TOWN OF
August 17,
2009
COUNCIL MEETING
CALL TO ORDER Mayor Richard Swart
The regular council meeting for the Town of
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
ROLL CALL Clerk/Treasurer Sylvia Costich
Present: Council Members Bob Rendler, Walter Wright, David Goodroe, William Talbott, Steve McNicholas and Mayor Richard Swart.
Absent: 0
Also present were Town Attorney Thomas Doumit, Clerk/Treasurer Sylvia Costich, Public Works Superintendent, Wahkiakum Eagle reporter Rick Nelson, Assistant Fire Chief Fred Johnson, Captain Beau Renfro, Gray & Osborne, Inc, engineer Ken Alexander, CWCOG representative Steve Harvey, IBC representative Corey Balkan and members of the public.
ADDITIONS,
CORRECTIONS, DELETIONS TO THE AGENDA
Council Member David Goodroe requested that the subject of donating surplus items from the Town to the Friends of Skamokawa Annual Auction be added to the agenda as New Business item #13d.
Mayor Swart asked to have item 12d removed from the agenda because it is being subsumed in item 12a.
Motion to approve
agenda as amended was made by David Goodroe and seconded by William Talbott. Motion carried 5 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions.
VOUCHER REVIEW
COMMITTEE
1. Voucher Review Committee Report Council Member David Goodroe reported that the inflatable boat voucher which was held from the last meeting was originally budgeted in 2008 and 2009 and is acceptable. Bob Rendler and Wally Wright reported no errors and accepted the vouchers.
2. The Voucher Review Committee for the September 21, 2009 meeting consists of David Goodroe and Steve McNicholas. William Talbott will be the alternate.
CONSENT AGENDA
Motion to approve the
Consent Agenda was made by David Goodroe, and seconded by Bob Rendler. The consent agenda consists of the Minutes of
July 20, 2009 Regular Meeting, Special Meeting Minutes of July 2, 2009 Forest
Lands trip, Payroll for July 2009 in the amount of $38,061.9, Vouchers for July
2009 in the amount of $77,167.81, EMS Stipends for July 2009 in the amount of
$3,444.75 and Manual Warrants for July in the amount of $150.00. With no changes to the consent agenda the
motion carried 5 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions.
CITIZENS
PARTICIPATION
None
PROCLAMATIONS and
PRESENTATIONS
Mayor Swart read a Proclamation designating the week of September 17th through 23rd as Constitution Week.
ORDINANCES
Motion to approve
Ordinance No. 517; Adopting the Bond Counsel's Proposed language Authorizing a
Revenue Bond as Security against the Town Defaulting on Repayment of the
$491,000 USDA-RD Water Main Replacement loan for the second, third and final
reading was made by David Goodroe and seconded by William Talbott. Motion
carried 5 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions.
Town Attorney Thomas Doumit read Ordinance No. 518; an
Ordinance repealing CMC 2.55 and enacting new provisions relating to personnel
rules and regulations for the first reading. Motion to approve Ordinance No. 518; the Personnel Ordinance for the
first reading was made by David Goodroe and seconded by Bob Rendler. Council Member Bob Rendler told the
Council that he will make several minor changes to the ordinance before the
next reading. Changes include redefining the permanent part-time position to
less than 96 hours per month and to discuss pro-rating the benefits for
part-time employees. Council Member Bob
Rendler also said that the Town Hall business office hours will increase to 40
hours per week which is standard, rather than the current 35 hours which will
need to be addressed while preparing the next year's budget. Motion carried 5 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions.
Attorney Doumit read Ordinance No. 519; an Ordinance
amending CMC 10.15 relating to disabled, stored and abandoned vehicles for the
first reading. Mayor Swart commented on
the need for this amendment due to requests of citizens for the removal of
vehicles that appeared to be abandoned because they had been sitting on the
streets for long periods of time or appear to be disabled. The Mayor said that he had been told by the
Sheriff's department that this was not illegal according to the current code. Motion to approve Ordinance No 519; an
Ordinance Amending CMC 10.15 Regarding Disabled, Stored and Abandoned Vehicles
for the first reading was made by David Goodroe and seconded by Bob
Rendler. Motion carried 5 Yes, 0 No, 0
Abstentions.
