Finance Committee

REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE JULY 17, 2013 A meeting of the Finance Committee was held on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Mayor Donnalee Lozeau, Chair, presided. Members of the Committee present: Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire, Vice Chair Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Alderman Paul M. Chasse, Jr. Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Members not in Attendance: Alderman June M. Caron PUBLIC COMMENT COMMUNICATIONS From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Contract Renewal for Public Access Television Operations & Management Services (Value: $85,000) MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AWARD THE CONTRACT TO COMMUNITY MEDIA SERVICES IN THE AMOUNT OF $85,000. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN DEPARTMENT: 109, CIVIC & COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES; GENERAL FUND OPERATING BUDGET; 56, OUTSIDE AGENCIES ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane How are we billed for these services, monthly or weekly? Mayor Lozeau I’m not sure that it’s monthly or weekly. We just have a flat rate with them for $85,000. I know it’s not weekly. We don’t do that. The shortest span we’d do would be quarterly. Pay it quarterly. Alderman Deane The contract expired at the end of June, and today’s the 17 of July, so they’ve been providing services for two weeks not under contract. How were they compensated if it wasn’t under contract? Mayor Lozeau They haven’t been compensated yet. Alderman Deane They haven’t been paid. Finance – 07/17/13 Page 2 Mayor Lozeau That’s right. Alderman Deane These people have provided the services for the last two weeks. They haven’t been compensated. These funds are being paid out of franchise fees. Mayor Lozeau This is in the budget. One could argue it’s paid out of franchise fees because franchise fees go into the city budget, but it is not the same franchise fees that the CTAB advisory committee recommend for equipment in this room or that sort of thing. This is a line item in the budget under civic and community activities. They knew that it was budgeted for. They knew that the budget passed. I think they just in good faith were willing to continue to provide services. Alderman Deane Just because an appropriation was approved in the budget doesn’t mean that the contract. That rationale of thinking doesn’t fly with me. I didn’t support the budget anyway. Just because the budget was approved with appropriations in it doesn’t mean that every single appropriation associated with any contract or expenditures is going to be approved I wouldn’t think. But some people think like that, I don’t. Mayor Lozeau The policy is developed as part of the budget. Then the contract process then takes place. If we’re talking about the finance committee versus something else, that’s a different discussion altogether. This is the third year that they have been providing this service. It was discussed. It was the intention, and I told the budget committee it was our intention to extend their contract for the next year. Alderman Deane Mayor, I support Access Television. I was one of the supporters back when a group of aldermen on this Board, some are now gone, fought vehemently against it and brought up all these inflamed ideas about what it was going to do. And you know what? It’s done none of that. I think it’s a good product. It’s delivered to the community for the citizens. Thank you. MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Contract Award for Jackson Falls and Margaritas Riverwalk Connection (Value: $25,870) MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AWARD THE CONTRACT TO GATE CITY FENCE IN THE AMOUNT OF $25,870. SOURCE OF FUNDING IS DEPARTMENT 181, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT; GRANT FUND; HUD EDI ’09 SPECIAL PROJECTS – RIVER- WALK ON THE QUESTION Mayor Lozeau This is to put in the fence from Nashua Street, which is the entrance to the Marguerite’s Restaurant area westerly to Peddler’s Daughter. Finance – 07/17/13 Page 3 Alderman Pressly I know I’ve been reading in the paper about the work at the falls. I have not had a chance to get there. I don’t think this is going to interfere at all. Mayor Lozeau No. Alderman Pressly Its total separate so they can go ahead with this project in spite of what’s happening with the falls. Mayor Lozeau Yes. Alderman Pressly I assumed that, but it’s always good to have it clarified. Mayor Lozeau Yes. Alderman Deane Is this fencing similar to what’s by the railroad tracks between Dunkin Donuts and Peddler’s Daughter or is it like the fencing like the city put up on the other side with the spear tops? Mayor Lozeau It’s the fencing similar to what’s at Peddler’s Daughter. It looks like this, Alderman Deane, if that helps. Alderman Deane Did we get that? Mayor Lozeau No, I actually asked for it today. I said if you have a copy it would be handy to have it for tonight. It’s the same as the Peddler’s Daughter’s fence. Alderman Deane What’s the ballard or is that the side view? Mayor Lozeau That’s just showing the side view. Alderman Deane So it’s round on the top. How high is it? Finance – 07/17/13 Page 4 Mayor Lozeau Forty-two inches. MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Aeration and Secondary Clarifier Upgrades Construction Phase Change Order #4 (Value: $31,132) MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND, CONTINGENT UPON BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS APPROVAL, AUTHORIZE CHANGE ORDER #4 TO THE CONTRACT WITH PENTA CORPORATION FOR A NET CHANGE IN THE AMOUNT OF $31,132. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN DEPARTMENT 169. WASTEWATER; WASTEWATER FUND; AERATION AND SECONDARY CLARIFIER UPGRADES ON THE QUESTION Mayor Lozeau This is actually because the valve over this tank leaked into the tank. It leaked onto work that was already done. This part had to be redone. It has to be brought back to the bare metal and repainted. You’ll see that this also includes not only the repainting but also sealing off the valves to all three tanks. The three tanks, as you may recall, we’ve been approving different components as they’ve moved forward. Only one tank has been emptied and then painted. That tank had the damage when the valve leaked. Before we get to the point where we’re doing the other two, we’ve sealing off those valves too in a way that should prevent them from leaking. Apparently with all the rain that we had had a few weeks back caused pressure. Somebody didn’t expect what happened and it leaked and did damage. It’s about six to eight inches worth of damage in the bottom of the tank. Alderman Deane Who was that somebody? Mayor Lozeau The somebody that didn’t know that there would be extra pressure. I don’t think it’s an individual person. I think wastewater didn’t expect there to be a problem with the valve. It happens. They’re old valves. They believe that they had done the right thing in how they shut it off. They did shut it off but I think we all know that wastewater, storm water finds the point of least resistance and ends up in places where we don’t want it. We’re trying to prevent that from happening again. Alderman Deane Well this is a valve. This has nothing to do with sewer backing up into people’s houses. Mayor Lozeau No but it’s the same fact. If the pressure builds up. Alderman Deane Normally if you have a backflow preventer but I don’t want to get into a dissertation. Finance – 07/17/13 Page 5 Mayor Lozeau They don’t have that on this valve because it’s supposed to come out of that valve and drop in. Alderman Deane Right. It’s a different situation. But the metal plates, it states on the memo that additional work includes shutting valves to all three clarifier tanks using metal plates to prevent any further possibility of sewerage leaking into the newly painted tanks. I’m kind of confused by that. If you have a valve, if the end is open, what are they going to weld the thing shut? Mayor Lozeau They are dismantling the valve and installing a metal plate. Alderman Deane So the valves will be totally gone? Mayor Lozeau They’ll be sealed off until the work is done. Then they will be reopened to operate as they normally would. Alderman Deane When I look at the next paragraph, I’m not being critical of anybody but if you read that first sentence: “Upon completion of these upgrades along with the new coating of the interior components, all three secondary clarifiers expected to be upgraded for the next 20 years.” That’s kind of confusing to me. This is the upgrade so they’re not going to have to be touched for another years? Mayor Lozeau That’s correct. We believe the upgrade will last for 20 years. Alderman Deane Who’s doing this work? Mayor Lozeau This work is being done with Penta Corporation. Alderman Deane Who has the oversight of the project? Mayor Lozeau We approved it I believe last month or the month before in Finance. I forget who’s doing the oversight. Do you recall, Mr. Gabriel? Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Woodward and Curran? Finance – 07/17/13 Page 6 Alderman Deane Who is it? Mayor Lozeau He’s asking if it’s Woodward and Curran, but I’m not certain off the top of my head but I’ll be happy to let you know. Alderman Deane Where were they when this issue happened? Mayor Lozeau It is Woodward and Curran. Alderman Deane Why aren’t they liable for these issues. Mayor Lozeau They’re not liable for it because the wastewater treatment plant took the responsibility of shutting that valve off. Now the decision that’s been made is we’re having a company now put these plates in and they’re be responsible if there’s another problem. Alderman Deane But when we subcontract all of this work we hire all of these people. Why are we liable? Mayor Lozeau Because we took the responsibility to shut off that valve before the work as done. It really was a simple thing that the people at the wastewater treatment plant thought that they could do. They shut off the valve. The work started. They didn’t expect there to be a problem. There was a problem. We’re taking corrective action. If there’s a problem again this company is going to be responsible because they’re putting in the plate and they are guaranteeing it is not going to leak. I can see how this would happen. You would assume that if you shut off the valve that would take care of whatever needed to happen. My understanding is the pressure built up in a way that nobody expected. It caused the damage. Alderman Deane I