DRAFT ONLY.
Without council review or approval.
REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING
September 25, 2012
CALL TO ORDER:
Mayor Echanove called the Council Meeting to order at 7:02 PM.
ROLL CALL:
Council members present: Tim
Jones; Connie Newman; Bo Ossinger; Norm Schorzman; Alison Webb (7:04 – 9:30 pm);
Rick Wekenman. Absent: Cecil Floyd.
Councilmember Newman MOVED,
seconded by Councilmember Schorzman to excuse Councilmember Floyd. Motion carried unanimously. Also present: Public Works Superintendent Dwayne Griffin; Police
Chief Jerry Neumann; Clerk-Treasurer Joyce Beeson; & Deputy Clerk Ann
Thompson. Public present: Art Swannack; Pat O’Neill; Kelly Dow; Cathy
Blood; Connor Lamb; Heather McGehee; Garth Meyer; Aaron Flansburg; Doug
Willcox.
The Mayor stated
that he would be moving the agenda items around so as to accommodate a
conference call with Michael Stringer, MFA at 7:20. The order of business in the minutes may not
reflect the actual order of the meeting.
PUBLIC WORKS REPORT:
Supt. Griffin submitted a written
report. The Hayton Greene City Park
bathrooms are usually kept open, sometimes even through Thanksgiving, until the
weather turns to freezing. Public Works clocks
approximately 30 minutes a day of maintenance at the Heritage Park restrooms.
POLICE REPORT: Palouse Day was successful, no problems.
At the
encouragement of the mayor, Chief Neumann has been working on finding
cost-savings for the PD office phone and fax.
He’s hoping to drop that bill from $145/mo to about $60/month. Chief is also looking at cell phone programs,
possibly eliminating city’s involvement in officers’ & chief’s cell phones
and instead giving officers a stipend towards cell phone. There is an estimated potential savings of
$600 per year.
JFB REPORT: Fire
Dept. had two calls in August, 24 YTD.
The dept. has investigated liability insurance options; nothing has
panned out. They’re going to stay with
their current carrier. Chief Bagott has
been working on a capital budget.
Airpacks have a lifespan of 15 years and ours will be up in 2018. That will be a $40,000+ project when it’s
time to replace them. By planning ahead
and getting a capital plan in place, they’ll be able to address these issues
when they arise.
EMS had 4
calls in August, 28 YTD. The newly
purchased ambulance has not yet had work done (decals, mechanical) so it’s not yet
been used.
OLD BUSINESS:
AWC regional
meeting in Pullman Oct. 18th.
Focusing on legislative priorities.
Council is encouraged to attend.
NEW BUSINESS:
MFA final phase
clean-up contract & MFA additional soil removal proposal:
MFA’s Michael Stringer (via telephone) and Connor Lamb (present),
updated council on the progress of soil remediation at the Brownfields
site. 90% of the planned-to-remove soil
has been removed so far. DOE has come
out on a regular basis to provide regulatory oversight; they’re very
complimentary of everything so far. As
we go through the cleanup the state requires you take samples along the
sidewalls and bottoms of the excavation.
On the north side, levels are still above cleanup levels so the state is
asking us to continue excavation further along that side. We’re limited on the south side by concrete
and rip rap that was installed in the 80’s.
PSC’s contract bid was on the estimated weight of the soil. We’re less than estimated because of the
physical restraints so we’re under budget.
Therefore, the additional 500 tons of soil that need to be excavated on
the northern half of the property can be done without additional costs. DOE has agreed that the exceeded levels of lead
in the soil pose no migration hazard. Discussion
continued on the clean-up progress.
Action items
presented were –
Change
Order request: PSC encountered an underground storage tank
(UST) located at the front side of the former garage building. The UST was approximately 500 gallons in
size, appears to contain approximately 75 gallons of water with a small amount
of residual product on top. The UST was
immediately stabilized and contained.
DOE staff was notified and standard tank closure procedures are being
followed to clean and remove the tank.
