all right we'll call the meeting to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance United States [Music] ofice good evening and welcome everyone
uh first order business is a roll call please Tom mayor King presid council member at large Austin present council member fiser present Waller Pres Basin present HMA present Kelly present
pusta we have a quum your honor thank you Thomas I have number one is a motion adopt for the adoption of the agenda so move second all in favor I opposed motion carries item number two is a motion approving our Amendment from February 18th
2025 so mve second all in favor opposed motion carries uh under item number three recognitions and awards we have a letter of accommodation for officer Damen schroer M good things are going on good things are going on yeah we do like to point
out when we have employees do uh extraordinary work anything I got hit up here Stephen or ready for me to play y so I'll kind of just do a voice narrative over this this is one of our squad car videos um on February 4th
Damian was dispatched to a house fire it was a duplex he is our first arriving officer when he arrives just to the right you can see the Flames coming from the window there's a gentleman lying there uh Damien will run up the man has
a broken leg he cannot move on his own you'll notice Damian drag him from there you'll see debris and other items start to fall where that man was positioned um that would have fallen on him you can see the ground will start to burn Damian
brings him to safety our bystander there we would later learn is the suspect charged in this particular fire uh therefore why no was given but again if you just watch where the man was at you can clearly see uh had Damian not arrived when he had those seconds matter
uh that that man would have likely certainly been burned um if you know anything about Burns probably fatally as he as he laid there because no other help other than Damen was coming Daman kept come the move uh he was giving good radio traffic uh at this time alerting
other responding units to what was occurring what he was doing uh he's off frame right now this is a d dlex and he's working on getting those other folks out of their side of the duplex and you'll see him run up here with some of those documents uh carrying a young
child to safety as well there he comes there he goes uh and so like I said it was just I was in my office when this came out it was during the day shift I could just hear uh you know the dedication in his voice uh although he was of course had a lot of adrenaline uh he was doing exactly what
we want wanted him to do rendering Aid getting people to safety letting responding units know that people were safe people were out of the house um but again you look back at the house you look at that where that where that gentleman was uh this certainly could have had a could have had a fatal
outcome here and uh solely du the Damian's actions I think that that gentleman survived so we do want to give him um a letter of accommodation in front of ccil uh to recognize his incredible actions on that day so Damon
[Applause] he's elected not to give a speech so well there's no doubt Damian that uh
you saved that man's life there's no no doubt about it your actions that day are incredibly uh and I appreciate the service it's great to see all the officers supporting you I know every day every day you guys put your life on the line and do what you do so this is just clear video of what you've done to
really save a man's life so appreciate appreciate you and appreciate all the department and all the leadership that that you guys have and and what you do every day so thank you and I'd sure Lov if you'd came come through and Shake everybody's hand if you could please thank you excellent work thank you yeah there
it was within seconds of you dragging that man across the street that Flames are on would have been on top of him so well well done well learned accommodation uh moving on to under uh recognitions award we have a retirement uh herb wayer also from the street
department gosh was 25 years uh Stephen what do you got yeah herb was not able to make it tonight uh but we still wanted to recognize him and make sure that uh he gets a black a plaque for his years of service but uh herb was uh working for us in the street department
for over 24 years as uh in a variet of jobs as a Street Maintenance Personnel um but most recently probably about the last half of his career as a as equipment operator so herb would be out on the front lines with uh snow removal uh plowing and operating equipment
during those sorts of events as well as he was our our lead paver operator and also our chipper so big void to fill for us coming up this summer with all our Paving and uh Street maintenance jobs and we appreciate all the work that uh herb had given to us over the course of
his career so I just want to thank her for his years of service right on thank you Mr wer I know you're not here but we do appreciate the years of service 25 years is a good poke there's no doubt um and it's great to see that kind of longevity in the city of Austin and certainly appreciate his Service as well
thank you and he'll be getting a black mail to him or brought to him that's excellent thank you moving on to item number four looking for a motion for the consent agenda all moved second all in favor I opposed that motion carries under bid
opening and award we have item number five is a resolution receiving bids for asphalt emulsion Stephen part of our street maintenance program involves uh adding a chip seal to our thank you folks for coming thank you to our roadways to extend the maintenance or
the the lifespan of the existing pavement surface uh so before you tonight is the oil part of that chip sealing process Henry G migs was our only bidder they have been our only bidder for a number of years you can see here some of the historical prices those
really vary based on the quantity of oil that we plan to put down throughout the course of the Year this year we're uh ramping up our program a little bit and as such it reflects a little higher price for overall cost we have $100,000 budget and we'd recommend awarding to
Henry G migs for this work excellent councel any questions from Mr Lang otherwise looking for resolution awarding the bid so move second Tom council member fiser hi Waller hi Basin
