MEETING OF THE CITY OF CONNELL, WASHINGTON
CONNELL, FRANKLIN COUNTY, WASHINGTON
ABSENT:
Councilmember Jim Lobach
STAFF:
City Administrator Art Tackett, Chief of Police Rick Rochleau, Public
Works Director Pat Munyan, and City Clerk-Treasurer Joan Eckman
VISITORS:
Larry Seibel, Anderson, Perry; Kathy Bingham, Franklin County Graphic;
Irma Guzman Morehouse; Megan Wylie and
Kelly Thornock, Connell High School government class students; Frank Sanchez and
Refugio Bernal, Jr., Custom Cruisers club.
CORRESPONDENCE/PRESENTATIONS/APPOINTMENTS
1)
Safe Kid Coalition reception on October 2nd at 4:30 – 6:30
p.m. at the Richland Red Lion Inn located at 802 George Washington Way. RSVP
required.
2)
AWC workshop – Mayor Walton to attend and invites any council members
to attend also.
3)
Resolution 2001-399 – Franklin County Board of Commissioners
Condemning
the cowardly and deadly actions of terrorists that attacked the United States;
supporting the President of the United States as he works with the National
Security Team to defend against additional attacks; and recommending support
relief efforts by giving blood.
4)
Red Cross blood drawing scheduled for October 2nd in Connell.
CONSENT
CALENDAR
Councilmember
Skoglund moved to approve the Consent Calendar as follows:
1)
Minutes of the August 27, 2001 Regular Meeting.
Councilmember Pruett seconded motion.
Motion carried unanimously.
CITIZEN
COMMENT / NON AGENDA ITEMS
Frank Sanchez and Junior Bernal approached council with a request to help
sponsor the Connell club, “Custom Cruisers”, as they had qualified a car for
the Las Vegas car show scheduled for October 7th. Connell would be
listed as a sponsor on the trailer that will haul the car to the show. They
indicated that Lamb Weston helps to sponsor them also. Mayor Walton indicated
that he would add the request as an agenda item for the evening since they
needed an answer fairly quickly due to time constraints.
Mayor Walton thanked the high school
students for their interest and also thanked Irma Morehouse for showing an
interest in the council business and informed those present that she is a
candidate for council position #4. Gary explained that the voted would not be
certified until Friday.
Mayor Walton also advised council that the bid for the
traffic divider in front of the post office was actually $2,116.00 plus tax. It
had been approved at the previous meeting.
APPROVAL
OF AGENDA
Mayor
Walton added additional agenda items as follows:
13
(a) Custom Cruisers
13
(b) Building Repair and Condemnation Fund
13
(c) Budget Dates set for Public Hearing and Finance Committee meeting.
Councilmember
Pruett made a motion to approve the agenda as amended. Councilmember Martinez
seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
PUBLIC HEARING - MARYETTE
CAMP ANNEXATION
Mayor Walton continued
the public hearing to October 8th, as there was no action necessary
at the present time.
WASTEWATER FACILITY-
PROJECT UPDATE
Larry Seibel of Anderson
Perry was present to update the Mayor and Council on the progress of the
project.
Schedule
A – Apollo has not taken care of the problems on the punch
list that was supplied to them. The work will not be accepted until all the
items on the list are completed. There will also be a “one year punch” list
generated after one year of operation for any further repairs that are
necessary.
Schedule B –
The power transmission line has been completed to the treatment
plant site. Work is continuing on the treatment plant building. They are getting
ready to build the curbs around the building. It has been determined that there
should be some insulation installed inside the walls in the office, restroom and
the electrical room. It had not previously been considered, but Larry thinks it
is a good idea. He will need to get approval from DOE, but feels there should be
no problem with that. The insulation will also help as a noise barrier. The
proposed price for doing this was $2,100.00 and will not create a problem of
overspending on the project, as there have been very few change orders.
Motion:
Councilmember Pruett made a motion to approve the change order to add
insulation in the walls of the treatment plant building in the amount of
$2,100.00. Councilmember Martinez second. Motion carried unanimously.
WATER SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS - PROJECT UPDATE
Larry Seibel of Anderson Perry was
present to update the Mayor and Council on the progress of the project.
Phase
I – Garfield
Road Waterline extension.
