Council - Regular Meeting

from the Holy Spirit. Hello. All right, folks. I will go ahead and call our study session to order. is 6:30 p.m. If you can stand for the pledge of allegiance, please.

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please read here. Stewart here. Ross here. Davis here. Bunch and

here. Our study session is to try to get through as many action items uh that will require um for us to approve at our regular meeting. First item to approve the second reading um ordinance 20261 attorney.

So we talked about this uh ordinance the last time we were here. This is a revision to our um adult use marijuana ordinance. Um we recently had some issues with our some of our facilities. Um so the modifications that we made are as follows. Um, in section 22-226, we basically just added a line that clarified that a marijuana establishment may not operate in the city without a valid municipal license. The reason we added this is we recently found out we had a facility that was apparently operating for the better part of a year without a valid license. Um, another addition that we made is under section 227, um, sub paragraph 1T. Um, in speaking with our finance department, they indicated they've had some issues with these facilities registering with the income tax department to pay income taxes on behalf of its employees. So we've now uh we now require a verification that they registered with the income [clears throat] tax department is now a requirement of their application. And then we added section 22-244 which um deals with enforcement basically allows um public safety uh or the someone acting on the city manager's behalf to do uh inspections of the property to ensure compliance with this ordinance. any other applicable law, rule or regulation. So whether that means, you know, like I said, this ordinance or maybe we have a code issue um last year we had a facility where we've um it was brought to our attention by the cabin regulatory agency that they had a facility with people living in it and uh the ceiling tiles um were once the classic white drop ceiling ceiling tiles, but they

were actually black because they were caked with black mold. And so this will allow us to go in and uh check for things like that um and get recordings from the security cameras if need be. Um if we find that they're operating without a valid license, it's a public nuisance and we can issue them a cease and desist notice. If they don't comply with cease and desist notice, we can essentially shutter the establishment until they comply. But that's the entirety of the changes that we've made. just um make sure that they have a license, that they're registered for taxes, and now gives us a little bit more oversight when they're not. Any questions?

All right, moving on. Next, we're going to be asked to approve resolution 2601 to amend our council rules of procedure during the harvest. So, this was a request from Councilwoman Davis uh regarding the moving of close sessions um from where they currently stand um which was used to be following our consent agenda. Um I'm sorry, actually it was following public comment. Um, we've moved it to the end of the meeting so that it's immediately following the second public comment but before um the city manager report and we also added uh what we're calling additional items for individual discussion because generally if we have a closed session there may or may not be something that we need to take action on. And so this way we could basically hold 90% of the meeting and for the the benefit of the public who wants to be independent and then we need to have a closed session which sometimes are quick more often they're long because you know who are we kidding attorneys to talk. Um but that way uh the public can have their input on the other agenda items and we can do it for close session at the end of the meeting. Um, we did put together a resolution. Um, the resolution set up for February 2nd because the way the council rules are worded, we needed to introduce it at this meeting and then vote on the resolution at the second. Happy to answer any questions. Just a little reorganization of close sessions.

Any questions for attorneys? So, thank you. All right. Next, we're going to be asked to approve resolution 20262 uh to designate our director of public service as the ADA section 504 coordinator for the city. Um city managers.

Yeah. Madame Mayor and members of council, one of the items we'll be discussing tonight is appointing um public services uh director Jason Kern as our American disabilities uh ad coordinator. Um he deals with public facilities along with sidewalks and some of the uh requirements of the ADA. So we would we have a requirement that we have to name an ADA and obviously his constant um work out in the field would uh be aligned with that work. Yes.

Um is there additional compensation for that? Absolutely not. You've never asked for Is this a new requirement?

Um for project uh we've always had a following ADA and it was assumed that the engineer and us would do design work. In this particular case, we have to sign certain certifications that we comply with certain uh design requirements. It'll be more of his review and signature that will be required. attorney.

So, um, in addition to designating, um, Director Kern as the ADA coordinator, he's also being designated as the, uh, coordinator for the what's called section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which very, very similar to the American with Disabilities Act. I mean, the main distinction is the Rehabilitation Act applies to any employer who has 15 or more employees. Technically, the ADA applies to organizations that have 50 more 50 or more employees. There's nothing that precludes us from naming an ADA coordinator for having less than 50 employees. The particular um grant applications and things like that that we're looking at are asking for an ADA coordinator. So, that's why we've added it. But, so he's actually gets two roles. Um, city manager and I talk. and we figured who who could we designate that would be the funniest uh to give these responsibilities to and we unanimously [clears throat] decided director current. So

Councilman Frost, do you have a question? Uh thank you, Mayor, but uh attorney answer. Thank you. Any other question for either city manager or city? All right. Jason.

All right. Next, we're going to be asked to approve resolutions 20263. Uh, this is for approving the 10 badge contract. City manager. Yes. Madam, mayor and members of council. Also, one of the things that we'll be talking about um this evening is u entering into a contract. Um this is a MDOT project and we're on resolution number three. Correct? Yes.

This is a project um of West Street from Alian to an um it's a MDOT project. The total amount is 764,655 with the city portion being 379,000 um and the federal government approved 385,000. Um again this is a project that has been in the design works for approximately what would we say year and a half year? Yeah. Sometime last year.

Yeah. So, uh, we're going to seek council's approval in allowing us to pursue this grant and to constru reconstruct this street, including utilities. Anybody have any questions as to the segments we're talking about? Any other questions for our city manager? Next, we're going to be asked to approve uh the Whiteman proposal for the Eagle CWSRF project plan. City manager.

Yes. Madame, mayor, and members of council. Um we are in the process of looking at putting in or installing a foam insert into our sanitary sewer. Um, we have streets that are in good shape. Unfortunately, some of the underground is um is insufficient. Um, I'll give you an example. Irwin Street, which has an excellent watering now, good surface. The sewer main is in poor condition. One of the things that we've been thinking about and would like to pursue is instead of excavating Irwin Street. What we'd like to do is insert a two u a foam where we use steam and air and we insert it into the sanitary sewer inflated and that should give us many many years of service for our residents. This will keep the sewer intact and it will be much less expensive than excavation. So what we're seeking here tonight is at a cost of $45,500 is allowing or white to do the design of that project for us.

So this is just the cost of the design is the actual implementation of the phone as well. Okay. And do we know of other municipalities that have gone this route? Many, many have. In my professional career, I've used it, too. It's where it saves us from having to excavate the entire street, especially if the street is in good condition of re opening it up and having a series of patchwork. We're going to insert this foam at where the sanitary sewer is. and that it should provide a lot of integrity and a lot of functionality to that sanitary sewer to give us more life.

Thank you. Um was that Irwin Irwin Avenue? That was just an example. We're going to do it in various other parts of the city too. Okay. What's the um the estimated total project cost the um 10 million? Is that what we're on? Yes. Right. You want to just address this question?

Yes. It could be up to 10 million. Um and so this wouldn't be just like manager was saying just Irwin. There's several places when we do Beamer Street next year and Dean and Hogland. There's several spots that we're going to replace. Then there are some spots that aren't as bad that we can just go ahead and do this liner instead. One place that we're going to do the liner would be depending on the timing would be North Eaton Street between uh Austin Avenue and North Street. There's a couple sections that have collapsed and I actually have chunks of ashvall in the uh sanitary line itself. What this can do, even if I'm missing a section like on the top, we can put this foam through it. It's basically a liner and it'll take the shape of the the pipe itself and I don't need to have that pipe completely intact. So instead of us digging up the whole part of Eaton Street, I can do the liner instead.

Right. Um now my concern with this is the 10 mil because this is separate from the work that we're already doing with the water and everything else. Right. That's correct. Okay. All right. Where's the money coming from? Because people are always complaining my my water bill is near $300. Yeah. So, this isn't We're not paying the 10 million. Okay.

The grant total could be up to 10 million. So, it depends. And then have to ask David or Mickey what the match would be for our portion of the the sewer line. Um [clears throat] I don't know right now what the percent of grant money that'll be available. Uh the city of Albium would be eligible sorry [clears throat] um the city would be eligible for some of the grant funding but that would come with the offer which would occur in September. So uh the project plan would need to be completed. that's due May 1st and then we would receive preliminary scoring in late July or August. Have an opportunity to add clarifications or more information to improve our score if possible and then the city would get an offer in September. Same thing we went through with the water project a couple years ago. Now I mean we're in the middle of construction but this process was about two years ago this time on the water project, maybe three years ago.

[clears throat]

Um so an offer be made with low interest loan and the city I believe would qualify either one or 2% depending on the calculation for overburden status and then um I think it be offered some grant dollars. I don't know what amount and the city is not obligated to take it. So the city could turn it down but it's um it's an opportunity to Even if it's all low in small loan, you can reduce the amount. You can reduce the scope. It's we [clears throat] estimated $10 million in our intent to apply to Eagle, but maybe it ends up being 7 million or something. And you could you could reduce the scope once once an offer is made if you wanted to. Um depending on what the impact or rates is going to be. Um if you are offered a grant, it would be a percentage. So, [clears throat] let's say we applied for 10 million and got a a $2 million grant and $8 million of low interest loan. You said, "Well, we want to knock it down to $5 million project." You wouldn't get to keep the $2 million grant. It would be it'd be 20%. So, it go down to a million. So, um could be reduced that way. But it's [clears throat] a great opportunity. And I guess Jason was saying, you know, we we learned during the water project, every sewer we got close to crumbled. So it's like if it's untouched, it seems to be okay, but as soon as you get close to it, [clears throat] contractor go to make a repair and the next piece would crumble and they dig it up, try to connect to the next one, they just had to chase every piece manhole to manhole and that was just a repeated thing that we witnessed. And so it became um certainly frustrating, unexpected, but frustrating. So one of the things we thought [clears throat] this is this was recommended in the saw grant that was completed in 2018. a lot of sewer lining, but we also thought we should look back at all the roads that

have been reconstructed. Let's get those sewers lined so that those newer roads don't collapse or the sewers don't, you know, collapse. Um, any upcoming road projects, get them in advance because this will be a cheaper solution than replacing them uh in kind. It's the project we're doing right now with the water. It's fairly economical to replace them, probably more economical once everything is excavated, dug up. So, we already plan on removing all the roadway, excavating down, and replacing the pavement. So, the cost is just the sewer itself. If you were just to do a sewer project, it would be a lot more expensive because you'd have to do the sewer replacement as well with that. So, but if we can line them, that's non-intrusive. You block traffic for part of a day on each block as you do it, manhole to manhole, and then that that um prov that liner provides structural integrity. Um, so it does a couple things. One, we do know there's infiltration in the sewer system, and the city gets big spikes in the amount of waste water when it rains. So that means water is either getting directly into the sewer, like in a storm sewer that's connected. I don't think there's a whole bunch of that, but also as water table rises, there's sewers with cracks in them, and the water gets in there, and now the city is paying to treat storm water, which is unnecessary. So lining the sewers does a couple things. One, it eliminates that infiltration is what that's called. Um and it also restores structural integrity of the sewers. The the liners are incredibly strong. So um the idea was to pursue that so that as an economical fix to be proactive on restoring um sanitary sewers.

Yeah. So that's part of the reason why you meant uh the Irwin was mentioned even though it's a newer road is to be proactive in addressing it so that it doesn't happen down the road. Yeah. So once this started happening in our water project, one of the first things that went off in my head was Irwin because we just reconstructed that two three years ago

and I'm thinking we don't want to have to dig into that. So one of the priorities in my mind um there's lots of them but would be to get the sewer the sanitary sewer on Irwin line so we don't have an issue with that. But that's that's exactly what I was thinking. So I'm thinking Irwin I'm thinking like River Street um you know the parts and the roads that we've done the ones that have been reconstructed or resurfaced in the last 5 to 10 years get those done because those aren't going to be touched for probably 10 15 20 years again any other roads that are planned and then other critical ones like interceptor sewers that run along the river maybe go underneath the river things like that. Mickey also um Jason the difficulty of working on eaten street and the mixture of concrete and asphalt. Can you just explain requirements?

Yeah, so we we're [clears throat] working on endots right away. We had to get a permit from them and one of the conditions is any excavation that we make has to be restored in kind. And right now that pavement section on Northeastern has a concrete base course and they have asphalt above it and it makes it more expensive because you're putting concrete down and asphalt. It'd be cheaper to do more layers of asphalt and we propose that to MDOT but they want everything to be consistent. So if they ever do a project they know what to expect that everything is the same and I can I can appreciate that but um I kind of wish there was more flexibility on that but there isn't. So it is we're we're we have to abide by their conditions. So um that answered the question you're looking for.

We will have discussion moving forward. This is just yeah. So, and I guess when I first read this, I kind of took it as a service agreement for you to create an assessment plan so that we can have like a shovel ready project when we're applying for grants

for the for our proposal that's on for consideration. No. So, [clears throat] we submitted an intent to apply which is like a one-page real simple thing online back before November 1st that was due. the next step and that just makes you eligible to apply. Eagle calls a project plan. It's basically the application. It ends up being um I usually describe it as it's about a 45page document with about 3 to 500 pages of appendices, but ends up being something like this. Um it it's a takes a pretty good effort to get it done, but it's due May 1st. We have to have it available to the public I think for 20 days and then it has to be approved by council. So if we want to hit a regular meeting and not require special meeting probably your second May sorry your second April meeting but that means the project plan has to be done by the end of March to advertise make it available for public comment. Um so the project plan is essentially the application. So our ITA intend to apply I just guess estimated $10 million. I put that in there. When we do the project plan, we're actually going to look at all the sewers that were recommended by the televising that was done in the saw grant again back in 20 167 probably when the televising occurred. The report was finalized in 18. And then we're going to sit down with Jason and his team and and Doug and [clears throat] at the city and talk about what other priority sewers do we have, any ones that we have concerns with. And we're going to get a big list. We're probably going to get highlighters out and map it all out and we're going to say, "Okay, this is our priority." And we're going to go back and say, "Okay, we got this many feet of 8 in, 10 in, 12 in, uh, 15in, 18 in, 21, 24 in sewers at this estimated cost. Um, okay, we're sitting at a $6.2 million project. Okay, we just ran up a $14.5 million project where we want to scale back." And the the project plan

will have the scope and the cost estimates to go with it. And when we submit that, that becomes our application, but it's all the information that Eagle requires. And so it's a pretty it's a pretty hefty detailed report. We have any other question for Mickey or city manager? Council. Yeah, that would come out of the um the enterprise form for the That's correct. So this is cuz it said 2027. Yep.

So the proc the timeline on this. So we submit the project plan by May one. You hear by September you'd have an offer and by the end of September you would agree to accept it or decline it. Um then the design occurs. The plans get prepared in specifications in late 26 early 27. And then it has to be bid out no later than June of 27. And then the loan closing with Eagle would occur in August of 27 or September, early September. Usually it's late August. And then construction could commence November, December of 27 and through 28. So it's fiscal year 27 funding. And we typically pursue a what they call a fourth quarter uh loan closing. So the fourth quarter for the state is July through September is the end of their fiscal year. So that closing usually occurs in either August or early September.

So we got a while. Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you Mickey for that. So given the time I do need to allow for uh public comment if there's anybody in the gall that would like to stand and address council we may do so at this time this forth us seeing no movement you have a motion

just while we have a moment just want to take a sec to introduce the gentleman sitting here in the front row this is John Right. He's a new attorney in my office. He part of his role will be assistant city attorney for the C value. So just wanted to be able to put a face with a name. Oh, thank you. Do I have a motion to support? All in favor say I. I oppose the discussion of journ 656.