2026-10-14 - Public Works Committee

Good evening working to welcome to Public Works Committee meeting and we have bills actually can you call do the roll call. Mr. Chair, here, Mr. Pongo, here, Ms. Afa, we're all here. So we have Bill 68. How are you, Mr. Shadow, I'm doing fine. Thank you for asking. How are you doing well. Thank you. Bill 68 bill 68 amends the 2026 capital fund budget to provide for an increase. To provide for an increase of $560,000 to fund the installation of a new traffic signal at Hanover Avenue and London Street. This is grant funded through the Penn dot multimodal transportation fund program with no match required. Okay, can you tell us a little bit about that. Yes, absolutely. So this is part of the multimodal grant that we received through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It's a $560,000 grant and it's to install a traffic light on Hanover and East London. My opinion, I feel like this is long overdue so we're very excited to have this great opportunity. That's awesome. And we're not going to get the light from the same place from the same manufacturer, right, that we've been waiting for for the past what, over a year. Well, we'll have to get the mass arms and poles unfortunately from the same manufacturers. Wow. So, we're going to do our best to expedite things. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Any comments from the dies. Any comments from the public. I guess we don't have anyone here today. Tonight. Okay. I need. I'll make a motion to forward this full council. All those in favor say aye. Okay, bill 70 bill 70 amends the capital fund budget to provide for a supplemental appropriation of $705,938 and 84 cents from the acquiesce film forming films class action awards to offset the cost of any PFAS remediation systems the city is required to install under federal and state regulations. This 3M settlement payment will be made in 10 separate installments through 2033. The total amount of settlement funds the city has received thus far through its participation in PFAS affirmation litigation is $4,480,903 and 96 cents. Okay, Mr. shadow. Okay, so as Miss Ortega stated, this is our ongoing settlement payments that we're receiving through the PFAS remediation. The fourth installment so far that we received, there's still six additional installments that will continue to receive through 2033. And the funding that we receive will be put into a capital account on LCA will be using this this funding to for PFAS remediation. Okay, any comments from the dias. No, any comments from the public, none. Okay, I need someone to make a motion. I'll second that motion. Those in favor say hi. Okay, it will be moved in front of full council bill 71 bill 71 amends the capital fund budget to provide for an increase of $350,000 and reimbursement funding from the Allen town neighborhood improvement development authority to capital project number 2040 Hamilton streetscape there is no city match required. Okay, so what we're doing this evening is we're receiving $350,000 from an is that the complete the final portion of the streetscape project on Hamilton Street. This will be between fifth and just past the old courthouse. So there's going to be some good repairs going on there sidewalks at ramps street lighting benches tree pits, the whole nine yards so this is like the last piece of the puzzle here that we have in terms of development along the Hamilton Street corridor. We're also awarded $350,000 through a multimodal grant. So we're combining the funding this evening putting it into one capital account so this way we could carry out the repairs, and with this grand opportunity here $700,000 in total that's going to be dedicated towards this project with no funding on. I'm sorry, no matching matching funds. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Shahada, what do you think about when, when, when do you think that the Hamilton corridor will be done, like completed. When do you foresee this happening in terms of like the center square repair square that should be completed, the majority of the repairs completed before the end of this season, but there's going to be some final touch ups that'll have to be completed sometime during this early spring. I guess that is weather permit right because I heard. I heard that we're going to have an early winner. We're going to be having snow pretty soon. I don't know how accurate that is. There's different reports out there we're also hearing that could potentially be a early winner and that's why we have one bill on the agenda for this evening. Okay, sounds good. Alright, so I need someone to make a motion to make a motion to forward those in favor say aye. Okay, bill 71 will be move forward in front of four council bill 74 bill 74 men's a capital fund budget to provide for an increase of $600,000 to fund the approved public works capital project to replace the salt shed as part of the 2026 capital borrowing increasing our storage capacity is important for both operational and financial reasons it is common for other townships municipalities in the state to experience delays or shortages and salt deliveries during the winter season. When this occurs we are often forced to purchase salt at significantly higher prices simply to maintain our ability to respond to winter storms and keep our roads safe, doubling our salt storage capacity would allow us to purchase the majority of our salt at the beginning of the season at the contracted rate, rather than having to compete with surrounding townships and municipalities for limited supplies later in the season. This would provide greater reliability during winter storms, while also helping to control costs and avoid potentially significant emergency purchases. Thank you, Miss Ortega. Yes, I was able to visit the salt shed and I can tell you that he needs fixing as soon as possible. Go ahead, Mr. Shah. So this project is twofold number one is to address the overall condition of the salt shed, as you've seen and witnessed the salt shed is in complete this repair. So our plan is to use this funding so we could purchase a much larger salt shed. Our current salt shed only holds 3000 tons. So what we're proposing to do with this funding is purchase a new salt shed that's capable of store and double the stockpile capacity. So we'll be able to stockpile up to 6000 tons. We feel very comfortable that with the 6000 tons, we'll be able to get through an entire winter season, and we'll be able to do our bulk purchasing under our current contract price, which is $98 a ton, fill the entire salt shed up. So this way we're going into the start of winter with a fully stockpiled shed. And in terms of when you're facing severe winters, and there's an increased demand for salt, it becomes very hard to obtain it. So with this transition here and doubling our stockpile capacity, we won't have the issue of having to worry ever about running out of salt, we won't be in a position where we're paying triple the amount of salt like we were last year just to get through the winter season. So, and all in all, this is a win win move for the city here so we'll be better prepared. Okay, great. Any comments from the dias. Go ahead, Mr. So I guess my question is, I know you said this will help us kind of be prepared, roughly with our 3000 ton capacity how close are we getting every year, are we starting the year full or we kind of each winter season we do go in with about 3000 ton. But you could go through that with with three consecutive storms and you're wiped out. So all townships and municipalities are placed in their salt orders. And there's always a backlog that the supplier just can't meet the demand so there's always a delay in shipment, they'll send you a load here load there. But if you're facing for in the winter and we're there's frequent storms that are back to back with severe cold temperatures there's a good probability that we won't have salt to fight a storm. Yeah, absolutely. No. And I think last year was a testament to just seeing just how much we can get hit. Absolutely. And I guess that was more so my question like compared to like last year, you know, is that a situation where if we had you know 6000 tons at the start of the season we would have potentially been been set for the whole season, we'd be set for the whole season. And that's our goal is to go into every each winter season fully stock with the 6000 tons I feel very confident that that should get us through the entire winter season bar and we have another really extreme winner. Absolutely. I guess just if we have a light winner. No concerns with the stockpile sitting for too long that's all you know it's all the salt, it's not gonna salt salt no expert no expiration date on it and it's, it's going to be an enclosed area so we'll definitely be able to reuse it. Any other comments. Do I have to keep going. Okay. Okay, I am. Should I keep on saying to the public if they have any comments, although there's no one here. Just any comments from the public. Okay. All right. I need a motion. I'll second that motion. All those in favor all in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, this will be moved. favorably to full cancel. Go ahead. I believe we are. There's one more. I actually know we have bill 80 bill 80 bill 80 amends the 2026 capital fund budget to provide for an increase of $296,000 to fund the safety improvements and accessibility at South 10th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive by installing 88 compliant ramps high visibility crosswalks and upgraded traffic control measures to enhance pedestrian safety. This is grant funded through TASA with no match required. Additionally amending the 2026 capital fund budget for a transfer of $14,000 from accounts associated with the traffic signals upgrade and $33,135 and 45 cents from accounts associated with the street lighting upgrade to the 10th Street and MLK safety improvement projects. Okay, go ahead, Mr. So this is part of this $296,000 as part of the TASA grant that we received to do upgrades along South 10th Street and Martin Luther King consists of traffic, new traffic equipment, ADA ramps, high visibility, high visibility crosswalks and pedestrian equipment. Along in this bill here we were also short $47,000 from the grant funding that we received. So we're doing also a transfer within this bill to cover that shortage that we're short. Okay. Any comments from the dias. Okay any comment from the public. I need a motion, a motion to forward. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. So bill 80 will be will is going to be moving forward in front of City Council. Okay, go ahead Miss Miss Alpha. Thank you. I've been wanting to address this but this is a good time because it's not crowded. It seems like the problem we had last year was removal. I mean the the new guys had plowed beautifully. I mean, within 24 hours I could drive anywhere. And in the past, we outsource the removals don't we, what happened last year, we didn't we didn't have anybody, and that's what the problem was I believe, Mr. Charlotte was the fact that it was the removal, not the plowing. Correct. So I think there's a misconception out there in terms of what the public works departments actually responsible for. So we're responsible, ultimately, to provide safe and possible roadways, which the public works department did a fantastic job as you alluded to within 24 hours. We had we had each roadway opened up. It was safe. It was possible. Our emergency response teams were able to respond to emergencies and calls without experiencing any setbacks or delays. But I think where the confusion came in is, you know, a lot of members of the public expected the city of Allen town to remove snow to create on street parking. Those were the majority of the calls and complaints that we were all receiving, whether it be a city council member or my office was receiving was there were expectations for us to remove snow to create on street parking. And I think that's where there's a little bit of confusion in terms of what the responsibilities are for the public works department. What was responsible? I know in the past because I lived on 12th and two and having humongous through the years and remember watching the snow removal, you know, like a big show. And that wasn't just for parking. It was safety and so on and so forth. And I want to know why this year we didn't. It's not your responsibility. Is it your responsibility? It is our responsibility. And the city will get into snow removal operations and bring contractors in when those travel lanes are no longer two lanes or one lanes. So in those instances where you've seen us removing snow on Choo Street in the past, those travel lanes were essentially reduced to one emergency route. And it was on a snow emergency route. So that's the that's the main purpose of a snow removal program is to make sure that those roadways are safe and passable and open for our emergency routes. But would there ever be except for that? I mean, it was because what happened, we had a nice storm after that and so on and so forth. So I'm wondering if to alleviate that if we do have a large snowstorm disregarding the parking problem, that's something might have to remove it as quickly as possible. So we don't have the problem we had last year because it was a long time before we were able to do anything because of the ice storm. So my my question is, if it's a substantial snow storm, is it possible to have the very costly or it's very costly and it really depends on the level of service that we're that we want to provide to our residents. With all the years of experience that I have and with snow operations, I know our roadways are wide enough where they could very easily accommodate 12 inches of snow without having to get into snow removal operations. Anytime you get 12 inches plus when you're getting into the 14, 15 inch range, then there's no question about it. We're going to have to spend a few million dollars bringing a contractor in to remove snow off our city streets. So what you're saying wasn't sufficient enough. So it was a predicament. We got the ice as what caused the problem. It was just a rough winter was a rough winter in normal under normal circumstances. Anytime you receive a 12 inch snowstorm post storm usually have temperatures that are well above freezing and it doesn't doesn't stick around. Unfortunately, the last winter we had below freezing temperatures sustained below freezing temperatures for five, six weeks. And those snow piles just didn't go anywhere. It didn't melt. And I could understand the frustration of our residents that they had no place to park. I was born and raised in Center City downtown. I know what it's like during the harsh winter where parking is at a premium. But to answer your question, it all comes down to what level of service are we trying to provide for willing to spend millions of dollars. To bring a contractor in to remove snow during a normal 12 inch snowstorm. We could certainly do that. But then we have to talk about, you know, where we're going to find the funding to provide that level of service. Do you think last year had we done that we would have had the problem for a good month? It would have alleviated some of the issues, but not all. And then we would have prioritized the funding on the snow emergency routes where I think the majority of our complaints were coming from some of those smaller streets. And alleys where people just had nowhere to go. So there was no snow removal from the alleys. You don't remove that. We don't remove snow from the alleys. We don't remove them on the secondary roadways. We focus on those snow emergency routes. I wondered what the policy was and if it was costly. And because I know hats off to you guys had that cloud unbelievably within 24 hours. But then we had such a terrible problem. It was because of removal. I just wondered how that worked. So the main focus is like would be when we get into removal or on the main roads, the snow emergency routes like the 4th Street, Thomas Street, Front Street, Gordon Street. They have two lanes of travel because anytime you get a deep snowfall and you get 12 plus inches, those two way streets essentially become single travel lanes. And that's why it's critical to remove the snow there. And also another issue is was that not everyone knew where to park. And I know that the mayor, you know, he was he was on Facebook, you know, telling people where to go. But not everybody uses, you know, Facebook. And I think that we just have to find better ways, right, to let the community know where to park ahead of time. And I think that that's one of the things that we're going to work on with Public Works, letting people know where to park. And working with the parking authority, asking them to keep the decks open longer, too. Exactly. It would be a big help. Okay. Any other comments? Okay. So at this moment, I believe that this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.