[MissoulaGov] Committee Update 12-16-09

[Patrick Nooney]

And we paid how much for the Odor Study?  To tell us that the odor around
the sewage plant comes from ... sewage?  Why don't we just give the money to
Jordan to subsidize more transit .. away from the sewage plant?

 

-----Original Message-----
From: missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com
[mailto:missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com] On Behalf Of Bob Jaffe
Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 11:11 PM
To: missoulagov at cmslists.com
Subject: [MissoulaGov] Committee Update 12-16-09

 

Greetings,

In public safety we bought a fire truck and reappointed Ross Miller to the
Health Board.

 

In conservation we got a run down on the status of a bunch of parks
projects. The one thing that sticks in memory was a discussion about the new
Pineview Park. Marilyn mentioned that this was a good example of the kind of
park design that she has been asking for where we take advantage of native
trees and some mulching instead of just using turf. We also discussed the
revisions to the garbage ordinance addressing bear issues.  The referral
with more info is here:
http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=2228

They did a cool presentation showing all the places where the radio collar
bears have been. They stay up in the woods in the summer and then come down
to town in the fall. They are all over the Rattlesnake and Grant creek. They
also pointed out how the grizzly bears are not all that far away either.
They are really only a ridge or two further out of town. The new ordinance
will establish Bear zones where folks will need to take better care of their
trash. No leaving it out the night before without a certified bearproof
container and no storing it where bears can get access. We set a public
hearing for late in January.

 

We skipped PAZ today and moved into A&F where we approved Mike O'Herron for
a position on the Missoula Urban Transportation Board. Dick voted against
him.

We also voted to allow the Mayor to apply for grant funds through the Big
Sky Trust Fund as a pass through to MAEDC. They are putting a deal together
to help Intermedia Outdoors locate in Missoula. Intermedia purchased the
local firm Barrett Productions and they are considering making Missoula the
corporate headquarters. Locating here would create 49 new jobs. MAEDC is
trying to sweeten the deal with the $350,000 grant.

 

Then in Public Works we learned more details about the sewer line
replacement bid from last week. The rfp specs called for a prebid conference
to discuss the bypass aspect of the job. The low bidder, Becco contracting,
did not attend the conference. Their subcontractor, who would be performing
the bypass work was present. When it was time to open the bids and read
them, all the bidders were present. The staff engineer, I missed who it was,
made a decision on the spot that Becco's bid should not be opened as they
were not present at the pre-bid conference. They opened the other bids and
Advanced Earth Works was the lowest bidder. Folks left and a few minutes
later, the staff got nervous and called Nugent. Jim said that having a sub
at the conference was a minor technicality and they should open the Becco
bid. They did, and it was $40,000 lower.

When the Advanced Earth Works guy heard about it he cried foul. His attorney
sent the city a letter. Nugent maintains that the bidding process is
primarily for the benefit of the tax payers and not the bidders. Our RFP
language indicates that the we may chose to waive minor details and there
was no question that the bid was authentic. So we approved it.  

Jon Wilkins voiced some frustration about awarding the bid to an out of town
company since we need the jobs locally.  Becco is based in Phoenix with an
office in Butte. Nugent pointed out that Advanced Earthworks also wasn't
local and to get to a local company we would have to pay about $75,000 more.
But Advanced Earthworks is from Hamilton so I'm not sure if Jon would have
considered them local. 

The idea of providing for some kind of local preference has come up before.
I'm not sure if it something we can do but I would be interested in
discussing it again.

 

Our next item was the Odor Study we commissioned to find out what could
possibly be smelling so bad out in the vicinity of the sewer plant.  It
turns out to be sewage.  Some of the sewage stinks real bad when it comes
into the facility. They identified two areas where about 30% of the stink
originates. We already have plans under way to upgrade those parts of the
facility.  After we are all done with the sewage we put the liquids back in
the river and send the solids over the fence to Eko Compost.  Another 30% of
the stink comes from the poop when it is on their side of the fence. A bunch
from where they leave it sitting around when they first get it; Another
bunch from when they are actively mixing it up into the piles. Eko also has
plans under way to mitigate for the odors. The odors are in violation of
health department air standards so the environmental health division is
keeping some pressure on the entities to move along as quick as is practical
in implementing solutions.

 

After that we had committee of the whole were we got an update on the
Emergency Operation Plan from Bob Reid.  He started his presentation with a
quote from the movie "Tremors" which is apparently about giant wormlike
creatures that attack people. There is a scene where these folks are in
their shelter and the guy says "five years of food, water, and ammo stored
up in the basement and we get attacked by subterranean monsters." I think
this is disaster preparedness humor.  

There are all sorts of rules about what our disaster plan document is
supposed to be so they are working on getting it all put together. Pam is
our rep on that committee so she will be bringing us updates.

 

We finished up early so we would have the opportunity to go to the
commissioners meeting to give comment on the plan to shut a bunch of polling
places.  It was a full house but their meeting space is small. There may
have been 30-40 people there.  I had to get back to work so I only stayed
for a little while. I commented something along the lines that we could save
money by consolidating precincts but removing polling places is a bad idea.
Especially, at least for the urban precincts, where they are getting rid of
the precincts that serve the largest populations of people who don't own
cars. I'm pretty sure we can find other solutions to some of the problems
that were raised. 

For instance, primaries at the UC center can get so few voters that it
raises privacy issues. That is because they happen in June when no one who
lives on campus is actually there.  Instead of getting rid of the whole
polling place why not just hold primaries over at Paxson. The law does allow
for having the primary and general in different places under extenuating
circumstances. We could try to get that law clarified at the legislature.
Or possibly we could just report that precinct combined with another to
avoid the privacy issue?

A reason given for closing the court house precinct is that people get
confused because it is crowded. Since a few people wait in the wrong line
and get too tired to vote we are going to close the whole thing and make it
harder for hundreds of people to vote.  Which is the lesser evil here? Even
though the commissioners endorsed this plan in the paper the other day prior
to the public hearing,  I'm hoping they take the comments made today to
heart and reconsider.     

   

 

Thank you,

 

 

Bob Jaffe

Missoula City Council, Ward 3

1225 South 2nd West

Missoula, MT 59801

(406) 728-1052

 

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