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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2013)
city news march7 Vernonia City News... At the March 4, 2013 City Council Meeting: Council Appoints Three to Committees-Council ap- pointed Sally Harrison to serve on the Budget Com- mittee, Jeffrey Goodman to the Planning Commission and Marie Williams to the Parks Committee. Council Receives Memo on Kay Arbitration-Coun- cil received a memo from Ruben D. Cleaveland, the Assistant City Attorney, informing them that the City had prevailed in the personnel matter involving former police officer Michael Kay. Kay had been terminated by the City, had filed a grievance and the matter pro- ceeded to arbitration. The arbitrator ruled that the City had just cause to terminate Kay. WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT PROJECT WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT COST ESTIMATE The wastewater treatment plant cost esti- mate is still rough, but is in the range of $5.25 to $6.0 million. As discussed at the joint Pub- lic Works Committee and City Council work session, the cost of the project is composed of three parts: (1) Flume Improvements - $300,000 to $350,000 which includes Otak engineering project management and DEQ fee, (2) Biosolids Removal, $600,000 to $800,000, and (3) WWTP Construction and overall Project/Construction Management, $4,500,000. There will be additional costs for testing and monitoring (e.g. Shannon and Wilson geotechnical, and Pacific Habitat for wetland and erosion). There will also be Vernonia School District for review by a third party. The School District is responsible for the construction of a baseball field and two soccer fields which will be turned over to the City of Vernonia. Council Approves Request to Review Park Plan- Council approved a request from the Parks Commit- tee and directed staff to request design specifications for the construction of the New Spencer Park from the City Declares Surplus Property-Council approved resolution 5-13 declaring a 1988 Liberty Manufac- tured Home owned by the City to be surplus property to be disposed of. project management costs that will include Otak project management and City staff clerking the draws, maintaining records and writing reports. Using City staff will be a least cost approach rather than using staff of the city engineering firm. COUNCIL AND PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE JOINT MEETING City Council and the Public Works Commit- tee held a joint meeting to discuss details of the Wastewater Treatment Plant Project. Council and the committee were updated on Building Improvements, Dike Elevation Im- provements, Pipe Gallery Installation, head- works, parshall flume and related improve- ments. WWTP FINANCING PLAN We will firm up the use of DEQ Clean Water State Revolving Fund and what options are available to close any gap. As discussed at the joint Public Works Committee and City Council work session, the City will likely pur- NOTICE OF BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING A public meeting of the Budget Committee of the City of Vernonia, Columbia County, State of Oregon, to discuss the budget for the fiscal year July 1, 2013 to June 2014, will be held at the Vernonia Learning Center, 939 Bridge Street, Vernonia, OR 97064. The meeting will take place on March 19, 2013 at 6:00 PM. the Budget Committee will be held to take public comment. Any person may appear at that meeting and discuss the proposed programs with the Budget Committee. The meeting for public comment will be held on: April 2, 2013 at 6:00 PM at the Vernonia Learning Center, 939 Bridge Street, Vernonia, OR 97064. The purpose of the meeting is to receive the budget message. This is a public meeting where deliberations of the Budget Committee will take place. A copy of the budget document may be inspected or obtained on or after March 20, 2013 at City Hall, 1001 Bridge Street between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM Monday- Friday. For fast cash! 010412 An additional, separate meeting of Mayor Authorized to Sign IGA-Council authorized the Mayor to sign an intergovernmental agreement with Clean Water Services for assistance with ele- ments of the City’s biosolids plan in relation to sludge removal. sue a refinancing of existing USDA bond in- debtedness, and may include an additional line of credit in that issue if warranted to close the financing gap above DEQ CWSRF. WWTP ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT Staff will meet with DEQ to review the envi- ronmental assessment options. Pacific Hab- itat will have met with Otak, Tetra Tech and Shannon and Wilson to come to agreement on the temperature model that National Ma- rine Fisheries Services requires to model the subsurface release of water into the ground- water table. This is the single issue that is unknown at this time. BIOSOLIDS PLAN Otak secured approval from DEQ on our Bio- solids Plan. The City engineer is negotiating with DEQ on the testing protocol that will be required. The City Engineer is using infor- mal procurement process to identify a test- ing firm to use for this test assessment. The city public works staff will be used to secure samples based on a predetermined sampling grid. The results of the depth of the lagoons biosolids and chemistry of the samples will dictate the cost for removal, processing, trucking and land application of the removed materials as described during our joint meet- ing. HEADWORKS PARSHALL FLUME & RELATED IMPROVEMENTS As discussed at the joint Public Works Com- mittee and City Council work session, staff responded to all questions that the combined group requested at that time. OTHER PUBLIC WORKS ACTIVITY MASTER CAPITAL PLAN & SEWER & WATER RATE STUDIES The Public Works Committee will review the third revision of the Master Capital Plan in March 2013. State Licensed PB-0388 STREETS DEPARTMENT CALIFORNIA AVENUE BUSINESS PARK The City continues to work with Brad Curtis (owner of Photo Solutions) and Casey Mitch- ell (owner of land along undeveloped Califor- nia Avenue) and has submitted an Industrial Lands Certification Intake form to Business Oregon. This is the requisite first step that will lead to a City application for Special Pub- lic Works Fund and Immediate Opportunity Fund. PARKS DEPARTMENT OPRD SPENCER PARK DEVELOPMENT The City met with OPRD this past week. OPRD MASTER PARK PLAN MacKay and Sposito has started a review of the background materials to create a Master Park Plan. GENERAL CITY ADMINTRATION ROSE AVENUE PROJECT The City GIS consultant provided Scott Ed- wards architects with maps and legal de- scriptions to assist their project planning. The City met with OPRD last week and dis- cussed the land adjacent to the project that abuts the Linear Trail. They may be inter- ested in creating a primitive parking area in this space. Time to get your MOWERS tuned up Family owned & operated for over 40 years 2245 Baseline St., Cornelius 503-530-8119 POTENTIAL CONTRACT TO UPDATE SDC The consultants recommend using the MCP when adopted to form the basis of a review of the SDC schedule. Based on discussions with Dan Heffernan, the SDC schedule for at least streets, storm, and parks should be reviewed, and then the entire SDC schedule should be indexed. This will be brought for- ward in FY 2013-2014. START RIGHT. START HERE. SM Oil Change • Sharpen Blades Filters • Cables • Pull Ropes We pick up & deliver! (Across from Fred Meyer) 5 CC Rider Reduction Presentation Rescheduled-A presentation to explain proposed CCRider Transporta- tion service reductions was rescheduled for March 18. CCRider is proposing to reduce its service in many ar- eas including the Nehalem Valley Route which serves Vernonia. Reductions include reducing Dial-A-Ride service to Tuesday and Thursday, five hours each day and reducing the Nehalem Valley service to Monday, Wednesday and Friday and eliminating the midday loop. City Administrator Report By Bill Haack 2013 Open everyday at 9 a.m. 834 Bridge St., Vernonia (503) 429-6364 Silkscreen printing Printing while you wait for small orders Vinyl lettering and heat transfers Teams, groups, special events Hoodies, dress shirts, aprons & more No order too large or too small No set-up fees 711 Bridge Street, Vernonia (503) 433-4278 kavila@kaptanskraft.com