would just think if we’re paying someone to oversee this project and someone to do the work, why would our staff be involved with any of it at all to begin with. All of this work is subcontracted. All of these people are hired and we’re paying all of these people to do this work. Why would we even be involved in any part of it at all? Mayor Lozeau Because we didn’t subcontract somebody shutting off the valve. They thought it was just a simple thing, Alderman Deane. Finance – 07/17/13 Page 7 Alderman Deane Well it sounds simple, Mayor, but it’s a $31,000 issue. I’m not creeping on the staff, I’m just saying you would think if these people were hired to regenerate these clarifiers and whatever needed to be done to stop anything from flowing into them would be part of their contracted work. Mayor Lozeau I can understand that, but I believe the staff and the engineers, our folks that were responsible, determined that we wouldn’t need to pay somebody or have somebody take responsibility for shutting off the valve. They really thought it was just a simple shut it off. They didn’t realize that the valve would have problem with pressure. They don’t shut them off very often. The valves are old. They just thought we’ll shut it off, nothing will go to it. They’ll do their work and they’ll come back on. Work done. Alderman Deane It’s like any old valve. I know when I look at old valves like that I really hesitate to even touch them especially if they’re gate valves that drop down because you don’t know if the gate is ever going to come back up or whether it’s going to fail. Mayor Lozeau I’m glad we’re doing one tank at a time. I don’t disagree that it’s a costly mistake, Alderman Deane. I understand that. Alderman Deane And I’m not harping on the staff. I’m sure there’s been some policy now adopted by the public works director that when these people come in valves have to be isolated for work to be done. The staff shouldn’t even be touching them. That should be the contractor. If the valve fails, the city owns the valve. I understand that. It’s not the contractor’s fault if the valve is old and it fails. But from a liability standpoint we shouldn’t’ have anything to do with any of that. Just my opinion. Mayor Lozeau And that’s what this does. It looks at the other two valves, it does the same thing and holds the company that’s doing the work responsible Alderman Deane And they’re doing the work. Mayor Lozeau They’re doing the work. Alderman Pressly To me the important part of this discussion is that we learn from these errors. They’re human beings. Things like this happen. But the important thing is we learn from it. I think what I hear Alderman Deane saying is with the age of these valves no one should really be touching them except the people that are doing the work and responsible. Do you sort of look into how these things happen and make sure you don’t do it again? Finance – 07/17/13 Page 8 Mayor Lozeau I do, and that’s why the motion before you tonight is for all three valves now to be done by somebody else and they are taking responsibility for both sealing them off and then reopening them when the time comes. We learned from that first valve. There’s two others. Alderman Pressly You’re going to make changes, but I think the principle applies to a lot of projects with old materials. Mayor Lozeau Right. You’ll see there’s a lot of things at the wastewater treatment plant on site that are coming of age. We’re spending a lot of time in finance talking about wastewater more than any of us might like. We’re doing a lot of that right. Alderman Pressly It’s a sexy topic. Mayor Lozeau It’s just one of my favorites. I’ve learned more things than I’ve ever wanted for the rest of my life. Alderman Craffey This is a great way. In the business world, we call it root cause analysis. This is an excellent way of getting down to where in the future we won’t do this. The director of public works will probably include this as part of the contract from now on. Like you said, it’s a very costly mistake and hopefully they’ve learned their lesson and we won’t have to have this happen again. I like to see now they have taken gone from one valve and done all. They’re going to do all three at once. That’s much more common sense to begin with. Mayor Lozeau They’ll hire the same company to do the work. As they empty the tank, they’ll seal the valve because we’re keeping a couple of them open. But yes, this demonstrates to you that we learned and they are doing the right thing. I think had the rain not been what it was in the last month, I don’t think we would have had the problem. Alderman Pressly That’s an interesting issue. So a lot of these things are weather related. That has to be included in the mix of lessons learned, I think. Mayor Lozeau Absolutely, it does. We should not assume that we’re going to have a reasonable amount of rain. It was during the pressure of the rain coming down when we were having two inches of rain within a certain period of time. Everything kicked in and there was a lot of pressure behind it. It leaked into the tank. Nobody knew it leaked into the tank. You got six inches of sludge sitting in the bottom of this newly painted tank. Then they had to discover the problem and it was over a weekend or whatever it was. So