Wednesday, March 30, 2011

2 goals

Well I have a goal to lose a couple donuts off the midsection. And to do so, I started another goal. Since it is warmer I am biking more to get more exercise. My goal is to ride my bike down every alley in Roland. I've been down every street. And I thought the seeing every alley should be a good task for the mayor as well. So I'll be working on that. So if you have an alley, look for the dude with the green bike.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

March 28 council meeting

Mostly uneventful council meeting on Monday night. The street work on Bryan might be delayed a week or so, waiting for it to warm up. We are also going to tear out 2 sections of street on the older portion of Bryan, while the contractors are here, so we can figure out what is wrong with that section of street, and what repairs might be necesssary.

We talked with a Park Board rep about some items in their proposed budget. We decided to keep the items they had requested in the budget. There is no funding for upgrades in Britson Park right now, what is to be funded is for existing parks.

We also cut some planned upgrade items from the Pool Board's proposal. Not that they aren't valid items, we decided from the city as a whole, that we had other priorities. Mostly it was in regards to items in the pool park--not necessarily in the pool itself.

We got a report that the speed sign coming into town has been fixed, so that is good. No more people driving 99MPH or the crazy numbers it was reporting back in January or so.

We also talked about our proposed property sales on Cottonwood and Arthur. More details will take place at the next meeting.

We also talked about the contribution to RADC (Roland Area Development Corp) for completion of the purchase of the community center. That will be an expenditure of about $49,000 to pay that off. The community center will still be run through RADC, but RADC does not generate the revenue to pay it off, and pay the utilities and such. I find all that a bit bothersome, but it is a nice facility, and a good addition for the City of Roland, at a pretty reasonable price. Most communities have a similar facility, so it is something nice that we can offer up for folks having parties and such. And it continues to have Sunday Brunches there, so don't forget to check that out.

Dirt work

If you've driven north out of town, you will see the work has been completed along North Cottonwood for the ditch cleanout project. This work will hopefully divert rain run off to the cleaned out culverts, and then to the west side of Cottonwood, and on to Bear Creek.

Also they have started leveling Britson Park. See my post below on how it will all look eventually. What is being done now is to level it, with a slight grade to a swale. A berm will be to the east to protect the Britson Circle neighborhood. Then it will be seeded in grass. No other park work is planned in the immediate future.

Watching Dirty Movies at City Hall

Got to watch some "dirty movies" at City Hall the other day. We had some of our sanitary sewers televised, so we could look for cracks, leaks, and groundwater inflow. Good news is, we found no snakes or alligators in the sewers that got televised.

The areas that were televised this time were along Samson Street. Our city's main trunk line runs under the north/south part of Samson, on its way to the sewer plant. We noted that the fall isn't much through there, so wasterwater tends to stand thru that part. Not a huge deal, but it does cut down the capacity of the pipe some.

We found a few spots on the east/west part of Samson where ground water was trickling in. That is the kind of thing we are looking to fix, as when it rains, that is that much more water we have in the system, which could lead to more backups. Also, we are obligated to treat it, so if we can fix that, it doesn't strain our wasterwater plant as much.

So it was interesting to see what it looks like from the inside of a sewer line, and the connections to people's houses and all that. I found one on Youtube. This isn't ours, but this is what it looks like.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Roland Goal Setting Meeting

Back in January, myself, the city council, and the 3 department heads had a goal setting meeting, that was arranged by Jeff Schott from the Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Iowa.

The same groups also had one in 2008. I wasn't mayor then, but speaking for the one I attended this year, it was a very productive meeting, and good to look back at what had been accomplished since the prior meeting, and for us to set some priorities for the next couple years.

This report had been in Deneen's email, but kinda got missed due to her health issues. I went looking for it, and found it, and I wanted to share it with the community.

First off, I am very impressed with what got accomplished over those 2 years. Considering our spartan city staff, and the limited dollars to accomplish "stuff", I think it is a very nice list. And also, all of those things were not done by the council or city staff. A lot of it was done with community volunteers.

Obviously we have a big wish list as well. You will find that in the report, as well as what the Mayor/Council determined to be priorities. Also in the report you will find the highlights of the 2008 meeting, and the actual questionnaire filled out by the participants.

So HERE it is. Give it a look and feel free to post any comments.

Britson Park

Assuming the weather holds, construction will begin this week on North Cottonwood, and in Britson Park. HERE is a drawing of Britson Park, and the grading elevations. The fields are not being put in now, but this shows where they will be.

Work they will be doing will include leveling the whole area, and giving a slight grade to drain to the southwest. The dashed lines indicate elevations now, solid lines are how it will be. The number is feet above sea level--like 1028.

There will be a berm to the east to protect the Britson Circle neighborhood. There will be a swale to the west, which will channel water away to an intake in the industrial park.

The whole area will be seeded with grass.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Lot for sale

The City of Roland is accepting bids on a lot at 209 South Cottonwood Street. I took a photo of the lot when I was out biking the other night. It's not a very good pic, as the sun was setting, but it is a start for you.

