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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-08-20 TranscriptionAugust 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 1 August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd. 4:30 P.M. IOWA CITY City Council: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Hayek, O'Donnell, Wilburn Staff: City Manager Lombardo, Asst. City Mgr. Helling, City Attorney Dilkes, Planning Director Davidson, JCCOG Executive Director Yapp, City Clerk Karr NORTH LIBERTY City Council: Kuhl, Chipman, Salm, Donahue Staff: City Administrator Heiar, Asst. City Adm. Mulcahey CORALVILLE City Council: Fausett Staff: City Manager Hayworth JOHNSON COUNTY Board of Supervisors: Harney, Neuzil, Meyers, R. Sullivan Staff: Executive Asst. M. Sullivan, Asst. Planner Busard IOWA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT Board Members: Fields, Klouda, Cilek, Krumm Staff: School Superintendent Plugge Welcome and Introductions: Bailey/ So then...next item on our agenda is Welcome and Introductions, and I've had a request to do a mic check, as well, as we do Welcome and Introductions. Thank you all for coming to Iowa City. I'm, uh, Regenia Bailey the Mayor of Iowa City -welcome -and it's good to see all of you, um, especially School Board Members, this first week of school. I know that there's been a lot of activity there. So, um, let's just go around the table and do introductions, and check your mic. Make sure that it's working. Donahue/ I'm going to break it, that's the problem. Terry Donahue, North Liberty. Champion/ Connie Champion, Iowa City. Harney/ Pat Harney, Johnson County. Correia/ Amy Correia, Iowa City. Wilburn/ Ross Wilburn, Iowa City. Sullivan/ Rod Sullivan, Johnson County. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 2 Hayek/ Matt Hayek, Iowa City. Fausett/ Jim Fausett, Coralville Mayor. O'Donnell/ Mike O'Donnell, Iowa City. Neuzil/ Terrance Neuzil, Johnson County. Kehl/ Gerry Kehl, North Liberty. Fields/ Patti Fields, Iowa City School District. Klouda/ Gayle Klouda, School Board. Cilek/ Toni Cilek, School Board. Chipman/ Coleen Chipman, North Liberty. Salm/ Tom Salm, North Liberty Mayor. Bailey/ Marian, did you...were you able to hear? Okay. Thank you very much. The next item is a Flood Update. We thought we would hear from all the entities just to see what's happening and, um, put some suggested categories there, but certainly talk about whatever is pertinent to your, um, community, and let's start, um, with Coralville. Flood Update: Coralville: Fausett/ Okay, well, Kelly, you want to kind of give `em an update of where we are with (mumbled) He's more closely involved than I am. (laughter) Hayworth/ Um, we are in the process of completing all of our PW's, and I'm getting all these acronyms and have no idea what they mean, but um, we are getting them all completed. We have presently about $6.5 million worth of, uh, public assistance, um, applications and estimates out right now. Um, that's probably a little bit on the low side `cause there's a couple projects that they don't have included in that. Um, one of the largest portions of that is our Transit maintenance facility. Uh, we have received information back from FEMA that they are...their estimate of damage is significantly over the 50%, and more than likely it's somewhere around 80 to 90%. Um, the Parks...our Parks' facility is also looking right adjacent to that, uh, Transit facility, and that is also, uh, significantly damaged as well. Both of those facilities are in multiple buildings around the community right now, um, in rented space, and we're making long-term plans for where they will go This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 3 ultimately, and then where they're going to go in the interim, as well, because we do not have enough space in our Transit...um, in the buildings that we've rented for the Transit facility over the winter. Um, we do...our total estimate of damage for private businesses was about...approximately 200, um, private businesses and a little over 400 households. The City Council did authorize the purchase of homes, um, that were damaged by the floods...that wanted to go through a voluntary purchase, um, that we did not want to use hazard mitigation funds for. We've acquired ten properties right now, and that's primarily in the area of Fifth Street, from Second Avenue to Fourth Avenue. Um, we are working with other property owners in that area, but right now we've purchased ten of those homes. Um, I think that's the good news. Several of those people have already been able to purchase new homes and have been able to move on with their life, so that's a really good sign for...for those particular people. On Edgewater Drive we are still obviously hopeful of a federal...of the federal buyout, um, funds. Um, those people are in the floodway and so we have not done anything with them, other than continue to explore what options there are, um, on a federal level. Um, I'll leave for Rod to report on the trailer...FEMA trailers, because I think that's good news for all of us, and so you can report for all of our, um, our communities, um, I think that's really, from a commercial standpoint, you know, we're looking at probably about 20% of the businesses that were damaged not reopening, uh.. . Champion/ And, Kelly, the...the buildings that you purchased because you don't want it to go to natural land, are you going to offer those to private developers? What are you...how are you planning on doing that? Hayworth/ Um, our...all those homes were significantly damaged, and so we are going to clear the sites, and then we do hope to have it redeveloped. Before we do that though, obviously we want to look at what flood mitigation efforts can be, uh, undertaken, and so we have solicited engineering contracts or engineering proposals for two different mechanisms. One, for storm water and flood protect...um, creek, uh, work along Clear Creek, and then the other one being on the CRANDIC specifically in Coralville, and so we have, um, received the proposals from both of those, and then those'll go to...a recommendation to Council next Tuesday night. But that's something that we will need to do before we approach a developer about, because there's some of the properties that should just go to green space, and would be made part of our flood mitigation efforts. There's others that are suitable for redevelopment and then what mechanisms do we need to build into those. Champion/ And can you remind me where your bus... Hayworth/ It was on the end of Third Avenue, so it's right in the neighborhood where all of these homes were, as well, so it's at the, um, right next to Clear Creek at the confluences of Clear Creek and Biscuit Creek. So, um, and they were also after This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 2U, ZOUti, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 4 93 floods the remapping was done and we are actually...a part of that building is in the floodway now, where it wasn't when the building was originally built. Champion/ I just have one more question. Um, when you talk about flood mitigation, um, do you look; do the engineers look at what the impact will be further down the river? Hayworth/ Yeah, I think they look at all of the adjacent, you know, areas and what happens, and what does that do...you know, one of the things it looks at is what's the rise in water level, and so, yeah, they...they do look at all of those pieces. Champion/ I just thought that was interesting of you to buy those properties and keep them from...thank you, thank you. Neuzil/ Kelly, obviously...and I'm sure we all have concerns that 20% of the businesses aren't going to rebuild or... Hayworth/ Or may relocate in another location. Neuzil/ That's a pretty alarming number to...to hear. I'm just curious, I mean, is that simply, I mean, they're not going to relocate, they're not going...I mean, what...what are you hearing out there? Are there ways that we can help? Hayworth/ I think those percentages are ones that will not go back in their existing facilities. Some of them may relocate in other locations. Others probably will go out of business completely because they can't afford, either the loss of income during this time period, or they can't cover the cost of upgrading back to the facilities, and I think there's several that are still in that question mode, and really haven't made progress, one way or the other. Neuzil/ Is that what we saw in 93? Similar... Hayworth/ Um, I don't...I think we had less of that, uh, maybe in 93 than we do this time, and I think some of the people, um, are the same people and they've been now, um, I talked to one property owner, for example, one business owner. This is the third flood that they've went through and they said, `Enough is enough! We're just not going to do it again,' so I think it depends on where you're at and how many times you've went through this, um, before. So... O'Donnell/ Kelly, you have to be reasonably certain that in some of those locations that chose to another location or...or chose to go out of business, that somebody is going to be looking in that spots, because those are...even though they were flooded, very desirable areas. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 5 Hayworth/ Yeah, and that's, yeah...I think that in most instances the buildings are going to be reconstructed or new ones constructed. It's just that it might be a different tenant or owner. So... Bailey/ Okay. Thank you, Kelly. Okay, um, let's have an update from Iowa City, and, Connie, I'll have you start. Iowa City: Champion/ Okay. As we all know, Iowa City had some impact from the flood, maybe not as bad as Coralville, but a rough estimate about $7 million. Um, general city costs, $4.63 million; road and bridge repairs, that includes roads and bridge, parks, sandbagging, debris removal, the Animal Shelter, Fire Department; $960,000 for water utility costs; and $1.31 million for waster water system. Now we all know that 75 to 85% of this will be covered by FEMA. Is that the right organization? (several responding, laughter) Okay, I can't remember, and uh, the rest will have to be recovered from the State and local taxes, and although we weren't affected as bad as Coralville, it certainly does affect our budget, and I gotta just tell the Supervisors my personal concern is that you don't get rid of the property taxes and penalties. It's going to really be important to us and probably to Coralville also that we can continue to pay for all these repairs we're going to have to do, um, I suppose Regenia probably knows more what's going on as far as repairing this stuff and what's going on, I don't know, but.. . Bailey/ Well, we'll have Michael... Champion/ Yeah. Bailey/ Matt, did you want to say anything about what you've seen from the businesses, from the...from our loan funds, or how many businesses did we have affected? Was it about... Hayek/ Oh, I think it was in the neighborhood of 50. Bailey/ Okay. Hayek/ Um, and while I have the mic I can report that the ad hoc committee we created, uh, with the Chamber to, uh, allocate the $75,000 in Economic Development funds from Iowa City, uh, met in the course of three weeks, uh, taking a bunch of applications and distributed the funds, uh, to at least 15 businesses. Bailey/ Okay, and do we have any statistics about who may or may not be reopening? Have we, do you know? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 6 Hayek/ I'm not sure we do, and I don't think Wendy Ford's here tonight, and she's...she's zeroed in on that information. Bailey/ Okay, great. Michael, what do you have to add to our report about residential and commercial? Did you have anything to add? Lombardo/ (unable to hear) Bailey/ You have to come up here. (laughter and several talking) Lombardo/ I think, uh, like so many other people, you know, we're gathering information and trying to, uh, decide what other additional flood mitigation measures are probable or likely, and what can we do with the land and the space that's available, but a lot of that's going to be driven by how much funding is made available and...and so, it's kind of a "hurry up and wait." You...you get additional information; you...you get to a certain point, and then until we know what type of resources are going to be made available, we're kind of limited in terms of how quickly we can move forward. So, um, just getting poised and ready, and...and as the funding starts becoming available, we'll be in a position to act. Bailey/ Okay. Thanks. I did also want to note, um, that we (noise on mic)...ha! My microphone is breaking. That we did, as you know, travel to D.C. -Coralville and, uh, the University lobbyists, and Iowa City, and we did talk to our Federal delegation about some of the concerns that we have in the area and thanks to Coralville for joining us out there. I thought we made a really, um, good united sort of appeal, um, for some of the efforts for recovery, um, and I know that they're working on it, but I would encourage all of us to be talking to our representatives about the funding that we need to recover, and certainly it's something I know Coralville continues to do, and...and the Supervisors and certainly our Council Members, as well. Johnson County? Johnson County: Sullivan/ Okay, well, some of this is hot off the press as we had a meeting with some FEMA folks today, um, Ellen Hobel was able to get there from Coralville. There wasn't an Iowa City rep, um, but Supervisor Meyers and Council Correia were there, so you folks tell me if I missed anything here. Um, first of all just a couple of statistics in case anybody's interested. The total, uh, registrations with FEMA so far are 1,485 within Johnson County. And, uh, they're adding about two a day, so it's really slowing down to just about nothing, so 1,485 county-wide. Um, the total requests for public assistance are just shy of $20 million, excluding the University of Iowa, which is obviously much higher than that, and those are just the requests for city and county facilities. Um, the...the big issue that we spoke about was the, um, housing, and the FEMA trailers. They have 39 pads leased. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 2U, 2UUti, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 7 Most of those are in Golfview in North Liberty. Um, they weren't wired properly. They need `em wired for 220, so they are in the process of...they have an electrician doing that as we speak. They have, uh, 39 total pads. Most of them are in Golfview. They did say there was another, uh, trailer court that they were going to use if necessary, but they couldn't remember which one it was, and they didn't bring that with them. (laughter) I don't know, but...for now it would be Golfview. Um, there have been 15 of `em brought in apparently, and so there are 15...I think they, I think the word they used was "staging" so there are 15 that will be ready to go as soon as the wiring is done. Ten families so far have requested them. Three of those families were originally in Coralville and seven were originally in Iowa City. Um, Amy talked with them at some length about some of the different scenarios where people might not realize maybe that they, uh, would have this available to them, and so FEMA was going to do a little bit...a little bit more follow-up. Basically, they wanted us to spread the word that if you run into anybody who is having a housing issue to just call them essentially, and I've got the...the number for housing. LTh, it's 866-274-4392. That'll actually get Des Moines. Again, it was 866-274-4392, and you know, the cities and the county really have nothing to do with...we don't know who these people are. We don't review anything, uh, it's all done between FEMA and the folks who...who were affected. Champion/ But who qualifies for those trailers? Do you know? Con:eia/ I mean, that was the other...that's the other thing that, um, FEMA's a complicated system. People really need to call and share their...we...I wouldn't even feel comfortable saying that I would think anybody is or isn't potentially eligible. I think anybody has run across anybody who's been impacted by the flood, and they have some type of housing need, they should call the number and then they have a whole screening process and tool and questions that they ask to probe that. So some of the...some of the scenarios that we talked about were, let's say, uh, someone's been living with family and friends, and while that...people might say, `Well, they don't have a housing need; they're living with family and friends,' but maybe that's really not working out anymore, um, maybe their family and friends are renting and it's in noncompliance with their lease to have people staying for an extended period of time, therefore, it's putting their family or friends at risk, um, or if it's really not...their home isn't ready to be moved in, back in, it's going to take a long time for rebuilding, they have moved back in because they, you know, don't feel like they have any other options but it's going to be 12 months they say. They move back in, but you know, I smell mold or it's, you know, I don't have access to my first floor. It's going to be 12, you know, the contractor says 12 months. So those are the types of things, but I would say people should call if they have any type of housing need. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 8 Sullivan/ They do have to have been registered, of course, from the very beginning we've been telling everybody, you need to register. So that has not changed. They would have to be registered. Um, but, you know, there's...they're there and they're available and they're ready to...they'll bring in more if...if the need seems to be there. Bailey/ And the registration deadline is next week. Is that correct? I thought it was the end of August. (several responding) End of September, okay, so another month. Okay, good. Is that...anything else? Sullivan/ iJh, no, that's it. Bailey/ Okay. Any questions for Johnson County? Okay, North Liberty? North Liberty: Salm/ North Liberty, well, as you all know, we're...North Liberty is high and dry and we weren't directly impacted by any flood waters, but we do have citizens that work in Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids that their businesses were affected and may not have jobs. We don't really have a handle on how many people it could be, but...but we know that there are some folks that are struggling with loss of jobs because of that. Um, other than that, I don't know that there's really been any negative impact for North Liberty. I think on a positive note, some of those 20% of the businesses leaving Coralville may end up in North Liberty. We're still in close proximity to the University and the Mall those sorts of things, so we'll probably get some of that business, and then again, with the Golfview, we'll be gaining a few residents there, but um, really we weren't affected that bad. We had a lot of people volunteer to sandbag. Tried to provide as much help as possible, and uh, you know, we thanked them for that, but...other than that, unless the rest of you can think of anything. We came out of it smelling pretty good and we know it. Bailey/ Okay, thank you. Any questions for North Liberty? All right, School District? What kind of impacts are you seeing? School District: Cilek/ Well, I think we're all, uh, feel quite lucky compared to Cedar Rapids and the issues that they're dealing with with their schools. Um, we didn't have any schools directly affected. I think the biggest thing was providing, uh, places for the various agencies to come during the summer. I know our staff and physical plant worked hard. I don't know, Lane probably has other things to add to that. think...did you say we had approximately 90 students...91 students, uh, but I don't believe there's been any issues with...with location and transportation for those students. We know where most of them are, right? (unable to hear person This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 2U, "LUU~, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 9 speaking) Okay, um, other than that, I think, um, you know, we did postpone the summer school and that was unfortunate, but minor compared to some of the other things that are happening. Um, I can say on a personal note my mother was...lives in Idyllwild, and I really want to thank the community for reacting to...and the support that they've given, because she's 80 and she's trying to figure out what she's going to do, but Regenia and Jeff and Michael all came to one of the meetings and I think that was really well received and appreciated to show that commitment, as well as the county and all of the agencies. LTh, the people that were directly affected, I can tell you first hand, do feel the support from the community and that's been helpful. So...thanks again for all the extra time. Champion/ Are you saying that 90 kids were displaced by the flood? Cilek/ Yes. 90 kids...Lane, do you want to give...90...primarily down in, uh, Parkview Terrace, down there. Some in Coralville. Plugge/ It was 90...it was primarily the schools of Coralville Central, uh, which is, uh behind Clear Creek, Fourth Avenue, Fifth in there, and um, in the...what's all "mosquito flats..." Cilek/ Parkview Terrace (several responding) Plugge/ Parkview Terrace area, okay, sorry. Bailey/ That's okay. Plugge/ Um, we had...the kids attend Lincoln, and then of course the kids, some kids that attend Weber that were in Hawkeye Court, uh, and then relocated. But all...all...we don't know if they're all still here. We're just trying to count all the noses we have today, uh, so we're going to follow-up on those 90...91, to see where they all ended up. Uh, we had anticipated getting maybe a few kids, but we have not. We're not sure if that's happened yet, but maybe with the FEMA, the location of the FEMA trailers, uh, we might see some. Bailey/ Okay. Thanks, Lane. Any other questions for the School District? Any other items that we should bring forward under this, um, agenda item about flood update? Other Flood: Neuzil/ I had one thing. Bailey/ Yeah, just make sure you have a mic. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 10 Neuzil/ Just as a, as a kind of a vision for the area, um, are we looking at just rebuilding? What's, I mean, has there been particularly talk between Iowa City and Coralville, um, and we talked a little bit about the mitigation, things of that nature, but, uh, this would be kind of the outlet to kind of communicate a little bit about what you folks are thinking about, particularly working with the University of...you know, what are some strategies, opportunities, things of that nature, rather than just putting a building back where it was and a year from now or three years from now it's going to be flooded again. Lombardo/ Um, for the residential areas, um, we're going to file the Notice of Interest to include them in the buyout, but on a parallel track, we're also looking at additional flood mitigation measures. We've got a firm that we're working with, uh, to look at the neighborhoods and look at the hydrology and the way the river comes, you know, flows through those areas, and...and help us understand what could possibly be done that would be effective. We don't want to just make a slap-dash effort at...at some mitigation type project to...without really looking at it and saying, `Okay, what is the likelihood of success here and what could we engineer it to, and what can we do to keep it a viable neighborhood or not,' uh, and then have those discussions with the neighbor...or the residents, the property owners down there, and Council, to say...we know how much funding is going to be available to say what is the right approach for dealing with this, um, and...and it's going to be, I think, a steady progression towards discovery. You know, based on funding, based on likelihood of other mitigation measures, but what...what can and should be done, and I think that conversation's going to be developing. Uh, throughout the river corridor itself, um, Coralville and the University and Iowa City are meeting to discuss, uh, how we might come together and plan, uh, who are the additional stakeholders and people that should be involved. What can...can we agree to a process, can we agree what's on the table, what's off the table, um, if we can get through that initial piece of it, then...then a process will be forthcoming that...that...from all intents should be a broad community-based initiative. And...and every, you know, a lot of folks will have input in to that...uh, but right now we've got to agree on...on how we're going to play together and...and what can we, you know, can we agree on a process for getting from here to there, and then, um, you know, what happens out of that, you know, who knows, but it's pretty powerful when you get community initiatives like that going. Neuzil/ As far as the infrastructure goes, particularly for the sewer system, maybe on a selfish note from the County, uh, perspective, I mean, we came two feet basically from at least two of our facilities -the ambulance and likely the Administration Building -from getting water, uh, you know, carp in the parking lot so that's how close it was, and we're soon going to own a piece of property where the Armory is now, um, but I know that sewer system, or back-up system or whatever, is right down in there... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 11 Lombardo/ The wastewater treatment plant itself? Yeah, I'd love to...one of my, uh, pet projects if you can call it that - I'd love to see that wastewater treatment plant out of there, and I think a lot of people would agree. You know, it's...it's...south of Burlington and in that area where...where a lot of the County buildings are is a...an area ripe for redevelopment and um, the Central District Plan is going to be coming before Planning and Zoning and ultimately the City Council, uh, it'll have a lot of nice elements for extending downtown south of Burlington, uh, for talking about mixed residential and commercial and office use, and so, uh, I...I think it's an area of focus for... for the City, well into the future, uh, it starts with getting rid of that wastewater treatment plant and we're...we're really, um, working with our federal representatives and others to find funding to do that. That's a...and anything that is done, we do have to look at, you know, what flood mitigation measures need to be built in so that whatever we put there isn't going to get flooded. Bailey/ Thank you, Michael. Lombardo/ Sure. Bailey/ Okay, let's move on. Um... Donahue/ Can I add one thing, please? Bailey/ Sure, go ahead. Donahue/ I just wondered if anyone in this group knows for a fact that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have reviewed the policy, practices and procedures to, you know, do their part to see that maybe something like this hasn't...doesn't happen again, and if we've had any contact from them at all, any organization, to at least know that they've done it. Neuzil/ They did address that somewhat with the Rebuild Iowa Report, uh, at least on the Agriculture and Environment Committee. They came to that particular committee to talk about some of the proactive measures that they're looking at, but...but on the large scale, they're looking at just rebuilding the levees and doing...I mean, I didn't hear a lot of new stuff, but I think that we need to have them identify, particularly some of the silting, things of that nature that have kind of taken place, particularly amongst, you know, our particular...the corridor reservoir. Donahue/ I think the counties and the cities at least deserve, at a minimum, that consideration. Bailey/ There also was a hearing in D.C., and I know a federal...our senators have been discussing with the Corps of Engineers, there's some discussion at that level about their policies and procedures. So, that leads me to believe that... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 12 Donahue/ ...on top of it. Lombardo/ ...it's, um, to...to examine their operating policies at the reservoir, in particular, they need a sponsor, if you will, you know, a public body like Iowa City and Coralville to...to initiate a process for them to really re-examine, uh, all that and so we're working through the details, um, to, you know, find out what that would take, what...what's the cost sharing arrangements, uh, because certainly they're going to look to us to help fund part of that initiative, um, and then, uh, you know, discuss with all of us sitting here today who...who are the players in moving that forward, but L ..there is a willingness to open that dialog but for them to really do a full-blown study, um, you know, we...it's some form of petition or we have to make that request, and then there's some, uh, cost sharing and other arrangements that tend to that. So we're in the process of getting all that information together. Donahue/ Thank you. Bailey/ Shall we move on? Item 4 is "Joint Cool Cities/County Advisory Committee, and this is put on the agenda by Johnson County. Joint Cool Cities/County Advisory Committee (Johnson County): Sullivan/ Thank you, uh, and if it's okay with...with you, Madame Mayor, items 4 and 6 are pretty closely related.. . Bailey/ I was hoping you might do that. Thank you very much. Sullivan/ ...do them together. Bailey/ Good. Sullivan/ Um, I'm passing around something that was, uh, put together by Josh Busard who's in our Planning and Zoning Department, and Josh is over here, and Josh is one of two point people that Johnson County has on the, uh, issue of, uh, Cool County/Cool Cities, as many of you've heard of it. Um, as...as you probably all remember, um, way back prior to the flood, uh, like there was some time prior to the flood (laughter) we all, uh, I believe that North Liberty, Coralville, Iowa City, and Johnson County had all signed the agreement to become Cool Cities and/or County, and, um, take the steps that you need to take to...to follow through, etc., etc. Um, I know that everybody's at probably a different point in terms of what they've done or not done thus far. You'll see that there's some information here from Johnson County, and it'll...it'll tell you how far we've gotten. We've, uh, just measured a baseline, and that's about it, but we have done that. Um, the step that the County would like to talk with the other entities about today is, one of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 13 things that is...is viewed as a "best practice" is having some kind of citizens' committee, and I know that when the folks from the local Sierra Club were in front of us, they said, `Well, you know, frankly if there's a committee in North Liberty and a committee in Coralville and a committee in Iowa City and a University committee, etc., it's going to get a little repetitive,' and could we come up with a single committee to make recommendations for all of those bodies, and it seemed, you know, fairly well received at the time, but we never took any further steps. Um, the County is kind of at the point now where we could use some input, and so we would like to introduce the idea of creating that committee so that we could put them to work. Bailey/ What kind of timeline are you on? It sounds like immediate or...when would you like to have the committee up and going? Because I know our work has been delayed, at least in Iowa City, because of the obvious. Sullivan/ Yeah, I don't know that we're under a hard, uh, timeline. It's just that we've done everything we can do without having that group in place, so, uh, I guess we'd like to have some people, maybe some kind of subcommittee formed to talk about what, uh, how large that committee would be, what it's make-up would be, that kind of thing, and then talk about advertising for it, or whatever steps we would take. Neuzil/ And...and potentially, uh, who would lead that particular committee -would it be a, maybe a JCCOG function, maybe an ECICOG function, one of those kinds of potential entities, uh, would there be potentially buy-in from the communities to put some funding towards that? Those are the kind of questions that need to be brought up, but I think as far as the timing scope, it's more of just let's get it back on the radar screen. Bailey/ Uh-huh. Champion/ It would seem to me the obvious place to do that would be JCCOG. (unable to hear) Representatives are there, and they have...it seems the committees, joint committees, were developed with JCCOG. Bailey/ So we have the... Yapp/ John Yapp, JCCOG. Uh, the JCCOG Board did discuss this last fall, I believe, and uh, there was some interest at the Board level, uh, but beyond an interest, uh, I...some of the questions I would have is the amount of staff time and staff training that might be involved, but certainly I think JCCOG would be an appropriate organization to help coordinate. Sullivan/ I don't know if we know, frankly. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 14 Yapp/ Sure. Sullivan/ L ..I think, uh, there are a lot of very, very qualified people in the community and all the different communities that are going to be interested, and I think once we have some of them in place, they might be able to help us answer some of those questions...would be my guess. Yapp/ Uh, we do have a JCCOG Board meeting next week, one week from today, um, the agenda is already...is already out, but uh, it can certainly be brought up under other business and...and uh, several of you are also on the JCCOG Board, but re- engage the interest level. Uh, we've, as a staff, we've been dealing with the same things all of your staffs have been dealing with this summer and...and many other projects, uh, somewhat delayed. Bailey/ So, is there general agreement to, um, to get this back on the radar screen of JCCOG...is the best place for it to be, and to move forward from that? Is that...(several responding)...okay. So, um, there you go. (laughter and several talking) Okay, and then you wanted to talk about item 6, Rod? Hosting an ICLEI Conference in Johnson County (Johnson County): Sullivan/ Please, uh, this is kind of a related matter. LJh, ICLEI, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. Did I get that right, John? (unable to hear person responding) ...which makes sense (laughter) after I learn it, um, so ICLEI is the group that provides the software. When you become a Cool City, or in our case a Cool County, you pay a membership fee to ICLEI. You get software, and then it helps you, uh, figure out how to measure your carbon footprint and that sort of thing, and you get some technical assistance, and etc., etc. It's not too much money - I think it was like $1,100 or something for Johnson County. So, uh, upon spending that money you get the stuff from ICLEI. Josh has been, uh, fairly active in terms of...of, uh, you know, getting involved in their list serve and things like that, and they are very, very interested in doing some kind of a conference, um, in this area. They've said that this is an area that they think is really ripe for, uh, action and centrally located and...and they think they could have a really good event. Um, they, however, have to have a host entity to have a conference, and um, we...they asked Josh if Johnson County would do it, and we discussed this a little bit at a...at a work meeting a week or so ago, and said, `Well, we might be interested,' but first we wanted to gauge the interest of all the other entities, because if...if not everybody's interested, then we wouldn't be either. Neuzil/ I think it would be, you know, some, uh, kind of spirit of...of the whole area, community perspective, that...that was hosted by basically Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, and Johnson County. I mean, all the members that are part of ICLEI, quite frankly. I mean, I think that would be something that would show This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 15 some solidarity, as far as the issue and could be, you know, some buy-in though has to come from basically all of your staffs, or at least some elected officials, that are active on that particular issue. Bailey/ (unable to hear person responding) Right. (several talking) Champion/ We have some good conference facilities not too far away. Bailey/ And so, as a host, I mean, is there a financial commitment? Sullivan/ IJh... Meyers/ Yeah, and the way Josh is explaining it, the hope would be that we would recover that from registration fees from all the other cities and counties from the Midwest that would come to it. Um.. . Sullivan/ They provide the speakers and things of that nature. You're...you're charge as a host is to secure the facilities and whatever food would be involved and that sort of thing, and then you recoup that through the, uh, through the entry (several talking). Bailey/ Josh, if you...Josh, you need to use a microphone. Thank you. (several talking) All the meetings are the same. (laughter) Busard/ Actually I spoke with Dave Kempf, the Facilities Manager, today, and as a possibility, uh, in January we could have it at the new Health and Human Services Building. He says that we'd have room for approximately 180 participants, and uh, we could have breakout rooms, and I also talked with the ICLEI contact today and they said that one day is usually sufficient. So, the cost could be...definitely be minimized. Champion/ I don't think I like that idea. I think it ought to be either at the Coralville Conference Center or a conference center in Iowa City so we have some economic development out of this. Bailey/ And what's the...it's a one-day? So what's the purpose? I mean... Sullivan/ I...it sounds like they could do a one-day. I don't know, having never