Daily Staff Writer

Forum to discuss Lincoln Way improvement

The city of Ames and the Iowa Department of Transportation are holding an open forum today to discuss the proposed improvement of Lincoln Way.

Mike Clayton, district transportation planner in the District 1 office of the Iowa DOT, said the city wants to get public input on the project.

“We’ll be reconstructing Lincoln Way between Oak Avenue over east almost to the South Walnut intersection, then we’ll be extending Grand south part of the way through the DOT parking lot to add access to Hy-Vee and also the DOT,” he said.

The Lincoln Way-Grand Avenue intersection will be reconstructed as well, he said.

“We’ll have the drawings displayed showing what we’re proposing to do,” Clayton said. “The big change to the intersection itself is there’ll be left-turn designations on all four sides of the intersection, except on the west side there’ll be two left-turn lanes.”

The forum will be held in the City Council chambers in Ames City Hall, 515 Clark Ave., from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

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Engineering receives gift from late alumnus

A gift from the estate of ISU alumnus Andrew Pontius will go toward undergraduate scholarships in the College of Engineering.

The gift, totaling $510,000, will establish the Andrew and Marion Pontius Scholarship Fund, awarding freshman and sophomore scholarships based on academic merit.

Jim Melsa, chairman and professor of engineering, said the number of students receiving scholarships will vary each year.

“We give scholarships ranging from a few hundred dollars to a full scholarship, so the number of students will depend on how much we award each one, but I’d say 10 to 20 [students per year awarded],” he said.

Pontius, who died April 22, was a 1931 ISU electrical engineering graduate. He and his wife were members of the ISU Foundation’s Order of the Knoll.

Their gifts have helped finance many projects at Iowa State, including the Durham Computation Center.

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ISU hosts national bioenergy conference

Iowa State will host a national conference on biobased initiatives today and Friday in the Scheman Building.

The conference, titled “National Biobased Products and Bioenergy Initiative: The Role and Capacities of State Universities and Land-grant Colleges,” is sponsored by the National Biobased Products and Bioengineering Coordination Office.

President Clinton in August issued an executive order that America’s use of biobased products and bioenergy be tripled by 2010.

Stan Johnson, vice provost for Extension, said the conference is organized in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture.

“The effort is national, and this is a national conference looking at how land-grant universities like Iowa State and others across the country can be part of this initiative,” he said. “Different universities will have an opportunity to discuss their research and extension programs, how these programs contribute to the bioproducts and bioindustry and how they can cooperate with the DOE and USDA.”

Johnson said the issue of biobased initiatives is very important to Iowa State.

“We’re very fortunate to have this conference in Iowa since we have a big stake in these things, both from the perspective of the university and of agriculture in the state,” he said.

Walk-in registration will be available today for $95. The conference begins at 9 this morning and ends 2 p.m. Friday.

—Jocelyn Marcus