REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING
APRIL 2, 2008
Officials in attendance were Mayor Clancy Bauman; Councilmembers Carra Nupp, David Haskell, Barbara Mowrey, Sharon Ludwig, Bruce Nupp, Roberta McMillin and Greg Rolstad; City Administrator Curt Kelling; City Attorney Pat Monasmith; Clerk/Treasurer Pamela McCart.
The Mayor called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.
Agenda Additions, Deletions, Changes:
· Councilwoman Ludwig requested the addition of “Performing Arts Group Memorial Weekend Project” under New Business.
· Councilwoman McMillin requested the addition of “Discussion Regarding Temporary Sign Ordinance” under City Administrator Report and the addition of “Discussion Regarding Clean-up Day” under New Business.
Audience Comments:
· Mary Finney, member of St. Paul Lutheran Church, stated that this would be the second year that the Church would be organizing an Earth Day Fair April 25th – 27th in order to raise funds for the Food Bank and Senior Center. She requested assistance/support from the City with regard to hanging a banner across HWY395, supplying refuse containers, and closing off a portion of 2nd Street for handicapped parking on April 26th. Motion by Councilwoman Mowrey to allow closure of Second Street from Main to Webster to accommodate handicapped parking on April 26th for the Earth Day Fair, seconded by Councilman Haskell. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried. The Mayor stated that he would talk to the Electric Department regarding placement of the banner. Councilwoman Ludwig said that Community Celebrations might loan their refuse containers (about 130) which are used during Chataqua. If that solution was not feasible, the C/A added that other solutions would be looked into.
Mail Received and Announcements:
· The Mayor stated that for those Councilmembers who were interested, the “Small City Round-up” training hosted by AWC would be held in Rosalia on June 4th. The C/A pointed out that was the same day as the June Council meeting! – will get back to Council at next meeting.
Consent Agenda:
· Motion by Councilwoman Ludwig to approve the Consent Agenda consisting of the March 5th Regular Minutes; payment of claim vouchers # 56419 – 56531 totaling $121,210.39; payment of pre-authorized debits to BPA totaling $83,526.00; and payment of payroll warrants #18657 - 18721 totaling $133,340.97, seconded by Councilman Haskell. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried.
Public Hearing Regarding Petition to Annex by Carla K. and J. Kelly Martin:
The Mayor opened the public hearing and set forth the format that would be followed. There were no objections to the Mayor participating as chairman. There were no objections to any Councilperson’s participating in the proceedings. No Councilperson acknowledged any communications outside of this hearing and no Councilperson acknowledged any gain or interest with regard to this matter.
C/A, Staff Report: Last year we performed the initial step of this when Carla presented her request to Council to see if you were interested in moving this forward. Ultimately, it stalled in Growth Management Hearings land. Not too long after that, the Eastern Washington Hearings Board, on a separate case up in Stevens County reviewing their Comprehensive Plan, invalidated all of the UGA’s in the County which basically erased Chewelah’s at the time – at least in some weird legal standing – so that this annexation could not move forward. A week and a half ago the Growth Management Hearings Board lifted the invalidity order but they still have a compliance order that needs to be taken away as a second step. So they almost have it all the way approved. Today we will have the hearing and move it forward with a recommendation; but you won’t see the first reading of the ordinance actually annexing it here. I will first need the Hearings Board and the County to finish that last step. We’re talking about an approximately 20 acre piece of property across the street from the High School – a little easier than a lot of things and one of the reasons I say that is because one of the big questions that you’re going to see with anything that comes through here as a proposed annexation is how it will affect our water capacity. As far as sewer goes with your new plant, you’re basically locked in for your population growth for the next twenty years so sewer is really a question. Water has been the question. This particular piece of property already has City water so it is not an issue – the property has already been factored in as a user on the system. There is no debt on the property and there are no outstanding issues with the City. It’s pretty much environmentally constrained with the wetlands on it so there isn’t going to be very much potential with regard to future development that would really add a lot of density. We may do something that is ultimately pretty creative in trying to enhance the wetlands or build something around it or make something neat over there, work on a project with the high school . . .
Carla K. Martin, Applicant: I am requesting annexation of these twenty acres. This property has been in our family for 60 or 70 years. My mother inherited it from her father and I purchased it from her. I retired and my husband plans on retiring and we’d like to spend more time in this area, closer to friends/family/golfing. My hope is to construct a small cabin/house with shed/garage on the west side of the property. We hired someone to perform a wetlands assessment and it was determined that about 60% of the property is wetlands – only about 8 acres are not. Because it is wetlands, installing any kind of a septic system would be extremely expensive so I would like to annex so that I would be able to connect to the City sewer. There is a water stub to the property. In summary, I still think of Chewelah as my hometown even though I currently live on the other side.
The Mayor opened the hearing to Public Testimony:
There was no written or oral testimony.
The Mayor closed the public hearing.
Motion by Councilwoman Ludwig to recommend moving forward with/authorize annexation request of Carla K. and J. Kelly Martin with the caveat that staff is instructed to present ordinance when appropriate, seconded by Councilman Haskell. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried.
Committee Reports:
· Councilwoman Nupp stated that the Airport Committee recommended that the Airport Layout Plan be presented to the Planning Commission at their April meeting. It was also agreed that the Committee would be meeting on the third Tuesday of every month. The C/A added that the City was coming part way into compliance by repainting the stripes on the threshold but leaving the airport open so that the entire runway could be used. Federal guidelines can not be met without tearing out the road, etc. because it drops off severely on the other end. It can’t be lengthened to put both ends of the runway crash zones in place that FAA would like to see. We’ve worked out trying to present something that is a compromise between the Federal standards and what the State wants and which would also allow us to procure funding in the future.
· Councilwoman Ludwig stated that the Park Committee is in the process of selecting playground equipment for 5-12 year olds at the Central Park.
City Administrator Report:
· The C/A stated that he had spoken with staff at DOT regarding reduction of the speed limit on South Park Street. DOT will need to perform a Traffic Engineering Study on the south end of town this summer. The results from that study along with the request information from the City will then be submitted to WSDOT for review so that a decision should not be anticipated until at least the latter part of the year.
· The C/A stated that the temporary sign ordinance was ultimately passed in July of 2006 at which time the City did not have a functioning City Administrator. I couldn’t figure out why nothing happened after this was adopted – I didn’t know when I came aboard in October that I should have been doing something. So essentially all the follow-up that was written into this ordinance never occurred. Although it defines a sign permit system, that system does not exist. So I need to get that in place. This was written so as to apply to existing signs – can it really do that? Mr. Monasmith responded that it was probably legally possible but a pretty bad policy. The C/A added that as the ordinance reads with regard to temporary signs, if someone does not go through the process to get a temporary sign permitted and the City is made aware of this, the City has to issue a five day notice before it can take the sign down – this isn’t feasible if the sign is up for a day. I think everyone was concentrating on what was needed and not on whether it included a process that would work after the fact. I think we really need to sit down and go over this.
· In response to Mr. Monasmith regarding the burn ban, the C/A stated that none of the legislation had passed. The County is getting a chipper but they have not sent the City anything to the effect that it is ready to use. Basically, we’re on our own to solve it. All the small cities are lobbying to get it to go away but they don’t have enough legislative clout to get it out of committee to do it.
· Also in response to Mr. Monasmith’s inquiry regarding analysis of the City’s transportation needs by a panel from DOT - the C/A said the initial application was kicked back because it was geared “too much” toward transportation. We’ve spent the last few days providing all the documentation of plans done in the past, zoning, etc. By this afternoon the application was back on track again for some time in May.
Old Business:
· Motion by Councilwoman Nupp to read Ordinance # 801 by title, seconded by Councilwoman Mowrey. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried. Mr. Monasmith read Ordinance # 801 by title. Motion by Councilwoman Ludwig to adopt Ordinance # 801 amending the 2008 budget, seconded by Councilman Haskell. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried.
· Motion by Councilman Rolstad to read Ordinance # 802 by title, seconded by Councilwoman Nupp. Roll call vote taken with Councilman Nupp voting against, remaining votes in favor. Motion carried. Mr. Monasmith read Ordinance # 802 by title. Motion by Councilwoman Haskell to adopt Ordinance # 802 amending sections 13.04.030 and 13.04.040 of the Chewelah Municipal Code regarding utility billing and utility procedures/requirements for new customers (with changes in Section 2 since its introduction), seconded by Councilwoman Nupp. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried.
