Committee Minutes

MINUTES/PUBLIC SERVICE COMMITTEE
Monday, November 9, 1998 - 7:00 p.m.

Members present: Hafner, Lucke.

2. Matter of amendment to lease agreement with Wireless
Alliance, LLC.
Mark Anderson, engineering dept., reported that Wireless Alliance is asking for approval of amendment to lease agreement by removing the City's responsibility to provide electricity to their site, that they were unable to use the existing power at the site and NSP will be providing them with power directly, and asked for amendment to the lease with reimbursement of $600.00 which had been paid. Moved by Lucke and Hafner to approve amendment to the agreement and reimburse Wireless Alliance, LLC $600 for power service. Motion carried.

3. Matter of encroachment agreement with Simonson Station Stores
to install free-standing business sign at 4720 Gateway Drive.
Arch Simonson, 715 Lewis Blvd., presented request to place sign on the public easement, 33 ft. area, and place sign on that area and place concrete footing between sewer and waterline, that the easement was granted to the City prior to their purchase of the property, that they do own the property but there is a public utility easement in front of them and are requesting to place a sign on their property that encroaches on the easement that has been granted to the City for public utility. Al Grasser, asst. city engineer, stated they have identified that there is sewer and water in that easement and when put something like this in there, will complicate future construction and/or repair, but haven't had a chance to review and not sure what other alternative locations there might be for the sign, and suggested perhaps to refer to staff. Mr. Simonson stated they wouldn't be opposed to staff review, but do have drawing and there were some plans that were submitted, and that someone came out from City and marked utilities. Committee referred the matter to staff and held for 2 weeks.

4. Request to write specs. and call for bids on plow truck for
1999 for street department.
Todd Feland, eng. dept., submitted specs. to the committee and asked that they hold for 2 weeks to allow for review of specs. and come back. He noted that this equipment is in the CIP for 1999, $150,000 from Highway Users Fund and part of annual purchase by street department. Held in committee.

5. Matter of architectural agreement for public works facility
improvements and relocation, City Project 4822.
Chuck Grotte, asst. dir. of public works, reported that Johnson & Laffen had been approved to give them a contract on the renovation and re-roofing of the public works facility, that the architect has agreed to a contract not to exceed $80,000 with a few additional services listed for approx. $5,000, and looking at agreement of about $85,000 to do the planning, design and through

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construction of that project; approx. $1 million for the entire project. Hafner asked if they don't normally go on percentage basis, and Mr. Grotte stated this is better deal for us, and that originally they came in with a curve to be based on actual con-struction cost, but this contract on hours spent and we prefer to do this way and they agreed. Ken Vein, city engineer, reported that for many years the committee has looked at getting away from percentage contract and to hourly not to exceed based on a scope of work if can define scope properly.

Moved by Lucke and Hafner to approve the agreement with Johnson Laffen, Architects, in an amount not to exceed $80,000 with addi-tional services in the amount of approx. $5,000. Motion carried.

6. Matter of Amendment No. 4 (const. admin.) to engineering
services agreement for Proj. 4860, restore storm sewer in
Area 2 (CDBG).
Tom Hanson, WFW, distributed copies of amendment No. 4 to the agreement, and stated this is construction phase services for Area 2 storm sewer restoration, pretty much same as what had in the past, with 1999 rates as used in the last two or three projects or anything after December 25. He stated that Area 2 is north of DeMers and 4th Avenue South to the River, and basically Columbia Road. Moved by Lucke and Hafner to approve Amendment No 4 to the agreement in the amount of $161,440.00, project CDBG eligible. Motion carried.

7. Matter of 3-way agreement for Projs. 4915 and 4916, san.
sewer and watermain on N. 48th St. from Gateway to 17th Ave.N.
Al Petrich, CPS, Ltd., asked for authorization to enter into 3-way agreement with CPS, Strata Corporation and City of Grand Forks for water and sewer to go into site as shown on map he distributed, and along with that Strata has requested that the City pick up the incremental costs of upgrading from an 8" to a 12" watermain with est. cost in the amount of $5,500 to $6,000. Mr. Grasser reported that their current policy is the City pays material costs above 8" line and City has some benefit from circulation and this would be consistent with current policy. Moved by Lucke and Hafner to enter into the three way agreement with Strata Corporation and CPS., Ltd. Motion carried.

8. Plans and specifications for Projs. 4915 and 4916, san.sewer
and watermain on N. 48th St. from Gateway to 17th Ave.N.
Mr. Petrich stated that they will be bringing the 12" watermain up the west side of 48th Street and sanitary on the east side of 48th Street, and asking for approval of plans and specs. which will go back to engineering department for review, and then will go out for request for bids from contractors. Moved by Lucke and Hafner to approve plans and specifications. Motion carried.

9. Consideration of construction bids for various projects:

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a) Proj. 4868, storm sewer on Wash. St. from 62nd Ave.S. to
Southend Drainway (CDBG)
Lon Aune presented tabulation of bids for storm sewer along S. Washington Street, that they looked at several options, 1) that shorter of the two in order to maintain things under budget, originally earmarked under CDBG budgeting, and that amount was $795,000 which was to include construction contingencies, and all engineering costs, they broke project up and will be located along the east side of Washington St. from Drainway to 62nd Ave. S. He stated that Option 1 was from Drainway to approx. 57th Ave.S or south side of Presbyterian Church which is currently being con-structed out there. He stated second option would include entire project from Drainway to 62nd Ave.S.; and this is in a situation where in an either or condition, where go either option based on how numbers worked out. He stated they had a large number of bidders which were received on November 5 and based on Option 1, would have a low bid of $333,735.00 to Dakota Underground or Option 2, $512,520.00 from Molstad Excavating, Inc., and their recommenda-tion based on economics, to go with Option 2 and would be looking for a motion to award bid to Molstad Excavating, Inc.

Mr. Grasser reported that there will be something at Flood Response, that they've drafted another alternative with some different criteria than had first time, have drafted 3 alternatives and this storm sewer on this piece of Washington all the way to 62nd is basically part of every one of those alternatives, and his recommendation would be to take it to 62nd Avenue because prices are excellent, and this piece fits into all alternatives.

Moved by Lucke and Hafner to accept the low bid of Molstad Excavating, Inc. for Option 2 in the amount of $512,520.00, with CDBG funding. Motion carried.

b) Proj. 4848, Pump Station 39 (CDBG)
Mr. Hanson reported this station east of Washington at 57th Ave.S. and 11th Street, and bid two schedules, have to bid separate general, mechanical and electrical contracts and also give con-tractors opportunity to submit combined bid; and stated that the separate schedules were less expensive with total at the bottom of three low bidders: Construction Engineers, Ltd. in the amount of $524,937.00 for general construction; McFarlane Sheet Metal for $17,956.00 for mechanical, and Hanson Electric of Bemidji, Inc. in the amount of $141,200.00, with total of $684,093.00, which is less than under Schedule A, and recommended award to the three bidders.

Moved by Lucke and Hafner to accept the bids under Schedule B as follows: Construction Engineers, Ltd. $524,937.00 for general construction; McFarlane Sheet Metal, $17,956.00 for mechanical; and Hanson Electric of Bemidji, Inc., $141,200.00; and authorize CDBG funding. Motion carried.

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10. Matter of bids for water meters.
Charlie Vein, Advanced Engineering, stated he was here to make recommendation on award of contract to replace water meters, distributed packet of information, and reviewed information attached to the letter: the City currently has 12,880 meters that are in use throughout the city and meter involves both water meter that is in line in the plumbing, as signal generator attached to the meter and a wire going to a remote read-out on the outside of the house. The water meters were originally installed in 1982-84 and majority are in 15-20 year old range, which is useful life of normal water meter. The City currently has 3 full-time meter readers that can barely keep up and costs for readers is about $120,000/yr.; that meters are cash registers and over time lose their accuracy so is important to make sure they are tested and kept up to required accuracy. During the flood it was determined that about 8835 of those meters were submerged in flood water, after putting together documentation and in discussion with FEMA they were able to receive about $1,457,000 in federal aid to replace those meters, and in putting information together have letters from manufacturers and tested random meters and in working with water maintenance department looked at failures that were coming in on a regular basis - from about 12 meters/mo. to requiring two full-time people working on meters, and still seeing those problems today and some concern was the problems would steadily increase because of corrosion, etc. He stated they looked at various systems to replace the meters, that first choice would be to go back to similar meter as have today - manual read system on the outside of the house, looked at replacing in that same form and touch-read system which is on outside of the house where use a gun to go up and pull meter reading off; telephone read system, where bring all information back to a central point where informa-tion read through the telephone lines; mobile radio read system where use radio signals and use a mobile unit that travels the city and collects the reads; fixed base radio read system, which involves a number of receiving points through out the town and information brought back to a central receiving point.

