City Council - workshop

Good afternoon and welcome. At this time, I'd like to call our Suffolk City Council work session to order. We have two topics for discussion today. Our first involves our capital improvement projects and our infrastructure updates. Mr. Manager. Oh, and I have an announcement. See, I wrote it down. It didn't mean I'd read it. Jeez. Okay. Be advised that Council Member Wright is running late this afternoon. And Council Member Johnson, as well as Council Member Williams, will not be in attendance, and everybody's been excused. Now, Mr. Manager, please provide an overview.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, each summer we like to provide you with updates on projects approved and funded in the capital improvement plan. This evening's work session is part one and will provide updates on public utilities and public works-led projects. Part two will feature facilities and parks and recreation projects at your July 15th work session. Kicking us off today is Paul Rattel, Public Utilities Director, and he will be followed by Greg Benton, Public Works Director. And get comfortable because there's a lot going on and a lot to talk about. Paul.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor. MEMBERS OF COUNCIL, MR. MANAGER. AS THE MANAGER NOTED, MR. BENTON AND I WILL STEP YOU THROUGH SOME OF OUR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS, BOTH THAT ARE IN CONSTRUCTION, HAVE BEEN COMPLETED, AS WELL AS SOME OF THE ONES THAT ARE IN PLANNING AND DESIGN. AND I WILL START US OUT. THIS IS KILBY SHORE SEWER PUMP STATION. TO US, IT'S CALLED PUMP STATION NUMBER TWO. THIS PROJECT INVOLVED ABANDONING A DETERIORATED SEWER PUMP STATION, WHICH YOU SEE IN THE LEFT-HAND PHOTOGRAPH. THAT PHOTOGRAPH ILLUSTRATES a sewer pump station that's of an older style design where there's not a building associated with the pump station. All of our newer designs look like the one on the right, which is the newer pump station. That's at the back end of Tano Court. The reason we replaced this is not only was it in a very difficult place to access for maintenance, but literally some of the equipment, we couldn't find parts anymore to replace it. When we moved this from the backyard of somebody's home, we had an easement back there, down to Tanneau Court, we, of course, had to extend gravity sewer to connect to the new pump station. So that went down Planners Drive through Tanneau Court and connected into the new station. So construction cost of $2.8 million. It's about 98% complete. We're wrapping up some details. Anticipated final construction completion will be summer of 2026. So coming up here soon. The next project for us under construction, actually this has been completed. This is the Lone Star Lakes Butler Lake Dam to our water supply system. We call this the Lake I Dam. I've presented on this before. So this is one of two dams that are owned by Suffolk within the city of Suffolk. This is considered a low hazard, special use dam. It's a drinking water supply dam. It's an earthen dam, so you're not thinking of Hoover Dam type things. It's not concrete, so the project consisted of clearing and grubbing. What occurred was over the years is vegetation had grown up onto the crest of the dam, which weakens the dam and allows seepage to flow through the dam. So a large part of that project was actually getting up there with heavy equipment and clearing out the top of the dam. Upper right-hand photograph shows it under construction. It actually was a nice pretty day when we took those photographs, so you can see the new earth that's been placed, and then the riprap, which is the larger stone that armors the face of that dam to protect it from erosion. So we completed that, repaired some seepage areas around the spillway. That's a construction cost of $5 million. We completed that in May of 2026. And the next slide shows what it looks like now as the vegetation starts to grow back on top of that dam. The vegetation, meaning we want grass to grow there to prevent erosion, but we won't allow any trees to grow up there anymore. Actually, when you walk back in there and you walk through the gate, we have it locked up with a gate, but if you get through it, it's actually a very pretty area. You'd think you were on a golf course and you were looking at a large waterway. Next project is a sanitary sewer project. This is the downtown sewer replacement project. There are two locations. Both of these were identified during condition assessment field work. When we put CCTV cameras in both of these sewer sections, found out that the one that's illustrated here on this slide, which is behind the United Methodist Church and Suffolk Christian Church, was ready to collapse in some areas. So we did a design to replace this. One of the reasons we planned these projects out is so we don't have to get in there on an emergency basis. In particular, this project takes quite a bit of the sanitary sewer flow from the downtown area. We didn't need a sanitary sewer to collapse up against a church foundation. They have to get in there with heavy equipment on an emergency basis. A couple of things that have been a challenge on this job and one of the reasons I included a photograph that's in the foreground, what you're seeing is an excavation trench box and you see two pipes. The one in the back is the old storm sewers, a 42-inch storm sewer. And then the one in the foreground is the new storm sewer. We hadn't originally planned to replace this, but it illustrates one of the challenges in working in an area that's very old where we have limited record documentation. That storm sewer, we assumed, and our consulting engineer, rightly so, assumed ran between two drop inlets in a straight line. When the contractor was out there excavating, he determined that there actually was a bend in the pipe. Generally, you don't put bends in stormwater pipe. or in sanitary sewer piping. So that bend caused the alignment of that storm drain to be right in the path of our new sanitary sewer. So we had to do a change order that's about $200,000. I'll show you the expense of pipe that size to replace that entire section of storm sewer piping. So that's ongoing right now. The second piece of this project is behind what I'll call the embroidery ink shop next to the Elanj dance studio. That's a city parking lot. So what I'll point to in this photograph is the one on the right-hand side. I'm standing looking at the intersection of Main Street and West Washington. There is an existing sanitary sewer line that is very compromised that runs through that very busy intersection. So what we decided to do instead of digging up the intersection, which would cause quite a bit of traffic problems, not only traffic problems but also We would have been digging around quite a bit of infrastructure, including the traffic control system. We took the new sanitary sewer through the city parking lot. That's the pavement cut and the new asphalt that you see in the photo on the left-hand side. That construction cost is $3 million. It's about 30% complete, and both locations are anticipated to be completed fall, maybe later than that of this year. Next project is a drinking water project. This is the Westport water pumping station. You'll see a blue tank off of Holland Road. This is the pump station that sits next to it. It's in the Virginia Port Logistics Industrial Park. This project is important because it adds some chemical feed capabilities into this pump station. What you see on the left-hand photograph, you see one of our engineers and one of our technicians working with some of the new chemical feed equipment. And the reason we've added this out there is we've talked about this before. In the warmer weather, our chemical disinfectant residual tends to drop in warmer weather. resulting that we have to possibly dump water out of the Holland tank to refresh the residual to keep it within EPA standards. So this gives us the ability to add chlorine and ammonia combined, that's our disinfectant, out at the Westport pumping station. Normally it's added at the treatment plant. This allows us to add it out into the system, which maintains high standards of water quality, keeps us from having to dump water out onto the ground. The photograph you see on the right-hand side, we replaced on the ceiling of that, you'll see a yellow beam. That was not there before. Even though this seems like a small improvement, we were not able to conveniently get the pumps out of that pump station to maintain them. So we added that along with some other pump station improvements, chlorine mixing system and some other things. So that's a construction cost of $2.8 million. It's about 99% complete. When I was in there the other day, they're wrapping up some plumbing and some electrical work that should be done with that the summer of 2026. There's another photograph that's on the outside of the station, the left-hand side that shows the containment for both the chlorine and the ammonia feed system. And then on the right-hand side, that again is the, those are the chemical feed pumps inside that we added in order to put added disinfectant into the system. Next project, even though it seems small, these are large water meter replacements. This is a program where we generally try to replace larger water meters about every 14 years. When they start to age, they don't over-register as some people think. They actually start to under-register. So we put those on a replacement program to get down into those vaults and replace those. The construction work most of the time is not extremely difficult. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of coordination with the customer. For example, we just replaced the meter up at the Walmart in North Suffolk, and that took a lot of staff coordination with Walmart staff in order to make that happen so we didn't impact their business. And other examples of this where we have to visit are Unilever, QVC, and we've also done quite a few of these at Planners Peanuts. Next one is Cedar Lake Water Distribution Project. So I've shown this in construction. I've shown it in construction because we're getting ready to issue the notice to proceed on that. Contract has been signed on this. So this is a replacement of a water distribution system in the Cedar Lake area off Nansman Parkway. This is new water main piping, fire hydrants. Right now there's undersized piping in that area, older plastic piping. I don't even believe there are any fire hydrants down that stretch. So the new system will add the six and eight inch mains that would support fire suppression hydrants in that area. New curb to curve pavement, which will do well in that area. If you see on the left hand side, there are numerous pavement cuts in there where leaks have developed over the years. Notice to proceed, we plan to issue that in July, so this month. Construction cost $950,000. As I was speaking with you, Councilman Bennett, before the meeting, there was some activity out there this afternoon. The design shows cutting in a T, a water main T, in order to supply the new system. Our staff decided that instead of cutting in the T, which would require depressurizing the main in Nansman Parkway and cutting other residents off of water, we are going to put in what's called an insert a T, which allows us to put this T in the system without having to depressurize the line. And we're doing that under separate find and fix contract so that we can keep those customers in service and not have to de-energize that main. Moving into some of the public utilities projects that are planning and design. So this is another outdoor type station. This is in the Riverview area. This is another one of our pump stations that we're looking to. Actually, I see I misspoke before. The Kilby Shores one was Pump Station 17. This is Pump Station 2. In Riverview, this is an outdoor station. In this case, we can't build a building around this one because we don't have the property for that. This is tucked in right in the right-of-way between the curb and the sidewalk. So this project is a $2 million project. We're going to update the controls, make those boxes look a little bit better, and then also install a brand-new sewer force main to replace a deteriorating line in the city right away. That design completion is expected in fall of 2026. Moving on to another drinking water project. This is the County Street elevated water tank rehabilitation project, the steel tank. It's actually technically called a radial cone tank. It was constructed in 1946, located at the intersection of Johnson Street and County Street. The project would include new internal and external tank coatings, revised tank inlet piping down at the base of the tank, new tank overflow piping. We're planning to get, we've done some inspections on the interior of that tank. We're planning to do another one to verify the condition of the inside tank bowl to determine what types of repairs need to take place there. We've talked off and on whether this tank should be rehabilitated or actually relocated. Part of the challenge with relocating the tank is finding the property to build a half-a-million-gallon tank. Estimated construction costs for rehabilitation in the neighborhood of $2.5 million. Design completion anticipated winter of 2027. Another sanitary sewer project. This is a project that has been going on since 2007. So this is a project with one of our consultants, Jacob Engineering, who helps us with just a wide variety of tasks to prevent sanitary sewer overflows. The special order by consent, just as a refresher, that's a state order and ultimately an EPA order that orders all localities in this area to reduce sanitary sewer overflows. By means of this program where we do smoke testing, condition assessment of sewer lines, data management, flow management within our sewer pump stations, we've effectively reduced our sewer SSOs when the program started in 07. We had 53 sanitary sewer overflows. Last year we had five. Another good piece of this program, you've heard me really pump up our staff that runs our CCTV truck. I was out with them the other day. They were at Pinner and Pearl. poking a camera in a storm line, excuse me, in a sanitary sewer line, a huge part of this program where they CCTV and determine the condition of our sanitary sewer system. Victor Arrington is the crew leader, and once he CCTVs, we often get in there and clean those sewer lines, so keep the lines in good condition, prevent overflows. Next program is something we've talked about really within the last month is the Water Service Line Replacement Program. This is the program mandated by EPA to get all the lead service lines out of our system. So we're continuing on as we spoke within the last month when I did a presentation. We have an inventory that we did and completed in 2020-24. We have to field verify that inventory by November of 2027. So within the last few weeks, we've started on round two with a contractor to move through another set of, I think, 360, 370-so locations. We take those locations, put them in a predictive model. That predicts where the high likelihood of finding other lead service lines. And then we complete that inventory. And then starting in 2027, we would have to start on a replacement program. Our large project, the G. Robert House Water Treatment Plant Capacity Expansion Project, this is to expand our surface water treatment plant capacity. So if you recall, we treat two sources of raw water at our plant. One is groundwater, and this is going to expand the surface water capacity of that plant. What we're doing right now is we're pilot testing membranes. You see Mr. Randy Brooks, our plant manager, working with the pilot plant right there and the right-hand photo is some of the filtration membranes that we would plan to install to increase from 3 million gallons a day of surface water treatment capacity to 8 million gallons of capacity. Design engineering is in progress. Estimated construction cost is in the neighborhood of 40 million dollars. Construction bidding is expected spring of 2027. Moving on to the second of the two dams that are in the city jurisdiction, drinking water dams. This is the Crump's Mill Pond. It's a high hazard dam. This project right now is in the study phase, so this is right off of Route 10 and Kings Highway in that area. This is a high hazard dam. As a reminder, it's not a high hazard dam because if it breached, there's any expected loss of life or significant property. It's considered a high-hazard dam because if it breached, it would potentially damage Route 10, which is an evacuation route out of the city of Suffolk. We're working with an engineering consultant right now, Hazen. They are completing an engineering evaluation of that dam. Some of the dam alternatives are being looked at are rehabilitation or possibly decommissioning the dam. We expect that the report will be delivered to us sometime in July. I think they're going to give it to us on July 17th. Uh, one good thing with this project is quite a bit of this project is funded. The study part of the project is funded with a grant that we applied for and we were successful in obtaining from the department of conservation and recreation ARPA grant. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Benton and he was, he's going to look, talk you through some of the public works projects. Thank you.

