Service-Safety Committee

Minutes of the Grand Forks City Council/Service-Safety Committee Tuesday, January 14, 2014 – 5:30 p.m._______________________ The Service/Safety Stand...
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Minutes of the Grand Forks City Council/Service-Safety Committee Tuesday, January 14, 2014 – 5:30 p.m._______________________ The Service/Safety Standby Committee met on Tuesday, January 14, 2014 at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers in City Hall with Chairman Bjerke presiding. Present at roll call were Bjerke, Vein (teleconf.). Grandstrand (teleconf.); absent: Gershman. Others present: Chief Packett, Chief O’Neill, Todd Feland, Howard Swanson, Mark Walker, Al Grasser, Hazel Sletten, John Bergstrom, LeahRae Amundson, Rich Romness, Emily Fossen, Matt Yavarow. Todd Feland, city administrator, reported that Don Tucker, manager at Wastewater Treatment Plant is resigning his position and is taking similar position at Jackson, MI (originally from MI) and wanted to acknowledge Don; that he was the first person hired to staff the wastewater treatment plant (2001) and that now manager of the treatment plant and City owes him a debt of gratitude for all the work he has done over the last 13 years. There were some challenges with the treatment plant and he was key person that added a lot of value to the city and wanted to acknowledge him in front of committee as he has worked with committee quite a bit and has done fantastic job and wished him well in his new venture in a similar position in Jackson, MI There were additional comments from Chairman Bjerke and from Howard Swanson. Chairman Bjerke stated he was adding an additional item to the agenda, 1-1, and is going to pull several items for discussion, and if no additional items pulled, balance will be up for motion. He pulled items. 1-1, 2, 4, 5 and 7. No additional items pulled by committee.

1. Application for transfer of Class 4 (Food & Beverage Establishment) license from Grand Forks Spaceship Enterprises (Space Aliens), 3350 32nd Ave.S., to Rice Empire dba Sakura Steakhouse.__________________________________________ 3. Workforce Safety and Insurance Grant (ERGO Phase II) for Fire Department for leather turnout boots.___________________________________________________ 6. Documented CatEx for Project No. 7078 – Shared Use Path on South 42nd Street from 17th Avenue South to 24th Avenue South._____________________________ 7. Policy change for classified street funding. 8. Construction Engineering Services Agreement for Project Nos. 6418 and 6757, Federal Project Nos. SU-6-986(094)098 and SU-6-986(109)113 – Traffic Signals at 42nd Street/11th Ave.S. at Washington St./40th Ave.S.__________________________ 9. Design Engineering Services Agreement for Project No. 6996 – Traffic Signal Foundation Replacement at 24th Avenue S. and Columbia Road.___________ 10. Consideration of engineering agreement for Project 7163 - 7MG Reservoir Pump Station Improvement.__________________________________________________ 11. Bids for Project No. 7064, Public Works Department Landfill Cell A Leachate Sump Extension._____________________________________________________ 12. Amendment No. 2 for consulting services agreement for Project No. 7139, 2013-14 Public Works Facility Central Garage and Electrical Division renewal.__________

13. Amendment No. 1 to consulting services agreement for Project No. 7135 – Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Facility Permit Renewal Application_____. 14. Multi Hazard Mitigation Plan. Motion by Vein and Grandstrand to approve recommendations and to refer to city council for consideration. Motion carried. 1.1 Application for transfer of Class 1 (General On/Off Sale Liquor and Beer) license from Double SM, LLC dba Rumors, 1802 S. Washington Street, to Sin City, LLC dba Rumors____________________________________________________________ Howard Swanson, city attorney, reported he had concerns relative to the license application as one of the officers of the organization listed has felony convictions; that under our Code any officer of the entity must be of good moral standing, which is defined for an applicant or individual holding a license as one that does not have any felony convictions. He stated with respect to an officer or shareholder is that they must hold similar qualifications, and in this case one of the officers or interested members of the organization does have felony convictions. It would not have received his approval, however, the council can determine whether or not that meets your definition. Otherwise the applicant appears to be in order, and can be transferred upon payment of transfer fee and upon approval for new entity to hold the license. Bill Tyrell, 1903 21st Avenue South, Grand Forks, asked that they move this forward to council. Mr. Swanson stated that the information for the individual with 3 different felony convictions, theft of property, burglary and possession of firearm by convicted felon occurred from mid to late 1990’s. It was noted that the city council makes the final decision. It was moved by Vein and seconded by Grandstrand to deny the application and refer to the city council. Grandstand seconded the motion and noted that there has been no criminal record since the ‘90’s. Mr. Swanson started that he is waiting for final report from the police department, that the information he has provided to the committee came from the applicant, and based on information provided to him to date there does not appear to be any further felony convictions for this individual and none of the other owners/officers have criminal records; that he should have the final reports by Tuesday evening. He also noted that the applicant is Sin City, LLC which is limited liability company, akin to some elements of a corporation and some elements of a partnership – is an entity of its own so the applicant is Sin City, LLC. Additional information will be presented Tuesday night. Upon call for the question, the motion carried.

2.

Budget amendment for Fire Department. Bjerke questioned what was purchased with that money. Chief O’Neill stated this is basically sustainment equipment that they have for hazardous materials response, one is an expensive piece of equipment for chemical identification but lot for sustainment through city budget and they continue on in their preparations. Motion by Grandstrand and Vein to approve. Motion carried. 4. Project update for Project No. 7026 – Interstate Access Request for I-29 and th 47 Avenue South Interchange. (Information Only)____________________________ Mark Walker, asst. city engineer, stated that for some time they have been considering installing an interchange on I-29 at 47th Avenue South, first thing they need to do is produce a document called “interstate access request” that they would submit to the NDDOT and Federal Highway Adm. to seek approval to do that interstate access request (IAR), basically documents the conditions of having change without building an interchange. In order for DOT and Federal Highway to allow us to put an interchange at that location – the report has to justify that it has a need and provides some good. To help prepare this document they hired the firm of SRF and they have been working on this report and want to report that some of their findings are such that they have determined that putting an interchange at this location would significantly help on 32nd Avenue with problems that exist now and will worsen in the future. They feel that this information they have determined would help justify that interchange and will continue working on the report with SRF and discuss with DOT and Federal Highway and continue moving this process forward. Plan to be finalized early this summer. 5. Matter of changing the City standard street lighting to LED. (Information Only) Matt Yavarow, project engineer, reported that over past several months they have been looking at changing our current lighting standard from high pressure sodium to LED, they looked at 4 different technologies that are out there: metal halide, high pressure sodium, LED and cold cathode., and it was apparent that it would come down to either LED or high pressure sodium. LED lighting would provide more even light than high pressure sodium and doesn’t degrade nearly as much as high pressure sodium, LED will degrade about 10% over its light for us; high pressure sodium is about 25% to 35%. Cost of lighting – LED costs about $200 to $250 more per light but that cost can be made up because they don’t draw as much power, don’t need large conductor to run between them and can go much farther distance with LED and that would reduce the amount of feedpoints we have to put up. feedpomts are about $5,000 to $6,000. Another benefit of LED is payback period, residential LED have payback of about 4 years and commercial 40 ft. ones are about 8 years. This summer looking to change all of our lighting projects coming up to LED’s as opposed to high pressure sodium – everything will be LED’s from now on. Grandstrand questioned whether the payback period quoted does not include staff time, and has read that’s part of the saving is that don’t have to go out there for long periods of

time compared to other lights.; Yavarow stated does not include staff time. 7.

Policy change for classified street funding. Al Grasser, city engineer, stated this refers back to some of the discussions they had during the budget committee meetings re. Columbia Road reconstruction project as there was a petition submitted to protest out Columbia Road, and that when we have large initial investment in developing that project, need to think whether need to special assess but ended up being calculated about 3.5% of the actual project cost; policy is that City and/or Federal Govt. would pay 80% and special assess the remaining 20% - that works on smaller collector type street but in order to insure that anybody that is being assessed for larger road is not being over-assessed and usually normalize that cost and come up with 3.5% special assessment, and became the risk of doing those projects and at 3.5% wasn’t worth it. Another policy change is that they are recommending a 3-year temporary approval and is recommending a 3-year period because don’t know how these things are going to play out over next 10 or 15 years. He stated what they are trying to capture in these projects are areas where the adjacent land is not fully developed along Columbia Road, 47th Avenue South, North 55th Street and those noted in the report, and found that even if building new road is almost like a reconstruction project, as deal with high levels of existing traffic, keep access to existing businesses, dealing with landscaping and tearing up things that are already finished and found that if can get in there and do this road ahead of the area being fully developed, can save ranges of 15 to 35-40% of a project cost. Reason haven’t done that in the past is because waiting for funds from the federal government and defer project, and those are not going to be available to us for building out some of these road networks and is incumbent upon us to efficiently spend our taxpayers dollars in most efficient manner, and that is to get in ahead of full development. That this policy is on these selected or identified section line roads and if get in ahead of adjacent construction should take advantage of that cost savings because from City’s standpoint doesn’t cost the City more. Another one within this policy is the way to make these things balance from financial perspective to have the adjacent property owners when they develop their property, put in the sidewalks and/or bikepaths as identified in Transportation Plan and that provides level playing field between commercial property and residential property - most new housing needs to put in their own sidewalks, businesses have to do same thing – and in doing that can save that 3.5% where otherwise would have gone out and special assessed. Vein stated that in the ‘80’s MN and 4th Ave.S. was project that was protested out similar to what talking about now and ended up delaying any improvement there for significant number of years, thinks there are some advantages to this policy that is being recommended and would support it; and with cost savings makes sense to pursue this change in policy. Grandstrand stated another positive to this is that it puts more of the burden on traditional property taxes and is clear what’s being charged to people and means we have to pay more attention to the value of new developments putting in or pay attention to density and sprawl and how well we are putting together our city, and thinks going in this direction is

good thing for that reason. Motion by Vein and Grandstrand to approve recommendation and refer to city council. Motion carried. Motion by Vein and Grandstrand to adjourn, motion carried and meeting adjourned at 6:05 p.m. Alice Fontaine City Clerk