on one one second we're going Live on
YouTube okay good to
go all right welcome everyone to this um
special meeting of our service committee
um also glad that that everyone's here
um we are here solely to talk about um
um our proposed amended ordinance uh am
I right it's
2720 um so we're gonna we're GNA talk
about that um I uh know that there are
many people like myself who um
had lots of problems with extra water in
our basements that we did not
necessarily welcome this spring so
that's what we're going to talk about t
tonight so um with that I would ask that
the auditor please call
Ro m f here Mr Kingler here Mr Markham
here Miss Robinson here miss sad here
miss Lamy here Mr Sharp here okay and as
with our tradition if we could pleas all
stand for the pledge that would be great
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
Republic it stands one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for
all all right
um I can't uh I can't I'm not here we go
oh there's a lot of participants lots of
attendees on um we always have an
opportunity for public comment um at
this
time we ask that you um keep this piece
of public comment to things that are not
on our agenda so something other than
our residential sewer program update if
you have something to share other than
that we would love love love to hear
from you
um we ask that you first state your name
and that you please keep your comments
to under five minutes please let me um
let you know that there will be an
opportunity for members of uh the public
to talk about the residential sewer
program um after you've heard our update
so with that said I would ask that there
is anyone um who would like to speak on
a topic other than the residential sewer
program update
Madam president reminding everyone to
use the raise hand yes thank you Mr
Sharp there is an icon that you can use
to um raise your hand and that would
allow us to know that you want to speak
on something right now on something
other than the residential sewer program
update okay I am seeing none if my
colleagues agree with me that we are all
seeing none I am going to turn uh this
over to the chair of our service
committee and that would be my colleague
Mr Richard Sharp Richard you're on
sir thank you I'd like to welcome
everyone who's attending looks like we
have 82 people out there at least on
zoom and maybe others on Facebook
um there may be an option if you have
questions as you go along and I'll try
to monitor them during the presentation
as well um if you just have a chat
message if you don't want if that option
is available to you it looks like it's
available to the attendees from my
screen but um if not uh just raise your
hand at a later point I'd like to um
start with the mayor um and just have
him go through the background and
refresher and then he'll go into um
discussing the outline of the plan that
we have proposed in amended ordinance
2720 in a broad overview type format and
mayor I'll go on mute and let you take
over thank you Richard and as a just a
point of clarification the chat is it's
actually a Q&A future if people have
questions um we can there be a time to
ask them um vocally at the end or you
can use the Q&A feature throughout uh
this webinar so we're going to we're
going to Breeze very quickly through
some uh kind of
backround on our sewer issues that we
presented very much in this in the past
so we're gonna kind kind of go through
this kind of quickly um but um just to
review March 20th we had a flood in
Bexley and in fact in the entire region
that uh we now know was a 25-year flood
event now what does it mean to be a 25
year flood event that means
statistically a flood like this only
happens every 25 years uh which you will
all uh think is sort of a ridiculous
comment when we get to our next slide
but um during the March 20th flood Alum
Creek was up 10 feet over the average
level um much higher than we've seen it
in recent years and our storm sewer
outflows were flooded by the creek and
beyond all this we' had a saturated uh
water table to begin with and so um not
only were were were the was the creek
hiide Not only was there a lot of water
at a short period of time but there um
was even less place for it to go than
normal because the ground was incredibly
saturated and and was not absorbing
additional water well that happened
again in May 18th it happened a little
bit more the the creek went a foot
higher than it had in in March it was
yet another 25y year flood event um
which is why we were all sort of just
Gob smacked that we had that experience
twice in a row um again this was not
confined to Bexley this was a regional
um flood throughout all of Central Ohio
again it had an underlying high water
table in this instance um not only were
the storm sewer outflows flooded by the
creek but we had a much higher incidence
of sanitary sewer manholes flooded by
the creek which is to say that the creek
went above the level of our sanitary
sewer manholes and and it the creek
itself flooded uh the sanitary system
not just in Bexley but in central
Ohio we reached out to um flood victims
um we had over 45 responses uh that over
those two the four or five properties
that responded um common issue was water
coming in through basement floor
drains um most of the majority of or I
guess the the biggest slice of that was
a a clear water with minimal odor or
muddy water with minimal o odor so
that's about a little bit over 80% of
the respondents um it was just a storm
storm water surge that was hitting these
properties we we tracked the depth of
flooding um you know some properties had
more than a foot of flooding within
their
basement um where it came from to the
