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MINUTES/PUBLIC SERVICE COMMITTEE
Monday, August 9, 1999 - 7:00 p.m.

Members present: Hafner, Klave, Lucke.

1. Applications for moving permits:
a) Linus Kalenze to move building from 1824 N. 4th St. to 918 N. 5th Street.
b) Patrick and Mary Lunak to move building from 2503 9th Ave.N. to 2414 9th Ave.N.
Tim Manz, Trade Insp., reported that both of these buildings were flood damaged houses
and with required repairs will meet City Code requirements. Moved by Klave and Hafner to approve applications for moving permits contingent upon meeting requirements noted by the Inspections Department and subject to the public hearing.

Linus Kalenze, 1805 North 3rd Street, reported they are scheduled to move building on 20th of this month and has some concern re. TCI fibre optic cable at end of Alpha starting on Red Dot Place which is not 18’ high (min.requirement) and creates problem to move building. Mr. Kalenze questioned who determines height of the lines. After some discussion the committee determined that they could act on the application, however it was mover’s responsibility to make sure he has clear unobstructed path that has police escort when needed, and not City’s responsibility to provide for unobstructed move. Klave noted that if utility company refuses to move line, let Inspections know you’re not getting any cooperation and they may have to ask the city attorney to draft a letter or phone call, etc. because there’s no reason that any utility should stop commerce from moving.

Upon call for the questions, the motions carried.

2. Matter of easements re. declaration of easement and construction and maint. agreement
at former South Jr. High School building north of 13th Ave. S. between Walnut and Cottonwood Sts._____________________________________________________________
Mr. Grasser stated they had a number of concerns and wrote a letter to the attorney outlining concerns and informed them they were holding this on the agenda. He stated this had to do with some issues with the old sanitary sewer underneath the existing building; that on the site plan MDI Ltd. was required as part of that operation to reline that pipe or reroute it and at that time they chose not to reroute it and had agreed to the relining; that in the process City vacated some rights of way subject to retaining easements and now MDI saying that they will give the City these easements if the City relines the pipe and agrees to other conditions; that if problem in the future they don’t have to pay for any it and City takes on responsibility for the future operation and maintenance of this line and they will be absolved from any participation. He stated he pointed out that the City didn’t need to trade for any easements because City retained them and the relining was part of the site plan revisions and everything moot and resolved. Held indefinitely.

3. Matter of amendment to City Code, Chapter XVI, Article 2, sidewalk construction and maint., Section 16-0222 grandfather clause, subsec. (8) local roadways to include the north- northeast side of Knight Dr. between S. Columbia Road and 14th Ave. S.________________
Dan Tomanek, eng. manager at Altru, stated they were bringing this forward to honor the
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original PUD for the development of those properties which called for the sidewalk to be installed completely around the properties; that after the properties improved with the parking lots there were no sidewalks included and since then have put the sidewalk along the north edge of the properties, that there is sidewalk along the east side along Columbia Road, that the problem with installing sidewalks is that they will end up taking out approx. 40 trees that were put in as a visual screen for residents that live along Knight Drive; and sidewalk usage would be minimal as there is sidewalk on the other side of Knight Drive and sidewalk on north end of the property that connects bikepath along English Coulee to Columbia Road. and asked for amendment to the Code to eliminate sidewalk.

Mr. Grasser reported that certain areas in the city were specifically named in the Code as being exempt from sidewalk installation, that he didn’t know technicalities of that but more to do with planning and this is direction that the Planning Department suggested that we take, that a variance could accomplish the same thing but it depends on the intentions of the committee, a variance might be interpreted as being more of a temporary issue vs. amendment of the Code . Moved by Lucke and Klave to approve the request. Motion carried.

4. Matter of GFAFB booster station improvements, Proj. 5055.
Charlie Vein, Advanced Engineering, presented an engineering agreement based on an hourly fee and expense schedule in an amount not to exceed $8,718.00, to construct modifications to the Grand Forks Air Force Base Booster Station to improve domestic water pressure and fire condition control for the Grand Forks Airport, that they met with Airport and City concerning this project and the Airport has agreed to pay all costs associated with putting in several jockey pumps and controls to take care of their problems. He stated that on the City’s side, once the water leaves the booster station and enters the airport property they have some other problems that they have recognized the need to deal with, and this is an engineering agreement to work out those issues.

Moved by Lucke and Klave to authorize entering in the agreement with Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $8,718.00 to construct modification to the Grand Forks Air Force Base Booster Station to improve domestic water pressure and fire condition control for the Grand Forks Airport. Motion carried.

5. Matter of location of Sewage Lift Station #5.
Tom Hanson, WFW, and Arch Simonson were present. Mr. Hanson stated they are working on the site for Lift Station 5 and showed area on a map located at 8th Avenue and N. 3rd Street, near Lewis Blvd., bikepath, and adj. to Simonson’s office, that the Corps alignment unlikely to change in the vicinity of St. Anne’s Guest House and the Simonson building will remain under the alignment. Mr. Hanson stated they looked at the site where flood wall going through the Simonson structure and assumed that was being bought out and where School buildings are now and tried to pick route as close to the dike as could and were looking for something for long term as this facility will have a life of 75 to 100 years before becomes non-functional (replace pumps and controls, etc.) with basic structure which will be 40 ft in the ground. Mr. Simonson stated their request is for the
City to do feasibility study to see if could move lift station a little farther to the west (10 to 15 ft.)
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which wouldn’t impact their building, as floodwall wouldn’t be installed until 2003 and if move lift station that would buy them an additional 3 years in their building, that they want to stay in their building and also save some dollars and cents - that the City will be buying them out of that structure (half to three-quarters million dollars to replace what they have), and their hope in three years time that the technology will come about and allow them to stay in their building. He also stated they are willing to cost share on some things.(piling to protect their building, offer City hold harmless agreement for damages to their building in the construction of the lift station).

Committee questioned if there was room on site; Mr. Hanson stated you could put it in there but concern they have is foundation of structure , and that he didn’t see any changes in technology. Hafner stated he didn’t either to save the building but can understand the three years. Mr. Hanson stated that what’s been requested is doable, and only other question is there’s some coordination with greenway project and they want lift station to be as close to the dike as possible for their parking needs and if did this would put them farther away from the dike. Klave stated they have approx. hundreds of acres of green space that is going to be engulfed because of the dike and that he has a hard time when we get into an area and they object because they want it for parking, It was noted that the Corps will have final dike alignment in June of 2000. Committee asked WFW to research (cost estimate, increased liability and cost, hazard tostructures) and bring information back to committee. Held for further information.

6. Budget amendment.
Todd Feland reviewed the amendment for the transfer of $2,000 from 1998 cash carryover to maintenance of traffic signs for street department. Moved by Klave and Lucke to approve the budget amendment. Motion carried.

7. Matter of ownership of traffic light located near Wal-Mart
Mr. Grasser reported they received a request, that they don’t have a record of the City having any lien against Wal-Mart for anything, and speculate that the City required Mr. Greenberg, who was developer, to help share the cost in that traffic signal and he in turn created some document with Wal-Mart until the City takes over ownership. He stated from a practical standpoint the City owns and operates and maintain the lights and that’s not an issue, and his recommendation is to approve it contingent upon City Attorney’s review. Moved by Klave and Lucke to advance the proper paperwork forward to show City ownership of the traffic lights. Motion carried.

8. Matter of Cost Participation, Construction, and Maintenance Agreement with the NDDOT for various projects:_____________________________________________
a) Proj. 5044, Landscaping S. Washington St. from Hammerling to 32nd Ave. S.
Mark Anderson, engineering dept., reported that the percentage split is 81 (federal)-19%, and are asking to enter into the Cost Share agreement with the Department of Transportation utilizing federal funds for the project. It was noted that the project contains a cap of $120,000. Moved by Klave and Lucke to authorize entering into the agreement as presented. Motion carried.

b) Proj. 4757.2, Downtown Street Mill & Overlay
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Mr. Anderson stated this is cost sharing with same percentage split. Mr. Grasser stated that this project originally was going to be project where get emergency repair funds from federal highway; they were going to pay for whatever work it took to do the overlay project and were est. costs and because so much time has lapsed the Federal Hwy. Dept. no longer has the flexibility to absorb any cost changes and they are fixing their amount of participation at $674,726, and that’s going to create some issues on one of the subsequent items as there will be a significant shortfall in what it’s going to cost to do that work as compared to original estimate. Moved by Klave and Lucke to authorize entering into the agreement as presented, $674,726 federal funding. Motion carried.