yes, we have done a bit of an analysis on how it happened and how to not let it happen again. Finance – 07/17/13 Page 9 Alderman Pressly Just to clarify, they did decide that the accident was weather related too? Mayor Lozeau Yes. It was the pressure that had built up. Usually the valves open. MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: CSO #4 Storage Tank Construction Change Order #1 (Value: $120,000) MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AUTHORIZE CHANGE ORDER #1 TO THE CONTRACT WITH DELOURY CONSTRUCTION FOR A NET CHANGE IN AN AMOUNT NOT-TO-EXCEED $120,000. SOURCE OF FUNDING IS DEPARTMENT 169, WASTEWATER; WASTEWATER FUND; STORAGE TANKS – CONSTRUCTION ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane I find this change order rather disturbing. I find it disturbing that we met with the railroad and worked out some sort of agreement that I’m not aware of. But when I read thorugh this memo sent by the city engeiner, it states that due to continuing difficulties with the railroad requirements for the construction site beyond what was agreed upon during design and seemingly unreasonable daily demands for everyone entering the stie and continued threats of daily shutdown, legal action, personal removal from the site, a reliable access to the conistruciton site is needed to complete the project. What did we do to these people to cause all of this? It seems like everytime we deal with the railroad, it’s not a pleasant situation. Now it’s costing us $120,000 which I’m sure they’re benefitting from somehow. Mayor Lozeau Here’s what happening. Because we’re working on railroad property and we’re crossing over the rails to get access to things, we had to hire a flagger thorugh the railroad company. That’s a federal requirement. The flagger that we have on site is a retired railroad inspector. He has a very different approach to how we can and cannot enter the site. It has been particular difficult. As a matter of fact, I actually called PanAm and talked to them. They scheduled a meeting and worked through a lot of this problem. When I talked to the administragive staff there, they really came to bat and worked with us. I was pleasantly, well I’m not going to say surprised becaseus this is the second time I’ve called them to work on a project where we’ve felt like we couldnm’t find a solutaion and they readily came to the table and worked it out. What this is really doing is taking care of an easement that we already own. We own an easement through multiple properties. We have not maintained that easement. It’s had 30 or 40 years of growth. We cannot drive down it which is why we appreantly over the last 15 or so years have taken the path of least resistance which is entering the railroad property and going over the tracks. We are now going to survey our easement, determine what needs to be cleared, clear it and have access to our site from a different way. Whether or not the railroad was difficult or not, this is something we probably should do. We’re looking at all of the city’s easements because we’re finding that this has been apparently an ongoing problem. We have not maintained our easements to come of our interceptor areas and other things that we need to have access to. Most of them run along the river. When you look at the map for this and where it comes, we’re working with a property owner. We think it’s going to be less than $120,000 depending on whether or not we can access some of our access or whether it’s too close to the river It’s hard to tell on the map whether it’s overgrown along the river, if we’re too close to the river’s edge to be able to actually get a pickup truck to drive to these locations to do the maintenance on all the work that has to be done. Much like we did with our culverts a few years Finance – 07/17/13 Page 10 back when I and a group of us determined, and you’ll probably remember this from being on the public works as the liaison, we discovered that our culverts weren’t being maintained. We collected the information, put together a maintenance schedule, hired some summer interns and did a lot of the clearing, marked that and put it on a schedule. Our easements are much the same. Apparently we’ve had them for 30, 40, 50 years and woods have grown up in them or whatever has happened. People have encroached on them and we’re not able to use them. Now is the time we need it and we can’t get to it. It’s a combination of things but at the very least, we should be cataloguing our easements. We should go out and see what they are and whether we need them and whether they are usable. I think that’s a bit of a project. This has just come to the surface and now from my perspective just like the culverts that were brought to our attention, we better look at these and which ones do we need and what are we doing about maintaining them. Alderman Deane Back to my original question. What has been the issues with the railroad. You just spoke of maintaining an easement. When I’m looking at this it’s location of seven sewer manhole structures, survey of permitted easement, erosion control maintenance, cleaning and removal of trees, shrubs, vegetation and debris, grading of existing easement of vehicle passage including excavation and fill of areas, gravelling access road, repair