Wilson Toyota answers the recall An Ames auto dealer has made several hundred repairs, as they repair accelerator pedals recently recalled by Toyota. see AUTOS on PAGE 5
March 2, 2010, Volume 204 >> Number 111 >> 40 cents >> iowastatedaily.com >> An independent newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890
TUESDAY
Women’s Center
CyRide
Intermodal hub receives grant By Allison Suesse Daily Staff Writer
Christine Peterson, senior in child, adult and family services, reads secrets on the Secret Agent board Thursday in the Sloss House. Peterson, an intern at the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center, said they average two to three anonymous secrets every week. Photo: Karuna Ang/Iowa State Daily
Secrets to share Students post stories on Sloss House board By Chelsea Davis Daily Staff Writer Everyone has a secret. The Sloss House is giving students and faculty the chance to share their secrets anonymously on a board they like to call “Secret Agents.” “One afternoon I was having lunch with my daughter and talking about Post Secret,” said Penny Rice, director of Sloss House. “She had a postcard that had been on the Web site on Father’s Day and she told me I should do something like that here.” Rice’s daughter, Liz Mettille, senior in interdisciplinary studies and sociology, reflected on the project’s beginning in fall 2008, and the role she played. “My dad died in Iraq in Feb. 2007. We had a non-traditional relationship and there was a lot left unsaid,” Mettille said. “I sent in that secret, along with several other secrets, because I felt like I was in a very unique situation that others couldn’t relate to. “He passed away when I was almost 21, while others who have lost parents in the war have been very young, so they may
Anonymously share what you won’t tell. Drop ‘em off or mail ‘em: ■■ 205 Sloss House Ames, IA 50011 ■■ isusecretagents@gmail.com not remember their mother or father.” Mettille said there are no words to explain what it’s like to lose a parent, but the act of submitting the secret gave her a chance to “belt it out to the world” and to let others know they weren’t alone. “Anyone you talk to won’t be able to explain it.” So Mettille started Secret Agents, a play on words, she said, since everyone is an agent of secrets and the Women’s Center is often the agent of secrets. “Some make you want to cry; some make you want to laugh your ass off,” Mettille said. “They gave you that feeling that other people know your situation. It helps to know that they stopped for a second during their day to read about my problem.” The concept of “mattering,” connecting and fitting in with others, is a key concept in the project, Rice said. “I was downstairs in a meeting with about 10 people one day. A young man
came in and went directly to the board,” Rice said. “He grabbed a card, wrote his secret and put it up. The card said he had been sexually assaulted. “If I had not seen him walk in and write it, I would have automatically assumed it was a female. What we used to do was to take a piece of yarn and connect the secret to [community resources] surrounding the board.” Each card is a snapshot of the things that are going on in students’ lives. Many describe the loss of a parent — “The last thing I told my dad before he died was that I hated him” — or problems with sex — “I cheated on my boyfriend and now I think I might be pregnant ... with another man’s baby. What have I done?” “There’s this assumption that college is the ‘best time of your life,’” Rice said. “After reading some of these, I hope not.” But, Rice said, some of the secrets surprise her with their empowerment and hope. Secrets such as “I am pretty” and “I want to do little things every day to make this world my paradise” have shown Rice the complexity of students. “This program connects students,” Rice said. “It shares what they can’t talk about with others and peeks into their heads and
see AGENTS on PAGE 3
The proposal for the intermodal transportation hub was a recent recipient of an $8.4 million grant. The proposal was selected from 14,000 applications for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery — or TIGER — Grant. There was a total of $1.5 billion allocated to 51 cities. The proposal for the intermodal transportation hub competed with proposals from large cites and urban areas, said Warren Madden, vice president for business and finance. “For Ames to be competitive demonstrates the quality of the community,” Madden said. Madden was a member of a team with representatives from CyRide, the city of Ames and Iowa State, among others, that collaborated and requested a $39 million grant for the project. The new facility will be developed on Hayward Avenue, where there is an existing parking lot with 250 spaces. Sheri Kyras, CyRide transit director, headed the initiative. Kyras said the project proposal is intended to be a comprehensive facility that would encompass all city of Ames transportation functions. This includes bus bays and waiting areas for systems including the Burlington Trailways, CyRide and Heartland Senior Services and Executive Express. The transportation hub will also include 750 parking spaces, along with retail space envisioned as coffee shops. For bike enthusiasts, the transportation hub will include 60 bike lockers and the construction of a path that would run from State Street through the facility, connect with a path in Campustown — yet to be constructed — and run into campus. The Department of Public Safety will also have headquarters in the facility. CyRide, however, will not move its entire operation to the intermodal transportation hub. Madden said he thought the project proposal stood out be-
