City Council - Regular Meeting

Are on.

Their geothermal system that's running across the sidewalk out in the first avenue by the tennis courts. Yeah it's going to get 20 below on Friday. The. >> Part right on time. Megan Alter

Take down the city. >> All right. It is still 2 p.m. on January 21st. And one, 2026 and want to welcome our staff here today to your city hall. as well as welcome back, Council. today we're going to be doing SIP and super excited for this time of year. I will turn it over. Oh, we're just going to go right down here and turn it over to Ron. Perfect. Welcome.

Mr. Mayor and Council. Good afternoon. Ron. Kentucky public works director. Today we are happy to present the proposed 2026 through 2030 Iowa City Capital Improvements Plan. We will once again use the ESRI Story Map platform for the presentation. with that, I'd like to thank Vivian Olson and engineering and Madeline Stone and MPO, JJC for their help in producing this presentation. The Capital Projects Fund can be found in the proposed budget document starting on page 456. Today we have five objectives. First, Jacqueline Flegel, our Assistant finance director, will go over the capital plan development process and the fund summary. Second, we'll discuss the ongoing projects. There are nine major projects that are not included in the CIP. Third, we'll discuss the 17 annual projects in the CIP. Fourth, we'll discuss the 110 projects that are identified in the five year program. The projects may not be presented in the order they appear in the proposed budget document, and the final objective will be to discuss the projects considered to be on the radar. These are projects that we believe Council should be aware of, and right now we have ten of those projects that we've identified. As we go through the presentation, you will hear the impacts of supply chain issues, the availability of equipment and labor and inflation have had on our projects. We continue to have to extend schedules and rebid projects to be able to move them forward. These impacts are not limited to our projects alone, as the private utility companies are trying to get out of the way of our projects. They're experiencing the same issues as they try to relocate. We appreciate this opportunity to present the proposed 2026 through 2030 CIP, and with that, I'll turn it over to Jacqueline.

Hello, my name is Jacqueline Flegel, assistant finance director. As Ron mentioned, I will go over the general CIP development process and funding summary at a higher level than the department directors are here and we'll go over their project in more detail to kick off the process. On July 28th, the forms for requesting CIP projects are sent out to all departments. The forms are then due back to the Finance department at the beginning of September, where they're compiled into a preliminary report. Throughout September. the CIP committee reviews project requests and rankings, then amends preliminary reports starting in October. Those changes are compiled and integrated into the operating budget. Changes may arise as operating budgets are reviewed. Final projects are then integrated into the budget document in December and then submitted to council in January so this slide below. Is the funding source. Summary. typically we would see the Geo bonds as the largest source. However, with this five year plan, federal grants come in as the largest source at 88.3 million, 50.3 million of this total is for the Burlington Street Bridge project and has not yet been applied for the next largest piece is the transit facility, which has 18.2 million of federal grants, as well. The next largest source of funding. Is the Geo bonds, which is made up of two pieces. Both the general purpose and the essential purpose pieces. Together, they total 83.8 million for the five year plan, with an average of 17.2 million. The current debt levy can support 15.5 million. The assumptions for this calculation include an estimate of 2%

increase in taxable growth the next year, and then 3% for each year thereafter, with the levy increasing 13.4 cents over the next five years. This 13.4 cents is what the general levy is projected to decrease with the current property tax legislation. Given the current debt levy can support 15.5 million with the previously listed assumptions. but the CIP plan averages 17.2 million. We would expect to need to rely on loss to help cover that gap. A new funding source for this year for the CIP plan is the local option sales tax, or lost, with a total of 8.5 million budgeted. Of this, 2.5 million is for the Summit Street affordable housing project. The other 6 million is to fund a few other projects. No specific projects have been assigned to lost funding at this time. Then, if we go on to our next slide, which is the category summary and breaks out all of the projects for the five year plan across different departments. The largest category you can see is streets with over 56% of the budget expenses, or 178.3 million 103.3 million. Of that total is for the Burlington Street project, and 20.2 million is for the Dodge Street Reconstruction project. Another large category is transportation services at 21.4 million. most of that is the transit facility, which is 20.9 million for that project, you would also want to call out the 12 million included in equipment for their piece of that project. additionally, water has several large projects in the five year plan, the first of which is the East Elevated Storage Project at 7.7 million, followed by

Collector Well Rehab at 4.8 million, and the West Pressure Zone Improvement Project at 4.6 million. with that, I will hand it back over to Jason and Departments to go over their specific projects. >> All right. Thank you. I'm Jason Hall, city engineer. I'll be helping to kind of walk through a number of these projects, and we're going to start off with the ongoing projects. As a reminder, these are those projects that don't currently show up in the current CIP but are still ongoing. There's work still occurring and still some projects left to complete.

All right. Good afternoon, Julie Seidel Johnson, director of Parks and Recreation. So the first one up is City Park Pool. Gotta love it. as you can see, this picture was taken about a week ago. That's up there. The good news is we've got pool basins in place so you can see the leisure pool, the lap pool and the diving. Well but you can also see that the buildings do not have roofs on them yet and mostly do not have walls. So we will have an update on schedule. Probably by around February 1st. We'll get an updated schedule for when we look for for opening the next project is Terrell Mill Skate Park redevelopment in close to City Park in Terrell Mill Park. This is an addition to the skate park to make it a roller park. we had a federal grant for this project. It is. We've bid it have preconstruction meeting in a week or two to get it rolling early this spring Mercer Park Ball Diamonds is a project that has been we've been working on with the Iowa City Community School District. This is a renovation of the Mercer Fields so that one becomes the varsity softball field for City High, and one the varsity baseball field with the other two fields being community fields. Work is nearing nearing completion. You'll see the growing of the grass in the spring, but it's nearing completion for the rest of the path work. The concession work, Ada, things that we've done there

Next, we'll move on to North Gilbert Street. So this is that section between Brown Street and Kimball. The roadway is pretty well complete at this point. The paving is done. Really. The remaining work is some retaining walls and sidewalks that need to be complete this spring, as well as some final restoration work. As a reminder, this project did add sidewalk on both streets for the length of the project. Next is the Muscatine Avenue pedestrian crossing. This is one that's been around for a little bit. it will include a new refuge island on Muscatine Avenue between Wade Street and Williams Street. Also includes bus shelter pads and sidewalk work as well. one unique thing about this, and one of the reasons for the delay, has been working with Iowa State University and the Dot to include basically a pilot project for conductive concrete that will help with snow melt during the winter months Next is the Digester Complex Rehabilitation project. So this is a major project down at the wastewater plant. includes a lot of work with new equipment, improvements to equipment and processes down there also will allow for generating gas that can then be sold and and create an additional revenue source for the wastewater plant The Highlander lift station improvements. So this is up near Moss Ridge Road off of Dodge Street. This is an existing lift station looking at doing a rehab project. They're replacing some pumps. we'll actually talk about this one a little bit later on the on the radar project. But currently it's a project to more or less rehab the existing facility and its existing location. And then finally is Fire Station two roof replacement. Pretty much just what it says. It's replacement of the roof for the existing fire station. Two. And then next we'll move on to annual projects. And so these are those projects that have money every

year. Really. They tend to be those projects that are they kind of focus on, you know, ongoing maintenance, that kind of thing. And so first one there will be the annual fiber infill and cameras. So this is really funding that's there to take advantage of other projects or opportunities that would be there to expand the city's fiber network. So that could be any number of things it could be sharing with, you know, the university or other entities or building facilities on our own also is funding that could be used for cameras for a variety of purposes. Next is the annual stormwater improvements. So similar to what the picture shows here, a lot of times these are addressing storm or sinkholes that appear, you know, typically dealing with more emergency repairs for damaged pipe intake structures, that kind of thing related to the stormwater system.

Next is annual city hall improvements. This is largely HVAC, heating and cooling. And the bays or the systems that run that heating and cooling system in the next coming years. it's had a few other minor projects over the years, but that's the main thing that we'll be looking at is some of those internal systems in the building Annual parks improvement is the fund that we use for smaller parks projects. A lot of times for partner projects with some of our, sport associations or other community groups that have an idea for a project, but maybe not full funding. we've also done smaller things like the Park Sign project over the last few years has come out of these funds. Annual inner city bike trails and bridges. So we've done a really good job in the last ten years of bringing our parks, playgrounds, and shelters up to date. The next thing is all the bridges that you may or may not notice as you're out on the bike, on the bike trails. This fund is used to replace those. We're kind of hitting them off one at a time and trying to get those replaced. And then the next one is annual rec center improvements. Nothing really exciting here. People want to know what's happening in the rec center. Well, roofs. once again, HVAC units, plumbing things, all kind of internal things that keep the building functioning. Annual contracted tree planting is a fund we've been using to plant street trees this past year. The planning for the Washington Hills neighborhood and some of the South District and we'll be getting ready to do another couple neighborhoods next year with this funding.

Next is the annual traffic signals account. And so this is used for replacing a lot of times replacing equipment that's reached the end of its useful life. you know, if we have a pole knocked down or something like that, it would be replacing that type of equipment also can be used for constructing new traffic signals as needed. The annual traffic calming account a lot of times this is, includes speed humps that are approved as part of the the city's traffic calming program. That program is currently on hold as we reevaluate it and just make sure that it's meeting, the intent and and goals of that program.

Are there multiple projects that are on the backlog that this citizen initiated traffic calming projects, or is this or is this close out the ones this basically. Closes out the ones that are currently out there and then would not have any new ones funded at this time?

Okay. As they're being studied, the previous ones. Yep. Okay. >> Ada curb ramps. So these are locations throughout the city where we go in and update curb ramps or install new curb ramps or curb ramps don't exist. The focus typically are on those areas that have the most demand or areas where there's the greatest need. From an accessibility standpoint. So that typically is areas where no curb ramps exist, but can be any other needs for accessibility. Annual pavement rehabilitation. The two big pieces here are PCC patching and asphalt overlay. Those programs are. Those projects vary year to year. We typically have at least an overlay program or overlay project every year, and then PCC patching as we have funding available as and just as a reminder, with those projects, we also include curb ramp repairs as needed. So if we are overlaying areas, those typically include curb ramps as a part of those projects. The annual underground electrical facilities is the funding that we use to assist in burying private utilities. So typically when it comes to burying electrical lines, we are responsible for the additional cost for moving them underground. And so this funding is what we use to to do that and work with Mid-American in those instances The annual annual Bicycle master plan implementation. So this is the funding that we use to work through the recommendations from the Bicycle Master Plan. This typically includes restriping of various locations to add on street bicycle facilities or

other amenities. Annual maintenance and repair. This one, again pretty much as it sounds, is the funding that we use for bridge repairs and other maintenance items. It can also be used to assist with bridge reconstructions or replacements, as well. >> Good afternoon. Darian, director of Transportation Services. the first project annual project I want to highlight is our annual parking facility restoration and repair. And this project, there's funding allocated every year. It's essentially upkeep for our ramps to keep them healthy, keep them lasting longer. in the upcoming year, we're going to be working on three ramps. We'll be working on applying sealants in the Chauncey Swan ramp across the street at the Court Street Transportation Center, and then we'll also be working to apply some membrane at the Dubuque Street ramp. So most of the work you'll see under this project is is concrete related work to ensure the longevity of all of our parking facilities. All right. The next project is the annual transit interchange and bus stop improvement project. So. We have just published a request for qualifications for consultants to help us understand what our needs are at all of our bus stops. They're going to help us inventory our amenities at our bus stop, our accessibility at all of our bus stops. And that also includes the downtown interchange and at the downtown interchange, specifically, we're looking at both public amenities you know, waiting area chairs. cover, some shelter, but also looking at staff amenities. And do we have what we need for the the many staff that are there every single day? And then also, do we have enough room for, say, staging of vehicles right now space is limited at the downtown interchange area. And if we intend to expand our service over time, we would need functionally more room to operate. So we're asking a consultant to help us walk

through what those needs are, what get the conditions on the ground, understand what our needs are for the future, help us develop a phased plan for improvements. So this is really going to be a planning year. the RFQ closes next month. we'll get someone, a consultant team lined up. and again, we're hoping by the end of the year we're going to have a really nice concrete plan on how to move forward. So you'll see us talking likely about more projects for bus stop improvements. Following that planning session next year. >> Darian, do you expect the first? I see it's just $25,000 over the next five years. Do you expect that the study year costs that much money? And then eventually we have larger numbers for actual investments or a singular large project? >> Yeah. So we'll likely see a project at the downtown interchange probably separate from. >> The individual.

Maybe an ongoing this dollar amount right here is more what I'm envisioning for what we'll need or what we've envisioned we would need to get the planning started. We don't know what we're going to need to actually do. The improvements out in the field. That's part of what we're helping. The consultants will help us understand is what those costs are associated with the both the upkeep and upkeep and the ongoing maintenance. Thanks. >> Yep.

when you were talking about space at the Downtown Hub by capital, were you talking about potentially getting more space at that location or moving location with more space? >> Well, I think our first I think the first and most prudent move would be to understand if we can get more space at that location. It's a it's a good location in terms of proximity to downtown, to the university. It does have its limitations. I will say the drivers, you know, in terms of navigating the pedestrians alone at that intersection, that's that's a challenge for them. But it's also the right place to be from a, from a transit perspective. So so I think the goal is to see what we can do at that space with the right of way that we have available to us at that location. >> I think just to add to that, the university will be taking full ownership of that mall in the coming months. expect that to probably take place in the spring or summer. So, they've been great about reaching out to us and wanting to have those conversations. So I'd say those conversations are ongoing, but ideally we could work cooperatively with the university to take some of that interior space of the mall and potentially provide some all weather passenger amenities in addition to maybe some enhanced outdoor amenities. >> I just have a big picture question since we were moving a little bit outside of just these annual projects, but I the total amount that is like divided up equally over five years. This is probably a tough question. Remind us why we don't include some escalation. I know in the in the parking facility restoration and repair. There was a couple years out it increases. But in general we're seeing sort of a flat figure year over year. And we know with inflation and tariffs and, you know, material costs increasing that, that means we're doing less each year. If it actually does stay flat. So can you just explain for us kind of the reasoning behind that rather than including some escalator.

Yeah it's really just financial constraints. that's been the case for these annual projects for a good ten years. I think whether you're talking city hall maintenance parks maintenance, even our annual street budget has been pretty flat at 2 million. we hope to increase that with loss going forward. But those, those annual maintenance projects that we do are not buying the same for this community now as they did five, ten years ago. And a lot of cases, those are those have been flat that entire time or in some cases decreased. So with something like this, we would adjust after the planning study. We would we would kind of understand those costs a little bit better. And there's also a potential for use of funds that have been previously allocated for similar projects that that may be holding a balance that we could tap into as well. So we we feel like we have enough to get started with this, and then we'll adjust in the out years once we know what those plans are.

Thank you >> I just don't get that 25,000 is just just for the study or this is for the actual repair because it's very low. >> It is low. It's it's been a revolving balance. So as you all know, because of the focus has been mostly on the service side of things from the transit perspective. So we have been accumulating dollar amounts in this fund. So it's really been a fund that has generated cash I think I don't know what the balance is right now. Do you all know. >> It's a few hundred.

Yeah. So there's several hundred thousand in the balance that right now that we'll use for planning. And then as Jeff suggested, once we get the plan in front of us and we have a better idea of what those actual costs are, you're going to see updated numbers in this likely next year. and then also potentially separate projects as we deem necessary. specifically for the downtown interchange. >> Thank you. Yes. If I try to clarify that a little bit, just to make sure everybody understands what you're seeing on the screen and in the budget those are the future allocations to these annual projects. But there are often years in which we don't spend all of the dollars on those annual projects. So they stay in that project and they accumulate. So the interchange or bus improvement line may have a couple hundred thousand dollars of unspent from previous years. And that's what gets us started. So that's one of those things that we look at and whether we need to increase that annual amount or decrease it to, to provide some relief elsewhere. >> Yeah.

Do we do we still have those this is an unconfirmed rumor that I've heard that we have bus stops that we removed and are just sitting around, in the over by Terry Trueblood. do we know. >> Are we talking about. Shell shelters? >> Yeah

I believe any shelter we have that is not installed is a backup shelter that we use in case a shelter is damaged or pieces of equipment. I don't know if we have a back stock of shelters. We, as we were working through the bus stop improvement process, we kind of paused for the transit study. And now we're we're picking that piece back up again. So anything that we have remaining is either our what we keep in stock in case there's damage and it happens either to the entire shelter structure or the glass portions. But I believe it's all out.

Yeah, I know there's no malevolent hoarding of structures. but we that is something I get asked a lot is because bus stops and shelters at bus stops and amenities are always something that we hear. a couple people have, I don't know, reached out, said the city has some just sitting in a ditch somewhere. And why don't they use them? So yeah, just thought I'd ask. Yeah. That's a good question. >> All right. Okay.

All right. The last item on the annual tab is the sewer main replacement. And so this is the account that we use for making repairs to the sewer system. And that would include replacing damaged pipe and structures. Also includes our sewer lining program that we typically do every year. Next we'll move on to airport. >> Good afternoon. I'm Mike Tharp. I'm the airport manager for the Iowa City airport. I'm going to take you all through the fun projects we have planned. So first up is airport apron expansion. This is a parking ramp expansion for aircraft. the FAA has a wonderful formula based on, the number of airplanes you get in a day. And because we have football games and home football game weekends, our ramp that we're allowed to have by the FAA standards is about three times the size of what we currently have. and by expanding that ramp to where we should be gives us a little bit better ability to manage those aircraft when they come in for either game days or other special events through the city. the.

Next, we have zero for 2026 and 2027. Do also the same thing that we have budget from last year, from last time, or why we have zero. >> No. These are and let me back up a couple of steps. So with the airport all of our projects are grant dependent. whether it's FAA grants or state grants. when the FAA participates in a project, they provide 90% of the costs. And when the state participates in a project, they provide anywhere from 50 to 85% of the cost, depending on the project type. so without those funds, these projects do not move forward.

Sure. Thank you. >> the next couple of projects are pavement repairs. this is actually going to be something we are bidding out in the next couple of months. this will take care of the second half. The western half of our primary runway, seven, two, five. And then the next project is runway 12 three zero. Both of those are essentially crack sealing and joint joint seal type projects to maintain the runway system that we have, that we installed not quite 20 years ago and keeping it up and running. And free from damage and breaking so that, shards of concrete don't impact, airplanes. following that is taxiway maintenance. The same process root seal of our primary taxiway. that is, basically a road to get aircraft from our parking ramp to the runway ends. and then following that is our fuel storage tank cabinet replacements. our our fuel tanks, we have jet A and we have avgas. And each of those systems have a motor filtration. All of that. both of those systems are approaching 30 plus years old. and it's as the airport has gotten busier and we've taken more fuel loads consistently, we're seeing more repairs needed for for that infrastructure. And we would like to be able to replace that and start over. the next project is one that we're super excited about. It's our hangar building project. Currently, there are 37 people on our hangar waiting list and people are waiting several years at this point for hangars at the Iowa City Airport. we have a great population base of, of aircraft donors. we just have super low turnover. every year we do, we'll talk a little bit more about this during our operations

budget. But every year we do analyze our hangar rates and make sure we're essentially charging a premium above any other airports around us. but this project would give us 6 to 8 more units. t hangar space for those aircraft to live at the airport. >> These hangars include any office space. I know that there's a limitations for humans. >> At this point. No office space is planned for that. a couple of years ago, we did have a project where we put concrete into that area. So hopefully generating private builds. we haven't seen the private development happen, so we're taking a leap and and using what's left of our Infrastructure and Jobs Act money and going after a state grant this spring to supplement that, along with those funds.

Are the clients who rent out these spaces. Are they generally, is it commercial entities or is it just private citizens or. >> All of the above? We have private citizens. We have companies that have jets at the airport. yeah.

Okay. Thank you. >> And then our final project is the terminal lobby, furniture and flooring replacement. This was one the last couple of years. you may be familiar. The airport has been trying to figure out a terminal building project that may have replaced the terminal building that is kind of now off the books. The opportunities for grant funding there are gone away. So now we're looking at the continuing existence of the building and updating and remodeling the, the the building as it is That's all I have. >> All right.

All right. Next we will move on to fire.

And thank you. Welcome >> good afternoon, mayor council. Scott Lyon, fire chief just a couple projects to talk with you about this afternoon. but one of them can be truly transformative for the fire department. That is the fire station one and three conceptual design. as we're all aware, both these facilities have outlived their their lifespan and are desperate need of replacement so that we can move forward as an organization. both in employee expectations and offering new services to the city. so we're just out of space and the the buildings are tired and certainly need to, to be replaced. so this would allow for, the engagement of those conceptual designs. once again, we have the fire station, one flooring and furniture. the flooring and furniture is quite dated. and continues to be problematic. some of the funds were used for the that were allocated for this project to get used in the station. One sleeping area renovation. So we still have, the the carpet that tends to get eaten up by the vacuum cleaner every time it gets cleaned. So asking that, that get replaced and finally and I have Josh wall in the audience to to to explain this a little bit better. I'll explain it to my, my level of knowledge. Both station two and four have proprietary automation controls for, for many of the building functions. That sounds like they haven't worked right for quite some time. and the results are, many repairs waiting on, on outside vendors to, get things fixed. And it's just been a perpetual problem. so, so the ask is to go ahead and simply

get those replaced. That's what I got for you. Okay. >> Like, how often we, we do that, like, just whenever we see things getting like aging or how, how often we change, do the remodeling for the stations. >> For, for the fire station themselves. >> Yeah. Like now we're remodeling fire station two and four, right. so so this this is for the, the controls for many of the building's functions. >> Exactly like you don't have, like, for example, every five years or something like that. It's just whenever things getting.

Yeah. I do not Josh may be able to speak to that a little bit better. >> Let me know if you can't hear me. >> We'll need you to come to the mic. Thank you. >> What is the mic?

Welcome. >> Welcome. Council. on a session like bas for station two and four, it was a proprietary system that was put in there. They had a lot of difficulties with it. They started to transition over the last 5 to 8 years into a new system, into there. But there's still a lot of hiccups, a lot of proprietary things. So when things go wrong, we have to do full out replacements on it. This would allow us to switch it all over to a more universal system. So that way we're not married to one company. in their control system. So this will this will help us adapt and be a lot better. Right now, we spend a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of resources constantly trying to kick a rock down the road. This is we're going to switch it over and we're going to get it. So so we're functioning and it will help us with efficiencies. >> Does the city currently have a Bas system that they use universally now for all Niagara.

