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

June 23, 2003

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 Pro-Tem Perry Skoglund, Councilmembers Andy Sawyer, Roel Martinez, Monica Pruett, Ron Boyer and Mayor Gary Walton.

STAFF:            City Administrator Art Tackett, Chief of Police Rick Rochleau, City Attorney Terry Tanner , and Deputy City Clerk Maria Chavez .

VISITORS:      Larry Seibel, Anderson Perry; John White and Nancy Danz, Franklin County Mosquito Control Board.

CORRESPONDENCE

1)                  Franklin County passed Resolution No. 2003-312 in support of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Commemorative.

CONSENT CALENDAR

Motion: Councilmember Pruett moved to approve the Consent Calendar as listed,

1)         Minutes of the June 9, 2003 Regular Meeting

Councilmember Skoglund seconded motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

CITIZEN COMMENT / NON-AGENDA ITEMS

Mayor Walton reported that he had received a memo from City Clerk-Treasurer Eckman with the budget dates for the 2004 Budget.  Staff would be contacting the Finance Committee to set a date for a meeting.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Mayor Walton made the following addition to the agenda:

            Item 15 a) – City Administrator’s Contract

Motion: Councilmember Sawyer moved to approve the agenda as amended. Councilmember Pruett seconded, motion carried unanimously.

ORDER OF BUSINESS

PUBLIC HEARING – SIX YEAR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PLAN

            Mayor Walton opened the public hearing on the Six Year Transportation Improvement Plan at 7:37 .

          City Administrator Tackett reviewed the listed projects.

          Resident John White inquired about Project #2 that would provide for the construction of a bridge over the coulee and the railroad tracks.  Mr. White was concerned about the increased traffic to Elm Street .

          Council acknowledged that there would be increased traffic but that they could see the need for the bridge as an alternative route for emergency vehicles.

          There being no further comments the Mayor closed the public hearing at 7:50 pm .

RESOLUTION NO. 2003-02 – SIX YEAR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PLAN

Motion: Councilmember Sawyer moved to adopt Resolution No. 2003-03 relating to the Six Year Transportation Improvement Plan.  Councilmember Martinez seconded motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

FRANKLIN COUNTY MOSQUITO CONTROL BOARD

            John White introduced Nancy Danz, Secretary for the Mosquito Control Board.

Nancy Danz advised that the Board had obtained the spray permit from the Department of Health.  This would allow any entity to spray with a licensed sprayer.  There would be funding in 2004 to hire a fulltime manager and secretary.  There had not been any reports of the West Nile Virus in Washington but there had been two reports of the St. Lewis Virus.  The symptoms for the St. Lewis Virus were similar to those of the West Nile Virus.

Mayor Walton thanked the volunteers of the Mosquito Control Board for their work.

John White advised that the meeting were held every first Wednesday of the month.

WASTEWATER FACILITY  

Larry Seibel of Anderson Perry reported that the pump was still in Portland .  Familian, the new pump representatives, would determine if the problems with the pump were due to repairs or if it was a factory problem.  Apollo contacted Familian with suggestions and requested that recorders be placed on the electricity meters at both lift stations to check for fluctuation in voltage.  These recorders would be in place by next week and would remain in place for a month.

SEWER PROJECT STATUS

Larry Seibel reported that Paragon had started work on the grinder pumps.  They would be working on Lift Stations No. 2 and No. 6.  An additional grinder pump would be installed at A & J Farms.

USDA – WATER SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS

              Larry Seibel reported on the following:

Phase I – The bid opening was held on June 10th.  There had only been two bidders with Morse Construction Group, Inc. as the lowest bidder at $698,267.80.  Larry reported that the previous clients of Morse Construction Group seemed to be satisfied with them and that they had completed a number of projects in this area and recommended that the project be awarded to them.

