HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-03-07 Correspondence
City of Iowa City
MEMORANDUM
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Date: February 28, 2006
To: City Clerk
From: John Yapp, Acting JCCOG Traffic Engineering Planner 7 ~/~
Re: Item for March 7, 2006 City Council meeting: Removal of three cab stations in
the 100 block of Court Street. Installation of parking meters COI27E, COl2SE
and COl23E on the south side of the 100 block of Court Street.
As directed by Title 9, Chapter I, Section 3B of the City Code, this is to advise the City
Council of the following action.
Action:
Pursuant to Section 9-1-3A(17) and 9-1-3A(19), removal of three cab stations on the
south side of the 100 block of Court Street, one for Yellow Cab and two for Black and
Gold Cab. The three cab station locations will be replaced with parking meters COI27E,
COl2SE and COI23E, with a meter term of2 hours; $0.40/hour.
Comment:
This action is being taken due to these three cab companies not renewing their lease of
these three on-street parking spaces. With no dedicated cab station being in place, the
three on-street parking spaces will convert back to metered spaces, available to the
general public.
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From: Michael Larson [mslarso@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 1 :57 PM
To: council@iowa-city.org
Subject: Press Citizen Article dated 2/28/2006
Good day Council Members,
In "Noisy trucks to get attention" (Press Citizen, dated 2/28/06), it appears you will be discussing a truck braking
ordinance along Scott Boulevard. As a resident of Scott Park Drive, my backyard is along Scott Boulevard. Has
there been any discussion about limiting the time of day the trucks can pass along Scott Boulevard?
There are numerous times during the evening and eariy morning hours (9PM - 6AM) that trucks drive along Scott
Blvd. While it may seem like a minor annoyance to the majority of Iowa City residents, I can assure you,
everyone who has a home along Scott Blvd. can hear, and at times feel, the trucks drive by.
I urge you to consider not only a truck braking ordinance, but also a time limit upon which Scott Blvd. can be
transverse legally by trucks.
Thank you,
Mike Larson
625 Scott Park Drive
Iowa City, IA 52245
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2/28/2006
Resident Council
Oalmoll Retirement Community
701 Oaknoll Drive
Iowa City IA 52246
Office Phone 351-1720
FEB 2. 7 2006
February 27,2006
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The topic of this letter is to call attention to dangerous traffic congestion becaus~e city~
allows parking on one lane of a two lane street. The area involved will be referred to as
the George St. traffic congestion area.
Iowa City Council and
Steve Atkins, City Manager
410 E. Washington St.
Iowa City, IA 52240
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Dear Friends:
The location of the congested area, the focus of this letter, is the Dart of George St. just
north of Oak crest heading to, or coming from, Koser.
Cause of the Droblem: .
The neighboring cross-street, Oakcrest, is a two lane street with relatively heavy traffic,
because it is a bus route. It is important to note that there is a hill upon the approach from
the east on Oakcrest. Cars must come to a stop on this hill at the corner, and if they turn
right on George St., they will find one lane of the two lane street congested with seven
cars that are parked there daily. It is not possible to see clearly what cars are coming
from either direction on George St., and frequently, the car turning right from Oakcrest
onto George St. meets another car practically head-on, because the car is coming down
the one remaining lane of George St. (See Figure 1).
Detailed description ofthe Darking:
Each day, there are seven cars parked on the west side ofthis section of George 8t.
i'i-'re.r aU are en Iowa City property. Continuing to the north on George St., the street is
owned by University Heights. It is very significant that the north-to-south lane of George
St. on the University Heights property is carefully labeled with "NO PARKING" signs.
The traffic on George St:
In this part of town, there are two main heavily-traveled arteries, both running from east
to west; one is Melrose Avenue and the other is Benton St. It is significant that the only
connecting streets in all of this part ofIowa City, between the two arteries, are George St.
and Sunset St. Further on, there is a connection between the two on Mormon Trek
Boulevard. Note that on Oakcrest, there are a large number of apartment houses. Thus
there is a flow of traffic from Melrose, down George St., turning left to many residences
on Oakcrest. At the comer of George St. and Oakcrest, all traffic is funneled into one lane
because ofthe seven cars parked on George 8t. Occasionally, two small cars can very
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rapidly, and the . hich it meets must back up, down George St., to allow the other car
to procee .
OCCuDants of the seven parked cars:
Some of the occupants are reputed to be working in the hospital and have to leave their
cars parked there. This is not entirely the case, because some cars are being left there ,all
night, as their regular parking place. During the last snow storm, two cars were left there
for 48 hours, and one of the two cars was left there for 72 hours. In other words, they are
using part of a two lane street as their parking garage. This was repeated in th~ ~
snowstorm. 9 ~
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It is essential to immediately post this Iowa City section of George St. just norilfcbf: -0
Oakcrest as a "no parking, tow-away zone." It is our opinion that a bad acci~~II::
happen there unless these cars are removed without delay. ~ <.J1
Very sincerely,
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Historic Preservation Commission
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MEMORANDUM
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Date:
February 23, 2006
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From: Richard Carlson, W Chair, Historic Preservation Commission )>
Re: Review of Iowa City Historic Preservation Handbook, Section 4.11 (Gutters and
Downspouts)
To:
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In a letter to City Council dated September 26, 2005, Maria Duarte of 517 Grant Street appealed a
decision by the Historic Preservation Commission to deny her application to cover the built-in
gutters on her roof. At its November 1 meeting, Council upheld the Commission's decision, but also
directed the Commission to review the historic preservation guideline that disallows "[a]ltering the
roof slope near the gutter when covering historic built-in gutters" (Section 4.11 of the Iowa City
Historic Preservation Handbook). The first part of this memorandum responds to Council's request
to review the wording of Section 4.11. The second part addresses the separate question of resolving
the gutter repair issue at 517 Grant Street.
1. Review of Iowa City Historic Preservation Handbook, Section 4.11
Based on its review, summarized below, the Commission recommends changing the wording of
Section 4.11 of the guidelines to clarify that minimal roof slope modifications for drainage are
permissible over built-in gutters with flat profiles. The Commission believes that any further change
in the current wording of Section 4.11 would weaken the protection of historic built-in gutters and
roof profiles unnecessarily, given the range of repair options available and the possibility of
alternative designs under exceptional circumstances.
The Commission's investigation of the issues relating to Section 4.11 reached three principal
conclusions. First, built-in gutters and roof pitch are widely recognized as distinctive historic
architectural features that should be preserved when possible. The historic preservation guidelines of
several other cities in Iowa-including Ames, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and Dubuque-
specifically encourage the retention of built-in gutters when feasible, and discourage alterations to
roof slopes.
Second, built-in gutters can usually be repaired or covered in a way that meets the guidelines for
much less than the cost of a complete replacement. Three basic options for repairing built-in gutters
exist under the present guidelines. First, the gutter can be re-lined with metal or EPDM sheeting, or
coated with an actylic,latex coating such as Acrymax. Second, a roof can be built over the gutter,
provided the surrounding roof pitch is unaffected. Finally, the gutter can be completely rebuilt. The
first two options will generally cost much less than the third.
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The final conclusion of the Commission is that the present wording of Section 4.11 d~'~t ~
accurately reflect the original intent of the guideline, which was to allow a minimal sloP$for draUiage
when covering flat built-in gutters. A literal reading of the current wording disallows any change"Ifi
pitch, however minimal. The Commission will discuss ways of clarifying this language and propose
changes for Council action later this spring.
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The following points also emerged from the Commission's review, and are included here for the
record. The main purpose of the historic preservation guidelines is to provide the Commission,
applicants, and contractors with a consistent set of expectations regarding appropriate changes to
historic buildings. While some may question the need for guidelines concerning relatively minor
details such as built -in gutters, the regulation of such character-defIning details is intended to slow
the gradual accumulation of small changes to a historic building that, taken together, can reduce the
building's historic character as much as a single large change. Since the adoption of the guidelines,
the Commission has consistendy favored the retention of distinctive features when technically and
economically feasible.
At the same time, the Commission has been very willing to recognize exceptional circumstances in
which strict adherence to the guidelines would be technically diffIcult or would result in signifIcandy
greater expense to the applicant. Under such circumstances, the Commission has the power under
Section 3.6 of the Iowa City Historic Preservation Handbook to approve alternative designs. Ibis
allows an approved version of a project to go forward, provided the project does not signifIcandy
reduce the historic character of the building or neighborhood. The Commission has regularly
exercised this power in instances where economic hardship could be demonstrated.
The Commission expects that an applicant will propose a project that adheres to the guidelines, or
else will demonstrate convincingly why an exception should be made in their case. If an applicant
does neither of these, then the Commission is left with no alternative but to deny the application.
2. 517 Grant Street
The Commission acknowledges that confusion over the exact meaning of Section 4.11 may have
convinced the applicant at 517 Grant Street that she had no alternative but to appeal the
Commission's original decision to Council. Had she made the Commission aware of her dilemma,
however, rather than presenting her arguments only to Council, the Commission could have worked
much more quickly to resolve the issue to everyone's satisfaction. The issue would have been
resolved even sooner had the applicant sought to obtain a building permit before undertaking her
work.
In the interest of seeing this matter put to rest, the Commission is prepared to exercise its power to
make a special exception to the guidelines under Section 3.6 in order to grant a Certificate of
Appropriateness for the work that Ms. Duarte has already completed, on the basis of information
she has presented formally to Council and informally to the Commission. Ms. Duarte has agreed to
submit another application for this work for consideration by the Commission at its next regular
meeting.
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Memo
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To:
From:
Date:
Richard Carlson, Historic Preservation Commission
Bob Elliott J~
March 3, 2006
Duarte home situation
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This communication comes from me as a citizen, and is not intended
to represent views or beliefs of any other CIty CouncH memberS.
Thank you for your memo of February 23.
I appreciate the commission's willingness to address again the unfortunate gutter-roof
situation with the Duarte home at 517 Grant Street, and proposing what appears to be a
reasonable compromise to resolve the lingering problem;
Further, I applaud the commission's intent to review and clarify wording of Section 4.11,
and perhaps other guidelines.
As a person with interest in historic preservation, but with very limited knowledge about
the technical aspects, my understanding is the initial error was failure to obtain a building
permit. Then questionable and/or unclear wording of Section 4.11 resulted in a decision
some believe was accurate, but inappropriate; resulting in unfairness to Mrs. Duarte.
Thus, it appears an unfortunate situation creating problems for Mrs. Duarte, the
commission, and possibly future historic preservation efforts appears to be resolved. I
regret that it took five months, but it's fortunate it was a learning experience.
*
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There are observations I'd like to communicate in-person by way of a joint meeting of
City Council and Historic Preservation Commission. But that's not possible at this time.
So in an effort to match the spirit of the commission's indicated reasonableness, I add the
following suggestions.
As the commission reviews and evaluates regulations, I encourage the kind of
reasonableness and sensitivity exhibited in the decision with Mrs. Duarte's house.
I believe it would benefit future historic preservation efforts if commission decisions
were viewed as less technically restrictive. Especially for residential structures, my
understanding is the basic concept of historic preservation is simply to preserve the
~e's appearance, not preserve or restore a technical recreation of the entire building.
Richard Carlson Memo
March 3, 2006
Page 2
I'll use an analogy of the vitally important Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
When it was initially being discussed in Congress, employers everywhere were vocal
with warnings of near chaos if the legislation were enacted.
It didn't happen! That's because the subsequent enforcement was guided by two simple
and easily understood principles - reasonable accommodation and essential jrmctions.
Meaning, accommodations would be required ifit were reasonable (financially and
otherwise) for the employer, and if the employee's assigned duties were considered
essential functions of hislher position.
I suggest that in evaluating compliance applications, the commission place it's focus on
regulating that which would be easily seen and noticed by persons walking and driving
by. Thus, placing regulatory emphasis on whether a requirement would be essentia1 for
appearances and reasonable for the property owner.
Further, in the process of developing additional historic preservation districts, I suggest
the following.
1. For determining level of involved property owners' support or opposition for proposed
historic preservation districts, place responsibility with those promoting and supporting it,
rather than with those who might oppose it.
2. To approve creating a preservation district, necessitate demonstrated support by at
Jeast 60 percent of the involved property owners. Which would involve determining if
that means 60"/0 of the owners, or owners of 60"/0 of the properties.
I'd be happy to discuss my suggestions with you and/or any other commission members,
ifit's believed that would be helpful. In that respect, I'm aware some historic
preservation regulations and guidelines are state or federal and, thus, are "out of our
hands. "
Again, thank you.
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From: Young, Vershawn A [vershawn-young@uiowa.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, March 01,200612:56 PM
To: Sam-Hargadine@iowa-city.org
Cc: council@iowa-city.org
Subject: Letter
Attachments: Untitled Attachment; Dear Chief Hargadine.doc
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3/1/2006
Monday, February 27,2006
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Dear Chief Hargadine,
Thank you for taking the time to conduct an investigation into my comPla~~j~~~;'7t:HI~
received your three-sentence letter, statmg that my allegations of raCial profihng by the 10 NA
police officers who detained me on 2/4/06 are unfounded. I am also aware of the much
longer report you published which contains certain facts about my driving record. I
understand that you use these facts as a way to question my credibility. In direct
response to that, I would like to point out that I was walking on the day in question, not
driving. I won't reply in detail now to the many other factual errors in your report or call
into question here whether those errors are deliberate or honest oversights. Instead, I
want to ask you directly why I still have not received an apology from the officers who
stopped me. As a citizen, don't I deserve one?
