And we started.

Yep, we have started.

Okay.

Good evening.

This is the uh Tuesday, October 28th meeting of the Stanford Planning Board.

Um first on our agenda is the planning board minutes from October 21st, 2025.

Um are there any questions from board members about or clarifications about the minutes from last week?

Yeah, uh Jen?

Yes.

Um I think you're reading from the um agenda from the 28th.

Tonight's the 21st.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Uh you are right.

I did pull the wrong one.

I had made the same mistake.

Okay, got it.

Okay, give me just a moment.

Right, I was like, wait, that's not the date today.

Um, all right.

So the appropriate agenda for today, right?

I just pulled it because Leslie had sent us the one for the 28th earlier today.

Um there we go.

All right.

This one does also have a subdivision LEM though.

Um, so first we have the minutes from October 14th.

Um are there any uh questions or amendments for the minutes?

And I'm actually looking at the right packing for them.

Um if there are no questions or amendments.

Uh do we have a few minutes?

Okay.

We have a motion uh to approve the minutes.

I'll make a motion, Jennifer, to approve the minutes from uh okay.

All right, uh motion from Jeremy.

Do I have a second?

A second from chat.

Uh all in favor, please raise your hand.

And the minutes pass.

Thank you.

Um the agenda.

Um our next item is um subdivision, um, subdivision 4054.

Um 434 River Bank Road request for a second 90-day extension of time to file the final map with a new expiration date of February 6th, 2026.

And we have Rick Redness here to speak.

Rick, you can unmute yourself and uh well, I don't know if he even really needs to speak.

It's just um just a matter of of needing extra time.

Um does the board have questions or did Rick did you want to say any anything?

No, there's a lot of points to be put in the field with all the conservation easement.

And so we're busy working on it.

Sorry.

Chat.

I have a question.

Didn't just within the last week or two, didn't we already grant an extension?

And this that was for a different subdivision.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Got it.

Okay.

Any further questions?

Um, do I have a motion on this item then?

Uh chat motion to approve.

Yeah.

Um drive a second.

Um all in favor.

And it passes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Continue staking on.

Um now we have on our agenda uh several capital budget presentations.

Um the first is from uh operations traffic engineering.

Um if you could introduce yourself for the record and present your items.

Sure.

Um good evening, everyone.

Luke Whattonweezer on the city transportation planner and the transportation traffic and parking department.

Um should we share the screen with the budget book pages or uh I don't know if everyone has it in front of them.

What's the other preferred way to go about this?

Uh Chair.

You're muted, Jen.

You're you're muted.

Tony, can uh should we go ahead and screen share the budget pages?

Are you able to assist with that?

Yes, I can.

Thank you.

If that's easier, yeah, okay.

Um all right, so everyone can see see that.

Okay, 121.

Um, so kind of before we get into the um meat and potatoes of our capital budget request for the uh transportation traffic and parking department.

That's this budget was really formed kind of with three main pillars.

Um is capacity.

Uh undertaking capital projects is you know, can take a lot of effort to do so, obviously, but we really as a department try to improve our internal capacity, whether it be taking on designs internally as a department, doing more construction management as a department, um, doing grant management as a department, but also utilizing uh more on-call contracts um for construction, saving time and money by doing that, um, as well as uh building internal capacity related to designers and design firms as well.

So, really about how can we execute capital projects faster and more efficiently so you can bring the greatest benefit to the neighborhood.

So that's kind of pillar one.

Pillar two is really grants, a large portion of our capital uh portfolio as a department is grant funded, whether that be from private funds.

Um, you know, I come to this board maybe every month or so with private contributions from developers, uh, state grants.

I have these only a few months ago.

We came to this board with about 50 million dollars in state grants to support our capital projects and even federal grants.

We do still have some current um federally funded construction projects um and design projects happening right now.

So a lot of these funds you see um in our capital budget are actually to leverage and support those grants, whether it be through design or you know, the required matching funds.

So really the dollar value um and benefit that our capital budget is putting in is really you know, multiply and affect by um all the grant dollars that we're getting.

And then third, and you know, most importantly, a lot of these projects are really rooted in a lot of different planning studies, whether it be the bicycle and pedestrian master plan, the recently adopted Vision Zero um master um action plan, and of course the comprehensive plan.

I know um the city as well as um you all heard a lot from the community.

Um I get up you know, emails and phone calls every day that traffic and roadway infrastructure is probably one of the number one concerns of the residents of Stanford.

And I think that's well reflected in the comprehensive plan as well as some of the other recent planning studies that we've undertaken as a department as a city.

So, you know, I think a big headline for our capital budget is you know, implementing the comprehensive plan, implementing the vision zero action plan, implementing these plans where we've done a lot of public outreach, done a lot of data collection.

And these are um construction projects are really rooted in those planning studies that we've done.

Um and then you know, just obviously all the different you know concerns that we hear from the community.

So that just kind of wanted uh preface all these capital requests with those three main pillars.

Um, and now kind of happy to jump into our first priority if this is in uh priority order as well, these uh requests.

So this is CP 1281 roadway design and uh reconstruction.

We use this for a lot of those designs for those capital projects um that I've mentioned um or grant projects, excuse me, that have come into place.

So our ask is 2.5 million dollars with the million dollars in design, 1.5 million dollars in construction.

Many of this is to support the design for um grant projects such as uh Bullsead, um matching uh six new traffic signals through a CMAC grant, um, redoing the intersectional long ridge, still water, and roxbury to help align and you know traffic expectation traffic growth related to the West Hill and Roxbury uh projects that are coming online, as well as just kind of cleaning up that intersection um and also just going towards safety upgrades to excuse me, safety upgrades to Cortland Avenue where we've um had some recent uh fatalities on it, and then just general construction um design support.

So we have about um a million dollars unfunded.

You can see in the comments section that that's going towards design for existing um lots of projects such as Bridge Street and Third Street.

