I call to order this regular meeting of the Board of Public Works this Tuesday, January 27th of 2026.
First up on our agenda, we have messages from board members. Do we have any messages from the board
this evening? Quickly, thank you. I'm not sure which city department was responsible for the cleanup
of Kirkwood after the championship game.
I don't know if it was parks or sanitation with the street department. Public works. Public works,
very good. I just wanted to say I drove through Kirkwood about 9 a.m. the next day and there was hardly
a sign of anything happening. They did an amazing job and the community thanks. Perfect.
I will second that comment. I also took a little walk on my way into the office down Kirkwood just to
make sure it was still there, and everything was in very nice order. Also, of course, I'm sure Adam
you'll fill us in on all the details during your staff report today, of course, a huge
Gratitude to everyone who has been working to recover from this major snowstorm from, of course, Public
Works Department, Adam, Joe, the entire crew who was out there for days on end, still out there cleaning
things up. I really appreciate that. And also all the other city departments that have to jump in and
lend a hand.
in those situations, I think that we're very fortunate to have the crews who work so hard that we have,
and I'm very appreciative, also appreciative of those residents who have chipped in to help each other.
I am sure many people have helped their neighbor or their child dig out of the snow and just appreciate
the helping hands all around in getting cleaned up after the storm.
Next up, we have petitions and remonstrances. If anyone would like to make a public comment about something
that is not on our agenda this evening, now is the opportunity to do so. If you have joined us on Zoom,
you can use the raised hand function or the chat function to let us know you'd like to make a comment.
And if you're here in the room, you are welcome to approach one of the microphones here at the table.
We only have city staff or petitioners on Zoom right now. All right. Seeing none.
Next we have the consent agenda under the consent agenda we have resolution 2026-07 mobile vendor planted
Bloomington resolution 2026-08 mobile vendor community kitchen service agreement with cats and payroll.
Do we have any items that need to be removed from the consent agenda this evening? None for me.
None for me. Thank you.
Do we have any public comment on anything within the consent agenda this evening? No. All right,
seeing none, is there a motion on the consent agenda? I move that we approve the consent agenda for
tonight's meeting of January 27, 2026. Second. All right, I will call the roll. Caron? Aye. Roach? Aye.
Cox-Dekard? Aye. Motion passes.
Next we have New Business. First under New Business is LPA Consulting Contract Amendment 2 with WSP
Inc. for West 2nd Street Modernization Project. Yeah, Kendall Kenoki, City of Wilmington Engineering.
Thanks for hearing me tonight. This is a contract amendment that essentially is capturing what I've
broken down into four different categories of design work that wasn't captured in our original contract.
So there was
original contract in 2022 and then that was amended in 2023 to provide right-of-way services, so there's
no change to the design portion of that. But as we worked through our design documents, this is an NDOT
project, federally funded, there's a lot of requirements. We ran into a lot of additional work that
was required to get through NDOT approvals, specifically with NDOT's ADA compliance and their technical
advisory committee that they have that you just have to go to and then you have to go to again, you
have to go to again. And our consultant really went above and beyond preparing exhibits and going through
this very onerous process that we did not anticipate when we prepared the contract. Additionally, the
city passed new stormwater ordinance. And as part of our project design, we were attempting to provide
as much detention as possible and we were doing different analyses.
to see what was possible with this project and what wasn't. And I think we've come up with really good
solutions for that. But again, that portion of work was a bit beyond the additional scope of this original
design contract. And then the third was just some additional redesign to coordinate with some of our
other projects that were going on, specifically at Hopewell West, just making sure we had a seamless
tie-in with that project.
That's kind of the three areas at the top there. And then additionally, we're going to do some survey
of what was built out at Hopewell East to make sure we're tying into everything beautifully there and
we don't have much more expensive issues during construction or knowing ahead of time. So that's really
all compiled into this contract amendment here in front of you today. Happy to answer any questions
on this. Thank you. Questions from the board on this item?
You can't see Elizabeth, so I'll let you see. Thank you. You're just going to have to mimic her through
the entire meeting. All right. Any public comments on this item? Seeing none. Is there a motion? I move
that we approve the LPA consulting contract Amendment 2 with WSP for the West Second Street Modernization Project.
Second. All right, I will call the roll. Corrine? Aye. Roach? Aye. Cox-Dekard? Aye. Motion passes. Next
is the LPA consultant contract with Crossroad Engineers PC for preliminary engineering at Hopewell South
project. Kettle Kanoke Engineering Department again. So this is a design contract for
Hopewell South, which is currently being considered by the Plan Commission and City Council for a rezone
to PUD. So the intent is to provide additional residential housing as well as some possible commercial
institutional uses. So this specific design contract is for all the infrastructure and the subdivision
that will be required for this project. So that would be roadway design,
utilities, drainage, doing all the survey work, subdividing the property and any associated work with
that with permitting, getting things built. I did clarify it does not include the actual design
or construction of the individual homes themselves. The current plan is to kind of have a menu of homes
that builders can select from and then they'll have everything ready and just go out and build. But
we're going to prepare the site for these homes.
There's still kind of some unknown as to what will be the final iteration of what's approved by City
Council. So we don't know exactly what that will be, but we already, whatever is approved, that we can
go ahead and subdivide and do all the engineering work for that. This does include what is
the old covalescent center that's currently being considered for a possible BPD headquarters site. Really
the main reason for that is all of that property that
that building is on and everything else is all just one parcel. It has to be subdivided, it has to be
included in this contract. So that's a part of this. The contract is set at a not to exceed amount of
$424,200 and we expect to move forward full steam ahead with design, hoping to even get underway with
construction this year. So happy to answer any questions on this one.
I'll just real quick comment. Excuse me on both of these. The last contract with the amendment for the
engineering of all the West Second Street, and then, you know, this large consulting contract for more
design and, you know, in a lot of ways this can be considered of, you know, redeveloping a large part
of our city.
We were putting a lot of staff time, resources, effort into the Hopewell project and everything that
holds for the future of the community. So this is just another step in that we've gotten the Hopewell
East kind of started and that's taken off. We've got these road projects going now. This is another
phase of all of that redevelopment that is all the old Bloomington Hospital site. So exciting to start
seeing some of this come to fruition when it was all thought about back in
2013, 14, 15 whatnot. So just kind of add those comments. And I will add this is using TIF funding,
which is being considered by the RDC in a week. So if they do not approve the funding for whatever reason,
then this contract just wouldn't be, we wouldn't issue an NTP to move forward with it. So I do have
a couple of questions. Who is the actual petitioner in front of the Planning Commission and City Council?
Is it the city government or is there a private developer on board already
doing that petition work? They've hired a consultant to prepare documentation and the PUD itself. I
believe the petitioner though is the redevelopment commission. And does this contract include any of
the preliminary design work to get to the City Council? So that's all being handled by the consultant
that's doing the PUD.
Great. And then so Hopewell South, we're talking about the land south of First Street. Correct.
Thank you. How far south of First Street does this go? Is Wiley the southern boundary? That's correct.
Yeah. There's some property west of Fairview along First Street, south side of First Street. And then
there's a big parcel that's kind of Fairview, First, Rogers, and Wiley.
is all part of this. And so what I heard you say earlier in the staff report is that city council is
considering the options as far as those designs that might be available and how they're going to proceed
with that. So we are reviewing and approving this. And then this design is going to be informed
by what City Council approves? Is this the right order? That's correct. Yeah, engineering work would
be required no matter what. I mean, even if we proceeded under current zoning, all of these same things
would be required. So whatever they end up approving, that's what we'll move forward with. OK, great.
Any other questions from the board? None, for me. Any public comments on this item?
Seeing none, is there a motion? I move that we approve the LPA consulting contract with Crossroad Engineers
PC for preliminary engineering at the Hopewell South project. Second. All right, I will call the roll.
Carome? Aye. Roach? Aye. Cox-Dekard, aye. Motion passes.
Next, we have extension on lane and sidewalk closures for Duke Energy on West 11th Street. Hello,
Zach Bell, Engineering. One moment. Duke Energy is requesting an extension of the duration of sidewalk
and lane closures located at West 11th Street. These closures were previously approved at the
November 18, 2025 BBW meeting. A late start in Clement weather and other complications have slowed work
substantially. The new target finish date is March 31, 2026. An extension of 30 working days or six
weeks is requested. Thank you. Questions from the board on this item?
Just to be clear, the original target finish date was six weeks prior to March 31st? I believe that's
accurate. Yeah. OK, thank you. Zach, they've been in good touch with you. They've been keeping up. Yeah,
yeah. I've checked on them bi-weekly, and they've just run into lots of problems. They're having to
move the truck when buses comes through. So they're having some access issues along with weather. This
is a tight location up in here.
Madam, have we heard any new reports or any considerations from city residents about this? I have not
seen any in association with this permit. They haven't advanced very far. So they're still in the section
of West 11th that doesn't have sidewalk there on the side that they're working. So aside from the lane
closure, I don't foresee that there would be any issues at this point. OK, great. Thank you.
Any other questions from the board on this item? Any public comments on this item? Seeing none, is there
a motion? Sorry, I move that we approve the extension on lane and sidewalk closures for Duke Energy
on West 11th Street. Second. All right, I will call the roll. Corrine? Aye. Roach?
Aye. Cox-Dekard, aye. Motion passes. Next, we have sidewalk and lane closures at West 1st Street for
Clark Landscaping. Zach Bell, engineering again. Clark Landscaping is requesting approval for sidewalk
closures at 1004 West 1st Street. This request is for sidewalk replacements on the north and south side
of West 1st Street. A pedestrian detour will be in place for the expected duration of one week per side.
Andy Clark has supplied maintenance of traffic plans for all work. Questions from the board on this
item? Just quickly, Clark Landscaping, that's the company who has applied for the permit. They're the
ones doing the work. What's spurring this? Why are they?
That's not a question I asked the applicant, but I do think that it was a result of a sidewalk letter.
I think so. I believe so. And they do own property on both sides. Great. Thank you. And this is to the
west of the Hopewell area, right? So like we're outside of Hopewell. So any
that might be happening in that area is not necessarily going to be impacted by this project. No and
this is one week per side. And that's a that's a heavy estimate. That's something I did because they
said three days and I just think with the size of it I think more likely one week per side is more accurate.
And this will all occur before anything else happens on the other side with any of the work with Hopewell
either south or second street.
Yeah, if there's any problems with that, we can coordinate if there is anything coming up. Totally entranced
by the street configuration here and the names, but I'm not going to fixate on it. I'm going to let
it go. I'm going to just know it's right. I saw it also. I don't know if it's like, like in some spots
it almost looks like unimproved
alley maybe that's associated with the streets. But I'm just I'm not going to dwell. It's good. It's
a good spot. OK. Any other questions from the board before I go down into my rabbit hole? None.
All right. Any public comments on this item? None on Zoom. All right. Is there a motion? I move that
we approve the sidewalk and lane closures at West First Street for Clark Landscaping. Second?
All right, I will call the roll. Caron? Aye. Roach? Aye. Cox-Dekard, aye. Motion passes. Next, we have
closures and lane shifts at 115 East Kirkwood for Odyssey Construction with a noise permit. Kyle Ball,
engineering. And I'll apologize. This one is wordy. But there's a lot going on here.
So I'll just read it verbatim, and we'll get into questions. So Odyssey Construction is requesting a
pedestrian diversion, intermittent closures, traffic lane shifts, intermittent lane closures,
alley closures, metered parking reservations, all in association with the project at 115 East Kirkwood
Avenue. The request impacts the northern sidewalk on East Kirkwood, the north-south and east-west alleys
surrounding 115 East Kirkwood, the east-west travel lanes on East Kirkwood,
and the metered parking spaces along the north side of East Kirkwood. These proposed closures would
be used to accommodate utility relocations and the construction of condominiums with ground floor retail
at 115 East Kirkwood. The temporary traffic control measures would be in place from January 28th through
July 28th, 2027 for approximately 18 months.
The requested closures mentioned here, these would be very temporary. These would be in the case of
some deliveries that are planning that will be scheduled. Once on Kirkwood for concrete cores, estimated
12 to 18 of memory serves occurrences, which we would stipulate that would not occur during daytime
hours. So it would be early warning operations, hence the attached noise permit.
to accommodate those during those non-peak hours. Same goes for the sidewalk closure. Obviously, we
wouldn't want pedestrians interacting on that north side whenever that type of work is occurring. We've
worked with Odyssey Construction on material delivery, staging. They have reached out to the neighbors,
so they have a plan in place.
and have held meetings with the neighbors there to coordinate on things like trash pickup, deliveries,
all the nuts and bolts of the area. I think that covers everything. I'm happy to take any questions
if there are any. Thank you. Questions from the board on this item? Just some clarifying questions.
So the lane closures and the
and the work makes total sense. I'm looking at the next resolution, authorization of scheduling noise
permits. How are these interrelated and how is that one different? I'm probably jumping ahead, but.
No, no, you're fine. This one went back and forth with Miranda on quite a bit to figure out how to do
this properly. So this is the associated noise permit that would be future schedule. So we don't have
a definitive timeline or exact dates of when these
instances would occur where these closures be a place where we'd have some extra construction traffic
on Kirkwood and then that would be in the early morning hours. Would those specific dates once they're
determined, would those be approved by staff or come back to the board? They would be director level
from my understanding.
Yeah, so what we've worked out here is we know that the concrete pours for the footers and such are
going to be extensive and that, you know, those are going to be pumper trucks, everything else. And
trying to get them started before the city ordinance allows at 6 a.m. If we can start them a couple
hours earlier, 3, 4 a.m. allows us to get that traffic back open on Kirkwood and more during the commercial
parts of the day. I'll just jump in with a couple
other comments generally about this project. For those at home that may be watching on cats or whatnot,
115 East Kirkwood is the empty parking lot adjacent to CVS.
that's been undeveloped for some time now. It's just served as a surface parking lot. There have been
several iterations of that project over time, of a project at that site over time. This is the one that's
gotten to the point where they're ready to move forward with construction, with right away permits.
This site is super challenging. So it's basically got zero lot lines. It's gonna be a very tight construction
site, staging, all the different thing, all the different materials and such to build
it. It's not a corner lot either, you know, if this is a corner lot you then have more access from two
sides. So we've been really trying to work with the developers and the team that's working
on the construction for this to try to minimize the impacts while recognizing there are going to be
significant impacts to that block throughout the construction period, hopefully 18 months or so.
Additionally, there's a lot of utility relocation work and such that is associated with it. So,
you know, trying to get all of this coordinated and to know when exactly things are going to occur is
just still somewhat up in the air, but obviously working closely with everyone. When it comes to those
noise, with respect to the noise permits and such, instead of
Trying to come back with a package of noise permits. This allows the board to grant Andrew Seaborg the
engineering director and myself as public works director to work directly with the teams to know when
it's going to occur get notifications out.
It's possible we would come back for additional noise permit for nighttime construction, depending on
how the project's going. You know, it's right down in the commercial area. So, you know, we want to
expedite, help expedite construction the best we can while recognizing it's got a lot of site limitations.
I do see we've got Adam Kunkel on Adams with Odyssey and the development. And then.
Ben's here to help answer any questions, but something we've been trying to coordinate for quite some
time and it's taken a lot of effort. Appreciate Ben and Adam and everybody being good partners and trying
to make this all work. The other thing I'll say as a further comment,
The economic and sustainable development staff today sent off a memo to the City Council and others
outlining what our plans for the outdoor dining season will be. We are not planning to close Kirkwood
in the ways that we have in the past couple years. We're recommending a parklet only program, enhancing
that program, allow folks to use the parking spaces while we
further study Kirkwood and actually closing it for dining or other things. So there's a big memo that's
gone out on that, but so we were already not really planning to close that block for the outdoor dining.
So that's also had some shifting factors that we've been kind of working through here. So yeah, that's
all I've got to add. Kyle, did I miss anything? No, that's plenty, I think, from both of us.
Adam, thanks for preempting one of my questions about the parklets. My other question is about
any large-scale festival that uses the footprint of Kirkwood from Walnut to Indiana. How will these
closures impact any of those, particularly this, I think, upcoming summer of 2026? Yep, it will have
impacts, but we'll try to mitigate and try to work around the ones that, so,
I won't talk about it. So Lotus tends to use that first block for a lot of their ticketing, merchandising
type stuff. Taste was down there with the same. We're going to work with developers, work with the property
owners and when there are impacts and this is kind of what we said in our special event application
here in the other
couple of weeks ago is, you know, when there are major construction projects, developments, or other
impacts to our approved festival footprints, we're going to work with the festival organizers and the
developers to, you know, A, mitigate the impacts, but then when it's not possible, we'll have to think
about alternative locations for what was happening in this area for those festivals. That's helpful.
Thank you. So with this request, I don't see a specific
right of way closure, although I do read in the staff report that there is temporary traffic control
measures, which to me says there are going to be impacts to the rights of way. When I think about this
date range, January 28th through July 28th, is any portion of the right of way around the project going
to essentially be closed for either that
duration or a shorter but substantial duration during that time, or are these just temporary closures
for like moving and truly day-to-day kinds of impacts? That's a great call out. So we would have the
pedestrian diversion, so that's where the temporary traffic control elements come in, you know, the
vast majority of this project timeline. So we'd consider any of the
associated items, temporary traffic control devices, and part of the plan. The north-south alleyway
closure, and then correct me if I'm wrong here, the north-south alleyway closure would be the footer
that we're going to be cutting into first. Is that correct? Really, Kirkwood would be the first one,
and then we will be able to go up north-south. Actually, can you come up to the table and just state
your name for the record? Sorry, yeah. All good. Yep, Ben Comple with Genesis Build.
But we think Kirkwood would be the first footing that we would put in, start taking out the sidewalk,
the brick pavers, the tree, a couple of street trees, the lights, and work that whole area, and then
work up the north-south alley. But we can't go too far because we're waiting on Duke to remove some
poles. And once that happens, we can go a little further and make our way over the back. So the idea
is to work our way from the front to the back, digging a hole. It's a big hole.
like the sidewalk on Kirkwood and the restrictions on that, that'll be in place for the duration of
the project or what will be closed, just for the board, like outlining what will be closed when and
for how long. Right, my understanding is that would be utilized for the duration as a lay down area.
Yes, that's correct. So the pedestrian diversion will be in place, I mean, when the project puts it
in place, but basically we can assume
it would be in place for the duration of this time span once it has been placed through July 28th. And
then the alleyway, so we're really only talking about, I looked at the map, we're really only talking
about two, there's two alleyways.
And that is along what I am perceiving as the back of the project. So there's the one on the north side
of the project footprint, and there's the one on the west side of the project footprint. And those alleyways,
can we assume those are closed for the duration of the project? No, for pedestrians. They saw egress
out of the buildings. They saw deliveries. They saw trash. They got the wheel up and down to get to
the major vehicle. No, it's closed. OK. So if you think about the building that had
I think of it as the old Sullivan's building. I think it's still called that, but we're big to Bloomington.
