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2010-06-07 Board Meeting Minutes 1 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS LEWIS COUNTY, WASHINGTON BOARD MEETING MINUTES June 7, 2010 The Board of County Commissioners for Lewis County, Washington met in regular session on Monday, June 7, 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, May 24, 2010. Commissioner Averill seconded the motion. Motion carried 3-0 Notice Commissioner Averill made a motion to approve Consent Item one. Commissioner Grose seconded the motion. Commissioner Averill read the proclamation into the record. 1. Proclamation: Proclaiming June as National Safety Month. Commissioner Grose stated that this proclamation has special meaning to him. His son was in a motorcycle accident when he was 16. He was a star football player, and this accident ended his football career, had he been practicing safety then, he probably would not have had that accident. Being safe means a lot and it can change your life overnight. Motion carried 3-0 Commissioner Averill noted that we have a more pleasurable part of our jobs as County Commissioners, in that we are able to make proclamations to the success of our young adults in the County. This year, we are unusually blessed, we have three championship teams and we would like to recognize each of them in order. 2. Proclamation: Honoring the 2010 Chehalis Bearcats High School Baseball Team. Commissioner Averill made a motion to approve Consent Item two. Commissioner Grose seconded the motion. Commissioner Averill read the proclamation into the record. Commissioner Averill stated this is a great achievement winning a State Championship. He recognizes the amount of work that goes into doing this. It is done by the team, the parents, the coaches, the school administration, and the community. He also noted that working together as a team is what got them there. Motion carried 3-0 3. Proclamation: Honoring the 2010 Pe Ell Trojans High School Softball Team. 2 Commissioner Grose made a motion to approve Consent Item three. Commissioner Averill seconded the motion. Chairman Schulte read the proclamation into the record. Chairman Schulte stated this is a great achievement and we are proud of all of you. Commissioner Averill noted that Pe Ell High School has had a great year in sports, winning three state championships. 4. Proclamation: Honoring the 2010 Pe Ell Trojans High School Girls Track Team. Commissioner Grose made a motion to approve Consent Item four. Commissioner Averill seconded the motion. Commissioner Grose read the proclamation into the record. Commissioner Averill noted that winning a state championship in track and field is a great achievement. It requires each person to dig down and give all they can give in each event. The points are scored event by event and the highest overall total is the winner. This is a harder sport in which to win a state championship . Commissioner Grose noted that the Board of County Commissioners began recognizing athletes recently, and it is very important. He noted that they are the future, and we take pride that you have been out there and have the leadership and the talent to be able to lead on into the next century. We appreciate that very much. Motion carried 3-0 Commissioner Averill made a motion to approve Consent Items five and six. Commissioner Grose seconded the motion. Karri Muir, Clerk of the Board, read the items into the record. 5. Notice: Regarding the 45 day comment period on proposed Title III projects. Commissioner Averill stated this provides notice that the Lewis County Board of County Commissioners will open a 45-day comment period, beginning June 9, 2010, on proposed Title III Projects under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act. Copies of the proposed projects are available for public review at the office of the BOCC in the Old Historic Courthouse. Proposed projects are: • 2011: $150,000.00 3,000 gallon wet side water tender FD # 18 (Glenoma) • 2012: $135,317.00 3,000 gallon tender and pump FD # 10 (Packwood) Commissioner Grose stated this money has been designated by the Forest Service and must go to fire suppression activities. We have attempted to keep the money in the communities tied to the National Forest. We have funded numerous ambulances and fire engines with this money in the past. Chairman Schulte introduced the County’s new Public Works Director, Tim Elsea. He welcomed him to the County. 6. Notice of Acceptance: For the Bishop Road Intersection Improvements Project. Resolution No. 10-136 Rod Lakey, Public Works, stated Lewis County is in receipt of all closeout documentation and Public Works has certified the completion of the contracted work. 3 The final contract amount is $82,197.61. All work met contractual obligations of the project specifications and drawings. The work was completed by Martin Sand and Gravel. Chairman Schulte thanked Mr. Lakey and Public Works for their work on Chandler Bridge. He noted there was a Groundbreaking Ceremony last Friday and the construction work started today. Commissioner Averill stated that John Huestis, the former Public Works Director, resigned in December of 2009. Mr. Lakey has been the interim Public Works Director and County Engineer for the past six months. He has done a good job during this time and thanked him for his hard work. Motion carried 3-0 Consent Commissioner Grose made a motion to approve Consent Items seven through sixteen Commissioner Averill seconded the motion. Karri Muir, Clerk of the Board read the items into the record. 