Public Works Receives Grant for Electric Vehicles and Charging Stations
Fleet Services was recently awarded a grant for $85,000 to be applied toward the purchase of four electric vehicles and four vehicle charging stations. These new vehicles will replace hydrocarbon-fueled vehicles now in the City’s vehicle pool. The charging stations will be installed at 55 Stony Point Road—two will be located within the Municipal Services Center North corporation yard, the other two will be located in the recently-constructed MSCN employee parking lot and available for City visitors to access. The City Council will be requested to accept this grant on February 15.
The City was part of a group of local agencies that partnered together with the Bay Area Electric Vehicle Coalition to submit a grant proposal for the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Innovative Program Grant offered through by Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Proposals were evaluated based on the potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and priority was given to proposals that demonstrate collaboration across multiple agencies and jurisdictions.
Talbot Avenue Storm Water Project Wins Award
We are pleased to announce that the Talbot Avenue Storm Water Quality Offset Improvement Project was recently selected as one of Storm Water Solutions Magazine’s “2010 Top Storm Water and Erosion Control Projects”. The award recognizes innovative, challenging projects that address issues such as runoff treatment, water quality monitoring, and flood control.
The Talbot Avenue project is a natural plant and soil system, designed to capture pollutants and filter trash/debris and filtering rainwater runoff before it flows into Santa Rosa Creek. The project was chosen for this award because of its use of innovative technology to enhance environmental quality within and downstream of the project area. It also represents a notable collaboration of City staff, state, county and regulatory agencies, consultants and the contractor working together to protect the environment.
Please join us in congratulating Tanya Mokvyts, Project Manager, and Chris Huffman, Project Inspector, for successfully implementing this project.
New Funding for Bayer Neighborhood Park
The dream of creating a multiuse facility at Bayer Neighborhood Park is one step closer to becoming a reality. The City has recently secured over $5 million for the construction of Bayer Neighborhood Park and Gardens, this includes a $4.8 million grant from the State of California, Proposition 84 – Statewide Park Program and more recently, $189,000 in funding from the Stewardship Council – Infrastructure Fund. These successful grants have been a direct result of the strength, innovation and effectiveness of the partnership between the City, LandPaths and the Roseland community.
The partnership between the City and LandPaths has focused on utilizing each organization’s strengths, community involvement and finding outside funding sources. As LandPaths provided on-site programming, the City conducted nearly a dozen community meetings to determine the design of the park. Residents chose park elements that they felt best fit their needs and the overall park site. The result is a park that will feature a community garden, play areas, community center, rehabilitated barn, multi-use turf area, outdoor stage, restrooms and an outdoor education center. The City’s community planning process and LandPaths’ programming has helped to create a sense of place for the Roseland community and has also shown the strength and commitment to outside granting agencies.
The Church of One Tree Resurrected
The restoration of the Church of One Tree is complete. After thirteen years of vacancy the renovation process began in 2008. Utilizing grant funding, the Church’s interior was renovated, repainted and the stained glass windows restored.
In December, the Church of One Tree celebrated its 137th birthday in its newly restored splendor. This unique structure was built from one redwood tree that stood 275 ft high and was 18 ft in diameter. The gigantic redwood grew in Stumptown, California (now Guerneville) with the lumber costing a total of $3000. It was the original home to the First Baptist Church of Santa Rosa and has been home to several other unique uses in more recent decades, including the Ripley Memorial Museum.
The City will host a ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening celebration on February 22, 2011 at 3:30 pm for the Church of One Tree. The community is invited to help honor the volunteers and workers that have resurrected this exceptional piece of local history.
Measure M Quarter Cent Sales Tax Dollars at Work
The Public Works Department has been busy putting tax payer dollars to work, improving all modes of transportation. You may have notice the recent construction activity on Santa Rosa Avenue from Yolanda to Kawana Springs Road and on Hearn Ave from Dutton to Dowd Drive.
The construction work on Santa Rosa Ave was the first stage in this three stage project which will add travel and bike lanes and sidewalks in locations where they don’t exist. With the completion of stage one the public now has a sidewalk and the utility companies are cleared for stage two to relocate their facilities. Stage three will be the final widening once the utilities are cleared.
The construction work on Hearn from Dutton to Dowd is now complete. This project added much needed bike lanes and sidewalk across the railroad tracks and Colgan Creek. This work also completed the SMART Railroad improvements associated with the crossing. Sidewalks and the median construction will accommodate the future SMART pedestrian and bike path.
These are just a couple examples of the great work Measure M is doing in the community. The Public Works Department looks forward to implementing future Measure M projects.
Utilities Project Development and Public Works Fleet Services Receives Grant
A $100,000 grant was awarded to the City from a portion of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant. Fleet Services has used the grant to install electric and plug in hybrid charging stations for public and private use. The chargers are located at City Hall, Parking Garages 9 and 12, the parking lot under Highway 101 next to Railroad Square, the Municipal Service Center North and South, and the Laguna Treatment Plant.
The chargers are expected to be operational in February and will operate on 110 or 220 voltage. The 110 voltage will allow a vehicle to obtain approximately 50% of a full charge within the four hour parking limit, while the 220 voltage will allow for a full charge within the same time frame. Parking spaces with electric charging stations are designated for use only while recharging a vehicle—signs will be posted nearby to remind users of the four hour time limit.
Utilities Department Receives a PG&E Energy Efficiency Rebate for $97K
On January 20, the Utilities department received a check for $97,295 for energy efficiency upgrades on two Reclamation pump stations. Improvements were made to the Rohnert Park and Meadow Lane pump stations to reduced energy consumption by about 45%. Both pump stations were using fixed speed pumps which resulted large amounts of water being re-circulated during periods of low water demand.
Improvements included replacing the fixed speed pumps with variable frequency pumps that adjust the pumping rate when demand drops. Flow meters on the discharge pipes and upgraded control systems were also included in the improvements to allow for better flow control. The improvements were designed by Lescure Engineers with Ed Myers being the project engineer. The Utilities Department participated in the California Wastewater Optimization Program (CalPOP) to get a loan from the state to pay for the project to be repaid with the energy savings. Special recognition goes to John Bidwell from CalPOP for his work assisting City staff with securing the loan and PG&E rebate; John Rosenblum (Lescure Engineers); Rich DiTommaso (Brelje & Race); Joe Horak (PG&E) and Bob Stiles (Stiles Construction). From the Utilities Department, Norman Amidon, Dan Carlson and Randy Piazza assisted in seeing this project to completion.
Redevelopment Funds Bring Water and Sewer Service to Leddy Avenue Residents
This much needed sewer and water project was completed this past fall. This Redevelopment Agency Project consisted of installing new sanitary sewer and water mains on Leddy Avenue from Sebastopol Road to Finley Avenue, and on a portion of Golden Gate Avenue. Sewer and water service laterals were installed up to the property lines of each of the adjacent 59 private properties, along with a full width asphalt overlay to the streets.
In 2000, Leddy Avenue was determined to have unsafe and inadequate sewer and water services. No public sewer or water services existed along Leddy Avenue and residents depended on their private wells for drinking water and private septic systems for waste disposal. Additionally, soils in this area are poorly suited for septic and sewage disposal systems—during winter months, high ground water levels caused septic system tanks to overflow. The overflow, in turn, was seeping back into the ground and contaminating nearby water wells.
This Redevelopment project has restored basic health and safety conditions to the affected homes by providing sewer and water services.