City of Duluth, Georgia

March 22, 2010 Work Session Notes

MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL CALLED MEETING
MAYOR AND COUNCIL
DULUTH CITY HALL
COMMUNITY ROOM
MARCH 22, 2010

PRESENT: Mayor Harris, Council members Bomar, Dugan, Jones, Mundrick and Whitlock
City Administrator, Department Directors, City Attorney

Mayor Harris called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m., and announced that it would be necessary to adjourn to Executive Session to discuss pending & potential litigation, real estate and personnel matters.

1. EXECUTIVE SESSION – REAL ESTATE, PENDING/POTENTIAL LITIGATION, PERSONNEL
   A motion was made by Councilmember Dugan, seconded by Councilmember Bomar, to adjourn to executive session at 5:30 p.m.

   All for.
   Motion carried.

   After the discussion, a motion was made by Councilmember Mundrick, seconded by Councilmember Bomar, to return to regular session at 5:50 p.m.
   All for.
   Motion carried.

2. ADJOURNMENT
   A motion was made by Councilmember Mundrick, seconded by Councilmember Bomar, to adjourn the meeting and go into work session 5:50 p.m.
   All for. Motion carried unanimously.

   Following the meeting, Council and Staff resumed the regularly scheduled monthly work session in the Community Room.

NOTES OF THE
MONTHLY WORK SESSION
MAYOR AND COUNCIL
MARCH 22, 2010

1. TOWN GREEN EVENTS-Janice Yarbrough/Alisa Williams [Exhibit “A”]
   In 2008, a decision was made by Council to hold the first Saturday of each month open for public use. Staff requested opening up this discussion, since most Saturdays in the prime months have been reserved for City events; therefore, very few Saturdays are available for rentals.
   1. Staff asked Council to consider public days for the town green and fountain to be the movie nights, concert nights, festival nights etc. since most of the time rentals cannot fit on those event dates and some days before and after due to preparations and take- downs for the event.
   2. Staff asked Council to reconsider event attendance numbers to either original proposal of 1500 amphitheater/3000 max at one time or change to allow for general private group rentals 1200 attendees max at one time/2000 attendees max per day instead of the 500 max decided in 2008.

   Directive: Council agreed to the above Staff recommendations and approved the use of a new rental contract (attached.)

2. LIVING HONORARIUM – Jennifer Freeman [Exhibit “B”]
   Jennifer Freeman representing the Duluth Fine Arts League (DFAL) sought Council approval to spearhead the Living Memorial project. Items up for discussion included:
   1. Recommending name change for proposed artwork to be “Living Honorarium.”
   2. Selecting a site location for the art work.
   3. Issuing a “Call to Artists” who wish to be considered for the project.
   4. The design and acceptance processes.
   5. Identifying a project selection panel.
   6. Managing project from inception to installation, subject to the City’s parameters.

   Directive: Council agreed to enter into a contract for this project and place on the April 12th Council meeting agenda for approval. (Initial proposal attached.)

3. LEASE STUDY – Chris McGahee [Exhibit “C”]
   The purpose of the lease discussion was to determine a rate structure for city owned properties. Economic Development Manager Chris McGahee presented analysis of the old City Hall block and addressed items such as maintenance, policy, and rates, and made recommendations for Council’s consideration.

   Directive: Staff was directed to:

   1. Assess all city owned buildings in the “old city hall block” for roof integrity, leak repairs, electrical systems and flooring to determine if the building(s) are safe
   2. Report back to Council the total cost to make the building(s) safe.
   3. Provide in writing to the tenants a 60 day notice that their lease rates would be increasing.
   4. Change the lease agreements from monthly to 12 month lease agreements.
   5. Evaluate in 6 months.
   6. Include the Old City Hall Block in the LCI study for long-term discussions of the role of the block in future development of the downtown.
4. REVIEW OF SOLID WASTE PROPOSALS – City Adm./D. Mundrick [Exhibit “C”]
   City Administrator McLemore and Councilmember Mundrick reported on their evaluation of the bids for solid waste service.
   Directive: The City Attorney is to prepare a draft of the solid waste contract for Council consideration and bid award on April 12th.
5. PROJECT UPDATES – City Administrator
   West Lawrenceville/McClure Bridge- Engineering on track for the estimated time to begin the end of this year unless delays occur from obtaining any additional rights-of-way.
   Hudgens Restrooms- Bids were received from 11 different companies on Thursday of last week and a recommendation will be made to Council in the weekly report this week. Construction is estimated to take no more than 3 months once the contract is awarded.

   Dog Park- Kathy Marelle has sought the names of companies who have experience with designing a dog parks and obtained names of companies that have designed in Gwinnett and Fulton. Kathy is working on the RFP language on soliciting the proposals from the identified firms and should have that sent out by the end of the month.

   Red Clay- The advertisement for demolition is currently running and posted on our web site. Bids are to be submitted by March 31st and demolition is to occur not longer than 30 days.

   Methodist Church- The architect is working on drawings so that they can estimate cost. Specifically, they have someone computing the electrical and mechanical systems to go in the building and should be complete in the next 30 to 45 days.

   WP Jones Activity Building- The Parks Board gave the go-ahead to architects Hill, Foley to do the design and they are working under the schedule previously provided earlier this week.

   Hospital Connector- Still on the same schedule provided. We had to wait on ARC and GDOT a few extra weeks because ARC had failed to sign the approval document, so it had to be re-routed to both of them again, but that has taken place and everything is at FHWA (Federal Highway) for them to review and give their blessing for us to move to the next step.

   Highway 120 Re-Alignment- Still moving on the same schedule submitted by the engineers working the project for October 2012 to begin construction. Engineer says the additional traffic analysis requested has been completed and submitted.

   Davenport Extension- Although this project was not one requested for more information, we are still moving toward a deadline of April 30th for property. Environmental begins Monday and a report will be given to Council by the April 12th meeting. If there are any suspicious areas there will be soil tests done without waiting for the completion of the Phase I report. The owner of the mini warehouses adjacent contacted the City and requested a meeting regarding his property and Davenport Extension. Staff met with David Stembridge along with the City Engineer to discuss his property and time schedules should Davenport Extension take place. The meeting was positive in that Mr. Stembridge said he wanted to work with the City.
   Staff will be available to discuss any of these projects if more discussion is desired.

   Directive: Staff was directed to prepare and submit a document timeline/detailed summary on each project on a monthly basis.

   There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at ____ p.m.