1. NEXT MEETING: The next council meeting is Tuesday July 5 at 6:00 pm.
2. JULY 4 CELEBRATION: Festivities begin for the ALL AMERICAN CELEBRATION on Monday, July 4 at 9:00 am till noon at Pickard Park. There will be a Carousel Theater presentation of “1776” at 2:00 pm in the High School Auditorium and then more activities at the Balloon Field from 5:00 pm to 10:30 pm. More information can be found at www.Indianola4thofJuly.org.
3. STORM WATER: The Sewer Dept is televising East Iowa Avenue mains upstream from the 8th & Franklin neighborhood and finding many services still running clear water. This area was tested and corrected in 2003 but problems are occurring.
These properties will receive notices to repair their infiltration as they would be contributing to the downstream backups around 8th and Franklin.
FYI—There are flooding problems on E Iowa Ave (see letter) that the city will try to relieve with silt removal of a drainage way and possible enlargement of a culvert under the McVey Trail. However, the culvert will be reviewed by V&K to ensure the problem is not relocated downstream. This area has had flooding issues for many, many years regardless of previous attempts to mitigate them.
4. SIDEWALKS: The intern in the Community Development Dept completed the sidewalk inspection this week. 210 sidewalk repair (includes 10 on the square) letters and 378 tree trimming letters will be sent on Monday to property owners.
FYI—The city performs a sidewalk inspection about every 2 years for safety and liability reasons. Typically at the end of the season the city bids the repairs that owners have failed to do.
5. NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES: Intern Chelsea Fulton researched a prescription drug program sponsored by the National League of Cities that provides a 20% discount for citizens that do not have prescription drug insurance. The annual NLC membership fee is about $1,400 and the potential savings to residents is projected at $2,400/year.
Chelsea will present a recommendation to council on July 5.
6. I&I: Finance Director Jean Furler reports the city has spent $4.285 million for the Infiltration/Inflow Program and the same amount has been either received or requested from the State Revolving Loan Fund.
FYI—Supt Dan Miers and City Attorney John Hoyman are preparing letters for 24 property owners who have failed to repair their I&I issue after the two-year notice. The municipal infractions process will begin in mid-July.
7. RE-DISTRICTING: With a new census the city is required to keep wards within a 10% variation in population so every 10 years the boundaries get moved. This year intern Chelsea Fulton is working with Ryan Lafreutz of the Warren County to provide an option or two that will be presented to council in July or August.
8. W EUCLID ASSESSMENTS: In the packet is a Procendo/Bill of Cost from the Iowa Supreme Court showing the total court costs of $3,171.12. The Court assessed 75% ($2,378.34) of the fees to the six property owners and 25% ($792.78) to the city.
9. RECYCLE CONTRACT: The city’s recycle contract with McCoy Sanitation will end December 31, 2011 so City Clerk Diana Bowlin is preparing an RFP to send in June. A recommendation will be brought to council in September.
10. WEB PAGE: Information Technology Manager Kurt Ripperger reports the new web site can provide statistics about visits. Some are provided below:
32,203 visits from 56 countries since April 15, 2011.
31,836 of those visits were from the United States--26,618 from Iowa, 1,003 from Minnesota, 1,003, 593 from Illinois and 590 from California
16,000 were from Indianola; 7,688 from Des Moines, 412 from West Des Moines and 403 from Urbandale
The average Indianola user spent 2 minutes 46 seconds on the site and visited an average of 2.67 pages.
The average of all users was 2 minutes 40 seconds and 2.98 pages translating to 95,686 pages viewed in the last two months.
The main home page was viewed most with 16,513 hits followed by the Library home page with 15,068 hits and Parks & Rec home page with 9,406 hits.
The top non-Library/non-Park & Rec pages viewed were:
Job openings - 1,775
Departments - 1,478
Calendar - 1,255
Fire - 932
"I Want to" tab - 833
Police - 748
9. BALLOON MUSEUM DRAINAGE: The contractor will grade and seed the drainage area given our moderate and weather. However, if it does not take, they’ll return in September to over seed.
10. NARCOTICS ENFORCEMENT GRANT: Chief Steve Bonnett learned this week that the federal grant that funds the Mid Iowa Narcotics Enforcement (MINE) program will end June 30. $30,000 was budgeted for FY 11/12 so the agencies will meet to discuss options and provide a recommendation in July or August.
