STERLING,COLORADO

MARCH 27, 2012 

STATE OF COLORADO  )

COUNTY OF LOGAN       )ss

CITY OF STERLING        )

There was no invocation given.  Mayor Joy led the Pledge of Allegiance.

The City Council of the City of Sterling, Colorado, met in regular session in Council Chambers of City Hall, on Tuesday, March 27, 2012.   Mayor Joy called the meeting to order at7:00 p.m.

Councilmembers present:

                        Mayor                                       Joy                              

                        Councilmembers             Brigham

                                                                        Delgado-Diaz

                                                                        Flores

                                                                        Hershberger

                                                                        Lawson

                                                                        Rice                                  

Also present:

City Manager                             Kiolbasa

City Attorney                             Penny

Deputy City Attorney                 Matuszczak

City Clerk                                  Forbes

 Public Works Director                Allen 

Citizens present: 8

CONSENT AGENDA:

Councilmember Lawson made a motion to approve the consent agenda.  Councilmember Rice seconded the motion.  By a seven-yes vote, the motion was approved.           

Items on the consent agenda were:  City Council minutes of March 13, 2012, City Council minutes of March 20, 2012, application for renewal of retail liquor store license for Discount Liquors located at 1000 West Main Street and an application for renewal of beer and wine liquor license for Bamboo Garden located at 1027 West Main Street. 

COMMUNICATION AND PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF NON-SCHEDULED CITIZENS BEFORE THE COUNCIL:

Present to address Council was Mr. Mike Mitchell.  Mr. Mitchell advised he has a residence in Windsor, Colorado but owns a mobile home park in Sterling.  He brought an article from the Wall Street Journal.  This article states that the Supreme Court concluded that the EPA could not terrorize Americans via regulations without allowing them court.  He discussed a lawsuit he filed several years ago versus EPA and won.  He did not take it through Federal Court, as they did not have the funds.  He advised he wanted Council to know that they can fight the EPA. 

Next to address Council was Ms. Betty Carney.  Ms. Carney advised Council that she also owns a mobile home park in Hillrose.  She advised that she has done research of the cancer rate and this area is the same as the rest of the state.  She had conversations with the EPA who could not tell how they came up with their uranium limit.  She also had discussions with Cory Gardner. 

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES UPDATE:

• Master Plan – City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council that the City received three statements of Request for Qualifications.  The requests have been forwarded to the Planning Commission.  They will discuss them at their April 4 meeting.
• Nuisance – Public Works is collecting data.  They have found in many places the nuisance enforcement is part of the Police Department. 
• Scalva Homestead – The City has the well permit and is waiting on the mineral rights information.
• Electronic Media – There will be discussion later. 

City Manager Kiolbasa advised he would send an e-mail asking Council to note their next top two priorities. 

NEW BUSINESS:

RESOLUTION NO. 3-4-12, SERIES OF 2012 – A RESOLUTION BEFORE THE CITY OF STERLING, LOGAN COUNTY, COLORADO APPROVING AN ATTACHMENT E TO PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH ARMSTRONG CONSULTANTS, INC.:

City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council that on September 8, 2009, Council approved Armstrong Consultants, Inc. as the airport consultant for engineering and planning services.  The services of Armstrong Consultants, Inc. described in Section 1 of that agreement have been amended or supplemented with respect to the scope of work and fees for Project 2, rehabilitation of apron, for completion of the geotechnical report, and such amendment or supplement is reflected in Attachment E to the agreement.  This resolution authorizes the Mayor to sign Attachment E to the Professional Services Agreement. 

Councilmember Delgado-Diaz made a motion to approve Resolution No. 3-4-12, Series of 2012.  Councilmember Hershberger seconded the motion.  

Councilmember Rice had a question regarding the number of holes drilled in the projects.  Public Works Director Allen advised Council that this actually is two projects.  Project 1 is the parallel taxiway and Project 2 is the apron portion. 

By a seven-yes vote, the motion was approved. 

RAILROAD LEASE:

City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council that the City has received a property lease and there are questions.  The City has not heard back from the railroad.  City Manager Kiolbasa asked Council to table this until the May 8, 2012 meeting. 

Councilmember Delgado-Diaz made a motion to table the railroad lease until May 8, 2012.  Councilmember Lawson seconded the motion.  By a seven-yes vote, the motion was approved.  

AGREEMENT WITH CENTRAL WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT AND LOWER SOUTH PLATTE WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT:

City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council that information regarding this had been brought to Council last week regarding the 10 cases.  He brought to Council two resolutions.  There will be a separate agreement with each party.  There was discussion that this would save the City money, as there are seven trials that will not occur.  This requires passage on both resolutions.  The resolutions are authorizing the Mayor to sign the agreement after the other party signs.  City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council that passage is important as it puts the deadline on the other two organizations and no more changes will be made.  The City’s water attorney recommends approval. 

RESOLUTION NO. 3-5-12, SERIES OF 2012 – A RESOLUTION BEFORE THE CITY OF STERLING, LOGAN COUNTY, COLORADO APPROVING AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT REGARDING CONDITIONAL WATER RIGHTS: 

Councilmember Brigham made a motion to approve Resolution No. 3-5-12, Series of 2012.  Councilmember Lawson seconded the motion.  

City Attorney Penny advised Council that he also approved to form the agreements and has no objections over the agreements. 

Councilmember Delgado-Diaz advised she has a problem going forward without reading the resolutions as they were just handed out tonight. 

Councilmember Flores and Mayor Joy both advised they were comfortable, as the water attorneys have recommended approval. 

By a six-yes and one-abstain vote, the motion was approved.  Voting was as follows:

            Brigham            yes                   Lawson             yes

            Delgado-Diaz    abstain             Flores               yes

            Hershberger      yes                   Joy                   yes

            Rice                  yes

RESOLUTION NO. 3-6-12, SERIES OF 2012 – A RESOLUTION BEFORE THE CITY OF STERLING, LOGAN COUNTY, COLORADO APPROVING AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT WITH THE LOWER SOUTH PLATTE WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT REGARDING CONDITIONAL WATER RIGHTS:

Councilmember Lawson made a motion to approve Resolution No. 3-6-12, Series of 2012.  Councilmember Hershberger seconded the motion.  By a six-yes and one-abstain vote, the motion was approved.  Voting was as follows:

            Lawson             yes                   Hershberger      yes

            Delgado-Diaz    abstain             Brigham            yes

            Flores               yes                   Joy                   yes

            Rice                  yes

 ELECTRONIC MEDIA UPDATE:

City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council that they heard a presentation last week regarding the electronic media and would like to hear Council’s opinion. 

As far as the hardware necessary in City Hall – it would be a minimal cost.  Questions regarding the cell phones could be – who owns the phone, privacy issues and utilization.  On the e-mail side – Council would go through one server. 

Councilmember Brigham advised Council would have the same access on both.  He feels that Viaero had a better service. 

Deputy City Attorney Matuszczak advised that she has a concern of the data usage, that the cost could go up.  She has 2 Gigabytes of data and when she goes over that amount, the charges go up quickly. 

City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council he could find out what the base memory would be.  He suggested a stipend where the Councilmember could purchase the hardware they wanted, then it would be theirs.  

There was discussion that each Councilmember could have an e-mail box with our current system. 

Mayor Joy brought up the CML presentation and asked if Council could review the video. 

City Attorney Penny had a concern with the stipend, as this device should be used solely for City business. 

Councilmember Brigham felt more information was needed from KCI.  KCI was not as informative or in-depth as Viaero.  It was stressed that they were focusing on the hardware. 

REQUEST FOR FUNDING FOR ART:

Information was provided to Council for the funding of a sculpture in the amount of $18,000 and the painting of a mural on the Woolworth building for $7,500.  Mayor Joy advised there is $60,000 set aside in an arts reserve.  

Present to address Council was Mr. Bernie Mathis.  Mr. Mathis provided pictures of the full size bronze antelope.  

Council had concerns of doing a mural on a private building.  There was discussion if the mural could be done and then attach it to the building. 

Mayor Joy advised that the DOC is looking at doing the construction on the monument.  They will be coming to Council for the funding on the site work.  He wanted to know if this falls in under the arts reserve.  

There was discussion that the sculpture would last forever and it was felt that this purpose is why the arts reserve was set up. 

Also present to address Council was Ms. Alexis Ertle, Chairman of the Marketing Committee.  Ms. Ertle advised Council that they are looking at beautification of the empty buildings downtown.  They are considering doing mobile displays.  For example things from the Museum.  They could be put in empty building windows for display and rotate the displays.  There was a suggestion from Kay Rich, Curator of the Museum, of using the postcards from Russ Johnson.  The DOC has a print shop and could make them economical. 

If the displays were placed in the vacant buildings windows, they could then provide a historical walking tour. 

Mayor Joy asked for Kay Rich to give an estimate of the project.  Ms. Ertle than advised the postcards were already done, they just need to be mounted. 

It was decided to wait on the cost of the proposed plan of the murals before deciding on the sculpture. 

Mayor Joy advised Council that they could use as much as the art designation as they want.  He advised he would like all three of these items on the next agenda. 

VACANCY APPOINTMENT:

Mayor Joy advised there would be a future vacancy for mayor.  There are different options that can be done to fill the vacancy.  Council can move forward and appoint the Mayor Pro-tem or another current Councilmember or it can be opened up to citizens.  If Council were to appoint someone from Council to fill the Mayor vacancy then Council would have to appoint a citizen to fill the vacant Council spot.  It was stressed that this is solely a Council decision.  The citizen would have to have met the eligibility requirements to hold the Council seat. 

City Manager Kiolbasa went over the procedure used in the past. 

Mayor Joy advised he would be here through the mid or end of May. 

WATER RESTRICTIONS:

City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council he suggests leaving the water restrictions in place.  The snowpack is lower and March has been a very dry month.  There has been discussion of an exception for home gardens.  There is currently an option where they can hand water, however, they would like to receive registration or permitting for people that have a home garden so they can water any day.  Something will be drafted and sent out in the next packet. 

RULES AND PROCEDURES FOR CITIZEN ADVISORY BOARD:

Deputy City Attorney Matuszczak has spoke with Brad Barton.  She went over the proposed changes. 

Councilmember Delgado-Diaz made a motion to approve the Rules and Procedures for the Citizens Advisory Board as presented, with changes to 3.g. taking out the word Ordinance and Article 4. Staff, taking out the words technical and professional.  Councilmember Rice seconded the motion.  By a seven-yes vote, the motion was approved. 

LOGAN COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BANQUET:

City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council that the Logan County Chamber of Commerce banquet is Friday, March 30.  The City has a table for eight individuals and if anyone is wanting to attend to let Connie know.  Councilmember Delgado-Diaz advised she would like two tickets. 

MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS:

City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council that the City has received the Tree City U.S.A. award again. 

On Wednesday, April 11, at the Gary DeSoto building, the State Engineer will be here regarding the high ground water level. 

The Foursquare Church is asking regarding their parking lot.  Previously they were contacted about the City buying the material and the Church would provide the labor and the City could use the parking lot when the Church was not using it.  City Manager Kiolbasa will get more information regarding this from the Church. 

City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council that there is a reception for the new NJC President, Jay Lee, on March 28 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Plainsman Grill. 

City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council that the CML conference information is out.  The conference will be held Wednesday, June 20 to Friday, June 22.  He asked Council to think about if they are planning to go. 

Mayor Joy advised Council there was a meeting last Thursday regarding the historical district.  Ms. Bernice Mills is in favor of forming a district.  She gave a presentation and the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) representative was there telling of the importance of the Main Street Colorado program.  City Manager Kiolbasa advised Council that he would get with DOLA regarding the Main Street Colorado program. 

Councilmember Delgado-Diaz advised that NJC Foundation is having a different fundraiser this year, instead of the GALA.  There was discussion if the City would like to sponsor.  Previously it was $1,500 per table.  If you purchase a year, you pay for the amount of that year.  It was the consensus of Council to do this.  Council would like the year 2012 if it is available.

ADJOURNMENT:

There being no further business to come before Council the meeting adjourned at 9:16 p.m.

MAYOR

ATTEST:

CITY CLERK