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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01_22_05_brw CITY COUNCIL January 22, 2005 ROLL CALL - PRESENT: Alderman Bernstein Alderman Tisdahl Alderman Moran Alderman Rainey A Quorum was present. Alderman Feldman NOT PRESENT AT ROLL CALL:Aldermen Newman, Jean-Baptiste, Wynne ABSENT:Alderman Kent PRESIDING: Mayor Lorraine H. Morton A SPECIAL MEETING of the City Council was called to order by Mayor Morton on Saturday, January 22, 2005, 9:17 a.m. in the Aldermanic Library for the purpose of considering the Capital Improvement Program. Alderman Feldman moved that Council convene into Closed Session for the purpose of discussing matters related to litigation pursuant to 5 Illinois Compiled Statues 120/2 (c) (11). Seconded by Alderman Rainey. (11) Litigation, when an action against, affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal, or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent, in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting. Roll call. Voting aye – Aldermen Bernstein, Moran, Tisdahl, Rainey and Feldman. No nays. Motion carried. (5-0) At 10:05 a.m. Alderman Moran moved that Council reconvene into open session. Seconded by Alderman Wynne. Motion carried unanimously. Mayor Morton reconvened the meeting in the City Council Chamber at 10:16 a.m. Mayor Morton introduced new City Manager Julia Carroll. Ms. Carroll said that she was glad to be in Evanston and had a busy week. Staff has been helpful and she looked forward to working with them. Citizen Comment: Ray Boyer, 2756 Reese Ave., president of the Evanston Baseball and Softball Association, reported they have grown from 40 teams 10 years ago, to 120 teams this year. The group expanded teams for 5-15 year old youth to feed into high school and started fast pitch softball for girls with 15 teams this year. 70% of the teams are between 5-10 years of age. He noted that Parks/Forestry & Recreation Director Doug Gaynor and staff have helped them by getting the fields in good shape and building better playing fields. The James Park facility is terrific. He hoped all would visit James Park on a weekend summer evening. This year they want to coordinate an evening concert with some of the older boys playing and call it “Baseball and the Blues.” Two baseball fields at James Park, with some extra work, will make the event great. They are fields 6 and 7 located between Levy Center and Dawes School, which have excellent playing surfaces but don’t have backstops and safety fences that other fields have. A safety issue, they cannot use two of the best fields for kids above age 8, because above that age, kids hit the balls harder. He hoped they would support putting extra fencing on those two fields. They will start tournaments when all the fields are in shape and invite other communities to come with their 40-60 teams a weekend. People will spend money here and have a great time. Alderman Feldman asked if the improvements at James Park had contributed to the success of their program? Mr. Boyer thought so. When their organization planned for growth they thought all children here had to know about the opportunity to play ball. Their organization had to show that interest and numbers were there, then they were confident that if fields were built they would be used. The word about those fields spread around the region quickly. Registration this year is 40% ahead of last year. People know that if youth want to play baseball and softball, Evanston is the place to do it. There are first-rate facilities at James Park, Leahy Park, Mason Park and the Robert Crown Center. Alderman Feldman said 2 January 22, 2005 few things gave him more satisfaction that this report. He recalled struggling with James Park and the creative work done by the Recreation Division in obtaining grants from the state. The idea that actions of this Council changed James Park from a decrepit and heavily used field to the kind of facility it is now that attracts young people and enables them to have the experience in the numbers was marvelous. He congratulated Council and Boyer’s organization. Mayor Morton asked Mr. Boyer if his remarks reflected a decision of the Recreation Board and had he taken this matter to them? Mr. Boyer said the Recreation Board was aware that he would ask that this be done and advocated for that to happen. She explained that Council receives recommendations from staff and did not want to bypass staff. If it was taken to the Recreation Board, staff would bring the matter before Council. Alderman Newman noted the Recreation Board reports to the Human Services Committee. The committee has received many recommendations on parks but nothing from the Recreation Board. They will hear that day how the Human Services Committee got bypassed by staff on a capital improvement recommendation. There is no procedure the Mayor referred to where community members go to the Recreation Board and the board makes recommendations to staff. The only communication from the Recreation Board has been regarding the Robert Crown Center. Mayor Morton said the responsibility of Council is to make decisions on expenditures and she wanted to make sure they did not overlook people paid to bring recommendations to them. Alderman Rainey was glad to have this discussion. She knew that the Recreation Board reports to the Human Services Committee; noted that she has not received Recreation Board minutes for at least a year and those would be helpful. City Manager Julia Carroll will look into the matter and into procedures for getting Recreation Board minutes out. Ms. Carroll stated they would hear a staff presentation on the five-year Capital Improvement Program and focus on 2005-06. They request projects costing $32.3 million, of which 20% will be funded through property tax and the rest from other sources. A memo from Management & Budget Director Pat Casey was on the dais for Council members that answered questions from the budget workshop two weeks ago. The memo was for review and follow-up questions should be directed to her. She announced the tree issue would not be covered that day and would be discussed at the next workshop. 2005-06 – 2009-10 Capital Improvement Plan Assistant City Manager Judith Aiello stated this is the annual overview of the City’s needs for its built environment; the direction of the City’s capital program and projects it will undertake in the coming year. Several weeks ago all received a copy of the proposed budget. This year the Capital Improvement Program was included in the back beginning on page 459. She would review completed projects and those still in progress that were funded in 2004. Then staff would present recommended projects for 2005. She thanked staff for preparing the recommended capital program because it continues to address community needs, which are great. The five-year plan would not be discussed. They would focus on the capital budget for the first year because of other issues pending that may have an impact on the remaining four years of the plan. They would not discuss the Civic Center or the Robert Crown Center as committees are looking at those two projects to come at a later date. Once decisions have been made they can amend the capital program. She noted Evanston has done a five-year plan for more than 20 years. Potential funding sources are GO debt, CDBG funds, Motor Fuel Tax Funds, special assessments, TIF funds, State/Federal grants, private sources and Water and Sewer Funds. The plan identifies areas of need for public buildings, Recreation, Parks & Forestry, transportation systems, Information Systems and economic development. Over the last few years they have tried to undertake comprehensive assessments in each of the areas of need. A comprehensive pavement study was done; a 10-year sewer plan, a park’s strategic plan and they have tried to assess almost all City owned buildings. As they go forward annually, they look at plans done, criteria for putting projects into the plan, goals and objectives set by Council and state/federally mandated programs such as ADA. Each year they look at projects funded previously that need more funds to complete. They also look at programs in which risk and liability can be lessened. The City tries to fund $6.5 million annually for capital needs and those needs far exceed the $6.5 million. That is what staff believes they reasonably can afford to do. Needs are $4 million for streets; $15-20 million for the Civic Center; $6-9 million for viaducts; Crown Center and Fire Station #5. The City is not responsible for the viaducts, CTA and Metra are. The City will have to invest some additional monies or lobby for federal dollars, which happened at Main Street. There is one more viaduct in the CTA’s five-year plan. Mayor Morton 3 January 22, 2005 asked why the City might have to invest in viaducts? Ms. Aiello said if they get some or all funds, there may be a need for funds for areas around CTA stations that they may not address. It is the adjacent right-of-way that is owned by the City. Ms. Aiello said the City would push to have the CTA fund all the projects. Viaduct funding has not been a top priority of the CTA. Parks/Forestry & Recreation Project Review Eggleston Park was comprehensively renovated with a reconstructed playground, pavements, half-court basketball, lighting, drinking fountain, landscaping and site furnishing. At Fitzsimons Park, the tennis court and lighting were renovated; two tennis courts and tennis court lighting system were reconstructed. Gilbert Park was comprehensively renovated; playground and pavements reconstructed, landscaping and site furnishing. She explained before renovating the City has meetings with neighbors to see what kind of improvements they want to see. Those that can be implemented are worked into the budget. Kelly Park had a comprehensive renovation with reconstructed playground and pavements, landscaping and site furnishings. Alderman Newman appreciated the work done on Gilbert Park; said it was an example of how poorly the Parks Division is funded. That park, on a major street, was an eyesore for 15 years. Leahy Park underwent a comprehensive renovation with reconstructed playground, pavements, four tennis courts, tennis-court lighting system, landscaping and site furnishing. Currently, Ackerman Park, Cartwright Park and the Levinson Tot Lot are in the process of being improved. Lovelace Park will undergo major redevelopment and is in the design phase. Over the years the City has tried to get some federal grants to renovate Mason Park and the field house. They are in the process with major renovation in the next few years. Alderman Feldman asked if Lovelace Park was still used for soccer? Yes. Has anything been done to improve drainage? The last year improvements were made there in 1990. This is being evaluated and, if there are emergency needs, funds are in the operating/capital budgets for emergency repairs. It will go into the planning process for the five-year program. Alderman Rainey noted in the budget book there is a breakdown on how various projects are funded. As chair of the CDBG Committee, she thought it was important to know how some of these park renovations were funded and to a great extent it was by CDBG. Ms. Aiello explained they have not identified the funding sources as many projects have multiple funding sources. It is listed in the budget book and next year they will list funding sources. Ms. Aiello said in the planning process, they come to the CD Committee to do as many parks as possible in CDBG target areas. The same applies for projects in a TIF district, where they check for resources. GO dollars are spread around as much as possible. Alderman Rainey wanted the CD Committee to get the recognition they deserve. Alderman Jean-Baptiste said they need to acknowledge the committee and it is important for residents to understand the CDBG grant is allocated to assist in certain areas. When they don’t mention funding allocations, people are not aware of the value of the grant and how the City uses the grant. Often people raise serious criticism that CDBG funds may not be allocated where needed most. They need to combat that perception. Whether used for street repair, trees or park renovation, that money is being reallocated. Alderman Tisdahl congratulated the CD Committee; noted funds were cut this year and will be cut further in the future. It would be wonderful to inform the community that they lobbied hard to keep those funds. Mayor Morton reported the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s top priority is to convince President Bush not to cut CDBG funds. 2005-06 Proposed Projects Mr. Gaynor reported Eiden Park at Sherman/Custer will undergo a comprehensive park/playground renovation at a cost of $356,000. He noted that Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center had received $75,000 from CDBG funds to do the east wall window system replacement to bring the wall up so people sitting in the last row do not lean against the glass. Lovelace Park renovations will cost $513,000. This is the second half of funding to reconstruct the lighting system; pond enhancement to keep free of algae and install a picnic shelter near the field house for the youth with disabilities program; site furnishing and general site improvements. The soccer field has a water retention problem only in a small area and will be included. Mason Park is a two-phased project. Three funding sources are used: $360,000 CDBG; $120,000 capital plan and $400,000 pending state grant. They will know by early February whether the state will fund it. They have done a plan for the park; implementation will be done over two-three phases. If they don’t get the grant, they will have to re-apply 4 January 22, 2005 or look for additional funding. He noted the baseball program expanded so quickly that a number of unimproved fields that were not in use resulted in a quick program to bring the fields up. Megowan Park, Hinman Ave. north of South Blvd., has $70,000 for design funding for comprehensive park/playground renovation. He said until their strategic plan started, parks had not been renovated to meet current ADA requirements or for playground safety in 15-20 years. Monroe Tot Lot is less than 1/3 of an acre. $117,000 from CIP will provide comprehensive park/playground renovation. Sargent Park at a cost of $138,000 is a complete park/playground renovation. Mr. Gaynor said that when equipment becomes unsafe or breaks down it is pulled out. These projects have been prioritized based upon safety. Mayor Morton understood they always meet with the community before they start any park project. Mr. Gaynor said they have at least two meetings for community input. Four policies govern what they do: stay within budget; meet safety and health issues; don’t take any trees down unless diseased or dying; try to build in low maintenance because the City has 87 sites. Alderman Jean-Baptiste confirmed that their priority is based upon a long-term plan and evaluation of park conditions. Mr. Gaynor recalled about five years ago Council adopted a five-year Parks Strategic Plan that would cost around $85 million to implement. The