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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOct 31, 1977OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL CITY OF COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, MINNESOTA OCTOBER 31, 1977 The meeting was called to order at 7:40 p.m. Roll Call: Heintz, Norberg, Hentges, Nawrocki--present. Logacz--absent. Motion by Norberg, seconded by Hentges, to name Carol Lattery secretary of the meeting. Roll Call: All Ayes. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and handle the items as they appear on the agenda. REVIEW AND AWARD BIDS FOR PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDING CONSTRUCTION AND REMODELING OF CITY HALL Interim City Manager Stuart Anderson reported the bids were opened on Thursday, October 27, 1977. Two general contractors submitted bids. First bidder was Bud Johnson Construction Co. with a base bid of $695,000, on Alternate No. 1 a deduct of $1,100 and on Alternate No. 2 a deduct of $6,500. The second bidder was W. H. Cates Construction Co. with a base bid of $627,599, on Alternate No. 1 a deduct of $2,500 and on Alternate No. 2 a deduct of $5,546. The estimates were $387,000 on the base bid. In view of the very high bid over estimate, it was recommended the bids be rejected. Some alternate plans were presented for discussion. Mayor Nawrocki asked for some reasons why the bids were so much higher than the estimate. Interim City Manager Anderson noted that these two contractors and other contractors that were prospective and even took out specifications and plans commented that the difficulty of dealing with locating minority subcontractors was a problem. He noted also in talking to the low bidder, W. H. Cates Construction Co., the problem seemed to center around the remodeling rather than the new construction. When Architect Bob Diedrich reviewed his estimates with W. H. Cates Construction Co., the new construction was very close to being on the money. The difficulty factors seemed to be the contractors' fear of the unknown and they evidently built so much into the remodeling portion. Architect Bob Diedrich reported right after the bidding, he reviewed the pricing with the general contractor and iow bidder, W. H. Cates Construction Co. and for obvious competitive reasons, they did not show him their breakdown, but took his estimate and showed him where it compared and where it didn't and some of the areas where he was way off and where they were way off. He reported first of all, $7,500 in costs for winter heating had not been accounted for and there were $5,000 in additional insurance costs partly because of heating the whole building rather than just the new construction. October 31, 1977 He reported the landscape bid ran three times the estimate and everyone agreed that this was way out of line. The carpeting was specified at $7/yd. and actually bid at $15/yd., which was $8,000 over. The mechanical contract ran $53,000 over estimate, but the contractor admitted he did not get satisfactory mechanical bids. The contractor did not have any minority bidders, but he claimed he called the whole list of 50, but had no takers. The markups were running 25% above normal, which is $105,000 over estimate. Some of the markup items are workable and some are not. The plans and proposed changes were reviewed by the city staff the morning of the meeting. If the insurance is carried as a rider on the present Building Insurance, the savings would be $2,000. The proposal is to delete the whole landscaping contract and accomplish it with a small allowance of $12,000. The next proposal is to put the carpeting on alternate for a savings of $8,000 and if it goes over again, it can be rebid. The estimate on reroofing was $20,000 and the contractor estimated $20,000 but he had $15,000 in demolition costs. The proposal was to put reroofing on alternate and if pricing of it goes over, remove it and rebid it. Councilman Hentges noted he heard that the House of Representatives passed legislation saying there is grant money available for municipal buildings for winterization. Architect Bob Diedrich stated justificatiops for reroofing were because of leakage and for insulation purposes. Architect Bob Diedrich indicated the following proposals: He proposed a series of corrections in the mechanical contract, and to rehab the existing system for energy efficiency. Instead of having all the equipment operate off the boilers (hot water system), he proposed changing the two rooftop units from water to direct fire at the same size and number of units for a savings of $7,000. The air conditioning condensing unit gives a savings of another $6,000. He proposed adding on an additional combustion unit on the mark-up air units for the city garage which happens to be a infrequently used piece of equipment. He noted in changing from water coils to burners in the ventilation unit, the chimney size, the number of pumps, the amount of piping and the amount of touch control can all be reduced, which all considered together is quite a sizeable savings package. He proposed not adding a truck wash in the fire bay for a savings of $1,800 on trench draining and inflammable