While this meeting has a lot of items to be considered, the biggest question of the evening may be whether or not Councilmember Phil Lemley shows up. Lemley’s Richland home appears to have sold and he has made no announcement about his future plans. Calls to him for comment went unanswered.
As usual the numbers beside the items are the pages in the packet.
PUBLIC HEARING – you’re allowed to comment on these for three minutes.
2. Proposed 2022 Budget Amendments for the following areas, several in Badger Mt. South.
There’s a lot of information packed in here so the Observer has provided more information than usual. If you are interested in a particular item, I highly recommend that you go to Page 240 and start reading the 168 pages.
A) the Pavement Preservation Program, which will include an asphalt overlay of Jadwin Avenue between Van Giesen Street and Stevens Drive. The Project is an opportunity to improve Jadwin Avenue with additional pedestrian crossing safety features, enhanced ADA accessibility improvements at driveways, replacement street lights with underground electric power, and relocation of City fiber-optic infrastructure to an underground system, none of which are typically funded through the Pavement Preservation Program; and The Capital Improvement Fund contains adequate fund balance to fund the Project’s $500,000 scope enhancement described above; and
B) the compost production facility at the City’s landfill uses a mechanical screen to sort finished compost by particle size, and an upgraded replacement screen is necessary to reduce risk of fire. The cost of the upgraded screen is $355,000, and $60,000 in rental fees has already been paid toward the purchase price; and
B) the Wastewater Fund budgeted $117,263 for the purchase of new sewer pipeline cleaning equipment in 2022, yet the transfer and appropriation was not budgeted in the Equipment Replacement Fund to support purchase of the equipment and must be added to make the purchase out of the proper fund; and
C) In 2011, the City entered into a Master Development Agreement with Nor Am Investment, LLC (Contract No. 137-10) regarding the community known as Badger Mountain South, and Section 17.3 of the Master Agreement describes the acquisition of future West Village Park for $0.5829 per square foot. Future West Village Park will be 33.69 acres, and the Master Agreement also requires Nor Am Investment, LLC to provide a no-cost dedication of 2.0 acres of land for a future fire station; and
D) the City is planning to locate future Fire Station 76 within West Village Park, and the cost of future West Village Park plus the no-cost dedication of 2.0 acres for a future fire station is $805,637 . Park Impact Fee revenue from Badger Mountain South has adequate capacity to fund this property acquisition; and
E) the Master Development Agreement also requires reimbursement for certain infrastructure costs incurred by Nor Am Investments, LLC to be paid from the City’s General Fund, and the current reimbursement due is now $145,149, which was not contemplated in the 2022 Budget;
F) given lengthy lead times and anticipated significant pricing increases, the City must accelerate the purchase of an ambulance and fire engine requiring replacement in 2024; and
G) the City-owned parking lot and sidewalks serving the Uptown Shopping Center are in need of several improvements consistent with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. The City’s contracted qualified ADA expert estimates the work will cost $470,856 including sales tax and a modest 3 percent (3%) contingency; and a budget adjustment of $550,000 for the Uptown ADA Project will accommodate current uncertain and unknown inflationary cost increases, and the General Fund has adequate fund balance; and
H) on March 22, 2022, the 2023 Fire Station 76 CIP project was discussed with Richland City Council, and staff was tasked with beginning the design and equipment purchasing processes in 2022; and funding sources for the station and equipment will include: $1,000,000 library grant; $7,000,000 ARPA funds; $560,000 transfer from the Medical Services Fund; and First Reading 04/05/2022 3 Ordinance No. 2022-09 $1,940,000 from General Fund reserve balance. New appropriations include transfers of $560,000 from the Medical Services Fund, $896,000 from the General Fund for equipment purchases, and a transfer of $9,044,000 to the Fire Station Construction Fund for station design and construction from General Funds sources of grant revenue, fund balance and current year appropriations of ARPA funds; and
I) the City contracts for railroad tie replacement and rail maintenance for City-owned rail assets, and has received a quote of $50,000 for 2022 railroad tie replacement. The Streets Maintenance Fund has adequate reserves from fees charged to participating railroad companies to fund the tie replacement project; and
J) $301,373 of additional costs were incurred in the Columbia Point Trail East Stormwater Project during cultural monitoring, and additional grant funds are available from the Department of Ecology to cover these costs; and
K) the City entered into a five-year agreement for a public safety video camera system, to include body-worn cameras, for an annual cost of $202,710, and appropriations for the second year of the contract were inadvertently excluded from the 2022 Budget.
