Loading...
Council Minutes 05/02/2002 CITY OF AMMON May 2, 2002 Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Mayor and City Council: The meeting was called to order by Mayor C. Bruce Ard at 7:30 p.m. in the City Building, 2135 South Ammon Road, Ammon, Idaho, with the following City Officials present: Mayor C. Bruce Ard Councilmember Karen Y. Anderson Council member W. Lee Bean Council member Leslie Folsom Council member Randy G. Waite Attorney W. Joe Anderson Engineer Bill Manwill Publics Works Director David Wadsworth Fire Chief Clarence Nelson City Clerk Aleen C. Jensen Others Present: John and Brenda St. Clair, 3836 Heartland Circle, Ammon Hua Byron Lu, Un Julie Guo, and James Lu, 1929 Eagle Pointe Court, Ammon Tom Hunsaker, 2925 Carolyn Lane, Ammon Harmon J. and LaVae Groesbeck, 2205 Bittern Drive, Ammon Brad Pickett, Developer of The Cottages and Quail Ridge Estates Councilmember Anderson led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and Council member Bean offered a prayer. Brenda St.Clair, 3836 Heartland Circle, requested a home occupation permit for tole painting and scrapbook classes. She usually has a maximum of six students, and classes are held eight to ten times per month. She has read all of the home occupation requirements, and she can comply with them. St. Clairs live in the Briarwood Division on a cul-de-sac so there is not much frontage. There are four parking spaces in the driveway. Councilmember Folsom moved to approve the home occupation permit for Brenda St. Clair, 3836 Heartland Circle, for tole painting and scrapbook classes. Council member Anderson seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Folsom - Yes; Anderson - Yes; Bean - Yes; Waite - Yes. The motion carried unanimously. Council member Folsom reminded the applicant that the City Council can call the applicant back in and revoke the permit if there are any violations. Hua Byron Lu, 1929 Eagle Pointe Court, requested a home occupation permit, dba Ever True Photo and Video Preservation. He proposes a service to document and preserve photos, etc. He will do photo albums, slide shows, or City Council Meeting, May 2, 2002 - Page 2 anything that anyone wants to preserve on a durable storage video. He plans to advertise in the newspaper. People will drop the photo or video at his house. He has not had a single customer yet. The Lu family lives in a cul-de-sac. If the traffic becomes a problem, they may think about moving to a business location. He can not envision how much traffic there will be. This is a second job for now. There are no employees. Councilmember Anderson recommended that if the home occupation looks like it could become a full time job, Mr. Lu should look at locating somewhere else. He would like to be able to move to a business location. Signage for a home occupation is limited and he understood. Councilmember Waite moved to approve the home occupation permit for Hua Lu, 1929 Eagle Pointe Court, under the name of Ever True Photo and Video Preservation. Council member Folsom seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Waite - Yes; Folsom - Yes; Bean - Yes; Anderson - Yes. The motion carried unanimously. Councilmember Folsom reminded the applicant that, if ever the City Council deems it necessary to revoke the permit, they have the right to do so. Brad Pickett, Developer of Quail Ridge and The Cottages, updated the City Council regarding the water system. The Pump Tech has ordered parts for the well. The developers are working on the plans for the well house. It is believed the building will be approximately 30' x 40'. They plan to pour the pad, and they will put the pump in. Then they will finish building around it. The developers were billed for the big electric bill on the booster pump and they paid it. They have not been billed again, but the City Office is keeping record and will continue to bill. The developers are willing to continue to pay the electric bill on the booster pump. There has been some water problems. When the pump goes down, the residents call the City of Ammon because that is where they pay the water bill. Brad Pickett said the message is coming back to the developers from the residents that the City does not care about the problem and tells the resident to call their developer. He requested that the City take the complaint message and the City calls the developers to take care of the problem. Once the pump is up there should not be a problem. Until they get through the transition, the developers would like the City to work with them. It has been portrayed that the City does not have any responsibility. It is all the developers' problem. Brad explained about the booster pump. The water has to go down to a certain level before the booster pump kicks on. The line gets sucked dry. The developers want to keep the line of communication open with the City. They want to take care of the residents up on the hill. Things are going well. It all takes time. Lot sales are up. Mayor Ard asked if there was a problem with billing for services for buildings under construction. Jay Johnson received a bill for his units under construction. He expressed surprise and concern about the bill. He wanted to be on the agenda to talk to the City Council about the policy. However, he did not attend City Council Meeting, May 2,2002 - Page 3 the meeting. The under construction policy has been part of the resolution to establish rates since the very first revision. The City Office has only recently started to bill the contractors. Homestead Construction has paid without complaint. One reason for establishing the policy was to insure that the contractors would notify the City that the house was occupied. Previously people moved into new houses and the City was not notified to begin charging for services. The City Council was willing to give Jay Johnson an adjustment for any of the units that were just foundations. Once the unit is nearly complete he should pay the under construction amount of $20 per unit until it is occupied. Councilmember Folsom will talk to Jay Johnson. The Wal-Mart Development Agreement was reviewed at the last meeting. The question was raised by the City Council about the traffic and installation of the traffic light. Tom Rossillon agreed to draft some provisions to meet the objections of the City Council. This has been done and Attorney Anderson received the revised agreement yesterday. Copies were distributed to the Council members. The basic part of the agreement, as reviewed at the last meeting, is standard. There was no objection. The concerns were about the special conditions to be reviewed at this meeting to determine if they meet the points the City Council raised at the last meeting. Mayor Ard wondered about SC-4 when it talked about the sole responsibility of the City for a traffic study. This condition was discussed. If BMPO does the study, there would be no objection to accepting this responsibility because there would be no cost to the City. Wal-Mart could not get BMPO to do the study. Councilmember Folsom questioned the part that states Wal-Mart has the right to close the Falcon access. Falcon is to be left open for safety reasons, and she does not want Wal-Mart to have the right to close the Falcon access. Another point is they are giving the City two years to do the traffic study, but they are taking up six months before the City can put it into force. So that really means only 1 % years. We may want to change it to 2 % years in order to have a full two years. Council member Anderson agreed that it should not be Wal-Mart's choice to close the Falcon access. This condition was discussed and Attorney Anderson, Engineer Manwill, and Tom Hunsaker of the Planning & Zoning Commission provided input. It was recommended the phrase "or to close the Falcon Drive access point" should be deleted in the two places in SC-4. Engineer Manwill suggested cutting two sentences so the agreement basically states that the City and Wal-Mart cooperate to develop a plan satisfactory to both parties. That would mean that it stays the way it is until both parties agreed to something different. The next sentence should be modified to say that, in the City Council Meeting, May 2, 2002 - Page 4 event that agreement can not be reached, the Developer or the City may in their sole discretion have the right to complete the plan as proposed. That eliminates "close Falcon Drive". Councilmember Folsom asked that the time frame to complete the traffic study be changed to 2 % years from the opening. Attorney Anderson recommended the part regarding leaving one year for a decision to complete. Attorney Anderson agreed to modify and to make the suggestions as discussed. Councilmember Bean called attention to No.7, Page 5 and asked if it should read "construed" instead of constructed. Another question was concerning SC-2 when it talks about the private drive. He wondered if we need to be more specific to clarify what the private drive is. Attorney Anderson stated he would get in touch with Tom Rossillon to work out the details. Attorney Anderson introduced the release of the two Development Agreements that were made prior with Anderson Lumber and Oak Ridge as they pertain to the property to be purchased from Tom Arave. He proposed a release to apply only to the Arave parcel and to make it effective upon the execution and recordation of a Development Agreement with Wal-Mart. Council member Folsom moved to approve the release of the Development Agreements entered into with Anderson Lumber Company and the Oak Ridge developer on the parcel of property Wal-Mart is purchasing from Tom Arave subject to completion of the Wal-Mart Development Agreement. Councilmember Anderson second the motion. Roll call vote: Folsom - Yes; Anderson - Yes; Bean - Yes; Waite - Yes. The motion carried unanimously. Council member Bean asked how the negotiations were going with Bonneville County and City of Idaho Falls on their Wal-Mart Development Agreement. Engineer Manwill responded. There is an easement from the County with wording that is identical to the wording of the agreement that City of Idaho Falls has signed other than for the legal description. The City of Idaho Falls is preparing the annexation of Hitt Road and the property west of it. The County agreed to it. Engineer Manwill has the plans for the 17th Street and Curlew traffic light. The City of Idaho Falls is not interested in reviewing the plans or maintaining the signal. Engineer Manwill has talked with John Becker of ITD about their help and it sounds pretty encouraging. In the past they have had no problem doing that, but they do have a new District Engineer so he will check it out. If there is a problem, Wheeler Electric has installed a lot of the traffic signals and should have the ability to maintain. The City would be better with lTD. He was surprised that City of Idaho Falls does not want to be involved. City Council Meeting, May 2,2002 - Page 5 Council member Bean commented that he did not think Idaho Falls' position is a detriment to Ammon. It may cost us some money, but we, as a City, need to become more independent from the other public municipalities for service. Engineer Manwill implied that Ammon wanted to pay for the service but wanted them to be advisory. Wal-Mart understands that they are to install the street light at their cost. Gary Marshall of Mountain River Engineering has requested written acceptance of the utility and street improvements for City ownership and maintenance of Centennial Ranch Division No. 10. Public Works Director Wadsworth was unsure about whether the roads are complete. The sewer and water are complete. Engineer Manwill questioned the sentence that reads, "It will be our understanding that if a written response to this request is not received within 30 days of this date, the development shall be deemed accepted." This condition is no where in our development agreements or anywhere else. When we do send an acceptance, we might mention that the City does not recognize the thirty (30) day limit on the improvements. The roads in Centennial Ranch Division No.7, NO.8 and NO.9 have been seal coated. Briarwood should be seal coated this summer. Curlew Drive has been seal coated. If you get a good paving job, a road does not need to be seal coated for two or three years. However, you seldom see a good paving job any more so you have to seal coat to hide the pavement. Council member Anderson and Councilmember Bean met with representatives of the Bonneville County Sheriff's Department to start some early talks about our law enforcement contract. Our contract for FY2002 is in the amount of $137,125 and that is for three officers in Ammon or full time equivalent. This represents about $45,000 per officer. Bud Langerak took a lot of effort to show that officers do not cost $45,000 each. According to his calculations, an officer costs about $70,000 per year. He is adding in the weapons, $10,000 per year for a car, and the benefits. He would like to increase our budget by a little over 8%. The County would like to see us add a fourth patrol officer. The justification is based on their patrol hours in Ammon that amounted to about five full time equivalents. The City needs to talk about adding an officer now because Bud Langerak wants to try for a COPS grant, which is an Add-An-Officer, federal government program where they will subsidize the first three years of an officer. When the grant goes off, Ammon will be paying $70,000 for the new officer. It is a good deal for Ammon now, but after three years our cost will increase for the officer, and we have to commit to keep the officer for a period of time. No one has any clue about how much the dispatch cost will be. We are supposed to get a letter to inform us of the cost. The cost for dispatch is not City Council Meeting, May 2,2002 - Page 6 included in the law enforcement contract and that is a cost we will have to absorb for fiscal year 2003. They also want to change our revenue sharing. Their justification for this was to offset costs for a car. They want to charge us for a car in the first year and then charge us an additional $10,000 every year after. This is to build up a reserve for another car. There are several issues that the City Council needs to talk about. The important one to get back to with Bud Langerak right away is whether or not Ammon wants to consider the fourth patrol officer. Council member Folsom said she would like to consider a fourth officer, but we need to get a handle on the other increases. Mayor Ard said there is no way the City can do it. If the City adds a fourth officer it would mean about $80,000 increase in two years. The fine revenue has increased since we have had Sgt. Black stationed in Ammon. However, they want to take the fine revenue away. We are not gaining what we are paying extra. Councilmember Anderson said she would be more interested in procuring a fourth patrol officer if she felt like the fourth patrol officer, after the COPS program expires, is billed similar to the three officers we have now. This would mean closer to a cost of $45,000 where the County is picking up the patrol car and uniforms. We are picking