Remarks by V Fixmer-Oraiz
14 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
Yeah, this week, actually, it's been quite busy. I had two University of Iowa classes reach out to me to speak to their class. One was undergrads talking about a panel, or they had a panel I was a part of from Leading from the Margins, which was fantastic. I love speaking with our students and listening to them and their questions, also a public relations journalism class, which I almost felt bad because I think that they really wanted to hear my public relations and how I do community outreach. And on the local level, it's very different than the national level. We don't have communication…
Can I just ask a quick question? Yeah. Sorry. So when they have that report, who's conveying to them that they can waive it? Is it Mid-Am who's going to be mailing that out, and then it's going to be kind of in that document, like you can waive this and let us know, or are they going door-to-door?
I just wanted to be clear. No, we're just making sure. There wasn't anything on the staff.
Yeah, it's been an exceedingly busy week. The East Central Iowa Workforce Development Board, we are hiring an executive director, so I've been on like the committee doing the interviews and the review process for the candidates we have one kind of selected but now we've kicked it to the general board from the executive board so hopefully there'll be an acceptance in the next couple weeks so that'll be great because we also just had our board president resign so we're gonna have to meet again soon to figure that one out but So things are moving around for East Central Iowa Workforce…
Thank you, Scott. Send every elected official.
I mean one way to look at that. It's it's almost one for one Like the investment here has spurred on the community investment almost exactly. Like if we spent 6.6 or 6.7, the community has input 6.4, 6.5. I mean, that's just another way of looking at it. 50% or a hundred percent. Do you know what I'm saying? Like as we invest, they're able to leverage that to invest and match it almost entirely.
Yeah, I just meant, like, as we have people on site, there's also people growing on site. should you be over here? Or like, we're trying to take farm equipment across like just the kerfuffle that happens, I think, which is totally like, yeah, it's like, where, where are the public thoroughfares and where are the like please don't step in this field.
Which cul-de-sac? Are you talking about where it reaches? That you mow currently. It's already at Hunter's Run. That's the one that you currently mow?
That's what I thought you were saying. I was just confused there with the cul-de-sac. I forget that that's a cul-de-sac.
Yeah, I mean, I don't disagree. I think that, you know, it's always the chicken and the egg. I feel like we've had so many of these roundabout conversations and, you know, it's we have half a million dollars set aside to do a stormwater project. And that got. sidelined by the city because they were not comfortable. I mean, we're talking about sloth power. You know what I mean? We keep running into these roadblocks. It's not to say that we shouldn't keep going. L was another consideration where it was like a 500-foot buffer for the highway would put it almost in K. Well, I think it's 200.
Yeah. I mean, we've had opportunities for investment. I think, you know, I'm curious. You said that there's housing opportunities. I'm assuming you're talking about funding. Like, are you, is that what you mean?
Yeah, I mean, we've toured models. I mean, the affordable housing conversation isn't new, and I think there's been a lot of different, and I'm not saying no. I guess in terms of this, Are you suggesting that this looks different?
Sure, sure. So then we were trying to figure out what does that design look like? What would be acceptable? What are the types of housing that we want? So that whole process, and we hired a firm to do that, ended up moving us more towards L because the infrastructure improvements and the access was too, it was, I want to say almost insurmountable on that side. So I guess when I, and I know it's two 32 and unfortunately I have to go, but what I'm hearing is just like a placeholder from, you know, just for future, and when we're looking at maps, it's like, hey, and that's legit, actually,…
And that's, I think, why they've waited on doing a lot. Well, to Lisa's point, though, about the fees and stuff, I know we haven't even gotten there. I do look forward to having those conversations. But and I apologize that I have to go ahead I thought this was going to be done at 2.30. But I am on board for making sure that affordable housing is still included moving forward in the 10-year master plan and that we've looked at that.