Fruitland water debate
Wednesday, May 11, 2005 1:15 PM PDT
Tami Hart Argus Observer
FRUITLAND
The Fruitland City Council voted Tuesday to move forward with exploring options to ease the city's water supply woes.
The council approved the drilling of a test well in the new Syringa Springs subdivision, on the condition that if the first well proved to be nonproductive, then a second test well in the same area would not be drilled.
Andy Gehrke, Holladay Engineering said proposed costs for test well drilling from Riverside, Inc., came in between $18,000 to $25,000 per 200-foot deep test well.
Production tests and water quality sampling contributes to the higher costs of each test well, Gehrke said. Although there might be ways to trim the costs, if too much is trimmed from the project, the city would lose the ability to see what kind of wells they are getting, he said.
In addition to approving the drilling of the test well, the City Council also put a cap on the cost per well, not to exceed $25,000, with the understanding the council would like to look at reducing the overall costs per well.
Gehrke also presented the council with a proposal for a feasibility study to investigate a connection of the Fruitland drinking water system to the Ontario drinking water system in order to increase Fruitland's water capacity. The council voted to further explore the option of a water hook-up between Ontario and Fruitland.
Anticipated costs for the two-phase feasibility study are $15,000 for Phase 1 and $17,500 for Phase 2.
Councilman Ed Pierson said Ontario Public Works Director Steve Gaschler is interested in the idea, but did not know if the City Council would be interested also. Pierson suggested writing a letter to the council to schedule a time to talk about the issue.
"We need to do something other than just keep drilling well, because someday those are going to run out," Pierson said.
In another water-related issue, Fruitland City attorney Bert Osborn was on hand to discuss the legalities of connection fees, which have been upheld in the courts in such cases as Loomis vs. City of Hailey, where the municipality charged $1,800 hook-up fees for water and sewer.
The Idaho Supreme Court ruled the fees were allowable because they were not impact fees.
Osborn also provided the council with a formula, set out in the Supreme Court case, to calculate hook-up fees. The council approved tasking the city engineer with developing a new water and sewer rate schedule based on the formula provided by Osborne.
In other business, two public hearings were held to discuss comprehensive plan and zoning amendments from general commercial to light industrial and also comprehensive plan map corrections.
Ken Bishop came before the council to ask for a comprehensive plan/zoning amendment from general commercial to light industrial for property situated at 100 S. Iowa Avenue.
Bishop said he was requesting the zone change in order to build another storage unit on the property.
Bishop, who is a Fruitland City Council member, declared his conflict on the issue at the beginning of the public hearing and stepped down before giving his presentation to the council on the requested changes.
There was no public testimony given on the matter. The council approved Bishop's request for the comprehensive plan amendment and zoning amendment.
The second public hearing was held to correct drafting errors on the Comprehensive Plan Map, adopted Jan. 13, 2004. The corrections relate to errors in the areas relating to Quail Cove Subdivision; a strip of land north of northwest Fourth Street between North Whitley Drive and Railroad; and areas east of North Whitley Drive, west of Pennsylvania Avenue, north of Southwest Fourth Street and South of Southwest Second Street. The errors were discovered on the Southwest Third Street side when a resident came in and asked for a comprehensive plan change.
No public testimony was given on the matter. The council moved to order Osborn to draft an ordinance making the appropriate changes to the map.
During the citizen request portion of the agenda, Fruitland library volunteer Amy Mahler came before the council with a request for $250 to fund the Summer Youth Reading Program. Mahler said the money would be used to pay for prizes awarded during the program, as well as to purchase summer library cards for those who need them to participate in the program. Mahler said last year, more than 130 children participated in the program.
The council approved the donation of $250 to the reading program.
Darrel Sawyer also spoke during the citizen's request, and asked the council for a conceptual review of an easement vacation for a portion of his property at 1301 Jessica Ave.
Sawyer said when he bought the property he intended to put a storage shed in the back yard and was informed the setback requirement was three feet. In further discussions with the city, he was then notified the setback was 10 feet. There is also a utility right-of-way near his property, which is not being used by the city. Fruitland City Clerk Rick Watkins said the process to vacate a utility easement requires the approval of all the affected utilities. No hearings are necessary. If the utilities agree, the city can then vacate the easement. Osborn suggested giving Sawyer a limited license to have the shed on an easement, which meant he could put the building on the easement until the city needed the property.
Watkins suggested using the vacation process and the council agreed to go forward with a conceptual review with contacting the utility companies about the possibility of the easement vacation.
