HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-12-13 Workshop~~E IDIAN~--
CITY COUNCIL REGULAR
MEETING AGENDA
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 3:00 PM
1. Roll-Call Attendance
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
X Mayor (for the day) Jones
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Adoption of the Agenda Adopted
4. Consent Agenda Approved
A. Resolution No. 11-829: A Resolution Adopting the Annual
Rate Adjustment for the Solid Waste Collection Services by
Sanitary Services Company and Authorizing the City of
Meridian Utility Billing Department to Collect such Rates
B. Resolution No. 11-830: A Resolution Adopting an Updated
Administrative Policy of the Meridian Police Department
Regarding Approved Server Training Programs
C. Development Agreement for Approval: MDA 08-004
Southridge Subdivision by Linder 109 LLC/Jim Jewett Located
South of Overland Rd. Between South Ten Mile Rd. and South
Linder Rd. Request to Modify the Development Agreement
5. Community Items/Presentations
A. Ten Mile Road Corridor Intersection Configurations (Pg 3-7)
6. Items Moved From Consent Agenda
7. Department Reports
A. Mayor's Office: Community Liaison Update (Pg 7-11)
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, December 13, 2011 Page 1 of 2
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.
B. Police Department: Mayor's Anti-Drug Coalition Quarterly
Update (Pg 11-13)
C. Legal Department: Solid Waste Advisory Commission 2011
Annual Report (Pg 13)
D. Police Department: Interact Business Group Consultants
Reporting on Public Safety Training Center (Pg 13-22)
E. Public Works: Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Update
(Pg 22-26)
F. Planning Department: Review ACHD 2013-2017 Five Year
Work Plan Draft A (Pg 26-33)
G. Parks & Recreation Department: Discussion on New
Maintenance Facility Concept Plans at the S. Locust Grove and
Lanark Future Property Site (Pg 35-46)
H. Clerk's Office: Approval of a Beer and Wine License for Ustick
Chevron/Fast Eddys Located at 1745 E. Overland Rd., Meridian
ID 83642 (Pg 46-47)
Approved Pending Certificate of Occupancy
I. Legal Department: Memorandum of Understanding Between
City of Meridian and IAFF Local 4627 Covering Various Terms
and Conditions of Employment of the Firefighters Employed
by the City Approved (Pg 33-35)
8. Future Meeting Topics (Pg 47-49)
Adjourned at 5:43 p.m.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda -Tuesday, December 13, 2011 Page 2 of 2
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 December 13, 2011.
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday,
December 13, 2011, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, David Zaremba, Keith Bird, Brad Hoaglun
and Charlie Rountree.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Pete Friedman, Caleb Hood, Rich Dees, Lori
Den Hartog, Warren Stewart, Luke Cavener, Jeff Lavey, Mark Niemeyer, Steve
Siddoway, Mike Barton 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. I would like to call this meeting to order and first I'd like to thank all of
those that in attendance this evening -- this afternoon. Sorry, we are always used to the
evening ones and welcome certainly the youth. Always good to see young people's
faces in our audience. For the record it is Tuesday, December 13th. It's 3:00 p.m. and
we will start with roll call attendance. Madam Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: And speaking of Mayor Jones, this is our Mayor For The Day. Annually we
do a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club and Lori Jones, who is just to my left, she
purchased it, she's a long time Meridian resident and hugely involved in our community.
So, it is certainly my honor that she is the Mayor For The Day and I am going to turn this
over to Mayor Jones to conduct this meeting.
Jones: Thank you very much, Mayor de Weerd. We will start with the Pledge of
Allegiance. Please rise.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda
Jones: I will ask for adoption of the agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, a couple items to note on the agenda. Under the Consent
Agenda, 4-A, that is resolution number 11-829. 4-B is resolution number 11-830. And
just to note under the Department Reports, 7-H, that will be pending certificate of
occupancy. So, with those, Madam Mayor, I move adoption of the agenda.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 2 of 49
Bird: Second.
Jones: It's been moved and seconded to accept the agenda. All in favor? All
opposed? Thank you very much
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Resolution No. 11-829: A Resolution Adopting the Annual
Rate Adjustment for the Solid Waste Collection Services by
Sanitary Services Company and Authorizing the City of
Meridian Utility Billing Department to Collect such Rates
B. Resolution No. 11-830: A Resolution Adopting an Updated
Administrative Policy of the Meridian Police Department
Regarding Approved Server Training Programs
C. Development Agreement for Approval: MDA 08-004
Southridge Subdivision by Linder 109 LLC/Jim Jewett Located
South of Overland Rd. Between South Ten Mile Rd. and South
Linder Rd. Request to Modify the Development Agreement
Jones: We will start with the Consent Agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, on the Consent Agenda, as I noted, 4-A is resolution number
11-829 and 4-B is resolution number 11-830. So, with that, Madam Mayor, I move
approval of the Consent Agenda and the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest.
Rountree: Second.
Jones: It's been moved and seconded to accept resolution number 11-829. We will
take the roll call. Madam Clerk.
Holman: Madam Mayor, are we approving just that resolution or are we approving all of
the Consent Agenda?
Jones: Oh. All of the Consent Agenda.
Holman: Okay. Thank you.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 3 of 49
Item 5: Community Items/Presentations
A. Ten Mile Road Corridor Intersection Configurations
Jones: Thank you. We will now move to the Ten Mile Road corridor intersection
configuration. Caleb.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I will be brief and just give
a quick introduction to Matt Edmond, who is here from ACHD. Matt and some of the
engineers over at ACHD have been looking at the Ten Mile corridor south of I-84 and
doing some intersection analysis and Matt would like to present those preliminary
results and I think he has a couple of questions mixed in for you as well. There was a
memo that I shared with you in the packet for today's meeting that was for the
commission work session that they had last week and a lot of information is still
applicable and, hopefully, that will give you some background information, but I will turn
it over to Matt and he has a Powerpoint presentation for you.
Edmond: Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. My name is Matt Edmond, senior
transportation planner with the Ada County Highway District. In response to the Ten
Mile interchange opening up, the city of Kuna had asked us to do -- to take a look at the
intersections -- major section line intersections from Overland Road, which is currently
improved, all the way down to Deer Flat. And so we took at look them. Three of them
do impact Meridian city's area of city impact and so I just wanted to go over those with
you today, what our findings are and just make sure you're familiar with -- with where we
are at going into the South Meridian Transportation Plan update. So, as I said, we have
a current South Meridian Transportation Plan. We also did an Amity corridor
roundabout study awhile back and we have a master street map which outlines right of
way preservation and this -- the analysis that we have has some differences in what we
are looking at. We may need to modify the South Meridian Plan going forward and we
will definitely need Council's, as well as the public's impact on that. Here is the
improvement phasing summary that we came up with as a result of our analysis. You
can see Ten Mile and Victory indicates that we need an interim signal there and we do
have one budgeted that will be going in this year. Ten Mile and Amity the same. We
will need an interim signal within the time line of the five year work plan that we are
working on now. Ten Mile and Lake Hazel will be a single lane roundabout at some
point in the future and you can see also the ultimate improvements are on there. We
believe, given our current analysis, that a roundabout won't work at Victory or Amity
intersections, but will work at Lake Hazel and we had previously planned for a
roundabout at Amity. So, that's something we will have to talk about. Next slide. Here
is what our Ten Mile analysis suggests is an expanded intersection where the original
South Meridian Transportation Plan has proposed a dual lane roundabout. You can see
our total entering volumes this year after school opened with the Ten Mile interchange
we had just under a thousand entering vehicles in the peak hour. You can see that's
forecasted to go as high as 4,500 in the peak hour in the year 2035. We are seeing an
issue here because we have previously identified Victory Road corridor as a three -- as
limited to three lanes in the future. Our analysis is indicating that it will load up quite a
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 4 of 49
bit with three lanes and it may be something we want to look at expanding to five lanes.
Again, that's something we will need to address in the South Meridian update. Next is
Ten Mile and Amity. We had looked at this and done some preliminary design work
actually for a dual lane roundabout and our analysis now is showing that we would need
a seven by seven signal light signal -- expanded signalized intersection. Five lanes in
the master street map, so there is no change there, but there is a change in the
intersection configuration that we will have to discuss going forward. And one of the
things I am looking for input from the Council today on is if -- is how the Council would
feel about an interim signal there programmed in our current five year work plan. It
would buy us time -- allow us to do more analysis on what would work best between a
roundabout and an expanded signal going forward. So, I can certainly wait until the end
on that, but I think our commission would be very interested in knowing what the
Council has to say about an interim signal there.
Hood: Madam Mayor? If I may, just -- I'm going to go back if I can real quick to the
timeline that's outlined here and that interim signal that Matt's talking about would
generally hold us over 12, 13, 14, 15 years, something in that range. I mean not a
crystal ball here, but that's what we are talking about if they move forward in the
programming 10, 12, 15 year type time frame for that interim signal.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Yes, Councilman Rountree.
Rountree: My concern is -- and I don't know if it's really a concern, but would this affect
any other interim signals that are already programmed or is this in addition to those that
are already established in the program for Meridian?
Edmond: Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, the beauty of interim signals is they
are affordable and so that they don't really displace much. We wouldn't look at
displacing any of the three interim signals that are currently programmed to go in.
Rountree: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Yes, Mayor de Weerd.
De Weerd: I just had a question, Matt, on the Victory and Ten Mile. Is that going in
next year?
Edmond: Madam Mayor, we programmed three interim signals that will go in fiscal year
'12, so I would anticipate we have -- we should be moving along on that and, I'm sorry,
don't have an exact construction date for you, but they should be going in by the spring
of 2012. That's Black Cat and Cherry. Ten Mile and Victory, the one you asked about.
And Locust Grove and Victory.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 5 of 49
De Weerd: So, I'm sorry, Madam Mayor, just a follow up. Caleb, so all these greens --
since the key is not on there, is -- can you just kind of walk us through those?
Hood: Yeah, Madam Mayor, I can. This is actually a slide for my next discussion, but
there is -- it is color coded in the right-hand side. Hopefully you can see the key up
there. Yeah. By year. So, the green ones are 2012 and some of the interim
intersections that Councilman Rountree alluded to and Matt just rattled off, the Locust
Grove-Victory interim intersection, Black Cat-Cherry intersection, are both interim and
the Ten Mile-Victory -- the Ten Mile-Amity is potentially an interim one, shown as PD.
The new intersection we talked about a couple weeks ago and this would be a single
lane initially -- single lane roundabout at Eagle-Amity. Pine-Linder we are all familiar
with. As you can see there is a lot of intersections in 2012, this fiscal year. So, I don't
know if that's enough of an outline for you or not, Madam Mayor, on the projects. There
are less and less roadway projects in the program. Meridian does have, obviously,
phase two of the split corridor next year, the intersection at Ustick-Locust Grove in '14 --
and, again, we can go into a little bit more detail as we talk about Draft A. Did I address
your concern enough for now?
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb.
Jones: Any other comments?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Just looking at those traffic volumes at Amity -- I mean it certainly looks like
it's justified for an interim signal. It does buy you time, time hopefully is money that gets
you farther down and be able to do that. So, I certainly don't have any problems with
that -- with the plans that you guys are looking at for an interim signal there.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Yes, Councilman Bird.
Bird: I would agree with Councilman Hoaglun. I think it could be a good deal. I think
we should go ahead with it.
Edmond: Okay. The next and final intersection as far as Meridian is concerned would
be Ten Mile and Lake Hazel. Our analysis suggests that a dual lane roundabout with
one bypass -- one right turn bypass lane on the southbound to westbound approach
would be adequate through 2035, whereas the original South Meridian Plan did show
an expanded signalized intersection there, as is depicted on the right. Our draft CIP
also shows an expanded signalized intersection and we will resolve this analysis with
that. That's all about -- that's about all there is to say on that. We will have to look at
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 6 of 49
this with the South Meridian Plan, but just so you know that there is a difference there
and some stuff is coming up. We expect to have our -- our CIP update -- our final
project list at the end of this month and we will resolve the analysis with what we had
before. With that project list we will look to do a public meeting either in February or
March and sometime in April or May to complete the south Meridian update and resolve
all this and, then, we would have a night meeting for adoption, date to be determined.
So, at this time, unless you have any questions about the three intersections to the
south, which I'm happy to talk about, I'll stand for your questions or comments.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: No comment other than do you need a letter from us with respect to the Ten
Mile and Amity and, then, with respect to the changes that you're proposing in the
intersection configurations, to support them? Just a motion or --
Edmond: Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, I would guess you could roll that up
into your five year work plan Draft A comments.
Rountree: That's -- yeah. That's good.
Jones: No vote is needed?
Rountree: No. There is no -- no motion necessary. We will put those in our comments
on the five year work plan.
Hood: And, Madam Mayor, if I can just put my two cents in on that -- that topic and this
corridor in particular. Matt has mentioned the south Meridian update, but there may be
tweaks to this intersection analysis, too, that comes about depending on what the land
uses end up being here and some of these intersections may require some additional
analysis or tweaking before we want to say we support these dimensions and
configurations. So, I don't have any problem writing that now and saying we support
particularly the interim intersection and some of the initial analysis that's happened, but
particularly the Victory corridor that Matt mentioned, we may be looking at a different
configuration of that intersection at Victory as ultimately five lanes as we discussed a
few weeks ago that may change that intersection configuration.
Rountree: Well -- Madam Mayor. I think that would be good information to provide in
our comments on the five year work plan that we are undertaking that planning activity
in south Meridian and it may change these. But for now, given what we know, I don't
see any problem with supporting them with the qualification of our moving forward with
the plan.
De Weerd: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 7 of 49
Jones: Yes, Mayor de Weerd.
