the Joint Communication Center is delayed by twelve, twenty-four, thirty-six months, you still need to replace the radios to get...can you keep `em duct taped? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 135 Hargadine/ We're in a okay situation, we're not great, but as far as the maintenance and, um, with the portables and the radios that are in the cars, I'd say we're just okay. Bailey/ Well, and we've talked to the radio consultants about this, that if it is delayed that we're going to have to be thinking about compatible equipment to a certain degree. I mean, we'll have to think about that, should we have to cross that unfortunate bridge. Hayek/ If we can use our dollars toward whatever new system we get, as opposed to stop- gap measures that will give short-term benefit to us, we should do so. Bailey/ That's always been the objective, I think, so (unable to hear). Okay, other questions? Champion/ Can we talk about Mormon Trek? Wright/ ... C-18? Champion/ Now, I just had an idea (laughter) you don't have the slide up here anymore, but when you look at that slide...it seems to me the bad place would be the left- hand turn coming down that hill. (several talking) Davidson/ Now what I would suggest, if Council wants to talk about the specifics of this corridor, is let us go back and look through the analysis that we've got, and you know, summarize so we're not all just speculating here. Um, you know, summarize some hard numbers for you, uh, I really think it is more than just a, the single intersection here. I think it's more of a corridor phenomena in terms of the crash history, so if you'd like why don't you let us, you know once you're through the budget, uh, summarize that at a work session for you, and maybe you could make, give us some direction then, but do it based on having good data in front of you. Champion/ So, because this actually is out in 10 and 11 anyway. Davidson/ Right, because you know we've predicated this project, Connie, on having Federal funds for it, and in terms of the STP funds that you prioritize through JCCOG, it just hasn't come to the top of the list yet. So... Bailey/ Okay, thank you. Um, let's go back through categories, public utilities, were there any comments there? Then any other streets, bridges, traffic engineering projects that you wanted to discuss or move? Wright/ I still have some issues, some concerns with the Burlington Street proposals, but.. . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 136 Bailey/ We should probably talk about that one again. I do too. And, the, um, the median, we talked about the bicycle route through downtown and I know that that was something that people were concerned about with the median on Burlington Street, and I know you're working on that, so... Davidson/ Yeah, JCCOG's preparing a report on that. Bailey/ So this will come up again. Davidson/ Right. And don't forget, the two intersections, Madison and Clinton, are the two immediate issues, although clearly, Michael, once we start building a piece of median, the intention is to do the whole corridor, so if Council has concerns about the whole corridor, we should address those... Wright/ And I do have concerns about that whole corridor. Davidson/ Yeah, and uh, but as Regenia has alluded, the notion of doing the remainder of the corridor, we owe you some information in terms of bicycle travel through the downtown area, because it's not a bicycle travel enhancement project, the...the Burlington median isn't, so we want to get you better information in terms of the bicycle issues, um, so that you can put that into your decision making by whether or not to go ahead with the median. Champion/ And then just tell me a little bit more about the Sycamore Street-Burns to the City limits - is there, I'm trying to think of how much development there is on the, if I was on the west side of the road. Davidson/ Well, the west side of the road has some fairly well established subdivisions, down to, well, Langenberg Avenue is built off of both sides. Langenberg eventually extends into Sand Hill subdivision off of Gilbert Street. That's as far south as it goes. Now the property owner immediately to the south continues to express interest in coming into the City. Um, but we don't have a specific annexation proposal yet, but...but clearly within the next couple of years we see that coming in, uh, to the City, Connie. Champion/ Okay. I believe that. So, it would, the City limits would extend, and but...do you plan on doing this before that annexation? Davidson/ Well, this project is Burns to the City limits, isn't it? Champion/ Right. (several talking at once) Davidson/ ...existing City limits. Now, if by the time we're actually designing this project, the property to the south, and in fact both sides of the property to the south has expressed interest in coming in, I think we would probably just want to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 137 at least entertain the notion of taking the project farther south. But this project you see here is just to the current City limits. Wilburn/ And I think on the west side, there's one