Montrose, CO — City Councilors met for a work session Monday morning, April 16, to meet new city employees, interview potential members of the city's planning commission, hear a Municipal Code update and receive a report about a repair to the city's Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Councilors Dave Bowman, Barbara Bynum, Dave Frank, and Doug Glaspell met in council chambers along with city staff, The public was invited to attend via the Zoom platform. The following is a summary of the primary topics discussed during the meeting.
Watch the meeting here.
INTRODUCTION OF NEW EMPLOYEES
City Councilors were introduced to five new employees who were hired to fill a few new positions and backfill a number of vacated positions.
Briceida Ortega recently joined the city team as a community program specialist. Kristen Bovre joined Public Works as a customer service representative. Lucy Fresquez was hired as a line cook at the Black Canyon Golf Course. And Bobbie Rossiter and Ruben Trujillo are both new officers joining the Montrose Police Department.
PLANNING COMMISSION APPLICANT INTERVIEWS
City Councilors interviewed Clifford F. Dodge III and Delphine Jadot for two openings on the city's Planning Commission.
The council will hold a formal vote to appoint new members to the Planning Commission at the April 20 regular meeting. The council interviewed four other Planning Commission applicants at the April 5 work session. In total the council will have a pool of six applicants to choose from.
UPDATES TO MUNICIPAL CODE SECTIONS 1-2-4 AND 1-9-3
City Attorney Stephen Alcorn briefed councilors about proposed changes to the city’s Municipal Code to clean up language pertaining to city meeting times and locations, and to the city’s official seal.
For example, the current language states the City Council will meet at 7 p.m. on meeting days for regular city council meetings. The proposed updates reflect the council’s current regular meeting time of 6 p.m. Another change pertains to the council’s work sessions. The current language states the council would meet on Fridays for work sessions. The changes will reflect that the council has the freedom to set work session times and locations. The council currently meets for work sessions on the first and third Mondays of each month at 10 a.m.
The council will vote whether to approve the changes at a future City Council meeting.
WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT CENTRIFUGE REPAIR
Utilities Manager David Bries briefed councilors on a recommendation to approve a sole source agreement with Dairy Specialists in an amount not to exceed $70,000 for repairs to the Centrysis centrifuge #1 at the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Bries said the Wastewater Treatment Plant has two centrifuges that are used to dewater the biosolids created during the treatment process. The biosolids are then hauled to CBI Industries near Delta, where they are composted to Class “A” standards and reutilized as soil amendments. These centrifuges were installed in 2009 and 2010.
A recent inspection of centrifuge #1 identified damaged tiles, bearing vibration, and pitting on the scroll assembly. Repairs are estimated to take four to six weeks to complete, during which time the plant will be reliant on centrifuge #2. Centrifuge #2 was rebuilt in 2020 and is in excellent operating condition.
Since the centrifuges are very specialized equipment, the rotating assembly must be shipped to the manufacturer in Wisconsin for a thorough inspection and repairs, depending on what is found. Dairy Specialists is the local representative for Centrysis, which has provided a cost estimate for minor or major repairs on both the centrifuge and the back drive assembly based Dairy Specialists’ findings. The worst-case scenario would result in a repair cost of $56,985. Upon completion of the thorough inspection at their facility, Centrisys will provide an updated repair quote.
Dairy Specialists, from Evans, Colorado, will remove the centrifuge, ship it to and from the factory, and reinstall the centrifuge at the Wastewater Treatment Plant after the factory repairs are completed. These services are estimated to cost an additional $10,110, leaving a contingency of $2,905 for unknown costs and expenses.
GENERAL CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSION
City Councilors would like to return to full in-person meetings where the public is invited to attend beginning at the May 3 work session. Councilors would also like to expand the potential for public involvement by creating the means for people to phone in to give their public comments if they choose to not attend in person. Currently, people may submit public comments via email by sending messages to the City Clerk’s Office. The public can also make comments online on the Zoom platform when the council is in session. City Manager Bill Bell said city staff would make the appropriate changes before the May 3 meeting.
The May 3 meeting will be the first meeting to allow everyone, including the public, to attend in the City Council Chambers in over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
STAFF COMMENTS
City Clerk Lisa DelPiccolo said the deadline to apply for the City Council’s open seat is this Thursday at 6 p.m. DelPiccolo said the city is accepting applications from individuals who are residents of the city for at least 12 months, at least 18 years old, registered voters, and free of felony convictions.
As set forth by the City Charter, the City Council will formally vote to appoint a replacement for the council’s District III seat later this spring.
The last council vacancy occurred in 2017. The procedure used to fill vacancies on the City Council is the same as the process used to appoint new members to the city’s Planning Commission and the Historic Preservation Commission.
Applicants are asked to fill out an application and submit a letter of interest to the council. The council will then interview potential candidates before holding a formal vote to appoint a new councilor.
As the council has done in filling past vacancies, applications will be accepted from individuals residing anywhere within the city to serve on the council's At-Large seat, rather than only accepting applications from the council district with the vacancy.
During the appointment process on May 4, 2021, applicants for the District III seat will be considered first. If the At-Large seat becomes vacant, all remaining applicants will be considered for appointment to the At-Large seat. Both the District III and At-Large seats will be on the ballot for the 2022 municipal election.
Visit CityofMontrose.org/CityCouncil to get more details and to download an application or visit City Hall at 433 South First Street. For more information call 970.240.1422 or email the City Clerk’s office at cityclerk@ci.montrose.co.us.
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All City Council meetings are recorded and made available online via the city’s website and cable channels 191 for Charter subscribers and 970 for Elevate subscribers. Replays of council meetings are also broadcast at 6 p.m. on the same channels on days that the council is not in session.
In addition, each regular meeting is archived on the City of Montrose’s YouTube channel.
Residents can watch all regular City Council meetings and work sessions live through the city’s website at CityOfMontrose.org/Video.
For more city news visit CityOfMontrose.org.