Fairfield, Washington
REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING
APRIL 3, 2012
7:00 P.M.
Note to persons reviewing this document: This is not a verbatim transcript. While an attempt has been made todocument pertinent points, these minutes contain only a summary of the discussion and voting.
Mayor Huber called the regular council meeting to order on April 3, 2012 at 7:00 pm. Council members present: Harry Gibbons, Mary Branon, George Davidson, Valerie Spurrell and Brian Kauffman.
Others present: Randy Noble of TD&H, Dave Patterson of Empire Disposal, Mary & Tony Sparks, Derek Knecht and Cheryl Loeffler.
Approval of Minutes
ACTION
Mary Branon motioned to approve the March 20, 2012 regular council minutes and March 26, 2012 special council meeting as presented, seconded by Valerie Spurrell. The motion carried. Harry Gibbons and Brian Kauffman abstained from voting.
ACTION
Approval of the Claims
Brian Kauffman motioned and Valerie Spurrell seconded to approve claim vouchers #16596 through #16605 for $7,724.67 and EFTs for $4,918.29 as presented. The motion carried.
Claims: $ 7,264.69
Payroll: 5,378.27
Total Claims: $12,642.96
Check Register signed by: Mary Branon and George Davidson.
ACTION
Mary motioned to excuse Brian Kauffman from the March 20 regular council meeting and March 26 special council meeting and Harry Gibbons from the March 26 special council meeting. The motion carried. Harry and Brian abstained from voting.
Guest:
Dave Patterson from Empire Disposal presented the recycling program that Empire Disposal is offering to Fairfield. A 30 cubic yard roll off cart would be left at a designated site in Fairfield for the residents to place their recyclables. The cart would be monitored and Empire Disposal would be notified when it is full. For this size of cart, he anticipates having to empty it every other month, but it would just depend on the community’s use of it. The cost to the town would be $175 whenever it is dumped. The material is taken to Spokane Recycling and they will give Fairfield a rebate of $10 per ton.
Dave explained that the material list has expanded significantly over the years and demonstrated what material is acceptable for recycling. He did note that Spokane Recycling does take glass, which is not taken by all of the processors.
Ed asked about having easy access to a bin that is 7' high. Dave commented that other communities have built steps with a platform along the entire length of the bin. He also suggested that another possibility would be to have set hours that the site is open and have someone there to help do the dumping.
The question about boundaries and the different providers that have come forward to offer recycling. Dave explained that garbage is regulated by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) and each garbage company has its own territory. Empire Disposal’s territory includes most of Whitman County and some of SE Spokane County. The way that this recycling is set up is “commercial”, which is not regulated by the WUTC, so any company can come in to a community as long as they are not going house to house or curbside. He also explained that the cost would be tremendous to provide curbside recycling for Fairfield.
Some citizens have been concerned that when Fairfield does provide recycling and people would need smaller garbage containers that Empire Disposal would increase the garbage rates to compensate for the lost revenue from Fairfield. Dave explained that areas are all lumped together and that the garbage rates are regulated by the WUTC. This means that the garbage rate cannot be increased in one community and not any of the others in that area. The lost revenue has already been factored into Empire’s budget.
Ed explained that Fairfield wants to recycle and the council wants to make sure that whichever company is the provider that we get the most benefit from our dollar but also that the cost is not prohibitive. He went on to explain that at first the cost was going to be passed on to the citizens but that now, the cost will be absorbed into the budget by using the utility tax that has already been implemented. There will not be any fee increase to the citizens. Suzanne Tresko is working on a grant to be submitted to the Department of Ecology for recycling.
The timeframe that Empire would be looking at is that after the Town makes the selection, Empire could be in place within a month.
Cheryl will prepare a comparison worksheet of what the three companies are offering so the council can make an informed decision.
Engineer’s Report
Century West
Sewer System Improvement Project
Century West sent the contract amendment and scope of work for the construction management (cm) portion of the 2011 CDBG Sewer Project for approval. The budget on the CM is based upon the value listed in the grant application.
ACTION
Mary motioned to accept Amendment #1-Construction Engineering Scope of Work for the 2011 Sewer Improvement Project.
Notification was received that Amendment #1 to the subrecipient agreement had not been fully executed and needed the mayor’s signature. This amendment was originally approved and signed in December of 2011.
TD&H
Bid advertisement
Approval from TIB came with authorization to advertise so Randy prepared the bid advertisement for The Exchange to be printed April 6 and 20 with the bid opening May 1st at 1:30. Randy will make the recommendation for award at the council meeting that night. Physical construction cannot start until June 18.
TD&H will make sure all the documentation for the contractor is in order.
OLD BUSINESS
Water ordinance
The council went over the draft water ordinance that was combination of various ordinances. Cheryl will rework the draft and have it ready for the first reading at the next council meeting.
Community Center
Liberty School District is more than happy to help with the publications of the youth activities. Bill Motsenbocker will be the contact there. The last two weeks have had a good turnout for these activities.
Light fixture replacement bid
Platt Electric was unable to provide a bid for replacement fixtures by the meeting tonight. This was tabled until next meeting.
Facebook
Cheryl and Valerie have Facebook up and running. Suggestions are welcome for things to put on it. There is a training session June 22 that Cheryl would like to attend. It was suggested that Val attend also.
ACTION
Mary motioned to approve two training tuitions for the Facebook training session June 22, 2012; seconded by Harry. The motion carried.
NEW BUSINESS
Bankruptcy and utility payments
The previous owner of 314 E Main declared bankruptcy and included the Town of Fairfield’s utilities in the bankruptcy. When the house sold, the utilities were not included in the short sale so there is $521.50 that is uncollectible. The Town does not want to pass these fees onto the new homeowner.
ACTION
Mary motioned to write off $521.50 uncollectible sewer utility fees from 314 E Main due to declared bankruptcy; seconded by Brian. The motion carried.
Post Office Furnace Ducts
The staff at the Fairfield Post Office has been experiencing many allergy problems when the furnace runs. They are requesting to have the furnace air ducts cleaned professionally. Derek said that the regular maintenance schedule to change the filters is twice a year. Cheryl will get three bids. The Post Office reserve fund will be used for this.
Cemetery mowing contract
Two bids were received for the 2012 mowing of the Fairfield Cemetery. Ed explained to the council that the west side of the cemetery is mowed every other time so the contract needs to be awarded based on the low bidder for the east side. In this case, there is $50 difference between the two bids on the east side. The budget for this contract is not to expend $2650.
John Jesseph Devin Knecht
East side mowing $150 East side mowing $200
West side mowing $150 West side mowing $100
Entire cemetery $250 Entire cemetery $250
ACTION
Brian motioned to award the 2012 Fairfield Cemetery mowing contract to John Jesseph for $150 east side, $150 west side, $250 entire cemetery; seconded by Valerie. The motion carried.
Regional Arbor Day
Garth Davis at Spokane Conservation District is inviting the mayor, council and everyone else that is interested to a Regional Arbor Day event, Friday April 27th from 9:30 till noon at the Conservation District (210 N. Havana). There will be a short presentation followed by a representative of the DNR presenting the Tree City USA awards to all of the communities in the county who have earned them. There will be a tree planting ceremony to follow the awards. Ed, Mary and Cheryl will plan to attend. Fairfield just received notification that we have been a Tree City for eight years.
Past Due Utility Accounts
The council was given a list of the past due utility accounts from the billing cycle ending 2-28-2012. Their recommendation is to put liens on the five accounts that are more than 90 days past due. A homeowner who has had their renter leave town without paying the utility bill states that they will pay the utility bill but is asking for forgiveness of the late charges that were assessed. The council agreed that there is no basis for waiving them. Cheryl will notify the homeowner that they are still responsible for the late fees.
Public Works Update
Water
Chlorine residuals are staying between .2 and .3
Have investigated many reported water leaks, most are due to high ground water levels. One actual leak being the homeowner’s responsibility and repaired by homeowner.
WWTF
Unusually high flows have overtaken flow limits at the effluent end. The permit level has been exceeded the last few days of March and the beginning of April. The E.Q. is at 80% capacity and D.O.H. has been notified and cleared our permit of fines.
U.V. lights have been serviced every two weeks. This has kept fecal coliforms to a minimum.
Newly enforced testing standards for fecal coliform sampling from Daniel Thompson W/ECY: Standard Method (SM) 9221.
Most labs are accredited for SM 9221. Under this method, you have a maximum of 6 hours from the time of collection until delivery to your lab. The lab then has a maximum of 2 hours after receipt to begin. The processing the samples. Sample Preservation. Fecal coliform samples must be held at a temperature >0° C and <10° C (>32° and <50° F). In other words, they need to be cold but not frozen. Also includes new chain of custody time lines and signature requirements. This means that the samples will need to be driven to Cheney instead of sending them through the mail.
Parks
Thiel Park restrooms are now open. The water valves were exposed and access risers were reset.
Branches and debris picked up from both parks.
Skate park and playground inspections have been done for April.
Roads
Repairing flood damage and washouts, potholes etc.
Gravel is being added to soft spots as needed around town.
Other: The metal has been picked up and installed on the doors at the Community Center.
Other:
Ed and Cheryl will look at the previous applicants that were interviewed for the deputy clerk position.
Brian and Valerie will help out with the Memorial Day Event, along with Ed. Cheryl will contact Cheryl Fulton-Fischer.
Review Complaints & Compliments
An email was received asking for clarification about the vandalism in the park and why new cameras were purchased. The minutes were vague about this because we did not want it known that two of the cameras were missing until they were replaced. There was no one identified stealing them.
Derek will contact Avista about installing a light to shine on the bridge and towards the parking lot in Thiel Park.
Adjourn
The regular meeting adjourned 9:27 pm.
______________ __________________________
Mayor Ed Huber Clerk/Treasurer Cheryl Loeffler
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