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MINUTES
PUBLIC SERVICE COMMITTEE
Monday, October 26, 1998 – 7:00 p.m.

ROLL CALL: Klave, Lucke and Lunak present. Hafner absent.

1. Applications for moving permits:
a) Tim Lamb – to move building (garage) from 1428 Chestnut to 306 Cottonwood St.
Ms. Collings said Mr. Lamb would be required to replace the overhead door and repair the slab at the site where the old garage had been demolished. Lucke made a motion to approve. Lunak seconded. Carried
b) George Otmar – to move storage building from 1512 Chestnut to 1921 4th Av. N.
Ms. Collings said Mr. Otmar would be required to paint this building. Lunak made a motion to approve. Lucke seconded. Carried.

2. Matter of emergency purchase of submersible pumps for the sludge receiving basin
Ms. Fetters-Sletten reported they have three pumps, two being part of the original project from 1974 and the other a leased used pump after the flood and leased so long they wound up purchasing it. She said all three pumps have been repaired and rewound several times. She said she is asking permission to purchase two submersible sludge receiving pumps to be paid with a $25,000 transfer from the chemical budget to the work in progress account. She added the pumps purchased a few months ago were vacuum pumps. Mr. Lucke asked if this would normally be bid. Ms. Fetters-Sletten said it would but that this is truly an emergency situation and the prices are fair. In response to Mr. Lunak’s question, she said all the pumps have recently been repaired, but they are on the wet side of the dike and they have been trying to make do with minimal repairs but are dealing with 1975 project and it is really wearing out. Lucke moved to approve the purchase of the two submersible pumps. Lunak seconded. Carried.

3. Budget amendments
Ms. Fetters-Sletten stated that her item was actually a transfer, not a budget amendment. She said they would have a substantial amount left in chemicals because of cost savings. She explained pretreatment basin baffles which become brittle and break, with 150 lost with the last basin cleaning operation. She said this is an emergency thing. Regarding the generator fuel, she went on to explain that when preparing the 1998 budget they did not have a peak shaving agreement with NSP, but that has now been resumed and they see about a $27,000 savings in the electrical which is offset by some of the fuel charges. She said they need to operate the generator every month to make sure it is operating so they would need fuel. She said all in all they are saving about $15-$20,000 on electricity. Lucke made a motion to approve the transfer from contingency and chemicals to Mtce. Installed Mechanical Equipment and Diesel Fuel in the amount of $27,000. Lunak seconded. Carried.

Mr. Feland said that bids were approved on Aug. 31 for a pothole patching machine and the box hoists and boxes. He said the funding source was not identified at that time. He added it would be taken from cash carryover from this year’s budget in the amount of $113,000. Lucke made a motion to use transfer from cash carryover to trucks in the amount of $113,901. Lunak seconded. Carried.
4. Matter of engineering agreement for raw water intake and transmission lines, Proj. 4769
Mr. Grotte said AE has been working on the preliminary design for last few months. Steve Burian of AE said they are looking at a location south and west of the existing treatment plant on dry side of the levee, although it has not been picked in detail, only in concept. He said the final site will be picked under the existing agreement. He said in mid-November they will lay out the concept in more detail and then have a public information meeting scheduled. Mr. Vein told Mr. Lunak that the site will probably be in his ward and he will probably want to follow this closely as we get to the selection and where to route the raw water lines back to the existing plant and he said potentially we will be looking at how this would tie into the future plant. Mr. Burian said he has contacted Ms. Stonecipher for ideas of how to get the public involved so they have some input while staff addresses the technical issues. In response to Mr. Lucke’s question, Mr. Burian said overall they have an increase of $2 across the board. Lunak made a motion to enter into an agreement with Advanced Engineering for final design, bidding, construction and post-construction phase services for the Raw Water Intake and Transmission Lines (Proj. 4769) in the not-to-exceed amount of $1,487,000. Lucke seconded. Carried.

