Public Works Board, Regular Meeting

1. 0:03Just got to make that correction. Yep. [clears throat] >> So, I was just telling George, Gary, um, so the stuff that we proposed that happen.
2. 3:53>> Mhm. [clears throat] >> Yes. >> We're in. [clears throat] >> Are we good? >> We're in. >> All right. So, this is the June 22nd public works board committee meeting. Um, I am moving around the room. Um, we have a quorum. Uh, I'm Gary. Uh, Tyler Cman, Commissioner of Public Works. George Cer, member. Tiffany Martin, ADA coordinator and mayoral aid. >> Um, one of the things that I had commit to do and it and I've been completed which is review the minutes for the first couple of uh meetings this year. Uh, and I want to review those with Linda um before you know bombing her in a meeting
3. 4:57with this. couple of things that I do like that put some clarifications in there. So, I'm going to put that on hold if that's okay with everybody. Um I I think the real key issue for tonight is under old business is uh last uh meeting you had identified a number of um situations that were going to be reviewed for potential targeting of work and how did that go? >> Um very good. So, we we had a couple walkthroughs with a couple different individuals at different times. Um, we looked at a bunch of work that coordinated with the um work that we had previously done with tying in some of the curves for ADA. Um we're also thinking keeping in mind
4. 6:01tying in the uh municipality buildings as well through a lot of the cross streets um from state to um union. Um so with that said we have identified six 10 11 different parcels. When I say a parcel, that's from an alley to um one of the main streets uh east to west in Hudson. Um so we're looking at North Fifth between Colombia and Warren, which is two parcels on the west side. Um then we're looking at North Fifth between Columbia and Long, which is one parcel across from the library. um east side the south third street between Warren and Union is is two parcels which would help tie in the um boys club boys and girls club. Um both sides of fifth street between State and Columbia which ends up being four parcels. Uh North
5. 7:05Sixth Street uh State and Prospect which is two parcels on the west side. And then so that got us to about 11 which I think we can hit our target with um what we've received in revenue this year. And then we also are going to add two alternates in the RFP so that we can get a bid back on that so that if the bid does come in under um you know under our mark that we can possibly add another three parcels. Uh those are south fifth between Warren and Union and South Third between Union and Partition. Uh both west sides of the city. Um so we I I talked with the mayor about this and the mayor's aid this morning. Um all looks pretty good for us to print out a map and have Gary submit to the common council. Um, I think, you know, we're kind of getting, you know, we're running a little late, so we'd like to get this RFP out on the street to get some
6. 8:10contractors to look at it. Um, so we can at least get some some work done this year. Um, and just, you know, keep the progress moving forward. Um, is the uh creation of the RFP um being worked on or ready? Uh, we have not started working on anything yet. Um, and I guess I'm going to change the term. Um, it would have to be a full public bid based on the value of work. RFPs would be under a certain threshold. This will exceed that. So, um, it'll be it'll be a full bid package based on the amount of work. So, similar we did last year, but different from the first round of some small to small intersection work. Um, we have a pretty good template together for general municipal contract. So, that part wouldn't be too difficult. It's mostly the biggest piece of it is really making sure the locations are um correct for what the city would like to do. Um, I think as the title, you know,
7. 9:12the bid documents themselves can be pulled together relatively quickly once we are confident in the locations. So, Um I um can I get a motion to um that we uh approve that for Associates begin the the process of putting a bid together? >> All in favor of it. I >> would you like uh like a task authorization to to have for that work? Do you want to just use under our general as needed services? How do you want to proceed like services on our end to to kind of include that in contracted scope? >> Yeah, I I I personally view it as a continuation of the services that you've been providing. >> I don't think we did have we gone off into any special agreements for similar situations. >> The only reason why we did it last time was because we had we needed to do a budget amendment at that point anyways. So, um, that was kind of unique in that
8. 10:16situation, but again, we can continue to work on any as needed, and this is part of it. Just wanted to be clear if the city had preferences on some of these things. >> That's good. Um, the only other thing that I have is there were a total of 12 uh submitts for credits this year. Um, all the 12 were approved. Uh we worked with um the clerk the last end of last week and beginning of this week so far. Uh she's print currently printing out the letters. We'll be signing and send them out this week. Um so there were there were no denials. Everybody submitted the correct stuff. Um and it was you know just work that they did. We're all set on that end as well. Do you want to do some sort of an announcement letting people know about these um you know segments of sidewalk that have been chosen or do you think it's better for us to wait? >> Should we wait for the county council to
9. 11:20approve? >> Yeah. Yeah. Just for the politics of it. >> Okay. So the council has to approve the streets that are being worked on. Even though the sidewalk improvement district has already been enacted by the council, >> the budget has to be approved the expenditure. >> Okay. So Oh, I got you. Okay. So even though the funds are set aside and a sit account, it's okay. >> Gotcha. [clears throat] >> Um Okay. Um the only other thing that um I I think well I'm going to check it whether it's pressing or not is um the issue of if a uh veteran and I and I guess by extension also a a firefighter um if they if they own multiple properties uh whether or not um there's uh the the the the exemption extends to all of
10. 12:25their properties. Um, that is a question that um I've asked the president of the county council to bounce that up to the attorney. I haven't gotten a response yet, but that's what it's going to take, I think, is, you know, what does the law say right now? um or at least that's our interpretation of it. And you know, there might very well need the clarification uh in in in modifying the law, but uh let's see where we stand right now. >> Very good. Yeah, I believe we you know, we spoke about this a couple times. Um I think when we ran the report there's, you know, because you said firefighters as well. I'm not sure on the firefighter, but I think there's only two properties in the city. >> So, in in what the county provides us a list of veterans that are listed with them. So, we're using that list to be clear. There were two individual
11. 13:29instances where a veteran owns a residential property, which is the property class 200, and a separate property of a property class in the 300s, which would be vacant property. There's another I think two instances which I believe one has a junior act in the name. So I'm not sure if it's the same person or not. Um but there's another instance where it's like a 400 property class which is commercial or multif family or something like that. So um I think there was six total instances or six or eight and like I said only two of them were in the situation where it's a 200 series parcel and a 300 be vacant. So like at the end of the day, we're talking about pennies, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Can we can we just double check for the firefighter end as well? >> Yeah, I I I believe that stuff is separate, but I'll just verify it and then Yeah, we can check. >> Appreciate that. >> Yep. >> Just so that we know, you know, really >> I don't know why we haven't, >> right? >> I mean, what's everyone's feeling about it?
12. 14:31I I feel that you know like your primary residence should be your you know your credit and then if you have something extra then you know then you have to you have to pay >> I I liken it to the uh the short-term rental law right where if you if if it's owner occupied um it's one thing if it's owner occupied it's a completely different thing in terms of how many days you can rent your your house out for the Right. >> And then like in a a open property which is a say again is a 100 class. >> Uh vacant land is in the 300 >> 300 class. Um you know it ends up being like a $30 fee. >> Could be 50 as well. Like it's a >> it's a it's really >> Yeah. I think more is what's you know. Yeah. You're right. There's not much revenue here that we're talking about. >> Mhm. So either way, goes either way. It's not It's not going to stop us from
13. 15:35doing our work. >> Yeah. I mean, [clears throat] yeah, the the the wheels are not [laughter] skipped. [laughter] >> I guess to that exam or to that point, Gary, I just wanted to bring up the fact that, you know, we've pretty much wrapped up the file for 2026 circulated to the board. Um, we need to get that to the county by July 1st. So, just trying to make sure everyone else sees that. Um, actually based on I'm assuming there's been some new developments. Some parsley probably got created for a few projects with the planning boards and things like that. So the actual total is actually up to $315,000 from it was like 308 or something like that last year. So um there's been some additional value brought into the SIP. Um as well as a few properties probably came off of credit and then you know adding the new ones in. Um, so on that file that I circulated, the first sheet has a summary and that lists, you know, all the properties in the city, kind of explains how many are getting credit. Um,
14. 16:37what what type of lot some may be, if they're exempt or not. Um, and then it also gives a breakdown of, you know, where the money is coming from. And the largest one is the annual maintenance fee. Um, that's $229,000 of it. So to Tyler's point, there's some other pieces in those that, you know, that applies to certain properties, not all. >> [clears throat] >> So who who does that who submits that to the county? Um >> so what we have >> talking about a week >> uh so it's all ready and so we reached out to the county from our office already to make sure we have the formatting set up correctly. I know last year there was a slight issue with rounding. It it gets figured out very quickly. But we sent last year we sent a test file like the first 100 or random 100. We'll probably do the same thing this week just as a test. Um, but as long as the the board is fine with the file, we'll kick that in as well. There's no more credit applications that came in. Um, so we can submit that pretty much whenever and uh get that. >> And then Gary, do you need a copy of that printed again? I know last year we had a conversation about uh printing the
15. 17:40the assessments and things like that. >> Yes. >> Um Okay. Yes. Okay. [clears throat] >> Um, so if the board wants to maybe another day or two of taking a look at that file before we give Ryan the go ahead. >> I mean we can take the end of the week if you guys would like. There's no I mean or the weekend say Monday morning that still gives us even a day or so if there were changes Wednesday. Okay. this time next week, you'd be fine to make that. >> Okay. Anything else? >> Um, I don't want to hear. I wanted to thank Ryan for being so patient and doing these walkounds and looking at uh looking at sidewalks all over the city.
16. 18:46>> Yes. Value your work >> indeed. >> We haven't done much work yet. We have a lot to do. >> Lot goes into just prepping for this stuff here. >> So yes, it is a lot. >> Okay. Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. All in favor? I >> I Oh, we forgot to answer. >> The public can speak, right? [clears throat] >> Public can speak. >> Yes, please. Our apologies. We're back in sessions. >> Forget about us public now. Hey. Um, I'm wondering if the board, somebody on the board, um, well, the entire board has come to an opinion about the work that Vosberg did last year. Like, are you guys happy with it? Um, not happy, neutral, anything. >> I'm sorry. The work that who did? Bossberg
17. 19:51>> related to >> right >> they did they did sidewalk work for you last year correct? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I haven't heard they had any problems. >> Okay. So you're happy with the work they did >> because I can tell you that it's already coming apart over here at Sixth and State, Sixth and Row Valley. I sent you guys pictures of the cracks in the asphalt. And if you walk over to Colombian 6th where they did two or three corners, you can see where it's coming apart over there, too. Anyway, I just hope that they don't win the bid that comes around uh for continued work. I I'd like to put my vote in that those guys do not come back to this city and work because I don't even think they had any experience doing concrete work. That's all I'll say about that. What I'd like to add, here's my here's my concern. If you'd like to hear it, I'll give you two examples of uh what I hope not to see in the future for for the for this work, for your work,
18. 20:56for the work all over the city to repair the the sidewalks that need it so badly. Last year, Kolaruso was hired, maybe two years ago, hired to do the Ferry Street Bridge. They created two sidewalks on the on the bridge and within a month they started to crack. If you go over there now, you'll see cracked sidewalks up and down over the bridge. Okay, now you got to wonder like what happened. Well, I know exactly what happened actually because they they poured that concrete in the dead of winter when they shouldn't have. I don't know why they would have. Nobody was paying attention. And that I think would be Rob Perry or maybe the commissioner of DPW. I don't know who's supposed to be paying attention to these things, but somebody from the city needs to pay attention. Now, the same thing happened with the DRRi work. You go to the top of the Second Street stairs and there's a huge crack there. Well, what's going to happen with that? Is that going to be ignored? And now we have now we have the that other the the DR DRRi stone work on Front Street at Second and Warren. It
19. 22:00all had to be redone. Why? Well, apparently nobody from the city was paying attention. what what that contractor was doing. And I guess I'm wondering how are we going to avoid this for the next few years as we try to repair all the city's sidewalks. Who's going to be overseeing these contractors to make sure they're doing a good job and that their work doesn't start cracking right away or cracking within a year or crumbling apart or or them doing poor work? I guess like is this something that that the board has considered that somebody's actually going to have a pair of eyes at least a pair of eyes watching these guys what they do that that their work is up to par because I see it all the time around here that we get work done we pay for it it's just not good work and I I'd like to include Vossberg in that so could I get a comment you know just like a reassurance that all this effort you guys are making and all the work that's going to happen and these contractors that it's going to there's going to be some oversight and it's going to be done properly and
20. 23:02something we can be proud of for decades. >> So, so I'll comment on that. Um, as it as it pertains to the work that we focus on, which is the uh SID, sidewalk uh improvement district, which is all of the city. Uh we have a project manager on this job. We have a commissioner that is um on on this board and um and is uh actively involved with the uh the work of this board. And we have the uh mayor's assistant uh whose focus on the ADA which is uh really the impetus of this this board. So I think we have the right people on the board. um I can assure you that they are engaged
21. 24:04um and um and and are accountable and um and I think the real real key here and it and it's a lesson that can be learned um and applied elsewhere is that we have a project manager um that is overseeing this work. Um and uh and I think that is making all the difference. Now uh you know we can look at the vast part of work but for the most part yeah I feel very comfortable with the team we have in place and um and to to the best of that team's ability the re the the work done by the subcontractors. >> Okay. So the is is the project man or some the project manager or somebody somebody from the city going to be actually out there overseeing the work as it's being done? >> No, that's not our role.
22. 25:08>> That's not your role. So you're going to hire a contractor to fix sidewalks and nobody from the city or uh uh or Ryan from Ryan's the the project manager. Is that correct? a corrupted and associates uh uh is the project manager. Yes. >> So Gary, you're telling me nobody's going to be standing at least for a few minutes every day to watch what's being done on this our sidewalks as they're repaired. >> I don't think that's standard uh practice. >> Okay. Well, that's that's astounding to me considering [laughter] what I've seen around town, but I'd like to just bring up one other thing if I could. Um, I just heard that mention of the certain uh parcels that that are on high in the list that you priorities I guess that you want to do, right? Um, am I to understand that you're going to fix
23. 26:13certain really bad portions of sidewalk like over here at se uh sixth and rope um but you're not going to do the entire block because as I understand it what we need it seems like what we need to do is do a block at a time. We don't want to do a half a block one parcel that's really bad and leave the other half you know other portion of the sidewalk to do later. Don't we want to do like make [clears throat] do it all at once per block so that everything is uniform and we're not doing like here's a bad sidewalk here's a really bad sidewalk so we'll finish this one first. Do you know what I'm saying? I mean what's what's the approach going forward for the next few years? Are you going to do it block by block or parcel by parcel? >> No, we are actually going to do parcel by parcel. There is no reason for us to rip up sidewalk that is um already ADA compliant. We are trying to tie in the municipality buildings with just the revenue that we have currently. Um would we love to do block byb block and rip up
24. 27:19and make it all look brand new? Of course, but with the revenue that we have, we have to, you know, justify and take everything into consideration where, you know, if there's a piece of a sidewalk that is, you know, 80% okay, we're not going to, you know, rip it up. We're going to try to tie in the pieces that aren't and work to have, you know, a lot of these sidewalks, you know, able for people to get around. And then once we get through the entire city, if we can go back and do things like that, you know, I think that's more of a wish item than a, you know, reality. So everybody's paying $100 a year or whatever, whatever the SID tax is or the fee so that just the worst of the worst sidewalk can get done. >> That's the start of it. >> That's what the budget allows. I mean, all right, whatever. Here's my la last question, I promise. How many
25. 28:23years does do you foresee this taking place over? How many years? I mean, it's not going to happen within one year, right? >> Of course not. There's only approximately $300,000 worth of revenue that comes in every year. So, we use that to, you know, put back into the city. >> So, it's an ongoing thing. It never ends. Yeah, I mean sidewalks that are uh that comply today with the ADA standards in 5 years, 10 years may or may not. And so, yeah, it's going to be a continuous process >> and it's going to be overseen by a contractor um an engineering firm that we have to pay, not a city employee, right? seems to be the best uh approach at this point in time. >> Yeah, I can tell you that you guys are emulating this on City of Ithaca's
26. 29:26efforts and that they actually hired somebody who's the like sidewalk person, you know, permanently. It just seems like that's the way to go, you know, more um more accountability and and probably over the long run it's cheaper than paying a contractor, but that's just my take on it. Thank you. >> Thank you. You are very generous to that gentleman. >> Any [clears throat] other questions, comments? >> Make a motion to adjourn. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Have a good night, everybody.

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