Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

e e Pledge of Allegiance when like lead us right I'll I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right next up we've got the review and approval of our January 21st 2025 meeting minutes we have to adopt the agenda oh I'm sorry thank you Nigel first we got we have to adopt the agenda I move that we adopt the agenda I'll second all in favor any opposed hearing none motion carries all right now we've got the meeting minutes I'm skipping stuff already um I'll make a motion to approve second all right all in favor I any opposed hearing none motion carries next

up uh we have a presentation from Mr Smith from the public works department who I'm sure will have lots of questions for about snow removal which is the first thing he wants to hear about this this even right all fine I can handle it thank you for coming yeah thank you for having me um this first part is going to sound a little more scripted a little more formal I am going to try to talk kind of move through this give a highlight of the department and then we can have time for questions um put me on the spot a little bit more but anyway to get started um good evening m members of the Planning Commission I want to thank you for the opportunity uh to provide you with an overview of the wboro Department of Public Works and how our efforts relate to efforts of this commission uh this evening I'm just gonna give a brief highlight um some of our departmental functions starting from our board structure moving all the way into development I think of things that you all are most concerned with uh the public works department uh is directed by the assistant city manager of operations and the director the department has broken down into smaller pods divisions each have roles within the organization our operations and utilities division on the left hand side there focus on maintenance City Utilities streets along with garbage collection and Fleet Maintenance the department departmental functions sort of in the center that that chart that have more of a defined regulatory framework such as water wastewater treatment landfill closure um backflow prevention storm water Administration those are managed by the assistant director over on the right hand side development contract management project

management is the primary focus of the engineering division currently Public Works has 124 approved full-time positions the engineering division customer service operations and utilities for some context on how the continuing programs and pro and projects and Public Works are funded and structured um we operate four separate Enterprise funds water sewer Refuge storm water um we have a streets division that is funded through quarterly payments from Commonwealth Virginia also known as uh Virginia Department of Transportation Urban maintenance funds program our administrative and Regulatory programs are supported by general fund tax revenues inter fund transfers between revenues cross cross Enterprises currently we serve about 9,000 Water and Sewer utility customers through approximately 410 total miles of public infrastructure and assets I'm going too fast stop me if you want to read you have anything that's I will ask if you can maybe talk T bit louder louder sorry um in no particular order um in fact I think it's actually close to reverse alphabetical order um I'm going to go through each division in program within Public Works and kind of highlight how they are impacted by development as well as sort of their overall structure um starting with water Enterprise um the water system is responsible for the treatment distribution connection Services um in the the city we have a water treatment plant located at coiner Springs which distributes water through six different pressure zones if you can see sort of the highlights on that chart um it reaches those pressure zones and customers uh through a series of

transmission Mains distribution Mains uh service lines tanks pumps for reference uh the majority of the development we're seeing right now is occurring in what's called our main pressures Zone um with some also in the red top pressure Zone main pressure zone is kind of that big chunk there in the middle I think it's highlighted in yellow the Red Top pressure zone is sort of that red red piece on the outside that chart on the right um public works also completes periodic water audits uh to assess the amount of water loss within our system some water loss is expected uh due to meter rounding airs Mainline water breakes um other factors however wboro still Trends higher than the expected average of water loss around 10 to 16% which is what is expected our our water utility staff actively working to use Leak Detection equipment to pursue leaks on service lines joints fittings valves things of that nature um this is a focus of the department because it is something under our control to try to manage cost as well as our supply challenge with leaks is imperious servic is kind of work both directions so we only see them when we see them oops I want to talk a couple of ongoing projects the water Enterprise is currently administering um construction is well underway on the raw water tank big green tank on the left which is located at coiner Springs with an anticipa anticipated completion date March of 25 so it's coming up as you can see it's it's finishing up um The W raw water tank will help ease some of the strain on Source Wells treatment systems by supplementing our ability to me our ability to meet demands during high demand times extended dry weather

