September 23, 2019

RFP’s and Bids
I was able to get two RFP’s out this week. One is for the Wayfinding system. I have fielded a lot of calls from designers since it went out. The second is the downtown attraction study. Also we continue to work on finding a contractor for our tennis court resurfacing.

Marijuana Ad Hoc Committee
The committee met on Wednesday night and voted to have the employee fee eliminated. We will bring that to the City Council Work Session on October 3. This would be an amendment to the ordinance. It would not require going through the state land use procedures.

Housing Incentive Program
We received our 8th application for the housing incentive program for the year.

Recognition
Officer Danielle Llamas has been selected to receive the "LIFE SAVING AWARD" from the Oregon Police Officers Association for an incident that she mitigated on July 28, 2019, in which she was instrumental in communicating with and preventing the intended suicide of an individual who was determined to give up hope on life. While there were other OPD personnel that also assisted at the scene, Officer Llamas' peers and supervisor felt that her actions set themselves apart from all others and was deserving of formal nomination for this award.

CDBG Home Improvement Program
Peter and I were able to visit some of the renovation homes that the CDBG grant is funding. The beneficiaries were very grateful for the city’s backing of the grant.

Fire & Rescue
Meetings:  9/18 A presentation was made about a Life Safety inspection process that is becoming used by many cities to improve the documentation of safety inspections.  9/19 Snake River Fire Chiefs meeting was hosted in Ontario this month, it had great attendance of chiefs and fire marshals from both Idaho and Oregon. 

​Training:  9/16, 17 Chief was fortunate enough to attend an Occupational Safety conference for two days, on safety committees, workers health, hemp and marijuana processing, and cardiac results of firefighting.  9/17 The staff trained on rope operations.  9/18 The staff and TVP did post case reviews of different incidents.

Events:  9/14 Some of the staff and associate members painted fire hydrants around the town.  The department paid for all of the brushes and paint buckets for this community event.  There were some grandparents and two young future firefighters that really enjoyed touring the station.  9/18 Adam and Chief as past alumni attended the opening class for the Ontario Networking and Leadership class. 
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Incidents:  9/13 The crew responded to a carbon monoxide detector activation, it was the result of a dead battery.  9/16 524 The crew responded to a structure fire that ended up being a motor home fire.  9/18 The crew was busy this day and extra staff had to be called in for coverage, they responded to a large extrication with fatalities on Hwy. 20/26 west of Harper.  There was also an agency assist trying to locate a suicidal person, on SE. 5th Avenue and to a possible fire with smoke at Taco Bell at E. Idaho.

Human Resources
The recruitment window for the position of Code Enforcement Officer was opened yesterday and will close on October 4.

Public Works
Field Service
Weekly Maintenance checks on lift stations and sewer cleaning were performed.
A pump at one of our lift stations failed, the pump was pulled, and its replacement put in its place. The failed pump was taken to a vendor for rebuild; once completed it will be placed in backup inventory. This is standard operations for critical equipment.

Housekeeping and cleanup of the Public Works shops and yard took place this week.

Crack sealing roads throughout town although rainy weather in the later part of the week impeded this effort.

Staff addressed multiple water leaks throughout the city; these leaks were primarily water service lines that had degraded over time.

Water
The water inventory amounts are at target levels.

The water odor and taste issue have been mitigated, chemical additions to address algae bloom issues in the river have been reduced to pre odor and taste levels.

A dive team is here examining our water tanks. They will inspect all our reservoirs including some tankage at our water treatment plant. They are also scheduled to dive our raw water inlet in the Snake River for assessment purposes. Based on their evaluation we will make recommendations for any future repairs.

Painting at the water plant continues with focus on interior spaces. Staff members have done a great job.

Wastewater
Wastewater plant is operating well. Weekly inspections of equipment and buildings took place.

A leaking chlorine feed line was discovered and repaired. DEQ was notified of the amount of that was spilled; it was below thresholds for mitigation. The line has been in use for over 23 years and began to leak underground.

Staff are working on a ph adjustment plan, this is a requirement of the new NPDES permit and is due Octo 1, 2019. This is merely a plan for DEQ review.

Parks and Cemetery
One burial took place this week.

Lawn mowing at all city parks, trash removal as needed and general housekeeping.

Beck Park saw heavy use this week with multiple parties using the facilities including the annual Kiwanis fund raiser.