waste trap. The roof on the new building will drain to the alley, instead of down through the garage and out the front which does not require that the existing concrete pavement be repaved. He proposed using block in the area at the back side of the Council Chambers around the stairway which is presently shown as brick as the other walls around that area .are block, for a savings of $1,000. October 31, 1977 He proposed putting the skylite over the Police Station and Council Chambers on an alternate at $4,000 savings. Councilman Hentges expressed the opinion that the skylites are one of the biggest energy wasters there is. Architect Diedrich explained most commercial buildings expend more than half their energy in lighting. The double dome is a minimum consideration. Councilman Logacz entered the meeting at 8:00 p.m. A discussion followed on skylites. Architect Diedrich went on to the next item which was the cabinet work in the Police Station consisting of two counters with windows and one counter in the Fingerprint Room. He proposed going to a standard catalog unit rather than a built-in unit for a savings of $1,500 and reducing the area of bulletproof glass by half for a savings of $2,800. Interim City Manager Anderson explained the bulletproof glass will be in the front lobby to the Records area and from the Records area to the Jail area which is a requirement if the Police Department wants cells. He stated he went over to the Department of Corrections and they ordered him to put the glass into the plans and it had not originally been in them. Architect Diedrich stated the painting and vinyl asbestos tile are to be done by city crews for a savings of $6,000 on the painting and $2,400 on the asbestos tile. Interim City Manager Anderson reported there are two CETA people presently doing this kind of work. Also, some of those items have to be contracted out and $10,000 was allowed for that. He stated it is not going to be in the contractor's bid, but there are some costs attached to this type of work. In the new estimate of what all the expenses will be $10,000 was allowed for some of the other things and these are some of them. Also, included is some landscaping and some work to be done in the present Police Department. Councilman Heintz stated he had no objections that the city crews were doing it, but asked if there will be time now that hockey season is coming up and the city is using CETA people rather than full-time people to clean off the rinks. Councilman Hentges replied that this work wont be done until next spring. Architect Bob Diedrich listed the final item which was electrical. He reported there are three systems, one for telephone, one for radio and one for intercom that provide some flexibility on wires and he stated it appears that the intercom system can be deleted and the other systems would not have all the outlets used. He proposed simplification of the present fire alaram system which costs $4,000 for a savings of $1,000. October 31, 1977 Councilman Heintz stated he did not recommend any cut in the fire system. He stated if he was going to spend $1~00, this is not the place he would take it from and he felt it is a bad place to cut. A long discussion followed on reducing the cost of the fire alarm system. Mayor Nawrocki stated the question should be asked if the fire system is as good as, equal to~ or is the city sacrificing 25%. Councilman Heintz suggested that maybe it was overestimated in the first place and stated it should have been an adequate spec. to start with. Architect Diedrich replied he is redesigning the fire system to get the same use for $1,000 less cost. He stated the Policemen Training Room has a pattern of fluorescent .lights and a pattern of lighting track for flexible use and he proposed deleting the lighting track which can be added later. Also, by · removing five of the light fixtures in the fire bay, the pattern can still be maintained and the saving would be $300 there. The fluorescent fixtures chosen for the circulation corridor and the new Council Chambers can be replaced by a lighting track which allows a savings of $2,700. He reported on the remodeling areas. In the existing Police area, the total cost from his estimate including demolition, reconstruction, mechanical and electrical is $16,700. He stated he did not know how much the remodeling has affected the overall bid and there was difficulty in pricing because of the extra changes the contractor would have to make. The new Court offices which involve the contract with An. oka County is $23,450. The Employees Lounge is another significant factor in the finishing and furnishing contract which is $26,000. This was originally figured at considerably more partly because of the carpeting in the construction contract which is $7/sq. yd. He mentioned one more item, temporary heat, which can be run for a savings of $7,500 and there is a reduction from $7,500 to $4,500 in fuel. Mayor Nawrocki stated taking direct bids on some of these items like carpeting was talked about and with the changes in tbe heating system ~from what was originally proposed, it appears to be a comple~new system. He asked what is going to be done about operating and