Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 12/16/2019 - P5
Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — 12/16/2019 Page 5
Lisa Fauteux, Director Public Works
Thank you very much. Good evening Mayor, President Wilshire, Vice President O’Brien, Chairman Dowd and
members of the Budget Committee. Joining me tonight are Commissioners Joel Ackerman and Frank Teas,
Rob Prunier from Harvey Construction, my colleagues Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development; Jeff
LaFleur, Superintendent of Solid Waste; Jon Ibarra, Superintendent of Streets; and Lauren Byers, Public
Relations Administrator.
We are here to speak on R-19-187, authorizing the Mayor and City Treasurer to issue bonds not to exceed the
amount of $6 million dollars for the design and construction of Public Works Office Facility. About 8 months
ago, the Mayor requested that a working group be assembled to study the current conditions of our Public
Works Facilities and provide recommendations. The working group consisted of a number of stakeholders
including Aldermen, Commissioners, Harvey Construction, Hoyle Tanner, HKT Architects, DPW Staff and the
Director of Economic Development.
This working group was unanimous in the recommendation that we will be sharing with you this evening.
Since this is the recommendation of a group, we will have several members of our group presenting this
evening. | would like to invite Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development to first discuss the timeline
and disposition of the Burke Street Building.
Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development
Thank you Director Fauteux, for the record, Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development and | am up
here this evening to talk about a couple of the issues that are paramount for this project. First to orientate
everyone to the timeline; we started meeting around April to discuss how to best move forward with the idea of
a DPW facilities project. We were inclusive in our efforts, we brought various stakeholders together to hear
differing ideas and to develop a plan to move forward. We developed a preliminary plan, if you will, to look at
the existing conditions which help guide the conversation about whether it made sense to consolidate or
renovate the individual buildings. We presented the findings in early fall or mid fall | should say and ultimately
the working group made a recommendation to the Board of Public Works that we look at a new DPW Facility
consolidating the operations on the landfill. Harvey Construction helped us with the presentation in developing
these findings.
The next item in particular | want to talk about is the Burke Street site and it is really important to understand
the various dynamics that go into this project. This particular variable is of top of mind because we issued
bonds for the purchase of Burke Street. We are now looking to dispose of Burke Street. We have a P&S in
place as all of you are aware. We are going to be under an obligation to use the monies from this sale in a
very quick timetable, so time is of the essence. We will have essentially approximately 2 years or something of
that order to use the funds. We are scheduled to sell the building in mid-February. Just to re-orientate
everyone the reason why we originally purchased Burke Street was for the expansion of the Waste Water
Treatment Facility which we have been able to do because we have sub-divided 2 % acres of the Burke Street
property which we will keep within the City’s purview so we can do that future expansion.
Ultimately the Burke Street site did not meet our needs as you all know because we did some exhaustive
studies a few years back that looked at it. So | am up here this evening just to speak specifically about the
timing of this particular project and stress upon the body that we need a bond authorization as quickly as
possible to make sure all the various puzzle pieces fit together appropriately. Thank you.
Ms. Fauteux
Thank you Tim. Next Commissioner Joel Ackerman will discuss the current condition of our DPW facilities.
