Committee Minutes

MINUTES/FLOOD RESPONSE COMMITTEE
Wednesday, July 16, 1997 - 5:00 p.m.

I. Call to order:
Members present: Hafner, Bakken, Glassheim, Polovitz.

II. Matter of flood hazard mitigation list.
Jay Bushy, project engineer, submitted copies of 1997 Hazard Mitigation Projects and reported that this is list of 10 projects with project costs and breakdown of funding share submitted to ND Dept. of Emg. Management and onto Fema for funding to do projects; he noted they were resubmitting 1996 projects, with grand project total of $4,031,370, with State and Federal share $3,426,664.50 or 85%, local share $604,704.50 potentially. He also noted that some projects could be disapproved, will be submitting first three on the list now (1) flapgates on English Coulee from Gateway to DeMers; 2) sluice gate on 47th Ave.S, and 3) southend drainway, with next 6 and 4 from 1996 submitted fairly soon. He reported that Fema has 60 days to respond after State approval. He reported that items 1) address public outfalls on the English Coulee which will prevent backup into storm sewer system and 2) on Red River, will help minimize flooding for next year; and that if start project before approval, lose funding; but have put everything on fast track, with est. time of 4-6 weeks to complete. Mr. Grasser suggested that they approve submittals and forward to State for review and eng. staff will follow through, and would be their recommendation that they proceed with installation this construction season, and are proceeding on dike repair. He stated they would also fast track bidding on the projects. They will update committee on progress.

Moved by Glassheim and Bakken to approve submittal of the list of 1997 hazard mitigation projects and resubmittal of 1996 projects, and request department to keep committee advised of the progress of the applications. Motion carried.

III. Matter of engineering agreement for primary/secondary flood
fight procedures.
Mr. Grasser presented matter of engineering agreement with CPS, Ltd. for the study of our primary and secondary lines of defense, that CPS has been involved in lot of flood-fighting and have good knowledge of basic infrastructure. He noted that con-tract rates are normal, and are est. at $15,000 engineering study, and if proceed beyond $15,000 limit, will come back for additional authorization; study will be completed in approx. one month. He also stated they are pursuing Fema assistance on funding. Moved by Bakken and Glassheim to approve agreement with CPS, Ltd. to do the study, project funding not to exceed $15,000. Motion carried.

IV. Matter of bids for lift station restoration Proj. 4654.
Tom Hanson, Webster, Foster & Weston, reported they received one bid for electrical contract from Hanson Electric, none for mechanical or general and have since negotiated with Hanson Electric for them to provide general and mechanical work as well,
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and recommended proceeding with the contract as negotiated prices are close to engineer's estimate. He also reported that the bid for the electrical work was over estimate $100-150,000, but lot of work in stations all over town, and this would be funded through Fema, category F, which is already approved, have DSR basically drafted; and recommended award contingent upon their concurrence. Moved by Polovitz and Glassheim to accept the bid of Hanson Electric of Bemidji, MN in the amount of $889,000 for electrical contract, $7,200 for general work and $28,300.00 for the mechanical work, for a total of $924,600.00. Motion carried.

V. Matter of quotes for televising sanitary sewers.
Tom Hanson, WFW, distributed summary of quotes received for televising sewers which are being cleaned by the Corps of Engrs., the best price is from Viking Pipe Services, Bemidji, that they have done good work for the City in the past; have contacted five additional firms but received no quotes, that they do need to get started, that this is not Fema funded as Fema will only pay cost where specific segment which needs to be repaired. He stated they will monitor and watch budget, bids higher than normal. Moved by Polovitz to accept bid of Viking Pipe Services, Bemidji, in the amount of $946,110.84. Motion carried.

VI. Matter of lower level access modifications for civic
auditorium.
Allen Dostert, EAPC, stated they were requesting to go ahead with a portion of this project to facilitate a quicker response to the project, by adding a ramp to the entrance of the auditorium, designed to get in and out of the basement for removal of debris, removal of walls, mechanical equipment and when go back in as well, have looked at Fema participation and expect they will participate in the initial removal of walls, excavation, etc. and will offset cost of ramp. He also noted that ramp will be permanent. He stated that have initial non-competitive price proposal and would have to bid. He noted they have est. cost of $35,000. Moved by Glassheim and Polovitz to approve. Motion carried.

