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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Minutes 10.20.1998 MINU'TI S OF THE CITY COU'N(IL OF LAURI L October 20, 1998 A regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Laurel, Montana, was held in the Council Chambers and called to order by Mayor Chuck Rodgers at 7:00 p.m. on October 20, 1998. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Dirk Kroll Gary Temple Ken Olson Miles Walton Gay Easton Norman Orr Bill Staudinger Bud Johnson COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: None MINUTES: Motion by Alderman Walton to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of October 6, 1998, as presented, seconded by Alderman Orr. Motion carried. CONSENT ITEMS: a. Clerk/Treasurer Financial Statements for the month of September. b. Correspondence Landfill Users Summit Agenda- October 14, 1998 Laurel City School Task Force Agenda - October 28, 1998 Montana Department of Commerce - Laurel Volunteer Fire Department Relief Association Fund The mayor asked if there was any separation of consent items. There was none. Motion by Alderman Walton to approve the consent items as presented, seconded by Alderman Kroll. Motion carried. SCHEDULED MATTERS: a. Confirmation of Appointments. Police Officer: Mayor Rodgers appointed Jay Hatton as a police officer for the City of Laurel, effective November 4, 1998, with a one-year probationary period. Motion by Alderman Kroll to confirm the appointment of Jay Hatton as a police officer for the City of Laurel, effective November 4, 1998, for a one-year probationary period, seconded by Alderman Orr. Motion carried. b. Committee Reports. --Budget/Finance Committee minutes of October 6, 1998 were presented. --City Council Committee of the Whole minutes of October 6, 1998 were presented. --Public Utilities Committee minutes of October 19, 1998 were presented. Motion bv Alderman Johnson to enter the committee minutes into the record, seconded by Alderman Temple. Motion carried. c. Update of projects - Dave Mosser, Morrison-Maierle. Dave Mosser presented a status report on the water line and water treatment plant projects. He reported that Gray Construction is nearing the completion of the water line installation. Their original contract completion date was October 12th and their revised completion date was to be Tuesday, October 20th. They will be overrunning their contract time period a slight amount. They Council Minutes of October 20, 1998 recently indicated that, due to various line problems and discrepancies that were found in the ground, they might request an additional time extension. The piping should be completed by Wednesday, October 21st. The disinfection testing of the water line will then begin and the use of the temporary water line should be finished by next week. The paving shotrid be finished by the end of this week or the beginning of next week. Another two weeks will involve final cleanup, seeding and replacement of concrete. The major disruption to traffic should be over by the end of this week. Dave Mosser stated that Morrison-Maierle has incurred an additional 100 to 140 hours for the on- site inspector. Much of this expense will fail under the liquidated damage clause of the contractor. They have not currently made any requests for any claims, and they will wait to see how the budget fails out for any time extensions. Gray Construction's budget should be very close to the contract amount, plus or minus $10,000. Completion of the Water Treatment Plant is scheduled for January 24, 1999. Looking at their original schedule, they are about four to six weeks behind schedule. They have been submitting updated schedules and are trying to get themselves back on schedule. They are projecting to have the buildings done by the first part of December. There will be certain pieces of equipment, such as the pumps, that have sixteen to eighteen week delivery periods and will not be delivered until January 1999. Dave estimates that completion of the Water Treatment Plant will be in February 1999. Dave distributed a summary of change order requests for the Water Treatment Plant. The contractor has requested fifteen change orders. He explained that some of the requests are included in the contract and no payment will be made for those. There are other requests that have justification, and he will compile the information and make recommendations to Larry McCann. Ken Olson asked for clarification regarding line item #12 of the change order requests. The issue was "change motor starters on backwash pumps and upgrade new building service to 600 amps." The anmunt requested was $13,218.00 with a first request of $34,186.00. Dave said that there was a discrepancy between the project plans and the project specifications. The specifications specified the motors on the backwash pumps to be 75 horsepower, but they were shown to be only 40 horsepower. This presented some problems and originally they had requested $34,186. After a review with the electrical contractor, they changed their request to $13,218.00. Miles Walton asked for an explanation of the rock excavation. About $40,000 