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

 

October 11, 2004

 

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

 

ROLL CALL

 

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

 

STAFF:            City Administrator Art Tackett , City Attorney Terry Tanner , Public Works Director Pat Munyan , Police Chief Rick Rochleau, and City Clerk-Treasurer Joan Eckman .

 

VISITORS:      Alan Schroeder and Larry Seibel, Anderson Perry; Harold Thompson, Resident; and Kathy Bingham, Graphic.

 

CORRESPONDENCE, PRESENTATIONS & APPOINTMENTS

 

Mayor Walton presented Larry Seibel a gift of appreciation purchased by the city employees for Larry’s years of service as the city engineer representing Anderson Perry & Associates in the many projects the city has had through the years.  Larry was retiring and would be moving out of the state.  Cake would follow the meeting and all were invited to stay and partake of the locally made cake and visit with Larry.

CONSENT CALENDAR

 

Motion: Councilmember Pruett moved to approve the Consent Calendar as listed: Minutes of the September 27, 2004 Regular Meeting.  Councilmember Sawyer seconded motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

 

CITIZEN COMMENT/NON-AGENDA ITEMS

Harold Thompson addressed the Mayor and Council over concern about some of the decisions that were being made in regards to the water rights and related projects with what he felt was limited and possibly unsound information.  He felt that the decisions may not be putting the citizens tax dollars to their best use and felt that the council needed to be more careful and thoughtful in their decisions as they are the stewards of those tax dollars for the rest of the community and its Citizens.

 

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

 

Motion: Councilmember Pruett moved to approve the agenda as amended.

Councilmember Skoglund seconded motion.  Motion carried unanimously.

 

ORDER OF BUSINESS

 

USDA - WATER SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS

Larry Seibel of Anderson Perry reported on the following “one phase; two contracts” that are currently underway.

 

Reservoir Schedule – Larry indicated that contractor Irwin Construction out of Vancouver would begin Wednesday with the access road and other site work and that it would be approximately the middle of November before the actual tank would be delivered for construction.

 

Schedules G & H – Larry Explained that these schedules involved the well/valve houses, pipelines, pressure reducing valve and highway crossing.  A preconstruction meeting was scheduled for October 13 at 10:30 am in city hall.  The contract had been sent to them; they would send it back, and it would not become official until the funding agency, Rural Development approved it.  A notice to proceed wouldn’t be issued until it had been approved.

 

Further discussion followed in regards to the projects and the timeline of approval from USDA and the options for delaying the project.

 

STREET PROJECTS - UPDATE

The Terrace Heights improvements, chip sealing and the fog sealing on the chip seal that was done earlier this year was basically complete.  Some shoulder work still needed to be done in the Terrace Heights area, but other than that everything looked good.

 

A question was presented about a problem arising when the fog sealing was done and some home addresses that were painted on the curbing were disfigured and covered.  Homeowners were wondering if those numbers would be replaced.  Council consensus was that it was something the homeowner would need to repaint as these types of things could not be helped and were the homeowners responsibility.

 

There was further discussion about the patch on Columbia Avenue .  Larry indicated that it seemed as if there had been some seepage and settling around the dry well due to adjustment rings that were not sealed properly and allowed water into the sub-grade which caused the problems.  The current work had a one year warranty on it and it should become evident before then going through the winter season if there were still problems with that dry well and the seals.  Councilmember Boyer indicated that he had been told that business at Michael Jays had suffered due to the barricade of the street and that they had not been notified that the work was going to be done.  Council concurred that in the future that notification of businesses that would be impacted would be a good idea.

 

 

WATER RIGHTS

City Administrator Tackett informed council that he had been in contact with Department of Ecology and had just received a call from them in which they indicated they would approve the 277 acre feet water right from Well #9 on the north side of the highway without having to go back through the application process, and that it should be signed by tomorrow.  He continued that the other 1411 acre feet could potentially be reclassified as provided in the RCW’s as a public water supply in a transitional phase which would still allow the city to sell water to the farmer, but would allow the bonds to be changed to municipal exempt depending upon bond counsel interpretation. Art indicated that he should know by 8:30 tomorrow if bond counsel would confirm whether that would work.  The city would later pursue changing the remaining 1411 acre feet of water rights from public water supply to municipal use.

