NEIGHBOR NEWS neighbors spark MORE upgrades AT Park By Nichole Aksamit Purcell and Jay Kozel About this time last year, neighbors at the Drake Neighborhood Association’s spring meeting told city and county officials they’d love to add restrooms and new playground equipment when the fishing pond, trail, and woodlands at Witmer Park are renovated this year. That followed the city’s announcement are now tentatively scheduled for 2020. TO LEARN MORE of $520,000 in upgrades at the park, The Witmer Park Project committee thanks in large part to a $252,000 Iowa Come to the Witmer Park Project will host a public input meeting at the at the DNA Department of Natural Resources Public Input Meeting DNA’s March 13 meeting to update Spring Quarter Meeting, 7 p.m. grant. The city/DNR project, to begin neighbors on the plans, get input on Wednesday, March 13, at the this spring, will focus on ecological three playground options, and kick Polk County Central Senior Center, improvements, a new walking path, and off efforts to fund the restroom and 2008 Forest Ave., or contact a fishing pier and other upgrades for playground phase of the project. The Jennifer Sayers at 515-681-2443 or Witmer’s signature pond. committee has applied for grants and [email protected]. is now accepting donations. Park neighbors and members of the TO DONATE Make checks payable to Friends of Drake and Beaverdale neighborhood Fun fact: With some grant support, associations have since organized a Des Moines Parks (write “Witmer if every person who lives in both in the memo line) and bring to committee to raise money for amenities Park” neighborhoods donates $5 to $10, we the meeting or mail to Back Country, not included in the city’s initial will have it covered. Entire generations c/o Jay Kozel, 2702 Beaver Ave., plan, including restrooms and new of kids who won’t have to “just hold it” Des Moines, IA, 50310. playground equipment. Those features ’til they get home will thank you! DRAKE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER | FIRST QUARTER 2019 1 DEVELOPMENTS uses, such as investments in infrastructure (such as street repairs and sewer repairs that minimize Penny tax back flooding) and public safety to improve neighborhoods. The spending will be reviewed annually and is subject to audit. on Ballot March 5 At the February Drake Neighborhood Association By Nichole Aksamit Purcell board meeting, Councilmen Josh Mandelbaum and Bill Grey described the tax as critical to quality of life and Des Moines voters progress in Des Moines. A majority of communities will decide on March 5 in Iowa already have the tax. Without it, they said, whether to approve a the ability to address blighted properties and improve 1% local option sales parks will be curtailed in Des Moines, and a mix and service tax that city of property tax hikes and service cuts likely will be leaders estimate will needed to keep the city’s budget in balance. generate $37 million annually to minimize “Please, please, please get out and vote,” Gray said. property taxes and improve neighborhoods The city estimates that more than a third of the money for years to come. generated by the tax would come from visitors to Des Moines who use the city’s roads and services but do The measure won a 54% majority of Des Moines not currently help pay for them. For many, the penny voters last year but narrowly failed among the tax may be unnoticeable. For example, visitors to contiguous cities which were jointly considering the Jordan Creek Town Center in nearby Dallas County tax. This year the Des Moines tax measure, on the may not know they've already been paying it since July. ballot as Public Measure A, will be determined solely by Des Moines voters. TO LEARN MORE If approved, a one-cent-per-dollar tax would be Visit LocalOption.dmgov.org. added to most retail sales in Des Moines on July 1. TO CAST YOUR BALLOT Groceries, gasoline, utilities, and prescription drugs Vote at the Polk County Election Office, would be exempt.The ballot specifies that half of 102 2nd Ave., now through March 4 or at money generated by the tax will be used for property your polling place on March 5. tax relief, and the other half will go toward other lawful The plans also re-route the north end HOTEL WORK TO of the alley (which currently bisects the property), turning it into a T that START IN MARCH sends traffic east and west through the new hotel’s parking lot. Drake University is vacating the parking lot southwest of University The project also will include a Avenue and 26th Street on March large as-yet-unnamed restaurant 11 to make way for construction on managed by Des Moines’ Orchestrate the 5-story, 124-room Hilton Home2 Hospitality Group, plus patios, and Suites extended-stay