of the change orders can be attributed to rock excavation. The contract showed the existence of the shaie in that area. A clause in the contract addresses concerns regarding inflation of the bid if the rock meets a certain strength. The contractor has not yet provided the information necessary to justify their request. Dave said that the contractor should have anticipated the problem with the rock. They have used a large backhoe to remove most of the rock, and ajackhammer was used near the buildings. Dave will compare their records with that of the contractor and this will be presented for future review. d. Big Brothers and Sisters - Jackie Kimbrough. Jackie Kimbrough said that Big Brothers and Sisters chose to do their United Way Day of Caring Project in Laurel. She thanked Billy Johnson for his help in organizing the project. They painted over the graffiti that was on the restrooms and concession stand at the ballpark. Several youth from Billings and Laurel and the Senior Student Council members participated in the project. Jackie mentioned that Big Brothers and Sisters is trying to become more active in the Laurel community. There are some Laurel children on their waiting list. A couples match and a Big Sister match have been made. A Big Brother is just starting on the program and they are currently trying to match thirteen-year-old twin boys. Jackie distributed a brochure about the Big Brothers and Sisters Program to the council members. The council recessed at 7:20 p.m. to allow Chris Dimock to set up his presentation on the Internet. The council meeting resumed at 7:27 p.m. e. Chris Dimock - Western Technology Partners (30-minute presentation). Western Technology Partners is a Billings-based Internet service provider. Chris Dimock gave a presentation at the August 4, 1998, council meeting and mentioned that he was working on a web Council Minutes of October 20, 1998 site for the City of Billings. Since that meeting, he has completed the first phase of the web site for the City of Billings. He explained what they have done with that web site to help the City of Billings get information out to the public, as well as to get feedback from the public back to the city council and the city govemmeut. The web site presents the City of Billings. One of the problems that was perceived in Billings was that no one actually sold the City of Billings. It was not addressed on the Interact as a business destination, a vacation destination or a home for families. The new web site provides information showing why people chose to live in this region, the economic development opportunities, and some other general information. The web site has a specific link for city government. There is an on-line city council site, which is not available to the public. It is set up so that the council members can download the city council agenda and any supporting documents. Council members can also upload any information that they want to give to be distributed. There are pages for individual city council members so that they can communicate with constituents. E-mail can be sent to the council members and replies can be sent directly to the public. The City of Billings has begun to put permit information online. Residents have conm~ented that the permitting process is too slow. They recently put four different fom~s online. Applicants print the forms on their own printer, fill them oat, and take them to the appropriate department. The next step in the process will be to fill them out online, but their Planning Department is not set up to receive the information yet. The third step will be to make the process interactive so that the complete process could be done electronically. The City of Billings web site address is: ci.billings.mt.us. The web site provides basic statistics such as crime statistics. It includes a database which tracks historical information with year-to-date and current month information. It contains a headline facility for the main City of Billings web page, for the City Administrator's web page, the Police Department's web page, as well as one for the Public Works Department. The one-sentence headline automatically appears on the front page of the web site so that people can see it and then click to receive additional information. The city page will contain announcements of various civic events. Each department will post information regarding their particular department. The web site will soon provide a calendar of events for the City of Billings and the various departments within the city government. Another facility that has been built in, and should be released in about two weeks, is an on-line search by keyword for all city employees. For example, by typing in the words "animal control," a person would be able to find out which city employees to contact for questions or problems regarding this subject. There are other links that will provide information about the other departments. The e-mail access provides a feedback system to help improve communication between the various city government departments and the public. Having the city forms on-line will save the cost of printing forms, as people will print them from their own computers. When electronic filing of the forms is available, the only paper record would be an audit record of the filled-out application. Eventually everything would be tracked electronically. The City of Billings has just completed the first step in an ongoing process of producing their web site. The information for the city council is secure as it can only be obtained with a password. The City of Billings purchased laptop computers for each of their council members, which provides them with dial-up access to the Internet. Training was provided for the council members. They have cost- justified the laptop computers based on the savings of the anmunt of information sent out. They provide a secured mechanism to allow the city clerk to update information and upload it to be available to the council members. Chris said that having an on-line presence for a city and being able to provide basic information to people, as well as some news about pending projects, could be a very valuable resource. He stated that this would be essential five years from now, as people will demand it. Chris expressed his willingness to donate some work to get the project started. His proposal involved donating a basic five-page web site containing general information about the City of Laurel. It would include three photos per page, two brackets per page, and up to seven links off to other locations per page, as well as hosting the web site free of charge for one year. This proposal is offered to show his willingness to participate on the project. Council Minutes of October 20, 1998 As there was interest shown in the project, Mayor Rodgers suggested that a committee be formed to further investigate the information. Bud Johnson, Gary Temple, Dirk Kroll and Ken Olson will be on the conunittee. The council members were invited to view the web site that Chris created for the City of Billings after the council meeting. Change council meeting on November 3, 1998 to November 4, 1998 due to the Election Day holiday. Motion by Alderman Staudinger to change the council meeting on Tuesday, November 3, 1998, to Wednesday, November 4, 1998 due, to the Election Day holiday, seconded by Alderman Orr. Motion carried. g. Ordinance on firearms in City Hall. (First reading) ORDINANCE NO. 098-5 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF LAUREL, PROVIDING THAT THE LAUREL, MONTANA CITY CODE BE AMENDED BY ADDING A SECTION TO BE NUMBERED 2.10.110; PROHIBITING THE CARRYING OR CONCEALING OF WEAPONS, FIREARMS OR EXPLOSIVES AT CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS; PROVIDING APPROPRIATE SIGNING; ESTABLISHNG PENALTIES FOR SUCH A VIOLATION AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Motion bv Alderman Kroll to approve Ordinance No. O98-5, seconded by Alderman Johnson. A roll call vote was taken on the motion to approve Ordinance No. 098-5. All eight aldermen present voted aye. Motion carried. The second reading and public hearing for Ordinance No. O98-5 will be held at the next council meeting on Wednesday, November 4, 1998. UNSCHEDULED MATTERS: Rick Musson was contacted by Keith Hayne, a representative of Community Safety Net and Gateway Safety Net Publications, regarding a program on drags. The program uses a book, Drug Safety, to inform children in the fourth through seventh grades about drugs. This progrmn would be funded by business people in town who agree to purchase a specific number of books for a certain dollar amount. This is another project that goes beyond D.A.R.E. to help with the drug problem. Rick suggested that a parent who has a problem regarding drugs with a child could also use this information to deal with it. Rick estimated that the breakdown for funding for the project is about $9.00 per student. He had an appointment to accompany Keith Hayne on Wednesday, October 21st, to speak to business people as he presented the program. This progran~ has been used in the past, but its success depends on the amount of sales that are made in Laurel. A specific donation would purchase a specific number of books. Since the program had been used in the past, Rick decided to try it again to have the books available for educational purposes. The books would be distributed to the students or the parents and could be used in various ways. There was some question regarding whether the City of Laurel was promoting a specific business by allowing Rick to accompany this salesman while selling the books. Mayor Rodgers questioned whether we could accomplish the same goal by budgeting for this purpose and avoiding paying an advertiser. Gary Temple stated that fundraising for the books should involve more than just going to the business community every time. Gary was approached about it and thinks that a more diversified approach should be used to fund the project. After a discussion about the pros and cons of this particular situation, it was suggested that the council cannot tell someone how to do business or tell the local business people how they should respond. Rick mentioned that if he had not endorsed the program, Keith Hayne would not be in town fight now. Rick endorsed