Springfield City Council — December 6, 2021

0:04 all right thanks AJ I'm going to call the uh the the city council work session to order with roll call Mayor Van Gordon here councelor pittz here Mo here rodley here stair here Woodrow here and pisher I'm here thank you all right we have two items tonight for work session and it the first one looks like the Main Street Safety project the facility Plan update with Molly so I'm going to turn it over to Molly and Brian and let them take us from [Music] here evening I'm going to share my screen and then minimize all of

0:49 you so I hope Brian can let me know if anyone waves their hand I'm ready good evening I'm Molly marcarian a senior planner and the city's project manager for the Main Street Safety project um as you all I'm sure recall this is a collaborative effort between the City of Springfield and ODOT and Bill Johnston odot's uh project manager is going to be joining us tonight I also have several members of our project team

1:35 um in attendance and then um Brian Barnett our city traffic engineer tonight I'm going to start by bringing you up to speed on the project since we last met in May um and then review the draft facility plan with an emphasis on chapter four which is the toolbox of Safety Solutions and chapter five which covers implementation of the plan I'll also cover uh our recommended changes to the development code to enable implementation of the plan and share common themes for feedback that we heard from the community on the draft plan earlier this fall and then of course hand it over to you for questions

2:21 comments and feedback well like to um start our presentations with the purpose statement to help remind us why we're all here the purpose of the Main Street Safety project is to select infrastructure solutions that will make Main Street safer for people walking biking driving and taking Transit as a reminder we sought feedback from the community early on in the process um I this advance there we go um and the community shared with us their priorities for Main Street

3:06 and that helped inform our development of goals and objectives and in turn our project evaluation criteria analysis of solutions and the development of our Safety Solutions toolbox the Main Street Safety project is recommending changes to Main Street to help improve safety and address the specific type of crashes that we that occur on Main Street we see a high percentage of rear end and turning movement crashes on the corridor which are common on Urban streets with a high number of driveways and intersections but 80% which we see on Main Street is particularly High our data shows that the primary causes of crashes are

3:51 failure to yield right away and following too closely on the the slide that I just head up uh the bar graph um noted that while 93% of crashes on Main Street don't involve people walking or biking all crashes on Main Street result in some level of property damage from minor to major as shown on the figure on the left however pedestrian involved crashes are more likely to result in severe injury or fatality as you can see in the diagram at the right about 75% of fatal crashes involved people

4:39 walking some people have asked whether there's specific areas on the corridor that see more crashes than others as you can see on this map crashes occur throughout all of Main Street and thus why we really need a corridor wide solution over the past three plus years our project team has been refining Solutions based on community input technical analysis and city council feedback this spring the Planning Commission the Main Street governance team and the city council acknowledged Community input from our third round of community engagement and confirmed that the draft toolbox recommendations met their expectations and direction to date including addressing safety on Main Street recommending implementation of

5:25 infrastructure elements with a balanced approach to improve safety and support business and economic development on the corridor and presenting recommendations with a toolbox approach that is simple flexible and can be implemented gradually in phases at your May 10th work session you directed our project team to proceed with developing the draft facility plan which we did this summer in collaboration with our technical advisory committee as noted in our May 6th eupdate to our uh interested parties list during the third round of community engagement we heard some misconceptions about what this project is or is

6:10 not as you all are well aware there is a long history of projects on Main Street and there are many business and property owners who engaged early on and may not have tracked the evolution of Main Street planning since then the rumors that we are working to dispel about the recommended tool box are addressed in more detail in fact sheet number five which can be found on our project website and hopefully someone on our project team can put that in the chat um either now or during the discussion moving on to the draft facility plan as you may recall it pulls together the technical analysis the feedback from Outreach and the Design

6:56 Concepts developed during this planning phase it's an expression of Community Values it designs a framework for project delivery and signals to ODOT and the city to begin seeking funding for detailed design and construction it also refines the Springfield transportation system plan the draft facility plan is divided into five chapters with a road map at the beginning to guide readers chapter one introduction covers the history of planning projects on Main Street and the policy context that guided this planning phase it describes the project process and decision-making structure and highlights levels of community outreach

7:42 and participation chapter 2 Main Street needs describes the existing and future Transportation needs on the corridor and is organized according to the project goals it reiterates the serious safety problem that has persisted on Main Street and it reflects business Community characteristics including a description of the number and type of businesses on the corridor common site usage and access concerns expressed by businesses and it summarizes the key findings from our literature review examining economic impacts from similar projects with raised medians and roundabouts chapter three the solutions de development and evaluation process

8:27 describes just that and also describes why some solutions were considered but may not have been chosen for inclusion in the toolbox in chapter 4 no I don't want the toolbox approach described in chapter 4 was informed by Community feedback and a desire for flexibility Simplicity and phas ability the primary tools are round abouts raise medians and long-term Street cross-section upgrades to enhance the safety and comfort of those walking in biking there's an aspect of each tool that does not promote one-size fits-all approaches and

9:14 I'll note that as we go through each tool we analyzed roundabouts and traffic signals at all major intersections on the corridor roundabouts spared better and were more aligned with the community goals including making Main Street safer for those walking biking driving and taking Transit adjustments made at the time of design will be tailored to each intersection an example of it not being a one-size fits-all approach another key tool are raised medians as they would be the greatest contributor to improve safety on Main Street

9:59 they reduced major turning conflicts and move turns to safer locations if you recall from the beginning of the slideshow one of the primary causes of crashes on Main Street are turning movement crashes when medians are combined with roundabouts we would see an even greater crash reduction closer to 48% with raised medians we are taking the balance safety and access approach and limiting out ofir dire travel to 30 to 60 seconds on average which is approximately how long it takes drivers to turn left at busy times from the turn lane and at traffic signals the community also said this would be an acceptable

10:44 tradeoff medians can also make pedestrian Crossing safer and are overall aligned with the project purpose statement we developed a set of guiding principles to inform the design process and where openings would be located in the medi medians along the corridor this is an example for the median tool where we are not taking a one-size spits all approach the third Major Tool in the tool box are upgrades to the street cross-sections to improve the safety and comfort of bicycles and pedestrians in the long term three base cross-sections would be applied as appropriate to provide design

11:31 options and flexibility for phasing and areas with constrained width in the diagrams on the right hand side of the slide I just wanted to point out that the existing right of way is shown in Gray at the bottom of each cross-section we have short-term and long-term recommendations an example of how we responded to the community's desire for gradual implementation in the short term term we recommend keeping the cross-section much like it is today to allow for medians to be put in quickly as raised medians would have the biggest impact on safety while having less Interruption to travel on Main Street the constrained width cross-section the top

12:17 cross-section doesn't change the curb to curb width and primarily would exist to enable phasing so we can postpone or delay the other widths to get in the safety elements sooner due to the RightWay costs associated with additional width the long-term cross-sections the balance Street width and the active Transportation enhanced cross-section are aligned with the purpose statement and the goal of supporting Transportation options the Balan Street withth cross section in blue would be applied in the long term to most of the corridor and includes buffered bike lanes and a

13:02 slightly wider median resulting in an additional 4 feet of width on each side of the street the active Transportation enhanced cross-section in green is proposed to be located where we already have wider existing RightWay and fewer driveway conflicts there we recommend a cycle track next to the sidewalk potential modifications to each cross-section are provided to offer flexibility in design to better fit Corridor opportunities and constraints the three based cross-sections for short and long-term implementation plus the segment specific modifications reflect a flexible approach not one size spits

13:57 all the principal sections of chapter five cover how the toolbox can be implemented and how to use the plan to inform the design process the section of chapter five that is of most interest to folks is usually the phasing plan construction of the full facility plan could take Beyond 20 years to complete so all solutions will be implemented in phases due to limited funding availability to help you navigate this figure the circles reflect roundabouts the dash line only indicates the short-term cross-section the constrained width cross-section the dash line with outside solid lines indicates the

14:43 long-term cross-section either the balance width or the active Transportation enhanced and the cloud represents the study of The Interchange area and that is paired with a later phase for implementation key factors that we considered in developing the phasing plan include safety High crash locations and potential benefit to cost ratios feasibility considering RightWay and other constraints and targeting the phases to $10 million or less functionality pairing the raised medians with roundabouts to limit outof Direction travel inconsistency targeting a adjacent

15:29 segments and coordination with other projects including utility relocation and Transit upgrades the first phase does have a higher price tag but we are looking for a full comprehensive first phase to Showcase what the project can be some people have asked if we could do phase one with just one roundabout of course we'll do the most that we can with the resources available and operationally we could make it work but to keep outof Direction travel to 30 to 60 seconds on average and minimize the need for Freight to loop around the city we really do need both roundabouts in the first phase we also know that public perception and satisfaction with

16:16 the first phase will be a strong influencer on support for later phases so ideally would like to make the first phase complete and functional for all including Freight this figure builds upon the prior diagram and shows uh in color the later phases in Gray are the previous four phases our project team evaluated the Springfield comprehensive plan the transportation system plan and the Springfield development code to ensure that policies and standards reflect the recommendations of the draft Main Street facility plan Tech memo 18 provides a

17:01 highlevel summary of changes needed while Tech memo 19 gets into details of recommended modifications to language in the Springfield comprehensive plan and the Springfield development code the tech memo recommends amendments in chapter five of the transportation system plan and suggests updates to the preface and other administrative sections that would not be amendments but Rec are recommended to happen simultaneously targeted modifications to the Springfield development code are recommended to be completed and legislatively adopted along with the facility plan to ensure consistency with facility plan

17:47 implementation as you may recall the special Street setback provision was added to the development code as part of the tsp implementation package in 2020 the section was intended to ensure that development based only on building permits are located in a way that preserves options for future Street connectivity should Redevelopment occur it only applies upon Redevelopment and requires that buildings not be constructed on area intended as future RightWay the setback does not require dedication of RightWay until the street project delivery occurs and does not set a right of-way line the intent is to ensure that

18:34 buildings are not constructed in locations that would make future streets impossible or highly impractical to construct the recommended code amendments would enable this special Street setback provision to apply to facility plans and Main Street in particular it would only apply to the two long-term cross-sections and what is key mechanism for the long-term Vision established by the facility plan to come to fruition over time I'd also like to note that it would be necessary to facilitate the long-term transition of Utilities in coordination with the long-term cross-section upgrades specifically without the

19:20 special Street setback buildings could be constructed too close to Future right of way preventing an adequate and safe separation between electric facilities and buildings this fall we sought feedback on the draft facility plan from the Strategic advisory committee and the broader Community including emailing our interested parties list with approximately 800 members and mailing postcards to over 800 adjacent business and Property Owners encouraging them to review fact sheet six which is included in your packet tonight the draft plan and to provide feedback as you might imagine we heard

20:05 varied opinions and preferences from various stakeholder interests we largely heard positive reception for the project and enthusiasm for potential Community benefits people appreciated project engagement information and our responsiveness we did receive many questions regarding ing deliverable stages and outcomes and we did hear some skepticism that the effort and potential Corridor impacts would not be worth the community benefits some had lower confidence in Corridor awareness of the project and shared that they didn't feel like their feedback was addressed as desired we also heard that last minute

