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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-11-30-9:00AM-WORKSHOP SESSIONBRAZOSCOUNTY BRYAN, TEXAS , -� -� NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT WORKSHOP SESSION THE COMMISSIONERS COURT OF BRAZOS COUNTY WILL MEET IN A WORKSHOP SESSION ON FRIDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2007 AT 9:00 A.M. IN ROOM 108 OF THE BRAZOS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 300 E.26TH STREET, BRYAN, TEXAS. 1. Call to Order 2. Review and discussion of plans for the parking garage, with John McBeth from The District. 3. Adjourn The Brazos County Courthouse is wheelchair accessible. Handicap parking spaces are available. Any request for sign interpretive services must be made two business days before the meeting. To make arrangements, call (979) 361 -4102. Office of the County Judge • 300 East 26" St. Suite 114 • - �7Bryjan, Texas 77803 • Fax: (979) 361 -4503 I of 28 COMMISSIONERS' COURT WORKSHOP SESSION November 30, 2007 The Commissioners' Court of Brazos County, Texas met in a Workshop Session on Friday the 30th of November, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. in the Commissioners' Courtroom of the Brazos County Courthouse, 300 E. 26th, Room 108, Bryan, Texas, with the following members of the Court present: Randy Sims, County Judge, Presiding; Lloyd Wassermann, Commissioner of Precinct l; Duane Peters, Commissioner of Precinct 2; Kenny Mallard, Commissioner of Precinct 3; Carey Cauley, Commissioner of Precinct 4; absent Karen McQueen, County Clerk. Attached is a list of the citizens and officials in attendance. Attached is a transcript of the meeting. Vol 10-6 Page P--7+ 2 of 28 BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT Parking Garage November 30th, 2007 Sims: Commissioners' Court of Brazos County will meet in workshop session on Friday the 30`h of November, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. in room 108 of the Brazos County Courthouse and I will call this meeting to order and we will review and discuss plans for the parking garage with John McBeth from the District. I will turn it over to you, sir. McBeth: Thank you. Basically what the Judge had asked me to give you an update on what our plans are going to be for the interim parking when we actually begin construction which looks like it's going to be the latter part of January or the first part of February 2008. What we intend to do is eliminate... we're building this in phases and the first phase will be to basically eliminate the parking lot across the street from the Courthouse. We won't touch the Probation Offices or the parking that is at Probation. But we will eliminate that parking lot and take it out. That is where we will build the replacement offices for Probation as well as the first floor of that office complex will be retail. Things like coffee shops, donut shops, Starbucks, and things like that. In taking that parking lot out we will eliminate the 115 parking spaces. That's how many are there in that lot. Both real parking spaces and parking spaces that people just make which you see there today. Over the last month in that parking lot we've done a parking survey in and around the Courthouse. That particular lot there holds 115 cars and it is always full as you well know. The only time you find a vacant space there during the time we looked at it are the reserved spaces at the very front right across from the Courthouse. Our initial plans were to look at leasing a very large parking lot and then running a shuttle system from that parking lot to the Courthouse. But as we began talking with people, that was going to be inconvenient and, I think, Commissioner Mallard is the one that probably articulated it best in that people that are coming to the Courthouse... even though they know there is going to be that shuttle system and that they can park at a bigger lot ... they're going to first come down here and see if they can find a parking space and then and only then are they going to turn around and go back to the other one. Our concern was it's tough enough right now to get people to respond to jury summons as it is; if we it make any more difficult then once they head in a different direction, they're liable to Vol 103 Page 9--75 3 of 28 keep driving in a different direction and not park and not come to the Courthouse for jury duty. So we re- thought the plan and began looking around in the downtown area and adjacent to the downtown area, basically setting a three block radius for trying to locate surplus parking in the downtown area. And we came up with three locations. The first is the lot that you have across from the tax office. There's 108 spaces there and over the last month that averages about 28 cars a day. Those cars are in and out of there all day long but on average it's about 28 cars a day in that lot. That leaves a surplus of 80 spaces there throughout the day. There's a city owned lot on Tabor between 24th and 23rd street. It's where the ATM machine is. That lot holds 36 cars. There is an average of 11 cars a day parked in that lot. That leaves us with 25 spaces in that lot. Sims: Where is this now, again, John? Lucas: On Tabor. Right adjacent to the railroad tracks. There's an ATM machine that was there and the City came in and basically built a strip lot there. And that belongs to the City of Bryan and we've talked with people with the City of Bryan and it'll be fine for us to utilize that lot. Then the largest lot we found is the old Piggly Wiggly where the Back and Joint Clinic and the Lone Star Legal Aid currently are housed. They have sufficient parking in front and on the side of that building. There's almost never any cars parked there. In the lot itself, it holds 52 spaces and there's an average of six cars a day in that lot. So we have a surplus of 46 spaces there. When you take those three lots together ... the ones that we prefer ... that gives us parking for 150 cars on an average day. Which is 35 more than we're going to eliminate when we eliminate the lot across from the Courthouse. We then also looked