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10132011CouncilMinutes-WS CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2011 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION - AGENDA THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2011 – 4:30 P.M. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1.Investment & Savings (Russell) th 2.Median Curb on 17 Street East of Hitt Road (Lance) 3.Wastewater Facility Planning Study Proposals (Lance) 4.Sunnyside Bypass Road Discussion (Lance) 5.Trees in Right-of-Way Issues (Ron) MINUTES City Officials Present: Mayor Steve Fuhriman Councilmember Dana Kirkham Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember Sean Coletti Councilmember Russell Slack City Clerk/Administrator/Planning Director Ron Folsom Deputy City Clerk Rachael Brown City Treasurer Jennifer Belfield City Engineer Lance Bates Fire Chief Stacy Hyde I.T. Director Bruce Patterson City Officials Absent: Councilmember Brian Powell Councilmember Lee Bean DISCUSSION ITEMS: Mayor Fuhriman opened the meeting at 4:38 p.m. at the City building located at 2135 South Ammon Road. 1. Investment & Savings (Russell): Jennifer directed the Council to SharePoint to view documents and spoke about the restrictive funds. Jennifer said restrictive funds are governed by law and that they have to be spent on exactly what they were collected for. Councilmember Kirkham inquired about the East Hills restrictive fund and asked if this is a project the City plans to do. Ron said the East Hills fund was for curb, gutter and sidewalk and the City has collected $44,019.66 since1974. Councilmember Kirkham said at some point the fund could be distributed to a developer. Ron said he would like the Council to think about a stoplight at Sunnyside and Eagle Drive. Ron said if Council determines they aren’t going to put a light at that location, the City would need to refund the money collected. Councilmember Kirkham said the likelihood of having a stoplight at that location doesn’t make any sense because the other light is only about 100 feet away. Jennifer moved on to discuss the reserve funds and said the financial statements show $147,000 in savings for the Fire Department. Jennifer said this year the Fire Department purchased the Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) system and asked if the expense should come out of the reserves, or if the general fund was going to pay for it. Discussion ensued regarding the reserve funds. Councilmember Kirkham asked Jennifer how much was coming out of reserves each year for the bond repayment. Jennifer said it would have to be calculated based on actual receipts. Jennifer said the interest charged on the bond is $1,171.39 every day. Discussion ensued regarding an increase to the commercial water rate. Councilmember Kirkham said the City needs to increase the water by $9.50 which means we need to publish. Ron said he will put the resolution together. Councilmember Kirkham asked Lance if all of the residential meters have been installed. Lance said not all 800 of them, but most of the homes having a meter installed have paid the meter fee. Discussion ensued regarding the reserve funds. Councilmember Slack said Chief Hyde has put a lot of work into the Insurance Services Organization (ISO) because it impacts the commercial insurance rates. Councilmember Slack said the ISO issued the City a rating in 2010 of a class four. Councilmember Slack said since January 2007, 25 percent of all the emergency response calls have had more than nine minute 13 Council Minutes 10-13-2011 Page of response times. Councilmember Slack said a second fire station is needed now. Councilmember Slack went over the Fire Department ISO rating and some of the changes needed to improve the rating. Ron reiterated one of the big things about the ISO rating is that it also affects the City’s commercial buildings. Councilmember Slack said he feels the Fire Department needs to purchase or obtain a grant for a ladder truck. Fire Chief Hyde said in his first year as an employee of the City, he doubled the Fire Department budget. Stacy said by building a new Fire Station and having a ladder truck, he felt the ISO would drop the City’s rating to a three. Discussion ensued regarding the ISO rating and joining the Fire District. Councilmember Kirkham asked Stacy to find out what percentage of the City of Idaho Falls taxes goes to Fire. Stacy said he would urge the City to take advantage of the Fire District. Bruce said over a period of years, the City has paid for I.T. capital improvements, servers, works stations, but there is no mechanism for him to set aside money to replace these items. Bruce said the Department Head is the one who understands the assets and he feels the City should hold the Department Heads accountable, and give them control over their assets. Bruce informed the Council that he budgeted so tight, he now has an issue with covering the cost of printing the newsletters. Bruce said he has been told by the Council to get the I.T. budget down, and he feels as soon as he reduces his budget then additional demands are put on his department. Councilmember Kirkham said it has to be specified so the funds can be set aside for replacing a printer or whatever is needed. 