9. Matter of establishing rates for GPS surveying with GFEG & CPS for various projects (CDBG)___________________________________________________________________
Mark Lambrecht, CPS, reported they recently made a substantial investment in some equipment for global positioning or GPS systems that makes use of a satellite technology ($58,000) , and allows surveying to be done to an extremely high degree of accuracy, allowing them to work faster and more efficiently; it allows them to do work that couldn’t do in the past and a myriad of capabilities. He stated they were asking the ability on existing projects to add an hourly rate of $50/hour for this equipment with the understanding that they are not asking for any increase in upper limits of contracts; and more than make up for itself in the efficiency gain from its use. Moved by Lucke and Klave to approve the rates. Motion carried.

10. Matter of request by Park District to special assess Proj. 5050, Bike Path Repair along the English Coulee from 22nd to 24th Ave. S._____________________________________
Mark Anderson reported that the Park District is requesting to be assessed for the work for the bikepath on the west side of the English Coulee , north of 17th Avenue and east of 34th Street. Mr. Grasser reported that the bikepath was originally constructed by the Park District from 17th to 24th and there’s section towards the southerly end that is in close proximity to the English Coulee and willows, etc. are poking through the asphalt; that they requested the Bikeway Committee for some City maintenance funds to do that work and the Bikeway Committee allocated $20,000 to do the work and the Park District was going to cost share, $5 or $10,000. He stated this is not a simple maintenance project, but basically rebuilding it and doing something to insure that the vegetation doesn’t destroy the next path; and original idea everyone had was to put concrete on it because plants won’t grow through the concrete, but concerned that they will actually lift the slab (there’s that much potential force in those plants), and are looking at doing a study to establish what the corrective action is going to be. He stated that some of the City’s funds that were allocated to go towards a preliminary eng. study to determine what the costs are going to be to make the repair,
once they have the costs can come back and create the district. He stated that it would only be assessed against the Park District’s property, wouldn’t be a general assessment against residential areas. Mr. Grasser stated that the drainway has become overgrown with this vegetation and this is consequence of not keeping those drainways clean, the willows really shouldn’t even be there but because we don’t have a good program of keeping these cleaned out, they are now well established. DNR has not expressed any concerns about this. Moved by Lucke and Klave to receive and file the request.
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11. Matter of Design Engineering Services with CPS for Proj. 5050, Bike Path Repair along the English Coulee from 22nd to 24th Ave. S.______________________________________
Moved by Klave and Lucke to authorize City to enter into this agreement for engineering services in an amount not to exceed $7,602.00. Mr. Lambrecht stated that would include the study and preparing the construction plans and going through bidding as well. Motion carried.

12. Matter of amendments to engineering services agreements for various projects:
a) Amendment No. 3, (Construction Engineering), CPS, Proj. 4714, Dist. 562, Paving N. 55th St. from DeMers Ave. to Gateway Dr.
Mr. Lambrecht reported that Opp Construction had been awarded construction contract for this project, $1.2 to $1.3 million construction project, which will be beginning soon, and CPS on behalf of the City would perform the construction engineering services (staking, contract administration, construction observation, hourly not to exceed $77,530). Moved by Klave and Lucke to approve Amendment No. 3, in an hourly amount not to exceed $77,530. Motion carried.

b) Amendment No. 28 (Construction Administration), AE, Proj. 4784, South End Water Tower (CDBG)
Anita Mehle, A/E, reported Amendment No. 28 is to GFEG’s contract for the southend water tower, the amendment is to cover the construction phase services for this project; that they were able to incorporate the unused portion of two previous amendments for this project which covered the design and bidding services and with that taken into account Amendment No. 28 is based on an hourly not to exceed amount of $16,100 in addition to those unused portions of $29,830.00 for a total of $45,907.26, CDBG funded. Moved by Klave and Lucke to approve Amendment No. 28 to the engineering contract in the amount of $16,100. Motion carried.

