Underwood, Hamilton
Underwood, Hamilton | |
|---|---|
City and county seat | |
   Clockwise from top: Downtown skyline, Aegis Stadium, Keith County Courthouse | |
 Location within Keith County | |
| Country | Ibica |
| State | Hamilton |
| County | Keith |
| Founded | 1835 |
| Incorporated | 1843 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Council-Manager |
| • Mayor | Zackary Hale (P) |
| • City Manager | Denice Sherman |
| Area | |
| • City and county seat | 431.28 km2 (166.52 sq mi) |
| • Land | 419.55 km2 (161.99 sq mi) |
| • Water | 11.73 km2 (4.53 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 67 m (219 ft) |
| Population (2020) | |
| • City and county seat | 556,003 |
| • Rank | 1st in Hamilton |
| • Urban | 802,818 |
| • Metro | 1,011,011 (18th) |
| Demonym | Underwoodian |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (Western) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+9 (CDT) |
| Area code | 290 |
Underwood is the largest city in the Ibican state of Hamilton and the county seat of Keith County. The Underwood metro area had a population of 1,011,011 in 2020. It is located in north-central Hamilton on the Underwood River.
Underwood began as a center of the logging industry in the 1800's and was incorporated as a city in 1843. It became a hub of manufacturing and the railroads to move these goods south to the rest of the country.
In the 1920s and 1930s, businessmen and aeronautical engineers established aircraft manufacturing companies in Underwood, including leading to the city today becoming a major manucaturing center for Aegis Aerodynamics. The city became an aircraft production hub known as "The Air Capital of the Ibica".
As an industrial hub, Underwood is a regional center of culture, media, and trade. It hosts several universities, large museums, theaters, parks, shopping centers, and entertainment venues.
Government
Underwood has a council–manager form of government. The city council consists of seven members popularly elected every four years with staggered terms in office. For representative purposes, the city is divided into six districts with one council member elected from each. The mayor is the seventh council member, elected at large. The council sets policy for the city, enacts laws and ordinances, levies taxes, approves the city budget, and appoints members to citizen commission and advisory boards. It meets each Tuesday. The city manager is the city's chief executive, responsible for administering city operations and personnel, submitting the annual city budget, advising the city council, preparing the council's agenda, and oversight of non-departmental activities.
The Underwood Police Department, established in 1871, is the city's law enforcement agency. With over 1200 employees, including more than 800 commissioned officers, it is the largest law enforcement agency in Hamilton. The Underwood Fire Department, organized in 1852, operates 22 stations throughout the city. Organized into four battalions, it employs over 400 full-time firefighters.
As the county seat, Underwood is the administrative center of Keith County. The county courthouse is downtown, and most departments of the county government base their operations in the city.
Many departments and agencies of the Federal Government have facilities in Underwood. The Underwood Central Courthouse, also downtown, is main courthouse of the Ibican District Court for the Northern District of Hamilton. The Ibican National Gaurd operates Camp Underwood immediately southeast of the city. The campus of the Dustin Holmes Department of Veterans Affairs Medical and Regional Office Center is in eastern Underwood. Other agencies, including the Ibican Investigations Agency, Food and Drug Administration, and Federal Reserve System among others, have offices around the city.
Underwood almost entirely makes up Hamiltons's 1st Congressional District, represented since 2017 by Progressive Ron Estes.
Education
Primary and secondary education
With over 80,000 students, Underwood Public Schools is the largest school district in Hamilton. It operates more than 130 schools in the city.
There are more than 10 private and parochial schools in Underwood.
Colleges and universities
Infrastructure
Health care
Underwood Physicians Network, part of MedLife Health Systems, operates four general medical and surgical hospitals in northern Hamilton including UPN Underwood Medical Center. The Hamilton State Health Service also operates the Underwood State Hospital.
Transportation
Highway
The average commute time in Underwood was 18.2 minutes from 2013 to 2017. Several federal and state highways pass through the city. Interstate 5, enters the city from the south and terminates in downtown. Hamilton State Highway 201 makes a loop around the city, serving its immediate suburbs as well. Ibican Route 1 and Ibican Route 27 enter the city running concurrently from the south. They meet the terminus of Interstate 5 at an interchange where they split from each other, with 1 heading north to Georgetown and Pherigo and 27 heading east to Georgetown. Ibican Route 301, begins in downtown, and heads west through Republic to the Pherigo border. Hamilton State Highway 16, a north-south route, begins in downtown as well, and heads north to Lake Hamilton National Park.
Bus
Underwood Transit operates 53 buses on 18 fixed bus routes within the city. The organization reports over 2 million trips per year (5,400 trips per day) on its fixed routes. Underwood Transit also operates a demand response paratransit service with 320,800 passenger trips annually.
Air
The Underwood Airport Authority manages the city's two main public airports, Underwood International Airport and Underwood Executive Airport. Located in the western part of the city, the international Airport is the city's primary airport as well as the largest airport in Hamilton. Executive Airport is a general aviation facility on the city's northeast side.
Rail
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Two Class I railroads, Hamilton International Railroad and United Western Railway, operate freight rail lines through Underwood. The city as also served by both Ibican Rail's Hamilton Connection Line, which runs south to Vermont and Cuyoga, as well the Pherigo National Passenger Rail Service's Purple line, which serves the north shore of their state of Cumberland.
Cycling
After numerous citizen surveys showed Underwoodians want better bicycle infrastructure, The Underwood Bicycle Master Plan, a set of guidelines toward the development of a 149-mile Priority Bicycle Network, was endorsed by the Underwood City Council on February 5, 2013, as a guide to future infrastructure planning and development. As a result, Underwood's bikeways covered 115 miles of the city by 2018. One-third of the bikeways were added between 2011, when the plan was still in development, and 2018.
