Public Works / Traffic / Transit Committee

Chris Jenkins, Director Justin Messer, Assistant Director PUBLIC WORKS DIVISION , Cemetery Department Jody Gonzales, Superintendent Engineering Services Aaron Carroll, Director Public Works Vehicle Maintenance Department Joe Krinke, Superintendent Solid Waste Collections Department Tim Garrett, Director Solid Waste Processing & Disposal Department Lee Stone, Director Streets & Drainage Department Chad Hampton, Director PUBLIC WORKS AND TRANSIT COMMITTEE AND TRAFFIC COMMISSION September 14, 2022 10:00 AM. Sam King Room - 601 Broad Street PRESENT: Commissioner Mark Cochran Commissioner Bonny Askew Commissioner Jim Bojo Mr. Sammy Rich, City Manager Ms. Meredith Ulmer, Assistant City Manager Ms. Toni Rhinehart, Finance Director Mr. Chris Jenkins, Public Works Director Mr. Justin Messer, Assistant Public Works Director Mr. Aaron Carroll, Engineering Services Director Ms. Kathy Shealy, Transit Director Ms. Courtnay Griffin, Assistant Transit Director Ms. Aundi Lesley, DDA Director Ms. Julie Harris, Parking Services Manager Mr. Doug Walker, Public Information Officer Ms. Hannah Bagley, Keep Rome Floyd Beautiful Pfc. Eric Brunson, Rome Police Department GUEST: Julie Smith, TRED Executive Director Amy Parish, Pam Studios Jordan Budd, Pam Studios CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Cochran called the meeting to order. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the previous meeting were approved by common consent. 200 Vaughn Road • PO Box 1433 • Rome, Georgia 30162-1433 Phone: 706/236-4466 • fax: 706/236-4532 POLICE REPORTS Pfc. Eric Brunson gave the police August accident report. There were 171 total accidents for the month compared to 176 at this time last year. Of those, 73 involved injuries and 5 were DUI related. The highest accident intersections were Shorter Avenue/Redmond Circle with 7, Turner McCall Martha Berry/Hicks Dr. and Martha Berry Hwy at Veterans Memorial Hwy each had five. Commissioner Bojo asked about the speed monitor moved from Turner Chapel Rd. to Riverbend Drive. Mr. Carroll reported that it has been operating in stealth mode to capture base line data to compare with data collected when it is flashing. It will go live this weekend. Commissioner Bojo asked about the Main Elementary speed camera. Mr. Carroll said that is a under GDOT’s jurisdiction, but it appears that they have not gone live yet. He added that he will try to find out more about their plans. TRANSIT OPERATIONS Transit Updates Ms. Shealy reported she is working on the 5307 Capital and Operating grant application for FY24, which runs from July 1 thru June 30th. The application is due by October 30th. We have received slightly over $3.2 million from Federal allocations for operating and capital expenses. We will be on an 80/10/10 split with 80% being Federal and the State and local portions are 10% each. The five Gillig buses and four less than 30 ft buses are on schedule for mid-October delivery. Ms. Griffin noted we will send our maintenance supervisor and tech out to the manufacturer to inspect the buses in advance of the delivery. Financial report Ms. Rhinehart gave the financial report. She noted Main Line revenues mirror last year. Paratransit is up slightly We have some reimbursements through May on these July statements. In 2021 we are a little ahead of where we are now. Expenses mirror 2021 but are up slightly. She noted under Tipper we still have some depreciation and maintenance on the remaining buses that we are hoping to sell. Cash balance is down $200,000 because we have not caught up with our operating reimbursement. She added that we have received 100% funding the last couple of years but that has ended, and we will be going back to 50/50. Ms. Shealy noted that the Federal allocation is based on several things such as ridership and service area among other things. The federal dollars increase while we have free ridership. Public Work Committee/Transit Committee/Traffic Commission Minutes September 14, 2022 Page 2 of 6  Google Maps Transit Service Commissioner Cochran reported Mr. Jasper Jones emailed him regarding getting Transit routes uploaded to Google Maps. Ms. Griffin noted that she emailed Mr. Jones about this last month noting that we have been looking at this service, but we do not have access to the file format from Route Match, that is required to upload the data. She has also discussed this with GIS Director, Ted Edwards, who thinks he could try to recreate the data, but we are moving from Route Match to a new vendor within the next couple of months, who will be recreating that data for us. OLD BUSINESS Parks Hoke Park Mr. Carroll reported the Parks Hoke Park project continues to progress. The storm drainage was finished up last week and the site work should be finished up next week. We hope to be close to completion by our next meeting. Mr. Rich noted that Community Development can hold a ribbon cutting. Mt. Berry Trail Phase 2- Bridge Installation over Big Dry Creek Mr. Carroll reported the bridge over Big Dry Creek has been installed. The concrete finisher is not happy with the concrete, and he is coming back to apply an epoxy coating to it. IT should be completed in the next couple of weeks. Commissioner Cochran asked Mr. Carroll to check into the need or epoxy because it can wear down and get slick. Mr. Carroll agreed noting that we may not need the epoxy at all. Maple Street East Sidewalk Improvements from E 12th to E 14th Mr. Carroll presented photos of the Maple Street East Sidewalk project which is a sidewalk improvement project from E. 12th down to E 14th that included three row brick bands. The project is now complete and is being finished out. He encouraged everyone to come out and look at it. Lavender Drive Sidewalk Mr. Carroll reported the Lavender Drive sidewalk project will go out for bid this week. Bids will be opened on October 6th. The project is for a 5-foot sidewalk with a 4-foot grass strip run from West Central School up to Redmond Rd, which is over half a mile. We will install cross connections into the trail at GE. Commissioner Bojo suggested we investigate speed cameras for West Central School. Mr. Rich said we