Motion:  Councilmember Skoglund moved to accept the bid from Morse Construction Group for Phase I of the Water System Improvement Projects in the amount of $698,267.80.  Councilmember Martinez seconded motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

          Phase II – The bid opening was held on June 12th.  There were several bidders.  The lowest bid came from Paragon in the amount of $838,680.36.  There was a problem with this bid.  The project specifications required that the mobilization/demobilization bid item be no more than 7% of the total bid price.  However, Paragon’s unit price for the bid item varied from 10 to 19 percent of the total bid submitted.  Mr. Seibel met with the City Attorney who recommended the City contact paragon and advise them that their bid was non-responsive with respect to mobilization/demobilization amounts that exceeded the 7% limit.

          Attorney Tanner noted that mobilization/demobilization was paid at 75% up front and the remaining 25% was paid at the end.  The City had contacted Paragon and informed them that their bid was non-responsive.  Paragon had replied requesting that the City pay only up to the maximum of 75% of 7% in the initial pay estimate and the remaining amount be payable normally as part of the last pay estimate.  Or alternately, that they could reduce that amount of the mobilization and increase some of the other “lump sum” items and that this could be accomplished by way of change order.  Attorney Tanner advised that these were not acceptable alternatives.

         Councilmember Boyer suggested contacting Paragon to see if they would be willing to drop the overage amount for the mobilization/demobilization.

Motion: Councilmember Pruett moved to not accept the bid from Paragon Construction due to it being non-responsive.  Councilmember Skoglund seconded motion.  Motion carried four to one with Councilmember Boyer voting against.

          Larry Seibel advised that he would bring information on the next lowest bidder, Pegram, to the Council Meeting of July 14th to award the project at that time.

TIB – CLARK STREET – PROJECT UPDATE

Larry Seibel of Anderson Perry reported that M.L. Albright& Sons nearly had the sewer line finished on North Fifth.

Larry advised that a proposal in the amount of $41,887.40 had been received from M.L. Albright & Sons to work on the end of West Elm.

SECOND CHANCE REUNION

City Administrator Tackett reported that Second Chance had contacted staff to request that Council be advised that they would be holding their annual reunion on July 26th at the Community Center from 1-5 pm .

CITY ADMINISTRATOR’S CONTRACT

Mayor Walton advised that the City Administrator’s Contract was up for renewal and that the only changes were wording on the salary and that it was changed from a 3 year contract to a 4 year contract.

Motion: Councilmember Pruett moved to approve the City Administrator’s contract.  Councilmember Sawyer seconded.  Motion carried unanimously.

PAYMENT OF BILLS

Motion: Councilmember Skoglund moved to pay the payroll and bills in the amount of $131,304.79.  Councilmember Pruett seconded, motion carried unanimously.

DEPARTMENT REPORTS

POLICE DEPARTMENT – Chief of Police Rick Rochleau

1.                  The officers participated in the firearms simulator and received some helpful training. This year had been free, next year there could possibly be a fee (around $800)

2.                  There would be shotgun training this week.

3.                  Some of the officers would be taking their vacations and others would be attending training.

4.                  Working on obtaining rifles from federal surplus.  

CITY ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT – City Administrator Art Tackett

1.                  Would be attending a planning meeting in Ephrata on the 24th.

2.                  Attended the AWC meeting in Spokane and received a lot of useful information.

3.                  Working on submitting the North West Foundation Grant.

4.                  Would be meeting with the Dept of Transportation next week to look at the foot prints for the interchange.

5.                  There would be a Downtown Development meeting on June 25th at 7:30 pm .

6.                  Would be taking time off for surgery in July.

7.                  Looking into health insurance for employees in order to comply with state law.

MAYOR’S REPORT – Mayor Gary Walton

1.                  Requested that the City Administrator look into a $5,000 grant for computer upgrades.

2.                  Discussed risk management at the AWC meeting in Spokane and received a lot of useful information.

Councilmember Martinez advised that he had been approached by John White in regards to reimbursement for mileage to and from the Mosquito Control Board meetings.

Councilmember Skoglund advised that he had been contacted by a resident in regards to the garbage at the 4 plex.

MEETING ADJOURNED

There being no further business to be heard before the City Council, Mayor Walton adjourned the meeting at 8:50 pm .