Former City Clerk Deneen Frost passes away

Our former City Clerk Deneen Frost passed away last Friday after a 25 year fight with cancer. Yeah 25 years. She had a bout with cancer at around age 20, and they were able to get it in remission. It came back a bit in 2004 I think, and they were able to get it knocked down there too. But in late 2010, it came back with a vengeance. It got to be a big enough problem they she needed to retire from work in early 2011. And she fought it right up to the end, until she finally passed away at home, surrounded by her human family and her beloved 4 legged family too.

Deneen was City Clerk from 1995 to 2011. I first met her when I moved to town in 1997, and started working with her when I first got on the city council in 1999. It was quickly obvious she loved being City Clerk and took great pride in dotting all the "i"s and crossing all the "t"s that need to be done in running a city.

Even though she retired, she was a great help in the transition we needed to do to get our new clerk Jodi up to speed. She had her up and down days with the cancer, but if she was up, she always took a phone call to help out.

She leaves her husband Larry here in Roland. Deneen was buried in her home town of Rockwell City. She was 47 years old.

Here is a cached photo of Deneen from a few years ago that I found on the net.

Here is a link to the obituary on the funeral home's website.

December 19 Council meeting

Record time. This regularly scheduled meeting took 4 minutes and 47 seconds. We had 5 people there. 1 visitor, 3 council members (just enough for a quorum), and me.

City staff were missing due to returning from Rockwell City from the funeral for former City Clerk Deneen Frost. Council Members Sargent and Ford were absent, and CMs Balmer, Neely, and Canny were able to make it. At $15 a meeting, the council members earned their pay at $180 an hour. That might make more people run for council!

Typically we have cancelled the late December meeting, because there is not much going on. But we decided to have this to knock a couple things out. The two biggies were having the council authorize me to sign a contract with the DNR for asbestos checking in the Slagle building on Main Street. That is the one just north of the old library. It will cost $3200 for the inspection, but we will get that back in a grant. We have been offered the building for free, but the council would like to know what we are getting into. If we do take the building, it will be to tear it down. It is pretty much beyond repair.

We also set the Public Hearing for January 16 to renew our tax abatement for new construction. Abatements need to be renewed, so I would expect the council will do that. It is a great incentive to get people to build new houses, and do big upgrades of existing houses.

No other issues of note, other than I taught CM Canny how to use the voice feature to send text messages on his smartphone. That probably won't make the official minutes.

Snow ordinance in effect

Just a reminder that any time we receive more than 2 inches of snow, vehicles are not to be parked on the street until the street has been plowed to the curb. Vehicles are subject to ticketing and/or towing.

Will your vehicle be towed? Probably not. Will it be ticketed? Yeah, maybe.

I ask that you do your part and get your vehicle off the street so our plow drivers can have an easier time getting our streets cleaned.

Watch out for utility scams

Got this notice as Mayor. It appears Alliant customers, which is what we are in Roland were scammed. No reports of it in Roland, but always a good reminder. Same story for our city utilities of water and sewer. If you have any questions regarding your utilities, or if something is legit, feel free to call City Hall for confirmation.

This year, utility companies reported that several Iowans were victimized by different utility-related scams:

Last month, MidAmerican Energy reported a phone scam in the Des Moines area, where someone who claimed to represent MidAmerican contacted several customers claiming they needed to make an immediate payment to avoid disconnection.

Recently, Alliant Energy customers in Marshalltown and Perry lost several hundred dollars each when a caller convinced them that they owed back payments to the utility company. Neither customer owed money, but they responded to the threat of being disconnected by paying instantly through buying a “pre-paid credit card.”

Throughout the year, callers across the country reported receiving calls from people who claimed the federal government was providing credits or applying payments to utility bills, and customers could qualify by providing personal information, such as bank account information and Social Security numbers.

Dec 5 Council Meeting

Pretty quick meeting. Everybody was there but CM Canny. We had some comments from the public regarding our sump inspections.

Council approved the appointment of Mindi Balmer to the Park Board. We approved the Open Records policy. That basically sets the process and costs for someone requesting public records. Lacking a policy previously, the council approved the cost for the existing request we had going.

We approved the TIF report that must be filed with the state regarding our TIF district in the industrial park.

During the council comments, CM Ford reviewed the goals and plans from the 2008 planning session that the council set. Nice to see that many of the goals and plans have been done, or a good start. They were things like the library move, a new west Roland park, manhole rehab. I wasn't Mayor at the time, so I don't have the list on me, but it was nice to hear. Sometimes it seems like stuff moves really slow, but things do progress.

Again, a short meeting, so not much to report here from the meeting. Unlike years past, we will be having 2 council meetings in December--because we have switched to 1st and 3rd Wednesdays, instead of the previous 2nd and 4th Mondays.

New Housing Start in Roland

I noticed we have another new house going up in Roland. The media focuses on business startups and jobs, and obviously those are good things. But a house is an investment in a community as well. So that is something to celebrate as well.

As a reminder, new houses in Roland are eligible for a 5 year, $75,000 tax abatement. That means for the first 5 years, houses get $75,000 knocked off their assessed valuation. That certainly is a nice reward for folks who decide to invest in Roland.

November 20 Council Meeting

Had a reasonably short council meeting. We had moved it to Tuesday to let everybody get off to their families on Thanksgiving Eve. CM Sargent was not in attendance, so we had a quorum with the other 3 council members and myself. Got kinda hard to hear, as there was an event on the other half of the community center. I think that got everybody in the mood to take care of biz, and get out.

The council appointed Jerry Balmer to the city council to take the place of Chad Proctor. Jerry has served on the Roland Park Board for a few years, so I will need to find a replacement for him. He has done a nice job of helping out there. As an appointee, Jerry's term will go until after the next city council election is certified in November of 2013.

We discussed the open records policy. We were ready to approve, but after discussion, wanted to insert a deposit clause in there. So we will have that at the next city council election.

We also had a discussion about the pending open records request, and whether to waive some or all of the fee. That still is up in the air, as there still is some discussion as to what is really desired, and to have an attempt to keep the fee down.

There was also a discussion about the proposed donation of the Slagle building to the city. That is the building just to the north of the old library. The council to decided to investigate a DNR grant that may pay for the checking on if the building has asbestos. It is also believed that the building shares a common wall with the old library building, so we discussed the problems with that. The council budgeted to move city hall into the old library building. However, the council is now pondering whether maybe both buildings get torn down, and put a new building in its place. However, the council also wants to know what they are getting with the free building.

If memory holds, the building is assessed at around $10,000. But it is not in good shape, and probably just needs to be torn down. So more to come on that.

Soup supper and tree lighting

The RADC will host a soup supper on Sunday the 25th from 5- 6:30 PM as a fundraiser for the Roland Community Center. There will be various soups and bars. Also rumor has it that Santa may make a trip down from the North Pole for the event.

There will be a lighting of the city Christmas tree and a sing along at 6:30PM. The Christmas tree is right across the street from the post office.

Change in haircuts

There is an open house today at the Legion from 3 to 6 for Paula Wakefield, who is retiring from her barber business on Main Street. However Roland will continue to have hair cutting and more, at that location. Kylie Davis is opening Kylie's Hair Shoppe in December. Kylie will have walk-in cuts and more. Glad to see that spot continued to be filled with a business in downtown Roland.

Not really sure how long Paula has been cutting hair. I know she was there when I moved here 15 years ago. So congrats to Paula on her retirement.

November 7 Council meeting

Had all remaining 4 members of the city council in attendance. We set the plan for replacing Councilmember Proctor. A subcommittee of Canny, Ford, and myself will talk to prospective candidates, and then make a recommendation for appointment at the November 20 council meeting.

As an aside, we moved the Wednesday, November 21 meeting to Tuesday, November 20 so everybody could get over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house for Thanksgiving.

Back to the appointment, citizens can force an election through a petition. I hope that is not the case, because the election will cost us about $1000 or so. Also, this person will only serve through November of 2013.

We had a discussion about the fees for open records requests. We had one recently, and we are trying to get our ducks in a row for now, and for the future on how best to handle any request. Never had one before, so this is a good exercise for us to do the right thing and follow Iowa law, and have appropriate charges for requestors, and so the city doesn't take an unnecessary financial hit.

We got a report on the sump pump inspections. We are going to go forth with dye testing all homes that were "unknown". I think it was around 70 properties in Roland. I would guess most are going to pass. In most of of the cases, it is where there is a direct connection to the storm sewers, which is how a lot of the homes in our newer subdivisions were hooked up. But in a sense of fairness, and a lack of any hard documentation, we are going to test all homes. Also people who still have not responded for any test are going to get a reminder letter. If they still don't respond, they will be charged a $100 a month sump connection fee.

We had another discussion about the sewer system in Roland, and that is about all I remember for this meeting. Again, the next one will be on Tuesday, November 20 at 6PM

Turkey Trot 5K results

Had a great day for a run thru Roland on Saturday. Had 105 runners I think. The Howard Helpers 4-H club also hosted a breakfast at the middle school in conjunction with the run/walk. All the proceeds went to Britson Park construction.

HERE are the results.

Roland election results

In case you don't like digging in the numbers (If you do, go HERE), here is a brief look on how Roland/Howard Township voted:(I also will put a D or R by the winner of the race.)