Mr. Vein stated that in looking at options: 1) and 2) involve replacing the system with similar technology with an outside read system and that would be to either replace the 8835 flooded meters that FEMA paying for or replacing all of the 12880 meters. He stated other options were to replace flooded meters or all meters with a touch-read system; and fifth option was to replace all of the meters in town with a mobile radio read system and final option was to have a fixed base radio system installed. He stated they also looked at a couple other considerations: 1) having a private company come in and read meters, and also to use a combined meter reading with one of the other utilities (Nodak Electric and NSP). He stated they ruled out several options - telephone read system because of technology taking place in the telephone system and not wanting to interfere with private individuals lines and potential

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problems there. He stated they ruled out the combined meter reading system with NSP because NSP using CellNet and they did not submit bid as they didn't know when they would be ready to go ahead with NSP. He stated they took bids on September 17 and bid three options: remote read system which would be basic replacement to our system as FEMA was willing to pay for and received 6 bids varying from $848,000 to $1.5 million (included water proofing). Alternate 2, mini mobile radio read system, and had 6 bids varying from $2.5 million to $4.1 million. He reported that in evaluating the bids they put together a committee (Hafner, Todd Feland, Dwight Wurzbacher, Saroj Jerath, Lisa Johnson of Advanced Eng. and himself); and that they looked at each of the bids and came up with criteria they wanted to use and scored each of the bids: present worth cost for each meter, special considerations including water-proofing, experience of installer, experience of manufacturer, technology and warranties, and put a weighted factor on each of those with present worth accounting for 51%. Based on that evaluation they ranked U.S. Filter bid number 1, and ranked Utilliman/Badger bid number 2. He stated that in the case of alternate #2 which was for the mobile radio read system, using those same criteria for evaluation and scoring, they again scored US Filter as number 1 and Utilliman that utilized Badger and Itron as number 2, preferred based on points they came up with.

Mr. Vein stated that with that information they looked at doing an annual cost comparison with that meter system and accumulated cost over 20-year life, and would require the City to borrow $642,568 for the 4,045 meters that FEMA would not be paying for and looked at a 10-year bond at 5% interest; that they took reading cost for the manual system at what is today and inflated that by 3%/yr. over the 20-year life and added a fifth person in year 5 to keep up with the amount of reads that would be collecting, and totaled that annual cost and then accumulated the cost on a per/year basis, and after 20 years the cost would be $5 million.

He stated they looked at the Sensus radio read which would require the City to borrow $1.9 million and went through same evaluation, and also a battery replacement cost that needs to take place at approx. year 10, totaled annual cost there and accumulated those costs as well, and have cost comparison and looking at difference between the two and noting on an annual basis, and a target payback of the difference between the initial costs of those two and inflating by 3%, the bottom line on this is that the payback wasn't until somewhere between year 19-20 and felt that wasn't good pay-back, even though the difference in the accumulated cost versus the savings was about $2.4 million.

He stated they did the same evaluation with the Badger/ITRON read system and the result there was that they had a payback between 8 and 9 years, and seeing an overall savings of over $3 million.


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He stated they wanted to take a look at difference between manual read system but going to a contract read, of 60/cents per read, and compared Badger/ITRON price with the price given for an outside company to come in and read the meters; and with this were still able to get a payback between 15-16 years.

Mr. Vein reviewed the advantages of the radio read systems: 1) issue of accuracy; 2) decreased liability from workers being injured from falls, dog bites, etc.; 3) accessibility - don't have to enter private property; 4) weather conditions not hinderance if get vehicle out; 5) overall cost savings in excess of over $2 million over 20-year life; 6) opportunity now to use the $1.4 million that FEMA giving us to replace the old technology; 7) installation time - some inconvenience and difficulty in doing that; and 8) fixed cost over next 20 years.

