[MissoulaGov] committee update 7-23-08

[Ruth Link]

During college I worked briefly for the Smokejumper visitor center and my
sister fought wild land fire both in Missoula and in other counties.  I just
would like to say that the people who take care of us with regards to fire
safety are absolutely amazing.  While the state of Montana is impressive,
the talent working in Missoula-from the guy digging fire line to the person
behind the computer making sure everything is working perfectly, are the
best in the state!

 

A BIG THANK YOU to all of them!

 

Ruth A. Link

Public Affairs Director-MOR

 

From: missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com
[mailto:missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com] On Behalf Of Bob Jaffe
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:04 PM
To: missoulagov at cmslists.com
Subject: [MissoulaGov] committee update 7-23-08

 

Greetings,

We started this morning with a presentation from Missoula Fire, the Police
and the Sheriff regarding wild land fire preparation. All the various
agencies meet every Monday to discuss the current status. Apparently we are
better off than most communities in that our agencies all work well
together.  

 

They described the process of what happens when there is a fire incident. It
starts with a call to 911. Law enforcement and fire are dispatched at the
same time. Law enforcement deals with traffic and evacuation or "population
protection." The fire department will start working on putting out the fire
and assess what additional resources need to be called in. They noted that
most of the injuries associated with wild land fire actually have to do with
traffic incidents.     

There was a discussion of the ways the public gets information. They will be
making better use of the inciweb system. They now have the capability to
update the web site from the field. They will also be making use of reverse
911. They did the first test of the reverse 911 system up in Seely lake
recently. They will be doing a test on the north and west side soon in
regards to the rail yard.

 

There was also a discussion of evacuation of the various valleys. The Chief
emphasized the unlikeliness there would ever be cause to evacuate the
Rattlesnake valley.  There may be a need to evacuate a small number of
houses in a particular drainage like sawmill gulch but they would be
evacuated to some other location within the rattlesnake.  98% of the
rattlesnake is level, green, irrigated, and has access for fire trucks and
they even have hydrants. 

 

In conservation we took one more round with the Rose Park plan and voted to
send it on to council.  There were some more minor changes in response to
the discussion last week.

 

In PAZ we spent the first hour reviewing the first section of the new
proposed zoning code.  You can see it at zoningmissoula.com.

We also considered a request to annex the property known as the Sunshine
Addition. The is a four acre piece at the corner of seventh and Tower.  The
council voted against annexing this piece six months ago.  There is much
apprehension about how to move forward with this project and others in the
area. But the resolution of intention to annex passed unanimously at the end
of the discussion.  This opens the door for the developer to submit their
revised subdivision proposal to the city for consideration.

 

In A&F we talked about the various fee schedules. They are going up. We
spent most of the time on sewer fees. The last time they went up was in
2001. They are proposed to go up 5% per year for the next four years. 

 

In Public works we discussed two pretty interesting items. We talked about
making arrangements to get a peer review of the Russell and Third EIS. This
means hiring an outside consultant to review the EIS to answer questions
that have not been satisfactorily addressed. Steve King agreed that this
could be very beneficial but thought it was premature since the document was
not even out just yet. He was under the impression that all of the concerns
and questions would most likely be addressed in the document and it may not
be necessary.  Based on the responses we got from the consultant at the last
public meeting I am not as optimistic. No action was taken but the item will
be held in committee.

 

The next item was the proposal for a two cent gas tax.  The resolution would
ask the county commissioners to put the measure on the ballot for the
voters.  There were a number of folks from the retail fuel stations there to
testify. Their argument against this is that the stations in the county will
have to keep their prices competitive with the stations outside the county.
So the gas stations will have to just absorb the extra cost instead of
passing it on to the consumer. They also don't like that it would create a
new taxing entity and procedure. They said they would support the idea of a
statewide motor fuel tax that distributed the proceeds to cities and
counties. It would be across the board and it would be collected through the
existing mechanism.

This makes some sense to me. I would like to know if there is any likelihood
of such legislation passing at the state this year.

The vote for the resolution passed six to four but Jason indicated he would
not support it on the floor without broader support from the council.

 

The 3:00 to 5:00 budget session was almost unbearable. Besides being very
long and dry some of the frustrations from last year's budget process were
starting to resurface. Once we start to change things from what has been
presented for us to approve it gets less pretty. 

 

Thanks for your interest,

 

Bob Jaffe

Missoula City Council, Ward 3

bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us

406-728-1052

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