City Council - workshop

Good afternoon and welcome. At this time, I'd like to call our Suffolk City Council work session to order. Please be advised that Councilmember Rector will be absent today and Vice Mayor Ward has been delayed. Both have been excused. Moving forward, our first item is an overview of the American Rescue Plan. Mr. Manager.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, in 2021, the city of Suffolk received a little over $30 million in federal funding for specific uses connected to the ARPA or American Rescue Plan Act. These projects are coming to completion and they're actually due to be completed by the end of this calendar year per the ARPA Act. So today you will receive an update on our progress. One's completed, one that are nearing completion by four different departments. Kicking us off today will be Deputy City Manager Felder. Then you'll hear from IT, Public Works, and Public Utilities.

Good afternoon, Honorable Mayor, Honorable Vice Mayor in absentia. Distinguished members of council, Mr. Manager, I'm here before you this afternoon to talk about the American Rescue Plan Act, better known as ARPA. If you recall, ARPA is a allotment, $350 billion that the federal government gave to state and local governments to mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19. And the act was signed into law on March 11th of 2021. The city of Suffolk focused on two PERMITTED CRITERIA FOR ARPA FUNDING. NUMBER ONE, THE COVID-19 EXPENDITURES OR FOR THE NEGATIVE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF COVID-19, FOR EXAMPLE, HOUSEHOLDS, SMALL BUSINESSES AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY. AND THE SECOND ITEM WAS INVESTMENTS IN WATER, SEWER, STORMWATER AND BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE. For the city of Suffolk, we received a total of $30 million, $65,296. All funds had to be obligated by December 31st of 2024, and all funds must be spent by December 31st, 2026. The ARPA program will be officially over at the end of 2026. When it comes to how Suffolk used the ARPA funds, nonprofit support to the tune of a little over $1.5 million, which I will discuss, highlighting some of the nonprofit organizations, and also investments in water, sewer, stormwater, and broadband infrastructure, a little over $20.5 million, which Mr. Silat, Mr. Benin, and Mr. Rittel will enumerate after me. The nonprofit expenditures that were expended in 2022 and 2023. Beacon of Hope for emergency sheltering, $150,000. Coalition Against Poverty in Suffolk, $80,000 for the winter shelter program. The Suffolk-Nansman Historical Society, $61,900 for repairs, supplies, and equipment. The Geneva Shelter, for emergency housing, food, and other services to our residents. And last but not least, the Western Tidewater Free Clinic received $100,000 in HVAC system upgrades to the total of $1.5 million. to help service those that are in need. And if you have the presentation in front of you, you can, at your leisure, just take the time to see all of the nonprofits that were able to use the ARPA funds and what they were used for. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Salet.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. So I'm going to give you a quick broadband overview, and this is going to cover the Southside Network Authority and the Rural Broadband Initiative. So background, Southside Network Authority, we went through quite a bit to get here. It started in 2017 with some conceptual designs with all CIOs meeting throughout the region. In 2018, the city managers had then charged CIOs to start pulling together and committing to a broadband steering committee. The Southside Network Authority officially formed towards the tail end of 2019 and throughout 2020 to now, they've been going through build outs to complete this rural, not rural, the regional connection ring, fiber ring, to be established. The goals of the ring, of course, create better internet services, bring in more providers, more competition, ultimately to hopefully lower cost and increase speeds for residents and businesses. for that economic growth and development. Benefits are really going around critical infrastructure, public safety, and then the educational and research institutions. The SNA covered, so $5 million were put in by each of the five member cities, 119 mile ring with 288 strands in total. Each member city will have an additional access to six strands or 30 in total that were allocated tied into this ring. The ring is what is considered to be a middle mile infrastructure, which means that the ring does not sell the actual services, but it is capable of being able to be leased to other providers that will then do the last mile connection for residents. And the partner that is being brought in is Global Technology Systems or Global Technical Systems, GTS, and Spark Networks is their subsidiary. That would be the managing authority. Where are we today on S&A? So the ring is just about completed. Four of the five member cities to include Suffolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and Norfolk have completed everything from conduit installs, hand holes to the actual fiber, and it's all been spliced together. They're completing the last stages of testing throughout the remainder of this month, and the expectation is that Virginia Beach will be caught up and the ring will be completed officially towards the end of October. At the end of October, that would be a turnover and GTS would then go through the acceptance to take over the ring and start managing at that point. For the Rural Broadband Initiative, so this was in partnership with HRPDC. You have Suffolk, Isle of Wight, Southampton and Spectrum as our third party to come in and complete this Rural Broadband Initiative. The project itself, is housed through the program from DHCD. There was about 21 million that had been awarded and 14 million in contributions between Suffolk, Isle of Wight, Southampton, and Spectrum. Suffolk's contribution is 3 million. So where are we today again within the network? This project is also in the final stages of being wrapped up. Uh, with the overlay, there's the charter network that's in the gray, uh, the rural, uh, RDOF project is in blue and VATI is in yellow. Um, and to close this out, the locations, there's about 3000 that are being total for services to be provided to, um, there are a couple of hundred that are still left for ROA and permitting. Where we are today is Spectrum is in the process of closing out working with HRPDC and DHCD. Once that is accepted and closed we'll start doing some final wrap-up projects and working with the community to get the final outreach out there. Spectrum also has a soft agreement that is being completed with DHCD for any of the existing ROE items that have been identified to still be followed through and to be completed essentially by June of 2027.

Mayor, council, city manager. I'll be giving an ARPA update on the public works side. ARPA funds were utilized to complete the 200 and 300 block of Webb Street. We're currently working on the 400 block of Webb Street as well as Oxford. The project scope includes the installation of stormwater pipe, curb and gutter, and road resurfacing. The scope of work is the same for all the projects in this brief. The pictures in the slide are of current conditions today. The next slide I'll discuss will give you an idea of what the project will look like as it nears completion. So this slide here and these pictures are for Pleasant Hill. Next we have Lloyd Place and Rosemont. We're completing the final two streets in this neighborhood. We're actively working on South 4th Street and we'll begin North 6th Street this fall. East Washington. We're also working on Randolph Street, Bunch Avenue and Marshall Avenue. Here are a few photos of the ditches replaced with pipe, curb and gutter, and the road will be resurfaced shortly. In the previous slide, it mentions the work is accomplished with in-house staff and contractor assistance as needed. I wanted to thank the in-house capital improvements team for their hard work and dedication in providing quality work in our neighborhoods. Their skill and dedication, especially in constructing our drainage systems, is truly appreciated. This team has served the citizens of Suffolk for decades. George, shown on the left, he's been a superintendent for over 20 years and has served the city for over 30 years. Chris, Calvin, Chantrelle, and Tariq each have over 20 years of dedicated service to the city of Suffolk. They've done work in the following neighborhoods, Orlando, Pewsville, Boston, South Suffolk, Rosemont, Pleasant Hill, Jericho, Saratoga, Whaleyville, Lloyd Place, Huntersville, and many others. I want to thank them publicly as well as the residents who get to know them each and every day as this crew spends quite some time in each of the neighborhoods whenever they're present getting the good work done. At this time, I want to pass a brief over to Director of Utilities, Paul Roteau.

Thank you, Greg. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council, Mr. Manager. I'm going to talk on two projects, one smaller and one much larger, where a significant amount of the ARPA funding was spent. The first one is Third Avenue, sometimes known as the Williamston area water system improvement. This is a completed project. In essence, the gist of this project was to replace water main with new increased capacity main and fire hydrants. We had a much smaller main out there with really with no fire hydrants being able to support on that smaller main. So new main one in along with that one, new meters and water service lines. We improved the street drainage with the addition of some curbing out there. Construction cost was $1.26 million with the majority of that being picked up by $1 million in the ARPA funding. That project was completed in July of 2023. You can see on the right hand photo the trench cut from the brand new water main and also a service line out to one of the fire hydrants. The other one is the much larger project. This one, if you ask my opinion, this would be the capstone project of all of the ARPA projects. This is the Oakland Water Sanitary Sewer and Stormwater Improvements Project. This project included new water main piping, and actually what we've done there, not only brand new water main piping, but we replaced an old system that was constructed many, many years ago with the labor from the folks that were in the community at that time. That water main was Very small in relation to current regulatory standards. Could not support fire hydrant flows out there. Many, many leaks. Lots of repairs. So brand new water system in there. That went in first. To give you an idea of the condition of the water system, we decided to put the water system, schedule that to go in first. So we had a very robust network of water mains. Our fear was is if we started working on the sewer system first and were noodling around within the old water main, we would be knocking the water main out of service and damaging it through the entirety of the old project. So we specifically scheduled to have the water main to go in first. Includes a new sanitary sewer gravity system, replaced the septic systems that were out there, a brand new pump station, and a sewer force main. So this project had two grants associated with it. The one was the large ARPA grant that was the $12 million in ARPA funding for this project. But we also applied for and secured a separate DEQ grant that we used as a cost share basis to assist with the abandonment and connection of septic systems to the new Gravity sewer system so that was very successful so that encompassed 47 septic systems that were abandoned Lots of public engagement lots of public outreach before this project even hit the ground with a backhoe to allow folks out there in that area to understand what this project is about and really to allow them to understand what a good deal was we had grant money not only to connect their private side but we also had money to go ahead and pick up the tap fees, the availability and the connection charges as well. So in essence, what that summarizes to is if you were out there and you chose at that time to connect, you had your septic system abandoned for free and connected to the city sewer system for no cost. So that was covered by the grants. Some of it was enterprise fund money where the grant money didn't cover it. So we actually completed just last week the final connection, that 47th connection. So that was a success story for us. Greatly improved the drainage system out there. Construction cost of 13.6 million total. Again, line share that picked up with ARPA, 12.0 million. Anticipated completion is this month. We're wrapping this up. I just submitted some of the last, put together some of the last paperwork to apply for the last cost share for the septic system connection grant from DEQ. The other comment I want to make on this is if I said at the beginning, if you had to, in my opinion, say this was a capstone project, my thought on this is there were so many people that came together from when then city manager Al Moore identified this project. It was supported by council. approved by council, in particular supported by Councilwoman Butler-Barlow, continued support by City Manager Hughes, but we also, on the construction side of the house, we had an excellent contractor on this. If we had somebody else that was on this, I'm not sure we would have made the deadline, because as was said by Mr. Felder, All this money has to be spent by the end of the year. So we're going to have the money spent in the end probably by October on this project. But great contractor, great field crews from our side. We had the community making spaghetti for some of the construction crews out there. So a great participation with the community. So I have to credit them as well. So a very successful project. We're glad to be wrapping it up and glad to have you all, you know, channeled the ARPA funds towards this project. So thank you. We'll stand by with any questions that you may have. Great, thank you.

Council, questions or comments from any of our presenters? Council Member Bennett?

Yeah, on the, let me go back to the final page. Charter communication. I want you to give me a couple of things on that. What effect? I saw where in that they were merging with Cox. So what's the deal with that?

So yes, it's going to be completing their merger at some point. There's going to be no effect as far as how the Rural Broadband Initiative is being completed within its current task. Everything is through Spectrum. At the end of the day, what will most likely occur with that merger is that there will be a combination of their networks to be tied and integrated together, whereas now they are treated as two completely separate systems or networks between the two vendors, so to speak. So long term, they'll be merged together. and be more seamless in their connectivity, but at the moment, we're not going to see anything anytime soon.

Okay. Also, I received a letter from Verizon, which I still have a hard line, and they're getting where they'll no longer be servicing that as well. You all know anything about that?

I would need more information for Verizon.

Okay. Okay. That was my question of concern. The last thing I would say about it is with the connection here, they are saying trying to have more network stuff where people can probably get it cheaper. So I'm just wondering how is this going to be advertised and who's going to know what's the best one to deal with? For the Southside Network Authority?

Yeah. So the Southside Network Authority has an executive director, Marcellus Nixon, and a deputy executive director that are kind of leading that charge. I'd be more than happy to get some more information. We can make that available upon request. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Butler-Barlow.

Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I can't believe that it's been five years since we got this money, but it is five years. Rob, I don't have anything specifically for you, except I'm going to say I'm just going to get Starlink. That's been an interesting journey. I know we have some properties that still don't have access. I shouldn't say that. I have access. I still have the seven-tenths of a mile, how to get it from the road, but I think overall with this money that the city was given, $30 million, I feel like we have made really, really excellent use providing our citizens with a variety of services that have really made life changing, good life changing things for them. Improved broadband, sanitary sewer water, I want to give all of us a hand for really great allocation of funds because it was such a great opportunity to have that kind of money come into the city and kind of a blank slate of what are we going to do with this. Selfishly, I am proud of the project in Oakland, Chuckatuck, because it was something that was really needed and it took a big hunk of the money, but I think the community is grateful. I wish we didn't have 100%. but we got a lot of folks, office of septic tanks that were failing and on to sanitary sewer. So I just, I want to congratulate the city on just taking full advantage of a generous amount of money to do things that really made life better for our citizens. So thanks.

Council, anyone else, questions or comments? Thank you very much. Thank all the presenters. Just briefly, I mean, obviously, this is a good news story that's coming to fruition. I'm going to allude to what Councilmember Butler-Barlow said on a couple of things. It doesn't seem like it's been that long. I remember coming in during COVID, and one of the top three concerns that a lot of citizens had was access to broadband. Kind of forgot about it. You got it. So you've got to take it for granted. But if you go back six years, we had a significant amount of households that didn't either were underserved or not served at all. And then during COVID, which necessitated kids having to be educated other than in a school building. it really brought to light as to how serious that issue was. And I'm not going to go through the several years' worth of initiatives, but there was ARPA money, there was VATI money, there was, you know, there was a lot that came together to make that happen in a relatively short time. And also to Councilmember Butler-Barlow's point, when this money was first presented, when we knew that it was going to be available, There was not much discussion on where to spend it. You know, staff came to us, explained to us what it was, how they thought they could do the most good for the most number of people. And regardless of what borough you were in or you weren't in, we came together really quick and said, this is great. All this money is going right back into the neighborhoods. Lots of times we get money and we spend it and you can't put your hand on it. It's not tangible. But most of these things that we got done were in underserved neighborhoods that needed it. Once again, a lot of it was in Oakland, but it was spread throughout the city. So I want to commend everyone, the staff. We did a lot on the political end of it, the lobbying end of it. We're coming up with additional funds to provide the broadband. We were in a position to where we could add relatively small amounts in comparison to the ARPA money we got to actually bring all those projects to fruition. And now hearing that we're on schedule because I have asked this question over the last 12 or 18 months to the manager, you know, how long do we have to spend that ARPA money, or how long do we have to spend TPOF money too? You know, it kind of gets away from you. So I'm glad that all that has come together, and I know our citizens will see it. but I don't know if they actually appreciate what went into it. But I want to thank everyone who was on council at the time for really coming together and just making it easy all the way down the road. So with that being said, I think that is all we have for open session this evening. We do have a need for a closed session. Madam Clerk, will you please present that motion for consideration?

Item number one. Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A1, the discussion, consideration, or interviews of prospective candidates for appointment and the assignment, appointment, and performance of specific public officers or appointees of the city, specifically the appointments as shown in the attached list for vacancies or term expirations for the Community Policy and Management Team, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, the Human Services Advisory Board, the Local Board of Building Code Appeals, the Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia Board of Directors, the Southeastern Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program, the Planning Council, the Tidewater Youth Services Commission, and the Western Tidewater Water Authority. Item number two, pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711 , the discussion or consideration of the acquisition of real property for a public purpose or of the disposition of publicly held rare property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body, specifically tax map parcel numbers 34G, 23-4, asterisk 1, 34G, 23-A, asterisk 115-AB, 34G, 23-A, asterisk 115-B, 34 asterisk 50, 24 asterisk 34A, 33 asterisk 14, 33 asterisk 14C, and 19B asterisk 1B. And item number three, pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-371Y8 and 29, consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel and the discussion of the award of a public contract involving the expenditure of public funds including interviews of bidders or offers and the discussion of the terms or scope of such contract where discussion in an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body, specifically the agreement between the city and the constitutional officers of the city.

Council, motion has been presented for your consideration. What is your pleasure? Council Member Williams. So moved. Got a motion for approval from Council Member Williams. Council Member Butler-Barlow.

Second.

Second from Council Member Butler-Barlow. Is there any discussion in the motion? Hearing none, Council Members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, kindly record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of 6-0.

This meeting stands adjourned and we will reconvene at 6 p.m.