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Engineering Services: Problem Solving for Today & Tomorrow · Inside West Palm Beach

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Hi everyone, I'm Jerry Marcello and
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welcome to the City
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Center podcast from West Palm
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Beach.
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There are departments in city government
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that everyone understands.
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For example, we all know what members of
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the fire and the police
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departments do to serve
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residents and we all know that not having
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a utilities
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department would probably leave
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us high and dry without a drop of water.
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But there are some departments that are
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not as well known, even
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though the work they do
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keeps the city running
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today and into the future.
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Join us for a look at the Engineering
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Services Department, next,
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in the City Center podcast
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from West Palm Beach.
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Joining me today is Kevin Volbreg,
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Director of the City of
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West Palm Beach Engineering
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Services Department.
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Kevin, welcome.
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Thank you very much, Jerry.
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I appreciate this.
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We're glad to have you here.
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Listen.
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Kevin, one of the great mysteries is we
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know engineering does a
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ton of different projects
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and there's a lot for the city.
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But oftentimes we
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don't hear about you guys.
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We don't see a face as far as the
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Engineering Services Department.
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Tell us what you guys do, what's
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involved, and how many
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folks you got working for you.
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Well, we have a staff of approximately 30
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individuals in our
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department, ranging from
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the director all the way down to our
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construction coordinators
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that work out in the field.
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They go out and monitor the construction
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projects that are going on for the city.
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Essentially, an engineer is somebody who
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needs to solve problems.
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There are problems that exist that need
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to have technical, mathematical,
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scientific solutions
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to them to resolve
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whatever the issues are.
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We love doing that.
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That's our nature.
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When you go to engineering school and you
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graduate as an
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engineer and become that way
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in your career, the reward and the sense
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of accomplishment you
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get from solving problems
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is just tremendous.
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The staff that we have in our engineering
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department is very
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focused and really enjoys
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that aspect of it.
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We are a very close-knit group.
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We work very good with each other and
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bounce ideas and
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concepts and practical solutions
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off of each other all the time.
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We work as a real good team,
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so it isn't just an individual.
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It's like a military group that we're all
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focusing on the one thing.
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Well, tell me a little bit.
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Tell me a little bit about
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you say you solve problems.
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What sort of problems do you guys tackle?
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Well, there's issues with
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the city's infrastructure.
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Roads need to be repaved.
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Sometimes it isn't drained properly.
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There may be certain
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repairs that need to be done.
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There may be reconfigurations of roadways
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or intersections and
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things like that that
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may need to take place.
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There may be safety improvements that we
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need to implement, like for crossings at
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all of the schools.
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There's also a planning aspect to it of
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implementing some major
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enhancements within the city.
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Like when we did the Clamatus streetscape
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projects a few years
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ago, all the way from
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600 block to the 100
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block down by Flagler.
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That was a planning and an effort to
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enhance the experience
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that the citizens have here
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in the city.
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It wasn't necessarily solving an
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infrastructure problem, but it was
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enhancement to the infrastructure.
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So we do both.
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We try to work on, we're working right
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now through a whole
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citywide mobility plan to
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be able to come up with some projects
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that we want to expand
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the capabilities of people
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not only just driving a car, but walking
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and riding bicycles in a safe manner such
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that the various modes of transportation
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are available to
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individuals who want to try to
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use those.
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There's a lot of congestion that comes
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into the downtown every day.
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The less cars that we have to deal with,
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the better off we would
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be, but then again, that's
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not an easy solution.
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Everything is simple and you can just
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snap your fingers and oh
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yeah, that's what we need
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to do.
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Part of solving a problem.
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Well, let me go ahead and finish.
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Looking at all the different factors
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involved in something like
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that and how that can fit
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within the infrastructure that we have
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and what needs to be
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modified in order to accommodate
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those kinds of things are sometimes
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complicated and challenging,
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but that's the kind of things
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that we really need to look at.
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We have to deal with what
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the drainage infrastructure is.
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Say if we want to make a sidewalk wider
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or something like that
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so it can handle bicycles
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and pedestrians as a multi-use trail.
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Sometimes the curb needs to be moved in
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and the inlets and all
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those kinds of things that
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have connected to the drainage system,
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those need to be also
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modified so that it'll work.
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A number of those kinds of challenges
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that we're always looking at.
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How do you identify these challenges?
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Can a resident come to you with a problem
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and say, "Wow, this
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sidewalk could be wider."
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How would they get
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these questions to you?
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Well, a lot of the mobility type of
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projects that we have, we
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work very closely with the
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Palm Beach County TPA as well as there
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are other associations
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and groups that we work
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with all the time as far as having ideas
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about what they want to do.
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There's a number of grant opportunities
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that we have for doing
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transportation projects
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that usually require some sort of an
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element of multimodal equity
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as far as the transportation
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aspects of a project are such that you
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need to make things a
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little bit different than
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they currently are in order to qualify
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for being progressive in
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what the transportation
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things are actually here in the city.
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I think we really try to focus a lot on
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being more progressive and
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looking more to the future
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the way things are going to be so that we
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can try to implement
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those types of projects
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on a very intelligently and thoughtfully
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such that they're going
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to work with all of the
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factors involved in those.
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It's fair to say that you guys are
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involved in planning and
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the vision of the future and
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making things better in the long term.
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You guys are not necessarily involved in
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the day-to-day maintenance.
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Someone has a pothole or
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there's a street light out.
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That's not
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necessarily where you guys are.
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That's more public works that takes care
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of those types of situations.
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We do get involved and sometimes it may
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be not just a pothole.
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Maybe there's a bigger issue that needs
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to be looked at from a
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design level, an engineering
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standpoint such that there may be
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something that needs to be further
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modified rather than
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just going and patching a hole.
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We work very, very closely with the
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public works department.
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There's issues with parking
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or signage or things like that.
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Generally, you need to have the
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engineering authority to be
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able to say, "Yes, we want
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to go restrict parking on this street or
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put a stop sign up," or
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whatever other traffic
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calming facilities that may need to be
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implemented in certain situations.
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It's not all just fixing.
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It's not really doing repairs.
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It's really like, "Hey, let's improve the
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overall street or area
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more comprehensively."
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We've talked a lot about examples of
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projects that involve
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roads, transportation.
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Your universe is wider than that.
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You do more things.
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Oh, yes.
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Yes.
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Obviously, there's all this stuff that's
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underneath the streets.
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The water, the storm drains, and the
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sanitary lines, those all
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need to be engineered so
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that they're all going to accommodate
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what they need to do, as
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well as things that are
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above ground.
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We work with the fire
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department, the police department.
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We built two fire stations in the last
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four or five years, Fire
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Station 4 and Fire Station
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8.
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The engineering department was totally
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involved in doing that.
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Any city facilities that need to be
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redone, constructed, or
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added, or new facilities,
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the engineering department's involved in
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any kind of design
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and construction that's
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going on in the city outside of whatever
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the developers are doing.
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The developers are doing projects.
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We get involved in those projects such
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that we review how that
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is going to interface with
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the existing city's infrastructure, like
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the land that they're
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using, what improvements
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they're doing to the street, what types
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of tie-ins that they
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need to do to our utility
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systems, are they going to put in new
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street lighting, are
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they going to landscape?
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There's all those kinds of things that
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need to be looked at.
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As far as anything horizontal from a
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developer project, if
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they're going to build a 10-story
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building, we want to look at how is that
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going to fit in with
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the current infrastructure
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that's around that so that it'll work and
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won't create a problem when it's all said
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and done.
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Sometimes that can also be challenging,
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but we, again, we want
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to look at how do we solve
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those kinds of problems.
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What do we need to do to be proactive?
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What do we need to do to be practical,
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reasonable about how we can
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make all of this work such
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that it's going to be a benefit to the
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city and its residents in the long run?
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That's really what we focus on.
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Fantastic.
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How can people learn about the various
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projects that are underway right now?
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Well, we have a number of capital
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projects that we're managing.
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We do have a website, the current website
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has a capital improvement program page on
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that that you can look up any of the
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projects that we're working on right now.
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That's easily accessible to the public,
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and they can learn
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about those projects then.
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At the time of our recording here, how
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many projects are underway?
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There's approximately about 30 to 35
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projects currently underway.
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That's about the average that we've been
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actually completing on a yearly basis.
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Excuse me, I should say there's about 30
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to 35 projects that
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we'll complete this year,
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but there's really about 50 projects that
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are actually underway.
