Mayor Cheryl A. Young called the regular meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. Mayor Young delivered the invocation and led the flag salute.

Mayor Cheryl A. Young

Councilor William G. Guy

Councilor Gary Hudson

Councilor Tyra A. Schroeder

Councilor Bob Schmor

COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT:

None

ALSO PRESENT:

Micah Olson, Public Works Superintendent

Matt Hickey, City Engineer

ATTORNEY PRESENT:

None

A quorum was present and due notice had been published.

Public Hearing opened.

Micah Olson explained that each year the City adjusts the sewer rates for commercial and industrial users based upon their winter water usage.

James Molski of Columbia City asked if the fees will be going down.

Councilor Schmor said if their water usage dropped, their fee could go down.

Mayor Young said if their activity keeps progressing, their fee will increase.

Public Hearing closed.

AGENDA ITEM 3 CITIZEN INPUT:

None.

AGENDA ITEM 4 COUNCIL REPORTS:

4.1 Parks Committee: Councilor Schroeder said the Committee has finalized the selection of shelters, benches, tables and a kiosk for the parks.

4.2 Water Source and Development Committee: No report.

4.3 Street Committee: Micah Olson said the engineers from OBEC were out today and they are getting close to finalizing the placement of the utilities related to the "L" Street bridge project.

4.4 Sewer Committee: No report.

4.5 Library Committee: Gary Hudson reported that the Friends of the Library met on the April 20th and they are focusing on the book sale scheduled for April 30th. He said the County Library System proposal was presented to the public at a meeting in St. Helens on April 18th and the comments from the public were fairly positive. He said the Friends adopted a new Internet policy, and a flyer announcing their summer hours will be distributed. He said the Library is checking out an average of 50 items each day they are open. He said they currently have 152 patrons.

4.6 Other reports: None.

Mayor Young suggested item 5.3 be removed from the consent agenda because it was not yet available.

MOVED (HUDSON), SECONDED (SCHROEDER) AND CARRIED BY ROLL CALL VOTE TO APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA AS AMENDED. Mayor Young and Councilor Schmor abstained from voting because they were absent from the April 7, 2005 meeting.

AGENDA ITEM 6 UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

None.

Matt Hickey of Murray, Smith & Associates, Inc., gave a brief overview of the request from St. Helens to connect their Water Treatment Plant Facility to the Columbia City sewer force main. He said they propose to connect the discharge from the backwash directly to the force main for pumping to the St. Helens sewer system. He said the proposed connection will be metered. He said when they are discharging the backwash, the pressure in the force main will be raised, which will reduce the pumping capacity of the River Club Estates (RCE) lift station by about 20 percent. He said currently the RCE pumps are pumping at their maximum capacity when they are handling Columbia City's peak sewage flow. He said they looked at several options, and the best option appears to be replacing the 20 horsepower (hp) pumps in the existing RCE pump station with 25 hp pumps. He said it appears as though the existing power supply will accommodate the new pumps. He said this is a temporary solution, because with build out Columbia City will be at capacity in approximately 5 years. He said St. Helens plans to disconnect their backwash discharge in 5 years. As a result, he said if we upgrade the pumps for the St. Helens temporary connection, we should have about 10 years until we reach capacity.

He said they recommend we proceed with upgrading the pumps, and ask St. Helens to pay for the costs associated with the upgrade, including preliminary engineering review costs. He said the costs are estimated to be between $21,500 and $26,500. In addition, he recommended the City of St. Helens provide us with some assurance that they will disconnect within 5 years.

The Council discussed this matter at length with staff.

MOVED (HUDSON), SECONDED (SCHMOR) AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO APPROVE THE CITY OF ST. HELENS CONNECTION TO THE CITY OF COLUMBIA CITY RIVER CLUB ESTATES PUMP STATION FORCE MAIN AND SANITARY SEWER.

Matt Hickey and Micah Olson will meet with the St. Helens' technical staff to present and explain our engineer's recommendations relating to the connection.

The Council reviewed a letter dated April 8, 2005, from Janet Wright, Transit Director for Columbia County Transportation. In the letter, Ms. Wright requested a contribution from Columbia City of $2,500 to $3,500 towards county transit services.

Mayor Young explained that two years ago when COLCO folded, two agencies were selected by the County to carry on the services that we needed for transportation. One was Metro-West, which mostly provides fixed route trips to and from the Portland Metro area. The other was the Scappoose Senior Center's system called SCAT. She said they were already operating a transit system for seniors, and they expanded it to include other riders.

Mayor Young said the County plans to award a contract to one single transportation provider that will take care of the entire county. She said SCAT has been doing an excellent job of providing transportation to the south-county area and will not be able to submit a bid because they cannot take on the entire county.

Mayor Young said Columbia City contributed $1,100 to SCAT last year for transportation services, and SCAT's request for funding this year is forthcoming. She said City of St. Helens has already denied funding to the County for transit services. She suggested we wait until both requests are received and discuss the requests further at that time.

MOVED (SCHMOR), SECONDED (GUY) AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO TABLE THE COMMUNITY SERVICES FUNDING REQUEST FOR TRANSPORTATION SERVICES AT THIS TIME.

Matt Hickey said Columbia City uses the City of Salem's Standard Construction Specifications, but there are certain things that Columbia City needed outside of what Salem's standards provided. He said the Salem standards have been reviewed and modified where needed to meet Columbia City's specific needs.

Micah Olson said the standards have been revised to include things unique to Columbia City, such as the use of septic tanks and drywells.

MOVED (GUY), SECONDED (SCHROEDER) AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO ADOPT COUNCIL BILL NO. 05-365.

Micah Olson said this is a very small section of right-of-way that is landlocked, and it appears it may have been overlooked when the rest of Chester Street was vacated.

MOVED (SCHMOR), SECONDED (HUDSON) AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO ADOPT COUNCIL BILL NO. 05-363.

MOVED (HUDSON), SECONDED (GUY) AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO ADOPT COUNCIL BILL NO. 05-364.

The Council reviewed a memo dated April 14, 2005, from Leahnette Rivers, City Administrator/Recorder, detailing a request from the Parks Committee to purchase the following:

• Wrangell Mountain Series Shelter $7,891.00
• Sentinel Mountain Series Table Shelter $2,455.00
• 3-Sided Kiosk for Lewis and Clark signs $2,842.00
• Additional charge for kiosk roofing materials $ 338.00 estimate

MOVED (SCHROEDER), SECONDED (SCHMOR) AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO AUTHORIZE THE PURCHASES IN THE AMOUNT OF $13,188.00 PLUS AN ADDITIONAL COST OF APPROXIMATELY $338.00 FOR THE KIOSK ROOFING MATERIALS.

This item was postponed until the next meeting.

Excess street lighting: Councilor Guy inquired about the excess streetlight fixtures at the intersection of Pacific Street and Highway 30, and also at the intersection of Tahoma and Pacific Streets. Staff will revisit the issue to see how much it will cost to move the lighting fixtures to another location, possibly Park Street.

AGENDA ITEM 9 ADJOURNMENT:

There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

Return to Columbia City home page