The Ames City Council presented results of the Resident Satisfaction Survey at Tuesday’s meeting.

The survey was sent to 1,350 residents. Nine-hundred fifty were randomly selected Ames residents and 400 were ISU students randomly selected through the registrar’s office. Three-hundred seventy Ames residents returned the survey.

“We do have people that are surprised that our return rates are so high with a booklet of 12 pages of questions,” said Susan Gwiasda, public relations officer for the City of Ames.

This year, when asked about the overall satisfaction with City of Ames service quality, 32 percent of respondents gave the city a “very good” rating. This rating is lower than it has been in previous years. The number of residents rating the city as “good” increased to 65 percent. Overall, 97 percent of Ames residents gave city services a “good” or “very good” rating.

“We’re still on the good side, but how those numbers shuffle out is maybe not how we’d like to see them,” Gwiasda said. “So I’m going to watch it and see what happens.”

Residents were asked how much property taxes should be adjusted next year due to their spending priorities. The majority of respondents — 46 percent — preferred no change in taxes. The percentage of respondents who suggested a decrease in taxes rose 1 percent from last year, while the percentage of respondents who suggested an increase in taxes rose 3 percent.

The top three capital improvement priorities are the same as in 2007. The three highest ranked categories were reconstruction of existing streets, traffic flow improvement and bike path improvements.

Road service ratings had few fluctuations from last year. Ratings of road surface conditions of major roads and streets dropped. The number of respondents reporting “good” or “very good” dropped 11 and 12 percent from last year’s numbers.

On the ratings of traffic sign placements, 76 percent reported that Ames had the “right number” of traffic signs. However, 50 percent said the signal coordination was “often or always” effective,” and 44 percent said the signal coordination was “rarely to sometimes” effective.

The council also debated a stormwater management issue in the vicinity of Coldwater Links Golf Course, 615 S. 16th St. The resolution directing staff to include stormwater management improvements in the 2009-2010 Capital Improvements Plan passed 5-1, with Matthew Goodman, at-large city councilman, opposing. Nancy Carroll, director of Ames Parks and Recreation, proposed replacing a pipe to prevent flooding on the golf course. The current pipe is too small to effectively drain floodwater and needs to be replaced. The issue was previously brought to City Council and voted down.

“We have had discussions and made decisions on information that has now changed, and I don’t think that because we discussed doing this project; this should force us at any time, as a Council, to say ‘we talked about doing it when the money was $200, now it’s $550. We must do it,’” Goodman said. “If the information changes, and we’re trying to protect the citizens of Ames and their tax dollars, I think we should respond to those changes. I think over a half-million dollars for this project is too much.”

He went on to say the council should put the plan back in the hands of Parks and Recreation to find a less expensive plan to fix the flooding.

Second Ward Councilman Jami Larson disagreed by saying that if the City of Ames had created the problem, it should do its best to fix the problem.

The council also passed the “Cool Cities” initiative, a resolution establishing a goal to reduce carbon dioxide emission levels in city operations by 15 percent by 2014. The goal will be reached by making lighting and heating in Ames public buildings more environmentally friendly and possibly making CyRide buses hybrid vehicles.