So Niagara is kind of the system that we run off of that has been transitioned over over the last 5 to 8 years. Okay. from Johnson Control System previously.

So layperson here. What? sorry, what does what what type of control system functions? >> So HVAC, heating, cooling could be anywhere from your in-floor heat, geothermal to your air conditioning, heating. It's anything involving staying warm or cold. Thank you. You bet. Any questions? Thank you. Thank you. >> General question. Probably for the city manager. And that would be when it's beyond the five year horizon. But when is a fire station one replacement fall? >> Yeah. So our, if you recall, the master plan for this campus is to move both police and fire off this campus and then eventually allow City Hall to, take the the ground, not the building, but the ground that police and fire occupy right now. So our hope is to identify the location for Fire Station one. fire. Unlike police, is going to be geographically tied to the downtown. So we need to find a property within the immediate area. And our hope is that we can secure that here in in 2026, and that these design funds then begin to allow us to more kind of fully flesh out what that what that project looks like. And then we'll have to figure out the funding puzzle, which could include potentially going to the voters and asking for permission to, to borrow the funds to complete that. But what this does is it it it gets us started and will allow us to paint that picture for you all on what this looks like, what the total cost may be, and what the benefits to the community will be.

But for Fire Station one, it would require a bond vote. It wouldn't fit in this five year CIP plan to. Replace not as not as currently envisioned. As you know, we will first explore ways to do that within current budget parameters. depending on what those total costs come in at we might have to, rely on a vote of the, of the community Thanks. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right, we'll move on next to library. >> Great. Welcome.

Thank you. >> I'm Anne Mangano. I am the library director at the public library. And I'm going to present two projects. the first is the carpet and furnishings replacement project. This project was originally funded in FY 26, 805,000 to replace the carpet in the public areas of the library and replace the computer furniture as well. On the second floor. After reviewing the CIP budget and building needs, we're requesting now $1.2 million as an FY 27 project for a more comprehensive refurbishment. to address additional facility needs that will cover the original scope of the carpeting and the computer furniture, but it will allow us to repaint walls and repair them, replace furniture in the Teen Center meeting room, D study rooms, and damaged seating throughout the building, and replace damaged ceiling tiles. Just updates are critical. The fixtures and furnishings date back to June 2004, which doesn't seem that long ago. But for perspective, over 13.6 million people have visited the library since we've opened. that day there were 2 million computer sessions, about 112,000 people using our study rooms and 28 million items borrowed from the collection. So the investment would address immediate maintenance needs and ensure continued accessibility and comfort for library users >> I just have a question for Jason. If you're driving the could you try to scroll down a little bit? So if it's not in the immediate year, we can see what the year. Thank you. Yes, that's very helpful. Thank you

You said when the last time you remodeled this 2000. What?

The building opened in 2004, 2004. We've had some various carpet replacement due to we had a sewer backup and we've done some basic remodeling, but the majority of the carpeting in the building is 2004. >> Sure All right. >> We'll talk about HVAC systems. So we the library building has eight rooftop units that are a part of our HVAC system. Seven are original to the 2004 building and are approaching their useful life. An eighth unit, which was replaced in January 2025, is not part of this project. The CIP project calls for the replacement of the seven remaining units in the year 2030. Several rooftop rooftop units have had significant work in the past three years, and we are seeing regular coolant leaks and freezing up of the units, leading to the pooling of condensation, which is a librarian's worst nightmare. Our heating and air conditioning is a critical service to our community. We are a public warming and cooling center and a safe place for citizens to be during the day, and part of our building also serves as a rental space for merge, and these units serve our tenants.

All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next will be Neighborhood and Development Services

Welcome >> Tracy Heisey with Neighborhood development Services. this is a project where we purchased two lots with our Arpa funds. this is the first project. Of course, we as a city, we we support a lot of affordable housing throughout the community. We usually acquire we help our nonprofits build. This is the first time that we are stepping into the development side. We acquired the lot. We've hired Baker Tilly an advisory group, as our central development manager. They just took us through a study to determine the feasibility of us. what our strategic plan is, how do we develop? How do we how do we develop that internal capacity to develop permanently affordable units in the city? This will be the pilot project. We anticipate building up to 36 units. The project cost is approximately about 11 million, just shy of 11 million. We will be hiring architect, to come on board soon, and we are. Every affordable housing project relies on 6 or 7 funding sources to bring down the debt so that we can offer the rents at affordable level to those folks. we committed pro housing dollars to this. So about 2.7 million. We have to have the project done by 20 29. 24 of the 36 units has to be rent restricted to the fair market rent. So depending on how we fill that other financing, how we finance those other 12 units will depend on if those are market rate or subsidized. But we are trying to make sure that all 36 units a voucher holder could rent happy to take any questions. >> sorry, I just want to make sure I the last thing you were talking about of the division of types of units and affordability in that coming into the cost, you want all of them to be able to be rented by a voucher holder?

Yeah. Our goal is that all 36 will be either limited to the fair market rent or the payment standard that the housing choice voucher program requires. >> Okay. That's our goal. >> Have we looked up, have we looked into any different formulas that might make it less cost burdensome over time?

You basically have to reduce the debt. And so right now you'd have to find funding sources that are just a pure grant for 11 million in order to, because we still have to operate it sustainably, our enterprise funds. So we don't rely on general fund dollars coming into us. So that means and this is not a this is not a federal HUD. We're no longer in the public housing program. So that means the rent has to pay for all the staffing, the maintenance, the replacement reserves. So we have to make sure that we are self-sustaining. >> Yeah. And so I was thinking, those 12 units, that would be I guess I was just thinking the 12 units could be market rate or above market rate to be specifically the type of unit to subsidize it. and so I sorry, I think we were kind of. >> Yeah.

Moving in different directions.

We are hard pressed even with right now with Baker. Tilly did our 20 year proforma. They include some private debt. even when we remove the private debt to get to the 20 year perform that we need, we're still we're looking at all the available resources that we have pro housing funds. We just applied to the housing Trust Fund for funds. We're looking at Iowa Workforce housing workforce housing, tax credit application, having a conversation with the lender regarding what Federal Home Loan Bank, part of the expertise that we're hiring for, Baker Tilly, is to teach us how to get the various funding sources so that we can offer the lowest rents possible. And so, until I know total project costs. okay. Thank you. We will continue to look for those resources. >> Okay. I guess when I ask you like this, 86 unit, are they do you know exactly like how many bedrooms, how many bedroom, three bedroom

Kinda. if I'm going by memory, we want one bedrooms. We really have a huge need for one bedrooms. That is the highest number of people on the waiting list for public housing. the one bedroom units. I think we suggested 18. Six. Yeah, we have a mix, but we have to work with the architect because we're not sure if it's going to be an L-shaped building or if we're going to have two buildings. And based on that actual configuration, we'll know. But yes, we plan on having a mix of one, two and three bedrooms with a focus on one bedrooms, but then having two and three as well. >> You mean like 50% could be one bedroom? 50% of. >> That potentially. I think it was like 18, 12, six. Chris, don't make me do mental math in front of everybody. >> Yeah. No, that's that's fine. And also other question is like how is the rent will be calculated? Is this only for 30% of the area median income or you are having like 30, 40, 60? >> We anticipate that most people, some of the financing that we're going to put into this, especially we're going to we'll sell the Chauncey, we'll use those proceeds as well. And so we have to limit some of our project to just a voucher holder. So we we feel that the primary, the majority of folks are going to be under 30% of median income, but not all. Not all. And then. >> Like up to 4050.

We anticipate like probably 90% of the people going to these units will have a voucher and they can be up to 50% of median income, but our funding allows people to be under 60% under we just reality is mostly going to be people that have a voucher. >> Sure. Thank you.

I don't want I know this is just for the purposes of CIP, but I am curious with this process where we act as developers sort of new to the city is when do when do we get to see this project again? I can see there's obviously a lot of interest up here and what this looks like and how it gets developed. >> We're excited about that too. we'll hire the architect. And I think that architect, because of the amount, will have to come back before you that we hire the architect. Then we will probably, once we work with the architect and get some potential designs or potential layouts, we'll probably have a neighborhood meeting. So we come back at then and, we already have the zoning in place, so there's no. >> There's no zoning need for us to participate. It's really just do we need. A building permit. >> At this point? Okay.

Ultimately, you're the decision making body so you can have as much involvement as you want. If you would like to see some preliminary renderings, for example, prior to a neighborhood meeting, we can arrange that. Or if you just want to be advised along the way that we're having a neighborhood meeting and we can work with you to figure out what level of involvement that, that you want. and knowing that is actually kind of helpful because if there are specific interests in unit mix and affordability mix, and you really want to see reflected in this, it's better for us to know that up front and to not have to kind of backtrack that. So maybe that's something I can follow up with you all on. and then advise Tracey on kind of what checkpoints that you'd like to see going forward.

Yeah, that'd be great. >> And this is not like, you know, the voucher we're going to use for that is just people who have voucher and looking for and as you said, there is many people in the waiting list. And I know that the waiting list is closed right now, but as soon as you pull them out, maybe you give them. This is just going to like have add a new voucher, just like the public housing that we have. No there's no new vouchers coming.

No, no. Same vouchers. And anyway just part of me saying that we sometimes I don't want to see like a whole building become low income, as if we segregate people by income. I don't know, but you know, as you know, Councilor Weiner said, if there is, if there is a way we can have some like market price, you know, units added to it, and I don't know, but just a whole building like low income people, as if we are just everywhere, like segregate them by income. >> When we looked at this neighborhood is a high opportunity neighborhood. so it's on the north side, it's North Summit Street. So when if you remember our Bloomberg, Bloomberg Harvard intern and we looked at so based on Harvard's Opportunity Atlas map, this is a high opportunity area. one that we don't have a lot of public housing and one that we have few voucher holders in this neighborhood. So to us, it's a it's a great neighborhood for affordable housing. But by no means will everybody be under 30% median income.

Sure. Okay. >> The plus the pro housing dollars that's limited to 60% of median income. So it depends on which funding sources we secure will dictate what level of income and what rent levels we have to provide. Yeah. So it will be like different kind of level okay. All right. Thank you. Thanks. Welcome back again.

It's like musical chairs down here. Yes. All right. Parks and rec projects again. First is a trail trail extension, Broadway Street to Fair Meadows. This is another section along highway six. that will be added in 2027. The Palisades Park development is kind of in the northeast part on by North Dubuque Street. Dubuque Road. Sorry, North Dubuque Road. It's a small lot that we've owned or that has been designated for parkland for some time. It just hasn't been dedicated to us yet. As soon as it is, we will develop that with a small, small park in that area City park, shelters and restroom replacement. We started the process at last night's council meeting to have a public hearing at the next meeting. This replaces most of the shelters throughout Upper and Lower City Park. Does restroom renovations by the adventure playground really kind of dresses that park up Napoleon Park softball fields rebuilds fields five through eight and then helps with some of the paths. We're going to get a better system of paths going through the softball complex, as we have a lot of five K races that happen between Riverfront Crossings Park and Terry Trueblood. If there's a softball tournament, they sometimes have to go right between the softball fields. so we'll be changing some of the paths up to make that a better alignment and easier to use.

