Town Board Workshop

e e e that's month uh there a photo there so for winter Services uh the main one obviously that they see us out there

providing is snow and ice removal um so we remove snow and ice uh from pretty much all roads within the town of Webster so Town County and state roads uh within the town limits uh we do that for the state and County via uh intermunicipal agreements uh where they uh essentially pay us or reimburse us for the efforts that we spend within our towns it's nice because it can keep a relatively consistent level um of treatment across all of those roads within our limits the only Road that's really an exception to that that actually is physically within Webster is 104 uh so uh Route 104 is a state highway that is maintained by state forces so we do not deal with the snow and ice on those roads uh major topic right now un fortunately there's a lot of stuff around town is uh pothole repair so even though we plow and we remove snow and ice from the state and County roadways we are not able to go out and do roadways repairs pavement repairs like potholes um so any issues with potholes uh Road surface issues that aren't related to snow and ice uh fall under the responsibility of the agency that has jurisdiction over the road which like I said in Webster there are both state and County Roads there's lists of what specific roads those are are on our website on the highway page

if you go to the roads section there's a complete list of state and County Roads that are within the town of Webster there's a lot more County than State um but they are listed there so if you're having an issue with a roadway um you're going to have a more efficient process to look them up see what actual agency they're under and contact them directly however if you do call us we will help give you the information to contact them we also contact them on your behalf but um don't usually have much different result in in the issues being remedied um this season in particular our sensible salting policy is been extremely important um there is a um salt shortage across the Northeast um driven by a few factors some we're not fully aware of right now but the main one is the amount of snow and ice that we have had this season it's been uh significantly more than in the past few years uh creating a situation where our program is extremely efficient uh with how we salt and where we salt uh is very very important uh we've been tracking it very closely lately because supply has been very low uh the picture on the left there is our basically current salt Barn I think they might be a little bit less cuz they're out there plowing right now um but we're getting shipments regularly

every few days uh but the supply there should be at least double what that is for us to really be comfortable um so we haven't gotten to a point where we have to really change what we're doing because we're so efficient to begin with um so the the other key part of the sensible salting that you know we really want to stress to Residents is that you do have to drive to the roadway conditions uh we do not have a bar roads policy or anything of that nature there will be times when there's snow on the roadways within the town and you do have to adjust your driving to those conditions um they're given especially some of the intensity of the storms that we've had 2 in 3 Ines an hour at times um and it takes us a few hours to get through an entire run you're going to come across snow on the roadways it's very very important that you tailor how you're driving to those conditions um we will keep them clear and as safe as possible um but really is a key factor to this is to make sure that you're driving you know appropriately based on the condition of the road uh during these really heavy storms um even if we were you know putting double the product you would still have those conditions um but we we don't want to be wasteful for that so those are the key factors around snow and ice that we wanted to stress to everybody because there is a lot of issues with these few topics at the moment um a couple other things that

that happen uh we do a Christmas tree drop off so uh I took a picture of the sign and kind of where it is and there's kind of a little tiny uh tree there but we've had hundreds of trees come in to come uh directly to the highway facility right at uh one5 picture Parkway uh we chip those trees grind them and dispose of them um so it's a nice little thing it's one of the only drop offs that we do that isn't kind of a scheduled one um throughout the the rest of the year so that is an option A lot of people use it it's great to see people coming down there took a picture of the sign because people have trouble finding it sometimes even though the sign is located directly when you come into the facility uh but if you're looking for that if you happen to still have a Christmas tree feel free to bring it down um we do continuously throughout the year look at drainage you know it's one of the services we offer across the board for the town um and in the winter months there can be different things like ice daming and things of that nature that we'll go out and address um some things we'll put on a schedule to be complet completed during the summer months other things we will deal with at that time uh another time if you see water near your house or in the street that seems like a lot large volume it can also be water main braks and things of that nature um so we uh would like you to call in and let us know anything you see like that and then we do offer courtesy mailbox repair or and replacement if needed um we had some

