3.28.2023 City Council - Committee on Public Works and Transportation

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the meaning on public works and transportation will convene the clerk call a roll please here pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible

first

uh the first item on our gender is Citizens input we have anybody signed up for Citizens input anybody that wants to speak you want to speak come on down um actually that's third well you could it's third on our agenda if you want to wait until we discuss it okay so nobody else uh number two of the minutes we need to motion to it proof second all in favor aye all approved

number three is the curb cut on Manton street is the proponent here would you like to come to the table sir the other gentleman who is looking to have the curb cut yes to keep the beat but now he okay excuse me can you give me a name and address for the record Michael thank you yep and said it was a wall there but he's looking at the wrong side of the of the lot

and he uh thought it was that one too but when I told him it wasn't he told me he's not a pose and he's sitting up there and this is the this is what it was supposed to be doing it's for okay I see yeah yeah there's a huge difference in the amount of sir sir would you like to join us at the table as well

can happen if you want okay and could you please state your name and address for the record I'm coming because he doesn't speak English okay I'm going to do my best sure you're good it's all from Santos 68 bush or River Mass and your name and address sir thank you so your side his so you were opposed and you're no longer opposed no you never you agree all the time he saw the

wrong side that's why I was opposed but I showed him what what's supposed to be he says he's okay with it yes yes that's correct okay so you can take a vote motion to approve all in favor aye nobody opposed motion passes you're all set sir thank you thank you very much you too in the next thank you sir can you just repeat your street name excuse me sir skip can you just repeat your street name

the street name Bush thank you

okay number four on our agenda is a curb removal at 26 McGowan Street come on down please

right here Hi how are you could you please state your name and address for the record yeah it's Cynthia teves 26 McGowan Street Fall River Mass and you how much and you're looking to have forgot how many feet yeah okay now originally I guess it was stated that there was an objection to it but I don't think that's an issue at this point it's not my mother has dementia and she just thought I shouldn't have

her permission but she doesn't own the property okay and I can and I actually took a picture well a couple of pictures and I can see where it's one of those situations where the curb comes across the driveway yeah it does so you're just looking to have those two pieces removed or one only one side digest the one to the right So when you say to the right when you're facing the property or when you're

coming out okay so that would be in my picture the left yeah like yep we can see yep motion to approve second all in favor all right motion passes unanimous they're all set thank you very much

our fifth item is the poll location at 143 Guild Street in Fall River would you like to come down sir

your name and address sir for the record that's Keith woods157 Guild street I'm actually a house next door um I don't know if you've seen the pictures of The Thing basically it's a very busy area they're deciding to put the pole into my waterline looks like a sewer line and electric line all run through their property to get the mine um would you like to join us so we don't have anybody representing

the electric company here the reason why I'm objecting to it is I'm concerned that proper do due processes and been taking a look at in regards to how they're going to do the Dig location with all that going on

we have a seat just give your name and address for the record please do we know why they can't put this poll in a different location like for instance I was I went the other day I took pictures you saw all it's all laid out now it's all staked out there's two stakes on the on the corner yeah so one's one is the poll one is the guy anchor right yeah

but I guess my question is across the street is maybe 30 feet of grass with a stockade fence well yeah what used to be Saint Anne's frat correct it used to be the front correct is there any reason why the poll can't be located on that side of the street if you read through the description this is not a service poll this poll is to serve as an anchor for this last dead-end poll

so it has to be in line with the set of polls that that precedes and that's the purpose of it right now this last poll is being pulled in this direction where the the lines are being so you need to support that in the same direction so you can't have lines pulling you one way and then you now try to support that at a different angle you would have to support it in multiple

locations in order to offset what's being pulled in the opposite direction so this is strictly just to support that last poll number three which they just replaced as well with the taller Pole I just drew this on here for you so you can get an idea of no I'm curious how long ago this it's tough in the picture and because I actually went and took my own picture and in my picture you can

see it somewhat but I can't in this one um that there are actually two polls there now that's right and a guide full number three which is what you see in this picture recently they've just replaced that with a new pole number three that's the taller pole and they'll be getting rid of this smaller Pole and if you look up the street they've actually replaced a few of them but what