can investigate it. Public Work Committee/Transit Committee/Traffic Commission Minutes September 14, 2022 Page 3 of 6  Dodd Blvd Storm Pipe Repair Mr. Carroll reported we hope to have the Dodd Blvd storm pipe repair this year. It will be a huge pipe project. Mr. Jenkins added it is 1100 ft. of pipe. Mr. Carroll said we will continue to report on this project as needed. Stars on Broad Amy Parish of Pam studios introduced herself and her colleague, Jordan Budd, from Pam Studios. She gave a presentation introducing Pam Studios, their mission, and their marketing proposal to create a walk of fame in front of their building honoring selected individuals with a star plaque in the sidewalk. They suggested the honorees be selected by a Board formed for that purpose, the community would be allowed to vote while Pam Studios would make the final decision. They proposed the first honoree to be Summerville attorney, Bobby Lee Cook, because sold the building to them. purchased it, and he was purported to be the inspiration for the TV show “Matlock”. She noted this would be a tourist attraction funded by a SPLOST tax and fund-raising efforts then maintained by City Public Works. Commissioner Cochran thanked her for the presentation and said that staff would go review the proposal to discuss at the next meeting. Commissioner Cochran asked if Engineering has had a chance to look at Belmont Drive where the stormwater is flooding into the church playground behind them. Mr. Carroll said they are still checking on the flooding and has not completed his assessment at this time. Commissioner Cochran asked if there has been any progress on developing a residential speed hump policy. Mr. Jenkins replied that he is still reviewing neighboring speed hump policies and noted that Floyd County now has a policy in effect. Issues of greatest concern include whether HOA’s will cover the cost or not and determining the best placement. NEW BUSINESS Christmas Decorations on Broad St. Ms. Lesley reported that DDA has recently had all the median trees rewrapped in Christmas lights that will be maintained annually if not more going forward. The cost of the project was about $16,000 and we have been able to use donations from the Christmas Parade Committee towards that cost. With that, we want to order many more Christmas decorations for downtown. We plan to order lighted garland and bows to wrap all the period poles on Broad Street and the pedestrian bridge. We plan to order the traffic signal mounts of snowflakes and ornaments, with some smaller ones for the median trees and the town green which will total about $43,000. This is allocated in DDA’s capital budget request for the year. Public Work Committee/Transit Committee/Traffic Commission Minutes September 14, 2022 Page 4 of 6  Going Caching Event Ms. Lesley reported the Going Caching event will be held Saturday, October 1 st. Their main event will be held at the Vogue but it will not hold all their attendees so they would like to close Mitchel Plaza at 4 PM until 11 PM. Commissioner Bojo moved to approve the request. Commissioner Askew seconded. The motion carried. Broad Street Signal Timing Commissioner Cochran said he has experienced red lights not changing on the east side of Broad Street unless a car comes from the opposite side to trip it. He said this has happened at every street from 1st Ave to 8th Ave. He added that people have gone around him to run the light on more than one occasion. Mr. Carroll said that he will investigate it. Lake Conasauga Amenity Improvements Mr. Jenkins presented the history of Lake Conasauga noting it was built in 1954 by his great grandfather and grandfather back when they were trying to bring in GE. Garden Lakes owned it until the 80’s after which time EPD determined it was a Category 1 dam designation which means any breach to the dam could potentially cause loss of life. The Garden Lakes Realty then donated the lake and dam to the City of Rome to maintain and monitor. So, we have since been regularly inspecting the dam and submitting quarterly reports to EDP on its condition. The 38-acre lake has been a popular location for outdoor activities for a very long time. There is a 1.2-mile flat trail with no elevation, and fishing and in years past there were popular boat races and YMCA day camp held there. Mr. Jenkins noted the area needed some work so he called on Julie Smith, Executive Director of TRED, to go with him to look it over and recommend some things we could do to improve it for the Public. The ideas they came up with included the following: 1. Signage with the lake name 2. Mile markers. 3. Update the kiosk with information about the history of the lake. 4. History of the Boat house Commissioner Askew noted the local boy scouts might be able to get involved in updating the Kiosk. Commissioner Cochran asked about the road around the lake. Mr. Jenkins said it is in pretty good shape. Public Work Committee/Transit Committee/Traffic Commission Minutes September 14, 2022 Page 5 of 6  Ms. Smith presented a new trail map for the GE Trail. This map is now available and contain and can be obtained online. OTHER Commissioner Cochran asked if someone from Georgia Power could come to this meeting to explain about power poles not being removed. Mr. Rich said a Georgia Power representative will be coming to the next caucus meeting and could probably address this question there. Mr. Carroll noted that he understood that they are putting their lines to the poles underground to strengthen their grids but the service from the pole to the houses will remain intact. The poles are owned by either Bellsouth or Georgia Power. Commissioner Askew said he has received phone calls from Billy Pyle Rd. residents who have issues with stormwater running from the road to their yard flooding it and bringing trash with it. Mr. Carroll said he would investigate it. MONTHLY REPORTS The monthly department reports were distributed for review. ADJOURN There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Respectfully Submitted, Margaret Hollingsworth Margaret W. Hollingsworth, Secretary. Public Work Committee/Transit Committee/Traffic Commission Minutes September 14, 2022 Page 6 of 6