Col. Falls tackles budget, sewer-plant upgrade

By NANCY KIMBALL

The Daily Inter Lake

The City Council is poised to get the ball rolling on the $3.9 million Columbia Falls sewer plant upgrade, with the proposal to go out for engineering bids on tonight's meeting agenda.

And council members will have another chance to get questions answered on what has been revised in an $8.1 million city budget for 2007-08.

The Labor Day holiday pushed back the council's regular Monday meeting date to today. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in City Hall.

City Manager Bill Shaw will ask the council's authorization to issue a request for proposals from engineering firms for designing upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant. He is projecting bids will come in around $300,000 to $400,000. Later, engineering in the construction phase should run about $300,000.

Engineering work should start late this fall and into the early winter.

The wastewater treatment plant work could go to bid about a year from now, he said, with the bulk of the work expected to be carried out in spring 2009.

Much of the need at the plant is to replace 20-year-old equipment that is at the end of its useful life. But other upgrades will allow the plant to meet higher nutrient standards for treated wastewater that goes into the Flathead River as it runs by southwest Columbia Falls.

In continuing budget discussions, the council will have a chance for further explanations on the draft budget it received two weeks ago.

The full cost of the sewer plant upgrade was removed from the 2007-08 draft budget but engineering design costs remain in it.

That scaled the budget back from the projected $8.8 million two weeks ago to the current $8.1 million.

Other major expenses include $945,000 to purchase Kenneth and Carole Bell's 28-acre riverfront parcel for a future city park plus $300,000 to $400,000 for this year's portion of the $1.1 million street levy approved by voters in June.

Both those projects will be paid out of the Cedar Creek Trust Fund.

Also at the meeting, the council will:

. Discuss proposed city water rate increases, covering revenue that would come from several scenarios for increasing the base rate, the usage rate or a combination of the two.

. Hold a public hearing and first reading of the ordinance on new zoning regulations that will control design standards for buildings up to 10,000 square feet. It will apply to commercial buildings and residential buildings that have five or more dwelling units. The regulations generally follow what the city has been approving for residential planned unit developments.

. Discuss a proposal from Three Rivers EMS that dictates the name of the city fire department and when the fire department would be paged to medical and traffic calls.

. Consider final plat approval for Burke 2 Subdivision on Columbia Falls Stage Road.

. Consider a leave request from City Judge Tina Gordon and a request from Cliff Hayden of the Hedman, Hileman and LaCosta law firm to pull the contract for prosecution services out of the city's overall contract with City Attorney Eric Kaplan. Prosecution costs have been higher than anticipated, Hayden reported.

. Consider salary increases for hourly wage-exempt city employees, including judge, police chief, fire chief and public works director.

. Consider an interlocal agreement with the county for disbursing motor fuel excise taxes.

Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com