Feb 27, 2023 Public Utilities Board on 2023-02-27 9:00 AM

>> Okay. It is 9 o'clock and we have a quorum so call to order the public utilities board for the City of Denton on Monday, February 27th, 2023. The first item is anybody from the public who wants to address the PUB board? Nope. Okay. Moving along. Consent agenda. Does any board member wish to pull an item A through D? Okay. Seeing none, do we have a motion to approve items A through D on the consent? >> Move approval. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> All right. Consideration for approval of the February 13th, 2023 minutes. Do we have a motion to approve? Moves and a second? Okay. All in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> All right. The next item is PUB23046. >> All right. Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board, Seth Garcia, program manager with capital projects. This morning I have a brief presentation for construction inspection services associated with the 2019 bond program. So for a quick little overview of the projects we're proposing for this bond program or for the inspection services, excuse me. So we have 14 projects within our street reconstruction. That's our neighborhood program. Roughly 10 CSP projects and four CMAR projects. We're estimating it to be around $150 million in construction. And our goal is to complete all these neighborhood projects by the end of 2026. And on the right there you can see the different areas shaded and then the highlighted street segments associated with the street reconstruction of the bond program. The second main project we're proposing for these inspection services is Bonnie Bray Phase 6. So this is a local government-led project, which means we have FHWA or federal highway funds associated with the project. So it's a joint project with TxDOT. It is estimated to be 30 plus million in construction costs. And it is a two-year construction project. And for those who aren't familiar, Bonnie Bray Phase 6 is the section of two-lane and four-lane roadway right now in between US 380 and US 77. And we will be upgrading it to a four-lane divided roadway. So for the contract summary, you can see there our estimated cost for the street rehabilitation portion is just at $6 million. There's a little bit better breakdown in the AIS. And then for Bonnie Bray Phase 6, we've got a $2 million estimate on that. It will be funded through the 2019 bond funds and utility funds. And then as you can see there, Bonnie Bray Phase 6 does have those FHWA funds attached to it as well. For the summary of services, so we will expect construction inspection and full documentation from this firm. They will also be responsible for SW3P inspections to make sure they're in compliance with our watershed group as well. Pay application review, schedule review. Of course, public engagement for anybody who lives out there on the project sites. And then dispute support. And as you can see on Bonnie Bray Phase 6, we also will have some pretty intensive record keeping. TxDOT requires quite a few of their own forms to be filled out each month as well as the pay application to be done by the municipality and submitted for payment. So that is quite an effort. And so we will have a dedicated record keeper as well as multiple inspectors for that TxDOT procedure process. So in total, we're looking for just over an $8 million NTE. So with that, Steph recommends adoption of the ordinance with the City of Denton and consular engineers in the not to exceed amount of $8 million. And I'm happy to answer any questions. We've done projects like this before. I don't recall that we've ever hired someone to do inspections and things of this nature. What's different about this? Yes, ma'am. So right now the need is just the sheer volume of work that we're putting out. So right now we're going to have seven projects in construction. One of the larger projects that we brought forward was Southeast Denton Package B. It was $21 million over 15 months. So that breaks down to a burn rate of about $1.3 million a month. And right now that contractor has eight crews working and we're taking down four streets at a time. So with that, our inspections group just doesn't have the capacity to handle the need right now. So by allowing us to use our pre-qualified construction inspection list, we can get them to focus on other CIP jobs as well as the development jobs and kind of sync up this firm with the bond program to give them some consistency with what we're needing. Would it be fair to say we're trying to double up and catch up? I would say yes, as well as provide the coverage needed just to support the city from a risk level, just to have people out there monitoring that it is being built to spec, watching testing being done. Of course, reviewing those pay applications and schedule. It's more of a protection on the city side to make sure we're not getting behind. Was there some reason to think that you needed this as was there some concern that things in the past maybe not have been done exactly as you wanted? There has always been that concern. And as well, I think this ties back more to staffing. So we actually pulled this firm from our pre-qualified list. So we pre-qualified five different firms and shortlisted them to do it. We saw this coming just with the amount of work that our group was pushing out for the bond program. It was simply just going to be too much for our internal inspections to handle. But yes, on the flip side of that as well, we have been burned by other contractors before and things not being built. So like I said, this provides more protection for the city to make sure we're getting what we're paying for out there. Thank you. Other questions? Yes, sir. Good morning. Just a couple of questions. Was this planned at the time of the 2019 bond or has this been realized as a necessity after the bond moved forward? So the original plan was we were going to use our internal staff as much as we could. We provided to council many supplementals to try and beef up our internal inspection staff and we were granted a few positions. So that has got us by through the first three projects for that program. So we've had three CSPs go out that our internal crews have inspected. But like I said, now with these CMAR, these larger projects going out to where we've really rung out all the efficiencies in the schedule, it's just become too much. So budget wise, we have planned for that in our budget. We've carried 3.5% through all of our projects for these construction inspections. When I did the rough breakout, it looks like with what the firm is proposing, we're going to be right around 3.8%. So