Carl Order, the work session of the Vicela City Council.

We're gonna begin with public comments.

Citizens are now invited to comment on issues within the jurisdiction of the Visaya City Council.

The council asks that you keep your comments concise and positive.

Creative criticism presented with appropriate courtesy is welcome.

Each speaker will be allowed three minutes, and a timer will notify you when your time is expired.

Please begin your comments by stating and spelling your name and providing your city of residence.

All right, seeing that.

We'll move on to a special presentation and recognition.

2023 APWA Central California Award Ceremony and Project Acknowledgement.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Mayor, members of City Council.

Frank Centenno, City Engineer for the City of Isalia.

I'm pleased to present to you this afternoon two capital projects that received the Project of the Year Award for 2023 and last week by the regional chapter of the American Public Works Association or APWA.

The project of the year awards go to two projects again.

The first one being the Fleet Maintenance Building Settlement Repairs.

Well, the project was recognized for the innovative approach, you may recall, to restore the structural strength of the building's underlying soils, which had failed due to subsidence.

And the subsidence was caused by the just poorly compacted soils and then the presence of backfilled trash andor debris.

The project made use of an environmentally friendly uh safe uh polymer foam that was injected into the ground that expanded to fill the existing voids and increase the load capacity, load bearing capacity of the soils.

However, before injecting the foam, the building first, or the segment of the building first had to be lifted uh to its uh planned elevation height, um, and and the building was lifted through a series of hydraulic operated push piers.

As the building was being lifted, uh staff was able to see, visually see the those structural defects uh reversing and and really just going away.

Uh once the building was lifted, the foam was then injected and able to then fill those voids, expand out, uh, and those voids were beneath the uh this the building slab, the footing, and then also the voids within the dirt itself.

Uh the method was innovative because compared to the traditional approach, one would have to remove a segment of that building, um, demolish the slab, the footings, excavate the dirt, recompact, reset a slab and the and the footings, and then reset the building.

So a significant uh savings uh in time and money uh was really the uh the purpose of the award.

The next project is the Packwood Creek um project, received the Project of the Year Award in the category of transportation projects under five million dollars.

Um it included the construction of a new multi-use trail along Packwood Creek that filled a missing gap between Cremall and Cedar Court, ultimately providing connectivity between the existing segment of Packwood Creek trail at Tilary and McCulliffe, and then the Santa Fe Trail at Walnut and Santa Fe.

It also incorporated a mid-block high-intensity activated crosswalk or hawk system to cross Levers Lane, a first in the county.

Uh the project also constructed the city's first class four on a walnut between Santa Fe and Ben Maddox.

The new class fours mimic uh the safety of a multi-use trail in an on-street facility and now provides accessible connectivity between the two the two existing trails.

Uh the project also underwent a very lengthy eminent domain process, and in addition to working uh through a challenging federal uh grant funding process.

So, acknowledgement to to our legal and in funding staff as well.

And because the Hawk system is new to our region, a rig a very rigorous public outreach uh was put together using an educational outreach to explain how the system works and how or what motorists, pedestrians, and bike leads bicyclists could expect at the crossing.

So the project of the year award was established to promote excellence in the management and implementation of public works projects by recognizing the collaboration of uh manage the man the uh the managing the collaboration between the managing agency, the project design consultant, and the construction team.

So, with that being said, uh I'd like to please join me in congratulating Jacqueline Rowley and Diego Corvera, project managers for these two cities for these two projects who oversaw the successful completion really of these award-winning projects.

And then lastly, City Council.

I also want to add that um unknowns to the city.

We um we also won two additional awards.

Um was an honorable mention in 2022 for the widening of Acre Street at State Route 198, and the other was a project of the year award in 2021 for the Santa Fe and Tilary uh roundabout.

And so, in closing, um staff just is grateful to have received this recognition, and and of course, especially grateful to you, City Council, for your continued support and and um and trust in your you know CIP engineering division.

So that concludes my presentation.

Let's just questions for staff.

I don't think we have any questions, but hey, great job, great work.

Would you guys like to say any words since you guys manage the both projects?

Well, congratulations, great work.

All right.

Work session uh item number one new employee introductions, community development.

Thank you, Mayor Mayor, uh, members of the council.

I am uh Paul Brunell, Director of Community Development.

It's always hard to follow uh behind an award ceremony.

Uh, but I will tell you that uh we do have some good news and something that's a little longer overdue in uh recognizing our newest uh employee to the community development team, and in particular, uh the planning division, which was in need of some help.

So Colleen Moreno, who most of you may know or seeing her uh name via email, is the newest assistant planner in the planning division.

She's been with us for just a little under two months, and I can tell you in the last two months we've loaded her up with uh numerous projects in which she'll be presenting, has been presenting, and actually is trying to set a record for a newer employee by taking three items to planning commission next Monday.

So uh Colleen has been with the City of Iselia for seven years.

She started off in the recreational as a recreational supervisor in the rec department, and uh unfortunately through COVID, uh, when parks uh recreational activities were being uh uh ceasing, uh she was fortunate enough to find uh various work working with uh public works and human resources.

So we were able to find positions for her at that time, and then we're uh very fortunate enough to get her into uh the planning division.

Uh a little bit of background on her, she's originally from Los Angeles and attended the University of Laverne, where she obtained a bachelor's in science and kinesiology uh with a minor in biology, and then she also received her master's in public administration and her certificate in management uh analysis from Cal State Long Beach.

Uh so again, she's been very uh well-versed, and uh bringing her in has been a great uh asset to our department.

Uh, she's also excited to bring not only her city knowledge but her education to the new position and uh looking forward to contributing to the community and her free time.

She enjoys a good glass of wine, going on walks with her husband and their 10-year-old husky, loves reading and watching really bad reality TV.

Don't we all try all true?