• Discussion: Housing of Johnson County's Ambulance
• Discussion: Fringe Area Agreement Between Johnson County and City of Coralville
• Discussion: Status of Deer Creek Road
• Discussion/Update: Status of Coralville Tax Increment Financing District
• Discussion: Possible Satellite Location for Senior Dining
• Discussion: Local Option Sales Tax
• Scheduling Date and Time of Next Meeting.

Chairperson Bolkcom called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order and Coralville Mayor Jim Fausett called the Coralville City Council to order in a joint meeting at the Johnson County Administration Building at 4:11 p.m. Board Members present were: Joseph Bolkcom, Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Stephen Lacina, and Sally Stutsman. Coralville City Council Members present were: Diana Lundell, Jean Schnake, Henry Herwig, and Dave Jacoby; and John Weihe arrived at 4:30 p.m.

Bolkcom said there was a request to move item 5 to the top of the agenda. Stutsman stated that Ambulance Director Mike Sullivan would give them information about housing a 4th ambulance at the Coralville Fire Station. Stutsman said that Sullivan, herself, and several others were working on a space needs committee and this tied into some of the things they were talking about. Sullivan said the plan started 18 months to 2 years ago with Ambulance Department strategic planning. He said they were looking at growth in Coralville and the northwest section of the County, including Tiffin and North Liberty. He said they realized they had to do something to enhance their deployment of their EMS resources. He said they are located at 808 S. Dubuque Street and they don't have any satellite stations. He said they wanted to decrease their response time delays because of increasing traffic patterns in that area due to growth and the opening of the mall. Sullivan said it was part of their way of formalizing their strategic ambulance deployment throughout the county. He said they started looking at their data and from July ‘97 to June of ‘98 they had 374 calls into the North Liberty, Oxford, and Tiffin area combined which was up 40% over the previous year. He said into Coralville they had 625 calls in that same time period which was up 8% from the previous year. He said in the section called the North Corridor they had 999 calls, which was up 19% over the previous year. He said since January 1 of 1998 they've had 1,159 calls countywide which is a 16% increase over last year. He said they had 706 calls into Coralville alone, which was a 13% increase. Sullivan said one of the things they have to look at when they look at all of the increases is where they're coming from and what time of the day. He said data indicated that peak time demand periods were 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Sullivan said he had a meeting in August with fire chiefs and EMS representatives from Tiffin, Oxford, Coralville, North Liberty, and Solon and the Coralville Police Department. They discussed an optimal site and they looked at someplace in the City of Coralville as the best place to benefit that entire area plus all of Johnson County. He said this wasn't taking any resources away from 808 S. Dubuque other than the one ambulance that they were going to staff. He said they met again with city officials and city fire officials later in August and came up with an operations plan. This needed to be taken to fire department members and City Council for approval. He said they have been working out a 28E agreement and the draft is done. He said their startup date was the previous day, October 5th, and they have a temporary site in Coralville. They didn't have any calls the first day, but they had 2 on the second day. He thanked Coralville Fire Chief Gary Kinsinger, Dave Jacoby, Coralville City Manager Kelly Hayworth, the City Fire Department, the Board of Supervisors and County Attorney's Office. He said this plan was good for the County, the City of Coralville and the northwest section.

Stutsman asked if the arrangement was temporary and Sullivan said it was. Stutsman said they need to begin thinking about a permanent location in the Coralville area when they get more data as far as usage. Sullivan said they have staff who will be working with that to find a permanent site. Bolkcom asked if Sullivan had a proposal on how to proceed with finding a more permanent location. Sullivan said he would be meeting with some individuals, Pat White and Kelly Hayworth to talk about that. White said they would really like Coralville to tell them who to meet with, that they assumed it would be Hayworth. He said their plan was to begin the process of looking at sites as they are available. He said they will look through their tax delinquent properties and keep their eye on the market and start knocking on some doors, but they don't have a specific time frame. White said the Board of Supervisors Space Needs Committee is looking at a variety of needs and they haven't reached the point of formally setting priorities. He said it was clear the demand was much greater than the funds available in the short term. He said he circulated a draft of the 28E agreement for ambulance housing which has not been critiqued yet by the Coralville City Manager or City Attorney's Office. Bolkcom said it was a nice piece of cooperation. Stutsman said it has worked well for both entities to work together to address the needs of a growing community. Duffy said it helps out because they've outgrown the Dubuque Street building and it helps that they work together.

