At its November 8th meeting, the Stevensville Town Council decided to hire Robert Peccia and Associates and HDR Engineering to do a Transportation Master Plan update. The current plan was last updated in 2006. Mayor Brandon Dewey said this agenda item came out of the council’s previous discussion regarding their frustration in dealing with the Burnt Fork Estates subdivision proposal.
“This is an initiative to rectify that situation,” said Dewey, “so that as future annexations and growth occur there is some sort of plan in place to deal with that.” He said the update will cover all modes of transportation (walking, bicycling, sidewalks, etc.) The Town received only one response to the advertised Request for Qualifications, a joint proposal from HDR and RPA. Dewey said the Planning Board had reviewed the proposal and recommended approval.
“We are pretty fortunate to get this type of proposal from an engineering firm,” said council member Paul Ludington who also sits on the Planning Board. “There are a lot of changes to the area since the last plan was done… this is more of a plan for what we will be able to do in the future and facilitate further action by the Town.”
Dewey said updating the Transportation Master Plan will put the Town in a better position as the infrastructure bill just passed by Congress gets implemented. Getting the plan done will help demonstrate the need for certain projects and help prioritize those projects, he said.
The motion by Ludington to select HDR and RPA was approved 3-0 (council member Jaime Devlin was absent).
The council also approved a contract with Central Square/Zuercher for a police department reporting software system. This would be an improved system over what the department has been using. The Montana Board of Crime Control has offered a grant with an $18,000 grant with an $1800 match to switch to this better system which is the same that Ravalli County Sheriff’s Department uses and will allow for better reporting of crimes and better communication. Mayor Dewey said the annual maintenance fee is $1600 plus a subscription, so the total cost yearly cost to the Town will be about $2000 going forward which would include technical support. The contract was unanimously approved.
The council also decided to move forward with an agreement between the Town and the Stevensville School District to provide a CARES police officer at the school. Mayor Dewey said that this is a hybrid of the former School Resource Officer and that the school has agreed verbally to partner with the Town on helping with the cost of this program and this position. Chief Mac Sosa has prepared a contract between school district and town to be retroactive to the beginning of September. The council unanimously approved the plan and the contract will now go the school district for ratification.
The council also unanimously approved an amendment to an agreement with HDR for engineering services, adding a water tank condition assessment and grant application preparation at a cost of approximately $253,000. Dewey said they want to complete the assessment before applying for an American Rescue Plan Act grant for water system improvements.
The council also unanimously consented to the appointment of Robert Rohbock as Volunteer Firefighter Engineer and Landon Henderson as Firefighter Cadet.
Consent of Landen Henderson as firefighter cadet. Unanimously approved.
A discussion on whether to replace yield signs with stop signs on Buck Street at the north and south sides of W, 3rd and W. 4th Streets was tabled to November 23 when the citizen requesting the change could be present.
Mayor Dewey said that the administration is easing into the transition following the results of the recent mayoral election, which Dewey lost. He said he had received indication from some staff members that they are planning to resign. “Given that, there may be some transition hiccups or delays that we’ll just have to address on a case by case basis… If we receive a resignation for a position, I’m not inclined to replace that position under my last 55 days in office. I’ll essentially hold that until Mr. Gibson can come in and make that selection and decide whether he wants that position replaced and who he wants that position replaced with. So if there’s a change in service delivery because of those resignations, we just ask that the public to be patient with us.”