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HomeMy WebLinkAboutweekly newsletter Date: May 10, 2013 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: AUTHORIZED DIAL-A-RIDE SERVICE 1.: In the event that Council Members may have received complaints, I wanted to make you aware of a s ituation regarding our Dial-A-Ride paratransit service. As the Council is aware, the city has used City Cab for many years to provide our paratransit service. City Cab has been the only Oshkosh-based taxi service for a number of years. Recently, a compa ny known as Atlas Taxi has been authorized to begin providing taxi service within the City of Oshkosh. Among the advertising that Atlas Taxi has done is to say that they accept Dial-A-Ride. Apparently, what Atlas Taxi is doing is identifying people who may be paratransit passengers and offering them rides at the same price that residents are charged when they call for paratransit service from City Cab. This is commonly known in the taxi business world as “jumping on calls”. Atlas Taxi is not authorized as a Dial-A-Ride provider, and I have asked staff to contact Atlas Taxi to advise them that while such a service may not specifically be illegal, it is misleading to paratransit customers that Atlas is somehow representing themselves as a Dial-A-Ride provider. City Cab has indicated that their business has been down in the past year, and has cited these misleading statements from Atlas Taxi as being a reason for this reduction. It should be noted that in the past year, the city has instituted a new regula tion for Dial-A-Ride in which there is a convenience fee attached to any riders who do not make a paratransit request within a certain period of time. This convenience fee was added on to encourage people to better plan their trips and direct residents to regular transit service. Staff believes that the reduction in City Cab’s calls may be more a function of the convenience fee rather than Atlas Taxi jumping on City Cab’s calls. We will continue to monitor this situation, but wanted Council to be aware that this is an issue that you may hear about at some point in the future. If you have any questions regarding this situation, please contact Transportation Director Chris Strong. QUIET ZONE UPDATE 2.: I wanted to provide an update on recent progress for th e proposed new railroad “quiet zone” toward the northern end of the city. After recent repairs were completed at one crossing site, all three locations (Snell Road, Butler Avenue and County Highway Y) are likely compliant with the Federal Railroad Adminis tration (FRA) requirements. This is expected to be confirmed in the next few weeks. We are concurrently working with the Town of Oshkosh and Winnebago County on preparing a Notice of Establishment, which will be the official communication to the railroads that their horns must stop in accordance with FRA rules. We are aware that the process for establishing this quiet zone has taken a long time, and that the amount of time has been a source of frustration for citizens in the area. We’re hopeful that thi s can be resolved in the near future. If you have any questions concerning this matter, please feel free to contact Transportation Director Chris Strong. Weekly Newsletter May 10, 2013 Page 2 ALLERTON DRIVE RAILROAD UPDATE 3.: Community Development Direc tor Davis, Assistant Public Works Director Gohde and I met with representatives of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad this week to continue our discussions regarding the location of a rail loading area behind residential lots backing up to Allerton Drive. The purpose of the meeting was not only to discuss the Allerton Drive situation, but also other rail access issues that exist in the Southwest Industrial Park. Representatives from Oshkosh Corporation were also present; however, their role was limited due to the fact that there were many issues beyond Oshkosh Corporation’s vehicles being loaded on Allerton Drive. Wisconsin & Southern reasserted its authority to load rail cars at this site, which has been a rail line for over 100 years. They also cited the significant investment they had made in the rail loading facility that they installed behind Allerton Drive. Although I believe that the city may have some arguments to the contrary, these arguments have not been tested, and I did not want to have these arguments get in the way of a solution at this site. Instead, we focused on trying to accommodate Wisconsin & Southern to make a move in the long term. We identified several locations west of Oakwood Road that could potentially be used for a loading area. There are a great deal of logistical problems associated with each site, so choosing the best possible site will take additional surveying and research. Wisconsin & Southern agreed to perform some survey work to pursue the feasibility of at least one of these options. Once the survey work is complete and cost estimates have been prepared, Wisconsin & Southern will contact us to follow up on what can be done to construct a permanent solution. Wisconsin & Southern indicated that it would expect the city to financially assist in this relocation due to their previous investment in the Allerton Drive facility, but at the same time, made no promise that they would agree to move. The primary reason for this hesitancy is that they want to make sure that any mo ve that they make is feasible for the long term needs of the railroad. They also indicated that even though the loading facility may be moved, the railroad would continue to use the area behind Allerton Drive to back up rail cars as they are loading near the end of the line. This has been done over the years since the Southwest Industrial Park was