Agenda - Council - 03/13/2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CC Regular Session Meeting Date: 03/13/2012 By: Tim Himmer, Engineering/Public Works 7. 6. Information Title: Consider 2012 Street Maintenance Program Background: Staff has been developing the 2012 Street Maintenance Program (SMP) for several weeks, and is seeking direction from the Council on how best to approach maintenance activities for this construction season. In light of recent discussions centered on long term road maintenance in the City, it has been difficult creating a program that would be supported by the Council and community. Until a final decision is made on long term funding to achieve the City's road maintenance goals there is limited funding available to complete all the scheduled improvements. Attached is a map showing all the roadway segments that are due to receive some sort of maintenance treatment for calendar years 2011 and 2012. As you can see there are approximately 74 miles of roadway needing work at an estimated cost of $5,595,400, and the current budgeted amount for the 2012 SMP is $495,000. Further complicating the situation is whether the Council is considering the elimination of assessments for maintenance activities (sealcoats and overlays) and replacing it with another funding option. The current City assessment policy has 2012 sealcoats at a rate of 15% of the total project costs, which are being phased out completely by the end of 2013, and overlays at a rate of 50% of the total project costs. If the Council is considering amending this policy it is difficult to develop a program that can be supported by the residents if another option may be available in the near future. The uncertainty of funding long term road maintenance activities, coupled with the City Charter provision that allows counter -petitioning of projects by impacted residents, further intensifies the situation. On February 14, during presentation of the case to consider a long term road maintenance policy, there was discussion with respect to the 2012 SMP. With the notion being that a long term funding solution would be forthcoming relatively soon with respect to future road maintenance it was discussed that this years SMP should only include sealcoats, and consideration should be given to potentially eliminating the associated assessments. There are several reasons why the idea of eliminating assessments for this year was considered; the current sealcoat assessment rate of 15% is negligible compared to overlays and reconstructions, there was concern expressed by the Council on how to retroactively respond to resident complaints associated with the shift in road maintenance funding, elimination of the public hearing (429 assessment process) would save time and money, and it would remove the ability for residents to counter -petition the improvements. Based upon this preliminary feedback staff presented a case to the Public Works Committee on February 21, 2012 seeking direction on how best to proceed with the 2012 SMP. It was the consensus of the Committee to initiate a program that contained sealcoats only, and that the program should be tailored in a way that assessments would be eliminated. Staff stated that they would prepare a program based upon their feedback and present the information as a stand-alone case at the next regularly scheduled City Council meeting, as opposed to being a report from Public Works on the consent agenda. Staff has developed a program that meets those stated goals (see attached) and only utilizes dedicated funding sources. Observations: