Old Town Ely Project
Old Town District - Redevelopment Project
April 2024 Update:
The contractor is ready to begin the Phase 1 project. Starting Monday April 15, Traer Street will be closed from State to Main. Both State Street and Main Street will remain open during this phase. Please minimize use of alleyways in this area to allow residents to access their property. This portion of the project is expected to last approximately two months.
March 2024 Update:
After a public hearing on February 5, council approved the Phase 1 of the Old Town District Infrastructure Project to be put out for bid. Received bids were opened at City Hall on February 27. Council reviewed the bids on March 4 and approved the contract to the lowest bidder, Mainline Construction out of Bondurant, Iowa with a bid of $2.7M, which was lower than estimated for the project. It is estimated this project will get started in late April. Announcements on trail and roadway impacts will be made in the coming weeks. The contractors estimate starting the week of April 15.
February 2024 Update:
There is a public hearing on Monday, 2/5, at 7pm on proposed plans and estimate of cost for the proposed Ely Old Town Infrastructure Project (Phase 1)
BID POSTING: CLOSED Ely Downtown Reconstruction - Phase 1
The project will involve the following: replace and abandon existing 4-inch water main with approximately 215 LF of 6-inch and 1,320 LF of 10-inch C900 PVC water main and 158LF of 10-inch ductile iron water main. Project will replace and remove existing sanitary sewer with 508 LF of 8-inch PVC sanitary sewer and construct 200 LF of 4-inch PVC sanitary sewer. The existing disturbed roadway surface will be replaced with approximately 1,255 SY of 8-inch PCC pavement and 5,730 SY of 6-inch HMA pavement along with curb & gutter, sidewalks, and crosswalk pavers. Project will replace and remove the existing storm sewer with approximately 2,483 LF of RCP storm sewer of varying sizes. Sealed proposals will be received at City Hall, located at 1570 Rowley Street, Ely, IA 52227, until 10AM on February 27, 2024. All bids will be publicly opened and read aloud at that time and place.
January 2024 Update:
Phase 1 Infrastructure Project Finance Workshop: Monday, January 29, at 6:00pm, at City Hall council and staff will be reviewing financing options for Phase 1 of the Old Town District Infrastructure Project. Residents are encouraged to attend as council and staff review financing option with Speer Financial.
Monday night a workshop took place as council reviewed recommendations to finance Phase 1 of the Old Town Infrastructure project. Below is a summary from that workshop.
To view the recording of the January 29th Finance Meeting, click here.
What does this project include?
- Replacing all old infrastructure under Main Street (from Dows to Traer) and Traer Street including stormwater, water, and sewer lines
- Widened black topped roads to include parking on both sides of each street with concrete intersections
- Sidewalks on both sides of Main & Traer
- Improvements will accommodate new commercial development downtown
- New public parking lot on Main. (across from the Legion between Dan & Debbies and Krobs)
- Improved bump-outs for traffic calming on Dows at State Street, Walker and Main
- Additional off-street bicycle parking
- Improvements to the trail crossing at Dows
- Dedicated area for Ely All-Veterans Memorial
- Improvements to the trail crossing at Dows
- Improved stormwater management as the Old Town District is susceptible to flash flooding
Estimated cost of the project: $2.9M
- Portion funded by existing revenue sources: $1.0M
- Portion that will need to be funded by a new revenue source: $1.9M
How does it impact you? The city is planning to use a 20-year low interest loan which would be paid back via resident’s water bill. This is currently estimated to be approximately a $15/month increase to the water portion of the city utilities bill. The increase would take place starting July 1st, 2024.
For Example: Currently, the average water portion of the utility bill in Ely is $30.00 per month, the proposed rate changes would increase this to approximately $45.00 per month.
If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to the City Administrator at City Hall or contact an elected official. There will be a public hearing during the Council Meeting on Monday, 2/5, at 7:00pm for residents to comment on the project.
Phase 1 Infrastructure Workshop: A public workshop will be held Monday, January 15, at 6:00pm at City Hall. Tentative plans for Phase 1 of the Old Town District Infrastructure Project will be presented to council and the public. This is the first step in the process for this project which includes improvements to storm-water, sewer, water, roads, parking, and sidewalks on Main Street (from Dows to Traer) and Traer Street (from State to Dows). The goal is to put the project out for bid in February and complete the project later this year. The public is welcome, and encouraged, to attend.
To view the recording of the January 15th Infrastructure Meeting, click here.
Old Town District Phase 1 Final Design
Click here to view a downloadable version of the above image.
February 2023 Update:
MSA presented plans for Phase 1 of the Old Town District project to Council on February 6, 2023. To view the presentation in it's entirety, click here.
To watch the presentation and discussion with Council from the February meeting, click here.
December 2022 Update:
City Council reviewed the Old Town District Master Plan presented by MSA on December 6. Those in attendance, as well as Council, were able to discuss the concepts and give feedback. Council is looking for additional feedback from residents and business owners on this plan. The full presentation is provided below.
Old Town District Master Plan Presentation 
Residents are welcome to give feed back in person at the council meeting on December 20 during the comments from the community portion, by emailing their council member or Mayor, or by emailing the City Administrator.
Council will adopt the plan early in 2022. Engineers are currently working on preliminary engineering and phasing plan. Council will review that in the spring of 2022 and work to begin programming for the first phase of construction in 2023. It is expected that this project will be completed in many phases over 6-10 years. Page 58 has some information related to action plan.
December 2021 Update:
Old Town District Project. Workshops were held this past year gathering input from residents on how to improve the downtown area, or as we like to refer to it, "The Old Town District". Based on the input received MSA created a draft plan that was presented to the public in December. The next step will be for council to adopt the draft plan in early 2022. From there MSA and staff can start applying estimated costs, recommend funding sources and create a final plan for implementation. The goal of this project is to fix long overdue infrastructure issues including roads & sidewalks along with storm water management and other improvements. This project will be ongoing for years to come and we will keep you in the loop as updates are available
July 2021 Update:
Community Visioning Workshop
The City of El
y, staff, representatives and design engineers will be hosting a public input workshop on Tuesday August 10 from 8:30am - 7:30pm in the parking lot of the Ely Fire Station. Residents and visitors are asked to stop by the tent any time within the designated hours so that they can provide input for the Ely 'Old Town District' master plan. This visioning event will help steer the design engineers in their rough draft plan regarding the future of Ely's downtown - their renderings will be fluid throughout the day as more participants provide feedback and insight. This workshop is open to the public, any and all are encouraged to attend and actively participate. To view a downloadable version of the flyer, please click here.
In addition to the public workshop, the City is also requesting feedback in the form of a survey. To participate in the survey, please click here.
Lastly, there is also an interactive map that you may utilize to provide feedback. To participate, please click here.
December 2020 Update:
Capital Improvement Plan. Staff and Council worked together to create a plan for the city to help it achieve long term goals. This is a living, breathing, document that will be reviewed, and adjusted, as time goes on. The first step for many of these projects starts in the planning stage. Council approved to proceed with a Downtown Street Reconstruction Plan. This includes planning and preliminary design services related to the reconstruction of the City’s downtown area (old Ely) to include street, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, water distribution system evaluation and preliminary design. After this plan is accepted by Council the city can start to map out the next steps to bring the plan to fruition.
Documents: