City Council

Winooski City Council Meeting Monday, December 16, 2019 6:00 PM Claire Burke Council Chambers 27 West Allen Street Winooski, VT 05404 Mayor Kristine Lott - klott@winooskivt.gov Councilor Hal Colston - hcolston@winooskivt.gov Councilor Jim Duncan - jduncan@winooskivt.gov Councilor Amy Lafayette - alafayette@winooskivt.gov Councilor Mike Myers - mmyers@winooskivt.gov Jessie Baker, City Manager - jbaker@winooskivt.gov I. Call to Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Agenda Review IV. Public Comment V. Consent Agenda a. Approval: City Council and Liquor Control Minutes of 12/09/19 b. Approval: Warrant as of 12/13/2019 c. Approval: SRF Loan Documents for Main Street VI. Council Reports VII. City Updates VIII. Regular Items a. Discussion: Burlington International Airport: Noise Compatibility Program Presentation – K Lott b. Approval: Consent to Welcome Refugee Resettlement per Executive Order 13888 – K Lott c. Discussion: Main Street Revitalization – 60% Design Documents – J Rauscher d. Discussion: FY21 Budget: Department of Public Works and Capital Improvement Plan – J Rauscher X. Adjourn MINUTES The Mayor called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. The Pledge of allegiance was led by Deputy Mayor Colston. Members Present: Mayor Kristine Lott Council Members: Hal Colston, Amy Lafayette, Mike Myers, Jim Duncan Officers Present: Jessie Baker, City Manager; Carol Barrett, City Clerk; Angela Aldieri, Finance Director; Heather Carrington, Community and Economic Development Manager; Eric Vorwald, Planning & Zoning Manager; Jon Rauscher, Public Works Director; Ray Coffey, Community Services Director; John Audy, Fire Chief Others Present: Gene Richards and Nic Longo, Burlington International Airport; Dave Saladino and Mike Willard, VHB; Nicholas Cordua; Bobby Arnell III. Agenda Review – None IV. Public Comment – None V. Consent Agenda MOTION by Councilor Lafayette seconded by Councilor Myers to approve the consent agenda as presented. Voted and Passed 4-0. VI. Council Reports Councilor Myers – said he stopped by the pool and the building frame for the competition pool is complete, Murtha is on schedule to have the pool finished by June. Councilor Lafayette – None Mayor Lott – said she attended the Finance and Planning Commission meeting last week and the discussion of the Finance meeting was knowledge and building foundations for the committee, at the Planning meeting we discussed parking data and recommendations from the Housing Commission. Councilor Colston –None Councilor Duncan – None VII. City Updates • Capitol for a Day – Tomorrow! – Excited to host the Agency of Commerce and Community Development as they seek to hear about the development projects happening in Winooski. Thank our partners for joining us. • Submitted the Working Communities Challenge Grant last week. • Omnes – Initial inventory and analysis to about 25 people. On Wednesdays, posters will move to OCC for feedback. Feedback box at City Hall now but moving to OCC too. Next public meeting 1/14 at 6:30 at OCC at Commission Meeting.  • Charter Commission – tomorrow night. • Final HR Manager interviews this week. Hope to make an announcement early in the New Year. • City Hall will be closed at 11:30 on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, and will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Police, Fire, and dispatch will be here 24/7 through the holidays. • First Month – rolling out this week o Free events throughout the month of January to celebrate the Roaring 20s! From Gatsby to Suffrage, come connect with your neighbors as we kick of 2020. o Partnership between Community Services and Downtown Winooski. VII. Regular Items a. Discussion: Burlington International Airport: Noise compatibility Program Presentation – K Lott Mr. Richards and Mr. Longo presented a Power-point presentation on the Burlington International Airport. Mr. Longo said this is a high-level overview of the current operations. Mr. Richards said we have a handle on our finances, balancing the budget, and working on deferred maintenance. We are also building a Quick Turnaround Carwash and will be signing the documents on January 15 for a hotel. Ground breaking should be in March and it is a Fairfield Marriott, 5 story hotel with 108 rooms. Mr. Longo spoke about: - Enplanements; Enplanements is boarding and departing the aircraft. He said projections are very good. - Terminal Integration – the Airport has been appropriated 10 million in supplemental discretionary funding to consolidate the TSA checkpoint into a new facility, expanding the Terminal Building. - Noise Program – Mr. Longo gave an overview of the Part 150 Noise Study. It consists of two parts; -Noise Exposure Map (NEM): Detailed description of airport layout, operations, noise exposure, land uses, and noise/land use compatibility of the study year and a forecast year. - Noise Compatibility Program (NCP): A proposed plan to reduce noise exposure, and identify land use mitigation measures to address existing non-compatible uses and land use control measures to prevent new non-compatible uses. - He also explained the Noise Exposure Map, Noise Contour, Sound Terminology, and Noise Compatibility Program. - He said we are performing the NCP Goals & Options and mitigation efforts. Mr. Richards said they will be submitting this to the FAA in January 2020 and anticipated