06-01-10 Health & Public Safety - Laserfiche WebLink

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HEALTH AND PUBLIC SAFETY The June 1, 2010 meeting of the Health and Public Safety Committee of the South Bend Common Council was called to order by its Chairperson Council Member Karen L. White at 5:00 p.m. in the Informal Meeting Room, 4th Floor County-City Building, 227 W. Jefferson Blvd., South Bend, Indiana Persons in attendance included: Committee Members: Henry Davis, Tim Rouse, Karen White, Citizen Member Valerie Schey Other Council Members Present: None Others Present: Ken Leszcz, Steve McDaniel, Greg Zelinski, Barbara Dials, Rodney Dias, Larry Cimparone, Gary Gilot, Howard Buchannon, Fred Rodriguez, Karl Littrell, Toy Villa, David White, Robert Reese, George Reese, Patrick McGuire Agenda: Kennedy Park CSO Project -Traffic Access Concerns Chairperson White opened the meeting by stating the purpose of the hearing was to assure the safety of the public living in the Kennedy Park CSO area. Councilmembers had recently received complaints that access to their homes had been cut-off by the CSO construction project. Henry Davis, the District Councilmember, said the hearing was intended to be non-contentious; but to assure citizen safety. Mr. Davis said the area of concern was from Bendix to Olive/Bonds to Westmoor. Calls from folks in this area alerted Mr. Davis to the claim that police, fire, and ambulance access was not possible. Mr. Davis who visited the area to investigate these claims said they were true. He attributed the cause to inadequate planning and communication. Councilmember Tim Rouse having heard and seen the same supported Mr. Davis underlining the validity of citizen concerns. Chairperson White asked Gary Gilot, Director of Public Works to respond. Gary said in the CSO project as in all projects public safety is a top priority. He then outlined the pre-planning process under taken with the contractor. A 3 phase construction process was adopted to minimize citizen inconvenience in that this CSO project was to be a year long. As the construction progressed, public works would send a-mail alerts to all on the notification list indicating any street closure or access restrictions. He allowed that prompted by these concerns, his department initiated a supplemental notification process. Therein he described an electronic color-coded map for the city's website and all city departments. It would indicate for all to see any traffic or access restrictions. Citizen Member Valerie Schey asked Fire Chief Buchanon is and how access restrictions are disseminated with the department. The chief said the practice was to verbally relate restrictions at shift changes. He agreed to web-site updates would be valuable to both police and fire. Chairperson White asked if it was common practice to totally close off an area. Gary along with City Engineer Carol Littrell said islands without access were not created. In this case, alley access was used to fill a temporary need. Carl admitted communication with I & M could have been better as their trucks responding to a service pole emergency had blocked alley access. Councilmember Henry Davis questioned the adequacy of the planning process from the time spent putting an access plan together, the effort to monitor its implementation and the level of concern afforded to resident's inconvenience.