Roland went with the winners, no matter the party, in all races except President.

Turnout: 1062 of 1350, or just under 79%

Straight ticket: 144 Republicans, 150 Democrats, 13 Libertarians (and I was not one of the straight ticket Libertarian voters, despite my preference for that party)

President: Romney 543, (D)0bama 486, Johnson 13, others 7, write-ins 10.

US House District 4: (R)King 510, Vilsack 500, Monroe 30, write-in 2

State House District 49:(R)Deyoe 602, Ericson 401, write-in 1

County Supervisor:(D)Clinton 531, Olson 285, write-in5

Auditor:(D)Martin 512, Stewart 441, write-in 2

I'll skip the unopposed races and all the judges except the Wiggins vote, which obviously got some statewide attention. In that case it was 471 to retain, and 437 to not retain.

Council seat to fill

PUBLIC NOTICE TO THE CITIZENS OF ROLAND, IOWA

INTENT TO FILL THE VACANT CITY COUNTY SEAT

The City Council of Roland, Iowa intends to fill the vacant council seat of Chad Proctor on the City Council by appointment at the November 21, 2012 meeting at 6:00 PM at the Roland Community Center located at 208 N. Main St. Roland, IA. Anyone interested in the appointment needs to contact Mayor Roger Fritz, Mayor Pro Tem Duane Canny, Councilmembers Larry Ford, Jeri Neely, Doug Sargent or the City Clerk no later than November 16, 2012. The filled council seat will be up for re-election at November 2013. The public has the right to file a petition requiring that the vacancy be filled by a special election. The petition must be filed with the City Administrator/Clerk no later than 4:30 p.m. on the 21st of November 2012.

The above is the official announcement. My two cents: If we hold an election, it will cost the city approximately $1000 in election costs. I'm sure the city council will find an interested, willing, and capable person to fill in for one year until the next election. I would prefer we do not spend the money to hold a special election. Ponder that, if any petition comes around requesting an election.

Election Night Soup Supper

The Friends and Service group always has an election night soup supper. This year is no different. It is a fund raiser for the library. So if you go vote or not, I endorse stopping up at the Legion and get some good soup. I think it is from 5 to 7:30 or so.

Town Meeting last Wednesday--this is a long one

Some citizens hosted a town meeting at the community center last Wednesday regarding their concerns regarding a proposed sewer trunk line. I wanted to address some of the statements that were in the flyer that went out to the homes in Roland. I also want to address some of the comments that were brought up during the meeting. First the flyer.

First the headline: TAXES AND SEWER BILLS TO INCREASE IN ROLAND

If the word "MAY" was in there, I'd have no problem with that. The headline makes it sound like a done deal. It is not. If the city council carries through with its plan, yes they will. But it is far from a done deal. So that is a minor quibble, but a quibble nonetheless.

Next line: City may spend up to $4,000,000 of OUR MONEY

This is simply fear mongering. The city council has never mentioned, considered, or put forth any plan to spend that amount of money on the sewer system. The city does have an engineering estimate for two sewer upgrade possibilities that could cost that much should the DNR force an upgrade on us. In fact, the city council is trying to avoid spending that, so has taken on other efforts to keep the DNR happy with our sewer system. Implying that the city council is planning such a thing is simply incorrect.

Next line: The City of Roland has changed direction since the last "Town Information Meeting" that was held in February....

That again, is incorrect. There was no decision made at the town meeting, because it was simply that, a forum to share information. At the next regular council meeting, on March 7, the council decided to hold a work session to discuss the various options. At the special work session meeting on March 19, the council members decided to go ahead with the trunk line sewer project. Then in the regular council meeting on Wednesday, March 21, that path was reiterated. HERE is a link to the minutes. To say that the council has changed direction is completely incorrect. The council has stuck with that plan since the first work session after the February town meeting. In that same meeting, if you read the minutes, you will see the city council also authorized slip lining the worst sewer lines in town, as general funds were available. As noted in the community meeting, slip lining the entire system would cost $2,000,000.

As we go down further in the flier....General consensus delivered to the City at these meetings.....

This is simply subjective opinion offered by the creator of the flier. There were many viewpoints offered at the meeting, including viewpoints that were different than the direction that the city council ultimately chose. But there was no consensus reached, as to reach consensus, the decision makers would have to buy off on a plan. The council made no decision at that meeting.

Next part....Several taxpayers have been attending Council Meetings trying to understand what this means....

Yes that is correct, and though I am generally not in agreement with those folks, it is nice to have engaged citizens. The "change of direction" is again mentioned in this paragraph, and see above for my dispute with that claim.

Down a bit....We believe you should be informed and concerned when there are large financial projects in the works that will require YOUR MONEY to complete and may reach $4,000,000.

I have no problem with that either. The thing is, the city council is trying to avoid spending $4,000,000. We can sit here and do nothing, and the DNR can come in and say, "Bang, you are doing this." Or we can make a good faith effort to get to where the DNR wants us, at a much slower pace. And the city council has to consider the entire town of Roland. Flooded basements of storm water and sewage are not good for people on an individual basis, or the town as a whole. It can be a drain on the property values of the entire community. The city council has taken a look at many options and directions to go for the good of Roland. I think the decisions that have been made so far are good for the long term health of entire sewer system of Roland.

Last paragraph...This meeting is for informational purposes so you are aware of what is happening....it is NOT to ridicule the City and we will conduct this meeting in a civil adult-like manner.

I think the folks that put this on did a pretty good job with that. I think the meeting was indeed civil, and didn't beat on the council members in a personal way. I do disagree with some of the conclusions they put forth. I would hope any observer of the meeting would step back and consider what the motivation for hosting the meeting was. These folks, while possibly having concern for the taxpayers of Roland, also have their own personal self-interest in this project based on where the proposed trunk line will run. The city council has to look at what is best for the city as a whole. And unfortunately, that includes making decisions that some people in the community are not going to be happy with. And so that led to this meeting, which these folks were using their right to organize citizens to encourage the council to go in a different direction.

On to some of the comments made by the organizers during the meeting that I disagree with. One is in regarding to the current trunk line, and it being new. It is 30-40 years old. It is indeed new compared to much of the town. But it has issues. We have videoed the line. It has "waves" in it, where it does not all flow downhill. This pipe may be fine if it was as it was installed. But because it is not flat, it reduces the capacity of the pipe. Go to City Hall and watch it yourself. We can all wish it were in good shape, but it is not.

Second is in regards to the pump at the sewer plant being unable to keep up. During our last flood event, it was cycling on and off, which means it was able to keep up. The folks running the meeting say it was running continuously. Our sewer superintendent and a council member that lives near the plant say it was cycling. The council as a whole has to make a choice as to which opinion is correct. If the pump can keep up right now, that is approximately $200,000 we don't have to spend now.

One statement in particular said by a leader of the meeting really frosts my behind. It was something to the effect of, "and Roland city taxes are already one of the highest around here." That is simply not true, and an unwarranted shot at the city council, city staff, and our boards that budget for our various city features. All of them are very conscientious about spending our tax dollars. Making public statements like that start to get a buzz out there in the "world" and put doubts in people's minds about Roland being a good place to live. Here is the truth:

Of the 15 communities in Story County, Roland has the 5th lowest city tax rate.

If you don't believe, HERE is the link from Story County with the rates for all cities, school districts, and all the other folks that levy property tax.

If you don't want to go to the link, here are the levy rates (dollars levied per $1000 of assessed valuation.) Sheldahl $2.98, Cambridge 8.00, Kelley 8.10, Story City 8.28, Roland 10.07, Maxwell 10.16, Zearing 10.62, Ames 10.72, Gilbert 10.94, Collins 11.33, Huxley 11.83, McCallsburg 12.24, Colo 12.81, Slater 14.35, Nevada 15.42.

One last note regarding a question that someone in the audience may have asked, and was presented one way by the presenters, albeit with some uncertainty of what would happen. So this is no particular beef I have with anyone, just passing along the info. And that was regarding whether the city council could push through this expenditure without a city wide public vote. If the city council were to carry through with the plan for a new trunk line and pump (we would need a new pump in this case, because we would have a larger line feeding into it), it would cost about $900,000. If the city council chose to fund it completely via sewer rates, they would not have to hold an election to borrow that amount of money. If the project was funded with property tax, any amount over $400,000 coming from property tax would have to go to a public vote, and pass with a 60% super majority.

I think when the meeting ended, because this meeting was not set up in a debate format, that the seeds of doubt were placed on the rationality of the city council. The purpose of this blog post is to offer a counter to some of what was presented. City Council meetings give citizens an opportunity to challenge decisions and ideas.

I would like to add the council moved forward in an unanimous way on this particular project. I am not going to sit here and say the council acted completely on facts. Much of it is opinion, based on weighing various facts and opinion, to come up with a best course of action. Folks can disagree on this course, and that is fine. But I would like to pass along some of the if/buts the council had to consider.

If we do nothing, the DNR may force a $4,000,000 sewer upgrade upon us. We need to get inflow and infiltration out of our sanitary sewer system to cut down what we must treat. We want to keep sewage out of people's basements. There were backups in several geographic sections of Roland. Much of our sewer system is over 100 years old. If we go down the backyard of the folks on Samson with a new trunk line, we will have to get an easement and disrupt their lives/yards for some amount of time. If we run the new trunk line down the middle of the street, it will cost an extra $600,000. Is the disruption of the back yard of 12 people worth flood and backup prevention for 50 or 100? We could institute a sump pump inspection plan, to make sure people weren't running their sump water into the sanitary sewer. We could force around 100 people in Roland to have costly changes to the drainage systems around their houses to potentially keep water out of the sanitary sewer system--maybe around an average of $2-3000 per homeowner. We could slip line the entire town at a cost of $2,000,000. However sliplining the entire town doesn't cure I/I water that gets in from the house to the sewer main. We want to get this done soon, to prevent more backups. Will the sliplining fix the problem of I/I? Will a new trunk line prevent sewer backups? Will sump pump connection changes solve the problem?

Those are just some of the questions the council had to ponder. Some of those things we have gone forth with. And after pondering all that stuff and more, the course we are on is what the council came up with. Again, I don't presume to speak for the whole council, but I think the decision really came down to two things. How can we quickly keep sewage from backing up in people's basements, and how can we avoid dropping $4,000,000 on a new sewer plant.

So there ya go, long winded yes. If you have questions, feel free to contact me, or one of the city council. Or you are certainly invited to the next city council meeting on November 7. Or comment right here. I get hits, so I know folks are reading my blog, but rarely do people comment. I encourage that here.

Post Office changes

Roland residents should have received a questionnaire from the USPS regarding how to best handle a reduction in hours at the Roland Post Office. The USPS also held a meeting at the Post Office on Thursday regarding that possibility.

I went to that, and they handed out the results of the survey. 652 surveys went out, 266 were returned. 239 or 90% wanted a realignment of hours, 4% wanted city wide delivery option, 1% wanted to go to a village post office option, nobody wanted complete closure and 5% made no selection.

Based on what was handed out, a change in hours is going to be likely to 10AM to 4PM on weekdays and remaining from 10AM to Noon on Saturdays.

So anyway, it is what it is, but just passing along what came from that meeting.

The Election

I generally enjoy the political stuff that goes on, unlike most people. Just from a marketing standpoint, I find it interesting how the spin doctors try to pump up their candidate, or tear down their opponent. Despite the horse race of it all, it is important who gets elected, especially the lower the race. I must admit being jaded about the presidential candidates tho. But there is one race that those of us in Roland can vote for that the differences between the candidates are clear and defined.

I wholeheartedly endorse and encourage Roland residents to vote for Steve King for US Congress. He is a guy that understands what it takes to get the economy going, get people jobs, and create the personal freedom that happens to individuals when they have money in their pockets.

I could link in an ad here touting King. But that is all part of the marketing thing that so many people get sick of.

So instead I will link in the last debate between King and his opponent that was just on Iowa Public TV. Watch it yourself. There is an obvious person that has a command of the issues, that doesn't stammer during tough questions, and is a good fit for the average person in Iowa's 4th District. Steve King.

Iowa Public Television 4th District Debate

Oct 17 Council Meeting

Not much on the agenda. All council members were there except CM Proctor. No word yet on the resurfacing of the north block of Logan. It will get done when Manatts gets done with some project they have going on, on Hiway 30. No particular update on sump inspections. We still have a few homes that need inspections.

We had a brief discussion regarding a potential contract with JCG regarding hiring them for easement negotiations along the proposed route for the trunk sewer line. They were unavailable to be at the meeting, and the council had some questions, so no further actions were taken.

I thought we were done, but then we got into another circuitous discussion about the trunk line sewer project.

We also had our city attorney at the meeting for a discussion around Freedom of Information Requests to the city. We do not have a policy regarding that. We may wish to adopt one in the future. He showed us one of another small city in Iowa that seems to work well for them. Basically it is to make sure citizens have access to any documents they are interested in, but also that the city doesn't take a financial hit coming up with them, so the requestor would need to pay the standard copy charges, and the labor costs of a city's staff used to search for the documents. So more to come on that.

Mayor meetings

Been to a couple different things as part of my Mayor duties that are outside of the City of Roland here in the past week.

Today I got to eat lunch and freeze outside the Ames Resource Recovery Plant. They had a little presentation for the folks that use the ARRP. In case you didn't know, our garbage goes to Ames, gets mixed with coal, and makes electricity. Yay. I saw a chart they we provide something like 1.4% of the garbage that goes to that facility. Due to more environmental regs, they may have to do some upgrades, which of course means more cost to the consumer. So I imagine we will see our garbage rates go up.

I also, as mayor, am a member of the Story County 911 board. We had a quick meeting to approve the consultant for the needed 911 equipment upgrade. Some of the radio equipment is getting on the old side, so we are working on getting prices and vendors, and stuff like that. That is paid for out of the 911 fee that is added to your landline and/or cell bill.

I also attending a mock drill at our county Emergency Management Agency. Just kinda went thru what would happen, and in this drill, assuming a bad blizzard, loss of power, and a fire. Didn't take long, but good to see what will all happen.

Green Street

Green Street in Roland is only 2 blocks long, but it looks to be the political battleground street in the battleground state of Iowa. Drove down Green today, and I think they hands down have the most political yards signs in the city.

I like politics, and while I have my opinions on the topic, I am one of the sick individuals that enjoys watching the ads and all the hubbub that surrounds an election. Some of my good friends take an opposite tack as me. I see no need to get all hateful and "unfriend" them. I just give them guff about their screwed up world view!

Back to Green Street, it is interesting to see the back and forth between the candidates there. We have the obvious Republican yards right next to the obvious Democrat yards. When they have a block party, I bet that is a good time.

I'll just give a shout out to those with the King signs in their yard. Good job!

Minnesota Twins Community Fund Awards $10,000 Grant to Roland

Here is the official press release. When I found out we won, I looked as excited as my favorite Twin of all time, Kirby Puckett, looks in this picture:

The City of Roland, the Roland Park Board, and the Britson Park Committee are pleased to announce the award of a $10,000 grant from the Minnesota Twins Community Fund. The grant will be used for the construction of fencing on two new diamonds at Roland’s new Britson Park.

Construction has begun on the two new fields which will have 60 foot base paths, which can host any level of softball, and Little League baseball. The infields are nearing completion, but money is still needed to complete fencing around the fields, dugouts, and the concession stand/storage shed. The grant will allow completion of the backstop portion of both fields.

“This is really exciting for the City of Roland. We have a good start on the fields, and this is a big help in getting the fields competition ready,” said Mayor Roger Fritz. “This is going to be a facility that kids from around Story County are going to be able to take advantage of for many years to come. As Roland’s closest Major League Baseball team, I’m really glad the Minnesota Twins and the Twins Community Fund chose Roland as one of their beneficiaries.”

Primary users of the new fields will be Roland Youth Sports, which participates in a softball league in Story County for girls aged 7-12, and North Story County Little League, which has boys playing from ages 9-12.

The Twins Community Fund is governed by a board of directors representative of the Upper Midwest. Target, Treasure Island Resort & Casino, Best Buy, U.S. Bank and Delta Air Lines are Cornerstone Partners; contributing annually to the Twins Community Fund.

Britson Park is a new seven acre park on the west side of Roland. Besides the two fields, there is open area for soccer and football games and practices. The Roland Park Board is also working on purchasing and installing a new playground at the facility. For more information on the park, to see field layouts, or to learn how to contribute towards construction, see www.britsonpark.org.

October 3 Council Meeting

The council meeting on October 3 took about 50 minutes. We were missing CMs Proctor and Neely, so we had the minimum to meet a quorum.

The council agreed to pay $300 towards repair of a driveway approach on Bryan Ave, due to issues with the street.

The council approved payment for some construction in our housing improvement program.

I officially proclaimed Tuesday, October 30 as Beggar's Night in Roland.

I appointed Adam Wilkinson to the Planning and Zoning Board. Thanks to Adam for doing that. Always helps to get volunteers for such jobs in city government.

The longest portion of the meeting was discussing sump pump inspections. We got the report from MSA, who did the work for us. 74% passed. 6% were unavailable at the scheduled time of inspection. 20% failed, or potentially failed. That 20% is 79 properties. We are highly confident that most of them have a legal connection however.

When the pipe from the pump leaves the sump, and goes directly into a wall, there is no immediate visual way to determine where that pipe goes. We know that all or portions of streets such as Samson, Arthur, Logan, and Ryan Circle have sump collector lines near the street. And that is likely where it goes. To make 100% certain, dye tests will still need to be done at those homes. The council is still deciding whether to have the expense of dye tests on those properties where there is a high confidence of sumps going to collector lines. So more to come on that.

Turket Trot-5K run

Better than the Turkey Trots you might get if your Grandma is a bad cook on Thanksgiving Day. Anyway, the Britson Park Committee is having a 5K run/walk fundraiser on November 10. Dress like a turkey if you want, otherwise take a nice stroll around Roland. The run that was held in March had 150 people. Good times had by all. Even if you don't run, help support Britson Park, take a walk around Roland, get some breakfast, help your health, and solve world peace.

Here is the link to the registration form.

Sept 19 Council Meeting

Had everybody at the meeting except Chad, who was out of state. We had to redo our resolution for selling the land north of the car wash. There was some confusion as to who was actually buying the land. We thought the contractor was buying it, but it turns out, he was just acting as an agent, and the eventual owner truly was buying it. No big deal, just had to get the "paperwork" straight.

In the public input we heard for the sheriff's department, like we do once a month. Generally we have nothing to report, and that is a good thing. If you have any concerns about the sheriff's department, or a law enforcement issue, you can let them, City Hall, or me or one of the council members know.

Since I have waited almost a week to post this, I don't remember any specifics about the department head's reports. I do know the sump inspections are moving forward.

We heard a presentation from JCG Land Services about potentially hiring them for land acquisition in the area of sewer trunk line, should we choose to do so. No decision was made on that.

And that is pretty much it, of note.

Need a P&Z Commissioner

We will soon be having an opening on the city's Planning and Zoning Commission. This is generally a very low time consumption city board. I think it went 2 or 3 years without a meeting, though I think they had 4 brief ones this year regarding the sale and development of the empty lot north of the car wash.

If that is your thing, drop me or City Hall a note.

Don't forget to schedule your sump pump inspection

Just a reminder to schedule your sump pump inspection. Call City Hall if you haven't yet. It was reported that 1/3 of the city still needs to get that scheduled. You are not required to do so, but if you don't you will be assessed a $100 a month sewer discharge service charge. Yeah it sucks, but when certain individuals are elected to state and federal office, they appoint people to regulatory agencies that may not have the viewpoints of normal people when in regards to environmental regulations.

So please schedule, it will help Roland out, and it will help your checkbook out.

Sept 5 Council Meeting

Haven't posted about this yet, as I have been busy with football. Watching or officiating. Good times, especially that Cyclone victory.

Anyway everybody was there in one way or another. CM Proctor attended via phone.

We had some public input that didn't sit well with me. A citizen expressed disappointment on our notifications during the water break, and the quality of the notices. Apparently our city webpage, Facebook, a posting at the post office, at City Hall, the city LED message sign by Casey's, 4 mobile signs placed at each entrance, the Ames and DSM newspapers, WHO and KASI radio, and the county emergency management webpage and Facebook page were not enough. We will do better next time.

We had some administrative stuff regarding our budget and road use money. I appointed, and the council approved Jennifer Boggs to the Pool Board. Thanks to Jennifer. That is one of those thankless jobs in the city. (Well, I said, thanks, not sure anybody else does).

We had a discussion regarding payment of a bill for soil samples for the trunkline project. We are going to pay a lesser amount, as we were concerned about the drilling on a couple of the holes.

The council also requested a firm to visit us at the next council meeting to potentially work with landowners in the area of the trunkline sewer. Not a done deal, but they were recommended as a possibility to take over some duties, considering the problems we have had accomplishing what we said we were going to do regarding this project.

Not sure what will come of that, but we will be talking to them in this public forum. The public is certainly invited to come to that council meeting.

The #1 thing I hate about Roland

For the past 2.5 years I have been Roland's Mayor. I have used this blog to pass along info on city stuff, and throw in some occasional commentary as to what is going on in town. I've tried to keep it positive, or at least fact based if the news isn't the greatest.

For the first time, I am going to bitch about something.

I HATE OUR STREET NAMES!

I curse our founding fathers and their Norwegian logic. Unfortunately I am just the mayor, and not benevolent dictator. If I were, we would rename most of the streets in town.

Here is what gets my goat. Maybe it is because I am a dunce, but I have lived here 15 years, and I still don't know half of the street names. And the big reason is, we have "tree" streets going north/south. We have "tree" streets going east/west. We have a "tree" street, then a "non-tree" street, then a "tree" street.

We have Walnut, Ash, Poplar, Maple, Elm, Birch, Locust,and Oak going one way, and Cottonwood, Linn, Vine(not really a tree) going the other way. At a minimum, I wish they were alphabetized.

Quick, where is Locust? Unless you live right next to it, I'm guessing most folks in Roland can't place it. I don't either. When I look at the map, do you know what I know it as? "The street with the first stop sign as you come up R77 from the south."

My ranting is coming forth because of the water main break the other day. I got a report that there was a water main break on Locust. My next question was--where the heck is Locust? I initially thought that was the north most east/west street. But no, that is Walnut.

This reminds me of when I was in high school, and had an "internship" with the local cable company. The cable guy was new to town, and he had some similar thoughts. "Nobody in this town uses addresses. It is all, "the house right next to Mr. Douma.' But I have no idea who Mr. Douma is."

Maybe that is one of the deals with living in a small town. Back to Roland, Linn Street to me is "that street on the east side of the school." For some reason, I have our circles down. Ryan, Britson, Duea, I'm good. And Samson, I have that one too, though there is still some question as to whether is is Samson or Sampson. And Norsemen Drive, that is just plain cool, so it can stay. Otherwise, you crazy Norwegians of yore, I curse you for your naming convention. Oh, and I forgot. Main is not the centering of the street numbering system. Cottonwood is. Which I'm sure we are the only town in Iowa with that. Main is actually the 100th block East in numbering. Duh.

But not one to just bitch, I come with solutions. Main and Maple you can stay. Everything west of the creek can stay because there are no blinkin' tree streets out there, and is not really in the grid of the rest of town.

Because I think of growth, we are not going to start on an end of town and work in. We will start at Maple. The first parallel street north, Poplar, becomes First Street. Depending if you are east or west of Main Street, you will be on NE or NW 1st Street. As an aside, typically streets run east/west and avenues go north/south.

Likewise, the first parallel street to Maple on the south is Elm. It will now become SW or SE 1st Street. Then we will climb to 2nd, 3rd and so on as we go south.

Now we could number the N/S streets going through town, but having 1st Street and 1st Avenue is worse than having a bunch of non-alphabetized tree names. So all N/S roads will become Avenues named for Steeler Hall of Famers from the great 70s teams. (Hey I'm playing king here)

As mentioned, Norsemen Ave can stay, just because that is cool. I'm going to break my alphabetization rule for one guy, to limit disruption to those residents. Green Street is the first to change. It becomes Greene Ave, just adding an "e" for Mean Joe. Cottonwood becomes Blount Ave, Linn becomes Bradshaw Ave, Vine becomes Ham Ave, Erickson becomes Harris Ave, Martha becomes Lambert Ave, Park is now Stallworth Ave, and Ryan Circle is now Swann Circle.

So let it be written.
View Larger Map

Aye Carumba! Water, water

Lotta water issues lately. Glad everybody has been cool about it. When water mains break, not much you can do but fix 'em. We aren't really sure what is causing the issues. Might just be bad luck. It might be that because we are on rural water, in some parts of town, the water is flowing a different way, so that may be straining the pipes. (Normally water comes from the tower, and out and about. Our feed from rural water is coming up R77/Cottonwood, and feeding into the town that way)

Or it may be the dry conditions. Clay is drying up, and shifting, and that may strain the pipes. Really hope to get some rain, and soak up the ground. A problem for this winter would be dry ground, with cracks, allowing deeper freezes into the ground, which could break our mains. So we need rain just to make the soil more "normal".

I have been out walking, and often cross over Bear Creek on Maple. It is dried up, with just a few pools of water. In my 15 years here, I don't recall it ever being dried up, there has always been some kind of flow in it.

The water main issues have been a hot topic on Facebook. I run the "City of Roland" Facebook page. It has gotten a lot of new likes lately. We have been trying to keep the public up to date there, along with the city website, and the Twitter feed, and on the LED sign.

Story County Emergency Management helped us with press releases to get out to the media. I know our boil advisory was mentioned on WHO and KCCI TV, as well as WHO radio. I'm sure other places too. So I am appreciative of that agency.

More water main break info

The water main break has now affected the entire city. When water is restored, all of Roland will be under a boil advisory. That means to assure safe water, any water used for drinking, or things like teeth brushing will need to be boiled first to protect against potential contaminants.

Water Main Break

There is a water main break on West Locust. Customers on the 100th block of West Locust and all of Green Street will be without water until the main is fixed. No estimate on repair time yet.

Aug 15 Council Meeting

We had a quick council meeting on Wednesday. All council members were there except Chad Proctor. The meeting took maybe 15 minutes. I can't find my notes of the meeting, really the only think I needed a note for was the bid came in for asphalting the north block or so of Logan Street. It was around $38,000.

We approved the closure of Main Street for this coming Saturday for a street dance at the Legion. It is for a fundraiser for some cancer thing. Not an individual, I don't think. We will have upwards of 300 motorcyclists in town on Saturday, concluding at the Legion for the event. They will be riding from Rhodes to Roland.

There was a brief discussion about the trunk line sewer project. Due to issues of not being able to do or hire what we say we are going to do as a city, (well, I presume that, because only one council member spoke to the topic), it was moved, and carried to suspend work on the trunk line sewer for now. I gather a revisiting of our processes will be done in the future, and if we can get our poop in a group, the project may again be brought up.

I think that is a good move, that we suspend our efforts for a while, because for various reasons, things did not proceed smoothly. If finger pointing were engaged, it may be like a circular firing squad. I still think it is a good idea for Roland as a whole. I hope it doesn't rain a lot, as the homes along Samson may get sewage in their basements again.

Why is Roland so...

I saw an article on the net somewhere about Google autofill regarding states. If you go to Google and type in "Why is Iowa so" and Google will autofill some potential completion of the phrase for you.

When you type "Why is Iowa so", the first things that pop up are humid, liberal, progressive, windy. I guess people like to talk about the weather and politics.

Minnesota is about the same liberal, windy, humid, awesome. Nebraska is boring, humid, low of unemployment.

I tried the same thing for Roland, and there was no autofill. So I just typed in Roland, Iowa to see what auto-filled. And the answer is...

Pool, Real Estate, Cemetery. So there ya go, that is what people are looking for in regards to Roland.

Story City was outlet mall, swimming pool, carousel. Nevada was schools, pool, Journal.

I will try to change Google for Roland, Iowa. Why is Roland, Iowa the home of such an awesome mayor? I'm guessing there won't be a lot of search hits for that.

We are hooked to rural water for 3 weeks

If you notice your water pressure is a little lower than normal, that is because the city is hooked to rural water while our water tower is being painted. They are currently doing the inside of the bowl. They still need it empty when they paint the outside, so the tank doesn't sweat. The painting, and our hookup to rural water will take about 3 weeks.

We have an emergency hookup to rural water which is nice. This isn't an emergency, but the hook up allows us to take our time in getting the tower painted. We use Central Iowa Rural Water out of Newton. The water tower that we are using now is the one in McCallsburg.

So the city just buys the water at bulk from Central Iowa Rural Water, they bill the city, and the city pays them. Then the city reads meters as normal, and bills everybody normally, so homeowners will not need to do anything different. Our bulk rate is pretty good, so no extra surcharge or anything like that is necessary.

Sump pump inspections of all homes and businesses to begin soon

The inspection process of home and business sump pumps is set to begin soon. This is a requirement for all homes and businesses in Roland. The goal is to not have any sump pumps or roof gutters draining into the sanitary sewer system. If it does, we are obligated to treat it at our sewer plant. And the DNR is not down with that.

So in an effort to prevent measures that are very expensive, we are making an effort to see that all sump pumps are discharging into yards, or storm sewers, and not into the sanitary sewer. Official notices will be arriving soon for all property owners. Here are some FAQs to get you started.

Aug 1 Council Meeting

Well we started with 3 council members, another got there 2 minutes late, and another one 25 minutes later. The first 6 items on the agenda went pretty quickly.

We heard that the water tower painting should begin sometime around the 8th. Work on replacing the concrete on Bryan Ave should be starting within a couple weeks. We will be installing better water drainage underneath. Also, we are getting quotes for asphalting the north part of Logan Street.

The installation of the diamonds has begun in Britson Park. Tile was installed under the diamonds. They are now being dug out to put gravel underneath, and then the field surface will go on top.

We had a discussion about the soil sampling that went on along the proposed path of the trunk sewer line. Frankly it was a cluster. Drillings did not go where they were supposed to. And the samplers ended up on people's yards that did not give permission to do so. I'm not pleased how this went down. We need to figure out how to prevent that in the future.

We also found out that one of our council members, Chad Proctor, will be leaving Roland for a new job in Missouri. Not really sure when that will happen. But if you have an interest in the city council, let me know. The city council will have to appoint a replacement when Chad officially resigns.

Chicken

Just wanted to say, that unlike the mayors of Philly, Nueva York, Chicago, the Mayor of Roland would love to have a Chick-Fil-A in Roland. Regular chicken sandwich, waffle fries and lemonade are awesome.

Even better, I'd love to have a Popeye's. Spicy dark 2 piece, biscuit, red beans and rice--there isn't a better fast food in America. Cajun rice is good too.

So if you wish to open here, the mayor will put it on the fast track.

RAGBRAI in Roland

Didn't get a chance to post on Ragbrai coming thru Roland. I took off on vacay as soon as the bikers were out of town (well, at least most of them). I must admit, I was a little underwhelmed at the community interest in helping pull this off. The Popp family and the Gustafson family did most of the work, and I am thankful to them for the efforts in making Ragbrai go in Roland.

As far as I know, everything went off pretty well. I was working at the Britson Park stand, in that park, though I also hopped on the bike and toured around town, to see how things were going. We had a lot of folks in lawn chairs, cheering, giving good words, and just generally enjoying the spectacle. We got a few more vendors in downtown, and they looked like they were keeping reasonably busy. I haven't heard if the stands were big money makers or not.

Thanks to our EMS folks too. I saw a pedestrian/bike collision that scuffed some people up. Otherwise I heard of no major issues.

At the stand I was at, I head a lot of bikers that were going to call it a day at Zearing. They didn't want the hills or to face the south wind into Marshalltown. I also heard a lot of "Who is Gary Thompson?" Seeing the rocket, most thought he was an astronaut.

I got to talk to people from California to Pennsylvania. That was kinda fun. Ragbrai itself can be a lot of work. And it is a distraction. But it is certainly an "Iowa thing" and a sight to see. With as blazing hot as it was, I'm glad it wasn't me on the bike.

Here is a photo with a biker, who just happened to be wearing the same color shirt as the Britson Park stand workers. She seemed impressed she could get a photo with the mayor and Park Board President

Logo on Water Tower

You may have seen it in council minutes, but the city council approved the addition of a Norsemen head to our water tower. Re-painting should begin within a couple weeks. We will first repaint the inside. During that time, we will connect to rural water.

Then the outside will get pressure sprayed, and repainted. It will be all white, much like now, with the exception of being painted black under the bowl, to hide the mold/mildew that tends to form on all water towers over time.

So here ya go...

July 18 Council Meeting

Had everybody but Council Member Sargent at the meeting, which took about an hour. We heard that water tower painting is going to be delayed a little bit until Minerva Wireless gets the hardware needed to do standoffs on their transmission lines. Also street repairs will be starting on Bryan Ave in a couple weeks. Cracked and busted concrete will be replaced, with tile lines going underneath. This is on the older section of Bryan.

Our city tractor had something go bad in the hydraulic system. That will cause a slight delay on the infield construction at Britson Park. The tile installation has started under the fields.

The council approved payment for electrical work in the community center. There are a lot of unknown runs of wire that previously went to the refrigerator units that were in that building. They will be pulled out, and will get it up to code. I should add these are in the basement.

We had more discussion about the sump pump inspection implementation. All homes will have inspections start in September. They will be at times convenient to home owners, including on weekends. The goal is to make sure no sump pumps are discharging into our sanitary sewer system. If they are, they will fail the inspection, and the homeowner will have to fix, or arrange to have that fixed.

The council approved the zoning change for the property at the corner of Cottonwood and Walnut from I-1 to R-2. Previously that was zoned industrial, which made sense, as it was right next to where the railroad track used to be, and it is adjacent to the Key Co-op property. However, it is also next to housing, so this change is not spot zoning. R-2 is also that neighborhood, so it fits right in. The property owner also intends to build housing properties similar to his on South Main Street. Always nice to see people investing in Roland.

We had more discussion on the trunk line sewer. The council gave the go ahead to do core drilling along the route of the proposed trunk line sewer. It will be done where property owners have given permission. Knowing what is in the ground and soil types would help any potential bidder make a more informed judgment on how to bid. With reports of a past landfill in that area, I was hoping all property owners would be favorable to having that small 10 inch hole dug in their backyard so we can get a better feel of what is in there before making a decision on whether to proceed. As of now, that has not happened, so that is unfortunate.

Check out the Roland Museum

Just a reminder that on Sundays from 1 to 4, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, you can stop in the Roland Museum. It is at 104 Poplar, a 1/2 block north of Bergen Lutheran Church.

They have old yearbooks, school memorabilia, photos, antiques, and a bunch of other stuff. I didn't grow up here, but I still find the museum to be interesting, with a lot of things to snoop through.

Burn Ban in Effect

Here is the release...

NEVADA- An open burn ban has been issued beginning at 8:00 am on Friday, July 13th, 2012 for all of Story County.

An open burn ban has been instituted to reduce risk to lives and property caused by an increased threat of fire due to dry conditions in Story County. The Emergency Management Coordinator and Fire Chiefs of Story County requested the State Fire Marshall implement this burn ban for all rural and urban areas of Story County until further notice.

Chapter 100.40 of the Iowa Code advises that the State Fire Marshal may prohibit open burning at the request of the local fire departments. Violation of a prohibition issued under this section is a simple misdemeanor.

Open burning in Story County will ONLY be allowed if the Fire Chief of that jurisdiction has issued a permit allowing open burning; or for outdoor fireplaces, barbeque grills, properly supervised dumping grounds, or the burning of trash incinerators or trash burners made of metal, concrete, masonry, or heavy one inch wire mesh with no openings greater than one square inch.

Due to dangerously dry conditions, the forecasted rain this week may not be enough to decrease the risk of fire. Due to this combination of conditions it is likely this will be a long term burn ban.

Further information can be found at: http://www.dps.state.ia.us/fm/main/burnbans/index.shtml or at www.storycountyiowa.gov/ema

Forgive us our trespasses--uh no.

A Story County deputy caught 3 individuals in our pool at 3AM a few days ago. No real damages other than a bench that mysteriously ended up in the bottom of the pool. But just a note that the city is pressing charges for trespassing and will be seeking repayment of OT and labor for city employees that had to respond to the incident, if the individuals are found to be guilty.

July 2 Council Meeting

The regularly scheduled council meeting for the first Wednesday fell on Independence Day. So we moved it up to July 2. But I couldn't make it. So I like to comment on the meetings, but all I have is the minutes. Sounds like there was some good stuff. Short meeting tho. We never have those when I am there.

Here are the minutes.

New Roof at the Park

The concession stand/maintenance shed/press box at the softball diamonds has a new roof on it, mainly thanks to 4 Park Board members. Jason McLatchie, Tony Greene, Jerry Balmer, and Josh Greenfield each put in about 16 hours each last weekend, reroofing the building.

Previously it had shingles, but now it has a red steel roof. It looks great. I was there the other night, and it stood up to some foul ball softballs quite well. Hope it never has to deal with softball sized hail though!

Those guys gave up time on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, for no pay, to help out the city, and help out the users of our park. I really appreciate it. Give those guys an atta boy, the next time you see them. Here is a view from the press box.

June 20 Council Meeting

About an hour and half meeting, with a full compliment of city council members, and about 15 others "in the house". Notes from the meeting:

We heard (and I have since noticed) that we were going to get some pothole patching. Our city clerk attended a small cities workshop put on by the Iowa League of Cities.

The council gave the go ahead to with a lease agreement with 1 Source Wireless for a new cell tower to go up north of the city shed. Not sure which carrier is going to go on the tower, this is just a company that builds towers. I think it is safe to assume some carrier is lined up to go tho.

We heard some updates on Ragbrai. If you have any interest in helping, or setting up a booth, there is still time to do so.

We got an update from the engineering firm hired (MSA) who will be doing our sump pump inspections. Those will begin later this year, and every property in Roland will need an inspection. (and will need to pass!) This is part of trying to get rid of storm water out of our sanitary sewer system, which we are obligated to treat. This is one of the most cost effective ways to do so.

We had a rather lengthy discussion on our proposed trunk line sewer project. Some of the folks along Samson, and who would have the new sewer line running thru their backyards are looking for written answers to their questions regarding the project. We have the fact based ones from our city engineer prepared. Answers to other questions, such as why the proposed project was considered, are not, in my opinion, something that can be answered as a whole, because that comes down to judgment of the deliberative body, namely the city council. And each council member has their reasons, though I will say, they are generally along the same line of thought.

So I tried to lead a conversation, and have each council member give his or her viewpoint, and interest in the project. I am still going to write my personal commentary on it, and the whys as I see that. The conversation got a bit "warm" at times. But as long as we are all still talking, that is a good thing. Hopefully a solution that is good for Roland's long term is achieved. I think all parties have an interest in that.

That pretty much wrapped up the meeting. The council is still trying to figure out when the next meeting will be. It is scheduled for the 1st Monday of the month, which is July 4. Still haven't decided if we can go that night or not. Stay tuned.

Roland Fireworks will be at nightfall on July 3

I have had some people asking me about fireworks. So at nightfall on Tuesday, July 3 will be the fireworks. If you have any interest in helping, fireworks are paid for with can donations. If you want to be a can collecting helper, contact City Hall. That is an easy way to help your community.

June 6 Council meeting

Nice to have all council members and mayor in attendance at the same meeting. Haven't had that in awhile.

We opened with a public hearing (which nobody spoke for or against) regarding the city selling property. It is our intent, and we approved the sale of the city's lot north of the car wash. The builder who had built the duplexes on South Main Street, and on Cottonwood is interested in putting duplexes up on that lot. We didn't have any potential use for that lot, so hopefully we will get some properties built on it, and generating more property tax revenue. The lot was sold for its assessed value of $4100.

We heard from the Sheriff's Department, as they usually stop by every, or every other meeting. Nice to report no major issues in town per usual--just the usual comments about speeding and such.

We approved a RAGBRAI ordinance. It set the fees and rules regarding sales stands being set up in the city during RAGBRAI. The fees are laid out depending on the type and home location of the vendor. For more details in getting a stand in Roland, please contact City Hall. I believe there is going to be another RAGBRAI meeting on June 25.

The council discussed the lease of land to I Source Wireless for the construction of a cell tower in Roland. They are a company that puts up towers and leases them to wireless companies for cell antennas. It is much like a developer who might build a mall, and then lease space to retailers. Anyway, they would like a spot for what would likely be about a 150 foot monopole tower, somewhere on city land. The 3 likely spots where the city has available land are near the sewer plant, in Britson Park, or north of the city sheds. I think the general consensus of the council was that north of the sheds would be an appropriate place. We are doing some more investigating and pondering that, and will take it up at the next council meeting.

On June 30, many appointments to the city boards and commissions expire. The following people have agreed to re-up on these generally thankless jobs. I appreciate the time they put in. Some of them don't require much time, as they rarely meet--like Planning and Zoning and Board of Adjustment. But still, somebody has to do it, so I appreciate it. Here they are:

Library Board, Jerry Handsaker and Steve Olson. Park Board, Tony Greene and Josh Greenfield. P&Z, Denny Posegate. Pool Board, Jeremy Heaberlin and Val Gregori. Board of Adjustment, Keith Lyman. Arthur Drive Rocks! 5 of the 8 are from Arthur Drive, and 2 more are just around the corner. If you have any interest in being on a board, I am always looking for interested people when openings pop up. Let me know, or drop your name at City Hall.

We had a discussion with the council and some citizens regarding the proposed sewer trunk line that would go along Bear Creek and behind the homes on Samson. Tricia Anderson spoke for several citizens in that general vicinity, and presented a list of questions and concerns the folks in that area have about the project. The council and city engineer will be working to provide answers to that list, and hopefully a good dialogue on this project continues.

The council approved MSA Engineering to be the contractor who will be doing sump inspections in all homes in the city. They will be charging $30 per inspection to the city. Details on how to arrange an inspection will be forthcoming. As a reminder, all homes in the city will need this inspection, per our recently passed city ordinance. The purpose is to ensure that all sump pumps are drained to the outside of the home in rigid piping for the purpose of keeping ground water out of our sanitary sewer system.

Alliant Natural Gas rate increase

I presume you got a letter from Alliant talking about their proposed rate increase for natural gas. I swear, Alliant must be the most inept company on the planet. Natural gas rates are low as they have ever been, according to their letter, the gas itself makes up 70% or so of the bill, they get to continue to charge the old rates to consumers, even though their cost of gas is at an all time low, and they still need a rate increase. Inept.

If you want to comment to the Iowa Utilities Board on the proposed increase, you can email them at customer@iub.iowa.gov

Not sure if it will do any good, but I felt better sending an email making snarky remarks about Alliant.

June 5 Election

In case you hadn't heard, there is an election on Tuesday. Pretty low key, because it is a primary, and there is only 1 contested race in our precinct. I believe the polls are open from 7AM to 9PM. I'm guessing it is going to be a long day for our election workers.

As it is a primary, you can only vote if you are registered Republican or Democrat. For the Republicans, in Roland/Howard Township, there are no contested races. For the Democrats, there is a contested race, and that is for the Iowa House seat for our new district, District 49. Garland Bridges of Eldora and Kevin Ericson of Maxwell are duking it out for the opportunity to take on our current representative, Dave Deyoe, in the fall election. I do know Mr. Bridges has been in town, as he dropped off some literature at my house.

I was on the Story County Auditor's website, and found some interesting info. There are 1335 registered voters in Roland/Howard Township. 315 are Democrats, 483 are Republicans, 536 are No Party, and 1 is other. (The other is not me by the way. Despite my interest in the Libertarians, I am registered Republican so I could go vote in the caucus this past January.) Our numbers mirror other northern Story County precincts, as registrations tilt Republican and No Party. No Party is the biggest registration leader in Story County, and with Ds holding more registrations than Rs due to registration totals in the more populated Ames precincts. HERE are the county totals if you are interested.

Sump Pump Inspections

The City of Roland is requesting proposals from qualified firms or individuals to conduct sump pump connection inspections. Interested parties and/or firms are hereby invited to submit a proposal based upon the requirements and conditions set forth in the RFP available at Roland City Hall, 202 E. Ash St., Roland, IA 50236 or at http://www.cityofroland.org/sump_rfp.htm

This is the process for finding a firm or person who will inspect sump pumps in Roland to make sure all homes are meeting the requirements of the new ordinance. The inspections will begin later this year.

Garbage pickup this week is on Saturday

Just a reminder that garbage pickup this week will be on Saturday instead of Friday. Stone Sanitation backs up everything a day this week due to Memorial Day. So anyway, no need to have your garbage out on Friday.

Pool Leak part 2

Well, the leak is back, and it is not what we thought it was. Starting to lose a lot of water again. We can't get a pool vendor in for a couple weeks to take a gander, so we are going to open up with the leak. However, if we lose too much, the state could shut us down. So hopefully the problem shows itself. More details will be posted when we can confirm where the problem is.

Pool Leak

Good news theoretically on the pool, and leak that I mentioned in a previous post. Again, this is theoretically---but it appears the pool doesn't have a leak. There was water running out of the drain tile under the pool, while the pool was being filled, so that certainly gave the indication that the pool was leaking. Nathan did some "swimming" with dye, to see if he could find the leak, but that didn't show anything. After more investigation, apparently the pool fill line under the pool deck (by the diving boards) is leaking. So when the valve got turned on to fill the pool, it started leaking, and got in the drain tile. Again, it is under the deck, so it is not an easy fix, but it will only leak when the pipe is on filling the pool. The good news is, there is an alternate method to fill the pool. You can fill the pool by simply filling via the circulation and filtering system. So at some time, if the deck ever needs repaired by the diving boards, it should be dug up, and have those pipes replaced. But for now, we are good, and still set for an opening on next Friday.

May 16 Council meeting

Had about an hour and 20 minute council meeting. Only had 3 council members in attendance again, Ford, Proctor, and Sargent. Most of the time was spent discussing the proposed sewer trunk line along Bear Creek. A meeting was held with residents on Tuesday night to show them the proposed route. Some residents still have further questions, so more discussions will be held on the topic.

Bad news on the pool front. We again have a leak in the pool. It held water over the winter, but that is with the valves shut. When the valves are open the pipes at the bottom, where the water circulates thru, something starts leaking. And it is a pretty substantial leak, I think the estimate was that it would be around 10,000 gallons a day. So we have some folks in to try to find where the leak is. Very frustrating. Worst case is digging out the bottom of the pool and replacing the pipes. We don't know yet if that is what needs to be done. So stay tuned.

We approved the ordinance for sump pump inspections and penalties. Again, this is to make sure sump water isn't going into the sanitary treatment system, where we have to treat it. We are going to send out a request for proposal for a company to hire to do the inspections. Everyone in the city will need to be inspected, and working properly by the middle of 2013.

I appointed, and the council approved Chad Kepler to the Pool Board. Thanks to him for stepping up and doing one of those thankless jobs in the community.

There was a Ragbrai meeting on Monday night. The process for having a booth, and what is all going to happen in Roland is starting to take shape. If you would like to help, or have questions, call City Hall.

Garage Sale Days in Roland-June 8 & 9

Garage Sales Days in Roland are coming up on June 8 and 9. If you want to get on "the list" for publicity, there is an application to do so on the city website or you can pick one up at the library. Registrations are due on June 1. 'Tis a good time to get rid of the stuff. HERE is the link to the website with more info.

RAGBRAI meeting Monday

Just a reminder that there will be a meeting regarding RAGBRAI on Monday, May 14 at 6:30 PM at the Community Center. It will be a discussion around vendor booths, volunteering, and the route through town. If you have questions or interest on any of those topics, it will be a great opportunity for learning!

May 2 Council meeting

This one was a bit odd. Council members Canny and Neely were absent, and CM Ford had to call in so we would have a quorum. I don't count towards the quorum--I'm just the mayor. (Because I can't vote on anything).

Nothing really big came out of the meeting. We had a discussion surrounding getting yards mowed--and the city's charge to do so. There is a minimum of $175 if the city comes out to do it.

We got an update on our proposed trunk line sewer. The actual proposed route has been mapped. There is going to be a meeting on Tuesday, May 15 at Jacobson Park to walk the route, and show the property owners were the proposed line would go.

We had a discussion surrounding some newer properties in town that have not put in required sidewalks. We will take them up at a later meeting, after more review of what the ordinance actually says.

We set the date for a public hearing on the transfer of city property. A person wishes to buy the city lot just north of the car wash to put up duplex type homes. If you are interested in buying the lot, let the city know. We will accept higher offers!

The council approved a granting of up to $1000 to RADC to finish off the meeting room at the Community Center. If you weren't aware, this is a room that was built in the back, so the Boy Scouts, or other groups, could have a meeting, without taking up the whole community center.

Also it appears all is going well with the prep of the pool. If I recall correctly, the tentative pool open date is Friday May 25. Also there is an upgrade of the park equipment in the pool park. Thanks to the pool board for working on that project. Those folks have done a nice job there, also with the addition of the basketball court in the past couple years. That seems to be a popular place.

Story County Youth Volunteer Awards

I got to attend the Story County Youth Volunteer Awards at ISU on Tuesday night. It was hosted by the Volunteer Center of Story County and the ISU Student Activities Center. Angie Hunt of KCCI was the award presenter. Anyway, it was for grade, middle, high school, and college age young folks who had been nominated for the good work they do in Story County.

I had a vested interest, as my daughter was nominated for her work at the Roland Public Library. But it was neat to see and hear all the other stuff kids had done around the county. Also had quite a few from the Roland-Story area. Thomas Wilgenbusch was nominated for his work at the elementary school in Story City. All there were a bunch of Cub and Boy Scouts from R-S, due to their work as a group.

It got me thinking about volunteers in Roland. Just on city boards and commissions, 1 in 8 residents from Roland is on the city council, or a board/commission. Then we have another 20 or so guys on the fire department, and more that also do the EMT thing. Then of course we have Kiwanis and Friends & Service, and those who are boards at the churches. And of course there the youth sports coaches and plenty of other things I am forgetting about right now.

So I think all that volunteering makes for a healthier community. But back to the program I attended, don't forget, there are kids out there volunteering as well, and making Roland a better place. And it was nice to have a public recognition of that.

April 18 council meeting

About a 75 minute meeting, with the entire council in attendance. We talked about the new sewer trunk line. It is the council's interest to carry on with the project. So the next step is to talk to the property owners on Samson who would have the trunk line pass through their property near the creek. The city engineer and city staff will show where the proposed line would go.

We also talked about a new sewer trunk line down Elm. That discussion is not very far along, and no decision was made on that idea.

We approved the contract for cleaning and painting the water tower. That is going to cost the water department $89000. It will be painted inside and out. This is the first time it has been painted since its installation in 1995.

It will have the same color, except the underside of the bowl will be painted black to hide the mildew. Also, we are going to have the Norsemen head painted on the north side of the tower, hopefully to scare Tigers, Hawks, Cubs, Raiders, and Rams into submission.

We heard that there is a tower company interested in putting up a 150 ft monopole tower in Roland on city owned property. No particular action was taken on it. Potential spots for the tower would be behind the city shed just northeast of the Key Co-op property, in Britson Park, or near the sewer plant. If approved, the city would collect rent from the company for leasing the land.

We got a Ragbrai update. Reminder that there will be a public meeting on Monday, May 14, at 6:30 PM at the community center to discuss all things Ragbrai.

We updated our ordinance on grass cutting. It now says the city may come in and mow the property when the grass/weeds reach 8 inches or more. The landowner will be tagged a minimum of $175 if that happens.

Ragbrai Meeting on Monday, May 14

The Roland RAGBRAI Committee will be hosting a meeting at the Roland Community Center on Monday, May 14, at 6:30PM. They already have the ball rolling, so this will be to talk about booths, and volunteers on the day of, and all the other details that go with having RAGBRAI come to town.

So keep the date free for the meeting, and keep Wednesday, July 25 free when the traveling circus comes to Roland!

April 4 Council Meeting

Had a council meeting just over an hour tonite. Some of the things discussed or mentioned:
Fire hydrants will be flushed on April 12 and 13. So those aren't the best of days to do your white laundry. That can stir up dirt and rust in the water system.

Got a report from the folks that went to the Ragbrai meeting in Webster City over the weekend. They will be looking for more help to pull this off. They have a book of tips and ideas for communities hosting--from bike parking, to shade, to permits for vendors. More to come on this.

Britany Danielsen of the Library Foundation talked to the council about the city taking over maintenance of the lot the Foundation holds, kitty corner from the post office(formerly the Heart of Iowa Co-Op office building was there). Since it was a bare lot, it wouldn't be much, other than keeping the weeds down. The council decided they didn't really want to take that on right now.

The council talked about the trunk line sewer again, and got an update that the proposed route has been surveyed. There was input from the public regarding sewer flows on the east side of Roland, and what was to be done there. If I can restate the consensus of the council--they are aware of issues in many spots in the city. However, they wish to start closest to the sewer plant, and work back. Also, the new sump pump plan will also hopefully get excess water out of the system.

The council also approved the hiring of Doug Gerjets as the new park maintenance employee. He is replacing Ed Nerem, who passed away. Doug will be in charge of mowing at the city parks and maintaining the facilities in the parks. It is a part-time position, with a lot more hours to be done during the heavy grass mowing spring season.

Bleed Red and Black T-Shirts

The Britson Park Committee is selling T-Shirts that say "Bleed Red And Black" and have the Norsemen logo. It is to help get fields going for youth sports here in Roland. If you want one, the closing date is this week.

HERE is the order form.

Lots of visitors to Roland last weekend

First up, on Saturday, 151 people registered and ran or walked in the Spring Training 5K Run/Walk. It was a fundraiser for Britson Park & Athletic Complex. There was also a pancake feed at the Legion at the same time. With runners getting free pancakes, and non-runners able to pay for them.

I was really impressed with the number of runners we had. About 50 were walkups, which I'm sure were waiting to see what the weather was like. And it was really nice.

The course was a nice tour of the city. We couldn't run out west by the park, as there is no safe way to get runners on/off Maple without doing road detours and all that. But I am proud of the all the people that volunteered to help with this, such as the Kiwanis, and there efforts on the pancake part, and the folks who actually set up the race. As a runner, I appreciated the locals who sat out on their sidewalk and encouraged us.

Then on Sunday, about 10 different fire departments came to Roland to participate in the burning down of one of the elevator buildings on the Key Co-Op property. Key wanted the building down, and so it was used as a training opportunity. Off the top of my head, I saw fire trucks from Slater, Huxley, McCallsburg, Colo, Zearing, Nevada, Story City, Radcliffe, Boxholm, Jewell.

I know we had a good crowd on hand to watch. It was a good drill for the fire departments. I know we dammed up the creek, and used the water from the creek for some of the drill. Here is a short video I made of the burn.

Interested in umpiring

North Story Little League is always looking for new umpires to add to its stable of arbiters of the game. I used to do the scheduling of umpires, but have stepped aside from that role. But I will still umpire some, and am helping out the new schedulers this year. So we can get you on the list if interested. Games are in Roland, pay $25, take about an hour and half.

Contact me at my address as listed in the lower left of this blog.

If you aren't interested, you can always stop by and watch games for free at the Roland Middle School field. The season starts on April 14 and runs thru June.

March 21 Council meeting

Knocked out a few items, and heard about some others at this meeting. Heard that CCS has been having a lot of trouble with internet service in Roland lately. Apparently they have some noise on the line, or something like that. Really playing havoc with those who have that service in Roland--City Hall does, so they have had some issues working as effectively as they could.

On Sunday Morning, April 1 (no foolin'!), the fire department will be burning down a building on the Co-Op property, starting at about 8AM. See my post below on that topic.

The council did final approval on a sewer rate increase effective July 1. The council also did an approval on employee raises of 2%, effective July 1.

As noted in the special meeting earlier in the week, the council is going forth with a sump pump inspection plan. All places with sewer service will be inspected to make sure sump water is not going into the sanitary sewer system-in an attempt to lighten the load the sewer plant has to deal with. All properties must be up to code by June 1, 2013. More details to come on that.

The council also gave the OK on moving forward on selling city owned land-the vacant lot just north of the car wash. A contractor is interested in constructing duplexes there. It is the same person who built the duplexes on the vacant lot on South Cottonwood, and the ones on South Main Street. There will have to be a zoning change tho. Currently it is commercial or industrial (I don't remember which one). It will need to be R-2 (Residential 2). Planning and Zoning gave an initial OK. Shouldn't be an issue with spot zoning, as the new will be the same as across the street, so we will still have a contiguous use. Still needs the formal process tho, if any citizens have a concern.

Roland Spring Training Run/Walk Route Marked

I, along with some helpers, went out and marked the 5K run/walk route today. It is marked with white arrows on the street. Still not too late to register, in fact you can walk up and register next Saturday morning. You might not get a T-Shirt tho. So far we have over 100 run/walkers, so this will be a pretty big event. Also a pancake feed, at the Legion, if you don't feel like running or walking.


HERE is the route. So you can see if you will have a large group of runners go by your house. Be on the lookout for run/walkers next Saturday starting at 8:30 AM.

Special Council Meeting March 19

We held a special council meeting on Monday to discuss issues regarding our sewer system. Various issues on that, so it was broken into 3 separate discussions.
1. Sump pumps inspections
2. New Trunk Line
3. Slip lining existing sewer lines.

As for #1, the council agreed to go forth with a sump pump inspection plan for all homes in the city. The reason for this is, we need to keep storm/ground water out of the sanitary sewer system. The DNR wants us to get it out, and if it does get in, we are obligated to treat it, which leads to more cost for larger sewer plants.

So while details are not final, this is the general guideline it will follow when the plan is implemented. Homeowners will have 6 months to arrange for an inspection, and if it fails, to become compliant. The inspection will come from a company hired by the city. A homeowner may choose to not allow an inspection, or to fix an out of compliance sump pump. In that case, there will be a $100 per month charge added to the sewer bill for having an unmetered water hookup to the sanitary sewer system.

Getting sump water out of our sewer system will cut down on flows, and hopefully reduce the possibility of backups in our sewer system. It will also make the DNR happy.

As for #2, as noted on this blog, and in various meetings, the main trunk line for most of the city is undersized and does not slope downhill perfectly in all spots, leading to inefficiencies in flow. This leads to increased backup potential, and limits the growth potential to the city. Parts of it are near 90 years old.

Currently two 12 inch pipes (one from west of the creek, and one from the east side of town, combine into the one 15 inch main, from the pool all the way to the sewer plant. A proposed plan is to replace the 15 inch main with a new 21 inch main--which can handle two 12 inch pipes feeding into it. The original pipe was put in when Roland had around 700 people, so it is doing more work than it was designed for.

There are two ways to get the main to the sewer plant. One is to follow the existing route under Samson Street. To get the right slope, it will need to be dug deep, and down the middle of the street, meaning the street will have to be dug up for a couple months, and then completely replaced. That will cost around 1.2 Million dollars.

Another choice is to take it along the creek bed. With the lower elevation, it does not need to be dug as deep. The problem is that is crosses the private property of 11 different homeowners. This route will cost about $600,000. Obviously we need to get the consent of the homeowners for this project.

The council talked about the need to do the right thing, and upgrade the city's sewer main, which probably should have been done 20 years ago. This will have a positive impact on the citizens along Samson, as this should eliminate the sewer backups they have suffered with over the years. The city also wants to save $600,000, and take the less expensive route.

So the council decided to pursue that option, and will be talking to the homeowners along Samson, and to get an exact and specific location of where the line would be buried, so they will know the plans. Previously any discussions have been more generic as to the route.

I think this will be good for the folks that live along Samson, to help prevent their basements from being temporary sewage holding facilities. I also think we should work with those folks to make sure any construction makes their yards better than prior to work being done, if we can make this project happen.

Part #3 was to discuss slip-lining sewer mains throughout the city. A lot of the sewer system was installed in the 1920s, and the clay tiles are leaky, allowing ground water into the system. Sealing them will help keep ground water out, and refurbish the lines some. We have videoed about 2/3 of the sewer lines in town, and are aware of the worst spots. None are horrible, but proper maintenance would involve starting to slip line the bad spots. It costs about $20,000 a block to slip line a sewer main.

In this case, the council decided to not immediately do any, but continue to budget for the maintenance of the lines, and have our sewer superintendent keep tabs on the bad spots, and fix them as money is available. For the upcoming fiscal year, we did set aside $60,000 for maintenance and upgrades.

Benefit for Jill Starrett

Got this passed along to me. Certainly a worthy thing to attend.

A medical benefit for Jill Starrett will be held Saturday, March 31, 2012 at the Roland-Story Middle School in Roland from 5:00-7:00 PM. Jill has recently been diagnosed with Stage 3b Hodgkin's Lymphoma and has been receiving chemo treatment at Mayo. Jill is the wife of Adam Starrett, pastor of Bergen Lutheran Church in Roland. They have 3 children, Xavier (8), Faith (5), and Trinity (3).

Supplemental funds will be provided by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Story County.

A meal of smoked pork sandwiches, hot dogs, baked beans, chips, bars, and ice cream will be served. A themed gift basket auction is scheduled for 6:30 PM. Your support is greatly appreciated.

April 1 building burn at Key Co-op

FYI, that assuming good weather, that on the morning of Sunday, April 1, the Roland Fire Department will be assisting in burning down the south building on the Key Co-op property.

Hopefully there are light south breezes. So if you want to go watch, or if you see a bunch of smoke that day, that is what is up.

The FD will be starting about 8AM, and expect that it will be mostly burned down by 9:30AM.

March 7 Council meeting

Barely had a quorum, but with 3 council members there, we were able to have our meeting. About a 70 minute meeting.

We had final approval of our budget for 12-13.

We had input from a citizen interested in buying a city owned lot on North Cottonwood for duplex construction. The council was favorable to that concept. The land is currently zoned industrial, but would need rezoned to residential-2. That would have to go thru planning and zoning. Assuming the neighbors are good with it, it is next to other residential, so I don't see it as a big issue.

We heard about an issue with our sewer line at the intersection of Maple and Cottonwood. (not a good place, as I presume that is the busiest or 2nd busiest intersection in town). We have some issues with the main line that goes from North Cottonwood to West Maple (it is 19 feet deep) and how the main from South Cottonwood ties in (12 feet deep). So far it appears we can get it fixed without a major excavation, but still is going to cost us a couple thousand bucks.

Speaking of sewers, we passed the first reading of a proposed sewer rate increase effective July 1. Depending on how much water you use, it will be a couple bucks a month increase. This is all part of starting to get our sewer lines fixed around town.

The council approved my appointment of Jeremy Heaberlin to the Pool Board.

We had a little discussion about the public meeting regarding our sewers. The council is going to get a special meeting together to talk about how we are going to forth, based on the public input. We will also talk about the separate issue of sump pumps entering our sanitary sewer.

We had a little Ragbrai discussion. Not really going to do anything until after the meeting with the Register folks on March 31--until we know a little more and get some ideas from them. If you are interested in helping on Ragbrai organization, some co-chairs are already lined up. But they will be looking for more folks to help them. I will post more on this topic in a future blog post.