SERVICE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010

REGULAR MEETING

6:30 P.M.

1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Wisniewski called the meeting to order at 6:30 P.M., with Mr. Fix, Mr. Wisniewski, and Mr. Sauer present. No members were absent. Others present were: Mayor O’Brien, Lynda Yartin, Ed Drobina, Greg Bachman, Lance Schultz, Brenda VanCleave, Tony Barletta, Trisha Sanders, Gavin Blair, Steve Samuels, Phil Hartmann, Rachel Scofield and others.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF January 20, 2010, Regular Meeting. Mr. Fix moved to approve; Mr. Sauer seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sauer and Mr. Wisniewski, and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

3. COMMUNITY COMMENTS: There were no comments.

4. DEVELOPMENT:

A. Development Director’s Report. Mr. Schultz stated he had provided a report to the Committee and he would answer any questions. Mr. Fix stated some of the items in the report are more or less on the back burner. Mr. Wisniewski stated it would be nice if new developments were pointed out in a separate category or somehow highlighted so it would be easier to see them. Mr. Schultz stated he would be happy to take care of that.

5. PLANNING AND ZONING DEPARTMENT:

A. Planning and Zoning Director’s Report. Mr. Schultz stated he had provided a written report and would be happy to try to answer any questions.

(1) Planning and Zoning Representative Report (Mr. Sauer) Mr. Sauer stated the Planning and Zoning meeting was cancelled due to weather conditions. Mr. Wisniewski clarified that meeting has not been rescheduled.

B. ACTION ITEMS:

(1) Refugee Road Study – Update. Mr. Schultz stated they are gathering information and preparing some work maps.

6. SERVICE DEPARTMENT

A. REPORTS:

(1) Service Manager’s Report. Mr. Drobina stated he had provided a written report and he would be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Sauer clarified we are not having any problems with the manufacturer of the disc filters at the wastewater treatment plant. Mr. Drobina stated he had also received a letter from the Villas at Milnor Crossing requesting we do something with their water rates. Mr. Drobina stated this issue can be discussed at the next meeting as he had just received the letter. Mayor O’Brien inquired how many condos or multi-unit buildings we had, and Mr. Drobina stated he did not have that information right now. Mr. Wisniewski stated there are hundreds of units and if we make an exception for one, we would have to do it for all of them. Mr. Fix clarified that if they would chose to pay for individual meters and install an outside shutoff valve we could bill them individually. Mayor O’Brien stated he understood that apartments were a business while condos were not. Mr. Wisniewski stated this is a developer decision, and it did not make a difference to the City which way they went. Mr. Wisniewski stated he felt it would be up to the condo owners and they would have to take care of it through their condo association to get the meters purchased, hooked up, etc. Mr. Wisniewski stated there were also the issues of how they would pay for the water for the pool, for the meters that are not attached to the units, etc. Mr. Drobina stated he has also received calls from PYAA about water and sewer and they do have an easement agreement that provides for waiver of one sanitary sewer capacity fee and one water tap fee. Mr. Fix requested a copy of this agreement be provided to the Service Committee members.

B. WASTEWATER

(1) Wastewater Plant Expansion – Update. Mr. Drobina stated the plant is moving along very well. He stated there were some problems with the filters, but they have fixed that and everything seems to be moving along.

a. Review and discussion regarding TDS options and costs. Mr. Wisniewski stated he would request this discussion be delayed until the end of the meeting and then he would move for an executive session for the discussion.

C. WATER. No report.

7. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

A. Engineer’s Report. Mr. Bachman stated he had provided a written report and would be happy to answer any questions. Mr. Bachman stated he has submitted for a 100 percent grant for a rain garden outside of the City Hall parking lot from the EPA. He stated it would take the rain water that falls in our asphalt parking lot and capture that water for the plants in the rain garden before it gets to Sycamore Creek. He stated this would take up not only a lot of the water but impurities off of the parking lot and would improve the water quality in Sycamore Creek.

B. ACTION ITEMS:

(1) Water Master Plan and Sewer Master Plan - Update. Mr. Bachman stated the agreement for the Water Master Plan was just approved by Council last night.

a. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance authorizing the City Manager to execute a contract with Floyd Browne for professional engineering services on the Sanitary Sewer Master Plan project. Mr. Bachman stated he has worked out a scope of services with Floyd Browne and is pretty much the same as the Water Master Plan and is for a maximum of $75,000. Mr. Wisniewski clarified this study will update our map of our sanitary sewer system. Mr. Bachman stated currently we have a very rudimentary map of our system and it will update that map with drainage areas, what flows into what sewers, it would point out where a 12-inch line flows into an 8-inch line, and things like that. He stated it would also provide the drainage area calculation of future flows, it would be integrated with our inflow infiltration studies, etc. Mr. Sauer clarified this will be easily updated and maintained once it is complete. Mr. Fix moved to approve and forward to Council; Mr. Sauer seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sauer, Mr. Fix, and Mr. Wisniewski voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

b. Review and discussion regarding S.R. 256 Safety Project. Mr. Bachman stated he had posted a 30-foot aerial photograph of the S.R. 256 corridor on the wall and he invited everyone to look at it. He stated this covered S.R. 256 from I-70 down to Diley Road. Mr. Bachman stated this corridor is on ODOT’s “Hot Spot” list, which is a list of the 100 worst corridors in the State for crashes. He stated a lot of the reason for that is congestion. Mr. Bachman stated to reduce congestion he was proposing adding a third southbound lane to S.R. 256 from the Marcus Cinema to Refugee Road. He further stated he would propose other relatively low cost safety improvements with the project. Mr. Bachman stated right at S.R. 204 currently we have two through lanes northbound, and just past the traffic signal there are three receiving lanes. He stated that is very inefficient, and if we restriped the lanes approaching that traffic signal to 11-foot lanes we could have three lanes of traffic get through rather than two lanes. He stated with some fairly low cost improvements we could get a lot more traffic through. Mr. Wisniewski stated we already have 11-foot lanes northbound at I-70, and Mr. Bachman stated that was correct. Mr. Bachman stated he would recommend reducing the speed limit for this section of road from 50 MPH to 45 MPH and currently the signals through there are timed for 40 MPH because that is the speed of the traffic during rush hour. Mr. Bachman stated he would also like to upgrade almost all eight of the traffic signals along that corridor and do basically what are called low cost safety improvements, which is mast arms for all the signals. He stated on the mast arms he wanted to put a traffic signal head above every lane, also put back plates on the signal heads, put large street name signs on all the mast arms, put in mast arms for lane assignments, and he would light each of the intersections. Mr. Bachman stated all of these improvements would increase safety and 60 percent of all of the crashes we have in Pickerington occur in this corridor. Mr. Bachman stated how he proposed to go about funding for this is that ODOT has a specific pot of money for safety grants, $65 million a year. He stated this is one of the few pots of money they have not reduced in recent years. Mr. Bachman stated he has gotten two safety grants in his previous job and he knows the people on their safety committee well. He further stated most of the people in Central office know this corridor and he felt they would be very receptive to us applying for something here. He stated a safety grant is up to 90 percent funded for construction and engineering, so even if this was a $3 million to $5 million project, 90 percent would have to be paid by the safety grant and locally we would have to come up with $300,000 to $500,000. He stated he would strive to make the Township a partner with this and it may be possible to get money from the County Engineer given that Refugee Road is a County road outside the City limit, and another possibility would be the Fairfield County Transportation Improvement District. He stated he would go to all of these agencies and see what we could get if we could put the safety grant application together. He stated he has already spoken to ODOT’s Central and District offices and has received a positive response on it. Mr. Bachman stated he was just presenting this concept plan so everyone could think about it and see if he would get any agreement to proceed with any of this. Mr. Wisniewski stated he would like to have this continued on the agenda for the next meeting.

c. Improvement Options for Long Road from Diley Road to Colony Park – Update. Mr. Bachman stated he had provided a copy of last month’s power point presentation and also a cross section for having an identified use path instead of bike lanes. He stated the estimate for this came in at $940,000. Mr. Bachman stated further if we were to go ahead with this project he would like to have public meetings to receive public comments. Mr. Fix asked what action Mr. Bachman was looking for tonight. Mr. Bachman stated he had listed some possible options that included proceeding with his original concept plan, proceeding with the Alternate “A” plan, going ahead with the project only if we could get some grants, only putting in sidewalks, or do not do the project. Mr. Bachman stated it would be his recommendation to only go ahead with the project if we could get a grant and he would like to know if the Committee wanted him to go ahead with the engineering. Mr. Fix clarified the engineering would cost approximately $140,000. Mrs. Sanders questioned that since this is right by the school was there any possibility that the school would also be able to apply for a grant that could be combined with the City, and Mr. Bachman stated he had come to this Committee first, but the Safe Routes to Schools might be another possible target source. Mr. Wisniewski stated we still have water issues on Long Road, and Mayor O’Brien clarified that Mr. Bachman does have a copy of the studies that were done for the drainage on Long Road. Mayor O’Brien questioned if this would make things worse, and Mr. Bachman stated we would have to make sure the water would flow into the ditches. Mr. Wisniewski stated he did not see spending $140,000 for engineering in the hopes of getting another $800,000 in a grant. Mr. Wisniewski stated he felt we needed to try and get a grant up front without having the engineering done. Mr. Fix questioned if there were grants available to cover the cost of engineering and Mr. Bachman stated there were. Mr. Bachman stated if he were to submit this for the Stimulus funding it would have to be done fairly quickly, it has to go to construction within a year. Mr. Bachman stated he had discussed the possibility of using storm water utility for the whole project with the law director, and if we could get a grant for a portion of the public and use our storm water utility for the match, that might be a possibility. Mr. Wisniewski stated he did not see taking $140,000 out of the general fund right now to pay for the engineering on this road right now. Mr. Bachman stated if he can come up with a funding source he will come back to the Committee. Mr. Wisniewski stated he would leave this as an agenda item for now.

C. TRANSPORTATION

(1) Review and discussion regarding ODOT controlled traffic signals. Mr. Wisniewski stated he would like this continued on the agenda for the next meeting.

8. CHAIRMAN. Mr. Wisniewski stated he had nothing to bring forward this month.

9. OTHER BUSINESS: Mr. Wisniewski moved for an Executive Session under Section 121.22(G)(3), Pending or Imminent Court Action; Mr. Fix seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Wisniewski, Mr. Sauer, and Mr. Fix voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.

Service Committee adjourned into Executive Session at 7:25 P.M., and reconvened in open session at 8:20 P.M.

Mr. Wisniewski stated he would request Mr. Bachman bring recommendations on the TDS issue to the next Service Committee after discussing with Mr. Hartmann and Mr. Samuels on how to proceed.

10. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Fix moved to adjourn; Mr. Sauer seconded the motion. Mr. Sauer, Mr. Fix, and Mr. Wisniewski voted “Aye.” Motion carried, 3-0. The Service Committee adjourned at 8:23 P.M., February 17, 2010.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

________________________________

Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk