Search

REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE

JUNE 3, 2020
A meeting of the Finance Committee was held on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. via teleconference.

Mayor Jim Donchess, Chairman, presided.

Mayor Donchess

As Chairman of the Finance Committee, | find that due to the State of Emergency declared by the
Governor as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and in accordance with the Governor's Emergency Order
#12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04, this public body is authorized to meet electronically.

Please note that there is no physical location to observe and listen contemporaneously to this meeting, which
was authorized pursuant to the Governor's Emergency Order. However, in accordance with the Emergency
Order, | am confirming that we are:

a) Providing public access to the meeting by telephone, with additional access possibilities by
video or other electronic means:

We are utilizing WebEx through the City’s IT Department for this electronic meeting. All members of
the Finance Committee have the ability to communicate contemporaneously during this meeting
through this platform, and the public has access to contemporaneously listen in to this meeting
through dialing the following number 1-978-990-5298 and using the password 273974. The Public
may also view this meeting on Comcast Channel 16.

b) Providing public notice of the necessary information for accessing the meeting:

We previously gave notice to the public of the necessary information for accessing the meeting, through
public postings. Instructions have also been provided on the City of Nashua’s website at
www.nashuanh.gov and publicly noticed at City Hall and Public Health Department.

c) Providing a mechanism for the public to alert the public body during the meeting if there are
problems with access:

If anybody has a problem accessing the meeting via phone or Channel 16, please call 603-821-2049 and
they will help you connect.

d) Adjourning the meeting if the public is unable to access the meeting:

In the event the public is unable to access the meeting via the methods mentioned above, the meeting
will be adjourned and rescheduled. Please note that all votes that are taken during this meeting shall be
done by roll call vote.

Let’s start the meeting by taking a roll call attendance. When each member states their presence, please
also state whether there is anyone in the room with you during this meeting, which is required under the
Right-To-Know Law.

Finance Committee - 06/03/2020 Page 2

The roll call was taken with 5 members of the Finance Committee present: Alderman Patricia Klee,
Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu, Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright, Alderwoman Shoshanna Kelly, and Alderman
Michael B. O’Brien, Sr. Alderman Brandon Michael Laws was recorded absent. Alderman Cleaver was
recorded present after roll call.

Members not in Attendance: Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws

Also in Attendance: Dan Hudson, City Engineer
Kim Kleiner, Administrative Services Director

Alderman Klee

Yes | am here, | can hear you and other than my husband being in the house, he’s not in the room with me, but
| can hear everybody thank you.

Alderwoman Lu
Yes | am here | can hear you, | am alone and social distancing.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

I’m present, | am alone and | am practicing social distancing.

Alderwoman Kelly

| am here, | am alone, | can hear everyone and | am home per the Governor's orders.
Alderman O’Brien

| am present, | can hear the proceedings and | am alone.

Mayor Donchess

And as the Chair, | am present, | am in my living room alone and | am exercising social distancing. Alright, so
let’s take up the Agenda. Madam Clerk?

COMMUNICATIONS

From: Dan Kooken, Purchasing Manager
Re: Contract for 2020 Pavement Preservation Program (Value: $242,477) Department: 160
Admin/Engineering; Fund: Bond

MOTION BY ALDERMAN HARRIOTT-GATHRIGHT TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AUTHORIZE THE
CONTRACT AWARD FOR 2020 PAVEMENT PRESERVATION PROGRAM (CRACK SEALING) IN THE
AMOUNT OF $242,477 TO SEALCOATING, INC. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN DEPARTMENT 160
ADMIN/ENGINEERING; FUND: BOND, BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION

Mayor Donchess

| believe our City Engineer is on.

Finance Committee - 06/03/2020 Page 3

Dan Hudson, City Engineer

| am, Mr. Mayor. Dan Hudson, City Engineer. So this is the pavement preservation program crack sealing.
We put out a bid this year; we received two bids. The low bidder is Seal Coating Inc., Braintree, Mass. With
this contract we will be crack sealing approximately 34 miles of road or 175 streets. This program preserves
roads that are in fairly good condition that may have some cracking, so it seals those cracks and keep the
water out and keeps them from falling into a more costly repair category.

