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MIN CC 06/30/1987Page 910 BOOK "0" MINUTES OF JUNE 30, 1987 CITY COUNCIL MEETING - -WARD 1 MINUTES OF THE HUNTSVILLE CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON THE 30TH DAY OF JUNE, 1987 IN THE ASSEMBLY ROOM OF THE CITY OF HUNTSVILLE SERVICE CENTER BUILDING LOCATED ON HIGHWAY 75 NORTH, IN HUNTSVILLE, WALKER COUNTY, AT 6:45 P.M. The Council met in a regular meeting with the following members present: Jane Monday, Mayor 0. Eugene Barrett Gary Bell Jim Carter Ile G. Gaines William B. Green William L. Hammock Percy Howard, Jr. Bill Knotts City Officers Present: Gene Pipes, City Manager Ruth DeShaw, City Secretary Scott Bounds, City Attorney CITIZEN INPUT Representatives of SHSU's Student Government Association (Kevin Carleton and Mark Spangler) to request Crosswalks Mr. Spangler requested the Council's consideration for four crosswalks across Avenue H as follows;, at 17th Street, three at Bowers Boulevard and two "pedestrian crossing" sins at appropriate locations along Avenue H. The Council was advised that putting crosswalks in the middle of the street will cause more problems than they will solve. He said he has worked with Chief Charles Tackett of the SHSU Campus Security Office, in order to come up with this proposal. He said the University has already painted one crosswalk on one of the corners of Avenue H at Bowers Boulevard, After some discussion, the City Manager, Gene Pipes, noted he has no problem with prescribing some type of crosswalk area at each intersection. He noted even if there is not a stop sign, motorists can usually expect some crossing movement at intersections. FORMAL SESSION Mayor Monday then opened the formal session. The invocation was presented by Councilmember Percy Howard, Jr., Councilmember, Ward Three. CONSIDER THE MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETINGS Mayor Monday then presented the minutes of the previous meetings of June 16 and June 23, 1987. Councilmember Barrett made the motion to adopt the minutes as presented and Councilmember Knotts seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed unanimously. Councilmember Bell then advised the Mayor that he was in attendance for the Executive Session held on June 23 and he would like for those minutes to so reflect that presence. Mayor Monday asked the Council if they will accept that amendment. All were in favor and it was so amended to show Councilmember Bell as being present for the Executive Session held on June 23, 1987. ATTENDING CITIZENS Mayor Monday then welcomed everyone to the City's Service Center. She noted this is the first in a series of Ward Meetings scheduled for the coming weeks. Messers James Patton and Sam Angelo to discuss the Walker County Historical Commission Mr. James Patton advised that last September the Walker County Historical Commission voted to ask the City Council to consider a street in Huntsville to be named for Margaret Lee Houston, the first FIRST LADY of Texas. He said she was the only first lady of Texas to ever live in Huntsville. He asked the Council for a street of their choice to be named for Margaret Lee. He said the reason Sam Houston came to Huntsville was to bring his wife Margaret Lee here to be near a doctor. He said she was very important to Texas and to Huntsville. He said we have Sam Houston Avenue which was named some 17 years ago for General Sam Houston. Mr. Sam Angelo of the Sam Houston Museum, advised the Council that Mrs. Houston deserves some recognition because just as we have a most wonderful person as mayor, Margaret Lee, in turn, did something for Huntsville in her own way. He said she definitely did something for Sam Houston. He also expressed his feeling there should be a street named for her. CONSIDER STREET CLOSING FOR FALL AND SPRING SCHOOL YEAR Consider a request from Dr. Barry Tacker, HISD Superintendent, requesting the closing of Old Colony Road from September 1 to June 1 each year for student safety considerations. Gene Pipes, City Manager, advised Dr. Tacker formally submitted a request in writing on June 22, 1987 to close the Old Colony Road from the intersection of Old Colony Road and Highway 190 East to the intersection east of the Louis Davis Gym. He said Old Colony Road would be closed for traffic, if this request is granted, from September 1 through June 1, 1988, or during the entire school term. Dr. Tacker said the closing of the road during this time would allow Huntsville Junior High School students to cross the street without fear of approach- ing or passing traffic. He noted in his letter that the Huntsville ISD would erect and maintain the necessary barriers to redirect traffic. Mr. Pipes said this request has been presented previously by the former Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Gary Collins. He said it was determined at that time that we would have to have public hearings and receive input and comments from abutting property owners or affected property owners subject to such a street closing. He said the City would like to honor Dr. Tacker's request at this time by initiating that same procedure which is necessary to close a street on an extended basis. He said the City has no expectation that the road that will be closed will ever revert back to the abutting property owners, but certainly because of the normal inter- ruption and flow of traffic that has been taking place in this area for many years, due notice should be pro- vided to all affected individuals. He said with the Council's concurrence, the staff will take Dr. Tacker's request and initiate these proceedings to try to reach some conclusion in August before the school semester begins in September. Councilmember Green expressed some concern for the effect the redirected traffic will have on El Road, which currently experiences a much lower volume of traffic (less than 20 a day); whereas the west section of Old Colony Road experiences about 1,300 cars a day. He said if we do this, we will be diverting approximately 1,300 cars into that neighborhood (according the a recent street analysis report done by the city). Mr. Pipes, City Manager, said the traffic counts on the west end indicate also a lot of school traffic that will continue to be on the west end (school buses, patrons, parents delivering and plh',-A up their kids) will still access the west end of that building from the location that the traffic county He said there is no denvtne they w111 MINUTES OF JUNE 30, 1987 CITY SERVICE CENTER - -WARD 1 MEETING BOOK "0" PAGE 9: come off of Hwy 190 and circle back through and go back out on Elm Drive. He agreed there is a considerable amount of traffic on Old Colony Road that will come eastbound to the school property, go down El Road to llth Street, cross the school property on 11th Street and back to Hwy 190 on Elm Street. He said it will require three turns to cover the same distance and it is some considerable distance out of the way, there is no denying that Councilmember Green asked in the past when we have closed roads like ve did at Mance Park, aif, .' those streets over to the school district to maintain? Mr. Pipes said we did not. He said we have closed and. rescinded the dedication of streets at SHSU. In the case of TDC, we have leased for parking a portion of 12th Street between the Administration Building and the Walls Unit, but we have not rescinded that dedication in any location other than at SHSU. d Councilmember Green restated again that he has a little bit of a problem diverting that amount of traffic but he felt it would probably have to be dealt with in a public hearing. He had some concern with diverting that traffic, even though there is a cross there, into a residential neighborhood. Gene Pipes, City Manager, advised then that the City will set up the mechanism for the public hearing and maybe have some input from the neighbors out there themselves and also the school officials will be invited to come to give their information about the safety problems they perceive. After the public hearings, the Council can make the appropriate decision. Mayor Monday asked about the condition of the roads adjoining Old Colony. Gene Pipes said El Road was resurfaced as part of the New Addition HUD Grant Program and 11th Street has been totally resurfaced and Elm Street has been widened and resurfaced over the past two years, in anticipa- tion that this request would come. Mr. Pipes said if the Council prefers, another traffic count can be taken prior to the public hearing so we can have current data. Mayor Monday said that would be a good idea. CONSIDER ENGINEERING SERVICES CONTRACT Consider authorization for the City Manager to enter into a contract for professional engineering services with Pledger, Schultz & !remedy Associates of Brenham for design work.on the 1985 -1986 phase improvements to the airpor subject to FAA approval and funding Gene Pipes, City Manager, advised the FAA has given indication there may be some surplus funds during the current funding cycle available in this district that may not be used and may in fact be applied to our projects at the airport. He said we do not know yet whether those funds will be forthcoming, but we have been asked by the FAA to get all of the preliminary work behind us so in case the funds are available we can complete the preliminary engineering phase and go out for bide and have the project under contract by October 1, 1987. He said that is no easy task. He noted we have, though, taken proposals for professional engineering services from several engineering firms. He said Pledger and Associates out of Brenham have responded and presented themselves very favorably. He introduced Mr. John Pledger of that firm who is present in the audience. He said Dale Brown and Scott Bounds have worked on the contract over the last week after meeting with the various engineering firms and made the selection and negotiated the agreement which parallels very closely the original contract we had several years ago with the firm of Griffith and Associates out of Lufkin for the last phase of the airport improvements. He said we have every expectation that the contract will meet FAA desires. He then asked for the Council's approval of this contract and authorization for his completion of it subject to FAA approval and funding. Mayor Monday asked Scott Bounds, City Attorney, to review the contract with the Council. Mr. Bounds said FAA prescribes the form of professional service contracts and this is pretty much a standard engineering contract in a form that he feels will be acceptable to FAA. He said the services the engineer will provide are estab- lished on the first page. He noted they will be designing and supervising construction of those listed improve- ments. Mr. Bounds said the project will include a new taxiway, new entrance road, relocation of nondirectional beacons, lighting improvements -- putting runway and identifier lights and medium intensity taxiway lights. (Phase VII improvements). He said the basic engineering services are outlined which include a preliminary desigr of the improvements, the total design of the improvements in the second phase and then finding the third phase to be the supervision of all of the construction of the improvements and their installation, including a detailec resident project representative and testing. Mr. Bounds said compensation or payment to the engineer is a contract not to exceed $48,750 based upon the rates and fees shown in the exhibit. He said this is a maximum fee contract. He felt the attachments fairly detail what amount of money is to be spent in the various phases of the engineering contract. He said the contract, in the final provision, makes it clear that it is subject to approval by the FAA for funding and form. ' (Total FFA Funding expected to be 1599,000.) Councilmember Green asked if this means there is no fundingfor the engineering unless the project is approve, Mr. Bounds said that is correct. He said the next step will be to submit this contract to the FAA for their approval. Mr. Pipes said this is the delicate nature of this. He said the city has discussed this with all of the engineering firms and most of them were agreeable to take some risk in beginning the preliminary engineering work because the surveying and data gathering that must take place has to be done very quickly if we are going t, meet the August deadline for submittal of plans for approval and then going out for bids and awarding the con- tract. He said they have to take some risks and they have to get started or there is no way to gather the information and do the work. He said that is the complete understanding. Mr. Pipes said he would say the risk is somewhat minimal because even if the city is not funded in the current funding cycle, the next funding cycle starts in October. He said the indication is that Huntsville is way up on the priority ladder because the City has been two years without funding. He said over the last ten years, two years is the longest we have gone without an airport project being funded by FAA. Mr. Pipes noted we are two years behind in our Master Plan at the present time and FAA is very keen on our master plan on that airport. Councilmember Green asked then if this expense would be a part of the project cost. Mr. Pipes said it would be included. Mr. Bounds said Mr. Pledger is here and he has no exceptions to the contract as prepared and the staff has reviewed it as well. Mayor Monday then asked the authorization for the City Manager to enter into this contract. Councilmember Knotts made the motion for this authorization and Councilmember Barrett seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed unanimously. CONSIDER ICE MACHINE REPLACEMENT Consider replacement of the Service Center ice machine as recommended by staff Mr. Pipes advised the ice machine used to provide ice for all the city field crews is approximately eight years old and will not provide enough ice on a daily basis for all crews (water, sewer, street, sanitation, inspection, engineering, parks and recreation). He noted it has been out of service more than in service recently and more is being spent to keep it operable than what it would cost to replace it. He recommended purchasing a new machine at a cost of approximately 13,000 which can be expected to last eight to ten years. He noted funding is available from funds left over from the purchase of a backhoe in the water distribution budget where funds in the amount of 114,000 are available for this purchase. Page 912 BOOK "0" MINUTES OF JUNE 30, 1987 CITY COUNCIL MEETING- -WARD ONE LOCATION Councilmember Barrett made the motion to approve of the purchase of this new ice machine and Councilmember Gaines seconded the motion. All Were in favor and the motion passed unanimously. Great American Weekend Schedule Mr. Pipes then presented the schedule for this weekend's activities in celebration of the 4th of July to be highlighted by the Interstate Batteries Great American Race on Sunday at the Sam Houston Museum Grounds. He wished all the Councilmembers luck in the Saturday afternoon celebrity tug -of -war contest. He said the follow- ing weekend will be the celebration of the City's birthday and the HEAP festival. MAYOR'S ACTIVITY REPORT Board Appointments Mayor Monday noted there are some positions open now on the Library Board and the Huntsville Housing Author- ity Board. She asked the Council to submit any recommendations they may have for consideration for appointment next week. COUNCIL ACTION Councilmember Carter, just returning from a trip to Europe, indicated he was ,glad to be beck. He noted he was able to observe many things in the various cities he visited during this trip, most of which he was sure we will want to imitate. Councilmember Barrett announced he has a new little granddaughter as of 3:30 A.M. on June 30, 1987 names Sara Ann. Councilmember Knotts noted he is Well pleased with the crowd at this meeting and hoped they will continue to join the Council on Tuesday evenings at City Hall. Mayor Monday noted Mr. Dale Brown is a proud new father also with the birth of his daughter recently. (Dale Brown is the City Planner.) INFORMATIONAL Gene Pipes, City Manager, provided notice to the Council from the Texas Water Commission of a permit for the Texas Mirror facility located on Highway 75 South. He said the City has had similar applications on a couple of occasions in the past. He said this particular notice is standard protocol for the Water Commission. He said it invites anyone who has an objection or questions to provide those questions to the Water Commission and public hearings will be held if anyone requests it. He said he would ask that the Council take note of this particular discharge permit. He said the city wishes to be consistent in its approach to these. He said it 1s indeed adjacent to the city limits, not in the city limits, but within some proximity at least to the City's existing sewer collection and sewer treatment systems. He said the city staff will be discussing this further with the council next Tuesday night as a matter of course to monitor this process and to interpose an objection if it is appropriate in light of the information we are able to gather for the remainder of this week and next. He said the Council will be seeing this item back next week and the staff juat wanted them to know that this request for a discharge permit for Texas Mirror has been made to the Texas Water Commission fns a sewer Merhsrge permit. Councilmember Green asked if this is for a new process at Texas Mirror. Mr. Pipes said the staff has placed a call to find out but as yet does not know if this is just a normal sanitary sewer or some treatment process effluent or a combination or what. He said we really do not know alot about the situation; however, the city does know that either the Texas Mirror facility or International Wire have been on a sewer system, so we assume it is a septic tank type operation to this point. It probably came to a volume where a discharge permit would become necessary and some sort of treatment process, he said. Mr. Pipes noted it is in near proxi- mity to the City of Huntsville and its service area and it is appropriate that the city give due attention to it. Councilmember Bell noted it may be appropriate to determine exactly what chemicals are involved. Mr. Pipes noted the staff will make every effort to do that. RECESS TO WORK SESSION The Council then recessed to a work session to discuss the August 8 Election Referendums: the $4.5 million street and related drainage bond issue program; and the half -cent optional sales tax increase /property tax reduc- tion item (with slide show and narrative). ADJOURNMENT NOTE: Mayor Monday noted this is the final City Council Meeting to be attended by KKNX Reporter, Gale Mine, who has accepted another position out of state. DeShaw, City Secretary June 30, 1987