ST8502-CS 870721 (2) GINN, INC.
July 21, 1987
MEMO TO:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
CONSULTING ENGINEERS
Alan D./Ra~iiff, city Manager
Kev ~irf~ Peiffer
MOore Road Improvements
James E. Shannon, Jr.
We have prepared a response for the above subject as you had
requested. Contained herein is a summary of the facts regarding
each of the issues Mr. Shannon has addressed. Please realize
that the issues he has addressed are not all related to the Moore
Road project; however, they do lend to his frustration.
Paragraph one (1): Copy of Ginn, Inc. memo he references is
enclosed and is self-explanatory. The areas affected by the memo
are the properties on the west side of Moore Road from Bethel
School Road north to Havencrest. We have not received any other
complaints from other residents regarding this memo.
Paragraph two (2): Mr. Shannon first requested for the curb cut
and ramp at the Moore Road property owners meeting. He was
instructed that an additional drive could not be added as part of
the C.I.P. - Moore Road project. All we had authority to design
for is to match existing drives. He stated that he already
figured that we probably could not do this but it did not hurt to
ask. We offered that he contact the city, pursue the process of
a building permit for this drive and if this drive was allowed,
we would add the curb cut only to the Moore Road project upon the
city's direction to do so. Per his meeting with Dale Jackson,
Mr. Shannon was informed that he was in violation of city
ordinance and the rest is covered in his letter.
Paragraph three (3): The "city" as he refers does not want to
leave his yard in whatever condition they want but rather as he
was informed have a grass covering on all the parkways. If grass
does not grow in certain areas we will require the contractor (or
GTE) to keep coming back until it does. We concluded during the
design phase that the existing soils could support growing grass
and thus we could not economically justify dressing up the entire
parkways with sandy loam. We did, however, decide that it would
be important to the residents to have grass growing soon after
the road was completed. As a result, rather than "seed" be put
out, we went with hydromulch which is considerably more expensive
than the seed but would make the residents and the rest of the
community much happier.
Paragraph four (4): We have enclosed pictures of his property
for your review. The slope of his yard is extremely gentle,
almost flat, so we cannot understand where he is having a
difficulty with mowing. Others along this project have extremely
steeper slopes and have not complained about their slopes
presenting any major problems. We have not observed any eroding
of his land. What minor washing of loose dirt that may occur
will easily be accommodated once the hydromulching is completed
by GTE.
Paragraph five (5): The contractor, in trying to clean off the
street for final acceptance of the project, probably dispensed
the dirt, etc., back into his yard when operating the power
broom. When GTE completes their work we shall have any rocks
removed. Some small stones, however, shall remain that are
possibly no larger than 1/4" diameter in size. His yard has
already been raked three times by Ashlar Contracting Company.
The third time he was out at the street with the contractor's
laborers telling them exactly how he wanted it done and they were
following his directions.
Paragraph six (6): We are not aware of Paragon Cable
construction. The city is not trying to grow grass on top of
rocks along his property. To date, no grass has even been placed
along his property. We have looked for rocks, both physically
and in the enclosed pictures, but all we can see is small stones
at most. Anywhere else on the prgject, we are requiring full
cover of hydromulch. Some places have not shown any signs of
growth yet (this is approximately 40% of total area covered). We
have instructed Ashlar to re-shoot these areas again until grass
does grow. We do not intend to issue final acceptance for this
project until we do see full coverage.
Closing paragraph (7):
We agree that he should not spend any
more money, time or effort on his yard until grass is growing.
When grass does begin growing, however, he should maintain it as
everyone else does in the city. We cannot promise him a date
when grass will be growing since that is dependent upon GTE's
work schedule. We can, however, promise that we and the city
shall do everything possible to encourage the expediting of their
work.
A few things we feel he should take notice to, however, are:
(1) street has enhanced value of his property, monetarily and
aesthetically;
(2) city has constructed a sidewalk which never used to exist
across his property which he will probably use more than the
taxpayers across town will;
(3) improved street allows better access to his property for
emergency vehicles due to increased width;
(4) there are no longer any drainage ditches paralleling Moore
Road. ~11 drainage is now underground; and,
(5) the city never assessed him for the amount of enhancement he
received.
In summary, experience has shown to us that while the majority of
people can be satisfied, some will never be. People easily
forget what the condition of the roadway used to be before the
improvements and how poor the drainage really was. After grass
has grown up along his property he, too, shall probably realize
how minor these issues really are.
Please make the enclosed pictures available to Mr. Steve Morton
so he can use them during his insgections of GTE.
Thank you for this opportunity to clarify the issues.
cc: Steve Goral~
Steve Morton
Wayne Ginn