Rock Island County Public Works and Facilities Committee met May 8.
Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:
1) Call to order and roll call
Committee members present: Chair Larry Burns, Richard Morthland, Jeff Deppe, Ed Langdon, Bob Westpfahl, Luis Moreno (8:33 a.m.)
Committee members absent: Robert Reagan
Others present: Dave Ross, Kenneth E. Maranda, Greg Thorpe, Josh Boudi, John Massa, Mike Steffen, Dewayne Cremeens, Bill Long, Doug Riel, Pat Koranda, Chuck Layer, Jerry Clyde, Fred Neece, Louisa Ewert
2) Public Comments
There were no public comments.
3) Approval of the minutes from the April 10, 2016 meeting
Motion to approve: Ed Langdon 2nd: Bob Westpfahl Voice vote Motion carried
4) Reports to the Committee
Mr. Boudi gave his monthly report for the GIS department. They are putting some finishing touches on the annual updates of the tax parcel maps. That should be done next week. The Pictometry software is updated and running properly. It uses aerial photography, with the ability to overlay parcels, basic GIS software except it is a different platform that Assessment uses as well. They received a little of $17,000 in recorder fee revenue for the month of April. Hopefully it picks up.
Voice vote Motion carried
Mr. Thorpe gave his monthly report for the Zoning and Building Department. They had 131 total receipts for a net revenue of $27,050.20. The estimated value of that work was $2.2 million. Compared to last year, we had 161 for $27,500 so we are right on track there. YTD we are behind on total receipts but that is likely strictly related to the contractor registration but fees were ahead by $35,000, half a million ahead on evaluation and five more residents than we had last year at this time. Mr. Westpfahl asked where the new residents are going. Mr. Thorpe explained that they are going to Fancy Creek in Andalusia as well as Holly Hills.
Motion to approve the Zoning and Building Report: Jeff Deppe 2nd: Luis Moreno Voice vote Motion carried
Mr. Massa gave his monthly report for the Public Works Department. County Highway 44 has been closed about a week and a half. That will be going on all summer probably until mid-July. They have started the edge line and center line painting for the year and will probably be doing that for 3-4 weeks.
Mr. Maranda noted that in the newspaper they had the four mile stretch and wanted to make a note that it does not belong to Rock Island County. Mr. Massa added that it is Mercer County’s section of the County Line Road. Mr. Ross added that for those that may not have read it, it was essentially a letter to the editor saying “this road, why isn’t it being maintained, you are risking liability of the residents and Rock Island County needs to do a better job”. Mr. Ross added that we would have appreciated a phone called rather than a letter to the editor because it is not our road way. Mr. Massa also added that it’s about a 9 mile stretch along there and was split up years ago and Mercer County maintains part of it and Rock Island County maintains part so that would be the part that Mercer County maintains that they are talking about. Back probably 3-4 years ago, they actually petitioned this committee, for us to take over that portion of the road. It doesn’t really benefit the County to take over a road. When the County gets more road mileage they don’t get more money. They Motor Fuel Tax money is based upon Motor Vehicle’s registration. The townships get a little bit more money based off their road mileage. We would pick up 4.5 more miles and wouldn’t get any more money and would have that much more to maintain.
Motion to approve the Public Works Report: Bob Westpfahl 2nd: Jeff Deppe/Richard Morthland Voice vote Motion carried
Mr. Ross gave an update on the County Office Building Maintenance. The front elevator is currently out of service. Technically it works but we are worried about the liability associated with it. We have had KONE in here for the past four weeks, multiple different times with different levels of their expert maintenance people looking at it. When it moves from floor to floor, it doesn’t always stop level and, up to, it’s been 2-3 inches off so as you are exiting the elevator, if you are not paying attention to that which most people wouldn’t, there is a possibility that you would face plant yourself and the risk is too great for us to allow it. So we have been working with them. Their last person, who is one of their top guys came out last week and is about as certain as can be that it is the generator that is going bad. The generator is supposed to be producing 10,000-15,000 and it is at 2,000 and only going lower. Apparently it doesn’t have enough strength to stop itself where it is supposed to. We are in the process of getting quotes to repair that. That is not part of the maintenance contract. The early estimates are about $15,000 and about 6 weeks to get it fixed so we are working on it. Another concern we have is, tax bills went out and we are going to have more people coming in. Depending on how bad it gets, we may turn this into a New York apartment complex and have somebody, we have enough maintenance staff, at least for a few hours, we might do that depending on how bad it gets. Secondly, we have had some concerns from employees about health issues in the building, a little more respiratory type than what they would consider normal. We had somebody come in and check the air quality in the building. They set up in Larry Wilson’s office, Mr. Ross’s office, and down in the basement between Brian and Todd Harlow’s office. The results came back showing there is no airborne asbestos which we know we have asbestos in the building so it’s good there is nothing airborne with it. There are several types of mold in the building and they did a test sample outside to get that number as well. For the sake of argument the mold count outside was 220, inside it was 500ish in Larry’s office, 750 outside of Dave’s office and 930 in the basement. Depending on who you talk with those are either relatively high numbers or another company we talked with said they aren’t very high numbers. So we are having a second company come in and do another check. We are just going to get information from them as well because the types the molds that are present in here, if somebody is more susceptible or allergic to those types of molds, they are more likely going to be effected than others. We just want to know what we are dealing with so we are still looking into it. We have briefed the management in the building on it, told them we are still getting data. We are working on it. We are just going to see what we are dealing with and until then there isn’t anything else to update on. Once we know what it’s going to cost to mitigate it, until we know what we are dealing with, that’s what one of the company’s is going to do, is give us a report on what we are dealing with and then we can make a decision if we should do anything or not. Mr. Langdon mentioned that he hopes it isn’t black mold. Mr. Ross added that one of the types was black mold. Mr. Westpfahl asked if they have done a similar test on another building to see if all buildings would have the same.
Mr. Ross added that he has been asked if we want to do one on the courthouse but he thought what is the point if it is going to get abandoned in another year and a half. He added that he would update everyone next month.
Motion to approve the County Office Building Maintenance Report: Richard Morthland 2nd: Luis Moreno Voice vote Motion carried
5) Consider Zoning Board of Appeals cases:
a. SU-17-203, Jason Hoehn, density increase, Canoe Creek Township
Mr. Thorpe explained that this is a special use permit request for a density increase in an AG-1 District on approximately 6 acres. There were no objectors present and the board’s recommendation was to grant.
b. SU-17-204, Sun RV Sunset Lakes, private recreational facility, Canoe Creek
Township
Mr. Thorpe explained that this is a special use permit to allow the continued use of a private recreational facility. The RV Sunset Lake in Joslin is being sold and this is the new company buying it. When the special use permit changes ownership, they have to renew it at that time. They didn’t want to change anything, just want to continue operation. Bud Johnston was the one who owned it but Bud is stepping all the way back and his kid is going to stay on as the operations manager so we will still have local people running it, just different management. There were no objectors present and the board’s recommendation was to grant.
Motion to approve both items, 5a and 5b: Richard Morthland 2nd: Jeff Deppe Voice vote Motion carried
6) Consider Program Funding Agreement between Rock Island County and the Illinois
Housing Development Authority
Mr. Thorpe explained that this is the program funding agreement which is just how we are going to fund it. This is the Illinois Housing Development Authority, their abandoned property program that we were awarded a $40,000 grant to clean up some abandoned properties. We can do a number of different things with it. We proposed demolition on a handful of sites. The first is the agreement for the funding portion of it. It is strictly a reimbursement program so we spend it and then they send it back to us. Mr. Morthland added it’s a pass-through grant after the affect. Mr. Ross added that there is no match on it so it doesn’t cost us anything other than our time.
7) Consider resolution accepting a grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s Abandoned Residential Property Municipal Relief Program
Motion to approve both items, 6 and 7: Bob Westpfahl 2nd: Jeff Deppe Voice vote Motion carried
8) Review and award bids received on Friday, May 5 for contract mowing
Mr. Massa explained that they received bids on Friday to mow the levees, the Zuma Canoe Creek special service area and the Hillsdale special service area. We are the lead agency on them and the property taxes are collected by us. We oversee it but each of them has an advisory committee that determines what needs to be done and we see to it that it is paid for and done correctly. We have always mowed it for them. We went out to bid for it. We had two bidders, Legacy Corporation and Wainwright Construction. Wainwright construction didn’t fill it out properly. They did it as a location instead of mile and it kind of threw the whole thing off. It wasn’t done properly so we didn’t even accept that. Legacy Corporation was bid, so the first Zuma Canoe Creek area for one cycle is $8,845 and for Hillsdale one cycle of mowing is $1,522.50. The Hillsdale special service area already advised me they do not want to accept it, they want to have their own maintenance people mow. We have not been able to get an answer from Zuma Canoe Creek yet so what we would like to do is accept this bid contingent on what the advisory committee wants to do. He added that the $1,450, is how much they bid per mile so that location is 4.6 miles so $6,670 was for the whole location. He added that they have it set up to mow three times, once in May/June, once in August, and October/November. Mr. Morthland asked what it would cost for us to do it. Mr. Massa explained that they have never charged equipment rental. They have always just charged labor so somewhere in the ball park of $3,500 for the Zuma Canoe Creek per mowing. And we don’t always get to it three times either, sometimes twice. We have done it for years and never charged an equipment rental. It would be another $3,500/$4,000. Mr. Morthland asked is Mr. Massa doesn’t think these are out of line. Mr. Massa added that they really aren’t too far out of line of what it would cost them but if they hire their own maintenance person to do it, they could do it cheaper. He added that they could eliminate a cycle of mowing if needed. Also sometimes, we will have the Rock River up to where you can’t mow the river side anyway so we pay a percentage of just mowing the land side. Mr. Massa explained that he would like to eliminate/reject group 2 and accept group 1, contingent of what the advisory committee comes up with. Mr. Westpfahl asked who pays for this. Mr. Massa explained that each has their own levies.
Motion to approve: Bob Westpfahl 2nd: Jeff Deppe Voice vote
Motion carried
Mr. Deppe asked Mr. Massa if it would be possible for him to draw up a bid if we cut it ourselves, just for reference. Mr. Massa noted that they have it broke down on what we charge. We do charge for labor but not for equipment. With the equipment rental, we can charge Motor Fuel Tax so we always keep track of this.
9) Consider County Engineer Salary Resolution
Mr. Massa explained that this is the resolution that pays for half of his salary that is paid out of federal funds and half is out of Motor Fuel Tax. So this gives permission to pay the 50% out of the federal funds that we receive for being on the State Pay Plan. Mr. Massa added that his anniversary date is in July so that is the time of year this usually comes out but they are going to try to change it so it’s in November from now on so it goes along with all the other resolutions.
Motion to approve: Dewayne Cremeens 2nd: Luis Moreno Voice vote Motion carried
10) Committee member opportunity for brief comments (no decisions will be made)
There were no brief comments.
11) Adjourn
Meeting adjourned by Chair Larry Burns at 8:56 a.m.
http://www.rockislandcounty.org/CountyBoard.aspx?id=40517#PWF
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