By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
YACHATS – Despite some resistance from Mayor Leslie Vaaler on one and a lot of questions on another, the Yachats City Council on Thursday gave city manager Heide Lambert permission to negotiate contracts to provide cost estimates for two long-awaited projects.
Lambert will now negotiate a contract with Civil West Engineering of Newport to see what it would take to repair or replace the Little Log Church Museum, and talk with LandCurrent of Eugene on a proposal create a design for the grass field behind city hall.
The council voted in March to have Lambert to ask Civil West to do another study on Little Log Church Museum, following one it approved last year by a local mechanical engineer and a Eugene construction company. On Thursday, Lambert brought the company’s $12,848 bid back to the council to get the OK to move forward with negotiating a contract.
Vaaler, who has opposed spending money on studies and any LLCM remodeling since 2019, tried to initiate a longer discussion about where money for the newest study and any repairs would come from in a budget passed just two weeks ago.
But the mayor got pushback from three councilors, who said money for the study and repairs are in the council-approved capital improvement program and in the 2022-23 budget it approved just last month.
Once the council puts the money in the budget “we OK’d this money for this purpose,” said Councilor Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey. “She (Lambert) has the ability to move forward.”
Councilors Greg Scott and Ann Stott agreed, saying the issue of seeking Civil West’s estimates for repairs – but not going ahead with them — was approved in the spring.
“I don’t understand why we’re injecting questions about the budget,” Scott said. “It’s a settled document.”
In its proposal, Civil West said it would do a structural assessment and engineering report to suggest ways to either repair or replace the two buildings and give cost estimates to do it. Although there is about $200,000 in the capital improvement budget for any work this year, the council would still need to OK that spending.
“This scope of work is really educational and instructional to lay out plans and ideas,” Lambert said.
With that, the four council members – Anthony Muirhead was absent – gave Lambert the OK to negotiate a contract with Civil West, after a reminder from Vaaler “to look closely at the budget” to see where the money is coming from.
Pond, wetlands included
The city’s Parks & Commons Commission has been working since last year to make the large grass field behind city hall more inviting to the public. Their work included a survey of the community and eventually sought proposals from Oregon landscape design firms.
One firm responded. LandCurrent, in partnership with Dyer Engineers and Pacific Habitat Services, submitted a proposal ranging from $49,000 to $57,000 to meet with city officials and the public, look at old and new plans and ideas, develop a design, and make an assessment of the wetland, pond and the pond’s boardwalk to the west of the field.
A discussion on the scope of work with LandCurrent drew more questions, including Vaaler’s concerns that the firm’s more complete bid was higher than the $50,000 in the city’s budget, although it has $1.2 million in reserves and routinely does not spend money on other budgeted projects.
Many of the questions centered on the pond, its adjacent wetlands and a wooden boardwalk that winds through the area.
Parks & Commons Commission chair Craig Berdie said including the pond and wetlands in the study was important it is adjacent to the field, the pond is filling with sediment and the city needs to determine if it eventually wants to dredge it or leave it alone. Both Berdie and Lambert said the design studies should include the wetlands and pond.
Berdie emphasized the negotiations were just a starting point to go over in more detail what the work would entail and where elements would be added or subtracted to control costs.
“We’re hiring a designer and water specialist to make recommendations,” Berdie said. “What we’re asking at this point is to proceed with getting recommendations.”
But Scott said his support of the city negotiating with LandCurrent would depend on whether it used Dyer Engineering. He said the firm cost the city substantial amounts of money in 2014 when it recommended a site for the south water tank that was too high in elevation to work with the city’s main tank on Horizon Hill. That resulted in the city having to spend more money to buy another tank site.
Scott said Dyer was the engineer on the city’s wastewater plant remodeling and “did OK on that.”
Lambert, Berdie and others suggested the city should make LandCurrent aware of the concerns, provide an explanation of how it would provide engineering oversight, or find another firm like Civil West to look at the boardwalk.
Vaaler said she “liked this project” and could support going forward with negotiating a contract provided the work could stay within the $50,000 budgeted.
Lambert said the council’s approval for her to negotiate “was just the beginning” and that the discussion helped her determine priorities and direction.
“I think we got some great information today on priorities,” she said.
In other business Thursday the council:
- Approved contracting with Newport lawyer Gretchen Havner to serve as the city’s municipal judge, a position which it has not had for years;
- Did not act on the recommendation by the Public Works & Streets Commission to appoint Donald Phillips to the commission because he was not available for an interview;
- And, during its monthly work session, discussed updates to its goals including upgrading its complaint system, work on water sustainability, a comprehensive community survey, its wetlands inventory, and a proposed community meeting with Lambert in August.