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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02 11 2015 CM Study SessionCITY OF CHUBBUCK COUNCIL STUDY SESSION February 11, 2015 3:00 pm CALL TO ORDER by Mayor England. GENERAL BUSINESS: 169 Skyler Bebee, 819 Washington, Pocatello, Idaho, representing the Pocatello Regional Transportation Department was present to discuss PRTD funding. A synopsis of some key service numbers representing the service PRTD provides to Chubbuck were given to the Council. Currently the City of Chubbuck supports the PRTD with $17,000 per year. The PRTD would like to see the City increase its portion of the funding. The PRTD estimates that the cost for the service in Chubbuck, after grants, is $87,752. Currently a ticket on the PRTD is $1.00 unless you qualify for the discounted rate, such as for seniors or students, which would be $0.50. Wendy Butler explained the success of last year's movie in the park that was held during Chubbuck Days. Other communities have done this throughout the summer and the thought is to try and do something similar in Chubbuck. The City would try to encourage sponsorship of the movie by local business to defray the cost to the City. There have been some businesses express an interest in sponsoring the event. This year it was suggested to have a once a month event to see how successful it would be. The Council thinks it would be a good community event and would like to see it go forward. Councilmember Ellis started the discussion on economic development with some statistics on State, County and City populations and how they have changed over the years. Currently Chubbuck is the 10h largest city in the state. Councilmember Ellis would like to see the City take a more aggressive role in the economic development within its boundaries. He would like to see the City have its own plan, including trying to make sure that businesses looking to expand know that the City of Chubbuck is open for business and would like to see them here, doing business in Chubbuck. Councilmember Ellis would like to see funds appropriated for this in the city's future budgets. Councilmember Ellis believes we need to do something different to encourage economic growth in eastern Idaho. Mayor England agreed, saying there is a lot we can do to promote Chubbuck and grow our economy. Even a mindset change, such as asking how this will help the City economically, with every decision we make. We have been trying and will continue to try and identify additional things we can do. We can't force things to happen, however, we can provide a good business environment for companies who are willing to locate in Chubbuck. Council Study Session Continued, February 11, 2015 171 Councilmember Lewis was reminded of the possibility of having declared Council seats in an election, when preparing for youth in government day and wanted to discuss the possibility with the Council. There are currently 22 cities in Idaho that do have declared seats in their elections. It is also possible to have districts in the city. There are no cities in Idaho that elect their councils from districts. The Mayor said he would leave it up to the Council to bring the item up again for discussion. Steve Smart explained to the council one particular area in the city, located in Mountain Park, that has storm water runoff issues. ICRMP, the City's liability insurer has suggested to Steve that the problem needs to be addressed. Steve has had Keller Engineering analyze the situation and they have prepared a report. There are several improvements needed. The first is to add an additional conduit from the street to the canal. This spring we are going to reconstruct a couple of inlets up Brundage Road and catch as much storm water as we can and direct this water in to the Mary's Park drainage. These improvements have been let out to bid and will be funded out of the Highway Streets and Roads fund. Chief King in connection with Keller McIntyre are in the process of applying for a grant that will fund the addition of two full time personnel and help fund a retention program for pay call personnel. The grant will fund these expenditures for two years and Chief King would like the Council to budget the necessary funds to continue the increase in service after the grant expires. The grant request is for $310,000. The grant does not require the city to retain the personnel for any period of time after the grant expires. Chief King explained that if the city was able to do this there would be a 4 person engine company ready to go a majority of the time. This would decrease the fire department's response times. The grant application deadline is March 1, 2015. The consensus is to apply for the grant. There was no indication if the Council would continue the funding once the grant expires. The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 4:22pm. X Rich Morgan City Clerk X Kevin England Mayor