VII. Matter of Mortenson update.
Tom Nonweiler, M.A.Mortenson, presented updated cost summary to the committee.

(A) Bids for restoration of north fire station:
Mr. Nonweiler presented tabulation of bids for restoration of the north side fire station on Columbia Road and informed committee that they don't anticipate any Fema reimbursement (no flood in-surance on the building), and funds will be taken from the 1997 construction budget. He reviewed bids and recommended award to Weller Electric, Watford City, ND in the amount of $12,500 for electrical work; T.F. Powers, Fargo, in the amount of $98,008.00 for Categories #1 through #4 general construction and appliances; and Lunseth Plumbing & Heating in the amount of $22,328.00 for
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mechanical work; for a total of $132,836.00, which is below their estimate. He also noted that their initial damage estimate was around $280,000, which included portions of the mechanical work which is not going to have to be done. Moved by Bakken and Polovitz to accept low bids as recommended. Motion carried.

(B) Bids for 24 Pump Stations:
Mr. Nonweiler presented bid package for pump stations, took one lump sum number for each station and recommendation based on the lump sum to clean all pump stations, low bid submitted by Magnus Trucking & Construction at $13,200.00 and would recommend award in that amount; that this is Category B work and anticipate 100% reimbursement from Fema for cleaning of the pump stations. Moved by Glassheim and Bakken to award the bid as recommended. Motion carried.

VIII. Matter of oral history project at ND Museum of Art.
Mayor Owens reported that they had talked about doing a history of the flood, that this is one proposal that was received by their office, and have since received names of individuals who have called her office. She asked for direction from the committee. Committee held for recommendation from staff.

IX. Other business:
A) Matter of burning of debris (houses demolished in Lincoln Park)
Dale Gonsorowski, Florian & Sons Excavating, appeared and expressed concern re. the location where debris from demolition of houses from Lincoln Drive area is being dumped for burning, whether inside city limits, etc. and that he had letter from ND State Health Department relative to this matter. He stated he is opposed to the burning of this debris because of health and sanitary rea-sons (that unburnable items not being separated as required, etc.) After some discussion Mr. Vein stated that his recommendation is to refer to staff and city attorney for answers and would get back to Mr. Gonsorowski and the committee.

B) Presentation re. revitalization of downtown.
Jack Arnold, US Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration, Duluth, Mn stated his responsibilities are the State of Minnesota, stated they are working with the City of East Grand Forks trying to do something with saving the central business district and trying to save those businesses and give opportunities for others to come in. He stated they have looked at what is happening in Grand Forks and aware that convention center has not started as yet and in an analysis of looking at the CBD and holes that city has, would try to encourage the City to look at the possibility of putting the convention center in the central business district which would have considerable enhancement to the property that is there; that both Grand Forks and East Grand Forks have lost a lot of structures and a lot of people.
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He stated that what they are proposing is to take the RR bridge, elevate the center section which would do a flood correction, remove the middle pier and make a covered walkway between the cities which could be used year around. He stated that from the federal government's standpoint they are very much interested in seeing cooperative ventures and partnerships, esp. in this par-ticular disaster, and could bring about a revitalization of the central business districts and a line of communication, a walkway, that would work to encourage businesses to invest in the central business districts of both cities.

