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12112008CouncilMinutes - Work Session CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MINUTES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2008 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL AGENDA – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2008 – 4:00 P.M. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1.Sensus Meter Flex Net Presentation (Lance/Bruce Patterson) 2.Lennis Tirrell Stoplight Allocation/Unauthorized Cars on Lot (Council Meeting 10-16-08) 3.Hawks Landing Sewer Agreement (Ron) 4.Scope of Work LID – Keller Assoc. (Lance) 5.Valuations Northwest Appraisals Update (Leslie) 6.Garbage Can Color for Bids (Lance) 7.Misc. MINUTES City Officials Present: Mayor Bruce Ard Councilmember Dana Kirkham Councilmember Lee Bean Councilmember Brian Powell Councilmember Randy Waite Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember D. Ray Ellis City Clerk Leslie Folsom City Planning Director Ron Folsom City Engineer Lance Bates City Officials Absent: None Mayor Ard opened the meeting at 4:08 p.m. at the City Office Building located at 2135 South Ammon Road. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1. Sensus Meter Flex Net Presentation (Lance/Bruce Patterson): Erik Onstead with Sensus Metering Systems Territory Manager, and Rob Keterman with United Pipe were present to answer any questions the Council might have. Erik presented a video as to how West View Water Authority went through the Flex Net process. Erik stated with the flex net system they will use radio transmitters that will be outside the meter boxes themselves and can be single or double port solutions. Eric said our City is in a unique situation since the City is just starting with water meters. The City can run two water meters through one transmitter. Councilmember Thompson asked how far apart the transmitters can be. Erik said the transmitter can be up to 150 feet away from the meter but to get this distance would require a 20-year battery. The battery transfers into a capacitor and the capacitor provides the power to send out the transmission. They collect hourly readings but will send only 4 times a day with the data. This also allows the ability for up to a week’s worth of data so that if a transmission doesn’t make it in it will collect and hold the data for safety. Eric stated this data provides more than just reading for billings, it will help find leaks before they happen. It provides information for the office such as shut off reads and turn on reads. It will also monitor shut off accounts. Councilmember Powell asked if the box has a value to turn it off. Eric stated it can’t, but they are looking at it. It looks at a home and if there is continual water consumption within a 24, 48, or 72 hour period (whatever the City sets up) or a spike, then there will be a flag saying there’s a possible leak. The feature can be turned on or off, per home, if it happens to have continual lawn watering. They have also entered into an agreement with Acoustical 12-11-08 Council Minutes Page 1 of 6 Leak Detection so you can put magnetic devices at different locations throughout the system to see system leaks. These devices will wake up in the middle of the night and they listen for the sound of a leak if they hear something positive they will listen again an hour later to verify it. It will send out a flag that you have a possible leak. You will go out with a handheld that will give you a good idea of where the leak is at so it reduces where you are looking for the leak. The units are very simple to install which snaps into the radio transmitter. Erik gave an example from Spanish Fork as to what the tower gateway base stations will look like in the field. They look for high locations, preferably locations the City owns. They have put them on cell towers with a lease but they prefer to stay away from those. It’s just a 10 foot antenna. Service will save the data at City Hall which is a web based program. Councilmember Kirkham asked how many towers the City would need. Erik said he would like to conduct a propagation study to look at all the assets the City has available. This study costs $200 and come back with what the City’s requirements would be. With the holidays he would like to request 4 – 5 weeks to accomplish the study. They believe it will only take one for the City of Ammon. Lance said they are looking at the SCADA system pole or telephone pole up by the hill tank site. Erik said Reno reads 3000 services now but it is set up for 45,000. Reno is unique since there are four different utilities sharing these two tower units. Erik stated there is protection to be sure that another City or utility cannot see our readings. If you want to work with gas and electric utilities this system is flexible to do so. If the City decides to go with an electric utility, there would be a different system and price, since they don’t have to work on battery power and can generate reports every 15 minutes. The electric company would have the ability to adjust an air conditioner or water heater, if they so desired. Councilmember Powell asked if this could generate a bill without any manual entries. Erik said it will send a file to interface into our computer billing software. Councilmember Powell asked if this is a proprietary software and frequency. Erik said they are unique because they use a primary license where some of the others use unlicensed frequencies or second users on the frequency. Erik said they actually purchased the license and the City would be named on the license. The City would have the ability to contact the FCC to have whoever is causing any interference to change their frequency. Councilmember Power asked what the difference is with this and WIFI. Erik said this frequency allows them to use 2 watts of power for great distances that transmits into the WIFI system. A system like this will have many benefits throughout the City. For operations, you will be able to control meter readings for 20 plus years because the transmitters have a warranty for 20 years. Erik stated if you want your customers to use the water every other day, you would be able to monitor it from a main area. They have a customer in Washington that has all users having two meters – one for domestic and one for irrigation purposes. They are considering charging higher rates on the irrigation when they have a drought situation. They are also going to use a time of use billing so they can encourage the use of off hours. It enables you to be safer and greener without vehicles and employees on the streets. Councilmember Ellis asked Erik what the possibilities are that you would put the system in and the City leases it back over a 3, 4 or 5 year period then the City owns it. Erik said this is a possibility and they can do it in multiple different options. We can also completely maintain this system from a remote location if the City so desires. Lance asked what the difference is with radio read and drive by systems. Erik stated Sensus is an unlicensed drive by system and it is a two way system. Once they send out a signal to wake up those units they will send in their information to the vehicle and then send a transmission to say stop and don’t transmit until you hear another unique signal. The reason they do this with their drive by system, they offer the highest power level with drive by which is 200 watts. The drive by system is more acceptable to work without licensing because you can move closer to pick up the reading but with a fixed based system you cannot do that. Erik stated both systems have 20 year warranties but you have to decide which system you want because it will determine your future. The City of Ammon can make the best decision for the future. If you just want a single reading per month without data, the drive by will work. You have to determine if in the future you will never want anymore data when you have future growth. They are having fewer calls for the drive by solutions now since they see the benefits of the other system. Councilmember Bean asked Lance what is our next step. Lance said we now are telling people they are putting in the meter but now we need to know which one. Councilmember Kirkham asked what the cost difference is. Erik said the meter is the same cost but the difference between a drive by and fixed based transmitter is about $20 but the expense is the transmission. Councilmember Thompson asked what the cost of a transmitter is. Erik said the cost is approx. $150 for a double port transmitter. Councilmember Powell asked if you can upgrade the 12-11-08 Council Minutes Page 2 of 6 transmitter from a drive by to a fixed base. Erik said they have a trade in program but the City would have made a substantial investment already into the drive by system so it is not the preferred choice. Councilmember Kirkham asked about size of cities and which way they are going. Erik stated it’s all over the board it depends on what the utility needs are. The City of Fife is under 3000 services, it made sense for them and they have one tower. Councilmember Bean asked Erik if the cost difference between the two units is the transmitter and the tower. Erik said yes. Councilmember Ellis said when you compare this to eliminating a vehicle and employee for 20 years, it pays for itself. Erik stated when a person comes in to check out of the City you will need manpower to get the final reading also. With the fixed based system you would have a reading that, at its worse, was within 6 hours to charge them. Councilmember Powell asked if each transmitter has a specific number tagged to the house number. Erik said the transmitter, since it can work with multiple meters, has its own number, and the register also has its own number. The register number and reading will tie into the City’s billing system. Councilmember Powell asked how easy are they to install and program. Erik said you just plug in the transmitter and you push the hand held tool and it will give you a latitude and longitude of where you are at. Erik said when he does the propagation study he can do it with the size of the City as it is and also where the City will be growing. Lance said Reno was pulling readings from 5 – 7 miles away. Councilmember Powell asked if you have to have a line of sight. Erik said not exactly. Reno has meters in canyons and they are still getting the transmission. It is more difficult but not impossible. Councilmember Kirkham suggests we go ahead with the study. Councilmember Kirkham asked Leslie to put it on next week’s agenda. Councilmember Bean said we need to check with Ted Hendricks about seeing what we have available for the older areas. Councilmember Kirkham said we have the $500,000 grant for old Ammon. Ron said it could go beyond old Ammon with the qualifications. Councilmember Kirkham stated she thought we could use the water bond. Lance said this might work to apply for some of the economic stimulus money. Ron said there’s a considerable area of the City that just requires putting in the meter. Lance said it would be an additional scope of work for Keller. Lance said let’s start with the ones with the meter pits and work down from there. Leslie stated most of the houses have meter pits, so we are only looking at the older sections of Ammon. Councilmember Ellis stated a lot of the older sections when you do the meter pit will require redoing the lines. Councilmember Ellis said a lot of the stimulus money will be given to places that are ready to go with the engineering. Councilmember Bean stated he would like Keller to put together some kind of a change order to do this. Lance said he will have Keller put together the change order. 2. Lennis Tirrell Stoplight Allocation/Unauthorized Cars on Lot (Council Meeting 10-16-08): Roger Sheehy, Sunnyside Automotive said he isn’t going to be doing the car lot on the corner because they can’t agree on grass. He asked if there is an ordinance in effect to stop cars from being parked there. Councilmember Kirkham confirmed with Roger that Lennis has said he won’t do the car lot since he won’t put the grass in. Roger stated yes. Last week Roger called a person on the lot and Lennis had authorized them to put their car on the lot for sale. Ron said he doesn’t think there is an ordinance except when Lennis authorizes a car he’s approving a business transaction that’s not authorized in the zone. Ron said he can only have a car lot with a conditional use permit. Ron said he has been trying to get ahold of Scott to cross check this. Councilmember Thompson said one car doesn’t make a car lot. Councilmember Kirkham asked what does. Councilmember Thompson said if he had two cars for sale in front of his house, he should be able to do this. Councilmember Bean said you own those cars and if you didn’t it wouldn’t be alright. Roger said as a neighbor he would complain if you were selling other cars besides your own. Roger said he feels other people shouldn’t be able to do things on your property. Councilmember Kirkham said Lennis is not going to be coming to talk about the stoplight. Roger said that’s probably why. Roger said he would appreciate the Council’s consideration. Roger stated Idaho Falls has an ordinance and they pull them immediately. Councilmember Kirkham said we should probably look at an ordinance that states vacant lots stay vacant and the weeds are mowed. Roger said he has moved on and he will not be putting a car lot on this space. Councilmember Bean said Ron needs to find out about the zoning and send a letter to Lennis explaining that we will site him for unauthorized use. Councilmember Bean said if we don’t have an ordinance then we need one on vacant lots. Councilmember Kirkham said Lennis was supposed to be here to discuss the stoplight. Ron stated he would have a concern if we assessed Lennis the $75,000 for the stoplight, since we cannot show the impact. Ron said we need a traffic study and then assess the impact on each piece of property. Councilmember Kirkham said the 12-11-08 Council Minutes Page 3 of 6 reason for the traffic is the people going up to Founders Point that is causing the impact not the store that is bringing all of the traffic. Ron said the exaction law says you have to meet the impact fee criteria. Councilmember Powell said what about the fact we have now charged Maverik the $75,000 and not the others. Ron said one of the things that make this safe is when we do an annexation – it is a different type of contract then when they are trying to develop. When we annexed the land like Woodbury, we annexed Woodbury and said they had to put $125,000 for part of the annexation agreement. At this point, they had a choice but if we go forward at development time then it is stated we are holding them hostage. Ron said he has discussed this with Scott and he feels we are ok with Maverik. Councilmember Kirkham stated she just wants the City to be consistent. Ron said in order to do that we need to do it different than we are doing now. 3. Hawks Landing Sewer Agreement (Ron): Ron said Scott emailed you a copy of the last draft. Ron will email Council again. 4. Scope of Work LID – Keller Assoc. (Lance): Jeff from Keller Assoc passed out a map of the scope of work for the LID. Jeff explained that he broke out figures for the sewer and water system. Next summer/fall they will be putting in the water line in John Adams and Curlew which will be paid out of the water project they are currently working on. For John Adams going west, the improvements would be $370,000 since the sewer is IBSD. Ron said the City has allowed it to be IBSD but it’s not in their district. Ron has talked with Karchner and he wants to be with Ammon not IBSD. Bill Manwill asked didn’t the City agree to the IBSD’s territorial area? Councilmember Bean said he hates making exceptions to the rules since they are so hard to track. Jeff said we need to figure who’s got jurisdiction over the areas. Councilmember Kirkham stated she feels they need to look at John Adams and Curlew. Councilmember Thompson agreed and stated he felt Curlew would really help the people in Tiebreaker. Councilmember Thompson said if you didn’t have the LID the commercial would be paying for it all. Councilmember Kirkham said it will increase the value of their land. Councilmember Powell asked if the figures are based on square footage or value. Jeff said it’s linear footage x cost per foot. Councilmember Thompson stated he would like Curlew to be a through street with no stop signs which would take the pressure off Tiebreaker. Councilmember Thompson said there are 110 households north of John Adams. Councilmember Powell said if you took the total amount and divided it in half the homeowners cost would be $300 per year and they would get to deduct it. Councilmember Bean asked about the sewer system. Jeff says he is going east on John Adams and south on Curlew. Bean said all of it is in IBSD which would take it out of our costs. Jeff stated that he figured $200,000 for sewer. Discussion ensued as to who has the sewer in the area and it was determined that it was in IBSD’s area and some in Ammon. Councilmember Bean asked Keller to have Forsgren’s to talk with IBSD about paying for their portion out of their reserves. Bill Manwill said the LID’s the County did included the water and the sewer and at the completion the water went to Falls Water and the sewer went to IBSD but it was all included in the LID by the landowners. You only need a will serve letter from IBSD and the landowners pays the expense. Jeff said why it would be any different than a private developer hiring an engineer and turning in those plans to IBSD for their approval and then building it and IBSD accepting it. Councilmember Bean stated he would want an attorney to give us an opinion whether we could do this or not. Jeff said he will prepare a scope of work with their fees (design, construction, etc.) of both east and west on John Adams. Councilmember Bean said we need to get bond attorneys on board, possibly Skinner. st Councilmember Powell asked about making a left turn off Curlew to 1 Street are we ok without a light there? Councilmember Thompson stated there will be half the traffic. Councilmember Kirkham wondered if we could add the engineering fees to the other scope of work. Lance said we don’t have a scope of work yet. Councilmember Ellis stated if we are serious about moving ahead with the LID we might as well get serious with having First Street engineered. Jeff said Idaho Falls is ready for Hitt Road and First Street. Councilmember Bean asked where engineering is in the budget. Lance said it’s under road construction and improvement. Councilmember Bean said he feels the County has too many projects to think about a stoplight at Ammon Road and First Street and feels that they would rather do a round-a-bout. Councilmember Ellis stated he was at a County meeting the other night and the discussion was if Ammon decides to go the County might go all the way to th Crowley. Councilmember Powell asked why we can’t look at First Street, 17 and Sunnyside. 12-11-08 Council Minutes Page 4 of 6 Council decided to move ahead with John Adams and Curlew. Discussion ensued concerning the possibility of adding Karchner into the project and completing First Street. Bill Manwill stated regarding the LID’s, the assessments have to reflect the value of the properties. Possibly you could do one for the interior and one for the First Street exterior. Karchner would be assessed for the frontage and Suitter’s for the frontage and interior. Councilmember Bean noted that it should be stated that we use the name Suitter’s in reference to the land owned by Dr. Marano as well as others. 5. Valuations Northwest Appraisals Update (Leslie): Leslie stated that she found the evaluations on the City Building, etc. She contacted the insurance company and they hadn’t received the information either. We are now at risk of being underinsured. The insurance company will be coming over to discuss this issue and Leslie would like the Council’s permission to correct the discrepancy until the Council can get a new appraisal. This will protect us from being underinsured. Leslie stated she adds everything the City has on infrastructure including donated property. Councilmember Ellis and Leslie are concerned with the amount of mileage we show on the initial sewer lines. Leslie stated we will be dropping some figures on the well houses per the appraisal, also. Council concurred to make the adjustment until we get a new appraisal. Councilmember Ellis said he would like to base the connection fees on new costs plus 3% every year and forget depreciation. Councilmember Bean stated he’s not confident on the replacement years. Councilmember Ellis said he feels they base it on the manufactured figures. The court didn’t use the methodology the City of Haley used to get there. We can come up with our own method and be able to defend it. Councilmember Bean would like Ron and Leslie to research the companies that perform appraisals besides Valuations Northwest. 6. Garbage Can Color for Bids (Lance): Lance asked the Council if they want black, gray, brown or blue for the containers. Lance said they hold 95 gallons. Council decided that the cans should be black, in case, we ever change companies black can still be supported. Mayor Ard stated he wants Lance to be sure he buys a quality product. 7. Misc.: Councilmember Ellis talked with Ted and Willy and they stated we are paying interest on DEQ as we go along but at the end if there is any money left and want to roll the interest into the bond we can get it back. th Leslie asked the Council for clarification that they will be coming in on Dec. 18 at 4 pm for the hams and then coming back at 7:30 pm for the meeting. Council agreed. Leslie advised the Council that we are responsible for the maintenance on the Ammon Town Center walking trail and presented the Council with the agreement. Councilmember Bean asked Leslie to let Ken know. Leslie inquired if anyone was aware of an Ammon Basketball league. There have been several calls asking how people can sign up at the City. She advised the Council that they have a baseball league also. This organization has a website stating Ammon Basketball League. She has called him and asked him to change the name, or state that it isn’t affiliated with the City. Councilmember Bean asked when we are looking at financing the truck, do we know if the bonds we issue are tax exempt. Mayor Ard stated he is pretty sure they are. Councilmember Bean said if they are we can’t do any leasing if we are have more than $10 million in tax exempt issues. He feels we be issuing some of our water bonds by next year. Councilmember Ellis stated if we include them in the meters then we won’t be done. Mayor Ard asked for an update on George McDaniel’s estate. Bill Manwill said it will possibly be sold off piece by piece. George did not own Dove’s landing, at the time of his death. FDIC owns Quail Ridge now because it was financed by ANB. Bill stated something needs to be done on maintenance in the Villa’s since they won’t have anywhere to call in the winter because Foothill’s no longer exists. He would like the City to grant a one year conditional acceptance with a punch list and tie it into no more additional development until it is completed. This would have to be addressed year by year. Bill has been off the payroll since 3 – 4 weeks after George’s death and he can’t think of any other solution. Wendy’s father has been helping out and he is fiscally conservative, as George was fiscally aggressive. He has cut off any spending any money at all and is trying to liquidate what he can to set up a trust for Wendy. Bill said there is someone else involved with George but he doesn’t know who it is but Jeff Hawks does. Bill said they are trying to unload the balance of Founders Point property but they want to sell it as one parcel which is 600 acres. They are asking $8000 per acre. 12-11-08 Council Minutes Page 5 of 6 Councilmember Bean motioned to adjourn. Councilmember Ellis seconded. Roll call vote. Councilmember Bean – Yes, Councilmember Ellis – Yes, Councilmember Powell – Yes, Councilmember Thompson – Yes, Councilmember Waite – Yes and Councilmember Kirkham – Yes. The motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m. _______________________________________ C. Bruce Ard, Mayor ___________________________________ Leslie Folsom, City Clerk 12-11-08 Council Minutes Page 6 of 6