HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-03-02 Municipal Operations Committee Minutes Municipai Operations Committee
Meeting Minutes
March 2, 1999
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Councilors Attending: Nichi Farnham, Pat Blanchette, Gerry Palmer,
John Rohman
Staff Attending: Edward Barrett, Arthur Stockus, Jim Ring, Gail
Campbell
1. Program Budget Review - City Engineer and Public Works
Enqineerin4
• Administration - 4.75%: This is part of Jim's time to provide overall
administration to all the public services divisions. During the peak activity
periods the department is stretched. For this current budget year, full time
employees were reduced by �/2 a position. Overall, staffing is less than a
decade ago. ]im commented that the overall responsibility and level of
activity is substantially higher.
• Accounting/Clerical (Engineerina and supplies for the Waterfront Division) -
� 8.62%
• Public Information/Assistance - 3.86%
• Infrastructure Recordkeeping - 5.77%: The records in the Department date
back to the 1830's and need to be preserved. This is a small program in
terms of dollar value but is very essential. One request this year is for a flat
bed scanner to get some of the historic documents on electronic file.
• Technical Representation - 1.7%: This is a part of John and Jim's time. This
includes trips to Augusta, etc. It is estimated that this will increase.
• Site Plan Review - 3.3%: The Department is doing more in way of review.
Delegation of authority to review site location plans results in faster
turnaround for developers.
• CSO Design and Management - 39.5%: This is the largest program. Jim
pointed out that the revenues are greater than the expenses. This is due to
the mark up applied in the Citywide allocation program.
• Other Capital Projects - Design and Management - 13.78%
* • Services provided to other departments - 12.5%: The Department provides
service to other departments in the City.
79.5% of program expenses are recovered through revenues.
Waterfront Division
• Supervision: Supervision and control of the use of City waterfront and harbor
� facilities including enforcement and compliance with City, State and Federal
ordinance and regulations. Also includes collection and deposit fees. 1
Harbormaster and 1 Assistant staff the division.
• Operations: This program is all the operating and maintenance associated
with City-owned waterFront docks, buildings and grounds including seasonal
installation and removal of City-owned floats, winterization of Harbor building,
and dock maintenance and utility costs. Each of the last three years $2,500-
$3,000 has been budgeted annually to repair, preserve and upgrade existing
facilities. This level of funding needs to be maintained.
• Promotion: This program is the promotion of waterfront and harbor facilities,
including advertisement and providing information to residents, boaters, and
the general public.
Public Works Division
Arthur Stockus is the head of the Maintenance and Operations Division. It is
made up of seven divisions.
• Electrical: This division provides for the construction, operation and
maintenance of all City street lights, traffic signals and controllers, fire alarm
� system as well as providing electrical services for all City Departments. There
' are three master electricians that need training. They include fire alarm
maintenance training, and National Certification by IMSA. The department
maintains 150 fire alarm boxes and has 25 miles of cable in the air. At the
end of last year, Bangor had the only Letter 3 Certified Traffic Engineer in the
state.
• Administration: This division provides administrative services and direction for
all Public Works divisions including planning, budgeting, correspondence, '
records maintenance and personnel maintenance.
• Forestrv: Roadside brush control is one of the most critical services that
Forestry provides. The Chipping division includes roadside cleanup and
spring-cleaning. The chips are sold for revenue. In recent years, emphasis
has been placed on maintaining shrubbery, trees, flowerbeds and walkways
in City parks and downtown and waterfront areas. The leaf composting site
can contain approximately 750 tons of leaves that are composted and turned
into loam. There are 1,000 - 1,500 cubic yards of loam on an annual basis
from that site. This is used for City projects. Parks Maintenance and
improvements are handled by Roland's crew. This includes the walkways,
fences, parking areas, trees, shrubs, flowerbeds, etc. Aerial and ground
• pruning deals with the 15,000 shade trees in the City. The reforestation and
tree nursery division has planted approximately 8,Q00 trees on City property,
3,000 at the Bangor Mall and over 50,QQ0 at the Airport in the last few years.
• Hi hwa : The function of this division is to carry out all of the maintenance
and construction of streets, sidewalks and drainage utilities including paving,
patching, crack sealing, pavement marking, sign erection and maintenance.
• Other responsibilities include cleaning, maintaining and constructing catch
basins and storm sewers Citywide.
Arthur explained that the changes in Spring clean-up have dropped the
program total to approximately $60,000. The total used to be over $100,000
when they performed curbside collection and hauled everything off.
Street sweeping is done mostly to remove the sand that is put down in the
winter to keep it out of the storm drain system and to alleviate the dust
problem downtown. There is a mandate by the EPA under the Best
Management Practices to keep it out of the waterways. $56,000 comes in on
an annual basis from the sewer funds to support the sweeping.
Traffic lines are currently being contracted out and are using tape and
thermoplastic on the new pavement being put down. This is the type of
material that was put down on Broadway and is being used mainly at major
high traffic intersections.
• Cemeterv: This division perForms the maintenance, operation and
recordkeeping for three City Cemeteries comprising of 28+ acres and in
excess of 7,500 lots.
� • Sanitation: Provides the means to cover the cost of the operation of the
privatized, weekly, curbside collection of rubbish from approximately 7,500
residences within the City. Also provides a means of covering the cost of all
commercial waste hauled to PERC from the City.
• Recycling: The division provides a weekly curbside collection of a variety of
recyclable products, with a goal of lowering the disposal costs. There are two
individuals doing curbside collection as well as two trucks. Revenues have
dropped off slightly. In looking at the cost of running the processing center, ,
less the Citywide overhead, the revenues are matching the actual raw costs
of operating. The revenues are running at $57 per ton up from $53.
• Household Hazardous Waste Collection: The paint collection program went
very well and staff will try and expand that this year to include more
products.
2. Executive Session - Subordinate Committees
The Committee discussed the recent interviews with potential subordinate
Committee members.
` With no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned.