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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-11-20 DTPC MIN7Xf \IA711PLALE OF MI PARKING COMMISSION MEETING NOVEMBER 20, 2008 MEETING MINUTES MEMBERS PRESENT: Mike Rice, David Korte, Chief John Gannaway, CSO Dennis Pasket, Bill Turnblad, Rob Gag, Curt Newcomb, Kevin LaCasse, and new member Dave Junker Welcome to new member, Dave Junker. COPIES TO: All commission members. DISCUSSION RESURFACING LOT: Shawn Sanders with Public Works would like some parking lots resurfaced. He was unable to attend this meeting. Action: He will be sent an email advising him of the next meeting, 12/18/08. CAMERA UPDATE: Chief Gannaway discussed the downtown cameras. They are pan, zoom, tilt cameras that were demo'ed during Lumberjack Days. They are weatherproof, but not wind proof. They will be fixed, though, to light poles. They have their own internal source and they also have solar power. The cameras themselves aren't that expensive, it's the storage and the server that's the most expensive. We would like to store up to two weeks of information in storage. Chief Gannaway has a company coming in on 11/21/08. Chief Gannaway has already received two bids from companies. The Parking Commission had originally agreed to fund the cameras to cover the parking lots as we want to cover all the parking lots. The parking ramp's going to need about a half a dozen cameras. We need to find a bidder that will work with the construction company or the Owner's Rep, which is the stumbling point right now. We want one camera system for the parking ramp as well as the parking lots. With the addition of the parking ramp and more storage, the cost has gone up (originally it was going to cost between $50,000 and $60,000 just for len downtown cameras) and the parking ramp would add six more cameras. Chief Gannaway is guessing the cost would be around $100,000; the server alone and building the network is going to be about $40,000. We're going to have to scale back downtown cameras as we don't want to scale back the ramp or the parking lots. Grants have been applied for, but Chief Gannaway hasn't had any responses yet. We have to decide on a bidder and then we have to talk about the cameras. We have to get the parking ramp people and the camera people on the same page and then we'll know exact costs and then we'll go from there. Dave Junker asked if the cameras were motion activated and Chief Gannaway advised that they were not, they record everything. Dave Junker advised that this was a software program. Each camera has its own IP address so officer's can be parked out of sight and watch the lot from a distance. Chief Gannaway advised that he would look into the motion sensor cameras. The goal is to have the cameras up and running by next summer even if the ramp isn't done. Mike Rice asked what the official cost would be for the downtown cameras as well as the parking lots and Chief Gannaway advised that to do the first nine cameras which would cover the parking lots, build the network, and do the server was about $55,000 (which was the lowest bid we've had so far). To add the other seven cameras we would need to cover what we want to cover is roughly $20,000. The reason why it's more expensive than other cities is because there are relays from the antennas for the cameras and they have to go up hills so we have to put in relay points on the cameras (one of them would be on the top of the lift bridge) and the server would be at the police department. Washington County Dispatch will be monitoring the cameras as well as the clerical office and squad room at the police department. The cameras for the ramp are built into the ramp budget. Chief Gannaway wants to see where the numbers run and Mike Rice recommended that the Commission contributes money for the downtown cameras. Chief Gannaway would like to bring some solid numbers to the meeting before anything gets voted on. Maybe what we should do is do the downtown right, right now and then whatever the ramp ends up being we just make sure the server and network has the capability and adaptability to incorporate that into our camera system. Based on the outcome of the grants that come in, the parking commission makes up the difference if the price is higher. The downtown cameras are wireless and the ramp cameras are hard- wired. The question brought up is will the ramp have the conduit in it to hard -wire the ramp cameras during construction to save on costs down the road? FIXING UP LOWELL PARK: Per CSO Pasket, the no parking area for the handicapped bathroom at Lowell Park has been painted, no parking, and it looks good. CSO Pasket didn't put a sign in this area as there really wasn't a good place to put one. PARKING RAMP: The only thing new that Bill Turnblad has is a revised schedule of things. The plan sets went out to bidders last Friday. The Owner's Rep is Paul Oberhaus and he's with CPMI out of Eagan. Their phone number is 952/854 -3663. He was hired by the city under a separate contact. There's going to be a pre -bid meeting with those who have indicated an interest that will be November 24 and then we have a deadline for receiving bids on December ,7th which means the bid won't go to the council until the first week of January. The biggest discussion item we will be bringing to the council` is going to be the numbers. The discussion will be what the bid is, this is what we have; whit do we keep and what do we get rid of. The cameras are in the bid package. We'll know by December 17 at the latest what the numbers are going to look like. New counsel members were voted into office this year. They're going to need as much prep as they can get to get up to speed with this project. When we get numbers and know what's going on, we'll share that with everybody well in advance so questions can be answered. We believe the bid is going to come in at about $5.5 million and we have $5.1 million. If it doesn't come in at or around budget then something either has to be delayed or removed. There are some reserve funds that may be used depending on how close to budget the bid is. The way the bid was structured is the base bid will not remove any parking spaces. Some of the deducts are for example; landscaping, finishes outside, (equipment will be bid separately), and there are others. We think it's a good climate for bidding. We've been flooded with inquiries so we hope that translates into good bids. If the bid comes in high there are things that can we can wait on, such as the booth, or other funds can be found. The contractor's deadline would be the end of December. If the contractor is good at winter construction, we might be able to get it done in ten months. Chief Gannaway asked where the equipment will be parked. Bill advised that the staging area for the steel is in the parking lot across the street from the post office (on 3` Street). They'll put the boom up where the little gazebo is by the spring outlet down below the hill and they'll just swing steel from there. They are also going to fence off everything on the west side of 2 Street from where the parking stalls are on street. There will still be two -way traffic on 2 Street, but part of that street will be fenced from there basically all the way to the site. If a remote staging area is needed, they could possibly use the old maintenance building area. Another spot is the Trinity Lutheran Church lot which may be leased to the city for staging purposes. There is a significant cost for winter construction so that may be an issue. We didn't give a start date but the only thing that needs to get done this winter is to drive the piles. There isn't anything critical about getting the ramp done now that it's been approved and bonds were sold. With a twelve -month window, it should be a liberal amount of time to get done as the structure isn't that complicated. This isn't a time sensitive project and we are somewhat flexible but we need to be aware of businesses with parking permits. The company that demo'ed the cameras downtown included the parking ramp into the bid so they bid on the ramp and downtown. They may have to work with the contractors; that detail needs to be looked into. All testing on the ramp as it's being built goes through the Owner's Rep and we're going with a fixed price. The other item of interest is that RFP bids will be sent out within the next several months to firms who come up with operations plans. Once the bids come in and we know what the project is going to cost us we will have a better idea of what we can afford then for a study. Some of the things that were discussed is if we have to restructure pricing in all lots downtown to make sure we're not giving things away and discourage people from using the new ramp. The study will look at things like do we restructure how we price parking downtown, do we look at on- street parking again. They use the framework of what other central towns have done. We don't have to accept what they suggest. Within the next couple of months the RFP's will be sent out. The revenue generated by the ramp is not paying off capital expenses, which works in our favor. All we have to worry about is operating expense. VERN STEPHAN (SP) PROPOSAL: Mr. Stephan cannot have a main lot and most likely has a counter offer for staging area. LEVEE PROJECT: Bill Turnblad didn't have a levee update. The big hang -up of course is that it's a federal project. Anything over cost is the city's responsibility in their minds and so they don't care what the cost is and all the estimates came in so high. One major problem is they flawed the initial study, didn't do the proper soil work, didn't take into account it's going to cost about a million dollars just to correct soils down there just because of pollution problems. The pricing they did was`based on $5.00 a gallon for gas and hauling all of that bad soil out to where they dispose of it elevated the numbers. Right now we're fighting over prices; for example, we can save a half a million dollars by aligning the sewer mains ourselves. Right now we're playing with numbers and we still think that next summer we'll still have a project, they'll start, but until we get some numbers we're comfortable with we can't have the counsel sign the agreement. We have another meeting next week with their appraisers. Another big aspect has been the value of the land we're giving them. We bought up all the railroad property and the corps saying it's worth about one third of what we paid for it. There is some serious problems with numbers. During the actual construction, even if the lot was done, it won't be available. We're not going to know what the schedule will be for that until we have real numbers, until we agree on the project, and then we look at scheduling. Scheduling is going to be difficult because you want to have your main lots open for Lumberjack Days and other significant events downtown, so we're going to do it over two years instead of one just so we can accommodate some of this. STILLWATER MARATHON: The counsel preliminarily approved the marathon. There's going to be an issue with downtown parking. The merchants are concerned that runners and families will take up all the parking downtown. Chief Gannaway didn't think it was that big of a deal, just block off one of the lots like any other event. The route is pretty much a done deal. What they're going to do in theory is have everyone park at the high school and Anderson Windows lots and bus them downtown. The number is something like 3.2 people per runner to come out and support them and a lot this depends on how many runners there is going to be. We're not donating any time to the race. We're billing the people putting on the race. There are 82 intersections to be blocked off and we're going to have to get help from other agencies. There will also be a number of volunteers. The race starts at 0700 Hrs. Chief Gannaway is unsure why the downtown merchants are complaining when these people will be shopping in their stores, eating downtown, etc. There may be some bad blood between some of the merchants and person putting on the marathon. Chief Gannaway brought up at least ten different issues that would adversely affect the city but the council still approved the marathon. None of the downtown businesses were at the council meeting to voice any objections to the marathon. PARKING ENFORCEMENT: Chief Gannaway advised that the parking enforcement went very good this year. He had very few complaints and things ran smoothly. This was the best group of seasonal employees that CSO Pasket had to work with. Visitors made the most complaints last year and this year visitor complaints were way down. AGENDA: Parking ramp update Levee project update Camera update Stillwater Marathon update Public Works /Engineering update