very heavy icing and wet snow the other day that unfortunately when that stuff comes off the plow um it can cause some damage so we have intermittent issues with that um but we are able to offer that courtesy repair and replacement um the other guidelines for that are on our website so that's the the majority of the stuff that we offer during the winter that I wanted to touch on because we are right in the thick of it mostly the snow and ice removal but a little bit of everything um so now on to a little bit more of the exciting part uh the existing Highway building that we've been under construction for a little less than 18 months on uh we are substantially complete on that building so we had our CFO our certificate of occupancy that allows us to occupy the building uh was on 214 last Friday our plan is to move uh our 24 Main trucks that'll go in the facility that you see in the picture is the parking Bay of the of the new facil facility uh we're looking to do that by tomorrow but with all this snow we were a little behind on exactly getting things tuned up so it it'll be within a few days we didn't have as much time this week to kind of do the final prep that we need to do now that the space can be occupied uh and then we would have our 40 operational staff hopefully move next week uh 225

around that period uh we have a uh plan of attack with our it Department to switch over all of the computers so that our data and call system will function out of the new building on 228 uh that would allow the rest of our office admin staff including myself to be functioning out of this facility by 33 so we're very very excited to finally be able to put some dates to this um there's always last minute things that might uh Shuffle these by a day or two but I'm really pushing to be in there um some of the things we've discussed about the existing building have continued to become more intense over the 18 months we've been under construction so some of the conditions in the building are really getting getting to a point where uh we we need to make the move especially now at the buildings and kind of the state you see it there which is is is pretty great at this point um so as we get to substantial completion of the project we wanted to review the budget again uh last time we were here it was in good shape we've been able to maintain that uh situation uh I used basically the same slide but as we're this far along we don't really need to carry any any contingency because we believe we have any change orders that have come along tracked already into the cost um so you'll see the cost of the new building and the cliff Jones upgrades is slightly higher than it was

that's because we've Incorporated any change orders that happened but then we were able to back out the contingent we had um of it so it brings us to a total around 2,364 348 our original approved bond amount 28,250 th000 uh so we are currently tracking as we're coming in the final stages of the project about uh 6,885 652 under the bonded amount which was the proposed budget um so we are actually slightly uh a little bit better shape uh than we were the last time we were here for that update because we've gotten to the end and we believe we have all of the cost tracked so we can kind of solidify that down so we've been able to maintain a pretty efficient budget throughout which we're excited about also uh that was our goal and we're we're kind of getting to the point where we've achieved it so excited about that as well um so the other part that we discussed for the next steps was what was going to happen at the existing building site uh that building for our purposes is undersized and portions of it are in Fairly significant disrepair mostly the parking uh Bays of the existing uh Main Highway building that

we have now so um some of these remain the same and there's some additional information that's come up since the last time we were here so we we do have a salt Barn portion that was in the original scope for the project that we would like to reconsider now uh especially given the the budgetary efficiencies we've been able to maintain um replacing the salt Barn at this time would allow for higher storage capacity which is huge this time of year in the off season when there's no demand we could stock up on the salt and not have as much of a worry as we do right now uh the new higher capacity of the storage barn would get us much closer to having almost enough for an entire season stockpiled ahead of time which would be a big big factor right now when we have gotten dangerously low a couple of times uh luckily we've we've got some good contact around town and and we were able to work well with the state and our local supplier to make sure that we didn't have a problem but we got much closer than I would ever prefer to be um so having that updated capacity really is an important one right now uh as we've gone through this winter uh obviously the building will be more energy efficient and a lot lower maintenance cost long term our current building does end up with a lot of a fair bit of annual maintenance since it was built um you know in the 80s it's

between 40 and 5050 years old um the other portion of it uh that kind of came up uh over the past summer more so and everything looking at water quality is a truck wash out building currently we do some of the bulk wash out of our uh operational trucks in the summer outside which doesn't really allow for that runoff from the trucks to get captured um so this isn't soapy water it's just debris sediment things of that nature that come off the truck uh when they get bra into the initial clean we'd like to do a semi-enclosed building for that um this was one of the recommendations of their Federal EPA audit that we had this summer uh when they came to our facility and saw trucks being washed out the way we have them now was to have a facility like this so we'd like to incorporate that into the salt Barn project as well um uh other portions uh the plan was to demo the majority of our existing building if not all of it we have to leave a small portion for the um fuel pump system uh but then that demo would allow us to gain yard space uh back that we lost to the new building uh it is a good siiz piece of property but we do need uh yard space for operational things during the summer and then if there is an event like an ice storm or different things

like that we need storage area to be able to accommodate uh those type of efforts as well um the new portion of this conversation is that the the biggest area of issue with the existing building is actually the truck base which is is a steel frame structure uh with a flat roof that has a lot of structural issues the actual office portion doesn't have structural issues it's just undersized for our use uh when it was built um back in the late' 60s 1969 uh the staff was 18 people now we're 40 we're trying to be more than 40 in order to maintain the service level that we have um so it's not sized properly us but it doesn't necessarily have a all of the structural issues um so it's actually pretty sound structurally the office portion so we have had discussions uh over the past few months about a possible renovation to that existing office space uh to be incorporated as an animal control uh structure uh that would house um our Animal Control staff and allow for storage of animals um that we're required to have here in town uh so we are we are in the early stages of reviewing that and working with Keith Mortimer and our other town St to see if

that's a feasibility um we're still in that feasibility stage of it but it does seem like it might be possible so that's the uh was kind of some of the proposals for the existing building area um so this is some of the budgetary portion of that um some of these have been adjusted since the last time I was here mostly for just annual increases material increases wage increases um the wage uh situation is is pretty significant when it comes to public work right now so those increases year-over-year have been quite high so I did make a couple of adjustments to these to make sure they were on the conservative side uh but we have the salt Barn uh the truck wash out portion and then an incidental budget uh for things that might pop up that were unforeseen uh the current total that we're projecting for that estimating for that is around 3,25 th000 uh if you take the total of the current Highway budget that we discussed on the earlier slide of 2,300,000 in change uh if we were to do the $3 million to get the salt Barn wash out and wash out building uh we would still total for the project which was the highway facility project uh we would come in under the bond approval by about $3.8 million um so that's a big part of the

reason that uh we want to look into these now the earlier presentation I did went into some of the more specifics about the efficiencies that materials only go up labor only goes up now we have a good stat on hand right now to help with the construction management that is a big key and was a big key to us maintaining the budget that we did uh working with campus and mrb um have really allowed us to do that so we would be able to kind of continue that partnership right into this effort here um if we were to work on this now so as far as next steps if we did want to uh move toward that uh the salt barn and Truck Wash building uh the next biggest Next Step would be to board the site and building design contract uh we already received a proposal from mrb group who's the designer of the highway facility uh to do this I've reviewed it with um Keith Mortimer the town engineer and campus construction it does seem to be sound and probably the most efficient way uh to move forward so we already have that scope in hand uh we could potentially put a resolution on for the next board meeting on March 6th um to have the supervisor sign that contract with them we could start the design on the salt Barn Truck Wash portion um if we were to do that then we would want to revise the schedule um at this point my goal would be to uh complete

the design which I already had a large portion of it completed during the design of the highway building because it was in the original scope so it's really just completing that design not starting it from scratch uh the truck wash building will kind of have to be started from scratch but it's a much smaller building so it shouldn't um add too much more time if we could get that completed as early possible in Spring we would still be able to do a have a 2025 start uh to the construction of this which we think would help with a lot of efficiencies um during that process if we move forward we want to continue to coordinate uh our demolition scope uh for the salt Barn project which goes partially where the existing building is uh with any uh continuation of pursuing uh our office spaces for animal control uh so we'll need to coordinate that throughout the process uh the picture we have on this one is the new break room um which is really coming out nice uh we're able to do we're going to be able to do training in there um it's much more conducive space to speaking to the group coordinating with the group um what you see there is part of an island that goes with the kitchen that will allow everybody to warm up their food and without being on top of each other or waiting in line and that type of stuff so it's coming out nice finally getting to a a finished

