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Public Works Minutes 2013 05-21-13 APPROVED W/ CORRECTIONS 6/18/13 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. City Hall Conference Room Committee Members Present: Alderman Diane Teeling Alderman Larry Kot Alderman Ken Koch Alderman Jackie Milschewski Other City Officials in Attendance: Eric Dhuse, Public Works Director Bart Olson, City Administrator Jeff Weckbach, City Intern Other Guests: Robert R. Delo, Maximum Property Management, Windett Ridge HOA Rose M. Delo, Maximum Property Management, Windett Ridge HOA Citizens Comments: None. Minutes for Correction or Approval: The minutes from the April 16, 2013 meeting were approved. New Business: PW 2013-25 Windett Ridge Property Maintenance Proposal – Alderman Koch said after meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Delo, he thought the committee should meet with them to discuss how to take care of Windett Ridge Subdivision. Alderman Koch said there have been several issues in the subdivision. Alderman Koch turned the time over to Mr. and Mrs. Delo. Mr. Olson said if the city sprays and cuts in accordance with our weed violation the city can go straight to lien. Mr. Olson said the grading on the lots is so bad the city cannot mow with their equipment. Mr. Olson said the city is not doing mowing or spraying anywhere in Yorkville. Mr. Olson said that if this is done for one subdivision, the city will have others ask for the same thing. The city has a policy of fining the owners of the lots. Mr. Olson said the muskrats were tearing up some ponds, which the residents paid for. Mr. Olson said we can go to the developer and let him know the residents paid that cost and to pay this out of good faith. Mrs. Delo said the trappers have been out and caught several muskrats and they will be out every month for six months. Alderman Koch said there is a problem in Raintree with muskrats too. Mrs. Delo said the muskrats have been there for a long time and if it was not taken care of, it would get much worse. Alderman Milschewski asked if there is something that deters them. Mrs. Delo said a trapper said the way to keep them away is rocks around the edge of the ponds, which is something that a future developer could do. Mrs. Milschewski asked about the residents wanting the weeds sprayed. Mr. Olson said it can make things look worse. Mrs. Milschewski said that chemicals get into the ground. Mrs. Delo said there are a lot of rodents and insects on the vacant lots and those are the lots we want to take care of – the lots that have homes next to them to keep the rodents and insect population down. Mr. Dhuse said if this is a one time thing, it is futile and they will be back in the fall. Mrs. Delo said they were told it would last a year. Mrs. Milschewski asked if the homeowners want spraying. Mrs. Delo said yes. Mr. Delo said the association is paying to take care of the muskrat issues. Mrs. Delo asked about the dead Ash trees. Mrs. Delo asked if there is a way to get permission to remove those ash trees. Alderman Kot asked about the trapping because there are laws regarding trapping. Mrs. Delo said the company is licensed by the state. Mr. Delo said the traps are under water and people don't even know they are there. Alderman Koch asked about the money put aside for the punch list. Mr. Olson said it is in litigation. Mr. Olson said the letters of credit said it might fix some grading issues and the detention issues probably not all of them. Mr. Olson said it is a process that the city is confident in long term, but it will not help this year. It could be tomorrow or three years from now. Mr. Olson said the official question on the table is whether the city will pay for spraying and mowing of the 32 lots and go through the violation process. Alderman Teeling said she agrees that other subdivisions will want this done in their subdivisions too. Alderman Teeling said the city would have to pay someone to do the work, because the city doesn't have the equipment. Alderman Kot said the reality is the city is not going to see that money. Anything that the city does is money that is lost. Mr. Olson said to see if the residents want to finance it over a number of years, similar to Fox Hill and Sunflower. In Sunflower, it will be $70,000 and the city will give them a 15 year loan with zero interest. The city acts as the SSA in those situations. Mrs. Delo said they cannot go onto the lots it is trespassing and the city has authority to do so. Alderman Teeling voiced concern about doing this for Windett Ridge because others are going to want the same. Mrs. Delo said Windett Ridge is putting money where their mouth is because they are taking care of muskrats and other issues. Mr. Olson said if the city pays a contractor to mow the city can lien the property the money the city spent. Alderman Milschewski doesn't want to have residents pay more to take care of things because of those other lots. Alderman Teeling said it is a bad situation. Mrs. Delo asked if there is a lien on the property can't you get the money back. Mr. Delo said if the association pays part and the city pays part so there can be a lien and the problem can be taken care of meet 50/50. Mr. Olson said the staff recommendation is if the residents want this taken care of, they should pay for it 100%. He recommends not to fund it by the city. The Committee agreed it would be problems in other subdivisions. Mrs. Delo asked about the HOA not having a legal protection because it is trespassing. She asked how the HOA get around that issue. Mr. Delo asked what can the city do. Mr. Olson said if the residents can pay for it, the city can go through our process find the contractor and ask for the money first and then the city can lien it. Mr. Olson said it would be a handshake agreement. Mrs. Delo said the HOA doesn't have the permission to mow those lots. She asked how can the HOA get this done if they want to pay for it. Mr. Olson said he will have to speak to the attorney. Mr. Delo said if the HOA agrees to pay it, the city would contract someone who agrees to do the work, the city would pay that business and go through the lien process and at some point in the future maybe the city can say the HOA paid this for several years and the city will waive all but the amount the HOA put in. Mrs. Delo said it is not legal for us to go onto those properties, but if we fund it and the city liens it. Mr. Delo said he can take this back to the HOA and give them this option. Mr. Olson said he will have to work out logistics with the attorney. Mr. Delo said we will keep this discussion going. Mrs. Delo asked if Mr. Dhuse will get the quotes for the HOA. Mr. Dhuse said yes. Mrs. Olson said it will be a few weeks off. The committee discussed how to get development started again in Windett Ridge. Mrs. Delo said a resident asked about buying a vacant lot next to his and they are not actively looking to sell anything. Mr. Olson said there is an SSA in this neighborhood. The committee talked about how to get things moving an alternate building incentive program. The committee discussed things improving in Yorkville and development starting up again and hopefully that is a good sign for all developments. The Delos said they will go back to the association and the city will get some numbers on cost and it will go from there. Mr. Olson said it might still be another couple months before the work would be done. PW 2013-20 Kennedy Road Improvements Adjacent to Autumn Creek – Mr. Olson said the memo is attached. Pulte has an obligation in their annexation agreement to improve a section of Kennedy Road next to their property. The current cost is 1.3 million and the shortfall is around $277,000. Mr. Olson recommends to do this because it will cost more down the road and it needs it. The developer is willing to pay the 1.08 million. Mr. Olson said if committee agrees to this recommendation, the city will take an engineering contract forward and put this in the fiscal year 14/15 capital fund. The committee discussed the changes coming to Kennedy Road with trails being added and reviewed where the road would be done. Alderman Milschewski asked where the funding would come from. Mr. Olson said in fiscal 14 the city could spend the money and the city will have money from the vehicle sticker and work it out. The committee agreed they would like to do it because it needs done and the costs will continue to go up. PW 2013-21 Nicor Gas Property – Final Acceptance - Mr. Olson said this is complete and it is recommended that we move forward for acceptance. This item was moved to consent. PW 2013-22 Sunflower Estates Drainage – Mr. Olson said there are a lot of materials in the packet regarding this. The price of this project is $127,000 and this is a project that was done to our engineering standards in 2002, which standards at the time were to size everything for a 10 year storm and now it is a 100 year storm standard. Mr. Olson said the question is should the city put forward the funds to construct and change things for a 100 year flood because it was not built that way. Alderman Koch said he was there this last time during the flooding and it was very bad. The committee discussed development of the area and when things were built and how it was done. Mr. Dhuse said the biggest cost in this would be making it a 30” storm sewer now it is 12”. Mr. Dhuse said if this is done it will fix all of it. Alderman Teeling said there was an engineering study and now the conversation is who should pay for it. Alderman Koch said in the last flood the west side seemed to be fine. Alderman Milschewski asked would this be in addition to fixing the ponds. Mr. Olson said if the residents pay for it then yes, it would all be one cost for both. The proposal would be given to them in July. Mr. Olson said there are other places in town that flood, not many. Alderman Kot said this was constructed to the city standards that we have since learned were not good enough, so the city should do something. The committee discussed that is what the standards