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HomeMy Public PortalAbout05 08 2020 Regular MeetingMINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING AND PUBLIC HEARING BEING HELD BY THE TOWN COMMISSION, OF THE TOWN OF GULF STREAM ON FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2020 AT 9:00 A.M., IN THE WILLIAM F. KOCH, JR. COMMISSION CHAMBERS OF THE TOWN HALL, 100 SEA ROAD, GULF STREAM, FLORIDA. NOTE: THERE WAS LIMITED PUBLIC ACCESS TO TOWN HALL. THIS TOWN COMMISSION MEETING WAS ABLE TO BE ACCESSED ONLINE, INCLUDING ALLOWING FOR PUBLIC COMMENT. I. Call to Order Mayor Morgan called the meeting to order at 9:00 A.M. II. Pledge of Allegiance Mayor Morgan led the Pledge of Allegiance. III. Roll Call Present and Participating: Scott W. Morgan Mayor Thomas W. Stanley Vice Mayor Paul A. Lyons, Jr. Commissioner Joan Orthwein Commissioner Donna S. White Commissioner Also Present & Participating: IV. Minutes. Gregory Dunham Edward Nazzaro Edward Allen Rita Taylor Town Manager Asst. Town Attorney Police Chief Town Clerk A. Regular Meeting of April 9, 2020 Vice Mayor Stanley made a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting on April 9, 2020. The motion was seconded by Commissioner White with all voting AYE at roll call. V. Additions, withdrawals, deferrals, arrangement of agenda items. There were none. VI. Announcements. A. Regular Meetings and Public Hearings 1. June 12, 2020 at 9:00 A.M. 2. July 10, 2020 at 9:00 A.M. 3. August 14, 2020 at 9:00 A.M. 4. September 11, 2020 at 9:00 A.M. 5. October 9, 2020 at 9:00 A.M. 6. November 13, 2020 at 9:00 A.M. VII. Communication from the Public (3 min. maximum) A. Letter re: Potential Purchase of 2,500 sq. ft. on south end of Banyan Road. Mayor Morgan asked Town Manager Dunham to give an outline of what the Davis's wanted. Town Manager Dunham explained that the street penetrated into the middle of their lot and they are wanting the opportunity to square up the lot and that the goal in the future is to Minutes of Town Commission Regular Meeting & Public Hearing Held May 8, 2020 @ 9:00 A.M. probably put a new house on this lot. If the staff was to do this, it would give them more square footage and therefore they would be able to achieve a higher FAR for a house, he added. Town Manager Dunham stated the letter was just an introduction under public comment and the staff would be adding all the details surrounding the current house and what potentially could be built. He added that sides of houses that are adjacent to water changes the setback requirement, makes them larger, and this house is surrounded on three sides by water. Town Manager Dunham went on to explain that the Town never uses that portion of the road and it is literally in their front yard, with site walls that come up to the edge of the driveway. He added that staff wanted to look for any impact that may result for emergency vehicles. Town Manager Dunham stated the goal was to give a summary at the next commission meeting. Vice Mayor Stanley stated he had looked at the plat and spoken to Blaine Dickinson, the attorney of record for the applicant, and had gone over in greater detail what Town Manager Dunham just summarized. Vice Mayor Stanley told them what the Town would be expecting if it is ultimately approved. Mayor Morgan asked Vice Mayor Stanley to stay in touch with Town Manager Dunham and Assistant Town Attorney Nazzaro so they could have a thorough presentation at the next meeting. VIII. Reports. A. Town Manager 1. Utility Undergrounding Town Manager Dunham stated Comcast had reached a point of not having the necessary equipment to lay the drops they needed to finish the houses. He added that the equipment had arrived from Virginia, Comcast would finish laying the drops and would then begin to make appointments with the residents to switch over to the new equipment. Town Manager Dunham stated he did not have as good of news from AT&T and that they are the only ones the Town owes money to for the undergrounding at this point. He explained how he had received a phone call from a gentleman who introduced himself as being a person new to the project replacing Annika. Juan, the representative from AT&T, proceeded to tell Town Manager Dunham that the Town would need to sign a new contract because the cost had gone up. Town Manager Dunham added that the Town had received nothing in writing only the phone call from the individual, but he had asked them to give him more information on the reasoning for the cost change. He added he would be contacting Danny Brannon, then an attorney that worked with the Town on the original contract with AT&T. Assistant Town Attorney Nazzaro explained that the Town is waiting on an exact amount from AT&T with a cost analysis