Reference to Pull Regarding Controlled Demolition 2 Months Before September 11, 2001 WTC

8/14/2019 Reference to Pull Regarding Controlled Demolition 2 Months Before September 11, 2001 WTC

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The Front LineFor and About the City of Des Moines Employees

To provide and maintain essential services that meet the collectivebasic needs of the citizens of Des Moines and to identify and

seize opportunities for a higher quality of life.

Volume 4 No. 7 July 2001 Amelia Hamilton-Morris, Editor

City of Des Moines Mission Statement

THIS ISSUE

PublicLibrary Kicks Off

Campaign

Army PostRoad Project

Fire Fighter

Disaster ExerciseScrub Days

City Hires NewFinance Director

On Sunday, June 10, 2001,the City of Des Moines subcon-tracted the implosion of theYounkers Warehouse Buildingto Controlled Demolition Incor-porated (CDI) from Des Moinesand Metro Wrecking and Exca-

vating, Inc. from Phoenix, Mary-land. CDI drilled over 500 holesin the supporting columns in thebuilding and placed approxi-mately 250 pounds of explo-sives. The explosives were deto-nated with a delay pattern thatstarted in the southeast corner of the building and proceeded to-ward the northwest corner in amatter of seconds. This delaysequence allowed the explosivecharges to detonate fractions of seconds apart; reducing the noiseand vibrations to approximately25 percent of the allowable lev-els before damage would occurto surrounding buildings. Thisdelay allowed CDI to control thedirection that the building would

(Continued on page 2)

Warehouse Building Implosion By: John McKee

Making Room for Progress

Photographs by Carla Brown-Marble

The Front LineFor and About the City of Des Moines Employees


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Civic Meetings

Classic Arts

Business Profiles

C-Span 2

Community News

(Continued from page 1)

fall and resulted in the illusion that the buildingmelted. CDI planned the implosion to pull thebuilding to the southeast and away from the inter-section of SW 9th and Mulberry Streets.

The implosion was very successful as evidencedby the temporary traffic signal on the sidewalk at9th and Mulberry which was approximately fivefeet from the seven story building. This signal

should have been removed by the contractor; how-ever, it was not, and after the building fell it wasstill operational with all six bulbs still working!Streets were quickly cleaned and opened shortly af-ter the implosion. The only damage to surroundingproperty were several cracked windows in Fire Sta-tion number one which is located directly across thestreet.

nance, Human Resources, Risk Management and Information Sys-tems Departments.

Prior to joining the City of Bat-

tle Creek he worked in the ac-counting area for Genesee Countyin Flint, Michigan.

Mr. Stanley holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Ad-ministration, with a minor in Eco-nomics from Olivet Nazarene Col-lege in Kankakee, Illinois.

He and wife, Delores have three

grown children. For more onStanley see the following storieson the web.http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/ n e w s / s t o r i e s / 2 0 0 1 0 7 1 0 / localnews/758978.html

http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/ n e w s / s t o r i e s / 2 0 0 1 0 7 1 0 / localnews/758976.html

http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/ n e w s / s t o r i e s / 2 0 0 1 0 7 1 0 / localnews/758975.html

City Hires NewFinance Director

Merrill R.Stanley has ac-cepted an offer tobecome the Fi-nance Directorfor the City of Des Moines, be-ginning Septem-ber 10, 2001.

Merrill mostrecently served

as the City Manager in Battle

Creek, Michigan. He was ap-pointed to this position in 1998following more than 20 years ex-perience as finance director anddeputy finance director.

Before he was named CityManager in Battle Creek, Stanleywas Director of AdministrativeServices. In that position, he over-saw day-to-day operations for Fi-

Merrill StanleyFinance Director


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The City of Des Moines PublicWorks Department, and DesMoines Asphalt and Paving Com-pany made a collaborative effort on the Army Post Road pavingproject the week of June 4 to 11.A section of Army Post Road,from East 14 th Street to FleurDrive, received reconstruction thatinvolved more manpower andequipment than ever before on alocal paving construction project.

The 48-60 foot wide street wascold milled and overlaid in twosections; the first 4,300 feet (3,100tons) and the second 6,000 feet(4,600 tons) in length. The mill-ing and cleanup, base, and curbrepairs were accomplished the firstfour days of each week, with theactual paving on the fifth day us-ing a unique and innovativemunicipal Hot Mix Asphalt(HMA) pavement.

The City was responsible forbase and curb repairs, intake and

manhole adjustments, millingcleanup, and traffic control. Thecontractor performed cold millingand recovery and placed theHMA.

The project demonstrated sev-eral unique advantages of HMA,including seamless, smooth con-struction at a speed that allowedthe same day opening to trafficand abutting businesses. The mixdesign consisted of 75 percentcrushed Type-4 aggregate and PG64-22 asphalt cement for the mainruns converting to PG 70-22 modi-

fied AC at intersections to mini-mize potential rutting from chan-neled high speed traffic and stop-ping.

The Army Post Road projectwas funded by the Iowa DOT(estimated at $440,000) under anagreement of reconstruction whenthe previously designated state

highway extension was given back to the City.

The contractors equipment in-cluded two 565 Cat milling ma-chines, two 551 Cedar Rapids andone R-230 Road Tec paver, twoDD110 Ingersolls, one DD130Ingersoll, one CB634 Cat rollers,and 20 CH Mack trucks withCB4000 and CB5000 Flow Boystrailers, all fed by two M410 Ce-dar Rapids 400 ton/hr plants withfour 200 ton silos. The aggregatewas furnished by Martin Mariettaand Hallett Materials, the asphaltby Bituminous Material and Sup-ply, and the pre-formed polymerstriping by the Dennis Parking LotMaintenance Company.

The project goal was to utilize astate-of-the-art method of rehabili-tation and reconstruction that waseconomical and low maintenancewhile producing quality pavementin the shortest amount of time pos-sible.

ARMY POST ROAD RESURFACING PROJECT By Pat Kozitza and Bruce Braun

The paving rate in tons per hour was the fastest ever for a

municipal project in Iowa .

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April 3 rd was a typi-cal mid-spring day inCentral Iowa. The daywas overcast, warmand humid. Severe

weather had been fore-cast for much of the Midwest for mid-afternoon. At 4:30 p.m., the NationalSevere Storms Forecast Center in Nor-man, Oklahoma, issued a tornadowatch for much of Central, South Cen-tral and Southwestern Iowa.

Throughout the afternoon and earlyevening hours, the weather continued todeteriorate. At 5:40 p.m., a tornadowarning was issued for Dallas and

Madison counties. The NationalWeather Service reported the storm wasmoving to the northeast at about 40miles-per-hour.

At 6:15 p.m., the weather serviceissued a tornado warning for Polk County based on reports of funnelclouds over the Des Moines Airport. At6:35 p.m., a funnel cloud descendedand touched down in the area of Hub-bell Avenue and Easton Boulevard. Re-ports soon began pouring into emer-gency dispatch of debris in the streets,fallen trees, downed power lines anda structural collapse at a nursing facilityin the immediate area. Callers reportednumerous unknown injuries as a resultof the collapse.

What began as a pleasant day in DesMoines quickly turned into a full-scalemedical emergency for the staff at Val-

ley View Village. Within minutes of the disaster, units from the Des Moinespolice and fire departments respondedto the emergency - one of the largestadvanced level exercises ever con-ducted in the Polk County area.

Valley View Village, a 79-bed nurs-ing facility, was at the heart of the exer-cise designed to demonstrate and evalu-ate facility and community plans andprocedures to be implemented in theevent of a major multi-casualty incidentat a Des Moines-area nursing facility.The exercise provided an excellent op-portunity for facility personnel, com-munity fire and emergency medical ser-

vices, hospitals and emergency volun-teers organizations to participate inmulti-casualty response training. Dur-ing the evening-long exercise, the fol-lowing activities were implemented andtested: Emergency alert notification

procedures Incident command and command

post activities Extrication and search/rescue

operations Casualty triage, stabilization and

staging procedures Transportation/vehicle staging

procedures Patient routing/transport and

tracking to participating hospitals Family assistance center operations Media/public information

proceduresDuring a debriefing held after the

exercise, Des Moines emergency medi-cal service crews indicated they werenot completely prepared for the scene atValley View Village upon their arrival.Forestry and light construction debrishad been scattered around the campusarea and two cars blocked portions of the entrance drive. Inside each vehiclewere mannequin occupants awaiting

extraction and medical services. Thefacility's courtyard was also littered withdozens of victims whose injuriesranged from minor sprains and bruisesto massive, life-threatening wounds."We knew it was a drill," one DesMoines firefighter said during the de-briefing, "but, we just weren't emotion-ally prepared for the scale and realismof the exercise."

By the time the evening was over,emergency response crews from Al-toona, Ankeny, Johnston and Polk City

joined Des Moines firefighters. Thecity's six hospitals also agreed to partici-pate in the exercise and responded

when called to accept simulated victimsfor treatment and hospitalization. TheAmerican Red Cross and SalvationArmy set up emergency canteens, andham radio operators from the Polk County Amateur Radio club helpedmaintain communications.Volunteers Play Tornado Victims

Adding to the realism of the exercisewere the numerous "victims" strategi-cally placed in the "collapsed" dining

room and throughout the courtyard.The volunteers had reported earlier inthe evening for moulage and injury in-structions. Several residents from Val-ley View's independent living units,also participated in the event, offering agreater sense of realism when dealingwith older victims.