study was comprehensive and done by a consultant looking at every component in a park. Was there information available on the condition of each park and need? Yes, it is in the Strategic Park Study. Aldermen can see the condition of parks in their ward and find the priority for parks. Alderman Newman asked for a budget memo on what is being spent on parks annually; thought they were spending $1.7 million. When they adopted the Strategic Plan, they had a seven-year plan. The first seven-year plan was completed ahead of schedule. Now they have taken the next set of priorities in the next seven-year plan and he suggested that Council review it. Mayor Morton had requested an overview of the last three years. They have a review of what was budgeted for the last three years, but not what was spent. She wanted to see this expanded. Ms. Aiello said that was being put together for the entire City budget. Facilities Management Completed projects Ms. Aiello reported that new boilers were put in at Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center. The Civic Center Coach House was remodeled at a cost of $60-65,000. They have worked on the police/fire station for several years, paid for from some state funds, GO money and stretched dollars by having facilities management staff do some of the work. They are not quite done and will be reviewed at the A&PW Committee because there are some needs at the Police Department. She reported that 14 City buildings were connected by installation of fiber optic cable. Operationally that has improved inter-department services. Projects In Progress Council just approved replacement of animal shelter cages and additional new cages. Internal security cameras are being added in City buildings where lots of cash is handled to improve security. They are doing some rehabilitation at the lagoon building (Dawes Park). They are in the design phase for Fire Station #5, the last station to be rebuilt. One of the long range assessments was that all fire stations had to be replaced. Fire Station #3 was finished last year. A team is working with Facilities Management to work on the design phase and is involved in selection of construction manager and architect. Alderman Newman said firefighters are happy with the Central Street station living quarters, but firefighters are not as happy with the building on Wesley. He was glad they were going to continue it; suggested they be more careful about understanding what they are getting visually. He did not think they understood what they were getting at Station #3 and he asked for renderings. Ms. Aiello said they would try to get better renderings. Landscaping will be finished at Fire Station #2. She reported they are getting a data center build-out at the Service Center so there is a backup system in case of a major crisis. Ms. Aiello noted the Sherman Plaza garage is under construction. They are getting the final guaranteed price, which will come to Council at the February meetings. Caissons are going forward in the next two weeks. Alderman Jean-Baptiste asked for an explanation of what is going on with the garage, timetable and history. Ms. Aiello said discussion of the need for a new garage occurred in the late 1990s. When looking at how they would fund the garage, they knew using GO bonds would be costly so they determined if they could build a major redevelopment project, similar to Church Street Plaza, that they could incorporate a TIF that would allow funds for a new garage. That is what they did. The City was 5 January 22, 2005 approached initially by a development team led by the Klutznick Company. At the time they had worked with Sears to do a development on State Street and thought this development could include a Sears’s store. Because of internal issues, Sears did not go forward and the City continued with Klutznick to get through an acceptable design. After five years, this project will include a new public parking garage with 1,590 spaces, which doubles the amount of parking in the old Sherman Avenue garage. It will also include 90-100,000 square feet of retail space that is mostly leased or under negotiation to be leased. It also includes 220 condominium units of which around 60% are sold. They hope the garage will open in April 2006 and the condominiums will be occupied at the same time. The retail component will open in late summer or early fall of 2006. The garage will cost around $38 million. They have had some costs increase due to changes in design, because they need good materials that will stand up to heavy use, state of the art equipment and increased costs for steel and concrete. All of that information will be provided to Council in February. Alderman Bernstein thought the retail space was 130,000 sq. ft. She will get current retail space for the January 24 meeting. Proposed projects Facilities Management Facilities Management Director Max Rubin reported they need to repair the roof at Fire/Police departments. They will repair the Lighthouse Fog Houses, in fair condition and used by Ecology and Recreation. He reported that the Service Center has a leaking roof, needs mechanical and door replacements. The Service Center is more than 20 years old and needs to have new boilers and painting. The retaining wall near Metra needs work and the salt dome needs to be replaced. At the Evanston Art Center they need to replace an emergency exit that should be in stone and will cost $60,000. Mr. Rubin reported that Facilities Management provides support to all City departments as well as the Grosse Point Lighthouse and Civic Center committee this year. This department does a lot of work in the Civic Center to keep it going. They will assist Recreation on the Mason Park rehab by doing a lot of the utility work. They will also work on Service Center exterior repairs. Alderman Newman asked if the support for projects is paid for from the CIP? No. Mr. Rubin was trying to show where time is allocated. Public Works Project Review Ms. Aiello said many projects were completed last year. Ridge Ave./Green Bay Rd. was reconfigured to make it a safer intersection. Several knuckles were installed to improve pedestrian safety on Central St. and in other parts of town. For the first time, 13 alleys were repaved this past year. Typically the City has paved about eight alleys. However with funding from Home Depot they could do more alleys. When Home Depot was brought in, it was agreed that money from sales tax would go into a Neighborhood Mitigation Fund that went to the neighborhood, which determined what needed to be done. She reported curb, sidewalk replacements and ADA programs are ongoing which they have done for 10-15 years. They have continued with traffic calming which has evolved over the years. They have done signal upgrades to make intersections safer and are looking at various places to do projects. One is at Main/Dodge. Alderman Newman asked about an intersection upgrade at Dempster/Chicago for a left turn lane. That will occur year after next. Public Works tries to upgrade viaduct screening and road projects. The Chicago Avenue signal upgrade is in planning/design phase. The City is trying to inter-connect all traffic signals, a beneficial project they have tried to do throughout the city. Alderman Newman reported that NU has installed emergency lights and asked if they had to get permits to put them up? One light is on Orrington Avenue. Ms. Aiello explained that they are installed on private property. Staff met to look at the long-range issues. There has been a request to put these lights on public property. Staff is looking at the pros