Rachel Junck, Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen and Tim Gartin were sworn in to serve on the Ames City Council at their meeting Wednesday. 

The three were sworn in by Magistrate Jessica Henry at 10:30 a.m. in the Council Chambers for four-year terms on the Council. 

Rachel Junck, recently elected to represent Ward 4 of Ames and a senior in chemical engineering at Iowa State University, will serve her first term on the Council after beating incumbent Chris Nelson. 

Junck said one of her plans is to continue the conversation about affordable and accessible housing, as well as making Ames as carbon-neutral as possible. This means no net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and bringing in more recycling and composting options citywide.

“I’d like to see Ames be more sustainable in the future and look at ways to implement a climate action plan with the result of the Ames Plan 2040, but they would be separate documents,” Junck said. “I’m excited to have a student perspective on those issues of the city’s growth as well.” 

The Ames 2040 Plan includes multiple phases of public participation on issues related to new development, growth and sustaining the Ames community.  

Along with the plan to create a sustainable future for Ames, At-Large Rep. Beatty-Hansen said she wants to continue to work on developing a plan for the city’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“The thing is that I want to put on the front burner would be getting our greenhouse gas inventory completed this year and then I really want to move forward on getting a planet action plan in place for Ames,” Beatty-Hansen said. 

Beatty-Hansen started her first term in January 2016 and was re-elected in the November 2019 election. 

“I enjoy it, it’s been a great learning experience and also very rewarding in ways,” Beatty-Hansen said. “People kind of joke that it’s a thankless job, but it’s actually not — people are very gracious in Ames and very supportive, or have been in my experience.” 

Gartin, who has served on the Council for the past six years, was also re-elected and sworn in to represent Ward 2. 

“Ames is an amazing place and our better days are ahead of us,” Gartin said. “There are so many good things happening in this community and my goal is to keep things moving in the right direction.” 

Gartin said this will be his final term to serve for Ames City Council. 

“I believe in term limits and what can happen particularly in these types of positions is people can be in in them too long — there are other people who are able to serve [on Council],” Gartin said. “Unless there was something like an emergency with the city where there will be a benefit to me staying on, I think 10 years is enough for a position like this.” 

Along with Junck and Beatty-Hansen, Gartin said he wants to continue developing the Ames 2040 Plan. 

“The big project this Council will have is to work on the 2040 comprehensive plan that provides direction for growth in the community,” Gartin said. “I feel very good about the work that’s been done on that so far. So we have a lot of important work to do and we need robust public input on [the Ames 2040 Plan].” 

There will be an input meeting on the Ames 2040 Plan at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Council Chambers at Ames City Hall. The Council will hear public input about the revelation of the plan, regarding the growth area scenarios and will update the City’s comprehensive plan. 

Following the input meeting, the Council will have its regular Tuesday meeting and will take action on the scenario options for the Ames 2040 Plan, which will help the city to move forward on creating a complete draft and ready for public review in the spring.