|
Mayor David Anderson called
the special meeting of August 8, 2011 to order at 7:00 p.m.
Present for the meeting
were Mayor Anderson, Council President Chris
Clark, Council Members Mike Klaus, Connie Wells,
and Tom Mayo, Clerk Kris Larson, City
Administrator Stephen Boorman, Assistant City
Administrator David Sims, Police Chief Rick
Alonzo, Water/Sewer Supervisor Jim Fritzsche,
Fire Chief Pat Warkentin, Water Department
Treatment Operator Doug Ladely, and Electric
Department Supervisor Dan Rice.
Also present was Dave Gray.
The purpose of the special
meeting was to discuss a loader purchase and
also discuss fiscal year 2012 budget.
David Sims spoke to council
regarding a loader available from Rowand
Machinery.
He asked for council direction as Rowand
has a loader available but they need to know how
we will pay for it.
Option one of an annual payment of
approximately $26,000 per year is what Stephen
and David and John are recommending.
This is a municipal lease with the city
owning the loader after the five years.
Mike Klaus said he has been looking at
how to balance the budget for the general fund
and a set payment for the next few years would
be easier to pay than have the total amount come
due at once.
Chris Clark asked about the buyback
option.
David said the lease option takes us out
of the buyback program.
This loader will reduce the amount of use
on the grader to help prolong its life.
There are three other loaders in the
city’s fleet.
John said if the other loaders are faster
we may be able to retire the
Euclid.
Mike Klaus moved to purchase the loader
on the five year plan with a blade as proposed
by the street department.
Chris Clark seconded the motion.
The
motion passed – Mike Klaus “yes”, Chris Clark
“yes”, Connie Wells “yes”, Tom Mayo “yes”.
David will have a contract for council’s
approval at the next meeting.
Mayor Anderson spoke of
water rates and asked if Jim thinks we should
build a reserve to fix old lines.
Jim said this should be done to help
replace deteriorating infrastructure.
He said it does not take long to spend a
reserve.
If the city had a larger reserve, we
would not have had to borrow as much funding for
the water projects that were completed.
The infrastructure is aging and needs to
be replaced over time and in order to maintain
the services the public has come to expect the
city needs to have funds in a reserve to keep
the infrastructure upgraded.
He said there is not an alternate source
and the test well will show if this is a viable
source.
The river pumps are old and the river
water has debris and the pumps would not last
since there is so much debris.
The pumps are also old and the river
water is dirty so it must be treated differently
than the water from Myrtle Creek.
Jim said it takes a long time to treat
the water and the river water is difficult to
treat.
He spoke of the large rate increase last
year and would like to plan for the future by
having smaller rate increases.
He would like to see money available if
the test well proves to be viable to develop
that well.
Jim spoke of the water in the northside
tanks and the water levels at those tanks.
He is concerned over the depth of the
water in the northside tanks this time of year
and the fire flows not being adequate in Jim’s
opinion.
Standard residential fire flow should be
1750 gallons per minute according to Mike Klaus
but there can be other factors that affect this.
Jim said the Hospital is served directly
by the city from another source.
Mike Klaus spoke regarding
the water and sewer increases and said we tend
to flat line for a long time and then we see a
large jump.
He made the comparison of a 1958 pickup
and the water plant.
He said not too many people drove a 1958
pickup to the meeting tonight and if they did
they would have had to put some money into the
vehicle to keep it running.
He said it is due diligence to the
community to try to keep up with inflation so it
is not such a burden to the community.
Mike said the steel tank needs to be
replaced as it is leaking and the northside tank
needs attention also.
Mike thinks about the employees and
infrastructure that is depreciating the same as
he thinks they should be kept up with inflation.
Mayor Anderson asked about
the Sheriff’s Office calling in a number and
getting instant information.
Rick explained that the $7,000 request in
his capital budget is for computer networking
with the Sheriff’s Office so the City and the
County will both be operating on the same system
for law enforcement.
The greatest cost is for licensing fees
initially.
The maintenance agreement after that is
about $1,000 according to Rick.
Chris Clark asked about the Drug Task
Officer costs and if Rick thinks it is
worthwhile.
Rick said it is and explained the large
drug bust that we had several years ago and the
money that was garnered.
This funding is used to pay for the Drug
Task Force Officer costs except for $15,000 per
year that the city provides.
The city also provides the fuel and
repairs on the Drug Task Force officer vehicle.
Rick said there is a large
seizure that is being worked on with the federal
government and the Task Force.
Mike Klaus commented that he likes the
idea of spreading out the cost of a vehicle over
several years.
He said the problem is storing the money
in a place that is safeguarded for the intended
purpose.
John Youngwirth said we are
about three years behind on chip sealing but the
asphalt is pretty good.
In 2012 budget he is looking at
purchasing an additional load of oil for chip
sealing and also the purchase of chips.
There are quite a few streets on the
northside where the water project took place.
There are also streets all throughout
town but the northside is the worst.
He is anxious to see how the new
distributor truck will assist and make their
work quicker.
John said the weather affects this a lot.
Tom Mayo asked about snow storage.
John said it cannot be very far away
because he only has three trucks so the
turnaround time needs to be quick.
David asked how far away the snow storage
could be.
John said in the downtown area.
Pat Warkentin said there
was a wild land fire near
Wilson’s residence but it
was in the Paradise Valley Fire District.
While the fire department was responding
to the wild land fire there was an auto accident
near the Oriental
Garden.
A woman rear ended a truck at about 80
miles per hour but she was not injured.
Chris Clark asked Pat about annexation
south of town to the State shop and if this
would add a lot to the fire department’s load.
Pat said the city already responds due to
the mutual aid agreement.
John commented that those people are
already receiving city services but not paying
for them.
Pat said the fire department is paid
$11.78 per hour for fire calls and $6.75 per
hour for training.
He would like to see this increased about
25 cents per hour.
He also would like to see the Lieutenants
be paid a salary of about $50 per month and also
increase the other officer’s wages by about $25
per month.
Pat spoke about the Cascade System that
the fire
08/08/11 Special Council Meeting
3department received as a donation.
He said the fill station is a cast iron
box that the cylinders are in so when they are
being filled, if a bottle were to explode, it
would be contained.
The value of the Cascade System that was
donated is about $9,000.
Pat said there is a grant that was just
awarded for P25 compliant radios from the
Department of Lands.
Chris Clark asked about wage increases
and if they are in the budget.
Clerk Larson told them there were no wage
increases in the budget yet.
Dan Rice spoke to council.
He showed council his credentials and
told them about the amount of education that it
takes to become a lineman.
Dan spoke of a mapping system and how the
city does not have one.
He said the electric department just
wants to live here and if there is enough money
coming in then it should be put back into
infrastructure and gave examples of rebuilding
lines.
The electric department has kept up their
infrastructure.
He said Bonners Ferry is behind the times
but the other linemen at Northern Lights are
paid $36 per hour.
Bonners Ferry does not have the tax
revenue but infrastructure needs to be kept up.
There are Bonners Ferry people that will
replace our most recent retiree at the electric
department and hopefully the next retiree.
He would like to keep putting money in
infrastructure.
Mike Klaus asked about capital
improvements.
Dan Rice said he would like to see a
mapping system put in place.
He said if we can afford this mapping
system it would make us far ahead.
Mapping systems are huge in making the
jobs easier for the electric department.
He said if the electric system could be
mapped then an overlay could be added for water
lines.
Dan gave the example of underground lines
as well as overhead lines.
He said the public likes underground
lines much better.
Mike asked what Dan’s
forecast is for each year.
He said replacing the underground wire
that was not buried in conduit.
When there is an underground fault on a
primary wire it should be mapped so when there
is another fault it can be located easier.
Dan said there was some bad wire from the
1980’s that only lasted about 15 years.
He said the electric department is fixing
short runs but the long runs would be too
expensive.
Tom asked about mapping.
David said we have two quotes and there
is another still to come in.
David said asset management would be a
benefit from a mapping program.
Stephen said there would be a contract
situation or an employee would be hired to
maintain the mapping system.
Pole testing companies will
GPS
the location of the electric poles.
Dan said mapping is industry standard.
He said this will make it so when there
is an outage he can get the right size wire and
parts to take to the location of the outage.
He said a mapping system also tracks the
types of outages such as squirrels so the
electric department can put up squirrel guards
if necessary.
Dan said for future prosperity we need to
keep up with the times.
Mayor Anderson said we all
know the benefits of mapping.
David asked if council would like to
review mapping proposals at the next meeting.
Mayor Anderson wants this on the next
agenda.
The group discussed sewer
and the needed improvements.
Jim said the camera of the sewer lines in
Eaton Addition cannot be done due to the
unevenness of the sewer lines.
Stephen said there are springs in the
area that are forceful and they think this is
causing the lines to become uneven.
08/08/11 Special Council Meeting 4
David would like to see a
water and sewer rate study.
He said Stephen has looked into a study
with Gary Seliba who worked on the electric rate
study.
David said we may want to wait until we
get the sewer master plan done but an
inflationary increase should be done.
Chris Clark asked about the additional
days that were awarded and if the employees
liked this.
Rick said it would have
been appreciated more if there had been more
days because the county got nine days.
Dan said it was appreciated but the talk
is that the county has better benefits and got
more days off.
Jim and Dan said it was appreciated very
much.
The budget needs to be at
the paper for publication before August 19.
Dan Rice said Bonners Ferry
has the lowest electric rates.
Dave Gray said council is
following the right path.
At the next meeting council
will present their ideas on the raises and
capital. The meeting adjourned at
8:30 p.m.
/s/
David K. Anderson, Mayor
Attest:
/s/
Kris Larson,
Clerk/Treasurer
|