New Business:
· Motion by Councilman Rolstad scheduling a Public Hearing regarding close-out of CDBG Grant on the Main Street Project: Segments A/C, a Public Hearing regarding the Six Year TIP 2009-2014, a Public Hearing regarding a Comprehensive Plan Amendment, and a date to Consider Request to Annex by Earl Nash for May 7, 2008, seconded by Councilwoman Nupp. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried.
· The C/A explained that the City is currently leasing a postage machine, a folder and a burster from Pitney Bowes. He proposed that the City downgrade the postage machine one level and trade in the folder and burster for a folder/inserter as staff is getting ready to transition to full page utility bills. The cost would be $538/month as opposed to the current rate of $783/quarter. The new agreement includes maintenance whereas the current agreement does not. Motion by Councilwoman Nupp to authorize Office Equipment Rental Agreement with Pitney Bowes, seconded by Councilman Rolstad. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried.
· Fire Chief Doug Sassman explained that the City needed to update/renew its agreement for the federal excess property that the City is using -- the Chevy Blazer and the generator. This agreement basically dictates use/maintenance/and disposal of said equipment. Motion by Councilwoman Nupp to authorize Interagency Agreement (Firefighter Property Assistance) with the Department of Natural Resources, seconded by Councilwoman Mowrey. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried.
· The C/A stated that when the City updated the fire alarm system in 2006, the contract which authorizes the system to be tested fell through the cracks. The City is currently out of compliance as the system was not tested in 2007. It needs to be tested, monitored, and a report remitted to the State. Motion by Councilman Rolstad to authorize Service Agreement with Divco for Fire Alarm Testing/Monitoring, seconded by Councilwoman McMillin. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried.
· The C/A explained that Divco currently performs maintenance on the HVAC system twice a year. The system is requiring maintenance at more frequent intervals so this amendment to the current service agreement allows for quarterly rather than semi-annual maintenance. The increase in cost would be offset by the company’s ability to dial in and make minor adjustments as opposed to having to perform them on site. Motion by Councilwoman McMillin to authorize Service Agreement Addendum with Divco for HVAC Maintenance, seconded by Councilwoman Mowrey. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried.
· As requested by Councilwoman Ludwig motion by Councilman Haskell to allow the Chewelah Arts Guild and the Chewelah Performing and Cultural Arts Center Steering Committee to use the parking area behind the City Shop and the rear portion of the Shop (if it rains) for a joint yard sale on Saturday, May 24th, seconded by Councilwoman Nupp. Roll call vote taken with all in favor. Motion carried.
· Councilwoman McMillin requested discussion regarding a “clean-up” day. Councilman Haskell stated that Colville has an annual clean-up day in May when residents are allowed to bring refuse items to a designated area -- but they have to provide proof of residency within the City limits. Colville has four roll off trucks and two front loaders – Chewelah doesn’t have the equipment to do that -- and someone has to pay the tipping fees. The C/A stated that when Medical Lake first provided this service, residents started stockpiling garbage for future clean-ups. He also added that Medical Lake provided a list of “volunteers” who would pick up items for those residents not able to do so. The C/A thought that the City could start putting green waste at the lagoon and arrange with the County as to how it would be chipped up – the tricky part is who would do it and if it was done on weekends who would monitor it. The rub is that everyone wants these services but no one wants us to increase their fees to provide them – the cost of providing refuse service is one of those things that continue to escalate due to increased tipping fees and fuel costs. There are a lot of things we can do – the question is “how do those bills get paid?” Councilman Haskell offered to obtain information from the City of Colville with regard to clean-up practices/costs.
With regard to refuse in alleys, the C/A stated that the City has not been practicing active code enforcement/no one has been assigned to perform this – a violation has never actually been written and submitted to the County. So if we issue one it is not known what will happen with it when it reaches the County level – so we’d have to pick a really good one if we’re going to convince a judge to ultimately take an action on it. If we get a couple of them going, people will see that enforcement is active and they’ll start cleaning some of it up on their own. The C/A stated that he was working on the process with regard to nuisance code violations/enforcement.
Audience Comments
The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 8:35 PM.
Mayor ___________________________ Clerk/Treasurer ___________________________
