City Council - Public Works and Natural Resources Committee

[Music] all right good good afternoon everyone good afternoon mayor good afternoon Council good afternoon staff uh today is April 8th and we uh will be going through our committee meetings this afternoon here our first uh committee meeting is public works and natural resources and that is chaired by council member Stone thank you very much president Hamill good afternoon I am joined on the public works and natural resources committee by council members Anderson and Lila Quist um we have a number of items before us this afternoon the first is agenda bill um so the subject is to authorize the mayor to enter into an interlocal Cooperative purchasing agreement between the city of Bellingham and the sourcewell purchasing Cooperative an interlocal Cooperative purchasing agreement between the city of Bellingham and the sourcewell purchasing Cooperative would allow the city to piggyback onto the competitive bidding process conducted by this governmental agency in Li of self-performing its own bidding process this ability is made possible through the interlocal Cooperative act RCW 39.347895 Island canopy and site improvements project and so for this item I'm going to turn to Andy s Bon our finance director thank you Council uh so yes this is a purchasing Andy Finance director uh this is a purchasing agreement many like uh like many of the ones that we've signed before this is actually going to be our 77th uh purchasing agreement so this just allows the city to uh use the source oil um

purchasing course cons consum um to be able to select uh items that have already been bid so it still goes through all of our bidding requirements purchasing still reviews all of the bid specs to make sure that they're following all of our requirements in Washington State uh this just allows us to piggyback on those contracts that have already been gone through the uh competitive bid process and the item identified as a potential uh project is just one of the next ones that is a potential that could be used for sourcewell so happy to answer any questions also Connie Allen our purchasing manager is here as well if you have any questions on the topic thank you council member list well as you say miss asber this is a good way of getting a good price um I was just surprised by the fact that sourcewell appears to be out of Pennsylvania um can you I didn't realize that we could have these agreements outside of Washington state outside of other Washington State entities yeah I believe it's um is it Minneapolis it's out of Minneapolis um so yes any um it could be at any location that allows that meets our requirements in Washington state for our bidding requirements so I don't know if you have greater details on on the limits of the cooperatives that we can choose from no I don't but it is it is open as long as it's meeting our bid requirements we can we can piggyback on those bills bids and as long as that allows us to use it as well so as long as meets our requirements and their

requirements also allow us to use it then it meets it meets those requirements to um allow us to piggy back off those contracts council member Anderson thank you for answering that because I had the same question I was kind of surprised to see out of state um so with that I do move approval so we have a motion before us to move to award um to award or to authorized the mayor to enter into the interlocal Cooperative purchasing agreement um similarly I guess my question was along the same lines as council member lillquist in wondering if by working through an entity that's in outside of the state of Washington if the bids received right are obviously influenced in some way due to that location and just curious upon like a bid for um this Fleet fuel Island canopy and site improvements project I know you mentioned that that's a possibility so there's not there's nothing definitive at this time about that particular um opportunity or bid but whether or not we might draw other bids if it was presented right if we were doing that work locally versus through this Consortium and you mentioned that this was the 77th purchasing agreement and so have we ever worked with sourcewell specifically in the past do you know I don't believe so I believe this is what allows us to be able to piggy back off's contracts okay and my understanding is that this would be in place indefinitely until either party provides written notice to terminate that yeah yes it would yes okay this the beginning okay

any other questions or discussion okay seeing none we have a motion before us so I will call the question all in favor say I I I any opposed or extensions seeing none that passes 30 and I'll bring that recommendation forward this evening thank you very much so the next item before us um actually the next two seem to be related so this is agenda bill 24071 this is a storm water grant agreement between the city of Bellingham and the Washington State Department of ecology for the design of water quality treatment best management practices at little Squalicum Creek so this project will improve water quality in little Squalicum Creek through the design and EV and eventual construction of treatment best management practices in the Birchwood neighborhood in the city of Bellingham the project will Design Systems to provide storm water treatment for total suspended solids dissolved copper dissolved zinc and reduced flows of little Squalicum Creek by increasing storm water infiltration this project is for Capital Design Services only I just wanted to note that with respect to the fiscal impact so this is a total Grant agreement of $769,500 but ecology share will be um most of that $654,900 leaving the city to match 25% at $5,440 so for this item I'm first going to turn to Public Works director Eric Johnston thank you m Eric Johnson Public Works so this is one of I think five Grant agreements that's in the council packet today two are coming to the committee as the dollar threshold

exceeds the council rules for Action anything over 250,000 requires Council direct action so this is there are two here this is the first of the two this one's at little squal the second's at lower Baker there are three others that Renee can speak to U but we're happy to answer any questions you might have this is rather straightforward this is uh the city staff pursuing grant funding available from the state level uh many of these projects are over multiple phases over multiple years that allows us to be as uh leveraging as much as we can the availability of the programs at the state level but I think this is a really uh good example of our ability to use existing funding resources being the surface of storm water fund leverage against State resources to put uh good money to good use uh and Renee can speak to how these projects particularly might play out over the next couple years thank you Renee lroy Public Works um the two that are under this committee are the um little qualcom Estuary projects and there's I think this is the third phase this is for design only but you will eventually see probably up to five phases um and these are all not only this project but all the projects in your package today are all voluntary projects where we're going above and beyond what's required in our npds permits which is why we're eligible for grant funding the low Squall chary um water quality improvements are phased to maximize and leverage funding and they basically work from north to

south so we're starting in the area of the community college and Eldred Avenue and then moving up through the Birchwood neighborhood and Department of ecology um particularly likes these projects because they leverage the work that's already been done through the little Squalicum Estuary improvements so the whole the the whole ecosystem is being improved um the the lower Baker Creek that that treats about 133 Acres up in the Iron Gate area that again is an area it's a light industrial area that doesn't get any water quality treatment um and so this is an opportunity to improve Squalicum Creek through treating it before it hits the creek any questions or discussion from Council council member Anderson thank you um I do support both of these and I'm really glad that the city is going above and beyond when it comes to uh our storm water I was just curious because in both of these it says that um basically it's treatment of the total suspended solids dissolved copper dissolved zinc um is the copper and zinc basically based on uh Road type runoff and so it's a transportation and we could expect that and just about all of our I assume it's not naturally occurring right those are things related to transportation and cars in particular okay thank you list thank you I was trying to do some quick math um I would kind of like to hear um about all five of them together I was trying to do a little math it looks like it may approach $2 million total for all five of these um I didn't

appreciate until now that these were for us kind of going above beyond our basic uh NPS permit requirements I really appreciate that is there anything we left on the table I mean this it seems like we've done five major reaches L Lake watom and then several uh in an estuary and then three Creek reaches I think I've got it right um this is great is there any more that we could have done and we pretty much sweep the board we have a great head start on all of it there's always more to do there's always areas of the city that we haven't treated yet um some of the projects in that you'll see coming forward in Lake wcom are we're taking existing treatment facilities and we're replacing the substrate in the facilities with the uh newer version the post media that you've heard us talk about so a lot of it is taking what we've done in the past and and getting it even to the next level beyond that so there's you know two parts that you're going to see in the future in addition to what's in your packet right now and that is the treating the areas that we haven't currently treated that we're able to treat and then treating the areas that we have treated with a higher quality product if I might build on that as well this is not the first time the city's gone to the state for this type of funding through the department of ecology we've done this many years in the past this is just a continuation of our success I think padon Creek was part of that process back in the day so many many years

