Beautification project for hillside overlooking Black Hawk Bridge access becomes point of contention

by B.J. Tomlinson

Probably every cliché ever written about communication problems applies to the Black Hawk Bridge Beautification Project in Lansing, which has been ongoing now since 2009 and has come to a nearly complete standstill at the present time.
A series of unusual incidents occurred that have contributed to the confusion. The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) thought Visioning Group member Marty Brennan was on the Lansing City Council and was speaking for the Council; a copy of an artist’s drawing was erroneously and mysteriously attached to a copy of a grant application; the Lansing Visioning Group changed its name to the Allamakee County Visioning Group; and the 2010 Allamakee County Community Foundation (ACCF) grant application did not include a Fiscal Sponsorship Form - just to name a few. Not that any of these occurrences were of any major concern, but they did add a certain amount of drama and confusion to an already tangled situation.
Anyone listening to members of the City Council will hear them say that they didn’t know anything about the construction of a boardwalk on the hill facing the foot of the Black Hawk Bridge in Lansing until after construction was started on it last fall. The Allamakee County Visioning Group, on the other hand, insists the Council knew long before that. Tempers have flared, names have been called, accusations made, and now both parties have arrived at a snarling stalemate - nothing is being done on the hill. It’s overgrown again and full of weeds. Many of the volunteers who have been working on the project have quit in disgust. And there’s a boardwalk to nowhere that nobody knows what to do with.
The Allamakee County Visioning Group, which consists of volunteers who are cornerstones of the community: Doug Sharp, Marty Brennan, Caroll Schreiber, Ed Benson, Tom and Verna Fitzpatrick, Arlene Lynes and others, thought the project was moving forward - not particularly smoothly, but progress was being made. They tried to do everything right and thought they had; they received a $10,000 grant from the Allamakee County Community Foundation in 2010, with the City agreeing to serve as the grant's fiscal agent.
The Group met regularly, giving thousands of hours to the project, applied for permits and consulted with various official entities. Several changes had to be made to the original plan to meet DOT, DNR (Department of Natural Resources) and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements.
Marty Brennan said, “When we first applied for the grant, there wasn’t a boardwalk included in the plan we submitted because we didn’t intend to build one. The DOT required a path to be compliant with ADA standards, so we chose what we thought was the best solution - one we could afford.”
Long-time councilman Bill Burke explains the City’s position:
“The first thing I would state is that we’re talking about a lot of volunteers here. Very, very good people; well-meaning people. Friends. This city, as do many others, functions primarily with hundreds of volunteers through dozens of volunteer organizations, and that is the case we have here. So, it’s important that everyone on both sides of this issue understands that there shouldn’t be personal power struggles going on. The facts surrounding this case should determine everything. We have taken an oath as public officials to represent the entire community based on the facts of things. We can’t just be expressing personal opinions.
“Most of us have been in City government quite a while. We sometimes have to make tough decisions in the public interest. In this case, the central factor is that the Visioning Group volunteers strongly requested the City become the fiscal agent for the grant. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gotten the money.
“...After the City accepted fiscal agent responsibility, which turned out to be for more responsibility than what we were originally told, a grant application was written and sent to ACCF for approval. We don’t know who wrote the grant application and we weren’t given a copy of it. What they told us was that they were applying for funds to implement the Visioning project which Iowa State University folks drew up for the City - there were about six or seven separate project boards. We liked the images that were drawn.
“The project that’s currently being debated, called the 'boardwalk project' wasn’t one of the projects drawn by the Iowa State University people. A boardwalk was never discussed. After we saw the boardwalk and were presented with a large bill from the lumber company, we realized the City was in an untenable position and had to pay a large bill after the fact. At that point, we had to put the project on hold because monies were not being spent according to the grant requirements.
“The City government is the only one that’s out on a limb here. The volunteers, if something were to go seriously wrong legally, financially or whatever, are not personally liable for anything; the DOT isn’t liable for anything. But the taxpayers and the City of Lansing are, because we are the ones who have fiscal agent responsibility. Plus, volunteers can walk away at any time - which they seem to have done and which proves my point, but the City can’t.
