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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999.02.17 CITY COUNCIL MINUTESDATE: (021799) City Council 2/17/99 7:30 P.M. State of Idaho) County of Madison( ss City of Rexburg) Those Present: Mayor: Hruce Sutherland Councilmembers: Glen Pond Kay Beck Paul Pugmire Marsha Bjornn Farrell Young Nyle Fullmer City Clerk: Rose Bagley Attorney: Stephen Zollinger Finance Officer: Richard Horner P.F.C.: John Millar Pledge to the flag. Introduction of scouts. A motion was made by Farrell Young and seconded by Nyle Fullmer to approve the minutes withcorrections. All Aye RE: JEFF LECHRIDGE PROPOSED MONUMENT FOR CITY APPROVAL TOPIC: (22,107,,,MAIN STREET,MONUMENT, LECHRIDGE*JEFF) Jeff Lechridge- 175 N 40G0 W was previously at a council meeting and proposed a monument he wanted to build for the city. Tonight he was .,__.... back to show a small scale of the monument. There are two issues he wanted to get resolved. (1) He wanted the council t'o approve a location to put the monument. The place that interested him would be on the East ~- end of Main Street on the island at 2nd East and Main. As he moves forward into the actual fund raising, he would like to tell people where it will be located. It will be about 9' tall. The mayor asked him what sort of site preparation would he need? Jeff told the council for the basic monument if he does it witha bronze base like the model, it would just takesome cement pillars down in theground, the ground will need to be leveled a little, the pill ax's would need to be set up where you could mount bolts that would be attached to the bottom of the monument. He hoped to get some different parties in the city involved to dress the place up to make it more than just the basic. He was setting up meetings with the service clubs and the Chamber of Commerce. His projected goal is to get it up for the year 2000 probably in early fall; it depends on how long it takes to raise the money. (discussion) It is a good time to reflect on pioneer values that shaped this community. Jeff discussed the maintenance and upkeep. He has a marketing plan to raise the money. - John Millar stated his or_ly concern is if traffic sometime in the future warrants the removal o£.that island to allow for four lanes in that last block this would be an impediment to that. Jeff stated it is a movable item and you would be able to move it if it was a necessity in the future. He said if they raise the money, the lighting would be a part of it. A motion was made by Farrell Young to give him permission to putthe monument at that location at the east end of Main at Main and 2nd East. Seconded by Kay Beck. All Aye He was told as it draws near to put the monument up he would need to work in cooperation with John Millar, Public Facility Coordinator in actual placement and excavation. Jeff stated after talking to his attorney, to make it more appealing for donations he suggested that funds be donated directly to the city in a special account and earmarked for this project and that would then make it a tax deduction for the people donating. Richard told the council he could create a separate fund and they could bring the money ;; i =~ in to the cashiers. The mayor told him he would need to give each person donating a written receipt and give a copy to Richard. He would need to come in and talk to Richard Horner and get it set up. Stephen told them the issue might become if it is an opened ended donation, there is a tax issue that is created if we exceed the amount of the cost for the monument because we would create a problem funneling excess funds back to Jeff because the contributions made were to have been tax deductible and if they exceed the actual input into the actual monument. As long as the numbers are relatively balanced and we don't receive donations that far exceed the reasonable input to the actual monument he did not think there would be aproblem. It is an accounting issue. The real problem comes from the I.R.S. if the donations are counted as tax deductible and they are not reasonably related to the actual product, then it creates a problem. If the contributions go in excess of the amount needed for the monument, we would need to draw up a letter of understanding between the city and Jeff establishing how the excessive funds would be treated so we might have to shut off the tax status at some point. RE: Y2K UPDATE TOPIC: (22,108,,,Y2IC, UP&L) Y2IC update- Richard gave the council an handout of Revised Emergency Contingency Plan. He had added a Mission Statement. We are going