we're just a hair higher. But that is, of course, if we hit our projection, we use all of that. They will only bill as hours used against these contracts. So hopefully by the time we get to the end of 2026, we will come in right at our budget. And then the winners of the CMAR and CSP contracts, they have their own QC processes and they're like in this case, if all goes well, CONSOR will just be routing, doing final inspections and routing the as-builts and so forth, right? Yeah, that's correct. So our specifications lay out some pretty stringent QC processes. So they are there to observe and report to either the project manager or in this case, the manager of the inspections department is kind of the route, the organizational chart that it will flow through before it comes to the project manager. But you're absolutely correct. It's to catch things that we can, but more just observation through that period. Any more questions? All right. Do we have a motion to approve? I move approval. I'll second. I'm going to have just a couple of comments. So this is obviously a critical component of any major project. Having QC and it's great to have a second firm or us, you know, the city QC, the construction teams. So that, you know, what is it? Trust but verify, right? Classic one-liner. And I just want to make sure that going forward, these are either, you know, when we issue bonds, the 2019 bond isn't unique. We every three to five years have a new bond project and do major infrastructure work in town. So either we move this in house, which requires permanent staffing, $8 million over a couple of years, probably higher 30 or 40 headcount. And I could see how that would seem like a massive expansion to city resources. But it might be more effective going forward than having contractors. Or if we're going to use contract labor as we go forward, then we just make sure that in the 2024 bond or whatever the next one's coming, that, you know, that's just budgeted and clear. And like I said, this is critical work. We have to make sure what we ask for gets built, that it's built to specification, that we track everything, that we as built and the, you know, whatever else, all that processing so that the next time we revisit these streets in 20 or 30 years, we have really good, accurate records and we know they're built to quality and so forth. And if I recall the 2019 reconstruction was fairly aggressive. It is. And we've even gotten more aggressive due to city management's direction. So it's very aggressive. All right. We had a motion and a second, right? Okay. Any further discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Thank you. Thank you so much. Management reports. Madam Chair, so we have a couple of reports for you. The first one that we have is really a response to a question we have from member Ryback. I know he's not here, but David Brown's going to come up and just walk through a very quick couple of slides that he has to address these amendments associated with this project. Let me get this set up. Well, let me see here. Yeah, I had this lined out. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want the full. I'm twitching over here trying to go over there and help him. Oh, there you go. Hey, I appreciate it. Thank you. I'm David Brown. I'm project manager for water utilities. I want to go over Hicker Creek basin contract amendments. There's amendments to the contract that we want to discuss and kind of give you insight to it. So basically the original contract amendment one and two and three were for the design bid and construction phase services for the Hicker Creek detention facility, West Peak flow station and Hicker Creek lift station. So I'll just kind of tell you what those were. I don't know if you remember that or not, but the Hicker Creek detention facility, which is here on right here, it's a three million gallon tank. Basically it's a parking lot for the sewer system or a pantry. It's not used yet. And that's probably odd how to talk about a pantry, but it parks it there until the wastewater facility that pecan Creek can treat that. So basically it mitigates the high flows during rain, rain events. So that's what that's for. The second picture here is a Hicker Creek lift station. What it is, it is a 11 million gallon per day new lift station replaced a 40 year old lift station there. That is our largest lift station in the system at wastewater for the wastewater system in the city of Denton. And that's down there off of Teasley right across from Geyer high school in the back there. And then the last picture is our West peak flow pump station at pecan Creek. It's right there as you enter into the wastewater reclamation plant on the left. It is a new pump station, which is similar to the Hicker Creek detention facility. What it does, it takes flows off of our Cooper and pecan Creek interceptors. And what it does, it says, you know, basically, it allows us to pump additional flows during wet weather over to our basin. So basically it parks it there when the plant can handle it. Then we push through and go ahead and treat the water there. So it adds capacity. Both of those, the detention facility and the West peak flow adds capacity without a big cost on the as far as the plant. The plant's able to treat a lot of stuff, a lot of wastewater throughout the day, just at certain times and then peak flows, we need to hold it till a time that we can do it. So that's what the regional contract amendment one, two, and three were. So then we went to amendment four over at the Hicker Creek detention facility, which is over at off a country club road there. Right for right after you get to the railroad tracks, there was a crossing that we need to do with a water line coming from the neighborhood just to the north of there where we tied into potable water. We needed water over at the detention facility. So originally this contract or this design was in 2015. And when it started KCS, they upgraded some of their design standards. So we needed to do an amendment to meet their design standards. Amendment four, of course, these were handling also Hicker Creek lift station was on this contract as well. So we had some delays out there at the Hicker Creek lift station. One of them was a catastrophe event. Let me get this right catastrophic event. There you go. I got the English working today. So it was an event in 2019, which filled in the excavation delayed our lift station. You're shaking your head. You understand that that time. So we good news is the lift station is in service. It is working. And, you know, we have believed a lot of issues over there. So it's these are substantially complete all three of these. Amendment six. Basically, we needed to redesign odor control pad over at the Hicker Creek detention facility. We had an excavation when they excavated for the lift station there. They use a different alternate method. So we had to go back and do some peers, basically. And then also a retaining wall over at Pecan Creek, West Peak flow. So we didn't have to build inside the floodplain. We built a retaining wall so we didn't get into that floodplain. With that came some additional construction meetings. And then, like I said, this project is complete and all the facilities are in service. We're just waiting to close it out. So if anybody has any questions, be glad to help you make sure. Yes, sir. We should make sure I understand because I live over in that area and I work over in that area that is just north of the railroad tracks there at Country Club and near Ryan Road. Yes, sir. We off to the west. Yes, sir. Okay. Been watching a lot of cranes out there for one. Yeah, we're we're complete out there. So that's one thing. So that's also just north of that other area that we're looking at. Okay. All right. That's it. No questions. You always have the good ones. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate y'all. Thanks, David. So that really was in response to a couple of questions that member Rybak had. I know he's likely going to watch this. And so if anyone has any additional questions, certainly let us know. We'll be happy to address those the next time on the management report. Deme did recently receive recognition from from the Arbor Day Foundation is a process that we've been working through for for a couple of years now. We're happy to report that we're finally being recognized as a tree line city, a utility USA utility, kind of in line with what other utilities across the state and across the country are doing really good partnership with the Parks Department's efforts with with the city's recognition as well for being a tree a tree city USA. They really recognizes the the practices that we have a DME regarding tree trimming around utility lines. And certainly, after after what's happened down in Austin, San Antonio, I think really shows the resiliency and the reliability that we have here in Denton. Now through that through that activity, we've also, you know, identified a couple of areas that we may want to improve. And so we're going to be working on those, trying to get some additional contracts, looking at how our telecom and communication providers also trim around our utility poles. And there's a number of things that we're looking at. We may be bringing back some recommendations in the future, but happy to answer any questions that you may have on that particular item. Just a comment when up when Austin was without for what two weeks, three weeks. And we saw the branches laying around. I was so grateful for those trucks that go around the neighborhoods and trim trees, because if we hadn't been doing that, we've been having the same thing. And I'm great job. We appreciate that. Certainly, we sympathize with, you know, the customers there in Austin. There's certainly a lot of issues that we don't face here geographically. Certainly, there's a lot of hills in Austin and a lot of other issues as well that kind of contributed to many of the outages and durations. So we're thankful that here in Denton, we haven't had to face that. Well, we've got the old alleyways. Yeah. This is true. Most of the northern developments. So the next item is regarding future agenda items. We did have a request from at the last meeting to move up the comprehensive diversion ordinance update. And so we did do that. It's now scheduled for March the 13th. And our folks in solid waste will be ready to present all that, have a wastewater master plan that will be coming to you in April. And then after that, it's budget, budget, budget, right? And so we'll be full steam ahead with you on budget presentations. And Nick can't wait to be able to do that. And then for new action items, I already mentioned, you know, the diversion ordinance, we've moved that up in the timeline. We responded today to the other request, and we don't have any additional requests at this time for new business, but certainly happy to add additional ones if you have any. So that's all I have. Are we going to, are we going to see, you know, like right now, the state of Texas is big problem is how to spend all the extra money they have. And 26 billion, I think is the number. I think it's closer to 31 billion. 31 billion. Mr. Comptroller keeps pushing it up. Do we have anything going on like that? Nick, I don't know if there's anything you want to comment on that. I, you know, I certainly have a lot of projects that they can fund if they want, but no, to answer your question. So Nick Vincent interim finance director, I'm not aware of that situation. I do know that general fund finished about 8 million positive this last fiscal year. So we will have a conversation with city council regarding that and some funding opportunities that we've identified. So yeah, are there any opportunities with the state? I mean, I know they're talking, I mean, I was down there two weeks ago and they were talking a lot about property tax relief, school funding, one time, one time school funding type things. So, um, good question and try to stay in the purview of the pub. Um, but there are a lot of bills going through the state legislature right now. Most of them are focused on limiting, um, ad valorem taxes for residents. So how much property taxes can increase on residential and non-residential properties? So we're seeing a bunch of that stuff come through that we're monitoring, but nothing as far as funding opportunities. But, you know, we're always looking for grant opportunities if they're out there. I mean, there's ARP funds that the city still has. We're working to spend, we've identified projects with those proceeds, but massive spending amounts that are available to city. I haven't seen them yet. Okay. Okay. Well, we'll see. Well, we'll go. Who's going down to Denton county days? You? Yeah, I don't know who's going. I'm likely Brian Adams and maybe a contingent of our, our city council is likely going to be going these normal practices we do every year. Yeah, I'm going to. So realtor days today. Okay. Okay. I went to associate a general contractor days two weeks ago. Okay. Um, last item is concluding items. Does the board member wish to have something added to a future agenda or have anything to say to the public? Okay. Seeing none. It is nine 25. Do you want to make a motion to adjourn? Okay. We are adjourned.