HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-10-23 Transcription Page 1
Item 2. Public Works Facility Phase I- Resolution awarding contract and
authorizing the Mayor to sign and the City Clerk to attest a contract for
construction of the Public Works Facility Phase I Project.
Throgmorton: Could I have a motion to approve please?
Mims: So moved.
Thomas: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Thomas. Discussion? Hi, Ron!
Knoche: Good morning. Ron Knoche, Public Works Director. Um, obviously,uh, we
took bids on Thursday for this project, uh,but to help,uh, Councilman Teague
understand kinda what our process is I thought we'd run through the presentation
that we did for the public hearing. Um, so this is for the Public Works facility,
phase one. Urn, as we....as you know, in 2016 we approved a master plan, went
through a master planning study for this,um, site,uh, down on south Gilbert
Street. Uh,this is, uh, a....a map of Iowa City, um, current layout of our
corporate boundaries and also our growth area. Uh, this slide shows, uh, our
growth in our community, uh, over the decades. Uh,the....the master plan for
this, uh, site was to pull together a major....a number of other facilities around the
community and have 'em co-located on one Public Works facility. Um,
obviously we have the Landfill to the west; uh,Big Ten Rental down off of
Highway 1 is a facility that we have,uh, rented for our public safety; urn,
Fairgrounds, we rent that facility,um....in the winter and that's where we store
that's where all of our snowplows are at in the winter, uh, at the Fairgrounds; ana
Napoleon is a site that we're looking at, uh, for the master plan. Uh, Riverside
Drive is our current Public Works facility, um, it's also where Transit is. Uh,
Gilbert Court we have our Water Distribution facility there. Urn, obviously Fire,
Police is down here at City Hall and then the Water Works,which is the water
plant to the north. Um, as a part of.....as a part of the....the study, we looked at,
uh,where our vehicles were stored at and the time and distance it takes to get
from those facilities,uh, to our...our Napoleon Street site. Um, as a part of that,
urn, as we look at co-locating and...and moving folks in, urn, we figure there's
about 1,600 hours of staff time saved by co-locating,uh, to our facility down on
Napoleon Street. About$68,000 roughly per year in....in operation costs. As a
part of,uh, the master planning for this site, uh, we did look at the South District
Plan. Um, obviously this site is bookended between Napoleon Park, which is the
softball facility, and Terry Trueblood Recreational Area. Uh, so the....the idea
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
special formal meeting of October 23, 2018.
Page 2
was, uh, to try to, urn, have....have pieces of the facility that would, urn, help
break down the scale along that Gilbert Street side, urn, and then also, urn, be able
to somewhat hide our back ends of our facility, urn, with....with the buildings that
we build. Urn, so the way that the project was split up was it was into basically
four phases and then there was a major future phase,urn, so we had,uh, the...the
Public Works, the.....we had, uh, the vehicle storage as phase one. Included, urn,
the (mumbled) so our phase one is....is the vehicle storage and the wash bays,
urn, some changes some warm storage space to use for, uh, for Public Safety, both
Fire and Police, and then also the construction of a fire training tower. Uh, our
phase two then is office space, added on to this building. Uh, at the time of the
master plan it was,uh, Refuse, Solid Waste was going to be in addition to this
building. Uh,phase three is the vehicle and transit maintenance building, uh,
equipment transit, and then also storage for transit, uh, facilities and then some
future, urn,build-out of Transit. So this site, uh, would co-locate Public Works,
our....our Transit and Parking, and then our Fire training facility. Uh, to get an
understanding of kind of the....the size of the site that we're lookin' at. Urn, this
is just showing Kinnick Stadium over....overlaid on the site that we have. So our
phase one of the project, uh, was designed by Neumann Monson. Uh, they had
a....a number of consultants that they were workin' with on the project to....to
bring this thing to fruition. Um, with this, we will be able to, uh,vacate our,uh,
lease that we have with the Fairgrounds. Urn, also be able to....to, uh, eliminate
our lease that we have with Big Ten Rentals. Urn, we will take the Gilbert Court
facility, Water Distribution, we'll move those down to this site and then we'll also
take Refuse, which is currently on the corner of the Riverside,urn, Highway 6
facility and move them to the Water Distribution building. So we're kind of
shifting folks around, and Traffic Engineering will also move off that corner. So
it'll open that corner for redevelopment. Um, our Equipment facility will still be
on that site,uh,but we would have some ability to do some redevelopment on that
corner. Uh, the project, urn, so we started the design of the project, urn, earlier
this year and....and this is kind of the layout as we work our way through. Urn,
with the ability to award today, we'll be able to start, uh, a little sooner, urn,
hopefully be able to beat the weather a little bit this winter and get our...at least
our foundations in, uh, line. Urn, as we were working through the project, uh, we
had some issues with budget, and so we worked through those,um, worked with
staff, urn, to....to really optimize the facility that we were...that we were looking
to bid. Urn,the....the thing that we weren't really certain of, obviously the....the
tariffs and some of the other....the outliers that we were gonna have, but with the
University and their moratorium,we weren't quite certain how that was gonna
affect the bid prices that we were gonna receive. So the project for the phase one
is, uh, a little bit smaller footprint than what....that what we showed earlier with
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
special formal meeting of October 23, 2018.
