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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - October 22, 2025, Joint Meeting of the Ames City Council and Iowa State University Student Government Minutes Agenda for Student Government and Ames City Council Joint Meeting October 22, 2025 Memorial Union – Sun Room 5:02 PM – CALL TO ORDER 5:02 PM – Vice President Vlasek: 5:02 PM – ROLL CALL P = Present L = Arrived Late A = Absent D = Departed Early Last Name First Name Constituency Roll Aiono-Dimoff Ella College of Liberal Arts and Sciences P Gerdes Eric College of Liberal Arts and Sciences P Olson Alyssa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences P Lima Barbosa Sofia College of Design P College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Graef Delaney College of Agriculture and Life Sciences A Jones Samantha College of Health and Human Sciences P College of Health and Human Sciences College of Engineering Miller Matt College of Engineering P College of Engineering College of Engineering Saini Luv College of Business P College of Business Veterinary Medicine College Kekung Mkpe Graduate College L Onyekwelu-Udoka Lucky Graduate College L Graybill Amyah Residence Hall P Dauman Ben Residence Hall P Bernal Bayne Residence Hall P Einwalter Owen Residence Hall L Quarshie Amanda University Village P Snyder Jake Off-Campus Residence P Bailey Paige Off-Campus Residence P Hartley Claire Off-Campus Residence P Margrett Quinn Off-Campus Residence P Nandal Srishti Off-Campus Residence P Pursley Josie Off-Campus Residence P Neal Lauren Off-Campus Residence P Kuhse Brody Off-Campus Residence P Off-Campus Residence Off-Campus Residence Gaarde Grace Campus Panhellenic Council A Interfraternity Council 5:04 PM – Vice President Vlasek: I'll hand it over to the mayor to begin. 5:04 PM – Mayor Haila: Well, good evening. I call the special meeting for the Aims City Council and Student Government to order. And if you would allow me to introduce some of our participants. We have Fire Chief Rich Higgins. He's going to be talking about the fire station. Council Member Bronwyn Beatty-Hanson, Council Member Gloria Betcher. Council Member Tim Gartin, City Manager Steve Schainker, Assistant City Manager Brian Phillips. And Councilwoman Rachel Junck. And Councilwoman Amber Corriere. And Councilwoman Anita Rollins. And also, we have Nolan Sagan who is our Sustainability Coordinator and he's going to be talking about climate action plans. 5:04 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Before we begin, I invite one of our AV techs up to do a little introduction. 5:05 PM – AV Tech: Microphones. Yeah. So for those of you who have not used the microphones, the ones that are kind of flat on the table, there's a mute and unmute button. There's a push to talk button. So if it's red, it is muted. If it's green, it's unmuted. Go ahead and unmute while you're speaking. And then if you finished your remarks, just mute it again so that it's not creating additional noise. If you have the ones that are on the stands, there's a little switch. By default, they're on. If you want to have a sidebar conversation or something, you can flip that off. So it's not picking you up, but they're not quite as sensitive. So we'll just leave them on by default. And that should be all you need to know. So enjoy your meeting. 5:06 PM – PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 5:06 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Now we will move into the pledge of allegiance. PROGRAM 5:06 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Now we move into our program with a welcome message from Mayor Hala and President Brandt. 5:06 PM – Mayor Haila: Well, good evening. This is one of the meetings we enjoy attending and participating with all of you. We're looking forward to a robust conversation. I just want to give kudos to our ex officio, Emily Boland. She does a fantastic job, and she's done a good job of getting the agenda. And thank you for sending in advance some of the things you want to talk about, so we're prepared. And I certainly hope that there are some opportunities for you to ask questions and make suggestions on how we can better engage with all of the student body here at Iowa State. And so with that, I will turn it over to President Brandt, and we're looking forward to the conversation. 5:07 PM – President Brandt: Can you guys hear me? All right, I'll use this one. Good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure to welcome you to this joint meeting between the Aims City Council and Iowa State University Student Government. Gatherings like this highlight the strong and enduring partnership that has defined the relationship between the city and our university for well over a century. This partnership is built on collaboration, mutual respect, and a shared vision for progress, whether it's through economic development, community engagement, sustainability, or student involvement, our efforts are driven by the same goal, to make Aims and Iowa State the very best it can be. As we come together tonight, we celebrate not only our past achievements, but also the exciting opportunities that lie ahead. We look forward to an open dialogue as we discuss ways to continue strengthening our community and supporting one another's mission. On behalf of Iowa State University Student Government, I want to extend a sincere thank you to the members of the Aims City Council for being here tonight, and for your continued partnership. Together, we can ensure that Aims remains a welcoming, innovative, and thriving community for all who call it home. Thank you again for your dedication and commitment to making Aims and Iowa State University great. 5:08 PM – OPEN FORUM 5:08 PM – Vice President Vlasek: So, we're going to start with open discussion time, which is time to discuss projects and ideas. Next, we'll move into downtown engagement, then the climate action plan and sustainability. We'll talk about Aims, fire station, number two, relocation, and then move into closing comments and adjournment. So, I will now open the floor for open forum. Open forum is an opportunity to discuss issues relevant to the student body. If you're here for open forum, I invite you to the podium at this time. 5:09 PM - ADOPTING THE AGENDA 5:08 PM – Vice President Vlasek: (6:34) Seeing no one here, we'll now move to adopting the agenda for this evening. (6:37) Is there a motion to do so? *Motion* 5:08 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Is there a second? *Second* 5:08 PM – Vice President Vlasek: It's been moved and seconded. Are there any objections? Thank you. 5:09 PM - OPEN DISCUSSION 5:09 PM – Vice President Vlasek: So, we'll now move into open discussion. It's a time to discuss projects, ideas, or thoughts between student government and the Aims City Council and an opportunity for student government to talk and ask questions to the City Council. So, I'll open the floor. 5:09 PM – Mayor Haila: There are a couple of things that I'll defer to you. The one thing we definitely want to talk about is some of the changes to our solid waste, also known as garbage, and recycling in the community, and Brian Phillips is here to talk about that. And also, I believe, Emily, you want to have someone talk about the crosswalk at Stanton. Is that right? So, we're happy to take questions to start with, and then we can backfill on those. 5:09 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Senator Kuhse. 5:10 PM – Senator Kuhse: Okay. Good evening, everyone. To everyone, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting. It's so nice to meet you. Sorry, we're kind of interrupted by the cameras here, but that's okay. This might sound silly, but I kind of just have one question that a lot of students or constituents, for me, I guess I'll introduce myself a little further. I'm Brody. I represent students who live off campus. There's thousands of us, and I'm a mechanical engineering student here at Iowa State. So, kind of back to the question. This goes to all of the City Council or people here from the City of Ames today. How did you get here, and where did you park? 5:11 PM – Mayor Haila: All right. Bronwyn, you start, and then we'll just quickly go around the room. Bronwyn? 5:11 PM – Council Member Beatty-Hansen: I did drive today, and I parked in the Memorial Union ramp. 5:11 PM – Mayor Haila: And there was a note of hesitation in your voice, and why is that, Bronwyn? 5:11 PM – Council Member Beatty-Hansen: Well, I usually bike to our council meetings. I've biked to every council meeting for 10 years, except two of them when I had to duck out early, and so I had to use my car. But otherwise, I love to try to make it via bicycle, so I'm ashamed of myself this evening, but I did drive my car tonight. 5:11 PM – Mayor Haila: Someday we'll post a photo of her with icicles hanging down her face in the middle of winter. I'm not exaggerating. She's amazing. Gloria? 5:11 PM – Council Member Betcher: So, I drove, and I parked in the ramp, and I am not ashamed to say it. I have some mobility issues today because of my MMR vaccine. Yes. So, I drove. 5:12 PM – Mayor Haila: Tim. 5:12 PM – City Manager Schainker: Same. 5:12 PM – Mayor Haila: Rachel. 5:12 PM – Council Member Junck: Yeah, same here. 5:12 PM – Mayor Haila: Amber. 5:12 PM – At-Large Representative Corrieri: Ditto for me. 5:13 PM – Senator Kuhse: Very good. The reason for the question is because so many people ask about parking. I'm sure you guys are all tired of the question at this point. So, I guess kind of a follow-up to that. For those of you who did drive, if the parking in the ramp was provided or otherwise, or you paid for it yourself, let's say that wasn't accessible, where would you park instead, and do you know how much it might cost to park there? 5:13 PM – Mayor Haila: Who wants to take that one? 5:13 PM – Council Member Betcher: I'll go first. 5:13 PM – Mayor Haila: Go ahead, Gloria. 5:13 PM – Council Member Betcher: I happen to have a coveted parking ramp pass in the East Campus parking deck because I'm a professor in the English department, and I would normally park down there and not charge the student government for my walk-up from the base. Otherwise, I would typically just stay at home because I live right over on Hayward Avenue, and I would either walk from there or I would have my husband drop me off, and then I'd walk home. 5:14 PM – Mayor Haila: Anybody else? Rachel? 5:14 PM – Council Member Junck: So, I was recently a student as soon as or as recently as two years ago, so I know that parking has only increased since then, too. But typically, if I were to park, I would try to find a spot out on the west side of the Memorial Union because those meters are cheaper than in the ramp. And so if that was full, then I would either bite the bullet and have to go on the ramp or would maybe go into Campustown or some of the meters along Lincoln Way on the south side of Lincoln Way and then walk from there to get to the Memorial Union. But oftentimes, I didn't want to deal with parking, so I would take the SciRide or walk or bike to campus. I've lived close to campus for probably seven years now on Campus Ave, Sheldon, Highland, a lot of the west of campus neighborhoods, so I can understand that it's a lot easier to walk or take the CyRide that short distance than have to deal with parking once you get here. 5:14 PM – Senator Kuhse: Can I ask a quick follow-up to that? Would you say parking on public streets would be a hassle, per se, then? 5:14 PM – Council Member Junck: Depends on which streets. I think we already do have a lot of close-to-campus parking. Living on Campus Ave, I would see the parking switch every day, so I know that there's a lot of people that are commuters that do park close to campus and walk in, but I think it would depend what streets you're talking about. 5:14 PM – Senator Kuhse: Yeah, thank you. 5:15 PM – Mayor Haila: Is there a specific point or question that you would like to try and tease out or flesh out, or did you get the answers that you were looking for? 5:15 PM – Senator Kuhse: Yeah, kind of in response to that. Like I said, the question has come up so much. I know you all received it. The general idea is considering if it's a hassle or not. Is parking accessible to most people? Is it costly? And exploring that. And kind of in this conversation, seeing where you all lie in your own experience, I think speaks to what the broader community outside of our student base can say. I think a lot of the people in the room, I've seen heads nodding. We've had conversations. I think we can all speak to our own experiences, but the purpose of the question was to gather information on your experiences. So if you want to share your own, I'd welcome that as well. 5:15 PM – Mayor Haila: Sure. I would say that if the ramp was not available, I would go to either Campus Town, the intermodal ramp, which I have used from time to time. I would look for a spot on Welch or some of the other streets, Chamberlain, for the sake of discussion. And then I would continue to work my way out further to the south if necessary. I never had a challenge in trying to find a parking spot, and I do have the privilege of coming on campus a number of times during each semester to meet with different either groups or individuals. But I guess can I just turn around and ask you a question back, and that is, we have one of the top-notch public transit systems in the country, in SciRide, and approximately 93% of the riders are students. And if we were to design a traditional transit system, it would just go east-west and north-south down main thoroughfares. But the transit system is designed to really help get as many students to campus as possible, and actually from campus back to their areas. So is there some challenges for individuals, or the routes just don't work well, that would prohibit them from going ahead and using the transit system? I'm just curious, because you said you represent people who are off-campus. 5:17 PM – Senator Kuhse: Correct. 5:19 PM – Mayor Haila: And I was just kind of curious, are there some gaps or issues with the routes or timing that we could potentially–Rachel serves on transit board. Emily, you serve on the transit board too. So you have two people here who could report back from a board member, you know, in terms of what challenges might exist. 