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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1995.05.03 CITY COUNCIL MINUTESDATE: (050395) State of Idaho) County of Madison( ss City of Rexburg) Those Present: Mayor: Councilman: Excused: City Clerk: Attorney: Engineer: Finance officer: Pledge to the flag. City Council 5/3/95 7:30 P.M. Nile Boyle Kay Beck Farrell Young Glen Pond Bruce Sutherland Nyle Fullmer Jim Flamm Rose Bagley J. D. Hancock Joe Laird Richard Horner A motion was made by Glen Pond and seconded by Bruce Sutherland to approve the minutes. All Aye RE: JAIL BOND DISCUSSED TOPIC: (19,124,,, JAIL BOND,MADISON COUNTY,COURTHOUSE,MAIN STREET) David Taylor and Kent Jolly were at the meeting to make a report from the Jail Bond Committee about the Jail Bond. David gave a report. A group of citizens asked by the County Commissioners to serve on a Jail Bond Committee. They considered some of the options and needs of the county as far as the courthouse, A.D.A. requirements, Madison County additional office space, juvenile detention questions and additional jail space that may be required to meet the growth of the county. There is no place in Madison County to detain the juveniles. To mix them up with the adults is not acceptable. They are now being faced with litigation and a lot of prisoners are joining with a class action suit against Madison County. The committee has come up with some solutions. There is an opportunity for us to consider making the move if we pass this for the taxes to go down with the bond debt that is now retiring plus the Legislation gave us some tax relief. We would like to get the information out to the public. A motion was made by Nyle Fullmer that the City Council support the Jail Bond, seconded by Bruce Sutherland. All Aye The mayor told them he had heard the County is going to buy Cole's and Ards and there was a question if they needed to buy that much property and save money. He felt the best buy was East Main Square. Dave said that building has been inspected and is structurally sound. It is already to use, with the A.D.A. standards, and sprinkling system. The price is good and you get all the parking in back. It is a good time to look at the overall picture. Glen stated that it is not just a Jail Bond, you are picking up the ability to utilize the courthouse for what it is intended to be utilized for instead of office space. All of your office functions can be moved to East Main Square and the courthouse can be used for court and not just for office space. Farrell asked about the pedestrian traffic back and forth across Main Street? Dave stated they are trying to figure out how to divide the functions that don't need to be in the courthouse so you can just go to the other offices for that purpose. They will be tied together electronically. Right now there is no place to park at the current courthouse. Kent Jolly stated there isn't a lot of need for people to walk back and forth across the street. The purchase would include the Harris Building, the parking behind it, the parking behind Ted Ard with the Ard Property there would be easy access to the front and rear door. It is a well built building and a new roof was put in recently. Dr Harris has installed a new mechanical system for heating and air conditioning. Dr Harris feels good about selling it to the County at a reasonable price. RE: SURCHARGE ON PRE-TREATMENT FOR THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT TOPIC: (19,125,,, WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT,SURCHARGES,SUN GLO) Surcharge on Pre-treatment for the Wastewater Treatment Plant -(copies handed out and attached) The mayor told the council under our old ordinance anything above 200 mil. per leader there would be a charge. The one that will get it the worst is Sun Glo. Checking the surcharge for Sun Glo for a three month period was a little over $6000 for one quarter with the old figures. They had gone through the figures with --- John Millar and with the new figures since we have the new plant running, it would change to $1978 for one quarter and $1938 for the other quarter since the plant has been running. It is costing about a third as much. The mayor stated we hate to charge Sun Glo that much, but we do have E.P.A. coming in next month to audit everything. He felt we could justify this figure rather than the $6000. Ross Moser from Sun Glo was at the meeting, he stated that they appreciate that. They have been looking at some companies to do pre-treatment for them. One of the options they looked at was if the city charged a reasonable fee they would not go with one of these companies and pay the city to help them cover their costs. If it was a high figure they would go with one of these companies. They have found a couple of companies that claim they could do the job for us much less than the amount the city quoted them first. If they can keep the cost down they would pay the city and help them defray some of the costs of their plant. We have been in a study period for a little over a year and we have a lot of data that says we are on the ragged edge. We