The Valley View disaster was thebrainchild of Tony Vignaroli and hissafety committee. During the previousmonths, the Polk County EmergencyManagement Agency and area nursingfacilities had met to address emergencypreparedness, response, recovery andmitigation efforts in the event of a natu-ral disaster. A simulated tornado strik-ing Valley View Village seemed to of-fer the perfect test. "This full-scale exer-cise allowed us to test the plans and

(Continued on page 7 )

Des Moines Nursing Facility Participates in Disaster Exercise

Des Moines firefighters provide medicalservices to several of the victims in atraining exercise.

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Please welcome these new employees to the City of Des Moines.Angela Kennebeck. Police InformationDebbie Musselman Zoo Discovery CenterKathy Cross Blank ZooDoug Nelsen Park & RecreationMia L. Williams Community ServicesEric Skinner Engineering ConstructionJudith Schoeberein Housing ServicesBerlene N. Loudon Park & Recreation

Career Moves

The City of Des Moines Community Development Departmentcontinues it efforts to make Des Moines a clean and beautiful city. Incooperation with neighborhood associations, the city schedulesSCRUB events from April October. These events are for city resi-dents only. Commercial haulers are not allowed to utilize the Satur-day SCRUB program. The neighborhood associations organize, pub-licize, and volunteer at the SCRUB events.

The City pays the cost of 40-yard roll off containers, pays tip-ping fees at the landfill, and provides some security at the SCRUBsite. About 1,010 tons of trash and debris are removed each yearthrough this special effort of neighborhoods and the City.

Because of changes in landfill requirements, washers, dryers,dishwashers, microwaves, stoves, and hot water heaters can no longerbe taken to a SCRUB (neighborhood cleanup) event in the City of DesMoines. An additional reminder that any appliances with freon suchas refrigerators, freezers, dehumidifiers, etc are also not accepted atSCRUB events..

You can call 283-4595, City of Des Moines Public Works De-partment, to schedule these appliances to be picked up at your curb.The City will remove bulk items, but you must call in advance.

Hazardous materials - oil, paints, batteries, pesticides, fertiliz-ers, antifreeze, etc are not permitted at a SCRUB event. Residents candispose of these and other hazardous materials at the Regional Colle c-tion Center, 225 Prairie Drive, Bondurant, Iowa 50035. For informa-tion call 515-967-5512. Summer hours for the Regional CollectionCenter are every Saturday 8 2 p.m. Memorial Day through Labor

Day. The Center is also open weekdays Tuesday Friday 1:00 5:00p.m. If you have any questions about what can be taken, give them acall.

For Scrub Day Schedule Call 283-4180

New Guidelines for SCRUB Days

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Simon EstesAmphitheater

Two new bronze plaqueshave been installed at the Simon

Estes Amphitheater in down-town Des Moines. They are lo-cated on the north and south en-try points. Theses plaques helpidentify this beautiful City facil-ity and the honoree for whom itwas named. It reads as follows:

Simon Estes, an internationally

acclaimed bass-baritone, has

performed at the worlds major

opera houses and before presi-dents and international leaders.

He is an Iowa native who has

provided strong support for this

community and young people

worldwide


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North Side Library Receives Community History AwardNorth Side Library was honored

for its extensive collection of artifactsrelated to the Highland Park areawith the Loren Horton CommunityHistory Award. The announcementwas made during a presentation spon-sored by the State Historical Societyof Iowa and the Iowa Historic Preser-vation Alliance on May 18 in theCowles-Kruidenier Auditorium of theState Historical Building.

The Loren Horton CommunityHistory Award recognizes projectsthat increase awareness and participa-tion in Iowa history on a local level.The awards are given to individuals,organizations, and communities thathave made outstanding contributionsto the study and practice of Iowa his-tory.

The North Side Library projectwas a result of considerable work bystaff members and local volunteers.

(Continued from page 5)

procedures at Valley View," Vignaroli said, "as well as exercisethe integration of on-campus response with the off-campus re-sponding agencies active during a disaster."

Valley View Village administrator Dennis Howe, who ob-

served his staffs' reactions to the simulated disaster, was initiallyconcerned that the exercise might upset some of the nursing fa-cility's residents. To alleviate fears and concerns, two meetingswere held with residents and their families prior to the exercise.

"The two sessions offered exercise planners an opportunity toexplain what will be going on that afternoon and evening as well

as answer any questions the residents had," Howe explained. "This was done to lessen the anxiety that some residents mayexperience given the high level of activity, noise, flashing lights, and moulage simulated victims." The administrator laternoted that several of the residents took up watchful vigils throughout the evening and appeared to enjoy the entire exercise."We even had one 'disaster night' party going on in the Manor," Howe added.

While not active participants in the disaster exercise, representatives from the Iowa Department of Inspections and Ap-peals (DIA) were on-site to observe the facility's performance, as well as evaluate the activation and use of a new healthcare facility mutual aid agreement between long-term care facilities operating in Polk County. In a letter to Howe follow-ing the drill, DIA Director Kevin W. Techau congratulated the facility for staging the highly successful training exercise."DIA representatives who were on-site during the drill have told me that your staff performed in a highly professional man-ner during the exercise, especially your nursing staff, which handled much of the initial triage at the dis-aster site," Techau wrote.

"We are fortunate in Iowa that no nursing facility has been traumatized by a natural disaster, such aswas portrayed at Valley View Village. However, I am confident that should such an event ever occur atyour facility, the staff will rise to the occasion and the health, safety and well being of your residents willbe protected and preserved," the director added.

Volunteers play victims at the Valley View Village emergency exercise held April 3rd in DesMoines. In all, more than 50 individuals were injured when a tornado hit the facility.

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Steve Goers, branch manager at theNorth Side Library, described theproject as a most rewarding ex-perience for the neighborhood andfor the entire staff. It was a thrill tobe recognized by the State Histori-cal Board. He added that the l i-brary continues to receive many do-nations to the collection.

Many of the materials includedin the extensive display were do-nated by Highland Park neighborsand former residents. Objects rangefrom Highland Park milk bottlesand Des Moines University andHighland Park College memorabiliato Riverview Park items, and muchmore. The display is housed in themeeting room and is open to thegeneral public during regular li-brary hours.


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Published Monthly by thePublic Information Office

Editor: Amelia Hamilton-Morris

Copy Editor: Lorna Davros

Layout: Carla Brown-Marble

Staff WritersSusan Low, Legal

Karen Herzberg, City Clerk Jeb E. Brewer, EngineeringJan Kaiser, LibraryJerry Grabau, Information Tech.Deb Atkins, Community Dev.

Linda Frangenberg, Fire Dept.Michael Audino, AviationPat Kozitza, Public WorksLt. Kelly Willis, Police Dept.Marcy Cable, Housing ServicesMichele Bischof, HRAmy McClintock, Parks & Rec.Linda Rule, Wellness Committee

May 15, 2001Congratulations!The Des Moines Fire Depart-

ment was selected by theICHIEFS Professionals Develop-ment Committee to receive a freesatellite dish and a one year sub-scription to the Fire & EmergencyTelevision Networks (FETN) ac-credited training program.

Over 125 applications were re-ceived and Fire Station #1 wasone of 16 selected based on needand area potential for impact.FETNs satellite programming al-lows firefighters to observe andgain survival skills, and learn life-saving lessons from viewingevents. FETN is continually up-grading its curriculum to includeeverything from the drama of swift water rescues and aerial op-erations to teaching professionalsthe very basics of fire suppression.Its satellite and tape programs en-courage professional development

through delivery of continuingeducation programs. Congratulations!

Chief Ronny J. Coleman President

Fire and Emergency Television Network

Second Annual Pelican FestivalSunday, September 16

Join us on Sunday, September 16, tocelebrate the second annual Pelican Festi-val by observing the incredible gatheringof the American white pelicans at JesterPark. View the pelicans through high-powered spotting scopes and listen to avariety of educational programs through-out the day. Bring your younger familymembers to the "kids" tent for games and

other fun projects. Numerous free opportunities will await people of all ages. Refreshments will be available for purchase. The event willtake place from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. at Camp Area #4 in Jester Park.

Saylorville Lake has become the site of a natural wonder rarelyseen anywhere else. It is the amazing gathering of American whitepelicans en route to their southern wintering grounds. Thats right,

pelicans in Iowa! As many as 10,000 pelicans can be found on thelake from mid-August through September. Jester Parks Camp Area#4 is one of the best viewing areas to see these magnificent birds.

Begin making plans now for a trip to northwest Polk County onSunday, September 16. Jester Park in Granger, IA, can be easily ac-cessed from HWY 141, approximately six miles north of Grimes.Turn north off HWY 141 onto NW 121 St. until you reach the T-intersection. Turn east at the T-intersection and keep left until you ar-rive at the park entrance. Park maps and more information can be re-quested by calling (515) 323-5363 or by visiting the Polk CountyConservation Board website at www.conservationboard.org .

The festival is being sponsored by Polk County ConservationBoard, Iowa Audubon, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Say-lorville Lake. Fall is an exciting time on the lake. Be part of the ex-citement and bring your binoculars!

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Documents

Reference to Pull Regarding Controlled Demolition 2 Months Before September 11, 2001 WTC