gap, um, north of the Hemmingway and all of that, but that's being developed.. . Davidson/ That's pretty much all platted. Wilburn/ ...yeah, they're...that's platted now, and then to the east, there's one that's being worked on. Davidson/ Essentially where the farmstead is the area that's not platted at this time. Wilburn/ So in the near future, that's all going to be in the City limits (several talking) Champion/ But my whole point is, why would we wait...wouldn't it be cheaper to do it all at once, if we're going to extend the City limits? Davidson/ As Bob indicated to you earlier, the Planning and Zoning Commission has taken, which is an advisory body to you, has taken the position that there is enough development down there on both sides of the road in terms of existing built units, as well as platted units, and we all know that things have slowed down a little bit. The bottom line is, there's a lot of platted lots down there. They believe we need to be considering this a high priority project. (several talking at once) Fosse/ Another thing about that part of town is, with the exception of the arterial street, we have all the other components of infrastructure in place. We've got a major water main going down there, a good sewer line, and we have regional storm water in place, uh, the arterial street is the only missing component. (several talking) Bailey/ And then finally, miscellaneous other projects, there are three -cemetery resurfacing, City Hall lobby, and the GIS system. Any concerns, discussion, movement in those? Okay. So, you have the information you need. Let's take ten and come... O'Malley/ Yes, I'd like to make a, make sure I've got this clear about...um, that ped bridge, using, that's on page C-9, right? (several talking) That's the only one I'm a little unclear on. I've got you're taking 690,000 from FY08 for intra-city trail connectivity, and you're moving it to FY09? Is that correct? Champion/ We're placeholding it for FY10. O'Malley/ For 10, okay. And are you moving, are you reducing FY11 by that like amount, and moving that over? Or leaving it in 11? (several responding) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 138 Correia/ No, moving it over to 10. O'Malley/ So actually you have 1.3 in FY10. Correia/ Well, no, we don't need the whole amount, we need the difference between 1.3 and 690. Right? Champion/ We have to placehold... Helling/ You have to, it's all debt. We don't have any cash... Bailey/ Essentially, we want to build the bridge in FY10. O'Malley/ That's fine enough for me. I'll get rid of the FY (laughter) I'll get rid of the FY08. (laughter and several talking) I just want to make sure I was in the right year. Okay, thank you. Bailey/ (several talking) Okay, pardon me? Champion/ What did we move forward to 12? I can't remember. (several talking) Right. Bailey/ Okay, so, we're going to take ten minutes, and then we're going to come back and talk about page 99 and make some decisions and then we will be done for today. (BREAK) Community Events: Bailey/ Dale, before we started event funding, you wanted to talk to us about this handout, right? Helling/ Yeah, well, that's part of the.... Bailey/ Just overview what happened here, and... Karr/ This is the email to Dale, dated January 9th Bailey/ Yes. Wright/ Bike to Work Week? Karr/ I'm ready. Helling/ Oh, okay. Um, you have a copy of a memo I got regarding Bike to Work Week. What happened was, um, typically what we do for the agencies that were funded This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 139 last year, we send them an application in the fall, and they have till November 30th to send back their information, if they're requesting funds again. Um, Bike to Work Week, actually, uh, received funding in 2007, FY07, um, but there was nothing recorded for FY08, and going back and doing some research, we found that, uh, the City Manager had authorized, uh, $1,500 again in FY08 and I'm not sure, and it must have come about as a result of, well, I don't know why, how it happened that way rather than through this process, um, but I think it was funded then out of the contingency that was, that you see for FY08. Anyway, bottom line for us is, had we known that, we would have sent them their application. They weren't aware of the deadline and so this is the result of, they, um, sent this formally requesting the funds on January 9th. Seemed to me, you know, you might want to go ahead and consider their request along with the others, even though it was past the deadline, because they really didn't get the information that we would have... Champion/ What do they spend the $1,500 on, do you know, Ross? Wilburn/ I haven't seen their budget, and I can describe the activities that go on during the week. Uh, a lot of it is promotional, um, there is, uh, it's probably in-kind support that it gets in terms of police, um, escort with the, the uh, the last couple years what's been the Mayor's Bike Ride, um, they also have some events, um, there's like a bike to work breakfast, they have a day or two they do like a pancake breakfast for people commuting in, down to work, but you'd have to