periods and emergency situations on the right The shanadoo Village Drive booster Pump Station that's a chart that shows run times of that system um we're working to upgrade that as a priority project for Public Works the virgia Department of Health actually has a regulatory requirement that all pumps have redundancy that way one goes down there is a backup pump to maintain service there should never be a scenario where any individual pump is running more than 12 hours a day on average as you can see from the chart run times I think this chart is from last August um close to 25 hours some of those days which means there are times where both pumps have to run at the same time to meet demands engineering is well in way on that project um we hope to be able to advertised for bids put it out to bid um by the end of this calendar year I have a question related to that is the high usage related to possibly like the over capacity of the city infrastructure with the new developments or where where does that come from the extended run times MH in a nutshell yes the demand has has pushed that that pump pushed that pump station past what it was it was designed to handle and are there early detection systems or technology that you use or wish to use that could possibly alert you early if those pumps are working at levels that they shouldn't be are not intended to to to like kind of avoid like a situation like Richmond what Richmond situation where their water uh treatment station I think

was overworked and both um facilities collapsed to where they weren't having running water and they weren't under a boil advisory the recent event that happened at the beginning of this year right so you end up with contamination in the system from not being able to treat it um the backing up a little bit the water plant has you know some real time visibility of the system they pretty pretty Advanced screen room ever been over there so they can see in real time pumps are running how they're doing output um how treatment is doing they can see some of that real time in their control room okay we also do you know probably worth noting we do have some we do have some backup plans you know emergency action plans you know things when things go down we can open the county we can we can open some valves we can CW we have um we called system valves connecting some of these other pressure zones so we can we can shove water around if we need to okay we just don't like to if we don't have to uh shifting gears uh to sewer conversely our sewer Enterprise as a responsible for the collection and treatment of Wastewater as well as maintenance of that system uh the sewer system consists consist of the underwater gravity sewer Ms um Force Mains service laterals manholes pump stations um and a wastewater treatment plant which is located on ess6 Avenue at our operations facility picture bottom screen um similar to water sheds the sewer system is divided into 20 sewer sheds or as we call them Min systems which are each of those colored areas on the

graph um bullet point there the the SE sewer treatment plant um is operating you know roughly 50% capacity and I don't know if it was mentioned the water treatment plant is operating 50 to 60% capacity so both plants have have plenty of capacity in them it's really the distribution system that we have to focus on and at what point would you like raise a concern that we're reaching cap faster than anticipated um there's signs along the way uh for each utility um for sewer it's overflows okay for water it's it's low pressure it's it's people not being able to to get the sures H how do you measure 50% capacity is that a I assume like a volume of intake or is it by household effluent or I'm sorry influent so the the sewer treatment plant is capable of treating so much per day I want to say capacity is six million gallons per day um six to eight and similar to this chart on the right the sewer treatment plant has control room with all sorts of real time real-time data um daily hourly um measuring how much they're getting in so new development potentially may or may not impact that relative to use and I mean you're not so so individual households wanted to you know 20 or 30 at a time are not going to impact that on that scale exponentially no it's it's an incremental build I mean yeah that's what I guess that's what I'm asking you so can you estimate then marrying new development with the current capacity in terms of how many future homes will Up Your Capacity to the point that you may

have to broaden the process or yes uh there's different different styles of housing there's some uh historical numbers rough estimates for how much water um a house will use a typical standard in design is 3.2 people in a single family house 3.2 people per house and a person averages 100 gallons per day of water usage so you end up with roughly 300 20 gallons per day for a house some use more than that some use less than that some of it varies depending on times um one of the things you look at is peaking factors you know not everybody does everything at the same time during the day there are times in the middle of the night you know everything is recharging there's just low water demand um whereas high demand times you know evening times morning times things like that so it's not always a straight rate per day but it gets averaged out throughout the day so I think to answer the question of can we project that both plants were built I don't know early 2000s before me um and I can best assume that when they were designed and built constructed the magnitude of that design looked into the future looked at how big the city could get put in a lot of empirical data and got to a number that said hey wboro build a plant this size for water and sewer and this should should sustain you thank you is there a possibility we could possibly have those rough figures sent to staff just to have an idea for us to have that in consideration consider development yeah you're looking forward the the direct question the answer to her question like with your projected development that we have coming into the

city what does that number look like in comparison to the uh capacity level sure future Pro okay yeah we can look at sort of I guess you're you're looking for some buildout scenarios I guess well that would be interesting to me thank you Nigel in terms of you know with all the development that's coming in and with the homes that are being built and I appreciate the fact that you're at 50% capacity which is encouraging right because we know we've got a lot of growth so I think that's extremely positive but I know there's so many homes that are slated on the horizon it would be interesting if you if you can predict or calculate approximately how many homes you can bring on and how those will affect your current capacity rate sure so yeah so me if I understand I'm want to make sure I understand what we're asking is is all of the development that's come through that hypothetically and I'm not saying we're looking for a direct answer to this question but let's say we approve we've approved for one reason or another thousand new homes in the city right is that a 1% increase or a 10% increase right like that's kind of the the the the where we are C I think if I'm if I correctly like that's where we're looking at what would you're on theow threshold of that I would say I don't want to I don't want to bind myself to a number okay but the amount of residential development that's currently experienced I don't think we're going to get too close to plant capacity um real concerns that we're working on is distribution capacity and and maintenance it's not always capacity from a development standpoint the it's the infrastructure that supplies that demand correct and with development what you're installing is gonna is designed to meet that so we're looking one step down the road of where are you tying into those systems

getting to the plant what you're putting in the ground is is we're going to ensure it's good and meets X Y and Z standards now in uh question about that with the infrastructure that's in place thinking about your Mains and your tiin and all that when has there been a projection done as to at what point in time you're going to have to increase the size of the B that all that ties into to go to the we have um varying sizes um depending on the utility and the location um and it's it's more than just the size it's also the slope it's depth it's things like that um and it's the run and the rise and depends on demand going to that we have areas for for sewer specifically we have areas that we know we need to upssize some Mains at some point um water we have Waters it's kind of its own animal um but Demand on water can be mitigated either by sizes by loopings by by creating connection points elsewhere um secondary feeds um booster pumps uh things like that um so from a sewer standpoint yes there are areas in town it's not necessarily related to development there's areas just of high demand um that we know we're we're going to have to upsize or it's it's breaking or you know some of this infrastructure is is I don't know probably close to 100 years old there are probably areas of town you know that are that are that old um there's also you know drainage storm water systems you know the more roads we build all that so you know there's there's plenty of infrastructure that we're all look at there's Street capacities there's all all that stuff but

um so in I guess to answer the question yes sometimes we know we do there are areas we do need we know we need to upssize areas um and it just varies from location to location I I'm just curious are y'all keeping an eye on hoping Parkway Corridor with all the development out there as to whether not that those infrastructure pipes need to be upsized well what's interesting with development and and looking at capacity so hope the hopan are let me just go ahead and get to the next slide okay because actually I do talk about this a little bit so we done jump to he oh we've jumped 14 slides ahead um but no it's fine um so uh main areas uh capacity issues um within the sewer system mainly along what what is called our our Southern Interceptor the sou Southern Interceptor is sort of that trunk line that traverses through downtown if you think of it sort of like a leaf you have all these pieces in a leaf tying into the bigger stem on the leaf going through the branch and eventually into the trunk um there are other concerns rather Upstream uh near the club Court area which is actively being monitored we have things that have sewer meters um and we have some some tools that you can put inside a manual flow flow meters you can actually monitor the flow real time going through data collecting and be able to see see how much sewage is actually going through very specific areas as opposed to just seeing the large volume that hits the Wastewater Plant so we do try to chip it out a little bit um to what Mr Gibson was saying uh majority of our current resident residential development is actually along the northern Interceptor along Hopman Parkway um there is some development you know in the Ross or Lindhurst area that we are actively monitoring as it impacts these

