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06/03/2019-CC-Minutes-Work SessionCITY OF SANGER, TEXAS MINUTES: CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION June 3, 2019 – 6:00 PM 502 Elm Street, Sanger, Texas COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Thomas Muir; Mayor Pro Tem Gary Bilyeu; Councilmember Marissa Barrett; Councilmember Dennis Dillon; Councilmember Allen Chick; Councilmember David Clark. COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: None. The Mayor and all five (5) Council Members were present constituting a quorum. STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT: City Manager Alina Ciocan; Public Works Director Jim Berman; Director of Development Services Ramie Hammonds; City Engineer Tracy LaPiene; City Secretary Cheryl Price, Josh Bishop, Police Department. 1. Call Meeting to Order. The Work Session was called to order on June 3, 2019 at 6:04 PM by Mayor Muir. 2. Update WWTP Discuss and Provide Update on the Wastewater Treatment Plant Project. Jeff Caffey, Alan Plummer and Associates who is the project manager for the design and construction management of the project was recognized to present the update. He advised Felix Construction is the contractor doing the work on the Plant. He provided a summary of the project for the benefit of the new Councilmembers and then provided an update of the status of the project. There are three plants at the site and Plant 1 is going to be the heart of the plant moving forward. It me online during the fill. They have been working on Plants 4 and 3 and have drained them down and are doing rehab on them. The plant is currently treating well and meeting permit. Plant 4 was dewatered in February and equipment has been installed and they are starting to repaint and that additional cost is being charged as an additional item 12 to a field order. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu asked if we came into budget on having Plant 3 dewatered. Mr. Caffey advised that we did spend the full budget for it and it has been completed. There was a little bit of sludge in the basin (less than one foot) which the contractor was required to clean out. They finished cleaning it out last week and there is no additional fee for removing any more sludge out of Plan 3. The structural engineer is scheduled to come out and look at Plant 3 this week and evaluate the painting and structural needs of Plant 3. From a visual perspective the steel in Plant 3 looks better than the steel in Plant 4. The coating looks worse and there are sheets of coating peeling off. They anticipate that they will have to do a full recoat on 3 versus the partial recoat they did on Plant 4. Mayor Muir asked if this was built into the original contract. Mr. Caffey noted that they have $100,000 for unanticipated items. They have a field order they are in the process of changing right now and also will have a change order coming before Council to see some credits back and all in all they have about $20,000 left in the unallocated amount. They are anticipating that with the cost of repainting they may have a change order for about $80,000. There are a couple of items such as a couple of valves that have failed on Plant 4 that need to be replaced. Also, the other item is a pump on a scum tank and it was the wrong selection on the pump and they need to change the pump and there will be some cost associated with that. It is a small pump, but there needs to be a grinder on it because it is not getting the scum out of the tank. Plant 2 has not been taken down yet and it is a concrete basin and will not require painting like the other two tanks which are steel. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu asked if we ever got any resolution on the cracking in the basin. Mr. Caffey stated that the contractor is planning on doing the repair this week and they are actually working on that. There have been no new cracks in the basin since the last time so their plan is to let them do the crack repair. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu asked if, as an engineer and project manager for the project is, he comfortable with them doing a creak repair, would it be as good as new, and if there is a warranty. Mr. Caffey stated it is not as ideal as there were no cracks. Their structural engineer has said it is acceptable to him from a structural standpoint. He noted that typically from substantial completion of the project that it is a one-year period. The completion of the project was planned for August but he believes the contractor is going to request more time do to the time it took to drain the tanks. The basin is serviceable and has been used and from a warranty standpoint it would be another year from August if August is the substantial completion date. He noted that they did ask for a warranty extension and they have not responded yet, he did verbally say they would be willing to give us another year on that. So, it would be two years with the verbal agreement. In the main contract it is one year. They do not have it in writing. If there is any more cracking, they are going to ask them to come back and take out the slab. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu noted his concern regarding this issue and that he feels they should give us an additional year because the original pour was unacceptable. There was brief additional discussion regarding the cracks. In general, that is where they are and the big thing that they are working on right now is the flow split area. They have redesigned form a high level to one that is at grade level and the plant will be able to start it up and use the split box. It is just a matter of getting the rest of the plant back into the system. Mayor Muir asked how the plant was working. Mr. Caffey noted he had not checked in since last week. City Manager Alina Ciocan noted that as for staff, we are good at the Plant that she was told that it performed well. Mr. Caffey noted that it has more peak flow capacity than what it had previously. Councilmember Chick verbally summarized the update provided and asked when they were going to bring Plant 4 back up and Mr. Caffey noted it would be in about a month. Mr. Caffey noted that the goal is to get plant 2 empty so the contractor does not have to wait on it, they are going to run it through the belt-press and drain as much as they can back to Plant 1 because it has good sludge and they are not anticipating what happened with Plant 3. The current final amount will be about $60.000 to $80,000 over. Councilmember Dillon asked about the cost of the project. Mr. Caffey noted that it is an 11- million-dollar project and the change orders have been roughly 1%. On a rehab project like this 2 to 3% is not out of the ordinary. Councilmember Clark asked the definition of substantial completion. Mr. Caffey advised that it means that everything is functional per the spec and that it can be used by the city and the final would be the miscellaneous punch list items that need to be done but you are able to use the plant as a whole, is substantially complete. At the substantially complete point a walk through will be done and a punch list performed. Once those items are complete a final will be done upon completion. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu noted that he remembered a 30-day test period and everything is proved out during that period. Mr. Caffey noted it would be after the test period. Mayor Muir asked about the manuals to operate it. Mr. Caffey noted there are two sets of manuals, there are equipment manuals that are coming in and there is a plant operational manual that they will provide that tells the plant how to operate. City Manager Alina Ciocan informed the City Council that the City has hired a Wastewater Treatment Plant Supervisor and his first day will be June 17th. He has a B license, is eligible for an A License and is interested in pursuing it. 3. iSWM Presentation Presentation on Integrated Stormwater Management (iSWM) by NCTCOG and Halff Associates, Inc. Director of Development Services Ramie Hammonds advised that there are representatives with NCTCOG and Half and Associates that are going to explain what the procedures are for iSWM which is a stormwater management program. There is a tiered approach to it. What staff is going to be looking at from Council is how Council would like for staff to proceed and what guidelines we will might be interested in looking at, implementing, etc. Ben Pile, Halff and Associates was recognized. They are a Civil Engineering Consulting Firm here tonight on behalf of the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG). They are here tonight to provide some information as far as technical assistance that NCTCOG is offering. The community may see some things that are of interest and may want to have a follow up discussion about. Any items of interest in the tiered implementation the community may want consider for discussion in the future. He introduced Karen Voirner who is a Senior Environmental Planner and Ashley Lourie with Halff and Associates. iSWM is the integrated stormwater management program which is a collaborative program to assist local government stormwater management. It provides ideas to manage the stormwater impact, the MS 4 permits. He noted that this is the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System is part of a permitting that each community of a certain size has to provide a stormwater management plan that speaks to how the community intends to manage its stormwater management program. Specifically trying to make sure that pollutants are not entering the City system and discharged to the water ways and impairing the natural features. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu noted that it was his understanding that iSWM is optional and asked what it is with the permits and environmental control. It was noted that implementing iSWM does not have anything to do with the City’s thresholds are. This is entirely something the community would initiate to help meet the State mandated requirements. City Engineer Tracy LaPiene was recognized and noted that there is a certain density population of 10,000 to 12,0000. There are things such as some construction controls and sedimentation controls that would be helpful to implement. The deadline is July 29th to renew the MS4; however, this is not a requirement for the City of Sanger at this time. Mr. Pile noted that he did not have time to look into the City of Sanger’s specifics so Mr. LaPiene’s input was very helpful. Mr. Pile stated that there is a State mandated program where once a City has reached a certain population requirement. The higher population, the more requirements. As far as iSWM, some cities use it as an effort to meet some of the requirements. Some cities have signed up with iSWM completely separate of the mandated criteria just because they want to see some mitigation of the on the results of water quality and flooding, etc. He provided used a PowerPoint showing the COG region. He noted that the iSWM meets quarterly and the communities can come out and ask questions they have a lot of technical resources and the ability to answer a lot of questions. Half and Associates is a consultant to the NCTCOG that helps offer technical support to that committee. He noted that iSWM grew out of the concerns that there would be some national rulemaking, some stronger criteria