First a reminder of a meeting tonight:

Ames Electric Services is asking Ames residents to attend a meeting, listen to a presentation about power supply options, ask questions, and provide feedback about future plans for providing electricity to the community. A public input session is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday, April 21 at the City Council Chambers, City Hall, 515 Clark Ave.

The Ames city staff is projecting a 55% increase in the Ames Utility generating capacity needs for the next 17 years. This is an average increase of over 3.1 % per year.

The city will be setting direction based the consultants report and your (the public) input. If the city increases generating capacity; will it be with coal, nuclear (outside purchase), wind, solar, or bio-renewables? How does the city's carbon reduction goals fit into this plan? Can future demand be met by demand side management (end user efficiency) programs?

These questions have yet to be answered and your input is valuable. So please attend tonight to help set the city's direction on power needs and carbon reduction goals. The consultants report is available at http://jimpopken.org/doc/city/Power/PowerStudy2008/

Council starts at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday with a joint meeting with Gilbert City Council and the Story County Board of Supervisors on the Uband Fridge Plan. The Urban Fringe plan is an agreement between Story County, Gilbert, and Ames (Boone county may join in this agreement in the future). This agreement is to manage development within the two mile zone around the city, measured from the edge of the city limits. By state law the city of Ames can reject the subdivision of land (creation of residential lots) within its two mile zone. The bargain the city is trying to make with the other entities is that the city, by policy, will allow county control of subdivisions in areas Ames does not plan to grow into. In exchange, the counties will cooperate in reserving areas for future expansion as outlined in our current LUPP.

Tuesday's agenda includes:

• Item 31,32,34 -- Utility rate increases. The utility rate increases are progressing (see February's message for more info). For water rate info see March comments.
• Item 36 -- Convenience Commercial Node at Bloomington and Stange (north of Somerset). This is the next step in approving commercial expansion at this location. There seems to be some question as to the appropriateness of a medical clinic use in this area.
• Item 37 - Council discussion on Targeted Growth Strategy. This is a continuation of the review of the land use plan (LUPP) for targeted residential growth. If the council moves to change the current plan the impact on city infrastructure and local schools will be significant. Direction could be set at this meeting or soon after. See April 1 comments for more info.
• Item 45 (A & B) - Hearing on Resource Recovery Revenue Loan . This city is moving forward with an effort to recover non-ferrous metals (e.g, aluminum) from the cities wast stream. This will increase the amount of metal the city currently recovers (recycles) from our garbage.

That is it for now. More in a few weeks.

Jim Popken
City Council At Large

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

If you know others who would like to receive this news letter please direct them to http://jimpopken.org/ames/newsletter

See JimPopken.org for past postings.