best of people's knowledge and this by
the way this uh is on our website be.org
this this presentation can be viewed in
Greater detail because we do need to get
through some of this background kind of
quickly to get to the meat of the
program that we're uh presenting and so
in the past we've we've kind of shown
what happens um with uh the storm sewer
and in an aging infrastructure like
Bexley specifically how the sanitary
Seer can surge during a storm and create
backup conditions um this slide again is
is online but it shows that water enters
through
a a
really
mad number of ways into our into our
sandher system um and and much of the
water intrusion is occurring um at the
residential level and much of it is is
occur occurring at the uh infrastructure
level within the city's own sewer system
another another slide we've shown many
times in the past that kind of shows
when water has nowhere to go where does
it go and it ends up in basements it
ends up uh flood in surface flooding um
and and you know kind of just showing
the cause of of water and basements
during a flood
event um we've talked a little bit about
what we've done over the past decade we
we've increased our storm sewer capacity
we've been lining our sanitary sewer
systems to make sure that we don't have
infiltration into the sanitary sewer
from our storm sewers and identifying
and eliminating cross uh contamination
um but we have not focused at the
residential level on what's happened
when properties on a residential
residential property is connecting to
the to the city's sanitary sewer in an
improper way what that means is when
storm water is coming through our our
roofs through our foundation drains
through even drains out in our yards and
going into the sanitary system and those
improper connections whether at a
residential level or at a Citywide
infrastructure level are what largely
contribute to the type of surge that we
that we see when it
floods talked about our major projects
we've done to date and I don't want to
again we we have a limited time so those
can be kind of looked back on uh
online um and we've we've investigated
our sewers we found that we have
additional work to do of course we have
a we have a multi-decade plan uh to work
at the city level um but a big chunk of
this is is
and identify issues that are happening
at the residential level so cross
connections between the sanitary and the
storm sewer uh defective sanitary
laterals or that's you know your
sanitary line that's going from your
house into the sanitary Mains and where
appropriate um the potential provision
of backflow preventors and that's this
program began as a backflow preventor
system because that's what Columbus has
they have a program called project dry
basement where they provide backflow
preventers and one thing we've learned
over the past several months and we're
here to present today is that a backflow
preventer is certainly not a cure all
and we think we've come up with a
program that is more robust and will
really get to the heart of the issue uh
for people that have experienced
flooding um so in addition to our
maintenance and capacity increases we're
going to continue to focus on our St
sanitarian storm sewer line in repair
projects and additional increases in our
storm sewer
capacity and all of these things come
with a major caveat as we've talked
about that the system that we're tapping
into the Columbus Regional sewer system
is simply not engineered to handle the
types of floods that occurred in March
and may it's it is a hard and fast fact
that the Columbus storm and sanitary
system is designed below the 25-year
flood event level uh so that when we
have surges like we saw in March and in
may we are going into a regional system
that cannot handle those surges what
that means for us is that without um
locking down the hatches in every single
possible way on our individual
properties there will be flooding in
prone properties and so we're trying to
get to a solution that will assist
property owners that have that flooding
even in the most severe circumstances
but ultimately water has to go somewhere
minification measures um are limited in
their in their Avail their ability to um
compensate for these sorts of extreme
flooding events and another additional
problem is and and and it's not really
solved by what we're talking about today
quite frankly is that when we mitigate
on one property that in turn can cause
additional problems on the next property
down the
line propos program today which has been
developed over several months of study
and talking to engineers and looking at
programs in in other areas of the
country it's to first off obviously
prioritize projects to isolate our own
City infrastructure issues so we've been
working on that for at least 10 years in
an accelerated rate and we're going to
accelerate that even further um and
focus specifically on some of the the
issues that we saw over the uh 2020
flooding but we're also going to go
beyond that um as part of our flooding
inventory um in the past as we looked at
our sewer U infrastructure and we looked
at issues that were there we've taken a
little bit of a pass on requiring
repairs to known residential issues
we've done that because we know that
they're expensive we know that it would
be contentious to get Property Owners to
comply and frankly we decided to First
focus on City problems before coming to
individual residences but the truth is
those contribute to a great deal of the
flooding and we can't possibly fix the
problem without also looking at
residential issues and so the program
that we're talking about here today
focuses um not just on the city's
infrastructure but also at the
residential side and it's designed to
provide meaningful assistance to
property owners in order to repair
issues that they have on their own
properties and the reason that that
matters so much to all of us is um you
know it's it's it's one thing for us to
have uh flooding in our own basements
it's another thing for us to contribute
to flooding uh throughout the entire
system and so there are properties in
beex um quite a few properties in beex
that we know about already that are
contributing to the flooding in the
system and repairs are required in order
to uh reverse that
Trend um so this actually goes into more
depth about the city
um work and what we're doing we are
installing permanent flow monitoring
devices so that we're able to in real
time track what's happening within our
own systems and be able to respond and
learn more about that information to
respond quickly in our own projects um
to
look is that my internet or did he
freeze mayor you're Frozen
think
um okay um apparently the mayor's
internet connection um was unstable and
he logged off and we'll be logging back
on shortly
hopefully loran do you mind double
checking with him I will for
sure in the meantime are there any
questions from residents if you have an
opportunity to start typing anything now
pending the mayor getting back on
will'll address them following his
presentation but if anyone has you want
to make sure of they can U start
submitting those if you're um online
I'll try to
monitor um
counil um our Council website or email
Council be.org if anyone is on
YouTube so can you silence
your and I
I'm trying trying again can you guys
hear me Y sound good okay my apologies
we're
uh evidently lost a little Wi-Fi there
for a second
here um so we were talking about uh and
I
think let me get this share going here
okay you were talking about this page
that you have up on the screen top
priorities for the city in terms of flow
monitoring relief sewer options um
lining specifically in areas where
sanitary and storm infrastructure are
closely placed we've done some of that
in the past and we're going to
be
accelerating that lining projects which
I think we've talked about in the past
were put temporarily on hold during
covid just BEC because of some um
concerns about contamination within the
sewer system itself um but we will be
continuing those in Earnest uh next year
uh uh hopefully
um and then the other piece of this is
requiring repair to known residential
inii issues so we have outlined here
from a 2012 studies uh properties where
we're aware of existing inflow and
infiltration that's
inii and um part of our program would be
to pursue these issues these known
issues in light of the program we're
about to
discuss and this is kind of this is a
photo right here of smoke coming out of
a uh and what that means is that that
gutter is connected directly to a
sanitary line um it's an example of uh
issue that can occur um with influ
infiltration so the proposal for
requiring repairs here would be to
follow up with those Property Owners
where we know there are issues uh to
offer our inspection program which we're
going to go into greater depth here and
to offer a grant of up to 2,000 T
repairs if all of the pro all of the
issues when all of the issues are fixed
and to offer a special assessment
program or a loan program of up to 10
years to help offset the costly
improvements everything we're talking
about today by the way is a proposal so
it's a uh it's an ordinance before
Council it has not been passed by
Council and we're asking for your
feedback today to help inform that final
solution and the other piece of it is
probably why many of you are here
tonight which is to provide assistance
with property owners um who have
experienced flooding um and so that
program would look a little bit the same
as the one where we already know about
issues except it's
voluntary and in this program we would
ask Property Owners to allow us to
inspect their private sanitary
connections to our our public utility
system in exchange for that
inspection um or so as a as a result of
the inspection we would have a list of
repairs that were necessary in order to
bring the property up to full compliance
and not contamin contaminating the
sanitary SE system exchange for that we
would offer a $2,000 Grant to assist
with
repairs and then a loan program to
assist with um additional costs above
and beyond the $2,000
amount we're proposing a pilot program
which will be the first 100 signups to
see how it all goes um for those who
have had the flooding um we would
prioritize those to who had had flood in
in the past even before these two past
events um we would provide an inspector
from the city or a contractor for the
city that would inspect there would be a
pre-inspection to inspect for initial
issues um and then a requirement that
the problems that are discovered be
repaired because again those are
problems that are uring to the city
infrastructure um and then a post
inspection after those problems had been
cured this talks a little bit about our
own internal costs today we're going to
focus a whole lot more on on the on the
program for the resident
side um an additional consideration here
is we've had residents who have gone
ahead and and made repairs to their
system and if those repairs fix the
problem on their own end then that's
great um our proposals that grant
program be applied toward those Property
Owners they get reimbursed for a portion
of those expenses um that would require
an inspection so it would require an
inspector to make sure that there aren't
uh illegal cross connections occurring
um from the residential property
side so here's the proposed Loan program
which we've we've worked on a little bit
more since our last council meeting
which um I think gets to a lot of the
concerns that people might have because
of the cost associated with the with
repairing these issues um so here would
be the eligibility for that Loan program
it would have a requirement for an
initial City
inspection all recommended repairs must
be made as part of the work that's being
financed the resid would pay the first
$3,000 uh the grant could cover the next
$2,000 and the balance could be financed
by a loan of up to $155,000 payable over
two years via special assessment on the
property that special assessment is
similar to a tax on your tax duplicate
um and you could you know consult with
your accountant to see if that is a tax
deductible expense and we're projecting
an interest rate at roughly 3% based on
bond markets frankly there's it's they
currently I think a little bit lower
than 3% but we're U just being
conservative and providing that number
so here's some examples here's an
example of a property owner that had
$2,000 worth of needed downspout repair
$5,000 worth of Sewer Lateral work and
$88,000 Foundation drain so $155,000
project which would be hopefully on the
kind of higher end of what people might
experience in this instance a property
owner would pay the first 3,000 the inii
grant would cover the next 2,000 and
there would be a loan of $10,000
assessed over a 10-year period again
these are issues on the property own
side these are not problems with the
city infrastructure this is problems
with properties it might be broken
sanitary sewer those broken sewers
contribute storm water to our systems it
might be downspouts that are connected
directly to sanitary system or
Foundation drain this is fairly common
where the water that's coming in through
your basement is going directly into the
sanitary system as you could imagine
that is a great contributor to flooding
uh during flood events such as what we
experienced in March and May here's kind
of a less dramatic example and it's one
that kind of shows um a a lower cost
project that wouldn't even need a loan
which is um one that had a a $2,000
downspout of rerouting 1,500 Foundation
during work maybe it's a sun pump that's
installed with a total cost of 3500 in
this instance the property owner would
pay, 1500 and the grant would cover
2,000 so those are those are intended to
uh to show kind of how that might work
so our next steps after tonight's
meeting is to take your feedback to hear
what you guys have to say about this
what concerns you might have ideas that
we might not have considered in the past
and then taking that into consideration
Council would pass an authorizing
ordinance both for the inspection and
grant program and also for the loan
Assessment program and that we would get
get rolling on this as soon as possible
hopefully by early
2021 so with that Richard I'm going to
turn it back over to you um for uh
questions from attendees either through
the Q&A function or through the we have
a couple hands raised yeah I don't see
any Q&A on my end but we have Patty
tuman whose hands raised if you can
bring her in to ask her a question
Richard can I interrupt for just two
seconds before you do that please um
only to say that an um a friend and
neighbor of mine has um mentioned that
the chat feature perhaps is is not
working does is it
enabled the chat feature is not
typically enabled in our um webinars
Lori I didn't think so but I was just I
thought we had mentioned it earlier and
I just wanted to make sure usually we
only allow hands to be raised and that's
how we answer questions correct is that
the plan for tonight uh typically
okay right sorry to interrupt I just
wanted to make sure people knew that
that was the case so president fible and
Richard just wanted you to know there's
a lot of hands going up now Richard and
I just want to make sure you see that
anything we can do to help
you I took down the first three names at
least so hopefully I'll get those in
order yep so Patty uh is able to
talk and remember to unmute when you
speak yeah so we've gotten a lot of
different opinions about what needs to
be
done and some say it's just backup valve
situation some say you need a su pump
and backup valve back flow valve backf
flow valve and do you have recommended
providers or do you have an opinion
about
what does or doesn't need to be
done so I'm actually going to ask our
city engineer Dave KO or Andy bashore
our service director to explain when a
backflow preventer can be helpful and
when it might actually be
harmful and one other thing I forgot to
mention um as speakers get on it they
can indicate their name and their street
address for our minutes and followup
purposes if there's feedback that we
need to return so I so um the person
speaking under Patty tuman's ID
is David two and your
address uh do we I don't really want to
ask a question if we have to give our
address so you can just ignore my
question
then um I I Richard if your call on how
you want to handle that but I believe
that dve or Andy could could answer the
overarching question not specific to
a yes
um
it our our general policy is for
residents to give their name and address
but
um if it's okay with Council um anyone
who feels uncomfortable doing that um
we'll go ahead and all allow that for
this meeting is is there a general
consensus from Madam
president I'm okay with
that me too
it's great with me Richard is is anybody
opposed to it I think I I I certainly
understand
um the the resident
concern okay uh thank you David if you
want to repeat the question maybe for
