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Edmond City Council
The Edmond City Council Monday night approved a request for $1million in supplemental appropriations be transferred from the Water Fund to the Field Services-Water Line Maintenance contractual budget to repair water leaks that continue to stay historically high.
This transfer is expected to cover contract services through the end of June 2024.
Keith Stewart, Director of Public Works told the Council that the previous supplemental appropriation was for $500,000.00 on Oct. 9 and those funds will likely be exhausted by the end of December.
The total estimated cost to repair the leaks and replace the concrete and asphalt pavement removed in the leak process is $1 million.
“The last time I was here and talked to you about leaks, we were at about 250 and rising,” Stewart said. “I'm happy to report that that number today is less than 125. You approved a contract for us to bring on additional contractors to help us with those leaks about a month ago, and transferred some additional funds to support that effort. And, that has worked out well. Both contractors have committed three crews each and subsidized our efforts. And, so we're happy to say that we're getting closer to having those leaks under control, but we needed additional funds to support that effort."
Stewart said a portion of the supplemental appropriations would also go towards concrete replacement.
“Whenever we have a leak, we have to remove a driveway or a sidewalk,” he said. “These contractors are coming in and helping us do that work as well. We still are on target hopefully by the end of this calendar year to be back to a manageable number and back to our crews handling this in-house without having to use the contractors, but right now the new leaks coming in have really subsided, which we're happy about. I'm not sure why they have. I wish I knew, but I'm going to take that as a good sign.”
In a related matter, the Council approved a Professional Services Contract Amendment with Carollo Engineers Inc. for $17,459,390.00. The Contract Amendment covers the final phase of Water Plant Design and other Construction Administration items related to the Water Plant Expansion, and Water Resource Recovery Facility Resident Project Representative Services. In order to fund the Contract, funds must be transferred into the correct account and from the correct fund.
Stewart said the Wastewater Fund portion to be transferred is due to ongoing construction observation at the Water Resource Recovery Facility and several large water projects being combined into one contract. Due to the contract setup, the Resident Project Representative fees are all being paid through the Water Fund account with reimbursement as needed from the Wastewater Fund.
In other matters, the Council approved an amendment on the City’s Outdoor Sellers Permits program.
The process for Outdoor Sellers Permits was created by Ordinance 3690 in August of 2018.
These permits were designed to allow infrequent and intermittent retail sales on property zoned E-2 (Open Display Commercial) without requiring full site plan approval, full inspections, etc.
The current permit allows permits to be issued for a maximum of 30 days, per 6 month period, per lot.
Changes are proposed to the Outdoor Sellers Permit to better clarify requirements for businesses, citizens, and staff.
Significant changes include:
- Changing the maximum time allowed from 30 days per 6 months to 180 days per calendar year.
- These 180 days could be used consecutively or broken up into different permits (permits to be issued for a minimum of 30 days and maximum of 180 days).
- Clarifying that the 180-day maximum applies to the permitted lot and not the individuals using the lot.
- Raising the cost of the permit from $50 to $100.
- Adding a penalty for violations (a fine not exceeding $200).
The ordinance in front of you for consideration is a revision to the outdoor seller's permit, which was originally created in August of 2018,” said Corey Atkinson, City Clerk. “After some challenges in administration and making sure that everyone had the ability to follow the rules and that the rules were clear, staff have developed a proposed ordinance to make a few changes to this relevant section. Those major changes are that we are clarifying that outdoor seller permits are issued to a person or business for a specific lot, that the permits shall be issued for a maximum of 180 days per calendar year, that the permits must be at least 30 days between. So, for example, if you pull a permit that expires at the end of March, you have to have 30 days before you can pull the next permit. The permits will be issued for a minimum of 30 days and a maximum 80 days. It only applies for property zoned open display. It does not include food trucks. Food trucks are exempt from this permit.”
The Council approved an annual maintenance agreement for the competition pool with the Young Men's Christian Association of Greater Oklahoma City (YMCA); for $300,000.
The City has an agreement with the YMCA to provide the maintenance of the Mitch Park competitive pool, and its daily operations.
The City also has an agreement with the Edmond Public Schools (EPS) to share in the expenses for the competitive pool area. Starting July 1,2019 (for 5 years), EPS will reimburse around $100,000 per year for operating expenses and insurance on the building. A provision in the EPS agreement was added to share equally in equipment repairs over $25,000.
The Council also approved the the closeout of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce Community Development Grant, coronavirus response program.
Christie Batterson, Housing and Community Development Manager, told the Council in March of 2020, the federal government released money into the Cares Act that was supposed to be used for prevention, preparing for or responding to the coronavirus.
“The purpose of that was to get money out into the community to help those in need during the shutdown or during this time period,” she said. “We were an RA entitlement community, so we got direct funding from the federal government, but the Oklahoma Department of Commerce opened it up to those entities that already received funding, for additional funding to get it into the state. During the second round of allocations, we applied for a little over $1 million dollars to aid those nonprofits that we have in the community that were serving our citizens. We received that. Then they went after and released another round. We applied again for additional funding and they said, "Since you're doing such a good job, have an additional $185,000. So, all in all, we were awarded just a little under $2 million.”
Batterson praised Edmond's community partners and nonprofit organizations.
“Once notified about the funding, not only with our entitlement funding that we received, but with this refunding, I reached out to several of our nonprofits that were providing nutrition assistance, mental health assistance, and rental assistance, and I have those listed that received an allocation from us in that Cares funding: Edmond Mobile Meals, Hope Center, Edmond Public School Foundation, Project 66, and North Care. In the two-year period of time that we received the funding, we were able to serve a little over 37,000 individuals. We spent $502,000 in rental or mortgage assistance.
Batterson added “We provided nutritional assistance through Edmond Mobile Meals as well as Project 66, $350,000 to Edmond Mobile Meals and approximately $153,000 to Project 66. Our mental health programs, we were able to put case management workers from North Care and all the lateral school systems to work with the SROs, as well as some other mental health programming that the school system was doing through the foundation. And then finally our North Care rehabilitation of their new facility that will hopefully be opened after the beginning of the year at Kelly and 15th, we provided $450,000 in funding for that rehab itself.”