Consent Item 4i
STAFF REPORT
City Council Consent Item
DATE: March 18, 2024
TO: Honorable Mayor and Council Members
FROM: Brendan Byrd, Public Works Director/City Engineer SUBJECT: Public Works/Engineering Department Monthly Report STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Receive report as an informational item.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Public Works Director/City Engineer
Police Facility Remodel Project
The project is continuing to progress on schedule. The interior of the facility is largely completed, with only the IT room and other minor punch list items remaining for completion. The project exterior work has been somewhat delayed due to the weather, however, there appears to be a coming weather window in March which should allow for the paving to be completed. To date, all concrete work on the project is completed. Once paving has been finished, the primary remaining project items will include landscaping, fencing, the solar installation, the covered parking structure, and parking lot striping.
Water and Sewer Rate Study
As previously reported in the past several months, the City is currently conducting a water and sewer rate study, which will inform planned adjustments to water and sewer rates over the next five years. This upcoming rate adjustment, which staff will bring to the Council for approval, will be the City’s first adjustment since 2012.
Currently, staff are working with our rate study consultant to converge on a recommended fiveyear rate adjustment strategy. The adjustments will take into account current and future operating expenditures, capital improvement and maintenance projects, and staffing costs. Staff anticipate bringing a recommended rate adjustment strategy to the Council at the April 15th meeting.
Mill Creek Habitat Connectivity Project
Over the past several months, staff have been active on this project clearing vegetation near the culvert crossings to accommodate the project topographic surveys, all of which have been completed. Additionally, the geotechnical borings have been performed for each site, this effort characterizes the soils in the area and the information is used to inform the design of new culvert crossings. The only remaining field work efforts are the biological and geomorphic assessments, which are scheduled to take place over the next month or so. Once all field work is completed, the engineering design phase of the project will begin.
Consent Item 4i
ADA Barrier Removal Project
The ADA barrier removal project, which will include new sidewalk improvements along N Street, a new bulb-out crosswalk at 6th and Main, and various minor concrete improvements along 12th Street, was advertised for bidding in late February. The bid opening is March 15th. Should bids come in at budget, staff plan to bring the project for an award recommendation in early April.
Rohner Creek Flood Control Project
Although all phases of this project have been completed for a number of years, staff have continued to put effort into the long-term monitoring and maintenance that were required in order to obtain permits for the project from the resource agencies (i.e. CDFW, the Water Board, etc.). The primary permit conditions which the City has been working to achieve are the establishment of new 3- parameter wetlands, the establishment of native vegetation, and the minimization of target invasive species (primarily ivy and blackberry). Annually since the first years of construction, City crews have removed invasive vegetation, and planted supplemental vegetation in areas that needed it.
It is currently the fifth year of monitoring for the Phase A and B area of the project, which includes all Rohner Creek improvements in between 12th Street and Main Street, including the flood control swale. The City was recently notified by the resource agencies that the permit conditions noted above have been achieved, and therefore the City is no longer required to monitor or maintain these areas for vegetation or wetlands creation. In addition to this, staff have agreed to an action plan for Phases 3 and 4 of the project, which includes Hillside Creek and the 12th Street fish passage project, where those permit conditions will be accepted by the end of 2024. In summary, by the end of the year the project will now ‘officially’ have come to a close, and the City will no longer be required to complete the additional annual efforts noted above.
Kenmar Interchange Improvement Project
As noted in last month’s staff report the PA&ED phase of the project is complete. On February 28th, staff also finalized and submitted a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Grant for the project, where the City is requesting $25 million of grant funding in order to complete the construction phase of the interchange project, and Phase I of the Strongs Creek Trail. Awards for the grant will be announced in the early summer of 2024.
Utilities Division- Utility Lead
Service Call Summary
In the month of February the utilities division completed 108 service calls by operators.
Figure 1 below shows the distribution of service calls by type. Underground Service Alert (USA) - there were zero miss-marked lines, resulting in zero broken utilities.
Consent Item 4i
Figure 1. Utility division service calls by type in February.
Water Distribution System
Read water meters and completed meter worksheet.
In February, the crew continued flushing hydrants. There was an estimated flushing of approximately 760,000 gallons. Staff anticipate hydrant flushing will be complete in March.
Utilities completed 30 water shut
offs for non-payments.
The utilities team installed no new
services in the month of February.
In the month of February the
utilities team changed out 15 dead
water meters.
Replaced three bad angle valves.
In February there was one water
leak. This leak was on a six inch
A.C. line at the corner of 2nd and Summer Street. There was an estimated water loss of 45,000 gallons. See photo inset right.
Table 1. Water leak rate and water loss estimates for 2024. 0 5
10 15
20 25
30 35
40 45
Connect Disconnect Occupant Change Service Action
Number of Calls
Service Call Type
Date Location Pipe
Information
Estimated
Leak Rate
(Gallons
per Minute)
Leak
Duration
Total
Estimate
Leak
Volume
(Gallons)
2/9/2024 Summer @ 2nd 6’’ A.C. 1500 30 Min 45,000
Consent Item 4i
Wastewater Collections System
Utilities cleaned 10,000 feet of sewer main.
Repaired a broken sewer lateral on Harlan Way.
Repaired a broken sewer lateral in the alley behind Umpqua bank. This line was broken by an underground boring company.
There was one sewer plug in the month of February resulting in no spills or overflows. There was one SSO in February due to heavy rains. The crew spilled an estimated 23,500 gallons of sewer, and recovered 13,000 gallons.
Miscellaneous Tasks
The utilities division performed monthly maintenance on the division’s heavy equipment, including greasing and checking all fluids.
Dan and Tyler completed their online schooling and can now take their permit test for Class B driver’s license.
Water Treatment/Wastewater Division- Chief Plant Operator Wastewater Treatment
Table 2. February wastewater plant effluent flows for the past five years in Million Gallons (MG) and Million Gallons per Day (MGD).
0 10
20 30
40 50
60 70
0 0.5
1 1.5
2 2.5
3 3.5
4 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Total Flow, MG
Flow, MGD
Total Monthly Flow, MG MAX Daily Flow, MGD AVG Daily Flow, MGD Year 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Total Monthly Flow, MG 39.242 57.689 25.530 46.620 46.620 Maximum Daily Flow, MGD 2.101 3.623 1.240 3.260 3.260
Average Monthly Flow, MGD 1.353 2.060 0.912 1.665 1.665 Consent Item 4i
Wastewater Events & Maintenance Tasks Completed:
Staff repaired a defective pump at the Strong’s Creek Lift Station and found water in motor. Staff removed the
motor and sent it to Industrial electric for rewinding and new bearings. Staff then reinstalled and adjusted the
motor, which is no functioning properly (see photo inset right).
Staff rebuilt the anaerobic digester recirculation pump and then reinstalled.
Staff replaced the ammonia alarm sensor.
Staff replaced a motor for the effluent disinfection system after arriving in the morning to discover low chlorine
residual in the contact basin.
Staff replaced magnesium hydroxide pump.
Staff preformed monthly river and monitoring well sampling for the basin plan amendment study.
Staff sampled wastewater effluent at Eel River Brewery now that their brewing facility has return to Fortuna. The effluent is well within acceptable standards to be discharged to the City’s collection system.
Water Treatment
Table 3. February potable water production for the past five years in Million Gallons (MG).
Table 3. February potable water production for the past five years in Million Gallons (MG). 0 0.5
1 1.5
23 24
25 26
27 28
29 30
2020 2021 2022 2023 2023
Flow, MGD
Production, MG
Production Max Daily Avg Daily
Year 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Total Production, MG 29.410 27.218 26.947 25.740 25.740 Maximum Daily, MG 1.106 1.425 1.355 1.171 1.171
Average Daily, MG 1.014` 0.972 0.962 0.919 0.919
Consent Item 4i
Water Events & Maintenance Tasks Completed:
Staff replaced various parts at Vancil pump station pump 2. Staff replaced the circuit breaker for pump 2 at the Vancil pump station as a result of troubleshooting breaker tripping issues.
General Services and Streets - General Services Superintendent The following is a list of scheduled assignments completed by the General Services staff in February:
Staff removed a debris dam in Rohner Creek that was
located behind the main cook shack. The debris dam and
high water level caused the bank to erode off the corner of the cook shack, threatening the structure. A larger project will unfold later in the year to fix the erosion of the bank (see photo inset left).
Staff responded to an after-hour callout to remove
debris from Hillside Drive. The debris was from a previous fallen tree top that slid off the embankment and closed the road during a heavy winter storm. Staff placed erosion
control mat to cover the exposed ground on the embankment.
Staff also responded to a hill slide on Ninth Street Extension.
The slide encroached onto the single lane. Mercer Fraser later responded with K rails to keep continued debris flows off of the road and staff placed a culvert in the ditch to keep the storm water flowing.
Staff restored three large areas with hot mix asphalt on Kenmar Road and Fortuna Boulevard.
Staff prepared for heavy winter storm events. Staff refilled the sand pile for the public to use at Rohner Park. Staff used the vacuum truck to clear drainage inlets and culverts. Staff removed debris and material on the shoulder of South Loop Road. City carpenter and staff built new large parade barricades for the new season of special events. Staff reused the Corp yard roofing material to place a sun shade over the open pens at the Dog Kennel.
Staff assisted the Utilities Division to repair a water main break on Summer and Second Avenue.
Consent Item 4i
Staff assisted the Park’s staff with removing a tree that fell down in Rohner Park near the Pistol Club facility. The tree caused a minor damage to the chain link fence. Staff removed low hanging tree limbs and brush from Ninth Street Extension and from Rohner Park. City rented a chipper to work on site.
Staff cut the vegetation along Fortuna
Boulevard for the coming fire season and
transient camps.
Staff removed debris and materials from a
transient camp off of Ross Hill Road (see
photo inset right).
Staff assisted the residents on Old Rancheria
Road to clear a slip out that was blocking
access to the homes.
In addition to the special tasks noted above, staff also engaged in the following regular routine maintenance activities including USA’s, street sweeping, recycling and trash management, collect batteries at City Hall, road maintenance, Dog Park maintenance, vegetation management including sniping of curbs, and safety training and inspections.
Staff is available for questions, requests, and emergency responses to the community.
RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION:
Receive Public Works Department Monthly Report. Consent Agenda vote.