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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BPW-1992-03-04BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE March 4, 1992 NOTES Present: Commissioners Brandford, Gerard, Reeves, Rusoff, Tripp; Mayor Nichols, Supt. Gray, Asst. Supt. Shimer, Asst. Supt. Ferrel, Asst. City Attorney Kennedy, Alderman Berg. Absent: Commissioner Cox Commissioner Reeves chaired the meeting. The following was postponed to a later agenda: Water and sewer late fees - policy discussion. 1. Free bus passes for City employees. Transit Consultant Bernard Carpenter and Alderman Neil Golder were present for the discussion. They presented a plan to give free bus passes to City employees. They argued this would reduce the number of cars in the downtown, set a good example to other businesses, improve the image of public transit by giving more people firsthand experience with our system, and be nice for the employees. They said they knew that most of the City employees lived outside the routes covered by the City buses, but they thought the gesture was important. They pointed out that both Cornell and Tompkins County provide opportunities for free transit to their employees. Discussion followed; items of concern included the costs, the effect on current and future Union contracts, and how the plan could be implemented. Alderman Berg suggested that it would also be a nice gesture to give free passes to all Common Council members and other volunteers in the City government. The Board decided to give passes to employees on an experimental basis and to ask Common Council to endorse the decision. 2. Bus service to Ithaca Farmers' Market on Saturdays. Mark Shenstone and Transit Consultant Carpenter present. Mark Shenstone said that the Ithaca Farmers' Market would like to discuss adding the Market to a City bus route on Saturdays to alleviate traffic congestion and make the Market more accessible to people without cars. The Market has built a bus turnaround at the entrance to the Market. Mr. Carpenter said he did not think the Farmers' Market could be added to an existing route. He thinks the only way to include the Market would be to run a shuttle. Some discussion resulted in a guess of a cost of $135 per week to run the shuttle, and a suggestion that the IFM might BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE March 4, 1992 pay any cost not covered by the collection of fares. Mr. Shenstone said he would carry the Board's concerns to the IFM. 3. Quitclaim easement - Johnson Boatyard. Tom Cleveland was present. Supt. Gray explained there is an old 30" concrete pipeline which runs through the Johnson Boatyard property. This line has been abandoned. Johnson would like to build over it, in the right of way which the city still holds for this line. Supt. Gray said the Department was generally in favor of abandoning this easement; they would like to straighten out the situation where part of a City sewage pumping station is on the Johnson property and abandon the pipeline simultaneously, ideally without having to have any money change hands. Supt. Gray, the City Atty. and Mr. Cleveland are going to try to come to an agreement. 4. Outdoor dining permit - The Little Cafe. The Little Cafe, 126 West State Street, asked for permission to serve at three tables on the sidewalk in front of their business during the summer. Discussion focussed on how much space would be left on the sidewalk with tables set up, and whether any changes would have to be made to the tree grates. A couple of the Commissioners are going to go speak to the owners and look over the space and the chairs and tables they propose to use. 5. Request for expungement of trashtag violation charge - Tim Durnford. Mr. Durnford had sent a letter to the Board asking for expungement of a trashtag violation charge. Superintendent Gray explained that this request was similar to others which the Department has been denying; the only difference is that Mr. Durnford's trash pick -up had been a day late the two weeks before because of holidays, and he said that when he saw the trash had not been removed, he presumed that pick -up was late again that week. Commissioner Tripp asked if it was true that Mr. Durnford would not have been charged if he had taken his trash in as the notice attached to it required him to do - that is correct. The Board will vote on Mr. Durnford's request at the next regular meeting. 6. Replacement of golf course maintenance building. Asst. Supt. Ferrel said the building in which the golf course equipment was formerly housed had been knocked down for the new transit facility. A replacement is need to hold equipment and to provide for federally mandated storage of fertilizer, etc. The City could renovate the old club house which is near the northeast corner of the course or put up a new building. The costs of the two options are similar. Asst. Supt. Ferrel would like the Board's direction; he favors the renovation of the existing building. The Board discussed financing this project; they would like to ask B & A to finance it, with the money to be recovered over the next five years from golf course revenue. A resolution will be presented at the next regular meeting. Page - 2 BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE March 4, 1992 7. Traffic and parking requests. Commissioners Brandford, Tripp and Rusoff have set up a general plan for handling the Board's traffic requests by handling the City's traffic. They propose to concentrate traffic along specific roads and route it around specific neighborhoods by encouraging the free flow of traffic on some streets and restricting it on others. They do not suggest changing everything at once, but want to have a general plan of which paths should be encouraged and which discouraged, and to use that plan as a guideline to decide on individual requests for signage, etc. The Commissioners were interested in seeing more specifics of such a plan, and some examples of how specific requests would be handled. Meeting adjourned at 6:02 p.m. Notes by Marianne Hansen, Administrative Secretary. Page - 3