Loading...
2010-01-04 Board Meeting Minutes 1 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS LEWIS COUNTY, WASHINGTON BOARD MEETING MINUTES January 4, 2010 The Board of County Commissioners for Lewis County, Washington met in regular session on Monday, January 4, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. COMMISSIONERS P.W. SCHULTE and F. LEE GROSE were in attendance. Commissioner Averill attended by phone. 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, December 21, 2009. Commissioner Averill seconded the motion. Motion carried 3-0 Notice Commissioner Grose made a motion to approve Notice Items one through six. Commissioner Averill seconded the motion. Karri Muir, Clerk of the Board read the items into the record. Motion carried 3-0 1. Notice of Workshop and Hearing: Regarding rescinding the building and development moratorium on lands within Lewis County. Hearing will be held on Monday, January 25, 2010, on or after 10:00 am. Bob Johnson, Community Development stated the hearing will held on January 25, 2010 to take testimony concerning lifting the moratorium on 170,000 acres of land in Lewis County. Commissioner Averill stated this is a good day for Lewis County. We have been working on our Growth Management Plan since 1993 and we have had problems during the entire process. The lengthiest of those problems has involved agricultural resource lands (ARL’s). We’ve actually made three different changes to the GMHB and each time we have gotten closer to being in compliance. The approval of the plan we sent in October resolves the problem. The GMHB found Lewis County in complete compliance with the GMA for ARL’s. During this time, because the GMHB found the County in invalidity, it was necessary to hold the lands in question in a building moratorium, so there would not be any changes in use that would impact future decisions. This impacted about 166,000 acres. With this decision from the GMHB we are able to lift the moratorium. The moratorium lift is currently planned for January 25, 2010, and he encourages the public to attend this meeting. Once we lift this moratorium we also lift a huge weight off of our planning staff, our economic development community, each of our cities, minor taxing districts in the County. We have been prevented from pursuing things that would help the County because of being in invalidity. This now changes, we are out of invalidity, and are able to lift the moratorium. This is one of things I ran for 2 office to do. He is pleased, through the work of our staff, the consultants, and the Planning Commission we have gotten here. He thanked everyone involved in this process. Commissioner Grose stated through this process we have had to extend this moratorium six different times. This is a huge relief to have this done. 2. Notice of Hearing: Amending Chapter 12.05 of the Lewis County Code relating to county park use and firearms. Hearing will be held on Monday, January 25, 2010, on or after 10:00 am. Bob Johnson, Community Development stated this hearing will be regarding Lewis County Code that will change the County regulations in regard to use of weapons in County Parks to the State Law as it now exists. Commissioner Averill noted that the County Code talks to the use of weapons, and it is not clear whether that code counters existing State Law on weapons. The State reserves the right to make rules on handguns and other weapons. What we are taking out of our code is a one sentence phrase that says “may not discharge or display a weapon in a park”. We chose to adopt the State Law in its entirety by reference, rather than having a piece of the law in our code. Sheriff Mansfield stated he understands what the Board is doing and supports the concept of what is being done. His only issue is, that the concerns with open display of firearms in our County Parks. We will address this at a later time. He has an issue with families going to parks and people openly displaying firearms. It becomes problematic for his department to make a decision if the person with a weapon is a threat to someone if they make a statement saying they do not like them there because their kids are scared of that person carrying a firearm. Commissioner Grose asked if the State law prohibits open display of firearms. Sheriff Mansfield stated this is not the case in State law. You can “open carry” (have a firearm on you where it can be seen) a firearm in the parks. Under most laws we can be more restricted but not less restrictive than State Law. There may be problems in certain areas, but his department will be ready to address these issues. Commissioner Averill stated this is why we are holding a hearing so citizens will understand what we are doing. 3. Notice: Public auction of surplus county property will be held at 8:00 a.m. on March 4th and 5th, 2010, at Ritchie Brothers in Olympia, Washington. A complete list of items is available from the Lewis County Department of Maintenance and Operations, Fleet Division. Resolution No. 10-001 3 Rod Lakey, Public Works stated we have vehicles that have reached their useful life and we will surplus about 30 vehicles and various pieces of equipment. Commissioner Averill stated we are doing two things: 1. we are declaring these vehicles and pieces of equipment surplus, 2. we are authorizing that those vehicles and equipment be auctioned off by Ritchie Brothers. Mr. Lakey stated this is correct. 4. Notice: Pertaining to competitive bidding, dispensing with advertisement and formal sealed bidding with respect to purchases and leases under $25,000 and soliciting the Lewis County Vendor List. Resolution No. 10-002 Commissioner Averill stated that State Law authorizes Counties to dispense with advertising, competitive bidding and formal sealed bidding with respect to purchases and leases under $25,000.00, providing they have established a current active vendor list available for public inspection in the Auditor’s Office. This notice is the annual public advisement on the vendor list and solicits the names of additional vendors for the list. Information packets may be obtained from the Lewis County Auditor’s Office, Financial Services Department. 5. Notice of Completion: For the Coroner’s Office/Sheriff’s Evidence Project #30- 7017. Resolution No. 10-003 Michael Strozyk, Central Services stated this resolution is a notice of completion that we will be closing the Coroner/Evidence Project. This notice says we have received all necessary paperwork to close this project. 