Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-02-09 Correspondence�' �.Ite.o•� �( s LC PC S . rho L 91LO C,,&,, �� Cer,"O'C'ej- A444W, 0209=- J e rry Bo kassa, (,5t.; ba dfin, e ;,is «l U"4f(1) @�BarackObama "WE" are the ONLY racZl?r America that "DON'T WORK together, PRISON WELFARE OFFICE -Street corners."BULL".You have my address. IVVF�zp rpr�� @Barack0bama • 11 d1b Ah Nul 9 Ims Mai lowans are: putting up with your CRIMINALS from Chicago.U-GO-HOMEjaiI Jerry Boka,Ssa., @badneWS97�19 17m @Barack0bama Jerry BokassaUnion Marian Karr 4f(2) From: Simon Andrew Sent: Friday, January 23, 2015 2:42 PM To: 'zpopham 18@gmail.com' Cc: Council Subject: RE: Homeless newspaper Hi Zach, Thank you for your email. Street newspaper content is often produced by a nonprofit organization dedicated to poverty -related issues or specifically targeted to serving homeless populations. The International Network of Street Papers or the National Association of Street Papers may be able to provide you with information. Real Change News is the name of Seattle's large street paper; StreetWise in Chicago and Street News in New York are a couple of the country's largest. They may be able to provide you information on how they produce and distribute their content. City Code prohibits commercial activity on public property. To sell newspapers would require an ambulatory vendor permit and for the vendor to remain mobile. If you give me a call, we could discuss if there are any options for a slightly different model that would work. The University of Iowa's Nonprofit Resource Center can help with the process of setting up a nonprofit and applying for tax exempt status. Here is a link to their website: http://inrc.law.uiowa.edu/. This is generally the first step in applying for grant funding from most agencies. Thank you again for your interest. Please call or email with any questions. Best, Simon Andrew Administrative Analyst City of Iowa City 410 East Washington St. Iowa City, Iowa 52240 (319) 356-5010 simon-andrew@iowa-city.or� From: zpophaml8@gmail.com [mailto:zpophaml8@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2015 3:57 PM To: Council Subject: Homeless newspaper Hello, my name is Zach Popham and I currently live in Iowa City. About a year ago I went on a trip to Seattle, Washington and noticed the surprising amounts of homeless citizens. They were on the streets pacing back and forth begging, asking for any kind of donation, but not all of them were just directly asking for money. I found that a lot of the individuals without jobs or homes were in fact working, making profit for themselves and trying to better their lives. But they were working on the streets, doing exactly what they had been doing before having this job. While making some extra money for themselves they were also stimulating the economy, people were spending money and it all comes back around. These homeless individuals were selling newspapers. What happens is they go to a supplier, in this case could be myself, and buy as many newspapers as they would like for a low price. Then they would go back to their "spot" and sell the said newspapers for a price slightly higher than what they paid for them. In turn, they are making money for themselves, working hard instead of begging for it. I feel like this would be a good way to help out the homeless community and also stimulate the economy by increasing cash flow. My only problem is that I don't have a newspaper supplier, I have yet to talk with any of the local newspaper providers to see if they are up for this but I feel as if the process would be simple. I buy a certain amount of newspapers and go out and provide homeless individuals with the newspapers, then they sell them for profit. I'm not sure if I need to have this idea approved in order to start it up or if the city would help fund this is any way? I honestly think that this is a good thing for the community and it would give the homeless community something productive to do. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider this, I look forward to hearing back. -Zach Marian Karr 4f From: Ty Coleman Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 4:44 PM To: bry0770@mchsi.com Cc: Council Subject: Re: Cable: It's All About Choices! Hello, Mr. Young - Thank you for your comments regarding Iowa City's limited choices for cable -based service providers. I understand your frustration with the available offerings, as I have received similar comments from others in the community as part of my work within the City's Cable TV Office. Unfortunately the non-exclusive franchise Mediacom holds with the State of Iowa does not leave municipalities with much authority, especially with regards to customer service practices and standards. We do, however, maintain a positive working relationship with the local office and are often able to facilitate the successful resolution of many technical and billing -related issues that are presented to us. I would like to provide you with some additional information you may find useful in understanding our current situation. Though attempts have been and continue to be made to encourage other cable TV and broadband Internet service providers to consider Iowa City as a place in which to do business, the reality is that the cost of building a parallel infrastructure for providing a competitive service in a city of our size is potentially greater than the gains to be made from acquiring a percentage of existing customers. Despite this challenge, the City is actively working to encourage existing and prospective providers to take a more aggressive approach to expanding facilities and services. The City has a sincere interest in bringing improved services to residents and businesses and appreciates input such as yours as we examine all opportunities. While any solution will certainly take planning, time, and money, I am confident that more satisfactory alternatives will emerge in the coming years. As for the problems with Mediacom email service you mentioned, I have been informed that this is, in fact, a system- wide issue that Mediacom has been trying to resolve. My local contact reports that work to upgrade the company's email servers has been taking place and he believes that most of the issues have recently been resolved. Feel free to contact me directly to report any future reoccurrences of this issue and I will continue to pursue it with Mediacom. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further. Sincerely, Ty Coleman Media Production Services Coordinator City of Iowa City Cable TV Office 319-356-5454 www.icgov.org Begin forwarded message: From: Bryon Young <bry0770(a�mchsi.com> Date: January 23, 2015 at 8:31:30 PM EST To: <councilgiowa-city.org> Cc: Bryon Young <bry0770@,mchsi.com> Subject: Cable: It's All About Choices! I would like to see the City Council take up the matter of CABLE... If Iowa City had the choices in cable providers Cedar Falls has, I would get rid of Mediacom in a heartbeat. Mediacom has always rated at the bottom of the customer satisfaction surveys conducted by Consumer Reports for years. You should be aware the City of Cedar Falls has the advantage of offering its citizens as many as four cable services including Xfinity, Charter Spectrum, Cox, or Time Warner from which to choose. Lately I've had to call Mediacom every week, sometimes oftener, when I get temporary failure notices that I cannot send messages using server mail. Mediacom has not been very forthcoming as to the exact nature of the problem, but said some subscribers are experiencing this and so it must be system wide among its subscribers. The problem is cleared up for awhile, but the next thing I know, it's back. Then I get "mail cannot be delivered b/c recipient's mailbox is full." This is not true: the recipient not only received my email, but five others after mine. With Mediacom it is one glitch after the other and of course ever-increasing bills. I believe Iowa City could do better and offer its citizens some real choices. Bryon Young 2235 Palmer Circle Iowa City IA 52240 br Oy 770kmchsi.com IOWA CITY HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION 410 E. Washington Street • Iowa City, Iowa 52240-1826 (319) 356-5022 • (319) 887-6213 (FAX) www.icgov.org/humanrights January 28, 2015 City Council City of Iowa City 410 E. Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240-1826 Dear City Council, 4f=4= On behalf of the Human Rights Commission, I would like to acknowledge our strong support for your recent discussions on affordable housing. It is essential that we as a City continue to discuss and support such initiatives that create a more equitable and inclusive community. Please let me know if the Human Rights Commission can be of any assistance in future Council endeavors in this area. Sincerely, '4 A404. - Chair, Human Rights Commission JDC/sab JAIL 8 2015 !owa City, lova Marian Karr4f_= From: Ron Knoche Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 11:52 AM To: 'stephen-radosevich@uiowa.edu' Cc: Marian Karr; Jason Havel; Kent Ralston; Chris O'Brien Subject: RE: carver st Mr. Radosevich: Your email has been forwarded to me for response. The alternating side parking has