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our master plan. Uh, we have vehicle storage. The wash bay is....is now internal
to the building. Urn, Fire training tower stays the same, and then obviously the
work storage, cause those buildings already exist. Urn,what you'll notice is the
Refuse facility piece ended up bein' pulled out and that'll be in a future phase.
Uh, in a stand-alone building. Um, we will have the site security all the way
around the site, urn, add some security to the back end so the Animal Shelter, urn,
and then our back ends, and then also we'll do future grading for any of the, uh,
future build-outs for the Animal Shelter, and then also our future phases...of the
project. Uh, the alternates that we bid with this—alternate one was, uh, a 50-foot
extension to the building to the north, urn, that is the warm storage and vehicle
storage, and then the alternate two that we bid was a canopy for outdoor covered
storage along the west side of the building. Urn, alternate one is about 11,000-
square feet; alternate two adds about, I think it's like 3,000- square feet of...of
covered storage with the facility. (mumbled) So this is the, this will be the
ultimate master plan right now as far as revised concepts, urn, what we have here
is, uh, obviously alternate one, alternate two is shown on here. Then there's also,
uh, office space to the north, urn, the future Refuse, if they are co-located here,
then the....the Transit equipment facility stayed the same in the master plan. Uh,
as far as our site features,urn, obviously we are, um, going for LEED certification
on the project. Urn, you know we had the site features of bike racks, storm water
quality. Uh,we're obviously separatin' the sand and oil separator. Uh, the native
and diverse plantings of, uh, along the west and south sides of the facility. We
will have electrical vehicle, urn, charging stations here, uh, and then we'll have
spaces set aside for low-emitting and carpool parking spaces. We could use
daylight harvesting for the site, uh, with wall panels and skylights. Uh, we'll have
light reflective materials inside the building to help with those things,uh, and
then, uh, we'll have,uh, the (mumbled) vacancy, harvesting sensors within the...
the shop spaces themselves. Urn (mumbled) speed coil doors, so obviously it's a
big open box, so we'll have, urn, some different doors there to allow for vehicles
in and out and then be able to hold the heat within the building itself. Urn, and
then water efficiency, we'll have low-flow fixtures. One of the things we're
lookin' at, uh, was added with the project was, uh, pump test pits. Our Fire
Department,um, will able to basically reuse the water that they use for testing of
their pumpers and their equipment. Um, and then we have some, uh,usin' water
reclamation within the wash bays themselves. So the....this is the rendering from
the south Gilbert Street side of the building. Uh,there'll be landscaping that'll be
along there. Uh, you an see the(mumbled) of panels,uh, that are along the side
of the building. Urn....the, uh, west face,just wanna point out, the....this piece to
the north is the alternate one, so it's an additional 50-foot, and then the...space
along here is the covered storage. So, uh, that covered storage is about 13-feet
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
special formal meeting of October 23,2018.
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deep and it's about 12-foot tall. Uh, so we'd be able to off-load pallets, urn,be
able to store materials back in these areas. Our project,uh, at the time that we
went to,uh,bid, uh, was a$10.9 million project estimate. We had about$12
million that we were looking for overall total budget. Urn, I'll point out that that
did not include any contingency,uh, in that original budget. The,um,base bid for
the project if 74,250-square foot of storage, um, anticipated we'll have this project
completed in a little over a year, urn, silver certification for the LEED. Uh,
alternate one was estimated at 715,000. Alternate two was estimated at 270,000.