6. Notice of Completion: For the Facilities Office Remodel Project #30-7015. Resolution No. 10-004 Michael Strozyk, Central Services stated this resolution stated this resolution is a notice of completion that we will be closing the Facilities Office Remodel. This notice says we have received all necessary paperwork to close this project. Commissioner Grose asked if this releases the retainage on these projects. Mr. Strozyk stated this would release retainage. Commissioner Averill asked if there were any additional problems with the Coroner Remodeling Project. Mr. Strozyk stated there were not any other issues. Motion carried 3-0 Consent 4 Commissioner Averill made a motion to approve Consent Items seven through twelve. Commissioner Grose seconded the motion. Karri Muir, Clerk of the Board read the items into the record. 7. Resolution No. 10-005 Approving a grant agreement with the City of Vader to accept funding under Distressed Counties Funding. Dick Larman, Lewis County Economic Development Council stated this project has been ongoing. The City of Vader ran into a little trouble and this additional $53.460.98 is for completing a sewer line under the Burlington Northern Railroad for sewer service to the new industrial commercial property development that is happening in the City of Vader. This project will add a few jobs to their economy. Commissioner Averill stated revision of the work project for the City of Vader granted an additional $53,460.98 to the original $40,000.00 grant (Resolution No. 08-085) for a total of $93,460.98. Work has been completed and the project has been recommended by the Lewis County Economic Development Public Facilities Advisory Committee. 8. Resolution No. 10-006 Cancellation of warrants. Commissioner Averill stated this resolution will cancel two Lewis County Auditor Office warrants, totaling $4,100.00, which were lost/destroyed or billed incorrectly and authorizes issue of corrected warrants 9. Resolution No. 10-007 Approving an inter-agency agreement with WSU for the delivery of the outreach education program. Sheila Gray, WSU Extension stated Lewis County is one of nine county offices that deliver outreach education programming to community citizens. This is an annual agreement. The funds go to support various positions within the department, which in turn deliver programming to citizens. Commissioner Averill asked if this an annual contract we do once a year. Ms. Gray stated that was correct. 10. Resolution No. 10-008 Authorizing an Adopt-a-Road agreement with the Knights of Columbus Centralia Council, the Houghtelling Family, and the Mossyrock Fire Department volunteers. Rod Lakey, Public Works stated the County has an existing adopt-a-road program. This allows volunteers to clean up litter on county roads. There are three groups who want to clean up county roads. The County provides litter bags and safety equipment, and the disposal of garbage. We will also provide signage on the road with the information on who has adopted it. Commissioner Averill clarified that we are covering three separate agreements in this resolution, one agreement for each party. Mr. Lakey stated this was correct and each group will receive a sign. 5 11. Resolution No. 10-009 Approving an extension to a personal service agreement with Comstor Productivity Centers, Inc. Larry Unzleman, Public Works stated the County first entered into an agreement in 2009. The agreement was to digitally image historical documents, drawings, maps and other large formatted documents to increase the access and usability of the data. This agreement is for Phase II of the project. The items to be scanned include Public Works Road volumes that are a historical account of road right of ways, establishments and acquisitions. These are original documents with no backup copies. There are 21 volumes. The work shall not exceed a total cost of $15,000.00. Commissioner Grose clarified there are 21 volumes that need to be imaged. Mr. Unzleman stated that was correct. 12. Resolution No. 10-010 Authorizing the county to act as co-applicant with the City of Vader, requesting grant and other funding that may be available. Bob Johnson, Community Development this resolution will authorizes the Department of Community Development to apply for funding and grants jointly or on behalf of the City of Vader. The City of Vader is required to bring their water and sewer systems into compliance with state standards immediately. The City of Vader does not have the resources available to upgrade the systems and is financially unable to secure funding through grants, loans, or bonding. The County under several scenarios could step in, either as applicant or co-applicant with the City of Vader to secure funding and make required improvements to the water and sewer systems. This resolution will allow grant funding applications to be submitted, either jointly or on behalf of the City of Vader to remedy public health and safety issues. It will also authorize the Department of Community Development to make funding applications and work with State Agencies and the City of Vader in anticipation of potential agreements with the city with respect to operation of the system. Specifically, this authorizes the one general purpose grant per year authorized for the County. The Department of Commerce makes these available as Community Development Block Grants. There is a planning only grant and a general purpose grant. The County is allowed yearly to apply for one each. Commissioner Grose asked if this authorization is contingent upon a workable agreement being reached with the City of Vader and knowing forthright what their current financial situation is and how any kind of grants or loans could be repaid. These are all conditions which the county entering into an agreement and applying for this money will have to be known. We have to have this resolution in place so that applications can be made this month. Mr. Johnson stated that was correct. We need to get the application in so we are able to apply for this funding. We are not obligated to accept the funding if we cannot come to an agreement with the City of Vader. 6 Commissioner Averill stated this resolution is a placeholder because there are deadlines that need to be met to make application. We continue to work through this process to find out where we are going to go. We want to make sure we have the option to go in whatever direction is the best advantage for all parties concerned. We need to have this placeholder that allows us to make this application should an agreement be reached. Commissioner Grose asked if other government entities within Lewis County may apply for additional CDBG grant also. Dick Larmon stated this is just the County’s application and other entities would be able to apply for their own CDBG Grant. Motion carried 3-0 There being no further business, the Commissioners’ public meeting adjourned at 10:42 am on January 4, 2010. The next public meeting will be held Monday, January 11, 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