Town Manager’s Office
Memorandum
To:
Mayor and Town Council
From:
Cliff Graviet, Town Manager
RE:
Capital Projects
Date: November
14, 2008
Agenda item B on this month’s workshop
deals with prioritizing possible Capital projects for inclusion in this year’s budget. You are all
probably familiar by now with our seven tiered prioritization schedule that has appeared in our last few budgets. (See
Attachment 1) This schedule acknowledges a variety of possible projects prioritizes them and for projects with a high enough
prioritization, the funding source for the project or purchase is listed and cost out into future years if planned.
For purposes of this workshop, we will not
be reviewing planned and budgeted Capital expenditures. These are the routine infrastructure and equipment projects and purchases
that have been identified and planned for in our budget process and listed in previous years. The Council will have the opportunity
to review these as part of the budget process and vote for or against them as part of that process in the future. In addition
to reviewing infrastructure improvements or repair the Council will be reviewing other projects that are not essential to
the operation of the Town or the maintenance of its infrastructure but may enhance the quality of life in our community.
As a side note, I would like to remind the
Council that the Town on a routine basis assesses its infrastructure needs. The fact of the matter is the Town’s basic
infrastructure is in very good condition. Try as we might we can find no justification for planning for the replacement or
significant upgrade of any Town owned facility with the possible exception of re-boarding the boardwalk within the next two
to three budget cycles. All buildings are relatively new and those older structures are in very good condition and need little.
The Town religiously follows a Pavement Management program that maintains our paved roadways in good condition. Portions of
the Town’s sidewalks have been ignored for decades and have been so removed from Town repair and maintenance that we
hardly consider them part of our infrastructure yet if we desire to improve pedestrian/bike safety we must consider some restoration
of these sidewalks.
WATER DEPARTMENT
We maintain
the main structures of our water facility as if they were new and have had at least two separate and independent engineering
assessments of our entire water supply system conducted in the last few years that affirms that fact. Our structures are in
excellent condition and we have a strategy for the replacement of transite pipe that our engineers are in agreement with and
will do so as needed. We continue to review what I will call risk management enhancements to the water
system and when we have a clear and justifiable direction on these enhancements we will discuss them with the Council. They
are still being developed as we seek to do the right thing in this area and do it only once.
PEDESTRIAN/BIKE SAFETY
Other possible projects the
Council may want to consider and add to its prioritization list include the restoration of some existing sidewalks and enhancements
to major pedestrian/bike thoroughfares. These projects and their estimated costs are;
1. Create a pedestrian/bike pathway on Collins Avenue
from Kent Avenue to Half Moon Drive, $86,740. This project has already received Council endorsement and depending on current
Council feeling may be fast tracked so it can be completed before the next summer season.
2. Construct sidewalks in the 100 and 200 block
of Oceanview Parkway,
$130,000.
3.
Restore sidewalk in the 100 block of Central Avenue , $85,000.
4. Restore sidewalks on Atlantic Avenue, both sides of the roadway, $750,000, one side of the roadway,
$425,000.
(See Attachment 2)
STREETSCAPE
The Streetscape project will
appear for consideration now that the Council has voted and endorsed a concept. The first step in this project would be the
relocation of utilities to alleys north and south of the 100 block of Garfield Parkway. There will be grant
assistance for the other elements of this project but it has been made clear to the Town by both DELDOT and our engineering
firm that the cost for utility relocation will have to be borne by the Town itself. The approximate cost for this relocation,
not counting the cost for the reinstall of any electric on the block should be substantially under $400,000.
CHURCH/NEFF PROIPERTY
The Council has authorized the expenditure
of some minor resources for the development of some basic concepts or themes that a future park may be developed around. These
concepts are being developed and will be presented to the Council in the future but there is no sizable Capital expenditure
needed for this project leaving it a project that will still need future analysis.
STORM WATER PROJECTS
In the last 5 to 6 years the Town has expended
over 1.2 million dollars restoring the Towns basic storm water infrastructure. Much of that work centered on the reestablishment
of many major swales and drainage ditches along with the accompanying engineering analysis that allowed us to attack the problem
comprehensively. The Town has been positively impacted by this work and is much drier more quickly in many areas after a storm
event than it has ever been. With that engineering analysis and at the same time when Transfer Tax revenue was at an all time
high we developed with our engineer a number of follow up projects to do all we could to drain rain water from our little
island. Had Transfer Tax revenue remained high we would have continued to work on these projects along with other Capital
initiatives as time and money allowed.
With the sudden downturn in this revenue the priority of many of these projects (the least expensive of which is
estimated to cost $300,000) dropped because they impacted very small areas of a single neighborhood. The two larger projects
carried on this potential list were the Evans Avenue pump station and North Pennsylvania Avenue project which I discuss below.
The Evans Avenue pump station is a massive project that was simply an engineering concept and had no engineering analysis
or design to determine its effectiveness and carried an estimated cost of 1.75 million dollars. The Town carries these projects
and their specific nomenclature on our budget priority list in the last category where they are reviewed annually for funding
with the realization that higher priorities generally lay with other projects with greater impact for more of our citizens.
LAKE BETHANY, BETHANY GLEN,
WESTWOOD PROJECT
There is one storm water project that has not been presented for Council consideration that impacts three neighborhoods
in the North West quadrant of Town that staff feels is worthy of consideration. This project corrects a problem created by
the construction of Route 26 for which DELDOT takes no credit or blame and will correct a significant problem with standing
water in Lake Bethany, Bethany Glen and Westwood. It involves the establishment of a major swale to drain water that once
drained in the Assawoman Canal and move it into the large body of water in Lake Bethany. Initially the
Town had hoped this was a project that could be accomplished with staff but given its size and potential impact we now look
to an outside vendor for construction. The estimated cost for this project is $100,000.
NORTH PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE
An existing infrastructure project
that will be presented at the workshop will be the replacement of the piped drainage system on North Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Town has spent close to eighty thousand dollars over the last seven years looking for a solution to the flooding problem
on North Pennsylvania Avenue. Bladder dams, piping systems, ocean out falls and more have all been discussed and costs have
been approximated.
After
much engineering analysis, review and discussion the Town’s Storm Water Committee recommended simply that drain pipes
on North Pennsylvania Avenue be replaced from Garfield Parkway to 5th Street.
The exhaustive research determined there was
no real world solution to tidal flooding on North Pennsylvania Avenue, but restoring the piping system would allow for the
more rapid drainage of a simple rain event of one inch or less absent any tidal involvement. Tidal involvement can be something
as simple as a high tide. Any rain event resulting in more than one inch of rain, any tidal flooding, and any combination
of significant rain and a high tide will still flood North Pennsylvania Avenue.
Still if anything would help mitigate the flooding in some
way why wouldn’t we simply restore the piping? The problem occurs on this project with its elevation and proximity to
the loop canal.
Any
construction would require the entire project to be “dewatered” (a process where open ditches used for construction
are secured from the intrusion of ground water). This drives the estimated cost for the project to two million dollars plus
without curing the major source of flooding, tidal events.
The Town has asked DELDOT and DNREC if there was any opportunity for grant monies to help with this
project and was told the problem did not qualify for any of the pools of resources they have available.
In addition the Town submitted
this project through our Congressional delegation last year to see if it qualified for any Federal appropriation monies. (See
Attachment 3)The project ended up on a list for consideration but was not a numbered request, which is the next stage in consideration
for Federal resources. It has been reviewed by the Army Corp of Engineers and this grant request will be resubmitted again
to Congress in the next few months and hopefully will receive consideration in some future appropriation allocation.
To better address the flooding problem on North
Pennsylvania Avenue I have asked a representative from our engineering firm to make a presentation specifically about this
issue and to answer any questions you may have at this workshop.
BOARDWALK EXPANSION and/or RESURFACING
As you are all aware the Town has applied for and
received the necessary permitting to expand the Boardwalk 8’ to the east. Spec’s were developed and bids solicited
that not only bid the expansion but also bid the resurfacing of the boardwalk. Our engineers estimate that our existing boardwalk
decking will need to be replaced in 2 to 3 years. The engineer recommended bid for the expansion of the
substructure was $477,159 and the low bid for re-decking the expansion and the existing Boardwalk $178,680. We do not have
a separate bid for resurfacing the existing deck. These bids do not cover the cost of removing the existing decking. The Budget
Committee has developed and endorsed a funding scenario for this initiative that involves the borrowing of monies from the
Town’s Beach/Boardwalk reserve with a pay back schedule that enhances the fund by the end of the repayment period. This
project will require notice to all residents and a Public Hearing(s) before approval. This would require construction in the
next fiscal year in order not to impact the beach/boardwalk during the summer season.
FUNDING
As the Town enters the new budget year it is estimated
that we will have approximately 1.2 million dollars in our Replacement Reserve budget line. This budget line has been created
and maintained for the replacement and maintenance of Capital infrastructure within the Town. Justifiably the reconstruction
of existing sidewalks on Central Avenue and Atlantic Avenue could come from this reserve.
In addition to this Replacement Reserve it is estimated
that the Town will have an additional $500,000 to $600,000 in revenues realized from Transfer Tax to expend on “enhancement”
Capital projects such as Streetscape and Collins Avenue.
The Council in making any decisions at this time has the luxury of observing the next 5 to 6 months
of the national, state and local economy before casting a final vote on what to approve in the new the fiscal year. But voting
now and prioritizing items for possible action in the next fiscal year this will allows staff to plan properly in other areas.
Should this significant economic downturn continue the Council could vote to reprioritize items that have been tentatively
approved for action when the budget receives its final vote in March of 2009. Staff is acutely aware of the potential impact
on our revenue sources of this economic downturn and will be the first to recommend possible Council action as we have in
the past.
MANAGER’S RECOMMNEDATIONS
In this fiscal year my suggestions would be the Council consider placing the following
projects as Priority 3 (Projects or purchases needed now for which funding is available.).
1. Collins Avenue
$86,740
2. Streetscape utility relocation
$400,000
3. Lake Bethany/Bethany Glen/Westwood
$100,000
Drainage Project.
4. Boardwalk Expansion
$670,000
Requires public notice,
hearings
and Council approval at some future date.
