DRAFT

HIGHWAY COMMITTEE

August 4, 2011

A meeting of the Highway Committee of the DeKalb County Board was held on Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 6:00pm in the Conference Room of the DeKalb County Highway Department, DeKalb, Illinois.  

Chairman Gudmunson called the meeting to order at 6:05pm.  Committee members present were Vice-Chair Augsburger, Mr. Brown, Mr. Cribben and Mr. Deverell.   Others present were County Board member Ken Andersen, Nathan Schwartz, County Engineer and Wayne Davey, Support Services Manager from the Highway Department.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

Motion made by Vice-Chair Augsburger and seconded by Mr. Deverell to approve the minutes of the regular June 2, 2011 meeting and the special June 15, 2011 meeting.  The motion to approve both sets of minutes as presented carried unanimously. 

APPROVAL OF AGENDA:

Motion made by Vice-Chair Augsburger and seconded by Mr. Cribben to approve the agenda as presented.    The motion to approve the agenda as presented carried unanimously. 

PUBLIC COMMENT:   There was no public comment. 

RESOLUTION #R2011-52 , COLLECTIVE BARGAINING WITH INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, LOCAL 150:

Mr. Davey explained to the Committee that Ms. Jill OBrien had completed successful negotiations with the Operating Engineers 150 for the Highway Department and complied with the Committee’s direction given her during our June Committee Meeting. The Tentative Agreement included a couple of house keeping measures changing the word “division” to “classification” in the Overtime Distribution Section 4.5 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).  It also updated the Drug and Alcohol Policy of paragraph 2.D.2 to reflect current changes in the law.  The County operates under the “Paid Hours Off” system instead of Vacation, Sick Leave, and Personal days off and that Title was corrected to read as such in Article IX of the CBA.  Holiday pay was expanded to include actual holidays and day’s holidays are celebrated by the County.  The Union agreed to withdraw the pending grievance related to the holiday pay dispute that was scheduled for arbitration and all covered employees will receive a $250.00 signing bonus upon the execution of this agreement.  The cost to the County for this agreement will be a one time cost of approximately $3,500 for the signing bonus and an additional $1060.00 for the additional holiday pay for hours work on December 25, 2010.  The Committee asked for clarification concerning the signing bonus and would that have any affect on increases in salary going forward.  They were informed it would not.  Information/clarification was provided as to what actually was a “Paid Hours Off” system.  The Highway Department does recommend this Agreement be forwarded to the full County Board recommending approval.  A motion was made by Vice-Chair Augsburger and seconded by Mr. Cribben to forward this resolution to the full County Board recommending approval.  The motion carried unanimously. 

CHAIRMAN’S COMMENTS:  Chairman Gudmunson commented on the crack fill and routing project that was being done within the County.  He stated it looked like they were doing a good job and noted the fog seal project on Peace Road was completed.  Mr. Schwartz answered questions concerning the crack filling process and stated this was the first time the County had contracted this service out.  The completed project will show the County was over on the footage for cracks that were filled and routed but the total mileage done will be less.  This result was brought about by having more cracks per mile than the County estimated.  If projects of this sort are contracted in the future the County will be in a better position to provide a more accurate estimate going forward.  Mr. Schwartz explained the process of routing and filling crack and how that was relevant to preserving the road.

COUNTY ENGINEER’S COMMENTS: 

Mr. Schwartz presented an update to the Committee on the County wide Seal Coat program for this year.  As the Committee may or may not have been aware of, the Contractor who was awarded the County’s $1.02 million contract for this year was suspended by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) on June 8, 2011 for a period of 120 days for labor related issues.   Our contract has a must complete date by September 15, 2011 in it, as seal coating needs to be done in the hottest weather possible for a good application and bonding effect.  Because the County had already awarded our contract we were directed by IDOT to wait further direction from them before canceling our current contract and proceeding to the next lowest bidder.  In a move to encourage IDOT to make a decision sooner rather than later Mr. Schwartz contacted IDOT in Ottawa and Springfield explaining to them why DeKalb County does seal coat projects, what the benefits are by completing these projects, the safety factors that will surface by not completing these projects and the short time frame Counties have to complete such projects.  After reviewing Mr. Schwartz’s comments the General Council for IDOT was supposed to meet concerning DeKalb County by the end of the week of August 5^th.  Tonight is the 4^th and we are still waiting for a decision.  Mr. Schwartz explained he is confident that the County and Road Districts will not get all of their scheduled seal coating done this year.  He is hopeful that a favorable decision can be made and our contractor will be allowed to move forward soon.  The second lowest bidder for this contract had a completion date in Ogle County of August 1, 2011.  That contractor is not even scheduled to start in Ogle County until the week of August 8^th – eight days after his contract was to be completed.  It would appear that our second low bidder will not be taking on much additional work – at least not in a timely fashion that would allow for our County to complete our project.  The County is holding a $50,000 bid check from the contractor but because IDOT was the one preventing the contractor from doing his work Mr. Schwartz feels that check is non-negotiable.  More on this issue as things develop.

