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03082012CouncilMinutes CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2012 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL AGENDA – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2012 – 4:30 P.M. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1.Hitt Road Discussion (Lance) 2.Interconnectivity between Ammon & Idaho Falls (Bruce) 3.Streets & Planning for Upcoming Projects (Lance/Ray) EXECUTIVE SESSION: 1.Personnel Evaluations - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-b) 2.Real Property Acquisitions - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-c) 3.Pending Litigation - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-f) MINUTES City Officials Present: Mayor Steve Fuhriman Councilmember Dana Kirkham (left at 5:03 p.m.) Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember Brian Powell (arrived at 4:44 p.m.) Councilmember Sean Coletti Councilmember Russell Slack Councilmember Brad Christensen City Clerk/Administrator/Planning Director Ron Folsom Deputy City Clerk Rachael Brown City Officials Absent: DISCUSSION ITEMS: Mayor Fuhriman opened the meeting at 4:30 p.m. at the City building located at 2135 South Ammon Road. 1. Hitt Road Discussion (Lance): Lance informed the Council, he has received a little more information about the City’s portion of 17th Street. Lance showed the Council a map and explained a section where a taking as far as right of way could occur. Discussion ensued regarding the easement. Councilmember Kirkham asked Scott Bishop if he was willing to sell them the easement. Scott said no. Councilmember Kirkham said both properties, where Target is located and where ToysRus is located, are already compromised and difficult to get into. Scott said he feels what is happening at Ammon Town Center is more severe than the issues in front of ToysRus. Scott said he felt like they really have to have a plan and retain their own engineer to go in and study it and analyze the data. Discussion ensued regarding previous traffic study data. Scott asked if the Council was supportive of him getting his own engineer to study it. Council said yes they were very supportive. Councilmember Christensen said he doesn’t know how the City of Idaho Falls can proceed when businesses on both sides of Hitt Road are saying no. Councilmember Slack said he had a conversation with Idaho Falls Councilmember Sharon Parry and asked her how much time the City Idaho Falls Council spent talking to the businesses owners along Memorial Drive before they made any changes to the road. Councilmember Slack said she replied that they had spent a lot of time talking about the changes on Memorial Drive before they moved forward. Councilmember Slack said there is a disconnect in how the City of Idaho Falls is doing business in areas entirely in their City versus areas that include both Cities. Councilmember Kirkham said she would strongly recommend that Scott write a letter to the City of Idaho Falls informing them about the business owners retaining their own engineer and request they suspend the construction plans for the time being. Scott suggested putting an article in the Post Register. Councilmember Kirkham said the Ammon City Council has always tried to keep issues with the City of Idaho Falls out of the media and work it out behind the scenes. Councilmember Kirkham said with or without the City of Ammon’s consent, the City of Idaho Falls will move ahead with construction. Discussion ensued regarding past dealings with Hitt Road construction and the dealings with the City of Idaho Falls. Councilmember Slack said his fear is that the City of Idaho Falls will go ahead with the project and then won’t develop the intersection at 17th Street and Hitt Road. 12 Council Minutes 3-8-2012 Page of Councilmember Kirkham asked Lance about the construction schedule. Lance said he hasn’t heard any more about the construction schedule except that the City of Idaho Falls is moving forward. Councilmember Kirkham asked Ron to draft two letters. Scott said he will write a letter and submit it to the City of Idaho Falls. 2. Interconnectivity between Ammon & Idaho Falls (Bruce): Bruce said the City is requesting interconnectivity for the fiber with the City of Idaho Falls because it would benefit people requiring or requesting service in the City of Ammon and it would benefit service providers that are already on the fiber in the City of Idaho Falls to be able to come into the City of Ammon and service our customers. Bruce said School District 93 is concerned about the City of Ammon being able to get to Falls Valley School because they have an interconnect with School District 91 and District 91 uses City of Idaho Falls fiber and if we are unable to iron out some sort kind of interconnect agreement, we will have an issue. Currently Cable One provides fiber to Falls Valley. Bruce explained he has also had a discussion with (Eastern Idaho Technical College) EITC, and a discussion about an (Memorandum of Understanding) MOU with Us Ignite, and said potentially that would encompass dealing with universities and the INL and involve a partnership between us and them, but we are not permitted to cross the road to get to EITC. Bruce believes this will be an ongoing problem until we can get this interconnect, and believes the City of Idaho Falls doesn’t completely understand. Councilmember Slack said it seems to him they are concerned with the fact that our fiber is lit and theirs is not. Councilmember Powell said he feels the main concern is that we built this infrastructure, put it inside of Ammon, and are allowing it to go outside of the City of Ammon, and Idaho Fall’s belief we can’t connect to the outside world. Discussion ensued regarding lit fiber and dark fiber, and whether the City of Idaho Falls understands it. Councilmember Slack said in his conversations with the City of Idaho Falls, his opinion is they feel the City of Ammon has done something wrong by lighting the fiber. Councilmember Christensen asked if the problem was with the City of Idaho Falls Council or with staff. Councilmember Slack said he believes it comes from their attorney. Councilmember Coletti said the City of Ammon has already received a legal opinion about this and doesn’t believe we should have to worry at all about moving forward. Bruce explained some changes he made to the letter and in a paragraph that compares connecting the two fiber systems with connecting the two Cities’ roads. Bruce said we should at least have an easement to cross the road to get to EITC. Councilmember Slack asked what we need to do next. The Council said to submit the letter. Councilmember Coletti said he hopes that Mayor Jared Fuhriman gets this letter into someone’shands that will understand it. 3. Streets & Planning for Upcoming Projects (Lance/Ray): Lance said Title 8, Chapter 5, Public Right of way Construction, says a permit is required, but we need to have some teeth as to what happens if they don’t get a permit. Ray said he feels staff needs the authority to shut them down until they have a permit. Councilmember Coletti said to submit it to Scott Hall and he will determine what an appropriate penalty would be. Councilmember Powell said he agrees that staff should be able to shut them down if we catch them in the act. Councilmember Powell said have Scott put something together and bring it to the Council for approval. Councilmember Powell asked if CenturyLink was going to be billed for damage they caused. Lance said yes. Bruce said they also took out several sections of sidewalk without a permit, and asked how the City can force them to put it back. Councilmember Coletti asked Ray about the computer Street Program. Ray said the plan was to use Western and run a pilot project with curb, gutter and street. Ray said there has been discussion about a lot of different projects, and he is just looking for direction from the Council. Ray presented a projected street lifespan document on SharePoint, and explained which streets need attention right away. Ray is asking for direction from the Council about which roads they would like him to start with. Ray said the County has offered sharing some costs on 49th Street. Councilmember Powell suggested Ray use the Asphalt Zipper on 17th Street from Ammon Road to the railroad tracks, and then next year from the railroad tracks to Crowley Road. Councilmember Powell said it would be nice to coordinate the construction with the railroad crossing construction. Discussion ensued regarding the issues with widening 17th Street. Councilmember Slack said he would like to see staff work on the roads in the Original Town Site. Councilmember Coletti said he feels 17th Street should get the priority. Councilmember Thompson asked Lance if the City has any influence to get a light at the 1st Street and Ammon Road intersection. Lance said not much influence at all, because that is a County intersection. Councilmember Powell said besides 17th Street he would also like to see Midway, and then see what we can do with the County on 49th. Councilmember Christensen likes that idea. Councilmember Powell would like to see a price and County participation. The meeting adjourned at 5:55 p.m. ___________________________________________ Steve Fuhriman, Mayor ________________________________________________ Ron Folsom, City Clerk 22 Council Minutes 3-8-2012 Page of