Ordinance No. 520 amending CMC Title 2 and adding Chapter 2.60 authorizing the contracting of certain functions not performed by Town employees was read by Attorney Doumit for the first reading. Mayor Swart commented that the copy included in the Council packets included the Municipal Court Judge and Law Enforcement which should be stricken from the document.
Motion to approve
Ordinance No. 520; an Ordinance Authorizing the Contracting of Certain
Functions Not Performed by Town Employees for the first reading was made by David
Goodroe and seconded by Bob Rendler. Motion carried 5 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions.
RESOLUTIONS
Town Attorney Thomas Doumit read Resolution No. 272-09. Motion to approve Resolution No. 272-09
Declaring "No Parking" Zones and Authorizing the Towing of Vehicles
Parked in Violation of this Resolution during the Cathlamet Corral Downhill
Long Boarding Event was made by Bob Rendler and seconded by David Goodroe. Council Member Wally Wright stated his
concern that one street will be landlocked and people will not be able to get
out. Council Member Goodroe said that
there will be "corner marshals" that will be stationed to allow
people to leave in between "runs".
Motion carried 5 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions.
Mayor Swart requested that item's 13a, 13b and 13c be taken out-of-sequence.
NEW BUSINESS
13a. Tammy Peterson and Andrew Weiler of the Wahkiakum Community Network introduced themselves to the Council. Mr. Weiler explained that he is a board member of the Wahkiakum Community Network and that he will attend the Town Council meetings and will represent the Town at the WCN meetings. Mayor Swart offered to create an agenda item for the WCN report at future meetings. Ms. Peterson told the Council that the WCN is very involved in youth substance abuse prevention, suicide prevention and other issues. Ms. Peterson handed out copies of the first WCN newsletter to the Council and encouraged the public to attend the Fair this year where the WCN is sponsoring a mechanical bull ride.
13b. CWCOG representative Steve Harvey addressed the Council regarding the Health Insurance Pool. Mr. Harvey said that he had been working since last year to investigate the pooling of entities needing health care insurance for employees in an effort to try and reduce costs and stabilize rates. Mr. Harvey said that he has spoken with Kaiser Permanente who is the primary insurance provider for this program. Corey Balkan responded to written questions submitted by the Mayor as follows: 1.The program is intended to stabilize future costs, but that the Town would initially see a reduction in rate for administration costs. 2. Kaiser Permanente has a PPO plan that would allow employees to keep their own doctor. 3. The costs will not be known until information is submitted to the underwriters. 4. The Town must first determine what they want to offer to the employees before the cost can be determined. 5. The Town may enter the Risk Pool in the future if they are not prepared to do it at this time. Mr. Balkan said that the program begins in January 2010 and that rules for joining or opting out will be drawn up prior to that date. The Finance Committee asked for more time to investigate the feasibility of the Town joining the CWCOG Health Insurance Pool. The item was put over until the September meeting.
The meeting recessed at 8:31 p.m. for a ten minute break period and resumed at 8:41 p.m.
13c. Council Member David
Goodroe handed out information regarding the WA Public Works Board Rural Counties grant. Council Member Goodroe said that grant
program is for distributing 19 million dollars split between urban centers and
rural counties for purposes that include public works improvement projects,
public safety and job creation. The
minimum grant available is $100,000.00. Council Member Goodroe said that he
would like to use the funds to install twenty-seven streetlights which are
included in the Town's Comprehensive plan and to extend lighting out to the
shoreline and the
13d. Council Member David Goodroe said that he would like the Town to donate several old trunks that had recently been declared surplus, to the Friends of Skamokawa non-profit organization for their annual auction. The trunks were previously used to contain various town records which have been archived. Mayor Swart said that he had some questions about the ownership of the trunks and wanted to be sure that this would be a proper way to dispose of the items. Town Attorney Doumit said that his only concern would be if the donation would be considered a gift of public funds, but Council Member Goodroe said that they had already been declared surplus several meetings ago. Motion to donate old trunks to Friends of Skamokawa (Redmen Hall) was made by William Talbott and seconded by David Goodroe. Motion carried 4 Yes, 1 No, 0 Abstentions. Council Member Wally Wright cast the "No" vote.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
12a. Mayor Swart
addressed the Council regarding the proposed grant application for funding the
design of the new Waste Water Treatment Plant.
