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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Workshop Minutes 07.14.2015 MINUTES COUNCIL WORKSHOP JULY 14, 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 July 14, 2015. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: _x Emelie Eaton Doug Poehls x Bruce McGee _x_Richard Herr x Chuck Dickerson Scot Stokes x Tom Nelson x Bill Mountsier OTHERS PRESENT: Heidi Jensen, CAO Keith Kolstad, Code Enforcement Officer Riley Hutchens, Laurel Ambulance Service Kara Hergenrider, Laurel Ambulance Service Public Input There was no public input. General items There were none. Executive Review • Resolution— Change order to 8th Street Rehabilitation Project for additional work at Graff School Heidi stated that the estimate to replace the curb and gutter is $54,956 for concrete pavement and $41,707.65 for asphalt pavement. The School District is interested in putting concrete in front of Graff School instead of the thickened asphalt as planned by the city. The cost difference is about $13,800. The Superintendent has indicated that the school district would pay the difference, but staff is waiting for a fmal answer after the school board meeting. The final resolution will be written to reflect whether the school district will pay the cost difference or if the project will continue with the asphalt. The change order was listed in the project booklet that Wilson Brothers was given when they were awarded the project. In order to complete the project before school starts, the change order needs to be done this week. A final resolution will be distributed to the council prior to the council meeting on July 21St • Resolutions— SRO Contracts Heidi explained that the city is currently in negotiations with the police union and budgeted a 2 percent increase for the SROs for the next school year. The superintendent is ok with the increase and wants to continue the SRO Program in the schools. Kyle Bryant will be the SRO in the Laurel Middle School and Fred Gregory will be the new SRO at the Laurel High School. Fred just returned to the city from an eight-month stint in the Navy and is excited to work with the students. Council Workshop Minutes of July 14,2015 • Resolution—Ambulance Billing Contract with ImageTrend Heidi was recently informed that the software used by the Ambulance Department was becoming obsolete and needs to be upgraded to a new system. The Ambulance Director asked that this be in the budget this year. Since the current ambulance billing contract runs out on July 31st, it is fortuitous that this is on tonight's agenda. The contract has been reviewed by the city attorney and was sent back to ImageTrend today. • Council Issues: o Light in American Legion Ballfield Heidi submitted a memo to the council and a copy is attached to these minutes. The civil attorney, public works director, maintenance superintendent and Heidi met with members of the Dodgers and the Little League yesterday to discuss the lighting pole issue in Dodger Field. The light pole was damaged in April from a severe wind storm and the city chose to take it down because it was unsafe. Since then, the city has repeatedly told the Dodgers that the city is not against reinstalling the light pole. The Dodgers just need a structural engineer to sign off on their plan because they are putting it on city property. The light pole was not covered under the city's insurance, as the city does not own the light poles. Thirty years of documentation show that the city has tried to stay out of the light pole issue. Private loans were taken out for the light poles. There are articles and actual council votes where the city chose not to become involved. Since it is not city property, the city is not involved, did not budget to repair it or provide assistance for repairs, and did not budget for reinstallation of a pole in the park. Staff will wait until an engineered plan is submitted before anything happens with the lights. Robert Wench, 805 Wyoming Avenue, explained how he organized a fundraiser in 1985 to reorganize the baseball field. He has the original blueprints at home. He raised $17,000 and the Montana FWP matched that fund. He gave it all to the City of Laurel and they rerouted the field and did everything the way it is right now. A couple years later the wooden telephone poles were rotting on the bottom and the city tore them down and did not replace them. People asked him to help organize another effort. They had the poles volunteered by Montana Power, Schessler donated all the concrete, and Cenex Refinery donated hours and hours of labor to weld the light poles. Twenty people were supposed to help set the poles but only three showed up. The city did not pay a dime for any of it. Robert stated that this is city property as the park belongs to the city. He said to talk to Milt Wester and encouraged the council to really think about this before pulling all those light poles down. He suggested finding somebody to organize a little group and drill another hole and pour another cement pad or whatever needs to be done. He would like the council to consider what they are talking about by taking the poles down and not putting them back. o Update—Overnight truck parking in Ricci's lot (Chuck Dickerson) There was a lengthy discussion regarding the situation of overnight truck parking in the Ricci's lot, the need to inform Mr. Zimmerman about what the city can or cannot do, the observation that flatbed trucks, not petroleum trucks, have been parked in the lot overnight, the frustration that a complaint is stated without facts to back it up, and the suggestion to put weight limits on city streets. o Update on 2011 Yellowstone River flooding event Heidi stated that Great West Engineering should complete the plans for the intake by the end of July. The city is in negotiations with two landowners, the Howries and the McCoys, to put a small building and some pipe easement on those properties. Negotiations have not been easy. Great West did 2 Council Workshop Minutes of July 14, 2015 appraisals on the properties for the easements earlier this year. Unfortunately, the landowners are not in agreement with the price for the easements, so negotiation has to happen. Great West and the Public Works Director were negotiating, but negotiations recently fell to the city attorney and CAO. A conference call is scheduled tomorrow