The Finance Committee met 02/20/2023. The meeting was brief, clocking in at just over 15 minutes in length, and the committee unanimously approved all action items.
I’ve prepared a complete transcript of the meeting for your downloading pleasure.
Although it was a short meeting, several items did result in discussion.
VALLEY TRANSIT GRANTS
There were two items related to Valley Transit on the agenda including the request to approve the acceptance of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grants of around $3.4 million and a coronavirus relief grant of around $32,000 and the request to submit applications for a federal grant to pay $12 million for Phase Two of the Whitman Avenue facility remodel and $25 million for the downtown Valley Transit Joint Development Project.
These had been discussed in some depth at the Transit Commission meeting on 02/20/2023, but some questions also came up at the Finance Committee.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) understood there to be time limits on when the funds needed to be used and wanted to make sure that they would be used up in within the set timeframe.
The funds from the ARPA grants needed to be obligated by December 31, 2024 and expended by December 31, 2026, so those would be the first funds that they used. The other grants did not currently have a deadline, though Valley Transit General Manager Ron McDonald, said that they would get a deadline eventually. He said that they would use the first funds necessary as they moved forward with their projects.
Regarding the request for permission to apply for grants, General Manager McDonald reiterated what had been explained in more detail during the Transit Commission meeting, that Valley Transit had already received permission to apply for a RAISE grant for the downtown transit center joint development project and they were now asking for apply for another grant to go toward both the downtown project and Phase Two of the Whitman Avenue remodeling project. They were highly competitive grants, and notice of awards would come toward the end of June.
2023 LEAD/GALVANIZED SERVICE REPLACEMENT CONTRACT
Another item that garnered some discussion was the request to award Unit Y-23 Lead/Galvanized Water Service Replacement to Scott Lamers Construction, LLC in an amount not to exceed $500,000.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked how close this would get the city to their goal of the total replacement of all lead and galvanized service lines in the city.
Deputy Director of Public Works Ross Buetow responded that the target was a moving target. The particular project covered by the contract targeted private-side lead services. So, the city was in the middle of conducting ongoing home inspections and sending out letters to property owners asking for access to their properties to verify whether or not their services lines were lead. The city was relying on historic city records, which in many cases were just their best guesses, and there were some areas that they needed to continue to investigate.
This contract would be paid for with ARPA dollars. They intended to spend $500,000 this year and $500,000 next year, which would be the full amount of ARPA funds that the city had delegated to the lead line replacement program.
Although the focus was on replacing lead lines, galvanized lines were also eligible for replacement under the program. Currently, they had targeted 150 lines for replacement this year with just under 100 of them being lead lines while the rest were galvanize; however, if they identified more lead lines, those would take priority over the galvanized.
In light of the deadline to spend ARPA dollars as well as the the fact that many municipalities were looking to replace lead services lines and that contractors were experiencing a shortage of employees, Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) asked if the city was worried about being able to spend all the money by the appropriate time.
Deputy Director Buetow was not worried and said, “We’re confident that we will certainly be able to spend the two year’s allocation that we have right now.”
VOSTERS PARK REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT CONTRACT
The final action item that garnered discussion was the request to award the 2023 Vosters Park Redevelopment Project contract to Triple P Inc, dba Peters Concrete Co. in the amount of $97,000 with a 15% contingency of $14,550, for a project total not to exceed $111,550.
The park was facing the loss of many of its trees due to the Emerald Ash Borer and the Vosters Park contract had been put on hold twice while the city worked with the neighbors to come up with a plan for the park that met their desires. Those plans were now in place, and the city was intending to reforest the area so that it was similar to how it was before the loss of the ash trees. Director of Parks, Recreations, and Facilities Dean Gazza noted that WE Energies was donating some trees to help with the reforestation of the park.
Alderperson Hartzheim thanked the Finance Committee “for holding this item as long as we needed to in order to get the neighborhood impact assessed and the neighborhood satisfied. And I would like to thank the Parks and Rec Department staff very much for all the hard work they put into this.”
FINAL PAYMENT OF THE TELULAH PARK PICKLEBALL COMPLEX CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT
This was not an action item but was an information item letting the Finance Committee know that the project was completed and the final payment on the contract of $44,957.25 would be issued. The way it was worded made it sound a little as if it might need to be voted on, so Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) confirmed that it was indeed an information item that did not require a vote.
Director Gazza was happy to report that the lighting had been installed so they were able to wrap up the project. They had initially been waiting for the ground to freeze before installing the lighting so they wouldn’t tear up the ground with their equipment, but the weather had not been cooperative, so it sounded like they ended up just going ahead and installing it anyway.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1077211&GUID=45F1DE3B-F1DB-49AB-9CC8-AD4E52D0E7CA
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