main- tenance costs and cost of fuel. Architect Diedrich replied that the energy efficiency is better and this system will reduce the plan by $13,000 on the unit, $6,000 on the boilers and $900 on the chimney size. The water coil has 130 years and the gas burner has 15 years. Mayor Nawrocki stated in that 30-year perior part of the system would have to be replaced and he questioned how much additional major maintenance might be saved. October 31, 1977 Mayor Nawrocki commented that the bids received were extremely disappointing, 65% higher than estimated. He stated a few days before the bid, when he found out there wasn't much interest in the project, he expressed concern and made strong suggestions that bid opening be delayed to see if there were any changes that could be made so that the city wouldn't have to get the surprise they got causing a delay in construction and additional cost. He remarked he did not particularly influence anybody because the bids were opened with unfortunate results. He stated the only thing that could be done is to reject the bids as he could not justify the kind of money which was talked about and it appeared to him the city is still going to be a ways off tc be able to build the building. Architect Diedrich replied there is a change of $150,000. Mayor Nawrocki stated some of the work is going to have to be done by other sources, representing total additional cost. He stated the bid was a very strong disappointment to him. Councilman Heintz commented to the architect that generally he was pretty close to bid before in his work in Columbia Heights, but 65% over the estimate says either the spec was written wrong or a lot of gold and silver was put in that was not needed. He stated he could not understand how the costs have gone up way out of sight. Architect Diedrich stated there was something wrong with the bidding process. There was a lot of pricing that was way out of line. Councilman Heintz stated he didn't know who is at fault or where the fault lies. If asked if bidding on the same specs without changing anything and allowing two months for bidding and getting more bidders could help the city come out closer to bid. He asked what could be done if bids were opened in January. Architect Diedrich replied the problem is there is a deadline because of EDA grant requirements and there is just 60 days left. The time is short and there is only one shot. The contractor won't penalize the city. He proposed to change the amount of the specifications right now. Councilman Norberg commented it seems like they squeezed all the nickles out of it and still miss being near. He suggested getting a rebidding and he felt if the contractors have more time to sharpen their pencils, there may be better bids. He suggested making some kind of scale change in the entire building because he didn't think the changes suggested were going to make it. Architect Diedrich explained the EDA grant is based on the plans as submitted. In addition, the city is committed to an energy rehab. On the remodeling sheet, he talked about $150,000 change. This would change the plans and would need approval of the EDA. There is a lot of markup in there, the cost overrun on the mechanical and the issue on the equal opportunity. He stated he considered the 25% markup unrealistic competition and it shouldn't run more than 5%. October 31, 1977 Councilman Norberg stated he would be happy if the city had a more substantial thing to go with. Councilman Hentges questioned the roof estimate of $20,000. Architect Diedrich stated the actual bid on the roof was $35,000 which was $15,000 overrun. Councilman Hentges stated if I hear you right, we cannot change the design of the building one iota. Architect Diedrich replied the city cannot make a substantial plan change to the building without getting EDA approval. The plans when reviewed by EDA did not have the remodeling job filled out very clearly. Councilman Hentges suggested chopping the square footage off where it can be, making a motion to reject the bids and sit down and weed out what is not needed at this time. Mayor Nawrocki asked if there has been any followup with the EDA people to see if there is any flexibility in the time schedule. Administrative Assistant Tim Yantos replied there is no flexibility in the time schedule. It will be determined what portion or how major the scaledown actually is. The EDA people said go ahead and do what needs to be done. When asked what if there are some major structural changes in the plans, they said if it comes to that, give us a call. They instructed Mr. Yantos to give them a call back in the morning after the meeting and let them know what is going to be done. There is a problem with the major structural changes because it gets into making up a new set of plans and specs, which means overlapping on · the timetable. Councilman Hentges stated ~'..at the bids should be rejected and and the city should start over and see where structural changes can be made. Architect Diedrich explained it would require not only structural change but an architectural drawing change too. Motion by Heintz, seconded by Norberg, to reject the bids. Roll Call: All Ayes. Motion carried. Councilman Heintz stated he wanted to get this thing together so the city could get the bid somehow before the deadline for meeting the EDA requirements. Administrative Assistant Yantos explained the point to the conver- sation with EDA is to go with another rebidding process because they are holding the city to the December 12th deadline. When he mentioned structural changes, they said the possibility of overlapping will present problems at that time. October 31, 1977 Councilman Heintz asked if when the bids were advertised the contractors knew how much money the city was getting. Architect Diedrich replied they must have known something. Also, the two bidding contractors knew they were the only bidders on the morning of the bid. Mayor Nawrocki stated this concerned him the most the fact that there wasn't enough bidding action. He asked if anybody did any more checking with minority business. Administrative Assistant Yantos answered that he called Mel Aanerud who stated he felt that the contractors now are looking at this project as they did the other federally funded projects where you make a good faith effort to work with minorities. They are not getting the word strong enough that they have to come across with the 10%. They have to come up with the 10% and really go at it full swing and get them. Mayor Nawrocki suggested trying to find out whether the minority contractors are just that busy and don't have time to figure or if the contractors themselves are not doing their part of the job. He expressed the opinion that at the present time there are just not enough minority contractors for the kind of work that is involved. The EDA Program sets a flat percentage of 10% across the country. In some areas, there would be no problem getting 10% minority contractors because they have a higher percentage of minority people and naturally more people in the business. There is going to be a smaller number of minority contractors in some areas. Administrative Assistant Yantos commented he received two answers: 1) from the generals that they had a lot of difficulty even contacting minorities and 2) from the EDA Office that the generals are not trying hard enough. Mayor Nawrocki stated he tended to believe the generals because he sits on the MTC Board and they have a full-time man just working with minority business contractors. Administrative Assistant Yantos informed the Council that the EDA Office said if there are problems with minorities, document it, record it and it might be acceptable for waiver when the time comes. It is up to the generals if they wish to go through all that. Councilman Norberg stated it sounds like the city has to stay with the contract form the way it is. He suggested rebidding and somehow get into it a change of scale so the city has a backup plan. He projected that the EDA will then hear what was done and the bids will come in and the EDA will either at that time approve the scale change so that the city can afford it within the grant or they will come across with some more cash or the whole thing will just fall down. That is three chances instead of a go or no-go situation. He suggested trying to come up with a scale change and with a number for what would be done if it were to go without detailed drawings, so that the drawings and bid specs can be gotten out on time. He October 31, 1977 .suggested a plan whereby the city asks the contractors to sharpen their pencils, rebid it and tells them that the time is short and there isn't time to design it yet so they should expect that the design wi].], be changed. He stated he is asking for a different kind of bidding process. Architect Diedrich stated he could better answer that question if he had some idea what he could cut off without having a chain reaction and affecting the other parts of the building. Councilman Norberg asked what kind of information he would need. Architect Diedrich stated the two things talked about, taking out the fire bay and the basement in the Police Station, generally involve some other areas. Councilman Norberg asked if the architect could get the information needed if a definite statement as to what would be optionalized was made so the impact and ramifications would be known. Architect Diedrich replied a change can be shown as long as it is clarified what was to be done with the major considerations on that change, but if a dotted line was drawn stating this is the change without clarifying what the side effects were, the contractors wouldn't bid it right. A discussion ensued on eliminating a portion of the building or other options to get the bid estimates closer together. Mayor Nawrocki suggested forgetting about expansion and looking at what is there now. There isn't any lunchroom or lounge facilities. There isn't a decent place to have a staff meeting. Later on, the Mayor's office and Council Chambers can be used, but it is not an efficient sort of an arrangement. Councilman Hentges stated there is space already, the whole Police Department that is going over to the new building. A new Council Chambers and a new Mayor's office, a lunchroom and kitchenette will be in the new addition. So he suggested moving the staff where they belong down on the ground floor. Administrative Assistant Yantos stated the problem is that the pay booth and information booth is upstairs. Councilman Hentges stated the booths should be downstairs too because most of the citizens come in to pay bills, a building permit .and inspections. A new parking lot will be added and after awhile the citizens will know there is room for parking and that the offices are on the ground floor where they should be. It is easier to walk in flat from the road. Administrative Assistant Yantos stated all the departments can't be moved downstairs, but may be two can be moved down. October 31, 1977 Motion by Heintz, seconded by Logacz, to authorize the City Manger to readvertise for bids for City Hall expansion and remodeling. Bids to be opened November 28, 1977 and to report to the following Council Meeting. A short discussion followed on including a backup plan and calling the generals who initially took out plans so they would have plenty of negotiation time. Roll Call: Ail Ayes. RECESS: 10:10 p.m. RECONVENE: 10:30 p.m. PURCHASE OF JOHNSON PROPERTY, 545 MILL STREET No action on this item. P~VIEW OF THE PROPOSED PENSION FOR VOLUNTEER FIREMEN A copy of the bylaws were distributed to the City Council. Mayor Nawrocki commented the bylaws were incomplete. City Attorney Ron Kalina reported that the Volunteer Firemen asked his office to do their bylaws for them. He stated what the Council had before them tonight is the proposed draft of their bylaws so that they would have something that they could take to their meeting, if approved, and present so they could be enacted by them as their bylaws. He stated in talking with representatives of the Volunteer Commission, there are apparently two changes to these proposed bylaws which should be called to the council's attention. On Page 4 of the Bylaws, Section 2, "Duties", on Line 2, the "Board of Examiners & Education" should be changed to the "Board of Trustees. The next change would occur on Page 10 under Section 7 "Standards", which reads, "The City Council may at their discretion upon recommendation of the Fire Chief set written standards by which to determine A)whether a volunteer is a member in good standing and B) boundaries of the Columbia Heights Volunteer Fire Fighters recroiting area. The sentence itself starting with "The City Council" and ending with "members in good standing" should be moved to Page 1, Section 1, under "Membership" and become the last sentence. So it should read on Page 1. "No person shall be a member of the Volunteer Dividison who is not a member in good standing as defined by the City Council. The City Council may at their discretion upon recommendation of the Fire Chief set written standards by which to determine whether a volunteer is a member in good standing. From Page 10, Section 7 will be deleted in its entirety and the first part of that thru the end of 7A "Members in good standing" will go back to page 1. The ending of that sentence "Boundaries of the Columbia Heights Volunteer Fire Fighters recruiting area" will go to Page 9, Section 5 right at the end of Subdivision A and will read, "The City Council may at their discretion upon recommendation of the Fire Chief set written standards by which to determine the boundaries of the Columbia Heights Volunteer Fire Fighters recruiting area." October 31, 1977 Councilman Hentges asked if there is a change that states a volunteer ihas to be 50 years old before be could draw out. A Volunteer Fireman replied the way it was worded the first time, as soon as a volunteer got his ten or twelve years in, he could get it. Now it is deferred to the age of 50. Councilman Hentges asked on Page 10, Section 7 "Determination" if there wasn't a Review Board who would make a recommendation to the City Council on a person. A Volunteer Fireman replied the Mayor and City Council are the Board of Trustees in this case. the only recommendation the department would have is if they disagree with the Chief. Volunteer Fireman Mitch DeMars explained if for some reason, the Chief would come to the Board of Examiners and there is a discrepancy with a fellow and if the Board of Examiners would agree with the Chief, they would make a recommendation to the council that this guy be deferred. It is still up to the discretion of the Fire Chief so that the decision would be made by the time the council got it. Councilman Hentges stated it should be in the hands of the Trustees to recommend to the Chief that they have a man that is no good. The way the bylaws read it deletes the council completely. A Volunteer Fireman interpreted this to mean that the City Council would use their discretion at the recommendation of the Fire Chief to set the standards. Councilman Hentges stated he felt the council should also have the recommendation as they are the ones that are helping to put this together. It should be the Board of Examiners with the recommendation to the Chief and the Chief and Council decide the outcome. Mayor Nawrocki guessed the only recommendation the Council would probably end up ~aving is if the Council disagreed with what the Chief had to say. Volunteer DeMars stated with the change, the Board of Examiners will