September 5, 2006
The Board of Commissioners of the City of
RECOGNITION/PROCLAMATION/PRESENTATION:
With Commission approval Mayor Amyx proclaimed the week of September 4 – 8, 2006 as National Payroll Week; Friday, September 8, 2006 as International Literacy Day; the period between September 8 - October 7, 2006, as Indian Arts Show Days in Lawrence; the week of September 10 – 16 as Suicide Prevention Week; the week of September 17 – 23 as Constitution Week; and the month of September as Life Insurance Awareness Month.
CONSENT AGENDA
As
part of the consent agenda, it was moved
by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to approve the City Commission meeting
minutes from August 22, 2006. Motion
carried unanimously.
As
part of the consent agenda, it was moved
by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to receive minutes from the Mechanical
Code Board of Appeals meeting of May 11, 2006; the
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to approve claims to 265 vendors in the amount of $14,013,852.17 and payroll for the period August 20, 2006 through September 2, 2006, in the amount of $1,643,210.40. Motion carried unanimously.
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to approve the Drinking Establishment License for Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar, 3900 West 6th; Bambino’s, 1801 Massachusetts; Harbour Lights, 1031 Massachusetts; and Slow Ride Roadhouse, 1350 North 3rd; and, the Class A Club License for Lawrence Country Club, 400 Country Club Terrace. Motion carried unanimously.
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to concur with the recommendation of the Mayor and appoint Peggy Lloyd to the ECO2 Commission to the expired position that was held by Mark Gonazales, which expired on June 30, 2006. Motion carried unanimously.
As part of the
consent agenda, it was moved by
Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to
approve the purchase of approximately 44 acres of property generally
located south of the Kansas Turnpike, north of 1750 Road for the Sanitary Sewer
Pump Station No. 48 project in the amount of $585,100. Motion carried unanimously. (1)
The
|
Bidder |
Base |
Option
– stand |
Option
– stacker |
Total
unit |
Maintenance per month at 2000 lf (per estimate provided in bid) |
|
Drexel |
14,000 |
250 |
795 |
15,045 |
365
($.1825 / lf) |
|
Lighthouse option 2 |
15,950 |
238 |
657 |
16,845 |
400
($.2000 / lf) |
|
(does not meet specifications) |
14,179 |
|
650 |
14,829 |
130 |
|
Lighthouse option 1 (does not meet
specifications) |
14,950 |
238 |
657 |
15,845 |
400 |
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to award the bid to Drexel Technologies, in the amount of $15,045, plus maintenance at $0.1825/lf. Motion carried unanimously. (2)
The
BIDDER BID AMOUNT
Engineer’s
Estimate $274,331.50
R.D.
Johnson Excavating $267,229.90
LRM
Industries $281,501.90
Kansas
Heavy Construction $337,323.30
Linaweaver Construction, Inc. $421,748.25
As part of the
consent agenda, it was moved by
Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to award the bid to R.D. Johnson
Excavating Company, in the amount of $267,229.90. Motion carried unanimously. (3)
As part of the
consent agenda, it was moved by
Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to approve funding request of $20,190 to
fund the Waterwise Program for fourth graders in Lawrence Public Schools for
the 2006-2007 school year. Motion carried unanimously. (4)
As part of the
consent agenda, it was moved by
Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to adopt Resolution 6680, amending
Section 1 of Resolution No. 6674, authorize the sale of General Obligation Temporary
Notes, Series 2006-I and General Obligation Bonds, Series 2006-A. Motion carried unanimously. (5)
As part of the
consent agenda, it was moved by
Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to approve the recommendation from the
Traffic Safety Commission to deny the request to establish “No Parking” along
the south side of
As part of the
consent agenda, it was moved by
Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to concur with the Traffic Safety
Commission to establish “yield signs” at five locations on the
As part of the
consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner,
seconded by Highberger, to concur with the Traffic Safety Commission to
establish a “20 mph speed limit” on
As part of the
consent agenda, it was moved by
Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to concur with the Traffic Safety
Commission to establishing “stop signs” on
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to approve the License Agreement with the KU Alumni Association to place a sign in the right-of-way approximately 14’ west of the property line (1266 Oread). Motion carried unanimously.
(10)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to concur with the Planning Commission’s recommendations to approve the Final Plat (PF-07-17-06) for the Oregon Trail Addition, a 123-lot residential subdivision, located north of U.S. Hwy 40 (6th Street) and East of George Williams Way (extended); and accept the dedication of easements and rights-of-way subject to the following conditions:
1.
Revision of the final plat to
include the following:
a.
A note stating “No building permits will be issued
until the completion of George Williams Way, Stoneridge Drive or Overland Drive
to serve the subdivision.”
b.
A note stating: “Building permits issued within
this subdivision shall be limited to a maximum number of dwelling units (based
upon an updated revised Traffic Impact Study showing only one access into the
subdivision with Level of Service of “C: or better, at the intersection of
George Williams Way and W. 6th Street, or Stoneridge Drive and W. 6th
Street) until such time as a second access to the subdivision is completed.”
c.
10’ landscape easements must be provided on the
rear of double frontage lots.
d.
Pedestrian easements provided in Block Three
between Lots 26 & 27 and along the southern border of Tract ‘A’ and
continuing on between Lots 5 & 6, all of Block Three.
2.
Provision of the following
fees and documentation:
a.
Recording fees made payable to the Douglas County
Register of Deeds.
b.
A completed and revised Master Street Tree Plan
with Red Maple deleted and Zelkova (Botanical name: Zelkova serata ‘Green
Vase’) added.
c.
A Temporary
Utility Agreement.
d.
Street sign fees.
3.
Pinning of lots in accordance with Section 21-302.2
of the Subdivision Regulations.
4.
Submission of public improvement plans prior to the
recording of the Final Plat with the Register of Deeds Office.
5.
Final Plat can not be recorded until a
when an agreement not to protest the creation of a special assessment
benefit district or districts for the improvement of George Williams Way from
West 6th Street to the north boundary line of the Final Plat,
including intersection improvements at West 6th Street, has
been successfully established executed.
Motion carried unanimously. (11)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by
Highberger, to concur with the Planning Commission’s recommendations to
approve the Final Plat (PF-07-18-06) for the Stephens-Noller Addition, a
one-lot industrial subdivision, located on the southwest corner of Research
Park Drive & Bob Billings Parkway; and accept the dedication of easements
and rights-of-way subject to the following conditions:
1.
Provision of a revised Final Plat with the
following changes:
a.
Cross access easement shown from the access point
on
2.
Execution of a Temporary
Utility Agreement;
3.
Provision of the following
fees and recording documentation:
a.
Copy of paid property tax
receipt;
b.
Recording fees made payable to the Douglas County
Register of Deeds;
c.
Completed
Motion carried
unanimously. (12)
As
part of the consent agenda, it was moved
by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to concur with the Planning
Commission’s recommendations to approve the Final Plat (PF-07-19-06) for Loges
Addition, a 142-lot residential subdivision containing, located on the
northwest corner of
1. Provision of a revised Final Plat with the
following changes:
a.
A note added that states that
b.
A note added that states that building permits will
not be issued to properties adjacent to
c.
The Minimum Elevation of Building Opening (MEBO)
must be provided for all lots adjacent to a drainage easement.
d.
10’ Landscape easement provided along
e.
10’ Landscape easement provided along the rear
property line for double-frontage lots.
f.
Access easement must be continued to be shown along
the north property line.
g.
A note that states that the existing access
easement will be vacated by separate instrument after Utilities Department has
determined that sufficient alternate access has been constructed through the
development to the west.
4.
Remove the 10’ Utility Easements in the front and
rear of those lots where no water, sanitary sewer, or stormwater lines are
proposed per the plat, as the unused easements would needlessly interfere with
the placement of Street Trees.
5.
Pinning of the lots in accordance with Section
21-302.2 of the Subdivision Regulations.
6.
Submission of public improvement plans prior to the
recording of the Final Plat with the Register of Deeds Office.
7.
Submittal of a Temporary Utility Agreement.
8.
Provision of the following
fees and recording documentation:
a.
Recording fees made payable to the Douglas County
Register of Deeds;
b.
Provision of a complete, revised master street tree
plan with the names ‘Summershade’ and ‘Emerald Queen’ added to the Botanical
Name ‘Acer platanoides’, and the species ‘Norwegian Sunset Maple’, Botanical
Name: ‘Acer truncatum x platnoides’ added to the species list.
c.
Provision of street sign fees.
Motion carried
unanimously. (13)
As part of the consent agenda it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to adopt as
“signs of community interest” 15 directional signs that will notify the public
of the Brewgrass 2006 Festival and placed in various rights-of-way. The signs will be placed on September 8, 2006
and will be removed on September 10, 2006.
Motion carried unanimously.
(14)
As part of the consent agenda it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to approve as
signs of community interest, the Friends of the Library Book Sale signs from
September 29, 2006 through October 7, 2006.
Motion carried unanimously.
(15)
The
adoption of Resolution No. 6679, declaring 1144 Rhode Island Street
environmentally blighted, ordering the property owner to remove the blight
within 20 days was withdrawn from the Consent Agenda. (16)
Ordinance 8033,
allowing the temporary sale, possession and consumption of alcoholic liquor on
that section of
Bill Mitchell,
Lawrence, said he decided the City Commission should know that at least two
constituents did not approve of the City contributing $5,000 to the Aggieville
like situation of what, at one time, was the City’s downtown and even less did
they like the City Commission taking the additional step toward turning that
area into an open saloon. He said the
event might be good for someone’s business, but they were tired of picking up
the celebrants’ trash in their yards and neighborhood as they walked to
breakfast. Recent, hundred years ago
columns in the Lawrence Journal World indicated the success
Commissioner Highberger said he appreciated Mitchell’s concerns, but he did not see the City Commission encouraging bad behavior. He said it was a way to get people downtown, to appreciate downtown, not just for the bars and restaurants, but for all retail in the downtown area. He said this type of function was a good way to bring the community together. He said he thought they should keep an eye on the event, but he supported the resolution.
Commissioner Hack
said one important thing to note was there would be an enormous amount of
security. She said this event was a
partnership between the Chamber of Commerce, City of
Mayor Amyx said
for a number of years, he had heard about the huge celebrations they once did
in
Moved by Hack, seconded by Rundle to
place on first reading Ordinance No. 8033, allowing the temporary sale,
possession, and consumption of alcoholic liquor on that section of
CITY MANAGER’S REPORT:
During
the City Manager’s Report, David Corliss, Interim City Manager/Legal Services
Director, said the Police Department had launched a new addition to the City’s
website that provided a Question and Answer Board. He said citizens could send questions to the
Police Department and the department would provide a written response which
would be a valuable service for citizens to learn more about their Police
Department.
Also,
during the City Manager’s Report he said at the City employee picnic, staff
provided a performance recognition award to Glen Taylor who was a valued
employee in the Central Maintenance Garage.
He said it was a surprise to Taylor, but no surprise to the people who
worked with Taylor, that staff wanted to recognize him because he worked hard
and made a number of changes to the City’s system as far as accounting for
different projects and materials and staff recognized that effort with a LEAP
Award as recognition of Taylor’s hard work.
Corliss
also said staff was always looking under a philosophy of continuous improvement
to see where the City could enhance City services, which could be seen with a
survey on the City website. He said staff
was encouraging citizens to critically look at the City website and make
suggestions on how staff could improve that website. He said the City Commission had been
previously briefed about staff’s e-government activities and staff encouraged citizens
to respond to that survey.
Corliss
also said that he asked
Corliss
said one issue at hand over the past few months was improving the enforcement
of the Disorderly House Ordinance which was a difficult challenge. He said he had related to some of the City Commissioners,
some of his observations while riding along with a Police Officer Friday night,
during some of the boisterous activities in neighborhoods. He said staff wanted to make sure the
ordinances that were on the books were appropriately enforced. He said staff would discuss this issue with
offenders and encourage those offenders to recognize they had neighborly responsibilities
which could be potentially, a very valuable tool. He said staff had some success with their
first couple of conferences and they were going to continue to follow
through. One of the difficulties was
tracking the infractions where there were Municipal Court, District Court, and Police
Department actions and a number of different things to monitor. He said staff would continue to improve that
system.
Corliss
said two items that were not mentioned in the City Manager‘s Report was the SDAT
meeting last week. He said staff
continued to receive a lot of very positive comments and compliments. During the calendar portion of that meeting,
he thought staff might want to discuss the next step and when it would be a
good time to reserve their return visit.
He said that was another example of a strong partnership with the
Chamber of Commerce, the City, and a number of interested citizens, including a
number of architects. He said it really
showed the enthusiasm the groups had for the community and the desire to have a
vision for what the community could look like and how the community could
grow.
The
other item not mentioned, was that he, Debbie Van Saun, Assistant City Manager;
REGULAR AGENDA ITEMS:
Consider recommendation from the Traffic
Safety Commission to post “no turn on red when pedestrians are present” at the
intersection of 19th Street and southbound Tennessee Street.
Chuck
Soules, Public Works Director, presented the staff report. He said at the August 14th meeting
the Traffic Safety Commission heard a request from a Pedestrian Advisory Sub-Committee
about the safety of the intersection at 19th and
Mayor
Amyx said he was not sure that recommendation would work.
Soules
said that thinking might be correct, but staff had posted those types of signs
in other areas and it did alert people.
He said he always indicated to people that in vehicle and pedestrian
situations, the pedestrian was always going to lose. He said staff could put up signs and signals,
but the pedestrian had to take notice.
He said this recommendation was something that could raise driver
awareness.
Mayor
Amyx said since there had been three pedestrian vehicle accidents already he
asked if it made better sense to prohibit all right turns on red.
Soules
said disallowing right turns on red would be fine, too. He said he assumed the reason was that when pedestrians
were present, they did not have that continuous stream. He said if they did what Mayor Amyx was
recommending, then the stream would be 24/7.
Commissioner
Rundle asked if it meant when pedestrians were present at the intersection
getting ready to cross with the green light or was it anywhere in the
intersection.
Soules
said it was when pedestrians were present, so that was within the intersection.
Mayor
Amyx asked if the pedestrian had to be in the intersection or at the crosswalk.
Soules
said on the corner.
Commissioner
Schauner said he thought most of the ordinances dealt with yielding to
pedestrians when they were in the crosswalk as opposed to standing on the
curb. He said he shared the Mayor’s
concern about what that meant exactly and where “present” meant, whether it was
on the curb, in the intersection, or approaching the curb. He said he would feel better if it was when
pedestrians were in the crosswalk.
Commissioner
Highberger asked if the proposed sign was a standard street sign.
Soules
said the sign was standard which was in the MUTCD (Manual of Uniform Traffic Control
Devices).
Commissioner
Rundle said he presumed when the vehicles stopped, the pedestrian would take
the right-of-way. He said he thought
this could be effective, at least, in a certain percentage of cases. He said he heard complaints by people who
primarily got around by walking and people were in the habit, when going “right
on red”, of looking left and as soon as they saw it was clear, people would
go. He said the recommendation from the
TSC would cause those people to stop and look and once they did and give the
right-of-way, he thought it could prevent some of those accidents from
happening and he thought it helped develop habits that people should have
anyway, but obviously they did not.
Mayor
Amyx said at the intersection, one of the problems was those three lanes. He said it seemed inevitable that if a person
was in the right hand lane, in the two left hand lanes, cars were pulled out
close enough to the crosswalk that a person could not see if a pedestrian was
present in that intersection. He said if
they already had three accidents, it made sense this might be a place where the
City Commission might want to consider denial of a right turn on red.
Commissioner
Rundle said he would not stand in the way of that idea. He said in general, the TSC recommendation
would be a good idea to apply in some places that were high traffic for
pedestrians where there were no visibility problems.
Mayor
Amyx called for public comment.
Gwen
Klingenberg, member of the Pedestrian Advisory Committee, said their committee looked
at this corner because they had been looking at several corners. Along that particular corner, the committee had
a concern of students getting to the grade school, the high school, and the
university. She said Kentucky Street did
not have sidewalks on either side along with 21st Street from
Louisiana to Tennessee, and Tennessee only had a sidewalk on the west side. If someone was trying to get from the
Centennial Neighborhood to Cordley Elementary, there was only one way to go to stay
on the sidewalk and someone would end up at the northwest corner of that
intersection and as noted, a person would be looking to their left to get in
and not paying attention to what was coming down on the sidewalk. She said their committee looked at this area and
asked if there could be a no right turn, but their committee was informed that
a “no right turn” was not a good idea because most of the day, evenings, and
late at night people were not going to want to sit and wait at the light until
it turned green. She said this was
suggested to their committee as probably, the only possibility that would
really work and that it had happened and been done before. She said they were looking at the fact there
were a number of sidewalks that did not exist in trying to get children to the
school. She said the day after the
Traffic Safety Committee voted on this issue, there was an accident the next
day; a bicyclist was hit from someone turning right coming from the south. She said it was a very dangerous intersection
with a lot of kids and she hoped the City Commission would take a strong
consideration of that decision.
Mayor
Amyx said the City Commission could look at “no right turn on red” or the
recommendation from the Traffic Safety Commission. He asked the City Commission if they believed
people sitting at that light would make a right turn in the event pedestrians
were not present and if they thought it was not controllable.
Vice
Mayor Hack said she thought people would turn right on red if no one was
around. She thought that putting up a
sign would clue a person to look both ways because people were coming from all
directions. She said she would like to
see what would happen if the City Commission concurred with the TSC
recommendation and possibly bring the issue back, at a later time, to see how
it was working.
Commissioner
Rundle asked if the City Engineer had the capacity to implement some action on
a temporary basis without the City Commission adopting an ordinance.
Corliss
said it was in the range of 90 days.
Commissioner
Hack said 90 days might give the City Commission enough time to look at the
sign’s effectiveness.
Commissioner
Schauner said he was in favor of posting that sign for 90 days. He said as staff had done with new stop
signs, they could put some red flags on the sign so people could know it was
additional signage.
Commissioner
Highberger said he would support the 90 day experiment.
Commissioner
Rundle said to deny the right turn at all times would be ineffective because
the lack of any need for a great chunk of the day and weekend. He said it seemed to be the best solution to
something that fluctuates that widely at an intersection.
Mayor
Amyx said he did not disagree with Commissioner Rundle. He said he was going to vote against that
idea, but it was not because he did not want to try something at that
intersection. He said the City
Commission should proceed with the suggestion to place a no right turn on red
sign when pedestrians were present, to be placed at that location for a 90 day
trial.
Commissioner
Highberger asked Amyx if his no vote was because he supported eliminating all
right turns on red.
Mayor
Amyx said yes.
Moved by Hack, seconded by Rundle,
to authorize staff to post “No Turn on Red when Pedestrians are Present” sign
at the intersection of
Commissioner
Schauner asked Klingenberg if the Pedestrian Safety Commission had any idea how
many intersections had high pedestrian traffic.
Klingenberg
said their committee just received a map from the City that showed the condition
of all sidewalks. She said the next issue
their committee was working on was looking at the schools. She said in October there would be a “Walk Your
Kids to School Day” and their committee was planning on conducting a survey for
the parents to write down what they thought about the conditions of those
sidewalks traveled by those kids on their way to school.
Commissioner
Schauner asked if the City Commission would expect to hear back from their
committee about some further recommendations from the Traffic Safety
Commission.
Klingenberg
said yes, working with Public Works on their sidewalk gap issue.
(19)
Consider recommendation from the Traffic
Safety Commission to construct mountable medians and a “left turn yield” sign
on the eastbound approach to the intersection of
Chuck
Soules, Public Works Director, presented the staff report. He said on the August 14th meeting
the Traffic Safety Commission heard a request from John Kraft about the
intersection of 11th and Haskell.
He said people traveling northbound on Haskell typically took that corner
fairly tight and cross the center line into traffic on 11th Street
traveling east and heading south on Haskell.
He said there was a yield sign for people traveling south bound on
Haskell.
The
recommendation to alleviate the motorist confusion was to construct two three
inch medians with the rumble strips. He
said it would be mountable because there was a lot of truck traffic that used
that intersection, such as much of the City’s fleet and some industrial
uses. He said those medians would keep
people in their lanes. He said the TSC
was also recommending installing a left turn yield sign on the southwest corner
of 11th and Haskell. The cost
for constructing those medians would cost approximately $2,500 which would be
constructed by City crews.
Commissioner
Highberger asked if the placing of those medians were accurate on the map.
Soules
said yes.
Commissioner
Highberger said it seemed like the upper median extended pretty far into what
they saw as the usual traffic lane on the right.
Soules
said David Woosley, Traffic Engineer, drew those maps and was good with
scale.
Mayor
Amyx asked if there was any way to stripe the intersection.
Soules
said there had been two 3 inch stripes at that location.
Mayor
Amyx called for public comment.
Commissioner
Schauner said he was a bit surprised that something like a mountable median
with rumbling strips was a $2,500 expense, especially if staff was doing the
work themselves.
Soules
said that was just material, and did not include the cost of tear out,
equipment, and personnel.
Commissioner
Schauner asked if it was possible to achieve the same effect with a rumble
strip alone without the mountable median.
Soules
said it was not the larger vehicles that were causing the problem, but the
smaller vehicles that were traveling too fast.
He said a rumble strip would get their attention, but it would not stop
them from crossing over or driving on it.
He said it was something that could be done, if the Commission desired. He said he thought it would be difficult to
get a rumble strip into the concrete pavement unless they tack something down
on top of it.
Mayor
Amyx said he did not think the City Commission wanted to dig up a concrete
street.
Soules
said staff would need to cut the concrete street about 10 to 12 inches because
the existing road was 8 inches thick.
Commissioner
Schauner asked if the project would fall in line with the other traffic calming
projects or would the project move to the front of the line.
Soules
said this street was not on the list for a traffic calming project. He said staff would construct that street
when they had time and would not be moved ahead of other priority projects.
Commissioner
Schauner asked if this project would be moved to the front of some line.
Soules
said in advance of traffic calming projects potentially.
Corliss
said this project did not need to be bid.
He said the project was relatively simple in design and the crew was
familiar with the location.
Moved by Highberger, seconded by
Hack, to concur with the Traffic Safety Commission’s
recommendation to construct mountable medians and a “Left Turn Yield” sign on
the eastbound approach to the intersection of
FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS: