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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Public Works/Planning - 12/17/1991 OCITY CLERK PUBLIC WORKS COMMITI'FEE DECEMBER 17, 1991 -- _ PRESENT JIM WHITE TONY MCCARTHY STEVE DOWELL JOHN BOND LEONA ORR CHUCK MILLER DON WICKSTROM DENNIS BYERLY TOM BRUBAKER MR. AND MRS-4 RUST ROGER LUBOVICH JOYCE BECKER JIM HANSEN JEAN PARIETTI GARY GILL CHRIS MAREK ED WHITE MIKE DAVIDSON ' STORM DRAINAGE UTILITY Wickstrom explained that the- only thing that was different from what was presented last time is the schedule. We also have an IBC recommendation. Since we are talking about drainage utility changes; adjusting water rates and a three month meter reading operation, it was suggested we address these as a package. If we go with the drainage utility and do all these changes and then come back in a couple of months and do the street utility, citizens will be wondering what Is happening. By packaging all the changes at the same time, we would be able to send out one letter to the customers. Wickstrom continued that a public hearing is proposed for the end of February or first of March. A Council workshop to go over all these changes is proposed for January 14. White indicated his understanding in what is being suggested to try to package but stated that he has some real copggxns about the total package. He recognized that this is a long term process but, specifically, what improvements are actually being addressed with the utility. White expressed a real concern with '"zeroing in" the acute problems. Wickstrom stated that this is a 6 year program to resolve the Mill Creek problem; complete the Lagoon facility which resolves the 212th and 76th problem and a'.so the 180th problem, and also implement some facilities up 'on the Garrison Creek which will resolve the shopping center flooding and the apartment flooding problem. In the first year of, the' utility, we did the Upper Mill Creek Detention Basin. Next, 40 wanted to get the Lagoon implemented to address some of the valley flooding, which has effects on businesses and communities and everyone who uses those roads with the primary emphasis being acquisition of the balance of the right-of-way. In acquiring the right-.of-way we need to complete the construction plans so we can proceed. We are also targeting some money into the Mill Creek to detomine what the Public Works Committee December 17, 1991 Page 2 solutions are and what we can afford to do. White asked, recognizing that there is a jurisdictional question, if there was any possibility we could do something along tho west side of Mill Creek, even if only a couple of feet, possibly sandbagging. Wickstrom explained that our first step would be to determine what our options are. Possibly a combination of building a levee along the west side with gates on the outlets so that the west side does not backf low through the storm drain system and flood in from behind, which is happening right now in some instances, and maybe raising the elevation on the Earthworks to hold some of the water and reduce the outlet. But until we can hire some consultants to assist us to look at those problems we cannot present a real solution. Wickstrom stated he has targeted about $1.6 million in that basin to address both the flooding and an erosion problem that is causing significant damage down through the Earthworks reducing up the capacity of the whole system. Getting the erosion out of the creek will preserve the capacity longer and will require less maintenance time plus cut our costs. Every time we clean the Earthworks it's a significant cost ($80,000) . These are the real target areas for the program plus we have targeted some money to continue to "put out storm drainage problem fires" area-wide such as slides from some outfalls in the Cambridge East area. Dowell stated that he has heard from some of the neighbors to the north, on Central, that at one point the water on the east side of Central was 2 feet higher than the water on the west side of Central. Meaning that either the pipes weren't big enough under Central or they were too full of silt in order for the water to get through. Wickstrom explained that when we re-built Central and re- built the pipe capacity, we upgraded the capacity to match Bowen Scarff's. Obviously we are not going to tear down Bowen Scarff's to put in bigger culverts - we just tried to match the capacity which is about 150 cfs. Dowell stated he felt that the pipe was too small to handle and equalize this build up of water, or possibly the pipes were full of junk. Wickstrom explained that it could be a combination of both. Dowell asked if there Is some way that we clean those pipes. Wickstrom stated that we do clean them but we don't maintain that channel. As we clean, when the next storm that comes, it just washes material back in. Wickstrom explained that from James Street north all the way up through 180th, Mill Creek is the Drainage District's channel. They acquired the right of way in ,M Public Works Committee December 17, 1991 Page 3 1929 for that and that has been their responsibility to maintain since. We have taken over the closed systems. As development occurs alongside, we