Bolkcom said the County put this on the agenda to refresh members of the Council and the Board. He said over the last few weeks staff from the City of Coralville and Johnson County have been meeting to talk about some elements of a proposed fringe area agreement. He said they are here to present a draft map that would identify some of the areas that would be considered under agreement as well as some beginning kinds of provisions that might be noted in the various areas that have been designated. Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Dvorak said they have made copies of the map to give each Council person and Board member.

Coralville Building Official Rich Russell said that he and Dvorak have been working developing an area where Coralville would review subdivisions and also would create a growth boundary that Coralville wouldn't annex property outside of that boundary. He said they divided it into 5 subareas. He said the first 2, A1 in the northwest area of the map and A2 in the southwest area. He said they would be long-term and they would remain agricultural, but the City did want to have review rights over the subdivisions in that area. He said the County would review farmstead subdivisions but the City would provide input on larger subdivisions. He said the County would do the building permits. Rich explained that area B1 was on the east edge and B2 was along the north boundary of Coralville. He said that would be an area they would anticipate would develop more rapidly than the areas that were designated as A1 and A2. He said subdivisions would be reviewed by the City. City design standards would apply to the subdivisions. In B1 they wanted to incorporate language that would ensure that the right-of-way for Oakdale Boulevard extended to the east would be protected. He said they wanted to emphasize that annexations in these areas, B1 and B2, would be voluntary in nature. He said both jurisdictions would be involved in the building permit and inspection process in different ways. Russell said that area C was the area directly southwest of the city of Coralville. He said the land uses there would be a mix of industrial, commercial, and residential depending on the various locations. He said the industrial would primarily be the area near the quarry and including the quarry. He said commercial would be closer to the mall area and Highway 965 and residential would be in-between the 2 areas. He said city design standards would again apply and annexation would be voluntary in this area. He said the building inspection and permitting process would be shared as well. He said the area in the color map enclosed by the blue line would be the growth area for the city of Coralville. He said the 2 areas on the colored map that are outlined in orange are currently under the jurisdiciton of other communities, but in their 28E agreements between the 2 cities these areas could be severed from those communities and annexed into Coralville, subject to the prospective property owners wanting to do so. Jordahl asked what the eastern boundary of B2 was. Russell said that he put 2 B2's on the map to let people know that they were one big area. Duffy asked if that was Evergreen Road on the top of the map. Russell said yes. Bolkcom said the item was on the agenda to update the bodies on the progress of the initial proposal. He said the next step would possibly be an informational meeting for the public. He said there was a lot of rural residents affected by the proposal to provide some opportunity to get feedback prior to a more formal public hearing. He said it was open for questions or discussion.