Andy and maybe someone else who um
didn't hear the
question uh the question was we've had
multiple potential professional service
providers coming in the give their view
of the issue and we've gotten you know
five different answers from five
different
providers you know some say it's a
backflow VA valve issue only some say
it's a su pump issue only some say it's
a backup and some pump issue and you
know some say doing one would be
counterproductive and so you know is
there a list of providers or people or
you know how do you assess who's correct
or
not so from a from a the reason this
program was created the way it was was
so that we would have a city inspector
using full knowledge of the
infastructure and full knowledge of
these underlying issues given a uniform
approach that's focused on the
overarching big picture issue um and
then there would be um registered
contractors to assist with the work but
Andy or Dave if you could talk about
backflow preventers because I I didn't
really get into that at the presentation
in terms of why we've moved this from
Talking specifically backf about
backflow preventers and why they they
are sort of a last resort after all the
other
issues fixed at the
property sure mayor Madame President I
can I can answer that um a backflow
preventer will only function and prevent
a flood um in most cases is if the house
is connected to all the correct systems
uh we actually had residents from this
last flood that had backflow preventers
and it did not stop the water coming in
um to be
100% hopefully safe you would need the
sum pump the foundation drains and make
sure your down spout lines are hooked
into the storm um and the back foow
preventer does require maintenance um
but it is not a cure all be all um you
know the the whole house and the system
of the house would would need to be
inspected uh
Ben I just add add to what Andy said um
with with the backflow preventer it it
is a help if everything else has been
eliminated and I think that's the
benefit of the of the program that you
have set up is that an inspect inection
would be done to see all the different
mechanisms that could contribute to a
water in basement backup
and we can hear
sorry can you hear me now
you were muted Dave yeah you're not now
okay I'm sorry I thought I was on uh
with the with the backflow preventor I
think it it will be a
benefit if all other all other systems
are operational that you have no down
spouts going into your sanitary
sewer uh service line and you have a
sump pump draining your foundation and
pumping the water out to the street I
think then a back FL renter would be
worthwhile and in particular if we have
a severe storm event like we
had two of this year that we know that
our system and the Columbus system
cannot cannot handle uh in in other
words any storm event W weather event
over a
10year frequency I think that we can
pretty well say that not only will will
Columbus be
backed up but we would likely see homes
impacted with water and basement as
well okay thanks I had a quick followup
question and maybe this isn't S in stone
yet but if you have an
inspection can then you decide to not
pursue any of the city measures and just
proceed on your own or are you
obligated in some way
to
pursue what the inspector found or
because be the way the ordinance is
written you're obligated to um at lease
to commit over a 10year period to uh
remediate the issues that were
identified thank you thank you
um and I
[Music]
believe the next person I see a mic
available to on my screen is Mike if
you it looks like he's
unmuted um yeah I think that's me can
you guys hear me
okay yes okay so uh just a thanks before
I start to the to the mayor and to the
board Council here I think appreciate
you guys being uh proactive and and
thinking through this
holistically um um my address is 2259
Aster and 2802 Columbus um where I've
had the incidences um so I I did have a
similar question about the optionality
after the um after the inspection is
done I understand there's the option is
before the inspection not after um so I
guess my other follow-up question would
be
um uh are we free to use our own
contractors uh to remediate the um to
the issues or or do the work ourselves
if if we find ourselves especially handy
um
and um and I my other sentiment is just
you know I've had three or four
contractors come in and they all tell me
different things so that that that is a
um a difficulty I think we have
navigating but yeah um yeah maybe just
to the first
question um I I think one of the
benefits of the program is the city will
only require you to cure what is
identified in the inspections so someone
is telling you you need something else
and the our inspection does not um
suggest that then you don't have to do
that that might be something that's
appropriate later if there's still
additional
problems um
and there was one other thing you
mentioned U just in terms of the the
approved contractors do we can we self
fix or we have to use approved
contractor list or how does that
work right right now the I believe the
ordinance is worded so that um there'll
be a list of selected providers
um
there if I can interrupt Richard about
that real quickly just in terms of yeah
how we handle analogous situations
because this has a follow-up inspection
mic if if you repair it to the level
that it would pass a follow-up
inspection and that's self-work um then
I we would typically allow that if it
can if it would truly pass that
inspection we don't want to put it
property owners in a situation where if
they have the if they have the wherewith
all and the knowledge they can't do it