Mayor Donchess
Any questions or comments regarding the motion or the material?
A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman Klee, Alderman Lu, Alderman Harriott-Gathright, Alderwoman Kelly,
Alderman O’Brien, Mayor Donchess 6

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

From: Dan Kooken, Purchasing Manager
Re: Contract for 2020 Sidewalk Program (Value: $171,759) Department: 161 Streets; Fund: Capital

MOTION BY ALDERMAN HARRIOTT-GATHRIGHT TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AWARD THE
CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT FOR 2020 SIDEWALK PROGRAM IN THE AMOUNT OF $171,759 TO RWC
ENTERPRISES. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN DEPARTMENT 161 STREETS; FUND: CAPITAL, BY ROLL
CALL

ON THE QUESTION

Mayor Donchess
Alright, Mr. Hudson?
Mr. Hudson

Thank you, so this is a sidewalk bid we put out, we received one bid from RWC Enterprises a local company.
This is to reconstruct 900 feet of sidewalk on the east side of East Hollis Street, between CVS and Harbor
Avenue. It’s concrete sidewalk and it is in disrepair and missing some curbing, doesn’t comply with ADA
requirements. So this is work that we intend to do with the sidewalk and it abuts a paving project, which is
going to happen this year. So when we are done, we will have at least this portion of the sidewalk complete
and the road repaved.

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman Klee, Alderman Lu, Alderman Harriott-Gathright, Alderwoman Kelly,
Alderman O’Brien, Mayor Donchess 6

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

Finance Committee - 06/03/2020 Page 4

From: Dan Kooken, Purchasing Manager
Re: Change Order No. 1 to the 2020 Sewer Replacement Project (Value: $975,125) Department: 169
Wastewater; Fund: Bond

MOTION BY ALDERMAN HARRIOTT-GATHRIGHT TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AUTHORIZE
CHANGE ORDER NO. 1 TO THE 2020 SEWER REPLACEMENT PROJECT IN THE AMOUNT OF $975,125
TO SUR CONSTRUCTION WEST, INC. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN DEPARTMENT 169 WASTEWATER;
FUND: BOND, BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION

Mayor Donchess

Mr. Hudson?
Mr. Hudson

Thank you. So earlier this year we engaged in the 2020 sewer replacement project, as you are aware; we do
a mix of lining and then also we need to repair some pipes, actually dig them. This is the repair project where
we are digging up pipes. We bid this project out and (inaudible) subsequent to that bidding, we’ve come to
realize through additional video inspection, that we have three pipes that are in dire need of repair. So this
would be a change order to replace those under the SUR Contract. The pipes that we are talking about are on
Water Street, Amherst Street, and Main Street and they all pre-date 1900’s. So certainly we have gotten our
circle of life out of them and we need to replace them. Alderwoman Klee?

Alderman Klee

Thank you so much, | appreciate this. | appreciate that we’ve done the video and we’ve found these issues.
I’ve been concerned about a number of the pipes, especially in Ward 3 and between Main Street an Amherst
Street and so. | guess | have to ask, how long when you are doing a pipe replacement especially something
that’s collapsed does this take, because | know that Main Street, obviously we know what’s going on there.
And Amherst Street has a lot of traffic and a lot of activity. So what can the public expect as far as delay and
so on.

Mr. Hudson

Sure, that’s a good question. This work by its nature takes a while to complete. We probably do 100 feet a
day if we are having a good day, so these projects are each hundreds of feet long. Each project takes a
couple weeks probably by the time we get in and get out. And we do the best we can with traffic in the
meantime. The one at West Hollis, Main Street and West Hollis, you may have seen the plates on the road.
We actually had cracks in that pipe. So that is in a very challenging location and our intention is to do that
work at night so we can try to reduce the traffic issues.

Alderman Klee

Follow up?

Mayor Donchess

Yes of course.

Finance Committee - 06/03/2020 Page 5
Alderman Klee

Thank you, | appreciate you doing especially that one at night, because that is an extraordinary intersection
there. This area of Amherst Street is right near where the Fire Station is also and that’s also a concern of mine,
if they need to get to get through. So would you bringing everything down to one lane of traffic. | am assuming
it's on the opposite side of the fire - because you talked about Vernon Street and so on. So | am assuming it is
on the opposite side of the fire station. But again, | am just kind of concerned about the traffic, this backs up
terribly on some days. So do we have detours or anything else like that, that would be part of this?

Mr. Hudson

Yes, it is on a case-by-case and | honestly can’t speak specific to that, | am not familiar with all the details of it.
They do provide us a traffic control plan and we review it And then we proceed. Favorably, because of the
(audio cuts out) traffic is lower than it has been historically. It’s unfortunate to cause any delays but we are
fortunate that traffic is lower, and we are able to do more probably during the day than we would otherwise.
Alderman Klee

And just one more comment. If at all possible, if we could put up signage before we are going to do it to kind
of give people a warning in any of these areas, because of the long delay and the heavily routed areas, | would
appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Alderman O’Brien

Mr. Mayor if | may, Alderman O’Brien

Mayor Donchess

Alderman O’Brien.

Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just to follow up with Alderman Klee, to Mr. Hudson if | may, it has been my
experience being on the fire department in the past, we did used to get and | imagine this still occurs, a daily
call of certain projects that are going on so emergency providers such as the fire, the police and the
ambulance, do know the different type of traffic patterns that are affected. So you do take great pains to
ensure public safety in this, correct.