up salaries. Councilmember Bean pointed out there is a certain amount that we have to pay. Our contract does not include administrative costs or the jail. Right now the County is picking up the additional salary for officers above what Ammon is charged. Also, we are paying for three officers, but we have patrol hours for five officers. There is a difference of opinion on the number of patrol hours. We need a better understanding of the patrol hours. One surprising thing that came out of the meeting with the Bonneville County Sheriff's representatives was the number of calls from Aspen Grove Assisted Living Center. The County responded to 82 calls from Aspen Grove in April. The Idaho Falls Fire Department responded 17 times and the Idaho Falls EMS responded 72 times. Fire Chief Nelson reported they also had to respond to there a few times. According to information received, in order to fill up their beds, Aspen Grove has taken psychiatric patients and others that have caused significant problems. This is pushing the City into having to go into overkill in police. Attorney Anderson stated he did not know of any provision we have to charge anyone for the services over and above. It is all part of the service of the Department. City Council Meeting, May 2,2002 - Page 7 Councilmember Bean commented that one of the blessings we have of living in the City of Ammon is that we have extremely low property tax. Our mill levy is low. It is good for the people, but it is a detriment to the City because of the growth period we are in. We can only raise taxes 3%. Maybe we should look at going back to patrons to ask them to move the mill levy up. Another suggestion is that we may want to annex McDonalds Farm, the rest of Centennial Ranch and other areas to build our tax base to bring additional revenue. There is a point in time when we are going to have to trust the citizens to come back and assist us in increasing property tax, unless we can figure out a way to offset the bills with different revenue. Ammon may need to be creative. There was a discussion about how the property tax is calculated. It is good to see growth, but growth brings its problems. Law enforcement is one of the issues the City has to deal with. Councilmember Anderson stated that without adding an officer we are looking at a 12% increase plus the cost of dispatch. It is hard for us to argue that we are going to have a 12% increase. Councilmember Bean said he believes that we need to negotiate what we feel like we need to be paying. If this is where we feel like we ought to be per officer, we are fine. If we feel like we are paying our fair share, then we stick to our guns. If we feel like we are not, we need to make some adjustments with the County and work toward them. A discussion continued to try to get to some bargaining point. Items given consideration were patrol hours, number of officers we are using, emphasis on traffic control, increasing fine revenue, sharing citation revenue, an incentive program, cost of the law enforcement contract, and determining the number of full time officers or full time equivalent that we need. It was recommended that a work session be scheduled to decide where the City Ammon wants to go. Councilmember Anderson reminded that we need to decide right away if we are interested in an additional officer because of the COPS grant deadline. Council member Bean was of the opinion that he is not willing to commit to pay for a particular officer. He is willing to commit to pay for a particular number of hours. He is not willing to pay for an officer that is going to remain on Bonneville County's force. Bonneville County needs to do that and then contract with Ammon. Bonneville County has been very, very good with us and we want to maintain the good relationship. We want to keep County law enforcement. The County is willing to continue to provide Ammon with the same service. In the negotiations, the Council is looking at an increase in the contract from 2002 to 2003, but we need to reach an agreement on how much increase we can go. A work session was tentatively scheduled for May 16, at 6:30 p.m. before the regular Council Meeting. City Council Meeting, May 2,2002 - Page 8 There are new regulations concerning the Budget Hearing so City of Ammon needs to move our budget hearing into August rather than September. The date has to be scheduled with Bonneville County. Ron Longmore, Bonneville County Clerk has advised that a 2002 assessment notice and estimate of tax is being prepared to be mailed to each of the property owners. The date of our budget hearing will be shown in the assessment notice, therefore, we need a firm date. Approval of our tentative budget was scheduled for August 1, 2002, with the Public Hearing on the budget on August 15, 2002. Chief Nelson reported for the Fire Department. Scott Norman attended the SCBA training in Boise. He did well, and he was certified. The Wal-Mart public relations event held two weeks ago went really well. Wal-Mart has called again and wants to do another one. This time the