5:19 PM – Senator Kuhse: Yeah, first of all, excellent question. There are challenges. There are some that I've faced myself. I think one example would be really good for people my major in engineering. Tomorrow evening I have an exam starting sometime in the 6 o'clock hour, and then that leads into an 8 o'clock, ending at 10:15. So when I'm going to catch a bus back home, I'm exhausted, and it's easier for me to bring my car to campus. Luckily, you know, that 6 o'clock hour is where campus parking opens up for free. But in examples of this evening, it's still not accessible for me to park on campus in any spot I choose. I'm parked on campus right now. I paid, I think, $1.29, something like that, for the space east of here. Yeah, there are challenges. I think they've been identified before, or people know of them. So the biggest challenge with nighttime exams are scheduling between the 30-minute bus ride or the 30 or 15 minute wait, which many students will opt to bring a vehicle instead. And you'll see that as you go near the halls of which the exams are taken in. The campus streets are lined with vehicles. So maybe that accessibility would be greener, per se. But again, to wrap around to answer your question, I think there are challenges, which is why people like to drive. People outside of the Ames area likely drive or get dropped off, as somebody mentioned earlier. 5:20 PM – Mayor Haila: So I'll just close with this. We can move on to something else. But as you're probably aware, Iowa State has 100% jurisdiction on campus. 5:20 PM – Senator Kuhse: Correct, yes. 5:21 PM – Mayor Haila: We have absolutely no authority. So really, our jurisdiction kind of starts south of Lincoln Way when it's not university-owned property. And so the intermodal facility is one option. Certainly, street parking we know is going to be at a premium between residents as well as students. But I think if there's really a desire to have copious amounts of parking in close proximity to campus, that really becomes an Iowa State question. It is very expensive to build something on campus. Period, just parking structures are expensive. If you wanted to increase the quantity of parking in close proximity to the area. And I think at this point, the city probably is not in a position to commit to building additional parking ramps on property immediately around campus to try and increase the capacity. 5:21 PM – Senator Kuhse: Is that because it's campus? Is that because of the financial burden to that? You said it's not so much the desire or the position right now. Is that because of the campus' ability to build their own? Is that a sore subject that the topic has come and gone? Where does that lie? Is it financial? Is it because campus can do it? Is it because there's not interest in it? And there's other places funds can go? We never had a conversation directly about this topic with Dr. Wintersteen or with anybody else on campus. 5:21 PM – Mayor Haila: I'm just saying that we know we're looking at doing a parking structure potentially downtown sometime in the future. It's anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000 of parking space to build a parking structure. And so it's a significant investment. So from a city standpoint, to get two, three, 400 parking spaces, you can quickly do the math. Then it's finding property on campus. That would be something that would be good to have someone from student government talk to a university, probably FPNM or somebody else that could give you some ideas on that. Obviously, they've done a lot of investment and done some fantastic buildings on campus. I'm not sure where their priorities lie regarding that. 5:21 PM – Senator Kuhse: Yeah. Again, wrapping around to the idea that most of the people, as they went around the room speaking to where they parked and where the alternative was, the alternative was on city streets. The priority is campus. So in this joint meeting, I think the purpose is more so focusing on what can be done off campus, whereas compared to what campus can do, that's what we can discuss all year. But since we're here in this special meeting, I think that's of importance. I think this is an issue that we've identified that I think can be looked at in the future. That's all I have for this subject. If you want to discuss it with me later, I'm open to it. 5:22 PM – Mayor Haila: Thank you. 5:22 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Senator Graybill. 5:22 PM – Senator Graybill: Hi. My name is Amaya Graybill. I'm a freshman here at Iowa State, and I represent Inter-Residence Halls Association. So all the students living in residence halls, basically, which is a lot, as you can imagine. This is kind of backtracking a little bit, but not necessarily parking, but transportation and the discrepancies in that. I live in Towers, as do many. Towers has been like, it was single rooms only, but because of increased enrollment, there's so many students living there. I can't remember the exact number, so many. But the buses that got there, and I know Emily and I kind of talked about this, and maybe you've already heard, but are really lacking, and especially most of the people that live in Towers are international students or freshmen that don't necessarily have cars here, so they don't even really have the option to park on campus, even if there was parking on campus available. On the weekends, one bus comes every 40 minutes, if it's reliable and if it's on time, which if you live at Towers, you know that it's not always on time, and it's not always reliable, and I think we talked a lot about safety, and also about access to food, and it being cold, and your 20, 30-minute walk from everything, and so if you miss the bus, or if you do have to walk, and it's negative 25 degrees if you don't have a car to just go drive somewhere, or you don't have the means to door-dash food to your residence hall. So I think that's something to think about too, off-campus students or students at Towers, just making sure that they have equal access to all the things people on Central Campus do. 5:23 PM – Mayor Haila: Emily or Rachel, do you want to comment on that? I know you have a public forum at transit board meetings. Has something been brought up there, or do you want to go ahead and take those comments back to transit? Go ahead, Emily. 5:24 PM – Ex-Officio Boland: Yeah, I can talk about this. So from our meeting now, we have a few weeks to go. We're sending off that information to CyRide, and we're going to try and get some numbers back about what would that mean if we added frequency and all that. The concerns are really important to hear. I'm glad that you guys are bringing them up, especially with increases in student enrollment. There's going to be more people living at Towers in the coming years, and so I just really appreciate that we're having this discussion. But yeah, sorry. 5:25 PM – Senator Graybill: Thank you. That's all. 5:25 PM – Council Member Junck: I just echo what Emily said. I appreciate the bringing it up. I hadn't previously heard about that, so if you have any more information on besides timing, like if there's anything else that's lacking there, we could definitely bring that to the board and talk about it. I will say that sometimes CyRide funding is constrained to making changes to additional routes. I was trying to pull up the number from one of our recent meetings, but it would be like over $100,000 just to add an extra bus onto one of the routes from previous requests that we get. So if there is, like, significant support behind this, it would be awesome to hear from not just one person but many people about how this would impact their lives. 5:25 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Senator Jones. 5:26 PM – Senator Jones: Okay, so my name is Samantha Jones, and I'm a junior studying elementary education. So we're changing topics here. I've heard we talked last year about bringing a Cane's to Ames. Do we have any updates on that? 5:26 PM – Mayor Haila: Steve, do you have anything you want to add or share with that? We do know that if we were to bring that to Ames, we'd basically be immortalized probably somewhere on campus. 5:26 PM – City Manager Schainker: Yeah, I think the Iowa State student representatives have been very vocal about that as a desire to bring in Cane's. I think the private sector is aware of that, and I think we're trying to recruit Cane's here right now. They need to find a spot. They're looking around for a potential spot to locate, and they understand the markets here, and I think they want to be here. Whether they can find a spot that meets their budget and a spot they want, a location they want, is yet to be determined. But they're aware of it, and I think both the Economic Development Commission in the city and also the city staff is working to make that happen. So it's not over yet. It took us a long time to get an Olive Garden. Hopefully it won't take us as long to get a Cane's, but people are working on it. It's not something we could use eminent domain and help the private sector by acquiring a spot. You have to remember that. It has to be agreed upon to purchase. 5:27 PM – Mayor Haila: Well, I think we've talked about this for many years too, and that is each individual business has their own criteria. They want so many cars driving by. They want to have certain square footage. They want to have the ability to get in and out to a site. And there's a reason why Chick-fil-A and a lot of their places are on South Delphi is because the traffic count is really high. I don't know. I mean, it would be lovely to have one in Campustown. But the point becomes is they have a certain criteria matrix that they use to decide where they're going to locate. And so last time I heard that people were trying to see if there was some kind of like a little chess game being done, moving people around. But I have not heard anything, and Steve usually is the first person who hears about that. But we understand that. 5:28 PM – City Manager Schainker: We’re trying, we’re trying. 5:27 PM – Mayor Haila: Everybody locally is trying to make it happen. And we know the athletic department desperately wants to have one in Ames also. 5:28 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Councilwoman. 5:28 PM – Council Member Betcher: I actually just wanted to follow up on the question about the towers. I live right near the towers, and I'm wondering, and Emily and Rachel can probably correct me on this, but we do have a gold route circulator that runs about every five minutes from towers to Schilleter and back, or it's supposed to, I think. And it's a free route. So I'm wondering if there's the potential to catch that down to Bessy and then transfer to another CyRide route that might be an alternative, not the most convenient, but perhaps something that could be done. 5:29 PM – Senator Graybill: I do know, like the gold route is a lot more frequent. It doesn't go as late, which is another thing. And it also doesn't run on the weekends. So I think that's our big thing. That's a good idea, and I appreciate that. And I could also relay that information just so we do have solutions that are a little bit less costly. But I think looking at just like, also it's probably not every five minutes realistically. It would be ideal if it were in the perfect world, but yeah. I think weekends, there's no gold route. It's just brown every 40 minutes, if that. And then nighttime, looking at when it stops as it starts getting darker as well. I mean, it's gonna start getting dark at like five, and then there's kids walking home, you know, 30 minutes. 5:30 PM – Council Member Betcher: I'm just going by the schedule as posted, which is probably not realistic, SciRide Transportation Board. I don't have control over that. But I do think it's a really useful route for those people who don't know about it to get to the other routes that they could use. 5:30 PM – Senator Graybill: Definitely, yeah. Thank you. 5:30 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Senator Kuhse. 5:30 PM – Senator Kuhse: Okay, I think you all got sent this before, but one thing I've kind of looked at in the past two weeks is the crosswalk. For students, you'll know that that's kind of by Jeff's Pizza. Some of us have talked about it before. So I have a proposal for you all. So the proposal is to install a lighted pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection of Lincoln Way and Stanton Ave. In about a mile, don't quote me on my math there, that's the only uncontrolled pedestrian intersection where pedestrians cross Lincoln Way, all four lanes, without a signal or indicator to drivers. So kind of the details with this, I've noticed and heard from many constituents and peers about their experiences related to safety at the crosswalk near Jeff's Pizza shop. The issue is that vehicles, including buses in some cases, do not yield to pedestrians who are waiting to cross or stuck in the middle of Lincoln Way. Council, last week you heard about a pedestrian island when you discussed the lane reduction at Duff and Lincoln. I've seen students stuck there, and I have some data to back that up. So two weeks ago at 4 o'clock, I collected my own data. So I stood outside of Jeff's Pizza shop, set a timer on my phone for 10 minutes, and then recorded the number of pedestrians that wanted to use the crossing. And I also recorded the number of drivers who failed to yield. So in that collection, what I did is I stood there with my phone, with a counter app, any time a student stood still, so meaning that they were waiting and had not just approached the—I'll call it the rumble strip—the accessibility ramp of each portion of the sidewalk there, each time a pedestrian I was standing still at the intersection, waiting to cross. I recorded a number—I hit the plus sign. In 10 minutes, I observed 32 pedestrians standing there. And, as I said, in that same 10-minute period, 92 drivers did not yield. They drove past. There were two groups of consecutive vehicles—18 cars each—traveling westbound. The light had turned at the Memorial Union, next to Starbucks, and cars began moving westbound. Eighteen cars in a row—nine per lane—did not stop for three students who were waiting. If this had been nighttime, those students wouldn’t have been seen. If a student correctly assumed they had the right of way at this intersection, they could have been hit, which would cause serious injury—especially if all 18 cars failed to stop. It’s no joke. It’s serious. The goal of this proposal is to inform you all of the life safety risk here, and to propose a lighted, button- activated indicator. This would improve visibility and help identify drivers who deliberately break state traffic laws. In those 10 minutes, if the entire police force had been present in a sting operation, it could have resulted in about $12,000 in ticket revenue. Citations under Iowa Code Schedule U are approximately $135 each. So, 92 violations at $135 each—again, my math isn’t perfect, but I am an engineering major—that’s about $12,000. I’m not suggesting citations should be viewed as an income source. I’m saying this is a tangible number that reflects the scale of the issue. Altogether, I want to discuss this with you, Council, and understand the next steps in getting this lighted crosswalk indicator installed. We can talk about funding, risk, and construction constraints. For anyone interested, I printed a picture of what I’m proposing. There’s a button—it’s ADA accessible. You can either wave your hand in front of it or press it with your finger. Many of these, like the ones we already see on Lincoln Way, have enunciators that improve accessibility. Right now, I would say the crosswalk is not accessible compared to others we already have. This proposal aims to improve that, so drivers can see pedestrians who might be obstructed from view by a parked vehicle on the south side of Lincoln Way. It also helps identify drivers who deliberately fail to yield. For drivers like myself, seeing flashing amber lights signals that a pedestrian is waiting. That prompts me—and others—to slow down, apply the brakes, and allow pedestrians to cross. Any questions on that? 5:36 PM – Mayor Haila: No, but I was going to ask Steve to talk about it, and then anyone else can jump in after that. Oh—never mind. 5:36 PM – City Manager Schainker: Well, first of all, there may be some disagreement or confusion about crosswalks. I know campus rules are different, but I believe that on city streets, drivers—whether they like it or not—do not have to stop or yield to pedestrians unless the pedestrian is already in the crosswalk. In other words, if someone is waiting on the sidewalk, drivers are not legally required to stop. You might not like that, but that’s the law. So, while it’s inconvenient, it wouldn’t be a citation issue. I do want to point out something interesting. Back in 2017–18, the city and the university jointly sponsored a study to address safety along the Lincoln Way corridor—from Union to Highland Avenue. This issue came up, and no one could agree on a solution. We did make some improvements, like clearing out the medians and creating a threshold or sanctuary where people could stand as traffic passed. But no major improvement like the one you’re suggesting was made. We also developed another plan afterward called “Walk, Bike, and Roll”—a multimodal plan. In that plan, we identified Stanton and Lincoln Way as a problem area. In fact, the problem was exacerbated when the university stubbed out a gravel road from Welch Avenue on the north side of Lincoln Way. That road was meant to circumvent Lake LaVerne, but it created a direct crossing point at Stanton, which increased pedestrian traffic there. We had invested in safer crossings at Welch and other locations, but this new crossing increased the risk.The good news is that the City Council took note and included this location in the Capital Improvement Plan. It’s scheduled for 2029. You have to understand, there are many multimodal issues across the city, and they have to be prioritized. But this project is built into the plan. It’s a $400,000 project that will include a hybrid beacon—a self-actuated pedestrian crossing like the one you’re proposing. We’ll need to talk to the Council and surrounding stakeholders. The plan also includes filling in the median so that Stanton Avenue will become right-in, right-out only, to improve safety. So, it’s in the plan. The City Council is aware of it, and we hope to address it. It may not happen next year, as you’d prefer, because other priorities have already been identified. But that’s where we are with this project. They’re aware of it, and they plan to correct the situation. 5:39 PM – Mayor Haila: Tim, do you want to add anything to this? 5:39 PM – Council Member Gartin: Yes, I appreciate the concern. All of us care deeply about safety. From a procedural perspective, anyone can submit a concern to the City Council. If it’s a safety issue, we almost always refer it to staff for review. In some cases, staff will conduct a traffic study. Just to be respectful of everyone’s time—we only have so much time tonight, and I know we have other agenda items to cover. I think we should look at this because you've clearly given it some thought. We're not going to be able to solve it tonight, but I want to give you a path forward in terms of next steps. 5:39 PM – Senator Kuhse: Thank you. I appreciate that—and that's what I was especially seeking tonight. I also want to share my appreciation that it's in the capital plan. I think safety is definitely the number one priority, especially when the impact is so large. I'm seeing head nods in the room again. This needs to be a priority. If we can move it up, absolutely—let's do it. Forget parking when students or pedestrians could get hurt. What if someone coming off Welch Avenue who is impaired gets hurt in the crosswalk because a driver doesn't stop? Or someone who's not impaired—a student, maybe someone in a wheelchair? When that happens, and the signal isn't coming until 2029 or later, will you regret it? That’s my question. It doesn’t need an answer, but I’d like you all to think about it. 5:40 PM – Mayor Haila: Yes, we can discuss this further. I appreciate you bringing it up. I believe it's already in the capital improvement plan. Council can take it under advisement in terms of whether it gets moved up. The council does have the privilege of reviewing and reprioritizing projects. But if we move it up, something else gets delayed. That becomes a traffic engineering question—what are the highest priorities? Your comments are duly noted, and we do appreciate them. Not trying to cut you off, but we do want to get to other items as well. 5:41 PM – Senator Kuhse: Just one other question on that—Councilman Tim, I watched your meeting last week. You mentioned 683 responses, I think, whether from Facebook or a survey. Other council members also commented on low input, especially on issues like this and the intersection at Duff and Lincoln Way. I'd encourage you to reach out to students. There are 31,000 of us, and I think in the future we can explore ways to get more responses to those surveys. I just wanted to make a note of that while we're here. I think each and every one of you talked about it. Yes, like you're saying, we can move on to downtown engagement. 5:42 PM – Council Member Betcher: Sorry, Mayor—this is actually something for student government. I believe in the study we worked on back in 2017–2018, one of the problems identified was pedestrian behavior and how people interact with signals at Welch and other intersections. There was a very low rate of people actually using the signalization or knowing when to cross. My suggestion is that while we wait for the capital improvement to occur, we focus on educating students—especially those living off campus—about safety at those intersections. As you said, vehicles aren't going to stop unless the pedestrian is in the crosswalk. Iowa law requires that. It seems to me the most proactive thing we can do in the meantime is educate everyone who uses that corridor. We've done that in the past as a city. I don't know if we have plans to do it again, but we used to have a "Walk, Bike, and Roll" education plan. We'd go out and stand on the corner of Lincoln Way and talk to people about safe crossings. It seems like it might be time for that again. Pedestrians also have a responsibility to pay attention. I see a lot of people with headphones on, not really watching, because they think they have the right of way—and they might not. That can lead to a tragic situation. I think it has to come from both sides, and we can work through this to make it a safer intersection. 5:44 PM – Senator Kuhse: In response to that, I'm a little confused. I think we just said pedestrians only have the right of way if they're in the crosswalk. Can you give an example of when they wouldn’t have the right of way, like you referenced? 5:44 PM – Council Member Betcher: If they're standing on the corner or crossing against a light— down on Welch or at Lynn—I see a lot of people running across Lincoln Way between lights. I'm talking about general corridor safety, not just Stanton and Lincoln Way. We've got a lot of people moving back and forth there regularly, and a lot of traffic perpendicular to them. 5:44 PM – Senator Kuhse: Do you know if citations are issued for jaywalking or similar behavior? 5:44 PM – Council Member Betcher: I don't think our police typically issue citations for jaywalking. I haven’t heard of many, but there are laws in place. I'm not talking about legality—I'm talking about safety. The cars gave expectations.Drivers have expectations, and it can't all be on them. We need aware pedestrians too. Meeting in the middle is important. 5:45 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Thank you. Looks like we’ll have a quick comment from Speaker Pursley, then the Mayor, and then we’ll move to downtown engagement. 5:45 PM – Speaker Pursley: Yes, I wanted to agree with our City Councilwoman. I think it's a great idea to explore pedestrian behavior and education programs—from both the city and Iowa State. As a driver, I see a lot of students and others crossing crosswalks while on their phones, not paying attention. That’s part of the issue—pedestrians don’t always know how to cross safely. It’s definitely something we could work on in the future, but I think it’s appropriate to move on now. 5:46 PM – Mayor Haila: I would just add—we don’t want to single out students. There are plenty of non-students who also don’t cross safely. We have a big change coming up in Ames in the next couple of years. I’d like to ask Brian Phillips to touch on the upcoming changes to solid waste and recycling. So if Brian, if you could cover a few things, and then we’ll take questions. 5:46 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: Sure, I’ll be brief. For the last 50 years, Ames has used a waste-to-energy facility to handle most of the community’s solid waste. When you throw things away, they go to the Resource Recovery Facility. We pull out ferrous and non-ferrous metals, shred the remaining bits, and burn the combustible material in the power plant as supplemental boiler fuel. That system has faced increasing challenges over the last 10 to 15 years, so we’re planning to move away from it. Our goal is to open a new facility by July 1, 2027. We intend to continue some of the unique practices we’ve developed—like pulling valuable recyclable materials from solid waste before landfilling the rest. However, many of our current landfill avoidance efforts rely on the waste-to-energy system. You may have noticed that Ames doesn’t have robust curbside recycling compared to other communities. The City Council will be discussing in the next few weeks whether to move toward a more traditional curbside recycling approach for single-family homes and small multifamily properties. For those living on campus, Iowa State already has a recycling program. They collect separated recyclables, which are then processed. So campus residents likely won’t see much change.If you live in a larger multi-residential property—like a large apartment complex—that’s an area we’ll need to work on over the next few years. These properties present challenges in minimizing contamination, getting cooperation, and finding space for containers that can handle various types of recycling. In summary, over the next few years, you’ll see changes in how we handle solid waste and expanded recycling opportunities at the curb. We’ve also been expanding our drop-off programs. Outside the Resource Recovery Plant, we have a location where people can drop off separated recyclables—cardboard, mixed paper, aluminum, glass, and so on—at no charge. We plan to continue that and identify other potential drop-off locations in the community. Did I cover everything you wanted, Mayor? 5:50 PM – Mayor Haila: Uh, um, what's—what's causing part of this, you know, motivation at the power plant? And also maybe just—just touch on food waste also and some of the options you're pursuing. 5:50 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: Sure. So, there are a couple of different challenges that we have right now, which is what has led us to move away from waste-to-energy. Um, one is that—um, uh—the chemistry of performing waste-to-energy in our current operation doesn't work the way that it did a number of years ago. So, we operate on natural gas, uh, to fire the boilers at the power plant. Uh, when waste-to-energy began, we operated on coal. Uh, and that, uh, resulted in a different chemistry inside the boilers. Uh, that—um, uh—when we converted to natural gas, created this corrosive environment in the boilers.Also, the volume of plastic that is thrown away now compared to what was thrown away in 1975, uh, is considerably higher. And so, those two things in combination result in a very aggressive atmosphere inside of our boilers and a lot of very expensive maintenance that occurs. So, we looked at a bunch of different alternatives for how we might address, um, that corrosion and continue performing waste-to-energy. Uh, but in order to continue doing waste-to-energy, we would have to invest a significant amount of money, uh, into new infrastructure. And the problem that presents is that then we cannot invest in alternatives for, uh, more environmentally friendly energy production, uh, or purchasing more economical energy off of the, uh, electric grid. So, moving away from waste-to-energy frees up our ability to purchase cheaper energy off of the grid, to, uh, invest in new generation—which we're going to be doing in the next, uh, five years or so—as we build, uh, some of the replacement infrastructure for the power plants. Um, and, uh, it—it also provides a more reliable method to dispose of the solid waste compared to what we're doing now. Um… Is there anything else? Food waste also? 5:52 PM – Mayor Haila: Yeah. Food waste. 5:52 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: We've—we've, for a number of years, had a food waste diversion program. It's a pilot program where, uh, people can, um, obtain a green five-gallon bucket where they can, um, collect food scraps and then bring it to the Resource Recovery Plant and have it composted. Um, that program has been, uh, a pretty small program for the last—you know, for the time that we've operated it—in terms of the tonnage of materials that comes through. Um, food waste is a bit of a challenge because it can be not the kind of thing that you want to have in a bin outside of your house, uh, for weeks on end. Um, so we are looking at ways that we can, uh, improve our ability to accept food waste. Uh, we're—we're going to be evaluating in our new facility how we can implement, um—uh—programs for yard waste and composting and other, um, organic, um, disposal methods. Um, but, uh, you know, as—as we, uh, look to, uh, put together this new facility that we're going to be accepting all the solid waste for the whole county at, um— we're—we're identifying ways that we can help make sure that, um, the material that's disposed of ends up going to the right place. So, we're looking at technologies that can help minimize the amount of—of, um, liquid matter that we end up putting in a truck and hauling to a landfill, where it doesn't do a lot of good and it costs us a lot of money to put it in the truck and drive it a long distance. Uh, so we're looking at equipment in the new facility that can help us remove that and dispose of it more economically. Students on campus—so, students on campus, I—I don't think you're going to experience much of a difference in day-to-day how you dispose of, uh, your garbage and your recycling. Uh, the university has pretty good programs for that. Um, if you're off campus, I think you're going to be—uh, if you're in a house, uh, at some point here in the next, uh, six to eighteen months, uh, you're probably going to see a, uh, recycling cart show up on your doorstep, and we'll be asking you to use it. And if you're in an apartment, um, then it's probably later down the line, but certainly there are voluntary programs that you can participate in to take your recyclable materials to if you don't want to throw them away. 5:55 PM – Mayor Haila: Any city council members want to add anything to what Brian just talked about? 5:55 PM – Vice President Vlasek: I have a quick comment from one of our co-directors of sustainability, and then to Speaker Pursley. 5:55 PM – Co-Director of Sustainability O’Driscoll: I actually have a question. There's been a lot of construction lately, um, and construction produces a lot of waste. Do you guys have a set standard for how you dispose of this responsibly? 5:55 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: generated—um, it's—it's disposed of at the landfill generally. Um, we are looking at, in our new facility, being able to take light C&D material. Um, so things like wood waste and, uh, scrap metals and things like that that we have the ability to separate out. Unfortunately, some products aren't really good—aren't really easily separated out—and will ultimately go directly to the landfill. Things like shingles or, uh, concrete rubble that can't be recycled, or, um, drywall—things of that nature. Um, so we are looking at ways that we can accept some of it, process it to the extent that we can to remove some of the valuable materials and reuse them. Uh, but otherwise, ultimately, it's—it's going to end up in the landfill. 5:56 PM – Mayor Haila: Are you referring to specifically, like, paving projects or building construction? 5:56 PM – Co-Director of Sustainability O’Driscoll: Just in general. 5:56 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: So, another component is, um, if it's a city project— one of our facilities—um, we have, uh, in some projects, like the water plant, for example. The water plant was built in 2017, and, uh, that project was a LEED-certified project. And so, as a part of the construction, the contractor that was constructing it had to set up separated, uh, collection bins for the different debris that might be generated, so that as much of it as possible could be recycled—so it didn't all get co-mingled in one big dumpster that got hauled off to the landfill. So, we look to do things like that on city projects when we can. But a private sector, um, construction project, uh, doesn't have those kinds of restrictions. 5:57 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Speaker Pursley. 5:57 PM – Speaker Pursley: So, I have one question on this topic. I know you talked about single- family homes, apartments, um, and on campus. Um, but for sororities and fraternities, it's a very specific circumstance. Would you include them in this recycling program? 5:57 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: Um, at the outset of the program, I don't think that we're going to be looking to include them. Um, simply because it's—it's—it's closer to a larger multifamily property with larger volumes, as compared to a single-family home with three to— three, four, five residents. But, um, we are going to be—so, we're going to be looking at working on an individual basis with the multifamily properties to try to figure out what's the best solution for them. Uh, what we don't want to do is say, "You're going to have to recycle now," to multifamily properties or fraternities and sororities, and then it doesn't work well. People don't use it appropriately, we have a bunch of contamination, and then the material that is thrown in the recycling gets spoiled and we can't use it as recycling—and we end up landfilling it anyway. So, I think we're going to be working on an individual basis, including with fraternities and sororities in the future, once we get this program up and rolling. This is going to be a big change—yes—in behavior and expectations, and logistically, how we get 14,000 recycling carts out to the community, uh, in the span of a couple of months. 5:58 PM – Speaker Pursley: Thank you. Um, next I would like to make a motion to move the discussion on Ames Fire Station Number Two relocation, um, to be our next topic on the agenda. And then I would like to make a motion to end debate on the open discussion topic because of time constraints. Um, we only have so much time with the City Council, and we want to get to every topic on our agenda. *Second* 5:59 PM – Vice President Vlasek: There's been a motion to move the discussion on the Ames Fire Station up and then close the discussion on this topic. It's been seconded. Are there any objections? 5:59 PM – Senator Kuhse: Object. Um, just one remaining question. It's—it's fast. Um, is there a cost associated with the recycling bins for the single-family home residents, and what bill is that seen on, if so? 5:59 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: Yeah. Um, at the moment, we don't have that number nailed down. There will be some sort of a cost. We're not sure exactly what it will be until we figure out how we're going to be picking it up, how often that's going to occur, what kind of volumes we're going to be seeing—materials-wise, um, uh—and—and exactly how the City Council would like to approach it. So, our expectation is that that, uh, cost will be relatively low, but there will be a cost. It's a new service. 6:00 PM – Senator Kuhse: Okay, and then the second part of that—what bill would that be attached to? 6:00 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: Uh, it's going to depend on how the City Council chooses to proceed with it. So, we'll know more. I don't want to, uh, suppose how it's going to work until we have that conversation with the City Council. We're going to be doing that in the next, uh, month or so, uh, to learn more about how to get approval to proceed and, um, move forward with the project. 6:00 PM – Senator Kuhse: Thank you. AMES FIRE STATION #2 RELOCATION 6:00 PM – Vice President Vlasek: We'll now move to a discussion on the upcoming referendum vote on Fire Station Number Two relocation, how potential relocation impacts student life, and a discussion on Ames Fire Department and their relationship with Iowa State University. 6:01 PM – Mayor Haila: Well, it's my privilege to, uh, introduce Fire Chief Higgins. And the reason I asked this get flip-flopped is that I anticipated this may generate a lot of questions because this is regarding the fire station located in Campustown being relocated. And so, uh, Chief, appreciate you taking time out of your evening to join us and, uh, let you go ahead. I think if we could maybe spend 15 minutes or 20 minutes, you know, on this topic, I think that'd be a good time frame to, uh, shoot for. 6:01 PM – Ames Fire Chief Higgins: Absolutely. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here tonight. I'm pretty excited to be sharing with you an opportunity, uh, to improve safety for not only Iowa State, um, but also for our entire community. And that starts with a November 4th Tuesday election, where you're going to see a bond referendum to relocate Fire Station Number Two, which is currently located over at 132 Welch Avenue. I'm sure some of you have seen it before as you, uh, traverse the area over to State Avenue. 601 State Avenue would be on the west side of State, on the top of the hill near the shared use path. A couple reasons why we're looking to relocate Fire Station Number Two right now—this isn't a new project. This is something that we've been talking about for quite a few years. We have a really great opportunity—um, a fiscal responsibility opportunity to the community. Um, and so that's why we're moving now. That's why you're going to see it on the Tuesday, November 4th vote. Um, one of the big opportunities that we have with relocating Station Two over to State Avenue is improved response times. And as your fire chief, the most important thing that I do is make sure that when you call 911, we come. We are in the service business of "you call, we come." 6:02 PM – Mayor Haila: And Chief, make sure they understand where State Avenue is. We know—we know that—but everyone understand where it's at? 6:02 PM – Ames Fire Chief Higgins: Yeah. So, State Avenue—if you are on—it’s in between Mortenson Road to the south and Lincoln Way to the north. Um, and it is just—it’s, um, it’s about a mile, a little over a mile from current Welch Avenue over to State, if that helps. 6:03 PM – Mayor Haila: To the west. 6:03 PM – Ames Fire Chief Higgins: Yeah. To the west. Yes. Um, so by moving our fire station to the west, we're going to be able to reach 120 more calls for service within a five-minute window that we're not able to reach right now. And I don't know about you, but 120 calls is 120 opportunities to make a difference in somebody's worst day. And so, those are opportunities that we want to take advantage of. Um, some of you have maybe been out there on Welch Avenue in front of Station Number Two on a busy Thursday, Friday, Saturday night during the school year, and you are very familiar with what I'm talking about when it comes to the safety of our students and pedestrians in that area. It is rather difficult when the call comes in to go provide emergency services—to get our apparatus out of that station safely. Sometimes it—it will take the crew to actually come out onto the—to the, um, to the road to remove the pedestrians from that area to safely pull out the engine. They'll get on the engine and then they'll respond to the call. And unfortunately, that station is not designed for our apparatus to pull around the back and pull through. So, when they get back from the call, they have to back in. And so, we do the same thing over again. So, there's a huge opportunity to improve the safety in Campustown as well. A lot of people don't understand the great relationship that we have with Iowa State University and President Wintersteen. Um, our operating budget is actually funded—25% of it—through Iowa State University, which is a little over $2.5 million, which is a—is a huge, um, a huge blessing for our community and just shows the cooperative relationship that we have with Iowa State. Additionally, President Wintersteen and Iowa State University are pledging a piece of land that would be leased for 52 years on State Avenue that would be free of charge for our community. Additionally, uh, when the, uh, original Station Number Two was relocated from its old location under Clyde Williams Stadium—that was the football stadium back, uh, prior to 1966—there was an agreement between the City of Ames and Iowa State University, uh, to fund 50% each of that new fire station. And Iowa State, um, agreed that we would fund 50% of that station, but if you ever go to sell it, we want 50% of those proceeds given back to Iowa State University. Uh, thank you to President Wintersteen and her commitment to not only Iowa State University and the City of Ames, but the entire community. She has pledged to reinvest that 50% of the proceeds that would go back to Iowa State back into this project to further reduce the debt service. So, we have free land, an opportunity to improve safety and response times in our community, and the opportunity to reduce the amount—the cost—that would be incurred to the citizens of Ames. That station, like I said, was built in 1966. Um, we do not meet any ADA requirements at that station. It's rather small. It is the most expensive—from a utility standpoint—station to run, by almost double what the cost is of our other fire stations. It's also a redevelopment opportunity in Campustown. Uh, when we go to sell that fire station, we have an opportunity for new businesses, possibly new housing, and obviously new jobs. So, we're pretty excited about that opportunity down there. And then it's also a smart use of our resources. Um, the most expensive part of running a fire station is personnel. It makes up over 92% of our operating budget. With Station Two already having an operating budget established and the apparatus there, we are able to relocate those at no additional cost to a new fire station. And in fact, we've identified over $172,000 of additional items that we can bring over to a new fire station that don't need to be replaced or bought new when we relocate. Um, one of the things that we currently, um, have is—anytime we have a structure fire in our community—it takes all three fire stations and all of our firefighters on duty to respond to that call. Meanwhile, 911 emergencies don't—don't hit the pause button. They continue to come in. So, what we do is we backfill the fire stations with firefighters that are off duty. We bring them in, and we have reserve apparatus that we put in service to serve the rest of the community and the emergency calls that go on during that time. Unfortunately, we don't have the space at Station Number Two to store one of our reserve apparatus. So, that's currently being stored up at the Bloomington Water Tower underneath. There's a garage access. Unfortunately, that space gets our vehicle out of the weather, but it's not conditioned, and it has access to rodents down below—not in the water tower, but underneath—that can get into our apparatus. So, we have to remove all the water and all the equipment. When our crews are working a structure fire and we need to put that apparatus in service, it takes a couple of hours to get the vehicle, bring it back to the station, get water and equipment on it, in order to respond to the calls that continue to go on during that time. That is unacceptable. We have a solution with the new Fire Station Number Two, where we would have a fourth bay where we'd be able to house that additional apparatus. Yeah. With that, I, um, I'd be happy to entertain any questions and go from there. I can tell you a little bit about the vote. It is a $10.5 million bond referendum, uh, to fund the project for relocating Station Two from Welch to State Avenue. That works out to a little over $11 per $100,000 of assessed property tax—just for the fire station—as an annual increase. So, when you look at Ames, and the average price of a home is around $300,000, for that taxpayer—for that property owner in our community—that would be a $33 increase in their property tax per year, which works out to about $2.75 per month to fund just this fire station project. 