at two overflow lots and we haven't discussed these two lots with the owners yet but we have two lots a little further from the Courthouse. One is the lot there at the Varisco building which is not being used at all and that's 45 spaces. And then there is the drive -in windows of the old First Bank and Trust. That lot is not used and we've surveyed that lot and we've put 47 spaces there. That gives another 92 spaces for overflow. Sims: Varisco building is how many spaces? McBeth: It's 45. Sims: Forty -five. And drive -in window? Vol 03 Page �05tA 4 of 28 Lucas: We can get 47 in there. We've surveyed that lot and we can put 47 cars in there very, very easily. And that's even leaving the spaces under the drive window. We have not yet contacted the owners of those properties to negotiate and agree with them. But that's something that we're going to do as far as looking at overflow. But we don't prefer those lots because one's on the other side of Texas Avenue, the other one is on the other side of the railroad tracks. The lots are going to be connected together with a shuttle system. The shuttle system will basically originate there at the ATM lot and go to the Piggly Wiggly lot and move past the Tax Office lot and then across the street to the Courthouse, drop the people off and then circulate back through downtown Bryan and do the same thing. The headway on that is the bus will be at the same point about every seven minutes. Then on the overflow lots on the days that we would have use of, we would set up a separate shuttle system to get those folks. We've gotta come across Texas Avenue and we've gotta come across the railroad tracks. Mallard: Would there be a necessity for both? McBeth: I think only when you have jurors being picked for every court. I think that would be the only time that would happen; if you had jurors being picked for court that you have in the Courthouse. You could possibly have that. Mallard: Can anybody answer; are we doing that now? Are we trying to make sure we don't? Is that a problem for us to continue that? Conner: Not that I know of And I know one Judge prefers Mondays but then there's another one that is pulling them on Tuesdays. Lanehart: We have three courts that potentially pull on Mondays. We have 85th and 361St, and County Court 1. And those are all in the morning time. Occasionally 272nd will also pull on Monday but mostly the pull on Tuesday morning. And then we have County Court 2 on Tuesday afternoon. Mallard: How disruptive would that be if we ask them to make sure they spread it out so that wasn't more than maybe two on a particular day? Does that wreck their system too bad? Lanehart: I don't know. Vol ► 03 Page O--7 ( 5 of 28 Sims: That'd be difficult because a lot of times they don't get through picking a jury in one day. Conner: Right. Lanehart: Well most of the time it takes ... we have two juries if we have Monday; 851h it usually takes all day to pick theirs. Tuesday, 272"d, takes most of the morning and into the afternoon, early afternoon. The 361St usually has one by Monday morning. He pushes to finish by 1:00 o'clock so they don't have to come back in the afternoon. Mallard: Yeah. I understand. I don't want to disrupt their system but I mean we're all going to be disrupted in some form or fashion and it's going to be a whole lot better when we get this situation taken care of. So it'd be good if we could try to see if there's some way where we could spread those out and it would help keep us from being overloaded on certain days. So we just need to maybe get with the Judges and have a meeting. Lanehart: Yeah, get with those Judges then because they're the ones that control their docket. They might could do that. Mallard: Ok. Lanehart: I mean it's not very often that we do have two districts and that's where your concern is going to be ... your District Courts. Because we pull in 350 people. We usually average ... well this Monday, I had 85th and it just happened the 361St picked theirs on Tuesday, which normally the do on Monday. Which I had 66 there. So had it been a Monday we would have had an extra 166 besides the other business that goes on up here. But you might talk to the Judges. Mallard: Ok. Maybe we need to have a meeting with the Judges to see if there's a way they could spread their times out on that. That'll be a disruption to their process but it sure would help us. The jurors especially because they're (inaudible). McBeth: Yeah, that's one of the other things we're going to do. In addition to just putting together and interim parking plan, we're also going to do a full blown marketing thing for the bus system. It will include the fact that we will advertise that any juror will be able to board a bus by showing us the jury summons. They can board any of the seven routes in the two cities. Mallard: Oh, not just this local route? Vol 10-5 Page �7c�A 6 of 28 McBeth: Not just the local. Any of the seven routes in the two cities; they will be able to board by just showing a jury summons and that gives them free transportation here and free transportation home. While they're here, the shuttle system that we're going to have and the circulator system is going to be free for everybody also. So we think advertising the boarding free with a jury summons; and Marge has even talked about the fact that we could probably actually even have that printed on the jury summons. We just have to work with Court coordinator to see if we can have it printed on the jury summons ... that that is equivalent to a bus pass. Sims: Let's hear from here right now. Lanehart: On using the jury summons for a boarding pass, sometimes they don't have that jury summons with them. All they can do is tell you they have jury duty. McBeth: Well we know where they're coming, so yeah. Lanehart: Right. And then too with the parking thing, unless IT can print that on those cards are already preprinted and I have just tons of them already preprinted with our normal parking. McBeth: Put a sticker on it. Or just simply advertisement that we're going... Sims: Let me ask you a question; I think that this impacts the whole