Palouse City Council
Regular Council Meeting
February 26, 2013

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

ROLL CALL: Council members present: Tim Jones; Connie Newman, Bo Ossinger; Alison Webb; Rick Wekenman. Absent: Norm Schorzman. Also present: Public Works Superintendent Dwayne Griffin; Police Chief Jerry Neumann; City Attorney Stephen Bishop (7:22); Clerk-Treasurer Joyce Beeson; & Deputy Clerk Ann Thompson. Councilmember Wekenman MOVED to accept his Councilmember Schorzman’s absence. Councilmember Jones seconded and the motion carried. Councilmember Cecil Floyd submitted his resignation by email Feb. 22, 2013. Councilmember Jones MOVED to accept Councilmember Floyd’s resignation. Councilmember Ossinger seconded and the motion carried unanimously. Public present: David Nails; Judi Dunn-Gray; Richard Styer; Dana Anderson; Darrel Goertzen; Chris Sapp.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Councilmember Ossinger MOVED to adopt the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of February 12, 2013. Councilmember Newman seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.

PUBLIC WORKS REPORT: Supt. Griffin submitted a written report. In the last couple weeks, two of city’s three lift stations have been plugged because of things being flushed down toilets that shouldn’t be. And two pumps at the sewer plant had to be pulled last week for the same reason. Things found are feminine hygiene products, condoms, hair, dental floss, toys, adult and baby wipes, swiffers, cleaning wipes, and more. Public Works can’t stress enough to the public how catastrophic this could be. They’re going to cause us some serious problems if we don’t get the word out. Need to continue getting word out to the public and equating it to dollars. These pumps are thousands of dollars each.

POLICE REPORT: School resource officer program is continuing to go well. We have a person coming to do community service at the PD. In the last two weeks we’ve received two more rooster/chicken complaints on North hill last week – crowing rooster at 3 am; two Union Street nuisance yard complaints; and a couple vehicle prowls.

JFB REPORT: Had a sparsely attended meeting on Feb. 18th. The financial report was handed out, minimal activity, no concerns. Had one fire call in January. Two FD meetings were held in February; one was a school walk-through to make sure we know where gas shut offs, water hook ups, electrical shutoffs, etc are. The FD received the DNR grant for wildland gear for $13,313.30. It’s a 50/50 grant so half of that is split between the city and rural so the city’s share is approx. $3,300. We have an L&I rep helping to get the FD compliance programs up-to-date. We’ve received a couple volunteer firefighter applications. Joyce will do an ordinance for a budget amendment for the grant. Councilmember Wekenman MOVED to have Clerk-Treasurer Beeson draft an ordinance to administer the DNR grant payment for the wildland firefighting equipment. Councilmember Ossinger seconded. Motion carried unanimously.

EMS had 5 calls in January. Currently there are EMT classes being held at the FD. There is a blood drive coming up this spring.

OLD BUSINESS:
Resolution No. 2013-02: Whitman County Hazardous Mitigation Plan: Councilmember Jones MOVED, seconded by Councilmember Wekenman to take from the table this resolution and discussion. Motion carried unanimously. Plan discusses the county’s and city’s plan in case of natural hazards such as floods, fires, etc. It discusses “protected facilities” such as medical facilities, PD, school, wells, etc. There are some typos/errors in the document that Rick is going to have the facilitator re-do. Councilmember Jones MOVED to authorize the adoption of the Whitman County Hazardous Mitigation Plan as written and the Palouse annex with corrections. Councilmember Ossinger seconded. Motion carried unanimously.

DRAFT Ordinance: Adding additional language to PMC Chapter 6.16 Poultry: The city and PD have been dealing with ongoing complaints about chickens/roosters in town. PD needs a code/policy so they know how to approach these complaints. Mayor read aloud the draft code. Much discussion ensued with input from a few chicken owners in town. This draft will continue to be re-worked until council can come up with what’s best.

NEW BUSINESS:
Whitman County Recycling & Waste Reduction Update: Judi Dunn-Gray from Whitman County Recycling and Waste Reduction and David Nails, Whitman County Solid Waste Operations Manager spoke about various things going on in the county. Judi is working on stewardships with manufacturers of paint, fluorescent lighting, batteries, etc. to take back their e-waste. The county as always still has free hazardous waste disposal. The county spends about $100,000 every two years in the disposal of those products. The county still has free composting and chipping as well. Judi is still looking at getting recycling here in Palouse.

David Nails spoke of the Whitman County Spring Clean-up week in April. Additionally, they want someone from Palouse on the Whitman County Advisory Committee.

Whitman County Interlocal Shoreline Agreement: Councilmember Newman summarized the agreement. DOE requires a shoreline plan and ours is due for update. There are seven cities within Whitman County who are in this collaboration with the county (as opposed to doing it on our own). Connie is proposing that we again sign the agreement allowing the City of Palouse to join this collaborative effort. This is anticipated to be a three year project. First step is all the agreements coming in and receiving the DOE funding. Then there is the hiring of a consultant. Take a full inventory of all the shoreline in these towns. Do an analysis of shorelines, identify any problems DOE is looking for, characterizations of the shorelines, environmental designs such as Colfax’s canal. They’ll do an accumulative assessment. Identify restoration opportunities. There’s a public involvement process as well. It’s a valuable project as far as water quality. Mayor Echanove read aloud a summary of the agreement. Councilmember Newman MOVED to authorize the mayor to sign the interlocal agreement between Whitman County, the cities of Pullman, Colfax, Palouse, Albion, Malden, Rosalia, and Tekoa for cooperative Shoreline Master Programs Update, and also authorizing Clerk-Treasurer Beeson as the designee. Seconded by Councilmember Ossinger. Motion carried unanimously.

COMMITTEE REPORTS/REQUESTS:
Personnel & Pool-Norm Schorzman, Chair:
Parks, Cemetery, & Buildings-Alison Webb. Chair: No report
Policy & Administration-Bo Ossinger, Chair: No report
Streets & Sidewalks: no report
Water & Sewer-Connie Newman, Chair: No report
Police, Fire, & Safety-Rick Wekenman, Chair: No report
Finance, Property, & Equipment-Tim Jones, Chair: 2/3 of finance committee met with County Assessor Joe Reynolds to discuss setting the 2014 budget. In the process of meeting with Mr. Reynolds, he pointed out that our clerk-treasurer is imminently qualified in doing her job

OPEN FORUM:

MAYOR’S REPORT:
Bank Left Gallery beer/wine license renewal. No objections.

MFA is putting together a proposal to clean the riverbank at the Brownfields site. There is still approximately $70,000 left. Mayor asked MFA for a cost estimate for the testing equipment that DOE requires us to perform on the site.

NW Collegiate Bicycling event is coming in April to Palouse again.

Regarding the vacated council position #4, the vacancy will be posted about town with a closing date of March 21st. New councilperson will hopefully be sworn in at March 26th council.

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

ADJOURN: Councilmember Jones MOVED to adjourn. Councilmember Wekenman seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. The council meeting adjourned at 8:56 PM.

The following checks are approved for payment:
Claims Paid Ck. #4692-4710 $12,604.07
VOID Ck. # 4695

APPROVED: ________________________________ ATTEST: ________________________________