--- date: "2018-08-08" title: "Council Meeting Minutes 2018-08-08" source: "2018-08-08-minutes-council-monthly.pdf" --- City of Prairie City Council Meeting August 8, 2018 1. Attendance 2. Mayor Jim Hamsher 3. Councilor Georgia Patterson 4. Councilor Carole Garrison 5. Councilor Joe Phippen 6. Councilor Frank Primozic 7. Councilor Les Chruch 8. Councilor Dottie Miller 9. 10. Visitors 11. Carlos Bortell 12. Luanne Bortell 13. Anna Bass, Solutions 14. Chantal DesJardin 15. Dan Becker 16. Richard Hanners, BME 17. Delores Young 18. Sandy Murry 19. Pam Woodworth 20. Taci Philbrook 21. Melanie DeJong 22. Debbie Emmel 23. Rusty Wright 24. Gary Knight 25. Lee Mullens 26. Vicki Mullens 27. Scott Officer 28. Terri Officer 29. Marvin Rynearson, Fire Chief 30. Eddy Hicks 31. Judy Jacobs 32. Katy Nelson 33. Heidi Cearns 34. Jeanine Sibley 35. Chantal DesJardin 36. Chase McClung 37. 38. Mayor Hamsher opened the regular council meeting at 6:00pm and roll call was taken. 39. 40. Approval of Minutes 41. The minutes of July 11, 2018 council meeting were considered. MSP: To 42. approve the minutes of July 11, 2018 council meeting. Councilor 43. Garrison/Councilor Patterson. All members present voted in favor. 44. Fire Report: 45. Mayor Hamsher called on Chief Rynearson who informed the council that there is a Red Flag warning in 46. Effect and that fire danger is extremely high. 47. 48. Public Works Report: 49. Mayor Hamsher called on Chris who reported that there was a failure on the wastewater pump. This is 50. one of the pumps which will be replaced by the Wastewater Project that Public Works has already 51. ordered. Public Works has been able to maintain the waste flow with a rented pump that is a by-pass 52. pump. Chris informed the council that the Mill has offered the use of their well for fires. Councilor 53. Patterson asked the Council to make a change to the Utility Maintenance Worker 1 job description. 54. The change would require the new employee to obtain their certifications for wastewater and drinking 55. water within the first 6 years of employment. Councilor Patterson would to like to add that if the person 56. in this position does not get the certification within the time frame allowed they will go on a 6-month 57. probation period. MSP: To approve the job description change to reflect the 6-month probation 58. period if the Maintenance Worker 1 did not fulfill the certifications with in the 6-year time limit. 59. Councilor Church/Councilor Garrison. All members present voted in favor. 60. 61. Payables: 62. To ratify the payment of bills. MSP: To pay the bills. Councilor Church/Councilor Patterson. All 63. members voted in favor. 64. 65. Other Business: 66. Mayor Hamsher moved on to letter I on the agenda for discussion about the deer composting site. Mayor 67. Hamsher received a letter from ODOT regarding a deer composting site they would like to have near the 68. sewer lagoons. It was agreed that the letter that was received was the same information and interests the 69. council was approach about last year. MSP: To move forward with the deer composting site and 70. continue working with ODOT on the project. Councilor Garrison/Councilor Miller. All members 71. present voted in favor. 72. 73. Mayor Hamsher then talked about the present water situation. He said that he had met with Wendel 74. Black to discuss about the Faiman Springs Wells, hoping to make a deal to get access to more water. The 75. City declared a state of emergency on August 6, 2018 due to severe drought conditions. In March 2018 76. Grant County passed a resolution declaring a drought and asking the state to follow suit. Oregon 77. Governor Kate Brown declared a drought emergency for Grant County in April 2018. Mayor Hamsher 78. asked the council to allow him to move forward with the negotiations with John Coombs attorney for 79. access and use of Faiman Wells. 80. MSP: To allow Mayor Hamsher to move forward with negotiations on the John Coombs Wells on 81. Faiman Springs. Councilor Church/Councilor Primozic. All members present voted in favor. 