Courthouse here, it's not just the jury. Because that's one of the sticky things that we run through even with security down here. When we have all the courts pulling jury panels, then we still have people that come to the Courthouse for business. McBeth: For business. Exactly. Sims: And what happens is our lots fill up because the jury panels get here first because they're required to be here. The rest of the people come at their leisure and all of this good stuff. And I can't remember what morning it was ... IT called and said, "We have no more parking over here. Our people can't even park in the spaces." Of course that had to do with the remodeling of the church. I went over there and I called Eric and told him that I counted 16 parking places out here that's not full. Well before I left, there was four left. And that was only 20 minutes. So I guess what I'm saying is what we're going to have to do is people that get on that bus are going to get to ride free period because you're not going to know whether they're coming for business down here, going to the Clerk's office, Clerk upstairs, coming down here to whatever. Vol I 03 Page aJ-7 7 of 28 McBeth: And that's something that's doable. Sims: Ok. McBeth: That's not going to be a problem at all. The goal is to create parking and at the same time create greater access. And to our advantage it actually will increase our ridership as well as, hopefully, attract some people that will begin using it as an easier way to get to and from the Courthouse. We even looked at the scenario of since all of our busses go to that transfer point there on Texas Avenue between the two cities every hour on the hour. Actually setting up a shuttle system that runs directly from that transfer point to here so that people will not have to transfer to a bus. They would get there and then there would be a direct shuttle that comes to the Courthouse, which would encourage more people to just take that shuttle and come down here. So those are the plans that we're looking at. We think we can manage. We've surveyed the parking over various times of the day over the past month. And it's very consistent. Like you said; you have people that come here and they might spend... they're just coming down here for seven or eight minutes. They spend more time driving around trying to find a parking place than they do coming into the Courthouse to get the work done. So we know we have both juror, we also have people that are just coming down here to get their work done and then you have tremendous number of attorneys that are coming here to do filings and things like that. Sims: That's true. McBeth: We kicked around the idea of possibly impaneling juries somewhere else like back when you did your remodeling you utilized the Brazos Center. After talking to people, that was going to create a real inconvenience not just for the District Attorneys but it was going to create an inconvenience for the attorneys. It wasn't that big of an inconvenience for the people. It was the attorneys because they're here picking a jury and at the same time they may be doing a divorce proceeding in another courtroom down the hall. So we kind of shelved that idea. It wasn't going to work. Sims: Gary? Arnold: How are we going to way find this? How are people driving by the Courthouse going to know where to go park at? Vol t 03 Page McBeth: We're going to put together a map once we've consolidated these parking lots that shows the parking lots and it will show not only the parking lots and it will show not only the parking lots but it will show the shuttle system map on there that shows the direction the bus will run from that parking lot and the approximate time that bus will be at that parking lot. Arnold: They're not going to have any signage out here? Joe Blow from Rockdale drives up and needs to go to the Courthouse and he has no idea what's going on. Is there going to be any signage or anything? McBeth: Yeah, we'll have to have signage. At each of the lots, we'll put passenger shelters in each of the lots to begin with. So people know that there's a bus there. Then we'll put whatever signage is needed appropriate that gets approved by the City. Mallard: Just a notice of overflow parking for Brazos County. McBeth: Yeah. Overflow parking and those kinds of things. And you know, we have an inventory of surplus parking in the downtown area. There is a lot of surplus off - street parking in the downtown area. We just don't want to utilize that parking. Sims: How about Sue Haswell? I mean that's not that far from here. McBeth: No it's not and there's lots of... Sims: There's lots of parking particularly during the day. McBeth: And that's someplace that we could look at. We'd have to talk to the City to see if that could be something. Mallard: With just the three lots that we talked about, we have more parking... McBeth: We have 35; we have a surplus of 35 of what you're currently parking in the lot. Mallard: So I would assume that we would be ok. McBeth: We're trying to keep it as ... after talking to everybody... we're trying to keep the lots as close to the Courthouse as we can get them for convenience. Mallard: On a nice day, some people may just walk. Vol 103 Page -a-) C� 9 of 28 McBeth: For convenience, they'll probably just walk. Yeah. Just for convenience sake we wanted to keep them within this area. We had initially looked at just leasing the entire parking spaces over at Townshire Center but I think Commissioner Mallard had a really valid point; if somebody comes down here looking for a space and they can't find one, I don't think they're going to drive ... they're going to start driving but I think they're going to be headed south. Sims: Well they're going to do the same thing at Sue Haswell. That is closer. McBeth: And they're also inbound. You know, that's what you do when we do the park and rides for the football games. If you could find a lot where it's in inbound lots, well they're coming this direction anyway and it's open and you've got it advertised as overflow parking. That would certainly be another option. And we can look. Sims: Katy? Conner: Maybe we can get a bigger, better, some kind of sign at the crosswalk at William Joel because all three of your overflows are across the street. McBeth: Right. Mallard: Well we're hoping they'll ride the shuttle. We're hoping they won't... Sims: But if they do decide to walk. Conner: From the Tax Office, they're probably going to walk instead of waiting seven minutes. Gallego: I would. McBeth: We would have to talk with TxDot and see. Conner: I think like a `Slow /Crosswalk'. McBeth: A blinking light. Conner: Yeah. The crosswalk is marked but nobody pays any attention to it. Male: I walk across there a lot and they never stop. Guitron: Currently the Tax Office parking lot is full ... it's the end of the month. Mallard: Well this is tax day. Vol 03 Page a �� 10 of 28 McLeod: License plate and tax time. Mallard: Property tax day. That only happens twice a year. Arnold: John, how long are we looking at a construction time? McBeth: Approximately two years. Arnold: Two years to be complete? Sims: What was the question? Arnold: What was the construction schedule? How long is this going to go on? McBeth: Just about two years. It'll take about two years. That's the estimate that we have right now based upon the availability of steel and concrete is about two years. About nineteen months. Arnold: Just for the entire parking garage or just the... McBeth: That's all of it. That's everything. Mallard: Is that the annex building and everything. McBeth: That's everything. Mallard: Ok. Mallard: So when we're ready to tear down the Adult Probation, the parking garage is still not able to take on cars at that time. McBeth: A portion of it will be. Mallard: Oh really? McBeth: Yeah. There will be a portion of parking there. Yeah, there'll be parking there. Mallard: Ok. McBeth: The building is all precast. It's going to basically come out on trucks. Mallard: Wow. Vol 103 Page a$1 11 of 28 Sims: Yes sir. Holland: The building is not going to get built first? They're going to build the parking garage first? McBeth: No. We're going to build the probation offices first and then we will just continue to move everybody in... Holland: And take out the rest of it. McBeth: Exactly. Holland: Ok. And has anyone spoken with Verizon about their structure that goes underneath Washington Street? McBeth: Yeah, we're aware of that. Holland: Ok. McBeth: We're aware of everything. They've done the utility surveys and everything. We're aware of that. All of the fiber optics and everything are underneath there. Holland: Uh -huh. (positive) Ok. (inaudible) Sims: What was that? Holland: One of the things that we'd like to do to add to our redundancy network wise here is to have some connective conduits between the new administration building and this building here. We'd like to put those in during construction on the site over there. I don't know what we'd need to do about papers or anything like that to get permission to do that? McBeth: No we just have to hook you up with the engineering, the geo- technical people so that they know what you want to run and where you want to run it and we'll try to get it all done at one time. Lucas: I think there's already been some discussion with the maintenance. Didn't we already have a conversation about that, early on? McBeth: Yes, right at the beginning with Mr. Peters and Arlene, the director of adult probation. Vol u3 Page a 12 of 28 Lucas: We've talked to the architects about that. So that's already been mentioned and we'll follow up and make sure with those. Holland: Yeah, definitely I would like to get some contact information with the architects and the people that are doing that just to make sure that I could verify that that's going to go in correctly. Lucas: Ok. Holland: Ok. Thank you. Sims: Yes sir. Name? Zajac: Ron Zajac, representing Probation. What is the estimate time to complete our building and then get our old one torn down? McBeth: The probation offices should be from the date we start to when they those are ready for occupancy should be anywhere from nine months to a year. We've surveyed the site, we know pretty well what's underneath the site but there's always surprises when you start tearing something that's been there that long. Sims: Ok. Questions? Mallard: That's pretty good. So do we need to have a meeting or a discussion with District and Court of Law Judges to make sure we ... maybe we can have them on separate days so that wouldn't happen or it would slow down...? Sims: Yeah, that would probably be very useful. Of course, I think they set theirs in place and then it pleads out and so we don't have anybody and then they're going out and trying to find another jury panel for something else they've got ready to go. McBeth: You see cars leaving and cars pulling in almost at the same time. Sims: And I know they don't want to slow their courtrooms down and they're busy just like everybody else is with the County Court. But I do think we need to sit down with them and talk to them and see what we have. Yes ma'am? Lanehart: You might want to do that really quickly because I know they do set their dockets out there a pretty good ways. So the sooner you guys can get a hold of those judges... Vol lo3 Page c2 93 13 of 28 Mallard: If it's a half day in general, is it possible to start it at 1:00 o'clock? Or are you just concerned that it may run over for some reason? Lanehart: No we have one that does come in at 1:30. That's a County Court. I don't have any District Courts that do that for the reason you just said. Because two of them do take most of the day. But you could talk to the Judges and see what they could do with their schedules and see if they couldn't help out some kind of way. McLeod: Judge, why don't you get the Administrative Judge to ask them to have a Judges meeting. Sims: Ok. All right. Mallard: Because if we can get their schedule spread out a little bit more then we wouldn't have as big a spike when they have two jury panels. Maybe make the District Attorney happy. That's good news. I think it's a lot better than shuttling people from longer distances and having them remember where they needed to