By Neil Farrell
The City of Morro Bay put an end to one controversy, and awarded two sizable contracts for very different projects — the new sewer plant and new computers to do online permitting — in recent actions taken by the City Council.
The Council voted unanimously to remove the experimental parklet in the 800 block of Main St. The 65-foot long and 8-foot wide, outdoor seating space that sits even with the adjacent sidewalk and takes up some parking spaces — was installed last January as part of its “Local Economic Action Plan” or LEAP efforts.
LEAP was the City Council’s attempt to come up with a strategy for boosting the local economy and the parklet was part of one subgroup’s efforts to spruce up Downtown, making it more pedestrian and bicycle friendly and in turn more prosperous.
But the parklet was controversial from day one, as surprised residents started turning out almost immediately, criticizing the City for not enough public input and a poor location — sitting in the street.
Coalesce Bookstore led a petition campaign against the parklet, gathering more than 1,800 signatures.
City Manager David Buckingham told The Bay News that they would remove the structure (which cost about $8,000 to build) and start studying potential new sites for other parklets, and also start working on a policy governing them. That’s because the reaction was mixed — with many people in support of the concept but with almost zero support from neighboring business owners.
The City’s outreach over the past seven months or so included a survey on its website and Facebook Page, asking some basic questions of respondents and seeking feelings about various aspects to “revitalization.”
In the end 712 people filled out the questionnaire. As might be expected, the results were split, accurately reflect ing Morro Bay with regards to many issues.
Asked how far they were willing to walk from a parking space to a business, 33% said one block, 34% two blocks, and 20% 2-3 blocks.
Some 51% wanted more outdoor eating opportunities, 29% weren’t against it, and 21% were opposed.
Forty-nine percent thought 1-2 blocks should be blocked off and designated for pedestrian use only and 34% said No.
Should the parklet stay put? Thirty-nine percent said yes and 32% said no. Do they like it? Yes got 35%, and no 25% but 40% didn’t much care one way or the other.
A major contract was let for development and construction management services for the wastewater treatment plant.
Michael K. Nunley & Assoc., was the choice between two bidders for the job. According to a staff report, the agreement is for a little over $1 million, with 10% of that — some $92,000 — held in contingency.
That amount covers just the first 304 tasks that have been set out by the City’s project team, at a cost of $920,000. In a year, they’ll come back for a revision, another set of tasks to be completed, and a new amount for those tasks.
Nunley has agreed not to do anything outside the approved task list without first getting City approval.
Public Works Director, Rob Livick, in his staff report said normally they would expect a program management contract taking the project through project development to be 3%-4% of the overall budget. Based on the City’s current $102 million overall estimate — including the treatment plant and a recycling system — it should run $3-$4.1 million. Annual payments would be more during design and planning phases, less during construction and start-up.
Just construction management for a project this size could run $4.8-$8 million. Combining the two into just Nunley, should cut out duplications and costs, however, the City’s project budget lists the total estimated amount for project management over 8 years at $8-$14 million.
Nunley is also helping the current sewer treatment plant staff develop a bid package for a job to remove metering vaults and replace blending valves. That package should be ready soon and a contract awarded in September.
The City also recently awarded Kestrel Consulting, which had previously done a $20,000 preliminary analysis on potential grant funding, another contract to start the application process to tap into the State’s Proposition 1 bond. Prop 1 is a 2014, voter-approved, 40-year, general fund obligation bond act that will raise some $7.5 billion for water quality, supply, treatment, and storage projects.
Thus far the City has spent or has contracts let for more than $2.3 million. It’s paid a total of $417,000 with some $1.7 million remaining under contract. Previously, the City hired Black & Veatch engineers for $710,000 to write a facilities master plan.
The next big contract will be for an environmental impact report that could be awarded in the next few weeks. That’s expected to be another several hundred thousand dollars.
In other City news, the Council approved a $210,600 contract to the Timmons Group, Inc., for implementation of Cityworks’ “permit tracking and asset management” software.
Some $85,000 is coming out of the “Strategic Investment Spending Plan,” a new item in the 2015-16 City budget, meant to update and upgrade the City’s computing capabilities. That would cover the permit tracking “portion.”
Public Works is coughing up some $125,600 for its share — the asset management part.
That money is coming out of various PW budgets — $48,900 from water, $72,500 from sewer and $4,100 from the PW general fund.
The staff report indicates the existing software being used to track permitting was installed in 2000 and has never been updated. The new software will put permit records online for easy access by the applicants and presumably the public.