ZOOfifil:R - I PH I: I 2
As you know, my father is a detective in Chicago. When I told him ofthe stop, he sided
partially with you and the department, and partially with me. On your side, he said
officers sometimes must and have the right to stop law-abiding citizens in the process of
investigating crimes. But what he said next is something I've not heard from you or the
officers. He said officers are often sorry about those stops. He said such events are
unfortunate. Are you and your officers sorry about this? Do you consider the stop in my
case urUortunate? If so, I'd like to hear you say it-publicly. It certainly would help
restore my faith-and I'm sure the faith of many others- in the professed mission of the
Iowa City police force to serve and protect everyone.
On another note, although you say my claim of racism is unfounded, I want to inform you
why this situation is indeed a manifestation of racism. Allow me to illustrate by recalling
Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws, as you surely remember, legally upheld the separation of
whites and blacks. Of course these laws, which were only recently (in the 1960's)
repealed, privileged whites and disrespected and degraded blacks. What was unique
about these laws and this period in history is this: Jim Crow laws mark the first time in
America when whites found it necessary to make their whiteness visible. Making
whiteness visible was a way of aggressively asserting white privilege. This is why
throughout the South there were signs depicting and mandating that privilege. You might
remember those signs that marked "White-Only" restaurants as well as the signs marked
"White" and "Colored" that donned water fountains, bathrooms, etc. Segregation not
only governed public facilities but facilitated the personal interactions of white and black
people.
During slavery, of course, such signs were unnecessary. White privilege was par for the
course, part of the fabric of America, part of every day business. Blacks "knew" their
"place" and were forced to stay in it. When slavery was abolished, however, white
privilege was called into question as blacks asserted their rights. To be sure, they got
some, especially during the period immediately following called Reconstruction. But
that period didn't last long, a few years at best. And Jim Crow and segregation came
swiftly to restore the white privilege that Reconstruction temporarily disrupted.
Of course we no longer live under Jim Crow. But we do live in its aftermath. It's illegal
now to make whiteness visible. But it's not illegal for whites to assert their privilege in
policies and institutions, in the everyday ways in which they carryon business as usual.
For example, descriptions of white suspects are often more detailed than the one used to
stop me. In a recent Iowa City case, the suspect is described as a white male wearing a
blue hooded sweatshirt. He allegedly committed armed robbery on the 10 block of South
Linn Street in Iowa City on Dec. 11,2005. Unlike the vague "black man in blue
sweatshirt" description that led to my experience, the suspect in the Dec. II case was
described as a "white male, approximately 5'6" with a very skinny build. His hair was
very short, the color was said to be brown and described as a "buzz cut". When the
incident occurred, the robber had a bloody nose. He was wearing a dark blue hooded
sweatshirt, blue jeans and white tennis shoes." This description is found on the website
that logs your department's activities.
The level of detail for the white male is striking by comparison to the description ofthe
black male for whom I was mistaken. Whites are privileged with this kind of specific
detail in order to avoid mistaken stops of the kind I experienced. Because blacks are not
accorded this kind of respect and specificity of detail, we are often left wondering, as I
am, "Did this happen to me because I'm black?" This is a question whites do not have to
ask, a burden you all do not have to bear. This burden that blacks bear is the result of
racism. Like whites who wanted to make whiteness visible with Jim Crow signs, blacks
make racism visible by calling attention to it, by trying to name it when it happens, by
teasing out the different and often subtle ways that we're treated differently from whites.
That's what I do, Chief Hargadine, at every turn, especially when I'm involved in
situations that clearly expose this different treatment. If you and your department do not
want to be implicated in upholding white privilege-racism-I think you should
apologize for the gross and obvious errors made when I was stopped-even if you
consider that stop a must in the course of pursuing justice.
Thank you.
. Sincerely,
Vershawn Ashanti Young
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Subject:
Deb Mansfield
Wednesday, March 01, 2006 5:59 PM
'megan-parker@uiowa.edu'
'City Council; 'City Manager's Office; Andy Rocca; Sam Hargadine; Kevin O'Malley; Leigh
Lewis
RE: Police and Fire Department budget plan
From:
Sent:
To:
Cc:
The FY07 budget for Police and Fire' is as follows:
Police - total per the FY07 Public Hearing Notice is $9,219/433 This includes 2 new police
officers, restoring some of the positions lost in FY03 and FY04.
Not funded for Police was a request for a third and fourth Police Officer and two
additional Emergency Communications Officers. Total of $245,582.
Fire - total per the FY07 Public Hearing Notice is $5,513,853
Not funded for Fire was a request for 3 additional Firefighters. Total of $205,434.
The Capital Improvement Plan includes the following related to Police and Fire for FY
2007:
Radio System Upgrade
Fire Pumper Truck Replacement
Fire Station #2 Expansion
$100,000
$448,056
$500,000
Please let me know if you need anything else.
Deb Mansfield
Budget Management Analyst
-----Original Message-----
From: megan-parker@uiowa.edu [mailto:megan-parker@uiowa.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 8:22 PM
To: council@iowa-city.org
Subject: Police and Fire Department budget plan
Dear City Council members
I am a journalism student at the University of Iowa and for my class, I am writing a story
on the new budget for the fire and police departments that will be state certified by
March 15. I got the gist of Fire Chief Rocca and Police Chief Hargadine's proposals for
funding at the budget work session earlier this month, but I don't recall exactly how much
additional funding they were requesting? Do you have these numbers available? Please let
me know. Thank you for your time.
Maggie Parker
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THE trin
UNIVERSIlY
OF IOWA
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COLLEGE OF
LiBERAL ARTS & SCIENCES
Department of Geoscience
121 Trowbridge Hall
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1379
319-335-1818 Fox 319-335-1821
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Regenia Bailey
Connie Champion
Amy Correia
Bob Elliott
Mike O'Donnell
Dee Vanderhof
Ross Wilburn
Dear Council,
Some of you might not be familiar with the city's South Sycamore greenspace corridor
project. Attached is a little field guide which outlines the basic design; plus a newly
completed teachers guide offering outdoor activities that elementary classes could do in
the wetlands.
If you wish to have additional information/discussion about this facility, the purpose of
this note is my offer to provide a slide show at your convenience. The main content of
this 30-40 minute presentation will be a historical FYI including design, construction,
planting, maintenance, habitat value, educational value, and cost. In addition I will offer
commentary on the benefits of proactive city projects, of which South Sycamore is a
good example; as well as promoting the need for a staff naturalist, so that the City gets
some real educational value for it's investment in all of it's natural areas. During the next
few years, if educators actually use the wetland field guide and respond favorably to it, I
would be encouraged to prepare a series of teacher's guides, for woodlands (Ryerson's
Woods, Hickory Hill); prairies (William's Prairie, several school prairies; ponds
(Lakeside stormwater pond, City Park pond); the Iowa River and perhaps local
cemeteries.
Cheers
~.~
Lon D. Drake
Professor of Geoscience
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WETLAND
TRAIL
CORRIDOR
Design & funding 1998-2000
Drainageway & wetlands constructed 2001
Trail constructed 2002
Trees and Outlet Wetland planted 2003
Amenities ongoing
by Lon Drake
[A Teachers Guide to the South Sycamore wetlands for Elementary classes is also
available, contact Lon Drake, 335-1826, mornings.)
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ABSTRACT
ORIGIN OF PROJECT
Suburbia is advancing across the poorly drained landscape on the southeast side ofIowa
City. Geologically, these are old high terraces of the Iowa River, now blanketed with about 15 feet
of windblown loess (formerly called "Lake Calvin"). Sewer mains are already in place but
stormwater management is becoming increasing difficult as each new development dumps its
excess runoff onto the next parcel south.
THE WATERSHED
Approximately 500 acres. Today, the north half is suburbia, the south half is row crop
agriculture. In the future, the watershed will be all suburbs.
OPTION I
Discussion from 1991-1995 focused on construction of a big ditch for stormwater collection
and discharge:
Advantages:
. Low cost
Disadvantages:
. Future erosion
. Development up to edge
. Discharge of dirty water
. Aesthetics poor
. Low habitat value
. Wetlands lost
. Moves problems downstream
OPTION II
In 1995 the focus shifted away from the big ditch option (Figure 1 )and toward developing a
floodway/wetland/greenbeltlhabitatltrail corridor system (Figure 2):
Advantages:
. Gentle slopes
. Good erosion control
. Processing storm water
. Net wetland gain
. Greate habitat
. Separate neighborhoods
. No houses beside floods
. Linear park and trail
. Can create a win-win situation (Figure 3)
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Disadvantages:
. Greater cost
. More area required
DESIGN - TWO ~JOR COMPONENTS
A. Corridor:
. Constructed 2001.
. Modification of an existing small drainageway which was increasingly
overwhelmed by stormwater runoff.
. Approximately one mile long.
. Divided into 22 small wetlands retained by berms, each stairstepping water
down 18 inches.
. Each Corridor wetland has trapazoidal cross-section with flat floor and 4:1
sideslopes. Floors start at 20 feet wide upstream, enlarging to 120 feet wide
downstream to accommodate increasing quantity of runoff.
. Total Corridor wetland area 20 acres.
. Cross-sections, Figure 4.
. Risers on existing sanitary sewer mains below Corridor were brought up
through wetland berms for future access.
B. Outlet Wetland (Figure 5):
. Constructed 2001.
. Modification of existing obsolete sewage lagoons and frequently flooded
farmland (both former wetlands).
. Set of 3 nested berms with wide overflows
. Overflows stairstep down in 18 inch increments.
. Total Outlet Wetland area 31 acres.
. Five overdeepened ponds dug into Outlet Wetlands into top of shallow sand
aquifer.
TRAILS
. Asphalt trail constructed 2002, 10 feet wide
. Asphalt trail approximately 2 miles long, the length of Corridor and Outlet
Wetland.
. Connects Grand Wood elementary school at north end, to City soccer fields
at south end.
. Berm crossings reinforced with gabions
. Mown trail loop on outer berm of Outlet Wetland
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PLANTlNGS
. Corridor floors seeded to native wetland species, autumn 2001
. Corridor sideslopes seeded to temporary plus native prairie mix autumn
2001
. Outlet Wetlands outer berm tops seeded to wet-mesic meadow mix autumn
2001
. Outlet wetlands berm trail area seeded to mowable lawn mix, autumn 2001
. Waterlilies planted spring 2002 in Outlet Wetlands ponds
. Willow thicket, where Corridor empties into Outlet Wetlands, expanded by
planting willow bundles spring 2002
. Floors of Outlet Wetlands not planted spring 2002, waiting for seedbank to
respond.
. Outlet Wetland seedbank very aggressive in summer 2002, heavy on
saggitaria on north end and softstem bulrush on south end
. Trail shoulders, to be mown, seeded to lawn mix autumn 2002
. More OW plantings in 2003...
. Outlet Wetland revegetation goal is hemi-marsh stage, approximately half
open water and halfwell vegetated. This provides maximum biological
productivity in food chain and perhaps best water cleanup.
. 458 trees and 318 shrubs, mostly natives, planted in groves and thickets
along trail, spring 2003.
MOSQUITO MANAGEMENT
. In Corridor wetlands, natural dry-down should break most mosquito
breeding cycles.
. Tile inlet with stop logs also built into each Corridor wetland, allowing
draindown if necessary.
. Native fathead minnows established in permanent ponds of Outlet
Wetlands.
. Good habitat for other mosquito predators - dragonfly nymphs, bats, birds,
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HYDROLOGY OF ORDINARY STORMS r'I' -. :::; JJ
. If water level is down 15 inches before storm, .~-;) c...> ,-
Corridor stores 290000 cubic feet c, iii' ?;
Outlet Wetland stores 940000 cubic feet 5JJ :/;: :-
Total storage 1210000 cubic feet t:;
. This storage equals approximately one inch of runoff from watershed.
. Largest rainfall to date is 3.4inches in 7 hours on 8/23/02, discharge water from
Outlet Wetland running clear in 3-4 days.
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WET BOTTOM VS DRY BOTTOM. FUNCTIONS
In engineering circles it is common to categorize stormwater basins as either "wet bottom"
or "dry bottom" structures. The South Sycamore Outlet Wetlands are neither. Many traditional
stormwater basins hold 10 foot deep water for days to weeks after a storm, which is adequate to
drown all emergent wetland vegetation like cattails, bulrush and water lilies. Then when these
ponds do drain down to a dry or wet bottom, they are enclosed by barren mudflats which serve few
wetland functions.
By contrast, the Outlet Wetlands obtain their storage capacity by being broad and shallow.
The overflow sills are only 18 inches high and in a wet summer, wetland water depths will range
continuously between perhaps 6-20 inches. This allows most emergent wetland species to thrive
without drowning, which maintains dense thickets of vegetation that greatly slow water velocity
even when overflowing and facilitates the removal of nutrients and sediment. Five deep ponds are
also present in the middle of the wetlands. These hold some water for wildlife even during drought
cycles and allow the minnow population to survive. The bottoms of these ponds are dug into the
top of a shallow local aquifer and also provide groundwater recharge during runoff seasons.
Traditional stormwater management uses pipes, perforations or leaky gabions to retard flow,
and these are vulnerable to clogging by sediment, weeds, ice, debris and little boys playing beaver.
However, at the Outlet Wetlands there is nothing to clog, each grassed overflow is 100 feet wide
and even whole trees rafted in as driftwood could do little to change flow rates or depths.
Following a 3.4 inch rain in 7 hours, peak discharge through the dead level outer berm overflows
was 9-12 inches deep and velocities slow enough that while the grasses were somewhat matted
down, all the weeds were left standing. Children could walk through it with no fear of being swept
away.
THE 100 YEAR STORM
. Calculations assume future watershed is entirely suburban land use.
. Intensity:
3.5 inches in 1 hour, or
5.3 inches in 6 hours, or
6.3 inches in 12 hours, or
7.1 inches in 24 hours.
. Maximum total discharge into Outlet Wetland will be 7,100,000 cubic feet.
. Depth in Corridor at peak flow:
4.5 feet above berm at north end.
4.0 feet above berm in middle (near red barn)
3.5 feet above berm at south end
COST
. See Figure 6
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THE UNNERSITY OF IOWA
II
Ed Brinton
MMS Consultants
1917 S. Gilbert St.
Iowa City, IA 52240
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FIGURE 1
December 8, 1995
Sincerely,
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Lon D. Drake
Professor of Geology
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Department of Geoscience
319/335-1818
FAX 319/335-1821
Dear Ed,
Thank you for the invitation to the public hearing on December 13, regarding the south
Sycamore Regional Stormwater Management Plan (dated 6/6/95)_ I will be in Peoria on a
research project that day and am unable to attend, hence this letter.
Permit me to express considerable dissatisfaction with the plan, and outline my reasons.
It is clear that the City intends the southeast sector of town to be the designated area for lower
cost housing and higher population densities. These conditions make it all the more important
that this future urban landscape be broken up with greenspace rather than becoming just a solid
monoculture of concrete, cars, and tightly packed housing. Ed, we are not raising chickens here,
to be simply crammed into the smallest spaces possible. All these future residents are your
clients also.
As we have previously discussed, the surface water needs management anyway and it
already has a branching distributary pattern which could be modified to form a multifunctional
greenspace system which serves as a floodway, stores stormwater, and provides habitat,
recreation, trails, and separates the whole parcel into smaller neighborhoods. No, it won't be
quite as cheap as the pipe-ditch-pit system advocated in the present plan, but it would be much
more functional and desirable to the future residents_ [would speculate that such a system, if
done well, might occupy 5-10% of the land area within the parceL The City might have to
purchase some of it and would have to maintain it later. But maintenance can be as pricey as one
wishes, and at the low end of the scale the greenspace could just be allowed to grow up on its
own to soft maple, box elder, cottonwood, willow, cattails, and reed canary grass. The trees will
form effective visual barriers to help separate neighborhoods. Trails can be just paved in
woodchips and do not even need geofabric underlayments. I've already sent you literature on
reasonably low-cost durable engineering aspects such as permeable riprap dikes, as well as letters
providing more detail on the benefits of floodway greens pace. Another dimension of cost,
worthy of consideration, is that at very high population densities, the cost-per-person served can
turn out to be less than that of a traditional park in a more elegant neighborhood.
Therefore, I find the basic premise of the MMS plan (which is, to keep the ~front c~
of surface water disposal to an absolute bare minimum), to be inappropriate. My::-t ~
recommendation to the City is to reject this plan and instead seek one which treats s~~, wa~
as an asset to be creatively utilized to enhance the habitability of this future abode of('1,anY of PlY"
future citizens. :::=. C) w
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THE SOUTH SYCAMORE FLOODWA Y WETLAND
GREENBELT HABITAT + TRAIL SYSTEM
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RAllI Iowa City, Iowa (319) 351-B282
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Project Benefits - drainage can be planned and financed like sewers and other
infrastructure, opportunity to gain a linear park and order1Y
development of vehicular and pedestrian traffkiunctio~
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Project Responsibilities - need to organize early constructlOn phase and lI1JZillge cP
financing, part of costs born by taxpayers, requi~ iiiore ~
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FOR FUTURE HOMEOWNERS & NEIGHBORHOODS: );> ~
FOR DEVELOPERS:
Original Situation -
Project Benefits -
Project Responsibilities -
FOR IOWA CITY:
Original Situation -
Original Situation -
Project Benefits -
,
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Project Responsibilities -
FIGURE 3
WIN-WIN
poor drainage, storm sewers must run downhill but gradient
not available, difficult to develop as single parcels
provide drainage to each parcel, excess dirt available for
fill, greenbelt counts as their contribution to greenspace,
ability to plan ahead, flexibility in compliance with
Sensitive Areas Ordinance.
need to proportion shares of costs vs. benefits, need to
carefully control erosion, need for cooperative developers.
poor drainage, fragmented development, difficult to plan
appropriate infrastructure
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difficult to develop into a good neighborhood by traditional
drainage methods, sewage lagoons dangerous to children,
and breed mosquitoes.
residents obtain drainage and flood protection for their
homes, neighborhoods obtain greenspace separation to
reduce sense of congestion, children obtain local play areas
close to home but away from road traffic, dangerous
sewage lagoons removed, trail system created, better
mosquito control.
drainage costs ultimately born by home purchases.
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FOR TIlE LOCAL ECOSYSTEM:
Original Situation -
upper terrace mostly in row crop agricultural providing
little habitat, wetlands below receive untreated runoff from
ag land & suburbs, only open water habitat is sewage
lagoons.
Project Benefits -
upper terrace drainageway becomes habitat! greenspace
corridor which connects to Snyder wetland below, small
and frequent stormflows are processed in Corridor
Wetlands and Outlet Wetlands, Snyder Cr. wetlands water
supply protected, some open water habitat provided,
opportunity to plant better wetland diversity on both upper
and lower terrace.
Project Responsibilities --
cooperation with local groups desirable, perhaps in form of
an "adopt-a-wetland" program.
FOR LOCAL AGRICULTURE:
Original Situation -
as development advances, additional runoffwill flood
fields more often and at inappropriate times, construction
silt will clog tile lines and ditches.
Project Benefits -
new wide corridor will replace tile lines and provide more
integrated drainage system.
Project Responsibilities -
very complete agricultural erosional control will be
necessary to avoid damaging new greenspace corridor.
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INTRODUCTION
GOAL
The purpose of this Teacher's Guide is to encourage and assist elementary teachers with
conducting educationally meaningful field trips to local wetlands. Twelve different types
of activities are outlined, which lend themselves to packaging into lesson plans.
Towns and cities in Iowa are increasingly beginning to use constructed wetlands to
manage stormwater runoff. These wetlands can also be designed with habitat and
recreational values, and there may be one available nearby. This manual was originally
written for the South Sycamore stormwater wetlands in Iowa City. The next few pages
were written specifically for the South Sycamore site, and you will need to consider the
same logistics for your local wetland. The twelve activities which then follow are quite
generic, intended to be applicable to many wetlands, stormwater or natural. _ g
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ACCESS TO SOUTH SYCAMORE WETLANDS --< N
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Maps of Iowa City's South Sycamore Project are provided. ::<:;1 ~
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I. The north part of the Corridor trail ends across the street from the parking lot of
Grant Wood Elementary School. It is about a I Y, mile walk south on the trail
from Grant Wood to reach the Outlet Wetlands. However, some of the activities
which follow can also be done in the well-vegetated storm water basins which
parallel the trail. Be courteous and call the principal at Grant Wood Elementary
School before showing up with a busload of kids.
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2. The extension of South Sycamore Street, east of Soccer Field Road turnoff is
presently a narrow road paved with crushed limestone. It leads right to the top of
the bluff which overlooks the Outlet Wetlands and is the most convenient place to
drop off children. It has a solid road base and will support a bus with no
difficulty. The entrance gate is kept closed, but not locked, and classes may drive
in. The only difficulty here is that there is no rocked turnaround at the end of the
road large enough to accommodate a bus. In dry weather with dry soil it is OK to
turn around on the grass. In wet weather this is not advisable and the bus may get
stuck if it goes off the rock. It is not necessary to contact any City official to
obtain permission for a class, and at present they have no naturalist to assist with
field trips.
3. A visit to the South Sycamore Outlet Wetlands can be combined with a tour of the
Iowa City Wastewater Treatment Facility, located nearby. If this is done, buses
can come in from the south via Napoleon Street and there is plenty of
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parking and turnaround space, all on concrete, within the facility. Classes can walk the
trail from the facility to the Outlet Wetlands. For tours of the Wastewater Treatment
facility call 356-5170. Ask them to open their gate to the wetland trail. They will also
allow buses to park there for classes going to the Outlet Wetlands without touring the
treatment facility. Be sure to call and make arrangements.
TEACHING KIT:
Exploring the wetlands has never been easier. The Johnson County Soil and Water
Conservation District has put together a loaner kit for local teachers who are using this
guide. It contains a set offield identification books for plants and animals. We would
like these returned to loan out again. Let the students use them in the field, just instruct
the kids to take good care of them. Several children's size shovels are included for
digging up wetland plants. The kit also contains expendable supplies like plaster of Paris
for casting animal tracks, which you are encouraged to use and it will be replaced for the
next class. Call the JCSWCD at 337-2322, extension 3.
TIMING AND AUDIENCE:
This field guide assumes that classes will be visiting the wetlands mainly in April-May
and September-October, which is usually a time of mild weather. The activities are
especially aimed at the third to sixth grade level, and will need to be simplified for
younger children. More mature classes should be able to identify animals to species, for
example, know the difference between a bullfrog and a green frog (which are both large
frogs of similar design). The children will get a lot more from the field experience if they
come prepared to get a little muddy and are not kept corralled on the trail. Use the buddy
system and make it clear that they have to stay with their buddy, which makes it easier
for you to see whether someone is wandering off. Keep a bucket containing a jug of clear
water, plus a wet towel back at the van or bus for quick cleanup of hands.
If you carry a whistle and prearrange with the class that this is the signal to start working
their way back toward you, you might be able to give them more free rein to explore
away from you on their own. A class poking around the waters edge or out on mudflats
will find many interesting things which you would not observe just walking the trail in a
group.
CLASS SIZE
Field activities work best for about a dozen students and accompanied by a parent or two.
If you have more students, try to split the class and do half at a time, and get hem. from '"
volunteers to take half to some other part of the wetland and do some other actiWO !
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TEACHER TOUR:
The Johnson County Soil and Water Conservation District will try to arrange a tour of the
South Sycamore Wetlands once each year for teachers interested in utilizing it for
educational activities. Call the Johnson County Soil and Water Conservation District at
337-2322, extension 3.
LIMITATIONS:
Bird watching activities are not amongst the twelve which follow. Sometimes there are
more birds at the Outlet Wetlands than you can possibly count. But if you happen to
arrive shortly after someone has walked the berms with a couple of Labrador retrievers
romping in the water after every flock of ducks, there will hardly be a bird to be seen.
Introductory bird identification guides are includedin the teaching kit and can certainly
be part of supplemental activity if circumstances allow. It is okay to harvest plants from
the Outlet Wetlands for class demonstrations and projects. It is also okay to collect a few
crayfish, minnows, snails, insects, tadpoles or frogs for a classroom aquarium. Snakes
appear to be having difficulty getting well established here, perhaps due to lack of safe
places for winter hibernation, so let them go. Do not damage bird nests with eggs or
chicks. So far, the wetlands are quite litter-free. Have someone carry a trash bag and
make responsibility part of the day's lessons.
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WETLAND BINGO
In the classroom, before field trip, provide a blank bingo card, or have the class draw
their own. Students choose the plants and animals they think that they are most likely to
see or find evidence for, and draw them in the squares on their bingo card. This can be
based on their imagination, or can be a pre-field trip research project based on textbooks,
library or internet. Then on their field trip they mark or color their squares as those
organisms are found. For younger kids a 4 x 4 grid is enough, for older kids do the
traditional 5 x 5 grid. Rules should be developed with them regarding what it takes to
win (4 in line, diagonal, round the world,.. .). Once some of the kids have made their
goal, assign them to help someone who is still working on theirs. Eventually the entire
class will be helping one kid who still needs to see a snake or a turtle to go Bingo. Adapt
this to what you have been teaching, for example if the class has already done some plant
identification, then half of their squares contain plants. If they already know their
critters, then the squares can be labeled to species, for example bullfrog or leopard frog
rather than just a generic "frog".
Wetland bingo is one of the easiest activities suggested in this guidebook, requiring little
effort to implement. It can be good for one of those cabin fever days in spring. When the
spring breezes are from the north or northwest, the bluff overlooking the Outlet Wetland
is a good place to fly kites. Perhaps each bingo team wins a kite and they get a chance to
fly for awhile. In the autumn, the class might take along some small buckets and shovels
and combine the Bingo game with digging some smaller plants to take back to grow in a
wetland aquarium in the classroom over winter. Some little bingo critters like crayfish
and tadpoles might go back with them also.
