Dormont officials: Manager Jeffrey Naftal Council President Willard "Bill" McCartney Council Vice President Joan Hodson Council members Drew Lehman, Jeff Fabus, John Maggio, Valerie Martino, Onnie Costanzo Mayor Phil Ross The Pittsburgh Post Gazette has removed council members' personal email addresses. Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 9:27 AM To: Bill McCartney, Joan Hodson, Onnie Costanzo, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Jeff Fabus, Valerie Martino, Phil Ross Good Morning Everyone, I meant to discuss this on Monday night but missed the opportunity. The State DCED has opened up Flood Mitigation Program grants that would be perfect for the Athens Alley project. As you may recall, Athens Alley has been the site of repeated flooding events. We hired Hazen and Sawyer to determine what options were available to eliminate (or at least minimize) the flooding on Athens Alley and they came back with some options. Council opted for one option which was to extend the storm pipe all the way through Athens Alley to Annex Avenue and then across to Kelton Avenue to make a connection there. The cost of this option is approximately $400,000. When I heard about the grant, I asked Hazen and Sawyer to review whether the Athens Alley project would qualify and if so, could Hazen and Sawyer complete the application for us by the July 21, 2014 deadline. Hazen responded that the grant requires that there be "bid ready" documents for the project. But because they have done the preliminary work they could do the "bid ready" (essentially construction) documents plus the application by the deadline for a cost of approximately $60,000. But they need to know now to meet the deadline. The new DCED grant has only a 15% match which on a $400,000 project would be about $60,000. That means that if we were to move forward and get the grant, the engineering would cover all or most of our match. Funds for this are available in the Sewer Fund with $50,000 in storm water and the other $10,000 coming from our operations and maintenance budget. If there is interest among Council in pursuing this, I will need to give Hazen and Sawyer the go ahead now and then present their formal proposal to Council for approval at the May meeting. Please let me know your thoughts on this as soon as you can. Thanks.
1444 Hillsdale Avenue jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us From: Joan Hodson Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 9:44 AM To: Jeffrey Naftal <jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us>, Bill McCartney, Onnie Costanzo, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Jeff Fabus, Valerie Martino, Phil Ross Jeff, The Athens Alley situation is not going to just go away. I am okay with taking whatever avenues we need to and get this taken care of. Thank you. Joan If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. From: Drew Lehman Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 9:54 AM To: Jeffrey Naftal <jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us> Cc: Bill McCartney, Joan Hodson, Onnie Costanzo, John Maggio, Jeff Fabus, Valerie Martino, Phil Ross Is the 60K for the completion of the bid only, or is the 60K the total cost for the work to this point PLUS the completion of the bid? Drew Lehman From: Valerie Martino Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 10:08 AM To: Jeffrey Naftal <jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us> Cc: Bill McCartney, Joan Hodson, Onnie Costanzo, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Jeff Fabus, Phil Ross
I think we defintely need to fix the Athens situation so we can move forward with other projects. This is a problem that should have been corrected long ago. Let's put it behind us so the Borough does not have to keep putting it off and the residents in that area need some peace of mind. Val From: Fabus, Jeff Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 10:32 AM To: Valerie Martino, Jeffrey Naftal <jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us> Cc: Bill McCartney, Joan Hodson, Onnie Costanzo, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Phil Ross The bigger issue is not just Athens Alley but the condition of our sewers throughout the borough. As we have seen with this situation, one project can wipe out any money we have in the Sewer Fund and we all know our sewers aren t getting any younger. Nobody wants to raise taxes for the residents, of which we all are, but we may need to consider a fee, similar to what other communities are doing, where the money raised goes directly into a sewer fund and builds up overtime allowing these communities to be proactive in upgrading their sewer systems. If I recall correctly from my LGA class, Mt. Lebanon has set their fee at $ 8.00 per home and larger buildings such as apartment buildings, businesses and churches pay more depending on their size. For example, the new CVS may pay $ 24 a month based on its size while the apartment complex on Belrose may pay $ 36/month.. No one is exempt from this fee. That said, I would like to know the answer to Drew s question. So if I read this correctly, the matching grant would cover $ 60,000 of the $ 400,000 leaving us $ 340,000 to pay for ourselves. Then add the $ 60,000 (if that is the cost) to Hazen to prepare the bid and grant application and the bottom line is this is still going to cost us $ 400,000 to correct. If we don t get the grant then we are out the $ 60,000 paid to Hazen. Do they have any feel if we would be successful in getting the grant? If we don t get the grant then the total cost of this project just rose to $ 460,000. Will this be done this year or is this something we would put in the 2015 budget? If it is done this year, what, if anything gets moved to the back burner? Am I willing to take a risk and pay Hazen $ 60,000 for a chance to get $ 60,000 back from DCED? Why take that chance. Unless we can get more than what it is going to cost us to prepare the paperwork then I would say no and let s just move forward with this project.
