Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutWeekly Newsletter Date: February 11, 2011 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: CN RAILROAD BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PLANS 1.On Tuesday, city staff met with : representatives of CN Railroad regarding the replacement of the railroad trestle over the Fox River from the end of Broad Street, over to Pioneer Drive. The Council received a copy of the details regarding CN's plans in last week's Newsletter, and I encourage Council Members to review that information as it ref lects CN's general plans for this bridge replacement. CN's time schedule for bridge replacement is as follows: In fall, 2011, the railroad will drill the new foundation. In the spring of 2012, the railroad will undertake utility replacement work. This will involve some relocation of water and/or sewer mains, as there are several crossings with the rail line in this area, particularly a 60" sewer main that runs into a sewer lift station on Broad Street on the west side of the tracks and goes under the Fo x River. The actual construction of the bridge will take place during the 2012 construction season. Final work and change-over of the bridge will be completed in the spring of 2013. Although this seems to be a very drawn out schedule, the railroad is required to go through many regulatory reviews and approvals before any of this work may begin. Any delay on the front end of this schedule (i.e., fall, 2011 construction), will delay the entire project if regulatory authorization is not given this spring. Toward that end, CN informed us that they needed all of the property issues worked out by the beginning of spring before they can submit the appropriate applications to the U. S. Coast Guard for its review. As a result, CN has requested that the city review and amend its ordinance from 1900 to permit CN to relocate the rail track within the Broad Street right-of-way. Although the track will be relocated within the right-of-way, none of the track will be placed in the current Broad Street pavement. Alt hough the track will be placed slightly to the east, the rail track will still remain behind the west curb line of Broad Street. CN will install a retaining wall a few feet behind the curb to have separation between Broad Street and the railroad track. The only impact on Broad Street itself may be some relocation of utility lines that would likely occur in early 2012. Other issues that CN will need to deal with include two boathouses down by the river, one of which is operated by the Winnebago County She riff's Department. Winnebago County Sheriff John Matz was present at the meeting and will be working with CN to relocate their boathouse in the near future. There are also some monitoring wells on the east side of the tracks that may need to be relocated with the new rail track. These issues will be worked out with the DNR during this process as well. Weekly Newsletter February 11, 2011 Page 2 As far as the review for the Council, the City Attorney has determined that the ordinance that was originally adopted in 1900 still applies to the city, and CN must acquire an amendment or new ordinance in order for them to continue operating in the Broad Street right-of-way, even though Broad Street itself will not be directly impacted. Based upon that infor mation, the tentative st schedule we have for review of CN's revised ordinance is as follows: On March 1, the Plan Commission will hold a public hearing and review the application. Properties on either side of the tracks from Ceape Avenue south over to Pioneer Drive will be noticed. No other properties will th be noticed as there will be no impact to utilities or streets north of Ceape Avenue. On March 8, we will hold a Council Workshop at 5:00 p.m., as Council had requested. Because this is an ordinance, there must be two readings prior to adoption. Therefore, the first reading of this th ordinance will be done at the March 8 Council Meeting. The second reading of the ordinance nd and consideration for adoption will take place on March 22. Although CN had hoped that this could be approved as soon as possible, t he best we can do in this scenario is to approve this nd ordinance on March 22. Although not directly related to the replacement of the bridge, we also brought up other issues going on between the city and CN that we requested their assistance in addressing. Specifically, we brought up the issue of the quiet zone that was being requested in the vicinity of Butler Avenue and CTH A. The CN representatives indicated that they had no problem with the request for the quiet zone, but pointed out that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) was the final authority on quiet zones. However, they indicated that they would support this request. As a courtesy to Mayor Esslinger, I also mentioned the Mayor's interest in relocating an antique engine from Green Bay to Oshkosh. The railroad was unaware of this request, and said that they would look into it. th Finally, we also discussed the impact of the rail relocation on the planned extension of 9 Avenue into the former Pioneer Inn site. CN saw some advantages to doing that relocation in conjunction with the rail line relocation. We will be working with CN on this as we make plans for the th eventual extension of 9 Avenue into this area. More of this info rmation can be discussed in th greater detail at the March 8 Workshop. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns th about any of these issues, please let me know about them in advance of the March 8 meeting so that we may provide CN with this information and they may have answers for us. TRAFFIC IMPACTS FOR PROPOSED PEDESTRIAN MALL ON ELMWOOD 2.: At this week's Council Meeting and Workshop, there was some discussion as to the potential traffic impacts of the proposed Elmwood Avenue pedestrian mal l on other streets near campus. th Transportation Director Chris Strong prepared an analysis for the January 18 Plan Commission meeting, which sought to look at these impacts. I am enclosing that analysis. In summary, it does not appear that the proposed pedestrian mall would have an impact on adjacent streets that would require immediate changes in parking regulations or traffic control. If you have any questions after reviewing this information, please contact Transportation Director Chris Strong. Weekly Newsletter February 11, 2011 Page 3 THIRD ANNUAL BUDGET SURVEY UNDERWAY 3.: This past week, I met with Professor Karl Nollenberger's Policy Analysis Class to discuss questions regarding the 2011 budget survey. This represents the third year that the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh MPA students are assisting us in this effort. As I've mentioned previously, one of the goals of the survey is to maintain consistent questions over the years so that we may track answers and identify areas of improvement based upon the survey. The survey will, once again, gage residents' opinions on importance and quality of various city services. They are also asked to prioritize services or programs that they would like to see increased or decreased based upon a hypo thetical situation. If the Council will recall, last year's "bonus" question had to do with dogs in parks. Based upon previous discussions and input from members of the Long Range Finance Committee, our "bonus" question this year will deal with the under grounding of utilities and the public's interest in undergrounding utilities based upon a given cost. While this cost is not set in stone, it will give us an indication about how much residents may be willing to pay for this type of improvement. th The su rvey will be mailed out the week of February 14 to approximately 1,500 Oshkosh th residents. The surveys will be due back to UW-Oshkosh by March 12, after which the students will tabulate and analyze the data. In addition, we will, once again, make the survey available on- line so that all city residents may participate in the survey as well. In order to provide students with a scientifically valid, academic experience, the 1,500 surveys will be tabulated separately from the on-line survey so that Council is aware of the different results. Our goal, once again, is to receive 400 of the responses so that we have a confidence level of 95% accuracy with the final results. Once the survey is completed, I will provide the results to Council. If you have an y questions about the survey, please do not hesitate to contact me. DRAFT GIFT POLICY 4.: Under separate cover, City Attorney Lorenson has provided the Council with a copy of the draft gift policy. The purpose of this policy is to give the public a good understanding of the circumstances under which the city will accept gifts and/or donations, as well as identify the procedures to be followed when making a gift to the city. This policy has been reviewed by city departments, particularly those that typicall y have offers of donations made to them. If you have any questions regarding the policy, please contact City Attorney Lynn Lorenson. We expect that this item will be on the Council's Agenda for discussion at the February nd 22 Council Meeting. Our goal is to give this to Council in advance so that you have time to get answers to any questions you may have. COMMUNITY-WIDE CIVILITY PROJECT 5.: As mentioned in last week's Newsletter, the "Oshkosh Civility Project" is an initiative to improve communication by reminding the community of the basic principals of respect that should guide interaction. The Civility Project will have its th formal kick-off on Thursday, February 24, at 7:30 a.m., at the Oshkosh Convention Center. All Council Members are invited for b reakfast and to hear from Dr. P. M. Forni of Johns Hopkins University as he talks about "Civility as a Community Strategy". This breakfast meeting is expected to last until 9:00 a.m. If you plan to attend this event, please call Jackie @ 236-5000 and let her know so that she can make the reservations. Weekly Newsletter February 11, 2011 Page 4 ATC POWER POLES ALONG RIVER 6.: Several Council Members asked me about an e-mail from a resident on Arboretum Drive who was asking for Council's intervention on an issue regarding American