city news
At the July 15, 2013 City Council
Meeting:
Council
Approves
Replacement
Park Plan-Council approved the plans
presented by the Vernonia School
District for the replacement park being
built at the old school site. The District
must replace all amenities from the old
Spencer Park and is responsible for the
costs of the replacement.
Council Approves Purchase Order to
Install Water Line-Council approved
a time and materials contract to restore
water to the grandstands at the old school
site. Water services were removed
during the demolition and need to be
restored. The City will perform the work
and bill the Vernonia School District for
time and materials.
Council Approves Testing for
Wastewater Project-Council approved
an addendum to a contract with Shannon
and Wilson Geotechnical Consultants to
complete field exploration on soils to be
used in the Wastewater Lagoon project.
Cost will be $6,861.
Council Approves MOU with
OPRD-Council authorized the City
Administrator to sign a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with the Oregon
Parks and Recreation Department that
allows for further access to land south of
Umatilla Street and expands the property
available for the Rose Avenue Project.
Signing the MOU does not commit the
City to any action, just opens up the
ability to establish negotiations.
Council Authorizes Revising SDC
Vernonia City News...
Schedule-Council authorized the City
Administrator to issue a Request For
Proposal (RFP) to secure consulting
services to revise the System
Development Charges (SDC) schedule.
The City Adopted a Master Capital Plan
in May of 2013 and is currently updating
the Master Park Plan. The City’s SDC
rate structure is not well designed and
has not been reviewed since 2005. A
hired consultant would assess the current
structure and align the rate structure to
current Master Plans. The contract is
expected to be under $40,000.
13 with a negative balance. A total
of $12,841 was transferred out of the
General Fund; $5780 was transferred
into the Building Fund, $1581 was
transferred into the VCLC Fund and
$5,480 was transferred into the CDBG
Fund.
Council Approves Uses for Jamboree-
Council approved a request from the
Jamboree and Logging Show Committee
to close several streets, alley ways
and vacant lots to be used during the
weekend of August 2, 3, and 4, 2013.
Included in the approval was the closure
of Adams Avenue from Bridge Street to
Maple Street; Park Drive; Weed Avenue
from Bridge Street to Maple Street; part
of the alley way between the All In Pub
and Subway; Madison Avenue from
Bridge Street to the Sentry parking lot
on Friday; the vacant lot on the corner
of Bridge Street and Washington Avenue
and the vacant school grounds. Bridge
Street will also be closed to parking on
Saturday from 9:00 AM until the end of
the parade.
Council Approves Clerk of Works
Contract-Council authorized the
City Administrator to hire a “Clerk of
Works” under a limited term contract.
The position will manage construction
management and project management
functions of the Wastewater Upgrade
Project and provide administrative
support. The City Administrator
suggested hiring a qualified current
employee, Finance Director Angie
Handegard, at $40/hour for a series of
six month contracts to perform these
duties. Council approved this contract.
Topics From the Floor-George
Bellingham gave Council a handout
Council Approves Application for concerning the Ridge Riders and made
Funding-Council approved Resolution no additional comments.
13-13 allowing the City to apply for a
Ben Fousek gave a detailed
$50,000 allotment from the 2014 Special report on the Vernonia GIS project which
City Allotment Fund. The funds would included a review of the past year’s work
be used to construct sidewalks on Maple and a look ahead to the work expected in
Street from Weed Avenue to Jefferson the future. Vernonia GIS has provided
Street.
tools to support City operations, has
developed several long term goals and
Council Approves Funds Transfer- provided information and maps for
Council adopted Resolution 14-13, numerous City projects. Vernonia GIS
moving funds from the General Fund to is looking to continue to assist the City
three funds that ended fiscal year 2012- by developing administrative tools to
City Administrator Report
By Bill Haack
WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT PROJECT
WWTP ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
Pacific Habitat Services, Tetra Tech and Otak have conferred
on various issues raised by NMFS on the NEPA documents
submitted to date. Most of the issues raised were easily re-
solved. The outstanding issue continues to be the NPDES
thresholds for operation of the infiltration gallery. Our team
awaits NMFS review of the TT memo on this issue to de-
termine whether an informal or formal consultation will be
required.
HEADWORKS PARSHALL FLUME & RELATED
IMPROVEMENTS
Lyda Excavating completed the project the first week of July
2013. KLS provided survey data to calculate the cut and fill in
excess of the proposed plans. The change orders, retainage
and financial close-out will occur by end of the month.
DIKE ELEVATION AND BIOSOLIDS & HYPO-
RHEIC WWTP PROJECT
DEQ has approved the plans and specifications for the en-
tire WWTP project. That closes the existing contract with
Tetra Tech for final design and bid documents. The City
Council and Public Works Committee rescheduled a joint
work session to resolve questions that recently were raised
by both groups on the project. Otak and DEQ staff will be
present to answer questions
that were raised. Based on
the responses to the con-
cerns raised to date, the City
Notice to Previous Members of West Oregon
Electric Cooperative, Inc. of Intent to Forfeit
Unclaimed Capital Credit Allocations
West Oregon is a not-for-profit electric cooperative association and allocates
capital credits to its member-patrons on an annual basis. When allocated capital credits
are not required for cooperative operations, the Board of Directors, by resolution, may
authorize allocation retirements for any given year. The following notice concerns persons
or entities who were member/patrons of West Oregon Electric Cooperative between the
years 1944-1969. If your name, or the name of the entity owned by you, is found on
the published list, West Oregon’s records indicate there is an unclaimed capital credit
distribution for your account. Such amount has remained unclaimed for at least four (4)
years after the date authorized for payment or retirement and as such may be forfeited
to West Oregon Electric Cooperative, Inc. if it remains unclaimed six (6) months after the
date of publication of this notice.
If you, or your associated entity, are found on the published list, you may claim
your capital credit retirement by contacting West Oregon Electric Cooperative at (503)
429-3021. The cooperative maintains a list of unclaimed accounts on its website www.
westoregon.org, or by stopping by the cooperative’s headquarters located at 652 Rose
Avenue, Vernonia, Oregon, during business hours 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
To repeat, any capital credit account published on the official list that remains
unclaimed six (6) months from the date of publication of this notice shall revert to West
Oregon Electric Cooperative.
july18
2013
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increase efficiency and accountability
through documentation, data collection,
and project tracking. Vernonia GIS
has developed a website that all
citizens can access at http://www.
vernoniageographic.org.
Dr. Ken Cox spoke about the
continuing deconstruction at the old
school site and suggested that the City
try to find the money to build more
parking at the site during Phase I of the
new park construction. Cox told the
Council that materials are available on
site that could be crushed, otherwise the
City will need to bring in material to
build a porous parking area.
John Brewer asked the Council a
series of question and received responses:
why was the damming of the swimming
hole delayed for so long?-because
two Public Works employees were
out sick and unavailable; is the school
deconstruction and park construction
importing materials to the area?-per
FEMA rules the project must document
how much material is removed and can
only import the same amount of material;
will the school demolition project be
removing materials and returning the
area to the way it was before the Middle
School was constructed to allow water
to collect there in a high water event?-
no it will be made level for ball fields;
when will property owners be able to
lease adjacent lots where homes were
removed because of flood damage?-
as per FEMA rules there is a five year
moratorium which has not yet begun, it
was suggested that Mr. Brewer discuss
this question with the City Administrator.
Council may direct the City Administrator to delay the start of
WWTP project into 2014 or we may proceed to complete the
biosolids and dike elevation by December 2013, leaving the
hyporheic elements for 2014.
DIKE ELEVATION RESEARCH
The City determined that the soils between the lagoons and
the lake not already absorbed under the City//District miti-
gation wetland project may be a source for fill dirt and pos-
sibly aggregate in the proposed dike elevation project. The
City contacted DEQ to assess the availability of CWSRF to
complete an analysis of the soils. We also contacted KLS to
update the wetland delineation completed in 2005 NEPA EA.
Otak will contact US Army Corps of Engineers and Oregon
Department of State Lands to ensure that we understand
permitting and wetlands issues. The City will contract with
Shannon and Wilson to conduct a geotechnical assessment
of the soils at this site and further assess whether there is an
unintended impact to either the existing wetlands and/or the
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