In Public Safety this morning we gave the OK on getting rid of a 1990 Mack fire truck that has been put out of service. We also talked about the big ladder truck that has been scheduled for replacement  for a few years now. It will cost between $800,000 and $1,000,000.

In Conservation we looked at the new master fee schedule. A number of things are scheduled to go up about 5%.  The one that caught our attention was a fee for folks who use the parks for extended periods. At first I thought they were just getting prepared in case the Occupy movement decided to relocate to one of our parks. But it was actually for people who do things like run a summer camp in the park. Currently they pay a $60 annual fee. The proposal is to make it $300 per month.  That’s a huge jump and could be prohibitive for some of the camp operations even if they are for profit.

The other thing that I started looking at was the Billings park fees. I might be missing something but it looks like they just have a $100 event fee and that’s it. I couldn’t find anything comparable to our fee matrix. I’m curious how other people do this.

We also discussed making it so Neighborhood Councils can each have one park shelter rental per year without charge. The park shelters are free to use but cost money if you want to reserve them for your exclusive use.

In PAZ we heard the phasing plan for the Stonybrook subdivision. They came in a couple of months ago with an extension request. One of the neighbors brought in a bunch of pictures showing us that parts of the subdivision were under water during the floods this summer. We denied the extension but encouraged them to put together a phasing plan that would allow for additional conditions to be applied. They did a whole bunch of new analysis and came back with a proposal that was supported today. It has six phases with the risky parts at the end. There is language that makes the later phases subject to new information that is learned in the interim about the flood levels. It has the buildings sit at a level that is about the 500 year flood plain.

I was also satisfied with their argument about how raising these half dozen or so building sites about 9 to 12 inches will not adversely affect the other homes that are currently in the flood plain. The site sits downstream from the other homes. It also provides for a channel for the water to run back into the river. Our flood plain administrator confirmed that indeed if you raise one site you create higher water around it. This is basic physics. But is it even measurable? I’m OK with that part. My biggest concern is that the language to kill later phases needs to be solid in case we learn that the water will come higher than we expect.

During lunch we had the committee orientation for the new council members. Each of the committee chairs gave a little pitch about what their committee does and we took questions. Pizza was provided.

After lunch in Public Works we talked about Russell Street again. This time we had representatives from MDT participate. They are working on a revised agreement that addresses some of the concerns raised at our last meeting. We are looking at having a process something like what was set up for Highway 93 north between the Tribe and the Feds and the State.

The current proposal calls for there to be a consultant rating committee that may have 50% city membership. The rating committee will make a recommendation to the consultant selection committee that is made up of the MDT director, three MDT engineers, the District Administrator (I believe that is Shane Stack), and a city representative (Probably Bruce Bender). Then there is some kind of Design committee and a Decision Committee that is made up of equal city and state representatives. This body takes on stuff that does not gain consensus at the other levels. I may have some of that mixed up but it is something like that. We haven’t seen it in writing yet. It’s definitely moving in the right direction.

After Public Works we had the final meeting of the sidewalk committee. Marilyn presented a draft of the power point presentation she intends to show to the Public Works committee with our recommendations.  This will probably be discussed in early January in public works with the new council.