Anyway, the lot is in an established neighborhood, and has a couple trees on it. The City is accepting sealed bids on the property. The city council set a reserve on it. We will accept bids until May 18 at 2PM, at which point the bids will be opened. The city council will review the bids at our regular city council meeting on May 23, and may or may not accept the high bidder, depending on if it meets the reserve we set.

The lot is 16,500 square feet, and has all utilities to the lot. You can call City Hall at 515 388 4861 for more details.

The Mayor's Inbox

Something of note I got in the ol' Inbox. I like to pass these along, in case it is of interest to anyone.

My name is Alison Boelman and I am the County Extension Administrator for the ISU Extension-Story County office in Nevada.



I wanted to make you aware that Story County Extension is holding a ‘Safefood Concessions Training for Food Stand Workers’ on April 19 from 6-7pm.



Program participants will learn basic food safety information including time and temperatures, personal health and hygiene and proper cleaning and sanitizing procedures. The course is offered at an affordable $10/participant knowing that many food stand workers are volunteers for local non-profit groups or churches. I have attached the flyer so that you may review the information.



If you have any questions or would like more information, please let me know. Thank you!

Alison Boelman

Alison Boelman | Story County
Iowa State University Extension
County Extension Administrator
220 H Avenue Nevada, IA 50201
515-382-6551

March 14 Council Meeting

We had a stem winder on Monday night. A lot of stuff going on. Much of the time was discussing Bryan Ave (see previous post). We also talked about Britson Park with our engineer. Hopefully in a couple weekd Con-struct will be here to start shaping and leveling the park area, to help with water drainage, and prep for its future use. The area will then be seeded with grass. The company will be taking care of the ditch on North Cottonwood at the same time.

We also talked about the budget a little bit. It is mostly squared away. We had some questions about a couple items in the pool, library, and parks areas. Those may be cut back some from proposed, to fund other issues within the city.

We also approved that if any city employees were so inclined, they could donate up to 50% of their sick hours, on a pro-rated basis, to our City Clerk Deneen, as she fights her cancer issues.

We also spent some time on our plan to sell the property on South Cottonwood. Gonna do another post for that one.

Streets

Winter has taken its toll on the streets. As I drive around town, I see various potholes and breakups. Logan Street is really bad. So unfortunately all these various spots that fall apart cost the taxpayer money to get them fixed up.

Another issue is what is going on with Bryan Ave. We never opened it up this winter because the contractor did not properly pave one section, and did not properly complete 2 drain intakes and a manhole. It got cold before they could fix them, so those will be fixed up soon.

However, over the past couple months, on the new section of Bryan, approximately 14 sections have gotten severe cracks and shifting of the concrete. So they are going to have to be cut out, and repoured. That is very discouraging on a street that is about 4 months old that has not ever had any traffic on it.

It is going to cost about $15000 to get that fixed. So now the finger pointing begins. The council authorized repairs without claiming ownership of the street. It may be that it was not engineered properly, it may be that the base was not tested properly, it may be a lot of things.
We added a subdrain on the south side to help alleviate this potential problem, but were never offered an opportunity to install one on the north side. So we will be working to get this squared away, and hopefully can get that street open soon.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

2011/2012 budget

With my interesting and exciting life, was sitting around thumbing through our proposed budget tonite. It still needs final council approval, and as mentioned below in other posts, we have had some struggles with our City Clerk Deneen in the hospital. However I'm expecting it to be pretty close to what we have worked out now.

The budget has a lot of individual lines, different revenue sources, breakouts of individual expenses. But just thought I'd drop out the big lines of where we are spending our money. Some are paid for by property tax, and some by user payments, like for sewer and water. Compared to the feds, and our state, I think we run a pretty lean operation here. So here are the big items.

The city collects
$300,000 in property tax
$14,000 in utility tax
$150,000 in Local Option Sales Tax (living in a county with a bunch of college students rocks!)
$119,000 in Road Use Tax (Gas Tax--we can only use that money on streets)
$16,000 from the county towards the library
$181,000 for the sale of water
$143,000 for sewer
$22,000 for swimming pool admissions
$9000 from surrounding townships for fire protection
around $15,000 for interest, license fees, and other miscellaneous stuff
there are some other revenue sources, but it is mostly just in and out stuff like we collect for garbage, and then just pay the garbage contractor--there are some other smaller things like that

Here are the biggies where it goes
Sheriff's Dept for our police protection $60,000
Fire Dept $33,330
Roland Response Team $24,000
Streets paid for via property tax $110,000
Street Lights $21,000
Streets paid for with gas tax $119,000
Mosquito spraying $1900
Contributions (youth sports, senior services, etc) $2800
Library $87,000
Parks $35,000
Swimming Pool $83000
Mayor/Council (salaries, meetings) $3900
City Clerk operations $46000
Elections $1000
Legal Services $4000
City Hall and Buildings $32,000
Liability insurance $10,000
Water dept $141,000
Sewer dept $163,000
then we have a couple thousand here and there for the museum, and the cemetery, animal control

We also have interest payment for well #3 of about $21,000, which we will pay off this year, so yay! Of course, we will start paying on our new streets.

So anyway, this is the high end of where the money goes. Pretty much all areas are similar to the year before. We then can have special projects that are not budgeted for, that may involve borrowing money, or to respond to issues, like a new street, or land shaping to protect against flood damage.

A disclaimer to above, the numbers are rounded, and they are not final until approved by the council. The budget also contains other items, but are simply my opinion of the big and notable items in the budget.

Anyway, hope you find that interesting.

Norsemen Baseball Camp

The Norsemen baseball team will be having a camp for players in the 3rd thru 6th grades on April 9. It is an enjoyable time for the kids to hang out with Coach Hill and the high school players. HERE is a link to more info, and the registration form.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Special Council Meeting March 10

We had a special council meeting on Thursday to cover a few items. We have hired a temporary city clerk to help out with city operations while our city clerk Deneen is on the mend. Our temporary clerk is Jodi Meredith and is also the city clerk of Kelley. However she works part-time there, so she will be able to assist in Roland as well.

I have been spending some time at city hall trying to dig through the stuff that has been stacking up with Deneen's absence. Jodi has made a good start on knocking it down as well. She was at this special meeting, and gave council an update on her progress. It is difficult to learn a new system, and find where stuff is filed, and where the checks are, and where to find passwords, and on and on. Councilmember Jeri Neely spent some time with Billing Clerk Janet Olson today, and got some bills squared away as well, so I appreciate both of their efforts.

We also got an update on the issues with our new street. We will find out more on our regular meeting on Monday night.

We also got dates squared away for getting our budget submitted. We asked for, and received an extension from the state, due to Deneen being out of the office.

On another note, our plow drivers reported there were 54 cars parked on the streets of Roland at the recent snow storm. Ok, I am going to chastise you guilty parties this time.

This snow was not a surprise. The council catches hell when we have the sheriff's department write parking tickets for this. Well, you know what, get your cars off the street! We didn't have tickets written this time. I'm ready to start towing cars tho. It's not 1847, we have TV, we have radio, we have the internet. We knew it was going to snow a lot.

We will have our regular council meeting on Monday.

Storm Spotter Class


If you are interested in storm spotting, there is a class on March 14 at 6:30 PM at the Huxley Fire Station. This class is being put on by Story County Emergency Management. For more info call 515-382-7315.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Reduced hours at City Hall

For the intermediate term, Roland City Hall is going to be running on reduced hours. In case you haven't heard, our City Clerk, Deneen Frost, has been in the hospital quite a bit this year. She is suffering from Multiple Myeloma (click on that to get the Wikipedia description). In short, it is a type of bone cancer.

Deneen has been fighting this for many years, with various levels of good health, but it has reared its head again. So hopefully Deneen can get out of the hospital soon, and back home for some recoup time.

So we are keeping City Hall open with our Billing Clerk Janet Olson, but she is hired for part-time, so when she is here, that is when City Hall will be open.

So the city council had to decide if we want to spend a bunch more money to keep City Hall open for 40 hours a week. In the interim, we have decided not to. We have acquired the services of the Kelley City Clerk, to help us with some of the financial requirements of the city. She is part-time in Kelley, knows the requirements that cities have, so she will be working various hours to take care of that stuff. But she is not tasked with being here just to keep City Hall open. High end, it is to file the appropriate paperwork with the state and pay our bills.

So if you need to stop in or call City Hall, the hours are:
Mondays 8-4 closed at the lunch hour
Tuesdays: 8-Noon
Wednesdays: 1-5
Thursday 8-4 closed at the lunch hour
Friday 8-Noon

Also if you have some sort of emergency regarding the city, the phone numbers of our two other full time employees are posted on a note on the front door of City Hall.

So there are still opporutnities to come in in the morning and afternoons, if you need to take care of any city business. And of course, we still have our drop box for paying water bills, or dropping off any other things you need to deliver.

So thanks in advance for your consideration in the reduced services of the city. When you have few city employees, it sure is a big hit on the operation of the city when you lose a key employee. Hopefully we will be back to normal operation soon.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Help out Roland!

All residents should have received a letter from the city regarding sewer backups. If you have had any damage, please help us out. We are able to get a mitigation grant, and any damage we can confirm, we can put back in the city to start working on improvements.

The more damage we can confirm, the bigger the grant. Our biggest "wish" would be to install a new sewer trunk line that could basically double our capacity to get sewage to the treatment plant. That would likely be a $500000 project that would only cost us $75000.

That is probably a reach, but we shall see. Otherwise depending on the amount of money we get, we may do smaller projects like lining our sewer pipes to prevent inflow during big rains, which take sewer capacity away from us.

This is not money that will be distributed directly to the citizens, but is fixes for the infrastructure for the town--that hopefully would prevent future problems. If you turn in your form, it will us pinpoint areas of town that are most affected.

If you don't know what you had in your basement, if it was sewer backup, or storm water backup, fill the form out anyway. It will help.

This is a heck of a deal for Roland. I'll say it again, please fill out the form if you have had any issues. Let me know if you have any questions.