BY CINDY TOOPES COURIER STAFF WRITER
March 20, 2008 12:30 am
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OTTUMWA — Every city must mark the path of its journey to improvement and the city’s leaders must decide what those markers are.
That’s what the City Council and Mayor Dale Uehling did for four hours or so Wednesday evening at the Bridge View Center (BVC).
Jeff Schott said it was the “most important meeting” city leaders will have because they will tell themselves, the city staff and the public what they want to accomplish.
Schott is the program director for the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) at the University of Iowa. He guided city officials through the goal-setting process.
Other than the Courier, no citizens attended the special meeting, which was an open, informal discussion.
Schott said he was impressed with the quality and quantity of Ottumwa’s accomplishments.
“You need to get this information out to the public,” he said.
Accomplishments during the past two years included completion of the Bridge View Center; completion of Phase One of the sewer separation project and financing Phase Two; the Main Street partnership; continued street improvements; business expansions at both Al-Jon and Winbco Tank; the Job Corps Center; official recognition of Ottumwa as a Keep Iowa Beautiful affiliate due to Make Ottumwa Shine Committee’s effort; better signage in the city; sexual orientation ordinance, which indicates more diversity in the city.
Also counted as accomplishments were expansion of a trail system, which is a quality of life attraction; a new police chief, promoted from within; cardboard ban at the landfill; adoption of the International Fire Code and building codes; GIS mapping system; new beltway; multi-year contracts with organized labor groups; completion of Water Pollution Control Facility site plan; increased corporate aviation use of the airport, which has had many improvements.
Although the city wasn’t directly responsible, Mayor Dale Uehling also mentioned John Deere Ottumwa Works has added 200 jobs.
“We have worked closely with John Deere and the [company] has been involved in the trails system and Bridge View Center,” he said.
Schott counted the sheets he tore off his easel-sized tablet.
“That’s more than six pages of major accomplishments, or 50-60 things the city has done in two years,” he said. “That’s phenomenal.”
That was the fun part of the meeting. Schott said he didn’t want the council “to feel too good about themselves” so he launched the next segment, which was reviewing numerous issues, concerns, trends and opportunities.
In that category were BVC’s operating deficit, annexation, aging infrastructure, sewer separation, the high percentage of the general fund that goes to public safety, city-county cooperation, street improvements, promoting the city’s positives, economic development, combating negative opinions about city staff and projects and the cost of state and federal mandates.
Schott then guided city officials through identifying “ongoing priorities,” which are projects the council views as commitments.
Included were sewer separation, wastewater treatment, streets, establishing a storm water utility, BVC operations, airport development, economic development, pursuing a casino license and the trails system.
Then Schott advised the council to choose “significant initiatives,” which were drawn from the ongoing priorities.
“Think about what’s on the list and what’s involved to accomplish each one,” he said.
Among those were sewer separation, streets, wastewater, bridges, trails and economic development, supporting Main Street endeavors, reviewing the fire department’s framework, the budget and sources of revenue.
For the last step, Schott handed out four green dots to each council member and the mayor. Schott had put all of his more than 20 large tablet pages on the wall of the conference room.
Schott told each elected official to put one of the green dots beside the items they considered most important.
“This is the only time the mayor gets to vote along with the council,” Schott said.
The top three votegetters were reviewing the fire department, promoting the airport and developing an energy conservation program.
Schott will prepare a finalized IPA report and submit it to Helfenberger, who will distribute it to the mayor and council.
Cindy Toopes can be reached at (641) 683-5376 or via e-mail at cindy@ottumwacourier.com.
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