Transmission Company (ATC) and their plans to place new metal power poles along the riverfront as part of an upgrade project. By way of background, ATC is not required to get any permits from the city with respect to the relocation of these lines. ATC had made staff aware that this work was going to be undertaken, but in the context of how it was going to impact city right-of-way at intersections along the river. It appears as though the ATC project will involve acquiring a dditional easements from properties along the river to place these larger power poles and wider power lines that will extend beyond the current easements. ATC is required to have easements; however, if they are unable to acquire these easements voluntaril y, state law gives them the authority to acquire these easements through condemnation. We were not made aware of these problems until Council received their e-mail. Even with this knowledge, we lack any authority as ATC's use of these lines is governed b y state law, not local ordinance. It appears as though the resident in question was asking about burying these power lines, consistent with the recommendations of the visioning study. We have been told that transmission companies' experience with underground power lines is that the life of these lines is much less when they are buried underground, and they pose a much greater danger than other lines that may be buried. Therefore, the power companies are reluctant to incur these costs. Any effort to replace the power poles with underground lines would, by conservative estimates, run into the millions of dollars. Because we are just being made aware of the potential conflicts between ATC and the property owners, I cannot comment any further on this issue. Any intervention on the city's part would merely be of a political nature. However, if Council feels strongly enough that you would want us to intervene and invest in the cost of undergrounding these utilities, please advise me and I will place this on an Agenda for discussion by the Council. If you would like any additional information on this topic, please contact Public Works Director Dave Patek, and he will attempt to gain additional information from ATC officials. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 7.: Other items I'm enclosing with today's Newsletter include a notice from Fox Valley Technical College concerning their intent to appoint District Board Members. As you can see from the notice, a public hearing will be held on the rd matter on March 23. Insofar as minutes are concerned, I'm enclosing the minutes of the January th th 6 Museum Board meeting; the minutes of the January 10 Advisory Park Board meeting; the th th minutes of the January 18 Downtown BID Board meeting; and the minutes of the January 12 Landmarks Commission meeting. I am also enclosing the latest edition of The Wisconsin Taxpayer, published by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, which features an article on the role of school administrators. The next item I'm enclosing is the Annual Report of Trust Funds from Finance Director Peggy Steeno. If you have any questions relative to this document, please 2011 Guide to Single contact Finance Director Steeno. The final item I'm enclosing is the Stream Recyclingand Solid Waste for Residential Properties . Our crews will begin delivering th these pamphlets to every residence in the city beginning on Monday, February 14. Weekly Newsletter February 11, 2011 Page 5 th UPCOMING MEETINGS 8.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of February 14 include the th following: On Tuesday, February 15, at 7:30 a.m., I will be attending a meeting of a group of local employers that are loosely assembled as "Well City Oshkosh". This group of employers has been cooperating on a "Well City" initiative that is being undertaken in other communities, in which employers jointly promote wellness amongst their employees, and take these efforts to a larger level to promote community-wide wellness. The city is one of 20 employers in the community that are participating in this effort. At 12:00 noon on Tuesday, I am meeting with the YMCA Board of Directors to address them on general city issues. On Wednesday, at 1:00 p.m., Finance Director Steeno and I will be on a conference call with our financial advisor, Ehlers Associates, and representatives from Moody's Investor Service, to discuss the city's finances relative to the upcoming bond and note borrowings that the city is undertaking. On Thursday, th February 17, at 9:00 a.m., I will be meeting with Museum Director Brad Larson and AECOM Economics to discuss the Museum's economic impact study that they are undertaking for potential Museum expansion. The purpose of the study is to identify the economic impact of the Museum, and the potential economic benefit to the c ommunity should the Museum have any plans to th expand. Finally, on Friday, February 18, at 12:00 noon, I will be attending a meeting of the Chamco Board of Directors. If you have any questions regarding my attendance at any of these meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me. MAR/jdc