establishing turf. What is the flagman’s issues? Mayor Lozeau What I thought I had described to you, Alderman Deane, was we used to be able to easily access what we needed to through the railroad property. This new flagger has held things to a different standard and it has been very difficult to access the site the way we used to. Instead of that, we’re looking at cleaning our easement so we can use our own easement and not have to go over the railroad tracks, through their gates, that sort of thing. Alderman Deane He’s not allowing the city to use the railroad property because there’s no easement? Mayor Lozeau He’s allowing us to use it, but his standards and requirements make it very difficult. Every subcontractor has to have proper insurance in order to go over the railroad land. They have to have it in their vehicle to hand to the flagger. It’s just a very different standard. It makes sense for us to say we have an easement, we should maintain it and we should use our own easement. Alderman Deane When we do that can we get rid of the flagger? Mayor Lozeau Yes. That’s the plan. Alderman Deane How much is it costing us per hour to have this individual onsite? Finance – 07/17/13 Page 11 Mayor Lozeau I can’t recall. It’s very expensive for railroad flaggers. Very expensive. I want to say it’s at least a couple hundred dollars. Alderman Deane An hour? Mayor Lozeau I think it might be pretty close to that. Alderman Deane A retired railroad flagger making a couple hundred bucks an hour. What a gig. Mayor Lozeau I could be exaggerating but maybe not. Alderman Deane What other issues are we having with the railroad on any of the other CSO work? Mayor Lozeau This is the first time we’ve had trouble that got to this level. This individual was actually visiting different offices including mine talking about people’s personal liability and I could lose my home. They’re not allowed to drive here. It was really a little bit disruptive in the beginning until we got everything calmed down. Alderman Deane Is he the only flagger on the east coast of this country? The railroad couldn’t provide us with another? Mayor Lozeau He’s the flagger that they gave us. As a matter of fact on his way from one office to another, he drove by Jackson Falls where we were putting in the sign that said “no left turn” that was approved and on the planning board back when they built Jackson Falls, he pulled off and scolded the staff there that was putting in the sign and wanted to see their official papers for being next to the railroad tracks. Alderman Deane He’s concerned about liabilities. We should have this guy go look at the at grade crossings in the city and ask them about that stuff. Mayor Lozeau And we’re working with the railroad on some of those. That’s why I was surprised to see this much trouble on a project that we all thought was going to be relatively simple. Finance – 07/17/13 Page 12 Alderman Deane Why wouldn’t we put this out to bid? Mayor Lozeau Because if we can get the work done while Deloury is on site, we should be able to have this done. The completion of this project is the end of October. If we went out to bid, we’d be delaying the project further and there would be costs associated with that. Alderman Deane How long have we known we’ve had this problem though? Mayor Lozeau This is very recent. Alderman Deane It says “due to continuing difficulties.” It sounds to me like it’s gone on for awhile. Mayor Lozeau No, it hasn’t’ gone on for awhile. This really cropped up over the last month or so, enough time to get it on the BPW agenda and bring it here. Alderman Pressly This suggests to me that we might have this coming up more often. Is there a plan for future issues like this? Mayor Lozeau That’s why I said we’re looking at our easements. The other projects that we’re looking with the railroad, the Broad Street Parkway, those things, we’re all set. Alderman Pressly It’s sort of general maintenance. I remember 30 years ago when a sewer pipe broke and we had the same issue of crossing the railroad tracks. It was far more complicated. It comes down to basic maintenance, quite frankly, doesn’t it. Mayor Lozeau If we were maintaining our easement, we would be using our own easement and we wouldn’t Alderman Pressly Have had that problem. Finance – 07/17/13 Page 13 Mayor Lozeau Exactly. That’s why I said it brings to my attention where are our other easements and are we maintaining those and which ones do we frequently use. Alderman Pressly To try to prevent this. Alderman Pressly Exactly. MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Contract Award for FY14 Pavement Markings Requested by Street Department (Value: $120,000) MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND, CONTINGENT UPON BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS APPROVAL, EXTEND THE CONTRACT WITH HI-WAY SAFETY SYSTEMS IN THE AMOUNT OF $120,000. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN DEPARTMENT 161, STREET, CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS – STREET FUND; 54, PROPERTY SERVICES ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane Who’s the Acting Superintendent of Streets? Mayor Lozeau There is not an Acting Superintendent of Streets. The Operations Manager is overseeing those responsibilities right now. Alderman Deane This should say the Operations Manager. I’m looking at the last sentence on the blue sheet: “Contingent upon” because the Board of Public Works hasn’t approved it. Mayor Lozeau I don’t think the purchasing manager would realize whether we have somebody acting or not, but that’s who has the responsibility right now. Alderman Deane On the last page where it shows the bid total, has there been a specific document generated to state where other than the long line striping, where a lot of this thermal plastic work is going to be done? Mayor Lozeau I think Mr. Gabriel put a packet in the Aldermanic Office. Yes. Finance – 07/17/13 Page 14 Alderman Deane It has all the locations? Mayor Lozeau It does. Alderman Pressly Can you explain more what the pavement markings are and is this a routine yearly expense? Mayor Lozeau It is a routine yearly expense. We’ve been increasing the amount that we put in in an effort to get more done. It’s the long lines that you see along the roadways. This contract also includes thermal plast crosswalk. It’s throughout the city. When you drive down a street and you see the shoulder lines, things like that, they fade out. Alderman Pressly With this contract will all the ones that need it be taken care of? Mayor Lozeau I think the majority. We’re ahead of where we were last year. Last year we had about $89,000. This is based on the recommendation of where we thought we needed to be. Not every line in the city will be done but more than we’ve done in the past. Alderman Deane What account is this being paid out. Mayor Lozeau It’s being paid out of the capital improvements account from the street department-property services. Alderman Pressly Is that the common practice also? Mayor Lozeau Yes. MOTION CARRIED UNFINISHED BUSINESS - None NEW BUSINESS – None Finance – 07/17/13 Page 15 DISCUSSION Alderman Deane I’d like to send my condolences out to the Asoski family for the passing of Pepi Osofsky. She was quite a baseball night. She was down at Nashua South for a number of years. She was over at the Nashua Pride. She is probably the loudest, thinnest baseball woman I have ever met in my life. Her husband was an umpire for years. Ralph. He passed away a few years ago. I’d see those two out and she would embarrass that guy to no end. It was funny. They were so opposite but they were a great couple. They were very nice people. She was very supportive of youth baseball in the city. You could see her at any field, lots of games and tournaments and over at the stadium. She’ll be missed. She was a very nice lady. Mayor Lozeau Alderman Deane, I am reminded to tell you that two items from the last finance meeting. We talked about Methuen Construction and what the contingency was. There was no contingency. Then we talked about Grace Fellowship Church on the $30,000. I have confirmed that they are in fact going to do that. Once that’s done I will follow up and make sure that you know that the payment took place. Alderman Deane Show us the money, is that what you’re saying? Mayor Lozeau If you want me to. I don’t know if I can show you the money, but I can ask them for a copy of the invoice they gave. Alderman Deane I’m not saying that they wouldn’t follow through or things wouldn’t follow through but this is a business. Mayor Lozeau I understand. Alderman Deane I respect people’s words but when it comes down to it, things should be in writing. Everybody else expects that from us. Mayor Lozeau I agree. You had asked me to confirm it and then to let you know when it happened. I’m just confirming and then I will let you know. Alderman Pressly I was concerned last time when that came up about the Main Street section in front of the church and the relationship to the tracks. Not doing that section really makes it look sort of unfinished. What luck have you had with dealing with PanAm on finishing that side of it like you did across on the other side of the tracks? Finance – 07/17/13 Page 16 Mayor Lozeau They haven’t yet given us a schedule on when they want to do the tracks. I don’t know if it will be this season or the coming season, but Main Street is one of their priorities for fixing the roadway there. Alderman Pressly But you could do the other side of the tracks. Is it because of the proximity to the tracks? They are closer to the church than they are the other side. Mayor Lozeau We’re trying to make sure that when we do the finish, we can follow through. I don’t want to have us doing construction on the sidewalk while they’re trying to do construction on the rail. I don’t want to stretch out that construction. I want to coordinate so we get in and out and they get in and out. Alderman Pressly You want them to do their work force and then come in? Mayor Lozeau I would like that. Our guys might tell us that it’s okay to do our work first if I know they’re coming while we’re done. That end of Main Street had such disruption the last time doing all that sidewalk, I don’t want to do it anymore than I have to. We may look at it while we’re doing Franklin Street. It may make sense to at least come around that corner. We’re looking at that. Alderman Pressly That was my next question as you come to the corner, where you plan to stop in preparation of the railroad. You won’t come around the corner and get