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Harlem City Council

Regular Meeting Minutes

Monday, March 13, 2017

Editors Note: The following are excerpts from the Harlem City Council Meeting Minutes. For a complete transcript please contact Rebecca Schackelford at the City Clerks Office.

The Harlem City Council regular meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor Taylor.

Roll Call: Council members in attendance were Ralph Schneider, Eva English, and Marc Arensmeyer. A quorum was present. Councilman Kenneth Hansen was going to be late arriving to the meeting.

Public Forum: Douglas Stuart spoke about his thanks to the City crew for getting the streets cleaned. He mentioned that the City of Chinook lists their street cleaning schedule in the newspaper so that residents know when not to park on the street. He suggested the City look into putting a schedule in the newspaper. Secondly, he asked Mayor Taylor about the status of the inquiry about additional handicapped parking at the senior center. Mayor Taylor told him it was still being worked on.

Paul Tuss, Executive Director of Bear Paw Development Corporation, spoke to the Council and Mayor about the 2016 Annual Report for Bear Paw. He expressed his appreciation to the City of Harlem for the long relationship they have had with Bear Paw Development. Paul spoke briefly about the work Bear Paw accomplished in the past year and also about the current issues in the legislature that relate to funding important infrastructure projects all over the state.

Bear Paw Development: Carrie Garner and Ryan Pearson with Great West engineering informed the Mayor and Council that the contractors had started back up today with the project. They are expecting to work until mid-July and at that point, hopefully the project will be completed. There will be a construction meeting Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. Councilman Hansen asked what the contractors were drilling for at the lift station earlier in the day. He said he thought they had already done exploratory boring there. Carrie answered that they are digging holes to put pumps in in an effort to dewater the area that will soon become a large excavation. The excavation at the main lift station will be approximately 30 feet deep and the contractors need to make sure it is as dry as possible for when they install the shore box and begin working.

Michele Turville asked the Council to approve change order #3 for the waste water treatment plant project. Ralph Schneider made a motion to approve change order #3. Marc Arensmeyer seconded the motion. Kenneth Hansen, Ralph Schneider, Eva English, and Marc Arensmeyer voted to approve the motion. The motion carried.

Michele updated the Council on the TSEP contract extension request: a letter had been sent to TSEP asking for a contract extension because the project is due to be completed after the TSEP contract end date. The City should be hearing back shortly, but Michele did not anticipate any problems with receiving the extension.

An engineering contract was the next item on the agenda under Bear Paw Development. Clerk-Treasurer Rebecca Shackelford explained that after last month’s discussion about the GIS project, it was brought up that eventually a need to procure an engineering firm would arise. Michele told the Council that because the grant application is not due until February of 2018, the procurement could probably wait until early next year. She did mention for the Council to think about hiring an engineering firm for a period of time rather than on a per project basis.

Brownfields was the next agenda item under Bear Paw Development. Samantha Chagnon, with Bear Paw Development, introduced herself to the Council and Mayor and also Brandon Kingsbury and Pat Skibicki with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. They were all present to talk about a report that the City had received from DEQ in regards to the former Equity Coop property. Samantha explained that some clean-up had occurred awhile back, but there is still contamination at the site. It has also managed to seep under the highway and it’s possible that property belonging to the Nissen family has some contamination as well. Mr. Skibicki explained to the Mayor and Council that the contamination that was under the highway was not going to be able to be excavated, but there are plans to inject a solution that helps dissipate the contamination. It was then discussed that depending on the legislature and the Brownfields program funding, hopefully the property will eventually be cleaned up to levels that the State is happy with and the project can be returned to a viable property.

Mayor Taylor told those present the that the logger had been in town and removed most of the trees in the drain ditch that runs through town and also the part of the ditch that runs along Lincoln Avenue. Dean Baker has also removed some stumps in that portion of the ditch and the City will keep him working on that and removing sediment until the budget limit for this project that the City has set up is reached. There are a few culverts that will need to be unplugged as well. For the portion of the ditch that runs along Lincoln Avenue, Mayor Taylor has spoken to the gentleman in charge of the Harlem division of the Department of Highways about lending a few trucks and employees to assist with the removal of the stumps and sediment. Burning the ditch – both the section that runs through town and the section along Lincoln – is another item being planned that will help remove some of the old grass and debris that keeps the ditch from running smoothly.

Resolution 03-17-04 - Late Fees on Utility Bills: Mayor Taylor read Resolution 03-17-04 in its entirety. Kenneth Hansen made a motion to approve Resolution 03-17-04. Ralph Schneider seconded the motion. Kenneth Hansen, Ralph Schneider, Eva English, and Marc Arensmeyer voted to approve the motion. The motion carried.

City Hall Lobby Bathroom Upgrade: Mayor Taylor told the Council that he had received a drawing from Ed Fetter of a proposed upgrade for the bathrooms in the City Hall lobby. There was much discussion about the proposed drawing. Ralph Schneider made a motion to table this agenda item. Marc Arensmeyer seconded the motion. Kenneth Hansen, Ralph Schneider, Eva English, and Marc Arensmeyer voted to approve the motion. The motion carried.

MMIA – Employee Benefits Group Election Form: Councilman Schneider asked Clerk-Treasurer Shackelford if the employees are happy with the current benefit package. She answered that they were. Ralph Schneider made a motion to continue with the same employee benefit package that the City currently offers. Eva English seconded the motion. Kenneth Hansen, Ralph Schneider, Eva English, and Marc Arensmeyer voted to approve the motion. The motion carried.

Automatic Bill Payments for Customers: Clerk-Treasurer Shackelford explained to the Council that she just wanted their thoughts on setting up an automatic bill payment option for customers that wanted to pay their water bill that way. The process is fairly easy and is set up through the City’s bank and the software that the City uses for doing the billing. The Council thought it was a good idea to look into and put into place for customers that were interested.

Council Concerns/Committee Reports: Mayor Taylor said at the March council meeting, skunks were a popular topic. The City had ordered some extra traps and has put traps all around town in hopes of helping the skunk issue.

Next meeting: The next City Council meeting will be a regular meeting scheduled for Monday, May 8, 2017, at 6 p.m. Clerk-Treasurer Shackelford asked that the Council come at 5 pm. for a budget and capital improvements plan work session.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 7:41 p.m.