6:09 PM – Mayor Haila: Uh, Gloria or Amber, do you want to add anything to what Chief just presented? 6:09 PM – Council Member Corrieri: Um, you know, I think the only thing—and Chief touched on this—is that we have the $10.5 million bond referendum, but because of the great partnership that we have with Iowa State, um, once that building on Welch sells—and we don't have the appraisal back yet, right Chief? 6:09 PM – Ames Fire Chief Higgins: Not yet. 6:09 PM – Council Member Corrieri: So, um, we know that Welch is a prime area for development, though. So, when that building does eventually sell and that money is reinvested back, it reduces that overall bond. Um, and that just helps to, of course, uh, continue to maintain that fiscal responsibility that the chief talked about. 6:10 PM – Council Member Betcher: Um, I would just add that this is a vote at our city election, and Council Member Bey Hansen and I, Council Member Corieri, and the mayor are all up for reelection this year. And any of you who are registered voters in Ames should be coming out to vote for council, because we're your representatives. And if you come out to vote for council members, you are also able to come out to vote for this referendum. So you do have a voice in what happens. The referendum has to pass by 60% of the voters who turn out. And I can tell you, having represented the first ward and the third ward on council now for the last 12 years, that the, uh, turnout at my precinct—where I live over on Hayward—is typically one of the lowest turnouts in the city of Ames, because there are so many students who don't even realize that they could be voting in elections here in Ames if they change their registration to vote here, as opposed to voting at home, wherever home might be. So I just want to take that opportunity to educate you on your civic opportunities. 6:10 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Speaker Pursley. 6:10 PM – Speaker Purlsey: Well, I appreciate you both for being here and sharing that information with us. Um, all of this information is really good. My question is, what kind of feedback are you seeing from the Ames community on this? Um, are you pretty positive that the outcome from this vote will come through? How—how much information do you know from the community? 6:11 PM – Ames Fire Chief Higgins: Yeah, we are hopeful. We've—we've been engaged with the community, uh, quite a bit. Um, on Monday, I got to speak with over 120 different, um, citizens through different events—through Rotary. We’ve got Kiwanis Club coming up. We were actually at the housing fair here in the Memorial Union a couple weeks ago. We've hosted a couple of spotlight events at Fire Station Number Two, inviting the public to come in and see the fire station, uh, to experience what the firefighters are experiencing. Um, we've had an open house at Station Number One, sharing information, podcasts. And so far, overwhelmingly, we've—we've had positive, uh, feedback from people realizing that, yeah, we—we understand you need to move that fire station. And so our encouragement has always been: get out and vote. Our job is to make sure that you're an informed voter. Um, it'd be unethical for me to tell you how to vote, and the law prevents me from telling you how to vote. But my job as your fire chief is to make sure that you're informed. And I wouldn't be here tonight unless there was a need in our community when it came to improving public safety—not only to you, but to all the residents of Ames. So, so far, we've—we've had really great feedback and great support from the community, from the mayor, the city council, the city manager, and his team. Um, yeah. 6:11 PM – Speaker Purlsey: Thank you. 6:12 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Senator Gerdes. 6:12 PM – Senator Gerdes: Uh, good evening. Thank you for being here. Um, I am one of three, um, senators representing the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Um, and I also have the privilege of serving on the Local Affairs Committee under Ex Officio Bolan. Um, you've already kind of answered most of my questions, but the one question I have left is: if the referendum passes, what's the expected timeline for construction and the transition into the new site? 6:12 PM – Ames Fire Chief Higgins: Yeah, excellent question. So, it would—right now, we have preliminary plans that take about six months to actually make those plans become buildable. Um, we're working with an architectural firm out of Texas who is very familiar—they've done over, uh, 380 fire stations. So we've been able to identify a lot of cost-saving measures by working with this architectural firm that's familiar with fire stations. So, six months to make the plans buildable, a couple of months to go out for bid, and then it'd be a 12-month window to build the fire station. So, we'd be hoping—hoping to break ground in late 2026 and then move into the station in 2027. 6:13 PM – Senator Gerdes: Great, thank you. 6:13 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Senator Aiono-Dimoff. 6:13 PM – Senator Aiono-Dimoff: Hello. So, I'd first like to thank you for coming and speaking to us tonight. Um, I just wanted to say that I've seen the plans for the proposal on the State app, and it looks great. It looks like a—it definitely needs to be—the size needs to be upgraded from the current, um, fire station. So, um, the plans look great. Um, I've also seen Ames Fire posts on Facebook. I've engaged with it. Um, I think the one post I saw had like over 400 likes and like 50 comments on there—everyone interacting. And so, I just want to thank you for the great job that Ames Fire is doing in educating everyone. I see in the comment sections people asking questions and fellow Ames citizens being able to educate themselves with all the, um, all the different attempts—like everything you're doing to get out the word and correctly educate people on this referendum. And I think this relocation really betters the safety of all of us. I just want to thank you for everything you're doing to educate everyone in Ames. 6:14 PM – Ames Fire Chief Higgins: Thank you so much, it’s truly my honor. 6:14 PM – Mayor Haila: Chief, can you just talk about two—uh, um—how the types of fires have changed over the years in terms of the byproducts and what's being done to help for the health and, uh, address the, uh, worst situation that you have—that is, uh, cancer, um, amongst firefighters? 6:15 PM – Ames Fire Chief Higgins: Yes. So, when that station was built in '66—which means it'll be, uh, 60 years old here in a couple of months—there was no, um, thought of carcinogens from fire. We—we didn't know a whole lot back then. We—we knew we went into fires, we put them out, and—and we came back to the station and went about our day. Uh, what we've learned over the years is that, uh, firefighters are exposed to, um, higher rates of cancer due to the carcinogens—due to the byproducts of fire that we have throughout our community, whether it's through vehicle fires, house fires, the plastics that you see. And so, one of the things that, um, we want to build into this new station that we—we just don't have the square footage or the ability to do—is a carcinogen reduction strategy that would actually allow firefighters the opportunity, when they come off the apparatus after a fire, to go through a shower facility, doff all their clothes, put on new clean station clothes, and be able to clean those, um—that—the clothes that they wore to that fire separately from their other laundry. Right now at Station Number Two, um, when they go out on a call, they use the same washer and dryer for all their equipment and clothes—whatever's on it—and the same washing machine that they'll also use to wash their bath towels, their linens, um, their tea towels— all those things for doing dishes. Um, and—and that's just unacceptable from a fire chief, in terms of taking good care of our community and—and our, um, and our people. So, with this new station, it would actually have, uh, showers built in to decon the firefighters before they go to the living side of the station. It would also have what we call a hot and a cold zone, where the truck bay with the equipment would be out in the hot area. So, the firefighters would only be out there when they need to be. And then the cold area is—is where they're not exposed to the carcinogens. So, a lot of effort has gone into the planning and design of this to limit that exposure of the firefighters so they can continue to serve the community. 6:17 PM – DOWNTOWN ENGAGEMENT 6:17 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Seeing no more discussion on this topic, we will now move into downtown engagement—discussion of ideas regarding campus and community connection initiatives, events, or programs. 6:17 PM – Mayor Haila: Well, thank you. I'm going to ask, uh, our city manager to, uh, talk about one of the developments we're considering—um, or not we're considering—that's being considered in the downtown, uh, area. And also, uh, we can also touch on the, uh, creation of the downtown vision for, uh, downtown that was developed jointly between, uh, Ames Main Street—or actually Ames Main Street took the lead—and then the City of Ames participated, uh, as a partner in that. So, Steve, you want to take care of that? And then Tim and Anita, if you want to jump in with any comments, that'd be great too. 6:18 PM – City Manager Schainker: As you know, um, living in other cities throughout the country, a downtown is the heart of a city. And it's important for us to increase the viability of that particular area. So, we want to make it a place for people to live, who want to work there, play, do commerce there. So, the council is always looking at ways to expand that downtown area to have that ability to draw those people to downtown. One of the major projects that's underway now is a project you've probably seen on Lincoln Way between Kellogg Avenue and Clark. If you—Clark Avenue—can picture it, it's a property that was purchased by a private sector developer, who I want to give a lot of credit to because it took a lot of guts and vision to acquire those properties. The first thing they did—they took a major risk by acquiring those properties. And I can tell you that in the history of Ames, no one has—has tried this yet, because it's a big risk to do that. So, they acquired those properties. They've cleared them. So, that site is currently cleared. I can assure you they're doing everything they can to, uh, obtain, um, ideas for development and backing for development of that property. Uh, the economy, the increase in their interest rates, along with some changeover in the developer partnership they have, has delayed that. It's been a long time coming. But what's envisioned there is a mixed-use facility that would have a hotel—a boutique hotel. Um, it started out also with office buildings, also condominiums and apartments, and then accompanying commercial entities—restaurants and other shops combined with it. So you'd see—you can see how it fits our goal of attracting people to the downtown. People live there, attract people to come here, come down there, increase the viability. Another—another interesting feature of that is we want to tie that—remember, that's on Lincoln Way, on the north side of Lincoln Way—you know what I'm talking about. We want to tie that to Main Street. How are we going to do that? There's going to be—envisioned—that we're actually going to have a, um, an elevated crosswalk, crossway over the railroad tracks to make it convenient to physically tie, uh, that facility. So, it's a great addition. It's a long time coming, and they're still trying to get partners in the development, quite frankly. Now, more recently, they've raised the issue of, prota—perhaps—putting in a—a conference center along with it. So that's a relatively new idea that would be a companion with the hotel. So, they are— they're working to try to make it as successful as possible. It's been slow-going, but I can assure you that they want this project to come—to come to fruition as soon as possible. And I think it'll be a valuable addition to downtown. Combined with the living opportunities for students down there, combined with the commercial new entities that will be down there—restaurants and other entertainment centers—it will be a draw, hopefully, for all the students, along with other residents throughout the community. And pro—perhaps—we hope outside the community will draw people from all over the region. So, we're pretty excited about it. As I said, it was a big risk on the developer's part. Now, normally we would have no say-so in this. It's strictly a private sector operation. The city cannot, again, exercise its power of eminent domain. You've heard of that, probably—eminent domain—where we can actually condemn property. We could do that for fire stations and city-related projects—water mains, parks. We can't do that to condemn a person's private property and turn it over to private development. So, they had to do that on—on their own, and that was a big lift for them. So, they've come a long way, but they've got a lot—a lot—a lot, um, a lot more to go. Now, how will they interact with us? I'm sure, like on many of the projects, they're going to come to us for incentives, and that's where the City Council will get involved—on the level of incentives they want to offer, uh, to the developer to help them complete the project. Uh, there's also discussion on this new conference center—on how they're going to build that, how they're going to finance that, and also who is going to take the responsibility to operate it. So, there's a lot of moving parts here. But when it's completed, I think it'll be an impressive addition to the downtown, which I hope all of you will take advantage of and, uh, spend some time—more time— downtown as part of the vision. I don't know—Brian, you want to talk about the vision? The mayor—your—your mayor actually is a co-chair. Why don't you talk about the vision that, uh, downtown people are putting together? 6:22 PM – Mayor Haila: The, uh, the Ames Main Street downtown area really didn't have a cohesive vision. And what happened is—they're run by a board, and every year board members changed. And consequently, that vision kind of, uh, changed along with it. And part of the challenge is that when they ask the city for funds to do some minor improvements or something else, that also changes. And working with the city—it takes a while to get something into a budget, get it funded, and get it, um, underway. So, consequently, uh, they were challenged to come up with a—a guiding vision for the downtown area. And so, there is a—a, um, some concepts. It's not a master plan, because a master plan—we get the impression—is already a done deal. But looking at trying to increase the vibrancy, um, in the downtown area through, um, um, more people either living and/or shopping, eating, providing other opportunities for housing. So, that's why this project on Lincoln Way fits in so well with that overall vision. And, uh, Senator, to your point about parking—that's a big question down there also, in terms of where people are going to park going down there if they're living down there. And so, that's another piece that has to be looked at.Uh, so anyway, Ames Main Street took the lead on that. City Council was supportive of that, uh, participated in some of the planning sessions—or the—the input gathering sessions—and then ultimately, um, a plan was developed. And, uh, if you just—downtown—if you Google a—a guiding vision for downtown Ames, you can come up with the documents and see what the plan, um, came up with. So anyway— Tim or Anita, do you want to—have anything you want to add regarding the downtown? Um, Tim, I know you're dedicated. You've been dedicated downtown for a really long time as a businessperson. And maybe Anita, you—you have something you want to add too? 6:24 PM – Council Member Rollins: So, I—I was just going to agree and just say, too, that, um, City Council members have had, uh, the opportunity over the years to come out to WelcomeFest. And often what I ask students is: what would make this the kind of place where you—um—if you find your dream job here—would make this a place where you would want to stay? And a vibrant downtown with shops and things to do and restaurants, uh, is right up there with our park system. So, we are listening. We are trying to make sure that we are, um, aware and know what are the things that you're interested in seeing in our downtown. And, uh, we just want to remind you that we want to stay connect—excuse me—connected. We want to know what you're thinking and how we can make sure that Ames is the place that you would choose to stay. 6:25 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Any questions? Speaker Pursley. 6:25 PM – Speaker Pursley: So, I’ve—I know—I know I’ve talked to some people in the city about, um, I believe it was called the Dinky Train that would go from, um, the university to downtown. Um, and what are—are there any thoughts on bringing something like that down—bring something like that, um, back—but instead more like a bus system or something like that, um, so more students, um, can get downtown with public transportation? 6:25 PM – Council Member Rollins: Yeah, I—I would say those conversations are definitely being held. And, uh, we do want to have students have easy access to downtown areas. And also, just reminding you—uh, those of you who drive—that there is free parking downtown also. So, uh, not just in front of—of the shops where you may have to pay, but very near them—free parking. So, come on down. 6:26 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Seeing no further discussion, we’ll now move ahead. 6:26 PM – Council Member Betcher: I wanted to give another response on this Dinky concept. As I understand it, Leadership Ames has looked at this concept of a bus service like the Dinky model. Um, I think that it's on hold a bit right now, but it has been discussed by members of the last Leadership Ames class. I don't know if the new Leadership Ames class will pick it up. They are, uh, working with the Alliance on it—if—if they do—and so we'll learn more about it. Uh, back in 2005, an ISU student, Tony Boritch, actually did an analysis of whether we could reinstall light rail, and that is not a possibility. But I think the bus is something that is alive and well as—at least—a point of consideration. 6:27 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Senator Gerdes. 6:28 PM – Senator Gerdes: Um, anybody can answer this question, but, um, from the city's perspective, what do you see as being the biggest barriers keeping students from engaging in the downtown area? Do you think it's, say, an outreach issue or more of a transportation issue or anything else? 6:28 PM – Council Member Beatty-Hansen: I—I’d attempt to answer that one. Um, I think it's a little of both. Um, a lot of it—so, with transportation—CyRide does come to City Hall. It's one of the, uh, points—what do you call that? A transfer point. Um, and so a lot of different routes hit City Hall. And so, if you are coming to downtown, that's likely where you might get off the bus. And it's also where you can pick up some other buses that go to other places. Um, so it's not hard to get to with CyRide. And—and like we talked about, I think CyRide, at least from campus out, um, depending on the time of day admittedly, um, you can usually get those buses pretty regularly. So I'm not sure if it's transportation, but campus has a lot that students need already, and I think it's a little bit hard to compete with that. There are definitely opportunities for fun restaurants and a lot of neat, kind of boutique retail shopping in the downtown area. Um, but in terms of restaurants—I mean, if students are living on campus, they might have a meal plan. They're—they're probably not going out to restaurants a lot. Um, and if they do, they might be going to restaurants they're more familiar with—maybe some of the chains on South Duff, things like that. Now, we have fun things to do downtown. So it's not that—I don't mean to say that students shouldn't come downtown, because they should. There's a lot of fun events. There's a lot of fun, um, you know, again, shopping opportunities, but also events like music—um, uh—that will play sometimes in, um, bars admittedly, but also sometimes not. Sometimes just as part of a downtown event—might be on the street. So, there are fun things to do. Um, and so maybe it is marketing when it comes to those, you know. And we—we try, I think, to hit some of the common, um, avenues for marketing that students might see—you know, social medias and things like that—but I think we could do more. That's just my take. 6:30 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Senator Neal. 6:30 PM – Senator Neal: Uh, I think a lot of—with students not going downtown—this is something Local Affairs has been working on a lot. Um, a lot of students just don't know what's going on downtown. So that's—we have a couple projects going on in Local Affairs right now. Um, like an interactive map that Senator Curtis is, um, heading up with Senator Dimhoff and a few other members of Local Affairs to try and let students know what's going on down there. So, a lot of that is an effort that we have to make as Student Government and as students to help each other out with making sure we know what's going on downtown—because downtown Ames does have some pretty, um, pretty extensive outreach going on. Um, so I'd say that's—at least from my perspective—a big Student Government initiative that we should be taking. 6:30 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Speaker Pursley. 6:31 PM – Speaker Pursley: So, this is something that I was reached out to about earlier in the year from a student. A student reached out about, um, revitalizing Campustown and more like beautification. Um, I don't know if this is going to make sense, but there are those pits on Welch Ave that look like there should be trees in them or something, but they're those gated-off kind of pits, and mostly they just become trash cans for people on Welch Ave. Um, so people reached out about, um, adding plants or trees or something in that area to make it less of a trash pit slash eyesore—and then also fixing lights in that area, maybe just making it a little nicer. And that's for anyone to answer that has information. 6:32 PM – Council Member Betcher: So, I actually was just meeting with some of the business owners from Campustown—because Campustown is in my ward—and we—we agree that those, um, fenced-off areas are giant trash receptacles. And the city, I believe, has increased the policing of them and trying to pick things up. But those were designed as parts of the drainage, um, equipment—the drainage system on Welch Avenue. And so the plants that are in there are supposed to be water garden kinds of plants that will soak up rainwater and help us manage the—the flow of water on Welch Avenue. I think it was a great idea in concept, and it has turned out to be not very effective in execution and the outcome. And I would hope that we're going to continue looking at that. One of the things that I am trying to focus on more now that, um, I'm in Ward Three—after redistricting—is looking at what we can do to make Campustown a more vital location where people from around the community visit. And obviously, optics are extremely important. We want people to look at Campustown and feel like it's a place they want to be—and that it's not a place to avoid. And so there's a lot of reputation that we have to work on and try to create that positive marketing. So I appreciate hearing that students are also concerned about those, uh, trash receptacles—as you might call them. 6:34 PM – Speaker Pursley: Yeah, and I agree. If—if they are trying to go with a more native plant kind of direction, maybe some more taller grasses or something that is able to take up space so it doesn't become a trash receptacle. 6:34 PM – Mayor Haila: Brian. 6:34 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: Yeah. Uh, so just two points. Um, yeah—we as city staff are aware of the challenges with the, uh, stormwater features that are in Welch Avenue. They're integral into the stormwater management system there, but we know that they're not working as intended, and we've been looking at some alternatives to present to the City Council that we can, um, implement in the future and improve the aesthetic of it. Um, the other thing I wanted to mention was—you had mentioned that, um, you've heard comments about things like, uh, street lights that are out and so forth. Um, and this is a great opportunity to mention—we have an app called Ames on the Go, and I'd encourage everybody to download it. Um, I believe it's on both app stores, and, uh, you can, um, mark down on a map—with photos or without photos—descriptions of, uh, things that you want to bring to the city's attention. So, uh, issues such as burned-out street lights, uh, accumulations that have been there for too long, um, traffic signs that are damaged, uh, city property, parks that, uh, could use attention, um, or nuisance properties that, uh, you'd like somebody to take a look at. So, I encourage you to, uh, get that app—Ames on the Go—and report these issues. It's the best way to get a hold of city staff, uh, because of the—the way that it routes the, uh, particular issue directly to the right staff person, uh, to address it. Um, so you can certainly call or email, but that may take a little bit longer to address. 6:34 PM – Speaker Pursley: Thank you so much for that information. That's great. I've never heard of that before, so that's really good to know about. Thank you. 6:36 PM – CLIMATE ACTION PLAN AND SUSTAINABILITY 6:36 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Seeing no further conversation, we will now move to the Climate Action Plan and sustainability. 6:36 PM – Mayor Haila: Thank you. Um, Nolan, you've been here for about a little over a year, I think, and Nolan is our Sustainability Coordinator. And so I've asked him to talk about just what some of his role is, what's—what's going on, and, uh, maybe where we're headed. 