hi fosma hi Ellie hi council member at large Austin hi resolution passes 60 your honor thank you Tom item number six is receiving bids for bituminous material and I do have to note that last meeting when when uh Andy said bit I didn't know we could abbreviate you'll be struggling with that pinus all these
years I could have just been saying bit so Stephen yes uh so with that this is part of our again our Street Maintenance our our street Crews do patching and pavement maintenance throughout the course of the summer to try to extend the longevity of
the asphalt pavement for that we we uh we D we uh transport all of the asphalt mix here to the city we pave it ourselves but this is to actually purchase the product so uh Ulen Brothers was the low bidder in the amount of
$998,000 component to that as well because it takes us time to drive to a a farther distance in this case ul and brothers happens to be the closer of the two asphalt plants uh so we estimate you know a total project of three total material cost of
$334,990 we will that's based on um 4,500 tons of asphalt we will adjust that tonnage quantity to fit within our budget but again you can see here below some historical prices mainly breaking it down by the ton here based on how the
the tonnage prices of of what we call fob fob asphalt um has increased over the years but with that we would recommend awarding this bid to Ulan Brothers excellent thank you Stephen Council any questions Mr Lang I have number six if not looking for
resolution moved second Tom council member fiser hi Waller hi Basin hi HMA hi Hy hi B I'm sorry Council M large Austin hi resolution passes 6 Z your honor thank we have
number seven is under public hearing we have a public public hearing on Street improvements on Oakland Avenue 1 Street Northeast to 12th Street Northwest and 1 Avenue Southwest South Main Street to 12 Street Southwest project 25103
Stephen yes so this is why I have the uh computer set up here for this presentation and the next one regarding our our public hearing on improvements for in this case as you mentioned Oakland Avenue West 1 Avenue Southwest um it's a street and utility
reconstruction project we've had multiple meetings on this we've had a lot of early on a couple years ago we started Gathering public input with surveys um then as we honed in on the project scope and the design uh through
the feedback that we received we had additional public meetings um I think our last we've probably had five to six public meetings on this project which is um we're trying to get the message out we understand that this is a big project
for our community um most recently we had a public meeting back in December and another meeting last week we presented this same information to uh different group and generally we've I I
don't we we've had a low turnout at our public meetings unfortunately um and this is a big project it it impacts a lot of different people we've we've tried to reach out in multiple different forms I think our our meeting back in
December we had maybe 10 properties represented and our meeting last week so 170 properties overall on this project so only only 10 represented back in September and now um our meeting last week we had four properties represented
three of them came back in December as well so we've got some people that are really getting informed and and then we have a larger group that is um you know hopefully they're getting their information in other ways for this project but with that um wanted to
present this at this time for the public hearing uh as you described the the roadway segments Oakland Avenue was last reconstructed in 1979 and First Avenue Southwest was last reconstructed in 1953 so we we've really got our bang for our
buck there on on First Avenue Southwest um you know a lot of question comes as to how we going to phase this project it's a very it's a 25 block project we can't do it all in one year so what we're looking at doing is constructing Oakland Avenue a portion of Oakland
Avenue first in 2025 we would start at the fire station and work West just past 7th Street near Hon's office somewhere there about mid block between sth Street and 8th Street we would we would end in 2025 then we would begin again in 2026
finishing off the remainder of Oakland Avenue from where we uh ended that first phase there again by Hon's office and carrying it down to 12 Street by quick trip we would also jump around and do a four block section of First Avenue the easterly end of First Avenue from about
Papa Murphy's to Main Street so that's kind um and then finally in 2027 we' do the the remaining portion of First Avenue from 4th Street back to 12th Street Southwest so that's kind of our three-year phasing of this
project um again three-year project uh it's complete reconstruction roadway underground utilities uh Place back 8 in concrete pavement our our standard aggregate base and subdrain subgrade materials uh there'll be concrete
sidewalks will be replaced on the project as well as concrete driveways that we signal light modifications decorative signal lighting along the corridor and a couple rrfbs or rapid flashing beacons that pedestrians can trigger to cross both roadways uh more
safely uh boulevards and bump outs will be restored with a combination of items could be grass trees landscaping and benches and then uh the underground utility replacement will include a a complete s storm sewer replacement
complete sanitary complete uh well Austin utilities is looking at complete replacement of water main um gas main they already started gas M last fall and then also looking to underground electrical wherever
possible uh in addition to all of that we have uh private telecommunications companies like Charter Lumen Metronet and arvig and we're coordinating with all of those on conflicts and relocations that are necessary as part
of the overall project as well uh this now getting in a little bit to the portion of items we've we've reviewed with Council and and the public before but we're proposing an 8ot sidewalk on the north side of Oakland and the south side of First Avenue we'll
continue uh we're proposing to convert the two-way to one-way conversion of Oakland Avenue from Main Street between Main Street and First Street Northeast that's by the from the fire station to fire stone uh we have some Island modifications at
