By Michael Howell
The Town of Stevensville is struggling to keep up with the two multi-million dollar water and sewer infrastructure improvement projects it is conducting simultaneously.
At its July 11 meeting, the Council got an update from Donnie Ramer of PCI, the engineering company in charge of the Town’s water system improvement project. Ramer told the Council that the construction contract for the project had been awarded to 4G Plumbing out of Missoula. A pre-construction meeting with Rural Development was planned for Wednesday, July 13.
Ramer said that seven applications for a water rights attorney to help with the project had been received and interviews of candidates was set for Monday, July 18. He said that the test well placed on the newly purchased well field on the Kelly property needed further testing to see if the field could produce enough water for the project.
According to Ramer, the well is 420 feet deep with a 6-inch pipe. He said the well passed through six water bearing zones and was pumping some red iron and a lot of sand, suggesting that the deepest aquifer tapped may not produce the desired quantity of water. He said Tetra Tech recommended testing with perforated pipe to see what amount of flow was in each of the water bearing zones to see if enough could be produced from the well to meet their needs.
“Our concern is that one level may not have enough water for the project,” said Ramer.
Ramer said that LS Jensen, which is laying the new water main, could connect to 5th Street by the end of this week. The company is only required by contract to re-pave the trenches that it has dug. Water Supervisor George Thomas said that the town is looking into costs for repaving the whole of Park and 5th Streets this fall.
Craig Caprara of HDR Engineering, the company in charge of the town’s sewer system improvement project, told the council that Phase I of the project was on track. He said most of the new ultra-violet treatment facility had been completed and the concrete foundation for the sludge drying process had also been installed.
Caprara said that the project was proceeding within its budget and gave the council a line by line update. He said that money would soon be available from Rural Development and could be used to reimburse the town for contract expenses to date.
The Council also decided to approve using additional advertisement in the daily newspaper to facilitate speedier public notice of emergency meetings.
Town Attorney Keithi Worthington said that she brought the issue of advertising up because she believed the Town needed to set a policy about advertising its meetings because she was unaware of any existing policy. She said in the meantime she had become aware of an existing policy, but that it was silent on the use of newspapers for publishing public notices. It only stated that the Bitterroot Star would be used to publish established meeting times at the beginning of the year. She said decisions about the means of advertising meetings was an administrative matter that could simply be decided by the mayor.
Worthington said that the issue at hand was generated by the two huge utility projects underway and that consideration needed to be given about getting out quick notice about special meetings required to keep the projects on track. She said that Missoula used a weekly newspaper for publishing meeting notices but they based the decision on financial considerations. She said that the Town of Stevensville is apparently more concerned with timing matters due to the projects underway.
Councilor Desera Towle, who was absent from the meeting, submitted a letter in support of using the Bitterroot Star because it goes to every household in town and consistently covers the Town Council meetings.
Councilor Pat Groninger said that using a daily paper could save valuable time in getting public notice out. He said that he was not thinking of replacing the use of the weekly for normal advertising but thought it made sense to use a quicker means if available for special meetings that must be held in a hurry in addition to the weekly.
Ramer said that a lot of the concern had been raised by an incident in which a contractor had come forward with a change order on the water system project and the town could not wait for a regularly scheduled meeting. He said since then the town council has given authority to the mayor to sign change orders that do not violate the budget for the project so the need for special meetings had been significantly reduced.
“This will eliminate about 96 percent of the need for quick public notices,” he said.
Town Planner Ben Longbottom said that he believed the Town already had a policy designating that the posting of a public notice on the Town’s bulletin board was sufficient to advertise special meetings. He said it was not only the cheapest way but the fastest.
A member of the public who lives just outside of town but follows Town business avidly said that posting meetings on the bulletin board was not enough.
In the end it was agreed to allow the mayor to make the administrative decision about advertising special meetings on a case by case basis.
In other business the Town heard from Shaun Shea of Morrison-Maerle, the town’s recently hired airport engineering company. He said that his company needed to place an advertisement in time to meet a deadline set in a contract with the FAA in order not to jeopardize funding for the pavement maintenance project and that he had already placed an advertisement in the daily newspaper to meet that deadline.
Bitterroot Star publisher Victoria Howell asked why the ad had been placed in the daily paper. Shea said that he had been told that the Ravalli Republic was the required paper for publishing legals.
Howell said that could not be the case because the Bitterroot Star was under contract with the county to publish its legal advertising and published all ads related to projects on the Hamilton airport, all of which use FAA funding. She also noted that in this case publication in the daily was no faster than publication in the weekly paper; either would have been published on the same day.
Shea apologized and said that he was unaware that there was a choice.
The Council approved the task order and the placement of the advertisements in the Ravalli Republic.
In other business the Council approved the mayor signing a contract with the Forest Service for use of the airport for firefighting purposes for $500 per day.