All right.

My name's Peter Bazaid.

And I am designated as the chairman of this ad hoc meeting on the Connecticut Transportation Alternative Program grant to the City of Danbury.

Also present is Councilman Michael Henry, who's also on this committee.

Councilman William McAllister, who I expect to be here shortly.

In attendance, we have uh Vera Karakonda of the traffic engineer in Tonya Ayadarola.

We are represented by the Corporation Council's office.

Um we're represented by uh Taylor O'Brien from the mayor's office.

Kara Prunte, the assistant director of finance is present.

Dan Garrick, uh the finance director is present.

Uh and and with that, I'm just gonna start.

This is fairly clear in this this was sent to us off the consent calendar.

Um, and it had very good documentation on the April 7th council meeting uh with clear explanation of uh what the grant was, the history of uh the transportation alternative program grant in Danbury, originally being 1.4 million dollars uh that was awarded, and then subsequently as the project increased and scop uh the expenses increased the state on its own, maybe the city asked, uh increased the amount of the grant um by 2.85 million dollars, uh, and it would require us to approve that acceptance of that additional amount, uh, which in turn requires a city match of 20 percent in our materials on April 7th was provided very clear explanation uh that the 20 percent match, which would amount to 570,000 would come from uh SNAP uh 2020 bond monies that are available for that this purpose.

Um so with that, um I I have uh my only question for Mr.

I Garola was would be has this been delayed in any way, this project uh uh by us continuing on to inquire further.

Um I mean, you know, obviously everybody's eager to get this going.

It's been around since 2019.

A lot of work has gone into this.

Remember, these are state grants, and they don't move quick, but once they get to a point where you've picked and selected the actual consultant, you've did a scope review, the fee proposals are in from the consultant, it gets reviewed.

Now they're basically ready for us to move forward.

So I think if we can uh very quickly tonight move this forward for the council approval, we should be in good shape.

We've already notified our colleagues at the state that we had a little, you know, a little hiccup, it might just take an extra couple of weeks to get uh through the approval process.

So they're eagerly um eagerly awaiting us.

Uh actually I think you already got the contract.

Uh the mayor has the contract already to sign it, which has the amendment in it.

So it's it's ready to go.

Um and uh, you know, I'm hoping that uh tonight uh this grant amendment going from 1.4 million to 4.25 uh million uh gets approved.

It's a significant amount of money uh that is being allocated to multiple locations, really served to enhance mobility and safety of a lot of existing uh crosswalks near schools, elderly complexes, and disadvantaged community facilities that are throughout the city of Danbury.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And if I I may I'm I have a question for Vera, our traffic engineer.

So obviously, this greatly benefits uh pedestrian traffic in in Danbury, uh, where sidewalks are.

Yes.

And uh it I'm assuming that the intersections where there are crosswalks and crossings will be vastly safer uh by these improvements.

Absolutely, yes.

All right, thank you.

I have no other questions, Councilman Henry.

Do you have any questions?

Did this increase the scope of the work in 2019 to increase more designated locations?

Did you identify more?

Actually, the uh the locations, couple of locations were taken out because even this funding could not accommodate because of the cost of living increases and everything else, the pricing and though.

So, but 90% of the original scope is part of this part of the chair to we should go back for more funding.

Can we go back for it?

We I mean these applications um every once in a while come up, and we will have been incredibly successful.

I mean, the amount of money he's pulled in in the last three years is is amazing.

So, yeah, as soon as these come up, Vera's all over there.

Um that's mom.

Okay, everything's good.

Um but yeah, we will we we will continuously look for more.

And honestly, really what's happened here is this is pre-COVID.

So all the estimates were generated pre-COVID.

Um the amount of extra uh money that came in just for the engineers, in addition to they thought we might need a little bit of right-of-way work, like some temporary easements, is what drove the additional cost.

But the state's totally okay with giving us the extra money.

Right.

So that that's the fee is that's the increase from when it's starting.

It's a big increase.

Yeah, it is, it's huge.

But also remember the application is a very broad, very high scope application.

Uh and once these guys drill down and they actually every location gets further evaluated, and the work is well defined.

That's what you're seeing here.

And the state recognizes that applications come in with minimal amount of uh uh you know available information, and as they develop further, uh these grants get increased.

We're just lucky the additional money was available and committed to us.

Okay, and follow-up is and we code compliant.

Does this make us co-compliant on the state mandate level?

Well, yeah, I mean, what happens is each one of these improvements has to be uh rendered uh ADA compliant.

Um so yeah, any work that we do will enhance uh the ADA compliance of our existing sidewalk network.

And then one final follow-up.

Is this include Rogers Park?

Any more enhancements, Rogers?

Uh there's a lot of traffic, a lot of issues at Rogers Park.

I didn't see it.

I see Ellsworth Avenue, Broadview.

Uh yeah, very commons, Kimberly.

No, this does not Park Avenue School Moore Street School.

No, this does not go that far.

Yeah, okay.

I I had spoken to Veer some years back about some other issues at Rogers Park just to see if that would be incorporated in this planet.

Yeah, no, it's not in it's not in this school.

Yeah, he's got another is it six point nine million?

Uh another four million dollar project.

All right, and then date of completion, no no timeline, nothing.

I'd have to update you once they sign the contracts and they engage the consultant and actually give him the go ahead.

Um, yeah, then they'll they'll start the design process, um, and eventually we'll get into a bid document where we can bid it out.

I'm good for you, Chair.

Okay.

We anticipated by end off this year the design should be 90 percent.

So there won't be any work starting now then as soon as the grant starts.

No, because this this is really to allow the the consultant to start the uh survey work and the and then the design work.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah, that's so good.

So so at this point, I I'd entertain a motion.

Perhaps that motion is recommend to the city council, approve the acceptance of the additional 2.85 million dollar grant from the state of Connecticut with 20% match from the city to complete the trans transportation alternative program originally approved for a lesser amount by the council on April 2nd, 2019, as proposed by the communication.

I second that all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Uh here uh hearing that, then um uh the motion carries, it's recommended that the council pass this.

I'd entertain a motion to adjourn the ad hoc.

So it's seconded and all in favor, I thank you all for coming.