City Council Preview - Aug 16

Here’s a preview of the upcoming City Council meeting -

CITY STREETS

The City proposes to spend $6,479,000 on Street Maintenance in the next 5 years, to Charles Abbott & Associates of Mission Viejo. That’s an average of $1,295,800 per year. Street maintenance includes street repairs (including filling in of potholes), street striping, sidewalk inspections;, and curb and gutter repairs. It doesn’t include slurry sealing. Three companies applied, two were interviewed, and Abbott won. Abbott was slightly more expensive ($1,445,034 vs. $1,436,654) during the bid process, but they had higher evaluation (726 vs. 668). Abbott currently provides street maintenance services to AV, LH, LN, LW, and RSM.

FWIW – the second agency was the County.

STORMWATER

The City will ask for $187,500 from OCTA and will put up $62,500 in matching funds for Connector Pipe Screens (CPS) and Automatic Retractable Screen Catch Basin Retrofits (ARS). The City installs CPS and ARS units to prevent trash, debris, and other pollutants from flowing into catch basins and prevent the pollutants from eventually discharging to local streams and beaches.

Primarily using OCTA grant funding sources, the City has installed approximately 255 ARS units to date. The City is currently installing 35 ARS units and 100 CPS units under an active project. On April 15, 2016, staff submitted an application to retrofit approximately 110 catch basin locations with CPS where ARS units are currently deployed, and approximately 88 catch basin locations with both CPS and ARS units as Phase 6 of this project.

ALTON RESURFACE

The City proposes to spend $678,556 to resurface Alton Pkwy from Portola Pkwy to Rancho Pkwy So. All American Asphalt is the recommended company and they were the low bidder.

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGET REVIEW

Staff is recommending changes to the 2015-17 budget which was developed last year. The additions of $567,300 include

· ADA Ramp at Tamarisk Park ($275,000)

· Purchase 16 cameras for Sports Park ($134,000)

· Etnies Park Painting and Repairs ($50,000)

· Solar Compactor Receptacles ($37,900)

· Maintenance of Whispering Hills ($34,400)

· Remove/replace 400 linear feet at Montbury Park ($36,000)

TIMING OF PARKING DISCUSSION

At my request the Council asked for a comprehensive look at the parking problem in the City. The project was given to the Planning Commission (I had asked for the Traffic Advisory Group to do it) with no time set to report back (I thought I asked for 3 months). So this item is on the agenda to set a time limit for the Planning Commission to report back.

CRIME IN LAKE FOREST

At my instigation Police services has prepared a report about crime in Lake Forest. I’ll cover that report tomorrow.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be in November at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.