Improvements for CyRide facilities including flood protection and storage were discussed and approved at the Ames City Council meeting Tuesday night.

The council approved a contract with URS Corporation for no more than $462,509 for its “architectural/engineering services” for the CyRide facility cnstruction project. 

The meeting began after the council’s conference board meeting regarding the city assessor’s budget proposal, which also was approved. Information on the specifics of that budget can be found on the city of Ames website.

The sustainability contract for Iowa State has been approved, but amendments will be discussed in the next few weeks. The Capital Improvements Plan is continually being discussed and making improvements but will not be fully approved for the next few weeks. There were no movements by Ames citizens to revise the plan, suggesting it is nearing its final drafting.

“At the minimum, we need the community to talk about prioritizing, because we may not need to pay for it all,” said Matthew Goodman, at-large representative.

Council members raised concern regarding how much money will be spent on specific projects by the city and how many projects will be covered by grants received from the state. Not all projects have been approved, thus leaving a pending discussion.

“We can always budget now and allocate later,” said Victoria Szopinski, 4th Ward City Council representative.

A new city of Ames logo was decided upon at Tuesday’s meeting. The new tagline associated with the logo will be “The City of Ames, Iowa: Smart Choice.”

“It was short, memorable and got to the point,” said Susan Gwiasda, Ames public relations officer.

It will take three to five years to implement the new logo.

Implementing new regulations and fees for public parking were also discussed.

“The fees into the meter pay for the meter and the fees for the ticket pay for the people who are driving around making sure that people are paying for the meters. There are feelings about a making all tickets a $5 violation if paid within seven days. Some customers also want us to move to different technologies, because most don’t carry quarters,” said Charles Cychosz, Ames city police chief. “We write about 24,000 citations a year, and ideally, if a ticket meant something, we’d see those numbers go down a little bit.”

Game-day parking violations are also a concern and will be looked at implementing stricter regulation and violation fees for the next season, Cychosz said. 

Other approvals made by the council Tuesday night included: “Take Your Child to the Library Day,” set for Feb. 4, suspension of parking regulation in the Central Business District for January Dollar Days in the Main Street Cultural District, Loan Disbursement for the Water Revenue project, the Land Exchange Agreement between the City of Ames and the U.S. Government and the Veterinary Medicine Substation Capacitor Banks project.