2010-08-16 Board Meeting Minutes 1
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
LEWIS COUNTY, WASHINGTON
BOARD MEETING MINUTES
August 16, 2010
The Board of County Commissioners for Lewis County, Washington met in regular
session on Monday, August 16, 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, August 9, 2010. Commissioner Averill
seconded the motion.
Motion carried 3-0
PUBLIC COMMENT
Ron Nilson, Mineral Washington, representing Friends of Mineral Lake, stated he
has met with all three Commissioners individually regarding the development of
2200 acres at Mineral Lake. If the 2200 acres were put into public ownership the
economic benefit would be much greater than having homes built. Ron asked the
Commissioners to consider this and be the peoples champion on this issue. He
stated he has talked with State Parks, Department of Natural Resources,
Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Conservation and Recreation office which
all told him they have around 20 different grant sources but will only deal with
government agencies or land trusts. He stated the 2200 acres is environmentally
sensitive because of the nature of the land. Development has to be comparable with
the environment it is set in. There is a lot of developable land around Mineral Lake
that isn’t environmentally sensitive and would become more valuable if the 2200
acres piece went into public ownership. Ron is suggesting the land be used for
jogging and walking trails, horse trails, camping, swimming, boating, fishing, picnic
areas, timber production, wildlife habitat, preservation, and public access to the
beautiful views.
Commissioner Schulte told Mr. Nilson if he has his testimony in a letter form or
statement form we can add it to the record.
Cliff Letts, Toledo, WA, stated he has concern regarding his property in Vader. He
received a water bill last Thursday and with the water bill was a flyer to
disincorporate the City of Vader. He stated his name is mentioned in this letter
saying that he was one of the people on a committee looking into disincorporating
the City. Cliff stated this is false and he does not like being accused of something
that he doesn’t have anything to do with. He said he called the Mayor on Thursday
and they were in disagreement. He feels that the Mayor owes him an apology and
tomorrow night he will be going to their City Council meeting asking for that apology.
He stated he is not on a committee but he is in favor of the County taking over the
City of Vader.
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LEWIS COUNTY EMPLOYEE OF THE QUARTER
Commissioner Schulte announced David Rodkey, Lewis County Sheriff’s Office,
as the 2nd Quarter Employee of the Quarter. David was not present at the meeting
but Officer Barrett accepted the award on his behalf. Commissioner Schulte stated
David handled a very difficult situation at the Jail that lead him to getting this award.
One of the things that Commissioner Schulte also noted was how instead of an
elected official or Department head drafting this nomination, one of his co-workers
and Sergeant on the staff recognized David and put him in for the award. Anybody
up the Chain of Command can recognize and put a person in for an award. It
doesn’t have to be an elected official or department head.
NOTICE
Commissioner Averill made a motion to approve the Notice Agenda.
Commissioner Grose seconded the motion. Candace Hallom, Interim Clerk of the
Board read the item into the record.
1. Call for Bids: For the East Lewis County Transfer Station Bulkhead
Project. Bids will be opened on or after 10:00 am on September 13, 2010.
Resolution No. 10-202
Tim Elsea, Public Works, This project is a capital improvement project for Lewis
County Solid Waste Division at the property purchased in 2008 adjacent to the East
Lewis County Transfer Station. The contract will provide for the construction of a
public recycling area complete with reinforced concrete retaining walls and
pavements; asphalt paving; cement concrete curbs; grading and excavation;
drainage system of piping, catch basins, sediment basin, bioswale, level
spreaders and dispersion trench; signage; bollards; chain link fencing; powered
sliding gate; temporary erosion and sediment control; project temporary traffic
control; and other work. This is a long way to say we will have four recycling
containers for the public to use in Morton.
Commissioner Grose stated this is a project that is similar to the Centralia
Transfer Station; we will be able to recycle more in the east county in an effort to
make Lewis County a cleaner and better place to live. With the development of
the South County, in the future, we hope to be able to do similar projects in that
area.
Commissioner Averill noted this is not approval of the project but merely a call
for bids. Bids are due to the Clerk of Board of County Commissioners by 9:30
am on Monday September 13, 2010 and will be opened on or after 10:00 am on
that same day.
CONSENT
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Commissioner Grose made a motion to approve Consent Agenda items two
through five. Commissioner Averill seconded the motion. Candace Hallom, Interim
Clerk of the Board read the items into the record.
2. Resolution No. 10-203 Approval of warrants for payment.
Commission Averill stated this resolution approves 314 warrants issued by the
Auditor’s Office for a total of $1,354,572.89.
3. Resolution No. 10-204 approving an easement with WA State Parks
for right of way for Dodge Road.
Kelly Albert, Public Works, stated on March 8, 2010, the Board of County
Commissioners passed Resolution No. 10-060, instructing the County Road
Engineer to acquire all necessary right of way for culvert maintenance and
regular channel cleaning to maintain drainage for Dodge Road. This resolution
would approve a perpetual easement and agreement between WA State Parks
and Lewis County for additional right of way for Dodge Road and authorizes
signatures thereon. The State required a processing fee of $3,506.00.
Commissioner Schulte stated “so we will be maintaining the culverts, ditches,
and everything else” “and for the honor of doing that we have to pay the State
$3,506.00.”
Commissioner Grose stated not exactly, this is an area that we had a plugged
culvert in 2009 which created some problems. On an emergency basis we had
to go in and clean the culvert out. It is not the State’s Culvert it is ours. He then
asked Kelly, “few months ago the parks came to us with the concept of taking
over ownership of that property. Is there a fee attached or was it going to be
given to us?”
Kelly stated she was sure, previously we had a temporary easement and this will
give us a permanent easement.
Commissioner Grose recommended we check into that property further.
4. Resolution No. 10-205 Accepting program amendment with DSHS
Division of Developmental Disabilities.
Tara Smith, Social Service, stated this program amendment extends the
funding for the Developmental Disabilities adult employment programs until the
end of 2011. The increased amount was $775,395.00 for 2011 and $47,685.00
was for the rest of 2010. This is for of our service contracts that we put out to
subcontractors and they submit the invoices to us and we then bill the State.
Tara noted that we do keep 6% for admin purposes.
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Commissioner Averill stated the total amended amount for Fiscal Year 2011 is
$1,459,703.00. He also noted that the Governor is looking at a four to seven
percent cut coming up so how much of this money will survive is yet to be seen.
5. Resolution No. 10-206 Bid award to Anchor QEA for fish related
studies.
Robert Johnson, Community Development, stated Lewis County acts as a
fiscal agent for the Chehalis River Flood Authority with regard to contracts and
other financial components of the Flood Authority. The Flood Authority was
appropriated money out of the 2010-2011 Washington State Budgets specifically
for fish studies relative to upstream retention. In June, the Flood Authority put
out a request for Proposals that was answered by three firms; Anchor QEA’s
proposal was selected by a sub-committee of the Flood Authority. This project is
not to exceed $900,000.00; the work will commence with the execution of the
agreement and be done on or before June 30, 2011.
Commissioner Averill stated part of this is out of Legislation from the capital
budget of the last legislative session which provided additional funding for the
Flood Authority in a number of areas. This area was specifically related to the
looking at Water retention. There were some provision in the legislation; there
had to be a peer review of the PUD study that was done by EES which looked at
the feasibility of putting two dams in the upper Chehalis Basin, that peer review
was done in June and they reported back that there were some areas they felt
needed to be given some attention in the fish study but there were no fatal flaws.
The first hurdle was complete and then it went to the US CORP of Engineers
who has responded back that this is not an approved project under the CORP
rules. There was a ruling at the Governor’s Office that if that was the response
from the CORP it would not be a show stopper. The third requirement in the
legislation is that we have to get approval from OFM the holder of the money to
make sure that money would be available. We are still waiting on that and hope
to have an answer today. We know of no reason why OFM should hold the
money back and we have verbal’s but unfortunately need it in writing to pay in on
the project. The Flood Authority recognizing that time is of an essence, created a
sub-committee consisting of the three sitting Commissioners on the Flood
Authority from Lewis, Thurston, and Grays Harbor County. The sub-committee
also included a member from the Centralia City Council, a representative from
the Department of Fish and W ildlife, a representative from the Confederated
Tribes at the Chehalis Reservation and a representative from Lewis County PUD.
That group had the authority, provided by the Flood Authority, to put out the RFP,
review the RFPs, interview candidates, and make the selection which has been
done. Lewis County as the fiscal agent for the Flood Authority is passing this
resolution so that as soon as we have the approval from OFM we are ready to go
ahead with the project. Commissioner Averill also noted that in the discussions
the committee had on Friday there were some very minor issues that they asked
Anchor QEA to look at. None of these issues is show stopper as far as the Tribe
was concerned and they were the ones that raised it. Specifically, Anchor QEA
had limited the number of species of fish that they were going to look at and the
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tribe asked them to re-review that. There is a possibility that next week we will
do a small amendment or there will be an explanation to the tribe of why they
went that way.
Motion carried 3-0
There being no further business, the Commissioners’ public meeting adjourned at
10:37 a.m. on August 16, 2010. The next public meeting will be held Monday,
August 23, 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