morning. Heidi has had a lot of discussion with the Governor's Budget Director in the last couple weeks regarding the funding for the project. She is working with Big Sky EDA and Commissioner Kennedy to look into some Federal EDA dollars for the sed basin project. If the city received grant money for the sed basin project, that money could go toward the intake. One of the options in Mr. Villa's funding package was the$1 million the city would contribute, $350,000 from a contingency fund, and $80,000 from DNRC. He had some other contingency money and a loan for$538,000 out of the SRF Program. The city currently does not have the debt service to take on a $538,000 loan, so the State would pay the loan until the city's debt service is low enough to absorb the full amount. Heidi is struggling with that, as she thinks it is a bad idea to take on debt you cannot pay. She has told Mr. Villa that she does not like that option at all. A conference call is scheduled tomorrow morning with Anna Miller at DNRC. The city also has to take out a $3.5 million SRF loan for the sed basins. She thinks Mr. Villa is incorrect about the city's actual debt service. The sed basin project was budgeted and the debt was understood by the city, but this $538,000 was not budgeted and the city did not signed up for a 20-year loan at 2.5 percent interest. The clerk/treasurer and Heidi plan to suggest to Mr. Villa that the State take the loan and go back to the legislature in 2017 and ask TSEP for loan forgiveness. The Governor's Office still does not have the full $2.7 or $2.8 million match needed. With all of the funding options, Mr. Villa is only at$2.2 million, which is $.5 million short. o Lease Agreements ■ No Lease, No Use Policy Heidi stated that the lease with the Chamber is moving forward and the attorney is working on the No Lease, No Use Policy. Heidi mentioned that staff is maxed out at this point, but the leases have not been forgotten. Other items Chuck mentioned that the Park Board met on July 9th. The Board discussed items, one of which was trying to get the restrooms at Riverside Park back in service so the park could be opened for camping. The Park Board is interested in information a member brought forward regarding using vaults for the restrooms. Supposedly, this can be done if the land itself is not restructured as far as changing the height of the ground. The vaults cost $12,000 each and would take care of the situation because there would be no type of leakage with groundwater. The Park Board would like to get the council's consensus as far as turning this over to staff Iry Wilke gave an explanation about vaults. There was a lengthy discussion regarding the way to move the Park Board's items forward to staff and the council. Review of draft council agenda for July 21, 2015 • Public hearing and Second Reading: Ordinance No. 015-05: LMC 17.16.020 Residential Multi Family Zoning The public hearing and second reading will be on July 21St 3 Council Workshop Minutes of July 14,2015 Attendance at the July 21, 2015 council meeting All council members present will attend. Announcements Emelie stated that the Public Works Committee recently discussed maintenance of the Nutting Drain District, the possible creation of a storm water maintenance district, and the proposed fees for the new septic receiving station. The committee recommended a flat $40 fee for the first 1,000 gallons and $.04/gallon for additional gallons. The public will be invited to a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house at the wastewater treatment plant after all paving and cement work has been completed. Emelie asked regarding the asphalt by the elevator on West Main Street. Richard thinks the asphalt is from the underpass project. Bruce stated that the Park Board discussed matching the Kids Kingdom hours and Kiwanis Park hours. He asked for discussion at a future council workshop. Mayor Mace agreed to put the item on the July 28th workshop agenda. Recognition of Employees • Nathan Herman 15 years of service on July 10th Water Treatment Plant • H.P. Nuernberger 13 years of service on July yd Wastewater Treatment Plant • Sheri Phillips 18 years of service on July Pt City Court • Fran Schweigert 17 years of service on July 6th City Shop • Calvin Lovshin 3 years of service on July 6th Custodian • Patty McGahan 2 years of service on July 1St Library • Anna Contreraz 1 year of service on July 16th Police Dispatch Mayor Mace recognized the employees for their years of service to the City of Laurel. The council workshop adjourned at 7:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, 7j4:eudy 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 CITY HALL 115 W. 1ST. City Of Laurel ADMINISTRATION: N:628-8456 PUB.WORKS:628-7496 f! WATER OFC.:628-7431 P.O.Box 10 FAX 628-2241 Laurel,Montana 59044 Office of the Chief Administrative Officer Memo To: Laurel City Council From: Heidi Jensen Date: July 14, 2015 Re: Lights on Dodger Field On Monday July 13, 2015, Sam Painter, Kurt Markegard, Matt Wheeler and I met with many members of the American Legion Dodgers Baseball (Dodgers) and Laurel Little League to discuss the lighting situation on Dodger Field. In April 2015,a severe windstorm damaged a light pole on Dodger Field and rendered it unsafe,which forced the City to remove the pole. The City has been in regular contact with the Dodgers' representatives and informed them that an Engineered and stamped plan would need to be submitted to the City in order to reinstall the pole. The baseball leagues were under the impression that,since the lights are on City property,they were the City's responsibility. Through meeting minutes, newspaper articles and notes, the City has 30 years of documentation that there is no City ownership. Minutes read that past Councils were not interested in obtaining the lights, leaving the ownership with the Dodgers. Kurt and I checked with MMIA and were advised that, aside from the City Council voting favorably to add them as City property, ownership would only occur should the Dodgers abandon their lease on the property and leave the light poles standing. As the lights are not City property,there has been no money budgeted for repair,assistance with the repair, or reinstallation of the light pole on Dodger Field. City staff advised the Clubs to find an Engineer and submit plans to the City. Staff will await plans to be submitted.