Mr. Schwartz presented his Transportation Improvement Progress Report for the month of July to the Committee. The projects listed were discussed in detail.  The highlights of this discussion were the East County Line Road project to upgrade this road from Illinois Route 64 south to the UP Railroad crossing in Maple Park to an 80,000 pound truck route will be pushed back a year.  After consulting with IDOT and Kane County everyone is in agreement with this rescheduling.  Kane County is the lead agency in the replacement of a bridge in this section during 2013.  By postponing this project we should eliminate upgrading the road to a truck route then closing the road the year after for the bridge replacement.  There has been no movement on the Keslinger Road Bridge in the litigation process, but the County has applied for Federal Bridge funds and scheduled this replacement for 2014.  Mr. Schwartz realizes this is still a ways off and is optimistic that a litigation settlement can be reached prior to then and the bridge completed.  The Old State Road Bridge project is underway and stands at 30% complete.  The current stage is the pouring of the caps which the bridge deck will rest on and hopefully the contractor will remain on schedule and the road will be open before harvest begins.  Coltonville Road Bridge is still moving through the design and land acquisition phase and has been approved for Federal Major Bridge Funds.  Five Points Road Bridge is also pending Federal funding and is scheduled to move forward during 2013.   Our Perry Road resurface project from Illinois Route 23 to Waterman Road has been completed as well as our Glidden Road resurface project from Illinois Route 64 to Dresser Road.  The DeKalb Road District Gurler Road Bridge project is underway and stands at 26% completed.  Baseline Road Bridge and the East County Line Road Bridge mentioned above are also going to be built with Federal Funds as well as our Peace Road and Malta Road resurface projects.  Mr. Schwartz stated he is working on lots of projects that are not on this list and has been extremely busy looking at our roads and putting projects in priority to move them forward.

During discussion on obtaining right-of-way on Somonauk Road from I-88 to Perry Road Mr. Andersen had a question concerning the right-of-way from Illinois Route 38 to the Landfill.  He was under the impression that the Landfill, as part of DeKalb County’s approval for expansion, was to improve the shoulders on this part of the road.  Mr. Schwartz explained he had met with the Landfill personnel.  They understand that the agreement was for them to improve the shoulders.  However, in order to do this improvement it will require additional right-of-way.  If the Landfill can not reach an agreement with the landowners for additional right-of-way there would be little the Landfill could do to improve the shoulders.  Due to the regulations that must be followed for the Landfill to expand, increased truck traffic to this location is several years away even if/after final approval is given for the expansion.

Mr. Brown inquired if the Keslinger Road Bridge would move forward for Federal/State/County funding or litigation funding.  Mr. Schwartz indicated that as of now this project will move forward on dual tracks and hopefully one will not interfere with the other.  Our main goal is to get this bridge built and the road open.  It has been closed for far too long and if the County can obtain the right amount of Federal/State/County funds for this project the Road District will only have a small share to come up with.  Mr. Brown stated he was amazed at the amount of Federal Funds

going into County projects.  Mr. Schwartz stated that was something Bill Lorence started long ago and he intends to continue this practice.  Counties receive a certain amount of Federal funding each year to put towards eligible projects.  DeKalb County has always had projects on the shelf in case other Counties could not or choose not to submit a Federal project for approval.  DeKalb County could use those funds with IDOT approval.  In essence, the County is using future monies now.  There may come a time if other Counties have projects as well, ours might get pushed back a year or so to catch up with the funding allocations.  If history is any prediction of the future, this may not be a large problem or a road block to the Federal funding of our projects.  We will continue this practice as long as it continues to produce positive results for the County.  Some funding streams from the Federal Government have time limits that these funds need to be spent.  IDOT continues to look for ways to ensure all Federal funds allocated to the State of Illinois are spent and DeKalb County is eager to assist in this area. 

Mr. Cribben inquired about our Fog Seal Project.  Mr. Schwartz explained this process is similar to a seal coat project but you would use less oil and no chips.  The oil is mixed with a sand product to provide a bit of traction and the oil needs to cure for around two hours before traffic can drive on it.  It is used to seal a road to keep water from penetrating to the base and it helps with oxidation.  This will slow the deterioration of Peace Road until funding can be obtained to resurface it from Pleasant Street to Wirsing Boulevard.   

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:   None

 ADJOURNMENT:

Chair Gudmunson asked for a motion to adjourn and a motion was made by Vice-Chair Augsburger and seconded by Mr. Cribben to adjourn.  The motion passed unanimously and the August 4, 2011 meeting was adjourned at 7:28pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

John Gudmunson

Chairperson