Because the rates are part of a city ordinance, the changes must receive a second approval from the city council, after a public hearing.

According to the city, the rate increases are needed to maintain debt service coverage and to maintain funding for required capital improvements.

The city’s drinking water charges are based on a “unit” of 100 cubic feet – 748 gallons. Charges for residential customers are divided into tiers, based on usage. For example, the first seven units of water for residential customers are charged $1.23 per unit. The new residential rate for the first seven units would be $1.27.

The city’s stormwater rates are based on the amount of impervious area on a parcel and are billed quarterly. For example, the lowest tier – for impervious area less than 2,187 square feet – is currently charged $12.84 per quarter. Under the new rate structure, that would increase to $13.24. [.pdf of complete utility rate changes as proposed]

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

Left to right: Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3), Sabra Briere (Ward 1) and Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) getting ceremonially sworn in at the start of council's Nov. 16, 2009 meeting. Standing to the left out of frame are Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) and Mike Anglin (Ward 5). (Photo by the writer.)

But it would have been a long meeting even without the downtown planning content, which we’ve summarized in a separate report: “Downtown Planning Process Forges Ahead.”

Before postponing the acceptance of the Huron River and Impoundment Management Plan (HRIMP), the council got a detailed update on how things stand on the city’s dispute with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) over Argo Dam.

An agenda item authorizing capital improvements in West Park prompted a lengthy discussion of how the Percent for Art program works.

Some public commentary calling abstractly for greater support for inventors and entrepreneurs was followed later in the meeting by an appropriation from the city’s LDFA to Ann Arbor SPARK to fund more business acceleration services.

A consent agenda item on the purchase of parking meters was pulled out and postponed.

The council also heard a detailed report from the city administrator, which covered emergency response time to a recent house fire, ADA-compliant sidewalk ramps, responses to the library lot Request for Proposals, updates on the task forces for Mack Pool and Ann Arbor’s senior center, staff reductions in planning and development, the East Stadium bridges, as well as the upcoming budget retreat on Dec. 5.

Stephen Kunselman’s (Ward 3) use of attachments to the agenda to document questions for city staff received some critique.

Also worth noting, the five winners of recent council elections were sworn in, and Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) was elected as mayor pro tem. Those topics in more detail below.

Huron River and Impoundment Management Plan

On the council’s agenda was a resolution to accept the Huron River and Impoundment Mangement Plan (HRIMP) from the HRIMP committee, along with 30 of its 32 recommendations. The HRIMP contains two different resolutions on the disposition of the Argo Dam – one to remove it and the other to maintain it – because the committee could not reach a consensus on that question.

HRIMP Public Comment

During public commentary reserved time at the start of the council’s meeting, Russ Miller acknowledged the HRIMP committee’s hard work, but expressed some concern about the resolution the council was to consider. First there were two different drafts of the HRIMP attached to the resolution – one from April 24, 2009 and the other from Nov. 12, 2009. The more recent version, he said, contained some data that was different. Neither version, he contended, was the version that the city’s park advisory commission, environmental commission, and energy commission had voted on.

A second issue addressed by Miller was the quality of the data in the report. Miller mentioned a list of items identified by Sue McCormick, director of public services for the city, that would cost around $185,000 in order to gather data on – temperature, dissolved oxygen, sedimentation rate and flow fluctuations. Some of that data, he said, already existed at least in pilot form.

Argo Dam and Embankment Update

During communications from council, Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) – who co-sponsored the HRIMP acceptance resolution along with Margie Teall (Ward 4) – clarified that the costs mentioned by Miller related to costs associated with the management of the dam, and were not part of the consensus recommendations in the report.

Hohnke asked McCormick to give the council a status report on the situation with Argo Dam. [See previous Chronicle coverage: "MDEQ to Ann Arbor: Close Argo Millrace" and "City, MDEQ Agree: Argo Headrace Shut" and "A2: Argo Spillway"]

McCormick ticked through Argo Dam’s recent history. On Aug. 6, 2009, the MDEQ had ordered the city to take certain actions, which included closure of the headrace and dewatering of it by Nov. 1. The order also included a requirement for the city to have evaluated its options by April 30, 2010. If the city opted to keep the Argo Dam in place, then repairs to the adjacent earthen embankment needed to be completed by Dec. 31, 2010. If the city opted to remove the dam, then its removal needed to be completed by Dec. 31, 2012.

McCormick said that calculating backward from those dates left a short time frame in which to work. To issue requests for proposals (RFPs) and to undertake additional studies, she said, would entail a 15-18 month timeline to get the studies done. She characterized the situation as a “conundrum.” That was one reason the city had challenged the order, she explained.

In response to the city’s formal challenge, the MDEQ granted a 90-day stay on all elements of its order except the one to close the headrace. The city has stopped the flow, McCormick said, but has not pumped out the remaining water.

The hope, explained McCormick, is to convince the MDEQ that the earthen embankment is, in fact, stable. Over the 90-day period of the stay, she said, there’d be a technical discussion with the MDEQ. [The city has installed monitoring devices on the earthen embankment to aid in that discussion: "Finally a Dam Decision on Argo?"] And the city hoped that they would be able to restore the flow back into the headrace as a result of that discussion, said McCormick.

Then the city would be able to go through a thorough process for evaluating the dam – a process that could take two years.

To the two-year time frame, Hohnke offered some resistance, saying that he hoped that the list of tasks to be completed could be re-examined in the interest of reducing that time frame.

HRIMP Resolution

When the resolution on accepting the HRIMP report came up for discussion, Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) proposed an amendment – which was approved by his council colleagues with dissent from Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) – to revise the language in the resolution so that a councilmember would be appointed at the same time as the other members of the RSC.

The resolution charges with RSC with implementation of the HRIMP, as well as identification of funding sources, including the development of language for a river millage:

RESOLVED, The Ann Arbor City Council supports the establishment of a River Stewardship Committee (RSC) to provide oversight to the implementation of the Plan; …

RESOLVED, The Ann Arbor City Council directs the RSC to provide an implementation plan with funding needs and proposed funding strategies, including language for a river millage, within 6 months;

[A river millage could possibly make for a ballot with several millages if it's brought forward in November 2010, where it could join a second attempt for the WISD school millage, a county human services millage, and a county transportation millage.]

The resolution references funds in the budget for dam operations, which had prompted Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) to ask if the resolution was a budget item requiring an 8-vote majority. The clarification that it was not such an item was based on the fact that it was a recommendation to no longer fund the dam operations from the water fund, not a decision:

RESOLVED, The Ann Arbor City Council recommends that operation and maintenance of the recreational dams (Argo and Geddes) not be funded from the Drinking Water Enterprise Fund; and

RESOLVED, The Ann Arbor City Council recommends that funds currently used for the operation and maintenance of the recreational dams from the Drinking Water Enterprise Fund be reallocated to implement the Source Water Protection Plan to protect Ann Arbor’s Drinking Water.

Higgins moved for a postponement until Dec. 7, in light of the documentation issues raised during public commentary.  Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) supported the postponement, saying that it was not clear whether the council was “accepting” the plan or “adopting” it.

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) also supported the postponement, saying that when they were last confronted with the issue, the council had focused exclusively on the dam-in/dam-out question and may not have given the other 30 recommendations attention.

Hohnke then sought to be recognized to speak again, but was not seen by Mayor John Hieftje. Hieftje asked for the vote, which was taken, with the council approving the postponement. As the vote was taken, Hieftje then noticed Hohnke’s frustration, thus went back to Hohnke for further deliberations on the postponement.

Hohnke said he did not understand the concerns about “accepting” versus “adopting.” He noted that the HRIMP report has “been out there for a long time.” He encouraged his colleagues who had any questions to raise them with the city staff.

As Higgins and Hieftje weighed in on the merits of the resolution and which reports were attached to it, Rapundalo called for a point of order: The deliberations weren’t related to the question of postponement.

Outcome: The acceptance of the HRIMP report was postponed until the council’s Dec. 7 meeting.

West Park Improvements: Percent for Art

The resolution before the council on stormwater improvements generated a lot of discussion, but not on the stormwater improvements per se. [Previous Chronicle coverage: "West Park Improvements Get Fast-Tracked"]

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) noted that he’d attached to the agenda questions related to the West Park improvements:

Are funds from the voter approved Park Millage being used for this project? If so:

Are any funds from the Park Millage being directed to the 1% for Art Fund? If so:

Please provide the voter approved Park Millage language that authorizes said funds to be directed to public art. If such language is not explicit, then, please provide a written legal opinion that substantiates the Administration’s position that voter approved Park Millage funds can be directed to other uses such as public art by Council majority approval.