State and that is the majority of what I had for the update on uh on the highway building and this one here is a current picture of the exterior of the front of the building that people will drive up to when uh we get in there hopefully in a couple of weeks and it's also where we start questions and comments I noticed that you are um you have everything here and also to congratulation that you get a wonderful project and you get it under you know the um amount that we anticipate to thank you which is good but we we don't want to go all the way up to the you know full amount the bond right right um and there are a couple things in here that you have I know this you you did not put an the animal control project into the salt Bond wash out and you know at the end the estimate budget that would be included in this budget this project budget well I noticed that so if we you know if cuz you know initially you mentioned it up here um for the site upgrade right for the salt Barn the truck wash out the yard and the animal control but when on the estimate budget that you plan to do for that you did not add it

in there I'm just curious so is that going to be more if we okay you know if we approve this right so I included it in the site upgrades because it's being considered on the site but it won't be a part of this budget so if that effort goes to renovate that building it'll be a part of the animal control budget that would have to be addressed through the funding for the animal control portion it wouldn't come out of this budget so that's why I didn't include it in in the section is it's the financial portion of it wouldn't be tied to the project it's only tied to the project because it's in the same facility that we already have the project started okay so yeah the the animal control budget would be separate from this which means any expense for it would not be included in these numbers be like more just addition in the future for it right is that what yeah I'm not heavily involved in the animal control okay process but yeah it would be addition it would all be additional to this I know that uh you know we we got awarded back April of last year $400,000 a in Market Grant and I'm glad that you didn't put it in here as a net or whatever because you haven't been that involved in it um I know that Keith and

the crew are still trying to work through like well if you design the cages and all that in that building how much of that 400,000 is used for that so it is it is a separate thing but on the same token uh it's almost a hybrid project because that admin building you'd have to keep it up anyway if I remember Pat because you need um the Mechanicals for the gas Bays to be incl closed inside is that correct yeah there'd be a small portion of it right so what we're considering is leaving a larger portion of it standing to possibly be renovated exactly yeah and then so I don't know if that it's more of a visual thing because I mean how big is the admin part of the old the old I believe it's between 2 and 3,000 square fet I haven't measured out that portion it's it's pretty big um it incorporates a sign shop and most of the offices out front would be the the structural divide that we think but we're still having mrb look into that so it's it it's a little bit hard to say so there's going to be overlap in the scope slightly yeah but uh it wouldn't look like incorporating the dollars into this there'd be my scope to do whatever demolition portion and I would stop that

Demolition and wherever I stop for this project is where the animal control renovation would take over and that would be a separate budget bonded effort yeah I see the animal control as a separate uh Capital project has its own Grant uh it's just great if we can use the building that that will save a lot of money yeah so it'll be interesting to see but good question Jim thank you that's a good question yeah have a question about events events I haven't been to one of them but the town of arono has public markets that are ins inside their Highway garage and there's all that space there's a lot of space is that a possibility to have some kind of event market for for me as long as it's not during operational hours yeah it's it's a town-owned space the rest of the coordination of it I'm not sure what that would entail uh but operationally yeah especially in the summer months it it's possible for us to put the trucks outside for a day or two or a Saturday or something um or in the winter in the winter it'd be tougher because you don't the whole purpose of it is to not have the stuff outside and there is 24 trucks that are go in there um so there'd be some logistical stuff but it's it's not question I don't know how they do it in

Aid I haven't been new to me that's pretty interesting yeah it be something interesting to look into absolutely I have to go one of these days to yeah I wasn't aware of that either maybe I'm making things up I'm going by with my sister because I I walk by the uh when I walk with my mother she lives in arounda we walk by the town hall all the time and they do a lot of things at that town hall campus a lot of public markets and all that I did not know that they did stuff in the DPW Garage in arandic that was a farmer Mark whatever I could be totally wrong but I do I actually reached out to Rory about it about getting a spot at one time so I well the two things I would say is that this is very interesting and heck you know on one hand look into it gener see what they do and then the second thing is I think we you know may want to be cautious about copying anything that randa's doing at this point anyway um one of the other things that you know what that was you know one of the other things that I've heard done in some of the highway facilities is for example the drug takeback days yes where the they're inside and then the cars can just drive through drop off the drugs collect them

right there and then drive right out the same way the trucks would be entering and exiting the building so that's another thing that we could possibly look into in the future yeah so it's pretty great it it'll be neat so this year we are hosting uh we alternate with Penfield on hosting the hazardous waste drop off in coordination with the county so that'll be in this facility this year uh and then every year annually we do the free rabes clinic in coordination with our Animal Control staff in the building so those will both probably function like that in this year it'll be different this p in the past we open up the bays and everybody kind of walks through but especially on the rbe clinic if they could stay in their cars with some of those their animals that might not be uh used to being around other animal it might be really beneficial so yeah this will but it's funny Jen and paty bring up an interesting point that we have these new facilities at Highway and now soon to be at sewer what opportunities does that open up for things that we would have never thought to do at the Old Highway garage or at the old sewer plant admin so it'll be interesting to see I wanted to just rattle up very quick I got some comments and one question I think uh and I'm going in page order so your your my first comment is um on that pothole repair especially

on County and state roads uh as you might imagine you know we get pinged about that a lot from the citizens and I one of the worst things I hate doing is passing the buck it's fingernails on a chalkboard for me to say we don't aren't allowed to go and fix those potholes on State and County Roads um I got to tell you Pat in the last couple years has come up with some very creative ways to approach the Monroe County and the New York State Department of Transportation and I'm going to use the slang term of he's approach them with um we could do proactive money uh out of the state and the county tying into our imas for plowing where the town DPW or Highway Department goes and fills those potholes and then bills them back you can either pay us County and state that way or you'll pay us 10 times as much when one of his plow blades chips on one of those and I thought that was a good way to approach them and they were open to that I thought Pat but we ran into the bureaucratic uh it had to go up nine levels and I don't know if we ever got any answer on that no there's a process um the closest we got uh the county uh we do some summer restoration work with so they they're a little more open to

that type of stuff uh not so much with potholes but other things uh with the state they have a much more lengthy process to connect with that um there are some shared services agreements sometimes where um they will pay for materials uh for different things and then we could potentially use those materials for town roads and it kind of becomes a a balance so we're still working on that we still haven't really got a great answer it is frustrating to you know we'll go out and fix anything that's on our roads which we've done two or three times this winter because the poles have been um worse than normal I believe mostly because of the worst winter conditions uh and not be able to go up there and do those certain sections when we were already kind of going along is difficult but we are still working with them to Sure establish an Avenue that works on for both parties without basically um uh stepping too far outside our lines and and spending tax dollars where they're not supposed to be spent is is really what it comes down to it's unfortunate yeah I didn't want to come across I I by no means want to throw the MC do or n dot under the bus they've been great great they're very good partners 250 getting repaid last year I mean they are good partners that one's frustrating because we know point of sale we could get out there and fill those things

immediately um but we're just that's that we're not at that point yeah it's it's it's very difficult um so State DOD specifically right so there there has to be a priority to things they have to address the things on the 55 mph roads first yeah and most of the ones that we have and Webster are 50 or under and when you're seeing stuff on the roads where the speed is higher there there's much greater danger they have to address those first yeah before they come on to some of the other roads where we see more of these conditions they have no choice um Staffing is still an issue across the board I know they have the same issues that we do I've been working for almost four years now to get the staff number up to a certain number and we haven't gotten it to the number I I want to be at uh you're you're very aware of that when we discuss budgets I've been targeting the same number for a while um and I know they have the same or or Worse conditions so it's sure that's that's that's the part of it that's my only thing with you know they are a good partner in different things but those are the challenges they're up against it's not just we don't feel like coming out today by any means right um so I I kind of feel for them in that in that sense but and I said I'd rattle these off so hopefully that is the long the second comment on that page and Pat said it you know on our website it it shows if you want citizens want to see

what are are the state and County Roads you can go see it but for the most part it's your main arteries yeah the big um you know you think of the grid system you know running North and South uh bay 5 m Line Road Holt 250 Phillips then east to west your Clems your Ridge those main arteries are for the most part State and seder County roads in majority County like I said um comment on the next page the courtesy mailbox repair and replacement this was something I learned uh a couple years ago that kind of surprised me I think most citizens think that if they see their mailbox get uh knocked off oh that driver you know I didn't see it and clipped it with the uh with the blade that is not the case the power of that snow shooting against that mailbox it's not the blade it's the power and that snow is heavy with salt and all that is that correct p that's what usually is what blasts the mailbox yes the vast majority of the mailboxes that are damaged are from the snow coming off the plow not the actual steel plow that's correct y yep which I know when I've been out with people and they talk about that dozens of times they're incredulous