20:51 circumstances lack of Interest other priorities online format and general agency distrust influence people's decision not to engage on the draft facility plan itself we heard positive feedback overall and support for specific tools we heard that the toolbox is good and allows for a flexible approach to implementation we also heard many concerns for implementation impacts to site access and usage and outof Direction travel for residents customers and Freight as you may recall as part of our third round of community engagement when we held local access forums with business and Property Owners on the corridor we

21:38 created um an interactive um mapping tool that documents all of the site access and usage concerns that we've heard from business and Property Owners on the corridor stemming back to the main McVey Transit study and then throughout all of this planning phase and that will be able to be used during design to specifically address those concerns while some people acknowledged the safety problem they also doubted that the tools will may not address the project goals as presented in the draft plan and we did hear some suggestions for alternative solution

22:29 approaches before moving into to uh your discussion I'd like to note that we got input on the same discussion questions that were included in your packet from the Planning Commission and the Main Street governance team last month from then we heard that we're on the right track headed in the right direction they gave suggestions for helping us to continue to refine our message and they emphasized the importance of the project for the community and their appreciation for the depth breadth and variety of community engagement they also noted that the toolbox demonstrates that we heard the community even if we cannot please everyone they also shared that the code update is critical and will demonstrate

23:14 the city's commitment to the facility plan and they viewed it as an important element given the long-term implementation time frame for the full plan in terms of next steps um after tonight's work session our project team will work on um modifying the draft facility plan to incorporate all the feedback that we've received this fall and preparing um a public hearings draft version of the plan um and we're scheduled to start the public hearings process um with the Planning Commission in Fe February of 2022 and then come

24:01 back to you in April so tonight what we would like to hear from you I'm trying to go back um your questions your comments um hoping that you can respond to the discussion questions that we included in the packet and then also um if there's anything that would make make you more comfortable or more uh feel more informed for the public hearings in April because I know there'll be quite a bit of of lag time between now um and then as we revise the draft plan and move into the public hearings

24:51 process Leonard Molly are you ready for questions yes all right Leonard okay uh thanks for this report Molly very informative um so um I see that there is a three-foot painted barrier planned to separate the bike lane in places from the flow of traffic um it seems like three feet would be plenty of room for a concrete barrier was there any G any thought given to that so is Emma on the call bear with me Molly and I can get her pulled up okay thanks

25:51 identification I wonder if anybody knows what that's about anymore I remember the national anthem played at the end of the broadcasting day I think we're going to be hearing that by the end of the night Molly Emma is here and as soon as she unmutes then she is able to be heard great hello I think I might have missed something while I was kicked out and rejoining what was the question um hi Emma it's uh Leonard I I was asking um I I understand that there is a um a three-foot painted buffer that's being contemplated to separate the bike lane from traffic at various

26:37 points um it seems like three feet would be plenty of room to have a a raised concrete divider um is there any thought being given to that I mean to increase safety great question um I'm happy to share a little bit but I'd also like Brian Bernett to speak to this one as our city traffic engineer and the final decision maker on what gets installed on our streets or not um I know that the project team has looked to some of the kind of latest design guidance and that considers the modifications called for in the plan do look at some SE sort of Separation usually looking at flexible delineators um I know that there's some considerations for the maintenance of the facility so if you have a concrete

27:23 rigid structure that sometimes prevents some maintenance techniques that we might want to consider for the street um there are a lot of driveways along the corridor so we're typically looking at more separation where there aren't as many driveways and turning movements I'd love to pass it over to Brian to see if you have other comments on concrete specifically compared to the more flexible delineation could you try again yeah counselor um a clarification on your question are you referring to the balance Street width or for the um situation where we fully separate the bicycles and the pedestrians on a what we kind of call a side path or something like that which is that's only in about a three block region are you thinking about the larger project or just in that

28:09 could you talk could you talk about both I I understand that there was a uh a three-foot divider to separate bike traffic from the flow of uh from the flow of regular Auto traffic yeah for the for the bulk of the um project area we're considering a three foot B buffer which was going to be a painted buffer between the bike lane and the travel Lane and separated uh a physically separated rather than a visually separated buffer would be superior for bicycle protection however in this environment we have we have some challenges one is that Freight is uh interested on their Freight reduction

28:54 review route at least for that portion of the corridor they are interested in retaining the full width of that painted area the bike lane and the buffer for oversized vehicles to have extra space for them to be able to uh move through the corridor um in areas that are not on a um State Freight reduction um review route um we could potentially have a uh some sort of raised curb or something of that nature um Emma pointed out that there are maintenance concerns and indeed that is the case um right now we have street sweepers that run uptight to the curb clean the material out of the gutters and out of the uh inlets for the drains um we don't have a sweeper that would fit in that 5 foot um area between

29:43 that new curb and the existing curve um so that would be a challenge for um ongoing maintenance um I imagine that there are some narrow sweepers that could be purchased but we don't currently have one um in stock or uh viewed as something that we would be planning on purchasing at this point in time in addition to that is Emma also mention that the frequency of driveways and there are quite a number of driveways um and there are quite a number of Street intersections so each one of those places constitutes a place where the curb separator would have to be broken and provide space for those driveways to be utilized for them to be effectively utilized that open would be

30:29 10 or 15 feet wider than the actual driveway is perhaps even 20 ft I don't know exactly but there's going to be less and less curb available to uh install in those kinds of circumstances I hope I've been responsive yeah no that that that's quite responsive um I um I I can't help but think that concrete dividers in parts of the road would still be a lot more restrictive than and no no concrete dividers whatsoever is that correct I mean yeah when you say I mean when you say concrete divider I think I need to ask Clarity are you talking about a a two inch tall a 4inch tall you know a 12

31:14 in barrier no not not not a no not not like a construction barrier um I'm talking about like a like a two or a two to four inch barrier okay so that would be am mountable type of curb um and so even with delineators on that there would be some there wouldn't be any redirection you know if a errant driver goes over they're not going to be pushed back from that device but they certainly will get a wakeup call that they need to do something different plus they will tend to shy away from that we all tend to move away from the wall as we go down the hallway uh and end up more toward the center so they would end up more toward their Lane line on the left side but yes I can certainly see that there would be some some benefit to uh cyclist

32:00 safety yeah I think the challeng is in the details of implementation you're mentioning the freight trucks um Le leads me into another question there I saw that one of the proposed patterns has a narrow Lane right next to a wider Lane and would that would that plan be to have just um cars in one lane of say a 9 foot lane and then trucks in the lane next to it trucks and buses uh and say an 11 an 11 foot Lane something like that I I Molly if you could pull up the cross-section this might be a little more helpful um because I'm not certain I know where that 9 foot Lane is that um The Counselor is mentioning I think we have

32:45 11 foot Lanes as our minimum Lane width throughout there may be what we call Shy distance between the stripe and the face of a median in the center um I don't recall if we have that off top my head but I think we have a little bit of shy distance th those feet were a guess on my part okay okay I I believe I think 11 footos are are minimum Lane width throughout the entire Corridor okay I thought I saw some head knives when I mentioned that earlier all right I um so would uh would the intent be for the Narrow Lane just to have cars in it and for the wider Lane to have trucks and buses um well let's see we're showing 11 foot Lanes um in all cases except for

33:30 the active Transportation enhanced where we're showing a a 12 foot Lane on the outboard edges and um a one foot shy distance from that um Lane Edge to the to the outboard curb and also a two foot shy distance to the inboard curb at the raised median all right um in that case um what what I'd like to just draw the um the the Project's attention to is a by a group called nacto it's the National Association of city transportation officials they were proposing that one lane um that carried um cars only with a wider Lane next to it that would be designated for trucks

34:15 and buses would significantly add to safety and decrease the amount of accidents just by constricting the speed in each lane any kind any kind of consideration given to that well I am familiar with the nacto organization and have looked at some of their design documents and recommendations um I'm not familiar with the one that you're referring to so I haven't done any investigation what comes to mind immediately though is is would it be a legal restriction of which lane Vehicles can travel in or would it just simply be by the very nature of the Narrow Lane trucks would not choose to use it um I mean that I I think the Narrow Lane might impact the truck driver more so

35:00 than the wide Lane might impact the uh automobile driver yeah I I I I agree that they would be more or less self-regulating I don't think there would be trucks voluntarily getting into the Narrow Lane um okay um I if the if the um people that are planning the lanes would give some thought to narrowing one lane and widening the other then I think you might you might like the results as far as as far as safety's concerned um I I also wanted to ask um could was there any thought of the of the bike Lanes being raised to the uh height of the

35:45 sidewalk as opposed to putting the bikes with the U with the motor traffic well when one raises the bike Lanes to the sidewalk elevation in unless there's a physical separation between sidewalk and bike lane then we end up with an intermingling of bicycles and pedestrians and the speed difference between bicycles and pedestrians is enough that when there is a collision that there is almost certainty of injury to one or both um members of that the other thing is is that when we get wide sidewalk very wide sidewalks and are asking cyclists to use it then we get cyclists going in both directions and when they go in both

36:32 directions then we have a further um set of conflicts with the pedestrians walking both directions cyclists in both directions at higher speed than the pedestrians so this this I called it a side path earlier and that's that's actually is the name for what um you and I are discussing right now and the side path context is generally not well received from a safe or from a comfort perspective yeah I I can't help thinking that the collisions between the bicyclists and pedestrians are going to be a lot less lethal than the ones between the bicycles and the cars um I I might I I I might be wrong about that but I think I would agree to that um I

37:17 think the frequency of the bicycle pedestrian um experience of crashes might go uh up higher but most of the bicycle um crashes we have are related to some form of turning movement from a uh motor vehicle and that is not going to change if we combine the pedestrians and the cyclist together because we still have the same numbers of driveway openings and Street uh intersections right um I'm I'm thinking that some enforcement of bike traffic might encourage everybody to go in the same direction but I I know that it can be like hurting cats sometimes um so um one one last question uh Franklin and Glennwood um it's been uh a very

38:02 dangerous intersection and I know a number of people have been hit or there are there any plans to work on that intersection to make it safer what kind of uh crashes occurred that you have heard from your I I I think that uh pedestrians and bicyclists have been headit at that Leonard is it is your question related to Main Street yeah well because this is be from 20 to 72nd and we got a whole long list of folks so if you want to shoot them the email if youve got I know yeah that that that's what I'll do I'm getting far far a field thank you uh thank you for your input I mean thank you for your answers Steve oh I just uh i' I've heard of a lot of uh businesses being a little little concerned about uh access to the streets

38:49 and it's you haven't mentioned it too much it sounds like uh you might have pacified them pretty well I hope so because as I see it with with those roundabouts uh tra trafficking turn into those businesses and when they come out they can Circle down and come back the other way pretty easily so I think that's well done thank you Corey thank you um first my comment is that I really appreciate all of this work and I've been following it for quite some time um and I went to the last Planning Commission meeting too where you all talked about this I've heard people's questions and heard how this has been evolving and I just appreciate the care that it's taking and also acknowledging that it's going to

39:35 take a couple of decades and knowing that you know despite the fact that we're going to have a really good plan I know that you also are thinking you know building in a little bit of flexibility for how things may evolve over time in terms of traffic and and all of that so I just want to say I appreciate that my question is really a little bit different than the others in that um I just want more information about pedestrian Crossing across Main Street um and what what that looks like in terms of the planning because I think you know a lot of this is focusing on how traffic flows and how bicycle traffic flows and um I'm just interested in terms of the the sort of safety for how do we continue to improve so that people can cross in multiple areas

40:20 across there so they can get from place to place okay thank you for that question um I'll point back to the uh pedestrian safety study that was done a number of years ago and the outcome of that was that we have built quite a number of Rapid fat flashing Beacon with Center medians to make a two-stage environment for those pedestrians to cross and provide them a center Refuge we also have The Pedestrian hybrid Beacon that's out at 66 than Maine higher speed environment so a different kind of device um those kinds of devices can be incorporated during the um actual um project development design phase of any one of these projects I think it might be um appropriate to think about

41:06 we have put those systems in based on the old um specific plan safety plan that was motivated by some serious problems that were had occurred in the corridor um we've seemed we we have seen a lot of use of those Crossings we have seen quite a number of people who will also be 50 ft away from those Crossings and not use them so because of that set of circumstances the fact that if this plan is adopted and a project comes through and constructs the center median automatically provides that Refuge area for the pedestrians who are choosing to cross in those locations um that alone I believe will be very helpful for um many

41:51 of the folks because we still see people who are making that two-stage Crossing stopping in the two two lane left turn lane and then what having traffic go by on both sides with no apparent protection if somebody were to choose to make a turn or a lane shift over to prepare for a turn that pedestrian's more uh likely to be struck of course I think though specific to your question that when we are in the midst of project development we can do an assessment with Lane Transit District based on their stop locations and with other observations about where Crossings of are occurring or where where pedestrian um near misses or crashes might be occurring fortunately pedestrian crashes are very rare and

42:36 infrequent unfortunately when they do occur though they're rather serious um so relying on Crash data of pedestrian crashes is very very um incomplete picture so it would really be looking at Origins and destinations and where we see um existing pedestrian activity hey Bri I know you were G giving kind of a technical answer before I turn it back to Corey but just to clarify when we put the medians in right we are not saying that is safe to cross outside of a crosswalk that is true that is true um and so the other acknowledgement there is that Under Oregon law it is legal to make a Crossing as long as at any place along the roadway as long as it's

43:22 perpendicular to the roadway not on a diagonal but going straight AC across and if you don't impede traffic now I'm not saying I recommend that I just want to acknowledge that that is legal for people to do and so that behavior does exist oh no I understand we're talking about safe Behavior versus what re realistically happens on the ground but there's a point that we just have to kind of keep promoting it Corey did you have other questions no that was my only question and I appreciate that because I appreciate hearing and being prepared for us to adjust as we go so I mean that's that's just a big piece for me is knowing that depending on how things evolve to know that oh we are still having some pedestrian Crossing issues we can stick this in here we can try these other things so um I just wanted

44:08 to hear that so thank you I appreciate that thank you Joe thank you so um we got a few questions on um I'm trying to get my head around the left turn and then the time and travel so what if I understand correctly is that let's say for example you're going westbound on Main Street and you want to make a left turn and you see your left turn opportunity based on what you're saying is that the a median that would if it's present the longest you would have to continue that travel would be 30 seconds before you can make a left turn is that correct 30 six 30 to 60 seconds yes okay so how far at 45 miles or say 35 miles

44:54 per hour can you travel in 60 Seconds um let's see that would be about 44 feet per second so 60 time 44 can do that math for me that's that's roughly the distance that you could go in that kind of time about three about 400 yards or 420 yards or so is what I'm kind of guessing so so um you're you're going and that's quite a distance in my mind so I guess is that's the worst case scenario you're gonna have you're I'm picturing left turn opportunities every so often and so um basically speaking that the distance between those opportunities is going to be 400 some

45:40 yards I I would say that the left turn opportunities are going to be at most public Street intersections so that's going to be much less than that distance right okay I I think that and somebody else on staff who can correct me if I'm Mis representing this but I think the the idea the concept that we were trying to convey here is that if you're in uh you're choosing to make a leftand turn before the we you in the current circumstances during peak hour you're going to wait 30 to 60 seconds to find that Gap and opposing traffic that allows you to make that left turn at a minimum at I would agree at at a minimum right and that the time it takes on average so it depends upon which point

46:25 in the corridor you're at on average it's going to take you about that 30 to 60 seconds to get down to the roundabout and make the u-turn at the roundabout and be able to come back so but you're also talking a considerable distance for the person to drive and but it's not not a huge deal I mean it's like okay whatever but I'm looking at the timing so because you mention that and the timing to be able to get across because of the immense amount of traffic that Main Street experiences in both directions so if someone could go back to the slide that has chap chapter four in a toolboxes section that shows a diagram and maybe share that and I can explain what I'm me which and then I can

47:12 pull it up the slide is it's the chapter four in the toolboxes where it shows a diagram of the street you're looking kind of an overview of the street not not a slice but an overview and it shows a car utilizing their um no that's that yeah it's a previous to that I think or uh yeah right there okay so if you I wish I had my flipping clicker here so if you had uh you see the van making a turn from the I'm just saying we're let's just say we're looking West okay and you see the van and coming out from the north turning on to eastbound Main Street correct are you talking about this car in the the the van yeah so now now

47:59 picture in your head the intersection at kitty corner to Papa's Pizza on Main Street that's what's currently set up right there so there's a median and there's cars that come out now picture that van cannot safely make an East turn from coming out of the North turning going south turning East they cannot make a safe turn unless it's all clear on all Lanes both directions now tell me how long is that van going to be sitting on that side street when it's clear all directions East and Eastbound and Westbound on Main Street and if you want to know go to that intersection I'm talking about and you're going to end up being very

48:47 frustrated what I'm afraid what I'm fearful of is creating that very same scenario all up and down Main Street unintentionally but but no one's going to be able to get out onto Main Street they can't use that lane that you're covering with concrete is called a utility Lane at this point right am I incorrect yes it can be used for two-way traffic which is a beautiful thing but we're taking away the express reason for having utility Lanes we're we're making that go away and so therefore the the uses of that lane are also going to be taken away and so people coming out onto that Main Street whether whether they're they're facing north wanting to turn west or facing south wanting to turn East they're going to be

49:32 having a face getting across a minimum of three lanes with no travel in it and that that to me is is a ton more dangerous Andor a ton more frustrating for people trying to travel so does that am I making any sense at all no I I I understand your premise so so it's it's uh I think I think we we need to be very careful about creating a whole population of very upset drivers that I think at one point we're going to see travel on Main Street course it's not going to get it's not going to get better we're going to have more and so the ability to safely Cross or even get out into traffic to make those turns off these side streets we're going to be forcing them to to try to hang a

50:17 rightand turn which I think is what you're you're getting at is what you're trying to encourage is having them all make a everybody making a right turn and then having to go down to some round about a quarter mile away and come back around just when they could have come out and turn left onto Main Street but now they have a barrier where they can't safely do it it is undeniable that to achieve the safety outcome that a median provides there will be changes in how people access the corridor I I I I can't argue against your point uh counselor what I can say is that that that van in that diagram if they chose to turn right to avoid the left turn that we're discussing y they could turn right and they could go down a block or two and

51:02 find one of those left turn opportunities into a public Street and they can make a U-turn in that intersection area that's a lawful maneuver there's enough space so it it turns into a two-stage left turn by doing a right turn and then a U-turn the freight vehicles of course they have to go clear to a roundabout and that's understandable based on their size and and the need needs right u-turns are now u-turns are lawful in quote unquote an uncontrolled intersection correct yes and they're lawful on a controlled intersection if signed properly so we don't have any signs in the city that I've seen or very few that say U-turn permitted correct and so here we're saying okay you can do that but we're not going to tell you about that

51:48 and then you have and then is the controls intersection stop sign on the on on two of the streets of the four in an intersection are stop signs uh presence controlling that intersection or would that be called a controlled intersection I believe the text of the uh law which I have not reviewed recently I'll stipulate that is an electronically controlled intersection I.E a traffic signal yeah that's my that's my understanding too but I just I just think people are going to not want to do u-turns and then they're going to be turning down the side streets into people's neighborhoods and using their driveways to turn around so that's I mean it just it's frustrating to me to see that we're creating a lot of a lot more vehicular traffic and movement when we could have

52:35 not but anyway so that's my shots thanks thank you in good evening uh I just have a quick question it doesn't involve uh doing any equations so um okay I I just so I mean about a month ago we talked about uh the new LED lights and I'm just curious was that factored into the increasing of safety for pedestrians or even um you know drivers especially uh in times like this when it gets darker earlier or just in when it's raining like it is all the time just

53:20 curious like could that be a factor in increase in the safety because when we talked about it initially it kind of seem like it and I'm just curious was this a potential factor that can be added uh once those are put in place yes street lights do help with nighttime crashes reducing all types of nighttime crashes and when we do a project to do medians and roundabouts and whatever else may occur we certainly would review the lighting situation and include it in the project if appropriate of course I I believe you are all aware that we have um a current project to replace all of the existing street lights um in the corridor roughly 200 and add an additional approximately just over a hundred new street lights in the

54:06 corridor where existing poles can support that so we will have a substantially improved lighting environment um for Main Street um in this in this you know in the subject area of tonight's discussion how much that will reduce crashes um I don't know off the top of my head but I believe it's in the High signal digit percentages maybe in the low double digit so I will say anywhere from s to um 15% reduction and crashes occur because of improved um Street lighting I that's those are guess numbers and I apologize I don't have a direct answer but we we will in consider lighting upgrades and when I say upgrades at this

54:53 point in time because of the current Oda pet Safety project that's been done on an emergency basis we will have to look for new poles we'll have to install new poles to put Lighting in to fill gaps Aman did you have anything else Steve one question pedestrian crossing right now if a pedestrian wants to cross Main Street he only has a signal and step out and all four lanes have to stop with the new median is that had a refuge area on the new new new design that they can cross to the middle and then but those two lanes can continue until I get to the middle um I believe you're referring to

55:40 the rectangular rapid flashing Beacon no I'm talking about anywhere on Main Street okay so um if a pedestrian at is at illegal crosswing BR excuse me legal crosswalk but that's not it it doesn't have to be IL legal right now can be on Main Street and I can signal I'm going to walk out there they have to stop right if you're in illegal crosswalk and illegal crosswalk is defined as any intersection doesn't matter if there's Stripes there you mean and any place we put stripes in so a midblock Crossing is not a designated crossing point I think is the terminology that's used okay it's legal for you to make that Crossing as a pedestrian but you can't impede

56:27 traffic I misunderstood the law I sort of thought that if I was a pedestrian there they had to stop for me when I signal I was coming out so um yeah at an intersection yes yeah that's interesting to know now because I get mid blocked you know some places in town and U anyway uh so is that is that would that be a refuge area in the middle of the medium yes so the the way the law addresses is a a median Refuge area is that only the direction of traffic that you are crossing has to stop the other direction doesn't have to stop until you get to the median and across it and are preparing to make the second Crossing I'm good thank

57:13 you okay um we're almost out of time for the item so Molly Brian do you are you guys looking for more feedback can um can you talk to us about next steps here yeah I mean I think it would be helpful for us to know you know in the next you know month or two and we can talk at our next check-in but what the full Council um needs to feel like they're ready for the public hearings in April okay Leonard are are we gonna be giving final approval at the meeting in April well you're G there's going to be um the public hearings will start you

