BOS - 8-18-2015 Triple Serving Sewer Stuff!

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Consent Agenda - Public Works Items: 

15. Submittal of a resolution authorizing execution of notice of completion and acceptance for the Collection System Pump Stations Contract for the Los Osos Wastewater Project, Los Osos. District 2. 
    

17. Request to approve Amendment No. 4 to the Owner-Engineer Agreement with Carollo Engineers for professional engineering services during construction of the Los Osos Water Recycling Facility, in the amount of $329,303. District 2. 
    

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL - PENDING LITIGATION (Government Code section 54956.9.) It is the intention of the Board to meet in closed session concerning the following items: Existing Litigation (Gov. Code, section 54956.9(a)). (Formally initiated.) (3) ARB, Inc. v. County of San Luis Obispo; .............

When relevant documents are posted, I will add the links here.

Two steps closer to flushing, where the goods will take a little journey out of town and return—TRANSFORMED!....... And on the ARB issue—who knows where that will go!

Update—here are the LINKS:
For Item 15 - http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/Proposal.html?select=4996
For Item 17 - http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/Proposal.html?select=4976

Roads and Easements, vis-à-vis the Sewer Project!

Off the Board of Supes agenda for the Tuesday, June 16th meeting:

0. Consent Agenda - Public Works Items: 

20. Submittal of bid opening report for 2014-15 Micro Surfacing, Los Osos, to award thesubject contract to Telfer Highway Technologies, the lowest responsible bidder, in the amount of $1,103,955. District 2.

22. Submittal of a resolution authorizing conveyance of utility easements to Pacific Gas & Electric and to Southern California Gas, by separate easement deeds, for the Los Osos Wastewater Project – Water Recycling Facility, Los Osos. District 2. 
    

Most interesting are the maps on each of these items, check them out! Is your street on the map in Item 20? Mine is!

And, oh yeah, then there is this item in Closed Session:

0. PENDING LITIGATION (Government Code, section 54956.9.) It is the intention of the Board to meet in closed session concerning the following items: Existing Litigation (Gov. Code, section 54956.9(a)). (Formally initiated.) (3) ARB, Inc. v. County of San Luis Obispo; 

Looks like this continues down the path of endless litigation, like so many court cases in Los Osos over the years......

Next Week BOS ARB Lawsuit On Closed Session...Again

There was no reportable action today on this same item, and I suspect this will go on and on and on and on as so many of these cases do.

Closed Session Items:

18. PENDING LITIGATION (Gov. Code, section 54956.9.) It is the intention of the Board to meet in closed session concerning the following items: Conference with Legal Counsel-Existing Litigation (Gov. Code, section 54956.9(a).) (Formally initiated) 1. ARB, Inc. v. County of San Luis Obispo; (etc).

Sewer Lawsuit On BOS Schedule

Off the Board of Supes Agenda for Tuesday, March 10:

0. Closed Session Items: 

25. PENDING LITIGATION................ 2. ARB, Inc. v. County of San Luis Obispo; 

Looks like some movement on this lawsuit which has been very, very quiet for months. It was originally filed February 26, 2014. 

The Tribune published articles on it March 20, 2014 and April 13, 2014. The gist of ARB's argument is that the County breached the contract between them. The County claims that ARB did not follow the rules.

Needless to say, unless someone blabs, we are unlikely to learn much else until it is over, or over-ish, in case the Court's decision is appealed.

And really, what is the Los Osos sewer project, no matter whose hands it is in, without a lawsuit? Let's not buck tradition here!

Lazy Sewer Reporting

Yes, this should have been posted last Friday. Oh well. Here it is now:

I attended LOCAC on Thursday, July 24, 2014. Sewer stuff was discussed when questions were asked of our District 2 Supervisor, Bruce Gibson. (Q and As below are paraphrased.)

Question: Has there been any movement on converting our septics to cisterns for rain water?

Supe BG: It is a permitting issue. County Planner Kerry Brown may work on consolidating the permitting process to one permit and one inspection. The County will try to make it as low cost as possible, maybe even free. Planning and Public Works are in discussion on this right now.

Question: Some people have already put in their laterals but they are not connected. What happens next?

Supe BG: It will need to be videoed. We are discouraging the "over achievers" on doing this now. There will be a massive outreach and a place to drop in to talk about what to do, or you can come to South Bay Community Center weekly or bi-weekly.

Part of Mr. Gibson's report to LOCAC was that ARB has substantially completed their part of the trenching. Their punch list is now under 50. Public Works, in addition to finalizing the remedial treatment for the battered streets, says the actual work will wait until the warranty period on the trench work has expired. That way, if any problems with the trench work arise, they will be under ARB's warranty and ARB will need to fix those problems. The treatment plant is under construction and no issues have arisen there (according to John Waddell, Project Manager).

Also mentioned was financing for laterals. It will likely be a low-interest loan or grants. There are three or four different programs being looked at for an income-tested basis. This might start mid-2015.

There was an interesting discussion on pot-growing here in Los Osos, but that was not sewer-related, so won't be reported here. (You should have been there!)

Had a BLAST!!

The party to celebrate and thank our sewer construction guys was a huge success! It really was a happy, lighthearted gathering, the way I have imagined Los Osos was before the sewer war took center stage (I can only imagine from what I've been told by old-timers, I came here in April, 2005). This event has started the cleaning out of the cobwebs, acrimony and muck from community sewer discourse.

There was an art show featuring construction scenes drawn and painted by adults and kids, thank-you cards from a school class, a slideshow with shots from various neighborhoods and a really cool video put together from a day's work compressed into a couple of minutes, THREE cakes (the server used a miniature shovel to dish out the pieces), lots of BBQ-ed hot dogs and a variety of sodas, table decor of succulents in sand pails, a wall of photos, a free raffle for some of the art, music by the Zongo Combo, the reading of a cool sewer poem, and some observations from key people on the project; Bruce Gibson District 2 Supervisor, Paavo Ogren Public Works Director SLO County, John Waddell Project Manager, Jim Brantley Construction Manager, ARB's Project Manager and W.A. Rasic's Project Manager (sorry, I failed to write down your names). There was a remembrance of a much loved ARB flagman Ramon Camacho.

The event was created by Los Osos artists Joan Sullivan, Barbara Rosenthal and Jan French. Celebrate Los Osos (Pandora Nash-Karner and Mimi Kalland) helped to organize the event and with getting the sponsors. And various worker bees, myself included, signed up for behind the scenes tasks.

As we used to say where I used to work (creating catalogs of products), "copy smells, pictures sell," so I will end the words with some photos that I took.

PS A much larger sewer art show will be held around the time of project completion.

16th Street Water Works!

Well, it was a tough day on 16th Street for both the ARB construction guys and our own CSD water crew (and for residents and one of the schools too). There was an unmarked water pipe (where have we heard that story before?) a tad north of the El Moro Bike Path and one of the big machines hit it. I missed the first part, the fountain, but will show some later shots of the event. I only knew something had happened because I went to wash my hands, two drops of water came out, then nothing.

The CSD crew had already jumped into action, Frank was running up the street to the tanks to turn something off and our other CSD water crew guys were locating the shut off valves to shut the water off, of which there were more than one.

The ARB crew had to halt work until the water stopped off course, but some brave residents motored out of the mess with no problem.

Fortunately the drainage project at the bottom of 16th had been set up years ago and it worked to get the water across and under Paso Robles down to Walker Ditch and beyond.

Once the water stopped, the ARB crew was all ready to go with a new section of pipe and two couplings. So as one guy said, "we have an upgrade!"

The main things about this, no one was hurt, no homes flooded and the repair was done amazingly fast. Sure, too bad about the water loss, but now that the CSD is FINALLY out of bankruptcy, maybe some money will be available to do some capital improvement upgrades which have been on the back burner for years.

I had two in-depth conversations, one with with ARB's Paul Gallagher, Project Manager and one with HDR's Jim Brantley, Construction Manager. They both were on top of the problem immediately. They both have had experience with big projects like this, so this was not anything new to deal with, they had seen it all before. We are in good hands, no question, these guys and their crews are quite amazing and we are lucky to have them working for us!

Looking South

Drainage at Work

The Hidden Pipe

Looking North

All Fixed

About 25%!!!!

The latest posting from Dig Los Osos has some good news! Read about it here:

http://www.diglososos.com/2013/05/29/construction-update-work-about-25-complete/

The end of April stats show that the contracts from W.A. Rasic and ARB are about 25% complete! It is now almost the end of May and those numbers will only be up! Good news for residents and visitors. This IS progress!