[This is the pedestrian gate on the east side of Meeker with 20 feet of half foot deep snow left by the crew clearing snow. You can’t drive a truck through a pedestrian gate, and you wouldn’t want them to have to get out of their truck and use a shovel would you? I’ll clear it in the morning before the kids come.]

The city of Ames has the worst snow removal in Iowa. Okay that’s my opinion. What we should have are the facts to compare to similar sized cities, instead of just my opinion. This is Friday January 17, 2020. The local meteorologists have been prepping us for a week that ‘Snow-mageddon’ was upon us. So of course we cancelled schools (which is an automatic on a Friday) and clogged the grocery stores buying storm groceries! The city had snow removal for a couple of hours in the afternoon, then headed for the barn about 4:15 pm, I assume to get off at 5. That’s great, but half the city is unplowed (the snow also stopped about that time).

If we get any more snow tonight, those streets are going to be impassible for a passenger car, should an emergency happen where they need to go to the hospital or the like. They will be SOL (shit out of luck). Not to mention the rise in vehicle accidents due to uncleared streets. Life and limb, property, associated costs, its not just about being inconvenienced. Funny how in this day and age of computers, crunching the numbers is quite difficult. Its almost like the city governments don’t want you to know how they’re doing. How they compare. Its almost like they don’t want to be held accountable. A Performance Audit. That’s how citizens need to be evaluating city services every 3 – 5 years. How is our money being spent? What’s the ROI? (return on investment)

There’s a few key questions that an intrepid reporter at the Ames Tribune could use to see where Ames stands, and at the same time provide a public service through improved services rendered. How many miles of streets are in Ames? How many city plows does Ames have? How many miles does Ames contract out? How many personnel does Ames have on a shift? What is their yearly snow removal budget? In Des Moines I’ve gotten the impression over the years that they are running their plows close to 24 hours a day. When one shift gets out of the plow, another takes over. Ames plows sit. See how this works? You measure the amount of time, money and resources Ames commits to snow removal and compare that to similar cities. Its not rocket science.

Where are the real life results of Iowa’s open records law? 

I was a professional driver in Ames for 31 years. I have a very keen idea of the cities capabilities or the lack thereof. I got stuck. I hit things. I had close calls for 31 winters. I’ve seen the injuries, the property damage, the lost time, the aggravation of uncleared streets. Those 5 questions in the previous paragraph would answer a lot. You could chart that and compare. You could find out exactly whether I’m full of it or not. You could find out real quick whether Ames taxpayers are being well served or not. You could find out real quick if heads need to roll. In fact I’m not aware of an annual survey the city sends out garnering how the customer rates their services. They should have numbers going back to 1970, they could see the trend lines. Are they going up? Or down? How can you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’re at?

You can tell where the ‘fat’ is in a city budget. One of the most laughable is Parks & Recs. In the winter probably 70% of their responsibility isn’t used. The soccer fields, the softball diamonds, the water park and portions of parks and bike trails. A lot of area. Before the city streets are cleared the parking lots of those unused soccer and softball fields will be cleared. They won’t even be used for another 3 months. But there is so much fat in their budget, such an expenditure of tax dollars, their parking lots will be cleared before the city streets. The City of Ames is fat and needs to go on a diet. I’m tired of paying them to gorge on tax dollars.

1.  How many miles of streets in Ames?
2.  How many plows?
3.  How many operators?
4.  How many contract miles?
5.  What is the plow utilization rate per day?
6.  What is the cost per mile?
7.  What is the time per mile?
8.  What is the contractor rate per mile?
9.  Why isn’t  there an annual city services survey?
10.  Why isn’t there a citizen audit of City services every 3 years?

The baseball diamond at the west end of Brookside Park. No game was scheduled today (or for 3 months), but they had the parking lot cleared before all the streets were. And no, its a single-use facility, so it didn’t need to be cleared for something else.

This is coming down the hill on 6th Street coming towards Brookside Park. This city street wasn’t cleared as well as the parking lots for the softball & soccer fields that won’t be used for 3 months.

This is the parking lot for the athletic fields on E 13th Street. They also are single-use, and also were cleared before all the city streets were, and also won’t be used till spring.