Good afternoon and uh welcome to the Hampton City Council work session.

Uh I'd like to ask the clerk to call the role.

Councilman Bowman, Vice Mayor Brown.

Here.

Councilwoman Campbell, present.

Councilwoman Fairby.

Present.

Councilwoman Harper.

Present.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Present Mayor Gray.

Present.

And Councilman Randon Bowman is now with us this afternoon.

I think he may be joining us later.

I know he had a medical uh matter to take care of.

And then also uh city manager is out of town uh this week, and so filling in as a deputy city manager Brian DeProfio.

So we are in good hands with uh Brian, and uh so I'm gonna ask him to uh introduce the first item for this happening.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um back in uh 2021, the downtown Hampton Development Partnership presented a plan for implementing various public infrastructure projects um downtown, and uh council has has funded um many of the projects that were presented as part of that that uh that proposal and the first of those projects was uh Queensway, which that project is wrapping up now.

Um, the improvements that we've made in in front of uh the restaurants on Queensway.

Um the next major project that is slated um to uh to move forward is the settlers landing road um renovation project.

Um our interim director, Michael Bowery is here to present counsel um the concepts associated with uh with that project.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Michael to take us through the presentation.

Good afternoon, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, members of the council, deputy city manager De Profio and City Attorney Sid Noorr.

Uh as Brian said, I'll be giving a brief update on the Settlers Landing Roadway improvements.

So in February of 2024, Public Works conducted a traffic study.

We recommended from that study, uh, we got with the police department to enforce the 25 mile per hour speed limit.

We added no turn on red signage throughout the corridor, and then we lengthened the pedestrian signal times, allowing pedestrians a longer time to cross the road.

In addition to that, we've also incorporated one uh intersection where it's a complete dead red stop.

That means all of the stop lights in that intersection turn red and allow the pedestrians to safely cross.

Uh and to align specifically with council's strategic priority area of placemaking.

So in this presentation, we're gonna be focused on the area highlighted in the red.

Um you will see kind of images in the background, but they're incorporated into a a future project, which would be Carouso West uh and Carousel Park East project.

So I just want to kind of put that disclaimer first.

The area box off in the red is what we're gonna be talking about for this presentation.

So here you'll see a view of the current conditions at Eton Street.

We're at the base of the settler's landing bridge uh looking into downtown Hampton.

Some key components I want you to look at from this and to the next slide is you see the parallel parking on both sides of the street.

Uh you'll see the the crosswalk how it is now.

The the median is that concrete median.

In addition to that, you have um the the flat crosswalks.

In this next proposed rendering right here, you see how we're incorporating some changes to improve pedestrian mobility, but also to incorporate uh placemaking features.

So a big a big feature is that entryway arch uh going into downtown Hampton.

You do eliminate the on-street parking on the south side of the street, as you can see in the image on the left.

Uh you have that shared use path.

We keep the parallel parking on the north side of the street.

We add uh the instead of the concrete median as we saw in the picture before, how it is now, we have a vegetative buffer and that as a median.

In addition to that, we've shortened the crosswalks.

Uh they're called bump outs, but basically the distance currently is 70 foot for the pedestrian across the street.

We're shortening that to 50 feet.

So in time that roughly shortens the cross by six seconds for pedestrian.

Uh we're gonna be going down the street.

So we we were just at Eaton, the base of the bridge, and now we're gonna go to Wine Street looking towards the Virginia Air and Space Museum.

Uh this is kind of sorry, uh Michael.

Could you go back to the previous slide?

Yes, sir.

Okay, just a question.

The um okay, the um I'll call it a banner for lack of a better term for it.

Uh it's going across.

Is are there uh support devices on each side of settlement?

I I just couldn't see the ones on the other side.

You can see them on at the base right here.

There's a concrete footing on either side, and it's supported by that.

And uh we'll see throughout the uh presentation.

You'll have different methods of that.

We we have the concrete ballards, but some of them will dual a seating areas too to maximize that space.

But yes, sir.

So this is the proposed looking at that wine street block.

So between Ryan Wine Street and King Street, this is the corridor that's gonna have the most amount of changes incorporated.

So the changes between this block, the entire street between between wine and kink is going to be elevated so it's curb level.

Uh we've added the protective lighted ballards throughout this corridor, allowing the the protected buffer for the multi-use path for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Uh we've also extended the sidewalks or widened the sidewalks like we saw on the previous image, again from 70 feet, taking it down to 50 feet.

In the concrete foundations, as you noted, Mr.

Gray, uh Mayor Gray, in this image, they dual as a seating area.

So you have that concrete foundation, but you also incorporate a seating area to maximize the space.

In addition to that, there are seven right there.

Uh Vice Mayor Brown.

Yeah, Mike, thank you.

Uh the archways, uh, the way you archways, where did it where did it start emanate from?

Are they coming all the way down to Saddler's Landing?

Uh yes, yes, sir.

So I'm uh we're gonna go down the block from the base of the bridge.

So right now we're at Wine Street, but yes, sir, there's gonna be uh archwhite like structures on either side of Settlers Landing, and then this block, there's a total of seven.

So it's supposed to give that tunneling like effect to slow down motorists.

What kind of material are they made up?

The material, I don't know exactly the material yet.

We're still in the design phase, so we haven't been shown the exact material.

Uh okay.

Yeah, thanks.

Appreciate it.

So we're going to the opposite side of the street, the south side of the street now.

As you can see, the bicyclist, you have that protective uh multi-use path, and then you have the concrete more than uh foundations, doubling a seating areas.

We've also extended the sidewalks on this side as well, incorporated the bump outs, and on this side of the street, though, we've we've kept the parallel parking on the Virginia Air and Space side of the street.

