Fairfield Town Council Minutes September 20, 2011

REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING

PRELIMINARY MINUTES

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

7:00 P.M.

Note to persons reviewing this document: This is not a verbatim transcript. While an attempt has been made to document pertinent points, these minutes contain only a summary of the discussion and voting.

The regular council meeting was called to order on September 20, 2011 at 7:00 pm by Mayor Pro-Tem Mary Branon. Mayor Huber is absent.

Council members present: Harry Gibbons, KayDee Gilkey, and Brian Kauffman.
Karrie Stewart is absent.

Others present: Doug Stumbough from Spokane County Library District, George Davidson, Derek Knecht and Cheryl Loeffler.

Approval of Minutes

Action

Harry Gibbons motioned to approve the September 6, 2011 minutes as presented, seconded by Brian Kauffman. The motion carried.

Action

Approval of the Claims
Claim vouchers #16356-16367 for $8,849.49 and EFTs for $1,301.17 were approved for payment as presented by Brian Kauffman; seconded by Harry Gibbons. The motion carried.

Claims: $ 7,532.11
Payroll: 2,618.55
Total Claims: $10,150.66

Check Registers signed by: Brian Kauffman, KayDee Gilkey and Harry Gibbons.

Guest speaker
Doug Stumbough from the Spokane County Library District gave a presentation on current services and future plans for Spokane County Libraries. He specifically talked about the Fairfield Library. An expansion of the Town’s library is tentatively planned for Phase II or around the year 2020. He listed some of the current services such as public access to Ancestory.com and References USA, reciprocal sharing with the Spokane
City Library.

Engineers Report
Progress payment #5
KayDee motioned to approve Progress Payment #5 for $213.18 to Century West for professional services with the Main/Ticknor Pedestrian Bridge project; seconded by Brian. The motion carried.

2011 Sewer Improvement Project
KJ Hanley from Century West reported that the Department of Ecology has not yet approved the plans for the 2011 Sewer Improvement Project as of 9-19-2011. He will let us know as soon as it is approved and the project can be put out for bids. This will be delaying the project possibly until spring.

TD&H
An invoice for engineering services from 7-1-2011 through 8-31-2011 for the East Main Rehabilitation Project was received from TD&H. The council reviewed this invoice and would still like more information provided on their invoices. In particular, what dates services were provided and what service.

OLD BUSINESS
Public works II position
Ten people have applied for the Public Works II position. The council and Derek reviewed the applications and selected four to interview. Mayor Huber and Derek will do the interviewing of these candidates.

Dance update
Everyone had fun at the dance and spaghetti feed on September 10. The health inspector came down and everything passed with flying colors. The band “Spare Parts” was great and easy to dance to plus not so loud that people could visit if they weren’t dancing.

There is talk about having another dance possibly the night of the Old Fashioned Christmas with the same band and snacks. For the first of these events, everything went very smoothly and about $50 was made.

Cheryl would like to thank everyone that helped put this together and especially to Bob and Becky Obernolte for suggesting that we do this activity.

NEW BUSINESS
Planning Commission
The Planning Commission recommends that the council approve Building permit #03-2011 for remodeling of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall.

ACTION

KayDee motioned to approve Building Permit #03-2011for the remodel of the Fairfield Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall; seconded by Brian. The motion carried.

2011 Preliminary Budget
The budget season is here again. The council would like to work on the budget as a group. The first budget workshop will be Thursday, October 13 at 6:30 at the Community Center. Cheryl asked for budget requests from public works and Town Hall.


Snowblowing
Don Dyer of the Fairfield General Store is thinking of purchasing a snowblower and possibly contracting with businesses for snowblowing their sidewalks. The council discussed this for the four sidewalks that the town is responsible for (Town Hall, Community Center, Museum and Library). Derek expressed that he will have the
help this year to keep the Town-owned sidewalks clear. The council decided that the Town itself is not interested in contracting for the snowblowing.

Public Works
Water
· Dave Tysz and Derek have started going over the process of water system required testing, documentation and wellhead protection etc.
· Dave with AAA Labs is going to be the Town’s next BAT (Backflow Assembly Tester) person and will be conducting backflow inspection and enforcement. He will be taking the place of Steve Herres.
· Nitrate testing on SO#1, SO#5 testing is due in October. Derek, Dave Tysz and Paul Savage of the Department of Health (DOH) will do the test.
· Water Use Efficiency (WUE) Report is being finished and transferred to computer from hard copy to be reported to the D.O.H.
· The one-inch water meter @ 404 N. Northridge Way was replaced because of a defective numerator.

WWTF
· “NO-DISCHARGE” has continued and will do so until the end of October. This will have the town well within discharge limits for the year.
· Approximately three cords of wood were deposited at the WWTF via Fairfield Care for possible auction.
· A coyote was stuck in the E.Q. basin. A ladder was placed to allow the animal a way out.

Parks
· Mowing has slowed to one time per week as opposed to every 4 days. Still behind in weed eating.
· Preparing to winterize/ adjusting sprinkler angles in Hart Park/ removal of debris and trash both parks.
· No vandalism to report. A broken swing was fixed. The security cameras have been money well spent.

Roads
· Locating and exercising valves for upcoming sewer project on Carlton Avenue.
· Filling in meter holes for winter/ taking down barricades
· Drainage project on Rattlers Run has been put on hold until next year. The Hussman Grant was approved but the funding will not be available early enough to get the project completed this year.
· Retro- Reflectivity for all road signs to be compliant by 2012 has been put off indefinitely due to budget shortfalls across the U.S. This will relieve municipalities from fines and penalties; signage should still be replaced if needed for safety.

Other:
RMSA has notified the Town that the carrier for property coverage has changed from Allianz to Lexington Insurance Company. Changes to the coverage include property terrorism coverage increased from $20 million to $250 million, Builder’s Risk sub-limit has increased from $5 million to $25 million and street lights are now included with a sub-limit of $100,000. There was no change in the premium.

Manager recruitments for liquor stores
Cheryl had asked for more information from the liquor control board on what Fairfield would need to do to get a liquor store in town. There are two types of stores. One is state owned and the other is contracted. If someone were interested in being a contract liquor store, his or her name would be placed on a list for further notification of recruitments. If anyone would like more information on this, please stop in at Town Hall and talk to either Cheryl or Alene.

Library Wireless Coverage
The county library system has received a grant for broadband service to connect all libraries in the State. In order to do this, a 30-foot tall pole with a 12-15 foot antenna on top of the pole needs to be placed in the backyard of the Fairfield Library. They are asking what requirements have to be met.

It will have to go through the Planning Commission. Mary will contact Frank Needham, the project coordinator and discuss this with him.

Planning Commission Vacancy
Mayor Pro-Tem Mary Branon appointed George Davidson to the Planning Commission.

Review Complaints & Compliments
9-12-2011 Dog continually barking at 201 N 2nd. **A letter with ordinance #346 and Fee Schedule sent.

Adjourn
The regular meeting adjourned 8:40 pm.
Mayor Pro-Tem Mary Branon      Clerk/Treasurer Cheryl Loeffler