Ondrea Elmquist, Boone City Administrator, May 27, 2026

On our program today, we're going to take time. We're visiting with Andrea Elmquist Boone, City Administrator. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. Here we are. End of May. I'm ready. Yeah, I know. I'm ready for summer. Are you ready for summer and projects less one? Oh, well, I know it was sad when Waila had to pass that along. Probably had already told you a little earlier there was going to be an issue with that. Again, we're talking about First Street, folks. Yes. Yeah, we had been talking about where the bidding was, because we hadn't heard. And so I directed Waila to follow up with SEH. And unfortunately, we did not get good news from them that the design was not complete enough to submit to the DNR for bidding. So we could have started the project this fall. I just didn't feel that that was the wisest decision with the middle school being in session. So we made the hard decision to delay it a year. So dollars are all there, same dollars. Absolutely. It's funded already. So it's just. And for those that wonder, again, the dollars, basically what the city receives like from the state through the state and some of the federal dollars that come in for various types of roads that you have. Yeah, it's federal dollars that come down to the state. And the state then allocates a certain amount of money based on a formula to the cities. And then we can do street projects for certain types of roads, not all roads qualify. And then engineering is also not included in that. So for the engineering fees, we typically use local option sales tax and road juice tax. So kind of cover it that way. So these dollars that you had already committed are there. Yes. Now we'll just have to wait till next year, though. Yes. Well, it is a DOT bid. So that's one of the other parts that we have to kind of coordinate there. Big issue for SEH is just reduced staff. I mean, their staff has been moving on to other positions, too. Yep. I think a lot of businesses can relate to this. And that is that there's a lot of turnover in businesses. Engineering cities were no different than any other business that I don't think that sometimes people stay in jobs as long as they used to. And so we have to deal with that turnover. So you've got to still keep going forward, though. We've still got everything that needs to be done. Now, this does mean, and I know that the council did ask him about the next street project after that. And he had indicated one of the high priorities had been North Lynn, which then you would have additional dollars coming in next year that would be applied towards that. Because you kind of go every other year. So you get enough money. Yeah. So what we do is we set aside about $125,000 local option sales tax dollars every year and about $225,000 reduced taxes dollars each year. And that can fluctuate a little bit. And we put that into an account. And then every other year, we choose a project. The first year is typically for design. And the second year is construction. We do have money set aside already for the design of the next street project. With this, we may delay the design by a year. Otherwise, we'll work with SEH or an engineering firm that will design that and figure out when they want to start it. We'll say that you do have a number of ongoing contracts already with SEH. And again, primary infrastructure, water and sewer. Water, sewer, they also are doing our Hancock Drive. Like we just discussed, they are the engineer on the Southeast First Street project. The goal and my idea is is going forward. All projects will be bid or request for qualifications is what we do for engineering services. So they won't be the automatic engineering choice. They will go out for a bid to get the best engineer for each project. So do what we can to keep moving forward. And again, over the years, that's been one of the issues that the city did have on staff or an engineer. But he had stepped down because of the amount of work that was coming at him, too. And again, we've had individual firms that have done the work for the city over a number of years and decades. Yeah, right. And prior to us taking on this last engineer, Short Elliott Hendrickson was our city engineer. They had a point of contact on their staff that we would use for all projects. Any questions and any engineering questions would go to that person. We are currently using WHKS for our daily engineering needs. But for any projects, we won't be giving it to Short Elliott Hendrickson. We will be taking qualifications. Getting some proposals in on that. And that's happened before. Folks may not recall it, but I've seen it happen more than one occasion. Speaking of WHKS, again, they have been consistently working with you on the inflow and infiltration. And we've got the eighth, hard to believe, eighth phase. Eight years this has been going on now. And again, this is what I call it the sun pump inspection program. But we are, and they do collect data and stuff. And we are seeing reduced stormwater flows, which that's been the goal. That's the purpose. Yep, that's the purpose. We have two more phases, hopefully, to go through. And then we'll be completed through the community. And yeah, the goal is to reduce the amount of water that goes to the wastewater plant for treatment. So a little, yeah, I still remember back when, you may recall, when DNR was talking about having a plant to treat your stormwater. And that just, nobody wanted to have to do that. No, no, that would be a significant increase in cost for the amount of stormwater that was going to our wastewater plant. So again, one of the big things, reduce the amount of stormwater coming in. I don't know if it's as low as you would like it to be, but we're getting there, slow but sure. Let's talk all about block grants, community development block grants. Can you count them all that you got going on? First of all, it is a process to secure additional federal funds for projects and reduce the actual cost to residents. But working with Simmering Corey, again, a company that they have the expertise in this, and you've had a lot of luck with them. We have. I've worked with Simmering Corey my whole career, so basically 27 years. And they've done all of our CDBG grants. And CDBG community block grants. Those grant funds can be used for water infrastructure, sewer infrastructure. We've done several housing rehabilitation projects. So we currently have got the Ground Storage Reservoir Ground Storage Community Block Grant that we've secured. We have. That was a $500,000. That's a $500,000 grant. And then we have a well grant application that we just submitted, and a roof grant application that we just submitted. And that is for residential, the roof grant one. And then we will have the. North Transmission Main. North Transmission Main will be going next. So another one. Yeah, that will be in September. And then still working on another potential one that may not be a block grant, but I'm not sure it is for the water tower. Yes, that is a EDA grant, economic development grant. And that one I'm hoping for a million dollars. And so we'll be getting ready to submit that one too. A lot of work. Yeah. Well, and again, those are the challenges. You've got to keep up on all of those too. Simmer and Corey, again, they do that. But they're also, at the same time, they have a group that are working on your codification. Not just Boons either, I will point out, folks. They do a lot of cities in the states. Yes, this is a recodification of our ordinance or our code. And that's going to take us about 18 months. We just got through the first set of questions that took us about, I would say, three hours of the staff time to go through each ordinance and make the modifications that we needed to. And then it goes to the committee. In this case, it was policy administration. And then the Council for Final Approval. So we made it. We made the first section done. Got the first part taken care of. OK, well, that's half of it. And away we go. So keep working on it. I know, there's so many things. So have you had time to dig into property tax reform? We know the legislature did approve it. We know the governor has signed it. Still have a lot of communities taking a look at what the implications could be. And it is a ways out. So there will be an impact potentially here in the upcoming fiscal year. Not so much. I think that's pretty well already set. Yeah, fiscal year 2017 has been set. This is the year after that. There are some things that are taking effect immediately. Tax increment financing tip. There were some changes to that. And that took effect right away. And we are involved in several development agreements. So that does affect us. And we had to make some changes, pivot quite quickly for the next development agreement that I've been working on that should be approved here within the next month or two. So, and again, basically the thing is time frame, the extent of time going out. Yeah, there is also whenever you do a residential development, there would used to be a requirement that you set a certain amount of money aside for a load of moderate income housing that has been distracted. So we can no longer hold that money set aside for particular reasons of low to moderate income. Didn't have to be housing necessarily, but it could be to put in a sidewalk in a low to moderate income neighborhood or. The ones that comes to mind, I remember doing some sanitary sewer work. Yeah, sanitary sewer. We've done also some of our housing rehabilitation projects. That's how we funded those. The roofing projects, if we get that grant, we could use that money to help extend that project. So the legislature did away with that. They did away with that. I believe many communities weren't utilizing those funds like they probably should have. Boone here, we've done quite a few projects. So we were not sitting on that money. So yeah, there are several things that we had to. Change right away. Change right away, yeah. Well, OK, so now we're thinking and looking at all of these different things, too. Other things that is you're looking forward, because I know a lot of it was a 2% limit on what? General fund? Yeah, there is some exclusions from that 2%. They call it a soft cap. So the 2% is not supposed to affect your new development. However, if the new development is in a urban renewal area and you're using tax increment financing, it has a whole different set of rules.

So they sent you a whole new playbook, is pretty much what they did. Yes, it's about 2 and 1 half pages of new laws that we got to dissect. And the state will come down and tell us what we can and can't do also. Work with the League of Cities on this, too. Again, they have people analyzing it, I'm sure, too. Yeah, but now I would define it. These communities are a little different, aren't they? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so what affects Boone may not affect Ames? We know what Des Moines is already talking about. They've been very upfront about what their concerns are. And we've got plenty, too. But you've got a lot of development going on and a lot of those agreements. And our TIF agreements, folks, for most that understand, Boone has been rather conservative with those over the years. Basically, it's been a lot of reimbursement taxes. And a portion of that gets reimbursed to the developer for taking the risk of developing. Right. We are very conservative. And from what I understand from the representatives at the state is that we use it like it's supposed to be used it for. So typically, for residential property development, the developer puts in the infrastructure. They do all the building. And then we will reimburse up to 50% of that infrastructure cost. And that would be, it has to be public improvement. So that would be for curbs, streets, sidewalks, if the sidewalks are put in prior to the home, stormwater, things like that. So people that might be like Hunsuckers, Prairie Place. Yes. On South Marshall, you have an arrangement on that. Yeah. They did the work on it. And then it turns into the city's property. But it's got to be built to city's specs. Yes. And they pay for the whole thing up front. And then they just get reimbursed over a 10-year period for 50% up to 50% of the cost. So again, those are the kinds of things that the city has been doing. And each one's a little different. Again, that's a residential time. Yeah. And the taxes that they're getting back or the funding that's coming back to them is the money that they've put into it. So if they didn't develop it, there's no additional cost to the taxpayers. There is no cost to them. It's their own money that's going in. So I think it's a win-win. So we keep working at what we got. And again, it's a way to reduce risk and get your growth and development. Absolutely. You do have a lot of residential that's been going on. We do. So are you sitting there thinking, do we need to redo the census? Are we going to wait? The census will be in 2030. So I think we'll probably just wait. We'll just wait. Because some communities that had noticeable growth that people have heard about have gone and petitioned or actually gone and pursued getting a new updated census. Yes. We'll just wait for the regular one coming our way. Yeah. It's a lot of work to recertify. Oh, yeah. So like I said, it's only at four years out. We've still got about another 100 homes that we're looking at over the next few years. So I think that that will work out perfect. All right. Made that part. Those are just some of the many things that have been going on. I know recently had the police chief on. And simple service commission's got another meeting coming up. And again, this is building a new list. He has got positions in the department. Again, talking about keeping people and on the engineering side, maintaining your department for police. We've had pretty good hires on the public work side of it. Yeah. We had just hired four new ones over the last six months for people that have retired down at the city shed. So we're just, like I said, we're just like any other business. And so is the engineering firm. So the one up again for those that are wondering on public work said, yes, we still have the same numbers. Yes. Just new people coming in. So hopefully they keep busy. All right. So tell me a little bit about where we're at on Citywide Cleanup, because I know people are still going, is that what that's due? No, it's no. It's right now looking to be October. But public works are whaling has really put in a lot of time collecting information on ways to update guidelines. Yeah, we are looking at October 5th through the 16th. Details on that will be coming out. What we're looking at doing per the instructions of the city council is creating a list of things that we will take. And the past, it has always been the things that we won't take. So we're kind of taking a new turn on this. And we're going to try and make it simple so that you can look at the list and make that judgment call. It has also been stressed that if there is something in that pile that we will not take, the whole pile will get left as is, and we won't be back. And then our community service officer will be around to put a note on your door to have it removed within a certain time period. Got it. We'll see how it comes together. I know the council is still waiting to get more detailed information that's still something that's coming up. Plus, we've got everything else that's happening, too. So getting questions. Do people come and ask you questions about Ragnbrey, even though it's just an overnight in Boone? You've got a whole nother committee that's actually handling. And it's not the city's committee. It's a Ragnbrey committee. Correct. The city's not really involved in the Ragnbrey, other than, obviously, it's coming through our community. We do have representatives from the Park Commission that's on that Ragnbrey committee. We have our police chief that's on that Ragnbrey committee. Wayland, the public works director, is helping out where he can. But for the most part, this is not a city event. But we'll help out to make sure it's a successful one. So just try to do what we can. I did have other things coming up here. We do know that now we have somebody lined up to do the green space stage area. Again, at least the proposal in. I don't know if the council did take formal action on that or not, did they? They did. So we have already given the go-ahead to get that started. And I'm hoping to have that done here soon. Gray ball, construction stepped up. And again, one of the issues you found out by going through this was the concerns about liability, since the one did collapse. The question was liability. And the design is a lot of steel work, a lot of steel structure going in this time. Yeah. I think that maybe limited us on who could do the work. So yeah, we're excited to have it done. Busy time. So much going. And what they felt optimistic should they have the necessary supplies by Labor Day? Yeah. Keep your fingers crossed, folks, that they can pull this off. Anyway, it is gray ball construction. That got a bit of a little over what the insurance was. But council was willing to get something done and get it up in place there. So yeah. Local option sales tax is what it's for, that money's for. So we'll use that to make sure that it gets done and hopefully done correctly. All right. Other things that are going on, we need to remind folks about. I think I know one question. Stories have been coming out about nitrate levels. And I think US water and the current staff at Waterworks do a pretty good job of continuing that blending. And as far as I know, they haven't even, they've been doing a real good job of staying away from that level. Yeah. Yeah, they test daily. And they make the necessary adjustments where they are needed. And if it gets high, it will let the public know when we have to. So far, we haven't had to do that for several years. So keep our fingers crossed, too. I was going to say, let's not jinx ourselves. Well, and the next big thing is, of course, adding to that well field down there. And again, we already mentioned that on the Community Development Block Grants. But they are starting to move forward with things that need to be done to go ahead with that. And they selected an area, kind of targeted an area, that is known not to have much for nitrate. Right, right. So the location has already been selected. The DNR has already approved it. And we're still doing a lot of testing to make sure that the nitrates are able to remain low. So that's our challenge. And again, folks, if you're wondering, did take a look at, do we put in a mechanical process to do that? There are other things that are available. And went through several ones, but found out the most economical is going to be add the wells and do the blending of the water. Yeah. We realize that the more wells that we have to add or change, the chances of us having to add a nitrate reduction system is there. And so we have that research been done and looked at. And so we are aware of it. OK. A lot of things still going on. We've got meetings coming up here as we hit June. Going to be on the first and another one on the 15th. Yeah. End of the fiscal year. Yeah, June 30th. She's going good. Now we can get ready to move into fiscal year 2027, we call it? Yes, fiscal year 27. It's always the year that it's going to end in. And for people that keep wondering, yeah, we've planned for snow removal already for next winter. Yes. Yeah, so that's the hard part about budgeting. We're budgeting for 18 months in advance. Keep working on it. And I know that the park commission's getting ready to bring in their 10-year plan or proposal. So we'll get a chance to see what that looks like. There's a lot of things still coming up. Yeah, I'm excited to see that park's plan. All righty. I do appreciate you taking time coming and visiting with us. Andrea Olmquist, our city administrator. Thank you. Thank you.