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Some of them span more than one year.
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Not everything can be completed in six
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months or 12 months.
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Sometimes it takes 24 to be
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able to complete a project.
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You guys are involved in the growth of
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the city, the
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development of the city on a level
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where a lot of people don't see.
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You're dealing with subterranean
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projects, infrastructure
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that's under the ground, the
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roads themselves.
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Yeah, we have all these tall, shiny
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buildings, but the basis of all that
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support and supplying
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and supporting those
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buildings belong in your own.
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Yes, they do.
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Again, if there is some enhancement that
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we want to be able to
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move forward with, like
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a streetscape project, we also want to
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look at, hey, what are
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the utilities conditions?
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Do we need to replace, repair, improve
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the line sanitary sewer
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lines or upgrade the storm
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drain or the water mains?
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Before we do the surface improvements, we
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want to make sure that
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there's a synergy between
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those two elements.
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Let's fix what's underneath the ground
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before we spend a bunch of money
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improving everything
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on top.
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Or if there is a utility project that's
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prioritized as far as getting that
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replaced or repaired,
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what can we do to enhance, make the
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surface improvements afterwards better?
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If it's a utility issue or if it's a
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streetscape project, we
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want to make sure that those
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two things are together such that we make
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the improvements both
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underground and above
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ground so that they all meet up in the
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end so that it's not
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going to create a problem
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in the near future.
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We expect it to be like that for another
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20 years before we'd
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ever have to do anything
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with it or more, honestly.
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A lot of the utilities in the city are
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sometimes over 50 years old.
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They're fine, but if we're going to go do
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some sort of a
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project in that location, we
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may need to look at possibly replacing
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those with new facilities.
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Pre-empt to fix before it fails.
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We also may disturb something such that
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we may need to replace
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that if we're going to
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get ... As long as it's underground,
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nobody's touching it, and
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water's flowing through it,
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it's fine.
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Once you dig a hole and you expose it,
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sometimes it's susceptibility to
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potential damage and
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things like that is increasing.
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We have to account for that when we plan
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what we're going to be
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doing on these projects.
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We've talked a couple of times today
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about your involvement in
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planning for transportation.
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Let's go ... Let's visit that again
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because one of the
10:19:44
things that everyone will talk
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about in West Palm Beach is as we grow,
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the challenges of managing
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traffic, keeping traffic,
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moving becomes greater and greater.
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What are we doing today to help solve
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those problems tomorrow?
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There are requirements for when any kind
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of development is going
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to come up that we look
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at what the traffic impacts are going to
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be for that project.
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It's going to create a number of trips.
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Trip generation is what we call that.
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It's like there's going to be so many
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people coming and
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going from that facility.
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We want to look at how that impacts the
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current level of service
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on the streets that are
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going to and from that project, how that
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impacts the surrounding areas.
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There's a number of factors that are
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included in those traffic
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studies that we review to
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determine if it's going to be acceptable
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for the capacity of the
10:20:43
roadway system that we
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currently have.
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We're also looking at adding to that and
10:20:49
including in that,
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what are the pedestrian
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and bicycle facilities that we may need
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to also include in our
10:21:00
evaluation of how that's
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going to work.
10:21:02
That's part of the whole mobility plan
10:21:04
that we're currently
10:21:05
undertaking to be able to
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see that it isn't just cars.
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It's also people and bikes that we also
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need to accommodate.
10:21:16
That aspect of it is something that we
10:21:20
look at based on how
10:21:23
many units are going to be
10:21:24
in a building and how many people are
10:21:27
going to be coming and
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going from that and how they're
10:21:29
going to be able to do that.
10:21:30
We want to try to promote public transit,
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other means of getting
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in and out of a facility
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other than just driving
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a car and parking a car.
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There's other ways of doing that.
10:21:45
We have a whole workforce housing program
10:21:47
going on in the city where we want people
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to live downtown and work downtown.
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There's a big push for that to continue.
10:21:58
I think that that's very effective
10:21:59
because then they're not on the streets.
10:22:04
They're walking on the sidewalk or
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they're riding a bike to
10:22:07
work or whatever they need
10:22:08
to do.
10:22:09
It really does help.
10:22:11
It's an evolutionary process.
10:22:13
It's not like something we're just going
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to change overnight.
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We have that vision and that focus where
10:22:19
we want to have this implemented.
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We keep that in mind every time we look
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at whatever
10:22:25
development project may be coming
10:22:28
up so that we can see how that is going
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to work in that way.
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As you move forward, how do
10:22:34
residents become involved?
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Do they have a voice?
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How can they talk to you about their
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ideas on what you're doing?
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Residents are very, very important.
10:22:42
I don't think we want to do anything
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without having the
10:22:45
residents involved in what project
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we want to undertake.
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We do have a whole community engagement
10:22:52
process that the city
10:22:54
uses, the BERT process.
10:22:58
If we have a project plan, we want to go
10:23:02
meet with the community.
10:23:03
We want to get their input.
10:23:04
We want to get their feedback.
10:23:06
We want to get their ideas on ... We're
10:23:08
planning on doing ... We
10:23:10
want to modify this street.
10:23:11
We want to put bicycle lanes on it.
10:23:15
We want to landscape, replace the street
10:23:17
lighting, upgrade the road
10:23:21
surface and things like that.
10:23:23
How that impacts the community and what
10:23:26
wants and desires that
10:23:30
they may have that we could
10:23:32
possibly include in that project.
10:23:34
We want to get their consensus ultimately
10:23:36
that we're going to
10:23:37
move forward with this
10:23:38
project.
10:23:40
Then they're behind it.
10:23:41
They support it.
10:23:42
Whenever you do a construction project,
10:23:44
there's always going to
10:23:45
be a lot of inconveniences
10:23:48
for people.
10:23:49
You're going to be shutting down lanes.
10:23:51
There's going to be a lot of barrels and
10:23:55
dirt and everything like that.
10:23:58
It's kind of messy when you try to keep
10:23:59
that under control, obviously.
10:24:02
The inconvenience that's going to be
10:24:03
experienced during the
10:24:04
construction phase of it, we want
10:24:07
them to be on board with what we're doing
10:24:09
from the beginning so
10:24:10
that, yes, we're going
10:24:12
to need to break some eggs or we're going
10:24:13
to make a beautiful omelet when we're all
10:24:14
finished.
10:24:16
It's going to be delicious.
10:24:17
That's really what
10:24:18
we're trying to achieve.
10:24:20
Just speaking metaphorically, I think
10:24:22
that that's kind of how it works.
10:24:25
It's very, very important to have the
10:24:27
community's input on the
10:24:28
projects that we're doing so
10:24:30
that when they see somebody out there
10:24:33
working on something,
10:24:34
they're not surprised and they
10:24:36
anticipate this.
10:24:38
We really make a very strong effort to be
10:24:44
able to keep the
10:24:46
public informed about what
10:24:48
it is that we are going to be doing and
10:24:51
that it's going to be
10:24:52
what they expected it to
10:24:54
be based on the public meetings that we
10:24:57
had with them previously.
10:24:58
When it does happen, they
10:24:59
go, "Hey, this is great."
10:25:01
The Banyan project that we just finished
10:25:03
a couple years ago,
10:25:04
there was a lot of community
10:25:05
outreach on that.
10:25:07
There was a lot of
10:25:07
inconvenience with that project.
10:25:10
It was under construction for two years
10:25:12
and getting in and out
10:25:15
of downtown was a little
10:25:16
bit more cumbersome during that process,
10:25:18
but now that it's
10:25:18
finished, it's like, "Oh, this
10:25:19
is beautiful."
10:25:20
It is an absolutely wonderful project.
10:25:24
You can go from downtown to Australian
10:25:27
Avenue in a much more
10:25:28
pleasant experience than you
10:25:30
were before we did the project and, of
10:25:33
course, obviously during
10:25:34
the project, but it really
10:25:35
turned out nice.
10:25:37
That's what we want to be able to achieve
10:25:39
is something that's going to be really an
10:25:42
enhancement to people's experience, to
10:25:44
people's daily encounter
10:25:47
with the city of West Palm
10:25:49
Beach.
10:25:50
Either they're coming in and out of the
10:25:51
city of West Palm Beach
10:25:52
or they live here and they
10:25:54
need to go someplace within the city.