to that they're like really I'm like it's not the blade yeah um then I had a comment oh sorry uh on the existing Highway building site upgrades um when we were when you were in here a couple months ago and and somewhat showed the same thing um that you know when we get done with the main building uh you had shown the board that you know maybe we should look at this salt Barn for the reasons you gave and the truck wash out building the EPA and at that time we mentioned how uh Barry Dean the the previous uh Highway superintendent and I think a pretty respected person in this community uh he came over and walked through this with you and kind of looked at it and I know that he called me and he said you got to do it and that was uh that that was a pretty good endorsement um so and I don't know if the board members remember we said that uh that Barry had looked at it um I had a comment well I don't think I have to oh yeah the the animal control facility actually Jenny you hit the nail on the head you know I wanted to clarify that I know why it's not in your budget we already talked about that but uh um yeah

and I said the comment was that the gas uh Bays need an enclosed Mechanicals so we're going to have to have some building might as well use that building the only question I had I'm I'm done with comments I think I'm done with comments my question and it doesn't have to be answered today because it's probably a hybrid Paul as our finance director and Kyle is our legal councel that we did this Bond resolution ution two or 3 years ago for 28 million 250 and in the scope of it uh certainly I think salt Barn was in there I know that the truck wash out wasn't how does that affect any bond revisions we know we're never going to hit 28 million but the fact that the scope of what we had might not have met it is it because it's this Capital project that it's a it's much to do about nothing as far as a resolution and a revision uh Bond resolution are you saying uh are you worried that some of these items might not be covered within the original Bond resolution and the description you're a lot more succinct than me that's I guess I just you know the devils and the details and that's why I said it doesn't have to be answered tonight but as we move forward on this

you know I just want to make sure sure pardon we have to make sure the wording isi um actually there was one other uh yeah should be very close did have one other comment um you know as as on the on the next steps which is the page with the the break room um you know Pat shows that you know a a a a schedule that would start the next board meeting um and I've said this before that is a as the town board moves forward with these things and you stare at a number of $3 million when we start that process of design and all that that we have not committed to $3 million and uh if the bids come back and all of a sudden to build this salt Barn is $5 million well the town board would say we're not moving forward with that we actually just went through this similar with I hate to say at The Sandbar Park Restaurant uh building right it would it came in higher that's the beauty of the bid process um we can talk all day long about estimates and things like that at the end of the day the rubber hits the road when those bids

come in you open them in the low bid you know we've been very fortunate up to this point that our estimates were $28 million for the scope of things we knew the day we opened those bids that it looks like we were going to probably come in about $5 million you know better because the bids came in less than what the estimated cost of the four contracts were the general contracting the whatever I think p in campus construction and the engineers and designers all that it it's a team effort that they knocked off another million eight from that uh through the management of the of the uh of the project uh Jen I know that you went to a couple of those owner meetings and um you know to see Pat at the table with campus construction and the engineers and and whatever that was a real uh Think Tank meeting where you guys were you know really hammering down on details and the net effect of that is you came in $6.8 million under budget it's pretty amazing so I'll get off my soap box I I don't really have any questions first of all Pat I want to thank you for your time today I I toured the new

facility it's incredible it's just amazing um and I want to thank you for your conservative approach to this project by pulling the Sal barn out of the original project even though we had looked at at the scope and including it you you wanted to be more conservative let's see where we land with the overall building as it goes up um and I certainly recognize the fact that we do need a new salt Barn um I will not be here on the March 6th for the March 6th meeting I just want to say that I won't have an opportunity to vote on that but I am in complete support of moving forward with this well I think Kyle the law says we can't start the the regular board meeting early but we can start it late so it's 7:38 right now I think we're done with the workshop and I think anarie we have to stop the tape take a two-minute break and we'll be back with the regular schedule board meeting so good night everybody that's the end of our there's a market shed out behind the garage does that sound more familiar