Since the previous update at the March 10, 2020 Town Council meeting, Town Staff and our outside attorney, Matt Ames, have continued dialogue with the carriers regarding the timing of modifications needed to the water tower (brackets on catwalk railing and foundation modifications) in order to accommodate the loadings due to the cellular equipment.  Please refer to the staff report for March 10, 2020 for background information. 

At the March 10 meeting, the pair of nesting ravens on the temporary tower was a topic of discussion.  After the meeting, Town Staff worked to obtain answers to the questions that were posed during the Council meeting.   We communicated with the Contractor along, with Liam McGranaghan and Joe Coleman (both of whom spoke at the Town Council meeting) in order to find ways to mitigate the effects of work on the nesting ravens.   

During the March 10 meeting, it was suggested that if the Contractor could return after the eggs had hatched (in 10 days or so), the parents would be less likely to abandon the nest.  Unfortunately, the Contractor was not able to accommodate that request.  The crews are fully scheduled and travel all over the country;  it is not known when they would be able to return.  The crew had been working in the area prior to this job, and were able to schedule this relatively small/short duration job between much larger/longer jobs.  Because the crews are specialized, they are in high demand.  As communicated during the March 10 meeting, they may not be able to return until late fall. 

Town staff met with Liam McGranaghan at the site on March 11, along with the Contractor.  The plan after that meeting was defined as follows:

·         Work hours will be limited to 9 or 10 AM until 4 PM.  The later start time will allow the air temp to be a bit higher; the shorter work hours will allow some “down time” with no disturbance during the daylight hours. 

·         The Contractor will block the welding from the bird’s view by using a fireproof welding blanket.  The crew will move the blanket as the install the brackets.

·         Both the Contractor and the Town staff will observe the female.  If she shows signs of stress, such as leaving the nest and not returning for more than ten minutes, the crew will stop work for about 10 minutes to allow her to return to the nest.  Liam will also be observing the female’s reaction to the work.

After working the shortened work hours, the birds did not appear to  show signs of stress or of disturbance.  After communicating with Liam McGranahan, he agreed that the Contractor could increase work hours on the afternoon side, and work until 5 PM.

The Contractor’s with Utility Service Company, Inc. are nearly complete with the work in this phase.  We expect the welding and touch up painting to be done by Monday, March 23.

We have continued the dialogue with the carriers.  With the exception of Sprint, who is not authorized to approve of any construction due to the merger with T-Mobile, the carriers are moving forward with getting purchase orders for the foundation modifications. 

We have talked with the Contractor, and informed him that the start date would now be no earlier than June 1, 2020, in order to allow the hatched ravens to fledge, or leave the nest.  The start of the foundation work is also dependent on the issuance of Purchase Orders to Pittsburg Tank & Town Group (PTTG), although we believe that all PO’s will be issued well before the June 1 construction start date.  The schedule below was presented in the March 10 meeting.  Updates are shown in RED BOLD.   We anticipate the following schedule:

March 9, 2020:  Utility Services (SUEZ) begins catwalk project. 

March 20  23, 2020: Catwalk project completed.

Not later than March 13  May 1, 2020.  Carriers/Town provide Purchase Orders or initial payment to PTTG.

April 13  May 4 week: Preconstruction conference with Town, PTTG and design engineer (MRA)

April 20  June 1 week:  PTTG begins foundation work.

May 29  July 17:  PTTG completes work; final completion approved

June 1 – August 21  July 20 – September 31 : Cell carriers install antennas onto the tower:  each carrier 2-3 weeks, so a total of 8-12 weeks. Temporary Tower removal 1-2 weeks. 

Our next conference call with the carriers is scheduled for Thursday April 2, 2020.