If such is the opinion, is it legally defensible for the City to adopt a 1% for the Homeless program using the same rationale?

Are funds from the Stormwater Fund, a utility enterprise fund, being directed to the 1% for Art Fund? If so:

Please provide a written legal opinion that substantiates the Administration’s position that utility enterprise funds, including loans from the State, can be directed to public art by Council majority approval. If such is the opinion, is it legally defensible for the City to adopt a 1% for the Homeless program using the same rationale?

Kunselman indicated that he’d received a response to his questions from the city attorney, but that he could not share it with the public – it had been marked confidential.

Abigail Elias, of the city attorney's office, is more likely to be explaining legalities of Percent for Art allocations to Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) than she is to be demonstrating proper technique for fielding a punt. (Photo by the writer.)

However, he did indicate that $16,000 from the park millage and $13,000 from the storm water fund would accrue to the public art fund under the Percent for Art program as a result of the West Park improvements.

Kunselman allowed that he had served on the city council in 2007 when the Percent for Art program had been approved by the council and that he’d voted for it.  But he said that he did not realize at the time that the program would pull money from what he thought were restricted funds. The $16,000 for art that would come out of the parks budget, he said, could pay for a thermal blanket for Mack pool – which is one of the ways the Mack Pool task force has explored to help reduce energy costs.

Mayor John Hieftje weighed in, saying that the Percent for Art money that drew from the parks budget would be spent on art in the parks. Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) pointed out that art for West Park [the exact art project has not yet been determined] could be a teaching tool to educate people about storm water. The art paid for by the Percent for Art program was meant to serve the purpose of the fund it came from, said Higgins.

Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) sought clarification on the amount of public art funds that come from the street and road repair millage – was it really the $500,000 that Kunselman had mentioned? Sue McCormick, director of public services for the city, clarified that the figure was actually $285,553.

By way of background, here’s a budget summary as of Oct. 1, 2009 for art in public places:

               Transfers/Revenues  Expenditures   Available Balance
General Fund      $ 12,325         $    804       $  11,520
Street Millage     285,553            9,344         276,208
Parks Millage       20,235              657          19,577
Solid Waste         31,040              331          30,708
Water              289,693            8,459         281,233
Sewer              562,302           24,939         537,362
Stormwater          44,480            2,859          41,622
Airport              6,520              103           6,416
Court/PD Facility  250,000.         109,886         140,114 

Total Available
for Capital /Art  $1,502,150.00    $157,387      $1,344,762

-

As Sabra Briere (Ward 1) brought out later, the $500,000 figure was actually related to the sewer fund. Rapundalo asked McCormick how the principle of the art serving the fund from which it came would apply to something like the street and road repair millage. McCormick said that the art could be incorporated into the streets. She noted that ADA compliance required use of textures on sidewalk ramps, which had potential for art. Use of surface treatments to designate a historic district was another possibility, she said. McCormick also alluded to providing, through art, a visible way of finding the greenway.

Hieftje asked McCormick about the general fund contribution to the art fund, and McCormick said that there was a variance between $850 and $12,000 depending on how Act 51 money was analyzed. The city uses Act 51 money to construct non-motorized facilities, as opposed to just repairing a facility, and as such would fall under the Percent for Art program.

Kunselman concluded that it sounded like the accounting was difficult. He requested in the future that staff provide with each project the contribution that would be made, if any, to the Percent for Art program. McCormick indicated that this would not be possible, because a piece of art was not necessarily associated with a project at the time a project was approved. There was some back and forth between Kunselman and McCormick that ultimately did not appear completely resolved.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the West Park stormwater improvement project.

Increased Budget to Local Development Finance Authority

During public commentary, Kermit Schlansker introduced himself as a former aerospace engineer for Allied Bendix. He contended there was no good avenue for developing good ideas for inventions – he had several but figured he’d die with them. He called for greater support for entrepreneurs and inventors and for local action to fight global warming.

Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), who serves as the city council’s representative on the Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA), suggested during his communications to council that there was an agenda item related to Schlansker’s point. The item increased the LDFA budget by $255,000 $205,000 for additional support to Ann Arbor SPARK’s business accelerator. The increased support – which will allow the hiring of a new full-time manager of the business incubator and an additional .75 FTE of Phase II consultants, spread over two people – is contingent on persistence in increased demand for business accelerator services.

When the item came before the council, Skip Simms, who’s the managing director of entrepreneurial business development at SPARK, answered a few questions from councilmembers, including one from Sandi Smith (Ward 1) about how much of SPARK’s business accelerator is funded by the city of Ann Arbor. Simms clarified that the business accelerator is funded solely by the LDFA. [The LDFA is a tax increment financing district, like the Downtown Development Authority, and captures taxes that would otherwise go to the taxing authorities that levy property taxes in the area. In the case of the LDFA, the taxes captured come from Ann Arbor's downtown area.]

At Mike Anglin’s (Ward 5) invitation, one of the business accelerator clients, Cesar Nerys, talked a bit about his company Boomdash, which had used SPARK’s incubator services. Nerys described the concept underlying Boomdash’s business, which was to allow local advertisers to take advantage of Boomdash’s online advertising platform, but kept Boomdash’s presence in the background through “white labeling.” [According to a Detroit Free Press article from July 2009, Boomdash closed earlier in the year due to a lack of venture capital: "Boomdash's Dreams Go Bust"]

Outcome: The resolution amending the LDFA budget by $255,000 in order to fund expanded SPARK business accelerator services was approved unanimously.

Parking Meter Purchase

The resolution to purchase parking meters, a part of the consent agenda, was separated out from that group of items at Sandi Smith’s (Ward 1) request. [The consent agenda items are by definition moved and voted together, unless an item is specifically singled out as this one was.]

The parking meters were to be installed along Wall Street as part of an effort to generate up to $380,000 connected with the FY 2010 budget, which the city council adopted earlier in the year.

At Monday’s meeting, Smith expressed skepticism that the projected extra revenues would materialize, even if the meters were installed. [Smith has been working to find revenue replacement, to avoid installation of parking meters in neighborhoods near downtown.]

In her remarks about the parking meters, Smith gave a response to Lynn Meadows, who during public commentary had asked about an email exchange from January 2009 among Smith, Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) and Susan Pollay, the executive director of Ann Arbor’s Downtown Development Authority. That email exchange had been produced by the city as a part of a FOIA request. In the exchange, the three had arranged to take a tour of areas around downtown, with Derezinski driving. Meadows wanted to know what the nature of the trio’s discussion was.

In responding to Meadows, Smith said that the city’s budget proposal – which included the installation of parking meters in neighborhoods near downtown – was exactly why three people might be prompted to get in a car together and drive around to look at the specific areas that would be affected.

With Mayor John Hieftje’s encouragement to postpone the resolution until council’s Dec. 7 meeting, when Smith would be bringing a resolution of her own related to parking revenues, Smith moved the postponement.

Outcome: The resolution to purchase parking meters was postponed.

Updates from the City Administrator

City administrator Roger Fraser gave updates on a range of topics, both during the slot on the agenda labeled for his own communications, as well as when he was called on by councilmembers during the time allotted for their own communications. In response to a question early in the meeting from Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) about sidewalk replacement, Fraser quipped, “Thanks for springing that on me!”

Sidewalk Slab Replacement

Higgins reported several phone calls from residents who were curious to know why sidewalk slabs were being replaced by the city at intersection corners, extending as far back as 20 feet from the curb. Fraser explained that the work had been prompted by a settlement reached not just by Ann Arbor, but by many municipalities, with the advocates of people with disabilities –  to bring about ADA compliance with sidewalk ramps at intersections. He said that this would entail replacement of slabs 10 feet back from the curb, but said it typically shouldn’t require 20 feet. However, due to differences between state and federal requirements on accessibility, in some cases the concrete that had been poured as recently as a year ago was being broken up and re-poured.

As a followup, Higgins wanted to know if there was going to be a sidewalk installed around Allmendinger Park. She noted that there were curb cuts being installed, and if there were to be sidewalks installed to accompany them, she wondered who would be responsible for shoveling the sidewalk. For her part, she said, she would not be shoveling it.

