SERVICE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 2006

 

REGULAR MEETING

7:30 P.M.

 

1.         ROLL CALL.  Mr. Hackworth called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M., with Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Hackworth present.  Mrs. Riggs was absent.  Others present were: Judy Gilleland, Lynda Yartin, Ed Drobina, Brenda VanCleave, Jennifer Frommer, Joe Henderson, Stacey Bashore, Craig Bohring, Dave Rossman, Scott Seaman, and others.

 

2.         APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF July 13, 2006, Regular Meeting.  Mrs. Hammond moved to approve; Mr. Hackworth seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Hackworth, and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 2-0. 

 

3.         COMMUNITY COMMENTS:  There were no community comments.   

 

4.         PLANNING AND ZONING

 

A.        REPORTS:

 

                       (1)         BZA Report.  Mr. Henderson stated in July the Board of Zoning Appeals approved one variance for a rear yard setback, and on the August agenda there are two items, a rear yard setback and a front yard setback.  Mr. Hackworth clarified the rear yard setback is for a deck on an existing home, and the front yard setback is for a house that was build to close to the road.  Mr. Henderson stated this house is substructure only as of right now. 

           

                        (2)        Planning and Zoning Representative Report (Mrs. Hammond) Mrs. Hammond stated Planning and Zoning met this past Tuesday and held a public hearing on the rezoning of approximately 11 acres at the northwest corner of S.R. 256 and Diley Road.  She stated that rezoning was approved by the Commission and will be at Service Committee next month.  She stated they also approved outdoor seating for DeCarlos’ Pizza, a wall sign for the City Building Department, and wall and ground signs for the Sonoco Station.            

 

B.                 ACTION ITEMS: 

 

            (1)        Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance rezoning 4.22 acres, more or less, located on the west side of S.R. 256 just south of the Pickerington Health Center, from C-3 (Community Commercial) to P-O (Planned Office District) and accepting the Final Development Plan for Pickerington Assisted Living Facility.  Mr. Henderson stated Planning and Zoning held a public hearing on this project on July 11th, and recommended approval to Service Committee.  He further stated Service Committee approved the preliminary development plan on June 8, 2006, and if the final development plan is approved this evening the rezoning and final development plan will be forwarded to Council, and a public hearing before City Council is required.  Mr. Henderson stated in order to meet notification requirements he would recommend the public hearing be scheduled for September 19th.  Mr. Henderson stated a single entrance drive would be located on the northern portion of the site while there is the potential for a secondary access point from Courtland Lane through the Pickerington Health Center.  Mr. Henderson stated there are 12 conditions for approval attached to the draft ordinance.  Mr. Hackworth further clarified the developer would put $82,000 in escrow for a turn lane.    Mr. Hackworth moved to approve the rezoning and final development plan for Pickerington Health Center, with the 12 staff conditions and forward to Council; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Hackworth and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 2-0.  

 

Mr. Hackworth moved to schedule a public hearing before City Council on September 19, 2006, at 6:20 P.M. for the rezoning of 4.22 acres, more or less, located on the west side of S.R. 256 just south of the Pickerington Health Center; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Hackworth and Mrs. Hammond, voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 2-0.

 

5.         SERVICE DEPARTMENT

 

A.        REPORTS:

 

            (1)        Utility Fees Review Committee Representative Report (Mr. Hackworth).  Mr. Hackworth stated the Committee did not meet in July. 

 

B.         ACTION ITEMS: 

 

            (1)        Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance approving the Violet Township Maintenance Building use of Fairfield County water.  Mr. Drobina stated he has not heard from the Township regarding the draft agreement we provided to them.  Mr. Hackworth stated he would like to have this remain on the agenda. 

 

C.        WATER UTILITY MAINTENANCE:  Mr. Drobina stated Canal Winchester is using the supplemental water, and in July they averaged 140,000 gallons per day.  Mr. Hackworth clarified the maximum amount allowed is 300,000 gallons. 

 

D.        WASTEWATER UTILITY MAINTENANCE:  Mr. Drobina stated the parts for the filter came in and our people are working on that.  He further stated he will be meeting with an individual from IFAS next Wednesday, August 17th, at 1:00 P.M.

 

E.         STREET MAINTENANCE.  Mr. Drobina stated he is getting some pricing for some stripping on S.R. 256.  Mr. Drobina further stated the County is closing Long Road September 11th for approximately two weeks to work on a bridge.  Mr. Hackworth clarified the bridge is by the Monebrake properties.   Mr. Hackworth stated he understood Diley Road will also be closed.  Mr. Drobina stated that is being closed by Canal Winchester and they have a detour going to Wright Road. 

 

F.         STORM WATER UTILITY MAINTENANCE.  Mr. Drobina stated we cleaned out the drainage ditch in Colony Park this week, so that should be in pretty good shape. 

 

G.        TREE COMMISSION.  Update.  Mr. Drobina stated we hope to start an inventory of our street trees, and as trees are planted we will have records of when they are planted.    Mr. Hackworth stated he understood there was some vandalism at the arboretum.  He stated it is fairly isolated back there and there is no pavement where we can get a police cruiser in to patrol.  

 

6.         ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT CAPITAL PROJECTS

 

A.        WASTEWATER

 

            (1)        Wastewater Plant Expansion - Update.  Mr. Hackworth stated we did get a report from Malcom Pirnie with their recommendation.  Ms Gilleland stated we do owe them an additional $8,800, and she will get that documentation put together.  Mr. Hackworth stated they did provide a proposal with three options, and Ms Gilleland stated we will meet next week to discuss these options. 

 

                        (2)       D-Line Interceptor Sewer Phase IIIB – Update.  Ms Frommer stated the contractor has begun review of the information we provided in response to his extras request.  She stated she does not anticipate the costs exceeding the contingency funds.  Mr. Hackworth stated he would like to have this remain on the agenda for one more month.           

 

B.         TRANSPORTATION: 

 

(1)        Diley Road Improvements Project:

 

                        a.         MORPC/ODOT Project – Update.  Ms Frommer stated a Stage 3 project review was held at ODOT last week and it went very well.  She stated we are tying up some loose ends with the addition of some out of scope work changes on the storm water aspect of the project.  She stated it has been requested that we do a Compliance Submittal.  Ms Frommer stated due to EPA and ODOT’s relationship, and some changing regulations, they want to see us make the changes and submit one more time with those changes before we submit final tracings.  Ms Frommer stated she does have two pieces of legislation with regard to this project.  Ms Frommer stated MORPC requires that every couple of years the projects in front of them make an update of the schedule, the local commitment to the project, dollar amount, etc.  She stated the draft ordinance provided to the Committee reaffirms the City’s commitment to the project.  Mr. Hackworth clarified that currently our funding for right-of-way looks to be in good shape.  Mr. Hackworth moved to approve the draft ordinance to authorize the City Manager to accept funds from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission for the Diley Road Improvements Project (FAI-TR 207 (Diley Road), PID No. 75772) and forward to Council; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Hackworth and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 2-0. 

 

                                    Mr. Hackworth stated the Committee had received an additional ordinance this evening regarding additional scope of service for Stilson.  Ms Frommer stated she apologized for the late arrival of the draft ordinance.  She stated there are a couple of items that were outlined in a letter to the City Manager dated June 26th, that are on-going question marks with the project, but are most decidedly out of scope.  She stated an example is during the right-of-way acquisition phase, rather unexpectedly, approximately six residents have requested changes with regard to their property.  She stated these changes would actually reduce the amount of compensation the City is giving them in exchange for the right-of-way.  Ms Frommer stated additionally there is a bit of on-going work with utilities.  She stated we used their utility relocation plans to design the roadway, and they are in the process of acquisition as well and they now want to redesign their relocation plan, which in some cases does affect the roadway design.  Ms Frommer continued that due to the regulatory changes that were unforeseen that work is out of scope as well.  She stated they have a meeting scheduled with ODOT next week to see how much of the action going on, and subsequent action, they will cover with their 80/20, but Ms Gilleland indicated it would be best to submit an ordinance to this Committee.  Ms Gilleland stated we need to get clarification from ODOT on some items as to who is doing what, if we are going to need Stilson further, etc.  Ms Frommer stated the not to exceed amount in the ordinance is $32,000.  Ms Gilleland stated after meeting with ODOT there may be additional services from Stilson that will change this figure, however these are immediate needs.   Mr. Hackworth stated if the not to exceed amount should change before the third reading we can always amend the amount in the ordinance.  Mr. Hackworth moved to approve and forward to Council; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Hackworth voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 2-0.                  

 

b.         Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance vacating 0.341 acres, more or less, of Old Diley Road located southwest of S.R. 256, and 0.685 acres, more or less, of Old Diley road located south of Windmiller Drive, City of Pickerington, County of Fairfield, State of Ohio.  Ms Gilleland stated she would request this item be continued on the agenda for another month. 

