Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007 04-10 Pre Meridian City Pre-Council Meetina April 10. 2007 The Meridian City Pre-Council meeting was called to order at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, April 10, 2007 by President Councilman Joe Borton. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, David Zaremba, Charlie Rountree and Joe Borton. Staff Present: Bill Nary, Anna Canning, Brad Watson and Will Berg. Item 1. Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. X David Zaremba X Charlie Rountree X X Joe Borton X Keith Bird Mayor Tammy de Weerd Item 2. Adoption of the Agenda: Bird: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we adopt the agenda as published. Rountree: Second. Borton: It has been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as published. All those in favor say aye. ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. Item 3. Presentation of Meridian Signal Coordination Project by ACHD Traffic Department Gary Inselman: Borton: You all have been provided packets of materials and I would like to introduce Jim Peters and have him come forward and introduce those with him. Peters: Thank you very much, Mr. Borton. I am Jim Peters. I work for DKS Associates. I am a traffic engineer out of Portland, OR and here tonight with us is Mike Boydsten and Jim Larsen right back here from the Ada County Highway District. I was the consultant working with Jim and Mike to update the signal timings in downtown Meridian. So, what I was hoping to do tonight is just give you a summary of the project and what the results were and we will go from there Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 2 of 19 if you have any questions. So, we have a little presentation here and outline for my discussion is I will just present to you what we did and where we did it; why we retime signals and specifically why we retime signals in downtown Meridian here - when it was done: how we did it? I will give you some specifics about the timing plans that are operating on the street now and then a little bit of so what - why would you care about this and then now what? What is the lifespan of this retimin9 going to be? What we do and where did we do it? We retimed 13 traffic signals, basically on Meridian and Main Street from Overland at the south end to Fairview at the north end and we also updated the pedestrian clearance times at all of these intersections. So, in most cases the pedestrian walk, flash and no walk is increased from what it was before to meet the current standards. We also paid attention to the east west corridors on Fairview and Franklin in particular - also heavy volume streets. That is the scope of the project. So, what is signal timing? It is basically a process to optimize the operation at signalized intersections and get them to work well together. There are a lot of closely spaced intersections and can achieve a lot of benefits by progressing a platoon of traffic through a group of intersections. So, our objective is to respond to these changing traffic conditions and reduce travel times and reduce delays and stops. So, why do we do this? Generically, it is one of the most cost effective ways to improve traffic movements. So, we have seen an achieved benefit cost ratio as high as 40 to one in the past. So signal timing is relatively inexpensive to achieve various significant benefits. So why did we do it specifically in downtown Meridian here? It had been about ten years since the cycle lengths were adjusted. Jim and Mike had made several adjustments to the timings over the years to accommodate the changes in volumes and traffic patterns, which are significant as you know. It had an increase in population of 3 times between 1990 and 2000. So that is a significant impact on how these traffic signals operate. So we need to make some adjustments to accommodate those changes in traffic patterns. So that is a big reason why we updated these here in downtown Meridian. So, when did we do it? I said it is cost effective; it is also something that we can do very quickly. We had a notice to proceed or a kick off meeting July 11, 2006. We had timings on the street in August and then we did fine tuning on the street in August and September and we have been doing some after study evaluation after that. So, it is something that is cost effective, quick to do and in the meantime, you are still looking at other physical improvements, geometric improvements and the like on the street, but we can achieve benefits by just doing this quickly. So, how was it done? We did an inventory of the existing corridors, identified constraints, we collected - actually ACHD collected (inaudible) counts and 24 hour volume surveys to give us an idea of the traffic patterns. We sat down with ACHD and discussed what some of the deficiencies are in the corridor - where some of the problem areas are? So, these graphics kind of indicate on the right here the A.M. and P.M. peak deficiencies that we tried to focus on, so Meridian, Overland a lot of cueing down there; north bound is very heavy towards 1-84 in the morning. There is also a significant lane imbalance there with people out on the curb lane because you have got to get on the off ramp to head east bound. But, then there is competing Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 3 of 19 movements with the large east bound left and south bound left there in the morning that are competing for that green time. North bound left at Meridian 1-84 isn't necessarily a specific A.M. peak deficiency, but that turn pocket is very short and it spills over for much of the day into the thru lanes. We do have the reduction and capacity when that left turn lane is spilling over. At the Meridian, Main central intersection, we have got competing movements there, a large north bound left in particular in the P.M. peak; south bound at Meridian as you know will cue up that single lane all the way back to Franklin today, so large volumes, large demand there. So, we have focused on getting people to 1-84. Some of these movements off of Franklin, they have got a choice of going Meridian or Main. On Main, we have more capacity because we have two lanes verses the one on Meridian. So, trying to get both of those south bound movements progressed down to 1-84 is one of our challenges in the morning. Borton: Jim, is there any component of the inventory that accounts for pedestrian attempts to cross using the --? Peters: Absolutely, yes. So, that is part of our turn movement, Councilman. We collect, we get pedestrian counts along with it and that is part of what we observe in the field so that is one of the reasons and