Emergency Response Time

A recent house fire at 1710 Waverly, which killed three people, had raised questions among Ward 4 residents, said Higgins, about the emergency response times by the fire department. Fraser reported that the first call had come in at 2:53 a.m. from someone who had smelled smoke, driven into the neighborhood, and identified a house with excessive smoke coming from a chimney on Greenview, which they believed to be the source of the smell. Two trucks were dispatched to the Greenview location.

Meanwhile, a second call came in from a resident who described the fire they’d spotted as “east of” their Waverly location.  The location of the first house reported, on Greenview, was also east of Waverly. The first call with a definitive location of the fire came in at 3:06 a.m., said Fraser, and from that point the police response time was one minute and the fire department response was two minutes. When they arrived, the house was already engulfed in flames.

Library Lot Request for Proposals

Fraser reported that the request for proposals (RFP) for the top of the city-owned underground parking garage, which had a deadline of Nov. 13, had actually yielded eight proposals, but two had been disqualified because they were late.

To clarify when the proposals would be unveiled to the public, Fraser said that before public consumption, they would first be vetted by the technical review committee, then sent to the advisory committee.

Scott Rosencrans, who chairs the city’s park advisory commission, had originally been appointed by city council to the RFP advisory committee. However, he informed the council of a scheduling conflict, and Sam Offen, also of the park advisory commission, was appointed on Monday to replace Rosencrans. The makeup of that review committee is now: Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), Margie Teall (Ward 4), Eric Mahler (planning commission), John Splitt (DDA board), and Sam Offen (park advisory commission).

The technical review committee consists of the following: Jayne Miller (the city’s director of community services), Matt Kulhanek (manager of the Ann Arbor municipal airport), Kevin McDonald (a senior assistant city attorney specializing in planning and development issues), Wendy Rampson (the city’s interim director of planning and development services),  Cresson Slotten (a city senior project manager in systems planning), Alison Heatley (a city senior project engineer), Mike Pettigrew (deputy treasurer for the city of Ann Arbor), Jessica Black (supervisor for the city’s parks and recreation customer service unit) and Susan Pollay (executive director of the DDA, which is building the parking structure).

Stadium Bridges and Task Forces

Fraser also gave updates on the East Stadium Bridge situation, and the task forces charged with studying Mack Pool and the Ann Arbor Senior Center. [Recent Chronicle coverage of those issues: "State Board: No Funding for Stadium Bridges," "Task Force Floats Ways to Save Mack Pool," and "Seniors Weigh in on Fate of Center"]

Use of Council Communications

During the council communications at the end of the meeting, Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) indicated to his council colleagues that he would in the future be using the agenda attachments to the “communications from council” to record questions on agenda items, as he had for that meeting. He cited the desire to get information out in the open so that it did not need to be requested under the FOIA.

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) told Kunselman that she understood what his intent was, but contended that section of the agenda is not designed for what Kunselman had in mind.

What the council rules actually specify:

Communications from Council

This place on the agenda is reserved for Council Members to make announcements, request reports and speak on subjects, which they deem important, report out on committees and give notice of future proposed business.

Inasmuch as Kunselman’s attached questions can be construed as a request for reports, his use appears consistent with the council rules.

Public Commentary

Public commentary not already mentioned above included the following:

John Floyd: Floyd posed two questions. The first concerned the willingness of Washtenaw County officials to entertain discussions on the lease to the city for housing the 15th District Court: Did the city receive any communication on or around April 17, 2008 from the county concerning the possibility of reopening an extension to the city’s lease for court space, if the city would submit such a request in writing? Floyd’s second question was addressed to Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) in reference to a quote by Mayor John Hieftje in an Ann Arbor News article from two years ago, when he included Hohnke as sharing a “big picture” vision of Ann Arbor. Floyd asked if Hohnke meant that Ann Arbor should emulate other cities like Boulder, Portland, and Seattle, or if there was some other big picture vision he had in mind. Later in the meeting, Hohnke would respond by suggesting that he did look to those cities for inspiration, and cited a specific example of recent work in Ann Arbor to look at the pedestrian right-of-way ordinance, which was being informed by ordinances in those cities.

William Hampton: Hampton congratulated councilmembers who had won election and to Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) for her election as mayor pro tem. He introduced himself as the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, noting that the local chapter was celebrating its 60th anniversary, and the national organization was celebrating its 100th anniversary. He reported on the annual Freedom Fund dinner held recently, which honors students who maintain at least a 3.2 grade point average. [Chronicle coverage of that event: "Ann Arbor NAACP Honors Academic Success"] He thanked Sabra Briere (Ward 1) and Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) for their support, and Mayor John Hieftje for his welcoming address at the Freedom Fund dinner.

Andrew McGill: McGill appeared before the council to thank them, on behalf of the Committee for Preserving Community Quality, for passing the resolution at their previous meeting that called upon the city of Ann Arbor to notify Pittsfield Township of any master plan changes to the Ann Arbor airport, before submitting them to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Thomas Partridge: Partridge called on the mayor, the city council, and the public at large to take cognizance of issues like free and open access to information. He called for integrated countywide public transportation.

City Budget Retreat on Dec. 5

City administrator Roger Fraser announced that the council’s budget retreat would take place on Dec. 5 at the Wheeler Service Center, 4521 Stone School Road. He put it in the context of last year’s two-year plan, which took 10% out of the budget, spread over two years. Now, he said, there needs to be another 11% taken out of the budget on top of that, in order to balance this next year’s budget. He said it would be an “interesting discussion.” The retreat is open to the public.

Present: Mike Anglin, Sabra Briere, Tony Derezinski, John Hieftje, Marcia Higgins, Carsten Hohnke, Stephen Kunselman, Stephen Rapundalo, Sandi Smith, Christopher Taylor, Margie Teall.

Next council meeting: Monday, Dec. 7, 2009 at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 2nd floor of the Guy C. Larcom, Jr. Municipal Building, 100 N. Fifth Ave. [confirm date]

Someone from Mrs. Szalay's kindergarten class at Lawton Elementary made this drawing, which hung in the school's hallway last month on the night of a public meeting at Lawton's gym. The picture's facial expression reflected the sentiment of some homeowners who attended.

“This” is a citywide program to disconnect the footing drains in all houses from the sanitary sewer system. And the answer to his question is “yes” – because the city mandates it.

Much like the sidewalk replacement program, the effort to disconnect footing drains will span several years. But unlike the sidewalk replacement, which homeowners must pay for, the city is reimbursing costs of the drain disconnect – at least for now.

The program started in 2001 as a way to deal with chronic sewer backups in basements of some residential neighborhoods, caused during storms when stormwater would flood that sewer system. In older homes, footing drains – which are designed to divert ground water away from a house’s foundation – were often connected to the sanitary sewer system. With heavy rains, the system didn’t have the capacity to handle the additional rainwater. Sewage would back up into basements through floor drains. It wasn’t pretty

In 2000 and early 2001, a task force looked at several ways to address the problem, including expanding the capacity of the sewer system. The task force’s final recommendation – proposing a citywide footing drain disconnect – was based on cost (it would cost less to reimburse homeowners than to install larger sewer pipes or expand the wastewater treatment plant) and root cause (if the footing drains weren’t disconnected, the same phenomenon would continue). The disconnect applies to homes built before 1982 – that’s when city code changed to prohibit builders from connecting footing drains to the sanitary sewer system.

The program initially targeted five neighborhoods on the city’s southwest side, where basement backups were most acute: Bromley, Dartmoor, Glen Leven, Morehead and Orchard Hills. Within that area, over 1,300 homes have completed the disconnect – an estimated 1,600 remain to be done.

And then, of course, there’s the rest of the city.

Residents at a neighborhood meeting about the city's footing drain disconnect program, held last month at Lawton elementary.

Anne Warrow, project manager with the city of Ann Arbor, said the city has designated funds to reimburse homeowners for the disconnect work – up to $4,100 per household, which includes installing a sump pump. But it’s difficult to predict the future, she said. “That may change.”

Getting that reimbursement means following steps outlined at two public forums held last month and led by CDM Michigan Inc., a consulting firm hired by the city to manage this project. Justin Woods, an environmental scientist and project manager in the firm’s Ann Arbor office, said their role is to interact with homeowners and contractors who do the actual disconnect work.

The process works like this: Homeowners are notified by mail that they need to disconnect their home’s footing drain. (If you haven’t received a notice, they haven’t started work in your neighborhood.) Homeowners are asked to schedule a pre-inspection with CDM to determine what type of work needs to be done, such as where the sump pump should be located. The homeowner is responsible for getting a contractor – there are five contractors that are approved by the city to do this work. The contractor comes out and gives an estimate – if that estimate is higher than $4,100, the city requires getting a second estimate, and will approve the lower of the two amounts, even if it’s higher than $4,100.

Karen Duff, an environmental engineer with the consulting firm CDM, talks with a homeowner at last month's meeting about the city's footing drain disconnect program. The poster shows images of work being done to install a sump pump.

When the city approves the estimate, the homeowner schedules the work with the contractor. The work itself usually takes three days, said Karen Duff, a CDM environmental engineer. When it’s finished, someone from CDM will do a final walkthrough.

If you get a notice and don’t respond, CDM will send you a reminder, then after two months they’ll send you another notice saying you have 90 days to complete the work. “As long as you’re working the program, we’ll work with you,” Woods said. But if you don’t respond, he said, you’ll start getting a $100 penalty each month, which will show up on your water bill. Plus, you’ll no longer be eligible for reimbursement from the city.

At a March 5 public forum, attended by about 50 people, many of the questions covered technical issues:

• How often does the sump pump run, and how much will it add to the electric bill? Woods: It’s variable, depending on how much ground water is being pumped. The electricity used is minimal, and also varies according to how often the pump runs. It could be as little as $1 extra a year.
• Has the city done before and after studies about radon levels when the sump pumps are installed? Warrow: No studies like that have been done, but the sump pumps authorized for purchase are all radon sealed.
• Is a back-up sump pump required? Woods: No, but if you lose power during a storm and you don’t have a battery-powered back-up sump pump, the water flowing into the sump won’t get pumped and could overflow into the basement. It depends, Warrow added – some homeowners say their primary sump pump never runs, so they probably don’t have much ground water flowing in and wouldn’t need a back-up. (This comment prompted murmurs among residents along the lines of “If the sump pump never runs, why did they have to install it in the first place?”)
• What kind of lawn damage will this cause, and who pays for that? Woods: The contractor is responsible for cleaning up and making sure there’s as little disturbance as possible. Worst case scenario would likely be a trench 1.5 feet wide by 3 feet deep, from the house to the connecting pipe by the street. “Contractors aren’t going to go to the flower store,” he said, “but they’ll work with you.”
• What about older basements that have asbestos tile? Woods: The contractors vetted by the city are all trained in handling asbestos.

Anne Warrow, project manager for the city of Ann Arbor, talks with a resident about the footing drain disconnect program.

One man said that a lot of people in the neighborhood had just replaced their sidewalks – would they now be torn up? Woods said that contractors go underneath the sidewalk to connect the pipe from the house to the city’s green curb-drain pipe. It shouldn’t have an impact on the sidewalk, he said.

Another man questioned why there were only two Ann Arbor contractors – Perimeter LLC and Hutzel Plumbing – on the list of five approved by the city. (The other three – RDC Residential Services, Landscape Construction and Bidigare Contractors – are all based in Plymouth.) Warrow said the contractors had to go through a strict qualification process, and Woods noted that “they all do good work.” The resident wasn’t satisfied: “My point is that I live in Ann Arbor, I pay taxes in Ann Arbor, and I would like to see a contractor in Ann Arbor get the money.”

To get an idea of what the footing drain disconnect looks like, we dropped by a house on Churchill, just south of Scio Church Road, where the work was being done by Richard Connors of RDC Residential Services. He and Bob Heligman were well along in the process when we arrived: In one corner of the basement, Heligman was using a jackhammer to break up the concrete floor where the sump pump would be installed. Rob Vedder, the electrician hired for this project, was installing a new electrical circuit, which is required for the sump pump.

Connors himself was on his knees, digging a hole from where the footing drain was connected to the sanitary sewer system. After disconnecting it, he would use an auger to drill a 5-inch diameter hole from that spot over to the sump pump – they’d push a pipe through that hole, which would allow ground water to flow from the footing drain to the sump pump.

Detailed descriptions of this process can be found on the city’s website page on footing drain disconntection. What follows is a photographic documentation of some of that process from The Chronicle’s onsite visit.

Having broken up a section of the concrete basement floor, Richard Connors digs by hand to find the footing drain. He'll eventually dig a 5-inch hole from this spot over to the location of the sump pump, about six feet away, and push a pipe through that hole over to the sump. Much of that digging can be done without removing the concrete, but the dirt does need to be removed. Connors loads it into his truck and takes it to some land owned by his church.

Richard Connors uses a metal probe to find buried pipes as he digs around the footing drain.

Rob Vedder of Ann Arbor-based Vedder Electric installs a new electrical circuit for the sump pump.

Bob Heligman works in tight quarters as he jackhammers the concrete floor. He'll later dig a 30-inch deep hole for the sump. From there, the pump will push ground water through discharge pipes to the outside of the house.

Richard Connors digs part of this outside ditch by hand.

This ditch runs along the side of the house, taking water along a pipe from the basement to a connection with the stormwater system, near the curb.

The white pipe protruding from the basement wall will eventually be hooked into a pipe that's laid in a ditch next to the house, connecting it to the stormwater system.

Thank-you note from Congressman John Dingell as stamped and scanned by the city clerk's office. (Image links to file with both front and back of the note.)

Ann Arbor City Council Meeting Part II (April 6, 2009): We’ve already summarized council’s deliberations on the A2D2 rezoning effort in a previous report.

Here we focus on other business handled by council and topics raised during public commentary at that same meeting. Much of it was related to streets – whether it was vacating them, closing them for special events, or repaving them. The other major theme, as reflected in comments from the public, was public art.

We also include some evidence that the art of the handwritten thank-you note is not dead.

Streets

Street closings

Council passed resolutions approving street closings for the Burns Park Run [map] on May 3, 2009 and for the Mayor’s Green Fair [map] on June 12. There is more to the process than council’s approval of the closing. Organizers of an event are required to notify affected neighbors in the vicinity of the streets to be closed:

STREET CLOSING NOTIFICATION
Beginning in 2008, If street closure(s) are required for your event, it will be necessary for you to follow the notification process described below.
1. Applicant must submit a draft of their event notification to businesses/residents/ religious institutions to the Special Events Coordinator for approval no less than 21 days in advance of the event. Once approved, Applicant must send the notification via US Mail (postmarked no less than 14 days in advance of the event). A postcard may be used for notification purposes.
2. The notification must include the time and date of the event as well as the dates, times and descriptions of street closing(s) and a map. If there is a website available, you may specify the web address on the postcard and post the maps etc on the website. Please be sure that the postcard and/or the website have contact phone numbers and email addresses for the organization, a contact person, Sgt Brad Hill and the Special Events Coordinator.
3. The notification area must include the event route or boundary, any “landlocked” area and a 1 block perimeter outside of the event route/boundary. Please include Sgt Brad Hill and the Community Services Administrator on the mailing list.
4. The Special Event Permit will not be issued until after notifications have been mailed.

Street Repaving

Council authorized two contracts for repaving streets: $2,392,393.50 for the 2009 local streets resurfacing project and $2,422,403.75 for the 2009 major streets resurfacing project.

Major Streets

• Liberty Street from Main St. to Division and Fourth Ave. from Liberty St. to Huron St. Estimated Schedule: April 20 – June 20. Both streets will be resurfaced with some curb replacement. During construction, one-way traffic will be maintained eastbound on Liberty and northbound on Fourth Ave.
• Packard Street from Fifth Ave. to Hill St. Estimated Schedule: July 20 – August 31. Packard will be resurfaced with some curb replacement. Curb bump-outs will be constructed at the intersection of Packard/Division to improve conditions for pedestrian crossings. Northbound (inbound) traffic will be maintained during construction. Southbound (outbound) traffic will be detoured south on Fifth Ave, to east on Hill St. to Packard.
• Maiden Lane from Broadway to Island Dr. Estimated Schedule: TBD. Work will not be permitted during Art Fair and must be completed within 42 calendar days. Maiden Ln will be resurfaced with improvements made to the ramps at Island Dr. Eastbound traffic will be maintained and westbound traffic will be detoured on Fuller Ave. to westbound  Huron St. to northbound Division St. to eastbound Broadway St. to Maiden Ln.
• State Street from Stimson to Oakbrook. Estimated Schedule: TBD. Work is not permitted during the Art Fair and must be completed within 70 calendar days. State St. will be resurfaced with a concrete overlay. Traffic will be maintained in both directions during construction.
• Maple Road (northbound lanes) from Dexter Ave. to Miller Rd. Estimated Schedule: Work must complete within 30 calendar days between August 24 and  October 10, 2009. Maple Rd. will be resurfaced, with some curb replacement, to match the southbound lanes that were completed with the water main construction in 2008. Traffic will be maintained in both directions during construction.

The local streets repaving list prompted Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) to joke that Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) was a better legislator than he was, noting that in less than a year service on council, Derezinksi had managed to get the street in front of his own house repaved (Glendaloch). The street paving is actually connected with utilities work in the area.

Local Streets

• Fair Oaks Parkway Washtenaw to Norway 4/27/09
• Lincoln Avenue Cambridge to Wells 4/27/09
• Hill Street Oxford to Onondaga 5/12/09
• Glendaloch Circle Glendaloch Rd. to end 5/22/09
• Sylvan Avenue White to Packard 6/3/09
• Tappan & Oakland Tappan/Oakland to East Univ. 6/10/09
• Fernwood Avenue Packard to Lorraine 6/15/09
• Cherokee Road Baldwin to Ferdon 6/29/09
• Anderson Avenue Packard to Ferdon 6/29/09
• Elmcrest Drive Miner to end 7/10/09
• Soule Boulevard Liberty to Eberwhite School 7/13/09
• Virginia Avenue Jackson to Fair 7/27/09
• Hiawatha Place Barton to end 8/10/09
• Dundee Drive (extension for turnaround) 8/12/09
• Felch Street N. Ashley to N. Main 8/17/09
• N. Ashley Street Felch to N. Main 8/17/09
• Summit Street (E&W)  AA Railroad to N. Fourth Ave. 8/27/09

The city of Ann Arbor’s website contains a page focusing on city of Ann Arbor street projects, including the Miller Avenue project, which The Chronicle recently wrote about.

Opposing Senate Joint Resolution H (SJR H)

The Michigan state Senate passed a resolution (not yet passed by the House) that would address the phenomenon of property taxes increasing in a year when assessed values decrease. [The Chronicle has previously written about this effect of Proposal A.] From the language of the bill:

However, for taxes levied after 2009, the legislature shall provide that if a property’s assessed value has decreased, adjusted for additions and losses, the property’s taxable value in the immediately succeeding year shall be the lesser of the property’s taxable value in the immediately preceding year or the property’s assessed value.

Councilmembers Leigh Greden, Marcia Higgins, Carsten Hohnke, Stephen Rapundalo and Christopher Taylor sponsored a council resolution (which passed unanimously) opposing the measure. Greden characterized it as “classic political pandering” that would have a devastating impact on schools, cities, and counties during a particularly tough economic time.

Software

The city and county have already combined their data centers (hardware). On Monday, council authorized a contract worth $263,371 to integrate document-management software as a part of the “City/County IT Enterprise Content Management Partnership.” Based on the cost breakdowns, this particular contract appears to involve city departments.

Chronicle inquiries with the county yielded the insight that the county uses the OnBase system and that the city will be building their applications on the same technology infrastructure. This allows the city to pay for licensing, but not have to buy new servers. Descriptions of the work the individual city departments will be undertaking:

• City Attorney Scope: Implement workflow for contract tracking. Will initially use professional service contracts as the starting point. The developed process will provide visibility into where the contract is at all times. Includes eSignature process from Docusign and full routing for approval, including external signers.
• Purchasing Scope: Requesting Accounts Payable workflow for invoice coding and approval and simple workflow for Purchase Order requests.
• Accounts Receivable Scope: For storage and retrieval of scanned or electronic documents.
• Clerk Scope: Configure OnBase to store and retrieve the following scanned  document types: Annexation, Ordinance, Council packets, Minutes  Contracts, Easements/Deeds, Liquor licenses and Traffic Control Orders.
• Project Management Scope: Replace eCabinet process and convert existing eCabinet documents to the OnBase platform.
• Assessor Scope: Bulk load of Assessor property cards into OnBase.

Commentary from Public on Dreiseitl Storm Water Art

By way of background, the city’s new municipal center, which was given a ceremonial groundbreaking last week, is to include a storm-water management component. That component was identified by the public art commission as having potential for a public art installation. The storm water art would be funded through the Percent for Art program, which the public art commission administers. The Percent for Art program (part of the city code) stipulates that “all capital improvement projects funded wholly or partly by the city shall include funds for public art equal to 1% of the construction costs identified in the initial project estimate, up to a maximum of $250,000.00 per project.”

Last year, the public art commission recommended allocation of around $70,000 to Herbert Dreiseitl – a German artist-architect who specializes in storm-water based installations – for initial design work on the project, which city council approved earlier this year. The project budget is planned to be more than $700,000.  As The Chronicle’s report on art commission deliberations from October 2008 reflects, some commissioners expressed concern about the process, which did not include solicitation for bids or involvement of local artists. They voted unanimously for moving the project forward, based partly on the understanding that a vote would be taken on whether to approve the design submitted by Dreiseitl. The design has not yet been submitted by Dreitseitl.

Five public speakers signed up for public speaking reserved time for the start of the meeting to talk about the Dreiseitl project.  Based on the content of some of their commentary, which seemed to be a reaction to the possibility that the project might be halted, The Chronicle speculated that some proposal had been floated to put the brakes on the proposal. Inquiries did not turn up anything specific, beyond the fact that there has been public criticism of the choice of Dreiseitl. One of the speakers on Monday, Kirsten Jensen, criticized the choice.

Kirsten Jensen: Jensen said she was incredulous at the arrangement that had been struck with Dreiseitl. She said that the arrangement was not consistent with Chapter 24 of the city code in various parts, including the idea that public art was meant to stimulate the local economy – something she said would in this case be limited, because Dreiseitl implements his installations using his own crew, as opposed to local laborers. In relevant part, Chapter 24 reads:

1:831. Intent and Purpose. … City council has determined that the creation of public art will improve the aesthetic quality of public spaces and structures, provide cultural and recreational opportunities, contribute to the local heritage, stimulate economic activity and promote the general welfare of the community.

Jensen continued by saying that no estimate of the cost of maintenance for the project had been provided, citing another section of Chapter 24.

1:836. Ownership and maintenance of work.
(1) No work of art shall be considered for acquisition under this chapter without an estimate for future maintenance costs.

She also said no solicitations for proposals had been made, even though the city’s code charges the oversight body (the public art commission) with implementing procedures for solicitation:

1:837. Oversight body.
(1) The oversight body shall be the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission as established by section 1:238 of chapter 8.
(2) The oversight body shall:
(A) Promulgate guidelines, subject to the approval of city council, to implement the provisions of this chapter, including procedures for soliciting and selecting public art and for determining suitable locations for public art.

Jensen concluded by saying that it was necessary to admit the mistake and to allow other artists to participate.

David Michener: Michener allowed that he did not know how to pronounce Dreiseitl’s name, but said it didn’t matter. He said that he was there to offer his full support for the project, as a homeowner for 19 years in Ann Arbor. He said that the project was consistent with the high standards that Ann Arbor typically sets for itself. He invited those who don’t like the project to suggest something better for the next one. This decision, he said, had already been made. He discouraged the idea that the city would “pussy foot around,” asking that they instead move forward.

Janis Bobrin: Bobrin is the county’s water resource commissioner (formerly called the drain commissioner). She cast the project in the context of the prevailing attitudes toward development of land dating back to the 1970s and before. It was only in the 1970s, she said, that requirements began to appear, to the point where it’s now established that storm water be detained on site. She described how there is a federal mandate to educate the public about storm water management, which in Washtenaw County was reflected in rain garden projects and a film festival. Bobrin said that buying local was an important principle, but that in the case of the choice for  Dreiseitl, a different principle applied – the idea of “sole source.”

Connie Brown: Brown identified herself as a 30-year resident and co-owner of an architecture firm, who had recently been appointed to the public art commission. She cited the Washtenaw County cultural plan in urging that the city not go backwards and question the need for public art. She quoted Picasso: “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” The municipal center, she said, should reflect the values of the community, which include art.

Jan Barney Newman: Newman spoke in support of the idea of the Percent for Art program. She gave the example of Toledo, which years ago had put together a temporary exhibit of outdoor sculptures to celebrate a similar funding program. She noted that the state of Michigan used to have a program like that until then-Gov. John Engler canceled it. She suggested that programs like these provided an opportunity to think ahead and that when the city builds something, it becomes a legacy.

Palestine

Henry Herskovitz: In his public comment turn, Herskovitz said it was appropriate to commemorate an event that happened 61 years ago on Thursday – the massacre at Deir Yassin, a Palestinian village of about 700 people. Herskovitz rejected an account of the event by the Jewish Federation, which described it as an aberration. In support of that, Herskovitz then quoted from a website, Deir Yassin Remembered. The website account included a description of commandos led by Menachem Begin who attacked the village, and killed over 100 people and left 53 children orphaned. The children had been found by a woman named Hind Husseini and had led to the creation of an orphanage. Some progress has been made, continued the website passage, inasmuch as Westerners now realized that Palestineans exist, and had acknowledged that thousands of Palestinians had been killed or driven from their homes.

John Dingell

At its Feb. 17, 2009 meeting, Ann Arbor city council passed a resolution congratulating Congressman John Dingell for becoming the longest serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the history of the United States. Dingell, whose district includes Ann Arbor, achieved that distinction on Feb. 11, 2009. Attached to Monday’s online meeting packet, along with other communications sent to the city clerk, was a scan of a handwritten thank-you note from Dingell. The note is the lead art for this report. [image]

Thomas Partridge

Partridge spoke at public hearings on two different agenda items. The first was an ordinance revision to the Special Assessments and the Water, Sewer and Stormwater Rates sections of the city code. According to the online packet, the changes did not address changes in rates:

Proposed ordinance changes include:
• Replacement of specific dates with timing guidelines
• Removal of requirement for multiple notices in Chapter 13
• Removal of requirement for multiple Council resolutions in Chapter 29
• Restructuring of language in both Chapters 13 and 29

Partridge said he opposed the adoption of the amendment, called on council to table it, and to come up with a fair way to assess the fees. Currently, he said, the system was regressive. He said that he was disappointed and dismayed that the water resources commissioner didn’t weigh in on the topic. [Janis Bobrin, water resources commissioner, was present to speak to the issue of the storm water-based public project at the municipal center.]

The second public hearing amended sections of the city code on tax exemptions for housing projects. From the memorandum supporting the change [PILOT stands for payment in lieu of taxes]:

The Office of Community Development and Housing and Human Services Advisory Board are recommending that the PILOT ordinance be amended to increase the income limit of the PILOT from 50% of Area Median Income (AMI) to 60% AMI.

Partridge asked council to table the resolution because it did not address the needs of disabled people, and did not provide progressive democratic guidelines for protection of the most vulnerable citizens, which include developmentally delayed and handicapped children.

Present: Sabra Briere, Sandi Smith, Tony Derezinski, Stephen Rapundalo, Leigh Greden, Christopher Taylor, Margie Teall, Marcia Higgins, Carsten Hohnke, Mike Anglin, John Hieftje

Next Council Meeting: Monday, April 20, 2009 at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 2nd floor of the Guy C. Larcom, Jr. Municipal Building, 100 N. Fifth Ave. [confirm date]

That stick is no ordinary ruler. It's called a Biltmore stick, and has a scale that allows the user to sight the outside limits of a tree's diameter from a single point of view.

On Thursday near 7th and Madison streets, The Chronicle noticed a guy wearing a bright yellow vest with electronic gear and some sort of measuring stick. We had a pretty good idea what it was about, having recently reported on city council’s approval of a $243,500 contract with Davey Resource Group for a GIS-based inventory of trees in the public right-of-way as well as in parks.

Marcia Higgins, one of two councilmembers for Ward 4, had cast the lone vote against the contract, and had explained at Sunday night caucus two weeks later that she would prefer to see the money for the project, which is coming out of the storm water fund, spent directly on storm water.  She also wondered if the work could be completed more cost-effectively as a Boy Scout service project.

It’s not Boy Scouts who are doing the work, but rather four guys from Davey Resource Group.  One of them is Wes, the guy in the yellow vest, who chatted with us as he took down a couple of trees’ vital statistics: height, trunk diameter, type (genus and species), condition, and location.

Early in the conversation, we asked him what kind of tree he was recording at the moment, and he said he figured it was a sugar maple, “but it looks a little different from the sugar maples I’m used to seeing back east.” In this case, “back east” means New Hampshire, where he lives.

Wes uses a clinometer to get a bead on the height of the trees. The device measures angles, and the rest is the magic of geometry.

He was flown in on Tuesday, just two days earlier, and he figures the four-man crew, which is working Monday-Saturday from around 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., will need a couple months to complete the inventory of around 60,000 trees. The pace of around 260 trees a day that Wes reported would take around 60 working days.

Not all of the four tree guys who are working on the project came from outside the region.  For example, the project manager drove up from Ft. Wayne, Indiana, which means the crew has a vehicle to drive people from their hotel out by Briarwood Mall to their job site for the day. On Thursday Wes was working 7th Street from north to south and needed to get to Pauline.

In Wes’ tool kit, along with the GPS unit (for precise location information) and tablet-style computer, were two old-school analog devices: a Biltmore stick for estimating tree diameter and a clinometer for measuring height. Through the power of applied geometry, they’re not just guessing those stats. Wes wasn’t just guessing about that sugar maple, either. He’s an ISA-certified arborist, and has been working in the field for around 10 years.

Why is the city of Ann Arbor conducting a tree inventory, and why is it being paid for out of the storm water fund? The 1994 inventory was based on street addresses, and a pilot attempt to geocode that inventory to make it compatible with the city’s GIS system proved not to be cost-effective. In addition, the arrival of the emerald ash borer in 2002 meant that city staff focused on removal of dead and dying ash trees, which diverted resources from the ongoing update of the inventory. The 1994 inventory did not include park trees like the current project does.

As for the rationale for using storm water monies to pay for the tree inventory, there’s a connection between trees and storm water runoff. A mature deciduous tree uses up an average of 625 gallons of water per year, preventing that amount of water from  entering the storm water system.

So over the next couple of months, if readers spot guys in yellow vests and GPS units sticking out of their backpacks who are taking a really close look at a tree, one of them is Wes. Here’s a question that Wes, the tree guy from New Hampshire, asked The Chronicle: “What’s a can’t-miss thing to see in Ann Arbor?” Readers might want to convey their own answers directly to Wes, or perhaps in a comment below.

Carsten Hohnke and Mike Anglin, both of Ward 5, framed by the chairs of Christopher Taylor and Leigh Greden, both of Ward 3.

Outside the Larcom Building around 6 p.m., Ann Arbor Police Lt. Michael Logghe was using a “slim Jim” to try to gain entry to a citizen’s car. The woman had locked herself out of her vehicle with the engine running.

She was there to pay a $15 parking ticket. She was hoping to avoid a call to the tow truck. Logghe had not achieved success by the time The Chronicle headed inside for the reception for new members of council.

Later, inside Larcom, the newly constituted city council with four new members began its year of work by approving the transfer of a liquor license to Quickie Burger, three drainage projects to be implemented to reduce phosphorus load along Allen Creek, plus a contract with Dawn Farms to provide in-patient and out-patient drug abuse counseling and rehabilitation services to the 15th Judicial District Court.

Quickie Burger

A well-attended reception for new councilmembers preceded the meeting Monday, and The Chronicle spent part of that time chatting with Bob Snyder, president of the South University Neighborhood Association. As that reception blended into folks settling in for the meeting, Snyder offered his view of the agenda item concerning Quickie Burger’s liquor license. “Quickie Burger with a liquor license is like a Montessori School with a liquor license,” he laughed.

Councilmember Stephen Rapundalo reiterated the sentiments he expressed at the Nov. 6 council meeting, indicating that he would not support the transfer of the license to Quickie Burger, citing suitability and fit at its 800 S. State St. location. Specifically, he noted that while there are three party stores with licenses, no restaurant-type establishments had them. Rapundalo said that his concern – which he reported was shared by a number of other restaurateurs in the area – stemmed from the implications of the liquor license for policing that area, which he characterized as “in the heart of student country,” with residential areas immediately across the street, not just in the general vicinity.

Dan Dever, legal counsel for Quickie Burger.

Councilmember Margie Teall led off several supporting comments by saying that she’d “gone back and forth on this, but I think will be supporting it.” She said that part of town could use some vibrancy and attention and that she wanted to see some more activity in this little area.

Councilmember Mike Anglin couched his support in terms of supporting a business decision on the part of the owners. “It’s a large decision on their part, a major move that a business in our community is making,” he said. He said that we needed to be very careful that we don’t drive businesses out and that we needed to treat them with a welcoming approach. Anglin pointed out that licenses would be subject to annual review under the liquor committee’s revitalized commitment to bringing Ann Arbor’s process in compliance with state requirements, and that if there were any complaints they could be dealt with in that review process.

Councilmember Leigh Greden said he supported the analysis of Anglin and Teall. He said he wanted to confirm for the public that alcohol sales stop at 2 a.m. with only food served from 2-4 a.m. Greden requested and received confirmation from Quickie Burger’s counsel, Dan Dever, that staff at Quickie Burger would continue to be thoroughly trained to enforce service times as well as the age requirement.

For councilmember Carsten Hohnke, what convinced him to support the license transfer was that police and fire services departments at the city had approved the application, there were no objections from city staff, and he didn’t see any objective criteria on the basis of which he could object.

Councilmember Tony Derezinski echoed the same sentiments as Hohnke.

Councilmember Marcia Higgins sought clarification about the location of the outdoor service component of the Quickie Burger application. As discussion with Quickie Burger’s legal counsel and its owner, Kerope Arman, revealed that the outside service area was along Hill Street – contrasting with the language of the resolution, which talked about State Street – Higgins asked that the language be amended. After the clarifying amendment was passed, discussion continued.

Rapundalo addressed specific points made by his colleagues. “I don’t want my view to be misconstrued as trying to stifle local businesses,” he said, in response to Anglin’s comments. In response to Teall’s comments, he questioned the notion that the area needs more activity, saying that having ridden “party patrol” with the AAPD, he’d observed that it was extremely popular. In response to Hohnke and Derezinski, Rapundalo stressed that what the fire and police department had signed off on is simply that there are no violations on record. He assured his colleagues that there are concerns on the police force about having a liquor license there, but it’s not something they can legally state. He concluded by reiterating that suitability and fit are criteria by which a decision can be made.

Councilmember Sandi Smith weighed in with her support for the license transfer, saying that Quickie Burger serves food from 2-4 a.m. now catering to a post-bar crowd. She said that having a liquor license on site gives more control and more incentive to curb any rowdiness.

When the vote was taken, Rapundalo was joined in voting no by councilmembers Marcia Higgins and Christopher Taylor, who said after the meeting that he had based his vote on the same suitability and fit criteria as Rapundalo.

After the approval, owner Kerope Arman said he was happy with the support from council, and described the role the license would play in a Quickie Burger family dining experience: with a meal, a mom can enjoy a glass of wine, a dad can enjoy a beer, and kids can enjoy one of the recently introduced milkshakes. He described the enterprise as the brainchild of his son, Varujan, in much the same way as he did for David Erik Nelson, writing for “Current” back in September.

Drain Projects

At councilmember Sabra Briere’s request, Molly Wade, water quality manager with the city of Ann Arbor, gave some background on the three drainage projects, all designed to comply with a directive from the state to reduce phosphorus loading in the Huron River by 50% and to reduce E coli levels to those safe for bodily contact. The three projects on the agenda are a part of the 2007 Allen Creek Initiative, which is an effort to achieve the reductions in phosphorus loading. Mayor of the city of Ann Arbor, John Hieftje, elicited from Wade the consequences for not achieving the reductions, which range from state-mandated specific remedies to fines of up to $25,000 a day.

The sites for the three projects are at Pioneer High School ($4,211,242.00), the city of Ann Arbor farmers market in Kerrytown ($572,018.00), and a section along Stadium Boulevard ($702,335.00).

The Pioneer site is on the northwest corner of the school property, which gets used for parking on UM football Saturdays. The project will entail installation of giant underground storage tanks for storm water detention. The location is ideal, said Craig Hupy, manager of the systems planning unit at the city, because it sits downstream from a large portion (10%) of the watershed.

Councilmember Hohnke asked how the 93 pounds of phosphorus that the Pioneer project was expected to remove from the Allen Creek watershed would translate as progress towards the goal of 50% reduction. Hupy said that the 93 pounds was consistent with the 10% of the watershed that the area represented.

Hohnke also asked Hupy and Wade to address the concerns raised by a speaker during public commentary at the start of the meeting. The speaker was Glenn Thompson, who asked council to vote against the farmers market drain project. Thompson pointed out that if the Allen Creek storm water (which is currently contained in an underground pipe) was so polluted that this provided a rationale for why it can’t be day-lighted, it would, therefore, also not be appropriate for a market setting. He likened the envisioned water-based, educational sculpture that has been discussed for the farmers market to a fountain with contaminated water in the produce section of a grocery store. The vision for the water-based art was also something Thompson found to date poorly articulated, characterizing it as a “magic marker sketch.” Based on the small percentage of the watershed to be treated at the farmers market and the project’s cost, Thompson calculated the cost to treat the entire watershed at $2 billion dollars.

In response to Hohnke’s query, Hupy and Wade acknowledged that the main benefit of the farmers market drain project was in the potential for educational benefit: it drew people from outside who could be exposed to the educational message. Hupy said that he felt that the upfront cost to put the appropriate signage in place would pay off in the ongoing education message.

After the meeting, Wade clarified that the water to be used in the water-based sculpture at the farmers market would not be pumped up from the underground Allen Creek, but would be drawn from underground detention tanks filled from rainfall on the farmers market site.

Councilmember Smith asked if modeling of the drains would result in any relief from the phenomenon of manhole covers blown off by miniature geysers during heavy rains. Hupy said it was unlikely that residents would notice an immediate visual impact, but that the the impact would be positive.

Councilmember Anglin pointed out that modeling means measuring and monitoring flow rates and he encouraged moving forward on installing gauges in the drains.

Councilmember Rapundalo sought clarification about the financing of the projects, which will be paid for initially out of the parks millage fund and reimbursed from the storm water fund. “What won’t we be able to do?” asked Rapundalo. Hupy assured him that the short term for reimbursement (30-60 days) would not have a negative impact.

In light of the increased construction activity near the farmers market for other reasons (Fifth Avenue, for example) in the coming year, councilmember Briere asked if there was coordination with the DDA. Hupy said that the DDA had been at the table through the entire process.

Hieftje elicited from Hupy the fact that there are partners on the projects in the form of the township, the road commission, and state highway department and the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

All three projects were approved unanimously.

Sobriety Court Grant Program

The contract with Dawn Farm to provide in-patient and out-patient drug abuse counseling and rehabilitations service to the 15th District Court totals $101,050. Councilmember Briere opened discussion by noting that the contract does not meet the conditions of the city’s living wage ordinance (which requires entities to pay their employees $10.33 an hour with health care, or else $10.96 without health care). But she asked that her colleagues consider the non-monetary room-and-board compensation as part of the equation. “I hope that we can bend the rules just a little bit on this one,” she said.

Councilmember Higgins noted that council had repeatedly adjusted the amounts with and without health care.

Higgins cast the lone vote against the contract. In her subsequent communications to council, she said that when we decide to bend our ordinances, we should think about changing the ordinance: “We should have an open policy discussion instead of bending ordinances.” Higgins noted that the issue of the living wage had come up in the last year in connection with summer festival grants.

Appointments

A council rules committee was appointed, which will consist of Derezinski, Higgins, and Briere.

Other council appointments included: Derezinski to planning commission; Hohnke to greenbelt advisory commission; Teall and Hohnke to the environmental commission.

Richard Beedon was appointed to fill Mike Reid’s unexpired term through June 30, 2009 on the Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA). Reid resigned over a disagreement concerning the amount and timetable that Ann Arbor SPARK, an economic development agency funded in part by the LDFA, would be required to reimburse monies it had claimed but was not entitled to.

Public Commentary

In addition to Glenn Thompson, whose commentary is summarized above, two other members of the public spoke.

Jim Northrup of Ann Arbor Hydraulics with a Stirling engine and a roll of lenticular lens material

Tom Partridge: Partridge called for access to jobs for Michigan residents, universal health care, universal affordable public transportation, and access to affordable lifetime public-supported education, not just in public schools, but in institutions of higher education. He asked council to pass a resolution calling on Michigan’s congressional delegation to address these things, which he said Michigan sorely needs.

Jim Northrup: Northrup, of Ann Arbor Hydraulics, brought a role of lenticular lens material, and a Stirling engine as eye candy for “show and tell.” But what he was before council to request was access to the city’s recycling stream for fresnel lenses from televisons. He wants to use the giant magnifying lenses for research. City administrator Roger Fraser asked Northrup to leave his contact information.

Update on Keys

The vehicle was gone by the time the meeting ended. Either Logghe or a tow truck operator achieved success.

Present: John Hieftje, Sandi Smith, Sabra Briere, Tony Derezinski, Stephen Rapundalo, Leigh Greden, Christopher Taylor, Margie Teall, Marcia Higgins, Carsten Hohnke, Mike Anglin. Absent: none.

Next meeting: Monday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 2nd floor of the Guy C. Larcom, Jr. Municipal Building, 100 N. Fifth Ave.

"Butter," in a red shirt, is the driver of the cement mixer truck that spilled a bit of its load. He's assisted in his cleanup effort by two workers who were radioed to come lend a hand.

When Amy Whitesall filed a Stopped. Watched. item about a concrete spill downtown, The Chronicle wondered if it would still be there by the time we hoofed it over to Huron and Fifth where the spill had occurred.

Yep, still there, but three guys from Superior Materials were attacking the pile of wet cement in the pedestrian walkway with shovels and a broom. (Superior Materials of Farmington Hills bought out Killins Concrete on the west side of Ann Arbor at Liberty and Wagoner about a year ago, but the three-man crew work out of the old Killins location).

It was about an eighth of a cubic yard that spilled, or about two wheelbarrows’ full – not really all that much compared to a spill the driver’s colleagues recalled from the late ’90s that happened one block further down on Huron right next to the Ann Arbor News building. On that occasion a collision with an automobile caused an accidental pour that resulted in a concrete-filled car.

Hosing off of the concrete slurry commenced but was shut down by Mike Bergren from the city. They're working at the corner of Huron & Fifth – the Hands-On Museum is in the background.

Today, less than five minutes after The Chronicle arrived, the pile of concrete in the crosswalk had disappeared into the back of the truck. How did it get out of the mixing drum and onto the pavement in the first place? Did “Butter,” the driver of the mixer, accidentally hit the “pour” button sitting in the cab waiting for the light to change? Nope. “Butter” said that a driver in front of him had suddenly felt the urge to change lanes, and that he had to hit the brakes or else rear-end him. The momentum of the concrete mixture in the drum carried it right out the front chute and onto the pavement. It’s not like this happens all the time – less often that 1 in 100 trips, according to “Butter’s” co-workers – but it’s not unheard of either.

After the solid mass of concrete had been scraped out of the crosswalk with flat-nosed shovels, “Butter” began hosing the remaining slurry into the gutter with the water supply from his truck. Not so fast, said Mike Bergren, assistant field operations manager with the city of Ann Arbor. Bergren happened to be walking by on the way to a meeting. He explained to The Chronicle that “wash out” from hosing the chute isn’t allowed into the storm drains (on pain of a $500 fine), and for the same reason, he didn’t want to see the rest of the spill hosed down. So the spraying with the hose was shut down. Bergren said he didn’t see fit to fine these guys, because they were trying to do the right thing. So how were they supposed to finish their cleanup?

A quick phone call from Bergren summoned a street sweeper from the city. So the concrete mixer and its driver continued on their way to the job site at State and Washington (presumably North Quad, the UM dormitory currently under construction) while two guys stayed behind in their smaller truck to wait for the street sweeper.

A city street sweeper arrived to finished the cleanup of the concrete spill.

Waiting for the sweeper, The Chronicle learned a lot about the science of concrete. For example, there are over 2,000 different mixtures, with set-up times from a few minutes to over 24 hours. And one of the pieces of equipment they use to prepare the mixtures is a boiler for the water. Depending on the mixture, it needs to arrive at the job site at 65-70 degrees, something that gets measured before a load will be accepted for a pour.

About a half hour after Begren called in the sweeper, it arrived on the scene and did its work.

View of West Park looking east from the 7th Street side.

On the way to the meeting, The Chronicle stopped to take in a current West Park use: football practice for a four-school coalition of area Catholic schools (St. Francis, St. Thomas, Spiritus Sanctus, and Huron Valley), which together field one varsity and one JV squad, which play in Detroit’s Catholic Youth Organization league.

The varsity team has compiled a record of 4-0 so far this fall, with the JV even at 2-2. They will play for the district championship this coming Sunday, Sept. 28 at Gabriel Richard field – 12:30 p.m. game start for the JV, with the varsity contest slated to begin at 2:30 p.m. Details about the scrimmage were supplied to The Chronicle by Gina Walsh, whose sons Kevin and Jack help quarterback the varsity and JV teams, respectively, and whose son Charlie patrols the sidelines as the water boy. Football practices in West Park with this four-school coalition are the result of an effort that Doug Busch helped lead (of the grocery store Busch’s) to provide an opportunity parents felt was missing.

Although the boys ranged from 5th through 8th grade, the coaching staff were giving them a full dose of instruction in football technique. “Square up your butt!” was the last lesson taught before The Chronicle headed up the hill to Miller Manor for the West Park meeting.

As Kuras summarized the discussion from the first public meeting on West Park improvements – held in July – the tension became clear between the need to manage natural features (like water) and the desire to feature amenities that support various activities (from baseball to bandshells). Water management consultant Don Tilton spoke of segregating recreational activity areas from the kinds of bioswales, wetlands, and other non-structural storm water management options that were available. Tilton stressed that they were not approaching the challenge of drying out the soggy areas intended for recreation with the idea of just adding more pipe. There’s already plenty of pipe under West Park, some of it a conduit for Allen Creek, which in a different epoch flowed along the surface.

Instead of more pipe, the kind of ideas currently contemplated by Tilton are reflected on the drawings by what one resident called “a pearl necklace of blue going through there.” That is, a swale that might sometimes be filled with flowing water. It emerged in the discussion that Prof. Chris Ellis of the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment currently has some graduate students working on the design of wetlands for West Park that would have a filtering function for storm water – an opportunity for city-university cooperation.

Robert Wagner, Executive Director of Lurie Terrace, explains to Amy Kuras, city of Ann Arbor park planner, a vision for a return of shuffleboard to West Park.

Among the amenities that residents seemed to support was the idea of seat walls terraced into the hill facing the bandshell. Another idea that does not seem to require choosing one amenity over another was proposed by Robert Wagner, Executive Director of Lurie Terrace (a nearby senior housing complex): refurbish the existing shuffleboard court adjacent to the tennis courts. Wagner went to the easel to point out exactly where the court was located, and said he’d be willing to invest in new shuffleboard equipment for his residents. He described a future where the shuffleboard courts of West Park might tap into the competitive spirit between Miller Manor and Lurie Terrace.

Yet another idea that on its face would not require sacrificing some other amenity came from Mike Levine: an edible West Park. Levine wasn’t talking about a Project Grow garden plot. He meant plantings of pear trees, apricot trees, and various berry bushes that residents could pick and eat as they walked the trails through the park. He alluded to apricot trees in downtown Ann Arbor that already provide nice fruit … to residents who know where they are. The Chronicle is hoping for some tree-map tutoring from Mike.

The possibility of a Project Grow garden did come up, and Executive Director Melissa Kesterson outlined what the criteria were for garden plot site selection: (i) residents have to want them there, (ii) it must be flat, (iii) a water source must be available, and (iv) sunshine must be abundant. Baseball players in the audience perceived a choice between preservation of the West Park baseball field and a Project Grow garden plot, with one baseball supporter suggesting that Ann Arborites could already grow whatever extra vegetables they wanted in the strip of land between the sidewalk and the street. In one sketch, the baseball diamond had been replaced with a soccer field – a sport described by that same baseball supporter as “un-American.” “Any game where you can’t use your hands to touch the ball is just stupid!” he said, apparently only half kidding.

Just west of the tennis courts in West Park lies this shuffleboard court in need of a resurfacing.

His fellow baseball supporter, Jay Jahnke, who manages the upper and lower division Ann Arbor A’s, pointed out that there are 22 teams that play baseball at the field, and that “it’s the best place to play baseball in lower Michigan,” due to the sight lines and the backdrop, not to mention having a storied history of baseball played there. So Jahnke was somewhat underwhelmed by Kuras’ assurance that if the baseball diamond disappeared from West Park, it would be replaced at a different location.

Towards the end of the meeting, one resident brought the discussion back from baseball around to the question of what the long-term provisions are for water management in the West Park master plan. What happens if the non-structural strategies for segregating wet and dry areas don’t succeed? Part of the answer has to do with what happens farther upstream from West Park, but there was nothing definitive to say. Which is why there will be at least one additional public meeting on West Park improvements. As one resident had phrased the challenge earlier in the meeting, “Mother Nature always bats last.”