and cons, legal issues and will go back to the 9-1-1 Board with some recommendations and issues before they go further. The Asbury Ave. bridge is under way. New traffic signals at Church/Dodge will make that intersection safer. Alderman Rainey reported that the A&PW Committee discussed the Church/Dodge project which has more to do than with changing signals, but with parking at that intersection that causes problems. Ms. Aiello said the parking issues there would be addressed. Alderman Newman asked if there were left turn signals at Church/Dodge? He said that intersection is heavily impacted at 7-8:00 a.m. weekdays. Alderman Feldman asked about Main/Ridge, east bound, needing a left turn signal. He noticed when cars back up there is no access to the left turn. Could anything be done about that? Public Works Director David Jennings explained that is a high volume intersection that has a split phase signal that further takes away time to move traffic. It is split phase on Ridge, so that north/south movements move at different times. It cuts into the time left for Main Street. It would be even worse to put in left turn signals on Main. They are looking at alternatives 6 January 22, 2005 to split phase, probably a leading left in one direction and concurrent movement on Ridge. Alderman Wynne asked if problems with the new streetlights were resolved? Mr. Jennings stated they are working on that. They have encountered cold weather problems with the new street lighting. They are looking into minor re-design to increase the heat within the light-head. By doing that they think the problem will be solved. Even though this did not happen during the four years of field trials, when they installed the new lights some were dim when it is cold. They have Phillips engineers in Belgium, where the lights were designed, and their local fabricator working on it. He did not have a date. Alderman Wynne asked if nothing happened during the field tests, have they considered this might be a manufacturing problem? Mr. Jennings noted there was a design change at Phillips request. Phillips’ design was used, not the prototype. Phillips was told to fix it. The bulbs have a 20-year life. Alderman Feldman asked what was being done to address failed streetlight poles on Ridge Avenue? Mr. Jennings said there are eight poles down in the first phase of the streetlight system. Seven are on Ridge and one is on Oakton. There are 4,500 streetlights in the system. There would be an explanation in the Monday packet of what they plan to do. First they will test the strength of the remaining poles, replace ones that are failing and have accelerated that process. They will start in February. They placed orders for 42 new poles. Phase 1 was the 1981 installation. This is the only area with poles down and they have debated whether it is the salt that corrodes the bases or perhaps because they are in the same area, it was bad welds when they were made. They are failing where the pole and metal base were bolted to the concrete. Alderman Jean-Baptiste asked if street repairs would be addressed next year? Yes. Mr. Jennings explained street improvements are scheduled costing $2.2 million and normally are $1.7 million. Street improvements are paid for by Motor Fuel Taxes (state), CIP funds and this year the Isabella Street vacation of $500,000. Council has approved the 2005 preliminary program, the CIP/MFT. There will be further approvals when they allocate the MFT portion this year. Alderman Jean-Baptiste noted the streets get a beating daily; asked how much were they looking at the streets to determine the needs as they occur? How much time is being allocated to this? Alderman Jean-Baptiste wanted to discuss how they could improve the streets, patch and repair, as opposed to waiting until an alderman goes through the entire ward in order to get some attention. Mr. Jennings explained pothole patching is done year round. Patching is a stopgap measure and keeps the base from failing further. The basis of the street program is an Infrastructure Management System, which is a review of strength of all the streets done three-four years ago and the basis for the five-year plan. They roll into that requests from citizens, aldermen, staff evaluations of streets that are failing at a different rate than predicted. Every year they come up with the first year of the rolling five-year plan. Input is put into that plan. They try to address needs. The dollar problem is significant. When the study was done, the consultant told the City $4 million was needed annually for streets. Typically the City spends $1.7 million. That supplemented with some funds used on major sewer jobs has pushed it to over $2 million annually. Mr. Jennings stated they are under where they should be to keep streets at the level they need to be. Alderman Jean-Baptiste asked how much the department was on top of street maintenance? What is the process to understand the street conditions. He felt staff lagged behind on maintenance needs of the streets. Mr. Jennings said two engineers devote significant time to street evaluation. There is a staff team that meets regularly to do project coordination that adds several more engineers. It is not so much knowing which streets are bad, but how they structure getting them repaired. The City does not have enough money to fix all the streets. Staff juggles and tries to do what they can with the resources they have. He saw it as a funding issue for implementation. Mr. Jennings explained engineers keep a log of the condition of streets. Logs are kept of streets that are failing at different rates. Sometimes they postpone maintenance because they know significant underground work is coming. There could be a street that is terrible and they know it, but they don’t fix it because they will in there in a year or so for sewer, Nicor, or water main work. They will patch until underground work can be scheduled. Ms. Carroll noted the resurfacing program was $2.2 million. In the budget book it shows $1.7 million so where was the other $500,000? Mr. Jennings explained the $500,000 is a one-time windfall to the program due to the vacation of a street for which the City received $500,000. Council voted to put that into the street improvement program. She stated documents needed to be modified to show revenue sources. She assumed there were various methods for fixing the streets. She asked if it was micro-surfacing overlay, complete reconstruction, etc? Mr. Jennings said three kinds are done: grind and re-surface, where curbs are left in place. If significant curbs are bad, they grind and re-surface and do curb 7 January 22, 2005 replacement. The most drastic improvement is a street re-construction. In the next few years, people will see all kinds used. They have tried other things that don’t have the same staying power that a grind and resurface with an inch and a half overlay does. That is the minimum level used. The resurfacings have a 30% base repair. The City designs the road improvements, sees where the bases fail and cut out and put in a new base, then do the road improvement. Ms. Carroll asked if they did coring samples? Mr. Jennings said there were no cores, but the system did subsurface testing of the base using radar and a trailer is driven over the streets to do non-destructive impact testing to determine if the base is sound. Alderman Wynne asked for an update on Sheridan Road. Mr. Jennings said they have programmed Sheridan Road in 2006, due to MWRD sewer relining work from the City limits to Davis Street. Even though the City has $800,000 put aside for Sheridan