He stated with that information they recommended that Badger/ ITRON system be awarded for a base bid amount of $2,583,946.35, and award be contingent on a successful demonstration of a 200-unit test site. Based on the FEMA participation this would require the City to include in this $1,216,987.00.

Lucke stated that it almost looks like we decided which one want to buy; but had a number of questions on the matter, and most con-cerned with special considerations and the rating system. Hafner stated that Lucke suggested that maybe it was decided beforehand, that at first meeting they spent over an hour discussing what the special considerations are before they even looked at the bids and also rated them before they looked at the bids.

Mr. C.Vein reviewed rating on various bids, whether water-proofed, upgrade to a radio read system. Hafner stated that one of the special considerations was whether or not it had a single source meter. Another thing looked at was whether they could read other meters rather than just water meters (electric, gas meters, etc.); warranties, etc.

Lucke stated that FEMA paying about $150 per meter and if found one for lesser amount, would FEMA pay that cost, or still pay the $1.4 million. Mr. Vein stated that FEMA knew City was looking at potentially changing technology and stated that here are the dollars, don't want to hear from you again. Mr. Vein stated that if they determine there's a better meter and it still came in under that price, wouldn't affect the dollars going to get.

Lucke asked what systems other cities have gone; Mr. Vein stated Fargo converted to a touch-read system, Bismarck went to a tele-phone-read system, and in doing evaluation made field trip to Minneapolis and looked at a Sensus read system, went to Milwaukee and looked at a Badger system and at a Badger/Itron system, and have had Sensus come here and set up units in their building and

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demonstrate the drive-by system. ITRON has come in and done the same but left little bit to be desired and that's why recommenda-tion requirement was that they would set up a 200-unit test site to prove that it does work and drive by at posted speeds and pick up 95% of the read, and if didn't work would come back to committee.

Lucke asked if someone was going to drive through the streets at 30 mph and read all the meters in 4 hours, and asked if that seemed reasonable, except that speed limit is 20 mph in many area. Mr. C.Vein stated they looked at the number of N/S streets and in evaluating number of hours they had information supplied to how many feet away they could collect or read, whether 100 or 1000 ft. away and based on that looked at the fact that they would be able to drive every third street and in other cases every street and that's why difference in driving time. He stated that while in the Cities went out on a test drive on the Sensus radio system and within half an hour picked up 4,000 reads and watched it work. Mr. Feland reported that cities that have Badger Itron system, cities of Philadelphia, Lincoln, Nebraska, Houston and they are doing a lot of the larger municipalities, and when talked to rep. in Milwaukee they were looking at something that could be upgraded to a fixed system and also working with their local gas utility who was involved with ITRON.

There was some discussion re. batteries, and rep. from Badger stated they last 10 years and then start to replace, easy to engineer out how much power it has. Mr. Vein stated that battery life will be dependent on number of reads you take and times power it up and power down, and when do that calculation it's still based on criteria you have to set up for number of times you read.

Hafner stated this is a one time opportunity to make the decision to go from manual read to a radio read for quite some time and this is part of the consideration. C.Vein stated that as they put advantages in the pamphlet stated that if they didn't have the FEMA dollars there would be no way that this would pay out within reasonable amount of time and opportunity is now and can also look at some of the other advantages.

Dwight Wurzbacher, supt. of water distribution, stated they are having problems with reading of meters, damage to the meters and ability to read them; that ability to read now with weather con-ditions and getting into property owners has been extremely dif-ficult, injuries have been up, that last year were able to get through the readings barely and some had to estimate. He stated that if go into a normal winter, won't be able to get around these places; that the nature of meter reading has changed in his time with the city about three times. He stated that when started went into homes and read about 175 meters per reader; that back in the late '70's were having problems getting into homes as people not home and saw need to remote the system, which they did in early

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'80's and that system worked very well and even prior to the flood, started talking re. new type of technology to be able to read those meters in year 2000/2005. He said now with flood and money avail-able seems to make sense to use this FEMA money and go to radio system which would be cost effective way of doing it, and get through some of these problems with cash registers and not have to go out and manually read them. He stated that many cities are facing this now and Grand Forks has a chance to move ahead and use FEMA money, and this is an advantage for Grand Forks to choose system that will work for the next 20 years.