go to someplace other than the Courthouse. McBeth: Well the closer we can find the spaces to the Courthouse, the better off we are. Because these people are not here all day long. I mean they may be on a jury for a couple of days but that jury is taking breaks. So they need to have access to their automobile. Maybe to have access to the other things that are here in the downtown area. If you have them too far away, then it's just so inconvenient for them. Sims: Well, and that's why I thought of Sue Haswell... that's about as close a parking as would be available during the day. McBeth: Yeah. Exactly. And it's almost always empty. Mallard: Carlos, is it just the one day? Just the last day of the month? Guitron: That's usually when they're filled up. Mallard: Ok. Because of bringing in for car renewals? McLeod: Yeah, you renew your license plates ... most everybody waits until the last day. Vol o3 Page y a q 14 of 28 Mallard: Ok. Well that's what I mean. So that's another thing we need to remember when we have the Judges come in; if they could maybe not put a jury on the last day of the month. Lanehart: Well most of the time if the last day of the month is Thursday or Friday, you're good on that. We hardly ever pull a jury then. It's rare for us to pull in on Thursday or Friday. So I don't know how the end of the months are gonna go this next year but ... there may not be many of them. Mallard: I'm sure there's going to be some days where that last day is going to be Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. So we maybe need to look at those and maybe watch their dockets. So when we have that meeting, let's try to remember the end of the month for tax day. Arnold: John, have yall figured in construction traffic parking and staging and all that? Included in your parking totals? McBeth: Yeah, we have. Sims: You I tell you what would really help with the turning away (inaudible) you well know is electronic filings. That would keep them from having to come down and take up parking places. This is probably not going to be pretty but it is a necessity. Just like what I went through over at IT the other day. Had we had the parking garage, we wouldn't have had that problem. Of course we're even trying to do more because we're putting in the parking lot at the administration over there to get it away from the parking garage itself when it's built. And using that for our people that work in that building. So that will split it up somewhat. Give us some more parking places there for at least the staff. And get them out of the areas that we're talking about right now. McBeth: It'll be inconvenient for two years. But that two years of inconvenience will pay off over the next twenty years. Sims: But you know everybody wants instant solution. McBeth: Yeah, they do. Storrie: Is the City aware of all the schedule and everything? McBeth: Oh yeah. Sims: The City is aware of all the schedules and all that good stuff? Is that correct. Vol i t�3 Page a �s 15 of 28 Storrie: That's what we were talking about right now. We just finished a study on that end of town to determine what kind of infrastructure needs will be needed for... Sims: When you get your new building open that's going to create even... Storrie: I worry about closing streets at the same time that yall need access to parking for all this residual parking needs that you're going to have. Sue Haswell is a good object. Arnold: That's right on water and sewer and stuff like that and shutting streets down for this project then won't it be a conflict with a parking lot with a street shut off and can't get to it. Storrie: Yeah, we don't want to shut a street down that's going to have access to a parking lot. Male: The other thing is that the next closest, visible overflow from the construction site is going to be the City lot at the City Hall. Between there and BTU and people are going to want to park right in there. So those people need to be aware... Storrie: The Justice Center is expected to be completed in March of next year. Mallard: Yall have some pretty good overflow from yalls parking lot. I know we're picking up some there at the Administration Building... Sims: And IT. Storrie: We pick up a lot of parking... there's a lot of parking spaces not only on the back side of the Justice Center but on the far side of the Justice Center that will just be freed up once they remove all the construction materials. But then you also create spaces in the old police facility that's going to be right there on that corner. So there will be some spots that open up that definitely need to be considered through use. Sims: Remind me to talk to Madison about that and see if we can't get some of their employees to park off. I'm not talking about the ones that has to be there to be able to continue on with our Admin. Building but at least get the employees to park elsewhere. That would save some spaces. Mostly over in your area. Vol I v3 Page 'p-9 16 of 28 Storrie: And is the general public, the community at large, as far as the shop owners and everybody in downtown... are they all being made aware what the schedule is when this is going to be...? Sims: They're probably being made aware but that doesn't say they're going to be happy. Because it's going to stretch out into downtown Bryan... believe me. Storrie: Is that going to get thrown in the newspaper or...? Sims: But to get through with it you gotta keep impressing on those people that when we get through with that then it's going to be a heck of a lot better for customer parking in front of their places. McBeth: They will be able ... we've already had merchants in downtown approach us as far as leasing spaces of parking garage for their employees. Sims: That's good. McBeth: There will not be reason for employees to have to park in front of one of the business that they work at. There's a lot of interest from those people as well as... Sims: And I think that'll benefit downtown Bryan big time. McBeth: Well the whole concept of this garage was to solve the parking problem for the County but at the same time we knew that because of what Linda and Joey were doing with the streetscape in the downtown area that we were going to be getting rid of a lot of parking spaces and we have eliminated a bunch of parking spaces. Sims: I'm assuming yall came help us with your employees at the City? Whatever needs to be done? Storrie: We're hear to help. Mallard: Well but the fact that they'll be through with that pretty soon ... I don't know when the actual proposed start date is. McBeth: Probably be the middle of February is my guess. Mallard: Ok. So they'll be a little overlap but pretty much... Sims: Well I'm talking about parking offsite, if you will, and taking a shuttle in to work and with circling the narrow loop out there. Vol l o3 Page a9 17 of 28 Storrie: Just keep us in the loop and let us know what you want us to consider. McBeth: What we may do is that in looking I'll talk with Hugh and people at the City ... we may push our schedule back until they finish the Justice Center and they have that additional parking. So that we actually create less of an inconvenience for people. Storrie: Our anticipated. I mean they are 75% completed at this point and they are anticipating a March 2008 completion date. And we just did a reimbursement resolution to buy all the FF &E for the building so we're getting close. Sims: Good. As much as I hate it, we have an awfully lot of people congregated in one area. And, of course, that's why we're trying to solve to be able to get them and make them flexible where they can get to their cars and bring them as close to the County Courthouse and the City Hall as we possibly can get them. But, you're right; it's going to be a challenge while we're getting it done. And I hope they can look out long term and see the benefits that this is going to provide the citizens of if they come down here. Questions from anybody else, please? Yes sir, Bill. Holland: So are all the roads encircling the property going to be closed down? Washington? 26th 27`nq McBeth: Washington, no. Washington will ultimately be closed whereas the building will cover the entire area. Mallard: But not the first year? McBeth: No, not the first year, no. Holland: But as far as construction, are the roads just going to get blocked off so that trucks can move in and out freely? Is there going to be 26th Street access to the Courthouse? McBeth: The only street that we would possibly close during construction and we don't think we'll have to, is Washington. We won't interfere with any of the streets. Sims: Going east and west? McBeth: We won't mess with any of those streets. Sims: Yes ma'am, Ruth? Vol Page ;48 18 of 28 McLeod: Has there been thought given to access to the Courthouse from the Admin. Building while construction is going on? Back and forth? Across that block. Sims: Well once they ... I would like to see the plans John, see how that's set up, to be honest with you. McBeth: People will not be able to walk through. They will not be able to commute between this building and that building during the construction of the Probation building. But it's going to be constructed... Sims: But after the Probation building you could. McBeth: After the Probation building, there's a mall. Literally a mall there. It's a covered walkway with shops and retail. McLeod: Ok. You have to look at the mail process then ... of getting mail from one location to the other and getting documents. Mallard: Well Washington Street will be open at that time. McBeth: Right. Yeah. Mallard: You just won't be able to walk through the parking area. McBeth: You'll not be able to walk the direct walk that you have now across the parking lot, will not be possible. You will have to go down to Probation and walk over this way and cut back up. Mallard: Or else Texas. McBeth: Or you could go to Texas, yeah. McLeod: So when do we get our underground tunnel? McBeth: That got vetoed in favor of the mall. Mallard: I like that idea. Sims: Ok. Questions? Questions, gentlemen. Holland: Do we have drawings and things like that for the Probation building that I can start looking at? Vol lob Page C$ 9 19 of 28 Sims: Bill is very concerned about this because he is going to be running the cabling and all of this good stuff. McBeth: The final designs are in process right now. Holland: Ok. McBeth: I mean we've got renderings of what the building will look but the final schematics... they're finishing those up right now. Howard: Ok. McBeth: So. And we're aware of everything that's got to go in Probation because the people we've met with; Arlene and her people, and they told us exactly what they have and what they needed and the architect has designed that into it. Sims: Are we going to have a model of this thing? McBeth: We have a model. Sims: You have a model? McBeth: We have a model, yes. Sims: Where's it located? McBeth: It's in Houston right now; we haven't brought it up here yet. Sims: When is it going to come up? I know the City would like to see it and certainly Bill would too. If it could be set out at the atrium there at the City and set out down here... so people can look at it. McBeth: Yeah. We can bring the model up here. The model covers three of those tables next to each ... that's how big the model is. Sims: At least give our citizens an opportunity to look at see what their inconvenience is going to provide once we get through. McBeth: And once we have the final design then we will release that to the people and all of the media outlets so they can broadcast what the building is going to look like. Vol o.