Loading...
HomeMy Public PortalAbout2020.08.28 Special Council Minutes MINUTES McCall City Council Special Meeting McCall Community Center 701 1st Street, McCall, ID AND MS TEAMS Virtual August 28, 2020 Call to Order and Roll Call Work Session Adjournment CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Mayor Giles called the special meeting of the McCall City Council to order at 9:00 a.m. Mayor Giles, Council Member Holmes, Council Member Maciaszek, Council Member Nielsen, and Council Member Sowers all answered roll call. City staff members present were Anette Spickard, City Manager; BessieJo Wagner, City Clerk; Shay Tyler, Deputy Clerk; Nathan Stewart, Public Works Director; Jodi Weaver, Public Works Administrative Assistant; WORK SESSION AB 20-242 Streets Capital Improvement Plan and Maintenance Improvement Plan Presentation City Manager Anette Spickard introduced the Streets Capital Improvement Plan and Maintenance Improvement Plan with a brief overview. Since the City’s Transportation Master Plan (TMP) was adopted in December 2017, the Streets Department has been moving forward with the implementation of the City’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and its Maintenance Improvement Plan (MIP) that are outlined in the TMP. CIP projects are full reconstruction projects that also include “complete streets” infrastructure (i.e. drainage, pathways, sidewalks, streetscape lighting and landscaping, etc). MIP projects focus primarily on prescriptive treatments to maintain roadway asphalt integrity (i.e. overlays, chip seals/microsurfacing, fog seals, etc.) All projects for both CIPs and MIPs are completed by public works licensed contractors. In 2020, Streets staff and Horrocks Engineers completed a pavement assessment of all the paved lane miles owned by the City. That data (describes the condition of the pavement, recommends a prescriptive treatment and calculates and the “remaining service life” of the roadway) is used to prioritize projects that are most economical and feasible to complete. Strong consideration has been given to traffic volumes and roads that have required a high degree of maintenance by the Streets crews over the past three years. MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 1 of 4 August 28, 2020 Special Meeting The 8-year CIP and MIP tables and maps are outlining projects to be completed in specific years. The proposed CIP and MIPs are planning documents and are intended to be dynamic. Specific years of completion or actual cost of implementation may change over time due to many factors including those that make each project cost effective to implement (i.e. favorable bid price, collaboration with development, grants) as well as changes in roadway conditions as roads deteriorate over time. Accordingly, proposed projects for years 1-3 have high confidence for implementation compared to projects scoped for years 4-8. Public Works Director Nathan Stewart presented the Council the CIP Local Option Tax (LOT) ordinance list explaining what has been completed. Next, he explained the CIP 8-year plan going into detail the projects slated for each year. He spoke to the grant funding cycles and how that relates to specific projects such as the Mission Street project in 2026 may be moved up the list depending on the Idaho Department of Transportation (ITD) schedule. He explained the difference between the CIP and maintenance projects. The maintenance projects are simply investment in the roadway but not necessarily the additional costs of pathways, drainage, and utilities. He went through the maintenance project tracking table and explained the budget and income for those projects. He shared if the project is not large enough, it is difficult to get bidders for the job, so staff has begun combining projects to get interest from contractors. He presented the Council the map showing the projects. Council Member Holmes wanted to know why the Davis Ave. and Lick Creek Road project is not further up on the list as there is a lot of traffic on those roads. Public Works Director Stewart explained the CIP does not include Davis Ave., but the MIP has identified some rehabilitation and chip sealing for completion in 2022. However, if the Council desires staff to create pathways, etc., there would need to be formal direction given to staff to include it on the CIP. He has been contemplating looking into federal grants which would pay for access to the State park. He shared the efforts made to redirect foot and bike traffic to McCall Ave. from the Ponderosa Park to downtown has been successful. Council Member Nielsen wanted to know how the State Highway Bypass project has been progressing with ITD. Public Works Director Stewart shared that he spoke recently with Horrocks Engineers regarding the status of the corridor study and plans on presenting to Council before the end of the year. He explained the goal of the study is to determine what it would take to improve those roads and the cost of improvements to the State Highway are significantly more than the costs for Deinhard Lane and Boydstun Street. The question of swapping the road is complex. He is concerned the State may not have the funds to make improvements to the highway and/or decide to pass the funds over to the City and put the responsibility on the City to make those improvements. Also, the City will need to take into consideration of taking on the environmental impact to the lake and liability of owning the highway through the downtown core. He does feel there can be a push to encourage drivers to use the bypass regardless. Council Member Nielsen expressed his desire to see the Bypass and Davis projects be a higher priority on the list. Staff identified some of the challenges with widening Davis are due to limited space, existing property owner landscaping, and the high costs of drainage and undergrounding the utilities. It will take some exploration to determine what can be done. MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 2 of 4 August 28, 2020 Special Meeting Council Member Sowers asked for more elaboration regarding Mission Street repairs. Public Works Director Stewart explained the asphalt is at the end of its life, and there is significant damage