to bid locally the check and repair of the P.C.'s. He discussed the changes. (copy on file) The mayor had asked Glen Pond as a representative of Utah Power to explain what they are doing to get ready for the Y.2.K. He explained what the electrical facilities are doing to prepare. The utilities nation wide are required to report there progression toward resolving the Y2K problem to an Alliance called the North American Electric Reliability Council. As of January there were 98; of the 3200 utilities reported in U.S. and Canada they were well on their way to be Y.2.IC. ready. He gave a handout and explained it. They began the Y.2.K. project in 1996 and had a project manager since that time. They have as of 1997 100 full time employees working on that problem. Their goal for testing is in April and July and they feel like they are about ready for those dates. (he explained equipment)-They feel like as far as the electrical industry they will have the lights on December 31 and also on January 1. Glen said they would have personnel available that night if something does happen they will be ready to go out and get it started. The mayor told the council he became aware the other day at the department head meeting that the council has not been involved with the Civil Defense on their program and information. The whole council needs to be involved in all the training as well as the mayor. RE: HANDICAPPED PARKING APPROVAL L.S.A. BUILDING & PARKING FINE INCREASED TOPIC: (22,108,,,HANDICAPPED PARKING,FINES,COLLEGE,PARICING, MAIN STREET) Handicapped Parking Approval in front of the L.S.A. Building- We need to formally designate this for Handicapped Parking and they have requested that we raise the fine for handicapped parking to $30. Marsha said she had a complaint from a Handicappedlady who said the students are always par]=ing in that Handicapped Spot and because the fine is only $10 they pay it. The college needs this designated so they can enforce it. Stephen explained it is actually a city street that the college maintain so they need our approval for the handicapped sign. They then looked at the fine of $10 and felt it should be raised. The $10 is the lowest Handicapped Fine he had ever seen. Most fines are at least $30 to $35. John pointed out it needs to be signed properly. It is not signed according to the A.D.A. requirements. A motion was made by ICay Beclc that we authorize the Handicapped Parking Spot in front of the L.S.A. Building and that we increase the fine to $30. Seconded by Glen Pond. All Aye RE: MAIN PUMP STATION GENERATOR TOPIC: (22,109,,,WASTEP7ATER DEPT.,Y2 K, GENERATOR,PUMP STATION) John Millar discussed the Generator at the West Main Pump Station. It is old. As part of the Y2IC compliance they have gone around and reviewed all of the generators. The West Main pump station, located at the south east corner of the golf course pumps 90% of the wastewater from the City of Rexburg. The pump station had a total retrofit the same time the main wastewater treatment was built. The standby generator was put in 1980 when the lagoons were operating. When the pump station was upgraded it was a budgetary constrain. We have gotten by for five years in that condition. Right now it is a 75 K.W. generator it is 19 years old and they are having trouble getting parts for it and it is probably the most critical element in getting wastewater away from the city. He has looked at the feasibility of replacing it and to put a generator in to run both pumps at the same time and provide full backup we are looking at a 150 K.W. generator. The estimated cost to do that is approximately $30,000. What we do with the old generator is to use it as a back up and possibly mount it on a trailer and have it available. It is a situation that we should move on as soon as possible. In looking at the budget, there is $200,000 budgeted in the sewer department basically for new construction and $40,000 contingency item in that budget. A motion was made by Glen Pond to purchase the generator and get it in place. Seconded by ICay Heck. All Aye He discussed the generators for wastewater and water. RE: TRAFFIC LIGHT MEETING WITH HIGHWAY DEPT TOPIC: (22,109,,,LIGHTS,STREETS,TRAFFIC LIGHTS,STH W., 7TH 5.,2ND N., 2ND E.,4TH N.,POLICE DEPT.) John said he had met with Jim Richard and John Becker of the Highway ,._... Department last week. Jim Richard is the District Engineer and Jahn Hecker is the Traffie Engineer. He visited with them about the traffic light at Main and 1st West and 2nd East and 2nd North. The warrant ~- study that was done on 2nd West only