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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/22/2008 COW minutes COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MINUTES January 22, 2008 I. CAll TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:08 p.m. in the Village Board Room of Village Hall, 50 South Emerson Street, by Mayor Pro Tem Richard Lohrstorfer. Present at the meeting were: Trustees Paul Hoefert, Arlene Juracek, John Korn and Mike Zade!. Staff present was Village Manager Michael Janonis, Assistant Manager David Strahl, Finance Director David Erb, Public Works Director Glen Andler, Fire Chief Mike Figolah, Fire Marshall Paul Valentine, Administrative Analyst Christina Park, Police Chief John Dahlberg, and Jake Davis from SRBL Architects. II. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES Approval of Minutes of September 25,2007. Minutes were deferred since there were not enough Trustees present at this meeting that were not absent on September 25. Minutes from November 13, 2007 motion made by Trustee Hoefert and seconded by Trustee Juracek. Minutes were approved. Trustee Korn abstained. III. CITIZENS TO BE HEARD None IV. VillAGE-WIDE FACILITIES STUDY PHASE I Fire Chief Figolah provided a summary of the facilities study document. He stated the study included Station 14, the Emergency Operations Center of EOC, and the Public Works expansion to facilitate the fire vehicle maintenance phase. He stated there is a need to address the response times in the area bounded by Rand, Route 83 and Camp McDonald Road in addition to addressing the condition of the Station which was constructed as a temporary Station in the early 1960's. He also stated the Village has recently entered into a automatic aid agreement with Prospect Heights for primary response to the area in question which should reduce the response times in that area for services. He added the railroad track has a negative impact on response times in that area based on the location of the Station. He also stated there is a limited amount of land available for a possible Station. He noted the most likely site is the area immediately west of the existing Station, but because it is River Trails Park District property there is a need to facilitate a replacement location for the ball field that would be disrupted with the Station construction. Jake Davis of SRBL Architects spoke. He reviewed the space requirements for each department in each particular building in the opinions for renovations or new construction of each space. He provided and overview of the Space Study process and a summary of the existing Station. He stated the current Station is approximately 5100 square feet with the maintenance bays and would propose a new Station of approximately 20,000 square feet with the maintenance space consolidated at Public Works. He said there is an obvious need for training space and storage areas in the new station. He also highlighted the purpose of the EOC and the vehicle maintenance expansion of Public Works. He added as an Architect they have provided high and low ranges depending on different finishes and quality type of materials used. He estimated construction costs for Fire Station 14 to be $5.2-$5.7 million with a total cost of the Station estimated between $7.2- $8.1 million with LEEDS certification construction costs estimated between $275,000-$360,000. The estimated cost for the Public Works expansion construction costs of $1.2 -$1.5 million of the total cost of $1.7-$2.1 million with LEED certification construction costs estimated at between $75,000 and $125,000. The EOC construction costs is estimated between $1.1 million-$1.5 million with the total cost of $1.7-$2 million estimate with LEED certification additional costs of between $70,000 and $100,000. He also provided an overview of LEED certification and Green Building ratings. The estimated total project cost of approximately $12.4 million with LEEDS certification costing an additional $585,000. Ann Smilanic, member of Finance Commission spoke. She inquired of the Village Board regarding the process for the land transfer and whether the lease would be structured as such or would be a land sale. Sharon Wisnewski- Tano Lane spoke. She required why the Village Board does not use Eminent Domain to obtain new property for the Fire Station. Bill Wallace-2007 Hopi Lane spoke. He inquired as to how many stories and what the foot print of the building would be and whether any of the out buildings would remain. Finance Director David Erb spoke. He provided an overview of the Phase I project funding and the total costs of approximately $13 million and the projected use of some Fund Balance if Fund Balance were available for the project of approximately $1.2 million. He requested Village Board authorization to hire a Financial Advisor to assist in the debt processing and to review the Village's bond rating in an attempt to improve on the Village's bond rating prior to bond sale for this project. Mel Halich-927 Quince Lane spoke. He stated he is interested in the LEEDS program but has concerns about decision points to determine what LEEDS level and expense the Village could afford. Ann Smilanic-409 Can Dota Lane spoke. She stated she is concerned about the price of the project and its substantial increase from the initial estimates especially in lieu of the current economic conditions. Bill Wallace-2007 Hopi Lane spoke again. He asks if there will there be a review process that will include a possibility for a smaller square footage footprint. Fire Chief Figolah stated there is a need to finalize the site with the various taxing bodies and there will be Public meetings scheduled to discuss the site location. There is 2 also a need to authorize the hiring of an Architect to assist in the need to obtain a construction manager for the project. Such assistance would cost approximately $5000. Consensus of the Village Board was to authorize staff to engage the existing Architect for assistance in selecting a construction manager for this project. Consensus of the Village Board was also to authorize the assistance of a Financial Advisor to review the Village's bond rating in an effort to obtain an improved bond rating prior to bond sale for this project. V. AUGUST 23 STORM DAMAGE AFTER ACTION REPORT Fire Chief Figolah provided an overview of the after action report and summarized the items that went well and what items could be improved for future Village responses. He provided an overview of the various departmental responses and the evaluation process included outside agencies, departmental recommendations, and all employees surveyed in addition to public input. He said one general theme was to improve internal communications among the employees not participating in the EOC operations. He also stated there were issues with utilizing the Village Hall as a shelter and the extended loss of power and impact on operations at the Village Hall. He stated an initial generator failure at the Village Hall created additional challenges at the Village Hall which were unanticipated. Among the external communication issues were the loss of phones, TV's, computers and internet and it was determined there is a need to have a low-tech method of communication with the general public. Some operations in the EOC required the use of paper documents that were adequate, but the lack of computers in the EOC created additional and unnecessary challenges. He added there were issues with access to supplies that were affected by power loss at the Village Hall and the access to the Village Hall was limited due to the extended power outage. He also stated one of the issues that were evident was the need for coordinated damage assessment efforts by all departments so there is no duplication. He noted the EOC staff was slow to arrive and once the room was set up there were access to files issues and the need for additional memorandums of understanding with other agencies for assistance. Generally, public comments were of high praise for the Village effort. The majority of criticism was consistent with the known lack of information and extent of the impact on the residents. He also stated the FEMA response will be added to the report once it is obtained. He noted the two areas that will be addressed by staff include the disaster response and the mitigation/recovery effort and the coordination of Village Hall sheltering. He stated he is recommending the creation of a multi-disciplinary damage assessment team. He suggested there be a back-up file system outside the Village Hall that would allow access for Village Hall employees. He further is recommending employee communication improvement including a phone tree, employee information phone line, employee access number into the EOC, wallet cards for employees with back up phone numbers and information work sheets to all employees working the EOC during large scale emergencies. He stated there were inefficiencies relating to taking over dispatching from NWCD which will need to be addressed prior to the next response. He mentioned some employees felt they were not utilized or did not have a role in the response and there was a need for additional assistance early on in the EOC operations. There was a need to set up additional information exchanged between the EOC and Forestry Division. He stated there will be a need to revise the Village Hall sheltering and communication needs. He also stated there is a need to make the Village 3 Hall self-sufficient during the storm event and improve communications to the residents with low-tech opportunities at public buildings. Projected costs for these suggested improvements include: · Additional communication equipment for Village Hall at approximately $13,000. · A safe for Finance to use during emergencies $2000 · Three large magnetic map boards $4000 · Emergency supplies and equipment $5000 · Employee emergency identification and calling cards $550 · Seven emergency generators for sanitary relief sewers $350,000 He is suggesting the Village use some of the FEMA reimbursement funds for these items once the money becomes available. He also stated staff will be implementing a number of these improvements based on this review and staff will make additional efforts to communicate to residents of the need for them to be prepared to sustain themselves independently for the first seventy-two hours after a storm. There was general discussion among the Village Board members which included the following items: . It was suggested employees be separated in Teams A & B with back up jobs and drills at least once per year so there is always an on call Team. · It was also suggested additional CERT Team members be recruited. All Trustees did commend the Village staff on the outstanding job in cooperation during the event. VI. ANY OTHER BUSINESS None VII. ADJOURNAMENT Meeting adjourned at 10:31 p.m. - .)~~ c;;;;;-L {{J DAVID STRAHL Assistant Village Manager 4