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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEmergency Services Committee Minutes 01.26.2009MINUTES EMERGENCY SERVICES COMMITTEE JANUARY 26, 2009 5:30 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS Members Present: Doug Poehls Emelie Eaton Scotty Snowden Norm Stamper Others Present: Rick Musson Kurt Markegard Jan Faught Bill Kampfer Bill Sheridan ESTABLISHING EMERGENCY SNOW ROUTES Kurt stated there weren't any emergency snow routes in the City Municipal Code book. However, he did locate a declaration of snow emergency in the Rules and Regulations Governing Utility Services. There wasn't any clarification of designated streets for emergency snow removal and to assure the regular flow of traffic. There was discussion regarding notification of public who lives along the snow routes. The city would need to have signs erected on each block. Kurt said the city is also in need of updated equipment, such as trucks and snow plows, and the manpower to provide snow removal along snow routes. The city trucks now aren't in good working condition. It was mentioned that it is important to keep emergency vehicles up to capacity with good tires and in running condition for the weather conditions. It was questioned as to who is responsible to declare it necessary to do a call out for snow removal in the emergency snow route, whether it be the police, a city official or city representative. The police officers, who are out twenty-four hours a day, have determined when it is necessary to call the public works director to have sand spread onto the intersections that are icy in the early hours of the morning before the traffic gets heavy. Discussion that it is mandatory for cars not to be parked on the streets of snow removal routes. They could be ticketed or snowed in. Kurt stated that during snow removal, there are public complaints of having driveways blocked. This brings up the question of plowing the snow to the curb side or plowing the snow to the middle and then having to remove the snow. There would have to be some determination if there were two, three, or four inches of snow to do a call out for snow removal in emergency routes. It was stated that when there is snow pack on the streets, there is traction for the cars. The snow soon melts after a few days of inconvenience. Kurt said he would do some investigating into snow plowing and removal of snow on Main Street and First Avenue. These streets are state roads and he would look into if the state should be keeping them clean. He talked about the city businesses being inconvenienced with having the snow plowed to the curb sides and preventing parking for their customers. He said that the businesses need to pay for some of the city snow plowing of the main downtown streets. Doug suggested this item be left on the agenda for next month. He asked that the members review the declaration of snow emergency from the Rules and Regulations for Utility Services which Kurt handed out. LAUREL AMBULANCE SERVICE Jan Faught referred to the resolution for ambulance pay. She said the resolution refers to the pay of an ambulance attendant as "continuous years of service". She mentioned she has three attendants that have left the ambulance department for a period of time and then returned to work. She is requesting a change of words in the resolution from "continuous years of service" to "years of service". She feels that the ambulance attendants should be recognized for their previous years of service. They are an asset to the city as they are still licensed to be an attendant and are skilled from working in the medical field. She said she has gone back during the previous year of 2008 and with doing some figuring has found that there aren't large dollar amounts being considered. The dollar amounts were discussed and it was mentioned that they weren't large enough to hurt the budget. A motion by Norm Stamper, seconded by Emelie Eaton was made to draft a change to the resolution with Sam Painter for approval, and recommend it to the council. Motion passed. WALMART DONATION CHECK Jan stated the ambulance department received a donation check of $2,000.00 from Walmart. She has been receiving donation money from businesses. Town Pump stated they would match any other donations that were received by the Laurel Ambulance Department. Jan was concerned that the check from Walmart is made out to the City of Laurel Fire Department. Walmart explained to her that they can't make checks out to different city departments. They have one Federal ID# for the city with the name of City of Laurel Fire Department. It was suggested that a letter be written to Town Pump with an explanation that the funds were for the Ambulance Department so that they would match the funds. CAT AND DOG ORDINANCES Bill Kampfer attended the meeting explaining his concern about there being a City of Laurel cat ordinance. He mentioned the number of cats that he is unhappy with having in his back yard since moving to Laurel last fall. He said he fenced his yard for his dog and has also cleaned the yard of large amounts of cat feces. This has not controlled the amount of cats that come into his yard and he is suggesting there be an ordinance to license cats. Rick stated that first the city would need a facility to house the cats that were caught and hire people to work that area. He said there is no budget to do this. The City of Laurel is lucky that the Billings Animal Shelter will accept the dogs from Laurel after three days when an owner does not call, but whether they would accept cats is not known. Cats are also pets, therefore, cannot be destroyed of or taken out to the country and let go in the wild. It is the characteristic of a cat to roam even if it is a house pet. An owner isn't as concerned when a cat spends time away from home, whereas a dog owner is anxious to find their dog immediately. There was discussion of citizen rights. Doug stated he would talk to Sam Painter regarding this. He told Bill he could continue to research other cities that would have dog and cat ordinances. The meeting was adjourned. Respectfully submitted, jZtrl, 74q'?X? Neva Hall Secretary