not been used outside of the downtown area. The one side parking, as you point out, does make it difficult to clear snow curb to curb unless a snow emergency is declared. We will look at options to help address your concerns at the end of the snow season when we review how the snow removal operations went for the season. If you would like to discuss further, please feel free to call me at (319)356-5138 Thank you for your email. Sincerely, Ron Ronald R. Knoche, PE Public Works Director 1 CITY Of IOWA CITY UNESCO CRY of UTERATURE Website: www.icRov.orR Begin forwarded message: From: "Radosevich, Stephen Y < > Date: February 1, 2015 at 9:40:54 AM CST To: "councilgiowa-city.org" <council(cr�,iowa-citorg> Subject: carver st To whom it may concern, Can Carver st be changed from West side only street parking to alternating sides. This would allow for more efficient snow plowing while allowing for a safer environment for the residents. It would also minimize the on -street storage that severely interferes with curb to curb snow removal. Thanks Steve Radosevich 1009 Carver st I.C. Marian Karr 4f�� From: Charles Simpson <charlesisimpson@gmail.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 8:32 AM To: Council Subject: Fwd: Street snow removal Chamberlain Dr Please see my note below to Jon Resler and PLEASE provide them more resources if necessary to do their job. Snow emergencies are established so that the entire street can be cleared of snow by alternating parking every other day. Having the city plow the street just once during a snow emergency does not get the entire street (both sides) cleared. Thank you, Charles Simpson ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Charles Simpson <charleslsimpsongszmail.com> Date: Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 7:11 AM Subject: Re: Street snow removal Chamberlain Dr To: Jon Resler <Jon-Reslergiowa-city.org> During a "snow emergency" cars are to park on the even side of the road on even days and on the odd side of the road on odd days so that the city plows can get both sides of the street within 2 days. This did not happen for our street as the plows only came through once and now the "snow emergency" is over at 8 AM this morning, so they can once again park on both sides. Our street is awful. We got a hand written note from the Post Office yesterday stating that they will no longer deliver our mail because they can't get to the mail box. There is about 6 feet of snow starting at the curb and going into the street because someone else's car was parked there the one time that the city came through our street. The car was not there on the 2nd but the plow did not come back to do the odd side of the street. I've shoveled all of my side walks as that is my responsibility. It is the responsibility of the city to plow all of the city streets to the curb. If you only have 3 teams doing this then you need more workers ... hire them. I don't have much money and what I do have was hard to come by. We pay such a premium in property taxes in this "city" that it baffles me as to why the streets, and other core city services are not in better shape, better maintained, and just in overall wonderful condition. This city has always spent so much of our money on little pet "culture" projects as to not focus on providing these core services in an exemplary fashion. It is time to think about new leadership, someone with core values and less about spending everyone else's money on things that those who want them should raise the money. My question to you is, are your fighting for more resources? Are you asking for more workers, even if they are temporary during these larger snowfalls? On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 11:04 AM, Jon Resler <Jon-Reslergiowa-city.org> wrote: Mr. Simpson Thank you for sharing your concern. The City attempts to make at least one pass through each street within 24 hours after the snow has stopped falling. City streets are classified into 3 priorities in regard to snow plowing operations. The 1St priority of street, classified as "red", focuses on the main arterial streets including all of the bus routes. The 2"d priority of street, classified as "blue", focuses on collector streets and those streets with significant hills. The 3rd priority of street, classified as "green", focuses on all of the remaining streets throughout the City. The 3rd priority green streets primarily consist of residential streets including cul-de-sacs and dead end streets. Chamberlain Drive is a 3rd priority green street. In order to, clear many of the residential streets and cul-de-sacs we have to utilize end loaders to remove the snow. Unfortunately, our large snow plows are unable to make it through many of the residential streets and cul-de-sacs due to the size of the truck & the angles which must be made to maneuver through the streets. We are normally able to get our end loaders out after the snow has stopped & both teams of plow drivers are able to work simultaneously. We currently have 12 snow plows and 2 teams of drivers (24 employees total). Each team is only able to work 16 consecutive hours prior to taking a required 8 hour beak. We do have both teams out in full force this morning, so I would anticipate your street being cleared at some point today. There are 220 miles of streets in Iowa City. If you include each lane, this City has 480 lane miles to clear. We have 12 plow trucks to clear 480 lane miles plus some end loaders. A twelve member team (Team A) worked from 3pm — l Ipm yesterday with all 12 plow trucks. The second twelve member team (Team B) started working at 4am and continue to work with all 12 plow trucks. Team A returned at lam to operate the end loaders and continue to work. All of our staff and all of our equipment is out plowing. I understand your frustration but all of our resources are out plowing. We do not have the level of resources available to meet your current expectations. I appreciate your patience. Respectfully, Jon Jon Resler, P.E. Superintendent of Streets, Traffic Engineering, and Solid Waste City of Iowa City 3800 Napoleon Lane Iowa City, Iowa 52240 319-356-5482 From: Charles Simpson[mailto:charleslsimpsongamail.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2015 7:42 AM To: Jon Resler Subject: Street snow removal Chamberlain Dr We need more frequent snow removal. Our street had not been plowed when I got home from work last night and it is still not plowed this morning and I need to get to work. We've done our driveway and sidewalks and now it is time for the City to do its part. We certainly pay enough. Charles Simpson Marian Karr 4f(7) From: Sandra McQuillen <mcquill5@netins.net> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 5:11 PM To: Council Subject: CedarRapids ash bore plan TO: All council members RE: Wednesday Feb.4 Story in CR Gazette Would like to call council's attention to the front page story today outlining the policy regarding Ash tree prevention treatment. Plan to follow this up with IowaCity Forester regarding present policy. We are so dedicated to everything "green" in Iowa that I hope there are similiar plans to save healthy "speciman" trees rather than clear cutting as has been done in so many places. Thanks for your attention to this. Sandra McQuillen 3114 Raven St. Iowa City CITY OF IOWA CITY 4f - MEMORANDUMNumbin Date: January 29th, 2015 To: City Clerk From: Darian Nagle-Gamm, Traffic Engineering Planner Re: Item for February 9th, 2015 City Council meeting; Installation of YIELD sign on Whispering Prairie Avenue at the intersection with Whispering Meadow Drive. As directed by Title 9, Chapter 1, Section 3B of the City Code, this is to advise the City Council of the following action. Action: Pursuant to Section 9-1-3A (5); Install a YIELD sign on Whispering Prairie Avenue at the intersection with Whispering Meadow Drive. Comment This action is being taken to clarify the right-of-way at this "T" intersection. CITY OF IOWA CITY MEMORANDUM 4-= Date: January 29th, 2015 To: City Clerk From: Darian Nagle-Gamm, Traffic Engineering Planner Re: Item for February 9th, 2015 City Council meeting; Installation of YIELD signs on Blazing Star Drive at the intersection with Whispering Meadow Drive As directed by Title 9, Chapter 1, Section 3B of the City Code, this is to advise the City Council of the following action. Action: Pursuant to Section 9-1-3A (5); Install YIELD signs on Blazing Star Drive at the intersection with Whispering Meadow Drive. Comment This action is being taken to assign the right-of-way at this four-way intersection. — CITY OF IOWA CITY araeqf��p� MEMORANDUM Date: January 29th, 2015 To: City Clerk From: Darian Nagle-Gamm, Traffic Engineering Planner Re: Item for February 9th, 2015 City Council meeting; Installation of YIELD signs on Camden Road at the intersection with Kenneth Drive. As directed by Title 9, Chapter 1, Section 3B of the City Code, this is to advise the City Council of the following action. Action: Pursuant to Section 9-1-3A (5); Installation of YIELD signs on Camden Road at the intersection with Kenneth Drive. Comment This action is being taken to assign the right-of-way at this newly constructed four-way intersection.