Road, they are waiting for the MWRD sewer work. The re-authorization bill in Congress has a $2 million allocation for Sheridan Road. Alderman Newman recalled in the early 1990s the city manager and Council did not increase real estate taxes for six- seven years. The Director of Streets position was eliminated then and Council was told it did not matter. During those years the City spent around $3.5 million on capital needs. In 1997 Council recognized they were under spending for capital and went back to raising the real estate tax as needed. He noted the City has dramatically under spent in certain areas to maintain the City to temporarily placate citizens on property taxes, which had totally funded debt service. He would argue that $6.5 million for a City of 73,000 people is a low figure considering that covers the library and parks, which are typically separate districts. Evanston is spending $1.7 million on parks this year while Wilmette, one third the size of Evanston, has spent $30 million on parks over three years. Evanston has some tough issues. Streets is one of them. Mr. Jennings was telling them what was needed. The City has many lawsuits that take up money. He thought the entire capital budget could be spent on streets alone and they would still be behind. Mr. Jennings said the 2005 alley paving program is being designed and they are in public hearings. They will do 10-12 alleys. The alley paving program is strong. It has been advertised and the Home Depot money has helped. They have done some CDBG work. There are only 270 alleys left to be paved. The 2005 Curb and Sidewalk program is funded by CDBG, 50/50 curb/sidewalk program (half private/half publicly funded) and the Block Curb Program is CDBG and CIP funded. The 2005 Traffic Calming Program is mostly the speed hump program. One capital program they are looking at is burying power lines in the Arboretum. It is a road related construction project. Staff wanted to do this as part of the McCormick project but it was not eligible for that funding source. This is about ½ mile of aerial power lines they suggest be buried. The Traffic Signal System Study is new. Staff requests $50,000 for some consulting. There are intersections that need work. The City needs “other eyes” to look at these intersections and evaluate different signal and phasing plans. Mayor Morton asked for examples. Oakton/Dodge backs up significantly. There may be other alternatives to what is done now. Ridge/Emerson/Green Bay Road has had a lot of road work but the signals haven’t been touched. This money would provide for design that staff would bring back to Council for approval. Mr. Jennings said they try to do one or two traffic signal upgrades a year. They use MFT funds as well as CIP. Council just approved the Church/Dodge MFT Allocation. Mr. Jennings said there is downtown brick sidewalk repair funded by TIF. They have an inventory of places that need repair. That work will be done in spring and summer. Alderman Feldman asked if the proper pavers were used and is the cost of maintenance within reason? Mr. Jennings thought they had selected the proper pavers. He said it is not so much the paver, but the base used. They chose to use a sand base. The thinking was when utility repairs were needed, the pavers could be popped up, do the repair, and the sand and pavers put back. That has worked in several places. They are gravitating toward a concrete base that is rigid as opposed to a sand base because it minimizes differential settlement. With a sand bed it settles at different rates, which creates tripping hazards. The downside of a rigid base occurs when repairs are needed. They pop the bricks and have to jackhammer through concrete to make the repairs, re-pour concrete then put the pavers back. Both are acceptable construction techniques. Most of the pavers are on sand, except in vaulted areas which are on concrete and around corners. When there are major projects, the base will be replaced. Sherman Plaza 8 January 22, 2005 sidewalks after torn up will have a concrete base. Mayor Morton noted at the viaduct at Church/Benson there is a lot of water on the sidewalk. If someone were to trip there whose problem is it? The CTA’s. She asked if they could let the CTA know about that problem and perhaps they could patch there. Mr. Jennings will pass that along to the CTA. Mr. Jennings reported the City rented a snow melter to melt snow that goes into the storm sewer; have identified places downtown that can handle that amount of water. The melter was run for three-four nights in the first snow and will be used in the current snow. The machine melts 40 tons of snow an hour and it can be stocked faster than it can melt. They may still stockpile snow and melt it during the day. They are pleased with its operation. The reason it is in the capital plan is that Council authorized renting it this year at $15,000 a month. They are renting with an option to buy at $175,000 more than that. Why spend the money? Downtown snow cleanup costs $20,000 a night, so it is cost effective. Bike Plan implementation. There was a request to match some CMAQ funds. The total project cost is $520,000. They have a $365,000 grant and the rest is the City’s match. If last year’s allocation and this year’s are added they make up the difference. The City is required to go through all three phases of the IDOT construction. Originally they thought they could combine the first two: the concept plan and the hard design but cannot do that. Alderman Jean-Baptiste asked where they are with the bike plan. Mr. Jennings said when the engineering consultant was approved by Council, he agreed that before they do anything it will be shown to Council. The concept of a bike plan was adopted by this Council and has bike lanes and unmarked routes. The implementation and final determination of what streets will have lanes has not been finished. That was asked to come before the A&PW Committee. Mr. Jennings thought it would be fall before anything comes before the committee. Mayor Morton asked what Evmark and downtown tax money is used for? Ms. Aiello said there are two special service districts downtown. The first and ongoing one is for Evmark and is roughly $250,000. There was a first 10-year term and a second 10-year term that was renewed. Re-authorization comes up in 2007. The second component was a bond issue done for the streetscape with construction starting in 1998, which was another special assessment that downtown property owners pay to retire the debt. It is paid for by property owners and the City paid a portion of it. Property owners downtown have two special assessments, one for operation of Evmark, which does the marketing, enhanced maintenance and pickup downtown. The City does basic maintenance. The other is funding for capital projects. There is a contract with a company that empties City refuse cans and during the summer is done couple times a day and on weekends. There has been much stronger enforcement on Dumpster’s downtown for cleanliness. In the summer, the Health Department makes sure dumpsters are closed. The Community Development Department goes out on Mondays and cites people not in compliance. She thought the City was getting a handle on it. They have more trash with additional people downtown. Mayor Morton asked how it is shown in the budget who pays for what in the special service districts? Ms. Aiello asked them to turn to page 371, Special Service Area # 5. City trash collection is in the City’s Sanitation Department. Alderman Newman explained when the downtown sidewalks were done, there was a split between