5. Matter of brick sewer repair funding update (Information only)
Tom Hanson said he met with FEMA and the engineer and came to acceptable agreement with both sides. He said they agreed that 100% of the cleaning project would be eligible for FEMA participation. He said the work involved in brick sewer repairs negotiations resulted in FEMA agreeing to pay for the top half of the lining and the City is paying for the bottom half. Mr. Klave thanked Mr. Hanson for the time spent working with FEMA on this issue. Mr. Hanson said this is the last of the DSR's for sewer repairs. Mr. Lucke asked for clarification on the $30M in sewer work. Mr. Hanson said there will be a total of eight contracts and we will award the second of those tonight. He said they won’t really know where the dollars will fall until closer to the end. He said six contracts are left to be bid with about a fifth of the money allocataed. Mr. Lucke asked what if we decided not to do the last $10M of the project. Mr. Hanson responded there would be extended maintenance costs, the places needing immediate attention are relatively well distributed around the community – not any specific area. He added that doing all of this now means a reduction in long-term costs for the community. Mr. Grasser added that this is one of the few areas where we can leverage CDBG money and get more bang for the buck. Mr. Klave added that the split with FEMA of the lining cost was good to hear because originally he thought we would have to pay for about 90% of it.

6. Matter of NDDOT funding proposal for the 42nd St. and DeMers Av. grade separation
Mr. Grasser explained a map he distributed with the various classifications of roads and highways and pointed out that each classification carries a different funding formula. He said the city receives urban dollars based on population amounting to about $1.2-$1.3M annually. He went on to say that we have an offer from the DOT in regards to the 42nd Street underpass that runs under DeMers and the railroad tracks to minimize train impacts. Mr. Grasser said a letter distributed to committee states that the DOT would like to take DeMers Av. (on the Regional Secondary Program) from I-29 to 5th St. and take it off the regional program and put it into the urban program, which means those dollars would compete with other streets. He said the money out of the regional competes statewide based on city needs. He said the DOT is proposing that in exchange they would provide $3M in federal regional funds for underpass and would make another $3M in urban funds available – those funds are available to the city through our normal allocation - really not giving us extra. Mr. Klave said that means taking the second $3M for this project would take several years of allocations. Mr. Grasser said there are some concerns about a trade-off of this kind, when weighing the liabilities against what we are getting and considering the liabilities down the line. He said he is most concerned about the area east of Washington in that the DeMers Skyway will be in need of repair within 5-10 years. Mr. Klave commented what would we be giving up in the future if we take their offer. He said it might look rosy now but then we no longer have participation on that road and that in the future we would have to spend more than $3M on that road. Mr. Grasser said it has become a trend in the last few years to push the more of the costs on to the urban areas. He added that in the last highway bill we got more money in the urban program – almost double to $1.2-$1.3M a year. Mr. Klave said he was concerned that the next go round might be different and we could get less. Mr. Grasser said once this leaves this category we will never get it back and it was a policy decision to increase the urban funds and it could just as easily drop down again. He said staff recommendation is to politely turn down the offer, ask them to fund the $3M anyway, but not require the change in street classification. Mr. Klave suggested we just go on the merits of the project. Mr. Grasser said estimated the cost of project to be about $6M, but are having a hard time putting a handle on the cost of the shoofly around the tracks. Mr. Grasser said if we didn’t take this up we would ask for the money anyway and if that was turned down we would put it into the longer range CIP and ask for it to come through the regional program. He said in the meantime we would build 42nd St. at grade then go back and reconstruct it back out again. In response to a question from the audience, Mr. Grasser said we own part of the property in question. He said there was an Advanced Right of Way Acquisition Program that went into effect a number of years ago whereby the federal government advances money for right of way acquisition and the parcels on the south side of the road are owned by the City. He said there would be some acquisition cost on the north side because the original configuration didn’t envision coming off the university property.

Mr. Vein reiterated staff’s concerns, long-term, about making a trade-off such as this because the cost of reconstructing these streets down the road are going to only get more and more expensive. He said the last time they went through the reconstruction of DeMers it cost close to $20M and that took us to South Washington and now we have the Skyway, and the continuation to 5th St. which is very expensive. He said his feeling is that this is part of the state road system and if we really do need this and they can come up with $3M for a trade-off, he would rather get that $3M on the basis of need for the project and the other $3M is money we already have of our own anyway. He said he looks at the long term and doesn't see the real benefit of taking this off the regional road system and putting it on an urban road system. He said DeMers Av. is a state highway and has that designation and therefore has funding from the state highway system if ever it will have to go toward this project. Lucke made a motion to continue negotiations with the North Dakota Department of Transportation without giving up them reclassifying DeMers Av. Lunak seconded. Carried.

7. Matter of agreements for engineering services for Proj. 4824, overlaying local streets city-wide
Mr. Bushy said this agreement is to enter into engineering services with Widseth Smith Nolting and Associates to analyze streets citywide for mill and overlay. He said most of the streets are in the area just north of downtown. He said the recommendation is to go with the hourly not to exceed $17,160. Lunak made a motion to enter into an agreement with Widseth Smith Nolting and Associates for the hourly, not to exceed amount of $17,160 to be paid from CDBG funds, pending approval by Howard Swanson. Lucke seconded. Mr. Klave asked if this would be completed in the 1998 timeframe since he has a concern that rate increases may occur next year if the project is not finished before the end of the year. Mr. Grasser said in the event of a rate increase the contract would be renegotiated since we do not know exactly which streets yet. He also said that none of this work is DSR related since the streets are damaged but did not actually fail. Carried.

8. Plans and specs for Proj. 4865, restore sanitary sewer in Area 4
Mr. Hanson said this is in the south portion of the community. He said the four areas are all about the same size and this is about 1/3 of the amount of work in the Area 2 sanitary. Lunak made a motion to approve the plans and specs for Proj. 4865, sanitary sewer restoration in Area 4 which qualifies for CDBG funding. Lucke seconded. Carried.

9. Consideration of construction bids for various projects:
a) Proj. 4860, restore storm sewer in Area 2
Mr. Hanson said there were two bidders. He said Molstad was the low bidder, however upon review of the bid package it was incomplete in that Molstads neglected to include names of some of the subcontractors they will use. Mr. Hanson said he believes it was an oversight on Mr. Molstad’s part and called him. He said the bids were opened at 2 p.m. and by 3:10 p.m. the information was provided by Molstad’s. Mr. Hanson said he believes that to be a minor irregularity and recommends committee waive that and award the contract to Molstad Excavating. Mr. Vein said this requirement is a city requirement and not a state law and committee has more flexibility. Lucke made a motion to accept the bid for consideration and to declare a minor infraction. Lunak seconded. Carried. Lucke made a motion to accept the low bid of Molstad Excavating in the amount of $2,634,090 which will qualify for CDBG funding. Lunak seconded. Carried.
b) Proj. 4846, storm sewer on 40th Av. S. (Washington St. to South End Drainway)
Mr. Lambrecht said this project is a CDBG funded project for the work in the south end. He said this is a main line storm drain that will take a lot of the water that comes from the South Washington St. area and bring it west into the drainway. He said it is 3/8 of a mile but with large diameter storm sewer pipe. He went on to say that the bids were very competitive and 10 were received. Mr. Lambrecht said one bid was not opened because it did not have a copy of the contractor’s license in the outside envelope and that is a requirement of state law. Lucke made a motion to return the bid from S.J. Louis Construction unopened due to an infraction in the process. Lunak seconded. Carried. Mr. Lambrecht went on to say that the low bidder was Molstad Excavating and everything in their bid checked out. He said the bids were very competitive both because this is a project that involves digging in open country and flexibility in the completion date, which is June 1999. He said the low bid was $328,610 and in cost matrix was $495,000 and well within budget. Lucke made a motion to award the bid for the 40th Avenue South Storm Sewer Project #4846 to Molstad Excavating in the amount of $328,610 which is a CDBG funded project. Lunak seconded. Mr. Grasser asked Mr. Lambrecht to follow up with Molstads to see what their schedule is since they have many projects going. Mr. Klave said he is very comfortable with the company but wants to make sure we don’t end up with a lot of change orders and time delays. Mr. Hanson said another Molstad project has a lot of the work subbed out. Mr. Lambrecht said that since Molstad was working on the South Washington reconstruction project this ties right in. Carried.
c) Proj. 4371, Wastewater Treatment Plant bid pkg. #3, (reactor basin and distribution system)
Lynn Brilz from KBM said they received eleven bids and got good prices. He said they recommend awarding to John T. Jones Construction Co. for the combined alternate bid ($6,792,000) and that means they would handle both the general and electrical construction. He explained that the electrical would be the beginning of a lightening protection grounding system which is included in the amount of $10,000. He said the alternate was to delete the requirement that the reinforcing steel in the reactor basins be epoxy coated. Lucke made a motion to accept the bid of John T. Jones Construction Co. in the amount of $6,792,000 contingent upon North Dakota Department of Health approval. Lunak seconded. Carried.

