Public Infrastructure Committee - Regular Meeting

All right, four o'clock, we can call the Board of Public Works for a three minutes walk to order. First item on the agenda is noxious speed assessment appeal item 063.

This is for 1911 Marshall Street. Are you the property owners for that property? Yes. I have the appeal attached and the property owners are present as well.

Okay. If you'd like, you can step up and. Stand up, sit up. You can, or you can come up right up to the table. That's fine. Yep. This is Sean.

You want me to just explain to you real quick? Okay. So we, I bought the property last year from Dave Lucco. He had passed away. So I bought it from his wife and then we went in and picked some things up. David left the lawnmower there and then Sean moved in. So I left it at the house. Lawn care was taken care of well last year. This year, the lawnmower didn't start. So he had called me and asked if he could borrow mine, and I hadn't got there right away. Then when I got the letter on, I think it was 6-1. So I went there on 6-4, cut the front yard, and I didn't even think to go up. like up the driveway to the left there where you're behind where you can see from the road. I didn't really even think of that. And there's a small section that I didn't do. And then in the fence yard where his dog is. So I didn't want to go back there. And we talked about him purchasing lawnmower and then I would pick it up for him. So we had that set in schedule and then they must've had somebody come and cut the side little area in the backyard. So my question is, or my ask is, HAB-Jacques Juilland, I guess if I were to realize the area that wasn't visible from the road was going to be a problem, I would take care of it, of course, and then, if there is a charge if I could be reassessed something something more reasonable. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Any questions from yes.

HAB-Jacques Juilland, I guess that's a question but a comment. set contractor to do these. We don't have the staff or the family to do this. So these are the actual costs that it took for somebody else to go out there and cut it. So it's not, I mean, so say we cut it in half, then the rest of the taxpayers are picking up the tab for the other half.

Right, so they charge 470 to cut a two by two area?

Well, I mean, I guess my question to you is if it was a two

do it right because you can't see it from there so the the property in itself so just so you know this is a public meeting that you have to talk about yes no disrespect anything else jen no i'm good thank you thank you like to comment yes sir uh so the entirety of the backyard in itself is completely privacy fenced in with seven foot privacy fences all the way around um the only way you can see the backyard any of the neighbors or anybody else wandering around is if you are all the way up That goes for the backyard and There's also a privacy check all the way up. So the only possible way to see the backyard in general is to go all the way up it into the backyard itself. The biggest issue I had with it is whoever came up, number one, nobody knocked on it. I was home that entire time. Nobody knocked on the door, asked any questions, and opened the back gate and went into the backyard. I have a fight train working line, military train, German Shepherd. uh, if I leave my back door open, cause it feels nice out, which I do concurrently all the time. And somebody goes in there like without permission and without notice, then it's like, that's a whole new problem on its own. So coming into the backyard is a big one. And then also now week's notice, uh, between whenever I purchased the lawnmower and started mowing it on my own is whenever somebody came up.

So anybody else? Questions, comments? Motion to deny the appeal. Second. Moved and seconded to deny the appeal. So here's the thing. I don't love this. Everybody here knows this. Every time it comes up, I don't love this thing. We are, the city is working on fixing some of the problems with this. It's not fast and it won't be ready for the summer. It doesn't help you at all. But again, I want to emphasize fellow board members position that the city does not go around looking for properties. This is somebody called in and said, this is bad. Wisconsin statutes allow us to go on property or our agents, which would be in this case, a third party to go on to your property when there's a violation. So this is just state law that allows us to go into that backyard. It would be really bad, obviously, if there was an injury, but I'm not going to comment on to how that would happen or anything prudent than that. But everything was done legally. Everything was done by the book. And if we decide, oh, we're going to cut you a break, then everybody else in the city pays for this. And it's just simply not policy for us to do that. I don't know why the people who live over there should pay for when you've got notice. It was outside the ordinance. You had the opportunity to fix it. You just didn't fix it all. No, I'm not shaming you. Again, I think that this is very silly. And if I was working with my neighbors, I would come, hey, what's going on? Somebody called it in. We don't know who, but somebody made a complaint. We have to have an enforcement mechanism for people at the city because there are people who wouldn't respond at all. And this is the current version of this. Hopefully someday it gets amended. So this doesn't happen moving forward. But I just don't see any way for the board to give people deals on this because basically just everybody else in the city thinks more. So that's the reasoning. It's not great. It's not going to make you feel good, but at least you know where we're coming from.

You can still be mad at me. I got one more thing that rang up if that's possible. So if you do the front that faces the curb appeal, somebody calls, right? You did the outside, the front, what everybody can see from the road. How, when the commissioner and the guy that cuts the grass makes the decision and he drives up to the property and sees the front's clean, why would we walk up the driveway and check the backyard behind the fence?

It's actually our procedure that we do. It's our policy that we commissioner follow. So in the statute, it's the entire piece of property. So that's why they checked the entire case. It's standard. Okay.

I'll pay the bill. Because we don't know, not only do we not really complain, we don't know what part of the area they were complaining about. So I mean,

You guys would drive through that whole neighborhood, every house. It's like, nobody cares. And I'm not taking my time to call on anybody.

All right, so we're all set? Is the motion on the table to deny the appeal? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? So I think the next steps, it actually has to go to council. So it'll be put on the agenda for council and I think it's on consent. Now, you have the ability to talk to your alder further if you'd like to put it there. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you, guys. Thank you. All right. Next item on the agenda, change orders.

We have change order 30 final from Vinton Construction for Lincoln Park Zoo Wetland Aviary. Aviary, it is a change of nothing, just closing out final quantities. And then change order number one from Fifth Pocket Skateparks for 2026 Matchbox Skatepark Expansion Project. This one is an increase of $14,500.

Motion to approve the change orders.

All right, moved and second to approve the change orders. Any further discussion? What's the 14.5 change order for?

Yeah, sure. So again, the first one was just close out as procedural to get all the quantities verified. Second one was the skate park and they found some additional concrete maintenance that needed to be addressed while they were out there. Since the contractor was there on site, it was more cost effective to just have them do it once they found it.

Good to hear it wasn't just for the

Wisconsin. It's part of the park. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Thank you. Okay, all those in favor say aye.

Aye. Any opposed? All right. Pay estimates are very essential.

We've got a few. We've got estimate number one from Elson Excavating for a sanitary sewer relay project in the amount of $184,430.84. Estimate 25 from AECOM for a form of Former Town of Newton gravel fit in the amount of $63,006.84. Estimate 22 and final from Strand Associates for design of rubric field dry detention in the amount of $7,300. Estimate number one from both infrastructure and environmental LLC for sanitary sewer master plan in the amount of $6,618.97. Estimate number six from R.A. Smith for Franklin Street Reconstruction for the amount of $15,500.24. Estimate number one from Vinton Construction Company for Silver Creek Stream Restoration in the amount of $458,068.45. Estimate number two from Northeast Asphalt for Asphalt Faving I in the amount of $48,383.34. Estimate number three from Silo Brothers Construction for 2026 for Google River Place sidewalk in the amount of $36,417.19. And estimate fifth and final from Vinton Construction for 2025 Lincoln Park View Wetland Aviary in the amount of $16,501.80.

Motion to approve the pay estimates. Second. Motion seconded to approve the pay estimates. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? HAB-Jacques Juilland, Contractor affidavits. HAB-Jacques Juilland, motion to adjourn. HAB-Jacques Juilland, If you get a first the second.

HAB-Jacques Juilland, You are done. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Too slow.