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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Workshop Minutes 01.14.2014 MINUTES COUNCIL WORKSHOP JANUARY 14, 2014 6:30 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS A Council Workshop was held in the Council Chambers and called to order by Mayor Mark Mace at 6:30 p.m. on January 14, 2014. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: _x_ Emelie Eaton _x_ Doug Poehls x Bruce McGee _ Vacant x Scot Stokes x Chuck Dickerson Tom Nelson x Bill Mountsier OTHERS PRESENT: Heidi Jensen Iry Wilke Stan Langve Public Input (three - minute limit): Iry Wilke, 1017 Seventh Avenue, reported on the turkey shoot the Rod and Gun Club held last Sunday. They had 22 competitive rounds with five shooters each and gave away 13 turkeys and 15 packages of steaks. Most of the shooters shot at least four rounds. There was a half hour delay because of the weather, as they had to improvise the controllers to make them work. The event ended and was cleaned up a half hour early. Wendy's in Billings donated three gallons of chili for the event, and the Jaycees allowed the club to use their facility for lunch. Iry stated that there was absolutely no liquor of any kind in the park that day. Iry stated that he received a lot of complaints about the amount of dog poop in the park, as it was just about everywhere anyone stepped. He stated that it is very unsightly and very unfriendly to shoes and hopefully something can be done about it. Iry will give the council another report after the turkey shoot in February. General items: • Appointments: o Laurel Police Reserves: Darci Waldo, DJ Sheffler, Justin Bickford, Jarred Anglin, Gerald Seth Scheller, Nick Spadt Officer Langve introduced the appointees to the Police Reserves. The appointments will be on the January 21 council agenda. o Laurel Volunteer Ambulance: Joe Lowther, Alana Badgett, Karissa Sundeen, Elliott Grayson There were no ambulance personnel in attendance. The appointments will be on the January 21s council agenda. • Presentation by Shriners — East/West Shrine football game on July 19, 2014 in Laurel Paul Lechner, the chairman of the Montana East/West Shrine football game, which is the Al Bedoo Shrine located in Billings. Since the Big Sky State Games are in Billings then, the game is coming to Laurel again, as was done in 2011. Council Workshop Minutes of January 14, 2014 Paul explained the schedule of events on Saturday, July 19 At 12:30 p.m., the parade lineup begins on 7 Avenue. The parade will start at 1:00 p.m. and go to Thomson Park, followed by a tailgate party with a concert, classic car show and food vendors in Thomson Park. The stadium will open at 5:30 p.m. and the game will start at 7:00 p.m. and will be televised on Q2 statewide again. There might be fireworks at the end of the game to culminate the event. Tickets will be available online at montanaeastwestshrinegame.org, at albedoo.org, at the Shrine box office at the Shrine Temple in Billings, and at the stadium on game day. The suggestion was made to sell tickets during the 4 of July event in Laurel. Paul stated that the East/West Shrine game will return to Laurel in 2017, as Wally Hall will be in charge that year. Last year's event raised $146,000 for the hospital in Spokane. This will be the 67 annual Shrine game, which is the longest continuous East/West Shrine game in the country. Executive Review: • Council Issues: o Fencing and weeds around old asphalt plant site (Emelie Eaton) Emelie Eaton stated that the fencing issue has been taken care of as shown by a series of emails that was distributed. o MCA animal cruelty language in LMC (Emelie Eaton) Emelie spoke regarding the minutes of October 29 which is the last time this topic was discussed. The minutes stated that the staff would review the information Emelie had submitted and present information regarding the proposal to the Emergency Services Committee at a future date. Emelie stated that the Emergency Services Committee will review the issue, and, at a later date, she will bring up some issues that she would like Emergency Services to review. o Lorman Seminar on Zoning, Subdivision and Land Development Law (Emelie Eaton) Emelie thanked the city for sending her and a representative from the City - County Planning Board to the seminar. o Storm Water Management Manual (Emelie Eaton) Emelie stated that her question was whether or not Laurel has a Storm Water Management Manual. The discussion during the seminar made her think of the wording that requires all storm water to be contained on site when the council reviews a zoning variance request. She wanted to know whether or not that was Laurel's Storm Water Management Policy. Heidi explained that it is the City of Laurel's policy and is adopted in the subdivision regulations. In 2007, the city had ME &A prepare a Storm Water System PER. Per the Public Works Director, the costs of the PER would have been astronomical so the city has kept the language that requires all water to be retained on site. Anything in the document would take decades to implement, and the city is not currently implementing a central storm water system within the city. The city will proceed forward with the language adopted by the State and then adopted into the city's subdivision regulations unless further direction is given. Emelie thanked Heidi for the information. 2 Council Workshop Minutes of January 14, 2014 o Discussion regarding Committee/Board/Commission appointments (Mayor Mace) Mayor Mace stated that the council needs to decide on the boards and committees. There was discussion regarding the Ward 2 vacancy, which should be filled on February 4` There was further discussion regarding the positions of chairman and co- chairman, the need to have a list of the members of each committee/board /commission, the number of council members required to sit on the various committees and boards that do not have any council members on them. There was discussion regarding the committee list. At this point, the meeting recessed for five minutes so the council secretary could provide copies of the draft committee list for the council. After the draft committee list was distributed to the council Mayor Mace asked if there were any questions. There was a question if it was assumed that the co- chairman would become the chairman if the chairmanship was vacant. Mayor Mace stated that it is up for discussion. Doug explained that it was the co- chairman's responsibility to run the meeting in the absence of the chairman. There was discussion about whether the council or the committees and boards choose the chairman and whether the chairman and co- chairman need to be council members. The requirements for each committee, board and commission are stated in Laurel Municipal Code. o Lease Task Force update Heidi explained that the project is still at a standstill while trying to find some contractors to provide services. She found out today that a member of the Jaycees is currently operating his own construction company so they are going to refer him to the city to give a bid. There was discussion regarding the bid received to remove the environmental hazards from the building. The bid is just to remove the concerns from the structures and does not provide any reconstruction. o Update on 2011 Yellowstone River flooding event Heidi stated that the south bank restoration is mainly complete and is in a winter shutdown. The contractor will return in the spring to complete the asphalt restoration on the path that curves through the camping areas and goes down to the boat ramp. Some planting is required in some of the permits and will be done in the spring to finalize the project. Reimbursement is being done through the State DES office. Last Tuesday's call with FEMA did not go well. After Great West received information back from the consultant they hired a few months ago, they decided that the type of infiltration gallery they wanted to propose to the city is too small and would not work for the amount of water needed on a daily basis. The public works director told Great West they need to have something. The permitting schedule that was distributed to the council months ago said the city would be permitted in February, but the city currently does not even have a plan. Heidi will continue to push Great West to provide a plan. Other items There were none. 3 Council Workshop Minutes of January 14, 2014 Review of draft council agenda for January 21, 2014 There were no changes. Attendance at the January 21, 2014 council meeting All council members present will attend. Announcements Comments were made regarding the potholes in the street under the underpass. Heidi informed the council that the State plans to install extra drains and tear out the asphalt and put in concrete in the spring. There is no scheduled date for construction at this point, but MDT has recognized the problem and will address it this year. Mayor Mace asked the council regarding a date for the goal setting session put on by the Local Government Center. The suggested dates are Wednesday, February 19 or Saturday, February 22n After discussion, the council agreed to set the session on Saturday, February 22 Recognition of Employees • Robert Johnson — 34 years of service on January 3rd • Don Nelson — 29 years of service on January 14 • Stan Langve — 14 years of service on January 5 • Gary Colley — 11 years of service on January 6 • Kurt Markegard — 9 years of service on January 3 Mayor Mace expressed appreciation for the city's employees. Rick Herr, 501 7 Avenue, spoke regarding Iry Wilke's comment about dogs in Riverside Park. Rick asked if dogs are not allowed in the park, as it is a city park and he goes down there twice a day. He seeks tracks of ten or fifteen different dogs down there. There was discussion regarding the issue of cleaning up after your dog, the requirement to have dogs on leashes within the city, the need for signage in the parks, and the possibility of building a dog park on some county parkland on East Maryland. The council workshop adjourned at 7:17 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Cindy Allen Council Secretary NOTE: This meeting is open to the public. This meeting is for information and discussion of the Council for the listed workshop agenda items. 4