Common Council Code and Infrastructure Committee transcript: FUTURE HUDSON

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4:08Uh, it's just you. It's just you.
4:13Should we turn it? Is that Is it something you doing?
4:16No, I have no idea.
4:17I think if someone speaks, does it come on? Sorry.
4:20Does it turn when someone speaks?
4:22Speak.
4:23Pull ears off and turn on that.
4:27Um, turn.
4:28If you're online, we have a delay. Uh, Rob Perry had the wrong start time, please. There you go.
4:40I just turned the camera on.
4:42We're sorting out the
4:43Yeah, I was supposed to direct the speaker. Yeah,
4:47we're we're sorting out uh Rob's arrival.
4:51Excuse me.
4:52I'm telling just the general audience that we're waiting on arrival.
4:59Is the microphone on, Margaret?
5:01Yeah.
5:02Okay.
5:02Do you want me to?
5:04No, I think it's okay. It's just gonna star at you the whole time.
5:23Wait, was that just coming from the computer or was that this monitor or whatever this deal evening is?
5:34What are we doing? We're waiting on Rob infrastructure. Pardon me. DPW. I'm not perfect. Okay. He he thought it was six and he was going to try to be in person. I'm trying to figure out whether he's switching to online or rushing down.
6:22Should we try to see if the video?
6:27Yeah, go ahead. if you can.
6:29I'm expecting I expect it to it to just pop up. But is there anyone online who can unmute and say how we appear online is okay?
6:46I don't see anything.
6:49Okay, we hear you.
6:51Well, I don't see a general picture of the chambers. We haven't started yet. We're working out our online.
7:04You want to try to get the see if the video works?
7:11It's just showing.
7:12It's just from the computer though. So, is there something else that
7:25Oh,
7:33that was it. Perfect. Excellent. Now we did it. I'm impressed. We learned something. Yes. He hasn't found it again. Okay. Is that Dan?
8:14Yes.
8:14Oh, okay.
8:18Yeah, that's me.
8:20Hello. What do you might be wrong to be?
8:33I don't know. What does it say? What says P last Love. Are you saying that Rob Perry didn't know the meeting started at 5:30? Is that what we're supposed to understand?
9:51Yes. There was a confusion on the start time of the meeting.
9:55Confusion. They all start at 5:30, don't they?
9:59They do not all start at 5:30, but this one does.
10:02They're all scheduled to start at 5:30, aren't they? Yes, they are.
10:08Every infrastructure committee meeting is scheduled start at 5:30. Yes.
10:15And Mr. Perry didn't know that or he forgot.
10:21He he probably made a mistake.
10:25Probably. Huh? You get a demerit for that.
10:36You have the power of mute as well. Yeah.
10:43Would you mind muting him please?
10:48You can mute both my Okay, everyone online. Um, Rob has made it and uh when he gets his stuff open and ready, we'll hand it over to the reporter.
12:29Open the meeting.
12:30Okay. when we officially open uh the code and infrastructure meeting of the city of Hudson at 5:40 p.m. on March 9th, 2026. In in the room is Henry Hadad, member of the committee. Online is Dewan. Uh and I don't see Ron.
12:55I do not. Um and Rob Perry is in attendance to give his DPW report. Is there anything on your mind that's for our committee while Rob's getting set up? Um not yet. I guess maybe just a call back to a little bit of old business. But um we could whenever you wanted to do that before after the monthly report um just to some leftover stuff from
13:25He's stuck in the back. parking meter removals, things like that. How that's going basically tie into Okay. Little things. Of course, fired. We got a lot of environments that we should have at least some of those on my own to correct me. It's said that Carla is always giving me suggestions of how I should comport myself if you do this better.
14:37So you know we are live.
14:44Thank you. Is this your screen? Do you have Rob up there on that screen?
15:07Do you have Rob up there? Is he
15:10Is he in the chamber? I share screen.
15:13No. Is he joined that meeting to share his screen?
15:17He does. Oh, wow. He's already
15:20profession.
15:24Okay.
15:27So, um you have to ling this two different ways. Oh, okay. That's interesting. Uh so the sewer department uh acceptance in January was $33,640 or $650. You know, we're budget about $525,000 annually. So our monthly uh the not is about $45,000. Not surprising that January is going to be low because it's wintertime and we had an awful lot of snow. So let's let's figure this out now.
16:15Rob, do you have any hard copies? No. Okay. Well, I will
16:20I'm not just marginally unprepared. I'm entirely all right.
16:25I don't I'll look at it online later, too.
16:27I have my mouse. I have my glasses.
16:30Do you need a pair of readers or readers?
16:34I'm just trying to figure out whether it doesn't read.