13. Matter of CDBG Engineers Report for various projects:
a) Proj. 4973, Watermain Replacement Loop on N. 15th St. and 8th Ave. N.
Ms. Mehle reported this is a new watermain which runs along N. 15th Street and 8th Avenue North, and replaces the watermain on Washington Street, est. total project cost is $3,132,255; that the project was budgeted for $2,441,555; and the original layout has been changed to cover more than one issue and that is the reason for the shortfall of $690,700 and that amount is to be CDBG funded and allocated in the future. Mr. Grasser reported that funds have not been assigned to this and wanted to make sure it was identified as a shortfall from the current budget; that there will be a committee of the whole meeting coming up sometime in August and the
council will have to go through and do some reallocation of some of the funds in the matrix; that there’s been close to $2 million scavenged up through various projects to date, and they are identifying this as one project where they are short of money, needs to go in for consideration with some of the other items. He stated there is a question on the matrix as to how much money is going to come back through this Phase IV or buyout programs, etc. He stated there is a possibility there’ll be substantial dollars generated through that process and the original intent has always been that we would attempt to use a good share of that money to do water work that otherwise would have to be done through rate increases. He suggested that on this project and
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another one coming up is to approve the report, proceed and identify this as a shortfall and it will before the project bids are received and anything awarded, have the answers to the funding issues. He stated because of the short timeframe they have left to work with the CDBG processes and if wait for all of the questions to be answered, won’t be enough time to get the project under contract. He stated this has to be done, esp. if the water treatment plant has to be moved to take care of some of the pressure distribution problems within the city. Moved by Lucke and Klave to approve the Engineer’s Report. Motion carried.

b) Proj. 4757.2, Downtown Street Mill & Overlay
Mr. Grasser reported that shortly after the flood the Federal Hwy. had emergency repair funds available for classified streets (DeMers Avenue and many of the downtown streets qualify) and Federal Hwy did commit to overlaying and doing some curb repair downtown, that was a very simple project that turned complicated over time and subsequent to that we didn’t want to do the repairs right away because there was underground work to be done and major construction activity (Corporate Center, County Building), and in coordinating things with the DDC ended up splitting this project into two separate bids: 1) curb and gutter replacement downtown which is piecemeal replacement and not a continuous curb replacement and that project was bid and came in high and DDC has agreed to allocate $70,000 to help cover those costs but finding identifying a significant shortfall in the second phase of this which is work that they will do next year under the mill and overlaying portions. He stated he is asking them to identify this as a potential shortfall, proceed with plans and specs. and before award of bids this will come back and make sure the budgeting is taken care of.

Charlie Vein, A/E, stated they are in the process of design, that DOT will bid this project in November and in approx. week have to have preliminary plans into the DOT for their review, est. project $1,200,000, and that there has been $200,000 that has been budgeted previously through the CDBG program, emergency relief funds through the Federal Hwy. Adm. amounts to $674,726, for a total available funding of $874,726, leaving a shortfall of about $325,000 on the project, and that shortfall is broken into several different areas, about $225,000 identified in increased construction costs (primarily in asphalt costs) and increased contingencies up to 10% and some of the dollars that were originally going to be part of the mill and overlay was actually used for the curb and gutter project, and that’s where total shortfall is and when bid find out for sure where that comes in. Moved by Klave and Lucke to approve the Engineer’s Report. Motion carried.

14. Matter of consideration of construction bids for various projects:
a) Proj. 4784, South End Water Tower, Electrical Bids (CDBG)
Mr. Vein, A/E, reported this was pulled from the last council meeting; the project was bid the day of the committee meeting and when made the recommendation there was a question concerning the electrical bid. Mr. Vein provided committee with documentation to go along with quote and there is an error. He stated there were 3 bids received: Hanson, $48,700; Samson Electric, $77,240; and Bergstrom Electric was $87,400. He stated they had est. project at closer
to the $87,000, and Hanson Electric has asked that their bid be withdrawn and in which case they
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would recommend award to Samson Electric. Mr. Grasser reported that the documents these have been bid under there are provisions specifically in the contract that says if a mistake is made and contractor notifies us within a certain period of time and they document the error and through that contract they are not obligated to default on the bond.

Moved by Klave and Lucke to reject the bid of Hanson Electric of Bemidji, Inc. due to a misquoted price, and to return their bid bond. Motion carried.

Moved by Klave and Lucke to award the electrical bid to Samson Electric, Ltd. in the amount of $77,240.00. Motion carried.

b) Proj. 4582, Dist. 380, Storm Sewer on 16th Ave. N. west of N. 42nd St.
Mr. Anderson reviewed tabulation of bids received for project area located north of McDonald’s by Gateway and I-29, low bidder is Soberaski, Inc., and recommended award. Moved by Klave and Lucke to accept the low bid of Soberaski, Inc. in the amount of $57,206.00. Motion carried.

c) Proj. 4863, Restore Sanitary Sewer Area 3 (CDBG)
Mr. Hanson, WFW, reviewed tabulation of bids and current status of funding for all sewer repair projects and still showing a balance short of about $1.7 million and the projected costs of the total system repair on the local share has been updated for this bid and for the change orders. He reported there were two bidders on the project; Molstad Excavating had one error (math error), bid $1,944,685.00 (Engineer’s estimate which was $1.5 million) and a lot of work in area now so not as competitive. He stated they have to get the FEMA and CDBG money spent in a timely manner so don’t have much choice. Moved by Klave and Lucke to accept the low bid of Molstad Excavating in the amount of $1,952,985.00, project CDBG eligible. Motion carried.

15. Matter of Change Orders for various projects:
a) Proj. 4719, Sanitary Sewer Restoration Area 2, C.O. #8 (CDBG)
Mr. Hanson reviewed change order (Lametti & Sons, Inc., $155,877.22), that contractor found changes in the pipe that were documented by video between time did initial video and time he got there to do the lining work, evaluated cost of doing additional spot repairs vs. full length lining that the contractor bid and have directed in most cases to do the full length lining and most cost effective solution to the problem. Moved by Lucke and Klave to approve the change
order in the amount of $155,877.22, and to extend completion date to November 15, 1999 for specific items. Motion carried.

b) Proj. 4860, Storm Sewer Restoration Area 2, C.O. #5 (CDBG)
Mr. Hanson reviewed change order (Molstad Excavating, Inc., $30,450.00), that they ran into flat top manholes which they hadn’t addressed in bidding documents, providing chimney seal extensions for manholes where appropriate and handicapped ramps where required. Moved
by Lucke and Klave to approve the change order in the amount of $30,450.00. Motion carried.
c) Proj. 4866, Storm Sewer Restoration Area 4, C.O. #2 (CDBG)

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Mr. Hanson reviewed change order (Molstad Excavating, Inc., $13,650.00) for handicapped ramps in Area 4. Moved by Lucke and Klave to approve the change order in the amount of $13,650.00. Motion carried.

d) Proj. 5015, Flood Mitigation Project Phase I, C.O. #2 (CDBG)
Mr. Lambrecht reviewed change order (Nodak Contracting, $314,950.00) , that this project is where you see construction going on up and down the Red River side of the city, work in the Riverside, Central Park and partially along Belmont Road being completed; that this contract was originally awarded to Nodak on a bid basis on a time and materials schedule where there were unit prices requested for various pieces of construction equipment based on a number of estimated hours of use. He stated they’ve deleted a great amount of seeding by drill seeding method and increased the amount of hydroseeding because it’s much more successful and the contractor has offered to reduce the price of the hydroseeding by 5 cents sq.yd.; that original contract amount was $384,722 and increase due to these estimated additional hours is $314,950. Mr. Grasser reported they had anticipated the work was going to be close to $1 million or more if get into closure on the English Coulee; that the $314,000 is going to be eaten up by just building along Belmont Road and would expect to see more change orders coming on this, but will monitor to stay within the original budget. Moved by Klave and Lucke to approve change order No. 2 in the amount of $314,950.00. Motion carried.

Lucke stated he had a call tonight re. this project, that someone on East Elmwood asked if was possible for contractor to use the streets as much as possible that aren’t inhabited as opposed to the ones that are - re. wear and tear on the streets but neighbors concerned about that. Mr. Lambrecht stated that if they pass on a specific address they would try to plan the routes better.

16. Matter of special Public Service Committee meeting 8-16-99 for award of Proj. 5028, Flood Mitigation Project Phase II _________________________________________
Tom Hanson, WFW, reported that bids (for gates and closures for storm sewer that runs past lift station 8 on 15th Avenue South - that go along with the diking project) due on August 16 and requested meeting prior to council to consider the bids and recommend award. The committee scheduled a meeting for Monday at 7:15 p.m.

17. Matter of reorganization for engineering, inspections, administration/public works.
Held in committee.

Klave questioned who was coordinating construction work in the downtown area; Mr. Grasser reported that Inspections Office working with Advanced Engineering to coordinate those projects and meet Friday mornings to discuss (Mark Saunders).

It was moved by Klave and Lucke to adjourn; meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.

Alice Fontaine, City Clerk
Dated: 8/10/99