Aviation Board - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good morning, everyone. Happy Monday. We're gonna get this meeting started on Monday, 03/23/2026 at 10AM. Let the record reflect that all board of public work members are present with the exception of director Trane who has been excused and may join us later. I will start with the approval of the minutes from 03/09/2026. Is there a motion? Motion to approve by council president Dickinson. Is there a second? Second by director Gallagher.

Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. Alright. That motion passes unanimously. Moving on to agenda item twenty six zero one three four, approval of the twenty twenty seven twenty thirty one capital equipment budget.

Oh, my bad. I skipped bidder's proof. Let me back up. I had to put a check like I'd already did it. Twenty five one one seven one bidder's proof of responsibility. Director Gallagher.

Thanks, mayor. We have four for today. Hallbrook Tennis Court Services LLC out of West Bend, Wisconsin for $1,077,570 Pembroke Companies Inc. Out of Menomonee, Wisconsin for $81,952,485 Steiger Construction Inc. Out of La Crosse, Wisconsin for $26,000,713 sorry, that was $813 and Patriot Fence and Construction LLC out of Sussex, Wisconsin for $4,943,488.

Thank you. Motion to approve by director Gallagher, second by council president Dickinson. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. That motion passes unanimously.

Alright. Now moving to twenty six zero one three four approval of twenty twenty seven twenty thirty one capital equipment budget. First, I would like to make an amendment to item e two six one zero five and change from 2027 borrowing to 380,000 and reduce the 2028 borrowing to 600, $60,000? That's a great question because I don't know. It's an IT request request if that matters.

E26105. Yeah. So I would like to change the 2027 borrowing to $380,000 and reduce the 2028 borrowing to 660,000. Did you find the page number? Which one is it?

Alright. Page I can have IT. Jackie, director, can you come explain this amendment for me? So one of the questions is why are we making this change? So I just figured you could speak to that way better than I could.

Sure. So the reason we're going to make this swap is that when I talked to you last time, we have two big items coming up for replacement cycles, our storage units and backup units. Just because of the hardware landscape, we want to swap those two. So we're going to replace our storage units next year, then the backup units we're going to push out to 2028.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions about the amendment? Alright. Seeing none. Thank you very much. Alright. Motion to approve by director Gallagher, second by council president Dickinson. Any other discussion? Seeing none, vote.

And that motion passes unanimously. Alright. So, I know that we have some departments here to speak to this to their budget request for capital equipment. And so I believe there was three departments. Y'all gotta forgive me. I don't have my notes. There's three departments. I think it was airport. Yes. Thank you. So I'm gonna have director director Klaus. Listen. Saying first names all the time, but then hitting with the last can get difficult. Alright. Director Klaus, can you come?

Council president. Council President Inkus.

Yes. Director Koss, could you just explain your equipment requests? They are not exceedingly large, but it would be nice to know those details. Thank you. I'll have you hit your mic, please.

There we go. Yes. So I'll just walk through from the top of the list down, starting with our airport information technology equipment for $300,000 This was a quote we got directly from the IT department for required upgrades that we have to do at the terminal building. Our utility mower landside for $85,000 this is replacing a tractor that we use on what's called the landside. So this is anything outside of the fence.

We use it through the park surrounding the parking lot. It's got various attachments we can use for snow removal as well for helping clear the parking lot. Airport security access control system upgrade for $60,000 This is a phase two of a project that we're starting this year, replacing door hardware for some of our aging and failing security doors. Airfield bind striping equipment for $50,000 We do all of our mandated airfield painting in house. We don't contract it out, so we have aging and failing equipment that needs to be replaced so that we can remain in compliance with that.

Scissor lift for $20,000 this is to replace an aging and failing boom lift that we currently have. That lift is very large and insufficient for what we need it for, and a scissor lift is actually less expensive and will provide us more options for use. So we're looking to swap it for a different piece of equipment there. And then lastly, the maintenance pickup for $85,000 Most of our fleet vehicles are still within the lease program. This is one of three that is not, and we have continually pushed it to an outer year. So pushing it to that 2,030 mark extends the life of that vehicle to ten years.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Councilmember Gaga.

Thank you. Hi, director Koss. I just have a question starting with the, the $50,000 for the airfield line striping. I know sometimes we throw around numbers, it seems like that's not so much money, but $50 is $50. There's no how many times do we stripe the airport?