been to one, uh, those were questions that the Board asked, as well. Um, but we wanted to bring this to this forum just because it was somewhat timely, and that if folks really didn't have any interest in pursuing it, we wouldn't, but if folks were interested in doing so. Obviously I figured Coralville was kind of a key player since you folks are in the (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 16 Bailey/ Yeah, well, what do you...North Liberty, Coralville, Iowa City -what do we think? I mean, we need some more information, obviously, but I think some of our most successful ventures as of late -the Communication Center and even the rail study have been all of us joining together. So, what do you think, Coralville? Want more information into... Fausett/ More information...I'm sure that we certainly have the facilities to handle it, and I don't think that would be a problem. I think it's just a question of...maybe I missed some of the, I had a phone call there, but uh, I just need more information. Bailey/ North Liberty? Salm/ Yeah, I agree a little more information would be great, but I think we're interested in maybe pursuing something. Champion/ Interested in more information. Bailey/ And, School Board, I mean, maybe there's a place for you all, as well. I mean, I know that we're looking more at "green" buildings and it really benefits our students, so sounds like a nice opportunity. Go ahead, Gerry. Kehl/ I'm wondering if we could ask Josh Schamburger of the Iowa City Convention and Visitors Bureau to provide us with information since they're in that kind of business, get it focused at the Marriott... Bailey/ Well, I think... Kehl/ ...because that's right off the interstate. Bailey/ Well, sure, but I think, yeah, I agree. I think we should work...I think that would probably be something we would do is work with the CVB to probably bid it is what we usually do with most conferences. Correia/ Right, well, I mean, it seems like the finding out what types of content that they have at these conferences, because it seems like the benefit to us would be, um, we would have to do the work to organize the local...registration and get the space, but then our local people could go to this conference for free, and have the benefit of all these national speakers and have this content, um, and I think even if the...it wasn't held at one of the...a convention center or there's a reduced cost, there'd be the economic development activity of people coming here and having to stay overnight, um, you know, going out to eat and shopping or whatever... Bailey/ I think everybody sounds like they're interested in more information, and then involving the Convention and Visitors Bureau so we don't have to, um, do the planning because we (several talking) yeah, yeah. So, you'll get more This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 17 information to all of us, including the School District to see if they can be looped m m some way. Sullivan/ Yeah, and it should be mentioned. I don't know if we've had much conversation with the School District, but the University has been involved and wants to be involved. So... Bailey/ Great. Okay, well, thanks for bringing that forward and we'll look for more information coming to all the entities. All right, um, let's go to item 5, School Start: Facilities & Enrollment. Who's speaking to this? School Start: Facilities & Enrollment (School District): Cilek/ Yeah, um, just for interested information. We started school on Monday. Lane's going to have to come help fill in this, and we had a quite hectic day today, um, but the fact that Lane is here is a good sign. (laughter) So... Cilek/ This time it wasn't weather related. Um, but it sounds like we're, uh, down somewhat in our enrollment by about 90 students. Plugge/ I do have the enrollments...89. I did crunch some numbers there because these came off, uh, the printer and I was engaged...I did have a (laughter and several talking) Champion/ I was teasing! Plugge/ I know you were, uh, we are down about 89 students, on a third day count, and please know that, um, these are just...they're very preliminary counts, but we...we do them every day for the first three days, and then we do it, I think, on the tenth day, and then our official enrollment's not until October 1St. We are, uh, up 36 at the elementary level, and we're only 33 below projections, and there's some good places where we're low...projections. Even though Van Allen is greater than it was last year, we're 22 students below where we had projected. That's good news, and Wood is about 29 students below projections, uh, and...and we were fairly tight there. So, at the secondary level, we're about 115 below, uh, where we were last year, and that's primarily at the high school level, so I don't have any reasons for that at this point. Uh, facility-wise, uh, I want to thank North Liberty for first, second and third reading on the zoning. Uh, we now can take the next step forward, and that step will be working with the engineers of, uh, the developers of the property so that we know exactly where the streets are going to be so we can get our bid documents out. In meetings with our architects, uh, we're hoping to go to bid, and of course that's kind of a timing thing. Things look good now with petroleum prices falling, uh, no sooner than November, but before, uh, January 1St. Uh, certainly we'll have to deal with next year also, that's why I'm so happy that the 29 at Van Allen was below This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 18 projections. Um, facility-wise, uh, at 4:00 this afternoon when things were very busy, uh, the Durant group dropped off a number of notebooks for me. I have not had a chance to, uh, review them, but uh, certainly I'm not going to comment on those because I haven't read them, and the Board hasn't seen them yet. Uh, Cool Communities, a great start. We have two extra, three extra students really, at, uh, Southeast, um, when you're talking about green buildings, we in our renovation we built a green roof. Proud to say that Southeast is truly the name of the Little Hawks because we have a hawk living on our green roof (laughter) with two, I don't know if they're called chicks or hawklets or maybe they're called "little hawks" (laughter and several talking) baby hawks, so they are there, uh, and we can't use our, uh, green roof as we had planned right now, but uh, because we don't want to disturb the young family, but...so...so it's been...busing was...we have pictures, I do...proud pictures (several talking) um, I'm saving that for when we need some good news. The, uh, the busing was much better. It was our...probably our best start, uh, in five years. Uh, certainly we had first day things -there were a couple kids lost last night. One young man at a junior high forgot something, ran back into the school, his bus was gone. Instead of saying, you know, my bus is gone, can you help me - he decided to walk home. We had, oh, five Durham employees, about six school employees, a frantic mother looking for him, but he arrived safely home. It was a fairly long walk, but he made it. So, but (mumbled) Cilek/ And the weather's been... Plugge/ Yes. Champion/ Good. Tell me again when is the final enrollment date? The 15tn~ Plugge/ Uh, October lst now. It's been changed to October ls` Bailey/ Okay, and then the next item is Municipal Transit Changes and that's also a School District item. Municipal Transit Changes (School District): Cilek/ Yeah, Lane, you...I'm going to let you do this one, is the legislation... Plugge/ Just asking if you had, uh, I know I had talked with I think Kelly and, uh, someone from Iowa City about some possible changes, um, in what municipal...municipal transits can offer. Has some implications for students. I think it was basically...it's not a law change, but I think it's a rule interpretation change is what it is. We were just curious as to where that was, if there's something we could do to help in that impacting, or negating this change, possible change. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 19 Hayworth/ We did have the opportunity during the floods to talk to Senator Harkin and Richard Bender, his Transportation Aide, to discuss this, and there is a proposed rule change, um, in the Charter Regulations. So it's arule-making process that affects the, uh, what cities can do for school transportation, and we did discuss it with Senator Harkin, which was very interested in trying to make a change. The rule in regard to school charters was...that part of the rules was not adopted because of some objections. So, you could have an impact, uh, by specifically talking to the, uh, the legislative bodies, both Senator Harkin and Grassley, um, and Congressman Loebsack. What it does is two things that it does not allow us to do is you cannot provide a specific transportation home for schools. Right now we provide transportation route from Northwest Junior...actually it goes from Central School, Central Elementary School, to Northwest Junior High, then north of the interstate. Those kids north of the interstate are not eligible for school transportation because they're less than two miles, but they're significantly over what most parents want their kids to travel. Under the new rule...rules, we would not be able to do that any longer. So, that is one, um, issue. The other one is right now the City of Coralville is providing free, um, charter, um, service for, um, schools in Coralville for field trips, and that's also impacted. Right now we have bought our own bus outside of the Transit Department, and are using that for the transportation, but it's one bus, and there's a lot of logistical issues about trying to use that, but we're going to do the best we can. Um, so it does have a huge impact...that one route was carrying 70 kids. Correial The route that's going from Central...you're saying Central to Northwest... Hayworth/ And then north of the interstate. Correia/ ...(mumbled) pay a fare? Hayworth/ Uh-huh. Correia/ So like we can't do the east-side loop? (several talking) Oh, wow, I mean, I guess I would be interested if you could send out, you know, a blurb, you know, sort of the talking points. I mean, I'd be willing to advocate, um, to continue to allow that, but I.. . Hayworth/ We can get you the specific information, and Senator Harkin was really surprised, and said it's a really stupid rule and he in fact called somebody immediately to see, you know, what could he do, um, unfortunately his staff has been tied up with the floods like all we have, so have not been able to spend any time on it, but it does have a huge impact. Um, the School District and the City used to get a lot of complaints from the parents north of the interstate that went to junior high, specifically, and as I said, we did get great ridership. We also had started to get kids from Central, um, Elementary, Coralville Central Elementary riding the bus to the junior high for their after-school band programs, and then This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 20 they were also riding the bus to their after-school programs. So we were getting the kids in the spot where you really want them to be, and that's transit riders, and now they're saying you can't do that. Champion/ Who made up that rule? Plugge/ I think they were talking...I'm assuming some private contractors were (mumbled). It was competition and certainly it's not competition here, but.. . Lombardo/ I'll have, Chris O'Brien is...has been following this and in touch, uh, with the changes to know how it may impact us. We run and east and a west loop, uh, our understanding is that the east loop will likely be okay, um, without any modifications or very minor. The west loop, uh, there's some discussion about whether or not the bus can go on to City property and, uh, we're working through those issues, but I'll have him summarize it and get out to you all, but I don't think that we're going to have to stop those loops. I think because of the additional ridership that's on it, based on the numbers, we'll be okay, um, but...but with some modification, perhaps, on the west side loop. Hayworth/ And if it looks like a normal route, like you're...and it mirrors kind of your other routes, which I understand the Iowa City case does. In our case it doesn't mirror anything close to a normal route. And so that's why it's an issue for us. Fausett/ Also on that, we'd have to run even in...at a time through the summer, even when schools are not in force. Hayworth/ Yeah, that's another part of the rule, is you have to be running year round. Fausett/ ...year round. Hayworth/ And they told us we'd need to run multiple routes, so even though we don't, um, you know, we wouldn't have anybody really riding the second time, we'd have to make the loop twice which is really wasteful. Correia/ That increases your carbon footprint, something we don't want to do with our (laughter and several responding) Hayworth/ Yep! Bailey/ Okay. Thanks for bringing that to our attention, Lane. Champion/ Everybody remembers to vote in November, I hope! Bailey/ Okay, and School District Safe Schools & Healthy Student Grant. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 21 Safe Schools & Healthy Student Grant (School District): Cilek/ This is a grant that we, I think you might have read about in the paper that we received that we're very excited about. It's going to allow us to do a lot more things with our at-risk students and community agency coordination. So I'm sure many of the people that you work with will hear about it, but um, Lane, you want to give the specifics. Plugge/ Yes. We're really pleased because this is a grant we had applied for before. There were a thousand applications, 40 grants were awarded. It's afour-year grant. It'll be about $1.2 million a year, uh, it's uh, it comes from the Department of Education, but it's also out of the Department of Justice, as well, funded there. LJh, and it will, uh, focus on...it has to focus on five areas -substance abuse prevention, mental health issues, uh, safe school environments, student behavior and social and emotional learning supports, and the fifth is early childhood social and emotional learning supports, so we'll be working with preschool aged children, as well. Uh, really what it's going to allow us to do is, um, put together some of the bright spots we have in social, emotional learning, to have a consistency across the School District, uh, and also partner with many of the agencies. We don't think...we know we can't address mental health issues, but certainly, uh, there are people that can and we'll team with them and other community organizations. So, for four years we get a chance to put in, put a standard, non-academic curriculum, as well. Cilek/ Yeah, and I think, you know, hats off to the Administration and the staff. We have a lot of staff members worked really hard to put this together, and so you'll be hearing about safe (mumbled) we're talking about when we're talking about safe schools. Plugge/ We're looking for a director. I've got the job description here (laughter) Cilek/ Pass it around! (laughter) Plugge/ I think that'll be a key one, who does the (laughter and several talking) Can I...are you...when you talk about safe schools, can I tell what happened today? How many of you are parents? Did you get calls? You'll have a call (several talking) Bailey/ Go ahead and talk about this. Plugge/ We had, uh, we received, and the timing was really bad for us, but Regina called us because we provide transportation for Regina, about 2:50 and said, `Don't send the buses!' LTh, we hear there's a potentially dangerous situation in Hickory Hill Park, and the information we had, we tried to get more information. You do have a call from me there, don't you? (laughter) Um, and we couldn't get the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 22 information because it clocked to 2:55. We knew we had to make a decision and you always hear on safety, so we locked down kids that would go through, potentially go through Hickory Hill Park, Hoover, Southeast, City, Lucas and Mann. Was Lucas one of them? Okay, and we, um, until we had more information. At 3:15 we were able to talk to, um, a member of the Iowa City Police Department that we could release kids, but we sent the, we sent a connected message to everyone, uh, explaining what had happened, and that spawns, if you tried to call the Iowa City Community Schools at around 3:15, you couldn't get through, because everybody called and said, `I've got a message. What did you send me?' So, uh, but we do try to err on caution and so you know, we always appreciate...we've got a great working relationship with all the law enforcement agencies and we appreciate all the communication, but sometimes you have to make a decision in a very...very short time frame. This was an incident that happened off of campus, uh, but we think it could have been potentially dangerous, so we locked down until we had more information. So... Bailey/ Thanks for that update. Okay, um, Individual Community Updates. North Liberty, you put this on the agenda. Individual Community Updates (North Liberty): Salm/ Okay, I'll start off. Um, it may seem like it's been quiet in North Liberty here for the last year, but there's a lot going on. I'm going to touch on two or three of these, and I think Gerry wants to touch on a couple, whatever, I forget, but probably the most obvious visual thing going on in North Liberty right now is the work we're doing on I-380 and Penn Street. Um, that's a million and a half dollar, million and a half dollar project. We're...we're paying for about $1.1 million. Have a $400,000 USTEP grant, but we're widening the road on each side of 380. We're signalizing. We're widening the off-ramps because we end up with traffic backing up on I-380 at the busy times. Now, that's basically the first phase. There's a second phase that we haven't initiated yet, but that'll be widening the bridge and we're going to try and get the DOT to throw some money in on that, because we like to make that afour-lane with bike lanes on the side, or widened shoulders, so we're about, I'd say about 85 or 90% completed with that. Most of the paving's done. There's a few panels in the existing road that need to be replaced, uh, the signals need to go up, so we're getting pretty close -middle of October they should be good to go and should be much safer. The other thing that's been a hot topic around North Liberty for a long time is Highway 965. Uh, last year, in conjunction with Coralville, we commissioned a study. We had McClure Engineering and HR Green do a concept study of the corridor to see if our original plans for afive-lane, that was put together back in 1999, would still be sufficient, or if we should modify it, and as we went through this process, uh, there was a lot of discussion about doing to a three-lane. A little bit more decorative approach, slow the traffic down, so they looked at three-lane, they did some traffic studies, and um, a three-lane what it would do would throw This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 23 some of the traffic off into some of our other arterials or collectors, which isn't necessarily bad, but some of those would need to be upgraded, as well. So it would increase the cost, and bottom line is, their recommendation is going to come down to five-lanes, or basically four lanes with some fifth lane, uh, cut-outs for turning. The intersections will be set up for five-lane, at least that's what they're recommending at this point. Detached bike trails, currently that may change and we may just do some striping adjustments to put bike lanes on 965. There's a lot of traffic; I wouldn't bicycle there myself, but that's...that'sbwide the point, but um, with all that, you know, and like I said, it was in conjunction with Coralville, but North Liberty's piece of this, the estimate is about $23.5 million. So, that's a lot of money, and we've already in our 09 budget we've already set aside $2 million to start something, and we've been working on the intersections all along since 1999, trying to upgrade them and get the traffic to flow, so we'll probably continue with that, and they have some suggested phases for construction, so we're going to try to get going with some things. It's been a big deal for a lot of people, and it should look real nice when we're finished, some day, and uh, obviously we'll be trying to get whatever funding we can on that. The other thing I'm going to touch on real quick was RAGBRAI. Bailey/ Right! Salm/ We had a successful RAGBRAI, um, I...I think our committee chairs did a heck of a job. They put a lot of time in, maybe over-planned a little bit, but that's okay because everything went smoothly. Had very few complaints. By noon Friday the town was clean, everything was running smooth, saw a number of people out there -Kelly and Lane riding out Friday morning, so...they were smiling, I think. O'Donnell/ They were probably on motorcycles, weren't they? (laughter) Salm/ So that went very well for us. We don't know if we've made any money yet. We're still making sure all the bills are in, but uh, I don't think we made a lot of money, if we did, but um, our beverage garden was...it was full. The RAGBRAI official said that ours was large enough to put everybody else's in, from all the other towns, and it was elbow to elbow. So...hopefully we made a few dollars. Gerry? You want to touch on a couple things? Kehl/ Yeah, Lane has already touched on the approval for the new elementary school (mumbled) very excited about that. LTh, but this morning and Saturday we dedicated the new Clear Creek-Amana School, which is on 270`h Street, or as it's now know, St. Andrew's Drive. It's a 350-student facility. Avery nice facility. It looks good. I spent some time this morning with the kids. The kids enjoyed it, uh, so that's positive as far as I'm concerned. Um, the other thing that I wanted to touch on was our new wastewater treatment plant and Tom, you may want to jump in on this. That will be online late fall; we're in the transition period right now. Uh... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 24 Salm/ Probably within the next couple of weeks. Kehl/ And the fluid that will come out is supposed to be, I think the term was almost able to drink? (several talking) Almost! Not quite! Salm/ It apparently meets drinking water standards, except some of the bacteria that you can't (several talking and laughter) Since you're not chlorinating, you don't want to drink it! But the solids are cleaner than drinking water standards. Kehl/ And then we, uh, some of you were interested about a year ago in our pet ordinance. That is now the official code or ordinance of North Liberty. So if anybody wants to take a look at that, uh, seems to be working fairly well. And I think that's all I have. Bailey/ Okay. Champion/ You're not allowing any bears? Kehl/ That's right! (laughter) Bailey/ Did any other communities want to provide updates about projects? I mean, we did some flood things, Johnson County? Coralville? Michael, Iowa City. Johnson County: Sullivan/ Rod, just a couple quick things. We've got a couple buildings that are in the process of being erected as we speak -Health and Human Services building and...and the parking ramp next to that are going up, um, we're still talking about a move-in date there of November 1St, although given the summer it's possible that that can be just a little bit later, uh, but we're still talking November 1St for that facility, and SEATS, Secondary Roads is a little farther along than that. I think there we're talking mid-September, does that sound right, Pat? Mid...in September for that facility. Bailey/ And the ground is broken on the Readiness Center. Neuzil/ And that will mean, uh, the County will be able to acquire, uh, the...where the Armory is now. We're anticipating...Pat'sheen working on that project, to have that raised before they get.. . Harney/ Federal government has put in for a grant for this flood program (mumbled) demolition done and we wouldn't have to do that, if they're able to get those funds. (mumbled) It'll be helpful. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 25 Neuzil/ Yeah, and...and on September 3rd, that's when our criminal justice coordinating committee is going to meet again. We're going to get our report from Durant in regards to both space and location analysis for a justice center, uh, we appreciate the City of Iowa City offering an opportunity for us to at least look at a piece of property, uh, you know, across the street from the current existing jail, so that's going to be one of the options that will certainly be weighed in for this, but I think most importantly as we get that report, we're really going to need some help as far as buy-in from our elected officials, uh, as far as, uh, kind of the next step, where we go from here, understanding the need, making it a community need and not just a County issue, um, those are the kind of things that as we get this report we're going to need help from all of you folks, uh, to deal with this pretty significant issue. Champion/ I've been invited to attend that meeting, and I plan on attending. Um, I told them I would come back after they had something, after they did something. (laughter) Bailey/ And true to her word! Champion/ True to my word! (laughter) Bailey/ Michael, did you have updates from Iowa City? Iowa City: Lombardo/ I have just a few things that, um, I'll throw out there. I just completed, um, an assessment center with my department directors called Kolbe, it's K-o-1-b-e, and essentially it helps us kind of define or, you know, our...the way we work, the way we problem solve. Many of you maybe familiar with it, but, um, you know, it gets into the area of...of people make decisions and problem solve how much information they need before they're ready to act, and using this as a platform for, uh, team building and also instead of tackling issues in individuals silos based on departments, really get cross, uh, member teams together to really look at the broad issues of, not just operationally, but...but city-wide as things come about. So, it's an exciting tool if you're knowing more about it. I...this is something I came across, uh, when working in Michigan, and I know a lot of corporations that use this tool, um, and I really find it helpful. We had a lot of just breakthroughs even, um, in the 16 of us sitting together and talking through communication and how we disseminate information and how we problem solve, and I think it's going to be, uh, a pretty exciting thing for us operationally. Didn't have anybody running for the doors and screaming, so that's always a good...a good thing. Um, working to refine, uh, a concept to, uh, discuss with Council on a...a community-based planning initiative and...and that's going to be discussed more and more in the coming weeks and months, uh, as we decide what type of broad strategic planning we may want to (mumbled) Um, starting tomorrow in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 26 tomorrow's packet I...I decided that I can't get information out quick enough, um, and so I'm going to come out with, uh, just a, and I'm not saying when it'll be released in the future, but as things accumulate and I get issues that are before me that I'm working on, and...and staff are working on, it's called...I think it's called "what's happening," it's going to be one or two pager, and I'll put it out there for broad consumption, but just bulleted summaries of different things that are going on, because otherwise things don't get out for consumption and people, uh, don't have an opportunity to provide input on, so I want to, uh, use this. I've tried doing it every Friday every week. I'm just not geared to that kind of rigidity, so I'll keep typing up, you know, and keeping things in the loop and when there's enough to issue, we'll just issue it, and if it ends up being two a week then great. If it's every other week, uh, if it's in a slow period, uh, that'll be fine, but uh, feel free as you read through it to call and contact me on any of that and we'll get more information. Also considering doing kind of a breakfast, uh, series. I'm not sure what that's going to be yet, um, but maybe at the Library where...where