�) Page 1�2 90 20 of 28 Sims: Well before we put that rubber stamp on it, I would think you would get the two governmental entities that are impacted the most and let us look at that. So if there is any slight changes we need to make or John, (heaven forbid) major changes we need to make ... we can at least look at the set of plans. Of course, about all I could look at is the layout of it and see if we've covered all bases. The technical people would have to look at that, with the County and with the City. McBeth: Sure. Sims: Other questions? Yes sir, Carlos? Guitron: Carlos from maintenance. The design of the Adult Probation building ... I wasn't aware was already in process. If the County is going to maintain that building, we have some requirements for mechanical on how that's going to be controlled. For 25 years, I don't think we're going to have to maintain it, are we John? McBeth: You'll have to maintain your offices and stuff. Sims: Oh that's right. That comes to us immediately. McBeth: Right. Right. Guitron: Which we are currently doing now with Adult Probation. Sims: Ok. Ok. Guitron: No other stress or our department on this. Sims: John, put your engineers on this. McBeth: Yeah, we'll get our engineers to get together with yall. The way the building is being designed is when the whole project is completed; it will come with, basically, a preventative maintenance manual for the garage, the buildings, everything. And that maintenance manual is for the life of the building and will tell you everything you have to do for anything for that building... every week for the next 30 years. Sims: For Adult Probation? McBeth: For the whole project. For the garage, for the Probation... Lucas: But yall will have separate manuals for yours. Vol 103 Page 2 ct I 21 of 28 McBeth: You'll have access to a computer that will... Sims: Ok. Our people are not going to maintain that garage. McBeth: No. No. We're maintaining the garage but you're office ... the way it's designed is you will have access to the computer that will tell you when to change filters and everything. Guitron: But our requirements are that we are currently monitoring several buildings and remote sites by computer. McBeth: Right. Yeah. Guitron: And we just need that computer to be able to communicate with ours, with IT. McBeth: Exactly. Guitron: And our laptops be able to access and control it. McBeth: We'll get you together with our engineers. Guitron: And that's the Adult Probation building, not the mall area. McBeth: Right. Sims: Right. Carlos was thinking about how many more people he had to put on if we were going to handle that whole complex over there. Ok. Well this is the place to ask questions right now. Rodriquez: Parking spaces; do we have a number. I mean I'm assuming there is parking built into the garage for the tenants and the people working? McBeth: The first floor of the garage... Rodriquez: Probation building? McBeth: Yeah. There's 996 spaces in the entire facility. The first floor of the garage for people that are visiting the... basically for jurors. The second floor will be employees of the Courthouse and Adult Probation. And that second floor connects directly to the second floor of the complex that has the office for probation. Office of Probation has the second and third floor. And so those people will be able to park (inaudible) and basically be able to walk directly into... Vol 103 Page J 9 a 22 of 28 Rodriquez: There's a (inaudible). McBeth: Yeah, there's a corridor connecting the building and the garage. Rodriquez: But the first floor is subterranean? McBeth: No, the first floor is at ground level. The parking on the first floor is basically, right now, programmed to be just for jurors and the second floor will be visitors. The third, four, fifth, and the roof are other parking spaces. One floor will have a portion of it reserved for people that are basically leasing spaces on a monthly basis for employees or we have people that are living in downtown Bryan... Sims: Living in downtown Bryan. McBeth: ...that want to lease a space on a month to month basis. Sims: I know that Adult Probation probably has some input. Probably need a lot more because security is one of the main issues when we have probationers come in. They're not happy at times, needless to say. McBeth: Yeah. Sims: And so with that in mind, let's make sure that however our crosswalks and all of that is put together, that they take a long hard look at it for the security of those people that are working in Adult Probation. McBeth: Right. Howard Brown met with Arlene and Margie and them with Probation and they outlined what all of their needs were. Everything. Security, locking doors, all that kind of stuff. Sims: Please (inaudible) ... and I've learned this through, and I know these guys have too, learned this through all the building projects we have been through in the last several years that before we put that stamp on that thing, make sure that we have everything. All our Ps and Qs. McBeth: It'll come back to yall and also to Arlene to sign off on to make sure it's workable. That it's going to do what they need it to do as far as securing their location. Sims: McBeth: Lucas: Vol Ok. Because that gets to be high volatility over there at times. Uh -huh. (positive) Yeah, we noticed. It was an interesting meeting with Arlene. We learned a lot. ) o 3 Page a 9 3 23 of 28 Sims: Yes sir? Rodriquez: How much do you anticipate the contract parking costing on a monthly basis? And public parking just for visitors? McBeth: We have not set any parking rates yet. We will create a board made up of two elected officials from the County, two from the City and two from our Board and that'll be, basically, a parking board that will establish what the parking rates will be. Rodriquez: And as far as the leasing spots that you have ... when are those available and how many are there? McBeth: Right now we have set aside 145 for one employer. Probably all together as far as lease space it will be between 200 and 225. We have a major employer that's moving into downtown that we've been contacted about that's interested in leasing a lot of spaces. Mallard: I'm assuming that if you had a greater need for contract parking... McBeth: We will create more contract parking. Mallard: I would think so. McBeth: It's a revenue source. Rodriquez: As far as the retail facilities in the bottom; how many of those are there? McBeth: There's a total of 12,000 square feet and we will have a property management company that will manage that retail space. We don't have any desire to be a landlord so we're going to work with a property management company. They will basically recruit business that go in there. Rodriquez: Do you know when those start leasing or making those