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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005 03-15 Pre Meridian City Pre-Council Meetina March 15.2005 The Meridian City Pre-Council meeting was called to order at 6:30 P.M. on Tuesday, March 15, 2004 by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Shaun Wardle and Charlie Rountree. Staff Present: Brad Watson, Rick Clinton, Ken Bowers, Bill Musser, Doug Strong, Bill Nary and Will Berg. Item 1. Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. ~ Shaun Wardle -LChristine Donnell ~ Charlie Rountree ~Keith Bird -----1L- Mayor Tammy de Weerd Item 2. Adoption of the Agenda: Bird: Mr. President. Wardle: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we adopt the agenda as published. Rountree: Second. Wardle: It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as published. All in favor say aye. ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. Item 3. Update on Space Analysis and Concept Plan for the Water Division: Watson: Mr. President, Mayor and Council members I first of all really appreciate being able to get on a pre-council agenda, I know your time is limited with all the other stuff going on these days. This has been something that has been rolling around in our court for 12 to 18 months as the Water Department has expanded to keep up with its demands. It has added staff to the point where we have really run out of room at the facility on northwest 8th Street to the point where people are staged in the breakroom. That's kind of their workspace at this point and time. As most of you will recall from our budget presentation last summer and Councilmember Donnell, of course, wasn't here, we talked about this for quite a while. We had proposed an enhancement of $1.2 million dollars to go forward Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 15, 2005 Page2of9 with a design and possibly construction this budget year. BRS was not quite done with the analysis at that time. They had really just a preliminary draft that I think that we mayor may not have showed you, I can't remember quite honestly. In the time since then they have put together their finals base analysis and I believe you have those little red books with you up there. It shows space requirements in tabular form as well as conceptual floor plan, some elevations, a conceptual site plan and then at the end some cost estimates. The one thing to point out about the preliminary site plan is it really won't work right now. From the time when they drafted this until now I have had several conversations with Mr. Dennis Griffin of BSU, who oversees the lineman school vo-tech program at this site and if you want me to I can go back into the history of why that particular program is there and how that all transpired, but the long and short of it is they really don't have any immediate plans to relocate from that facility. Their current lease expires in 2018 with I believe in it their option to extend that to another ten years. This is essentially a free site for them. I am not sure why they would want to relocate if they are getting this for free; if (inaudible) preventing them from moving to the West Valley Campus. So Mr. Griffin told me that they were going through a master planning effort right now, but that it looked like that some of the other programs would be taking precedence at West Campus. So, what Rick and I have done in the couple of weeks since we have gotten this is put together some site options. Maybe I am premature in jumping into those. If you have any questions, please feel free to interrupt me at this point. I will back up just a little bit and talk about last summer when we presented this to you, there seemed to be a consensus from Council that the existing building was a problem, mostly because of some environmental issues that were discovered there. Just some of the site constraints with where it was located because we had talked about expansion of that existing building, but it seemed like from the discussion that we had that we didn't receive that direction. What we have handed out to you and what is showing on the screen is what we are calling option one. This was the first one that we thought of and what you see in the yellow cross (inaudible) markings is the space that BSU occupies in the yard. They have power lines, power poles, other little structures that they go out and train on when their schools are in session. They also occupy the classroom in the southwest corner of the existing building. Anyway, this was option one that we looked at, where customer parking would be off of Chateau. There would be a small parking lot there. The building would be situated in this general area. We would have somehow be able to coordinate a pathway through the front of this and then ultimately through the park; however, Rick Clinton spoke with the coordinator of the program about taking just 50 feet into their existing yard area and was essentially told "no, we need that area for training". So, we went back to the drawing board and tried to squeeze in - Rountree: Brad, how specific is the lease arrangement? Does it say this fenced area or this legal description? Does it require that the city provide a room for the training, or do we just do that because of whatever? Is it that specific? Meridian City Pre-Councii Meeting March 15,2005 Page 3 of9 Watson: Councilman Rountree I believe it is fairly specific. I don't know that it gets down to actual square footage in the yard. We will answer that here in a minute, I think as Rick looks through the actual lease. Rountree: If it's not tied down that specific, we got wiggle room then. We ought to leverage that to our advantage. Watson: We can certainly look into that. Hopefully we have an answer here before I am done with this. The second option that we looked at, which is essentially is mirroring the project over here to have less of an impact on - they have a lot of poles up in this corner, but they also have a few in the southwest corner of the site. This is not feasible either because they don't want to move anything. So, this was a very short-lived option that we looked at. The third option that we have examined is quite a bit different. It moves the structure south into the park with still some - this would actually now be employee parking coming off Chateau - some employee parking - because the shop is located at the rear of the facility - we tried to square off the park, so to speak so that the space that is predominantly used, at least that I see on a somewhat regular basis living in the neighborhood is in this open area between the trees. So, we tried to square that off and preserve that. Again, with all these options