We're going to the opposite side of the street, but from King Street looking down towards Wine now.

As you can see, we've at we've widened the sidewalks drastically.

This can be used for outdoor seating space.

Uh we've incorporated different drainage features.

We in this image we duel the the trees that duel at from shade, but also as drainage features, and as you can see the couple sitting down right there, they all duel as seating areas for customers.

Now we're at Bridge Street and Old Hampton Lane looking towards uh the base of the bridge as as we uh spoke about Vice Mayor Brown.

You have that archway at either side going into that corridor.

So this is an image.

All of the archways will be backlit at night, and they all kind of incorporate that several different color of the Hampton wave uh kind of theme, and the the wording on it is subject, you know.

We've we put downtown Hampton right now.

Um we've seen different renderings where we say from the C to stars or a Hampton logo and things like that.

So that that subject is change uh so the overview of all the safety improvements we've included.

We've widened the sidewalks throughout the corridor, we narrowed the vehicular travel lanes, extended the bump outs at each crosswalk, so it's shortening from 70 feet to that 50 feet.

ADA curb ramps will be improved throughout, allowing people with mobility aids to to roam freely throughout the corridor.

The bikes and for uh pedestrians.

This time I'll take any questions.

And I can bounce around from the slides for the images too.

Questions?

Vice Member Brown.

Yeah, thank you, Mike.

Uh you mentioned those seven arches.

Uh I really like that.

And uh I saw the the first arch said Hampton, City of Hampton, whatever.

Is it any consideration to uh each arch having a different inscription on it?

Like in from the stars of the sea, historic camp university, hidden figures, you know, kind of things that make Hampton what it is, all American City, or do they all have to be um unique in terms of description?

No, I so we're instilling the design phase, we can pose that question to the design team and see what they come back with.

I'm not sure they would have to look at different design features.

So if they're kind of put together, if you would be able to view all of them as you're going on, because it might be, you know, until you're directly underneath of it, can you actually see the visibility because they're all gonna be the same height for the path?

But absolutely, I can pose that question to the design team.

All right, thanks.

So so this this plan uh kind of narrows the street uh with parking on both sides to slow down the uh the traffic in uh on on Settlers Land and Road in that area, making more of a pedestrian friendly area as opposed to being a vehicle cut through where you know sometimes I mean the speed that I see people coming through there is just you know is scary sometimes.

But um, I do wonder, you know, since you're gonna do so much to narrow the streets and the bump outs and all of that to slow traffic down, is it possible to take out the largest speed bump in America that's right there on uh um King Street and Settlers Landing, right?

That comes across you when you're coming from that direction, or either direction, you get this hump right there.

And it's my understanding that that's a speed bump.

And uh I'm not sure, you know, if was there a reason for designing it to be so large?

Um and and if it's possible to take it out, you know, since we're gonna be redoing the street, is it necessary to keep that since you put in so many other features in this to slow down the traffic?

Absolutely.

So we we can look at that, but as um trying to go to that image of that particular block to see if it's noted.

We we are redoing the crosswax walks at all of these intersections.

So there'll be raised crosswalks with new stamp concrete.

So we'll we'll note that and make it.

Well, when you say when you say raise raised crosswalks, yes, sir.

What what does that mean that that is a raised crosswalk or yes, exactly?

Yeah, so it's uh it's a traffic calming measure.

So if you look at this image, it kind of does a good job justifying.

See the curb line in the bottom left.

It it goes up so it's raised so it's directly level with the curb.

So it's a raised crosswalk.

So it's yes, kind of doubling as a a speed bump, if you will, but it's a traffic calming tool.

Because the last time I inquired about it was the first time that we kind of saw the initial rendering of the of the street design, and I asked about that, but I was told it was a speed a speed bump.

I didn't know why it was a why it's so much larger than other speed bumps in the city since the speed limit is only 25 miles per hour right here.

Why was it necessary to have such a large speed bump?

Which, you know, on any other street that you have one, it's it's not that big.

But if it's supposed to be a crosswalk and there's a reason for elevating the crosswalk, that you know that different reason for having it there.

Yes, it's an extra traffic calming tool, pedestrian-friendly environment.

Yeah, as as Mike said, that's you know, one of the goals of this, uh, as he mentioned earlier was to try to you know slow traffic down by narrowing the road, doing some other things that really you know are unique approaches to try to get people to slow down as they come through that area.

And the raised crosswalk was one of them.

The ray with the road also is raised um between the new constellation development and carousel park.

Um, and so the elevation changes, you create that tunnel effect with the um with the bannering um items that go above the road, and so all of those were things when we were working with the architectural and engineering team about how the sense of place, but also uh mitigate um some of the speeding and some of the um things that make pedestrian activity around the road really a little bit more dangerous.

Um and these were some of the recommendations that they came up with.

Um again, those raised crosswalks, which should slow down the traffic, also the raised elevation of the road um in this section of the uh of the project and and those those um over overarching banners that uh create that tunnel.

Okay.

So in this case, then since you plan to do that, that is the only raised crosswalk on settler's landing.

The others the others are not raised, at least not to that same height.

So if you're going to do raise crosswalks at, I guess King Street, Wine Street, and then Eton Street, would they all be uh done at the same height, or would you leave that one and then the other they would all be done at the same time they would be all curb level, so it's level.

All right, good.

Uh councilwoman Mugler.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um couple of questions, but just to kind of put a fine point on the mayor's questions about these raised crosswalks versus raised roadway.

Uh is the fact that the road is raised, isn't the road raised at the same level that these crosswalks will be at?

Or are they going to be also raised above the raised road?

No.

So the raised crosswalks and the raised roadway will all be curb level throughout the road.

So it's going to be the same.