Yeah. So it's on a varying schedule depending on what needs to be done. Depending on how much snow we got in the previous season, the brooms that we use can kind of tear up some of that paint. But we generally paint at least a quarter of the airfield every single year. So we're out there consistently painting.

There's some markings that need to be done more than others. And this request is actually for two pieces of equipment, not just the one. So that way, we can use one color and have it kind of start drying before we come in and outline it in black. We have to outline all of our markings in black for FAA requirements. So just having two pieces of equipment like we do now allows us to get that process done much quicker and not have to close the airport for as long to get

that done. And we don't have redundant equipment in the city that could come out

and do this work for you? I do not believe so, no. Okay.

And then I'm going to go to page 90. The airport security access control systems upgrade, it says we're in fair condition now. Same questions I've had with other departments. If stuff's in fair condition, why are we spending the money when we're a little bit tight? On?

Yeah, good question. So we actually got notice that with our current security system, we're on the last upgrade of that system we can do before those components reach end of life. So the next time we upgrade this system, they will no longer be supported, so we won't be able to secure our doors like we need to. So even though the equipment itself might not be in the worst condition, they won't be supported any longer, and for our TSA requirements, we have to keep up with them. And when do we do the next update? I believe they usually have a useful life of around ten years, is the last time we had to upgrade them. And do you know where we are

in this life cycle? We're at the ten year mark. Okay, are at the ten year. And again, with the utility mower, it says it's in fair condition. Just

it's at and are we saying just it's in good shape, but we're going to replace it anyway just because of time? Yeah. So this piece of equipment has been pushed out many, many years, and we just continually push it out. It's in decent condition, but with the age of it, we can't find parts as much for it anymore, so we're looking to replace it before it completely fails. And can you resell it? Can you sell

it to somebody else, do you think?

Yes. Okay. Yeah. Most of our equipment, we are able to sell off, and someone's able to use it. Thank you.

I appreciate all the answers. Thanks. You're welcome.

Director Gallagher.

Sure. My question isn't for Lauren, but thanks for everything. I guess it would be for director Hawkins if he could answer something quickly for me. Because I'm I'm totally sympathetic to to Lauren's issues with painting and is the one who probably paints the most. Public Works deals with us every year having to repaint all of our streets. I could see maybe letting this go through the equipment budget one time. But since we don't do this in house and have to contract it out, because of the relatively short life, is this something that you'd recommend being in operating budgets going forward so that we're not proverbial proverbially using the credit card for a short term purchase?

It's a good question. Yeah. I I think as we start to look at everything, I I mean, obviously, what I would like to do is start exactly what you're talking about is to start moving some of those credit card purchases off of that into operating. Didn't have a chance to look at this one, you know, typically with the enterprise, especially like with the airport, a lot of it's done through airport cash or the PFC monies or not PFC, the PFC PFC monies. So I don't know if this one was necessarily GOP borrowing or if this was supposed to be done through cash.

It was cash. So it is airport cash in this instance. But to answer your question, yeah, I mean, I'd certainly like to start hopefully trying to migrate a lot of that stuff that we're doing on an annual basis off of our GOB borrowing and onto operating. But again, it's a really fine balancing act to try and fit it into our operating. And with everything going on right now, you see a lot of municipalities utilizing that ability to to do GOB for operating expenses. Not that it's right, but Okay. We see it more and more.

Okay. No. Thank you. I didn't notice that was operating funds, but that's good to know. And with stuff like this that's more maintenance, you know, I I question whether or not we even need to include it in the the capital budget at all if it's just ongoing work. But thank you, director Hawkins.

Yeah. I I would I would imagine that a lot of the lot of this stems back to have it in CIP. And again, I'm just speculating, to have more optics to the councils and the and the governing bodies about what types of things we're purchasing. But I would agree with you. If they're able to fit into an operating budget, I don't necessarily know if they end up paid with cash. I don't know if there's really a requirement that it that it ends up in

a CIP. Right. As long as it's somewhere showing what works being done.

Right.

Okay. Thanks.

Thank you. I'm now going to call up IT to. IT was one of the other departments we wanted to hear from again. So I'm just any questions from board of public work members? Can you do a general overview of the not the IT department, but the full Sure.

I think this is the first meeting too. Is it you just want more clarification on some of those again? Or

I'll be honest with you.

