[MissoulaGov] Committee Update 12-2-09

[Bob Jaffe]

Greetings,
This morning in Public Safety we met with representatives from Montana Rail Link. The first item of discussion was the herbicide spray along the tracks adjacent to the bike trails. The railroad sprays something that completely sterilizes the ground 11 feet on either side from centerline of the tracks. The area outside of that gets sprayed with more run of the mill herbicide tailored to whatever weeds are growing. The MRL Chief Engineer, Richard Keller, read a prepared statement about all the reasons they have to control the weeds and how they are complying with the law. I explained that my reason for bringing this up was not to take issue with their weed program. My desire was to come up with some way for MRL to work with our parks department so we could notify the public when the areas adjacent to the bike trail were getting sprayed. People don't necessarily want to breath that stuff or have their dogs walking in grass freshly soaked in poison.  Mr. Keller expressed concern about the complexities of all the points of access that would need to be posted and the uncertainties involved in spraying. Depending on weather conditions and other factors, it is hard to predict exactly when the job will get done. Marilyn explained how they do it on the University lands and how the parks department does it. This is a problem that has been solved. She also suggested that the parks department could coordinate with MRL to spray the other side of the trails at the same time. In the end it was agreed upon that even though they are a large industrial operation, and have no legal obligation to talk to us, because it is important to them to be a good corporate neighbor, they would discuss the possibility of making a courtesy call to the parks department to let us know when they would be spraying.
The next issue had to do with the diesel emissions at the switch yard. The health department is partnering with MRL to get a grant to pay for installing idle reduction equipment on the 30 or so engines in the MRL fleet that still need upgrades. In the last six years MRL has spent more than $30 million upgrading the other half of the fleet. These upgrades include purchasing 16 new locomotives costing $1.9 million each.
The Missoula rail yard generally has six engines running 24/7/365.  These engines consume about five gallons of diesel per hour when idling. With the new $35,000 auxiliary engines they will only use about half a gallon per hour when idling. I don't really know the numbers but let's say they idle for half the time. The difference in fuel use in a year works out to 118,000 gallons. Figure they get a good deal and only pay $2 per gallon. The $210,000 investment saves $236,000 in the first year. My assumptions about how much the trains idle must be wrong, otherwise I don't see why the upgrades would be dependant on the County coming up with a federal grant. Whatever the reason, everyone is thrilled to see MRL taking this step to reduce diesel emissions at the switch yard.

Next, in Conservation, we got a review on where we have invested in open space lands. Here is a link to some of the information:
http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=2695
So far that program is going really well. The open space bonds have been a really good investment for the community.

In PAZ we covered a couple of plat extensions and a floodplain variance. All three passed unanimously and made it on the consent agenda.

In A&F we passed a resolution supporting the Community Access Preservation Act of 2009. In trade for letting the cable companies run their wires in the right of way, they provide us with Community Access Television.  All over the country the cable companies have negotiated agreements with the local governments where they operate. At some point the cable companies started to get into offering telephone service. So then the phone companies started to offer cable service.  The phone companies have a long history of entitlement and were not so interested in providing community access and have been fighting to weaken the requirements. Another dynamic is the consolidation of media companies. As the cable companies have been absorbed into gigantic corporations, all of these local agreements have become bothersome. They have been going state by state appealing to the legislatures to pass laws that normalize the rules for community access throughout the state. Almost without exception, the local communities and their community access stations lose in the deal and in many places the stations close.  This has not happened in Montana yet but there is a national effort to get national legislation passed to stop this practice before it is too late.

I missed a bunch of Public Works but made it back for the end of the last item which was the discussion of the North Higgins reconstruction project.  They now have design documents and the projects will be going out to bid soon. If all goes well construction will start next spring.  The design calls for large bulb out corners and raised cross walks. The bike lanes will be on the sidewalk side of the parked cars. The bike lane will be at sidewalk level and will be paved with asphalt. At the corners the bike lanes come back out next to the driving lane. There are markings indicating where the bike lane continues through the intersection. There will be a number of new trees planted and improvements to lighting and street furniture. There will be a loss of only three parking spots. I think it will be a great improvement to downtown.
This makes me want to ask a question of the folks out at the Trempers shopping center. In the last few years they have made a major investment into making that place more aesthetically pleasing. We still have the same stores, but the place looks a whole lot nicer.  Has this translated into better sales? Of course the economy has been down but there should be ways to know this. Both Albertsons and Ace have other locations to compare trends against. Maybe some of the WGM folks reading this who have been involved in the project can look into it.

Thanks for your interest,


Bob Jaffe
Missoula City Council, Ward 3
1225 South 2nd West
Missoula, MT 59801
(406) 728-1052


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