- I would move to approve.
- Yeah?
- Motion by Alder Gerlach to approve,
seconded by Alder Wery.
All in favor?
- [Participants] Aye.
- Opposed?
Passes unanimously.
- Can you repeat who made the motion and who seconded...
- Alder Gerlach made the motion.
Alder Wery seconded.
- Thank you.
- Though, Alder Wery was first, but he seconded.
Never mind.
- Ready for the next time.
- It's a stretch.
On to item two.
Consideration with possible action
on approving the purchase of
a 270 foot snow tube conveyor built lift system
from Magic Carpet Lifts RMCE Inc.,
for a total cost of $156,340.
Staff?
- So, I've included in the agenda pack,
at the quote that was submitted
to us from Magic Carpet Lifts.
So, in 2021, the city bonded $175,000
for the purchase and installation
of a snow tube conveyor belt lift system
at Triangle Hill in the Baird's Creek Greenway.
So, the current lift system that we have right now
has a series of clips or hooks
that's attached to a steel cable,
and people sit down on the tube
and they clip on to these hooks,
which then carries them up the hill,
as they're sitting on the tube.
This system works better than the previous system,
which in the past, we just had a rope that you had to
hold onto as you went up the hill, and as you can imagine,
a lot of people slipped as they were going up the hill.
So, we've only had this system in place a few years,
but we have run into several issues
with this existing tube hill lift system
that has caused us to reconsider purchasing a new lift.
We did buy that previous lift,
the one we currently have, used.
So, it was a fairly economical purchase,
when we acquired it a few years ago.
So, as most of you know,
we don't have snow making equipment at Triangle Hill.
Therefore, we are reliant on Mother Nature
and we can only open when there's adequate snow.
But we've found with the current lift system
is that it requires a large base of snow
under the cable to operate properly.
On nearly a daily basis, our staff does have to go out there
and shovel snow onto that lift hill,
just so that we have enough snow to open the facility up.
In addition, if it reaches temperatures over 35 degrees,
the snow becomes slushy
and the lift system doesn't work properly,
so we do have to shut down the hill
whenever it reaches about 35 degrees,
even if there's adequate snow on the hill.
So, over the last three years,
we do estimate that there were
46 days where there wasn't enough snow to sled
or it was warm enough that you could still sled,
but we had to close the facility
just because the current lift system wasn't functioning
'cause of lack of snow or it was too warm.
Thew new system that we'd like to
switch to is a conveyor belt system,
where the user stands on the conveyor belt,
holding onto their tube rope,
and then they ride it up to the top of the hill
as they're standing holding the tube behind them.
So, I research showed that this is
quickly becoming common practice
for most tubing and ski hills.
Approximately five years ago,
Kewaunee has a similar tubing hill system
and they switched their lift system from
a clip-on system to a conveyor belt system.
We reached out to them
and they love this conveyor belt system.
They've indicated that this new system
increases the lift capacity by three to four
times the capacity of the clip lift system.
So, you can actually get people up the hill much faster,
with this conveyor belt system
than what we have out there now.
And I did go out to Kewaunee last year on my own,
with my family, and I can attest to that.
I only had to wait a few minutes at the most,
even though there were huge lines.
Whereas at Baird Creek, on a busy day,
you could wait 15, 20 minutes to use the lift once.
Which is frustrating to some people.
And some people on nice days,
they just choose to walk up the hill,
instead of waiting that long for the lift.
So, we did research this quite a bit
to see what companies were out there.
To get competitive quotes.
And we only found two companies
that provide this type of a system.
And one of those companies is located out of the country.
So, most of the tubing hills
and ski hills we reached out to,
by far, the vast majority of them have decided
to purchase the system from Magic Carpet Lifts,
which is a United States company.
For the sole reason that they didn't want to
work with a company from outside of the States.
They were afraid of running into problems with tech support
and also if the lift breaks down mid-season,
and you have to order new parts,
getting those replacement parts in a quick manner
from overseas would be difficult.
And we've run into those same situations
with out rides at Bay Beach Amusement Park
and we really do not prefer buying
rides from overseas either at Bay Beach.
So, we do have some experience with that.
So, our preference is to do a sole source purchase,
'cause we were not able to find another
company in the United States that
provides a similar lift system,
and every place we reached out to
is very happy with this system that they have.
So, like I said, we're proposing
a sole source quote for this purchase
and if you look at the quote summary,
the quote came in $156,340.
Which I believe also included the cost
of a hand rail along one side, which is nice to have,
so that somebody doesn't lost their
balance as they go up the lift.
So, this definitely fits in our budget of $175,000.