Um of course, uh a lot of this goes towards um comprehensive plan Keystone project, for instance, um the Ridgeway Bullshead uh mobility vision, which is uh one of the lots of applications that we're submitting for.

Um some of the other uh project requests actually listed out all the specific action um comp plan action items.

This was just too many to list out.

It's you know, you can basically take the connected section of the comp plan and this more or less applies to it.

So um happy to take um any questions for this one.

Um if you could just clarify of the items uh that are listed, which are um grants that have already been secured for which this match would go toward and which ones are sort of still pending.

Sure.

So the 800,000 um is for uh the C Mac Phase H traffic signal project.

That is um secured excuse me.

And then for Long Ridge and Bullsead or Long Ridge Stillwater Oxberry and Bull said, we are submitting those grant applications um in two weeks um to West Cog in the state, which we should be hearing back shortly thereafter.

Um, but by the time this capital project, the money is you know available come July 1st, we would have those you know committed and secured and we would want to start work as um soon as possible, basically on design.

Got it.

Okay, so the 800 is already secured.

Um sorry, the 800 match for the 3.5 is already secured.

Um you are applying for the 4 million for Bull's head um and for design of Longridge, and then the additional 700 200 goes toward Cortland.

So that's a kind of a shovel ready project.

Yep, yeah, we'll definitely be ready by the time this money is available.

And then the construction and design support is some that's like clerk of the works, right?

So actually support um our construction.

So we have the budget for our clerks of the works, um, as well as you know, needing some.

If you want to fix a section of sidewalk, um add a new crosswalk and different things like that, so it will get some money there.

But that's all something that we would easily spend out um, you know, the next fiscal year.

Sure.

Okay.

Um if you could in an updated form, just uh under the funding sources indicate uh the additional funding as well.

Um in addition to how you have it in the comments, that'd be very helpful.

Um so all the dollar maps listed here would be city bond funds.

Um like the 800,000 is actually a capital count separate for that.

Okay.

So these all would be still bond funds.

When we get a grant, we then normally create a separate capital project for them.

Um we come back to your board and everything like that.

Okay.

Um are there any further questions from board members on this item?

Okay.

And you may continue.

Um great.

So um number two, this is our vision zero action plan implementation.

So um adopted the vision zero action plan.

Excuse me.

Um April uh 2025 uh by your board.

Uh last year you put in 500,000, which you're able to spend down.

Um the amount available actually um it's updated to about $1,500 and 50 cents.

So the idea is that we want to spend down the half a million dollars each capital construction season, which doesn't totally align with our capital budget cycle.

So we spent down the money summer 2025 construction season from you know last year's capital budget.

The unfunded 500,000 will go towards 2026 construction.

This that request you're going to right now will be spent down during 2027 construction.

Um, but you know, as shown by the amount available, which actually needs to get updated, we basically zeroed out for our construction season, the Vision Zero um account, which went towards things such as um crosswalk and sidewalk and traffic calming in front of schools and on the high injury network, as well as um actually uh uh citywide education campaign um related to vision zero roadway safety.

But of course, this account really we hone in on our vision vision zero action plans high injury network map where um we're able to do kind of quick uh hits such that's raise crosswalks, bump ads, sidewalks, things of that nature.

All right.

Um thanks for the clarification on the timing of this end.

I know it's unfortunate that the bonding occurs right before in the middle of the summer construction season.

Yeah, it's a funky cycle.

Yeah.

Um look, this may be um slight slightly off topic, but um uh the um orange blinking lights that are typically at schools, are they controlled by the signal the city's signalization computer?

So I'm gonna go in the limb.

Is this are these like located at crosswalks?

Or these the uh like speed signs and say the speed limit?

Uh speed signs.

Speed signs, gotcha.

Um no, so those aren't necessarily controlled by our central traffic operations center here.

Um those are basically, you know, it's like it knows the day and time, and you know, so it's only flashing during like you know, seven to nine and then two to three uh Monday through Friday.

Those are not centrally controlled.

Yeah.

Um because I uh I um one one uh in in my neighborhood uh caught my eye.

It was um a day that the schools were closed and and it was still flashing at 10 p.m.

Um if you send me an email, I could definitely have a cruise check that out.

Like we don't input the calendar of the board of ed into the system.

We generally just know you know, Monday through Friday.

Uh got it.

Yeah, September through June basically.

Um but if it's flashing at 10, I can definitely have a cruise go check that out.

However, something like that would get funded through this type of program um project.

Okay, thank you.

I'll I'll um send you an email.

All right.

Any further questions?

All right, onward.

Citywide signals.

So um City has 211 traffic signals.

It's the second largest city owned uh signal system in the entire state.

So this is really to go to upgrades, such as actually upgrading the physical light itself, um, buying things such as ADA compliant push buttons, um, upgrading our traffic signal servers and controllers.

So at each intersection, you may actually see a big kind of metal box that's actually the brain of the traffic signal sitting right there.

Uh thought times those need to come up um and be upgraded, upgrading traffic signal uh camera equipment so we can actually detect uh cars better um and adjust the lights accordingly for more efficient traffic signal system.

Um and again, this also kind of helps uh support some grant projects as well.

I do want to point out just some of the um uh balances here.

So the C Mac phase H traffic signal upgrades is the like 3.4 million um sitting in there.

Actually, I can give you better breakdown in five seconds.

So we have three million dollars in uh grant that's in this account.

So three million is kind of that separate um phase H.

And we have about call three hundred thousand dollars in private uh contributions that we receive from developments.

So those are kind of earmarked towards the signals right in front of those developments where that kind of logical geographic nexus is.

Um, and then the unfunded, um, which actually I believe is should have been updated to show kind of more basically 100,000, because I think Tony advanced about 1.5 million dollars, um, which we're going to spend down um in POs and projects in about the next month or so.

Um so really we would only have available in the account 100,000 or so.

Um, but those numbers don't get reflected necessarily on this chart.