the City and downtown businesses of about $5.5 million each. He did not recall what the agreement for maintenance was with Evmark; noted on many capital projects maintenance has been left silent. Alderman Newman said many senior citizens live downtown and there are ridges in some sidewalks so they are nervous about walking. Sidewalks must be maintained or the City will have more lawsuits. Ms. Aiello confirmed that maintenance was silent on the downtown sidewalks. Ms. Aiello said when Evmark comes up for re-authorization they will ask to increase their funding. The $250,000 now goes for staff, promotional materials and events. Because of the way downtown has progressed, she hoped they would enter into some dialogue with Evmark. Part of the downtown visioning will be a discussion and recommendation from the consultant as to what should be done about maintenance and promotion of downtown Evanston. Alderman Jean-Baptiste asked what the City is doing for areas other than downtown? He recalled talking about Dodge, Emerson and Asbury and that those areas need to be addressed but he sees no difference. He did not recall a plan address that. Mr. Jennings stated staff was authorized to double the size of the hand crew and that was done. They have two crews and there was increased pickup in the areas he mentioned and that is in the budget again. The hand crews clean up under viaducts, downtown litter and in neighborhoods on Howard, Central, Church and Dodge. Currently the hand crew is shoveling. Alderman Jean-Baptiste said on Asbury between Emerson and Green Bay Rd., the block is always dirty and is cleaned up twice a year. The business strip on Emerson is dirty all the time. The high school impacts Dodge significantly. Mr. Jennings said a schedule was furnished and he would provide a schedule again of where the second crew is working. 9 January 22, 2005 Ms. Aiello agreed that it would be good to have a hand crew in each business district. Due to fiscal constraints, they cannot. There may be other funding that could be discussed. Alderman Newman drives his son to the high school daily and is bothered by seeing youth smoking in the lot across the street and the condition of Dodge Ave. People have homes for sale there. He would not want to try to sell his home with the garbage that is on that street. He called it an embarrassment to the City and unfair to that neighborhood; did not know if it was due to the kids. What the City has done has not worked. He asked what it would cost to clean Dodge from Emerson south. Alderman Rainey also drives Dodge daily and what she sees in the 1700-1800 block of Dodge is caused by some of the people who live there. She did not know how the sanitation workers pick up that mess. She suggested in addition to alerting Streets & Sanitation to be more vigorous, that Property Standards should be more aggressive there. She would not stand for that in the 8th Ward; said it could resolved and is not just the fault of City employees. Alderman Newman did not disagree. He presumed some people on Dodge take care of their property, so those who do are being victimized. Whatever can be put on the solutions list needs to be on. Alderman Jean-Baptiste thought it was the City’s responsibility to maintain the streets. He noted in every community a small minority de-stabilizes the community. The majority does the proper thing but may not be able to keep up fighting that small number of people causing the problem. They have to be responsible and make it happen. When the special service areas were discussed, they said they would tackle that and resolve it. It looks like nothing is being done and they need to evaluate themselves from that standpoint. Alderman Rainey asked that they look at all streets in the City and see where the problems are. Either the City is discriminating against that strip on Dodge or something else is going on, otherwise, all streets would look like that. If the street is being discriminated against, they need to do something about it. She thought there was more to do than increasing the efforts of the Sanitation Division there. People have to be dealt with who are causing the problem. There are responsible homeowners there and why they are not coming to Council to tell them about the problem, she did not know. This is a serious problem and she would not make excuses for people who cause problems. Alderman Feldman recalled a few years back there were two-three blocks that had similar symptoms. Neighbors made him aware of this. He asked that the City send out a nice letter that said it was their (homeowners’) responsibility to keep their neighborhood clean. Certain things were listed that people could do and to ensure that property is kept up, the property standards law was cited and communicated that it would be enforced. It was enforced and over a two-three month period the street changed dramatically. Dissatisfaction was diminished so there are ways to solve these problems. One is to enlist the aid of citizens who live in the area. Ms. Carroll said this would be followed up; thought it was a combination of working with neighbors, property standards and making people aware of what needs to occur. Alderman Jean-Baptiste said the 1700-1800 block of Dodge was not in his ward. When people come here they evaluate Evanston by all the streets not by wards. Water Division Completed Projects Ms. Aiello said new garages, a chemical building access way and low-lift pump replacements were done. There were water main installations on Main, Judson, Greenwood, Keeney and Lee. A Hydraulic Analysis of the water distribution system was completed. The chlorine scrubber will be housed in a garage and installed February 2005. The access way improves the operator’s ability to get around the plant. Mayor Morton asked if the City paid to have bottled water brought into the Civic Center? No. Ms. Aiello said some employees pay for water if they don’t like tap water. Bottled water is used in the Health Department for some testing. She will provide a budget memo. Alderman Rainey reported that they were paying for bottled water at the Township. Water main work was done on Main St – Dodge to McDaniel; Lee St – Maple to Sherman; Keeney – Chicago to Hinman; Judson – Dempster to Davis and water main replacement at various intersections in the sewer project area. Sewer Division Projects Ms. Aiello stated annual catch basin replacements and sewer repairs were done on resurfaced streets. Some sewer mains were rehabilitated by sewer lining. The following phases of the 10-year sewer replacement program were completed: 8B, 9A, substantial completion of 9B and continuation of 10A. Proposed CIP Water Projects 10 January 22, 2005 Assistant Superintendent for Administration/Water Regina Lookis reported expansion of the filter shop; replacement of 33 windows in the service building; repairs to the 1895 suction well; masonry and tuck-pointing of the pumping station; extending the hydraulic model of the distribution system to improve water quality information; roof replacements and ongoing water main replacements. A map was generated by the hydraulic analysis completed in 2004, which illustrated water main improvements to meet fire flow demands. The hydraulic analysis was a computerized model of the water distribution system that predicts water pressures and water flows throughout the City. That data was compared to recommended fire flows, which showed about $17.1 million in improvements were needed to provide adequate fire flows throughout the City. They have programmed those improvements at $1.7 million annually for the next 10 years