This update is meant as a service to residents who live along Circle Drive, Golf View, or 6^thAvenue from Highway 22 to Wellman Elementary School in order to provide communication and updates for the 2011 road, water, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer infrastructure project. Please check back regularly for updates.

August 1, 2011 – The granting agency has officially approved the release of funds to help with the costs associated with the underground work for this project. After meeting with the engineer we determined it will be best to seek bids this October/November so the project can be completed at one time — next spring/summer/fall. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact City Hall but other than that you can expect the project moving forward next year.

June 22, 2011 – This is an update simply to inform everyone that there is no new information from the federal or state government. As soon as information is available we will post it here. Thank you for your patience.

May 9, 2011  - Due to circumstances beyond the City’s control the start of the project will be delayed. We are required to adhere to federal regulations and standards for this project and unfortunately the final appropriations for part of the federal funding part of the project aren’t yet officially approved by HUD and the Iowa Department of Economic Development. We are ready to go to bid but we are being required to wait for final approval on funding by the federal government. As soon as possible we will request bids and no matter what it is a priority for us that no part of this project be left in an unfinished position over the winter months. If the contractor can’t finish a section of road in time then they will not be allowed to start that section of road. This project is going to be divided up into three sections and the bid documents will ultimately require the contractor to have certain sections started andcompleted within certain time frames. Of course the purpose of this is so we finish the road to the school with as little disruption to school traffic as possible and we finish all other areas with as little inconvenience to residents as possible.

April 25, 2011 – By now everyone should have received in the mail information regarding your specific assessment for this project. If you have questions please feel free to e-mail me at daveross@cityofwellman.comor call the office at 646-2154. I am on vacation for the next week but I will be checking my e-mail. There will be a public hearing on the special assessments on Monday May 2nd at 7:00 pm and anyone is welcome to speak at that meeting if there is anything else you’d like the Council to know before they make a final decision on assessments.

April 14, 2011 – We are in the process of finalizing the special assessment amounts for the project (these numbers will be the maximum allowed and if the project comes in over budget those costs will have to be absorbed by the City). I plan on getting your specific property information to you (the proposed assessment) sometime around April 21^st and the Council will be holding a public hearing on this issue on Monday May 2^nd at 7:00 pm. Our engineer has the numbers but I’m asking the Council review them and possibly consider modifying the maximum assessment as some of them came in higher than I thought they would. So far the estimates of cost (for the project in general – for which the City budget must absorb almost all of the cost) have come in higher than originally estimated (mainly due to a lot that we are discovering while we conduct preliminary work). Fortunately we received a $500,000 grant to help offset the water & sewer portion of the project (which is where most of the cost increases are right now) so depending on where the actual bids come back at for the project we should still be able to accomplish everything we want to accomplish with this project.

I will have preliminary assessment to you by April 21^st so you have time to review it before the May 2^nd public hearing.  

March 21, 2011 – I met with our city attorney and our engineer last week as the engineer wanted to finalize the general dates associated with the special assessment process. The engineer expects to have the preliminary estimates for each property’s assessment to the City by April 14^th. I will then work on distributing this information to each property. Once you receive this information if you have specific questions or concerns please contact City Hall. The public hearing on the special assessments is tentatively set for May 2, 2011 and we still anticipate beginning this project in June.

On another note we’ve met with Yotti’s in Kalona about renting golf carts for residents who have limited mobility. We still expect that even during peak construction times that the furthest anyone will have to park from their house will be three houses away but even so we want to offer a golf cart rental to people who have limited mobility. Before your section of street is re-constructed I will be in contact with each property owner to discuss this option with you.

March 1, 2011 – Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting on February 28^th with the City and the project engineer from HR Green Company. We hope many questions were answered and as you know the City and the engineer are still working on some very important issues (namely how to get residents as close as possible to their house during times when the entire road is torn up – whereas it’s important to do our best getting everyone as close as possible to their home we agree with comments from the meeting that it’s especially important to do something extra for those residents who are elderly or might have health problems that inhibit their ability to walk very far).

One point brought up at the meeting, which is something the engineer was already working on, is that of trash pickup during construction. After the meeting I got to thinking about what the right thing to do is and as of now I think that whatever street section is closed at the time that I will come by every Wednesday afternoon (for those houses in an area where the street is completely closed) and carry your trash to the nearest Cox pick up location for you. I’ve already talked with the owner of Cox Sanitation and we won’t be setting up dumpsters at the ends of the streets (too many people will be prone to just throw trash in there without it being in an approved Cox bag) but we will have a central pick up location for residential trash pickup (most likely in the right-of-way just outside of the construction area). I’m happy to help anyone in the area who isn’t able to get their trash to that area. All I ask is that it be bagged and sealed as best as possible and left near the curb prior to Wednesday at noon. This includes recyclables – I will take your recycling cart and other recyclables to the pickup area for you if needed.

As I learn more from the project engineer on the special assessment process I will post additional information on this site (as well as mail or directly contact residents as needed).

In order to provide updated information in a timely manner the plan is to allow residents to attend the regular construction meetings (which will be held at least a couple of times per month but possibly weekly during construction). I will post in this update the date , time, and location of the meetings and for those of you who can’t or don’t want to attend but still want information I plan on posting a link to the meeting minutes on this page. In addition, if you can’t attend a meeting but have a question, please simply e-mail me at daveross@cityofwellman.com and I will ask the question at the meeting or otherwise find an answer for you.