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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000.05.03 CITY COUNCIL MINUTES DATE: (050300) MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING May 3, 2000 7:30 p.m. STATE OF IDAHO) County of Madison) SS City of Rexburg) Present were the following: Mayor:Bruce Sutherland Council members:Kay Beck Paul Pugmire Farrell Young Marsha Bjornn Glen Pond City Clerk:Marilyn Hansen P.F.C.:John Millar City Attorney:Stephen Zollinger Excused:Donna Benfield, Richard Horner Pledge to the flag. Kay made a motion to approve the minutes for April 5, 2000, which motion was seconded by Glen. All voted aye. Roger Muir announced his candidacy and talked about his qualifications for Madison County Commissioner. RE: FIRE DEPARTMENT TURN-OUT EQUIPMENT TOPIC: (23,253,,,EQUIPMENT,FIRE DEPARTMENT,AMBULANCE,MADISON COUNTY) Spence Larsen distributed a list of expenses of the fire department and explained the $15,000. The schedule for consolidation of the fire and ambulance has been moved up and as a result there are expenses that were basically unforeseen at the last budget year. The County would like to have consolidation completed in October, training has been stepped up, the ambulance personnel are nearly through the program to the point they need to be issued turn-out gear. Because of the stepped-up consolidation there is not enough gear to issue to new personnel. Spence discussed the department’s budget and asked for the City’s one-half share in the purchase of equipment which would be $7,500. There was some discussion of previous meetings, consolidation that should be done as soon as possible and the participation of the County and the Fire District. A motion was made by Kay for the City to pay their half of the $15,000 for turn-out equipment which would be $7,500, motion was seconded by Glen. All voted aye. RE: SHOP REXBURG COMMITTEE CONCERNING PARKING IN DOWNTOWN TOPIC: (23,253,,,CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,MAINSTREET,PARKING, RICKS COLLEGE,IDAHO TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT, DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION) Dave Pincock, Chairman of the Shop Rexburg Committee for the Chamber of Commerce explained that the Chamber has received a number of angry calls regarding parking on Main Street from numerous businesses. There is a lack of parking on Main Street and customers cannot get into businesses. In watching the situation there seems to be a lot of employees that are using the parking spots so that customers of the stores have no parking, the City Police Department has been called and citations have been issued, the problem still exists and the Committee would like to see what the City can help with. 1 Becky Bott from Rags & Tans on Main Street explained her parking situation. There are 8 tenants who live above the store with 4 parking spots in the back which are all taken up by the tenants and the rest take up the spaces in front of the store. There is also a dance studio that takes up the remainder of the places and there are no parking spots on the north side of the street for customers. If anyone parks in front of the gate of the parking lot for AMET they are hauled off within 15 minutes for a cost of $80. Mitch Neibaur from Intermountain Mortgage, Inc. a member of the committee to address the parking issue spoke concerning short term as well as long term solutions. There needs to be some priorities set and some of the suggestions were: Reducing the time limit on Main Street parking Increasing the parking violation fees Send a letter to business owners encouraging them to set the example of not parking directly in front of the business Identify on a short term basis available parking lots and suggest those to some of the business owners Instruct Ricks College instructors and students to support the parking issue and not complicate the problem New businesses move in without consideration of parking, could this be controlled in some way as part of an occupancy permit or business license that parking be provided. The County should be encouraged to use their own lots, they park part on his lot and will not walk across the street to the county lot. The City, County and the business owners have an obligation to participate in promoting business on Main Street Mitch questioned the viability of a committee that was called sometime ago by Mayor Boyle for the revitalization of downtown. They identified a corridor of 3 blocks east, 3 blocks west and 1 block south and north of Main Street as an area that needs some input. He encouraged the Council to take these projects into the budgeting process and try to stretch some dollars for this downtown project. Paul suggested that consideration be given to the vision of what the merchants want downtown Rexburg to be like in 20 years. Mayor Sutherland acknowledged the problem of parking. He also explained that another issue the City fights yearly is the State Highway Department. The State is discussing the rebuilding of Main Street and they are determined that diagonal parking should be eliminated and replaced with parallel parking. It was also discussed that Ricks College has leased the building from Sandra & Co. for classes which will also increase the parking problem. A big problem seems to be the employees of the various businesses do not want to walk. A parking lot that has minimal use is the lot behind the County Courthouse annex which is all public parking. There is also the parking lot at Sherry’s Floral, the rear of the lot is used for INEEL parking but the front portion should be available. Valerie Lauder questioned if someone would speak to the owner of AMET with the possibility of renting a couple of spaces. Glen stated that the parking inside the fence would not be available. At the time of purchase of that building it had been made clear that the parking was to be fenced and secured for his employees and equipment. Dave Pincock made two proposals : 1. That someone from the City Council, with Donna, be available to work with the Committee, locate the parking lots available, have that representative go with the Committee to the owners to request permission for temporary parking, then go to the businesses on Main Street and request that the employees park in those locations and not in front of the stores. 2 2. That some consideration be given to raising the fines to $25.00 so that it is a little more painful if they are going to park there all day. Chad PlocHer, owner of Four Mills on Main Street presented a proposal he has for the parking on Main Street. He distributed a diagram of Main Street showing three adjoining buildings that are for sale at this time, Charley’s Girl, Four Mills and Sandra & Co. He proposed that the City purchase these buildings and replace with a parking lot. His calculations of measurements would allow for 25 parking spots. At the present time there are 20 spots. At 7:00 this evening all but two of the spots were being used and that was with most of the businesses closed. Fongs Restaurant has the capacity for 144 people, the movie theater, T.J.;’s Restaurant has the capacity for 68 people, and around the corner is Gringo’s Mexican Restaurant, these businesses are all on Main Street. Chad proposed the City purchase the three properties and incorporate a parking lot, he feels the funds are available through various sources and the window of opportunity will not be open forever. He feels the City should hire someone to appraise the cost of these buildings, he purchased his building for $65,000 and would be willing to sell it for that, or less. There was discussion on the purchase or leasing of these buildings, the lack of funds to do so, LID’s to perform the work, the benefit to the City to have downtown revitalized and the necessity of the businesses to help guide and spearhead the revitalization and the need for repair on some infrastructure, the possibility of finding resources to buy the old Rexburg Food Center corner for parking. Mayor Sutherland explained that most people are not aware of the tax structure of the City. With the exception of possibly 3 or 4 other cities we have the lowest tax base in the state and we are the lowest for our size. There are $5.5 million dollars of road repairs that need to be taken care of, our street budget is $425,000/year and that will resurface approximately 2 blocks. In the past we have done well with grants because if we are going to improve anything we have to play the game and apply for all grants. Paul suggested that we can begin providing assertive leadership. Now is the time to bring the interested parties together and proceed from that point. John Millar commented on the meeting he had attended. They had talked about a 12 block area, selected 6-8 names from each block, they will be sent a letter for a meeting the first part of June and see who is interested and where to proceed. The Mayor stated he would be happy to be involved, he also appointed Donna and Paul and Marsha volunteered to serve on this committee. The meeting will be held on May 25 at 8:00 p.m. Mitch suggested that this agenda be put together by the businessmen, the City Council support and be a part of that committee. RE: SET BUDGET HEARING TOPIC: (23,255,,,BUDGET) Paul moved to set the budget hearing for the first Wednesday of September, September 6. Motion was seconded by Kay. All voted aye, none opposed. RE: COST OF LIVING ALLOWANCE TOPIC: (23,256,,,EMPLOYEES,RAISE,COST OF LIVING) The cost of living allowance for the employees is suggested to be 3.2%. Paul made a motion to accept the 3.2% cost of living raise, which motion was seconded by Farrell. All voted aye, none opposed. 3 RE: BLUE CROSS INSURANCE TOPIC: (23,256,,,EMPLOYEES,INSURANCE,BLUE CROSS) Blue Cross Insurance has accepted the City’s application for coverage. Kay made a motion to accept the change of insurance coverage from our present carrier to the Blue Cross Insurance program, Glen seconded the motion and all voted aye, none opposed. RE: WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT TOPIC: (23,256,,,WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT) John Millar reported that the Wastewater Treatment Plant project is proceeding well. It is approximately 50% completed and is right on schedule. Completion should be within 3 months. RE: FIRST WEST STREET TOPIC: (23,256,,1ST WEST,STREETS) Construction on First West is proceeding well. Approximately three-fourth’s of the road is excavated and completion is about 2-3 weeks away. RE: ASPHALT CRUSHING TOPIC: (23,256,,,ASPHALT,1ST WEST,NORTH HIGHWAY) The asphalt crushing is complete. The results are very pleasing, the product is good and is being used on First West. There is enough dirt mixed with the asphalt that it should not solidify in the pile and we should pretty well get our money back over the years. It will also be used on the North Highway. RE: WATER SHOP TOPIC: (23,256,,,WATER,WATER DEPARTMENT,WATER SHOP) th The Water Shop project is out for bid. The bid date is the 16 day of May. RE: CITY HALL TOPIC: (23,256,CITY HALL) The City Hall project has gone well and should be essentially complete a week from Friday. RE: LORIN KAUER DITCH TOPIC: (23,256,,,KAUER*LORIN,DITCHES,SOUTH HIGHWAY,MADISON COUNTY) The Kauer ditch on South Highway has been redone. This project was done in cooperation with the County. There were some problems with telephone lines, gas lines and fiber-optic lines that stretched it out and then the material brought in to backfill was too wet and it had to be pulled out and replaced. Today was the first day for asphalt and the project should be complete shortly. RE: SEAL COATING PROJECT TOPIC: (23,256,,,SEAL COATING,2ND SOUTH,5TH SOUTH) nd The basic reason the seal coating failed in so many places, especially by the college on 2 South th and on 5 South, was it got too late in the year and the temperature was wrong plus the chips were probably a little on the dirty side. Because of this, the City will be changing their procedure time wise and temperature wise on further seal coating. RE: GOLF COURSE BRIDGE TOPIC: (23,257,,,GOLF,GOLF BOARD,GOLF COURSE) th Paul was concerned about the bridge on the left side of the 9 hole at the golf course. It has a lot of spring and he is concerned about the safety in the middle where people walk. Stephen stated 4 this is the responsibility of the golf course management company. Paul would appreciate someone taking a look at it. RE: ANNEXATION LETTER TOPIC: (23,257,,,ANNEXATIONS) Paul questioned if anything had been done to send out notices concerning the new resolution to property owners receiving city services who are not annexed. He feels this needs to be followed up on. RE: IDAHO FALLS AIRPORT SIGN TOPIC: (23,257,,,CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,SIGNS,ADVERTISING) There is a misspelled word on the Rexburg sign at the Idaho Falls airport, the word being adundantly rather than abundantly. There was discussion about this sign being located at the north side of the baggage carousel and it was felt that the location is not ideal. Marsha had some questions concerning the bills and discussed the need for more street lights in the Starlite Addition as well as Porter Park. Kay made a motion to approve the bills which was seconded by Glen. All voted aye, none opposed. Kay made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Paul. All voted aye, none opposed. _________________________________________ Bruce Sutherland, Mayor _____________________________________ Marilyn Hansen, City Clerk 5