ACHD had communicated to us is in particular downtown Meridian and we want to focus on improved pedestrian crossings at Pine and Idaho there of course. So, we have done that and I will explain some of the details of how we achieved that. In the P.M. peak just one quick thing -heavy movement off of west bound 1-84 of course and north bound so we have got almost a constant flow heading into the Main, Meridian central intersections. So, trying to balance those competing objectives there. So, we discussed, we collected these vehicle and pedestrian counts; we recalculated the walk and flash don't walk times at all of the intersections. We used a software package to optimize the signal timings. A picture of it there showing on the left and we can simulate that and calibrate it to what we see in the field. Then we implemented the timings and we spent a lot of time out in the field with ACHD fine tuning. So, we are trying to find adjustments that our model doesn't pick up on to make in the field to make these as good as they possibly can be. So, let's do some of the details of these timing plans. We developed three all together, specifically for the A.M. peak, the midday peak and the P.M. peak periods. That is fairly common. The time of the day that we start these plans is based on these 24 hour volume surveys. So, when the volumes get to various levels is when we switch the plans or the cycle lengths and so forth. Then the cycle length is based on what I say logical coordination groups. So, there is going to be an intersection like Meridian, Overland which has eight phases is going to run at a longer cycle length because it has got more movements that need green time as opposed to something like right downtown at Pine and Idaho where they are just two phase intersections. So, they don't need to run near the length as it does down at Meridian, Overland. We are trying to find these logical coordination groups because if we ran Pine and Idaho at the same cycle as Meridian and Overland we would have a lot of delay on the side streets. Well, maybe you can see this Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 4 of 19 on your handout. This graphic and in the report might be a good place to see it, but this graphic indicates the cycle lengths that we used in the various time periods -- the AM., the midday and the P.M. and down at the south end in the A.M. we run 150 second cycling and we broke this into logical groupings. At the north end, we run 120 and we actually run 80 seconds at Pine and Idaho and that was kind of unique. I want to point that out because we are trying to achieve improved pedestrian crossings there, so we increased the pedestrian crossing time. We also run a shorter cycle length and this has really worked out well because generally you want to have the same cycle length for a coordinated group, so we started out running those two at 120 seconds, but it just was too long for downtown. So, we put this in on the street and tried it where we run 80 in the AM. and the midday and we increase it to 100 in the P.M. and it has worked out, I think, very well. It is random arrivals for north bound and south bound, from Fairview and Franklin, but sometimes you are going to go through without stopping; other times if you have to stop at Pine and Idaho you are guaranteed to get through the next intersection. This is something that is a little bit unique that we tried here that I think really worked well. One of the other things that was a real benefit here to us that helps keep the costs down and implement these is that ACHD has some significant tools available to us that help us get these out on the street quickly. They have a central system, 50 we can monitor the intersection timings from central. We can download them from central and we can quickly see is it running the cycle length that we intended? Is it running the splits that we intended? We know if it has been preempted or it is transitioning, all those various things that we can quickly see from the office if it is doing what we want and then skip out to the field and make those adjustments. So, that is a huge benefit and saves us a lot of time. There is also three cameras on the corridor here and we are able to use those remotely. I am able to go back to Portland, check on ACHD's website and see the cameras and at least get some information about how our timings are operating on various days. That is a significant benefit as opposed to us just going out there one day or a couple days and make adjustments. We can see longer term and the changes in the traffic volumes and traffic patterns. I did want to emphasize ACHD staff commitment has been very significant. It is unique to find that. We will go to other parts of the country and the agency will just hand us the keys to the cabinet and say okay go ahead and implement and then walk away. But, ACHD works with us hand in hand and it saves us time, they have the local knowledge and it makes it very efficient that way and then Mike knows every detail about the plans and he can make minor adjustments going forward as well. So, it is a big benefit. So, what do you care about all of this? A significant benefit as I say. We demonstrated - ACHD ran travel time surveys on the corridor and based on those with the before timings and after we put the new ones in, we reduced travel times, reduced stops and reduced delays to the equivalent of almost just under $2 million a year in time savings and fuel savings. That is not dollars that Meridian or ACHD sees back in particular, but it does improve traffic flows so we are going to encourage more development or people to move here sort of thing; we are operating our intersections more efficiently. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 5 of 19 De Weerd: Is mental health part of this? Peters: I think clearly it is. The cost as I said is relatively inexpensive. To achieve those benefits this project cost just over $60,000 for these 13 intersections between ACHD staff time and DKS staff time. So, that results in a benefit cost ratio of 32 to 1 for the corridor here, which I think is significant. It is also significant when you consider we are running shorter cycle lengths with the new timing plan, so there is more pedestrian crossing opportunities. We are running longer pedestrian crossing times, so we are giving peds more time to cross the street and we are still achieving these benefits. So, I think that is significant. Just one other thing that I would point out is we are saving an estimated 114,000 gallons of fuel per year just on these 13 intersections with these new timings. These graphics indicate the results of the ACHD travel time surveys before and after. So, we ran multiple routes. We ran up and down Meridian and Main. We went east bound and west bound on Franklin and turned into the corridor, so you see that not in all cases did we achieve a reduction in travel time, In particular these are the A.M. peaks, so on Meridian north bound we actually had a two percent increase in travel time, north bound, but that is the off peak direction. We were focusing on achieving a reduction in travel time south bound and we achieved that in all cases. In the midday with these plans, we had reduction in travel times between 8 and 20 percent and in the P.M. we had our most significant benefits, surprisingly in the P.M. peak when it is the most congested and we have the highest volume out there. We achieved travel time reduction on all corridors and we actually achieved a reduction in travel time on an average of three minutes for these lengths on both Main and Meridian. Now, that is significant. Some of these other ones, the travel time reduction for an individual user ranges to about 45 seconds of travel time savings through the corridor. But, in the P.M. peak up to three minutes. So, now what? The life span of the signal retiming - a lot of the documentation in the industry suggests three to five years you should get out and re-evaluate the signal timings. That is definitely impacted by how fast your volumes are changing. Previous timings - as I say I'd been out there ten years and you had significant changes in the population here and there is also significant changes in the population anticipated. It is something that will need to be considered again. I know Mike is paying special attention to it daily and he is making adjustments - actually he and I were working today on adjustments for new construction down at Meridian and Overland that is planned. So, as things like that come along, these will have to be adjusted some. But, those are just kind of annual spot changes. With that I just wanted to acknowledge again some of the ACHD staff who contributed to the project, in particular Jim Larsen and Mike Boydsten and we had a lot of support from the other folks there as well. With that I am happy to take any questions you have. Borton: Thank you, Jim. Council, Madame Mayor any questions? Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 6 of 19 Rountree: None. Thank you. De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: We appreciate it. Certainly Mike we appreciate the time you spent earlier with the T.V. stations and telling the story and actually in how important this is. You know as we anticipate phase one of the downtown transportation plan this gives us some relief through some real frustration as far as traffic goes. We certainly know that the construction of the Locust Grove Overpass and the improvements to connect Franklin to Fairview is going to help as well as the planning that is going on at Ten Mile. But, this is a great interim. It is a real minimal cost when you consider the cost of a transportation improvement project. So, I have heard comments that say it seems like traffic is running a little more efficiently, but didn't know why. So, it is a good improvement. Is it exactly what we need? No. But, it helps and everything helps. Peters: Yeah. It is not going to make all of the congestion go away that is for sure. I would make one other comment from our observation on the street we haven't quantified this, but it does appear that the peak period is lasting not quite as long now either_ So, on the shoulders of those peaks, you may be realizing some additional benefits as well. Thank you very much. Item 4. City Hall Floor Plan Update with LCA Architects: Borton: Steve Simmons will lead the presentation with handouts and colored pictures. Simmons: Chairman Borton, Mayor and Members of the Council my name is Steve Simmons, Lombard Conrad Architects, 1221 Shoreline Lane, Boise, ID. Tonight we would like to walk through just briefly, it won't take a lot of your time, but it will entertain any questions regarding the updates to the floor plans for the City Hall project. I have large boards as well which I will put on the easel, but small ones because I think it is easier to see right there in front of you and walk through that with me. Bird: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: Steve, would you mind moving that over and using that thing so that the people out there can also see? Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 7 of 19 Simmons: I have a small set and so I will talk from that, but we will flip those as (inaudible). The basement, which is the first board up here, you will see some scribbles on the back and that is another issue we will talk about a little later. The basement has not changed at all in the sense other than just a little bit refining. We still have that dedicated for primarily for storage and for locker rooms and those things for the staff who are encouraging bicycle use and other alternative means of transportation. So, we will have some of those areas down there as well, primarily, utilization of a (inaudible) of electrical spaces. For the most part that has not changed other than a little bit more reworking of the storage areas for the Clerk and etcetera. The first floor, the main level of the new City Hall project - the building is very symmetrical, this has not changed in the sense that the overall shell has not changed at all. We had been refining internal work spaces with the staff with a lot of help from everybody and everybody should kind of come to the call and look at alternative ways of doing offices, etc., and where we can utilize some efficiency and we have been going through that a lot. We still have yet to refine all of the reception counters in all of the various departments. That is still an ongoing process that we will be wrapping up in the next week or so with them, but basically as you come through the front lobby of the building we still have the community multi-purpose room on the right hand side, north being to the right. Council Chambers is dead center. We still have details to work out there with you folks as well and with Will - City Administration, the Clerk's Office is immediately to the right of the Council Chambers to allow for easy access back and forth and you are going to see a mixture in all of these cases of hard walls for certain directors and key positions and positions that require a lot of privacy and other issues and confidentiality and then a mixture you will see dotted lines which are the open systems furniture throughout the departments. Those are intended to be a system's furniture. We do have access