Board of Public Works - Regular Meeting

Thank you, everyone. I am calling to order the Utilities Committee meeting for May 12. Let's go ahead and start with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one excused, and we'll introduce ourselves from the left.

Patrick Hayden, District 7.

Brad Meltzer, District 2.

Nate Wolfe, District 12. Chris Croat, District 14.

Thank you. Now we need approval of the minutes from our previous meeting, twenty six-six zero nine, to approve the April 28 meeting minutes.

Move to approve.

Do we have a second?

I'll second. I wasn't here, but I'll second.

All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any abstaining or opposed? There are none. The minutes are approved. We have no public hearings or appearances today. We have two action items. The first is twenty six-six ten, request to approve inter municipal agreement between the city of Appleton and the town of Grand Chute for Veterans Memorial Park, South Pond. Can I get a motion?

Move to approve. Second.

All right. We have a motion and a second. And who on staff would like to talk

to? Director, please.

All right. Go ahead, Deputy Director Neuberger.

Thank you, Chair. So the town of Grand Chute represents about 20% of the area that's tributary to this pond. And what this agreement will provide for is it will allow the town of Grand Chute to take water quality credit for the performance of their pond in their MS4 permit. And what the city gets out of it is a 20% cost share contribution for maintenance of the pond.

Wonderful. Alder Coates.

Thank you, Chair. My only question, and if I may ask Deputy Director Neuberger, does this have any impact on the credit that the city is getting? Or does that remain consistent or the same?

No impact on what credit the city can take. We could never take credit for the water quality improvements in the town's share of the water that gets to the pond in the first place. So basically nobody was able to get credit previously for the town's water that goes to the pond. At least this way, the town can get credit for the treatment that the pond is providing for their water.

Okay. I was thinking it was a certain like a credit or a certain number of credits and you couldn't both take it,

That makes sense. Yeah, we cannot take credit for town water even if we're treating Okay. Thank you.

And it's based on the contributing impervious surfaces draining to there?

Watershed, right?

Watersheds, but yeah. Their impervious surfaces and the city's impervious surfaces are what counts for that treatment number.

All right. Alder Hayden. Thank you. So could they theoretically claim this without this agreement since they're doing the treatment ahead of it getting into there? And are they just being good neighbors and kind of contributing to the maintenance of the pond itself?

So the DNR will not allow an entity that is not a pond owner to take credit for it unless of an agreement of this nature is in place. So it would not work out in their favor in terms of the DNR permit. But they also acknowledge that since they benefit from the pond with this agreement being in place, once it's in place, that it was reasonable for them to pay a share of the maintenance costs based on their contributing drainage area.

All right. Any other comments or questions? Let's go ahead and take a vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed or abstentions? There are none. That is recommended for approval. Moving down, twenty six-six thirty six, award the professional services contract for the wastewater treatment facility master plan to Donahue and Associates in the amount of $374,515 Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have

a second? Second.

All right. And who on staff? What mic do you have? Go ahead.

Thank you, chair. Before you tonight with this action item is addressing the needs for a facility that is nearly forty years old from a past master plan, a facility that I would consider probably our most critical facility for long term services to the city of Appleton. So this has been a process over the last year or two planning for this. And as the memo states, you know, we carried over money from '25 to sufficiently fund this in '26 along with other monies. With me today is utilities director Stempa, and I would ask the committee to ask him any questions, you know, with the background that where we're at today.

And also, we have project manager, Shagi, with us to answer any questions with the scoring and selection process. So I'll leave it up to the committee if you have any questions.

All right. Thank you. And do we have any questions? Alder Krott.

Thank you, Chair. Just to clarify, this looks appear to be well within the budget of total of $475 which includes some carryover funds, correct?

Correct.

And then two bidders, it looks like, obviously, the one was lower cost but definitely didn't score as high. Could you just talk about that a little bit, the the scoring metric? Looks like the recommendation that firm had a very high score.

Yeah. I speak to that, and Steve can elaborate if needed. So the RFP was sent out to some firms that we have worked with. It was also put on the city's website. For any other firms that keep a pulse on that, to provide a proposal.

So firms that not to call out names, but whether it be Donahue, McMahon and Associates, Black and Veatch, Jacobs Engineering, former CH2M Hill, So some larger firms and some smaller regional firms, along with Strand, who also provided a proposal. All those firms were qualified that responded. Some thought this work was maybe not a big enough project for them. And I think a lot of it boiled down to firms that had a good pulse on what our needs were, and specifically what was listed in the proposal for a scope of work. Donahue teamed up with McMahon on this, which was not expected.

Very strong team. Both have predominantly done all of our work and are specialized with certain needs in our plant. Donna Hughes done a lot of digester work, electrical system upgrades, high voltage, and drilling on MCCs. McMahon has done pretty much everything under the roof. And so when they put together a proposal that listed on a depiction aspects and areas of the plant that they have touched over the last fifteen, twenty plus years, along with a really strong proposal that was laid out, it evident why that score is reflected in that.

Strand's a very qualified firm, but I think for them just didn't have the strength of proposal, probably just because they haven't had a foot in the door of late. Okay. And so I just want to add also, we did reference checks on both firms before making a decision. And that final step, and we stay true to this, is blinders on with the proposals. We do not look at cost. The cost comes in as a last step. And it's not it doesn't always work out with a selection criteria. There's other contributing factors. But in this case, it was slam dunk in terms of the proposal, the depth of the proposal, and the value that we believe we're going to get from Donahue. Great.

Thank you.

Wonderful. Any other comments or questions? All right, let's go ahead and vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed or abstaining? Or none, that is also recommended for approval. We do not have any information items today, so I will entertain item number eight.

Move to adjourn. Second.

I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you all very much.