1 Avenue Southwest and 12th Street Southwest uh we're looking at bump outs on both Avenues at Main Street Fourth Street and and 8ighth Street to help with pedestrian Crossings uh driveway modifications wherever possible trying to limit the
number of driveways and then also some improvements for Landscaping on this Corridor uh again this is something believe we've all seen before it's the design of the new roadway with uh two lanes of traffic in in the Westerly
Direction on Oakland and two lanes of traffic in the easterly direction on First Avenue parking on both sides just as it currently is those those driving lanes and parking lanes are narrowing up just slightly and then the 8ft sidewalk that I mentioned 5- foot sidewalk on the
other side and then um a very similar Boulevard width of 5T to what we currently have uh extensive utility replacement as shown in this figure this is what the one-way conversion will look like by the fire
station where as I mentioned previously uh as you come in from East Side Lake and you're heading westbound on Oakland Avenue this block is the everything is is two lanes of traffic in the Westerly direction from East Side Lake to to
Highway 105 except for this one block and it does create some traffic backups um during our 5:00 uh time period so we would recommend this one-way conversion and this is how traffic would be adjusted over to match up uh for
westbound west of Main Street there'd be a bit of a curve through this section for westbound traffic in addition to that uh we looked at how can we improve the free right or the the traffic movement at the First Street intersection so as as traffic
from First Avenue is coming east turning near the post office coming north on First Street they'll be able to make a free Right movement and continue eastbound on Oakland Avenue really trying to keep that traffic moving and flowing smoothly we looked at our intersections
to determine uh the the need and necessity of all of our signal lights how how to make improvements to those and with that we found and would recommend uh elimination of signal lights on Oakland Avenue at First Street
Northwest and First Street Northeast here at First Avenue Southwest in 12th Street we're proposing right now um traffic from Highway 105 and 12 Street to the south of town comes North they turn on this little uh log leg
roadway of First Avenue right by Sterling beauty salon and there's two lanes of traffic that could merge out onto First Avenue heading eastbound that becomes a bit confusing at times there are times the the vehicle on the leftand
side or the the left-and side will actually merge into the right hand lane as they as they continue East uh we have a lot of vehicles that will tend to turn and go directly north on 11th Street in this location so to try and and uh clean
up the traffic movements and patterns we're proposing to narrow this down to one merge lane uh from this little dog leg out onto First Avenue in the eastbound Direction by doing this we'll be able to make a larger Island in this area we'll
also be able to pull the stop signs and everything closer to the intersection to allow better visibility of of vehicles in all directions I mentioned um pedestrian bump outs on both Avenues at Main Street Fourth
Street both of those are signalized intersections and then at 8th Street as well both um both on First Avenue and Oakland Avenue at 8th Street on the west side of 8th Street we'd proposed to put these rapid flashing beacons we have
about 10 of them around town right now they seem to be a a very good um type of of signage and flasher that notifies Vehicles when pedestrians are there they're not flashing all the time they're they're pedestrian activated and
they seem to to grab the attention of Motor Vehicles the best of what we found to date mentioned driveway modifications um last summer we worked with different businesses to try to streamline and minimize the number of driveways going
to different properties here's an example with Godfather's Pizza they're existing location there they have six driveways and after working with them we've been able to narrow that down to three pulling some of those driveways away from the intersections which is always uh something we look at from a
traffic management standpoint and then also this allows them to better utilize their parking lot better um by eliminating all these driveways they're able to add additional parking spaces also we've talked previously about
landscaping and um this is our opportunity to uh beautify this area um you've seen with how long 1953 was the last time First Avenue was reconstructed in 1979 for Oakland Avenue so our goal
is to not be back here for another 50 years or more and we want to work to make some improvements now that show folks as they're entering our community that that they're somewhere they're they're somewhere different you're not just driving through a residential area
there's different things in this area uh we have some down here in the lower corner this would be the plan for Main Street as as a bit of an expansion of landscaping in that area with bench uh also the Arts Community has requested
saving a space here for a future art sculpture or uh something of that nature and we'll we'll save a space for that to be determined at a later date but just trying to incorporate all those different factors to make this a a one-time
project as we look at Project funding our our estimate for the project is $15.6 million and we have different funding sources uh allocated for this project with state and federal grants uh Municipal state aid
dollars sanitary sewer fund and assessments uh we have sent out assessment notices to all the adjacent property owners and those assessments amount to a little over $1 million for this $15.6 million
project so earlier this year we set assessment rates for Residential Properties at $688 per front foot commercial properties at $982 per front foot um for this project
there is no assessment for sidewalk all all Property Owners will be assessed based on this 2025 rate even if their phase of work is is planned for 2026 or 2027 they will we will hold this rate
for them for um for their particular phase we have repayment options and as we always do these repayment timelines go again along with the phase that they
are in so if they are in the 2025 phase of construction they will have until October 31st of 2025 to pay their assessment without interest they could pay 50% of it the remainder would go on their taxes when it goes on their taxes