16:41Just going to scroll down changing. Oh, there it goes. All right. So, at the sewer plant. Oh, come on. At the sewer plant, you know, the the plan was we rebuilt a lot of it in 2010. New Hendricks building and some other uh structures, but the clarifiers which are the main tanks were reused from the original construction in the 1960s. We did a significant amount of rehab work on it, but the um it's failed over the last 20 years or failing. So, we do have a quot this is going to have to be some kind of a capital project and probably not going to be a 2026 project,
17:32but there's various uh for the walkways uh the main influence spillway, the uh clarifiers. There are some minor cracks developing in some of the tanks. So, you know, it's functional for now, but it's going to need to be addressed sooner than later. Total cost is about $350,000. Um that's just something that we'll have to figure out for next year how I work in there. Um so this is just one of the we are uh a restaurant community. So the picture on the left is what's affectionately referred to as a grease trap and it's about 6 or 8 in full of thick grease.
18:17It's it's supposed to be cleaned out. This one hasn't. And what happens is the grease actually shortcircuits once it's not maintained. And that's what these blobs are that you'll see in this in the sewer main behind it in the alley. So, uh this is something that we usually work with with code enforcement. Um because the source is from inside the building and then uh we coordinate and uh make them come up with either some kind of a cleaning schedule or some other maintenance. Where's the truck photo from?
18:47Uh one of Hudson's restaurants. Okay. one one of it's not it's not your
18:57no it's a commercial project.
18:59So um uh going to this the sewer department part of the internal documents or internal the summer sorry the winter projects uh as maintenance. So this is u one of the four filters and you can see over the course of the year sediment builds up inside of it and uh what we do is we scour it, do a couple rinse, do an acid wash, uh let it airate for a while, get all the media and the sand cleaned up and then uh we rinse it out and you can see the before and after.
19:32Let's see what else is I'll skip through these to go to the agenda. Uh this is just a couple of winter related. The one on the right was about a foot and a half of standing water. I believe that house was on State Street and it was an abandoned it's a house that's vacant and what happened is the um it was a severe cold. The lateral service uh froze and burst inside. So we ended up getting access to it. The picture on the left is actually the
20:08basement at city hall and you can see the water kind of coming in. It's actually upside down. Uh coming in from the
20:18leads,
20:19let's see through the wall.
20:21Through the wall. And that was actually a frozen fire service that was about two buildings uh up from here. And it was made its way underground into the basement city hall. Um, how how were these identified? Like the state should be abandoned. How did you find out?
20:39Well, we have, you know, we know we've had trouble maintaining the full tank all winter. So, there's a company called GP RS or something like that. Um, and they have pretty intense locating devices and so they listed on hydrants and they have correlators. you know, the equipment's like $30, $50,000 and they are able to triangulate based on the noise, I guess, for lack of a better term, and come up with a rough idea as to where uh the brakes are. In fact, they were excavating over on North Fifth today for another leaky service uh where
21:16the the landlord is just um non-compliant and doesn't return calls. We we work with code enforcement and we reach a certain point where you know we're losing water so we will do the work ourselves and then just put the cost of it on their water bill. That's how it goes. So we have just going through some of our DPW. So, you know, as the spring is coming, we were working on uh you know, there's a lot of signs that have been out there for a while that are pretty aged. Um so,
21:59we come up with inventory of them. They actually ordered about 3,000 items worth of signs and they're just going to be swapping out the existing uh with ones that are better shape. Also, seasonal work inside, you know, cleaning the the sanding down and restaining. These are the little flag poles. I go on the street lights on the right, barricades uh on the left, and this is upside down. Um this morning there was a incident up at the his favorite triangle of death. And in this instance, the individual was
22:42driving west on Columbia Street and for whatever reason crossed over into the eastbound lane and actually ran along the curb heading towards the hospital. So, uh, this was this had nothing to do with a traffic device or lack thereof. This is just somebody not paying attention as they're driving down the road. They actually uh tweaked the telephone pole behind him which caused damage to our uh switch for the flashing light that's been repaired. Uh but that was out of commission for part of this morning. Um, this is just something I prepared a
23:20couple of years ago, the parks department, because, you know, everybody, you know, likes to talk about parks, but they really don't have an idea of how many. These are just properties that we maintain and there's 35 various properties from anything that goes uh from the waterfront park, the dog park, Charles Williams down to just these little out parcels that are scattered throughout the city that the city happens to own and everything in between. And when you take the total amount of area, you know, you've got the cemetery, which is obviously the city's largest park, is about 80 acres. uh
23:58Oakdale uh which we do not maintain at Stone by the Youth Department is another 12 acres and then uh the various 35 properties are another 22 acres. You come up with 114 out of our two square miles which is 1,280 or 9%. So basically 90% of the city is somehow a green space uh with most of it being touched by uh in this instance there used to be three guys but there was a vacancy so when the BEA did the budget they eliminated that so there's a 25% reduction in the personnel
24:36services for the parks um which you know whatever I mean it's going to be two guys are going to get done what they can get done But you know, if you like parks, you got you got to pay for it. You know, the um just a couple little minor things here. This was the storm that never was where they forecasted 8 to 16 in. We were lucky we only had a couple of inches. Um we did have some repairs on the snowblower, the large one. It went away
25:11after the the five day snow event and it was a broken clutch. You can see part of the assembly was broken that had to go to Nortra uh to get repair up there. And so when we tally the numbers for the season, this includes the December of 2025 as well as the first uh two months of 26. You'll see that our payroll was about 44,000 and this year's budget was only 30,000. So there was a transfer uh last month to uh from fund balance to increase that 0.1 account. And you know our snow our salt conception
25:56uh we bid 800 tons. We've used over that just or we bid 700. We've used just over 800 ton. Uh, you know, we do have pretty good inventory in the shed, but you know, with the materials uh for salt, with the snowblower repair, and with the contractors that we use for snow removal this winter was $73,000 there. And if you take $73,000 and add that to 44, you got 79 to 130,000 12,000. So, uh, a very, very, very active year. And hopefully we don't see any more of it. But
26:33did it transfer to another?