have required easements so in the eventuality the District goes out of business, at least we would have some adjacent easements. We try to clean the pipes and prepare for the winter storms on a yearly basis. Wickstrom explained that the Drainage District is responsible for the drainage channels and the drainage channels is where all the silt accumulates. If this is contaminated it may be necessary to haul it out to Arlington. We prefer to have the Drainage District stay in business so that they are responsible. There is a significant portion - 10,000 ft - of Mill Creek that is on DOE's list as a contaminated site. Dowell asked where their funds come from? Wickstrom stated that they have taxing authority but if the district dissolves the City would not get the taxing authority. Dowell asked why didn't we just leave the water rate where it is and just increase the drainage fees. Wouldn't that be a little more honest to the citizens? Wickstrom explained that the growth spurts we have hatd �outstripped any projection in the water revenue and we have accumulated a significant fund balance. Dowell stated that he understood that the money was coming from the water fund to pay for the drainage fund. Dowell then made reference to a note in the Storm Drainage Utility report stating that later on we may have to have a water increase. Wickstrom explained that it depends on how things progress. If under the Federal Safe Water Drinking Act we have to put in infiltration plants then we will have a big expenditujre. We may have to raise the water rates. White inquired about the chances that we are not going to have increased growth and that we are not going to have, to do these filtration plants. Wickstrom stated that our first step is to pull the balance of our transmission main customers bff the system. That allows us the chlorine contact time through the system before it gets to our first customer which means we may be able to defer this treatment plant requirement beyond 1996 or longer. Tony McCarthy explained that about two years ago the City received a refund of almost $1 million in excise taxes an& 'Bost all of it went into the water fund. That money has earned' interest since Public Works Committee December 17, 1991 Page 4 then, plus we were paying a lower amount for state excise tax. Wickstrom stated this is the first year's program. Once we determine what we can do the priorities could change. This is a schedule that we developed to try to address some of our biggest concerns. White questioned whether we could utilize the water funds now and pay it back with drainage utility funds so some of projects can be moved up. Wickstrom stated that this plan was prepared in July of 1991 and we thought we would implement it right away. We already have one program funded except for the Lagoon conversion. Portions of the 1992 programs are funded too, so it looks we're ahead of the game in terms of being able to do more projects. White asked if there is anything we can do to push the Drainage District to moving some of their clean up. Wickstrom stated they budget about $70,OOOJyear. It is very difficult for them to get permits from Fisheries. At this time, Jim Hansen felt it would be a good idea to present Council some options on priority. Some of these projects are competing with one another, not just for the money but for time as well. Since this is a six year plan, as we move through this process of reviewing it with the citizens, we could also look at juggling some of those priorities and'see if there is some approach we could use we haven't thought of yet to get some of the high priority ones addressed at the same time if that's possible. The funding mechanism will be looked into by Tony. Wickstrom stated that there are two things we could look at: One is with this lag time shift - the significant 191 projects are already funded and 192 have been funded by cash unencumbered fund balances. We can increase the cash transfer to a fund to move some of those projects up even further. McCarthy commented that Finance is proposing to read the residential accounts every three months. Right now they are being read every second month and businesses are read monthly. Further discussion followed between Dowell and McCarthy regarding the "estimate" and "actual" readings of water meters. White expressed concern at this time, regarding the length of time that staff takes to get this process of reading meters done. J Public Works Committee December 17, 1991 Page 5 Dowell stated that there is a loss of 30 days income on the water bill for the portion between, the estimate and thei actual use. McCarthy stated that meters are read on one side of tdwn one month, and the other side of town the next month. Leona Orr commented on a problem with water bill that is averaged out every month - it is to the advantage of the 'customer to pay a bill every two months rather than writing a very sma,'11 one and then an additional larger one the following month. At this time, Wickstrom stated the item will be back again next meeting with a revised schedule. GARBAGE RATES Wickstrom explained that Kent Disposal just svlmitted their proposed rates asking us to review and approve them '�, o; they