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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-09-20041225 Main Street [] Sebastian, Florida 32958 Telephone (772) 589-5330 ~] Fax (772) 889-5570 City Council Information Letter Special Thursday Evening Edition September 9, 2004 Public Property Dama,qe Resulting from Hurricane Frances As some of you are aware, the City of Sebastian began assessments of public property damage resulting from Hurricane Frances early Sunday afternoon. I am pleased to report that no major structural problems have been declared imminent for various municipal facilities. However, every municipal building (as was the case for numerous business and residential units in the community) has sustained minimal to moderate damage. Notable adverse impacts included lose of roof shingles and fascia board, ceiling leakage, uprooted trees/vegetation and fallen decorative street pole lamps (Indian River Drive). Unfortunately, the aforementioned experiences at Sebastian Municipal Golf Course will result in the City of Sebastian having to close the facility for the remainder of the month, with plans to reopen Friday October 1st to mark the beginning of the 2004/2005 season. As of earlier this week, Once Source, Inc. has been working diligently to engage restoration, cleanup and maintenance activities at the golf course in a serious effort to meet this timeframe. As far as new facilities currently under construction, neither the new city hall building nor the police station has sustained problems. Other than a lose of a few tile roof shingles and a side door that was detached from city hall, structural integrity remained sound, so much so that project managers from Suffolk Construction are confident that they will be able to resume substantive construction activities next week. As such, I truly feel that we are fortunate that respective issues are not as severe as they could have been. Repairs and maintenance to affected areas now underway will assist City Council Information Letter September 9, 2004 Page 2 efforts in resuming normal project and program management directives in the coming days accordingly. Federal Emer.qency Mana.qement Aqency and Florida Lea.qu. of Cities Insurance Assessment Proces~ My office hosted meetings on both Wednesday and this afternoon with representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in an effort to initiate claims and assessments regarding emergency response activities in the City of Sebastian. All departments providing essential response services to the community, as well as contractors commissioned by the City of Sebastian to assist with respective clean up efforts since the passing of the storm last weekend are therefore working diligently to compile preliminary estimates necessary to engage FEMA's financial assistance process. FEMA Public Assistance Coordinator Mr. Joe Andre and his staff have been assigned to work with the City of Sebastian for this purpose. As a State of Emergency declaration is being formally made, authorization to proceed with reimbursement activities has also been granted. Respective recommendations (via revenue and expenditure line items adjustments) will be forwarded to City Council during the course of the next several months - via quarterly budget amendment recommendations and other public reporting mechanisms. Assistance from AshBritt Environmental Services, Inc. Please be advised that the City of Sebastian has enacted its contract with AshBritt Environmental Services, Inc. to assist with debris cleadng in right- of-way and other public areas of the community. Based in Pompano Beach, Broward County, Florida, AshBritt Environmental is one of the four companies authorized by City Council three months ago to provide respective emergency clean up and other services on an as needed basis in the event of a disaster such as what was experienced with Hurricane Frances over the weekend. A necessary coordination session took place Wednesday afternoon to engage service activities accordingly. Crews from AshBritt therefore began mobilizing in the City of Sebastian earlier today. As such, respective debris removal arrangements, supplemented by staff in the Department of Public Works, have been initiated. This process will obviously take a considerable amount of time to conclude (perhaps the next City Council Information Letter September 9, 2004 Page 3 few weeks or so), as numerous residents and business owners have already began storage activities accordingly. Resumption of Normal Municipal Services As discussed during this morning's Sebastian Management Team meeting, the remainder of the month of September (and possibly early October) will be devoted primarily to clean up and restoration activities accordingly. As such, additional flexibility is being offered to various private sector partners who provide communitywide services in Sebastian. For instance, although Waste Management, Inc. has resumed garbage collection activities this past Tuesday, additional hours of operation have been extended to assist with larger amounts of solid waste collection. Although our franchise agreement governs a Monday through Friday schedule of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., service will begin circa 6 a.m. to conclude one to three hours after 5 p.m. In addition, Wednesday and Saturday have been designated as "make up days" - to collect waste that may have been missed as a result of higher than normal waste loads experienced after the storm. This schedule is anticipated to last until the end of next week, with normal service timeframes anticipated to begin during the week of September 20th. This will include both recycling and yard waste collection activities to resume Wednesday, September 22nd. As far as cable television service, my office has also been in contact with executives from Comcast Cable relative to damage assessments of Sebastian facilities and status of service resumption. As referenced in the attached electronic mail message from company Vice President of Government and Community Affairs Klay Fennell, cable infrastructure in our community has suffered significant damage as well, notably the building structure and communication and transmission dishes that allows distribution of programming to Sebastian customers. These facilities will probably take several weeks to prepare. Fortunately however, arrangements are being made to direct Vero Beach area cable channel programming to Sebastian and the North Indian River County Area. This arrangement will temporarily offer a different television line-up otherwise not broadcasted in this vicinity for the next few weeks or so. The Vero Beach area transmission will begin immediately after electrical utility restoration has been completed in the area. As far as Florida, Power and Light (FPL), after numerous attempts throughout the week to ascertain substantive information regarding City Council Information Letter September 9, 2004 Page 4 approximate dates and times for resumption of electricity service in our community, I was able to make contact with representatives of the Florida Public Service Commission. I spoke with Bureau Chief of Safety Mr. Edward Mills late Thursday afternoon. He informed me that 100% service to Indian River County was to be realized by midnight Thursday, September 16th, with all of the Treasure Coast and Okeechobee County to be restored by late evening Sunday, September 19th. This information is expected to also be made available publicly this evening via FPL's automated customer service telephone line. However, a noticeable increase in FPL vehicles and equipment was finally realized in Sebastian on Thursday, sparking hope that this presence will greatly assist in restoration response time. The City of Sebastian is also making available public staging areas to FPL crews and contractors involved in utility line repairs and other related activities. Our community should therefore soon be in better shape overall because of these arrangements. Enclosure(s]: Electronic Mail Message - KJayton Fenneli, Comcast Cable - Hurricane Recoven/Update Terrence Moore From: Sent: To: Cc: Subject: Fennell, Klayton F [Klayton_Fennell@cable.comcastcom] Thursday, September 09, 2004 3:25 PM 'tmoore@cityofsebastian.org' Irby, Shawn; Kinsley, JonJ FW: Comcast Hurricane Recovery Update - Treasure Coast (sent on behalf of Klayton Fennell) Importance: High I'm sorry, I missed your return call. On behalf of Joni Kinsley, our VP/GM for the Treasure Coast, I wanted to check-in with you and see how you, the City's employees, and the City itself is doing post Frances. Please know that my thoughts have been with you all. We also wanted to update you re: our facilities and operations in Sebastian. Ail of our employees are safe. Our facilities in Sebastian suffered significant damage; the building structure of our head-end as well as the dishes and other equipment that allows us to distribute prograzmning to our customers in Sebastian, Fellsmere and a portion of Indian River County. * However, we have an interim solution to ensure that customers are able to view programming once their power is restored, and/or power is restored to the facilities that sends the signal along the path to the customer's home. The interim solution is that our customers in Sebastian, Fellsmere and the portion of Indian River County that is fed from Sebastian, will temporarily receive their programming from our Vero Beach head-end, which means that these customers will see a different line-up than they typically do. I attach the Veto Beach line-up for you. This interim solution will ensure that customers continue to have access to cable services. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Best regards, Klay Klayton F. Fennell Vice President, Government & Coramunity Affairs Comcast Cable - South Florida Region TEL: 954.534.7456 EFAX: 954.252.3762 EMAIL: klayton_fennell@cab!e.comcast.com Statement of Confidentiality The information contained in this electronic message and any attachments to this message are intended for the exclusive use of the addressee(s) and may contain confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify Klayton Fennell, Comcast, iramediately at either (954) 534-7456, or at klayton_fennell@cable.comcast.com and destroy all copies of this message and any attachments.