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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - April 2022 Monthly Project Highlights MONTHLY PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS APRIL 2022 Report Compiled by Carly Watson, Principal Clerk, City Manager’s Office 2 FIRE Inspections: It was brought to staff’s attention that there have been inconsistencies in the permitting and enforcement of expanded parking areas on residential properties. Staff surveyed the City and found over 450 non-conforming parking areas. Several internal meetings have taken place to brainstorm options to remedy these parking areas that do not comply with current Zoning Code. Staff is drafting a Staff Report for the City Council that will outline the concerns and propose possible solutions. 3 LIBRARY Mental Health Programs for Teens: Ames Public Library is working with multiple partners to provide special events focused on teen mental health. On May 4, 2022, NAMI Central Iowa will present “Ending the Silence” for teens, which discusses warning signs and symptoms of mental health conditions as well as steps to take. (The Library hosted a similar presentation last month for families and caregivers.) On May 11, 2022, the Library will partner with Story County Extension for a skills workshop called “Mindfulness for Teens,” which offers practical strategies for coping with stress, emotions, and everyday life. New Catalog Interface: In April, Ames Public Library went live with a new catalog interface. Vega Discover features a simple search experience, a more intuitive grouping of items in multiple formats, and rich discovery of related materials and information. Social Service Inreach: In May, staff from ACCESS will be at the Library Thursday afternoons to offer services for community members dealing with sexual harassment, domestic abuse, or sexual abuse. This “inreach” service follows the successful pilot partnership with The Bridge Home, which offers assistance to those on the verge of— or experiencing—homelessness. Study Resources for Students: Modern libraries are vibrant and active places, but sometimes you just need a quiet corner to study for a test. That’s why we set aside a large meeting room just for quiet study in the days leading up to finals. Anyone is welcome to stop into the Danfoss Room, May 2-5 from 1-8:45 p.m., May 6-7 from 1-5:45 p.m., and May 9-11 from 1-8:45 p.m. to take advantage of the quiet study space. 4 PARKS AND RECREATION Community Gardens: A boy scout working on earning his Eagle Scout rank led the effort to build fourteen raised garden boxes (shown below) to be installed adjacent the existing raised beds in Carr Park. Staff will be placing the boxes soon, filling with soil, and they will be ready for planting. All fourteen additional boxes have been reserved for this year! Staff has begun work (picture below) on developing the community garden spaces along Delaware Avenue. These beds will be at ground level and surrounded by fencing to keep deer out. All these garden plots have been reserved and will be ready for planting in early May. 5 Credit Card Upgrade: The Parks and Recreation credit card payment system is now integrated into the current Parks and Recreation software system. This upgrade eliminates third-party processing, which speeds up every customer transaction. Upgrading the credit card reading hardware reduces risks associated with the payment process (for the City and the customer), which in turn lowers processing fees and consolidates reporting. This new hardware allows more flexibility by adding short-range wireless technology for contactless payments via chip card (tap to pay) or payment-enabled mobile/wearable device (i.e., Apple Pay, Google Pay, or other mobile payment systems). Dance and Gymnastics: The 12-week session of dance and gymnastics ended with its annual recital at the Ames City Auditorium. The dancers, gymnasts, and instructors worked hard to put on a great show for everyone in attendance. Furman Aquatic Center: Recruiting lifeguards has been an issue this spring as only 60% of the needed guards have been hired. Wages have been increased to be more competitive with private sector jobs and certification classes are being offered at no cost to pot ential employees. Staff continues to explore new ways to reach potential applicants. 6 Season pass sales are off to a good start despite the weather being continually cooler than normal. Warm weather early in the year helps sell season passes. The below table shows a comparison of the season passes sold the last five years. Please note the Aquatic Center was not open in 2020 and pass sales started late in April 2021. Homewood Golf Course: Homewood Golf Course traditionally opens April 1, however this season opened April 2 due to the weather. Through April 25, 2022, 950 rounds of golf have been played compared to 1,332 rounds played by the same time last year. Contractors are finishing up the installation of a sidewalk along Duff Avenue adjacent Homewood Golf Course. This project bridges the gap of missing sidewalk on the east side of Duff Avenue from 20th Street to the existing sidewalk further to the north. 7 Wellness: A new session of fitness classes began Monday, April 4. Classes continue to be bot h virtual with 72 registrations and in-person with 348 registrations. Water Walking began at Green Hills Wellness Center Tuesday, April 5 and is offered twice per week. Staff continues working with Iowa State University on the Walk with Ease program. Due to increased participation the program is now using the entire gymnasium for the program. This class meets three times a week. Due to increased popularity a new class of Tai Chi began Fridays at 10:00 am. Three classes of Tai Chi are now offered and will continue throughout the summer. 