“After we received a copy of the grant agreement from the County Foundation (ACCF), well into the project, we discovered that to our surprise, the ACCF delegated our City Clerk as the project manager. They don’t use the term project manager, but when you read what the actual responsibilities are, they’ve added tasks to the City Clerk’s job description. Well, our City Clerk is a desk-bound person. She can’t be going out verifying that construction projects are going right, or that materials are being appropriately specked out and ordered. So, this was a surprise to us when we found out the ACCF was delegating that to us. The City didn’t sign the actual application. The only thing the City signed was the resolution (#729) to be fiscal agent. We’ve already been slightly embarrassed by the fact that the City had to approve something like $5,000 for construction which is technically in violation of our fiscal agency responsibilities because it’s an unauthorized use of funds. We had no choice but to pay that bill, because it came in after the materials were purchased and put in place.
“We don’t understand why the Visioning Group doesn’t just spend the grant money on the items they requested in the original grant application, which was clearing the overgrowth, grading the parcel for ease of maintenance, seed the area and plant flowers. The Visioning Group went off on their own and are not in compliance with their own grant.”
The Visioning Group, however, sees it differently. Doug Sharp, a Lansing area resident since 1995, prior Superintendent of the Eastern Allamakee Community School District, and Visioning Group member says:
“I attended all the meetings of the Visioning Group, except when I was out of town. The Council is trying to tell us they didn’t know what was going on and had no idea what the plans were and there wasn’t any communication. I have a hard time with that. Whenever we had a meeting there were minutes, and copies of everything went to Don Peters. In January of 2011 (several months before construction began), Mayor Peters signed a second grant application that specifically listed a walking path, bike rack, benches, garbage receptacles and construction of a gazebo in the program description. And at a meeting in September of 2010 - and Don Peters and Bill Burke were both there - we discussed the artist’s concepts and estimated costs, and it was agreed that the pretty project on the display board was out of the reach for this community. We are baffled and don’t understand why the Mayor and Council are saying they didn’t know anything about our plans. And yes, we are angry that the Council seemingly agreed to sign the new maintenance agreement if the DOT would agree to it - but then they didn’t. We don’t understand why.”
Marty Brennan concurs, adding, “We didn’t do any of the underhanded stuff they accused us of. It seems like they just kept coming up with one issue after another, like $125 extra insurance, maintenance issues, safety issues and liability issues. On February 21, 2012, I told the Council I was working with the DOT on a revision of the agreement it had with the City. We cleared all those hurdles, and the DOT said to have the City resubmit the application or redo the permit. The City said they would sign it if the DOT did. But at the next meeting - and I wasn’t there, I probably should have been - that’s when the Council said they weren’t going to agree to it and refused to sign it.”
Mayor Peters said, “The first thing I knew about the boardwalk was when I was standing on it. I attended the meetings with the DOT. Nothing was said about a boardwalk. I can see where they (the Visioning Group) put in a lot of work...Why didn’t they ask someone before they did it? Why didn’t they go with the original plan?” Peters went on to say that he didn’t know anything about the second grant application until after it had been turned down. He also said that both groups need to get together and finish the original plan.
Bruce Palmborg, President of Lansing Main Street Matters, is not involved with either of the groups but is trying to help sort things out.
“Nobody has any ulterior motives and didn’t do anything wrong on purpose," Palmborg said. "The worst thing about this is that Lansing may have to return grant money that’s already in hand. People talk. Funding organizations will hear about it. They’ll wonder why Lansing turned down grants from Keep Iowa Beautiful and the ACCF - a red flag for them; it may be more difficult for the City to obtain future grants. Another unfortunate thing right now is what do we end up with? We have so few volunteers and we ended up in this big battle and our most active volunteers are angry and disgusted at how they were treated. The Visioning Group thought they had done everything they were supposed to do and that the City was on board, and then, WHAM! They got blindsided.”
Although no one knows what will happen next or the fate of the Black Hawk Bridge Park (the project name for the hillside), all of the parties have agreed to meet again to try to find a solution and move forward. There are still several unanswered questions related to the controversy, such as missing attachments, undated notes, complex forms, unfamiliar processes, language and regulations, etc. But it has been learned that Mayor Peters submitted a letter to the Iowa DOT April 30, explaining that the City of Lansing would like to enter into an agreement with the DOT on the beautification of this parcel “as per the original design”. No response has been received yet, but further updates will be provided as they become available.