"Minutes do not include corrections made to the Approved Minutes, and do not include Voided Warrants."
Mayor Micki Harnois brought the Public Hearing to order after the invocation was given by the Mayor herself and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited. Council members present were: Clint Stevenson, Steve Meyer, Jim Oshanick, Stan Seehorn and Thomas Smith. Public Works Operator John Goyke and Clerk/Treasurer Darlene LaShaw were also present.
Public Hearing
A Public Hearing was held for the Rockford Community Center’s Conditional Use Permit (CUP) located at 229 ½ S. First Street.
Bill Creed of the Planning Commission gave a report that the Commission recommended approval of the CUP at its recent meeting.
Mona Vanek asked if it the facility was wheel chair accessible. Councilman Clint Stevenson, owner of the building, spoke of the remodeling being done. When finished the facility will be accessible for wheel chairs.
Micki noted that the CUP will be for a two year period. It would be re-evaluated at that time.
With no further comments, the hearing was closed.
Council meeting
Mayor Micki brought the regularly scheduled Council meeting to order. All Council members and staff present for the hearing were present for the meeting as well.
CUP
Thomas made a motion to approve the Conditional Use Permit submitted by the Rockford Community Center. Stan seconded the motion; motion carried.
Minutes
Clint made a motion to approve the minutes of the February 16th meeting. The motion was seconded by Stan; motion carried.
Thomas made a motion to approve the minutes of the March 16th meeting. The motion was seconded by Clint; motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report
Darlene gave a report of the February 2011 Treasurer‘s report - $ 332,056.04 – all in funds.
TD&H
Randy Noble of TD&H was present to give an update of the Town’s two water projects.
The bid opening for the Well house addition project has been scheduled for Friday, April 15th at 3:00 pm at the Town Hall. It is anticipated that the project will be complete by the end of June.
Water reservoir – Randy brought the construction contract for Micki to sign. Mountain Crest will receive a Notice to Proceed. Work may begin after receiving the Notice. Due to the wet spring construction my not start until May. The project is expected to be completed by the end of October.
Micki will contact the neighboring residents of the reservoir project to get a consensus on the color of the tank.
Micki reported she had spoke with Walt Edelen of the Soil Conversation District. He had stated that more additional work on the stream bank needed to be done. Randy mentioned that a few trees that had been planted had died and he thought they should be replaced.
Randy had not spoken with Bacon Concrete concerning the water at the sidewalk by the park after rain storms. Randy believes Bacon has been out of town but he will continue to try to contact him.
Department of Emergency Management
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and Lisa Jamison were present to talk about the County’s Comprehensive Plan for its Emergency Management Plan. There are five elements of the plan. Gerry Bozarth, of the DEM who will be at the next meeting, will bring copies of the Comp plan, which are approximately 400 pages long. They would like all entities to adopt the plan by this fall.
Apart from the Emergency Management, Ozzie spoke a little about the Sheriff’s Department. He did inform the Council that if a house is red tagged and people are still residing in the home the Sheriff’s Department can help with the process of removing the people. He recommended placing a “No Trespassing” sign on the house at the time of placing the red tag. The individuals would then be trespassing. The Town can place a No Trespassing sign on the house even though it is not the Town’s property.
Ozzie further informed the Town that the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department is an accredited department. It has been since 1997.
Public Comments
Kathy Creed asked if it had been discussed by the Council if Clint would work on re –connecting the Catholic’s church’s water line for the meter box, located in the vacated lot north of the Parish Hall, to the main line on the north edge of Pacific Street. Micki mentioned there had not been any decision made.
Steve Meyer further spoke he had also been told by a few members of the Catholic Church that it had been decided that Clint had planned on replacing the line. Steve voiced that the Town could not do that without someone paying for the service. Steve wasn’t sure but he also thought that the hook up fee would also have to be paid again.
Vivian informed Steve that the RCC wasn’t expecting the service to be done for free.
Jack Bergstrom asked if anything was being done to the following locations:
· Yellow house at Spring and First St.
· Trailer house at Third and B Street
· House at First and B Street
They are all eye sores.
Mona Vanek was present to talk about the Town’s Web page issues. She handed out a paper that listed suggestions. She would like the Council to review the suggestions and consider them for the Town’s web site.
Mona also asked if she could obtain a digital copy of the Town’s logo to place it on her own web site page. Micki stated the Town would have to look at the legalities of giving out the Town’s logo.
Bill Creed asked if there were three men on the Town’s maintenance crew. Micki informed him that, no; the Town does not have three people.
Mayor’s Comments
Micki informed the Council that the company, Ecliptic, who had planned on placing a tower for high speed internet has not been in contact with the Town and may possibly loose its grant.
She announced that Art & Helen Grewe will be celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday the 9th of April.
Micki also handed out an article regarding the e cigarette that can no longer be sold to minors. Certain areas have adopted rules disallowing the sale of these cigarettes. She felt the Town might want to consider adopting a resolution.
Micki spoke with Tom Herres of Primeland regarding the fair loosing funding from the State after this year. Primeland would like to pay the fair what it will loose from the State.
Public Works
John spoke of an idea for the Council to consider not spraying for dust oil but spending money towards an overlay/seal coat project. Once a street had the overlay it would then be eligible for a pavement preservation program.
The Council had a drive about recently, listing projects that need to be worked on.
Steve Meyer spoke that North Street needs improvement but it would be difficult for the Town to receive a grant for the little amount of houses on the street.
John is still looking for information on a ditching bucket for the back hoe.
P&Z
Bill Creed of the Planning Commission reported that P&Z had recommended approval of Steve Higgens’ building permit for a house at 419 W. Emma, provided that a site map and the Town’s fee of $ 70.00 to be submitted to the Town. Darlene reported that both items had been submitted.
Jim made a motion to approve Steve Higgins’ building permit application. Stan seconded the motion; motion carried.
The Town had received one application to date for the vacant position on the Planning Commission. It had been submitted by Dan Braaten.
Clint made a motion to accept Dan Braaten to the Town’s Planning Commission. Steve seconded the motion; motion carried.
Bill Creed mentioned that Tim Fricke spoke of interest to be on the Commission. The Commission had previously spoken of the need of alternates.
Checks
Clint made a motion to approve and disperse checks # 10894 – 10929 in the amount of $ 33,477.41.
Stan seconded the motion; motion carried.
Payroll # 10894-10900 $ 6,840.90
Claims # 10901-10929 26,636.51
Total $ 33,477.41
Micki reported the Town will look into purchasing its own area rugs for the Town Hall to save on monthly fees for the use and services of the current rugs the Town has been using.
Old Business
Jim reported that he would like the drainage project in the park to be completed in June. He will make a drawing of the project and submit it to the Council to review.
He had asked if the grader could be taken to the park in the next few days to make a ditch to help drain the standing water by Willow Street.
New Business
Jim made a motion to approve the Memorandum of Understanding between the Town and the City of Spokane regarding chipping services provided by the City of Spokane. Thomas seconded the motion; motion carried.
Stan briefly spoke of the concern of non local people/businesses abusing the chipping services.
Micki reported that the Town received a donated pickup from Avista. A letter signed by each of the Council members will be sent to Paul Kimmell of Avista.
John briefly read through the inspection sheets of both the white and the gray Chevrolet pickups. It was the consensus of the Council to surplus both vehicles.
Meeting adjourned.
______________________________ ________________________________
Darlene LaShaw, Clerk Micki Harnois, Mayor
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