The purpose of playing the bingo game is to encourage the kids to be more observant and
to provide you opportunity to share thoughts and ideas and to pose interesting questions.
For example, if nobody can find a snake, is it too cold? (discuss the consequences of
being cold blooded). Have they come out of hibernation yet? (discuss hibernation). If
they are out of hibernation but waiting for the day to warm up, where would they be
hiding and where should we be looking for them? Has anybody seen a snake around their
home yet? In sun or shade, in leaflitter or grass, what was it doing, can we find a place
like that here,---?
If the children made their own drawings for their bingo card, one follow up activity can
be for them to do a much better quality drawing of one of the critters they observe in the
field. Require them to do a field sketch with notes and labels, to enable them to complete
a quality color illustration back in the classroom. Then get out the field guides and help
them identifY their critter to species and see whether they captured the characteristics
which separate theirs from related species. If their drawing is too generic, select one
species and have them redraw using the field guide to get the identifYing characteristics
correct.
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The drawing exercise can be used to lead off into discussion of why species are different.
For example, why does one bird have a long skinny beak while another has a wide heavy
beak (probing for worms vs cracking seeds)? Once you have run through a couple of
these comparisons, turn their imaginations loose. Create some imaginary ecological
niches and ask the students to design and draw the critter which could evolve into this
niche. For example, have them design an amphibian that lives in an underwater burrow
and sneaks into alligator nests to steal the eggs. Or design a bird which can walk on
waterlily leaves and spear minnows with its beak.
Another way to lead into functional differences between species is to share Gustav
Dore's wild scene of imaginary wildlife with your class. Review/discuss some of the
most common designs seen in real species (some examples are listed below) and then
have the class figure out how Dore's species would make a living-where they would hide,
what would prey upon them, could they migrate? Some common designs in the real
world include:
. Prey species often have their eyes on the side of their head, for wide-field vision
(deer, rabbits)
. Predator species often have their eyes facing forward to focus on prey in great
detail with binocular vision (hawks, cats).
. Species having good night vision usually have large eyes, to gather more light
(owls, lemurs).
. Carnivores have at least some pointy teeth up front for grabbing prey and shearing
meat (wolves, alligators).
. Herbivores have blunt teeth up front for crushing and gripping vegetation (horses,
deer).
. The fastest birds have swept-back wings like ajet plane (falcons, swallows).
. The most maneuverable birds have short wings that beat rapidly (hummingbirds,
woodcocks).
. Soaring birds have long wings to capture gentle breezes (albatross, vultures).
. Mammals which can swim fast are very streamlined (orcas, seals).
The class may conclude that some ofDore's creatures are quite incompatible with the
above design criteria, and this might be why nothing like them has ever evolved. Other
imaginary species may just need slightly different environmental conditions to e~e in P':
the future. Or maybe they already evolved and are now extinct, do any of them ~le ::;'
species we know as fossils? Discuss these possibilities with your class. ;; ? oJ
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fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of earth."
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Halloween and the children could make masks and act out skits about the habits of their
imaginary species.
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Activity #2
SAILBOAT RACE
On a breezy day, hold a sailboat race across one of the wetland ponds in an area with
open water. Provide student teams with a pair of scissors, ten feet of cotton
(biodegradable) thread, a marking pen and a smooth light-colored pebble about the size
of a chicken egg. They use the marker to draw a face on Mr. Pebble who will be the
passenger and cannot swim. Then they build him a little sailboat or raft from whatever
plant materials they can find nearby in the wetland, to ferry him across the pond. The
thread can be used for construction, but may not be necessary. Discuss a few design
tradeoffs so they know that big rafts are stable but slow, big sails catch a lot of wind but
are tippy, etc. Give teams perhaps a half hour to find plant materials and improvise their
boat/raft and then hold the race, which can be judged on survival of Mr. Pebble, or speed,
or accuracy of destination. Take opportunity before, during or after the race, depending
upon your style, to include themes about why some wetland plants have hollow tubes or
porous cores in their stems (getting oxygen to roots in the mud), how people around the
world used to make boats from bundles of reeds, and then lead into people using wetlands
as a resource yesterday and today. Gather up any salvageable thread so some critter
doesn't get tangled in it. Bring (small) surviving boats back to classroom and float them
in an aquarium and have the class predict how long before they waterlog and Mr. Pebble
goes down. If you cannot locate suitable pebbles, you or the class can make them by
carefully blowing out eggshells via a hole in each end and filling the egg shells with
plaster of Paris.
The sailboat race is an opportunity to bring in wind as an element of the landscape. Point
out the smooth water in the lee of the shoreline vegetation and rougher water beyond.
Perhaps discuss wind pollination and seed dispersal by plants, or the use of scent by
animals. Pay attention to the weather forecast and be able to engage them in conversation
about fronts moving through, cloud formations, where the wind is coming from, why it is
dry or humid. Watch for birds soaring far overhead on thermals and be prepared to
discuss how thermals work.
The race can also be an opportunity to bring in the theme that all designs are
compromises. A powerful car gets poor gas mileage. An alligator cannot run very far
but can go months without food. An oak grows slowly, but is much stronger and lives
longer than a fast-growing willow. How many species can run a mile, swim a river and
then climb a tree? (very few, besides us humans). But what can't we do very well
compared to other critters?
If you and your class enjoy the sailboat/raft activity, you could follow up with "Kon-
Tiki", Thor Hyerdahl's classic book about his adventure crossing the ocean on a rather
primitive raft, the way people might have done it thousands of years ago. Depending
upon age level and group behavior, you could read it to the class in installments ~ let
individual students read it on their own and tell the story to the class. Q
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Activity #3
DESIGN A PARK
The City plans to build a park on the parcel overlooking the Outlet Wetlands from the
north. Student teams can take a base map on a clipboard to the field, plus a compass,
with the assignment to design a neighborhood park which includes recreation, habitat,
bird watching, etc. Begin with discussion of what they think belongs in a park. This
project can be a good place to work with scale and compass directions. Note that the
steep slope area presently contains a couple of deep gullies hidden in the tall grass and
students should walk, not run, through the area. Discuss the tradeoffs of design, for
example, trees are great for shade but interfere with kite flying. Can they do a design that
has both good shade and good airspace for kites? Should this be a walk-in neighborhood
park or should the road be paved and have a parking lot? What are the tradeoffs of
allowing dogs? Of having a shelter? Of allowing parties? How much habitat can they
get into this area? For what species? For little kids, their map might be a crude crayon
sketch; for older students, decent drafting, quality coloring, labels and legend should be
expected.
If you and your students have not done any mapping together before, it might be
desirable to practice these skills in a more controlled setting before venturing into the
field. One place to do this is in the sandbox. Have them build a little village, add some
roads and a stream, dig a pond and plant a woods (use clippings from an arborvitae tree
or some other fine-leaved conifer). Lay a compass on the sand for direction and then
have them create maps which are properly oriented and approximately to scale. Then
have them color their maps (roads brown, water blue, forest green,...) and add a colored
legend.
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Activity # 4
ANIMAL TRACKS
Start out with simple identification of critters' tracks. Those sketched on these pages are
life-size. Several sources are available to assist with identification of animal tracks;
including:
. A Field Guide to Animal Tracks, by Olaus Murie, A Peterson Field Guide,
Houghton Mifflin publishers
. Identifying Animal Tracks, by Richard Headstrom, Dover Publishers
. Google "Animal Tracks"
If the students find a good continuous set of tracks in the field, help them interpret what
the animal was doing, based on spacing and pattern of the set.
After they have wandered around and explored the wetland a bit and made their own
tracks, have them look at each others boots or shoes and identify the person who made
them.
Start a track collection by temporarily enclosing good tracks in a plastic collar (cut the
bottom out of a flexible plastic container, keeping the sides) and pouring in a thin batter
of plaster of Paris. Let set about a half hour, dig out carefully and brush clean gently.
Pond water can be used to mix the plaster. Very durable and more precise track casts can
be made by pouring in a batter of Water Putty instead of plaster, but it takes about a half
day to harden. Water Putty is sold in lumberyards and hardware stores, usually located in
the paint department because it is used to patch holes while remodeling. It might be a
good idea to try out these products in the school yard first, so you know what to expect in
the field.
In springtime in wet years, good tracks may be limited to the edges of the wetland, the
rest of the area being underwater. In autumn, large mudflats between the ponds are often
exposed and show many tracks. If the mudflats happen to be in good tracking condition,
soft but not sticky, there is opportunity to move the lesson to the next level. Have a
student walk casually across the mudflat and then jog back. Note not only the difference
in stride length but he probably also landed more on his heels while jogging, so his heel
prints are now deeper. Then have her crouch and sprint as fast as she can, and you will
see her stride length increase even more and she is now landing on the balls of her feet
and maybe not even leaving heel prints. Have the class look straight up for an imaginary
bird high in the sky, and then look at their own footprints and see how they rocked back
on their heels in order to look up, and how they perhaps lost their balance and took a step
back to regain it. Watch for some interaction between a couple of children and then have
the class gather round and interpret the scene from the footprints. All of this can~ just ~
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TEACHING KIT CONTENTS
Available from the Johnson County Soil and Water Conservation District at 319-337-
2322 extension 3.
Books
. Wetland Plant Identification
. Prairie Plant Identification
. Tree Identification
. Mammals
. Birds
. Insects
. Animal Tracks
. Bird's Nests
Equipment
. Children's size shovels
. A finger balance (to weight plants)
. Set of fluorescent kerchiefs (to keep track of teams)
. Grappling hook and cord (for pulling in submergent plants)
Supplies
. Plaster of Paris, water putty and plastic frames (for casting animal tracks)
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demonstration, or you can have the students taking measurements, drawing sketches, and
taking notes.
Finally, they can study their own different natural gaits, Peter toes out, Amy toes in,
Jason shuffles, Susy drags her heels, Teacher carries a heavy purse on her shoulder and
lists to starboard making a deeper left footprint, Luke is a straggler and his footprints are
on top of everyone else's,---. This same variation amongst individuals exists within other
species, and more advanced trackers can identify individual behavior and health, for
example, for individual deer in a herd.
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ACTIVITY #5
GROW OAK TREES
In September have the children gather some good acorns in their neighborhood just as
they start falling. Look them over carefully and set aside any with tiny pinholes (which
are from weevils that have already bored in). Remove the caps, place in a bucket of cold
water and set aside the floaters, which are less likely to grow. Put them in a plastic bag
with a slightly damp paper towel in the refrigerator for storage until midwinter. Also
have the students bring in leaves from their source trees, work together to identify the oak
species and keep different acorn species in separate bags. Also in autumn, gather a few
plastic buckets of planting soil and stash them in the garage or somewhere that they will
stay damp and cool or frozen. The weevilly acorns can be opened later to see how they
have their own life cycle.
In February, have the class plant their acorns in tall cups or plastic tubes and grow
seedling oak trees on a sunny windowsill or under grow lights. In April, plant them along
the trail or in other approved locations in the wetlands. The wetter soil areas (but not
standing water) favor pin oak and swamp white oak. The higher and drier soils are
preferred by white oak, bur oak and red oak. Contact the Johnson County Soil and
Water Conservation District (337-2322, Extension 3) for suggested planting locations.
Do not start the acorns before February, or the tap root will reach the bottom of the cup
and start to spiral, which is not a good start in life for an oak tree. Use a firm soil in the
cups which can be shaken out in one chunk and planted, without crumbling apart (avoid
commercial potting soil mixes, which are crumbly). Put up some type of cage around
each tree to keep rabbits from chewing it down next winter. Encourage students to visit
their trees during summer to weed and water as necessary for the first few years.
It is not necessary to produce a lot of trees. If you can send each child home in
September with a few acorns to care for until mid-winter, and if you have a dozen cups
started on the window sill in late winter, and if six survive for them to plant, consider it a
great success. Remember that in nature, the odds are much less favorable come spring
for an acorn and this should be part of the lesson. Don't be afraid to sacrifice a few in the
classroom by unpotting them to demonstrate cotyledons, root structure and the embryo
developing, which the class can draw. The students could also keep a journal of the
whole process, with notes and drawings of all the stages of development from acorn to
seedling oak. If you didn't get the opportunity to collect acorns in September or don't
have any survivors to plant in cups come February, call the Johnson County Soil and
Water Conservation District and they can probably locate some for you. 0
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ACTIVITY # 6
PLANT IDENTIFICATION
Some plant species or families have rather distinctive characteristics which are fairly easy
to remember. Good places to start for plants common at the Outlet Wetlands include:
. Teach the children to chant the mantra (which is a good generality but not
100% true)
"Sedges have edges,
rushes are round,
grass has joints." ';2;
Then take your pocket knife and cut a bundle of sedge plants and pa~em t~
around to show the triangular stems (with edges). Cut a bundle oflat€Q ~.
rushes to show the long smooth round tapered stems. Finally cut som?'r~ ~
canary grass close to the ground so they can see the enlarged joints. 10 n W
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. Some species have distinctive odor and taste. In spring, pluck some ne~
shoots of sweet flag and pass around pieces for all to smell, which is quite
pleasant and distinctive. In autumn, find some mountain mint plants, which
can be located by their distinctive seed heads. One of our three mountain mint
species has a very mellow spearmint odor, the other two are minty with
harsher overtones of resin.
. Compass plant grows here and there along the prairie edges of the berms,
beside the mown paths. The large deeply notched leaves are usually aligned
in a north-south plane. In autumn they can be located from a distance by their
very tall sturdy flower spike with small yellow sunflowers near the top.
. Most kids already know cattails, perhaps because the name ties the plant to
something familiar. In spring, spend some time taking apart the flowering
stalk and discuss details of male and female segments, wind pollination, etc.
. In the classroom, before or after the field trip, you could copy some black and
white illustrations of prairie plants for the children to color. See last book
referenced at end of this activity. Mark Muller, the artist, advises it is okay to
copy his illustrations in this book for class use.
. Prairie plantings are doing well in many places in the South Sycamore project.
At the Outlet Wetlands there is planted prairie on either side of the mown path
which runs down the center of each berm. In the Corridor, the west side
slope north of the red barn, and the little drainageway cells in the bottom of
the channel, have well-established new prairie and contain quite different
species. In spring, there will be little in flower, last year's plants will be pretty
tattered and portions of the prairie planting will have been deliberately burned,
so this is probably not a good time to do a prairie plant exercise. But in
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autumn, the late bloomers, especially the asters and the goldenrods, will be in
full flower. Also, there will be many fresh seedpods, seed heads and lush
growth from the summer bloomers. So this is an ideal time to do plant
identification, seed gathering, root studies, etc. If you are not familiar with
prairie species, the following sources will prove helpful:
. Wildflowers Of The Tallgrass Prairie: The Upper Midwest, 1989 by Sylvan
Runkel and Dean Roosa, Iowa State University Press, 279 pages (good color
photos)
. Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers, 1995, by Doug Ladd and Frank Oberle, Falcon
Field Guide, 199 pages (good color photos)
. An Illustrated Guide to Iowa Prairie Plants, 1999, by Paul Christiansen and
Mark Muller, University ofIowa Press, 237 pages (good black and white
drawings which can be copied for children to color, permission granted by
Mark Miller).
. Google "Prairie Plants"
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ACTIVITY # 7
NEST PREDATION
In this inquiry, the students evaluate predation on bird's nests by building artificial nests,
putting them in different locations within the wetland, adding some eggs and coming
back a week later to evaluate which nests survived. Nests can be made in advance from
grass, mud and/or small sticks in various combinations. One method is to obtain some
sticky mud, have the students form it into shallow cup shapes and press short grass or
fine twigs into it. These can be dried on the windowsill or baked at low temperature in an
oven. Another fun way is to teach the children how to crochet and they can make nests
from yam. If an open weave pattern is used, slender green willow tips can be woven
through for added stiffness if desired and grass can be woven through for added realism.
For photos of real nests refer to the book:
. Eastern Bird's Nests, by Hal Harrison, Peterson Field Guide
Pullet eggs (undersize chicken eggs) are available at some grocery stores and come closer
in size to most of our local bird's eggs. Students might leave them white, or in some nests
can camouflage them with a marking pen, see above book for common camo colors and
patterns. Finally, they put their nests in the wetland in various places, on the ground, in
low bushes, in clumps of cattails, etc. Those in bushes can be held in place by pushing
small sticks into the nest which catch on branches. Those in cattails can be tied in place
with string or held with safety pins. Spend some time discussing nest predators and
predation. Which nests and locations are more likely or less likely to be raided by
raccoons, crows, opossums or snakes? Be sure they observe their own trail of trampled
vegetation leading up to the nest, and consider how this, plus their scent, might have lead
a predator to their nest. Try to encourage the student or student teams to do a controlled
experiment so there is only one variable among their nests, for example identical nests,
with identical eggs, but in different locations. This is not easy because they tend to want
to try everything. But that is OK; enthusiasm and experience are more important here
than the data. Nest predators are most actively searching for eggs May-June and is the
best time of year for this activity. The results are not predictable and once I found a
cowbird egg laid in one of my nests, the adult expecting the owner to hatch it out for her
and feed it.
The goal here is to help the student become more observant and once you have fumbled
around trying to make your own nest you tend to become much more interested in how
birds really do it, how they attach them, camouflage them, defend them. Mid-autumn is a
good time to have the students look for real birds' nests in their neighborhood al)lr leave~
have fallen and before they become too tattered. Have them draw pictures of ho':w;r,9l "Tl
nests are built, from what materials, how attached, where located and then use t$nqve ;;3
book to identify the species which made it. n < N
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christening of all children, I would ask that her gift to each child in the
world would be a sense of wonder so undestructible that it would last
throughout life, an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments
of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things artificial, the alienations
from the sources of our strength."
Rachel Carson
28
JI
ACTIVITY # 8
DIG THOSE CATTAILS
Demonstrate how plants cope with life in the wetland, including reproduction, food
storage, little oxygen in the soil around their roots, etc. Do this by having the class dig up
several cattail plants, washing the dirt off the roots and you dissect it for them with a
pocketknife. If you cannot carry a real knife, plastic serrated cutlery from the cafeteria
will work, but bring several because they break easily. Features to show them include:
. Slice open the starchy rhizome (the thick root which lies just below the soil
surface) which stores food over winter in preparation for spring growth. This
is a favorite muskrat food, comparable to us eating potatoes.
. The rhizome will probably be connected to several other plants. This is how it
spreads asexually, creating a clone. Point out that a clone is really a single
plant all joined underground. Weigh the plant they dug up, assume the whole
patch is one clone and have them calculate how much the clone weighs.
(Some clones can be enormous. For example, an aspen grove in Colorado
covering about 100 acres, is all one tree with 47,000 trunks and weighing an
estimated 6,000 tons).
. Cut cross-sections of the lower stem and note the vertical pores and pithy
center. These form air channels that send photosynthetic oxygen down to the
roots so they can survive and grow in mucky soils where there is very little
oxygen. Review photosynthesis with class and how it supplies our food and
oxygen, not just for cattails, and then lead off into food chains, etc.
. In spring, examine and dissect the flowering male and female portions of the
flower stalk, use this to lead into pollination strategies and the advantages of
sexual reproduction.
. In autumn, examine and dissect the seed head and consider reproduction
strategies, seed dispersal mechanisms and the advantages and disadvantages
of a tiny seed attached to a bit of aerodynamic fluff. Consider other uses for
the fluff in the ecosystem - Native American mothers used it to line baby's
diapers long ago, hummingbirds will use it to line next year's nests,----.
. Have the students take notes and draw and label a whole cattail plant complete
with cross-sections.
.
Later in the field trip, have the students dig up a couple of softstem bulrush
plants and evaluate for themselves whether this species employs the same
basic strategies for survival and reproduction in the wetland environment as
cattails.
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ACTIVITY # 9
WETLAND SCAVENGER HUNT
A way to get more educational value from a traditional scavenger hunt is to make only
half the score based on finding specified objects. The other half of their score comes
from their ability to observe, interpret and document the context of what they found.
Divide class into teams and have each team appoint a recorder who carries a notebook for
this purpose. Some examples of context:
. If they find a feather, what species is it from? Is it an old worn molted feather
or a good one from a bird that was killed? Were there more feathers around?
Of this kind? Is there blood on it?
. If they find a bone, what size animal was it from? Can they identifY species?
Are there teeth marks on it? Are there more bones around from the same
animal?
. For plant species, they bring back a leaf or a flower. While collecting it they
also record whether it was pollinating or making seed, whether an isolated
plant or part of a clone, whether it had been through a fire last spring and was
scorched around the base, whether it grows in standing water or on dryer soil,
insect damage, deer browsing, etc..
When the hunt is over, the class sits in a circle and teams take turns showing and telling
about what they figured out about their specimens. Passing around a box of cookies
helps turn it into a celebration/discussion and the actual scores become unimportant. As
of this writing, there is no good place to sit with a class except on the asphalt trail, but I
am working on getting a large circle mowed on the hillcrest of the Future Park.
A scavenger hunt in a large area might make a teacher a bit nervous because the children
can scatter in all directions and seem to disappear in tall grass. However, you can build
considerable group management directly into the game, for example:
. Divide the class into teams by colors and each team member gets a large
fluorescent square of cloth to wear as a kerchief, bandanna or pony tail
pinned to their hat. Then when you tell them to stay with their group, they
will know who else is in their group and where they are located. If you made
up a color-coded attendance sheet in advance, a quick glance at it will remind
you that there should be five orange kids in that group, etc.
. The team tends to stay around their recorder anyway, who becomes their
central figure in the game.
. Give each team a different nature guide to help them with their identiJ;ielltions. ~
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something that needs identification. This distant point can be you, carrying a bright flag
on a long pole. Then if a child starts to wander, you can plant the flag and go retrieve the
kid. Once the group has reconverged, you can select another meeting point and repeat
the process.
. The top of each berm has a mown path and children tend to drift back onto
this path because it is easier walking. So make your next meeting point
further along a path.
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lost.
. Have a parent or two along to help supervise.
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ACTIVITY # 10
DRAW LIFE ZONES
Many plants and some animals, only live in certain areas of wetlands, often controlled by
how wet the soil is, how tall the vegetation is or how deep the water is. Have your
students draw a simple cross-section (in pencil) that shows a range from damp soil at one
end to several feet of water at the other end. Then they walk around the wetland with it
on a clipboard and start drawing in the plants and animals they can identify (with your
help) in their correct zone. This can be very elementary and crudely drawn by a young
child, or can be sufficiently accurate to identify species. The students could also take
notes on colors and when they get back to the classroom do a color rendition which
shows the yellow and red shoulder patch on the redwing blackbird, the colored wing bars
of the various puddle ducks, the spot patterns of the leopard frog, etc. Discuss a few
wetland terms, like emergent and submergent. Emergent plants, for example cattails and
water lilies, are rooted below water, but their leaves and flowers emerge above the water
surface and function about the same as those of terrestrial plants. The submergent plants
keep their stems, roots and leaves all submerged, examples include coontail and water
crowfoot. Many of our submergent plants appear to have evolved from terrestrial plants
and one line of evidence is that they still send up flowers above the water surface for
pollination by flying insects or wind.
If you bring along a little grappling hook on a long cord, you can pitch it out into the
pond and pull in submergent plants for the class to observe. In spring there may not be
much growing yet, but all of the South Sycamore ponds should have plenty of
submergent plants to haul in by autumn. If you want to let the children throw the hook
(they will want to), put a small loop in the end of the cord, which slips over their non-
throwing wrist, and have the rest of the class stand back a distance greater than the cord is
long. There is a small probability that you will hook something underwater which cannot
be pulled in. The tines on the grappling hook should be thin enough that a steady hard
pull by an adult will simply straighten out the one tine that is caught and release it.
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ACTIVITY # I I
MOSQUITO HABITAT
This activity should be done in springtime, autumn is usually too dry and sometimes too
cool.
Although wetlands do breed some mosquitoes, ironically human activities often provide
them much more favorable conditions. What they really need to thrive is warm stagnant
water with a high organic content and no predators. When you walk around the Outlet
Wetlands in spring you will normally find the water is cool, being worked by the wind,
has low organic content and has minnows, dragonfly nymphs and other hungry predators.
This is quite the opposite from the many little opportunities we inadvertently supply. On
the farm, runoff from a manure pile into a tractor tire rut is perfection. In town there is
often a long list of good places available, including:
. gutters clogged with rotten leaves
. old tires with water inside
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. plastic bags retaining a puddle of rainwater
. dog dishes left out and not used
. unused plastic toys holding rainwater
. culverts under driveways
. wheelbarrows left out in the rain
After discussing this all with your class, have them observe the water at the wetlands
themselves. You could bring along a thermometer to note temperature. Then assign
them to look around their own neighborhood for mosquito breeding places. Puddles in
clogged gutters at their home or the neighbors might be observed from an upper story
window. Later, have discussion with class about mosquito breeding places in their
neighborhood.
Then have the students experiment with breeding mosquitoes in their own back yard or
the school yard. Place some dead vegetation, such as some crumpled lettuce, clover or
flowers, in a shallow wide-mouth jar, use a pebble to hold it down and cover with clean
water. Place the jar outdoors, somewhere that it can be safely observed and have the
students record the rate at which the color of the water changes, how it smells and how
long before mosquito eggs are found in the jar, when they hatch into wigglers, etc. Their
37
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notes can include drawings of egg rafts and wigglers. There are many variations possible
here, one jar in sun, one in shade, one outdoors and one indoors, etc. Once the wrigglers
hatch out there is again a variety of options. A piece of screening can be tied or taped
over the top to trap the adult mosquitoes after they hatch so the students can watch the
whole metamorphosis to the adult stage. Or, if you set up an aquarium in the classroom
containing fathead minnows (available from bait shops), the wrigglers can be dumped in
to see how they fare with predators. Have the students bring their notes to class and
compare what they did to provide good breeding habitat, how long it took after they
started to find eggs, sun vs. shade, etc. If the students really get into the mosquito study,
it could evolve into a service project in which they develop and implement a mosquito
breeding place control program in the neighborhood.