talk to Mark to know the, well, I could probably talk to Mark to find out specifically what they.. . Bailey/ Well, I think part of it might be used for promotion of the event. Wilburn/ Yeah, there's media, press articles (several talking) Champion/ I think it's great. Wilburn/ I think...there's uh, I mean, some of the marketing that goes on with it, poster, promotional, um, that type of stuff. They get, they also get a lot of in-kind support from some of the businesses, um, with, um, some of those activities in mass. I know the New Pioneer Co-op has been a big supporter of them. Bailey/ So that, if we would add them to the requested list, that would increase our gap, um, request to what we've budgeted, to what would be $11,059, so that would be the amount that we would have to...if we are in agreement with this bottom line. Are we in agreement with this bottom line, or are we interested in increasing the bottom line? Champion/ Not interested in increasing it. Bailey/ Okay, do others feel the same way, about this bottom line? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 140 Champion/ It's an increase from last year. Bailey/ 95,163. Champion/ And I think we should keep some contingency. Bailey/ Oh, well, that' 11 make our j ob even more challenging. Champion/. Well, if you all took my advice it would be easy. Correia/ What's your advice? Champion/ (laughter) I don't know! Wright/ But I bet it would always be easier if we took your advice. Champion/ It would! Bailey/ I bet she tells her kids that too. Champion/ I'm the oldest one here now. So... Bailey/ Maybe I'll start with the maybe largest consideration. Champion/ Why don't we go down the list? Bailey/ Well, I was going to go down the list...okay, I can go down the list, but I think if we answer the Summer of the Arts question we'd know where we (unable to understand) because we could get to the end and not have enough money for that, but...we can start with All Iowa New Horizons Band Extravaganza, $250; (several responding) Okay, Bike to Work Week, $1,500. Champion/ That's good. Correia/ So, what was last year? Wilburn/ $1,500. Correia/ Last year was $1,500? Bailey/ From our contingency. Correia/ But they didn't request through this process (unable to hear) Bailey/ The year before was $1,500. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 141 Correia/ Oh, I'm looking at the American Heart Association. Bailey/ Okay. Um, Evert Connor Center, 972, okay. Extend a Dream Foundation, $1,000 (several responding). Johnson County Local Food Alliance, Field to Family, um, the budget last year was $500. Their request jumped to $5,000, and we didn't hear from them last night so... Champion/ I would give them $500. Correia/ I'd give them $2,500. Wright/ Yeah. I'd go $2,500. Correial ...but I think they do really important work. I think it, um, is a important issue to many people in our community. I think it brings people out as a community building activity (several talking at once) Bailey/ I think it brings people in too, and I also think it's a very natural event for Iowa City. Correia/ I think $2,500. Hayek/ I'd consider an increase. I'd like to know what we're going to do with the others before I'd settle on an amount. Bailey/ Okay. Wilburn/ I would agree with that, and as...as proposed, it's a 3% increase in funding from 92 to 95, just to (several talking) Bailey/ Okay, Hancher did not come in, Hawkeye did not come in, Iowa City Community String Orchestra fall and spring concerts, they're requesting $500 this year. Champion/ I would give them the $300 plus the increase that we have in the amount of money we spend, I mean, that we increased our budget. Bailey/ So $300 with a 3% increase? Champion/ Uh-huh. (several talking) Boy, you are good! I mean, because I'm concerned with other (several talking) Well, make it 320! (laughter) I think that's a healthy, I think $325 is good, I mean. Correia/ I say $400. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 142 Wright/ I'm going to go with $400 on that. $300 is pretty tiny. These folks really play their hearts out. Bailey/ Any other (several responding) okay, 400. Um, Habeas Corpus, 9,000, um, I do like that, I mean, the event is a really good event and they did it, but how much are we willing to support? Correia/ $5,000. Champion/ No! That's a lot of money for.. . Correia/ Well, what I also wonder is if we do $5,000 max...I mean, we didn't have any strong firm numbers on their cost estimates for their space rental, and their, um, marketing materials, did we? Champion/ We also didn't have, I don't think, a firm... Correia/ Well, I think some of the space that, you know, some of the dance studios, I imagine that's something that markets their space. Champion/ Right, so why would they want to charge for it? Correia/ Right. But I mean, other space like the Rec Center charges (several talking) use the Englert, that space, I mean, I think that they have needs for space, and obviously have needs for marketing, but I'm wondering if it's a $5,000 max but they need to...up to $5,000 reimbursed for the... Champion/ We could give them...you want to give them $5,000 when