City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to City [music] of Keen in Focus. Thanks so much for [music] listening. Hello and welcome back to our next episode of City of Keen in Focus. My name is Asa Kramer and I am joined today by Elizabeth Ferland, our city manager, and Brian Ruof, our city engineer. Hi guys. Hello. Hey, it's nice to have you back, Asa. Thank you so much. I am glad to be back. I was out of the office for a little bit, but it's nice to be back. I hear I missed a gigantic storm, so I am happy I missed that. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. Well, you haven't missed the cold. So, I'm really excited to have Brian Ruof here today with us. Brian, you've been with the city for over a year now. About a year and a half.

A year and a half. Yeah. And you have been doing a great job. Oh, thank you. Yeah. I have seen you giving presentations at council committees and always available to answer questions and help explain things in the non-engineer speak. That's a hard thing to do sometimes, you know. So, it's great to have you on the team and really happy that you're here with us today. Last night at the city council meeting, they approved the contract for the engineer for the solar pavilion project on Gilbo a and wondered if you could just talk a little bit about that project.

Sure. Yeah, very exciting project. As you know, the city is receiving federal funding through the Northern Borders Regional Commission, the timber for transit grant. NextGen, we've worked and negotiated the scope and fee with them. We're very confident in their abilities to complete this project. They've demonstrated similar project experience and successfully completed projects before and we think they'd be a great fit for the city. The Gilbo a solar pavilion. It's multimodal really. It serves many purposes but essentially connects the treasure rail trail and the transportation center. It gives it a face that it really doesn't have in that area right now. I think it's going to be the catalyst for development in that area and the development of future cultural corridor if you will for that. The nice thing about it too, and this wasn't the case when I started in engineering, is we're going to essentially we've sized the space to produce enough energy to essentially pay for all our lighting downtown, which is when I started as a engineer, your only option was to put it back into the grid. And it wasn't that option to use electricity. You generated from renewable sources as your own source. We are doing that as part of this project, which is very exciting. a couple of things that you touched on a few years ago. There was an effort to look at Gilbo a as an arts corridor and while many of those things haven't yet come to fruition, one of the things that was talked about in that planning phase was doing something different in those parking spaces and having some sort of covered structure that could be used for covered parking, which is great, but also for other activities. And at the time they talked a lot about the farmers market because we have the farmers market there in the summer on Saturdays and it's very well attended. But having some covered space for them was something that we thought might make it even more attractive to more people to come out and to sell their goods at the

farmers market and more people to frequent it. So the fact that we are creating covered space, right, both for parking and for the farmers market and other activities and also generating electricity that we're using in our own project. I do think it's a a real win-win. I would agree. And I have to give the department some kudos for this as well because this might be the first Northern Borders grant we've gotten and it's not the first time we've tried. We've tried a few times, but early on before the grant was submitted, we actually got some good advice and that was not a lot of people were applying for the timber the timber grant. Oh, that's clever. Yeah. So, that meant less competition. [laughter]

That's smart. Which is good. And then when you think about it, it really improved our chances of getting the grant, but also it made sense using local timber to build this structure. It's another way that it's environmentally conscious, right? We're utilizing natural resources for the project and provides a look that is going to be very unique and special for the area I think.

So Brian, can you talk a little bit about how this might work with the downtown project? So initially this was planned as a part of the downtown project and then when the Gilbo a section was removed from the scope for this phase of the downtown project we did take a look at continuing this separately. So can you talk a little bit about how that might be timed and

sure it's a great question actually. So it's definitely its own project. So I think the thought process is in according with NextG is they'll have the design, any permitting needed and federal compliance requirements completed in about a year's time, the end of this year ready for bid. With that said, we'll have to see where that aligns with our contractor. We don't want to put detours into detours and impact multiple areas of traffic. So, it may be logical to do it in 2027 construction, may be logical to do it in 2028, but we'll be ready for construction in 27 regardless. Okay. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Anything else on this? Because I want to move on over to the downtown project.

I think that's the highlights. It's definitely a really exciting project. We're excited to get a couple concepts and some feedback from the public. We know based on preliminary discussions that the space is is probably even bigger than what we need to generate the amount of electricity we need for downtown. So what we do with that extra space and how we utilize that, I think it it'll be really exciting to see what we do.

So last night at the city council meeting, the council also voted to amend the scope of the downtown project and go out to bid. Can I have you talk a little bit about the timeline? Sure. Of course, we've been coordinating with Stantech almost daily on the updates. The last I think we spoke, they were looking at a window of about two weeks to have contract documents ready to be reviewed. So then we would need to go to DEES. We've already pre-coordinated with DEES for their review. Essentially, what we'll do is provide the updated documents and then a summary of what the changes are. And they've promised if we do that, they can expedite their review for us to go out to bid. So everything's lining up to be able to bid the project in early March and potentially earlier if everything goes really well, but we're committing to early March right now. Lining that up. We're making sure that everyone that we contacted and discussed with that that previously was interested in the project and bid the project that we would give them a heads up about a week before so they so they were aware. And it's sort of different from bidding some projects. I think what we'll do is provide so it's easier for the people that did take the time to go through the entire project and develop a bid is provide a summary of here's what's changed you know make it easier to

submit a bid and I'm confident we will get bids that we can go forward with this time oh that was brave of you to say yes [laughter] we've got that on record you heard that right

that was on record [laughter] so there were a lot of changes that had to happen in order to make this project work and this is really the second round. There was changes back in like the August September time frame and then you know now the changes that came forward that were approved last night. This time they involve things like changing the base of the road, reusing some of the existing road base, looking at less temporary pavement and really just using that temporary pavement where we absolutely need to. Reducing the number of uniformed officers and using flaggers when we possibly can. eliminating the lighted ballards and the granite seat walls. I was a little disappointed about the granite seat walls. Not so much because I want granite seat walls, but because we've been moving benches around for a long time here in the city of Gain. You know, we have these benches that we put out and then if they become problematic, we move them around and usually it's because someone is sitting there all day long. Well, the wonderful thing about a granite bench is it's very useful, but you don't really want to sit there all day long. And so, it's I thought would help us with the issue of moving these benches around and provide for some additional seating. So, I'm hoping we might be able to take a look at that when the bids come in, but right now that's out of the scope. Also, there are some things that will probably be done at some point later, like adding things, bike racks, trash recepticles, changing potentially the fountain in the future, and adding the catinary lighting. There was catary lighting planned on Gilbo, the the little alleyway between the transportation center and Margaritas, and then there was catary lighting planned at Railroad Square. Right now, that lighting is really expensive. the bids came in expensive,

which I think speaks to whether or not the contractors that would bid this type of project want to do that work basically. And I think the changes really come down to getting to that allocated available amount. Yes. And then I think in proposing and recommending those changes, we're really trying to set that bar, you know, low and hoping to overperform and find more areas we can save for construction. Well, I you did a great job. I know you went through every line on

Well, it was a team effort. It's always a team effort, but you were leading it and you went through every line on that bid and came up with some pretty creative solutions that did bring us under the budget amount that we needed to be. And it still does leave us the possibility of doing these things over time in the future. So, you know, by taking some of these items out like changing the fountain, if they want to change the fountain in the future, that can be done independently. And then there are also things that are in here that the public works department is willing to take on at some point as well. And so a variety of changes and one of the other big changes is and it hasn't been finalized yet because that we're just getting started on the capital planning process, but the proposal was to move out some road construction projects out a couple of years so that we could also use those funds for this downtown project. And so it's going to be a conversation What happens with the capital plan is really a very separate conversation, but it was identified as an opportunity for funding for this project. So, thank you for helping us to get this project under the budget and I'm going to keep this recording that you assure us we're going to get we're going to get bids that will meet the bid amount.

Very excited for that. Yeah. Thanks, Brian. Do you do a lot of the updating for the capital plan for the public works department? Your division does. much exclusively all the engineering department we rely on for lots of things across the city. And so getting those numbers for a project, whether it's a public works project or a park and wreck project or a facilities project like our garages, you know, engineering has a hand in that. So [snorts] yeah, things are never dull. We've got a hand in every type of project. So very exciting and it's a good variety. It keeps me excited to come here every day, for sure. That's good. Y. All right. We like to hear that. Thanks. All right, Brian. Well, thank you. All right. Thank you.

All right. Well, last night was actually a pretty quick meeting. It really was. I was surprised. Yeah. There were no public hearings and the mayor didn't have any special recognitions at the beginning and so, you know, really just a handful of items that came out of committee for the council to vote on and they all passed. There were a few communications that were referred to committee this week and so we do have a couple of items on the PLLD planning licensing and development and then we always almost always have a list of things for FOP. We always keep them busy with budget and things of that nature. We're going to talk about at FOP this week the downtown group's a series of smallcale festivals.

That's exciting.

It's really exciting. So the downtown group has stepped up. I mean this is exactly what we need. They are working on this plan for small festivals throughout the construction period of downtown because we know that the downtown businesses have their best day is when we're having a festival because we have visitors from all over. and so happy that the downtown group decided to take that on. And so they will be coming to the FOP committee as well as the group that's working on the Keen 250th Independence Day celebration. And what they are looking for is support for community funding. And typically to get support for community funding of an event, you've had to have held the event for a couple of years successfully. and it's had to be a nonprofit and there's a few other criteria that they have to meet. But in this case, both of these applications or requests for community funding are the first time events and so they will have to wave their policy. I think that they'll be supportive of this. The council has talked about doing something like this and supporting really [clears throat] any sort of creative idea that would help us support the downtown businesses. And so I don't think this will be a big lift, but what they will be looking for is support from the committee and then from the council and then assuming that happens, there's a calculation that's done for the services that are required from the city. So public works, police, fire, whatever the case may be, it will have come out of the protocol committee and there'll be a calculation for the cost of city services and it is support for that cost of city services is really what they're looking at and right now community of funded events is capped at $10,000 and usually that's enough to support a small event. There are some of

the larger events that tend to go over that and whatever the difference is, the event themselves will pay for the difference. For these two requests, even if the council says yes, they want to do this, they want to support it. City manager put that in your budget. When you put the budget together, they still have to vote for the budget later. So, the budget doesn't get voted on until mid to late June. So, it will come back again once they have a budget to review. Then for the committee reports, we had a couple offormational reports. Of course, the big news was the downtown project. Yeah. Yeah.

Councelor Jones voted no. We we knew he was going to. He's been consistent throughout the whole project. um just not totally on board with the project. But councelor Filio made some really great comments last night about, you know, we've had to make concessions along the way and the city council has done that and they have, you know, probably there's something that each of them would have liked to have seen differently, right? You have 15 city councilors and a mayor and they all have opinions and thoughts and so there are probably things that they would all like to see a little different, but they were able to reach this consensus for a project to get it going. I hope Ryan is right. I hope we do get lots of bids and I hope they're under our budget amount so that we can move the construction forward in the spring because we've seen every time it's pushed off, it just costs more.

Yeah. Things do not get cheaper, unfortunately. So, that was really the big news last night. And then there was a request that came in for an increase in the disabled veteran property tax credit. And I think what [snorts] the council decided to do was again a good compromise because of some changes in state law. The individuals that are currently receiving that credit would have lost $300 for the year. And this is a an actual credit. So, a lot of the exemptions and things that we see are for like a reduction in your value. But this is for a credit on your taxes. So it's like a dollar for dollar. And so the council last night voted to increase it by that $300 and basically hold the amount the same and then review this during the reval process. So whenever there's a re-evaluation done, we do review all exemptions and credits. And so it will be part of that review. So that will be back again once the revaluation is complete.

And that's coming up. That process is sort of this year, isn't it? Yeah, it starts this year and we did have Dan Langel in our city assessor to talk about that once, but we will have him in again because as we move forward through the process and we start to gather some of the data, it will be helpful just to do some updates along the way. Also, it's complicated. So, having any sort of review is is good. Is [laughter] complicated. And then [snorts] Nola's is coming back.

That's great. So they're they're moving into 11 central square which is the [snorts] space that's closest to the city hall door. So the most recently the Lucas space had been combined with 11 central square and it had been under one lease. They didn't want that big of a space. They wanted the smaller space and the smaller space has been updated more recently. The space where Luca's restaurant was hadn't been updated in quite some time and there's some work in there that needs to be done and so they went forward with 11 Central Square. That's awesome. We will look forward to that.

Yeah. So, now that the council has approved that, I'll have a draft for their lease probably early next week. They got some work to do. Even though it is the newer space, I understand there are some issues that they've discovered and so they will need to do a little bit of work before they actually are ready to open. So I think just one more thing I'd like to mention and it was during manager's comments just because it's the first time we've done this. So there's a statute in the state of New Hampshire that allows host communities of gambling facilities to participate in the program that's usually used for nonprofits or and so basically what the nonprofits do is they sign up for a week and then whatever the revenues are for that week there's a percentage of it that goes to the nonprofit. So there's not anything that they necessarily need to do except for sign up for that week. Well, towns and cities are now eligible for that. And so we got our week. The council decided last September. They authorized me to enter into this agreement and be part of this program. Our week was in December and our amount that we received is $13,788.35.

Oh wow. Great. Yeah. So the only thing we have left to do right now is to bring that to the finance committee to be able to expend it. And so what I am proposing is that it simply be used to offset a capital project in the police department that we already know is coming up for fiscal 27 just to help to offset some of that expense. So I think that's it, Asa. It's a pretty quick meeting. Yeah. All right. Super. Well, I just want to say thank you to you and Rebecca Landry, one of our deputy city managers. Y'all did a great job recording the last podcast while I was out. I listened to it. It was really fun. So, thanks so much for keeping it going while I was out. [laughter]

Yeah. Yeah. We missed you. Um Yeah. But Rebecca did a great job. Mhm. So, I will just mention there are open positions on keenh.gov/job. Go ahead and check those out. I think we will wrap up for today and we will see you next time. Thanks for listening to [music] City of Keen and Focus. We'll see you next time.