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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20080110InfraMins.pdf20080110 Infrastructure Committee Minutes Chairman Eddie Crone called the meeting to order at 5:30pm on January 10, 2008. Attending in addition to Mr. Crone was Wolff, Doyle, Brown, Wilson, Schleicher, Lovett, Redmond and Reese. Mr. Crone said when the Hwy 80 Sewer Line project started the city thought the property owners requesting the line would have to pay for it but we found that when the city annexed, those property owners were promised water and sewer within five years of the annexation. He said everyone that contributed to that project needs to receive a refund. Ms. Schleicher said everyone that contributed to the engineering costs was waived tap in fees and everyone has tapped in except for one owner. She said Ms. Efird said they were waived the water tap in fee but were charged the sewer tap in fee and the city was supposed to waive both of them. She said there was also an aid to construction fee charged for the building that Ms. Efird can document as having been paid. Ms. Efird said she spent $3,125 on engineering costs for the project when it was divided up between the four people that initiated the engineering. She said whatever the tap fee would have been was credited from the $3,125. She said it was about $2,000 total. She said the tap fee is $1,100 and the aid to construction was $1.00 per square foot which came to $5,643. Ms, Schleicher said she was recommending the city make up the difference but she wanted to do that in a formal way. Mr. Crone asked if everyone else was taken care of. Ms. Schleicher said only Ms. Efird is left along with Mr. Kern that has no structure on his property and may come back at a later date. Ms. Efird said they had paid over $11,000 for the City of Tybee permit. Mr. Wolff moved to approve paying Ms. Efird the difference between what her normal fee would have been and what she paid in excess over the cost of engineering. Ms. Efird said her total was $3,125 less the cost of tap in fees because she isn’t clear on what the tap in fees are. She said it is around $2,000. Ms. Schleicher said she would make sure the figures are correct. Ms. Doyle seconded the motion. Ms. Efird asked if that would be in the form of a rebate or credit on the water account. Ms. Schleicher said the city can do it either way. Ms. Schleicher said if they could issue a check it would create a better paper trail for the process if they were to get audited. Ms. Efird said that would be fine. And the vote was unanimous. Ms. Schleicher asked if this needed to go to City Council. Mr. Crone said he saw no reason for this to go back to council. Ms. Schleicher said she would check on it because this was a verbal agreement and wasn’t formal Ms. Efird said she would ask Mr. Boswell to give the city a quick book type invoice or some sort of record. Ms. Schleicher said that would be helpful. Mr. Wilson said they only have one person to bid on fixing an outfall pipe to the Marsh on 9th Street. He said they have a serious impediment because the line goes from a 30 inch line to an 18 inch line. He said that outfall goes all the way back on Butler and over to 11th Street. He said this is to address some of these flooding issues and future needs he wants to install a 36 inch pipe and new box all the way through Jones. He wants to fill in the open ditch which is causing a maintenance headache due to filtration. He wants to lessen the maintenance and improve flow through 9th street and surrounding area basin. He recommends the contractor that is working the strand right now and is watching his work and his reasonable costs will help address the outfall and flooding design. Mr. Wolff said if we fill the swale will it create a filter for the catch basin. Mr. Wilson said it does not include the filtration for the catch basin. Mr. Wolff asks if they could add the filtration to the scope of work. Mr. Wilson said the filters at the top of the flow in the parking lot would be all they would need to keep the flow going through the 36 in pipe at the bottom. But he would add interceptors that would take some of the particles out at the bottom of the pipe. He is testing certain products that will help take a lot of the filtration out at the beginning. He said that vines and other foliage clog up the pipes and lead to flooding in those areas. He said eliminating that foliage at the beginning will help the flow of water through the 36 in pipe. He said the ditches along Jones will allow for a lot of percolation from 8th street. He is working with Mr. Reese on some capital projects in the future for Jones Ave. He wants to address storm waters on Jones when he starts these projects. Mr. Wolff recommended approval for the outfall pipe for 9th street and Mrs. Doyle seconded the motion. Ms. Schleicher said she wants to keep drainage in the forefront and that was the reason for putting it out to bid. And the vote was unanimous. Mr. Crone asked about the proposed change order for Coastal Grading concerning the Site Plan for a Garbage Compactor. Mr. Lovett said they are trying to get the FEMA trailer in the same area. Mr. Lovett said plan C is the best of the three site plans but shows the concrete pad for the compactor across the property line so the city would have to get an easement or ask about a smaller size concrete pad which they don’t recommend. He said plan D shows the FEMA trailer hanging out over the cub just a little but this is a temporary structure so that is not necessarily a bad thing. He said they could add balusters if needed to keep impaired people from running into the FEMA trailer. Mr. Crone asked if there would be trouble hooking it to water and sewer. Mr. Reese and Mr. Lovett said no trouble at all. Mr. Lovett asked Mr. Reese if he needed to have a survey crew come out and locate the lines. Mr. Reese said no. Ms. Doyle said she was concerned with the trash compactor being located in front of the condos. Mr. Brown asked if business owners on Butler would have to carry their trash all the way down Tybrisa to the Strand. Ms. Schleicher said some businesses will need to use it but some do have room for their own dumpster in the rear of their businesses. She said as part of the plan when it started was the need to create an overlay district with enforcement ability to not let people place garbage totes in front of their businesses. She said if you do enforcement and they don’t have room to put in a dumpster then they could take it to the parking lot and get rid of it that way. She said putting the trash on the street takes away from eating and using the whole district. She said a state of the art compactor was what was recommended in the plan. She said we can buy the best compactor but we also have to maintain it and replace the seals and deodorize it. She said it is only as good as we maintain it. Mr. Wolff asked how many trash cans the compactor would replace and how often the trash would be picked up and the schedule of maintenance on the seals. Ms. Schleicher said any compactor like that requires maintenance and they will have to make sure it is maintained. Mr. Wolff said these type of compactors are used in the historic district in downtown Savannah and you can’t smell them if they are maintained properly. Mr. Wilson said the contractor just unplugs the power source and hauls the entire container off. He said you roll the cart up to it and push a button and it dumps itself so you don’t have to lift the cart. He said when the contractor takes the container he will be gone for two or three hours before bringing it back. He said there will be nothing there in the meantime. Ms. Schleicher said they will work the garbage pickup schedule to impact the residents the least. Mr. Wolff said he thinks if something isn’t worked out with the businesses to have them bring their trash before 3:00am then it will be worse than the contractor picking the container up at 3:00am. He said he doesn’t believe the business people will want to leave the trash behind their businesses overnight and then allow their morning people to take it to the compactor. Ms. Doyle suggested putting a compactor at DPW and arranging trash pickups two or three times weekly. Mr. Wolff said in the summer they have to get rid of that garbage every day because it contains seafood shells. He said you wouldn’t want that sitting out for one day. Mr. Wolff said his suggestion was to put it behind O’Shaunessy but that was not possible. Mr. Lovett said they are recommending an 8 foot HardePlank Fence to contain it. Ms. Doyle said she can’t imagine it not having an odor with shrimp shells and the breeze from the ocean wafting to where those people live. Mr. Wolff said he thinks it has to be located in the business district. Ms. Doyle said she wants to make sure they are looking at every possible situation before this decision is made. Mr. Wolff suggested moving the compactor over by the pier to get it further from the residents. Mr. Lovett said the Lifeguard storage trailer could be moved over by the Marine Science Center in order to accommodate the compactor by the pier. Ms. Doyle said she thinks that would be better for the condo residents. Mr. Crone said we would be moving the compactor further away from the businesses that have to bring their garbage to it. Mr. Lovett said it would be easier to access and not that much further for them to go. Mr. Crone said the businesses aren’t going to like it. Ms. Doyle said she would like to look at a plan with it moved over by the pier because it makes more sense. Everyone agreed and Ms. Schleicher said she would bring the plan back for the next meeting. Mr. Crone asked that the public be notified so that they will know what is being considered. Mr. Crone asked about the Water and