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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 2013)
city news City Administrator Report OTHER PUBLIC WORKS ACTIVITY WATER RATE UPDATE OAWU met with City staff and shared their assessment of the water rate adjustment and made a two-year CPI rate adjust- ment. This will be shared with the Public Works Commit- tee. This adjustment and any 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. Council Meets in Executive Session- Council met in Executive Session under ORS 192.660(2)(h) Legal Council. After returning to regular session Council took no further action. other recommendations that the PWC may make to the Wa- ter Fund budget (e.g. meter replacement program, reserve requirements, equipment replacement) will be reviewed as an entire package. PARKS DEPARTMENT OPRD SPENCER PARK DEVELOPMENT The COV Parks Committee will hold their August 2013 meet- ing at the new Spencer Park site to confirm the location of the planned new restroom and picnic shelter – to be located on a portion of the former middle school gravel. The Park Committee will establish rough markers for the selected con- tractor to use to establish the edge of new park improvement leaving at grade this proposed city improvement. The Parks Committee will also establish the way forward (designer or design build). SPENCER PARK DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS The District plans to secure a contractor in August 2013 for the Replacement Park Improvement Project at the old school campus which will entail taking the post demolition 11 acre parcel to final grade by layering and compacting soils, amending the top six inches of the soils, and seeding soil. The park project also includes a new baseball backstop and fencing to a coaches box. OPRD MASTER PARK PLAN MacKay and Sposito seek input from the public to assist in their park planning project. Survey will be posted on line and made available at local outlets in July. The survey process concludes on August 9 th 2013. The City will try to wrap up this project by October 2013. Vernonia’s Voice is published twice each month on the 1st and 3rd Thursday. Look for our next issue on September 5th. Vernonia Dental an WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT PROJECT WWTP COST ESTIMATE The Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) facility improve- ments project cost estimate is $6.0 million. The City Engineer will refresh this estimate this fall after the biosolids compo- nent is complete – likely in November 2013. WWTP ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT Pacific Habitat Services, Tetra Tech and Otak awaits NMFS review of the TT memo on this issue to determine 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. The construction improvement cost $275,000 - this is less than the engineers estimate by about $35,000. BIOSOLIDS REMOVAL PLAN The City Council and Public Works committee met to assess the Biosolids Removal Plan and the City Engineer’s plan for completing that task. The Public Works Committee recom- mended to the City Council that the biosolids removal was important and should be completed in 2013. Following the adoption of an emergency resolution last week the City En- gineer and City Administrator initiated efforts to complete this task. The resolution requires approval of a Biosolids Remov- al Plan by DEQ – we estimate that the notice to proceed will be issued to the selected contractor before September 26, 2013. The City Engineer identified at least two firms that will be asked to submit proposals to dredge and process biosol- ids and to coordinate in the transfer of processed material into trucks. The biosolids will be land applied at a property that is on Clean Water Services DEQ approved site. The pricing for this process will firm up when we receive the bids from the dredging contractors, and we identify where in the Willamette Valley the trucks will need to haul to land apply. DIKE ELEVATION The City Council and Public Works committee met to assess their risk tolerance for initiating the dike elevation project and determined that they would accept the public Works Com- mittee recommendation to delay the project to a Spring 2014 start date. The City Engineer will work with our geotechnical engineer to pre approve one or more local site as a resource for aggregate, clay and fill dirt. This activity is important in our efforts to manage cost for haul time once the general contractor charged with dike elevation is selected. HYPORHEIC DISCHARGE INFILTRATION WWTP PROJECT The City Council and Public Works committee at a recent joint meeting discussed but did not form an opinion on the timing of the hyporheic discharge infiltration project. The discussion focused on whether to select a general contrac- tor to act as the prime and have subcontractors or to select subcontractors for each discrete part of the project. The City Engineer will provide a technical memorandum to the Public Works Committee that discusses the options in more detail in August 2013. Council Appoints Environmental Official-Council approved Resolution 15-13, appointing the City Administrator as the Environmental Review Certifying Officer of the expenditure of all grant funds for which an Environmental Review Officer is required. State and federal governments require this appointment for projects the City is currently involved in. e rm By Bill Haack 5 Project, and Sandy Welch, Director of Vernonia Cares Food Bank, spoke in favor of the vacation. There was no opposition. Council later approved Ordinance 892, providing for the requested vacation, by a 4-0 vote. D Council Approves Funds for Street Improvement-City consultant Ben Fousek made a presentation to Council regarding the benefits and opportunities for street improvements to a portion of California Avenue. Fousek explained to Council that the primary goals of the project is to assist in the development and creation of Vernonia’s only functional industrial land and the retention of Photo Solutions, Vernonia’s only manufacturing business. The road improvements could allow the property, owned by Casey Mitchell, to become a state certified industrial site. Development of California Avenue would also allow better access to City owned park space and the recently developed “Mill Site Marsh” wetland area. Hearing to hear testimony on the partial vacation of Weed Avenue between Cougar and Umatilla Streets. The area to be vacated is 12.5 feet wide and 280 feet in length on the west side of Weed Avenue. City Planner Carole Connell explained to Council during the staff report that the vacation will assist in the development of the Rose Avenue Project by providing space for parking and storm water detention and will allow for the alignment with sidewalks already installed on Weed Avenue along the West Oregon Electric Cooperative property. It was also explained that representatives of the Rose Avenue project previously met with adjacent land owners to answer questions about the project and the vacation. During the hearing Casey Mitchell, representing Community Action Team which is the Council Approves Vacation of Portion project manager for the Senior Center/ of Weed Avenue-Council held a Public Food Bank portion of the Rose Avenue Council discussed a proposal to provide $9,000 in funding-a 15% match for a Technical Assistance Grant to the Oregon Finance Authority for the design of street and utility improvements, and to prepare and submit an Immediate Opportunity Fund package to ODOT for funding of the infrastructure improvements. The proposal suggested that the city matching funds come from the Streets SDC Fund, but there was some question as to whether the project was eligible to use those funds. Council approved a motion that committed a pledge of the $9,000 match, the source of the funds to be determined, by a 3-0 vote. Mayor Josette Mitchell, spouse of Casey Mitchell, abstained from voting; Councilor Donna Webb was absent from the meeting. 2013 DM At the August 5, 2013 City Council Meeting Vernonia City News... august15 D h . r C r h p o is t M er . h S c eu 622 Bridge Street Vernonia, OR 97064 phone (503) 429-0880 -- fax (503) 429-0881
