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Premeeting comments on Ames City Council agenda October 28th, 2008

Posted October 28th, 2008 by admin

Hello All

This council meeting starts at 7:00. There are several items of interest on the agenda including:

  • Item 1 -- Presentation of Resident Satisfaction Survey.   The yearly statistical satisfaction survey of the citizens of Ames. For those of you who are interested in what your neighbors think this is worth the read.
  • Item 8 -- Resolution approving City's Investment Report.  Given the recent concern in the world about the safety of investments it is good to get this report detailing where the city's cash is invested.
  • Item 22 -- "Cool Cities" Initiative. This is a Resolution establishing a goal to reduce CO2 levels in City operations by 15% by 2014. It is good to see progress in this area. The report has no details as to where the reductions will occur. I hope to get more detail soon. I support C02 reduction and this looks like a good 5 year goal. Hopefully the federal government will get on board soon.
  • Item 23 -- Resolution approving/motion denying City’s participation in Ridgeport Wind Project. This is a partnership of a group of municipal utilities to build a wind farm of about 75 mega watts. The city manager has expressed several concerns in regards to the legal agreements for this project. If the city does not accept this agreement it could just buy wind energy on (for example) a 10 year contract with a supplier (e.g. Florida Power and Light).  I, however, would like to see the city have an equity stake in a wind energy project. This is one of the very few projects in the area offering equity participation.
  • Item 25 -- Downtown Catalyst Project (see comments of Oct 14th).This is a Resolution granting prior approval of eligibility for urban revitalization tax exemption for the Town Center building. This is a change of financing for the downtown catalyst project. This does not address the subject of a parking ramp. The developer was requiring a parking ramp to go forward with the project. It's not clear to me if that is still a requirement? There continues to be a question as to if the city would be required  (by state law) to go to a bond issue referendum to finance the ramp. I will be asking city staff for clarification on these issues.

Those are the expected highlights.

 

Jim Popken
City Council At Large

 

Disclaimer: My intent of this communication is to give you a heads up on items coming to the city council. I may state some of my impressions and leanings here. I will, however, try to avoid staking out a position on issues before the council meeting occurs. I feel that I should avoid committing to any positions until I have heard and considered all the public input at the council meeting before a vote.

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