August 8 Special Council Meeting

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