Yeah, for this particular block in between wine and King Street, it's basically like it's all curb level.

So we're raising that entire block.

But with the other ones where we're just raising the crosswalks, that'll all be curb level as well.

Okay.

So not higher than the raised crosswalks.

But within this bannered area, that's all gonna be one flat level.

Correct.

The crosswalks and the road.

Yes, ma'am.

Is all the same in those several blocks.

Um and just a question about the the timing of this project.

Do we have an estimation on when this project is to begin and to end?

So right now we're in the early stages of design.

We are hoping to get through design and uh all of the internal services.

We're hopeful within 12 months.

Uh that's the anticipated goal.

Uh so we would be out to bid in a year roughly, uh, and then hoping construction between 18 and 24 months is the most realistic timeline that I can share right now.

And so that would put us in 2026, putting it out to bid, and in 27 or early 28 for completion.

Yes.

And so that should coincide with the HRBT construction completion.

Yes.

Because I know you know, part of what has created the safety concerns in this corridor is the fact that we have a lot of traffic that's been diverted that way.

Um we've done a variety of things to cut back on people using that direction, but it is um just want to, you know, think that we are gonna coincide with uh a calming of that traffic.

Yes.

Um the latest I have from HR uh BT is August of 2027.

So exactly like you said, direct coincidence.

Okay.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Councilwoman Farabee.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um just for first of all, I'm I'm really pleased with the design.

I'm so excited about it.

Wish we could have it completed tomorrow.

Um for clarification, uh in your draft uh rough order magnitude timeline.

Are you looking to start the construction or for it to be complete after you receive the bids?

Can you can you clarify that?

Uh, you mentioned it'll take about a year for design.

Yeah, about a year for design.

Uh and then we would go out to bid, and you know, the bidding process could take, you know, three months, and then we would go to construction, get on the construction schedule, and we're estimating between 18 and 24 months for construction for this entire courtwork.

Okay, and that would be to complete the yes, that would be to come that's the estimates we have right now.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, so other questions?

Um just one more question, then because you as you talk about the schedule for design, bid, and construction, later on the agenda there is discussion or presentation regarding a different form of getting a road project or getting an infrastructure project done on a much shorter timetable because you're working in you know something other than the design first and then build in the the bid and then the construction.

So is it possible that you use similar kinds of uh arrangements on this project that makes it happen a little faster?

Or is there a reason for sticking with the first method?

Yeah, we we can look to see if there's any opportunity to use that.

I think the difference between what we're doing and what's going to be presented on item number three today, and it's on the consent agenda this evening is that um you know we've we've already started the design of the project, and so that procurement method basically has you hiring the design consultant and the contractor at the same time.

So we would need to consult with the city attorney's office to see if we can bring a contractor on board, sort of mid-design, um, and see if there's any opportunity to do that.

Yes, thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay, thank you, Michael.

Appreciate the uh presentation.

Looking forward to uh getting this project done.

It's uh excellent uh concept for settlers landing road, and I think it's gonna be a great addition for our city.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Next item, Mr.

Deprofio.

Thank you.

That's right.

Um the uh next item on the agenda is a uh presentation from our new parks recreation and leisure services director, um Mr.

Darrell Crittenden.

Daryl has taken um parks and recreation departments they had previously led um through the national accreditation process, and that's one of the things that we've been wanting to do here in Hampton.

Um, today he's going to do an overview or provide an overview of his department's activities and the services that they offer, recreational opportunities and the park system that we have.

Um he's also going to present his goals for the department, provide some background on the national accreditation, why it's important, what it's about, and those those sorts of things.

So, with that, I'll turn it over to Daryl to take us through this item.

All right.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, Deputy City Manager DeProfio, and our city attorney.

I'm pleased to be here today because I do want to talk to you about what my goals are for the department and national accreditation.

I've done it twice in Durham and Norfolk, and it's achievable here in Hampton.

Let's talk a little bit about our mission.

If you look at that, it's to provide safe, inclusive, and high quality recreational opportunities.

And what that means basically is providing life-changing experiences to our citizens.

And what I want is when a citizen enters our facilities, they come back with something they're talking about to their friends, neighbors, and families, saying, Hey, that program made my day.

That program enabled me to take a different perspective on life, and they will be able to share something with people that they come in contact with.

Achieve CAPRA accreditation, meaning that we will be nationally accredited.

This will be a four-year process, getting the right people in place, making sure our staff is trained up, making sure all of our policies and procedures are adequate and they are enforceable, and also it's something that we can actually stand by in any situation.

So that takes time.

And there's a national accreditation team that comes in, made up of professionals from across the United States that comes in to evaluate our operating practices, all of our procedures, even staff training and education.

So to speak on that, we have a finance accreditation manager that will be on board the 29th of this month.

One thing that this person will bring to the table is she has served on the national accreditation team for four consecutive years.

So that's gonna help us jump start this process.

So looking forward to that.

Right now, we're sending our park planner who just left this morning to go to Leesburg, Virginia, become certified in playground safety.

It's important.

If you're buying playgrounds, installing play islands, you should know what to look for if they're broken.

So that's something that we need to do.

And all of our people will be certified parks and recreation professionals.

That's something I have on our list that's important to me, and that's the standard I've always kept in all my departments.

I want us to be competitive.

My next bullet, we need to be competing for state awards, and hopefully in the next two to three years, we'll be competing for national awards.

I want Hampton to be recognized.

This place has a lot of talent.

We have great resources.

There's no need for us to underachieve.

Infrastructure, we'll work to sustain our infrastructure.

I have maintenance structures that come from our national standards.

Mowing should be done every 12 to 14 business days.

These are standards that we're going to start putting in place.

Even cyclical tree maintenance.

There are all standards that we should have in place here in the city.

And so while we're overhauling the department and always striving to get better, these are things that we will be implementing.

Department overview.

Is a service that touches all ages, touches all communities, and touches even all services.

We partner a great deal with public works, the police department, the office on youth.

So we are involved in everything, and that's what parks and recreation is.

Our programs span around age six to eighteen.

We engage teams and camps.

We have younger youth camps, aquatic, athletics, older teams.

We have leadership programs, athletic programs, wheelchair basketball.

Citywide, we have recreation matters, rec and roll, which will be moved to this fall, which will start the first Friday in October and run through November.

Part of the transition, this is normally a summer program, but it'll be moved to the fall this year.

But again, this to me, this is just preliminary.

This is just a skeleton.

As we continue to evaluate, look at things, we'll be adding, we'll be changing things, things that don't work, we'll remove things that are national trends that we're not doing, we want to add another listing of youth and family services, and you can see under each center some of the programming that's offered at each center, and that would be for our community centers and also some of the neighborhood centers.

Our therapeutic center, we have a supervisor that's nationally accredited as well.

Sharon does a fabulous job with TR.

Mary Jackson Family Fun Day, these are all programs that we're currently producing and providing.

And there was something I think this is going to be on the next slide.

Got a little surprise.

Oh no, that's TR.

Again, this is Sharon with TR, does a fabulous job.

She even has a waiting list for her programs, and that's how she extends her services out to the community.

And these programs are very popular, our TR programs.

You can see fitness is key with our seniors from chair exercise to line dancing, walk away pounds as a fitness class as well.

One thing I probably want to add to this program venue are senior trips.

I think that's very key.

Our seniors should meet other seniors in other cities.

They get to see different venues and let them experience new things.

So that's something I want to add to this venue as well.

So we'll be working on that.

Special events.

Surprise is we're going to add additional holiday lights this year.

So it won't be the same setup as last year.

And we're going to extend the lighting.

So that's going to be huge this year.

As you can see, this is a list of our festivals, our special events.

And again, we'll be taking a hard look at those two.

There may be some others that we can actually offer as well.

I think the sky is the limit with what we offer, and we just need to sit down, put our heads together, and with a new team with new ideas, new initiatives, creativity, we'll be able to do that.

Our parks, our parks are ADA accessible amenities, athletic fields, kayak launch areas, public boat ramps, and we have picnic shelters and playgrounds.

Again, just look at this.

We have beautiful parks in Hampton, but again, I think we need to up our maintenance efforts in a lot of our parks from what I've seen.

I think there's some things we could do that are going to attract people.

I think we have a chance to actually provide more citywide tournaments and bring people into Hampton, but people have got to want to play here, and the aesthetics have to be at a point where people want to be here.

So I think that's something that we need to do as well, and we'll be taking a hard look at that.

Our beaches, Buck Road Grandview, Salt Ponds, and Outlook Beach.

Again, always looking to get better.

We're always looking for improvements.

We definitely need to upgrade our maintenance standards.

And I know the Vice Mayor's been out a couple of times to make some spot checks.

So we'll be upgrading our maintenance standards as well with that.

Um people come out, enjoy what we have to offer, and they get life-changing experiences.

And you do that not only with the programming, but the aesthetics of the facility as well.

Athletics, um, to me, this is pretty sparse, but we do have all adult programming.

Again, I want the trends.

I want to know what everybody else is doing, and we need to bring that to Hampton.

What you see is adult softball, adult basketball, youth football, and I have great relationships with the athletic directors at the high schools.

Uh, two of them worked for me previously in Norfolk, so they know what my standards are, and I think I can get more involvement from schools and what we offer for our youth and youth athletics.

So that's already in the works.

Okay, this is the big one.

What is national accreditation is the formal recognition of parks and recreation agencies in the United States.

And I don't need to read the slide, but there are 154 national standards that have to be accomplished.

You have formal standards and informal standards.

So formal standards are things like operations, fiduciary practices, things like that.

And the big thing that everybody has to keep in mind, there are only 214 agencies that are actually nationally accredited in the United States.

Here in Hampton Roads, there are only three agencies, and that's Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Suffolk.

And Hampton will be the fourth, and that's what I plan on getting done.

What accreditation does for you?

Sets clear framework for evaluating policies, promotes continuous improvement, creates consistency in how services are delivered, providing external validation of quality and professionalism, and encouraging transparency and accountability to the public, which is huge.

And again, why does it matter?

Again, I'm big on accountability, and the main thing is pride.

I think when we start this journey with this new administration, is making sure our employees have pride in where they work and what they do.

That starts the whole thing.

If you don't have pride in what you're doing, it's hard to accomplish your goals.

Capra benefits for the public, again, is quality and accountability.

Those are two that I want to pick out that I think are the most important.

But the main thing is establishing a team that believes in our mission and believes in where we're going.

Councilwoman Ferrari.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, first I'd like to thank you, Mr.

Crittenden for coming and for your leadership in this area.

I have been through an accreditation program before, and um it does raise the bar and the standard, and uh I really appreciate you taking on this endeavor.

Yes, ma'am.

Um I did have one question because uh having had a little bit of experience, um the certification piece, the training, the continuous improvement, etc.

costs uh dollars.

So are you um have you done sort of a rough um order magnitude um assessment on what the additional um resources will look like?

Uh yes, ma'am.

I have just to provide an example of what we're doing this year.

I'll be going to NRPA next week.

I sit on two national boards.

Our accreditation finance manager will be going to NRP as well, so she can keep her certs up to date because she's gonna lead us in this process.

That's this year.

Next year, we'll be looking at our senior management team.

So we'll take it in phases.

It'll be in um probably intermittent of who we send.

Uh, we'll send four employees to the state conference in October and roll nope this year, and then it rotates, and we'll send four new employees the following year to Richmond.

So that way everybody gets to taste the training.

They've experienced the conference, they've been in sessions, so they'll know what it's like to get training at a state level.

Okay, thank you.

And that that answers part of the question, but then also when I it's following more question for the uh deputy, the city manager because as you mentioned as an as a real prime example, the the frequency with which you do the ongoing maintenance, the grass cutting, all you know, all that costs money.

And I and I think it is important.

And at some point you get the cost benefit analysis because if you keep things up as you go along, you don't have the large um costs five, ten years out when you realize that you you've got to go back and re and fix things that might have been able to be maintained better.

But I was just curious about um a little bit about the the funding model for this because it will cost more.

Yeah, I would expect as Darrell kind of gets his arms wrapped around the the needs of the department, um both from a capital perspective as well as an operating perspective that there will be requests that come through the budget process.

The council will be asked to to uh to um entertain as we go through that process each year.

Thank you.

Thanks again.

Thank you now.

Councilman Bowman.

I just want to thank you for the presentation.

And you know, Hampton has so much to offer, and um, some of the things that I've looked at, and you um made those some of your key points, and that's increasing the lawn service.

Um, I think that is very much needed for safety and for other reasons, just for appearance.

And then, secondly, something that uh councilwoman Harper and myself, we actually talked to the city manager about how holiday lighting.

Um, I think that's something that Hampton is very lacking, and with some improvements, I would like to see that and um just wish you um best success and looking forward to all that you're gonna bring.

Thank you, sir.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Thank you, Mr.

Crittington.

Uh just a couple one question in terms of you know your first uh couple months on the job.

What what condition are parks in uh the equipment that we have at different facilities?

Have you noticed that we need to upgrade or uh is that something that you propose in your in your budget for next year?

Well, that's ironic.

We had a meeting with Fleet yesterday, and we saw what our priority equipment replacement needs are, those that are graded by use, age, year, and most of the stuff that we need, like a new skid steer, those are the priorities that are graded by fleet that will be coming up in the next year.

I'm looking through my operating budget to obtain some UTVs, ATVs for Bluebird Gap Farm, and also for our lifeguards and our park rangers, so they can be a lot more mobile in the sites that they have to actually work in.

So those are some of the things we're looking at.

But as far as conditions as far as our open space and things like that, our athletic fields, we're working with the high schools to upgrade the athletic field, multi-purpose field conditions with irrigation and overseeding.

So that's already getting ready to take place.

In our parks, I think we need to have the same type of program.

Um there's a lot of use, but there needs to be a down period too in most facilities and most park amenities, usually the time period from December until the first week in March is your down period.

That's when you do a lot of your aeration, your overseeding because there's so much use throughout the rest of the months.

Also, with weed control, um, there are some things that we need to look at as well.

So, overall, if I were a teacher, I would say we're right now at a C, but I want to get to that A level, and I think there's some things that we can do.

Um, this is not speaking on public works.

One thing that I admire about Hampton, the medions look great here.

In Norfolk, Parks and Rat was responsible for all the medions.

We cut those on 12 to 14 days.

But what public works does here with the contractual services, I think all the medium wonderful here.

And uh my last question is um with uh the various programs, like I noticed when you got to your the kind of like bot not volleyball, softball, youth football, and with one other adult basketball.

Uh in times past, uh Hampton was known for a number of various athletic programs uh to include volleyball, they don't call it jazz-size anymore, but in my day with Jazz Asize, yoga, some other kinds of things.

Do you look into include some of those uh programs or expand uh portfolio of um what we offer for holistic and leisure services?

Yes, sir, Vice Mayor.

I think all of our program offerings can be expanded.

Also, again, we need to evaluate what we're currently doing to see what's working, what's not those things that are working we keep those that aren't.

We look to get some new trends in and new programs, but I definitely want to expand our program offerings.

Mm-hmm.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Crittend.

Great overview of your earliest assessment of things here.

And I'm very happy to hear that you're looking in the direction of accreditation.

Work through accreditation in the Hampton Sheriff's Office when they decided to become nationally accredited.

And I know what an undertaking it is and how many staff hours are really involved in that and really, you know, having a team that's committed to getting to the finish line on those on those accreditations.

It's it's it's a huge undertaking, but I do think it will garner some real efficiencies that we are looking for within our parks and recreations and really you know developing some processes for looking at things with a keener eye than we feel like we've we've been doing in the past.

So we're lucky to have you with the level of experience that you have in accreditation.

I'm happy happy to know that you have that experience to bring us through that process.

Um I think it might have been the slide just before this, but it it you you talked about uh financial savings, and of course, uh it was the slide before.

Talked about financial savings as in terms of um benefits for the public.

And what we've been talking about on the dais today is the expenses that we'll have with the actual undertaking of the accreditation process.

But as it moves forward, is that when you feel we'll see um financial savings just through the efficiencies that are created or other things that will create savings?

Yes, it's a combination of both.

Um just evaluating our existing programs.

There could be some efficiencies there, but the other piece of that is there needs to be a program analysis or program assessment.

And the department really has to look to see if their direct costs are being covered through all their program service and delivery, and our indirect cost, and that's something called cost recovery.

And usually in most municipal parks and recreation departments, there's usually a 70-30 split.

We're not there yet, because normally what happens if you have a program offering, 70% would actually go back into the program that alleviates the department from having to come to the city council to the city manager's office to ask for additional funding because it's set up sort of like an enterprise fund where the programs take care of themselves.

But that's further down the road because we need to actually do this program assessment and evaluate everything we need to do with 70 percent going back into the programs and 30 percent going back into the general fund.