Julie, do you have a sense of I just know that Napoleon Park is incredibly popular for all the time. So is there a sense of how to navigate, I mean, high level of navigating the renovations to those fields and still, will there be the opportunity for people to still use it? Is it going to be so? >> There will be a time that the trails will need to be closed. You'll be able to go near the road and the trail near the road during part of the time, but part of the trails through the park will have to be working with reservations for five K runs and whatnot happening throughout the summer to work around those. We don't have any conflicts at this point. and then as far as the fields, it's mostly the two most northernmost fields that get the largest level of renovations, and those are the least used of all the fields at this point. So there will be some impact, but it won't. We're trying to mitigate as much as possible. Thanks. Yeah the next one is event facility improvement. If you notice, this past summer, we got Terry Trueblood Lodge and the H2O building stained. Finally. It looks wonderful. But now we're going to look at at some changes to the H2O rental building. If you've been out to Terry Trueblood, the lake levels have been really low for this last several years, and we don't anticipate those returning anytime soon. So we're going to take that building and make it into an interior or a shelter house that people can rent, or that we can do rec programs out of. Benton Hill Playground replacement is one of four playgrounds left to be, turned over in this round of playground replacements throughout the park system. so at this park, it won't affect the the shelter or that you have kind of that treehouse shelter in Benton Hill. We're leaving that it'll just be the playground replacement that happens there. Ada elevator improvements are City Hall, senior center and the rec

center. Just need continual upgrades, but this helps make them more Ada accessible and usable. North Market Square Playground replacement. This project is underway. We've had our neighborhood meetings. We are working with the Iowa City Community School District. The school district is actually, in this case, paying for the playground, and its installation. our park funding will go to things like renovating the basketball court, a new new drinking fountain. A lot of the paths and some of the other things. The nature of the park does not change with this. It's only replacement of the playground Reno Street Park Renovations is one of these four parks that we have not touched since I've been here. This is our one park that does not have Ada accessibility to the playground and shelter. So this project in 2027 will replace the playground and then provide paved paths to get to the playground and the shelter >> Would that also replace the wood chips with like turf? kind of like what we see to make it Ada compliant. >> So the we go with the engineered wood fiber wood chips on all of our playgrounds. That's also what the school district has moved to. We've had a few board in place or rubberized surface playgrounds. but we're now going back to engineered wood fiber. It's the better alternative for that.

Is it just easier to maintain? Yeah. And you have better attenuation of falls through the wood chips than you do from the surface. It's hard to maintain that to a level where it has the impact. So when someone hits it, it bounces enough. >> So because that's one of the main things I, you know, we just redid the, the pedestrian mall playground and the one of the main concerns that people have with or if you go to North Market Square Park, that's the the turf, whatever you call it is kind of just it crumbles easily.

Yeah. It's one of the oldest rubber. it has rubber squares there under part of the playground equipment, and that's some of the oldest that we have in the city, probably in the whole region that's still there. So that will be replaced. Thank you. Julie, with these. >> Neighborhood parks, I know that you and the commission and then the neighborhood helps sort of figure out what the park is going to look like. One of the earlier projects on here was City Park. the park structure renovations. What's the process for those? And are those just one for one replacements, or are those actually going to go through a design process.

So they actually did go through a design process. We did a neighborhood meeting in the park last summer. We did. We did a mailing out to every resident within a quarter mile of the park, low attendance. We only had 6 or 8 people that came. We followed that with the online survey, and I don't remember how many survey results we got for City Park. The general tone was, though, keep it similar to what it is. And that's been our plan. We're moving a few things out of the out of the flooded areas that had flooded in 2008, but generally it's it's pretty similar to what we've been doing with North Market Square. We did the online survey and we had 220 responses for that. I'm sure. >> There's a lot. Of people are very interested when we yeah.

There too. >> When we do this. So Thornberry dog park improvements. This addresses another water issue we have with the pond at North at Thornberry. the pond was created shortly before I got here. So about 11 or 12 years ago. We're not sure why, but it has not held water again in the last year or two, and it is close to the river, so it's not river levels. Again, there's some kind of leak in the system. so we are putting some money in for the coming year to address that and hopefully get water back for the dogs to play in. So Mercer Shelter, this is the shelter right by the the large playground at Mercer. Just end of its useful life. Park storage building. This is looking for additional storage. So we have all of our, equipment under a roof. it would be built at the soccer complex in 2030. Robert A Lee structural cables. So the building was built, and then it had some structural issues way back. So these cables are post construction tension cables. The ones around the pool are the ones that have corrosion on them, largely because the pool's a wet environment. So this is a project in 2027 to replace only the cables that are around the indoor swimming pool. The other half of the building appears to be fine. So. The columbarium construction. This was the one kind of most excited about right now. at the cemetery, we are quickly running out of columbarium spaces, so we have a project to build new ones, and this is going to be done in kind of a park like environment. So you'll walk into a kind of a nice little area with some landscaping, and it will have several smaller structures that each will hold. I want to say 30 to 50, containers or places to put the down the design path we're going on right now. Robert A Lee, this

is the roof and it's not complete roof replacement, but it is the larger areas that we're having issues with right now. where it's leaking. UV disinfectant. This is for both of our indoor pools. This increases the water quality, makes it safer, more disinfection to the water systems there in the pools. Mercer, Scanlon Tuckpointing is just exterior maintenance to the brick on the outside of that building. Mercer. Scanlon roof. We have been replacing the roof in sections. So you may remember that we have already replaced the the roof over the gym and already over the indoor pool. This would essentially do that center section of the building with the locker rooms and the lobby and the meeting rooms. Harlock Hill is probably our smallest playground that we have in Iowa City. it is just a small preschool play area, and we'll be replacing that in 2030. Park plate paving improvements. We have a number of parking lots throughout the park system, and this asks for the start. The replacement process. This had been in 2027. It's one that's been pushed back. And the first project is Mercer Athletics. So as we're finished this, the softball and baseball fields hoped had been to, rehab that parking lot. It'll be pushed back. It's still serviceable. It just cosmetically and is failing. Will be failing for sure by 2029. PED mall fountain replacement. we actually had a pretty good year of keeping it open most of the time, but the years before that, there's just been a lot of issues with the the maintenance and keeping the fountain running through the entire summer, part of it being vehicles driving over it. We have issues with the pavers being uneven, tripping hazards, those sort of things. So this looks at replacing it.

and getting some getting a new system or not a completely new system, but fixing some of the plumbing issues that have made it problematic to operate. Trail section highway six. along river to Riverside. There Then we get more of the heating and cooling system. Here is the north floor North court here in City Hall. Robert A Lee, these are the panels on the wall in the swimming pool. Same thing. They are pretty dingy looking. They provide sound attenuation in the indoor pool. and they are literally starting to fall off the wall in little pieces. Another heating and cooling unit here at City Hall. A small project at Mercer Scanlon, which is just the loading dock replacement or rehab there that's off the indoor pool where we have all our chemicals and different things delivered. Next one is here in City Hall. Small project to fix the air conditioning units in the it's area down in the lowest level Ashton House soffit and window. Replacing that building is getting a lot of use. Now that we have changed it over to a programing space instead of a rental space. So that keeps the building intact and keeps the historic nature. The building Riverside Theater seat replacements. If you've been to an event at Riverside Theater in City Park, you've probably noticed that most of the seats are held together with duct tape. so this would replace the seats. And I can tell you that Riverside Theater is extremely excited to have this on the on the list. It is one of the things being proposed with the last funding, to pay for Longer term, looking at will have Napoleon softball first and then City Park baseball. These

are both restroom renovations at our two athletic fields. Both are just nearing the end of their useful life. And harder and harder to keep running during tournaments. And then Oak Grove Park. It would be the last one of the parks to be renovated in this round of renovations. playground, basketball courts and some path work at that one. Kickers playground. There's two playgrounds at Kickers Soccer field. This would replace one of them once again due to age. And then Hickory Hill Park Boulevard. This is the land that we got from the Featherstone development. So it was land dedicated and added to Hickory Hill Park. In the last year. We have a $200,000 grant. So although the project says 32,000 that's because we also have the grant to help make a new entrance off of Scott Boulevard, have a trailhead entrance into the park area. >> Parking or just entrance.

Entrance and a few parking spaces? Yes. Is at this point. Camp Cardinal Park is a small land that we've owned for a while now, on the far west side of of Camp Cardinal Boulevard. It's a wooded area, so this is essentially will be a shelter, a small sitting area in that park. No playground, just a very small wayside feature. There That's it.

I just have a question. I have been asked many times that, you know, there is an area like a park or playground supposed to be. I don't know, it's just empty land right now. But I noticed Dubuque Road by North Dutch Hy-Vee and the resident over there all the time, you know, asked me, like, when the city going to do. >> Something is. That's what we refer to as Palisades Park. What? That that's what the name of it.

Yeah, it's the name of the subdivision we will probably need to rename that when we get to actual development of that, because since there's a Palisades Palisades State Park, the land hasn't been dedicated yet to the city, so it's still being maintained by the HOA surrounding it. it's been hung up with the developer and has not been. As soon as it gets dedicated, we can move forward and. share it. Developed. Yeah, I think we actually have the shelter purchased to put in there as soon as we get the land. So Okay, great. Thank you. >> It might be more of a sorry. No, I guess now I have some information to tell the people.

This might be more of a city manager question, but with the Iowa River trail project as well as the highway one, highway six trail project is the. Does the general, do we have a budget for this in the general fund for doing an Iowa River trail master plan? Is that when it gets presented this weekend, we just were investing in bridges. We're investing in trails, and of course, constantly beating the drum of is there a comprehensive plan for how it all works together?

Yeah, we've we've the budget that you'll be reviewing on Saturday contains $50,000 for a river master plan. That item is called out in your strategic plan. That's one of the additions that you made in your strategic plan. When you updated it in what was it, December of 24, I believe. so, yes, there are planning dollars there. And we are already working with think Iowa City, Coralville and the University of Iowa on conceptualizing that. And will that be done in time for the highway one, highway six River trail project >> let's see what that one's so.

Close. >> Close. Yeah, yeah. Be close. I have a question. Actually, it was about the ped mall fountain. And is that slated for this coming year? >> 27. So not this year. We do planning this year. Construction 27.

And I know that there has been various surveys that have gone out over the years about the PED Mall and the downtown area. And I hesitate even to say this out loud, but I know that the fountain, over its many iterations, has had problems. Is there a large hue and cry for that fountain to remain? >> I know there's a large cry anytime we don't turn it on in time. So I'm just wondering. Yeah, it's you. Know, we get a lot of feedback about the The fountain.

Not being not working. >> I think we spent a lot of time thinking about that during the 22 downtown. Master, I'm sorry, 2012 downtown master plan. And we explored potentially moving that type of amenity into Blackhawk Mini Park and freeing up this area, for more of the stage uses that that compete with the fountain. but the feedback we got then and I think that we would get now is that that location, that fountain, the proximity to the playground, proximity to the library is really important. And that the kids like, bouncing back and forth, and the parents like being able to watch the kids go back and forth.

last summer, the mayor and I remember when we went on that really nice bus tour of the parks. Oh, sure. That was very nice. some information I learned from that. Is that one of the, if not the number one thing people ask about? It's like the splash pads that we have around town, like, that's extremely popular. And I think this functions as that for the kids. So yeah. Yeah. >> But it can be designed where you can actually drive cars on it though. Like seems like what we have now might not be great for cars, but we can make it work for cars. >> I think that the reason we did not have as many issues this summer is that parking worked to not have cars drive over it as much or as often, and that probably made it much better to operate. So I think it's going to have to be we can't have cars driving over it if we're going to long term have it in function in the place.

It loves the festivals in the PED mall, and that requires cars to drive in and out. >> Yeah. Yeah everybody loves a lot of things and there's a lot of competing uses to make that love happen. is this fountain classified as a fountain

It is. It is a spray pad. I believe the last time we did it, it is a is a recirculating. So there is water recirculation in the water is treated. there's been issues with the discussions with the state. Every time we, we touch it because it's not a full system, as you might see at Fair Meadows. but yeah, it is, it is, it is the city fountain. >> Okay. I, I just thought maybe I, I had heard earlier about some barriers about whether or not it's classified as a fountain and there being some workarounds to prevent folks from getting mad at us for having this quote, unquote fountain there in the first place. I don't know, I think you told me that, Jeff.

Well, it was originally I mean, it is a public art project. Okay. And that's how it was treated prior to the PED Mall renovation project. When we went into the PED Mall renovation project, the state told us, it's you can't treat this like a public art project going forward. You need to treat it like a splash pad going forward, which had a lot of ramifications on on the work we did. then and I think some of the, challenges we're seeing post construction of the PED mall relates to the different regulations that that kick in. It wasn't it wasn't built to be that splash pad fountain. It was built as a public art project, and we've tried to adapt that over time. This project is hoping to get it up to that standard, to where there's less maintenance needs going forward. >> Okay. That's what I remember.

Yeah. For instance, one of the issues is the public art part of it. The panels can be slippery slope, more slippery than you would have in a typical splash pad. That's an example of where we've had to make some adjustments to what you would see at a at a typical splash pad, only. Okay, cool. All right. Thank you much >> On to police.

Welcome. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, Dustin Liston, police chief first we have the animal shelter training annex, which you guys have seen over the last couple of years. And again, this is the friends of the Animal Center Foundation have confirmed that they will provide the funds to add the dog training annex to the existing animal care and adoption center to aid the city and performing performance of training dogs housed the facility, as well as providing the shelter, multi-use space. So last year I think we did the planning and this year has the actual building of the project. Well, this is on their this is the animal shelter upgrade. This is kind of Josh's, realm, but similar to what they were dealing with at the fire stations, the automation system for the facility. And this is our police vehicles, project we do every year. Replacing this one, I think, is replacing four squad cars, including changing over of the new lights, sirens and camera system. One unmarked truck and then one cargo van that we're replacing. one of the things we've noticed recently is we're getting to about five years on our hybrid vehicles, and we seem to be getting a little longer life out of those with gas only we would try to turn them in at about 80,000 miles, because that was the powertrain warranty. And we're we're looking at going past 100 with our hybrid. We're also as you know, using one completely electric vehicle. So these next few days should be an interesting test period with that. But so far so good. So and then lastly is the police facility. This project includes the purchase of the existing of an existing office space and also includes design funding. it does not include the, the money for improvements to it. So. >> So this money in 2026 is for

design. >> This money would be for purchase of an existing property and design. Yes.

Okay. I guess I was just confused as to why I saw it in 2026 because, the up in the air nature of purchasing. >> Yeah, it's it's there if if we have a solution, if we don't have a solution in 2026, the dollars don't get spent, they'll roll over to 2027. But if there's a chance that we might spend dollars in that year, we need to include it in the budget. because ultimately, what we submit to the state is our budget authority. Okay, that makes sense. >> I was also curious. I saw that in the police vehicles, it said you had one unmarked truck. I was wondering what happened to what the folks called the ghost car. that was in the fleet for a long time. When it was this, like, white car with, gray paint. Is that still in use?

Yeah, just got cycled out over time. Okay. We don't have that anymore. >> Okay? I just hadn't seen it in a long time. >> So stealthy. All right. Thank you. >> Up next is Public Works.

All right. >> So public works projects. We're going to start in resource management. The first project is landfill extraction system expansion. So we currently have about 17 wells out the landfill that are both gas and leachate collection systems. This will add up to nine additional wells. And then also put those on a SCADA system so we can monitor them. >> How many of these actually get tied into the. Do any of these get harvested and resold like the at the sewer treatment plant?

No. So so. >> Not a possibility to landfill. >> Not not at this. So so the methane we flare off currently and then the leachate goes to the wastewater plant for treatment. out at the landfill, we're looking at a site flow improvement. So basically with the project that we've already done looking at, replacing the oil shed that's there now and then some additional signage to help folks navigate the landfill. next project is the design for the future cell construction, which is in the north northeast expansion area. So this is already permitted space. but with the expected life of our current cell being either 20, 32 to 2034, need to get the design done. And construction to be able to start the process for that next cell. >> Is this the project that could potentially impact the area where the arrow Hawks operate? >> It would this this would actually be northeast of that area. But as we as we look at access roads and the access to that space, it will have a potential impact. That project that's that project. Correct? for our our current cell that we're working our new cell, we're looking at horizontal gas collector system. So as the cell gets filled up, this will be able to collect that methane and get it into the into the gas collection system. looking at a truck, purchase for a refuse truck, this would be an automated truck to add to the fleet. doing a study to look at recycling transfer station. So currently, we haul our all our recyclables to, third party here in town.

this would be looking at the potential for basically providing that service. So we would, look at building a building, and then hauling that material to an additional processor that we, we're currently hauling to in Davenport, or that our current third party is hauling to Davenport currently. So looking at the potential, to provide that service versus contracting that out this was kind of initially started, based on where we saw our pricing go for our recycling. we just did a update of our pricing and actually went down for us in this in our latest update. So we'll we'll take that into account as we're looking at the feasibility of that. the remaining building a. So this was, it's directly to the south of our new building. this is updating that space replacing the floors new doors. so basically, get some more life out of that building. looking at the purchase of a skid steer out of the landfill. Currently, we utilize transportation services. but obviously there's times when they need that. And so this would be a fleet expansion for that out of the landfill. And then the next is a purchase of a recycling truck. this is looking at expansion, potentially looking at a need for additional routes as our system grows, as development occurs. >> I just can I interject a question just with the recycling truck, the skid steer, and with the police vehicle replacements? question for the city manager. where are we at on the fleet electrification. Like premise idea, plan. We're not seeing that in

these proposals. Right? Like we're not anticipating electric vehicles for. >> Yeah. So the Climate Action Division led a comprehensive citywide study. I think we finished that up last year and looked at what that would entail and where opportunities exist now versus where maybe we need to let the technology catch up. A lot of these larger purchases, like a recycling truck, we didn't feel that it's quite ready for that. And or we don't have the infrastructure to support it. So when we look at like the equipment facility that's under design right now, we have to make sure that we have the, the, the, the, the fuel source, the electricity there to support large scale charging. but we continue to add to our electric fleet year over year. You heard the police chief now has an electric squad. We continue to look for opportunities to electrify. But right now, these larger pieces do not have. I'm not sure about the skid steer, if that's, you know, when procurement comes around, we'll look at that. But certainly not there for the recycling trucks.

And we're not expecting that in the next five years. >> No. And as a matter of fact, we probably are taking a step back. If you look at from a fleet standpoint, because one of the big opportunities that we had was the transit busses. Certainly we didn't have the great experience with Proterra, and the federal government has shifted its focus. So the funding that we rely on for replacements of those will no longer support all electric. We're looking at going back to diesel or hybrid for for for the transit fleet. So in that area we're slowing down. But in other areas it's a it's a, a a decision that's looked at at the time of procurement. >> Thank you.

I have a question about the recycling trucks. I know that new equipment sometimes gets bigger and bigger. And in older neighborhoods it becomes more and more difficult. Do these trucks expand in size or limit service areas? no. >> They'll be similar in size to the trucks that we currently operate. I just didn't know. It's not fun for you guys when you have to send a truck like a pickup truck, as opposed to the actual equipment. So >> All right. Thanks.

Next up are a couple of storm sewer projects. So the first one is River Street storm sewer improvements. So this is a section of River Street has an existing ditch that we receive complaints about maintenance concerns or issues out there. So looking at addressing that, making some improvements there to collect storm water but also reduce maintenance in that area. >> Are there opportunities to detain retain stormwater before it goes to the river on this project? >> This is one we definitely could look at something like that. We haven't started design, but that would be part of that process.

Great. Yeah. So we got a whole lot of property now in the Normandy district. Could be great for birds and for water. >> The Center Avenue storm sewer improvements. This is looking at replacing failing storm sewer pipe and structures. Also includes some related pavement repair as well. >> we have a couple facilities projects. So the first one is the equipment maintenance facility replacement. So this is the public works portion of the project for the transit and maintenance combined building. so you can see it's sources are over multiple funding sources, but this would be for the for the maintenance facility side on the public works fleet. And then the next project is the Carson Farm stormwater retention basin. So this is the project that will build the stormwater retention facility south of River road and west of highway 218, which will open up the Carson Farm for development. >> Next, we'll move to the street projects, starting off with Court Street reconstruction. So as a reminder, this is reconstruction of Court Street from Muscatine Avenue to First Avenue. We've made it through year one of three years, so we will continue to move to the west, ending at First Avenue. Next up is Dodge Street. Reconstruction This is a joint project with the Dot, so this will be reconstruction of Dodge Street from Governor Street on the north to Burlington Street on the south. Full reconstruction of street pavement, sidewalks, utility work as well. So all of that over. And we anticipate construction in 27 and 28 for that project. Market Street and Jefferson Street, two way conversion. So

this is converting two one way streets to two way traffic. That work will include basically replacing existing traffic signals, some geometric improvements, restriping, that kind of stuff to convert those to two way traffic.

looking at those numbers, I think there has to be an explanation as to why that kind of like seems very expensive just to, like, turn a street into two way. So if you could maybe explain what some of those costs might be. I know you just said, like, traffic lights and repainting and other signs, I'm sure, but. Yeah. >> Yeah. So the biggest cost there is the traffic signals. All each one of those is probably in the neighborhood of 300,000 or more. Wow. So that's the bulk of the cost. There will be some pavement changes that will have to be made. but the traffic signals are by far the largest amount. >> Wow.

Does does this incorporate any dedicated bike lanes or the removable bollards, or is that sort of understood with this project cost, or would that be additional? I think as far as bollards and that kind of thing or, or paint should be able to be, included within the existing funding if we were to look at something more, you know, like some sort of concrete curb and gutter or something like that, we may have to adjust it, but something like bollards could probably be accommodated. >> Okay.

Taft Avenue reconstruction. So this would be that section from American Legion Road on the south to Lower West Branch Road on the north. This will include a reconstruction of the roadway to go from a rural cross section to an urban cross section. So adding a gutter, adding storm sewer. It's very similar to the project we did on American Legion Road a few years ago. >> Well, well, some of the I see some power lines where they go on the ground. We're looking at that now. Yep.