cause CyRide is a very active transit system and would benefit from the intermodal transporMadden tation hub. Kyras said the proposal fit in well with the purpose of the TIGER Grant: job creation and livability. Kyras said criteria for the TIGER Grant involved whether a proposal would improve residents’ lives and make transportation in the city easier to access. “This project, with all the elements combined together, does exactly that,” Kyras said. Because the TIGER Grant is made up of federal stimulus funds intended for job creation, Madden said, the project will create construction jobs, but it is too early to determine the exact number. Because the amount requested for the project was not entirely covered by TIGER Grant money, Kyras will need to have a conversation with the Department of Transportation to receive direction that will determine the next step. Currently, CyRide, the university and the city have been discussing ways they could fit the project in the slimmer budget. One option, Kyras noted, would be to scale down the project, but the team has not yet determined how exactly to do so, because Kyras has not spoken to the Department of Transportation. Another option would be to begin construction on a “phase one” of the project with the amount of funds available currently and “compartmentalize” the project. No further decisions have been made. Once the project is finished, the intermodal transportation hub will be one of the elements that could revitalize Campustown. “Any time you can facilitate transportation into a commercial area, that’s going to help bolster the economic vitality,” said Steve Schainker, Ames city manager. “I think it’s a pretty important project.”
Earthquake
UN sends phones to aid Chile By Edith M. Lederer Associated Press Writer UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations is sending 45 satellite phones to Chile for officials coordinating earthquake relief efforts and is prepared to send 30 tons of food and other aid if the government gives the green light, the top U.N. representative for Latin America said Monday. The U.N. is also waiting to hear whether the government wants the world body to launch a financial appeal to help the country recover from the massive quake, as it did after the recent earthquake in Haiti, Alicia Barcena, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, told reporters at U.N. headquarters from her base in the Chilean capital, Santiago. Chile’s government is “well-organized to respond” to the crisis but has appealed to the U.N. and governments in the region and elsewhere for specific emergency needs, including temporary bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones, electric generators, damage assessment teams, water purification systems, field kitchens and dialysis centers, Barcena said. She said the U.N. is sending 25 satellite phones from Geneva and 20 from New York which will arrive in
see CHILE on PAGE 10
By Jessica Opoien Daily Staff Writer
Victoria Hernandez cries outside her parents’ house in Dichato, Chile, on Monday. Hernandez believes her parents are alive though they remain missing. Photo: Natacha Pisarenko/The Associated Press
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An ISU student from Santiago, Chile, thanks Internet communication for the knowledge that her family, still in Chile, is safe after Saturday’s magnitude 8.8 earthquake. Massiel Orellana, graduate student in agronomy, received a phone call from a friend telling her about the disaster. She immediately tried to call her brother, but the phone call could not be placed. Orellana then sent instant messages and e-mails, to which she finally received a response. About 15 minutes passed between the moment Orellana learned of the earthquake and the moment she received an e-mail from her brother — 15
see CONTACT on PAGE 10
About Chile: ■■ ■■
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Chile has a population of 15,116,435. Until the last census, Chile was divided into 13 regions. Saturday’s magnitude 8.8 earthquake mostly affected regions V, VI, VII, and VIII. The population of those regions is 10,371,477 — about 70 percent of Chile’s total population. Concepción (the location of the epicenter) is the second-largest city in Chile.