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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20101118InfraMins.docINFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA CITY OF TYBEE ISLAND November 18, 2010 5:00 PM Attendees: Paul Wolff, Kathryn Williams, Jennifer Oetgen, Bill Garbett, George Reese, Barry Brown, Joe Wilson, Jonathan Lynn, Mary Hogan and Diane Schleicher. Approve the minutes of the previous meeting Paul Wolff asked for a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting. Bill Garbett so moved. Kathryn Williams seconded. New Business: Water Conservation Ordinance Paul Wolff suggests striking “H” as an exception (on the hand out sheet) which is “Hand watering with a hose with automatic cutoff or handheld container”. People could go out there and pump as much water as they wanted as long as they are using a handheld hose. I think a lot of people do that. I don’t think it should be an exception. Barry Brown asked if you take this out, will you have to make an allowance for Joe’s (DPW) trucks to water the palms that were put in. Paul asked if that was shallow well water. Barry answers no, not all the time. Joe Wilson agreed. Paul Wolff states we can leave it as is. Kathryn Williams asked if we need to include things that don’t apply to Tybee, like Commercial agricultural operations in “A”. After discussing, it was agreed upon to leave it as is. Paul Wolff asked for a motion to approve. Kathryn Williams moved to approve. Bill Garbett seconded. Water Leak Adjustment Request – Recommended Changes Diane Schleicher presented the recommended changes for leak adjustments in a hand out. Paul Wolff asks why residents have 6 months to get the paper work in after the repair. Barry Brown suggests that 90 days should be sufficient for request for adjustment after the repair. Paul Wolff agrees. The request for adjustment was changed from 6 months to 90 days. Kathryn Williams asked about an invisible leak with an irrigation system. That would not be included with ineligible, would it? If we are in agreement that visible leaks does not include something underground, like an irrigation system, then I think its fine. Paul states he thinks “visible” covers that. Paul Wolff asked for a motion to approve with noted changes. Kathryn Williams moved to accept this form with the amendment of substituting 90 days for 6 months. Bill Garbett seconded. Vote was unanimous. III. HIGHWAY 80 WATER SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS Butler Street to Campbell Avenue Jennifer Oetgen states we are looking at a new portion of Butler Ave. Matt Ricks and I came out yesterday and met with George and got a feel for the route that were looking at. We’re talking about taking the Butler Ave. water line that we did a couple of years ago, which is an eight inch line on either side of Butler, from 2nd St. down to Campbell Ave. (Taking those two lines and come around the curve, under the parking lane, on to 80 and back to Campbell) George also asked for an addition to replace part of Lewis Ave and then extend down to Van Horne and connect to the existing 12 and then extend Campbell to Solomon St. Estimated Cost Jennifer Oetgen passed out a handout of the cost estimate. We did break this out. The 1st page is Butler Ave. which is $861,000. And the other 3 little projects that would interconnect, are listed on the bottom, and then totaled. Paul Wolff asked if these lines are the same vintage as 1st St., like 80 years old. George Reese states the water line on 80 is at least 100 years old. With the recent break at the curve, we replaced 260 feet, so the rest of it is still there. Paul asked what section of Van Horne hasn’t been done. George states that from Campbell to Van Horne still has the old 6 inch line. Van Horne to Rosewood has been done. That was a part of the Ft. Screven Project. The small section from Rosewood to 2nd Ave. has the old 6 inch line. Also, about half way down Lewis Ave. has the old 6 inch line. Jones from HWY 80 to Chatham also needs replaced. Paul asked if there are any grants out there that we could use to pay for this. Diane Schleicher states that she and Chantel have been looking at the block grants. (CDBG) Jennifer states that her office has done a number of those. Bill and some other people in our office could give Chantel some thoughts on that. Diane states her first thought on that grant, was the Clarifier, as far as priority setting due to the permitting issue. The replacement of water lines is second on the list. George agreed. Paul also agreed to keep the Clarifier and work at the plant as the priority. Barry Brown asked if we could get a total number of footage of how much pipe is left that needs to be replaced on this island. Jonathan Lynn states that he can look at that with the GIS. Kathryn Williams asked if this is something that we should put out for bid. Paul agreed, this is a major project and it needs to be put out for bid. Diane Schleicher states that a lot of the time, if an engineering firm can get us a full blown grant, a lot of the time they would get the job. Old Business: I. HISTORIC BUTLER AVENUE PEDESTRIAN SAFETY PROJECT A. Concept Report and Design Variance 1. Additional Comments Received from DOT 2. Updated Documents Resubmitted to DOT B. Environmental Document In Process Diane Schleicher states that some of the hold up is an environmental issue. He was trying to use the existing environmental document. They just needed some additional information. Paul Wolff asked Jennifer if she would follow up and let us know why this is an issue given the fact that this part of Butler was covered by the environmental document when we did the crosswalks, and is less than 5 years old. Jennifer states she will ask Bill. II. CROSSWALKS AND SIGNAGE A. Project Complete B. Final Change Order Executed C. Final Contractor Invoice in Process III. BUTLER AVENUE HANDICAPPED RAMPS Construction complete Final Pay Request Submitted to DOT Diane Schleicher states what she would like to do, because this is a T Grant, is have a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the sidewalks and have the representatives down here. Diane asked Jennifer to remind Bill Nicholson to get the T Grant representative contact information to her so that Jan can arrange for this event. We would like to thank them all for a job well done. IV. ALLEY 3 Staff Reviewing Joe Wilson states he is working on some costs and design estimates. Joe met with Downer and Jonathan down at Alley 3 today. The 3 of us together came up with a fairly good idea. I’m going to run it past John Winn. I hope to have the numbers together by the next Infrastructure meeting. John said he would not be back out here for another week or two. When he does come I will meet with him out there. I think it’s very feasible what I want to try to do. I’m upsizing the outfall and also changing the outflow location to the other side. I would like to get John’s input on this first. Also run numbers for the cost of clearing our right-a-way. Paul Wolff asked if we have a DNR permit to be dumping rip-rap and stuff down there like we’ve been doing. Joe states that is a permitted access site. I haven’t seen the permit but I know it is. I’m going to talk with John and hopefully get a copy. Paul states he wants to be sure that we’re not violating any DNR regulations by doing what we’re doing. Joe states, let’s meet with them and see what they think. Paul asked if we expect to have enough room for straight in parking. Joe states, yes, but it’s going to be tight. What I’m going to have to do is put up signs that say park your trailers down at Fishermen Walk. Kathryn Williams states we could have “no trailers allowed”. Kathryn states, after our last meeting, “Wilson” (an engineer with the Ports Authority) had given me some information that he had. I have passed it along to Diane. Last meeting we had discussed the difficulty in having any kind of ramp that would withstand the erosion down there. My question is, since Skip Sasser has gone on record as saying that that ramp is critical for them to launch rescue craft, that maybe we could get some kind of Homeland Security money because it is directly related to rescue missions. It could be used by Law enforcement as well. I know this would be on down the road. I’m going to pass in on to Diane. I think it is certainly something we should look into. Kathryn asked Wilson if he would like to say anything about that. Wilson spoke but it was inaudible. Kathryn asked if we know anything about Homeland Security Funds. Diane states there has been a lot of criticism in the past with small communities getting them. Paul states, there’s still some money available and agrees with Kathryn, that’s the best argument to make. A gentleman in the audience asked to speak about the boat ramp. (inaudible) Paul Wolff states he tends to agree with what he said. I think the best course of action is to let Joe fix the infrastructure; improve the parking, (the flow in and out) and leave the ramp as it is. The Fire Department hasn’t had any trouble launching the Zodiac, and the home folks know how to get in and out with a rope. I’m not totally against making some much needed improvements strictly to make it safer to get in and out. As far as improving this to the point where it’s going to attract more motorized craft, I think this is essentially a non-motorized launch site. Now, from the standpoint of being Public Stewards here, we cannot exclude anybody per say, if they’re creative enough to figure out how to get down there. With that being said, does anybody have any thoughts on long term? Barry Brown states the best thing you could do is clean up the rebar and steel down there. It should have been cleaned up along time ago. Joe Wilson states, as far as the ramp, I’ll do whatever you want me to do. I do think you need to have Public safety here, like Skip Sasser, the Police Dept and M.R.S., if you’re going to discuss that. Another gentleman from the audience gave Paul a handout with some concerned citizens regarding excluding some groups. (Audible not clear) Paul Wolff states we need to partner with them to make it easier for everybody and try to get them to cooperate. We don’t want to legislate this. We want cooperation and we want to be cooperative. Kathryn Williams asked if we should alert the Core of Engineers to our concerns with the rebar at Alley 3. Diane Schleicher states we can send them a letter but seems to think they will say this is our vault because it’s our ramp. Paul Wolff asked Diane to contact the Core of Engineers (Mark Padgett) to find out what type of permit is required. V. 14th STREET DRAINAGE A. Project Complete B. Final Bill in Process VI. WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT IMPROVEMENTS Additional Clarifier and Belt Press Jennifer Oetgen states it is her understanding, from Bill Lovett, that you had asked what it would cost and when for this Wastewater Treatment Plant work which is adding a Clarifier and Belt Press. Jennifer distributed a hand out to everyone. Jennifer asked Diane about her mentioning another funding source other than a GEFA loan. Diane responded, yes a grant. Payment Schedule Jennifer states what this payment schedule is, is looking at a GEFA loan for the construction costs which is about $1,225,000.00, with contingencies, engineering, and legal admin., the total would be $1,500,000.00. Bill had laid out a re-payment schedule in terms of months when you start. As you know, when you take out a GEFA loan, you have 12 months to pay that 1% closing fee. You cannot recoup any of your expenses until you issue a notice to proceed. The first 7 months of this is out of pocket expenses until the notice to proceed has been issued and the actual construction has started. Mary Hogan states the monthly payback, in order for us to do it, in the current climate that we’re in, is George would have to lay off 2.5 positions in order to afford this. George states that is not an option. The other suggestion would be to increase the water bills for 1 year. (About $415/household) Collect the money up front, then in about a year we could start on this project. Paul Wolff asked what about raising the water/sewer bills by $20/month for 2 years and use that as security for the GEFA loan. Mary asked what the risks are with putting this project off by 12 months or 24 months. Financially, we could put the money in the bank, collect the money first, and then do the project. Diane Schleicher states, if you don’t want to do a flat rate, we could calculate a volume by raising the sewer rates by a certain percentage, for everyone, in order to cover this. The cost would be based on consumption, with our current rate structure. Paul agrees it should be based on consumption instead of a flat fee. Paul asked Mary to get some numbers together, before our next meeting in January, on how we can raise sewer rates, based on each level, so we know what the consumption rate will be, and how it will affect people like motels. VII. TYBEE GREENWAY/BIKEWAY TRAIL Highway 80 Corridor Diane Schleicher states that City Council had asked her to look at a proposal of what the cost would be for just doing pavement in front of Battery Row, the Aston property and the Buckley property. (Hand-outs distributed) Estimated Cost $270,000 Diane states the cost for trail only, and a fence on the easement with a 12 ft. access gate, is on the top tier on the hand-out sheet. The 80% grant portion is $218,200 with the local match being $45,000. This is for a T-Grant that we have been talking about applying for. I was also asked to look at adding a multi-use sidewalk. That would be to connect and to by-pass the North Wave subdivision and connect up to Byers. The cost of the multi-use sidewalk is $51,300. So that brings up the total grant amount to $324,000.50. So the local match moves up to $64,810. I will be asking Council, should we apply for just the path section or go ahead and include the multi-use sidewalk so that we’ll be connecting the bike path totally with the trail itself. Diane introduced a DNR Grant with a maximum of $100,000 as a back up grant, just in case we don’t get the T-Grant. The cost of the grant would be $96,200. The grant portion would be $76,900 with the City’s match being $19,240. We have not been successful with the DNR Grant in the past but I think it is worth at least applying for as a back up. Paul Wolff states after talking with Cullen Chambers from the Tybee Island Historical Society (TIHS), that they would be willing to cost share (matching funds) for interpretive signs like for the heritage value of the batteries that are located there. If we did that with some spurs going off over boardwalks to where the batteries actually were, then that could go a long way towards building our credibility as partnering with other organization, which goes a long way with the DNR. Paul states he would like to recommend to the committee, that we recommend to Council, to go with the higher proposal since we are looking at a 20/80 match. Ultimately, we want to connect this all the way to East Gate. If we go with the bigger grant here, with the multi-use sidewalk, that would get us from the bridge to just about to East Gate, with being able to keep bikes out of traffic. Barry Brown asked where the money will come from for this project. Paul asked Diane if the $64,000 would come from SPLOST. Diane responded that this project would be budgeted in the future budget year. Not sure at this time if monies coming from SPLOST or General Fund. Paul asked for a motion to approve this. Bill Garbett moved to approve the 2nd option (on the hand-out) for the Tybee Greenway/Bike Way Trail. Kathryn Williams seconded. Grant Application Status? Diane asked if the committee wanted Staff to work on the DNR Grant as a back up grant. Paul states, yes. VIII. PROJECTS ON HOLD Chatham Avenue to Pump Station No. 2 Sewer Line Pump Station 3 and 6 Force Main Replacement George Reese states the above projects (items A&B) remain on hold for now. With no further discussion or new business, Paul Wolff asked for a motion to adjourn. Kathryn Williams so moved. Bill Garbett seconded. A quorum of City Council members may be present which would constitute a quorum. Respectfully submitted by Karen Reese on 01/07/2011