12-02-82SpMtg DECEMBER 2, 1982
A Special Meeting of the City Council of the City of Delray
Beach, Florida, was called to order by Mayor Willard V. Young in the
Conference Room at City Hall at 4:00 P.M., Thursday, December 2, 1982.
Roll call showed:
Present - Council Member Malcolm T. Bird
Council Member Leo A. Blair
Council Member Arthur Jackel
Council Member Edward L. Perry
Mayor Willard V. Young
Absent - None
Also present were - City Manager Gordon D. Tiffany, and
City Attorney Herbert W.A. Thiele.
Mayor Young announced that this meeting has been called for
the purpose of (1) authorizing an agreement with Arthur V. Strock &
Associates to design the dune walk-over; (2) discussion with Tim Hunt on
lease of transfer station to Solid Waste Authority; and (3) discussion
of the refuse cart pilot program.
1. The City Manager advised that this is the first time Council
has officially been exposed to this program and if they wish to treat
this as a workshop item and make an official decision next Tuesday night
after further information, that would be possible. However, due to the
short schedule under which we are operating, it would be better to make
a decision at this time.
John %~alker of the Engineering Department spoke before
Council with regard to the dune walk-over project, explaining that in
Delray Beach access through the dunes will destroy or prevent the growth
of vegetation allowing the wind to erode the entire dune system. Dune
walk-overs combined with vegetation are an environmentally sound method
of preserving this dune system and these structures have been recom-
mended by the Department of Natural Resources both in theory and in
practice. This proposal has been in the City's plans for several years
and the City staff recommends that we go ahead and design the walk-over
structures with the assistance of Arthur Strock & Associates.
Council questioned Mr. Walker with regard to provisions for
the handicapped, height and width of the structures, and locations. Mr.
Bird commented he finds a problem with the fact that little or no veg-
etation can grow under these structures; also whether or not it will be
aesthetically pleasing with these structures at 16 different locations
along the beach. Mr. Jackel mentioned that he noticed there has been no
input from the citizenry and questioned whether the public really wanted
this. Mr. Perry commented that if we are cutting off 32 existing path-
ways and, in essence, replacing them with 16 accesses, aren't we in-
viting more intrusion into possible areas that haven't been intruded
into with the present system; perhaps there is an alternative method
without having all the wood structures. Mr'. Blair also expressed con-
cern with the fact that little vegetation would grow under the struc-
tures and the damage to the root system by erosion.
Mr. Bird stated he felt there were other things with more
priority at the beach such as wider sidewalks and the drainage. He
advised that a handicapped ramp and some sort of pavillion at beach
level of A1A and Atlantic Avenue would be desirable.
Discussion followed concerning citizen input.
Mr. Jackel moved that Council not approve the agreement with
Arthur Strock & Associates for design of the dune walk-over, seconded by
Mr. Bird. Said motion passed unanimously.
Upon question by Mr. Blair regarding the drainage at the
beach, the City Engineer replied that DOT has made attempts to resolve
this problem; the only solution really is draining back to the Intra-
coastal which is a costly drainage project because of the area involved.
The City just has to keep going back to DOT to have them clean the pits
on a regular basis.
Mr. Robert French, Country Manors, suggested that perhaps
some visual presentation be given to the public when this walk-over
project or beach master plan resurfaces so that they can see what is
planned.
2. The City Manager made reference to a draft of an operating
agreement for the transfer station; this has been back and forth between
the City and the Solid Waste Authority before for a number of reasons.
He pointed out the City would hereby be pledging its waste stream to the
Solid Waste Authority; garbage and trash pickup in the City, with the
exception of certain enumerated things, would be taken to the transfer
station for the duration of this arrangement.
Tim Hunt stated this agreement is essentially almost iden-
tical with the agreement that went into effect in 1978; however, several
things have happened that will alternately affect it. Mr. Hunt stated
he believed that after a number of years the Solid Waste Authority and
the Palm Beach County Board of Commissioners have finally come to the
agreement table on resolving the county-wide solid waste problem. He
anticipates having draft contracts before them within the next two weeks
which will essentially turn over the solid waste functions in Palm Beach
County to the Solid Waste Authority, and through that mechanism will
have a county wide system. They hope to establish a uniform rate system
by October 1, 1983. The Delray transfer station would become an in-
tegral c~nponent of this entire county-wide system. They anticipate a
bond issue in March that will have several components in it; one of
those is about 1.7 million dollars for improvements to the Delray trans-
fer station. Mr. Hunt advised they are talking about building a brand
new CBS scale house, complete paving, landscaping, fencing, drainage,
etc., and completely enclosing the structure of the tipping floor area
within a building and doubling the floor handling capacity.
