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CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP
MEETING AGENDA
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 at 6:00 PM
6:15 PM
1. Roll-Call Attendance
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
2. Pledge of Allegiance (Pg. 1)
3. Adoption of the Agenda Adopted (Pg. 1-2)
4. Consent Agenda Approved (Pg. 2)
A. Agreement between Nampa & Meridian Irrigation District and
the City of Meridian for Partial Rescission of Construction
Contracts for Urban Irrigation Pertaining to Gordon Harris Park
B. Award of Request for Proposals and Professional Services
Agreement to Interact Business Group for a Strategic
Business Plan for aNot-To-Exceed amount of $40,600.00. This
award is the result of RFP #PD-11-10190b issued 4/4/11 and
opened 4/28/11.
C. Resolution No. 11-792: A Resolution of the Mayor and City
Council of the City of Meridian vacating a portion of the Plat
(Lots 1; 8-15, Block 15 & Lots 1-32 Block 16) and the
Associated Public Utility Easements Platted with Jayker
Subdivision No. 1
5. Community Items/Presentations
A. Central Valley Expressway Project and Resolution Proposal
(Pg. 3-11)
6. Items Moved From Consent Agenda (Pg. 11)
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Page 1 of 3
All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian.
Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing,
please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting.
7. Department Reports
A. Parks Department: Strategic Plan Update (Pg. 11-21)
B. Public Works & Planning Department: Discussion on
Performance and Warranty Surety Ordinance
The Public Hearing for This Item Will be on June 21, 2011 with
a 1St Reading of the Proposed Ordinance at That Time (Pg. 22-
34)
C. Planning Department: Meridian Development Corporation
(MDC) On Site Parking Requirements for MDC Office Building
Motion Made to Approve the Request by MDC to Allow
Alternative Compliance Requested in Regards to Parking for
the CompassNalley Regional Transit (VRT) Building -Motion
Approved (Pg. 34-36)
D. Information Technology (I.T.) and Planning Departments Joint
Report: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Demonstration
(Pg. 36-45)
E. Planning Department: Transportation Update on Projects,
Priorities and Studies - Includes a Discussion on Eagle Road
Improvements; Ada County Highway District's (ACRD) Draft
Cost Share Ordinance; Airport -Overland Study; and E. 3rd
Street. (Pg.45-58)
F. Public Works Department: Budget Amendment for Waste
Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) Filters Building for aNot-to-
Exceed Amount of $10,000.00 Approved (Pg. 58-59)
G. Police Department: Budget Amendment for Body Wire for a
Not-to-Exceed Amount of $14,450.00 Approved (Pg. 59-60)
H. Fire Department: Budget Amendment for Fire Department
Equipment Trailer for the Not-to-Exceed Amount of $12,030
Approved (Pg. 60-61)
I. Mayor's Office: Discussion on Idaho's Citizen Commission for
Reapportionment 2011 (Pg. 61-64)
J. Amended onto the Agenda: Public Works Department:
Emergency Purchase Authorization for Poly-Aluminum
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Page 2 of 3
All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian.
Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing,
please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting.
Chloride XL- FEX 204 (a.k.a. Chemfloc 929) for the Wastewater
Treatment Plant in the Not-to-Exceed Amount of $22,701.42 -
Item Vacated From the Agenda (Pg. 64-65)
8. Action Items
A. Public Hearing: Updates to City Clerk's Office Fee Schedule
(Pg. 65-66)
B. Resolution No. 11-793: Updates to City Clerk's Office Fee
Schedule Approved (Pg. 66)
C. Public Hearing: Updates to Police Department Fee Schedule
(Pg. 66-67)
D. Resolution No. 11-794: Updates to Police Department Fee
Schedule Approved (Pg. 67-68)
9. Future Meeting Topics None (Pg. 68-69)
Adjourned at 10:06 PM
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Page 3 of 3
All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian.
Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing,
please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting.
Meridian City Council Workshop June 14, 2011
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:15 p.m., Tuesday, June
14, 2011, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Brad Hoaglun, David Zaremba, Keith Bird
and Charlie Rountree.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jacy Jones, Anna Canning, Caleb Hood, Tom Barry, Jamie
Leslie, Warren Stewart, Mark Niemeyer, Steve Siddoway, Terry Paternoster, Robert
Simison, and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you for you patience. I apologize for the wait. We will go
right into our regular Council meeting. For the record it is Tuesday, June 14th. It's 6:15.
We will start tonight's meeting with roll call attendance.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is our Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: On tonight's agenda we have a couple of -- something we need to add in
there and let me start with the Consent Agenda, 4-C. That resolution is number 11-792.
Under Department Reports, Item 7, we want to add a 7-J, a Public Works Department
emergency purchase authorization for the polyaluminium chloride for the wastewater
treatment plant in the not to exceed amount of $22,701.42. So, we'd like to add that.
And under Item 8, Action Items, 8-B is resolution number 11-793 and 8-D is resolution
number 11-794. So, with that, Madam Mayor, I move adoption of the agenda as
amended.
eridian City Council Workshop
June 14, 2011
Page 2 of 69
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those
in favor say aye.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Agreement between Nampa & Meridian Irrigation District and
the City of Meridian for Partial Rescission of Construction
Contracts for Urban Irrigation Pertaining to Gordon Harris Park
B. Award of Request for Proposals and Professional Services
Agreement to Interact Business Group for a Strategic
Business Plan for aNot-To-Exceed amount of $40,600.00. This
award is the result of RFP #PD-11-10190b issued 4/4111 and
opened 4/28/11.
C. Resolution No. 11-792: A Resolution of the Mayor and City
Council of the City of Meridian vacating a portion of the Plat
(Lots 1; 8-15, Block 15 & Lots 1-32 Block 16) and the
Associated Public
De Weerd: Item 4 is our Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: As I just noted, Item 4-C is resolution number 11-792. With that I move
approval of the Consent Agenda and the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second on the Consent Agenda. If there is no
discussion, Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Meridian City Council Workshop
June 14, 2011
Page 3 of 69
Item 5: Community Items/Presentations
A. Central Valley Expressway Project and Resolution Proposal
De Weerd: Okay. We are at Item No. 5 under Community Presentations. Tonight we
will hear from Gary Smith on the Central Valley Expressway project and resolution
proposal. Thank you for joining us, Mary and Gary.
Smith: Thank you, Mayor, Council Members, staff, members of the audience. I want to
just make a point before I start. While I am on the council -- the city council of Star,
tonight I'm representing myself as a citizen. So, as I speak tonight I'm speaking as a
citizen, not represented with the city of Star or as a city council member. All right.
De Weerd: We didn't even know who you were, so no problem.
Smith: So, this evening -- and I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak.
We want to give you, Mayor, and the Council an update on the Central Valley
Expressway or what we are calling the CVEC and with the Central Valley Expressway is
a coalition of stakeholders in this valley that started back in September of last year
when we learned about the extension of Highway 16 and the GARVEE plan and the
potential of taking the road all the way down to 84. At a chamber meeting we were
presented by Connecting Idaho a map showing the complete road and putting up a
number of 78 million dollars. Several of us that were there said 78 million, we should be
able to build a road all the way to 84 for 78 million. When we investigated a little bit
further we found out, oh, it's not 78 million, it's actually 358 million and a few others. So,
with that we started going out and talking to people and what we did is we set up a
steering committee and started at a high level, we got together some of our
representatives from District 14 and we sat down with them and we said, okay, the road
has been laid out and we had people from Ada County Highway Department and we
had folks from ITD and different agencies around the valley and we said, okay, how
does a group of citizens promote a project? We know the road's going to be built some
day. We know that it's been laid out and we know that even the environmental testing
has been completed, all we need was the money to do the road. So, we immediately
learned that it wasn't promoting a project, it was promoting the funding for the project
and that's what I'm here to talk to you about this evening. So, that was the whole idea
of this coalition was to form a group of people from the top down. Our legislators, our
local governments, our agencies, and our business community, because as we all know
anytime there is a project it's the strong voice that gets the project done, as we saw with
the Highway 10 down here or the Ten Mile extension. It's the vision that is presented
and, then, carried through and that's what we are about tonight is to say how do we get
this together. A lot of people have asked us but where did the Central Valley
Expressway come from and how do you just -- a group of citizens put a name on it?
Actually, we got the given -- or that was given to us by Senator Winder at one of the
leadership meetings, he said if you want a project to move ahead Highway 16 is kind of
not too exciting. Give the project a name. And, actually, he was the one that helped us
with the Highway 16. Well, immediately we found out that there is no funds here in the
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June 14, 2011
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state. In fact, we know that there is a shortfall of about 543 million in Idaho, so we know
the money for a road is not here right now. So, how will it be funded? Well, part of
GARVEE, which you all know, has gone through and that 79 million will actually take
Highway 16 from 44 over to Chinden, but that's as far as it will go, because that's all the
money we have for it. There is an estimated 400 million left and that's actually 358
million and at this point I want to expand upon what we are talking about here, because
this project also includes now -- and you will see in the material that we have given you
the Meridian exchange. Why did we add the Meridian exchange to our project in the
funding of the 400 million? When we met with ITD over the last eight, nine months one
of the things that we asked was when this highway goes through is there any impact.
The Meridian exchange came up because what we see is as this corridor develops --
and Iwill explain a little bit more about the corridor -- we are going to be taking traffic
from Emmett and bringing it down that road and putting it onto 84. That traffic at certain
times of the day is either going to turn east or west. The Meridian exchange right now --
and Idon't have to tell you about it, you know this very well -- what ITD informed us is
you have a bridge that was built 44 years ago. It wasn't built for the type of traffic that
we will be putting in there. So, with this understanding and the due diligence that we
did, we have now brought that into the project, so we now need about 400 million -- 358
for the highway and approximately 40 million -- I have heard everything from 30 to 40
million to do the Meridian exchange. Where is the money going to come from? That's
what our project is and that's why we are out looking for stakeholders, talking to
stakeholders, and looking for opportunity for funding. So, I think everybody here knows
Highway 16. This is actually the diagram that we saw when we were presented with the
78 million and said, boy, that would be great, let's do that. Well, the 78 million was just
for the part, as I said earlier, from 44 over. It is an extension from Highway 16 all the
way down through all of our cities, all of us our impacted on this, all the way down to 84.
Ada county, Gem county and Canyon counties are all major stakeholders. The cities of
Emmett, Star, Eagle, Middleton, Nampa and Meridian are all major stakeholders when
this corridor goes through. So, why CVEC now? Well, because we see this as a bridge
of recovery. The state of Idaho right now has an unemployment rating of about ten
percent. The major impact of that ten percent is construction workers that were caught
in the down turn of the economy. So, what we are proposing is if we can find the
funding for this road is that we will be putting Idahoans back to work and this is not just
for the valley and we all face this as people that are involved in day-to-day projects --
when Ada county talks about a project, well, somebody up north says, well, it's all for
Ada county and the valley and what about Idaho. Well, this job -- this project, excuse
me, will mean that people go back to work. When people go back to work that means
every shovel in the ground is a paycheck, every paycheck fills up the state treasury and
when the state treasury has money we can fund education, Medicare, and other needs
around the state, not just in Ada county. So. This is a project that's not just local, it
impacts everybody in the state. And how do we think that this is going to do this and
why are we calling it a bridge to recovery? Well, right now over the next three years we
know that about 1,500 construction workers are going to work just on the GARVEE
project. If we can extend it all the way down to 84 this project could go on for ten years.
Interesting that if you look at the projections from most of the economists, this recession
that we are in and this down turn is going to last about ten years. Wouldn't it be nice to
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be able to create a project that would fund employment and jobs for local companies
and local residents for the next ten years? This project is about jobs immediately.
Shoves in the ground. So, what is the impact of Central Valley Expressway? What's
unique about this -- and I'm going to explain a little bit more about a unique project just
like it -- is that the analysts that we have looking at the numbers have told us that this
corridor -- if you look on two miles either side of Highway 16, right now it's all empty
land. It's agricultural. You could actually go in and create an economic corridor, a
corridor that equals about 53 million square feet of commercial property. That's
commercial potential property that could go in there. We could create connectivity for
Gem county, Ada county, Canyon county, down to 84 and what's interesting is that I
have served on the Boise Valley Economic Partnership for the last three years, I have
seen companies come to this valley, look at us, and one of the concerns that they
always ask is how do I move my product and how do I move my employees. Well, we
take them out for a ride on Eagle highway and, guess what, they come back and after
one day on Eagle Road they say that's not going to work for us. We need to be able to
move product, we need to have a corridor. So, what this road does for us immediately
is put people to work. The vision for the future -- and that's what I'm here about tonight
is I'm talking about champions and vision and leadership, because a similar project --
this would be the corridor that we are talking about. It stretches all the way from
Emmett down to 84. You look at two miles on either side -- this information is all in your
packets that we gave to you. This is where we are coming up with the numbers and we
are running more numbers on this, because we want to actually have a return on
investment. We want to have numbers. This is not just building a road, it's an
investment in the future. So, why is something like this important? I lived in North
Carolina for 13 years. In North Carolina they have what is called the Research Triangle
Park, better known as RTP. It is one of the most advanced, most successful parks in
the United States. I lived and worked in that park. And what that park brought to the
North Carolina is an economy that during this last recession was so stable that they
didn't feel a lot of the impact. This park started back in 1959 with seven businessmen
getting together and they bought 7,000 acres of pine forest. Nothing more. Just pine
forest. Well, we have over 7,000 acres of agricultural land here. Just agricultural land.
And the governor, Governor Hunt, had the vision to say what if we put a highway
through that, created a connectivity between our cities and created a research park?
Today that park has 170 -- 170 world leading corporations. IBM was so impressed with
the campus and site, the ability to move there, that their world headquarters moved from
New York down to Raleigh, North Carolina, followed by Dupont -- you can look at the
different ones. Fidelity. Who else is there? The list goes on. IBM. Dupont. Sysco.
SAS, one of the major software companies. All moved to the park because of a vision,
followed by leadership and champions that stood on it. Now, every project has
naysayers. And Jesse Helms -- Senator Helms at the time -- was one of the biggest
naysayers. Because of this park Governor Hunt's legacy today is much bigger than
Jesse Helms, because Governor Hunt had the vision to see what could be done for the
state of North Carolina. What I'm saying is is we have an opportunity today, with the
support of this coalition -- and that's what we are, we are not -- we are not supported by
any party, this is not a political move, this is citizens getting together to say, hey, we can
do something if we get a voice and that's what we are looking for. So, today the initial
Meridian City Council Workshop
June 14, 2011
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phase is going to start and what I said, we are putting right now about 1,500
construction workers to work. They will be putting shovels in the ground starting the end
of this year through the money that was raised by GARVEE. What we don't have is the
400 million dollars to move ahead to finish this project. So, what we are looking for is
this is a list of the stakeholders. Again, I will go back to our District 14 representatives
and we sat down and we said how does somebody move a project like this ahead?
Well, with their leadership and guidance they said get your stakeholders involved. So,
we started at the capital working with the legislative body, then we moved down to the
local cities and that's why I'm here tonight is to give you an opportunity to understand
what the project is, and, then, from here our next step down will be the businesses,
because as the businesses go we know that we would want to support them. They are
key in all of our communities. So, this is a list at our last stakeholder meeting and we
have another one coming up that we will invite you to. The Lieutenant Governor was
there to voice his support to transportation and how important transportation is to the
state of Idaho. You can see the names on there and in your packet you will see a copy
of that stakeholders meeting that we had that was held and we'd like to extend the
invitation for you to come to the next one. So, what we are doing here is this coalition,
again, is building a voice. The more people that we have standing on the side of the
division, the more champions we have, the more leaders that are willing to step up --
and those are leaders from the state, leaders from our cities, our mayors, our city
council people and our business communities, to make a voice for us to move ahead.
So, what the Central Valley Expressway and the coalition is about and the opportunity
that we are bringing tonight is, one, to update you on what's going on and to answer any
of your questions, but, two, to give you an opportunity to be part of this support network,
a stakeholder. You're a stakeholder right now just because of your location, one way or
the other you are a stakeholder. But what we are looking for as stakeholders is step up
and saying, Mayor, in your packet we presented you some letters of people around that
have -- we have many more that we can supply to the city, where we have gone out to
our legislators and to our cities and said do you want to either sign a letter saying that,
yes, we believe this road is important to economic growth and jobs for people in Idaho.
This is all about jobs, economic growth, and the future of Idaho. So, that's what we are
coming to tonight to ask you for. One, for an update and, two, we have a copy of a draft
resolution that we'd like to give to you that you could look at. That would be great if we
could get a resolution passed or a letter of support, whichever the Council and the city is
-- is most comfortable with. And with that I'll turn it over for questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Gary. Council, any questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Gary, we have had this conversation before, but it just boils down to the
funding.
Smith: Yes, sir.
Meridian City Council Workshop
June 14, 2011
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Rountree: And -- and we all know and understand how difficult that is. What's your
crystal ball telling you and -- you're an optimist, obviously, about it --
Smith: I am.
Rountree: -- so let's hear that.
Smith: I will share something with you. I was at a meeting the other night with
Congressman Labrador and one of the questions that came up by a citizen was
concerns about how much money we are spending on foreign aid, sending overseas,
and the congressman came back and said, well, that's just one percent of the budget.
It's not a lot of money. Well, I did a little research the next day. That's 25 billion dollars
in 2008 per year. Twenty-five billion dollars that is being budgeted and sent outside of
our country. That's not helping us with any interior work or anything. You're the first
ones to share this. I'm sending a letter to the congressman saying this, but your
question's a good one. So, if we could have a small portion of that foreign aid that's
going out of the country -- it doesn't impact the federal taxpayers highway funding, it's
money that's going someplace else that as a citizen I'd like to say to our congressman
we have -- we have opportunities and projects here that will return investments maybe
more than what we are investing in other places. So, to answer your question, I am an
optimist and I will be looking at every pocket and every rock that I can turn over,
because this is about jobs for Idaho and I don't take no very easily. It's kind of
something that I grew up with. But that's -- that's where I'm going right now to look for
the funding, because we have been told over and over it's not in the state and the
federal budget, which somebody asked me about that the other day, federal -- federal is
actually our money, we give it to the congress to invest for us, so as citizens I'd like
them to invest our money back here. So, to answer your question a long one, we are
looking at every opportunity, but that's one that came up, 25 billion, I think you could get
400 million out of there. Sorry. Other questions?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Gary, just a quick question. Looking at that -- as you're looking at long range
funding and putting this program together, are you looking at doing that road in phases,
moving out from 44 to the freeway, or are you going to just get all the funding in place
and, then, make it happen all at once?
Smith: If I had the money right now we would build tomorrow, of course. They will
probably be built in phases. The money is the first thing. I'd leave that up to ITD. They
know better than I do how to build roads. The good thing is that all the environmental
requirements have been met all the way to 84. We are done. If we literally had the
check, there is nothing -- and I hate to use this term -- this is truly a shovel ready
project. We could start tomorrow. ITD meets with us as an adviser to our committee or
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June 14, 2011
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our group that gets together, so we are getting updates constantly from ITD and ACHD
on what's going on. They check our numbers, they keep us on track to make sure that
our information is current. So, to answer your question, they probably would build it in
phases, but I'd leave that up to ITD. I mean if I had the check today, give them 400
million, I'd trust them to know how to build this. When they built the park what was
interesting is -- and I think we may see this, we will see public sentiment change. When
Research Triangle Park was built, if you go back to that map and let's go back real
quick, if you don't mind. See if I can get back there. Okay. If you see that 540 that's up
to the top, you see Raleigh and, then, there is a road that loops around, well, when they
built the park they built it in the center and they ran a road through it, but everybody
lived on the outside of Raleigh. To get to the park they had to drive downtown to get to
I-40 to get out to the park, so they created this congestion. So, the highway department
in North Carolina built 540, but they built the first loop because a lot of the people that
worked in the park lived in North Raleigh. Nothing against the people in the south or the
east or the west, but that was where the population was. So, they built that road first.
Well, I can tell you once that road was built and people started driving it, the people to
the east, the west, and the south were calling their congressman and their
representatives going where is our connection. Today 540 loops all around Raleigh and
brings people there. That was built in phases. The first phase was built and, then, what
happened public sentiment said hey. I think when we build the bridge across the river I
think people are going to start looking at the potential from Emmett going down and,
councilman, you cautioned me about what's going to happen when people start going
onto that road. Well, when they built 540 they did the same thing, they had three lanes
on both sides and, then, they went into somebody's neighborhood. Can you imagine 65
miles an hour and cutting into somebody's neighborhood? So, there was some time
where there was some inconvenience, but when it was finished people that live in
Raleigh today can get on 540, circle it, and get off and either go downtown, go home, or
go to the park. Does that answer your question?
De Weerd: Thank you, Gary. Any further questions from Council?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Turn my microphone on. I guess I would make the comment -- having also
previously been on the steering committee that helped pick the route for Highway 16
and got all the environmental stuff done, I certainly am very much in favor of it. You did
hit on a point that the number one priority in Meridian at the moment is the Meridian
interchange.
Smith: Yes.
Zaremba: It's not only a problem for ITD for the traffic that goes under it, it's a problem
for us for the traffic that goes over it. Seriously deficient in many ways. I guess my
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issue is priorities and I appreciate your mentioning that ITD feels that fixing the Meridian
interchange would have to be a part of the Central Valley Expressway project.
Smith: Yes.
Zaremba: I think my support would be a hundred percent enthusiastic if -- if I knew that
if this were going to be done in phases that the Meridian interchange would be in one of
the first phases. Do you have any way to control that?
Smith: That would be up to ITD. Our position right now is we are not telling them how
to build the bridge or how to build the exits. They have the plans for that. What I do
know is we are also supporting the additional GARVEE funding, which, Mayor, you're
aware of, that there is -- there is another 168 million in GARVEE -- get that number
right? Left in GARVEE. That ITD has a problem with bridges right now. The bridges in
the state of Idaho are in disrepair. They were built to last 40 years. Your bridge is 44.
There are some that are going a lot further. On the present funding if we don't start
doing something about repairing the bridges we are going to have some problems. So,
part of that repair of bridges would be looking at the Meridian exchange. Could possibly
come under that and we are working with representatives on getting that through also.
So, one of two options. That's one option that the city could work on and we would be
more than happy to support you with our coalition and the members that are in there to
-- to help bring a voice for that also, because it's apparent -- and this came, again, as I
said, when we were doing our due diligence on this project and looking at it and where
we sat with ITD, I asked them point blank -- I said is this a necessary project? Is the
Meridian exchange a necessary product -- project. Their answer was definitely. You
have got a bridge that's 44 years old, it wasn't built to handle the traffic that we have
now extended through it -- through the road and when the Highway 16 extension goes
through it's obvious in the morning where that traffic is going to be going. It's going to
head east. So, there is going to be a lot more pressure put on that road. So, this
becomes an integral part of the overall project. I can't set priorities, but I am telling you
it is now in our documentation and it is part of the overall, so when we are talking 400
million we are talking about 400 million for a road and an interchange that is going to be
impacted by the results of that road.
De Weerd: Well -- and I will say, Councilman Zaremba, that I think in Mary and Gary's
visits they -- they are sensitive to the urgency of the Meridian interchange and -- and
they have added that to this in respect of that. So, I greatly appreciate that.
Smith: Well, thank ITD, because they were the ones that put it very clear to us that this
was not just, you know, another project, this was -- this is necessary and it's part of the
impact that this project will bring. The good side is we are going to be moving people.
This is connectivity. We can cut commuter time in half. This will extend people from
Emmett working in Mountain Home, Mountain Home coming up here and when we start
to build distribution centers, factories, whatever is built in that corridor that we have
there, those people will be able to get employees to and from the job with a lot less
frustration than what they face today. So, it's not just a road, it's connectivity. It's jobs
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now. Shovels in the ground. It's the future. This is ten, 20, 30, 40 years. This is the
future. Research Triangle Park started in 1959. Today -- today it's one of the most
successful parks in this country, because of the vision -- because the leadership
stepped up and I'll give Governor Hunt, again, a lot of credit on that and, then, of
course, you have people without vision, like Jesse Helms and he was a great guy, had a
lot of influence, but he was against it. The legacies are there. Who -- who actually was
the success there. And Governor Hunt was a man with a vision. So, that's what we are
looking for. We realize not everybody is going to be in favor of this for whatever reason.
We don't understand why somebody would be against jobs or economic growth or the
future of Idaho. It's very clear everybody we have talked to said this thing has a major
impact. But we want to have the numbers and we are working on that. At our next
stakeholder meeting we will actually have analysts there that will have numbers to look
at return on investment to show what we will be getting as a community for that
investment and what the potential is, not just, you know, what we think could happen,
but we are going to put some strong numbers behind that.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, anything further?
Rountree: Thanks, Gary.
De Weerd: Gary does have a request in front of you and there is no need for a decision
tonight, unless you are so inclined, but they are looking for a letter of support or --
and/or aresolution. Certainly we can bring back a draft at our next meeting for your
consideration. What is your preference?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I could go for a resolution.
De Weerd: Okay.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I'd like to see the draft that was proposed and have an
opportunity to comment on it.
De Weerd: Okay.
Rountree: And move forward with either a letter or resolution. Either way.
De Weerd: Okay. We will bring something back at next week's meeting and -- for your
consideration.
Smith: Mayor, thank you very much. And on our resolution, please, if you want to
modify or change it, it's just that we have something that we can put in our -- and I keep
carrying this book around. Something that we can put in the book so when we have a
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voice -- when we sit down with whoever the money comes from, we have that voice to
say these are the people that stand behind it, these are the stakeholders, this is not just
an individual or a company, this is a community and what we are asking for. Mayor, I
thank you very much. Council, thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. We appreciate you being here tonight.
Rountree: Thank you, Mary.
Item 6: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
De Weerd: Okay. There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 7: Department Reports
A. Parks Department: Strategic Plan Update
De Weerd: So, we will move into Item No. 7 under Department Reports. Item A is our
Parks Department. And, hi, Steve.
Siddoway: Hello, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Anna, would you be able to
put up the presentation for me? While the presentation is coming up I would like to take
a moment and just introduce the staff and commissioner who are here with me tonight,
so if you would, please, stand and raise your hand. On the parks side we have got our
park superintendent Mike Barton, our city arborist Elroy Huff, and Jay Gibbons, our
parks and pathways project manager. On the recreation side we have got -- Allison
Kaptein is over all of our classes and programs. Colin Moss, who does the events --
special events and volunteer programs. And Garrett White, who is over our sports
program. And, then, perhaps most importantly Rachel Myers, who keeps us all in line
and really helps keep the department functioning, as does -- does Janice as well. But in
addition we have one commissioner here tonight, Matt Stoll, who you know also through
COMPASS, but he's our newest commissioner and here tonight to hear our strategic
focus presentation, so thank you.
De Weerd: You need better organization. Tallest in the back --
Siddoway: Yeah. We are going to work on that. We will have them all sit in a line next
time. Before I move on from the slide, I'll just note there is three words on that -- that
center -- center photo. Quality. Community. Fun. And those are words that I believe
our department is all about and hope by the time we finish this conversation that you will
agree that we are about quality, about building community, and about providing
opportunity for fun to our citizens. This is our current park system map. You have seen
it before, so I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on it. But one thing I do want to
focus on is just that it -- the different colored shapes represent different size of parks.
The green circle being Settlers Park. The blue squares are our community parks, red
diamonds or triangles are our neighborhood parks. And Ijust -- I look at this and I think
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that we are doing a pretty good job at the distribution of our parks in trying to reach out
to all the various sections of our community and, then, if you look at our future parks,
which are Julius M. Kleiner Park, the Borup property, the Bainbridge property, the 77
acres down south and, then, a couple of neighborhood parks we haven't been sized yet,
they continue to further our efforts to improve that distribution of parks locations to our
citizens. Let's talk about some numbers. Our park statistics, we have 189 acres of
developed park land today. That includes sites that we manage, but don't own. There
is only about six acres of those, such as what we call the Jabil property that we -- where
we have soccer fields. One day we know that will be developed and so that could be as
low as 182 or '3, but right now we have 189 acres that we manage. One hundred and
thirty-four of those acres are in our largest parks, regional and community parks 41 and
our neighborhood parks. And, then, 14 acres in our smaller mini parks and special use
areas. In addition to those parks we have another -- just over 15 acres of other
landscape maintenance areas, road rights of way, City Hall, north curve, things like that
that we contract out. We have nine miles of maintained pathways, which we will talk
more about in a minute. But all of this means that our current park level of service sits
right at two and a half acres per thousand. I think it's 2.49. Based on a 75,000
population per the latest census. In addition to those currently developed parks that
give that two and a half acres level of service, we have another 184 acres, so almost as
much developed park land as undeveloped right now, that sit in properties like Kleiner
and Borup, Bainbridge, that piece for the Settlers tennis partnership, a portion of Storey
and, then, that big chunk in that 77 acres in south Meridian. I wanted to see where we
would be today if everything were developed. So, if everything were developed today
and we had our current population of 70,000, we would be at five acres per thousand.
But we are not planning for today's population, we are planning for future population and
we are -- our current planning horizon is at 100,000 population level. If everything was
developed at that 100,000 population level, we would at 3.7, close to our goal of four
acres per thousand. But it's also important to note that not all of those properties are
developed in our ten year CIP. We balance the ten year CIP based on available
funding that we expect to come in, both from General Fund and park impact fees. We
anticipate we can develop out most of these, but most notably not the 77 acres down
south. If -- so, if the CIP was to be built out we would sit just under three acres per
thousand at 100,000. So, we know we still do need additional park land, planning for
additional future population, but we are doing pretty good. Staffwise we have 17 and a
half staff that are with us year around. We have a big fluctuation, though, because we
have over 60 employees during our peak season, which is starting about right now.
When we get all the splash pad attendance, summer camp, softball score keepers,
everyone all hired and on a seasonal basis, we grow to a much larger department
during those summer months. And, then, our independent contractors that are the ones
that we -- that teach classes with us are in addition to that. We have a great great staff
and I am so proud to work with them and we have had some recent key staffing
changes that I believe everyone is aware of, but that I want to note tonight. The first is
that Mike Barton has agreed to step up and fill the position of our park superintendent
moving forward and Elroy Huff has agreed to fill the position of -- that was approved by
Council last year as the city arborist. In doing so -- and we made a much larger
presentation about this last week to the commission -- the parks and rec commission,
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but I'd like to take just a minute and say a few words about Elroy. Elroy has been the
parks superintendent for the last 11 years and when he came on I looked and only -- we
only had three parks at the time that Elroy started with the city. They were Storey Park,
which was our first, and 8th Street Park and Tully Park. All the other acreage that you
see in those numbers -- in fact, 144 of the 186 acres have all been added while Elroy
has been in that position and I just want to take a minute and publicly commend him for
his work. We have a -- a fantastic park system that's second to none and Elroy has had
a big hand in that. So, thank you, Elroy. We look forward to the move that he's
accepted to take on. It's where his passions and strengths continue to lie with trees and
-- and our water features as well and he is -- we know that we got about 1,200 trees
coming -- or more with Kleiner Park this year. We have got a lot to get ready for and
he's ramping up for that. Jay Gibbons was also hired since we were before Council last
year as our parks and pathways project manager and filling that role in a great new way
and taking our pathway projects forward. I want to give an update on Julius M. Kleiner
Memorial Park. You know the layout, so I'm going to skip forward to some of the
numbers and it's amazing to me how much of this park is underground. There is -- you
know, I think of the 15 million dollars that are going into the construction project by the
trust, probably only three million of that is the pieces up on top that everyone really and
truly thinks of as the park, you know, the splash pad, the -- of course, elements that they
see, the ponds and things they think of, too, but don't always think about the liners and
the base and everything goes into that. So, I'm not going to read all these numbers to
you, but just at a glance some of those -- the numbers that are going into parks to date.
I would like to show you some of the photos. The pond up in the -- the upper left, the
ponds are -- have been filling over the last two weeks and you are full now, Elroy, when
you went out today? Not quite -- not quite all the way full. They are filling -- they have
been filling, like I mentioned, for a couple of weeks. they will be full probably by the time
we get Council out there next month, which we will talk about here in a minute also. But
this is the -- in the center top is the latest aerial photo. On the upper -- upper right you
can see the base for amphitheater. It looks small from the aerial shot, but that's going
to be the stage that the amphitheater runs from. The pump house -- it's nice to put
some pictures of some structures going vertical. These are a month old and the
structure that you see there is actually now finished, which is great, that's our pump
house near the pond. At the bottom you can see some of the paving and construction
activity that's been going on in earnest in recent weeks and also our -- in the bottom
right the park maintenance shop, which is also under construction and one of the first
structures that will be completed, so that they can use it for staging and storage during
the remainder of construction. Part of the park, as you know, is our partnership with the
senior center and these are elevations of the senior center building. I just wanted to
report to you that the pad is now done, as you can see on the bottom right, and part of
the construction there on the left as they were pouring that cement and they are ready
to -- to start going vertical on that as well. The Rock of Honor Plaza is one of the big
next steps that we are actively working on. Emily from the legal department and I had a
meeting with them last Thursday, provided them a draft agreement, which they are
reviewing and commenting on and we expect to be before Council in the coming
months or so once we have worked out all the details of -- of how that partnership will
work long term, what days they need for priority use, things like that what we can offer
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to other community organizations. But as you know the Rock of Honor is a place to
memorialize fallen soldiers who have lived in Meridian and will be a quiet place for
contemplation and reflection and a great addition to the park, one that the trustees fully
support and the location works well next to the senior center and the civic plaza there
where the history kiosk will be located. The active recreation complex is also underway.
These were -- the top is the most recent photo and you can make out the splash pad
and the restrooms and the concessions building up there with the footings prepared
and, actually, if you -- since this photo was taken quite a bit of actual additional
construction has taken place and it's coming together quickly out there. We do have a
unique recreation complex with a play structure unlike any that we have in our current
system, as well as a splash pad, bocce ball, things like sand volleyball and other
amenities. The signage and site furnishings are also unique. You may have seen these
before, but just to reiterate, we have got some very unique things happening with our
signage, some three dimensional leaf patterns that are also repeated in the benches
and the -- the history kiosk signage as well. The city and the trust have been doing
everything we can to keep as much work as possible local. The benches, for example,
were originally planned to be ordered from a catalog. We found a local fabricator who
could provide something custom to the park that was even nicer for a less price and it's
a win-win for everybody. We keep the work here and we get a fantastic product. The
trash cans, drinking fountains, bollards, signage and the obelisks are all examples of
items that are in part or in whole being constructed locally. Art in the park, though, is
one of the obelisks that was last on that list is something quite exciting. The photos
down the center are ones that I took from Amber Conger's website. They are very near
completion this weeks and almost ready for installation. They have been in fabrication
in a welding shop down in Star and you can see some of the welding shots there. Forty
feet -- it's one thing to hear the metal structure for an obelisk is 40 feet tall, it's another
thing to go out and see it in the shop and they really are going to be remarkable
landmark structures within the park. The statute of Julius Kleiner was also approved by
Eugene Kleiner a couple of months ago and was approved and sent to the foundry for --
forconstruction and is being built right now. Moving forward, just want to report that we
did complete the -- all the irrigation tiling on schedule this winter before water came in.
That's done. The grading and utility work is nearing completion. Paving is well
underway. Right of way continues to be something that we are working on heavily,
trying to make sure we can get access to the park. Our anticipated grand opening is
still late 2011, with the caveat of the right of way being the only thing that would push it
out into 2012 at this point. Moving on, I want to talk about special events and, again,
Colin Moss is the -- the champion for -- for these items. One of the things that we do
that I think almost more than anything else that we do, help build that strong sense of
community and bring people together as a group. One of our prime examples is movie
night in Meridian. We have had two weeks already under our belts this season and the
crowds are coming. You remember that last year we came before Council, talked about
trying to implement some family friendly policies and take back movie night a little bit, if
you will, and that has -- that went well at the end of last year and the police department
has been partnering with us to -- to make that happen this year. There are some
ongoing discussions of needs there to further that policy. I know we will have ongoing
discussions about this at a director's operational meeting tomorrow, but there is a need
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to keep anyone who is at the back of the crowd and causing noise and disturbance to
those trying to watch the movie to exclude them from the event, so that those that are
there to watch the movie can enjoy it for its intended purpose. I'm pausing because I
intended to ask for some comments or feedback and Jamie Leslie is also here and
ready to comment, but I hope not to go into a full half an hour discussion about movie
night, so I will move on.
Rountree: Move along.
Siddoway: If there are any specific comments I will take them, but I will move along. I
sense that there is general support from Council to -- to make it a family friendly event,
we just got to really work together with the police and parks and figure out what the right
way is to do that. The next item -- the Barn Sour run is coming up later this month. July
4th, the Independence Day celebration is another big one just weeks away. It will be
grown this year and we got a larger firework show as was requested by Council in
partnership with the speedway, with both the city and the speedway putting up 6,000
dollars each. Last year it was a 10,000 dollar show, this year it will be a 12,000 dollar
show. The community block party is scheduled in September and our Christmas in
Meridian and all the events associated with that, including the tree lighting, are in
December. However, I wanted to point out that in growing numbers -- it's not just the
events that we put on as a city, Colin also coordinates all the park temporary use
permits for outside organizations who hold events of various kinds in our parks. Last
year there were 33 different TUPs in parks for 74 event days, so meaning many of them
had multiple days associated with them. This year we already have 21 TUPs for 70
event days, we have almost reached the same number of event days, and Colin did
some calculations for me and just looked over May and June, we have on average an
event less than every two days. So, some of those -- sometimes there is multiple
events on one day, they are not spread out every other day, but it was like 1.85 days we
have got -- we have got an event in May and June this year. We have also been before
Council to help refine some of those special event criteria and appreciate the guidance
you gave us. Volunteer effort since the last time we were before you, wanted to report
that last year we had a record breaking year for us as volunteers. I'm not confident that
we can break it again this year, because we beat our previous record by so much, but
we had almost 3,000 volunteer hours, realized over 44,000 dollars of savings to the
department as a result of that. In fact, in one day, September 11th of last year, we had
279 volunteers on that day through an organized service project that logged 660 of
those hours in a single day. We continue to have multiple scout projects and Elroy
helps coordinate those and we have had some going on recently with the golf course,
which we can talk about if there is any questions, but many others -- flower planting
projects --
de Weerd: And they look good.
Siddoway: -- and others. The trees do?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
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Siddoway: Thank you. We work quite a bit on city beautification and landscape
maintenance. Roger Norberg, who is not here tonight, is one of the leading experts in
the region and on our staff on the maxi-com irrigation systems and he has been
handling in large measure -- there is others involved as well, but Ten Mile interchange,
landscape coordination, irrigation issues out there and I want to recognize him, but the
29 sites -- remote sites, other than the parks, that we maintain today, have about 15
acres in them and the Ten Mile interchange alone when it comes to us for maintenance
in the coming month will add an additional 20 all by itself. We know additional sites are
coming, like areas of Franklin Road, Ustick, Overland, and Pine that we are trying to
anticipate and be ready for. Pathway projects, these are the items that Jay Gibbons
has been focused on. Many projects -- 8th Street, Jackson Drain, Fothergill, Heroes,
Five Mile -- a couple of different File Mile projects. I'm going to skip the list and go
straight to some of the photos. These were taken last week. You can see some of the
paving. It's actually been happening on the Heroes Park pathway project. We had a
short segment where a missing segment of Ten Mile path -- ten foot wide pathway was
all that was needed to complete a continuous loop within the park. That project is -- has
now been paved and is being finished and closed out as they do the -- the final repairs
-- landscape repairs, things like that. What we call the Jackson Drain and North Lakes
Place, which is -- if you think of the Bud Porter Pathway, it's the area east of there in
that neighborhood. Anew path has been paved and new ADA friendly curb ramps have
been added to allow them to cross the street and continue on the pathway. Fothergill
has also been connected and is ready for clean up and finishing as well. Additional
pathway projects, what we call Segment H-1, which is alongside Five Mile Creek here
close to downtown, in that section from Pine to Badley, that section has been designed,
approved by ACHD, we just heard back -- was it today from -- it was today from -- on
our 404 permit and we are getting the final easements from the neighborhood and
should be ready for construction this summer. The remaining segment to continue it
north and connect from Badley to Fairview is needing one additional easement, either
with an out of state landowner, who we have been trying to contact, or another route
that we are still working on considering. The EECBG program, the Energy Efficiency
Conservation Block Grants, also funded the project on the right, which is a design
project for apathway -- basically in front of Bridgetower Subdivision connecting Linder
to Ten Mile. The project itself actually stops just short of Linder at the ACHD storm
drainage pond, but we are working this year to work with ACRD to do that segment, so
that it would be continuous all the way to Linder Road. And that project was -- just
signed contracts a week or two ago and is moving forward as we speak. In terms of our
pathways, as I mentioned, we had nine mile. About half of that is in our parks
themselves, the pathways in the parks, and about half that is outside of our parks.
Many more miles of pathway are outside that in disconnected segments. Hopefully you
can sense that with the -- with the progress that we are making on these connections
that we are starting to make a dent in those and we will continue to do so with the funds
that Council gives us for pathways per the CIP. But out there in total there is about 21
miles of pathways today. Allison Kaptein is over our recreation classes and camps and
give her great credit for all of the work she does there in keeping those programs fresh
and active and working on -- with all the different instructors. Actually, yesterday was
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her first day of summer camp, so if she looks a little tired she's getting summer camp up
and running. But the community center is getting great use in addition to what we do.
We did have AARP tax aid in there again this year. The census also used it since we
were in front of you last year. Used it quite a bit last year and all of our winter, spring,
and summer camps are held there as well. It's currently used six days a week and
depending on the night there might be one class, but there could be up to seven classes
going on in a single day over there throughout the day, including camp and others. The
activity guides, which you have one of the current ones in front of you, but we have --
we have continued to maintain our -- the old favorites that draw people. We are always
trying new programs. Some of our new ones this year include a violin camp, pre-school
tumbling, family martial arts and woodworking for kids. There is others in there as well.
And I wanted to mention the Teen Activities Council, which is a subcommittee of the
Mayor's Youth Advisory Committee. Allison works directly with them. And one of the
events that for me was a highlight was the Ignite Youth event earlier this year. It was a
fantastic event where the youth got to make some presentations and speak on whatever
they wanted to speak about. Our activity guide participation is down a bit. You can see
the -- we are actually up in the fall and fairly consistent in winter-spring. The main -- a
lot of the difference is in -- we had a really good summer camp site one year that we
haven't had down at Sienna Elementary School, but also the economy -- you know, this
is the effect of the economy and the pay for play recreation programs, but I want to -- I
want you to be aware that, yes, the participation numbers are down from the last two
years. We are still quite a bit higher than we were in previous years and not only that,
the number of classes that are being held are just enormous. Like we -- I was working
with the Mayor's office on the MUM -- the Meridian Urban Market, we did some
calculations on what's the use of the community center on Thursday nights when they
are there and, you know, on that one day alone we have six classes and camps ranging
60 to 130 families, depending on registrations. One of the questions that the
commission asked as we went over this with them was are we conducting exit surreys
from people that take our classes, you know, find out if something is not going well or if
we are not offering something that they would like to see and I want to report to you that
we are and Allison is -- is doing that. She reports to me, though, that the most frequent
response to the question what would you like to see that -- what would you like to see
us do is usually things that we already do, like, oh, I'd love it if you did some art classes.
Oh, did you know that we do that. And, then, we can maybe steer them that way. In
addition to the pathway projects, which many of them are grant funded, we have had a
couple of other significant ones in the past year since I was before you. One which just
was closed out in past weeks was the community center ADA upgrades, including the
new entrance that you see in the left-hand picture, new drinking fountains that are ADA
accessible. The new ramp and rails at the rear and other improvements inside,
including to the restroom and the counter space that are in there. Many of you saw the
Centennial Park improvements that are opening for those last fall, but they were also
completed as a grant project that added the Neos play system and the picnic shelter, as
well as expanded the concrete in Centennial Park next to the -- the community center.
Our urban forestry project, which is now Elroy's focus, is -- they continue to move on --
move forward. I wanted to report to you in terms of the downtown tree box
replacements that we are now officially at one-third of existing tree boxes replaced.
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Elroy has been out in the last week and has identified the -- the projects to be done this
year as well, with a total of 96 total tree boxes. We have got 65 to go and 32 done, so --
we also received a Tree City U.S.A. award for our ninth year this year and received a
growth award as well for the city's commitment to an arborist. And, then, we know that
we got many more trees coming, as was mentioned for Kleiner Park. We currently have
over 2,000 trees in our system. Kleiner Park alone will add over a thousand more.
Sports leagues, Garrett White's world, is another big one that's constantly busy for him
and is a real passion of his and I appreciate the way he manages that. We have
several programs, including softball, basketball, volleyball, dodge ball, and flag football.
The co-ed that I noted there has not been offered in the past. It's going to be offered
this year for the first time and I also wanted to let Council know that we continue to track
resident and nonresident participation and Garrett is also out there on a periodic basis
actually making checks for -- residency checks as well, which I appreciate. Our trends
on the leagues are upward, specifically in the sports teams, and if you look at the --
since the colors are -- match, if you just follow the light blue, since that's where we are
in the year this year, you can see the -- the trend for teen numbers is upward.
Interestingly enough, if you look at the same boxes on the number of participants it
drops down this year and that is a result of us charging the resident and nonresident
player fees. Before it was just a team fee basis, now it's a player fee basis. Before it
was an unlimited number of players and they would stack their roster for the same price.
So, we still see our revenues doing well, because they are -- because the player fees
that we instituted were designed to match the team fees that we had been receiving.
But that's been an interesting trend to note. Also note that the spring -- our softball field
space is full. You can see this year the red boxes went away, which are the nonparks
and rec games. We have maxed out -- we have 108 teams this year in our spring
softball league and of those 43 open time slots that are noted, which sounds like -- may
sound like a lot. I don't know if it does or not. It's not. They actually just fall on four
days, which are major holidays of Memorial Day and Independence Day and, then, like
the Fridays before them. So, gym use is also up and continues to be a challenge for us
to find gym space. The concept that I show here is a new one. We are -- we are
funded by Council this year to work on a concept plan for a recreation field house and
we are working with Johnson Architects to look at what we might be able to do. We are
still in the very preliminary stages. I can't say that this is yet what we would propose,
but I just want to report to Council that we are looking at gym space as something that
we would do. And if you will recall at one time we had talked about a rec center and
there was confusion about -- we talked about a rec center fund and the point is we are
not talking about a 15 million dollar rec center, you know, similar to what Nampa or
others might have, we are talking about gym space, about a one and a half million
dollars is what we have in the CIP and would be something that would give us gym
space that is increasingly needed. Commissioner Stoll sits on the commission and --
and that group -- you can see new photos taken last week, but the commission has
some priorities set for this year and I don't want to read them to you, because of the
time, but I want you to know that they continue to be focused on pathways plan
implementation and other priorities as well that are important to them, Borup property,
Kleiner Park, and others. They are broken down in the three committees and that
committee structure seems to be working very well and they are active and bringing
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things to us for consideration. Nearing the end now of the presentation. We have got
some accomplishments and some challenges we want to go through. Just to remind
ourselves what are some of the things that we have been able to do in the last year
since we were before you. Well, recently many of you were able to attend the Diane
and Winston Moore Pathway dedication. It was a wonderful ceremony out in Gordon
Harris Park. Beautiful new sign. The picture in the center there is of Winston Moore
and some of his family at that new dedicated pathway. We were able to finish our
Meridian PAL basketball partnership this spring and they held their first season for a
basketball program out there in Heroes Park. We have also added the Tully Park snow
cone stand in its spot near the playground. We have been coordinating golf course
trees with the golf course and coordinating multiple Eagle Scout projects to plant them.
We have a project every weekend this month out there planting -- planting trees. So,
two down, two to go. The Bark Park Scramble was held last month at the golf course
and raised about 2,600 dollars, Colin? I think about 2,600 dollars for dog parks in
Meridian. We also worked with the Commission and Council to approve a new smoke
free parks policy, the new signs, which you can see on the top of this slide, were
delivered by Central District Health and have been installed in all of our parks. Last fall
we also did the Terry Smith memorial dedication of the picnic shelter in that park, as
well as a bench and a tree was another beautiful ceremony in honor of a great man.
Our present challenges include getting the Mo Brooks field bleachers done, but as -- we
are working on that. We were before Council in the last couple of weeks, got some
funding and we were ordering bleachers today. So, that is moving forward. The Storey
Park master plan will also move forward this summer looking at land and water
conservation fund issues, any potential coordination cooperation with the dairy board
and speedway and how we would like that area to develop out. We are working on the
field house concept plan. The Kleiner Park right of way is one that we are continuing to
work on. We haven't forgotten the partnership agreement for Milestones, specifically
three of our partners, we would like to see those. The Lion's Club rodeo, the dog park
force, and the tennis partnership. And we talked to Emily in legal and she is gearing up
to work on that in the next month. Rock of Honor agreement, as I mentioned, is also
actually being worked on and we are coordinating with MYB to add some improvements
to their fields out there, including a couple of new scoreboards and some batting cages.
Finally, the people staying home and using the parks continues to increase in the
current economy. We have seen the economic challenges impacting our pay to play
recreation, such as the classes and camps. We have limited softball and field and gym
space particularly during our spring softball time and throughout the year for gym space.
And, then, we just have a lot of TUPs for events coming through, a lot more than we
have ever had before, but we have had some direction on implementing those policies
and Colin is helping us with that. So, with that as a presentation and, hopefully, some
good news and some updates on projects, both ones that are completed and that we
are continuing to work on, I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Council, any questions?
Rountree: I have none.
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De Weerd: We appreciate -- this was very comprehensive. It's exciting the direction
that the Parks Department is going in and. congratulate you and your staff on the -- the
great accomplishments that have been achieved over this last year.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Hoaglun: I did have one question. I was a little surprised about the uniform for the city
arborist. Is that the normal --
Siddoway: Yeah. That is the new required outfit.
Hoaglun: Okay.
Bird: He cleans up real good. We found that out years ago, didn't we, Tam?
Hoaglun: Well, I do appreciate, Madam Mayor and Steve, the work that you and your
staff do for the citizens on the parks. They are getting a tremendous amount of use and
rightfully so, they are a great place to bring your family and enjoy outdoor activities and
leisure activities and recreation programs. We have a great parks commission and
when we have a vacancy we have got good folks that are willing to step in and endure
long meetings and a lot of hard work to make it happen and -- and it's always
challenging, but you guys step up and meet the challenges in a great way, so we
appreciate that.
Siddoway: Thank you.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I have been the liaison with parks for, what, about six months now and
probably my previous liaison activities were a number of years ago when the parks
commission first started and I do want to express my appreciation not only to staff, but
those members of the parks commission that spend a night a month in great detail and
major effort on their part to come together and meet and discuss issues that are facing
the community and provide us guidance. They do a great job. And staff, of course, you
are the reason why Steve could put those three words up on his first slide and I thank
you for accomplishing that in the city. It's -- I know when we first established the -- the
criteria for where we wanted to go with the four acres per thousand folks a number of
years ago it seemed like that might be relatively easy to accomplish, because we had a
small population. Unfortunately, we had the population boom much faster than our
space boom, but in ten to 12 years you have gained ahalf -- from two, two and a half, or
less than two to two and a half. In ten more years its potential that we could get close to
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that four. To me that's quite an accomplishment. I look forward to the day of seeing
that and hopefully can be around when that happens.
Siddoway: Me, too.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. --
Bird: I'd add on to Mr. Rountree's comments here. You know, we also -- I also add in
what Western Ada has as park space, because that -- we are -- it's the same tax payers
that are paying for that, too, and I don't know how many acres they have got, but --
around 25 or 30, don't we, of developed?
Rountree: It's close to 30 acres. Yeah.
Bird: So, that gives the citizens quite a bit to add on there, but I'm very happy.
De Weerd: Well, I will say that as I have had the privilege of attending a couple of the
parks department staff meetings and certainly there is a lot of pride of -- and ownership
to what each of the members of the parks department does and it's very evident when
you look at our parks, it's very evident when you listen to the meetings and the reports
that are being made. So, our congratulations to you, Steve, and to your entire
department and instilling community pride and I think you were right -- hit the nail on the
head when you shared with your staff that many of the awards over this last year that
the city's been recipient of is -- always notes our park system and it has a great deal to
do with our community quality of life and our community identities. So, we appreciate,
again, what everyone does in the many roles that are played in your department and
just, please, those that are not here, please, let them know that they are appreciated.
Siddoway: Thank you. And I just want to say that I appreciate that, you know, you
motioned past me a little bit, because, honestly, I could come tonight myself and make
the presentation, but for me tonight is about celebrating some of the accomplishments
of this staff.
De Weerd: I know and you're in the way, so --
Siddoway: Oh. Let me move over here.
De Weerd: Kind of the tall people in the back, you know. But, yeah, heart felt thanks to
all of you.
Siddoway: They are a great team and I appreciate working with them. So, thank you
very much.
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B. Public Works & Planning Department: Discussion on
Performance and Warranty Surety Ordinance
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Our next item is under our Public Works and Planning
Department and I will turn this over to Tom.
Barry: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. As you know, I have
briefed you twice on this topic before and so I will try to keep tonight's discussion
abbreviated. As you know, though, for -- and maybe more for the benefit of those in the
audience and watching on the Internet, as a result of increased maintenance and
operational costs associated with newly constructed infrastructure, the Public Works
Department began conducting warranty inspections and began finding a variety of
deficiencies during the warranty period of those newly constructed projects. Two cases
in particular, one which ended up costing the city a hundred thousand dollars in the
pending case, which is before us it looks like it will cost us an additional 90,000 dollars
and cost to department to review its surety programs. I have shared with you some of
the problems associated with the surety program, the fact that we don't have a surety
for warranty of any kind, that the warranty is in the contractor's sort of ballpark, if you
will, and the situations that that causes adversely for the city with regard to risk, cost of
bringing those systems back and the guarantees of the infrastructure to work during the
warranty period. On the performance side you also know that we reviewed that and
found the performance surety quantity to be slightly low and recommended an increase
there. You also are familiar that we generated a surety team. The team was developed
of about -- staff representing about eight divisions and four departments within the city.
We also had nearly half a dozen different subject matter experts from the finance, the
bonding and assurance, as well as the legal field. We also had participation from the
developing -- development community, we had a couple meetings -- focus group
meetings with them. We also talked with the BCA. And, then, lastly we went through
the planning commission process with proposed UDC changes last month, the 26th of
May. The planning commission, just as a quick aside, held a formal public hearing on
the matter and after the public hearing was unanimous in its support of the
recommendations, the changes that we have talked about for the UDC, some of their
quick comments were -- and you will get the staff report I believe next week. Some of
their thoughts were that although they like the bonding option, they felt that in some
cases the amounts of the sureties were a little bit low, which is something, as you might
recall, you expressed in conversations past. I'll just remind you again that we did also
do a benchmarking study, we looked at 25 different communities around the pacific
northwest. Twenty-five of those -- or, excuse me, 19 of those were regional cities, five
were highway districts and one was a sewer district and 14 of those were located of
those cities -- or jurisdictions I should say, were located in Idaho, three in Oregon, and
five in Washington. Twenty-one do require warranty sureties or bonds ranging
anywhere from ten to 50 percent of total construction cost and also ten of those require
performance or surety bonds in excess of 110 percent, ranging anywhere from 120 to
150 percent. All of that information is in your packets, so I don't want to go into
anymore detail, other than to let you know, again, that we did do that survey, remind
you about that briefly. You know the recommendation. It's consistent with the last few
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times I have been up here presenting to you, but I'll go through it just for those in the
audience and, again, those at home, to require the developers secure western TWUR
actual cost of construction and extend the warranty period from one year to two years,
to add a warranty inspection at the 20 month period into the warranty and also to cover
our cost with an inspection fee for that warranty inspection and, then, allow bonds as a
viable warranty surety option, as well as cash, letters of credit, those sorts of things that
are currently allowed in the performance surety area. Also on the performance side we
do -- we are making a recommendation to increase the performance surety from 110
percent to 125 percent and to also allow bonds as an option for securing the surety
against the performance. We'd also in recommendation ask that you support the
planning commission's unanimous support or recommendation of the UDC changes.
Again, I believe that will come to you next week, that planning staff will present that to
you. If you are supportive of all these changes and the recommendation, some of the
things that staff still yet would need to do is to revise the bid documents, developing
new surety ordinance. The draft has been developed and has been transmitted to you
and is in your Council documents. There was one small change that Mr. Nary did
make, I don't know if that got transmitted to you, but it's a pretty minor change. We can
talk about that if you're interested. And, then, revise and create development or surety
agreements, revise the city's supplemental specifications to the Idaho standards for
public works construction and, then, revise the independent contractor agreements, as
well as review and modify the inspection fee schedule to cover warranty inspection.
Now, I'd be remise if I did not mention the fact that this proposal is not necessarily
supported by all in the developing community. And some of the developing
communities' concerns so far that we have identified through correspondence or
discussions center around the surety amount and periods and that's no surprise. The
surety amounts for performance are increasing, as the recommendation calls for by 15
percent and, then, also to add the warranty surety at 20 percent. So, some developers
are not in support of that as well. They are not in support of increasing the warranty
from one to two year period and some are also not supportive of having the developer
be responsible for issuing the bond if they so chose to acquire a bond to the city, they
would rather see the contractor, meaning the developer's contractor, issue the bond to
the city, which is enormously complicated and legally challenging and I think we can
spend more time on that if you wish. I wanted to recognize Stephanie Barnes in the
back. She's been instrumental in helping us through this proposal, as well as the staff,
and Mr. Nary and his staff, finance staff, planning staff, I mean kind of all over the place,
so we are grateful for their involvement. Lastly, there is a concern from the developing
community about cost and, of course, we are all sensitive to the climate that we are in
economically and we are all sensitive to the costs -- if any costs have to increase we are
all sensitive to that. Certainly in Public Works endeavored give it our best effort to try to
reduce the burden, as well as the cost to developing community. However, we feel that
the costs are disproportionately high, as well as the risk, on the current citizens of
Meridian and they need to be corrected back to placing those costs and those risks
back to the developing community and this proposal does all of that. So, in essence,
the City Council did ask for the staff to conduct and the staff did conduct a review of the
city's surety program and the recommendation I believe is in the best interest of the
citizens, the taxpayers, and rate payers of the City of Meridian. To move forward with
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this proposal and that's what I seek tonight is your direction, we would need to finalize
the draft ordinance and, then, certainly schedule a public hearing and, then, the other
administrative efforts that I mentioned earlier with regard to the changes, would come
as a -- over the implementation period of this particular proposal. So, with that I will
stop and stand for questions. We do have several members, as I mentioned, who are
on the committee and so if you have specific questions, concerns, comments or
whatnot, we would be happy to address those at this time.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: This might be for Bill. Some of -- the biggest concern, I think, is -- one of the
biggest concerns is another one time on the warranty, but also having the contractor
issue the warranty to the city, but if the contract's not with us, how do they issue it to us?
Is it legally that they -- while the contract -- if they are working for the developer can they
issue the warranty legally to the city?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Bird, there is two
different issues in regards to the -- the contractor providing surety and. that's kind of
been I think part of the disagreement in the discussion. On the performance surety
side, the problem -- you hit on the problem to begin with. We don't have a contractual
relationship with the contractor. We only have a contractual relationship through a
development agreement with the developer. But on the performance surety side the
concern is is that, essentially, we are stepping in the performance surety as the owner
of the project if the project fails and, essentially, we are -- at least in the opinion of our
ICRIMP counsel we are, essentially, sending the city's full faith and credit to the
performance of the project. Under the Idaho constitution we can't do that. So, their
recommendation is not to even entertain anything like a contractor surety in regards to
performance. Under the warranty it's a little different, because at that particular juncture
if a warranty is in place we are the owner of the project. The problem, again, is still the
same, we aren't in any contractual relationship with the contractor, they have no
obligation to enter into a contract with us, which is the instrument by which a surety is
granted. Our research and our agent and ICRIMP also say the exact same thing, there
is no contractual obligation. Now, I have certainly been told that if a warranty is granted
if they can get a surety to provide a bond to the city for warranty, what difference does it
make to the city who it's with? Here is -- here is what difference is makes to the city.
Again, we have an ongoing relationship through a development agreement with the
developer, whether it's the developer who has the property annexed into the city initially
or the developer who buys it later, because the development agreement's recorded.
So, that ongoing relationship exists forever. We don't have any relationship with the
contractor. Every one of those sureties requires now a separate agreement by which if
we need to execute on we have to, then, go back to the bonding company and that
contractor to execute on that bond. That could be very problematic. ICRIMP's attorney
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advised there has been other cities that have gone through similar things under letters
of credit and found the same problem. All of a sudden they are in a tussle with a
contractor who never entered into an agreement with them or entered into an
agreement under duress with them and required to provide something that they didn't
want to provide, because they didn't have a relationship with the city and my concern is
if you have amulti-phase project you potentially could have a different contractor
warrantying different portions of the infrastructure and now we are going to have to
figure out did contractor A, was it his that failed, was it failed because the prior
contractor was the one who built it poorly, is the one downstream now a different person
and are they going to claim it's the other guy's problem, not ours? When it's the
developer it's a one stop place to have this discussion. They are the ones responsible,
they have to make sure it's in place. So, I wouldn't say it's impossible to get a warranty
surety from a contractor, what I would say is if you weigh out the best interests of the
city in trying to enforce these, if the necessity exists to enforce it, the developers is
where the agreement lies. It would be part of the development agreement, it would be a
requirement of the development that would be provided, they would have to stand for it.
So, I guess the answer to your question, Mr. Bird, I don't know it's impossible, I'm not an
insurance person, there probably is somebody who would issue a bond to a contractor,
who would, then, issue the bond to us, but why would the city want to get into this type
of contractual dilemma or struggle every time with a different contractor when we have
done developer, one agreement that's already binding, that's already controlling over
the project? I don't see the advantage to the city.
Bird: Thank you.
Barry: Mr. Bird --
Bird: Follow up, Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Bird: Also the one to two year warranty, Tom, do you want to address that, please?
Barry: Yeah. Absolutely. We have talked about this briefly before. The concern from
-- in moving the warranty period from one to two years is in response to the time that we
have adequately to, first of all, have the project get utilized sufficiently enough to show
sufficient usage that would mimic normal sort of wear and tear on the system and, then,
to conduct an inspection and, then, in addition to have a period of time to put on notice
in the event there was a problem during the warranty period, the contractor, as it
currently stands, the developer as we would like to make it, to fix those problems and
give that process more time. The way it goes now under a 12 month warranty we can't
even get four seasons through a project, because we are having to inspect around the
ninth month, the tenth month, and as many of you know, sometimes the infrastructure is
put in and the project will take three or four additional months before the first usage of
that infrastructure occurs. So, we really have, essentially, anywhere from a three to a
six month usage period, we have to go back out and inspect it again, and we think that
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it's more prudent, since we are taking on this infrastructure and, in addition, since we
have a history of having problems on brand new infrastructure that have increased our
maintenance and operations costs to extend the warranty period and to make sure that
it's covered, so that we can test the usage of the entire infrastructure and also build in
notification and corrective action to the developer in the event that there is a deficiency.
Bird: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Any other questions from Council?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Not really a question, but just a comment in support of the discussion that we
have already had. I certainly am sensitive to the developers that say this is adding a
little more cost to their project and, you know, the extension to two years, which I
certainly support, because I -- I'm not an engineer, but I think we need to at least have
two winters go by and have the time to inspect and all of that. And I am sensitive to the
difficulty of adding a little bit of cost, but I have come to the conclusion and I think it is
general that if something goes wrong it's going to cost somebody and I'm very
supportive of this not costing the citizens. We hear growth should pay for itself and
growth is not necessarily all the expenses before the growth happens, there are some
expenses after it's happened and while Ihave -- I understand the angst of saying this
will add a little bit of cost, I think it's our duty to protect the taxpayer and the rate payer
and -- and have these costs covered before they happen. So, I'm very much in favor of
everything that you have come up with and go forward as far I'm concerned.
Barry: Thank you, sir. If I may just comment briefly on the item of cost, because it is
important and it was important to us the whole way through this process. I did want to
draw your attention to Exhibit D in your packet. It talks about those costs and if you look
at -- if you take currently what a developer's options are during the construction, they
can either provide some surety to guarantee the construction in order to get final plat
approval in advance or, alternatively, build the improvements, that's certainly up to the
con -- to, excuse me, the developer and that's currently how the program will remain,
just allowing the bond option. So, a developer does not need to get a bond for
performance, they can still use letters of credit, they can still -- they can use all the
same vehicles, the difference is that they are just going to tie up a letter of credit for --
instead of 110 percent, to 125 percent. So, arguably, what's the cost of that, you know,
is it inconsequential, well, maybe, maybe not, depending upon who you talk to. Now,
when it comes to warranty it's true we are asking for a two year period, but if you look at
the cost of a two year warranty premium, to get a hundred thousand dollars worth of
warranty coverage, which would be the equivalent coverage required fora 500,000
dollars construction project, what we are talking about is a premium of around two to
three thousand dollars total, one time for that entire warranty period, to guarantee that
the citizens are not going to have to pick up the bill for deficiencies on newly
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constructed infrastructure. Now, that equates -- we did the math based upon
experience from the development services staff on a number of different projects. That
equates to between 20 dollars and 30 dollars per lot. These lots, as you know, sell for
tens, twenties -- I mean sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don't know the
business plans of the developers, but the point to this is that cost is real, there is an
incremental in cost if you want to go after a bond for warranty, but it is, in my estimation,
extremely reasonable for the coverage and I think the developing community needs to
also understand that as we have seen lots of development projects come and go,
bankruptcies and those kind of things, there are very reputable and respectable
developers who are coming along buying projects and being stuck with the problems
with those projects. If I was a developer I would appreciate having a bond in place to
cover a warranty that some other developer's contractor or developer used that is no
longer in existence. So, there is a protection built into the developers as well, because
we in Public Works and Development Services do not want to have to go to a developer
and say, I'm sorry, despite the fact you bought a new project and you're the new owner,
the system is deficient and we are not able to tissue building permits or give you
certificates of occupancy. That's just a mess no one wants to be in. So, we feel that
this proposal, while there is some cost -- there is going to be costs to the city, too, we
have an administrative cost to do this program, there is also cost to the developing
community, we think it's fair and as balanced as we can get and it's sensitive to the
economic times and the developers bottom line as we can make it for the insurance that
we are getting in return. So, I just wanted to mention that briefly.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I'll put my two cents worth out. I think this has got enough controversy on it with --
between us and the people that pay our wages that I think that we do need to have a
resolution come forward with a public hearing, let them have their voice, because I have
some concerns for the rate payers and I have some concern for jobs. So, I would love
to hear our side and their side in a public hearing setting and, you know, Mr. Nary
answered my biggest question is, you know, how does a guy have a contract with
somebody else and, then, put his warranty somebody -- to another entity. I don't know
how you do that. I'm going to talk to some insurance people and find out, but -- if it's
even possible. I don't think it is. I think I'm like Bill. But, anyway, that would be my
feeling to bring forward and let's have a public hearing. It's definitely a problem. Ninety
percent of our projects isn't a problem, the other ten percent costs the rate payers. And
the sad part of it is the good developments have to pay that -- the state, too. That's my
two cents worth.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Nary.
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Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, from a process standpoint you actually
have two opportunities for public input. On your agenda next week is a UDC
amendment, because there is some UDC language that needed to be changed. It's
already gone through the public hearing process at Planning and Zoning and that's
coming in front of you to have the discussion around the UDC provisions. Secondarily,
what's being proposed is an ordinance that would, basically, spell out this requirement.
So, it wouldn't just be language that would be in a development agreement, it would be
language in an ordinance that would be, again, out there for the community, that's an
opportunity, again, to get public comment. Tonight is just a staff report and a follow up.
You're certainly welcome if you want to take comment -- it's not prohibited, but you will
have an ordinance, if that's your direction, that we can place on your agenda in two
weeks or -- probably two weeks for a first reading or whenever you're ready for that to
come forward. It's already drafted and prepared and, then, again, you can get public
comment on your first reading, you can get public comment on your second, however
you would like to hear that. I totally agree with you, Mr. Bird, obviously, there are issues
and concerns out there in the community that we would want to hear and there is --
there will be opportunities to have that heard. And you have some written comment
that's already been submitted that I think is already on record, too.
Bird: Yes. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Bill, you say that next week we do have a -- that this could be included in that
public hearing? The UDC -- actually, the UDC wording is going to take -- but it's not
going to set the -- perimeter or parameter with this thing, is it?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I don't have it in front of me. The UDC
was just, basically, a technical amendment to allow for these types of abilities to do this
and Tom probably has a better grasp specifically what it was, but it is on your agenda
for a public hearing. You can have -- I have already drafted the ordinance. We can put
it on for first reading next week or the week after or whatever your preference is and you
can seek public comment at each hearing -- at each reading if you wish, so it's ready to
go forward.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: A question for Mr. Nary then. If we were to make changes to the UDC that
allows this mechanism, but yet if we don't -- if down at the ordinance level we don't
move forward with it, does that render the UDC out of date already or is that something
that we can have there and just not have an ordinance? And maybe Anna is the one I
need to direct this to.
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Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the item is on for public hearing next
week. You will need to take some form of action on that, either open it and continue it,
open take testimony and continue it, but you don't have to take final action, you can take
final action with the two sets of code amendments separately. We just -- state code
requires that we treat the UDC amendments differently than all other code
amendments. So, you will need to kind of keep separate, but you can act on them the
same night and make sure they are consistent. That's fine.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Anna.
De Weerd: Any other questions from Council?
Rountree: I have none.
De Weerd: I do see one of your committee members here. Did -- did we want to have
any comment, Council?
Rountree: Sure.
De Weerd: Is there is a preference to provide any comment from anyone in public?
Turnbull: Madam Mayor -- both mikes work I guess.
De Weerd: It's your choice.
Turnbull: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, David Turnbull. You don't need my
address, do you?
De Weerd: No.
Turnbull: I didn't come tonight prepared to make any comments. I think you probably
have a letter from the Building Contractors Association that's in opposition to this
ordinance. I have never taken that position myself and I understand the city's position, I
understand what they are dealing with. I think that a lot of this is unfortunate.
Sometimes I feel like we might be dealing -- you know, using a sledge hammer to drive
in a tiny little tack here, but -- but I do understand the city's position and I haven't been
opposed to that. My -- my only opposition has revolved around the ability to allow the
contractors we hire to provide the bond to the city for the warranty. That's it. I haven't
quibbled about increasing the amounts of the performance bond. I haven't quibbled
about the requirement for issuing a warranty bond, although I do think that that is an
additional burden and an additional cost and they keep piling up, you know, and as
values go down and costs go up it's definitely a concern and I think that's the position
that the BCA has taken. So, I have tried to understand the city's position. I would say
that I don't feel like I have gotten sometimes a timely response or the kind of feedback
that we would like on the issue of the contractor being able to issue the warranty bond.
We suggested that there are ways to do that contractually. We have taken this up the
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ladder to some insurance bond counsel and some insurance experts of our own who
say, yes, it's a doable thing. And, you know, I as a developer and not the contractor --
contractors -- we try to hire contractors that are bondable and I think that it's in the best
interest of the city that you do have contractors working on your projects, because this
is a Public Works project, whether we are paying for it or not, you're going to own it, so I
do believe that it's in your best interest to have contractors that are bondable and so I
would like to see a better effort -- more effort from the city staff to come up with a way to
make that --and, you know, I'm looking for a way to get off the hook, I mean we can still
provide dual contractual relationships and we suggested some language. My attorney
is out of town this week, so I don't know if she got any response from an a-mail we sent
to the city last week, but I was copied on the information we provided, I wasn't copied on
any response back from city, so I don't know where that stands. So, that's my main
issue. It -- you know, like I said, I'm not in the issue of providing warranty bonds, I never
have, I'm not the contractor. We hire contractors that are, they are already set up to do
it, and so it's a great annoyance and I don't think that it's an unreasonable request to
ask the city to make that kind of provision. So, that's my comment. Be happy to
discuss it further, but I still think it's a bit premature and I don't think this thing has been
fully vetted. Thank you.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: David, that's -- I want to ask you -- you have dealt with a lot of bonds, warranty,
otherwise. Now, when you hire -- when you hire a utility contractor you get a
performance bond from him on labor and materials --
Turnbull: I generally don't, because we hire contractors that we have dealt with for
years and years and years. So, I know whom I'm dealing with and I'm comfortable with
that risk. I'm just saying if it is a question of needing to provide a bond, the contractors
that we do use are bondable and can provide that bond to the city and to us. I mean
they can warrant us, they can warrant the city, and we can be corroboragees.
Bird: But you -- how long do you expect him to warranty his work to you whether he's
got a bond or not?
Turnbull: Typical is one year.
Bird: One year. That's right. If we ask for two he has to get that.
Turnbull: Correct.
Bird: And, you know, you have dealt with -- I have dealt with bonds, but as a
subcontractor mine was strictly to either the construction manager or --
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Turnbull: They do warrant their work for a period of one year, we just have not in the
past required them to provide a bond for that purpose.
Bird: Yeah. If you have got a subcontractor, like you said, you use the same guy, he's
not going to do it, but you open it up for bid and brought the lowest three or four bids in
and you don't know him, would you require a bond?
Turnbull: Likely, yes.
Bird: Yeah. Okay
Turnbull: We -- you know, we -- and I have had this conversation with your staff. We --
we have the ability to decide who we bid out to who is on our bid list. When you're
doing a public works job you kind of have to -- well, I guess you would probably have
some review capabilities there, but, you know, there are some differences between the
public and the private, I'm just suggesting that they are not mutually exclusive in all
cases and particularly in this warranty issue.
Bird: Thank you.
De Weerd: Any other questions for Mr. Turnbull? Thank you. Okay. Any other
comments? Did you -- where did Tom go? Oh. Like I didn't see you over there. Did
either you or Bruce want to make any comment?
Barry: Madam Mayor, I don't need to make anymore comment. I mean this isn't a
public hearing, so I don't want to get into the debate. I think -- I appreciate David's
involvement in our process, I appreciate also his perspective on things. There are some
technicalities that we have not been able to overcome despite his tenacity in trying to
find awin-win, because we are also tenacious about it as well, but we have just not
been able to find the kinds of things that he has been discussing and mentioning to us
and I think we will have that conversation in more depth when there are more folks
prepared from the development community, as well as insurance agents and whoever
else, if they want to come out and talk about this. Unless Mr. Nary has anything else to
add, I do not. Bruce?
Freckleton: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I -- over the years I have been
involved in many many proposals for changes that have been brought before you and I
got to say this particular topic has received the most staff hours that I have ever been
involved in. We have -- we have conducted 22 meetings I believe. We have had --
Barry: Twenty-nine.
Freckleton: Twenty-nine.
De Weerd: Yeah. Don't underestimate.
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Freckleton: We have had the stakeholders in, we have our bond insurance
professionals in. We have done presentations to the BCA. I feel like we have -- we
have really done a really good job of vetting this process and, you know, I feel real good
about the proposal. It's one of those things where it's very difficult to find, you know, a
win-win that makes everybody happy. We strive for a balance and I really feel like our
proposal that we have got is -- is the best thing that we can do to protect the rate payers
and the citizens of the city. So, thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce. Okay. Council, what is your preference on this?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I was just going to add one further comment and that is in -- in all of the
dealings that we have with the people who do development in our community, we know
there are some that you can just have a handshake and you get what you're expecting
and probably more than you were expecting. There are some others that you could
have an air tight contract and you still don't get what you're expecting and the difficulty
is when we make an ordinance or a rule or a policy it has to cover all of those and that's
painful to the people that we trust and a little bit unfair to the people that we trust, but it
really does have to be one rule that covers everybody and when you're crossing that
kind of a spectrum, unfortunately, it pinches a little bit here and there and that's
unfortunate but if we could only deal with the ones that always delivered more than we
expected, we wouldn't have these kind of rules. But we are not in that position,
unfortunately. Just a personal opinion.
De Weerd: I appreciate that. So, Council, we are seeking your direction on next steps.
I think Councilman Bird had noted he would like to have public comment on this. Mr.
Nary noted that we would be bringing this back through an ordinance form?
Nary: Yes, ma'am
De Weerd: And you can seek it at that point or what would you prefer?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: After what Anna -- maybe I misunderstood what -- oh, I better turn my mike on.
