City of Estacada

Infrastructure Committee

Meeting Minutes

January 16, 2002 – 4:45PM to 6:10PM

q Call to Order – Bill Strawn

q Roll Call & Announcements

Present: Randy Ealy, Bill Strawn, Jerry Polzin, Richard Hartwig, Jim Carey, Diedre Landon

Absent: Gary Warkentin

q Leak Detection Survey~

The main leak that we have found was not visible from the ground. However, this water leak probably contributed to some of the problems with the school district drainage. In 1980 we identified the line as a line that needed replacing. We had gotten some CBDG grant money (approximately $2,000). We replaced from the grade school to 5^th Avenue. 6^th Avenue was replaced when we repaved the street not too long ago. This leak is n the section between these two replaced lines.

Rather than replacing the whole pipe, we replaced the section with the leak. Dresser couplings were sued to connect the two lines. These couplings are failing now and causing leaks. They were not designed to last as long as the pipe.

The 2^nd leak on Currin Street was a rust hole in an old OD steel pipe. That section of pipe has been repaired a couple of times in the past. Once they start leaking through like that, you know that if there aren’t other leaks now… there will be soon because the ruse it eating at the pipes. This pipe is in clay, which is very acidic, and this acid attacks the metal pipes wherever it is exposed. Although it was treated with paper and tar, small holes were created and exposed the pipe. The clay then made contact with the pipe and began to eat at the pipe. It starts as a small squirting leak, which then grows into a larger hold. This was totally dry on the ground and not visible from the street.

Randy went through the leak detection reports. He has made a conservative estimate that we are losing about 10 gallons/second.

We are losing about 60 gallons a minute, which equals 6,000 gallons per hour. In a 24-hour time frame we have lost 34,000 gallons. So in a month we are losing about 4.32 million gallons due to these leaks.

Though we may replace the current leaks, this additional pressure may cause additional leaks to surface in the future. But fixing the leaks may also help.

Bill: We need to know the exact day that the water meters are being read. Otherwise the difference between their date and ours could throw off the water loss report. Traci is working on this information right now.

Randy: What did the water loss numbers look like in the year 2000?

We lost about 80 million gallons, which means approximately 6 million gallons per month. The leak test was only about $3,000, but the cost of the first repair was about $2,000 itself.

While the repair band isn’t a high cost, the labor and equipment is expensive. While the cost is worth it, due to the water loss report which shows that each month we are losing about $10,000. If we can cut this in half we can recoup this money and make money off of the repair.

We will patch the 13 leaks that were found, but Bill suspect that in a short period of time we will see about 13 new leaks that will take their place. Since we aren’t replacing the lines, we are only repairing the individual leaks. We need to find a way to start replacing the lines that are causing the problems.

Jerry: Is there a way to analyze where the leaks are now?

We have kept maintenance records for the last 10 or 15 years that state where we have patched the leaks. So we can choose one section of line that has had a lot of maintenance and decide to replace that line.

Richard: We know of a number of lines that are already past their lift expectancy. Can we attack those?

We should first use the maintenance records to determine which lines need to be replaced. Then we could start to use the age of the lines to determine which lines to replace first. We normally choose to do spot repairs because they are much cheaper than replacing the whole line.

Richard: Are any of the leaks due to heavy rocks being dumped on the line?

Some of the leaks can be caused by heavy rocks being dropped on the line, but none of these seemed to be due to heavy rocks. On Short Street there has been a problem with the new line. We haven’t seen what the cause of this leak is… but due to the age of the line we feel that there shouldn’t be a leak in the line already. This may be due to a contractor error.

Jim: Do you see that we would need to order this detection again in the near future?

This is dependent upon the water loss report. If it gets high again, then we should make the choice to have the service come out again. Depending on the loss, it may be cheaper to fix the leak than to replace the line. Bill feels that the leak detection was successful and we will be able to patch a number of leaks due to the new information that we have. He feels that the problem will return in a short period of time. The main problem is replacing the line, not repairing the leaks.