 

Attorney Tanner indicated that the City of West Richland has had similar problems and about two weeks ago Ecology broke loose a bunch of road blocks that had been holding up the city of West Richland .  He continued by stating that he felt the time to strike was now, while things were happening before political changes in January.

 

Further discussion followed with council discussing at which point the construction process was at currently and whether it could be stopped.  The contract was currently being signed by the contractor and then would need to be passed on to Rural Development.  Alan Schroeder with Anderson Perry indicated that it was not official until USDA approval and the notice to proceed was issued.  It was also affirmed that the contract bid is good for 60 days before the process would need to be started over.  After continued discussion a motion was placed on the floor.

 

Motion: Councilmember Boyer made a motion to cease construction until written documentation was received from DOE on award of the water rights.

            The motion failed for lack of a second.

 

            The project will move ahead with a preconstruction meeting to be held Wednesday to review the specs on the project.

 

WATER PLAN

Every six years we need to redo our water plan and ours is due as mandated by the state.  Mr. Tackett informed Mayor and Council that the city had been contacted by the Department of Health and he had subsequently met with them in regards to the new requirements to update a Water Plan every 5 to 7 years.  Art presented a couple of options for paying the approximate $28,000 for the plan, and Alan explained some of the criteria that the state is requiring.  The object is to show a plan for the future.  Art indicated that the Department of Health would like the water plan in their office by March.  After further discussion council concurred that they would delay until 2005 in order to pursue the water rights issue further.  Art will contact Department of Health to let them know of the pending water rights issues and would bring back information at the next meeting.

 

LOBBYIST SERVICES

Mr. Tackett indicated that he had attended a meeting with the Port of Pasco last month when they held their monthly meeting in Connell.  Their intent was to also look at a couple of parcels that they may be interested in purchasing.  One of the things discussed during those visits was that the prison was Connell’s best bet at this point in getting something going economically and the Port had suggested getting a lobbyist to push our interests in Olympia during the legislative session.  The port indicated that hey could get a gentleman that they knew was a good lobbyist for about $15,000 and if the City would go in with them on a one third/two thirds basis they would be able to afford it.  The City’s portion of $5,000 could be taken from the Industrial Park Reserve and transferred into the General fund into Special Council Projects as a budgeted amendment.

 

Further discussion followed about a lobbyist services and council concurred that they would like to see some kind of documentation about this gentleman’s track record.  Art would try to get a short resume of the lobbyist and bring the information back to council at the next meeting.

 

FLU SHOTS

Mr. Tackett requested council direction on the flu shots for staff that had been done each year for the past couple of years, but due to the shortages he didn’t know if that would be taking place this year or if the city wanted to pursue it.  The Department of Health was scheduled to be in Connell at the Community Center on Wednesday, October 27th to give flu shots.  Mayor Walton would contact Dr. Yucca of the Health Department to see what the status is and get back with information at the next meeting on the 25th which would still allow staff to participate on the 27th if the dosages were available.

 

PAYMENT OF BILLS

            Mayor Walton opened discussion about a bill for gravel from Connell Sand and Gravel for the RR Crossing at Adams Streets and about the fact that they billed us for 75% on any repairs that they have to make as per an agreement from some time in the 1960’s.  Council concurred that it would be worth while to bill them 25% of the bill for the repairs done at the Adams Street crossing and see what kind of response we received.

 

Motion: Councilmember Skoglund moved to pay the vouchers and payroll draws in the amount of $70,031.37. Councilmember Pruett seconded. Motion carried unanimously.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Downtown Development Committee-

Mr. Tackett reported that the committee had met and discussed several items to include the following:

1. Mural to be painted on the side of the grey block wall of the building next to the pharmacy’s front door entrance would be done by BethAnn Wood who submitted a preliminary drawing of the mural theme which was based on an old black and white picture of the Connell flood with people on horses, and water, etc.  The mural may need to be done on wood and attached to the wall as the block wall is deteriorating a little.  They would be doing some kind of a fund raiser for the project and would have a display set up at the wine festival to let people know how it was coming along.

            2. Historic Building Markers would be created to be placed on old historic buildings and the locations where buildings use to be with information about the business.  The markers would be about 36 inches square fastened to a post and will have the information in relief as well as a picture of what it looked like.  Each marker will have a number and a map will be created for a walking tour and will be available for people at several locations including city hall and chamber.  Their goal is to have this in place by spring.

            3. Historical Designation is still being pursued.

 

DEPARTMENT REPORTS

 

ATTORNEY TANNER – Attorney Terry Tanner

1)                  Pat called to say he would not be back to the meeting as his child fell and cut his head open and they were taking him to the hospital.

2)                  Criminal jury trial for DUI is scheduled to be held October 20th here in the court room. 

3)                  Apollo – waiting to hear back from Vice President, but the amount has been agreed upon and will have more to report by the November 20th meeting.

 

CITY HALL – City Clerk-Treasurer Joan Eckman

1)                  Lost budget data and year to date totals in the BARS accounting system due to some computer issues and have been working to restore that information.  The data was lost sometime around September 22 during the change over from Amerion to CenturyTel as our internet carrier.  The lost data has slowed the monthly reports and budget process, but should be back on track in a week or so.

2)                  Computer backup was a problem as the back up tapes did not go back far enough and the one that did was corrupt.  It was suggested to look into getting memory sticks to backup the backup.  Clerk Eckman will pursue the possibilities.

 

POLICE DEPARTMENT -  Police Chief Rick Rochleau

1)                  Training Classes – Srgt Kuehny went to a class last week on Crime Scene Investigation, and this week Officer Boyer was attending Evidence Property Technician class, and Officers Reed and Quinton would be attending an Interviews Techniques class.

2)                  School Mapping Meeting – would be held Wednesday in Pasco .  The Fire Chief, Srgt Kuehny and Police Chief Rochleau would be attending that meeting.  The meeting is basically about dealing with critical incidents in schools.

3)                  Home Football Game- this weekend with Othello which everyone is hoping would take place without incident.  Chief Rochleau was hoping to have a couple of Othello officers or a least a Reserve Officer who knows the Othello kids; which had worked well in the past between the two communities.

 

CITY ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT – City Administrator Art Tackett

1)                  Finance Meeting to be held October 18th at 7pm at city hall.

2)                  Olympia Meeting on Wednesday on backfill, water rights and the prison expansion and the Mayor from Bridgeport will also be in attendance on the backfill issues.

3)                  Solid Waste Meeting to be held some time the week of the 18th.

4)                  Meeting with the Highway 17 Corridor Committee in Soap Lake on Friday afternoon to try and get Connell included in that which would be good advertisement for Connell.

5)                  Sign for the Museum had been discussed with the prison to have them build the sign.

6)                  Union contract negotiations would be starting tomorrow morning with the police department.

7)                  City Brochures that council had approved a month or so ago were here.

8)                  Labor and Industries made a surprise visit last week and met specifically with Chief Rochleau and Public Utilities Director Munyan and everything went well and there were no citations or fines.  The only concerns that they had were with the pool which was already closed.  Congratulations to Pat and Rick on their handling of the safety issues.

9)                  FSA/CRP application was submitted for the 1.5 acres down at that bottom of the hill.

MEETING ADJOURNED

 

There being no further business to be heard before the City Council, Mayor Walton adjourned the meeting at 8:56 pm .

 

After the close of the meeting cake was served for any who wished to stay and congratulate Larry Seibel on his retirement