Here’s Darien Department of Public Works’ Latest Quarterly Report

Here’s the Darien Department of Public Works Quarterly report for the second quarter of 2015 (also the final quarter of the 2015 Fiscal Year):

Quarterly Report, 4th Quarter FY 15

April 1, 2015 to June 30, 2015

 Bulk Pickup Program. The Bulk Pickup Program (formerly known as “Spring Pickup”) was conducted this year between April 6th and June 10th. The bulk pickup program was conceived to allow residents the opportunity to dispose of large items that they may not be able to transport to the Darien Transfer Station on their own. DPW records indicate that there were 105 bulk pickup appointments this year (114 last season). Residents are limited to one appointment per season and must have items curbside on date of scheduled pickup.

 Household Hazardous Waste Day. Every year on the 1st Saturday in the month of June the Town conducts a household hazardous waste day. This year’s event was held on the south (northbound) side of the Noroton Heights Train Station on June 6, 2015.

Illegal dumping was reported by Janice Marzano at the Depot on the opposite side of the tracks. Illegal dumping wasn’t discovered until Sunday June 7, when Ms. Marzano visited Depot.

The DPW reviewed video surveillance footage from the Depot and found that dumping occurred while the event was in progress (that is between 9 and 1. At least 6 separate vehicles were seen placing household hazardous waste on picnic benches and tables at the depot (see pictures below).

Video footage was burned to disc by DPW and forwarded to Darien Police. George Swift filed police report in person after the fact. Unfortunately the video resolution is inadequate to capture license plate numbers and therefore unlike to result in arrest or identification of offenders.

The posture of offenders did not appear to be “sneaky”. This viewer wondered if these folks even considered what they were doing to be wrong. It is difficult to imagine that with all of our directional signage for the event, that someone could erroneously dispose of their waste at the depot, but it does seem at least possible.

The event was very well attended. Darien is a part of a cooperative and reciprocal arrangement whereby Darien residents are allowed to participate in other towns household hazardous waste day events in exchange for allowing non Darien residents to participate in Darien’s event.

The bar graph below shows the recorded vehicles for almost the last 15 years. Although the amount of vehicles vary and trends change, the proportion of Darien vehicles in relation to total, has been fairly consistent.

 

 Cumulative Work Requests. The DPW processed 393 work requests during the fourth quarter of FY 15. Work requests totaled 307, 279, 333, and 433 for the 1st through 4th quarters respectively of FY 14.

Work requests for FY 15 for fourth quarter continue to track slightly under the eleven year average. Fourth quarter results below for FY 15 are up to and including June 26, 2015 (information for the remaining few days of the quarter not available as of this writing).

 

CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

TOWN OF DARIEN SIDEWALK REPLACEMENT PROGRAM. The Town of Darien bid and awarded replacement of existing sidewalk project and began construction. To date, the following sidewalks have been replaced:

 Concrete sidewalk on the Boston Post Road between Hollow Tree Ridge Road and Hampton Road;

 Concrete Sidewalk on West Avenue between Oak Park Avenue and Brown Street;

 Asphalt sidewalk on Lakeside Avenue between West Avenue and Sedgwick Avenue; and,

 Asphalt sidewalk on Sedgwick Avenue between Leroy Avenue and Mansfield Avenue.

Work on sidewalk replacement project was halted for the winter season. Asphalt plants in the area have reopened on March 30 and work has resumed. Replacement of asphalt sidewalk on Leroy Avenue between McLaren Road and Highfield Road will proceed as well pending potential gas line construction conflicts.

TOWN OF DARIEN COMMERCIAL SIDEWALK REPLACEMENT. The Town of Darien procured services of a consulting engineer through competitive proposal process for design of “Model Block Sidewalk”.

The project involves the typical downtown style sidewalk with streetscape lighting, brick band inlay, granite curbing, concrete sidewalk, and tree removal and replacement. This project is a private/public partnership on the Boston Post Road between Brook and Day Streets on the north side of the street.

The town bid out construction work, awarded the construction contract, however were unable to begin construction due to winter shut down. Work will necessarily take place on a state road (CT RT 1) and requires a DOT encroachment permit. The DOT permit review and approval process took sufficiently long enough to put us within a week of area asphalt plants closing.

Thus work in earnest began in Spring upon more favorable weather and availability of materials. The project is finished now. The photographs below show the sidewalk before and during construction.

The photograph on left of page (looking west or towards Norwalk) was taken in September 2014 and shows undulating sidewalk and large pin oak trees that have heaved sidewalk panels.

The photograph on the right (looking west or towards Stamford) was taken on April 29, 2015. At this point, large pin oak trees had been removed and new sidewalk immediately adjacent to building had been installed thereby restoring access to storefront doors.

Mr. David Genovese of Baywater Properties, LLC, a participating adjacent property owner, was instrumental in building a consensus among private property owners. Without private participation, project would not have been initiated and completed.

The completed project (not shown here) includes a new streetscape light in front of the Sugar Bowl Restaurant and two Cleveland Pear Trees which compensate for the greenery removed and are consistent with streetscape across the street.

INTERVALE ROAD DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS. The project includes new storm drains on portions of Intervale Road, Abbey Road, Devon Road, Holmes Ave., and Rose Lane, a private road that the system outlet traverses. All land use permits have been secured and funding is in place.

Negotiations for easements on private property between Devon Road and Intervale Road have failed. Following months of negotiations and conceptual changes to plans on private property between Devon and Intervale, it became apparent that drainage structure on private property was never going to be acceptable to property owners.

A redesign and redirection of the drainage plan has been completed with revised plan presented in a public meeting on June 25, 2015 in the Town hall Auditorium. All residents and property owners adjacent to the project were invited to the public meeting. The new direction is to avoid private property and stay within the town right of way on Devon and Stanley Roads.

The drainage pipe on Stanley Road is a new part of the project. Prior to redesign, no new drainage was proposed on Stanley. Changes in actual flow rates or water within drainage system are being evaluated and believed to be insignificant.

The town already has an easement on a Rose Lane property which is necessary to discharge to Noroton River. We will be able to bid out the project within a month of clearing all legal and design hurdles. We anticipated 9 month to one year construction schedule from that point on.

An Autumn 2015 start is likely. The denial of easements on private property resolves the largest unknown impediment related to the project. The change made whereby new drainage will be installed in Stanley Road eliminates any further negotiation with private property owners, as the town already have the only easement needed across 95 Rose Lane. Look for bidding over the Summer of 2015 with construction in Autumn pending bids received within budgets.

Meanwhile, Eversource (formerly known as CL&P/Yankee Gas) has almost completed the upgrade of their gas facilities based upon deficiencies of their infrastructure and our proposed drainage design, thereby eliminating many of the conflicts our drainage project would have encountered during construction. Gas service is also now available to some residents that did not have that option in the past.

DPW GARAGE COMPLEX RFP. The DPW has issued a request for proposals related to professional services (architectural and engineering) for the conceptual plans and estimate of upgrades to the DPW garage complex. RFP’s were received on May 11, 2015. The garage complex has become woefully inadequate due to increase in use and aging structural components.

The 3 major town groups using the complex are DPW, Parks and Recreation, and Board of Education. The facility is under the jurisdiction of and administered by the DPW. P&R and BOE are tenants. In addition, fleet fueling under DPW jurisdiction is used by Police, Fire, EMS, and Gallivant, departments, at this location.

Three (3) of the six (6) consultants who responded to the RFP were invited to interview on June 23, 2015. The DPW invited representatives of town stakeholders (BOE, P&R) to participate in interview.

Ms. Jayme Stevenson, First Selectman, also participated in interview process. The interview panel moved towards a consensus. The DPW anticipates negotiating with preferred consultant in July of 2015. Successful consultant will be announced in next quarterly report.

OTHER DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES

 SURVEYING. The DPW continues to utilize professional surveyors to provide property line and other important data on town roads. During this quarter, the mapping was completed on Hollow Tree Ridge Road from Talmadge Hill Road (the New Canaan town line) to the intersection of Crooked Mile Road.

 SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS. Installation of surveillance cameras at both railroad stations continues. Some of these cameras are operational and have been used in police investigations. All camera installation work is being performed in house by DPW staff.

 TOWN VEHICLE FUEL STATION. The DPW is responsible for fueling station for all town vehicles. A new policy with greater accountability has been instituted. Each department utilizing the town fueling station will now have better control of fueling activity within their department.

 PAVING. The DPW performed remaining paving of Middlesex Road which could not be completed during before the winter season due to water line replacement there. Following the winter season and close of public schools, the DPW resumed work and resurfaced the portion of Middlesex Road between Noroton Avenue and Leroy Avenue (et al). This section of road was perhaps the worst public road in Darien due to multiple waterline breaks and repairs. The DPW obtained partial funding for resurfacing of this road from the water company (Aquarion).

The DPW also bid out parking lot rehabilitation work during this quarter. The DPW included in bid Board of Education parking lots along with commuter parking lots. Bids will be opened on Monday, June 29, 2015. Results will be reported next quarter. This is a great example of inter-departmental cooperation or assistance. In addition, the town should realize increased interest (and hopefully competition) due to increase in scale of work.

 SOLID WASTE AND RECYCLING. Deliveries to the transfer station continue to lag well (50%) behind the long term (10 year) average. Data for FY 15 started out slightly below FY 14 and is now showing slightly above FY 13 and FY 14. As we near the end of FY 15, it appears that FY 15 is tracking almost identically to FY 13 which is slightly greater than tonnages for FY 14.

June 2015 tonnages are not known as of this writing. The purple line represents cumulative MSW tonnages for FY 15. Blue line (upper) in graph below is previous 10 year average MSW cumulative tonnage. Red line (next below blue) is actual FY 13 MSW cumulative tonnage.

Green line (bottom) is FY 14 actual MSW cumulative tonnage. Purple line is FY 15 to date (July 2014 through May 2015). [See graph below.]

 Single stream recycling continues to produce tangible results. As previously reported, for the first time in Darien’s waste management history, recyclables exceeded MSW quantities during the month of May 2013. That feat has repeated itself again last quarter. As we near the end of FY15, MSW and Single Stream Recycling quantities are very close. MSW and Single Stream Recycling quantities remain commensurate in that for the most part, both rise and fall together and somewhat proportionally. The linear regression lines from the beginning of FY 12 continue to show a convergence of MSW and Single Stream Recycling. There are a plethora of ways to look at the data. The results presented utilize all useful data related to Single Stream Recycling compared to MSW. The spike in December for MSW is correlated with scale outage. The town saw customers return to bringing MSW to our facility with fixed fees in place and a sharp decline immediately following scale back in service and unit cost fees being reinstated.

Clearly, the efforts of the Recycling Center Advisory Committee (formerly known as the Transfer

Station Advisory Committee) have been key in achieving the results described and currently the RCAC has moved aggressively into the schools and Town Hall with their efforts. The RCAC is currently working on ways to increase recycling opportunities in parks and beaches. Every ton of material processed as single stream recycling produces $15 in revenue and eliminates an $87.60 expense for FY 15 ($91.10 for FY16).

Mattress Recycling. In 2003, the State of Connecticut enacted Public Act 13-42 and revised with Public Act 14-170. These public acts require mattress manufacturers to create a recycling program for mattresses discarded in the State of Connecticut.

The Mattress industry responded to the public act by creating the Mattress Recycling Council. It took a couple of years for the DEEP permits and other logistics in place, but in May 2015 the recycling program went live and the Town of Darien is now participating.

Mattresses and box springs (without bed bugs, mold, etc) can now be recycled by anyone with proper credentials to enter the Darien Transfer Station and Recycling Center. Each mattress or box spring recycled takes further tonnage out of the waste stream, thereby reducing the need for landfill space and reducing disposal fees from standard MSW charges. The cost to the Town of Darien for Mattress disposal is zero. Signage has been installed near the transfer station building for proper disposal area.

Other cost saving and recycling opportunities are being explored and will hopefully be reported in the next quarterly report. Specifically a paint recycling program should be in place sometime during July 2015. We are hopeful that the Town of Darien will see real and substantial savings in household hazardous waste disposal cost once residents are able to dispose of paint throughout the year.

SEWER DEPARTMENT. The Town of Darien Sewer Department is an integral part of the towns infrastructure. The sewer department is one of the most important, albeit perhaps one of the lease glamorous departments in town government. Both the health and fees paid by the populace served by sewers, are directly dependent upon the administration and field work of the sewer department.

Mr. Frederick Micha, the town’s wastewater systems supervisor, has retired. Mr. Micha has been employed with by the Town of Darien for 25 years. The town is now in the process of conducting a search for his replacement. Statewide (and beyond) industry websites are currently advertising this job opportunity of great importance.

Pump replacements at the towns Nearwater and Stony Brook pump stations has begun. This multi-year project will replace pumps that are approximately 40 years old. The new pumps are intended to provide better service, less clogging, and easier maintenance.

NEXT SIX MONTHS (and beyond)

 West Ave Drainage Project on hold. No new information to add since last report.

 Abbey Drainage Project. Bid and build.

 Noroton Heights Canopy Project on hold. No new information to add since last report.

 Town wide paving program Summer 2015

 NPDES Phase II, MS4 DEEP Stormwater General Permit compliance and continue to lobby for the rescinding of the New “Draft” of the General Permit. This unfunded mandate would have a serious adverse impact on the Public Works Department budget.  Prepare and submit DEEP annual and quarterly waste report.

 Working on ordinance change for sanitary sewer FOG program, illicit sump pumps discharges and check valve requirements.

 Complete survey of ROW from Crooked Mile to Timber Lane on Hollow Tree Ridge Road which continues FY 15 work on Hollow Tree Ridge Road. Work has been awarded and will be completed sometime in FY16.

 Design and bid the Mechanic Street Municipal Parking Lot lighting upgrade and parking lot rehabilitation.

 Complete 2nd half of resurfacing of Leroy West Parking lot.

 Administer “developer” sewer systems for Stephanie Lane, and Locust Hill Road.

 Complete “developer” sewer systems on Kensett Lane and Allen O’Neill.

 Allocate resources to defend against current lawsuits.