Mr. Hudson

Yes, yes, we do our best, you know, sometimes we fall short, but we do do our best to let everybody know
where we are going to be working and we will try to provide advance notice to the public in these cases.

Mayor Donchess
Alderwoman Lu?
Alderwoman Lu

Thank you Mayor Donchess. Would you just tell me, did you say that this was discovered during the sewer
repair project?

Finance Committee - 06/03/2020 Page 6
Mr. Hudson

The video inspection; for a while we’ve been doing quite a bit of video work where we actually go in and we
clean the sewer lines, we run a video camera inside of them and then we see where we have issues. Honestly
the one at West Hollis we actually had a collapse in the pipe so we discovered the issue there via a sinkhole.
And that’s kind of reoccurred a couple times, that one has come back a couple times, it didn’t hold on until we
could get it repaired. But yes, as a nature of doing that video work that we do, we find a lot of pipes, most
pipes actually that we are able to line which is much less expensive than doing this dig project. But we have
some that are in such a condition that they can’t be lined, they actually need to be dug up and replaced. And
these three are in that category.

Alderwoman Lu

OK, thank you.

Mayor Donchess

Anything else?

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman Klee, Alderman Lu, Alderman Harriott-Gathright, Alderwoman Kelly,
Alderman O’Brien, Mayor Donchess 6

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

And Mayor, | would like to acknowledge that Alderman Cleaver is also with us.

Mayor Donchess

Let the record reflect that Alderman Cleaver has joined the meeting.

From: Dan Kooken, Purchasing Manager
Re: Change Order No. 2 to the 2019 Paving Program (Value: $94,510) Department: 160
Admin/Engineering; Fund: Trust

MOTION BY ALDERMAN HARRIOTT-GATHRIGHT TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AUTHORIZE
CHANGE ORDER NO. 2 TO THE 2019 PAVING PROGRAM IN THE AMOUNT OF $94,510 TO BROX
INDUSTRIES. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN DEPARTMENT 160 ADMIN/ENGINEERING; FUND: TRUST,
BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION

Mayor Donchess

Mr. Hudson?

Finance Committee - 06/03/2020 Page 7

Mr. Hudson

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So this is change order to the 2019 paving program. As you know, there was some
carryover work from °19 into ’20 and Brox is working to complete that. One of things that that they are doing is
they are repaving the roundabout near Rivier University. And as part of that, since this is a heavily traveled
pedestrian area, we looked at the sidewalks and realized that there are some issues; they are not ADA
complaint, they are missing the detectable warning devices, the grades aren’t correct. And there are also

some sections of pretty severely cracked sidewalks. So we are asking and this will be funded through the
quadrant fund, to actually replace that sidewalk, the damaged sidewalk, prior to the final paving.

Mayor Donchess

That’s great. Any discussion, questions.

Alderwoman Kelly

| have a question.

Mayor Donchess

Alderwoman Kelly.

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you. Thank you for that explanation, actually potentially is for you Mr. Mayor, two of the items tonight
were sidewalks and mostly it seems as though we are focusing on fixing the ones we currently have. As we
start to build the Master Plan, is there the larger plan to start to maintenance these correctly, implement more
and start to move towards a more mobile City?

Mayor Donchess

| think yes and of course the Master Plan will address many issues and | am sure that will be one of them.

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you for your response, it comes a lot with constituents and whether they have one in front of their house
or not. So | wanted to bring it up and ask. So thank you.

Thank you for your response, it comes a lot with constituents and whether they have one in front of their house
or not. So | wanted to bring it up and ask. So thank you.

Mayor Donchess

Any other thoughts or questions?
Alderwoman Lu

Yes a quick question.

Mayor Donchess

Alderwoman Lu?

Finance Committee - 06/03/2020 Page 8
Alderwoman Lu

Thank you, Mayor Donchess. Mr. Hudson, did you say through the project fund this will be paid for through
the project fund. | just didn’t understand that term.

Mr. Hudson

No it is quadrant funds. So the City is divided into the four quadrants and then we accept, in lieu of developers
actually constructing pieces of sidewalks (audio cuts out) funds, and compile them and then assign them to a
project. So this is funding from the southeast quadrant.

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you.

Mayor Donchess

Anyone else?

