Palouse City Council
Regular Council Meeting
April 22, 2014

CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Echanove called the Council Meeting to order at 7:00 PM.

ROLL CALL: Council members present: Bo Ossinger; Mike Hicks; Senja Estes; Rick Wekenman; Bev Pearce; Christopher Langsett. Absent: Doreen Hanson. Staff Present: Public Works Superintendent Dwayne Griffin; Police Chief Jerry Neumann; Clerk-Treasurer Joyce Beeson; & Deputy Clerk Ann Thompson. Public present: Donna Langsett; Janet Barstow; Aaron Flansburg (7:21). Councilmember Pearce MOVED, seconded by Councilmember Wekenman to excuse Councilmember Hanson’s absence. Motion carried unanimously.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Councilmember Wekenman MOVED to adopt the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of April 8, 2014. Councilmember Langsett seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.

PUBLIC WORKS REPORT: Supt. Griffin submitted a written report. The Curtis family owns land abutting the city’s old dump property in the county. They would like to pursue building a home on their property, using the city’s dump road as their access road. One of the options is the city turning over the road to the Curtis family and them granting us lifetime easement, thus they’re responsible for maintaining the road. There aren’t any apparent reasons not to do it, but we need to get Atty. Bishop’s advice. Currently, the city doesn’t maintain that old road and only use it in good weather. Streets & Sidewalks committee will look into it further.

Strom came and re-wired the fire-damaged street lights.

POLICE REPORT:
Officer Dentler resigned effective May 4, 2014. He’ll stay on as a reserve officer. Chief Neumann would like to hire former Palouse Police Officer Terry Snead. Snead understands it’s a 30 hour per week job until six-month period is up. Within the next six months it will be determined whether or not it will go to 40 hours per week. He won’t be here long-term, perhaps two or three years, as he is reaching retirement age. Chief Neumann has met with his civil service board regarding this matter. Councilmember Pearce MOVED to hire Terry Snead under the civil service rules, at 30 hours a week during the 6 month period. Councilmember Wekenman seconded the motion. Terry will probably start the second week in May. Motion carried unanimously.

Chief Neumann is working with GPHS driver’s ed teacher Mr. Griner to educate the kids on the risks of driving under the influence.

WSU/UI bike race was a little different this year. The bike club brought their own volunteers. Chief has a few concerns that he’ll address with the bike club organizers. The date of the race was a conflict also.

JFB REPORT: No fire calls in March, 5 YTD. Most of the meeting was spent looking at a slideshow of the April 8 fire at the tavern. FD did very well fighting that fire. The supplemental vehicles arriving from Pullman and Colfax arrived well into the fire and made a huge difference in slowing it down, but it was apparent that our FD was instrumental in keeping the adjacent buildings safe by keeping them cool. No one was hurt, no equipment damaged. FD used approximately 500,000 gallons of water. Our modern equipment was key in controlling the fire. Chief Bagott compared the various nozzle types and what a difference the right equipment can make.

EMS had 2 calls in March, 17 YTD. EMS is instituting some additional training in conjunction with the FD so each department is more familiar with what the other is doing in an emergency.

NEW BUSINESS:
1st Quarter Treasurer’s Report & Narrative: C-T Beeson submitted a written report and asked if there were any questions. Mayor pointed out the small amount of interest received. JB is looking into the interest rates of CD’s that would be available for public money. Perhaps starting with the balance of the Cemetery Endowment fund since only the interest can be used. The interest earned would still go to Cemetery operating. Currently, the investment pool is earning about 1/3 of 1%. Councilmember Wekenman MOVED to accept the treasurer’s report as presented. Councilmember Langsett seconded. Motion carried unanimously.

COMMITTEE REPORTS/REQUESTS:
Police, Fire, & Safety – Committee met to discuss the officer resignation and support hiring Officer Snead.

OPEN FORUM:
Janet Barstow: Palouse Community Center would like a beer garden on south Beach Street (next to former tavern site) during the Rat Rod Show May 31st. PCC needs a letter of non-objection from the city addressed to the Liquor Control Board in order to meet their deadlines. Councilmember Ossinger MOVED, seconded by Councilmember Estes, to authorize Joyce to put together a letter to the Liquor Control Board that the city approves Beach Street for a beer garden on May 31st. Motion carried unanimously. Janet believes they’ll shut down the beer garden at 6 pm.

MAYOR’S REPORT:
AWC small city connector meeting is at Rosalia on May 19th at 5:45 pm. AWC annual conference is in Spokane June 17-20. Mayor encourages council to attend.

Palouse River Duathlon is June 14th. Mark Sawyer requested permission for use of city streets and city park, use of city cones and white barricades, and assistance from the PD for traffic control. Councilmember Wekenman MOVED, seconded by Councilmember Ossinger, to allocate the city resources as needed for the 2014 Palouse River Duathlon. Motion carried unanimously.

Deputy Clerk Thompson worked with the Secretary of State’s office this week in transferring all of the city’s minutes, ordinances, resolutions, etc., to the state archives for safe-keeping. The agency will begin digitizing all of them so that in the future anyone can access them online. They are now gone from the office and will forever be safeguarded from damage and or loss. It will take the Washington State Archives at least a year to get them online. These documents date back from 1888 to current.

Avista is accumulating all the new poles for our TIB L.E.D. project. Starting soon!

Will Murray offered to donate a 6’ high angel statue for the Palouse Cemetery. Atty. Bishop said it was acceptable from a non-denominational municipal standpoint. Public works has some concerns. Parks & Cemetery committee will discuss with public works and get back to Mr. Murray.

Councilmember Wekenman would like a plan of action from the fire clean-up crew (dust abatement, traffic, timeline, etc.).

ALLOW PAYMENT OF BILLS: Councilmember Estes MOVED that the bills against the city be allowed. Councilmember Langsett seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.

ADJOURN: Councilmember Wekenman MOVED to adjourn. Councilmember Estes seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. The council meeting adjourned at 8:18 PM.

The following checks are approved for payment:
Claims Paid Ck. #5646-5664 $11,230.44

APPROVED: ________________________________ ATTEST: ________________________________