10:25:56
We want to be able to have those
10:25:57
accommodations for them so that it's a
10:25:59
more pleasurable experience.
10:26:01
There's a lot of areas in the city that
10:26:03
need attention, that we
10:26:05
want to be able to plan
10:26:07
for possible
10:26:09
enhancements to those locations.
10:26:13
It's really a long-term process for us to
10:26:20
be able to eventually
10:26:21
get to all those things,
10:26:22
but there's not any section
10:26:23
of the city that's forgotten.
10:26:26
This has been incredibly educational.
10:26:29
I've learned a lot just now about what
10:26:31
you guys do in great depth.
10:26:34
You guys are truly the
10:26:36
doorway to the future.
10:26:38
You guys are plowing the future where we
10:26:41
have proper support and
10:26:42
proper infrastructure for
10:26:44
a growing community.
10:26:45
This is an opportunity right now for you
10:26:47
to ... Is there a message
10:26:49
that you have for residents,
10:26:51
something you'd really
10:26:52
like to share with them?
10:26:54
We receive comments from residents
10:26:59
through our WPP key site.
10:27:01
Sometimes we get phone
10:27:02
calls about certain things.
10:27:03
They're asking like,
10:27:04
"Hey, my street's flooding.
10:27:07
When is my road going to get paved?"
10:27:10
We just undertook a whole pavement
10:27:14
condition indexing
10:27:16
program where we assessed all of
10:27:18
the roadway pavement and sidewalk
10:27:22
conditions throughout the
10:27:23
city that were still in the
10:27:25
process of evaluating all of that data
10:27:29
that was collected to
10:27:30
assign a pavement condition
10:27:33
indexing number towards that so that we
10:27:36
can prioritize the areas
10:27:37
where this is the worst
10:27:39
condition that we need to focus on first,
10:27:42
as opposed to it's between zero and 100.
10:27:44
We want to look at things that are below
10:27:46
70, but if it's in
10:27:48
the 40s or 50s, we want
10:27:50
to look at that first and see, "We need
10:27:52
to go plan a project
10:27:53
to go repay that road."
10:27:55
When we do that, we also have to upgrade
10:27:58
all of the American
10:28:03
Disabilities Act's ADA requirements
10:28:05
for all of the curb ramps
10:28:07
at all of the crosswalks.
10:28:08
Those all have to be brought up to code.
10:28:10
If there's issues with the curbs along
10:28:12
the street, we need to
10:28:13
address that as well.
10:28:15
We can't just go pave a road without
10:28:16
addressing those things too.
10:28:18
We have to put together all of the design
10:28:20
plans and everything like that to be able
10:28:22
to go forward with doing those projects.
10:28:25
We expect that our pavement condition
10:28:28
indexing assessment
10:28:30
report is going to be available
10:28:32
to us by the end of this year or sooner,
10:28:34
and then we will start
10:28:36
working on prioritizing
10:28:37
the areas that we want to go focus on.
10:28:40
Now, a paving project is going to be
10:28:43
related to that PCI that
10:28:45
we're going to develop,
10:28:47
but sometimes, again, like I said, there
10:28:49
may be utility needs
10:28:50
that need to happen or plan
10:28:54
streetscapes or some other factor that
10:28:58
might necessitate us
10:29:00
having to go work on road work
10:29:03
on another area
10:29:04
because of some other factor.
10:29:06
It isn't all just a pavement condition,
10:29:08
even though that's a
10:29:09
very high priority as far
10:29:11
as what roads we're going to plan on
10:29:14
working on, but there's
10:29:16
other factors involved, like
10:29:17
I said, utility work streetscape projects
10:29:20
that are coming up
10:29:21
that also need focus on
10:29:23
them as well.
10:29:24
Let me jump back because you said
10:29:26
something early on that I
10:29:28
think we need to talk about.
10:29:29
You mentioned WPB Key as a way for
10:29:32
residents to communicate with you, to
10:29:34
give you information,
10:29:35
a way for you to converse back.
10:29:39
Let's talk about that.
10:29:40
Now, that's a mobile app, is it not?
10:29:42
Yeah, it is.
10:29:43
You can access that and you can put in
10:29:48
all the information and then
10:29:49
we get those notifications,
10:29:52
we email notifications of those on a
10:29:54
daily basis, and we
10:29:56
have to go look at what the
10:29:57
comments or the questions or the concerns
10:29:59
are so that we can
10:30:01
respond back like, "Hey,
10:30:05
we're going to look at this, it may be in
10:30:06
progress, or this is what we're planning
10:30:08
on doing about this."
10:30:11
Well, that's really neat.
10:30:12
Communicate that and then go do it and
10:30:13
basically resolve
10:30:14
that issue for the folks.
10:30:15
That's WPB Key.
10:30:17
Yes.
10:30:17
It's a mobile app, if not mistaken, you
10:30:19
can get it for Android and for iPhone.
10:30:23
It's a great way for someone to open a
10:30:26
discussion with you guys.
10:30:27
Exactly.
10:30:27
Yes, it is.
10:30:28
That's fantastic.
10:30:30
Some of these things are not surprising.
10:30:31
We see that there is an issue and
10:30:33
sometimes we don't drive
10:30:35
over every square inch of
10:30:37
the city all the time, so it's nice that
10:30:39
they'll be able to
10:30:39
communicate, "Hey, there's a concern
10:30:41
you have in this area
10:30:42
that maybe we didn't notice."
10:30:44
It's really very helpful for us to know
10:30:46
where we need to look at.
10:30:49
Again, the entire city is a canvas that
10:30:53
we need to look at
10:30:55
when somebody points to a
10:30:56
specific spot.
10:30:57
We have to be able to
10:30:59
ascertain what the problem is.
10:31:04
We're thankful that they're able to point
10:31:08
those things out to us
10:31:10
that we wouldn't have
10:31:10
noticed otherwise.
10:31:12
We can go address those things
10:31:14
accordingly and hopefully
10:31:16
take care of that situation
10:31:17
satisfactorily such that it's going to
10:31:20
resolve the problem that
10:31:21
they brought up to begin
10:31:22
with.
10:31:23
Kevin, you have a team that's involved in
10:31:26
solving problems and
10:31:28
planning for a future
10:31:29
in the city of West Palm Beach, which is
10:31:32
going to be bountiful and
10:31:33
beautiful and well supplied
10:31:36
with everything that the
10:31:36
residents need going forward.
10:31:39
That's a big, big job.
10:31:40
You guys do a great, great job at it.
10:31:43
Yes.
10:31:44
We're not going to solve every problem.
10:31:45
We're not going to satisfy everybody.
10:31:47
We're not going to make
10:31:48
100% of the people happy.
10:31:50
What we really want to make the majority
10:31:52
of people satisfied
10:31:54
that what we do is for
10:31:56
the good of the city and for the
10:31:59
residents and for just the
10:32:01
overall enjoyment of living
10:32:03
in this town and coming to this town.
10:32:06
It's a wonderful place to work.
10:32:09
The team effort that we have here in the
10:32:14
city of West Palm Beach,
10:32:16
all the way from the mayor,
10:32:17
the city administrator, to the various
10:32:20
departments, that we work with all of
10:32:23
those to help address
10:32:27
issues and solve problems that need some
10:32:30
sort of a technical
10:32:31
expertise and a design plan,
10:32:35
et cetera, to be able to go make an
10:32:37
improvement or an
10:32:39
enhancement that has a very high level
10:32:43
of desire from the community.
10:32:45
It's very, very rewarding.
10:32:47
The sense of accomplishment that we have
10:32:49
on a daily basis is
10:32:51
just a tremendous reward
10:32:54
for being able to work here
10:32:55
for the city of West Palm Beach.
10:32:56
I just love it.
10:32:59
It's really enjoyable.
10:33:00
It's obvious that you
10:33:01
enjoy your work, Kevin.
10:33:03
Thank you very much for everything you do
10:33:04
for the city and
10:33:05
thanks to your great team
10:33:07
for building our future
10:33:09
here in West Palm Beach.
10:33:10
All right.
10:33:11
Well, thank you very much.
10:33:12
And thank you for
10:33:13
listening to today's discussion.
10:33:15
If you enjoyed the show, please like and
10:33:17
subscribe to see more of our content.
10:33:19
The City Center podcast is produced by
10:33:21
the City of West Palm Beach
10:33:22
Communications Department.
10:33:23
I'm Jerry Marcello.
10:33:25
We'll see you next time.