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman Klee, Alderman Lu, Alderman Harriott-Gathright, Alderwoman Kelly,
Alderman O’Brien, Mayor Donchess 6

Nay: 0

MOTION CARRIED

From: Dan Kooken, Purchasing Manager

Re: MVR, Tax, Assessing, City Clerk Remodel Due to COVID 19 (Value: $32,500) Department: 129 City
Buildings; Fund: GOFEER

MOTION BY ALDERMAN HARRIOTT-GATHRIGHT TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AUTHORIZE

MVR, TAX, ASSESSING, AND CITY CLERK REMODEL DUE TO COVID 19 IN THE AMOUNT OF $32,500

TO DENNIS MIRES, PA. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN DEPARTMENT 129 CITY BUILDINGS; FUND:
GOFEER, BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION

Mayor Donchess

Mr. Fredette, are you here on this?

Kim Kleiner, Director of Administrative Services

Mayor Donchess, | am.

Mayor Donchess

Ok ok, Ms. Kleiner, | didn’t know you were on, please go ahead.

Finance Committee - 06/03/2020 Page 9
Director Kleiner

Working with the Emergency Operations Center and the safety team of the Emergency Operation Center, we
conducted an assessment of the City Hall Departments. In order to assert whether they would meet CDC
Regulations for social distancing, not only for City residents that may be in City Hall but also for our
employees. We found that there were some Departments within City Hall that did not meet the requirements,
those being the Motor Vehicle Department, the Tax area, City Clerk’s Office and the Assessing Department.
We called in four different contractors, space planners that have knowledge of social distancing and conducted
reviews with each of them. We only had one proposal submitted by Dennis Mires. Interestingly enough, this
fits well because Dennis Mires is also performing the project at the Public Health Building and will be able to
work with Director Cummings and make sure that the project — both at City Hall and the project at the Public
Health Building — have similar characteristics laid out in the plans and they are more comprehensive and
related to each other. So | can answer any questions. Dennis Mires will actually be performing the space
planning and the drawings necessary to go out to bid for the actual contractor to perform the work.

Mayor Donchess

Ok, questions? Anybody have questions on this? Do | see Alderwoman Lu?

Alderwoman Lu

Yes, thank you Mayor Donchess. Ms. Kleiner, thank you. So the $32,000.00 is strictly for design?

Director Kleiner

Yes Alderwoman Lu. It is for design, it’s for planning and drawings, it’s looking at the electrical, engineering.
When you look at a project like this, you have to take into consideration the fire alarms, some of these areas
haven't had any upgrades to lighting, so we want to be putting in LED fixtures. And there will be all kinds of
building electrical systems that need to be modified and looked at, as well as air flow, power distribution,
electrical outlets, plumbing, all of that has to be taken into consideration. So they assess all of those building
systems and they incorporate that into whatever plan that they design.

Alderwoman Lu

Ok, wow, and we expect that to qualify for the GOFEER Funds?

Director Kleiner

Yes we do, this is specifically related to the safety and the social distancing for our residents as well as our
employees.

Alderwoman Lu

Who would have thought we’d be looking at these kind of changes. Thank you very much.
Alderman Klee

Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Donchess

Yes, Alderwoman Klee?

Finance Committee - 06/03/2020 Page 10
Alderman Klee

Thank you. | appreciate this information Director Kleiner and as you stated this is going to be funded through
the GOFEER Fund. When the work actually has to begin, we are looking at quite an upheaval, correct with the
possible removal of walls and moving all kinds of other types of things. But based on what you mentioned and
so on, this is going to be necessary to continue forward because of this virus and so on. Is that correct?

Director Kleiner

That is correct Alderman Klee. So we had some significant challenges and I'll just give you an example. I’m
sure you all know that when you walk into the motor vehicles office, if you have a resident at each window,
neither the residents, the citizens that are there to do business nor the employees sitting behind the counter
would be at six foot intervals. None of them would be socially distant. So that creates a problem. Down in
Assessing, if you’ve been down to that customer service area, you can probably fit about three people in that
space where we do customer service down there, none would be six feet apart and none of that area is ADA
compliant. So we would be looking at an ADA (audio static) as well.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

What is that noise?
Alderman Klee
Mr. Mayor, | have a follow up.

Mayor Donchess

Alderwoman Klee.

Mayor Donchess

Thank you so much | appreciate it. Ms. Kleiner the other question | have is we have a drop dead date or close
to that when this has to be completed and so on. So this is truly an urgent issue, is it not?

Director Kleiner

It is a very urgent issue and it’s a very aggressive timeline. We actually had two of the architects that came
through that did not feel that they could meet our timeline, which is why they did not bid. There is a great deal
of construction in many areas, both public and private. Many places are looking for this type of work to be
done and contractors and architects are being pulled in many directions.

Alderman Klee

Thank you, and Mr. Mayor if | could, just one more question.

Mayor Donchess

Yes, go head.

Alderman Klee

When did the work have to be completed by; towards the end of the summer? | just remember reading some

of the GOFEER notes they seem to give almost horrific timelines so | am just curious as to when this must be
done by?