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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11.02.2009 (2)• • COUNCIL WORK SESSION November 2, 2009 4:10 p.m. Council Chambers The meeting was called to order at 4:14 p.m. Members present: Getty, Hart, Greenwood, Steve Schmitt, Welper, Reggie Schmitt. Absent: Cole. Moved by Reggie Schmitt, seconded by Getty that the Agenda, as proposed, be approved. Ayes: Six. Absent: Cole. Motion carried. Mayor Hurley stated that it is November 2nd and we are getting closer to the first snowfall. He stated that this is about two things. One thing is the state of the downtown snow removal and the other request is directly from the Board of Supervisors. They called and asked if we would be interested in picking up their snow in the parking lot across the street. Mayor Hurley stated that he told Frank Magsamen that he would check into it and the city would cost it out and let him know, and that's part of the information on the table that you have in front of you. The other question then is part of a spinoff of what Steve Decker, Superintendent of Streets, and I were talking about next winter. We last had private sector downtown snow removal probably about 2000/2001. He stated he had simply asked the question if that is something we ought to talk about again. He stated he didn't have an answer, so for this Work Session he's looking for questions to further explore. First, the picking up of the snow, not plowing of the lot, but picking it up and taking it to our snow dump. As I found out, it takes equipment, it takes people and depending on what shift they're on, it takes that. Mayor Hurley reviewed the Straight -Time Hourly Costs for Hauling Snow from Blackhawk County Parking Lots price breakdown sheet. He stated that they are FEMA types of prices. Mayor Hurley stated that his impression was that we got a lot of complaints last year or just nagging that we weren't getting the snow off the streets fast enough in downtown. Steve Decker, Superintendent of Streets, stated that they always get a few calls every year. He stated that the last two years have been pretty tough, and with staffing at a minimal, it does take a little longer to get that done. And then depending on whether we have a blizzard or something, its gonna take a couple of days longer to even get there by the time you take care of everything else. Mayor Hurley stated that it's sort of a fire. He stated he didn't know if he hadn't of or shouldn't of in the first place told the Supervisors that we cannot because we can't do it fast enough for our own citizens and businesses. He stated there is nothing changed for Steve in terms of his abilities this year. He doesn't get any more people. He stated that what we are going to try and do is make sure that everyone with a CDL take the training who are suppose to do snow removal. But we weren't getting very good attendance on that last year. He stated that we've gotten real close in the last two years on holding onto reserves to pay our people the overtime. We were saved by the fact of the FEMA one time influx for cleanup and pickup of the floods. Councilperson Welper stated that regardless of how inexpensive we can do it ourselves, unless we know what the bid is to have it done commercially by someone else, its kind of immaterial. Mayor Hurley stated that when we had a contract with Cedar Valley Corp. before any of us came into office, just before that even back in 2000/2001, he didn't have the particulars with him, but it was $2,400.00 per hour. He stated that it was probably all of their equipment hitting downtown. He stated that he and Steve talked about if we could contract them on an hourly basis on demand. He stated that if we had a 16 inch snow fall, then we would call them in, but the big question was how do we pay for it. He stated he didn't see anything different, unless them doing it saved us a bunch of overtime. Councilperson Getty asked Steve how many hours on average it took when they used to do that. Council Work Session November 2, 2009 Page 2 Mr. Decker stated that on an average it took about eight to ten hours. He stated that he wanted about 30 operators to come in and do the work and the goal was if they all came down, we could knock off a day or two depending on the snow removal. He stated he would be easier if we could get it done in one night. Councilperson Getty asked when we used the private contractor, if he remembers how long it took them to do downtown. Mr. Decker stated that it took about eight to ten hours in one night roughly. Councilperson Getty stated that we go down and post it that the city is coming down to clean the downtown area and the merchants, the business people, when they come the next morning to work, then they decide to do their sidewalks and they push it all back out where the parking meters are at. People come downtown to park, but the snow is all back out there now. So he doesn't know how you would coordinate it where its all done at the same time or before hand. Mayor Hurley stated that downtown streets are stated priority. Mr. Decker state that Councilperson Getty is pretty much right about that. He stated he thinks the perception is a lot of merchants downtown haven't been there where we