All right, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, Mr. Manager. Before I start, I want to say that we have finished our refuse routes. We have picked up all the green and blue cans. And I want to give a shout out to my refuse team, public works team, as well as the city for their support in this first day of taking on that challenge. And we have been successful. We have a lot of great work to get through, so let's get started. I have here this VDOT award that was given to Public Works back in 2025. Suffolk was awarded this award for its project performance. So please kind of keep this in mind as I go through these projects that we've completed that are in design and getting ready to go into construction. All right, first we'll go through completed transportation projects. Nansman Parkway, Wilroy Road overpass project is complete, saving citizens time and preventing travel delays by avoiding an at-grade railroad crossing. Project was an honorable mention at the American Public Works Association Conference. And that's what this award is right here for this project. Nansman Parkway, Bennett's Pasture Road improvements. Project is complete. Improves traffic flow on Nansman Parkway by Nansman River High School. Freeman Mill Bridge, project complete. This has updated this bridge to VDOT standards. Pittmontown Bridge, again, project complete. up to standards. We have one more project that we'll talk about later in this brief, and then we have one more bridge that we will be looking to secure funds for to do the upgrades, and that's Gates Run. Peaseville drainage phase two project is complete. We installed a drainage trunk lined down John Street and the construction of a stormwater BMP to address flooding in Peaseville. Paving. Here's roads that we have resurfaced. Route 58, Whaleyville Boulevard, Carolina Road. And please note Carolina Road, as this will tie into another project that we're going to talk about later. And then plan for 2026, Ruritan Boulevard, Holland Road, and Pughsville Road. Transportation projects under construction. I'll brief these in the order that they are due to complete. 58. Highland Road corridor improvements. We are wrapping up the punch list. Some of these items require lane closures. New signal timing is ongoing currently. We're observing and tweaking these signal times. And in August, our engineering firm will also come back again and look to see if any timings need to change since that's when school goes back into session. Wanted to also remind everybody that this project is one that we opened up before Thanksgiving to make sure it was open and usable for Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays to serve the citizens as we finalize the punch list items. This is our commitment to our citizens taking beneficial occupancy of portions of projects that are complete and usable and of benefit to the citizens. Shoulders Hill intersection. The project is due to be complete before the summer ends. New traffic signal programming has been installed, and we will retime the signals in this entire corridor once the project is complete. This will ensure the flow of traffic is optimized, and just like on 58, after a few months pass, we will come back to reassess if any adjustments need to take place. Nansman Parkway over Beeman's Mill Pond. Projects on schedule and on budget. Bridge is slated to open before the school year. Crittenden Road at Route 17 realignment. Project is going well on schedule and on budget and slated for a winter completion. We're currently deconflicting utilities. Utility relocation is required to complete ditch installation alongside the new auxiliary lane. Pitch Kettle Road realignment project is on schedule and on time. We're continuing excavation and installing drainage structures near the retaining wall. Very responsive contractor and we expect completion next summer. Spigot Spillway bridge replacement recently awarded. Notice to proceed is pending any day. And then also the public information campaign is ongoing. For our new process, we'll be adding a video on our capital improvement project page to describe the project and impacts with detours to citizens. Trillington Road will be closed around the 10th of July. Message boards are in place, noting this closure. Carolina Road Diet. The project will resurface and restripe approximately one mile of Carolina Road to implement a road diet configuration from Dill Road to Fayette Street. The diet configuration will allow for a center turn lane and a bike lane on each side of the road, allowing safer access to downtown and peanut park by separating bike and pedestrian traffic. The resurfacing will be the final segment needed on Carolina road to connect to the railroad overpass into downtown. And just two weeks ago, we re striped that overpass. Transportation and Design. I placed a few non-road projects first as a reminder that Public Works is responsible for other modes of transportation such as waterways and sidewalks. This dredging project is in coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers and the project is due to start next week. Hunter's Court Sidewalk. The survey plan is complete and we are reviewing internally We look forward to having this project complete this summer. This is connecting the sidewalk at the Arby's on the Arby's side of the road adjacent to the fire station going into the shopping center.

Town point sidewalk.

The design is due to start this month. The original plan was $1 million, but we received $1.5 million in funding. So that allows the sidewalk to extend further than anticipated. And that was due to con congressional funding via the safe streets for all. Downtown railroad warning system. Rail safety is a priority given that we have around 40 railroad crossings. The project installs warning signs that will be activated when a train is blocking a railroad crossing, allowing citizens to self detour. We have these train activated warning signs on Constance Road and Pitch Kettle. This project will expand this functionality. Citywide and downtown signal system upgrades. This project will be upgrading signal equipment throughout the city to include controllers, sensors, vehicle detection, cameras. These improvements will tie into our Transportation Operations Center, which is under construction and I'll mention that project later in the brief. Route 58, improvements, R-CUT. This project will install an R-CUT on 58 between the Holland Bypass and Long Street near the Duckthrough to allow vehicles to safely perform U-turns, especially larger vehicles and emergency vehicles, by providing an additional turn radius. Godwin Boulevard improvements. This project consists of improvements to a one mile section of Godwin Boulevard, extending from Suffolk bypass to South hill point improvements include widening from a four lane to a six lane section within the existing median 60% design. And we are reviewing those comments right now. And the public hearing for this project is slated for this winter associated with that project. is the Godwin Boulevard interchange improvements. This design is also at 60% and the interchange and road widening are slated to be a single contract. I want to draw your attention to the zoomed in picture of the westbound off ramp. There's a protected signalized right turn lane onto Godwin with an additional dedicated turn lane onto Burnett's Way. There's a dedicated right hand turn lane that also allows crossing of Godwin Boulevard into the dual left turn lanes into Center Brook Lane. The eastbound ramp will have dedicated right and left turn lanes allowing for better traffic flow and ramp storage capacity. Public hearing also slated for this winter. Bridge road widening. This project will improve bridge road, Route 17, from approximately .1 miles west of Windward Lane to Harborview Boulevard. Improvements will consist of widening and extending travel lanes in both directions, replacements of two traffic signals, adding turn lanes and enhancing existing turn lanes. Accommodations will also be added for bike and pedestrian traffic. Designs at 60% and we are looking at a public hearing this winter, possibly fall. College Drive bus pullout. The project includes construction of a dedicated bus turnaround along South Point College Drive at Kroger. The project will alleviate safety concerns and traffic delays due to the impeding buses. The bus will also have transit priority, which is a dedicated green light for the bus. Again, addressing safety and flow of traffic. Shoulders Hill Road Widening. Widening of the roadway from a typical two-lane to four-lane section. Improvements include a 10-foot multi-use path. The corridor is 1.4 miles and spans from Laycock Lane in the north to Peaseville Road in the south. The design has just started. Prudhomme Boulevard, US 460 widening project. Prudhomme Boulevard widening project is a long range transportation improvement initiative intended to improve safety capacity and freight mobility along the US 460 corridor in Suffolk. Designs at 30% and we are working through the NEPA process currently. Kings Highway bridge replacement. The project seeks to restore a direct connection across the Nansman River between the Chukotuck and driver communities by constructing a new bridge linking Kings Highway to Godwin Boulevard. We're continuing our interactions with the Coast Guard as well as the Cultural Resources Study. Moving on to stormwater. These are the projects that are in design. Steeple Drive drainage, this project is in eclipse and increases the pipe capacity and regrades certain ditch sections. There is a mixture of what will be piped and what will be ditched. The right-of-way acquisition is ongoing and a new drop inlet will be installed on Steeple Drive. Pembroke Lane drainage, improve drainage conveyance to address village point development drainage in Pembroke Lane corridor erosion and flooding. Reduce flooding on roadways and erosion in ditches. Ditch maintenance was conducted in June from Godwin to Pembroke Lane and we are looking to have a meeting with the citizens to go over design alternatives later this summer. Murphy's Mill culvert improvements. So this project here is going through some changes. It's been identified that it will be a regulated dam. So this will require a dam break study to determine the classification. The classification will either be high, significant, or low, and that will be dependent on average daily traffic and impacts downstream. So the project budget will most likely increase as well as the schedule pushed to the right. And we continue having additional discussions as we move forward in this project in determining the way ahead. Whaleyville drainage improvements. The study included condition assessment identified some immediate issues. Since the study, Public Works Operations has performed maintenance and point repairs. Budgeted funds will not cover the entire majority or recommendations in the report and we will plan for this in additional out years. The study is complete and we are prioritizing the list of tasks. Moving on to traffic and completed projects. Curve warning study. This is in rural areas where we'll be adding additional signs and paint. And you will see here Manning Road, the bottom left picture is an example of that. Traffic signal installation, we've added those at Fire Station 10, 11, Prudhomme Boulevard, and 58 Westbound Ramp. Rail crossing safety enhancements, we've added signage, paint, and bollards, and pedestrian crossing. Crittenden Road at Macedonia, that has been added. All right, traffic under construction. Traffic Operations Center. This is in the Public Works Operations Building. Construction will be complete this fall and expecting full operational capability in 2027 to conduct traffic monitoring, incident response, overall traffic management, as well as public works emergency management events. Transit. Projects that are complete. We have added two additional lines to our transit, the Peanut Express and the Seaport Express routes. And I wanted to bring up transit. Right here is an award for the 2026 ridership award for small group. First place to Suffolk had 15.2% growth. So again, congrats. And then also we received the public 2026 Outstanding Public Transit Marketing Award for a small agency, Suffolk Transit. And again, along with the marketing, it was our slogan, a good time to ride. So again, congratulations to Transit. Transit and Design. Suffolk Transit Operations Facility. We're looking to begin construction on this in the fall, and it is located adjacent to the operations facility, parks and rec, the whole compound out there. So as you can see from this brief, we are expanding modes of traffic by car, but also transit, sidewalks, bike lanes. Moving on to Village Neighborhood Initiatives. So we've completed enclosing ditches with pipe and installing curb, gutter, and repaving the street in Lloyd Place, Rosemont, Pleasant Hill. And we're currently under construction at Bunch. We have future projects also listed on this slide right here. And then finally to wrap up, uh, this brief, we received this award in 2025 for project performance and the city of Suffolk was recently awarded, uh, the V dot 2026 Hampton roads district locality performance award. So we have won this, uh, two years in a row and it's related to the construction work. Uh, that has been going on in Suffolk and us meeting. schedules and budget. Depending on any questions, that concludes Mr. Rattel and my brief.

Council, any questions or comments? Yes, I do.

Vice Mayor Ward. Yeah, I see you have time point sidewalks

Start in July, but you know what particular date I Do not not at this moment, but it will be started in July The design so we're working on the design and that's going to tell us where we're able to place the sidewalk Because we are working with certain constraints in that area the sidewalk May be on one side of the road in certain areas and could possibly be on the other Again, we have to get through design to be able to determine the path that side walk will take on that road And also see where to start from all the way down to To the road so that's the map of it, correct What side what side of street Right, that is going to be determined by the design.

Okay. And the Hunter's Court sidewalk, and you said it's by Arby's?

Correct, this summer.

Okay, it's across the street from Arby's or what?

Right, adjacent to Arby's, so adjacent to the parking lot. Okay.

That's by the fire station?

Correct.

Okay. My concern is where the fire station is, can we get sidewalks on that side of the street?

So we looked at originally placing it there versus on the other side of the street, which means whatever.

Because you have some sidewalks up there already, by all means. Correct. It don't go far connected, but you also have, when you come from 7-Eleven, What a fire station is, we got a sidewalk all the way to that corner. Then you go past the fire station, no sidewalks. You have to cross the street. That's what I ask for that side where the fire station is, because they can go from whatever it is, from 7-Eleven all the way to the strip mall on that side of the street, still crossing over.

Right. So the sidewalk was not placed on the side of the fire station going into the shopping center. It was able to be accomplished on the other side of the road due to right-of-way and other issues with utilities. And so the sidewalk that is adjacent to Arby's, that whole corner of Arby's is a sidewalk. And then you have the exit asphalt. And then right there is a path or a landing pad for a sidewalk to be built off of. And that is where the sidewalk will begin to get into the shopping center.

So you're telling me they got to cross over to Arby's and that's be a full sidewalk to the mall?

Correct. If you're at the fire station, you will have to cross the road at the stoplight to get to that sidewalk to then go into the shopping center.

Okay, why can't I do it on that side because that property is not, somebody owned that property over there by the sidewalk, by a fire station or something?

Vice Mayor, if I could. So the destination being the shopping center with the coal side of the, is the closest, safest location for pedestrians to reach shopping center out towards the fire station at Arby's. And so at some point, we would need the pedestrian to either walk in the Coles parking lot where there's not a building, or the safer option was having them cross the street at the Arby's and staying on that side of the street to get to the Coles.

Pewsville Road. What do you plan on doing that again on Peelsville Road? Resurfacing the road.

Resurfacing, so giving it a new coat of asphalt. Okay.

Further on Peelsville Road, when you're going up to Children's Hill Road, there's no sidewalks, none. The people who live in them houses, they got to watch their back to even go to the The mailbox. And they don't, and with the cars have increased on Pugetville Road, they don't be the speed. Because you can't even walk on to your next door neighbor house unless you go to the grass. So I feel that you got about 18 houses that you got to set it aside. And some don't have the ones that you can do it from the rear. You can't you turn around you can't you can't even walk to your neighbor's house Wow, I want to see what can we do about that? We have they don't have no sidewalk not now part of the Puget Road and the traffic is is then doubled And I just feel like I've been out there before and I have seen them cars flying You got to almost when you walk down Puget Road. You got to look behind you to make sure that A car is coming, and make sure you might have to stop just to make sure that no cars move by. And that's both sides of the street. I mean, how it started, I understand, but now it's a different time now. All these cars coming up and down that street. And like I said, them people can't even walk. Some can't even go get the mail unless they get the mail from the side and pull it out. They can't even turn around.