10. Change orders for various projects:
a) Proj. 4371, Wastewater Treatment Plant bid pkg. #2 (access road) C.O. #2
Mr. Brilz said the purpose of the change order for Gowan Construction is to balance the final contract amount with the amount of work actually completed. He said the overran slightly on gravel but underran a little on the budgeted amount for adding Quick Lime to stabilize the subgrade, so the net increase is $490. He said they would be coming to Council on November 2 with the final pay request for Gowan Construction. Lucke made a motion to approve the change order to Gowan Construction in the amount of $490. Lunak seconded. Carried.
b) Proj. 4439, Lift Station #38 (Wanzek) C.O. #5
Mr. Hanson said because of rain the contractor can’t get in to install the water service for the station and to test the station there has to be water to it. He said the quote to truck water in for testing was about $8,000 and it doesn’t make sense so we will wait until they get the gravity done and test it then. He said they will delete the grass seeding and driveway from this project and put them on the Molstad project next spring. Lunak made a motion to approve a time extension to Dec. 31, 1998 and delete the grass seeding and driveway from this project. Lucke seconded. Carried.

Added Items:

11. Proj. 4684 – Lift Station #33 – Lime Stabilization
Mr. Hanson said they are still working on getting acceptable numbers. Hold.

12. Granitoid street by Phoenix School (For Information only)
Mr. Grasser said they wanted to get down on paper what happened with the Granitoid paving. He said he thinks everyone was trying to do their best to get the project done yet this fall and in the process with everyone rushing around they stumbled over each other's feet. He said when he got back in town last week the areas of patches were formed up with rebar installed and it was ready to go. Mr. Grasser said without knowing the intent of the Council he contacted Doug Carpenter to see if in his thoughts it was okay to do the patching or if we, for some reason, did not wish to do the patching yet this year. Mr. Grasser said Mr. Carpenter indicated his goal was to get the street open for use this year and in order to do that he said we better do the patching and gave the go ahead to do the patching which is estimated to be about $2,500 worth of work. He said Mr. Carpenter indicated that he intends to bring the issue up again at the next City Council meeting and the purpose here is to give Public Service a heads up because this issue first hit this committee two weeks ago. Mr. Grasser said as it sits, a corrective action cannot be done until there is a State Historical Society review and they do not meet until Nov. 6 which for practical purposes means we won’t get that work done this year anymore. He said he thought the hope of City Council was to get started with the work immediately but after further information is impossible because the state has to meet. Mr. Grasser said with that in mind we’re back to the point of what would the City request of the State Historical Commission. He said they were under the impression that with one of the letters from Gail Clifford that they were perhaps supportive of putting plain concrete back recognizing the street is basically destroyed and there is a lot of other Granitoid streets in the City and do we want to set the precedence of saving every single piece of Granitoid or are there some that we can replace. Mr. Grasser said it is staff recommendation to at least ask to put the street back in plain concrete; this way the school district will cover the entire cost, there would be no cost to the City and no cost to the residents. He said if, in fact, they come back and direct that a portion of that work be restamped we have to look at funding options, whether the City pick up some of the cost or we use special assessments. He said there is150 ' of the section is Granitoid now, the other 150’ is overlay on concrete and really is not covered under programmatic agreement so we feel the State Historical Society in any event cannot require stamped through that whole 300’ section. Mr. Grasser then pointed out the various costs on the bottom of a memo the committee was reading. He said it was his understanding that the School District was going to come up with $42,000, so anything we do above that would have to be funded through other sources. Mr. Klave said this was just information for committee and there is no action we can take because it has to come back to the full Council floor because there is a vote on the issue. He said the repair is a question of money but the timing is a force of nature. He said it is staff judgment that this work could not be completed this year. Mr. Lucke said there was some concern whether or not the school district funds will be available next year.

13. Authorization to purchase the borrow pit on the north side of Grand Forks
Mr. Grasser said the purchase agreement for land west of N. Columbia Road and north of Highway 2 was done sometime last spring or summer. He said since then Mr. Campbell has had various concerns and was not wishing to follow through on that particular parcel of land. Mr. Grasser said he met with Mr. Campbell today and they came up with a slightly different configuration, swapping land which is an advantage because it produces better borrow material. He said they also extended a small rectangular parcel east to Columbia Road just in case an alternate site was needed to take material out. Mr. Grasser said they are looking at reconfirming the approval to purchase u p to 70 acres, which was the previous approval, recognizing the appraisal is still valid. He said we need to confirm purchase of the new configuration. Lunak made a motion to authorize the purchase of 70 acres of land to be used as a borrow pit, using CDBG funding. Lucke seconded. Carried.

Meeting adjourned at 8:25 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,


Carolyn Kryzsko, Executive Administrative Assistant

Respectfully submitted,


Bob Klave, Public Service Committee Vice Chair