Okay. >> The Oakdale Boulevard extension alignment study. So we had a study done a number of years ago that looked at kind of the extension of future Oakdale Boulevard east of highway one. There was a preferred alignment that was identified there as development. Interest has come up in that area from time to time. We've kind of tried to reserve that corridor as things change over time, we it's time to update that study, make sure that corridor still makes sense. Are there changes that need to be made. So again, kind of for future planning as development occurs in that area. The Burlington Street Bridge replacement project. So you guys are pretty familiar with this one. This will be a big one coming up here with construction planned in 29 and 30. This will be replacement of the two Burlington Street bridges over the Iowa River, as well as the pedestrian bridges over Riverside Drive and Grand Avenue, and then work on Grand Avenue, Byington and Melrose. So a lot of improvements in that area as part of the overall project. We'll also be looking at potential modifications to the dam. Camp Cardinal Road and Kennedy Parkway pedestrian accommodations. So this is one that is in response to some requests that we've gotten from the neighborhood near Borlaug's School for crossing pedestrian crossings. Camp Cardinal Boulevard there at Kennedy Parkway. This will be a joint project with the city of Coralville to look at the addition of a median and median refuge island to allow for two stage crossing of Camp Cardinal Boulevard.

North Dodge Street act circle. So this will be installing a new traffic signal at the Act circle of intersection with North Dodge Street. Also will include the construction of a fourth lake at that intersection to allow for connection to the act. Development. As part of that project, we'll also look at widening to allow for additional turn lanes at the intersection. Iowa Avenue improvements. So this is the section of Iowa Avenue from Clinton Street to Gilbert Street. The intent of this project is to do some pavement repairs in a few areas that that certainly need that also will include sidewalk and curb ramp improvements, and then some of the amenities and street furniture and landscaping items in that. So one item note is it would not be a full reconstruction, but would address a number of issues. >> So it goes from storefront on the south side to University Building on the north side. Does the university have any responsibility for the sidewalks in front of their facilities, or is that all city sidewalk?

When when we built this project, originally it was a joint project with the university. They do maintain the sidewalks on their side of the street. Okay. Do they build sidewalks. To >> Or is this the city's project to replace all the sidewalks? >> We would have a discussion with the university, to see how, as we move this forward. >> Okay. To the plaques stay or do they have a new home? >> I think that's part of the discussion. Okay. Yeah you know, obviously it was a it was a public art project when, you know, it was a main portion of that project when it was built. I think the the question that's there is, do we leave them horizontally mounted or do we try to try to vertically mount them. >> Somehow somebody figured out how to pull out ones. I don't know how they do that.

I think it actually gets pulled out by the snow maintenance. >> Equipment. Okay. when you say streetscape amenities, what does that entail? >> So that could be benches, trash cans. It could be you know limestone facing of items, whatever, things like that.

Okay. >> If you next time you walk down Iowa, just take a look at the, the bases of the poles. The light poles sit up on top of a pedestal there and you can see them. They're chipped pretty bad. so this is not like the Dubuque Street project where we tore everything out. We redid all the the underground. This is more surface level repairs. There will need to be some pavement repairs, but it's it's mostly that surface repair. So take a look when you walk down and you'll see, you know, the age starting to show. There is the.

The profile of the street, the parking location. The presumption is that all stays the same, though. Okay. Next is the pedestrian refuge islands. So this will look at installing new refuge islands at seven locations throughout town. to again assist with pedestrian crossings of streets.

Can I jump in on that real quick? We just want to talk about this a little bit. This is, you mentioned the traffic calming budget and how we put a pause on that. but we haven't paused looking at pedestrian amenities. And this is a good example here. you know, this $78,000 will make a lot more difference or I think provide a lot more community benefit, maybe is a better way to put it than what, an equivalent amount of speed humps in one neighborhood may cost. So, as we think the traffic rethink, the traffic calming that we do in town, you're probably going to see us go more in directions like this than the than the speed humps that we've traditionally done.

Were these majority in the west side of town? I see 3 or 4 dots there, or the seven that we're looking at Kent, you want to come up? Do you know what or Welcome. >> Hi. Vivian Olson up in engineering. So those dots are actually separate projects. with this pedestrian refuge island. we have a single dot to indicate the project on the map, and the seven locations would be distributed across the city. And those normally will be added by the request of the neighborhood. Like, or. This is just the city will decide.

So ultimately the city decides. But that definitely factors into it. Requests from the neighborhood. Okay >> Kent, do you recall the locations or at least a handful of them maybe.

Thank you. >> I honestly can't. Ralston, transportation planner I honestly don't remember all the locations. there's actually $78,000 in 2025 as well. That doesn't show up because it would already been in the last sip. there, I can say that they're dispersed throughout the community. and the way we, we go about this, Jason, is partially correct that a lot of the resident feedback we get is how we locate these, but we've also come up with a criteria for trail crossings, for how many children cross there and that sort of thing. So a lot of what you'll see today is the refuge islands will be placed at locations where we actually have trail crossings of arterial streets, which clearly are some of our highest pedestrian areas. I know in the project page for the individual project page, it shows all the locations. >> And I can follow up with you outside of this, because I don't think that this is one of the seven. But have there been some considerations or studies done? for pedestrian crossing at Sycamore and six.

Sycamore, six. >> You know, coming from Alexander crossing over to where I see marketplaces. Yeah. That wouldn't be the crossing. Won't be at Sycamore for the actual trail would actually be at First Avenue. Oh, there is going to be. So First Avenue is actually. I'm sorry. Yeah. >> Go ahead. Yeah. So the trail that Julie highlighted earlier in the presentation, there'll be a crossing at actual First Avenue there. Okay. To the what would it be. The east side of the mall. >> Yeah okay. Correct. but there is one of these refuge islands at Lakeside and Sycamore for the school children, right?

Yeah. I just still keep thinking about the kids who are coming from south and having to go to southeast, but it looks like that First Avenue would address part of that So it looks like Melrose, Emerald, Keokuk and the highway. Dodge Street near Hy-Vee, Sycamore, Lakeside, Sycamore, South Lawn Court, Westminster and Lakeside Miami.

Awesome. Thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you to the page. Thank you >> So the next two projects are box culvert replacement projects. So these are you saw it's been a little bit ago. We applied for funding and expect to receive that to assist with these two projects. They are the Benton Street location over Ralston Creek And then just downstream from there, the Kirkwood Avenue location. Next is Brown Street and North Governor Street sidewalk infill. So as was mentioned with, the development that occurred or that was proposed on Dodge Street or Governor Street just north of Happy Hollow Park. As part of that, there was some interest in looking at installing sidewalk along Happy Hollow Park, both along Governor and Brown Street. So this project would install that that sidewalk.

Jason, can you give a rough idea on the design timeline that we have on that or explain kind of what's under contract now and what decision point the council may have coming up in the in the next year. >> Yeah. So we've kind of started the preliminary design been looking at right now just kind of what our options are. We've asked our consultant to look at things and kind of say, okay what what can we do and what are those impacts. So looking at probably a variety of options to look at. How do we minimize impacts versus maybe what would be ideal for sidewalk location and connections and that kind of thing. So right now we have not seen anything from the consultant yet, but we anticipate getting those options and and working through that process The College Street Bridge rehabilitation project. So this will look to rehabilitate the College Street Bridge. Just kind of here by the Chauncey Swan ramp. We'll also include improvement or repair to the connection to the ramp from the bridge structure. The arterial streets plan. So this is a study to look at some of Iowa City's busier corridors and really focusing on those corridors where expansion would be difficult. So think of like a First Avenue corridor where simply adding lanes probably isn't an option, and just trying to look at what long term, what does that look like? What are those improvements need to be understanding that those are likely large projects, complex projects, and just trying to get a sense of long term planning what that those improvements would be. And then similar to that is a functional design of First Avenue. And this is really focused on the area between highway six and lower Muscatine. And part of what spurred this was the new trail segment that we're looking at putting in along there, and just trying to figure out how do we connect

that to the existing corridor, make that work, and set it up for future success. And then the highway one, highway six pedestrian crossings evaluation. So this is money to study the crossings of highway one. Highway six. What those pedestrian crossings look like. We regularly get complaints or concerns about what those crossings, how they operate today and safety improvements that could be made there. So looking at what those improvements could be to, to improve safety. >> On the wastewater, we currently have six influent pumps at our wastewater plant. Three of those are at the end of their useful life. So this will replace those three of those pumps, and then we'll add vfds. variable variable frequency drives to the other three pumps that are, that were replaced with a project recently Napoleon lift station improvements. the bar screen crawler, some of the, the, on the front of that of that plant, is at the end of its useful life. So it'll be replacing those and then also rebuilding a pump or two pumps that are there. The Napoleon lift station is responsible for providing about two thirds of our wastewater flow to our plant. So, a huge piece of the infrastructure for the wastewater system. next project is update of some equipment at the plant. So this is replacing mixers that are in the aeration trains down there. and we'll also replace the mixers in the high strength tanks. the intent here, obviously those are at the end of their useful life, but also we'll see some savings in electrical costs because of the higher efficiency of the, of

those blowers. HVAC replacement. So this is replacement of the HVAC systems in the sludge processing building motor vehicle storage in the admin building. and grit and the in the new digester complex area. So these are all systems that are at the end of their useful life. >> Is how many of them you. So one, two., three, four. Five, six would be six. looking at six of the buildings at the, at the plant. >> All right.

Next project is replacing, of the rotating drum thickener. So this is basically a system that's used to dry out the sludge before it gets pressed. and it goes into the biosolid process. We will be replacing these, drum thickeners with gravity belt thickeners. So changing to a different technology. we have some repairs that we need to do to the secondary clarifiers. We've we had a project within the last few years on the primaries. This will do the secondaries basically updating the equipment, the operating equipment that's actually in the clarifiers themselves the water wastewater division master plan. So this is an update to a master plan that we had done with the 2015 plant upgrade. So basically just looking at the the needs across the system and where we need to look at doing either upgrades or expansions All right. And then to the water projects. the first project is the collector. Well, one reconstruction. So that project is currently out to bid. looking at basically collector. Well, one is on the up on the plant site. so this would be looking at upgrading the screens and pumps and allowing us to try to get a little bit more capacity out of that system roof replacements. So this is looking at replacing some of the roof segments at the plant. So this would be over top of the, auto garage on the north side of the plant shop space, and then the chemical storage building. the treatment plant, the

treatment process update. So this would be adding or building out a sixth filter at the plant. We currently have five that are online. this will allow for, more capacity for the plant. Melrose water main replacement. So this is Camp Cardinal, the 218. So that segment that basically goes under 218 is, is a location that is, we have a lot of issues with main breaks there. So this is replacing that segment, of the system Next project is a powerhouse dam rehabilitation. So this is a project that we've tried to bid a couple of times, have not been successful. we have some additional funding that would go into construction. We'll also be looking to bring on a different consultant to help us look at this project and try to figure out what the solution will be for us GSR upgrade and repairs. so we have three GSR, Rochester, Emerald and Sycamore. this will be basically upgrade of those, at those locations. The at the water plant, the flow meters that we have there today are not working very well. and so this will replace, one 12 inch, two 20 inch and two 30 inch and two 36 inch flow meters that are there at the plant. obviously it's, we have a pretty good idea of how much we how much water we're producing, but this will help us verify that. the for the bulk water station. relocation. So currently we have

a bulk water, facility at transit. So as we look at moving transit and getting off of the corner site there at highway one six this is relocating it to the new public works campus. The next project is the East Elevated Storage. So this would be looking at, building an elevated storage tank. roughly, 750,000 gallons on the east side of Iowa City. So kind of in that area off of Rochester, near Interstate 80. would help, will help with future pressure in that east side pressure zone area for us. >> Ron. Yeah.

