Public Works Minutes 1998 02-09-98 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE
Committee Minutes - Public Works
Date of Meeting: February 9, 1998 Time Convened: 6:30 P.M.
Location: 111 W. Fox Time Adjourned: 9:40 P.M.
Attendees:
Jeff Spang
Joe Wywrot
Richard Scheffrahn
Richard Sticka
Tom Sowinski
Larry Kot
Kathy Jones
J.T. Johnson
Mayor Bob Johnson
Discussion:
1.) Blackberry Creek North - Punch List Update - George Griffin called and said
they will comply with almost everything on the punch list. They said no to the
flared end sections. There is one driveway that was is on top of a water main.
The driveway was not filled in or back filled correctly and the side of the drive
is caving in. Now it is either the homeowner or the builders responsibility.
The City can raise the B-boxes. Most of the B-boxes are not at the correct
grade. Wywrot suggest letting this go since they are correcting almost
everything else. The Developer probably did leave the B-boxes at the correct
grade and one of the utility companies came in and ran over it. Spang
suggest that at the time of final inspection not to allow a final occupancy
permit until this is corrected. Committee recommends this. Take to COW.
2.) Final Acceptance of Rt. 47 and Walnut Street - Rt. 47 and Walnut was an Idot
project. Idot has asked the City to sent a letter stating that we accept it.
Landscaping is not part of the project because they would have to have a one
year warranty on the bushes. They will be back to do the landscaping this
Spring. They will re-seed also. They widened the pavement so now it goes
right to the grass. People are driving on the edges. Wywrot asked for some
gravel but Idot said no. We would probably need a 200 linear feet (possible
more) of gravel. J.T. figures that his department could do this in a couple of
hours. Idot did fund this project completely. Wywrot will send letter accepting
the project.
3.) Sewer Rate Study -After the last COW meeting Wywrot contacted YBSD to
find out why the number of customers are different. YBSD's billing is on
dwelling unit. This City's may be done differently. The City is in the process
of trying to figure all this out. Capital expenditures like equipment and
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buildings. There is a descrepancy in the trust and agency account. We have
been paying YBSD more money then we collect. J.T. has employees going
out to each structure to check the meter. This should take about two weeks
to complete. We have been paying the Sanitary District from the time a
building permit is issued regardless if there is anyone living there. Payment
should start after an occupancy permit is issued. J.T said that LouAnn said it
is not done that way. We would have had to been off for the last 20 years.
We would need to talk to Dan to find out who is at fault. If our books are off
then YBSD's books should be off also. An audit would probably cost about
$5,000. We need to make sure that we are fixing what really needs fixing.
We need to do a physical count. This has not been done in years. We are off
by 141. Kot and Spang do not want to make any decisions until the numbers
are figured out. Table until there is more information.
4.) Storm Sewer- 104 Park Street - J.T. spoke to Ed Neison. Neison said that
with all the problems he had with his garage, he would need some time to
think about it. J.T. did let Neison know that he would benefit from the line
also. Bring back here once J.T. has something from Neison.
5.) Nicholson Property - This is in court. Spoke with Detmer, Nicholson has been
given until April 17 to start again. YBSD charges every resident/business in
town even if they are not hooked up. It is in our legal agreement with YBSD.
Mayor Johnson suggest speaking to Ralph about this one issue and ask him
to take it off his books. But then if the property owner has the sewer hooked
up again then they will have to pay a tap on fee again. If you have employees
you should have to have running water and sewer. This is or should be a
Health Department issue. There are other people taking him to court also.
We need to address the issue of paying YBSD. J.T. will talk with Nanninga
and the Health Department.
6.) Road Repairs - J.T. said they have been out cold patching pothole. Jones
said there are some potholes on Walnut Street. Sandy has asked us to hold
off on an updated list until there is a replacement in her old position. There is
a pothole on East Main and Liberty.
7.) Street Lights - J.T. said they are trying to replace lights when they find them.
List will be updated when there is a replacement for Sandy's old position.
8.) Property Code Standards - Detmer will be attending the Administration
meeting tomorrow night.
9.) January Water Report - We will be fixing areas where there are breaks. It
takes three people to fix a water main. There were two water main breaks in
Countryside. Still need to get barricades down. It will be Spring before we
can level it. Take to COW with updated report. Spang would like to know the
number of what we use as the per capita percentage.
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10.) PW Computers - J.T. needs to find a funding source. J.T. has gotten some
pricing but he thinks we would be better off purchasing from a catalog for our
needs and installing ourselves. The $2,088 that J.T. thought he was going to
be able to take from Water was already spent on billing software. J.T. needs
to talk with Nanninga and do some checking. Bring back to next meeting.
11.) Intergovern mental Agreements - Sugar Grove now has a lift truck to go up
and change light bulbs and stuff. They have came up with an agreement.
J.T. gave Dan a copy of the sample agreement. Dan thinks this would be a
good idea. We have helped them with jetting their sewers. J.T. would like to
get some feed back. This is just a model agreement. The agreement would
be protection for them and us. If we do decide to do this J.T. would like to
have an agreement with Bristol, the County and neighboring communities.
12.) VanEmmon Street Improvements - Rt. 47 to Main - This project was tabled
last year to bring back this year. This water main is a direct connect to well
number three. J.T. thinks that we should wait until next meeting at least.
Looking at putting curb on the south side. There is already curb on the north
side. Curb would be adjacent to the retaining wall. Cost would be
approximately $125,000. We need to find more out about the radium issue.
13.) Blackberry Creek Watershed - Scheffrahn will be going through things to
figure out we were are. If anyone has any comments, please let Scheffrahn
know. Advising that we accept the watershed from the last flood for now. To
protect the watershed we need to take precautions. Elburn is at the top of the
watershed. There are 11 cities and two counties in the jurisdiction.
Blackberry took the hardest hit during the last flood. Everything that Elburn
does with their storm water effects every community down stream. Storm
water restrictions are laxed in some areas. The end result is to have a plan in
effect in case of another flood. Problem prone areas will have more
restrictions. Funding for a study to be done on Blackberry Creek has not
been discussed yet. They are recommending that the dam be removed to
allow fish to migrate. This is a safety issue also. The dam is keeping fish
from going upstream. There was a study done approximately ten years ago.
There is a lot of silt on both sided. Spang would like to make sure we know
what the effects of removing the dam would have. The County is concerned
with a large hole at the bottom of the dam that may be causing damage to the
bridge. J.T. said that kids have been jumping into that hole for at least 20
years. There are several individual reports that will have to be gone through.
Then we need to make some recommendations on our issues. The dam was
built privately years ago. Analysis of the dam has never been done to find out
the safety of the bridge. All bridges are suppose to be inspected every two
years. They would like us to join NIPSI. Bring back to next meeting for
discussion. Wywrot would like to ask them to come up with some design
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structures to help give the developers some ideas on how to accomplish their
restrictions.
14.) White Oak Sidewalks/R.R. Crossing - River Burch sidewalks across the
tracks. ICC felt that the intent was there for sidewalks to go across the tracks.
Sidewalks are shown on the approved preliminary plans. The Developer was
suppose to pay to put sidewalks on the south side of the street. The
homeowners are willing to pay for the sidewalks. Some have final occupancy
permits and some only have temporary occupancy permits. Homes are on the
north side. On the final plans the sidewalks are on the north side. There are
some very large trees that may need to be taken down. The homeowners
were having a meeting this month. Consider a meandering sidewalk, going
around trees when possible on the south side of the street. Kot would like to
hear Graff s opinion. Take to Public Safety Committee meeting then bring
back to COW.
15.) New PW Building - J.T. is here to beg to get started. J.T is wanting to come
up with a five year plan on replacing equipment. J.T. would like to take
$15,000 from water, and $30,000 from the general fund, and streets, then
borrowing the rest of the money against the development fees. Cost for the
building is approximately $65,000. J.T. wanted to beef this up to $80,000.
J.T. figures that$70,000 will get a bare bone building. J.T. was going to have
our own guys pour the concrete floor, We will probably need 9-10 truck of
concrete. J.T. figures that there are $6,000 to $7,000 worth of finishing fees.
Mayor Johnson feels that 25 permits is achievable and does not object to
borrowing against them. Spang would like to make sure that this fits into the
overall plan. J.T. would like to put in a tool room so tools have to be checked
out. Spang does not think that the current building should be used for
anything more than storage. Sowinski and Spang would rather wait until we
know what is going to happen with the new home for the City. Mayor Johnson
would like J.T. to bring back to next meeting with some figures and to find out
for sure where the money would be coming from in the budget and to Hollow
up with Robert E. Lee. Bring back.
16.) Radium Update - Perspectives say that the EPA will not change the
standards. After this meeting coming up we will know more. We do have a
tentative plan but we need to figure out a way to fund it. This could end up
being a State and Federal issue. Update at next meeting.
17.) Spring Street Update - We do have a time table. March 2 through the 13,
core and discard old seal coat surface and fill pit by Dale Woodworth property.
Remove sub-surface and place over old seal coat in pit area. Lay fabric and
fill with CA6 in no more that six inch lifts and compact. Shape and grade to
within approximately one inch of finished sub-surface. If the weather is bad or
rules out a start date of March 2, then we will start the following week.
Construction will be completed no later than April 10 to allow start of surfacing
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by Aurora Blacktop. Aurora Blacktop usually opens their plant on or before
April 15. We will notify the residents on Spring Street. The residents on Terry
will have two other routes they can use. We still need to talk to a couple of
people. There are a few trees that will need to be removed.
18.) Additional Business - Spang passed out a report last week. He hopes that
everyone has had a chance to review it. Every department should be
depreciating equipment. The equipment that we use daily on average is 12
years old. J.T. said that at the next meeting he plans on having a five year
plan and funding sources. J.T. is hoping to purchase software to track
maintenance. The software cost $475 to $500 and will break down repairs
into man hours.
Streets - Spang feel that the five year street plan kind of fell apart. The whole
committee accepted the five year street plan as a working document. We will
do everything possible to budget for the projects.
EPA Loan - The intent is there. We will use utility taxes to repay the $2.3
million dollars. The loan is not in one lump sum. It will be a not to exceed
$2.3 million. We only need to take what we need. Currently the utility tax
goes into the general fund. We will need this to go into water taps. Spang
went through and counted and in 20 years we have only gone over 90 taps
about five times. This will be taking $160,000 from the general find so we
need to find a way to replace it or the general fund is going to be taking a big
hit. Bring up at Administration.
Leaf Pick-Up - TCD does one leaf pick-up in the Spring. Nanninga has been
working on scheduling a toxic waste pick-up.
Minutes by: Mollie Anderson