Since the tank wasn’t in the scope of work for PSC, with no line item
was in the budget, PSC put forward a change order for $5,000. We still have $115,000 left in the budget
including accounting for this change order.
Councilmember Newman MOVED
to approve Change Order #2 from PSC for $5,000.
Councilmember Ossinger seconded.
Motion carried unanimously. The
tank discovery has not slowed down progress.
MFA
Contract for Clean-up Action Budget Re-allocation: There are two reasons for the need for this
additional contract with MFA –
1. Allocate
budget for costs of confirmation sampling and installation of 3 groundwater
monitoring wells; and
2. Additional
funding for professional services – MFA was able to lower the costs of soil
disposal by developing an approach to handling and treating contaminated soil
which then allows disposal in a standard landfill rather than a hazardous waste
facility. The project savings may exceed
$100,000. MFA had to invest more
resources into the design process and requires additional oversight during the
actual cleanup.
The budget
and scope of work for this contract with MFA are outlined as follows:
Task 1. Confirmation
Sampling during clean-up; Field Screening by MFA engineer on-site
using specialized equipment; Waste Profiling in which areas of high lead
contamination will be managed separately from other soil during clean up. Cost: $39,100
Task 2. Groundwater Monitoring Well Installation which
includes the installation of 3 monitoring wells and provides for MFA oversight
to ensure they meet the Remedial Action Plan specifications. Currently they are contracted for collecting,
analyzing and reporting for one year.
Cost: $35,800
The budget
re-allocation total is $74,900 and will be covered 100% through the
grants. This does not increase the grant
amounts, but rather, re-allocates the budget.
Councilmember
Wekenman MOVED, seconded by
Councilmember Newman, allowing Mayor to enter into an agreement with MFA for
groundwater monitoring wells for total of $74,900. Motion carried. After all this, we still have $115,000 left in
the grant’s budget.
2013
Budget Review:
Review of
the 001 Current Expense and the 103 Cemetery Funds:
In the long
run, we need to trim about $25k. For
many years, just like every other city, expenses have exceeded the
revenues. The 2013 budget is based on
returning the 3% staff gave up last year.
Mayor read through the preliminary 2013 budget estimates line-by-line. Some of the cost savings in 2013 will come
from the employees changing to a different health insurance provider and
increasing the amount of deductible we now have on our property and liability
insurance.
Shoreline
Management Plan 2013:
Washington State
is developing a shoreline management plan for all shorelines. Each year the legislature allocates money to
each county for this process. Washington
is putting it into their 2013 Whitman County budget.
Alan
Thompson, Whitman county planner, contacted Palouse about possibly pooling our
resources with the other 6 communities - Colfax, Rosalia, Malden, Tekoa, Palouse,
Pullman, and Whitman County. If we join
them, one single contractor would be hired, and a master plan developed through
the shared resources. Since each community
may deal with different classifications of shoreline, the engineer will also
work with each separately. The county
will probably be the lead agency but that has not been confirmed at this
point. Funding will become available
July 1, 2013, and they would like to have this group in place, ready to hire a
contractor and start the process. Palouse
will need to select a council person as our liaison and also an alternate. This is a funded mandate. Grouping together worked well with the
Hazardous Mitigation Plan and the Critical Areas Ordinance. It’s an opportunity for shared resources and
ideas. Our current Shoreline Plan is old
and this update will be a state mandate at some point. Council will discuss this further at next
meeting.
COMMITTEE REPORTS/REQUESTS:
Water
& Sewer-Connie Newman, Chair: A change since the last meeting in developing
the Water System Plan (WSP) - The DOH wants their second review period
and approval to happen before it goes back to council for review. The DOH could take up to 90 days for this
review. The meeting in which the public
is invited to review the WSP is scheduled for 6:00 PM October 9th
before the council meeting. Angela
Taylor from Taylor Engineering will be there to answer questions along with
Councilmember Newman and any others from council and staff who can make
it.
Sewer
Extension Policy (SEP)
– Atty Bishop has responded with his thoughts on the SEP. A committee meeting is planned for Monday,
Oct. 1st to continue discussion of the WSP and review Atty Bishops’
comments on the WEP.
Parks,
Cemetery, & Buildings-Alison Webb. Chair: no report
Policy
& Administration-Bo Ossinger, Chair: no report
Streets
& Sidewalks-Cecil Floyd, Chair: no report
Personnel
& Pool-Tim Jones, Chair: no report
Police,
Fire, & Safety-Rick Wekenman, Chair:
no report
Finance,
Property, & Equipment-Norm Schorzman, Chair: no
report
OPEN FORUM:
Kelly Dow
and Kathy Blood,
volunteer swim team coaches for Palouse this year. Thanked the city for continued support of
supplying the facility and providing lifeguards for the Palouse Swim Team. There were 17 kids on the team this summer. They expressed the value of the program and
its positive affects on the kids and the community. Read aloud a letter from a swim team parent thanking
city staff, lifeguards, and coaches.
Aaron
Flansburg. Update on his efforts to head up the Palouse skate
park. Aaron has had several
meetings. He has started a
fundraiser. There will be a “learn to
skateboard” clinic this Saturday at 10 am in the Palouse Park. He is continuing to try to raise awareness
and funds. He would like to work with city
on the contribution of ground available for the skate park. The land adjacent to the compost site has
been mentioned as a possibility. He
would explore that further through the SEPA process for any possible
impacts.
Pat
O’Neill. Whitman County Commissioner District 2,
seeking second term. Thankful for last
term and discussed some of his accomplishments as commissioner.
Art
Swannack. Candidate for District 1 Whitman County Commissioner. Born and raised in Whitman County. From Lamont.
Introduced himself and discussed his years of various service and
experience.
MAYOR’S REPORT:
DOE, with the work of Public Works,
has been monitoring the water temp in Palouse River above and below our
effluent going into the river. DOE is developing
an action program to drop the temperature of our effluent going into the
river.
ALLOW PAYMENT OF BILLS: Councilmember
Schorzman MOVED that the
bills against the city be allowed.
Councilmember Jones seconded the motion and the motion carried
unanimously.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Councilmember Jones requested the minutes of 9/11/2012 be amended as
follows:
Under
Police Report: Councilmember Jones questioned asked why the light pole flags were flown on Main St today and who is responsible
for deciding when and how they are
flown. Chief Neumann said the flags are
up commemorating the eleventh anniversary of 9/11 and that the Palouse Lions
Club own owns and hang
hangs the flags. Councilmember Jones expressed his personal
concerns over the protocol appropriateness
of the decision to fly the light pole
flags for this occasion. Councilmember Jones’ line of inquiry was
interrupted by an unsolicited comment from the audience and he ceased his
request for clarification.
Under
Committee Reports: Councilmember Jones expressed his unhappiness
with reactions and comments the
unsolicited comment from a non-councilmember made when he raised his
concerns over the flying of the light
pole flags on 9/11. He reiterated
that he is a patriot who loves his country and considers himself as patriotic as the next guy but believes
that the decision to fly the flags on
the lamp poles, in the manner they were flown on 9/11 commemorating the
blunder and victimization by our government is was a mistake.
Councilmember
Schorzman MOVED to adopt the amended
minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of September 11, 2012. Councilmember Jones seconded the motion and
the motion carried. Rick Wekenman
abstained as he was not present at 9/11/12 council meeting, and Alison Webb was
not present for tonight’s motion.
ADJOURN:
Councilmember Newman MOVED
to adjourn. Councilmember Jones seconded
the motion and the motion carried unanimously.
The council meeting adjourned at 9:48 PM.
The following
checks are approved for payment:
Claims Paid Ck.
#4324-4343 & EFTs $145,259.33
APPROVED:
________________________________
ATTEST: ________________________________
