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HomeMy WebLinkAboutReport of Public Works 10/1/2001 to 10/31/2001Vilfage of (1- Ingugrr Heigfifs MARCHAM HALL 836 HANSHAW ROAD Telephone ITHACA, N.Y. 14850 607. 257.1238 Office Hours 9 A.M. - 4 P.M. REPORT OF PUBLIC WORKS TO: BOARD OF TRUSTEES FROM: Brent A. Cross, Superintendent of Public Works PERIOD: 10/1/01 through 10/31/01 REPORT BY DEPARTMENT: A. VILLAGE ENGINEER - 1. PUBLIC WORKS a. Street System: Final paving on Highland Road was done on October 10 -11. Miscellaneous clean -up details are still being worked on. The DPW crew inadvertently installed new "NO PARKING" signs on the west side of Highland Road. According to the Village Local Law No.3 of 1991, there is no parking only on the east side of the street. The line striping company that is under contract with Tompkins County was in the area doing work for the County, and was able to squeeze our job in between their schedule. Although they did not get to every location, they completed the majority of the streets within a matter of two hours. There have been some recent public meetings on the use and designation of certain roads in the County as truck routes. There was an erroneous report, which identified Triphammer Road as being under consideration, that was intended to be N. Triphammer Road (north of NYS Route 13). b. Storm Water System: no report c. Water System: no report d. Sewer System: no report e. Solid Waste: Garbage collected for this month was tons. Burgess Trucking has offered to generate a proposed contract for "long term" services to remove brush /leaves from the DPW site on a monthly basis. Burgess has verbally quoted $650 as the monthly fee. Although 1 have not received the proposed contract yet, I believe that they are still interested in providing the service. Leaf collection has started. Initially, there was only one crew out on leaves, but now there are two crews picking up leaves. As the season continues, the Town of Ithaca will be done with their equipment, and we should be able to get them to bring their leaf machines up for us to increase our efforts towards completing the leaf pick -up before the snow comes to stay. f. Equipment: DPW Fuel Consumption for this month: Gas = 517.00 gallons Diesel= 680.70 gallons g. Buildings and Grounds: Secor Lumber was at the DPW to drill the postholes for the new salt building and found that the sandy soil would not hold a vertical wall without caving into the hole. Therefore, they have had to order construction tubes (circular concrete forms) to place in the holes as they drill. They have had to reschedule their drilling subcontractor to come back to finish the holes before they can proceed. As reported last month, the stonemason that I had contracted to work on Sunset Park did not show up to do the work. Fortunately, Tom McCarthy some masons on his crew and agreed to send them over to do the job. The work was completed in two days at a cost of about $2500, which is much less than the previously approved amount of $8500. Unfortunately, the stonework was vandalized again (the very next day) by graffiti artists. I have received a quotation from Cayuga Landscape of $956 to install 18 privet type bushes around the Bolton Point meter building on Sheldon Road. I have asked for a sketch of how this would look to assist in deciding whether to proceed. h. Waste Water Treatment Plant: NYS SPDES Report for this month: Daily avg. flow was 1.477 mgd Max. avg. flow was 1.807 mgd w/ 0 permit exception(s) The flow through the WWTP was noticeably lower last month, with overnight low flows returning to minimums under 1.0 mgd. The instantaneous minimums have not been that low for several months, and the average daily flows have been consistent with the trend of the low flows. So far Yaw's has not been able to identify a cause for the recent drop, or previous increase in minimum flows. The ISC meetings have been used to discuss the development of the proposed intermunicipal agreement, as well as the future of the entire project in light of some of the recent events. Specifically, they group has discussed the significance of the recent NYSDEC announcement of partial funding for phosphorous treatment systems at both the Ithaca and VCH treatment facilities. Additionally, a question has been raised as to the future of involvement by the Town of Lansing if no further grant allocations are offered to the construction of a collect ion system from Lansing to the VCH WWTP. Mayor Cohen suggested that the ISC meetings be intensified to resolve outstanding issues as soon as possible to eliminate the NYSDEC's excuse that they do no want to give anymore funding to the overall project until the intermunicipal agreement has been worked out. In the meantime, Stearns and Wheler has requested to put together a engineering services proposal to provide a design report to the NYSDEC for the trickling filter project that has already been offered $600,000+/-. If successful, this report would result in the signing of a contract with the NYSDEC that would guarantee the funding for this particular aspect of the project. I expect to have the S &W proposal by next month. i. Personnel: Laurie Johnston has received and reviewed the final draft of the tentative labor agreement with the Teamsters. You should have a copy for your own review, so that a vote can be taken at the meeting to ratify the contract and authorize signature of the document. With the approval of the Teamster contract insight, Mike Zona has request to revisit the previously discussed issue of compensation for his time that he cannot take off. We may need to discuss this further in executive session. Ed Quick is still out with a back injury. He has had the "pain - blocker' injections and found limited success. His 13 -week, full pay Village benefit is nearing end. Interviews were conducted for the vacant Sr. MEO position. Current employees, Jeff Ellis and Ralph Newhart were the only candidates requesting to be interviewed. The interviews were observed by Pete Tuford from Cornell's Human Resources Dept. I will report the results to the Public Works Committee and prepare a resolution for the Trustee to approve at the meeting. j. Safety: no report 2. Planning Board Reviews: a. Site Plan Approval: none b. Subdivision Approval: none 3. Ithaca[Tompkins County Transportation Council — a. Planning Committee: no report b. Initial Project Proposals: none c. NYSDOT Projects: none B. ZONING OFFICER - (see attached report for Zoning Permit Activity) 1. ZBA Actions: a. Variance Request by R. Baer to construct a garage within 1.5' of the front property line, which does not meet the 25' required front yard. POSTPONED to 11/27/01. 2. Zoning Enforcement Actions: I have instructed NYSEG as to the position of the Village on their proposed alternative design. They have requested that I put this writing to them, as they are interested in completing the work before the end of the year due to uncertain budget concerns. C. BUILDING COMMISSIONER - (see attached report for Building Permit Activity) I attended the International Building Code Conference in Greensboro, NC. This is a nationwide effort and there were representatives there from just about every state.