comparison to the original quote as well as information on how much work had been completed. He added that the contract was from 2017 and was an actual cost contract which allows for any conditions in the field if they are different from the field conditions that existed at the time they provided the quote. He added, they shall bill and the 2 Minutes of Town Commission Regular Meeting & Public Hearing Held May 8, 2020 @ 9:00 A.M. Town shall pay an additional cost. Mr. Nazzaro stated the caveat is those conditions or circumstances that AT&T could not have reasonably anticipated when they entered into the contract. He added that they were doing some research into why the price increase had occurred, what circumstances led to that increase and why they were not reasonably anticipated. Mr. Nazzaro stated that in the event that most of the work had been done, then why had the work been done with the inflated costs that were significantly more than the contract price estimated. Vice Mayor Stanley asked if they knew a dollar amount to which Town Manager Dunham answered that it had been suggested at over a million dollars. Assistant Town Attorney Nazzaro stated the contract price was for $420,000 so they were confused as to if a lot of the work had already been done, why this increase is happening now. He added they had reached out to Gary Renick, who negotiated the contract with the Mayor and AT&T in 2017. Mayor Morgan stated that there were other towns that this has happened to so they wanted to do some investigating because this is coming at the tail end of the project and if there were any changes in the field, they were adapted to by FP&L and Comcast without any change in fees and were able to work around any difficulties they found in the field. Mayor Morgan reiterated that the Town was engaging Mr. Resnick and they were going to take a very firm position on enforcing the existing contract. Town Manager Dunham stated he had spoken to Danny Brannon, who was involved in the undergrounding effort at Palm Beach Shores and Mr. Brannon had told him that AT&T had done the same thing to them in the amount of $800,000.00 and that their commission had voted not to continue. Town Manager Dunham had requested more information from them because he didn't think they were as far along in the process as Gulf Stream. He added that AT&T only had about eight to ten cut overs from the old system to the new left to do and had already started to take down some of their wiring. Commissioner Orthwein asked if AT&T had quit working and if there was an estimated time of their return to which Town Manager Dunham answered that AT&T had quit working with no estimation of a return time. Commissioner Orthwein stated that the power lines couldn't be taken down until all the work is complete to which Town Manager Dunham agreed. Mayor Morgan stated there were several options available but that it was premature to elect one or the other and added that AT&T was taking this seriously since they had left the job. Mayor Morgan stated to get the information, talk to counsel, Mr. Brannon, our engineering analysts and hopefully revisit this before the next commission meeting. Mayor Morgan reminded everyone that when the Town began phase two, the bids were increased a bit from FP&L and Comcast, but were reasonable given the time lapse, but with AT&T it was almost double what they had charged before and that is when the Town engaged Attorney Resnick to begin negotiating with them to bring the number down. He added that they had even discussed not installing AT&T lines in the Town of Gulf Stream but after evaluating it, decided there were enough 3 Minutes of Town Commission Regular Meeting & Public Hearing Held May 8, 2020 @ 9:00 A.M. residents that still used AT&T land lines, so they needed to proceed. Mayor Morgan said the fact that they were no longer regulated as a utility also puts pressure on the relationship with them. 2. Place Au Soleil Proposed Subdivision Update Town Manager Dunham reminded everyone that at the last meeting they were all set to meet with Mr. Glickstein and Mr. Kupi regarding 2900, but then everything went south with COVIDI9 and it was put on hold. He added that they would be meeting in the next week to discuss the status of that situation. 3. Baxter & Woodman Drainage/Street Recommendations Town Manager Dunham stated that in February of this year, the Town engaged Baxter & Woodman to form an inventory of the problem locations with drainage, ponding and rutting in the entire core area. He explained that there were two basic parts to the analysis which would be expanding the roadways and then the ponding and drainage difficulties with the infrastructure, which would be the swales and catch basins. Rebecca Travis, from Baxter & Woodman then made a Power Point presentation of the draft report on minor drainage and roadway improvements. She stated the study area included Polo Drive, Gulfstream Road, Old School Road, Banyan Road and Lakeview Drive. The preliminary cost estimate had a 20% contingency on it. The drainage improvements portion was 16% of the total amount and was around $40,000. The road widening portion was 84% of the total. She added that the costs were under the assumption that the town would either contract the work to a contractor already in the area or do a piggyback contract on another contract because the asphalt and rock quantities were relatively small for a contractor to mobilize the equipment. Commissioner Orthwein stated the drainage things were great but she was concerned about adding bits and pieces on the sides of the road because she thought it would look un -uniform and after walking the streets a lot lately, she felt they were dangerous in some ways because of their being uneven and wanted to know if this would now add to the problem. Ms. Travis answered that this brought up the timing of the CIP with the water main replacements in the core and this study for the drainage improvements and possibility of doing widening work at this time frame would be an initial shot at taking care of some of the more obvious drainage issues and doing the widening to just address the rutting. She added that Commissioner Orthwein was correct in that this would not be a real fix for the road. Ms. Travis stated the large issues with low spots in the roads and inconsistent sloping would be addressed when they came in and did the water main work because they were going to tear up the road. She said it was a question of if they wanted to address the minor issues, rutting and widening now or wait until the core work for the water main replacement and possible sewer work. She added that maybe wait and do everything all together in several years when it comes up on the CIP schedule. Commissioner Orthwein asked if it would be reasonable to do the drainage work now and wait to do the road and wondered if it was two II Minutes of Town Commission Regular Meeting & Public Hearing Held May 8, 2020 @ 9:00 A.M. years, five years, how far away until the core is being done. Ms. Travis answered that it would be two or three years. Town Manager Dunham stated the goal on Polo was to make it consistent with the width on the very south end all the way from one end to the north end and likewise on Gulfstream Road where the pavement width was 15' down to Lakeview and then up to 18' north of that. It was on those two major streets that we were trying to make those consistent, he said. Mayor Morgan thanked Ms. Travis for the thorough and detailed analysis that was exactly what the Town asked them to do. He added that it would be put on the Town website so the residents could see exactly how it might impact each of their homes. He added that the point of this was to, in the short-term, make the two main roads more consistent in width and also address the issue of extremely narrow roads. Mayor Morgan stated it also addressed, for a very modest cost, the drainage problems the Town had experienced for the 30 years he has been here, and he thought it was something the core residents should evaluate and consider. Vice Mayor agreed with Mayor Morgan and asked Ms. Travis for a little more narrative about what kind of overlap there might be when they started repaving and re -doing the roads. Ms. Travis agreed to add a short paragraph to the report. Mayor Morgan added if a resident was reading this report on-line they may question the removing of the landscaping and wondered how much landscaping would be interfered with. Ms. Travis answered that it wasn't too bad but if they were putting pavement where there was grass or landscaping, then that would have to come out. She added there were a couple of mailboxes that would have to move as well as some people had put pavers or asphalt along the road so those would have to come out. Ms. Travis stated that the Town would not be replacing landscaping if it was in the right of way or in the way of the widening. Town Manager Dunham asked Ms. Travis to have an updated CIP Schedule that could be put on-line for the residents to see where the Town was at in relation to the schedule. He added that the staff would go out road by road and inventory what impact on actual landscaping there would be. Commissioner Lyons suggested a financial feasibility analysis to see if it was affordable with the Town's budget. He added that he liked putting it on the website to get it in front of the residents to look at but he didn't think it would make an impact on any individual property in any material