they do is they put the pole in first and then they stop moving over all of the equipment before they remove the existing pole same location though exactly it's butt up against that they're tied together which I think is what constantly Dion saw when she went on yes yes so the only new poll is this one which is a support poll it basically allows you to what they're doing is they're pulling on pull three

back to offset the force that's pulling it Northerly up guild Street towards Mount open and that's in the city right away that's in the city right away they're actually installing it right up against the uh right up against the berm in I believe in an attempt so they've they've had it Dig Safe so they know where all of the lines are of course now Dig Safe can be wrong sometimes so they

have to be very careful when they're when they're installing what the problem is yep because from previous the previous owner of his house had a waterline bust and when they dug down into it they found that the contractor did not put gravel around the you know polls like or stuff like he was supposed to he put rocks about that big so any movement in those lines could easily cause it to break

my problem is is that you're going to put a huge pole you're going to be vibrating you might have I don't know whether or not they're going to have to actually be on the property to to dig the hole I'm not exactly sure I'm not confident that there's nothing going to occur and water lines can be you know busted without a problem but I've also got a gas line run through there

so if the gas line goes that's a that's another thing entirely I think it's gas electric and water line I think my sewer line comes out the front of the house so it's not that but I'm not sure I know there were three different things they tagged going through there so I'm concerned about the fact that I'm not confident they can do what they're expecting to do without breaking something okay so this

is this isn't allowed activity right it's a utility company that's very experienced in doing what they do and dealing around Utilities in very tight tight conditions any type if any damage were to occur they would be responsible for repairing anything that happened in that location yeah but what about two years from now when it finally gives see the problem is is that you're talking

about shifting I'm electron engineer I understand the concepts of mechanics involved in this so if they dig the hole and it shifts my line just enough or allows it to move just enough so it can now instead of being firm in place it does one of these things you know every time I turn the water on right side you know then it'll break because of the fact that they they originally started

Shifting the now so this water line this is just your private service this isn't this City's main correct so I hate to say it this way but you may want to take the steps to go and ensure that your water line is installed correctly if you want the one that installed it if you think there are deficiencies in what surrounds your private Water Service then you should probably take the steps to make sure

that that is is solid and okay well the problem is it runs through his property right it doesn't run into his property it runs most likely in the street right of way it might run in front of his property nope it runs through mine is there an easement no okay so then if there's not any point in time he could say please remove your water line from my property I know so without knowing we're out

the uh Dig Safe went in and they have all the lines laid out okay and you can see exactly which ones come right across the owner the previous owner had both houses built for him both mine and his are exactly the same copy the the owner apparently of the of the or the Builder apparently just tap one love water line and Drew two lines from there okay just go straight into the

house mine comes up and over all right so excuse me one second excuse me one second So when you say his property he says his property what are you considering to be his property all the way to the Berm because if you're kids right then let me ask that question so when we look at this drawing and you say the water line runs through his property not within the street right of way the

street right of way is probably 70 to 10 feet off the edge of patient this this proposed pole is going right to the back of the berm understand that so to what distance do you think this new Pole is so then it is in the street right away here's the poll his house my water line runs between his house and the pole property line his house your house right edge of pavement

proposed poll coming in here with the guy anchor right against the Cape Cod berm of the paved surface all right this is the this is the street the actual right of way for the street right it is right away what is the the whole set is within the writer way well you just said the water line is on his private property well it's not his business within the within his boundary of what

he takes care of it's within the right of way right the street well that's entirely different than what you just yeah I'm just saying is that if something I'm just trying to get the facts correct I understand yes if something were to happen yep in accordance with what happened the last time with with his water line breaking anything that's on that area between the street and his house is his

responsibility to take care of is that not true in this situation no no not entirely well it depends if it's if it's the water main that services to both of you I'm assuming that's what that's what it does so depending upon where it became a problem if it became a problem from here back it would be his if it's from here to here that's your if it's within the eight foot Thruway or

um what the hell they call it the distance between the right way right on the shoulder within the right-of-way yeah then it's the city's problem whereas the futility private water line okay so it's my water line going through this property no it's not you it's we just determined it's not going through his property it's going through the right-of-way so at the point where it splits right when it splits and goes

into his house right he's responsible for that got it beyond the point where it splits and goes to yours that's your responsibility okay that's your private water service so my point is something happens to it on underneath that right away okay before it gets to my driveway yep because Mike it actually goes under my driveway okay to get to my house yeah so it's probably your driveways like that

right up against where that's the other aspect of this because they're they're tagline or their support line is going to be right next to where my driveway is okay I'm a little concerned with that being you know how many times have you back your car up before you know you learn how to turn just that tight do you have the photo of how far away the guy anchor was proposed to be at the to the driveway

I didn't anything it was right against like five inches maybe I have I just have a picture of the well

where they're proposing the poll you don't have them okay all right so I would offer that the guy anchor should be at least a foot away from the edge of your drive I'm just saying they can make that a requirement all right that the guyan could be set a distance at a minimum one foot from the edge of the driveway thing is he's proposing the pole to be here in about that far away and once the

guideline right but that's that's up for them National Grid they they determine where the polls need to be okay however so so if they come back a foot with a guy anchor they may need to shift the polar foot right because with the angle of the of the guy anchor which then see that's why that's my concern you see here's the pole and around basically a five foot square around that area is water lines

sewer line gas lines right and they deal with dealing with utilities I understand that but again we're dealing with no we're dealing with a national utility company right that what I'm saying is the guy who built my house it was it's a good house but he did everything cheap okay and he threw Roxanne to his you know water line so you know for support of the of the line going into

the house I got to assume he did the same thing for mine yeah I mean realistically it doesn't magically go like whoa I did this for this guy but I'm going to do something else for this one so I've got to assume he's got rocks in there which means the vibration of any type in that area is going to result in the water line trying to move when it tries to move and mind you I've

got 80 pounds of pressure on my waterline because we're sitting right downhill from the top from the water tower and it runs right down uh Mount Hope Avenue so it's got quite a bit of push behind it okay and I'm worried that when they go in and they do their thing the vibrations just to get I mean just to dig a hole in that area I'm terrified of right but what you have to understand is

the proximity to utilities that these companies deal with on a day-to-day basis you know if something is wrong and something goes wrong the utility company is responsible for for repairing anything so at the end of the day you may get your problem fixed but we don't we don't wish that on anybody right but you know if if that were to occur yeah well I said and it is you know and it

will be part of the record here that it was your concern so that if anything ever does happen well we should be able to trace it back to them the other aspect of this I understand why you can't you say you can't locate the pole anywhere else there is that second pole that's across the street that that's a service Paul to go to the other facility yes yeah okay so what is

I mean I'm dealing with vectors all the time sure okay why can they not put a guideline on that poll that already pre-exists to pull it down sure so if so if you understand vectors then yep the existing pole three and then they go across the street this line is being pulled in this direction correct to the next Pole to the next part understood you can support this poll in a thousand

directions right and that helps this pull right the issue is this poll being pulled in this direction you have to give it an equal and opposite force in this direction and that's what that support pull purpose is you could anchor this one but then you wouldn't need another one here in order for you to support that poll you couldn't uh put a off-center guideline because then it would pull the

pole laterally across the it would be pulling this this way that doesn't help us with well if you anchor in this direction on that pole I understand that but this poll is not the problem this poll is the problem I understand that yeah I'm just trying to I'm trying to deal with all right so I guess unfortunately that part of this problem is that it is a right away um it's not this gentleman's property

if any work done in that space causes a problem you have recourse um so if it can't be anchored any other way then we need to do what we need to do um but if we can set those parameters I'll make a motion that what's your address again 157 Guild street so I'll make a motion that we approve uh with the condition that the guideline is at least one foot away from the driveway at

157 School Street Guild and it'll be on record if this I'll be back yes you will thank you motion second all in favor no the same level of responsibility that they have to use it I wasn't okay with the location but I mean I really can't do anything about that that's why I said I'll be honest with you I wasn't happy with the location either but it would be nice if we had no utility

poles anywhere right and we did mostly underground until it was but that that's not the case here or if we could have a pool on the opposite side but the situation apparently doesn't allow for that um all in favor yep okay thank you gentlemen all right thank you thank you John second all in favor meeting is adjourned