we would like to somehow at least maintain some areas so that a pathway could be connected from the Five Mile Creek area, through the park and into the main part. We also are somewhat constrained by an existing sewer trunk that comes through the site. There is always the possibility that that could be moved somewhat, but right through this area where my cursor is, we have existing vehicle covered storage, covered parking and we can't really move the sewer one way. or the other. There is structures on each side. Anyway, those are the three options that we are presenting. Of course, the fourth option is what is showing BRS's report and that involves demolishen of this building, demolishen of the existing shop and infringing up into this area and all the while providing room for BSU to continue their lineman school program. It would also involve temporary relocation of the Water Department or - we just threw this out here, maybe portables, but I am not sure that that is really even feasible given the site constraints. What we are here tonight to do, I guess, is to get a little bit of direction on or any feedback or input on what Mayor and Council would like us to do. We are at a point where, again, employees are overflowing that structure. BSU doesn't appear to be going anywhere. We have briefly last year looked at the possibility of relocating to another site, but given the price of commercial land in the city, this just seems the most cost effective. We already own the ground and obviously land costs would be zero. Rick and I met with Doug Strong yesterday afternoon and went over this and not sure that there are any strong opposition, but of course Doug is here tonight and he can speak to that if you have any questions. Strong, vehement opposition - how about that? (Inaudible-----). Wardle: Council any questions that come to mind? Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 15,2005 Page 4 of9 Rountree: Mr. President. Brad, you have a strong preference for coming off of Chateau to access - is that just because of the site or there is some advantage to that? Watson: Mr. President, Councilman Rountree there is some advantage to it. This parking lot really gets full when the Vo-tech school is in session and all the employees are at the Water Department to the point where there is sometimes - I don't know if it ever - it's tapped out completely, but one or two parking spots. If we could free up some and this was something that I was just playing around with. There may be an opportunity to put more in up there, but we are trying to alleviate the pressure on this parking lot by having some access off of Chateau. Rountree: To my first point. Is parking a provision of the lease? Clinton: Mr. President, Councilman Rountree without the ability to actually run a meets and bounds description it appears to me that like pretty much what Brad has crossed hatch, there is what's described in the lease, I guess, specifically I don't see that the lease provides us or requires us to provide additional parking or classroom. It does require us to provide a classroom and I think that that's one of the things that's really relevant to this project is that the new building does not include space for BSU, so if we tear down the existing building we will need to revises this building drawing and add on to it, so that there is adequate space for BSU in the new building. Rountree: I have a question for Doug, Mr. President. Do you know if there is any LWC monies in 8th Street Park at all that we would - if we did this that we would have to replace the land? Strong: Mr. President, Councilman Rountree I am not aware of any land and water money at all in 8th Street Park. I think the only park we have that (inaudible) is in Storey. Rountree: Okay that is good news. Watson: Mr. President. Wardle: Brad. Watson: Councilman Rountree just to follow up on that. It's our understanding that that land was purchased with the previous wastewater treatment plant that was built out there and that just coincidentally it was turned into a park and the wastewater plant was abandoned in the 70's. Wardle: Brad, I have got a follow up question. If we are not talking about replacing the existing building, which has got some issues with it - environmental Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 15,2005 Page50f9 issues and then we are going to build a new building on the northern portion of this or western portion, I guess. What are we going to do with the old building? Watson: Mr. President I think for the time being it would still continue to serve as BSU's classroom and facility until such time that they relocate. I think once it's raised then we can possibly expand the parking for the park down there or by that time we would probably need more vehicle storage or thirdly just expand the green space out there. I am sorry, Mr. Clinton just reminded me that one of the ideas that we are throwing around is that the Park's Department could in the interim use the vacated space that BSU is not using for maybe some satellite operations or whatever Doug would be interested in. De Weerd: Mr. President. Wardle: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: I guess I would like to leave option one and two open so we preserve Park space if we can - if I can talk to the administration and get a portion of that grayed out area for utilization of our needs. Rick who was the one - did BSU participate in the classes of repair since most of the damage happened above their classroom? Clinton: Madame Mayor currently the repairs have not been done. That's one of the follow ups that we would like out of this is if the building is going to stay then we do need to re-roof the building and repair those leak damages. De Weerd: I guess regardless if with our agreement, the building appears to need to stay and I guess my question is will they participate in the cost of that repair? Clinton: From what I can read of the lease, they are required to pay their costs for utilities, but not for building maintenance. De Weerd: What a great deal that was. Rountree: Do they make that payment? Clinton: No sir. Rountree: That's what I thought. So, they are delinquent. De Weerd: I guess there are a number of things that I could talk to their administration about and we can meet about that afterwards. When we were talking about a certain area and if it would be appropriate for the Water Department to relocate to, we also looked at a possible partnership with Parks. This seems to set up a great opportunity in the future when that other building is Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 15,2005 Page 6 of9 vacated by BSU as a possible location for the Park's Department maintenance