2. Median Curb on 17th Street East of Hitt Road (Lance): Lance directed the Council to a SharePoint document and explained the extruded curb. Lance said after this project is done, there will be no left hand turns out of the parking lot. Councilmember Kirkham said she feels after speaking to Target, and Woodbury, they are not excited about this project. Councilmember Thompson said the trouble is, the growth has occurred so much at that location, the City really doesn’t have any other option. Lance explained that Six Mile Engineer was the traffic engineering firm and this is the solution they have recommended. Discussion ensued regarding the traffic issues with the right turn only out of the shopping center. Councilmember Kirkham said this solution doesn’t impact the City of Idaho Falls at all, but it does impact the City of Ammon and if you are Target, or Albertson’s, or Famous Footwear you are going to move out of that shopping center because it is completely inconvenient. Councilmember Coletti asked why the median has to go back that far. Lance said they wanted to restrict it for safety reasons. Lance suggested he set a meeting between Six Mile Engineering, the City of Idaho Falls, and the Council to discuss other options. 3. Wastewater Facility Planning Study Proposals (Lance): Lance handed out a spreadsheet to the Council and said he reviewed most of the proposals he received. Lance said all of them seemed qualified to do the job. Lance asked for suggestions of criteria for ranking them.Lance told the Council the scale he used would show the number one as the best rating. Councilmember Kirkham noted that Keller & Associates was the lowest number on the criteria scale compared to the others. Discussion ensued regarding the rating criteria Lance used to rate the Engineering Firms. Councilmember Slack said Forsgren talked to him. Councilmember Kirkham told Russell his discussion with Forsgren was an ex-parte conversation, and he is required to document what was discussed in writing. Councilmember Slack spoke about the City having a model. Councilmember Kirkham said because this is a work session, she asked Lance to give her the proposals from Bowen Collins, Keller Associates, and Forsgren so she can read them before the next council. Lance suggested the Council read the proposals, and ask the firms to come to the next Council meeting to interview them. Lance is going to set up interview times with Bowen, Keller Associates, and Forsgren for next council. 4. Sunnyside Bypass Road Discussion (Lance): Councilmember Kirkham said she doesn’t know if this discussion is necessary, because Monday is the deadline to talk to HK Contractors about whether or not the City wants them to go to the intersection at 17th and Sunnyside. Councilmember Kirkham feels the only reason the bypass road is relevant is if the City chooses to move through this construction season. Lance said this was for if the City decided to do the construction around Black Friday. Councilmember Kirkham said yes, but the bypass road is $100,000. Lance informed the council about the two possible locations for the Sunnyside bypass road. Lance directed the Council to a map on SharePoint showing where the bypass road would be built. Discussion ensued regarding other possible options instead of the bypass road. It was suggested that a detour was a better option, and that staff would need to prepare several public service announcements. 5. Trees in Right-of-Way Issues (Ron): Ron spoke about a prior Council meeting and a discussion about a lady requesting we clean up trees in the right-of-way. The Council made the determination based on Scott’s recommendation that the City can’t trim her trees, or we would have to trim everyone’s trees. Ron said after the snow storm the other day, he heard from the lady again about the City’s trees being in her yard. Ron said the Street Department was cleaning up the roadway and cleaned up the tree branches, but told her the City would not trim them. Ron asked the Council for direction because to trim the trees is quite expensive, and they are in the City’s right-of-way. 6. Misc.: Bruce informed the Council of a meeting Councilmembers Kirkham and Powell attended with the City of Idaho Falls regarding the broadband fiber. Councilmember Kirkham said the meeting was favorable and we would come back and put 23 Council Minutes 10-13-2011 Page of together a proposal to connect the two Cities fiber. Bruce explained at the government entity level, there is no reason for the City of Ammon and the City of Idaho Falls to connect to each other. Councilmember Kirkham said she and Bruce put a proposal together for the City of Idaho Falls; Idaho Falls will review the proposal and give it to their City attorney to review. Discussion ensued regarding State Statues and possibly hiring an attorney that specializes in these issues. Councilmember Slack updated the Council about the road behind Target and said there is good conversation going on within the Target Corporation about it. The meeting adjourned at 6:52 p.m. ___________________________________ Steve Fuhriman, Mayor ________________________________________ Ron Folsom, City Clerk 33 Council Minutes 10-13-2011 Page of