HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-08-26 AgendaSubject to change as finalized by the City Clerk. For a final official copy, contact the City Clerk's Office, 356-5040.
AGENDA
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
August 26, t997 - 7:00 p.m.
Civic Center
CALL TO ORDER.
ROLL CALL.
ITEM NO. 1.
ITEM NO. 2o
ITEM NO. 3.
MAYOR'S PROCLAMATIONS.
a. Soil and Water Conserva$ion Week - August 31-September 6. .f~¢. .
b. VFW Buddy Poppy ~Veek o September 6-12. ' ~ - ~ ~
CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED
OR AMENDED.
Approval of Official Council Actions of the special meeting of
August 13, as published, subject to corrections, as recommended by
the City Clerk.
Minutes of Boards and Commissions.
(1) Board of Adjustment - July 30.
(2) Iowa City Civil Service Commission - August 12
Recommendation to Council: Approve the certified list for the
position of Police Officer.
(3) Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission - June 10.
(4) Iowa City'Planning and Zoning Commission - August 7.
c. Permit Motions and Resolutions as Recommended by the City Clerk.
(1) Consider a motion approving a Class C Liquor License for G.A.
Malone's, L.C., dba G. A. Malone's, 121 Iowa Ave. (Renewal)
(2) Consider a motion approving a Class C Liquor License for Just
Us, Inc., dba The Breakroom, 1578 First Ave. S. (Renewal)
(3) Consider a motion approving a Class B Beer permit for Vay Say
Ho dba Han's Cafe, 340 Burlington St. (New)
#2a page 1
ITEM NO. 2a MAYOR'S PROCLAMATIONS: Soil and Water Conservation Week.
Nov/ Item number 2 is Mayor's proclamations, and we have somebody here to accept the
proclamation for Soil and Water Conservation Week?
Marian Karr/ Yes.
Nov/ Okay. (Reads Soil and Water Conservation Week Proclamation).
Karr/ Mary Summerville is here to accept, Madam Mayor.
Nov/ Would you like to say something about your celebration?
Mary Summerville/ Yes. I think we celebrate conservation on a regular basis here in
Johnson County, and we're especially pleased that this particular week brings to
the County the appointment of our new Soil and Water Conservationist who is
being supported through the Board of Supervisors, so she is talcing over her
duties. I also want to express how much we enjoy our parmership with the City of
Iowa City. I think we're working hard to preserve our agrarian heritage here in
Jolmson County, and we have some real challenges in finding ways that
commercial food production, and the commercial growth and economic growth of
our county can co-exist. And its seems like we're able to find those ways that are
environmentally sound and really very people-pleasing. So we appreciate the
interest and the support and the work of the citizens of Iowa City and Johnson
County in this effort. Thank you.
Nov/ And thank you for your good work.
Summerville/ Thanlc you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of August 26, 1997.
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#2b page 1
ITEM NO. 2b MAYOR'S PROCLAMATIONS: VFW Buddy Poppy Week.
Nov/ We also have a proclamation for VFW Buddy Poppy Week, which is going to be
September 6-12, but I'm not going to read it because there isn't somebody here.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of August 26, 1997.
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August 26, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 2
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(4) Consider a motion approving a Class C Beer Permit for RSNV,
Inc., dba Russ' Amoco, 305 N. Gilbert St. (Renewal)
(5) Consider a motion approving a Class B Liquor License for
Highlander Inc., dba Highlander Inn Restaurant & Convention
Center, 2525 N. Dodge St. (Renewal)
(6)
Consider a motion approving a Class C Beer Permit for Doc's
Standard Inc., dba Doc's Standard Inc., 801 S. Riverside Dr.
(Renewal)
(7)
Consider a motion approving a Class C Liquor License for
Diamond Dave's Taco Company, Inc., dba Diamond Dave's Taco
Company, 201 S. Clinton St. (Renewal)
(8) Consider a resolution to issue a cigarette permit for The
Sanctuary Restaurant, 405 S. Gilbert St.
(9) Consider a resolution to issue dancing permit to Highlander Inn,
2525 N. Dodge St.; The Breakroom, 1578 1st Ave.
d. Setting Public Hearings.
(1) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR
SEPTEMBER 9 ON AMENDING THE FY98 OPERATING BUDGET.
Comment: This resolution sets a public hearing to amend the
FY9B budget on September 9. Detailed information on
amendments will be available for public inspection on August 29.
This amendment will officially incorporate into the FY98 budget
all of the carryovers from the FY97 budget for continuing capital
projects, etc. Another formal budget amendment will be
processed in May 1998. Staff memorandum included in Council
packet.
(2)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR
SEPTEMBER 9 ON PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF
CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE BURLINGTON STREET/GOVERNOR
SIGNALIZATION PROJECT, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO
PUBLISH NOTICE OF SAID HEARING, AND DIRECTING THE
CITY ENGINEER TO PLACE SAID PLANS ON FILE FOR PUBLIC
INSPECTION.
Comment: This project consists of installing traffic signals at
the intersection of Burlington Street and Governor Street. Total
estimated cost of this project is $55,000. Funding will be
provided by Road Use Tax funds. Staff memorandum included in
Council packet.
August 26, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 3
(3)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING
FOR SEPTEMBER 9 ON PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM
OF CONTRACT, AND ESTliVIATE OF COST FOR THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA CITY SANITARY
LANDFILL FY98 CELL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT, DII~ECTING
THE CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH NOTICE OF SAID HEARING,
AND DIRECTING THE CITY ENGINEER TO PLACE SAID
PLANS ON FILE FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION°
Comment: This project will include constructing an additional
cell on the west half of the landfill. This new cell will be
constructed in accordance with all federal and state regulations.
The Engineer's estimate for this project is 91,500,000. Funding
for this project will be provided by landfill revenues.
(4)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION OF INTENT TO CONVEY
VACATED PORTIONS OF ST. JOHN'S ALLEY AND ST.
MATTHIAS STREET RIGHT-OF-WAY LOCATED NORTH OF
DODGE STREET AND IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT TO ROBERT'S
HOMETOWN DAIRY AND HY-VEE, TO ROBERT'S HOMETOWN
DAIRY AND CONSOLIDATED PROPERTIES, iNC., AND
SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR SEPTEMBER 9.
Comment: On July 15, 1997, the City Council considered and passed
an ordinance vacating portions of St. John's Alley and St. Matthias
Street located north of Dodge Street and adjacent to properties
owned by Robert's Hometown Dairy and Hy-Vee. Robert's
Hometown Dairy owns all property surrounding the vacated portion of
St. John's Alley, and Robert's Dairy and Hy-Vee (Consolidated
Properties, Inc.) each abut portions of the vacated St. Matthias Street
right-of-way. Appraisals have been performed on all portions of the
vacated right-of-way, as well as on the Dodge Street right-of-way
which the City is acquiring from Robert's Dairy for the future
expansion of Dodge Street. Consistent with the appraised values,
Robert's Dairy has offered to acquire the St. John's Alley right-of-way
for $16,925 and a portion of the vacated St. Matthias right-of-way for
$12,943. Consolidated properties has offered to purchase a portion
of the vacated St. Matthias Street right-of-way for the appraised value
of $3,407. Along with these transactions, the City is purchasing the
Dodge Street right-of-way from Robert's Dairy for the appraised value
of $20,000. This Resolution declares the City Council's intent to
convey the above property to Robert's Hometown Dairy and
Consolidated Properties, Inc., and sets a public hearing on the
proposed conveyance for September 9.
Motions.
(1)
CONSIDER A MOTION TO APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS IN THE
AMOUNT OF $11,826,006.47 FOR THE PERIOD OF JULY 1
THROUGH JULY 31, 1997, AS RECOMMENDED BY THE
FINANCE DIRECTOR SUBJECT TO AUDIT. DISBURSEMENTS
ARE PUBLISHED AND PERMANENTLY RETAINED IN THE CITY
CLERK'S OFFICE IN ACCORDANCE WITH STATE CODE.
August 26, 1997
f.
7
Resolutions.
(1)
(2)
(3)
City of Iowa City
Page 4
(4)
(5)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO
SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST THE RELEASE OF A
DOWNPAYMENT ASSISTANCE LIEN FOR PROPERTY LOCATED
AT 812 BENTON DRIVE #12, IOWA CITY, IOWA.
Comment: The owner of the property located at 812 Benton
Drive #12, received a loan through the City's Downpayment
Assistance Program on July 13, 1994, in the amount of 93,000.
The financing was in the form of a Mortgage and a Promissory
Note. The loan was paid off on August 1, 1997; thus the lien
can now be released.
CONSIDER
SIGN AND
HOUSING
LOCATED
A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO
THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST THE RELEASE OF A
REHABILITATION LIEN FOR THE PROPERTY
AT 1115 PINE STREET, IOWA CITY, IOWA.
Comment: The owners of the property located at 1115 Pine
Street, received a loan through the City's Housing Rehabilitation
Program on November 27, 1989, in the amount of 913,800.
The financing was in the form of two Promissory Notes, a 10-
year, no-interest Declining Balance Note and Financing
Statements (UCC-2 and UCC-4). The balance of the loan was
paid off on July 23, 1997; thus, the lien can now be released.
coNSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR
THE SANITARY SEWER, WATER MAIN, STORM SEWER,
AND PAVING PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS FOR WINDSOR
RIDGE PART EIGHT AND DECLARING THE PUBLIC
IMPROVEMENTS OPEN FOR PUBLIC ACCESS AND USE.
Comment: See Engineer's Report.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST AVENUE RECONSTRUCTION
PROJECT, STP-U-3715{8)--70-52, MUSCATINE AVENUE TO D
STREET.
Comment: See Engineer's Report.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR THE
SANITARY SEWER, STORM SEWER, WATER MAIN, AND
PAVING PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS FOR HUNTER'S RUN
SUBDIVISION, PART VIII AND DECLARING THE PUBLIC
IMPROVEMENTS OPEN FOR PUBLIC ACCESS AND USE.
Comment: See Engineer's Report.
Aug. ust 26, ~1997
City of Iowa City Page 5
(6) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING AMENDMENTS TO THE
IOWA CITY PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION BY-LAWS.
Comment: At its July 3 meeting, the Planning and Zoning
Commission recommended by a vote of 5-0, that the
Commission's by-laws be amended to include provisions
regarding exparte contacts (discussions outside of public
meetings) and conflicts of interest. On July 29, the Rules
Committee of the City Council recommended approval of the
_~n m nts. _
Correspondence.
(1) JoAnn Murdock- parking
(2) Steve Grismore (Jazz Festival) - thank you
(3) Caroline Oster - deer
(4) C. Joseph Holland - Cambus route
(5) Jennifer Baum - First Avenue
(6) Bruce Glasgow - First Avenue
(7) Grace Trifaro - First Avenue
(8) Thomas Rosenberger- First Avenue
(9) sue Forde - First Avenue
(10) Lowell and Pauline Edmondson - First Avenue
(11) Lynn and Juanita Richmo~e - First Avenue
(12) Dave Kreiter - First Avenue
(13) Penny Cahill - First Avenue
(14) Andrew Russo - First Avenue
(15) Suzanne Michaeu - First Avenue
(16) Eric Weston - First Avenue
(17) Betty Sedlacek - First Avenue
(18) JCCOG Traffic Engineering Planner:
(a) Elimination of Designated Crosswalk on Southlawn Drive in
Front of Robert Lucas School
(b) Installation of Stop Signs on Iowa River Corridor Trail
(c) Establishment of Crosswalk on Park Road for the Iowa
River Corridor Trail
(d) Removal of Reserved Parking for Persons With Disabilities
on the 300 Block of College Street
City of iowa City
Date:
To:
From:
Re:
August 25, 1997
Lisa Handsaker
Maggie Grosvenor, Housing Administrator
Agenda for City Council Meeting of August 26, 1997 Consent Calendar
Item# 3f(7) :
RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PUBLIC HOUSING MANAGEMENT
ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (PHMAP) CERTIFICATION OF THE IOWA CITY
HOUSING AUTHORITY FOR FISCAL YEAR 1997.
Comment: The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
requires housing authorities to certify past performance data as a means of
monitoring local activity. HUD will score the Iowa City Housing Authority
(IOHA) upon eight indicators and will identify areas of concern or
performance based upon these indicators. The Council will receive a copy of
the final report upon receipt from HUD. The Public Housing Management
Assessment Program Certification, HUD-50072, is the only performance
report required for FY97.
jw/mem/mg-cert.doc
August 26, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 6
ITEM NO, 4.
(19) Civil Service Commission submitting certified lists of applicants
for the following position(s):
(a) Section 8 Coordinator
(b) Police Officer
_ (c) Firefighter
Use of City Plaza. (all approved)
(1) Eric Kinzle (Dr. B. Show) - August 16
(2) Pat Ensminger (Pepsi/Hy-Vee pizza/po~giveaway) - August 22
(3) Jame Simonsen (UE-COGS information) - September 2-5
(4) Lyle Deeds (ICFD MDA "Fill the Boot") - August 31-September 1
(5) Joan Dill (distribute Bible bookmarkers) - August 23
Use of City Streets and Public Grounds,
(1) Donna Palmer (New Pioneer Food Co-op
Festival) - September 28
Athena's Gift Street
END OF CONSENT CALENDAR.
PUBLIC DISCUSSION {ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA).
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ITEM NO. 3 CONSDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS
PRESENTED OR AMENDED.
Nov/ (Reads agenda Item #3).
Leturiah/ So moved.
Vanderhoeff Second.
Nov/ Moved by Lelynan, seconded by Vanderhoef. Thank you. Any discussion?
Thornberry/ Yes, I have one point. On the public hearings, number 2, on the resolution
setting a p.h. on September 9th on setting the Burlington Street, Governor Street
signalization project, I know that's a p.h., but I hope that all of the, everything has
been taken into consideration as far as the hill on Burlington Street, with a stop on
Governor, going up that hill, that's going to be quite a project. But this is a p.h.,
and I'm sure that that will come up.
Lehman/ Yes.
Kubby/ You're concerned about in the wintertime, people traveling east on Burlington,
having to stop at the light?
Thornberry/ Yeah.
Nortol~/ Probably not as steep as the one downtown.
Nov/ There are plenty of steep hills, and I think most people will have learned to drive
them. Let's hope.
Thornberry/ Probably not as steep as the one on First Avenue.
Nov/ It's a complete stop at the bottom of Market Street. We manage. While we're on a
little discussion of public hearings, I'd like to mention that there are others
besides that one. (Reads p.h.'s for September 9th). Any other discussion? Okay,
roll call- (yes). We have approved the consent calendar.
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ITEM NO. 4 PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA).
Nov/ Item #4 is Public Discussion for itelas that are not on today's agenda. And I
understand a lot of the people who are here this evening would like to speak, and
I'm going to request at the beginming that we not have applause. This talces time
that we absolutely cannot afford to give. Also, if someone just agrees with what
has just been said and just wants to sign in and say "I agree with the previous
speaker," you don't have to necessarily repeat what that speaker has said. If the
folks in the audience want to show support, just stand up if you want to without
coming and putting your name on the list, or put out a sign-up sheet. We can
send around a sheet of paper. Whatever you can do to say "Yes, I support the
issue," it's fine, just no applause please, and no long drawn-out speeches because
we have a lot of people who really have to say something to us. So, who wants to
be first?
Don Friedman/ My name is Don Friedman. I've been a resident of Iowa City for the last
30 years. And I'll be leaving in about a week's time to move on to another part of
the country. But in the 30 years, I've seen a lot of bizarre behavior in this town,
but I don't think I've seen anything as bizarre and as unconscionable and as
irresponsible as I've witnessed in the last year or so. Since the slaying of Eric
Shaw. Prior to Eric's death, allegedly there was a rash or robberies, burglaries,
down in that neighborhood. (Can't understand) said they had no problem. I
talked to other business owners in that area, and they said they never heard of
anything. In other words, they weren't informed. So, if there were burglaries
down there, I don't nnderstand what the police procedure was. After the slaying,
it didn't seem like anything made sense. The response was let's protect our own
butts, and let's not worry about the Shaws, let's make sure the three policemen get
their counseling. But did anyone from the City contact the Shaws to see what
their problems were, what their needs were? I think not. I think this is
unconscionable. They were the ones that suffered in this incident. Sure, maybe
the police did go through some trauma, but not like the Shaw family. And we as a
City deserted them in their greatest need. What was the policy, didn't we have a
policy here of just going into buildings and shooting first? If anybody knows any
history in this state, 25 years ago there was a (can't understand) decision, where
someone could set up a booby trap so anybody entering an adjacent building
would get their head blown off. Eric Shaw would've had every right in the world
to shoot at that police officer, in my opinion. So the policy was altered, we were
told. Altered to what? What was the previous policy? Why hadn't we, as
citizens, been informed what the policy is? Is it a state secret? All I can see is
that some people were made scapegoats. Obviously, Jeffrey Shaw does not
belong on the police force. And I don't think Mr. Kelsey who allegedly made the
statement that he wouldn't have done anything differently that night, belongs on
the police force. And I darun sure don't think that R.J. Winkelhake belongs on
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the police force. He is a man who's policy caused Eric Shaw his life, caused the
City about $90,000 in damages because of the, one of his errant policeman who
beat tip on a couple of people, and just recently, he's coming to frame lfimself as a
victim. He feels threatened by Jay Shaw. R.J. Winkelhake is not a victim. And
finally, and I address this to you, Mr. City Attorney, because I believe you have
the most -- excuse me, City Manager -- you have the most day to day contact with
him. How in the world can we let R.J. Winkelhalce make a statement that Jay
Shaw is not dealing with his trauma properly? Has R.J. Winkelhake been in a
position where he killed somebody else's son? Is he speaking from experience?
Who is he to judge? Who are you to judge? Who are we to judge how Jay Shaw
is handling his trauma? That's all I have to say.
Candida Maurer/ Yeah. That's a pretty somber note to begin on, and it certainly isn't
why I'm here tonight, but I have to say I agree with what that man said. But I am
here to talk about Hickory Hill Park, as you well know. Just two Council sessions
ago, my brother and I stood here alone, and we asked the people of Iowa City to
come forward. Well, they have come forward. We have 150 people out there.
Karr/ Excuse me, Candida, would you say your name for the record?
Maurer/ Oh, I'm sorry. Candida Maurer, 627 Bradley. I'm sorry. There's 150 people
out there who are very concerned about this issue. We have petitions with over
2,600 names at this point, and I feel like you guys are not responding to this.
There are a lot of people who really, really care about this. And I don't get what's
happening in your heads that you're not thinking or feeling about this outpouring
from the community. It's really difficult to understand where you're coming
from. After this, I would hope you'll begin to start discussing compromises. We
could begin to discuss consensus, solutions, instead of just a blanket thing I read
in the paper tonight about how many of you are going to change your vote. why
can't you look a little deeper and feel a little deeper and try to see that this is a
very important issue to a lot of people. It isn't just me and my brother anymore.
This is a lot of people here. Hickory Hill is a sacred place to me, and I think it's a
sacred place to a lot of people. Amd I mean sacred in the largest sense of the
word. I go there to feel in touch with God, with nature, with the deeper wisdom.
And for you to just, sort of blatantly say, Well, I'm not going to pay attention, just
seems so difficult to comprehend. I had a prepared speech. I'm not going to read
it. I just want to ask your very personally and heartfeltly to reconsider, to think
about how we can come as a community to a consensus on this issue. Allow us to
have our say. Allow us to build what I think could be a compromise that we
could all live with. Thank you.
Meenal Datta/ Hi, my name is Meenal Datta. I live on Hickory Trail, next to the Hickory
Hill Park and I do not want First Avenue extended. I've also spoken to some of
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my neighbors, and they agree with me that this is a bad idea. I would like to share
with you some of my ideas why we should not have this extension. My first
reason is that if we extend First Avenue, we will have much more traffic on it
Milch will be unsafe for the kids in my neighborhood because they like to ride
their bikes around the First Avenue dead-end area. Many kids in my
neighborhood who go to Regina, Hoover, or City High, will have to walk to
school in the increased traffic and make it more unsafe for them because they
have to watch out for more cars. If we have this extension, there will be more
accidents and people could get hurt or even killed. This is practically the only
part of Iowa City that is not very populated. It is nice and quiet and this extension
will make this part of Iowa City more populated, and I think it'll ruin it. If we
have this extension, a part of Hickory Hill Park will be destroyed, and that won't
be good because the habitat of many birds, animals, insects and plants will be
gone, which are an important part of nature. Trees will have to be cut down, and
that is not good because there will be less oxygen. And nature walks in Hickory
Hill Park are nice and quiet, and we will lose some of this nice healthy walks.
The noise from the increased traffic will maize it more difficult for the people who
live in the area, including myself, to sleep at night. Elderly people in my
neighborhood, including my grandparents, get their exercise by walking in the
park, and the extension will make it more difficult for them to get to the park.
The extension of both First Avenue and Scott Boulevard doesn't make sense. We
should only extend Scott Boulevard if necessary. I have talked to about fifteen or
twenty adults and kids who agree with me, and are opposed to this extension. I
would like to thank you for letting me come down and speak to you.
Kubby/ Thank you for coming down.
Nov/ Can we please stop the applause. If you really feel that you cannot keep your
hands quiet, please stand outside.
Lynn Richman/ My name's Lyn Richman. I think she's probably the main reason for
this. I just want to read a brief statement. I wish to more clearly understand your
reasons for wanting to extend First Avenue at this time. I feel there needs to be
more clear evidence that this extension is needed, because it has many negative
consequences. The questions I have for Council are: Did this decision originate
with individual concerns with traffic, or those concerned with development? If it
is a move to, for traffic, there are already better plans established in the long-range
plans. If it is to appease developers, you are doing so at the cost to school
children certainly, parks, and the largest single-family dwelling in Iowa City.
Why have you forsaken longsterm planning and decisions for a quick solution?
We teach our children to place short-term gratification behind long-term planning,
but this Council seems to be forsaking that principle. Why are you seeking to
significantly alter the outcome of this fall's City Council election? Have you
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considered that your action may, in fact, have an adverse effect on the forces of
moderation some of us support? I hope you will reflect carefully on your decision
and determine the primary reason for your decision. It seems counter to long-term
planning and also thoughts from City management in the past, as well as negative
consequences for children, parks, and the neighborhood. Thank you.
Linda Nelson/ My name is Linda Nelson. I own a house at 508 Kirkwood Avenue. And
I don't have lengthy things to say here tonight. I really, mostly want to second
what this young woman said very clearly. And, my grandmother went to college
here in the '20s. And when she would come and visit me when I was in college
here in the '70s, she marveled at how the City had grown. She marveled at City
Park and all the natural areas that were still left, of the flavor of the City. Well,
my son is going to be college here in the '90s and the early 2000s, early 20th
century, 21 st, and I guess, what I hope and pray is that when he and his children
look around the City in the next millennium, that they will be as proud of us as I
was of my grandmother, thinicing about her generation. And I'd like to close with
a Native American saying. And I really thought a lot about it again when this
young woman was speaking. It's that we haven't inherited the earth from our
forefathers and foremothers, we have borrowed it from our children. So, I would
like us to really think about what we're doing for our children and our
grandchildren. Thank you.
David Heble/ My name is David Heble. I'm a downtown business owner. I no longer
belong to the Chamber of Commerce, because I feel the current Chamber people
are unabashedly pro-growth and that they do not look at the consequences. But
I'm a responsible business-owner downtown, and I will do my utmost to talk to
my fellow business-owners and people who work in and own businesses in the
downtown area. I will try to convince them to support this Hickory Hill motion
from the people. Because I do believe it's the best thing for the community. I,
too, have been here for thirty years, since I got my BA in the Music School here,
in the heyday of (can't understand) Voxman and James Dixon. I love this place.
This is a great place to live in. I've gone away a few times, but I've always come
back, and I'm probably here to stay now, in Iowa City. And I really don't like
what I'm seeing now, from the Council, on this issue, and I really wish you would
reconsider. Mrs. Novick, I have a big connection with you, going way back. I
taught your daughter oboe lessons, when she was a kid. I was the goy boy who
came to a Hanuldcah celebration at your house, years ago. That meant a lot to me.
You lmow, I'm connected to people in this town, to people on the City Council. I
remember that. Please remember the old times, that are still happening, the good
times, in this town. One of them is that I walk my dog, my big dog, my 90-pound
dog, every Sunday morning in Hickory Hill, whether there's anyone out there to
notice or not. Sometimes I run into other dog owners. It's the most beautiful
sanctuary for dogs and animals and people. And I love that place. I go there all
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through the year with my dog, with friends, to meet other people I don't lmow.
It's a sanctuary. It's a place of rest. It's a place of renewal for me. And I really
wish that you would consider the possible destruction of part of this wonderful
park for what you're considering doing. I really mean that, Naomi.
Nov/ I have to remind you, this road is not going through the park. At the moment --
Heble/
But it's going to have a terrible effect on the park. By many accounts. And if
you don't listen to the people here, you're going to be listening to the wrong folks.
We'll be looking back at this ten years from now, and we'll be saying "Well,
some people said the fight thing." You're not going the right path. There is
another way. You can move this out. We can do another solution. You lmow, it
hasn't been fight the way you've done this. It needs to be responded to. We need
to have some answers. You can give them to me now, if you will.
Nov/ We will not answer now, but we will have a meeting on Friday, if the signatures are
validated.
Heble/ We'll be here. We'll be here. Thank you.
Michael Santangelo/ My name is Michael Santangelo, I live at 627 Bradley. First of all,
Larry, love the tie, it's great. And if you give me the name of your agent, I've got
a novel that will lmock his socks off. But, one a more serious note, you've heard
all the reasons why the First Avenue extension is a bad idea -- the traffic, the
destruction of habitats, all that kind of stuff, the neighborhood interference, and
the problems with schoolchildren, and all of that. So I'm not going to talk about
that. And they don't seem to be making any difference. So what I will talk about
is something else. And that is something near and dear to the hearts of all the
politicians, and that's political survival. And, you know, tonight, with the
petitions the put the motion on the ballot we're circulating, and there's over 2,700
signatures already. And counting. And of that 2,700, over 200 are new voters. I
saw people filling out the voter registration things, just so they could sign the
petition. That's how important this is. Now, 2,700 plus votes is a large margin to
lose by, people. And I do want you to keep that in mind when you consider this.
Thank you very much.
Corbin
Sexton/ Hi, my name is Corbin Sexton. I've lived in Iowa City since 1990. I'm
a homeowner. I live at 1817 C Street. I start many of my days in Hickory Hill
Park, and I finish many of my days in Hickory Hill Park. Since living here, I have
been at the University, at the University Hospital, and now I work for a local
business. There's been much talk about the glories of Hickory Hill Park, and I
think more of my details about what I've seen there, the people, the animals, are
not necessary at this point. I would say though, that everything I've experienced
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there has greatly enhanced my ability to perform well in other spheres in Iowa
City. I go to my job, as my co-workers will tell you, with my latest Hickory Hill
story, and I'm able to sit at my desk, and at my computer terminal, as I'm sure
many people in this town spend their days doing indoor work, with, well, I'm
renewed by my trips to Hickory Hill Park. So, it isn't just a contained area where
birds do well, and squirrels do well, and deer graze. It's benefits reach out into
more of the community. I know I'm going to leave this podium knowing there
were other things I wanted to say, but I lmow there are other people with things to
say, and I think this is a point that may not have been made, so thanit you for
listening, and, well, thank you.
Juanita Richman/ My name's Juanita Riclunan. I live at 220 S. First Avenue. I would
like to submit to the City Council members a petition signed by East Side
residents. It's not the petition, but it is one that I've been collecting names on for
a month, and friends who are opposed to the First Avenue extension. We would
like to know why you want to extend First Avenue. We've heard several reasons.
One reason is to ease traffic flow off of North Dodge. Extending Scott Boulevard
to Captain Irish Parkway would have the same effect, and would be much safer
and quicker results for motorists. You can travel from one part of town to
another. You would encounter no driveways and no children walking to and from
school on Scott Boulevard. You would also be able to drive at more than 35 miles
per hour, which most of us think is necessary these days. Reason number two, to
help the East Side growth and development, with executive homesites near
Hickory Hill Park. Would it be wise to put schoolchildren's lives at risk on the
east side of town, with the largest single-family developments, for a few more
dollars in property taxes? Reason number three, First Avenue extension is the
cheapest way to reroute traffic. Will adding 4,000 more cars per day to an already
busy, ill-equipped street with four schools on it, and only one mile west of Scott
Boulevard be a wise idea? I'm asking the CC to please reconsider the First
Avenue extension, and please focus instead on Scott Boulevard extension to
Captain Irish Parkway, and leave to all of us a peaceful park and a safe
environment to send our children off to schooling.
Bem~ett Brown/ Hello, I'm Bermett Brown of 802 E. Washington Street, and I'm one of
over 40 people who circulated the petition to put the citizen initiative on the
ballot. I'm also, of course, one of over 2,700 people who signed it. From the
begimfing, for me, the issue has been one of an open and responsible, democratic
Council. I have with me your 1994, 1995, and 1996 Seven Year Plans, in which
you outline the roads that you intend to build, and how the City intends to
develop, the Capital Improvements Program. In all three of those years, you told
us that you did not intend to develop First Avenue in the next seven years and that
it was unfunded. In a single meeting in March of this year, you amended that plan
and cast this years Capital Improvement Program. With no public input, and no
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warning to the public, you changed it from unfimded and beyond seven years, to
be completed this spring. You held what you called a public hearing, and your
minutes reflect that not a single person spoke. Your agenda reflects that the
words First Avenue did not even appear. That is wrong. Since then, this Council
has treated it like a done deal. The majority of Council has said, despite an
outpouring of public pressure to wait for public discussion and resolution of
public concerns regarding traffic and the park. This Council in its majority has
said we will not wait; we do not care what the majority of this public is concerned
about. 2,700 people have said that they want the City to wait. They said that they
want the public to have a say and they have a lot to say. It has been well said by
others, and I won't repeat it. I'll only recap it. First Avenue should not be
another Highway 6. Hickory Hill Park is a wild and open, beautiful place that is a
better legacy left to our grandchildren. And I think the future Chamber of
Commerce even, would agree, that it is a better legacy to leave than a Burlington
Street running right along it, with roads and houses surrounding the park. People
are tired of seeing development devour the places that they love. Once that road
is paved and houses and roads built on the land that is currently immediately east
of the park, it will be done forever. It will be irreversible. Does that not suggest
that it should be discussed? Thank you.
Nov/ Thank you. I still have a gavel. I can still use it. Can we please have order?
Please go ahead.
Catherine Woods/ I'm Catherine Woods, Iowa City resident and member of the Iowa
City Green Party. I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of the Iowa City Green
Party. The Green Party believes in environmental responsibility. It is wrong to
extend First Avenue before completing a revision of the Comprehensive Plan, and
making decisions to protect nattLral areas, steep slopes, streamways and wildlife
corridors, while minimizing pollution in the northeast area. The Green Party
believes that the economy must serve the people rather than vice versa. It is
wrong for citizens to pay with their tax dollars their health, their safety, and their
sense of community, for sewers and road extensions that will serve the profits of a
few. The Green Party believes in grass roots, participatory democracy. It is
wrong for the CC to make major policy decision without fully informing the
public and providing for public input prior to its decision making. For these
reasons, I'm reading you the statement the Iowa City Green Party unanimously
endorsed on Sunday, Artgust 21, 1997. "The Iowa City Green Party endorses the
petition written by Bennett Brown, and is opposed to the extension of First
Avenue at any time." Thank you.
Nov/ Thank you for standing up instead of applauding.
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David Quist/My name is David Quist. I live at 942 Evergreen, and my wife and I just
moved here two months ago from Menlo Park, California, which is 18 miles south
of San Francisco, where we enjoyed what is known as the Mid-Peninsula Open
Spaces. That's a trust fund that's been build up over sixty years of large tracts of
property that has either been deeded to the trust or bought by the fund, so that
people can enjoy open spaces again, because of the over-development of the
peninsula. You have an opportunity here, instead of buying it back sixty years
from now, to let it rest where it is, and start an open spaces preserve in Iowa,
which would be tremendous. grad I would highly encourage you to take this route
as opposed to sixty years from now, trying to buy this land back and create
something that's already here to begin with. Thank you.
Russell Lovetinsky/ Russell Lovetinsky, 100 6th Avenue. I am also close to the First
Avemte extension. I did what little I could in gathering signatures for the
referendum. Throughout this election season, I will be asking people to vote for
the referendum. As a city, we are lucky to have such a referendum system. I
consider Hickory Hill, like Iowa City, to be unique. To preserve the natural
beauty of Hickory Hill is to maintain the unique qualifies of our city. We must
not sacrifice these natural areas to those who insist on constant growth and
expansion, regardless of the consequences. From my perspective, such growth is
neither wise, nor responsible. In the area of growth and development, we need
more democracy and more participation in establishing these policies. Let us
maintain the natural beauty of Hickory Hill for present and future generations of
Iowa City. Please vote against the extension of First Avenue.
Ben Lewis/ My name's Ben Lewis. I live at 519 N. Gilbert. I just want to make a brief
statement on behalf of the University of Iowa Environmental Coalition. There are
very few natural places that we have access to in this city. Hickory Hill is one of
the best. You lmow, you can say that the road doesn't go directly through the
park, but we all lmow that road would lead to more roads. Just look around. And
basically we're opposed to the extension of First Avenue. What happens when we
need to, you lcnow, increase, or release the traffic from First Avenue. You build
more roads. Hickory Hill Park is gone, you know? And basically, it's one of the
only places we can get to without the use of an internal combustion engine, or a
very long bike ride. So, please reconsider your decision.
Holly Berkowitz/ Holly Berkowitz, 612 Granada Court. Hickory Hill Park is the
economy. It is the house that contains the prodricers of the basic, critical needs
that we need as people, as all life needs, as life. Walls of concrete, barriers of
asphalt destroy life. They deteriorate through time, and eventually green will
grow. It improves in value in time. A green system is sensitive, delicate, fragile,
and vulnerable. And bulldozing through public, privatized, short-sighted, public
policy, making public policy into privatized, short-sighted policy for a few,
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should be for the many now, for you now, for your children's children's children,
seventy years from now. Boundaries, political boundaries change. But basic
needs of basic life do not change. Cash flow does not equal vital flows. We have
two kinds of economies. International budgets, state budgets, local budgets, any
major cash flow that's there. We have that, major rate of flow. How much is
flowing how fast. That doesn't support life. That kills life, with the floods and
the droughts, and the over-pressure. Life is fragile. It is a web. It is a web. It
isn't as fragile as a spider's web, but a spider web is also very strong. Life is very
strong, but it's also very fragile. It breaks very easily. If you break a thread of the
spider, of the life web, it might disintegrate, it might rip apart. And we're part of
that web. It says "Fragile, handle with care." Most people, most people, most
people process information by obvious sensory mechanisms, by sight, hearing,
smell, taste, feeling, and most (can't understand). So that means that when we
take in infonr~ation and when we want and want and want, we gotten to re-
evaluate our world in tenus of"is it going to satisfy my immediate needs", not
"how are my children going to survive seventy years from now" or "how are their
neighborhoods going to survive" and "how are they going to nurture their
neighborhoods and create a neighborhood that produces life, and nurtures, and
protects, and nurtures, protects, and produces life". So you, as public
representatives of the many people -- you're not private representatives, you are
public representatives of many, many people, many diverse people. You can't
just say "I represent one small segment of this population," because you don't.
You represent an entire geographical area, and you know as well as I that in this
city, there are people from all over who are all, all, an infinite amount of diversity.
And there is a pattern in here, in this, in this puddle. There is a pattern in this
puddle. It's up to you to look beyond the obvious, to dig beyond the obvious and
look for the detail, look beyond the patterns and the clues in the objects. Look
beyond the pre-adjusted information that says that you have to consume at a very
rapid rate and a very rapid --
Nov/ Holly--
Berkowitz/ A very rapid, as rapid as possible. Maximum is not quality. They're two
different things. Thank you.
Nov/ Thmxk you, Holly.
Berkowitz/ Oh, can I say one more thing?
Nov/ Very fast, because you've used your five minutes.
Berkowitz/ Okay. I did a study of the Hickory Hill Park, and the Ralston Creek, and I
found --
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Nov/ Why don't you set it down right here and we can let the camera see it. No, I mean
on the floor in front of the --
Berkowitz/ I found --
Nov/ In front of the railing. Just set it on the floor in front of the railing.
Berkowitz/ Okay. I found that certain water creatures indicate water quality. And the
diversity, the numbers were much different at Hickory Hill Park. It was
practically, I only had one (can't understand) down by the river. And one of the
principles that you use when testing water quality are (can't understand). And
Iowa has done a very nice job over the years, using (can't understand). This is
what you need, an air-shed and watershed. It's (can't hear) 1,000 feet away from
the boundary of Hickory Hill Park. Now, what about this (can't understand) is
very important, especially if you consider that the way it's going to go is straight,
and --
Nov/ Holly--
Berkowitz/ And it's not contoured with the land.
Nov/ Okay.
Berkowitz/It's not enviro~rnentally sensitive into the area, as far as you want to go, and
(can't understand) --
Nov/ Okay.
Berkowitz/ (Can't understand).
Nov/ We understand, thank you.
Sheila
Ird'oplot-Odole/ My name's Sheila Kroplot-Odole, and I live at 715 Bradley
Street. And I just want to make a brief statement. In all the things that I've been
reading about this issue, I've not seen anybody stand up and say that this is a good
idea. And I haven't heard anybody here tonight stand up and say that this is a
good idea. And I want to lmow how you can sit there and tell us that this is a
good idea. I think you need to back up and please reconsider, because this is not a
good idea. Thank you.
Clemens Erdahl/ My name is Clemens Erdahl. I'm a homeowner in Iowa City, and I had
the privilege of being on the CC fi'om 1977-1985. And during that time period, I
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had two experiences witix this and similar issues with pressure from developers
and plans that were not necessarily all that well thought out. I wanted to comment
just a little bit on the process. One of the things I learned during those eight years
is that some issues develop a little more slowly than others. Some meetings take a
little bit longer than others, bnt that it's best for Council, when faced by some
outpouring from the citizens, to take a deep breath, take a little time, and make
sure you make the right decision. There are a lot of legal requirements when it
comes to zoning, planning, and comprehensive plans, and that's not by accident.
That's because of lawsuits brought by people who didn't lmow what was
happening to their property values; because of a desire to make sure that citizens
were properly informed. Now, I read in the paper that there were some concerns
that the citizens were too late on this issue. But you lmow, this was not an issue
that was handled in the way that an issue of this importance ought to be handled --
through the comprehensive plauning process, the CIP process, and so forth. So, I
would hope that you would not look askance at wisdom because it moves a little
slowly. That's what we have to deal with in the democratic process. To me, this
is not an issue about a park and about beauty, and I could go on for hours about
Hickory Hill Park. There were a number of decisions that were made, mad I'm
very proud to be a member of a Council that decided to double the size of the
park, as a way of dealing with the Ralston Creek problem, a stormwater issue
which is another element of this that ought to be looked at pretty carefully. We've
invested millions of dollars, and that plan was based on the idea that we would not
increase the watershed flow in the very area where this road is being plalmed.
Those are all side issues, however. I think this is a welfare and safety issue, and
an issue that deals with property values. I have my master's degree in Urban and
Regional Planning, and to tell you how long that's been for me, I was in planning
school with Karin Frmxklin and Doug Boothroy, so it goes back even before Jeff
came on the staff. I lmow Jeff Davidson, he's a wonderful guy. I think this
matter is about principle, it's not about personalities. I think that he's stated what
he should state from his perspective, but that's only one perspective. One of my
professors in plam~ing used to say that the problem with planners is that we have a
formalistic spatial bias. So, it's pretty traditional that if there's a straight line, a
plarmer's going to find it. Planners will normally, if left to their own devices, go
north/south, east/west. But the Council has been working twenty years on this
problem. A number of Councils have worked on it. And that is not what the
wisdom of those Councils was, that it is not a good idea to extend First Avenue
for a number of reasons. I remember John Balmer convincing me to vote for
Scott Boulevard, against my better judgment, because it was going to put trucks
and too much traffic on First Avenue. Now John, at that time lived close to First
Avenue. I now live close to First Avenue, but I still saw the wisdom of that, and I
don't think that my vote really is affected by being near First Avenue, except for
what I look out at every morning. I get to watch three traffic jams ifI want to take
the time to watch it, because I live about a block from Court and First Avenue.
