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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-10-09 - MinutesCity Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 9, 2007 Page I of 4 Member Aldermen Mayor Dan Coady Ward 1 Position 1 — Adella Gray V10 Ward 2 Position l - Kyle rt Cook CityAttorney Kit Williams � 1 Ward 3 Position 2—Robert Ferrell Ward 4 Position 2 - Lioneld Jordan City Clerk Sondra Smith ARKANSAS City of Fayetteville Arkansas City Council Water & Sewer Committee Meeting Minutes October 9, 2007 A meeting of the Fayetteville City Council Water & Sewer Committee was held on October 9, 2007 at 5:30 p.m. in Room 326 of the City Administration Building located at 113 West Mountain Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas. MEMBERS PRESENT: Alderman Kyle Cook, Chair; Alderman Lioneld Jordan; Alderman Robert Ferrell; Members Absent: Alderwoman Adella Gray STAFF PRESENT: David Jurgens, Gary Dumas; Tim Conklin Alderman Cook called the meeting to order. 1. Approve Minutes Alderman Jordan moved that the minutes of the Water and Sewer Committee held on Sept 11, 2007 be approved as submitted. Alderman Ferrell seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. 2. WSIP Update David Jurgens said all the pipes are in for WL -1, WL -2, WL -3 and WL -5 and all that is left to do is the clean up and some testing on some of them. We are 92 to 93% complete on WL -4. He believes there is about 600 yards of pipe left to lay on this line. There has been significant progress all across the board on the west side line work. Hamestring Lift Station was 85% complete last week. They are up into the 90's now. That should be substantially complete within the next few weeks. The Gregg Avenue Lift Station is proceeding well. We don't want this one to get done quite as fast. The Noland project is substantially complete and we have released 50% of the retainage and will be releasing the rest when they finish all the punch list items. Alderman Ferrell asked if the reason we don't want to get the Gregg Avenue Lift Station done too quickly is because of the ongoing work with the road out there. David Jurgens said it is unrelated to the road. It is because we don't want the warrantees to run out. He said we are still closing out the details on the wetlands contract. He has the letter from them and we're going to get some of our bond money back. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 9, 2007 Page 2 of 4 Alderman Jordan asked how much money. David Jurgens said we don't know yet. We just sent the letter back to them. He said he thinks we paid them for bonds and for meeting up here so we paid them about four or five thousand dollars. We're getting a little of that back. It won't be a whole lot. But we are reducing that contract by about $120,000. We're just canceling that. We're going to have to do some of the work — some berms and spraying — but we'll do those with small purchase orders rather than a big contract. So we're saving over $100,000. Mr. Jurgens said he handed out an updated rainbow sheet. a. WSIP Farmington Area Work David Jurgens said Farmington is getting the last details worked out to get their RLF loan which will probably be issued in November. The rainbow sheet has been updated reflecting those dates. He said we will cover the rehab in Farmington later but it is going very well. He said the rehab has resulted in reduced sewer overflows. The bottom line numbers on the rainbow sheet (top third of the page) reflect that total construction awarded and bid on the WSIP is $130 million. The estimated construction left to bid is about $11.5 million and the contingency is $11.3 million. He said as of this week we will have crossed the mark of having released checks for over $100 million worth of work on this project. Alderman Ferrell said we have been fortunate that we have spent less than anticipated in some of these projects. He asked if Mr. Jurgens thinks we will continue that with the remaining proj ects. David Jurgens said he thinks our estimates are realistic on the other projects. It will depend on the market. But he said he doesn't think we will be too far off on the estimates we have in the project right now for the rest of the construction. He said we have to recognize that some of those contingencies are linked. He said we might end up coming back to the Council because we exceed our contingency a little bit on WL -4 because they hit more rock than expected. It will still be pretty close. He hopes not to have to and should know within the next few weeks. The others have all come in under the contingency which he is proud of given the amount of work that we've done. He believes the estimates are pretty good on the ones we have yet to bid. He thinks some of the contingency will remain. The miscellaneous contingency that we have that is not linked to contracts right now is $6.6 million. However there are still things that could happen until early to mid next year when we start running water into the west plant. Alderman Cook asked when we will hear back from RJN on the two lift stations (discussed at the last meeting). David Jurgens said he got the information today and printed it out but forgot to bring it in. He can get it when the Committee takes a break. He said he doesn't remember exactly how the dollars broke out but said the Owl Creek lift station needs significant renovation and if we renovate it in place it will only be about a five year solution. He explained that this project was added to the WSIP because the force main blew out a couple of times and killed some fish and because the lift station itself was nearing capacity as the Hamestring basin grows. If we move 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 9, 2007 Page 3 of 4 the lift station downstream and eliminate the other