Southern Interceptor which during dry weather times we're seeing it around 83% the problem with that 83% that we have to keep keep working on from a maintenance perspective um is an ongoing priority where excessive runoff groundwater enters that sewage system called inflow and infiltration or inii Um this can be from generally old infrastructure this is a problem with old infrastructure new infrastructure is gener shouldn't be a better not be a problem um cracked broken pipes uh root intrusion unsealed joints um leaking manholes you know various things um this additional this additional water um Can stress the treatment capacity and actually can cause overflows and sending r sewage into surface waters um I I is a problem common aging systems wboro stand you know every municipality is dealing with us um and it can result in some regulatory action but that's that's not occurring you said storm water but that's not there's no interconnection between the storm water either the old systems in town no so that's what's called a a a CSO I think is the term sorry for all the acronyms combined sewer yeah yeah um no we broke away from combined system 50s I think so it's not a question of there's still 15 or 20 high volume storm water Outlets into the system it's what you were describing the main the roote intrusion yeah I but where water is entering because that's the path of lease resistance okay I understand now and I'm guessing that those pipes are all terracotta most likely yeah or you know older manho that are just you know old manholes used to be brick yeah there probably some older manholes that are in better conditions some reinforced concrete manh I don't want to I don't really want to go down that road but uh you know as things

break maybe the Earth moved shifted you know shove things around a little bit but you can see on that chart um you know what some wet weather flows can do to the the Wastewater system uh of note Uh current project we have going on don't want to don't want want to skip over this we are currently administering a project to address some inii issues um where we are we are lining 3600 linear feet of sewer Mains uh 2500 linear feet of laterals and rehabilitating uh 31 manholes meaning we line you put something in the in the system to seal it off essentially from the inside out I'm G to come above ground a little bit get my head above water the streets division um the largest recurring annual Capital expense in public works is our pavement Management program uh the program is primarily data driven with the goal being to keep our overall Street system in good condition while also managing costs for resurfacing Public Works staff looks at What's called the overall condition index or oci along with other factors such as grouping locations for reserving activities um pending utility Ada projects um and work to determine which types of resurfacing and schedules needed uh for this program that was a fairly fan fancy sentence to say we try not to pave streets and then dig them right back up to fix a utility line we try to we try to think ahead a little bit as it pertains to development uh the priorties to ensure that new streets are eligible for the urban maintenance program I showed you a few slides back where we get funding from v. to maintain streets um the standard in order to do to guarantee that is ensure that any new street is design in accordance with what's called

V the vs subdivision sub secondary subdivision acceptance requirements or ssar um Street subdivision Street acceptance requirements to be compatible with and be compatible with our current maintenance practices meaning how we maintain these streets our current practice how we're staffed for plowing for snow removal uh refu access curban gutter maintenance sideof maintenance of that nature um this slide is just kind of breaks down some of the different Road classifications that we have um arterials and the collectors they are assigned a higher priority or criticality factor than local streets in the city's Asset Management program some examples of arterials that's your that's your lud it's your hopan Parkways Rosser Avenue um collectors that's your king Avenue's 13th Street um popper local roads those are subdivision streets that we see with new subdivisions all right with all the roads now we got to drain them so comes our stormm Water Division uh the storm Water Division program um this is responsible for the maintenance of drainage systems and another acronym are ms4 program require program compliance ms4 is the municipal separate storm sewer system we were delegated at Authority from DEQ in 2014 as it pertains to development is the VMP portion the Virginia erosion storm water management program part of ms4 that's your ens compliance storm water management compliance uh for new development the storm Mar Division also

also manages a Capital Improvements program um to address areas of recurring flooding uh just some accomplishments over the last year or so um we did complete uh or the program completed a Harmon Avenue Capital Improvements project this was an in-house storm water maintenance crew we installed pipes a pipe system to alleviate flooding property damage residences on Harmon Avenue and Fa Avenue um they also completed the hopan station Pond converion project conversion project the storm water detention Pond was converted into a constructed Wetland which was assisted in meeting some pollution reduction requirements that the city's obligated to do we also award an annual flush contract uh to clean and Camera the insid of the storm sewer system helps us do condition assessments and determine areas that require maintenance um this past year um roughly 7 7700 linear feet pipe of the 77 miles that we have was cleaned along with 76 storm structures all cleaned and camed before and after that helps clean out debris that gets accumulated things like that to make sure that that system is Flowing um the phase three ches Bay team de action plan development was also completed um this is the means and methods to accomplish the remainder of the mandated pollution reduction requirements by June 30th of 2028 um some goals moving forward um we are there is going to be an effort to re-evaluate the 2006 Capital Improvement plan um to try to see if in accordance with any current flooding issues um reassess those areas new budgets see if what's changed since that is was originally done in 2006 diving a little deeper into the construction side of things or

