September 9, 2019

Trail Grant
I collected the petitions for the Treasure Valley Connector Trail that I placed at Oregon Health Market and Jolts and Juice a few weeks ago so that I could scan and send them to the state. They requested additional community support and gave me until today to get the additional items. We had about 100 people sign the petitions. A big shout out to Oregon Natural Market and Jolts and Juice for helping me collect signatures!

Training Budgets
Our staff have been very resourceful in applying for grants for some of their trainings. Two of our employees received grants. This stretches our training budgets. Great job to staff for saving money.

Benches 
We received many complements about the benches downtown. We have to relocate one which was too close to the street. We worked with the business owners to find a solution.

Planters 
The planters for downtown arrived this week. We hope to get a winter plant in this year and then we will plant the annuals in the spring. The benches and the planters came as a result of the City Council’s strategic plan.

Fiber Connection at the Airport
This was a budget and strategic plan initiative to take fiber to the airport. We received three cost proposals from Sparklight for the fiber at the airport. I’ll present the analysis at the next City Council meeting.

Petition
We received a petition signed by 70 or so residents to add a crosswalk on Alameda around 8th Avenue. It seems like it would be simple, but we would have to do ADA ramps on both sides. The cost would be about $7,000. I know the Council, as well as staff, take these petitions very seriously. We will continue to explore.

Human Resources
Chief Leighton, Lieutenant Cooper, John Forsyth, and Peter met and finished the Ontario Emergency Plan. They also finished the Agility Preparedness Plan (Recovery Plan is probably a more appropriate name). Both will go to the Safety Committee for approval.

Airport
The focus this week has been on the grass runway. It was cleared and marked with a yellow X at each end to indicate a closed runway. Then both wheel lines were put into place. After several repairs each wheel line was put to use getting the moisture in the ground so after a long dry summer so it can be tilled, packed and seeded properly. Interest in the grass runway continues to remain high from pilots as far away as Eastern Idaho, Washington and Northern California.

Fire and Rescue
Crews did case reviews from 2 extensive multiple victim motor vehicle crashes and medical emergencies for stroke victims.
The self-contained breathing apparatus for the haz-mat team were tested and serviced. The crew also had a rider for the afternoon.

Incidents
8/30 The crew responded to a grass and rubbish fire that extended to the siding of a house, and a car fire that was on E. Idaho St that was extinguished prior to their arrival.
8/31 The crew responded to a carbon monoxide detector alarm that was going off but they did not find any elevated level so the replaced the batteries in the detector. They also responded to a hay stack fire that was limited to just one bale.
9/4 Rescue 1 responded to a dumpster fire behind Subway that was full of cardboard and was extinguished with one tank of water.

Public Works
Field Service
An electrical and rainstorm event on Thursday evening had no impact on operations. Staff has done an exemplary job of proactively mitigating potential problems in the collections system.
Parking lots downtown were swept and then re-striped. All cross walks were painted in the downtown core area, hot tape was not used due the spring construction schedule.

Wastewater
Engineering staff are proposing a ph. adjustment of our effluent. This is one of the requirements of our new NPDES permit. We need to provide a plan for DEQ approval by the end of October.

Parks and Cemetery
Cars in the Park at Lions Park for the week, there may be some issues with grass due to not being able to water.
Tree planting for East Idaho tree project is scheduled to move forward later this fall as weather cools down.