De Weerd: I guess, Caleb, to just
tentatively Council is comfortable with
that these things could be changed
put in the letter what our process is and that
what has been presented and with the caveat
due to our South Meridian Plan that ACRD is
participating in.
Hood: Yeah. And, Madam Mayor, just a little bit on that, because I don't know that you
have been fully kept in the loop, but we did -- Pete signed a letter addressed to Director
Wong three weeks ago maybe, four weeks ago, asking for their participation and
notifying them that we are doing this and asking them to come alongside of us as we
look at land uses, to also look at transportation, and they are currently negotiating a
scope of work with some additional consulting help they need. So, we are all on the
same page and on the same timeline, so it's not a surprise to them. Matt and his group
know that we are doing this and that's why I think, you know, it's spelled out here, April,
May, that's our timeline for finishing up the land use aspect. So, they are fully aware.
But we can reiterate that in the letter, but I wanted to let you know it won't be our only
communication letting them know that we are moving forward with south Meridian. We
have noticed them and we are working with them as well, so --
Jones: Any other comments? Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Caleb
Hood: Thank you.
Rountree: Thanks, Matt.
Item 6: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
Item 7: ®epartment Reports
A. Mayor's Office: Community Liaison Update
Jones: Our next order of business will be Department Reports and from the Mayor's
office Luke Cavener.
Cavener: Good afternoon, Madam Mayors, Members of Council. I'm excited to come
up before you again. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Kind of. If my presentation
can pop up and I'll jump right into this. I will give you today a -- kind of a brief overview
on some of the projects, initiatives, outreach and programming that I have been working
on. Really, the bulk of my job is broken up into three kind of separate, but equally
important categories -- events, organizations that I work with and, then, outreach
initiative.
Hood: Sorry, Luke, it's not responding. The computer is frozen, so --
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 8 of 49
Cavener: Well, that's okay. I will just -- no visuals, but I will keep talking. I want to be
respectful of your time. So, since I was last here, there were kind of three events that I
wanted to highlight on. One, Meridian Business Day, which we had earlier this fall. Fall
we had over 300 attendees. This was the first time that we actually solicited speakers
from outside of Meridian to come in and present and we actually brought in Coach V,
who used to be a coach at BSU, to be our keynote. We felt by bringing in a new higher
caliber level of speaker really elevated the caliber of our event and really designed that
event to be very business focused. I thought that it was one of our most successful
events and we had our highest level of speakers of any Meridian Business Day that we
have had to date. The Meridian community block party is another event that's occurred
since the last time I spoke with you. We had over 5,000 attendees, way up from two
years ago. We were able to serve twice as much free food, had twice as many
sponsors, and we actually increased the length of the event by two hours. I know many
of you were out there for that event and that's an event that couldn't be put on without
the parks department and Colin and I'm fortunate that they let me help with that. It's just
a great way to end the summer and invite our community to come out and enjoy.
Another, you know, event that we work on throughout the year are our town hall events
and I know that you are regular attendees at each of these events. I feel that over the
past year we have really seen the attendants and participation at our town halls really
increase. One of the things that we wanted to do for 2012 is make that a reoccurring
calendar, something that the community can expect to see on a regular basis. So, in
2012 our town halls will fall on the fourth Wednesday of every third month beginning in
January -- beginning January 25th. I know that that's an appointment that's been sent
to you on your calendars, but just a reminder January 25th was when our next town hall
will be. As you know I do a lot of work with a lot of different organizations. Many of
them come and speak to you on a regular basis. I wanted to give you give just kind of a
snap shot -- about three that I do a lot of work with. The first being the Youth Advisory
Council and I will be very brief on that, because I know they come and speak to you
every month. But what I wanted to share with you is maybe some comments that I had
made earlier this month to -- to Councilman Bird about this year's Youth Council class
and of the four classes that I have had the opportunity to work with I feel that this year's
class is the best that we have seen. They are active, engaged and involved in so many
different levels of community and I really think they have done a very job of building off,
you know, previous years success and I really think this is going to be kind of a key year
for them. They have already had their candidate forum. They are working on a youth
summit. They are just doing a lot of different things to be active and involved. They are
always excited to come and speak to you and I appreciate your guys giving them that
opportunity. Another organization I know you guys hear about a lot is our Meridian
Senior Center. They are, obviously, excited about the opportunity to move to a new
facility here soon. They are actually in the process right now of electing new board
members and new leadership, so there will be some new representation from the senior
center beginning in 2012. One of the things they are really working on this year that I
applaud them on is they are working on ways to really improve their process, the way
they engage with the city and the community, and, quite frankly, that's going to be very
necessary for them as they move into their new facility and they really could be very
quickly overwhelmed with the amount of attendance that they are going to see at their
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 9 of 49
senior center. They wanted me to pass along that they are excited and hopeful of right
of way access to occur, so that they can get their residents into that building as soon as
possible. Another group and organization that I work with -- and I kind of lump them all
together are homeowners. As you know, I regularly attend homeowners association
meetings throughout the year. Since the last time we spoke I have attended 14 different
-- excuse me -- HOA meetings. I kind of look at them as like a mini town hall. It's a way
for me to be in front of them for ten, 15 minutes, talk about whatever is kind of the topic
of the day, but what we found is that what our HOAs really like is the opportunity to have
that Q and A session where the residents are able to answer -- or ask and address
questions that they have. Common questions that I get asked a lot about is always
Eagle Road, what's being built there, what's going into the Center Cal project, when is
Kleiner Park going to open, what is Big AI's -- it just seems that those are some of the
regular questions. I do get frequently asked about the City Hall lawsuit and what's going
on in that element, but the biggest amount of questions I get are related to their
particular neighborhood. So, what to do if their neighbor that they don't like parks his
RV in front of their house for five or six days, what are they supposed to do and so it's
nice to see that every HOA has a lot of the same questions and it's always typically
about what's going on in their own backyard. And the HOA meetings really translate
into a lot of the outreach efforts that I really try to spearhead. As you know, it seems
every time I get up here I'm talking to you about different outreach methods that we are
doing, whether it be .social media, video, et cetera. .When we really launched our
outreach efforts it was very much a one way street. This is what the Mayor's office or
this is what Lucas is sending out, excuse me, to the community. What we have really
seen happen is over the past, you know, six months to a year it has become a two way
street, an opportunity to really engage and hear feedback from our residents. If it pops
up I will show you some statistics on our Facebook. We currently have 1,041 Facebook
fans, including fans in Thailand, Romania, Malaysia and Turkey. Ninety-eight percent of
those, though, are in the City of Meridian. We typically send out three to seven daily
posts on any number of subjects and what we found is that it's really a great place to
share information and create dialogue. Earlier this -- I guess two weeks ago we had a
resident who posted a concern on our Facebook page about their trash. They were
upset that their trash hadn't been collected -- all the trash they put out hadn't been
collected and it created an opportunity to really provide that value added service in
communicating with them, addressing their concern and getting that handled and
partnering with SSC, who does a great job of solving a lot of those issues as they pop
up. But it allowed me to educate them on a lot of the other services that SSC offered
that they didn't even know about. So, it really creates those great unique opportunities
to share with them information. The Powerpoint is not up yet, but I will share that, you
know, 57 percent of our Facebook fans are female, 39 percent are male. Our average
-- or our highest demo is ages 35 to 44. They make up about 35 percent of the people
that are on our Facebook page. Twitter is another element that we use for outreach. It
aggregates feeds from both the city Parks and Rec Facebook page, as well as the page
that I help moderate. We have nearly 1,300 followers there and that's a great place to
have individualized interaction with people. Two months ago there was a citizen who
was having brown water when she would do her wash or take a shower and I think she
took to Twitter to vet a little bit and we implemented a lot of tools, so if somebody says
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 10 of 49
something about Meridian or Meridian City Council or Mayor Tammy that I get a
notification and so she had just wrote that she was a little frustrated with the city,
because she has this brown water and didn't feel that she was getting the level of
service that she needed and it created the opportunity for me to contact her and her
husband, address the issue, find out what was causing it, and she lives in a
nondeveloped neighborhood, she's one of two homes in the HOA that's developed and
when the water department was filling up off of a fire hydrant each day it was kicking
back a little bit of brown rust into their water and because they were the only home, they
were the ones that saw it. So, by having that -- had we not had that interaction via
Twitter we would never have been able to know about their issue and never been able
to solve it in really the right way, you know, working with the Meridian way and providing
our CARE values. So, I really think that Twitter has been a great tool to keep people
engaged. As you know we do This Week In Meridian, which is our weekly one to three
minute community update. We have had over a hundred episodes that are shot, we
have used over 60 different city staffers to share unique events that are happening in
each Meridian week and that's sits on our home page. The Mayor will be our host next
week. Members of the Council, you have an open invitation should you ever want to be
the host of This Week In Meridian we'd love to have you involved. We get about 50 to
200 viewers on that each week and I think it's a great value added service. Celebrate
Meridian is our monthly television program hosted by the Mayor. We will be shooting
our first .episode. of 2012 tomorrow. .Senator Chuck Winder will be our guest.. It's a
great way for us to really share Meridian's story with the public. I'd like to thank
Councilman Hoaglun and Councilman Rountree and Councilman Zaremba for being
guests. Councilman Bird, you have an open invitation to be our guest on Celebrate
Meridian. I have to admit you would have a high score to beat Councilman Hoaglun's
appearance on Celebrate Meridian -- is our most viewed episode on our website with
473 views. So, your fan club is active and involved on our website. Another outreach is
City Council Live, which is broadcasting our City Council meetings. We have been
doing that for a little over nine months. You know, we get a wide gamut of visitors to our
site for Council meetings, depending on what our agenda is. We average, you know,
anywhere -- right about eight viewers a week. In the past 30 days our high has been
21, our low viewers have been six. During the precious metals ordinance discussion
that was -- we saw a lot of traffic. It was actually an issue for IT to handle the amount of
people that were coming in to watch that discussion. We get about 20 viewers who
watch the archive feed in any given month. We starting to see this that is really unique,
though, is people are wanting to provide feedback while they are watching the City
Council, you know, web stream, they may have a question or a comment, so our office
is looking to find a way to be able to interact with people as City Council meetings are
going on. And really what that results in -- what I think are the benefits and values of
kind of what my position provides is -- as you all know as elected you have created, you
know, strong relationships with people in our community who appreciate and enjoy
having that one on one relationship with you and I think that my position only serves to
reinforce that and I know that I take pleasure in being that person that if someone has a
question or a comment or even a concern that they know that they can call Luke in the
Mayor's office and that question or concern will be addressed and shared with the
appropriate people, so we can get them -- their problem solved in a timely manner.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 11 of 49
Ultimately I think it improves Meridian's job of doing great outreach with our residents in
providing them the information they want as they need it and it all allows us to really
solve those small issues before they become big time problems and provides greater
transparency. So, no visual aids today. I'm sorry. But I do stand for any questions if
you have them. I'm happy to address them.
Jones: Luke, I would like to say you do a good job of communicating. Thank you.
Cavener: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
Jones: Any comments? Questions?
Bird: Nice job, Luke.
Rountree: Thank you, Luke, for what you do.
Cavener: Thank you all. Have a Happy New Year.
Bird: Same to you.
B. Police Department: Mayor's Anti-Drug Coalition Quarterly
Update
Jones: Thank you. With the police department we have the Mayor's anti-drug coalition
quarterly update. Alicia. Brenda. Allison.
Terrell: Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, Council Members. My name is Allison Terrell
and I serve as a volunteer on the executive committee for the Mayor's anti-drug coalition
and I'm also employed as the drug and alcohol counselor at Meridian High School. It's
my purpose in speaking with you today to raise awareness of how the MADC works to
reduce substance abuse in our community. You I'm sure already know this, but the
MADC has been in existence for seven years and we are going into the fourth year as a
drug free community grantee. The MADC recognizes the importance of providing a
comprehensive substance abuse program -- prevention program in our community. Our
philosophy consists of three phases, prevention, intervention and recovery. In regard to
prevention, the MADC has provided programs, such as the impact coaching program,
which allows for high school athletes to buy into this idea that not everybody in high
school, especially athletes, use drugs and alcohol and they are encouraged to serve as
roll models for their -- for their fellow students and basically walking the talk of the
importance of living a drug and alcohol free lifestyle. There is a lot of misinformation,
especially among high school kids, that, again, everybody is using drugs and alcohol
when, in fact, if you look at statistics, less than ten percent are actually regular users of
drugs and alcohol and so what this program does is it helps combat that issue, so that
people start to believe that it's actually those of -- those of our students who choose not
to take that path are actually more in the norm than they realize. This program is
currently used in our football programs at three of our local high schools, Rocky
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 12 of 49
Mountain High School, Meridian High School and Mountain View High School. Every
summer the MADC sponsors a Cable One movie night, which includes a substance
prevention presentation to over 2,000 people who were in attendance this last summer
and last summer we partnered with Drug Free Idaho and the Idaho State University's
generation prescription drug program. We also co-sponsored a leadership retreat with
the Idaho Drug Free use for high school students from both Meridian High School and
Mountain View High School and we will begin to sponsor student chapters at both of
those high schools this coming spring. The MADC recognizes the importance of
partnering with our local high schools. Every October during Red Ribbon Week we
provide supplies and set up presentations for over 40 schools in the Meridian School
District. The intervention component of Meridian -- of the Mayor's anti-drug coalition
consists of providing a prescription drug drop-off program at the Meridian Police
Department and since its inception in October of '09 we have collected over 3,600
pounds of prescription medication and I don't know if you're aware, is the most frequent
substance that we find at the high schools. It actually -- it's more so than alcohol and
marijuana. At least -- at least once a week I'm dealing with a student or concern from a
parent whose child is using -- is using prescription medication, so that continues to be
on the forefront of our minds in terms of when we develop programming for the future.
