MUSTANG CITY COUNCIL
OCTOBER 2, 2012
The Mustang City Council met in regular session on Tuesday, October 2, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in the Mustang Municipal Building Council Chambers. Notice of the meeting was posted on the Bulletin Board outside the Mustang Municipal Building on Friday, September 28, 2012 at 5:10 p.m. in compliance with the Open Meeting Law, 25 O.S., Section 301, et. seq.
A.CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Adams called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
B.PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE/INVOCATION (Pastor Terry Armstrong Nazarene Church)
Councilman Jones led the assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance and the Prayer.
Jones stated that he pastured a church at Newcastle a few weeks ago and they erected a monument and everyone brought rocks and large stones and they called it stoning.
C.ROLL CALL
Roll was called by the City Clerk, Trisha Winham and it was as follows:
Councilmembers Present:Grubbs
Bowers
Jones
Hagan
Mount
Adams
Councilmembers Absent:Taylor
D.INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS/HEARING OF CITIZENS OR DELEGATES
There was none.
E.NEW BUSINESS, DELETIONS OR CONTINUANCES TO THE AGENDA
There was no new business, deletions or continuances to the agenda.
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F.CONSENT AGENDA
1.Approval of 09/18/12 City Council Minutes
*2.Approval of Claims List for FY ‘13
*3.Approval of Utility Accounts to be Turned Over to Collection Agency.
4.Approval of Resolution No. 13-015, Making Changes in the General Fund Budget by Making a Supplemental Appropriation to Increase the 2012-2013 Fiscal year Budget by $299.
MOTION was made by Councilman Grubbs, seconded by Councilman Jones to approve the Consent Agenda Items 1 through 4.
AYE:Grubbs, Bowers, Jones, Hagan, Mount, Adams
NAY:None
G.INFORMATION/REPORT
- City Manager
City Manager Rutledge stated that there are several Community Development projects that staff is looking at. He stated that he talked to two businesses today interested in relocating to Mustang. He stated that he should have information at next Council Meeting to disclose.
Rutledge also stated that the tree limb collection center is getting pretty full and he thinks will close it for a couple of weeks in order to get things figured out and redistribute the operations of that. Severn Trent is no longer obligated to do that. It will be put on channel 20 to notify the citizens of the closing.
Councilman Grubbs asked if the operation of that was in their new contract and Rutledge said no.
- City Council
Councilman Mount stated that he had several phone calls pertaining to the fire hydrant issue. He stated that there are several different documents in his agenda packet addressing that. He stated that he could see where there was
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room for confusion. He stated that he visited with the people who called him and he told them about what he read and what he knew about it.
Mount also had a call from a lady who wanted the agenda on TV (Channel 20) on Friday. It hasn’t been there.
Mount talked about his continuing water problem at the Mount compound. He stated that the experts put their test meter on the outside of the hydrant turned it on and it had 50 pounds of pressure then he walked over to another faucet and it had zero so he didn’t understand that. He stated that he imagined they have their work cut out for them and it continues to be a problem as it has been for nine months.
Hagan stated that several of the street lights are out on Heights Drive. She stated that there are a lot of lights out in that area.
She also stated that someone ask her about the Severn Trent trucks that didn’t have the City of Mustang emblem on them.
Rutledge stated that their contract states their trucks will say Severn Trent on them. Severn Trent trucks have always been like that.
He stated Silver Star has both names on their trucks but Severn Trent will only have Severn Trent on their trucks.
Jones stated he received good calls from citizens with one issue regarding curbing at Rancho Acres and I referred that to the City Manager.
Grubbs stated that he has had numerous calls from Paradise Square which the City Manager has taken care of. The complaint was regarding four wheelers riding across the street and being so loud that they can’t hear their TVs, etc. The law does not allow this in city limits. The people he talked to claimed that they made the complaint to the police but records show that they didn’t.
Rutledge stated that the property is owned by Gary Owens and he stated that after talking to Gary he said that he would place signs on the property and try to help with the situation as much as he can.
Dale Owens stated on his property he only allows two 5 year olds to do that and they don’t make any noise.
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Mayor Adams talked about street lights. He stated that he had six or seven calls regarding lights being out on Highway 152 and lights out in the park. He would like doing a survey to take inventory of non-working lights.
Rutledge stated that the lights on Highway 152 have been a never ending battle for the City. We report the lights out and they fix them then others go out. We fight it every week. It takes quite a bit of time to get them repaired. They use outside contractors to work on these.He suggested that any citizens who know of lights out to please let him know.