development side of things I guess uh the erosion sediment control storm water management like I said we were a delegated authority uh to administer this program so we not only we are regulated by the state and federal level we also are the regulator for contractors and developers within the city so we're kind of in the middle situation um uh this includes for ens uh plan review approval inspection for ens measures uh when when land disturbance exceed needs generally 10,000 square ft um the the intention which is sort of what that chart is on the right the intention of the ens program um is to prevent sediment from entering waterways um controlling or controlling erosion by controlling erosion through on-site practices that's your silt fence your sediment traps uh vegetation diversions things like that PL uh storm water management is the post construction management of runoff um and for this we review and approve those plans for compliance with both water quantity and water quality the intention of this program is to mimic how runoff flow in the pre-development conditions by controlling volumes and velocities of discharge through site design best management practices or ponds as as well as pollution reductions this program these programs um are codified through the state that's the Virginia Administrative Code that covers covers all of that nine back 25875 it was just redone this past year and I'm still learning some of the new acronyms and how it all how it all changed questions with storm water before I roll

on our our refuge enter prize maybe less thought of but it is also impacted by development current challenges that we're facing uh can theft um trash overflow um we also need to upgrade an aging Fleet of trucks to to maintain additional routes additional loads placed on them some other services uh that the Refuge Refuge Enterprise offers we have the recycling center we do bult collection um there's a drop off site uh we do Christmas tree disposal and storm clean up I have a question about the recycling what is its current um use like as far as being open to the public because I remember when I was wasn't open but uh it's open I want to say seven to 3:30 maybe 7:30 to 4 somewhere in that range 7 to 330 7 to 330 330 yeah and it's just like you know household trash you can take as well as recycling yeah I like now I live in Augusta County but I like going to our recycling center because we take plastic okay um and I think we're the only place I can go to I think Stan probably does um but yeah I mean it's a bunch of it's big big bins sitting there and you just kind of dump everything over glass metal my kids love taking glass because they can throw it in and hear it smash but yeah Metals uh aluminums things like that where do our recyclables go I honestly I'd have to get with those folks um I think we have contracts with with various various places but to be fair I don't hon I don't know curious yeah i' be hopefully not the landfill I'd be surprised if they didn't go to the place in Orange okay that uh takes in recycl I I asked because some number of years ago Stanton stopped taking plastic because they couldn't or maybe they

stopped taking class because they couldn't find somebody they couldn't sure find somebody who's willing to take the glass or something anyways I'm just curi it didn't seem to impact us here yeah uh we didn't take plastic for a while everybody stopped austa count the landfill stopped stop acoss the country stopped I I think it got into an issue of weight by volume plastic just didn't tip the scales yeah intended equipment the public works of the city's um Fleet Maintenance program currently services and maintains roughly 600 Vehicles pieces of equipment across multiple departments which is roughly a 40% increase from about 10 years ago see from that from that chart um this includes specialized Public Works equipment such as street sweepers Hydro excavators as well as increased Fleet from the police department's take on program of note outside work repairs have decreased about 68% um from two years ago largely due to um some in-house incentives and programs to to be able to be able to handle that work the Public Services awareness program is another area we give some focus on um this program um includes components mostly to help ensure the Public Works Services well understood serving the public meaningful timely um accurate servic is information if you've seen Facebook posts that's sort of what what this gets into all right now I think what you're all really here to talk about uh the engineering division um currently one of the main focuses of the engineering division um is to ensure that any new public infrastructure you know from a

