Submitted by Joe Beaver, a Citizen Advocate Gold Bar resident:

 JOE'S CITY COUNCIL MEETING NOTES

TUESDAY JANUARY 02, 2007

The following are from my notes taken at the council meeting.  They are not intended to be minutes of the meeting.  My comments are in italics.

This was the first regular council meeting of the year.   Crystal Hill called in sick, so Dorothy opened the meeting and turned it over to Richard after the flag salute.  Jerry was absent and did not call in, Robert was absent and called in saying he would not be at the meeting.  Both were given excused absences by a 3-0 vote.

MINUTES APPROVAL

Minutes for the February 06 meeting were tabled and minutes for February 07, September 05, and December 21 were approved by a 3-0 vote.

WARRANTS APPROVAL

Warrants and payroll were approved by a 3-0 vote after some discussion. 

MAYOR’S REPORT

No report due to Crystal's absence.

STAFF REPORTS

Chief Ruchty reported a quiet New Years.

Laura had no report.

John reported that the flooding at First and May Creek was treated by pump truck and that the probable blockage seemed to be removed. 

COUNCIL COMMENTS

Dorothy noted that Crystal had worked on the May Creek blockage on Christmas day and that city staff had worked on it on Saturday.  John did not have details about this.

Lonn discussed Gold Dust Days.  He then asked about increased water pressure as he had a pipe leak under his house over the holidays.  John reported that they had to use PUD water to fill the reservoir and that PUD pressure is higher than Gold Bar pressure.

Lonn then asked about people living in the garage of a condemned house.  John said that they were living in a mother-in-law apartment in the garage and that they are watching things.

Lonn said that he was disappointed in the county vote against Gold Bar's UGA expansion and did not like the disincorporation article in a local paper ( Sky
Valley Review ).  Dorothy noted that all council members had received a questionnaire on this from the paper in question.

CITIZEN COMMENTS

Bert McClelland says he was concerned about the water from PUD, why was it used.  John said that Well # 3 made an automatic shut-off and they went with PUD water over a weekend to maintain the water supply.  Bert said the pressure went up to 90 psi at night, yet no one was notified of this before it happened.

Bert further questioned why wasn't there an emergency council meeting on the Well # 4 pump problem, as there had been many short-notice special meetings called on lesser subjects.  John explained that it had taken several weeks to determine the extent of the damage and to insure the proper solutions were presented.

Bert continued on about the absences of Jerry and Robert being excused as Jerry had not called in and Robert gave no reason for his absence.  Dorothy led a discussion of excused absence procedures.

Ray Coleman noted that Jerry's and Lonn's city email address did not get messages to them, that he was using their old email addresses.  He brought up the January 08 meeting in Snohomish for applicants for recovery assistance        ( details available at City Hall ).

Jay Preuher brought up the issue of the Wallace River dike damage.  He noted that his understanding was that if the City Council did not apply for the dike repair, it won't happen.  John said there was an ownership issue with the dike, it is not owned by the city, but it is the city's problem if it breaks.  He had a scheduled call with the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management Wednesday morning and would bring the subject up then.

There was a discussion of the county responses and non-responses to the dike problem. Jay finished up the discussion by saying there was money out there, you need to put your hand out.

Lee Gerry asked about putting a regulator valve at the inter-tie to PUD.  John said that would work, but he preferred putting pressure relief valves in each home, new homes already require them.  There was a discussion of single-point versus in-home valves and the cost/benefit of each.  John will check on the price of a single-point valve.

Mark Hopkins of Start Up asked about the UGA rejection, particularly about the size of the UGA requested.  Lonn said that the city had asked for a transcript of the county meeting to see what actually happened.  There was general discussion on this issue.

At the end of Citizen Comments, there was a discussion of what is required for an excused absence from a council meeting.  The requirements were stated to be to call in and give a reason for the absence.  Based on this, there was a move to reconsider the earlier motion.  Lonn made a motion not to excuse Jerry and Robert, and it passed 3-0.

NEW BUSINESS

CITY ATTORNEY CONTRACT

This contract was approved by a 3-0 vote.

WELL # 4

John and Karl had looked at the disassembled pump and saw that the bearings, bushings, impeller, and bowls were in bad shape.  The damage may have been caused by a bent shaft at installation, but there was no way to prove that.

Two suitable bids were examined, one to bring the pump back to original condition for $ 38,350.00, one to get it going again, for $ 28,900.00.  A new submergible pump/motor did not meet technical specs.  The pump motor was running well, still needs a final bearing check.  The freight costs for the repair were not known.  The first option was approved by a 3-0 vote.  There were some citizen comments from the floor.

GRANTS FOR THE NEW WATER TANK

This was tabled until all council members were available due to the complexity of the issue.

ANIMAL FEES

There was an extended discussion about the costs of animal control and how much Gold Bar fined for loose dogs.  In general, an ordinance will be passed specifying area rates for fines for recovering loose dogs and annual dog license fees.  ( The 2007 budget has $ 31,000 in costs for animal control and $ 5,000 in fees for licenses.  A real loss leader. )

INTERLOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

There was a discussion about this county agreement with the issue tabled to a work session, possibly with Snohomish County DEM in attendance.

CITIZEN COMMENTS

Ray Coleman asked if the excused absence rule applied to regular meetings only, but did not get a response.  He suggested using volunteers for things like door hanger announcements.  He noted that a pet chip scanner that would handle multiple chip types cost between $ 250 - $ 400. 

Ray said that the Gold Bar Emergency Management Plan was out of date.  He had it in Word format should anyone want a copy.  He discussed various documents available on emergency management issues.

The meeting was adjourned.