on their own um I do think one thing we
hear from a lot of residents is exactly
what you said and the in the the
individual before you which is I hear
something different from five different
contractors the advantage of this
program is it's informed by our city
engineer and our team of Engineers
behind our city engineer uh so it's not
you know it's not relying on one
individual plumbers kind of U potential
interface with our systems but it it is
informed by a holistic view of the
systems and so hopefully the the the
thought here is that we're able to get
to the root of the issues and provide
very concrete and definitive answers as
to uh repairs that would need to be uh
required thank thank you very much thank
you
Mike and um if people have already had
their questions answered thank you for
lowering your hand um if Patty tuman who
previously asked a question still has
one outstanding will add to the bottom
of the list um mayor I don't see any
microphones by anyone else Jennifer
Parsons was
next on my list and then Elizabeth
Cheney if you want to queue up and
Jennifer can go next thank
you great thank you all so much can you
hear me
okay great thanks
Jessica um so I actually just moved into
the neighborhood uh in August uh I'm at
1059 granden Avenue uh I've actually
talked to Andy about this problem before
so Andy thanks for all your help um love
to see that there's a meeting about it
that's great um so the folks that owned
the house previously had disclosed that
they had flooding in March and may just
like everybody else and I had uh some
folks come out and give estimates and
actually have a backflow valve scheduled
to be put in in two weeks um that I've
paid the deposit for and because the
flooding I guess that did happen
previously was flooding that came up
from the sewer from that drain system um
my question is in addition to the
information I've already gotten from
folks now that sort of there is this
progress
forward um if I have it installed I
guess I would fall into that category of
folks that have already had work done
since the flooding um and would be
looking for a
reimbursement um what exactly do I need
to do to make sure that uh they they do
everything that they need to do to get
that reimbursement would it make sense
for me to have somebody and come out and
inspect everything before they even do
the work or am I okay to wait until
after what's the best Next
Step um the mayor or Andy answer that I
think the answer is Jennifer you can
wait until afterwards but there is some
risk that there might be some issues
discovered through that inspection um
that weren't uncovered when you when you
did your work there might need to be
some additional work done that wouldn't
negate uh should not negate work that
You' done but there might need to be
something additional dve or Andy would
you uh have anything to add to
that I guess that's a no would not
mayor um mayor Ben I think the only
thing that she would need to do or we
would need to verify is that her
downspouts weren't connected to the
sanitary and she had a some pump system
that that work properly to give
perimeter drainage to her
basement I think that's the basic things
that are that are beyond the just the
backload
prevention yeah and I can follow up with
I actually don't have a sump pump and
drainage system in the basement um so I
can follow up with you guys
separately on that front we don't to
take time on this call it's probably a
separate issue but um because that
didn't seem to be the
issue in the previous flooding
situations but to everybody else's point
everybody that came out said you should
do something different so
yeah yeah the the meat of your question
is it it would um require an inspection
on of some type to participate in the
reimbursement program on the back end
okay right
um next person we have queued up is Sean
Turner's
ID yeah I'm here can you hear me yes we
can okay I've got a it's couple
different questions I'll kind of throw
them all out at once because some of
them might overlap with each other um
one is is there a list of what is going
to be inspected um is there a general
because like for instance I just worked
on my down spout I know my down spouts
go to the curb I know that would not be
an issue but going in kind of blind not
knowing what what might I mean are you
checking the drain line that goes from
my house is there a possibility I'm have
to replace my drain line to the street
is there a possibility that I am going
to have to put in some pumps like what
exactly is going to be inspected and
what's going to be looked for um if the
cost goes over
$15,000 is there any help with that or
is anything over $155,000 my
responsibility and the last thing was
since there are going to be numerous
ones of these done um I didn't know
whether there was any reach out to a
contractor to basically become almost
like a preferred con not necessarily you
have to use them but say you know we're
going to work with you you're going to
come into the City and do 30 of these we
should work on getting a discounted rate
on that and I just didn't know whether
any of that was uh was
[Music]
done um mayor I think you're um you have
the ideas on the preferred contractor
and the discount rates and then the
other questions Andy or
Dave answer yeah so preferred contractor
Sean we definitely have put some time
and thought into coming up with some
contractors multiple contractors who
could give provide prices for some you
know at a generic level one of the
challenges here is that uh it's not a
one-size fits-all um issue with any
given property but uh in terms of like
base pricing and bulk pricing that's
something something that we've given
some thought to and our interest in
pursuing
Andy sure mayor um Sean just to answer I
believe I got all of them written down
um for the backflow um you know to be in
that program you would need a sump pump
um you would need we would need to
verify the inspector that you do have
Foundation drains in your uh sanitary
lateral coming from the house to the
city mainl would need to be inspected
so so basically it's it's Foundation
drains sup pump and then you down spouts
which I wouldn't need so it's basically
those three
items we can't hear you Andy your mic's
off
again uh sorry about that um Sean you're
right other than the other thing that we
would add would be your lateral from the
house to to the city Mainline would need
to be camera to verify there was it
wasn't broken or full of roots um that
would be one of the the key components
and one more thing that is a little bit
of a niche issue is certain properties
have surface drains outside of the house
um analogous to down spouts but for
example driveway drains yard drains we
have we do have evidence of those uh
tapping directly into sanitary
systems and um David and Andy from our
conversations earlier there's also um
when the city's doing the inspection
they're looking at the connection
between the lateral line and and the the
main trunk line out outside in the
street or in the alley whatever to make
sure that there's no nearby obstructions
that could be contributing to any one
particular properties's issue that
regular plumbers may not be able to
detect correct good when you so just for
clarification when you talk about a sump
pump are you talking about
basically drywall or not drywall but
basement ceiling where they dig the you
need to trench around the basement with
a sun pump attached is that what you're
referencing Sean that would be the
foundation drains um a sump pump would
be um like a small pit and usually a
corner of the basement that would be the
sump pump um where they go around the
edge of the basement that would be the
the perimeter drains or Foundation
drains yeah
yeah so combinate so you're saying you
need both of those basically is what
you're saying the perimeter
Grant okay correct okay thank you then
the last question about over the 15 if
it's over
15,000 is there any help on that Ben oh
Ben's gone
so um right now there isn't a specific
plan for um over
15,000 okay
I would point out Richard that the way
that we talked about it the 15,000
actually that would be a $20,000 project
um where it includes loan down payment
and
Grant
um and we're we're hoping that we're not
talking about more than $20,000 I
guess okay thank
you Maria nunz was next on the list that
I
had Richard might I suggest real quickly
before we do this we have about 10 or 12
people with their hands raised and we
have 10 minutes left into our council
meeting and so we could either take uh
questions via email or we could allow
people to Simply State their question we
take a quick note of it and then try to
answer as many as we can with the time
remaining would that be um something
you're interested in yeah I was after
the Maria I was going to suggest that
but um for the next questions we'll
ask the individuals to ask their
question and give their name and and
address so we can cross reference if um
and then we'll answer uh those questions
offline at a future
Point
Maria yes hi everyone um can you hear me
okay yes we can thanks okay so my
question pertains to rental properties
will the assess investment Loan program
um apply to rental properties for
landlords who need it and how that
applies whether to single family homes
or multifam dwellings um and then is
there any info landlords and tenants
need to know about or anything that
theyi to non-rental
properties the the programs primarily
address to um single
and maybe
duplexes
um we haven't talked about mulle
properties so that's something that we
need to be um looking
into thank
you H Jack
B yes uh thank you um 135 South Park VI
question for you more it's more of an
observation the two incidents we had
this spring resulted in significant
Flooding at Wolf Park and I'm wondering
if that was a source of some of the
backup we
had and if so you know there were two
dams that were taken down in 2008
antidot I don't remember flooding in
Wolf Park prior to those dams being
taken down but I'm wondering if there's
if there's something that needs to be
Revisited on that on that
topic um our engineer Mr Coke has been
in convers ation in Andy has as well
with city of Columbus um there's uh
sewer line projects that are being done
along Alum Creek area and there there
could be some um complications regarding
that and so Mr C will look into your
specific
question I just wonder if those dams
were there for a reason
so okay thank thank you I'm I'm not
aware of that answer right now um we'll
get back to you and Josh F fineberg yeah
can you hear me yes we can great uh Josh
feberg I live at 218 South Roosevelt um
and this may just be my ignorance so I
apologize in advance but I I wasn't
quite understanding are are the
inspectors going to be looking
for pro issues that are a problem for
the city's system or issues that are a
problem for the homeowners system or are
those the same
thing in other words is my flooding
going to be fixed essentially is my
question da do you want to answer that
real quickly
please yeah Mr Mr Sharp
um uh the answer is both the the
improper uh inflow connection direct
inflow of storm water into your or an
individual's
residences sanitary sewer will back up
their base spin
just and it can affect their neighbors
basement too so it's not just yours
alone that it would help to eliminate
but it will eliminate flooding in the in
the immediate area and downstream
area but the goal is is is ultimately
part of the goal is to help my flooding
situation
correct correct
corre okay uh next Beth wited and I
apologize for going quickly
no that's okay um when I moved into
Bexley 20 years ago I was told in Bexley
you either have water in your basement
or you have a sun pump so we did the
perimeter drain we did the sun pump um I
in the last two years I've had my
downspouts check they do go to the
streets they're brand new um in the back
we had a great big tree we had taken
down and every five or six years we were
having that drain snaked out without the
tree we shouldn't have that problem
anymore I've done everything you guys
have said to do and by the way we didn't
have that kind we didn't have water
gurgling up through the drain until
March and may this program we've already
paid for all that and I'm not asking the
city to retro pay for it but none of
this is going to do anything for me um
is
it just hoping that the whole system
gets better so there won't be water
gurgling up through my drain or am I a
candidate for the back flow so Beth you
would be a fantastic candidate for the
backflow preventer assuming everything
you're saying is correct that's exactly
what we're trying to get at so you've
done truth Ben you've done you've done
everything else there is to do um you
know the storm you're not contributing
storm water to the system in that
instance you would be a great candidate
for backflow preventer if there are some
negatives with a backflow preventer but
assuming that's what you would would
like to move forward with that $2,000
Grant would probably cover most if not
all of that cost I oh by the way since
I've re done this recently $20,000 is is
really probably $155,000 would probably
cover the stuff you're talking about
that I had done so just in terms of the
numbers that those are good numbers 15
to 20 thank you for the
Intel and mayor I've got four till six
how long did you want to
go I'm I'm I'm good till six if you guys
are good till six okay next up would be
uh Gary Conrad
yes um I'll keep mine brief then we're
in the same situation as Beth we're
we're post our children here we're at
2898 Maryland
Avenue in North Bexley and
um you know we had a basement waterproof
so we got the foundation drained we've
got the sump pump everything's going out
to the curb and the only thing that's
going out our sewer is sanitary waste if
if we chose we've been here for a long
time 28 years if we chose not to do the
backflow and if our neighbors on both
sides or you know down the street or
whatever got the backf flow is that
going to make is that going to make it
worse on us is that gonna is the
potential there for our uh backup to be
even higher than it would have been and
maybe this this is probably a question
for andyy
[Music]
maybe he's done oh there he is hi Gary
um hi Andy we have I have seen that from
this last one where one neighbor did
have a backflower ventor and The
Neighbor Next Door did not and it
actually did affect the neighbor in a
negative
way okay that's just good information um
you know we're probably going to do it
anyhow but that's that just kind of
solidifies it I I wouldn't say that
happens you know in every in every you
know case but but it has
happened yeah well in all these years
we've never had it happen before and it
and we had very minor water back up um
you know Kathy we threw away a bunch of
stuff we should have thrown away a long
time ago but um we just don't want to go
through it again so I I think we'll
probably do it
then okay thank you Gary um thank you
other people on the list if you don't
mind sending an email of your question
to council becky. org um that way
Council can hear your input and we can
have those forwarded on to Dave Andy and
the mayor to address and uh Richard it's
city council at be.org it's so one word
city council at beyg city council I'm
sorry or elected officials at becky.
org um if there's no other comments from
coun
um due to our time we'll need to adjourn
and I'll hand it back over to laurian
real quickly can Richard or lauran can I
say one more thing before we adjourn if
that's
okay I I just want to recognize that you
know we have a lot of people on the call
tonight I appreciate you taking the time
to listen to what we're what we're
working on I understand that you guys
all like many of us dealt with really
very difficult circumstances with this
flooding we take it seriously we are
trying to come up with the program
that's meaningful that's not just
band-aiding an issue but trying to come
up with some systemic fixes long term so
thank you for being here tonight thank
you for hanging with us we I hate to say
we feel your pain it sounds trait but we
do we understand what you've been
through uh we are really sensitive to
that and we want to work with you on
this
solution yes thank you mayor Kesler and
and indeed we do feel your pain there
are at least three of us that you can
see that were flooded both in in March
and in so and I promise you that I
personally um will get back to each one
of you and I will um I will connect you
to the proper person uh to answer your
your concerns so thank you for joining
with us tonight I hope you learned
something um about about the issue and
how we're trying really hard to work for
our city to make it better so um thank
you all um with that is there a motion
to adjourn
Council I make a motion to adjourn this
special meeting thank you Richard second
that thank you Mr Clinger all those in
favor I all right let's all try to be
back on in two minutes if we can okay
for the next meeting thanks