ago we did a project down in the in Fair Heaven area that treated several dozen acres in padon Creek this is a very similar situation to that we're just expanding that out to others are other areas of the city uh these projects do come from our surface and stormw comprehensive plan as identified priorities and we're just implementing those those projects and priorities as identified in the plan that was approved by the council in Fall of 2021 2020 and these projects do so that does address all the projects in the stormw comp plan so we are done with that piece of it and then we'll have another stormwater comp plan and another Suite of projects coming forward in the future Mist well I just want to before I move approval uh express my appreciation um often people point to regulations and if you meet them that's like enough um I've never felt that to be true and part because I understand how regulations are written Regulators are careful not to go greater than they can justify even if they have a reason to think that higher is actually better right so I think we should treat the environmental standards as maybe not the the floor but certainly not the ceiling for our efforts um and with those supportive comments I move that we approve the grant agreement thank you Council Mist we have a motion to approve the grant agreement any further discussion from Council other members no okay if not I'll call the question all in favor we say I I I any opposed or exensions seeing none that

passes 30 and I'll bring forward that recommendation this evening um and then as mentioned the next item before us agenda bill 24072 is similar or related this is a storm water grant agreement between the city of Bellingham and the Washington State Department of ecology for design of water quality treatment best management practices at lower Baker Creek and so this project will improve water quality in lower Baker Creek through design and eventual construction of of flow control and treatment best management practices in the ironate industrial park area in the city of Bellingham this project will Design Systems to provide treatment for total suspended solids dissolved copper dissolved zinc and reduce flows to lower Baker Creek through detention and increasing storm water infiltration this project is for Capital Design Services only and as noted this total Grant is for $422,900 being $359,700 3,418 and for this item anything additional to add um I'll turn to the public works director Eric Johnson nothing further dead thank you council member Anderson move move approval okay so we have a motion from council member Anderson to um a motion to approve the grant agreement any further discussion council member Lil Quist I did do the math barely under $2 million for all five of these combined anything further before I call the question okay seeing none all in favor we'll say I I any opposed or abstentions okay seeing none that passes 30 and I will bring that forward this evening um

just wanted to note as was referenced earlier so the additional three items are in the consent agenda that's agenda Bill 2481 which references lower squalicom Creek 2482 which references Lake wcom and the third and final is um agenda Bill 2483 which is lower padon Creek as mentioned those three that are in the consent agenda fall below the $250,000 threshold so those will be approved later or considered later this evening so nothing further on those I'll move to the next item before us which is agenda Bill 2473 this is a Holly Street bicycle l pilot project so the city of Bellingham climate action plan calls for Action to encourage a shift away from single occupancy vehicle trips the bicycle master plan prioritizes Network development and projects to meet cap goals a bicycle facility on Holly Street is a high priority and critical link to the city Network the pilot project will install a buffered bike lane on Holly Street from Ellis Street to North State Street and a parking protected lane from North State Street to Bay Street to fill an important Missing Link in the downtown bike Network as a pilot project a single travel Lane for cars will be will be converted to a bicycle facility with pavement markings signs and lowcost features without changes to the number of existing downtown vehicle parking stalls the project is plann to be constructed in early May of 2024 in community feedback and operational performance will be tracked and measured to inform a future permanent

project Council support for the pilot project is requested and for this item I'm going to turn first to Public Works director Eric Johnston thank you Mone Eric Johnston public works so before I do a couple introductory comments want to uh in the audience today we have Natalie Monroe for our Communications Group and Mr Shane Sullivan Shane Mr Sullivan joins us from the Washington State Department of Transportation after many years with them uh started with the city on January 1 as the city's first official designated Standalone traffic engineer so for many many years that fell to the city engineer the council with h in the 2324 budget approved a couple of new positions within the city one of which was a position dedicated to specifically to traffic engineering um is part of the transportation division which is also where Joel fun came from with our new Staffing uh and I mentioned that because this this Staffing allows us to do some things a little bit uh implementing the programs and projects we have identified in our bicycle pedestrian master plan and and address some of the concerns that have been coming forward not not the least of which is uh things have been funded in the 24 budget to look at speed limits and speeds within our community so I as we start to talk about the Holly straight Bike Line I just wanted to acknowledge both Natalie and Shane's uh participation in developing this project moving forward so with relation to the actual project the 2014 bicycle master

