The Finance Committee met 07/08/2024. The first 20 minutes of the meeting was taken up with a presentation on the 2023 annual audit, but during the last 10 minutes the committee focused on action items. These included easements and relocation orders pertaining to the Olde Oneida Street Bridge Project, payment to the city by WisDOT for the relocation of a water main in conjunction with the I-41/Ballard Road project, a budget amendment for the Public Safety Camera Program, and the 2024 Park Pavilions Roof Replacement Project contract.
All of these items were approved unanimously by the committee.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
REQUEST TO APPROVE TRANSPORTATION PROJECT PLAT AND RELOCATION ORDER FOR THE OLDE ONEIDA STREET BRIDGE OVER SOUTH MILL RACE PROJECT – The Olde Oneida Street bridge over South Mill Race is scheduled to be rehabilitated in 2025. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $2.7 million, 50% of which will be federally funded and 50% of which will be locally funded. As a necessary step to be able to put the project out for bid, the city needed to acquire land needed to widen the bridge and establish easements both temporary and permanent pertaining to the project.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) noted that this project seemed to impact the lock keepers house on Olde Oneida and wanted to know what effect the project would have on maintaining the locks. Deputy Director of Public Works Pete Neuberger said that the project would need to make reasonable accommodations for the affected businesses so that they could remain reasonably operational, but he did not have specifics on what the impacts to the businesses would be.
Alderperson Schultz asked if any of the businesses had concerns about the land acquisition, but Deputy Director Neuberger was not aware of any.
I-41/BALLARD ROAD AUDIT AGREEMENT FOR PAYMENT OF LANDS ACQUIRED FROM PUBLIC UTILITY – The city has an existing water main impacted by the planned construction project at the Ballard Road/41 interchange. The Wisconsin DOT is planning to put a diverging diamond interchange there, but that will result in inadequate cover over the water main in its current location. The state is going to cover 100% of the cost to relocate the water main so that it meets the city’s requirements.
BUDGET AMENDMENT MOVING $110,904 TO THE PUBLIC SAFETY CAMERA PROGRAM – The public safety cameras in question are not the Flock license plate reader cameras that generated discussion late last year but rather cameras that watch intersections, traffic flow, and pedestrians.
These cameras were scheduled to be purchased in 2022, but IT Director Corey Popp and Mayor Woodford asked for spending on that to be suspended while problems and performance issues in the network were dealt with. The 2022 funds were carried forward in 2023. In 2023 the cameras were still not ready to be installed because staff was testing cloud cameras on the system. The budget carryover from 2023 to 2024 did not happen.
Now all the testing on the cameras is complete and they are ready to move forward and purchase and install them, but the money is not available because it was not carried forward to 2024 as it ought to have been. This amendment brought forward unspent funds from 2022 and 2023 into 2024 to be used for the public safety cameras.
2024 PARK PAVILIONS ROOF REPLACEMENT PROJECT – This contract was awarded to Schulze Exteriors, LLC for $45,775 plus a 15% contingency of $7,000 to replace the roofs on the City Park Pavilion, the Memorial Park Amphitheater, and the Memorial Park Pavilion. The city had budgeted $170,000, but the bids came in over $100,000 less than that, which was very nice.
The contingency was 15% which was higher than usual. This was because staff was cognizant that the amphitheater at Memorial Park could have issues, and some of the sub-roof might need to be replaced.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1196033&GUID=AF498AB7-3475-4476-BB95-9795AB637391
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