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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - November 2020 Monthly Project Highlights1 City of Ames - November Project Highlights - 2020 Animal Shelter: The Ames Animal Shelter has developed a new partnership with the Story County Animal Shelter & Animal Control. With the appointment of the new Director for that agency, the door opened up for opportunities for animals in our community and Story County as a whole. In our first animal transfer together, we transferred twelve cats from the Story County Shelter to our facility for adoption. Several of the cats had been at their shelter for years waiting for their forever homes. Many of those cats have already been adopted from our facility in the short time that they were with us. One example pictured here is Louis. He arrived at the Story County Shelter on April 18, 2017 and was at their shelter for 1,291 days. Louis was adopted through the Ames Shelter on November 23, 2020 after only 25 days. Staff is excited to develop and maintain this partnership and will continue to work on animal transfer programs, disaster response and other mutually beneficial programs. Electric Services: By now you should see “solar panels in a crate”, a demonstration project set up at the corner of Duff and East 5th Street, south of the Bandshell. This is an electrical micro-grid designed at ISU, with support from the Army National Guard. It’s self-contained and designed to bring electricity to hard to reach places or during natural disasters. Electric Services is partnering with ISU on this project and will be displaying the prototype for up to 9 months. It is fully functional and will be set up to charge electric vehicles as a way to demonstrate its capability. The solar panels will produce electricity from the sun and store it in batteries located within the crate. We invite the public to stop by and learn more about solar power and this unique concept. SunSmart, Ames’ first community solar farm is nearing completion. This 2.2 megawatt farm is being constructed near the Ames municipal airport. The system should go online just before Christmas. We still have some room available, so if you are trying to come up with a unique holiday gift, why not give them a gift that keeps on giving? Buy a power pack and provide free, renewable energy for the next 20 years. Each Power Pack is $300. Fire: On November 2nd, the Ames Fire Department welcomed five new Firefighter recruits to the City. We are happy to welcome Axel Silva, Taylor Scott, Mason Eisentrager, Jacob Eslick and Connor Hoyle to the City of Ames. Over the next 14 weeks in the Recruit Academy, recruits will be busy as they learn 2 everything they can about customer service, firefighting and emergency medical care. Each day of the academy will be filled will physical fitness training, classroom time and intense hands-on training. 3 Library: The Ames Public Library has approved a new Strategic Plan to guide their work over the next several years. The Library did extensive information gathering from surveys, community stakeholder engagement sessions, and input from staff, volunteers, the Library Board of Trustees and Friends Foundation. The plan focuses on six priorities including Equity, Inclusion, Civic Engagement, Access, Wellness and Staff Development. You can read it in more detail at https://www.amespubliclibrary.org/strategicplan In response to increased community spread of COVID-19, Ames Public Library shifted from “grab and go” lobby service to curbside service starting Sunday, November 22. Library cardholders can request physical items like books and DVDs, then pick them up in front of the Library safely and easily, no appointment needed. The lobby will be closed at this time to minimize in-person contact and reduce the possibility of the spread of COVID-19. Other Library services will continue, including virtual programs; reference and reader advisory services by phone, e-mail, and web; take home activity kits for kids and teens; story times and videos online; Story Line stories and jokes by phone; KHOI radio show; and more. As always, Ames Public Library cardholders have free online access 24/7 to hundreds of thousands of downloadable e-books, audiobooks, and magazines; streaming videos; and online tools including homework help, full text newspaper access, language learning, resume builders, and much more. Visit www.amespubliclibrary.org for more information. Parks and Recreation Department Homewood Golf Course Clubhouse: Construction continues with the new clubhouse and updates are shown below: • All plumbing and electrical stub-ins have been completed in the basement and main floor in preparation for concrete. • The basement and main floor concrete slabs have been poured. • Framing started the week of November 23 and is expected to be completed in three to four weeks. • The wells for the Geothermal system have been drilled. • The grease interceptor has been installed. The new clubhouse will include a community room that can be utilized year-round (including rentals), a fireplace, an outdoor patio, and energy efficient appliances. It is scheduled to be completed in spring of 2021. 4 Basement Main Floor Emma McCarthy Lee Park Bridge: City Council awarded a contract to Henkel Construction, Ames, Iowa, to install a 70’ pedestrian bridge across Clear Creek in Emma McCarthy Lee Park. Henkel was expected to start construction in early October; however, the project has been delayed due to FEMA requiring additional approvals, including a Phase 1 Environment Study prior to the start of construction. These approvals could result in the City receiving an additional $30,000 reimbursement. EOR Inc. completed the study November 23 and will develop a report to be submitted to FEMA. Unfortunately, this project will more than likely be delayed until early next year. Munn Woods Burn: Staff completed a woodland prescribed burn in a section of Ann Munn Woods last week. Although staff has completed multiple prairie burns in the parks before, this is the first-time staff has completed a woodland burn. Prescribed burning in woodlands assists with controlling non-native species and assists in oak regeneration, which is the predominant tree species in this section of the woodland. 5 Auditorium: Some event organizers had rented Auditorium space for December but have since cancelled. Lorie Line has cancelled her concert and Hope Church will be conducting virtual services from their building on Lincoln Way for the month of December. It is likely Hope Church will be back in January. Homewood Golf Course: Homewood Golf Course closed for the season on November 9. The course was scheduled to close October 31 but remained open due to unseasonably warm weather. In October, 1,486 rounds were played, and 602 rounds were played between November 1 – 9. A total of 15,382 rounds were played during the 2020 season (May 1 – November 9) despite being closed for nine days in August due to the Derecho storm and cleanup efforts. In addition, golf carts weren’t available for rent until June 8 which meant several golfers didn’t start playing until then. Fitness Programming: A new session of fitness classes began November 9 with 164 registrations for in- person and 122 registrations for Zoom. This session a lot of classes had both an in-person and Zoom option. The participants could decide which option was best for them. 6 Two Deep Water Classes began at Municipal Pool on November 2 with a total of 18 registrations. There is still one outdoor workout class with 23 participants that is meeting at Moore Memorial Park twice per week. A new session of Tae Kwon Do began October 27. Both Zoom and in-person classes were offered at the Community Center with 62 registrations; however, with the rise in COVID-19 cases, all classes began meeting on Zoom November 15. Aquatics Programming: As the pandemic continues, aquatics programming has included swim lessons (parent with child for most levels), lap swimming (one to two swimmers per lane), open swim (pre- 7 registration required and maximum of 30 people per session), and some rentals. Shown below are figures for October & November (month-to-date): October November (month-to-date) Lap Swimming: Daily Paid Admissions 99 75 Swim Pass Visits 844 717 Open Swim Registrations 36 26 Total Swimmers 979 818 Fall / Winter Programming: In accordance with the Governor’s Emergency Proclamations signed November 16 and 18, 2020, several changes to Parks and Recreation programs and facility offerings were implemented. These changes include: • Youth Basketball (3rd – 6th Grade) was suspended. • Adult Open Pickleball and Badminton at the Community Center were suspended. • The Ames/ISU Ice Arena is only offering Figure Freestyle and Stick & Helmet Sessions with a maximum of 15 skaters allowed per session and pre-registration required. In addition, no spectators are allowed. • Municipal Pool is only offering adult lap swim by pre-registration and only one swimmer per lane unless members of the same household. Reminders to social distance, keep masks on until class starts and immediately after it ends, stay home if ill, and wash hands often were sent to class participants that are still allowed to meet in person. Staff continues to evaluate how to safely offer programs and gauge the interests of residents to enroll in programs. Outdoor activities have been more popular than indoor, so will continue to explore outdoor winter programming and virtual classes. Resource Recovery Highlights: The Food Waste Diversion program has been opened up to citizens using their own buckets and no charge to dump them at Resource Recovery. This fiscal year-to-date we’ve kept 12,580 pounds of food waste out of the landfill! 8 The Great Pumpkin Disposal Program was successful again this year, keeping 12,460 pounds (6.23 tons) out of the landfill - they’re headed for composting!! We’re continuing the program for another week for any late pumpkins. The No Charge Yard Waste days saw: 530 vehicles on October 30; 91 vouchers redeemed on November 6; 1,002 vehicles on November 7; 735 vehicles on November 21; and 357 vehicles on November 28 Planning Housing & Community Development: 1. To date the CDBG-CV CARES (COVID-19) Rent, Mortgage and Utility Relief Assistance Programs have assisted approximately 53 low- and moderate-income households for a total amount of $157,269. The program has provided assistance as follows: $18,924 for approximately five (5) households in Mortgage and Utility funding and $138,975 for approximately 48 households in Rent and Utility funding. Applications are still being accepted and processed. 2. Staff hopes to begin preparing the application for additional COVID funding from both HUD and the State of Iowa, Department of Economic Development. 3. Staff has begun discussions with Prairie Fire Development group to prepare a developer’s agreement to partner together to submit a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LITHC) application to the Iowa Finance Authority in March 2021. It is anticipated that the agreement for partnership will be presented to Council in December. 4. Staff is in the final stages of completing the 2020-21 CDBG Annual Action Plan for the comment period and Council approval for submittal in December. Police: We are making progress on the P25 compliant radio system. While we are all still operating on the temporary system, the vendor, RACOM, has begun construction on the four permanent towers for the permanent system. RACOM is working to get footings done, power run, and begin the process of erecting the steel on the sites. It has been a long process and seeing construction is a great step. We have closed our police officer recruitment process and will be starting the physical agility and other testing to fill two current open positions.