approval is June 2020. It’s about 180 days to review and approve them. We have a tremendous relationship with the FAA. Mr. Longo explained the Land Acquisition and Relocation, Sound Insulation, Sales Assistance and Purchase Assurance. Councilor Duncan asked how much gets applied to each of these. Mr. Richards said Winooski gets the brunt of the sound and Winooski should be looked at differently. Age, population and proximty to the airport. We are going to advocate 5 million dollars per year. Councilor Colston asked if we needed could we ask for more. Mr. Richards said 5 million is the max and we need to learn how to manage the program. Mr. Arnell is advocating to have actual sound measurement. He would also like some information on play grounds and parks. Mr. Longo said a recommended option is to install noise and flight monitoring system. He also said the FAA doesn’t allow actual sound measurement, we cannot use them for noise exposure map. He said each property will designed and equally tested. b. Approval: Consent to Welcome Refugee Resettlement per Executive Order 13888 – K Lott The Mayor said on September 26, 2019, the Trump Administration issued Executive Order on Enhancing State and Local Involvement in Refugee Resettlement. The Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program must submit a funding request by January 21, 2020, including a letter of consent from any local municipality where refugees may be resettled. Amila Merdzanovic, Director of Vermont Field Office of the US Committee of Refugees and Immigrants has requested written consent to continue refugee resettlement in Winooski and has provided a template letter for signature. As Mayor, I have the authority to sign this letter on behalf of the City of Winooski. I have brought this item to our City Council meeting to ensure a public decision making process. MOTION by Councilor Colston seconded by Councilor Duncan to authorize Mayor Lott to sign the Consent to Welcome Refugee Resettlement per Executive Order 13888 as presented. Vote and passed 4-0. The Mayor called a 3 minute recess and the meeting reconvened at 7:15 p.m. c. Discussion: Main Street Revitalization 60% Design Documents – J Rauscher Mr. Rauscher said that Mike Willard from VHB will give a presentation on streetscapes and Dave Saladino will give presentation on cost estimate. The focus of this update will be on the streetscape design for feedback to further refine the 60% package. We will also present an overview of the current construction estimate. Mr. Rauscher said this is our 60% design check-in. At our previous meeting we talked about moving from concept phase design drawings to 60% design. Ex. Concept design is a 19 page set of base elements, 60% set is a 178 page document set of what Main Street is going to look like. He also said there are alternatives that we want your feedback on before we can move forward and try to incorporate that into this plan set. Mr. Willard said the broad overview will be talking about is the streetscapes enhancements. We will be expanding pedestrian accommodations along the corridor, adding street safe amenities that don’t exist today. Looking at stormwater infrastructure along streetscape, realigning on street parking. There will be a one-way bike lane headed uphill on Main St. A shared use bike lane on the downside and obviously utility upgrades. Lengthy discussion ensued concerning, what kind of pavers, maintenance, parking, reductions in parking runoff or flooding, and what kind of trees to plant. Mr. Saladino gave an update on the cost estimate, now that we advanced the design we have had the opportunity to go back and revisit some of the quantities and the cost estimate that we have established. The bottom line is the cost went down so we tried to be conservative as we were in conceptual stage. We were at 18.25 million in the conceptual or in the 25% plan for now and as we are approaching 60% were down to 17.4 million. This is still an estimate. There is still a number of things as we just talked through the streetscape amenities. We made some fairly broad assumptions at the upper end of the streetscape improvements. Mr. Saladino talked about the preliminary cost estimate. The 17.4 million construction estimate this includes 15% contingency, Engineering, R.O.W, Legal, Construction Engineering Services not included. See attached preliminary cost estimate. He went on to project phasing. There are three phasing options Option 1 Three Phases (North to South) Potential to start Phase 1 in 2020 (to precede Exit 16 and school construction activities) Defers more intensive streetscape sections to later years. Option 2 Early Work Package(s) (e.g. utilities relations, traffic signals, etc.) Remainder can be single or multiple phases Option 3 Single phase (likely 2-3 construction seasons) Councilor Colston asked about the cost implications. Mr. Saladino said Option 3 would be the cheapest, Option 1 most expensive and Option 2 is middle ground. The City Manager said regardless of what we move forward with, I think part of the trick of phasing is telling the story of what’s going to happen for the life of the project. One of things that might be challenging for our Community is if we decide to do the first phase while the 2nd and 3rd phase are still in question. Are we going to do them or are we not. I think our business people would feel a lot of anxiety about ripping things up once and are we going to rip things up again. Is it going to last 2, 3, 4 years. When we decide it we need to have a very uniform well communicated message about what the future looks like and that may mean putting off some decision about phasing and final plans until we are ready to commit to whatever the full project is going to be; whether it’s going to be a full project or reduced project. Discussion ensued concerning the different phases, impact on property owners, fair market value, and Green Mountain Power utilities. The City Manager said she does want to flag the reality that at the 60% design it is really the next jumping point, final design, getting ready for bid documents really kind of narrowing down what we do as a City. If there are significant changes you want to see us make in the engineering, we do need to know that in the next month or so, to move forward. Not saying that you can’t then decide how you’re going to phase it or what’s going to be phased. This is a critical decision point for the project so if there is additional information you need or guidance you want to give us, ideally through a vote, if there is going to be a significant change to what we’re going to do, that would be super helpful. Mr. Saladino said one of the big next steps beyond 60% is what any impacts are on private properties, utility structure will have to be on the ground, transformers on private property. Getting to that level we will have discussion of fair market value and potential. He said this milestone is a critical phase, so we can figure out the details before we reach out to property owners. The Mayor said she doesn’t think we are in a position to discuss phasing or select and approach without looking at our funding at the same time. d. Discussion: FY21 Budget: Department of Public Works and Capital Improvement Plan – J Rauscher The City Manager noted that this also serves as the quarterly municipal infrastructure goals update. Mr. Rauscher presented the Dept. of Public Works and Capital Improvement Plan presentation. The Outline is as follows: General Fund • Public Works Overview • Public Works Operations • Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Enterprise Funds • Water Budget + CIP • Wastewater/Stormwater Budget + CIP • Parking Fund CIP Mr. Rauscher briefed the Council on the: Strategic Vision – FY19 Accomplishments and FY20 Accomplishments to date. General Fund – Construction Project Update Myers Pool is ongoing and on schedule for end of May completion OCC HVAC Controls Upgrade – completed at the end of this month Annual Street preservations and Resurfacing – completed Senior Center Roof Replacement – completed Security Camera and Server Upgrades – completed Enterprise Funds – Construction Project Update Headworks Improvements – on-going Hickok St & West Lane watermain replacement – completed Pine Grove Terrace Stormwater Improvements – completed Strategic Vision – FY21 Goals and Priorities Included In the FY21 Proposal is as follows Public works Operations Budget: $1,194,806.14 Engineering $39,805.97 Streets Division $641,924.42 Grounds & Facilities $513, 075.75 Community Center $301,214.26 FY21 Public Works Operations Proposal Includes Add 0.6 FTE E O-1 Streets Staff (net cost =$28,100 Elimination of school plowing annual contract work. (-$26,000 annually) Eliminate 1 FT Seasonal staff person (-$18,700 annually) Councilor Lafayette asked Mr. Rauscher to explain the elimination of the school plowing. He said originally the school plowing operations, we contracted that out because our current staffing level couldn’t support the plowing operation, so our union actually said we can’t handle this, so yes you can contract it out. What we are proposing to do is coordinate with the school, either take that back on and what we can accomplish with our staff or they have the right to actually contract that work out. Mr. Rauscher presented the Public Works Revenues and Expenditures General Fund Capital Improvement Plan 5 Year financial tool for planning, construction or acquisition of capital assets Capital assets - useful life of three or more years and meet the following thresholds. He said the General Fund Reserve balance is $571,250. He also explained the existing debt service and the proposed debt service and the available capital expenses. Water Fund Operations & Capital Improvements Plan Mr. Rauscher presented the Water Fund Revenues and Expenditures and they are proposing a water rate of $40.63 which is a 2.5% change. He also went over the Water Fund Capital Improvement Plan. Sewer Fund Operations & Capital Improvements Plan Mr. Rauscher presented the Sewer Fund Revenues and Expenditures and they are proposing a sewer rate of $52.03 which is a 4.0% change. He also went over the Sewer Fund Capital Improvement Plan Parking Fund Capital Improvements Plan Mr. Rauscher presented the Parking Fund Capital Improvements Plan; On-Street Parking Fund, Existing Cascade Garage Parking Fund and the Proposed Abenaki Garage Parking Fund For the Full text of the FY21 Budget: Department of Public Works and Capital Improvement Plan see attached. There was some discussion amongst the Council on the rate increases. MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Colston to adjourn the City Council meeting at 9:40 p.m. Voted and passed 4-0. ATTEST:_______________________ City Clerk