While there are a great variety of field guides and other information readily available
about birds or butterflies, there is almost nothing in the popular literature regarding
mosquitoes. The next four paragraphs outline a few highlights which might prove useful
in your discussions with students:
Iowa has about 56 species of mosquitoes, most of them fairly innocuous. For example,
the snowmelt mosquito (Aedes canadensis) sometime breeds locally in puddles produced
from melting snow in April. But their populations are small, and humans are well
dressed or indoors then, so most people don't even know they exist. Only about a half
dozen species get pesky because of large numbers, or dangerous because they carry
disease. Most species prefer breeding habitats that include water with a high organic
content. Members of the genus Aedes are referred to as floodwater mosquitoes They lay
durable eggs on dry vegetation that will be flooded later, even years later. Floods sweep
their eggs into backwater areas and activate them, where they must then go through the
egg-larvae-pupa-adult cycle before the waters are gone. Thus they have the most rapid
life-cycling times and provide a guide for what we must do if we wish to avoid being
excessively accommodating in providing them habitat. With daily high temperatures of
75 degrees their cycles take about two weeks, at 85 degrees about one-and-a-half weeks,
and at 95 degrees a week will do it.
Although 1993 was a very wet summer, it did not provide particularly good mosquito
breeding. Normally stagnant sloughs and ruts had water running through almost every
week. Also, little fish got into places normally closed to them, for example, young
catfish had their most successful year on record, growing up in cornfields and pastures. It
was a cool summer, so fewer mosquito generations could cycle. Simply being wet does
not necessarily create a mosquito problem..
The Asian tiger mosquito, also known as Vietnam's Revenge, was imported into the USA
in 1985, probably in shipments of used tires. This is a bad news species because it is
large, bloodthirsty, prolific, bites by day, and displaces the native mosquito species-
most of whom don't bother us. It was also recently identified as a carrier of the West ",
Nile virus. Fortunately Iowa's winters are hard on this species and here it breedOlostly ~
in old tires. It is likely that the black tires heat up in the sun and provide higher ;GtelI .."
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temperatures, comparable to its native tropical habitat. An aggressive statewide chemical
spraying program of tire storage areas has greatly subdued this species. However, states
farther south are probably now a permanent home for these guys and they'll be back at
the first opportunity we provide. Therefore, we should avoid providing this opportunity.
Another complication is that one subspecies is now almost completely domesticated.
Culex oioiens molestus can live for many generations entirely indoors and remains active
in winter. This is probably a product of our now having well-heated homes all winter. In
most suburban areas, the majority of mosquitoes are not invaders from nearby wetlands.
Instead, they are our own homegrown backyard residents, for whom we have been
providing prime habitat. All they require is a tiny puddle of stagnant water for a little
while, plus a lack of predators, and we have met almost all their needs. The females also
need a couple of drops of blood to get enough protein to lay eggs and if we have already
met the rest of their needs, then they'll stop by to collect.
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ACTIVITY # 12
THE WATER CYCLE
The South Sycamore Project is designed to gather, process and treat storm water.
Rainfall runoff from the watershed is gathered in the Corridor which contains 22 small
shallow storm water basins that slow down the flow and allow some of the dirt to settle
out. The overflow then runs through the willow thicket into the Outlet Wetlands where it
is trapped sequentially behind three concentric berms. Wide shallow notches at the same
level in each berm force the water to fan out over large areas of wetland behind the next
berm. The storage capacity of the Outlet Wetlands is large and very few storms ac\Ually
overflow the outermost berm. This long term storage allows the rest of the dirt to settle
out and the organic pollutants to be broken down and utilized by the wetland plants. The
five ponds dug into the bottom of these wetlands go into the top ofa shallow sandy
aquifer below. When there is excess rainfall, the ponds help recharge the aquifer. In
drought some groundwater seeps into the ponds and keeps them deep enough to support
wildlife. From the Outlet Wetlands, both surface runoff (when it occurs) and ground
water flow go to the southwest about two miles to the Iowa River.
One activity almost any class can do is to illustrate the water cycle. This can be a map or
a cross-section or both. On the map, have them sketch in some streets, a north arrow, the
Corridor, the Outlet Wetlands, the trail, the red barn and, if the class is from Grant Wood
Elementary, show the school and perhaps their home. If too young to do this, provide
them a base map. On the map have them draw flow arrows for surface runoff, with
skinny arrows for smaller flows and wider arrows for large flows (the Corridor floor is 20
feet wide at the north end widening to 120 feet at the south end, while the bigger ditches
and storm sewers coming in from the suburbs are 2-5 feet wide, so their map should wind
up looking like a capillary- to-artery system going into the Outlet Wetlands and then
fanning out again through these wetlands). On the cross-section they should show
clouds, rain, evaporation/transportation by plants, infiltration, runoff, the berms and
ponds of the Outlet Wetlands, ground water recharge,.".
Engage the class in discussion about what kinds of pollutants surface runoff picks up
flowing across yards, streets and farmland. Then have them color their maps to show
water quality along its route, perhaps blue for rainfall, becoming increasing brown
downstream, and then shifting to more blue again in the Outlet Wetlands.
There is an old saying that "All water is used water". Discuss this in the context of the
water cycle. Where does our drinking water come from? Who will drink it next? Be
prepared to sketch a map ofIowa, with the Iowa River and its watershed, Johnson
County, the Coralville reservoir, the Iowa City water intake, the sewage treatment facility
(which is immediately southwest of the Outlet Wetlands),----
With more advanced classes, you could also do the math of water management atJhe ~
South Sycamore Project. Have each student measure around the property they li~m andg
compare the area of impermeable surfaces (rooftop and pavement) which shed al!;3:g g
rainfall, to the area of more permeable surfaces (lawn and garden). Assume we ~lI"two N
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inch rainfall and all the water that lands on impermeable surfaces runs off and half that
lands on a permeable surface soaks in and half runs off. How many gallons of water runs
off from the lot where they live? Have the class compile and average their data and use
this average to estimate the total runoff in gallons from a two inch rainfall in the South
Sycamore watershed, which is about 500 acres in area (an acre covers 43,560 square feet
and there are about 8 gallons in a cubic foot of water). If the Outlet Wetlands are low in
midsummer, so that the mudflats are just exposed around the ponds (which is a common
situation) it takes an average 2.5 foot rise in water level to fill all the berms to
overflowing. Have your students calculate how many gallons of watershed runoff can be
stored in the Outlet Wetlands (one way to obtain area is to draw a grid of squares which
are an acre each (208 feet x 208 feet) and count up total squares and partial squares.
Then compare watershed runoff gallons to wetland storage gallons and predict whether
the outer berm will overflow in a two inch rain.
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CREDITS, COPYRIGHT, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Teachers have permission to copy text and maps for class use. The Biechler, Dore and
Schwartz illustrations, details below, are the intellectual property of their authors.
Credits include:
. Class photo at wetland by Jason Taylor. Jason is a local landscape restoration
practitioner, on the Red-tail Restoration team.
. Acorn germination illustration by Dean Biechler, a professional illustrator
based in Ames, with permission.
. Maps by MMS Consultants, an Iowa City firm which provided engineering
expertise for the development of the South Sycamore Project.
. Text and sketches by Dr. Lon Drake, who designed the South Sycamore
Wetlands and planted portions of it.
. The wild scene with imaginary species by Gustave Dore. This illustration was
engraved in 1863. Permission from Dover Publications (John Grafton).
. Hummingbird drawing by Charles Schwartz, who spent a lifetime studying
and illustrating Missouri wildlife. Permission from Missouri Department of
Conservation (Cliff White).
. Your author also has an engineering-type of field guide available for the South
Sycamore Wetlands project. Fourteen pages emphasize design, construction,
hydrology and cost. For a copy contact him, phone mornings (319-335-1826),
phone afternoons (319-683-2504).
. I appreciate the review, critique and comments which were provided by
educators Lisa Olson, Robbyn Drake, Liz Maas, Zac Wedemeyer, Deborah
Levy, Dick Baker, Pete Veronesi, Mark Muller and Brad Freidhof.
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From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Andy Tinkham [atinkham@earthlinknet]
Thursday, March 02, 2006 5:08 PM
cou ncil@iowa-city.org
Traffic Calming/Morningside Drive
As one of the neighbors who supported traffic calming along Morningside Drive, I was
disappointed by the discussion at the February 28 meeting. I am writing you to let you
know some background information about the traffic problem on Morningside and our
neighborhood's effort to improve the situation.
What prompted our application?
Our request was prompted by excessive speeding--not the folks that drive 5 or 10 miles an
hour over the speed lirnit--as well as irresponsible driving, which included drag racing
and drivers passing around other cars or drivers attempting to pass on the inside or
outside of cars that are turning into driveways. The most significant speeding and the
examples of reckless driving tend to occur at off-peak hours when students are leaving
athletic practice or getting out at odd hours for lunch or ending their school day early.
Working with City High School
The Morningside neighbors who requested the traffic study do not bare any animosity toward
City High or City High students. Our neighborhood takes great pride in the High School and
we love having the High School as a neighbor. We have no other complaints about the
school--things are generally quiet in our neighborhood and students cause few if any
problems in our neighborhood. Most students obey the traffic laws. The folks (students and
non-students) who speed on our street are the minority, but they are a problem
nonetheless.
A few neighbors communicated with the City High principal about the speeding problem last
spring and fall. The principal was very responsive and sympathetic to our complaints. He
even communicated our concerns to the students. You may be interested to know that in the
past City High had someone who patrolled the school parking lot and looked into traffic
complaints. Due to lack of funding that position was eliminated, so the school is unable
to provide any real enforcement.
Working with Iowa City Police
We also communicated with the Iowa City Police about enforcement. The police heard our
concerns and promptly placed a speed monitor on our street--that is a display that showed
drivers how fast they were traveling. This is part of the "education" approach to traffic
calming. Unfortunately, this had little if any impact on speeding.
Some of the neighbors also called in license plate numbers of those drivers who were
speeding excessively or carelessly. The police were responsive to our calls reported these
issues to the parents of drivers whose plates we called in.
We did ask the Iowa City Police to consider having a car enforce speed limits for a day or
two. We are not sure whether this was ever done. If it was done it had no noticeable long-
term effect on speeding. In a city of this size, the police probably have higher
priorities than policing speeding in our neighborhood street. Is it possible that over the
course of a year enforcement (even just occasional enforcement) is more expensive and less
effective than creating speed humps? The council might consider checking into this before
calling this an "enforcement" issue.
Support for traffic calming
When the police and the school could not improve the situation, we decided to look into
the City's traffic calming policy. A traffic study was conducted, and it showed that our
street met all of the criteria for traffic claming, including BOTH volume and speed
measurements.
When City Staff met with the neighborhood in December to discuss traffic calming on
Morningside, the neighbors in attendance discussed other options. Few of the neighbors
were eager to spend tax money to address the issue. Some neighbors were skeptical about
whether speed humps would even work. A few asked about more police presence. At the end of
1
the meeting, all of the neighbors in attendance were leaning in support of speed humps.
We understand that a few of our neighbors who did not attend the meeting have a different
opinion. Different people have different sensitivities to the issue of speeding. Those of
us who have young children and those of us who bike or walk frequently are perhaps more
sensitive to speeding and to careless driving along our street. Nevertheless, we feel that
as neighbors we made a good faith effort to work with the school and with the police to
find a solution to this problem. We do not think that the school or the police have failed
us, but that other priorities or lack of funding preclude them from doing more.
The Facts
I am glad that the majority of Councilors voted to support our neighborhood. Still, I am
disappointed by the misinformed discussion among those council members who voted against
the project. Statements that our street did not meet all the criteria or that people drive
five miles an hour over the speed limit everywhere ignore the facts presented in the
Morningside traffic study. The facts are that we meet ALL of the criteria listed in the
City's policy and that while 85% of drivers are driving 25-39 mph, 15 percent of drivers
are driving 20 mph (or more) over the speed limit--nearly double the speed limit. The
neighbors worked cooperatively with the police and the school to improve the situation
through education and enforcement, as encouraged by the City's policy, before turning to
traffic claming policy. Finally, the vast majority of the neighbors support the proposal
to install speed humps on Morningside Drive.
I hope that in future discussions of the traffic policy that Councilors will review the
facts supporting the application. I hope the Council will continue to support traffic
calming for other neighborhoods like ours, which meet the policy criteria and have
exhausted other means for improving traffic problems.
Andy Tinkham
1813 Morningside Drive
2
Page I of2
.3e(2)
Marian Karr
From: Tracy Longo [sealysir@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 10:55 AM
To: Council@iowa-city.org
Subject: Deliver to council by Monday 3/5/06 am
Dear Council Members,
My name is Tracy Longo at I live at 1808 Morningside Drive. In response to last week's vote to try
speed humps on our street I want to say thank you! Speeding on my street has been of great concern to
me for the last 6 years and I'm so happy to see something being tried to control it! I think that the traffic
calming program is of great importance in neighborhoods such as mine since patroling is just not
feasible and would control traffic spotty at best.
I do want to reiterate some of the activities on this street that has caused me concern just so you
understand the serious nature of the problem in our area.