Yes. I don't know. Okay.

So our our first one citywide was the radio system upgrades. That's the e two six four two two for $978,000. That is we have three radio sites across the city. This is for upgrades of the equipment in each of those three sites. Then the E26275, that is our yearly we have a five year agreement with Motorola that just was signed this year through council in 2026.

This is the first of that five year. Then E27520, each of the radio tower sites has batteries. There's a request for it to replace the batteries in each one of those tower sites. E26436, the Motorola handheld radios, this is to replace the radios for departments other than police and fire. These were first purchased back in 2014 as part of the radio. They've reached their end of life. E26423, our copier printer replacement. This is let's see here. We've in 2028, it's gonna reach the end of agreement that we have with Loffler. That's just the suggested replacement.

And then the E27519 plotters for engineering and planning departments, again, that would just kinda reach that end of life cycle in 2030 to get those replaced. Replaced.

Thank you. Any questions from board of public board members around the citywide or the general IT equipment request? Alright. Seeing none. Thank you very much. And then I'm gonna turn it over to the police department. I thought I saw somebody here. Alright. Fire department. Chief shot.

And before I thank you. Good morning. Any direct questions from board of public works members around the fire department's equipment request? Can you just do a general overview?

Are we talking just 2027, or are we talking the span of what's been requested? 27. 27 is only $40,000, and that's just replacement of all of our specialty team equipment. So that would include our water team equipment that needs to be replaced on a regular cycle. So that'd be the dry suits, hardware associated with water rescues, and equipment to, I guess, furnish our boats, our our three boats.

And then on the USAR side of things, we have harnesses, ropes, some extrication equipment that's not carried on frontline apparatus that would be involved with our specialty team with our technical rescues. And then on the last piece of it would be on the hazmat, which is separate from the state hazmat contract. It's all of our air monitoring equipment and calibration supplies that go on the front line apparatus that serve the city, not necessarily the state on that side of it. And that's a regular equipment approval and obviously subject to your oversight, but generally that's been used in the past and on the regular to replace equipment that's not normal operating expense. Gotcha.

Alright. Any other any questions? Seeing none. Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve the twenty twenty seven, twenty thirty one capital equipment budget. Second by council president Dickinson. Any other discussion about the capital equipment budget? All right. Seeing none, please vote. And that motion passes with three yes and one no.

Moving to our next agenda item, twenty six zero two four zero, request from refuse and recycling to purchase two Apple iPod Air 11 for, sorry, 11 inch four yard web, waste site. Is there a staff that can come speak to this item, Nick?

Good morning.

Good morning. Can you just give us an overview of this request?

So we changed the sticker program last year, and it the stickers now have to be purchased to use the Ardway site. The stickers changed. They now have a barcode on them so they can be scanned. We would need scanners and the air pads, that can bring up all information on the sticker that is being scanned to show, the information, for the resident. We're working to get vehicle information on it, but also it will show if it's renewed so that we don't have to ask a bunch of questions and see receipts.

It should be able to make it a lot easier for our staff and the residents when they pull up to the Yardaway site.

So this equipment request is more about efficiency and and use at the Yardaway site?

Correct. And it will also save buying stickers every year. These stickers will be good for the twenty sixth, twenty seventh, and twenty eighth season. We will save on purchasing stickers and also postage mailing them out.

Okay. Councilmember Goggin?

I'm just wondering why this wasn't on the, capital equipment, budget.

I was told that, through the yard waste site when we set up the accounts that any kind of repair, maintenance, or purchase of anything new can come through that.

Thank you. Director Gallagher?

Sure. Just a statement. I think, Nick, you would also add that finance would direct that anything under $10,000 doesn't go on to the capital equipment request, that it's just more departmental.

Correct.

Thank you. And

this has been cleared by IT.

Yes. We have worked with IT from the very start of this. So, yeah, we've been involved with them.

Okay. I'd just like to ask that question now. Any other questions? Alright. Thank you very much. Thank you. A motion to approve by director Gallagher, second by council president Dickinson. Any other discussion? Seeing none, please vote. And that motion passes unanimously. Moving on to our next agenda item, twenty six zero two four eight, construction contract change orders. Motion to approve by director Gallagher, second by council president Dickinson. Any discussion? Do we have to read these in? Okay.

Director Gallagher.