plan uh and the pending uh 2024 bicycle master plan both identify a need for a key Link in the city being a a protected bike lane facility if so Taurus and Joel can speak to the specifics uh down Holly Street uh the current draft version of the bicycle master plan is getting ready for approval after a very robust public process that draw input from a a broad sector of the community uh is going to the Transportation Commission tomorrow night for their uh hopeful final review and approval and then coming to the city council here in the month of May uh we're excited about that plan it's a good plan uh there are always things to make it better but it is a good plan it is reflective of what the broad Community has had to say and uh and we're excited to bring that forward the Transportation Commission for their approval we're also excited to move forward with a project that is near the top of the list in that plan which is the Holly Street Bike Line so we're a little bit of ahead things we're uh moving forward with recommending moving forward with a project before that plan is approved but there's basis to do the project in the in the original 2014 plan as well so I just wanted to kind put things into context there that this is a project that's not been made up it's it's vetted in the original bicycle master plan it's also vetted through in the draft master plan it's also tied back to our climate action plan so trying to find ways to encourage people to get out of their single

occupancy vehicles to choose find alternatives to to taking a car uh biking and walking are a good way to do that and so implementing our climate action plan this is a measure that we can point to as implementation of those measures to achieve those mode shift goals it's also consistent with mayor Lund's approach to trying to uh react acate bringing downtown forward I think is the phrase we're using to help people come into the downtown and so as we talk about the bike line there are more benefits than just simply the bike lane itself the idea of slowing cars down and some other things that Joel will talk about to enhance The Pedestrian environment and and make it a better place to be coming downtown to enjoy our downtown so the the idea of this pilot uh is to to bring lots of those pieces together Genesis is in the original bicycle master plan but bringing forward many of those elements uh that we see through the climate action plan the downtown revital revitalization work uh and just some good things for the community so with that I'll turn it to Joel who can tile that together afternoon uh Joel Funt assistant Public Works director Transportation um so uh yeah Eric covered many of the things on the first slide and kind of the background um policy basis for moving this project forward and really what we are trying to um Endeavor to do is create a safe comfortable connected multimodal Transportation Network um in this case particularly in downtown um Bellingham but also

connecting that up with the rest of the community so uh we have a couple of different um drawings that we're I'll touch on so just real quickly kind of the story behind how we got to this point um so we actually put in our first uh bike lane in downtown in the late 90s and that was on State Street um and then uh in it was a long time until about 2010 when uh we put uh bike Lanes on put a bike lane on North Forest Street and also Magnolia all three of those projects were um pretty opportunistic we looked for opportunities where we were reconstructing um doing utility work repaving and uh so that's kind of that was kind of the prompted the way those prodject projects were phased um and then it was another number of years and then in the let's see 2016 2017 there was a repaving project actually to look at Holly Street and at that time it was determined that uh there were some various concerns and uh Holly Street was not um after that repaving project there were a bike lane was not implemented on that street but there were some design details that were uh as part of that project to make it so the parking protected bike lane could be put in in the future uh and and so we moved on from 2017 and then in 2018 Champion was uh implemented and then finally uh the city kind of moved Beyond just being opportunistic and was a little bit more assertive when in the you 2020 era we had the removal of the travel Lanes on Chestnut and York and Ellis and really started to uh create that that

that bike Network that was linked together and we're really at a point now where it's maybe in 2017 uh Holly didn't seem to make a lot of sense but now it's kind of the glaring missing uh the the missing tooth in the middle of the whole downtown a little bit and so we're uh coming back and looking at that project uh looking at that project now so uh this is a pilot project and and uh as such we are trying to do this um in a couple different ways to test a couple different things uh one of the the it is broken into two sections one is Ellis uh to State Street and in that uh section um the uphill section or the let's call it the East section here um that uh that will be a buffered Bike Line much like we have on many of the other streets in downtown and then the the section from state to Bay will actually be a parking protected bike lane where the uh the the parking will be shifted out and the the lane that is assigned removed will then be the bike lane behind that and I have some more detailed Graphics of what that looks like but uh this will be our second real parking protected bike lane the only other one that we really have is there on Forest Street near the roundabout um and it certainly has some limitations because of its location and the the um in the context of it this is really we want to uh try this out here and see what the community thinks of it um and how it operates uh in the middle of downtown so this is really just a you know quick quick before and after of what