and are coordinating those with street improvement projects. This year they want to expand the hydraulic analysis to allow evaluation and identification of the flow pattern throughout the distribution system. This will provide information on water quality. The longer the water is in the system the greater the impact on water quality. This data will help them come up with a monitoring program next year. A regulation in the new Safe Water Act is to increase monitoring throughout the system. Monitoring is based upon age of water in the pipes. Extending the filter workshop over the filter beds will provide a safe work environment, protect filters from freezing and triple the work area size. The reason for this is that the existing filter workshop is extremely small and is a safety hazard. Much equipment is stored on top of the filter beds. Two roofs will be completely torn off and replaced. There will be masonry repairs and tuck-pointing of two buildings. The water main improvements include installation of 12-inch water main installed in conjunction with the MFT street resurfacing program on Main St. - Ashland to Dodge; Chicago Ave. – South Blvd. to Howard St.; east on Howard to the proposed new development. This water main is essential to provide water flow to that development and a primary part of the recommendation to improve water flow in that area. At Dempster – Judson to Forest they recommend an 8-inch water main to replace an existing 4-inch main, done in conjunction with street resurfacing. On Fowler – Dempster to Church, a 6-inch main will be replaced with an 8-inch with Phase 10B long-range sewer improvement. This section has had a maintenance problem. On Haven – Orrington to Sheridan Rd., an in-house crew will replace a 4-inch main with an 8-inch main in advance one year of street resurfacing in 2006. In response to Alderman Jean-Baptiste, Ms. Lookis said the hydraulic analysis took the existing size and age of pipe, what pumps they have on and determine what pressure and flows were available. She said when a 4-inch pipe is replaced by an 8-inch, and they grid it, there is better flow. The system took this data and recalibrated it to determine what is happening now. He asked how someone living on Fowler would benefit from a change in the main size. She said the main on Fowler is a maintenance problem so that anytime there is a break, they have to isolate that main and make a service repair so that is a service improvement. In the event of fire, there has to be adequate fire flow protection for safety. Alderman Jean- Baptiste asked if that improves water flow to a person’s home. Assistant Superintendent for Operations/Water Dave Stoneback said when the water main is replaced, they also replace the water service to the parkway. Generally, because some water services were installed 70-80 years ago, they have a smaller size tap into the water main – ¾-inch. The 1-inch pipe that comes to the dwelling also has a buildup of material inside. So what was once a one-inch pipe is down to ½- inch diameter. People get improved water service up to the parkway. People then go ahead and replace the water service at their cost and get a significant benefit. People on the second floor get more volume as they replace water mains. Ms. Carroll asked when there is new development does the City ask the developer to pay for upsizing the pipes that are required as mains are replaced? Was there a policy on that? Mr. Stoneback said no. The proposed main down Chicago Ave. will paid for from TIF funding. It is also a critical main for the distribution system, so if the development does not come through, the City will pay for it. Ms. Carroll wanted to further discuss this with staff and, perhaps, bring back a policy. She confirmed that the $17 million over ten years for the hydraulics analysis was in present-day dollar cost, not inflated for the future. Ms. Carroll asked if the sewer lining was a cured-in-place pipe process? Mr. Stoneback said the City has done the cured-in-place pipe process since 1983. Alderman Bernstein asked if enhanced flow to buildings could be accommodated by people upgrading their pipes; before upgrading pipes would there be some detriment to the households? He wondered when higher pressure is put through antiquated pipes was it likely that silt would stop the flow or pipes break? Mr. Stoneback said when they uncover water main services where there are galvanized pipes that have corroded, those are replaced with copper pipe from the water main to the parkway. If a resident has galvanized pipe, they are informed and the City recommends replacement of the pipe. He said sometimes silt gets pushed into the meters that have screens and the household experiences low water pressure. They contact the Water Department, which goes out, drops the meter, cleans the screens and puts them back. Alderman Jean-Baptiste asked when water main improvements 11 January 22, 2005 are made, does the Water Fund have funds to help households to pay for improvements, like the 50/50 program? Ms. Lookis said they could look at that, but it would be a huge commitment to do service lines. Currently the Water Department does no work on private property. There is a liability issue and the work would entail a financial contribution to the homeowner. The Water Fund is used to make sure Capital Improvement Programs and the ability to provide water of quality, water pressure and fire flows throughout the system keep going. She thought the 14,400 water services in the City and the age of some services would have to be looked at closely for impact. Mr. Stoneback explained that annually the City funds for catch basin replacement, which is done in conjunction with the street improvement projects. They do sewer repairs on streets that will be resurfaced. On the long-range sewer program they need to replace a storm sewer on Ridge. Lee Street is being resurfaced so the sewer will be extended from Maple to Ridge. They will complete the 10A project and hopefully begin the 10B project. He showed a map of the 2005 sewer lining proposed and they are looking at doing 14 sections of sewer mains between 12 and 18 inch diameter (approximately 3,300 ft.). Another map showed the major long term sewer work planned for 2005. There are three blocks left on the 10A project costing $9.96 million in the southeast. On Monday they will take to Council the recommendation to award phase 10B project and the low bidder was $7.1 million. That includes replacing restrictors in the southeast area of the City. There will be a little section of open cut sewers in the west side just beyond the high school. An area in north/central Evanston is the Colfax/Bryant storm sewer project. After they put restrictors in, they found it caused street flooding and will extend the sewer to drain directly into the canal. Alderman Newman asked for a timetable and cost to do the baseball fields at James Park mentioned earlier. He was concerned about the library project in the budget for $200,000 to start, on page 487 and about the process. The Library Board has a good project, came to the committee, but funding was left open. There was no consensus to get this project going at the Human Services Committee. Then the project got transferred to the Capital Improvement Plan with $200,000 a year for three years. He noted the City still pays on the 20-year bonds that financed the new library in 1991. The Children’s Library was built then, and apparently they did not do a good enough job. He applauded the library for looking at it. He pointed out the library sold a painting for $900,000 and they are