HomeMy WebLinkAbout03282023 CC COW Notes - Public Works Facility March 28, 2023
City Council Special Meeting
Committee of the Whole: Public Works Shop Project
NOTES
Note:R&Mused a slide presentation during the COW which was included in the special meeting packet.
Bower said she had included the public works facility in her request for Congressionally
Designated Spending (CDS) and had received an email from US Senator Lisa Murkowski's office
saying this project had been reviewed by the USDA office and, if the CDS was approved, this
project could be eligible for 75% funding. There was no guarantee, but she would do her best to
secure it.
Donald Porter was the project manager from R&M Consultants. R&M would provide civil
engineering, including site design, drainage, structural engineering, utility design, driveways, and
project management. R&M subs out the architectural design, construction cost estimating,
mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, permitting, coordination with the adjacent
Chugachmiut project, and access consolidation. Porter said some work was already underway,
including topographic survey, geotechnical, preliminary platting, replat for the lot, and design
alternative discussions have taken place with city staff.
Porter said R&M was trying to get to 35% design so they could get a cost estimate, which could
then be used for the city to put forward in a bond. Adequately planning and budgeting for the
process would mitigate project scope creep.
Regarding access from the Seward highway, that entrance would be used solely by public works
employees; the other driveway would be from Sea Lion and that would be public access. When
the ladder truck was brought out to respond to a fire, it would exit directly onto the Seward
highway.
Bower wanted to expand on the access to the highway: at one point in time, there was an idea to
have a shared driveway with Chugachmiut, but the city came to believe that would be inefficient,
and the Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) were not supportive of the idea. Public
Works Director Doug Schoessler said Chugachmiut had originally thought they wanted a
secondary exit onto Dimond, but later reconsidered due to concerns over school traffic. There
would be a good distance between the public works driveway and Chugachmiut's driveway. The
city would vacate Dimond from the highway up to Sea Lion Avenue, and that would result in the
property owners on both sides gaining 30 feet.
Regarding fire hydrant access, Schoessler said there was a fire hydrant on the property and it would
be inside the fence.
Porter said the Dimond access onto the highway was preexisting, and would not require DOT
approval. As far as energy efficiency, R&M was considering using power-over-ethernet LED
lighting, and the building had been re-oriented on the site to take better advantage of the southern
sun exposure for the office spaces to have more natural light.
Finch wondered why the roof was flat rather than angled. Porter said snow shed was a concern;
the flat roof would be designed for adequate snow load and allow for doors to be on both sides of
the building..
Barnwell thought the library building had been an attempt at creating efficiencies,but had resulted
in a system that was overly complicated. He wondered how this scenario might be avoided with
this new facility. Schoessler said he was trying to intentionally kept the systems less complicated
and to include redundancies with more reliance on mechanical methods rather than technical.
Barnwell wondered how this building could be constructed now to be able to take advantage of
efficiencies that might come in the future. Porter said with a shop, there were a lot of open doors.
Things like radiant floor heating was a consideration, as well as other heating systems that were
designed to mitigate heat loss. Schoessler said there would be an in-floor heating system on three
different circuits; in addition,the waste oil heater helped the radiant floor heating to recover more
quickly.
Barnwell worried about the traffic on Sea Lion Avenue with the schools and he wondered what
traffic solutions were being considered to mitigate traffic; there were two schools, the animal
shelter, the electric warehouse, and now the public works shop all using that road. Porter said the
highway driveway would only be accessed by public works, and Chugachmiut would have its own
driveway; vehicles accessing the electric warehouse and public works shop were considered low
volume.
Calhoon wondered if the ladder truck would be stored inside or outside the building. Schoessler
said there would be a dedicated bay inside the warehouse for the truck.
Assistant City Manager Stephen Sowell said he had a meeting today to discuss the expansion of
water and sewer at the current public works shop site and he asked R&M to discuss next steps.
Porter said there were a number of 30' x 100' lots along Ballaine to which there was no water and
spotty sewer access. R&M was looking at how to extend water and sewer to all the lots. R&M was
preparing a bid plan together for release this summer to find a contractor to do the installation;the
city already had a funding source for this project.
McClure said a bond proposition might be put on the October ballot this year.
Submitted by Brenda J. Ballou, MMC
City Clerk