we only give the JC fireworks $7,500? Or you want to give them $S,000...I mean, we don't give a lot of people $5,000, and this is an organization that we...we don't really have a lot of information about, and what their expenses are going to be. (several talking) Bailey/ Expenses are space rental $6,000, artists' fees $5,000, travel expenses $7,000, and they said the Iowa Arts' Council will pay for the artists' fees, which is pretty typical, and I do know that they do get grants, and then marketing $5,000 for total budget for the event program of $23,000. Correia/ That marketing is kinda high, that estimate. I guess what I'm saying is we have, certainly they've broken down a budget, but they haven't gone out and shopped around, how much will this space actually cost, how much will...so if we say a max of $4,000, give us your... Bailey/ I don't know that we know that they haven't based this.. . Correia/ Well, we don't have that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 143 Bailey/ Right, but our...our application really doesn't ask for a lot of detail, unfortunately. Correia/ But because they haven't done it before, so we don't, they don't really know... Bailey/ Yes they have, they did it last year. Correia/ But they didn't pay for space before. Bailey/ But they know what space needs they have, I guess is what I'm saying. But if they're talking with the Englert, I'm sure that they have a pretty good idea of.. . Wilburn/ I thought when she was talking with the Englert she said something about them planning them in, and... Bailey/ Yeah, for two years. Wilburn/ For two years, or did that include this year, or not.. . Bailey/ Well, they're asking us for their fiscal year 09. They're planning for this year, and that's when they're talking to Beth, which Beth was surprised that they wanted to book Apri108. And um, then they'll also, she's suggesting book April 09, of calendar year, so that's what I heard. Hayek/ I'd support $3,000. O'Donnell/ That's what we're giving the Shakespeare Festival. Bailey/ Let's put, let's put $3,000 in. O'Donnell/ I think that's high. Bailey/ All right. (several talking at once) Wait, wait, let's one person talk at a time. Ross. Wilburn/ If you're basing it on, uh, I like what Mike was thinking in terms of trying, what's a comparable activity, but the Shakespeare Festival, I suspect, brings in more people than they did. Um, I would...(several talking at once)... Correia) I like that it's around dance, and a cultural activity for youth that, you know, we have a lot of programming around sports, um, I think (unable to hear) those kids that, um, are involved in dance, that community, um, interaction with other studios, other parts of the state. Bailey/ Well, let's put $3,000 here. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 144 O'Donnell/ I think $2,000 is plenty. Wilburn/ What I was thinking is maybe thinking of a figure in terms of helping with that youth outreach, and then absorbing the cost of rental space for the Rec Center space, which is only (several talking) so, you know, I'm thinking $1,500 to $2,000 which would include, I mean, you're helping them with the outreach, we're giving them, we're absorbing the cost of giving them a space, um...(several talking at once)...well, whatever, however many days they're talking about (several talking) So what I'm saying is, figure it, that amount in, whatever the cost, the net effect is that we're absorbing, the cost, but we would be giving them money to pay for the...(several talking) O'Donnell/ $1,500 and then take it up to $2,000, that would absorb... Bailey/ I would like to make sure that we give them enough money to be able to... Wright/ This is an organization that's doing some really good stuff. They did, they had a very good year last year, just getting started. They're trying to expand. They're doing a lot of things that we think are important with the schools, with outreach to youth, with bringing in folks from the rest of the state, and this is an arts' component that Iowa City hasn't done much with in the past. I think I'd like to give them a little seed money to go on. Wilburn/ But I'm not saying they didn't do, and don't do good work, because I've seen some of the work they do. I'm just not so sure on some of the figures that they came up with, so I'm trying to construct what would seem to be, um, a logical basis for going about doing that. I mean, I don't know what they're thinking of in terms of marketing, um, it...it's helpful to know that, uh, whoever it was was going to pick up the artists' fees for them, but I'm just trying to think of... Champion/ The other thing too...some of that, wasn't that rental money from other dance studios? Wilburn/ It, um, it doesn't indicate, but that was the impression I got (several talking) Champion/ See, now that really bothers me, because why would a dance studio charge them rental money, when it's actually going to promote their studio? So, I'm wondering if they didn't have the money...for instance, if somebody wants to do a fashion show, I don't charge them for using my clothes. I mean, I think that that's...if I were a dance studio and somebody wanted to do a dance event in my studio, I would say, `Come!' So I think that they think they're going to have to pay dance studios, as maybe they're offering to pay them. I don't...