3. Proposed relinquishment of a Utility Easement at 1338 Sacramento Boulevard. Pg. 409-412
4. Proposed relinquishment of a utility easement at 101 Saint Street. Pg. 413-415.
The easement on the Sacramento property is partially under a house. The Saint property has easements which were under a house that was torn down and now a new house is partially constructed on top of the easements.
The Observer asked Planning Director Pete Rogalsky how this happened. He responded:
“In most cases the easements we’re relinquishing occupy specific and small portions of lots. With that condition there often is available footprint on the lots to build additions or new structures. That being said we occasionally discover a building actually on property encumbered by an easement. Sometimes those buildings were known about and permitted and sometimes they are constructed without proper approvals. I can’t conclusively speak to these past actions without more specifics and a lot more time.
As to current practice building permit applications are evaluated for conformance with existing easements. Many applicants are denied their proposed projects until work is done to resolve the impact of the easement. Sometimes that work results in a staff analysis that the easement is no longer needed by the City. I think in those cases the staff advises the applicant of their conclusions and enables the applicant to proceed with the risk that the City Council may refuse relinquishment of the easement. Then the relinquishment process is scheduled for Council action. Since the Council rarely, if ever, refuses to relinquish an easement that the staff supports, builders who choose to proceed are allowed to and there hasn’t been a subsequent need to change a project.
Perhaps not a perfect process, but its how we do it now.”
PUBLIC COMMENT – 2 minutes to talk about whatever you wish.
5. Approval of the minutes. Pg. 5-15
6. Changes to the Noise Ordinance. If your noisy, you might want to check this on Pg. 16-21
7. This increases the sewer rate for new construction. Pg. 22-27
8. Water rates are going down. Check out the changes on Pg. 28-38
9. Rezone of 9.4 acres on 2500 Chester Road from Agriculture to General Business Pg. 38-90.
10. Authorizing an agreement between the Port of Benton and Richland for street and airport maintenance. Pg. 91-98
11. Big D’s Construction of the Tri-Cities wins with a bid of almost $400 thousand to create 52 sidewalk ramps on McMurray Street and Van Giesen Street. Pg. 99-103
12. VSS International wins the bid for slurry seal projects around town. And yes, I’ve left out some details because he hurts my brain to figure them out right now. Pg. 104-105 has the info. See the map below.
13. VSS International also wins the bid for microsurfacing. Pg. 108-111. See the map below
14. Richland, Kennewick, Pasco, W. Richland and the Benton Franklin-Health District will cooperate with Algal Bloom Screening Laboratory Services. Pg. 112-127
15. Parametrix, Inc. will receive a contract to monitor the Horn Rapids Landfill. Pg. 122-143.
16. Big D’s Construction is back again for the Columbia Park Trail and Leslie Stormwater Treatment Retrofit Project. Pg. 143-148.
17. Waiving the normal road improvement requirements for Reata Rd. Pg. 149-152.
18.Approving the final plat for Marcello Estates. Pg. 153-179
19. The city will seek grant funding including possibly earmarks in the federal budget and appropriations for infrastructure development in Horn Rapids. This area is planned for industrial use. Pg. 180-181.
20. Authorizing an agreement for $30,000 with TRIDEC for marketing and business recruitment services. Pg. 182-199.
21. Setting a hearing date for the annexation of 300 acres in north Richland. Pg. 200-203
22. Setting a hearing date for the annexation of Lots 1-8 of Badger Mountain Estates. Pg. 204-206
23. Authorizing $175,000 of professional services from Empower Dataworks to update the city’s clean energy implementation plan , LLC works to update. Pg. 207-222.
24. Authorizing another $175,000 professional services with Lighthouse Energy Consulting for clean energy implementation. Pg. 223-237.
25. Appoint youth member, Harriet Dalton to the Parks and Recreation Commission. Pg. 238-239.
ITEMS OF BUSINESS
The council will vote on these.
26. The budget amendments. See Item 2
27. The utility easement on Sacramento Blvd. See Item 3
28. The utility easement on Saint Street. See Item 4.
City Manager and city council
Blah, blah, blah