Sure, mayor. Just to note that for the ones for fire station three, I have spoken with chief shot, and I'll be having you sign updated versions that do show the contingency available. There was approximately $107,903.85 in contingency available per resolution twenty five zero zero three eight that the finance department approved. So in collaboration, we're all good. Just wanted to note that we'll be noting those going forward that that contingency is available.

Okay. Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, please vote. And that motion passes unanimously.

Moving on to agenda item twenty six zero two six three, request to approve Gerke excavating Lacrosse temporary wastewater discharge permit. Is staff here to talk about that? K. Would would it be Jerry? Oh, is someone here to represent Gerke excavating, be it online or in person?

No? Okay. If we had a question for staff, you got are you gonna okay. Okay. Senator, you may not hold.

Sorry. Just first do a request

director Gallagher. Sorry. I was gonna ask you a question. Councilmember Goggin.

Can I ask, director Gallagher a question?

Yes.

I'm just wondering. This is just a standard permit for projects that they're gonna do. No fiscal impact to the city other than what we take in from them?

Correct. Yeah. It I was in looking through this, it appears to be for work on Causeway Boulevard and potentially River Point District. So this is ongoing projects. This would be just either an extension or a renewal. This is one where the the wastewater treatment plant charges the contractor an amount for discharge. And that either comes out of the project or comes from the contractor themselves. So this isn't one where it would cost the city anything.

Thank you,

director Gallagher.

Alright. Director Gallagher. Okay. Motion to motion approved by council president Dickinson, second by director Gallagher. Any other discussion?

Seeing none, please vote. Motion passes unanimously. Moving on to agenda item twenty six zero two seven five, special report to the board of public works on authorizing public improvement and levy and special assessment against benefited properties in La Crosse, Wisconsin for sanitary laterals on 100 Block Of King Street. This item has been removed by staff and will come back to this board at a later date. So there's no, reason to discuss or make any motions on this item.

Moving to the next item, item twenty six zero two nine six, Donna Hughes Services, WWTP loading rerate. Director. No. Okay. Alright. Are you gonna take a stab at it? Okay. Councilmember Goggin.

I'm just wondering why this, rerate has gone up so much.

And we're told staff was gonna be online, but with the situation we have now. So director Gallagher is taking a quick look at this item. Okay. We'll do that. Alright.

Moving on to the next agenda item, twenty six zero two nine seven, a special report to the board of public works on authorizing public improvement and levy and special assessments against benefited property in La Crosse, Wisconsin for sanitary sewer laterals. 0243026 33rd Street South and 31663168 33rd Street South. Is there anyone from staff that will be speaking to this item? Thank you, Evan.

Good morning. So Matt, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is just the first step in the assessment process for these noncompliant utility service projects that have been kind of started as a pilot program this year. Yeah. These these four properties will be getting new sanitary laterals as part of these projects, and they'll be assessed for that cost.

K. And these properties have been notified? Correct. K. Council president Dickinson.

Can you, let us know what stimulated the discovery of these laterals being incorrect?

My understanding that these properties were once duplexes on one parcel, but they've since been split into two parcels two properties on two parcels. And as that's the case, they're now, noncompliant statutes, which require separate utility services to each parcel. I'm not sure how they were discovered. Maybe, Matt no. But

It was a sale.

I think it was a sale of one of

the parcels.

So that often requires this to happen then. Yep. Thank you.

And then council president, you're done. Any other questions for staff? Director Gallagher?

Sure, Evan. Just wondering if you can fill the board in a little bit on sort of what work is part of the the bid that could be possibly assessed versus the work that the the city and or utilities are donating overall as part of this work? Yep.

So the street department has been tasked with doing the repavement and providing traffic control for projects, the sewer, and we'll be providing any bypass pumping necessary to install the services. And the the contractor, the part that will be assessed for is the installation, the linear footage of sanitary laterals that is installed to each property.

So it's only the cost of the laterals that we'll be doing the assessment for? Correct. Okay. Yeah. I guess, could you speak to maybe what the overall cost in is then to the city? Because it looks like it's about $4,500 per parcel. What's what's the amount that the city or the utility will be contributing as part of the overall bid? I don't know if you have that in front of you.

I don't, unfortunately, have that information in front of me.

I mean, I don't think you can answer this question question either, but I'm always curious as to when the sale happens. Is it going to the previous owner or the person that's selling, or is it a cost that's being added to okay.

Yeah. It would depend on on when it's it's discovered. If it's prior to a sale or during a sale, then as part of full disclosure, they would need to just arrange to take care of that. You know, if it's a timing issue and they wanted to put money in escrow, they could do it that way. It's kind of a private matter if they wanna hold off on the sale and then have that levied against the current owner or the future owner. That's that's kind of their decision, but that's why these sometimes are you know, some of these time is of the essence.

Gotcha. Thank you. Also, didn't mean to be rude. I didn't think that you didn't know. I also didn't think Matt was gonna answer that question either, to be fair. Alright. Council president.

I don't know if we know the answer, but does this have a options for payment program for each parcel? Or is it a lump sum? Or do we know? I know this is a new program, so I'm trying to tease out the details each time. Thank you.

I believe they have the option to either pay upfront or have it assessed against their property taxes over a period of either ten or fifteen years. Is that correct?

Awesome. Alright. Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Also, before I do that, Nikki, just the motion on the floor says no action taken, but that was sort of yeah. Okay. Yep. Alright. So motion approved by council president Dickinson, second by director Gallagher.

Any other discussion? Seeing none, please vote. And that motion passes unanimously. I'll just keep going. Next agenda item twenty six zero three zero two, request for approval to sell WWU twenty eighteen sewer flushing slash vacuum truck.

Luke. Thank you for being here today.

Thank you. So, yes, this is for the sale of a sewer flushing a vacuum truck that was replaced. We took delivery of the new truck just two months ago. In the past, we've put trucks like this on if you got deals auction site, we found that the pricing that we're able to get through that avenue of selling is usually not very good for this very specialized equipment. So last year and this year, I've done a lot more legwork as far as finding specific buyers that are able to offer much better price for what this equipment does. So I believe that this is the best price resell price we're gonna be able to get for this truck.

Well, thank you for finding us more money. Director Gallagher.

Sure. I'm I'm sorry if you already said this while I wasn't paying attention. Is this is for a piece of equipment that has been replaced that we no longer need?

Correct. Okay. Motion to approve by council president Dick oh, I'm sorry. Councilmember Goggin.

So in anticipation of the $115,000 that you'll get, does this, can this money be taken off of the, capital equipment budget out of the storm out of the storm water utility asks?

So I believe this would be a sanitary, capital equipment item. It goes essentially back into, our available funds. The truck we bought to replace it came from utility cash, and this money would go back into utility cash.

Thank you.

Alright. Motion to approve by council president Dickinson, second by director Gallagher. Seeing no other discussion, thank you. Please vote. And that motion passes unanimously.

Were we able to find Jared at all? No. Okay.

Okay. We should refer that.

Sounds good. So going back to agenda item twenty six zero two nine six, Donna Hughes Services, WWTP load and rerate. Council member Goggin?

I'd like to make a motion to refer.

Motion to refer, made by council member Goggin. Is there a second? Oh, sorry. Time limit. One week.

Yes. One, motion to refer to next week's meeting, board of public works meeting.

Alright. Motion to refer to next week's meeting made by council member Goggin. Is there a second? Second by council president Dickinson. Seeing no discussion, please vote.

And that motion passes unanimously. Alright. Last agenda item twenty six zero three zero five, construction contract final payments. Director Gallagher.

I only see the one, mayor that is attached for, water utility replacement from 2025.

All right. Council President Dickinson.

Could we just explain this went over the original bid amount, and it looks like we've indicated where the extra funds are gonna come from. Can we just do that for the record? I always watch to see if we hit bid plus cons contingency, and this one was over by a little bit.

Yeah. We don't sorry. We don't have the project manager here, but what I can do is address that the two funding sources listed on page one of the final report are the two different accounts that the money is coming from. Those are from water utility cash that is budgeted for maintenance and other replacement activities. So I I couldn't recite those numbers off the top of my head, but it's coming from water utility cash.

Thank you.

Councilmember Goggin.

Thanks, Mayor. So just to be clear, this says final payment. So this project is done. No other monies will be going toward this?

Yeah. That's correct. Thank you. Alright. Seeing no other discussion, is there a motion?

Motion approved by director Gallagher, second by council president Dickinson. Seeing no other discussion, please vote. And that motion passes unanimously. Alright. Thank you, everybody. Happy Monday, and this meeting is adjourned.