General Meeting Minutes 1-25-2005

General Meeting

January 25, 2005

7:00pm

Call to Order

Roll Call

Reading of Minutes

Public comment on Non-agenda Items

Public Comment on:

            1. Adoption of Bed Tax Amendment

            2. Resolution # 2005-01

Unfinished Business

New Business

            1. Discussion/Information on Snow Removal/Road Maintenance

Call to Order at 7:05pm

Roll Call: Sandi Marchbanks, Lou Cacciopo, Martha Romero, Becky King, Wayne Howell - Absent Kim Heacox & Tim Gibson

Reading of Minutes: Minutes Read & Approved

Sandi Gives the Public a chance to comment on The Sitka access & panhandle study. No Comment.

Public Comment on Non-agenda Items: No Comments.

Public Comment on Bed Tax Amendment: Sandi explains the amendment is for giving the Bed Tax monies to the GVA no later than November 15th. No public comment. Wayne motions to adopt the amendment. Motion passes 5/0.

Public Comment on Resolution creating Bailey Park: Sandi reads the resolution. Kathy Lochman asks about the legal access. Sandi explains that at present Bill's Drive is the only access. Wayne asks if anyone has talked with Bill about this. Sandi says that no one has. Lou motions to adopt resolution. Resolution passes 5/0.

New Business: Sandi mentions snow removal and asks for any comments. Sandi mentions telephone and electric boxes which may not be visible to the plowers. Kathy says the telephone boxes are all marked well. Wayne tells the public to feel free to talk, and explains that the heavy snowfall has caused us to jump in before we were ready. Wayne explains that one question has been why is the City plowing. He explains that Mike Taylor has stated that plowing is a vital part of road maintenance. He said that plowing also enhances our ability to provide emergency services. In Fairbanks people valued plowing more than they did grading.

Kim Ney comments that snow plowing could be done with matching funds from individual community groups.

Diana Berry does not want to disband the Rink Creek fund because she is worried that their road will become neglected due to lack of funds.

Wayne explains where the forest receipt money is coming from and that it could go away, and that the road maintenance ordinance was set up with this in mind. He feels that it would be a good idea for the road committee to get together with the various co-op's to come up with a plan.

Shelly Web thinks we should encourage community participation. Kathy comments on the fact that now that the City is paying, people are starting to complain. Shelly comments that maybe we should drop plowing then, and use the money for dirt work etc.

Sandi comments that if one of the electrical boxes gets hit by a plow it could knock the electricity out for the whole town. She goes on to say that there may be a liability issue now that we are a City. Shelly asks who would be responsible if local groups took matters into their own hands. Wayne suggests forming a sub unit of the road committee to to look into problem areas. Kim Ney suggests that the electric company should be responsible for marking the electric boxes.

The question was raised if we should be plowing roads where no one lives in the winter, and how would we know which roads these would be.

Kathy said she has a list of ad hoc committees and that they could probably identify these roads.

Wayne passes out a list of roads with A,B,C, & D roads and explains how they came up with the different classifications. Shelly explains that any road on private property is a driveway. Erik suggests that perhaps we could not give the same quality service on C & D roads as we do on A & B roads.

Sandi comments on the SEAtrails group. She explains that the GCA passed a resolution to work with the GVA to establish trails.

Martha motions to go into executive session at 8:23pm.

(Martha had to leave during executive session)

Back into general meeting at 9:38pm.

Motion to accept letter as is to the fire chief. Motion passes 4/0.

Motion to give City Clerk a $1.00 raise. Motion defeated 3/1.

Motion to give City Clerk a raise of $1.25. Motion passes 4/0.

Discussion about when raise should go into effect. Becky motions to have raise go into effect as of January 1st.

Motion passes 4/0.

Becky motions to look into giving City employees a week vacation at the beginning of the fiscal year or offering some kind of vacation package. Motion passes 4/0.

Lou motions to adjourn.

Meeting adjourned at 9:48pm.