6:36 PM – Sustainability Director Sagan: Sure. Thanks for the introduction, and happy to be here tonight to talk about sustainability. Um, so I'll just kind of go through some of our major areas of the Climate Action Plan and of our sustainability programs. Um, let's see. We—we talked about recycling already, so I won't touch on that. But, um, I'll start out with renewables. So, renewable energy is something that we can do to have the most impact on greenhouse gas emissions—on sustainability in the community—especially being the electric utility in Ames. So, we're looking to build out that renewable energy generation portfolio, which will be enabled by, as Brian mentioned, um, you know, decoupling our waste system with our—our energy system. Uh, we have our community solar farm down by the airport, which is a great partnership at a couple levels with Iowa State. So, we work with the horticulture department on research out there. They keep bees out there and monitor those and—and conduct research in that way. And then Iowa State also purchased a number of shares of the solar farm when that was built. So, there are still shares available. I would encourage—if you can afford it—to purchase those. It's a great option for getting your energy from renewable sources. They're fully transferable, fully refundable if you're moving around or you're moving out of town. So, we do have those available. Uh, on the energy efficiency side, we have, um, some programs that we're looking at for energy efficiency. So, we have a rebate program for those upgrades. And then we've also just kicked off a free weatherization program. So, we're offering basic weatherization services for all homes in Ames. So, you should see some more information shortly from—from us on that program. Um, if you're renting, you just need a property owner to sign off on that. But, as I said, it's free. Um, it could help lower your energy bills, um, save money, lower your—lower your emissions, too, from, uh, from energy use. So, that should be a great program. Let's see. On the transportation side, I think students do a great job getting around sustainably—walking, biking, using CyRide. These are great options to get around, you know, with low emissions. Um, I know CyRide's looking at expanding their electric vehicles, expanding biodiesel. So, even powering those buses with sustainable alternative fuels is something that CyRide is doing also. And then I would say another area just in general an opportunity for collaboration is around grants and outside funding opportunities. So, last year we worked with the Sustainability Committee and the Iowa State Office of Sustainability to apply for a climate resilience grant. That project was not funded, but it was still a great opportunity to collaborate—and something that we'll continue to look at: those outside funding opportunities that could impact both the broader community and, uh, on campus. And then the City of Ames actually has a Climate Action Grant program, where we fund grants—um, community projects that help further all of the things that I've talked about—um, promote engagement with the broader community on sustainability and on some of these initiatives. So, that's something that a committee or student organization is eligible for and could apply for. So, I'd encourage that. Um, I think I covered everything—all our major areas of the Climate Action Plan. I'm happy to answer any questions and looking forward to continued collab— collaboration with—with Iowa State on these initiatives. 6:40 PM – Mayor Haila: Hey, also just comment on—I mean, we're not just expecting everyone else to do it and not do it ourselves. What kind of things are we doing from a vehicle standpoint— from our fleet—and then maybe just talk about just, you know, what we're doing in terms of audits on our buildings and where we're going with that, so we can try and help set the standards? 6:40 PM – Sustainability Director Sagan: Yeah, absolutely. Lots of actions that we're taking on our municipal operations side. So, we'll be at City Council next week, actually, talking about energy audits. We've just conducted pretty thorough energy audits on all of our municipal buildings, looking for any opportunities to, uh, invest those capital dollars in energy-saving projects. So, we feel like we have a good handle on that opportunity, and we'll incorporate those recommendations into our capital planning going forward to ensure that our buildings are running as efficiently as possible. Uh, we're looking at solar on some city buildings. So, the new Fitch Aquatic Center— we're looking at, um, putting solar on that building. And then on the fleet side—we've got 10 electric vehicles right now, I think, is the number. And whenever a vehicle comes up for replacement, we consider it for transition to electric vehicle. Does it work operationally? Is there a good place to charge this vehicle? So, we'll continue to—to transition our fleet over to electric vehicles. 6:41 PM – Mayor Haila: One of the things that we have gone to is a hybrid for the, uh, police cruisers, which makes a big difference in terms of—and the police have said—it reduces maintenance, but also certainly reduces our carbon footprint and makes it much better for our, uh, for our staff in that standpoint. So, uh, um—but I think it goes without saying: the city by itself can't do everything. Um, we can't fund everything. So, it's going to have to be the community—trying to get them to be engaged. And that's part of Nolan's responsibility through education, engagement, and trying to, uh, stimulate those improvements. Um, Bronwun, if you want to go ahead and jump in. 6:41 PM – Council Member Beatty-Hansen: Yeah, thank you. Um, I think Nolan covered a lot of it, so I would only just make a few additional points or things to consider. Um, one of the seven initial implementation steps that we were, um, that we're thinking about with the Climate Action Plan—it talks about, um, net-zero and net-zero-ready new construction. And we're constrained in the state from, um, adding a lot of extra requirements for developers when they build their own developments, right? So, if someone's building a housing development, we can incentivize, um, things like net-zero-ready new construction. Um, but it's—I think—impossible to require that. Um, now, we can—when we're building city buildings—we can consider that. Um, and in fact, the—the Fire Station Number Two, with this move, um, we did on Council vote to make that building net- zero-ready. That means it will have, uh, a geothermal system for heating and cooling, but it also means that it would be able to—if we were to decide to in the future—install solar panels on it, it would have the capacity to then be net-zero. Um, now, that's a policy decision that can be difficult sometimes, because—as the mayor said—um, you know, funding is something that we can't do ourselves for every single thing out there. Now, for city buildings, it is up to us to decide to do that. Um, but it—it was a point I meant to make earlier too with some of the suggestions I'm hearing for, “Hey, why doesn't the city do this?” or “Why doesn't the city do that?” You know, when it comes to—you name it, right? Uh, parking ramp, uh, more CyRide services, um, any of the amenities or services that the city provides—they take tax dollars, um, to do. And sometimes user fees, right? Um, but often we're talking property tax dollars, um, for a lot of these services and amenities. And we're continually challenged, um, both from the state and federal level, with funding cuts, right? So, that can be a—a hard situation to be in. People want increased services, they want increased amenities, um, across a number of topics. So, not just sustainability—um—but for sure, for sustainability, we have to think about this too. So, it's a balance of: what can we fund? Um, you know, how much can we get out of our property tax, right? Because we can't raise it a whole lot. Um, and then we have to look at what really makes sense to do. So, for the sustainability stuff we're doing—where can we get the best bang for our buck? Um, and so those are just some things to think about. You know, I think, um, you know, in an ideal world, we'd love to provide it all for the people of Ames, but we're fiscally constrained. Um, and we do a really great job with running a responsible budget. Um, but those are just some of our challenges too, I would add. 6:45 PM – Mayor Haila: Anybody else from Council want to jump in or make any comments? 6:45 PM – Council Member Betcher: Yeah, I think one of the things that we have discussed over the years—that Nolan sort of mentioned, Brownman sort of mentioned—is the idea of incentives. And I think one of the things Council is going to continue looking at is: what are we incentivizing? And are we incentivizing sound, sustainable practices, or are we incentivizing something else? So, when I think about the—the question about the construction debris earlier, one of the questions we've discussed over the years is: are we giving incentives that encourage people to demolish buildings? And should we give people incentives to demolish buildings? And that's a more difficult question than you might think if you're trying to be sustainable. Because, of course, new buildings have newer energy efficiency models that can be incorporated. But older buildings already have embodied energy. So, you have a kind of push and pull. Is it better to demolish and take the—the hit on the construction debris? Or to incentivize those new buildings and new techniques? And I think we're going to continue with those discussions as the Climate Action Plan moves forward, just to ensure that what we are incentivizing makes sense for our climate action goals. 6:46 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Speaker Pursley. 6:46 PM – Speaker Pursley: So, I know we've talked a lot about energy use and, um, things like that. Um, one of the biggest issues for Iowans right now is water quality issues, and we're seeing that all across Iowa. Um, I understand that we're fiscally constrained, but I also understand that Iowa is number two out of all U.S., um, states in rising, um, cancer rates—because of our water quality issues, partially. I also know that the Raccoon River and the Skunk River, um, have issues with water quality. And so, what are you doing to mitigate that harm? 6:47 PM – Mayor Haila: Well, I—that's a point that I probably could really wax eloquent on for a while. But Brian, do you—or Steve—do you want to touch on that? I mean, we have, um—we have had people contact us with concerns about water quality. And our wa—water quality is absolutely stellar. 6:47 PM – City Manager Schainker: So, maybe you want to just—right—both water—water push control—um, wastewater resource—excuse me—the wastewater treatment. It's a highly regulated industry nationally, and, uh, we do a great job. We test it all the time—both the effluent that comes out of the, uh, wastewater plant and also the water treatment plant. And, uh, we do a great job at it. We have very—almost complete—confidence that we have high-quality water. And therefore, we're also—so our effluent that goes back in the river is treated, and—and we return into the rivers high- quality effluent. So that's very important. We're very lucky in Iowa. Some of you might live in cities that, uh, get their water from rivers. We have underground aquifers—which, if you've ever seen it, you should come out to take one of our tours. It's—it's underground aquifers where our water seeps down through sand and rock and is filtered. And we have high-quality water. We're one of the best- tasting waters in the country, as you know if you’ve followed us. And that's because we—the Council and Mayor and Council—take great pride in that. We work very hard. So, we back that up by testing all the time, and we're looked—uh, it's looked over by the state and federal government. And I can assure you we Development, uh, over a certain size—so when, uh, there are new neighborhoods that are developed, uh, we will, uh, evaluate with our, um, Public Works engineering staff whether the proposed treatment efforts are acceptable, uh, to ensure that the water running off of the streets isn't running directly into the storm sewer system and then directly into a creek or river. Uh, it's—it's going into a treatment drain that is, uh, capturing and reducing some of the, uh, pollutants that would otherwise get to the river. So those kinds of things are newer efforts uh probably in the last 30 or 40 years that you're not going to find in some of the core areas of town but as more things develop you'll you'll see them more and more. 6:49 PM – Council Member Beatty-Hansen: May I add something to that? 6:49 PM – Mayor Haila: Go ahead. 6:49 PM – Council Member Beatty-Hansen: So, I—I would add that. So that's the case: our drinking water comes from this aquifer, as Steve mentioned. The rivers, um, are still plenty full of nitrates, right? So, he's talking about the water that we're drinking, but if you were to go wading in the river or, uh, you know, tubing or something like that, um, there is risk there. Um, now, that is, uh, largely due to, uh, agricultural production upstream, right? Um, and so the city is burdened with trying to take it out of our wastewater. Um, but—so, that's a big task for cities to have to do: to clean up basically what's being dumped in the rivers, um, upstream. So, we're working on that with our water treatment plant. But I would add that we did set aside some funding each year, um, and we've had some success with, um, finding landowners who live in the watershed upstream of us and installing, um, saturated buffers or, um—what's the other one? 6:50 PM – Mayor Haila: Bioreactors. 