18-02-2025
Council to take up Market Street, election items
OTTUMWA — Plans to create the Market Street Landing are moving fast, as the Ottumwa City Council is expected to take up an agenda item during Tuesday's meeting at Bridge View Center to create the footings and signage for a gateway.
On the agenda are the plans, form of contract and estimated cost to construct two new columns and the 70-foot sign from trusses that were used at the old coliseum. The gateway will be located at the north end of the Market Street Bridge.
The estimated cost of the footings and signage is just over $461,000, paid for by the Ottumwa Regional Legacy Foundation as part of a re-imagining of the riverfront area on both sides of Market Street. The city isn't contributing funds to this facet of the project. There also will be art attached to the two pillars, but that is a separate project.
The gateway is the first of several projects to be completed. The overall scope also will include a new, inclusive play place on the east side of Market Street that will replace the skate park, as well as tearing out a majority of the municipal parking lot on the west side of Market Street and potentially build riverfront housing in that space.
The skate park will be moved and expanded into Sycamore Park near The Beach and the Southeast Iowa Sports Center. There also will be some construction done near the railroad tracks to make it safer for pedestrians to cross.
A recommendation on bids for the gateway part of the project will be presented at the council's March 18 meeting.
In other business:
— A slightly revised ordinance to eliminate the primary election process will come before the council for its first reading. The ordinance, if approved after three readings, will trigger Chapter 45 of Iowa Code, which does away with primary and runoff elections. In short, those who receive the most votes get the seats.
This year, three council seats and mayor's seat will be on the ballot. When a similar ordinance was before council last year, it failed on a 3-2 vote, though one of the "no" votes, council member Bill Hoffman Jr., signaled two weeks ago he will change his vote this time around.
The primary process has been costly to the city over the years, with the city often paying over $10,000 for an election in which there has been low turnout. It is not uncommon to see 1,000 voters or less vote in the primary, which brings into question the importance of the primary at all.
— The city will explore installing a wayfinding sign on the east end of Ottumwa, near the Roemer and Walnut avenue intersection. It is the only entrance into the city without wayfinding signage.
The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.