We would use the remaining portion for installation costs.
Our crews will be installing this,
but we do have to make some modifications to the lifts,
and the buildings that are there, and the electrical,
in order for this new system to work,
but we think we can still get it all done
within our $175,000 budget.
So, I would recommend approval.
- Any questions or comments from anyone?
Alder Wery?
- Thanks.
Director, is this for installation for this winter?
- No, it would not be.
The earliest that we could get the system is,
I believe, in May is what the quote says.
- Okay.
- So, this would be for the next snow.
- Oh yeah.
- The next winter season.
- Yeah, I can attest to the waits.
We go there as much as we can as well,
and I didn't know about the temperature
and not being able to work it, which would make sense,
if we drive by and see it's closed.
Now I know why.
Yeah, you can wait quite a while,
waiting for things to get hooked up,
so you can get pulled up.
So, I think this might help increase attendance,
if you don't have to wait as long
to get to the top of the hill.
I try to run up and beat it,
but it can be a pretty steep hill.
So, I never win.
- Yeah.
- I'm for it.
- Any other questions, comments?
My only one was when would it be installed,
but that's been covered.
So, I just wanna make sure.
When you reached out to others who used this,
they convey that the conveyor belt is the best way to go?
- That's exactly right.
- I'll take a motion...
Oh well, actually it's kind of related,
but not exactly on-topic, but I think I can squeeze it in.
Snow making machine.
Is it look like that will be happening soon?
How expensive are they?
- We are researching that right now.
- Okay.
- We hope to bring our research
to a future capital improvement plan for discussion.
Snow making equipment, what I can tell you about it,
from the research we've found,
is that each cannon costs about $25,000 new
and I don't know.
We would need several of them out at the hill.
So, there's the cost for that
and the big cost which has prevented
us in the past was finding a water source.
A lot of places use a pond as a water source.
We can't get a pond there.
So, we would either have to drill a well
and get a pretty significant pump to pump water out,
or we would have to rely on city water system.
And pay for the water just using regular city water.
Which is what we found out that
the Packers do at Titletown.
So, we've reached out to them to see
how much money they spend on their water bills.
We're hoping to get that information
and then share it from there.
But then on top of the snow cannon cost,
you're gonna have to get some grooming equipment,
which is a large tractor to spread the snow evenly
and create sledding lanes though.
And there's an additional cost to that.
So, it's not a cheap endeavor to make snow.
But we'll talk about it at a later date.
- Oh great.
Yep, yep, yep, yep.
The Baird Creek, that wouldn't service somehow for water?
- That is too far away.
- Oh.
- I don't see how we could feasibly
pump water from the creek,
and I don't know if we could get a permit,
which would allow us to do that.
It'd be difficult.
- Okay.
Thanks.
Well, I took us on a sideshow.
My apologies.
Does anybody wanna make a motion to approve?
- Approve.
- Second.
- Motion by Alder Weary to approve,
seconded by Alder Gerlach.
All in favor?
- [Participants] Aye.
- Appose?
That passes unanimously.
Are we ready for...
- We are ready for the next item.
- Okay.
Item number three.
Consideration with possible action
on awarding the purchase of a four street aerial lift truck
to the lowest responsive responsible vendor,
not to exceed $204,680.
Dan?
- Yes.
So, at the time we put the agenda packet together,
we did not have the quotes in hand.
So, that's why it was written as
lowest responsive responsible vendor
and not actually awarded to a specific vendor.
So, bid opening for the quotes was yesterday.
Today we were able to do some research
and contact some of the low vendors
and ask some additional questions.
And about an hour before the meeting,
I emailed everyone on the committee
the summary of the bids or the quotes, for your review.
For discussion today, 'cause we are able
to make a recommendation at today's committee.
Now, what I will do is,
I will put up on the screen the quote summary,
for those of you who have not had chance to see it.
Is everybody able to see that on their screens right now?
If not, I'll try to handle this a different way.
- [Lynn Gerlach] Not yet.
- [Randy Scannell] Nothing yet.
- Okay.
What I will do then is, I will share the screen with James
and he will try to pull it up on his screen.
Give me just one minute.
Thank you.
In just a minute, James should be able
to pull it up on his screen hopefully.
- Maybe we can act it out in charades.
- Can you share the screen, James?
For share screen.
- [Man] Click on the share screen.
- Or we could just open our email
and look at it and you can talk about it.
- Well, it would be good for the public, is the thing.
If it wasn't in the packet.
- You see a share screen at the bottom?
- [Man] Now just click on the quote summary.
- [Randy Scannell] Of course, I mean,
it will be part of the packet for the council,
so the public will get a good look at it then,
if you can't get it going now.