I made a note of that right there, and we can look into that for a potential future project.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

Council Member Bennett. I have a few questions myself. I'm going to start at the paving, planned paving. It's only two projects I see that you have here planned next year. And also I had asked that Hargrove Tavern, that was one that had been talked about. that need to be put on that list for paving. That neighborhood is in bad condition, and we definitely need to go ahead and move that up on the list to make sure that that happens. Also, on the railroad crossing, pedestrian crossing, on Portsmouth Boulevard and suburban drive, That's something that's been on the docket for just about two years. They're getting a walk sign, a walk light there with people crossing, with all the traffic there, with people walking and accidents happening at that intersection. I think that needs to be put up, and I think that can't have been kicked down the road further enough as well. Also, on the bus stops, requesting a bus stop on Nesbitt Parkway somewhere between Cherry Blossom and Woodlake. People up there are trying to get transportation for going back and forth to work, and it's not a bus stop in that area. And also, we have a, trying to think what, What we would call it was a house where people stay in that doesn't have transportation and they walk a lot in the road because I guess they're trying to get to the store or whatever. So we definitely need a bus stop up there in that area as well. I have one other here. Let me see what else I had on this. Shoals Hill Road. on the shoulder seal road to widen of that, uh, is that down just going to be to the way to build and why warehouses or how far is that going down on shoulder seal road? We'll go down to, we'll go down to Puseville all the way from, from, uh, where the current warehouse up to Puseville. Is that what you're saying?

From the current intersection project of shoulder hill and bridge road. Okay.

And while we're talking about intersection, 58, I know this is not my, we're just talking transportation, is with the traffic backing up on 58, the turn lane, are we planning to extend that on 58 so people can get off 58 to be going up on the turn lanes to get up on Goblin Boulevard?

Goblin Boulevard. So we've looked into the possibility of creating an auxiliary lane. However, right now we do not have enough asphalt to be able to, asphalt width to be able to create a lane that could be used, kind of like how Virginia Beach has a shoulder lane. So right now we are not able to move forward with that idea.

Okay. The other thing is the app with the warning that people can go on about the... Train and all. I know the management. I've been talking about this. We want to keep that out there because they are having a serious problem in Wonderland Forest with getting in and out and getting contact. So we need to make sure that we keep that up front as well. Okay. I think that was it right now for you. Okay. I'm going to have a couple for my other friend out there.

Okay. If I can, we are actively working the rail app, rail notification app. So that's something that we are working on to see if possible to continue and bring to the city. Regarding the bus stops, we're always seeking advice from the public on where we can put another bus stop. Currently, we have 180 bus stops, and that's what our transit system is there for, for our people. And what we have in place is not necessarily set in stone. So we would love to get feedback, and we would definitely look into adding this bus stop here. And regarding the Portsmouth Suburban, intersection and the ability to cross the street there I will follow up on That area as we're working some safety projects as well as our trail project with parks and rec and My final request is I've been getting a lot of traction from Closing the ditches up

Sidewalk from Portsmouth Boulevard down to suburban we have from suburban All the way back uptown.

So the people now are requesting the other Section yes for next year Yes, so that is a project that we are in the early stages of talking about along Portsmouth Boulevard next to the railroad that is going to be another project that we're gonna have to gain permitting from the railroad on and And that's the next project that we're going to try to work with the railroad because currently just this week we started clearing the ditch behind Virginia Avenue that's going to allow us to alleviate the flooding from those roads that spill into that ditch to the outfall. So we have been able to figure out the process to work with the railroad, and that is next for us to get after. Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

councilmember rector thank you greg uh... i guess one last sidewalk issue i know we've talked about uh... maybe trying to increase the sidewalks coming ups of uh... suburban drive from the food line to like the graystone reserves suburban woods neighborhood so that those folks can walk to the food line uh... without having to be either in a ditch or out on the road. And I just wanna make sure that that stays at the forefront of everybody's mind. And then my only other comment I guess really is for Paul. The dam just up river from The Kimberley Bridge, and I know it's Portsmouth's, but a few years ago they lost, I believe, a FEMA grant of about $22 million to refurbish that dam. Are we monitoring it? And does Portsmouth have any outlook for being able to secure funds to make sure that that dam is in as good a shape as it needs to be?

The last I heard about that was about a year ago. Portsmouth was looking into alternative funding sources to see what they could do to continue with the rehabilitation of that dam, which was quite an expensive project. I haven't heard anything recently, but I can check with my contacts over within the public utilities department there. As far as monitoring the dam, I mean, we don't actively monitor the dam with respect to condition because, of course, it's not our dam. We do say during storm events we'll get a call from Portsmouth Public Utilities whether they're, if they're experiencing any issues with any of their dams. The one in particular I'm thinking of more than one is at Lake Kilby near the water treatment plant where they raise and lower the water elevation based on a storm. But no, we're not actively monitoring that dam. But I can find out to see what they're planning to do with the condition of that.

I guess if we're not actively monitoring it, is Portsmouth actively monitoring it, or do you know? They should be. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Council Member Wright.

I have a question for Mr. Benton. Sir, on Shoulders Hill Road where, I think it's Shoulders Hill and Bob White where the developers started working and they started road work, that road work is incomplete. Is there a plan or are we waiting to, I guess, determine what the developer is gonna do?

Right, so that work, the road is open and usable and then you have that lane that's not complete. And so we are gonna be reaching out to them. We had a meeting this week to discuss that. Prior to this, whenever they let us know that they were gonna be stopping work, we did contact them and let them know that they were responsible for maintaining the edge of the current road and keeping the maintenance up on the edge so that we have safe passage of that road. So we've reengaged and had a meeting this week, and then we're gonna be following up determining the way ahead. Ultimately, it would be great to have it paved, but that's something that we have to talk to the developer about.

Thank you.

Council Member Butler-Barlow.

Thank you, Mayor. I have a question for Paul, actually. On the Crump's Mill Pond, can you just talk to me a little bit more about that? Because I didn't realize that that was a drinking water supply body. And so on this it says, engineering evaluation for dam rehab or removal. So would we get rid of it? Is that potentially?

It would cease being used as a dam, which would involve us not using it as a drinking water supply. So it is a part of the drinking water supply system, a very, very small part of it. We use it mostly if we had to use it for a backup. We haven't used that as a source in a long time, predominantly because that water, if you look at it, it's very, very difficult to treat because of the tannins in the water from the leaves and all that, very difficult to treat. So that gets put into the mix of what are we gonna do with it? You know, the difficulty in treating it, the expense of, I think going on my memory now, but I think about seven or eight years ago, we had some preliminary cost estimates. It's about $9 million to rehab that dam for a very small water source. Of course, decommissioning it would also come as a cost. So that's why we hired an engineer, a dam engineer to take a look at this. So we'll be looking at multiple different alternatives.

I like those dam engineers.

Yes.

No, thank you. So that report, that's going to be this month sometime. I'm just curious because, yeah, that will impact some of the surrounding properties.

Yeah, we've actually had contact with the owner, I forgot his name, of the old mill across the street. He was interested in the project. We had to contact him because we actually had to go on his property to do sediment sampling as part of this. So, yes, to your point, he's interested in what we're talking about. Yeah.

Okay. Yes. All right. Thank you very much.

Vice Mayor Ward. Okay. Great. This might not be a question for you, but someone asked me about this, and I don't know. When you have the bus stop, Are they required to have a shelter for the people who ride in the bus? Do they have it? How many bus stops we have? How many they don't have? Because somebody in College Drive asked the question. I think it's out of College Drive or in Harborview, one of them. And it'd be raining, and they had to be outside. I think that's unfair. I don't know if they're required to have a shelter for the people. And we're trying to, if somebody's going to ride the bus, they're in bad shape. Most people got cars, okay? So at least if you're going to try to entice people to ride the bus, they should have some type of shelter. So I'm just saying, who are required to do that? Transportation, that's not us, or that's the bus company?

So the city's plan and the way that we're moving forward is if we have the city's plan and the way that we are moving forward with our bus stops for transit is if we currently have the right of way, uh, we are going to be pouring a concrete pad and placing a shelter on the concrete pad so that we can get our citizens out of the elements. So if we don't have the right of way, that is where it's gonna be just the post. But we do have a list of bus shelters that we are ordering and getting put in place. And I actually have that list with me on my phone. So if there's any specifics, I can follow up and let you know the future of where we are going next. But that is the plan is if we have the land, we will be putting a shelter in place.

All right, thank you. One more question. As you know, I be talking about sidewalks, because I think that is a problem. It's not only just my borough. I had heard other people talk about these sidewalks in the communities. As a matter of fact, in the town hall meeting when we went to this year, we heard a lot of questions about sidewalks, and that's always in my borough. So I want to make sure, I want to see that we can have a budget for these sidewalks, especially where I'm at. I want to have sidewalks. I have watched, when I do walking or whatever, I have watched people in the motorbikes, motorchairs, and I watch them because I'm looking at them because it's just scary to see them not in the street and in the street. And I got a problem with that. I have a problem with that. So I want to see if we can do city management. You're going to explain it to me. Because we put a priority on certain areas, especially got a lot of cars going on. We need sidewalks. Cover them ditches. Let's get some sidewalks out there. Because like I said, Pughville Road is just scary. When you see them cars coming on both sides of the street, there's no sidewalks. And I know the people who are handicapped and riding them chairs cannot ride on that block at all. So I want to see what we can do about improving that. I would like to see that done. Thank you. Sure.

We had our first brainstorming meeting for CIP this week. So we've already started that process of getting after what projects that we need to formulate or put on our CIP and then see how much money we get to see how far we can go.

Believe me, I understand budgets now. So I understand it. It might not happen tomorrow, but it's a plan. And I'd like to just see a plan that... We're trying to work on it. That's what I'm saying. We can't do all of them, but like I said, if traffic is a main street, we need some people to walk, especially the people who need to go to the store or whatever like that. We've got to make sure that they're able to do this. Thank you.

Council Member Bennett.

Greg, before you sit down, I have one other question. This is going to be a good one. Because I've had a lot of complaints in talking about traffic, especially in the afternoon and mornings during rush hour where construction is going on during those hours. In the contracts, I don't know how it might be written where it can't be more work done at night after people rush hours and stuff. How can we look at trying to improve that? work areas doing rush hours and do more at night?

In our contract we do avoid rush hours as well as by VDOT regulation. We can't work on holiday weekends in the road. So those are two measures that are put in place. We have had some recent incidences where one traffic backup was due to somebody working in our right-of-way without a permit and there was a work stoppage. that took place and the traffic lane closure was not picked up and we got wind of that and made sure that we got that removed as soon as we could with that contractor. And then also there was another one where related to work by our guardrails. So we are aware and we are making those corrective measures and also in Looking up in city code. There's some measures that we can take place For anybody that is a violator that chooses to try to do work in our right-of-way without a permit causing traffic delays like that As well as some other means that I have researched and working with other department Directors with the city.