Committee noted that the City went through great deal to approve events center and in siting the Aurora, and not in favor of downtown, that one of the arguments against locating the events center downtown was poor access and parking, and asked if spirit of cooperation included participation in paying for it. Mr. Arnold stated that walkways and some of the amenities would be handled by the federal government. He stated they would like committee to look at this new opportunity, this would have considerable effect on property values. The committee also stated that there are a lot of issues facing the downtown, including dike. Bakken stated that he thinks this is something to look at, is opportunity to look at everything that comes along, that he has looked at some of the plans for the downtown by groups studying it and hasn't seen any-thing that has convinced him that it will revitalize downtown, that this may do it. Mr. Arnold stated the est. on the covered bridge is between $1 to $2 million, that wherever events center located there will be infrastructure responsibilities, and that there are monies available for those kinds of assistance, beautification/
revitalization are eligible costs under EDA, that their interest is purely private sector and private sector jobs and feel that this kind of investment will bring about private sector investment and private sector jobs in both communities, and can be used to help the business district. Bakken stated that this would free up building area for residential housing. Ken Vein, city engineer, stated that the downtown is vital part of the city, that HUD planners looking at how to redevelop the downtown, and the Urban Land Institute is here and will be working with City at what's in best interest of redeveloping the entire city. He stated there are other concepts out there, and they need to take all ideas and work with planning group and bring back as possible recommendation from them for planning the entire city. He stated they are interested if federal funding available to assist in any manner, because whether Aurora downtown or not, there's certain amount of rede-velopment that has to take place; that another thing they have to evaluate is any structure downtown; and existing regulations will apply until some type of flood protection in place. He also stated it could be 6 mos. to year before know alignment of a dike, that we also have to deal with how to handle substantially damaged buildings in these locations and historic buildings, and is complex issue. He also noted that there are no buildings that can't be re-
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built if flood-proofed.

Scott Hennen, 3720 Cherry Street, stated that lot of work went into deciding location of The Aurora, and suggested that any discussion involve that committee. It was noted that some of the reasons for selecting that location were: proximity to UND, attraction of a flagship hotel was important to future growth of the city and 33% of business from Interstate and additional development.

Dave Beach, member of the committee on The Aurora, asked why would they leave chosen site which was dry to move to location which had 4-6 ft. of water.

Committee asked that Mr. Arnold give information to the Tri-chairs and work with existing groups.

c) Matter of volunteer organizations/groups.
Bakken asked whether they were still compiling list of proper-ties located outside the floodplain which received 50% or more damage for United Way, that they will prioritize that list and have Mr. O'Leary look at additional building in the Industrial Park and also at the Almonte Home for volunteers, that they have commitments from volunteer groups for material and labor to take care of houses outside the 100-year floodplain. Christi Stonecipher reported that next week there will be a presentation made by a rep. of World Vision and is dealing with a lot of the voluntary groups, that they are having an unmet needs committee formed and will be doing a city-wide assessment to find out needs and then addressing those through financial grants, etc. and refers to same things this committee was talking about. She stated she will provide United Way with an updated list. Mr. Bakken stated he met with Umcorps and will looking only at rebuilding process of these homes and look at apartment houses and businesses at the same time. Mrs. Stone-cipher stated it sounded as though they were trying to get an organized group of all the non-profits here and buy into this program and how going to work together.

d) Matter of proposal for funding the development of the final
proposal in consideration of the establishment of Center: World Community Strength
Milen Christianson stated he was here to follow up on meeting last week, that committee indicated they would contact University and the University staff did not come, they have reviewed program and considered it and are still in need of ground support indi-cating this is a need. He read letters of support for the Center, stating that a duplication of services in crises lack one central focus place, etc. He stated that the University's position is they need indication of support to take leadership action in this area, and requested that if committee is in favor that a letter of sup-port be given. He stated that the intention of the Center is to strengthen communities by putting forth experts to provide research
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and academic information which would be utilized by Human Services throughout the region, by the clergy, by anyone who is working with people during any kind of situation and afford opportunity to get training, etc. After further discussion the committee stated that this seems to be good idea but didn't think City appropriate place, State possibly appropriate level. Mr. Glassheim stated he will talk with Dr. Boyd at University.

Glassheim excused.

As Members Hafner and Bakken would be out of town next Wednesday, the meeting was scheduled for Thursday, July 24 at 5:00 p.m.

Moved by Polovitz and Bakken to adjourn; meeting adjourned at 6:20 p.m.

Alice Fontaine
City Clerk

Dated: 7/17/97.