happening to the road from the heavy equipment and construction traffic on the road due to projects at the smoke jumpers base, the airport, and in the residential areas of which demands constant repairs. Council Member Sowers asked if a study could be had for that section of road during the downtime when the construction traffic has stopped. Staff shared the design process will begin in about a month and is arranging a meeting with the property owners. The hope is ITD will be able to move their project up so the reconstruction can start sooner. Council Member Nielsen wanted to know when the Street LOT ordinance sunsets. City Clerk BessieJo Wagner explained staff will begin the process the year before but the ordinance sunsets in December 2025. The goal will be to have a new ordinance come before the voters by May 2025. Mayor Giles did not have any questions. He expressed his excitement to hear the LOT projects are on target for completion and feels the process is working great. He thanked the staff for their efforts. Public Works Director Stewart stated his goal as manager of the projects is to present to the community 100% completion of the LOT projects and spoke of how the LOT projects have been a great learning experience. Next, Public Works Director Stewart walked Council through the bypass and State highway intersections. He has been in discussion with Midas Gold and ITD to work together to fix these challenging intersections. Midas Gold has studied the bypass route as well as they want to avoid bringing their equipment through the middle of town. He spoke to the improvements needed for the two intersections, the challenges with the Boydstun and Hwy 55 intersection, and shared that a roundabout is being contemplated. The community has expressed the desire to divert large trucks from driving through the downtown area, so staff is trying to leverage all the investment in the area to possibly accelerate construction projects which are not programed in the CIP. The City and ITD have been in discussion regarding those intersections and one roadblock is winter road maintenance for the City. Some of the discussion has been about possibly swapping winter maintenance with ITD of the two roads as the City fleet does not have the ability to properly address the winter ice on the Deinhard hill. Council Member Holmes is concerned about community pushback if the Boydstun intersection is rd taken care of before the Railroad and 3 Street intersection. Public Works Direct Stewart stated that staff is looking to test delineators next summer on the Railroad intersection. He shared that even though a traffic light is a simple solution, the negative effect will be significant backed up rd traffic down 3 and Lake Streets. This intersection will be part of the corridor study. There was some discussion that the highway diversion may lessen congestion and concerns about the aggression issues at the Railroad intersection. Council Member Holmes would like to see the City do something about the congestion in the interim as that will assist in gaining overall community support. Staff has working on some ideas such as directing traffic with a right turn only and using the delineators. Fixing the asphalt there was the first step in making some changes at the intersection. rd The Council was presented a map of the Deinhard and 3 Street intersection improvements of widening the area to create better traffic flow. It was explained there are many factors to be MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 3 of 4 August 28, 2020 Special Meeting considered in order to make this project happen by 2022. Being able to accomplish this in one year would be fantastic but realistically it will take longer. The City is trying to get ITD to commit some funding to the Deinhard/3rd Street intersection project. Public Works Director Stewart summarized the goals of the department is to touch all parts of the community with a primary focus on high volume roads first while at the same time staying on top of the maintenance of good roads so those do not fall into disrepair; however, he explained all is subject to change once the street study is done. Street and traffic studies are done every three years to identify the changing road conditions and traffic patterns. City Manager Anette Spickard spoke to pavement failures, population fluctuation, and effects of weather. She feels there is much to accomplish including educating and encouraging the public to change routes, investing how to influence google maps in suggested traffic flow, and dealing with boat ramp area challenges. She reiterated the importance of staying open to regroup if an effort does not work. Public Works Director Stewart shared that Ponderosa State Park and the City are going to experiment with new signage to redirect traffic down different roads to get to the park. The goal was to start this last spring but there have been challenges getting the signs due to the pandemic closures so they will be installed this fall. He spoke to the funding and budget restrictions for these projects. The LOT funds are significantly more than what is available in the regular budget and how that affects which projects are completed. Mayor Giles feels staff has done well in management of these projects and would like to see the City do a strong push with communication to the public about what has been accomplished, upcoming projects, and the LOT ordinance. Staff shared the goals and efforts on providing better communication to the public. Council Member Nielsen reiterated the importance of taking the highway traffic out of the downtown and exploring multimodal traffic options. Public Works Director Stewart expressed that the department spends much time thinking about all the needed improvements all over the City and will be presenting more information as the data is assessed. The Council thanked staff and is looking forward to seeing the educational pieces for the community. ADJOURNMENT Without further business, Mayor Giles adjourned the meeting at 10:24 a.m. ,�'04Ni'Cel �„. ' ." V." S 7, ATTEST: is SEAL t y' S Robert S. Giles, Mayor i 41.400e) •:'''' • BessieJo Wa e City Cler, "88.4u1010 MCCALL CITY COUNCIL Page 4 of 4 August 28, 2020 Special Meeting