Friday, September 30, 2011

News Items - October 3, 2011

1. COMMITTEE AGENDA ITEMS: We will have a big line-up of issues in the next 2-3 months. The tentative agendas follow:

• Sewer and Street Capital Budgets—October
• Goals/Priorities—October
• Fire Bay expansion—October
• Downtown Incentive Program ends December 31, ’11; consider extension and financing issues-October
• Square Streetscape design options—October
• General Fund Capital Budget—November
• Gas franchise vs. taxes to pay annual $140,000 Aerial Truck debt payment—November
• Wellness program enhancements-November

2. VISION IOWA: The next meeting is October 12 in Sioux City and we plan to have representation there.

3. HWY 65/69: We have asked IDOT to review the re-grade (addresses different levels of the north and southbound lanes) of Hwy 65/69 north of Hillcrest to the car dealerships. More information will be presented to council in the next few weeks when IDOT responds. A speed limit review has also been requested.

4. SOUTH Y STREET LIGHTS: Chuck Burgin has been working with General Manager Todd Kielkopf who indicated that our Electric Utility can install the lights on South Y for about $34,000. The cost of the lighting will then be charged to the city as part of the total lighting bill that is paid annually.

The initial understanding was that MidAmerican Energy could only provide the lights/electricity since it is their territory.

A recommendation will be placed on the October 17 agenda as more detail is worked out.

5. PAPERLESS SOFTWARE: Information Technology Manager Kurt Ripperger reports iPad quotes are in and favorable. They will be here in about two weeks.

The software should be installed early next week since tests on the remote connection with the company have passed. Staff training will take another 4-5 weeks after software installation.

Kurt anticipates the entire system will be functional by the end of November.

iPad training for elected officials will be scheduled after the units are configured.

6. WAYFINDING SIGNS: IDOT indicated the proposed Way-Finding signs required some changes including colors, warranty and reflective materials. There is an additional cost of $2,900 which I authorized. The concepts have been returned to Shive-Hattery for revisions and will be provided to elected officials when available.

7. WELLNESS PROGRAM: In an effort to maintain or reduce health insurance claims, the insurance committee is working on enhancements to the city’s wellness program. Enhancements discussed include fitness center assistance for 12 months (currently 9), flu shots, blood screen report/follow-up, pre-diabetes/diabetes counseling, etc. A presentation will be provided by the committee at the November committee meeting.

8. NORTH E SHARED SERVICE: Supt Dan Miers met with the property owners in the 800 Blk of N E St to discuss a shared sewer service (see map) that was discovered during I&I Program testing. Dan provided a cost breakdown of the project including city and owner share. Total project is estimated at $32,726 with the owners paying about $33,000 ($6,500 ea). All owners indicated a desire to proceed.

Dan recommends the project be conducted thru the I&I Phase 2 (change order) with Visu Sewer. A recommendation will be brought to council on October 17.

9. INTERN: Intern Chelsea Fulton was hired as the new city administrator of Griswold, Iowa and will start on October 10. There is no question her internship with the City of Indianola helped her gain employment. Congratulations to Chelsea and we wish her the best!

10. COUNTY/CITY ROADS: Dean Yordi, Jerry Kelley, Jason White, Chuck Burgin and I are scheduling a meeting the week of October 10 to further discuss joint road projects.

11. DAMAGE RECOVERY: Efforts by Park Superintendent Mike Bowlin, and Risk Manager RoxAnne Hunerdosse, resulted in $500 damage reimbursement from IDOT resulting from a snowplow damage to curbing at Pickard Park last winter.

12. BULLET-PROOF VEST GRANT: The Police Department once again received funding from the US Department of Justice for the Bullet-Proof Vest grant program. This week we received $1,662.50 (50% of the cost) to help off-set the expense of new vests for our officers. Vests are purchased for new officers and replaced on a rotational basis for current officers. Each vest cost $675.

13. STORM & DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS: In your packet is a list and map from Veenstra and Kimm showing proposed storm and drainage improvements in the city. Note that not all sites have been reviewed for cost estimates. However, this information will be prepared for an improvement project next spring funded by the Storm Water Utility.

14. ROBERT HAWKINS: Returned to active employment with the Police Department on Sept. 30th after serving 20 months of active duty in the US Army. Welcome Rob and thank you for your military service.

Friday, September 23, 2011

News Items - September 26, 2011

1. NEXT MEETING: The next council meeting is October 3 at 6:00 pm.

2. WELLNESS CENTER: Vernon Delpasce and I have begun discussions on the owner/operator agreement. We anticipate the document to be complete by end of October and presented to council in November.

3. J/K REALIGNMENT: Community Development Director Chuck Burgin reports the following:

1. Currently soliciting quotes for an appraisal review. Federal Highway requires a review of the original appraisal
2. Contacted Libby Weilenga of IDOT District 5 to confirm the environmental status of the project. DeeAnn Newell of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) will be contacted for compliance.
3. Archaeological and historic surveys will need to be completed

These items need to be cleared prior to making an official offer to purchase the property. Also, Chuck suggests hiring V&K (they’ve done all the preliminary work thus far) to start preliminary design concepts. V&K has experience with Federally Funded projects.