 

c.         Review and request for motion to approve draft Resolution of intent to appropriate a 0.026 acre, more or less, fee simple interest for a temporary easement from Leroy S. Person, located west of Diley Road, City of Pickerington, County of Fairfield, State of Ohio.  Mr. Hackworth stated a second resolution of intent to appropriate a 0.069 and 0.031 acre, more or less, fee simple interest for a permanent easement from John T. and Lacinda L. Darby, located east of Diley Road was received by the Committee this evening.  Mr. Hackworth stated as he understood it these would be eminent domain actions.  Mr. Drobina stated they were potentially eminent domain issues.  Ms Gilleland stated we were doing our best not to have many of them, however, we have a date by which we must have the right-of-way cleared.  Mr. Hackworth clarified the Person property is a temporary easement and the Darby property is both a temporary and a permanent easement.          Mr. Hackworth moved to approve and forward the two resolutions to Council; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Hackworth and Mrs. Hammond voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 2-0.                         

 

d.         Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinances for temporary construction easements for the Diley Road project from Kenneth and Benita Blair, Carol A. Mulherin aka Carol A. Smith, Patrick and Carol Smith, David and Donna Carr, David and Nancy Madsen, Leah Johnson, and Carol Noble.  Mr. Drobina stated these are temporary construction easements that the property owners have agreed to.  Mrs. Hammond moved to approve and forward to Council; Mr. Hackworth seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Hackworth voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 2-0. 

 

            (3)        Cover/Ebright Connector

 

                        a.         Pickerington Health Care Access Road – Update.  Ms Gilleland stated we are still waiting on attorneys. 

      

            (4)        Traffic Signal Update.  Ms VanCleave stated with regard to the S.R. 204/256 intersection, ODOT completed their study and found that there has been a significant increase in the amount of traffic that goes through there.  She stated three options were presented to Safety Committee and they determined changing the phasing of the light at Tussing and Winderly was the option we would try first.  She stated if that does not work by the next Safety Committee meeting then we will go to Option 2 which is to restrict right turns on red from southbound S.R. 256 onto Tussing Road.  Ms Gilleland stated there has been a crossover between Safety and Service Committees on traffic issues, and we are going to do a better job about keeping these issues in Service Committee rather than going between two committees.  Mrs. Hammond inquired if there was any way we can improve the signage on S.R. 256 indicating the one lane ends as a left turn lane at Hunter’s Run, and Ms Frommer stated ODOT has mentioned this a number of times.  She stated they would also like to see us add another lane on westbound Tussing for the right turns.  Ms Gilleland stated with regard to Mrs. Hammond’s concern, we have discussed signage there and there is no structure to hang overhead signs, and to put up a structure for one sign is very expensive. 

 

                        Ms VanCleave stated we are in the process of making the furthest right lane on southbound S.R. 256 at Diley Road a right turn only onto Diley Road, the next lane would be a through lane, and then a left turn lane onto Grandview.  She stated Mr. Seaman of Stilson has provided a drawing so Service Committee can see what the changes are.  Mr. Drobina stated other than painting, some signal work is required, as well as, some signage.  Mr. Hackworth stated he understood when the property on the northwest corner develops they will build a dedicated right turn lane onto Diley.   Ms VanCleave stated she will be meeting with the developer on traffic details of that property.  Ms VanCleave stated we have had discussion with Giltz, the owners of the Drug Mart property, and we are in very positive communications with them right now to try and negotiate the accesses to that property and get the safety issues of that property resolved.  Ms Gilleland stated unless there is a really good reason not to, the median sticks will be going up on Diley Road to prevent left turns into that property on August 31st.  Ms VanCleave stated further she finished the speed study and she will be submitting to ODOT a recommendation the speed limit on S.R. 256 from Diley Road south be lowered to 35 MPH.  She stated 40 is the warranted speed, however, the accident data for three years in that area was rather high.   Mr. Rossman stated he would like to see the speed limit remain the same, but limit the access onto 256.  He stated accidents are usually not caused by the through traffic, but by vehicles turning onto and off of the road.  Mr. Hackworth stated limiting access is not as easy as you would think.  Mr. Rossman stated it would be very nice to have a service road, although that is probably not very practical and would be costly.  Mr. Hackworth questioned with lowering the speed limit, and with the volume of vehicles, would we start seeing a back up because of the lower speed.  Ms Frommer stated with the vehicles moving slower, you would push fewer through, but it remains to be seen if it would cause a back up.  Mrs. Hammond stated even in the peak times she did not see that it would back up that much.  Mr. Hackworth inquired if we were making progress with the PYAA/PASA access, and Ms VanCleave stated she is working with PASA on this access.  Ms Gilleland stated Safety Committee has asked us to take another look at this and we will have another meeting with the sports complex representatives.  Ms Gilleland stated with regard to the speed limit, our recommendation is the 35 MPH speed limit and we can carry forward with that and see if we have serious back ups or other issues we need to address, we can study it more, or we can do nothing.  Mr. Hackworth stated once we commit to 35 MPH, if traffic is backing up, it won’t be an easy task to increase it to 40.  Ms Gilleland stated it would be difficult to move it to 40 anyway because we have 25, then 35, then 40 for a short while, then 50.  Mr. Hackworth stated he was afraid when that area develops it is going to be a growing problem.  Mr. Hackworth stated speed limits were a safety issue, he just wanted to caution everyone that we need to be careful in changing speed limits so we don’t lose the volume on the road and slow traffic up.  Mr. Hackworth clarified that Safety Committee has already approved the 35 MPH speed limit, but would like Service Committee to concur on the right turn lane from S.R. 256 onto Diley Road.  Mr. Hackworth stated he did not have any problem with that change, and Mrs. Hammond stated she concurred as well.  Mr. Drobina stated he is still waiting on costs for the sensors at the Columbus Street/Hill Road intersection. 

 

C.        WATER: 

 

Mr. Drobina stated we had the bid opening on Diley Road Wellhead Production Well No. 7 project on Friday, and Ms Frommer stated the evaluation had just been completed.  She stated they were recommending award of the contract to Moody’s of Dayton.  She stated they were the low bidder, and she would recommend construction of everything but Alternative E1 per the August 9th letter forwarded to Mr. Drobina.  She stated that would make the recommended bid amount $379,000 with a contingency on top of that of five or ten percent.  Mr. Hackworth clarified we need the new well because the wells at Hereford do not produce that much water.  Mr. Drobina stated this is a CIP project, and at some point in time the wells at Hereford will become not cost effective to keep.  Mr. Hackworth clarified further that this well is to ensure we have enough water to provide to our customers depending on how things develop.  Ms VanCleave stated further we do not want to be put in the situation where one of the wells would go out and then we would be at a loss.  Ms Frommer stated we clean one well per year, and generally we do a before and after pump test.  She stated once the wells are cleaned they can give you greater volume than you are actually drawing from them.  She stated further that while it is not as much as adding a new well, she felt we were in a good position as far as the water draw and what we can get out of the wellfield now, and even into the future.  She stated there is one additional well site in the Diley Road wellfield beyond this one.  Ms Gilleland stated this project has been on the CIP for the past several years and is highly recommended.  Mr. Hackworth moved to approve the contract award to Moody’s of Dayton for $379,000 with an additional five percent contingency; Mrs. Hammond seconded the motion.  Mr. Hackworth clarified this will probably not be on the Council agenda until the first meeting in September.  Roll call was taken with Mrs. Hammond and Mr. Hackworth voting “Yea.”  Motion passed, 2-0. 

 

            (1)        Review and discussion regarding Ebright water taps.  Ms Gilleland stated she would like to inform the Committee that we are in the process of paying Mr. Ebright his requested amount, and it is the amount that he understood would be reimbursed when he was negotiating with the City for annexation.  She stated this payment is based upon the affidavits that he produced, his testimony, and the informal feedback she has received. 

 

D.        STORMWATER. Mr. Drobina stated he had no report this evening.  

 

7.         CHAIRMAN.    Mr. Hackworth stated he had nothing to bring forward this evening. 

 

8.         OTHER BUSINESS.  Ms Gilleland stated she received a call from Mr. Dozier of the Dozier/Slingluf property, and she has not returned his call as yet.  She stated she has nothing to tell him and she needed guidance on this issue.  She stated she felt he was looking to see if we had made a decision on utility service and if we were going to require annexation, a JEDD, or what.  Mr. Hackworth stated he did not feel water would be an issue.  Ms Frommer stated with regard to sewer, she felt the plant could probably handle the addition but it is dependent upon EPAs stance on commitments you have already made versus your plant capacity.  Mr. Hackworth stated we have not made a decision on where we are going with the plant expansion, and we are looking at Malcom Pirnie doing some more investigation.  Ms Gilleland stated she would let Mr. Dozier know that currently we do not have any news on the capacity issue. 

 

9.         ADJOURNMENT.  There being nothing further, Mrs. Hammond moved to adjourn; Mr. Hackworth seconded the motion.  Mr. Hackworth and Mrs. Hammond voted “Aye.”  Motion carried, 2-0.  The Service Committee adjourned at 9:05 P.M., August 10, 2006.

 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

 

 

________________________________

Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk