Loading...
2010-01-11 Board Meeting Minutes 1 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS LEWIS COUNTY, WASHINGTON BOARD MEETING MINUTES January 11, 2010 The Board of County Commissioners for Lewis County, Washington met in regular session on Monday, January 11, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. COMMISSIONERS P.W. SCHULTE, RON AVERILL and F. LEE GROSE were in attendance. Chairman Schulte determined a quorum, called the meeting to order and proceeded with the flag salute. Commissioner Grose moved to approve the minutes from the 10:00 a.m. meeting held on Monday, January 4, 2010. Commissioner Averill seconded the motion. Motion carried 3-0 Commissioner Grose noted that it is good to have Commissioner Averill back. He stated that it is trying as Commissioners with three of them here, but exceptionally trying with only two in office. He welcomed Commissioner Averill back to the office. Consent Commissioner Averill made a motion to approve Consent Items one through four. Commissioner Grose seconded the motion. Karri Muir, Clerk of the Board read the items into the record. 1. Resolution No. 10-011 Approving extensions of Title III contracts with Lewis County Public Works and Family Forest Foundation. Commissioner Averill stated this resolution approves an extension of award of Title III unexpended Secure Rural Schools money for two projects through December 2010. The first project is an agreement between Lewis County Public Works and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest to allow County crews to do maintenance on Forest Roads not to exceed $210,000.00. The second project is a funding project between Lewis County and the Lewis County Family Forest Foundation to continue work on a Family Forest HCP/EIS not to exceed $25,000.00. This is not new money; rather it is an extension of the time limit to expend already approved funds. Commissioner Grose noted that the Public Works funding was for the Covel Creek Project, which ran into problems. Approving this extension will allow the County to use the money elsewhere on other Forest Service Roads if needed. He also noted that the Family Forest Foundations HCP has been an ongoing project for the past 11 years. It is hung up in the Federal Agencies that refuse to submit it for public comment through the Congressional Record. The Family Forest Foundation continues to labor to get this brought forward. This money is well used for that. Roughly $400,000.00 has been spent 2 by the County on that project and another $2.5 million by the Family Forest Foundation. It bothers him to think that we have loaned that money without getting a final product. 2. Resolution No. 10-012 Approving a MOU with the Cispus Learning Center for the AmeriCorps Program. Tara Smith, Health and Social Services stated this resolution will approve matching funds, up to $4,500.00, for two AmeriCorps workers. These workers work with youth in the Morton and Packwood area. Commissioner Grose asked if there is ATOD funding for this program. Ms. Smith stated there is not ATOD funding for the AmeriCorps Program., The ATOD Advisory Board approved the request for this money. Commissioner Grose asked if we were able to use any of the DUI Taskforce money for this program. Ms. Smith stated she did not think so. Commissioner Averill stated that most of the ATOD money comes out of either DASA or CJTA, whereas DUI traffic money comes from the State Traffic Safety Commission. 3. Resolution No. 10-013 Approving the Certification and Assurances documents for the DUI/Traffic Safety Grant with the WA State Safety Department. Tara Smith, Health and Social Services stated the Federal Government funds part of the WA State Traffic Safety that comes down to the local counties for a Task Force Coordinator. At the time the original contract was signed it had the old certification and assurances. This document was updated and the Federal Government changed language around the lobbying clause, so that it matched other contracts through the Federal Government. This was the only change in the contract. Commissioner Averill asked when it says the Federal Government added a lobbying clause , the function of this clause is that we cannot use our people to lobby, but is this just before the Congress or is it lobbying at the State Legislature as well? Ms. Smith stated it was also lobbying at the State Legislature. 4. Resolution No. 10-014 Approving a casual on-call Public Health Nurse II for the Health Department Danette York, Health Department stated we had a public nurse for the Passport Program that went away at the State level. We need a nurse to help administer the H1N1 vaccine. We have funding available for an on-call nurse to help with this. This resolution will approve hiring this position at a rate higher than the casual employee pay. She also noted that the person who will be on-call has been involved in the H1N1 campaign and has been going out to the schools and providing vaccines already. Commissioner Averill asked what the rate of pay would be. Ms. York stated it would be $23.53 per hour and the maximum hours is 69 hours per month. 3 Motion carried 3-0 Hearing Hearing CDBG Grant Application Chairman Schulte announced the hearing and asked for a staff report. Barb Kincaid, Community Development stated that Resolution 09-015 will allow the Community Development Department to apply for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the purpose of making capital improvements to the City of Vader’s water system. The purpose of holding a hearing is to meet the Federal public citizen participation requirements prior to making application. It is to inform the citizens that these Federal funds are available on a yearly basis and to describe the project and get input. To meet the Federal requirements we have duly noticed the hearing. We have made determination with the population; we didn’t need to make special outreach for non-English speaking people because the census data showed that it was not necessary. There are copies of notice affidavits from the newspaper available. There is a signup sheet for anyone wanting to speak regarding the grant application. The required public participation handouts are also on the table. This project, if approved, would be to make an application for the once a year CDBG general purpose grant application for an amount up to $700,000.00.It would be used to make improvements to the City of Vader’s water system, where the City is unable to apply for grant funding on its own. There would be an inter-local agreement between the City of Vader and the County authorizing Lewis County to make application and to administer the grant funds and contract out for those improvements. We will leverage this money with additional funding sources. We have an estimated $2 million worth of improvements that need to be done to that system and they are in such dire straits that they are posing threats to public health and safety. This application meets the Federal requirement and purpose of the CDBG funds. Commissioner Averill asked if we had any income levels that are required in this application. Ms. Kincaid stated the discussion they have had with the CDBG staff is that the City of Vader’s low to moderate income data from the census will be sufficient to make this application. The City of Vader does qualify with the 55.8% of the population meeting that criterion. Commissioner Averill stated this is a placeholder that we are doing today. Essentially we have a window in which we have to make application. We do not know how we are going to approach the City of Vader. If we do not approve this today and don’t resolve how we are going to go forward with the improvement of the system in time to make the grant we will not be able to apply. Ms. Kincaid stated that was correct. There are strict Federal guidelines for even being able to make that application deadline; including the noticing and holding this hearing that we anticipate making the application by the January 21st deadline. We need to let the public know that we intend do so. Chairman Schulte stated that the City of Vader is also submitting the same grant? He asked if this is a dual track. 4 Ms. Kincaid stated it was not a dual track. The City of Vader cannot qualify to do the application alone. Commissioner Grose asked if the City of Vader was applying for the loan. Ms. Kincaid stated they were not applying. She noted that is why Lewis County as part of the application will be asked to enter into an inter-local agreement. Commissioner Grose stated the CDBG application deadline is January 21, 2010, is why we needed to take action on this today to get the application in on time. This is our approval to apply for this grant. Ms. Kincaid stated this was correct and the CDBG will require Lewis County and the City of Vader to enter into an inter-local agreement authorizing Lewis County to be the fiscal agent of the grant. This is part of the language in the resolution as well. Chairman Schulte asked if there was anyone who wanted to speak for or against the CDBG application. There was none. He closed the question and answer portion of the hearing and opened the formal hearing. Danette York, Public Health Director stated she supports this application for the City of Vader water system. Ms. Kincaid asked that her previous comments be adopted into the record. Chairman Schulte asked if anyone else would like to speak for or against the CDBG application. There was no one else. He closed the formal hearing and asked for a motion to approve Resolution No. 10-015. Commissioner Averill moved to approve Resolution No. 10-015. Commissioner Grose seconded the motion. Karri Muir, Clerk of the Board, read the item into the record. Commissioner Averill noted that this is a critical situation in the City of Vader. They have a small water system, and with the financial issues they are having it makes it impossible for the City of Vader to do this alone. The County is discussing options with the City of Vader and the State Department of Health on how we can do this. We are not finished. This is an important step forward and the $700,000.00 is a good amount to get things started. Commissioner Grose stated this is a difficult situation. The County is allowed to apply for one of these grants per year. We have been somewhat assured that we stand a good chance of getting the grant once submitted. He noted that we as Commissioners need to support the cities and towns. He hopes the City of Vader recognizes this and by helping them get their affairs in order they won’t have these issues later. He supports this grant application. Chairman Schulte stated the County is not taking over the City of Vader’s water system at this time. By doing this grant application it gives them additional options. Motion carried 3-0 There being no further business, the Commissioners’ public meeting adjourned at 10:25 am on January 11, 2010. The next public meeting will be held Monday, January 25, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. 5 Please note that minutes from the Board of County Commissioners’ meetings are not verbatim. A recording of the meeting may be purchased at the Commissioners’ office. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS LEWIS COUNTY, WASHINGTON ATTEST: P.W. Schulte, Chairman Clerk of the Board Ron Averill, Commissioner Lewis County Commissioners F. Lee Grose, Commissioner