And that's the operations.

Newport News does that, Virginia Beach does that as well as well.

Great.

And and we would we would certainly engage council as we go through that process.

I think historically, one of the things that the council has been really sensitive to is making sure that our programs are accessible to the broadest um segment of our community that we can provide them to.

So there would be some conversations from a policy perspective on you know how we want to deal with the the cost recovery piece, I would expect.

Um one other thing that I think is important to mention, um, and it seems like because Daryl is so knowledgeable and he's really hit the ground running, um, he's been here less than two months.

So um, so you know, he he's here today, and and he um you know he's able to provide this great vision for where we're gonna go in the future.

But uh, but you know, he's he's been here less than two months, and as he gets his, like I said earlier, as he gets his arms wrapped around, you know, these challenges will we'll be able to provide additional information to council um about some more specifics on on the costs and and and those sorts of things.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Harbour.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Crittender, for your wonderful presentation.

I appreciate your your vision.

I love it.

Um, particularly what you're doing with the athletics in Hampton.

I know um being out in the community, several of the um citizens had a few small concerns about the youth foot football piece, but um I know you and I have talked about that set separately, and um I think that that's going to be something great that they're going to see.

Um, one of the things with the community centers that I wanted to address or see if we can um probably enhance just a little bit is getting the community further involved in the community centers because um I know I I currently do sit on the board of Y Thomas, and I've often kind of told them that use your community for your community center.

That's it's there for them, meaning that you don't know what you have unless you you know seek out out there.

You could have people that volunteer.

It's not you know have to be on the staff all of the time of teaching.

You can have a retired teacher that may want a tutor or someone that may want to teach dance or a sewing circle or you know, something uh particularly for um seniors and retirees to do, um, particularly during the day.

But I know we do have uh youth activities um, particularly in the af after school and so forth and so on, especially in the summertime.

So I just wanted to make a small suggestion concerning that um to take a look at that if you have not all already um to see if we can use more of the community, people who live in the community for the community centers.

And Councilwoman Harper, that is correct.

That's recreation one-on-one.

Uh everywhere that I've worked, our rec center supervisors should know who the ministers are, the pastors are in the churches that surround their facility.

They should know the business owners, they should know the school principals.

That's how you get community engagement.

That's how you get involvement, and you get people wanting to come to your community centers.

So that's just another piece of the puzzle that we're working on to make sure that our team has that type of education.

Yes, thank you so much.

Other questions from council members.

Um great presentation.

Uh it's really impressive.

Uh you know, the assessment and how you sized up things and as uh Deputy City Manager DeProfio mentioned, uh, you know, and I was sitting here thinking the same thing.

I mean, he's done a lot here in uh just two months.

And uh so that's very good because I think if you had been able to answer council member uh councilwoman Faraby's question on how much, that would have really had a wow factor than in two months you sized up everything and come up with a budget number on what it's gonna take to get it done.

So I was I was waiting to see if you were gonna answer that question with uh with an exact number, but uh thank you for the presentation.

Just one quick question that's something you didn't cover.

We were uh we're in some stage of finishing up or uh or rebidding the parks master plan that we started uh a little while ago.

And uh is that something that you you've looked at yet to see where we are and what needs to be done, or is that a part of the accreditation process?

Uh no, sir.

Um what I wanted to do was get my senior management team in place, and they would have been here at the end of this month.

So I asked purchasing to hold it because I didn't want to be the only person providing comment.

I wanted a team of SMEs with me because sometimes they may see things that I don't see.

And so uh with the team evaluating the proposals that came in, after we get those recommendations, then we can move forward.

But that should happen the end of this month.

Okay, thank you.

Councilwoman Faraby.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, I just want to clarify that I and it looks like myself and um councilwoman uh mugler have been involved with accreditation processes before.

So this was my way of making the council aware that um there is a cost benefit analysis, but there's also the reality that we need to make this a priority from budget standpoint because you can't, you know, we have to be sure I you know, in my experience with the federal government, a lot of times services get cut when our budgets are squeezed, and the amount of time that we go, you know, neglecting um services, we end up paying for it three, four times more than building it into the processes.

So that was the reason that I brought up the budget.

Um just more education.

Thank you.

All right, uh, so I guess I didn't know the questions.

Thank you.

Thank you uh for the presentation.

Thank you, sir.

All right, thank you.

Um the next item on the agenda was was kind of highlighted a little bit earlier, um, but it is a presentation by our senior civil engineer David Powell regarding uh piloting using a new procurement method um for planned uh sewer forest main um replacement projects.

Um as I'd mentioned earlier, this is item number two on the consent agenda.

Um tonight, the council and council is required to approve the use of this um alternative procurement method um, you know, for us to be able to access it to move projects forward.

And so David will take us through um the uh the the various types of procurement methods that um that we can entertain as we try to move projects forward and why it's uh this is an appropriate use for this this particular method.

Thank you, David.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Um I am uh David Powell, senior civil engineer of wastewater operations.

So a little bit of why we're here today, you know, alternate project delivery, alternate to what is one of the big things.

So just so you know where we're going with that.

We have five sanitary sewer force mains that are in need of repair or replacement to maintain consent order compliance.

Um collaborative procurement methods are becoming a big thing in the construction industry because it brings the contractor to the table earlier, which gets us a little bit better cost certainty, and also by them being more of a team member, they're also invested in the public.

You know, we don't like being out in the roads and disrupting people's lives any more than anyone else does.

By having them involved, everything moves better.

The public sees a more unified appearance, it's not us versus them.

It's when something happens, it's not a lot of finger pointing.

So we are here today per state code and Hampton City code to request the use of a construction management contract for this sanitary sewer force main package project.

