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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPWC Minutes 2004-01-27TOWN OF ITHACA Highway Department 106 Seven Mile Drive, Ithaca, NY 14850 pub1icworks@townJthaca.ny.us PHONE (607) 273-1656 Roads, Parks,'Trails, S*wer, and Water FAX (607) 272-6076 TOWN OF ITHACA PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE Tuesday, January 27, 200r, 8:00 a.m.. Public Works Facility 1. ApproVral of Minutes a. December 6, 2003—not received yet 2. Sept Dates and Time for Meetings 3. DiSCUssion on Parked Vehicles During Snow Removal 4. Discussion on Correspondences from Oakwood In 5. Discussion on 2004 Purchases a. Sewer jet b. Generators 6. Review Water Projects a. Stone Quarry T-Main. b. Bostwick Road Tank. c. Eco-village Tank. cl. Coy Glen Purnp Station and `"-Maim ghk Fred Fred Fred Fred I= DSPOFWTRON DATE Azo TOWN OF ITI IACA Public Works Committee January 27, 2004, MmUtCS Public Works Facility, 8:00 a-rn. Present: Peter Stein, Cathy Valentino, Sandy Gittlenian, Dan Walker, Fred Notebooni, Rich Schoch, Wayne SincebaUgh, and (Jene Redman The meeting began at 8:10 a.m. Set Dates and Times for Metiro : Tfie meetings will continue to'be the fourth Tuesday of the rnonths, with the exceptioti of November and December. 'There will be a combined meeting on Decen.i.ber 7, 2004. Meetings will start at 8:00 am. Parked Vehicles D11ring-`snow Removal Fred Notebooni explained that vehicles that are parked on the pavement (of the road) are illegally parked. If they are parked on the shonlder of the road, it is OK unless there is a local law that has established no parking in that area. 'nie'rown ffig,,hway crews, again this year, are havirig trouble plowing roads because residents are parking their cars on the road /shoulder. Fred said that, just today, one of our plow drivers hit a parked car that was parked in the road. The car owner was ticketed for an illegally parked car. ']'here was no damage to the `R)wn's plow, and. there was minor damage to the car. This accident occurred on one of the Town's most troublesome roads —Pennsylvania Avenue. Kendall Avenue, in the same area as pennsylvania AVOILte, is also a problern. Fred would like to have theTo\,vn Board consider aniending the local law to include no parking on both, Pennsylvania Avenue and Kendall Avenue. On -street parking con the roads contributes to a dangerous condition because emergency vehicles cannot get through; the pavement is only 18' wide. (Most roads are 20'wide). The Public Works Conunittee feels that thiissue should be brought before the'Town Board. The Cornmittee approved a resolution to have the Taws Board consider no parking on both sides of the street on Pennsylvania Avenue and Kendall AVOILle, Public W,6i*1 s Committee M inutes,january 27, 2004 Page, 2 Cathy will request public hearings for the parking issues, I The Committee reviewed the procedures the Town currently uses to alert people of their vehicle liarnpering the snow plow operation. We have as forni that is filled out by the driver or duty supervisorand put on the car. "['his form. explains that the car is hampering snowplow operation and will be towed if it stays there. If as vehicle needs to be towed, we usually call the Sheriff's Department so they can see if they can find the owner before it is towed. Due to the arnourit of students who live in. the Town, the Cornfnittee SUggCsted, putting ari ad in different papers regarding the"I"own's policy on vehicles hampering the snowplow operations. We will look into putting it in the "Welconre Edition" of the Ithaca Journal, The Ithaca Times, Ithaca College's newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun, and have public notices read on the radios. Another area that is bothersome with vehicles parking on the side of the road is the Renwick Drive, Renwick Place, and Renwick I leights Road area. '1"his is a probleni because the residents do riot have any other place to park. Fred said that fie got an e-niail regarding cleaning Out closer to the mailboxes so the mailman can get to the box. This is not sornething the crews can do --it would take too much. time and money to do. Fred said that he would like to have as presentation on the I fighway Department's snow rerm.wal operations for the Town Board. Cathy saidthat at the last intermunicipal rneeting it was discussed, that maybe the '1"awns and County should standardize when plows go out to clear the roads. Currently, someTowns start after there are 2 inches of snow on the road and sorrie plow after 1. inch of snow. We start plowing around I tca 1 1,12 inches, [red said that the Town also mixes our salt with Majic -0, This is rnade with as byproduct from breweries. 'T'his mixture allows the salt, to work at lower temperatures and "sticks" to the road for longer duration. 1 efor oikoyo�)d cj— Fred handed OUt the correspondence frona the resident on Oakwood L,arie, This resident is requesting thel'own pay 1/3 of their bill (to restore their property), '"T"his issue has been before the Town Board before and we do riot feel that we caused any of the sedirnent problems that this letter talked about, Several"Fown officials have looked at this Situation. The Town had construction work done at the water tank in that area, but we had very good sediment control and ever) fixed several apparent problems, We also contacted the, City several tunes about culvert pipes being filled with sect inietit. EL Public Works Cormnittee Minutes, January 27,2004 Page 3 The Public Works Committee members agree with the Town Board that this problem was not caused by the Town's construction and we should not be responsible to cover any of the payment. 2004 Purchases Most of the time the Town uses the New York State OGS bid process to purchase vehicles, etc. Some items are not included in the State bid. Two items the Town would like to purchase are not on State bid. If they are not on State bid, we have to develop specifications for the vehicle or piece of equipment we want and present the specifications to the Town Board for their approval so we can bid out to purchase the unit. Fred handed out specifications for a sewer cleaner for the Committee to review before it goes t6 the Town Board. We also would like to purchase two generators. We do not have the specifications ready for them though. The generators are needed to keep sewer and water pump stations going in case of an electrical power outage. These items were included in the Town's 2004 budget. The Committee agreed that we should present these to the Town Board so we can move ahead on purchasing the items. Water Proiects Update Dan Walker said that the Stone. Quarry Road transmission line/Bostwick Road Water Tank project is about 98 percent complete. We have accepted the Tank although we are not using it yet. We are holding the retainage until the final restorations can be done in the spring. . The Eco-Village water tank is also almost complete. There are a few things that need to be finalized along with the landscape restoration and plantings to be done by Town forces. Again, we are holding the retainage -until that time. The Coy Glen Pump Station project is on hold due to the cold weather. It is possible that the foundation for the building can be poured next week. As with all our water and sewer projects, the Town Engineering Department does the design work on them, and then we bid them out for a contractor to do the work. We could do the work in-h6use, however, we currently do not have enough manpower to do these additional projects and the rest of the other maintenance /building projects. We have started doing all the landscape restoration work because we find that the Public Works Committee Minutes, January 27, 2004 LM Town has to go back and redo the contractors work anyway, so it is easier to just do it ourselves. All residents from Inlet Valley to Coy Glen Road are now using Bolton Point water. Fred asked how the water project in the Town of Ulysses is going. Dan said that basically it is on hold because some line testing and inspections need to be done. Miscellaneous Cathy asked if anything has been done about requesting a school zone on Winthrop Drive for the Northeast School. We will put this on the Town Boards agenda. Cathy said she got a call from the resident at 117 Birchwood Drive regarding parking and people not stopping for the stop sign. This is a hard situation to remedy. The Sheriff's Department would have to patrol this better, and they have been downsized, so there are fewer deputies available. We will discuss this at the Transportation Committee. The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 a.m. M.-I � n'