it's spread out over 15 years at 5.75% interest if they choose to do nothing the 100% of it would go on their taxes spread again spread out over 15 years with interest so likewise if they are in the 2026 phase of construction they
would have until October 31st 2026 and again if they're in 2027 phase they would have until October 31st of 2027 all using the same rates as the 2025 people they've all received their notices with their dollar amounts for
the project uh here is again just a little bit more in-depth view of the phasing uh for 2025 the area in red is where we will start the work that is from First Street Northeast to just
short of Fourth Street Northwest we'll focus there in the early summer hopefully May and June uh and then the month of July we will tear out the four Street intersection with a goal to have that replaced in about a month
recognizing uh the time trying to get that done between school and open back up before school starts and then after that we'll go back to finish work in the red area while also jumping forward into the green area west of Fourth Street and working west of four street toward just
past 7th Street so that's the general layout um the start dates are all dependent upon our state plan review process our our plans have been over at the state since July January 17th we're
hoping to hear back from them soon um and to make any modifications necessary get those rals and plans signed so we can start the bidding process in hopes of that uh kind of May timeline but if if things get pushed back so we we anticipate about a 5 month construction
period for each phase of work so if we're not able to start in May and it gets pushed back until June then the completion would likely get pushed back from September into October and accordingly so it's just depending on when we can get started this would be our best case
scenario like wise in 2026 we're expecting about 5mon construction window again starting out to complete Oakland Avenue and then Midway through the summer jumping over to work on First Avenue Southwest and lastly in
2027 we would be working on the last eight blocks of construction uh leaving the four Street intersection in place until July where we would then tear it out and try to get it completed within that one month period of July maybe extending slight
into August but making sure we've got it back open for the start of the school year so that intersection is a key intersection for us to get done um in and around school and also the Main Street intersection we're working with
the um the parade route on on how best to accommodate that and we plan to continue the parade route on Main Street this year and make accommodations for them to get across Oakland Avenue this year and First Avenue in 2026 during
construction so that is uh my presentation we have handouts if anybody in the audience would like handouts those handouts again were all sent to homeowners uh with their assessment notices and their notice of this meeting
we have um we've started a couple years ago with a texting notices out to property owners and this is a this is a link where they can sign up for those those text alerts and we'll continue to work through this process and get as much information out there to the public
as possible with that I turn it over to council if you have any questions about this project very good thank you Stephen for the uh PowerPoint presentation certainly going to be a transformational project I know there's going to be some heartache as far as transport transportation and
reroutes but overall you get 75 years out of a road and 50 plus on the other one there comes a day and I think these uh going be well welld designed and I appreciate all the work that's gone in so far and I look forward to the transformation of that road it's going to be beautiful with the Landscaping the
lighting and certain and all the underneath they won't even be able to see so Council any questions or comments Mr Lang for opening up the public uh Stephen to one um the Chamber of Commerce very much thanks you for working with them on the fourth of July parade I know that was causing some
heartburn and uh it's a big deal so I'm sure some some EXT efforts are going to go into making that happen and they very much appreciate it um the other thing this is a question I was just kind of curious as to the reasoning for the second phase we're doing the west side
of one end and then the east side of the other versus just kind of having them by each other I'm sure there's a reason I was curious what it was we didn't want to have both one ways parallel to each other closed at the same time that would have pushed
100% of the traffic somewhere else M so that's why we alternated them in location to try to keep as much of First Avenue flowing past the construction zone of Oakland before we started the construction zone of First Avenue so that was the reason for alternating them
makes sense anyone else Laura um I think I know the answer to this question uh but I will ask it anyway I have heard from the public um traffic on Oakland and first drives too fast already and by
narrowing the roadway aren't we going to make that problem worse can you address that uh yeah Studies have found that narrowing the roadway actually slows traffic down um the more open visibility
that a driver has the more comfortable they feel to drive faster so by by narrowing things down crowding it down just slightly uh keeping the parked cars on both sides that slows Vehicles down so we anticipate that this design and
based on U studies that have been done this actually should have a positive impact to slow down traffic also the bump outs at the intersections is another method to slow traffic down people see different things happening in the roadway and that will tend to slow
them down um from their normal driving habits thank you um I guess my other question is I see there's quite a bit of a detour route going right right there on Second Avenue and I don't know if you're aware of this but I bought a house on 7th Avenue in Northwest and
then there was a street project and then I bought a house on 8th Street Northwest and there was a street project and now I have moved to Second Avenue and I'm going to have three years of rerouted traffic right by my house Stephen this really isn't personal right it is it's
all part of the plan ah or do you just look at the 5year CIP and go yes we want that neighb how can it AFF the most pain in my personal life all coming together but you know that was a
struggle looking at uh detour route you know if you go north of Oakland Avenue with the high school creates a big barrier for East West traffic Second Avenue was really our our best option for a D2 route as we all know locals
know the system they'll go where they feel comfortable but we want to make sure that we want to have a designated D2 route Second Avenue just unfortunately in this in your case um was our best best option maybe I can talk the kid into a lemonade stand there
you go great Revenue generator the most of the traffic Hey Stephen question for you looking at the Project funding I mean majority of this is coming from federal state grants and you know state aid there's obviously been a lot of you know uncertainty especially on the federal level the last you know couple
months do we still feel really good about getting those dollars or yes as good as we can yeah um I last Friday I had a discussion with uh Folks at our state aid office and they indicated that
these dollar amounts for this the $ 7.68 million for the state and federal grants are approved for our project okay good question though right on what about the timeliness of the federal
review do we see that being slowed down to a similar point that Bas made um right now with the dollars being approved for our project project does not have to go
actually to Washington DC for review if we were to for some reason get additional Grant dollars or something and change that 7.68 million it would then have to go to DC for another time of review so we don't plan to change
that amount um you know it would be nice to get more Grant dollars but that time review would be a killer for our project so right now we've had we've been in conversations with them the last couple weeks asking status trying to trying to poke but not be overly you
know aggressive with it and but so I hope that it will the review will come back here in the next week or so and then Stephen last question from my standpoint I know we've talked about this in the past but we've got you know a broader audience can you talk a little bit about kind of the timing of why this
year because obviously you know we've got Bridges out we've got like why are we starting in 2025 versus waiting a few years sure so five years ago 2020 I would say we applied for a Federal grant for the Oakland Avenue portion of this
project and we were successful in getting a 2.06 million Grant and that's really what started our thought process for this project um at that time we didn't know the timeline for the bridges or other wastewater treatment plant work
things like that and um when we get a federal Grant there is a a set time period for when you have to encumber those funds we need to bid and and encumber the funds here in 2025 for that original 2020 grant that we received um
we were successful in getting other grants for 2026 and 2028 um those we will advance construct or Advance those dollars and use them ahead of time but it's really that grant that we received back in 2020 that
really set the schedule for this we if we could choose we would do it differently but our project because of those federal dollars requires us to bid it in this timeline and the state was on the same requirements with their dollars that they received for the bridges that
set them on this timeline as well and unfortunately we didn't know that five six years ago when we were starting to plan for so but it's 7.7 we don't have to pay for out of our local taxpayers so there's a benefit to it okay anybody else comment all right I'll
open it up to the public anybody here from the U audience wishing to speak on item number seven all right then we'll look for a resolution for uh item number seven so moved second Tom
council member fiser hi Waller hi Basin hi HMA hi Kelly hi council member large Austin hi resolution passes 70 your honor thank you Tom contining with our public hearing we have item number eight which is a resolution on a public hearing for Street improvements of
Nature's Ridge fourth edition 14th Avenue Northeast 18th Street Northeast and 19th Street Northeast project 25303 Stephen this project will include the construction of about 1,800 ft of roadway to complete and which will make
buildable about 30 residential lots to finish out the Nature's Ridge Subdivision uh included with a project like this is site grading for all of those lots and roadway uh San and then full utility construction of sanary
sewer storm sewer water M Austin utilities with their three main utilities of water main Gas and Electric um roadway construction this this roadway will be constructed with our typical
roadway section using asphalt pavement curbing gutter Agate base there'll be sidewalk on one side of the street and there will be Street lighting and then finally after we are done with the project we'll will seed and restore all of the Disturbed areas our this project
is planned to go out for bids here in March if approved tonight uh and with a goal of early construction beginning in May May and carrying through August we've determined uh estimated costs for the project for the street
improvements the storm sewer the sanitary sewer Austin utilities water Gas and Electric and City staff expenses at a total of $1,710 th000 these costs our intent is to have the final
assessment Hearing in the fall after the construction is completed we would then refine that doar total to whatever the final construction amounts were we would then send out final assessments to the that would go to these 30 developed
parcels and 100% of the cost would be assessed back to these 30 properties right now at $1,710 th000 we're estimating that to be $57,000 per lot for the utility and
infrastructure they those lots will have and the owner of those lots will have until October 31st of 2025 to pay full amount without interest or pay at least 50% the remainder would go on their taxes spread
out over 15 years at an interest rate 2% above whatever we are borrowing it at the time option three is to do nothing and the entire amount would go on their taxes again spread out over 15 years with interest it would first show up on their taxes in 2026
and another caveat to this is that once the owner developer sells that lot to another party whether it be a future homeowner or a builder 100% of that assessment would need to be paid off at that time so as the Lots start to turn