crew and that there could be some sharing of equipment and that sort of thing that certainly the Water Department and the Park's Department might have in common use for. So, is that a future consideration? Would that be a good partnership between those two departments at some future time? Watson: Mr. President, Madame Mayor I think that would be a great situation. The only caveat is that there is certain things and I am not talking about the yard, but more the facilities themselves, the building. There are some security issues that we have talked about before that would preclude recreation classes or those sorts of things in this building - in the newer building. As to the yard, I am not sure, you know. Doug and Rick would just have to get together or Elroy and Rick or whatever and work those things out, but maybe if we have a joint backhoe someday we can share that. De Weerd: I was thinking that, but since you are the enemy and I wasn't going to suggest it. Wardle: Brad I have a couple of individual thoughts for consideration and one it appears to me that we are looking at making this move for two reasons. One because we have some needs of the department and secondly because we have a deficient facility and so what I am seeing is with options one, two and three essentially addressing only one of those issues and not the other and in doing that we are changing the configuration of this entire layout and entering from an (inaudible) portion of the neighborhood and so that is a consideration that I think we need to take into account and then secondly I would like to see some costs of what it would cost to demolish that building and start over, understanding that we would need through our arrangement to add a classroom portion to that. It appears to me that if we build a new building and then leave that then we are going to have to deal with it sometime in the future regardless. Watson: Mr. President just so I am clear, you are speaking of the environmental concerns in the existing building as not being addressed? Wardle: Yes, because what I am hearing is not only is it too small for our current use, but we would need to because of the environmental concerns look at either repairing it, demolishing it or doing something if we were to stay in that - any department long term even if it were to be Parks. Watson: Mr. President you are correct the roofing that Mayor and Mr. Clinton were just talking about would address at least preventing future problems, but there would be some remediation of the existing building to make it occupiable, but better. So, yeah, we don't have those costs. Donnell: Mr. President. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 15,2005 Page70f9 Wardle: Ms. Donnell. Donnell: Brad as I look at this and this is the first time that I have had a chance to look at the architect's report - I have a couple of questions. Number one, I am assuming that there is money in the city budget for such a structure? Watson: Mr. President, Councilmember Donnell, yes. Donnell: Since I am new at this, I was not sure if that was the case, but I assumed you wouldn't be bringing it forward unless there was and secondly I am curious about why there is locker rooms and showers in the facility? Watson: Council member Donnell just as we have at the Wastewater Plant, the operators are out in things that are better left unsaid and when they come back in at the end of the day or end of the shift, we usually provide those facilities so that they can change out of their overalls and get cleaned up before they get in there car and head home. Donnell: Thank you. Wardle: Council any further questions for Brad? Bird: Mr. President. Wardle: Mr. Bird. Bird: My one comment is you know that old building, I don't know how you would salvage that thing because it's not that good of a building. I think we need to press forward and get it done. The longer you wait, the more the cost of the construction is going to be. Decide what you want to do, bring it back to us and get it done. That's my opinion. Rountree: Mr. President. Wardle: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: Brad, what more direction did you need other than that. I support the project and did in the budget and I do now. The Mayor, I believe, wants to have an opportunity to talk to BSU about maybe moving them a little bit on what it is they need. If we can get that resolved, is that sufficient for you to move forward with the project? Watson: Mr. President, Councilman Rountree yes I believe it is. It just sounds like there are a few loose ends, a few questions that came from Council that will get answered and speak with the Mayor about option one and I or two and I think Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 15,2005 Page 8 of9 we have enough to move forward with developing a scope of services with BRS, with the exact location a little bit gray at this moment. Rountree: It seems like the need may be there to repair the existing building and may want to compare that cost versus the cost of the whatever classroom you might have to add to accommodate the lease because as I recall the expense of repairing that roof was not a small dollar amount. Then look at your time log. How long are you going to have to occupy that building before you add a new structure? Wardle: Just a follow up, Brad. That was kind of one of the things that I was getting at is if we are going to incur two expenses then it could be incorporated into the newer facility long term plan. Watson: All right. I understand. De Weerd: Mr. President. Wardle: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: I guess what we can do is in follow up, first if we could get a copy of the lease to our city attorney for his review and we can find out about the lease and any maintenance costs that our partners are responsible to. We can take a look at that and then I can approach them. I do think that we do need to move forward on the new construction, but whether that building is something that we want to keep or not, we need to take a look at that and we need to move forward with those repairs if that is the direction we need to go. We have been fortunate to have a pretty - fortunate or unfortunate that we have had a dry winter, but we do need to take care of that. Watson: Thank you very much. Wardle: Thank you Brad. If there is nothing else that brings us to the end of our Pre-Council agenda, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Rountree: So moved. Bird: Second. Wardle: It's been moved to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 15,2005 Page90f9 MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:55 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) APPROVED: ~~