Lucke asked what time table would be for replacements and actually implement. Mr.C.Vein stated replacement would be able to start fairly soon, and probably looking at 2 months in starting. Mr. Wurzbacher stated that one thing he likes with radio system is to get rid of all wire which has been problem for them in maintenance, talking about 10 ft. of wire at the most compared to 20 to 50'. He stated that 50% of staff working on maintenance and repair of meters or reading, too much time being spent the last 18 months on this part of it. Lucke noted that the meters being recommended came out second in the rating.

Lucke asked where the other $1 million would come from; Saroj Jerath, dep.city auditor, stated fundinf from utilities, bonding. C.Vein stated it was in this year's CIP, $3.2 million included.

Lucke stated he was trying to decide whether to hold until had full committee. C.Vein stated they asked bidders if they would hold their bids for another 30 days, original was 60 days, and would like to move as quickly as possible because have to hold bids until they prove that the 200 test unit will work as well.

Moved by Hafner that the Badger/ITRON radio system be awarded for a base bid amount of $2,583,946.35, and award be contingent upon a successful demonstration of a 200-unit test site; Lucke seconded the motion.

K.Vein recommended that between now and council meeting that the information be discussed with the other two committee members one on one to see if there's any question that comes from those members, along with Mr. Glassheim, and try to answer their ques-tions and then if a problem bring back to committee. Lucke stated that if they address the concern that the net cost is going to be $1 to $1.2 million and how going to pay for it, how much cost us per year over next number of years and if so much per user, makes it an easy decision and asked for more information on per unit cost. Mr. C.Vein stated that in one spread sheet they do talk about what annual cost is for payback of that.

Upon call for question, the motion carried.


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11. Matter of change orders for various projects:
a) Proj. 4591, Pump Station No. 29 (Innes, gen.contractor)
C.O. #2
Tom Hanson, WFW, reviewed change order for pump station near City Arena, that included piping change and because School was under construction next to this had to close street and that included signage for detour route, and this will be final and will close out the project. He stated this was compounded by the flood and not to get into liquidated damages, probably not clear case of them. Moved by Lucke and Hafner to approve change order in the amount of $3,601.21. Motion carried.

b) Proj. 4684, Pump Station No. 33 (Duckstad, forcemain con-
tractor) C.O. #1
Mr. Hanson stated they do not have a satisfactory resolution of the dollars on this, but looking at putting better gravel on the road to make sure to get to the station over the winter for the construction, Duckstad put in the forcemain and was supposed to build a road to the station and Construction Engineers and rest of contractors would use this road during the winter to finish con-structing the station. Valley Contracting's price for the crushed concrete was significantly higher than what they've provided on other city projects and he needs to get with them tomorrow, that they would like to get this done this fall and asked if they could meet before the council meeting - Committee scheduled meeting on Monday, November 16 at 7:15 p.m.

c) Proj. 4768, Lift Station 84 (Wanzek)
Mr. Hanson reported that Wanzek ran into some difficulties which were clearly outside the scope of the contract (inlet piping to the existing barrel which affected his work, had brought pump up and several other actions needed to protect his work, did that in timely manner, and would have some compensation coming for that. They suggested to trade that additional compensation for a time extension to March 1, 1999 to get station in operation which should be before most of the spring run-off and then to get all site restoration completed by June 15, 1999, and probably end up giving up the time eventually and makes good sense to trade time for dollars, doesn't inconvenience us. Moved by Lucke and Hafner to approve the change order to trade costs for a contract time extension change order, and to extend the completion dated from December 31, 1998 to March 1, 1999 for an operating station and June 15, 1999 for all site restoration work to be completed. Motion carried.

d) Proj. 4654.501, video sewer lines.
Mr. Hanson, WFW, reported that Viking Pipe has been televising
sewers since late summer after the flood, and when worked this out with FEMA they put camera in the pipe and if can't get through the pipe because of material in there, FEMA pays for backup associated with it and subsequent cleaning, but because finding so much debris MINUTES/PUBLIC SERVICE COMMITTEE
November 9, 1998 - Page 10

in sewers, having a lot of backouts (200 on initial bid and now adding 1635 backouts to the contract), and have paid the contractor more than our contract amount. He's only got about 82% of the pipe completed and because of backouts the dollar amount exceeds the contract amount, and need to get time extensions to January 15, 1999 and FEMA pays for backout when it identifies that there is FEMA cleaning and nearly all are FEMA cleaning; and are recom-mending change order to change the contract amount by $302,475.00 and extend time to January 15, 1999. Moved by Lucke and Hafner to approve the change order. Motion carried.

12. Matter of CDBG engineer's reports:
a) Proj. 4654.350 and 4654.351, brick storm sewer
b) Proj. 4861, san. sewer repair Area 1
c) Proj. 4862, storm sewer repair - Area 2
d) Proj. 4719, san. sewer repair - Area 2
e) Proj. 4860, storm sewer repair - Area 2
f) Proj. 4863, san. sewer repair - Area 3
g) Proj. 4864, storm sewer repair - Area 3
h) Proj. 4865, san. sewer repair - Area 4
i) Proj. 4866, storm sewer repair - Area 4
Mark Anderson stated they are looking for approval of the engineer's reports for storm and sanitary sewer repairs for 8 projects, primarily divided by area with exception of brick storm sewer, and report put together by Tom Hanson, WFW. He said reason bringing all these reports together now is because similar and are repairs determined through videoing sewers. Mr. Grasser stated they would like to have these approved officially. Moved by Lucke and Hafner to approve the engineer's reports. Motion carried.

1. Applications for moving permits:
a) John Payne to move building (garage) from 1424 Chestnut
Street to 1010 S. 16th Street.
K.Vein reported that the public hearing on the application for moving permit will be on November 16, and from inspection report no repairs are needed to the building, and recommended approval. Moved by Lucke and Hafner to approve the application for moving permit, subject to the public hearing. Motion carried.

13. Matter of request for qualifications for geotechnical eng.
consulting services for new raw water intake and transmission
lines.
Wayne Gerszewski, engineer with Advanced Engineering, reported that they are entering into an engineering services agreement with the City of Grand Forks for City Project No. 4769, which includes the design and construction phase services for the new raw water intake and transmission line system for the city of Grand Forks,
and based on preliminary eng. completed to date there is a likihood of a substantial amount of geotechnical engineering that could be required for this project, that's based on potential depths of con-struction, types of construction techniques and methods that may be MINUTES/PUBLIC SERVICE COMMITTEE
November 9, 1998 - Page 11

used, potential construction near the river, slip plains near the river, problems that the Corps of Engineers is currently running into. He stated that nothing has been decided at this time or finalized but services of this geotechnical consultant maybe re-quired in the near future in order to have a successful design of this project. He stated that Advanced Engineering (he and Steve Burian) met with Charles Grotte last week to discuss the geo-technical requirements for the project and following a discussion, a decision was made to obtain the qualifications from a geotech-nical engineering consultant to help them address these various issues, and based on qualifications the consultant would then be selected and that consultant would assist in the development of a work scope for geotechnical services for the project, oversee the subsurface expiration activities and would look at interpreting the results of those performing geotechnical engineering and looking at geotechnical report preparation and recommendations for the pro-ject. He reported that the fees would be negotiated at a later date, just looking at qualifications at this time. He requested permission to advertise the request for qualifications for the project (handout presented to committee members), and that it is their understanding that the City procedure for requesting quali-fications for advertising doesn't require full council approval, and if it does would wait, but if doesn't would then advertise on the 14th and 21st for these qualifications.

Lucke stated to send on to council for their approval. Moved by Lucke and Hafner to approve request for qualifications from geotechnical consulting engineering firms to provide geotechnical engineering services with regards to the construction of a new raw water intake and associated raw water transmission lines. Motion carried.

Meeting adjourned at 8:25 p.m.

Alice Fontaine
City Clerk

Dated: 11/10/98