the letter that is being shown to the businessmen. Miles suggested Council Minutes of October 20, 1998 that Rick is supporting the idea, not necessarily the person presenting it. Ken Olson asked Joe Leckic what the city's obligation would be to another vendor who offered a similar product. Joe responded that the council as a whole cannot endorse a specific product, but Rick, as a private individual, can do so. Gary Temple suggested that the letter was more a letter of introduction than an endorsement of a specific product. It was agreed that there is no problem with using the program, but the question is regarding the city's endorsement of it. The question was asked whether or not Keith Hayne has purchased a business license to do business in Laurel. Bud suggested that two positive things have come out of the situation. Rick would be making contact with the public and he would be doing it in a positive forum. We have come together and agreed that there is a definite drug and alcohol problem in Laurel. Even though sometimes good intentions do not work out well, Bud thinks this started out with good intent. If further study reveals that we do not want to do this particular thing again, the decision can be made in the future. The letter is out, the program has been initiated, and the materials have been used in the past without any ill effects. Bud emphasized that the positive aspects of the situation should be considered. The council agreed that they would be supporting the concept of helping kids and parents identify drug problems by using this booklet, regardless of how it is funded. Miles suggested getting the support of the business, educational and religious communities to help buy more of these books. Ken Olson voiced his personal support for this type of activity in L~urel. Mayor Rodgers expressed his thanks for the conm~unity support that was shown on Sunday, October 18th, following the disaster at the Laurel Cenex Refinery. An emergency disaster area was set up in the Fire Hall. When the mayor arrived, Jim Stevens already had things under control and had sent several fire trucks to the site. Thirteen Fire Department members were on the vehicles and several retired firemen were also available at the Fire Hall. Several of the newer firemen had never experienced this type of fire, but all of them did an outstanding job. Police Chief Musson held a critique with the Police Department and the Police Reserves at 10:00 p.m. Sunday night. Mayor Rodgers said that "we didn't make any mistakes, but we learned some lessons and some needs." He mentioned that a critique would be held Wednesday, October 21st, at 1:00 p.m. with the people who were involved. This includes the Highway Patrol, the SherifFs Department, Cenex, Public Works, Ambulance, and the Fire Department. The mayor mentioned that about fifty local people responded to offer their help with the disaster. Ken Olson remarked that the upper management of Cenex was impressed with the professionalism shown by all of the responding units. He stated that the Laurel Volunteer Fire Department did an excellent job and the Cenex management was pleased with them. Mayor Rodgers mentioned that the American Red Cross has designated October as Disaster Awareness Month. They hold mock demonstrations and will be having one on chemical reliefs on October 22nd in LOckwood. It was agreed that Laurel has already experienced this type of disaster. The mayor encouraged people to volunteer for the American Red Cross. Joe Leckie, a ten-year veteran of the Red Cross, is a member of the Midland Empire Chapter. They have not had any participation from Laurel in the past, but they would welcome any interested people to join and receive some disaster training. The potential effects from the recent disaster could have been overwhelming. Joe explained that the Red Cross already has people who are trained to deal with this type of disaster and they have procedures set up so that evacuations can be done quickly and efficiently. Joe encouraged interested Laurel residents to join the Red Cross, thereby enlarging the community's ability to respond to disasters. Jim Stevens said that a representative of the School District was available during the disaster. The questions of shelter, bus transportation, and meals were on Jim's mind at the time. If he had needed to do so, he would have called the Red Cross for assistance. Dirk Kroll said that, at the recent meeting in West Yellowstone, the M.M.I.A. told them that their worker's compensation program is giving back $1.7 million in worker's compensation rates. Dirk clarified that CI-75 would allow the voters to vote on water rates, sewer rates, garbage rates and SIDs. If we try to do something on the south side, the voters in the area would have to vote on it. 5 Council Minutes of October 20, ] 998 There being no further business to come before the council at this time, the meeting was adjourned at 8:44 p.m. Cindy Allen?~ecretary Approved by the Mayor and passed by the City Council of the City of Laurel, Montana, this 4th day of November, 1998. Charles Rodge~j~rs, Ma~yor/~''''''' Attest: Donald L. Hackreturn, Clerk-Treasurer