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And when I have to go south, I go north first. I drive three miles to go half a
block, because there's a tremendous traffic problem there in the morning. There's
a traffic problem when the High School kids are going. There's a traffic problem
when the Hoover kids are going. There's a traffic problem when the Southeast
kids are going. There are three traffic problems. In the evening, there's a traffic
problem that extends tln:ough all those school periods and into the rush hour. So,
we do have a traffic problem. To put more traffic on there, maybe a very serious
mistake in and of itself, al~d you can't make four lanes at First Avenue. Scott
Boulevard was designed and built to be two lanes. That was the controversy we
had, but it's wide enough to have four lanes. John MacDonald and, I think it was
Tom Scott at that time, came up with the idea that what we ought to be doing is
putting that four-land Scott Boulevard, or extending Scott Boulevard first, and
then backing into this area. There is no need, necessarily, to take a frontal assault
on that area. And there are a lot of reasons for that. There's always going to be
presstire froin developers. There's always going to be pressure, and planners are
always going to see that straight-line approach. But I think if you really take a
look at this, mid it's been looked at for years, and I think there's been a consensus
of about fifteen or sixteen years that this Council is going against in quite a hurry.
I think you'll find that this approach is going to destroy property values north of
Rochester, and there are some awfully big homes up there. It's going to create a
whole new constituency for some politician. Let me tell you, this is a defining
issue for a campaign ifI ever saw one. But, additionally, it's going to really hurt
the smaller homeowners like myself who are further on down the way. I mean,
we really can't handle the traffic that's there now. Are you prepared to put a four-
lane in on First Avenue before you put the four-lane on Scott Boulevard, which is
what we plam~ed on twenty years ago? And so, I've come here to give a little
historical perspective. The last time I came was when Council was going to vote
for the Helipad on top of Mercy Hospital. You lmow, there were a number of
Councilors at that time who said these people are coming in too late. You lmow,
we've already decided, plus we've already made this promise to Mercy Hospital.
Well, it was the other way around. The Council had told Mercy Hospital no, we
don't really want to do that. )did can you imagine, I lmow they're dropping out
of the skies in Cedar Rapids, with the police helicopters, what a tragedy could
have taken place. What a silly decision that was. Don't make a silly decision.
Don't make a hurried decision. Take the time to do it right. Thank you.
Thornberry/ Clemens? Hey, Clemens? With all due respect, this Council was not
involved in the Mercy Hospital Helipad.
Erdahl/ Well, I know.
Thornberry/ It was a previous Council. I didn't remember if you were still on that or not,
but I was not.
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Greg Thompson/ Hi, Council members. My name's Greg Thompson, and like Catherine
Woods, and Russell Lovetinsky, I'm also a member of the Iowa City Green Party.
I'd ask those of you who are still in favor of this First Avenue extension to make,
before you make your final decision, go walk through Ryerson's Woods, down by
the fairgrounds. It's visually a beautiful place, but it's very polluted with noise.
And if you go to Hickory Hill Park, you won't hear that kind of noise. And I
think if you allow Hickory Hill Park to become polluted with noise, all of the
good people here of Iowa City who go to Hickory Hill ParIt to get restored and
rested up, aren't going to be able to do that as well. And they're not going to be
come back and do the wonderful things that make Iowa City a wonderful place
nearly as well. So, I'd just ask you to please consider that in making your
decision. ThanIt you.
Pat Lind/ Good evening. I'm Pat Lind, and I'm a member of the Republican Party. That
probably won't get me very far tonight, but thought I'd mention it. You guys are
really going to earn those big salaries tonight with meetings like this. I just want
to touch on three things that I've talked about before. And I lmow I wrote you all
a letter. The things that really concern me: a) the driveway situation on First
Avenue -- backing out of a home onto an arterial street is not recommended.
North of Rochester, the City allowed such driveways to be built, lmowing they
violate the safety standards. Jeff Davidson said that was a mistake. The steep
grade at First Avenue and Rochester, we're told, is at the limit of safety. The
limit. And the schools are a huge problem. We talked two weeks about how
there's other streets, and there's other schools. No road in Johnson County,
regardless of designation, has two high schools, two grade schools, one junior
high, two daycare centers, along a two-mile route.
Thornberry/ Which are the schools, Pat, that have an address on First Avenue? Could
you tell me?
Lind/ Well, you lmow, Regina's one. Obviously it's not on First Avenue, but it's highly
affected. City High --
Thornberry/ Well, City High's --
Lind/ And Hoover --
Thornberry/ It's behind it --
Lind/ Okay,--
Thornberry/ You're saying the schools are on First Avenue. You've got to be careful.
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Lind/ I may be stretching it there just a little bit, but I'm sorry, those schools are all
affected by that street, because the people use it to get there. I ask you to honor
the commitments of past Councils, follow the advice of your own experts, and
don't build it. Thanks.
Thornberry/ When my father was mayor of Iowa City, I remember the same
conversation, and the same, probably the same number of people, who were
opposed to going way out and paving First Avenue. That was just unheard of.
And the people that came and said you're going to ruin everything out west when
you pave First Avenue, it really should not be done. So anybody that lives out
there, you're there by the grace of the Councils before us that have paved streets
and have houses out, at least on First Avenue. Because when I went to City High,
it wasn't paved.
Mike Campbell/ Hi there. My name is Mike Campbell. I live at 967 Evergreen Court.
And I'm a senior at City High. But I just want to say to you to not look at this in
terms of immediate dollar savings over whatever you might have in the future.
Sure, it might cost less to extend the road now, because they're putting in the
water line, that's what I hear, but developing it right now is only going to make a
difference to a small number of people who stand to make some fair amount of
money out of development out there. Amd I don't think you're looking at other
possibilities such as how it could cost more. For example, deer overpopulation is
one thing that would come along with that. Another thing that would come along
that would be a new drug corridor into Hickory Hill Park that might overtax the
police resources. Amd I thinit you're really not considering all the implications
the extension would have. And, yeah, also, I'd just like you to lmow that there are
a lot of people my age who care about this sort of thing, who are out there right
now. And as Council representatives, I would appreciate if you would represent
what the people feel, which I thinfit at this time is not to extend First Avenue.
Nov/ Thrufit you, and thank all of you for waving instead of clapping. Is there anyone
else who would like to talk to us?
Lori Bears/ I'm Lori, and I've lived on First Avenue for over twenty years, and I have
used Hickory Hill ParIt. And as a disabled person, I also feel you would be
putting the lives of people with disabilities in danger if you put a road in there.
And we're always thinking of roads. And I always like talking to Karen, 'cause
she always tells me about the trails, and whatever, and what you would be doing,
would be hurting, the trails and the nature. And I just wish you would reconsider
First Avenue, and I just think it was a real stupid decision, whoever made the
decision to make it four lanes. And you can talk to me later, but that's all I have
to say.
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Nov/ Thtml~ you, Lori.
Derails Hatton/ My name is Dennis Hatton, and I live at 603 S. Summit. And I live in a
neighborhood that's greatly affected by the growth east of my house. I feel if
people are given a more direct route to and from work, they'll use it. I understand
what it's like to be told you're going to have more traffic in front of your house,
but If you don't do anything about this, that's what you're telling me. I guess I
feel like in some ways, you should have been opposed to the development,
because that's what's causing the traffic in the neighborhoods. I also think that
Jeff Davidson should maybe explain to people the park situation again, because
it's not running through the park. As far as the petitions go, I have been
approached with a petition, and I was told it was going to go through the park, and
I was also told it was directly connected to the interstate, which I know is not true.
I know many other people were told the same thing. And as far as the history of
the park, what about the history of the neighborhood? It's not fair for Iowa City
voters that one part of the city should bear the traffic burden, because that area
isn't growing, and these other areas are. I also feel like in the last two-hundred
years, we should've learned something about traffic. And that when these
neighborhoods are plam~ed, traffic patterns need to be planned as well. So, thank
you.
Jay Shaw/ My nm2e is Jay Shaw. It was nice that Clemens' reasons were so practical
and so powerful. I don't believe that the aesthetic reasons should be overlooked,
however. A lot of reasons have been spiritual and aesthetic. Mine are certainly
that. I think that it is fortunate that we have both kinds of reasons telling us not to
do this. I would say that Dean Thornberry's comments are not relevant because
Hickory Hill Park was not involved. Hickory Hill Park is involved in this.
Hickory Hill Park is a value to citizens that could go unrecognized because it is
not measurable strictly in terms of the nmnber of people who walk its trails or use
its facilities. This park helps people who have the need to walk in a natural
setting that is not overburdened by the works of man. It is possible to walk in
Hickory Hill for an hour and not be confronted by buildings and noise and traffic
and hordes of people. Very few cities have such a park. Iowa City should be
proud of Hickory Hill. The singlemost important factor that gives this park its
unique quality is its remoteness to people and houses. If the Council extends First
Avenue to Dodge Street, First Avem~e will become a preferred route to the
Interstate for a large section of Iowa City. Whatever anybody says to the
contrary, this will happen eventually, and housing developments follow roads.
Whatever decision is made, it should not, it should be made with an appreciation
of what would be lost if citizens can no longer enter the park and leave the city
behind. At different times of their lives, almost everybody needs a place to go to
be alone in a natural setting. Hickory Hill gives Iowa Citians that place. In our
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own case, it is not much of an exaggeration to say that Hickory Hill Park saved
ore' lives by giving us a spiritual and physical haven from the horrors of this past
year. And I know that it does that for others who have experienced a tragedy.
But most of the time, the benefits of Hickory Hill Park are much less dramatic,
but just as important. Walking in Hickory Hill on a daily, a weekly, or even a
monthly basis, provides great benefits to anyone who does it. If the Parks
Department is measuring how many people use Hickory Hill as opposed to how
many people use other parks, they should use the multiplier that factors in the
greater benefits this park provides to every user who walks its trails. Thank you.
Jon Fogarty/ Hello, my name's Jori Fogarty. I'm 24 years old and I've lived in this city,
the Iowa City/Coralville area, since approximately 1978. I've been educated here
since the second half of kindergarten clear through college, and now am a
business owner downtown. I've come to realize in my later years that things
don't stay the same, and that development happens, and that things change. I've
noticed that particularly looking at downtown and thinicing about going out to
Hickory Hill with my dad when I was eight years old. And I lmow things, things
have to progress there, there's a need for development, but we need to have a
more of a vision than what seems to be displayed here. I'm really at a loss for
why we're doing this. Why is this proposed? As someone said earlier, no one
stood up to say this is a good idea. Amd I imagine whoever thirdcs it's a good idea
probably has a great stake in having this road built, probably financial because
they own a lot of land they want to develop. I would thinic they would at least
have the guts to come here tonight and say we want this, or at least send their
lawyer to say we want you to do this. Nothing bad against lawyers, there are good
and bad of anything. But anyways, I mean, there's a lot of us here that, we don't
have a lot of money for campaign contributions. We don't have land to develop.
But we have votes, and it doesn't seem to be progressing along the lines of
democracy tonight. It seems to be going some other abstract route. For that
matter, if we're not going to have majority rule, why not just mob rule, and just
measure by who has the most guns and fists. Or, we could go by we could all
take an ACT test and see who has the highest score. We could all play a big game
ofkickball for that matter. It would make as much sense as what's going on
tonight. Now, there are a lot of people here who've been organized in a very short
amount of time over this one issue. And just imagine how much more organized
we're going to get as time goes on. I want to thank you all for listening, and I
pray to whatever divine powers are out there that somebody hears us. Thanic you.
Beej Matson/ Hello, I'm Beej Matson, and I just moved to 814 E. Davenport, and I just
love it because the park's only a little ways away. But I have a question about the
process of this legal system. If we get the proper amount of votes and their
approved, to bring it to be voted by everybody, you lmow, the petition's signed
and there are enough people on it, do you still have the power to override that?
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Nov/ No. We are going to have a special meeting on Friday afternoon at 3:00. We are
hoping that all the signatures will be validated by then. AT that point, the CC has
two choices. We can concur with the resolution and delay two years on the
construction of First Avenue, or we can put it on the ballot. If it is put on the
ballot, this Friday, it will be in the November election.
Matson/ So okay, it looks like, from what I understand, from the people outside, it looks
like we've made it with enough. I understand the signatures are sufficient.
Nov/ The signatures are significant after they've been checked against the voter rolls,
and that's the reason we're waiting till Friday.
Matson/ Okay, so you'll be working day and night and have the information for us then
by 3:00. Where would be meet?
Nov/ Right here.
Matson/ Right here, sounds good. So everybody ought to show up. Let's watch 'em. I
also want to tell you I work a lot with kids downtown at the Ped Mall, and there's
a bad situation down there, of course, with, you guys don't know this, but there's
an increase with crack dealing down there that is absolutely outrageous. And a lot
of the children that I deal with down there, there's a big group of them that you
wouldn't think, of the ones that aren't involved in that, that from what I
understand go to Hickory Hill almost daily. There's a group of over sixty young
and up to college age people who go out to Hickory Hill as a location for their
interpretive and drama role-playing type situation which keeps them off the
streets, and keeps them in with nature, and I think it's really healthy for them.
Now if this, I understand there's going to be encroachment, which there probably
would be, can we put something in the, if we have a decision to extend First
Avenue, can we say on the condition that no streets would ever go out from it, and
that sort of thing, and it would never be a four-lane? Can we actually put that in
there, if it goes through?
Nov/ I'm not sure that it can be put imo the vote. It can certainly be changed in that way
by future CC. It can be redesigned.
Matson/ Why coukh~'t we go ahead and put limitations on it as the people. What would
we have to do to produce that?
Nov/ We'd have to have a whole other initiative.
Matson/ With more signatures of just as many people.
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Nov/ Year, but it would be difficult at this point, I would say just about impossible, to
get a whole new group of signatures and get it into the ballot this November. So,
I would suggest that if you want to change that, work on it after the election.
Work on convincing people that the design should change.
Matson/ Rather than having it get in there with the, without our restrictions that we
would desire, I think it would be more important that people show up on Friday
and that people who haven't had the chance to sign the petition would come down
to the Ped Mall where there will be a table and people walking around till Friday,
that maybe we can add enough signatures to get it voted in November. I'd really
appreciate that.
Nov/ There won't be time to validate all those signatures.
Matson/ They 1fright be there anyway, and they might impress you in some ways.
Nov/ Well--
Matson/ This wasn't like -- we weren't told in time, and you --
Nov/ Okay.
Matson/ had a meeting with absolutely no representatives, so I think it should be brought
as a, you know, enough people petition in time. If there aren't, I think that maybe
we'll just come on Friday and try to convince you that we don't pass on being
legitimized. Is that okay?
Nov/ You may be here, but there is no public discussion on Friday. There is Council
discussion on Friday.
Matson/ Okay.
Nov/ Okay.
Kubby/ But what the petition giving two years until First Avenue is extended, gives the
community time to have further discussion about should it happen at all, and if it
happens, what forms and ~vhat conditions should it happen. So, you might
convince Council to extend the timeframe for two years, or if that's not
successful, than going to the poll and getting the majority to say that, getting the
community a year and a half or so to have further discussion about this.
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Matson/ Oh, very good. I have a question. What changed between the plan that stated
last year and the two years before that that it would not come along for at least
four years. Could you tell me the process that changed your minds?
Kubby/ Well, it's interesting, because people seem very confused about that, and the
Council members who are supportive of that, they haven't really done a lot of
public discussion about that. And I don't really lmow how many people can come
on Friday to hear people's rationales for voting on the resolution that will be
before us. There's a lot of people interested now, so maybe those folks could say
something.
Matson/ That would be fine. I still didn't get an answer specifically on how you guys
got to change your minds from seven years down to two. Could you explain that?
Thomberry/ That's gone through every year. We go through that every single year.
Matson/ Oh, sure.
Thornberry/ And that's been year after year after year that you look at the projects that
are upcoming for the next year. And we prioritize those projects, and it's done
every single year.
Matson/ Okay, so the statements in your last booklets of the group that meets to decide
this were false in saying seven years?
Nov/ No.
Matson/ I'm confused. I'm sorry.
Baker/ There's a very simple answer. Three years ago, there was a 4 to 3 vote to
eliminate the First Avenue extension. That was a different Council.
Matson/ Yes.
Baker/ This Council voted 5 to 2 to re-insert the First Avenue extension. It's a different
Council.
Matson/ Yeah, what --
Kubby/ What you're asking for is the reason why people want First Avenue and --
??/ (Can't understand) Seven years (can't understand).
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Nov/ Shush, please. There's a person ~-
Kubby/ (Can't understand).
Matson/ Could you prevent putting those statements in those books then, that it says for
seven years? Can you prevent that so it doesn't mislead the public?
Nov/ You cannot prevent a CC from revising the CIP. These plans are discussed and
revised every year.
Matson/ Okay. So the statement of seven years is false.
Nov/ It's not false. It's (can't understand) of the moment.
Matson/ Okay, it's misleading, and we don't know that every year, you guys get to go
back over everything, even though you might have promised in public and in
writing --
Norton/ It's updated every seven years.
Kubby/ It can change. And the confusing part, I believe, and what people have told me
is that there hasn't been much public explanation or discourse about why the
change in philosophy for the timeframe for the extension of First Avenue.
Matson/ This is what I was wondering.
Kubby/ It'd be a wonderful opportunity for those Council members who are in favor of
the First Avenue extension to just talk about why. There are some reasons why --
Matson/ Are we going to hear that tonight?
Nov/ No.
Kubby/ It's up to the five people who believe in that change, and --
Matson/ Okay. all right.
Nov/ It is not on tonight's agenda. It will be on the agenda Friday afternoon.
Matson/ Friday at 3:00, we can be here, but not speak, but we can show in force if we're
interested.
Nov/ You may listen.
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Matson/ Okay. Thank you very much, I appreciate it. I just want to let you know that
the aspect of having the park infringed upon has been bad enough when those
houses were built down there. And the kids I know that go down there, they hear
traffic now, whereas they didn't before. And I have the older students who go out
there to meditate. And just the sounds of the increased traffic really upset. It's
not just the visual that you're experiencing, it's also what you can hear and not
hear. And it's a good place to get away from the sounds of the city and the
sounds of the traffic. I appreciate you letting me talk, and I hope to see you
Friday. Thank you.
Nov/ Thank you.
Bob Foral/ Good evening. I'm Bob Foral. I live at 616 First Avenue, right across from
the park actually. So you have a pretty good idea where I'm going to stand on
this issue. When I first heard about the extension of First Avenue, I was a little
miffed. Because my idea of an extending thoroughfare would be Scott Boulevard.
And I didn't buy the property there because of that, but it seemed to make the
most sense at the time. I kind of reserved my opinion, waiting to hear the reasons
why First Avenue was chosen over Scott, and I've listened and I've listened, and
I've listened. And to this point, I can find no good reason why you're extending
First Avenue over Scott Boulevard. I understand there are financial motivations
here, perhaps development, I don't know. But the arguments for First Avenue are
very, very weak when you compare them to the Scott Boulevard extension. We
talk about traffic, we talk about access, we talk about the hill, we talk about
children, we talk about the park. I don't hear any of those negatives when we talk
about Scott Boulevard. So, consequently, I would ask you to please reconsider
your decision. Thank you.
Richard Twohy/ My name is Richard Twohy. I live at 903 N. Dodge. I would like to
ask, who are the two Council members of you seven who did not favor First
Avenue extension, would you please tell me? Karen Kubby and Larry Baker.
Thank you very much. Who are the names of the five who did vote to extend
First Avenue? Gee, let me see.
Lehman/ Simple mathematics
Twohy/ Well, forget mathematics. Could I have your names, please?
Nov/ They're right here.
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Twohy/ Dee Norton, Ernie Lel~r~an, Naomi Novick, Dean Thornberry, and Dee
Vanderhoef. All of you voted, without any substantial public discussion, to
extend First Avenue. Is that con'ect? That's great, you guys.
Kubby/ Although, let's -- to be clear, Larry Baker and I voted no without that public
discussion as well.
Baker/ And not only that. The previous Cormcil -~ I don't want you to misuse an issue
here, which is the public input and public discussion. The previous Council who
took it off the CIP did it without public discussion and public input either. So,
there's no sort of Machiavellian plan here. The decision is different, but --
Norton/ A2~d there's further thought about reconsidering, and that's the issue. Let's
further consider talk about reconsidering, and moving the timeframe. But there
are a lot of issues, you lmow, the availability of Scott, how soon that could
happen, the cost of Scott, and extended. To build that out is going to be about
eight years away. In the meal~time, those on the east side are stuck.
Nov/ Well,--
Norton/ But those issues
Nov/
Let's not put out number, please, because we don't lmow those. But we did say
that we wanted those streets. The discussion was do this one first, or that one
first. The previous Council said we're going to do Scott Boulevard first. The
subsequent Council said we're going to do First Avenue first. That was the only
change.
Kubby/ Please, go ahead.