way and thought it would be for the betterment of the entire core area and was in full support. Ms. Travis stated there was one line -item in the cost estimate to root prune some trees where there is some root intrusion into the street and some restoration of aprons on the new edge of the pavement. Commissioner Lyons thought the biggest challenge would be restoring the aprons so they looked proper and wondered if the Town would be doing that. Ms. Travis answered in the affirmative. Vice Mayor Stanley stated that Town Clerk Taylor would note that a lot of the residents have a driveway removal agreement recorded against their property if 5 Minutes of Town Commission Regular Meeting & Public Hearing Held May 8, 2020 @ 9:00 A.M. they have improved it in the last 10 or 15 years, which says when the Town does work, they must pay to put it back. Mayor Morgan brought up the experiment the Town did with putting a curb along Polo and how it was met with a favorable reaction and wanted to know if there was consideration of putting in another curb. Town Manager Dunham answered there were other candidate curbs. Mayor Morgan asked Ms. Travis if the Town attached this core work to an existing contract, how long would everything in their proposal take and how would that affect the AlA project if the Town used their contractor? Ms. Travis stated the water main portion would move forward as scheduled and they would tack this on to the end which would become a change order. They would then get a price from that contractor for the change order. She added that if he was already bringing in the equipment to lay asphalt and road rock, which he would be, then that would offset mobilization and demobilization and his overhead and be a little bit less than if somebody just came in as a separate project. He would then add a month or so to the end of the water main, which is scheduled to end in December. Town Manager Dunham asked Ms. Travis to comment about Palm Beach County having many contracts that cover this kind of work and piggybacking off them. Ms. Travis explained that Palm Beach County has a type of annual general contract that has a line item contract with pricing for some of the things the Town is proposing to do. The Town can then enter into a contract with the contractor that has the county contract, or even a local city, and take advantage of the pricing on those line -items, she added. Vice Mayor Stanley stated this is something that should be done towards the end of the rainy season, which would be July 15 to October 15, which may not lend itself to piggybacking. Commissioner Lyons asked Ms. Travis if she had a sense of what the cost would be if the Town didn't piggyback to which she answered she had already put a lot of fluff in the cost estimate and had a 20a contingency. She said the Town could take that off and she had also inflated the line -item pricing. Commissioner Lyons said he understood but wondered if she could give some kind of range so he could process the piggyback vs. not piggybacking because it impacts the season and the Town doesn't want to have to wait another year. Ms. Travis didn't think it would be that disruptive to any contractor to come in and do the drainage improvements as those could be done within a couple of weeks. She added that it would be the road widening that would be disruptive and dependent on the weather, but it would be a 10 to 20 percent saving if the Town could get a piggyback contract. 4. COVID 19 Update Town Manager Dunham stated that the statistics could be found on-line, but the most significant changes were the openings of golf courses, parks, natural areas, boat ramps, community pools and tennis courts with restrictions on use. He added the next thing that had been discussed, but not decided, was the opening of the beaches. 0 Minutes of Town Commission Regular Meeting & Public Hearing Held May 8, 2020 @ 9:00 A.M. Mayor Morgan asked if private beaches were included in that, to which Town Manager Dunham answered in the affirmative. 5. Streetlights in Place au Soleil Update Town Manager Dunham stated all the equipment was in and they had been hand -digging some wiring, but he didn't think they had started installing the poles and globes. Commissioner White stated she hadn't seen any work going on but with being quarantined, she wasn't sure. Town Manager Dunham stated there were 26 poles and once they have been installed, the Town will decide if there are any dark spots and if any more need to be added. 7. 