26:35Well, it's for for now it is, you know, we'll see. I mean, we don't get anything. You know, obviously we have to revisit it in November for for November and December.
26:47How much do you think we're over roughly this year? It was it was
26:53Well, the total budget was 90,000. And you know, like I said, these numbers here, um,
26:59roughly
27:00it was 40, we're 48,000 out of this account and then another 34. So what's that? 34 50 80,000. So we're still, you know, we're still a little under budget
27:14for the so far
27:15so far. Uh, you know, anything can happen in March and obviously we've got the fall
27:20uh and that was the transfer.
27:22Cool. Thanks. So, um, just the DOT does traffic counts each year. I don't know if you'll see there's these little, uh, sticks that'll be tied in the street signs or zip tied to flag poles or whatever, and they got little cameras on them. They're just doing counts. This is the
27:43They don't use those anymore. Um,
27:46so using so people see them, they're like, "Oh my god, what's going on here?" You know, who's watching me? And so, uh, there's a list of, I believe, seven locations throughout the city. And, and for those of you who aren't aware, there's a they're used to populate the New York State DOT traffic data viewer, which is um, an online thing. You can click into various streets, get traffic data, you know, based on annual average traffic as well as, you know, different classes. And sometimes they have
28:18expanded uh data like average speed and and things of that nature.
28:22Is this the time of the year they typically do it?
28:24This is when they usually do it. Yeah, because they're going into just want to see if I finish. So here's the list for the wraps. Just want to see if I um grease trap. uh 2025 CSO report was submitted to DC that's you know January and February it's a lot of annual forms uh the next form with the sewer plant is the annual flow certification uh water annual water quality report is online that's for 2025 and um you know there's there obviously was no issues at
29:04all the uh plant I attended a dam safety conference last week with TEC dishes and I mean core of engineer just going over the emergency action plans vulner vulnerability assessments uh that's different assessments or learning about
29:26no no we have to we have to do uh full engineering assessments uh every couple of years because we're a class C which is a high-risisk dam it doesn't mean that it's you know ready to fall down or anything that it's just a it's just based on the inundation analysis and the and the potential for loss of of life and because downstream of us you know it's theoretical that a wall of water can come down and wipe out a couple of houses. So there about 25 properties that we maintain ownership information
30:02on. So that way if there should be a failure to do evacuations and you know it's obviously deals with you know it's multi-jurisdictional there's different towns involved. There's um different agencies from state, county, federal. That's enough for that. All right. Stop sharing. Good. All right. Sure. Show now.
30:40Okay. Uh Henry, you mentioned a few things. Do you want to question that?
30:48Yes. Thanks. Um, obviously it's a little cold and ask the finished parking meters. Um, but I see you've gotten some more signs out. Uh, is that going to commence just the removal of the three foot posts that are on the entrance area like north and south six? Um, and the five
31:11Well, there's some are left that are where there's no street lights. Uh
31:16uh well on 600 on north and south six all of six street just those two sides I guess
31:22right if there's if it's so between union and cherry alley
31:27yeah those
31:27they stay
31:28and then the other ones I don't know how the other ones are they still there
31:31yeah that's all yeah
31:33at some point I just assume that they're going to go eventually the ones that
31:37right the one where the street lights and those coming up
31:40yeah um and we've had a lot of communications about fire hydrants Yeah, I don't know. I haven't blocked. So,
31:49good for you.
