Meeting Minutes

February 2002

REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING February 12, 2002

Present: Mayor Einar Larson, Council: Mary Combs, Mike Holtz, Julie Jones, Rick Klein, Teri Zimmerman.
Guests: Darrell Francis - City Superintendent; Craig Aldworth - USKH/Wyatt Engineering.

Mayor Larson called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm.
Minutes from January meeting were given to council prior to this meeting. Mike made motion, second from Julie, and carried to approve the minutes as written.

PLANNING - CONDITIONAL USE APPLICATION
Gary and Karen Brennick submitted a conditional use application for 15 S 1st - Grange Hall to open a new/used Antique store. The planning commission held a public hearing at 6:30pm today to hear public comment. The application was recommended to be approved by the planning commission with the conditions of and some specifically identified from the Flood Plain and Zoning Ordinances. Teri expressed concern of public safety. Darrell advised that John Gilson had condemned the building when there was interest in opening the building as a youth center. This brought up an issue to not be following through said condemning under current ordinance guidelines, assuming then the process would need to start at square one. Rick and Mike were taking into account that the Council is only approving the desired Use Application for the building. Council revisited that we do not have a code enforcement officer under the duties of the current building inspector. Darrell asked the council how they were going to handle the water hookup, nearest connection being available near Western Farm Service. General consensus of the council was that new business is very needed in our community, but that the issues at hand should be investigated prior to approval of the application.

STREET
3rd Avenue Bridge: Craig reviewed the guardrail hand out given to council prior to the meeting. The existing guardrail would be removed, and the contractor would re-use as much of the material as possible. The Department of Transportation has approved this change order for the project, contingent of council approval, estimated increase to contract cost of under 5k. Rick made motion and second from Mike to accept the guardrail change order, motion carried. Craig advised that Basin Asphalt has plans to open plant the 1st week in March, and Tommer would then hop to complete the project by April 1st.

Main St. Reconstruction: Following the last council meeting, Craig discovered that the State has already gone to bid for grinding and shoulder widening work on SR2 from Wilbur to the West Lincoln County Line. Craig contacted their Contractor to find they are planning to begin this job the 1st of April. If the Town could go to bid immediately, the state project contractor would be in prime position for low bid, and also lower project costs for Main St. Craig brought preliminary plans for the council to approve before he could send them off to TIB for approval. An add alternate would be listed for grinding only in the event we run over budget. Craig asked Darrell if he would be able to again use the excess grindings, Darrell requested time to think about it. Craig has been conversing with Kimberly Gormley on the sign construction. The material given in her cost estimate is not to DOT spec. Craig offered the option to bolt her sign to a DOT spec sheet prior to erection upon 3 posts instead of the 2 shown on the sign cost estimate. The location of the sign will be back to the original location - across from B St. (Craig had offered the potential of placing the sign nearer to a DOT street lamp to access power to illuminate the Almira sign, but was denied the access from Eastern Region utility coordinator.) Landscaping currently consists of a gravel pad. Kimberly provided a cost estimate for a larger sign, which will be in the cost estimate. The council was indecisive if the smaller sign would actually be the better choice. The council chose to limit shoulder grading work so that it would not impact the existing fence line East of B St.

2nd Ave TIB application: (discussed after Cemetery Ordinance 407) A letter from the Transportation Improvement Board was received today notify that our application did not fall within the funding level for FY 2003 program. Points fell considerably compared to last years application under structural condition, due to the maintenance done on the roadway under the SCPP program in 2001.

SEWER - MONITORING WELL PROJECT
Craig advised the council that Department of Ecology has formally approved the project scope. The wells are drilled and phase 2 for the data collection will take place at regular intervals over the next 2 years. Darrell noted water was found in one well, which established the basis to drill 2 other wells for testing.

UTILITY RATES - ORDINANCE 407
Darrell reviewed meter readings he had taken daily from various size household and businesses. Darrell will provide a copy of the reading information to City Clerk as had been previously requested for the USDA water tower application. Council was unable to come to an agreement on changing to a metered billing system at this time. Further discussion of providing a concise billing definition under the current lot square footage was decided. Draft Ordinance 407 from 12-18-01 meeting was reviewed and additional language will be added to clearer define the billing guidelines, without drastically changing the number of lots any one resident is being under billed (main discrepancy will be a one lot increase, and a few by two lots). The precise language to provide a fair billing practice is difficult to produce, particularly in light of landowners on the outskirts of towns with large amounts of undeveloped land. Those that have not been under billed in the past will see a 1-2% increase across the board for water, sewer, garbage, and tax. Mike made motion to accept Ordinance 407 as amended, to be published and effective March 31st, second from Teri, motion carried.

INSURANCE
List o property and values was given to the council prior to the meeting. Notebook of photos and prior years changes was placed before the council to review at the meeting. Canfield and Associates has requested the review earlier this year than usual. In addition to inquiring for more information to satisfy the underwriter for Cities Insurance pool coverage. Darrell has reviewed the lists of the past few weeks and advised the council the loader ACV amount was too low. Teri made motion to keep the underinsured motorists coverage, decline the 3% construction increase on property, and to increase the ACV on the loader to 40k, second from Rick, motion carried.

Misc - CLAIMS - Resolution 180
A letter was received from the Lincoln County Auditor advising the council that RCW 4.96.010-.020 has been amended by EHB 1530, requiring each government entity to appoint an agent to receive claims for damages, and file that appointment with the County Auditor. Mike made motion to accept Resolution 180, second from Julie, motion carried.

ALMIRA COMMUNITY ACTION PLAN - Resolution 181
The US Forest Service grant to write community action plans for the Towns of Almira, Creston, and Wilbur were completed in December 2001, written and organized through public hearings held by Pam Kelly over the course of the last two years. Notebooks containing the plans were issued to the Mayor and Council at the January Council meeting, and additional appendixes distributed in the February meeting packet. Teri pointed out that the adoption of the Plan by the Council may additionally help future endeavors for funding in carrying out some of the plans for the Action Committee. Julie made motion to adopt the Almira Action Plan, second from Teri, motion carried.

CEMETERY - ORDINANCE 427
The rate sheet provided by Wilbert Vault did not stipulate the surcharge schedule for delivery to be for cemeteries not having vault or concrete liner regulations. Rick made motion to accept the corrected prices for Section 2 and Section 3 open and closing fees, second from Teri, motion carried.

Lincoln County Transportation Committee (ACCT)
Council previously mentioned the advertisement/survey for transportation had been republished, but did not have one change from the original survey. Referring back to the November 2001 meeting when representative Tim Birge attended county wide council meetings to inquire for changes in the survey to gain a better response, he since advised that Olympia funding authorities had no problem with the original survey and that costs to curtail to each communities needs for content would not be feasible. The current count for countywide response after both publications, as of January 10th , was still weak. Meeting notification was received for ACCT on January 14th in Davenport, anyone in the community wishing to be advised of future meetings should contact City Hall.

Lincoln County Emergency Management Plan
Wade delivered an Addendum to the plan and requested the council be advised. (The council adopted the plan under Resolution 166 in April of 2001)

REFUSE - Tipping Inquiry
A letter was received after packets had been distributed to council from Lincoln County Engineer, Bob Breshears. A copy of the letter was issued to the council at the meeting. The letter stated that the Davenport transfer station was going to be lowering rates and requested a response from the town about current contractual commitments for tipping, as well as future feasibility to haul to the transfer station. Council requested a response letter be drafted addressing the following issues: hauler costs, extra item fees such as tires, a/c, and hearings to receive public comments.

Building Permits / Utility Accounts
No building permits have been issued.

Council requested a little bit different approach be used in the future to for those who receive a pink slip: If the customer fails to contact city hall with a payment plan, service is to be shut off on the date specified on the pink slip notice.
9 pink slips were mailed on January 31st. 6 have made payment or payment arrangements. Of the 2 lien notices issued last month, only 1 was filed, for a total of 5 utility liens on file.

Pay Bills Claims registers were given to council prior to the meeting. Mike made motion to pay bills, second from Rick, motion carried. Treasurers Report was not available, council opted not to receive a copy in the interim.

Final January vouchers totaled $ 131,158.17 Warrants 5703, 5707 - 5740
Claims Clearing $ 127,547.72 Payroll Clearing $ 3,610.45

Preliminary February vouchers totaled $ 10,658.87 Warrants 5741 - 5761
Claims Clearing $ 6,016.81 Payroll Clearing $ 4,642.06

Meeting adjourned at 10:10 pm.

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