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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Workshop Minutes 02.10.2015 MINUTES COUNCIL WORKSHOP FEBRUARY 10, 2015 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 February 10, 2015. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: _x Emelie Eaton _x_Doug Poehls Bruce McGee _x_Richard Herr Chuck Dickerson _x_ Scot Stokes x Tom Nelson x Bill Mountsier OTHERS PRESENT: Heidi Jensen Kurt Markegard Sam Painter Rick Musson Monica Plecker Public Input (three-minute limit) Iry Wilke, 1017 Seventh Avenue, reported on the Laurel Rod and Gun Club's recent turkey shoot. Levi Groskamp, 1320 Valley Drive, represented a group that has been meeting since the newspaper article came out about the pool closing. Concerned citizens have been meeting to discuss ideas about how to save the pool. Levi was born and raised in Laurel, moved away, and then brought his family back to Laurel. He stated that the pool was a safe place to go when he was a kid, and he would hate to see the pool disappear. He was a pool lifeguard and had mentoring opportunities. Levi asked the council to consider this when voting on the pool. General items • Appointments: o Jarred Anglin to the Laurel Police Department Chief Musson spoke regarding the appointment of Jarred Anglin to the Laurel Police Department. Jarred has been a Laurel Police Reserve for about a year. Jarred went through the normal interview process and was selected, the background check was completed and he is ready to be appointed. The appointment and swearing in ceremony will be on the February 17t council agenda. Chief Musson stated that the appointment will put the department at twelve officers. Officer Gregory went to the Navy last August and should return in July or August. Officer Bickford will fmish his 14- week field training this week and will go to the Academy in September. Depending on manpower, Chief Musson might get both new officers in the Academy at the same time. Executive Review: • Resolution—LURA Large Grant Request Program Monica Plecker explained that the resolution would create a new grant program for the TIF District. The TIF District currently has the Façade Improvement Program and the Technical Assistance Council Workshop Minutes of February 10,2015 Program. The new program is called the Large Grant Request Program. The need for a large grant program was identified in the Gateway Plan. Staff has earmarked $75,000 for the Large Grant Request Program and there would be a competitive grant process. Applications for the facade and technical assistance programs are received on a rolling basis and they are granted as funding is available. With the Large Grant Request Program, it would be best to have a competitive grant process in the spring in order to make construction weather and to deal with the fiscal year. The idea behind having a competitive grant process is to make sure that the $75,000 is granted to align with LURA's goals. Eligible projects for the TIF District funds are identified by Montana Code Annotated and are much different projects than those in the other programs. This program is proposed to have a one-to-one grant match requirement. If the applicant requests the full $75,000, they must contribute $75,000 to their project, ultimately being a$150,000 project. The Large Grant Request Program will be done by reimbursement and none of it will be upfront capital. LURA will review the applications annually and will make recommendation to the city council. Since the amount is above $5,000, the city council will ultimately approve any of the grants that are given in this program. Monica stated that, at the last meeting, LURA recommended moving this program forward for council consideration. • Resolution—Approve cemetery sprinkler bid Kurt Markegard stated that the Cemetery Commission has been working on this project for almost a year. The city previously went out to bid on the sprinkler project, but the bids were too high and the city did not have the funds. The project was split up and a line and a pump were redone a year ago. The city recently went out for bids again and received three competitive bids. Staff and the Cemetery Commission recommend accepting the bid from The Good Earth Works Company. Kurt explained one change that the Cemetery Commission recommended. The specs for line item 114 in the bid were written for four sprinkler heads, but six heads will be needed in order to properly operate the system. The Cemetery Commission approved a motion to add two more heads, which would add $2,400, for a total project cost of$179,875. Staffs recommendation is to go with the Cemetery Commission's recommendation. Kurt stated that, from his understanding, the city has been trying for 30+ years to get a sprinkler system in the cemetery. Some additional work needs to be done to the variable frequency drive to run the pump and a possible motor rewind might be necessary. He will provide more information as the project goes forward. If the council approves the contract next week, construction would begin with a completion date by May 15th, which is about a week before Memorial Day. Tom stated that the Cemetery Commission has been working on providing a sprinkler system at the cemetery since 1975. Currently, the city employees have to drag around 3-inch sprinkler pipe and stand sprinklers and put them together in order to water for 16 hours a day. Sixteen hours before a burial, the crew has to pull all the pipes out and put them away, and then pull the pipes back out after the burial is complete. The system will save a lot of labor and time and will be easier for having burials. Tom stated that the system will serve the cemetery for years to come and will be easy to add on to. The Cemetery Commission is glad that it will be done for the future of the city and the future of the people that will utilize the cemetery. Kurt stated that the Cemetery Commission recommended to add Alternates 1 and 2 to the project, which will irrigate everything in the cemetery. • Resolution—Lease with American Legion Dodgers 2 Council Workshop Minutes of February 10,2015 Heidi stated that the last item under Executive Review is a resolution for the lease with the American Legion Dodgers. She asked Mayor Mace that the resolution not go forward and it just be a discussion item, as some issues have come up that she and the city attorney want to discuss with the council. Heidi explained that staff has worked diligently with members of the American Legion and the Little League and the concession stand has become an issue in the last couple days. The Dodgers do not want the concession stand in their lease and the Little League does not want it in their lease. Both entities would like a separate lease done with the concession board. Heidi is uncomfortable having the council approve a lease to use any of the facilities until the concession board has met. However, the concession board has not been established yet because the Little League has not even met. Zada Stamper is the only contact Heidi has for the concession board and a lease cannot be done with one person. Heidi understands that the concession board will not be established until March. She does not want to move the leases forward until the terms of the leases have been established. Zada Stamper, 523 Date Avenue, represented the Laurel Dodgers. She stated that they do have a board. They have two members from the Laurel Dodgers, which includes herself and two other people from the Dodgers and the Little League also has members that are part of the concession board. Heidi stated that the Little League board has not met to decide who their two members are. Zada stated that she has their names. She then stated that, if the leases will not be done until March, the Legion already has tryouts scheduled for March 16th. She stated that they are ready to move forward with the concession stand meetings this week. Sam Painter stated that he attended tonight's meeting to try to gather some facts. From his perspective, the Legion lease is essentially done. There was some discussion about getting the concession information out of it, which was done. As far as process, the Little League lease needs to be done, as well as the concession stand lease. The confusion was the concession lease agreement, which will be leased to another entity. In essence, there will be three leases rather than one. The language in the leases will be much the same with a little tweaking. He does not see a problem with the deadline, as long some contact folks are available for conference calls and face-to-face meetings to get it done. Zada asked if the intent was to not do the Dodgers' lease until the lease for the concession stand was done. Sam explained that his thought was to present the three final leases to the council at the same time. If there is a problem, as with tryouts, staff could ask the council to hold a special meeting to approve the leases. Zada stated that the Dodgers need to make sure that the fields are ready for the tryouts and there are concerns that need to be looked into. Sam asked Zada to communicate via email to get the names of the representatives from each of the three entities. 3 Council Workshop Minutes of February 10,2015 Zada stated that the Little League representatives were going to attend but they had registration tonight. Heidi stated that the Legion's lease is basically done, so the concession board lease needs to be completed and all three leases can be presented to the council at one time. Zada asked if the last lease Heidi sent included the concession stand. Heidi stated that she communicated with Zada's husband with a lease that does not include the concession language. Zada asked if it had a lease amount on it, as the last amount was $1,200. Heidi stated that the final lease she sent does not have a lease amount on it, but the breakdown of cost information provided by the clerk/treasurer was attached. The council knows staff's recommendation for the lease amount and will ultimately decide on the amount for the lease. Zada stated that she did not receive the information. • Council Issues: o Update on 2011 Yellowstone River flooding event Heidi reported on today's eight-minute conference call with FEMA in which they briefly went over the schedule. Sixty percent plans should be done by May with construction in the fall, and FEMA is still on board with that. Staff addressed the concern that there is not a lot of snowpack this year, that the city could be in a drought situation and that it might be necessary to get into the river. A pump is a short-term situation that would require water rationing. There was a brief discussion regarding the available pump and pipe and the option of a temporary weir. • Lease Agreements Heidi stated that staff is doing its best to work through the leases and stated appreciation for the city attorney's help with the leases. Emelie mentioned that the Park Board minutes included some proposals with regard to the Riverside Park leases. She asked if those were just suggestions and whether those leases are being finalized. Heidi explained that she is only working on the baseball leases at this time. She saw the Park Board minutes but is not currently working on the Riverside Park leases. Other items There were none. Review of draft council agenda for February 17, 2015 There were no changes. Attendance at the February 17, 2015 council meeting, Tom Nelson will not attend. 4 Council Workshop Minutes of February 10,2015 Announcements Bill mentioned that Chuck is home after his surgery. Tom thanked the city staff for their work on the cemetery's sprinkler system. The Cemetery Commission is trying to put together a comprehensive plan in place for the cemetery so that future Cemetery Commissions will have a plan laid out for future expansion. A lot of work needs to be done, and the Cemetery Commission plans to create ways to get the work done without spending money. Emelie stated that the Public Works Committee met last night and decided not to pursue having a recycling bin in the community. The committee had a presentation from another organization that was far less expensive, but the group decided it was not something the city should take on. At the March 10th meeting, the committee will discuss street improvements, using some information from the clerk/treasurer. Emelie reminded the council to empty the deleted folder in their email account so the accounts do not use up too much space. Recognition of Employees • Connie Crowe 32 years of service on February 3rd Animal Control • Cathy Gabrian 28 years of service on February 23rd Clerk's Office • Cheryll Lund 27 years of service on February 9th Public Works • Kyle Bryant 10 years of service on February 1St Police Officer • Heidi Jensen 4 years of service on February 28th CAO • Monica Plecker 3 years of service on February 1St Planning Director Mayor Mace stated appreciation for the service of the employees. The council workshop adjourned at 7:04 p.m. Respectfully submitted, . aea (_--t i 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. 5