So I just want to kind of clarify that for everybody.

And then you can see the comprehensive plan strategies listed out in the comment section as well.

Yeah, so and kind of the the headline is 100,000 more or less available come July 1st, if not funded.

Okay, um, I don't think there are any questions on this.

Do you appreciate the clarification on the balances?

I think this was one that in the last capital budget cycles.

Um we had noticed the high balance.

So yeah, no, it's I it's recognized it's high, but there is some method you know behind that.

So um this is uh number four.

This is a new project.

So this is the Bedford Street and Summer Street study.

So this comes right out of the comprehensive plan as a keystone project.

Um basically to quote investigates the evolving Bedford and Summer Street area north of downtown to enhance multimodal connections, prioritizing pedestrian bike and bus to the city center and sports plan transition to a mid-density walkable mixed-use urban zone.

So a lot of times we hear concerns about you know upzoning and new development with the infrastructure not catching up to it.

Um or not being ready.

So this is us doing like a more comprehensive uh planning and design study, basically um to upgrade the infrastructure on Benford Street and Summer Street, basically from you know, Bullset and north of kind of downtown in it um anticipation of uh the comprehensive plans uh planned land use changes.

So again, this is key as a keystone project right out of the comprehensive plan.

Um really kind of support the land use changes anticipated around there to create a more multimodal network, um significant community engagement related to what the streetscape design is, the complete street design is going to be.

Both these roads are also on our high injury network with a lot of high injury um intersections themselves with aging infrastructure.

So this would really allow us to get a comprehensive view on some of the uh widest and most heavily traveled city-owned roadways as well.

Um so you know, happy to take any questions related to this.

Um so these would all be design and public engagement funds to position to apply for construction afterwards.

Exactly.

I mean, construction would probably be in the tens of millions of dollars, um, 10 plus because there's multiple aging traffic signals on the corridor, sidewalks are in uh deteriorated um condition, um, you know, new bus shelters, new lighting, new bike lanes, um, different things of that nature.

So this design would go help and support us in getting grants, which again goes back to my original point of capital dollars from the city going towards leveraging significant um capital fund construction funds in the form of grants.

All right.

Um Chad, I see your hand.

Yeah.

Um let me just lower it.

Um Luke, the um how long would this kind of a study uh take from from let's say from the time it's um uh noticed to the time it's completed?

Yeah, I mean my goal is not just to have this be like a study per se, but also like design work, maybe up to you know a 30 to 60 percent level, just to better position us for grant funds is also just speed of construction.

So uh, you know, something of this, you know, scale.

I wouldn't want to rush it either.

Um, there's a lot of impacted um impacted.

There's a lot of properties along the corridor, um a lot of residents in the area.

So I would say maybe one to two years just from start to you know, finish tying the bow, basically.

Um course, my goal would be to kind of keep that on the faster side, just to you know have as much impact as possible on the community quickly, not have something drawn out and leveraging grant opportunities as soon as possible when they come available.

Okay.

Since I know the Bedford Street one was um a source of um quite a bit of feedback, I think, uh, relative to the comprehensive plan.

Um at the time, uh and there are and there are multiple approaches that I believe that your study of Bedford Street is going to be exploring.

Um what would be the approval process um for once that study is completed?

Will the planning board have another opportunity to see what which approach the uh traffic engineering is actually recommending or or how how would that work?

Yeah, so this is maybe I think you're referring to kind of like the re-imagic Bedford Street Initiative.

Um so this capital request is separate from that.

Um yeah, so this is really like from Ridgeway to like North Street, essentially, the downtown, really kind of that kind of downtown north um corridor essentially.

Uh oh, okay.

I think the planning board's role um would be, you know, as the per charter the approval of capital projects, right?

So I plan on getting grants for any of them, um, either project, and basically having to come to you for appropriations, at which point I'd be more than happy to go over the project um details.

And I think during this process, Bedford Street and Summer Sheet study, due to it being so um, well, keystone to the comprehensive project, I'd probably also want to um, you know, tie in the planning board and maybe do a midtime, you know, presentation to the planning board to get your feedback, which would be so vital.

Kind of like what I did with the Vision Zero Action Plan, for instance.

So okay, all right, good.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Um, I know we don't normally get into the weeds of study implementation, but I just want to know if this strikes me as one where including some like kind of tactical urbanism tests seems like that would be um a good opportunity and way to advance uh the design piece of this.

Yeah, that's uh and I think we as a department definitely been very big into tactical urbanism.

You know, everyone loves or hates our white poles that we have all across the city.

Um that allows us to test out uh different things.

So I think this could be certainly an example of that.

And it allows us also to implement some you know changes that we're getting out of the planning study when we may have a you know three-year grant timeline.

So um, you know, I take that point very well, um, Chair.

Um I think we can move to the next item.

Um transit upgrades.

So I don't think you know, when I tell this to most people, they're very shocked, but there are over three million bus rides on CT transit Stanford division um every year, uh, which is really extraordinary when you think about it.

Um I don't think most people realize that.

It's also important to point out 76% of parcels are within 10 minute walk um to a bus stop.

And the 2035 uh comprehensive plan found a significant, they did a great analysis of our existing um bus network, including its uh ridership and how much service was offered by CT Transit.

And they found a mismatch with that, right?

So higher ridership routes and not have the same level of service and frequency that they really were demanded or required to offer um proper service.

So we here heard a lot from the comprehensive plan outreach engagement that you know, people would ride the bus if it was better.

Um, but it's not.

So um I actually just had a meeting last week with Lisa Rivers, who is the um director of public transit for the state of Connecticut for Condot, kind of talking about how as a city we want to really upgrade um and work with them on upgrading our transit system here in Stanford, knowing that's vital for um those who don't even afford a car, don't um don't own a car, just trying to get around congestion reduction, you know, greenhouse gas emission reduction, things of that nature.

So this fund will be actually partnering with the state on a redesign of the network, looking at you know, trying to maximize frequency, service and routes.

In addition, you know, the funds can also go towards uh supportive infrastructure such as bus shelters, uh bus stop upgrades for ADA compliance and other tools that can really kind of enhance transit.

So we looked at the comprehensive plan and really wanted to focus a lot on bus um enhancements.

I think actually one of the strategies from the comprehensive plan was transit upgrades.

So that's where you see comprehensive plan, all the strategies are at the bottom, really focus in on transit upgrades.

Uh and this is where this money and this request for the capital project came from.

It's really focusing on transit, something the city's never really done before.

Um, you know, we do sell ads in the bus shelters, but we actually only have $2,000 um available to use for bus shelter upgrades.

Um, I guess ads never just didn't sell the way they used to.

So really looking to see the city kind of stepping in a little bit more and taking ownership of our transit network to an extent.

So um both service upgrades with the state as well as um infrastructure that we can control.

Um I'm I'm curious kind of what the state would be pitching in into uh an effort, a redesign effort like this.

Um I don't think we've got in like the full numbers.

I actually just emailed the project manager from the state today um asking just kind of Lisa was the head, she directed me to the project manager.

So I just emailed the project manager today when I set up a meeting to get into a little bit more detail.

Uh Norwalk did this for about half a million dollars, 450.

Understanding ours would be a larger network.

So we would want to probably, you know, assume the state would be putting in more.

Um but again, this is kind of us as a city, you know, saying to the state, you know, a lot of times cities will just go to the state asking them to do things.

I think if we're able to put money on the table, not only does it give us a big owner bigger ownership stake and kind of helping us chart our own um you know, path and vision for transit, but it just kind of allows us to be more serious with the state too.

And I think takes and they'll be more willing to put money down as well.

All right, that makes sense.

I think if you're able to get um have more some more specifics on that to add to the capital budget request, that's certainly helpful to know that um yeah, there's basically a match in the investment.

And um, under the method used in estimating cost um right now, just says past experience.

I think just noting that you that you know, Norwalk has recently undertaken this, and then so this partially is based on that estimate is helpful.

Okay, yep.

No, thank you.

Um next one, this is uh CP 8705 bicycle and pedestrian facilities improvements.

Um this is really for upgrades such as crosswalks, bike lanes, bike racks, um, things of that nature.

You can see in the comment section there how many um uh action plan or comprehensive plan uh strategies this references, as well as from the bicycle um pedestrian plan and the visions or action plan.

So again, rooted very strongly in previous planning studies.

You should note uh 223,000 of the uh unfunded amount is a state grant, um, which your board I think accepted back in the spring and summer of this year, uh, which is really for a um multi-use uh planning and design for a multi-use path along Weed Avenue, which we received a grant for, and that's also the um city's match to that um design.

So it's really not a ton of money available when you kind of remove the grant out of it.

So that's why we're coming to you for 250,000, allowing us to install things such as new bike lanes or bike racks, but as well as crosswalks, um, bump ads, curb ramps for ADA compliance medians and other vulnerable user facilities.

But we do try to use this a little bit more on the bike side.

Um, our traffic engineer Ji Hong's been working diligently on some bike lane upgrades and safety upgrades in the city, which this funds would be going to be pretty straightforward.

Um traffic management studies.

So uh the city re-timed all of our traffic signals back in 2019, which was the first time done since the 90s.

Um, however, that data was actually collected in 2017.

So for all intents and purposes, a lot of our traffic signal system actually lives in 2017, because that's the data that was collected.

So maybe noticed some things have changed since 2017.

A lot of people are working from home more.

We've seen new growth and development in the city.

So it's time, and we want to try to get on a better cycle and cadence of upgrading our timings for our traffic signals to better um respond to the changes in traffic patterns that we're seeing in the city.

So this is really focusing on kind of like the downtown core area as well as in around 95, as we see that's uh highest traffic area of the city, and also the kind of the area of greatest need.

So one thing to note, and Tony um chime in here if I'm not saying this correctly, but the unfunded 135 isn't really there.

So there's zero dollars on you know available and unfunded.

And I don't know, Tony, if I did not do that justice, please correct me.

Yeah, that 135 is an is an old appropriation.

We um it's old.

I need to sunset it.

So it should be zero at this point.

Yeah, so for all intents and purposes, um, there's zero dollars available in this project.

Um, and the 400,000 would allow us to do um basically it's actually a lot of traffic counts and then analysis, and then we actually just type it into the computer.

But um, you'd be surprised how much data collection goes into this too.

So it's really to make sure our signals are not living in year 2017 anymore.

And we're I think everyone complains about uh traffic in Sanford in our signal system.

So we're really trying to address that with this.

Um just to clarify, so this would go toward the study, and then we would separately have to fund uh whatever re-timing uh capital needs.

The the re so this would basically go towards um a consultant who would um underdo the undertake the data collection and then look at all the numbers basically and recommend new uh timings.

Uh the timing implementation itself is done internally by our uh signal division.

So it's really just kind of a one appropriation essentially.

Got it.

Okay.

Um Jeremy, I see your hand.

Thanks, Jennifer.

Thank you, Luke.

Um, my question would be you know, I I understand that so with the the data collected in 2017 and getting implemented in 2019, you know, is there still going to be that type of delay in getting that information, you know, from the study implemented, or is there a faster is the turnaround time going, you know, has that improved just with technology?

Um that's still roughly where we're at.

My goal is for it to be faster.

Um it was a like I came into the department in 2019, so as a little before my time, but I if my memory serves me correctly, we are also implementing a state grant to actually install fiber communication cables to all of our traffic signals at the same time.

So we couldn't really do the timings without the signals that cables being installed and upgrading our uh control center.

So that was all being happening at the same time.

That's all done now.

So we do have more of a centralized traffic control center.

So I think once the data's collected and the um timings are uh proposed to us, we're able to implement that faster.

I think that's what happened, but well, again, it's just when I was starting off.

Great, thank you.

Yep.

Okay.

Okay, that makes sense.

I I recalled that there was a significant expense involved in the last retiming effort, but okay, so it was the fiber.

That makes sense.

All right, uh, next item.

Um, sidewalk extensions.

Um, this is really to construct missing uh sections of sidewalks.

So for instance, you'll see uh Soundview Avenue between Willowbrook and Tupper and um the park at uh Cummings didn't have a sidewalk, so it requires just a little bit more engineering work to design a new sidewalk versus just replacing and installing a new one that was there before.

Excuse me.

So this is really to kind of implement those missing connections.

Um we're currently slated for uh installing the Lawn Avenue sidewalk probably in a few weeks, um, which is a gap actually from Hamilton to Custer, where there is a bus stop and there's actually a significant amount of charter oak um affordable housing um facilities.

So that encumbered amount will that's locked up in the PO for that lawn avenue count, which will probably zero out um once the invoices are paid in the next month or so.

And as you can see, the amount available is zero and the unfunded amount is zero.

Um so we basically completely zero uh for everything here.

So in one of the you can see all of our comp plan strategies below, it's really trying to fill in those missing pieces.

Like for instance, um, Harvard Av does not actually have a sidewalk.

Um, that's a big gap of sidewalk missing um from uh around Commerce Drive and West Main Street.

So we're looking to get some you know increased funds to connect that.

We actually did have a fatality on the road uh last year, or not last year, a few years ago um around there where there was no sidewalk.

So it's really kind of filling in those missing pieces of sidewalk through this account.

Okay.

Um I think as you as we get closer to final submission of this being able to list out the anticipated segments, it'll be helpful here.

Okay.

Um chat, I see your hand.

Yeah, thank you.

Um let me just make sure I'm there we are there.

We are um Luke, I assume you have a whole listing of such um uh needed sidewalk extensions.

Um uh they'll get implemented over time.

Um so um this money, um, what percentage of the total um that that still needs to be done.

Do you think this money would um take care of like for this uh year's request basically?

Um well, yeah, this 250,000 that you're requesting for this particular fiscal year, it'll only take care of a segment of the total need.

I'm trying to understand how large that segment is.

Right.

I mean, it it varies, and part of the reason we kind of have the separate account is due to the fact that it does require some more engineering, which can increase costs too, right?

So I think like on Harvard, there's probably a little more of a retaining wall we have to build.

Um, and maybe that's why you know the sidewalk wasn't there before.

So um Tom, you know, has the account to kind of just rip up um deteriorated sidewalks and put back, which is just you may not need a retaining wall to get built, or may not need new drainage to go in.

So because you know, we may be adjusting curb lines as part of this.

So there's just a little bit more um kind of known unknowns, so to speak.

I can't believe I just quoted him.

Um meeting.

Um, but anyway, there's some more known unknowns.

Um that's hard for me to say, like, you know, this block of sidewalks only 100,000 to redo.

Um, I think we have that for the reconstruction side where we know it's about you know X amount of dollars for X, you know, Y number of feet, but here is kind of harder to say.

So I can't definitely be set give you an answer, and I don't want to give you a wrong answer.

Okay.

You know, like for instance, the sidewalk on Long Ridge Road is two thirds of a mile, and that's a million dollars.

And that's a sidewalk extension, so to speak.

There's nothing there before.

Okay.

Um your list, I mean, in in theory, once you complete implementation of all the missing sections of sidewalk that you you've already identified.

Um this project uh potentially goes away.

I I'm not suggesting when that could be 2035 by the time we're finished, you know, um implementing.

Um but um unless new developments, you know, um precipitate, you know, other extensions, is that possible?

Or or once this is fully um implemented, um this piece does it truly go away?

I mean, I don't think you know, at least in the near future, we would ever stop building sidewalks, right?

I think there's always missing pieces.

There are always places where sidewalks end too, right?

You know, Hague Avenue, the sidewalk just ends randomly.

Um and a lot of that I think is also part of the development uh patterns of the city, right?

You can clearly see the earlier developments have nice wide concrete sidewalks or early subdivisions, I should say.

Um, and then farther north you go, the sidewalk requirements must have gone away or something because they don't have sidewalks.

So um I think there's always gonna be space for sidewalks getting built.

Um, whether it be you know, uh continuing up Long Ridge Road, for instance, um, continuing up, you know, rebuilding on or continuing up on High Ridge Road, um continuing on Hague Avenue.

There's no sidewalk on the east side of Newfield Avenue, um, north of uh Belltown Road.

There's only a sidewalk on the west side.

So that would be a sidewalk extension.

Um, so it's really finding kind of those missing pieces and gaps.

Um so I think you know this would probably live on for a while.

Then how do you prior prioritize which ones you do in any year?

Yeah, um, we do kind of have a little bit of a criteria for um sidewalks.

A lot of it is based on kind of two weighted um factors.

One, uh uh, you know, demographic information, right?

So if we have a significant um population that does not own a car or um is over 65 or under 18 places where people may not have uh cars much, uh we'll try to prioritize that.

It's also based around um pedestrian generating facilities, parks, schools, transit centers, uh, community centers where we kind of people can uh walk.

Um so for instance, Soundview Avenue connected a whole neighborhood to Cummings Park.

Lawn Avenue on a bus route.

Um connecting.

Umnecting existing sidewalk and Hamilton Avenue.

There's a bus route on it, and it also goes right to a large Charter Oak housing facility on Custer Street.

So we do try to look at where that need is and prioritize from there.

Um build out um from there.

So that's kind of like the planning process that I undertake as a transportation planner is really identifying where those mobility needs are.

We're also undertaking right now all citywide ADA um compreh uh comprehensive ADA transition plan for street and sidewalks, which would also give us a good roadmap too.

Um and that's identified all those community facilities and demographic information that I previously mentioned.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

And last but not least.

