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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20071025CCMinutesPage 1 of 11 20071025 City Council Minutes Mayor Buelterman called the Consent Agenda Meeting to order at 6:30p.m. Present in addition to the Mayor were council members, Sessions, Crone, Pearce, Williams, Doyle and Wolff. Also attending were City Attorney Hughes and City Manager Schleicher. *** Mayor Buelterman listed the Consent Agenda items as: Out of State Travel for Diane Schleicher to attend Beach Preservation Conference in Sarasota, Florida on January 30, 2008. *** Mr. Wolff moved to go into Executive Session to discuss Potential, Pending and Threatening Litigation and Real Estate Acquisition, Mr. Pearce seconded and the vote was unanimous. Ms. Williams moved to end Executive Session and return to the Consent Agenda, Mr. Crone seconded and the vote was unanimous. *** Mayor Buelterman ended the Consent Agenda and called for a break. Mayor Buelterman called the Regular Meeting of the City Council to order at 7:00p.m. City Officials present at the Consent Agenda were still in attendance. Reverend Fretwell Crider gave the Invocation and everyone recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Mayor Buelterman said the 120th Birthday Celebration for Tybee was a success and thanked Patricia Miller and Denise Vernon for their hard work putting it together. Mayor Buelterman recognized incumbents Paul Wolff, Wanda Doyle, Kathryn Williams, Eddie Crone and Mallory Pearce along with candidates Lawanna Tsoulos, Rachel Perkins, Bill Garbett and Barry Brown. He requested everyone go out and vote. Mayor Buelterman explained the referendum that will be on the ballot saying it will determine if council serves 4 year terms starting in 2009. Mayor Buelterman presented Mr. Larry Meyers with a Proclamation proclaiming October 25, 2007 as Larry Meyers Day on Tybee Island. He said Mr. Meyers was selected as the Veteran of the Year in Chatham County and since he is from Tybee we wanted to honor him as one of our own. Mr. Meyers said Tybee is a very special place and he thinks what makes it special is the people. Page 2 of 11 Mayor Pro Tem Sessions said we lost Chicago Bob this week; he was one of our beloved Tybee characters and please keep his family and friends in your prayers. Mr. John Redmond gave a financial report to council including a power point presentation on the financial condition of the city. He said our financial condition remains strong with approximately $3 million in undesignated funds over $2.6 million of which is in cash and equivalents. He said the City’s SPLOST fund currently has over $3.4 million in restricted funds for SPLOST approved capital projects. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions asked if Mr. Redmond felt the City’s financial condition was sound. Mr. Redmond said the City’s condition is very sound with six months of governmental funds in reserve. Ms. Williams asked for the anticipated profit at the campground. Mr. Redmond said the anticipated profit at the campground at the end of the year is a little over $22,000 for 2007. Ms. Elizabeth Cheney from the Department of Natural Resources discussed beach water quality. She introduced Ginger Heidel the Public Information Officer from the Coastal Health District. She said the goal of the program is to protect swimmer health by testing the water for potentially harmful bacteria. She said the Beach Act of 2000 requires this testing be conducted and public notification of bacterial risks. She gave a power point presentation on water borne diseases. She said they test five locations listed as; Tybee South, Tybee Strand, Tybee Middle, Tybee North and Tybee Polk Street. She said they test these locations once a week. She said Tybee has the fewest advisories of the Tier I Islands being St. Simons, Jekyll and Tybee. Ms. Heidel said she would be glad to help with press releases and public notifications regarding the good condition of Tybee’s Beach because we feel Tybee is doing a good job of keeping the water clean and we want to get that message out. Ms. Marianne Bramble of 215 Lovell Avenue spoke to council about drainage issues. She said somewhere in the last ten years Tybee put in $450,000 worth of drainage piping that ran east down Third street and west down Lovell. She said that solution is not working. She said she talked with Joe Wilson the DPW Director and was very impressed because he saw the problems and he told her they don’t have a clear map of the drainage system and that’s the problem. She requested a moratorium on Building permits until she receives a clear drainage map and a solution to her drainage problems. She requested a timeline for the solution in writing. Ms. Schleicher said we have a Corps of Engineers grant and we are doing the GIS mapping system. She said we are still reviewing to make sure our as builts are accurate. She said a lot of projects were done without knowing what was down the line. She said public works would put in drainage years ago and not look at what was down the line as far as sizing. She said there were some instances of large pipes going into small pipes. Page 3 of 11 She said we are correcting that by starting with the outlets and working our way back to make sure we have the correct size to make sure it flows correctly. Ms. Williams asked Ms. Schleicher to do some research to find when the property directly across the street from Ms. Bramble was allowed to bring in dirt and raise their elevation so that it drains on everyone else’s property. Mr. Lovett said someone from the city will have to go out with the Corps of Engineer’s map that they are creating at this time and verify the information. He said we are at the starting point. Ms. Doyle requested regular reports from staff on the status of ongoing projects. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions requested scheduling the reports or updates for the second council meetings to let the public know what we are doing. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions recommended having a drainage Committee start examining drainage and making recommendations about cleaning out the storm drains and look at other avenues of education. Ms. Schleicher suggested having the Water Sewer Committee renamed the Infrastructure Committee and have them look at drainage as well as Water Sewer issues. She said that committee has been good for making sure we stay on task with our water and sewer projects. Ms. Beth Hodges of the Tybee Neighbors congratulated the City and Fine Arts Commission on the success of the 120th Tybee Celebration. She announced the meet the candidates’ town hall meeting on October 29th from 7:00 until 9:00 at City Hall. Ms. Denise Vernon announced the grand finale of the Tybee Turtle Tour on November 4th at 4:00p.m. at the Gym. Ms. Vicki Worden and Mackenzie O’Hare requested a speed bump on the 1100 block of 2nd Avenue. She presented a petition to council with neighborhood signatures. Mr. Paul Devivo thanked the City Manager for holding a meeting of the non profit groups to get their feed back on facility rentals before bringing it to council. He said many cities have cultural development departments that cost a lot of money but at Tybee we don’t have to have them because we have our non profit organizations that have taken on that role and have done it very well. He said he doesn’t know how the city can consider charging these groups to rent the facilities considering the business they bring to Tybee and the amount of time they donate. He thanked everyone for their help in making the Tybee Fest Pirates Festival event successful. Mr. Ed Tomasso of Integrated Science and Engineering gave a short presentation to council about the Master Plan and said the 2nd Phase has been completed. He said the Resolution is on the agenda tonight to transmit the community agenda portion of the 24 Page 4 of 11 year master plan update to the DCA. He said they plan to present the master plan for council approval on December 13, 2007. Ms. Schleicher announced the YMCA Haunted House at the old school on October 26th from 5-10p.m. Ms. Schleicher announced the 2nd Campground Celebration on November 2nd at 6:00p.m. Ms. Williams asked if a short term rental meeting had been scheduled. Ms. Schleicher said they decided to postpone the meeting until the Planning Commission reconvenes and are planning to schedule it for the 1st of next year. Ms. Williams asked that the people that attended the first workshop be notified of the new date. She suggested putting a note on the water bill. Ms. Williams asked what progress was being made on quarterly report cards. Ms Schleicher said the only report card they have started on was a meeting with Bill Lovett of Hussey, Gay, Bell & DeYoung about his firm’s performance. She said she is in the process of preparing a written report for Mr. Lovett that will be completed after this current project. She said HGB&D are one of our largest vendors and she needs a threshold of dollar value to determine what council wants as far as quarterly reports. Ms. Williams said other vendors that come to mind are Georgia Power and their response time and Waste Management. She said she would be willing to listen to a suggested threshold from staff. She said $40,000 is listed on the action items list so that must have been the figured determined by staff. Ms. Schleicher said it was. She said her question is would that amount be for a one time contract or an aggregate amount. Ms. Williams said they could discuss that at the budget workshop. Ms. Williams asked for a progress report on Department Heads following up on contracts. Ms. Schleicher said contracts are in the hands of the CFO and department heads have not been administering contracts. Mr. Crone said there are a lot of items on the Action Item list that can be taken off. Mayor Buelterman said Ms. Schleicher can decide what to take off. Ms. Williams requested the completed items be rotated to the bottom of the list. Mayor Buelterman requested hosting a reception for legislators on the bottom floor of the capital. He asked Ms, Woods to help him arrange it during the Mayor’s Day Conference in January. Mr. Crone said to make sure and put it in the budget. Ms. Doyle requested acquiring the pier from Chatham County be put on the Action Items List. Mayor Buelterman said they have approached the county lightly through an e-mail about that issue and they are waiting for a response. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions asked that the city keep in mind the maintenance cost of running the pier while discussing taking ownership. Page 5 of 11 Ms. Schleicher requested the Fees for Non profits be tabled until the budget workshop because those fees are budget driven. *** Mr. Lovett said they opened bids this morning for the Tybrisa Strand Streetscape Improvements including the parking lot on the strand. He said the lowest bid was from Coastal Grading and Rental for $1,341,665.50 and they are an excellent contractor that they have worked with many times before. He said HGB&D recommends the city accept that bid. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions asked if the liability and background checks were a part of the process. Mr. Lovett said this is the only project he has ever done in which they received bids and made a recommendation to council on the same day. He said they set up a mandatory pre bid conference and only those contractors attending that conference were eligible to bid. He said there were only two contractors that they weren’t familiar with and during the two weeks until the bid opening they investigated those contractors and found that they could recommend an award to those contractors as well as everyone that submitted a bid today. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions asked if this is approved tonight who would be the city’s project coordinator and who would be involved so we would have a clean clear process like the project on Butler. Mr. Lovett said they are hoping to get approval so they can have the contractor take the contract and put his performance bond with it and get the contract executed. He said they should be able to issue a notice to proceed by the 1st week in November. He said he has six months to do the job and that would be up the 1st of May. He said they have a penalty clause that will cost them $500 a day for every day they go over. He said they have made the contractor aware of the Irish Festival in March and the need to have the parking lot available for it. Mayor Buelterman asked if this contractor was putting in the infrastructure needed for the new restroom. Mr. Lovett said yes. Mr. Wolff asked if the contractor was aware that he has to keep access open for the businesses. Mr. Lovett said the contractor is aware he has to keep access open to all businesses at all times. He said the contract says that the contractor cannot work on Sunday’s and Holiday’s but the contractor can come to council and request to work those days if he needs to. Ms. Doyle said the May 1st deadline does not include the sidewalks on Tybrisa or the Lifeguard stand and restroom. Ms. Schleicher said that’s right because the sidewalk project is tied up with the grant. Mr. Lovett said the sidewalk is a minor $75,000 to $100,000 project. He said he would be surprised if this contractor didn’t get that work too. He said they would like to give him that contract by change order but because it’s a TEA Grant they probably can’t but they are going to ask the DOT. Mr. Lovett said we are working as if we are going to have that Lifeguard Station in service on May 1st. He said we have a meeting scheduled next Wednesday at 10:00 and Page 6 of 11 we will have floor plans, elevations and ideas about how we can move forward with selecting a contractor based on qualifications; as well as a guaranteed maximum price based on 60% designed plans so we can get a contractor over there working before we have the plans finalized. He said that is the only way they can see Tybee getting this job done in this time frame. Ms. Doyle asked if Mr. Lovett had any idea of the dollar amount of this project. Mr. Lovett said no but they have a back of the envelope estimate of $500,000. Ms. Doyle asked if staff had reservations about starting with Tybrisa/Strand and finishing the sidewalks later and making sure we complete this project. Mayor Buelterman asked if they were sure they would have the Tybrisa, Strand project with the sidewalks and lifeguard facility with restrooms completed by May 1st. Ms. Schleicher said she would have liked to have started this project a month ago. She said if council wants them to get it done they will work their hardest to get it done. She said if council wants to wait until next year that’s fine but she thinks the bid is a good price. She said there are unknowns and she can’t say it won’t rain for a solid month in the middle of winter. She said they will meet constantly and try to head things off at the pass. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions asked Mr. Lovett in his experience what is more effective, a penalty fee or an incentive. Mr. Lovett said a penalty fee is more effective. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions asked Mr. Lovett to address Change Orders. Mr. Lovett said Change Orders are not a part of the contract until they are approved by the city. Sessions said there needs to be one person that change orders are submitted to. Mr. Lovett said there will be things that come up on site that need immediate attention and council will have to trust his or Ms. Schleicher’s judgment. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions asked how much of the contract was for infrastructure. Mr. Lovett said they are replacing existing old lead joint six inch water line that goes down Tybrisa from Butler to the alley by the Ice Cream stand. He said there is new line from there on. He said they are increasing the size of a storm drain line that goes down the strand from 18 to 24 inches. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions said she hopes staff and some of the businesses can come up with some sort of idea to attract people to shop on Tybrisa. Mr. Wolff said this whole plan is based on the HDR plan that the city had done almost three years ago in which they had almost 100% buy in from the businesses on Tybrisa. He said if we are ever going to get this done we need to move forward and the bid is excellent. Mayor Buelterman said he is concerned with having all of this new stuff down there and having port o lets because the restroom isn’t done as well as the lifeguard stand even though they have operated out of the mobile unit for a long time. He said his concern is that part of it is an unknown and if it can be done within that time frame. Mr. Lovett said it’s a separate project and you have to do that project before you can do this project. He said we are creating the spot in the parking lot for the lifeguard headquarters. He said he met with his staff and they will meet with Ms. Schleicher next week and they are all Page 7 of 11 planning and saying this is what we have to have done by May 1st but the landscaping and painting may not be done but you will be in that building and working and using it May 1st and that’s our goal. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions said this is going to be one of those issues that will not be popular with some people. She said if we are going to do it then let’s do it. She said it’s not going to be a popular decision either way. Ms. Schleicher said not only is this an upgrade to the infrastructure but they are installing a state of the art catch basin. Mr. Lovett said a normal catch basin is a concrete tube. He said these catch basins have inserts that catch the dirt and grease and pollutants and you go in every three to six months and remove that and put a new one in. He said that way the pollutants go to the landfill instead of to the Marsh or the Ocean. Ms. Doyle said since the St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be affected by this she would like staff to meet with that committee next month to keep them informed about the parade route and where it will have to be. Mr. Lovett said they will ask the contractor for a schedule and they will ask for the schedule to be updated as often as council would like even at every council meeting. Ms. Doyle said it will affect the Christmas Parade as well so when the Economic Development Committee meets in November this needs to be discussed with them also. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions told Mr. Lovett that she would like the same constant information updates that were given during the Butler Ave. project. Mr. Lovett said they would do a little tighter project reporting because this will be concise and confined and they would need to interact a lot more with the business owners. Mayor Pro Tem Sessions asked Ms. Schleicher if she was comfortable with being the project manager. Ms. Schleicher said yes. *** Ms. Schleicher said she asked Georgia Power for a proposal for replacing the spaghetti wiring on Tybrisa and installing underground services in some areas. She said in doing Tybrisa we were moving their light poles up into the brick pavers and they were going to charge us anyway so we just asked them for the price difference to make the upgrades. She said basically they would be removing the overhead wires as well as cleaning up some of the overhead wires and switch the wooden light poles to concrete when they are moved for a total of $62,470. She said the second proposal was for the attractive street lights that are 15 foot ornamental lights that are turtle friendly. She said they will alternate going down Tybrisa as well as the Strand and Beachside. Mr. Wolff said he did some quick math and the 1st option shows $170,600 up front with a monthly lease of $370 which comes to a total of $192,800. He said by leasing them at Page 8 of 11 $2969.25 a month for 60 months instead the total comes to $178,200 which is $14,000 less to lease them then to buy them and at that point we own them and all we pay is the utility bill Ms. Williams asked if there was any way to provide for future underground services in case at a future time we could go to completely underground services. Ms. Schleicher said they are putting in quite a bit of conduit. She said one of the biggest problems with getting the utilities underground on the Southside is the easements. She said when she asked them about finding the conduit at a future date they said the chances would be slim to none. She said they didn’t recommend the extra conduit for the future. *** Mr. Joe Wilson said he wanted to buy a new sweeper. He said the one they have is a mechanical sweeper in that it picks up floatables. He said in order to be compliant with the EPA and with MPC regulations you have to be able to pick up the fines called the MP10’s. He said these are the ones all of the heavy metals adhere too. He said he is recommending we get a vacuum or regenerative air sweeper. He said it does a lot better job picking up all the fines as well as having a catch basin cleaner on the back so he can start a catch basin cleaner program which will also make them MPC compliant because it is required once a year. He said he would like to be pro active and clean the catch basins two or three times a year. He said it meets the EPA requirements of Southern California which are very stringent. He said it has a high pressure wand and a dust suppression system on it. He said he spent $35,000 on the machine they have in trying to keep it running and it’s only running with one broom which would cost another $4500 to fix the other side. He said he doesn’t see that as cost effective. He said they can use some SPLOST money to purchase this sweeper because it is for drainage and it does keep the catch basins clean. He said they have $52,000 in the budget and they can take $25,000 from SPLOST money and the balance can be put on a lease purchase. He said these machines on a normal cycle last 9 or 10 years. He said at a cost of $133,000 you’re looking at an annual cost of $13,000 prorated over a 10 year period. Mr. Wolff said this is going to have a major impact on improving water quality because it is getting out the hydrocarbons and heavy metals and that is something we need to be addressing every chance we get. *** Mayor Buelterman opened the meeting for business legally presented and called for a motion on the Consent Agenda. Mr. Wolff moved to approve the one item as listed earlier on the Consent Agenda, Ms. Williams seconded and the vote was unanimous. *** Page 9 of 11 Ms. Schleicher said she feels they need to do a speed bump analysis because otherwise they will have speed bumps all over the place. She said speed is perception. She said there are stop signs at almost every intersection on 2nd and it’s fairly narrow but there are definitely stop signs at the 1100 block. Mr. Wolff asked that we check to make sure there are stop signs at every intersection and that should slow traffic down but if it didn’t work they could revisit the speed bump idea. Mr. Pearce moved to approve installing a speed bump on the 1100 block of 2nd Avenue, Sessions seconded. Ms. Doyle asked if we have speed bumps laying over at DPW to install or where does the money come from to purchase them. Ms. Schleicher said they would have to budget for three speed bumps because they already have a pending speed bump to be installed on Cedarwood and one for North Campbell. Mayor Buelterman asked how much each speed bump cost. Mr. Redmond said anywhere from $700 to $2500 depending on the width of the road. Ms. Schleicher said you have the signage also. Mr. Wolff said the speed bumps he recommended to Ms. Schleicher were $300 a piece. Ms. Williams said this is the last speed bump council could pass before a plan is developed by staff. She said the people on North Campbell were hoping the city could divert some of the traffic headed to the North Beach by way of some of the other roads that go that way. And the vote was unanimous. *** Mr. Wolff moved to approve the contract for Coastal Grading and Rental for Tybrisa and the Strand as recommended for $1,341,655.50. Ms. Doyle seconded, and the vote was unanimous. *** Mr. Wolff moved to approve the lighting contract for lease purchase with Georgia Power as recommended for $2,969.25 for 60 months, Ms. Sessions seconded, and the vote was unanimous. *** Mr. Wolff moved to approve the contract with Georgia Power as recommended for the Utility work for $62,470, Ms. Sessions seconded and the vote was unanimous. *** Page 10 of 11 Ms. Williams moved to approve the Resolution to transmit the Community Agenda portion of the Master Plan to the DCA, Ms. Doyle seconded, and the vote was unanimous. *** Ms. Williams moved to accept the staff recommendation to purchase the street sweeper from Adams Equipment Company for $133, 875 and Mr. Crone seconded, the vote was unanimous. *** Mayor Buelterman said the Ethics Commission will come back under New Business for the November 8th Council meeting. *** Ms. Tiffany Desautels of the Police Department told council that only the people that have voice over internet service will be taxed the $1.50. She said basically this is internet telephone like Vonage. She said she has no idea how many service Georgia, out of the 258 companies that provide that service because there is no list. Mr. Hughes said the public hearing was held last meeting and the effective date will be today. Mr. Wolff moved to approve the Resolution imposing a 9-1-1 Charge on voice over internet protocol, Ms. Sessions seconded. And the vote was unanimous. *** Mr. Wolff said the Water Resolution that he is proposing will ask the General Assembly to insure fair apportionment of water resources state wide and provide full funding for water planning moving forward. He said they are also asking to prohibit inter-basin transfers that have a detrimental effect on downstream economies and natural systems. He said since Tybee is downstream from pretty much everyone it would be in our best interest to support this resolution. Mr. Wolff moved to approve the water resolution, Ms. Williams seconded. Mayor Buelterman asked that if there was Salt Water intrusion because of the water plan we would not have to pay for it and if it was included in this resolution. Mr. Wolff said no. Mayor Buelterman said he thinks at some point it might be a good idea to put that in writing because we will be the first ones affected by that. And the vote was unanimous. *** Page 11 of 11 Mr. Wolff moved to adjourn, Mr. Pearce seconded and the vote was unanimous. _________________________________ Mayor Jason Buelterman _______________________________ Vivian O. Woods, Clerk of Council