all the poles in? Mayor Lozeau I don’t want to promise you right now, Alderman Pressly, that we are going to do that at the same time. What I’m saying is when we do Franklin Street and this work that we talked about at the last Finance meeting, if it makes sense because we’re already being disruptive on Franklin Street to come around and finish that corner up to the rail, we may as well do it. That doesn’t mean that we would necessarily go over then and do the Dunkin Donuts side. We’re actually going to finish all of Main Street at some point. The goal was to work from that corner. When the railroad talked to us about doing that work, we said we’ll hold off on that. We’ll start at the bridge because we had to start at the bridge because of the conduit failures and things that were happening there and the sidewalk washing out. Then as you know, we’re heading south. Alderman Deane That sounds good as long as we don’t have to hire that flagger. I had a question. The new yellow frames around all the traffic signals, it’s just a yellow frame? Mayor Lozeau It’s actually reflective tape, I believe. It’s not a frame. That’s a federal requirement on some of the CMAQ project. They expect you to do that. Apparently it’s a vision type of thing. When you’re driving a lot of people don’t see the traffic lights. It looks like the green or the red is just kind of a ball hanging in the air. Finance – 07/17/13 Page 17 Outlining it is a request that they had for the CMAQ project. We’re getting away with not putting it on Main Street because the majority of that work was paid for with city funds. Alderman Deane When is the CMAQ project going to start? Mayor Lozeau The CMAQ project has started. Alderman Deane When is the synchronization going to be done? Mayor Lozeau It’s not going to be done until all the hardware is put in. It will be within the year is our expectation., Alderman Deane Library Hill is going to be fixed within a year? Mayor Lozeau That’s the plan. I don’t have the timeline in front of me tonight, Alderman Deane. I didn’t expect to have a conversation about it. Alderman Deane I came down Main Street the other day, Mayor, and the traffic was a fiasco. It was at four o’clock in the afternoon. It was absolutely ridiculous. You could look down and see totally empty blocks. Mayor Lozeau And you’re all stuck up there, I know. Alderman Deane I don’t get it. Why can’t that be fixed? It blows my mind when I’m sitting there and it’s not like there’s a lane closed. It has nothing to do with any of that. You just see the progression of traffic. Alderman Wilshire sees it because she travels it. Mayor Lozeau I travel it too. I understand. Alderman Deane Why can’t we fix it? Who do we call? Mayor Lozeau Alderman Deane, don’t you think that if I could make it get fixed sooner, I would? Finance – 07/17/13 Page 18 Alderman Deane I don’t understand why we can’t fix it. Mayor Lozeau They have attempted to fix it on more than one occasion. Our traffic engineers. People who work for us whose responsibility is this job. What they’ve talked about is they can’t fix it the way it needs to be fixed with the system that we have. It’s one of the reasons why we got approved for the CMAQ project because we can show the state the amount of congestion we have which a significant amount of it is due to how the traffic lights don’t’ work well together. Alderman Deane It seems to have gotten worse. Something has to be done to make it better. I’m not saying to totally fix the problem because you’re telling us that can’t be done. But there must be some minor adjustments that can be done to make it better. There has to be. Mayor Lozeau I will look into it again. They have adjusted it on more than one occasion. I can recall when I got here having them fix the left turn off of Lock Street onto Main Street. Now you can get at least two cars out but before you were lucky if you got one out. Alderman Deane Here’s another problem. The right turn on red off of Canal Street onto Main. People don’t’ even stop there. They just keep driving through that. It’s unbelievable and that screws the traffic up going up Concord Street when you’re heading up Library Street. Mayor Lozeau I know. I understand. Alderman Deane It’s almost like that arrow should just be taken out of there. I know it would have a net affect on Canal Street somehow, but people are constantly blocking intersections. The police could have a field day if they sat down there. Nobody stops at that light. They just go through it out of frustration, I think, but I would really appreciate it if somebody in the traffic department could just take a look at that and see if they could turn the dial the other way a little bit to see if that would do anything. Mayor Lozeau I’ll take a look at it. Alderman Deane The current configuration right now is terrible. I’m not picking on city staff but if somebody could just do some adjustments to something to make it different. Just make it different so it’s not so boring anymore. Mayor Lozeau If it gets worse, I’m going to tell you it’s not boring. Finance – 07/17/13 Page 19 Alderman Deane Then tell them to call me. When you’re coming down off Concord Street, depending what time it is, sometimes it only lets four cars out. Sometimes it will let 24 cars out. The 24 car time is when there’s no traffic. Mayor Lozeau I understand that. Alderman Deane I don’t get it. Mayor Lozeau I know. I think all of us notice the problem. Alderman Chasse It is your ward, Alderman Deane. If you realize when they are coming out of that Dunkin Donuts parking lot, the very first one on the corner, they take an illegal left. Having a sign across the street on the tree is not working. That creates a lot of problem. And yes, I do see them take off on that red light from Canal Street. They just don’t stop. You’re correct there. I think maybe you got to get that flagger and see if he wants to get out there. As for the synchronization of the lights, it will all be taken care of once you put your Broad Street Parkway in. Mayor Lozeau Actually that is supposed to help. I know that not everybody is a fan but that is part of solving the problem on Main Street’s congestion. As far as people illegally going through a light, illegally taking the left out of Dunkin Donuts, it’s only as good as the enforcement. We also should have somebody down there during the peak times ticketing people that are blocking intersections. If we concentrate on that, it will help. It changes behavior when they see somebody is enforcing it. Alderman Deane There’s always this rumor that the city fouled up the synchronization of traffic lights to show how bad Main Street was so the Broad Street Parkway could get built. If you want consider that as fact, the project has been bonded, it’s been started. It’s still a long way from completion, so just put the lights back. People say can’t they just put the lights back to where they used to be. I’m like: I’ll ask. Mayor Lozeau When was that? When do you think they were messed up to encourage the Broad Street Park. Alderman Deane I’ve been hearing this for a long time. Mayor Lozeau Has it happened in the last five years? I’m trying to figure out if it happened on my watch. Because if staff did that on my watch, I want to know about it. I think those problems existed for a long time. The turn off of Finance – 07/17/13 Page 20 Lock Street, I noticed it my first couple of months. I’m not aware of that rumor. I’m just asking when you think that happened. Alderman Deane I think the worse part of the whole Main Street saga was when they tore up Route 3 and everybody was looking for an escape route off of Route 3. Now look at all the pollution and traffic on Main Street. They are on Main Street because the highway is torn up. Mayor Lozeau But they are still on Main Street. If you look at the modeling of the project with DOT, the turnpike is going to fail without the Broad Street Parkway in the next ten years. The expansion is not enough. That’s what DOT’s modeling shows. Alderman Deane So if we didn’t approve the Broad Street Parkway, Route 3 would fail? Mayor Lozeau Within ten years. It would fail to do what they designed it to do. Alderman Wilshire When you look at all these traffic lights and all the issues, they don’t stop there on Canal Street. Further down Canal Street when you’re going east, the lights in front of BAE, the light coming down Chandler, they’re all on one signal. For some reason you can go down Canal Street at midnight and if you hit one red light, they all go. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I’ve talked to the engineering department about it. That’s all part of the time issue, I think, as Concord Street coming onto Main. I think the whole thing is one big traffic nightmare issue that they have not been able to resolve. I think it’s all inclusive. Mayor Lozeau I don’t disagree. Remember Daniel Webster Highway before they synchronized? I remember that happening. That project was completed, I think, my second year here. People would talk about shopping and getting stuck in the traffic down there during certain seasons. When they took that off of the system that it was on and they put it on the new one, it resolved a lot of problems. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this CMAQ project is going to do everything their telling us it’s going to do. Do I think it will be perfect and make none of us sit at a light? No. But do I think that our community should notice a marked difference about it? That’s the plan. That’s what they told us. Alderman Deane I had heard if the Broad Street Parkway had been built, the Daniel Webster Highway traffic problem would have never happened. You also have a density issue down there. When you put a magnet facility down there on that large a piece of property and you have two lanes to get to it, hello? It’s nice to know that the CMAQ project is going to end all of this, Mayor. Thank you. Mayor Lozeau I didn’t say it was going to be perfect. Just so we’re clear. I just said it’s supposed to have a positive … Finance – 07/17/13 Page 21 Alderman Deane Anything is better than what we have. RECORD OF EXPENDITURES MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE THAT THE FINANCE COMMITTEE HAS COMPLIED WITH THE CITY CHARTER AND ORDINANCES PERTAINING TO THE RECORD OF EXPENDITURES FOR THE PERIOD JUNE 29, 2013 TO JULY 11, 2013 MOTION CARRIED PUBLIC COMMENT POSSIBLE NON-PUBLIC SESSION ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The Finance Committee meeting was adjourned at 7:53 p.m. Alderman Paul M. Chasse, Jr. Committee Clerk