Anna, I took it that next week this can be available for public hearing?
De Weerd: It is, but it's through -- it's a separate item. It's for the UDC and this would
also need to come in ordinance form as well and I think that Anna noted that we could
open the public hearing on the UDC and continue it, so you're hearing both at the same
time, but taking separate action. Is that correct, Anna?
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Canning: Right.
Bird: That would be my preference, then, Mayor
De Weerd: Okay. And so, Mr. Nary, has -- have you started a draft for the ordinance
on -- on this particular item?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I think it's in your packet is the draft
ordinance and I have actually -- based on advice from our ICRIMP counsel I have made
some slight amendments to it. In my opinion it's only clarification. The intent of the
ordinance is that the developer would provide both -- if they are providing a bond that
they would provide the bond from the developer to the city as the beneficiary. So, I
have made some changes to the one that's in your packet, just to make that clear.
Because, really, what it said was the developer shall -- I'm sorry, I don't have it in front
of me. Supply or whatever the language --
Barry: It was obtain.
Nary: Obtain. And the ICRIMP counsel said that probably isn't clear enough, so what it
now says is the developer shall provide the -- I can read you the language. The
developer shall provide and be the responsible party for a performance surety with the
city as the beneficiary and, then, in the warranty section it says warranty. So, the intent
was just to make it very clear it's the developer and they are the responsible party and
the city is the beneficiary. But it's ready to be in front of you if you're ready to see it.
De Weerd: And -- sorry. Council, I had only opened the comment folder, so I didn't
have that one open. And you do see that there are a couple of different letters and
e-mails that have been received as well. So, the earliest we could put this on the
agenda, Madam Clerk or Mr. Nary?
Nary: Next week, Madam Mayor, if you want
De Weerd: Okay. We don't have to publicize it?
Nary: No.
De Weerd: Okay.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, different than the UDC amendments,
this doesn't have to go through that process. So, if your direction is to put it on, we can
put it on the agenda for next Tuesday for comment. I'd only recommend putting it on for
first reading, not passage, so that you have an opportunity to get comment and, then, if
you decide amendment is appropriate, then, we have opportunity to amend it at the
second and third reading.
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Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, I like that idea.
De Weerd: Okay. Okay. Well, then -- and since the UDC one is already posted for
that, it would be timely. Okay. That is what we will do.
Barry: Thank you for your time. Appreciate it.
C. Planning Department: Meridian Development Corporation
(MDC) On Site Parking Requirements for MDC Office Building
De Weerd: Okay. Item 7-C is with our Planning Department with the MDC on-site
parking requirements for the MDC office building.
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is a rather easy request, but it
requires a little bit of a story, so let me tell you the story. The request before you is for
alternative compliance for the COMPASS and VRT building in the Old Town area. A
number of years ago when MDC first came up with their in lieu of fee for parking in
downtown, we had a discussion and it -- and I asked you if you would like for the in lieu
fee to be the only means of alternative compliance for parking provisions in Old Town.
The way the UDC is structured there is actually three or four types alternative
compliance. One of them is staggered hours, one is arrangement with a neighboring
property and there is some others. One is having access to buses, things like that. So,
there is a number of alternative compliance provisions allowed in the UDC, but what we
said was in Old Town what we really wanted to focus on was the in lieu fee that MDC
could provide. So, here comes an MDC building, ironically, where they need alternative
compliance to build the parking, which is kind of what the in lieu fee was all about, right?
So, my hands are kind of tied on what alternative compliance I can offer them or provide
them. Mr. Joe Borton has provided a letter addressed to Mr. Friedman regarding the
issue and I think it outlines what their proposal is and it's rather simple, it's a 99 year
lease to COMPASS and VRT regarding the spaces they need to be used during work
hours and that it would be available for MDC parking or the general Old Town parking in
times that COMPASS and VRT didn't need it during the working hours. So, again, the
UDC contemplates this for alternative compliance for parking provisions and it's exactly
consistent, it's just not what we had decided would be allowed in Old Town. So, I need
to come before you tonight and ask if it's okay if we accept an alternative compliance
request fora 99 year lease for COMPASS and VRT building.
De Weerd: Thank you, Anna. Mr. Borton, do you have anything you would like to add
that's not already covered by Anna or in your letter?
Borton: Madam Mayor, no.
De Weerd: Council, any questions for either Anna or Mr. Borton?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Yes.
Hoaglun: I had a question for Anna or Joe. Talked about the end users. They are
going to be using 37 of the 56 spaces and 19 would be available for public use and,
then, weekends, holidays, the whole parking lot would be available. But if they add
employees or tenants or what have you and they need additional space, does this allow
the flexibility of that to fluctuate? I think that was a double. But can they -- can they
change that without having to go through Council and something easy that they can do?
Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, as far as the Planning Department is
concerned we are always concerned with the required number of parking spaces, which
is always much less than what's actually needed. We leave it up to the owners and the
tenants to decide what is needed. So, I am confident that those 37 parking spaces are
-- exceed what the required minimum is. So, they would not need to come back to us
for a type of arrangement like that.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Question for either Anna or Bill. Is this just a verbal okay from the Council?
Does it require a motion? A resolution? Is this a variance? What's the formal action on
the part of the Council? I have no problem with the request and the alternative
compliance, but how do we make it official?
Canning: Madam Mayor, Council Member Rountree, my recollection is that you all
approved it by resolution originally. It's not codified, so it not a variance. So, I believe
you can just approve it tonight.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Mrs. Canning is right, you did approve
this as a resolution. A resolution is really just your intent at the time and you can carry
forward. If you want this as a permanent alternative that there is another method to
come get this or you just want it on a case-by-case basis, I think that's perfectly fine. I
would recommend a roll call vote, but other than that you don't need to do a new
resolution when you're really just talking about a one time circumstance.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: It works for me. I don't have a problem. But I would like to explore the 99
year idea and my question would be how long is the lease that COMPASS and VRT has
on this building?
De Weerd: They are purchasing it.
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Rountree: They own it.
Zaremba: They are purchasing? Okay. Okay. Not a problem then.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: If there is no further questions or comments, I move that we approve the
request of MDC for the alternative compliance with respect to parking at the new
COMPASS slash VRT building.
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
D. Information Technology (I.T.) and Planning Departments Joint
Report: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Demonstration
De Weerd: Okay. Our next item is also on the Planning Department with our
transportation update, et cetera. Oh, did I -- oh, sorry, Anna. I didn't want to take away
your opportunity for a moment to shine. Sorry. Item 7-D is Anna and our IT with the
GIS demonstration.
Canning: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Had me worried there
for a second, because I get to talk to you as the GIS champion. This is one of my
favorite roles and it's one of the times where I don't have to be an unbiased observer
over here and I get to be a little more animated, so I'm going to take advantage of it
tonight in particular.
De Weerd: Especially since there is some short-termers --
Canning: Well, yeah, they all decided I could do this, because if you don't like it, they
can blame it on me and they can just move on.
Rountree: Move on.
Nary: Oh, we will.
Canning: It was unanimous.
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De Weerd: I'm sure they will milk that for everything it's worth.
Hoaglun: And, Madam Mayor, I'm just surprised there is not a hat involved in all this.
De Weerd: Yes.
Canning: Oh, man.
Rountree: Good point.
Canning: I missed my opportunity. So, where were we? So, yeah, I'm talking about the
future of GIS in Meridian today and what this is not -- this is not going to be what is GIS.
It's not a primer. It's not going to be all of the GIS plan. What I have tried to do is pick
key projects or exemplary projects I think is a better word, that -- where we have got
something now and where we want to add to it in the GIS plan. So, it's kind of a
combination of what we are doing and how we are using it now and how we saw how
can this -- this can be better. So, based on that, my lovely assistant Robin is going to
help me and the -- we are going to go over four major things tonight. One is a live
demonstration of the planning reader map and that's how Robin is going to help me out
and, then, we are going to talk about how GIS ends up in fire trucks, how the public will
use GIS defined parks and, then, how departments will use GIS for analysis. So, again,
the first one is a live demonstration of the planning reader map. Now, this is the map
that, quote, honestly, Robin I think developed for me years ago just to get me off of her
back, because when we first got there the Planning Department was just using the base
layer that the Public Works Department had and, then, we go over there and we, say,
could you put the zoning on the map and, then, like a couple of week later, say, would it
be okay -- could you put our comprehensive plan designations on the map -- and after
enough times -- I think a few months went by Robin shows up and she says, you know,
I can just make you guys a planning reader map. Here is all the data we have, what do
you want on it? So, that was a fun day. We went through and we got to pick all the
things we wanted and we had been working with a version of this map ever since.
Robin took care of us for years and now Wilma is taking care of us. There is Wilma.
And it's been an amazing tool and I'll go through some of the great things that are on
this planning reader map. What we primarily use this for is accurate information and I
think Robin is going to zoom in for us. Something that you may be familiar with. And
we use it for accurate information, like enforcement cases. You know, what did a
property look like over time. What did they have going on? Were they parking in the
railroad right of way? What kind of buildings were on the property? Have they been
enlarged. Things like that. So, here we have a lovely piece of property between
Meridian and Main right at the center of us -- for us and this is a 2003 aerial. And, then,
you can see over time -- she will put on the 2005. And it still kind of looks the same, so
you know not much happened there and, then, we go to 2007. It's been bulldozed or
there looks like there might be a pit in the middle of it and you go to 2010 --
De Weerd: That was an old abandoned well.
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Canning: You get to 2010 and you really start to see what's taking form there. So, it's
just -- that tool we use a lot for enforcement. You know, what was there, what's there
now, and, fortunately we have these aerial photographs that consistently we purchase
with COMPASS year after year and it's really an amazing tool for us. We are in there a
lot. We measure things and distances. It's not perfectly accurate, but we can go in and
measure how far somebody's shed is off the back fence line and stuff like that. So, it
gets us close enough most of the time. It really is an incredible tool. But that's not all
we have. So, we might go in and we might look at a flood plain. Well, you know, who
would think there is a flood plain just south of the railroad tracks, but it's important
information if someone is building there or wants to do a pre-app in that area, that's
really key information they need to know. So, it's easily accessible --quickly accessible
information. Another one is parks. So, we are going to go to parks and you saw a lot
about parks today. So, here we have all the parks surrounding this area. So, most of
them are special use parks and, then, we have the one neighborhood park. So, again,
just an incredibly useful, accurate, easy to pull up information. Again, this is live. So,
this is all the effort it takes is clicking off one button and clicking on another. And the
last one I want to show you on this, just as an existing one, is parcel information. Now,
this parcel information is what we get from Ada county. So, this is the stuff that
automatically comes over every time Ada county updates their files and it has all the tax
information. So, you can see here it's got the -- you know, in all honesty, I don't know
what half these numbers are. I know which ones I use all the time, but it's got the parcel
number, which is always key. We can look that up. It's got the property owner and the
address, which are always key, because we are always looking for those things. We
can -- we can go in the search lines up above and just type in an address and this tool
will take us to that property, rather than kind of hunt and peck as we go down. And,
then, as you scroll even further down it starts to talk about the legal description. This
one is kind of a weird one. It's Lot 1 through 9 and 23 through 30, including Block 1 and
it goes on for a long time. But those legal descriptions are very helpful to us as well,
particularly when you want to see where things have been changed from subdivided
property. There is a code area down there that says 03-11, just underneath the zoning,
which is also important. That's a key identifier for us, because if it's not a city property it
won't have that 03. So, that's one that we use a lot in our analyses to say, okay, if it has
an 03, then, we can -- it's annexed. If it doesn't it is being recorded as a county property
and we have done analyses over time to see if there is something that we say is zoned
for the city, but it's still showing up as the county tax rolls and that's a loss to our tax
rolls. So, that one becomes a key one. It's also got the acres, what section it's in, you
know -- and if you scroll down just a little bit more -- I think there is just a little bit more.
Yeah. So, those are -- these are all key things. The acres come in really handy. You
don't have to calculate it, it's right there for you, so you can click on it. Okay. So, that's
some of the stuff that we have been using forever, so -- but let's talk about where we
want to go with the plan. There is work being done right now as part of the addressing
layer that we want to add the existing use for every single nonresidential -- or for every
single parcel. So, it won't just say City of Meridian, there will be another layer
somewhere that will say, okay, the use is a public use, you know, that's what the
building is being used for and across the street it's going to say it's being used for an
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upholstery repair business. Or if you go over this way it's being used for a bank. Over
this way it's being used for an agricultural operation. So, city staff is starting to go
through and key in every single one of those uses around the city, which is a huge
effort, but will be an enormous benefit, particularly when you couple that with a business
data registry, which would allow you to say, okay, what of businesses do we have in the
city, what are people working on, you know, what -- what have we got to offer for the
city. So, those are two key kind of data layers that we call them that are part of the
phase one plan, part of that GIS plan that would be added to maps -- to our map,
hopefully, and to other people that may want customized maps and that's another part
of the GIS plan. There will be staff available to create these kind of maps for different
departments. One specifically for the information the clerk's office might want. One for
economic development. You know, whatever department it is they may want a
specialized map. Code enforcement. So, we can make those kind of reader maps
available to the different departments with information they find useful and relevant.
Another part of the GIS plan that affects this type of thing is how we update the map.
There are some items on here that are difficult to update. The first one -- let's look at
pathways. We are trying to improve the process for updating the pathways map. So,
here is the pathway -- some of the existing segments are shown in dark green, some of
the proposed in lighter green, and the red shows on-street maps. But keeping this up to
date as new projects come through has been difficult, but one of the phase one planned
projects is to identify a better process for updating that pathway. Another big one is
some of -- of Accella can offer in integrating Accella in to GIS. Robin went through a
number of years ago -- probably four or five. It was a long time ago. And she added
some different layers, because we had a need to measure the distance between
churches and bars that were going and there is relationships there that we need to
maintain, so we wanted to see those. So, she went through and she added all the
churches, but it was at a particular point in time. Likewise, she added liquor license
data and daycare provider data, which she's adding as you see. The daycare look like
little -- I don't know. They look like pills. I'm not sure what they are, but -- what are
they? Baseballs. Oh. Okay. And then -- and, then, the liquor licenses are the little
bars -- or the glasses. Sorry. And, then, black property outlines are on the churches.
And it looks like they may have crosses on them as well. So, what Accella would do if
every time a new church comes in there would be a cue that you need to take that
church parcel and someone in GIS needs to add that to the GIS layer. So, it's
integrating those two data systems and, likewise, with the daycare. When we process a
UP for a daycare it would go on the daycare map. Or the daycare data layer, similar for
all three of them. So, that's part of what the GIS plan will add, the depth it will add to
this GIS program. Okay. Now we are going to switch off of the live demonstration and
go to some still shots and this is where I have to ramble for a moment while -- oh, she
brought it up so fast. I was ready to ramble longer. Okay. So, these are actual screen
shots We didn't pull this from some other city. But we felt it was better to not risk trying
to do live demonstrations on some of the other things, so we have screen shots for you.
The first slide in this presentation -- oh, yeah. This is where I take over. I forgot. Is --
this is just a GANTT chart of phase one and, again, I'm going to go through this whole
thing. I starred some of the ones I have already talked about in green and some of the
ones I'm going to talk about I starred in blue. I just wanted to assure you that we are
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referencing the plan and that -- that there is more behind this, but I'm not going to go
into it right now. That's -- someone else gets to do that for you for the budget
presentation. Or if you have questions about that we will be able to answer those later
tonight. All right. So, now we are going to move to how does GIS end up in the fire
trucks. So, this is -- Mark says that's a good question. How does it end up there. So,
what happens is the -- I think it's the Public Works Department goes out and collects
data, the water division, on exactly where those fire hydrants are. So, this employee is
holding ahand-held GPS device -- there we go. And he's standing right over that
hydrant, so he can get a reading from satellites as to where that is. So, that's what's
going on right there. So, that goes into the GIS system and also goes out to Hansen
and the Hansen system also adds information on that -- that fire hydrant as well. So,
those two systems talk to one another and part of the GIS plan is actually to integrate
them more. I'll get into that. The GIS system -- currently we will also produce a paper
map for the fire departments from the GIS, so they are getting paper maps that
presumably they hang in the fireplace. I get a nod there. And, then, the -- the other
thing that GIS does is we push that out to the Ada County Sheriff to their GIS system
and, then, they are able to push that out to the mobile data terminals in the fire trucks.
So, here is a screen shot of one of the mobile data terminals and you can see here is --
here is City Hall and here is the fire truck. It's going down the railroad right of way. I
love it. And, then, you can see all the fire hydrants that they have to choose from. So,
they can -- as they are traveling to the site they can say, okay, this is the hydrant we
need to set up at and this is where we need to go. So, rather than just looking for the
blue reflective devices in the middle of the street. They know exactly where they need
to head. And, again, part of the phase one program is to better integrate Hansen into
that model. So, it will provide a greater ability to determine accurate sewer and water
infrastructure location, including hydrants, to perform asset maintenance, so you could
-- you could know that that fire hydrant was getting the maintenance and testing and
love and tender care it needed over time to function -- to have superior working
condition and make sure it really is available for those firefighters when they need it.
Okay. How the public will use GIS to find parks. This one is pretty cool and it's almost
done, but not quite. It's an outward facing website, which is geek talk. Sorry. Geeks
behind me. That means that it's for the -- the public to actually access. So, most of
these other things are just available to city staff, but this would be one that the public
could access. So, it's a prototype of an outward facing website that allows users to find
parks in Meridian. So, you can see all the parks are kind of showing up and it looks just
like the one Steve presented earlier, amazingly enough. So, they can click on one of
those parks and find all the amenities at that location. So, here we have got Settlers;
right? I think we have got Settlers up. And it's a regional park. It's 56.12 acres. It has
open play areas. It has covered picnic area. It has a picnic area. It has a playground.
Restrooms. It doesn't have volleyball. Got to talk to Steve about that one. It's got
soccer. It's got baseball. You can tell. So, that's pretty cool; right? So, they can click
and find out what that's all about. Or they can decide, okay, I want to find a park that
has restrooms, playground and a picnic area. What are my choices? So, they pull
down the amenities, they click which ones they want and, then, shabam -- there, that's
the word I was looking for. Here is all the parks that they can pick from. Okay? So, we
have got Bear Creek, Champion, Chateau, Gordon Harris, Meridian Settlers,
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Renaissance, Season and Storey or Tully. Then, they can click on that and it zooms
them into where that's located, so that they can find out how to get there and it gives
them a view of the park. So, pretty cool. Pretty cool stuff. And, again, that's almost
done. It is waiting for Accella to be online, so that there can be attention paid to it. It
needs a little attention. So, next we are going to talk about how departments will use
GIS for analysis and so the first thing I need to talk about is a little bit of the structure
how we are proposing that GIS be structured in the city and we are proposing a hybrid
model that has both distributed and centralized GIS within the city. So, what that means
is we have got IT, who has the servers, the data, that will provide support, training, and
development of the GIS program. Meanwhile, we have departments, like Public Works,
who have their own staff that are capable of doing the data editing, doing the mapping
and doing the querying. So, they have fully qualified GIS staff equivalent to what IT will
have, but -- so they can do all that stuff on their own. Now, there is some other
departments with dedicated GIS resources, but they tend to be specialized. One is like
the police with Elizabeth Ashworth, who is able to do some of those GIS resources.
Even Brian McClure of my office, who is able to do some things, but doesn't have the
full range of GIS capability. So, they would do what they can with help from GIS. But
for those departments without any dedicated GIS, we would have a case management
system similar to what IT has right now for their projects. So, these other departments
would put in a work request and IT would schedule that and push that back out. So,
that's what the -- this is the centralized and this would be kind of more the idea of this
distributed model. So, examples I have is one from each and we are going onto that.
The first one is with the water and wastewater modeling. So, this is something Public
Work can do on their own. It is part of the GIS plan. There is components of it that we
are all working on, but this is how they do their modeling. So, historically they did have
a water system model and it was a customized model, it wasn't a package program.
Every time GIS was upgraded this model program didn't automatically update with it,
there was no support, no service for it, so it was -- they did have the capabilities to do
water modeling, but it was very customized. And they didn't have the ability to do sewer
modeling. But this is where it -- so, particularly on the sewer they weren't able to
provide accurate and timely information on the capacity of the collection system and
they had a limited ability to determine when the wastewater treatment plan really
needed to be upgraded. They kept track of it, but -- and they assessed it over time, but
it wasn't immediate modeling such as they had for the water and it was difficult for them
to determine exactly when to do expansion projects. So, you all know that I have been
coming here as GIS champion for awhile now. It's taken us awhile to develop this plan.
So, in the course of adding projects such as the sewer and water modeling, the Public
Works Department has gotten funds for things and funded them. So, they have them
both now, which is great. But it was and is part of the plan. So, I will show you how
those work through GIS. This is that same area you were just looking at the aerial of
and what we have got now is the proposed subdivision sewer and water lines. The
water model setup takes that information and runs the model and it kicks out the water
model results and on this one it's kind of neat, it shows that the development of
pressure zone one, the fire flow available to a remote portion of the subdivision isn't
enough. So, what the developer had to do was up size some of the proposed water
lines to meet those fire flow demands. So, what an amazing tool as that subdivision is
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coming through the process we can say you're going to need to update or upgrade
some of these proposed water lines, so that we can assure fire flow is adequate. Pretty
cool stuff. Similarly, with water, this is the results of the water model and -- oops. And I
lost my text, unfortunately, and it -- it -- what it -- and maybe Warren can help me out.
There was supposed to be another slide that explained the differences between the
colors. Red basically means that there is problems with it. Green basically means go.
So, I apologize -- it didn't show up. It's not. So, something -- something happened with
that.
Stewart: Yeah. I was going to say, that's basically correct. As we run the sewer model
green is good, red is bad. There is a series of -- the darker that line gets the more of
the capacity of that pipe that's utilized and so you can determine not only in the close
proximity to the proposed development, which is sort of what we have been limited to in
the past is pretty close proximity, we can look way downstream and determine the
impacts of that development as it flows towards the treatment plant much more
accurately than we have ever been able to. And the great thing about this -- yeah,
thank you, Warren. The great thing about this is that it is part our GIS -- it's an add on
to our GIS program. So, as the GIS is upgraded this -- the company provides support
and -- for that add on and bringing it forward in time. So, that's the best part. Okay.
Now, we are going to move to the kind of analysis for those departments that have less
GIS resources. So, the first one we are going to do is a golf course example and say,
for example, we wanted to find out -- we wanted to notify everybody that adjoins the golf
course that something was going on, so we need to create a noticing list for those folks.
So, with a rather simple GIS query we can -- we can develop that property owner list of
everyone that has a parcel bordering Lake View Golf Club. This is a rather simple one,
but there are more complicated ones. For instance, say you had a concern with
individual wells and septics going on in areas that we had planned for sewer provision,
so what we wanted to do was find all the parcels in our area of city impact that are not
annexed, that are less than five acres in area, because we -- basically if you're over five
acres you're called a farm in the state of Idaho and you can kind do whatever you want.
And, finally, that are within 50 feet of a water or sewer line. So, imagine the time and
resources it would take without GIS to create that map. It's just phenomenal what we
can do. And, then, we could take that list and find out which ones are close to the --
that could be annexed to the city, if that's what you're interested in, it could be which
ones do we maybe want to put a water line out or reach out to because they are having
issues -- you could do any number of things with those. We can easily -- here is a little
blow up so you can see all those parcels and their relationship. And, then, we have the
capability to easily add that -- take that parcel list and create mailing labels and mail out
to each of those individuals. So, pretty slick stuff. The GIS plan going forward is to
make sure that we have staff available for that centralized support for both those
functions. So, that's really what the GIS plan is is having those individuals available and
accessible to do that with -- with time to work on those projects and that's specifically
part of the plan. When we -- we went through and assigned number there was always
time assigned for support of the different departments in doing analyses such as like --
as this. So, moving on to my conclusion. I have briefly introduced phase one of the
GIS plan. Again, I'm not trying to -- to show the whole plan, I just wanted to show you
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some of our existing projects and how they will be better with more resources, allotted
to GIS and expanding the department's -- different departments use of GIS data.
Improving the process to update the data. Integrating other functions, such as Hansen
and Accella to improve analysis capabilities and the accuracy of data and increasing the
services available from centralized GIS personnel. So, again, thanks for giving us this
opportunity to show off GIS a little bit and what we want to do with it and I have to give
thanks to not only Robin -- my sidekick Robin, but also to Wilma, Warren, and Brian on
this presentation. They were great. I just did the outline and they got all the images
ready and made it a great presentation. And, then, also, even bigger thanks to Rich
Dees, Terry Paternoster, John McCormick, Tom Barry, and all the members of the GIS
team, they really were a great team and worked together to come up with a great plan
for the city and an implementation strategy as well. So, we would be happy to answer
any questions and as the slide says: Experts are standing by to assist.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
I
Bird: I have none, Mayor.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree
Rountree: Thank you all. That's kind of what I asked for when I made the suggestion
you show us what you got and how you use it. One thing I didn't hear you say and --
how is the distribution of maintaining the data layers -- because you're only as good as
your data layers. So, is that centralized or does each department have an assigned
responsibility to update certain layers or how does that go about? And Terry is back
there shaking his head yeah.
Canning: Well, Idon't -- the way it's currently structured we -- in the plan we identified
some of those data layers that weren't being maintained -- where no one had real
possession of them. Pathways was -- it was bouncing back between -- back and forth
between parks, planning, and Robin and we never ever quite knew where the real
pathways plan was. Fire -- some of the firehouse mapping stuff was the same way. So,
the plan goes through and identifies the data layers that need to have a process
defined. On the ones where that -- we didn't feel that was an issue or already
established we didn't address those. But most of those do have clear ownership.
Largely Public Works, but we did identify key ones where it wasn't being addressed.
Rountree: Very good.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
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Hoaglun: Just to follow up on Councilman Rountree's question. Mine was one with
similar vein about data collection and updates. Because like I noticed on the live one
when we were talking about the churches, one church has changed to a charter school
and Ten Mile Christian Church wasn't shown yet and -- and that's just one example.
And I know things have all been changed and so down the road are we going to be
looking at personnel needs to keep things updated, because it is a large task and it's
only going to be effective if it is up to speed and it's a great tool, so shall we be looking
down the road to not be surprised that there is going to be requests for assistance for
personnel to do these things down the road?
Canning: Well, with Accella any new conversion that comes through. So, where an
existing church is now a school, Accella will take that information and it will send a Q out
to -- you know, a big club on top of a head kind of Q that, you know, GIS needs to be
updated. This -- this is a data layer, you have to update this in GIS. So, that's part of
that Accella integration. Now, getting the base map correct right now, that's part of that
existing use, because those churches will show up as a specific category in that existing
use effort tied to the addressing and that's kind of a state mandate that we have had, so
-- but it will be incredible information to have all those uses, so --
Hoaglun: Okay. And afollow-up question, Madam Mayor. Outward facing website, it's
going to be available on the city website, number one, and, number two, are there plans
for -- for mobile apps, if you will. Smart phone applications that are getting more and
more prevalent. People want to know, they are out and about, hey, let's go to XYZ,
that's part of the city, and they can -- they can get that information. Where are we on
that, so --
Canning: I know we are talking about the website. I don't think we have been talking
mobile apps yet.
Hoaglun: And -- Madam Mayor. That maybe down the road.
Canning: That may be several states behind me.
Hoaglun: That's something down the road, but that is something -- a few weeks ago I
was in Disney World and it's amazing what you could download on the Smartphone to
find out what you want to go to and where you want to go. I mean it was amazing to get
a fast pass and know where that is and to do those types of things. I mean that's where
we are evolving to and I think the city needs to keep up, albeit we will be a little behind,
you know, places like Walt Disney World, but, you know, something that we want to be
thinking about as we move forward. So, anyway, just a thought.
Canning: A little bit of different resources there. So, I get to tell one story, because I
don't think I have ever told this. So, I worked for Disney World for a little while and I was
at this meeting with like 12 VPs, you know, and I used to sit there and count up how
much their suits cost. I mean it was just phenomenal how much money was in that
room. But they were talking about -- the state was going to shut down their intersection
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-- their off ramp to work on it and they were just livid, they are like why don't they just let
us do it, we will have it done in ten days, you know, we don't care if it costs ten million
dollars, we will do it. You know, I'm just like, whoa, that's a lot of money. A little
different resources there, but it would be cool. Okay. I'll quit telling stories. Sorry.
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to comment that Ihave --Ihave
had the opportunity to sit in on a number of the GIS committee meetings and this
presentation was very helpful and useful to me, in addition to all of those, but I also
wanted to say how much I appreciated your leadership, championship, sponsorship of --
of getting this going and getting the plan going and everybody else that was on the
committee that's had a big part in contributing and getting it going, but I think it's a great
move and important not only for our workers to be able to do their work, but for the
citizens to be able to learn things about the city quicker and more efficiently and I think
that's great.
Canning: It's just an amazing tool. I mean databases just in and of themselves are an
amazing tool. And you tie a map to it and it just really is phenomenal what you can do
and there is -- the more people start using it, the bigger the GIS plan list will get,
because it will just spark those ideas of, you know, what if we had a mobile app, how
cool would that be? And, you know, it just really is a key tool for the future of the city I
think.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions from Council?
Rountree: Ihave none.
De Weerd: Thank you very much, Anna.
Canning: You're welcome.
De Weerd: Thank you, Wilma and Terry.
E. Planning Department: Transportation Update on Projects,
Priorities and Studies - Includes a Discussion on Eagle Road
Improvements; Ada County Highway District's (ACRD) Draft
Cost Share Ordinance; Airport -Overland Study; and E. 3rd
Street.
De Weerd: Okay. You're up now, Caleb. I won't skip anyone else.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Mayor, welcome back
stateside. Good to see you again.
De Weerd: Thank you.
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Hood: Here for my regular presentation and check in on transportation happenings in
the city. I do want to first point out there is one thing on the agenda tonight that I won't
be updating you on and that's 3rd Street. Adam Zaragosa, the project manager at
ACHD, is on vacation. I tried to touch base with him earlier this week to see if there was
an update, so that will be forthcoming in a future presentation. A couple of other things
that aren't on -- specified specifically in the agenda item this evening, but Fairview
Avenue and the access management plan, I have been working with that team over at
ACHD as well and I'm asking for permission tonight to add an agenda item to your
workshop in August and bring Lisa Applebee, the project manager there, to kind of run
through that corridor, at least the Meridian segments of it, and maybe we will go into
Boise a little bit, to just get some feedback and touch base with you, it's been quite
awhile since we talked about Fairview in depth, so I'd just -- I'd like to bring that back in
two months during your workshop in August and discuss that with you. So, if you have
any problems with that, please, a-mail me or call and we can work something else out if
August 9th doesn't work. I think maybe National Night Out is the 2nd, so that gets
canceled, but if the 9th could work, maybe work with the clerk, too, on that date. But
sometime in the near future anyways. And just another announcement. You may have
seen some of the welcome signs up and around town. I'm glad we didn't go with the
smaller sign, driving by they really don't look that large, but you should see them around
town, so going up -- I just also want to point out that we are -- our sign committee is
working towards sending out an RFP for the monument signs, so kind of the next step
up, the more elaborate signs. Don't know what those will look like yet, but RFPs will be
-- the RFP will be released shortly for that next phase of the welcome signs, so -- and,
then, I'm going to jump into the memo that I prepared for tonight and just quickly touch
on a couple of other projects. Locust Grove -McMillan opened on June 1st, a couple
months early, Chinden -Linder. I haven't been out there this week, but it should be
going under construction right away. So, just a heads up if you get any correspondence
there, that that intersection is going to be widened and work will be beginning shortly, if
it hasn't already started. So, a couple of items that we are going to need to spend a
little bit more time on this evening. The first one being the cost share ordinance at
ACHD. So, ACHD has sent out a draft cost share ordinance. They have scheduled a
public hearing for June 22nd. So, that's next Wednesday. We did -- 1 did send out a
letter to all via a-mail on Thursday or Friday of last week, it was shortly after your packet
went out. I have received some comments and I'd like to distribute that same letter with
some changes that were made and, then, we can maybe talk about any additional
changes that you all would like to see this evening. I would like to get your comments
back this evening and hopefully get it signed here ASAP. Again, that meeting is coming
up next Wednesday, so we do have some time. I'm not putting pressure on you to sign
it this evening, but if we can work out some of the details. One of the things that we
have added is a signature line that includes all of your names, so that is something that
will need to be routed through the Council. So, if we can do that tonight, great. If not, at
least by next Tuesday to get all of your signatures. And, then, also part of my request is
that someone attends that meeting with me next Wednesday night if at all possible. I
just think it would be a little more well received coming from at least one of the Council
Members or Mayor next Wednesday night. So, I will leave it at that and I'll hand out the
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revised letter for your consideration. So, most of the changes in the letter -- I would
consider them to be fairly minor. Most of them were made by Robert. I think they do
make the letter a little more easy to read. Kind of gets to the point and I kind of tend to
ramble sometimes in some of the letters, but I'm not going to necessarily point out any
other changes to the letter. They are, again, 'more grammatical in nature. One thing
maybe to point out just in the format, there is an attachment that will be added. Briefly
spoke to Mr. Nary today, he actually spoke to me about it, but we would work on putting
together an attachment that have underlines of exactly what we would propose to be
changed in the draft ordinance. Those are probably the major changes of the
attachment and, then, requesting that you all sign this letter and it's the one on the
22nd. So, I think that's about it for the letter. I do have some draft comments from the
city of Boise, city of Kuna. I did call Bill Vaughn in Eagle and played a little phone tag
yesterday. I have not talked to him about what Eagle intends to do regarding this
matter, but can certainly share with you if you have need the city of Boise's draft
comments anyways. Kuna already sent their letter in to ACHD. So, we share a lot of
the same concerns with the draft ordinance, so just to kind of bring that up real quick. I
will stand for any questions or comments you may have on the draft letter and ready to
take notes if you have any additional changes to the latter. Again, it hasn't changed
substantially from what you, hopefully, reviewed over the weekend or since last week.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Caleb, I think it's a fine letter and it addresses the points we have bought up,
specifically I think maybe in a less articulate manner with ACHD a few weeks ago. I do,
however, have a question on the last sentence on the first page, the third paragraph. It
says: Unfortunately, we believe the draft ordinance will place additional tax burden on
the public. I don't know that that's really a fair analysis. It's -- it's a tax burden above
and beyond what ACHD is willing to pay for that would be borne by the cities, but if
ACHD is going to pay for it, it's still going to be borne by the same taxpayer. We are all
in this boat together. So, to me it doesn't make any sense.
Hood: I can simply remove that line, if that's --
Rountree: One I think could make an argument that it's probably more efficient to have
ACHD design and construct some of these things than to have us do it on our own, but
to me that's stretching the point.
Hood: And we could rewrite this, because that was the point, I think, is it would be more
efficient if it could be just designed once, rather than the city having to contract out --
Rountree: Yeah.
Hood: --similar work to another contractor to do design things that are typically covered
in our roadway designs, so --
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Rountree: But, then, I would respond by saying enter into the agreements as you have
done in the past and pay us the money up front. So, to me it's just a sentence that
doesn't kind of -- makes it in a round about point.
Hood: I can remove the --
Rountree: I would say to remove it.
Hood: -- line. That's fine.
De Weerd: Any other comments or thoughts?
Hood: Thank you. I will move on and I will run upstairs and -- and print that off for your
signature this evening, then. Thank you. So, moving on, the next item in my memo is
the Airport -Overland study and this is something we have discussed now three, four,
five, six times over the past year or so. I do want to point out that Jeff Lowe --Jeff Lowe
from ACHD is here. He's been involved at the TAC meetings with -- with Sabrina over
there at ACHD, but he's been here -- he's here this evening. He has helped with some
of our recent requests regarding the modeling request for Lamont and the impacts
there, working with Lamar at ACHD. So, he's here to answer any questions or just any
comments needed that the Council has. I do have a handout for you here in just a
minute. Again, the Council requested -- I think it was just last month's meeting when I
was here that some modeling be done on the two remaining alternatives at that time,
which were 2-B and 2-C, as you can see on the overhead there, and that impact of
those alignments at our arterial intersections down Lamont. Councilman Rountree
brought up the -- the concern of having -- or the differences in the intersection of the
alternatives at the mid mile, which would be, basically, in alignment with Lamont, so
here is existing Lamont, versus something that's about a third of a mile away from --
from Overland Road. So -- sorry. Over here. So, there is existing Overland. Those
are the two differences in 2B and 2C. So, we have done some -- some looking at that.
Also something that came up during the joint public meeting where we -- that we held
over here in conference room A and B a couple of months ago where the impacts to the
-- the Busy Bee gravel pit, which is, again, right here. So, we looked at that.
Parametrics has contracted with the city of Nampa to look at some of that and I will
provide you a handout as well on that. And, then, some intersection analysis. I just
wanted to share with you some of the analysis that was done -- or at least the findings
that were done regarding signalized, roundabouts, and lane configuration. So, I have
got a couple of handouts for you at this time regarding this project and we will just
spend a few minutes on these. So, I'm going to hand those out now. So, the one with
the pretty colors is the modeling that was done by ACHD primarily to look at Lamont.
So, there was a concern about prior to this connection being made, this new arterial
road being constructed, but with the Ten Mile interchange now being on line, the
amount of people on the western part of the county and even into Nampa potentially
coming down Overland Road, south on Black Cat and using Lamont to get over to Ten
Mile and, then, up onto the freeway, so we looked at that -- Lamar looked at that, that's
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the first line that you see on that is the -- the no build in 2015 the model shows that
there is approximately 600 cars per day -- vehicles per day that would use Lamont. The
rest -- then, if you look further down there is a table that shows no builds. If you did
nothing on Lamont what the trips would look like, if you didn't cul-de-sac either end of
Lamont and, then, the other -- or cul-de-sacking Lamont on the west end and the other
one is cul-de-sacking Lamont on the east end. So, you can see those traffic volumes
and certainly it decreases if you do something and I'm not here tonight to propose that
we do anything, but I do want to let you know that we and ACHD, being a large part of
that, will monitor Lamont -- in fact, they are going to throw out hoses down next week I
think Jeff said to get a new updated count for Lamont with the Ten Mile interchange now
being open to see what the real number is today of the number of people using Lamont
to either get to or from Ten Mile, so -- now some of those will be local cars, local trips,
but -- but it will give us a more accurate number of what the data is today, so -- and,
then, the other -- the three exhibits on there just show those numbers. So, essentially,
the table shows you what the alternatives look like. So, again, I'm not proposing tonight
any of those -- to do anything on Lamont. We need to have that discussion with the
neighborhood, we need to monitor it. We need to come up with some game plan with
ACHD. But I think something needs to be thought about before 2035 and something --
there needs to be a threshold that when reached the neighborhood says this is what we
want to see, we want to see it cul-de-sacked on Ten Mile or on the west end or maybe
it's both. So, we will do some public outreach, that will be some of the next steps. So,
outside of this study, but certainly in conjunction with the findings of this study we will
put in some implementation things that talk about the need to look at Lamont a little
more closely. So, that's one of the things that I just wanted to share with you and I will
pause if there are any questions on that chart, the table, or the exhibits while Jeffs here
and if not I will move on.
De Weerd: Council, any comments or questions?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Not specifically Lamont, but just when we did have that meeting here some
of the ACHD commissioners expressed a desire to have a public input meeting in Ada
county. There have been several, but they have all been in Canyon county and I think
some of us expressed a thought that maybe we should have a joint public hearing and
is anything happening?
Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Zaremba, yes, and that's, actually, one of the things
I want to talk to you about maybe at the end. We can do that now, too.
Zaremba: I didn't mean to jump the gun. I'm sorry.
Hood: No. You're fine. Just -- I want to kind of give you all this information and see
what your comfort level is, if you're ready to move forward with a public hearing and
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potentially adoption of this study or if you want to have another workshop to kind of get
more familiar with this or kind of what your comfort level is after going through a couple
of the other documents that I have got here just real quick. So, let me put just a quick
placeholder on that, but that's a question I have got for you is what -- what you would
like -- what you all would like to do next. So, I'll talk about Busy Bee real quick, if that's
okay, and the other attachment that I gave you this evening is a memo that was
prepared by Parametrics regarding moving the alignment slightly for alternative 2B to,
basically, intersect Black Cat a little bit further north than what's shown on this diagram.
So, somewhere up here. So, you miss Mr. Eggers mint distillery and some of the other
structures that are covered by the teal and purple lines there and, then, drop the
alignment down something like that. It is a pit, so that's what some of the analysis does
is what are the costs, what are the impacts, what are some assumptions and a couple
of the conditions. One would assume that the property owner would reclaim the site in
a manner where ACHD, basically, could just come in and build a road. Condition two
says, no, we got to excavate some of that back out, compact it, bring in some good fill
and kind of what that would cost. Long story short in that memo -- I will let you read it
for yourself -- but it basically says realigning -- as poorly drawn on this exhibit, but
realigning that intersection up north a little bit more, even if the highway district or a
private developer excavates a couple of feet out to compact it so it can accept a road,
it's going to be cheaper than displacing that -- that building and that business or any of
the homes that are -- I think there is two right in that general area. So, the impacts to
that business were about 350,000 dollars. I think they netted about 167,000 dollars if
it's backfilled. So, to change the alignment slightly on 2B seems to be a better use of
funds, whether it be -- whoever's funds, because that business could still stay there or at
least that portion of it could still stay there. So, that's something of the analysis there,
very high level. They went into a lot more detail than I just did, but there is some
analysis there that I just wanted to share with you about what the fill generally would
cost in today's dollars. So, I don't know if there is anymore comments on that. We have
met with -- I think there is two or three families that actually have an interest in the
gravel pit and we have met with at least a couple of the brothers that have a partial
interest in that -- own a majority of that, as well as Mr. Eggers before. But we have met
with them and this was something they asked us to explore a little bit more, so we
looked into it to kind of see what the impacts would be and thus the memo, so -- again I
don't know if there is any comments or questions on that. If not I'm going to move onto
to intersections just real quick. And this is for the whole Council, but particularly
Councilman Rountree. Parametrics did not look at the -- at a very high level they looked
at the intersections of the arterial roads, but they didn't study one versus the other.
They didn't look at Route B versus Route C at that particular intersection and seeing
what -- what alignment would be better. I think that's partially why we asked ACHD to
look at the modeling on Lamont. If I could just real quick reference you back to that
second page or maybe it's even on the first page of the first handout that I gave you, it
shows a little tweak in Lamont, so it intersects this new route, this alternative, so Lamont
wouldn't be in a straight alignment and you couldn't -- you wouldn't get that cut-through
traffic. So, I think there will need to be some changes made to Lamont regarding
whether it's cul-de-sacked or not, something is going to have to happen on that western
end of Lamont today in the future and we will need to look at that a little bit more. But I
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am of the mind I guess today that I think the route and its location, although not at the
half mile, the interstate kind of throws a little wrench in here, the half mile arterial or
collector network, if you tried to put a major roadway every half mile generally. So, you
have got Overland, which really isn't going to be that through road there anyways, so
you kind of have, essentially, a collector road -- Overland at that point is sort of a
collector road, because the volumes really won't be there, they will be on this roadway,
so it's really about a mile away from the interstate. I think it's far enough away --
although, again, Ihaven't -- we looked at this at a high level with Paramedics, but not
knowing what that interchange design is going to look like when State Highway -- and I
know you all talked about that tonight getting down to I-84, but there is rumblings of it
south even. So, some day when it goes south I think we are outside of that influence
area even with where Route B intersects in moving that just slightly north, kind of where
I drew that red circle on the overhead. I think we are still outside of that influence area
and there still could be a major intersection there or incorporated into the design of a
future interchange at I-84. So, I don't know as that fully answers the question or not, but
that's kind of where we are at today and I'm willing to dig deeper if that's what's needed.
So, I did -- the last point I want to make on my presentation this evening is last week --
two weeks ago now we did receive the draft corridor plan. I submitted my comments to
Parametics. The plan does recommend 2B as the preferred alternative. That
recommendation comes after the public policy meeting or that group meeting where
there wasn't really a recommendation made, but we had to pick one alignment to move
forward with to do some of the intersection analysis, it just -- it's cost prohibitive to keep
looking at two alternatives at that level of detail throughout the process, so they made a
decision at the TAC -- we made a decision at the TAC to say all things are essentially
equal, but we have got a little bit more public support for 2B, so that seems to be where
we are at now. Now, as Councilman Zaremba pointed out, official public hearing hasn't
been held on this matter, so there has been two public information meetings held in
Canyon county and there has been pretty good turnouts, but there hasn't been that
official public hearing in front of you all or ACHD's commission, for that matter. So, I just
wanted tb let you know that that's what the -- the draft plan says, kind of the last piece of
that is the implementation language and I'm working with Jeff and ACHD on kind of
finishing up what that looks like for the city and how we will implement this plan and
eventually get this roadway constructed through development. But I will ask the
question now, then, what the Council would like to do next. Do you want to have a joint
meeting with ACHD, do you want to have just a workshop with us, do you want to do --
are you ready for a public hearing, are there any concerns with 2B being the preferred
alternative at this point and going forward under the assumption that the public
testimony will bring you to that same conclusion or -- I guess I'm looking for some
direction.
De Weerd: Council?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, my question is -- is alternative 2B consistent with our comp
plan and if it is why would we be having a public hearing, since the roads are the
responsibility of ACHD and Idon't -- to me I think it would be confusing to the public
that, well, the city of Nampa, the city of Meridian, they are going to have public hearings
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and, then, Ada County Highway District and Nampa Highway District and if there is
another road district in Canyon county that has part of that alignment, which I don't think
they do, but, anyway, you have got, then, the city of Nampa's roads department, so how
many public hearings do we need? It seems to me one ought to be sufficient to cover
all of our needs and after the public hearing that's when ACHD, city of Nampa, Nampa
Highway District, and the city of Meridian would make their opinion known to either
advance the project or modify it based on public testimony, as opposed to endorsing it
now -- it can be identified as the preferred alternative, but not the selected alternative.
You always have the no build as a recourse.
Hood: Yeah. So, to answer the -- Madam Mayor. The first part of your question,
Councilman Rountree, the preferred alternative at this point, alternative 2B, is not
inconsistent with our Comprehensive Plan. Our Comprehensive Plan is pretty vague as
to extension. It basically just says extend Overland Road from here to the county line.
It doesn't specify an alignment. So, there are no inconsistencies with -- with the
preferred alternative and our Comprehensive Plan. Now, you're right, we probably
technically don't have to have a public hearing to adopt a study as presented by
Parametrics and paid for by Nampa through some federal grant money, but there did
seem to be some willingness and want on the part of at least one or two of the ACHD
commissioners, if not more, to discuss this with you all. Now, I have also heard one of
them say whatever Meridian picks I'm good with that. So, I don't really know what the
consensus is, I have not heard them all say, yes, we want to have a joint public hearing
with the city of Meridian on this. So, I don't know that it's fully. necessary, but it has
been discussed from early on in this process, just so we are on the same page. What
we were trying to avoid is the city of Meridian adopting alternative 2B and ACHD
adopting 2C. You know, just-- if there were any discrepancies like that or we want to
see 2B with a tweak in it and they don't want to see that or whatever. Just to have us at
the same table, hear the same comments from the same constituents at the same time
and make, hopefully, the same decision on the matter, so -- you wouldn't have to do
that, because -- because we will -- you could endorse this by resolution, if that's another
way you wanted to go or not touch it right now at all. But part of that implementation
plan -- I mentioned I'm working with Jeff and ACHD and Parametrics -- will be some
language about the city incorporating elements of this study into our Comprehensive
Plan and that will be a public hearing. If we are going to put some text in our Comp
Plan that will be open for -- for public testimony, so if you don't want to have two or three
public hearings on this, I don't think you would have to. That's why I'm here. If you just
want to do it that way and have it be as part of our Comprehensive Plan, we can tackle
it that way. At least I need that one at least public hearing so we can incorporate some
of this into our Comprehensive Plan.
De Weerd: Any further questions on that?
Rountree: No.
Bird: I have none.
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De Weerd: Okay.
Hood: Okay. The last thing that I want to talk to you this evening about is Eagle Road.
So, June 2nd I attended the public information meeting, public open house, on Eagle
Road at the -- I can't remember the name of the church there -- community center
church on North Eagle Road -- regarding the Eagle Road pavement rehab, center
median, and ADA upgrade project that's currently planned for 2012. Now, it was
previously planned for 2013, but ITD is going to advance that into 2012. There are a
couple of issues that I wanted to call to your attention this evening. I have already
made some comments on behalf of the city to ITD and asked some questions of the
project manager Wade Christiansen and some other ITD staff that were there, but I did
want to call at least the major concerns that I have to you and see if you think it's
valuable to also send a letter with either the Mayor's signature or all the Council again,
but the public comment period does close at the end of this week. So, if we are going to
send -- if the Council wants to send something -- I know Councilman Zaremba was
there as well and I saw him scribbling some notes on a public comment form as well,
but if -- if the Council would like to send a letter I can take notes this evening and just
draw something up for the Mayor's signature later this week, but I want to just point out
some of the things that I think are pretty critical in this project and I'm just going to
quickly go through the corridor with you. I think that's going to tell the story probably the
best. So, we are going to start at Franklin Road and you know the section from Franklin
to Fairview just got redone last summer -- August, first of August, through mid August I
think is that project, so -- Franklin is going to be on the left-hand side of the screen and
what you see in red -- and I realize that, you know, we are looking at a mile at a time,
so, sorry, Mayor, the scale is not all that great, but they come in mile segments on the
aerial photos, so -- so Franklin is at the south end. There is a signal there, obviously.
The first break in the median is at Lanark. So, there will be athree-quarter turn
movement there at Lanark, so you can turn into the site from either -- into R.C. Willey,
Ashley site, from southbound Eagle Road or into Van Auker's and John Deere and all
that back in the industrial complex on the other way on Lanark. So, that's the first
break. This little break you see here is just for the railroad. They have a need for the
railroad, so you see a little break. Missed the mark, but -- and, then, the next break is at
Pine, so the signal there at Pine. And, then, the next signal at Presidential and, then,
finally, the next break -- the last break is at Florence. Now, one thing I want to point out
in this mile segment is I did talk with Sam Johnson at that same public meeting at -- at
the church there on Eagle Road, the public information meeting and I know that Scentsy
is preparing to present a letter, if they haven't already, to ITD regarding this location. I
have also talked to Colby Hawker, the Hawkins Company, and they have the property
here where the Equip Rent business is and there is definitely some concerns with there
not being a break there and I think the city should support the request to have an
additional break in this median in this mile. If you look at the segmenting -- and, sorry,
my -- I'm sure it's not going to be, but the spacing on that is perfect to allow athree-
quarter access into there. You have some pretty large vehicles and some other things
in there that to me it just makes some sense, if you're going to allow the driveways at
these other public streets, I don't see the rationale for not allowing it there at
Commercial. So, that would be one of my requests this evening is if the Council does
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want to send a letter that we request that an additional break in this mile segment be
included at that location. So, that's the first kind of point that I wanted to point out in this
mile. I think everything else is pretty much expected. So, you can make a u-turn at
Pine and, then, three-quarter movements at the other breaks, so -- so I'm going to move
to the next mile, then, Fairview to Ustick. The first thing I'm going to point out here is --
actually could have been pointed out on the other mile segment, but it's at the
intersection of Fairview and Eagle. So, I'm sure you all are aware there are the four
splitter islands for the free right there on Eagle Road. I talked to Wade a little bit about
that and as of right now they are not proposing to modify those at all. So, here is one of
the fatal flaws that I see with this. They are putting -- they are sending people to these
signalized intersections to make u-turns, yet they are not going to make any
accommodations for somebody actually making a u-turn, so they will have to either go
up on the curb or do a three point turn in the intersection or something to actually make
that radius around, if you're going southbound and you want to go northbound it's going
to be near impossible for a lot of vehicles. So, that's something that I think they could
look at, they just haven't to this point, but I think we need to drive that point home. It's --
they know about it now, but I think without that you're going to have a lot of frustrated
drivers, you're going to cause more incidents, probably, than exist today and that's a lot,
but that's one of my major concerns is that those islands aren't being addressed with
this project and some modifications to those for removal of those, because you got the
free right, too, and so I know a lot of people yield there like they are supposed to, but
the u-turns are going to be new, so if there is not some signage and some things put in
to -- to yield to people making u-turns, I just see it being problematic without some
additional thought in design being put forth. So, that's one of the major things I wanted
to call out to you. So, moving down the corridor, then, you got the future Center Cal
access shown in these plans and, then, a future signal at River Valley. I will keep
moving on. But we might come back to that if -- if we need to. Now, the other thing that
I thought was a little squirrelly in the design is the location where they placed the next
break in the median and that's in between two existing accesses that go behind Norco
and the Five Guys and Pinnacle and some of those businesses that are in here. Their
existing accesses are here. There is an existing access -- there is a sandwich shop and
bike shop and all that over in here. But they have placed that three-quarter movement
right where nobody can use it, so, really, it's just a u-turn -- it's a u-turn island. So, what
I would like the Council to request ITD -- and I already made the request -- is that they
either align it -- either align it with this one, which makes some sense, although you're
getting pretty close to this intersection here, but I think you could still make some
accommodations, because your dual lefts don't start until back here, or move it back
here and, then, some day you could have athree-quarter access back into this site. So,
either/or. But that location to me just didn't make any sense to just solely use it fora u-
turn. I talked to Wade about this one as well and he said, well, the permits for these are
right-in, right-out. Okay. They can modify their permits. So, I -- you know, that's kind of
a paper pushing thing that I think could be rectified somewhat. So, they may not be
able to make that change without going -- without modifying some access permits, but I
think it's something for you to at least consider. I think it makes some sense and I think
those businesses and people using them are going to be very frustrated. If it doesn't
align with a driveway to me it just -- it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but I'm not a
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traffic engineer, so I can't answer all those questions about -- about safety, but I think it
may be causing more problems than benefits by putting it there. So, that's something
else I wanted to point out to you and, then, the last -- here is what the last mile segment
looks like. So, again, Ustick, McMillan, city limits and -- right here on this side and right
here -- I think right there or right here on this side. So, you have the backside of Lowe's
and Bald Cyprus, there is athree-quarter access there that aligns with Center Point
and, again, here, so that for Meridian that's where -- the break in between Ustick and in
the mid mile at Wainwright there would be a signal at Wainwright as well, so -- and,
then, again, pretty consistent with where the rest of the driveways are up to McMillan.
But that's -- that's a brief look at the three miles that are in -- in Meridian anyways and
the last thing that I just wanted to call to your attention is the center median treatment.
It will not look like the median at -- between Franklin and the interstate, it will just be a
gray concrete, so they are not stamping it, they are not coloring it, no treatments will be
put in there. So, I don't know what our comment is, I just wanted to make you all aware
that's what it will look like is gray. So, those are the things that Ijust -- I wanted to,
again, point out to you so you're aware and request -- or just see if you want to write a
letter and, if so, what --what points you would like to make. If you do move forward with
the letter I would also ask that we include some support of this project, I think it's
something that is needed that will benefit the traveling public, our emergency service
providers -- I just think it's a good thing in general with some tweaks. So, I just kind of
highlighted some of the things that I talked about tonight. And, then, the other are some
other things that I commented on, but if you want to talk about those we can go into that
a little bit more, but I will stop unless you want to discuss any of that any further.
De Weerd: Council, is there a desire to send written comments on -- from the city
specifically to some of these points that Caleb has brought up?
Rountree: Madam Mayof'?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I think the u-turn situation is -- is definitely an item that needs to be brought
up and see if they are going to do some lane widening or restriping to accommodate
some -- some turning movements. As far as the median treatment, unless they are
going to be out there flushing them and sweeping them, it doesn't matter to me whether
it's bomenite or -- or concrete. They are pretty plain. Hopefully at some point in time we
can actually implement the plan that they have on the shelf, but I don't see that
happening in the near future. I'm not sure about your assessment of Commercial. I
think the traffic down there has figured out how to make that work. At least that was my
experience today. Truck traffic does not use Commercial to exit, it goes to the end of
Commercial at Touchmark, goes out on Pine, hits the light, gets on Eagle and gets on
the interstate. And, in fact, while I was sitting there at Commercial and Eagle the truck
that I was behind at the end of Commercial did that and was way ahead of me before I
could make the turn onto Eagle. So, they have got it figured out on that side. I think
they could probably do the same thing on the other side as far as Scentsy goes. They
will be able to make the right out to get to the interstate and they are going to have
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some internal roads off of that private road and I don't know what the access permit on
that private road is at this point, I'm not so sure that it wasn't to be abandoned, but I
think it's necessary that it be there. All the other comments I think are good and we
probably ought to let them know that short of those minor instances, as we did last time,
we supported the median treatment.
De Weerd: I guess just to add to the median treatment, as I -- I would like whatever
they do to not hinder the longer term vision that they originally came out with. So,
whatever it is that they do to be as cost minimal to replace to get to the full vision, if at
all possible. And I don't know what that is, but just with consideration for the longer term
vision that this is, indeed, temporary. So, however they construct it. But that's all I
would add. Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, just -- I got a question for the police department, Lieutenant
Leslie. When I did my ride along we ended up rolling code up Eagle Road and it was
interesting to see traffic as it dodges out of the way, but we came up to the intersection
at St. Luke's and with his Opticom or whatever the light turned red, but it was all blocked
and he went across the median, we went into the left-hand lane, came around and,
then, came back to the intersection. And I'm sure the fire department does the same
thing, depending on the truck I'm sure. But with the amount of traffic on Eagle Road,
are there times that you need to have paved areas to go over in a corridor like this or
are there other ways to make that -- to get through in an emergency? And I guess,
Chief Niemeyer, if you want to comment on this, too, since -- same thing. I just
happened to be in a police car that day and noticed that if that had been landscaped I
don't know what we would have done. So, what happens in those situations?
