Aviation Board - Regular Meeting

Good morning, Jennifer.

Can you hear us?

Yes, I can.

Great, thank you.

Yep, I can see you too.

Good morning, everyone. We're going to call this meeting to order at 10.03 a.m. on August 31, 2026. Our Board of Public Works commissioners are present. I will need an approval of the minutes from August 24, 2026. For this meeting, we will be doing voice votes, so you will need to state your motion. Council President. Motion to approve by Council President. Is there a second? Second by Director Train. Something's happening with the microphones. Okay. All in favor, please signify by saying aye or raise another hand. All right. That motion passes unanimously. First agenda item 25-1195, bidders' proof of responsibility. There are no bidder proof of responsibilities today, so we will move on. Next agenda item 26-0908, Bodega Brew Pub Inc. Street Privilege Permit request for placement of dumpsters and recycling bins to be placed at 122 4th Street South and 1317 Pearl Street. What's your name? Motion approved by Director Gallagher. Is there a second? Second by Council President Dickinson. Any discussion? All right. Seeing none, all in favor, please signify by saying aye or raise another hand. Any opposed? That motion passes. Next agenda item 26-0917, water rate application update presentation of the PSC final order and approval of effective date. Tina.

Good morning. Thank you. I'm here today because since our rate hearing that we held for the water rates on July 29th, the Public Service Commission has issued its final order on the water rate application. The PSC upheld the draft rates in full and did not approve a phased-in implementation, which was some of the requests at the hearing. As outlined in the order, which is uploaded to Legistar, the Commission found the proposed rates reasonable and necessary to meet the utility's long-term financial needs. despite the public concerns raised about the magnitude of the increase. The final order requires the new rates to be implemented no later than 90 days from the order service date. So my recommendation to the board would be to approve an effective date of October 1st, 2026, With this date, customer bills will reflect prorated charges for the new rates in November, December, and January. Full charges under the new rate structure will first appear on bills issued for the February, March, and April 2027 billing cycles. Following Board approval, I will file the selected effective date with the PSE through the existing docket, and we will prepare public notices, materials, and update the website with the new rates in early September.

Any questions from Board of Public Works members? Council President Dickinson.

Thank you, Ms. Erickson. Is it possible for those that are interested, if consumers would like to know what their new rates would be, do they have a way to investigate that or ask questions of you?

So that's actually something I'm working on. We have a spreadsheet we've developed within our office where we can put in the consumption. Of course, this will only work for residential, because every user type has a different billing in terms of consumption. So for residential, though, we could work with IT to try to find a way to get this calculator, I guess, out on our website where customers could go in and put in their usage, and it would show them not only what their bill would have been under the old rates, but what it will be under the new rates. So that's something we can work on.

Thank you. That would be important.

And if I heard you correctly, you said they decided to not go with the phased approach?

That's correct.

Do we know why?

They determined that it would not be financially responsible to phase it in. It would not be in the best interest. I could find the exact language in here, but let's see. However, the commission finds that the revenue resulting from the authorized rates is necessary to provide for the applicant's financial needs over the long term.

Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Seeing none, is there a motion? You said October 1, right? Yes, that's correct.

So again, the customer won't actually see, even though we put an effective date, because we bill quarterly, the November, December, and January bills will be prorated, so they won't see the full effect of those new rates. The first bill that will see the full effect would be February of 2027. So it'll slowly increase over two bills for each customer.

Gotcha. So then the motion today would be to approve An effective date of October 1st. All right. Yep. Is there a motion? You have a question? Council Member Gagarin.

What if we did not pass this, what would happen?

That's a good question. It's a final order from the PSC. So then it would turn around and be a directive. I mean, we've already been given a directive. We must pick a date. So we could always do it later. And then it would just, it has to be within 90 days by the order. So the October 1st date would just be over 30 days within that 90. It would just delay, it would delay it a little further. It could impact us financially. We do need the cash flow to come in to help us with our 2026 and 27 budgets. So I think it's important that we implement it as soon as possible. However, it's ultimately up to the board to decide that.

So is there not an appeal process to PSC decisions? What's that? There's not an appeal process for PSC decisions?

I'm not aware of that. Just figuring out what to ask. No, yeah, no, good question.

All right, motion made by, what was that? You have a question? You made the motion.

I had, but it got buried. Either one of us, I'll second if she needs it.

Motion made by Director Train, seconded by Director Gallagher. All right. All in favor, please signify by saying aye or raising of the hand. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Motion passes.

Thank you, Tina.

All right. Next item, 26-0918. I just want to make sure I don't miss speakers. All right. 26-0918, finding in order to establish a mid-block crossing on the 1400 block of St. Andrew Street. Hey, Jackson. Good morning.

Yeah, a request was received from the owner of Veterans in Professions, INC, and the Fenagore Group, LLC, Fenagore Group owning the parcel of 1407 St. Andrew Street. they're interested in establishing a mid-block crossing on the 1400 block of St. Andrew Street. The goal of this is to provide increased accessibility for a business that sees a lot of veterans with mobility issues. And once the approval from the board is received, the engineering department will work with veterans and professions to make sure that this ramp is built to city specifications.

All right, any questions of staff?

Council Member Galligan.

Where does the funding for this come from?

So that's in discussion right now. If veterans and professions would like to see this built immediately, it'll be entirely paid for by the business. If they would like to wait, there's a possibility that the city could get this on contract with our miscellaneous curb and gutter project in 2027.

Any other questions for staff? Thank you. Motion approved by Director Gallagher, second by Council President Dickinson. Also, sorry, for you, Jackson, who decided where this will go and why?

So the decision for where it goes is to just get a crosswalk closer to the access point of concern for the building. Whether it goes on the west or east side of that driveway is still up for discussion. It just needs to be a minimum 15 foot offset from the opening of that driveway. It's something that will be looked at closer. It hasn't been decided the exact placement as long as it's built to space. Correct, either or, not both, just one. Thank you.

All right, a motion has been made, a second has been made. Seeing no other discussion, all in favor, please signify by saying aye or raise another hand. Any opposed? That motion passes.

Thank you, Jackson.

I'm sure you probably gotta be up here for the next one too. All right. 26-0919, temporary street privilege permit request to temporarily place an EMC board on the northwest corner of the intersection of Fanta Reed Road and Dawson Avenue for the Freedom Honor Flight. Motion made by Council President. I'm sorry, Council Member Goggin. Second by Council President. Anything you want to add? All right. Any questions for Stan?

So I want to thank the engineering department for moving this forward quickly. The Freedom of Honor flight is scheduled for September 7. And it was discovered they need a temporary street prayer to get to the area that they need to be. So the veterans come from a distance, and so we appreciate that this moved through as quickly as it did, and we're ready for this to happen on the Monday of Labor Day. Thank you.

During the train.

May I ask the Chief Building Inspector if he has any comments on this one? Dave?

Thank you, Andrea. In the sign code, it says that they need to obtain a temporary permit. So I don't know if that's the temporary permit you're granting here today, or also a temporary sign permit, because we have one of those as well.

Okay, Director Gallagher? It looks like the request is to locate this in the public right of way, so we would just cover everything with the temporary street privilege.

Thank you, and we do have someone here to speak from the public on this agenda item, so I'm gonna call Tess Larson up. And as you come to the microphone, I know I said your name, but can you state your name and your municipality?

Tess Larson, L-A-R-S-E-N, Freedom Honor Flight Board of Director. I'd like to thank you guys for, again, helping us to get this through to today's meeting, as we just found out about a short time ago, and wanted to thank you all for helping us to get this. It does really, we temporarily, we light it up for a couple hours, about 4.30 to 6.30 a.m. or so in the morning, and then another hour or so at night, just to guide individuals to go straight down the road for us to find the hangars in which we facilitate out of. And I just thank you guys for the consideration of this.

Thank you. All right. There's been a motion. There's been a second. All in favor, please signify by saying aye or raising of the hand. Any opposed? That motion passes. Next agenda item 26-0920, finding an order to establish a no parking zone on the north side of the 1800 block of Barnaby Road. Jackson, can you explain how we got here?

Yeah, 67% of the frontage along this block face has requested that the north side of this block be labeled as no parking. And in general, we allow the majority of frontage to decide block face and its parking restrictions as long as they're standard parking restrictions. And no parking falls within those standard parking signs we'd be willing to put up. So it's recommended that we establish this as requested.

Was there something that happened that got us to have to study this street, or?

It doesn't require studies. We let homeowners have their own discretion with what parking restrictions they would like to see in front of their homes, rather than taking studies to it. Unless there are concerns with street width or uncomfortable driving conditions, which is not necessarily the case for this road. homeowners have their own discretion with the parking restrictions in front of their properties. Okay. Any questions for staff?

Director Trey?

Jackson, is there like a certain amount of property owners that need to be in agreement with this, or is there a petition, or is it based on residence or footage?

Entirely based on the frontage of the request.

So on this one, how many people on that block needed to sign off on it?

Just one. Oh, sorry, go ahead, Matt.

So it's confusing, but we don't count people, we count footage. So people have to sign as an official owner or representative of the property representing 50% or more of the footage of the block to get to the majority of the block. So that's, as long as the city's been around, that's what we've done. So it's not counting people, it's counting feet. Yes, you may.

Are the other property owners notified that this is going through?

This is the only home on this block. There's another parcel that's entirely empty.

So in other situations though, so if there were three people, would those other two people be notified?

It would be up to, in the past it's just been as long as there's more than 50% of the footage has signed the petition, We push it through. So I have not sent these decisions to all of the property owners at once, for example. If there was over 50% of the footage that agreed to and signed the petition, then it's approved, or recommended for approval, I should say.

Director Gallagher? So again, what happens with the petition process when we send it out to all the owners of record is that everybody gets a petition making them aware of the requested change. They can either choose to sign or to not sign an agreement with that, and they're given the opportunity to speak at the Board of Public Works.

All right. Any other questions from staff? Seeing none, we do have a speaker here, a public comment from this matter. All right, thank you, Jackson. I'll call up Noah. And if you can just state your name and municipality.

Good morning. Noah Gerdes. I'm the owner and CEO of Veterans and Professions. I'm the one that wanted that mid-walk crosswalk, so thank you for approving that. I appreciate it. I think it'll make the access one to the building a lot better. I've been in contact with the landlord, the Fenegar Group, in this as well. They have other businesses that it's going to add access and benefit to as well. So, they're excited about that. Justin regrets he wasn't able to be here this morning. As for the funding, I had talked with Jackson on that. And the one question I think that remains is, would it be possible, because I wanna get going in there as soon as I can, of course, right? Wheels are turning, trying to run a business and make money. If we could do it upfront and then do some type of an agreement, even if the city would be willing to reimburse some of it, half of it, you know, something like that in the new year, right? It's a win-win. I get it going sooner. You guys get a discount. You don't have to put so much money right towards it next year. So that would be the only thing that I thought that could maybe work. But just wanted to talk to you guys about it.

So I'm not sure the confusion in this one, but or confusion. But what I would say is work with the engineering department on that because you're signed up for a different matter.

Oh, well, I wrote down, maybe I wrote down the wrong number.

Yeah, we had you down for this one, which is talking about the no parking zone.

Oh, no, I don't have anything to say about that one. I don't know how my name got on there, so that's it.

But it was approved, so you'll just engineer it or work with you, and you all will figure that out. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Is there a motion on the no parking zone? Motion to approve by Director Gallagher, seconded by Council President Dickinson. All in favor, please signify by saying aye or raise another hand. All opposed? All right. That motion passes. Next agenda item 260921, Excel Energy Street Privilege Permit, request to install a gas main on the 2900-3100 blocks of Losey Boulevard South. Motion to approve by Director Train, second by Council President Dickinson. Any discussion? All right, seeing none. All in favor, please signify by saying aye or raising of the hand. Any opposed? That motion passes. Next is item 26-0922, Excel Energy Street Privilege Permit Request to Replace and Install Electrical Infrastructure on 29th Street Court. Is there a motion? Motion to approve by Director Gallagher, second by Councilmember Gagan. All in favor, please signify by saying aye or raising of the hand. Any opposed? The motion passes. Happy Monday, everyone. Have a great week. Meeting adjourned.

more about process, because I think with the Travis Street, so there's a homeowner on Travis Street that