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02142008CouncilMinutes - Work Session CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MINUTES THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2008 AGENDA : CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD AGENDA – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2008 - 4:00 P.M. Discussion Items: 1.Budget Review (Lee) 2.John Adams Parkway Railroad Crossing Agreement (Lance) 3.Water Meters (Lance) 4.Building Permit and Credit Card Processing Fees (Patterson) 5.Tree Ordinance Review (Ken) 6. Misc. MINUTES The meeting was called to order by Mayor Ard at 4:00 p.m. in the City Building, 2135 South Ammon Road, Ammon, Idaho, with the following City Officials present: City Officials Present: Mayor Bruce Ard Councilmember Lee Bean Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember Randy Waite Councilmember D. Ray Ellis Councilmember Brian Powell City Engineer Lance Bates City Planning Director Ron Folsom City Officials Absent: Councilmember Dana Kirkham City Clerk Leslie Folsom DISCUSSION ITEMS : 1. Budget Review (Councilmember Bean): Postponed 2. John Adams Parkway Railroad Crossing Agreement (Lance Bates): Lance Bates gave Council a copy of the agreement explaining Section 1 is where the County and City will share equally. The Council and Lance worked through the costs and what costs are associated with the agreement. Lance inquired about Section 2, where it states the City will pay the County for the following work - 1) the County will construct the roadway, but it looks like the City is paying all of that time and material expense to the County. He wonders why we would be paying all of that and not half. Councilmember Bean stated it is a Bonneville County road. Lance stated there has been talk that the City would benefit by having that go through. Lance stated there is almost $85,000 plus the fence, etc. – it could be around $95,000. Ron stated he thinks we have about $35,000, but it is not on escrow. Ron stated he sent a letter to Brent and has not heard back. Councilmember Bean thinks we had about $125,000 budgeted for it. Councilmember thth Powell inquired why we are doing this one and not doing the one on 17 between Ammon and 45. Ron stated it is th an additional crossing we are adding. It was discussed that one will be built when 17 Street gets expanded and we can do the whole thing. Councilmember Bean stated this one has been in the works for some time. Mayor Ard explained why it has drug on for such a long time. It was discussed we need to clarify Section 2 on this agreement. Councilmember Bean inquired who is going to pay for the signing and barricades, it says they will install them but who will pay for them. Lance stated that most of the materials are in the Eastern Idaho Railroad portion and the County has the road closure barricades. It was discussed we need to verify there is no cost on that and that it might be needed in a different section of the contract. Councilmember Bean inquired if this has been out to bid. It was discussed it is over a year old for costs. Lance stated the fence amount is not included in the fees. Council inquired how many linear feet of fence is needed. Lance stated probably 100 feet on both sides. Councilmember Bean stated we should have the railroad put the fence in. Lance stated he will get everything clarified on the agreement. Councilmember Bean suggested having Scott Hall look at this also. Councilmember Bean inquired how soon they want to start on this. Lance stated they want to get started by spring. City Council Work Session Minutes 02/14/2008 -- 1 th Councilmember Powell inquired if there is anything we can do to help the 17 Street crossing. Council stated we would have to reconstruct the whole thing. It was discussed you cannot change it to yield. Councilmember Bean stated he could justify a LID for a half mile on each side all the way up to Quail Ridge. It was discussed it would cost about $2 million to do it and which developments would also be responsible for helping th widen 17 Street there. 3. Water Meters (Lance Bates): See miscellaneous discussion. 4. Building Permit and Credit Card Processing Fees (Bruce Patterson): Bruce Patterson talked about building permits being able to be paid online with credit cards and the associated fees. We are currently using Intel Pay. Councilmember Bean stated he asked Lisa to go out and look at other resources for credit card processing so we can compare rates. Councilmember Thompson stated the copy that Bruce gave them of fees is very similar to what we pay now. Bruce stated they are all pretty comparable. Councilmember Powell talked about the difference in fees with swiping versus calling them in. Councilmember Thompson talked about the possibility of online bills and saving postage costs. It was discussed that American Express charges more in fees. It was discussed we only take MasterCard and Visa. Bruce stated as a government agency we cannot charge more based on your method of payment. Councilmember Thompson stated we could give a credit for cash payments. It was discussed debit versus credit does not make a difference; some places charge more for debits. We do not take e-checks. Councilmember Ellis talked about possibly doing a survey from the residents to see if it is acceptable to them and if there is a cost savings for the City. We need equal to or above where we are. Bruce stated the pluses are not just for the convenience of the developer. He explained we do have online permitting and there are a lot of permits that don’t require plan review, such as installing a gas fireplace. He feels if it is more convenient for homeowners, the City will get more permits than if they had to come in and fill out paperwork and pay fees. Most homeowners don’t know they need