The first time I noticed the problem was in the spring just after we moved in. The young boy who lived
two houses west was playing with a ball - bouncing it off his garage door. Occassionally, it would go
into the street and he would chase it. Someone leaving City High a couple hours after school was
dismissed was speeding down the street. The boy was in the street, returning to his driveway as the car
was speeding toward him. The boy managed to get to his driveway in time but the car didn't even slow
down. At best guess, the car was going 40 mph - 15 mph over the limit. All I could think was what if
the boy tripped or dropped his ball?
The next incident was the same summer but the nieghboor boy one house to the east. Same situation -
chasing a ball in the street. Same response by the speeding driver - did not even slow down.
One day I was backing out of my driveway which can be a scary task. When I pulled back, the road was
clear but as I started to move forward, I saw a car speeding toward me from around the curve. Again,
the car didn't even slow down. He actually went around me on the right and had to pull slightly into my
driveway to do it. I don't know how he missed hitting the power pole by my driveway!
We have watched numerous drivers go down our street at unthinkable speeds for a residential area. This
occurs at lunch break, after school, after practices let out and after sporting events most noticably. This
happens every day that school is in session - EVERY DAY. It gets worse as spring and the last day of
school approaches and there are certain cars that are consistent offenders.
When I say unthinkable speeds, I don't mean 30 mph. I mean 40,45,50 mph! Some days I am just in
awe at how fast these cars get. There is a tale tell sound of tires squeeling and then the rush of a car
going down the street. In fact, when the police department installed the radar machines that post your
speeds, the students found great pleasure in seeing how fast a speed they could post by the time they got
to it. I saw several above 50 mph.
Some of the worst offenders are the school busses. You would think that they would obey the limit
since it is probably a requirement ofthier employment but they ignore it just as much as the personal
drivers.
3/6/2006
Page 2 of2
There are numerous incidents that I can tell you about - but the last one I want to mention occurred this
past January. A student in a small SUV came around the curve on a slick day. He was driving way too
fast and slid off the curve. He drove up into the boulevard in front of my house barely missing my
trees. He managed to get back into the roadway but slid off again - this time hitting square into the tree
one house west of me. He hit it pretty hard and I could see the passengers got quite a jolt. I grabbed the
phone to dial 911 with my heart racing. But before I could dial, he backed up and drove away.
Because of your decision to include Morningside Drive in the traffic calming program, we may have a
chance at some peace on this street and I and most of my neighbors greatly appreciate it. Thank you so
much for your consideration!
Sincerely,
Tracy Longo
Relax. Yahoo! Mail virus scanning helps detect nasty viruses!
3/6/2006
Page 1 of 1
-:s <:. ( Ii')
Marian Karr
From: Fitzgerald, David P [david-fitzgerald@uiowa.edu]
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 12:10 PM
To: Council@iowa-city.org
Cc: Marcia-Klingaman@iowa-city.org
Subject: Please deliver to Council on Monday
I have lived at 1320 East College for the past 28 years I am very aware of the increased traffic and speed of the
traffic created by City High School in recent years. As the home ownership in the area has begun to recycle with
an increased number of small children it seems to be very important that the City take action that will insure the
safety of the children and all residents by reducing the speed of the traffic. Speed bumps or other traffic control
devices will do that on a continuous basis instead of the occasional patrol by police.
Traffic control devices are a very good idea for the area especially close to the high school.
Thank you.
David
David Fitzgerald
Director, Experiential Education
Pomerantz Career Center
100 Pomerantz Center Rm C310
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone 319 335 1023
Fax 319 335 1029
davi d- f itzgera Id@uiowa.edu
3/6/2006
Page 1 of2
3e._('r()
Marian Karr
From:
Sent:
Rutherford, John G Uohn-rutherford@uiowa.edu]
Monday, March 06, 2006 2:39 PM
To: council@iowa-city.org
Cc: Marcia Klingaman; Will Hollander
Subject: please present to council BEFORE tonight's work session
Importance: High
My family has lived at 1717 East College for beller than 8 years now. We have two children, age 7 and 2. Our
immediate neighbors to the west, and those west of them, each have a child under 2.
We would have been in allendance at the 02/28/06 council meeting had we not had a scheduling conflict.
managed to catch the latter part of the dialog on television Saturday night.
I was alarmed at what I heard and must assume you had not had the details of our neighborhood situation
presented to you,
We're not worried about traffic moving at or around 5 mph above the limit-- or 10 mph for that matter. We're
talking about speeds in excess of 50 mph. The level of acceleration is stunning. It's unbelievable to witness
on a street with curbside parking and scarcely room for two cars to pass at 25 mph. Sure, it's worse between the
hours of 8 AM and 3 PM but it's by no means limited to that time. What I worry about is the special event
weekends and late afternoon/evening hours when we're out with our kids.
My understanding of Morningside's numbers are that they have a flow of 1800 cars/hour with a high percentage
9QID!LweJI above 5-10 mph over the limit.
The behavior is not limited to high schoolers. We see adults doing the same.
The high school has been wonderfully supportive but it requires us catching a glimpse of the vehicles plates to
properly report it to both the school and police. It means I have often had to drive up to the school to find the car
and write down its numbers. I can't say enough for the efforts of Vice Principal Will Hollander. His involvement
and that of his predecessor have always been effective. Things have been better these last months butthe
routine is for things to speed up with the warm weather. And then, of course, we have a new crop of students
every year. We see it ebb and flow.
Please don't misunderstand me. We see the school as a positive in our neighborhood.
We could certainly use beller enforcement but unless you post an officer in the neighborhood for every year from
now until the end of time, I don't see how it will help. I wish I'd kept track of the number of times I'd called in to
report reckless driving.
Neighbors and I have spoken of doing the leg work to apply for traffic control measures on and off since we
moved in. I would have done so already had I not misunderstood the requirements. I expect to be walking our
College Street between 7th Ave and Morningside very soon collecting signatures with a goal of eventually having
our own traffic calming-- and look forward to speaking with you then.
Thank you.
- John
John Rutherford
Design & Construction Services
Facilities Management
3/6/2006
Page 2 of2
The University of Iowa
230 University Services Building
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1922
Tel: 319-384-0793
Fax: 319-335-2722
3/6/2006
Page 1 of 1
3 .e_fy')
Marian Karr
From: Leah Klevar [Ieah-klevar@uiowa.edu]
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 3:58 PM
To: Council@iowa-city.org
Cc: mark Palm berg
Subject: DELIVER TO COUNCIL BEFORE MONDAY MEETING
My name is Leah Klevar, and my family and I have lived at 1709 E. College Street, just down the block from City
High School, for the past three years. We have a 17 -month-old daughter who loves to be outside, but I already
have grave concerns about letting her walk in our neighborhood-and even play outside on our front sidewalk-
due to the high traffic volume and high traffic speeds on our street.
Our house is situated on a street that is a straight shot up to the City High entrance, and students (and even
parents) going to and from the school really pick up speed on our stretch of road. I can't even begin to recount
how many cars have gone up and down our street at speeds of 50 mph or more throughout the last three years.
In fact, in one particular incident, we were outside and witnessed a female neighbor yell at a speeding student to
slow down; the student stopped and got out of his car-yelling and swearing-to confront her. Luckily, our other
neighbor, who is a district attorney, intervened, and the speeder got back in his car without doing anything
physical; however, he still gunned his engine and sped off down the street.
My husband and I often call out to speeding students-both in cars and on motorcycles-to slow down, but they
usually ignore us and speed right past. I, too, have called the vice president of City High School to report
problems, and I have found him to be receptive and helpful. However, I strongly feel that we need a far more
effective deterrent than phone calls-and calls to "slow down." Our street simply has way too much traffic, going
way too fast, during a significant portion of the year.
Like our neighbors, we love being close to City High School, and we value its presence in our community.
However, the school traffic is a major problem, and I just don't see it being adequately addressed right now. I
honestly fear that, someday, an inexperienced student driver-going far too fast-could lose control on our street
and have an accident that would hurt our daughter as she played outside.
I'm hoping that this city council will work with us in making our street safer for our children-and for all of us who
live in the neighborhoods near City High School's entrance. Thank you for your time and attention to this serious
safety issue.
Leah Klevar
Senior Writer and Editor
University of Iowa Foundation
319-335-3305
leah,klev"r@uiow".edu
3/6/2006
Page 1 of 1
3(2..('2)
Marian Karr
From: Idangil@aol.com
Sent: Monday, March 06, 20066:09 PM
To: council@iowa-city.org
Subject: Re:Morningside and College traffic
My husband and I live at 1808 E College. This has been our home for four years My 84 year old mother who
has Alzhiemer's has lived at this address with us for two years. My mother greatly enjoys walking around our
block, College to Morningside and back. I want to allow her this independence, which she is capable of, but I
have real fears for her safety. My fears are based not as much from her memory loss, as from the dangerous
traffic situation on our street. Very excessive speeds and lack of concern or awareness of pedestrians is the
problem. College St. is the main artery leading to City High.
I would really appreciate your consideration of speed controls on College St. and Morningside, from 7th Ave. to
City High, for the sake of our family and all the individuals who live on Morningside and College.
Thank you,
Bev Weismann
1808 E. College St.
Iowa City, Iowa 52245
3381982
idangil@<3ol,corn
3/6/2006
AABA Meeting
Page lof2
:s
~(1)
Marian Karr
From:
Sent:
Iowa Events and Info [bettycandrews@yahoo.com]
Monday, March 06, 2006 12:33 PM
To: council@iowa-city.org
Subject: AABA 1st Annual Celebration Thur, March 9 Featuring Gov Vilsack
Attachments: Invitation to Gateway to Future Reception.doc
Hi all,
This will be a great event. You won't want to miss it. If you have questions feel free to call me give me
a call 515-288-7171 or bettycandrews@yahoo.com.
Thanks,
Betty
@J1 paf'~rer;;hl;;
,
AFRICAN AMERICAN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION TO CELEBRATE
2005 ACCOMPLISHMENTS WITH ITS FIRST ANNUAL CELEBRATION
GREATER DES MOINES - The African American Business Association (AABA) will host its ftrst annual
celebration recognizing the accomplishments of the past year on Thursday, March 9, 2006 at the Fort Des
Moines Museum and Education Center, 75 East Army Post Road. The celebration begins with cocktails and
hors d'oeuvres at 6 p.m., and a formal program featuring Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack at 7:30 p.m. The
program will also include a special introduction of the new Chief Information Offtcer for the City of Des
Moines, Debra Christopher, to the community. The celebration recognizes the progress the business group
has made in the metro area, as well as their contributions to the community and the local economy. Tickets
are $25.00. Reservations will be accepted until noon on Wednesday, March 8.
The AABA mission is to advocate and promote the development of African American owned businesses
with the goal of creating a fIrm economic base that supports the self-determination and survival of the
African American community. AABA became an afftliate of the Greater Des Moines Partnership in
October of 2004. Since then, the business group has more than tripled its membership, developed a formal
organizational and committee structure, and expanded its representation of local industry.
"The AABA has been successful in growing networks for our business owners, developing our leadership,
and in connecting our members to new business opportunities," said Lu Spaine, 2005 President of the
AABA and owner of Zumi, a Des Moines clothing and gift shop. "We have much to celebrate, and much
to look forward to in 2006."
"We intend to set a demanding and rewarding AABA Agenda for 2006," stated Ted Williams, present
AABA President and co-principal of The Williams Group, a Des Moines-based human resources
management ftrm. Among the organization's 2006 goals: implementing a professional development
curriculum for members and developing public policy initiatives in advance of the Partnership's annual trip
3/6/2006
AABA Meeting
Page 2 of2
to Washington, D.C. in June.
Tickets to the reception are $25.00. Reservations will be accepted until noon on Wednesday, March 8, and
can be made by contacting the Partnership at (515) 286-4950. For more information contact Amanda
Steward, Media & Marketing Director at the Partnership, 515-286-4947 or asteward@desmoinesmetro.com.
--- ### ---
The African American Business Association is an affiliate organization of the Greater Des Moines Partnership. For
questions please call 515-277-4629 or 515-402-2000
E-mail: info@aabaofdesmoines.org
Website: aabaofdesmoines.org
***
eSafe scanned this email for malicious content ***
IMPORTANT: Do not open attachments from unrecognized senders
***
***
3/6/2006
@1p;t;~ip
You are Cordially Invited
to Attend the
AABA First Annual
Celebration
"Gateway to the Future"
Featured Speaker
Governor Tom Vi/sack
and
A Special Introduction of
Debra Christopher, CIO
City of Des Moines
Date: Thursday, March 9, 2006
Time: 6:00 - 9:00 PM
Program: 7:30 PM
Cocktails & Heavy Hors d'oeuvres
(Cash bar)
Place: Fort Des Moines Museum
& Education Center
75 East Army Post Road
(SE Corner of Army Post Road and South Union)
Des Moines, fA 50315
Ticket Price: $25.00
Please RSVP by March 8, 2006
By calling Kathy or Billie
At 515-286-4950
For questions please ca115l5-277-4629 or 515-402-2000
E-mail: info@aabaofdesmoines.org
Mission Statement
The African American Business Association mission is to advocate and promote the development of
African American owned businesses with the goal of creating a firm economic base that supports the
self-determination and survival of the African American community.