the it might look like this is uh looking West on Holly at just near um Railroad Avenue and um this is like uh Eric mentioned you know this kind of shows that it's it's really in some ways not just a a bike lane the bike lane is what we're building but we are narrowing the street which will result also in uh slower speeds um shortens Crossing distance for pedestrians um there are a lot of benefits to this as part of this project will be um implementing leading pedestrian intervals which mean that the pedestrians get a uh the walk before um the the light goes green which really has shown um in studies around the country uh to be of significant safety benefit and um reduce uh pedestrian collisions I will note that when we've used this graphic in some of our Outreach there's a little bit of confusion the the black and yellow cars that I mean black and yellow black and white cars are actually parked so those that's the parking Lane there on the outside of the um the bike lane so uh this is the plan view of what this looks like and we're going in this case we're starting at Bay Street and going um to the East and so you I'll just highlight a few things here this is we're looking at the parking protected section we are extending the bike lane through the Bay Street intersection and then the bike lane ends um shortly after that on Holly Street um as Eric mentioned we're not reducing the number of um vehicle parking stalls along Holly and as part of this project we'll be changing up

signage and we will also be facilitating uh two stage lefts as it's called which is um if I can get if you're a cyclist traveling along here and you want to take a left turn uh what you do is you just simply come over here through the green light reorient your uh your bike and then when you get a green you um you travel uh down um commercial this is actually something that you can actually do at any intersection technically um and um but this makes it much more formal and reserve some space for the bicyclist to do that and this is this is really for those low stress you know cyclists who are looking for a low stress environment they can be in that bike lane if you're still a very confident cyclist there's nothing in this plan that would prevent that the cyclist from you know just coming down in the travel Lane and making a left just like a you know any in vehicle Lane cyclist this is for people who may not be comfortable um comfortable doing that so this next section is um is uh see we're trying to orient myself here so yeah we're coming up on State Street and here's where at State we transition from the parking protected bike lane out to the buffered bike lane and uh then it's you just like a lot of the other bike lanes that we have in downtown currently one of the reasons we transitioned there is because um with the pilot um way we're doing this there are a couple of bus stops on that section above State Street and in order to accommodate uh the bus the bus movements and

make those Ada accessible and that kind of thing we really need to continue to take advantage of the existing sidewalk and curb and that type of thing so that's one of the reasons that we're we made that transition at that point um I would also note that this is probably the location and one of the locations why we the project wasn't implemented back in 2017 is this is one of the locations where we will see some vehicle congestion um the uh this this left turn movement on to State Street is really U pretty heavy and um and so we will see just more traffic there and more traffic cues and be observing that the other location where we'll be seeing that is at Bay Street because you basically will'll have just one one through Lane at that location um that serves all the different directions and then this is the up upper section and then this is where we'll be making those final changes uh at Ellis and Lakeway and what this will mean is that it'll be a left turn only lane instead of a left through as it is now and then there'll be two through Lanes in the through the through right so that's the kind of the layout of the project and wanted to touch a little bit on community engagement real quick um so we have been talking to the uh Community about this project in advance of it being implemented we reached out to the downtown partnership we bike downtown I've been coordinating with watom Transportation Authority because of course that's important to make sure this works for the um

for our Transit partners and then as well as ww and the smart trips program and then we had a um we coordinated with Walk and Roll and did an event with them um where we went to one of their happy hour meetings and presented to about 50 people and talked about this project and gave a a similar a little bit longer version of this same presentation we also uh took this to our Transportation Commission twice in the last couple months and as you saw probably saw in your packet they um endorsed moving forward with implementation and then um you know finally what we've heard I would say that we've I'd characterize the project the feedback as being overall support for the project um as questions about extending it on to Eldridge and Broadway because that really completes the entire Missing Link that's something that we've heard uh and then also um the the idea that wanting to see more um parking protected um along the whole stretch which is consistent with what we've heard throughout our Outreach and some of the changes that we've made on the bike master plan that Eric me referenced as a whole I would also note um one other thing that we're doing as part of this project is we are doing um fairly robust before and after um uh studies so we're collecting um walking biking vehicle performance information um we've been doing that in advance with some equipment we have and we'll be doing that after uh as well as more um qualita quantitative information we'll be talking to the community