82. Mayor Hamsher has talked to Scott Fairly from Business Oregon to find out if there is any grant 83. money to help resolve the water situation. Mayor Hamsher has also talked with the Grant County Road 84. Master who offered to donate materials and equipment to help put the line in from the wells to the 85. infiltration galleries which would keep the cost of the project down. Joe Hitz from Sisal Engineering has 86. also offered to help with the project. Chris Camarena said the pumps are running at full capacity at 60hz 87. and at this time the wells are holding the City’s use, but they could slow down due to the drought. 88. There was some discussion from the audience about active leaks around the City. Mayor Hamsher 89. disputed those rumors and told residents that there are no active leaks, and all of the water use is metered 90. use. An audience member voiced concern about the lack of water every year and suggested that it be 91. fixed. They then stated the council, as elected officials, are not doing their jobs. Councilor Church 92. explained to the audience that new council members are instated every two years, and that it is hard for 93. the present council to correct what past councils have put in motion. Also, that there is a lack of money 94. to fix big projects like Faiman Wells. There was a lot of discussion from the audience about what will be 95. done to provide more water to the city to alleviate low water table and drought conditions. 96. Chris said that he was contacted this afternoon about an emergency grant that would offer up to a 97. million dollars from USDA to help get Faiman Wells online. At this time, Mayor Hamsher believes that 98. the solution to the City’s water issues would be to finish the Faiman Wells on John Coombs Property. 99. Mayor Hamsher believes work could start the in a couple months if the financing and 100. negotiations go as planned and can be agreed upon. The next steps in the process would be to get 101. permission from the land owners to travel through their property to the wells, to get permission from 102. John Coombs to use the wells, and to get the financing paperwork started through Business Oregon. 103. 104. Executive Session: 105. At 7:16pm Mayor Hamsher informed the audience that the council would now move into executive 106. session pursuant of ORS 192.660(2)(a)- A governing body may hold an executive session to consider 107. the employment of a public officer, staff member, or individual agent, if the body has satisfied certain 108. prerequisites. ORS 192.660(2)(a) will be held in closed session. The Mayor will then adjourn to regular 109. council meeting and the audience will be asked to return to the meeting. 110. 111. 112. The Executive Session was adjourned at 7:24pm and the audience was asked to return to the regular 113. council meeting. 114. MSP: to hire Jake Ellson for the position of Utility Maintenance Worker I and to set his wage at 115. $15.40 an hour, and upon finishing his probation period of 6 months setting his wage at $15.90 116. per hour. Councilor Church/Councilor Primozic. All members voted in favor. 117. MSP: To promote Tom Gangler to a supervisor position Utility Maintenance Worker II and set 118. his wage at $18.00 per hour, and upon finishing his probation period of 6 months setting his wage 119. at $18.50 per hour. Councilor Church/Councilor Primozic. All members voted in favor. 120. 121. The Council provided additional information to the audience about Faiman Wells including the amount 122. of water the wells will provide, explaining pump testing procedures, feet of pipe needed, and funding 123. the project. Last years lightning strike was discussed as well as the possible length of the drought. 124. 125. Mayor Hamsher had one item added to the agenda to approve the audit firm for this year’s audit. 126. MSP: To approve the audit firm Accuity to perform this year’s audit for the City of Prairie City.4 127. Councilor garrison/Councilor Church. All members voted in favor. 128. 129. 130. Mayor Hamsher adjourned the regular council meeting at 7:49pm 131. 132. 133. ________________________________ 134. Bobbie Brown, City Recorder 135. 136. 137. 138. Approved by the City Council this 12th day of September, 2018 139. and signed by the Mayor: 140. 141. 142. _______________________________ Jim Hamsher, Mayor