Urn, last Thursday we had nine bidders, uh, so it was a very good bidding climate
for us. Uh,we had, urn......our....our low bid, or our apparent low bid, was Merit
Construction. Uh, their base bid was $10,187,300. Urn, their alternate one bid
was $597,000, and then alternate two was $193,000. So the total base bid, uh,
was $10,978,700. Um, so we were roughly within I00...er, within$100,000
roughly of what our original construction budget was. Urn, was able to go
through.....wanted to add a contingency back in, so our overall, uh, project budget
right now would be about $12.8 million. That includes about a half million
dollars in contingency for us. Urn, the....the way the funding package is set up,
um, I think we'll....we would be able to move forward with, urn, alternate one
and alternate two on this project, so we would recommend then moving forward
with both alternates, and uh, move forward with Merit Construction.
Throgmorton: Ron, could you, or....and/or Dennis,talk a little bit about the financing? You
know, how we gonna pay for it....just explain that for us, please.
Fruin: Dennis, why don't you come up and walk through that.
Bockenstedt: Dennis Bockenstedt, Finance Director. Uh, we've really pulled the financing for
this,uh, project from a number of sources. Um, we've really been accumulating
funds from the...the various, uh, operations and funds that are gonna be used in
the facility,uh, those include,uh, six different funds. Uh, dollars are corning
from the Equipment fund, uh, a portion from the Water fund, Storm Water fund,
and, uh,those total about $6.9 million. Uh, we've also had a(mumbled) bond
issues. One for the Fire training center and,uh, also for the design of the facility,
and those total bond funds come to $2.3 million. Uh, there is a contingent piece
of funding, and that is, uh, $1 million for the future sale of the land. So, right now
that piece is just gonna be, uh, kind of I would say in limbo, uh, and hopefully
once the facility is built and the old facilities are demolished, uh,we'll realize that
$1 million from that sale and then, uh,to cover the additionally expanded
footprint and, uh, the cost,we are gonna use a$2.5 million internal loan. That'll
be repaid over 20 years at 3% interest, uh, with road use tax and general funds.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
special formal meeting of October 23, 2018.
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And so overall we managed to,uh,pull together this package over several years,
uh, from a variety of sources, and we're able to meet, uh,that$12.8 million
budget. Is there any questions about.....
Throgmorton: (several talking) ...would wanna follow up on that particular question.
Cole: Uh, I have a question. Hey, Dennis, was any consideration given to the savings of
a solar installation over the course(mumbled)third-party purchase agreements
explored at all in this project?
Bockenstedt: Uh, we did not explore third-party, uh,purchase agreements. I'm not sure what,
uh,Neumann Monson looked at as far as, uh, in the solar or other,uh,potential,
uh, green energy options. Um, and I believe that's not currently in this,uh,
package. Uh, so the construction costs for that,uh, is not incorporated into this,
uh, and so what any potential savings or funding options have....have really not
been included in this budget at this point.
Throgmorton: But, Ron, the building,the main building, is designed to accommodate PV panels,
is it not?
Knoche: That is correct. So the....the structure for the roof has the capacity to hold solar
panels and one of the....one of the projects that we're to bring forward with this
next,uh, CIP process would be a solar,uh,project for the facility. Uh,Neumann
Monson has done some, urn,preliminary, very preliminary, looks into the solar
side of things and....and as we dive into that a little bit deeper we'll have a better
understanding of....of what options we really have with the solar side of....on this
building. Um,but...but the, you know,the operating costs or the operating
savings would be an operating budget(mumbled)be in the capital side of this
project.
Fruin: So just a....just to be clear on that(several talking in background) we do plan to
present that to you in your CIP this...this January, so you'll see that project in
there. Uh, and that would probably be paid for with an additional GO bond.
Salih: Yeah, can you just tell me how much is (unable to understand) fund and the loan,
and the (unable to understand) internal loan from where exactly?
Bockenstedt: Uh, the internal loan is $2.5 million(both talking)
Salih: 2.5....
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
special formal meeting of October 23,2018.
Page 6
Bockenstedt: ...split that 60/40 between the road use tax fund and the general fund as far as
repayment, uh, of that loan, and that'd be over 20 years and we've utilized that for
other, uh, large facilities that the City's constructed, versus trying to go out in the
bond market or do some other means of financing. Urn, it allows our internal
funds to, uh, achieve maybe a better rate of return they would in the investing
market and at the same time borrowing the money at a lower rate than we would
from an external market.
Salih: Yeah. Okay, and you said (unable to understand)
Bockenstedt: Uh,the road use tax fund. And....and, uh, those funds, particularly the road use
tax fund (mumbled) achieve some savings from some of the things Ron talked
about, uh, so some of the lease, uh, leased facilities,uh, and also the Police and
Fire were leasing facilities and so there's some savings, uh, that we'll achieve
through....from not leasing facilities, that will help offset the cost of payments.
