High School Sports

Gonna veer off course a little bit here, and mention a favorite of mine. And that is high school sports. It sorta applies to mayor stuff, as high school sports is something that often binds a town together. You can certainly get a lot of community pride in a sports team. Going back to the Roland Rockets and their state championship runs in the 50s. Older folks sure know that story.

I was going to mention a couple links I like that deal with high school sports. One is www.mouthofthemidwest.com. Marty Tirrell and the gang do a good job of covering sports in Central Iowa. They have been covering a lot of baseball, including a Roland-Story game this past weekend.

Another is IowaPreps.com. A lot of the site is a pay site, but you can read the message boards and such. It is a good way of getting the skinny on high school sports around the state.

And then of course my personal fave www.roland-story.com. As you may or may not know, I do color and some play-by-play on there of Norsemen sports. Nobody covers Roland-Story better. Paul Clark runs it and it has morphed away from his old NorsemenNetwork.com.

If you haven't gone out to see our softball team here in Roland, or the baseball team in Story City, do so before the season ends. It doesn't get much better than a summer night at the ball yard.

Sewer survey this weekend

This weekend, the city is having folks go around the city and conduct a survey on the sewer system. The info gathered will help us in our application for a Community Block Development Grant. If we can get the grant, it will help cut down on the money paid for out of the pockets of the taxpayers and sewer users in the city.

What will help us get the grant? Having low incomes.

One of the questions asked will involve family income. The survey is anonymous and won't be cross checked with anything. If the responses from the citizens are low, we have a better chance of getting the grant.

In the past, the reported incomes from Roland have been too high, and we have missed out on grants.

This is one of the problems of living in a town with a young population. Our incomes tend to be higher, though that doesn't necessarily mean we are wealthier. Some old widow with a quarter section of farm land may have an income of 35,000, but be worth 2 million dollars. And we may have a young family with a $110,000 family income, but have a net worth of $50,000. And these grants are based on reported income, and not net worth.

So again, it really will help us get the grant if you get surveyed, if you answer the questions. And hopefully the numbers reported are lower this time than the last time the city was surveyed.

HERE is more info on the questions to be asked.

New laws in Iowa

Laws that are Roland only, are called ordinances. We pass them from time to time. It might involve speed on a new street or something like that. We don't really add a lot of laws to the town of Roland.

I found an article in the DSM Register about the new laws in Iowa going into effect on July 1. None specifically apply to Roland, though some could apply to Roland residents. I just thought it was interesting, so I linked it HERE.

We need some folks to be on boards and commissions

Terms are up for some folks on June 30 in our various boards and commissions here in Roland. Some folks have volunteered to stay on, which is awesome. Others have chosen to move on. So I have some openings to fill. If you are interested in any of them, please let me know, or contact City Hall. Here is what we need:

Board of Adjustment 1 person. This is a board that meets only when somebody wants to build something that does not meet our zoning regulations. This board considers if it is a legit reason, and if an exception is worthy--maybe like building a garage 1 foot closer to the lot line than allowed, or something like that. I think this board has met once in the last 2 years.

Park Board 1 person. This board meets once a month I think. They work on the budget for the park, and work on any issues that may come up regarding our parks. This is one where you can have a much bigger impact on Roland. There are already a great group of people on this board.

Planning and Zoning 1 person and maybe 2. This commission meets only if there is a new subdivision going in, or if there is a zoning change. This one also meets very rarely. I think maybe they met somewhat recently regarding the new townhomes going in north of the car wash. It might have been commercial, and it got changed to residential (which was a legit thing, since there is residential right across the street). Otherwise it doesn't meet much.

The pay is $0! I guess the only real benefit is that you can feel good about helping Roland, and what the heck, it looks good on a resume. Please consider one of these roles.

Swiping the Fireworks Cans

Somebody has been stealing the cans for the Roland Fireworks fund. Or at least once anyway. Just a heads up if you see someone taking instead of giving, please call 911. Donating cans is a nice thing that many people do for Roland, to give us a nice show once a year. So somebody is stealing our fun.

June 19 Council Meeting

I went to a baseball game--actually 3, so I didn't go to the meeting. I umpired the R-S/North Polk JV game at Alleman at 3:30, then became at fan and watched 2A #4 Roland-Story split with 2A #1 North Polk. That was some exciting baseball.

I guess you will have to read the minutes like I will. I talked to Jodi at City Hall and got some of the skinny. Sounds like the council and Mayor Pro Tem Canny carried on just fine without me.

Flood Damage assistance

The flooding event around Memorial Day caused some damage around Story County. I think for the most part we were spared here in Roland. Zearing really took the brunt of it. But if you had some damage, or know somebody who did, here is some info how to apply for Disaster Assistance Grants.

Disaster Assistance Grant

June 6 Council Meeting

Had all council members for the meeting. A lot of discussion, so it was a relatively long meeting, it took about an hour and 45 minutes.