Phase
II – Striker Addition system improvements. The
water main layout was reviewed with the Mayor this afternoon. For the most part
the layout is acceptable, however there are a couple of areas in question that
will need extra planning. The idea is to try and stay behind the existing curbs,
as that will be a lower cost than disturbing the street. Some residents have
extended their yards out to the curb even thought the city has a fifteen foot
easement behind the curb. Third Street is the main street having most of the
layout problems and will affect approximately four homes. The Mayor will be
contacting individual residents and will visit with the residents that have
structures or trees that are in the right of way for the water line. There will
also be some fire hydrants changed and others added.
CITY HALL ROOF REPAIR – Public Works Director Pat Munyan
Pat informed
council that he had contacted another contractor today and that the bid had come
in a lot lower than the original bid of $35,000.00. The new bid was received
from a firm outside of Portland in an estimated amount of $15,500.00 plus tax.
It is with a different type of material and comes with a fifteen-year guarantee.
The contractor said without seeing the roof that he figures he would still be
within $1,000.00 of the cost. The bid only takes care of the office part of city
hall and does not include the carport portion. Pat indicated that if we have to
wait a year on that it would still be okay as it is a different type of
application. The city crew can patch it if necessary, but eventually it will
need to be done also.
City Clerk-Treasurer informed council
that the money was not available at this time, but that the cost was going to be
included in the budget amendment proposal for the next meeting on October 8th.
The drainpipe, which drains the water
from the roof, also needs to be replaced and that is being looked at for
possible options of material and placement.
Motion:
Councilmember Skoglund made a motion to proceed
with the bid of $15,500.00 plus tax to repair the roof on the city hall.
Councilmember Pruett second. Motion carried unanimously.
GOLF COURSE – Business and Operation Plan
Mr. Tackett received the draft of
the business and operations plan in his office available for anyone interested
in looking at it. First Golf wants to come out and take a look at the site. The
surveying and layout of the course should begin some time
this week or the first of next week at the latest. Then Mr. Gunderson from First
Golf will come up and take a look at the layout and walk it. Then Art and he
will sit down and do a little finer tuning on his numbers, which have come in a
little higher than what is probably feasible. After that has been done he will
come back to council with the plan and new numbers.
Mayor Walton indicated that he had
signed a $2,000.00 contract with Worley Surveying which will allow the fine
tuning for laying out the greens and tees for the golf course. Mayor Walton also
shared that there has been a lot of interest generated for housing lots and he
feels that the layout of housing areas needs to be included as soon as possible
for both manufactured and stick built areas.
Councilmember Boyer requested that the
layout be reduced down as a handout for disbursement to anyone interested. Mr.
Tackett indicated that he would do that as soon as the layout had been firmly
established.
WATER RIGHTS – City Administrator Art Tackett
Mr. Tackett said
that he had talked with George Slender who is the person that handles the water
rights for the east ecology region, which includes Franklin County. Right now
each well has its own separate water right attached to that well and it was
suggested that the city get those cleared from that and then it becomes an area
wide service area. Larry Seibel is currently in the process of going through all
the water rights and re-writing them. They will then be brought before council
for perusal and then sent back to Department of Ecology and see if that will be
approved. The theory behind doing that is that some of the wells may be over
pumping and other under pumping their allotted water rights. By designating the
water rights as area wide it is no longer a problem if a well is pumping more
than originally intended. The other thing to do is to get the wells out at the
farm approved for municipal uses.
Mr. Tackett is still in the process of
protesting the way that the water rights are being handled by the Department of
Ecology because he feels it is in direct conflict to what the demands of the
Growth Management Act are on growth projections. He will be writing a letter to
Mr. Slender to that effect.
CUSTOM CRUISERS – Frank Sanchez
Mr. Sanchez
presented a request to the city for a sponsorship for the Connell car club as
they have a car that had qualified for the Las Vegas show and they were getting
sponsorships to help defray the cost of the trailer that they had purchased to
haul the car and the cost of the trip. The sponsors would have their names
painted on the trailer as a means of advertisement. City Clerk-Treasurer Eckman
indicated that there was still $300.00 available in the Chamber line item and
$100.00 available in the Community Info line item for a total of $400.00
available if the Chamber wanted to help with that sponsorship.
