01-27-2014 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, January 27, 2014 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 24 of 32 (5. #13-3637 WILLI ABBOTT ON BEHALF OF THE BROADWAY GROUP, LLC – 2350 WATERTOWN ROAD AND XXX WILLOW DRIVE NORTH – PRELIMINARY PLAT AND RPUD REZONING, Continued) Mattick stated Staff can try to streamline them and that he will take a look at what is required and forward the information to the City Council. Mattick stated he heard no tree preservation easement is required. Levang indicated that is correct. The City Council took no formal action on this application. PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR/CITY ENGINEER’S REPORT 6. NORTH WATER TOWER REPAINTING PROJECT Struve stated before the City Council tonight is a proposal from SEH to provide professional services for a maintenance contract to repaint and maintain the City’s water tower for a 10-year period. Included with the proposal is also a memo from Bolton & Menk providing a contrasting point of view since this is kind of a new concept for the City of Orono to enter into a maintenance agreement rather than the standard design/bid/build process. Struve stated in his opinion the maintenance contract is a better value for the City of Orono. Jason Spragg, Short, Elliot, Hendrickson, stated currently the City has two elevated tanks. The existing water tower is a hydro pillar-style tank with a flute center column. The tower was originally erected in 1992 and is a 400,000 gallon facility. Spragg stated today’s construction costs for a facility such as this range from 5 to 9 million dollars per tank with a 400,000 gallon facility. Using that kind of a cost range, Spragg indicated to rebuild Orono’s tank today would range between 2 and 2.5 million dollars. Spragg stated the good news is that once the facilities are built, absent any metal fatigue, the facility should last in excess of 75 years. Spragg stated similar to any other capital assets, such as a snow plow or personal vehicle, the City could buy this asset and drive it into the ground or the City could purchase it and maintain it over time. Coating or paint on a water tank is designed to last 15 to 20 years. SEH is proposing basically a maintenance cycle, which would consist of cleaning, touching up the tank, and monitoring the tank with the idea that the total cost of ownership will be less for communities such as Orono. Spragg noted maintenance of the tank over that time ends up being almost twice as much as the initial capital cost. Spragg stated the north tower adjacent to City Hall is approximately 20 years old and is requiring maintenance. Spragg stated basically there are two options available for water towers. They can either be sand blasted and repainted or have an overcoat applied. Spragg noted he did inspect the tank with Staff approximately a year ago, and based on that inspection, it was determined that an overcoat would be appropriate and would allow the tank to last for another 15 to 20 years.