Palouse City Council
Regular Council Meeting
April 23, 2013
CALL TO ORDER:
Mayor Echanove called the Council Meeting to order at 7:02 PM.
ROLL CALL:
Council members present: Connie Newman,
Bo Ossinger; Norm Schorzman; Rick Wekenman.
Absent: Tim Jones & Alison
Webb. Also present: Public Works
Superintendent Dwayne Griffin; Attorney Bishop (7:24); Police Officer Joe
Merry; Clerk-Treasurer Joyce Beeson; & Deputy Clerk Ann Thompson. Councilmember Ossinger MOVED to excuse both councilmembers’ absences. Councilmember Newman seconded. Motion carried unanimously. Public present: Brad Pearce; Alexis Maxwell; Scott Kent;
Patti Green-Kent.
The City
received a letter of interest from Brad Pearce for the vacated council position
#4. He gave a brief introduction about
himself. Council then asked him a few
standard interview questions.
Councilmember Newman MOVED,
seconded by councilmember Wekenman, to go into executive session at 7:15
pm. Motion carried unanimously. All of council as well as Atty. Bishop and
Officer Merry went into executive session.
7:31 pm came out of executive session.
Council has decided to keep the position open but reminded Brad that he
can file for candidacy in this year’s election.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Under Police Report, change “WSU cycling event” to “intercollegiate
cycling event”. Councilmember Schorzman MOVED to adopt the amended
minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of April 9, 2013. Councilmember Wekenman seconded the motion
and the motion carried unanimously.
PUBLIC WORKS REPORT:
Submitted a written report.
Supt. Griffin
spoke with the Playtex Company and the Kleenex Company about their “flushable”
products which cause problems at the sewer plant. Don called Wilson Engineers regarding this
same problem (built our sewer plant 18 years ago). They said this is a common plight they’re
seeing these days. One of the solutions
may be a transducer type control instead of the ball floats. Transducers hang on the line and read the
pressure in the container. That’s what
we use in our water reservoir.
Supt. Griffin
and the Mayor met with Avista and TIB about converting the street lights to
LED. Avista is looking into joining up
with TIB. TIB is ready to go, while
Avista still has some issues to work out.
TIB and the city could move ahead with the city owned lights on Main St.
and Whitman St. Mill Street in Colfax
has the new LED technology and they went from paying $4.00 a month per light to
$.85. This is not a grant. Palouse is one of seven cities in the state
selected for this pilot project. Talk of
beginning the project in 2013 or 2014.
POLICE REPORT: No
bids came in on the Harley. Officer
Merry asked if we should lower the opening bid to $8,000. The bike can’t be purchased on the market for
less than $13,000. Council wants to just
be patient and maintain the price at $10,000.
Bike race was
excellent. No injuries. Everything went well.
JFB REPORT:
6 fire calls
in March, 7 ytd. Chief Bagott is putting
specs together for equipment through the wildland equipment grant we were
awarded. We could have gear by
mid-June. On the city end of things, we
need to start a discussion about new fire equipment. One vehicle is approaching the 30 year old
mark which is the point we need to start replacing with newer equipment. Police, Fire, & Safety Committee will put
a plan together.
3 EMS calls
in March, 15 ytd. They need funding to
try and obtain a new heart monitor device called an AED. AEDs are in the $25,000-$30,000 range for a
good used one. The one they have
currently is an antique. The newer
version is standard equipment in all the regular ambulances. No major financial concerns at this
point. Need to meet with Pullman this
spring to hash out the new ambulance contract for 2014.
The
retirement party for Gloria Hodges was a big success. She voluntarily served for 28 years. Her position as EMS Coordinator is going to
be filled by three of the existing long-term volunteers: Lisa Fisher, Annie Pillers, & Terrie
Teare. They’re looking for more local
EMS volunteer
OLD BUSINESS:
Regarding
having a high school student on council, students can’t be an official
councilperson unless they’re 18 and a legal, registered voter. Councilmember Newman is proposing a
volunteer, six-month, student advisory council position (non-voting), from
mid-June to mid-December. She thinks
they could be a valuable asset with a unique perspective. The student could do this for a senior
project. Connie will work with Attorney
Bishop to write a resolution to get this program started.
NEW BUSINESS:
1st
Q 2013 Treasurer’s Report: No surprises at this point and no budget
amendments needed. The 2013 beginning balance in Fund 401 water
is $25,000 higher than 2012’s beginning balance. Councilmember Newman MOVED, seconded by Councilmember Schorzman, to adopt the 1st
Q 2013 Treasurer’s Report as written.
Motion carried unanimously.
COMMITTEE REPORTS/REQUESTS:
Finance,
Property, & Equipment-Tim Jones, Chair:
Streets
& Sidewalks-vacant chair:
Water
& Sewer-Connie Newman, Chair: Will be touring the sewer plant later this
month.
Policy
& Administration-Bo Ossinger, Chair:
Personnel &
Pool-Norm Schorzman, Chair: 2013 season was set. Lifeguards will begin work on the June 20th
for a June 21st opening.
Closing August 18th.
Swim lesson dates were set. The
third session will be based on guard availability. May 17th is deadline for lifeguard
applications. Rachel Witthuhn will be
returning again as manager this year.
Based on pay cuts taken by city staff, no pay increases for pool staff.
The L & I
rules and regulations to switch the chlorine tanks have become so restrictive
that it just isn’t worth it so we switched from gas to pellets.
Parks,
Cemetery, & Buildings-Alison Webb, Chair: Skatepark
update: There is no record of ownership,
transfer of title, or deed of the vacated street between the tennis court and
the school playground. City owns from
the center of the vacated street to the east and the school owns from the
center of the vacated street to the west.
So both the school and the city could deed that for the construction of
the skatepark. Aaron Flansburg is going to
talk to the adjacent homeowners to see if they have concerns. The school board needs to realize that Aaron
is building this and it’s independent of the city. There are city and Avista utilities in there
so both will need access.
Police,
Fire, & Safety-Rick Wekenman, Chair: Committee met
with Chief Neumann, Mayor Echanove, and the Mayor of Garfield, to discuss the
Garfield police contract. We currently
receive $70,000 annually from Garfield for policing services. Contract is being considered for four more
years, with an 8% gradual increase: 2%,
4%, 2%, 0%. This raise basically covers
the cost of living increase. This will
go to the Garfield board before coming back to the Palouse council for final
approval.
MAYOR’S REPORT:
Liquor Board request for a wine tasting tour June 22, 2013, at three
different homes. Event is a fundraiser
for the Palouse Community Center and runs from 11 am – 8 pm. By default this passes unless council
objects. There were no objections.
Street
closure agreement with WSDOT for annual Rat Rod show June 1, 2013. Councilmember Newman MOVED, seconded by Councilmember Wekenman, to sign the
agreement with WSDOT. Motion carried
unanimously.
Mayor is
meeting tomorrow with DOE, Public Works, and Water/Sewer Chair to discuss water
temperatures above and below the wastewater treatment plant. Mayor read aloud the abstract of what the
meeting is about.
ALLOW PAYMENT OF BILLS: Councilmember
Schorzman MOVED that the
bills against the city be allowed. Councilmember
Wekenman seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.
ADJOURN:
Councilmember Ossinger MOVED
to adjourn. Councilmember Newman
seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. The council meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM.
The following
checks are approved for payment:
Claims Paid Ck. #4811-4829 & EFT $10,245.69
APPROVED:
________________________________
ATTEST: ________________________________
Two and a half years ago, when I had my daughter Grace, I
became the first member of Congress to give birth twice while in serving in
office. 