Discussion followed on the financial advantages to the City,
the waiting time for trucks and handling capacity. With regard to
illegal dumping, Mr. Hunt advised that under the environmental control
laws in the County any resident that sees anyone illegally dumping and
is willing to testify before the Environmental Control Board can have
the guilty party prosecuted with a $500 fine.
It was the consensus of Council to have this item on the
agenda for the December 14, 1982, regular meeting.
3. The City Manager advised generally speaking the response to
the pilot program received to date was 70% overall in favor, a little
bit heavier in favor in the southwest area. With a 25% return and a 70%
response, the Administration felt there was a strong possibility that
Council might like to continue this type of service in one or both of
these areas.
He added the City is facing a rather considerable expense
for removing the carts from these routes if the Council wishes to simply
cut off the pilot program now, and then make a decision later on and
perhaps face the expense of redelivering them. The Administration is
looking to Council for guidance as to whether to go ahead with the
expense of removing the carts from these areas or continue until at
least a formal decision can be made later this month with regard to the
service level. The City Manager advised that with regard to discussing
the contract, one of the neighborhoods that is a question mark in his
mind and where it will be a little bit difficult to get a feeling for,
is the northwest area of the City. There are approximately 250 carts
available which have not been used in the pilot project so far; he
believed it would not conflict with the schedule already set for con-
sidering service level and contracts if the Council would decide to go
ahead and run a mini-pilot project in this neighborhood.
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Mr. O'Connell, resident of Sherwood Park subdivision, spoke
before Council stating he did not believe the response to the pilot
program was indicative of an overwhelmingly favorable vote from the
community; the situation in his particular neighborhood (houses farther
away from the street) is much different than the S.W. section where the
pilot program was set up. He would not be in favor of extending the
program.
Fred Blaser, Tropic Palms, advised from his observation of
the men and trucks picking up this material in his neighborhood that it
was a much slower method of pickup. With the previous method the men
were usually finished by noon and now are not finishing until three
o'clock. The workers he spoke to stated the units were very hard to
work with. Mr. Blaser stated there are about two dozen containers still
sitting out on the curb on one of the streets in Tropic Palms; he be-
lieves some of the people are not taking the containers back into their
yards.
Mr. Perry commented that he had been told by Bob Gance of
the Public Works Department that we are getting 80% of the former capa-
city with the trucks because of the hoist device; therefore, they are
making more trips to the transfer station. If the City is going to go
to an automated or semi-automated system we would have to have a better
truck. He is beginning to get more and more negative about this system.
Mr. Perry advised he has gone through his neighborhood in expectation of
the possibility of our running a quasi test there and asked several
residents their reaction to the possibility of such a test. The major-
ity of the 15 people he spoke with were positive to one degree or anoth-
er, two were on the fence and four were negative.
Discussion followed among Council with regard to the cost
effectiveness of this system, whether the private contractor would be
for it, the reaction of the citizenry and whether to continue the pilot
program in other areas.
Mr. Jackel moved that the cart pilot program be stopped
immediately and the carts returned, seconded by Mr. Blair.
Discussion followed. Mr. Bird stated he would like to have
until next Tuesday night to make a random sampling to have a little more
data as to what the citizens really want in the way of containers.
Mr. Jackel withdrew his motion and Mr. Blair withdrew his
second.
It was the consensus of Council to have this item on the
regular agenda for next Tuesday night.
Mayor Young declared the meeting adjourned at 6:00 P.M.
· ~erk
ATTEST: ,~ City
MAYOR
The undersigned is the City Clerk of the City of Delray
Beach and that the information provided herein is the minutes of the
meeting of said City Council of December 2, 1982, which minutes were
formally approved and adopted by the City Council on ~. /// /~_~ .
NOTE TO READER:
If the minutes that you have received are not completed as indicated
above, then this means that these are not the official minutes of City
Council. They will become the official minutes only after they have
been reviewed and approved which may involve some amendments, additions,
or deletions to the minutes as set forth above.
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