31:51Uh, so is just I'm sure we're going to get a question today. Maybe.
31:56What is the question?
31:59The number that are nonfunctional. Is that on your list? I know it was hard to acquire new hydrants for a little while. It was harder to find parts than it was to buy new hyd hydrants. And that's, you know, still some of these some of these hydrants are older styles, right? But to replace a hydrant is almost $5,000. So to fix a hydrant can be a couple hundred, but if we're having trouble sourcing the parts to repair it because they're an older style cuz sometimes it's just a matter of, you know, there's connections or stems or things of that
32:35nature. Uh yeah, I don't know how many hydrants are out of service. 10. I mean, there's 250 citywide. So,
32:42yeah, I I feel like we have a qualified and efficient fire department.
32:46I spoke to the fire department about it. They didn't seem so there for them. So,
32:55yeah, they're not worried. I'm certain.
32:57Yeah. Yeah. You know.
32:59Okay. Great.
33:00Yeah.
33:04Yeah. I mean um I talked to the fire department too and this they are no worry about it because they said they have alternative plan in case there's a fire because they know where to uh plug it in or something you know so they're not worry about it. They said we are in they they said they're in safe condition.
33:23Great. Thank you. That'll answer some of our emails.
33:26Yeah. Dwan, do you have any other comments or questions? No, I don't have any other.
33:35Okay. Um I have a couple things. Uh we've been want to when that typically start Well, we'll start it um you know, when we get a a guy available, we'll start it midday, probably within the next couple of weeks. Uh it's still too early to come in in the middle of the night because the street sweeper uses water on the brushes for dust control. It also uses water on impeller and part of the housing to keep it cool and you know the you know the temperatures still
34:10go below freezing. So we don't want to you know spray water on roads. But it'll be um you know really ramp up in Aprilish is when it gets but we'll try to get as much you know they go you'll we'll see it in the next week or so in the middle of the day just trying to get some of the the winter gr because there's a lot of it out there. one one thing that's more of a feedback to you and maybe just to tell people the so
34:38last time you talked about this sewer project coming up Columbia Street and um so there's also last year the common council passed a change to the truck room and uh there are the the mayor uh is trying to get that change enacted in time to to help with the diversion of traffic from from history doesn't It's disruptive.
35:04Uh, and as you talk about parks, I'm sure this has been talked about a lot, but in your opinion, would it be better if Oakdale was maintained by DPW instead of Well, I don't have the staff to pick it up. And quite honestly, it's only used uh for whatever it used. I mean, they can hire a part-time there. They got plenty of bodies over there in the youth department and I can, you know, push them over, do a weed whacker. Um, you know, that's I got two bets and, you
35:38know, that's that's a 10 acre parcel. That's a all hand work. There's no open fields, so I had to just show up with zero turn and bang it out in a couple of hours. Yeah. Sure. Um, and I had two questions that came in today, uh, from constituents. Uh, someone who runs the bicycle bus to the school, um, the shoulder on Glenwood at the bottom of the hill next up between Oakdale and and the pond. Um it's just I haven't gone by that there's photos of it, but that is it's super rough.
36:18They probably got beat up. I mean, we've had a really rough winter, but we can't do any black top work until the asphalt plant opens. I mean, right now, what we have is is it's a patch product. It's not it's not reliable. It doesn't
36:32it doesn't stick. It flakes right off.
36:34Um you know, we don't we don't make the ask. We bought it. And that plant doesn't open till the end of April or early May. Okay. I will forward the email to you and to be honest.
36:46I don't know why it didn't get sent to me in the first place. I mean, secret email.
36:50It it came in.
36:53I heard about it. I heard about it.
36:54Okay. And then um I know you've heard about the intersection at Fairview and Green Street before. This is a little different concern and actually I've experienced it too. So the crosswalk crossing Fair View uh is set back a little bit from the corner.
37:10Yes. Stewart. Yes. And so if you get the signal to cross, there doesn't appear to be any control of the actual traffic. So if a car is turning left off of Green Street, for example, it takes them a moment to notice that someone's crossing and they and there's nothing about the
37:30light that delays them, stops them, or anything. Uh, is that something we could discuss with the engineers that designed it or is it
37:39Well, if I know that the reason the location is where it is is because it was originally supposed to be closer to the intersection, but there were u a couple of utility conflicts with gas and Verizon. So, the, you know, the pedestrian marker and all the electronics and it's all underground.
37:57Yeah.
37:57And there's a big sweep on the corner. And then there's a big sweep that because the trucks drive over it, they put an extra foot of concrete underneath that sidewalk because the trucks drive over it. That's just the way it is. Otherwise, it just uh brushes.