Salih: And how much the bond?
Bockenstedt: Well, it's an internal loan. It'll be $2.5 million.
Salih: No,that's for the internal loan (both talking) Is there is any like, uh, what was it,
Geoff?
Fruin: What have we issued so far with GO bonds?
Bockenstedt: Oh! I'm sorry, we've issued$2.3 million, um, and that's been over a series of
years. So that's....that's not just been all at one time, and uh, 700,000 was issued
for the Fire training center and that was several years ago. Um, we issued, uh,
actually$350,000 a number of years ago. It was from the master plan and we still
had some funds bein', uh, held over from that, and then we issued 700,000 for the
design of the facility a couple of years ago. Uh, and that was....that's the 1.7.
Then we additional, uh, another....or 1.6, and then we issued an additional
700,000, uh, this past year for the construction portion. So it's been a series of
three or four issues over, you know, like four-year period that have accumulated,
but the total is $2.3 million in....in GO bonds over that period of time.
Salih: (mumbled) Okay.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
special formal meeting of October 23, 2018.
Page 7
Fruin: And then again you might, in the CIP, you might see another,um,up to 700,000,
uh, related to this project, primarily to pay for, uh, solar,but we could also
work...work some additional GO bonds into the....into the funding itself, and then
we need to work out, uh...uh, a little bit more on our end. So I....I think when it's
all said and done you're probably lookin' at close to $3 million in GO bonds, uh,
which is pretty remarkable, at least from where I sit,when you're gettin' a....a
facility of nearly$13 million. Just shows how long it's taken to accumulate the
reserves in some of those other funds to help bring this project to reality.
Throgmorton: Ron, could you say a little bit about the improved working conditions for our
employees that will result from this project?
Knoche: Yeah, so the...the, you know,right now, urn, and especially during the winter
maintenance side of things, our....our folks have to show up off site to a facility
that you basically can....have to squeeze between the trucks to be able to....to get
in the trucks and pull them out, uh, during the winter maintenance. Um, so you
know the....the facilities that....that are there are very tight, um, and you know
any type of maintenance that you're doin' as far as, urn, replacing blades and
doing some of those things, you're doing those things outside. You're not doing
them, uh, in a warm facility. So,um, this would allow folks to be able to,urn,
you know, in the winter maintenance fight of things, um, be able to get to their...
maintain their vehicles in a manner,urn, that...that is more modem times,uh,
versus,uh, the old times. Um,but uh, the other side of it is, urn, you know, in the
morning when our folks are goin' out now, um, they're havin' to warm up trucks,
they're having to do things to.....to, you know, from a maintenance standpoint,
uh,they would be able to basically get in their truck and drive out, and....and to
to work, uh, versus havin' to let vehicles warm up, uh, having equipment warm
up, um, and uh, there's efficiencies there. Um, you know,this facility, um, you
know, we're workin' out of buildings that are in the 60s on this site currently, um,
vintage and even the facilities that we're working out of in other places in town
are that same vintage, so they're, um, getting to the end of their useful life as far
as, uh, you know, being able to use them as....as public facilities.
Throgmorton: Great,thanks! Any further questions for Ron or Dennis?
Mims: I don't have any questions. I would just want to comment and....congratulate the
staff on the long, hard work that you've done to get this thing designed and more
importantly to pull the financing together. Um, I think, you know,prior to Dennis
we had a great Finance Director and Dennis has....has certainly,uh, continued
and/or exceeded that, and I...I don't think, if you don't typically understand the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
special formal meeting of October 23, 2018.
Page 8
details of...of municipal fmance and the limitations on things we can do, I don't
think you realize how hard it is to pull together almost $13 million for a project
like this and that's where I think staff has just done an outstanding job over a
number of years to figure out ways to accumulate reserves, you know,how to use
GO bonds within the limits for various pieces of the project, urn, this is....this is a
huge,huge project for the City and obviously the next really big one related to
this is Transit and, um, I expect that staff will be just as (laughs) creative in trying
to find the money for that one as well, so....thank you very much to staff!
Throgmorton: Any other questions for Dennis or Ron? Thank you! Any Council discussion?
Glad to see us moving ahead on this. I think it's a much needed project. Many of
us have had an opportunity to visit some of the existing facilities and they are in
pretty bad shape, especially from the point of view of anybody who has to work in
those facilities. So I'm pleased we can do this. Great job, Dennis! Great job,
Ron! No further discussion? Roll call please. Motion carries 7-0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
special formal meeting of October 23,2018.