6:50 PM – Council Member Beatty-Hansen: Yeah, bioreactor. Thank you. Um, along their field— edge of field, right? So, it's an edge-of-field project. And that's pretty—um—that was pretty groundbreaking at the time. Or it was a—a new way to address our water quality issues: to think, well, what if we don't just have to take out more of it—what if we can stop that from getting into the river in the first place? And so we've had some success with that. Now, there's—there is still a lot to go, right? So, as you can imagine, there's a lot of land that borders the rivers and our watershed. So we're still working on that, but that is one thing that we did see as an opportunity, and we're trying to pursue it. 6:51 PM – Mayor Haila: Yeah. So, we'll get an occasional email from somebody expressing concern about our drinking water, and we have a, um, outstanding director of our water plant and wastewater plant. And, uh, he's convinced us beyond belief and just assures us that our water is extremely safe in terms of, you know, contaminants.Um, our water plant is—what—less than 15 years old? Ten, fifteen years old? Uh, and that cost well over, I think, $50 or $60 million to build. And then there's tremendous filtration systems. And just as a side note, um, there are a lot of apprenticeship opportunities at the water plant—and maybe at the water treatment plant too, I'm not sure. But one Iowa State student came up with an idea, and they tested it out, and actually, um, it's being implemented and saving money and allowing us to use less—I think less, uh, um, less chemicals in terms of treating the water. So, we are currently under construction with a $66 million wastewater treatment plant project, which is phase one of a two-phase project. So, we'll probably be north of $100 million. Um, of all the nitrates that get discharged—this is according to, um, our director—of all the nitrates that get discharged into the streams that make their way down into the Gulf, 93% come from farm fields. Seven percent come from city and county—I mean, city water discharge. Um, of all the nitrates that get discharged—this is according to, um, our director—of all the nitrates that get discharged into the streams that make their way down into the Gulf, 93% come from farm fields. Seven percent come from city and county—I mean, city water discharge.The state of Iowa alone—and cities—will be spending between $1.5 and $2 billion to try and reduce 7% down to 3.5%. It's a huge investment of tax dollars and resident dollars. And so, to Brown's point— trying to work with, and we didn't have to do this—we're trying to work upstream, um, to try and reduce even the nitrates that are upstream. Not because our nitrates are high being discharged from a wastewater treatment plant, but to further reduce it. And we get some nitrate reduction credits from the DNR. So, we're really trying to do both—what we have to do—because the, uh, requirements are becoming so stringent. In fact, just as a side note, the federal government set a requirement for testing some kind of a discharge chemical, and it was like to the 10,000th percent. I mean, it was minuscule. And there's one problem—there's no equipment made anywhere in the world that can test to that level. So, there is this disconnect that happens at times between the federal government and requirements and what actually can be accomplished. But I would say that this council, our staff, and everyone who works at the plants are highly committed to, you know, high-quality water—what you drink—and also what's discharged. Being good stewards of the land and also trying to do even more. So, it's a—it's a great question, and it does come up from time to time. And there's media reports that come out. Um, but I can assure you, based on the assurance we get—I got—boy, hey, I just won the lottery. I just got two—the city manager and assistant—want to talk. So, I'm going to shut up and let them talk. Go ahead. 6:54 PM – Vice President Vlasek: And we've got about five minutes remaining. 6:54 PM – City Manager Schainker: I've got a great—let me tell you something. It's a great story we have, because we always try to attract students to city government, give them opportunities for internships. I want to talk about these two plants that are multi-million dollar plants. This is a water pollution control plant and a water plant. We actually have student interns that run—I want to say this again—that run that operation by themselves. We train them to do that on weekends. We hire them, and they are the only people when they're running those two operations. They get credible experience. They get great jobs afterwards. People are majoring in environmental sciences. I'm not aware of any other city in the country that does this. It benefits us, quite frankly, because a lot of the employees don't like to work every other weekend. So, it gives them the weekend off. The students get an incredible experience. We give them an opportunity to put something great on their resume and get them great jobs afterwards. So, there are other opportunities to work for our local government in other areas of your—of your field that you might be concentrating on. So, you might want to check with us, see about other opportunities. We can, uh, really build the resume for you and get you some good jobs from that experience. 6:55 PM – Mayor Haila: And if the water tastes bad on the weekends—blame a student. No, just kidding. Brian, what do you want to say? 6:55 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: Thank you, Mayor. Um, I—I just wanted to mention, you know, if you look around, uh, the community and look in, uh, an older neighborhood—like north of downtown or something like that—you'll find that, um, you're not going to find stormwater features in a neighborhood that was built that long ago. You're not going to find it, uh, in a—a commercial development that was constructed a long, long time ago. Um, but if you look more at the newer neighborhoods that have been developed—newer commercial developments that occur— you'll find that, um, we have stormwater requirements that have to be met to treat both the quantity of water and the quality of water, um, that runs off of a development, uh, over a certain size. So, when, uh, there are new neighborhoods that are developed, uh, we will, uh, evaluate with our, um, Public Works engineering staff whether the proposed treatment efforts are acceptable, uh, to ensure that the water running off of the streets isn't running directly into the storm sewer system and then directly into a creek or river. Uh, it's—it's going into a treatment drain that is, uh, capturing and reducing some of the, uh, pollutants that would otherwise get to the river. So, those kinds of things are newer efforts—uh, probably in the last 30 or 40 years—that you're not going to find in some of the core areas of town. But as more things develop, you'll—you'll see them more and more. 6:57 PM – Mayor Haila: Thank you. Just to comment real quickly before we wrap it up: we are in the process of installing new water mains, uh, in areas where you have issues. And also, we have a very few number of houses that have lead service entrances. May you comment on what's going on with that? 6:57 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: Yes. So, if you're familiar with, uh, what occurred in Flint, Michigan with the water, uh, treatment system there—um, there was a chemistry change in the water production method, and, uh, that resulted in the lead that is in the service lines, uh, leaching out into the water and causing the water to become unsafe to drink. Um, normally, uh, in a slightly depositing, uh, treatment system, the sediment that builds up on the outside or on the inside of the pipes protects the—the users against lead and other contaminants leaching into the water. Um, in Flint, Michigan, that wasn't the case. Here in Ames, uh, we're fortunate. We—we—we have, um, fewer than about 200 lead service lines that we know of that were built. 6:58 PM – Mayor Haila: To define: a service line is not city-owned. 6:58 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: Right. So, a service line is, uh, the line that goes from the water main into the home, which we don't own—which is owned by the property. 6:58 PM – Mayor Haila: Which we don’t own. 6:58 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: Right. So, um, as we perform water main replacements in areas of town with older water mains—particularly smaller water mains, 4-inch water mains, 6-inch water mains—those are very small water mains. They're not good for Chief Higgins for his firefighting. Um, and they also, uh, tend to be more sedimented. Uh, when we replace those with larger water mains, we replace the lead service lines that exist—even though they're owned by the homeowner, we, the city utility, will replace them. And so, we are slowly eating down the number of lead service lines that are in service in the community, uh, and identifying them. We do—we do testing, uh, for any of the property owners who, uh, have a lead service line. We can do testing. We'll go to their home and, um, ensure that, uh, the lead isn't—isn't coming back out into the water. And so far, we've—we've been fortunate. We haven't had any issues. 6:59 PM – Mayor Haila: Now, and I can't tell the frequency, but just in closing—the water is tested, I believe, every day. Sampled around the city. We have a professionally accredited testing lab that's going through, and it has passed extremely high standards. 6:59 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: Yeah. We—we perform both at the water treatment plant and the wastewater plant. We perform hundreds of tests on a daily basis, uh, for a variety of different, uh, parameters to ensure that the water in the water plant is, uh, meeting our standards, and the water leaving the wastewater plant is meeting our standards—and around the community, that is being sampled in, uh, different houses and also businesses. Yep. In addition, we will, uh—we will periodically sample water from businesses around the community to ensure that the water in the distribution system, um, is free from contamination and maintaining the appropriate levels of chlorine and the residual chemicals that it needs to maintain. So, we—we rigorously test the water. Our wastewater plant has, uh, the second-longest compliance streak in the nation for meeting all of its numerical limits—meeting or exceeding all of its numerical limits in its permit. 7:01 PM – Co-Director O’Driscoll: Um, so out of curiosity—there’s the situation at Brookside. Um, a lot of restoration and all that fun stuff, but there were many old historic trees that were removed. And I mean, coming from a sustainability standpoint, I’ve heard a lot of disappointment and, um, a lot of concern about the implications that this will have. Uh, are there any plans to make historic tree preservation more of a priority after this reaction? And are there any plans for other areas in Ames that require getting rid of any of the historical trees there? 7:02 PM – Council Member Beatty-Hansen: Yeah. Um, I think with the Brookside project—it certainly does look like a stark difference there. Um, we definitely were thoughtful about that. Um, the planning procedure for that project took a long time because we wanted to think through it and make sure that citizens had opportunities for input. Um, so the surveying of the plant life that had been done there—I mean, um, I will admit there are—there are some old trees that were there. But a lot of that creek line was, um, scrubby, kind of invasive things too, actually. So, a surprising amount of it was, um, invasive things that are maybe less desirable. Um, so what will be planted there instead will be, um, you know, native species and things with better root structures and—and also, yeah, things that, um, do well in that environment. So, we will replant it. Um, but I do—I—and again, there were some old trees, but I think for the most part it just looks visually very stark. But I don’t know that there was a lot of old growth in that area. Um, but they were very thoughtful about that. We have a city forester, um, who advises us about tree health and, um, tree policies. And so— but I don’t know—we don’t have a policy that protects a certain age of trees. So, that is a good question. 7:03 PM – Co-Director O’Driscoll: Thank you. 7:03 PM – Assistant City Manager Phillips: So, we do have a, um—not for all of our trees—but for street trees, we do have a policy that requires that, uh, so long as the tree doesn’t need to immediately come down because it’s a danger to somebody’s, uh, safety—um, before the tree is, um, going to come down, uh, we will post it. We will put a posting on it with an indication that it’s intended to come down. And there is an opportunity for people to either contact the city and understand more about why that tree needs to come down, uh, or object to the tree’s removal, um, and have a discussion about it before that might occur. So, that occurs for street trees. Um, people feel very sensitive about those when they’re sort of in their front yard almost. They’re—they’re in the public right-of-way, but, um, they’re right in front of their property. Um, so we—we are sensitive to that. A lot of the trees—in almost every instance where we have to take trees out—it’s because there’s something, uh, integral to the tree that is failing, and—and we’ve evaluated it pretty thoroughly. 7:01 PM – Co-Director O’Driscoll: Thank you. 7:01 PM – CLOSING COMMENTS 7:04 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Thank you. We will now move into closing comments starting with Ex-Officio Boland. 7:05 PM – Ex-Officio Boland: Hi everyone—whoa—hi everybody. Um, I just want to thank, um, the City Council and city staff for taking the time out of their week to come talk with us tonight. I’m always really excited for these meetings. I feel like I learn a lot from all of the senators about, um, just the topics you guys are passionate about so I can best represent you over at our City Council meetings. Um, and I’m also really grateful that this is my third semester getting to do this. Um, if you have a topic that you weren’t able to bring up—we had some time constraints—or if you want to have continued conversations, I’d love to hear from you after the meeting so we can just have a chitchat and, um, you know, keep those conversations going in the future. And I think that, uh, city staff and City Council would also really be interested in that as well. Um, thank you all tonight. Um, and then if you guys could just stick around for a picture after, please. 7:05 PM – Mayor Haila: Thanks, Emily. And, uh, I would just echo what she just said. And, um, Emily participates in City Council meetings. She’s bringing some student perspective. But I will say too that if there’s something Emily feels really needs to be brought to Council, she can bring that up under Council comments. And then, if Council wants to, they can put it on a future Council meeting. So, Emily is really your pipeline—although we certainly welcome, if you want to email, you can get on the website. You can email either one of us individually, or there is one that goes to all Council members as well as the Mayor. Um, and we endeavor to respond to those, uh, emails. And certainly for me—my cell phone is on, uh, the website also. So, if you want to, uh—if you call, I will assure you it’ll probably go as a voicemail, because my best friend Spam Risk is always trying to call me, and I don’t usually answer phone calls that I don’t recognize. But if you leave a voicemail, I’d be happy to call back and communicate with you. Um, but Emily is doing a great job. Please communicate with her, and she’ll bring things to Council as appropriate.So, again, thank you for the conversation. I did take some notes. We’re going to, um, see what we can do in following up on some of these. Um, and I had an idea—if we could bring Cane’s to downtown, that would kill two birds with one stone, wouldn’t it? Everyone would come to downtown—or the fire station. Maybe both. Anyway, thank you. 7:06 PM – ADJOURNMENT 7:06 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Is there a motion to adjourn? *Motion* 7:06 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Is there a second? *Second* 7:06 PM – Vice President Vlasek: Are there any objections? We’ll see some of you back here in about 15 minutes.