Sewer lateral for the ADA Portable Restrooms. Mr. Lovett said they have water and sewer running to the big island. He said they got a cost from the contractor to run the water and sewer from the big island to where the handicapped restrooms will be and it will cost $28,500 and that is $60 a foot. Mr. Lovett said there is no way they can recommend this because it is a temporary structure. He said they felt it should be half that amount. Mr. Wolff asked Mr. Lovett to check the unit prices in the contract to see if it covers it. Mr. Lovett said he will check the contract in the morning but if the contractor doesn’t want to do this work he will find a way not to do it no matter if the unit prices are there or not. Mr. Lovett asked why Ms. Schleicher just didn’t put the handicap trailer on the big island. Ms. Schleicher said that would provide 4 bathrooms and we would be ADA compliant without a change order. Ms. Doyle asked what the cost per month would be for one of the portable units. Ms. Schleicher said $3,000 a month. Mr. Redmond said we can do a 6 month lease and they pull it away at the end of 6 months and we don’t have to worry about it. Mr. Wolff said if this works we could have one custom built to look like a little log cabin or whatever we would like for about $50,000 and it would be ADA compliant. Mr. Brown asked if damages would be covered in the lease payments. Mr. Redmond said they do provide maintenance on the building and carry the insurance. Ms. Schleicher said the little circle on the roundabout at the end of Tybrisa is concrete and the contractor is recommending coloring the concrete the color of the brick pavers. She said a slate look is recommended. Mr. Wolff moved to approve, Ms. Doyle seconded and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Lovett said there was a change order for $1,880 because Mr. Wilson wanted a 2 inch water line run from Tybrisa over to the Marine Science Center to replace an existing old galvanized steel line. Ms. Doyle moved to approve, Mr. Wolff seconded and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Lovett said there is no handicap ramp on the western sidewalk at Strand and 18th. He said the only place to put a handicap ramp is back up the strand and they felt it would be better not to put one there. Mr. Lovett said the DOT has no sense of urgency regarding the sidewalk grant. He said even if they told us tomorrow we could start advertising tomorrow it would be March 1st and would be the middle or the end of March before they could give notice to proceed. He said they cannot award the contract until they send the contract to DOT who sends it to the federal highway department. He said it could be weeks or months before they are told to award the contract. He said he recommends Tybee use this money somewhere else and go to the Lt. Governor and let him know we want this done for his bike race and are walking away from the $80,000. He said he recommends having the Tybrisa contractor submit a change order and have the sidewalks done. Mr. Redmond said he will find the money. Ms. Schleicher said the $80,000 grant could be used for the ADA sidewalks. Mr. Lovett said he will ask the contractor for the amount. Mr. Wolff said regarding Ms. Solomon’s request to have her water bill reduced that the water department already agreed to waive $11.26 a month for 28 months which is the base charge and is saving her $315.28. Mr. Wolff moved that the committee take the staff recommendation to waive the $315.28 but require her to pay the balance owed. Ms. Doyle asked if her bill was incorrect. Mr. Wolff said she was undercharged because she has four apartments and a residence and was receiving a senior citizen discount on the four apartments as well as her residence. He said she was undercharged for 2 ½ years. Ms. Doyle asked if it was Ms. Solomon’s fault. Mr. Wolff said it was no ones fault. Ms. Doyle seconded for discussion. She asked how long it has been going on and why it was not caught before now. Mr. Wolff said 28 months. Ms. Doyle said maybe she did know but 28 months is a long time to let someone go without picking up on it. Mr. Wolff said he is not saying the city didn’t mess up but she was using the water. Ms. Schleicher said Ms. Conway said when she put Ms. Solomon on the senior charge she made a mistake and set it up wrong and wasn’t billing her for the other units. She said Ms. Solomon came in for some reason that triggered Ms. Conway to do an audit and determine that a mistake was made. She said Ms. Solomon appealed to her and there is nothing in the code that allows the City Manager to address it. She said really only City Council can waive the amount. She said the city offered Ms. Solomon a re payment plan that would spread the cost over time. She said the amount owed is for water consumption only. And the vote was unanimous. Mr. Wolff moved to adjourn. Respectfully submitted by Vivian Woods .