So traditionally, we design a project, you know, we know there's a need, we come up with an engineering firm or an architecture firm, they design it.

They usually come up with some sort of cost estimate.

Based on that cost estimate, we may work directly with them and adjust the plans to see what fits in our budget.

But you never really know what it's going to cost until it goes out to bid.

That's that's when the contractors and the market at the time will tell you what it's going to cost to get the job done.

Um then after that goes forward.

I've worked a lot in infrastructure, been around it my whole life.

Um, there is always something in the ground.

You put a shovel in the ground, especially we are one of the oldest cities in the country.

There is a lot down there that nobody knew was there.

Um design build or a construction management CMAR contract, they are able to help share in that risk.

The risk of the unknown.

And the way that ultimately helps is we're good stewards of our rate payer money by making a more upfront knowledge of what the cost is going to be, but also, like I said, you know, helpful with the public participation.

So the next slides, I apologize, there's a lot of slides, but this is a bit of an educational process for public works, for the procurement department, for the city attorney's office.

And so these slides were kind of intended to be printed out, they could be used as a reference.

So some of them I will skip over, some things on each one I might not hit because it's um it's as much a lot of reiterating the same concepts.

So when you design it and then you bid it and build it, we have a contract with the designer.

We have a contract with the contractor whenever it goes out to bid and gets awarded.

Something happens, something comes up, contractor asks us, we ask the engineer, engineer redesigns, they tell us.

We go back to contractor, they get that nasty word change order, tell us what the cost is going to be to change it, comes back to us to approve it, and then they continue moving.

The whole time work on the job has stopped, and residents are increasingly angry because their roads disrupted, they can't get to the grocery store their normal way, and things drag on.

And we're trying to get away from that.

Design build, it's a lot simpler.

We have one point of contact.

Um generally they are among the fastest once you get past the procurement time frame because you are building a team with design build.

So you are selecting usually a joint venture or maybe a large construction company that you really have to go through the RFQ and the RFP process.

That was what the procurement and legal department uh advised me was what needed to be done to get comfortable with the team so they can get comfortable with the level of risk they're taking on, and we can really move forward in a collaborative manner.

Construction management contracts, the ones that we're uh requesting approval for on this particular project.

We have separate contracts with a design entity, architect or engineer, and a separate contract with the contractor, but part of that is those two parties have to talk to each other, so it's kind of like three legs of a stool.

Everybody's working together, even though the we technically have separate contracts with both, the language is such that everyone does work together.

This is often seen as kind of the first step in between design build and traditional design bid build, but this one has other nuances where the costs are very transparent throughout because everyone's sitting at the table together, but having the construction manager involved makes the design better.

When we're going through design, we may have come up with as with these force main projects, you know, two or three alternatives that each one has its pros and cons.

Each one would be a viable option.

One may be lower cost but more disruptive, one may be higher cost but less disruptive.

But ultimately, if we go design bid build, we have to choose a method.

So right off the bat, we're limiting the contractor pool.

We also have to force the contractor into this option when they may be able to do it faster or cheaper this way.

Or maybe they have this one piece of equipment that would allow them to really do the third way in a way that we didn't even know of because the market's changing and technology is changing everything all the time.

Shovels themselves haven't changed, but contracting has changed.

So these two other alternatives to traditional design bid build are really coming into their own.

The infrastructure market nationwide and across Hampton Roads is really picked up on this.

They are a lot of contractors that often don't bid on regular projects because they really like and prefer that collaborative method.

So a little bit about timelines.

Again, designer, construction manager hire it up front.

They're hired together.

They work through design and budgeting at the same time.

So it's in a traditional design bid bill.

The engineer may be telling you what the cost they think is going to be, but you never know until it goes to bid.

Contractors are more involved in the other two, so it's a lot more certainty on the cost up front.

There may be potentials for cost savings, but the biggest thing is that you don't get surprises in the end.

Like I said, this is the same information, but in a matrix view, some people are more matrix-oriented for learning different and comparing and contrasting.

Same thing with contract structures, the red lines on those other slides.

So when would a CMAR project be the right fit?

So for our projects, we're proposing the CMARs because they have very complex phasing constraints usually.

But also we need a little bit of control over the design of the infrastructure.

And these sanitary sewer force mains are very complex because they're related to sewer pumping stations that all have to work together to prevent overflows.

So we we need the contractor at the table to know what we can build efficiently, but we also need one hand on the steering wheel of the design.

Design build is more for something that is pretty straightforward, where it's you know, in infrastructure world, straightforward would be you know, you have this sewer in a certain spot, it needs to be replaced, but it's it's really in the contractor's means and methods as to how quickly they can do it.

Now we can tell them to do something in a certain manner.

But if it's not the way that they are used to doing it, if it's not the fastest way to do it, if it's not the most efficient way to do it, they will charge more.

And it will usually take longer because it's not the best way to get a job done.

So design build, we take a little bit more of a step back.

You know, we're still the owner, we're still responsible for it, we are the face in front of the public.

But for a routine day-to-day discussion of you know, maybe they're digging a trench and maybe there's some bad soil, if they need to make the excavation a little wider to be safe, they can make that decision.

They don't need to go back to the engineer and get a change order for the extra amount of dirt that they dug up and the extra cost.

So design build and CMAR really make sure everyone's working as a team with the end goal in mind.

The flowchart of the CMAR process, I know it's a lot.

We laid this out through working with our procurement and legal department, just so everyone can kind of follow along.

But you start off with a project need, there's an RFQ, request for qualifications.

You could sort of consider that a pre-qualification process, and then that gets narrowed down, and then request for proposals is where it moves forward with you know the entities that you select the entity that you would like to work with.

