The Ames City Council granted Ames Main Street a suspension of the city code to allow alcohol to be served where minors are present for Main Street’s Summertime Series event to be held in Campustown on June 18.

On March 11, the council had approved several other requests from Main Street for the event. The Ames city code makes a distinction between alcohol-licensed premises that function more like a restaurant, with food sales making up the majority of the sales, and premises that function as a bar.

Main Street requested the ability to license the entire event area as the premises for the event and not be required to fence a separate beer garden area. This would allow attendees of all ages to move freely throughout the event area. A similar waiver was granted for 515 Days, which was held downtown in May with no reported issues with the alcohol service at that event.

The council also:

• Approved Downtown Facade Improvement grants totaling $22,014.
• Repealed an ordinance to establish the Ames Resident Police Advisory Committee to be in compliance with state law.
• Amended the city’s fireworks ordinance to be in compliance with state law — fireworks use will be allowed from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. July 3, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on July 4, and to 12:30 p.m. on December 31, subject to a fine of not less than $250. Fireworks may be used only on private property and nowhere else.
• Approved the final plat of the Ansley subdivision, which will contain 15 single family residential lots located on the east side of Cedar Lane and south of Cottonwood Road.
• Approved an Ames Regional Economic Alliance agreement to renew the city’s investment of $175,00 to the Alliance — $115,000 for business recruiting and marketing, and $60,000 for services of the city’s business development coordinator.
• Approved a resolution to have Prairie Rivers of Iowa monitor water quality in the area ($56,740)
• Held a public hearing on annexing 230 acres — the former Borgmeyer farm along George Washington Carver and Hyde Avenues north of Ames — and approved annexing the property to the city.