permits for a lot of things and we may need to educate the public. Bruce stated the majority of contractors will not use online services. Bruce talked about the future and needing online services. Councilmember Bean stated we need to determine what percentage would like the service. Council discussed big permits and the fee associated and whether you would need to raise fees. It was discussed it would still be the same if you paid cash. Councilmember Ellis stated he would still like to know the residents perception. Council decided to do a survey to decide where to go from there. Ron stated we could use the new system to send messages to see what they feel. It was discussed to be careful how you word it. Bruce stated there is also a Pay Pal option which would take the City out of the loop and the builder would be paying Pay Pal the extra fees. 5. Tree Ordinance Review (Ken): Ken talked about a possible tree ordinance and gave copies to Council. He suggested we review it and then schedule it to be adopted as a City Ordinance for the trees. Along with the ordinance for 8-7-6-C8, he has also included small trees, medium trees and utility trees that are good for planting in right-of-ways and city properties. Anything that is not on this list, they would need to have a written approval by the City. Councilmember Thompson inquired who would be planting trees besides the City. Ken explained no one unless they allowed them to be planted along street ways. Ron explained there are also areas where there is a landscape strip in a right-of-way. It was discussed it would not be allowed most of the time because of site restrictions. Ken mentioned that he does not have what specs we have on our swales in the ordinance. He explained Eagle Point, Centennial, and the Cottages have people planting trees (i.e. willows, poplars) that reek havoc for Public Works. His understanding was they are only supposed to put grass in those swales. The ordinance gives the City Forester and Parks Director the right to enforce what happening in the city right-of-ways. Councilmember Bean inquired if we have anything that specifies what can go in swales. It was discussed we have something of sort. Councilmember Bean wants to make sure we don’t have a conflict between the ordinances. Ken talked about wanting to get things regulated now before we grow more. Ken inquired how we want to handle those that already have trees that have been in for 4-5 years and if they are grandfathered. We have had regulations for the swales and we need to check into that. Councilmember Powell inquired what kind of time frame we have on the retention ponds, from the time the developer begins development and the City actually takes ownership – what happens between the interim periods. Ron explained the way the ordinance is written now says how the retention ponds are supposed to be developed and it says it will be part of the acceptance process. So there is not an actual time frame, but Lance has to approve them. They would need a landscape plan and the City would have to approve it. Ron explained we will be changing the way it reads for the retention ponds in the development agreements and annexation agreements and he could add it in about the Forester approval. Councilmember Bean inquired where it designates a Forest Officer in this ordinance. Ken explained it doesn’t really dedicate a Forest Officer per say, it just talks about a City Forester or Parks Director being able to make decisions concerning trees. It also talks about private trees and if they are a hazard or a nuisance to Public Safety. Councilmember Bean inquired about 8-7-7.5 Item B, and if he would post it on the tree. Ken stated no, it would be a notification to the owner. Councilmember Bean stated that is not what it is saying and we need to amend City Council Work Session Minutes 02/14/2008 -- 2 that. Ken agreed. It was discussed it allows for an appeals process. It will hopefully be on a Council meeting by the end of March to be approved. Ron suggested that the changes need to be made and then have another work session with the changes. It was discussed to put it on the March work session. Councilmember Ellis inquired how much of a problem we have right now. Ken stated there is some overgrowth. There is a leaning tree across from Quickie Mart that is a problem and various problems throughout town. Ken mentioned Kmart and Sonic have problem trees. Councilmember Bean inquired about what are actually public trees. He commented about public right-of- ways and who takes care of them. Ken stated we do have a provision for that on 8-7-10. Ron talked about an area near Eastern Idaho Credit Union, which is putting in landscaping, but he does not expect them to put a tree there. It is the City’s property. 6. Misc.: Ted Hendricks explained that we awarded a contract to H & K sometime ago for water lines to go to the Family Care Center site which was funded in part by a grant. The majority of the project is done. He explained a well was tied in with that project with Harper-Leavitt but the scope of work has yet to be done. Lance is working on an eligible contractor to award that contract to. Ted explained they are in the process to advertise and award a contract for that well. The City budgeted around $500,000 for that project. He stated the way Lance would like it to go would be to drill the well first and do that under a scope of work. After the well is drilled, then look at the funds available for the pump house and the pump. Once we get the authority from Water Resources to draw down from the test site and utilize, then we would move ahead with that portion of the project. He inquired to Council whether they would like to use some of their water bond money towards that well or to go ahead and use the money that was budgeted a