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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRDA MINUTES 2002-01-17 MINUTES OF THE 131st REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLYMOUTH ROAD DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF LIVONIA The 131 `Regular Meeting of the Plymouth Road Development Authority of the City of Livonia,Michigan was called to order at 3:00 PM, Thursday, January 17, 2002 in the 4th floor conference room of City Hall. Members Present: Mr. Jerry Wordhouse Mr. Duane Wolfgang Ms. Toni Mette Mr. Scott Grace Mr. Lowell Peterson Mr. Mike Polsinelli Mr. Stan Anderson Mr. Marvin Walkon Mr. Dennis Kujawa Mr. John Walsh Members Absent: Mayor Jack E. Kirksey(excused) Mr. Bill Pike(excused) Mr. Rod Crider(excused) Others Present: Mr. John Nagy, Director Mr. Scott Reinholt, Beckett &Raeder Mr. Rich O'Brien, Beckett& Raeder Mr. Steve Levesque, Commercial Mowing Service Dr. Robert Auth, Rosedale Gardens Homeowners Association Mr. Ralph Williams Mrs. Robby Williams, Secretary 1. Roll was called. 2. Adoption of 130th Regular Meeting Minutes: On a motion duly made, seconded and unanimously adopted, it was #2002-01 RESOLVED,that the minutes of the 130th Regular Meeting held by the Plymouth Road Development Authority on December 13, 2001 are approved. Mr. Wordhouse, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. 3. Comments from Chairman: Chairman Wordhouse read two thank you notes received from Carol Swales and Debra Walter for the PRDA Christmas gift certificates they received and appreciated. A letter from Mayor Kirksey to Council 1 appointing Mr. Walsh to the PRDA Board was acknowledged. Mr. Wordhouse welcomed Mr. Walsh to the Board. An article from the Michigan Real Estate Journal regarding Wonderland Mall's search for tenants was passed out to the Board members and there was general discussion regarding the status of Wonderland Mall. 4. Election of Officers. Jerry Wordhouse was re-elected as Chairman of the P.R.D.A. with Scott Grace being elected as the new Vice Chairman for the new term from January to December 2002. 5. Construction Report—Beckett &Raeder: Rich O'Brien reported that Phase IV is basically finished. There are two light poles that Detroit Edison has not raised. Items to be completed are the bus plaza at the S.E. corner of Middlebelt, the brick pavers and the ornamental bench and trash receptacle still need to be installed. Phase V—traffic signal bids are due in next week. Regarding the landscape plans for Phase V there will be comments from MDOT and we will send comments, drawings and specifications in on Monday. We should be able to bid it next month. The Farmington Road brick paver portion is complete. They need to be leveled and compacted down. The walls still have to be acid washed. 6. Reports from Committees: Public Relations Committee: Mr. Anderson—no report at this time. (,, Vacant Buildings Committee: Mr. Grace—nothing to report at this time. Construction Committee: Mrs. Mette reported, on behalf of Mr. Pike, that the Construction Committee met on the 9th of January and went over the maintenance contract. Everything looked good except for two areas that need some attention. (1) the replacement of the bases of the poles that have been damaged(probably by the lawnmowers). The contract has increased from last year and Mr. Levesque from Commercial Mowing Service is here to answer any questions. Mr. Levesque reported that he is bringing in an extra person who will be going up and down Plymouth Road to check the sprinkler system. He will be reporting on problem areas but not doing the maintenance himself so it won't tie that person up so that he can fully complete an inspection from one end of the corridor to the other end. We recommend that we go ahead and use the same company again because they did do a good job. 4l (Carol Swales, Mayor's Office, took a few minutes to personallyhe"Board for the gift certificate she received and to pass on all of the positive comments she has heard regarding Plymouth Road, the Christmas parade and the fact that many people want to become involved with the parade. It has gotten bigger and better.) Mr. Grace, regarding the damaged bases, questioned who would actually replace the damaged bases and what would be the time frame. Mr. Nagy reported that the PRDA has those bases in inventory at the Department of Public Works facility. 2 Once the inventory is exhausted we should look at getting cast iron instead of case aluminum. Mr. Levesque responded that he would have his employees make him aware when they have damaged a base. Mr. Levesque feels that a lot of the bases have been damaged by cars. Mr. Grace pointed out that the maintenance not only included lawn and trees but also the receptacles, litter and trash collecting in areas that needed to be picked up. There was discussion regarding the fees and time frame for collecting litter and emptying trash receptacles. If anyone spots a broken base,they should give Mr. Nagy a call. Mr. O'Brien reported that Halophane does not make the cast iron bases any more. Mr. Reinholt offered to check out the cost to have a mold made. CMS is responsible for the base repairs and Jacobs is responsible for the replacement of the light poles. Mr. O'Brien will take an inventory of what needs to be replaced and turn it over to Halophane. Mrs. Mette reported that the Rosedale Garden flowers for most of last summer did not get any water at all. This is an area that needs attention because all of the flowers that were planted and kept dying due to the lack of irrigation. Mr. Wordhouse was looking for reassurance from CMS that PRDA was not going to have the same kind of problems this coming year that they had last year regarding the irrigation. Mr. Levesque assured him that he would do his best to make sure that the irrigation system was working properly and that any problems would be taken care of immediately. On a motion by Mr. Peterson, seconded by Mr. Wolfgang, and unanimously approved, it was #2002-02 RESOLVED, that the Plymouth Road Development Authority does hereby agree to extend the contract submitted by CMS Landscaping in the amount of$163,533.00 for the Plymouth Road Streetscape Grounds Maintenance Contract for the period of April 4, 2002 to April 3, 2003. Mr. Wordhouse, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution is adopted. Inspection Committee: Mrs. Mette reported that the benches are covered with 2" to 3"of snow. They need to be cleaned off and also the brick pavers where the benches are located, need to be cleared of the snow. Mr. Nagy spoke to CMS regarding the bus plazas and intersection plazas and the benches in both areas and advised them of their responsibility to take care of this maintenance. There was some confusion as to a liability issue and how it will be taken care of. We just needed a meeting of the minds about the responsibility. Mrs. Mette also questioned when is Detroit Edison going to take out designated poles? Mr. Nagy tie reported even PRDA has already issued a check for this work and Detroit Edison has been provided with a copy of their cancelled check, until Detroit Edison can 3 reconcile their records to locate the money,they are refusing to do anything further. Mrs.Mette suggest maybe a letter from the Law Department might help them resolve the problem a little quicker with a copy to the Public Service Commission in Lansing. Several members of the Board thought this was a good idea. Development Assistance: Mr. Grace about the status regarding the letter that was sent to Phoenix Land Development and the removal of the marquee sign. Mr. Nagy reported that a letter was sent regarding the issue of the condition under which our grant award was made and that it was predicated on the removal of the sign upon written notification that they had a 45 day time limit to remove the sign. The notice was sent by registered mail and the return card indicates that the notice was received 12/20/01. They have applied for a demolition permit and they will be approved sometime in February and by February 28 they believe that the sign will be taken down by their contractor. Forty-five days from 12/20/01 will expire February 3,2002. They are asking for an extension of time. They have applied for the permit. Mr. Grace reported that he had no problem with an extension and felt that the period of time could be extended to March 1, 2002. On a motion by Mr. Grace,seconded by Mrs. Mette, and unanimously approved, it was #2002-03 RESOLVED, that the Plymouth Road Development Authority agrees to extend the time for removal of the marquee sign for the George Burns Theater located at the intersection of Farmington and Plymouth Roads until March 1,2002 in order to receive the grant as approved by the Plymouth Road Development Authority. Mr. Wordhouse, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution approved. Mr. Peterson questioned the construction costs cited by Phoenix Land Development in their letter to the PRDA regarding the costs for the wall and fence along their Farmington and Plymouth Road frontages. Mr. Nagy advised that only the costs on Plymouth Road will be funded by P.R.D.A. Mr. Grace reported that a local resident, Robert Crosby, carried the torch for the Olympics on Plymouth Road between West Chicago and Merriman. It was about 6:45 A.M. Mr. Grace passed out photographs of the runner as he carried the torch. Web Site: Mr. Polsinelli reported that the web page is up and operating. Copies of some of the web sites were distributed to the Board. Information is not complete but we are in the process of finalizing details. The PRDA newsletters will also be featured on the web page. Right now the 2001 Fall and Winter issues are on the web page. We will (lire go back and obtain back issues from Fisher Creative Services. Mr. Grace asked if companies will be able to get in touch with the web page to get their information 4 displayed. Mr. Polsinellli advised that on the search page there is an"Add your Business" feature. Mr. Grace suggested that in order to promote the web page it could be displayed on the banners showing the e-mail at the bottom of the banners. Mrs. Mette suggested that the City might add it to their newsletter also. Mr. Wordhouse requested Mr. Polsinelli bring in a proposal for a computer so that Mr. Nagy would be able to have access to this information. 7. Director's Report: At the last meeting I reported on the proposed auto repair facility to be located on the south side of Plymouth Road between Harrison Road and Garden Avenue, Blue Oval Repairs and we showed you the plans. The Planning Commission recommended against that proposal. Unless it is appealed to the City Council, we might have seen the last of that issue. It is that time of year for the Livonia Chamber of Commerce EXPO. In this connection the Board has been asked to fund 2/31d of the cost and the EDC will pay the other 1/3"1. The fees are the same as last year. Our cost will be $933.00. On a motion by Mr. Grace, seconded by Mr. Walsh, and unanimously approved, it was #2002-04 RESOLVED,that the Plymouth Road Development Authority does hereby determine to provide funds in the amount of$933.00 to the City of Livonia to cover two-thirds of the cost of renting two booths at the Expo to be conducted by the Livonia Chamber of Commerce on February 27, 2002, at Burton Manor with the condition that space be allotted for PRDA matters thereby giving some exposure to the PRDA in exchange for its financial support, and does hereby authorize the Accounting Department of the City of Livonia to issue a check in the amount of$933.00 made payable to Livonia Chamber of Commerce for two-thirds the rental of two 10' x 10' booths at Expo. Mr. Wordhouse, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. Mr. Grace asked about the status of the CAT petition(2001-09-02-19). Mr. Nagy reported that it was sent to the Committee of the Whole for a February 17 meeting. There are objections to the size of the equipment and also concern about the appearance of equipment displayed in the front of the property even though the large equipment will not be displayed in the front. Mr. Walsh advised the Board that both he and Mr. Pastor felt comfortable, while on the Council, supporting this proposal. It was suggested that an additional letter of support be sent to the City Council for the CAT proposal since there are three new council members sitting on the Council effective January 2002. Mr. Polsinelli responded that the PRDA is a pro-business board and it would be appropriate to end a follow up letter. 8. Polling of Board Members: Mr. Grace—congratulations on the web page. 5 • 9. Adjournment: On a motion duly made, seconded and unanimously adopted, the 1318 Regular Meeting held by the Plymouth Road Development Authority was adjourned at 4:25 pm. The next meeting of the Plymouth Road Development Authority will be held on February 21,2002. Roby llYilliams, Secretary C C 6