HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Minutes - 2019-01-18 SSPECIAL COUNCIL MINUTES
JANUARY 18, 2019 CITY OF KITCHENER
A special meeting of City Council was held at 1:00 p.m. this date, chaired by Mayor B. Vrbanovic with
all members present; except Councillors J. Gazzola, B. loannidis, and K. Galloway-Sealock.
Notice of this meeting had been previously given to all members of Council by the City Clerk pursuant
to Chapter 25 (Council Procedure) of the Municipal Code.
For the purposes of this meeting, Mr. Dan Chapman was delegated authority to serve in the capacity
of Deputy Clerk.
1. CAPITAL INFRASTRUCTURE TOUR
The purpose of the meeting this date was to conduct an awareness -building informational bus tour of
some of the City's 2019 Budget Themes which commenced from City Hall (200 King Street West) and
was led by Jonathan Lautenbach, Chief Financial Officer. In addition, members received an Information
Package, which included a map of the tour locations and highlighted various aspects of the tour
locations.
The bus tour included a visit to the following water infrastructure locations:
• Carl Zehr Square at 200 King Street West;
• Iron Horse Trail at the West Ave trail access point;
• Queens Boulevard at the intersection of Queens Blvd and Belmont Ave;
• Huron & Strasburg Road at the intersection of Huron and Strasburg Road; and,
• Kitchener Operations Facility at 131 Goodrich Drive.
Carl Zehr Square — Mr. J. Readman, General Manager, Development Services, and Ms. D. McGoldrick,
General Manager, Infrastructure Services, explained capital improvements to the City Hall Outdoor
space has an estimated budget of $8.8M, and involves upgrading 25 year old infrastructure in two
phases beginning 2020.
Iron Horse Trail — Ms. A. Dewitt, Landscape Architect, gave an overview of the planned improvements
to the Iron Horse Trail. She explained the improvements would cost an estimated $1.1 M which includes
replacement of the Trestle Bridge and lighting the trail. She noted construction of the new bridge would
begin in 2019.
Queens Boulevard — Mr. A McCrimmon-Jones, Manager, Transportation Planning, spoke about
improving cycling infrastructure within the City in 2019. He highlighted $800K has been budgeted for
protected bike lands and 5km of cycling infrastructure which will support a connected cycling network.
Huron & Strasburg Road — Mr. B. Cronkite, Director, Transportation Services, noted additional
improvements to the City's Cycling Infrastructure by highlighting the construction of the first Dutch
roundabout in Canada. He explained Dutch roundabouts help promote safe cycling and has traffic
calming benefits. He further noted the budget estimate is $200k and construction would begin in 2019.
Councillors D. Schnider and C. Michaud joined the tour at this time.
Kitchener Operations Facility - Mr. J. Edmondson, Manager, Facilities Management, and Mr. A.
TenBruggencate, Facilitator, Corporate Emergency Preparedness, conducted a walking tour of the
Kitchener Operations Facility which highlighted the following investments contained in the 2019 budget:
• Increasing the City's use of alternative fuel ($72K investment in Biodiesel fuel to reduce Green
House Gas emissions);
• Enhancing the City's Environmental Sustainability ($400K revolving fund for various projects
with a 2-7 year payback, such as LED Lighting, Geothermal, and Solar Roof);
• Improving Citizens Online Customer Service Experience (developing a customer service portal
that will need to be integrated with the City's current CRM system); and,
• Maintaining the City's water, stormwater and sanitary infrastructure (start addressing the
maintenance gam and conducting proactive maintenance and inspection to prolong life of City's
assets).
SPECIAL COUNCIL MINUTES
JANUARY 18, 2019 -9-
On motion the meeting adjourned at 12:46 p.m.
MAYOR CL K
CITY OF KITCHENER