We heard about the pool. Still having issues getting the contractor here. For now, looking like a June 11 opening, but that is all dependent on the contractor doing what he says he is going to do. We had a brief discussion about the official city photo. We had a few to choose from. The council all agreed with one that was taken from west of Roland, looking to the east over the city. There were two basically the same, so the City Clerk and I will make the final pick.

The council agreed to hire Mackey Harris Architects for making the initial plans/wish list for our new City Hall. This will simply be to put something together so we can get bids. We then approved a resolution setting the wages for city employees for the 2013-14 year. All employees were give a 3% raise effective July 1.

We then had a discussion regarding the sewer trunk line. The council again reviewed the options that were proposed by our "2nd opinion" engineering firm of Veenstra and Kimm. The council decided to first make an effort to go forward with the lowest cost option. And that was with an open cut near the creek. However to do so would require acquiring a utility easement from the property owners in that area. So the council voted to formally ask those property owners for the permission to do so.

Based on conversations with some of those property owners at the meeting, I'm guessing that is unlikely. However I think it important to ask, because if we could do so, we could potentially save Roland taxpayers $150,000 to $200,000.

If we are unable to acquire the permission, the council decided to go forth with a plan to directional bore a new trunk line under Samson Street. This will obviously cost more, but will get the new line to the sewer plant. In either case, a new lift station will need to be built at the sewer plant to handle a higher load, and because the new sewer trunk will be deeper than now.

Also, in either case, the council expressed an interest to follow up with a new sewer line down Elm Street. Currently all sewer in the neighborhood of the school, down to Homestead Housing, and all in there, travels north of Maple, up to the bank and around down to the pool. If we can get a new line in down Elm, it will hopefully help sewer back ups in the northeast side of the city, as sewage from the south side doesn't have to pass thru there, and would more directly get to the sewer plant.

I think the plan is solid, and helps a lot of people in Roland. It is going to cost a boatload of money tho. And that is why I think it important to find out if the neighbors along the west side of Sampson would be interested in helping the city taxpayers save $150 to 200 thousand bucks.

We then had a discussion about our engineering firm. It devolved into something I was not expecting. We had a simple discussion, or so I thought, as an agenda item about interactions with our engineering firm, Bolton & Menk. I thought it might work around using Veenstra and Kimm for the potential sewer project. It ended up with our city engineer offering his resignation as our official city engineer. From my observation, there is a range of opinion on how well his and his company's tenure as engineer worked for Roland from the council. I've had some irritation regarding some billing and communication. But I am happy with how several of our engineered projects have turned out. I think the drainage issues in the Britson neighborhood have been a success, along with North Cottonwood. I think the ideas presented regarding the trunk sewer have been solid, and were pretty much confirmed with our 2nd opinion from V&K. I'm really disappointed how that portion of the meeting went. If we were going to have a parting of ways, that isn't how I wanted it to go down. We will continue to use B&M for ongoing projects in the city, but we will have to find another city engineer it appears.

We closed out the meeting with a discussion of communication with the Sheriff's Department and the cases of abduction around our area.

Fireworks in Roland

Early reminder about fireworks...they will be held on the night of Wednesday July 3. Rain makeup will be on the night of Friday, July 5.

If you didn't know, fireworks are paid for by the donations of cans and bottles across from City Hall. If you ever want to be a helper in Roland, being one of the can gatherers is a job we are always looking for. If you are interested, please contact City Hall.

Games being played at Britson Park

Yesterday saw the first softball games being played at Britson Park. The official grand opening is Thursday, June 13. There will be food and drinks and some general ceremonial stuff. Nice to see the park in use after all the work that has gone into it. Still a lot to go, but a positive step for making Roland an even better place to live.

Potential Abuduction Attempt in Roland

Got word today of a potential abduction attempt in Roland last night. Obviously it is not the guy in Dayton, since he offed himself, but there are still bad guys out there. And whether this was some idiot just fooling around, or a real bad guy, it is something to be vigilant about. The password thing (as mentioned below)that this mother had is a real good idea.

Here is the text of an email we got from the Story County Sheriff's Office that went out to law enforcement agencies in the area. It gives some details of what happened. If you see a vehicle with a person matching this description, please contact the Story County Sheriff's Office or simply call 911.

At approximately 2056 hours this evening in Roland, near the pool, a 13 yom was approached by a suspicious subjects offering a ride home. The boy was told that his mother send the subject to get him and give him a ride. The mother and son have set up a password for events like this and the guy did not have the password. The boy went around the pool and walked away. The guy did not follow, to what the boy could tell. The description of the vehicle is a newer red 4-door truck (possibly Ford), with tinted windows and a "rusty" plate. The subject is described as a white male in his 30's with short (but styled) hair wearing sunglasses on top of his head. No other descriptions were available