- There we go.
See it now?
- [Participants] Yep.
- Okay.
All right, so here's a quote summary,
that was provided to us,
and there were four vendors that quoted on this.
Vendor one was the low quote, at $217,524
and it went up to $233,137.
After reviewing the quotes,
vendor one we are not recommending.
If you look at the bottom,
the lead time for vendor one 960 to 990 days,
which is close to three years to get that bucket truck.
So, just for that reason,
we're not recommending vendor one.
Then we went to vendor two next.
Their quote was acceptable,
but they did have a few exceptions.
So, their equipment was fine and quoted properly,
but they had some exceptions.
And one of the exceptions was the lead time.
If you look at that, it says 360 plus days.
So, we called and asked what that meant
and what that meant is they can't commit to a lead time,
but it's gonna be over 360 days.
They said currently, their lead time is 450 days,
but they cannot lock into a lead time date,
until they're able to secure a chassis,
which we don't know how long that would be.
So, that's kind of a gamble with the lead time.
Secondly, they did put a condition in their quote,
that surcharges might apply at the time of the invoice,
based on global economic conditions
and supply chain availability.
And the surcharge amount will be
communicated approximately 30 days prior to invoicing,
which is usually at time of delivery.
So, that raised a red flag in the fact that,
per this quote, they can charge additional fees
based on the economy and availability,
and we're not gonna know that
until a month before it's delivered.
So therefore, we did not feel comfortable
with vendor number two for those two reasons.
We then looked at vendor number three
and we feel fully confident that
their piece of equipment is adequate,
will serve our needs, and met all of the specs,
and they did not have any exceptions to the quote.
So, we are recommending going with vendor three,
through USSI Holdings Inc., for a total cost of $231,439
and they are out of Appleton, Wisconsin.
So, they are somewhat local.
As far as budget for this,
funding for the purchase will come from city bonding.
So in 2021, we bonded for several pieces of equipment,
to purchase forestry equipment
and we would just like to change things a little bit
differently than what we bonded for back then.
And we're changing this primarily
because of the new structure with
the two new forestry two workers,
that this lift truck will be more beneficial
than what we requested funding for.
So, we requested $180,000 towards the purchase
of a Spider lift for the Forestry Department.
And this is a specialty lift that
just reaches out farther than a bucket truck would.
But it's not a truck.
It's just a lift that sits on a trailer.
So, really the bucket truck is just a better fit
for the staffing that we have set up for us right now.
So, between that and the trailer for it,
that's about $182,000 right there.
We also requested $35,000 to buy a dirt screener.
After researching that dirt screener,
we found out that that really isn't going to work for us,
based on what our assumptions were
when we originally requested that money.
And that leaves us about $10,000 short,
and we are able to come up with that money
because of recent purchases we did...
Other equipment we purchased came in cheaper
than what our budgeted line items were.
So, all of the money is coming from
the 2021 bond request for forestry equipment.
It's just we're structuring a little bit differently,
but we do have the money in hand.
So, I would recommend approval of vendor number three,
which is USSI Holdings Inc., for a total cost of $231,439.
- Any questions, comments?
- Move to approve.
- Second.
- Motion by Alder Wery to approve,
seconded by Alder Gerlach.
All in favor?
- [Participants] Aye.
- Apposed?
I don't know why we need the air to lift the truck.
Why do we want to lift the truck into the air?
Aerial lift truck.
Never mind.
On to informational.
- I do not have anything in addition
to add from what's in the report.
- Very good report.
Any questions, comments?
- I read it, it was good.
- Okay, always.
Take a motion to receive and place on file?
- Sold.
- Second
- Motion by Alder Gerlach to receive and place on file,
seconded by Alder Wery.
All in favor?
- [Participants] Aye.
- Opposed?
Okay, that is received and placed it on file.
Our next meeting is December 15th.
Same time, same back station, same year.
And I'll take a motion to adjourn.
- Move to adjourn.
- Second.
- Motion by Alder Gerlach to adjourn,
seconded by Alder Wery.
All in favor?
- [Participants] Aye.
- Appose?
We'll adjourn it.
Thanks, Dan.
Excellent job everyone.
When do we wanna get together for...
- More fun.
- Brian S.
5:30, 5:35?
- Is Steve there?
- Is Steve ready?
- 5:25, according to Steve.
- What is Steve... - I'm sorry?
- What?
- Director Grenier is requesting 5:35.
- 5:35?
- Yes.
- Perfect.
- Thanks again.
- Thank you.
- You too.
- Bye.
- Alder Wery?
- Yes?
- Did you hear about the ethics.