Leslie: The landscaping, actually, does hinder us in crossing. The paved portion is
easier for us. The median that's up there now that's paved, we can actually drive
across that relatively easy. Our cars now are -- we are starting to equip them, actually,
with the Opticom to actually change that light to green for us if we don't have another
emergency vehicle, a fire truck or an ambulance that would create an issue for us,
because they have a higher priority and those Opticoms would change for a fire truck
and an ambulance if they were coming in an opposite direction than the police, it
wouldn't, because of our weight difference we have a lower priority and so their light
would, then, turn green, ours would be red. We prefer the paved portion, because I can
get across that relatively easy no matter where it's at or what I have to do. Like you
said, if traffic's completely blocked I need to get around it or if the crash is in front of it
have to go around one way or another and typically we always go to the left and so we
would want to cross and go into oncoming traffic, because oncoming traffic can see us
and has an opportunity to go somewhere else, whereas the stopped traffic really has no
place to go at times and so trying to get them to move all over to the right where -- and
by code they are required to yield to the right, so if I were to go around them on the right
they would, then, do what they were supposed to by law and go to the right, we would,
then, collide and they are actually following what I have asked them to do by moving
over to the right and coming to a stop. So, that's why we always go to the left. The
gravel portion makes it pretty difficult for us, we can't cross, obviously. We have to wait
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until an intersection, we'd have to cross like at Eagle and Franklin and, then, stay on the
oncoming traffic lane for a longer period of time. So, the less we are over there the
better off we are. So, we prefer to be paved versus gravel.
Niemeyer: Mayor Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, I would echo Jamie's comments. With
the -- with the median that you have in front of St. Luke's we can actually -- we can roll
any apparatus up onto those medians, even the trucks, but there is enough width that
we can actually park the apparatus up there as well if we have to. If we have
landscaping what we would do is, then, alter our station assignments and our response
routes. So, if we know that we can't get across the median in certain areas, we may
bring a different engine from another station to cover that area, because they can get
there quicker because of the medians. I will offer my condolences, too, that you were
riding in a police car that night. I apologize for that. That would be our -- our
perspective on the medians.
Hoaglun: Well, thank you. I .appreciate that and just -- I like landscaped medians, I
mean it softens the roadway, it looks good, but it's probably something to think about,
you know, working with our emergency --our first responders in terms of are there outs
for them to respond in particular areas. Might be something we keep in mind and that
was just -- it was interesting to me to see that traffic blocked and, of course, we know
what Eagle Road is like at times and to be able to get around and keep moving forward.
So, just --just something to kind of keep in mind as we .make plans.
De Weerd: And I do think, Councilman Hoaglun, that those considerations were part of
the plan when they put together the -- I guess long-term vision, because those items
were brought up.
Hood: I'll make sure that the draft letter talks about not hindering the long-term vision
for Eagle Road and not trees and landscaping specifically, but gets to some esthetic
treatments for it longer term.
De Weerd: And it was trees and landscaping.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I did go to the same public open house and I missed that the medians were
not going to be treated the same as they are south of Franklin. I didn't catch that. In
our Fairview corridor study I have mentioned that I thought whatever medians went in
on Fairview should match the Eagle medians and now you have -- you identified that
the Eagle medians are not going to look as attractive as I thought they were going to. I
don't know, I'm -- I realize our original vision was landscaping. I'm satisfied with what
they did south of Franklin. It hurts me a little bit to see that north of Franklin isn't going
to look like that. It's still a pretty major entryway corridor for Meridian through there.
The one other comment that I did make while I was there was -- was a little bit of a
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concern about the intersections. I agree with the limited left turns and the limited u-
turns, but in the places where we do have a
u-turn, I'm hoping they are thinking not just cars. The local delivery trucks -- you know,
not an 18 wheeler needs to make a u-turn there, but the local delivery trucks, which are
maybe 25 feet long, 30 feet long, probably need to be able to make those u-turns as
well and I just am concerned that where there are u-turns the intersection needs to be
wide enough to accommodate more than an 18 foot car. So, that -- I already made that
comment personally, but I might include that in our group comments as well. And I
guess I'd like to see the median treatment be the same as it is south of Franklin, but
that's not a huge issue.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further from Council?
Hood: Can I just real quick, then, summarize, because I heard a couple of different
things on that or -- I'm not quite sure. But I'll include -- we will do a letter, we will thank
them for the project, that we generally support it, but have some tweaking that we would
like to see happen. We would like them to look at where u-turns are allowed, our radius
to accommodate a larger vehicle, not necessarily an 18 wheeler, but a larger vehicle.
I'm not going to include anything on Commercial. That we request that the medians --
although concrete today, don't hinder the long-term vision for the corridor. I guess what
I haven't heard if there is any stamping or coloring or both on that. I didn't hear any on
this side. I know where you two stand, but I don't know in the letter if we -- we want to
address anything or not. I guess that's where I need a little bit more clarification. I think
everything else I have got good direction, so -- or we can leave it alone if -- I don't know
what to do, but I need a little more help on that one.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? I mean stamping and coloring consistent with what's done
south of Franklin is fine with me. That -- it keeps the look consistent, at least, but -- I'm
not going to lose any sleep over it if they do something different, so --
Hood: Okay. I will move forward with that, then, and I have a letter for the Mayor's
signature. Thank you all.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Zaremba: Thank you, Caleb.
F. Public Works Department: Budget Amendment for Waste
Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) Filters Building for aNot-to-
Exceed Amount of $10,000.00
De Weerd: Okay. Item 7-F is our Public Works Department.
Warren: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the Public Works Department is
seeking your approval of a budget amendment to essentially transfer 10,000 dollars
from our professional services consulting fund to cover essentially some changes in the
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scope of work for the design and construction of the filter building that we are going to
be -- that we were intending to build over the tertiary filters at the wastewater treatment
plant. We made a couple of modifications during the design phase one, which,
basically, would add piping to bring gas over to that building that would allow us to heat
the building with the gas generated at the treatment plant. So, we had to make
modifications for that. The other one was to require the design engineer to, essentially,
produce the SWIP plan. Commonly in the past we have pawned this or pushed this
requirement off on the contractor, but that has come back to bite us in a few cases,
which you are aware of and we no longer allow the contractor to do that, we want our
design consultant to do that work. So, we are simply asking you to allow us to transfer
some existing funds from our consulting services account over to the tertiary filter
building project. The net impact to the overall enterprise fund is zero. They are both
coming from approved budgets. So, I would be happy to give you additional information
if you would like, but I'll stand for questions and try and make it brief.
De Weerd: Okay. Any questions from Council?
Rountree: I have none.
Bird: I have none, Mayor.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I move approval of the budget amendment that authorizes transfer of funds
for the wastewater plant filters building to a not to exceed amount of 10,000 dollars.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Madam
Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
G. Police Department: Budget Amendment for Body Wire for a
Not-to-Exceed Amount of $14,450.00
De Weerd: Okay. This one is our police department.
Leslie: Madam Mayor, City Council. Today we are coming before you to ask to move
14,450 dollars from our drug seizure money into an account for the detectives to be able
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to buy a body wire, which is actually a piece of surveillance equipment. Body wire
sounds a little more, I don't know, James Bondish, I guess, but -- it actually does more
than just as a body wire, it actually has some video capabilities and some audio
capabilities. With that I would stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I move approval of the police department budget amendment for a body wire
for a not to exceed amount of 14,450 dollars.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the budget amendment in front of
you. If there is no discussion, Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
H. Fire Department: Budget Amendment for Fire Department
Equipment Trailer for the Not-to-Exceed Amount of $12,030
De Weerd: Item 7-H is our fire department.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we are here tonight on a budget
amendment. This is donated funds that we have received throughout the year that our
public education, Pam Orr, receives. Light My Fire has donated 9,200 dollars. There is
strong support of the fire service and we certainly appreciate their support. The
Walmart foundation donated 2,750 and Life Flight -- one citizen donation totaling 80
dollars. So, a total of 12,030 dollars. We would like to allocate those funds not to
exceed 12,030 dollars. That's a correction in what you have before you on the agenda.
But that was the request. This is going to be used to purchase an enclosed trailer.
Multiple uses for this trailer. Large public education events, we can get that equipment
moved in one shot versus several little trips in Pam's Explorer. In the past what we
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have been doing is borrowing Tyler Rountree's trailer or Rod Shall's trailer and over
time those have been damaged here and there. We feel it's time to buy our own. It also
can be used to move extrication vehicles when we have that need to get those from the
company to our station to work on and, then, as well we identified other needs, such as
the salmon barbecue and moving those grills and all the equipment. We felt it was the
best use of funds and there is also 1,230 dollars for fire prevention month contests that
Pam is planning on putting on that's a poster contest on public education that we will be
using in conjunction with fire prevention month. And with that I would stand for any
questions.
Bird: I have none
De Weerd: Okay.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: How would the trailer be moved? Can it be pulled by any pickup or piece of
fire equipment or--
Niemeyer: Yeah. We have pickups available that have the stingers and the receivers
and all the needed equipment to pull that trailer.
Zaremba: Great. Thanks.
De Weerd: Okay.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move that we approved the budget amendment for the equipment trailer not to
exceed amount of 12,030 dollars.
Rountree: Second.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and several seconds. Any discussion? Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
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I. Mayor's Office: Discussion
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Okay. Item 7-I, Robert.
Simison: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I'm here to talk to you
tonight about the current commission that the state has put together to look at the
redistricting of the state. I'm sure you guys are familiar with this. They began holding
hearings here in the Treasure Valley last week and they are going to continue holding
some hearings throughout the state through the rest of the month. As part of that
process they, of course, take public comments about what people would like to see in
the redistricting process. So, I'm here to talk to you tonight to see if the City Council is
interested in doing a couple of different things. One of which would be to send a formal
letter regarding what the city would like to see as it relates to congressional or
legislative districts and if the city would like to as far as submitting a map request for the
city about how to break up those maps. I have been exploring some of the tools that
they have online and some of the information, some of the things that they do -- try to
do is they try not to go -- divide amongst counties, they try to keep political subdivisions
whole when they can, as well as, you know, circle neighborhoods, et cetera. Looking at
the numbers that we had from the census of roughly 76,000 and if you look at the
COMPASS numbers that they have even taken those up a little bit in the last year, that
puts us at about 78,000 right now based on those numbers. That's in -- in city limits, not
our area of impact. If I was to make recommendations, Iwould recommend that we
look at doing two legislative districts in our area of impact. The numbers that they are
looking for is about 44,000 people per legislative district if you just go on the straight
numbers. If you pick up some of the county parcels we would maybe get within the ten
percent margin that they outline and with the potential growth of the community still over
the next ten years I think it would make sense for us to advocate for even a below the
current threshold knowing that we as a community are going to continue to grow and
add people to our legislative districts for the future. So, with that I just want to get your
feedback, if you have any thoughts about what you would like to see and if you thought
that we wanted to go outside of our area of impact if there is a natural community that
you feel makes more sense for us to partner with or just leave it up to the experts and
not bother submitting. So, with that I will stand for any comments.
De Weerd: Well, in reading the recent article it implied that two communities in the
Treasure Valley have asked to not be split and I think that would be in our best interest.
You know, we are large enough that we should have more than three -- three elected
representatives that solely look at what our issues are. Right now we have three
districts and two of those three are split among other communities, so I think it's fair to
say as the third largest city that we would like to see if they can district that accordingly.
Other thoughts from Council?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
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Zaremba: I agree with that and the idea of counting our area of impact. It sounds to me
like including the area of impact would justify two legislative districts that are wholly
Meridian or eventually will be included in Meridian and that makes more sense to me
than -- it's not really the fault of the previous redistricting, because we grew into areas
that we didn't have before, but, you know, having little slivers of other districts is
something that I think we could remedy by request and I think we are justified in saying
count the area of impact, make that two legislative districts, and I would support writing
a letter to that effect.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Ten years ago I was involved as a legislative district chair and provided
testimony to the commission on more than one occasion and -- and dealing with north
Meridian at the time and there were some just flaws that we pointed out that they did not
rectify and one was the boundaries for using like Five Mile Creek and subdivision lines,
that doesn't work. I know they have talked about using roads and trying to do a little bit
more better lines, a little more distinctive lines and things like that, and that was a
problem. It was very confusing for people when they go to the polls and you're in the
neighborhood and there is a creek that divides your fenceline and they are in different
districts. They also pushed the districts to the maximum on their area that they could at
the time and we knew Meridian was growing very very quickly and would continue to do
so and now we have districts that are twice the size of a legislative district, especially in
14, north Meridian and beyond. I think they said they represented 78,000 people right
now with those legislators. So, I don't want them to push our districts to the max
variation, because we will grow. I like the fact that we include our area of impact, but,
again, making sure we are not going along fence lines and creeks and things like that,
something that's preferably roads and the other issue that we need to look at is a
congressional district, do we want to include in the letter that we remain in one
congressional district, as opposed to two. That line is coming west between the first
and second CD. In fact, there might be parts of Meridian that might already be in the
second congressional district and I guess that's something to think about and I would
prefer Meridian, if at all possible, to remain in one congressional district and -- and
certainly City Hall here not going second CD, because we have a tenant who is the first
district congressman. It would certainly impact us. So, some of that I think if we can
incorporate keeping meridian whole in one congressional district I'd certainly support
that, so -- that's something to think about.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I agree wholeheartedly with what Councilman Hoaglun said and I would
suggest that we put together a letter indicating such and request staff to rely on
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Councilman Hoaglun's experience, having dealt with the past one to make sure that
some of the nuances that he can relate to get pointed out in the letter.
De Weerd: I think you have been volunteered.
Hoaglun: I accept.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Any further comment?
Bird: I have none.
Simison: One other -- would it be recommended -- and maybe, Councilman Hoaglun
and I can talk about this, but should we do a map suggesting where those boundaries
be between ourselves, if we were to have two districts, where we feel the natural
boundaries in our community would be between two legislative districts?
De Weerd: I think that sounds fair.
Bird: I think it would help.
Hoaglun: Yeah. I think it's -- you know, bringing solutions is always preferable than just
bringing problems, so --
Zaremba: I think we have some excellent GIS maps that we could add those layers to
and -- good presentation.
Simison: Thank you.
J. Amended onto the Agenda: Public Works Department:
Emergency Purchase Authorization for Poly-Aluminum
Chloride XL- FEX 204 (a.k.a. Chemfloc 929) for the Wastewater
Treatment Plant in the Not-to-Exceed Amount of $22,701.42 -
Item Vacated From the Agenda
De Weerd: Okay. Council, Item J that was added to the agenda, we have put it on
there as precautionary in case a third bid was not timely and now it appears that we will
have that third bid by tomorrow, so we can proceed under our normal purchasing
process and so this late addition is -- again, it was precautionary and we do not need
that at this time, so I will --
Nary: Madam Mayor, just --
De Weerd: Yes.
Nary: -- I would suggest just a motion and vote just to vacate that item.
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De Weerd: Okay.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I move that we vacate the added emergency purchase authorization request
from the Public Works Department for polyaluminum chloride.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. A-k-a. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. All
ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 8: Action Items
A. Public Hearing: Updates to City Clerk's Office Fee Schedule
De Weerd: Okay. Under eight, Action Items, we have a public hearing on updates to
City Clerk's Office fee schedule. I will open this public hearing and see if Ralph has
anything he would like to add. Madam Clerk,
Jones: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. The proposed fee
schedule before you tonight reflects update that will bring us into compliance with recent
amendments of Idaho Code Section 9-33810 pertaining to the public records request
law. The amendment specified that fees cannot be charged for the first 100 pages
provided to the requester or for the first two hours of labor used to process the request.
The changes also deal with the fees that we are able to charge for the labor to respond
to those requests. The amendment specified that fees set for the attorney labor to
redact any information exempt from disclosure must be based on the lowest paid
attorney necessary and qualified to process the request and that fees for any other
labor -- for example the clerk's office, IT, building department, also be based on the
lowest paid employee who is necessary and qualified to perform the work. The updates
that we are addressing tonight are found on page three of your resolution. All other fees
within the clerk's office fee schedule are not affected by this change at the time. So,
with that I can open myself up for questions that you might have.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Any questions from Council?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Is there anyone who would like provide comment on this item?
Bird: Madam Mayoi'?
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De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Seeing how we don't have any public testimony, I move we close the public
hearing.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public -- item on Number 8-A. All
those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
B. Resolution No. 11-793: Updates to City Clerk's Office Fee
Schedule
De Weerd: Item 8-B is resolution number 11-793. Council?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Zaremba: I move we approve resolution 11-793, the updates to the City Clerk's Office
fee schedule.
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution on Item 8-B. If
there is no discussion, Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
C. Public Hearing: Updates to Police Department Fee Schedule
De Weerd: Item 8-C is a public hearing on the -- for the police department fee
scheduled updates. Any comment from our police department?
Jones: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, if I may direct that this also applies to
the public records request law. It's the exact same items --
De Weerd: Oh, it's just for the --
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Jones: Right. They have their own internal process. So, the only differences that you
will see is their changes are on page two of the resolution and their fees are slightly
different, as they use outside counsel through a contract with the city of Boise versus
ours. Same law.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Rountree: Just another tax increase by a different name.
De Weerd: Not a tax increase.
Bird: A fee increase.
Hoaglun: Citizens will have to pay for this request from someone for a special interest
request.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Well, that's true. Unless it's the taxpayer that's making the request.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we close the public hearing on 8-B -- 8-C. Yeah.
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing on 8-C. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
D. Resolution No. 11-794: Updates to Police Department Fee
Schedule
De Weerd: Item 8-D is resolution 11-794.
Bird: Madam Mayol?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve resolution 11-794.
Hoaglun: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-D. If there is no
discussion, Madam Clerk.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 9: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: We are at Item 9. Any items to consider for future meeting topics?
Rountree: I have none.
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Mr. Nary?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Council Member Zaremba, we talked again the other day about
an item and, again, I have forgotten what it was that we said -- we thought that what we
thought we would bring up for a future meeting. Do you recall?
Zaremba: I do recall --
De Weerd: I wasn't there.
Zaremba: --that we remembered the topic and it slipped my mind again
Nary: I apologize. I'm sorry.
Zaremba: Although let me ask Mr. Nary first. Would we want to have a discussion
about the nature of the de-annexation discussion that we plan to have on July 12th or
do we not want to open that can of worms yet?
Nary: Council Member Zaremba, I don't know that that's probably necessary at this
point. I think we are waiting on some things on that particular issue, so it's probably not
an immediate need to address that.
Zaremba: Enough said.
De Weerd: And I wasn't at the meeting that both of you can't remember, so --
Nary: We will write it down --
Zaremba: Next time I will write it down.
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Nary: I apologize.
Bird: Hey, guys, that's my excuse. I'm 70 years old. You can't be using that.
Zaremba: I'm aging faster than you are.
Rountree: Move we adjourn.
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. All
ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: We are adjourned.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 10:06 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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