(several talking at once) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 145 Wilburn/ And they also have anon-profit fee, ifthey're anon-profit. I don't know if this group is or not. Again, I'll go back to... Hayek/ Costs the Englert $1,000 to stay open every day, at least that. (several talking) So they've got to recoup some of that. So the extent you're funding a group like this filters into (several talking) Bailey/ ...if we give them $3,000 that goes to the Englert, I think that that's a good thing for Iowa City. Champion/ But we don't know if it's going to the Englert (several talking) Bailey/ ...designate that it goes for space rental, what they... O'Donnell/ Why don't...we're stuck between $2,000 and $3,000. Why don't we go $2,500? Champion/ No, we're stuck between $1,500 and $3,000. O'Donnell/ Do you want to go to $2,000? Champion/ I want $1,500. Correial$3,000. Wright/ $3,000. (several talking) Hayek/ Well, great, make me the Sandra Day O'Connor on Habeas Corpus here. (several talking and laughing) Well, look, I don't...can we reserve this until we see where these bigger tickets items that we're looking at? Bailey/ Sure. Johnson County Historical Society has requested a total of $10,000. In the past years we gave them uh $7,000. (several talking) Well, no, you've got to combine it. Yeah, I thought the same thing. I thought it was (several talking) Champion/ We gave them $7,000, and now they want $10,000. No, is that right? Yeah. O'Donnell/ I'm okay with $7,000 and I don't know why we would increase that. Champion/ Well, because they're going to take over Irving Weber Days. Correia/ I think what they're proposing sounds really exciting. They haven't done it before, so (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 146 Bailey/ But the Irving Weber portion last year, I know that they're planning to take it over was $3,000 for them, so if we gave them, I don't know, $7,000 for Irving Weber Days. Hayek/ I think it's a great outfit. Champion/ Me too! (several talking) Hayek/ And I think we risk losing the Irving Weber history if we don't resurrect this activity. Correia/ I remember going to the...to the ice cream social, and then it's, I mean, I think the Iowa City Public Library has done that, a good job of what they've been doing, but it's not crating the pizzazz that the former event did and what I heard is that they're planning a series of things that would create a pizzazz.. . Bailey/ So are there four people who are interested in giving them at their requested amount, at $10,000? Champion/ I don't know if I'm willing to do that. I might be willing to do it, because at least this is an organization that I know what the money's going to be used for, and I also know it's going to be used wisely, so I would support the $10,000. Hayek/ I'd come in a little short on $10,000. Bailey/ Okay, now we're to the auction again! (laughter) What would we like the placeholder to be? (several talking) Four for ten, yes, that's fine. Fireworks? O'Donnell/ Ten. Champion/ Ten. Bailey/ Ten. Do we have another one for ten? Hayek/ I'll do ten. (several responding) Bailey/ Riverside Shakespeare Festival. O'Donnell/ Five. Champion/ Four. Hayek/ Four. Bailey/ Four. Do we increase Summer of the Arts to $60,000? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 147 Champion/ No. Correial Fifty-six. Champion/ Oh! Bailey/ I, you know, this is our title event. One of the things that I talked to Dale about is we need to do a better job of quantifying our in-kind donation, because that's quite substantial, as well, so I think that when we recognize what our gift is to this event we also have to acknowledge that, but I would like to increase it if we can. I don't know what we're up to. Correia/ So far where we are at, we have the money, because I've already (several talking) Bailey/ I want to give them $60,000. O'Donnell/ I agree with that. Champion/ I don't object to it. (several talking) I will support it. Wright/ I would definitely... Correia/ And last year they did recognize our gift at $75,000 because of the in-kind, and we did do that. Hayek/ How does this work? I mean, we support, you know, an umbrella group like that, which in turn supports three, now four, five subgroups, but what happens when another non-profit comes along and wants a piece of the pie, as well? We just seem to have a fairly ad-hoc funding practice, and maybe that works. Bailey/ You know, we don't, and we talked about this a couple years ago because I brought the same thing up. We have no criteria for these. I mean, it's not Economic Development necessarily. It's not, you know, the Irving Weber sort of spirit of Iowa City. It's...we have no criteria. We communicate this, we do a press release and then we communicate to groups who have gotten it in the past. Correia/ I think one of the things that I heard repeatedly from many of the presenters last night, and that what I believe is important in the community events area is that community-building aspect of the events, that it's an event that brings the community, maybe not all parts of the community. I think in some events it's community certain parts of the community, um, dancers that sort of a thing, although even that, um, whatever their new name is, um, you know, they may have the portion that does involve the community. It's a community, um, community performance, after they've done all of that, and so to me, that's what's important is that community building. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 148 Bailey/ See and to me, leveraging dollars is really important, and that's not a requirement that we have of groups. I mean, the Summer of the Arts, because we're lead sponsor, I believe that that makes a more successful in the fundraising, and to me that's really critical, and if we were to develop a set of criteria for this, I would have leveraging as part of it. You're not just going to get money from us, but you're going to use our money to go out and raise, you know, corporate sponsorships or individual gifts or whatever. I mean, I think that's an important thing that we can do, um, so...I don't know. I mean, I know that Summer of the Arts uses our money pretty well in that way. Wright/ I think that's a big enough event for what it does for the community in terms of economic development, in terms of...of getting our name out there, as a quality place to live. $60,000 (unable to hear) Correia/ Well, if we funded that at $60,000 and we fund ACE for...ACE at $3,000, we're at (unable to hear) Karr/ Amy, do you want to put on your mic? Correial Sorry. Champion/ (several talking) keep some contingency; sometimes things come up and it's good to have... Bailey/ Let's do the last, excuse me, let's keep doing the last, I mean, we have Youth Advisory Commission with their request of $3,000. Champion/ And what'd we give them last year? $1,500? Bailey/ $500. Champion/ And now they need.. . Bailey/ $500 more for their grants programs, it sounds like. Champion/ For their web site. Bailey/ Web site. (several talking) Champion/ Oh, okay. Bailey/ Which is once again leveraging dollars throughout the community and engaging youth in projects (several talking) So, what we have so far decided is, I'll go from bottom to top. Youth Advisory Commission at $3,000; Summer of the Arts at This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 149 $60,000; Riverside, um, Shakespeare Festival at $4,000; I hope somebody's adding this. Wilburn/ Yes. Bailey/ Thank you. Fireworks at $10,000; Irving Weber Days at $10,000; we have not decided about Habeas Corpus (several talking) okay, we're...String Orchestra at $400; we have not decided about the Food Alliance; Extend the Dream Foundation at $1,000; um, Evert Connor at $972; Bike to Work Week at $1,500; and All Iowa New Horizon Band Extravaganza at $250. And the total is? Wilburn/ I got $91,122. Someone can double-check me, but that's what I got. Champion/ We don't have, what do we have the Food Alliance at? I mean, I think $2,500 is a huge increase from the last amount. Bailey/ So we have about $4,000 to play with, and that leaves us no contingency. Champion/ That's not good. Hayek/ I assume the contingency is for, uh, things come up throughout the year. We're gonna throw a party this weekend and we need some cash. (laughter and several talking) Bailey/ Um, so the two groups that we haven't decided about are Habeas Corpus and the Food Alliance. And we have $4,000. Wilburn/ With...that means no contingency. Bailey/ With no contingency. Correial But we have a contingency line in our budget, when things come up. Champion/ That's not for this though. Correia/ Well, it's not not for this though. It's for any contingencies. Champion/ I think $1,500 for ACE. O'Donnell/ I'm okay with that. (several talking) Correia/ I'd rather see both the Food Alliance and um, and ACE...at least a little bit higher, and I mean, I would go to $58,000 for Summer of the Arts, just because they asked for $60,000 this first year, a big increase, we don't need to give them $60,000. $58,000 or $56,000... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 150 Bailey/ That's our title event. Correia/ I know it...I know it's our title event, but...$56 or $58 is a significant contribution, besides all the in-kind contributions, and we have smaller events that need seed money. Bailey/ But smaller events aren't economic development. Smaller events are... Correia/ I don't think that the priority for community events, I think that can be one factor in determining. I don't think the priority's economic development. Let's take it out of our economic development money then, if that's the purpose of funding it. Bailey/ I would split the $4,000 that we have left, $2,000, $2,000, we would only have $41.00 in contingency, but I'm okay with that, and just say we're not entertaining any applications at this time. Champion/ Well, what'd you say? You'd give `em each $2,000? Bailey/ Yep, and I mean, because the contingency that we can carve out of that, is not going to be substantial enough to really be much of a