public Improvement plan is designed constructed and tested to provide adequate levels of service uh with minimal maintenance um very simply oversimplified we want to make sure that the wall of water sewer streets uh drainage infrastructure all needs to be installed in order to pass sort of the test of time um as you're well aware we're seeing a lot of residential development currently um since just in the last 18 months or so uh we've reviewed and approved um eight separate public Improvement plans uh spanning seven different subdivisions that totals roughly 570 Lots um permitting construction has begun I think all of them I don't think there's any right now that are approved waiting to go to construction we have a few in the queue uh in the review phase but we've everything's everything's moving towards construction at the moment uh since J also in the last 18 months um we've completed acceptance various acceptance phases creating access to to 154 uh new residential utility connections so that's different final plats that have been recorded or final acceptance where bonds get released and we become responsible for maintenance I'll get into a little more of that later um in addition to public Improvement plans um the engineering division also reviews site plans uh for how how they will access our public infrastructure this is commercial developments on needing water meters SE connections where they connect how they connect different meter sizes things like that did want to spend a little bit of time uh talking through what that public improvement process entails um we Define public improvements as any infrastructure that is installed

either in a RightWay or public easement that has to be dedicated to the city uh this does not include private utility owners that's your Gas telephone electric fiber those types of things constraints of public Improvement plans or of any development just varies from Project to project but one of the main things we almost always look for is determining how that system will support the development how the existing system will support the development and is that design uh maintainable under our current practices um and by that I mean referring to materials sizes slopes depths uh pavement concrete thicknesses um things of that nature that chart there on the left bottom is a is a cross-section of of a RightWay section and it shows all the different facets that have to fit pieces of infrastructure have to fit within that prescribed RightWay you have a sewer M you have a water main you have a sewer M you have a street system you have uh doesn't show storm drainage but you got to drain it somewhere um and you have sidewalks on either side so we have to make sure all those pieces can fit and work together conflict each other while still allowing flexibility to be you know individually designed through each each subdivisions desires I don't think there are two subdivisions that all look exactly the same and I don't think any look have we've talked about that you know let's let's create a standard so they all I don't think there's two that they all have different constraints that drive them one way or the other um so there is some variability in that layout um we follow sort of a five-step process uh for public improvements the the portions I think this commission sees the most of is is that is that design phase or well

I'll for tonight I'll call the preliminary design phase oops sorry and by that I mean I'm gonna in a in a big bucket I'm dropping in preliminary plats rezonings conditional use permits puds all that stuff that that that you all Community Development and city council has to navigate dropping all that sort of that that bucket um this phase can be iterative um it's generally led by Community Development um city planner miss Tom bar um at some point throughout these processes you all receive staff reports that you that you've seen and read and try to digest um in those staff reports there's there's discussions about utility access and streets and and all those other things that information comes from public works so when we look at these you know we're examining that can you connect to it not necessarily the nitty-gritty layouts but can the existing infrastructure support what this development is trying to do um I've mentioned the word maintenance a handful of times I don't know if you picked up on that um and and that's that's intentional that's because once these subdivision receive that final plat at the end of acceptance you know after step five each of these New Lots is entitled to public service and Public Works wants to ensure um that we're able to provide an equal level of service to all of our customers plane review so after preliminary plats are approved puds things like that we get into the nuts and bolts of the public Improvement plans um this process is administered by public works that get submitted to our office um this is where we go through the detailed design reviews staff interacting directly with design Engineers this is where you we're looking at Mainline service AC all that

other stuff how it fits about three slides back how all this stuff is fit that this works out Works happens in the public Improvement plan review phase can I ask a quick question yeah so do these developments do they contribute in terms of costs to the infrastructure and long-term maintenance I'm just curious how that works the the cost to build all of this is a developer's cost once it's completed and accepted and and the final plat gets recorded that RightWay gets dedicated to the city the improvements within that RightWay Utility Systems um streets becomes dedicated to the city and we provide we provide services to each of those lots that gets plaed and so that's a city's responsibility to pay for that those services or incur that cost from from that point forward the the maintenance cost of the system yes because it becomes our system at that point and that's where utility fees come from thanks where I stop um when we do get to the plan interview phase um while we do get into some some detailed layout type things we are generally Bound by the layouts that get depicted and approved with preliminary plats or puds so we don't we can't just go shifting it as much as we'd like to from time to time we can't just change make it look this way that's that's not our that's outside of our our swath of influence um just for timelines uh plan rview from initial submitt to approval of a subdivision plan it can vary depending on the size of the project um generally from initial submitt till we

