Council Mts 8/5/2010

Minutes of the Special Council meeting held on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 pursuant to notice duly given.

1. Meeting called to order by Mayor Fulton at 5 p.m.
2. Roll call: Mayor Fulton, Ed Young, Roger Reed, John Wittkopf, Al Schreiber, Joe Stiloski, Marlene Zahn, Dick Doeren, Jack Maas and Atty. Calvert. Excused/Absent: Jim Stiloski and Pete Nelson.
3. Invocation and pledge of allegiance given by Alderperson Joe Stiloski.
4. Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Zahn to approve of the agenda as presented.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote. 8 ayes
5. No correspondence or public input.
6. Mayor stated we have four engineering firms that will be giving us a 20 minute presentation; we are not here to pick the design for the road etc., but to select a firm to help us with the conceptual for our project.

GRAEF presenters were Jay and Pat; handout provided that followed their power point presentation titled: Smith Avenue/Brazeau Avenue A New Destination; Pat gave history of the GRAEF team; project vision….develop safe & functional corridor; will assist city in refining community’s vision for this area; suggestions on amenities that can create a versatile multi-use corridor; handout showed other projects GRAEF has been involved with; Power point showed some photo realistic renderings for this area;

Wittkopf questioned the bump outs they are showing on the renderings…looks like that would be a lot more maintenance especially snowplowing? Pat stated they are more difficult to plow snow around…would need to look at cost implications with more curbing;

Reed questioned no guard rail along river? Pat stated area around rip rap…may add a little more costs….also some permitting from DNR; Reed stated this would also be a safety feature;

Zahn questioned if the street lights they are showing would have to be done before the road work is? Pat stated yes.

MEAD & HUNT presenters were Scott Brosteau and Paul provided handout of their power point presentation; Brosteau stated M&H will help as much or as little as the city needs…large or small they are willing to help the city; project scope; gave examples of other communities they have done; referenced their involvement with our Streetscape Program;


ROBERT E. LEE & ASSOCIATES, Inc: presenters were Lee Novak, President, Mark Schuster and Dale Marsh; Novak highlighted who the firm is; Marsh stated they are located in Hobart, WI. and are ready and available to assist the city with our project; summarized current projects they are on or just finishing; Schuster summarized projects they have done and what resources they have to get the job done; Schuster briefly gave some ideas on what could be done in this area…reinforced by all three present that this is the city’s vision, they will work with us…meet with the business owners if any concerns…here to do whatever needs done to get the project completed; sowed some site amenities; showed a proposed cross section…and then a proposed road and the existing road for this area; also showed the existing intersection at Brazeau and Charles Street…one option to consider would be a round-a-bout; firm can bring to the city personal service, maintain their schedule; availability; commitment to the City of Oconto, experience, expertise and technology.
Enterprise Engineering Consultants, LTD. Randy Viau showed what his firm did for the Village of Pound;


7. Mayor stated now that we’ve heard the four firms we can discuss them and hopefully come with a motion on hiring a firm…or we can thing about it as it will also be on the agenda for 8/10; Maas stated he’d like to wait till Tuesday, need to look at what we can afford on the project and what we can’t; Mayor stated we need to negotiate the fee with whatever firm is selected; Maas stated we need to show all the plus or minuses; Mayor stated all the firms gave options….reminded everyone present that the purposed of this meeting was to listen to the engineering firms and vote to select one. Wittkopf agreed, we are not here to discuss what we want, but which firm gave us the best presentation tonight; Zahn stated GRAEF initially gave us their fees…did any others? Mayor stated no…we need to negotiate the fees with the firm we select; Maas stated he has it don to GRAEF and Robert E. Lee; Atty. Calvert stated he has worked with three of the firms, GRAEF, Mead & Hunt and Robert & Lee, and feel their fees will be pretty comparable in pricing; Mayor again stated the reason for tonight’s meeting, based on the presentation who do we feel will give us the best for our dollar? Wittkopf questioned Mayor on job Mead & Hunt did helping us with the Streetscape project? Mayor stated we were satisfied; Joe Stiloski stated cost is important; Doeren stated he felt it was impressive that Robert E. Lee’s president attended our meeting;

Moved by Wittkopf seconded by Doeren to select Robert E. Lee & Associates, Inc as the firm to help us our Brazeau/Smith project.
Motion carried upon verbal voice vote.
6 ayes: Reed, Wittkopf, Schreiber, Zahn, Doeren and Maas. 2 no: Young and Joe Stiloski.
2 absent: Nelson and Jim Stiloski.

Mayor will contact Robert E. Lee to get some idea on fees for their services…and again stating the purpose of the meeting was not to define or decide what we want on this project, but to select an engineering firm to help us. Schreiber stated we must remember to stay within the budget; Doeren stated this didn’t come out in the presentations, but maybe the engineer firm can help us with any grants that maybe available.

8. Moved by Schreiber seconded by Wittkopf to adjourn. M/C
Meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.


Minutes submitted by
Linda M. Belongia,
Administrator