Beginning in this coming February we will be offering a marijuana awareness class for
educators, parents, and other interested citizens. Each week this class will provide
science based information about the different aspects of the marijuana culture, including
medical marijuana and I'm sure you're aware that as the state of Idaho we are
surrounded by medical marijuana states and the movement to legalize marijuana has --
is definitely on our doorstep and we have some very passionate volunteers who are
committed to making sure that that doesn't happen and really educating our community
about what has happened in our surrounding states where it has become legalized and
the devastation and destruction that that brings with it and not only that, but the increase
of the abuse of teenagers as well of marijuana. This course was requested by the
Meridian School District and it will be a partnership between the MADC, Drug Free
Idaho, and the Boise School District. And on a more personal note, I am very grateful
for the resources and support that the MADC provides to my school in particular. I have
been a drug and alcohol counselor in the schools now for about eight years and it
wasn't until probably five years ago when I had some resources and some tools that I
could put into the hands of parents. I now can give parents drug testing kits that they
can take home and they can use as a tool to help their child defer use or prolong it at
least. I'm also able to give them resources for education, for classes, for programs, all
sorts of things that just wasn't available, even, you know, five or six years ago.
Recovery is an important aspect of a well rounded community prevention program and
the MADC recognizes people in our community who are in recovery from substance
abuse. Every September they are provided with a free breakfast and an opportunity to
hear testimonies from others who have overcome similar challenges and show great
courage to live life clean and sober. And in terms -- also in terms of recovery I get the
pleasure of working with students every week who are making the commitment to stay
clean and sober and the MADC has provided us with materials and has paid for the cost
of background checks for our volunteers to help facilitate our discovery recovery
program, which is modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous, it's a 12 step program, so that
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 13 of 49
kids at a very very young age can start to understand that there is -- you can live life
without using drugs and alcohol and they don't have to wait until they are in their 20s
and 30s or older to figure it out and we also receive a great deal of support for kids
whose parents or family members are addicts or alcoholics. And in closing I would just
like to extend an invitation to anyone who is interested in continuing to improve our
quality of live in making Meridian a drug and alcohol free community. To join us in our
mission we meet -- we would love to have you. We meet the third Thursday of every
month at Meridian police and just need to contact the Meridian Police Department for
more information. I will stand for questions at this time if you have any.
Jones: Any questions or comments?
Rountree: I have none.
Jones: Thank you very much, Allison.
Terrell: Thank you.
C. Legal Department: Solid Waste Advisory Commission 2011
Annual Report
Jones: From the legal department, Bill Nary?
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I'm going to be brief. You
have a written report from the Solid Waste Advisory Commission in your packets. I
would highlight it's been a very successful year in forming the Solid Waste Advisory
Commission over the last year and, then, beginning to develop aprogram -- and
different programs with them and the one, of course, they would like to highlight the
most was to be able to reinstitute the recycling program with the change in the
secondary markets for recyclables. We were able to partner with SSC to create a -- or
recreate the program we had now with some side boards and more clarity as to what is
eligible and a process for people to request assistance for various projects around the
community, they have funded some projects recently, one was the recycling containers
for Settlers Park as a pilot project and, then, also the recyclable bags that they are
going to be using for promotional opportunities and public awareness of recyclable
issues. So, if you have specific questions about the Solid Waste Commission maybe
can answer them. If not, the report I think contains the rest of the details, so --
Jones: Thank you, Bill. Any comments or questions?
Rountree: I have none.
D. Police Department: Interact Business Group Consultants
Reporting on Public Safety Training Center
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 14 of 49
Jones: Thank you. Next on the list is the police department's report on the public safety
training center, Chief Lavey.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, good afternoon. I think this is the third time we have seen each
other today and to the other Mayor and Council, thank you for the opportunity to speak
today. In the last eight years we have been working on a vision and a concept for a
training center for the police department and over that time the scope has changed from
a law enforcement only to a -- more of a public safety training center and, then, some
aspect of that being open to the -- to the community. Earlier in this year we actually had
contracted with a group called IBG Interact Business Group out of Valley Center,
California, to look at a feasibility study and needs assessment and a strategic business
plan for such a concept. Today we are prepared to give a presentation of what they
come up with. We are here to create dialogue on the scope of the project. We are also
here to discuss potential options and phasing of such a project if we go forward and I
have also noticed that some of our partners that we have been working with over the
last several years are here as well and if time permits would love to hear from them as
well. So, with that being said, I have several staff members here -- I have Deputy Chief
Tracy Basterrechea, Lieutenant Jamie Leslie, and Sergeant Eric Strolberg. Jamie
Leslie and Eric Strolberg have been instrumental in being the contact people for the
police department side working with Interact Business Group. All of us here are and will
be available for questions and I am going to sit down and turn this over to Bill Booth
who is the representative of Interact Business Group to start our presentation for today.
Thank you. Bill.
Booth: Hello, Madam Mayors and Council Members. I want to thank the fine staff at
the Meridian Police Department and the Fire Department. We have been engaged in
this project for just over six months now and I have found them to be a very professional
and extremely dedicated with regards to training -- training the officers and firefighters
and staff at the City of Meridian., as well as support of other departments within the
community. I have -- this is meant to be a briefing, where we stand, where we have
been, and what our thoughts are about going forward. We have given to you in your
handouts a short executive summary of the strategic business plan that when submitted
to you in final form this is going to be over 200 pages long. We are going to go through
about ten pages of it today, just to do the highlights. If you have a copy of that -- I hope
you do -- if you go down through what our tasks were when we first started the project
and what our marching orders were, we were given seven tasks or seven questions to
answer with regards to the report, who will use the training facility, what training will be
provided, what will it cost to build the facility, what will it cost to annually operate the
facility, what other preliminary site plans and equipment requirements. What is the cost
benefit of the facility and potential of offering training classes to outside public agencies
and industries. Those were our marching orders and those were the tasks that we were
zeroed in on for about the last six months. Starting first with the needs assessment, we
did an extremely detailed assessment of the Meridian Police and Fire Departments. Sat
down with staff and cataloged every one of their training classes in a very detailed
manner, how many students per class, the legal justification for each class, the kind of
facility or property that was needed for each class and came up with a very extensive
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 15 of 49
database that we have prepared for the departments. In summary of that -- of that work
on page three of your handout is the total contact hours of training required by the two
departments. For the Fire Department 45,608 contact hours. For the Police
Department 55,722 contact hours of training. We did -- and I will get a little bit deeper
into this. We did an outside user survey of agencies and industry across the area, as
well as focus groups of some 15 very specific people and agencies within the area.
They are training totaled just over 7,000 contact hours -- 7,392 contact hours. For a
grand total of an annual required training for the department and outside users of
108,722 hours. In my company's experience and our experience these numbers are in
line with what we see across the county, regardless if it's Idaho, Texas, Alabama, Illinois
-- training of law enforcement is somewhat standard across the country. With fire
service as well. Somewhat standardized across the country. So, these numbers I think
are typical and do fall in line with what we have seen in other reports. In addition to
cataloging the requirement and needs of the departments, as I have said, how many
students, how many instructors, types of props that were used, we also asked the
departments to categorize each and every class. We came up with four independent
categories and those are on the next page of your handout on page four. We took the
contact hours and we broke them down by categorization. The first category was
classes that were not being performed to a satisfactory level. Category two, classes
that are being performed to a satisfactory level. Category three, desired classes that
are not being done today as a result of perhaps .lack of facilities. And category four
classes on career development and advancement classes. Going to the far column on
the right. You can see it. Of the one hundred and -- just over 100,000 class hours we
have got 47 percent of the classes that are not being performed to a satisfactory level,
23 percent that are, 21 percent of the contact hours the departments would like to do a
better job of training and eight percent for career development classes. We are not
saying that the class -- the training is not being done, we are saying that it's not being
done to the satisfactory level of the department. Did want to make that very clear. As I
mentioned, we -- we brought in the community at large in this area. We did a web
based survey and I had about a response rate of about 53 percent of the respondents
that we sent out and asked them if we built a training facility here in Meridian would they
come. If they did come what would they come for? What classes would they prefer.
What classes do they need the most. How many people would they send, et cetera.
And the next table shows the -- kind of the most popular classes that came back in our
survey, the column to the right, 68, 63, 59. That's the number of students per year that
would be coming to Meridian for training that's provided here at the training center.
Very important note I think in our survey question, which we don't have here, it's in the
much larger report. When we asked them what classes would they like to see or would
they come to Meridian to take, they are classes that the departments are already
delivering themselves. So, they are classes that are complimentary to what the
Meridian police and fire department are already conducting themselves. So, therefore,
the facilities that we build for Meridian could be used with outside users as well. In total
we estimate around 800 students would come to the city for training -- 800 students
outside of those staff here at Meridian. Eight hundred total -- total students. But, then,
the next page is also a very important number, an additional 2,000 students. These
would be law enforcement officers that would come here multiple times a year for what
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 16 of 49
they call qualification shoots and what that consists of is about an hour training on the
shooting range that officers have to do four times a year here in the states. Another
2,000 visitors, people coming to the training center. In addition to the internal needs
assessment that we did, addition to the outside user survey that we did, we brought in
what we call a focus group, it was around 15 people -- people from neighboring fire and
law enforcement agencies. Idaho POST attended. We asked the focus group very
specifically -- we asked them -- brought them into the room and said what should this
thing look like? What do you need? We also had some federal agencies coming to the
facility as well. What are we missing? Are we missing anything? Are there any 800
pound gorillas in the room? What should we be doing here? We had some very good
feedback and very good comment. We have listed them in the -- in the bullet points that
are here. We got a very strong positive response from the focus group. The next is --
on the screen -- we have -- that worked for us, an architectural firm that's very
experienced in the design and development of public safety training facilities. They
came, they visited the site, they looked at the land, they are very experienced and
looked at our needs assessment and tailored a site plan that would fit the needs of the
Meridian police and fire department and we have come up with a site plan that's on your
screen now. You can see -- tell me I can write on this. Here is the existing training --
headquarters facility now. Here is the existing canine area we have now. Here. Here
is -- would be the gun range facility over here and the administrative classroom area
there. I'm ,not .very good at this, obviously. Existing range building -- or existing
headquarters building is here. This is -- would be the range scenario village, outdoor
drill ground area. This we are calling the main campus, the administrative classroom
area. And Water Tower Road here. That's the site layout and we are going to come
back to this in just one second. In your handout we also have a -- a context site plan in
context of the neighborhood of where we are at and where we are located. You can
see that the Idaho POST facility and driving track is almost adjacent. Not quite, but very
close. Moving on now to page eight of the summary. We came up with a lot of different
options and ideas and thoughts and plans for the facility, with the main marching orders
and my main task working with staff was what can we build -- what do we need to build
that meets the needs of the Meridian police and fire departments first and foremost. We
came up with two phases. One is calling it phase one, quite cleverly. That includes a
50 yard range, two classrooms, and a 25 yard shell. So, going back to the site plan
here, we are talking about building this area here. That's what we are calling phase
one. The cost estimate for that is just over 5.8 million dollars. Followed, then, by a
phase two -- now we are going to get really fancy -- with the main administrative
classroom building as our phase two at about 3.1 million and that is our administrative
classroom building. Now, the needs assessment that we did supports both phases. I
mean I think that we could build both, but we have looked at this and said what is the
most pressing need. With phase one we are still going to be going back to
headquarters for some classroom space, office space, et cetera. So, we are going to
be back and forth in phase one, going to -- if I can do this. We are going to be still
utilizing space that's over at the headquarters building now, because we do need the
space. If we split it up we are going to be back and forth across the parking lot for some
classes. If we build both, obviously, we will have it all put together. We looked at
operation and maintenance costs. One of our issues, of course, is once you build it,
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 17 of 49
then, you got to pay for it. We have come up with in phrase one and phase two two
different cost levels. If you build phase one it's going to cost around 41,000 dollars a
year to maintain it and the detailed level of that is utilities, telephone, supplies,
maintenance of the equipment and so forth. It comes out to around 41,000 a year. If
we build phase two collectively, then, phase one and phrase two, it's going to cost about
88,000 dollars a year to build and operate. The last page here is -- we call it the O and
M cost versus annual revenue opportunity. When I spoke earlier we mentioned that we
did an outside user survey. We asked departments and agencies in the area would -- if
Meridian built a public safety training facility would you come and if you come who
would you bring and what classes do you need and how many students would you bring
and the question we asked in the survey was very specific and it said for a fee who
would you send, what would you need, and how often would you come. That brought
us to the -- about 800 students a year number and the 2,000 officers qualifying. So, we
intend to generate some user fees and revenues from the facility. If we build phase one
we can expect 26,546 thousand dollars in annual revenue from those users coming to
the facility. If we build the training center now, we can save from the police
department's perspective about 22,000 dollars a year that the department is now
spending going out of the area for training for travel costs, overtime, and so forth. We
can bring that back in. So, we are going to be able to save -- save that money and put it
back into the overhead and maintenance costs of the new facility. We have a total of
49,000, subtract 41,000, we are looking at a small profit of about 8,000 dollars a year in
the phase one scenario. To build phase two we can see the entire potential revenue
from the outside user survey, which is at 59,399 dollars, then, we have all of the
classroom space and the full -- fully developed training facility. We also think that based
on the classrooms that we build in the second facility, we are going to have some
excess classroom space. We have forecasted around 24,000 dollars in excess space
to sell just classrooms. We had some people at our focus group from the industry who
said we don't shoot -- we don't need a scenario village, we need good, clean, reliable
classroom space in a -- in a secured environment. There was a strong need in the area
for classrooms. Just -- you would think that -- what do you need the classroom for? It's
really interesting how much -- how much there is need just for this type of space. The
revenue, if we build out phase one and phase two, at total build out, we think we can
expect a revenue of about 18,000 dollars a year building full -- both units out. Or both
phases out. That's where I am today. That's where we are. That's my presentation
today. I'd welcome any questions.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Yes, Councilman Bird.