The Mayor said that the current dilemma that the Town faces is the
possibility of not being able to come up with any source of funding for the
actual construction of the Waste Water Treatment Plant once we have committed
to the design versus putting funds into the current lagoons which still may not
buy additional time from the Dept. of Ecology. The Mayor said that $318,600.00
would come from fund 403 and the STAG funding would be in the amount of $389,400.00
(Total: $708,000.00). Ken Alexander of Gray & Osborne, Inc.
told the Council that he needed their approval and commitment to have G&O
prepare the design work including additional environmental review to cross
several creeks before he could send the grant application in. Mr. Alexander stressed that this is not a
commitment to enter into a contract with G&O, just to commit to having them
submit the application. Council Member
Bob Rendler said that it had been his understanding that the STAG grant would
be used for the upgrade of the current sewer lagoons. Council Member David Goodroe said that the
Town will need to increase the customer base or we would never be able to get
the monthly rate below $100 per month. The Mayor, Ken Alexander of G&O,
former Town Attorney Fred Johnson, and Public Works Superintendent David Vik
recommended approval, based on the unlikelihood of getting future funding for
actual construction without a design in hand.
They also noted the Department of Ecology has a strong preference for
any new public money going to the new WWTP, versus the lagoons, and can make
things hard for the Town if they are ignored or defied. Motion to authorize Gray & Osborne, Inc. to apply for the STAG
grant for the new Waste Water Treatment Plant design and to use the reserves
for the remaining balance was made by Wally Wright and seconded by William
Talbott. Motion carried 3 Yes, 2 No, 0
Abstentions. Council Members Bob Rendler and David Goodroe cast the
"No" votes.
Mayor Swart took
item 12f out-of-sequence.
12f. Council Member David Goodroe said that he and Assistant Fire Chief
Fred Johnson had spoken about the repayment of the $25,000 loan which was due
at the end of July and determined that it could be addressed during the budget
process. Clerk/Treasurer Costich
interjected that the real question is "is it ever going to be repaid or
not" is there really a source of money to repay the loan and if we're not
getting outside donations which was the identified source of repayment to begin
with, there is no other way to repay the loan other than to use Current Expense
money in lieu of donations from the Fire Dept. There is no other source. The Mayor said that "the answer is they're
working on it" and asked for a motion to extend the loan period. Motion to approve an extension to the Fire
Department of the $25,000 loan from Fund 107 to 108 until December 31, 2009 was
made by David Goodroe and seconded by Bob Rendler. Motion carried 5 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions.
12b. The Finance Committee
recommended against the COLA's for Town employees due to insufficient
revenues. The Council indicated that
they may reconsider them for 2010.
12c. Council Member Steve
McNicholas handed out the cover of a booklet that can be found in the Town
Library written by one of the leading wind energy experts in the world. Council Member McNicholas suggested that the
members of the Council take a look at it to get more information. Council Member David Goodroe said that he has
been attacking the task of getting some engineering bids on conducting a
yearlong meteorological evaluation. Mr.
Goodroe said that the first response that he got was from VBar who would monitor
for one year at a charge $11,200 a 32 34 meter "mast" which would
cost about $9,500 to bring the project to about $21,000 total. Council Member Goodroe said that a company
out of
Council Member Goodroe said that the biggest factor involved is in
whether or not there is sustainable wind to make this economically viable and
that the engineering companies are the ones to tell us this in a bankable
report. Mr. Goodroe offered to solicit
more information from the firms and report back to the Council.
12h. Council Member David Goodroe
told the Council that the CTED Energy grant application has not yet been
approved as to form by the Dept. of Energy.
Mr. Goodroe said that he hopes to have more information by the next
meeting.
12i. The Long Board Event had been
discussed during Resolution 272-09.
12j.
Mayor Swart announced the bids received on the Solar Heater for the Julia
Butler Hansen Municipal Pool. The lowest
qualifying bid came from Giranda Energy Systems. Motion
to approve awarding the contract to build the Solar Pool Heater to Giranda
Energy Systems was made by Wally Wright and seconded by David Goodroe. Motion carried 4 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions. Council Member William Talbott had left
the meeting at about 10:02 p.m.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Committee reports were dispensed with due to the lateness of
the evening.
ANNOUNCEMENTS none
EXECUTIVE SESSION none.
ADJOURNMENT at 10:09
p.m.
Richard
A Swart, Mayor Sylvia
G. Costich, Clerk/Treasurer