38:11That I don't know. I mean, I you know, I mean, I do know that state law says you got to yield to a pedestrian crosswalk. You know, I mean, if vehicles are disobeying the law,
38:24I don't think they are. They're they're realizing it lately and coming to a
38:27rapid stop and it just
38:29I I I really don't know because there's no it's not
38:33the the lights are sequenced. I maybe
38:38they were cut out of the sequencing or something.
38:40That was a whole DOT study resulting from when Steuarts wanted to tear down those two houses and build Stewarts. That was what nine years ago that that eight months for them to get done. No, a year over to do that DOT study.
38:55That was nauseous.
38:57Um, what is it like Manning to follow?
39:01Yeah, they were the engineer. So, I mean, uh, either them or maybe still send the the engineer who did the installation. I'm not sure. I just don't like I said, you know, everything was laid out with the anticipation that the walk would be closer to the light, right?
39:22And it just became uh functionally improvising. Yeah.
39:27So maybe the traffic signals were not sufficient pending the study
39:33after the placement of the crosswalk.
39:35Yeah.
39:36Well, all the engineering was front ending. So, by the time we realized it was holding on, we were already in construction.
39:42Yeah.
39:44I don't know. It's pretty easy. I mean, it's pretty high tech. So,
39:47there might be some
39:49Yeah, they have a lot of control.
39:52They have PLC's and it's pretty robust.
39:55Okay. Um, I think that's all I have. Is anyone in the room have questions? Rob, I'm going to start in the room.
40:03Okay. Linda, please.
40:08I just would like to, and Jason already said this, this sewer replacement on Columbia Street, is that this year?
40:18That's our goal. It's in design. We've got to send it to uh DEEC for their review. We don't control that. We definitely want to It's definitely going to be bid this year. Absolutely. And hopefully we can get construction started this year. If not, then it'll hit the ground running early next year. So in terms of traffic since not only be my business but the neighbors how does that are there going to be flag people is it going to be the slowest block.
40:45So what'll happen after you know once we have a staging plan ready then we're actually going to sit down with you and your neighbors go block by block because I have to have the same discussion with the county for 325 because they're going to be working they work as a bubble. So they'll work through one block and then move to the next block. And so each block is going to have its own the 500 block have its own things with opportunities. Um the goal is to yeah
41:11absolutely keep flaggers uh so that traffic is open. There will be periodic road closures at that point. You know we'll have to make sure they have appropriate signage and how to get people around and so forth. if there's any kind of uh key events or times or whatever, you know, those things are are very specific for each block and each use has there's something and we're going to load all that to the the bid documents. Um just like when we did the the installation of the force main and
41:43sewer main on Front Street 15 years ago, we told them, you know, they had to have the street done by five because that was everybody's, you know, they didn't want to go through an open construction site. So it's it it will be um you know the the goal is to absolutely get construction started this year. Um you know if you know and there'll be a discussion I mean if there's flaggers you know obviously if the road is closed block by block then the construction moves significantly faster which costs us less money but we understand that there's essential services and business going on. So, uh, you know, that's that's what
42:23we'll be, but it'll be a follow-up discussion.
42:29Brad, if you did pass it, I know it's not your department necessarily, but it would certainly help that construction site to get the trucks off Columbia.
42:41So, I I think that um the mayor should be contacted. I've had a conversation with the mayor and I'm sure that Rob and uh Chief Franklin u will be heavily involved in making that happen and uh President Morris.
42:58Thanks.
42:59Uh anyone else in the room first for Rob the first truck meeting was me you Richer here.
43:07Still talking
43:10Lloyd Lloyd just curious a new sweeper.
43:13Did we get one? Not yet. Is it coming?
43:16It's coming. Yeah.
43:17Chips money.
43:18Yes.
43:19Okay, great. Happy to hear that. Okay. Just one other thing. Walking around Storm Street, one of So, one of the constituents and not the normal, you know, but so we're saying Storm Feet, they seem to feel like it doesn't get swept. Is that possible? It just it doesn't get the same love as Colombia. So, Saurum Avenue is one of those anomalies uh that for whatever reason on the one block between Aken Avenue and Fairview Avenue,
43:54right, what this guy is,
43:55there's no houses with street addresses. So, it's a great debate as to which side is odd or even. So, I didn't I didn't even realize this was an issue. So, so we're just going to put signs up and we're just going to say this side, no parking this side on Fridays, you know, because we do specials for the boulevards. They have set days. So, we'll just we'll just have to figure out what signage.
44:20Well, this particular guy is in that apartment structure. There's 12 apartments on the side of there.
44:26Yeah.
44:26So, that was his gra.
44:27I didn't notice a problem until honestly we were doing uh snow removal and and the guys were like the cars didn't move. And so we reached out to HBD and HBD was like even on the next block there's odd is even odd on the other side.
44:44Well, maybe because it's over the hill, it's too far away to see.
44:48I got Thank you.
44:49So, we're just going to sign it and then that'll be done.
44:52Yeah. Well, they were hoping that there would be no alternate sign so they could park.
44:57Well, that's
44:58Yeah, that's not good. That's everybody. I I think that's everyone in the room. We have hands online.
45:06Yes, we have.
45:07Do you want a question for Rob or do you want to speak?
45:10Okay.
45:12Those two. One, you were saying something about uh Fairview and the Green Street and the engineering and the light. I have noticed since I've been in New York that it is totally different from where I'm from, which is a good thing. I like it. They will have the people walking before they have the light turn green. That should give the people a time enough to see, okay, there's a human being crossing that way. And you might want to consider that to the engineers to do that where I'm from.
45:43So I like that format, you know, cuz it works for me because I'm learning how to drive in New York,
45:50right? So that's why I was saying if you have the engineers to say okay the walking starts and the green light starts to whatever seconds they wanted to start and then they should be able to see them. Now if they don't see them then then that's an issue.
46:05Okay.
46:06But that that was something that I was concerned about. The other one you were talking about the parts. Um can you tell me a little about the condition of the parts of what you need done? And I'm asking that for a reason.
46:19Blood. What's your reason?
46:21Well, my reason is because
46:23that's an encyclopedia question.
46:27But we were talking about money too at the same time.
46:30We always talked about money. You'll never hear a word come out of my mouth that doesn't end with money. It doesn't begin with money and end with money.
46:36I get it. However,
46:38that's what they're here for. These guys control the money.
46:40However, I have noticed
46:42Hudson has a lot of volunteer programs going on. Okay. where I'm from. When it came to a hustle with a park and apartment was a big issue, we gathered a lot of volunteers, be it business, be it personal, be it groups or whatever the case may be to help with that part. And yet the city still had to give up some money, but not as much. And I think honestly when I was walking volunteering and helping with the parks and the groups and the organization that was help they had a
47:18sense of love for that piece of land at that moment. They thought they were in it. It was a part of them. And I'm just saying that's why I was asking the question.
47:30Okay. I think I um have something to say on that. I think it would be hard to hand off the responsibilities of DBW.
47:39Nobody wants nobody wants to mow the lawn every day,
47:41but you can add to it.
47:42I can tell you that for a fact.
47:43You can add to it. I
47:46mean, that's what it's really it's it's it's not the pretty stuff. It's not playing tulip bulbs, you know, and
47:52we mow lawns. Nobody wants to wee whack around the dog crap in the bushes and push the mowers up and down and do all that physical labor. Uh they're perfectly happy to have us do it.
48:07Surprise, maybe.
48:08I would be I was prepared to be surprised.
48:13I do think we would I would think we would welcome things like planning to bulbs or things that are
48:18right. Well, I definitely there's another whole another whole parks discussion amongst CLC, Spark, blah blah, you know, all the organizations. They kind of come up with a I forget what it is. It's something that they have in the city. It's like a it's it's like a side. It's not doing like the actual physical labor, but it's assisting and it's, you know, and it's doing what you're describing, like showing up a couple times a year for beautifification and and bringing the grow signatures,
48:51which is fine because we're really not. My guys are machines, you know, they're not playing flowers are not so good at
48:59mong. They can butcher the hell out of the river.
49:02Well, we're gonna wait. Um, is it something specific to this?
49:06It is.
49:07All right.
49:07Sounds like you're talking about a garden club. No, I'm actually talking about
49:13club say that a garden club came in involved with but like kind of example those heavy duty jobs that you're talking about. We even had commercial businesses that come to help to dig out whatever. It was it was a it was a it was a what you call those big old things
49:31excavators.
49:32Yeah.
49:32Yeah. We have those.
49:33We had to clean they had to clean that stuff out and they helped us to do that. when it comes to the having lifted.
49:40Yeah, we do that.
49:42Okay, you could do that. Okay, that's that's fine. I just saying it's it's a way to make it work and get the community involved and then they can fall in love with it because like I said, I only been to one park
49:53and that was the park over there by the railroad track. I was walking the other day.
49:58So, oh, Seven Street Park.
50:01You tell me the name. I don't know. I just fell in
50:03I know they got a million dollars to they're supposed to there's a redesign going on for my understanding is and then they got to rebid the contract I guess to accommodate what
50:16that's what
50:16I thought it was a nice money right they never had any money
50:21so they got they got a little over a million dollars and you know the problem is they which is what we always do we design a $3 million park with a million dollars worth of money
50:31and hoping that somebody was going to come in with an extra $2 million. Ly uh
50:35I I don't have it in my pocket.