flooring, so we have flexibility to put mechanical, electrical access to those as those are laid out. Members of my staff are continuing to meet to refine and verify the requirements for the staff to meet and set inside of these cubicles to make sure that the equipment that they are bringing with them will in fact fit in those offices in those cubicles. Across the hall from the City Administration is the financial management arm and department. You will see a mixture of offices and cubicles there as well facing towards the northeast end and towards the plaza area. Their cashier stations are starting to take shape. You will see returns there where there will be staff and there is a screen wall with some cabinets and some storage behind them and a file room behind that. So, we are getting further and further along with some (inaudible) and that is kind of the reason we are here tonight is to kind of let you look at this so we can wrap this up and wrap up the design package for the contractor to put that out to bid. The other end of the building support receiving and the mail is still there. That hasn't changed at all and then Public Works is across - that allows an entrance for the inspectors off the dock area - you see a dotted series of cubicles there for staff and a few perimeter offices. We have changed and added a conference/training room off the corridor - excuse, me off the lobby there at Public Works we had neglected to put that in before on the program. That needs Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 8 of 19 to be there based on the amount of public that come in there to utilize those things and have sit down meetings with the staff from both the Planning side and for advice as well when you are planning a project. So, we have added that conference room to allow that and also should note that mostly conference rooms through the facility are shared to allow other departments to come in and utilize those and those can be kept more as a management decision on how you want to best book those and somebody can take care of doing that for you. Any questions on the first floor? De Weerd: Keith did you have a question on the first floor? Bird: No, I think Reta took care of it. Well, yeah, major redesign (inaudible--). But you should have your counter to give notes (inaudible--). Simmons: You are welcome to the large sets of plans to actually see these. You can actually measure them out if you like. The second floor as you come off of the elevator or up the stairs there is that lobby as well as that high volume space right there. It is a two story space on the second level there. Immediately across you will see the same right down the middle. We have Parks and Recreation on one side, the north end of that wing and then on the south it would be Fire Administration. That hasn't really changed at all other than just refining some of those spaces as well. We have unassigned space towards the north corridor there and you will see just adjacent to an employee break room. We envision - we are starting to dot in items if you wish - you will see dotted in vending machines and some of those sorts of things. We can have that verses having them throughout the building. It will be concentrated there. So, we are starting to make those sort of insertions into the plan. We have also allowed for refrigerator and some other utilities will be there - a double sink, a dishwasher. That is where that would be concentrated as opposed to having that throughout every department. Each department will in fact have a small little counter for coffee and those things so they don't have to go all over the place for that with a bar sink. Many of them already have their own small or larger refrigerators they will bring with them to have - you know, so staff can have a place to put their lunches closer to their work spaces as opposed to going through the building and especially a break room that can be accessible by other folks, that is not the best thing. Planning is on the far north end. We are still working with Anna on her space and the lobby layout. We envision some kiosks and some other things that the public would be able to access off that in front of the counter space there. So, that just looks right now as if it is (inaudible) space and it is until we get it all totally refined and meet with her again. You will see a mixture of a few hard offices there and then a lot of daylight coming into that space - a conference room that it is interior to that and then the cubicles would be dotted in there as well. In between the main lobby space and the Planning is an unassigned space for future growth as well there. We have several of those scattered throughout each floor. For the south end on the left hand side of your plan is the Public Works Department, there again, just a little bit more refinement Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 10, 2007 Page 9 of 19 - a similar reflection of what was on the first floor with a few hard offices for the engineers and then for the Public Works Director as well. The work area you will see an evidence of a small bar sink there with some uppers for storage and those things. That is also where the plan vault is located. Zaremba: I see Public Works in two different floors. I guess I am not up to speed on this. Is there a distinction - is one of those like the Building Department or -- ? Simmons: Correct. Absolutely. Yes, sir. We did allow the first floors because we have inspectors that come and go - they can come off of that dock area and make a mess of everything with their muddy boots and they would be concentrated on the first floor. The overall third floor as you come off the elevators there is a gallery portion we still have there for public display of whatever you might choose or the community might want to show there and until such time it needs to be absorbed and utilized you know for offices, but keep in mind that entire center bay, if you look where the reception is currently located as you come into the Council and the Mayor suites and the gallery area is a vaulted space with a lot of daylight in there, a couple of those bays there so it would be very nice to display community artwork or different things throughout the seasons as you wish. As you come into the reception towards the plaza area, which is on the bottom right there is what you would be facing. We have the Mayor's suite on the north side, Council Chambers suite on the left side there. We haven't set down with you folks to layout exactly how the Council Chambers should work -- your workspace. We have just drawn in some counter spaces and some uppers there on the left hand side and envision there would be a place to do your individual work, lock up your things there as need be, but that needs to be worked out with you. So, by all means, if you have ideas of that, get a hold of me or Will and we will go through those things, you know as opposed to individual cubicles and that. If that is your desire, that is fine, too we will have the ability to do that, but right now we just are trying to get some things going in that suite. There is a work room and a conference room there as well and we envisioned you would have paper needs, other things, supplies you could work on that are more confidential in that space and then a conference room to work and do some other things away from some of the other issues that are going throughout the building if you need some time alone to be able to work on some issues. That reception would also serve not only the Council Chambers and their office functions, but also the Mayor's suite. So, it would be a nice place to basically police folks, set them, come in, ask them who they are here to see - there will be seating in that area as well as nice day lighting and they will be able to be directed when they are available or when it is available to go see whoever they are there to see. Immediately off that we have a work room and an Executive Assistant in the Mayor's suite and then open offices - or excuse me, there are some youth programs up towards the front and the way this was designed primarily to keep some of the noise and other things that could be happening off of that reception lobby area away from the Mayor and the Mayor's conference Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 10 of 19 room because we envision that that would be a nice place to be able to entertain potential business opportunities and folks that might come into the community. You want to have them in there and not be having all of that noise around them. So, we are trying to separate some of those functions away from that executive conference room. So, it has a nice view of the plaza. It also allows that sort of entertaining schmoozing if you will to try to happen in that suite right there as well. We did allow for a privacy toilet rooms there; they are small toilets and a small break room for the staff that is at the end of the building also. Across the hall is the City Attorneys and Human Resources Departments; there again, because of confidentiality issues you see a little bit more concentration of offices there, but that is understandable. The Human Resources tends to be in the north end of the building, towards the stair tower; the attorneys on the south side of that suite. IT is on the far south side of that upper floor. They were put there purposely - if you see there is a freight elevator, that hasn't really changed - an elevator that would allow computer equipment and other very costly equipment to come in. Off that back of the elevator there is a back door in the elevator - brought (inaudible--) could be unpacked, brought up to speed and ready for disbursement to the departments and then there is a training room in their department to allow folks to do other computer based training if you will as you grow and need and you can see a series of open office cubicles that can be utilized as staff has added to that department. There is also a small unassigned space there as well. Borton: I am sorry - can you comment on the hallway access - I think it is every floor to the north and the south, you know that one there? Simmons: Absolutely. Borton: Are those general public limited access? Simmons: Chairman Borton what we have is basically the building is very symmetrical by the design as you can imagine as you come to the center - there is a corridor that runs north and south. There is a tendency on long buildings that are somewhat narrow in their geometry to look down a hallway and it just kind of goes on forever and in our minds as architects and as the interior designers - so what we try to do is number one those door are placed - you will see them typically through each floor column lines four and nine (inaudible--); but they are put there, yes - the publiC has to as to the occupancy of the building, have to be able to get to those exit stairs, but they can be discouraged from doing that and then there is no reason - mostly for the folks to be down in that area unless they are desired to be there, so they would be able to panic through those doors, get to the exit stairs, but it is kind of a terminus point as you are looking down there from an aesthetic thing and to keep control of certain folks that don't need to be down around that electrical telecom room and hanging out in that area. So, if they have business at the various departments, they would kind of be held into that area. But, if an emergency and they had to they could go through the door Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 11 of 19 and go right to the stair towers because by code that is required. But, as opposed to opening an entire building up just to be able to visually see it and experience it we tried to terminate those as well. You are absolutely right every floor has those sorts of doors in that. As far as the roof goes that hasn't been changed and that will be mechanical equipment and not occupied. Any questions regarding the floor plans? By way of schedule we are marching on to wrap the package up by the end of the months, first part of May for Petra to put out to bid for the tenant improvements as well. Borton: Thank you, Steve. Council? Zaremba: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: Again, I apologize for not being in on this from the beginning so I will probably ask questions that have already been asked. Within each departmental area is there a provision for - I don't know what you would call it a wet bar or small sink with a microwave and a coffee and a water cooler? I don't mean a full break room- Simmons: Mr. Chairman, Mr. Zaremba absolutely there is a - it is economically desirable to have a small I won't call it a wet bar; a coffee bar is probably a better name. Wet bar brings other connotations with it and that is not the case. There is absolutely and we typically do that and do it in most public projects we work on because imagine someone going up a floor to get a cup of coffee in the break room and it is just a loss of time and - Zaremba: Well and that is what I was thinking just to get a cup of coffee they would be gone for half an hour. Simmons: We do put a small sink in there to be able to make the coffee; you have the water source - not dishwasher or anything of that - but a small refrigerator if they have lunches and other things you know during the day and snacks or whatever. Some folks exercise and might want other drinks or food or whatever they can put in there. Like I said most folks have that anyway and they are bringing those things with them. We do then try to concentrate other things and we encourage departments and that certainly up to each one to do their cooking if they are going to do that up in the break room, so you don't have those smells throughout the whole building as I stated before there is nothing worse than smelling broccoli and cauliflower in your department - popcorn as well - as good as popcorn tastes, often times folks don't like the smell of that. But that is a managerial issue that is up to you folks to decide that. But, we try to concentrate those sorts of things with the proper ventilation in the break room up on the other floor. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 12 of 19 Zaremba: Great. It sounds like the convenience of things have been thought of, so I appreciate that. Rountree: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: I just have a question about the layout in the basement. The electrical and telecommunication towers are stacked throughout the building with the exception in the south end of the basement. Then the telecommunication room gets oriented another direction and expanded and then the electrical room is off yet in another direction, close but not quite stacked over the rest of the electrical silo in the building. Is that efficient or am I not understanding what you are trying to accomplish there? Simmons: Chairman Borton, Councilman Rountree are you talking about the ones between (inaudible) three and four? Rountree: Umm, three and four and "e" and "f' in the basement as opposed to where they are in three and four and "e" and "f' on the remainders of the floors. Simmons: Right now we envision - our fire riser and main services are all coming in the basement at that point and being distributed down to the electrical rooms within the basement space itself - within a ceiling space at that point and then into the access floor feeds there are several ducts throughout these electrical rooms and conduits that will be going through that duct work. So, yes it is not stacked there at that point. Those are going to be the main (inaudible--) come in at that point. But, the others should be stacked through the building for distribution vertically. Rountree: Very good. Borton: Steve, on floor three, I think that is the one that you had up here. Is there a door in this corridor so if someone is sitting in the lobby that they would be prevented from either seeing or listening to Council's offices? Simmons: Currently, no, there is not. If you desire one that is fine as well. There would be someone there at that desk, but if they are not and that is an open and if someone came in they could literally go through each direction. So, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to do that. De Weerd: Oh, so there is not a card access on those? Simmons: On the front door there is, but right here - Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 13 of 19 Borton: This corridor - if you are here and talking on the phone they could hear you. Simmons: They could hear you unless you want some double doors here, which is probably a good idea. De Weerd: I think so. Simmons: It would also allow a little policing. People come in - we envision if you put out some chairs and other things here for people to wait and to cue in and then for instance if they are here to see the Mayor they be able to go into those doors and they could be shown where they need to go and vice-a-versa back in here. So, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have a set of doors here. Borton: Makes sense. Council any comments on that? Bird: I thought, for some reason I didn't look close enough and I thought there was a set of glass doors there. Simmons: Those dotted lines you are seeing are basically just outline of the column above. It is kind of decorative thing that is happening there, but there are no doors. That is a good point and there should be. Zaremba: It is a roll up steel door and close it for security and bang you are done. Borton: Steve, probably doing this like other projects might be like herding cats to some degree and we appreciate you presenting the info and as we go forward right now are there specific questions or specific concrete direction you need from Council to keep this thing moving? Simmons: Chairman Borton, no we are actually seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. We have the colors of course that have been approved and we thank you very much for that. Everyone that has worked within those parameters, we have that behind us. We do have details to work out. We talked about trying to be proactive on where we are going to place displays and other things and cabinets and those things within the public spaces. Down the corridors we are going to sit down and go through a lot of that with Will. I brought the interior designers up to speed today so we will be able to bring some of those sorts of products to you to show you what we are anticipating specifying in this building to be able to have those sorts of displays so people will be able to see that as opposed to allowing things to be just stuck all over the place, we are trying to have some sense of organization to that to keep the building looking very nice and try to be proactive there again. We also have shown the individual departments some suggestions on perhaps behind their reception areas having some art work or some other things that are pertinent to their department. We also will be specifying the sorts Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 14 of 19 of products that will allow them to do that. They still could come up with that themselves, but we are trying to put those pieces and parts in the project to allow them to do that as opposed to just sticking things all over half hazard. We can still do that, but nonetheless we are trying to think of those things ahead of time as best we can. So, for the most part to answer your question, we feel pretty good really to march on, other than redefining and kind of pinning down some of the reception counters a little bit more and some of those little things. Thank you. Zaremba: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: That last question and answer led me to another thought. Just visualizing what has ended up in the lobby of this building, there is a little recycling center that doesn't always look that attractive. Are there going to be convenient recycling bins or something around? Simmons: Chairman Borton and Councilman Zaremba there are. As a matter of fact we have a standard detail we have used in each one of the departments where you put the little sink, counter, bar counter sort of thing, they have recycling stations in there. Zaremba: Oh, cool. Simmons: So that is something and we see that a lot and that is not uncommon to do that. Then someone would have to be in charge of going and collecting that and taking elsewhere when you need to take it. But that is part of the whole scheme as well. It also helps with LEEDS and they will be able to look at the recycling of products. De Weerd: Mr_ President Borton: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: Steve if you could also explain just in the lobby areas of each of our departments - we do have some uniformity in there, but they do have some opportunity for individual identity - not as flared as some might want. Simmons: Chairman Borton, Mayor and Members of the Council, absolutely. Each department has a little bit of I guess an opportunity to express themselves if you will and that was part of the four colors that we came up with for accents. For the most part, those departments are fairly generic, nicely done, but fairly generic - as a budget purpose we want to make those very efficient and utilize some fairly standards if you will for that. Behind each reception desk and you are free to pick whichever one you like you are going to see an accented wall or at least a screen wall and there are the opportunity for those folks, those Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 15 of 19 departments to pick an actual color to go on that screen wall, which would also then have the opportunity to put some art work or something specific to that department. In Planning you might have maps or other growth maps or areas of impact and could be displayed there for people to look at and not have to be drug out and things that could change out or there might be some historical data, you know of that nature or something like that would be nice. We had envisioned - illustrations at our presentation last week about some sepia tone prints that could be brought up that would be very nice. So, each department does have that opportunity and we also - we are not opposed and I would throw this out, we haven't told anybody this if we wanted to take that accent wall and maybe do - well, that color I should say and do one of the conference room walls you know an accent and allow some of that to happen within a department as long as it was the same color - we are not opposed up to that as well, Bill. Paint is paint and it is not that big of a deal. But, there again if you want to get a little splash of color we could do that and there is not a big issue with that. De Weerd: Mr. President I guess just on those (inaudible) it gives them an opportunity too to individualize those prints to the priorities and the personalities of their departments. I mean, it will be a monotone, but they will be able to pick the photos that they would put up there and they could exchange them out periodically as well. Simmons: We would like to give them a display apparatus, if you will to do that. What they put in there is up to that department. Borton: Steve, is it too early to determine the audio, visual and cabling? I know that much smaller typical residence when you have the opportunity of construction you run cable absolutely everywhere, every room - is the plan being set to do that? Simmons: It is already in motion. We have an audio visual consultant that we are working with and we have met with Will on one occasion and we put a fire under him last week to get back and meet with Will and us again and we had already talked about how the Chambers should be arranged and how we are going to look at that from an A.V. standpoint - projection for the audience and so we have to look at those things, etc. So, as well as the community meeting rooms and then individual conference rooms as well. We are envisioning along those lines, as long as we are on that topic, individual department conferences rooms will be set up for just screens, but nothing electric, just basic screens and the ability to do some work if they wanted to, but nothing fancy. They could bring in a PowerPoint and be able to show that. If I wanted to come in and go to Public Works and show something that was in our planning, I have the ability to pull the screen down and do that. That is the extent of AV. that we see in those departments at this point. For rooms like the community meeting rooms, Mayor's conference room and those things, we are going to have bigger presentations and it is a whole other subject. We will have drop screens in that and the ability Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 16 of 19 to do some of that work as well. They also are responsible of putting together for us a budget and we will look at that budget and go through and feel, along with Petra, if that is something we think we can afford and fits within the budget that was given to us at the onset of the project - we will provide and allow to go through the bid process we feel that it is over then we will still rough in for those - we will still deal with the essential items, obviously this room and everything associated with that and then rough in for any future that we will that can't be provided immediately in this package. But at least we'd have the ability to later on to have all of the conduits, the boxes and those things ready and if we are going to have panels or CC T.V. or something else, we would be able to pull the wires at that time as the funds became available. Borton: Okay and that is kind of the question that all of that rough in will be done at least in the conferences rooms of each and every department throughout the building. Simmons: Absolutely as well as we are also getting ready to start in on our access control system for the doors. My partner Russ (inaudible) will be meeting with Will and then our electrical engineer to lay that out, look at the desire along with the Police Chief as to what level of security. (Inaudible) in the building and what sort of system do you want to put in there from card access or scanning standpoint. That will also be in the base package as well. Borton: Council any other questions or information needed? Steve anything else from us at this point for you? Simmons: Not related to the floor plans. Borton: Okay. (Inaudible--) who is going to talk on the bids? Simmons: Well, I guess we have two items. We could talk about the bids and if we have time we can go over the update on the water levels if you want - bids first before everybody shows up? Borton: Okay, let's do that. (Tape turned over) De Weerd: The bids are on the regular agenda. But, we wanted to talk about the water. Simmons: Okay, do you want to talk about water or do you want to talk about bids? Borton: Just water. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 17 of 19 Simmons: Okay. Bennett: Chairman Borton, my name is Gene Bennett. I will have Steve stand here with me because we both have been working on this thing together. At this point your building elevation at grade is 2606 for the ground floor. A week ago we talked about raising that floor elevation to 2610 and the corresponding elevation for your basement would go from 2592 to 2596. Your footings are about two feet lower than your floor elevations, so if the building is at 2596 for a floor in the basement, your footing is at 2594. At this point there is no confirmed water table information for our building, but we have investigated with the help of Farmers and Merchants the water table elevation for their project. The curb at Farmers and Merchants is at 2605 MTI established the high water table in August 15 feet below that, which is at elevation 2590. Your well borings that occurred last fall for your project had a high water table of 2587. Realizing that the high water table doesn't occur in the winter months it actually occurs in August and you add about three feet for raising the water table would bring you up to 2590, which matches what is going on over at Farmers and Merchants. Your (inaudible) layer is at 2588 and you can see that if you raise your building four feet, which puts the bottom of the footing at 2594, you are approximately four foot above 2590, which is your high water table level and at this point I will turn it over to Steve for his final comments. Simmons: Thank you, Gene. Also I have here and I will just let you pass this out. I think some folks have copies of this. We had asked our - we just distributed that Monday morning at our organizational meeting with the Mayor. That is basically that we asked our designer, our plaza designer, the landscape, architect and planner (inaudible) to look at if we raised the whole building up four feet, what would that do to the plaza itself? What that shows in reality they think it is a much better presentation. It gives us - we are below ADA accessibility limits - about 2 ~ percent for those sidewalks to come up off of Broadway, up towards the plaza. The ramps and the stairs at the building stay the same as they were already designed. The only thing we would have to tweak would be the collection points with our civil engineer where we currently have our drains because right now the grades that we are working on are a little bit flat if not somewhat of a slope bowl if you will. So, this raises it up, crowns it a little bit and slopes off. So, it would really be kind of an indiscernible grade change as you will as you go up there. So, they felt it was very nice. It changes a lot of things. It pulls us up out of what we see as a potential or at least water issue, if you will, and who knows water can be up and down at any given year, we don't know that for sure, but we think that the best possible solution is to pull the building up the four feet, it doesn't impact the plaza, hit the loading dock, which was currently fairly level and flat at this time. We would have it probably a true loading dock with three or four foot loading dock that you would back into because we do need to make up the grade there as well and then the exits off towards Meridian Road would have to have additional stairs for exiting purposes also. That is kind of where we are at on the water issue. It was kind of a blessing to be able to find Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 18 of 19 out that there was some data on the Farmers Bank, which (inaudible--) in a basement. They do not have a basement I was informed, but nonetheless they give us some data there and it seems to make a lot of sense in the logic of where water would be in the August, September verses and where we are looking for high and low waters. Borton: Thank you, Steve and Gene we appreciate that information. Council any additional questions on the water? Bennett: I have one last request. With this raise in elevation and putting your footings above the clay layer, I would request permission to turn Taracon loose on soil foundation bearing capacity because we are going to be on top of that clay layer. Even though we appear to be somewhere about six feet above it, we need to have Taracon do their soils bearing capacities so that Steve can finish up to his design. It is a $2,000 expense. I would request City Council approval to turn them loose to do that. Bird: I make a motion for Taracon to do this. Rountree: Second. Borton: It has been moved and seconded to approve the expense of not to exceed $2,000. Any discussion? Zaremba: I don't know if this is direct discussion, but would the end results of that be that there might be piers under the footings or something that we might need to - we are not trying to find Bedrock or anything are we? I don't know. Bennett: There would be no piers. We are not dealing with those kinds of weights. We would be dealing with spread footings and select structural fill and perhaps fabric, that would probably be your worst condition. Borton: Any other questions Council? If none, Mr. Berg roll call vote. Roll Call Vote: Bird, aye; Rountree, aye; Zaremba, aye; Borton, aye. ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. De Weerd: And if I could vote, I would say aye too. Borton: Steve thanks for the update, hopefully we gave you some clear indications and information and we appreciate all of the hard work going forward on the design. Council if there is nothing further this brings us to the end of the Pre-Council meeting. I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Zaremba: So moved. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting April 1 0, 2007 Page 19 of 19 Rountree: Second. Borton: It has been moved and seconded to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:59 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) APPROVED: ,f s-/ (/07 DATE APPROV~OI'!I'!1I1111 \\\ "WE '1/, \\ \ ro.K.- "If:,,",' I,;' , \. __t V .ri:'~!'" ~/ " -i '\ ~:.,,;I' <J _.:.- .................' ~"\...... ~~--~~-:-""'~.~~~~J~' ...~:~" ~ u~ _ "-"'f ~ I~~~. "*1\ ..~~. .:::- ~~() \ ';:;' ::: '!i\ :::. 'lJ -1'-" 'I, L ) -~ l:.:.'J' J~;;f.l j/ll. :: -:;. C"" {;;~/") l :;.. ""A.:-'~) -,- 1 :r'i . / ,~,';:- ....~ '-"..... -< -1.1'<. ,~ .";:.. ~t "\ .....,..-._,,....--- ~0'" .~<.'" ",>. CO~"T.r{ . .,,'- " '>/.;. ~:. t;~ If ,.~ \\\~..\ ? " : -' , ,; ~ l t: ~ i i \ \