developed, and that is the reason that this rail line has continued to exist so close to USH 41 all these years. Meanwhile, we discussed short term options to address the current noise complaints. Without getting into issues such as the noise ordinance, which the railroad believes it is exempt from due to federal interstate commerce laws, we asked them to take a look at their operational hours to see if they could adjust their schedules accordingly. Oshkosh Corporation has indicated that it will only be operating between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. The railroad indicated that it would look to reschedule its employees so that they do not show up on site until 5:00 a.m. By federal railroad regulations, the railroad can only work on a site for 12 hours, so this would mean that they would be done by 5:00 p.m. While they could not commit to a 5:00 a.m. start each and every day, they indicated that this could be their regular schedule for the foreseeable future. A 5:00 a.m. start time also involves set up and preparation before trucks are being loaded, so it could delay the actual loading of cars until Oshkosh Corporation employees show up at 7:00 a.m. While this is n ot an ideal situation for the neighbors, it does potentially eliminate the complaints that we have received regarding late night loading between 12:00 midnight and 5:00 a.m. The railroad reiterated that they cannot promise that its schedule would always b egin at 5:00 a.m., but this gesture certainly indicates that the railroad is interested in working with the city, Oshkosh Corporation, and the neighbors to alleviate their concerns. I will prepare some correspondence for the neighbors so that they are aware of what has been going on. Meanwhile, if you have any questions regarding the status of this situation, please do not hesitate to contact me. Weekly Newsletter May 10, 2013 Page 3 USH 41 RIBBON CUTTING 4.: The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is planning to have a ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, at 1:00 p.m., on the USH 41 northbound main span bridge over USH 41. The Oshkosh West Side Association is working with the DOT’s Communications Manager and their Office of Public Affa irs to plan this event. This is a celebration for the entire USH 41 in Winnebago County work. The DOT is also having a ribbon cutting on the freeway itself before the USH 41 northbound traffic is switched onto the new roadway. The traffic switch contrac tors will need to complete the crossover areas by late July. The DOT is also planning a ribbon cutting event in late October for the trail portion of the project across Lake Butte des Morts. I will keep you apprised of all of the USH 41 events planned by the DOT as they approach. If you have any questions, please contact me. MULTIPLE VACANCIES ON BOARDS & COMMISSIONS 5.: My Administrative Assistant has informed me that the city has an increasing number of vacancies on its boards and commissions. Despit e our ongoing recruitment efforts on City Cable 10, the applications for vacancies on boards and commissions are just not coming in as quickly as the vacancies are occurring. While some boards and commissions are fully staffed and regularly receive applications, there are other boards and commissions that struggle to fill vacancies. The application process for boards and commissions is open and ongoing, but we do not always fill a position from a list of applications on file. We typically bring these vac ancies to the attention of the Mayor, at which time he identifies somebody out in the community who may be interested in serving, but has not previously applied. While some boards and commissions do have applicants for open seats, there remain a number of vacant seats for which we have no applicants. Please find enclosed a summary from Jackie that identifies these vacancies. If you are aware of anyone interested in serving on any of these boards and commissions, please have them get an application from my office or off the city’s website, and turn it in as soon as possible. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 6.: Other items I’m enclosing with today’s Newsletter include an After Action Review from the Oshkosh Police Department of the Spring, 2013 Pub Crawl, whi ch took place on April 13, 2013. Any questions on this report should be directed to Police Special Operations Officer Matt Harris. I am also enclosing two publications from the Wisconsin Taxpayer Alliance, the first being the FOCUS newsletter, which features an article on Wisconsin’s income tax. The second publication is The Wisconsin Taxpayer, which features an article on state aid cuts, tax limits, and local government finances. Insofar as minutes th are concerned, I’m enclosing the following: The minut es of the March 13 Board of Appeals th meeting; and the meeting notice, agenda and background material for the May 14 Traffic Review Advisory Board meeting. The last item I’m enclosing is a report from Principal Planner Robin Leslie on neighborhood stabilizing and strengthening activities in the city since 2011. th UPCOMING MEETINGS 7.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of May 13 include the th following: On Monday, May 13, at 7:30 a.m., I will be attending the Chamber Governmental Affairs Committee meeting. At 9:00 a.m. on Monday, I am meeting with Mayor Tower to go over th Tuesday’s Council Agenda. On Wednesday, May 15, at 7:30 a.m., I am attending the Economic Development Marketing Group meeting to discuss the recently completed cluster analysis. Please th note that I will also be out of the office on Thursday, May 16. If you have any questions regarding my upcoming schedule, please do not hesitate to contact me. MAR/jdc Enclosures