2775 Avenue Au Soleil-Release of Lien Town Manager Dunham referred to Assistant Town Attorney Nazzaro who stated there was a sale. He added that the Town had released the requirement that the house be demolished and if it was to sell over $430,000, then the Town would take a percentage of that, but it did not sell over that amount. The Town has received $125,000 for the lien and it has been sold to a Gulf Stream resident who plans to demolish the house and is on track to be on the next commission meeting for demolition and approval. Commissioner White stated that Chet Snavely had bought the property and he planned to demolish the house and sod the property at this point. Mayor Morgan stated it worked out very well for the Town and Commissioner Lyons added that Mr. Snavely was a stand-up guy for solving this problem for the Town. B. Architectural Review & Planning Board 1. Meeting Dates a. May 28, 2020 @ 8:30 A.M. b. June 25,2020 @ 8:30 A.M. c. July 23, 2020 @ 8:30 A.M. d. No August Meeting e. September 24, 2020 @ 8:30 A.M. f. October 9, 2020 @ 8:30 A.M. Mayor Morgan brought attention to these dates. C. Finance Director 1. Financial Report for April 2020 Town Manager Dunham stated the report represented 580 of the Town's budget and they were beginning the budget process for the next fiscal year. There were some adjustments that needed to be made internally for things not anticipated, such as COVID-19. Mayor Morgan asked what the $1,500 for sanitation supplies was for and added that was a lot of masks. Town Manager Dunham answered that the Town wanted to be prepared for whenever they are needed because when all the COVID-19 started you had 39 cities in Palm Beach County who couldn't find the equipment needed to do their jobs. He added that it included the N95 masks that the Police Department use. Commissioner Lyons asked if the 7 Minutes of Town Commission Regular Meeting & Public Hearing Held May 8, 2020 @ 9:00 A.M. Town had all the PPE equipment needed to which Town Manager Dunham answered in the affirmative. D. Police Chief 1. Activity for April 2020 Chief Allen asked that the report be accepted as submitted. He added that at the last meeting they had one vehicle being reported as stolen during the month and had a second vehicle two days later which is still at large, which is unusual for the time frame. All officers are wearing their protective equipment when needed and so far, all have been safe. Mayor Morgan stated that was a good point and asked if any of the Town staff, Police Department or maintenance crew had contracted the virus, to which Town Manager Dunham answered that no one had contracted the virus. He added that one employee had gone to check their antibodies, but the test came back negative. Mayor Morgan accepted both reports as submitted. IX. Items for Commission Action. A. Amendment 001 to Interlocal Cooperation Agreement between Palm Beach County and the Town of Gulf Stream. Town Manager Dunham stated this is an agreement that the Town has participated in for a long time and it just needs to be renewed. The County uses our population to help get the funding from HUD to direct it to low-income people for their needs. Commissioner White noted that the dates were wrong on the second page to which Assistant Town Attorney Nazzaro agreed that he had noticed that as well, but it was sent to us by the County. He added he would let the County know to change the dates before we executed the agreement. Vice Mayor Stanley made a motion to approve the Interlocal Cooperation Agreement. Commissioner White seconded the motion, and all voted aye at roll call. B. Resolution No. 20-2; A RESOLUTION OF THE TOWN COMMISSION OF THE TOWN OF GULF STREAM, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA, AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR OF GULF STREAM TO SIGN A CERTAIN "STATE ROAD AlA WATER MAIN IMPROVEMENTS -PHASE 2" AGREEMENT WITH FOSTER MARINE CONTRACTORS, INC.; PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. Town Manager Dunham explained the resolution to approve the contract for the AlA water main improvements with Foster Marine Contractors. He added they were the low bidder and it had been vetted by Assistant Town Attorney Nazzaro. Mayor Morgan asked if there were any questions. There were none, so Town Clerk Taylor read Resolution 20-2. Vice Mayor Stanley made a motion to approve Resolution 20-2. Commissioner white seconded the motion with all voting aye at roll call. Minutes of Town Commission Regular Meeting & Public Hearing Held May 8, 2020 @ 9:00 A.M. C. Items by Mayor & Commissioners Mayor Morgan commended the staff, particularly Town Manager Dunham and Assistant Town Attorney Nazzaro who have attended the 56 daily EOC meetings, as some of them can be long and contentious, but they have attended every one of them religiously, representing our Town well and keeping us abreast of any changes in development. X. Adjournment. Mayor Morgan adjourned the meeting at 10:30 nee Basel sistant Town Clerk E