Yep.

This is a um new project.

So we are currently undertaking the um in partnership with the land use bureau, the cove east side uh neighborhood study.

Uh this is the first study done, I think since the 90s, if I'm not mistaken.

So this is anticipated to be completed come um spring of 2026.

So we want to get started immediately with uh design development for grant projects, as well as you know, if we're able to do some kind of quick early win projects, such as you know, doing a quick segment of sidewalk on co road or adding some crosswalks on Core Road, rebuilding some sidewalks around um, you know, Hamilton, uh not Hamilton Avenue, um, Willowbrook, for instance.

So that's why I split up the design development construction related cost of the $500,000.

So it's gonna be for design.

Um, you know, one of the big transportation uh parts that we're gonna be seeing from the Coby side plan, which will be coming to your board for for approval, is really Cove Road.

So there's no sidewalk on the north side to Cove Road, um east of Willowbrook.

Um there's some traffic congestion concerns we see on Cove Road, so that's why we want those design development dollars to be able to quickly start designing um 100% construction plans to go get a grants, really improving our grant changes chances.

So um this is so we can continue the progress that we've made in the planning studies from the COVID side um plan.

All right, yeah.

We had a lot of folks in that part of town come testify um on the comp plan.

So definitely would be good to be able to move expeditiously on recommendations from the neighborhood study.

Yep.

All right.

Um I also just want to commend you on spending down quite a lot in the past fiscal year.

And I think I recall last year uh going through seeing a lot of projects that seemed worthy but that had high balances.

So um thanks for walking us through the current state of things.

Thank you.

And thank you um for having me.

I guess um happy to take any other questions as you uh go through your deliberations.

Sure, thank you very much.

Have a good night, everyone.

All right.

Um do you want to know?

I think while uh at the tail end of that, uh Bill Levin hopped on with us.

He has been on and off throughout the the process.

Yeah, I got it.

Uh so next we have operations fleet management.

And we have uh Bill and Brandon here.

Um identify ourselves for the record and walk us through.

Oh Bill, we can't hear you.

Which is uh click on the little microphone at the top right, um, and then see if it changes your microphone settings.

Like there's a little carrot arrow.

The little down arrow.

No, still can't hear you.

microphone at the top right um and then see if it changes your microphone settings like there's a little carrot arrow the down arrow no still can't hear you i could sort of kick things off uh bill if you want me to and while you try to work on that um so thank you everybody uh my name is brandon i am an energy and sustainability engineer uh with the city's engineering department uh i've been working with bill on this project uh who and i have been kind of teaming up uh both our departments for uh supporting our fleet electrification um so this request is to add on to an existing capital uh project um where we are requesting 120 thousand dollars in city bond and 1800 in a forthcoming state grant through uh the department of energy and environmental protection um this the goal of this is to um basically put in place chargers that would support um the planned fleet electrification for departments such as vehicle uh fleet management uh highways parks as well as facilities um and so this total of three hundred thousand dollars would be allocated to support roughly six to eight uh level two uh charging ports at each uh site um we are also you know Bill could probably speak more to this but we're um planning on the uh having a pool fleet that's currently housed in the government center to be electrified um and so it's really critical to have um charging stations at the vehicle maintenance facility so that way we can properly work on those vehicles um if Bill's mic was working I'm sure he would say we have a whole slew of vehicles that are very ready to be um electrified uh very good candidates or for our light and medium duty fleet um and then this goes right along with um both the comprehensive uh plan as well as uh the mayor's uh 2023 uh climate executive order which uh kind of insisted that departments uh try to find ways to mitigate uh greenhouse gas consumption reliance on fossil fuels in any way possible um so this is really a very key step into making that happen because we can't have the EVs without means of charging them um and so in this account there's an existing 125 thousand dollars that was approved in a previous fiscal year the plan would be to spend that down before the end of this fiscal year uh and that would be to support these initial chargers at vehicle maintenance so that way we can more quickly electrify the pool fleet and other um light duty vehicles so that way we can actually service those vehicles um any questions uh yes so I know that on this under justification um there's a note on cost savings as well as a positive operational impact um do you have any uh at least preliminary figures on what the um kind of life cycle cost savings is of the move to electrification um yeah I don't remember maybe maybe it's got changed but in generally in cost savings um EVs uh do have a lot fewer moving parts um than a typical um internal combustion engine vehicle again this is more Bill's expertise uh but um in general we would be able to save a lot on operational costs especially because our current fleet is is very old as is um and so to have um electrified fleet that's much more fuel efficient um less fewer parts it would lead to some some operational savings i don't have that calculated as of right now but that's something we can certainly get to you um once we um just run some numbers uh yeah I think you know uh it's okay that you have it at your fingertips but I do think being able to enumerate um some estimates on that would be helpful um my hunch is this is the kind of item that once it gets down to it with once it gets to the next uh steps with border finance and border reps um it can kind of be seen as like a oh we can do this later sort of thing um so the um the operational impact uh figures can be helpful uh yeah no yeah I appreciate you pointing that out though it's it's definitely something that I could see being you know we could push it later but um you know in order to catch kind of carry this out we would need to actually have the chargers in place before we uh start doing anything but I I really appreciate that point so thank you.

Um Brandon uh Bill this this may be more of a question for Tony.

Um Tony, at the pre-planning meeting, I remember we had decided that we were going to be making an adjustment to the amount that was bonded versus the state grant.

Um can you uh refresh my memory?

Um I think the 120 under bonding uh was gonna uh reduce to 50.

And then the uh and and that difference was gonna go back into the uh state grant.

Yeah, so when when we left the pre-planned meeting, um we we were talking about changing these numbers, and then I think Brandon, Bill and uh Matt, director of operations decided to leave it the way the way it is.

It's a 6040 split, I believe, for the 300,000.

And um and then I'll go along Brandon is looking to uh spend that 125 now to get things going.

And trying to have to elaborate on that.

Yeah, yeah, happily.

Um, so really this comes down to timing.

Um right now um Eversource has um rebates um available for EV charging infrastructure.

Those are going to be drastically reduced uh come January of 2026.

But if we are able to get our applications in, uh we could kind of placehold those rebates to help lower the cost of the project and probably get more out of it.

Um and so it's really important that we kind of set aside this 125 uh from this the secondary request.

Um because if we were to kind of tack that on as our match and lower the the amount of city bond, we won't be able to use that or um apply for any of the rebates um until uh the the money's ultimately approved um and the the we work with the the state to get the grant.

Um so that's one aspect to it.

And then the other is the sunsetting of the uh inflation reduction act.

There are believe it or not, still tax credits available for EV charging infrastructure.

Those are going to be going away um by June 30th of 2026.

And so if we can move and get these uh chargers installed at vehicle maintenance sooner rather than later, we can also take advantage of that funding.

Okay, thank you, Brandon.

That that uh addresses the question.

Thanks.

No problem.

Um, I guess relate to that.

Um is there um this next round of the state grant program that this would um match for?

Is there a time urgency or time sensitivity on accessing those funds?

Um uh urgency on on our side or this the state's side.

Well, I um for the funds that you're requesting for next fiscal year.

Are do you know if the state is uh trying to spend down the allotment by a certain time?

Because again, I think that can be helpful in considering um kind of which projects to prioritize if we know that there's a grant um pool that may expire um that can be uh helpful uh to know in the context of things.

Yeah, I don't I don't have a sense of that.

Um these are gonna be state funds, so they're not much as at risk as other federal funds that are out there.

Um but they are going to be releasing the round uh to apply for grant funding uh late Q1 of 2026.

They were actually planning on doing it uh in 2025, but some internal delays uh according to my contact at deep had caused them to kind of push that till next year.

Um but this is a grant that we've uh applied for in the past and have won um we get very favorable kind of points uh uh for this for this particular particular types of projects.

So um that doesn't quite answer your question, but um it's uh yeah, thanks.

Um so and this other item, the storage building at City Yard.

Bill Lany Lock.

Bill, there's a a call-in number if you go to the agenda, you could just call in on your cell phone and that might work actually.

I just thought of that.

So pause for that because the short-term capital items are also for Bill to present.

I do want to take I suppose this moment of pause to acknowledge and appreciate Chet for stepping into the latest round of the pre-meetings.

There's a lot of walking through these proposals before they come to this planning board meeting.

So and this was this was a particularly complex bunch.

So thank you.

If we skip ahead and do uh the special revenue funds with uh Kevin Murray and to give Bill some time.

Sure, yeah.

Yeah, situated.

Okay.

We can do that.

Um right.

So next we're gonna skip to item four.

Uh Terry Connors rink upgrades.

Yes, good evening.

Can you guys hear me?

Yes, we can.

Yes, uh good evening, everyone.

Um the first one for special revenue is Terry Connor's ice rink.

Um we do not have a request for this fiscal year, but we would like to project um out years request um and just explain what the balance is going to be used for.

There is a significant balance um um available balance that will be going towards the cooling tower uh replacement.

Um this is also an upgrade to the plate uh for the gaskets and also the deskant wheel uh for dehumidifier and the um I'm sorry uh also also the bleacher upgrades within the um the stadium seating within Terry Connors.

So the out the out years um request is obviously it's gonna build an account for the low e-thermal ceiling upgrade.

So we're projecting this to be done um in a phase and in two phases, obviously, um, to get the threshold um in the slab.

Also this uh the ice the ice rink floor project done.

So we're actually asking money for 27, 28, and 2029.

So the out year request is just to for your knowledge.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's very time.

The multi-year planning on that.

Yep.

So kind of the same approach with Brennan golf course.

We do have um a balance.

Um we have actually two projects, 1.6 uh million dollar projects is going for the irrigate irrigation upgrade project.

Um, there will be a clerk assigned to it.

There is a design architect that is designing an irrigation project that will exhaust that um the capital account.

We do have another um, we do have uh another balance within another project that will be towards the uh go towards the um upgrades of the maintenance building for ADA um accessibility in regards to the bathrooms, the clubhouse upgrades, the roof.

Um there is also um an above ground uh gasoline storage tank that needs to be um moved above ground.

Um so that would be done with the balance that is associated with this uh this availability.

Um yes, this um there is the request will be an out year request for additional funds to support the upgrades of the maintenance building that includes the pro shop and the uh the off the back offices for the staff in the locker rooms all right, and that's it for the special revenue.

Okay, thank you.

Um uh has uh excuse me.

Uh could I just ask one other question?

I'm sorry.

Um Kevin, I I I think we discussed this, but I'm uh I kind of lost it in the translation.

Um for Brendan golf course, the um the off-year stuff is uh understood, but um I don't see the um mention um of the sprinkler system uh in either the comments or the project description.

Where where should I find that then and when is that done and under what funds?

So there's um there's two capital counts.

The first the sprinkler projects under CP 3158.