4. ISA: P&R Director Glen Cowan reports the Indianola Sports Association had a challenging summer and that Rec Supt Doug Bylund spent a lot of time helping the leagues. There will be a meeting in the next couple weeks to discuss next season’s operations.

5. SOUTH Y REPORT: The street has been open for a week. The damaged driveway panels in front of the townhomes have been removed and replaced. The seeding contractor has not shown, and as September 23, 2011 allowable working days of 60 ended on Wednesday, September 21, 2011.

6. FY 10/11 BUDGET: In the packet is the August budget report showing departmental budget figures. Revenues are at about 12.3% (tax payments are due in October) and expenses about 16.9%.

7. GENERATOR: At around 7:00 AM this morning the Sewer Department received multiple alarms at the south plant lift station. Staff investigated and found phase loss in the incoming power. Dan Miers called IMU to investigate further. They arrived at the time the new generator transfer switch exploded.

Dan determined that the Onan transfer switch failed and also found the Westinghouse transformer switch will not trip. JETCO, Neuvirth and IMU installed temporary power to the station. The transfer switch is still under warranty and Dan ordered a new transformer switch ($5,700) to replace the old one.

Our thanks to Bob Miller and his staff for their quick response and excellent service!!

8. I&I: During extreme rain events in June of this year, city staff received reports of an excessive number of basement backups along N 8th Street from E Euclid to E Girard Avenue (see map). After the rain events, Dan Miers instructed staff to televise the sewer mains in the 500 block of E Iowa Ave to the intersection of E Euclid and N 8th St. They found several Inflow and Infiltration issues with the sewer mains and sewer services.

Staff reviewed the videos from 2002 and could not see the I&I issues when inspected in June of 2011. The rain event amplified the I&I conditions that were not visible in 2002. Dan asked V&K Engineers to include lining 6 segments of sewer main, 30 lateral launches and 16 T-liners to Phase 2 of the I&I Project. The good news is that staff already deleted 71 T-lines from the project so there will be little cost impact.

Dan will be contacting the property owners and hold a neighborhood meeting to explain what the city discovered. Dan expects to find several I&I issues with the sewer services and will be explaining that they will be responsible for any additional I&I issues that are discovered during lateral launches.

9. COUNCIL: For your information, the following is a list of candidates for the November election.

1st Ward 3rd Ward At Large
Randy Gathers Shirley Clark Darwin Curl Jr.
John Parker Jr. Eric Mathieu Greg Marchant
Mark Vickroy

10. HWY 65/69 TRAFFIC: Chief Bonnett, Ken Bresnan and I met with IDOT’s Jim Armstrong to discuss traffic concerns related to Theisen’s opening. Jim will explore options and report back. Chief Bonnett intends to have two officers on site during the grand opening.

Friday, September 16, 2011

News Items September 19, 2011

1. WELLNESS CENTER: Our second meeting with the Vision Iowa Board was held on September 14 and it went well. Ken presented a revised budget (based on elected official, committee and citizen input) that included the walking track and a racquetball court. The $2.5 million request was lowered to $1 million to show actual need and be more inline with VI resources. There are nearly $12 million in applications and around $3.5-$4 million in available funds. Nearly $2 million in applications was forwarded to the negotiation stage by the Board on the 14th.

2. I&I CHANGE ORDER: Supt Dan Miers and V&K Engineers Forrest Aldrich and Rebecca Ford have been working with Visu Sewer on changes to the Phase 2 Project that will amount to about $112,000. Total contract amount is currently $4,185,979.00.

The C/O is the result of a 3-1/2 hour meeting between Becky, Dan, Forrest and the contractor on August 31st. The contractor was originally asking $227,524 before Becky and Dan negotiated the cost to the $112,000.

The changes are described by location/purpose in the V&K recommendation. Some repairs are for fixing a shared service while the majority is due to changes in sewer conditions (worse) compared to what was originally televised (several years ago). Becky, Dan and Forrest reviewed the original TV tape during design and the new TV tape for the repair. The difference is remarkable in some instances. It is not known why the sewer deteriorated so quickly in these locations but a guess is that the wet weather this spring surcharged some of the sewers and they couldn't take the strain. The rest is for miscellaneous odds and ends discovered during excavation.

Most of the entire Phase II has now been televised for repairs and most of the excavation work is completed, so we do not expect any more change orders of this magnitude.

3. RECYCLING PROPOSALS: On August 3, 2011 Diana Bowlin received recycling proposals for the next 3-5 years (see packet) indicating McCoy Sanitation as the low bid. However, McCoy’s recently sold to Waste Management.

I met with WM’s Brian Neppl and Dave Massey to discuss the transition and McCoy’s and recycling proposals. They are willing to honor the current (bin) option of $2.75/month and are considering a reduction to their cart system.