7. Resolution No. 10-137 Proposed acquisition of additional right of way for Cline Road, Randle WA. Larry Unzelman, Public Works, stated Cline Road, southeast of Randle suffered slide damage which occurred in January, 2009. The County plans to stabilize the slope and repair all slide damage. The project will require right of way acquisition from one property owner. The attached resolution would grant authority to the Public Works Department to acquire the necessary additional right of way for the slide repair project. Procedures for acquiring necessary right of way, adopted by Resolution 09-381, will be followed. Commissioner Averill asked what this resolution requires. Mr. Unzleman stated Public Works will notify the property owner and send them the plans. Public Works will try to negotiate an offer with the property owner. If this is unsuccessful, they will come back to the Board for authorization to proceed with legal action. 8. Resolution No. 10-138 Approving the closure of a portion of Chandler Road and Doty-Dryad Road to all through traffic. Larry Unzelman stated replacement of the Chandler Road Bridge on the Chehalis River located approximately 4 miles northeast of Pe Ell will necessitate closing a portion of Chandler and Doty Dryad Roads to through traffic during the period of construction. The closure will be from June 14, 2010 to June 13, 2011, starting at 6:00 A.M. on the first day of closure and ending 5:00 P.M. on the last day of the closure. The road will be open from either side up to the point of closure and there are alternate routes around the area of closure. The Public Works Department will post the required advisory signs on both sides of the closure, and will notify 911 Communications, the local fire department, WSDOT and the school district of the closure. Commissioner Averill asked if the approximate time of this project is 220 days. 4 Mr. Unzelman stated yes, but they hope to be able to open the road earlier. This resolution will allow for sufficient time for the road to be closed, so that they do not have to extend it at a later time. Commissioner Averill stated there was a groundbreaking ceremony for this project last Friday. There were a large number of citizens from that area. They are very happy to see this project started. This Board has been persistent with trying to get this project started. We were even to a point where we said we would pay for the majority of the cost if FEMA funding did not come through. 9. Resolution No. 10-139 Bid award on the surplus property located in the Wold Road area. Larry Unzelman, Public Works stated sealed bids on properties located off Wold road near Ashford identified as Tract “A” and Tract “B’, were opened on May 24, 2010. One bid was received in the amount of $72,567.00 for Tract “A” by Robert G. Reynolds, and no bids were received for Tract “B”. The bid received was above the minimum bid amount of $69,800.00 and included a $500.00 bid deposit. It is the recommendation of Real Estate Services that the bid be accepted for Tract “A”. After acceptance of the bid Real Estate Services will request payment from the bidder and prepare a Quit Claim Deed for review and signature by the Board of County Commissioners, upon presentation of said deed. The Board is hereby authorized to sign same, whereupon, said deed shall be recorded by the Real Estate Services Division. He noted that there are three cabins up in that area and all three are located on Tract “A”. Tract “A” is a desirable one for the County divests of; because of the potential problems we could have over those improvements up there. Commissioner Averill asked what we were going to do with Tract “B”. Mr. Unzelman stated we did not receive any bids on this tract. It is wooded land and the County has other holdings in that area that we acquired in a buy-out in the early ‘90’s. For the time being it will be managed with those other lands in its current condition. Maybe at some point in the future if someone wanted to purchase this property, then we could go back through this process and accept bids for it. Commissioner Grose asked if we looked at the pricing on Tract “B” to see if it has a lesser value than what we thought. Mr. Unzelman stated that is something they can look at. These were advertised extensively in three newspapers and we received a very minimum amount of calls on the properties. We did value the property at 25% of market value if they would have had access, due to their lack of access. The Board asked Mr. Unzelman to look into lowering the minimum bid price of Tract “B”. 10. Resolution No. 10-140 Approving a Professional Service Agreement with Daniel Henderson. Danette York, Health, stated Mr. Henderson will be contracted as a Veterans Benefit Specialist with the objective of providing services to local indigent veterans and/or their dependents. This agreement was initiated to provide our veterans with information and resources to help them through tough times rather than using Veteran Service Officers to hold the Veterans’ Relief Fund meetings to review each request. 5 There are many resources available to veterans about which they are not aware. Mr. Henderson’s role will be one in which he interviews each veteran applying for assistance and helps the individual locate resources to help them through their time of need. He will have the responsibility of being knowledgeable in veterans’ benefits and how to apply for that assistance. The Veterans’ Relief Fund will continue to be available to veterans but will not be used as the primary source of aid; it will be used as an emergency fund and distributed as determined by Mr. Henderson. This is a two year contract beginning June 7, 2010 through June 6, 2012 in the amount of $12,960.00 plus mileage. Mr. Henderson will be working approximately 80 hours per month. Commissioner Averill stated through County property taxes we get a small millage which we use to help indigent Veterans who are resident in Lewis County. It amounts to about $140,000.00 a year to provide assistance to the Veterans. We have been managing this money through a Veterans Advisory Board and a group of Veteran Support Service Officers (VSO’s) that are nominated by each of the service groups. It is getting harder for the VSO’s to carry out their roles. After a discussion with the WA VA, we agreed to hire a person that will be trained by WA VA on all of the types of things that are available to Veteran’s. This is so we can help the Veteran’s that are in true need with the initial support, but more than that, get them into the system where they can get long term support. Chairman Schulte asked if the State was picking up half of the cost of this program. Ms. York stated we hope that they are able to do that. Chairman Schulte asked who will supervise Mr. Henderson and where will he work? Ms. York stated she will supervise the position and it will be housed in the Health Building. Commissioner Averill stated the new Veteran’s Clinic was opened on Friday. It is located in the LC Mall. It will provide Veteran’s in this area an outpatient facility, which they can go to, rather than driving to Tacoma. This clinic will be serving Veterans from other counties. This is great to have in the community. 11. Resolution No. 10-141 Amending the policies and rules of the Veterans’ Advisory Board and the of the Veteran’s Relief Fund. Danette York, Health, stated the Lewis County Veterans’ Advisory Board (VAB) reviews the rules, policies, and procedures governing the VAB and Veterans’ Relief Fund (VRF), periodically making recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners as appropriate. It has been determined that language from Resolution 06-189, which was approved on June 5, 2006, needs to be updated to reflect necessary changes. The changes will be as follows: • There is an amount listed in the present resolution allowing Veterans to apply for assistance in the amount up to but not exceeding $300 per year. This amount was approved for 2006 but has since been increased. This resolution will remove the specific amount and state it is the amount approved by the Board of County Commissioners for that year. This will prevent the need to edit the resolution every time the amount is changed. • The statement that Veterans who receive assistance in any calendar year may not draw on the fund again for the remainder of the calendar year will be changed to state that they may apply for assistance until the veteran has received the maximum annual amount for that calendar year. 6 Commissioner Averill noted that currently the amount is set at $450.00 per year. We have found that some of the bills that are received are a lot less than that. Under the current rules an indigent veteran is only able to apply for assistance once a year no matter what their bill is. • The County is in the process of contracting with an independent Veterans Benefit Specialist (VBS) so dates, places, and times to receive applications for the fund will change. Therefore, language in this resolution reflects that change. Commissioner Averill noted the BOCC did not approve an additional change. It is how often a person can serve on the advisory board. It will renew that one can serve for three consecutive terms before they need to step down for at least a year, before they are able to serve again. This will give others a chance to serve if they would like to. 12. Resolution No. 10-142 Authorizing an amendment to the inter-local agreement with the State Office of Financial Management. Robert Johnson, Community Development, stated this resolution is an amendment to an existing agreement with OFM. In 2008 when money was appropriated the Legislature appropriated $2.5 million dollars. That agreement has been amended from time to time. This amendment deals with funding that was authorized in the last supplemental budget. The Legislation provides for some specific funding as follows: • Task 1 Develop Governance Agreements $1,200,000.00 • Task 2 Studies of Flood Mitigation Measures $2,000,000.00 • Task 3 Development of Early Warning Flood System $ 300,000.00 TOTAL $3,500,000.00 There were some concerns