City Operations

CITY OPERATIONS Tuesday, July 8, 2025 – 6:00 p.m. Council Chambers – Olean Municipal Building Present: Members: Chairman Bennion, Vice Chairman Anastasia, Alderman Crawford, Alderman Robinson, and Alderman McCall. Others: Mayor William Aiello; Frank Caputo, City Clerk; Lens Martial, City Auditor; Bridget Marshall, City Attorney; James Sprague, Director of Public Works; Capt. Dave Bauer, Code Enforcement Supervisor, and Tiffany Taylor, Managerial Confidential Administrative Secretary. 1. Roll Call Alderman Bennion called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and asked that the record show that all committee members were present. 2. Approval of Minutes of the Previous Committee Meeting (Tuesday, June 24, 2025) A motion to approve the minutes of the June 24, 2025 meeting was made by Alderman Bennion, seconded by Alderman Anastasia. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. 3. Unfinished Business a. QR Code Parking Alderman Bennion explained the Council was looking for a cost analysis and full summary, and Mayor Aiello explained he sent this out via email. Alderman McCall explained they were looking to see the cost for staffing and the startup cost in comparison with the proposed revenues, and Alderman Bennion explained the Council is looking for the net profit. Mayor Aiello explained he will get this to the Council before the next meeting in two weeks. b. Street Grading Process Director Sprague explained he sent out an email to the Council with a few pages of a manual from the Cornell Asset Management Program. He explained the Federal Highway Administration has a local technical assistance program, and in New York it is embodied in the Cornell local roads program. He explained the Council can look on their website to see the full program and explained it is a not-for-profit agency that exists to provide technical assistance to enhance the sustainability of highways. He explained one of the things they have is this program described in the manual, the Cornell Asset Management Program Roads and Streets (CAMP RS). He explained it was developed out of the same question that we have in Olean as to how we grade our streets to plan a capital program to maintain streets better. He explained there is an inventory of every street the City has which was last updated comprehensively in 2020. He explained Appendix II lists all of the rating information that includes many different categories such as cracking, patching, condition of the edge, condition of drainage, and how rough the road is. He noted most streets in the City are asphalt and for those streets, the layered sections do not apply. He explained to his knowledge this is partially updated each year but has not been comprehensively updated since 2020. He explained once this CAMP RS procedure is done, the streets are numerically rated and with these ratings we have been using the worst first for the resurfacing program. Director Sprague explained his recommended approach is not to resurface the worst streets first. He explained the current thinking in the pavement management industry is to keep the good streets good first, and that the bad streets are already bad enough so we do the bare minimum to keep them legal and passable and plan appropriately to completely redo those streets. He explained that is where he would like to take the City, but that is a large capital project discussion for the future. He explained if there is a specific question about a specific street or condition, or things the Council feels we should give more weight to, then he can certainly field those questions. Alderman McCall asked if we have this software, and Director Sprague explained we do not own it, but can purchase it. He explained our current street rating is currently a manual process based on this program. Alderman McCall explained we could see if there is a summer internship program to help municipalities with this engineering work. Director Sprague explained there is a CAMP internship where college engineering students can be brought in for the summer, and we could bring on these students for an inventory of the street network in the City. He explained college kids are good with software and could load the City street information into the program if we decide to purchase it. He explained he has not done this previously with a municipality he has worked with as he has not had a whole summer worth of work for the students, but we could coordinate with our neighbors to find a full summer of work for the interns. Alderman McCall asked for pricing on this and explained the Council is trying to bring the City into 2025 where things can be less labor-intensive and have there be less opportunity for human error. Director Sprague explained there are also vendors that can do the process and video capture the streets. He explained how much you pay determines how much data you get. Alderman Bennion asked if the City hired an outside vendor and plug their information into the software. Director Sprague explained they could, although some vendors have their own software they want to sell. Alderman Crawford asked if an estimated cost benefit could be prepared so going forward the Council can budget accordingly whether we hire interns or an outside firm. He explained the Council would like to see which option would be the best and most cost-efficient, and since our engineering