lift station then we significantly increase the capacity and we get closer to a fifteen to twenty year solution Alderman Cook said if he remembers right, that's kind of what the Committee agreed to. David Jurgens said that was the guidance but we wanted the numbers first. b. WSIP Easement Update David Jurgens said we do have some items for condemnation coming forward at the November 6, 2007 Council meeting assuming this Committee approves this. He said we don't like condemnations but these are cases where either people won't call back or aren't happy with the City. In one instance there is ongoing legal action between the property owners and an engineering firm, a title company and a surveying company (the house was built on our existing easement) and a mediation agreement is scheduled for this week or the next on that. David Whitaker with the City Attorney's office has been in contact with them pretty regularly and we've kept them up-to-date with all the information we have. We are hoping that this will be settled based off the actual bid numbers in the contract. He said none of these easements we are anticipating bringing forward for condemnation are for very much money. He reviewed the WSIP East Line Easement Condemnation List which was in the agenda packet. He explained that with #2 (EL7-Tract 5) he has been negotiating with the owners but they want the City to pay for a lot of trees that are inside our existing easement. He doesn't feel he has the authority to approve this. He said they are free growth trees, were not planted here and they can't be in our easement anyway. He said even though the dollar value is less than $10,000 he can't sign a check request for trees we have no business buying. He is hoping we can get this solved fairly quickly. Their attorney has sent a letter to David Whitaker and it is now being handled by that office. He noted that the offer amounts shown on the list given to the Committee are the original offers that were made. When you go to condemnation all intermediate counter offers are dropped and you go back to the original offer that was made. That is what is filed with the court. Alderman Cook asked how it was that they built a house on our existing easement. David Jurgens said their engineer, their surveyor and the title company all said it was okay and they all messed up. They did not do an adequate easement search. This has been in court for a couple of years now. We notified them of it years ago. He noted that this is outside the City limits. He said on #5 (EL7-Tract 40 & 43) we talked to the owner's attorney a couple days ago and they are getting a reappraisal. Mr. Jurgens hopes this can be settled before it comes to the Council. He said there are three other easements not on this list because he thinks we will have them soon. He said one was for Mr. Jamagan who called today saying he had signed it and was putting it in the mail. On another one an area had to be added and the owner has not been calling us back. Staff will go by her house and try to talk to her. This was a late addition resulting from staff walking the area a couple of months ago and realizing a little more easement was needed. Another easement they hope to get as a part of a development submission. If these easements are not obtained, they will be brought forward for condemnation later if necessary. Alderman Ferrell moved to authorize staff to bring these condemnations forward to the City Council. Alderman Jordan seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Water & Sewer Meeting Minutes October 9, 2007 Page 4 of 4 C. Contract Legal Review — West Plant Construction Contract David Jurgens said we received a third statement of qualifications to add to the first two received. The selection committee met earlier today and we are going to request more information from a couple of those firms. We will then proceed with selection probably in the next two weeks. d. WSIP Construction Schedule and Cost Update The rainbow sheet had already been distributed and discussed. 3. Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project Update a. Basins 1-5,18 & 19 Sewer Rehab David Jurgens said all the sewer rehab contractor's work is done on that rehab project. The paving is being done by the contractor with which the owner had contracted. That is the last item that needs to be completed. b. Farmington Area David Jurgens said 35% of the rehab work has been completed (the dig and replace portion). They are making good progress. The preparation work is complete for the lining portion. The liner will be there within the next two weeks. This should be finished in November. Both are on schedule. 4. 36" Water Line Improvements David Jurgens said the work on the north end of town has been completed and they are putting in some SCADA control and some pressure control valves in Springdale. They will be shutting one of the valves down tomorrow to test and make sure everything is working. This also is proceeding very well. 5. Romine Defense Expense Budget Adjustment David Jurgens said the Committee knows about this. 6. Water/Sewer Committee Meetings David Jurgens said staff is assembling specific data on all of our meters by type and classification. HDR wanted to have all of that before they came back with the new numbers based off the guidance received at the last meeting. This has taken longer than was expected but we should have it out within the next few days. Once we get this to HDR they will need a little time to process the information before they can come back. So at this point we don't have a firm date for the next rate study meeting. The next regular meeting of the Water & Sewer Committee was scheduled for Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 5:15 p.m. in Room 326. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org