about how they feel like this is working over the summer as we um implement the pilot here in May of 2024 so with that I'll be happy to answer any questions or maybe one just a couple of things if I could put a there so Joel mentioned uh a couple of things one of which was that there's no impacts to existing parking so by doing this as the pilot project that we're not making a change in the number of parking spaces location might change but the number of parking spaces is not affected and that's often times controversial when we do bike lines and parking so in this case as a pilot project we're not making a a change in the number of available parking spaces in downtown so that's that's one thing that we want to be clear about number two uh there was a convers thread about leading pedestrian indicators at intersections uh and I noted with interest that as Mr Sullivan moved forward with some of the testing of that that social media picked that up right away and it was very positive and then when we turned it off because we were done testing said where did it go so we're excited to bring that back so if there's question about why do we do it where it go it's it's it's part of this project uh the the some of the feedback was do it do more and go longer uh as a pilot project there if things were to be made more permanent IE put make the entire thing parking protected that will have an impact to uh both Transit and to parking so we want to be careful about how we do that but

reflecting that there might be a need to do more of that and extend it further down uh proposing that we would consider a project with the six-year tip coming up here in May and June that would consider a future project out there so why we call it a pilot project we we talked about this before that pilot projects uh we don't do them if we don't think they'll be successful we don't try things with people's safety uh so this this is a this is a a trial to see how we can make it better not will it work we know it will work we want to see how we can improve it hence the need to put a project in the six-year tip to consider future Improvement so I think those are the three things I wanted to highlight and this what jel said is there's no change in parking all the benefits that come from from slowing cars down that we we've talked about in the past about uh bike lanes and these things uh benefits to pedestrians benefits to drivers benefit to businesses uh and potential for future projects coming forward so uh maybe one last question or one one last uh piece of feedback we heard is uh why do we need to put a bike lane down Holly Street I ride my bike down there already I don't need a bike lane and Joel mentioned this this this this this facility is not for those currently using it this facility is for those who are not feeling comfortable riding their bicycles downtown to encourage them to come down downtown not for the existing folks who already feel comfortable being down there

that's little quiz uh so many things to say uh positive um I appreciate this being done as a pilot project um I think we should maybe do that more often because uh trial and error is a proven technique so let's build that in when we're not sure and this this section in particular remember when we approved the first U bicycle master plan there were at least I think three areas that were like further study needed right I think it was getting across Lakeway and underneath the highway was one area where we didn't know what we're going to do yet and Holly was an area where we didn't know what we were going to do yet and I thought it was going to be pretty tricky um looking at the design it it looks pretty straightforward it turned out to be less tricky than I thought maybe that's kudos to the engineer because it makes sense to me for the most part um I also appreciate the fact this being brought forward for our not of approval because this is just a sort of thing that can get a lot of public feedback I think we there'll be some grumpy and there'll be some grateful and I think it's important that we as policy makers kind of understand that that may be coming our Direction um and that we deserve that feedback not just you know Public Works staff so I appreciate that aspect also um with regard to extending protected parking the whole length I think that should be our goal when we go on after the pilot project um but I do recall that there are um and I'll pull one up here um temporary