8 PLANNING AND HOUSING Ames Plan 2040: City staff will meet with the Boone County Supervisors on May 5 , 2022, to review Ames Plan 2040 and to gauge interest in an Urban Fringe Plan and 28 E with Boone County. Implementation of Ames Plan 2040 requires updates to the Zoning Ordinance to address neighborhood context for infill projects. The City recently approved a rezoning for property on Delaware and there have been other inquires for sites in the University Overlay areas as well. Staff will prepare options for the City Council to adopt interim standards for public review of apartment developments. Ames Urban Fringe Plan Update: The Ames Urban Fringe Plan update is underway with Story County. County and City staff have drafted a land use map and categories for review by Story County and the City of Ames. Outreach will occur with three public meetings between the middle of May and the middle of June. More information can be found on the Story County GIS website at https://storycogis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer. Grove Avenue Redirection: The Grove Avenue Redirection outreach for rezoning from RH to RM is complete. One property owner indicated a desire to keep RH zoning with the intent to redevelop his site. All other input was supportive of the change to RM for the west side of Grove Avenue. The next step is to proceed with rezoning public hearings with the Planning and Zoning Commission and then to the City Council in June. Planning and Zoning Commission: Two Conservation subdivisions (Hayden’s Preserve and Auburn Trail) were reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) in March. P&Z has recommended approval of each project and they will be subject to the City Council review in April. Conservation Subdivisions require extensive design work for management of storm water. Street layout, drainage, and open space areas were the primary issues addressed in the review. Public comment identified concerns with offsite streambank erosion near Ada Hayden for the townhomes located along Eisenhower Court. 9 PUBLIC WORKS Resource Recovery Plant: Multiple maintenance projects were completed at the Resource Recovery Plant and are pictured below. The airlock feeder is pictured above. The liners were replaced, as well as the wear plate. The Komptech shredder rotor was removed, and a new rotor was installed 10 The old rotor (pictured right) showed wear. Pictured left is the new rotor with no wear. 11 WATER AND POLLUTION CONTROL Water Plant Open House: For the first time in over four years, the Water Treatment Plant held an open house on Saturday, April 23. The event was a tremendous success, and the community was able to take an accessible self-guided tour of the treatment plant. The format was highly interactive, with staff stationed throughout the route to answer questions. Many informational and educational booths provided a chance to showcase the work of the entire Water & P ollution Control Department and numerous other City departments (Public Works, Parks & Recreation, Ames Public Library, Electric, and the Climate Action Plan committee). In addition, outside organizations that we partner with were also displaying their activities and programs (Prairie Rivers of Iowa, Story County Conservation, ISU Extension Water Quality Program, ISU sustainability, and the Outdoor Alliance of Story County). More than 700 visitors participated in the event timed to coincide with Earth Day. Planning now begins for an open house at the Water Pollution Control Facility! 12 MAC Elevated Tank Cleaning: Preparations are underway for cleaning the elevated water tank on Mortensen Road at County Line Road. Drone footage was recently taken to do cument the “before” condition, and additional footage will be taken after the cleaning has been completed later this summer. North River Valley Wellfield: Design has also been completed on a project that will construct a new water supply wellfield in the floodplain north of E 13th Street between Stagecoach Road and the South Skunk River. Initially, three new wells will be constructed at roughly one million gallons per day capacity each. In the future, additional wells can be added by ext ending the raw water lines further north in the flood plain. This project is also in the hands of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for permitting and will be brought to the City Council for a Notice to Bidders once the state construction permits have been received. Test drilling was performed a couple of years ago, both to verify the subsurface geology and to collect water quality samples. At that time, concerns about PFAS were not well known, and the analytical test methods in use were not sufficiently sensitive to be able to detect PFAS at the levels of concern as known today. City staff is preparing to repeat the test drilling effort to allow PFAS testing at the much lower concentrations to verify there is not a concern prior to awarding a multi-million-dollar construction contract. 13 PFAS Testing: In late April, the Water Plant and Laboratory Services Divisions completed sampling of all the water utility’s drinking water wells for the presence of PFAS compounds. An initial screening of the finished tap water and selected wells was completed in December. That screening found trace levels of PFAS in the finished drinking water in Ames at levels that were 7x lower than the US EPA health advisory limit. That initial screening found that the concentrations varied in wells that were sampled. The water plant initiated a full sampling of all wells, including a series of samples of the finished tap water. The last of the samples have been sent to a contract laboratory certified to perform the ultra-low-level testing method approved by the US EPA. When all of the results have been received, they will be added to the initial screening results posted on the City website at: www.CityOfAmes.org/PFAS. Old Water Plant Demolition: Design for demolition of the old Water Plant has been completed, and the project has been submitted to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for construction permitting. Once the construction permits have been received, staff will bring a Notice to Bidders to the City Council; hopefully in May. Included in the demolition is the re- routing of some distribution piping that ran through the interior of the old facility. Additionally, some of the brick from the oldest portions of the plant will be salvaged and incorporated into the new conference and training space that will be constructed in the footprint of the old plant.