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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001.03.07 CITY COUNCIL MINUTES MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING March 7, 2001 7:30 p.m. STATE OF IDAHO) County of Madison)SS City of Rexburg) Present were the Following: Mayor:Bruce Sutherland Council Members:Glen Pond Donna Benfield Marsha Bjornn Paul Pugmire Finance Officer:Richard Horner P.F.C.John Millar City Attorney:Stephen Zollinger Minutes:Janet Williamson Excused:Marilyn Hansen, City Clerk Kay Beck Pledge to the flag. Introduction of scouts. st Marsha made a motion to approve the minutes of February 21. Paul seconded the motion. Donna asked for a correction on page 2 paragraph 3. Tru Value should be True Value. All voted aye. None opposed. Conditional Use Permit - Ricks College Multi-Use Facility Lanny Herrin, Architect - They met with the Planning Commission over the last couple of weeks to review their Conditional Use Permit for approval for a building over 10,000 square feet on campus. The commission recommended approval last night for it to go before City Council. John Millar explained that at the first meeting there were concerns over the number of parking nd units that were presented and also the accesses of some of the parking lots on 2 East and interior to the college. The Planning Commission made some recommendations. They followed those recommendations and increased the parking from 316 to 381 which fully meets the ordinance. The building will be posted for the capacity so it basically will limit the use of the nd building to the parking spaces. The changes made on the two roads where it joins onto 2 East nd were widened so there is a right turn and a left turn lane as they exit onto 2 East. The road that comes back to the interior of the campus (Kimball Alley) - they are looking at closing that off just west of this building with a minor closure so it will direct traffic back along the west of the radio station. The access will still be available through Kimball Alley but you will have to come around through the parking lot and back around. For emergency vehicles, the curb across that will be such that it can be crossed by emergency vehicles. With those changes Planning and Zoning recommended that a Conditional Use Permit be issued. Glen had some concern about the road called Kimball Alley. There was a reason that was required, why are we now deciding we don’t need it? John said when that was originally put in there was interest in limiting the amount of traffic through there and it was put in from a constrictive point, the road is quite narrow. The reason for that is to try to discourage vehicles through there so it doesn’t become a by pass road across town, this in essence doesn’t close it, it just requires that you take one more jog to get around it. Glen wanted to know how much time Planning and Zoning spent looking at why we had that there and why we are now circumventing what we had before. Donna said that Planning and Zoning brought that up, it is still open for 1 emergency vehicles but they don’t really want it to become a thoroughfare because of the pedestrian traffic. Lanny said they have minimized the traffic patterns between the east entrance into the Kimball parking lot and the west entrance into the Kimball parking lot on the south side so that you can’t go straight east, you have to go into the Kimball parking lot on the road that is there now and back out. The area between is what they have limited to general traffic. Paul asked if there was any consideration given to long trucks being able to negotiate the curves. If we are successful in getting a ladder truck is it going to be able to make those turns. Lanny said there is physically no change to the existing flow. The curb is only a 3-4 inch high curb so any emergency vehicle can easily jump over that. Donna made a motion that they approve the Conditional Use Permit for the Ricks College multi- use facility. Marsha seconded the motion. All voted aye. None opposed. Public Hearing - Norm Thompson - 1450 Salem Road - Annexation and Zone Change John Millar explained that the parcel being annexed is a one acre piece that the existing Thompson building sits on located just south of the old Ultimate Direction building, now Porters. We acquired some right-a-way from him and as part of that he requested annexation. It has gone through Planning and Zoning, there was no public comment, they recommended it be approved for annexation. It is being zoned HBD. Glen asked if they were paying the sewer and water hook up fees. John said they actually worked out an agreement with them. The City acquired quite a bit of right-a-way on the west side of their property to widen the road. We worked out those fees and there is an agreement. The Mayor opened the public hearing. No comments were made. The Mayor closed the public hearing and turned it over to the council for comments. Paul moved to annex the property in question. Donna seconded the motion. All aye. None opposed. Paul moved to zone the Norm Thompson property as HBD. Donna seconded the motion. All voted aye. None opposed. Audit Report The Mayor turned the meeting over to Brad Reed of Rudd & Co. to present and review the audit. Glen moved they accept the audit report as presented. Donna seconded the motion. All voted aye. None opposed. Richard said LID 31 would need to be discussed at the next meeting. Targhee Pawn Shop Mayor Sutherland said we have sent a letter to Bill Kunz about cleaning up his yard at the Pawn Shop. Mr. Kunz asked if he could have 30 days to do it. The Mayor said he would run it by the City Council. Glen said we should give him at least 30 days. Paul felt we need to put in writing what the definition of clean is. Stephen said they will provide him with a list of what our ordinance prohibits being open to public view. Stephen’s concern with setting a date is that right now the weather prohibits Mr. Kunz from being able to move a lot of what is there. Donna asked what we legally can do. Stephen said we will not grant him a business license until it is cleaned up. 2 Marsha made a motion that we give Bill Kunz 60 days to get the Pawn Shop cleaned up according to the City laws and that John Millar will have jurisdiction over that. Paul seconded the motion. All aye. None opposed. Madison High School th The Mayor announced that on Friday March 9, there will be a special assembly at Madison High School honoring the state basketball champions and also 3 state wrestling champions. They have requested a proclamation of “Madison High School Day” or something similar to that. He will do this with the Council approval. The Council is invited to attend the assembly, Friday at 9:15 a.m. in the gym. They also asked if they could have the fire engine to parade them down town before the assembly. The Mayor told them to talk to the Fire Chief. The Council gave their approval. Project Reports nd John Millar reported that the traffic signal on 2 East by Artco went into operation Friday and is working fine. nd Marsha asked about the lighted crosswalks at Center and 2 South. John reported that there is ice around them and they are working on raising them up. Reporting from the Traffic Safety Committee, John said their recommendation is to eliminate 10- 12 parking stalls on the south side of that road to widen the visibility area for that crosswalk and thst post it no parking. They also recommended a 4 way stop at the intersection of 4 South and 1 West. Post Employment Health Plan Richard reported from the Personnel Committee concerning a post employment health plan issue. (Hand out to explain sick bank issue.) The problem has been how to fund the post employment health plan. It was suggested by the committee that we use the funding of the sick leave bank roll over. Roll over whatever number of hours they do not use during the year into the post employment health plan and cash them out then, rather than waiting and letting it accumulate in the sick leave bank. This way it would be immediately off our books and into a plan that is independent - a trustee plan that is outside of our control in the name of the employee and it stays there until they terminate employment. One of the largest reasons for doing this is when employees retire they can take their bank amount, put it into this fund and use it for health insurance and other health costs. If this is set up everyone will have to be part of it. The biggest concern is how to fund it. We cannot take money out of their pay checks and the Personnel Committee didn’t feel like extending the City on it. By using their sick bank to fund it, it really takes care of both issues. They have met twice with the Employee Committee and they are in favor of it. They talked to other employees in a meeting as well and the only concern is how it is going to be funded. Taking the sick leave bank, which is really meant to go here anyway and doing it every year really solves the problem. There is a minimum of about $120 per each employee required to start the plan, which amounts to about $8,000 needed to enroll. It was suggested that they take this money from the PERSI fund. Paul asked if once we sign up and pay this fee are we in at that point or do we have to pay additional sign up fees as the City staff gets bigger. Richard explained that it really isn’t a sign up fee, it is an initial contribution. We would start out with $120 per employee now and every January look at the prior sick leave roll overs then those amounts that would normally roll over and just sit in accounting without funding would actually be cashed out in January. We would budget that in the previous October. They would charge all the different departments and it would go into their benefit costs. 3 Glen moved to approve the recommendation of the Personnel Committee. Marsha seconded the motion. Discussion. Paul asked if the motion included obligating about $8,000 out of the PERSI money. Glen said it did. Richard added that we could spend it out of that or out of each department’s budget. Paul was uncomfortable using PERSI money. The source of the money that generated the PERSI money was from the tax payers and he feels it should go back to a hard capital project that will be of general use to the City. Richard said we do have contingency money we could use. Paul made a substitute motion that we sign up on this program but that they fund it with contingency money. Marsha seconded the motion. Those voting aye: Paul, Marsha and Donna. Those voting nay: Glen. Vote was 3 to 1. Motion passed. Marsha moved that they go into Executive Session to discuss personnel and property matters. Paul seconded the motion. All aye. None opposed. Return from Executive Session Glen moved that they give John Millar the authority to go ahead and pursue the acquisition of the property that was discussed in Executive Session. Paul seconded the motion. All aye. None opposed. Glen moved that for the remaining portion of this year the AFLAC proceeds be allowed to be kept by the employee. Paul seconded the motion. All aye. None opposed. Glen moved the bills be paid. Paul seconded the motion. All aye. None opposed. Paul moved to adjourn. Glen seconded. All aye. 4