The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About06202011 City Council Minutes City of Seward, Alaska City Council Minutes June 20, 2011 Volume 38, Page 605 CALL TO ORDER imp The June 20, 2011 Special Meeting of the Seward City Council was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor Willard E. Dunham. OPENING CEREMONY Police Lieutenant Butch Tiner led the pledge of allegiance to the flag. ROLL CALL There were present: Willard E. Dunham, presiding; and Jean Bardarson Marianna Keil Vanta Shafer Tom Smith Bob Valdatta *Ristine Casagranda — arrived at 6:07 p.m. comprising a quorum of the Council; and Phillip Oates, City Manager Johanna Kinney, City Clerk lbw Absent — None CITIZENS' COMMENTS ON ANY SUBJECT EXCEPT THOSE ITEMS SCHEDULED FOR PUBLIC HEARING Keith Campbell urged council to approve this contract with PCL construction tonight. It was a good plan; the public was enthused about it. The committee had raised $30,000 more since the groundbreaking ceremony. The committee urged council to approve this and move forward with the project. Mary Hart, representing GCI, spoke on the new information provided this morning by Electric Utility Manager John Foutz for City Council. She believed it was another attempt to divert this project. Utility departments should not be able to unilaterally impose these additional standards. The proposed project followed the national standards and therefore the joint use agreement that was approved by Resolution 1987 -030. Hart stated construction season was slipping away. APPROVAL OF AGENDA NEW BUSINESS Resolution 2011 -051, Authorizing Acceptance Of The Guaranteed Maximum Price Proposal From PCL Construction To Construct The Seward Museum /Library, Appropriating $7,399,999 To Fund The Project, Issuance Of The Notice To Proceed And Approval Of City of Seward, Alaska June 20, 2011 City Council Minutes Volume 38, Page 606 Amendment No. 1 To The Construction Phase Work Contract. Motion (Keil/Smith) Approve Resolution 2011 -051 Oates stated the project manager and architect were in attendance tonight if council had further questions. Oates gave a summary of the resolution before them and explained this amended the contract to phase the project out and explained the two "phases" proposed. Right now, the city had approximately $3.4 million available to draw from. Some of the other grants would flow to council over time. The guaranteed maximum price (GMP) was determined and the contractor had ample opportunity to work with the contracts and design specifications. Oates stated he had a high degree of confidence this GMP would hold at $7,399,999. Certain aspects, like making changes to the building or unforeseen things like ground contamination could change the figure, but that aside they were confident this number would hold. Valdatta asked what the bond bank was going to say when they saw all the deletions to the original building plan, Oates stated the status of the funding and revenue sources would have an impact, but didn't think the deletions would make a difference. The deletions were not shaky and had not compromised the project. Contingencies were still funded in case the city needed to put some of the deletions back in. Many different alternatives were being examined. Bardarson clarified Rise Alaska was being obtained as project manager and it was confirmed this expenditure was not part of the aforementioned $7.4 million and inquired how that cost was being paid for. Assistant City Manager /Community Development Director Michelle Weston explained the city had $3.4 million left from state funding. Not included in that figure was the new grant money that would be issued in phases and private foundation and fundraising money. Motion Passed Unanimous OTHER NEW BUSINESS Council direction on wind loading safety standards for downtown Seward. Dunham stated he leased the building for the local GCI office and asked for a ruling of a conflict of interest. Keil thought to be safe, it might be best for Dunham not participate. Valdatta agreed just to avoid any potential hard feelings. Dunham passed the gavel to Vice Mayor Bardarson and Dunham left the dais and sat in the audience. Oates stated two individuals from Dryden and LaRue were here to provide their assistance. Del Larue and Jack Anderson of Dryden and LaRue gave a PowerPoint presentation. LaRue stated NESC codes were a minimum safety code. Alaska was generalized as a "heavy zone" and the city's standards stated it should not go less than the NESC code, and take into account local conditions and practices for the environment. City of Seward loading conditions presently were NESC Heavy, which was 40 mph wind on %2 inch ice. In addition, City of Seward took into account 115 mph (sustained) on bare conductor and 70 mph on '/2 inch ice. LaRue stated this was more than the NESC required, but Seward was allowed to do that. In a recent review of the city's wind loading City of Seward, Alaska City Council Minutes June 20, 2011 Volume 38, Page 607 standards as requested by the City, Dryden and LaRue was recommending a minimum of a 100 mph fi r.. wind in addition to the NESC heavy standards. LaRue stated it was a risk game and the city needed to determine how conservative it wanted to be. He agreed 115 mph was a bit of a stretch, since no poles have broken. Other factors, such as the history and condition of each individual pole, also needed to be taken into account. Any utility has the right to go beyond the NESC standards. Oates would submit a resolution for approval of Dryden and LaRue's recommendation. Smith asked council where did they want the loading to be? He noted they needed to take into consideration the condition of the poles. The city needed to find out the condition of its poles, regardless of what GCI did. Oates said that came back to a funding issue within the department. Foutz said the poles the fiber optics on were most likely the same age, give or take a few years. Shafer felt this was a policy decision. Oates could only say what they were adhering to now was what was in place when he came to Seward. Smith said if they wanted to change the standard, they should approve a new resolution of a standard. Foutz said in 2001 the criteria was the NESC heavy standard with an additional 70 mph no ice. That was lower than what was proposed. After much discussion, council directed staff to bring forward a resolution that set the policy for a new standard for the community with Dryden and LaRue's recommendation. Discussion on the City Manager hiring process. Kinney provided council with a packet of the current City Manager job description and possible advertising notices of the position as well as a timeline for the process. Council agreed to first approve a resolution accepting the City Manager's resignation at the next meeting. In the meantime, they would review packet given to them and give final direction on job description and the hiring process at the next meeting. COUNCIL COMMENTS Shafer said she was worried they city could end up without a direct revenue stream for the Library Museum Project. She recently realized that with the completion of the levee project, 72 lots would be available for sale. If the city sold those lots they could use those funds towards the library museum project and would be trading an asset for an asset. It was something to look at, and if the city didn't use the revenue for the Library Museum Project, they still needed land for new homes in Seward. Shafer also noted the city would soon stop paying approximately $150,000 in bond payments by the end of this year on various bonds. She was trying to think of other alternatives that might be more amenable to the community. Casagranda would like to see more information and research on the viability of Shafer's comments. Oates said they could bring forward an assessment of the current status of the land Shafer mentioned. He would try to bring something to council in July. Valdatta stated Gary Superman had indicated he was going to run for Borough Mayor and it City of Seward, Alaska City Council Minutes June 20, 2011 Volume 38, Page 608 was now up to four candidates. Dunham said it was unfortunate about the passing of Bill Noll. The memorial service was tonight in Girdwood. He was a great man and was a big booster of this town. Underground lines were a good thing, but he recalled spending a lot of money on an estimate for utilities for the Alaska SeaLife Center and the quote was over $500,000 for a very little distance. It was a great thing, but incredibly expensive. Smith added it was also expensive to repair underground lines as well. CITIZENS' COMMENTS Sue McClure commented on the passing of Bill Noll and the Borough bringing forward a resolution in his honor at the next assembly meeting. COUNCIL AND ADMINISTRATION RESPONSE TO CITIZENS' COMMENTS - None ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:48 p.m. • Jf hanna Kinney, CMC ' illard E. Dunham ity Clerk Mayor (City Seal) 04 Of ' 0.4 of SE �q7 ' • • tO • L j " • • _-o - • : • % ry , � • i tr ••�• ryE 1 1 •• 4Q '�� • 4 ,.._••••• '•. %;,,E OF P-7,0*