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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19860721~e-ti~rr~ ~__.~~-sue-rr-t`itv---~ourrc~ ---- _----- ~ulvv-2-1: _~1-9.8~ Mayor Stirling called the meeting to order at 5 : 0 0 p. m. with Councilmembers Fallin, Walls and Collins present. Councilwoman Fallin said there was an accident involving the carriage company, and the horse got loose and overturned a car. Acting City Manager Mitchell said part of the agreement with the carriage company is that they indemnify the city. Mitchell said the stable lease will be on the next agenda, and Council can discuss safety issues at that time. Acting City Manager Mitchell gave Council some options that the city has done in previous elections. The city has done mailers to all registered voters, prepared information ads for the news media. Mitchell said some cities form advocacy citizens groups for election issues. Mayor Stirling said if a citizen group wants to form, the city should not be involved. Mitchell said staff people will be involved on Grassroots television for a debate and an information program. Councilwoman Walls said the city should provide information only. Councilwoman Fallin said she would approve staff and Council available for presentations and debates and to prepare information ads for the media. The planning department is holding two public hearings on the entrance to Aspen ballot issues. Bil Dunaway asked if the voters are going to be told how much open space will be given up for the highway. Mitchell said the staff can only estimate the amount until the highway department does an environmental impact statement. Councilwoman Walls said staff is estimating 7 to 9 acres for the straight alignment depending on the width of the median. Councilwoman Walls said 6.2 acres of the Thomas property was bought for transportation, which will not be used for the highway and could be returned to open space. Using the existing alignment will use less open space. Mitchell pointed out on the straight alignment, the city recovers some open space. 1-8-6- -ice Cindy Shafer, finance director, told Council this report compares cash balances by fund for the first 5 months of 1986 and a final status of 1985. Ms. Shafer told the actual savings in 1985 was 5113,000, less than was projected in March. The main issue for 1986 is the insurance costs, which are higher than budgeted city- wide. The total insurance costs for 1986 are 5275,000, which is $105,000 higher than budgeted. Council has spent the savings in the general fund for 532,000 mall fountain, 539,000 for code simplification and 531,000 for payments to the engineer for the 1 C~ont-in~c~~e-etizru ~ v-~o~un~i~. __-_.__-______J.~_..~-. _~-~-g-6 lodge improvement district. The last expenditure may be repaid when the District is formed. The general fund areas of concern are telephone expenses and wages in the police department. The staff is working on telephone expenses. There are savings in street and parks department; however, these department are very seasonal. Ms. Shafer told Council revenues are up for business license collections, interest income, and police fines. The sales tax revenues year to date are down from projections. Ms. Shafer told Council sales tax was projected to be up 8 percent over 1985. Ms. Shafer said the land fund is ahead of projected sales tax collections. Ms. Shafer said the real estate transfer fund is about on budget. The revenues are down for the concession stand at the Wheeler. Revenues in the water fund are down. Tap fees are down, one of the reasons is the gro j ected $370,000 tap fees for the Aspen Mountain Lodge which will not be collected. Ms. Shafer told Council in the electric fund revenues are down, but kilowatt usage is also down. There have been savings in the electric fund from shortage of personnel and refunding the electric bonds. The electric long range plan does not include the Maroon Hydropower project. Council will need to decide how to fund this project. The city has not yet received the payment for the Castleridge settlement, which will go to the electric fund. Mayor Stirling said the city is losing interest on this payment. Ms. Shafer told Council the golf course fund has some savings as well as increased revenues; however, the golf course is very seasonal. Additional revenues traditionally have been put into capital improvements at the golf course. Ms. Shafer said there is a decrease in the ice garden fund in hockey registrations and in general sales. Ms. Shafer said Council can discuss including the ice garden in the general fund rather than having it be an enterprise fund. Ms. Shafer said the issues to watch in 1986 are the city-wide insurance costs and the tap fees in the water fund. Mitchell said the staff will be more conservative in estimating tap fees. ~fi6 i~~ -1~1-idfi ~i~~~'Y Jay Hammond, city engineer, reminded Council Pitkin County's maintenance facility has to be moved off the airport site. Bruce Vandergraw told Council they will start the master planning phase of the facility tomorrow and would like some direction from Council about the city's involvement. They plan on master planning the facility to handle maintenance for the county, Aspen, and Snowmass and have operation satellite facilities. The Commissioners have adopted a resolution to have a county-wide 2 C-~ nt-s7rtte-c~ -i~+~e~t~rrct ~ ---- _ y---~-i ; __ bond issue election for the joint facility. The city and county will share the costs on a mill levy basis. Hammond said Fleet Maintenances report listed potential sites in Aspen for an operation facility, and outlined 9 options for all 3 governmental entities. Hammond said the county can plan for option 5 with the potential if the city fails to find a site in Aspen, the facility could be expanded to accommodate the city's needs. Hammond said potential sites in Aspen are the Rio Grande site, the old sanitation site on North Mill, which would require condemnation, the existing city shop, the eXHammondpsaid maintenance facility, and the Marolt property. Council has to decide if any of these sites are worth further consideration, or if there any other possible sites. Mayor Stirling asked about the water plant. Hammond said there is not enough land, and the hill to the water plant is a problem. Hammond said the historic society views the existing city shop as a historic feature; it was an old power plant. They do not want the building demolished but will consider an addition to the building. Councilwoman Fallin suggested using the Marolt property to the south of the shop. Councilman Collins said the existing building may have potential for more efficient use . Councilman Collins said it would be easiest to leave the city shop where it is; it is close to town and out of the way. The city owns 81,000 square feet and about 35,000 square feet is usable. Acting City Manager Mitchell said the facility planned by the county has extensive landscaping as well as all the vehicles stored inside. Mitchell said depending on where the city puts their facility, they may not have these requirements. The consultant's report estimated 57 , 000 square feet needs for an operation and maintenance facility for the city. Mitchell said staying in the present site will have traffic circulation problems, not all the equipment will be covered, the impound lot won't be located there. Councilman Collins suggested having the county take care of the city's maintenance. The city can then have a limited size operation facility. Councilman Collins asked the split between operations and maintenance. Hammond said operations has to be able to store equipment and materials on site; it is probably 70 percent. Mayor Stirling asked if Snowmass has made a decision. Vandergraw said they have indicated some interest in the facility. Councilman Collins said Snowmass is contemplating giving their bus system over to RFTA. Vandergraw said this would impact both the joint facility and Snowmass's facility and lessen the size. Councilwoman Walls asked if this would be a county run facility and the city would contract with the county for maintenance. Hammond said this is one option, other options are a contract operator or privatization. 3 Mayor Stirling asked how much is spent on major maintenance. Hammond said around $10,000, and $300,000 is spent on maintenance annually. Vandergraw said by combining maintenance f ac it i tie s may save up to 20 percent in maintenance costs. Mitchell asked what portion of the cost of the building can be attributed to adding maintenance facilities for Aspen. Vandergraw said $1,000,000 is added to the cost to accommodate both Aspen and Snowmass maintenance. Mitchell said $600,000 cost is due to handling the city's maintenance, and if the city saves 20 percent a year it will pay for itself in 10 years. Hammond told Council an operations facility for the city would cost $1,500,000. Mitchell said the existing facility is totally inadequate. Hammond said if the facility is going to maintain 300 vehicles rather than 100, it becomes cost effective to buy machinery the city and county do not currently own. Hammond said one advantage of a joint facility is the ability to stock common parts in a single location. The 3 governments can create common procurement practices. Council decided the existing site is the only possible site and to include expanding the site under the bridge and to the south to the Marolt property. Hammond said staff will work having this project ready to discuss during budget time. Hammond said dead storage could be handled at the joint maintenance facility. Mitchell said Council has approved 550,000 in the 1986 budget for the city shop, and staff could proceed with specific review of the existing site. Councilwoman Walls suggested the staff doing as much preliminary work as possible before hiring an architect or consultant. Mayor Stirling said an alternative approach is contracting out the road maintenance and the county may not need a large central facility. Council asked staff to proceed with an operations facility on the existing site and to indicate to the county the city is interested in option 5, in contracting the maintenance at a joint facility. Council also asked staff to look at if the existing site is abandoned, the possibility of locating the impound lot there. ~fiATE-H--~i~fi -~' Jay Hammond, city engineer, presented a recap of the water construction programs. Hammond said the figures need to be updated to show budgeted and actual expenses, and how the totals relate to the total budget. Hammond said there were programs in the original program that were dropped for other projects, like a water line to the Music campus, and extra fire protection for Pfister. Hammond told Council he will put this all together in a spread sheet and update the figures. Mayor Stirling asked how much was spent on the first site for the Tiehack water project and then abandoned. Hammond told Council the net expense of the 4 project, excluding the fire protection lines, was less than the original budget. Some money was spent on the first site, however money was saved on the alternative site because a shorter water line was used. Hammond said he can detail this project for Council. Councilman Collins said he would like to see more detail on each project, and how the changes on each project were impl emented. H6~i~~6ii s - Contract Award Elyse Elliott, engineering department, said Council has received a memorandum from the city attorney, which states the contract should be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder. Council can decide to give the contract award to the lowest bidder or to the local bidder. Councilwoman Walls moved to award the contract to Waffensmith; seconded by Councilman Collins. Acting City Manager Mitchell said staff would recommend this action not to jeopardize the project. Mitchell said staff is going to explore a local preference ordinance. All in favor, motion carried. Councilwoman Walls moved to adjourn at 7 :15 p. m. and went into executive session; seconded by Councilman Collins. All in favor, motion carried. Kathryn Koch, City Clerk 5