approve it we're talking 6 months to a year um each review submitt takes 30 45 days to review get comments back to the design engineer the developer and then we get that submitt back addressing those comments so there's usually some back and forth the the piece that everyone sees uh is really the construction phase um this is where we are we're doing recurring inspections we have inspectors that go out meet with contractors generally on a weekly basis um but phone calls and questions tend to pop up more regularly than that um we're going out making sure these utilities are installed in accordance with the approved plans um standard details miscellaneous standards are met and also we also have to react to changes in field conditions um sometimes you unearth something when you're digging that you didn't realize was there and you have to you have to navigate it um and then we also do the system testing at the end that's the making sure the water systems are tested pressure tested back te tested sewer systems are are vacuum tested make sure it's water tight so we don't have these ey and ey issues um and making sure that the roads are roads can structurally support uh the loads once we get through all of that and that can take again you know one to two years just depends on the size you know some subdivisions are 10 20 30 Lots some are 60 to 70 so it just it just varies um and sometimes it's not even lie it's how much infrastructure has to get installed do you have to go off site to get water and bring a water man all the way to your site or is it sitting right there so they all they all vary but when we go through the inp acceptance phase um we ensure that these Utility Systems um both Waters sewers streets and drainage systems are all capable of

Standalone operations meaning they're accessible for for we can isolate both the water and the sewer systems on either end they're not they're not committed to need connected to on the backside they will work just as they stand in case nothing else ever happens um and also making sure the streets are accessible for for I think I said it um essential emergency Personnel so that's sidewalks that's making sure Road Connections are made where they need to be met um and we go through some this leads to certificates of occupancy and warranties and bonding we don't end with a warranty phase after we accept a system and we say all your tests have passed you post a bond guaranteeing it you get your final plat recorded um then these new systems are put under a warranty and so for a year we will watch them and they are the developers contractor responsibility to make sure any any issues that arise are their responsibility to fix we don't just take it off the shelf sort of like having a warranty on your tires if if there was such a thing um and then to kind of close it out bring it all sort of sort of back together um in July of 2023 uh wboro Department of Public Works began a a strategic planning process um for the purpose of developing a strategic plan for the Department uh steering committee was formed uh to develop this plan uh the first objective was to identify a mission value values priority areas and goals and strategies for the Department 2023 2024 and moving forward and we were working to bring these elements into our everyday work because the acronym shows wboro Public Works is respect with

that I will field attempt to field whatever questions you may have I don't have any questions I don't thank you thank you um I have one which is we had a discussion it's probably been a year or so ago now about um speed bumps and speed bumps being incompatible with snow removal and I was wondering if that discussion has ever which I was a little frustrated by because I'm sure I've never been but I'm sure there are speed bumps in Boston um and Minneapolis Minnesota and other places where they it snows right um and you know there was raised as a relatively lowcost traffic control measure um and so I was wondering if that's something that's ever been discussed if that's a something that's a position or if you speak on that at all and if not that's okay but I can speak to it to a little bit everything has its pros and cons um speed bumps like you absolutely touched on them low cost and same with the um the raised I can't think what they're called pump R Rumble strip rumble strips yeah um snow is a hazard regardless um you know we can't totally design our system around snow something that we do a very low percentage of the lifespan of the street um but we we also want to mitigate the hazards of that because if we go snow is hard on equipment it's hard on infrastructure it's hard on curbs it's hard on it tears stuff so we there there is a balance in there speed bumps we have a few in the city um yes they would be a hazard can they be avoided if they have to it does slow reaction times if you have to slow down to go over a speed bump it's going to make the plowing a little bit slower um

but they you know like you said other areas have them um they we would probably have to make sure we had some sort of maintenance program you know make specifically addressed to them so that comes at a cost you know so it all is a balance but I it's possible I guess is what I'm asking because the when we raised the when I the discussion that I was a part of when it was raised it was basically like well we just we we're not even willing to talk about about it because Public Works couldn't remove the snow if we had speed bumps which I found a little wanted to challenge that assertion well ain't the most comfortable things to hit with snow well that's yeah but that's sort of the point e either our manholes or water valves you know none of that stuff goodness um and you know I don't want you to feel like you have to commit to anything but it was it's one of those things where you know we've been through a number of things since I've been on the commission where we've we've provided feedback about certain things and it's been like well we can't do that and here's this reason why so finally I have an opportunity to ask you directly about it so I think there's probably a place for him you know we're not going to want to put speed bumps down L to it right um because we're trying to that those roads during during heavy snow events the priority during the event is to keep th that those roads those those arterials open for emergency access so we want to we wouldn't do that but you know there's I think there's some speed bumps in front of a couple of the schools yeah videt was I think the specific example that we were discussing when this I think viet's a collector um about a street like for instance Port Republic I know that street could desperately use extra traffic control as far as speed go you could easily clock a car going 40 and it's almost could be seen as a oneway street right but you know especially with children right um

you know being a kid that grew up and I remember getting on a bus and people flying you know up and down that street my friend luckily nearly missed a car and clipped his back tire on his bicycle so like I've seen the impacts of the traffic and I mean I think that that would be a great location for one and I guess my next question would be what would be like a hesitancy on a street like that uh you know maintenance as as much as anything you know traffic control devices and maintenance tend to go hand in hand you know the roads the roads that are easy to plow are straight with curb and gutter on either side and nothing nothing in between you know so you the so you end up having a balance you know one versus the other same sort of concept can be applied you know across other facets of of snow plowing sure Canon be sure is it is it challenging absolutely is it going to take more time um depending on materials they could if you paint them you know they St freezing and Ice you know they do sort of create hazards in themselves but just like any any traffic control device would you know bulb out you got to know where that bulb out is to know that you know to get around it um so it's it's all a balance I guess I noticed on one of your slides as far with your upcoming projects was it uh I can go back to it remember was the traffic light replacement at East East M and uh deline right there are there any thoughts to slowing the track and trailers down that are coming Southbound on 340 because I've been sitting at that light waiting to make a leftand turn onto deline to go back towards Fairfax and if I had been paying

attention and turned when the light turned green I wouldn't be here talking to you because I've seen three different semis run the red light yeah right there and P luckily they ain't hit nobody right um I didn't know if you there was any plans to put any any like uh speed reduction uh not traffic not speed bumps but like reshaping the curb to slow them down before they get there sure cuz when they come under the railroad tracks if it lights green they haul it you know something like that without without trying to solve the issue you know standing right here oh is it a speeding issue is it an Enforcement issue is it you know sort of the same with with speed bumps Yeah by slowing those tractor trailers down are we are we creating other issues yeah um but I agree there's always something uh that can be done all right we have any other questions thank you so much for your time this evening we appreciate thank you thank you thank you all right now we have review of minor subdivisions and final subdivision plats approved since the January 21st 2025 meeting with that I will hand it off to our wonderful staff to take it away okay I have just one of those for you um tonight and that is for a minor subdivision um more of it was actually a lot line adjustment but it is considered

a minor subdivision off of Ivy Street just north of um Anamaria Estates um development um so initially it was for these two parcels and initially this parcel um had its property line right here so you had this big sort of um not quite an L-shaped parcel stretching back behind they came in with a minor subdivision to remove the property line right here and just um take that parcel all the way back so it's two um sort of similar sized Parcels um so that was what they were trying to do with that minor subdivision happy to answer any questions that's all I had for you awesome all right now we have public comment period for items not on the agenda I just don't suppose I should bother asking if anyone has signed up hope they all don't want to speak at once yes um moving right along we have Matters from staff don't have anything for you this evening and then we have Commissioners corresponden and communication does anybody have anything no I don't have anything at this time excellent then we have a motion I'll make a motion to adjourn I'll second that motion all in favor I any oppose e