know as we expand it will only be worse so they are looking hard at a couple of units which would solve the problem if we put them in. The mayor said we will need to amend Ordinance 645 to reflect the cost of running the new plant. If the rest of the council feels good about that approach, we will get the information to J. D. so he can amend the ordinance and it would have to be uniformly enforced throughout the city. Joe stated that this was anticipated when the plant was started. After we operated the plant for a year we might have to adjust figures. The mayor stated that John had gone through the plant and got the costs and came up with a formula. He gave Ross a copy. Ross said these costs would not be very dissimilar to what it would cost them to operate a little unit at the plant besides the capitol investment. They would look the figures over, they want to pay their way. RE: PROCLAMATION FOR A DAY OF PRAYER TOPIC: (19,125,,, PROCLAMATIONS) Proclamation for A Day Of Prayer In The City of Rexburg, the first Thursday in May has been set aside as a National Day of Prayer. (copy on file). A motion was made by Nyle Fullmer to authorize the mayor to sign and proclaim A Day Of Prayer. All Aye RE: HEALTH INSURANCE DISCUSSED TOPIC: (19,125,,, HEALTH INSURANCE,CITY COUNCIL) Richard gave an update to the council on the change in insurance. We have gone with Blue Shield. The mayor told the council that a fellow from Blue Shield came in today and stated in order for the council to be on the insurance, they have to work 20 hours per week. J. D. said there would be no problem, they all work that much. RE: CHANGES IN THE EMPLOYEES MANUAL TOPIC: (19,125,,, EMPLOYEES MANUAL) Richard explained the changes in the Employees Manual: Sections 40, 101, 104, 109, 112, 402, 404. A motion was made by Bruce Sutherland to approve the changes in the Employee Handbook dated 5/3/95. Seconded by Nyle Fullmer. All Aye RE: DISCUSSION OF SALVAGE YARD TOPIC: (19,125,,, SALVAGE YARDS,IMPACT ZONE) Bruce reported on the Planning & Zoning meeting. Bruce stated he was opposed to the salvage yard until he listened to their presentation. Glen stated we spent a number of years and a great deal of effort getting the impact zone to the city passed and to the county residents. We talked to the people that were impacted and what could be developed on the property next to them and now 60 days after we passed the impact zone, we have a request for the zoning to be changed. His feeling is unless those people that border that property come forward and say it is great we would like to see that property re -zoned and we are 100% in favor of it, he didn't think we should address a zone change. What we did we did with good faith of the residents of the Impact Zone and he did not have a good feeling about it. It is a salvage yard and Mr Goe talked about bringing California standards here but the pictures he sent around looked like a junk yard. You have a home sitting back there that would look directly over all those cars. If we have to change the zoning in order to accommodate it, he had a problem based on what we committed to those residents when we did the Impact Zone. RE: ADMINISTRATION SUPPORT FOR THE COURTS TOPIC: (19,126,,, COURTS,MADISON COUNTY,POLICE) Administration support for the courts. The mayor had Blair go through figures with the Resource Officer and do a study on how much time he spent on city work and how much time he spent on warrants and court things. If you take his salary of about $25,000, it looks like the county is getting credit for about $15,000 of what we have been paying out. The mayor would really like to keep that officer. He suggested that we could maybe give a little bit more money. Kay felt that the figures they gave us were not correct. The mayor said he would not be in favor of giving much more at the very most $10,000 more. Glen asked if more time to study it would change anything? Kay asked if the responsibility for law enforcement rested with the county in the State of Idaho? Nile said we are not required by law to have city police. Kay said then any money that the city contributes is by their own free will and choice in addition to what Ricks College contributes. We could legally disband our police force and the college could disband theirs and the county would have to pick that up. It is their responsibility. Glen stated, you say we don't have to do it, but they can come back and force the city to do it, legally. He still felt there should be an efficiency study done because we don't know if they are under worked or over worked. J. D. felt efficiency studies and division of work would be helpful. (discussion) It was felt that we should wait until the Jail Bond is voted on until we make a decision. The mayor reminded the council of the A.I.C. Convention. A motion was made by Bruce Sutherland to approve the bills. Seconded by Kay Beck. All Aye The next council meeting on May 17, was scheduled for 7:00 A.M. because of conflicts. A motion was made by Glen Pond and seconded by Nyle Fullmer to adjourn. All Aye U6 J &)X Mayor, Ii a L. Boyle City Clerk, Rose .Bag1Gi/