Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager Debbie Van Saun, Assistant City Manager
FROM:	Kevin Doyle, PE Infrastructure & Development Coordinator
CC:	Mark Bradford, Rich Barr, Victor Torres, Dave Wagner, Phil lip Ciesielski, Lynne Zollner, John Miller, Lisa Patterson
Date:	March 29, 2007
RE:	Downtown Lawrence Fire Protection Sprinkler Incentive Program (Downtown Sprinkler Program)

Please include the following item on the consent agenda for the April 10, 2007 City Commission meeting.

Authorize the City Manager to enter into contracts with the Incentive Recipients of the 2007 Downtown Sprinkler Program.

Project Description:  The Downtown Sprinkler Program is a proactive safety program aimed at getting fire protection sprinkler systems into downtown buildings.  The Sprinkler Program will encourage downtown building and business owners to install new sprinkler systems and/or upgrade existing systems through a combination of direct reimbursements and cost sharing mechanisms (See attached Program_Outline).

Project History:  The City Commission, at its June 6, 2006 meeting, authorized a tap incentive to downtown building and business owners in the 700 and 800 blocks of Massachusetts Street.  In order to provide a further incentive to downtown building and business owners, the City Commission has allocated $250,000 in the 2007 budget to fund an incentive program to reimburse property owners up to 75% of the cost of installing full sprinkler systems in selected downtown buildings.

In January, a program outline that combined the tap incentive and the full system incentive was completed, and the City began receiving applications for the program the week of January 21, 2007 (see attached Program_Application).  In all, 32 applications representing 35 separate buildings or business addresses were received by the March 2, 2007 deadline.

Project Funding: Tap Incentive:  Recipients of the Tap Incentive will pay a flat rate of $3,000 (or their portion thereof, for shared taps).  The Balance of the cost of the tap installation will be paid out of utility funds similar to the funding last summer.

System Incentive:  Recipients of the full system incentive will initially pay the full cost of the system installation.  Once the system is complete, inspected, and approved, the recipient will submit documentation of the full cost of the system installation, and the City will rebate the recipient for up to 75% of the system installation cost (up to maximum amounts detailed in the System Installation Reimbursement Incentive included in the Program Outline).

Application Evaluation and Final Selection:  Applications were evaluated based on the Building Prioritization and Selection included in the Program Outline.  Additional information such as the ability to share taps and the applicant’s willingness to participate in the tap incentive without the full system incentive were also factored into the evaluation.

To summarize, buildings were assessed a value of 1, 2, or 3 in each of the following five categories based on the initial Program Outline:

· Existing System Assessment (SA)

· Building Assessment (BA)

· Use Assessment (UA)

· Address Assessment (AA)

· Qualitative Assessment (QA)

A bonus value of 0, 1, or 2 was assessed for the following:

· Shared Tap Bonus (STB)

· Tap Incentive Bonus (TAB)

A final Composite Score was calculated for each building using the following formula:

CS = 12 + SA*5 + BA*10 + UA*7 + AA*5 + QA*5 + STB*3 + TAB*2.

The buildings were then sorted by Composite Score.

Based on the Application Evaluation, staff recommends that each of the following applicants be selected to receive a sprinkler system incentive in 2007 and requests that each begin securing firm bids for the fire protection sprinkler system installation work:

• Teller’s                             746 Massachusetts Street
• Lawrence Masonic Temple    1001 Massachusetts Street
• Buffalo Bob’s Smokehouse    719 Massachusetts Street
• Goldmakers                       723 Massachusetts Street
• The Bayleaf                       725 Massachusetts Street
• The Casbah                       803 Massachusetts Street
• Hobbs                              700 Massachusetts Street
• Silverworks                        715 Massachusetts Street

Recipients shall be aware that the City Manager reserves the right to insure that all program parameters are met both in terms of intent and budget.

Recipients shall contact Lynne Zollner at (785) 832-3151 regarding exterior modifications that may be required in conjunction with system installation.

Recipients shall contact Kevin Doyle at (785) 832-3410 regarding shared tap arrangements that may be required in conjunction with system installation.

In the event that additional funds remain available once firm bids for system installation have been received by the above recipients, staff recommends that the following applicants may be selected to receive a sprinkler system incentive in 2007:

· Francis Sporting Goods        721 Massachusetts Street

· Salon DiMarco                   733 Massachusetts Street

· Black-Eyed Susans             820 Massachusetts Street

· Kimbari                            822 Massachusetts Street

· La Parrilla                         814 Massachusetts Street

Action Request:  Authorize the City Manager to enter into contracts with the Incentive Recipients of the 2007 Downtown Sprinkler Program.

Attach:                   Application Evaluation