From: Jacob Patterson
To: Lemos, June
Cc: O"Neal, Chantell; Spaur, David; Smith, John
Subject: Public Comment -- 2/14/22 CC Mtg., Item No. 8C Date: Wednesday, February 9, 2022 7:56:12 PM
City Council [via BCC],
I reviewed the agenda materials for the 2022 Streets Rehabilitation Project and would like to express my support for the amendments recommended by staff. My only hesitation is the additional delay of this project pushing it into FY 2022/2023, at least the aspect concerning installing traffic control bollards in the CBD, and would like you to consider if that project component could be done in advance of the other work to facilitate community events sooner rather than later. Regardless, all these changes seem like prudent improvements and the community will receive additional benefits beyond the original scope of work that is commensurate with the increased costs.
Regarding adding repainting the decorative street lights in the CBD: this is a good addition but I wonder why we can't just have maintenance staff repaint all the CBD light poles. Is that feasible? They aren't a necessary component of this project and it is entirely feasible that repainting them would be able to be performed in-house for less money and under the limit that would require competitive bidding as a stand-alone project. In fact, it isn't only the decorative street lights that need repainting but several of the street tree cages are getting rusty and need to be sanded down and repainted as well. (Some of the old steel trash cans also needed repair and repainting but several of them have been replaced with the new recycled composite bins, which is probably the better approach.) There are a couple along Franklin Street that have large flaking rust spots that could cause injuries to passers-by if not dealt with.
The team repainting the light poles should probably also repaint the nearby street tree cages at the same time. If not added to this project, it should be assigned to maintenance staff. While the cages are being repaired, several of the sidewalk growth grates should also be evaluated to see if small sections should be removed to avoid damage to the trunks of the street trees that are growing near the existing punch outs in the sidewalk grates. Doing that as the trees age and grow is a normal part of the maintenance process and how the sidewalk grates themselves are designed. If we ignore the sidewalk grates, we risk having to remove and replace existing street trees due to likely damage from the grates rubbing against the new trunk growth.
Regards,
--Jacob