For Brendan golf course, the um the off year stuff is uh understood but um where uh i don't see the um mention um of the sprinkler system uh in either the comments or the project description where where should i find that then and when is that done and under what funds so there's um there's two capital counts the first the sprinkler projects under cp3158 um and um the other project which um has the balance with the maintenance uh shop upgrades is cp 7150 okay but we don't have any um um capital budget request uh documents for those two no i don't well it's in the um tony where would that be um no yeah you're not seeing those because there's no new request for those uh two projects okay okay all right all right thank you so the sprinkler is would be uh uh a future year project as well yeah that that's that's 1.6 million that was approved a year or two ago um and i believe they're you know they're they're gonna plan on design sometime this year and uh do the construction next year um it's to be determined still okay all right yeah yeah i think the sprinklers were um two fiscal years ago not the most recent one okay thank you um if uh bill is still figuring out audio should we move to um continue through parks uh he there is a call in number so let's give it a try um okay oh so let me um yeah that call in number should be bill i would have been chatting with him offline about it okay cool yeah that's me i'm here for unmute oh oh we can do it yeah you're here and we can hear you too great all right that's great sorry about sorry about that everybody um so again i'm Bill Clouse Fleet Manager for the city um the first project up before you is for the storage building at City Yard it's to erect a storage building um 75 by 150 um that may actually increase in size at the request of director Keonis um the original request was 300 000 which was for the building um this additional request for 100 000 will be for the actual assembly of the building on the concrete pad um this will save us a lot of money in operational maintenance costs throughout the year um every year at this time we are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime in parts to prepare the highway fleet for leaf and snow season because they're stored outside in the sun the salt air the rain and everything else throughout the year um so that's really the the basis of this project here okay um I think if you could I'm I recall the first piece that's coming before us before I think if you could just um update the comments to include what you were just saying about the um the positive operational impact and and kind of what's being spent right now um due to the lack of this that would be helpful again this strikes me as the kind of item that is easy to kind of knock off at the end of the capital budget deliberations um but knowing that it has that positive operational impact is is fairly useful okay no problem um Jeremy I see your hand yeah Jennifer I think my only question would be uh for the justification should they check off cost savings as well would that help with that yes adding adding the cost savings yeah um and wait and we already have the continuous on running project okay um there no further questions we can move to the um short term financing so I have two short-term capital financing projects um each fiscal year the top one you'll see the short term equipment that is C65202 the request is for just over 1.1 million dollars it is for 20 I believe like 26 pieces of various equipment required this is smaller type equipment then would you would consider a truck um as well as a a little 1850 toters for the solid waste department the garbage cans that all the citizens um receive um the bottom is C65200

It is for 20, I believe like 26 pieces of various equipment required.

This is smaller type equipment than would you would consider a truck, um, as well as a little over 1850 toters for the solid waste department, the garbage cans that all the citizens receive.

That request is just over 3.7 million dollars.

Um this is for heavy-duty vehicles, medium-duty vehicles, as well as a few pieces of heavy equipment and a street sweeper.

Uh I can take any questions you have, just to note that the average life expectancy, uh the average life right now of the rearload garbage trucks, for example, is 13 and a half years old, and the target we're shooting for is six to eight years old.

Um the maintenance on this population of trucks last year was 410,000.

That's 23 trucks plus 410,000 to maintain.

Um, and we're having a fleet availability rate of about 65 percent um on the refuse fleet, which is uh not good, it's not sustainable, it's requiring a lot of maintenance dollars to keep on the road as well as overtime to get the trucks back in time for solid waste to do their routes the next day.

Um and it's also impacting solid waste overtime budget because there are days where they don't have enough trucks to finish their routes and they have to double up um creating overtime.

Got it.

Um and we did and we just approved a supplemental for some uh trucks recently as well.

Um every year um we're um are you able to um kind of help to to rank the relative priority of these items?

Um I know all of these are items that are probably operating beyond their useful life, and we're almost never able to fund all of them.

Um so having a sense of um priority is is helpful.

Um the priority would be rear load refuse trucks, the two wheel loaders, and then the heavy-duty plow trucks.

Um those would definitely be my top.

Um it should be noted that there are a lot of organizations, such as the American Public Works Association, uh NAFA, which is a national administration of fleet administrators, a National Association of Fleet Administrators that uh recommend that vehicle replacement fund be 10% of the replacement value.

If you had to replace the operations fleet department right now, is just over 65 million dollars.

So, you know, at 3.7 million dollars, that's half the recommended amount.

Um the likelihood of us ever getting ahead of the game and keeping maintenance costs down and keeping vehicles on the road um becomes harder and harder every year.

Um that that benchmark is really helpful, actually.

Um, and you know, I mean it is part of our capital plan or capital, sorry, um, our comprehensive plan uh goals to also be you know investing in our infrastructure.

Um so I think um yeah, yeah, I think just noting that in the comments, um, that benchmark and kind of the overall replacement value is it's helpful to um if we were to recommend you know a significant jump in this item relative to prior years.

Okay, we'll do uh this is the meal.

I have a quick question.

Sure, go ahead.

Um the equipment that you're talking about replacing.

What percent of it is going to be exposed to higher tariffs?

So what I'm really getting at is are most of those machines made in the US or are they made abroad and they'll be at risk for for to tariff policy?

So a lot of the trucks will be subject to tariff policies, depending on where the manufacturer gets the steal on any given week when they're building trucks.

They're finding it very hard to hold pricing because of that.

So for example, the rear load refuge trucks, we just got notice that prices will increase three percent in December due to tariffs.

Some of the equipment, such as in the top list, the Bobcat tool cats, those are produced in America.

So the tariff, the risk of tariffs are smaller.

Um the toters, for example, for the the garbage cans, for example, there's no risk of of um tariffs on those.

Um, but there is a risk on any of them on any given day, to be honest with you.

Okay, so my follow-up question would be you said the replacement fleet cost is slightly more than 67 million dollars.

I assume that that number has some tariff risk associated with it, right?

Yeah, that's that's a general cost.

If you had to replace the fleet today, that's not taking into account the variable of um tariffs or model year changes.

So, you know, when I when I ranked a fleet, I ranked it back in uh August, and model year changes came into effect uh in you know, just recently.

So um Ford hasn't even released their model year increases.

So there's a variable to that of a couple percentage points either ways um as well.

Okay, thank you.

I just want us to be grounded on that 67 million dollar number, um, which I think uh it sounds like what you're what you would be telling us is the risk is that number is higher as opposed to lower.

Is that a fair risk assessment?

Yes.

All right, thank you.

I yield thank you.

That was very helpful clarifying question.

Um if there are no further questions on these, I think we can move to parks.

All right, thanks everybody.

Thank you very much, and thanks for troubleshooting the audio.

All right.