were and that is what the city thought best at the time, and standards change, so should the city be liable. Alderman Milschewski said there were only between four and six homes affected, which is horrible for anyone, but should the entire neighborhood have to pay for this to be fixed. Alderman Kot asked about doing this project in house is there a way the city could arrange it. Mr. Dhuse said 30” pipe is not something to mess with and the city equipment is not big enough to install that pipe. Mr. Dhuse said because the city has to rent machines, it really doesn't save the city any money. Alderman Kot said if the city can get the costs down and some is done in house, and can work this into the budget. Alderman Kot said he doesn't want to put this on the SSA and raise this to fix half a dozen homes, we are going to hear about it. Alderman Teeling said other areas in the city flood because of old standards should the city pay for this to be fixed. Alderman Koch said if this was his home not in a flood plain and I was getting this kind of water, I would have a problem. Mr. Dhuse said they have looked at all the possible scenarios on how to fix this. The committee discussed the area and other options of how to fix the problem. Changing the pipe to 30” seems like the only solution. Alderman Kot said he feels that this could have been an engineering oversight to think the 12” pipe was sufficient. Alderman Milschewski said at that time, those were the standards. Alderman Kot asked if there were any grants out there for those situations. Alderman Milschewski asked if we decide to do this work, where are the funds coming from. Mr. Olson said it will be funded from the city wide capital fund. Alderman Kot said the city can't keep doing this, it will catch up to us. Mr. Olson said a fee could be put onto a water bill or something to cover it. Alderman Milschewski said it is only six houses, which is awful, but it is not the entire subdivision. Mr. Olson said he recommends it because it is a known issue, he would like to figure out how to take care of this because the legal fees next time will be $40,000 easily. Alderman Koch asked about city insurance. Mr. Dhuse said they can file a claim. Mr. Dhuse said this was engineered correctly. Alderman Kot asked about doing this in house and Mr. Dhuse said he would have to rent equipment. Mr. Olson said from an operational standpoint, we might save $10,000, but liability and time management, he would rather see it outsourced. Alderman Milschewski asked about tacking it onto the HOA because they need the basins fixed anyway. Mr. Olson said the total increase would be a total increase of $228.00 per year. Mr. Olson said he recommends deciding when an engineer can answer some more questions. Alderman Kot said that is a lot of money for the residents. This item will be held over until next month. PW 2013-23 Safe Routes to School Update – Mr. Dhuse said the contractor completed this work and the city did a complete walk through and made a punch list and they have already completed that list. Mr. Dhuse said from what he has seen and heard everyone is happy with it. Alderman Milschewski said it is great to see everyone using the sidewalks and they did a great job and she is impressed. Mr. Olson said there were two sections that were not completed because of funding. The committee discussed the $12,500 the city has for sidewalks and some decisions will have to be made as to where to use those funds. PW 2013-24 Route 47 Update – Mr. Dhuse said construction is underway. The gas company has shown up and caused some delay. The committee discussed different street closures and asked when the wall will come down and how that will be removed. The committee discussed road closures and the traffic changes and no turns etc. Old Business: None. Additional Business: Alderman Kot had a question about striping and Mr. Dhuse said the state is re striping everything north of the river this year and he said he asked specifically about Landmark. Mr. Dhuse said it will be done this year fairly soon. Alderman Kot asked about electronics drop off. He asked if the city can do this on a quarterly basis. Mr. Olson said that is something he has looked into as long as the city is not putting in any resources. Alderman Kot said he would like to look into this. Alderman Kot asked about the Kennedy Road state grant, is there any progress on this. Mr. Olson said the city cannot apply for it until we are done with design engineering. The state grant that cuts our local contribution in half is a construction grant and we have to be shovel ready until we can apply for it. Alderman Kot asked about State Street and the flooding because we don't have storm sewers and are there issues with width of the pipe. Mr. Dhuse said there is one stretch of pipe and the city is looking into it now and we have talked to contractors. Alderman Kot said when it happens it is a very nasty situation. Mr. Dhuse agreed and it is being looked at. Minutes Respectfully Submitted by: Lisa Godwin Minute Taker