sitting on that money. He thought some of that money should go into this project. That was the policy question he wanted to address with the Library Board at the Human Services Committee but it was by-passed. He said the Library Board needed to come back and meet with elected officials. Without some of the money from the painting going to this project, they will be asking taxpayers to pay twice. He knows the Library is raising $200,000 privately; did not think the City should fund that $200,000 this year. Ms. Aiello stated that part of the reason to put the $200,000 in the budget was to generate a discussion; said it was appropriate for the entire Council to discuss this, rather than a committee. Ms. Carroll asked if the consensus of Council was to kick this back to the Human Services Committee? She will meet with the library director next week and would take their preference to him. Alderman Rainey asked if they had seen the memo in the packet about the sale of the North Branch Library building? There was a reference to $200,000 in the CIP and lack of available funds, plus discussion by the Library Board about selling the building and leasing it back to raise revenue. The library people are thinking about the lack of funds to pay for the Children’s Library. Alderman Newman said the issue is how they pay for the $1.5 million in this plan. She thought a big part of their plan is to sell the building. Alderman Tisdahl recalled that Alderman Newman had spoken with a state representative about getting funds for the Children’s Library that were appropriate for the state to fund. The state representative seemed receptive. For that reason she was surprised this appeared in the budget. On the sale of North Branch Library, she would have greatly appreciated hearing from the Library Board rather than a reporter who asked her opinion. She would appreciate more communication. Alderman Jean-Baptiste asked why the $900,000 was not being taken into consideration to fund this improvement? Library Director Neal Ney said the painting was sold for $900,000 and the money put into the library’s endowment fund. The endowment is $2.1 million and generates money that is used to purchase library materials and funds children’s/adults programs annually. Money has been set aside from endowment earnings for the last three years. At this time about $200,000 has been set aside for the project. They expect to raise another $300-400,000 for the project into the addition to moneys from the CIP. He apologized for not communicating about the sale/leaseback of the north branch that the 12 January 22, 2005 Library Board wanted to examine as an option. No decision was made, which has to be made by Council. Alderman Feldman was glad to get the information; said this kind of decision was on the agenda of the Human Services Committee and, unless it was discharged, taking it off was inappropriate. The committee system allows for dialogue to be conducted between the Library Board and Mr. Ney. That discussion should take place within the committee. Otherwise every time they hit a roadblock, they just pull it out of committee and throw it on Council floor. He said they don’t work that way unless there is an emergency and the committee is not meeting. Alderman Feldman wanted to send it back to the Human Services Committee and make sure Council gets all of the information. Seconded by Alderman Jean-Baptiste. Motion carried. No nays. Mayor Morton said they have a communication problem and are not doing business as expeditiously as they could. They have to wait for information and some are not privy to community comments made at committee meetings. In the future, a Council goal should be to improve communication among them. Alderman Newman was glad to hear about the $300,000 the library planned to raise privately, which they should have heard about at the Human Services Committee. The number brought up was not reflected on page 517. That page said it would be a $1.5 million project and listed private sources as $200,000. He thought they needed to know the exact number from each source. It looked like City GO bonds were on the hook for $1.2 million. He wanted to knock down that number. Is the total cost $1.8 or $1.5 million? Mr. Ney explained that with many CIP projects in the first year, they don’t know what the project will cost. That is why they have a planning phase. Mr. Ney said they have an estimate for the next two years. At the committee they said there was an expectation that some money would be raised privately. When they met with the committee the Library Board did explain the project was being included in this year’s CIP. They would meet with the Human Services when convenient and the next meeting will be February 21. Alderman Jean-Baptiste stated that process and procedures are important. Sometimes he felt, as an alderman, he is a fly on an elephant’s ear. Wishes are not necessarily taken into account and given courteous attention, but not the kind of attention to implement substantive change. He is close to his constituents and when he brings up an issue, it is because there is a concern to be addressed. He wanted to understand from the city manager how they are going to interact. When an alderman makes a proposal or pursues an objective (a direction they want to go), is that just filtered through the staff or given attention and proper staffing so it can be realized. When they meet one-on-one, some specific issues he has brought up have not gotten attention. Evanston has the best staff in the world and they need to do better. Ms. Carroll stated she would be happy to discuss any concerns regarding communication or staff issues and asked for more specifics so that they could be addressed. She would need a little time to understand the issues. Alderman Newman wanted a list of employees who received a salary increase of more than $3,000 in this year’s budget. Mayor Morton asked if it was essential that the Council pass a budget by March 1, could changes be made by a particular time, and was it essential that they have completed changes to the budget by December 31? She asked this in view of the new manager’s skills, to allow time for her to look at all facets of this. Finance Director Bill Stafford explained there are two legal formats to budget in Illinois. One is the appropriation method and the other the budget method. Evanston uses the budget method, where the City is required to pass the budget prior to the start of the new fiscal year. After that point, that budget can be altered anytime during the year by a majority vote of the Council. So should the budget be passed, changes and transfers can be made. The format is done for two reasons. In terms of best practices it good to pass the budget before the fiscal year starts. Secondly, it provides the greatest flexibility. Under the old appropriation ordinance they had to wait six months and get a two-thirds vote. Evanston operates under a modern budget system that allows a great amount of flexibility. He thought any goals she had in mind could be achieved. Alderman Newman asked if a citywide grant writer was added last year? Ms. Aiello stated the grant writer position was also a management analyst. He asked for a report on the grants applied for and grants obtained. Alderman Rainey moved the Council adjourn. Seconded by Alderman Jean-Baptiste. Motion carried unanimously. Mayor Morton declared the meeting adjourned at 12:58 p.m. 13 January 22, 2005 Mary P. Morris, City Clerk A videotape recording of this meeting has been made part of the permanent record and is available in the City Clerk's office.