Department is not going to take trucks. The volunteers are just going to help. The ISO meeting will be May 13. The BLM grant has been submitted. It looks good for about $10,000 to use for new radios and pagers. The grant is possible because of our willingness to help BLM. The new radios and pagers will be programmed to include BLM's frequency. There was a house fire on Owen Street. The Fire Department repairs, which include the air conditioning, heating adjustments, ceiling repairs and carpet cleaning, are nearing completion. Councilmember Anderson explained the details of the project. Regarding unfinished business, a Public Hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission on annexation of the County Islands has been advertised for May 7, 2002. Council member Folsom had been working on the Eagle Pointe park plans, but she was not ready to discuss them. The Preliminary and Final Plat for Briarwood Division NO.6 is still pending. Councilmember Folsom moved to approve the minutes of City Council Meeting held February 7, 2002. Councilmember Anderson seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Folsom - Yes; Waite - Yes; Anderson - Yes; Bean - Yes; Waite - Yes. The motion carried unanimously. Councilmember Folsom moved to approve the minutes of City Council Meeting held February 22, 2002. Councilmember Anderson seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Folsom - Yes; Anderson - Yes; Bean - Yes; Waite - Yes. The motion carried unanimously. Reports: David Wadsworth reported for Public Works. The parks are being readied. Attorney Anderson reported that he had received a response from the letter he wrote to Alcoholic Beverage Control, regarding licensing. A meeting will be City Council Meeting, May 2,2002 - Page 9 held in Attorney Anderson's office on Monday, May 6, at 3:30 p.m. Lt. Campbell and the Assistant Attorney General will be in attendance. Council member Waite talked with Public Works Director Wadsworth about a couple of manhole covers on 1 ih Street that need to be fixed. Council member Bean discussed a bill from Landon Excavating for repairing seven trenches on Cabellaro for LaRall Kent. He wondered why the City was paying for trenches. It was a way to get it done. If LaRall Kent does not reimburse the City within thirty days, the City should file a lien on the property. Public Works Director Wadsworth was asked to follow up to see that the action takes place. Councilmember Anderson has been looking at the City of Ammon's personnel policy and drug testing policy. She reviewed what our policy has in it. The only place we talk about drug screening is in our CDL policy. She is working on some recommendations to present to the City Council. There has been no response from the FBI on the ordinance we submitted pertaining to background checks. It was recommended that we follow up with the FBI. Council member Anderson expressed another concern about the response citizens get when they call in to the City Office. She had received calls, which indicate the citizens did not get positive responses. Maybe a reminder on public relations is in order. Councilmember Anderson received about ten responses expressing appreciation for the newsletter. One response was from Orland Bailey. He suggested an idea, which sounded good if we could work it out. His comment to the newsletter, specifically to the parking, was the problem the City has if an ordinance is not enforced the citizens get used to ignoring any new ordinance that comes out. He volunteered, if we would be interested, to work with the City to help enforce the parking ordinance. He would like to be able to issue warnings or citations, and he would like to be assured of backup if there was any confrontation. He is also interested in cleaning up some of the areas in Ammon. There was a discussion about using Orland Bailey as a volunteer. Attorney Anderson recommended not to deputize him but to authorize him to go around to find the places and to point them out to someone deputized. He would serve the City more as a scouter. The Council discussed assigning a title for such a volunteer. Several ideas were suggested. Council member Bean was concerned with liability. Attorney Anderson thought our liability insurance would cover such a volunteer provided he was appointed. ICRMP could provide input on a title and liability. City Council Meeting, May 2, 2002 - Page 10 Council member Anderson moved to appoint Orland Bailey as our Ordinance Administrator to help enforce some of our ordinances. Council member Folsom seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Anderson - Yes; Folsom - Yes; Waite - Yes; Bean - Yes. The motion carried unanimously. Engineer Manwill had several items to discuss. Wednesday, May 8, at 9:00 a.m. there is a meeting on the Sunnyside Road project. The purpose of the meeting is to report and talk about whom is responsible for paying for what. Mayor Ard and Council member Bean plan to attend the meeting. The quarterly Cities-County Meeting is Wednesday, May 15 at 10:30 a.m. This is a meeting with Idaho Transportation, City of Ammon, City of Idaho Falls, City of Ucon and Bonneville County to discuss what is going on between them that affects one another. On May 1, Public Works Director Wadsworth and Engineer Manwill were involved with the BMPO T AC meeting. In 2007 BMPO needs to program some projects in. The only one that is out on preliminary development is Pancheri. There has been lots of discussion about whether it should be Pancheri out to Bellin Road. By that time the Sunnyside Interchange will be complete. BMPO, in the past, has prioritized the old Butte connection from Sunnyside to West Broadway. There has not been much input except from the Policy Board members. The Policy Board basically approves the projects coming out of the TAC. Some input is needed from Ammon. This is the way to go to get federal aid. The match is approximitly 92.8%. There has been three MPO's in the state. There will now be six so the urban funding will be split thinner. If Ammon has a project in mind, we need to start working toward preliminary development. The Pancheri issue is on the other side of the County from Ammon, but Ammon should have the opportunity for some input. This is the issue that will be dealt with at the next two T AC meetings. One idea is 1 ih Street from Ammon Road to Crowley Road. State rural funds are available through Bonneville County. The County has been exchanging those so the program has not been available. However, the County just sent in the last available exchange and that program is being phased out. In order to qualify, Ammon would have to pull the urban boundaries in far enough to keep those projects outside, which is unlikely to happen. An option for 1 ih Street is to partner with Bonneville County and do like is being done on Hitt Road at this time. Half of the project being done on Hitt Road this summer is in the City of Ammon. Eventually Ammon will have to de-annex and City of Idaho Falls will pick it up. City Council Meeting, May 2, 2002 - Page 11 projects through on everything on Sunnyside Road, which includes the Hitt- Sunnyside intersection. Engineer Manwill reported on the Steering Committee Meeting for the Regional Sewer Study. The total construction for the treatment plant, the interceptor lines to get all the sewage down there, and everything else is estimated at about $42,000,000. They are projecting about $26 per month per unit to fund the construction and operate the system. If it is decided to be feasible and a go ahead is given to construct, there is a three to five year lead- time. There is some time to work with funds. They are optimistic that they could get grants for 10% of the project. To qualify for grants they look at rate structures and cash reserves. Engineer Manwill explained details of the sewer study and the City Council discussed its affect on Ammon. The study is now showing the interceptor line coming down Hitt Road and going down Township Road rather than York Road. The reason is it makes sense because you can gravity all the new growth and none of it has to be pumped up early in the process. Also, that is where the earliest growth is going to be so the revenues will be picked up early. Some of the best information we have came out of the meeting. The numbers that came in were surprising but favorable. There was some discussion about creating a sewer district or going joint powers. Engineer Manwill thought joint powers. They are projecting 13,000 residential users in the regional system. The plant will not be like Idaho Falls. It is not going to be a mechanical treatment plant. It is going to be an oxidation ditch. The City of Rexburg just put one in. It will probably be a combination of an oxidation ditch and a lagoon system, which Shelley has now. With the oxidation system you do not have the sludge to deal with. The City Clerk asked for City Council approval on the license or licenses to be issued for the convenience store facility at Hitt Road (25th East) and Sunnyside Road. It will be operated as Sapphire Enterprises, but there are really three businesses involved. The Council agreed there should be three general business licenses and the convenience store should have an additional license to allow them to sell beer by the can or the bottle not to be consumed on the premises. It is time to update the information to renew our liability insurance with ICRMP. The application form has been revised, and it requires additional information. The City Clerk agreed to complete the application as much as possible and the Mayor and/or Council member Bean will review it. It was suggested that a thank you letter be sent to the Tree Committee. The Arbor Day event was very successful. City Council Meeting, May 2, 2002 - Page 12 Council member Bean advised that he would be out of town from June 8 to June 19 and from August 17 to August 30. He should not miss any City Council meetings. Claims were approved. Councilmember Anderson moved to adjourn the meeting and Council member Folsom seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned. Mayor Attest City Clerk