[MissoulaGov] committee update 10-29-08

[Derek Goldman]

Seems like the most obvious place to cut 3% is in energy costs. Are all departments using CFL bulbs? Shutting computers down at night? According to Northwestern, "ghost current" (the electricity required to allow electronic equipment to standby to turn on immediately) accounts for like 15% of electric usage. Yeah, we think our stereos, TVs and microwaves are off, but if they are plugged into the wall--they're really not off. NWE recommends putting electronics on power strips and turning off went not using. (can you tell I recently had a home energy audit!) Just some thoughts. 
 
Glad we're considering changing de-icer. That stuff just does not dry out on the road shoulders/bike lanes, and cyclists gets splattered with it (and all the dirt that sticks to it) even when the driving lanes are long since dry. When i lived in Wyoming, WYDOT just used gravel--great traction, non corrosive. Maybe we should ammend that ordinance. I assume it's for air quality? 
 
--Derek
 
 

 
 
 

Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:39:17 -0600From: BJaffe at ci.missoula.mt.usTo: missoulagov at cmslists.comSubject: [MissoulaGov] committee update 10-29-08




Greetings,
This morning Donna from Parks gave us a general update on a number of projects.
Pineview Park:
The bids came in too high. So the project is being broken up into small pieces for individual bids. This opens it up to all the smaller contractors in town. The bonding requirements for the big jobs limit the pool of potential applicants so it is no longer competitive.
 
Lafray Park:
The contractor graded out too much soil so now they have to replace it (contractor’s cost). Carter court lot which is part of the revenue for the park has not sold yet. We had one interested buyer who came in with a bid around $40,000. It appraised around $60,000. We countered with $50,000 but they didn’t take it. 
 
White Pine Park:
Phase one will be grass and perimeter trees. Phase two will be walking trails, playground equipment, and some more treatments buffering the park and the city maintenance facility. Phase one should be done summer ’09.  The money for the project is about $50,000 park impact fee, $50,000 CDBG, and $50,000 donation from the Watkins family(zip beverage). Bretz RV is donating the topsoil. The College of Technology is donating a bunch of heavy equipment work.
 
Fort Missoula:
Work is going into design and phasing. We have a credit with Knife River for the gravel they pulled from the park in the area of $300,000 and the College of Technology heavy equipment school wants to help with the work. 
 
Milwaukee Trail between Russell and Reserve:
Negotiations for right of way almost complete. In general have gone very well. When we started this we hired WGM to negotiate right of way. Some of us questioned why this was necessary. Couldn’t a parks employee do this work? Donna feels that having a third party between the city and the property owners has been essential to the success of the negotiations so far. There are also lots of technical details involved with the federal funding that will go into this project. Appraisals have come in according to budget and negotiations are generally ending up at less than half the cash value from donations. They are hoping to wrap up negotiations by year end and start construction in ’09. The neighborhood leadership team has been very helpful with a few of the difficult properties.
 
Grant Creek Trail:
Still working through right of way negotiations. 
 
Rose Park:
The Fire Department and the 1% for art committee are proposing an installation for the area near the corner of Mount and Brooks. This will be a test of the new plan and review committee.
 
Aquatics:
The pools are still way ahead of the original estimates for income. We had another good summer. The 50 meter pool cost an additional $48,000 to operate. This was right about what was expected.  New tile is being installed in the bathrooms at Currents.
 
We also learned that our urban forester is taking a position as the first urban forester of Anchorage Alaska.  We are looking for a replacement.
 
Instead of PAZ we had our quarterly meeting with the commissioners to discuss OPG. This quarter we had a two hour presentation from the Crime Victims Advocate office. The CVA office provides support for women and children who are victims of domestic violence.  They run an extensive program providing all sorts of services.
In public works we set a public hearing to consider changing our ordinance regarding deicer for the roads. The magnesium chloride solution we currently use is just too expensive. We sprayed something like 350,000 gallons of the stuff last year.  Brian Hensel has been looking into some other products that look like they will be less expensive and more effective. The problem is that our ordinance is pretty specific. Mainly it says we can’t use anything granular and it has to meet a very high corrosive standard. The new stuff is granular and a little more corrosive than Mag Chloride. The health department has done extensive research on the products and is supporting the change.  If you want to look into it the stuff is called superblend or quickstart from ice slicer.
 
 
In Budget Committee we heard a presentation from the mayor about the outlook for the next year. It isn’t so good. Every department is being asked to find about 3% of savings. Our fund balance (savings) is going down about $1,000,000 dollars this year.  Next year’s budget will be planned around no growth.  Here is a link to more info including lots of detailed spreadsheets:
ftp://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/Packets/Council/2008/2008-10-27/Referrals/BCOW-Mayor'sFY08Year-EndReportRecommendationsFY09.pdf
The conservative block was enjoying an “I told you so” moment and was asking why this discussion didn’t happen during the budget process. The answer was something like the finance staff just hadn’t caught up with the numbers at that point so the situation wasn’t really known then.
 
Kaila was taking all sorts of notes on this one so I’m going to spare myself from getting into all the details and wait to see what she puts in the morning paper.
 
Thanks for your interest,
 
Bob Jaffe
Missoula City Council
Ward 3
406-728-1052 
 
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