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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-14-18 Public Works and Property Vacation �o4�uTn B��d f U•'\ d w a PE CE N a� x x 1865 OFFICE OF THE`CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK PUBLIC WORKS &PROPERTY VACATION MAY 14, 2018 4:01 P.M. Committee Members Present: John Voorde, Sharon L. McBride (late) Committee Members Absent: Jo M. Broden, Gavin Ferlic Other Council Present: Karen White, Tim Scott, Oliver Davis, Dr. David Varner, Regina Williams-Preston Others Present: Kareemah Fowler, Bianca Tirado, Graham Sparks, Bob Palmer Presenters: Eric Horvath, Kara Grabowski Agenda: Update- Gas Tax Funds, Highway Funds for Paving, Curbs and Sidewalks-Eric Horvath Committee Chair John Voorde called to order the Public Works and Property Vacation Committee at 4:01 p.m. He introduced members of the Committee and proceeded to give the floor to the presenters. Update- Gas Tax Funds,Highway Funds for Paving, Curbs and Sidewalks-Eric Horvath Eric Horvath,Director of Public Works with offices on the 13th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I am here at the request of Council. One (1) direction I had was to talk about the Gas Tax so I don't know exactly what you're looking for but we are prepared to answer whatever questions you may have. I don't have a formal presentation. We had additional funding through State Gas Tax that we received and this ye is the first year we have gotten that. We budgeted it in last year. Committeemember Sharon L. McBride arrived at the meeting at 4:02 p.m. Mr. Horvath continued, It was about$1.5 million in MVH and about$500,000 in Local Roads and Streets. So we budgeted that out in the budget this year and I guess I can answer any questions you may have. Councilmember Regina Williams-Preston asked, You said it was $1.5 million in what? Mr.Horvath replied,That is the MVH Fund which is the Motor Vehicle Highway Fund.The other is the Local Roads and Streets Fund which was around $500,000. Councilmember Dr. David Varner asked, Is that distribution set by statute, Eric? Or is there discretion within the community to allocate it? INTEGRITY1 SERVICES ACCESSIBILITY JENNUER M.COFFMAN BLANCA L.T u ADo JOSEPH R MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/DmECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEPuw1DIRWMR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.92211 f 574.235.9173 1 www.southbendin.gov ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Mr. Horvath replied, That is allocated by the State. So when the State raised the Gas Tax they mandated where it went. There are allocated percentages based on each individual area. We do a number of miles inventory and also have our asset list that we are required to update each year. Based on that,which doesn't change much,it wouldn't change much in the grand scheme of things. Councilmember Oliver Davis asked, When you say allocate, does that mean it was already predetermined? Mr. Horvath replied, Yes,that is correct. Councilmember Davis followed up, So that means they have predetermined all the streets and roads that will be paved? Mr. Horvath replied,No. They don't decide where we use the money. How much money we will get,though, is already allocated. Councilmember Davis stated,I agree with that but now when it comes down to different roads and streets, do we have anything similar to what we have for sidewalks? For instance I got an email today that said they can't believe how bad our street is. When we get emails like this or whatever, will we have a list of all the streets we will do? And what role does Council play in that kind of concept? That is the issue I have. Mr. Horvath replied, So what we started doing was we wanted make sure we had a good system of rating the roads so that we do it based on the condition of the road. It is called PASER and it is a pavement assessment rating system. We've got a number of people that went through training to do that. What they are doing is they are trying to update that. We are little bit behind in terms of not having a good year-to-year inventory of ratings but now they are better able to do that. Moving forward, we will be much better at that. When we get requests, we tell people we will look at the road. We look at it and if it hasn't been rated in a while, we will re-rate that road and see if it falls within the realm of needing to be paved. Councilmember Williams-Preston asked, What is a while? Mr.Horvath replied,We typically start putting together a very preliminary list in the fall. We don't put out a permanent list until s rin because, as you know, winter changes things. If you have requests and let us know,we will make sure they get rated and in the future we would hope to rate every street every year. Councilmember Davis asked, So I just send this to you and Jitin? Mr. Horvath replied, Yes,that is correct. Councilmember Davis followed up, Now when you do a street, these are regular City streets and not State Streets, correct? Mr. Horvath replied, Yes,that is correct. We wouldn't do any State Streets. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 lf574.235.9173 ITTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 2 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Councilmember Davis followed up,When we do a street,will we have the street fixed up but have old sidewalks? Or do they have sidewalks on the fixing schedule too? Mr. Horvath replied, Typically on our paving list, we are only doing asphalt. For years they were just putting a layer on top which was a problem because we lost our curb exposure. So we now mill down about two (2) inches and then we put two (2) inches back on. Depending on the road conditions we may mill a little bit more but for the most part that's what we do. We don't do curbs and sidewalks. If we have a major infrastructure project that needs to happen,those typically have the full infrastructure replaced. For the paving program, we are just doing the asphalt. It is mostly a cost issue because if we do the whole road with curbs, drainage infrastructure and sidewalks, it starts adding. Councilmember Davis stated, Ok, I am at peace. Councilmember Karen White asked, So are you saying that these additional dollars cannot be used for curbs and sidewalks? Mr.Horvath replied,No,they could. Sorry for the confusion. So this extra money is going to Local Roads and Streets and MVH. You could use it in its entirety for staff or plowing roads. You could use the entirety of it for curbs, sidewalks and any use within those two (2) Funds. Councilmember White stated, I think that, from my perspective through the budget process, was one (1) concern. We want a clear understanding of how these funds can be used. The reason we asked to have a meeting was because as we work with the various neighborhood associations and citizens, the top issue we tend to hear other than safety is curbs and sidewalks. We were looking to see if there are any additional dollars to deal with curbs and sidewalks. We are not saying the streets are not important because they are. But, can a portion of this increased allocation help our curbs and sidewalks? Councilmember Williams-Preston asked, I just want to be clear because I'm not, are these dollars still available for this year or not? Mr. Horvath replied,No they are not. Those were budgeted in last year's budget. Committee Chair Voorde asked, So the recently released paving list uses that $2 million? Mr. Horvath replied, Some of it. Let me try to answer that as best I can. So to start with, as you recall, we increased the amount of money we were using for curbs and sidewalks significantly. In doing so, we had to run a structural deficit so we had to buy down the Fund balance. If you look at the 2017 budget you would see about $9.9 million in revenue and about $11.7 million in expenses. In last year's budget we added a number of different areas. We did not add to curbs and sidewalks but that is because we added before. We need to keep some of that money to take care of that structural deficit we had. But we added$20,000 to traffic calming and we added$450,000 to drainage. We don't have any storm water funds. We are about the only city that I know of in the State that doesn't have a storm water fund. So whenever we have drainage issues,we have to cover them through either some sort of street funding or through sewer funding. Those are the primary sources we use. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W Jefferson Bvld'South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 if574.235.91731Tro574.235.5567 iwww.southbendin.gov 3 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Mr. Horvath continued, In addition to that from Local Roads and Streets we used$120,000 for the train whistle stuff. So that was the additional Local Roads and Streets Fund that we put in from the previous year. On MVH,what we specifically added on the street side was$100,000 for paving material which will get us about two(2)more lane miles.And then$600,000 in outside contracting of paving which we hadn't done before. This is the first year we will do that. In addition to the list that our guys will do, which is about twenty (20) lane miles, we will do an additional six (6) to eight (8) in outside contracting with that additional $600,000. So that was $700,000 that came straight out of MVH of additional paving we didn't do in additional years. Councilmember Tim Scott stated, Going back to the paving,the curb and crown used to be so high that sidewalks were being flooded all winter. So that is how curbs and sidewalks really started by looking at that issue. The thing about that was it would be so high. Does two (2) inches actually get it?I'm looking at streets right now looking like you could take four(4) inches down and really gain back a decent curb. I don't know if that is the case in other areas but would you ever come down that much on it? I know that down by Keller Park, some of the flooding issues are because of that. Mr. Horvath replied, Yes, we would. You all budgeted last ye for us a new mill. Our crews couldn't be happier because it gives them so much more ability than the old mill. It works tremendously. It can actually go as deep as eight(8) inches but they will take off as much as they can. If you go too deep you are then having to readjust all the casting and valve covers and all that stuff. But yes, they do try to give curb exposure. The other thing is we still have those three (3) programs. We are still doing safe routes to schools. We still have the Council allocation program and we still have the cost share program. We have a brochure that will be going out soon that you will be able to share. Cara Grabowski, Public Information Officer for the Department of Public Works with offices on the 13th floor of the County-City Building, stated, We just redid our Curb and Sidewalk Brochure. We just got the proof back today. There is an about section that talks about reimbursements and then the process is also highlighted. There are six (6) steps as well as an FAQ section. There will be around 1,000 copies of those. Half of those will be pre-sealed so that all streets needs to do is put a stamp and address on it and mail it. Councilmember Scott asked, So where are you guys at on the Safe Routes Program? Mr. Horvath replied, We are doing Monroe and Studebaker, LaSalle and Marquette are under design. Councilmember Scott stated, I shared with Marsha Qualls some issues that are north of LaSalle where there are no sidewalks. We can talk about that a little more. Mr. Horvath replied, Let's get in touch to make sure it is in the program. Committeemember Sharon L.McBride stated,I am glad you are all talking about the milling down of roads because I had some concerns about the River Park area. Secondly, there were a number of contingencies on the 3rd District bus tour about the curbs and sidewalks as well. I will follow up with you, Eric,to identify those. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.92211 If 574.235.91731 TTD 574.235.5567 I www.southbendin.gov 4 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Councilmember Davis stated, My last thing is I appreciate this,however,I would say to 311 when they are explaining this to people, in the past I've heard them say they have the program but if you don't want to use this program you can call your Council Member. Now the problem with that is the allotment is already gone for this year and then when people hear that, and I have a phone call, they are mad. They ask why they have to pay half when I heard my friend across the street didn't pay anything. And then this becomes a major political problem because it makes people think we favor the people on this one (1) street over another street. Then I get yelled at. So when this is passed out that needs to be addressed. Mr. Horvath replied, Point well taken. It puts you in a hard spot because you have already done your allocation and they are calling thinking they have a chance they will get this and they don't. Councilmember Dr. Varner stated, The reality of it, we allocate this or that, is at the end of the day, there is $2 million more than what we had last year. That is assuming gas consumption remains. Are the projections for next year even more? Mr. Horvath replied,I don't have a recent projection. What they gave us last ye might have been $10,000 more. Councilmember Dr. Varner followed up, Regardless, at the end of the day people are aware of the fact that the Gas Tax went up and that we have more money. If we don't put more emphasis on paving neighborhoods and streets,they won't feel the effect. Is the majority of paving going to be done in the neighborhoods or is it just general paving? Mr. Horvath replied, It is mostly neighborhoods. It is everywhere but mostly neighborhoods. Councilmember Dr. Varner stated, I understand why higher traffic areas get attention more often but the fact of the matter is I think this was the chance to do some serious work in some neighborhoods and if we pass it all off to other projects, I think we are doing a disservice to the residents. Mr. Horvath replied, I absolutely one hundred percent(100%) agree. We were supportive of them raising the Gas Tax so we need to support them now and make sure those dollars go to good work. In the absence of that, residents will think the tax was raised just for nothing. Lastly, we had a group in part of MetroLab Network. It is a partnership between Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh, they created this company called Robotics. On an iPhone they drive through and they did one hundred(100)miles of our streets.They will do that rating automatically and we will compare that to what we are doing. It will all be automated. We will have that online map within the next few weeks. You'll be able to look up all the ratings of the road. With no further business, Committee Chair Voorde adjourned the Public Works and Property Vacation Committee at 4:22 p.m. Respectful ubmitted, John rde, C� ommitt r� EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 466011p574.235.9221If574.235.9173ITD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 5