The City already repairs every water leak that we know about, as fast as we can. We don’t have water leaks in the system that we are aware of, however, not all leaks surface on the ground.

Richard: The Eagle Fern Vet. Alley had some problems with their water line. There was a section of green grass during a dry spell, possibly on a wooden line.

Bill: We did repair the leak, but I am unsure if we took any lines out of the ground during the repair. (The wooden pipe is a good pipe, it is a cedar and redwood combination. The main problem with them is their old age.)

There is a large leak on 4^th and Short Street. We will work on this Monday. (The crew will actually start the work on Tuesday due to the Martin Luther King Holiday.)

There is another one on 3^rd and Main Street. This is at the fire hydrant on the corner. There is one on a 2” fire line going into the Cascade Utilities yard. They will help us fix this leak because it is partly their responsibility.

There is a leak on 2^nd at the hydrant. This is the one that cut a hole in the catch basin and was running into the storm drain system. The small leaks get bigger in a fairly short period of time, they erode at the hole and cause it to grow.

There is a leak on Ivy Street. This is a galvanized steel line. This was exposed to the acidic clay, which has eaten at the line.

Leak #10 is where we think we might find the biggest water loss. This is at the Lumber Mill. The hydrant with the leak is one of their private hydrants. This is not supposed to be connected to the City Water system. However, we couldn’t have found the leak if it weren’t connected to the City system, so we are wondering if the hydrant was somehow connected to our line accidentally. It is easy to hook up to a line without realizing that it shouldn’t have been used. The might not have realized that it wasn’t their private water line.

Veteran’s Blvd. is a brand new subdivision. It is only about 2 years old, but the warranty would have just run out. However, there is already a leak on this line.

The leaks appearing on the new lines mean that we are not being aggressive enough with our inspections and that the developers are not watching their contractors closely enough.

q Water Treatment Plant Update

Right now the treatment plant is actually working pretty well. We have solved some chronic problems that we were having.

Richard: Is the tank bullet proof?

Bill: No, not even close. We haven’t gotten the final leak test approval on the Moss Hill Road Reservoir. This has been in service for well over 1 month so we have to drain it and fill it again each time they find a leak. Friday they were supposed to fix all of the leaks. They are in the reservoir joints. You can actually see the leak. It comes out the bolt holes and the seams.

q Recycling Depot

We were successful in obtaining the grant money for the recycling depot. We may start construction in the spring. We will try to do it primarily in house, so that we can cut down on the cost of construction. The location we chose already offers: lights, a paved road, hedge screening it from vision, and a gate and fence in place.

Jerry: Is it possible to expand the recycling center in the future?

Yes, there is enough room to double the efforts if needed. We would need smaller containers if we wanted to expand. There is more of a need to do mercury recycling and types like that, before we choose to collect the same things that Walker’s Disposal Collects. Fluorescent light bulbs would be a good candidate. Paint also might be a good option. They would be small operations but it might be a need that needs to be addressed within our community.

Jerry: Did you get comments for the various service organizations that will be affected by the change?

Randy: I was hoping for more support from the schools. However, they are working independently on recycling efforts with KB Recycling to recycle at each school facility. KB Recycling is offering to come and pick up the recycling for free. I was hoping that the schools would choose to have the students participate with the municipal recycling depot in hopes of earning money towards fundraising events.

After the recycling depot story was on the front page of the news, the Booster club immediately had a meeting. Denise went, but before she could get there CB Stahlnecker was there expressing concern over money that they would lose due to fundraising efforts. Denise tried to explain that we were trying to do it as a good community projects and that it would help to clean up the streets. It should help everyone. This is a positive thing.

Business recycling does not have the opportunity to drop off cardboard. Does Walker’s pick up the cardboard from the Forest Service? The Forest Service has a separate dumpster for their cardboard. Walker’s may have made a deal with the Forest Service and Job Corp. making an arrangement to pick up their recycling.