I'm really sorry, but I missed the project that I was very excited about. I think the Dam project. Can you circle back for me? >> Yeah. so, you know, obviously we've tried a couple times with this project. and so we're adding some budget to be able to, either. backfill fund the current project that we're looking at, we're going to we're looking at bringing on a different consultant to help us do this one. So. And they could study backfilling or safing the dam as opposed to. Yeah, that's that's great. Sorry I missed that.

The first time. you know, so the dam itself, we're not we're not concerned about it failing. but clearly there are issues as far as the, you know, with, with flow going through the dam itself. So, we know that based on the, the, the recent inspections that we've done, but the, you know, this will be just trying to come up with a project that we can build. >> Thank you.

Yep. >> Rochester GSR. So this this is helping with, adding a pump at the GSR site and then, dealing with some constrictions that we have with some water main on Scalp Boulevard west side pressure zone improvements. this will be working on establishing the west side pressure zone. doing improvements at the Emerald GSR. and then also looking at upsizing some main along Melrose Avenue. this is an area where, we basically need to put some bigger main in to be able to provide more water to that west side. as a part of that, we're looking at elevated storage on the west side. So we currently have a site office tower that we would build this looking at about a million gallon tank. there highway six, water main replacements. so we have three locations for this rocky shore drive from highway six to Dill Street, highway six from Industrial Park Road to Riviera Boulevard, and then highway six from Hines Road to Scott Boulevard. these are basically pieces of main that are either at the end of their useful life or we've been experiencing issues with corrosive soils. so basically replacing those systems, and getting more life out of them.

All right. If there's no questions, we'll move on to senior center. >> Okay. Good afternoon. Latasha DeLoach, senior center Coordinator. we have two projects here. But first, I want to say thank you. We have completed our exterior and that we are receiving a award for our renovation. It looks.

Beautiful. >> The windows, we look fancy. We look real fancy. Yes. I appreciate y'all. and so we're really excited. So, we are receiving in the category of institutional rehabilitation. So we're receiving a historic preservation award for that work. Well, all of us are receiving that award, so feel free to come out in March for that at the library. And we can send information about that. These two projects are interior. they're mostly one, but because of funding, we have to split them up. but it's looking at I know the library said they hadn't had new carpets since 2004. We got 45-year-old carpet at the senior center. They're almost old enough to be members. And so we are going to replace them. And we have other items as well that probably are due as well. So we're looking forward to that. We really are looking at more of that human experience that people, when they're coming into that space, wanting them to feel welcome and know that the city and our tax dollars are taking care of our folks that have our aging gracefully in our community and continue to aging. So, we're looking forward to many of the upgrades, whether that's our floors or whether that's our walls or better wayfinding through. And as we continue to get busier and have more and more people coming through, we want people to be able to navigate the building really well. and so we also want to make sure that we're up to par on all things accessible as much as possible so that we can serve the greater community, because we serve seniors, of course. and I say midlife first for all our Gen X folks as well. And but we also want the building to be there for many generations to come, just like we've done on the exterior. We want that to be done for the interior as well. Okay, I'll take any questions if you have any. All right >> I just want to ask you again.

Each time you come here, I ask you about the kitchen Is there anywhere you want to improve that kitchen?

If you came in there right now? well, here's the thing. One dream city just did a whole new kitchen. Our hope is with that kitchen is to the senior center. Never ran that kitchen, right. It was ran by Meals on Wheels. So we never had staff even to run that. That was run by a nonprofit organization starting in the 1980s. Right. So in the last maybe 15 years or so, the kitchen has kind of been just used for us to kind of store things and et cetera. my hope is now that it's been, we've had some demo happen in there, it's a turn it into a more programing space where we have the opportunity to do kind of, for instance, if someone's spouse passed away, maybe they didn't learn to cook as much or so we want to turn it into a more of a learning space for the whole community. So it will be a space where there's learning. There could be some cooking going on, of course, from the classes that we're having, but less of a community kitchen. And where large organizations are coming in and making large meals. But we're turning it into more of a program space to go more in line with our mission and vision. >> Yeah, because the space you have for events, sometimes people rented that right. And sometimes, like when people have an event and they would like to do food, it has to be a licensed kitchen. They cannot cook in a kitchen that is not licensed.

Right. And so our our hope there is that, people bring we have food there all the time. So if you're ever hungry, we have food there all the time. but we have people bring a lot of chafing dishes and different things where they can maintain things. But as for preparing food in there and dealing with all the pieces, with public health, that's that is a little bit of what the plan will be, but that will be much further down in our plan. Some of our initial plan will come back to more of those basic floor wall ceilings that are falling, you know, things that are falling down, painting different things. But the hope is, is that it will turn into more of a program space than more of a catering space for people. So if people have an event, the hope is that they would bring prepared foods and we would have the ability to keep things warm and keep food safe. And we already have reach ins and freezers and different things like that. So it would be less of people preparing their food there. But being able to bring the food that they have, keep it warm and serve the people that they're serving.

Yeah, I understand what you think, but really, you know, I feel like that kitchen have a lot of equipment and it's almost I don't know what's missing to be a licensed kitchen. Do you know exactly what else you need to add to make it a licensed kitchen?

Right now? Well, that would be between public health. Right. So we would have to figure out first we would need to figure out if if it's a need in the community. Right. So that's going to be the biggest thing. Is it a need. And then we would need to look at what size equipment do we need. Like are we making. Does someone coming in and are making gallons of soup okay. Then we need to have the right equipment for that. So a lot of equipment that we have is dated. It hasn't been used and we have to demo that entire kitchen. Matter of fact, majority of it that was in there is gone at this point because we had to do some serious mold remediation before we did the project that we're working on in that area. So at that, at that point, like a majority of the things you should come by, you'll see what I mean. There's not much kitchen left in there at this point. It's mostly a big open room. And so we would have to start from scratch and really, really build it out. but it'll go closer to what we have in the master plan. when we get into the design phase, which is what we're looking forward to at the end of this year or next year. and then we can kind of reconfigure what makes sense for the community, for community use and what makes sense. Also with our mission and vision of what we're trying to do to preserve and provide programing and social connection for seniors.

Yeah, I haven't seen since 2020, I saw a lot of equipment there. >> Yeah, I mean, some of that equipment is there. I think some of it at this point is going to gov deals because it hasn't been used for a really long time. So we are actually sending it, seeing if there's any nonprofits that need any of that equipment so that they can better serve the people that they're serving. And then if we get to that point, we may need to acquire new equipment, because a lot of that equipment has decades on it.

Okay. >> I have talked with senior center staff, and I was a while ago, and I was just kind of, I didn't really know that the senior center bore the brunt for lack of a better term of, like, the people who are homeless in the community, you know, lots of them, like the public library, utilize the services of the senior center. And in particularly the lockers that you have when people need a place to store their stuff, they utilize the senior center lockers. And, I thought maybe those lockers, I think maybe I heard were not of the best. security and just kind of, like, old and withering. I didn't know if that was included in any of this. >> I believe those lockers were installed in the 1990s or 80s. so we have locks on them. We have cameras, et cetera., to try to, like, handle a lot of that. But for the most part, they're pretty secure. But they are older lockers, and that's a part of our interior renovations that we'll have to look into.

Okay, cool. >> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. Thank you. Okay. On to transportation. >> Welcome again.

Hello again. All right, just a few more transportation items before I hand it back to Jason to to take us home today. First up is the transit maintenance facility relocation. this is a very exciting project that we've been working on for the better part of the last ten years. I'm excited to report that we had a lot of movement on this project in the last year. We've been working very closely with the Federal Transit Administration, to to move through the federal process, which is required for any grants, that or any projects that may use federal funds. we are at about 30% design, which is very exciting. last week we received planning approval through the Federal Transit Administration, and that is one of the two hoops that we need to jump through in order to, officially become eligible for for federal funding in the future. The next is Nepa or the environmental planning process. That's the next to be buttoned up, which we're expecting to get through that process hopefully within the next month or so. So very exciting. I can just tell you on a very high level we've we've landed on a two building concept. And as Ron mentioned before, earlier equipment was also co-located with us currently at the transit facility. equipment property that we're both located on. We will be roommates in the future. We've landed on a two building concept where we have transit operations and bus storage in one building, and the other building is all of the repair and maintenance functions of our of our two departments combined into one location for efficiencies. the two building concept, really, we went through a number of concepts over the last year, but it allows us to be able to expand at the public works campus, which is where these where we're we're planning to move these, co-locate these these new facilities at and having the two building concept will allow us to grow in the future with both the transit only facility and grow, as our maintenance needs grow in the future with the, with the repair building. So,

more to come on that, but really happy to report. We've been reporting we've been in planning or funding finding stages for the last ten years, and it's nice we finally have some movement last year. We expect by the end of this year we will have design completed. we will hope to be obligated in a federal grant within months. That's completely up to the federal government. But we will we will get through our stages and our hoops that we need to to to become eligible for qualification. we're expecting our loose time frame right now is groundbreaking. Sometime maybe in the summer of 2027, with spring of 2029 is when we're expecting to be able to move in and begin service from that location. >> So is this a. >> Project where you'll present it to council at some point, or just something where we would just ask the city manager to give us updates

no. You'll have to approve, just. Before the end. >> I guess. Oh, correct. So, yeah. >> that would be up to you. Normally we would come once we have a kind of design project, and we're ready to bid it and walk you through it. But if you'd like to see something sooner, we're probably at a pretty good stage right now with that 30% check in. We could do that in the next couple of months. It's really what you all would like. >> I'm personally interested. I don't know if anyone else is and I can just ask for just circling. >> Back. To an earlier topic. The new facility would have some of the things for electric or hybrid vehicles, correct? And that's one of the reasons we're doing this.

So that's a great question. As Jeff alluded to earlier, the administrative priorities seem to be shifting on a federal level right now. So we're still working through that process to determine what is eligible criteria for these facilities. What is not eligible criteria. It seems that there's maybe not an appetite for the all electric, at this time. components to that, it wouldn't mean that we couldn't add those components in the future. So we're still waiting for the FTA to tell us exactly what we what types of. I should also mention we have four busses attached to this potential grant as well. So what is the what is the propulsion technology? They would prefer us to move forward with? As Jeff alluded to, it could be it could be diesel. It could be hybrid electric. we're waiting again for them to give us some clear direction, because there's been a lot of conversations about the propulsion technology and the associated equipment.

And if I remember right, with the existing facility, one of the problems is, is the facility, the the building itself doesn't lend itself to modification. And I'm assuming a new design would have something that modifications would be much more doable and flexible and whatever, whatever. As administrations change. Yes, it's going to be purpose built to be flexible for the future. Absolutely. >> Good to know. Thank you. This new location, it's not going to sink in the ground again, is it? >> No, it's not built on. I do not believe so. >> Okay, cool.