And then it moves through the process, but everyone is still working as a team together.

So the different projects that I'm proposing to use this for today, I wanted to make sure I pointed them out.

Uh we have five sanitary sewer force mains, they are scattered across the city.

Uh, these are five of our approximately 106 sewer force mains.

The most complicated and largest one that really drove this is in the southwestern part of the city, the lower left, Aberdeen Road force main replacement.

Um a lot of us know Aberdeen Road is a very wide road, so you would think there's a lot of room to work, but there is a lot of traffic, and even closing one lane on that would be a major disruption.

So we want to limit that as much as we can.

And when we did the preliminary engineering for that project, there really are three options, three ways that we could go.

Um, each one of them individually would satisfy the requirements of the consent order, but a lot of them require a decision on how to build the project, how to do the work.

And in today's contracting market, it's it's hard to get contractors.

We I think we've all seen that.

I mean, maybe in our own homes, but definitely in the bidding market.

So by not limiting ourselves, I really think that we can get the best price for it.

The others are all complex in their own rights.

Obviously, they're not all under Aberdeen Road, but uh they are they all do have their nuances, and they are all driven by the need to uh address sanitary sewer uh capacity and regulatory issues.

Um these are some slides on specifics of the projects to narrow down.

So Aberdeen Road, it's over a mile long, it serves uh three pump stations, um, and it will move it away from private structures and it'll it'll make it a lot better for the environmental impacts, potential impacts at the creek crossing.

Right now it is mounted on the side of a bridge.

We would like to make it um a little bit more protected than that.

Now, whether that is under a bridge or in a casing pipe, we have options.

Pump station five, again, it's it's complex because the road that it the pump station is on, that's the only way in and out for those residents.

We don't want to be involved in that whole road because then they can't get in and out of their homes.

So we need to be creative with our contractors to find a solution.

Uh same with pump station 22.

Gilbert Street is a very busy travel road.

Pump station 26 is very risk-driven.

Uh, there are some older plans that show it might be very, very close to the building.

The aerial overlay um shows it might be right at the building.

We wanted to preemptively get away from that and just put it way far away from the building.

And um, this one, it looks like it's crossing the green space, but that is a very large power line going into NASA Langley.

There's also gas and water and the large Hampton Road Sanitation District Force Main out there.

So that one is very complex because we will have to thread the needle through all of those utilities.

Um having a contractor involved of how big is their equipment that they would put on this job rather than just us saying an excavator takes up 20 square feet of space.

We want we want them to help dial it in.

So again, just to summarize why CMAR, you know, I talked through all the different reasons, but ultimately these are the best way to be good stewards of our ratepayer money and also be mindful of the impact that we will have to the residents and businesses.

You know, there is no getting around it.

Construction is disruptive.

But we want to try and do it smartly, we're gonna try to do it efficiently in the least disruptive manner.

Um like I mentioned other localities in Hampton Roads are doing this.

They've used it with great success.

Uh, I believe some of them are predominantly going with alternate project delivery methods for either vertical, uh vertical, like buildings, or linear, which is pipeline work.

Um there was one project or a pair of projects, I believe it was in Chesapeake, that two schools were being built.

One was design bid build, and the other was design build.

And the one that was designed bid build, you know, had the inevitable thing come up, and it led to some pretty large change orders.

But the design build one, they were able to get ahead of it.

Um costs stayed right about where everyone was expecting them to be.

So it was uh pretty good cost control.

Ultimately wound up, I think, being close to the same price because the thing is still in the ground.

You know, you will still have to get around it eventually, but just can you manage that risk up front?

And is it just a surprise thrown on you later in the game?

So uh with that I'll open up to questions.

I'm happy to go back to any of the slides.

Um I know there was a lot on them, but uh this is a big step.

Procurement and I are going to some training next week, and we're hoping to move forward.

Questions, comments from council members.

Okay, well, just to comment.

Um, thank you for thinking of the inconvenience and the disruption that occurs on the streets on any given day and and trying to look for ways to lessen the burden on the citizens, they got to use our street because you know, bridge tunnel project is enough.

And then with our regular road pavings that we have going on, road maintenance, you know, this you know, force main and you know, HRSD projects that have been going on.

So it's a lot to absorb.

So I I appreciate your forward thinking uh in trying to find ways of uh reducing the impact on the citizens with the uh force main uh upgrade.

So thank you for that.

Okay.

All right.

Uh that's all the presentations uh for the afternoon, okay.

Uh any regional issues.

Uh any items for new business.

All right, with that, I'm gonna ask the clerk to read the uh motion for closed session.

The motion required is to convene a closed session pursuant to Virginia Code sections 2.2-3711.a point one to discuss appointments as listed on the agenda.

Point three to discuss the possible disposition of publicly held real property in the Thevis area where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the city.

Point six and point eight to discuss the potential investment of public funds for the Peninsula Airport Commission where bargaining is involved and if discussed publicly would affect the city's financial interest and consultation with legal counsel regarding legal issues affecting same point eight to consult with legal counsel regarding legal options pertaining to a terminated federal grant and legal issues affecting a proposed development project and point seven to consult with legal counsel regarding possible settlement of pending litigation in advance of scheduled mediation session okay we need a motion and a second for closed session so moved Mr.

Mayor Second All right to call a roll councilwoman Bowman aye Vice Mayor Brown aye councilwoman Campbell aye councilwoman Fairby aye councilwoman harper aye councilwoman mudler aye mayor gray aye okay so with that we will convene closed session downstairs on the fifth floor in the community development conference room at 220 uh following the closed session council will reconvene the open meeting in the community development conference room in order to certify the closed session and then proceed to adjourn the meeting so 220 in the fifth floor conference room all right meeting adjourned