ways of creating um bus stops like for example in Portland they have what they call Rubber modular temporary platforms it's a way of kind of extending the curve without having to pour uh concrete and asphalt so um was that considered because maybe there's a way that even in the pilot phase without pouring the concrete and redoing the asphalt um we could have put in prot bike lanes and still accommodated wta's bus stops was that considered was that considered ctive too complicated or just bad for some other reason um that was considered and it uh does come down to even with those kinds of um temporary types of um overlays on top of the pavement um the biggest challenge is making them Ada accessible and WTA needs to be able to deploy their ramps and um and have have that ramp deploy you know level to the ground and we have to have certain grades so that they are accessible for all users and what we what we find here and in many cases with the temporary type of treatment um just because of the the crown of the road and and drainage and all those kinds of things um they're just not it's not as simple as putting down the temporary type of treatment so um we moved away from that um to like Eric said to move forward with something um now that we can pilot and um and try um but I mean I think our our long-term goal would be to here as well as you know many other places um like is laid out in the you know once again in the bike Master Plan update is is trying to come up with ways

where we were bulbing out the bus stops and having the bike Lanes go behind the bus stop so we don't create that kind of Leap Frog leap frog conf conflict type of situation you have with a more standard buffered bike lane where the you know if you're going I digress but if you're going down Northwest and you're you know you could be leap frogging a WTA bus the entire distance and there are design treatments with bus bulbs and things like that and those are some of the things that we're bringing forward in the master plan and want to do more of in the future on corridors like Holly Sumer Anderson thank you and thank you for the presentation I'm actually kind of I'm one of those bike people who don't feel comfortable going down Holly in the traffic so I look forward to uh eventually fully protected bike Lanes across the city that would be a a worthy goal um just a quick question as far as the um the signal system being retimed is that something we're going to eventually Implement across the city um I've experienced where you had that ability to get out into a lane before the light change and though people taking their free right turn don't run you over and so I kind of feel like it would be a smart thing across the city um is that something that we're looking at I know that's beyond this I'm glad it's going to be implemented but would perhaps the research out of this help us bring this across the city further yes the research helps us consider those uh for application at the

right place right time so um the lpis are are very effective at their proper application the proper location um I think it's a pretty major step for the city to move forward and start doing them we've kind of shied away not wanting to move forward with them for various reasons but now is the time to move them forward now one of the reasons that we would move forward today with the lpis in the downtown is some data that came out of the down the 2024 highway safety plan I forget what the title of that is which shows we have we're seeing some conflicts there right so we don't want to put a solution where there's not a problem uh or P or or necessarily A perceived problem but where there's an actual known Hazard we want to correct that and so that is the case in the downtown we have a known issue that we want to try to correct and the LPI is one measure to help correct that problem little uh the other thing I want to talk about with regard to protected bike Lanes when we put in the one on Forest we had uh a few hiccups with regard to uh cleaning and the street sweepers and and the parked cars not moving when they were supposed to move so the street sweeper couldn't get in there cuz we were using a fullsize street sweeper I think um where are we on using street sweepers for that protected bike lane and how do you think it will work for this protected bike lane uh well is Mike still here Mike Mike is still here so Mike's in charge of our street sweeper cruise and he can speak to

specifically the challenges we face on that that little bike L on H on Forest much of that problem is uh not the equipment that we have or the ability to do it it's getting the cars to be moved which unfortunately means when we signed it so you can't park here on what Tuesdays and Thursdays uh our ability to then tow those Vehicles if we need to but Mike can speak better that good night yes so we have two different pieces of new equipment that we're trying to get into service right now and those pieces of equipment will allow us to do that sweeping with the cars remaining it's still more efficient for us to use our fulls sizee sweeper to get in there they do a better job of cleaning it and picking up up all this fine particulate but hopefully here in the next couple of weeks we will have two pieces of equipment that are able to do that even if cars are not moved do you mind can I get a little invitation to to see the smaller vehicle absolutely operation I can make it yep and will that be at 2 a.m.

in the morning yes yes it [Laughter] will additional questions or comments from council members Council Anderson um move approval so we have a motion before us to support the implementation of the Holly Street pilot bicycle lane project um any there's no further discussion I'll call the question all in favor will'll say I I any opposed or extensions okay hearing none that passes 30 and I will bring that forward this evening thank you very much so with that that's end of committee if there's nothing further for from staff I will turn it back to you president Hamill thanks council member Stone Miss uh gson ler do we need to wait okay