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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Minutes 10.06.1998 MINUTES OF THE CITY ( ()UN(IL OF I IUREL October 6, 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 6, 1998. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Dirk Kroll Gary Temple Ken Olson Norman Orr Gay Easton Bud Johnson Bill Staudinger COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Miles Walton MINUTES: Motion by Alderman Temple to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of September 15, 1998, as presented, seconded by Alderman Orr. Motion carried. CONSENT ITEMS: a. Claims for the month of September. b. Correspondence Don Hackmann, Letter of Resignation Laurel Central Business District (CBD) - Cal Cumin M. M. I. A. Newsletter Montana Department of Transportation, CTEP Extension Letter The mayor asked if there was any separation of consent items. There was none. Motion by Alderman Johnson to approve the consent items as presented, seconded by Alderman Kroll. Motion carried. SCHEDULED MATTERS: a. Confirmation of Appointments. None. b. Committee Reports. --Budget/Finance Committee minutes of September 15, 1998 were presented. --City Council Committee of the Whole minutes of September 15, 1998 were presented. --Investment Committee minutes of September 30, 1998 were presented. --Laurel Airport Authority minutes of August 25, 1998 were presented. --Parks Committee minutes of September 24, 1998 were presented. --Police Committee minutes of October 1, 1998 were presented. --Street and Alley Committee minutes of September 17, 1998 were presented. Motion by Alderman Johnson to enter the conunittee minutes into the record, seconded by Alderman Orr. Motion carried. c. Vicky Zeeck - Community Coordinator for Restorative Justice Program Bud Johnson introduced Vicky Zeeck, the Community Coordinator for the Restorative Justice Coalition. On September 21st, she gave a presentation in an efti3rt to form a coalition in Laurel. Bud invited her to give a similar presentation to the council at this meeting. Council Minutes of October 6, 1998 Vicky was asked by Court Services of Yellowstone County to act as a Community Coordinator for a program that is new to Montana. She has been involved with juvenile issues in Yellowstone County for fifteen years and has served on the Youth Court Conference Committee, which is a group of citizens who hear cases of youth referred from District Court. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Youth Services Center, a detention facility for Yellowstone County and Eastern Montana. The Restorative Justice Program in Montana is trying to look at the way that we deal with youth in our neighborhoods. Vicky said that we have given the responsibility for our kids to governmental agencies for the last twenty-five to thirty years. When a child is in trouble, we look to the courts and give them the responsibility to deal with the offender. When we were children, neighborhoods took responsibility for their youth and people were willing to make children and parents accountable. Now we are afraid to get involved and we no longer have that kind of ownership in our neighborhoods. If youth were confronted by and accountable to their own neighborhoods, it would cause them to accept ownership of the offense they committed. A neighborhood needs to define their ethical and moral values by becoming involved and teaching those values to their children. Vicky explained that a conference committee consists of trained adults who listen to the offender explain what they did, why they did it, and how it affected their parents. This requires the offender to take ownership of their offense. The neighborhood is also taking responsibility and showing the youth that their actions affect the neighborhood. Restorative justice is based on the principle that there are throe parties to any crime: the offender, the victim and the community members. Three things will be done in the restorative justice program. First, kids will be held accountable in their neighborhood to their neighborhood. They will be required to do community service relevant to the crime committed. Victims and communities have their losses restored by the actions of offenders making reparation and victims are empowered as active participants in the juvenile justice process. Secondly, it is necessary for the oft~nder to develop competency in many areas, including self-esteem and basic job skills. Third, we must ensure a sense of community safety during the time the offender is under juvenile justice supervision. Several coalitions have been started in various neighborhoods in Yellowstone County and several more are presently being fom~ed. Each coalition is asked to identify what crimes are being committed in their particular neighborhood. This enables a community to identify what steps to take and which programs to start to deal with the crime in their area. We must teach our youth our ethical and moral beliefs so that they understand the boundaries that limit their actions. The next meeting of the coalition is scheduled for October 19th at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. A Conference on Balanced and Restorative Justice is scheduled for October 22-23, 1998, at the Billings Holiday Inn Plaza and Trade Center. Ken Olson mentioned that Carolyn Boyd was elected as the chainnun of the Laurel Task Force at a recent meeting. They will be looking at the resolutions adopted by the School Board and the City Council to determine the direction and focus of the Task Force. d. Joe Leckie - SID information. Joe Leckie stated that, under state law, local governments are able to take on improvement projects under the improvement districts and finance them. There are several improvement districts: Business Improvement Districts, Rural Improvement Districts, Lighting Districts, Street Maintenance Districts, Street Parking Districts, Fire Hydrant Districts and Special Improvement Districts. Joe distributed copies of pages 582 and 583 of the Code Book which explain what can and cannot be done under a Special Improvement District. He also distributed a sheet with the steps, statutes and time requirements for SIDs. Except for Rural Improvement Districts and Special Improvement Districts, the other improvement districts are limited in funding to year-to-year type provisions. Under Street Maintenance Districts, there is a provision that allows you to take care of street maintenance without having to create a special improvement district. However, it is the general opinion throughout Montana that sidewalks do not qualify within a Street Improvement District. Sidewalks would have to be done under a Special Improvement District. SIDs allow for the selling of bonds or the creation of debt, and the payment of that debt is not subject to 1-105 requirements. If the SID is created, there are additional up-front costs other than just the cost of construction. There would be a 5% reserve requirement (Revolving Fund), a 1% administration fee and engineering and attorney's fees. The ordinance book limits the attorney's fees to about 11/2 %, Council Minutes of October 6, 1998 but the engineering fees are not limited. The council has the discretion to create the boundaries of a district, subject to a public hearing. There has to be specific rationale for the created boundaries. For example, it must be possible to show that there is some benefit to the people of a district by the improvements of that district. The assessments can be made several ways. The most common way is by using the ratio of frontage footage along the street. There is a problem with this for the homeowners with a comer lot. The City of Billings handles this by assessing only the fi'ontage footage of their address and the side footage is not counted against that specific lot. Another way of assessing is by using the square footage. If more than 50% of a district protests, it cannot be continued for a period of one year. e. Award/reject digester bid. Two bids were received. The bids are substantially higher than the first digester. This increase is due to the access into the digester. The contractor on the first digester said he had bid it too low. Bids were received from Wyoming Sandblasting and Painting in the amount of $50,860.00 and from Mooney Painting, Inc., in the amount of $55,867.63. Motion by Alderman Johnson to award the digester bid to Wyoming Sandblasting and Painting in the amount of $50,860.00, seconded by Alderman Orr. Motion carried. f. Award/reject service truck quotes. The service truck is a 3/4 ton heavy-duty pickup. The pickup is priced without a box. Three bids were received. Laurel Ford bid $17,840.00, Fichtner Chevrolet bid $16,565.01, and Montana Dodge bid $16,293.00. This unit will be equipped with a service box. Anderson Service will supply the box. They have in stock a top-of-the-line box that they are selling to us for the price of a regular box. The box they have is a new 1998 unit. If we order, it would be a 1999 model. The cost for the utility box is $3,850.00. Motion bv Alderman Johnson to award the service truck bid to Montana Dodge in the amount of $16,293.00, seconded by Alderman Orr. Motion carried. g. Log Cabin CTEP Grant. Cal Cumin said that the low bid on the Log Cabin Project was from Seven Bufthlo, Inc., of Boyd, Montana. They have done a lot of construction at Crow Agency. They are not certified by the State of Montana as a disadvm~taged business enterprise and will have to work out that problem. All of the bids received were about $10,000 over what is available. The Chan~ber of Commerce has written a letter requesting that the budget for this project be increased by $10,000. Laurel has $56,400 left in its CTEP allocation from the state. Most of it will be used at South Pond, but Cal suggested that $10,000 of this money could be used for the Log Cabin Project. Gary Temple questioned how this would affect the South Pond Project and whether or not it would jeopardize the project if it were necessary to ask for more money to complete it. Cal said that the available CTEP funds have not been allocated for anything. If more money is needed for the South Pond Project, more money will be available in the next six-year program. Motion by Alderman Temple to approve the request for an additional $10,000.00 of the CTEP Grant for the Log Cabin Project in Firemen's Park, seconded by Alderman Staudinger. Motion carried. h. Approve final on reservoir. Bud Johnson explained that there is a one-year guarantee period from the Dick Anderson Construction Company. Before that one-year period is over, the reservoirs will be drained and an inspection will be performed. Motion by Alderman Johnson to approve the final payment on the reservoir, with a final inspection being completed during the one-year guarantee period, seconded by Alderman Kroll. Motion carried. Council Minutes of October 6, 1998 i. Resolution approving agreements between the City of Laurel and Laurel Urban Fire Service Area (LUFSA), said agreements relating to fire protection. RESOLUTION NO. R98-53 A RESOLUTION APPROVING AGREEMENTS BETWEEN THE CITY OF LAUREL AND LAUREL URBAN FIRE SERVICE AREA (LUFSA), SAID AGREEMENTS RELATING TO FIRE PROTECTION. Motion bv Alderman Kroll that Resolution No. R98-53 be passed and adopted, seconded by Alderman Olson. Motion carried. UNSCHEDULED MATTERS: Mayor Rodgers mentioned that the crews have been very busy lately. The intake at both ports has been cleaned out and they are getting prepared for winter. The steel gate is being remade and will be installed on Thursday. Bud Johnson reminded the council of a lengthy discussion regarding the intake that Dave Mosser presented about six to eight months ago. As we get into the water project, it needs to remain fresh on everyone's mind that the intake will become a very important issue in the water treatment process. Mayor Rodgers stated that access to the river is becoming more and more difficult. We have managed to keep water flowing to this point, but the river is changing. Larry McCann has been working with Roger Perkins on the water problems at the intake and he expects a report to be completed soon. Chuck Rodgers mentioned that there will not be much patchwork and chip sealing accomplished this year because the crew has been busy with the water project. He anticipates that it will have to be done next year unless the weather stays warm this fall. Dirk Kroll asked the council to consider an ordinance for firearms in the City Council Chambers at the next council meeting. Joe Leckie will write the ordinance. Cal Cumin invited the council to participate in the community-planning meeting scheduled for Tuesday, October 13th, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Locomotive Inn Restaurant. There being no further business to come before the council at this time, the meeting was adjourned at 8:01 p.m. Cindy All'eZf, Secretary Approved by the Mayor and passed by the City Council of the City of Laurel, Montana, this 20th day of October, 1998. Attest: Donald L. Hackmann, Clerk-Treasurer