The Ames City Council meeting has decided to disregard a request from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration to remove inclusion-themed markings on it's inclusion crosswalk at the intersection of Fifth Street and Douglas Avenue.

“My only question is, do we need to do anything?” said council member Chris Nelson. “Can we just accept the letter and say thank you.”

City Attorney Mark Lambert said that since the request did not ask for a response, written or verbal from the city, council could ignore it.

“As I said in my memo, (FHWA) couldn't explain to me how they had jurisdiction over city streets, they were unaware of any penalties, and said they were still research that,” Lambert said. “Frankly, I think that according to the manual itself, there's a good argument we're not violating the manual, since there's no prohibition on colors.”

The crosswalks were colorfully

The federal agency argued in its letter that the the colored pavement was in non-compliance with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD).

However, during the public forum, resident Bill Diesslin said he felt the federal agency had misinterpreted its own rules and regulations on what constitutes a compliant crosswalk.

“The federal Highway Administration have misinterpreted their own rules, and that the Federal Highway Administration are wrong, just outright wrong,” Diesslin said. “They have a definition of crosswalk, which where I think the (FHWA) is getting bent out of shape … The crosswalk lines are white pavement marking that identify the crosswalks - the rainbow crossing in Ames has white lines demarcating, so it's consistent with federal recommendations.”