MEETING OF THE CITY OF CONNELL, WASHINGTON
CONNELL, FRANKLIN COUNTY, WASHINGTON

September 10, 2001

The regular semi-monthly meeting of the City Council of the City of Connell was called to order by Mayor Walton at 7:30 p.m. in the City Hall and was opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.

ROLL CALL

PRESENT:       Mayor Gary Walton, Councilmembers Roel Martinez, Monica Pruett, Jim Lobach and Perry Skoglund.

EXCUSED:      Councilmember Ron Boyer

STAFF:            City Administrator Art Tackett, Chief of Police Rick Rochleau, Public Works Director Pat Munyan, Deputy City Treasurer Jeri Reinauer and City Attorney Terry Tanner

VISITORS:      Dan Burgard, Cascade Earth Sciences and, Kathy Bingham, Franklin County Graphic.

CORRESPONDENCE/PRESENTATIONS/APPOINTMENTS

1)      Liquor Control Board -  1) American Legion gambling license for a fund                                         raising event
   
                           2) Quik Mart renewal of liquor license.

CONSENT CALENDAR

Councilmember Skoglund moved to approve the Consent Calendar as follows:

1)      Minutes of the August 27, 2001 Regular Meeting.  Councilmember Martinez seconded motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

CITIZEN COMMENT / NON AGENDA ITEMS

None

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Councilmember Skoglund moved to approve the agenda as presented.  Councilmember Pruett seconded motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

ORDER OF BUSINESS

PUBLIC HEARING - MARYETTE CAMP ANNEXATION

Mayor Walton opened the public hearing at 7:45 pm on the annexation for property belonging to Maryette Camp and continued the hearing to September 24th.

CASCADE  EARTH SCIENCE PRESENTATION – Dan Burgard

    CES, an environmental consulting company specializing in land application and waste and wastewaters. They were subcontracted by Anderson Perry to take a look at some of the land use applications for the area that was being looked at for a new industrial production facility that was interested in locating in Connell and the ramifications of a wastewater treatment plant for that facility. City Administrator Tackett and Jeff Bishop had traveled to Spokane to meet with CES previously and the current presentation is in response to that meeting.
   
Dan Burgard was present to give a brief rundown on what CES felt could be done to meet the needs of this project (Project GROW). One of the areas of concern was the financial impact of managing the wastewater from the facility.  Mr. Burgard’s presentation included a handout with information on the potential financing with an industrial non-recourse tax-exempt bond, (non-recourse meaning no debt load to the City), and a potential project structure.
   
Further discussion by council and staff were about the impacts of the need for fresh water to blend with the wastewater from the facility in order to meet the needs of diluting the salt load before dispersing the wastewater through a sprinkling system. One of the potential water options was utilization of irrigation water for a portion of that need. Art was directed to follow up with contact to the company to see if they are still interested in the Connell location for development.

WASTEWATER FACILITY- PROJECT UPDATE

Larry Seibel of Anderson Perry was not present to update the Mayor and Council on the progress of the projects and had given City Administrator Tackett some written information to share with council.

Schedule A – including the lift stations, gravity sewers and force mains. A pre-final inspection was held on Schedule A Tuesday and Wednesday last week.
    The standby generators were tested for automatic operation (during simulated power outage). Operation was excellent.
    The motor control centers and lift stations were tested for automatic operation. (Lead pump on, lag pump on, both pumps on, and lead/lag pump alternation.) The test runs were conducted by filling the wet well at Lift Station #4 with water, pumping it to Lift Station #5, thence to cell #1 of the lagoons. All systems checked out okay.
  
The contractor demonstrated how to remove and reset the submersible pumps.
   
A punch list of deficiencies was compiled. The contractor will correct them before acceptance.
   
The system will not be put into operation until it has been demonstrated that the Schedule B construction has been demonstrated. Then the work on both schedules will be tested simultaneously.

Schedule Bcomprised of lagoons, treatment plant and irrigation systems. The contractor is placing the concrete slabs at the treatment building entrances. The pipe is being constructed to the well site.
   
The well driller (Picatti Bros., Inc.) is scheduled to begin drilling the well this week. The well should take less than 2 weeks to drill.
   
The electrical sub-contractor (Farmer’s Electric) is wiring the interior of the treatment plant building. Equipment installation will commence when the interior of the building is wired, plumbed, and dry walled.
   
The fencing sub-contractor (Bent Creek Fence) is on site. The 8 foot tall fence is approximately 90% complete.
   
Big Bend Power is constructing the power transmission lines to the site. About half the power poles have been set.
   
Partial Pay Estimate No. 5 for Schedule B has been provided for your approval. The Contractor has not yet returned the signed copies. They should be received this week.
Motion:  Councilmember Pruett made a motion to accept Partial Pay Estimate No. 5 in the amount of $279,243.87 to Selland Construction as presented. Councilmember Martinez second. Motion carried unanimously.

WATER SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS - PROJECT UPDATE

Larry Seibel of Anderson Perry was not present to update the Mayor and Council on the progress of the projects and had given City Administrator Tackett some written information to share with council.

Phase I – Garfield Road Waterline extension.
   
Construction can’t be started before approval by the Department of Health is received. Art indicated that he had not been aware of the need to get plans in to the Department of Health and went to Spokane to deliver them by hand. He indicated that he and Larry still have some things to do in dealing with both the Department of Health and the Public Works Trust Fund. It will cause a delay in starting the project by a couple of weeks.

Phase II – Striker Addition system improvements.
    The preliminary plans are ready for an on-site joint review by the City and Anderson Perry. Mayor Walton will set up a time to get together with Larry Seibel to walk the neighborhood and visit with the residents that have structures or trees that are in the right of way for the water line.

ORDINANCE NO. 739 – Farm Annexation

    The farm is comprised of several different parcels and is not being annexed in its entirety, but only the parcels that are designated in the ordinance.
Motion:  Councilmember Lobach made a motion to adopt Ordinance No. 739. Councilmember Martinez second. Motion passed unanimously.

ORDINANCE NO. 740 – Amending Legal Description of Ordinance 738
    Mr. Tackett explained that the legal description had not been accurate on the original ordinance No. 738.

Motion:  Councilmember Lobach made a motion to adopt Ordinance No. 740 as presented. Councilmember Pruett second. Motion passed unanimously.

WATER RIGHTS - 
    City Administrator Tackett requested to have this item moved into executive session at the end of the meeting.

TRAFFIC SEPARATION AT POST OFFICE – Chief Rochleau
    Police Chief Rochleau presented the proposal received from Pavement Surface Control for the traffic separator for Franklin Street in front of the Post Office. There was some question about the cost that was written in the proposal. Pat indicated that he would check with the company about the cost proposal.

Motion:  Councilmember Lobach made a motion to go ahead with the traffic separator at no more than the presented cost of $3,116.00 plus tax. Councilmember Pruett second. Motion carried unanimously.

PAYMENT OF BILLS –

Councilmember Lobach made a motion to pay the payroll and bills in the amount of $356,986.12. Councilmember Skoglund seconded the motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

DEPARTMENT REPORTS

Police Report - Chief of Police Rick Rochleau.

1)                  Fall Festival – went pretty good. A couple of vehicle prowls and one assault, but  outside of that everything went pretty good.

2)                  Officer Turner returned to full active duty last week.

3)                  Officer Quinton is in his fifth week of the academy and doing well.

Public Works - Public Works Director Patrick Munyan

1)                  Had been working mainly on preparation for Fall Festival.

2)                  Contacted the railroad as requested and they did weld that plate back together that holds the concrete at the crossing and they are looking at getting a crew to replace the asphalt that is missing. Art talked with the railroad about the Clark Street crossing and that will be addressed during the Clark Street project.

3)                  Schedule A of the wastewater facility project had a two-day walk through for the pump testing and went pretty good.

4)                  Elm Street will be done in about four weeks. Now that Fall Festival is over most of the crew will be put on that project to get it done before cold weather sets in. There will be a need to remove some trees and shrubs out of the right-of-way in order to proceed.

City Administrator's Report - City Administrator Art Tackett

1)                  DNR – Art and the Mayor met with the Department of Natural Resources and then talked with a real estate person who will pursue this further.

2)                  PUD – the increase of energy costs are of concern and Art has contacted PUD to see if they will come up and do an energy efficiency analysis to see if the City can do anything further to save energy.

Mayor Walton’s Report – Mayor Gary Walton

1)                  Community Center – Mayor Walton would like to see the group that worked previously on the fee schedule for the community center to due to the increase of the energy costs, and to also look at the small church rental guidelines, load capacities and fee schedule and then bring the recommendations back to the council. Mayor Walton will see if Councilmember Boyer will be willing to participate.

Attorney Terry Tanner – nothing to report.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

The Mayor recessed the regular meeting at 9:50  p.m. to go into an executive session  for approximately 30 minutes, to discuss the purchase of property.

MEETING ADJOURNED

The regular meeting was called back into session after the executive session at 10:19 p.m. and the Mayor gave a brief update on the condition of Fire Chief Bob Koch and how well he is doing. There being no further business to be heard before the City Council of the City of Connell, Mayor Walton adjourned the regular meeting at 10:20 p.m.