contingency, so I'm willing to go into the year with a community events' contingency, I think that's fine. Yes, we may miss an opportunity, but... Champion/ I still would go for $1,500 for each of those. Bailey/ And have a thousand dollars? (several talking) Wright/ ...go with Regenia's $2,000 apiece. Wilburn/ I would support the $1,500 with the $1,000 for contingency. O'Donnell/ I would too. Bailey/ That's three...Matt? Hayek/ I would, although I would entertain Amy's idea of maybe shaving a thousand or two off Summer of the Arts, and putting it in a contingency. Correia/ Oh, I'm not interested in contingency necessarily. I'm just...I would be interested in supporting at a higher level, both the Food Alliance and ACE. Bailey/ So $1,500 each, and then $1,000 or $1,041 in contingency? Hayek/ I don't know the true purpose of the contingency fund. It doesn't look like we had it two years ago. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 151 Correia/ And actually, a year ago we, nobody ever came to us with a contingency. It was to the City Manager, didn't even hear that (several talking) Hayek/ And there's a fairness aspect to this, as well. I mean, not funding things in the middle of the year forces people to get in line, go through the application process and be considered at the same time as other people. Bailey/ And then we can add them to a list, I mean, it's not...so, what do we got here? There are two people who are $1,500 with $1,000 contingency. Correia/ I'd rather give it to somebody that applied (unable to hear) Bailey/ So that would be about $2,000, $2,000 or $2,020, $2,020 (unable to hear) Hayek/ I can support that. Bailey/ $2,020, $2,020? Champion/ Whatever! Bailey/ Support for it...one, two, three...okay, did you get that, Dale? Helling/ $2,020 for each. Bailey/ Yeah, so reading down the list, just to make sure we're in agreement. Band Extravaganza, $250; Bike to Work Week, $1,500; Evert Connor, $972; Extend a Dream, $1,000; Food Alliance, $2,020. Hayek/ Why don't we just give that extra forty bucks to the Orchestra? Uh... O'Donnell/ I'd rather give it to Evert Connor. Hayek/ Or somebody else, I mean, it just looks weird (several talking at once) Bailey/ They asked for $500, we're giving them $400. That's what (several talking) String orchestra, $400; Habeas Corpus, $2,020; Historic Society, $10,000; Fireworks, $10,000; Shakespeare Festival, $4,000; Summer of the Arts, $60,000; Youth Advisory Commission, $3,000. Can we all live with that and support it, enthusiastically? Champion/ What was the total amount we're giving to the Johnson County Historical Society? (several responding) Hayek/ And that adds up to the $95,163? (several respond) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008. January 24, 2008 Budget City Council Work Session Page 152 Bailey/ 162. (several talking) Can we just put that dollar in our reserves? Helling/ Have a dollar contingency. (laughter and several talking) Bailey/ Are we good? Is this all right? Okay, thanks for the very long day. We got a lot of work done, so see you.. . Helling/ Before you leave...are you finished? Bailey/ Yes I am, Sir. Helling/ What I want to pass out is something you can look at, bring with you Monday, please, because it'll be what we'll want to work from Monday. And uh (several talking) you want to start those around. Basically there's four sheets here, one is just a summary that I have so far, kind of the pending items. I may have missed something, or you may have other things you want to add. That's fine. This is just what we...what we have today in terms of things you need to address in your budget discussion, um, the second page is changing the residential valuation versus consumer price index. You can take a look at that. Matt, I think that was perhaps the kind of thing you were asking for at the last budget meeting. Um, hopefully gets at it somewhat. You can take a look at it and let us know if...and then...well, that would (several talking). The third thing is...is what you had requested, what Regenia had requested, and that's just a ten year running summary of our budgeted receipts and expenditures, versus the actuals for each year. And then the last one is just an update of the, uh, General Fund balance history and a projection, and that's based on...on current, uh, decisions, well, actually they're not current anymore, but...because you've made a couple decisions since then, but we'll have this, we'll keep this updated for you as you go along with your budget discussions, but it's...this is very close to what we would project the fund balances out, given the decisions you've made thus far. (several responding) Bailey/ So, 8:00 on Monday morning. We'll make final budget decisions on Monday. We'll go as long as we need to, but not one second longer. And, um, we'll go from there, so come prepared with whatever this list, plus whatever issues, you want to bring up about the budget, okay? Thank you very much. All of you. We all got a lot done, and thank you to the staff, Dale. They did a great job. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session meeting of January 24, 2008.