department is virtually one person, he does not have the time for this sort of work. He explained he would also like to explore down the road the idea of keeping the good roads good and waiting on the bad roads for a complete resurface. He explained he is not saying to not fix these streets, but we have recently invested millions into several roads and he would like to see us focus on keeping them nicer, longer. Alderman Bennion explained the biggest concern for him is being able to answer people when they ask why a street is not being done. He explained Front Street and Seneca Avenue are heavily trafficked and in poor shape, and sooner rather than later he would like to make these streets a priority and do a capital project to fix them. Director Sprague explained he would like to work on a capital plan for the entire City, and explained we can break down the plan however the Council sees fit, such as a capital plan just for the streets. He explained there should also be a capital plan for facilities, such as the City Garage. He explained the first question is how we structure the plan so it is comprehensive. He explained everyone is chasing the same dollars in the City budget. c. Salt Shed Director Sprague explained he presented to the Council two aerial photos, one showing the current City Garage and the second showing a proposed location for the fabric roof shelter for a salt shed. He explained one key change is that the current salt shed is not supposed to be entered in a vehicle without a ROSS system and overhead protection, while you can the new one. He explained the new one is open on the long side and forces reorientation on the site and disrupts the traffic flow. He explained there is a gate along the fence along North Barry Street that is not typically used, but it does work and can be opened to allow salt deliveries to come in that gate. He explained he has worked with the head mechanic and streets supervisor and this is the best place if that structure is put up for the salt shed. He explained if the structure was turned 90 degrees, all dumping and loading would be closer to the fuel area and no one is comfortable with the large trucks reversing in that area. Director Sprague explained we have a complete set of stamped drawings for the structure, and the missing piece is the foundation. He explained the vendor that does the fabric structure does not do foundations, and their drawing clearly states the foundation is designed by others. He explained that is a piece of the puzzle that was never completed by his predecessor. He explained if we want to put up this structure anywhere, we will need to obtain a structural engineer to design the foundation, which should not be a big task since the fabric structure designs are very complete. He explained they have touched base with the vendor who supplied the concrete blocks for Front Street and those are just blocks and the vendor does not have any engineering services to put together a design. Alderman Bennion asked for a cost and timeline. Director Sprague explained he can put that together and will need to get the foundation design and see if the Council is interested in moving forward. Alderman Bennion asked if the current salt shed is salvageable with some work and Capt. Bauer explained it is not. He explained it is so badly rotted the walls are falling out, and he doesn’t know how good the steel supports are. Director Sprague explained we also need to consider with the City Garage if we want to make the investment there or if we want to invest in a new site. He explained this is a fabric structure though, so it remains portable and we can pull it up and take it with us. Alderman Bennion asked what a realistic timeline would be from today to have a new garage with a new salt shed, and Director Sprague explained if we had a site, he would estimate it could be done by fall 2026. He explained without a site it would be 18 months and a full construction season at least. Alderman Bennion explained we should do a cost analysis to see about doing something to get rid of the salt shed that is a structural problem and keeping a sidewalk closed. Alderman Crawford asked if the salt is on the ground in the proposal, and Director Sprague explained a concrete or asphalt pad would be under the building. Alderman Crawford explained we will be talking about the City Garage from a long-term perspective, but in the meantime we need to see how to best band aid the current location. He asked the cost for a design for the foundation, and Director Sprague explained he would estimate $5,000 and can’t believe we would have $10,000 into engineering. He explained assuming we do asphalt instead of concrete, since we will view this as temporary, he would estimate another $5,000 for asphalt and stone. Alderman Crawford explained if $10,000 to $15,000 gets us something that will last the next five years, then he would be supportive of that, especially since a new City Garage will not be done overnight. Alderman Bennion asked how long Director Sprague will need to get together a cost, and Director Sprague explained he can come back with this information a month from now. 4. New Referrals for Consideration None 5. Committee Reports None 6. Adjournment. A motion to adjourn was made by Alderman Bennion, seconded by Alderman McCall. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at approximately 6:35 p.m.