could become effective January 1, 1592. We were under the assumption it was all going to go to WUTC and at this point in time it would be our recommendation to go to WUTC. We only have authority over residential rates. WUTC may not want to revit*v,`�'Kent's rates because Kent Disposal is under contract with the City of Kent. Dowell asked when did we get the information that increased rates were going to go' into effect? Wickstrom stated that we knew in July that the dump fees were going to increase Ja.nu y' l. Dowell asked why didn't we set the rates back in luljj Wickstrom explained that we only review rates that are submitted to us. The City does not set the rates. We did call Kent aiesal several times but only received this information December 11th. The rates also ref lect the King County policy on incentives ryto` recycle. Mrs. Rust asked if the rates included a charge for recypl g. Wickstrom responded stating that recycling is not part of t is ', contract - recycling is a separate contract. After furtfi "discussion on the timing of this issue, Dowell made a motion t,6 send this to Council; seconded by Orr. Committee unanimously a6 lowed. CROSSWALK ON 116TH AVEJSE 234TH STREETS Ed White stated that the problem has existed since ,;ep roximately 1988. There has been correspondence between, the " City, School District and County on this issue - evidently not' a whole lot of action. A brief study of the area including visual survey, traffic counts, and speed studies reveals there is no stre`etY lighting; this is a two lane arterial with average speeds approetely 10 mph over the posted 35 mph which is characteristic ; " rt,4is type of facility. There is a slight grade going south ' north which causes some visibility problem as well as a lack of lighting at the Public Works Committee December 17, 1991 Page 6 intersection. What complicates fur ability to correct any problem is that our City limits goes right down the middle of 116th Avenue SE - the west half of the strepti js within the City; the east half is County. Anything that the pity proposes would have to be concurred with by the County. We are currently in the process of contacting the County again to;;,. see if they can assist us in providing additional signing or other types of improvements - at least concurring with correctives actions that staff will propose. Ed White suggested recommended actions based on visual observations as well as doing research on what things we can do. The first is to provide advanced signing at the intersection with slightly larger advanced and crosswalk signing made of a high intensity site material. Another option would be to install cones during the AM and PM hours to coincide with the King County. We would see if there could be some type of cooperative effort for the County to pay a portion of costs'to do whatever improvements would be recommended. Jim White expressed concern about the County paying. He stated he did not want to run it through another budget cycle which is a year away. Ed White stated there could be a certain liability issue here also which the County may or may not opt to get involved. Ed White explained that in talking with the School District, 234th is within what they consider, a safe walking path. The School District actually considers a gravel shoulder as sufficient for walking as long as it is between 31 - 51 . Looking at a total volume of traffic counts, there is approximately 8,000 vehicles. Jim White asked if there was any possibility that the School District would fund any portion of this. Ed White feels a flashing light would be better than .a light with a "ped" button to push because the pedestrian will, still proceed with caution most times, with a flashing light. The, least restrictive, is having nothing and it conveys an extreme amount of danger. By doing the flashing beacon, you improve the, visibility. Dowell feels that a point of negotiation should be made with the School District in that when they build a school,; the School District should be responsible for the infrastructure:; as in any development. Jim White suggested that we go mead and do everything suggested, at least come up withra budget fOr it, and work with the County on getting approval. Jahn Bond suited that a street light would be located on the southeast corner Facing 116th Avenue Southeast. Ed White feels this should be sufficient to light the area. The problem with trying' to get something on the other side is that there is no power which increases the cost dramatically. Dowell wanted to confirm the discussipn: a street light; a flashing signal going directly over the cbswalk and then cones. Jim White Public Works Committee December 17, 1991 Page- 7 interjected that we would need the cooperation of the School District for the cones because the City does not have the personnel to handle them. Jim White stated he felt we should go ahead with the plan and if we get money back from the County that's a plus. Tom Brubaker stated there would be some time taken with the County in securing the proper permits. Ed White's staff will work out all the logistics in what to put out there and make the proposal to the County and will wait for their concurrence.