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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - May 2022 Monthly Project Highlights MONTHLY PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS MAY 2022 Report Compiled by Carly Watson, Principal Clerk, City Manager’s Office 2 FIRE Ames Fire crews had the opportunity this month to tour and pre-plan at the new Ames High School. 3 LIBRARY Focus on Juneteenth: Ames Public Library is partnering with local artists and organizations to celebrate Juneteenth. • An Art Exhibit by Jordan Brooks called “Degrees of Freedom” will be featured in the Library’s entry all month long. • On June 15 at 7pm, the Library will host a discussion of the film “BlacKkKlansman” facilitated by Dr. Novotny Lawrence of ISU. • Our Family Storytime on June 18 at 10:30am will celebrate Juneteenth and the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans. • Ames Public Library is collaborating with the Ames Branch of the NAACP, Ames Human Relations Commission, ISU Black Faculty and Staff, and Black Liberation Movement for a Juneteenth Celebration Saturday, June 18, at Bandshell Park. There will be family activities and vendors from 3-7pm, a line dancing party with a DJ from 6-8pm, and a movie showing of Marvel’s “Black Panther” at 8pm. More information is available at www.facebook.com/AmesIowaBranchoftheNAACP. Free Meals for Youth: The Library will once again offer free lunches for kids and teens over the summer. Starting June 6, Ages 18 and under can come to the Library’s Auditorium weekdays between 11:30am and 12:30pm for a free meal. This important program helps fight childhood hunger while school is out of session. This year’s Free Summer Meals for Kids and Teens at the Library are sponsored by the Ames Public Library Friends Foundation and REG. Summer Reading: Ames Public Library’s Summer Reading Challenge for all ages will kick off on June 1. Everyone, from babies to adults, can earn prizes for reading throughout the summer. One of the primary goals of library summer reading programs is to combat the “summer slide,” or summer learning loss. Studies have shown that kids lose an average of two months of reading progress over summer break. Encouraging children to read for fun (and prizes!) helps them stay in practice and return to school ready to learn. Sign up for the Summer Reading Challenge online at www.amespubliclibrary.org/summer2022 or visit the Library or Bookmobile to pick up a tracking sheet. 4 PARKS AND RECREATION Ada Hayden Heritage Park Accessible Canoe/Kayak Launch: Staff sent out plans to contractors to bid the concrete work necessary to install the bulkhead and sidewalk for the Accessible Canoe/Kayak Launch at Ada Hayden Heritage Park. Staff spoke with two contractors, and both said the work was quite challenging based on how the plans were developed. The major issue is having to install a footing on the bank of the lake at Ada Hayden Heritage Park that would require sheet piles to temporarily hold back water while the footing is installed. One of the contractors that reviewed the plans suggested it may cost approximately $85,000 to complete the work. There is $16,000 budgeted for this work. Staff presented this feedback to Snyder & Associates, and they are in the process of modifying the plans in order to complete the work without having to install a footing. Staff is hoping to complete this project sometime in June. Ames/ISU Ice Arena: The Ames/ISU Ice Arena was shut down in May to complete annual maintenance activities. Tasks completed included ice maintenance (removing ice to a level to remove the paint, painting the ice and installing new lines, and making new ice), painting the facility where needed, cleaning, and sprucing up the landscaping. The Ames/ISU Ice Arena will reopen June 1. For your enjoyment, below is a link to a time lapse video of the painting and lining of the ice sheet: https://youtu.be/icearenarepaint. Bandshell Park: A group of twelve volunteers from the Bandshell neighborhood participated in a "Stash the Trash" event at Bandshell this year. In addition to picking up trash and sticks, the volunteers also touched up paint on the facility, and worked with staff to prep things in the park for the summer season. The group of neighbors hopes to make this a regular event. Community Gardens: A boy scout working on earning his Eagle Scout rank led the effort to build fourteen raised garden boxes (shown below) which have been installed adjacent the existing raised beds in Carr Park. Staff has placed the boxes, filled them with soil, and are ready for planting. All fourteen additional boxes have been reserved for this year! 5 Staff is continuing to work on developing the community garden spaces along Delaware Avenue (picture below). 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 by June 3. Furman Aquatic Center Lazy River Leak Repair: After months of trying to secure a contractor to repair the leak, this project has been finished! Two contractors proposed two different methods with one option needing to rip up the pool deck to repair the pipe. The second option included installing a sleeve in the pipe which could be done without ripping up the deck. Staff chose the second option and the Lazy River is filled with water and not leaking! Bring on the water walkers! Furman Aquatic Center Pool Painting Project: Water’s Edge Aquatic Design, Lenexa, Kansas completed plans and specifications for the Furman Aquatic Center Pool Painting Project. The specifications include details on how the basins shall be prepared prior to painting as well as the specifics of the type of paint that shall be used. The plans and specifications were approved by Council on April 26 and were due on May 25. There is $150,000 in the budget to complete the project, however, bids came in at approximately twice the amount budgeted. Staff will be presenting alternatives to City Council on June 14. Furman Aquatic Center Splash Pool Play Structure: Fisher Bros, Inc., Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, completed refurbishing the play structure and the beaver slide at the Furman Aquatic Center. Both pieces were removed and taken back to the Fisher Bros. shop where each piece was inspected, pipe exteriors sandblasted, pipe interiors cleaned, and repainted. 6 Homewood Golf Course: Multiple golf leagues began in May and a summary of participation (couples or teams) for the last three years is shown below. League 2022 2021 2020 Couples 11 24 10 Men’s 8 Not Offered Not Offered City Employees 12 11 8 The golf course opens on April 1 of every year, weather permitting. The following table shows the number of rounds played from April 1 through May 25 for each of the past four years . Rounds Played 2022 2021 2020* 2019 3,382 3,766 1,607 2,771 *Did not open until May 1 due to the pandemic and had reduced the number of tee times per hour. The Clubhouse has been experiencing better that anticipated facility rentals. The number of hours rented and the projected revenue for this fiscal year is shown in the table below . Budgeted Revised Projections Community Room Rental Hours 100 102.5 Pro Shop Rental Hours 0 14 Revenue $10,000 $10,950 Wellness: The first summer session of Fitness, Yoga and Cycle classes began Monday, May 16 with classes offered in-person, virtual and now outdoors! Registration numbers for the first session are 278, 40 and 32, respectively. New Outdoor classes started this summer include Belly Dancing (11 registrations) and Extreme Outdoor Bootcamp (11 registrations). A new session of Aqua classes at Green Hills Wellness Center began Monday, May 16 with 114 registrations and a new session of Aqua classes at Forker Pool at ISU began Monday, May 23 with 49 registrations. Ames Parks & Recreation Tae Kwon Do classes began Tuesday, May 10 at the Ames Middle School with 114 registrations. Once again, Parks and Recreation has partnered with Reiman Gardens to offer Yoga in the Gardens. Two classes are offered weekly with 13 registrations. 7 PUBLIC WORKS Resource Recovery Plant: Resource Recovery will provide support for an ISU study with the Department of Energy titled, “Conversion of Material Recovery Facility (MRF) Rejected Wastes to Value-added Products for Various Material Applications”. The study is to demonstrate that solid waste process rejects can be converted to bio-gas and other value-added products. The elements of the study will include having organic wastes in MRF rejects processed using solid -state anaerobic digestion (SSAD) to produce biogas and other waste pyrolyzed to produce bio-oil and high-ash bio-char. Bio-oil will be used to develop asphalt modifiers to enhance performance life and provide lower cost alternatives to virgin crude petroleum products currently used. The bio-char char will be used to develop concrete construction materials and polymer composites for automobile applications. To support this project, the City will provide municipal solid waste process reject materials from the Resource Recovery Plant to be used as feedstocks that currently cannot be recycled or used in our facilities to support the efforts of the project team. We will also provide information such as gross composition, source traceability, and serve as an advisor through the duration of the project.