Randy needs to get rid of the old containers in the downtown corridor. Maybe it would help to either regulate the placement of make sure that there is a complete screening around the container. We could require them to be placed on private property instead of being a center piece in our down town area. People don’t put the cardboard into the containers, or they are just too full to put any more into them. Wind blows the stuff all over the road, etc. Hopefully, we can get this recycling center going this next spring.

q Fire Hydrant Security

We have an example of some estimated costs and options in regards to fire hydrant security. It is interesting to look at the ways that America has found to address this problem. Not that we shouldn’t be concerned with the water system security. We might be able to use a grant to obtain the money for implementing a new system. Not only does it offer security, but we don’t really know how much money is lost through the hydrants. There are a few private hydrants in town, but a majority of the hydrants belong to the City. It has happened in the past where someone has hooked a hose to the fire hydrant and cleaned a parking lot or bleachers at the stadium. We aren’t saying that you shouldn’t do that, but we are saying that we want to account for the water that is used. We don’t want people hooking up to the system and taking the water without our knowledge. Then we don’t know how much was taken or where it went.

This summer, switching over at the water treatment plant, we weren’t able to fill our reservoirs. So we asked the school not to irrigate for a few days. We told them that we would notify them when it was okay to irrigate. The next morning, the booster club had a hose hooked to a hydrant and they were cleaning the bleachers. While we were able to catch it, we won’t always be that lucky. They got the hose from the fire department.

We don’t know how often this occurs, or who is doing it. You can pump a lot of water through a 1” hose. This kind of thing happens fairly often. We are always trying to educate and explain the need for reporting water usage to the residents and contractors around town.

We like the Custodian Lock choice, which is the most effective. Eventually we would want to do every hydrant. But we can switch the system over in stages. This tally of 101 hydrants does not include the private hydrants, just the publicly owned hydrants

The Lumber Mill hydrants are supposed to be on their own water system, not attached to the City water distribution system. There are about 4 hydrants at the High School, and there is one at Cascade Village Apartments. The school hydrants worry Jim because no one communicates with the City on what is happening with these hydrants. There was an instance where the Baseball coach was trying to water the field and no one knew that he had run a 3” line out to the field. This line that feeds the hydrants at the school is wrapped around the high school building. It is easy for something to happen where someone doesn’t go through all the channels and they connect to a hydrant. They are usually problem solving and figures that the easiest solution is to just hook a line up to the fire hydrant.

There are about 20 additional hydrants that aren’t tapped into the system. We have limited access to them, but they are plumbed directly into our system. We do not have a meter on these hydrants so we can’t account for this water usage.

We can put signs on the hydrant that explain that they shouldn’t operate the hydrant unless they are authorized to do so. That was people can see the sign and maybe that would help eliminate the problem.

The water fund is in bad shape due to the Water Treatment Plant Upgrade. Bill is hoping that there will be some federal funds available for this type of security measure. He hasn’t seen anything quite yet, but he has kept his eyes open for it. But by looking at these options now, we can keep the ideas on the shelf just in case there is an opportunity to obtain some funding to support them.

There are large amounts of money available for government agencies for work on their equipment. Jim knows of one source that has about $360 million dollars that can be tapped into. Call Larry Long at the Fire Department and ask him whom to contact in regards to this money.

q Post Office Traffic Control

We would like to fix the crosswalk and paint diamonds across it. This would be it unlike any crosswalk n town. We will order a sign that states that vehicles need to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. By restricting the lime green signs to the school zones, it will be more effective. By using the diamonds this makes this crosswalk unique. As soon as the thermoplastic wears away, we will install the diamond pattern.

At 300 Main, we will be using concrete in the crosswalk to make it unique. Combined with the Lime green sign, this should be a unique intersection that will catch the driver’s eye.

Jerry: I question the traffic flow through there.

