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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999.03.03 CITY COUNCIL MINUTES?4 DATE: (030399) City Council 3/3/99 7:30 P.M. State of Idaho) County of Madison( ss City of Rexburg) Present were: Mayor Hruce Sutherland Councilmembers: Marsha Bjornn Farrell Young Glen Pond Nyle Fullmer Kay Heclc Paul Pugmire City Cleric: Rose Hagley P.F.C: John Millar Finance Officer: Richard Horner Attorney: Stephen Zollinger Pledge to the flag. A motion was made by~Nyle Fullmer and seconded by ICay Beclc to approve the minutes. All Aye Introduction of scouts. RE: SENIOR CITIZENS CENTER TOPIC: (22,111,,,SENIOR CITIZENS,BUDGET, COUNTY) Senior Citizens Center- .__ Elaine Anderson acted as spokesman for the Senior Citizens Committee. She tharilced the mayor and the members of the council for their support. She explained their expenses go up but the income does not. They are _. required to serve all the Senior Citizens in Madison County, so they serve the Senior Citizens even if they can't afford it. The cost to the center for meals is $7.00 each but the donation they receive from the patrons is $2.50. They depend on donations. They get from E.C.I.S. .90 cents for meals served at the center and $1.30 from meals delivered. They have had unforeseen expenses with repairs on the van and also had frozen pipes which had to be repaired. Both of these repairs were very costly. Delynn had looked at their plumbing and said it was a disaster waiting to happen. They have had enough money to pay their January bills but in February they have fallen short and are in the hole. The mayor asked if the Sunburns help make up the difference? Elaine said they do help but until they come they have trouble meeting their monthly bills. Every month they fall behind and need help to catch up. Their payment on the building is $1200 a month. They receive $3D0 from the city each month, $300 from the County and $3D0 from the Fergeson Foundation. They need help with capital and operating expenses. The donation the seniors donation per meal is $2.50. Other centers in this area get a donation of $2.25. It would help if E.C.I.S.I. would raise the amount they give. Itay discussed grants. Pat Burton discussed the expenses and building they have inherited. The mayor told them the amount that we give the Seniors each month is set by the budget. He suggested that they contact some of the service clubs to see if they could take over the maintenance and fuel for the Van. He told them they need to start looking for other sources other '•--- than the city. The council asked them ~~hat they were asking for. Pat Burton told them if they could help them catch up and then increase the payment each month that would help. They are seeking grants and they try to rent the back room some of the time. The amount of their shortfall is $2400 to date. Kay told them he would talk to E.C.I.S.I. at the next meeting on March 16. Prior to that he would talk to Russ about getting possibly another 25 cents per meal. ' „. Glen asked them if the city could come up with half of the $2400 if they could get the County to come up with the rest? Elaine said they were going to meet with the county and they had sent out letters to the Seniors telling them they have a shortfall and asked for donations. Glen told them we would look at it at budget time and see if we can give them more each month. Discussion on their balloon payment on the building. Discussion. A motion was made by Glen Pond to give them $1200 and then take it under advisement at budget time. Seconded by Marsha Bjornn. All Aye RE: WATER DEPARTMENT BUILDING TOPIC: (22,112,,,WATER DEPT.,FIRE DEPT., IST 5.,1000 N.,UTILITY,BUDGET) Water Department Building- John Millar discussed building a new shop for the Water Department. It would be built on the property where the new well is on 1000 North. It would be done in a step process with the staff doing much of the work. We need to get the design done and then do it in phases. If we could get the outside work done the inside work could be done in the winter by the employees in the Water Department when things are slow. They have not come up with any costs yet. This would free the space in and around the old shop for the fire or police. He asked the council if they want to move ahead with the project? Glen Pond stated that the money would have to come from the utility fees. He asked Richard what was available. Richard told them we just started malting payments on the new water line and new tank. He was concerned that if we would have enough cash flow to handle it. He would prefer to wait at least another couple of years until that debt is paid off. He was uncomfortable about the cash flow until the debt is paid off. Glen questioned about. us borrowing the money and was uncomfortable where we just raised the fees. ICay aslted if we could get the drafting done and estimates? John told the council they needed to know if they should take the next step to get the realistic costs? The council felt we could go ahead and get the costs together if the staff could do that. Discussion on selling the old water shop and property on 1st South. The cow~cil asked Delynn if they used the shop? He said they use it for storage and to store their backhoe in the winter time. If they could get a shell put up at the new location they could use that for storage. If that water shop property on 1st South could be sold that could be used as part of this cost. The property on 1000 North is not in the city and the council felt we should moveforward to annex that property. Stephen said that property is contiguous with the city and could be annexed. The council also told John and Delynn to go ahead and see if they could get a Realtor to tell us what the property and old building are worth. We don't have any money for an appraisal. RE: 5TH WEST AND 4TH SOUTH EASEMENT TOPIC: (22,112,,,LES SCHWAB,RIGHT OF WAY, STH W.,4TH S., YELLOWSTONE HWY,7TH S.) _ 5th West and 4th South Easement- John explained that Val had done some worlt on this and came across a deed on the right-a-way on the Les Schwab property. The deed from 1929 when the city bought the property showed the right-a-way as it is-5 to io feet behind the curb. ..... Re-engineering at the corner by Les Schwab- John explained right now 5th West goes straight across. What they are looking at doing is bringing 5th West infurther South to tie into Yellowstone and on the north side where there is two approaches they will bring that into a center approach. The mayor stated that would matte it so 5th West would not line up. Marsha brought up the danger of children going to the middle school crossing the road at that corner. It was suggested that it would be safer if the children crossed farther south. John told them they are working on additional signing for schools. The council felt we need to consider pedestrian traffic. John said if the bike path was „n ,; finished they could go down and cross at the 7th South signal. Nyle suggested that we contact the property owners on the west side of the tracks to see if we can get some property for the bike path. John told the council that could be done with the process of widening the road. Jahn discussed paving around the end of the race track. It had been discussed that the county was to put in 8" to 10" of concrete which would be very costly. He suggested that we work with them and put down a 4" mat of asphalt. With the widening of that road he felt it would hold up. Kay suggested we need to increase it to 6". Stephen told the council that budget wise concrete would possibly be prohibitive until such time they force us to pursue it with them. Because of the cost John is suggesting the asphalt. There have been improvements in asphalt mixtures which will hold up better. The agreement states it will be done when it warrants the need. In the winter it does not warrant the need but in the summer when people are going to the Nature Parlc and when the s)cate park is built it will warrant the need. (discussion) John told the council he had been looking at the asphalt road cut requirements done in 1988 which required a $500 deposit and after the road is repaired and inspected they get $a50 back. He felt it needed to be looked at. We have millions of dollars invested in streets. The majority of the street problems are caused from cuts in the streets. He has seen some cities that have ordinances that will not allow any cuts in the road for five years after a road has been put in or redone unless it is absolutely necessary and then they have to come before the council. ZCay discussed it and felt we need to do something. Utilities get digging permits but don't pay a fee. (discussion) RE: RECREATION OVERVIEW COMMITTEE TOPIC: (22,113, „ RECREATION,GRANT*CHARLES,BIKE PATH, GRANTS) The mayor asked the council to look at the copy he had put in their packets with the Recreation Overview Committee listed. Members of the committee as listed: Chairman: Charles Grant, Secretary: Sherrie Bonner, Committed members: Wade Anderson, Val Dolling, Sherri Erickson, Kathy Gates, Ray Oalcey, Carla Ricks, Linda Porter, Stan Stanley, Lois ,.... Webb, Nicole Neilsen, Peter Haw]cins, Devon Bratsman. A motion was made by Itay Beck and seconded by Nyle Fullmer to approve the committee. Discussion. Paul asked what the council's roll would be and what would his roll be as the council member representative over recreation? The mayor told him he would represent the council on the committee. He told the council that Tiny Grant was moving right along with the committee and they would meet every Tuesday night for a while. The mayor attended the meeting last night and everyone was there except one of the students that was unable to attend. Tiny has done a gond job so far. They are going to work out what we want as a community and will work out a 10 year plan. (discussion) Marsha asked if the bike path would be included? John told her we had talked about getting a grant from the Transportation Department called T21 