Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007 05-01 Pre Meridian City Pre~Council Meetina May 1 , 2007 The Meridian City Pre-Council meeting was called to order at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 by Councilman President Joe Borton. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, David Zaremba, Charlie Rountree and Joe Borton. Staff Present: Ted Baird, Bill Johnson, Pete Friedman, Anna Canning, Bill Musser and Will Berg. Item 1. RolI~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. Zaremba: 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. Discussion of Median Imaaes for the Ten Mile Interchanae and Other Entry Corridors with Pete Friedman: Borton: In front of us we have got some great colored samples provided to us by Pete Friedman in the Planning Department. And Pete I will turn it over to you to begin tonight's presentation. Friedman: As you know the Interchange project is actually moving along and we are moving into the design phase and as we have been going through the Ten Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1 , 2007 Page 2 of 20 Mile Specific Area Planning process, we have been working very closely with ITD, ACHD and Lochner who is the design consultant for the Ten Mile Interchange and a few weeks ago, Vance Henry who is the Project Manager who is here with us tonight approached us and said, you know we are getting ready to start putting some pencils to paper and creating some road sections and we would like to know what the city is looking for in terms of the street section and we pulled out the Ten Mile plan and we said well here is our street section and it shows separated sidewalks and medians and so forth. So we met with Mayor and the Council President and we talked about where the project was going and what it was entailing and Vance indicated that as part of the design they could certainly design the medians in and in fact, if it was the city's desire to see landscape medians they might be able to build in some of the basic for the irrigation infrastructure and so forth. At that time he talked about the initial plan was to develop, if I recall, a 26 foot wide median that would have the potential of being whittled down as the need for further lanes was required as time went on. Our Ten Mile plan shows about a 12 foot wide median on Ten Mile Road and that is permanent; that was not intended to go away to make room for their traffic plans. But at the end of that meeting, Council President asked if I could put together some slides to show Council what we are talking about in terms of different levels of landscaping, landscaping treatments and different widths, so that is what I have done. I have given you hard copies of the slides that I am going to present and sort of what we are after tonight is just to get your sense of what kind of medians would you like to see, if any? Do you want landscape medians? Do you want them to just be bare boned landscape medians or do you want full, generously landscape medians? That obviously has cost implications for the city as time goes on. So maybe before I start the slides, I will have Vance just kind of give you a brief status update on where the project is at and where it is going and then I will run through the slides and then we get the Council questions, if that is all right with you? Henry: Council Members, Madame Mayor I am Vance Henry. Where we are at now, we have completed all of our technical studies as part of the environmental or starting to draft the environmental (inaudible) and we have negotiated our preliminary design scope of work with ITD and should get noticed for seed sometime within the next two weeks. The first thing that we need to know is the typical section of the roadway and then we could start some of our design process. So that is where (inaudible) led me to Pete to say what do we want to look at with the typical section, both in the terms of median and in back of (inaudible) and back of curb for pedestrian and bike facilities. I don't want to speak for Sue, but our discussions with these GARVEE projects - each GARVEE project has a certain budget and when we get to the point where we are later in design and we can (inaudible) cost estimates - if we are above the budget, the money that GARVEE has allocated for that project, we start backing things out to be able to build a project within the GARVEE budget. That will come into play when we look at items like landscaping and things like separated sidewalks and the need to buy that right of way now or do we do something Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 3 of 20 minimal now and let the developers put those in later and save the right of way dollars. Those things will flush out over the next eight months, but just so you are aware that when we look at different cross sections and we are looking at wide medians, narrow medians; there is the cost to put it in, but there is also the cost of the real estate that the project will bear and if we are above our allocated funding we will start squeezing things out and look at what we can take out. The reason that we looked at a wide median is although our traffic numbers tell us that four travel lanes is appropriate for Ten Mile out to 2030 - we have looked back in history and with our traffic projections from COMPASS we've missed them on several big projects, so if we look at putting in a wider median and we have to add travel capacity in the future, we can put it in the median and not be trying to buy right of way from whatever future development is right next to us and if they do have the separated sidewalk then those can be preserved and we won't have to chew those up. So that is why we were looking at maybe a wider median for the facility now and with the thought that that is available for future traffic. Anything else, Pete? Friedman: I don't think so at this point other than being able to address maybe some Council questions. Rountree: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: Question. I guess for me to better understand what I need to think about - what are your project limits? Touchdown, touchdown, what is going to be on the highway system? Henry: The touchdown limits on the north are - we are mating up with an already designed ACHD project at the intersection of Ten Mile and Franklin. Those plans are completed. We have those and so we will match that design. On the south end for Ten Mile, we have touchdown just north of the Ridenbaugh Canal. Bird: Up on top of the hill? Henry: Not on top of the hill, about half way up. It is below the hill. Bird: Okay. Henry: And with the very conceptual profiles we have looked at - as you go over the Interstate, the roadway will be on a two percent grade and it pretty well just runs at a straight two percent until we tie in just north of the canal. So the project doesn't have any widening of that canal crossing with Ten Mile. Currently, the Overland piece, we have got an intersection with Ten Mile and Overland, depending on the (inaudible) you look at, fairly close to where the existing Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 4 of 20 intersection is; albeit with grade probably 20 feet higher in the air than the current intersection is. I believe the traffic numbers show that that intersection - it would be a lit", but fully developed with dual lefts for the Ten Mile to Overland movement. Interchanges - we are looking at bending FHWA's review of some documents, either a standard diamond or a single point interchange and the traffic analysis on those two are fairly similar, single point operates better just because it has a single signal verses two. So the termini in those would be where the ramps tie in with the Interstate; that would be our (inaudible) on the Interstate. We do have the Tasa Street that we need to keep that connected for those homeowners and there are several alternatives that connect Tasa to the project. Rountree: So the question in my mind still is is this project going to build Ten Mile to Franklin and you are going to design it a typical section or are you just going to take it to a touchdown point so many feet from the end of ramp terminals that will be- Henry: No, it will go all the way. Rountree: It will go all the way? So, you will be charged with design? Henry: Yeah. Rountree: Okay. Henry: Yeah and I don't know the schedule on ACHD's Franklin, Ten Mile intersection project. It is - the design is complete. I think they are just - I don't know when it is funded, but given if those two projects come together at the same time, you will have a brand new Franklin, Ten Mile intersection in Ten Mile from the Interstate all the way to that project. Rountree: Okay, that helps me understand what to think about. Borton: Vance before we go - Pete I know you had some information, at least preliminary on maintenance costs. One of the things that we discussed with trying to give some guidance and some selections of - (inaudible) Parks Department. Can you share some of that information? Friedman: Yes Mr. President, Madame Mayor and Members of the Council in preparing for tonight's meeting, I had a discussion with Doug and he had Elroy put together just some very, very general costs and I have got a memo that I will hand out for you, but they assumed a 26 foot wide median, although I had asked them to assume something different. But they took absolutely the worst case - 26 foot wide and they based it on a 26 foot wide median with a 500 foot length and then gave me - I asked for low, high and midrange maintenance costs. So what they said is they are defining a low maintenance median and basically one Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 5 of 20 that is either plain concrete or colored concrete that has some tree wells in it, so there would be minimal maintenance on that with an annual estimated maintenance cost of $2,000 to $4,000 a year. The median maintenance defined as having turf, irrigation and one row of trees and again you are talking about a 13,000 square foot area and they are looking at about $9,000 a year on that and then high maintenance is trees, shrubs, planting beds, flowers and so forth, kind of like what is being planned around the new City Hall and they are estimating an annual maintenance of about $15,000 per year. That is for 500 lineal feet. Now we are talking about (inaudible--). When I measure it you have a mile, but when you back out the intersections and so forth, conservatively I just thought to myself okay say it is 3,000 feet and then started mentally multiplying these numbers by six. That is probably going to have some pretty serious implications for your consideration. I will be happy to hand this out at the end of the presentation tonight. He also prepared some other costs for landscaping maintenance outside of the right of way. So if there are any areas that are just landscape buffers or something that they would preserve or they would be maintaining - he has costs for that. Then he made some just brief recommendations on what they would like to see in terms of the design guidelines for the medians; some design considerations like a 24 inch mowing strip and things like that. So I would be happy to hand those out for you for your consideration. Borton: Okay, thank you. Rountree: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: A rule of thumb that we used for years was your maintenance cost was going to be 10 percent of your construction costs ongoing. So if it is a million dollar landscape job it is going to be a $100,000 plus a year to maintain it forever. I am guessing that ITD's policy has not changed on landscaping and I guess a question for Sue - did the City of Boise back out of their maintenance agreement yet or did they get convinced to stay with maintaining the connector? Sullivan: I am not really in that loop, Charlie. The last I heard they were - that was the last I heard, but I am really not in that. Rountree: So there is a whole lot of stuff going on with building, landscaping and I am sure any agreement that we would enter into with ITD if they were to build a landscaping would be pretty much iron clad and that it would be ours forever. Just a note of interest, the City of Boise is contemplating no longer maintaining the connector and when that was built that was about a 2 ~ or 3 million dollar landscape job and probably ten million now. De Weerd: Mr. President. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 6 of 20 Borton: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: I guess Pete since several of your examples resides in Nampa, could you contact them and find out if they have an estimate of what their annual costs are? Friedman: I would be happy to do that. De Weerd: And if you would kind of get an idea of the amount of it that they have (inaudible) dimensions. Bird: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: Pete also I think we have got some - we should have some history out here on the median out on Main Street coming in and I realize that isn't, but you have got the sprinkler system, you have got trees and you have got grass. I would hope that in a short time they could tell you how much they have spent on a yearly basis there and I am like Charlie that it was always a ten percent rule that I have been told since I have been here. If it costs $100,000 it will cost you $10,000 a year or more to maintain it. But we should be able to pull that up pretty fast of how much it costs us out there. Friedman: Mr. President, Madame Mayor, Council Members I would be happy to get that information for you and then email it out to you. Rountree: Mr. President with all of the bad news out, I think we probably ought to spend some time talking about the visual experience that we want. Sullivan: We have been hearing from the public a lot of strong interests in zero- scaping concepts and I don't know if you have found any, but- Bird: What kind of --? Sullivan: Zero-scaping (inaudible--). Bird: The native stuff with no- Sullivan: It is becoming a stronger interest all the time. Friedman: Mr. President, Madame Mayor and Council Members I don't think we are going to see a lot of water-wise - so there is a couple examples of that; it is something that I definitely had an interest in and was trying to obtain information and I went so far as to try and contact some of our counterparts down in like the City of Scottsdale and so forth, not with much success, but there are some pretty Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 7 of 20 attractive applications using rock and some trees and sculptures and things like that out there. Zaremba: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I would comment and I am trying to remember where it is along McMillan, but it is the Saguaro Canyon Subdivision has and I don't know if you would really call it zero-scaping, there are plants; it is not water free, but it is I am sure low water design and they are not just only their entryway, but if you drive in it is pretty attractive and it appears to be low water. I don't know if other Council Members or the Mayor who have driven through and looked at, but it is not 100 percent zero-scaping, but it is probably 90 percent or something like that. It is very attractive. Friedman: So with your permission I would like to proceed with the slides if there aren't any more questions? Borton: Yes, please do. Friedman: Okay the first four slides you will all recognize because you have been by it many times and I will be following up with the City of Nampa on that. These are just from different perspectives. As you can see they incorporate some hard-scaping, some trees and some lower shrubs. Then they actually have some hard texturing. This again is sort of a combination where you have trees, shrubs, some rocks and of course the safety strip there. They call it a mowing strip. But, again they have provided a little bit of additional visual attractiveness in it by coloring that stamped concrete. This one obviously has trees and low growing shrubs and again you see at least on one side there is a strip for the people to come in and maintain it. I guess this might be sort of between a medium and a high maintenance type of landscaping application. Here is a pretty well manicured one. I imagine this one doesn't come very cheaply to maintain; but again we were trying to find different examples for Council to view. Here you have more of some public art. You have some hard- scaping. You do have more sort of a low maintenance type of probably water wise vegetation in it, although it has kind of got a raised portion to it. So I would expect they probably park their maintenance vehicles in those flat areas and then take their lives in their hands and walk out in traffic and try and maintain it. This one is obviously pretty high maintenance landscaping application. Here is a little bit less intense, but you still get a little bit of everything; a little bit of paving texture, you get some low shrubs and some trees and here we have - again we tried to capture a sense of in areas where we might be able to sort of emulate what we would see along Ten Mile. I was shooting for areas where I could try to find two travel lanes in each direction with a median in the middle - it wasn't always possible. Again more generous landscaping there. This one, I believe is Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 8 of 20 in an area where water is an issue so these trees are kind of drought tolerant and so forth. De Weerd: I think they are dying. Friedman: That is Olympia, Washington and that is really just an entry to - I think it is going across one of the bridges on the west side. I used to work for the city and I was surprised to see this because when I worked there none of this was there. Here is one where we have pretty low maintenance. You have a few trees and a bunch of rocks. Here you have a little bit more sod and tree (inaudible). This one obviously water is not a consideration; I believe this is Lake Oswego over in Portland. Actually from what I know of Lake Oswego, neither money nor water is a consideration. I think this is Texas. I am not certain, but yeah I think. Again you have a combination of sort of textured concrete and some rock and then some vegetation in there. I believe that is the end of it. You have hard copies of all of these slides there so you can look at them. So again in summary what we were sort of trying to get a sense from Council is do we want medians? If we want medians, how wide do we want them? The Ten Mile plan is identifying a 12 foot median right now. We think 26 is probably too wide. Should it be something narrower such as 15, 12, 8 feet - is landscaping desired? If so at what level is it desired? Then of course there would obviously be an ongoing financial commitment from the city to maintain it if we approach it the way we have been doing it in our other medians. But what Vance really is trying to get a sense of from the Council is since - well, optimistically he has said if there is enough money in the budget, they might include landscaping, but I think that if we are lucky we might be able to get the median's constructed and get maybe the infrastructure set for irrigation and if that is the case then - is Council understood in seeing landscaping there, recognizing the ongoing costs, but he needs some direction of what to put down on paper as he moves into his street section. Because as he has indicated the first thing they start with is the street section and then start designing outward from that. De Weerd: Mr. President. Borton: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: Pete in looking at that, if you were to have more the low to medium where you have some trees and some of the stamped concrete to - how many feet gives the best chance for those trees to remain healthy? Friedman: In terms of the width around them? De Weerd: Uh-huh. Friedman: Obviously, I am not an arborist, but I know that you typically need to have probably around eight to ten feet to keep some tree health going. They obviously would have to also be kind of a tree where the roots aren't going to Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1 , 2007 Page 9 of 20 expand out too far into the median or be constrained. But you can't get it too narrow or your trees are going to start having problems as we have evidenced in sidewalk applications and so forth. De Weerd: Yeah, that is my - Borton: Pete can you put this one up - Friedman: Sure. Borton: From what you described it does seem to make sense that 12 feet may be 10 - 12 feet at least in the additional planning stages for this median is appropriate 26 feet would be great, but you will have to scale back. That doesn't really sound like that is a viable alternative even to start with. For my two bits this isn't - one of the images that sort of meets that medium low maintenance and looks like more or less bark with the tree boulevard, stamped concrete around the edges - it fits the maintenance costs and size and style and I think it would look good in the Ten Mile. Friedman: As Doug has indicated in his memo, having the 24 inch strip there between the curb into where the landscaping actually starts; so we sort of have a safety zone for our maintenance people to walk on. So that would leave you ten feet in there for planting and irrigation and that sort of thing. Borton: One of the things I think we discussed, if I recall to do the 12 feet verses the wider one is to avoid encouraging pedestrians to try and get on it and walk the length of it; the 12 feet discourages that. Friedman: Yeah, I think if you had 26 feet, I mean, you could have all kinds of things going on inside of there. Bird: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: Pete I am like - I like that one. I have got a question on those pavers. In our type of weather where we have frost and stuff, have they been successful? Maybe that is for ITD or - I mean you could get into a lot of expense if you had to keep replacing or resetting them all of the time. Do they sit in sand? Is that how they set those or do they --? Rountree: They are stamped. Bird: Oh, they are stamped? Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 10 of 20 Friedman: Yeah, that might be stamped concrete, which I think is, Mr. President, Madame Mayor and Members of the Council, is certainly a lot more cost effective than pavers and a lot less labor intensive to install and certainly maintain. Rountree: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: You can see those on the connector underneath the sand and gravel on the edge of the road. That is one of the problems with them. I mean, they just get covered up. In order to get the visual impact, they have to be swept or brushed off or something. But, yeah they are stamped concrete and they hold up really well. Zaremba: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: Of the drawings, I mean there were many of them that were attractive, considering all of the practicalities this is the one that I was drawn too as well. In thinking of the width and having it be wide enough that the intersections could be the turn pocket lane. So I would think in terms of 12 to 15 feet to enable it to be the turn pocket lane as well. I am very much in favor of having trees down the median. I personally am against having grass there because it is - or at least the mode type of grass. It is high maintenance. It is a safety issue for - even if you have the two foot strip and I like the stamped concrete that looks like brick - having grass even if it were in the middle is a pretty serious safety issue. The lower the maintenance the better. I am not attracted to the ones that are just river rock or river stone up and down the middle. I don't think those are attractive. I wouldn't mind a bush or two, but again, going for a low maintenance, going for low water use - what we are looking at in this drawing is pretty close to what I would think we would want to look for. I guess my next question would be how this fits into the design plan for the whole Ten Mile area? Are we going to ask that if cross streets have mediums or detached sidewalks that they carry this same theme on in some ways so that we have a Ten Mile area design theme that everybody has to follow or are we only talking about medians and whatever else happens does happen? Friedman: Mr. President, Madame Mayor and Council Members. This is the beginning. This is primarily for the main arterial for Ten Mile. Our plan does show some medians in the collectors off in the circulation system there - that probably is one of those implementation measures that we are going to need to follow up on once we get the plan adopted and start developing the design guidelines for the Ten Mile area. So it may be that we end up with sort of a pallet of different types of materials. I think, if what I am hearing - if the interest is still having vegetation in the medians, but having it both be water wise and fiscally Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 11 of 20 wise then it will be important for us to come up with a pallet that tries to achieve those objectives. So I don't think that this is setting the example for the entire planning area, though. Rountree: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: From my perspective as far as the width, probably minimum of 14 feet and the width ought to be consistent with what the term (inaudible) are going to be and they are typically 14 feet. Henry: At the intersections that we model, meaning Overland and some future signalized intersection midway between the Interstate and Franklin and then coming into Franklin they all will be double dual left, so it is 26 feet. Rountree: So it would be 26 feet? Henry: We would have - if we kept in narrow we would have an hourglass coming into those intersections. Design speed is 40; posted speed will probably be 35 or 40, so the hourglass is- Rountree: So given that kind of a design situation, you create an opportunity to do something different than just having a lineal strip like that. You could have bulbs or something where you are widening out to the 26 feet. Henry: Being that is not a high speed facility you could come in and it would flare out to pick up that extra lane. Rountree: Before we get our hopes dashed at this point it would be federal aid dollars, well they are GARVEE dollars but they have to follow federal rules. Will they allow trees without some kind of berm or wall protecting the motorists? Henry: At the design speed, we have, I believe it is a six (inaudible) of trees. So I we can get trees like these smaller diameter trees in the clear zone. So I think we are okay. Twin Falls worked on that design project - it was a higher design speed and they allowed the six inch (inaudible) tree because of (inaudible--). Rountree: I guess my comment about - is it that or something else? I agree with Pete this isn't necessarily going to set the tone for our expectations out there, but I certainly would not say a minimal approach from the city's perspective is fair to the ultimate developers out there when we are going to expect them to do 25 plus feet of some kind of landscaping; so if we start with something like this, but it is built to accommodate more greenery in terms of an irrigation system as the development occurs out there that might be something to consider, but I am not sure that I understand our situation about not wanting to spend a lot of money for Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 12 of 20 maintenance; but if this is what we are going to do, how can we expect something different from the developers? I don't know, it is just kind of hard for me to swallow. Borton: Charlie are you making reference just to what goes inside, not necessarily it should be the 26 feet or --? Rountree: No. Whatever we do, ought to be quality whether it is two feet or 26 feet it just ought to be visually pleasant. Now obviously that picture is taken in the dead of winter or fall and it is not the best example, but I kind of was partial to the one in Chapel Hill, NC with the dual row of trees banded by probably some kind of a gravel with some kind of greenery in the middle; probably was mid maintenance, but I would think once established it was something that would take care of itself fairly easily. De Weerd: So somewhere between those two. Zaremba: Mr. President that one would work for me as well. I am not attracted to having bark right up to the curb like that; passing trucks have a whirlwind of air that follows them down the street that might pull it in. Rountree: It could be a paved - Zaremba: -- yeah, with the stamped concrete this would certainly work as well for me. Rountree: I am assuming now days you could probably get concrete stamp to look just like this as well. De Weerd: Mr. President. Borton: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: I guess somewhere in between there could be an opportunity to put in some art that would help up the ante and make it look nice and still make it environmentally smart that we don't get too much that is water - you want something that is conservative in the water area, but I think between the two that Council has shown, I think you have a pretty good idea - my only concern is the bark and the wind and I am not for perma bark or rock - that just breaks windshields, but what is the appropriate material to have in there would be another question. Friedman: Yeah, what kind of ground covers and so forth - again, Mr. President, Madame Mayor and Council Members as Vance has stated depending on how the budget works out on this, we may just end up with some curbing with some irrigation in there and figuring how we are going to get that landscaped. We just Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 13 of 20 are going to have to wait until they cost this out. We can have some more discussion on this. Borton: I agree with Councilman Rountree, not only the style issues that he brings up and ultimately it might be something that we end up eating the expense (inaudible--), but 15 feet width, you know there is the most critical decision and we will be surely impacted by the designs; at least the footprint of the median. I tend to agree with 15 feet maybe verses 10 to 12 would be more appropriate regardless of what (inaudible). That last issue and you mentioned Pete and I know we are running short on time - I know Vance brought