hotel. retail tenants on the ground floor. and 27th Streets, with parking to the The developer, Nelson Construction, south.The city council approved site It’s not clear when the second expects work on the $28 million plans and a tax-increment finance phase of the development, involving project to begin in March, weather agreement for the hotel in January. apartments on the vacated green permitting, and conclude in 2020. Those plans call for a landscaped, space between First Christian Church The building, designed by BNIM, will treed buffer zone between the and 26th, will begin. Nelson hasn't hug University Avenue between 26th property and homes to its south. shared detailed plans for it just yet. DRAKE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER | FIRST QUARTER 2019 2 harkin institute plans unveiled By Nichole Aksamit Purcell The Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement at Drake University has outgrown its space at 25th Street and University Avenue and is planning an $8 million, 17,000-square-foot permanent home a few blocks west at 28th and University. Drake University's Ryan Arnold said the project Ryan Arnold, neighborhood and community engagement manager at Drake University, shares an architect’s rendering of the new Harkin will begin late this spring or early this summer on Institute during the February DNA board meeting. what is currently the parking lot of St. Catherine of PHOTO BY NICHOLE AKSAMIT PURCELL Siena Catholic Church and Student Center. Three homes southwest of St. Catherine’s may be moved Fittingly, Arnold said, the two-story structure will or demolished to provide replacement parking for have an innovative design that will set “the gold the church. standard for handicap accessibility.” A ground floor ramp will wind from street level up and through its Drake has been home to the institute since two-story open-air gallery. 2013 and has housed the papers of former Sen. Tom Harkin at its Cowles Library since 2015. The The ramp will allow people of all mobility types institute focuses on four pillars of his advocacy: access to all parts of the building and provide a labor and employment, wellness and nutrition, unique way to view archival material, not just from retirement security, and disability. Harkin was Harkin, but possibly papers from the late Gov. the principal author of the Americans with Robert Ray and Rep. Neal Smith, who also have Disability Act. their papers housed at Drake. CONSTRUCTION UPDATE torn up for sewer separation and put RESTAURANT NEWS back together in a different way with QUITE A YEAR FOR a streetscape project stretching from CRAB RANGOON UNIVERSITY AVE. 25th and 31st Streets. PIZZA IS COMING! Plans involve changing University’s Drake neighbors may need an extra current setup (a five-lane with a Full Court Press is bringing a food- helping of patience when construction center turn lane and off-peak parking only outpost of its popular downtown season begins this spring: 2019 in the outermost two lanes) to a tiki bar-cum-pizzeria Fong’s Pizza to is shaping up to be the year that three-lane with a center turn lane, 3018 Forest Ave., the former home of everything is getting redone along six protected parking on the south side, Bordy’s Pizza. blocks of University Avenue. bike lanes on both sides, a new bus shelter, buried utility lines, and Owner/partner Jeff Bruning said that In addition to the construction of improved crosswalks. after some sprucing up, the spot will a new five-story hotel and a new reopen as a takeout eatery with a tiny two-story institute between 26th and Watch for construction updates and dine-in area and no bar, hopefully 29th Streets, University itself will be expect some detours and delays. ahead of the Drake Relays in April. DRAKE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER | FIRST QUARTER 2019 3 MEMBER NEWS NEIGHBORLY ̒ LIBRARY̓ IS NEW DNA PARTNER By Jennifer Sayers University Library Cafe, long a favorite gathering spot for neighbors and known simply as "the library," is the Drake Neighborhood Association’s newest business partner. A bar since 1991, the property at 35th Street and University Avenue was owned by the same family for many years. The pharmacy that used to be west of it was owned by a family who resided in the house next door. The city never allowed the two buildings to be connected, and the pharmacy, most recently a bookstore, was Though the cafe is still known for its signature nachos eventually torn down. and wide beer selection, its burgers and breakfasts draw diners well beyond happy hour. “Our weekend brunches University Library Cafe partner/owner Jeff Bruning (right) are extremely popular,” Bruning said. has lived around the corner from the business since 2008.