50:37I was supposed to bring it last meeting and he started up empty again.
50:41One more thing. He was talking about the meters.
50:44I And you guys removed the meters.
50:47Yeah.
50:48Okay. You know those those things with the cash where you put the cash in to pay for put a few more because I need that.
50:57Okay.
50:58They are.
50:58Oh, okay. They're coming.
50:59That's it with that one.
51:00All right. Thank you. Great. We can talk more um online.
51:05Bill had the sound. I don't know. You're unmuted, Bill.
51:10Go ahead.
51:12Bill,
51:12can you hear me?
51:14We can hear you now. Yes.
51:16Hey, go ahead. Like to make a comment and then I have a question for Rob. And the issue is definitely most definitely related to infrastructure and I would think that the committee would want to take this up um in the future. Keep an eye on it. It has to do with South Third Street and a problem below South Third Street that Rob Perry's very very well aware of or has been for the last five or six years at least. uh but hasn't discussed with a council since April of 2022, I believe.
51:51So, it's been almost 4 years. At that meeting in April uh 2022, the council uh came out that when Kolaruso was repaving South Third Street between Allen and Warren in 2017, they paved over a bad subbase. Now, a bad a subbase is is basically a foundation of of a road that keeps it from cracking and allows it to last a long time. If you have a bad foundation to a street, it's not going to last. Well, it turns out that Rob Perry and Karuso knew well that the subbase below
52:30Third Street between Allen and Warren was faulty, but Rob Perry let Karuso go ahead anyway and pave the street for as part of the chips program. Cost us about $12,000.
52:42Excuse me.
52:43Now, here's what here's what Rob said. Just just just for context.
52:47I want to talk for a second, please. Excuse me. Uh just be careful about accusations. There are a lot of people involved in city decisions and uh please stay in line about directing accusations at individuals in this room.
53:04We'll do.
53:04I'm going to unmute you and you may continue.
53:07Okay. Um, so in 2022 at a meeting, um, when, uh, Rob was explaining what was going on at South Third Street, uh, after it had been repaved 5 years earlier, he said this. So, we came in with a contractor and we milled it. Once we milled it, we observed that most of the concrete subbase had some issues, but at this stage of the game, we didn't have the material quantities to do a full reconstruction, and we hadn't planned on it, so we didn't have the time. Then he ended the meeting. the uh
53:38his his uh explanation with this. We don't have the budget to get it all done this year, but we are certainly going to attack attack as much of the really bad areas and get that cleaned up. Now, if anybody's been on South Third Street in the past six or eight months uh near the parking lot for uh uh near the parking lot for um the sporting goods store there at the corner, you'll see that there's a patched area. DPW has patched that large area three times and it continues to fail. Why does it continue to fail and why does it continue to get uh repatched by by by DPW? Because the
54:14subbase below it is faulty.
54:16And my my question for my question for Rob Perry is
54:22can you please talk about what's going on on South Third Street? how much it's going to cost us to to reconstruct the street in at least that space and the one closer to Union that you've patched at least twice and and I guess the big question is
54:37was there was there a mistake made Rob in 2017
54:42Bill because I feel like you had something else to say and you gone on for three minutes so we'll
54:47I think we heard the question and uh we actually did uh defleter tests uh uh over a year ago testing that and as one of the main reasons that we are uh that we presented to the common council to close that route to trucks. Um nothing in the town happens without money and that is a very expensive project. Uh and it will take the city figuring out money if they're going to repair it. If Rob wants to respond, he can. It is not necessary that he does. So
55:22pretty much uh an accurate uh recitation of what was stated. The reality is that one year are in real time. We put a contract out for resurfacing. We did not put a contract out for reconstruction. It's two different animals, two sets of specifications. So we did load it up with heavy material and it did hold together for a number of years until it started to come apart. But we've already replaced sections between Allen and uh Partition. And
55:52how much did it cost?
55:55Uh well, you foiled for it three times, Bill. You don't remember? Check your records.
55:59Why don't you tell everybody that?
56:02Listen, cuz I don't because I don't keep these mundane things uh in my memory. You're You're that guy.
56:08You don't care how much money you spent.
56:10Well, I I care how much we spent. Sure. I just don't happen to recall.
56:15Okay. Can you just tell us if you're going to redo the p the area that needs patching again, Rob?
56:20So, we're going to work on we keep working our way closer and closer to war until all those issues affected issues are gone.
56:26Okay. Keep patching it.
