A couple odds and ends

For most of you, your water bill will again be estimated for the month of February. Due to the snow depth in our side and back yards, and since not having 50% of our meter reading force, most meters were not manually read. If you have a concern about your bill when you get it, please feel free to contact City Hall. However I ask, if it yours does appear to be a little high this month, to please be aware, if it is high, eventually it will catch up, and you will have a lower bill in a future month.

It is my understanding that Alliant also has estimated our bills for gas and electric over the past two months as well.

One of the things that ends up in my mayor in-box is a report from the Ames Resource Recovery Plant, which is where our city's garbage goes. I am happy to report that it has been apparently running well, and for the 7th consecutive year, they will be able to maintain the charge of $10.50 per capita. So that part of your garbage bill will remain the same. The costs of our trash hauler, Stone Sanitation of Conrad, determine the remainder of your garbage bill. Those guys do a great job for us, and are a good partner for the city.

Roland-Story sports

Been a pretty good winter for Norsemen athletics. Boys basketball made it to the district final last night, before falling to West Marshall at the Ames High gym.

Wrestling is also done for the year, but the Norse's Bret Johnson pulled down 4th place in Class 2A in his 285 weight class. It was nice to see him up on the medal stand at Wells Fargo, and since he is a junior, he will have another crack to take a couple steps higher on the medal stand.

The girls are still playing, and are also headed to Wells Fargo, for the 2nd straight year, as they will take on Camanche Tuesday at 10AM in the state basketball tournament. Didn't really see that coming with something like 10 senior girls players graduating last year. But they have really improved over the season, and will certainly have some good support down at the Well.

I get asked a lot if Norsemennetwork.com will be broadcasting the game. I hate to report that Paul and I will be unable to, as both boys and girls athletic organizations do not allow internet broadcasts of the state tournaments. However you may be able to find a freebee, or one to purchase at their associated websites.

Feb 22 Council meeting

Had a smaller attendance at the council last night. CM Varley was out of town for work, and CM Johnson was also out of town, but was able to attend via phone.

Here are some highlights:

We got an update from our city attorney regarding the abandoned house on the 200th block of S Cottonwood. We have a court date set up for late April which hopefully will result in the city taking possession of the house. If that were to happen, the city would be tearing it down. It is an eyesore, but it takes awhile to work thru the legal system, with lienholders, and the bank that has the mortgage, and all that.

We got an update from the library board. We saw the drawings of the 221 N Main location. Looked pretty good. Also some samples of the material to be used for carpet, walls, chairs, and such. The council also approved Bruce Gauley to the library board.

We have hired a water/wastewater operator. It is Nathan Hovick. We had 17 applicants, none with water/wastewater certifications. Three got interviews based on their work experience, and all had some valuable skills to offer. The council decided to go with Nathan, who had previously done part-time work for the city, and shown himself to be a capable worker.

The council did weigh one consideration with Nathan, that being that he is the son of our Streets Superintendent Harold Hovick. We investigated whether that is a nepotism issue, and it is determined that it is not, as they will both be department heads, with neither reporting to the other. Also neither is in control of the city's purse strings, which if that had been the case, they could be problematic, but again, that was not the case here.

So Nathan will be attending training to get his certification for pool, water, and wastewater. He already has his CDL, so he can use our big truck to move snow after our next snowstorm that I am sure we will get. He starts next week, so a big welcome (If that is necessary, as he has lived in Roland longer than me) to Nathan Hovick.

Library update

I stopped into the new library location this morning after being a couple doors away for a haircut at Roland Barber Shop. Some guys were working in the back, taking out the overhead garage doors, and making a walk-in door. Trent Stille is working on that for an Eagle Scout project.

I snapped a couple pics with my cell phone, and they are posted above. If you haven't been in there lately, progress is being made. The entryway has changed a little, and you will see the studs/walls for the director office and video holding room near the front door. The walls are up for the two new bathrooms in the back. Drywall installation is on hold while waiting for the inspector to come, and approve the electrical work.

The library board has met with Storey Kenworthy for supplying the interior furnishings. New bookshelves, circulation desk, and computer tables will all be able to be moved and reused in a future permanent library should that come to pass.

I am well aware that opinions in Roland on this project range from "love it", to "hate it". I've talked to a lot of people on this topic. Here is where I am at with this, and offer the following.

1. The current library is inadequate. It is crowded, not great for handicap accessibility, and limited for any growth opportunity.

2. The new facility is not perfect. There are still some limitations on room for growth of programs and collections.

3. The new facility will be a substantial improvement from where we are at now. There will be more space for employees, there will be more "moving around" space, there will be more "sitting room" space, there will be improved restrooms, there will be handicapped accessibility, and the facility has a layout that will allow library staff to see more of the library at a given moment.

4. The new facility is not the end. The library foundation has taken ownership of the former Heart of Iowa Co-Op building on North Main Street. There is lots of land, it has a great location for a bigger and better library for Roland.

What would I like to see? I would love to see our City Hall in the building that is currently being converted into the library. Our current City Hall is not necessarily inviting to someone coming into town, or even for our existing residents. It is not on Main Street, it shares space with the water plant, which leaves a high humidity in the office, and often leaves a funky smell because of the water treatment.

If we have a city council meeting with more than about 8 guests, it becomes overly crowded, and is not inviting for public discourse. I realize it has made do for the past 70 years, but I think we could do a little better.

So with the fixups of 221 N Main, it is a relatively inexpensive way, to get a substantial improvement in our library. Then hopefully later, if the library were to go to the Co-op property, the building is pretty much good to go to serve as a city hall, with room for offices for our three department heads, as well as an appropriate city council chambers.

Now, that is just my opinion, and such things would have to be approved by the Library Foundation (who owns the Co-op property), the library board, and the city council for this building's conversion to a city hall. But that is what I would like to see happen.

So, with all that said, I ask this. Find out how you can volunteer to help in the move to the new facility. If you can't, at least peek in the window to see the progress that is being made.

AND MOST OF ALL, this is what I ask. Maybe you are a person that was not in favor of this move. Maybe you think it was a waste of money. Maybe you think this facility is still inadequate. I have heard you, and I hear you.

But, the fact is, the move is happening, probably in the April/May time frame. The decision has been made. So I ask, give it a chance. There are many people giving a bunch of their time to make for a better library for our community. Many of them put a lot of time into the physical work of our community center, and it is a nice looking facility.

If you don't want to volunteer for this, that's ok. But with the decision being made, let the folks that are, do their best. Let's see how it turns out. Let's move the library, let's see what works, and what doesn't work. Continuing to growl about this in the construction phase serves no useful purpose for Roland. Don't make this facility's failure a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If, after the move, there is still an interest in construction a final facility on the Co-op property, away we go. Nobody is talking about 9000 square foot libraries any more. The added cost of a community center tied to the library is no longer being talked about. If you've had issues with that in the past, let that go.

We can continue to do good things in this town. If decisions are being made, by all means, speak up. Once a decision is made, give it a chance, and once implemented, come with ideas for improvement.

I know the library is one of the leading topics of chatter in the town. This blog has an option to comment below. Feel free to do so, and in fact, I encourage it.

Its hoops time!

Congrats to both the Roland-Story girls and boys basketball teams! The boys have won their first round tournament game (against South Hamilton), and the girls have won their first two (vs West Marshall, and South Hamilton). The boys have Ogden in Story City on Thursday, and the girls have BCLUW on Friday in Story City.

It is nice to have a good school facility, that we are able to host all those tournament games. So congrats to those teams, which of course both include some Roland kids.

The girls game last night against SH was some of the most fun I have had at a high school game in a long time. Packed gym vs fierce but friendly rivals. The gym was loud and good participation by the student sections.

So if you haven't been out to watch the teams this year, you have a good opportunity this week. Go Norse!

How the State's troubles affect us

One of the ways being proposed at the statehouse to meet their budget is to take $50 million dollars from the Road Use Tax Fund to fund some of the operations of the State Police. Currently the State Police is funded out of the General Fund of the state. This is a way to "cut" the General Fund by $50 million.

The Road Use Tax Fund comes right from your gas tax. Now I am not a big fan of taxes, but the gas tax is not something that particularly bothers me. It is in a sense, a user fee. You drive a car, you drive on a road, you buy gas, you pay a tax that goes for road maintenance. You sit at home, you play video games, you don't use the road, you don't pay gas tax. Pretty fair, as far as taxes go. And the gas tax is specifically designated to road repair and construction.

So some in Des Moines are proposing, because of their previous reckless spending on expanding government, that the Road Use Tax go to paying for the State Police. How does that affect you in Roland? If that plan were to pass, Roland would lose $5,640.00 in road money. That is money we have planned for road improvement in town--with next up being the street just north of the middle school, and the 100th block of Logan.

So in essence, because of who gets elected to Des Moines, they in essence pass the buck onto city councils across Iowa. Our city council will then have to make a choice-cut road construction, or raise property tax. So instead of certain elected officials in DSM making the tough choices, the Roland City Council has to be the bad guys. Nice.

Green has a price

I attended a meeting this week with our engineers who have been hired to come up with a plan for treating our city's sewage. When the citizens of this state elect people to the state house on the green agenda, the fact is, green doesn't come without a price.

It is very possible we will be looking at a doubling of our sewer bills here soon. And if you have a problem with that, it can go right at the feet of the Iowa Environmental Council and the Sierra Club.