----.-.----.--- ,-.~,~,~.------~--,---.----.---.,-.--,---.-------..."..- ---..--,-"---.---..-..--.-...----.--
-tI'f
~~
IOWA CITY/JOHNSON COUNTY
SENIOR CENTER
PARTICIPATION SUMMARY
2003 2004 2005
SENIOR CENTER
Programs 8,216 10,819 9,374
Activities 23,334 26,154 28,215
Classes 8,761 7,871 8,329
Meetings 1,256 1,037 1,161
Volunteers 8,367 8,507 8,533
Total 49,934 54,388 55,612
Days open 251 250 249
Daily average 199 218 223
OTHER SERVICES
Meals served 32,507 27,360 23,760
AARP /VNA etc. 2,901 2,612 5,826
Meetings 2,153 2,510 2,264
Total 37,561 32,482 31,850
Grand Total 87,495 86,870 87,462
OPERATIONAL REVENUE
Major Funding Sources 2005
Source Amount Percentage
City of Iowa City $573,852.00 80.1%
Johnson County $75,000.00 10.5%
participant fees, $67,376.00 9.4%
fundraising, grants .
Total $716,228.00 100.0%
Mayor Funding Sources 2006
Source Amount Percentage
City of Iowa City $596,090.00 80.3%
Johnson County $75,000.00 10.1%
Participant fees, $71,009.00 9.6%
fundraising, grants
Total $742,099.00 100.0%
Mayor Funding Sources Proposed 2007
Source Amount Percentage
City of Iowa City $687,064.00 80.4%
Johnson County $75,000.00 8.8%
Participant fees, $91,855.00 10.8%
fundraising, grants,
Community Foundation
Total $853,919.00 100.0%
IOWA CITY/JOHNSON COUNTY SENIOR CENTER
MEMBERSHIP FISCAL YEAR 2005
Membership Place of Residence Total Members 9,
0
Iowa City 770 83%
Incorporated Cities Johnson 86 9%
County
Rural Johnson County 57 6%
Outside Johnson County 20 2%
Total 933 100%
Draft Revision
02/09/06
Financial Support for Senior Center Services and Programs
Purpose
1. To ensure the ability of low-income elderly to participate in Center programs and
services, the following financial aid programs are offered.
a. Subsidized Membership Fees
b. Subsidized Parking Permit Fees
c. Scholarships for:
1. Class Fees .
Eliaibilitv
1. Eligibility requirements for subsidized memberships, parking permits, and
scholarships include the following.
a. 50 years of age or older;
b. One or more of the following must apply:
1. Current participant in the City Utility Discount Program;
2. Recipient of Medicaid benefits;
3. Recipient of Food Stamps;
4. Participant in the City of Iowa City assisted housing Program with an
annual household income at or below 30% of the median income of Iowa
City;
5. Recipient of Supplemental Security Income (SSI);
6. Participant in the State Elderly and Disabled Property Tax Credit Claim or
Rent Reimbursement Claim Program; or
7. An annual household income at or below 30% of the median income of
Iowa City. The 2003 qualifying income levels are:
Household Size 30% Median Income
1 $14,650
2 $16,750
3 $18,850
4 $20,950
2. Verification of eligibility is not required, but the applicant agrees to supply verifying
information if it is requested.
Cost of Subsidized Membershio Fees. Parkina Permits. and Scholarshios for Class
Fees
1. $10 membership fee, regardless of residence, for each person registering.
a. $5.00 to replace missing membership (proximity) cards.
2. $10 fee for an annual parking permit.
a. $5.00 to replace missing parking permits.
b. All recipients of subsidized parking permits must be current members of the
Senior Center or documented participants in the nutrition program who come
to the Center only to dine.
3. The Center offers two categories of fee-based classes that are available to
qualified participants interested in taking advantage of the scholarship program.
a. The first category has material fees intended to cover costs incurred as a
direct result of sponsoring the class. These fees, which are established by a
1
Draft Revision
02/09/06
staff person or volunteer instructor. pay for such things as supplies,
equipment replacement costs, and miscellaneous expenses.
1. 100% of the material fee will be waived for qualified individuals when
the fee has been established and is collected by the Center.
2. Material fees set by a volunteer instructor who is being reimbursed for
materials he or she is supplying for the class are not eligible for a
scholarship.
b. The second category of fee-based class is offered by an independent
contractor who provides instruction in a specialized area. These instructors
set and collect their own fees and then pay the Center 25% of their gross
revenue as compensation for the use of space and equipment. Class fees for
independent contractors typically run $3 to $3.50 a session.
25% of the class-fee for this type of fee-based class will be waived for
qualified individuals and classes.
c. All recipients of Senior Center scholarships must be current members of the
Senior Center.
d. To be eligible for scholarship funding, the fea-based class must be sponsored
by the Senior Center.
e. Locker or room rental, Trips and Tours programs, and supplies or books that
are purchased from the class instructor or local merchants and used in
conjunction with the class are excluded from the scholarship program.
Access
1. Membership and parking permit subsidizes will be processed at the time of
registration by the Senior Clerk Typist or a professional level staff member.
a. All registrants will be asked about their eligibility at the beginning of the
registration process and subsidies will be offered in accordance with the
responses provided.
2. The Senior Center Coordinator or his or her designee will handle requests for
Senior Center Scholarships.
a. Participant eligibility for the scholarship program will be verified by the Senior
Center Coordinator or his or her designee.
b. Qualified individuals will receive a voucher to present at the time of class
registration. The voucher will specify a particular class and the amount of the
appropriate discount. Fees not covered by the voucher will need to be paid
at the time of registration.
Confidentialitv
1. All the information acquir~d by Senior Center staff members as a result of the
financial aid program will be held in confidence with only the involved parties privy
to the information.
2. Recipients of financial aid will never be identified by name.
2
Draft Revision
02/09/06
Fundina Source
1. Financial aid programs will be funded through the Gift Fund or through donations
specifically designated for the support of the financial aid program.
3
Partners in Collaborative Programming
Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center
28 S. Linn Street, Iowa City, IA 52240
Phone: 319/356-5220. Fax: 319/356-5226
With the help of its members, the mission of the Center is to provide people
who are over 50 years of age opportunities to participate in lifelong
learning experiences and access to services that promote well ness,
community involvement and personal growth.
-A-
. AARP: National and Iowa City Chapter
. AARP Tax Aide Program
. Academy of Student Pharmacists - UI
. ACTIVE Care Chiropractic
. Affirmative Action Office - UI
. After Breast Cancer Support Group
. Aging Studies Department - UI
. Air Force ROTC Cadet Corps - UI
. American Business Women's
Association
. American Cancer Society
. American Holistic Nurses Association
. American Home Patient
. American Red Cross
. Army National Guard
. Art and Art History School - UI
. Arthritis Foundation
. Arts a la Carte
. ARTS Iowa City
. Assessment & Intervention and
Caregiver Support Programs (ESA)
. Atrium Village
-B-
. Bickford Cottage
. Books by Mail - ICPL
-c-
. Caregiver Stress Through Journaling
. Carpe Diem Massage Therapeutics
. Cedar Falls New Horizons Band
. Cedar Rapids New Horizons Band
. Center for Macular Degeneration - UI
. Center on Aging - UI
. Christian Science Reading Room
. Citizens for Public Power
. City Circle Acting Company
. Clifton-Gunderson Tax Specialists
. Coldwell Banker Real Estate
. College of Nursing - UI
. College of Law - UI
. College of Medicine - UI
. College of Pharmacy - UI
. Colonial Bowling Lanes
. ColorWorks Professional Photo Imaging
. Comfort Keepers
. Community College Humanities
Association
. Community Credit Union - UI
. Community Home Care - UI
. Community Mental Health Center for
Mid-Eastern Iowa
. COMPEER
. Conservation Department - JC
. Consortium on Successful Aging
. Council on International Visitors to Iowa
City (CIVIC)
-D-
. Daughters of the American Revolution
-E-
. Earl May Nursery
. Ecumenical Towers
. Edward Jones
. Elder Services Inc.
. Elderberry Cafe
. Eldemostel
. Emma Goldman Clinic
. Englert Theater
-F-
. Farm Bureau Speakers Bureau
. Financial Life Resource Group
. FinNess Music & Heritage
. Forever Green Landscaping, Nursery
and Garden Center, Inc.
. Foster Grandparent Program of East
Central Iowa
1
-G-
. Garnett Place Retirement Community
. George Washington University
-H-
. Habeas Corpus Dance
. Hancher Auditorium - UI
. Hardin Library Rare Book Room - UI
. Harley Owners Group Chapter/Hawkeye
Harley-Davidson
. Hartford Center for Geriatric Nursing
Excellence - UI
. Hayes and Lorenzen Law Firm
. Heartbeats Choir - UI
. Heartland Home Care
. Herbert Hoover Library, Museum and
National Historic Site
. Heritage Trust - JC
. Hills Bank & Trust
. Honohan, Epley, Braddock and
Brenneman Law Finn
. HUGS Travel Company
. Humanities Iowa
. Hygienic Laboratory - UI
"I-
. Intensive English Program - UI
. International Association for Near Death
Studies
. International Programs - UI
. Iowa ARTS Festival
. Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce
. Iowa City Bar Association
. Iowa City Bird Club
. Iowa City Chamber of Commerce
. Iowa City Community Band
. Iowa City Community School District
. Iowa City Community Theatre
. Iowa City Foreign Relations Council
(ICFRC)
. Iowa City Gallery Walk Committee
. Iowa City Hospice
. Iowa City Human Rights Commission
. Iowa City Jazz Festival
. Iowa City Parks and Recreation
. Iowa City Public Library
. Iowa City Transit
. Iowa COMPASS
. Iowa Cultural Corridor Alliance
. Iowa Public Television
. Iowa Raptor Project
. Iowa State Bank & Trust Company
. Iowa State University Extension
Services
. Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity
. Iowa Valley Region Antique Automobile
Club
. Iowa Voyagers - UI
. Iowa Women's Foundation
-J-
. Johnson County Choice Action Team
. Johnson County Department of Public
Health
. Johnson County Fair
. Johnson County HACAP
. Johnson County Historical Society
. Johnson County Low Vision Support
Group
. Johnson County Reads: One
Community/One Book
. Johnson County Songbird Project
. Johnson County Task Force on Aging
-K-
. Kirkwood Community College - Cedar
Rapids & Iowa City
-L-
. Left, Haupert, Traw and Willman Law
Firm
. Legacy Senior Living Community
. Legal Hotline for Older Iowans
. Leisure Studies Department - UI
. Life Line Screening, Inc.
. Life Skills, Inc.
. Linda Levey, Attorney
. Lions Club International
. Longfellow Historical District
-M-
. Marengo Publishing
. Master Gardner Program
. Melrose Meadows
. Men's and Women's Athletics - UI
. Mercy Home Health Care
. Mercy Hospital Iowa City
. Mid American Energy
. Mt. Mercy College
. Museum of Art - UI
. Museum of Natural History - UI
. Music Department - UI
-N-
. National Endowment for the Humanities
. National Federation of the Blind
2
. National Heartburn Alliance . State Historical Society of Iowa
. New Horizon Equine Services . State of Iowa Insurance Division
. New Horizons String Orchestra . State Public Policy Group
. Noridian Government Services . Systems Unlimited
. North Liberty Recreation Ce.nter
-0-
. Office of University Relations - UI
. Old Capitol Centre
. Opera Theater - UI
. Operation "Restore Trust" of Iowa
(Heritage)
-P-
. Pathways Adult Day Health Center
. Payee Services and Solutions
. Phelan, Tucker, Mullen. Walker, Tucker
and Gelman Law Firm
. Philosophy Department - UI
. Physics Department - UI
. Plamor Bowling Lanes
. Police Department - UI
. Progressive Rehabilitation Associates
. Public Access Television
-Q-
. Quad Cities New Horizons Band
-R-
. Retired School Personnel Association
. Retired Senior Volunteer Program
(RSVP)
. Retirees Association "Gray Hawks" - UI
. Retirement Planning Associates
. River Cities Saxophone Quartet
. Rural Enterprise Adaptation Program
(REAP)
-S-
. School of Social Work - UI
. SEATS Transportation Program
. Senior Peer Counseling Program
(discontinued)
. SHIIP Initiative
. Social Security Administration
. Sound Clarity, Inc.
. Speakers Bureau - UI
. Special Collections Library - UI
-T-
. The Chait Galleries Downtown
. The Ockenfels Group
. The Phoenix Companies
. The Preemie Project
. The Teaching Company, Inc.
. Tiaost Tai Chi Society
. Tippie College of Business - U I
. Towncrest Medical Associates
. Travelers Dance Co.
. Tri-State Bus Company
-U-
. United States Postal Service
. US Department of Defense
. USBank
. USDA Natural Resources Conservation
Service
-V-
. Visiting Nurse Association
. Volunteer Administrators Network
. Vortex
-W-
. Walden Place
. Well-Spouse Association
. Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing
Center - U I
. West Music
. Willow Wind School
. Windmill Manor
. Women's Archives Library - UI
. Women's Resource and Action Center -
UI
. World of Bikes
. Writer-in-Residence Program - UI
-Y-
. Year of Arts and Humanities - UI
. Year of Public Engagement - UI
. Young Concert Artists - UI
3