Bird: I have got one question. Thank you for the presentation. Very efficient. Why
can't the main campus administration building come up and go off the east wall where
we eliminate an exterior wall and it would allow us to have more parking on the east
side? I have got concerns about the parking. Is there a reason we didn't do that?
Booth: I'm not an architect, but there is a reason.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 18 of 49
Bird: Okay.
Booth: There is a -- what is it called? A lateral -- a water lateral -- do you see this very
slightly dotted line --
Bird: Uh-huh. I know the --
Booth: -- right next to the building. We can't build over that.
Bird: Good explanation. I forgot about that. Thank you.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Yes, Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Scenario village we show and that's a potential and that's really -- under
phase one that cost is not included in that, that's just a -- kind of a phase three, if you
will?
Booth: No, sir. It is in phase one.
Hoaglun: It is in phase one.
Booth: We have a budgeted number. It's in the major report. There is a number.
Could I see the report?
Hoaglun: If I recall, Madam Mayor and Bill, I think we were going to do the streets on
that, put in the infrastructure and, then, the village itself -- would be constructed over
time and there is some things -- maybe utilizing students at Boise State and others to --
to bring that on board. So, we would have additional -- I see that -- I call that phase
three in my mind, just -- the street's there, but there may not be the buildings in that
phase one. So, when you see phase one and the range center, that scenario village is
ready to go, but they still have to be built.
Booth: There is a lot of contingency things going on here, but we did place a 50,000
dollar number --aline item in here for scenario village training area. That could be the
asphalt training area for the ground, it could be some of the structures and the building
and, yes, we have had conversations with -- with the university about helping us.
knew that in the past in projects that we have been involved with it's an excellent
program for -- for students and we have also been involved with programs where we
have had trades -- the trades have come in in apprentice programs and actually build
the facility. So, we have 50,000 dollars in here to kind of cover that general area, so
there is -- there is a little bit of money in there for that.
Hoaglun: Great.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 19 of 49
Booth: In the phase one number.
Hoaglun: Great. Thank you.
Jones: I have a question, Bill. How far did the survey go? Was it just the Treasure
Valley or -- well, from here to Boise -- just here in Boise or how far and wide was the
survey?
Booth: In Nampa and so forth. I do have a list of the people that it was sent out to, but I
think just here within this region. We didn't go out of state. We didn't go to Portland.
We didn't go to Seattle. We didn't go to Denver. It was mainly here for this region here.
Jones: Thank you.
Booth: Although we did have some federal agencies that are stationed here get the
survey and also attended our focus group meeting. Federal agencies, but local --
locally stationed people.
Jones: Okay.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor? Sorry.
Jones: Yes, Councilman Zaremba.
Zaremba: When you were discussing if only phase one were done for the moment and
phase two were put off a little bit, you were saying that existing meeting and classroom
space in the existing building would continue to have to be used. As the city gets back
into a growth mode and the city grows I assume the demands on space in the police
department are going to grow as well as the police force will probably grow. Was there
any discussion about how soon that -- what is currently existing meeting space in the
existing building needs to be converted to office space and other uses and get this
phase two built? Is there any press there to do that quickly?
Booth: I think if I could ask the chief to come up, he's very familiar with that expansion
-- or just sit there. He -- of the new expansion of the headquarters building.
Zaremba: I guess, in short, my question is how fast do we need to give up the space in
the existing building?
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Zaremba, that's a very good question. I had a few
points that I wanted to cover and now would probably be a perfect opportunity. So, let
me cover those points and, then, I'll answer that question for you.
Zaremba: Thank you.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 20 of 49
Lavey: One of the things that we asked Bill and his group to do is to -- we didn't want to
under promise and the marching orders that you will not see here was estimate high on
construction, estimate low on revenue, because we do not want to get this wrong. But
one of the things that Council should be aware of is when we envisioned this under the
capital improvement plan, the original concept was for FY-2011, which is the current
budget that we are operating on. We have a building expansion in the capital
improvement plan, in the ten year plan, that goes out to I believe 2015. So, one of the
things that we have done, to answer your question, is we are looking into the future and
saying what can we do without and, then, what do we do now and what do we need for
the future and what we envision is -- is moving a lot of the services that are occurring
currently at the police department into that administrative building and, then, using the
vacated spaces at the headquarters and converting it into additional office spaces or
working spaces -- really kind of a -- after a needs assessment and, then, potentially
prolonging that building expansion. We originally looked at -- the original concept plan
was a five million dollar expansion to the -- to the west side of the headquarters building
and part of that also was a remodel of the locker room space and one of the things that
we have been studying is -- if we moved the public meeting room and the training room
over to the phase two building, is possibly being able to expand the areas that we
currently have, such as the weight room could -- would be moved over to the admin
building, that would allow additional space to move into. Instead of adding onto the
building we might just be able to kind of flatten out and spread out.. So, potentially
delaying that five million dollar commitment for many years to come. One of the other
things that we looked at when we were working on all these concept plans was a 20,000
square foot addition to the headquarters building. If we end up building this training
center with this classroom facility, then, that 20,000 square foot onto the main building is
no longer practical. So, to answer your question, we have already stated that the
need's there now, but if we start to see a major growth and some of the commercial
growth that's already been identified and is in the planning phases, if we need to add
lots of officers we are going to need to do that fairly soon. If we stay status quo like we
are or have limited growth, we can get by for several years.
Zaremba: Thank you.
Lavey: I hope that answers the question.
Zaremba: Gives me a frame reference. Yes. Thank you.
Lavey: Thank you.
De Weerd: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Mayor de Weerd.
De Weerd: I guess in looking at the annual operations and maintenance costs, I don't
see personnel. Are we using existing personnel to manage, maintain, schedule and
clean it?
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 21 of 49
Booth: Staffing would come out of the existing staffing budgets and so the PD and the
fire department would use existing staff to run it, schedule it, and recordkeeping and so
forth. The maintenance of it is coming out of utilities and there was a line item for that
and the plan is to use the headquarters and how it's maintained now, using it as a -- the
same procedure that's used with the headquarters building, to use it now to maintain the
facility out there. So, there is no dedicated staff, other than existing dedicated staff from
the police and fire departments at the training facility.
Jones: Thank you.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, if I could add just slightly. Some of the vision that we have
sometime in the future is to expand the training unit of the police department. We
currently have a training coordinator that works part time and somewhere down the road
I foresee a civilian full-time position maybe running this facility, but currently with
existing staff that's the plan. So, not -- not any increase in staffing in the immediate
future and, then, through our planning -- the costs that you see covers heating and gas
and janitorial costs and filters and that sort of thing.
Jones: Chief Lavey, when you say a civilian, are you meaning anon-uniformed person
to run it? .
Lavey: Correct. We actually have police officers that are in a sworn position and we
tend to pay them more and, then, the civilians are non-sworn staff are just like you and
I .
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Yes, Councilman Rountree.
Rountree: There was some discussion early on about not including the 25 yard shell.
Is that still a possibility or where are we with that?
Booth: In phase one we have included the 24 yard shell is in that number. We are
going to build out the 50 yard range fully built out with the targeting systems, ventilation,
and, then, build the 25 yard shell as a part of phase one.
Rountree: I understand that, but my question is there was some discussion about
taking that out of the phase one. Is it not doable or is it not necessarily efficient?
Booth: I think it's a couple of issues -- a couple of things. One is the efficiency of
building it all at one time and bringing up the pads and building pads and shelling that
portion of it out, but, then, in addition you have got a very large open space that can be
used for a lot activities, not only for the police department, but for public-private
partnership opportunities. There is space there to do things with, larger gatherings of
people at the training center, so a lot of things can happen inside that room. It's about
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 22 of 49
8,000 square feet of open shell space and we just felt that it's more efficient to build it all
at the same time.
Rountree: Thank you.
Jones: Any other comments or questions?
Bird: Very nice.
Jones: Thank you much, Bill.
Booth: Thank you.
Jones: And thank you, chief.
Lavey: Thank you.
E. Public Works: Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Update
Jones: Now we will step to the capital improvement plan. Rich.
Dees: I'd like to introduce Warren Stewart, who is going to actually do this. He drew
the short straw -- the correct straw. Sorry. So, Warren is going to give us a briefing on
the capital improvement plan for the next number of years.
De Weerd: Are you going to pay for that project before this in the CIP?
Dees: Let me help. No.
Stewart: Madam Mayor, Members of the -- or Madam Mayors, Members of the Council,
it's my pleasure to come before you today and give you what I hope is a fairly brief
update on the capital improvement plan. We have actually changed the title of it and I
will get into that in just a little bit why we did that. Last year we made quite a
presentation to you regarding the capital improvement plan, it was the first five year
capital improvement plan that the engineering department had presented to the Mayor
and Council. I won't go into anywhere near that depth today. In fact, my intention for
today is primarily to highlight some of the changes or additions that we have made to
the capital improvement plan and, then, give you a chance to ask any questions that
you might have. The reason that we create the plan in the first place is to provide a
road map to help direct our efforts over the next five years. It also is a companion
document to the enhancements in the budgetary process that we do and as such it also
gives us a chance to provide some clarity to projects that may span multiple years, the
enhancement and budgetary process doesn't necessarily give us a great opportunity to
do. So, it serves functions for us. I will spend some time today, like I said, going over
some of the changes. Probably the first thing that I'll talk about just a little bit is the
change in the title of the plan. Last year we just called it the CIP. This year it's the
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 23 of 49
engineering capital and enhancement plan, because it does contain items in there that
are not quote, unquote, capital, they are not plant in service type items, they are
planning efforts and so forth that the engineering department actually administers or
oversees and, therefore, we change the title to more accurately reflect what's in the
plan. One of the next things that I'd like to draw your attention to is the addition of a
project scoring on the back of each one of the project description sheets. In the past we
have simply highlighted the projects as ranking a high, medium, or low in priority and
this year we tried to improve and make that -- that system more robust by adding a
scoring form. We actually score each one of the projects in ten different categories and
this allows us, then, to rank each one of the projects. I wanted to show you this form,
just -- it shows one of the drop down menus that sort of highlights the process that we
go through with scoring each one of the projects and this allows us to, then, rank each
one. That ranking is shown not only on the project description sheet, which I'm trying to
get to. There we go. The scoring ranking are right here on the project description
sheet, but it's also shown -- if I can get there -- on the larger sheet -- or your summary
report. Each one of them has your score and the score on the summary sheets are in
order of high to low, so you can immediately see within the water department or the
wastewater department which projects have the highest score and which ones have the
lowest score. So, that's one feature that we added to the CIP that I hope will provide
some assistance to people when they are looking at these things. It certainly does help
us in our efforts to try and rank prioritize as we go through the budgetary process, .also
the rate modeling process, we can talk about various projects and which ones should be
moved forward or moved back, depending on how we want to balance or adjust the
budget. One of the other things that we have now added in there that's an additional
feature that should be helpful on this sheet, we now have a box that identifies whether
the project is a capital project or not. If the box is not checked, then, it is not a capital
project, it's not a plant in service and we also have included a box in here, which -- right
here, which tells us whether or not the project is depreciation eligible. That's essentially
-- we are in the process of finance and our business operations department are trying to
work out just exactly how that will affect things into the future and I think you guys are
aware of that, but we wanted to start this year by, essentially, identifying those projects
which we feel are potentially depreciation eligible and that, essentially, indicates which
projects are replacement projects and which ones are new capital going in that has not
-- it's not part of the replacement. Also there is a -- on each one of these sheets there is
an engineering number and an enhancement number that allows us -- the engineering
number that is a given number that we give to every project and you will find that every
project in here, year one through five, all have engineering numbers. We assign those
as we develop the projects. But, obviously, each one of the -- each one of the
enhancements is only developed for the budgetary year that we are currently in. So,
you will only find the enhancement numbers in there for projects which were 2012
projects and that's true on both this project description sheet, as well as in the summary
sheet. You will see both the enhancement numbers and the engineering numbers. All
of the projects will have an engineering number, but only the ones for fiscal year 2012
or that begin in fiscal year 2012 will have an enhancement number on them. And one of
the other --
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 24 of 49
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor and Warren?
Stewart: Yes.
Hoaglun: And that's -- so the enhancement number -- and that number is the priority?
Stewart: No. The enhancement number is a number that actually finance assigns
when they -- when they are going through the budgetary process.
Hoaglun: Okay. I wanted to make sure I understood that. Thank you.
Stewart: You bet. Thank you.
Jones: Warren?
Stewart: Yes.
Jones: Question for you. On the scoring, who scores -- who establishes the score on
this?