Based on the healthy financial condition of the Recycling Fund, and, the fact that the single-stream cart recycling option is becoming more accepted in the metro area, the recommendation is to accept the cart recycling option. Keep in mind that eventually the bin system will be obsolete and a change to carts will be inevitable. The 96 gallon carts would be provided to residents and picked up every two weeks compared to once/week under the bin program. WM also indicates participation increases with the cart system.

This will be placed on the October 3 council agenda.

4. STORM WATER FUNDING: Chuck Burgin, Jean Furler, Dan Miers and I had a meeting with reps from IDNR regarding a new program that will help fund Water Resource Restoration projects using interest paid (by cities) on their Sanitary Sewer improvements using the State Revolving Loan Fund. The city council has budgeted around $6 million for sewer plant improvements that will be constructed in 2013 (plans are being developed now) so the 3% interest on that project can be used for storm water improvement projects including permeable paving, drainage way improvements, water gardens and other projects that limit storm water freely flowing into a drainage way.

More information about the project will be available in a couple weeks when we plan to meet again. And, it will be placed on a future council study agenda.

5. EMPLOYEE BREAKFAST: Up to a year or so ago the council and trustees held an employee breakfast as a meet and greet and show of appreciation for the fine work performed by our employees. After discussion with Todd Kielkopf, we are scheduling October 27 from 7:00 am to 8:30 am for the breakfast that will be held at the Activity Center. Elected officials are asked to attend to help serve and meet employees. Mark your calendars.

6. THE VILLAGE: The Village will be celebrating their 20th anniversary on Friday, September 30 from 2:00-4:00 pm in the Heritage Room in the Maple Crest Building. The retirement/assisted living center have been a great corporate citizen of Indianola.

7. SOUTH Y PAVING UPDATE: South “Y” is open to the traffic, 90% of the sidewalks have been poured and restoration will begin next week. Chuck has met with the representative of the townhomes, to discuss detour damage and will be corrected. The damage was minimal and repairs will begin next week.

8. NO PARKING: I have received an informal request from a farmer to place no parking on South “Y” Street. He stated it is very difficult to get his large machinery through to his farm land. I have asked Steve Bonnett to review and make a recommendation.

9. TAXES: In your packet are the general fund and debt service tax distribution at a 100.35% and 100.39%. This is good news.

Friday, September 2, 2011

News Items - September 6, 2011

1. SEPTEMBER 12 COMMITTEE: The tentative agenda includes the joint labor negotiation meeting with the trustees, C Street report from V&K, goals/priorities. Other items that will be discussed in the October/November meetings include gas franchise fee for ladder truck purchase, Downtown Square Incentive program, Square streetscape discussion, Fire Dept bay expansion, office building purchase.

2. P&R PRESENTATION: The P&R Commission has invited elected officials to attend a presentation by Dr. John Crompton about the benefits of parks and recreation in a community. The session will be held in the Training Room (basement of city hall) at 5:00 pm on September 14.

3. JOINT MEETING: Labor Negotiations Consultant Jim Hanks will meet on September 12 in closed session with the council/trustees to discuss the upcoming labor negotiations. The current contracts expire June 30, 2012.

4. VISION IOWA: The next Vision Iowa Board meeting is September 14 and Indianola will update its $2.5 million application/presentation from August 10. VI’s Alaina Santizo reports there is about $3.2 million (possibly more due to additional casino revenues) in FY 12 and about $15-$18 million in applications. Competition will be strong.

5. CUSTOMER APPRECIATION: The Municipal Utility will hold its annual customer appreciation event on September 15 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at 110 South Buxton. There will be information about energy efficiency, fiber, underground conversion and water quality.

6. BRUSH FACILITY: RoxAnne Hunerdosse reports mulching at the facility will be conducted this fall due to the large volume of brush collected from storm damage this year. Street Supt Ed Yando solicited quotes and received two from qualified vendors including Chamness Technology ($5,350) and JC's Services - $4,800. Staff authorized JC's Services due to price and quality of finished product.

Residents continue to use the mulch for home use thereby eliminating a removal or hauling charge for the city.

7. SOUTH Y PAVING: The main line paving has been completed. All the driveway approaches on the west side of “Y” Street are being graded, framed and paved on Friday, September 2, 2011.

8. STORM SEWER PROJECT: West Iowa culvert extension has begun and will be completed next week. As well as grading of the detention pond. Street repairs for both West Boston and South Buxton are completed and open to traffic.

9. MC COY SANITATION: Jeff Mc Coy informed us Friday morning that McCoy Sanitation has sold to Waste Management. Will keep you posted.

10. AMBULANCE: Sarah Palin is hosting a political event on September 3 at the Balloon Field from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The Fire Department has put an additional ambulance in service. Brian Seymour has billed them $450 to help cover the cost associated with covering the event. Along with the additional ambulance, the fire department will have two people roaming the grounds to provide first aid.

11. AERIAL UPDATE: Brian Seymour reports the specs went out to the two companies yesterday (Thursday, September 1) and are to be returned on September 16th @ 3pm for bid opening. Brian has talked to both companies and they currently see no problem with getting this completed. After the opening we will review the specs for compliance and forward information to you and the council.