Council President Schmor called the regular meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. and led the flag salute.

Council President Bob Schmor

Councilor Bill Guy

Councilor Gary Hudson

Councilor Tyra A. Schroeder

COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT:

Mayor Cheryl A. Young

ALSO PRESENT:

Micah Olson, Public Works Superintendent

Leahnette Rivers, City Administrator/Recorder

ATTORNEY PRESENT:

None.

A quorum was present and due notice had been published.

None.

AGENDA ITEM 3 CITIZEN INPUT:

Tre Briscoe, Youth Pastor for the Scappoose Foursquare Church, spoke to the Council about renting the Community Hall. He explained that the Church would like to rent the Hall for an overnight youth group activity, from 9 pm through 7 am. He said no youth would be allowed to leave the facility during the event. He said they would be very sensitive to the neighborhood's interests with regard to noise, and he'd be happy to talk with the neighbors before the event.

Council President Schmor said the hours of use for the hall were established to prevent noise issues after 10 p.m.

Councilor Hudson asked if there would be traffic to and from the hall after 9 p.m. as a result of the event.

Pastor Briscoe said there would not be any traffic.

MOVED (GUY), SECONDED (HUDSON) AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO APPROVE THE ALL-NIGHT USE OF THE COMMUNITY HALL.

4.1 Parks Committee: Chair Schroeder asked staff to research the specific discussions related to a proposal to plant an oak tree in Harvard Park in memory of Gary Harkins. She said the Committee has selected a location for the Lewis and Clark kiosk in Jim Bundy Memorial Park. She said some nightshade, a poisonous plant that looks similar to a tomato plant with berries, is growing along the bike path and needs to be removed. She said the Parks Committee is questioning the river access laws along the river in Columbia City. She said some residents may be opposed to accessing the river at Datis Park because they might wander along the beach adjacent to the park.

Leahnette Rivers said some people own the tidelands along The Strand, which may impact public access along the beach.

4.2 Water Source and Development Committee: Micah Olson reported that non-detect results have been received on all of the water tests for the new public works well.

Leahnette Rivers said we need to arrange a meeting with Water Resources is the next step so they can review the plans and make sure the issue of water rights and the impacts to McBride Creek are addressed.

4.3 Streets Committee: The Council reviewed an e-mail message from OBEC Consulting Engineers regarding the "L" Street bridge project dated February 17, 2006. In the message, OBEC explained that AT&T failed to complete the relocation of all three fiber-optic lines, which they originally agreed to do. Instead, they relocated two lines and left the third line because it too deep. They placed a spare conduit into their trench and decided that MCI could splice a new line in. OBEC is currently pursuing options, and they are suggesting that the cheapest and fastest alternative is to have the contractor expose the line and place the piles to miss it, which would result in the fiber optic line under the wall and bridge abutment. This will increase the contractor's costs, and could be handled with a change order, but this would delay the project. They suggested the best way to handle this is to have the contractor track the effort and bill us for time and materials.

It was the consensus of the Council that the time and materials option sounds like the appropriate solution for this situation.

4.4 Sewer Committee: Micah Olson said Dyno Nobel's discharge permit is expiring, and they are looking at options. One of the options they are considering is constructing a pipeline to carry the discharge of 50 gpm to Columbia City's sewer system. He said the discharge is water that may have up to 50 parts per million of ammonia nitrate. He said they currently put it into their cooling water, which is discharged at 10,000 gpm and dilutes it enough to discharge it into the river.

It was the consensus of the Council that if a formal request from Dyno Nobel is received, we would need to ask our Engineer to evaluate the impacts this water would have on our capacity and capital plans before a decision could be made.

4.5 Library Committee: Liaison Hudson said the Friends of the Library will meet next Tuesday.

4.6 Other reports: None.

AGENDA ITEM 5 CONSENT AGENDA:

Item 5.1 was removed from the Consent Agenda, and items 5.2 and 5.3 were not available.

AGENDA ITEM 6 UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

The Council reviewed optional rate increases that would generate an additional 5% revenue. The increase is needed to move the rates towards the amount required by the 1% Safe Drinking Water Loan and to generate additional revenue for the loan payments.

Councilor Hudson said all of the customers have ownership of the water system, and we cannot continually subsidize any particular user group. He suggested an across-the-board approach.

The Council discussed the rate options at length.

MOVED (GUY), SECONDED (HUDSON) AND CARRIED UNANIMSOULY TO MOVE FORWARD WITH A PROPOSED INCREASE OF $1.50 ON THE BASE RATE WHICH INCLUDES THE FIRST 500 CUBIC FEET (CF), $0.15 ON EACH 100 CF UP TO 1,000 CF, AND $0.20 ON EACH 100 CF OVER 1,000 CF.

Leahnette Rivers said the next newsletter will include information about the proposed rate increase, and a public hearing will be held in March.

The Council completed the second reading of Council Bill No. 06-394.

MOVED (SCHROEDER), SECONDED (GUY) AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO ADOPT COUNCIL BILL NO. 06-394.

City/County Quarterly Meeting: Leahnette Rivers said the next City/County Quarterly Meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 28, 2006, at 6:00 p.m. in the Columbia River PUD meeting room.

Donation request: The Council reviewed a donation request from representatives of the St. Helens Fireworks Fundraising Campaign 2006.

MOVED (HUDSON), SECONDED (SCHROEDER) AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO DONATE $500 TO THE ST. HELENS FIREWORKS FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN 2006.

NIMS requirements: Councilor Hudson said he has completed the FEMA IS-700 NIMS Introduction course.

St. Helens Water Treatment Plant: Micah Olson reported that the City of St. Helens will have their water treatment plant on-line and begin test running it next Tuesday.

He said they are looking at using Ranney Collector Well No. 1 with their treatment plant. As a result, the City of St. Helens may be interested in Columbia City providing water to the log yard, Dixieline Lumber and West Oregon Wood Products on the Port of St. Helens property in the near future.

The Council discussed this matter at length with staff. It was the consensus of the Council that the City of St. Helens would need to provide us with a formal request to take on the additional Port services. Our Engineer would need to evaluate our ability to serve the area and the impact these services would have on our existing capacity and our capital plans before a decision could be made.

The Council convened in Executive Session at 8:34 p.m.

The Council reconvened in Open Session at 8:50 p.m.

AGENDA ITEM 9 ADJOURNMENT:

There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.

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