DRAFT

HIGHWAY COMMITTEE

November 3, 2011

A meeting of the Highway Committee of the DeKalb County Board was held on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 6:00pm in the Conference Room of the DeKalb County Highway Department, DeKalb, Illinois.  

Chairman Gudmunson called the meeting to order at 6:00pm.  Committee members present were Vice-Chair Augsburger, Mr. Brown, Mr. Cribben, Mr. Deverell and Mr. Foster.   Others present were Mr. Nathan Schwartz, County Engineer, Wayne Davey, Support Services Manager and Jim Quinn, Operations Manager from the Highway Department, Mr. Tom Zucker, Executive Director, TransVac, Mr. Greg Millburg, Farm Bureau and Mr. Charles Cole, Crawford, Murphy & Tilly, Inc.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

Motion made by Vice Chairman Augsburger and seconded by Mr. Foster to approve the minutes of the regular October 6, 2011 meeting.  The motion to approve the minutes as presented carried unanimously. 

APPROVAL OF AGENDA:

Motion made by Mr. Brown and seconded by Mr. Deverell to approve the agenda as presented.    Discussion followed to amend the agenda by adding a new item 2:  Intergovernmental Agreement with the Village of Kirkland for repair of the Hortense Street Bridge; and a new item 3:  Preliminary Engineering Agreement for Hortense Street Bridge.  Motion made by Vice Chair Augsburger and seconded by Mr. Deverell to amend the agenda.   The motion carried unanimously.   The motion to approve the agenda as amended carried unanimously. 

PUBLIC COMMENT:   There were no public comments. 

RESOLUTION NUMBER R#2011-64:  EXECUTION AND AMENDMENT OF DOWNSTATE OPERATING ASSISTANCE GRANT AGREEMENT:

Mr. Zucker was present to provide the Committee a brief overview of this agreement.  Earlier in the year Mr. Zucker presented the Committee with grant applications for operating funds and vehicle assistance for the TransVac organization.  The present resolution is for the approval of the execution of the grant applied for earlier in the year.  The Operating Assistance Grant is for $375,000.00 this year and is a slight increase of approximately $30,000.00 from our 2011 Operating Grant.  These funds are utilized by TransVac to operate within the non-urban areas of DeKalb County.  The additional funding will be used to solidify and expand services in the south portion of the County and explore ways that might expand services to the Kishwaukee College routes.  TransVac is also currently looking at the Genoa area to get a feel for services needed in that area and to see if appropriate services can be provided.  Services in the MedVac area have seen substantial growth over the last few years and that is one area that will more than likely continue to grow as our population ages.  Mr. Zucker explained this is a pass through grant with no cost to the County, other than the administration of the Grant.  Mr. Zucker works closely with Mr. Hanson, Deputy County Administrator for that administration.  Motion 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.

RESOLUTION NUMBER R#2011-  :  INTERGOVERNMENT AGREEMENT WITH THE VILLAGE OF KIRKLAND FOR SECTION 10-00008-00-BR, HORTENSE STREET BRIDGE

Mr. Schwartz presented the above mentioned agreement to the Committee for review.  The bridge section of IDOT in Springfield gave the County the OK to test the wood piling on Hortense Street Bridge in Kirkland.  What this means is if the beams test ok this Bridge should only need a deck replacement and not a complete tear out and rebuild.  If the Village is allowed to proceed with this project for a deck repair only, the cost savings would be approximately $450,000.00.  Because the Village requested to use a portion of Federal Funds that normally come to the County for this project, the County will oversee the project by providing all oversight/construction engineering associated with this project.  The Village will be responsible for 100% of the cost of all engineering, and 20% of the cost of construction.  The remaining 80% of construction costs will be covered by Federal Bridge Funds.  Prior to any work beginning Mr. Schwartz recommended an Intergovernmental Agreement between the Village and the County be entered into to ensure both party’s understand and agree on the particulars of this project.  Mr. Schwartz stated the agreement is a standard agreement that the County has used in the past and currently has the same agreement with Kane County for the East County Line Road Bridge.  Mr. Schwartz recommended the agreement be forwarded to the full County Board recommending approval.  Motion made by Mr. Cribben and seconded by Mr. Deverell to forward this resolution to the full County Board recommending approval.  The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NUMBER R#2011-  :  PRELIMINARY ENGINEERING AGREEMENT WITH WILLETT, HOFMANN & ASSOCIATES, INC FOR SECTION 10-00008-00-BR, HORTENSE STREET BRIDGE

Mr. Schwartz presented a Preliminary Engineering Agreement with Willett, Hoffmann & Associates for the Committee’s review.  This agreement will allow Willett, Hofmann to begin testing on the timber piles of the Hortense Street Bridge using their Resistograph, a device that measures the resistance when drilling through wood. They are the only firm in the state with such a device.  After we determine if the pilings are sound enough to remain in place, the County will enter into an additional Preliminary Engineering Agreement with Baxter & Woodman, the Village engineer, to complete the engineering for either a bridge repair or replacement.  The testing of the timbers can be completed in a day and the cost of this process has been agreed on as not to exceed $2,591.10.  This cost will be borne by the Village of Kirkland.  Mr. Schwartz recommended the agreement be forwarded to the full County Board recommending approval.  Motion 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 stated he had no comments at this time.