The traffic flow can be directed through the US Bank parking lot. They deliberated for a long time, trying to determine how they were going to get people in and out of that site. The plan was a compromise that gives a little bit to everyone. The post office loads and unloads their rural carriers in the back area. We had asked if we could use that as an alternate route. They asked that we didn’t do that. US Bank does use a public alley as part of their parking lot, so we tried to send people through their lot. But, due to the inconvenience to the bank customers, the bank requested that we didn’t advertise that the route exists. Many people that go there on a daily basis don’t even realize that this route exists.

Our City Code forbids any parking of delivery trucks in the street when making deliveries to businesses downtown. Their conditional use states that the post office should not park in the street and unload anything. This could be called “double parking” in some Cities. Some trucking companies are challenging municipalities stating that it is a federal issue and claiming that Cities do not have a right to regulate this travel.

Old gentleman used to work for PGE when building the damn’s in 1960-1970. He grew up here, when they were logging that drainage the log trucks would get the logs, turn up Main Street, head up the hill, take a left and head around into the Mill. So this was created as a designated truck route. How do you change that? If you want to move from the North to the South you have no choice but to use Main Street and 6^th Avenue. You could use Broadway, but that isn’t much better than Main Street.

If we ever see something happen at the Mill so that 6^th Street could go all the way out to the Highway, it could cut back on how commuters travel through the City. You could move the truck route to Broadway.

Randy: What does “Designated Truck Route” mean?

We don’t want heavy truck loads on our residential streets, when you build the truck routes you make sure that the streets are built to withstand the pressure of the heavy trucks. They are engineered as wider streets, with wider turning areas, and they are also built to a different standard. They also usually follow a path leading into and industrial area. That is why it is important when we zone an area. We look at the zone to determine which standard should be used to build the streets. This is to ensure that they can withstand the truck traffic. There is a 30’ radius for access to Fisher Fabrications across the street; this was done to accommodate the large trucks. When you build for light industrial it is different than building for residential.

While we can help the crosswalk issue, as far as ingress and egress I am not sure if there is anything that can be done the way the building and parking area was set up.

q Misc. Topics

o 300 Main Street Intersection – Plan of attack:

Meeting with Curran McLeod, trying to reduce the cost. We will receive a new plan any day, which may be cheaper to build. Of the 3 plans so far, Bill didn’t like any of then more than the others. He did like certain parts of a couple. Eliminating the bump outs will reduce the cost because there is no storm drain work needed. We want the islands, because it shortens the distance between the two sidewalks.

Would this create a problem for wheelchairs?

It will be an oval type island, there could be planters around the walkway and the pedestrians would protected by a raised curb with a walkway through the middle.

The North end of the design doesn’t protect the pedestrians much, but it would increase the visibility. We were going to run some kind of design, either diamonds or crisscross, which would make the concrete stand out from the asphalt pavement next to it. We could use light bars, diamonds… Mall 205, and the City of Sandy have been building these and they look really nice. The City of Gresham has also experimented with this. We could even add a coloring agent to the concrete before we finish and make it stand out even more. You can put an accelerator into the concrete so that you wouldn’t have to wait for it to cure for 28 days.

o John Henry, Attack

John Henry has been fixing up his property, installing sidewalks and curbs in front of his property. He poured some concrete at their driveway entrance and decided to sit in the truck to make sure that no one wrote on the pavement. Sure enough, some kids start writing in it and he asked them to stop. They refused and so he grabbed a camera to take some pictures. The boy didn’t like the picture idea and started wrestling with John Henry to get the camera. Then the girl jumped on his back and started choking him. He released the guy and tried to get the girl off of him. He grabbed the girl by the leg and the guy grabbed a stick and started beating him in the head. He had to be treated by EMT.

q Agenda for Next Meeting

If anyone comes up with a topic that they would like to see brought up at the next meeting, they will contact Diedre Landon via phone, fax or e-mail. She will see that it is put on the agenda.

Phone: 503-630-8274

Fax: 503-630-8276

E-Mail: Landon@cityofestacada.org

q Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 6:10 by Randy Ealy.