City of Townsend Council Meeting—March 21, 2023, 6:30 p.m.

Attendance:  Council members, Mayor Evans, Vickie Rauser, Nate Brown, Angie Wintrow, & Ken Urich. & Christina Hartmann, & (Matt West was absent).  Members of the community included Timothy McAlpine,  Shawn Simon, Andrew Herrick, Nancy Marks, Tim Ravndal, Cliff Wrobetz, and Jenny Barnett. 

6:30 p.m.:  Meeting opened, and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all.

Vickie Rauser made a motion to approve the minutes of March 7, 2023, seconded by Angie Wintrow.  Motion carried. 

• Solicitor Ordinance 2023-01 Second Reading:  Mayor Evans read the Ordinance with all amendments;  Angie Wintrow made a motion to accept Solicitor Ordinance 2023-01, Vickie Rauser seconded the motion.  All in favor, motion carried.   
• Tim McAlpine spoke on behalf of Townsend Chamber of Commerce regarding one of the goals of the chamber is to get an electric sign that displays community wide events and information.  They would like to have the City of Townsend partner with the Chamber and also ask Townsend Schools to also partner and possibly share some of the cost.   They would like the sign to be on Broadway on the City of Townsend’s lot, as this would catch all traffic coming into town from the west and anyone looking from the highway towards town.  They are currently looking at a 3 x 4 ft sign.  There are two bids of $72000 and $84000, and then then a $4600 fee from Northwestern Energy to install a meter and permit.   Vickie asked how readable a 3 x 4 ft sign would be from the highway.  It might be worth exploring the difference in price from a 3 x 4 ft sign to a 4 x 5 ft sign.  The idea for the location of the sign is to replace the current Townsend City Hall sign.  Mayor Evans asked him to come back once he has a cost for everything.  Vickie Rauser stated that it’s a subject worth exploring as there is a lot going on in this community and it is hard to keep up with everything.  It was agreed that Tim McAlpine will look further into costs, while Mayor Evans will see if the school is interested and willing to share some of the cost for the sign.  Research will be done to find out the cost of powering of the sign.  Ken Urich mentioned solar power, and Mayor Evans mentioned a combination of solar and electric power.  The subject was tabled for the time being. 
• City of Townsend policy manual update:  “This policy prohibits employees from bringing unauthorized firearms or other weapons (including pepper spray, stun guns, batons, etc.) onto City premises.  Employees are also prohibited from carrying unauthorized firearms or other weapons in city vehicles or in personal vehicles if conducting city business.”  Vickie Rauser made a motion to  approve the update to the policy manual, seconded by Ken Urich.  Motion caried. 
• Penalty Revision Committee:  Vickie Rauser stated that the committee has met twice and looked at various sections of the Townsend Municipal Code that include penalties and those penalties range from monetary fines and inclusion of jail times that seem excessive for the offense.  So far what the committee has done is looked at what sections of our Townsend Municipal Code that should be considered criminal or civil and impose a municipal infraction that would include a fine, and also simplifying the fine structure following State Law respective to civil offenses and criminal offenses.  For example, the first offense could be a fine of $300 for a civil or municipal infraction.  There are also two sections related to animal control and parking where a graduated fine schedule would be better.  Fining a citizen $300 for a first offense of a dog getting out without a leash is a little excessive.  There are a handful of ordinances that the city will want the law enforcement officials to be involved.  For example, vicious animals or parties hosting under-age kids.  Otherwise, our compliance officer will be able to handle the rest.   The committee is still in the review stage but will soon move to writing the resolution.  Vickie said that an initial draft should be available in the next few months. 
• Shawn Simon, fire chief,  passed out a couple of pages to keep the council informed on equipment testing and ratings with 1 being excellent and 10 being the worst.  Townsend Volunteer Fire Department for Public Protection Classification received a 5. 
• The city has a new building & zoning application with new and updated information regarding the process of contacting the city’s engineer. 
• Townsend Swimming Pool Report:  Tim Rauser will be back for the next meeting to discuss.  Vickie Rauser stated that the combination of a new building, pool deck, pool, and mechanical equipment $2,140,000.00-$2,160,000.00.  A new pool liner for $130000.00 would last approximately five years.  One of the focus groups from the community survey- Phase 2 chose the possibility of a new recreational center that would include a new pool, so we will share this information with that group to see how they might want to proceed.  Mayor Evans stated that the price is shocking at first, but considering the age of our current pool, (1965) we’ve got a lot of use out of it.  Vickie said it’s not so much when you divide the cost out per year.   

Round Table:  Ken Urich stated that we need to make a move on some of the streets and put some money into them.  He said that the one on Cedar near the hospital is pretty bad.  Angie Wintrow asked if we received a new rate sheet from Jeremy of WWC Engineering for zoning.  Vickie Rauser stated that we need to start our budget process soon and that she’d like to see a budget status report for revenues and expenses.

Adjournment:  Ken Urich made a motion to adjourn the meeting; Nate Brown seconded the motion, motion carried. 

Next Meeting:  Tuesday, April 4^th at 6:30 p.m.