Scott Swanson
Sweet Home City Councilors on Tuesday, May 26, gave staff members the go-ahead to seek bids for city engineering services and a new operator for the water/wastewater treatment plants.
Council members unanimously agreed to authorize the solicitation of a new contract operator for the treatment plants after deciding in February to terminate its relationship with Jacobs Engineering, which, had operated the plants since 2006.
An audit last year uncovered a number of deficiencies in the treatment plants. Though council members have voiced interest in returning operation of the facilities back to city staff, the city lacks enough qualified staff with authorized state certifications and will likely have difficulty recruiting enough qualified staff, due to a nationwide shortage of certified operators, according to Public Works Department staff.
The request for proposals calls for an “experienced” contractor who will “provide a strong technical support team, operate in compliance with state and federal regulations, and improve maintenance and operational efficiencies.”
“The city is seeking to ensure the overall efficiency and operation of the facilities by contracting with a firm having the technical and financial resources to perform the required operation, maintenance and management services,” the RFP states.
“This has been a year in the making,” Public Works Director Greg Springman told the council last week. “We’ve had discussions of inefficiencies at the water plants. We’ve done our homework. We think we have a really good (request for proposals).”
Councilor Diane Gerson praised staff for “the accountability written into this contract.”
Present for the unanimous vote were Mayor Greg Mahler and councilors Gerson, Susan Coleman and Dave Trask. Joining remotely were Cortney Nash and James Goble.
Springman said the search for a firm to provide city engineer of record service follows the first year of what was an optional three-year contract with Murraysmith, which has assisted the city with several projects in the past year, including an audit of the water treatment plant, identifying deficiencies in the water distribution system, project scoping for street overlays and System Development Charge updates that were approved by the council earlier this year.
Facilities for which the engineer of record might provide consultation include the treatment plants, five water storage reservoirs and 54 miles of pipe, the stormwater discharge system, transportation and the city’s eight parks.
Springman told the council that turnover at Murraysmith has prompted the request to put out an RFP for an engineer of record “who could assist us better.”
Councilor Dave Trask asked if “this could possibly be a money-saving thing?”
Springman replied funding for engineering services comes from across the city, and that “in general, we’re hoping not to spend this much.”
The deadline for submissions is June 26, and the council, which voted unanimously to issue the RFP, would likely award a contract in early August.
Budget Transfers
Council members also unanimously approved supplemental budget fund transfers for:
– The Police Department, which budgeted $100,000 last year to replace aging radio equipment that no longer meets safety standards, but which were not delivered until earlier this year.
Gourley asked why that amount had not been addressed in Budget Committee discussions last month.
Finance Director Brandon Neish replied that “supplemental budgets are not usually addressed in the Budget Committee, that the funds have been transferred because they were budgeted for 2018-19, but were unable to be spent because the radios hadn’t been delivered before that fiscal year ended.
“We’re not spending additional funds; we’re just rolling funds over,” City Manager Ray Towry said.
– Equipping the new City Hall. According to a staff report, the council on Sept. 24, 2019 approved $53,500 from the city’s Building Reserve Fund to cover furniture, IT, security and other equipment for the new facility, but at the end of the 2019 fiscal year, only $34,249. As a result, staff requested $40,000 from contingency funds.
In other action, the council:
– Agreed to hold a special council meeting to hold a public hearing on community development and housing needs, particularly those of low- and moderate-income residents, as well as other needs that could be funded by a community block grant the city is eligible for.
The meeting was later scheduled at 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, in the City Council chambers, 3225 Main St.
Approximately $12 million will be awarded to Oregon non-metropolitan cities and counties in 2020, Community and Economic Development Director Blair Larsen told the council. Sweet Home is preparing two applications, he said, one for a maximum of $150,000 in funding for “emergency” small business and microenterprise assistance projects and one for a maximum of $50,000 in Emergency Response Assistance funds for projects that prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Individuals attending public meetings in person will be limited to the first six people, required to maintain appropriate social distancing (6 feet) and be free of symptoms related to COVID-19. The meeting will also be streamed via the Microsoft Teams platform. There will be opportunity for public input via the live stream. To view the City Council meeting live, online visit live.sweethomeor.gov.
If you don’t have access to the internet, call (541) 367-5128 and you’ll be asked to choose option #1 to be logged in to the call.
– Unanimously approved the rezoning of 8.72 acres at 4472 Highway 20 (see map above) from Commercial Highway (C-2) zoning to the Residential High Density (R-2) Zone, per a recommendation from the city Planing Commission. The council then heard the first reading of an ordinance to that effect, which will be read again on June 9 and finally on June 34, when the council can vote to adopt it.
Applicant Bill Lund is interested in building an apartment complex on that site and Larsen said that the rezone request is part of that process.
Larsen said the high-density zoning is actually what is called for in the city’s comprehensive plan and noted that the rezone did not represent approval of “actual development,” but “just changes the zoning so development could proceed if he applies for it.”
– Approved a memorandum of understanding between the city and the Sweet Home Rotary Club regarding the Sweetheart Run event, which, Towry said, simply formalizes an arrangement that has been in place for the past two years.
In the past, he said, the February race event had been run entirely by city staff. But the Rotary stepped in two years ago to run the event, relieving pressure on the staff.
“Essentially,” Towry said, “the city acts as the fiscal agent for the event, applies for grant funds and provides equipment and general office support, while the Rotary Club promotes the event, provides volunteers, and manages the event day activities in exchange for the net proceeds of the event for their scholarship fund, youth leadership training and Dolly Parton Imagination Library programs.”
Gerson asked whether the MOU would set precedent. “Can we use this with other groups that might want to put on event?”
Towry responded that, as a city parks and recreation director in Washington, “we did this all the time.”
Mahler said he was “all for it, as long as other groups have same opportunity.”
– Heard an annual report on the city’s pollution control program for stormwater to the DEQ from city Engineering Technician Trish Rice, who said that Sweet Home is “coming along pretty well.” Due to “staffing constraints,” she said, some timelines in the city’s five-year Total Maximum Daily Loads program have been adjusted, because city staff is still not at the level needed to implement its plan entirely.
“We successfully maintained a consistent level of service, and we procured consultant services to add capacity on certain projects,” she said in the DEQ report. The city’s plan includes strategies to combat temperature, bacteria and mercury pollutants, in particular, as well as staff training on handling waterway spills of pollutants, such as when a vehicle plunged into Ames Creek on Jan. 20.
– Re-appointed Debra Sue Northern to a second four-year term on the Park and Tree Committee.
– Heard from City Attorney Robert Snyder that he has been communicating with the Department of Environmental Quality concerning a proposed ordinance amendment that would allow residents of the Midway to use water wells rather than city water for household use. Snyder said he would have a report on the proposed change by the council’s June 9 meeting.
A Midway resident has requested the ability to disconnect from city water and begin using a well.
To allow that, the council would need to amend the ordinance requiring a connection to the city water system by the Midway residents.
The city ordinance was enacted in 1998 after wells in the area had been contaminated by chlorinatred solvents, a chemical used as a degreaser at the site of a nearby logging company.