Derek Maurer/ Good evening. I'm Derek Maurer. I live at 328 S. Governor Street, and I
would like to suggest that there is a good solution to this, and that what is now a
very contentious issue could be a tremendous positive for the community. And it
deals a little bit with the discussion that just started about what it means to have
public discussion about a decision about an important matter. Iowa City's home
rule charter states in its preamble that the City should state all acts and take all
measures necessary and desirable to encourage the participation of its citizens in
policy fon~aation. Soon you will have before you the draft 1997 Comprehensive
Plan which also states that the community is best served through the participation
of its members. And I believe there is a model for participation that can serve to
solve this problem in a way that maizes the development of northeast Iowa City
acceptable to the broad range of the community. And, that model is based on the
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process that took place in revising and authoring the draft Comprehensive Plan
that is almost before you. That process called together a number of citizen task
forces, and each task force represented a broad range of constituencies in the
community. And through that process, wherein the citizen participation came at
the very beginning, you now will consider what is, I think, a very strong
document, and a document that has a great deal of public support. I would like to
suggest that the same process could be applied to this issue. I would like to
suggest that first, urge you to adopt the resolution that will come to you by
petition on Friday, and after you adopt that resolution, to appoint a citizen task
force for northeast Iowa City. This task force should include representatives of
residents, park users, enviromnentalists, planning experts, developers, and land
owners. The task force should consider all aspects of developing the area, from
street plans to subdivision designs, and even to the character of the neighborhoods
that we anticipate to occupy that land in the future. And, the task force should
take special consideration for preserving the nature and for preserving ecological
features, critical wildlife habitats, natural terrain, and future green-space, as well
as scenic and historic vistas. Those goals are part of the Comprehensive draft that
you will soon be considering. Citizen participation at the front end of the
planning process will help insure that all views are taken into consideration as a
plan for northeast Iowa City is finalized. And an ample opportunity for public
comment at the end of the process will help ensure that the citizen vision is
adhered to. What has been a good process for developing a new Comprehensive
Plan, I believe, would also be a good process for resolving this issue in the fairest
way. So again, I urge you to adopt the resolution on Friday, and then proceed to
appoint a citizens' task force to look at how northeast Iowa City should develop.
Thank you very much.
Davi Ottenheimer/ Hi. this is my first time speaking in a Council meeting in my
lifetime. But, I feel I should speak mainly because --
Nov/ Excuse me --
Ottenheimer/ My name's Davi Ottenheimer. I live on Linn Street across from the
Library. That's 108 S. Linn Street. And I feel like I have to speak, although it
seems like a tangent. I don't mean to draw away from the focus on Hickory Hill.
I thin it's important to look at the symptom of the problem, the traffic itself, the
congestion in the City. And I ride my bicycle to work every day, because I find
that it's impossible to drive my car. That's a choice, of course, one which I make
consciously, to risk my life to ride my bicycle. But I feel that it's important,
because the impact on my enviromnent is so much lessened by the fact that I ride
a bicycle, that I enjoy it more, even with the risk. Now, I recently participated in
Critical Mass in San Francisco, just by chance of having been there at the right
time, and if you can imagine San Francisco, or the downtown metropolis of any
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city of that size, of that magnitude, being without cars, for just a few hours, you
can see the impact of the automobile in our society, and the impact really in any
decision to extend transportation simply for the automobile, and what it does for
the communities, how it affects them. I mean, San Francisco really functions with
antomobiles. It also has buses, it has trolleys, people think fondly of the
streetcars, but the bicycles that are usually left out of the picture are also present.
And 10,000 bicycles in the downtown area, I think emphasizes for San
Franciscans, if not the rest of the country, how it is a viable mode of
transportation, how people support it, and how they like it. And I think simply in
this discussion, I haven't heard very much about alternative forms of
transportation. And I realize that there's a need to relieve a lot of the pressure for
commuters for people who need to get to work or need to go shopping, or really
don't want to be out in the cold in the winter on a bicycle. I for one don't mind
that. But, I think really, in any discussion where you're trying to relieve the
pressures of traffic, or to accmrnuodate the people who want to get someplace in a
car, alternative forms of transportation really are extremely important. They
should not be left out. And perhaps, most importantly, when you think of
developing areas, you also take into consideration people who ride bicycles, or
people who walk. And if you build bicycle lanes, like you have in Europe, or if
you go to protected areas, people will ride them. And if you build a bicycle lane
instead of a road, along the park, I think you would find that it would relieve an
immense amount of pressure. An immense amount of people would probably use
it to drive to work instead of using their car. Thank you.
Nov/ We did not ignore bicycles. We're developing bicycle trails along the streets.
Ottemheimer/ I don't mean to put it in a perspective simply from my own experience.
I'm sure lots of other people have different experiences. But I find only the -- I've
lived in a lot of metropolitan areas. I've lived in Los Angeles, London, Paris,
besides the rest of the metropolitan areas in the rest of the world -- obviously they
have different perspectives than Americans might have of the car -- I've worked
in New York, I've worked in mm~y places around the country. And I've found
Iowa City to be one of the most difficult places to ride. I find it extremely unsafe.
I find there are a lot of reckless drivers who think that the automobile is supreme
on the road. And I don't want to argue with them. And, I can appreciate that
you're spending a lot of money on signs. You're painting lines. But the reality is,
I don't feel safe here. And I think if you build protective lanes that aren't
anywhere near the roads. If you build a lane that's for bicycles only, and said no
pedestrians, no horses, no hikers, no other people but bicycles, no cars, obviously,
no buses --
Nov/ I grant you that our trails do allow pedestrians as well as bikes.
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Ottenheimer/But the trails that do exist are insufficient. And I mean that with all
seriousness, that I carmot ride from one point to another in the City. I cannot
can'y my groceries. I cannot get from Point A to Point B.
Nov/ We're getting there, however.
Kubby/ We're twenty years behind.
Nov/ Yeah, but we're getting there.
Kubby/ (Can't understand) but we're trying to catch up, so it's going to take awhile.
Ottenheimer/ Okay. Well, I feel you've answered my question. But I still don't think, in
this discussion, that I've heard anything about public transportation or alternative
forms of transportation. Thank you.
Kubby/ Before a lot of people have to start leaving -- I'm seeing some people leaving.
I'm wondering, how many people here can be at the meeting on Friday at 3:00
p.m. in this room? How many people who are coming are going to have to take
off work to be here? Okay. I mean it's, it makes it difficult, but it just seems an
opportune time to have public discourse back and forth on this issue, versus on
Friday when it will not probably be televised unless we change, make
arrangements for that real quick. And that discussion, that discourse will not be
as available to the community on Friday at 3:00 p.m. versus here now, while
people are listening. But, I would encourage others to participate in the public
discussion when the public discussion is over.
Nov/ Go ahead.
Chris Merritt/ Good evening. My name's Chris Merritt. I live at 21 Hawthorne Street.
And I'm here on behalf of myself and a lot of retired folks that live in the
neighborhood, as well as my daughters, two daughters, and my wife. You lmow,
there's no shame in reconsidering your decision. It's okay, it's okay. So please
give it some thought. I think it would have a major impact on the east side.
Thank you.
Thornberry/ We're not voting, we're not voting to extend First Avenue or voting not to
extend First Avenue. That's not what we're doing. We're going to be voting
whether to accept your premise without it going to a mandate of the people, or
giving it as a mandate of the people for a vote. That's the only thing we're voting
on. So, it's not -- first of all, it's not a road through Hickory Hill Park, but it's not
a vote on First Avenue -- we're not voting on First Avenue or not to vote on the
First Avenue extension. That's not what we're voting on at all.
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Kubby/ It would be the timing of the building of First Avenue on Friday. I£we accept
the petition, the --
Thornberry/ That's what the vote is, Karen. That's what I just said. We're either going
to accept the premise or give it as a mandate to the people to vote on.
Kubby/ This is time for the community to be involved in the many issues surrounding --
Thornberry/ Sure.
Kubby/ The building --
Thornberry/ And it will either way.
Baker/
Well, if you accept the premise that it deserves to be rethought, that there is
enough evidence and emotion to the issue that ought to have been into the original
decision, then you, we ought to support the petition, rather than going to the
voters.
Norton/ Rather than going to the voters, yeah.
Baker/ If you seriously want -- if you're seriously convinced that this is, that the
extension is the right idea, and you don't want to change that, then you'll vote
against the petition.
Thornberry/ I understand that. But then, you're giving the, a group, the group that
circulated the petition, the advantage over the people who are not here tonight,
except for the one gentleman that spoke, but all the people that have been calling
all of us and writing letters from the First Avenue, or the North Dodge area, are
saying thank God, you're finally doing something to eliminate the traffic that's in
front o£our schools, and on the way down to --. Anyway, I'm saying those
people have come forward, and it's not a vote to whether to extend First Avenue
or not. We're giving these people --
Nov/ They're asking
Thornberry/ Their consideration.
Nov/ Okay. They're asking for a delay, and the other people are asking that we not
delay. We understand that. Now, is there anyone else who would like to speak?
Jim Throgmorton/ Hi there. Don't you love it. Larry, congratulations on the publication
of your book, and on the article in the paper tonight, it was a very nice thing. So,
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let's see. My name's Jim Throgmorton, 715 N. Linn. I've got to get the rest of
this down. 715 N. Lilm. This disagreement about First Avenue is about all the
particular issues that people have already expressed. But if you put them all
together, it's about how the northeastern part of the City should develop, and
about who should be involved in the process of deciding that. Very broadly, it's
about what kind of city we want to be producing over time. So, if you bear with
me for about a minute and a half, I'd like to tell you a little stow. I went to San
Fran, Santa Fe, last April to attend a conference called "Making Cities Livable,"
and at that conference, I listened to an architect by the name oflvana Benda (sp?),
she's frOIll Czechoslovakia, she told a stow that I think of as the open-pit mine
that ate the town of Most. Most was a small, very beautiful, traditional village in
the Czech Republic, or Czechoslovakia. To the southwest of it was a hill upon
which there was a statue of Christ. Just immediately to the west of this town of
Most was an open-pit mine that provided the economic livelihood of the people
who worked in Most, who live in Most. The Czech Republic, the
Czechoslovakian govermr~ent decided that it would be best to have that open-pit
mine mined for all it was worth, and that meant mining in the direction of the
town. Gradually, that open-pit mine ate its way into Most. The Czechoslovakian
government, realizing the town of Most was going to disappear, decided to build
some new, a new town to the south of Most. They build an ugly, Stalinist set of
apartment buildings. Very ugly, squalid place. Well, it didn't take too many
decades until the town of Most literally disappeared. A beautiful old town was
gone, and is completely gone now, replace by a bunch of old Stalinist apartments.
And it tums out, the open-pit mine that ate its way into Most has been abandoned,
because it turned out it's no longer economically viable in a competitive global
marketplace. So what I want to ask you to do is not let Iowa City become like the
town of Most. Thanks.
Sue Mellerker/ Hi, my name is Sue Mellerker, and I live at 1112 Hotz Avenue. I've
been a lifelong resident of Iowa City, and there's only been one other time that
I've stepped foot in this Council Chamber during a Council meeting, and that was
when the discussion was talcing place on whether or not to close Dubuque Road
because of our corporate neighbor ACT. And Mike Gatens was speaking about
how he was adamantly opposed to that. And, tonight, I was watching that on TV,
and I came down here that night, and what concerned me the most was when I
heard Jolm McDonald say well, the discussion took place about extending First
Avenue rather than Scott Boulevard out to 1-80. It concerned me the most
because Jolm McDonald said it's not for us to decide, that's for a future Council
to decide. And I've heard that again tonight. And I got off my couch and came
down here again, because I'm concerned again. I grew up playing in Hickory Hill
Park, and my children play there, and I would like my grandchildren to play there.
And my concern was, there won't be anything for future Councils to decide if
there's this short-sightech~ess. I'm tired of the short-sightedness a little in Iowa
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City, and I think that's why we pay $85 a month water bills and things like that.
And I thought I'd better come down here and voice my opinion. I figure that the
issue of closing Dubuque Road would have been a huge discussion five years into
the future. I wonder if we should be extending an artery out to Interstate-80. It's
not even being an issue, it's not even being discussed, Scott Boulevard and how to
get around that. And I'm not totally educated on this, but I just wanted to voice
my opinion that I'm really opposed to the First Avenue extension for all the
reasons that were stated tonight. Thanks.
Nov/ Thank you.
Thornberry/ I thinlc that if Dubuque Road had not been closed, through ACT, this
discussion would not be happening today. I was not on the Council when that
vote occurred, but I thought it was a bad idea at the time.
Kubby/ We would've voted together on this one.
Thornberry/ I hope so. That's twice.
Kubby/ It happens once in a while.
Thornberry/ It does.
Kubby/ Yeah.
Nov/
Okay. Is there anyone else who would like to speak to us on this? While she's
walking forward, I'm going to clarify. There will be a meeting on Friday, if there
are enough valid signatures on the petition. If there are not enough validated
signatures on the petition, there is no business going to happen. So, we need to
have our -- what?
Lehrnan/ If there's not enough signatures we won't meet --
Nov/
That's what I'm trying to say. We will cancel the meeting. So those of you who
are plam~ing to come, please keep an eye out. we'll am~ounce if we have to that it
will be canceled, but we do expect that it will be here. We're expecting that there
will be enough signatures. Please go ahead.
Jolm Calvin Jones/ (Can't hear) how will they check in time? How do they check the
signatures. How will they know in time --
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Nov/ We'll have to put it on the radio or something like that. We just want you to lmow
that there is a possibility that the signatures will not be valid. We can't lmow this
until the last minute.
Jones/ It's, you lmow, I mean ifI was on the Council --
??/ You'll have to come up to the --
Jones/ I didn't want to be part of the discussion, I simply want to --
Nov/ Please come forward.
Jones/ I'd simply declare that there aren't enough signatures.
Eleanor Dilkes/ The Clerk's office very tediously and very carefully validates those
signatures.
Jones/ Who's checking the checkers? That's all. That's all. That's my only question.
Nov/ We're all law-abiding citizens. We're all dotting our i's, crossing our t's, we want
this to be done according to the rules. We're not going to bend any rules.
Baker/ This is by state law.
Nov/ No, it's the City.
??/ It's more than this.
Baker/ Well, there's a state mandate on how to do things. The state mandates how we do
things.
Dilkes/ I think if you speak to Bennett Brown, you would be quite impressed, because he
has dealings with the Clerk's office.
Nov/ I'm sorry, please continue.
Bebe Ballantyne/ That's all right. This has been a very interesting evening, and I come
with a completely different topic.
Kubby/ You want to state your name, please?
Ballantyne/ I'm sorry. Bebe Ballantyne. I live at 230 Elizabeth Street. I come
representing the Senior Center Commission, and I understand this is the time
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when we're supposed to give our report, and I've been waiting because I didn't
want to destroy the mood and the spirit of all that was happening. So, I hesitate to
change tempo, but I guess this is a report that I'm supposed to do at this time.
And so, to tell you what's happening at the Senior Center in September. We will
be celebrating the 16th amfiversary of the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior
Center. We also plan to honor the Senior Center volunteers. The two celebrations
will be noted at separate events. The Commission is planning an afternoon tea in
honor of the volunteers. In FY97, the Senior Center benefited from the services
of 700 volunteers who contributed a total of 48,000 hours of service. The
volunteer recognition Tea will be on Wednesday afternoon, September 3rd, from
3-5 p.m. Entertaimnent will be provided by Wlrd(y a capella. Mercy Hospital
will cater refreshluents. We will also offer the volunteers attending the tea an
opportunity to win door prizes such as gift certificates and merchandise that has
been donated by local businesses and organizations. The community has
responded very well to our request, and we have many very nice gifts to use as
door prizes. We're very grateful for the generosity of so many. Later in the
month, on Wednesday, September 17th, we will celebrate the birthday of the
Senior Center with a picnic at Lower City Park. The First National Bank is
sponsoring this event, and we owe the bank our sincere thanks for a very fine
dimher that is to be cooked and served at the park from 5-6 p.m. Entertainment
will be provided by Miss Fay Dudley, a well known country and western and
popular music perfonuer from Central City. Transportation between the Senior
Center and City Park will be provided by free City bus service. Reservations are
required to both events. Invitations to the Tea have been sent to all the volunteers.
The Center also wishes to thank you, the Council, for your support, in acquiring
new fitness room flooring that will accommodate all kinds of fitness programs.
We're very grateful for that. Thaalc you.
Nov/ Is there anyone else who would like to speak to the Council about an item that is
not on tonight's agenda? Okay, we're going to take a break.
Kubby/ There's one person.
Nov/ Okay, I'm sorry, I dich~'t see you.
Berkowitz/ Holly Berkowitz. I live at 612 Granada Court. I have talked with two
Councilors about Hickory Hill this last week or two. I talked with Naomi and
Dee, and I left a message on your phone Dee, Dean. I'm confused, Dean, because
you said that you enjoy, I asked your wife if you walked in Hickory Hill Park, and
you said yes, I do, and I enjoy it very much. Which part do you walk in?
Thornberry/ We walk the entire park, Holly. We live 2 1/2 blocks from Hickory Hill and
we walk it almost daily, and we walk the whole park. I lmow all the trails.
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Berkowitz/ Good. Well, that's very encouraging. I'm a little puzzled why you're set on
putting First Avenue in then. Because having an appreciation for that kind of area
means that you appreciate terrain, and you're not going to go in and build a
straight road thi'ough a hilly terrain. I just don't understand that at all. It just
doesn't make sense to me. Something's going on that's not straight. We are not -
Nov/ Maybe we ought to say that this road is not straight. This is a curvy and hilly type
of road. It's not going to be a straight, flat road.
Berkowitz/ That area's very hilly.
Nov/ I understand that. And we're going to have a curvy road with little hills in it. It's
not going to be a straight line.
Berkowitz/ Okay. But on the map I saw, it was fairly straight, and --
Nov/ It's following the terrain as best we can.
Berkowitz/ And I challenge the assumption that, see, I talked with you, and you said that -- have you walked in the park before?
Nov/ I've walked the whole thing, yes.
Berkowitz/ What?
Nov/ Many times.
Berkowitz/ Okay. Again, if you have not, Naomi, I wan some people to come and walk
through the park and talk about it, about the balances and for sustainability.
Nov/ We understand. I would also like to tell Council members, if you want to walk
through the park with Holly, she's available, and Holly also has a nice video of
the pro'k, and we can have a copy of it here and let Council members see it, right?
Berkowitz/ Right. And I will be producing something for Public Access also, regarding
the economic, eco-ecological value, eco- means house, logical means logical. But
the man-made is not logical, it deteriorates. The green systems are logical, they
grow. I see that a frightening pattern that goes along with secretive and
authoritarian power, a pyramid of power, that -- I was quite upset that the reason
given for the First Avenue extension was that there's too much traffic on Dodge
Street. And you told me that this was the reason you were building the First
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Avenue extension. But that's under the assumption that we are going to keep
driving cars. If you build another road, people are going to drive more, which
multiplies the problem. And I don't see that the Council or the County have
worked at coordinating a cost-efficient plan of transportation in this county. You
are part of the County, Coralville, University Heights, all the other cities, the
prolific, malignant growth beyond the towns, beyond the city, with no
transportation nodes. If you're going to have a snbdivision, why don't you have a
plan for the transportation then, a carpooling plan. I just do not see the logic in it.
And this an'ogance of power ties in with the Shaw case too. It just gives me the
shivers. Thmxk you.
Nov/ Okay, thank you. we're going to --
Karr/ Can we have a motion to accept correspondence?
Baker/ So moved.
Kubby/ Second.
Nov/ The motion's seconded that we accept correspondence. All in favor - (ayes).
Motion carried.
Kubby/ Short break.
(Break).
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F082697
August 26, 1997 City of Iowa City
ITEM NO. 5. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS.
Page 7
Consider a motion setting a public hearing for September 9 on an
ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by changing the zoning
designation from RM-20, Medium Density Multi-Family Residential,
and RS-5, Low Density Single-Family Residential, to OSA-20 and
OSA-5, Sensitive Areas Overlay Zone, for approximately 1.9 acres
located at 1122-1136 N. Dubuque Street. (REZ97-0003)
Comment: The Planning and Zoning Commission will consider this
proposed amendment at its September 4 meeting. Staff
recommended approval subject to conditions in a memorandum dated
August 15.
Action:
Consider an ordinance a. mending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled
"Zoning," Article E, entitled "Commercial and Business Zones,"
Section 2, entitled "Neighborhood Commercial Zone (CN-1)," to
permit any retail or personal service use in the CN-1 zone with a size
limitation to help ensure neighborhood compatibility° (First
consideration)
Comment: At its July 3 meeting, by a vote of 5-0, the Planning and
Zoning 'Commission recommended approval of the proposed
ordinance. The Commission's recommendation is generally consistent
with the staff recommendation in the June 19 staff report.