in this amendment in terms of how the Legislation was going to interpret it with regards to certain reviews necessary by different entities. There is a letter included with the agreement to the Chairman of the Flood Authority, and that letter and the agreements we made verbally with OFM are included in the new agreement. Commissioner Averill summarized Mr. Johnson statement by saying this resolution is to approve new funding approved by the last Legislature. Commissioner Grose asked him to clarify where the money is. Mr. Johnson stated that the way the money was appropriated was unusual. Rather than appropriate a specific dollar amount, they said anything that you already encumbered from the previous biennium is included in this. We had to review what was spent with OFM. Commissioner Averill stated there were a number of projects in 2009 which the Flood Authority identified that they were going to do. Some of them we have done contracts on and some of them we have not. We have done a contract on Phase IIB of the PUD study. It is covered by the Legislation. We did another contract we were looking at for LIDAR, which we did not sign a contract on. It was in the budget to use, but now if we take the $2 million dollars that has been appropriated for studies and against that take what has already been obligated, we need to sort out the anomalies like the LIDAR. The Flood Authority has prioritized these projects to make sure money is not spent that is not there. Commissioner Grose clarified that the some of the money has been previously appropriated and some of it remains to be appropriated. 7 13. Resolution No. 10-14 Bid award to West Consultants, Inc., for the development of and implementation of a flood early warning system, phase II. Bob Johnson stated this is phase II of the proposal West Consultants submitted to the Flood Authority. This adds rain and stream gauges within the watershed and also provides software, so there is availability online of predictive models for flooding within the basin. Commissioner Averill stated the Flood Authority feels this is a significant project. They recognize we may have extensive rain over the years and feel it is important to have an early warning system in place. This early warning system will be supported by computer software and will have real time data for DEM in all the counties involved. This will make all of us better informed so we can be ready for an emergency when it happens. 14. Resolution No. 10-144 Bid award to the FCS Group to develop a strategy for the creation of a flood control zone district. Bob Johnson stated the qualifications were reviewed by the Flood Authority Advisory Committee. A proposed scope and budget were negotiated and presented to the Flood Authority. The Flood Authority made a recommendation that the scope and budget be accepted and a contract to be signed not to exceed $499,343.00 to assist in the creation of a Three County Flood Control Zone District. The counties that will be involved are Thurston, Grays Harbor, and Lewis County. Lewis County already has a Flood Control Zone District, and it will be incorporated into that. Commissioner Averill pointed out that the Legislation requires that a governing process be in place by July 2011. This is in response to that. The FCS Group has been working with Lewis County on the South County Utility Project. We have experience with them and they do an outstanding job. They have the experience of forming flood districts in other counties. This should be a good effort. 15. Resolution No. 10-145 Cancellation of warrants. Commissioner Averill stated this resolution authorizes cancellation of two Lewis County Auditor Office warrants totaling $1,140.18. One was lost or destroyed and the other was paid to an incorrect vendor. Corrected warrants will be reissued 16. Resolution No. 10-146 Approving the Collective Bargaining Agreement with Teamsters 252 representing the LC Prosecutor’s Office Archie Smith, Human Resources, stated there are no major changes to this contract. There are no COLA’s and the insurance contribution has been held to the 2009 amount for 2010. Motion carried 3-0 BID OPENING Bid Opening 2010 Countywide Prelevels and Overlay Projects Chairman Schulte announced the bid opening and asked staff to open the bids. 8 Rod Lakey state this contract will provide for the improvement of 1.087 miles of Salzer Valley Road, 0.50 mile of Jackson Highway and include maintenance improvements to Forest Road 52 off of Skate Creek Road South by pavement repair, cleaning, sweeping, applying tack coat, hot mix asphalt overlays, approach transitions, shoulder finishing, placing pavement markers, traffic control, and other work. The engineers estimate for this project is $782,098.00. Contractor Address Amount Lakeside Industries Centralia, WA $577,973.00 Granite Construction Co. Tumwater, WA $602,125.20 They will take these back, go over them and bring back a recommendation to the next Board Meeting. There being no further business, the Commissioners’ public meeting adjourned at 11:12 a.m. on June 7, 2010. The next public meeting will be held Monday, June 14, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. 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