Motion:
Councilmember Skoglund made a motion to approve
the sponsorship of $400.00 for
the Custom Cruisers car club for the purpose of attending the Las Vegas car
show. Councilmember Pruett seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
BUILDING REPAIR & CONDEMNATION FUND – Mayor Gary Walton
Mayor Walton
indicated that due to the building on Burke Street that has been condemned the
city is now in need of an Ordinance to establish a revolving fund for monitoring
the cost of repair or demolition to the facility which would be funded initially
out of the General Fund, but which would need to be paid back when the costs
were recouped by whatever legal means available.
City Clerk-Treasurer Eckman explained
the process of setting up the fund and how the fund would work as set forth in
the Uniform Housing Code. There should be other information in the RCW’s that
will give more definitive guidance.
Other discussion between staff
and council took place as to what needs to be done with the property and what
the options are for the property in the future. Pat indicated that he has an
appraiser coming to look at the property for fumigation and will have a better
idea of what needs to be done and the cost involved after that is completed.
PUBLIC HEARING FOR BUDGET SET – City Clerk-Treasurer Eckman
A date of October 8th was established for the public hearings for identifying the revenue sources for the 2002 Preliminary Budget and for amending the 2001 Approved Budget. Mayor and Council concurred. A finance committee meeting was also set for Monday, October 8th at 6:30 P.M. in the council room prior to the council meeting and public hearings. The Finance Committee meeting will consist of Mayor Walton, Council members Lobach and Skoglund, City Administrator Tackett and City Clerk-Treasurer Eckman.
PAYMENT OF BILLS –
Councilmember Boyer was appointed
to the finance committee in the absence of Councilmember Lobach.
Motion: Councilmember
Skoglund made a motion to pay the payroll and bills in the amount of
$228,510.51, which included the $400.00 approved previously in the meeting for
the Custom Cruisers sponsorship. Councilmember Boyer seconded the motion.
Motion carried unanimously.
COMMITTEE
REPORTS
A
meeting has been set for October 1st at 5 P.M. in the City Hall in
order to discuss fee schedules, appropriate use and number of occupants for the
use of the Community Center and Old Church/Museum.
DEPARTMENT
REPORTS
Police
Report - Chief
of Police Rick Rochleau
1)
Officer Quinton - is now into his seventh week of the academy and doing
well.
2)
Officer Boyer – will be taking the physical to qualify for the academy
this week.
3)
Vehicle Prowls – Chief Rochleau indicated that the last month has been
very busy with vehicle prowls, but they have started to make progress in the
cases and have one juvenile and one adult arrested and are looking for another
adult.
4)
Clark Street Speed Limit – Franklin County Commissioners are in the
process of reducing the speed limit from Highway 260 all the way to the city
limits on East Clark Street to 25 mph.
Public Works - Public
Works Director Patrick Munyan
1)
Elm Street sidewalk is still under progress and the work will begin to
pick up speed now that they have a full crew back.
2)
The old church is completed except for the ADA requirements.
3)
Ready to shut down the bath houses in the parks except will leave the
Clark Street Park open for a while due to the elementary soccer league for the
next few weeks.
4)
Pat indicated that the city had received notification of an FBI report
suggesting that the city take security measures to secure water sources against
the possibility of tampering. Pat said it’s a good idea anyway even in light
of the recent national situation. He indicated that the wells would have
intrusion alarms and that the fence from the old sewer plant would be placed
around the water reservoir.
City Administrator's Report - City
Administrator Art Tackett
1)
Attended a water summit in Burien last week in regards to the water
rights.
2)
TIB Project – went to Olympia to see if we can start that project
sooner than July. They were very cooperative and we should receive the letter to
commence the design work sometime this week and are expecting to get approval to
begin the actual construction before July 1st, and maybe as soon as
school is out.
3)
TIB also approved an additional $30,000.00 for the design portion of the
project.
Mayor Walton’s Report – Mayor
Gary Walton
1)
Dust Devil Stadium will have a recognition ceremony on September 29th
for all fire, police and emergency departments to promote donations. Fire Chief
Bob Koch will also be recognized.
MEETING
ADJOURNED
There
being no further business to be heard before the City Council of the City of
Connell, Mayor Walton adjourned the regular meeting at 8:55 p.m.