Enhancement Program that could be used on the bike path. He is pursuing it. Kay amended his motion to include Paul or Marsha on the committee. When this committee gets going with the subcommittees, they will have from 50 to 75 people on the board. All voting aye to motion. RE: TAR COMMITTEE TOPIC: (22,113,,,TAXES,ELECTION) Discussion on the Tax Committee. The mayor had received from the council suggestions on names and categories. We will compile the list and get a copy out to all the council members and have a work meeting before or after the next council meeting. We will have to decide on a chairman for the committee to help spearhead this committee and lead out. We then need to take the recommendations from the committee. RE: SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING REGARDING SCHOOL ZONES & FINES TOPIC: (22,114,,,SAFETY,STH W.,7TH S.,FINES,POLICE,CROSSWALKS) ICay reported on the Safety Committee meeting. John Millar, P.F.C. was at the safety meeting and had some valuable knowledge that was very helpful. They did not have a police officer there and we need to have one attend. He recommended that they have the same officer come to every meeting. Nyle said he would follow through and talk to the police chief. The discussion centered on the stop signs on 5th West and 7th South. There were a couple of people therewith a petition. The feeling of the committee was to leave it as it is at the present time. Stephen told the council the police have been checking it and writing tic]tets. Discussion on signs near the schools. They also discussed raising the amount of a fines for ticltets given near the schools. In some areas they double or triple the fine in school zones. ICay also questioned if the people were really concerned about their children's safety, why they don't put in sidewalks along there. Stephen told the council when the police patrolled that street, there were only 15 kids crossing that street to school. Kay said they had a wreck at that corner but there were other wrecks in other parts of town as well, so it wasn't unique. He felt if there was a problem why not have a crosswalk and a crossing guard. He had been checking the speeding this last little while and had been driving the speed limit or under and decided we have a speeding problem all over the city. We need to look at all areas near the schools. Paul told the council in Arizona the state has taken over the speed in school zones and the fines are about $300. That makes the traffic slow down. ICay indicated they have done something like that in Las Vegas and they have really slowed the speed down near schools. RE: RECREATION FEES TOPIC: (22,114,,,RECREATION, FEES,HALL FIELDS,HASEHALL, PARICS) Bruce told the council he had been hearing there is a concern about costs in the recreation program. He has heard that soccer is twice as much in Rexburg as it is in St Anthony and Zdaho Falls. We want to keep the ]rids active but some of them don't have the funds. Jaclc Bowman was at the meeting to discuss where we need to go with the costs and fees. (handout on file) The council suggested that he get with Richard and go over all the expenses. It was discussed to charge anyone using the ball fields a per game fee instead of so much a child or person. They have not been charging the American Legion and the council felt they should be charged. The council felt the Madison Baseball needs to show where their money goes. The mayor suggested that the city is Guilty By Association when they raise the fees because they use the City Hall to register. He felt they need to put on the forms or post a sign what the fees are for. The council felt the city should quit subsidizing the use of the fields. Stephen told the council he had convinced the newspaper to give a free spot in it for recreation information. If we adopt a new policy we could put it in the paper. (discussion) The council directed Jack, Richard and the mayor to get together and discuss the revenues and expenses for recreation and bring it back to the council. Richard thought the cost for a field would need to be $10 or $15 a game. Nyle asked what the rate we charge was compared to other communities? He would like to see the comparison. Jaclc stated he would like to see some way that kids that can't afford to pay would be able to participate. A motion was made by Nyle and seconded by ICay to pay the bills. All aye RE: FOLLOW UP ON THE MUSEUM TOPIC: (22,119,,,MUSEUM) Marsha aslted if there had been any follow up on the museum? The mayor stated they had talked to them. Stephen felt they would agree to withdraw from management. i 1'? RE: LETTER TO LEGISLATURES ABOUT TERM LIMITS TOPIC: (22,115,,,TERM LIMITS) Paul had drafted a letter to the Legislatures about term limits. He read it to the council. (discussion) Paul gave a report on Enough is Enough. It was decided that the council would buy an add in the paper regarding the program on March 13. Meeting adjourned. City Cleik, Rose Bag~ey~~`~ l/ // !/try .Gl'~< - Mayor, Bruce Sutherland