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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-04-03 Finance Committee Minutes � FINANCE COMMITTEE AGENDA t Apri13, 2006 CaD 5:00 pm Councilors Attending: Stone, Hawes, Gratwick, Palmer, Farrington � Staff Attending: Gyr, Barrett, Hamer, Little, Pellegrino, Wellington, Hupp Others Attending: Dawn Gagnon,Terry Cassidy, Ed Bearor, Don � Simpson 1. Consent Agenda � a. Quitclaim Deed — Perry—80 Elm Street � A motion was made and seconded to approve b. Emergency Purchase —Airport— Chiller Unit- $45,794 M A motion was made and seconded to move. Palmer then asked for more information about the Chiller Unit. Pellegrino talked about the fact that this unit � is a 100 ton unit and is the primary chiller unit for the domestic arrival building. It will replace 2 units that have been there since the building was built. There was a 12 ton unit and also an 80 ton unit and the plan is to replace them with I this Chilier Unit. The reason for the emergency purchase was due to a very long lead time. In order for it to arrive here in time by train, because they were about to be sold, we had to_make a commitment. These had a 2 or 3 month � lead time and if we were to buy them later we would looking at having them well into August. The motion was made and seconded to approve the Chiller Unit for $45,794. Because Hupp joined later in the meeting the topic of the Chiller Unit � was re-visited. One of the councilors asked Hupp what the time frame was regarding the Chiller Unit and why there was such urgency in purchasing the unit. Hupp replied that at one point the Air-conditioning stopped working and � they had it worked on. The service to the air-conditioner did not work. She � admitted that in hindsight the process of obtaining a new unit could have been handled differently and wili do so in the future. The question was also raised r � � about if we had to pay for the s�rvice on the broken unit or was it under a contract. Hupp agreed to look into the specifics and bring the information back � . to the council. It was also noted that the instaliation of the new unit will require an additional amount of money and bids will be requested. Palmer then requests that Hupp come to the next Business &Economic � Development meeting prepared to discuss the issues that have been printed in the Bangor Daily News in the recent past regarding baggage service being slow. � Hupp states that she can address this issue right now and says it was related to . . a Northwest Airline flight that was coming in at approximately 11:OOpm and the passengers had to wait for their baggage for about �h hour. The passenger that � made the compiaint was very dissatisfied with that and thought the airport should address baggage handling before looking at things such as taxicabs. � Even though baggage handling is a high priority, it is the airline that is responsible for delivering it from ticket counter to the aircraft and then back to � � . . � � � which might assist in a disaster, permits the City Manager to designate an Emergency Management Director, authorizes the estabiishment of an Emergency Operations Plan and the necessary rules and regulations to put it into effect. � The Maine Emergency Management Agency provided the model ordinance which has been adjusted to conform to Bangor's Charter and organizational structure. � Gratwick asked if the City has an EMS Director. It is the Fire Chief. Once adopted, Barrett said he would suggest a Council Order be adopted that wouid confirm the Fire ChieYs appointment as Director of Emergency Management. a Gratwick asked about quarantine procedures. He indicated it would be a major step to quarantine an entire city and thought it should be described in more detail within the plan. Barrett said the state law and city charter is explicit in this � area and that the proposed plan sets out the procedure by which it would have to be completed. The Emergency Operations Plan is to set up a procedure to allow decisions to be made quickly during an emergency. Gratwick expressed � concern that the Plan does not address a nuclear disaster. Barrett said it would be included in `other or natural man made causes.' He said that the definition was used and lifted directly out of state law. Responding to Gratwick, Barrett t said Gratwick's suggestion could be added. Farrington talked of nuclear incidents being handled by the military. Barrett said that in the event of such an � event the City's first responder would deal with the immediate realities of the situation and would quickly call upon the State that does have access to the Civil Support Team. Cammack said that Geiger counters will be available. Allen � . asked if the City is able to handle the bird flu. Barrett said that the City's Health and Welfare Director has been working closely with the State Department of Health and other providers in formulating a state response plan and a local � response plan to that need. Cammack said the City has been working with the Regional Resource Center and EMMC. The lead agency is the State Department � of Health and Human Services. It is a group that regularly meets for vaccines, shelters, hospital capacity, and surge capacity in the time of an event. The media would be used to inform citizenry and PSA's would be in place. The media would �, be used as well. Barrett said an Emergency Management System sets up a framework to try to respond to almost any situation. It provides a structure with identified responsibilities. The new police department building will have an � emergency operations center. Cammack said there is a county wide mutual aid agreement in place and also working at the state level for a statewide mutual aid agreement. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Council Ordinance � 06-146. Gratwick said he supports the concept of the plan. He looks at it as an overall sketch. He again spoke of a nuclear threat. He is not satisfied with Bangor's dependence on the State for its nuclear safeguard. He asked for an � amendment under Section 28.73 Definitions D to include`nuclear catastrophe.' Farrington said he had no problem with Gratwick's proposed amendment. The � Ordinance was recommended to the Council as amended. � The meeting adjourned at 5:40 p.m. � . � � � the baggage ciaim. At no time do we handie the baggage which means this was an airline problem. Northwest Airlines does not have a staff here in Bangor and � their aircraft is handled by COM Air. Hupp doesn`t know this for sure but is suspecting that if a COM Air flight lands at the same time as a Northwest Flight then they are probably going to unload the Delta flight before they do the � Northwest flight. On a number of occasions Hupp has had conversations with Northwest expressing her opinion that there is a need for them to have their own staff and their own counter but their response is always that it is more � economical for them to have that staff through COM Air. She will raise the issue again with them and also with the locai station manager. But in the end, we can only offer them guidelines and bring them the comments that we hear from � customer. Palmer then verbalized his frustration and pointed out the importance of quality service because of the competition. He stated that if customers are not satisfied with the service of this airport they will go down to , Portland or other airports and we will suffer as a City. 2. Bids/Purchasing a. Ready Mix Concrete Supply Contract— Public Works— Hughes �. . Brothers Inc A motion was made and seconded to approve staff recommendation. � b. Results of Request for RFP— 183 Center Street � Pellegrino mentions that the City put out a request for proposal on this property and received only one proposal, which staff has reviewed and has deemed non- � responsive. Barrett explains that the structure is in poor condition and the ne� step would be to demolish the building and then contact the abutters to see if any of them have any interest in the land. Terry Cassidy speaks and states that � he owns the abutting properly at 180 Center Street. He says the building has continually been decaying and he recommends the building be demolished. The � � foundation is in bad shape and so is the building. Mr. Cassidy feels that this property is a disgrace to the neighborhood and does not think the rehab of this building would be wise. Barrett states that the property is now owned by the City and if we wish to have some standards on it we could. The City could have .� a condition placed on the property before putting it up for sale. A motion was made and seconded to send a recommendation to the full council that the City � demolish the building. c. Asbestos Removal —Airport— Statewide Asbestos Removal & Portland Diversified - $34,000 � � A motion was made for staff recommendation to divide the job between these two low bidders and was seconded for $34,000. d. Heating System Modifications — Airport—Thibodeau Mechanical � - $116,000 The stafF recommendation is to go with Thibodeau Mechanical which is the low � bidder of $116,000. There are 4 major air handlers that will be rebuilt and.then all the piping that connected those four handlers will be replaced. Stone asks who rents these hanger and Hupp responded that American Eagle rents them � . � � and do their aircraft maintenance on their regional jets in that facility. Stone � � then asks if the Airport was a private investor how would it's checkbook be looking like based on the number of years we have been renting from them and � based on the income and lease agreement we have with them? Would a bank lend us money to do this or are we stealing this money from some place eise. Hupp responded that BIA is doing very well by renting to American Eagle. The � rent is about $4,000 a month or $40,000 a year. In addition it is important to have that maintenance base at the Airport. It provides an anchor for American Eagle and it is an incentive when they are looking at placing aircraft into the � system. Barrett makes the point that without this we won't have American Eagle's business. He states that this is a necessity for them to stay. Hupp commented that we are not just talking about leasing fees but also landing fees � and fuei flowage fees and there is also indirect revenue. American Eagle employs around 50-75 people and they are making on an average of about 40- � 50 thousand dollars a year. A motion was made and seconded to recommend the Airport's Heating System Modifications be done by Thibodeau Mechanical for $116,000 to the full Council. � e. Sprinkler System —Airport— Eastern Fire Protection - $2,091,854 Pellegrino states that this is a project that has needed to be done for a very long � time. Many buildings do not have sprinkler systems. We received many bids and all of them were well above what we had budgeted by about $700,000. Our . engineers at Carpenter Assoc. noticed that there was about a �/a of a million � dollars worth of contractor markup. They also said that because 80-90% of the job is done from a sub-contractor that provides the sprinkler system then why not have the sub-contractor take over as the general contractor saving a couple � hundred thousand dollars. We were forced to take out the foam systems from 4 of the buildings as opposed to having both foam and water sprinklers systems. � Lastly, we had to eliminate one whole building out of the picture. Staff recommendation is to award the contract to Eastern Fire Protection, who is going to be the general contractor on that project. Farrington asks why foam was recommended in the first place and if it is not needed then why do we have � foam with water sprinklers. Pellegrino states that he thinks that foam is more efficient for that particular type of fire which wouid be gasoline,jet fuel, grease � or petroleum. Wellington explains that the original purpose for the building was for storage. Over the years things migrated and we were failing further and further out of compliance. We went into one hanger one day and spoke to an � aircraft repair gentlemen who explained that there was $35 million dollars worth - of Aircraft in this building being repaired at that particular time. In this case the fire prevention mechanisms are not so much to protect life but to protect � property. We are being forced by the state to upgrade to a fire protection system of one kind or another depending on the use of each hanger. Farrington then asks whether or not foam should be cut out due to its superiority? Hupp , � then comments that even though foam is superior we have a fire station located � � ' � at the airport that has more foam capabifities than any place else within the region. They will be able to respond to a fire within 1 �h minutes. Another factor � is that a couple of the hangers that we are looking at are not currently being used significantly. One exception is the Telford hanger and the other is the American Eagie hanger. Farrington then asks if our insurance or liability goes up � without foam. Hupp responded by saying that we don't have any system right now so the assumption is that our insurance will go down, but she doesn't think that we will see a big difference. Gratwick pointed out that it is never a good � idea to put a fuel fire out with water. Hupp responded by saying that those hangers will still have foam. Foam was not eliminated from hangers that are doing aircraft work. Gratwick then asked to have the bidding process explained. � Pellegrino explained the negotiations were just with Eastern Fire because they are a local firm and they were the sub for a number of the general contractors � that did bid. We have had a lot of experience with Eastern Fire and they are very professional and have done good work. We just chose to reject all the bids that we did receive and just negotiate with the sub-contractor. He stated that he � was fairly confident that we got the most competitive company. Gratwick pointed out that if we look at the difference between $2,592,200.00 @ Eastern Fire compared to $2,797,572.00 @ Bowman Bros. then it is clear that we are not comparing apples to apples because if you subtract the $200,000 for contractor's � markup from Bowman Brothers then the two are very similar. Barrett comments that those figures are there to show you the results of those bids but we are � recommending that we accept none of these bids and rather go with a negotiated contract with the sprinkler system company which is Eastern Fire. A motion was made and seconded to recommend staff's recommendation to the � full council. f. Council Order, Authorization to Apply for &Accept Grants for � Airport Improvement Projects Hupp discussed several plans recommended in the Airport's Improvement Budget. One is to build an access roadway between Polk Street and Utah � Avenue. One is to redo the customs clearance area, and another is to do a vehicle access drive. These are all related projects that are funded through the Airport improvement plan which is 95% funded by the federal government, 2 � 1/2% by the state and 2 �/2% through the airport revenues. The first project is to provide additional access to the airport without people being forced to go down Godfrey Boulevard. This will allow for alternate access to the Airport from � Maine Avenue so that delivery vehicles and other traffic would not be forced to travel in front of the terminal building and cross paths with pedestrians. In the event that the security threat level is increased to Code Orange, and we require � vehicles to be searched prior to being 300 feet of the terminal, we don't have an . exit. The other item is the Custom Clearance apron which is an area that we use to park transit international corporate aircraft as they come through Bangor to � re-fuel. It is in very poor condition, it is a hazard and is not safe. And lastly, we also have a vehicle access road which will allow us to have access to the entire � � . . .. . ' perimeter of the airport inside so that we can properly inspect for the fencing. A � . motion was made and seconded to recommend to full Council. g. Council Order, Authorizing Execution of a Professional Services � Agreement for Engineering Services —Airport In order to do these projects and get funding for them the Airport is required to have an engineering service on board. Edwards and Kelcey was selected � through an RFP process to handle all of the Airport's AIP projects and have reviewed these projects for financial reasonableness. Barrett explains that this engineering services covers those three capitai projects but is also covers the � updating our Storm Water management study at the airport. This is something that we need to do and will involve mapping and geographic information work in trying to nail down how the drainage system works. This is a requirement � because we will be required to do a whole series of things over the next 10 years to improve water quality at Birch Steam. The motion was made and seconded � to recommend to full Council. 3. Workout Agreement Update — Dickey � Cyr- supplied the update on the Dickey's property located on 386 Kittredge Road and stated that they have complied with the agreement to pay the back taxes, but they have not complied with the clean up of the property. We have been ■ � trying to work with them for the last 2 years and the pictures show that the ■ property has not been cieaned up. The recommendation of staff is to take control of the property. The move was made and seconded to approve staff s � recommendation and it will go to the full council. � 4. Workout Agreement Update - Simpson Mr. Simpson is requesting an additional 3 month workout agreement. Because � the Movie theater is doing well and is expected to do better during the summer he would like to propose paying $2500.00 for the next 3 months as a good faith � effort payment. At the end of the 3 months he should be able to commit to a full workout agreement with a set monthly payment to take care of the balance for � the taxes and charges. C�rr points out that the City's options are to take over the � property and assume the back taxes, or allow Mr. Simpson the 3 months to continue to build the business. He is willing to make a payment over the next few months, which is a step ahead from where we were 3 months ago. At the � end of the 3 months we will come back to this committee and re-assess. A motion was made and seconded to approve staff's recommendation. 5. Executive Session — 36 MRSA Section 841 (2) — Hardship � Abatement (A), (B) and (C) Tentatively A motion was made and seconded to move into Executive Session. - � 6. Open Session —Hardship Abatement Decisions � A motion was made and seconded to approve A &B. There was no C to act on. � � �