Ames City Council met to talk about several different ways to address climate change. One of the leading ideas was a proposal for a climate action plan scope of services. After discussion, the council decided to approve the climate change plan. This plan proposed that the city needs to find ways to help the city fight against climate change. The main goal of the climate plan is to establish relevant, achievable and cost-effective strategies to achieve reduction goals within a timeline plan.

Several citizens of Ames also spoke about this issue. They were all happy with the plan and are excited to see it put into action.

The majority of this plan will be fleshed out more in future meetings, and it should start development by late February if all goes well. It should take about 18 months to fully complete.

The motion for proposals for the Waste-to-Energy Options Study Scope of Services was also approved by the council. This plan suggested that the city look to either update or find a different way of using the Waste-to-Energy system. After much discussion about possible ways to approach this, the council eventually decided to pass the proposal. 

The possibility of cameras in Campustown was also discussed in this meeting. The council decided to push off the decision to a future date as they felt students needed to be more aware of what might happen in Campustown. One way awareness will be brought about is through Student Government.

“I think we should slow it down a little bit, so I don’t know if you’ll be taking public input at some point,” Ward 3 Rep. David Martin said. “I’m going to suggest we take a little pause here, maybe two to four weeks, and send out specific policy questions so that the council can get our questions answered so that we feel like we’ve done our due diligence on behalf of the community.”

Several other items were approved in this meeting, such as the second passage of Face-Covering Ordinance and the approval of the Farmhouse Fraternity Tax abatement.