be able to sit down with the Chief and act upon a member before the Council gets it. Councilman Hentges stated he just wanted to make sure that the Board of Examiners didn't have the responsibility to say, "I don't like this man." without going through the Council. How many miles away or how many minutes does a volunteer fireman have to live? Volunteer DeMars reported that a few years ago they took the Fire Station as a center and drew a radius every quarter mile and found out that they bad 35th Avenue between 5th St. and Central Ave. A fellow l~ving down here by the tracks could be at the station faster than the guy who is living on Mayfair or Hilltop. So when October 31, 1977 a guy puts ~n his application, it would be up to the discretion of the Chief and Board of Examiners what this radius would be. When we pick a member for our department who lives outside the corporated limits of the City of Columbia Heights, the determination is made by where he lives, the shortest route, the number of stop signs he has to make, the number of thru stops he has to make and the time of day. Councilman Hentges asked how many members right now does the Volunteer Fire Department have who live outside the corporate limits of the city. Volunteer DeMars replied none. The department had one volunteer at 35th Avenue and he got a job with the Minneapolis Fire Department. Mayor Nawrocki asked who does the Board of Trustees have to authorize payment of funds, and is it the Treasurer of the Organization who writes out the chec~ or the City Finance Director. Volunteer DeMars replied the City Finance Director. Mayor Nawrocki asked what the Volunteer's Treasurer did. Volunteer DeMars replied he administers the "General Fund". He stated it is listed on page 3, Section 6. Councilman Norberg questioned the third paragraph down on Page 5, Section 6, first sentence asked if that shouldn't read "by the Treasurer of Finance. It reads that the City Finance Director collects all of the levies and interest, the fire insurance premiums and surtax, but apparently talks about another Treasurer in the second paragraph. He stated it is unclear to him which treasurer is which. The Treasurer of the Volunteer Fire Dept. is overseer over the General Funds in the Fire Department and it is almost as though the things in the first paragraph don't even belong under that heading. The other two things seem to be the direct result of the Treasurer of the Volunteer Fire Department. City Attorney Kalina stated in Paragraph 3, under Section 6, it might help to clarify it if "by the City Treasure" was added. If the City Treasurer received a check for $5,000 for the General Fund of the Columbia Heights Volunteer Fire Department, that would be money specifically designated for the General Fund. Volunteer DeMars explained that in 1965 the money was split up with x number of dollars which went to the Special Fund and x number of dollars which went to the General Fund. There was $4,500 some dollars in the Special Fund we didn't know what to do with, so with a joint agreement between the Volunteer Fire Department and the Finance Department, we took this $4,500 dollars and put it in the main fund of the Fire Deparment. Volunteer DeMars has control of this money now. There is some discrepancy what to do with this money as the States says that it has to be a General Fund for our Relief Association. If $5,000 is to go into the General Fund, it goes in the fund and doesn't have to go for pensions or relief or disability. October 31, 1977 Councilman Norberg suggested putting a period after the word "designated", striking the word "and" and capitalizing the "Otherwise" making two sentences by breaking it up and also would suggest that between where it says "unless the monies are" inserting the word "otherwise". City Attorney Kalina stated what is boils down to is all monies that come in go into the Special Fund unless they are designated specifically for some place else or the General Fund. Volunteer DeMars explained there are two treasurers, the Volunteer Treasurer and the City Treasurer. So it is the City Clerk Treasurer who sends the money to the Special Fund unless specially earmarked to the General Fund. Mayor Nawrocki asked when it was written in "provide benefits for the widow of a fire fighter who served for more than ten but less than twenty years. Volunteer DeMars replied if a man who was in good standing in the department had died, she would still get Widow's Pension. Councilman Norberg asked if the volunteer retires and five years later dies, can the widow collect then too. 'Volunteer DeMars replied she can if she doesn't remarry. Again she cannot collect until be would have been 50 years old. Councilman Hentges stated if a volunteer retires and at 51 years old he dies, he should be getting 40% plus 5%. Volunteer DeMars stated that is just for funeral expenses. However, if it is not job related when he dies, she can't collect until he would have reached the age of 50 years oldl Mayor Nawrocki stated if a volunteer dies because of something that happens to him on the fireman's job, his widow would get a Survivor's benefit. He asked if a volunteer has 15 years and is no longer with the department, just quitting, when did the benefit get in there because there wasn't a benefit for a widow of a volunteer with more than 10 years and less than 20 years from a death unrelated to the fireman's job. How was she covered before? A discussion on a widow of a volunteer with more than 10 but less than 20 years receiving a Benefit for an unrelated death followed. Volunteer DeMars suggested the matter be looked up and resolved. The councilman felt it appeared that a widow of a volunteer who died under any circumstances can get as much benefit as a man who served 20 years. October 31, 1977 Mayor Nawrocki stated there would be no question about a widow of a firefighter who served out his 20 years. The widow gets 40% upon his retirement. Volunteer DeMars stated with 15 years a volunteer is eligible for $2,000 Volunteer's benefit. Councilman Norberg suggested giving the widow 40% of the benefit right away, otherwise she doesn't have anything to raise the kids with if she has to wait until the volunteer would have been 50 years. Councilman Heintz suggested giving the widow the 40% immediately after death. He also noted it doesn't say anything about if he would have been age 50. Also there is nothing that states when the widow starts getting benefits. Mayor Nawrocki felt it should be reworded so that it is understood for serving more than 10 but less than 20 years. City Attorney Kalina asked if a widow would be deferred also until age 50 or would it be payable immediately if the person had terminal cancer. Councilman Heintz felt the widow should be able to collect the benefit immediately instead of waiting until age 50. Councilman Norberg suggested the widow be able to elect to get paid immediately or wait until she is 50 years. Mayor Nawrocki stated he thought that if a person dies of non- related illness and more than 20 years, it should be treated as separation beyond his control and that benefit would accrue to his estate until he would have been age 50. City Attorney Kalina informed the Mayor that it can't go to his estate, but it can go to his widow, because it would hold up an estate settlement. Mayor Nawrocki noted the bylaws state that a widow must wait until age 50 and collect full amount at that time and he suggested that for the widow of an individual who has died of related causes to his Fire Department job that she immediately get 40% of whatever the fireman would have been eligible for at age 50. He then instructed the City Attorney to write it in the bylaws. City Attorney Kalina stated in Paragraph B, Page 7 "Children of Volunteer Fire Fighters", it comes out the same. He stated he would have this revised tomorrow at 5% per child. Mayor Nawrocki instructed the City Attorney to see if he could make it retroactive to July 1, 1977 and to get some revised copies out and come to the next regular council meeting with them. October 31, 1977 CITY MANAGER REPORTS Interim City Manager Anderson reported there will be an Assessment Hearing on the 29th of November, 1977. The assessments were authorized at 1.2 and came in at 1.87. Mayor Nawrocki asked how he could tell from the list of numbers what the assessments are. City Engineer George Brown replied the low bid shows the correct ~figures even though he had extended them to $20,000 and they came in at $23,000. Mayor Nawrocki noted that the 3rd Street assessments are a little bit more than 25% above estimate. City Engineer Brown explained he had a contract price of $95,284 and his final estimate was $98,006. About $2,700 of contract prices were for curb. There were 10% Engineering costs and $10,000 of other costs that were spent on 42nd Avenue and 3rd Street and there were storm sewer costs of $1 per square foot and $1 per square foot is to be added for catch basins and leaves. He stated he had gone over and over the figures to change them. Interim City Manager Anderson reported that on 42nd Street, the costs went over, actually an 18 against a 20.50. Mayor Nawrocki stated he was unhappy about how the project was managed, but there is nothing that can be done about it now. Councilman Hentges stated he couldn't understand why there were only one or two items that the City Engineer came near on and the rest ran way over. City Engineer Brown replied that in many cases, they bad to take more to get drains and pipes in. Councilman Hentges stated the Council indicated they wanted an uptodate survey. City Engineer Brown replied he decided to take the old list and complete it. LABELLE PARK DREDGING CONTRACT Interim City Manager Anderson read the stipulations given in the contract. He stated he put in there to withhold funds because the city can't go to the bonding company for the whole price of the job and the second low bidder didn't feel he could do the job. October 31, 1977 Motion by Norberg, seconded by Logacz to authorize the Mayor and City Manager to enter into agreement and contract with Desco Con- struction Co. to complete the job by the end of May 31, 1977. Councilman Heintz stated if the guy would sign the agreement he would feel better. Roll Call: Ail Ayes. Motion by Heintz, seconded by Logacz to adjourn the meeting at 1:00 a.m. Roll Call: Ail Ayes. Bru~e~. Nawrocki, Mayor Secretary