Palouse City Council
Regular Council Meeting
April 28, 2015

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. Councilmember Pearce MOVED to excuse Councilmember Hanson’s absence. Councilmember Wekenman seconded and the motion carried unanimously. Staff present: Public Works Superintendent Dwayne Griffin; Police Chief Jerry Neumann; Building Inspector Dan Gladwill; City Attorney Stephen Bishop; Clerk-Treasurer Mike Bagott; & Deputy Clerk Ann Thompson.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Councilmember Wekenman MOVED to adopt the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of April 14, 2015. Councilmember Langsett seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.

PUBLIC WORKS REPORT: Supt. Griffin submitted a written report.
Regarding fixing the telemetry at the wells, it’s still a work in progress. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The telemetry is radios between the well and the reservoir and they “talk” to each other and tell each other when to turn off and on.

POLICE REPORT:
Newly hired police officer Joe Handley’s first day on the job is May 4, 2015, with on-the-job training. Officer Snead’s last working day is April 29, 2015.
All the cars and equipment are working great.
The collegiate bike race went smoothly with no major incidents; approximately 140 participants.

BUILDING INSPECTOR 1st QUARTER REPORT:
Quiet first couple months but just got four new house building permits in the new subdivision.
The bar just has finishing touches left. Mechanical has passed inspection. BI Gladwill will do final inspection as soon as he gets the call.
Regarding the straw house; the owner has an August 1 deadline to be off city water and sewer to his temp house. BI Gladwill will continue to monitor.
BI Gladwill inquired about possibly changing the BI contract from quarterly BI reports to as-needed or as-requested. Council prefers sticking with the current contract of scheduled appearances.

JFB REPORT (2nd council meeting of month only):
Councilmember Langsett reported that the JFB is on target financially. The FD had four fire calls for March; 8 calls YTD. They had two meetings in April. At the meeting, a motion was approved to obtain parking lot barriers to place at steep bank edge at the Public Safety Building; project should be able to be completed well under $1,000.
There were 8 EMS calls for March; 16 YTD. EMS may have an extraction training with Potlatch.

CLERK-TREASURER REPORT:
Conference in Chelan was time well spent.
The new houses have already paid big dividends; the four new house building permits brought in over $5,300 and we had budgeted only $2,500 for building permit revenue. All of that revenue goes into our current expense fund.

OLD BUSINESS:
Shoreline Management Plan update by Councilmember Wekenman: Met last week with Mayor Echanove, four members of the planning commission, and representatives from Berk Consulting and the Watershed Company. It was an introductory meeting for two new PC members. We discussed where we are going forward on this from here on out. The reps from Berk would like a meeting with the PC to review plan. If the plan is satisfactory, then the PC will recommend to council to approve. Mayor would like Atty. Bishop’s input on the plan as well. The map determines use areas and buffer zones along our shoreline. The buffer setback for downtown is 20’ for existing structures from the back of the buildings to the high water mark. The buffer zone in the residential area is currently set at 80’. We have a substantial residential district impacted by this plan/map. Public input, in particular from those mostly affected (businesses and residences along Main Street), will also be sought, to be determined when and where, but prior to any final decisions. All kinds of state and federal agencies are involved in this. The deadline is a year from now but Councilmember Wekenman would like to see it done before harvest.

NEW BUSINESS:
Resolution No. 2015-05 – vendor & small works roster update:
Councilmember Pearce MOVED to suspend the reading of the resolution in its entirety, and just read the two paragraphs that have been changed. Councilmember Estes seconded. Motion carried unanimously. Mayor read aloud parts of the resolution. This resolution is just housekeeping to update our small works and vendor roster procedures from Resolution 2000-18 to reflect new RCW dollar amount thresholds. Attorney Bishop wrote the resolution and helped explain the two changes. Councilmember Wekenman MOVED to adopt Resolution No. 2015-05, with the addition of the three inadvertently omitted words on page 5, section F (“shall be considered”). Councilmember Hicks seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

COMMITTEE REPORTS/REQUESTS:
Police, Fire, & Safety, Chair Wekenman-
The committee interviewed the second candidate for the police officer job. It was a tough decision. The minimum qualifications were not quite met by the second candidate. In keeping with the rules of selection and fairness, we had to eliminate him on the basis that he was one month short on experience. Councilmember Wekenman has since met the new officer, Joe Handley, and was impressed.

Personnel & Pool, Chair Pearce-
Interviewing two applicants for pool manager tomorrow.

OPEN FORUM:
Palouse Librarian Bev Pearce thanked Mayor Echanove and Chief Neumann for being guest readers at the Palouse Library for Turkey Leg Story Time. The Turkey Leg is a fundraiser walk-a-thon begun by Tiana Gregg ten years ago as a way to raise money for children’s books for our library. Thousands of dollars have been raised.

MAYOR’S REPORT:
The city received from the WA State Liquor Control Board a liquor license application approval for spirits, wine, and beer at the Palouse Caboose. No objections.

Regarding the pea hammering dust emissions from Palouse Trading processing plant that have been clouding the air, Supt. Griffin spoke with the managers about it. The managers were on-site immediately and have taken steps to alleviate the problem. The emissions have been dramatically reduced, but will never be totally gone. It will be an ongoing maintenance issue for them to prevent that from happening again.

ALLOW PAYMENT OF BILLS: Councilmember Pearce 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 Langsett seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. The council meeting adjourned at 8:27 PM.

The following checks are approved for payment:
Claims Paid Ck. #6513-6531 $3,059.22

APPROVED: ________________________________ ATTEST: ________________________________