Good to hear. No, that's the part of the environmental process that we're going through right now, is to confirm that we've got the stability that we need, that just from an environmental perspective, we aren't going to have the settlement issues that that we had at the last or we have at our current location. And all systems look ready to go. So I think we haven't uncovered anything that's of great concern. So it looks like a very suitable site for both of our facilities for the future. Cool. >> Would there be any public facing component of this building Public facing, in terms of. >> Will the public show up and buy anything or engage in any way or.

Yes. So we always have public come to our facility because of things, items left on the bus. Sure. That's a that happens virtually every day. So there will be some limited I mean, that's usually the reason people visit our facility. We do currently sell water tokens at our facility. for public works. We still haven't figured out how that's going to work out between our our facility. So there's a potential for that as well. Those would be the two largest reasons outside of just deliveries. Okay. yeah, those are the two biggest reasons today. >> A gift shop. Yeah. >> Bus squishmallows. You know, I'd buy them.

All right. >> Next project. Okay. Next project is replacing our door and door closures in our parking facilities. So this funding request is to again replace door and door closures. We have an amazing number of original doors and door closures in some of our very old parking facilities that we've really got our money's worth out of, but they are beginning to fail. We hear a lot about it this time of year because if it fails, it means the door is staying open and there's cold air coming in. So, this is a project to replace. those in, in our facilities and just make sure everything is closing and opening the way that it should. >> Is there any Ada component to in this as well for the automated, openings? >> Yes, absolutely. So yes, we have a different we have a variety of different features so that the doors are accessible and it's making sure those doors continue to stay accessible. The accessible features are working, the doors are opening how they should when they're activated. They're closing. How they should when they're activated. Yes. Absolutely. All right. Wayfinding sign refresh in our parking facilities. And that photo is just an example of one of our oldest wayfinding, schemas that you'll see in our parking ramps. They're different. in each ramp, they're worn, the paint's chipping off. And wearing the signs aren't nearly as reflective and they're wearing. So the plan is to the funding request is for us to kind of come up with a cohesive a new modern wayfinding plan. Our ramps all operate a little bit differently. So knowing how one operates doesn't really always help you. And the other ramps. So having good signage and good directional guidance is is really helpful, especially because we have so many new people coming to town every year. So this is a project to again make that more modern and consistent. On street meter replacement, it seems like this one is always in the CIP. Just perpetually, because when we have,

when we install new computers or electronics in our meters, we have to start planning for their replacement almost immediately. That's that's really how it, how it goes. So that is indeed what this plan is in and out year in 2029. because the meter, the electronics, they're outside, they're in the elements. they, they need to be replaced. usually cash every eight years or so. we are taking a look at what some other options are out there currently. There's been kind of a tsunami of new types of choices with weather, whether they're app based or pay stations. There's a lot of different ways that you can manage parking in high demand areas, like in the downtown because it needs to be managed. We couldn't couldn't we couldn't have our downtown be as vibrant and exist the way it does without having the parking manage. So we're looking at a variety of different options that are out there. so that when these age out which they will by the end of the CIP, we will have taken a look at kind of all the options that are available to us right now and potentially, use it as an opportunity to pivot to or try something new.

Yeah. I saw in Des Moines, like some kind of like, base station for the parking. So you go just in, you know, the number of the meter, and you just go to one big base station and be there. >> Chicago. Cedar Rapids has that too. But I actually like I mean, those are okay, but the app is so handy. I love that. When it works. >> Oh, really? Yeah. There's been a lot of people who complained about the. Only that some people say don't have credit card, but for the base station would have different kind of option to pay. Yeah. >> You know. Oh yeah. Sure. Of course it's good to have options. I'm just saying. that the phone, the phone app I've had luck with. So I'm surprised to hear others have not. I haven't heard anyone complain about parking ever.

No. Never parking. No. >> They. All right. And second to last year, Capital Street North ramp. Ramp north stairwell. Lobby remodel. So if you've been through the capital ramp recently and walked into the old capital town center, you probably seen it's worn down. We have broken tiles. We have broken light fixtures. we need paint trim. We just need to refresh. Refresh all of those through each through each level. So that is what this funding request is for. Where is the sorry? Where is the cutoff when with what's going to be potentially university owned and us, is it just at that door in that picture? Basically.

Yes. >> Okay. Yep. That is we manage everything in the proper lobby up to the the doors. and the university in the future will manage everything inside the doors. All right. And last but not least, this is, I'd say more or less a placeholder project. Again, as we just alluded to, there's an evolving discussions about the, the, the, the current grant award notices we've received and the the propulsion type that the federal government would like to see us purchase them with. And then in addition, there's a question about whether our current charging equipment will work with other manufacturers. So this is really a placeholder. There's a good chance our current equipment would work with with Gillig. We don't have that all fleshed out yet. So this is really more of a placeholder in case. And again, we're waiting to hear to get some more firm direction from the federal government, whether the the grants that we, received notice on that is going to be electric busses that will be hybrid diesel busses, that will be diesel busses. We just need kind of get their final confirmation on that. So again, more of a placeholder with this project.

Great >> Okay. Thank you much. >> Thank you. On to the final category, which is on the radar. So as a reminder. >> Yep, yep. >> So the on the radar products are those products that don't have funding in the current five year plan, but are those that we want to just make sure you're aware of as we look kind of longer term? Okay. I'm sorry I have to leave. So I want to hit the parks park ones. first, Carson Lake Park is the building of the park area around the retention area that you saw the project for earlier on the far west side.

This one? >> Yep. In East Side sports is land that we've had for some time out in the industrial area on the far east side. different developments have come and gone in different interests in that. but the land is still there. We did some tree planting a few years ago to make it ready for have a buffer with the railroad. Railroad? but it's still on the radar waiting for. >> Can you remind me where that is? On the east side. >> So south of the new Hoover Elementary School. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I'll take the rest of these.

Oh. >> The first project is the Taft Avenue reconstruction. So we talked about kind of the section from American Legion Road to Lower West Branch. These would be those sections north and south of there. So the north section from Lower West Branch up to Herbert Hoover and then on the south end from American Legion down to 420th Street. In the north side. Is that completely outside of the city boundaries? >> Yes.

Okay. >> And obviously, as development occurs out there and traffic increases, those would likely be more interest in that similar Mccollister Boulevard extension. So this would be the piece continuing east from the part that was just completed. So from Sycamore East to tie into highway six, essentially near Scott Boulevard. The highway six bridge over the Iowa River. This is actually a Dot project, but just wanted to keep it on your radar. currently it is scheduled in their plan for the same year as the Burlington Street Bridge project, which cannot happen, but we continue to coordinate with them. as we continue with design, we'll continue to work through that. To have that all be coordinated, to make sure that they are not closed. At the same time.

The timeline for the Mccollister Boulevard extension again, please. >> So there is no current plan for that or a funded year for that. it's more just a future project at this point. Kitty Lee road. So this is on the south side of town, just north of highway one, west of highway 218. We had completed a functional design. wrap that up last year. This would be for any funding for actual construction of that. A lot of that would be tied to the Carson farm area and development that occurs there. If there is a need for a connection to highway one, this would be one way to complete that. >> Sorry to step back to the highway six project. That's a fully D.O.T. project, but what is, what the city wants something extra like, let's say we want an extra bike lane. Is that something that we just ask for or we have? The city has to pay for? Or how does that work? >> So.

For example, we are asking them for additional pedestrian facilities on the bridge, and we are working through that. Now, that likely will include a contribution from the city. We aren't to that point where we know what that would be. We're we're working through those negotiations. But I would envision there would be pedestrian accommodations on both sides that would tie into the the trails that we have planned in that area. >> Yeah, yeah. Unfriendly bridge to try to walk across. Yeah. So the new one should be much, much improved. Yeah. Cool. >> Do it all the time.

Then there's a few trail segments we had here, just ones we've continued to reach out for. Grant funding have been unsuccessful to date, but just want to keep them on your radar there. First one for the River corridor trail would be the what we're calling the gateway segment. So it'd be just south of Park Road Bridge, east side of the river. tying into the pedestrian bridge to the south. There. And then the next two are on would be the first section would be from Benton Street to Highway six. Again on the It'd be on the west side of the river. we have some preliminary design that was completed a few years ago. this would be that section. The section in the highway six right away will be done as part of our our trail project there. And then continuing south, going from highway six down to, we have it listed as Sturgis Ferry Park, but that actually would continue all the way to McAllister Boulevard eventually.

Cool. >> And then the last project we have on here is the Foster Road elevation. We had completed a functional design a few years ago that would look at elevating Foster Road to make it more resilient to future flooding. The thought here is that with the work that continues to occur at the old Forest View site, if we are able to secure secondary access to the peninsula area and to the areas to the west, this may not be needed, but it's on your radar just as a sort of a backup plan. If that ends up not occurring. We want to move forward with something. This would be an option for elevating Foster Road. >> Okay. And with that, that completes our presentation.

Great. Thank you all. Thanks to all the staff for coming out. just wanted to see if there's any further questions from the council. We do have our budget, continued conversations on Saturday. This Saturday at 8 a.m., so it'll be nice and early and we'll see some of our staff faces once again. >> Cool.

Anything else for today? >> I'd just like to reiterate kind of where we started with this. Jacqueline gave kind of a big picture overview to start, if if you look at page 468, you don't have to look. Now, if you make note of that, it has the totals per year of the two different types of geo bond issues that we do, the essential and the general, and where our tax levy is set right now, we're we're, projecting to have the capacity to issue about $15.5 million of bonds per year. And as Jacqueline noted, we as we project that out over five years, we assume a little bit of tax rate growth. to, to support that. but we're currently averaging over all those years over 17 million. So while we have a good 2026 number, we're still a little bit heavy on those out years. So all these projects that you see come in over where we project to be with our debt service levy, which is, nice that we have lost because we'll be able to shift just like we are this year. to solve the funding puzzle this year, we shifted some of these capital projects over to lost, and we'll have to continue to do that in in the future if we want to maintain that tax levy. And this amount of projects. And then as you look at these on the radar you know, these are really signaling to you kind of where staff priorities are. If we can start to bring in more projects through Lost, we can you know, probably start with a list like this. and, and go from there. So nothing that we need from you. I just want to make sure that you're aware of that. We're a little bit high on our projections in terms of the expenses that are shown here. year to year, we feel like, you know, we'll get those in line. So we're not pushing the limits in any given year.

But if there is major change at the state level regarding property tax reform, what's the process for this council? I assume we can't just wait until next year for the next budget. If there's dramatic reductions on new tax revenue in the future. >> probably could wait until next year based on the early bills that we're seeing. I mean, we would start to. >> You'd start planning.

We'd start planning for it right away. But I don't think you'd have to make any drastic changes to the budget right away. >> Just for reference, Jeff, the current debt service levy is what amount? Because we're looking to reduce potentially reduce it. You guys have that in front of you. Point. >> $0.04. I know it's in this book. It's definitely in the book. I think it's like two 6240 somewhere around there. >> But I was just looking for general ballpark. Thank you. Nicole.

Yeah. In this budget, it's at if I can find the right line, $2.54. >> Thank you. That's all. Thank you. >> All right. Any other discussion by council? If not, we will see you all early morning on Saturday at 8 a.m. >> Thank you. We're adjourned.