that could result causing some water quality requirements on development and things like that and it is being enforced and heightened each year on water quality restrictions. There are several states across the country which are implementing some kind of water quality requirements He noted that the idea behind the iSWM program is to be a comprehensive regional approach and to have some consistency so that there is no competitions against communities as to which standards can be relaxed. It is intended to have discussions to have stormwater, or iSWIM earlier in the process. He gave a short overview that speaks to each section of the iSWM manual. He noted it is a robust technical manual to guide engineers in development and the methods that they should use. A design for a criteria manual that shows things such as how to design a storm drain in the city or what the flooding limits are in the streets, etc. There are a lot of tools and training offered to the developers, communities, and engineers and much of it is archived online. Currently there are about eighteen different communities that have adopted iSWM as far as being a tiered implementation where are rated either gold, silver or bronze. He introduced Ashley Lourie who provided a copy of the form necessary when a City implements iSWM. She reviewed the form and noted that there are different criteria and they base the ranking on the criteria the city chooses to implement and the city is ranked as bronze, silver or gold. She provided ideas of what other communities are doing. Councilman Dillon asked if she had an idea as to where Sanger would fit into the water quality protection. She noted that it gives three different methods to treat the water and this is a criteria that most people are struggling with and so right now that, similar to other community’s water quality protection is needed on storm drains. There are a lot of cities trying to figure out the same challenges. Mayor Muir asked if the greenbelt plan would be a component of it. And Mr. Pile noted that was correct. Ms. Lourie noted that the criteria is going to change and be modified as things change. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu asked how we know which of the criteria is for our community and how do we pick and choose and implement this what are the needs for the community. We need some help in our community, what are our needs, what do we need to focus on and how do we meet this criteria. Mr. Pile stated that he just laid the framework for the next meeting. Mr. Pile noted that they do not have all of the answers. It needs to be customized to what the City of Sanger wants and what it needs. This is just an introduction and overview and they would love to sit down with staff at the next meeting. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu asked if it is going to squash development; what is the financial impact to a developer. It is important to understand what our needs are and what we can negotiate and go from there. Mr. Pile stated it is about being sustainable and resilient and if we can tweak and have a conversation with the developer to encourage this. He noted that they are here to help in the future to just reach out to NCTCOG and they will do whatever they can. 4. Bridge and Retaining Wall Aesthetics Discuss Bridge and Retaining Wall Aesthetics Relating to the FM 455 and I-35 Expansion Project. Director of Development Services Ramie Hammonds was recognized to summarize. She noted that staff had brought some designs to the Council at the last meeting for some feedback Since then the City has employed a graphic designer to work up some designs. She provided some conceptual renderings and noted that some of the Council showed interest in a seal type image. The thought was that it looks timeless and classic and noted the designs on the top. These designs could be put on any of the retaining walls and on pieces of endcaps. The other thing that is being looked at is the retaining wall design which shows a classic look at the lake, a quality of life type scene. What staff wants to know is what the Council likes. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu noted he liked the one with the white star that shows where we are on the map. Councilmember Dillon asked if we could do the seal and the scenery. Ms. Hammonds noted that we could have both. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu asked if we could have it on the sound wall also and Ms. Hammonds stated that could also be done. Mayor Muir noted that on the smaller areas, bridges, etc. use the seals and when there is a broader area use features of the mural. Councilmember Barrett asked about the walkover bridge. Ms. Hammonds noted that on the walkover bridge there was discussion of having it be from the historic theme and we could certainly use the seal there also. Mayor Pro Tem Bilyeu asked if we could have a backlit seal. Ms. Hammonds noted that could be possible but it may have a little cost to it. Councilmember Barrett noted she liked all of the ideas discussed. Mayor Muir noted he liked the left one and especially the top right example. Councilmember Barrett asked about curving the letters and making it like a standard coin seal and possibly putting the date Est. (established). Mayor Muir pointed to the seal behind the city council. Ms. Hammonds noted that we could do most anything we just need to guide the designer in that direction. Many of the members liked the white star and noted they also liked the year established. 5. Overview of Items on the Regular Agenda. There was no discussion of items on the regular agenda. 6. Adjourn. There being no further business, Mayor Muir adjourned the City Council Work Session at 7:03 PM.