Finance Committee Holds Two Items Until Next Meeting – Fire Station Floor Contract, Vosters Park Redevelopment Contract

The Finance Committee met 01/23/2023. The committee ended up holding two of the action items until their next meeting on 02/06/2023. One was a sole source contract for the floor epoxy in Fire Station #1’s rig room. The second was the Vosters Park redevelopment project.

I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussions around these two items.

SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT FOR FIRE STATION #1 RIG ROOM FLOOR EPOXY

Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) referenced Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim’s (District 13) recently raised concerns about the sole sourcing of contracts and indicated that while he intended to vote for the item he also was uneasy about sole sourcing contracts. “I want department heads to be aware that at some point in time, there’s going to be a marker drawn, and we can’t just keep sole sourcing.”

Director of Parks, Recreation, and Facilities Dean Gazza agreed that sole sourcing should not be used regularly but then went on to explain that the city had obtained multiple quotes for the project to replace the epoxy floor in the Fire Station #1 rig room. The quote from Parker Coatings which staff was requesting approval of had not been the lowest cost, but it had been the most competitive and appropriate when taking into consideration things like the quality of the coating, the warranty, and the overall value.

Additionally, per Director Gazza, this was not the sort of project that the city would typically put out for “bid” because it was a maintenance project rather than the building of new facility or a major public renovation. That did not mean, however, that staff had not obtained quotes.

Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) expressed a desire for items of this nature to, in the future, include more details about the quoting process and how staff arrived at a recommendation for a specific company.

Because there was no critical timing issue related to the contract, the committee opted to hold it for 2 weeks in order to allow staff to come back to the next meeting with more details about the various quotes they had received and what prompted them to want to go with Parker Coating.

2023 VOSTERS PARK REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT CONTRACT

Both Director Gazza and Alderperson Hartzheim (the alderperson for the district in which the park is located) had requested prior to the meeting that the item be held. They wanted to give time to hold a public meeting with neighborhood residents regarding the park prior to approving the contract.

Per Director Gazza, about half of the park is made up of trees, a majority of which are ash trees which are infested with the emerald ash borer. The city forester had been monitoring the trees and determined that, because they were starting to fall down, they were becoming dangerous and needed to be cut down. Neither the city nor the neighborhood wanted those trees to be removed, but unfortunately it was necessary and inevitable.

Mixed in with the ash trees were some oaks, maples, and other varieties that were not affected by the emerald ash borer. They were hoping to work around as many of those trees as possible, so that there are at least some trees left.

Finally, there were possibly some owls nesting in that area and the city was waiting to hear back from the DNR as to what the appropriate response to that was.

Prior to approving the contract, the city wanted to meet with the neighbors, go over these issues, answer their questions, and determine what they wanted to do with the park—plant 300 more trees? Install a restroom facility? Something else? That was the reason for the 2 week hold.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1077209&GUID=1903C1F5-6815-4097-8F54-AA3E0328D2A6