Well, I hope we look at that means of what we might be able to do to help with the traffic and the other thing while we're talking about that is I KNOW THAT HRSD IS CAUSING A LOT OF TRAFFIC PROBLEMS IN OUR CITY. AND THAT'S ONE I WAS MENTIONING, WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT, IS THAT JUST LIKE RIGHT NOW THEY'RE ON PORTSMOUTH BOULEVARD, NOW THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT CLOSING WILROY ROAD UP. AND COMING DOWN TO ONE LANE ON PORTSMOUTH BOULEVARD, AND THEN YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE EMERGING TRAFFIC COMING FROM WILROY ROAD OVER TO PORTSMOUTH BOULEVARD TRYING TO GET OUT. National Parkway Bridge is out down there by Mack Bend School. So it's creating more of a problem for our citizens for what they are doing. So that's some of the people that need to be doing that work off hours rather than inconvenient to citizens doing the work hours morning and evening trying to get back and forth to work. So I hope we can look at those areas and try to coordinate with them some kind of way that they don't block up awful lot of roads at one time, and so it don't clog our city up like it's doing now.

Thank you. Councilman Bennett, just to add some information, that sometimes during the contractual process and the design process, some of the considerations include, as it relates to night work, is if there are residences in the construction area. So obviously if you move to an evening work hour, you're going to be building in someone's front yard while they're attempting to sleep as well. And so it's the balancing act for it as well. And so we know when you're sitting in your car, it's frustrating, it's aggravating. But if you're living in your home trying to sleep, that's also aggravating and a nuisance as well. The other challenge that exists is the contracting environment. There are less companies available to do this. We found ourselves, when we're opening bids, getting one bid from time to time. And then just as it relates to affordability, again, we will look for opportunities to alleviate rush hour traffic and some of the backups. I know it's frustrating, but those are some of the balancing acts that have to come into play with it.

Okay. Stay tuned.

Council, any other questions or comments? If not, then, you know, being aware of the time, I just got a quick one. I had a couple, but I'm just going to get down to one, and the manager might have to answer this. The Route 460 project, with the completion date, construction date being around 2030 to 31... Does that have any effect on the TPOP funds? I mean, do we have the latitude to take that long? Yes, we've been working with BDOT to talk through that, and there's not a concern. Okay, so that's not an issue. And the only other thing I noticed on that budget, the Route 460 budget, $30 million for right-of-way acquisition in that particular quarter seems really high because there's not that much on either side of it. Most of it's going to be, I would imagine... Port 460 side of that, and there's only maybe a half a dozen residents on that side, and that compared to the 34 million that was spent on Route 58, which you can understand because there were so many different businesses. It just seems like the 30 million, I mean, I know it's an estimate, but it sure does seem high.

So some of the differences between the two areas, and again, without having designed documents, I don't want to go too far down the road, but during a process where you are acquiring property and that property is impacted to the point of complete take or somebody resides in that residence or a business is in there, you have to pay for that relocation as well. And so it's one thing to get a few feet of right-of-way with nobody there. If you're getting a structure, you have to pay for that structure to find a new location.

And if there's something there, you also... You need to pay for loss of revenue, I think, some nebulous figure you've got to come up with. Okay. Thank you very much for your presentation. It is quite evident by what we've listened to for about an hour exactly how much we have going on in public works and public utilities, and a lot of it our citizens are not just aware of. You just take it for granted every day. More so on the utility side and probably Public Works because public works we're looking at roads or traveling the roads but From the utility side, you know, as long as you get mortar coming through your faucet you're not really that concerned about how it got there and What's been done to improve your sewage? So I very much appreciate this this information and I won't hold on to it and hopefully our citizens will also be more aware of what goes on behind the scenes and every day to ensure that they have, you know, drinking water, the sewage system, and everything is operating to provide the service that they expect. So thank you once again, and we will move to our next item, which is concerning our American Rescue Plan Act. We will be receiving an overview. Mr. Manager.

Deuce, Mayor, do you want to consider either moving this to the work session or another council meeting since we're going a little longer than expected?

We could move this to the next work session if there's no objection of anyone as Mr. Attorney. to make sure that I am doing this process properly, will you please give me a tutorial?

Yes, you can decide to move it to the next work session. There's no specific requirement.

Does that require a vote or just a consensus? If there's a consensus, the vote's probably not necessary. Okay, if there's no objection, then we will move the ARPA Rescue Plan presentation to our next work session. With that being said, then that will... conclude our work session. We do have a need for a closed meeting this evening, and I would ask the Madam Clerk to present that motion for consideration.

Item number one, pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A1, the discussion, consideration, or interviews of respective candidates for appointment AND THE ASSIGNMENT APPOINTMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF SPECIFIC PUBLIC OFFICERS OR APPOINTEES OF THE CITY, SPECIFICALLY THE APPOINTMENTS AS SHOWN ON THE ATTACHED LIST, FOR VACANCIES OR TERM EXPLORATIONS FOR THE COMMUNITY POLICY MANAGEMENT TEAM, THE HAMPTON ROADS PLANNING DISTRICT COMMISSION, THE HUMAN SERVICES ADVISORY BOARD, THE LOCAL BOARD OF BUILDING CODE APPEALS, THE PLANNING COMMISSION, 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 And item number two, pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A3, the discussion or consideration of the acquisition of real property for a public purpose or of the disposition of publicly held real 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 33 Astor at 14C and 33 Astor at 14.

Council, a motion has been presented for your consideration. What is your pleasure? Council Member Butler-Barlow.

Move to approve.

A motion for approval. Council Member Butler-Barlow. Council Member Bennett. Second. Second from Council Member Bennett. Any discussion of the motion? Hearing none, Council Members prepare to vote. Please cast your vote. Madam Clerk, please record the vote.

The motion is approved by a vote of six to zero.

That concludes our work session. We will reconvene at 6 p.m.