57:58 know and then you can extend them and continue and um okay we're starting the endgame in April right on when the scheduling is we don't know when we're going to vote yet right well it's if the public hearings are going to be taking place in April then I think uh you know the guidance that I would give is uh yeah we'll see you in April okay um okay and the last I guess the last comment that I would make is remember that this is really kind of in a requirement stage right like there's a difference between the detailed design what we would be telling OD do would be is kind of work this direction I always keep thinking about merrily standing out there with those pedestrian inter intersections going hey how do we make

58:43 this work by almost property by property and I really do think that's what it's going to take um to be able to to be able to improve safety on Main Street because I think it's just it's a complicated corridor early yes I will say that I'm probably been I've been with this now for probably eight years I go all the way back to the the first time we went through this before we started the second time um and I will say that I have been a hard sell through this process um because I have been trying to consider The Pedestrian Crossings the businesses the egress all the different parts I have to say that by the time we've

59:29 gotten to this particular point in time the two things that impress me the most are the community the responsiveness of our team to the community outreach in being able to respond as detailed as much as possible there are times when Community makes reactions or makes comments that it's impossible to please there's always going to be those folks but for the majority of folks they've been able to be responsive give them information that they needed and and the other part is that flexibility is the word and the one the the comment about not one size fits all and that's true it's going to change how how the corridor looks all the way through even

1:00:14 if it takes 20 years to get there but it's flexible and that combines what the council sees what the council asks that combines the community Outreach it Comins com it combines the expertise on the part of you folks and any other researched information that we can get a hold of to make this work and and and it's going to be done in phases so like I said I was a hard been hard sell all the way through I haven't been I was not convinced way back when that this was going to really make a big difference I am I am convinced now I'm appreciative of everything that's been done um and where we are right now I'm looking forward to the public hearings um but I I just

1:00:59 wanted to put that in there that you know I have been a hard sale and I'm I'm H I'm happy with where we're at now all right thanks marily Brian thank you for presenting um and we're gonna move on to Nate in the arpa guidance conversation all right can everyone hear me look at you so I'm going to jump right in um so uh we are here this evening to continue our conversation on the uh City's use of its arpa funds uh we started that conversation uh back in September uh in a work session um at that time we provided you with the list of potential projects uh I think um for a lot of you

1:01:46 the items on that list were familiar items that we've talked about for many years and um a recognized need uh you asked that we bring it back at a later date uh prioritized with the numbers tightened up uh the CBM that I included as part of your packet has that list uh prioritized and the numbers tightened up where we are able to um some things I think worth noting um there's a number of items that aren't uh that were on the original list and aren't on uh the list this evening um a number of those items were included as part of supplemental budget one which was approved by you in October in a regular session uh that included the um Fire and Life Safety radial replacement um the museum elevator um replacement um uh upgrades uh to uh Security in the council

1:02:32 chambers uh and then some additional Staffing and development and public works for project delivery uh the total cost of those ads over the full life of them uh is roughly 2.4 million that leaves us with roughly 11.5 million uh still to allocate I'd also like to mention that the waman request is uh still outstanding uh Special Districts were not not given a direct allocation uh when lamalan went to their state representatives they were told that their money was included in the city's allocation but without any uh direction or guidance as to um how much or how to determine that um we kicked off our budget process um last week uh with the open opening of our budget software for data entry uh the guidance that we

1:03:18 received tonight will help us inform Us in terms of what to uh include in the uh fiscal year 23 proposed bud budget um a number of items I've also recom amended for consideration um to be included in fy22 supplemental budget um the reason I I am recommending that is that there's a lot of funding uh out there um both locally and nationally competing uh for limited resources in the forms of equipment and Labor uh it may be in our best interest uh to get these included in uh the current year not that the work would get done uh but so that we could begin the procurement process get contract in place uh and potentially Associated uh equipment uh locked up U so with that I'm going to turn it over

1:04:04 to you uh to continue the conversation uh if you have any questions for me and then if it would be helpful would anyone like me to bring up uh that CBM with the list uh Corey um I just since you mentioned it and I had noticed that it wasn't on there the last time we talked about this and we talked about Lam Main and know that they were here and we they didn't give us a specific amount and I'm wondering if they have since then if they have come back and said here's what we were thinking or not okay I um thought there was a request included as part of your packet in that work session but they have made a formal request and the amount is roughly 1.75 million and I believe that um Michael Wargo is in the audience uh

1:04:50 today as well if if you have any questions or want to bring him up okay thank you that makes me look like I didn't do my homework but I must just miss that part marily that's okay I had the same question I was what I'm curious about is what the 1.75 million is for I'll preface my question by saying that not only do we have a responsibility to community but as a city we have a responsibility towards our infrastructure rure and our buildings and keep the and the upkeep and keep them in good enough shape to be able to continue our governance and I'm looking at prioritizing in that regard I'm

1:05:37 looking at the fact that costs of having that are done the roof on the jail and the HVAC in the city hall and the costs are going to continue to increase so the further we hold off on doing that the more expensive it's going to get um so I'm curious as to what the 1.75 million is for lamain just in perspective of taking our being able to take care of things that need to be taken care of uh in in our daily uh structures or uh in contrast to possibly something new or whatever will emain has in mind and if and if Michael's in the audience I'd love to hear let's bring Michael up please and

1:06:22 let let him talk to the request and then we can try to get some sort of resolution on it yeah Michael you're unmuted so you are able to speak I do not have your camera up um for the simple fact that it will cause delays on your side okay it's probably a benefit for everyone if you can't see me so can you hear me okay yes okay thank you and number one I just want to thank the mayor and president Moes for the opportunity to sit in and even make this request we had made uh the foral requests of $1.75 million just briefly where we came up with that number was even though we're eligible for funds there was no direct access to these funds and we were told we had to

1:07:07 go through a transfer through local government and obviously with our um fine partnership not just with Team Springfield but with the City of Springfield I've always seen us as the city of Springfield's Department of parks and and Recreation um so out of the allotment that the city had received which was $14 million um we took a look at our operating budget versus the city's operating budget and that was about 12 a half% so really without a whole lot of guidance from the federal government we basically took um that same ratio and said okay out of the $4 million $1.7 million would be that same ratio of your operating budget versus will amine's operating budget I will say that um our Revenue loss for this period of time from covid

1:07:54 uh totaled more than $3.6 million so it's not a full ask and again I I fully understand that I know that you've got more uh demands and requests and you have funding for um but really really um I would not be uh standing here before you if it really wasn't important to the to the park district um it basically fits into three different buckets and one is um what we would do with the money uh that would be first and foremost for our early childhood and youth programs we've had to reduce um our programs because of a lack of Staffing um because a lot of the requirements that are placed and as well as the highly competitive job market for some of these frontlines St we as a public um entity just can't compete a

1:08:41 lot so what we would do is um utilize this to uh be able to hire not just hourly or seasonal but even part-time and full-time staff members currently there's four of our kids sites uh kidss site club sites that are closed and what does that mean it means that parents can't and Guardians can't drop off their kiddos for before and after school programs and then that's a domino effect right of the economic development that happens within the city so staff retention and then being able to start um restart programs as well as some of our low or no cost programs during the summer we weren't able to run fully because again we didn't have Staffing the other bucket would be for our Parks planning and Fa facilities um one thing

1:09:27 that I'm proud of is you know we had 46 Parks we kept all 46 of our parks open during the entire pandemic however our service levels really did drop off so a lot of the funds that we were asking for would go through just maintenance practices that we're way behind on uh whether it's irrigation contractual maintenance um we've seen an uptick in graffiti and vandalism so a lot of our facilities need a lot of infrastructure improvements we would use that as well as being able again to hire staff um to keep the public safe that's really important to us and all of you I know uh where we had to put portons out there because we couldn't have staff to open up nor was it safe for them to use um you know our permanent laboratory or

1:10:12 outdoor restroom facilties so that would be part of it and then um the other kind of bucket if you will would be just to increase our facility hours without Staffing we're not able to open all of our facilities up up for those after work hour times as well as on the weekends um I know I sound like a broken record but the way that our budgets work we heavily rely on revenues to make our budget just to meet our budget that's not additional money we need typically in a non-pandemic year four and a half million dollars to make our budget when we don't make our budget um that four and a half million typically comes from programs and services that we charge a fee for when we weren't able to do that that reduced our budget thereby we had

1:10:58 to make some really tough decisions it was one of the hardest some of the hardest things I had to do I had to lay off staff I had to eliminate positions we had to cut back on Services These funds would basically be able to prime the pump so we could reopen up facilities at pre-co times higher quality staff and then when we're able to do that our revenues would go up and then that would actually have a a really longstanding impact on on what we're doing so I know I just threw out a lot of information to you but everything that we're asking for is all part of the American Rescue plan act and their pressed for support and then when I was just looking at the council goals um you know really a lot of these are right in line with what the laman's goals are the

1:11:43 city council goals are as well as the arpa goals and that's providing Financial uh responsible and Innovative government services check um encourage Economic Development vitalization through Community Partnerships check and then strengthen Public Safety and leveraging Partnerships and resources we uh we have one and a half Park Rangers right now that police all of our areas uh we would love to be able to hire more Park Rangers and Public Safety officers that work for the park district that would work in conjunction with the Springfield Police Department but really be ambassadors for the park because we want to keep our Parks uh safe and welcoming and open so so that's uh that's almost everything

1:12:28 you need to know in in four and a half minutes I apologize if I went too quickly thanks Michael perfect Michael can we're gonna have you hang out in case for a second in case there's any questions but my recommendation would be um maybe that we can get to some sort of Direction on The W Lane ask um because this is a we're going to see the ARA funds again but I would like you know if we do anything I'd like to get them off the table Corey [Music] um yes and since I am an overachiever I did go back and look at my packet and saw that in there and notice that staff is recommending that maybe we're not able to we don't fund at that full amount and it sounds like they're trying to cover a lot of things in there as opposed to like one particular project

1:13:13 so I would as I said before I think it's important to share some of this money with mine and I'm also totally open to it not being the full amount but to do you know what it is that feels like it would be helpful Joe yeah just right along those same lines with Corey was saying is is H just add one more sentence is I I don't think it's that's out of line forain to remake the request I don't think it'd be out of line for us to assist but I think it would be helpful for us to assist um if we can get a a list in a list from lamain of you know we we heard of what what Michael wants to do Michael and I think they're all just IFI for sure I mean at least worth looking at but I'd like to see a list of uh how

1:13:59 they would prioritize what they would do with that money so that way they would we could ensure whatever if their highest priority is this and just make a a list on down in in order of priority and I think it would make things a lot easier I don't remember did we get that did we have a list that came in the original letter it was basic I'm sorry it was basically put into three um buckets uh Early Childhood the request was 800,000 planning parks and Facilities was 300,000 and then the increase of Facility hours throughout the district was about 650 but we certainly can

1:14:45 adjust and I mean to me the big priority is um Staffing hiring people getting people uh you know jobs within the Springfield community and then hoping um that that will in in also help out the the local economy as well like gain full employment with benefits so Michael could you read that I had Early Childhood at 800k parks um Park maintenance at 300K and then it was programming yeah it was a programming and Facility hours for about 650,000 are you giving them in the order that is the priority for the for what for the for Lane so it's early the the prior you've given us the values but is that the priority

1:15:30 order right early childhood's number one Parks number two and then programming not number three I would say because all of them have a staffing component Staffing would be my number one priority within those three areas hiring more preschool teachers kids club you know Staffing at Early Childhood Staffing at planning Parks facilities keeping us safe and then a Frontline staff to keep our facilities open longer with qualified staff okay anybody else um I'm comfortable if we want to want like if we start with 800k and if you guys want to talk more I like we just have to get to some sort of answer [Music]

1:16:17 here Joe yeah I think I think that would be reasonable and um that way instead of necessarily committing Mr Wargo to any particular thing then he can use that 800 for um however which way he feels and it could it could be a moving Target I think it could easily be a moving Target um as time C you know time goes by and um you know getting people employed is great but I I think it's it's we really need to make sure that I think that the uh the funds they recommended not for programming because that's always temporary type thing but more for what can they what can be used to to put something up front that's going to be uh lasting you know lasting a long time so I think I think 800 would be great um to give him some some

1:17:03 flexibility and and see where it goes from there marily um I was feeling a little more generous and I was I was my went with a million um it's not that big a difference from what you suggested but I and I too was thinking if was if the focus was on Staffing because you get the Staffing and then you can you can work from there and maybe we can help out a little bit more but you can work from there get the Staffing and figure out what the Staffing can accomplish um and and what you know what what's needed beyond that I think um the way Michael described it was really made sense to me but I I was feeling more generous at a million uh just to be clear the only

1:17:49 place I came with 800k was when I listened for priorities Early Childhood was a big priority for for Gap so that's where that number is coming from right I understand okay Cory hi I'm not laughing at anybody but I think that's a the poor mayor did not want to be accused of being not generous um so I'm with marily Lee I I was also thinking a million is a good place to start and um I appreciate and I also I really appreciate what councelor pishner said in that you know I think that you know they get to use it how they want to really and um thinking of the things whether it's Staffing if you're able to hire enough people or whatever so yeah I'm the I'm I'm a little bit more in the the close to the

1:18:34 one million okay Steve Steve did you have anything you're still on mute I'm to I'm still learning it's one million can you hear me yes we can hear you okay that's it one milon okay Damian yeah uh I I think one million is good but also we're going to issue a challenge to figure out ways to implement more cultural programming that will inherently increase visibility of lamalan use of

1:19:20 lamalan and feed into uh potential growth that way you can have a surplus where if anything like this ever happened again uh you would have had such a good reputations which you already do have but so many things that are in place that will keep you AF flat you like I said I I I really would love to see how this organization will fit into various type of cultural programming that are going to educate our youth about other cultures and other diverse narratives and things like that so I I think million but I challenge you willemain to make that happen bring it leard thanks mayor yes um I I'm uh

1:20:06 thinking along Damian's lines I'd like to throw out a challenge too I mean I'm I'm not um against the million either right I would like to see the two 200,000 um that are in addition to I I presume the uh the Early Child Care Program um I I'd like to see it used for the parks um and I don't have any problem with C cultural programs at the parks but I think the parks benefit everyone that's all I got okay so I'm gonna sum up what I heard so everybody can KN up I'm that we're giving them that we're saying it's a million dollars for Wam Lan and that that that it's essentially unrestricted so between the three buckets that Michael provided Us in the letter that we were finding any

1:20:53 combination go ahead me yeah so um I I agree with that idea that it's they can use it however they see fit but do recognize that it has to be within uh the federal guidelines for uh the use of arpa funds that this money is flowing through us um it will show as a pass through and then as a subrecipient and we will have monitoring requirements associated with it so to just know that we will work closely with W lamain um to provide this and allow them to use it in a way that is legally compliant and does not get us into any trouble I just want to add that to the top when we we said unrestricted we mean also follow federal law Mr Mayor can I just say something real quick number one I can't thank this Council enough this is going to be a huge um help and impact on all of us I

1:21:39 gladly accept the challenge uh made by uh councilman pittz part of what we're doing anyway is a huge Dei strategic plan and Outreach to make sure that those populations and demographics and groups that typically have not been um as involved as we'd like to at willaman we will absolutely make sure that they are part of this plan and welcome them to our uh facilities and programs with with open arms and and grow on that as pish thank you yes I had my hand up before before Mike said Michael said thanks I was going to say heyy if we got some uh um tracking responsibilities

1:22:26 with that which I know we do is um I would like to lay as much as we can to minimize our staff time to lay as much as that responsibility on wam Lane to report back to us so we can cut and paste otherwise I don't want to create you know by giving money giving money to this organization now creating work for our organization doesn't seem to make a lot of sense so so i' put them put the M the work as much we can on Mr Wargo what do you think about that Michael um I have no problem with that my CFO Betty neelson is on this call and um she will absolutely be providing um uh the any necessary reports we it'll be on the waman staff and we will regularly update

1:23:12 you as uh frequently as you need and with the information that you feel is important great thank you sir okay we've got about five minutes left Nate I'm going to call out one other specific item in your AIS and see if we get a head not on it um did people see the Carter building remodel um and Nate do you want to just give us the 30 second uh view on that one yeah actually uh the Carter building uh remodel got dropped uh from consideration in this list um since we spoke with you last uh we found that there are some structural problems with that building and that to uh bring it up to standard might be as expensive as building a new building um and so it's it's still being evaluated U but there's potential that it could be uh Dem demolished so it's it's um um

1:23:58 probably in our best interest not to associate arpa funds with that site not knowing what we would do with it in the future I think that sounds great I'm looking for some head nods here Y and um with five minutes left is there another place that you want to us to give you maybe a little bit more guidance I know we're probably going to schedule some more time we're gonna have to if because there are a number of items that I think should be considered for um uh supplemental budgets in fy22 but uh one of those I like to call it is the Citywide Legacy street light replacement uh I think that was a project that you greenlighted but we haven't identified funding for that this would be a great use of the funds uh one of the challenges we're going to have is we got three years left to spend this remaining 11 and a half well now 10 and a half million dollars uh and this is one that won't require a lot of Staff time that

1:24:43 we'll be using a procurement and a contractor to do the work um and it'd be nice to get moving on it Joe yes thank you I I strongly support that use of these funds for those and I did you know I did want to mention to is that when we went through this whole proposal whatnot that comes out to about $700 ahe a street light head that I'm you know just so we're aware of it but as far as timing of it the funds are there we should be able to do it well within the time frame and it would absolutely I think put a put it the money in light to all the citizens uh in Springfield so I think it's a great use of it all right and then the other one if if we're up I see more questions I'll wait Cory you're on mute wasn't a question I

1:25:30 was just going to agree that yes I for some reason I thought we were already moving forward on that um so yes on the street lights let the record show that Council rodley fully agrees with councelor pisher more often than I care to um have everybody know so I I love agreeing with her and she loves agree with me I think it's awesome all right Nate um okay we'll find some more time um and then get the rest of list in front of in front of folks I want to leave people a couple minutes to use the restroom before we uh before we go to the next meeting or stretch your legs or get a refill all right thank you everyone thank you Nate we're ajour we'll be back in three

1:26:18 minutes the same link right same same link no same link oh okay oh thanks AJ thank you AJ for okay I'm G to call the regular session of the Springfield City Council to order with roll call Mayor Van Gordon here councelor pittz here councelor Mo here councelor rodley here councelor stair here councelor woodro here and

1:27:03 councelor pisher I'm here thank you all right please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance aliance to the flag to the flag of the United United States of America and to the Republic to the Republic for stands one nation one nation under God God indivisible ivisible with li liberty and justice as we begin our meeting tonight I would like to ask members of the audience who are joining us online to please keep yourselves on mute until you are called upon for public testimony there will be two times this evening designated for public testimony and will be listed as business from the audience

1:27:49 and public hearings on the agenda if you are joining us online with the tablet smartphone or computer and wish to speak during that time please use the raiseed hand when the when the agenda item is called when we call on you please state your name and Ward or general location for the record first item please mayor uh the first item is Springfield upbeat uh we actually have a couple items tonight under Springfield upbeat the first being mayor's recognition police do we have the officers here or chief sheer wants to here to introduce the officers we'll bring up Chief Shear here

1:28:35 in a moment may I think that uh Chief Shear Zoom link might be frozen but we will we will try we may be having some technical difficulties we're doing it live doing it okay am I here can anybody hear me see me I apologize some technical difficulty

1:29:20 um the last thing I heard was the mayor asking if I had anybody else here the officers here I I'm not sure I we sent out a notification to them a lot of them don't work till later tonight so they're not here at work right now or might be on days off but I do believe we have at least a couple people that are that are listening in um I missed the whole first part of what the mayor said so I apologize I don't know if you read their names or not but I'm going to go ahead and do that um I know you recognize you're going to recognize Sergeant Wilson officer o officer Tanner offer officer Crawford and officer Ceres um have you already read the that was the that was the next piece right the first question was did if we had the if we had them here we were going to bring them up for for this piece of recognition so um I will go ahead and read the letter that I sent on

1:30:06 behalf of the city and uh the council to these officers um and then we'll go ahead and open it up and see if anybody's got any other sort of comments or questions um it's the same letter for all officers so I'm going to just simply read it once but I signed this and it was going it was going out to um these officers on behalf of on behalf of the community so on behalf of the Springfield City Council and Springfield leadership I wanted to commend you for your exemplary services on November 4th 2021 your quick action to assist the University of Oregon helped resolve a dangerous set of circumstances and to protect the Campus Community we're incredibly grateful for your assistance and dedication the details of the events then unfolded on November 4th 2021 or heroing University of Oregon Police

1:30:53 Department called Springfield PD to request assistance with a building search pursuant to a report of an unauthorized subject on campus inside the night Law Library SPD quickly responded and requested the dispatch of Officer oi his K9 partner Kirby to U ofo upon his arrival officer Ali learned the campus security determined via surveillance footage that the subject inside the building was armed with a handgun and at the point positioned himself behind a counter while aiming at an entry door officer L requested additional SP PD Officers to respond for cover as he was searching with K Kine partner Kirby SPD officers Crawford basar serz and Wilson responded to

1:31:38 provide adequate cover and ENT an enhanced search ability SPD officers accompanied by additional responding law enforcement agencies located an intruder inside the law enforce the night law library and took him into custody without incident the subject was armed with a handgun when arrested uo police learned that the subject had held several students against their will at gunpoint for a couple of hours prior to being captured this incident is an example of outst the outstanding partnership SPD has with neighboring law enforcement agencies it's also an example of dedicated SPD officers having the Safety and Security of our community uh your helpful and responsive attitude is typical and representative of this department in face of uncertainty you answered the call for help as you do for

1:32:24 each and every day thank you very much um I'm gonna Chief did you want to add anything before I open it up to see if the council had anything else to add yeah just real briefly I know officer Crawford and Ceres are online they're with Sergeant Humphrey they were having some technical difficulties also but they are listening in and I just want to say thanks on behalf of the SPD for recognizing them um they did a great job that night and this was definitely something that could have been far worse that was averted largely because of their work but this isn't the kind of thing that just a oneoff they do this kind of work every single night in fact they couldn't make it to the award ceremony that night because on their way in they got they got sidetracked because we had just had a shooting and through some amazing investigative work they were able to track down the shooter within an hour through some amazing

1:33:09 police work they're able to successfully deescalate negotiate this person that had just shot somebody out of his apartment and take him into custody without any kind of incident so we ask these men and women to go out every single night and do things that I don't think we ask anybody else in society to do um they take on great risk ofel to do this kind of work and they do it very very well and I'm I'm very proud of every single one of them so I just want to thank you for for recognizing them for all that counc W well first I want to give a shout out to Kirby I always have to recognize the dog but I just want to say thank you on behalf of us in the community um I recognize it's not an easy job it's not an easy job when you even consider that

1:33:54 that's a job or career you want so I I I understand the daily the daily situations that they encounter and this particular group uh did an amazing job in the early November and I just look forward to even more thank you um we get lots of bad press and this is good press and I'd like to see it mentioned out there more at the police advisory committee last night the chief talked about the event he didn't he didn't really tell him how really serious it could have been and so I wish he had done that and I wish the public would also know that eventually so that's

1:34:39 all ear is your hand still up or did you want oh okay very good anybody else want to add anything Joe I got to jump on the bandwagon you know that Chief that's some that's some super great work that's a extremely stressful situation and working together like that working with other agencies I my understanding that they were absolutely not the only we were not the only agency there helping uo uh epd and Ando was there as well but um you're right I mean it could have been super tragic and uh without that uh immediate response and going straight to the problem and resolving it like that was nothing short of miraculous and um so I I my hats off it's it's hard work it's

1:35:26 and you know it's like Council MO is saying it's very few thanks a lot of people jump up to complain a about things but I tell you what you're not going to be calling a janitor when you have someone with a gun in in your house so good work I commend the police department and continue what you're doing thank you sir M did you have something else one more thing just to respond to Steve I don't know I don't know if he follows Facebook very often but the uh the notes that are coming out on Facebook from SPD are really good I I I'm grateful for them I'm anxious to see as many as they want to put out there um I really appreciate the interaction of

1:36:13 things that are going on we haven't had that before and I really I really I see people responding to it and paying attention and so I I really like the communication that's coming out on Facebook Facebook it's just I think it's really good very good I think Neil we're ready for the next item okay the next item mayor is an item that you added it is recognition of our economic development manager Courtney gasel and Courtney is here all right um so I have again a a little bit of a a note um about some of

1:37:00 the great things Courtney's done in her career here and as many people know she's leaving us and leaving the nest for um bigger and better opportunities that are out there and we're all so excited and so proud of her as she she tries to uh go out on her uh own Direction so I'm going to read this and then I'll let it um let the council make some comments Courtney gel has spent her career working to bring better uh new and better opportunities to the people in Springfield finding in to find innovative ways to foster economic development in the region over the last 15 years she's played a lead role in many of Springfield's most successful projects and has volunteered to handle some of our most significant challenges Courtney's primary focus has been

1:37:45 city-wide economic development business retention expansion recruitment site development and public private Partnerships but that's not only part that is only part of her story Courtney is authored the city's downtown urban renewal plan a king king component of our downtown Resurgence and was a contributing author of The Glenwood refinement plan which will help guide further developments in Glen the Glennwood area Courtney raised the bar on how local governments can lead targeted ex existing business Outreach she found new and better ways for the city to Foster relationships with local businesses to have the headquarters outside of Oregon and constantly partnered with local Industries to help them tell their story she took a leadership role in advocating for

1:38:30 advanced wood products and the jobs that the techn that technology could bring back to Oregon her years of work on the subject to earn her SP earned her a spot as a keynote speaker for governor Brown's Oregon Summit on mass timber in 2017 she has tackled a wide range of public policy issues including working as a lead staff to a governor's office organ solution designated uh to provide resources for mobile home park residents impacted by closures Courtney has been a regular presenter and contributor with the Epic Network a university and Community Partnership program that worked at works at a large scale to advance the needs of the community while training the next generation of Workforce and Leadership even while managing multiple important efforts

1:39:15 locally and globally she found ways to give back leading the city of Springfield's United Way campaign and serving on the United Way Board of Directors among several other volunteer leadership roles we are incredibly grateful to Courtney for years of exemplary Public Service it is rare to find the level of talent and dedication that Courtney delivers it's been an honor to work with Courtney and on behalf of s of the city in the Springfield Community I wanted to thank you for making a notable difference in the lives of so many thank you for allowing us to be part of your journey and the best of luck on your next adventure now the one note I wanted to always add is you know and my time being on Council and mayor for the last year like if I had a problem and didn't know what the answer was even if she didn't

1:40:00 have like Courtney was the first person I would call she could at least point us in the right direction and give us really good and sound uh professional advice and I always really appreciated it now I'm going to turn it over to marily Lee I have mixed emotions I'm so excited for where you're headed and so excited that people came to you and found you for this position you weren't out there looking they came and found you which to me just exemplifies what we've all said and what we all feel about you and and how far you've

1:40:45 come the mixed emotions is I'm Not Gon I'm not gonna have you around it's going to be hard we've had such a good relationship for the last year and a half to two years to be able to really get the economic development agency in line and directed and with a with something ahead of us in the future um and so I'm I'm grateful for everything that you put into that that you that that your legacy is there besides everything that Sean mentioned your legacy is there in what we go forward and accomplish as a result of your creating the the ba the base and I really appreciate it and I'm I'm looking forward to at least being able to call

1:41:31 and say hey what do you think and meeting you for coffee so but thank you you have just been a gem thank you very much so I refuse to think that I'm not going to get to work with Courtney and other ways in other places and I've already said that to her that I'm just sure that we will find another way to work together um I also have just I've deeply appreciated getting to work with you in so many different ways and one of my Fondest Memories is um and fond in that it was it was painful and hard was actually working on a video for United

1:42:16 Way together last year and working to unpack a lot of really hard things and um I've told people before that some my my favorite relationships are bonded in conflict and Challenge and I think of you that way and that we've done some part things together and so I know that we will get to work together future and the City of Springfield is so much better off for your work and your talent and your tenacity and many of the things that you have endured on behalf of public service and I appreciate that and just consider you sort of a sister in the trenches so I appreciate appreciate you I wish you the very best and I just know we're going to continue to work together so thank you

1:43:04 Joe courney so all was I gonna say well I mean I I can I concur with everything that's been said but I'm G to add is that um when you were coming on board and you were like you know okay she's going to replace John T and I'm like oh my gosh and people are going oh such big shoes to fill and oh my gosh I don't know how she's going to do this and yeah it's like you know the city was going to you know have to take three steps back and one step forward type thing but you proved that all to be wrong completely you have set the pace you have created your own path you got your own shoes that are going to be really hard to fill I think with a greater challenge in JT's was ever so you you

1:43:50 you set the bar so high I love JT don't get me wrong but you set you set the bar I can name well may I can't name all the different projects that you had your fingers in and continue to have your fingers in all more often than not in the background without asking for recognition without it's it's a selfless service that you have uh plac a community over your own even your own P personal well-being and personal space and all you made it family you know so uh I wish nothing but the best and I continue to uh you can we'll stay in touch but nothing but the best

1:44:35 Leonard well Courtney I've never doubted in the least that you've always had the city's best interests at heart um I we've occasionally differed on how to get there but I've always known that you are somebody who believed in Springfield and Springfield was in good hands under your watch and the private sector better watch out so good luck to you Damian um first of all I mean it's definitely been a pleasure uh working with you I'm glad I got to briefly see you uh at one of my meetings with with Nancy and I'm glad we actually got to see that we were both real people uh but before you go I really need to see a

1:45:20 transcript of the phone call that you made to popey's uh other than that I mean good luck you know uh I still owe you a pound cake or some Memphis barbecue or something hold me to it uh and uh I know you do good things and if you decide to run for governor in 2030 something I probably won't be here but you know you you'll have my well uh I I'll open the mic for you Courtney if you have anything you want to say otherwise we we can bring you back up for Ceda a little bit later a

1:46:06 she's got to say something come on is my sound okay yeah um I still have a month to work on that Popeyes so you just see what I can do here over the holidays um I I have to say that I am filled with absolute Gra attitude I would not be the person I am today if it weren't for this community um for all of you and and for the counselors that came before um as well and you know I mly I think about John and and so I just um I'm grateful for the person the community has made me and I think it's a once in a lifetime to get to work for a community like Springfield and I say it often that um Springfield is a place where amazing people are quietly doing

1:46:52 really amazing things and I just I will be your loudest fan from the stands now um someone will be loud on your behalf because uh there is just greatness ahead and it has been a true privilege um to have the honor of getting to do this work um it's been a challenge every single day but it's a community that deserves it and so um I just I look forward to seeing what's ahead and I will not be far and you have a fan um I'm very appreciative appreciative of all of you um and our leadership team I gotta say you got an amazing group of people at the city so just

1:47:38 honored good luck we really do wish you you're the best and hopefully you'll find it find the way back to us eventually someday all right Neil next item please oh the next item is the consent calendar Steve there I am okay I make a motion that we approve the consent calendar second all right so we have a motion from coun Mo in a second from councelor pisher um Neil could you call the role please yes councelor pittz hi councelor Mo yes councelor rodley yes Council

1:48:24 stair hi Council woodro yes and Council pisher all motion passes six yeses and no zero NOS next item please next item is the public hearings you have um one public two public hearings this evening the first one is fiscal year 22 supplemental budget to and Appropriations transfer resolution number two a resolution adjusting resources and requirements in the following fund funds special Revenue Street Capital and authorizing the transfer of Appropriations within the general fund from contingency expense to City manager's Office operating expense and from contingency expense to Human Resources operating expense Neil oer is

1:49:09 here for the staff report yes good uh good evening mayor and Council uh as Neil said this is the second supplemental budget of the year uh really it includes three main items uh those it items are the addition of FTE uh one in the HR and one in the city manager's office uh to address staffing needs in those departments uh second is recognition of the First Federal Harper payment and receipt of those dollars into reserves and the third is recognition of Grant revenues from the Oregon Department of Transportation uh to support the LED lighting portion of The Pedestrian safety improvements that uh you discussed earlier with uh Brian Barnett and team um so staff tonight

1:49:55 requests that the council hold a public hearing um I'm also happy to take any questions um at any time are there any questions all right I'm going going to open the public hearing and anybody that's interested to comment specifically to this item please raise your hand and we will bring you and uh mayor I'm not seeing any hands raised we'll give them one more moment but I do not see anything all right then I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing

1:50:41 and all right Steve ready okay I make a motion that we adopt the uh resolution number two second all right we have a motion from councelor Mo and a second from councelor pisher uh Neil could you call the role please yes councelor pittz I councelor Mo yes Council rodley yes councelor stair I Council woodro yes and councelor pisher I all right the motion passes six to zero uh next item please next item is your second public hearing it's election results Municipal Code amendments this ordinance number one amending Springfield Municipal Code section 2.27 5 related to the proclamation of election results and our assistant City

1:51:26 attorney Christina KZ is here for the staff report thank you Neil um good evening mayor and Council I am bringing this item to you tonight as a somewhat housekeeping item code modernization item um and hopefully help you stop signing documents every election cycle that um that AJ works really hard to collect all your signatures on but isn't a state requirement so um the purpose of this code update is to amend the section of Municipal Code that deals with how election results are announced and reported for the City of Springfield so these are election results related to the election of candidates as well as

1:52:13 the um results of ballot measures either voter initiated um initiatives or referendums or um City ballot measures that we put forward like our bond measures most commonly currently the municipal code references a proclamation of a board of canvassers which the city council has um acted as for the past unknown number of decades that requires um the city recorder to prepare a proclamation that's voted on by the council and then signed by each counselor as well as a proclamation by the mayor that is also signed by the mayor that procedure seems to stem from very very very old state law that goes back about a hundred years I couldn't find any more recent reference to board

1:52:58 of canvassers than about 1920 um current election law places most of those duties on the city's elections official which is our city repor for our code and Charter and so the proposed code amendments essentially streamline the procedures so that the council is still receiving those election results through a proclamation of the city recorder um and then you can review that in a public meeting um but you would not need to vote on that or um individually all sign off on that since elections would be governed by what the state law um requires and our Charter allows us to follow state law for anything that you don't specifically adopt another procedure by ordinance so this would be consistent with the city Charter um this is a public hearing and first reading so

1:53:44 there's no vote tonight but I'm happy to answer any questions um before or after the public hearing depending on your preference are there any questions all right then I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing and if you're interested in commenting this item to this item please raise your hand all right I don't see anybody Neil no mayor I don't see anyone either and there's no action requested on this item it's a first reading okay I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and then we are going to move on since no it's a first reading um next item please next item is business from the

1:54:30 audience um okay we're g to bring up business from the audience um if you're interested in speaking please raise your hand you know you can goad and start bringing people up when you're ready you got it mayor our first speaker is Judy Smith followed by Joe tatle and Judy you should be able to unmute your microphone good evening city council can you hear me yes all right well my name is Judy Smith and I am the Lane County area representative for home share Oregon and I'm here just to get on public record that H share Oregon is here um and we bring the classic Community tradition of Home Sharing into the Modern Age

1:55:15 Springfield faces big challenges including the lack of affordable housing housing insecurity for marginalized populations and providing other housing related Services homeshare Oregon is a new nonprofit that is providing a way for people of all ages and Lifestyles to find a safe compatible housemate to build community and prevent homelessness before it starts homeshare Oregon offers a special partnership with silverest an online app that provides a secure matching process to help you find the right person with which to share your home when you sign up for this resource through homeshore Oregon we pay the fees for this service and we're with you every step of the way including

1:56:01 assistance creating reg renter profiles and house listings landlord tools and templates and background checks for both parties home share Oregon is also planning to build a home owner rapid response program designed to recruit and train homeowners willing to provide housing for families displaced due to a natural disaster this is a proactive response so our community can be ready in case of wildfires or other catastrophes you know there are over a million and a half empty spare rooms in our state and we view it as an underused Housing Resource if we can match people for just 2% of those rooms that would equal housing for 30,000 people without

1:56:48 an increase in our taxes we we seek support from the City of Springfield to help us decrease barriers to Home Sharing and incentivize homeowners to join the Home Sharing Movement we encourage the residents of Springfield to visit our website at homeshare oregon.org and find out if Home Sharing is right for you thank you very much mayor our next speaker is Joe tatle and Joe you should be able to unmute your microphone great can everyone hear me we can okay great uh this business is a continuing business not necessarily new business uh mayor Van Gordon council members my name

1:57:33 is Joe tootle I reside at 86745 RR Baker Road in Springfield I'm the owner and operator of several businesses on Main Street I've been involved in the Main Street Safety project for almost eight years just as long as merily and have served on the strategic advisory committee for this project as well this evening you had a work session updating you on the Main Street Safety project and the next phase for public hearings the city staff presented um that a public engagement plan has been underway for several years and it has uh to educate the public about this project unfortunately the feedback that has that was received

1:58:20 represents very small segment of this community if any the resident the residents of the city have no clue about what to happen what's about to happen to their street to their Main Street when asked they always respond what are you talking about this is a major project that involves seven miles of Main Street with nine roundabouts and a block center lane which will disrupt the lives and movement of everyone who travels this Corridor not to mention the devastation and NE ative impact to hundreds of business along this route the city staff and the Consultants hired to run this project have done nothing but to manipulate this process claiming they have checked all the boxes before they

1:59:06 come to you for approval I urge you as elected representative of the people of the city to do your own due diligence please go out and ask residents what do they know about the Main Street Safety project and then you'll find out for yourself that this may not be the wishes of most of these people that live and travel this Corridor I really urge you to do that I know I've got plenty of time yet to talk about um this but I'm very passionate about it I spent a lot of time I respect what you guys are doing very much and the staff good job but at the same time the feedback that the community they've collected from the community is

1:59:52 inadequate you need to go back and make sure the community is aware is what's going to happen to their street thank you so much for your time and mayor it appears we have no other hands up for business from the audience we do have one that has come up uh the next speaker is Kevin shaper and Kevin you should be able to unmute your microphone hi I'm Kevin shaer w six um uh I want to uh mention a couple things related to Main Street first I just wanted to uh recognize um the deaths of the children on Main Street uh John

2:00:37 Alexander day who was eight years old McKenzie May Hudson who was five years old and Tyler James Hudson who was four years old and uh uh the last commenter talked about recognizing devasta and I think you can't get more devastating than their deaths um and then uh um the traffic engineer um this is on a whole different level mentioned the the how unsafe it would be to mix um pedestrians and bikes uh in a 12 and a half foot space that would be created by combining the um the bike lane and the sidewalk and I just want to point out that the eweb and Rosa Parks paths are 9 ft wide

2:01:23 and the Westy and mil race path paths are 10 ft wide um so I I just I I don't know what was up with that answer but that doesn't that doesn't pass the spell test um and then of course the idea that um the bike lane would be used for carrying Freight I can't imagine what's going to happen to a someone who's using the bike lane on a bike while oversized Freight is driving in it so I I think that's a uh a real design problem well thank you the mayor it appears we have no more speakers in the queue is there any

2:02:09 Council leard you may have turned your camera off instead of turning mute off all right we're going to go with Mar Lee first while and give Leonard a chance to troubleshoot his problems um I just wanted to say I appreciate Joe's comments um uh I would love to see I don't think anybody feels like we don't want to hear from everybody it is a common problem with it

2:02:56 whatever we do to try to get a community response that's CommunityWide um we've got a community of 60,000 people we've probably got what 40,000 35 to 40,000 adults we would be happy to have comments coming in from them in regards to Main Street and the corridor um I don't really I I personally my personal opinion I don't feel like our staff has ignored getting comments from the community um but I know how tough it is no matter what we've dealt with to try to get a across theboard response from folks I don't know what the answer is if somebody has an answer I'd be I'd love to hear it of how to get how to reach out and get more response but I know they've spent the

2:03:43 last two to three years trying to reach out in all different directions um so I like I said I appreciate what was saying and I and I understand his concerns and I had said earlier in work session I started out as a hard sell on this um and I'm I'm they're still I'm still watching the process so I just wanted to respond to that that I I'd love to have a way or figure out a way to be able to get a larger Community response in any area that we've got a question about or have have one it and if anybody has a system or has a way to do that I'd love to I'd love to to hear what their ideas

2:04:31 are honard yeah thanks mayor um I'd like to just chime in um on behalf of what councelor woodro just said um Civic engagements a two-way street we um just heard from members of the public tonight on this issue I welcomed that input thank you for both speaking up and in April there's going to be another opportunity for a public forum on this uh Main Street project so please tell all your friends um who are going to be affected by this project um that they'll have an ample opportunity to speak up and please encourage them thank you all right anybody else all right next item mayor the next

2:05:16 item is any business from the council is there any other Steve yep see what do I do here am I on okay you on oh okay okay uh I forgot what I was gonna say now one thing is uh I was in San Francisco last week and I saw some some ideas on how they control traffic and traff highspeed traffic in some neighborhoods I like those and I've been working on this West D Street situation we have over here we have a permanent solution coming up it's going to be years before that's done in the meantime we need to put up some temporary measures that will last and and not just talk about it we need to do it and and Summit Boulevard also

2:06:01 up the hill uh so I uh I've got I got some pictures I want to talk to hopefully talk to some staff about that see if I can get something moving on that and uh so on to one other thing Glennwood um my ward goes from 10th Street to to I5 glenwoods in that Ward there's glened water district which provides fire protection and street lights for everything from the city limits to high5 well the Water District board meeting last week voted to change all straight lights to LEDs Water District's going to do that and so that's a step forward for a community that supports Springfield and I want everybody to know

2:06:47 that it all right um anybody else all right I had one quick item uh we we've got one more meeting before it's winter break um and since it's the beginning of the uh since it's the beginning of the calendar year there is an option to reassign committee assignments for the year I know people have a um some assignments that don't work with their schedule or maybe maybe areas that they're not interested in please if you want to move committee assignments now would be the time to get your piece of um input in if you want to call me or text me um and then we can move some move some spots

2:07:34 around all right next item please the next item is business from the city manager item number one the cdbg CV funds for Human Services and Aaron ffield is here for the staff report good evening there Council uh I'm here tonight uh with a recommendation from the Community Development advisory committee on how to distribute $185,000 in Community Development block grant Corona virus relief funds I might refer to them as cdbg CV funds um as you may recall in the spring the council decided to allocate These funds to provide Direct Services to the unhoused

2:08:19 community in Springfield as response to the Corona virus staff subsequently issued a request for proposals and received responses from two local nonprofits who are working with this population in Springfield those two nonprofits Catholic community services and Carry It Forward uh Catholic community services request um is to support a portable shower trailer to serve homeless families with children that' be in their parking lot for one year while the addition to their building for The Oasis Day Center is being built so they have a planned shower for that population in the future but until that happens um they're requesting that a shower trailer be able to serve that population um

2:09:04 Carry It Forward uh put forward a number of ideas and projects to serve this population uh some of which don't quite align with the HUD requirements so um I put forward the ones that do that are eligible um you'll see those there the three projects are um essentially operating a program for emergency motel vouchers for inclement weather so someone if it is too cold folks sometimes aren't actually able to go to Egan or have a condition that would be better served for a motel indoor space than a congregate space um so having Carry It Forward manage that program uh so motel vouchers they also had a proposal to provide support for when someone is camping out in an RV on

2:09:49 public streets um but that RV breaks down so to be able to troubleshoot to make sure that RV can move within that 48 hour time frame um rather than the risk of them being towed and having all their possessions possessions uh be taken um and then that third request from car forward is actually for uh Street Outreach and case management to be provided uh to folks living outside um the cat to that is that that is a program actually where Lane County is leading that effort regionally and so if that was something something you wanted to support um it would actually be um we would allocate those funds to Lane County to manage and then they would distribute those funds to a local nonprofit We would not manage that program ourselves um I do want to

2:10:34 highlight these are one-time funds these are from the cares act um so you know cdbg actually usually caps the number the the amount of funds we can put toward Human Services and through the cares act they sort of Hud um sort of lifted the cap and so we we we are in this unique position to provide These funds toward Human Services in a way that we haven't in the past but also in a way we won't in the future so that's recognizing staff's capacity to manage a new program um so uh where does that lead us so on November 10th the Community Development advisory committee met to review these applications and hear from uh the

2:11:19 applicants um and put forward a recommendation that you see in your packet they did support each of those projects but you can see the amounts listed there totaling up to 18 185,000 so um happy to answer any questions Jo yes thank you very much so um you're talking about this seems like it's a an opportunity or window of opportunity to use these funds where otherwise we would not be able to use the funds for this purpose correct correct so so we have the funds what would they have been used for so this was a new federal program um that sorry maybe I'll let you is this is this new money or is this something

2:12:04 that's that's we're pulling out of some savings account somewhere it's new money it's new money through the cares act under President Trump that Congress awarded so it sort of rather create a new program they say let's add it to the eligibility of the existing cdbg program and give that money to existing entitled communities it's new new coming in it's new coming in and it's one time yeah and then out of curiosity you don't have to really like nail you down to but how in the world did they come up with $1,680 to fix RVs those are staff C it's so it's not money to pay to actually fix the RVs they're they're tapping a different source for that this is the staff cost staff is charge we're they're getting we're getting charged $

2:12:53 17,682 an RV needs to be fixed I mean I don't don't know where the money's going yeah the proposal is for staff um to be able to go out to an RV and sort of talk with that owner about figuring like troubleshooting the issue and then sort of helping them essentially get on their way I will say the program like all of the other Federal programs it's a reimbursement basis so if the program doesn't end up sort of spending that money we won't get charged for it but that would be the limit that they're asking for okay so again I was just trying to figure out how that number would come up but and I understand it's to reimburse staff time and I don't know how much that how much time that 176 represents so just it just looked odd to me so all

2:13:39 right marily I had a question in regards to the motel vouchers uh is this in correlation with or in addition to um what the county does what HSC does this would be an addition to um so the HSC this I have it exact given that it's like um multi-million dollar budget that they have but I haven't really seen the HSC have a motel voucher budget like I know Catholic community services has a motel voucher budget for families with children for like cold weather for example but my understanding is that those are private donations that are funding that

2:14:24 um go ahead I'm sorry okay yeah in this case my understanding is that there are a number of single adults um that sometimes let's say during a cold weather spell that Egan is not a is not a good fit for in that congregate setting and they may have a medical issue or they may be released from the hospital but it might be sort of during an inclement weather spell and so if you could be able to put them in a hotel for a couple nights before releasing them to the street this is where Carri It Forward is requesting funds to sort of operate my memory could be wrong and I'm not saying and I'm saying it could very well be wrong but I remember discussing this in HSC meeting um sometime in the

2:15:10 past year where there was money set aside for motel vouchers um and we actually ended up with leftover uh that we didn't use them all yeah if if if my memory is serving correctly that's why I was curious as if would they be correlating with uh you know Lane County's awareness of the need or how would they know and how would they choose people that would need the vouchers where would they get the recommendations from uh for for the vouchers um that's a good question um I was like I could dig in through the application right now um I mean my understanding from Carry It Forward is

2:15:56 that the need is great and whoever their population that they worked with last year I guess was not necessarily tied in if there were other sources like your referencing um were not able to tap those and so they were struggling to find I know my understanding of talking to City manager's office is that we we were using I think FEMA money last winter to help pay for emergency motel vouchers for that population and the FEMA money is not available this winter um I it would not surprise me if if not everything was coordinated um if there was a need that the county was experiencing and also there was a population in another part of the county that um either was not aware of or was

2:16:43 not eligible for or something but my understanding from these we're only talking about members of the population who are currently unhoused um and so therefore I would I would AR I think the argument is there as far as the need um but that would be a carry of forward managing that program to decide um population is okay Cory okay I have I have a few thoughts and they're probably going to start with question so I heard you say that this is all going to be this is reimbursed right so we we have to be um for this Staffing or this projects or whatever we're going

2:17:28 to be basically build for it or whatever right is that what you said right they they they spend it on an eligible use submit invoices we reimburse them and then conversely we go back to HUD we submit our requests they reimburse us okay so um is this is this increasing any sort of Staff time on our part like do we need increased capacity to be able to do this in addition to other funding or great question go ahead buckle up I have

2:18:15 more do you want go ahead yeah yeah do we are we gonna have to expand our capacity to be able to do this yeah I think that's I mean I'm definitely noticing that like there are other um yeah there are other cwg projects I that are on my list that I wish I could get to quicker um when other other issues are popping up um I think that's where the stress of like trying to make sure we are not creating a new program ourselves but we are managing ones that um that can exist in a way and so when we're talking about motel vouchers or we're talking about partnering with the county and having them administer St Outreach um yeah it's so in as part of your spring like in the spring took a a greater question to council as far as

2:19:01 these funds are concerned and part of that included about $220,000 forc additional staff time um it doesn't increase staff um but it increases the reimbursement um yeah I think the Corona virus has put a lot of pressure on a lot of different things and this population is that and how we serve them has created an increased need for them but also an increased need on on how we deliver services so that's yeah story um I think and this is probably I mean I'm just gonna guess because we're this government that there's probably these these rules that are making us do this a certain way um and normally I I'm I'm just all for um you know getting funds to organizations for Staffing and in this particular case

2:19:48 I have concerns that this is short term one-time funding in a market where all of our nonprofit organizations and agency are having a really hard time finding Staffing anyway so I'm like ah we're gonna end up with doing a lot of work for unspent money so there's that so my my my dream would be if there was any way to just like say yes you do good work yes we're just GNA allocate this funding to you and it doesn't have to be done on a reimbursement basis basically like you said you're going to do this come back and do this so I'm trying to think of like H how do we move the funds to where they can be the most useful and how do we watch out for you know sucking up a bunch of our staff time so we can't get to other things and projects that we need to do and how do we watch out for

2:20:36 um you know investing in Staffing that may never get to where it is that we want to go so I don't know if that's helpful because you're probably gonna say I can't do any of those things but that's just from my personal experience of like how how do we do this in the most efficient way no I think that's a great point of like especially what we're hearing during the Human Services Commission those monthly meetings about limited staff the the turnover in staff like all of you know the the greater need the more challenges people are facing um I would say in these I think that is a broader picture that certainly we will still continue to see um in the social service world I would say for these particular projects in this is um the

2:21:21 power trailer for homeless families CCS has been operating that with the help of FEMA funds um for the last year they've they are managing that they have been paying for that or they've been managing the payment um that funding ended in June and then they came back through this opportunity to ask for fund so in that sense we have a a no you know I mean so it's these little things like okay that's a known entity they've done this they're using their own staff to do that um carry it forward in many ways has actually been doing a lot of this work with volunteers and so they believe they they have current staff or current folks available to do this work it's a matter of like formally onboarding them with that process um I do think in that

2:22:07 case there is some risk here when we're talking about the need for increased capacity in the nonprofit side and we're talking about federal funds um I think there's a balance there wanting to create increased capacity but also recognizing there's a risk when you do do that with folks who haven't maybe worked with federal funds before so that's a reality but um I think Carry It Forward does have some experience they are building that capacity um and they're certainly prioritizing working in Springfield um which is something we heard um during the application process um okay that's all really helpful and one last question if the money goes goes unspent or if they're unable to you know submit for it how long do we have to then turn it over and reallocate do we have a window of time that we have to

2:22:52 spend this money yeah we do it's actually generous as far as some of these funds are concerned so we actually have until December 2023 that these it's kind of this bigger picture of like 80% of these funds need to be spent by then and then we have another three years to spend the additional I mean it's hard because it's a response to a pandemic so it's it's a little bit of trying to figure out how to get the fund spent for what's needed when while all B you know balancing there's so many other funds out there that are trying to do the same thing but um so we'll have two years um I know I'm already going to come back to you with with another ask to reallocate some other funds so that that'll just be part of this reality for now um okay so

2:23:37 we're g to do a little bit of a time check because we are right now 15 minutes over for our next meeting so um Leonard or Steve if you can just sort of keep it narrow to you know if uh questions about the specific item and then if we have questions about cdbg or response maybe we can just take those generic questions you know offline Steve I'll be quick uh I'm I'm the uh council rep to uh sedak committee that's a great committee by the way uh the carry forward ask on the RVs you know every RV out there we everything we hear is there's no houses there's no houses no homes it's years and years and

2:24:22 years every RV out there is a house for somebody and we need we need to take care of those and and their ask was 17,682 to take care of nonworking RVs on the street as far as I could tell it's completely underfunded and if in the long run somewhere down the road I would like to see them go get more money for that item and U I think it's Justified that's it all right Steve do you have a motion or is there any more discussion about uh about the item well I was I was I don't I don't even know where to take it from I just I was hoping maybe some of the other committee members would agree with me and we could y all I I agree with councelor Mo

2:25:08 uh Carry It Forward um makes every nickel count and I think that the full the the the full amount that they're being uh that they're asking for is richly warranted well they're they're asking for 17,682 for their their their working RV part I'd like to CH add 10,000 to that and take it out of one of the others such as the actually the street Outreach case management resources that money was money that we that we could not let them spend in another way so it's going to the county and so maybe maybe if we took 10,000 out of that and put it in the RV uh situations I'd like i' make a motion

2:25:53 that we do second I second thank you Erin I guess I just want to caution like they didn't ask for more money for that program they asked for 17,682 um so without having worked with I guess that'll be my statement they ask before her statements I'd like to have discussion on the motion first well yeah and that's and that Joe thank you so correct me if I'm wrong we just discussed this I just asked about that money that is money paying for staff to

2:26:39 look at the RVs it's not the money to fix the RVs yes it is the money to fix the RVs is coming from a different source which is not part and parcel of this request I'm not sure how we' split from that but the request is covering that and the money that they getting for those repairs are from a completely different source so I won't be supporting that motion okay is there any other is there any other discussion okay before we call the vote I would recommend right like if they don't have enough funds for this right we're going to have plenty of cdbg money that's coming back up so there may be another bite at bite at the Apple so it's been moved in second in to reallocate 10,000 dollars from the street outreach program to uh Carry It

2:27:24 Forward mayor yeah the mo the motion hasn't been withdrawn and it was been seconded so we can't move it has to be modified based on the mo motion he made no I he his motion was to take $110,000 from the street Outreach and right right and that's what that's what I just read his motion was I'm sorry so we this is a vote on this is a vote on his modified motion other than what we've got yeah this is a vote to take $110,000 off of the street outreach program and move it to carry it forward and then we'll deal with the whole group yep thank you thanks for clarifying it all right Neil can you call the role yes councelor pittz all councelor mo yes councelor rodley no councelor stair I councelor

2:28:10 wdro no councelor pisher no I believe that is a tie leaving mayor Van Gordon uh I vote no I tried and and Steve I I think we should act like keep in contact with Carri It Forward if they if this program needs a longer discussion we can do that I listen to this presentation they're doing wonderful stuff so I I really support them yep okay I will now entertain a motion to to uh to adopt the item I'll make a motion that we uh adopt the presentation and I forget for the he to even call now CBD funds they allocated 185,000 sorry I

2:28:55 don't even know what to call it but that's what I wanted to propose councilor Mo if you don't mind I'd be happy to read that motion I have it in front of me please please yes the motion would be to approve the Amendments the CD cac's recommended allocation of cdbg CV funds for Human Services I see it now I see it the Bottom now I didn't see it before okay second all right um it's been moved and seconded to adopt the CDA recommended allocations um Neil could you call the role please yes councelor pittz hi councelor Mo yes councel rodley yes councelor stair hi councel woodro yes and councilor pisher all right motion passes six to zero next item please any other business

2:29:41 from the city manager no further business thank you thank you Nancy any business from the city attorneys office no business and I'm going to adjourn this uh me regular session meeting um and then we are going to reconvene on a different link for the ca executive session so we will see you in under a minute we are adjourned thank you