Good evening and welcome to the September 13th meeting of the Ames City Council--Trent Rice at your service.  Settle in for the long haul, it's likely to be a long evening.

A full agenda, with lots of juicy items, three of them in a row.  The council will take up the twice-tabled city logo issue.  Since it was tabled for a second time in August, the city found out that the tagline, "Heartland's Leading Edge" was very similar to that of Council Bluffs, which calls itself "Iowa's Leading Edge."  My guess is that the two items will be taken together.

Also, the council will get an update on the status of North Grand Mall.  It's owner, GK Deveopment, followed through on it's promise to file redesign plans with the city by  September 1st.  As I undertstand it, there are some issues that are missing from the plan.

Finally, the council will take up the ongoing issue of development to the city's north.

7:50P:  The council discussing the logo and tag line issue.  To this point, the council's acted to reconvene the orginal "visioning" steering committee and ask them to work with Brand Endeavor on creating a new tag line.  The company will do this for free.

8:05P:  In regards to the logo debate, and sharing a design with the Ames Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau, At-Large council member Matthew Goodman raises an interesting point.  Does the city place itself in an awkward position if the chamber or ACVB takes a political position on something--his example is a proposed bond issue for an expansion and renovation of the library.  The unspoken issue, in my estimation, is the Chamber and Economic Development Commission's stance against the school distict's $65 million bond issue. 

8:40P:  The council is getting a report from staff on the North Grand Mall redevelopment plan.  The council's expressing an intersted to continue working with GK Development to work out some very specific landscaping issues.  City Planning and Housing Director Steve Osguthorpe says while a plan has been submitted, there is no guarantee that the development will happen.  He says the company's told him that they could begin work on the facility within nine months of final approval.  The council's also expressed a willingness not to nitpick the issue and place impediments in the company's way of negotiating with retailers.