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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-04-20 Municipal Operations Committee Minutes � Municipal Operations Committee Meeting Minutes April 20, 1999 Councilors Attending: John Rohman, Nichi Farnham, Gerry Palmer, Pat Blanchette, Joe Baldacci, Michael Crowley Staff Attending: Edward Barrett, Erik Stumpfel, Arthur Stockus, ]im Ring 1. Utility Location Permit - Various Eastside Locations - Bangor Gas Jim Ring explained that a utility application permit has been received from Bangor Gas for additional work on streets on the eastside of the City. This consists of 72,OOQ linear feet. Much of the installation will be in the sidewalks with approximately 24,000 linear feet of sidewalk to be replaced. Councilor Blanchette asked what the time frame is? Scott Hall from Bangor Gas answered that they expect to start in May and work through the middle of November. There will be approximately 5-6 crews in Bangor. Approved recommendation to • Council. 2. Utility Location Permit - Mid Maine TelPlus Jim explained that this is a permit request from Mid Maine Telplus to install along French Street from behind their main office (Broadway/State) and extend from the rear of that along French Street, in the sidewalk area, to Penobscot Street, where they will interface with existing underground facilities. Approved recommendation to Council. 3. Annual Charge for City Fire Alarm Service The City has a hard-wired fire alarm service wired directly into Central Fire, which services approximately 150 buildings in the City. The present rate is , $280/year, which has been in effect and unchanged since 1992. There is a similar service available through the private sector at $350/year. Staff recommends increasing the fees and proposes an amount of $325 per year. This will result in an additional $6,700 in revenue. Committee approved the fee increase beginning in the year 2000. 4. Guidelines for Fundraisina . Committee approved the guidelines for fundraising. � 5. Ap�ointment of Harbor Master This is the annual appointment of Harbor Master. Staff recommends reappointing Gerald Ledwith, the current Harbor Master. Approved recommendation. 6. Discussion of Request from Gary Larkin for a Municipal Operations Advisory Committee Gary Larkin, a resident of Bangor, appeared before the Council and requested that a citizen advisory committee be established to work with various City Departments which currently do not have advisory groups. These departments would include Public Services, Police and Fire. Councilor Rohman commented that this is an area that does not involve the public in the same way as the Parks and Recreation Department. Police and Fire Departments are used by the public but usually for emergency situations. They do not get involved with them on a daily basis. Ed Barrett explained that normally, if there is a problem in a particular area of the City, the departments involved meet with the citizens or speak to the individual to handle the complaint or suggestion. Groups have also been put together to assist staff on specific problems, such as the Mental Health Services Committee and the Emergency � Services Advisory Committee rather than having a standing group. In the Public Works Department, there may also be things that come up. The Recycling Committee was put together at the point when the City started recycling. The Harbor Committee is another example of a group put.together for a very specific reason. An important issue to Mr. Larkin's is traffic control in the City. Staff has addressed some of the concerns, but others are difficult to fix since some of these are�subject to federal and state regulation. Staff has met with Mr. Larkin on several occasions and has addressed his concerns as they come up. Jim � pointed out that BACTS (Bangor Area Comprehensive Transportation Study) has an ad hoc committee consisting of representatives from the City, MDOT and - � BALTS to talk about the signalization issues, but more from the perspective of how the City interfaces with MDOT. • Councilor Blanchette commented that the Municipal Operations Committee is only an advisory committee to the whole Council on most issues. The Committee can only make a recommendation to the Council, who will have the final vote. Councilor Farnham asked if there were criteria as to whether something is an advisory Committee or whether it is a Council Committee? Ed answered that � there are some Committees because the City is legally required to have them (Water District, Housing Authority). Beyond that, advisory boards have been set up when there was a clear users group that wanted input into an operation or if expertise was needed by the City. � . Councilor Blanchette suggested forming a sub-committee consisting of Councilors to meet and work out a public education program for the Council. Pat feels there may need to be interaction between staff and Council to better educate the public on what steps are taken on certain issues. The public doesn't always know what is going on. It was suggested that the cable access station could be a good tool to get this across to the public. It was pointed out that this would be a time consuming project. Ed pointed out that part of the problem is that there are a lot of steps that are gone through before something is implemented and because of that, citizens don't realize what is done and the amount of work that goes into an issue. StafF and Council will continue to work on this issue. With no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned. � �