February 2010 City Council Mtg.

Issue 1: The Pend d'Oreille Bay Trail MOU: The Pend d'Oreille Bay Trail is a group of people attempting to create a mile-long waterfront trail from the City of Sandpoint to the City of Kootenai. It is a beautiful and amazing trail that right now is private property. In September 2009 the Cities of Ponderay, Kootenai and Sandpoint along with Bonner County were granted a $650,000 grant to assess possible contamination along the route of the Pend d'Oreille Bay Trail.

This MOU is just to create a steering committee for the Pend d'Oreille Bay Trail. DEQ is administering the grant and has found it time-consuming to approach the four entities separately to disseminate information and communicate. The MOU is for this purpose.

Analysis 1: I drafted the MOU. I serve as legal counsel for the Pend d'Oreille Bay Trail. Consideration of the MOU was postponed until March.

Issue 2: Pedestrian Improvements. A member of Sandpoint's Pedestrian Advisory Committee was killed while crossing the street in late 2009. This has prompted the City, rightly, to review our pedestrian amenities.

Due to the lack of snow this year, we have funds that normally would be spent on pedestrian improvements. Councilman Reuter, requested that those funds, approximately $150,000, be used for pedestrian improvements. All together the cost of the improvements was approximately $200,000.

Analysis 2: This was a very important decision. Each year we have approximately $100,000 in funds to allocate among the departments for discretionary spending. So the ability to make $200,000 in improvements in the middle of the year is a very large decision. For that reason, it needed to be debated. WIth this proposal, Councilman Reuter was basically stating that pedestrian improvements were the highest priority for the public works department.

We debated the matter for a period of time. I eventually concluded that this was a good way to spend the money considering the recent pedestrian death. I would rather error on the side of caution and in favor of pedestrians. However, it is frustrating that we will be spending money in this instance to improve the same intersection where we rejected a 2008 grant for $100,000. All together I hope that the $200,000 has a dramatic impact on pedestrian safety.

Issue 3: Five new neighborhood beaches. For a while I have been interested in converting the City's old roads which end in the water to neighborhood parks. These roads are Larch, Ella, Boyer, Division and Euclid. At February meeting, I requested that the City research these rights of way and then send a letter to the adjacent property owners. The reason for this is that I believe that the City should use these at some time in the future for public, neighborhood parks. However, this should be a very gradual process as people are currently using these areas for their own space and any use of these public spaces needs to be sensitive to the adjacent property owners.

Analysis 3: At the Council meeting, it was suggested that staff research the ownership of these rights of way and return with their results. I completely supported this idea as any step that we take with these areas should be carefully considered.

Issue 4: Creation of A Joint Planning Commission: In the February Council meeting I proposed the creation of a joint planning commission between Sandpoint, Ponderay and Bonner County. The reason for this is that we are increasingly making planning decisions which affect our neighbors. In addition, we are letting opportunities for cooperation pass us by. As an example of an opportunity for cooperation, the City of Dover is planning to build a new sewer treatment plan in the next three years. Sandpoint is also planning to build a new sewer treatment plant within a similar time frame. We need to be looking at ways to regionally plan services in order to lower costs.

Analysis 4: A joint planning commission is authorized under Idaho Code. The commission can have as much or as little power as the jurisdictions want. I am willing to undertake this project and create a joint planning commission between the Cities of Sandpoint, Ponderay and Bonner County because I think that it will be helpful for planning our intertwined futures.