Jeff Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 11:05 AM To: Drew Lehman Cc: Bill McCartney, Joan Hodson, Onnie Costanzo, John Maggio, Jeff Fabus, Valerie Martino, Phil Ross Good Morning Drew, The $60,000 would cover Hazen and Sawyer's costs for preparation of the bid specifications and application of the grant. They were already paid for their work to develop the options so this is extra to do the 2 new things, bid specifications and grant application. Thanks. 1444 Hillsdale Avenue jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us From: Drew Lehman Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 11:14 AM To: Jeffrey Naftal <jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us> Cc: Bill McCartney, Joan Hodson, Onnie Costanzo, John Maggio, Jeff Fabus, Valerie Martino, Phil Ross Is this something that would have been handled by Gateway in the past? Is this not something an in house engineer should/could handle as part of his job? Not being difficult but I am surprised at that price. Thanks, Drew Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 11:22 AM To: Drew Lehman Cc: Bill McCartney, Joan Hodson, Onnie Costanzo, John Maggio, Jeff Fabus, Valerie Martino, Phil Ross
Not difficult, good questions. I can't speak for what would have been done in the past but normally you wouldn't have an engineer come in and do preliminary projects proposals and then ask a different engineer to do the design and bid specifications. Partly for courtesy but mainly because the original engineer has all of the data and details so they can do the job more quickly and efficiently. In this case, to ask Wayne to jump in would be having to have him relearn the whole project. I suspect that a large part of the cost for this is the speed in which they will have to work. Because of the grant deadline, they will need to generate the bid specifications in a much quicker timeline then they probably would normally which means a higher cost. Bill might have more insight on this from his work with an engineering firm. Let me know if you have more questions. 1444 Hillsdale Avenue jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 11:27 AM To: Fabus, Jeff, Valerie Martino Cc: Willard McCartney, Joan Hodson, Onnie Costanzo, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Phil Ross Hi Jeff, The $400,000 estimate included the engineering fees and other costs but not grant application costs. So if we were to move ahead with this but not get the grant, we would be looking at approximately $350,000 in costs to do the project whenever we got there. The Storm Water Committee set up by Bill is working on developing a rationale for what we need to do long term in the Borough with storm water and that includes all options including possible fees. But if we don't get the grant, nothing will be in place until at least next year so the balance of the project ($350,000) would have to wait until then. Does that help? 1444 Hillsdale Avenue
jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us From: Bill McCartney Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 12:37 PM To: Jeffrey Naftal <jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us> Cc: Joan Hodson, Onnie Costanzo, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Phil Ross, Jeff Fabus, Valerie Martino Typically, completion of final design plans which I believe is what Jeff is describing will cost anywhere from 10 15% of the total project's construction cost. At least that is the "rule of thumb" that Michael Baker Engineering and other medium to large engineering companies use. BTW that includes detailed design as well as exact types (such as pipe material, pipe size, washers, etc.) as well as the quantities of each "thing" required to complete the job. In this case, I am sure that they added some $$ to complete the grant application. Based on my experience their price is in line with what other good engineering companies would charge. I would support moving ahead because even if we aren't successful winning the grant, we will have design drawings and details in hand that would be 99.9% valid for whenever we need them in the future From: Fabus, Jeff Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 2:03 PM To: Jeffrey Naftal <jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us>, Valerie Martino Cc: Willard McCartney (External), Joan Hodson, Onnie Costanzo, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Phil Ross Thank you Please consider this my OK to move forward. Jeff From: Onnie Costanzo Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 3:51 PM To: Jeff Fabus
Cc: Jeffrey Naftal <jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us>, Valerie Martino, Bill McCartney, Joan Hodson, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Phil Ross I support hiring Hazen and Sawyer to do the design plans & grant application for Athens Alley Stormwater Project. It sounds like we might be a good candidate for the grant and if we get it, our costs go from $400,000 to under $350,000. If we don t get the grant, at least we have the design plans, which we needed anyway. On Jeff s comment, they talked about the storm water fee,which Mt. Lebanon is charging, at ACLOM this past weekend. The fee is minuscule compared to the benefits. I would be open to discussion on this. Onnie From: Bill McCartney Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 4:05 PM To: Onnie Costanzo Cc: Jeffrey Naftal <jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us>, Valerie Martino, Joan Hodson, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Phil Ross, Jeff Fabus It also occurs to me that with the plans in hand confirming our sincerity and that we have "proof of matching" money, there may be other grant/foundation opportunities. Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 4:08 PM To: Bill McCartney, Onnie Costanzo Cc: Valerie Martino, Joan Hodson, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Phil Ross, Jeff Fabus I will make sure that we keep an eye out for other grant opportunities. And I will have a formal proposal for Council approval on the May agenda. Thanks. 1444 Hillsdale Avenue jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us
From: Valerie Martino Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 4:13 PM To: Fabus, Jeff Cc: Jeffrey Naftal <jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us>, Willard McCartney, Joan Hodson, Onnie Costanzo, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Phil Ross I too suppport moving forward. I do agree that we should look at our options for fees that may need to be considered for the future sewer funds that may need to come from residents. We should definitely open some dialogue in the very near future. Val From: Bill McCartney Date: Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 12:53 PM Subject: Stormwater "stuff" To: Onnie Costanzo, Jeff Fabus, Joan Hodson, Drew Lehman, John Maggio, Valerie Martino, Phil Ross Cc: <jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us> First, I want to assure you all that the straw poll we took yesterday on the Athens Alley stormwater control detailed engineering design will not become the way that we do business. It was a special circumstance that required immediate action that we would have discussedmonday night but for Jeff falling ill. That said, the entire stormwater quantity and quality issue is heating up at the Federal, state and county level. Enclosed in your packets this week will be two documents. The first is a model stormwater ordinance the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection developed back in 2003. However, this model ordinance will form the basis for the development of an upcoming Allegheny County stormwater ordinance. That upcoming Allegheny County ordinance is discussed in the second document that will be in your packets.. The second document is the narrative section of the April 2014 Draft Phase I Allegheny County Stormwater Management Plan. The entire report is 136 pages long with tables and many colored maps. It is too large (17 megabytes) to e mail. There is a hard copy of the entire report in the Borough office for your use or, if you would like the entire report, let me know and I will send it to you via an eftp site.