HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BPW-2007-04-25BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS PROCEEDINGS
CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK
Special Meeting 4:45 p.m. April 25, 2007
PRESENT:
Commissioners (6) - Jenkins, Dotson, Chapman, Schlather, Tripp, Wykstra
OTHERS PRESENT:
City Controller - Thayer
Superintendent of Public Works - Gray
Assistant Superintendent of Water and Sewer – Whitney
Deputy Director of Planning and Development - Cornish
Executive Assistant – Grunder
EXCUSED:
Mayor Peterson
DAC Liaison – Roberts
Assistant Superintendent of Streets and Facilities - Ferrel
Common Council Liaison – Coles
City Attorney – Hoffman
CITY OF ITHACA WATER SUPPLY PROJECT:
Supt. Gray reported to the Board that Common Council adopted a six million dollar
budget for this project with the 2000 budget. He stated that the Board needs to discuss
the status of the scoping document and what steps come next. He further reported that
Mayor Peterson met with him this afternoon and expressed her regret that she had to
miss today’s meeting because this topic is very important to her.
Supt. Gray distributed additional information to the Board that included: scoping
documents, and an outline of the draft environmental scoping document which the
Board needs to customize to reflect the items they want included in the environmental
review.
Deputy Director of Planning and Development Cornish explained that with the scoping
document it is very important for the Board to identify those items they want studied
because it forms the basis for the environmental impact statement.
Supt. Gray stated that he asked O’Brien & Gere Consultant Steve Eckler to update the
project schedule, which provides goals and timelines. He further stated that the
authorized project is $6,000,000 which was included with the City’s 2000 budget. The
problem that has arisen with the project is that the contract for services does not reflect
the scope of the work for the whole project. He further stated that it would cost
$1,000,000 in professional services to complete the environmental review, and to
accomplish preliminary project design for one or both water supply options. The current
contract for services does not include authorization to spend the necessary funds to
complete those items or the additional required steps to proceed with the project and
stay on schedule with the current timeline.
City Controller Thayer stated that the original project was established in the year 2000
budget. He further stated that Common Council approved a six million dollar project to
make improvements to the City’s water treatment plant and or to buy into a merger of
water systems with Bolton Point. He explained that as long as the Board is working
within that framework and doesn’t exceed that amount the project should be covered
financially. The current contract for services is not written in a way that would allow the
project to move forward without making changes to it.
Supt. Gray explained that he would like the Board’s support for him to proceed with this
project the way he routinely handles multi-million dollar projects. He stated that if the
Board were to agree the contract for services with O’Brien & Gere could be amended to
authorize the Superintendent to proceed with the different phases of the project without
having to come back to the Board and get authorization for additional funding.
Deputy Director of Planning and Development Cornish stated that the Board needs to
look to the consultant for the project because it is not on her work program. She stated
that she has spent a great deal of time on it and has been glad to do it, and feels that it
is a very important project, but it is not her project. She further stated that the Board
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needs the consultants to focus on this as their primary project and not rely on staff
because they have many other projects of equal importance. She explained that this is
a really critical project and now is the time to let the consultants take the lead with it;
staff will monitor the process but it has to go to the consultants who have the time and
staff to devote to it.
Commissioner Schlather asked that before the Board agrees to hand off the project to
the consultants if the final corrections to Parts I, II, and III of the environmental review
assessment form requested by the Board had been completed?
Deputy Director of Planning and Development Cornish responded that the corrections
have been made to all three parts.
Commissioner Schlather stated that it is important for each of the Board members to
have copies of the final, properly dated, and absolutely completed Parts I, II, and III of
the environmental review assessments and to make sure those documents are given to
O’Brien and Gere. He further asked City Controller Thayer if he could shed any light as
to why six million dollars was the amount that was chosen and approved by Common
Council in 2000.
City Controller Thayer responded that at the time it was the former Asst. of Supt. for
Water and Sewer’s rough estimate for the beginning stages of the proposed project. He
also requested in 2001 another three million, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
which was not authorized by Common Council because they weren’t sure which
direction the City was heading at that point.
Supt. Gray explained that the other thing that both he and former Asst. Supt. Fabbroni
were concerned about is the one hundred year old water plant and they wanted money
in place to pay for any maintenance or repair work that might be needed while a
decision was being made on the City’s future water supply option.
Commissioner Schlather stated that he wanted to confirm that all the funding is
available for this project and to make sure that not only is the Mayor aware of this, but
that she agrees and that the City Attorney agrees as well so that the Superintendent
can proceed with amending the contract for services with O’Brien & Gere. He further
stated that then the contract can be signed and the work continue without delay due to
the need to request authorization to release additional funding for various phases of the
project. He asked if the intended scope of Capital Project #510 was not just to replace
the City’s water supply but to also make some then needed improvements as the City
thought might be necessary in the past eight year period to keep the plant in operation.
City Controller Thayer responded yes and explained that Capital Project #510 included
pump station rehab, plant preliminary design, plant construction trends, transmission
main design, construction, and other water related issues.
Commissioner Schlather asked if the Mayor and City Attorney had agreed that they did
not need this to go back to Common Council for further authorization for additional
funding.
City Controller Thayer and Supt. Gray responded that they had not talked to the Mayor
or City Attorney about this specifically and would need to do so.
City Controller Thayer noted that he spoke with City Attorney Hoffman and the reason
the contract for services was written this way was because the funding was from a
capital reserve and to use those funds requires a Common Council action. He doesn’t
know if there was some decision made that Common Council needs to be included on
an ongoing basis to authorize funding in phases, but the normal process on a
construction project such as this is the Board would administer the project and it
wouldn’t have to go back to Common Council, unless cost exceeded the authorized
funding. He explained that the City has two funds one of which is the capital reserve
which was established back in 1964 that allowed Council to set aside money for water
source development improvements including physical improvements to the plant and
over time that has grown because the City knew that at some point soon it would have
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this large expenditure of funds so it wanted to try to offset some of that cost to prevent a
large increase in the water rate.
Extensive discussion followed on what the six million dollar Capital Project included,
what other funding would be needed, how to proceed with the request, and where the
additional funding would come from.
City Controller Thayer stated that he doesn’t see the need to have Common Council
authorize anything else with the authorized funding that is already in place for this
project. However, Common Council can always decide they want more involvement in
the project so that could happen here as well. He further stated that the Board is not
exceeding the authorization currently in place by allowing the Superintendent to modify
the contract for services to meet the needs of the project better.
Supt. Gray stated that the Board has already authorized and funded certain work and in
his mind there is enough work to keep staff busy for weeks. He would like a legal
document that included this work and incorporates it into a contract for services that
includes all the work that will be necessary to complete the project depending on which
option is chosen.
Commissioner Schlather stated that what the Board ought to do today is pass a
resolution that authorizes the Supt. to produce a contract addendum that would
accomplish the EIS preparation for both options, in an amount not to exceed $608,000
which is the cost per the provided estimate and then Supt. Gray and O’Brien & Gere
can work together to write a proposed addendum to the current contract for services
that would expand the scope of work to be included in the contract and bring that back
to the Board at the next meeting which would authorize the Mayor and Supt. to sign it.
Power to Act – Authorization for Preparation for an Addendum to the O’Brien &
Gere Contract for the City’s Water Supply Project - Resolution
By Commissioner Schlather: Seconded by Commissioner Jenkins
RESOLVED, That the Board of Public Works authorizes the Superintendent and other
city staff to prepare an addendum to the existing contract with O’Brien & Gere so as to
provide all services necessary to complete the environmental impact statement tasks for
both options, that is to say for the re-build option and so-called purchase option, in an
amount not to exceed $608,520.00 together with provision for funding for any other
necessary improvements as deemed appropriate by the Superintendent and to present
that to the Board at its next meeting, Wednesday, May 2, 2007, for action, and be it
further
RESOLVED, That it appears that the money is already available for the services
anticipated by this resolution to be derived from funding authorized for water treatment
and supply improvements Capital Project number 510.
Carried Unanimously
Discussion followed on the floor regarding the draft schedule for completion of the
project, which was revised April 24, 2007, and what adjustments might need to be made
to it. Supt. Gray stated that he would like to be able to insert into the schedule
informational meetings between the Board of Public Works and Common Council to
review information and discuss the project together. He will provide a listing of possible
meeting times and dates for everyone’s review and consideration at next week’s
meeting in an effort to get these meetings on people’s schedules as soon as feasible.
He thanked the Board for their willingness to meet more frequently to accommodate this
very demanding schedule.
ADJOURNMENT
On a motion the meeting adjourned.
Sarah L. Myers Carolyn K. Peterson
Information Management Specialist Mayor