Capital Improvement Plan: Per the City Charter, Article 6, sec. 6-5, the updated 5-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) is before you. These are equipment, project, and other needs identified by each of the city departments and schools. The items are prioritized based on urgency and need with potential funding options and sources. Each year we review items in the CIP and present a proposal for funding. This FY17 request identifies the highest priority needs totaling $1.5M. We are working diligently to focus on replacing vehicles that are beyond repair and cannot pass inspection. We look forward to reviewing the CIP funding request for FY17 and the updated 5 year CIP.
Trees: At the last City Council meeting on March 13th, the council passed a transfer request for $10,000 for new tree planning- thank you. The discussion held on the floor incorrectly stated the status of funding for trees and this needs to be corrected for the public and the record. The FY17 budget allocation for trees under DPS is $54,500; this is a significant increase from the $6,000 allocated five years ago. Additionally, the CPA funded $6,100 to the Tree Commission for new trees and the Bromfield Trust Fund allocated $12,000.
Intermodal Facility/Garage: This morning we met with the Executive Director of the MVRTA who had meet last week with Federal Transportation to discuss the status of the project. We were offered the opportunity to designate the intermodal facility as a non-federalized project which meant we would move forward without all the FTA/federal requirements and no federal funding. To date the funding has dropped to $1.5M but MVRTA has filed a request with MADoT seeking FTA Section 5339 capital funds for the $500K gap in funding. We are working on a meeting with MADOT, FTA, MVRTA and City to review all the financing and other federal requirements prior to signing the Purchase & Sale agreement for the land with NED. In addition, we are working with the MVRTA consultant team to present a training to the design/construction/OPM team on the federal requirements- buy America, relocation services etc. We anticipate having a better handle on committed funding and timelines following this meeting. The P&S continues to be in final stages of negotiations between the legal teams, but we would like a firmer commitment on the funding prior to signing and requesting the funds for the land purchase. Additionally, we continue to work on revising the Memorandum of Agreement with the city and MVRTA- this will contain details on management, operations, determination of fees etc.
Brown School: A neighborhood meeting was held on site last week to discuss the RFP that has been issued for the adaptive reuse of the building and upgrades to Youth Services. Proposals are due May 18th and we will share the outcome with the City Council and public. The building and grounds could use some attention and this was discussed at the meeting. I request the City Council reconsider the establishment of a fund to help address these concerns with a portion of restitution funds from the Lime St. development.
Waterfront Ad Hoc Meeting: The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 6th at 7 pm in City Hall auditorium. We will be reviewing the draft changes to the Waterfront Trust documents. The city is preparing a joint document with comments to the draft. We also anticipate a discussion on how to move forward with the conceptual design of the park. One option is to have the Waterfront Trust, NRA and City each put forth funding, $15,000 for a design competition, select the top three best conceptual designs and present to the public. We also need to review the latest survey plan and land transfers from the perspective of the NRA dissolving. One outstanding issue that the NRA is seeking outside legal support focusing on the filled tidelands and impact this may have on the NRA’s dissolution. We have offered to assist in these legal costs.
NRA: Bob Uhlig, Chair of the NRA, was filling the position of a resigned former member and needs to be reappointed. As you will note, the re-appointment is requested for only one year. There is also a position that needs to be filled to cover the vacancy created when Tom Salemi stepped down in December. A potential candidate is being vetted by the NRA. Again this would be only a year appointment.
FY18 Budget: The school budget for FY18 and required vote on School Choice will be presented in a public hearing on Monday night April 3rd at 6:30 in room 118 at NHS.
MSBA: On Thursday, March 30th, representatives from the accelerated building project will tour the high school to assess the status of the roof per the Statement of Interest submitted last month. We are encouraged by their prompt response and site visit but at this juncture have not received any guarantees regarding funding.
Clipper City Rail Trail II: The Rail Trail contractor for the Clipper City Rail Trail Phase II has recently found some more soil contamination in a portion of the old railroad corridor behind the Wastewater Treatment Facility;
- All railroad corridors are presumed to have some level of soil contaminants, and it is not uncommon to contaminants during development of Rail Trails;
- The City is working directly with MassDOT and several Licensed Site Professionals to address the issue in a comprehensive fashion as part of the federal-aid trail project;
- The source of the PCB’s that need to be addressed behind the WWTF is unknown;
- The other railroad and industrial contaminants in the corridor’s soil have already been designated as having no significant risk;
- The shoreline area in question has been securely fenced off to the public to minimize risks to path users;
- The City’s Project Manager is reaching out to update the immediate abutters to this section of the corridor; and
- The Licensed Site Professionals working for the City, MassDOT, and rail trail contractor are in communication with regulatory agencies and are developing a soil management plan to determine how much soil needs to be removed in order to achieve a condition of no significant risk this spring and summer.
Graf Rd. Lift Station: Beta Engineering is working on revising the project scope for the rebid of the lift station. This is necessary since we had 61 contractors pull the RFP, but only received one proposal that was 21.M over the projected project budget.
Wastewater Treatment Facility: The filed sub bids for the odor control project were opened on Friday and came in $100,000 under budget.
Plum Island Hydrant Replacement Project: The RFP has been prepared by our engineering staff with great detail and should be released within the next two weeks. We need to schedule a public meeting in mid- June to review the construction schedule, communication protocol and meet the General Contractor and Resident Engineer.
Habitat for Humanity: We met with Randy Larson, Executive Director to discuss the potential for building 4-6 veterans homes in the Curzon Mill/Hotys Lane area where the city owns some land. This is a nice project for the city, our area vets and Habitat. We will continue the discussion and hope to make decisions on an RFP process in the coming weeks.
Meals on Wheels: This week I had the privilege in joining Mr. Peters, longtime meals on wheels volunteer and regional coordinator, and Virginia Chapinski in delivering meals on wheels to several Newburyport residents. Coincidently, the Daily News Op Ed column today lauded the Meals on Wheels program and raised concerns about federal cuts to this important program.
Upcoming dates:
April 28th from 7-10 at the Senior/Community Center- Fundraiser for our field projects. We have the opportunity to match a $50K grant from the Richie Eaton Foundation. Three special coaches will also be honored that night- Ed Gaudiano, Don Hennigar, and Tim Foley.
May 11th– Save the date for ribbon cutting at the Harbormaster Boating facility- more details to come.