over uh we will be recouping our money uh we hope that and the developer hopes that this development uh continues quickly like many of his his others have in this area and we could have our money paid back somewhere in that 5year range but ultimately if Lots start to sit for
a little bit they would still just be making payments on that each year on their taxes until a time where 15 years was to expire and then the full amount would be would be um paid up by that timeline so with that I guess here is
just a a photo uh from of the area and then here Council will recall we recently went through and pl added the area those plat approvals occurred at previous meetings along with the developers agreement and what I laid out for you tonight was all called out in
the developers agreement with uh extension of utilities and roadway construction so with that I'll turn it over to council if any questions I might have ni Stephen Council any questions comments do appreciate the uh creativity on this one with uh kind of
getting ahead of the development and and uh kind of one of those takes money to make money situations so I appreciate how this is going to turn out and I think it's going to be positive um with that anybody here from the public wishing to speak on this item yeah hearing none looking for
resolution FR number eight so move second Tom council member fiser hi Waller hi Basin hi HMA hi heli hi council member large Austin hi
resolution passes 60 your honor thank I have number nine is a resolution setting public hearings for April 7 2025 for Street Improvement project assessments resolution so moved second council member fiser
hi Waller hi Basin hi HMA hi Elly hi council member large Austin hi resolution pass is 60 your honor number 10 is a resolution approving a request for City Hall flooring Tom so as part of the asbest removal we had the asbest
removed in the old engineering uh area um included with that they had to rip out the carpet of course to get to it so we requested um local flooring companies to give us a bid to recarpet the entire area we actually got two bids this time from local flooring companies Huffman
flooring came in at 15, 333 and slinsky flooring came in at 10,950 as you may recall Huffman got the bid for the lower level um but the low bid is now slow in for the upper level up in the old engineering area and we' request Council approval to to do this
project from the building fund very good thank you Tom looking for a uh resolution so moved second Tom council member fiser hi Waller hi Basin hi HMA hi heli hi
council member at large Austin hi resolution passes 60 H thank you on to item number 11 is a resolution approving a gambling uh premises permit for Austin Youth Hockey Association need a resolution so moved second
Tom council member fiser hi Waller hi Basin hi HMA hi Ellie hi Council M large Austin hi resolution passes 60 your honor thank number 12 is a resolution approving the agreement for Design Services with whks for sanitary sewer
lining project Stephen you may recall at a previous work session Brian cing with whks was here to present our findings from our six or seven-year inii study where we were inspecting all of our sanitary sewer lines our manholes and
all of our sanitary sewer infrastructure and from that now we've identified criteria areas to make improvements and in our 2025 CIP we identified a project in the amount of $775,000 to do sanitary
sewer lining with this project we identifi the Wildwood Park neighborhood and Sterling neighborhoods and though the unique part about those two areas is the sanitary sewer lines run down the back lot lines they don't run out in the
street so any trees in your backyards you can imagine the roots and everything that could be impacting our sanitary sewer those are the two areas we have identified we will before you tonight is a proposal from whks in the amount of
$48,700 to develop this project for CIP lining which is a cured in place pipe inside the existing sanitary sewer pipe essentially a pipe within a pipe um and you can see there the different uh
work that they will be conducting on the project to develop these plans and specifications through that process we'll go back and we'll review uh what what we found through that six-year plan and study and make sure that Wildwood and Sterling are the proper neighborhoods to get started on this
year and brief conf Sation with them we think it still is but um we'll develop that project making sure that we're using that project budget to um to hit the the most necessary areas for sanitary sewer lining here in 2025 but with that I would recommend approval of
a contract with whks in that amount to develop plans and specifications very good thank you Council any questions Mr Lang and item number 12 Stephen does the 48,000 come out of the 750 or is it on top of
it will it will come out of our sanitary sewer fund either way that 775,000 comes from our our sanitary sewer fund um it we we could do it either way I would guess it will come out of the 775 so our actual project cost will be
around 725 and are they going to set up a road mapap for the next however however many years would that that fee or is this going to be kind of an ongoing fee that we can expect as we continue with this we with our current sewer rates we
have you know we're going to generate about $7.5 million doar a year with our current sewer rates um a portion about a million of that goes toward the sewer collection team and their operating
budget about 2 million of that is going to go to the wastewater treatment plant operations I'm going to get my that's no about I think it's more like 3 million of that goes to our new um operations at
treatment plant a million is going to go toward Street reconstruction projects like we just talked about with Oakland and all of the sanitary sewer work on there and a million dollars is going to go toward other projects This falls under the other projects so we have about a million dollar per year planned
for these types of lining projects maybe it's trunk main sanitary sewer replacement so it's it's costs that are already in our rates that are out there that we're all paying for sanitary sewer fees so this isn't a new charge it's
incorporated into our yearly Revenue I guess what I'm trying to understand is you know we've talked a little bit about Staffing in some of your departments and so when I see $50,000 if that's going to be an ongoing thing that's like a third of an FTE probably um is this something
that you think that expense is going to be annual or are they going to set up the whole plan that we're going to execute with that fee uh no this this fee is just for this work planned in 2025 and it's likely every one or two years
we will do lining projects like this um and need design help if we don't have the staff and manpower to do it inhouse that's helpful to know thank you any other questions for I number 12
I looking for a resolution so moved second Tom council member fiser I Waller hi Basin hi HMA hi Kelly I council member
large Austin hi resolution passes 60 thank number 13 is a $50 donation from Mr Gary Hart for the 2025 flower program um a resolution to accept that donation we appreciate his gift so
moved second Tom council member fiser hi Waller hi Basin hi HMA Hi H hi council member at large Austin hi resolution passes 6 Z thank you I number 14 uh is granting the
planning and zoning department the power to contract for removal of a junk Andor legally stored vehicles at the following locations uh location is 14a 2101 5ifth AB Northeast the law head property need a motion so moved second all in favor I
opposed motion carries moving on to Citizens addressing the council any citizens in the audience wishing to address the council and items that weren't on the agenda all right thank you for coming honorary Council we have none right now um so moving on to reports and recommendations Craig uh thank you mayor
members uh on the desk I noticed an article in the Star Tribune uh from Chip scoggan that had done a previous article on Austin so I thought I'd bring it to your attention otherwise J Julie kleinfelter has an item yes thank you I just wanted to make
people aware that next Saturday on March 15th at the library from 10:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. we will be having a ComicCon um if you've got kiddos in your life or if you like Comics that that's going to be the place to be on March 15th um from 10
to 11: we'll have you'll get to meet the 501 Wolfpack Star Wars characters um walking into the library and running into Darth Vader is kind of cool on a Saturday so come and check those out and then at 11 o'clock the author Drew
Brockington will be there giving an author talk um he's the author and illustrator of cast astronauts which is a kids comic so there's going to be lots of things going on we're going have local businesses in house free comics movies free crafts and prizes so come
check it out excellent thank you Julie uh on to uh city council comments or reports Becky start with you I have nothing your honor Jason nothing your honor posty nothing you're H je nothing you're honor wait a wait a minute
Laura we're on such a rooll yeah sorry thanks Laura um so so on behalf of the parks recreation forestry board I want to congratulate Randy Hoffner on his retirement um we wish him well he um
served the City of Austin really in incredible ways and um and did it with a smile on his face so um wishing him all the best also thank you to Lynn Thompson who stepped up in the interim position and covered um really with no warning at
all uh and kept the the parks and um Recreation and Forestry system running we really appreciate that um I also want to say thank you to the city um Mau County and impact Austin for the work they've done on the comp plan to date
it's a huge um massive project and there's really been a ton of community engagement and I'm very encouraged to see all the people um weighing in sharing their ideas and and the passion for improving our community um it's very
exciting to see and we have a a great future and then um finally I will announce again mark your calendar June 4th is 4th Avenue Fest there will be open swim there will be live music there will be Arts activities it will be um
sunny and 70 just a light breeze so I've put the order in on the weared thank you thanks Laura Paul nothing H all right the only thing I have is uh it was really heartening to see the the amount of folks that showed up for the employee engagement from Health and Wellness
Community put that or committee put the uh soup and potato or I'm sorry soup and hot dish Extravaganza uh last Tuesday and I I don't want to gloat but I was a second second place winner and Mr Clark got a participation ribbon for his baked Z zii
but when you bring a tared hot Dish anywhere in Minnesota it's going to be an award winner so I'm proud to be second place I thought it was an amazing turnout and uh certainly great food and I did my best of eating most of it so um with that I guess Mr Simonson you
looking to speak to somebody or all of us yes thank you mayor city council have some pictures I'd like to show the city coun it's been a while Matt it's been a
few years since you've been here yes welcome back I would like to talk about U the city ash asht tree removal project going on U this is a picture of
a ash trees on my front Boulevard and uh last summer I asked the the city if they would treat it to make sure it stays healthy and instead uh the city apparently marked for being taken down
but on on my street 7th Avenue Southeast apparently every ash tree on the whole on all of boulevards were marked for removal and I didn't realize that cuz most of them were healthy U anyway uh
here's another picture I'd like to show could I have this picture shown to just put it right on top of the other one there Matt can I give your can you give your address please for the record uh 607 7th Avenue Southeast thank you and
uh like here this picture was taken today uh there a feww the tree removers from Dodge Center apparently removed all the trees on the whole on my whole Avenue and then they're getting to mine and and I was telling them these are healthy trees right down the block and
uh there's nothing wrong with them they were all fleed out real well and u i uh was protesting that they would take these uh especially these two big old old trees down U and here's another picture I
have it shows a an emerald ashb tree that's been diseased those splits in the bark and such that's supposed to be just one example otherwise last summer when I
pedal around Austin on bicycle all over I'd see many dozens of ash trees that were dead or dying and anyway I told Park and recck about it that I imagine there's some hundreds in the city that are dead and dying but um by far most of
