Special Board of Aldermen 10-14-2021 Page 6
Alderman Klee
Thank you.
Alderman Lopez
As the Ward that last summer and the summer before got to experience the sinkholes, | think while it is definitely
uncomfortable and difficult people have to drive down like Kinsley Street and those kinds of streets and there's work in
progress, it's for a good cause and people generally understand that.
Earlier during your presentation, you were talking about berms and this is something that residents have discussed with
Public Works but as we do this and we're in your five, new members of the public are being impacted by the repaving.
When repaving processes raise or adjust the height of the road or result in changes in water flow and neighbors get
water delivered from the road down their driveway, who should they turn to and what kind of help can they get?
Dan Hudson, City Engineer
So they can reach out to us and Mark Saunders or Lauren Byers is a great resource. She'll get in contact with us. But
yeah not everything goes perfect so sometimes we have to go back and make some adjustments. We're always - our
ears are always open. We're willing to come out and meet with people and try to address the situation.
Alderman Tencza
Thank you. So two questions. One - it's quite a process to pave the streets. Does the city have somebody who is like a
compliance officer at each step that verifies that the contractor has complied with the terms of the contract and they can
move on to the next step?
Dan Hudson, City Engineer
Yes. Mark is in the field often and we also contract a local engineering company - Hayner Swanson - who helps us with
that. They have somebody in the field every day during work. Of course, works occurring in a number of locations so
they have to kind of follow it around but they're there. They're watching full time and then Mark is in and out of the office
multiple times a day trying to try, you Know, respond to issues, and oversee, and ensure things are going according to
the specifications.
Alderman Tencza
If | may just, you know, to follow up on what Alderman Lopez was asking about just to give an example. In my
neighborhood Ward 8, there are issues all over the place with rainwater, storm water runoff especially one of the roads
that was just paved. | had reached out to the Director and to Ms. Byers and it was amazing how responsive they were.
believe Sunshine Paving was the company that had done the original paving of Vieckas Road in my neighborhood.
They came back, you know, put up some curbing which greatly reduce the water runoff for the neighbors. Came back,
you know, fill filled in, put down loam and seed and everything and it looks great and has alleviated the problem. So |
think that anybody who has issues, you know, should feel free to reach out to Public Works because you folks are - not
that we don't have great departments - but you folks are probably the most responsive in a lot of ways when there are
issues. So thank you.
Alderman Dowd
Yes | know the answer this, but it's just for the public. There are some streets that have been paved that were not out of
the city funding. For instance, on Charlotte Avenue on the safe routes to school was done by a grant. A lot of
improvements were made to Charlotte Avenue under that grant but it was not part of city funding. It took us five years to
get the funding but we finally got it. You guys did a great job at Charlotte Avenue. | assume there may be other areas of
city that roads have been done by a grant?
Dan Hudson, City Engineer
Yes. Earlier in the program, we got a federal paving grant so we did about $4 million of paving through that. But yeah,
there's a lot of projects going on, different grant funding. We try to coordinate efforts as we can, you know. If we have a
project going on such as Charlotte Ave. and that covers the area in front of school but the rest of the street needs to be
paid. We try to coordinate and tie in that together so that the whole area there can be done at once. | Know our Street