The new environmental rules that those groups lobbied our legislature and DNR to pass really tighten what is acceptable out of Roland's plant.

Some "fun" facts: If our plant discharged into the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers, we wouldn't need a new sewer plant. But because we discharge into Bear Creek, we do because we make up a higher percentage of the total flow.

The new rules say that Bear Creek must be swimmable and fishable. The funny thing is our continuous flow sewer plant actually helps fish in Bear Creek, because we maintain a flow all year round, allowing a habitat for fish. If we have to build a controlled discharge sewer plant, Bear Creek will dry up in the summer, causing a loss of habitat for minnows and such. But for the thousands of people that going swimming and fishing in Bear Creek each year, it will be better. (I was being sarcastic, in case you couldn't figure that out)

It also doesn't matter that animal lot run off can be way more polluting that what we are even doing now. One cow crapping in Bear Creek puts more suspended solids in Bear Creek than what currently comes out of our plant. But we might have to spend more than 1 million dollars to further clean our output.

So, because we have to build a plant that can handle what is going into Roland's sanitary sewer, that is why the city has enacted a sump pump ordinance, and why we will be doing smoke tests to see where storm sewer is entering the sanitary sewer. Because we are obligated to treat rain water, if it enters our sanitary sewer. So if we can cut down that inflow, we can build a smaller plant.

So if you vote green, don't complain when your sewer bill goes up a couple hundred bucks a year to pay for a new sewer plant.

Kermit's take on all this:

Snow plowing

I haven't heard it directly, but getting some 2nd hand buzz about some snow removal complaints. Nobody has told me directly, but my peeps say there is some occasional grumbling out there. So I want to address it here, because I have a request.

This year is highly unusual for snow, as we all know. The snow is going to stack up in our yards and driveways along the street. For those of us who live on the 32 and 36 foot wide streets in particular, that is a heck of a lot of snow, and it has to go somewhere.

Despite being the mayor, it is no different for me. My driveway gets buried when the plow goes by. So I clean off my driveway, along with the extra snow that came from the street.

I don't particularly enjoy doing it, but it is all part of the deal, when we made that choice to live in good ol' Roland, IA. The city is tasked with cleaning off the streets, and the fact is driveways and yards are going to get snow in them from that task.

The city has another issue this year. The city is down in outside manpower by 50% this winter. So Streets Superintendent Harold Hovick has been working like crazy, generally by himself, to keep our streets in decent shape. When you compare our residential streets to Ames, Roland wins that one hands down. Harold has done a great job this winter, often by himself, and am thankful for the effort he, and other temporary/part-time snow removers have done.

So anyway, my hope is everybody looks at the big picture, bemoan the cruel tricks Old Man Winter has played on us this year, and be thankful we still are pretty much free to move about, despite all the snow.

Feb 8 council meeting

Pretty quick council meeting tonite. Also another council meeting, another skipped items because out of town people couldn't make it due to a snow storm. If this keeps up, expect a big snow storm on Feb 22.

Anyway, we approved an Alliant electric franchise for another 25 years. Sounds like Roland fireworks will be on July 3. We also cleaned up some of the budget details. We were able to come up with another $5000 for the pool shelter house to get a new roof. Final budget will be approved at the next meeting. Employees will tentatively be getting a 3% raise.

I drove thru town last night after the Super Bowl. The snow was coming down, and the Christmas lights sure looked pretty. Except it was Feb 7. With all the snow, and being down an employee to help, Harold hasn't had a chance to get the Christmas lights down yet, in case you were wondering. They might look ridiculous if it was 60 degrees outside, but they still look good with our wonderful snowy weather.

We have narrowed the list of candidates for the water/wastewater position down, and will be contacting them for interviews. Hopefully we can get a person hired soon, and we can start moving forward on that, as well as things like taking down Christmas lights!

Don't hurt your back shoveling snow!

Library Volunteer Help

I went to the Library Board meeting last night. I asked about volunteer help, for construction and such at the facility across the street. No official list of help requested yet, but it will soon. Drop your name off at the library, or call Steve Olson, if you wish to help out.

The big help day needed will be when the move takes place. It will take awhile to move all those books and other "stuff". That is looking like it might take place in April.

The drywall will be going up soon in the new location. This weekend Storey Kenworthy will be at 221 N Main to get some ideas on carpet, paint and such. So progress is being made!

On another library note, I found out today that the library's collection is searchable on the net at the library's website. It has been like that for awhile, but I had not been aware of it, so I make mention of it here, in case you were unaware, like I was. I did know that the library has a Facebook page. I am a fan, you can be too if you are a Facebook user.

Here is the library's website http://www.roland.lib.ia.us/