have been there. Chances are we probably plowed it last night at 9:00 p.m. while the person that's got a business downtown is sleeping. Their private contractor comes in and does the snow off the sidewalks, pushes it out on the streets and then they show up at 7:00 a.m. it looks like the Street Department hasn't been there when it was actually done 8 to 9 hours prior to the time that they showed up. So there's that perception. Councilperson Welper stated that here is the problem. that he had last year with our priority streets. We did one and two and we never got to three because the snow fall had fallen to the point where they had to go back to one and two again. So that's why priority three streets never got done. If hiring this commercially, that would free up our people to get out and do priority three streets. Mayor Hurley stated that would probably be an advantage. The question is then we've got to figure out how to pay for it. For that qualitative advantage of getting out to priority three sooner, then that for sure will please citizens. But he doesn't know how we'd pay for it because our road use tax fund is not growing. The expense side of it is fueled with snow later. Councilperson Welper stated that hopefully the overtime that we're not paying these guys to pick up the snow downtown would offset some of that. Michelle Weidner, Chief Financial Officer, stated that she didn't think it would if they're just going to switchover and give a priority to three streets. They're just going to be doing something else. Councilperson Steve Schmitt asked if we have any sense of how much overtime was in Steve's budget last year. Ms. Weidner stated that she did not bring that with her. Councilperson Steve Schmitt stated that what he was thinking was that weren't there times last year where we just had to stop because they couldn't work anymore. Mr. Decker stated that they couldn't work after a 16-18 hour shift. It'll alleviate our concern about that 8 hour gap when our people are gone. Councilperson Reggie Schmitt asked Mr. Decker if the city is selling the snow dump area, and if the city is going to accrue some additional travel time. Mr. Decker stated that he wished he had other options, but it could take longer to get the snow removed from downtown. • • Council Work Session S • November 2, 2009 Page 3 Councilperson Getty stated that as far as hauling snow for the county, I would say no. Mayor Hurley stated that he agreed with Councilperson Getty, but he can go back to Frank and say that we've talked about it and at bare minimum without the City even making it, its going to cost him $159.00 to $226.00 per hour, and they won't have the choice of which that is. It's who Mr. Decker would have available and what equipment he'd have available, and he's not so sure that we're done counting for all the costs. But then the big question is while he is doing that, we've got our residents saying when are you going to get my street. Councilperson Getty stated that if anything, add a little more money to the help. Mayor Hurley stated he might be paying $250.00 to $400.00 per hour now. Councilperson Greenwood stated that they had a private guy over there with a pickup truck last year, and then they had problems with him. Lou fired them and then they got a new guy over there, but it wasn't a real sophisticated operation. Councilperson Getty stated that in the last few years we've had several heavy snowstorms and he thought the Street Department did a fantastic job by opening up the main roads. In a lot of the residential areas you had to drive through yourself or somebody come down that had a snowplow on the front of a pickup truck. Mayor Hurley stated that as winter wore on we had more and more people contacting us saying what a great job they'd done. I think they started to understand. Councilperson Hart asked if other places are having a greater problem than we are. Mayor Hurley stated that they all would face the same salt prices. Actually, we got ahead of the surge by buying. We need to, if we can, up our salt purchases a little bit more, but we are near where we used to be. There's just a lot of historical things. There's a few more miles of streets. It's just another adjustment for Steve. Its takes a little bit longer. There's a number of factors over a year but the main thing is the weather for one, and then the amount of equipment we have and the operators we have to do them. Steve gets into a real juggling act come 2nd and 3`d shift. Ms. Weidner stated that the Street Department over time, and this might have some flood in there too, but for FY 2008 we spent $316,000.00, for FY 2009 it looks about $237,000.00. I'm guessing we are probably budgeting around $75,000.00. So we have been significantly over budget for snow removal. And that's aside from the salt issue, which is also significantly a problem. Mayor Hurley stated that he will talk to Frank and on the private contractor, we have got to do more research and that has got to cost out somehow and we've got to be able to pay for it. With no further business before the Council, it was moved by Reggie Schmitt, seconded by Hart that the meeting be adjourned at 4:30 p.m. Ayes: Six. Absent: Cole. Motion carried. Carol Failor Deputy City Clerk