Dvorak said one thing they also tried to do was protect the Highway 965 extension as they did with Oakdale. He said when they started doing this the Board wasn't apprised of the fact that they were interested in looking into a building code enforcement program. He said at some point in time if the County would adopt a building code enforcement program they would want to change some of the language. He said it would be unfair to require people to have houses inspected twice. He said this is similar to what they would do with Tiffin also. He said the only thing he wanted to say was this was strictly a draft. He said they wanted to have additional staff meetings and they hoped to have public input within the next month and then a draft to the Board and Council right after that. Lacina said as the cities grow, they need to have good arterial or collector streets for moving emergency equipment. Dvorak said their office was working closely with the City of North Liberty to have a unified fringe area agreement that would be similar to what they're having with Coralville and Tiffin. They would have unified fringe area agreements with all of the communities that interact with each other. Schnake said that Lacina brought up a good point about streets in general. She said people have come to them recently regarding road improvements and how they are to be funded. She said this is a major concern when they look at subdivisions that are located off of the beaten track and the majority of the traffic of the subdivision is going to be generated by that subdivision. She said the few farmsteads that are located on a property are concerned about what portion of the bill they're going to have to pay. She said it would behoove them to make some attempt to address the funding. She noted parts of some roads remain in the county and parts are in the city. Weihe said that leads to maintenance issues of roads that may be under joint jurisdiction for some time to come. He asked if they needed to address that in the fringe area agreement. Bolkcom said that was a good question. He said their agreements with Iowa City are seen as separate issues and not something that's in the fringe area agreement. Weihe said they maybe shouldn't be in the agreement but there could be some verbiage that addresses the way they will be handled. Lacina said Coralville's requirements as far as ADA for sidewalks and setbacks are different from the County's because the county doesn't have those requirements. He said if they allow a subdivision or construction that could be up against the property line, then when Coralville comes along with the annexation, they've got problems with easements and condemnations. He said a lot of the planning could be done now in terms of the major streets. Schnake said that was one of the things they address when they talk about city design standards; however, in the rural agricultural areas designated A1 and A2 it says subdivisions will be reviewed, but it doesn't include the verbiage about city standards. She said they've all been faced with situations where development occurs faster rather than slower and she was concerned they put verbiage in that nobody builds in that area without recognizing that 2 years later they're suddenly in the city and have to conform to city design standards. She said that heads up needs to be in there because they've walked that walk once or twice and don't need to do it again. Russell said they were hoping one point in the agreement could give the Board the power or opportunity to discourage subdivisions in the A1 and A2 areas. Schnake said it could still happen though, if there was a worthwhile project, and some of the infrastructure is put in place. Lacina said that Coralville would have authority on the final plat. Jordahl said that Coralville has the power to impose city design standards in those areas. Schnake said it was helpful if the more places they can get it out that that's what would be expected of a person the better off they are. She said she didn't think they could put information about how areas are anticipated to be developed or how people are going to consider them for review.

Dvorak said they anticipate some informational meetings for the public before submitting the draft to the Board and Council. Bolkcom said there is sufficient detail right now that they are prepared to take this out and begin to get some public input. Weihe suggested they put some verbiage regarding roads in before they take it out for public input, because that was what people are going to be asking about. Fausett said especially the costs. Bolkcom said they've had rural residents that want the fringe area agreement to speak to the roads. Weihe said if they have some verbiage in there it will at least give them a starting point for their concerns. Jordahl said he did meet with some people in Cedar Rapids about the question of assessments under annexations and especially for the 20% of voluntary annexations that would be nonconsenting. He said that was really the people they were talking about. He encouraged the exploration of creative funding alternatives for streets in annexations. Bolkcom said they would give the agreement back to staff to try and schedule a time in the next month for a public informational meeting to begin to get some input prior to a final draft.

Johnson County Council of Governments (JCCOG) Transportation Planner Jeff Davidson said there was a subcommittee of JCCOG discussing Deer Creek Road, sometimes called the Deer Creek Road committee and sometimes called the 965 Extension committee. He said they were considering both roads. He explained that Deer Creek Road was an unimproved county rural gravel road that extends from Highway 6 to Melrose Avenue. He said it was relocated when Highway 218 went in. Davidson said that Highway 965 Extension was the result of a planning process of approximately a year ago. Johnson County, Coralville, and Iowa City entered into an agreement adopting a specific alignment alternative for extending south of Highway 6 through the Clear Creek Flood Plain area across with a bridge over the interstate to an intersection with Melrose Avenue and then eventually south to Highway 1. He said the portion between Melrose Avenue and Highway 6 is what the committee is dealing with. Davidson said that they are still discussing a joint project, which direction they should be heading. He said the question is whether they should be concentrating on a reconstruction and upgrading of Deer Creek Road or should they be considering the extension of Highway 965 as a more permanent type of reconstruction solution. He said a couple of motivating factors in this area certainly includes the construction of Coral Ridge Mall. He said in fairness the traffic volume being experienced on Deer Creek Road was substantially higher than they like to see on gravel roads prior to the construction of Coral Ridge Mall. He said the most recent traffic count they did a few weeks ago did not show that it significantly increased. He said they've got over 1,200 vehicles a day on Deer Creek Road. He said that typically on a rural gravel road they don't like to see more than about 200 or 300. He said it becomes a maintenance headache for the Secondary Roads Department if there is more than that. He said by constructing the 965 Extension it would probably be possible to significantly reduce the amount of traffic. He said the other thing that is a concern is that they have 3 generators of heavy truck traffic in this area. He said they have the Quarry, the County Secondary Roads Department and the Landfill. He said they also have significant West High School traffic on that road and that is a mix that they're not thrilled about. He said that by going with the 965 Extension it would be a way to separate the 2 types of traffic. He said that is the thing that their committee is dealing with and they hope to have a recommendation by the end of the month.

Bolkcom said it sounded like there was a possibility that the 965 project might take precedent and the Deer Creek not be a project at all. Davidson said that was a possibility. Jordahl said when it comes to the discussion of joint funding under the 965 scenario, he asked what portion would be in Johnson County. Davidson said that virtually all of the alignment currently is in Johnson County. He said that it is split approximately by the area north of the interstate being in the Coralville growth area and the area south of the interstate being in the Iowa City growth area. Herwig asked if Davidson was considering this as a total phase crossing the interstate. He asked if there is discussion of Deer Creek Road serving as the last piece to Melrose Avenue. Davidson said there was a highbred option. He said it would be to extend Highway 965 south and at some point they will use the Deer Creek Road alignment to get down to Melrose Avenue and that is under discussion as well. Bolkcom asked for the total cost of the proposal. Davidson said they don't know exactly, but it was probably fair to say that improving Deer Creek Road possibly with or without construction of a little piece of the 965 extension they could be in the ball park of 1 to 3 or 4 million. He said doing the whole thing down to Melrose they are closer to 6 million. Jordahl asked how much the hybrid would be. Davidson said that the hybrid would probably be at the upper end of the one to 3 or 4 million. He said he does want to emphasize that they've done a very cursory look at expense numbers and they don't know exactly. Bolkcom asked if there were any other questions. Jordahl said they were talking about this in the context of the local option sales tax. He said that was an item later on and he didn't want to jump to that. Jordahl said when they were talking about funding for this, he asked what other sources of outside funding might there be. Davidson said it has been talked about as a project that does make sense as a joint project between the 3 entities. He said the State has made it clear to them that the only portion of Highway 965 that they see under State jurisdiction in the long term is the area between Interstate 80 and Highway 6 which they recently invested heavily in upgrading. He said the rest of 965 they see as being a transfer of jurisdiction issue and they certainly see this as being a local jurisdiction road. He said what they are trying to say is that he wouldn't count on any state funding. He said there is the Federal Surface Transportation program funds that come to JCCOG and the JCCOG Board determines how those are spent. He said this would be eligible for those funds but they do have their first 3 years of those programmed already. He said it would be a matter of waiting a couple years down the road for more of those to be available.

Bolkcom said as they would remember they discussed this issue the last time they met and some concerns expressed by the County about additional costs that County government might incur as a result of the mall. Bolkcom said it was on to get an update on how things were going and whether or not there was a more concrete time frame in mind of how long the TIF will remain in effect. Fausett said as far as the time frame they couldn't really tell. He said there were several things that will come into bearing. He said least of which was the assessment on the mall property. He said if it ends up in the 70 million dollar area it would take much longer than if it was in the 80 to 100 million dollar area. Coralville City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said they went back and recalculated their original numbers based on 2 different scenarios. He said one was that there was a conservative estimate in the beginning that would be a 50 million dollar valuation in the tax increment financing district. He said if that were the case it would take 12 years to pay off the expenses that were incurred. He said if the number went to 80 million dollars which is probably closer to reality then it would go down to 7 years. He said obviously anything above and beyond that it would continue to pull that back even quicker. He said the present Assessor's work is the most critical to determining what year they are done with the TIF. Hayworth said it was his understanding that the Assessor has had his appraiser here to start inspection work and so as quick and they get the number Coralville will as well and that will dictate how that is working. Hayworth said there is more surrounding activity as well and that would help the circumstance. He said those are the 2 numbers that they had used. Bolkcom said they are interested in having it be as short as possible. Fausett said they were too.

Bolkcom said there has been over the course of years a discussion from time to time whether or not there was interest in Coralville to develop a Senior Dining location. He said it was back again for discussion. He said there was a memo from Mike Foster, Johnson County Senior Dining Program Director. He said they are interested in working on this. Bolkcom said that Theresa Kelly, Nutrition Program Director for the Heritage Area Agency on Aging, which oversees the 7 county congregate meal senior dining program was present to answer questions. Stutsman asked what went into developing a site. Bolkcom said in part it would be finding a location that would have things like tables, chairs, and utilities provided. Bolkcom said that in terms of the sites the County provides virtually 100% of the funding to provide the meal at those locations. Bolkcom asked if Kelly would speak to that. Kelly said the strongest determinator of interest in a Senior Dining site is the citizens themselves. She said that was how you would sustain the best attendance. She said along with Senior Dining, a site like that would provide home delivered meals in that area. He said this is an opportunity for folks to get together not so much for the food. She said that many seniors have the resources it takes to get meals but the seniors crave socialization and something to give structure to their day. She said the best determinant is the folks that live in that town.

Kelly said that North Liberty had in the past year been successful at establishing a similar program which is really brought up by the parks and rec facility in North Liberty. She said at this point in time they are serving about 2 or 3 meals per month which is a good way to start into it. She said traditionally over the past 25 years, Senior Dining sites have been serving about 5 days a week and they deliver home delivered meals on those same days. She said in this generation they have more affluent seniors with more dining options and they are busier people, so it works nicely to establish some place for seniors to get together on a routine basis. She said it was a great idea to make use of a rec facility at a down time of day. She said they will provide tables and chairs, and the things they don't fund are rent and utilities. She said they are willing to fund any necessary enhancements to a site such as triple sinks to comply with food inspection codes. Weihe asked what size of facility would they need. Kelly said they like to see about 25 people on average, but they do work on average and it would be a combination of senior dining and home delivered meal participants. She said at the Coralville area they've got at least 10 to 15 people a day that are already receiving home delivered meals. Weihe said that maybe a joint planning with North Liberty might work. Kelly said a good way to start would be for her to go to the next Senior Potluck the Parks and Rec. Department has going on in Coralville once a month. She said in Benton County most of the communities have senior potlucks, but they don't know what to fix and it's nice to have a meal provided. She said they would be amazed at what one meal a day can make as a difference in people's lives. She said one hot meal a day takes the edge off. She said if they could identify the 5 to 6 key people in the Coralville area that would help them get something to grow, they could take it from there. She said they like to work with about 25 people at a site for a break even point but they are willing to see something just get started.

Duffy pointed out that Herwig helped out with home delivered meals. Herwig said they might check with Coral Manor and Lantern park. He said they probably have far more people interested in those 2 places. Kelly said in the Cedar Rapids area a real growth area has been the senior housing units. She said the Senior Center that operates in the City of Cedar Rapids provides group meals Monday through Friday. She said the apartment managers like to keep people in their apartments and one way to do that is to keep them fed. Herwig asked if she could provide Coralville with marketing research. Kelly said yes and it didn't take a lot of people. She asked how many people attended the potlucks and no one was able to give an estimate. Bolkcom said it was a terrific program and there was very little cost to those people invovled. He explained that the County holds the contract. He said they provide meals to Hills, Solon, Swisher, Autumn Park, and North Liberty. He said it appeared the kitchen might have capacity to provide support to a Coralville site if one could be organized. He said members of the Council would have a good idea of who the leaders are in their community who could work with Heritage and the Nutrition Committee to move forward if there is interest. He said location is really the key. Lundell said that was one of the key things and it was probably time to look at it again, but she can sort of clearly remember the last time they looked at it. She said some people were telling them that people wouldn't come to it because they want to go downtown. Kelly said they really have a nice Rec Center with the swimming pool. She said in North Liberty the folks play shuffleboard.