Action:
Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled
"Zoning," Article N, entitled "Off-Street Parking and Loading," to
increase the parking requirements for residential uses in the CB-5,
Central Business Support Zone. (First consideration)
Comment: At it June 19 meeting, by a vote of 7-0, the Planning and
Zoning Commission recommended that off-street parking requirements
be increased for residential uses in the CB-5 zone.
Action: ~-'~Y~Z~r-2 / ~/~~~-~ /"~'"'~'"~- /~'/F
August 26, t997
d.
City of Iowa City
Page 8
Amending Title 14, "Unified Development Code" of the City Code by
amending Chapter 9, Article A, entitled "Parking Facility Impact Fee"
to revise the formula for payment in the CB-5 Zone.
Comment: At the City Council's May 5 work session, a decision was
made to proceed with amendments to the zoning ordinance and the
Parking Facility Impact Fee Ordinance, as those ordinances relate to
required parking for residential uses in the CB-5 zone and the ratio by
which fees may be paid in lieu of required parking. The ordinance
under consideration requires that a fee equal to 75% of the required
spaces for any residential use in the CB-§ zone be paid and that no
fewer than and no more than 25% of the required parking spaces be
provided on site.
(1) Public Hearing (continued from July 29)
(2) Consider an Ordinance (First consideration)
Action: ~--~/7~~~ / ~'/"' C.~ ¢M~fp
Consider. . an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled ~"~
"Zoning," Article O, entitled "Sign Regulations," to permit projecting
signs as a provisional sign in the CB-5 and CB-10 zones.
(Pass and adopt)
Comment: At its May 1 meeting, by a vote of 6-1 with Chair voting
no, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended that projecting
signs continue to be prohibited. The Design Review Committee also
recommended they be prohibited. Staff recommended that projecting
signs continue to be prohibited in a report dated May 1.
Action:
#5d page 1
ITEM NO. 5d Amending Title 14, Unified Development Code" of the City Code by
amending Chapter 9, Article A, entitled "Parking Facility Impact Fee" to revise
the £ormula for p!ayment in the CB-5 Zone.
Nov/
(Reads agenda item #5d). This is what we had the p.h. for on July 29. At this
point, we have p~'oposed in Council discussion that we amend this ordinance
requiring that a fee equal to 75% of the required parking spaces in the CB-5 zone,
and to require that on-site we provide somewhere between 15% and 35%.
Norton/ No less than 15: and no more than 35.
Nov/ Right. And, when people have this flexibility to provide between 15 and 35% of
the required spaces on-site, we are still going to require that 75% or more of this
requirement is in:fees that are not on-site. So if someone had 20% of the paricing
on-site, they would pay 80% of the parking fees.
Norton/ That'll be as it was.
Thomberry/ Oh, thank you. That clarified that real well.
Nov/ I don't know how better to clarify it. We went from a 25% inflexible system to a
slightly more flexible system, m~ywhere between 15 and 35%. However, the fees
for parking is a minirotan of 75%. So, if someone were to provide 35% on-site,
they would still pay 75% in fees.
Lehman/ I think I move .that amendment.
Thornberry/ I'll second the amendment.
Nov/ We're not there yet. I'm just clarifying the p.h.P.h. is open.
Lelur~an/ I move first consideration of the ordinance.
Nov/ No, no, no, not yet.
Lehman/ Why not?
Kubby/ We're not there yet.
Nov/ We have to wait and see if someone wants to talk to us.
Thornberry/ He just wanted to --
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F082697
#5d page 2
Nov/ I just opened it.
Lelmaan/ There's nobody talking.
Nov/ Just wait a minute here.
CB-5 zones?
Lehman/ Well, no.
Nov/ Okay. Close the p.h.
Lehrnan/ Move first consideration.
Nov/ No, no, now you --
Thomberry/ (Can't understand)
Would anyone like to talk about this parking issue in the
Nov/ You move first consideration then you amend? Okay, we have a move for first
consideration. Lelsman and Thomberry seconded.
Thornberry/ That's correct, that's correct.
Nov/ Now, discussion. Go ahead.
Lehman/ I move that we amend the motion.
Nov/ Amend the ordinance.
Lelunan/ The ordinance, to require minimum fee equal to 75% of the required parking
spaces in the CB-5 zone, to require between 15% and 35% of the required spaces
on site, and to require the fee to be increased accordingly if less than 25% of the
required spaces are provided on site.
Thomberry/And I second that amenchnent.
Is that all clear now?
Yeah.
Is there any discussion of this amendment?
I want to say, I carefully reviewed the logic, and it seems plausible.
Nov/ Okay.
Thornberry/
Nov/ Okay.
Norton/
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Thornberry/ Thank you. Thank you.
Norton/ I think it will fulfill our intent and give a little flexibility.
Thornberry/ Thank you, Dee. I needed the flexibility.
Vanderhoef/ I know you did.
Thornben3~/ I like the plausibility in this. No more than and no less than is really --
Nov/ Okay. All right. Any further discussion of the amendment? Okay, we can do this
as a motion. All in favor of amending this ordinance as amended, please say aye -
(ayes). All opposed, same sign. Motion carried. The ordinance is amended.
Now, we are going to consider first consideration. Is there any further discussion?
Okay, roll call- (yes). We have approved first consideration.
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#5e page 1
ITEM NO. 5e Consider au~ ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning,"
gn'ticle O, entitled "Sign Regulations," to permit projecting signs as a provisional
sign in the CB-5 and CB-10 zones. (Pass and adopt)
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #5e).
Thornben'y/ Move final Consideration.
Vanderhoef/ Second.
Nov/ It's been moved by Thornberry and seconded by Vanderhoefthat we give this
ordinance final consideration. Is there any discussion?
Kubby/ I'm going to cominue to vote "no" on this. I think that the vibrance that
projecting signs could create downtown is not worth the volunteer and staff time it
will take to implement the regulations we have that go along with it, and that we
could use all that time and energy to create vibrance in some other way.
Baker/
And I will continue to snpport this because I don't share that same concern. I will
support this even though it's not going to allow illumination with neon, which I
think would be --
Norton/ I will support it. I was in Palo Alto this summer, and I noticed they have some
lovely projecting signs as well as facia signs.
Thomberry/ This was another city trip?
Nov/ This guy never stays home. Okay. Roll call- (yes; Kubby- no). We have approved
this ordinance on a 6~ 1 vote, Kubby voting no.
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F082697
August 26, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 9
ITEM NO. 6.
PUBLIC HEARING ON AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14, ENTITLED
"UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT CODE," CHAPTER 6, ENTITLED "ZONING,"
ARTICLE S, ENTITLED "PERFORMANCE STANDARDS," SECTION 11,
ENTITLED "SCREENING" BY ADDING CHILD CARE CENTERS TO THE
LIST OF AREAS WHICH MUST BE SCREENED FROM COMMERCIAL AND
INDUSTRIAL USES.
Comment: Section 14-6S-11, City Code, provides that commercial or
industrial uses must provide screening when they abut or are across a
street, highway, alley or railroad right of way from residential zones,
office and research parks, schools, and recreational areas (including
parks, playgrounds, or the Iowa River). With recent zoning amendments,
child care centers are now permitted in zones that allow intensive
commercial and industrial uses, but are not included among those uses
which are to be screened from commercial/industrial uses pursuant to
Section 14-6S-1 1.
Child care centers engage their clients in activities similar to those in
schools and playgrounds, and provide an atmosphere that should be
protected from the dust, noise, and distractions of intensive commercial
and industrial activity. Adding "child care centers" to the list of uses that
must be screened from industrial and commercial activity is in keeping
with the intent of Section 14-6S-1 1.
In cases where a child care center is built across from or adjacent to a lot
which already contains a commercial or industrial use, it will be the
responsibility. of the child care center to provide screening pursuant to
Section 14-6L-1D.3.
Action: ~..~~~ ~~~, ~.4..~
#6 page 1
ITEM NO. 6 PUBLIC HEARING ON AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14,
ENTITLED "UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT CODE," CHAPTER 6, ENTITLED
"ZONING," ARTICLE S, ENTITLED "PERFORMANCE STANDARDS,"
SECTION 11, ENTITLED "SCREENING" BY ADDING CHILD CARE
CENTERS TO THE LIST OF AREAS WHICH MUST BE SCREENED FROM
COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL USES.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #6). P.h. is now open. Okay, p.h. is now closed.
Thomberry/ I had a question on this. Does this mean that if the childcare is across the
street from a park or a playground that it has to be screened?
Nov/ No, no. The childcare has to be screened from commercial or industrial uses, and
parks have to be screened from commercial and industrial and childcare and
schools, and the whole list. What we're doing is adding childcare to the list.
Thomberry/ That's what I asked. Ira childcare is across the street from a park or a
playground --
Norton/ No screening.
Thornberry/ Or the Iowa River --
Nov/ No, no screening.
Thornbenny/ No screening is necessary.
Nov/ Industrial uses across from the park or the river must be screened, and industrial
uses across fi'om childcare must be screened.
Thomberry/ Okay.
Nov/ Okay? It's the other direction.
Vanderhoef/ This came up really, because of allowing some childcare into a new area --
Thomberry/ Yeah, correct. Into a commercial area.
Vanderhoef/ Yeah.
Thomberry/ Okay.
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Nov/ Some childcare is already in commercial areas, we just haven't had this screening
requirement.
Thomberry/ Just checking.
Nov/ Any other discussion? Okay, we'll have the first consideration on the next agenda.
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August 26, t997 City of Iowa City Page 10
iTEM NO. 7.
PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF
COST FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE SHAMROCK/ARBOR CULVERT
ENTRANCE IMPROVEMENT; ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY
TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH
NOTICE TO BIDDERS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF
BIDS.
Comment: This project consists of construction of rock filled wire mesh
baskets for 125-feet around the creek bend at the Shamrock Drive/Arbor
Drive culvert entrance and also includes debris removal inside the 450-
foot long culvert. This work will stabilize the stream bank at the culvert
entrance and improve culvert capacity. The estimated construction cost
if ~ 143,000.00 and will be funded by'General Obligation Bonds.
aJ
PUBLIC HEARING
Action:
ITEM NO. 8.
b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING
Action:
PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF
COST FOR 'THE RENOVATION OF THE HEATING, VENTILATING AIR
CONDITIONING (HVAC) SYSTEM AT THE IOWA CITY/JOHNSON
COUNTY SENIOR CENTER, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY
TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH
ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR
RECEIPT OF BIDS.
Comment: The Senior Center HVAC renovation project is being
undertaken to address uneven heating, cooling, and HVAC control
problems prevalent throughout the building. This project includes the
repair and reconstruction of the Senior Center HVAC system and the
installation of a Direct Digital Control (DDC) system for better
management and control of the HVAC systems. The engineer's estimate
is $126,530.00 with funding provided through an interfund loan.
PUBLIC HEARING
Action:
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING
Action:
#7 page 1
ITEM NO. 7 PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE
OF COST FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE SHAMROCK/ARBOR CULVERT
ENTRANCE IMPROVEMENT, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID
SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO
PUBLISH NOTICE TO BIDDERS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR
RECEIPT OF BIDS.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #7). P.h. is now open. Okay, p.h. is closed. We need a
motion.
Norton/ I move adoption of the resolution.
Kubby/ Second.
Nov/ Okay. Moved by Norton, seconded by Kubby. Discussion?
Norton/ Do we assume by the lack of anybody here that everybody's happy with this
culvert-pipe plan?
Nov/ I would think so, yes. The engineers have worked with the neighborhood, and
they've developed a compromise that people can live with.
Kubby/ Well, we decided on this compromise. I don't believe, I mean I support this, but
I don't believe everyone in the neighborhood feels tlfis is a good compromise.
Norton/ Sure, sure.
Kubby/ And I guess I want to make sure that when we, I know that neighbors were
notified when we had an informal meeting where we discussed which amount of
intervention we were going to do in the area. But, Karin, does Neighborhood
Services make sure the neighborhood association at least knows about these kinds
of votes, as well, in terms ofp.h.s for these plans and specifications?
Karin Franklin/ The Council agendas are sent to the Neighborhood Association
membership --
Kubby/ So they have the responsibility to read and note the relevant things and to pass
that on throughout the network in their neighborhood.
Franklin/ That is correct.
Leturban/ Karen, I would --
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Kubby/ Because I don't think that silence equals agreement is a good form of governing.
I don't think it's a good assumption to make, even though I support this
ordinance, and will vote for this, I don't think that everyone in the neighborhood
agrees. We're intervening here.
Vanderhoef/ And for me, I think there's something else. Yes, there were very large
holes, holes on this issue. And this issue came up, partially, because of some
previous work that the City had done. So I don't see this necessarily as something
that is setting precedents for other things in other neighborhoods with creeks, or
not with creelcs, with trees, or cleaning up and some of those things. I think this is
a fix. I hope the neighborhood can live with this, and I would like to think that
they would be responsible for this in the future. That this is what the City can do
for them at this point, and that this will not be something that will be an ongoing
thing, that they'll be back to us in four years or five years and saying we want
more again.
Norton/ Well the measure is to help keep the stuff out of the
Vanderhoef/ Right. I think this is the best we can do at this point in time, and I would
hope that the neighbors would work together and work with keeping this cleaned
up.
Lehman/ I think this really wasn't a compromise. It was a conscious decision by Council
that we will be responsible for things that we may have helped create difficulties.
grad we are con'ecting the difficulties that we possibly helped to create. But we
were telling the folks that, m~d I think we said at least once, that we are not going
to be responsible for surface water. But I don't think it's a compromise. We
didn't have any Councilors who were willing to do this, this is as far as we go.
Since then, we've said no on another project. I think we're doing what we should
do.
Nov/ Yes, but I believe this is still a compromise. I believe there were people who
wanted us to line the whole thing with concrete, and there were others who said
don't do anything at all.
Vanderhoef/ Right. It's a compromise, but I just want the City residents to recognize
that this is not going to happen in every neighborhood, because this was a specific
problem that derived from the impact of what we had done previously in the
neighborhood.
Kubby/ Or not done, in terms of the soil erosion control practices as development
occurred upstream.
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Nov/ Which hopefully won't be a problem in the future.
Kubby/ We've been working on it hard.
Norton/ We'd better comment. We can't guarantee it'll work very long.
we did, we just had to keep our fingers crossed, isn't that right? There's no
guarantee here.
Nov/ We're all crossing --
Kubby/ It's a start.
Norton/ Yeah.
Nov/ Okay. Is there any other discussion? Roll call- (yes). We have approved the
resolution.
The last culvert
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F082697
August 26, 1997 City of Iowa City Page
ITEM NO. 9.
CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CITY CODE TITLE 1, ENTITLED
"ADMINISTRATION," CHAPTER 5, ENTITLED "MAYOR AND CITY
COUNCIL," TO CHANGE THE COMPENSATION AND REVIEW PROCESS
FOR CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS AND THE MAYOR.
(SECOND CONSIDERATION)
ITEM NO. 10.
97-
Comment: At their February 10, 1997, budget discussion, the City
Council agreed to a $500 salary increase per Council Member and
compensation for the Mayor to be the same rate as a Council Member
plus $1000. The increases were incorporated into the FY98 Budget
approved in March. State Code requires Council increases be officially
acted upon by ordinance. This ordinance will be effective January 1,
1998.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING APPLICATION FOR GRANT
MONIES FROM THE IOWA DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
FOR COMMUNITY ECONOMIC BETTERMENT ACCOUNT (CEBA) FUNDS
TO ASSIST PROTEK MEDICAL PRODUCT INC. TO CONSTRUCT
BUILDING IMPROVEMENTS AND ACQUIRE MACHINERY AND
EQUIPMENT AND AUTHORIZING CITY PARTICIPATION IN THE FORM OF
A 915,000 NO INTEREST LOAN.
Comment: .P. rotek Medical Product Inc. is requesting a forgivable loan
under the State of Iowa CEBA Program. Under CEBA, it is appropriate for
the city in which the business is located to make application to the State
on behalf of the business.
Action:
ITEM NO. 11.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE DESIGN OF THE IOWA
CITY TRANSIT INTERCHANGE FACILITY.
Comment: At the June 2 work session, the City Council directed staff
and the project consultant to investigate reorienting the Transit
Interchange Facility such that the entrance faces east rather than west.
The project has been reoriented so that the entrance faces east. At its
June 16 meeting, the Design Review Committee reviewed the redesign
and recommended denial. Consideration was deferred from June 3,
June 17, and July 15.
Action:
#10 page 1
ITEM NO. 10 CONSiDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING APPLICATION FOR
GRANT MONIES FROM THE IOWA DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT FOR COMMUNITY ECONOMIC BETTERMENT
ACCOUNT (CEBA) FUNDS TO ASSIST PROTEK MEDICAL PRODUCT
INC. TO CONSTRUCT BUILDING IMPROVEMENTS AND ACQUIRE
MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT AND AUTHORIZING CITY
PARTICIPATION IN THE FORM OF A $15,000 NO INTEREST LOAN.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #10).
Thornberry/ Move adoption of the resolmion.
Vanderhoef/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion?
Kubby/ I had a couple of questions since last night. One of them has to do with process,
and the other is a content question, so maybe I'll start with the content question.
The startup business is getting a$400,000 loan from a financial institution, but
there's a co-signer, right? Is that co-signer a business entity, or is it a private
individual?
Rick Pruter/ I believe it's a private individual.
Kubby/ You don't lmow?
Prater/ I don't lmow.
Kubby/How does that work, the CEO of the company?
Prater/ Well,--
Kubby/ Can you explain that?
Pruter/ I believe it is a private individual. It's, I don't lmow if that private individual is
incorporated or not.
Kubby/ Okay, I see. But there's, it's an individual's name on the co-sign versus an
entity's name on the co-sign.
Pruter/ Right, right.
Kubby/Okay, okay. Thmtk you very much.
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Norton/ I just had one question, withore looking through all our primary (??) here, what
happens if it doesn't work, what happens to our $15,0007 I mean, not that it's a
huge risk, and I'm all for this enterprise, but what happens if it doesn't?
Pruter/ What normally happens in these situations. I'm just looking forward and saying
let it succeed.
Nov/ We're not expecting you to go banlcrupt,--
Norton/ No, certainly not.
Nov/ But I can assume that's what would happen if everything failed.
David Schoon/ If the company fails, we will proceed to try to capture what we can, what
value is left of the business, as will the bank and the State of Iowa.
Vanderhoef/ But that's true of any grants that we would give, of CEBA grants. It isn't
specific to Protek.
Schoon/ Correct.
Nov/ We'll have a standard procedure.
Vanderhoef/ It's a risk for him with a startup business, and it's a risk of ours too, to grant
the loan. And for me, it's a very reasonable risk.
Norton/ Certainly is.
Nov/ Karen, did you have something else?
Kubby/ Yeah, I had a process question for David and maybe for Council, in that we
don't get this detailed infonuation until the Friday before a Monday meeting.
And if you want to do some exploration about a business -- I'm not talking about
Protek, I want to take the specifics out of it, but there's just this time-crunch here.
gn~d for a lot of our issues there is. But for something like this, if there were a
bigger risk to the City, I would want the time to contemplate, maybe do some of
my own thinking and research, and maybe using other kinds of'resources to
evaluate the company and the timeframe that we have of getting the information
on Friday and making a decision that could potentially have big impact to our
general fund, there's not much time to do that kind of contemplation and outside
research. And what can we do to have the timeframe be a little different in the
future?
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Schoon/ It's always a difficulty in texxns of working with the business to get the materials
ready in time for Council agenda. You always have the option to defer
consideration of the application depending upon our time schedules. With the
State, you'll have to waive that decision. In this instance, there would be the
possibility for you to defer consideration until your first meeting in September, if
that was an option, because that would be before the State's first Board meeting.
We would send in the unsigned application, with the notice that the Council
would take action on it prior to their Board talcing action on the application.
Kubby/ Okay. Is there a way too, that things like this, even if the timeframe is tight, that
even if we, instead of doing it on Friday, even getting it on Monday or
Wednesday, just to have a couple more days, working days, when people that I
might use a resource could have time to brainstorm with me or help me analyze it
in a different way than I would on my own.
Schoon/ If the Council wants to establish a separate agenda deadline for these times, or a
different deadline, --
Baker/
That was my question, because, what is, we have this discussion almost every
time we see those come up. Why can't we just have a policy that says that for this
to be considered, it's got to be submitted at least two weeks prior to the time that
we vote on it. And we just say that's the rules, get your paperwork in order. Why
doesn't that work?
Vanderhoef/ Sometimes these things work because that's when the State Board is
meeting. But in this case, he said it could've been delayed two weeks
Norton/ What's the ground rules, Larry? I agree with you that we need more time on
these, there's a variety of issues that require more than a weekend.
B~er/
Well, just talking about this one right now. We get a lot of stuff that just comes to
us, and it should, because 90% of what we do is process stuff through that's fairly
perfunctory. But on certain things, it's obvious that we need to have more time to
consider them, this is one of them. Again, why can't we just say the policy is,
you've got to have your paperwork in two weeks early or it's not on our agenda.
Norton/ So we get it in a packet two weeks ahead of time.
Schoon/ You could establish that policy.
Baker/ What's wrong with that?
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Schoord One concern is some businesses, in terms of announcing publicly their decisions
about expansion, they like to keep that to a minimum. They would then have to
live with our deadliness. We could do it.
Kubby/ There are some things in-between that we could do. That if we wanted to
maintain that confidentiality, the packet is out. We could get it in advance
confidentially, so that we would have some time. I couldn't use the same ldnd of
resource because of the confidentiality, the resource that I might --
Schoord That would severely limit --
Kubby/ Right, but it would give me some time, and it would give me more time to think
about it, and maybe I would be able to think about it in a broader perspective than
I am able to in just a weekend, when I've got fifty other issues. But at least, we
could have it ahead of time, and we could take amongst ourselves, have a
brainstorm, how to think about it --
$choon/ Would you like this on a future work session?
Vanderhoef/ I think that's --
I~ubby/ Yeah.
¥anderhoef/ That's the place where it ought to be. Tonight's not the --
Kubby/But it comes up every time --
Baker/ It ought to be in a work session, and I think that can be a short discussion.
Norton/ Yeah. And there's the obvious point of deferring it.
Baker/ No, there's nothing wrong with this application that I --
Lehman/ But if this application were for half a million dollars, it might be different --
Baker/ (Can't understand) this application.
Lelynan/ It would appear to be a very good application, I think we would want more
time. I thi~xk that's exactly what you're saying, to have some time to look at it.
I~ubby/ That is what I'm saying.
Lelynan/ Okay, at a future work session, that would be a good topic.
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Nov/
I think we've heard everybody say just go ahead and do it, send it out
confidentially as soon as you have it. Why do we need a work session to say it
again?
Kubby/ I think we should be a little more thoughtful about how --
Baker/ It Call be a thing that (cant understand) of Iowa City.
Nov/ It Call be if we focus. Okay.
Norton/ We'll have all our agendas three weeks in advance here pretty soon, Larry.
Baker/ Wauna bet?
Nov/ Is there any other discussion? Roll call- (yes).
Kubby/ I wanted to say that this business Inet our criteria from our (can't understand)
Development Guidelines, which is real important. We've had a lot of discussion
about that recently, in that we could just state for tile record that this business met
all of our criteria for targeted business, for startup business, for wages, and other
enviromuental.
Lelxman/ Well, as well, I think we should point out that nobody knows, except staff, staff
work very very closely with these folks. It was not something that just happened
to pop up. There were some little problems, and our staff facilitated this, and I
think we can be very proud of them. Thank you.
Nov/ Thank you, David.
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ITEM NO. 11 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE DESIGN OF THE
IOWA CITY TRANSIT INTERCHANGE FACILITY.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #11). We have since then discussed this more than once, and
we are going to defer it again. We're going to try to put in something that would
be attached to the Old Capitol Mall rather than sitting in the middle of the street.
We're going to come back with new designs, so Joe, what do you think, four
weeks, tlxree weeks? Give us a number.
Joe Fowler/ I haven't had any discussions with the Old Capitol. I'll be more than glad to
start those discussions --
Nov/ Well, I hope --
Fowler/ We'll get some alternate sites. I would say four weeks, we should be able to
have some preliminary, at least some sketches.
Nov/ I thought that we had already said we're going to do some sketches. If that's not
right, then let's say it now.
Fowler/ No, we'll have the sketches.
Nov/ And I did speak to the Mall manager and I told her that we were going to have
some sketches, and that staff would get together with her, and see exactly what
kind of limits we had, and she said good.
Fowler/ Okay.
Norton/ You need a motion to defer this resolution, Naomi?
Nov/ Yeah, to defer it four weeks.
Norton/ So moved. What date then?
Nov/ September 23rd.
Norton/ September 23rd.
Kubby/ Second.
Thornberry/ We've reached closure.
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??/ Ssh.
Thomberry/ Well, I can reach closure.
Baker/ You want to vote on it now?
Nov/ You can just vote no. You want to vote no?
Thong/ Yeah, on this design, sure. We can do that.
Nov/ We can have the whole thing put back on.
Norton/ Come on, this a whole new --
Thomberry/ Can we just get rid of this and go?
Nov/ Well, that was the general plan. Okay.
Vanderhoef/ (Can't tmderstm~d).
Nov/ We have a motion by Lehman and who seconded?
Kubby/ Norton moved.
Karr/ Seconded by Kubby.
Nov/
Kubby. Oh, Norton and Kubby? I've been so busy hearing this. Okay, it was
moved by Norton, it was seconded by Kubby that we defer discussion on the
Transit Interchange Facility to September 23rd. Any other discussion? All in
favor, please say aye- (ayes). Motion carried.
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August 26, t997 City of Iowa City Page 12
ITEM NO. 12.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND
THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST AN EXTENSION AGREEMENT FOR FY97
PARATRANSIT SERVICE BETWEEN THE CITY AND JOHNSON COUNTY.
Comment: This resolution will extend the FY97 Paratransit service
agreement between the City and Johnson County [SEATS] for an
additional month - September 1997. The total cost for the extension is
847,182. Any fare revenues in excess of 82,567 will be returned to the
City. This amount is in line with the monthly rate paid for the FY97
service. This City and Johnson County are currently negotiating the
agreement for FY98 paratransit service.
Action: /~.~~/~~~~
iTEM NO. 13.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION TEMPORARILY CLOSING PORTIONS OF
IOWA AVENUE, DUBUQUE STREET, AND JEFFERSON STREET RIGHTS-
OF-WAY AND AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION OF AN AGREEMENT FOR
TEMPORARY USE OF PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY BETWEEN THE CITY OF
IOWA CITY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA.
Comment: The University of Iowa desires to construct the Biological
Sciences Renovation and Replacement Annex and New Building Project
located on the east and west sides of Dubuque Street between Jefferson
Street and Iowa Avenue. The temporary use and closure of City rights-
of-way along' Iowa Avenue, Dubuque Street, and Jefferson Street are
necessary during construction to secure the construction site against
pedestrian and vehicular traffic and provide adequate space for
construction. Closure includes the removal of on-street parking and
sidewalk along portions of the north side of Iowa Avenue and the south
side of Jefferson Street and the east traffic lane and sidewalk along
Dubuque Street. Pedestrian detours will be provided. The anticipated
starting date for this project is July 1997, and it is expected to be
finished no later than September 2000. Approval of this agreement does
not signify approval of a skywalk. Consideration deferred from July 15
and 29.
Action: '~~'~~~
#13 page 1
ITEM NO. 13 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION TEMPORARILY CLOSING PORTIONS
OF IOWA AVENUE, DUBUQUE STREET, AND JEFFERSON STREET
RIGHTS-OF-WAY AND AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION OF AN
AGREEMENT FOR TEMPORARY USE OF PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY
BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #13).
Norton/ Move adoption of the resolution.
Nov/ Moved by Norton.
Vanderhoef/ Second.
Nov/ Seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion?
Norton/ I have a qnestion, a couple of questions, about this. One, on the easement
agreement, on page two of the easement agreement, at the top of page, there's a
reference to traffic flow along the left side of Clinton Street. Do they mean that?
Must mean --
Kubby/ East side?
Norton/ Clinton Street's not affected by this activity, I assumed.
Vanderhoef/ It's on the south side of Jefferson, between the two streets.
Norton/ (Can't understand) the closure of these portions will not -- okay, but they are
worrying about interfering with Clinton? I guess I didn't --
Vanderhoef/ No, no, you see the map?
Norton/ Yeah.
Vanderhoef/ It's just that part between.
Norton/ I thought what they'd be worried about was traffic flow along the left side of
Dubuque, for example. They're going to close the east side of Dubuque, but
traffic flow will be maintained on the west side of Dubuque. I just thought it was
a typo, but maybe they mean Clinton.
Vanderhoef/ Chuck? Was there still some possibility of --
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Norton/ You see our problem?
Vanderhoef/ Losing a few parIcing places on the west side of Dubuque Street.
Charles Sctur~adeke/ That should probably say of the affected streets because --
Norton/ Okay, yes.
Sclxrnadeke/ All right, and Jefferson.
Norton/ Because you want to maintain the two-way flow of traffic on Iowa Avenue all
the way, and on Jefferson, and on Dubuque, right. When they take out the spaces,
Chuck, on let's say, Iowa Avenue, there in the middle of Iowa Avenue on the
north side, how big, they come twenty-six feet from the right-of-way-out to the
curb, how does that, where does that end up, how far out in the street is that. Do
they leave the double lane parking there?
Schmadeke/ Right, that's the paricing area along the north side.
Norton/ Just the parking on the north side.
Schmadeke/ Right.
Norton/ I'm surprised they took just three spaces there.
Vanderhoef/ It was three for the full time, and there might be more --
Norton/ Occasionally there might be others, yeah.
Vanderhoef/ Intermittently, at different times.
Norton/ Was there any effort to get anything, we were talking at one point to see if the
University could provide any replacement parking. IS that, I see nothing in here
to that effect. Is that tlxrough?
Schrnadeke/ That was in that parlcing lot there at Gilbert and Iowa.
Norton/ Yeah, are they going to do that?
Scl~r~adeke/ We really didn't think that was going to be effective. We thought this
would be more effective.
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Kubby/ Yeah, because if they let the general public into that lot, they'd have to take their
permitters and put them elsewhere, because they'd just go in as a general parker
and end up there anyway.
Schmadeke/ Yeah, that's right.
Norton/There isn't any space, I guess.
Vanderhoef/ I was one who asked for this permit right from the get-go. I appreciate what
you have negotiated with the University, and I appreciate what the University has
done that is giving us a lot more options in using the space more efficiently, and
recog~fizing the needs of the downtown, both for appearance, and for parking.
Kubby/ Did you have a question for Joe, Dee?
Vanderhoef/ I just was asking Joe if there still was some possibility of using that other
lane of Dubuque Street on the west side for parking.
Fowler/ One of the items that we did discuss in our meeting about paricing was the
possibility ofmetering the west side of the 10 block of north Dubuque Street, and
that appeared to be agreeable to all parties, that it would be a good solution to
replace some of the paricing that would be lost on Iowa Avenue. It would be a
total of seventeen spaces lost during the construction, and we could put probably,
and I haven't measured it exactly, but we could put probably 12-13 spaces that we
would be able to get back on Dubuque Street if you wanted us to go ahead and do
that. Amd then, there's also a loading zone that's not very heavily used on Clinton
Street at Jefferson that was converted to a commercial vehicle loading zone
several years ago when the University needed loading area on Clinton while
Jefferson Street was being reconstructed. And that zone is not used very heavily
at this time. I think we could probably get four more spaces back in there. So
there are some more options available if you would direct us to go ahead and
increase the parking.
Kubby/ I thiak that for two years, that length of time, it would be worth the task, the
extra effort of putting in those meters, and to basically replace the parking that
would be lost.
Norton/ (Can't understand) backing into the traffic lane then. It'll hurt that traffic lane
for tlu'ee years.
Nov/ It's a long time.
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Fowler/ It would basically be, the parlcing fine would basically be what it is in the 10
block of south Dubuque.
Norton/ Yeah.
Fowler/ 2Mad the majority of the traffic that enters into town is directed either east or west
on Market Street or Jefferson at this time.
Nov/ What block on Dubuque Street are you talking about.
Fowler/ Well, it's the 10 block of N. Dubuque Street, between Iowa and Jefferson Street,
would be across the street from the construction.
Nov/ Aren't we already narrowing that street, and you're going to narrow it even more?
Norton/ Yeah, there's --
Nov/ That gets a lot of traffic.
Fowler/ Right now, there are four lanes. One lane will be full of construction staging.
Then there would be three lanes left open for traffic, unless you direct us to meter
one of them, then there would be two lanes left open for traffic.
Nov/ I'm really wondering if you don't really need the three lanes, based on the amount
of traffic that goes through there each day.
Kubby/ Maybe we need to check in with Traffic (can't understand) before we make a
final determination.
Vanderhoef/ See, that's the transition of where we go into two lanes anyway, so all we'd
be doing it is a little earlier, one block earlier we would be making it two lanes.
Norton/ Riglat.
Vanderhoef/ So I think this is a reasonable thing to do. But one of the things we talked
about on those seventeen, is I was looking at the date and so forth that they put on
their request. That it's really just one year that we're missing seventeen spaces --
Fowler/ Yes.
Vanderhoef/ Then fifteen spaces, m~d a couple of other dates here and other places. And
other than that, we're going to be down to more often than not, just the three
spaces that are going to be out forever in the middle of the first block.
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Fowler/ It's quite a reduction by the University in their request.
Vanderhoef/ A huge reduction, versus two years for all of those spaces. And I really do
appreciate that.
Kubby/ Yeah. So what is our direction about the Dubuque Street, and the one loading
zone? I mean, I think that if there's a way to put some more parIcing, even if it's
temporary, that we should do it.
Vanderhoef/ I do too.
Nov/ The loading zone is definite --
Norton/ I think they --
Vanderhoef/ The loading zone and Dubuque Street would be for me, too.
Norton/ If they think it'll work, let's do it.
Nov/ We'd have to put up a left-turn only sign on one lane and really create a traffic jam
in that block.
Norton/ What, what?
Thornberry/ They'll still be able to load.
Nov/ The northbound traffic in the left side would not have an option to go straight
ahead, and the right lane would go straight ahead, they wouldn't have to turn left.
Norton/ No.
Nov/ Because you're going to go down to one lane.
Norton/ No, there'll be two lm~es.
Kubby/ Coming from one lane, going --
Norton/ There's two lanes. Only one lane is going to be parIcing. There's still one
northbound and one southbotmd lane.
Nov/ Yes, but there are two lanes northbound before you get to that block. And you're
going to have to require that one of those lanes tums.
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Kubby/ It's one lane.
Vanderhoef/ It's one lane. Headed north.
Kubby/ On Dubuque Street, in between Washington and Iowa, is one lane. It looks like
more than one because the trucks are there unloading.
Vanderhoef/ The trucks take the center.
Nov/ Okay. But I'm talking about the block that goes fi'om Iowa to Jefferson.
Vanderhoef/ And it's four lanes and we're going to take it down to two. Parking on one
side and construction on the other.
Nov/ Okay, then anyone north of Jefferson on the left-hand side would have to turn left.
We camxot allow both lanes to go --
Norton/ That's right.
Kubby/ You're talking about driving to the south. You were saying driving toward the
north.
Nov/ No.
Norton/ Right-hand lane must turn right, I understand that.
Nov/ It's the cars that are north of Jefferson Street would have to have a designated lane
for left-turn only.
Kubby/ Can't we just make sure that our staff make sure that this decision is done safely,
and if they can't make and it comes back to us for us to say don't do it or --
Fowler/ I would work with Jeff and John Yapp and send you a plan as an informational
item, in one of your agendas, and if you had a problem witix what we submitted,
we can direct --
Kubby/ Thank you.
Nov/ Sounds good. Any other discussion? Roll call~ (yes). We have approved this
resolution.
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August 26, 1997 City of Iowa City Page
ITEM NO, 14.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION OF
TEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION EASEMENTS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION
OF THE WOOLF AVENUE BRIDGE RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT
[BRM-3715(4)--8N-52].
Comment: The WooIf Avenue Bridge Reconstruction Project involves the
removal and replacement of the WooIf Avenue Bridge, which spans over
Highway 6 and the CRANDIC Railroad; the removal and replacement of
the WooIf Avenue pavement and sidewalk between Newton Road and
Bayard Street; and the installation of water main and storm sewer
facilities. The City of Iowa City must acquire temporary construction
easements to facilitate the construction of the project. This resolution
authorizes City staff to negotiate and the Mayor to sign these documents,
including authorization of condemnation if necessary. Every effort will be
made to negotiate acceptable agreements without resorting to
condemnation. Prior to proceeding with condemnation, staff will notify
Council.
Action: ~.~~-.2/7~2~/.~
ITEM NO. 15.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING
MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERK TO ATTEST CONTRACT FOR THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE WILLOW CREEK TRAIL, PHASE I PROJECT,
MORMON TREK TO GALWAY HILLS.
Comment: The bid opening for this project was held August 19. The
following bid was received:
Peterson Contractors, Reinbeck, IA
Engineer's Estimate
~257,400.00
$211,000.00
Public Works and Engineering recommends not to award, but rather re-bid the
project this winter with a spring start date.
Action: ~/~Y~/~~~
#14 page 1
ITEM NO. 14 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION
OF TEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION EASEMENTS FOR THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE WOOLF AVENUE BRIDGE RECONSTRUCTION
PROJECT [BRM-3715(4)--8N-52].
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #14).
Norton/ Move adoption of the resolution.
Nov/ Moved by Norton.
Kubby/ Second.
Nov/ Seconded by Kubby. Discussion?
Norton/ Will this involve sidewalks on the west side? You lmow what I mean, on the
west side of Newton Road, of Woolf Avenue there, after you go across the bridge.
There's a steep bank there, and as a basketball fan, I have to walk over there, and
in the streets part of the way. Is there going to be a sidewalk there?
Rob Winstead/ I believe there will be sidewalks on both sides. I'm not familiar with all
the details, but that's part of why we need temporary construction easements in
order to build sidewalks and also to build a temporary pedestrian overpass.
Nov/ So that will keep it open for pedestrians when it's closed to vehicles.
Winstead/ Correct.
Norton/ That's going to be something when you get down to Newton road when you're
forty feet in the air with the sidewalk. I'm happy, but it sounds --
Nov/ You don't want it --
Norton/ Well, you lmow, there's no sidewalk on that side, it's just --
Nov/You don't want to jump. You really want that sidewalk.
Norton/ I do.
Nov/ Is there any other discussion? Roll call- (yes). We have approved this resolution.
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ITEM NO. 15 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND
AUTHORIZING MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERK TO ATTEST
CONTRACT FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE WILLOW CREEK TRAIL,
PHASE I PROJECT, MORMON TREK TO GALWAY HILLS.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #15). So, do we want a no vote, or deferral?
Kubby/ No vote. Move consideration of this resolution.
Lehman/ Second.
Nov/
Moved by Kubby, seconded by Lehman. Okay, roll call- (no). We have not
approved this resolution. We will put it up for bid again later, and hopefully get
better prices.
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August 26, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 14
ITEM NO. 16.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING
MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERK TO ATTEST CONTRACT FOR
CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA CITY CIVIC CENTER FRONT ENTRANCE
RENOVATION PROJECT.
Comment: The bid opening for this project was held August 19. The
following bids were received:
MBA Concrete, North Liberty, IA
iowa Bridge and Culvert, Washington, IA
All-American Concrete, West Liberty, IA
Central Iowa Contracting Corp., Ames, IA
Engineer's Estimate
$68,533.00
$90,000.00
999,535.00
9112,000.00
943,000.00
ITEM NO. 17.
Public Works and Engineering recommend award of the contract to MBA
Concrete of North Liberty, Iowa. Factors contributing to the bid price being
over the architect's estimate were due to several items not in the original
estimate but added by addendum. Those items being: demolition work could
only be done after regular business hours or on weekends; public access must
be maintained throughout construction; and extra signage and precautions for
handicap accessibility need to be included by the contractor. This project will
be funded the general fund of government building maintenance.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING
MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERK TO ATTEST CONTRACT FOR THE
NAPOLEON PARK SOFTBALL FENCING PROJECT.
Comment: This project includes the installation of a chain link fence
around eight (8) softball fields at Napoleon Park. The completion of
fencing will enable the Girls' Softball Program to return to Napoleon Park
for the 1998 season. Two bids were received as follows:
D & N Fencing Co., Cedar Rapids, IA
American Fence Co., Des Moines, IA
Director's Estimate
955,975.00
~92,585.44
~65,000.00
It
Company for the low bid of 955,975.
Action:
its recommended that the contract be awarded to D & N Fencing
#16 page 1
ITEM NO. 16 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND
AUTHORIZING MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERIC TO ATTEST
CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA CITY CIVIC CENTER
FRONT ENTRANCE RENOVATION PROJECT.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #16).
Norton/ Move adoption of the resolution.
LeNnan/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Norton, seconded by Letunan. Discussion?
Thornberry/ We haven't, I've never seen a picture of what like, the artist's rendering of
what they're going to be doing, has anybody else seen that?
Nov/ Jim Schoenfelder (can't understand).
Kubby/ (Can't understand) some changes.
Thornberry/ I mean originally, I saw some rough, some rough sketch.
Norton/ We saw some.
Nov/ Did you bring something? Jim, do you have anything with you?
Jim Schoenfelder/ No.
Thornberry/ That's rough, that is really rough. Oh, I remember that one.
Kubby/ But we saw the plans and we said we wanted a little more planters, we wanted a
little more --
Baker/ A little more pizzazz.
Kubby/ Thank you.
Thornberry/ But I haven't seen any --
Kubby/ You don't lmow what the pizzazz content is at this point.
Thornberry/ No, I haven't.
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Baker/ Can you (cant understand).
Schoenfelder/ I've got the sketches I brought in before. (Can't hear).
Steve Atkins/ Why don't you hold the vote. Let Jim run down and get those sketches
and reacquaint you before you vote.
Nov/ Okay, we'll defer this vote and move on to item #17.
Baker/ Before you vote, can I ask Steve a question about this, about the fact of the
increased cost over the estimate.
Atkins/ That'd be me, I did that.
Baker/ I was going to say, they look like pretty obvious things to anticipate.
Atkins/ Well, we had a pretty straightforward project, and then Jim and I sat down and
reviewed the thing, and again asking some additional questions, and quite franldy,
it would be difficult to conduct business with the jackhammers and the sort of
noise going on, and that's why we added that. And as we sort of talked the thing
through, these things were then added. It is substantially my doing, and I'm sure
that has a bearing on the price.
Nov/ After hours means not during Council meetings also.
Atkins/ They will have to check in and tell us when they're going to be breaking things
up, but it'll be noisy.
Kubby/ Are we going to have some addendum that adds some substantial cost to
engineer's estimate so that it doesn't seem so far off?.
Atkins/ Yeah, that's a good point.
Norton/ It might be well to put a parenthetical note in there.
Atkins/ Yeah, that's a good point. You're right.
Kubby/ Because we really don't lmow how far off an amended estimate the actual prices
we got are.
Thomberry/ And again, this $68,500 against $112,000, quite a --
Norton/ (Can't understand).
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Thornberry/ Quite a discrepancy there.
Atkins/ (Can't understand).
Thornberry/ Have we worked a lot with MBA Concrete out of North Liberty?
Atkins/ I think we had no trouble recommending them. Jim recommended them.
Schoenfelder/ I think they did the concrete work on (Can't understand) Park, Swann Park
across the street, and another project I'm not sure which one. But they did tow
projects for the City.
Atkins/ Why don't you move on to item #17, run back and get the sketches, and come
back and vote on this.
Nov/ Okay.
(Item #16 continued)
Nov/ Pictures.
Schoenfelder/ The only drawing I have, the color rendering, was the one I showed you
during the work session. It's a very simple concept, the front entrance will stay
pretty much the same as far as the front patio will be the same size, the ramp will
be in the same location, although it will be improved to ADA standards. There
will be a bench set that goes around the inside of the ramp and the patio, and two
round planters that will replace the one large square planter that's out there now.
And the four trees will remain out here, and then we will set some free-standing
circular planters out in that area. Plus, a bicycle rack.
Nov/ Yes.
Thomberry/ I look at that and I say $68,000?
Schoenfelder/ There's a lot of concrete out there.
Nov/ We have to redo all the patio area there.
Atkins/ Regardless of the redesign, it needs work. That concrete is really in bad shape.
Vanderhoef/ Yeah, it's really in bad shape. The stairs look like it could be dangerous.
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Schoenfelder/ Some of those cracks out there are getting to the point where by code, we
would have to replace them, once they get 1/2 or 3/4-inch.
Vanderhoef/ Yeah, some of those look like 3/4-inch.
Schoenfelder/ Yeah, they're getting there. And that walk out there, is a six-inch thick
walk.
Kubby/ And experiencing the crowd that was here on the First Avenue extension that
had a rally before the Council meeting that allows more space for people
congregate in large numbers as well as some quiet time in front of the Civic
Center to sit and wait or eat lunch, or whatever. So that the people aren't on the
sidewalk so much, so there's a gap.
Thornberry/ What would you think about 50% of this cost is in demolition or more?
Schoenfelder/ Well, around 50%. It's very labor-intensive.
Thornberry/ Yeah.
Schoenfelder/ The whole project is labor-intensive.
Norton/(Can't hear).
Vanderhoef/ When do we start on it?
Kubby/Yeah?
Shoenfelder/ Well, we'll start the first of September, or the first week in September or
soon thereafter.
Norton/ It would be a great place for a public art component.
Nov/ It would be nice to have an art exhibit --
Kubby/ The local government, the building that (can't hear).
Nov/ I think we should put in something artistical.
Thornberry/ We'll bronze you, Naomi.
??/ That would be a work of art.
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Nov/ Moving on. Roll call- (yes). We have approved the resolution.
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ITEM NO. 17 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND
AUTHORIZING MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERK TO ATTEST
CONTRACT FOR THE NAPOLEON PARK SOFTBALL FENCING PROJECT.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #17).
Kubby/ Move adoption of the resolution.
Vanderhoef/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion?
Kubby/ Larry, your fence fetish question, I want to hear the answer.
Norton/ Fence fetish.
Baker/ I just want to say I appreciate Steve getting that information as quick as you did.
My blessing on this one.
Nov/ Okay. Do we want Terry to tell us what this linear foot cost is?
Atkins/ $7.63.
Thornberry/ What?
Atkins/ $7.63.
Thornberry/ Installed?
Atkins/ Installed.
Nov/Okay.
Atkins/ $12.60 for the overhead.
Thornberry/ Including how many gates?
Atkins/ There are 16 gates.
Norton/ Why would they be so different? Its' the same kind of fence. What is it, labor?
Are they putting them in deeper? What accounts for that disparity between them?
??/ They're doing it cheaper.
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Thornberry/ Did you check with Sears?
Terry Trueblood/ The higher bidder thirdcs that he bid higher quantities than what were
necessary. The low bidder came and did his own measuring, etc. The high bidder
did not visit the site, and did on higher quantities. But the high bidders price per
foot was still almost $5/foot more than the low bidders on the six-foot portion
which is the majority of it. There's also back stops involved.
Thomberry/ Terry, I have a question. I visited Napoleon park and walked it extensively,
and there are tlu'ee areas of sprirdder system installations around the outfields, the
inner one and the middle one and the one we'll clear out probably just inside the
fence that will be there. have you checked that installation of the sprinkler system
out? I stepped on that in several places, and you sirtic anywhere from six to nine
feet. Six to nine inches down wherever they put that. Now some are pealred over,
and some are just down there, and that installation, if you approved that, it's --
Trueblood/ It's not completed yet.
Thornberry/ There are also valve covers that are sticking up way above the ground. Not
the covers, yeah, the covers too of the valves are up way above the ground. And I
don't third~ a whole lot has been done out there. The infield's full of weeds, it's
just not being taken care of at all. All the weeds are growing real nicely.
Atldns/ You understand that that project isn't anywhere close to finished. I mean, we did
not devote time this summer to finishing --
Kubby/You just built the sidewalks.
Thornberry/ But the installation of the sprinlder system --
Atldns/ The sprirdder system has been di£ficult, and Terry indicated it was not finished
yet. So that --
Thornberry/It's been running most of the summer.
Atldns/Oh yeah.
Trueblood/ It's finished to the extent that it's operational, but it's not finished to grade
yet.
Thornberry/ Was that part of the installation price?
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Trueblood/ Part of the installation price is that the installer has to come back and finish
the job.
Thornberry/ Oh, so it's not paid for yet.
Trueblood/ Not in its entirety.
Thornberry/ Becanse it's, you could break an anlde out there real, real easy.
Trueblood/ Like I said, it's not finished yet. And keep in mind, like Steve said, there
hasn't been any play down there for the last two summers. That's the reason there
hasn't been any infield maintenance.
Thornberry/ I see. I'm just saying that they could've played on it this year, with all the
grass that's there.
Trueblood/ No.
Kubby/ No, there's a lot of construction equipment out there.
Trueblood/ The couldn't have played on it yet this year, because the turf that's there was
not yet ready to be played on when their season was underway.
Thomberry/ Right.
Trueblood/ And the parking. There was no parking.
Nov/ But we are going to have parking and fencing this year.
Thornberry/It's in pretty sad shape.
Atkins/ It's going to look really good next year.
Norton/ Did you get (can't understand).
Trueblood/ Yes, we did. University and City Park combined. City Park was a little
problematical because of the increased traffic, 'cause it was boys baseball and
girls softball out there that it added traffic at the peak times coming out and going
in at the same times. Then when we had the construction project on Park Road
during part of the season, that complicated things a bit too. But overall, it went
very well.
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Thornberry/ Are you going to come back to us for a request for paved parking for the
paricing area there?
Trueblood/ Yes.
Thornberry/ Or can that be just gravel chip seal at the park.
Treeblood/ We're suggesting a paved parking lot. As a matter of fact, Chuck and I had a
meeting with an engineer today about that very subject.
Thornberry/ Why not just blacktop? Blacktop over chipseal?
Trueblood/ Chipseal?
Thornberry/ Yeah, you're only using it what, four months of the year.
Trueblood/ That's possible. That might be, you lmow, that's one of the options that
we've looked at in the past. But it's also my understanding that by code, we
might be obligated for asphalt or concrete.
Thomberry/ Four months of the year for a parking lot. That's going to be a big parking
lot.
Treeblood/ Yeah, I know.
Kubby/ What kind of code dictates that kind of a surface?
Trueblood/ Well, I could be mistaken, but it's a city code that requires, I believe, hard-
surface parking for parking lots. And of course, we as a city, would not have to
do that, but we try to follow it whenever we can.
Lel~rnan/ City Park is chipseal, isn't it?
Treeblood/ (Yes).
Baker/ And the soccer fields down by the sewer plants? That's just chipseal now? And
you have plm~s to pave that with concrete?
Trueblood/ Hope to.
Nov/ Wouldn't asphalt be cheaper?
Kubby/ He's saying that we're trying to follow our own rules.
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Treeblood/ Yeah, either asphalt or concrete.
Nov/ Right.
??/ We can get that into a later discussion.
Atkins/ Those options (can't understand).
Norton/ Or, we may want to rethink chipseal on some of those.
Thornberry/ For the length of time that they're being used --
Norton/ They're not getting that heavy of wear, no.
Nov/ Just so long as we don't allow them parked on the grass, okay? Let's move on.
Any other discussion about fences? Roll call- (yes). We have approved the
resolution. Back to number 16.
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August 26, 1997
ITEM NO. 18,
¢7-.
City of Iowa City
Page 15
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING
MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERK TO ATTEST CONTRACT FOR THE
REMOVAL AND REPLACEMENT OF THE ROOF AND INSULATION ON
THE CIVIC CENTER.
Comment: Bids were requested on four distinct sections of the roof in
order to select the section(s) considered to be necessary and affordable
at this time. Bids were received from two contractors as follows:
Section 1
(Fire Station)
Section 2
(Lower West C.C.)
Section 3
(Council Chambers)
Section 4
(East Wing)
Dryspace
$56,995
Maintenance Consultant
Associates Estimate
$35,871 945,500
996,292 982,653 984,500
931,802 926,528 925,300
993,577 971,716 968,200
9278,666 9216,768 9223,500
ITEM NO. 19.
It is recommended that the City proceed with Sections I and 3 at this
time, and that the contract be awarded to Maintenance Associates for
the low bid of 962,399 for these two sections. It is planned to complete
the other two sections in FY99 and FY2000o
Action:
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE BUDGETED POSITIONS IN
THE ENGINEERING DIVISION OF THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT BY
ADDING TWO FULL-TIME SPECIAL PROJECTS INSPECTOR POSITIONS.
Comment: This resolution will increase the City's construction
management staff to include a construction manager and four
construction inspectors. Currently "in house" construction management
services are provided only on major sanitary sewer projects with a
construction manager and two construction inspectors. By adding two
additional inspectors, construction of the various water facility
improvements can also be managed by City staff. The alternative is to
utilize engineering consultant services. The cost of consultant services
for managing construction of water projects to date has averaged 10% of
construction costs. Construction management services utilizing City staff
on wastewater projects has averaged 4.2% of construction costs, and it
is estimated that "in house" construction management services on water
projects will also average 4.2% of construction costs. Staff
memorandum included in Council packet.
Action:
#18 page 1
ITEM NO. 18 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND
AUTHORIZING MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERK TO ATTEST
CONTRACT FOR THE REMOVAL AND REPLACEMENT OF THE ROOF
AND INSULATION ON THE CIVIC CENTER.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #18).
Vanderhoef/ Move that we consider the resolution of Section 1 and Section 3..
Nov/ Moved by Vanderhoef.
Thomberry/ Second.
Nov/Seconded by Thomberry. Can we have some description of exactly what these
things are? Section 3 is just the roof on the Council Chambers and nothing else?
Kubby/ And are these the two worst areas and that's why we're doing these particular
ones?
Trueblood/ Actually, that's not quite true, but the fire station, over the garage part of the
fire station, is the number one priority. That's the one that we really need to work
on.
Nov/ And that's Section 1.
Trueblood/ That's number 1, that's Section 1. Section 3 is the one over the Council
Chambers. grad that was number 3 in the priority. These are listed in priority
order. But the Lower West section, over the lobby part of the police station, is a
much larger section, as you can by the price. We've also determined that maybe
we should wait on that until the projects going up are completed, because there
will be a lot of work on the roof at that time. It may be necessary that we'll have
to put maybe as much as $4,000-$5,000 in patchwork over the next year or so in
that area if we start experiencing leaks. But for the time being, we felt it best to
delay it until the expansion projects are completed, and the put a new roof on.
Nov/ Okay. And Section 4, the East Wing, was the lowest priority?
Trueblood/ That is correct. That's over the City Manager's office. We didn't consider
that a high priority.
Leluuan/ Are there any other sections not listed here that do not need any, apparently
there are no other sections.
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Trueblood/ This would be the complete roof, other than the newer blue sections. Thanks,
Ernie.
Lehman/ Thanks.
Atkins/ But it does leak on occasion.
Nov/ Uh-huh.
Kubby/ We'll do like the library.
Atkins/ I never said a word about it to you until tonight.
Kubby/ That's true. Just be sure that your artwork is out of the way of the leak.
Thornberry/ You need some glue plastic tarps for your --
??/ Yes.
Atkins/ Just a couple of buckets. About once a year. Pickle buckets.
Nov/ Okay. By the way, while we're talking about a new roof going over the fire
station, what's going on on the sidewalk on Gilbert Street?
Atkins/ You remember the, it's not the sidewalk, the area where the two cars used to
park under that? We're enclosing that. It's a project we've planned for three or
four years. We just simply never got around to putting it together. It was just
some additional storage space and the parking in the back. And it just was a
better use of that space.
Nov/ Are you going to heat it?
Atkins/ I think it's going to be heated, isn't it? Yeah, I think because there is going to be
some storage in there.
Nov/Okay. It looks complicated. Are you going to add onto the furnace?
Atkins/ I thought it was a pretty simple project, but they had to pour foundations and do
a little excavating under it, isn't that correct, Jim? Yeah, it was a little more
complicated than we thought.
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Nov/
Yeah, because putting heating in there is going to be complicated once you've put
in all this concrete. Okay. What are we on, we're ready to vote on the roof. Roll
call- (yes). We have approved two sections of the roof.
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ITEM NO. 19 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE BUDGETED
POSITIONS IN THE ENGINEERING DIVISION OF THE PUBLIC WORKS
DEPARTMENT BY ADDING TWO FULL-TIME SPECIAL PROJECTS
INSPECTOR POSITIONS.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #19).
Thornberry/ Move adoption of the resolution.
Vanderhoef/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion?
Thornberry/Yes. I would be opposed to adding even more city staff for inspection
services. However, with the increase of the 4.2% of construction costs for
construction management services as opposed to 10%, hiring an outside firm,
cost-effectively to do it in-house. And I spent the day this afternoon, all
afternoon, with Tim Randall, who I'm not sure if he likes me real well or not, but
we spent the day touring sewer lift stations. I took two showers when I got home,
and I still smell, but anyway, those lift stations, it was really interesting. We saw
them from the ground up. I'm telling you, we toured those extensively. He also
does other projects --
Norton/You did the ground down?
Thornberry/ It was inside out. I'll tell you what, it was inside out, and I wore a hard hat,
though I didn't have a face mask of any kind. But we looked at the whole thing,
and I looked at some of the projects that he had done with outside firms inspecting
it and with in-house inspections. And it seems to me that, from my observations,
the projects that were done in-house, that were inspected in-house, were done
really quite a bit better than the ones that were inspected by contract services.
And Tim tells me he hasn't had a vacation for years, and I don't know --
Nov/ Oh yes, oh yes. Lisa says the same thing.
Vanderhoef/ For me, Dean, I had a conversation with Steve this afternoon, because I
wanted to double-check what I remembered from the hiring of the two initial
inspectors. And that was that they were paid specifically for the projects. And
that their salaries and their benefits are charged back to that project. That they did
not come into play into our General fund spending. For me, that's a very
important issue. And the second question that I asked, to be sure about, was that I
wanted to be sure that there wasn't any obligation to keep these people on staff
after their job was completed. And they do not stay on staff. So, they are
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certainly able to apply for the next project that comes along, but when that project
is done, they are gone, and there isn't any post firing or --
Atkins/ As you lmow, this was an experiment we tried a little over a year ago. And a
number of you have mentioned in the past about Phoenix, how they do their
bidding against, well this was our effort to do that. And we discovered that we
can deliver quality product at less cost.
Thornberry/ Absolutely.
Norton/ But how does this work. I don't understand. Because it looks now like since
you have projects existing, and new ones coming on all the time, it looks like
those positions would be there in perpetuity.
Atkins/ They will be, they are charged directly against the construction project, all the
costs associated. If, for any reason, the construction project were not to proceed,
then there's no reason for the staff. And the employees are made aware of that at
the time of their hiring.
Norton/ So two of them could be there forever, and two of them might have to go at
some point.
Atkins/ They're not there forever.
Kubby/Is the City going to do enough big projects that we need inspectors that are just
for those projects?
Atkins/ We have tied our inspection cost directly to the cost of the project. And if there
are no projects, there's no need for the inspectors.
Norton/ But for the foreseeable future, it looks like there might be.
Atkins/ For the foreseeable future, we have lots of big projects coming up.
Nov/ )red if a big project was finished and there were an opening somewhere else in
Public Works that person could apply --
Atkins/That's right. We consider them --
Nov/ They don't necessarily have to be dismissed.
Atkins/ No, we consider them full-time employees, full-time City employees, and they're
entitled to compete within the rules and regulations of our personnel policies and
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contracts like any other employee. And in fact, if a project were beginning to
wind down, it would be our intent to let them know, because these are very
competent people, and while the labor market can go up and down on them, they
will be given sufficient notice to allow them to enter the labor market for other
jobs. That's just fair notice.
Norton/ Do you recruit these people from your present staff?.
Atkins/ No, these are new hires. Now, we may find some on present staff, but
traditionally, it's been new hires.
Lelunan/ I've got a question for Chuck. I didn't want you sleeping back there, Chuck.
You look very content.
Nov/ Tim Randali's been here a long time, hasn't he?
Atkins/ Tim has been one of our inspectors, and when we kicked off this concept, we
made him in effect, like a senior supervising inspector. And Tim hired the two
new people, and we would intend to have Tim supervise the work of the two new
people as well. But Tim has been employed for some time.
Lel~r~an/ Does this inspection of the water include the building of the water plant?
Schmadeke/ Yes.
Lelunan/ So the 4.2% would include the cost of, now does that inspection include
building inspection?
Schmadeke/ Well, the engineering staff would to the inspection of the building officially.
Leilanan/ I guess what I'm really getting at is that the building itself is a substantial part
of the cost of the project. And that's where we get our 4.2%. If that includes the
cost of the building, and that inspector will not be inspecting the building --
Schmadeke/ Yes, they will be.
Lehman/ They will be.
Schmadeke/ Yes.
Lehlr~an/ I thought you just said they won't be.
Schmadeke/ Yes, they will be inspecting the building.
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Lehman/ So the construction of the building is under the supervision of the same --
Schmadeke/ The same group of people.
Lelunan/ So we're not looking at building inspectors and, okay.
Schmadeke/ There is not a duplication of work if that's what you're thinIcing.
Lelurtan/ Well, I'm just thinking, if that was included, the cost of the building, in
figuring the percentage, then it isn't quite telling the same story. But obviously, if
that includes the building, then very good.
Thornberry/ Also, I got to talk to Ed Moreno while we were doing this, and Ed was kind
of looking around to see also, what kind of records Tim was keeping and how he
was doing things. Because, I think Ed was kind of looking at him, picking out the
guy, the kind of service he would like to see in building that building, and I think
he's pretty satisfied with Tim Randall also. I think he's doing a good job with the
exception of Highland which has extended on far, far too long. I would've
thought it should've been done weeks ago.
Atldns/ You were wasting his time today. He could've been working on that.
Thornberry/ I wish they were working on Highland.
Nov/ I saw him inspecting Highland just a couple days ago.
Thomberry/ He's spending way too much time on Highland. They could have been done
a long time ago. Highland will be open next week.
Nov/ Someday.
Thornberry/ Highland will be open next week. My ad will be in the paper.
Vanderhoef/ There's one more thing on this before we vote, if you don't mind. When I
was talking to Steve today, I said that we understand it about being charged back,
and he said that these folks are not permanent hires for the City. But what I
would like to see is some way that when we do the budget and annual reports and
so forth, that this is designated, so that any citizen can pick up our reports and
read them and understand that these are not permanent hires and out of our
General Fund versus the special charge-back to the projects.
Thornberry/ Project generated.
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Novick/ Okay, thank you.
Atkins/ Maybe just for public comment, we saved in the millions of dollars. This is a lot
of money we saved.
Thomberry/ I looked into that today, and I thought wait a minute, wait a minute, and I
read this and talked, and got in a conversation with Chuck and Tim, and okay,
yeah, and we have saved an awful lot of money, and have done the projects, and
have kept the time limits, not waiting for someone else. And change orders,
change orders, the last big project that was done, and folks if you don't know,
Tim was in charge of it, and there were zero change orders. Zero. That's
probably a first. That's got to be a first.
Atldns/ Yeah.
Thornberry/ Change orders can really make a project expensive, and I thought that was a
fantastic thing, and it turned out well.
Nov/ Okay.
Thornberry/ That's why I moved.
Nov/ Roll call- (yes). We have approved that resolution.
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August 26, 1997 City of Iowa City Page t6
ITEM NO. 20. ANNOUNCEMENT OF VACANCIES.
a, Current Vacancies,
(1)
Iowa City Human Rights Commission: One vacancy to fill an
unexpired term ending January 1, 2000. (Dereck Hall resigned.)
(7 females and 1 male currently serve on this Commission.)
(Correspondence included in Council packet.)
This appointment will be made at the October 7 City Council meeting.
ITEM NO. 21. CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS.
a. Consider three appointments to the Housing and Community
~.,?~~/~Development Commission: To fill three-year terms ending
September 1, 2000. (Terms expire for Charles Eastham, Sandy
~l Kuhlman, and Ann Donovan.) (3 males and 3 females currently serve
~'" ,,~ [~,~Y~/~ on this Commission.)
b. Consider five appointments to the Police Citizens' Review Board: To
fill one two-year term, two three-year terms, and two four-year terms
all commencing September 1, 1997. (This is a new Board. There are
currently. no members.)
ITEM NO. 22. CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION.
ITEM NO. 23.
REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY.
a. City Manager.
#21a page 1
ITEM NO. 21a CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #21a). The Council would like to appoint Sandy Kuhlman,
Jayne Moraski, mad Rick House. We need a motion.
Leturiah/ So moved.
Thomberry/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Le122an, seconded by Thomberry. All in favor, please say aye- (ayes).
Motion carried.
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ITEM NO. 2lb CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #2lb). I would like to have a little statement here, before we
get to applicants, ifI can find my little statement here. It's way at the bottom
here. Today, we are appointing a new five-member Board. We have never had
this Board before. This Board will review complaints about our police
department, the way that these complaints are treated, and our police procedures
and practices. We have received a remarkable number of qualified volunteers for
these positions. We are grateful to all of the people who have applied to be on
this Board, lmown as Police Citizens' Review Board. The discussion of this
Board started almost one year ago, after Eric Shaw was shot by a police officer.
This event triggered a number of calls for a more citizen-centered system handling
general complaints about police officers and police procedures. When the
Council agreed to a Citizens' Review Board, we talked about a February
completion date. We expected the completion of an ordinance to be less time-
consuming than it turned out to be for both the Council and our staff. Also, the
member who are appointed today will have to spend a lot of their time learning
about our police department, hiring staff, writing by-laws, etc. And they will have
a challenging and rewarding job. Yesterday, when the Council met, we discussed
five names for this Board, and then today discovered one of these names is not an
Iowa City resident. So, we want to erase David Coleman from the list that we had
discussed yesterday. We have agreed on John Watson for a two-year term,
Margaret Raymond for a three-year tenr~, Leah Cohen for a four-year term and
Paul Horley for a four-year term. May we have another nomination to replace the
one three-year term that we took off2.
Leb2nm~/ I would like to nominate Floyd Akins be appointed.
Norton/ Second.
Nov/ Okay. We have Floyd Akins, Jr. Is there any discussion?
Kubby/ I think that there are a couple of other applicants that came up at the, in terms of
the next tier of people who are interested, and the other name was David Lynch.
And I think either David Lynch, or Floyd, would work really well with the rest of
this group. The reason I would have an interest in David, and both Floyd and
David would do this but David would do it more so, is spreading out the age range
of the people we have involved in this Boar, that I think is important.
Baker/ I second that, if that's another nomination.
Kubby/ Yeah, I would like to put another nomination.
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Nov/ Okay. We have two nominations, and we may discuss them. I have the
applications from both of these men, if anyone would like to --
Kubby/ I guess another thing I would like to say about David is that his experience in
working with a funeral home in terms of dealing with issues of confidentiality and
very sensitive issues, would be easily transferred to this PCRB.
Norton/ I have nothing, no particular, nothing to do with David. I'm not sure in what
sense you're expanding the age range. I thought Floyd would bring a little
maturity to it, and I have good recommendations for him.
Kubby/ He would be --
Norton/ Some of the people that I called felt very strongly about him.
Kubby/ I guess because --
Norton/ They would be two good choices. I guess I'm going with Akins, but --
Lehman/ I would, too.
Nov/ I hear three for Akin, four for Akin, okay, we're going to appoint Floyd Akins, Jr.
to a three-year term, along with Margaret Raymond, John Watson for a two-year
term, Leah Cohen for four years, and Paul Hoffey for four years. May we have a
motion?
Lelunan/ So moved.
Kubby/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Lelurmn, seconded by Kubby. Was that you, Karen?
Kubby/Yeah.
Nov/ I'm writing the wrong name here, but I thought I heard that. Was there any further
discussion? All in favor, please say aye- (ayes). Motion carried.
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ITEM NO. 22 CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION.
Nov/ Now, we're getting to Council time, and just this once, I would like to do a little
statement first rather than last, because I'm a little confused here, too much paper
in my life, but I would like to say something about the first anniversary of the
death of Eric Shaw on behalf of the Council. We're all really interested an really
would like to express our sympathy again to the Shaw family. We know that
August 30th will be an extremely sad day for the Shaw family now, and in the
future. We're very sorry that Eric's death was caused by an employee of the City.
We believe the Iowa City community shares the family's sorrow, and we expect
that many will want to attend the vigil on Friday at 7:30 p.m., and remember Eric
Shaw's life. Even those who do not attend will be thinking about the Shaw family
with sympathy this week, and Karen, you had some more information about the
vigil?
Kubby/ No.
Nov/ No? Do we have anything else anyone else wants to say about this? And if not,
we'll proceed with normal discussion. Okay. Larry, do you want to be first for
Council time?
Baker/ Nothing tonight, thank you.
Nov/ Dee Vanderhoef?
Vanderhoef/ Not a thing.
Nov/ Dean Thornberry?
Thornberry/ Nothing tonight, ma'am.
Nov/ Ernie?
Leluuan/ Well, I've got one thing I think we should at least consider or think about. I
understand at one point, or probably still is, a program at last one that was talked
about by Council as tenant to ownership program?
Atkins/ Yes.
Leluuan/ I talked to a couple of bankers who are extremely interested in a program such
as this where folks can be encouraged to own their own property, in many cases
for payments that are no more than, and in some cases, less than what they're
currently paying in rent. We cun-ently have, I think, 106 or 107 units of City-
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owned housing, about 80 of which, I think, are single-family dwelling. And I
would like us to ask Steve to look into the possibility of trying to help some of the
folks living in those houses become owners of those houses. The bardcs are
interested in this happening, and would certainly be interested in helping with the
financing, and the proceeds from the sale of those homes could be used for further
housing rehabilitation, housing progran~s, and perhaps downpayment assistance.
It's a program that we apparently have in place. I'd like to at least take a look at it
and see if it's something we can do.
Vanderhoef/ We haven't had any of that since I've been on Council. I'd be interested in
having something brought to us as Council to learn a little bit more about that
program.
Atkins/ Sure.
Norton/ Why couldn't, couldn't our housing people bring it up. It's been on the list at
some time.
Atkins/ I can certainly bring it up.
Kubby/ They have the parameters of the program all drawn up.
Nov/ Let's check with the current HUD regulations on this, because it's been a couple
years since we discussed it.
Kubby/ Well to me, the most exciting possibility for money so far generated from the
sale of those homes is to build other homes where tenants can become owners.
Norton/ Or rehab.
Lehman/ I just think the program has some real possibilities. Ownership in my opinion,
has so many advantages over renting. And if we can help more people become
owners, I think we will have done a real service to those folks that we're trying to
help, rather than just provide vouchers or low-income assistance. I think we can
really make a difference. And I'd like to look at that.
Atkins/ I'll put this on a memo for you.
Lehman/ One other thing. Quickly, I speak for myself, though I thirdc Council will
probably concur. I don't thirdc there's any plan that we have to remove a
substantial parking from Iowa Avenue, regardless of what folks may have read in
the paper. We're thilxking about t~34ng to make that street more attractive, but I
don't think that includes any big plans to remove paricing from that street.
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Nov/But it lnay include small plans. We'll see.
Norton/ Nothing significant in any sense.
Lehman/ Significant, right.
Nov/ Significant is what we're saying we didn't want.
Kubby/ I wanted to ramounce an event that Public Access Television is putting on on
Saturday, August 30, from 6-11 p.m. It's a fund-raiser for PATV for new
equipment, and it's going to be at the Secrest Octagonal Barn. There's going to
be a hoe-down, so come ready to dance. It's $5 to get in. There's a potluck.
Come out and dance and hang out with good people and raise money to keep the
equipment up and going so that you the community can produce good TV.
Baker/ Karen, where is that? I mean, I don't know the name.
Kubby/ Secrest Barn, let's see, I have a map here. It is too dark to put up in front of the
television. But they're good directions. If you call Public TV, they'll give you
directions. Or, you can e-ma/l them at patv~avalon.net.
Vanderhoef/ Maybe they'll just print it right out, put the directions right out on the
screen.
Nov/ Put it on the character generator? We could do that.
Kubby/ Parking is limited, and it will be a good time. The other thing I want to do is just
welcome people back to town. This is a time when lots of people are just flooding
back into town, faculty, students, staff, are coming back. The fall is always kind
of a good time for a fi'esh start in town because we have so many new people in
our community, and it's a new begimfing. So I just want to welcome everybody
back and move forward with our semester.
Baker/
Karen, you just reminded me of something that welcoming those people back,
just remind people that there are still two days to file papers for City Council.
They can still run for office. If you pick up the papers, you've got two days to do
it, so come join us.
Kubby/The deadline's 5:00 p.m. Thursday, this is Tuesday.
Nov/ It's Friday.
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Kubby/ Is it?
Marian Kan'/ No, it's Thursday in my office, and Friday at the elections office. I have
one day to check them over.
Nov/ Okay.
Kubby/ But that's not as hard a check as the petition.
Karr/ No.
Kubby/ That's all I have.
Norton/ Well, I want to add to this welcome by saying watch out for some of the street
repairs that are still underway. And I want to comment that Melrose is looking
very lovely, as far as I can see. I'm really very impressed with the job out there.
Is that job really going to be completed by September 6th? For the first football
game?
Atkins/ Yes, sure.
Norton/ It certainly looks nice, and it seems to me it's going to be almost available for
that time. But there are some other bm'ricades around that people are going to
have to be patient with that are not perhaps going to be out of the way by the time
the football crowds descend on us. But that's part of the welcome. The other
question I had is where do we stand on our decision about the deer situation?
October being the witching hour?
Atkins/ Lisa has staffed the deer-management committee. IfI recall, they're down to the
final, final, final, and I will check on that tomorrow and get you a memorandum.
Norton/ We need to make some decision pretty fast, I tell you.
Vanderhoef/ I thought that was maybe coming next meeting.
Atkins/ I think it is, yeah, Dee.
Nov/ I think that's what she said.
Norton/ I hope so.
Atkins/ Because everybody, I think, has had their say.
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Norton/ Now the other question I had is there was a note in our packet somewhere about
a southeast CAMBUS route. And then we had also at some time talked about a
free zone in that region. Is that going on?
Atkins/ That request came from AUR rental management, which I think is Clark's, sent
that to the CAMBUS folks. We had some concerns abut that because that would
cut substantially into our system. I have not heard whether Cambus is going to
consider it or not. One of the budget items which you'll be dealing with, with
respect to downtown, is the shuttle system, free-fare zone, you're going to get all
of that as a separate issue.
Kubby/ I would think
Nov/ I would think that the one that the college students proposed covered a much better
area.
Atldns/ Yeah. Doug was putting something together, because we had talked about it.
Norton/ But we had talked a little bit about the possibility of a free-fare zone close-in,
on the route that covers that southeast, that does not work very well.
Arkins/ Yes.
Norton/ Or would be competitive with CAMBUS.
Kubby/ I think they'd be hard-pressed to expand services, because they just recently are
expanding to Hawkeye Court, so they're reducing service on the Red and the Blue
routes. To further expand would mean further cuts, from 10 to 15 minute leeway
times in between those Red and Blue routes, so --
Norton/ Well, I would think they would have a hard time, but I do think we still need to
consider how to keep some of those foilcs who live fairly close in from driving, as
we possibly can.
Nov/ It is the right thing to do.
Kubby/ And how you do that for close in and for higher density is as close as possible
and as cheap as possible. And that's what, that's how it gets to be successful.
Nov/ And if you're not going to run this at seven to ten minute intervals, you're not
going to make it work.
Kubby/ Well, I don't know, fifteen
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Norton/ Okay, good.
Nov/Okay. Anything else? While we're talking about kids coming back to the
University, I also want to remind people that the kids are back in school, at
younger age levels, and we should drive carefully, watch for kids crossing the
streets, watch for the crossing guards, and slow down. School zones are twenty
miles an hour, and I've seen lots of people sort of ignore it over the summer. We
have an am~ouncement of the Human Rights Awards. Anybody who would like
to nominate somebody for Human R/ghts Awards, we have applications to fill out
here at the Civic Center. And if you want one mailed to you, Katherine Carolan at
the Civic Center is the way to get one in the mail. Also, i£you want to go to the
Human Rights Awards breakfast, it will be at 7:30 a.m. at the Iowa Memorial
Union on October 30th. The Keynote speaker will be Mary Sue Coleman,
President of the University of Iowa and the Coinmission will present awards to
recognize a business, an individual, and a service organization, and an individual
at large for their outstanding contributions to the advancement of human rights in
the Iowa City community.
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ITEM NO. 23a REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER
Nov/ City Manager.
Atkins/Two things. Both of them are observations. Stepping back and watching, I don't
know if you folks saw, but one of Marian's deputies just left at about 10:00
working through getting those petitions certified.
Karr/ We had all three there. The other two went the other way.
Atkins/ I only saw the one go by. Secondly, somewhat a note of frustration. I truly
believe that I recognize the complexities of the decisions you make. And I find
that you almost have to bite your lip. We had over a hundred people here
complaining that there was no public input, or involvement, by the public on a
decision you made. And at the end of that discussion, the house cleared, and there
were 19 major items of importance to this community, that they didn't get to see
happening. And I just feel sometimes that you take your lumps unnecessarily.
End of speech.
Kubby/ Thank you.
Norton/ Comes with the territow.
Atldns/ I understand. Doesn't make it right.
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,August 26, 1997
b.
City Attorney,
City of Iowa City
/
Page 1 7
ITEM NO. 24. ADJOURNMENT.
#23b page 1
ITEM NO. 23b REPORT ON ITEMS FROM CITY ATTORNEY.
Nov/ Okay. Eleanor, you had something?
Eleanor Dilkes/ A couple things. One, you got two more applications for the PCRB
attorney. I had asked for more applications a couple days ago, and you have five
now. And then, on Elks, I just wanted to give you a little timing on that. What
staff is in the process is fine-tuning are the first drafts of the agreement, which I
will then send to Bill Meardon. I'm going to treat it as a conveyance of property,
just because it's fairly significant, and a fairly significant permanent easement. So
on September 9th, we'll set a public hearing on a resolution of intent to convey, in
accordance with the agreement, and on the agreement. So I would hope that by
the next meeting you could approve that agreement, assuming, you lmow, the two
parties can get things, you lmow, worked out by then.
Kubby/ And what is the time fi'ame for the Elks in making their decision?
Dilkes/ The Elks met. And they approved the mediated agreement. Oh, you didn't lmow
that.
Nov/ That was in the newspaper.
Dilkes/ It was all over. It was all over the paper, I assumed you lmew.
Kubby/I've been out of town a lot. I've been away.
Dilkes/ No, it was, the Elks met, a week ago today.
Lehman/A week ago.
Atkins/ And their cormnents were --
Dilkes/Pardon me --
Lehman/they voted last night, 96-12 to approve it,
Atkins/ I thought the comments were very favorable toward us, other than that it took too
long. But everybody knows that.
Lehman/ We lmew that.
Nov/ Okay. Before we adjourn, I would like to ramounce again that we're going o have
a special formal meeting at 3:00 p.m. this Friday if we have enough signatures on
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the petition to create a valid petition that triggers the special formal meeting.
Also, on Tuesday, September 2, there will also be a special formal meeting here at
3:30, this will be an executive session for the purposes of evaluating City
Attorney applications. After that special formal meeting, there will be a work
session on both the downtown issues m~d financial issues, and this will include
sales tax. On Thursday, September 4th, the City Council is going to do a tour of
the Parks and Recreation system from 3:00 to 5:30. We will have a special Work
Session joint meeting with the Airport Commission from 6:00 until 7:00. So,
anyone feels like more meetings next week, we're here.
Vanderhoef/ C~'m I just say one more thing when you say this Airport Commission.
Eleanor, can you tell me where the airport is on getting their RFP out?
Dilkes/ I think they're waiting until after your meeting to make a decision about the
public work site so that that can be included in the RFP.
Nov/ I talked to Ron today. He is going to send us lfis draft of the RFP, his summary of
the current proposal that they had for some cormnercial development. We're
going to have our proposal for the public works area at that joint meeting, and
some cost figures for public works construction, rental costs, whatever we can
have for that meeting. And, Ron will provide a land acquisition update.
Vanderhoef/Thank you.
Nov/ And I don't think we're going to be able to put anything more in an hour.
Vanderhoef/Sounds good to me.
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City Council Meeting Schedule
and Tentative Work Session Agendas
August 23 - August 29, 1997
August 22, 1997
= Telecast Live on Cable Channel
August 25
6:00p
COUNCIL
6:00p
6:15p
6:25p
6:30p
7:00p
7:20p
7:30p
7:50p
8:05p
8:20p
8:50p
Monde.~
WORK SESSION
Counc// Chambers
Review Zoning Matters
CEBA - Protek Medical
TCI Update
Public Art
Snelson Sculpture Location
SEATS
Initiative - Hickory Hill / First Avenue
City Attorney Recruitment - Update
PCRB Administrative Issues
Consider appointments to the Housing and Community Development:
Commission and Police Citizens' Review Board
Council Agenda/Council Time
LAugust 26
7:00p [~
FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
Tuescla..~
Council Chambers
FUTURE WORK SESSION ITEMS
Keg Ordinance
Hickory Hill West
Water Project Costs
Waste Pickup - 4-Plexes
Proposed U of I Parking Facility
.Chutes and Vaults
Deer Management
Peninsula Development - Field Trip
Elks
What's New Iowa City Video Program
Landfill Master Plan
Sand Point Wells
DARE Program Review
Sanitary Sewer Repair - New Policy Update
Cemetery
Downtown Renovation
Sales Tax