COUNTY ENGINEER’S COMMENTS: 

Mr. Schwartz presented his Transportation Improvement Progress Report for the month of October to the Committee. The projects listed continue to move forward and those making noticeable progress this month were:  East County Line Road Bridge – this project is a Kane County project and is still in the land acquisition phase.   The Gurler Road Bridge is 100% complete and was opened to traffic on time.  The Committee began the process to repair the Hortense Road Bridge in the Village of Kirkland tonight with the review of the Intergovernmental agreement and the Preliminary Engineering Agreement discussed in detail earlier.   The Old State Road Bridge was opened to traffic late on Tuesday, November 1^st and as of today is 100% complete.  Keslinger Road Bridge:  The County filed a complaint against Enbridge Energy on October 7th. The defendants have not yet responded to the complaint. They have until November 17th to file a responsive plea.  If they fight the complaint, the County can expect to spend a lot of time and money on depositions and expert witness preparation. The Court has set a date in April for the case management conference.

Mr. Schwartz informed the Committee that Labor Negotiations will begin on November 8, 2011 at 9:00am for our 150 Operators.  As the Committee knows the operators agreed to a one year extension of their contract that expired on November 30, 2010 and received a $250.00 signing bonus, changed the contract effective date to the County’s budget year (January-December), dropped the pending arbitration hearing for holiday pay and agreed to double time for hours worked on holidays celebrated by the County and on the actual day the holiday falls on.  The County Engineer inquired of the Committee if it had any specific comments concerning the negotiations.  Mr. Cribben made a motion to enter into executive session per 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(2), Collective negotiating matters between DeKalb County and its employees.  Roll call vote taken: Vice Chair Augsburger Yes; Mr. Brown – Yes; Mr. Cribben – Yes; Mr. Deverell – Yes; Mr. Foster – Yes; Chairman Gudmunson – Yes.  Motion carried with 6 yes votes and 0 no votes and the Highway Committee moved into Executive Session at 6:34pm.

The Highway Committed exited from Executive Session at 7:15pm with a unanimously vote.  No action was taken during the Executive session.

The Country Engineer informed the Committee that the Highway Department will be changing the phone system to Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) once the fiber project is completed in the County.  The County will purchase phones then factor a replacement cost into the annual Asset Replacement set-aside money. The annual costs will be around $3,500.  This will be the prorated amount for the Highway Department’s share of the entire County network.  The current phone bill is around $325/month.  The new phone system will have the County employee directory programmed in it and be able to dial other employees using their extension rather than a 10-digit phone number. Instead of just 4 phone lines, every phone will be able to be used at the same time.

Mr. Schwartz informed the Committee of his plans to begin to digitalize all records currently being stored within the Highway Department.  Our records are historical and need to be retained forever.  If this Department were to ever encounter some sort a disaster, either natural or manmade, valuable information would be lost and could cost the County several thousands dollars in efforts to recover that information.  Current records are stored in the building primarily on paper.  Every contract, plat, and sets of plans are currently stored as hard copies in filing cabinets. To protect ourselves from disaster, such as fire, these documents need to be electronically scanned and stored electronically.  Other departments in the County have recognized this need and started the process to digitize their records.  The Highway Department recently got a scanner that will scan letter and legal size documents quickly and store them as a PDF file.  All of our plats and plans require a large format scanner.  Costs were compared for using the County Recorder’s scanner and filing system versus purchasing a scanner for the Highway Department.  As Mr. Schwartz pointed out a refurbished wide-format printer/scanner for use at the Highway Department would cost $7,000.00.  No licensing fee would be required and the printer/scanner could be accessed from any computer, regardless if that computer was located within the Highway Department or some off-site location.  Travel to and from the Recorder’s Office and the cost for software licenses fees to allow the Highway Department to continuously use the Recorder’s scanner would cost $4,165.60 over and above the cost of a refurbished machine.  To temporarily move the machine from the recorders Office to the Highway Department would cost an additional $7,400.00 over and above the cost of a refurbished machine.  This project needs to be done sooner rather than later and the Highway Department is going to purchase this equipment and begin the process.  Further, copies made on our inkjet plotter typically run $0.075 per copy and the copy cost on the printer/scanner is estimated to run $0.035.  That would be an ongoing savings to this Department.  Funds are available for this purchase within our capital line grouping. 

ADJOURNMENT:

Chair Gudmunson asked if there was anything further that needed to be discussed and hearing none asked for a motion to adjourn.  A motion was made by Vice Chair Augsburger and seconded by Mr. Cribben to adjourn.  The motion passed unanimously and the November 3, 2011 meeting was adjourned at 7:34pm.

                                                                        Respectfully Submitted,

                                                                        John Gudmunson

                                                                        Chairperson