it up was separated sidewalks or not. Do you need some guidance from Council on that as well? Friedman: I think we pretty well got that answer and I think in my memo we were going to - we are still exploring a couple of possibilities, but as I understand it the Highway Administration is going to require some kind of pedestrian facility, albeit it could be temporary until we start getting adjacent development to construct a permanent concrete pathways. One thing we are going to explore is whether or not the Highway District funding regulations would allow the construction of a permanent pedestrian facility on one side as opposed to temporary on both sides. So he is looking into that also. The one area, even though our plan calls for separated sidewalks there is an area where we won't be able to have that and that will be actually as you start up to the Interchange because of the slopes and the grades and so forth, we have to have attached sidewalks there. Borton: Pete was there also needed guidance on the pedestrian design of the overpass itself and guard rails so to speak? Has that been resolved or any choices there? Friedman: We haven't really had that part of the discussion yet and I think they were going to look at it as they got into the design, but we needed to establish the street section first and everything sort of evolves from there. I am sure that as the design evolves Vance and I will be able to have some more discussions about that and certainly we can do the kind, if you are open to it, the kind of meetings that we have had and then come back and brief the Council. We didn't want to overwhelm you with too much. Vance and I were talking the other night and there is going to be a couple more kind of points that we are going to come to you for some direction, particularly on storm water facilities and you know should they be landscaped if there is landscape - if there is maintenance questions and design and that sort of thing. So we want to come back to you with discussions about that. Borton: Thank you, Pete and thank you, Vance for being here and giving us information. Council anything else on this topic? Rountree: Well just a question for Vance or Sue or Pete on Pete's last comment. Is this going to be an urban typical section or is it rural or a combination because Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 14 of 20 that makes a difference on how you separate the sidewalks and that no man's land between the sidewalk and --? Henry: We are looking at a whole urban section. Rountree: Okay. Zaremba: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: A comment on working drainage swells into it - if it is a consensus that we are talking about, something like a 15 foot wide median for most of it and then it has to bold out to handle double turn lanes, there might be somewhere in there where it bolds out that we could have some storm drainage. I don't know whether that is attractive or not. That would be an area that may not solve all of the problems, but if it solved even 20 percent of it then we have less to worry about somewhere else. Henry: We took a quick look with the median with the two percent slope of the roadway across and the median will be the high point. It is kind of hard to then (inaudible-- ). Zaremba: Oh okay that doesn't help then. Henry: We have had a few discussions about swells and the amount of right of way they would take and just the configuration of getting over the Interstate. A lot of this facility is going to be much higher than existing grades, so it is going to be pretty typical curb, gutter inlets in the pipe storage and then into some type of retention to be metered off into the (inaudible) drain; most likely most of the storm water. Zaremba: Thank you. Item 4. Mayor'S Youth Advisory Council Report: Borton: Item NO.4 for the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council Report. I believe it will be presented by Rowann de Weerd. If you could come on forward and we appreciate you coming and sharing your information. R. De Weerd: Our presentation has music and it is going to be really boring if we can't hear music because it will be like 15 minutes of silence. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 15 of 20 Canning: The speakers aren't even connected Rowann, so it would take us 5 minutes to figure out how to hook them up. So they are used to really boring presentations by their planning staff. They will be okay without music. Bird: We can have Joe sing for us. R. De Weerd: Okay, Mr. President and fellow Council Members and Mayor we had a lot of fun and these pictures just a small resemblance about it and so we will kind of talk about what we learned from it afterwards. De Weerd: Do you want to introduce? R. De Weerd: My name is Rowann de Weerd and I am the Chair this year. Lloyd: I am Becca Lloyd and I am the Treasurer. Comb: I am Drew Comb and I am the vice-chairman. Borton: Did you say Drew? Comb: Yes. R. De Weerd: Hopefully you guys aren't too bored. De Weerd: Okay, Rowann why don't you just talk through the pictures, too? R. De Weerd: Okay. A couple - there is going to be a lot of pictures. This was our first project in the year (inaudible) for the hungry and we got over 3,000 pounds, not tons of food. As a big team building experience we had a lot of fun. We went around the houses and we collected food for the Meridian Food Bank. We got $5,000 from Albertsons and we donated that to make a sign for the Meridian Food Bank. These are a lot of the pictures. Sorry the music didn't work. I spent like an hour trying to find good music for this. That is Travis he is our Secretary, but he is not here today. De Weerd: So they went door to door through some of our subdivisions. Albertson's donated $5,000 and the sign at Sign's Etc. donated was worth $1,500. These are just some of the (inaudible) meetings. R. De Weerd: We had numerous subcommittee meetings to plan that event to plan a lot of our events. A lot of the huge events take a lot of manpower and so that takes a lot of hours out of our schedule. But we had lots of fun and we go to coffee houses and there is usually caffeine there and we are good to go. This was the Human Right's Day. We went to the library and presented a puppet show to the kids and we read books about Martin Luther King and we danced with the kids and it was a lot of fun and it was a pajama party, so we all wore our pajamas except for Drew and Jessica. So they kind of stood out. That was the Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 16 of 20 chicken dance that that lady in the pink polka dotted taught us how to do. Travis had a lot of fun in it. Borton: Is he okay? R. De Weerd: Drew loved the puppets. We did the hokey pokey with the puppets and so I think (inaudible--) was up. (Tape turned over) R. De Weerd: This was at the Star Fish Ball for a drug free Idaho. Drew and I went with my parents. This was the Governor's Inauguration Ball and the former co-chair Stephanie and I went to that and we hooked up with a few of the Caldwell Council and that was a lot of fun. We got to meet the Governor. That was a game night with the Treasure Valley Youth Partnership, which was formed this summer and they are represented as the chair and co-chair from each Council - Eagle, Caldwell and Nampa, Wilder and Meridian and we meet once a month and we put on the March Against Meth, which there will be pictures. This was in D.C., that is Teresa from Eagle and that was a round table that we had with youth delegates from all around the country. It was a lot of fun. We got to hear from Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, a lot of the Senators and we learned a lot and we got to connect and learn more about the National League of Cities. That is Crappo. That is Kempthorne and that was last summer (inaudible) I last talked with you guys which was the beginning of the summer. This was the Leadership Conference in Lewiston. Those are a few of the delegates there. This is the March Against Meth, which was a huge success. That is kind of (inaudible). That was my mom before the State of the City. But the March Against Meth was a huge success. There was over 200 participants in the march and that is where we announce the winners of the poster contest. I don't know if you guys have seen the posters, but they were really good. Over 4,500 people went to the actual speaking when Milton talked and the Governor. It was really exciting because this is the first huge project of the Treasure Valley Youth Partnership and we kind of got out there to tell people and the community that we are here to help and with the joint efforts of all the surrounding cities, we can make a big event. So we are proud of that. This was in Sun Valley for the Drug Prevention Conference. Drew, Carly and I went to it. It was a lot of fun. We learned a lot about the prevention techniques that cities in Idaho - some more March Against Meth. We also learned about signs that we can notice drug use in our schools. A lot of it shocked me, but that is kind of an overview of all of the people at the actual march. The Anti-Drug Coalition won a prize there. That is Brenda receiving the prize. She didn't turn towards us. But that kind of summarizes it. (Inaudible) is probably undermining how much fun that I had this year. I made a lot of friends and the Council is the biggest that it has ever been. We had more projects, more success than we have in the past four years. So, I really want to say thanks to you guys because you guys make this possible and I think one Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 17 of 20 thing that I got out of this would be how to delegate more and so I am excited for next year and I hope you guys give us another chance. Lloyd: I learned a lot. We worked in teams a lot and we have a lot of subcommittees and it is a lot of work and it is a lot of hours, but it is a lot of fun and to see things like the March Against Meth be such a success makes it all worth it. Comb: Obviously Rowann is extremely active in our Council. You are in every single picture. But it has been a fun year. It has been awesome. I have made some really great friendships with some of the kids in that Council and it has really given me a perspective of the City Council, government and how it works. I wasn't really sure exactly how the city government worked, but now after this year I pretty much have been able to learn so many things about it and it is a great way to really get involved within my community and it is actually my first year doing it and I (inaudible) in previous years, but there were other issues going on so I was unable to it, but I have been so impressed this year and the things that we have been able to do and accomplish and personally I have gained so many things from it, not only friendships, but a lifetime of memories and just like (inaudible--) over at Sun Valley for the Drug Prevention Conference was one of the most amazing conferences I have ever been to and it was a great success and so thank you all very much for making this Council possible. R. De Weerd: So, I guess I can open it up to questions. I am supposed to emphasize what I think needs improvement next year and I kind of would like to see more of the Council Members showing up at our meetings maybe to talk to us, motivation - sometimes the kids get really overworked with homework, prom around this time and especially this time with finals. So I will start inviting you, but you guys are always welcome to come to our meetings, invite us to city committees. Other than that probably just getting all of the Council Members to show up instead of just the key faces. So, do you have any questions for us? Bird: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: I don't have a question I just appreciate what you young folks have done. This March Against Meth was (inaudible) and I appreciate that from you kids. I appreciate what you have done. R. De Weerd: Thank you. Zaremba: Mr. President. Borton: Zaremba. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 18 of 20 Zaremba: I, too, would like to thank the Mayor's Youth Council. You have mentioned that you participated in many of the city government activities and we very much appreciate the regional things that you are involved in, but I know for instance there is a member on the Parks Commission and some of your members come to other adhoc committee meetings and so forth and you mentioned that you get something out of it and I am glad that you do, but I want to on behalf of the city appreciate what the city gets out of it because the contribution that you all are making and the perspective that you bring to some of us old farts when you bring your fresh perspective to it does help and it does contribute and I appreciate the work that you are doing and how far you are spread with what you are accomplishing. Rountree: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: Not to be redundant, but thank you. You are doing a great job. You have had some really successful events this year, both the food drive as well as the March Against Meth and both important issues within our community and you have taken hold of those and have done a tremendous job. Thinking back to my days in high school and the activities that I participated in, I know there are probably some in your group that participate because it is a good way to get out of class occasionally, but you know that comes with the territory and good for you in doing it and finding a way to get out. I appreciate the time it takes and I think you gain through the work that you do a realization that volunteerism and working within your community does take dedication and it does take time away from things that you might rather be doing, but it is worth while and I hope that you have gained that sense in the work that you have done and I hope you all will continue through the remainder of your school, both high school and college and as adults continue your efforts in your communities, no matter where you end up; hopefully you will stay in Meridian, but if not every community needs folks that want to be involved. One of the problems, I think with our social structure today is that people just don't take the time to get involved. So, it is important. I would welcome an opportunity to come and chat with you guys and get me an invite and if I am town, I will make it. Don't send me an email. Call me or work through the Mayor's Office, but I think it will be fun to see what you have to say in your meetings and the kinds of things that you are struggling with and the kinds of things that you are having fun with. But again thank you. De Weerd: Mr. President. Borton: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: I guess the first opportunity is May 14th and you are all invited - it is at 7:00. I guess I would like to emphasize the project ih grade that we just received a plaque for happened last September during open house in the middle Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 19 of 20 schools throughout the School District and that was a state award that was received in Sun Valley just recently. The Youth Council is collaborated with most of our city committees. They worked with the Parks and Recreation Commission and per their request to bring a recommendation on the skate park and the end result was that bikes and scooters are now allowed. There are security cameras up and they also brought back recommendations to have classes for some of the younger kids in teaching safety and a number of different things that they brought. They went to the home court YMCA and helped them design 7,000 square feet of additional space and they approached them to help them decide what might go in there. They have done a number of things with - right now they have a Wi-fi event that they are working with the Meridian Development Corporation to plan on June th a downtown event. So they have done a number of projects, but yes our Youth Council took the lead role in establishing the Treasure Valley Youth Partnership and I can say that Rowann has kept it going and if I am speaking as a Mayor or a mom, I am not sure, but you know they really have taken a leadership role in keeping a cohesive and a real focused plan of attack. When they went to Washington, D.C. they presented a white paper and I think that I shared that white paper with you. Just to give you an idea of what they presented to the Congressional Delegation and again the feedback that we got from our Congressmen was one of high regard in the way that they presented themselves, the way they presented their issue and I think we all should be very pleased with how our city is presented by the youth and I think our future certainly is bright. Borton: We appreciate what you guys do and look forward to next year. R. De Weerd: Well, thanks to all of you and I guess the Mayor is our biggest advocate and she has opened lots of doors for us and when I was a freshman, just like every other teen, there is a lot of peer pressure and I fell into lots of it, but as soon as the city opened its arms and allowed me on the Youth Council I only expanded from there and so this has been a really positive experience and I want to share that with other high school students in my school and all of Meridian schools because I know what it has done to me and hopefully when I graduate I can be an advisory or something. But those are my closing remarks. Thanks for your time. Borton: Council that brings us to the end of our Pre-Council meeting. I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Rountree: So moved. Bird: Second. Borton: It has been moved and seconded to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 1, 2007 Page 20 of 20 ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:07 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) APPROVED: s- / 'J,2t 07 DATE APPROYE[j)lIi/i'f!/ .\\ - ~,Ji - /1' ,\' r.c "i;~"" '/.,", ,>\'..J V'. ',-/" " :\ '" -.---, ,.~~ ;',', """, C' /~()i'i' ;...., 'If, '<;. ...... J ~ .., "+, '\ ':~ ATTESTED: d~A ,! 8'6ALO,)} WILLIAM G. BERG, JR., C1T'i\ CL , "i' / J;) j/ -::;. "'6', r i$i . ""/~"~. ,;:-' c'/ ",IJ/ .'_.__""."'" ...,,~!t. .,;- c'c' 1 C"^. ., ',jj,.,; ",' "~I "'-'Iljjj\n'<, ',..' <';" 11/;1 . ~ \1,\"" '1/1"111110\\'"