56:28You indicated Bill I meant you indicated two questions. I'm giving you leeway to ask that. So, I think that that question has been a answered satisfactory. If you want
56:38What's going to happen this year, Jason. That's all I want to know. What's going to happen this year?
56:42Well, you have to stay tuned there, Bill. I want to surprise you with that one.
56:46Oh, that's funny. Rob, you're a comedian, aren't you?
56:49Okay. Thank you for your time.
56:53Is there anyone else online?
56:56Um, okay. Uh, anyone else in here?
57:01Uh, I have something to just discuss my fellow uh committee members. Um, just working on a few things. Uh there was something that came up uh from Fox when they were looking at the park, the friends of the public square,
57:18wanting to expand sidewalks, maybe it's phase two.
57:24Um and it was discussed about changing that block of Seventh Street to a oneway.
57:30Okay. And so that brought up the idea of also making Parkplace a oneway in the opposite direction which continues the pattern going up the streets. Um, so I've talked to at least an engineering company about exploring whether it's possible and because one of the advantages I think could happen um would be it eliminates the conflict of you don't need me right. We don't need you have to agree so quickly please watch we enjoy your
58:065:30 next time Rob.
58:09Thank you Bill. I'm gonna put my throw my pot right now. Um, so yeah, and I think it's a thing worth exploring because uh if trucks went south on Seventh Street, they would have a light to turn left and it could avoid um in the times when trucks conflict at Parkplace and Warren. um and it would help something that uh friends of the public square are trying to do. So I'm I'm I hope to have something to present tonight, but I wanted to make sure it was fully baked.
58:47Okay.
58:47And um and so the other thing that could happen at the same time is some traffic calming where they explore bulldo. So just an exploration of traffic flow around the park. Um then the other piece uh is finally doing some an engineering study of phase one engineering study of uh Colombia and Columbia Turnpike and Prospect Avenue um hospital. Uh and so they added
59:23triangle
59:23the triangle an adder to to investigate that and the other triangle at state green and Columbia which I think is more of a it's not a safety issue.
59:39So right in front of uh little devs
59:42um I think it could be a very nice opportunity. Olympic monument triangle
59:47Olympic monument little park park left and the reason I say that is triangles in general prioritize traffic they prioritize cars and I think that's why the triangles in this town suffer. So um I don't have anything more to say about it tonight other than I wanted to let you guys know see if you had any feedback. I I do remember one of the when there was a study done at the one by the hospital. It was one of the recommendations was to take the hill down along Prospect Avenue, the knob
1:00:26along the basically from the um new auxiliary parking lot where the office building used to be all the way or something like that. So it wasn't it wasn't a small project. No, I I think the best thing I've heard is just no more triangle is that it's just one intersection. So, we make it a
1:00:48square or rhombus. Now,
1:00:50if you're going to continue on, if you're coming up the hill on Columbia past the hospital and you want to continue towards scallies, you actually
1:00:59bear right into the light intersection, whatever that intersection is, and then you got to take a left.
1:01:05Gotcha. Um and it just it makes all cars take the same intersection simplifies it a bit whether it involves um light a real traffic light or a fourway stop. Um, some research I did is that the volume of traffic that is a very busy intersection. It's on top of being difficult and so there are what thresholds
1:01:30that um once they go over a certain level they recommend a light and so I believe that intersection meets that threshold.
1:01:39Yeah, it's getting a lot more commuter busy.
1:01:42Yeah. So I hope to present just a very phase one study of that
1:01:47of those areas,
1:01:49right?
1:01:49And the other thing I'm looking at is more um center lines on our streets.
1:01:58Center lines
1:01:58mainly our busy streets. Uh so collect something would be called a collector street has more than 6,000 vehicles a day.
1:02:07Okay. um know that if we put paint down, we have to follow the rules of paint.
1:02:15Yeah.
1:02:15So, we're going to be issuing more tickets or would have the potential to issue more tickets
1:02:24and for
1:02:26loading and unloading vehicles in our even our local truck truck traffic. So, maybe baby steps. Well, some some of the streets I'm talking about are are very wide like um Columbia,
1:02:39State Street, Green Street do not suffer from window.
1:02:44Yeah.
1:02:44And so, um but they do suffer from a lack of light.
1:02:48Pretty tough on green.
1:02:50I have three photos of cars that have been
1:02:53that were parked and were completely rear ended because someone just left or wasn't in the lane. Um, so those are some things that I'm working on and would like to talk to you guys more about in the future. I'm not quite far yet. Okay. I think I saw a hand over this way.
1:03:09No.
1:03:10Okay. Um, anyone else online? Anything else? Okay. Uh, Dwan, you good?
1:03:18Okay. A motion motion to adjourn that. Jason, I second. We're calling.
1:03:26Sorry. You said you were turning. It's all good.

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