met one warrant and that was on traffic volume. In talking with them he told them the city is really interested in doing it and prepared a letter which he mayor signed and sent out today requesting officially that we be allowed to put that in and it be included by them as an on system light once it was put in so they would insure maintenance. His read from the meeting was they would be okay with that. On the 2nd East 2nd North crossing, John Becker is going to lean toward getting it at 4th North. The warrants are equal. John is going to prepare a letter on it and he feels we can justify moving it to 2nd East 2nd North. The council felt that would do us more good at 2nd North. John stated that 4th North isn't even a through street and as far as helping the city it would help them far more than at 400 North. ICay felt that one at 2nd North would cut down on more accidents at 4th North, rather than one at 4th North would at 2nd North. The mayor felt the city should have the right to say where the lights go. John Becker also offered to serve on the Traffic Safety Committee. John felt that might be a way to build some bridges. Glen asked when the lights by Wilcox is going to start working. John ,;..._. told him the official turn on day is February 24. The state recommends that they will start flashing on Monday. Next spring we will finish widening the Yellowstone Highway. It will go to 4 lanes. They will take it from Cottontree 4 lanes around the corner clear down to the signal ' - to 1500 South. The 7th South Signal design has been completed. They have submitted it to the Highway Department for a courtesy review and Northwest Signal, the supplier, to review. They are working on reconstructing the 5th West entrance Corner onto that road by Les Schwab Tire. John said the North leg of that will come in and come up to the intersection. The Southbound lane will come more toward Cottontree so separate those and try to discourage that "go for broke movement" across there especially if it is 4 lanes. We will have to acquire some right-a-way. I~ Discussion on removing the stop signs on the corner of 5th West and 7th South. The mayor stated the intention was to switch those the way they are and not have 4-way Stops. The problem is to put a 4-way stop up to adjust the traffic to get people use to stopping. When they get used to stopping, you remove the 4-way stop instead we have left them in for about 6 months. Glen stated someone pointed out to him, you are used to stopping and you have a lot of kids crossing because of the school, is it going to take someone getting killed before we do something? We have cars coming down off that hill really fast. Stephen said the police department will be there tomorrow issuing tickets. The police did not think there was that much speeding. He said they got the traffic count on 7th South today and on ah average school day 5000 cars drive down between 5th West and the highway. Nyle said it would be a good idea to get the traffic count on the east side of 5th West. Sohn said we had several calls on near misses with the 4-way stop being gone so we replaced the stop signs on 5th West with newer larger signs to bring attention. We also put a sign on each on saying "Caution Cross Traffic Not Required To Stop" RE: SURPLUS EQUIPMENT TOPIC: (22,110,,,FIRE DEPT.,SUPLUS) Surplus Equipment- Richard told the council they want to put the Fire Department Ram Charger Vehicle for surplus equipment. The council felt we should keep it for internal use. RE: TAX Z.D. NUMBER REQUIRED FOR BUSINESS LICENSE TOPIC: (22,110,,,TAX I.D. NUMBER,BUSINESS LICENSE) The mayor discussed that he had brought up to him last week by the other two flower shops in the city that a student living in an apartment was selling flowers. Those two businesses were upset. In talking to Stephen it was felt that businesses need to put on their business license application either a Sales Tax I. D. Number or a sales tax exempt number. He asked the council how they felt about it? (discussion) A motion was made by ICay Beclc and Seconded by Nyle Fullmer to require that the Sales Tax Number be added to the application and be required prior to obtaining a business license. All Aye to Motion. RE: TAX ELECTION TOPIC: (22,110,,,ELECTION) A discussion on the list of individuals to serve on the committee for the Tax Election. Weneed the names and category. We would like it by the next meeting. A motion was made by Glen Pond and seconded by Kay Beclc to approve the bills. All Aye Meeting adjourned. i~ ~ ~ ~~~ ~ ~~~f City Clerk, Ros~"agle~ ~~ Mayor, Bruce Sutherland