Nutrition Committee member Bob Welsh said, if the City Council is amenable to the use of the Parks and Recreation facility, a Council representative, Foster, and Kelly could develop some plans and bring it back to the Council for their review. Lundell said it sounded like a good job for their Community Partnership Coordinator, Sherry Proud. Schnake said they could schedule the senior aquatics lessons around the noon hour when they're going to have more of a draw. Weihe said he agreed. Duffy said there was more to Senior Dining than meals. He said it helps to keep people in their homes. In the Home Delivered Meals program they check up on people. He said it was also a preventative measure because when somebody didn't show up at the meal site people would check on them. He said it was a real good program.

Fausett explained that one of the main things that Coralville is interested in and the reason they put this on the agenda is they're still concerned about collaborative projects and what could be done if the sales tax is put on the ballot. He understood Iowa City was shooting for the 25th of March. He said it was really important that they come up with some collaborative projects as to what they were going to do. He said they were interested as to what the County's position was in this. He said the County will be the significant receiver of funds and so he was interested in what their position would be. He asked if they had any ideas or were willing to share with other entities in collaborative projects. He said the last time they were talking about the Jail and he wasn't sure that was a collaborative issue. Jacoby said they were hoping the Jail doesn't serve too many Coralville residents. Duffy said they really haven't said much about it. Bolkcom said the Board's discussions about this have focused on the County's increasing space needs and facility needs. He noted the space needs they have for the Jail, Human Services, Public Health, Courthouse, Administration Building, and SEATS. He said they haven't added facilities because of the tax freeze. Duffy said they have to add on roads and bridges. Bolkcom said they were plenty of those too. Stutsman said there were other ways to fund roads and bridges. Duffy said they shouldn't discuss this, because if they want this tax to pass, roads and bridges have to be part of that.

If Coralville is going to support a tax, Fausett said they are concerned about the funding, the money that is derived from the area of Coralville, Iowa City, and so forth. In order to make the funding issues equitable, he said they have to have some joint participation and some joint projects, because otherwise Coralville is going to be funding about 25% of the money but they're only going to get about 10% of the receipts. Stutsman asked what projects he was thinking of. Fausett said they were talking about the Highway 965-Deer Creek project being of value to everyone in the County, Coralville, and Iowa City; it would be regional in nature. He said that Mormon Trek would also be a part of that, even though the County wouldn't be involved. Weihe suggested Oakdale Boulevard to the east because that was another one of those roads that would be adjacent to the quarry and probably wouldn't annex into a city. Herwig said if they look at the area irrespective of boundaries, the County has the periphery in and out, it's primarily using a windfall. He said there are methods of funding roads and bridges that are in place, but as they all know sitting in the allocation of those things the wants and needs continue to go up and the resources continue to go down. He said they are trying to leverage for the benefit of the entire area the collaborative projects that will speed the infrastructure giving the ability to get from place to place.

Jordahl said the County had not yet reviewed their 5 year road plan for the coming year. He said, supposing in the review of that 5 year road construction plan they determine that the Highway 965 extension project was a higher priority than perhaps it was thought to be in the past, and because of the collaborative possibility should the local option sales tax pass, that rather than putting it on the ballot as something Johnson County wanted to do as a priority for the local option sales tax money they could make some sort of affirmation about it's place in their 5 year road construction plan, financing it through other means, and indicate on the ballot their commitment to their space needs which they may see as a higher priority for windfall dollars. He said it might fit into the 5 year construction plan anyway. Weihe said it was a stepping point and he liked what Duffy said. He said if they are trying to get people interested in supporting it at the ballot box, it's the people that drive across the roads that don't realize the County's space needs. He said there might be some roads, not necessarily the road that leads into Coralville or Iowa City, but it might be the road that leads to Oxford that needs a new bridge, but some dollars potentially should be earmarked for roads specifically, even though there are additional funds available. He said they do the 5 year road plan but half of their projects they can't even foresee funding in that 5 year period. He said if they can shorten up the funding time frame they can get more support for it. He said if indeed it is on the ballot in the spring it's their only shot for 5 years for putting it to the voters. He doesn't think it is something you can keep bringing back and hoping for more support each time it is brought back.

Lacina asked in the event that they come up with a collaborative project with Coralville, then will the Coralville Council aggressively support the local option tax. He said he keeps hearing this maybe we will, and maybe if there is a project. He said Jordahl's idea has some merit, but he noted there has been some discussion whether the League of Municipalities will go back after the road tax funds, which will cost counties and cause a reallocation to the cities. He said that would hurt the money they had for the rural areas since they can't spend money other than the rural tax levy and what they get for the rural area for roads. Lacina said with the increased annexations they lose that rural tax levy. He said before they can really make commitments to a road plan without some other revenue, he wants to know what that revenue is. He asked, if they can find this collaborative effort, are they saying that they will aggressively support that option tax. Weihe said they were trying to hold the line on taxes in Coralville. He said they haven't raised their levy, so there is a real sentiment among their group of elected officials that no tax is a good tax, but they would try to have the spirit of cooperation. Lundell said there were levels, because they either go out and aggressively support it if they're a big proponent or they don't oppose it. Weihe said they could put forth something that would appeal to the voters instead of something that would not. He said that was their job as elected officials, to put forward those sort of ideas. Schnake said she has a problem with an elected body out lobbying for this type of thing, mainly because of the heavy spending in Cedar Rapids promoting the tax. She said their responsibility was to choose the quality projects, put them before the people, and let them make the decision. She said she didn't think they should be out there one way or the other. Fausett said the thing the Council would try to do is try to the best of their ability put uses of this which would give the voters a chance to say if you want this road or project in the next 5 years, here's how to get it, if you don't you may be looking at 25 years. He said, if they are able to show how to get West High students to school safely in 2 years instead of 15, the voters may say yes.

Fausett said if they don't come up with projects that are collaborative in nature but are going to show the voters some real need and some hurry up of the project then it will not have any chance of passing. Lundell said that might have been part of the Cedar Rapids issue, it became as much a referendum on each project as it did on whether it was a good idea to have a one cent additional tax. Fausett said he didn't think they will actively campaign regardless of the projects. Lacina said in Linn County's example there were projects that if local option didn't pass those projects were dead. He said if they craft the package of needs and the question then becomes do you want this need funded through property tax or local option tax. Stutsman said that's the way she sees the Jail. She said they are going to have to do something to address the space needs at the Jail. She said either they are going to build a bigger jail or a new jail or they are going to pay to house prisoners outside of Johnson County. She said either way they are going to have to pay. She said that to her it seems like it was a collaborative effort. Fausett said he wasn't going to say that the County can't say they want to use some of the sales tax money to improve the Jail; he didn't have a problem with that. But he didn't think they could say they're not going to spend money on anything but the Jail. Lacina said if Coralville Police Chief Bedford gets a shoplifter at Coral Ridge Mall and has to transport them to Scott County to jail because the County Jail is booked, it does take a Coralville law enforcement officer out of the County. He said it really does affect everybody. He said they can craft a package of dollars for law enforcement, dollars for roads, limiting how many projects they've got because Linn County's was so vast. Weihe said, if they were talking about a new jail, he wondered if they shouldn't do the jail by referendum like they paid for the jail the last time. Lacina said tentatively they were talking expansion as opposed to a new facility. Weihe said some of the referendum issues should still remain referendum issues.

Fausett said they might ask Davidson to go back to the Highway 965, looking at new routing rather than putting money into Deer Creek Road. He asked Davidson to bring up the differences in cost between the 2 options. Davidson said as he mentioned earlier they don't have hard and fast numbers, but they anticipate talking between one and 3 or 4 million dollars for either the improvement of Deer Creek Road or a combination of constructing a small portion of 965 and then getting over to Deer Creek Road and using the remainder of the right of way to get to Melrose Avenue. He said they are talking closer to 5 or 6 million to do the 965 extension completely across the interstate and down to Melrose Avenue, but that was an improvement that probably would give them more for their dollar as well. It would eliminate some of the mix of traffic concerns. He said there would probably be a maintenance agreement for the new road; this the area is both Coralville and Iowa City's long range growth area. Bolkcom asked what portions of either road were going to be in the cities. Davidson said that one third of Deer Creek Road was in Iowa City, two thirds in the unincorporated county. Bolkcom asked if that mix would change in the future. Davidson said in the future it would be half in Coralville, half in Iowa City. Bolkcom asked if Oakdale Boulevard would be the same situation. Weihe said in both cases half the road would not be annexed, if the quarry didn't annex into the city, so the County would own half the road. Bolkcom questioned why they would invest money in a road they would be turning over. Herwig said the rationale is Coralville can't invest in property they don't have yet; even though the need may be there, they can't do it. Herwig said windfall money would be a logical source for collaborative projects where it is county land now but will someday be in a city, so they don't someday have tax money intermingling. Jordahl said it was a nice argument. Bolkcom said, if they can't pay for the roads based on the current growth, they're going to accelerate development in these areas, will they see in a few years the same problem only increased, where they will have greater needs for these kinds of projects with less or equal money. Bolkcom said he didn't hear of the sales tax sunsetting. Herwig said it was about catching up. He said they have a real problem between Highway 6 and Melrose Avenue and extraordinarily poor alternatives to get there. Duffy said to keep in mind, the County did put in First Avenue Extension in Coralville, which was County dollars and Farm to Market money. Weihe asked if they did the bridge before that. Duffy said they fixed it up so Coralville could annex it. Bolkcom said he was hearing a suggestion that the County should develop in it's proposal some connection to roads that they just don't have on their portion of the ballot space. Jacoby said, even in talking about space needs, he isn't in line with everything they're talking about. He said months ago they were talking about whether they support a tax at all, then all of the sudden they come to a meeting and they're saying what's your project. He said in a previous meeting one or 2 supervisors and some Council members said they don't know how they feel about the tax, and now they're talking about projects. He said if they want a chance for it to pass they have to put together a good plan.

Weihe left at 5:25 p.m.

Schnake said it's not up to them to whether it goes on the ballot, so when it's decided that they have to put something on the ballot whether or not they want to, the fact is they're going to have to put something out there that is quality that the voters have an opportunity to make an educated and intelligent decision about. She said it unfortunately doesn't matter if any of them sitting around the table favor it or not; it's going to be put on the ballot by somebody else and they're going to have to because of the way it's set up and because they have the contingent areas, address the issue. Jordahl asked if they have to put dollars on the ballot or could they talk about projects. Jordahl said if they talk about collaborating with Coralville on the project and yet they could have their space needs addressed, the question of how much money from the local option sales tax went into the road versus the Jail would be something they might be free to determine and if they wanted to fund the road project out of other County road dollars to a large extent and put some of the local option sales tax money in there they could finesse that and not have to pin down exactly that they will pay a certain portion of the project. Fausett said he didn't know that they had to get specific regarding projects but list percentages for capital projects, infrastructure projects, etc. Lacina said by percentages they mean so much for different services. Schnake said they don't even have to specifically name the projects. She said they would find people who disagree on the percentages.

Lacina said he liked Al Leff's comment at the joint meeting that if it was going to be viable there should be collaboration on something that was an investment in the entire area and region. Lacina said he didn't like the term windfall, but if they could use the money from inside the county and a lot from outside of the county to enhance their community, that's great. Jordahl said Lacina makes an important point, the money would also be coming from other counties. Jordahl said an important question was, was the Council going to support it. He said that didn't mean going door to door with stickers but it was a question of how it was presented. He said there was a way of being positive without campaigning for it. Fausett said if they can't agree on spending the money on collaborative projects, it doesn't make a difference whether it passes or not, because the mall probably won't be included. Jordahl said they tossed out possibilities and the question was what do they need to do to agree. Stutsman said she wasn't ready to talk percentages and she wanted to visit about the 5 year road plan before they talk about percentages. Duffy said they are probably going to have to do their own thing on some of it. Lacina said on some of the numbers they are going to have to get firmer. Bolkcom asked in terms of Coralville projects what were they. Fausett said the projects they have been looking at are Mormon Trek, Highway 965 and Oakdale Boulevard. He said basically infrastructure type projects to get people into and out of the area. Reverend Bob Welsh asked if it was true that if the local option tax passes, and for example the Coralville City Council wanted to opt out of implementing the tax, they could drop out. He was told they could vote to do so the next day.

The Board of Supervisors and Coralville City Council decided to meet on December 8, 1998 at 4 p.m.

Adjourned at 5:35 p.m.

Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor

By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary