Landscape Beautification Committee Agendas & Minutes

LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFICATION COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES August 16, 2012 Administration Building Room 218 Present: Trustee Louella Preston, Chair Susan Bus – Purchasing Chuck Ostman – Community Development Bob Pilat – Public Services Cathy Spadoni – Secretary Fred Braun – Superintendent of Public Works John Ryan – Landscape Architect I. Call to Order Trustee Preston called the meeting to order at 10:30 a.m. II. Approval of Minutes Bob Pilat moved to approve the minutes of the August 2, 2012 meeting with the following change: page 5, paragraph 5, first sentence – change the word “four” to “five.” The motion was seconded by Susan Bus. All approved. III. Old Business a) Review of Phase I Landscape Marcheschi Memorial Rock The Marcheschi memorial rock is located on Milwaukee Avenue at Albion. According to the Phase I Landscape plan, there is no rock at that site. As long as the rock is there, Phase I is incomplete. Susan Bus made a motion, seconded by Trustee Preston, to move the Marcheschi Memorial Park rock to the Public Works former Park District tot lot (“Stonehenge” park) on Franks. In favor: Trustee Preston, Susan Bus, Bob Pilat. Opposed: Chuck Ostman. The motion passed. Trustee Preston will investigate further with the appropriate people. Page 1 of 7 Landscape Beautification Committee August 16, 2012 Excess Waterfall Pavers Chuck Ostman initiated a discussion about the disposition of the excess pavers that came from the fountain. They are part of the hardscape of Phase I and are a Village asset. We will keep some on hand for replacement in repaired areas, but there are far more than we would ever use. The pavers are: in good condition; plentiful enough for a patio; not suitable for a driveway; and not suitable for engraving. Perhaps there is a governmental group or not-for-profit in Niles that could use them. We would need permission from the Board to put them up for sale or give them away. Trustee Preston made a motion, seconded by Bob Pilat, to come up with a plan to dispose of the excess pavers from the waterfall. All approved. Warranty Inspection John Ryan reported that the warranty expires at the end of November. In September, he will do a full warranty inspection of all the sites. Trees at the Reservoir There is a situation with the trees along the wall of the reservoir. They are dying because of a wetness problem with the downspouts. Before we replace the trees, we should consider solutions such as tiling the downspouts with a pop-up emitter at the curb so that water won’t dump into the planting area. b) Review Phase II Landscape Plan for Bid Document Trustee Preston reported that on Tuesday, August 14, John Ryan emailed the Landscape Beautification Phase II plan to the committee; all committee members have received those documents. We will now review scale drawings of the plan. John Ryan added that these are the same documents the bidders will receive and the same documents the person who goes to contract with the Village will use. Susan Bus stated we now charge for bid documents - $35 for a complete, hardcopy set of bid documents and drawings. Bidders have the option to either pick them up or review them online. She usually has ten copies available. John Ryan presented his plan for Phase II. He brought nearly-completed Phase II plans for bidding as well as written documents. He found a few inconsistencies because of the alternate planter plan that was added and did a few mark-ups. These plans represent: 1) the notes taken at the time of the walk-around of the sites and the agreed upon changes, and 2) the alternate curbed planter program (with its own dedicated sheet) which made it necessary to make changes to the plans. There were certain improvements that the original plans called for that are superseded by the alternate planter program. If we assume that the Village does not go ahead with all of the planters right away, the assumption is that we do not want to do interim improvements until the planters go in. The assumption is that the planters will eventually go in and that no interim work is being done in those areas. Page 2 of 7 Landscape Beautification Committee August 16, 2012 Trustee Preston noted that the minutes reflect that if we do not go with the curbed planters, then we will remove the grates and cement those areas in. The cement work would be handled internally. The committee was unclear as to how this would be paid for. The plans reflect the ideal, but it may not happen in budget year 2013. The plans for the following locations were discussed: Village Administration Building The Removal Plan: The existing River Birch will be replaced with a Honey Locust. Three Serviceberry trees will be replaced with three 7-Sunflower, an ornamental tree with no fleshy fruit (it forms a seed head that blooms in the fall) and has decorative, “peely” bark in the winter. It will not litter anything on the pavement. Fred Braun agrees with this replacement. John Ryan stated that the removal of the Serviceberry trees requires a change in the plantings under the new trees to take into consideration the amount of sunlight that will now be available. The ground cover has filled in nicely and will stay. The corners will now reflect a consistency. The planters have been revised to reduce the number of annuals; the rest will be drought-tolerant, permanent plants. The curbed tree boxes will remain. **At this time, Susan Bus noted that this tree removal is part of the plan, not an alternate plan. Bob Pilat suggested that if the whole project comes in over budget, then we postpone working on a particular site, not part of a particular site. John Ryan added that if we pick pieces out of each project, it would be a logistical nightmare and the job may never be completed. Trustee Preston summarized that when working with this plan, we will consider whole sites as opposed to pieces of sites. For the purpose of this plan, the Civic Center Plaza area is comprised of the Administration Building, the Fitness Center, the Senior Center and the Post Office and is to be considered one project. John Ryan stated that we will get a bid per building; every site is set up as a separate package. Bob Pilat stated that it is convenient for the contractor to have each building on a separate page, but he recommends that when we award the bid, we do the whole Civic Center area to avoid having only a portion of it completed. Trustee Preston added that if we have to do cutbacks, cutbacks will be done somewhere else. John Ryan pointed out that a lot of additional trees have been earmarked for removal, and this was not in the budget. Trustee Preston added that the 2008 landscape plan showed enhancements of the existing landscape, but did not take into consideration replacement. John Ryan suggested that tree removal should be in an alternate package. Right now they will be lumped into the bid for all these sites so we know automatically that we’ll be over budget. Fred Braun stated that 45 trees were taken down at Civic Center Plaza area and Public Works; 26 of them were Ash trees. Trustee Preston continued that the replacement of the 19 remaining trees will have to be paid for out of the Landscape Page 3 of 7 Landscape Beautification Committee August 16, 2012 Beautification budget, but this was not part of the original plan. (Fred Braun clarified that a few of those 19 trees (at Public Works) will not be replaced, so the number is reduced to 15 or 16.) John Ryan again suggested that we leave only the trees that were in the plan in 2008 in the base bid, and any other trees that have since been removed should be an alternate, i.e. separate from the base bid. We can take any part of an alternate bid and award it with the contract. If we don’t keep it separate, it will become very complicated. To summarize: The replacement of all the trees should be part of the plan. We will do separate line items so that Public Works budget pays for the Ash tree replacement and the Landscape Beautification budget pays for the replacement of other trees. John Ryan needs to go back to the 2008 Phase II documents to determine which trees were going to be enhancing the landscape (base bid) as opposed to those trees that need to be replaced (alternate bid). All concurred. Senior Center / Fitness Center The Removal Plan: John Ryan has done some mark-ups to reflect the current site condition. Public Works will remove the stumps and fill in the holes. If we go ahead with the planter boxes, the contractor will remove the grates and frames per the bid. If the Village wants to keep the grates, we need to put a line item under special provisions that they are to be delivered to the Public Works facility. Otherwise, they will go to the “scrap guy.” North Half of Senior / Fitness Center There are no major changes to the plan, just some minor upgrades. We will replace a tree that has been removed. Per Trustee Rosemary Palicki’s request, we will plant to the curb and will install salt-tolerant plants. Entrance to the Fitness Center At the time the decision was made to plant this area, there was no alternate tree planter box program. The Serviceberry trees were replaced with something more appropriate. A total of six Serviceberry trees will have been removed from Civic Center Plaza area. Plan for Alternate Tree Planter Boxes This plan is broken down into five groups, with separate work lists for each group, so that we will know what the cost is if we want to implement a group at a time. This identifies everything that needs to be done from removing what is existing to putting in all new concrete and CU structural soil. We are going with the standard curb to match what is already in front of the Administration building. There is an item titled Plant Material Deletions that includes “add” and “deduct” plant lists. These lists will be used if we go with planter boxes and have to take out plants that were in the program. Page 4 of 7 Landscape Beautification Committee August 16, 2012 Post Office Positioning the planter box according to the plan allows us to keep trees but also to hide the existing ugly wall. The only change to this sheet is the fact that we have now identified all the additional trees that have been taken out along Waukegan, and we are showing replacements for them. Fred Braun suggested that, if necessary, we can postpone replacing the Ash trees in this location without impacting any other beautification projects. Trustee Preston noted that even though this is technically part of Phase II, Public Works does not have to replace them now. John Ryan added that this section is in the alternate plan because none of these trees was in the 2008 plan. Trustee Preston stated that we need to make it clear to the Board that the landscape has changed since we approved enhancements in 2008. They need to decide whether or not they want to do this now or put it in the 2014 budget. Either way, we need to complete the Ives/Ryan plan adopted in 2008. If we don’t complete the approved plan, it must be so noted and explained. Public Services Facility Trustee Preston stated that she and John Ryan had walked the Public Services facility. Some of their questions have been resolved. John Ryan reported that the removal plan includes the additional trees that have been removed. On the landscape plan, the cut-through in front of the building will be fully planted. A dying Spruce will be replaced. By the sign, we will keep the Junipers and will plant in front of them to cover the bare underside. The Ash trees will be removed. The planting bed by the wash bay on the south end was missing from the plan but is now there. Maintenance-free material will replace the plantings by the gas pumps. Triangle Park John Ryan reported that he has updated the plan to reflect the streetscape improvements, including all the new light poles. The sitting area has been moved to work with the new light pole position and the planting beds have been adjusted to work with the sidewalks. The plan now reflects current conditions. There will be a new planting scheme with a noticeable upgrade. They picked up the bench and trash container to match the streetscape program. (These are not covered in the streetscape program because they’re off the right-of-way.) The benches will be bolted into the concrete. Fire Station 2 Improvements on the 2008 plan for the fenced-off area and memorial garden are now off- the-plan; these areas will not be touched. We made a few revisions to the plantings by the main (north) entrance to the building. Most of the site plans are fine as originally conceived. Some of the lava rock on the west side of the station, up against the sidewalk, will be replaced with plantings; a portion of it against the building will remain for maintenance. Page 5 of 7 Landscape Beautification Committee August 16, 2012 The bid document was addressed. John Ryan reported that there are a few items on the individual bid sheets that need to be removed or identified as “not on the contract.” Susan Bus will provide the cover sheet and will electronically send to John Ryan her requests for changes to the documents, i.e. insert our legal notice, change it to 2012 prevailing wage, etc. Bob Pilat will make sure to clearly identify that what is in the annual landscape maintenance contract is not to be bid on. The horticultural timetable for planting is as follows: Completion of work - October 15 for Evergreen trees, perennials, groundcovers, ornamental grasses November 1 for Evergreen shrubs The horticultural guidelines call for a planting deadline of October 15, but October 15 is only two weeks after we award the contract. John Ryan feels that this is not a realistic goal; in addition to planting, there is the removal work and the hardscape work. He added that it is the contractor’s option to violate this date because the contractor is the one guaranteeing the material. We don’t want to be the party that changes the dates that are considered acceptable. The burden needs to be on the contractor to accept the timeline and complete the job in two weeks. However, this unrealistic timeline may prevent contractors from bidding. The plan states that the project must be substantially completed by November 15, with final completion of Spring-only plantings by May 15. These are the same dates as on Phase I. John Ryan suggested the alternative is to remove the horticultural timetable and keep these two completion dates. We can give them the option to do some of the planting in the spring. It was noted that permanent plants are guaranteed for one year. We will strike the timetable from the document and revise it to say “substantially completed by November 15 and total completion by May 15, 2013.” If the base bid is over budget, the Village of Niles reserves the right to remove what we want to remove – that’s why we have unit prices. It was reiterated that we hope to complete the Civic Center Plaza area all together, possibly excluding the trees on Waukegan. Committee of the Whole Presentation at August 28 Board Meeting The presentation will be one-half hour, including questions from the trustees. John Ryan will briefly highlight the changes from the 2008 plan, explain how the tree situation is being addressed, present the alternate plan for the planter boxes, and explain that the plan has been designed with the option to select certain sections to work on in order to save money and do it the right way. Page 6 of 7 Landscape Beautification Committee August 16, 2012 The trustees will get packets that include a summary, meeting minutes, completed bid documents, reduced-size copies of the drawings, and photos of the current tree grates and planters and the proposed planter boxes. Trustee Preston will send this packet to the trustees as soon as it is available. The bid document and two sets of full-size drawings will be available in the trustee office for review. Annuals in “Sign Island” John Ryan reported that Gabriel of KGI believes the annuals in “sign island” have been overwatered. The plants are rotting; they’ve been put in twice. It was noted that there is a sprinkler system there. Fred Braun will talk to Ron Habel (Facilities Manager). Plant Disposal Trustee Preston discussed the disposition and possible recycling of the small number of plantings that will be removed during execution of the landscape plan. Plants are not fixed assets and are therefore not subject to the surplus rules. Offering the plants to other governmental bodies such as park district, school districts, or the garden club was determined to be an expensive and labor- intensive proposition. Bob Pilat suggested that we put in the contract that the contractor is responsible for the removal and disposal of plants. The committee agreed: The plantings will become the property of the contractor to do with as they please. IV. New Business John Ryan will review and tabulate the bids received at the bid opening on September 12. This committee will meet the week of September 17 to review John’s findings and make a recommendation to the Board. Trustee Preston will contact the committee members. Susan Bus noted that even though we won’t know by September 14 who will be awarded the bid (the date agenda items are due to the Village Clerk), we will still reserve a place on the Board agenda. We can email the recommendation to the trustees and they’ll have the hard copy on the day of the Board meeting. V. Announcements VI. For the Good of the Order VII. Adjournment Trustee Preston entertained a motion to adjourn. Chuck Ostman moved to adjourn, seconded by Susan Bus. All approved. The meeting adjourned at 12:43 p.m. Page 7 of 7