city news
march22
Vernonia City News...
At the March 7, 2011, Vernonia City
Council Meeting
Council Begins Administrator Search
Process— City Council met in a work
session with Jenny Messmer of the
League of Oregon Cities (LOC) and
began the search process for candidates
for the City Administrator position.
Council agreed to offer a salary of
$60,000 per year plus a benefits package
for a full-time employee. Council
assisted Messmer in creating a profile
for potential candidates and discussed
where the position would be advertised.
Messmer noted that, given the salary
being offered, the pool of potential
applicants would probably be limited to
“...someone pretty recently out of school
or someone who is coming from a really
tiny town.” Messmer also noted that
allowing the current Interim to apply
would not be a problem. Council later
approved the expediture of $6,000 to
the LOC for recruitment services with
Councilor Randy Parrow voting against
it.
Harrison
Presents
Petitions—
Former Vernonia Mayor Sally Harrison
presented Council with a petition
containing 180 signatures from Vernonia
residents asking Council to appoint
current Interim City Administrator Bill
Haack as the permanent Administrator.
Harrison asked the three Councilors
who voted to begin a search process for
other candidates-- Willow Burch, Kevin
Hudson, and Marilyn Nicks-- to explain
their actions. Burch replied that she
thought we had to go through a process
and that we needed to know more about
the person to whom we are going to
hand over control of the city. Hudson
said his concern is that the city cannot
afford a full-time administrator and that
going through a selection process is the
most professional way to approach the
issue and will be best for the community.
Nicks stated it was a very difficult
decision to make. She noted that when
making a difficult ethical decision, an
unbiased and impartial decision-making
process is necessary and that the LOC
would provide that.
Later in the meeting, six
Geography Matters:
By Sean Pickner
Historically,
Vernonia
has used engineering plans as a
reference for information about the
city’s water utility system. These
engineering plans are designed to
show how the utilities are installed
into the utility network, and often
these plans show aspects such as
the location, depth, and size of
utility features.
This type of design
information is most often what is
used by utility workers, but it is
only a portion of how water utility
systems are managed. There are
more details about utility systems
that can be valuable, but because
there are insufficient resources to
gather further information, many
things are often overlooked, and
so we are trying to improve upon
the resources available to the
Public Works Department.
A basic explanation of
how a GIS functions will help to
explain how we can implement
valuable information into the
city’s public utility system.
Volunteer Position
Do you want to get
involved, volunteer and
use you talents? The
Vernonia Public Works
Committee needs a
secretary for taking notes
and typing minutes from
meetings. Meetings are
the fourth Tuesday
of each month from
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
This is a nonvoting
position. For more
information contact Joann
Glass at 503-429-5291.
5
City administrator will attempt to
extend the grant to September, 2013,
and negotiate assigning these funds to
the new Spencer Park Project. If the
contract is terminated, the city would be
Mayor
Appoints
Emergency required to repay the $43,136 that has
Management Committee Members— already been spent.
With approval from Council, Mayor
Josette Mitchell appointed eight Council Approves Grant Application—
members to the newly-formed Council approved an application to the
Emergency Management Committee. Oregon Department Park and Recreation
The members are Steve Scott, Dean Local Government Program for up to
Smith, Cindy Ball, Alexis Posley, Jack $500,000 for development of phase I of
Lindley, Heidi Lindsay, Catherine the new Spencer Park at the site of the
existing K-12 schools.
Helmer, and Dan Brown.
citizens-- Bill Sword, Sandy Welch, Ken
Cox, Scott Laird, Jim Krahn and Ben
Fousek-- spoke during Topics From the
Floor in favor of hiring Bill Haack.
Council Approves Negotiations For
Bike Skills Park Grant— Based
on a recommendation from the Parks
Committee and staff, Council approved
authorizing the City Administrator to
negotiate an alternative scope of work
or negotiate termination of the existing
contract with Oregon Department of
Park and Recreation for the grant for the
Vernonia Bicycle Skills Park. The grant
has a balance of $202,464 in unused
funds; the city has spent $43,136. The
GIS Can Provide More
In a GIS, information about
features are stored in a table that
relates information to a specific
geographic feature. For example,
the Storm Water Utilities can be
modeled through points, and each
point has information in a table
that shows if that point is a storm
drain or some other utility feature.
We can store information
that shows the depth of a feature,
and can also include all the design
aspects that the engineering plans
show about that particular feature.
We can also include details about
the age of the utilities, and the
potential value of them, which is
information that engineering plans
don’t necessarily show.
A scenario where this
could be valuable to the utility
department could be when they
need to evaluate what features
may be past operational date.
When the past operational portions
of the system are identified in
a GIS table, we can isolate that
information and show where those
points are located in the city. The
Public Works Department can use
2011
this information to access and
make more informed decisions
on the replacement of the older
features, and possibly adjacent
features.
With both age and value
of utilities, the department could
then plan maintenance costs, and
instead of rushing to figure how
to pay for these replacements, the
city can manage these facilities
more effectively by taking age and
cost into consideration for long-
term planning.
Our approach to designing
the city’s GIS is to provide the
city with a tool to help employees
better evaluate the information.
The GIS model that we are creating
for Vernonia’s water utilities is
going to provide information
beyond purely design aspects. We
have realized that there is a need
for further information about the
water utility systems, and so we
are going to try and empower the
utility department by improving
the information that is accessible
to them.
Council
Approves
Rules
and
Procedures— Council voted to approve
an updated version of Council Rules and
Procedures.
Council Approves Signing of Change
Order— Council authorized the Mayor
to sign change orders for decreases
in contract prices for Vernonia Flood
Mitigation Demolition Projects.
City Will Need to
Increase Sewer Rate
Vernonia Interim City Administrator Bill Haack
informed Council that in order to repay the work that
has already been done on the Wastewater Upgrade
Project, rates will need to be increased. Haack noted
that in addition to the extension of the $12 fee currently
on the Sewer bill that Council approved at the February
22, 2011 meeting, he will soon bring a resolution to
Council to increase rates in July of 2012. Haack stated,
informally, that the increase would be for around $25 or
more.
Haack explained that in 2004-2005, the city
borrowed $8 million to build the new wastewater
treatment plant and make upgrades. The City has
spent $4.2 million, so far. The interest rate on those
expended funds means the city owes $6.2 million
and has not begun to pay any of that back yet. The
resolution Haack will bring will set in motion the
ability to repay the funds already spent on Phase I of
the Wastewater Project. Haack went on to discuss the
continuation of the project. “To be in compliance and
have a wastewater system that meets the needs of the
Department of Environmental Quality, that allows the
city not be subject to a moratorium in the futurre, you
will have to finish your wastewater plant. We don’t yet
know what that will cost,” said Haack.
Haack noted that the City will, in all likelihood,
qualify for least $1 million in principal forgiveness from
DEQ when the balnce of the loan is spent. Haack said
that he would also attempt to negotiate with DEQ for
some principal forgiveness for money already spent.
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