spaces available? McBeth: When we have the final design plans available, probably within the month. Then they'll know exactly what the spaces would look like, what they'd be configured like and put the ads out there for the spaces available. We've had tremendous ... a lot of retail people contact us that want space. Sims: We'll have to put time clocks over there on the coffee shop. Vol L d3 Page '0 Cl q- 24 of 28 Gallego: In the mall. Sims: So employees don't stay away too long. Mallard: Put cameras in there. Sims: Yeah. Anything else? John, as you well know, this is just one of many meetings we're going to have before this takes place and we break ground. McBeth: Yeah. Uh -huh. (positive) Sims: And I will get with the Administrative Judge. That's Steve Smith right now, is it not? And see if we can't pull that together where we can sit down and talk to them about how we can schedule jury panels and this type thing. John made the comment that we don't want people thinking, `Well, there's no parking places available down there. I don't need to go up there and serve.' McBeth: It's going to be inconvenient but we're going to try to make it as least inconvenient as we can. Mallard: I think we have that problem now with people parking. There driving up there and there's no room for them. So, I mean, this isn't anything new. Sims: Is there any other questions? Put your thinking caps on. We have John captive here. Rodriquez: For the County employees, is that something that is still going to be charged? McBeth: No. County employees are free. Conner: So if the contract leasing becomes such a revenue generator; are we going to get pushed out? McBeth: No. Lanehart: How many parking spaces are on that ground floor that is for jurors and just people doing business up here? McBeth: The ground floor has 150 bays, I think. It replaces all the parking that's being eliminated basically. Sims: In that parking lot? Vol 10 2) Page a9-5 25 of 28 McBeth: In that parking lot. Mallard: Even if you're above that, there's an elevator going up and down. So you could park up on the roof and it wouldn't be a problem. Sims: ADA compliant? McBeth: Everything. It's all accessible. Sims: When yall have an opportunity to bring that model up here, I think it certainly would be nice to be able to set it down at City Hall for maybe three or four weeks if they can do that, and up here in our area for about the same amount of time. Let people take a look at it. Yes sir? Jeanes: Judge I just wanted to know; you said that February '08 yall will break ground and then in about a year Probation will be up and running. And then the parking garage will be finished in about another year. So two years? McBeth: Right. Basically. Jeanes: Ok. Mallard: The parking garage is, basically, pre-fab ... once you start putting that in place it should go in pretty quickly. McBeth: It's like tinker toys. Expensive tinker toys. Mallard: When you're having to pour it in place is when it takes so much time. McBeth: Pouring it in place would cost us 35% more than doing it this way. And take up a lot more space. You'd have to build a concrete plant somewhere close to downtown. Sims: Ok. Any more questions? We'll be asking John to come back and talk to us ... yes, Tina? Snelling: Just a clarification; you said that you guys would be maintaining the parking garage? McBeth: Right. Uh -huh. (positive) Snelling: So yall would be totally responsible for the maintenance? Vol ) b 3 Page C2 9 26 of 28 McBeth: Right. Jeanes: Maintenance and security? McBeth: Security; uh -huh. (positive) Snelling: And did you have a time I heard (inaudible), she said you said 30 years ... I thought you said 40 years. McBeth: No. The life cycle of the building is 30 years. Snelling: Ok. Sims: When does this come back to us? McBeth: Thirty years. Snelling: Ok, so you'll be maintaining the garage and providing security for how long? McBeth: For the entire 30 year period. Snelling: Thirty. Ok. And the Probation Office; would that be joint maintenance or would that be just the County? McBeth: That's the County that will be responsible for those few floors. Snelling: Ok. Sims: Tina, how close are we ... have we had more discussion having to do with the lease of the property over there? Snelling: Yes. I'll have to get with you more on the details, but I just finished talking to Don Holcamp and he's going to be forwarding on the appraisal within the next thirty days. Sims: Ok. Bill? Jeanes: We're going to be responsible for maintenance for the probationers but what about the insurance? Who is going to insure the building and so on? Mallard: That would be our building? Sims: Yeah, that would be our building. Vol Io3 Page Q'9 7 27 of 28 Jeanes: It's our building so it's going to go on our insurance? Sims: The Probation Department, yes. Jeanes: The Probation Department will. Sims: Yes. Theirs would take care of the parking garage. Jeanes: And that's going to be two separate structures? Is that what I'm hearing? McBeth: They're two separate structures but they're joined. Jeanes: Ok. Is the Probationers structure sprinkled or what type of fire...? McBeth: Absolutely. Yeah. Jeanes: Ok. McBeth: The whole project is sprinkled. Rodriquez: So the Probation Department is going to be the two floors and the bottom of that is going to be the vendors? McBeth: Second and third floor is Probation and the first floor is commercial retail. Sims: Ok. Anything else? Snelling: On the first floor of Adult Probation there will be retail? Right? McBeth: Right. Snelling: After it's finished, that will be rented? And you guys are going to be maintaining that? McBeth: Right. We maintain the retail. Snelling: Ok. Sims: Any other questions? Ok. I see none so we'll adjourn this workshop session of the Commissioners' Court. Thank yall for coming. Thanks John. McBeth: Thank you. Vol 103 Page 11? 9 K 28 of 28 The foregoing minutes of the Commissioners Court Workshop held November 30th, 2007, have been examined and approved in open Court this the d- day of , 20 &,�, in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. 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