them are still healthy and apparently the then I was told by one of the city people oh there's not hundreds in the city that are dead and dying there's thousands so evidently they they were ear marking all the Ashes to be taken down
indiscriminately and U then the logs apparently are being sent to a sawmill location South town and I asked the dod Center tree cutters what sawm is this you have a dress for it and oh they didn't they had no dress but they we
know where to take them but uh anyway I would like those large trees saved CU they were healthy and uh anyway to stop them otherwise the tree trimers were were at them today and so I told them all I'm going to mention to the city
council about this but uh anyway apparently I was talking with Jason of parking wreck and he seems to support this uh this a tree program taking all the ash trees down and uh anyway I
protested it and then what's going on here the the logs are all going out to his well Ash Lumber can be valuable of course but uh but anyway uh my neighbor U has there a big Tre Tree on my
neighbor's property line just east of me and um for 50 years I've been watching that tree get fat that ash tree get fatter and fatter and uh anyway 5 years ago for some reason most all the leaves turned crinkled up and fell off and GE
what's going on here but anyway since then the tree looked healthy again with healthy leaves the last some many Summers and whatever but does the city council have a a a plan to take down all the ash trees
indiscriminately I app I appreciate your comments mat I think you know we we understand that you're opposed to taking down the trees but I appreciate what you've done you can pull up a chair and I'm going to turn it over to Jason Sean to give us kind of the way the city uh takes to uh treating or or removing our ashes so please have a seat Matt and
we'll we'll address your comments Matt you can please sit we've we've heard so thank you now Jason will help you understand I guess I've said basically what I want to say we get the point thank you Jason want don't you run us through a little bit of how these City L
and assess the damag trees and take down or save sure I can kind of give you some background and then be happy to answer any further questions Council might have so um prior to setting out to inventory and identify trees for removal the city kind of adopted a treat first campaign
so our goal was to go through all ash trees on City maintained properties and identify those trees that we determined through our certified tree inspectors to be treatable so the difficult the difficulty with that was we identified
many trees this time of year last year so um it's it's somewhat difficult to identify the real level of how infested an ash tree is before Le out which is like this time of year you have to base it on the blonding which is the the bark
that's been um picked away from the woodpeckers uh you have to you know determine by small holes from woodpeckers that maybe they've been in there looking for the emerald as for but it's not there so they've moved on um to give you an example we have um looked at
maybe half a dozen trees recently that we've put on hold for the next round of removals that we think might stand a chance for treatment we still treat first so we're going to give T Leaf out this spring to identify whether they're treatable or
not they're likely not going to be but we want to give every tree a chance so um so we're going to wait till Leaf out to make sure they get on the next round for tree removal or for our in-house U City tree crew to remove those trees um
I'll also say you you had mentioned and we talked on the phone the other day it was me that you talked to um you had asked about the tree removals going south of town so we put a lot of effort and a lot of thought into the removal process when we contract out the the
fact is there's too many trees there was too many trees in within the City of Austin on City properties uh to remove in a short period of time because when they become infested they become a hazard very quickly they deteriorate very fast so that was much more than we
can do with our in-house crew which is why we went to city council we also went to the hormell foundation who was is very generous in providing some grant funding to allow us to contract out the removal of trees so they don't become um a hazard and fall on houses and cars and
trails and playgrounds so um when we contracted out we thought quite a lot about what are we going to have these contractors do with the trees the city decided we did not want to get in the business of you know having a
staging area for for tree stumps for tree branches for tree chips uh I'm not a fan of moving things twice so we decided on the bid specifications to to specify that any contractor bidding for
the removal of trees on City properties is responsible for the complete removal of the ash trees the chips however they wanted to do it within the scope of the quarantine that that's that's mandated by the state so you know they can't move
it outside of the quarantine area but that took the city out of the business of providing property for them to to to put uh trees chips only to have to be dealt with a second time so we this first round of bids we received 15 bids
all of which those companies understood that the trees must be removed the the branches the tree stumps the chips have to be removed off site the stumps are to be grinded um and black dirt to be back filled and compacted that's all part of
the bid um process so I don't know if I answered every one of your questions but Mr Mayor if you have any other followup or thank thank you Jason I appreciate it uh before we do a journ I also want to uh comment that we do have nine nine March anniversaries of employees want to read those uh Chad herd has been 24
years with wastewater treatment plant Ernie hamro 11 years Wastewater Jim Hatton streets department nine years Tim Donovan uh building department n years Alex Kaiser nine years with engineering Ted Sherwood Police Department three years Paul CTS streets three years Eric
Christians Library two years and Anna lthr Library two years so thank you for those nine employees that have anniversaries in March appreciate their service with that looking for a motion to adjourn to March 17th 20 don't move all in favor I I I opposed we are
adjourn about a 5 minute break till the work session thank you