couple of years ago for the well. He inquired if a decision has been made on that, then they need to attempt to go to DEQ and get their approval on that. He explained the interest rates they are probably earning on their state pool is about 5%, and your interest rate with DEQ on this particular bond is 3.25%. They do have the authority today to go ahead and draw down on that bond money. He explained you do that through an interim financing process. He stated they have secured it with the State of Idaho at 3.25% and as you need money for your project, you can draw that down. Councilmember Bean inquired if someone has talked to Ted about actually wanting to do that because we have a bill outstanding that needs to be paid. He stated he had heard that. They barely got the approval late last month. They have the environmental clearance and are clear to move ahead. Councilmember Bean inquired how we request the funds. Ted stated you fill out a State form that they will fill it out for the City. The Mayor will sign it and they send it off with the attached bills and they will get a check from the State. He explained the process takes about 2 weeks. It was discussed Well #10 can be encompassed as part of the bond but he is not sure DEQ would do it. You may just want to move ahead where you have already budgeted for it. Lance stated Well #10’s design from Tom Wood has been Okayed by DEQ though. Ted stated he could talk to Willy to see if we could use the DEQ funds for that well. It was discussed we can’t slow Well #10 down at all. Ted explained they could have a decision within a week. They will begin advertising in about two weeks. Councilmember Bean asked Ted to see if we can use the DEQ funds. Ted agreed. He explained once the plans and specs are finished by Harper-Leavitt, including getting some boiler plate from the State of Idaho, they want to advertise and award the bid to the qualified low bidder and get going on the well. He explained that may take about 30 days. He expects to start about the middle to late March to get going on that well. He talked about providing sewer to Family Care Center. There has been a twist that there was a housing project that would like to build in this vicinity. Family Care Center is willing to give them the property for this housing complex, but the sewer was discussed that there was no right to hook on. He explained there were negotiations between the two city mayors about a year ago and it was decided that would could probably hook Family Care Center to the Idaho Falls line but that particular hookup is a force main to a force main, so it would not be a good solution. Since that time, there has been additional infrastructure out there that may warrant something different being done. He would like to know if that is feasible. He explained the sewer issue is still a problem. We have the other grant for Pearl House that goes to building the facility. He hopes to have the finances secured next month and they can start construction when weather permits. Councilmember Bean inquired if that was always the plan for them to hook on to Idaho Falls. Ted explained originally we were going to build a long pressure line going back to our system but the cost was expensive, which would be a waste of money because as soon as the main lines go in for the regional, then it would all be vacated. The City of Idaho Falls has not done anything more with the matter. Ted explained what the estimates were to do all of this. He explained there is $86,000 included for 4400 feet of 2 inch pressure line going back to the metering station at Sunnyside. Later on, that was crossed and took out because of the temporary agreement with Idaho Falls. Since the other group of people has become involved, we would have to look and see if the temporary lift station is adequate to hold all of this capacity, plus you may need a 4 inch line which would increase the cost from $130,000 or $140,000. There are easements we could use. Mayor Ard stated if they want to put the other housing in, they will need to look at the cost themselves for changing how the City Council Work Session Minutes 02/14/2008 -- 3 sewer gets out there. Mayor Ard stated we are getting closer on the regional time line, but we are still 3 years out. Ted suggested having him, Lance and Kim go out and meet with Family Care Center and look at alternatives and look on the Idaho Falls issue. Ted explained that Family Care Center has committed $350-360,000 to this project. He explained we have gone over budget on H&K but he explained where the money has been going. Ted Hendricks explained he would like to give updates on the Regional Sewer and plan a meeting to facilitate that. Ted has had to redo the environmental and get it cleared again. If they had all the money, then they could move ahead – so they are ready. They are awaiting the congressional delegation and are hoping to receive $2- 4 million on the first phase of the treatment plant project. They have DEQ’s approval and are going to bid shortly. The construction on the first phase would be about 15 months. Ted Hendricks stated they are eligible to at least apply for a ½ million grant which we have talked about a metering type project. The one thing the State was not comfortable with was metering the old town and not the rest of the City. They would support a whole community project. Councilmember Bean stated he would like to get the Council’s feelings. Lee stated Councilmember Kirkham would probably want to back off on this for a bit. He talked about the possibility of having to buy water rights. Ted stated that communities that meter versus communities that don’t, use about 1/3 less water. Councilmember Bean stated he feels it would be a conservation item. Ted explained you will find discrepancies in the residential areas also. Councilmember Thompson stated he feels we are on a path, and we need to get as much out of our water rights before we purchase more. He stated having the tanks will help. He feels the next point is the meters then look at buying more water rights. Lance commented that it is going to be more difficult in the future to purchase water rights. He feels you should go after them and reserve them for future use. Ted talked about only having domestic rights, no irrigation. They will probably require you to look at what you are doing with your current water rights. Water will become more of a commodity. Mayor Ard stated the City of Shelley have applied for some credit on a recharge system. Councilmember Ellis feels we should go to meters as fast as we possibly can. He feels we need to establish a standard of usage. We could reward those that fall below and penalize those that use it in excess. Councilmember Bean stated we would need to set aside money to have someone come in and help us determine proper meter rates. Council discussed when to put meters in and how to find a rate. It was discussed you cannot use data from other cities because of the variations between cities. It was discussed where the data comes from, system versus household data. Ted talked about the difference between the two and how you figure rates. Councilmember Bean talked about commercial versus residential rates with adjusting rates every five years. Lance suggested you do it every year. Ted stated you could have a meter project done by the fall of 2009. Councilmember Waite stated he would like to put it off as long as possible, but looking into the future, we may need to move forward. He feels we have to do this before we buy more water rights. We need to look into purchasing water rights. Councilmember Powell stated he was metered in Meridian and was surprised that Ammon wasn’t and feels we need to move forward. Councilmember Bean inquired what Council thought about setting a goal to have meters in by the summer of 2010. Council agreed. They discussed starting with old town first. Councilmember Bean asked Ted to look into the grants for the City. Ted stated we need to start construction this year, if they want to be metered by 2010. Councilmember Bean stated he has Council’s support to get going on the project. Ron suggested we start requiring the meters on residential buildings this season. The Council agreed to start requiring them next summer. Lance suggested setting a timeline, at which the new developments that start coming in, as to when meters will be required to be installed. This will help the developers to be prepared. Councilmember Ellis stated that he and Lance disagree on when the meters go in, with the developer or the resident. Ron explained we charge for meters now when they apply for a building permit. Ted suggested buying all of your meters, at the same time. Councilmember Bean agreed. It was discussed the homeowner is paying for the meters, at this point. Councilmember Bean inquired if we are collecting on our building permits the current cost of a meter. Ron explained it is about $375. Councilmember Bean stated in the last budget year he set up a restricted meter deposit fund of $1,250,000 from our reserves. He feels that is over what he would estimate is in the fees collected to this point. He now has them tracked and on a separate line. We are doing this in the street fund, as well. The grant should pay for about 3000 meters. Ted explained the cost for putting a meter in a household is about $1000 per household with most houses having the meter pits. Councilmember Ellis inquired about Well #10 and how much it will cost to drill the well. Lance explained the bid to drill the well was about $156,000 but we also have to put in the well house, pump, etc. We should have everything built and ready to go, as soon as, we get the okay for the water. It was discussed we cannot afford to wait and put them in two separate projects. Lance stated he will apply for the expedited well permit, as soon as, he gets the bids back because after he applies for it, he has 60 days to be on the well and drilling. Councilmember Bean inquired if he has addressed the question about 60 days with IDWR. Lance stated he will ask them. Lance Bates stated that the sewer rate study is showing that we will almost immediately see a 22% increase. He stated the City of Idaho Falls is seeing an increase also, but the City of Ammon is growing faster and they used BMPO numbers. Ammon is growing at 2.6 -2.7% and Idaho Falls is growing at 1.1%. We should grow City Council Work Session Minutes 02/14/2008 -- 4 by households, because we are growing the same in household numbers. Lance stated that is why he would like them to look through this. Councilmember Bean suggested he call Chad Stanger and ask him to fax a formula. Lance feels the 22% increase it a lot. Councilmember Bean would like to plug the numbers in the formula and see where it goes. Councilmember Bean thinks the last increases from Idaho Falls might have been 2002. It was discussed whether or not there was a memorandum of understanding on that. Councilmember Bean would look and see. Lance stated that Hitt Road from Derrald Avenue to the canal on the north side of Wal-Mart is st approximately 6280 feet, Derrald to Sunnyside it is 1467 and from the canal to 1 Street is 2646 feet. It was discussed the figures are just one side. Councilmember Bean stated we did both sides. Councilmember Bean asked Lance to put that back in the formula, so we can take it to Mayor Fuhriman. Lance stated he would put that together. The meeting adjourned at 6:29 p.m. ___________________________________________ C. Bruce Ard, Mayor ______________________________________ Leslie Folsom, City Clerk City Council Work Session Minutes 02/14/2008 -- 5