people can come and talk about issues in the community and services for the City, and um, if you have suggestions on how to structure that, uh, right now we're in the discovery phase and any ideas are good ones at this point, so let me know what you think. Um, hats off to our Fire Department. We just received accreditation, um, and will be doing a presentation for the Council, I think at the next meeting, but uh, it's a pretty onerous and rigorous process to get through and...and they've worked for a few years now to get to that point, and uh, we should celebrate that - that's a pretty high standard to...to reach. Uh, and then also, um, it'd be coming to Council soon with a...a request to do a broad facility's analysis, looking at, uh, our structures from a lot of different levels in terms of how...what types of space, uh, needs we're up against now, how we deliver services, and really looking at, uh, pinpointing years from now what types of facilities are we going to be needing so that we can be reaching broader planning around when do we bring facilities on, which facilities, and having a tool that will help guide some of that. Lot more, uh, look for what's happening, but that's kind of the fun and exciting things that are happening. Better Way for Updates; Different Format; Newsletter (old business -Iowa Citv): Bailey/ Okay. All right, um, one of the items that we talked about at the last meeting was is there a better way to do updates, do we want to continue these meetings, do we need written communication, and um, what do people think? Do we want to continue these joint meetings? Are they, uh, effective? Are they a good way to communicate, or are there better ways...that we would like to continue? Thoughts? We can, you know, we're close to the end, so we need to jump in, finish this, and move on. So, what are your thoughts about this? Do we want to continue these meetings, I suppose, is my first question. Neuzil/ I think they're worthwhile, and we're only an hour and fifteen minutes into this and I think we've all learned a lot from each other today, um, if there would be This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 27 something that we could jointly work together on -like this green team or you know we talked about some of the visioning for how to deal with the Iowa River corridor. Some...you know, things like that, if there were specific projects, that I think there would be a little more buy-in, but just learning from what you folks are doing, what we're doing. I think that is...that is a helpful tool. Champion/ I think what's valuable about this meeting is it's very informal. And like JCCOG is very formal. It's very informal, and we do get a chance to at least know each other a little more than by name. I...I...sometimes they don't seem like they're really worthwhile, but I think there's other valuable parts to it. Cilek/ I agree, Connie, and also I would say that there's several times when we are discussing something as a board and this is like the easiest avenue for us to, for example, the transit thing, to bring that to the attention. Some of it's just informational, but some of it is really important, and we often say, `Oh, that would be something that we could bring to the...to the agenda,' so, I think we use it (both talking) Bailey/ Coralville, North Liberty? Salm/ I agree. I think it's worthwhile. The face-to-face contact is definitely worthwhile. We all get to know each other a little bit better. Bailey/ Gerry? Kehl/ It's my third year coming to these meetings, and I think this has been one of the better ones that I've come to. Champion/ We had a flood! (laughter) Bailey/ Uh, Coralville? Fausett/ I think the, definitely are worthwhile, as long as we keep in mind that if we don't have something on the agenda, you know, that we don't hold `em just to hold a meeting, that we may postpone it and delay the time, and until there is several items to be on the agenda, and this type of thing I think, uh, it's always good to take a look. One of the things that we may have overlooked today, and that is, uh, with the football season starting now real soon, uh, Kelly might want to tell `em what our update on the, um, on the Highway 6 and...and also some comments, Kelly, about the businesses, the restaurants and so forth that will not be in business for this first couple of games, at least, and how that may affect us. Hayworth/ Um, Highway 6 actually today the asphalting work starts on phase 7, so um, they will be done with the first section of it, um, for football game, but uh, it will be down to three lanes during the, um, first couple of games, if not three games, at This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 2U, ZUUti, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 28 that section between 12t" Avenue and 22"d Avenue. So, if you're coming from that direction getting on the train would be a great idea. So (laughter) and we do have, we've worked with the University and we have a bigger dedicated lot for the train to operate out o£ So...that will be a good thing, and we could get more people traveling through there, um, from that standpoint. So... Fausett/ We have about 17 restaurants that are normally in business that will not be. Hayworth/ Obviously people should check around...especiallypenple from out of town, I think, will be surprised when they head to their favorite establishment, um, you know, right after the games, before the games, so hopefully they'll uh, be patient (mumbled). Bailey/ Okay. Thanks. All right, I heard...oh, go ahead. Neuzil/ I just had one more comment, if we could, um, and I'm not sure when we're meeting again, but I just wanted you folks to all be aware that the Iowa State Association of Counties is going to actually have its first ever conference, uh, statewide conference in Coralville, coming up November 19, 20, and 21St, and if there are, uh, and it's just one of those things, obviously, an opportunity to have, uh, basically pretty much every elected official at the County level coming into our community, um, just similar to when the municipalities came in, if we could kind of take advantage of that and, um, be good hosts. I know that we'll get, hopefully, many more opportunities down the road. So...something to think about on the radar screen. Lombardo/ This is their first conference? NeuziU In this area (several talking) Bailey/ It's kind of surprising, actually. Why wouldn't you want to go out (several talking) Hayworth/ It's a huge conference. I don't know, what is it? It's like 1,500 people (several talking) Neuzil/ Supervisors, auditors, treasurers... Champion/ All elected officials only? (several responding) Neuzil/ ...all the departments, all the affiliates, staff, business, uh, of course lobbyists, all of those. Champion/ Well, they'll have a better time here than they did in Des Moines. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 29 Schedule Next Meeting: Bailey/ You know that! Okay, so what I heard is that these meetings are valuable, and so the next item really is to set the schedule a next meeting. We do these quarterly, so I think we're looking at, um, I don't know, end of the year sort of -November, December, and I think it's North Liberty's turn to host. Is that going to be possible? Salm/ Sure. Bailey/ Okay. Um, do we typically look at dates? Let's look at dates. So... Champion/ How `bout January? Neuzil/ If it's quarterly, we'd get into November, December. Bailey/ Do we want to try to meet in December, the first week of December, the...we typically meet on Wednesdays, um, how does the third look? Neuzil/ That's not good. That's when our criminal justice (mumbled) Bailey/ Oh, that's right! Neuzil/ But the 10th Bailey/ The l Oth...I put out the 10th for your consideration, of December. (several responding) Okay, and another thing I heard is, you know, the success of these meetings is contingent upon us, and also developing these agenda items, so as items come up in the next few months, maybe keeping an on-going list of things that we can put on the agenda. I think that helps. Champion/ If it's not a valid agenda...one time Coralville postponed... Bailey/ Exactly, okay. Champion/ ...don't hesitate to do it, because I think it's true that we need to have some substance to it. Bailey/ Okay. So, right now we've got a meeting scheduled for January 10th, um, 4:30...December lOth...December 10th, at 4:30, um, in North Liberty and um, contingent upon agenda items. So, um, the Farmer's Market is across the street. invite you to partake. It's a good time of year, and there's no other business, um... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, ZOU~3, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 20, 2008 Joint Meeting -County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 30 Cilek/ I just wanted to mention real quickly that our court liaison staff member from City High's daughter won the gold medal. Henry Harper's daughter is Dawn Harper who won the gold medal in the hundred hurdles. So, that's exciting. Bailey/ Oh, my gosh, thank you. Are we going to have a parade? (several talking) Cilek/ We probably will. He's gone, he went to it (several talking) Bailey/ Oh, neat! Oh that's great. That's so exciting. Okay! Well, and with that, let's leave on that note, okay? Have a good Wednesday evening. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 20, 2008, Iowa City City Council Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board.