Stewart: That's a good question. It's -- generally speaking, it's one of the engineering
staff and it's primarily my two assistant city engineers. One for the water and one for
the wastewater. And, then, also Clint Dolsby, who is the assistant city engineer over
wastewater, does reclaimed water at this time. But we have actually done those kind of
jointly. As a group we will get back together and make sure that we all feel like that
scoring is adequate and that it -- everybody is sort of on the same page. One of the
other -- is there another question? One of the other things that we had added that is
significant is for projects that begin in 2000 -- for the current fiscal year, we have added
project schedules, or GANT charge for each one of those. And that's another significant
addition that we have made over the previous one and we feel that that's going to be
very helpful. We have already had a lot of the departments, wastewater and water, as
well as inspection services and also Hansen -- the folks that are sort of administering
Hansen are interested in those schedules, so that they can use those in their work and
their efforts. So, that's been a great addition. Not only for our project managers, but
also for the rest of the departments to be able to utilize. The engineering and capital
enhancement plan for the next fiscal year 2013 through 2017 is already underway. We
have already done a preliminary draft of that or a draft summary, which we had given to
business operations so that they can utilize that in their work in preparing the rate
presentation that you will be seeing in the next few months. Some of the potentially
significant things that you might see as that comes up -- one of the -- you know, this --
this particular plan was developed in June. We didn't finalize it until after you guys,
essentially, had voted to approve the overall budget for 2012. So, we are just now
presenting that to you, but, essentially, the vast majority of this work was done then.
Since this plan was developed a couple of things are -- have come to light that I just
want to make you aware of, because you will be seeing the impact of those things
potentially in the next capital improvement plan that will be coming forward to you and
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 25 of 49
that is the MPDS permit. We know that there is going to be impact associated with the
final outcome of the MPDS permit, the compliance schedule that they give us, that may
impact some of the outlying years in the five year capital plan. One of the other things
that's fairly significant that I just wanted to make you aware of is the recalibration of the
flow meter out at the wastewater treatment plant. Basically, we had been going the last
few years using a particular flow metering device that metered the discharge to Five
Mile Creek. We put new facilities in there this year and had those calibrated and
discovered that our old flow meter was a little off and as a consequence we may be
running out of capacity a little sooner than we anticipated and in order to make sure that
we are putting, you know, additional capacity improvements in place in order to take
care of that -- that need, we may end up moving some projects forward in the next fiscal
year or in the next plan -- addition to this plan in order to accommodate for that change
in calibration. And with that I would just like to say, you know, we are always looking for
ways -- in fact, we already have some ideas of things that we are going to add and
improvements that we intend to make in the next capital improvement plan in order to
make it more useful not only to the engineering staff, but also to the rest of the Public
Works Department and the city and we are going to be committed to doing that on an
annual basis and grateful again for the opportunity to present this information to you and
I stand for any questions that you may have.
Jones: Any questions? Yes, Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Warren, you indicated I think on your first slide you rated ten particular items.
Stewart: Yes.
Rountree: And somewhere I saw the value of those. Are those weighed and what are
the most significant things that you do weight, if you weight them at all?
Stewart: They are weighted. As you can see we have the major drivers category and
the minor drivers category. I think the highest number of points without pulling down --
each one of these has a drop down menu.
Rountree: Okay.
Stewart: And there is basically directions on how to score them and, you know, on
thresholds you bump from one to category to another and I think the next sheet shows
one of those -- or the next slide shows one of those drop down menus as you can see
there. So, when it comes to regulatory -- actually, that's customers impacted, so it's one
to 25, 26 to 100, and so on and, then, there is a point associated with each one of
those. So, they are weighted to some degree. The ones that actually -- you will notice
that some of them have a range one to ten, some of them may only have a range of one
to three.
Rountree: Okay. That's all I need to know.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 26 of 49
Stewart: Okay.
Jones: Any others? Thank you very much, Warren.
Stewart: Thank you.
Bird: Nice job, Warren.
F. Planning Department: Review ACHD 2013-2017 Five Year
Work Plan Draft A
Jones: Next will be Caleb to review the ACHD five year work plan.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayors, Members of the Council. Before I jump into the five
work plan discussion I just want to really quickly give you an update, since I don't know
when I will be in front of you again. I am working currently with ACHD staff on access to
our staff parking lot. With the recent decision to close Meridian Road for the split
corridor project, obviously, our access is going to be impacted as well. So, I just wanted
to give you a heads up. We didn't discuss that at the joint meeting that we had with the
ACHD commissioners a few months ago, but we met with ACHD yesterday at our
monthly meeting and we are exploring three potential sites now about a year long basis,
since we will be -- access via Meridian Road will be impacted. So, I just wanted to
really quick let you know we are looking -- I'm looking in coordination with ACHD at
mitigating the -- our one-to-one ratio of what we have now and finding other places
within a -- you know, a small radius of City Hall for our employees to park while split
corridor is under construction. So, I just wanted to give you that heads up that the
wheels are turning on that and if you have any ideas. We will also probably look at, you
know, exploring methods. Car pooling, encouraging folks to bike, those types of things.
So, if we can't come up with the 70 some parking stalls that are there, that we can figure
out other means for folks to get here and home during the work day. But I just wanted
to bring that up, because it didn't come up at our joint meeting and I wanted to let you
know that that is a direct impact of us during that project as well, so -- we can talk about
that some more, I just wanted to plant that seed with you if you want us to I will I'm sure
be bringing you updates at future meetings, but I wanted to get that in front of you
sooner, rather than later, so -- onto the business at hand. There is a memo in your
packet for today. ACRD distributed Draft A of the Five Year Work Plan for fiscal year
2013 to 2017. I have reviewed that draft and would like to discuss that with you for just
a little bit. In the memo that I prepared for today's meeting I inserted a couple of
documents that I thought were most helpful in summarizing. I didn't share the full report
with you all. It does get pretty lengthy and even the summary report gets pretty lengthy.
So, I shared with you what I thought was the most pertinent information that you would
be interested in before falling asleep. So, I just wanted to run through some of those
major changes in Draft A and compare and contrast those to the currently adopted draft
of the five work plan. So, one of the major changes is to the Fairview access
management plan. The currently adopted plan has construction over two years being in
2014 and 2015 and in Draft A that gets pushed out to 2017 for the first year of that. So,
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 27 of 49
it's amulti-year project, but is being delayed at least three years in the current draft.
That's a pretty good impact, obviously, to that project, which we did speak about the
access management plan that's related to that -- the construction project, which is in the
program. The other project that I wanted to highlight is Franklin, Ten Mile to Linder.
That project is currently in FY-12, but we know with the budget that ACHD adopted here
a few months ago that got pushed out to 2014. Well, in Draft A it's back to 2013. So, if
you look -- if you compare draft -- if you compare the adopted draft to Draft A, it looks
like it's being delayed a year, but, really, in practice it's being accelerated a year from
what they are currently under budgetwise. The other one to highlight -- it's not in
Meridian, but it is within our area of impact -- is the Star and Ustick intersection and
these are some out years of the program, so it's being delayed from PD to unfunded,
but I just wanted to -- since it is in our area of impact I thought I would highlight that one.
Ten Mile, Cherry to Ustick, is that mile long roadway widening project is being delayed
from 2014 to 2015. And I will highlight that a little bit more as we get into the letter that I
have drafted for your consideration this afternoon. Ustick and Locust Grove, that
intersection is being accelerated one year from 2015 to 2014, but the ancillary or
adjacent roadway project, Ustick-Locust Grove to Leslie, is being delayed two years
from 2015 to 2017. So, there will be -- at least in Draft A there is a three year difference
between when the intersection gets done and when the roadway gets widened between
essentially Kohl's or at Leslie Way back towards the Locust Grove intersection. And,
then, the other one .that I wanted to highlight was a bridge. on .Victory Road being
accelerated and I don't know we need to spend too much time on that, but I did want to
highlight all the projects in Meridian and those changes in the program to them. The
other project -- and we have talked about this before is Amity-Eagle -- is currently
unfunded in the program -- in the five year work plan, but it is a 2012 construction year
project. So, it actually doesn't show up in the 2013 to 2017 program, it's bypassing,
basically, all the programing stuff and going right into construction. So, I just wanted to
highlight that for you that that is being accelerated being designed right of way and
construction all within the current fiscal year. So, that's a quick highlight of those major
changes -- again one being accelerated, quite a few being delayed a little bit. The --
thought I'd mention -- but the Ten Mile-Cherry -- or, excuse me, the Franklin, Ten Mile to
Linder project, although it was being moved back into the program of the 2013, it is still
listed as a contingency project or a slip project. So, if they don't realize the funds or
don't have some of the carry-over funds from this year to fund that project next year, it
could potentially slip to 2014 or even beyond, kind of depending. So, I think with that
being said, that segues fairly nicely into the draft letter that I have written. One of the
points within that letter is -- and this came up at the transportation task force, who also
looked at Draft A during their December 1st meeting. Some of their observations and
recommendations to you all for a letter would be for ACRD to explore additional funding
opportunities. So, I did put a sentence or two in the letter to that effect that we would
encourage them to look for potential -- potential additional funding sources. That's in
the first paragraph of the draft letter, some of the reasons mentioned are revenue
sources remain flat, you got -- project costs have increased and maintenance included
in that. So, that's highlighted in the letter. The Ten Mile corridor also listed in the letter
as a -- as a -- still high priority generally for the city. That corridor is very important to us
and we thank them and encourage them to continue program projects along that
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 28 of 49
corridor. I think that's generally it that I wanted to highlight in there. I will, obviously,
incorporate some of the comments that we received just earlier this afternoon into the
letter about -- we are comfortable with the Ten Mile corridor study at this point. We
want to insure the ultimate configuration to correlate with our future land use in south
Meridian study and the intensities and that we support the Ten Mile-Amity interim
intersection project. So, I will incorporate that somehow into this letter, but I don't have
more of a propose -- or a presentation for you this afternoon, other than one of the
additional items that I put in your memo was just a breakdown over the five years of the
program and it includes ACHD's projected revenue and how they are expending that
revenue and the biggest thing to note in there is the operational costs versus capital
projects costs, that -- we were just a few years ago at a 50-50 ratio and it's becoming
more and more operational heavy and less and less capital intense. So, we will see
less and less projects -- each program year we can expect less and less capital projects
as there is more and more infrastructure to maintain and those costs are on the
increase. So, again, that all goes back to doing the most with a lesser dollar at this
point and so I included that kind of snapshot and the ratios of capital operation in the
budget. So, again, Madam Mayor, with that I will stand for any questions, particularly on
the letter and would also seek direction if you'd like me to come back when Draft B is
released or I can gauge that and see if I need to come back for Draft B or what your
preference is on bird dogging this all the way through the process, so -- Madam Mayor.
Jones: I would --
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Yes, Councilman Rountree.
Rountree: Caleb, the Franklin, Ten Mile to Linder, on the table it doesn't have any
indication -- it doesn't have a column about contingency. I know in the program it was --
when you read the description of the project it was highlighted across the page, it was
contingency. It would be good to have that I think noted -- or footnoted as they
tabularize those projects that any project that is a contingency project that's going to slip
-- because I have had to have several conversations with folks about the Franklin
project, about, well, it was going to be built this year and where did this contingency
thing came from -- come from and it was strictly from their perspective of seeing the
table and the table really didn't explain that potential. So, I think it would be good to
footnote it on everything they do, whether it's draft or final.
Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, that's a point well taken and I think ACRD
understands that. I would say that everything in the five year work plan is a contingency
project, though. Until it gets budgeted --
Rountree: Right.
Hood: -- it's all subject to change and -- and it is a little confusing, granted. I will note --
and I -- it's probably of little consolidation, but the contingency project is listed in the full
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 29 of 49
report as a contingency project. We can work on some footnote. This really isn't meant
for general consumption by the public, but I will look at and work with Matt on -- anytime
something comes up with that, you know, an asterisk or something that explains if funds
are available or contingency projects, so thank you for that comment.
Jones: Any other comments? Questions?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I guess this is just an observation and Iwould -- I would reemphasize it, that
ACHD in their prioritization process has considered a lot of elements of where work
needs to be done and I bring that up, because as we look at the visual I can look around
at some areas where there are no dots and expect some political push back from other
cities. Certainly Meridian is in the mode of needing to catch up still to the great growth
that we had and the continued growth that we are having and I can understand an
ACHD prioritization process why so many of the projects are in Meridian, since we did
get so far behind. But I'm -- I do think we need to -- after public comment has been
made to ACRD by all jurisdictions, if that has any impact on Draft B, I think it would be
helpful for us to hear again about that and, then, just saying I can see the Boise City
council looking at this and saying there aren't enough dots in Boise. So, ACHD may
need to defend their process and we may need to be concerned about Draft B. Just an
observation.
Hood: And Madam Mayor, Councilman Zaremba, I have no problem coming back. So,
I will -- like I said, I will continue to monitor it. I know -- I talked to Kim Gallagher a little
bit about her discussion with the Boise city council. The one project that came up was
Fairview and it doesn't sound like they are real excited about it being delayed as
proposed in Draft A, but that's a -- that crosses jurisdiction, so it doesn't really go to your
point, but -- but I do communicate and -- with other cities and, quite honestly, I mean not
that there aren't other projects in Boise, but as you alluded to, they have got a lot of five
lane roadways at this point, so the ones in west Boise are about the only ones left to
widen to five lanes that are in the program, so there is still some, but -- but it is, like you
said, it's needs based on congestion and safety and the need right now is, for the most
part, in Meridian.
De Weerd: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Mayor de Weerd.
De Weerd: I guess I see probably costwise Boise is faring pretty well. They are getting
a lot of road improvements, we are getting intersection improvements. Caleb, I guess I
just had a question regarding Amity and Eagle. That came up at a recent -- in the last
couple of months. I don't think the priority of that was really driven by Meridian. Did this
bump other intersection improvements or road improvements in and is there a greater
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 30 of 49
need for Amity and Eagle or Victory and Locust Grove? I guess if you look in that south
area and where intersection improvements are needed, I'm still baffled -- when we got
that for discussion we really discussed it for design elements, not priority elements.
Can you maybe answer how that got prioritized into the 2012 and why that has a
greater importance than maybe Victory and Locust Grove.
Hood: Yeah. Madam Mayor, I -- let me go backwards and I will probably ask Matt to
come up if he wouldn't mind. I will tackle -- your Victory-Locust Grove is in the program.
So, it's not an either/or deal. It is also a priority to get done. So, it's -- that -- doing
Eagle and Amity does not delay that project, they are both in the same year. However,
it is about a 1.3 million dollar project to do Eagle-Amity, which, as I mentioned before,
Franklin, Ten Mile to Linder, is -- got pushed out of '12. It is in the currently adopted --
no, it's more than 1.3 million dollars, it's not a one to one trade off, but if you didn't do
Eagle and Amity you, essentially, have 1.3 dollars you could allocate to a higher priority
project. At least looking at the priority rankings. Because you're right, Eagle-Amity is
not one of our priority projects that we requested ACHD to do, it doesn't score high on
our list and that's where I will, again, ask Matt to kind of answer some of that question of
where this project sort of came from and how come it's a rush rush deal.
Edmond: Sure. Madam Mayor, Council. Matt Edmond, Ada County Highway District.
Our director is very eager to get a roundabout here on the ground in Ada county. We
did have a couple in the pipeline. However, we were trying to find something that sees
a fair amount of traffic every day that was technically vary straight forward without a lot
of challenges as far as geometry or topography or significant right of way impact or
drainage, because we do have other roundabouts, like 36th, Hill, Catalpa, but it's an
extremely, you know, challenging roundabout that we didn't want to -- we didn't feel
would do well in an expedited process. I believe the director's intent was to get
something on the ground as soon as possible, because we do have a lot of roundabouts
that we are going to be looking at putting in in places like the Ten Mile corridor and
possibly Franklin-Black Cat and the sooner we get one on the ground the sooner we
have those -- those lessons learned and that experience in house. So, I believe that
was this intent with -- with expediting one at Amity and Eagle so quickly and Locust
Grove-Victory is one where we are looking at a roundabout in the long term, but, again,
we wanted to go somewhere where we didn't have -- have to have -- you know, there is
a lot of subdivisions around there, we would really have to pay a lot of attention to a
public involvement process there and we felt like Amity and Eagle -- the impacts
wouldn't be as significant with an expedited process. Does that answer your question?
De Weerd: Yes. Thank you. And, Madam Mayor, I guess I would like to just thank
ACRD -- your intersection emphasis in moving traffic is greatly appreciated. The
intersection improvement in particular on Black Cat and Cherry Lane is so needed and
appreciate that that is in 2012.
Edmond: Certainly.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 31 of 49
Hood: Madam Mayor? I'm sorry, I have one more question to answer -- and I don't
know if we are done with comments or not on the letter. But, Matt, looking forward to
next year's program, some of the preliminary information coming out shows -- and this
goes to less and projects in the capital improvements plan or their five year work plan.
Two projects that, basically, we are going to be asked which one do we have a higher
priority of, our Locust Grove or Meridian Road north of Fairview. So, the one mile
between Fairview and Ustick on either Locust Grove or Meridian Road are about
modeling the same. Both needing to be improved, but if we had to pick one, which one
would you rather see go into the program next if we had to choose one of those two.
Because, again, the need -- and I looked at it and you can come up with reasons for
both of them, obviously, but I wanted to maybe see about a straw poll. We can vet that
a little bit further with our priorities next year, but it will help give Matt a little direction if
at least right now if you have some idea of -- if you would rather see Meridian Road
improved north of the split corridor or Locust Grove, which is congested now also and
oftentimes a reliever to Eagle Road when it's unbearable, which one of those you would
rather see move into the program. So, I will plant that seed. If you don't have -- if you
wanted to get in -- shoot me an e-mail. If you don't have any preference, that's fine, too.
But I did want to ask that question now as, you know, as resources are going to be
allocated probably to one or other of those projects, so --
Jones: I would like to take a straw vote, because I would like to give my input.
De Weerd: It's your prerogative.
Jones: So, I vote for extending Meridian Road. Councilman Bird?
Bird: Well, I think it's like picking between whether a Hershey bar or a Kit Kat bar for
me. I think they both need it real bad. I don't know. Meridian needs it and so does
Locust Grove. I -- I hate to pick between either one of them, but (would -- my priority
would be probably Locust Grove if I had to pick.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Yes, Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Caleb, quick question. What was -- how far out would these be targeted for?
Hood: It would be something -- yeah, it would be something to move into preliminary
development or PD. I mean we are talking the out years of the program, but with cost
share things it's something we have to start thinking about four or five years before we
actually get to construction. Design, right of way, all of that, so --
Hoaglun: So, Madam Mayor and Caleb, it's not like, well, the Meridian interchange,
Meridian Road issue, you know, would delay that and different things like that. So, that
will be already out of the way, it's -- so we are trying to look in our crystal ball and say,
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 32 of 49
okay, you know, five years now this is how it's going to be, so this is the priority. I mean
it's a hard one, because they are sixes. I mean it's --
Hood: And that's fine. If you don't have a preference one way or the other, that's fine,
too. It's just -- if all things -- if they score the same, which is about what's happening
today, and you got to pick one, is there any -- any preference. Just -- if it's personal you
drive that and you know this is worse or better or whatever. So, if you don't have a
preference, we don't -- that's fine, too. I just wanted to let you know that's out there, that
ACHD recognizes they both need to be done, but the resources aren't there to do them
both, you know, at least right of way, so --
Jones: Mayor de Weerd.
De Weerd: Madam Mayor, I would follow your lead on Meridian Road. Once the split
corridor, phase two, goes in, certainly because Meridian has that access to I-84, it does
have abusiness -- an existence -- existing business corridor involved in it and I think it
has certainly a higher need and potential than the Locust Grove. They are equally
needed, but I guess because of the access to I-84 it gives a tip to Meridian Road.
Jones: Councilman Rountree.
Rountree: Caleb, tell me the termini again. It's from Fairview to Ustick?
Hood: Yeah. One mile to --
Rountree: Okay. I would -- I would go with Meridian Road. Locust Grove at this point
has fairly well developed intersections at the mile. It also has a signalized intersection
at about the half mile. Access is pretty well established and fairly well controlled to the
extent you can. Meridian-Ustick intersection will be rebuilt as part of that, which -- which
needs to be done and fully functional and hopefully it would go a little bit north as well to
accommodate some of the issues around the park with the Fairview end being part of
the split corridor -- that's going to be improved, so I think it's a matter of efficiency, just
improving beyond where that intersection is going to be improved. You have a fair
amount of property in that area that's not necessarily developed to the extent it's going
to be difficult to work around. So, I'd just go with Meridian at this point in time.
Jones: Councilman Zaremba.
Zaremba: Well, I come out about equal and I was thinking if they are equal I probably
would suggest working from east to west, but the asymmetry of the Locust Grove-Ustick
intersection bugs me every time I drive through it, but I'm not sure that's really as much
of a safety issue as -- as an esthetic issue and I certainly can buy the discussion that as
the split corridor phase two is completed there will be more pressure on the Meridian-
Ustick interchange, so, again, all things being equal I guess it makes more sense to do
the Meridian one first.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 33 of 49
Jones: Thank you. Does that give you some insight, Caleb?
Hood: Yes. Thank you.
Jones: And do you need further direction on your draft letter?
Hood: I failed to mention -- it was in the memo. But ACHD is seeking our comments by
tomorrow. They issued this draft the same day we had our last workshop, so I wasn't
able to get that in front of you until this meeting, but they give us, basically, 30 days to
respond. So, I have that draft letter. I'd like to get it over to Matt tomorrow if at all
possible. Again, I realize I have some changes to make based on the Ten Mile
intersection analysis. But is there anything else contentwise with what you see or
reviewed that you would like me to change and can I have authority to get the Mayor's
signature on such a letter, if there isn't?
Jones: It fits me.
Rountree: I'm fine with it, with the changes on Ten Mile.
Jones: Okay.
Hood: Thank you.
Jones: Go forth. Next Steve Siddoway.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Oh.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Item I is a fairly routine item and we do
have one of our fire crews here on that particular item. It should only take a minute.
Would you mind if we did that one and, then, go to the facilities?
I. Legal Department: Memorandum of Understanding Between
City of Meridian and IAFF Local 4627 Covering Various Terms
and Conditions of Employment of the Firefighters Employed
by the City
Jones: I think Steve is fine with that. Thank you very much. We will now proceed to
Item I
Nary: Thank you very much. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Item I is an MOU
between the city and the union local, Local 4627. This is regarding our training captain
position that is currently in the collective labor agreement. This is, basically, allowing
that position to remain vacant without having to be filled under the requirements of the
labor agreement, because we have created the vision training captain position that is in
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 34 of 49
process of being evaluated for hiring. So, the union has agreed to allow us to leave the
position vacant. We will revisit it in the negotiations and whether to leave it in for future
agreements or this just allows us to leave it there now without filling it, because we have
a time limit on which to fill those positions when they are vacant. If there is any other
questions Chief Niemeyer is here as well, so --
Jones: Any questions or comments?
Bird: I have none, Madam Mayor.
Jones: Councilman Bird, did you say you did have one?
Bird: Yeah. I have no questions.
Jones: Okay.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I just -- shaking of heads or nodding from the union
representative that it's copasetic. Okay. I see the heads bobbing in the affirmative in
the back row, so I'm okay.
Bird: They. have already signed it.
Rountree: They have signed it? Okay.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor? Sorry, Councilman Bird.
Jones: Yes.
Niemeyer: If I could, I do a little bit more than nodding heads. I tend to talk a little bit
more. I do want to offer my support to this MOU. It's a chief thing. Chief's right. This --
I just want to say this is a great example of the relationship that we have built between
the local and the administration where we can sit down and identify the needs of the
department as they are currently, take the patches off, take the badges off, and work
together and I do want to applaud the Local for sitting down and looking at this position,
looking at what the needs are currently, understanding the needs in the future may
change and we have provisions in this MOU for that. So, I just had to speak, I guess,
and grab the mike.
Jones: All right. Well -- and thank you for serving in the fire department. We thank
you. Is there anything else we need to do on that?
Bird: I would move that we approve the MOU between the City of Meridian and Local
4627, covering various terms and conditions of employment of the firefighters employed
by the city.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 35 of 49
Zaremba: Second.
Jones: It's been moved and seconded to accept the MOU. Is there any further
discussion? We will now have roll call.
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Mayor de Weerd.
De Weerd: I would just like to echo Chief Niemeyer's comments that this is a great
example of a solid relationship and I do appreciate the union's consideration and
participation and -- in the agreement.
G. Parks & Recreation Department: Discussion on New
Maintenance Facility Concept Plans at the S. Locust Grove and
Lanark Future Property Site
Jones: Thank you very much. And now you can get back to work. Okay. Steve
Siddoway.
Siddoway: Madam Mayors and Members of the Council, thank you for having us here
today. It was originally my hope to be sitting around the table in the Council conference
room where we could just have an informal discussion, but in exploring that we decided
it wouldn't record very well and so this has become our proposed solution to that. So,
hopefully, this will work. The first message I would like to convey before getting into
concept plans is thank you and specifically thank you for recognizing the need for a new
maintenance facility earlier this summer, working with us through the site selection
process and in the end approving the funds needed to purchase the property that we
now have to be able to even do this concept plan. Our existing park maintenance
facility is old, it's outdated, it doesn't meet current ordinances it doesn't have the space
that we need to hold the vehicles and supplies needed to maintain a growing park
system, which we are blessed to have. The new property that we own is at Locust
Grove and Lanark. It's bordered by Locust Grove on one side, Lanark on the south, a
railroad property on the north and Nola, which used to go over the railroad tracks, on
the -- on the east. It's almost exactly one mile from where we are right now to the east
of here. As we have been -- unlike the police department's master plan, which they
brought to you earlier in this meeting, they were at the end of a fairly lengthy process.
We are at the beginning and we are simply here at the beginning of this process to
check in, make sure that we are headed the right direction before we go too far down
that road, given the -- the small budget and the fairly simple nature of what we are trying
to do, we will have afairly -- a short design window and we want to make sure up front
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 36 of 49
that we are headed the right direction. We have a few guiding principles that we have
been working with. First of all, to keep it simple and we have some input ranging from --
Councilman Bird has asked us to work with Mike Yanke and exploring the -- what's
happened out at the Home Court Y or property of Walt Morrow's, which we will do, to
looking at, you know, direction to make sure we have a -- a nice looking facility that the
city can be proud of. So, we are trying to find the right balance of -- of a utilitarian
project that is most functional, but also meets the need for a long time. It will be short
on ornamentation and minimized with landscaping, but, of course, it will meet all current
ordinances. Once we have a direction we will be meeting with Planning Department
and exploring through the site development process to make sure that we are meeting
those codes. We also want to make sure that we are building this to last. We have got
a good site. It's got great access. It's centrally located. It's got all those things that are
very important to us and we want to make sure that we are building here something that
will meet our needs for decades to come. In general we are planning for a doubling of
our current operation, which is supported by the current CIP and ownership that we
have. For example, we currently have 186 acres of undeveloped -- or of developed
park land. We have 189 acres of undeveloped park land. So, one example that backs
that up. Budget I just wanted to touch on. We came before you during the budget
hearings earlier this year, this summer, and we talked about the fact that we would like
to build a new maintenance facility. We do not have a -- plans or a detailed cost
estimate and the discussion that we had at that time was should we pull a number out of
the air, which is what we did with the help from finance, of 1.5 million dollars and budget
that then or should wait until we, you know, have plans and a budget and come forward
this year with a larger budget amendment. We opted to do the former, not the latter, but
we opted to budget the 1.5 million dollars, do our best to budget towards that and see
how things fall in line and, then, have those discussions with Council to make sure we
are going in the right direction before coming forward with -- with any needed budget
amendments in the future. Lastly, we are looking at some efficiency in multi use. This
year Council also provided us funding towards the field house fund and we have talked
about the need for gym space and the growth in our programs and that we -- we do
have a very dire need for some additional gym space. Now, you will see in the concept
plans that we are exploring the idea of -- of co-locating a facility that we could have
some -- realize some land cost savings of having to buy a separate site and sharing
some parking and we will look at that and one of the questions that we have tonight is --
you know, is that something we should continue exploring and how do you feel about
that. So, with that what I'd like to do is just stop here, invite you down, we will come
around the table, actually turn the microphone over to Mike Barton. Mike will walk us
through the scenarios that we have been exploring so far, so over some of the pros and
cons, solicit your input, feedback, questions. Like I say, we are early in the process, so
if there are questions that we don't have answers to we will take those as well and
agree to research them and make that part of our process. So, please, come down and
join us.
Barton: I'll go ahead and get started. Madam Mayors and Council Members, thanks for
coming down and seeing the -- is this on? Sounds like it is. Thanks for coming down
and looking at the work that we have done so far. We have hired a consultant to do
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 37 of 49
some preliminary master planning and site design and generate a couple of floor plans
for us. We gave them a fairly detailed program of how we know our maintenance
operation works and how we see it working in the future. So, we tried to use those
principles and we tried to say -- say we need to plan for the future, we are going to
anticipate doubling our current operation we have now. This does exactly that. It allows
for some growth and, then, doubling what we are doing currently, because we are
cramped at present. The different scenarios that we have -- that we went through and
most of these do include the field house on the site, which, like Steve said, is one of the
-- you know, the main -- main question that we have and would -- why we are here to
gather feedback. Scenario A through D and F and G are not our preferred alternatives.
Those were kind of first generation cracks at this. We do have a preferred alternative
and that would be E. Some of the things that we discovered early on is that there is a
50 foot setback from -- from Lanark on the site and, then, if we were to locate buildings
-- the majority of the buildings on Lanark there would be a waste of space. We came up
in those scenarios with approximately two acres of recycled asphalt that would be used
for parking and cold storage and pole barns. So, we just missed some of that -- some
of those concepts early on. The other thing that we -- we didn't like about locating the
office building close to Lanark is the visibility and keeping -- keeping an eye on yard
activities and also not having the office located in the middle operation. There is quite a
bit of foot traffic that has to occur to go back and forth to get into a truck to access
something out of the shop. So, with that said -- I mean we moved through the process
pretty quick and would appreciate feedback. I don't know how much you have had a
chance to study this where -- it's wide open at this point. We are open to -- open to
change, better solutions. So, with that we developed our preferred alternative and that
is E. We have got -- we have got a blown up site plan of the preferred alternative. One
of the things we liked about it is it maximized the -- the parking space, which would be
recycled asphalt for truck, trailers, you know, storage, warehouse type facility, pole
barns for parking. One thing that we really liked about it is that the office area was
centrally located in the site. Employees can move back and forth from the shop to the
office and out to the pickups and back and forth and there is great visibility on this west
gate and can monitor traffic coming in and out. So, with that concept in mind, we put
together a floor plan concept. It's generally about 3,000 square feet of space. Includes
a training room, community office where employees that -- that are field employees
would have a small work station, a place to put paperwork and forms and manuals and
that type of stuff. There is three offices which would allow for expansion. There is a
storeroom and ample restroom facilities. The thing that we like about this is there is
opportunity as a training room that is 30 by 28. If it were to coincide with a field house
that it could be -- we haven't got there yet, but we are thinking of that, that it could be
accessible to the public for after hours for meetings and --
Siddoway: Specifically for parks and recreation.
Barton: Manager's meetings and potentially for classes and that kind of stuff. So, we
kind of -- we kind of like that. It works -- it works well. It seems to be a good fit with
some of this. So, we are still in the process of working through some of those details.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 38 of 49
Bird: Mike, I have got two concerns -- I have got two concerns on this. The entrance
here should be only right-in and right-out, because you have got railroad tracks right
here, it's going to be hard to come across traffic at that point. Our main entry will be
down off of Lanark I take it?
Barton: Yeah.
Bird: And, then, I wonder if we are short changing ourself on shop size. You know, we
have got almost as much square foot for office as we do for shop and this is, basically,
going to be a maintenance building where we are going to be working doing all our
maintenance out of there.
Barton: Yeah. There is -- well, two points. There is an existing entrance off of Locust
Grove right now, so that's there and we are designing to that. Now, whether that can be
changed or not I -- yeah. And I -- honestly, I think at this level of planning it's -- it just
kind of landed there, because it's existing.
Bird: I think it's great, but I think it should be only right-in and right-out. I -- seriously,
don't want people coming across right off to the railroad tracks.
Barton:. Okay.. Yeah. Great. .Our shop -- our shop is currently -- or .the .way we
envision it, we have a fabrication, carpentry, and a mechanic shop and they are 1,600
square feet apiece. So, we have a total of -- we have a total of 4,800 square feet of
shop space and under this scenario right here there is a little -- slightly less than 3,000.
So, that's great -- that's great feedback and that's -- that's why we are here to gain that
insight.
Bird: Mike, the main thing I see is as we develop more parks, more equipment is going
to be needed immediately out at -- and I realize we have got some storage out at
Kleiner Park, but we are still going to have more to do in shop, too, and we got other
areas to develop. I just don't want to short change ourselves on shops. And I hate
cobbled up add ons.
Barton: Yeah. That's -- you're exactly right and Ithink -- I think one of the things that's
driving some of this is we are mindful of the budget and we are working towards that --
that figure that we have currently to work with.
Bird: But, Mike, I think shops are more important than offices right now out there. So, if
you have to phase it, I'd a lot sooner see bigger shops going out there than an office.
Barton: Okay.
Bird: That would be my opinion.
Barton: Okay. Yeah.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 39 of 49
Hoaglun: Mike, you mentioned on Lanark there is a 50 foot setback. You don't have
the -- there is probably not the same requirement on Nola?
Barton: There is -- there is not -- it's probably a planning question.
Siddoway: The 50 foot setback that was mentioned is not a landscape buffer
requirement, but a building setback requirement. So -- Mike, will you hand me B -- item
-- top. Plan B. One of the things that we found was that if we oriented the shops this
way we were giving up a whole lot of space out here for just landscaping, whereas if we
oriented north-south, this land -- the required landscape buffer is much smaller and can
be -- we still would meet code, but we don't have the building setback to deal with this,
we just have the street landscape buffer. So, we gain usable storage and parking
space by allowing -- by reorienting the structure and only having the landscape buffer
and not a building setback as the buffer.
Hoaglun: You show some gates. West gate. East gate. So, this will be closed off of
public access -- you're controlling access. Is there a gate over here as well?
Barton: Not in -- not in this design. Our fencing -- fencing would come across here and
tie into the corner of the building.
Hoaglun: Okay. So, really, this parking is not available for field house use.
Barton: It's not.
Siddoway: One of the things for shared parking that we were thinking was -- if you look
at -- this is what it would look like initially with no field house. This would just be grass
and we can meet all of our current parking needs in this area. But over the next ten, 20
years as more vehicles become part of our fleet and additional storage is needed, we
may not be able to do the fleet parking and the staff parking. So, if the field house goes
here and gets a parking lot in this location, we could, then, expand into this area as staff
parking and this area becomes more storage and, then, the staff parking as used during
the day becomes field house parking at night.
Hoaglun: What I was thinking along those same lines of staff parking and field house
parking, if you have a big activity parking is always at a premium. I didn't know if there
was a way just to flip this over to this side, move the parking on that side, so you're
more adjacent, fencing becomes a problem. But down the road for employees to come
across or vice-versa going to field house, it's a little more conducive if it's flipped, but,
again, you got the setback requirements and different things, but that's just something I
saw.
Barton: Yeah. And Ithink -- I think that's a great idea and maybe why -- what is driving
our thinking is that this parking area would be for trailers and equipment that's parked
on trailers and maybe implements that are dropped and placed and maybe not a
compatible use for public parking.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 40 of 49
Jones: Does the city currently own this property?
Siddoway: Yes, we do.
Jones: So, the million and a half would be for just this at this point and these -- not the
field house?
Barton: That's correct. Yes. And that's -- we are not sure about some of this at this
point. I mean one of the -- one of the major improvements -- because we did get such a
nice site and with ample room, there is quite a bit of street improvements that need to
be done, we are likely to put in a sidewalk, curb and gutter the entire length of Lanark
and around Nola Street into the cul-de-sac. And some of the preliminary cost estimates
we are getting right now on it are around 200,000. So, site improvements are pretty big,
even before we get going. Yeah.
Bird: I think you have got ample parking here. I think the field house has got ample
parking and unless we throw a real real big AAU tournament or something, that's twice
the parking that Home Court has and Home Court throws those AAU tournaments
where all four courts are used all day and -- because you got people coming and going
and for our programs I think that's -- that's most of the parking. But I think we still don't
want to short ourselves -- short change ourselves on shop space.
Rountree: I continue to see this whited out area on the no persons land, but to me
that's parking space. We might need a portion of it for drainage, but I don't think you're
going to put drainage over that irrigation facility. But the parking is certainly allowable.
So, that's some more parking and could result in shifting the field house further north
and moving the access south, because that access -- you can do a curb cut anywhere
along there if you have got -- you already have two accesses that are provided.
Barton: Councilman Rountree, I -- during some of our -- we did some preliminary
planning on a field house and some of those workshops and discussions. I believe we
did have parking across the drain and what that did is it allowed to us to -- if we needed
to expand the field house we would expand to the north.
Rountree: Okay.
Barton: And the consultant that we had working on this is not the same one that was
working on the field house, so that's just kind of crude and just a place holder for --
Rountree: So, that's where you put the pickle ball courts. The other comment -- you
mentioned you're going to have to do curb, gutter and sidewalk. I see no need to put
curb, gutter, and sidewalk -- particularly sidewalk down Nola. There is no place to go.
Put ADA accessible curb on Lanark so it can continue down Lanark, that's -- this is an
industrial area, why go to the expense for something you're just going to have to cut the
weeds on.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 41 of 49
Barton: Yeah. And it's not -- our desire isn't to do it for esthetics or accessibility, it's -- if
it becomes a requirement and, then, that would be our -- what would drive us to -- to do
that and that's a great point. It goes nowhere and it -- stopping -- stopping on the corner
sure makes -- makes a lot of sense.
Rountree: Mike or Steve, either one of you. Address the drainage issue for the site. I
know we have got an issue with the culvert down here on Lanark and you have already
taken care of the irrigation water or that's in the process, but have you talked to ACRD
about that culvert that seems to be draining the wrong direction?
Barton: We haven't -- we haven't had a discussion with ACHD yet about the drain that's
-- that's down here across Lanark that's supposed to drain the site and as you know the
site floods and it -- the water comes over the sidewalk and makes a mess. So, there is
a couple steps we are taking early on to correct that problem. There was -- last year
when that condition existed there was a continuous flow of irrigation water to the site. It
wasn't a metered delivery rate with hours per week or hours per month. For some
reason they just left the headgate open and it -- so, we had saturated ground and, then,
we had some rainstorms, which created this excess of water. So, this week we are
installing our own headgate across Lanark in this irrigation box. This will allow us to --
to shut off the. irrigation water to the site for construction activities to aid in drainage and
saturation. The -- the other part of that is -- this drain -- they used to drain it under
Locust Grove and this was -- this is information I'm getting secondhand from a meeting
we had this Nampa-Meridian and it used to drain underneath Locust Grove. That
culvert was removed during the construction, never put back, so this was their fix to
drain it over here. It has negative flow. It actually tips towards our property and as it
fills up and creates this great big pool, it works its way out across Lanark and
downstream. So, we can drain into this Evans Drain. Nampa-Meridian is -- will be --
they will allow that. They said they will -- you know, in concept that sounds fine. It's a
drain, it all goes to the same place, it goes to Five Mile. What we have to do is develop
a set of plans that show erosion, sediment, and an apparatus to tie into one of those
manholes, so we can -- we can install just a ditch that flows to the north and enters the
drain over here. And as an interim solution that seems to be the best and that's
something that with the help of our consultant we will be working towards this winter, so
we can have that in place by March. So, we have stopped irrigation water from flowing
across the site and we have corrected the drainage problem to the west. That -- that is
if ACHD doesn't -- if they don't fix this. But that definitely is our first step right here is to
contact ACHD, say you install the drain, it's backwards, it sits the wrong way, it doesn't
work, so we will see where that goes.
Bird: This drain isn't under Corps of Engineers? It's piped, I know it, but it still -- is it
under the Corps of Engineers? What runs it on down is the Corps of Engineers behind
this same drain that comes behind Willeys and all them.
Rountree: I don't believe they are tiled, though. I think once they are tiled I'm not sure
the Corps has much issue with them.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 42 of 49
Barton: Nampa-Meridian was at least speaking as if it was theirs, so I'm afraid I can't
answer.
Bird: Nampa-Meridian thinks everything is theirs so far.
Zaremba: Let's see. Several things come to mind. I agree, don't cheat yourself on
shop space. I mean not just maintenance, but fabrication and all the things that you
currently do are going to expand and you need to be prepared for that. In the areas
where you are calling it parking, but you're talking about storing trailers with equipment
on it, some of that equipment is very expensive and I would see that being covered
parking, not necessarily enclosed buildings, but certainly covered. That's what the pole
beam things are? Okay. I was wondering about that. That makes sense to me. Just a
thought on whether or not conference and training room would be available to the
public. If you were going to do that, access to this would mean leaving this building
open or people coming around through there. My thought is to put it on the front of the
building somehow. You know, that means redesigning all of this, but if the thought is
that you're ever going to have public access to it, I would make it easier to get to without
having to open up the whole facility.
Siddoway: Like having it here, instead of here?
Zaremba: Yeah. And, then, just shift the other things back, so that --
Barton: This would shift over here and still salvage this visibility from -- for yard
supervision and monitoring traffic around.
Zaremba: Great. And, then, on the field house, I like the idea of having it if this -- I don't
know if this is to scale or whether it's just a rough drawing, but if we are assuming there
is room enough to do that, I think that's a great idea. Just as I'm looking at it I'm thinking
in the design of the field house itself what other things could we use it for. It's very
possible we could do State of the City in there if it were set up with some auditorium
function and maybe the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast and some other big -- yeah. And it
works so, you know, that's possible that we could do it here in the field house. The
other thought that comes to me as you were talking about drainage and those kind of
things, would it be possible to think about permeable or semi-permeable parking
spaces, like some of Kleiner Park has, so that we don't have as much runoff, more of it
can soak through. So, I'm -- I think this is great.
Siddoway: Regarding the scale, the field house as shown is the scale of two -- a double
gym. We would love to have a third, but, again, when we were doing our concept
planning for that we were trying to hold to a budget that we have in mind of one and a
half million dollars there, 500,000 of which was budgeted and put in a fund by Council
earlier this year. So, we do have some -- some concept plans that show how, you
know, a third gym could fit with that, but that's going to depend on funding. Regarding
uses, you know, there is all kinds of different ones, but just as one example, last
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 43 of 49
weekend -- or I guess it was the weekend before now, we held the winterland festival at
the existing community center and we anticipated three to five hundred kids over the
course of the day and we had that many come through in the first hour and it was -- it
was literally shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow, people trying to push strollers. We
are -- and we were commenting if only we had that field house this year, you know, we
would have that event there and there are other, you know, examples of events that
could be held there, but it certainly wouldn't be a problem finding uses for it.
Bird: Steve, you say that was just two gyms? How are we going to -- how are you
going to run two gyms? This way? What's the actual size of it?
Siddoway: I don't have the dimension off the top of my head. I don't have the exact
dimensions off the top of my head. We do have some dimensions on the plan and
knowing that's about 120 feet, it's maybe, you know, 150 -- I'd have to get those
dimensions and get them to you.
Bird: Yeah. You got to be about 110 to 120 this way, because a court is 53 by 94.
Interesting. I was hoping we could get something like the Home Court in there with four
courts and restrooms.
Siddoway: We'd love to, too.
Bird: Like I said, when you call Mike Ford you can ask you him the size of that facility,
because I can't remember.
Rountree: Any confirmation from ACHD on getting the millings from Meridian and Main
Street this spring?
Siddoway: No confirmation. It was discussed in the meeting that I -- we had in planning
that Caleb was there and it was one of the ACHD meetings and we brought up the
desire to obtain those millings if they were available and they seemed interest in having
a place to put it. So, the initial indication, at least with the staff that were in the room
that day was positive and we haven't had a definitive word that I have heard. Have you
heard anything, Caleb?
Hood: I can share we had our team meeting yesterday with Adam and aside from the
millings that they will use from the overlay project on Main Street to provide the
alternative access it was discussed for the three or four businesses for the project,
parks gets it all. I told them you would take whatever they can throw at you. So, be
prepared, because you're going to get it from the overlay, as well as Meridian Road.
So, they are expecting to give you a whole bunch.
Siddoway: And as much as a -- you know, a clean asphalt look is nice and clean and
that, we -- right now we are envisioning at least all of this area being recycled asphalt, it
cuts down on the drainage needed, allows some percolation -- we have a cheap source
of it that's available, so we want to take advantage of that and help save costs that way.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 44 of 49
Hoaglun: Yeah. Like David had mentioned, something I was thinking of out there at
Kleiner that flow-through asphalt, whatever they call it, and this would do the same thing
and I don't know if that meets our requirements, if you need less of those pits to drain
parking lots, get more parking, but as we talk about parking and the field house -- and
I'd love to see an extra gym in there, as least make it, you know, turn it and make -- but,
then, trying to look at did you guys -- is this also a drainage area? I mean what -- did
you look at putting the pole barn over here to make a three way? Does that make it too
tight for too many vehicles in there, because, then, I see, well, if you're able to do that,
then, you can expand parking that way and do that.
Barton: This is actually a nonbuildable 50 foot easement.
Hoaglun: Well, that scratches that.
Siddoway: Just like on the police plan where you saw the drain coming through, that
drain runs right through here. It's tiled. And we are able to store or park over it, but we
can't build a structure over the top of it.
Zaremba: Just as a thought for sometime in the future, what if this is not the ultimate
field house? What if this were built as a two gym field house with the thought that some
day we are going to build a totally new facility somewhere else and in the back of the
mind the shop needs of the parks department would eventually move into that building
as we grow. Is there any -- I don't know whether that makes even any sense to work it
out that way, but think of it as a temporary field house and -- and future expansion for
the parks department and we may put it on the plan to build an ultimate field
somewhere else.
Hoaglun: And just to follow up on that, too. You know, that park we purchased out
there south Meridian is, what, 70 acres, 77, something like that. And maybe we --
instead of having an ultimate, do we decentralize. We have a double field house here,
some day we have another one out there, because as Meridian grows and you got -- it's
a lot easier to program and have them closer to their neighborhood than to have one
site with all the parking and different things, because we couldn't build a big enough
field house. So, maybe that's the way we go, we have two here and a double on over
there and end up out that way with a double one -- I mean that's down the road, but
that's also a thought process, too.
De Weerd: Well, that, and you also look at partnerships for future schools and how to
expand their gym space and utilize their parking, so we don't have to pay for it. On this
area, the no build area, can you move this parking to that and, then, expand your shops
in this area as a potential? Or even move that a little bit that way, so you can get more
in your field house, too. Just -- just an idea.
Barton: Yeah. I think that's -- that's great. And, you know, at this level we are -- we are
-- you know, we are soaking it all in and make those revisions. You know, there is some
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 45 of 49
things that -- you know, maybe that shop moves this way and there isn't quite this L and
-- yeah. That's --
Bird: Mike, on your shop I'd like to be able to see that you got exits and entrances both
ways.
Barton: And, Councilman Bird, that's a great point and that's something that we did --
we explored that one other concept and this particular one had a pull through and the
reason that we -- the reason we went away from that is that we lost -- we lost a back
wall and that there wasn't room, then, for a continuous work bench or storage cabinets
or --
Bird: Good point there.
Barton: But, you know, maybe it is that one of them has that and, you know, we just --
wejust kind of struggled with that and, you know, felt that, you know, the pull through is
nice, but we -- we thought that if we had enough space here to bring a truck and a trailer
in and do a three point turn, you can back a trailer in with 120 feet and if it had to be
welded or serviced or something like that, that we would allow for it that way, instead of
the pull through.
Bird: Okay.
De Weerd: Yes. But, then, isn't -- even if you made one a pull through, then, you don't
have to have all this asphalt and you can better utilize that space and I guess that would
be my thought. One of the things that Councilman Rountree said if you move that --
that room to the side, you want to have a dedicated space entry into it that -- a separate
door for public use, so they don't access your office part.
Barton: Okay. Yeah.
Siddoway: We appreciate it very much, so --any other questions or comments?
Zaremba: I would just comment that I agree with your preferred choice as, you know,
maybe it needs some tweaking. But I think the idea to have the office reasonably
central in the property with what makes everything else visible from there is a good idea
and working around it is -- sounds good to me.
Siddoway: I would just ask is there general agreement to continue exploring the field
house site at this location?
Bird: That's savings right there. Yeah. Customers see that and weeds.
Zaremba: My only concern is not to short change the direct park needs, maintenance
and storage and all that kind of stuff. If there is enough space on the property to do
both, then, let's do it, but don't short change the original need.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 46 of 49
Siddoway: And the mantra we keep coming back to as a group is -- as we are exploring
this idea is it has to work for maintenance first and, then, if it works for a field house
also, that's great, but, we don't want to -- we don't want to force it too hard and short
change ourselves on maintenance. It's got to work for maintenance first.
Zaremba: You said it better than I did.
Barton: Thank you.
Siddoway: Thank you. Madam Mayor, as everyone is coming up -- and maybe just in
closing, I would just say that we have also been working on the design contract side of
this for, I don't know, probably about six weeks you said and I think it's getting close.
We are trying to -- we had a good meeting last week where we were looking at the
contracting side of this and thinking future -- down the road, not just with the design
phase that we are on now, but when we get to construction what's the -- what's the
format and Ted and Keith Watts have been a great help in looking at that and we hope
to be back before you soon on the consent with that contract, the -- for Council. We
could do it in a department report also if Council preferred, but the money has been
allocated and the process has been gone through and the contractor has been selected
with Insight Architects and now we are just trying to make sure we .have the right
language in the -- the document. So, I will stand for any additional questions.
Jones: Very good presentation, Steve. Any other questions?
Bird: I have none.
Jones: Do we need approval for any part of this?
Siddoway: We will just take your direction and move forward with the concept.
Fi. Clerk's Office: Approval of a Beer and Wine License for Ustick
Chevron/Fast Eddys Located at 1745 E. Overland Rd., Meridian
ID 83642
Jones: Thank you very much, Steve and Mike. Do I see our last item of business is --
yes. For an approval from Madam Clerk.
Holman: Madam Mayors, Members of the Council, this is just -- normally these are
approved on the Consent Agenda, because all the check-offs have happened,
everything's happened before it makes it to a City Council agenda. This is a case in
which when they finally received their certificate of occupancy we don't want to hold up
their ability to be selling beer and wine, so what we are asking for is for this -- these two
licenses to be approved and for the Mayor to sign, but for the City Clerk to hold her
signature and until Development Services gives their certificate of occupancy. So, that
just gives me the authority to actually hold my signature on the license, so --
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 47 of 49
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Yes, Councilman Zaremba.
Zaremba: I move we approve the beer and wine license and to authorize the Mayor to
sign and the Clerk to hold and until the certificate of occupancy is accepted.
Rountree: Second.
Jones: It's been moved and seconded to accept approval for the beer and wine license
for both locations. Are there any other questions?
Holman: Madam Mayor, this is a single location. I just want to make sure it's just a --
just want to make sure you --
Rountree: Just Overland.
Jones: Oh. It says Ustick Chevron.
Holman:. Madam Mayor, .Members of the .Council, I believe that might be the name of
the LLC, that the company name is that. So, it was a bit confusing. I read it the same
way, too, and asked the exact same question.
Jones: Okay. Thank you for the clarification. Do we need a roll call?
Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yes.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES.
Item 8: Future Meeting Topics
Jones: Thank you very much. Any other issues?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Yes.
Zaremba: I know this subject has come up before, but do we want to discuss cats?
Hoaglun: I really like that musical, Madam Mayor. I mean it was really good. One of
the better ones.
Bird: I thought you had taken care of that, Mr. Zaremba.
Rountree: No.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 48 of 49
Bird: You or Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I think we do it as best we can now.
Jones: Oh, as in herding cats, is that what we are --
Zaremba: Well, there has been a request by a citizen that we make more ordinances
about people caring for their cats and collecting feral cats and it -- the discussion we
have had before I believe is that the reason that we have animal control focusing on
dogs is that loose dogs tend to get frightened and, then, they become dangerous.
Loose cats don't have the same effect. When they get frightened they disappear and
they are not a threat to humans. So, I think the assumption has been that the effort it
would take to take some control of cats would be a very expensive proposition that
would not yield the satisfaction that taking control of dogs does and if that's still the
consensus of the Council I will attempt to answer this citizen's question in that manner.
Bird: Madam Mayor? One concern I have got with the cats is we don't license them, so
how are you going control them? I mean they are a problem. It's -- they are a problem,
but I don't know -- I don't know what we would do to solve it.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor? Just a comment. We do require licensure of dogs and we
know not all dogs in Meridian are licensed.
Bird: Yeah.
Hoaglun: And so we have to subsidize part of that public safety budget to -- for animal
control, but we do it for a public safety reason. It is -- it is for protection and, then, as
you pointed out, dogs at large can cause problems that cats do not and licensure of cats
would be very difficult, even more difficult than dogs. So, I don't think an attempt at a
solution at this would yield much success. So, I think we are kind of at the status quo.
De Weerd: Madam Mayor?
Jones: Mayor de Weerd.
De Weerd: I guess there is a concern on the safety aspect on the fare) cats. They can
be more than a nuisance and I think that's what this particular inquiry was about. But I
don't know that there is a solution. It's certainly the issue and problem nationwide and I
have yet to see a successful model. Right now we are struggling with space and -- with
our -- our current responsibility with licensing and holding with the dogs. To add
something else at this point without a solid solution as an income source, it's just -- right
now it's an unfunded priority.
Zaremba: Thank you. I will endeavor to convey that to this citizen.
Meridian City Council Workshop
December 13, 2011
Page 49 of 49
Jones: Thank you very much, Councilman Zaremba. Do I adjourn or do I have a
motion to adjourn.
Rountree: Move to adjourn.
Jones: Is there a second?
Hoaglun: Second.
Jones: All in favor say aye. All opposed?
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:43 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF
MAYOR T DE WEERD
ATTEST:
CITY CLE
TF~$E PROCEEDINGS)
DATE APPROVED
-~ \
SEAL
rE
H
f`B n
~/I~TyfA