They've got some apartments above some of those apartments. Their access is off the alleyway there.
Um, think about, you know, the backside of Malibu grill and all those, they're going to be taking deliveries.
Um, and so emergency egress, emergency egress, all those things. So that's what, uh, we'll be taken
into account for all those alleys and try and
The delivery truck's not going to get the produce delivery from the alley. They're going to come off
of Kirkwood and have to wheel. But that's where we're going to rely on Ben and his team and the property
owners and everybody to be regularly communicating with those neighbors and being good neighbors in
what's going to be a challenging footprint of a project. And were the neighbors notified about this
meeting? Yes.
Question about the street parking. The report mentions some closure of metered parking on the north
side. Is that just the two spaces in front of CVS, what we're talking about? Or are we talking about
some more further to the west, like next to... No, yeah, just what's kept in front of the property.
Yeah. There's, I think, two spaces too in front of the street trees there. I got the lot in front of the lot.
I recognize that the map isn't scaled necessarily, but the pedestrian diversion, will that essentially
be to the south of the sidewalk and street tree area into the street? Yeah, so that will essentially condense
the traffic going east and west on Kirkwood, as well as potentially there's that parklet for, uh, for,
uh, uptown on the other side there. Yeah, that's all being taken to no account. So when they're there,
we're still in the configuration where there will be some lane shifts using the park. So there'll be
some lane shifts to the south using some of the parking in front of like the buzz Kirk and, um,
Uh, I can't think of the name Chubbies taco place and the alumni hall. Like some of that will be diverted.
Traffic will be diverted there during certain phases of the project. Um, but, um, and there will be
then the pedestrian walk around too at that same time. Right. And again, the pedestrian walk around
will be in place for the entire 18 months of the project. Correct. Correct.
So traffic will be impacted at some level for the entire 18 months? Yes. Yes. OK. Thank you. I think
I already know the answer to this question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Is there any possible way
those two street trees can be preserved in place? No, that's just the reconfiguration that's happening
with taking out the drive and everything. Yeah. OK.
It's tight. And you'll have a landscape plan that you have to put back in per VDO. Yeah. Yeah, there's
a new landscape.
As this project continues, we'll obviously keep the board up to speed on any developments with it, anything
that comes up, whether it's staff reports or modifications to any of the right-of-way permits. Obviously
gonna be working very closely with Ben and their teams on kind of the week-to-week, day-to-day stuff
that's gonna come up with a big project like this, but anything else we're forgetting. I hope not. And
just for some context related to the noise permits,
Are you anticipating these are sort of daily noise permits or I know you said there could be a situation
where construction necessitates overnight construction for a
longer period of time. Is that then coming back to the board? Anything else? This is just specifically
for those concrete pours, nothing else. If they did want to come back and say, hey, we've gotten behind
schedule because of XYZ and we want to start working overnights for two weeks in this period, we would
be coming back for other noise permits. But we're hoping that's not necessary. This is just for these
concrete pours. Yeah, for a very short duration noise permit. Any other questions from the board?
Elizabeth, anything else? No. None for me, thank you. All right, public comments on this item. And if
you're on Zoom, you can use the raised hand function or the chat function if you've joined us there.
Nope, just got Adam, the other personal development team. Okay, all right, seeing none, is there a motion
on this item?
I move that we approve the closures and land shifts at 115 East Kirkwood for Odyssey Construction with
a noise permit. Second. All right, I'll call the roll. Caron? Aye. Roach? Aye. Cox-Dekard, aye. Motion passes.
Next we have resolution 2026-009, authorization of scheduling for the noise permit issued at 115 East
Kirkwood. So this is a separate one? We could have probably done one motion there. I was trying to resolve
something on Zoom. So yeah, resolution 2026-09 authorizes myself or Andrew Seaborg, engineering director,
to execute those noise permits for those concrete pours we were just talking about.
All right, any questions from the board, additional questions from the board on that item? Any public
comments on this item? I don't see any. Seeing none, is there a motion? If I could just ask one question
pertaining to the motion, I assume there's no difference in the numbering between resolution 2026-009
as written on the agenda and 2026-09.
as written on the resolution. There was just an X. It made it sound cooler to have the double zero.
It's just, it's 09. Yeah, I think that's a typo. It should just be 2026-09. Yeah, because we approved
08 earlier. 08 for the last mobile vendor. Sorry. OK. Thank you for confirming that. And with that,
I move that we approve the resolution 2026-09, authorization and scheduling for the noise permit issued
at 115 East Kirkwood.
Second. All right. I will call the roll. Corrine? Aye. Roach? Aye. Cox-Dekard? Aye. Motion passes.
Next up, we have staff reports and other business. All right. Adam Wason, Public Works Director. I'll
do this in three parts. First, just a quick update about the South College road closure for the Convention
Center, Sky Bridge construction that
has about a two day delay on it from the last couple of days. It was supposed to go into effect first
day overnight, Sunday into Monday. Um, for anybody that looked outside during that point in time, there
was about a foot of snow coming down or already on the ground. And so, uh, what we worked with wet all
over the weekend to try to anticipate, uh, late last weekend through the weekend to anticipate, um,
they're going to go live with the closure starting. They'll be implementing that closure later this
evening and then, um, hope,
hoping they can still compact it all into the original time frame, but we will be working closely with
them on any of that. So that's the first update. The South College road closure for the Convention Center
will begin tomorrow and go for at least 12 days, maybe 14 depending. Second up, the
James, you mentioned in your comments at the beginning of the meeting about the little party that happened
on Kirkwood on the wee hours of Tuesday morning after the national championship victory on Monday evening.
Just want to give a big shout out to our friends in public safety, both Blovington Police Department
and the Fire Department. Public Works was coordinating with them very closely leading up to that game.
And in the weeks before,
for all the other games on the way to the championship. And so a big shout out to our city crews and
our partners with public safety. But a bigger shout out to the fans and those folks that went down to
Kirkwood. And we knew they were going to have a good time. We knew they would try to climb up every
pole that they could climb up. We knew that there would be something lit on fire. We just knew it. And
while all of those things occurred, people climbed up on buildings.
to get the reports the next day that there was no serious injury, no major vandalism as a credit to
all of those revelers that came down to celebrate on Kirkwood. And so big thank you. We lost a street
tree or two. We had to put out a couch fire. We had lots of individuals climbing on our snow plows that
were blocking the streets from a public safety perspective. But in the end, windows weren't broken,
looting didn't occur.
They really celebrated, for the most part, safely and without incident. So big kudos all around there.
And yeah, our football team is national champions. So that's pretty wild. Undefeated. Undefeated national
champions. Don't forget. And to think that we would ever be saying that about our lovely football program,
I as an alum did not. But happy for them. And yeah, big congrats.
And then the third topic just want to bring up is all the snow control efforts so starting, we started
prepping late last week with all of our trucks and getting pre treatment down and getting fleet services lined up.
I don't know if it's exactly historic snowfall, but, um, for a 24 hour period to get over a foot of
snow, um, just big shout out to our crews and, uh, at street, at fleet, at public safety, all those,
uh, folks that were out working through these, this weather event. Um, it was a lot of snow. We're still
doing a lot of digging out. Um,
But when I came into town yesterday, when I came into the city limits yesterday and saw the condition
of the roads after what I knew we'd been working on all night, all day and night Sunday, I was just
completely impressed. We're having a lot of challenges with blocked sidewalks, with big giant piles
of snow everywhere. We're starting to dig out the downtown, trying to reopen parking and things. But
this is gonna be a challenge for probably weeks to come.
What we're seeing in the forecast show that we're not gonna get above freezing anytime soon. There's
a little bit of melting occurring when you get salt on some of the snow and the sunshine and such, but
we don't expect that this is gonna melt away very quickly. So, just really appealing to property owners
to make sure they're doing everything they can to clear sidewalks. If you're a corner lot, clearing
all the way to the ramps is hugely important and appreciated. We're focusing our efforts
with our Brighton Bloomington crews and our downtown staff to try to be working on the ramps and the
crosswalks throughout the downtown over the next several days. But pedestrian mobility is going to be
a challenge for some time and we're going to do everything we can. I'll make special note that for our
2026 budgets, we have some pilot type funding or trial funding.
I don't categorize it, but we are running a pilot program in 2026 here with some funding that we requested
to try to work on snow removal from high pedestrian, high priority pedestrian network areas that are
monolithic sidewalks. So specifically we're working on South Walnut street with a contractor right now.
So if you think of the east side of South Walnut all the way from Winslow to
first or second street. Those are monolithic sidewalks, meaning there's no tree plot between the roadway
and the sidewalk. So when that plow pushes the snow off the road, it's going onto the sidewalk. It's
got nowhere else to go. So we were doing a contracted project to try to work on some of that snow removal
and to try to open that up, recognizing that when we envisioned this as a pilot project, we didn't think
the snowfall that was going to be the pilot would be a foot of snow.
Um, when I looked at the corridor this morning and drove and was trying to envision what it would look
like, we're going to have the contractors literally going to have to haul out most of that snow. Every
private lot that cleared snow has pushed and blocked the ramps and the sidewalks on both sides of their,
um, uh, their driveways and such. And it's a big challenge, but it's something we're looking at and
you know, something we heard from the council that we wanted to try to work on. Um,
We'll see how this goes. Other areas that we're prioritizing are out near College Mall where we know
we have a lot of pedestrian traffic on some monolithic sidewalks out there. And then we're continuing
to work on the overpasses on the state roads that go over I-69. So State Road 45 slash Second Street
that goes over I-69, State Road 43, 48 that goes over at Third Street. We're also
having contractors work on getting those pedestrian side paths cleared from east to west so folks can
get to those major employment centers. But again, not going to be easy. It's going to be very challenging for
if not the next several weeks, trying to get these pedestrian ways opened up the best we can in partnership
with all the private property owners. So appreciate everyone's patience. Again, if you can clear all
the way to those ADA ramps, that's hugely important.
I guess I should have said I had four buckets. I started out with three buckets, fourth bucket. Sanitation
services will resume tomorrow. So we had two days worth of delay, one just straight snow and then the
second we were worried about some temperatures. We are gonna have the crews in tomorrow. If temperatures
do get in that negative 10 windshield range, we will be pulling them off route and then hopefully get
them back out. The goal is to get everyone's service this week. But if you're a sanitation customer,
Please do everything you can to get your cart as accessible as possible. If it's in the middle of a
snow drift and they cannot pick it up out of the snow drift, they're not going to be able to service
it. Um, so we recognize that this is going to be challenging too, but, um, we're going to do our best
to try to get back on schedule, get this week wrapped up and then start again next Monday with Monday
routes, uh, hopefully on Monday. But, um, big shout out to the work that the sanitation crews are going
to be doing. That's going to be some extremely difficult work trying to get a sanitation customer service
this week.
And cold work. Cold, hard, and especially cold. Yeah, it's going to be cold, hard work with difficult
circumstances of trying to get to those cards. So a big shout out to the sanitation team. I'm sure I
could tell you more, but that's it for now. Thank you. Next up, we have approval of claims. Any questions
from the board on claims? No.
any public comments on claims? Is there a motion on the claims? I move that we approve claims tonight
in the amount of nine million one hundred thirty three thousand five hundred fifty four dollars and
fourteen cents. Second. All right I will call the roll. Caron? Aye. Roach? Aye.
Cox Deckard, aye. Motion passes. And seeing as there's nothing else on our agenda, I will call for adjournment.