Adams stated that the Kiwanis are having semi-annual garage sale Thursday through Saturday.
Adams asked about the engineering plans for the baseball complex.
Justin Battles stated that they have the final design as far as the layout,etc. He stated that they were waiting on where they need to be on Soccer. He also stated that it would most likely be ready by the first meeting in November. He reminded Council that they can’t start on Baseball until the Soccer Fields are completed.
H.DISCUSSION ITEMS
1.Discussion, Consideration and Possible Action to Review the Code of Ordinances of the City of Mustang Regarding Fire Hydrant Placement on Residential, Commercial and Undeveloped Property.
City Manager Rutledgestated thatthis item was requested by CouncilmanGrubbs. He reported that he has spent a lot of time with the Community Development Director, the Fire Chief and the Mayor talking about the placement of the Fire Hydrants and the City Code. He stated that this is something that certainly needs to be looked at to see what if anything needs to be changed.
Rutledge stated that one of the issues is the cost to install fire hydrants. He stated that it is expensive but in his opinion it is never about the cost but the safety of the people in their homes and what is best for the City and the citizens and the infrastructures. There are some things we need to make changes to and he talked about a document that has been found which is a policy that was approved in December 2003 but there are two policies with different
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numbers on them. One says 300 feet and the other says 600 feet and he pointed out that after reviewing the minutes when this was approved there is no idea of why it was approved this way. We don’t expect anything to be changed tonight because we need to research this more and try to find a solution. We want to help but don’t want to run anyone off or jeopardize any safety issues.
Robert Coleman, Community Development Director went over the code as it is written and what they are required to do. He stated that there are two stages when looking at fire hydrants. When they get a new subdivision they examine it, the City Engineer and the Fire Department look at it also. They also examine fire hydrants whenever someone brings in plans for a new commercial project. In the past, we have not reviewed residential projects because it was always understood that there should be fire hydrants within the sub-division and should have been caught when doing the civil plan review.
Coleman directed Council to their packets page six of Chapter 106 of the code and he read what it said. No portion of a building with any occupancy listed in subsection (c)of this section shall be located more than 300 feet from a hydrant unless fire department operations or technology such as the installation of automatic fire suppression systems allow increased spacing upon written approval of the fire chief. The 300 feet distance shall be measured along an approved fire lane, driveway, street or other all weather surface approved by the fire chief.
Coleman directed Council to subsection (c) which talks about every type of occupancy you can find and he read it aloud. He stated that has been one source of controversy and he explained further.
Coleman directed Council to page 8, number 4 that talked about increased separation between structures when don’t have a fire hydrant available. Those are less than 4 lots. Then another part is we adopted the International Fire Code and he read in Section 508.5.1 that says “where a portion of the facility or building hereafter constructed or moved into or within the jurisdiction is more than 400 feet from a hydrant on a fire apparatus access road, as measured by an approved route around the exterior of the facility or building.
Coleman further stated that his guess is that the water system policy and the reason you see two versions, one says 300 feet and the 600 foot rule was adopted by Council then someone noticed that it conflicts with the code we
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already have which as far as we can tell has been in place since 1977. He stated that there are definitely parts that don’t match up and causing the confusion.
Chief Hickman stated that it does allow for an alternative in areas where there are no hydrants that has to be approved by the Fire Department and the City Council. He stated that the alternative could be storage tanks on site or residential sprinklers or some type of fire resistant construction and detection of fire but everyone of those are based on case by case. He stated that what may work for one may not work for another.
Mount asked if we had any dry hydrants in Mustang where a system is in place but dependent on a pond or holding structure.
Hickman said, yes we do and that would be something they would consider or a swimming pool.
Hickman stated all fire hydrants you see are connected to the municipal water system except for one in Blue Haven. There is a pond in Blue Haven.
Grubbs stated that there are no variances to the code right now as far as if you have a municipal line because he has done two buildings where there are two fire hydrants across from each other.
Grubbs asked how much hose they have on their truck.
Hickman stated 1400 feet. He stated when we approve a fire hydrant on a sub-division there is nothing on the map. They look at hydrant spacing and space no more than 600 feet apart.
Grubbs asked about insurance ratings and what that meant to citizens.
Hickman explained how they measure that and what it means to the City’s ISO rating.
Hickman stated that the ordinance is what it is and I can’t tell someone not to follow the ordinance.
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Grubbs stated that he wants the Ordinance changed. It is ridiculous to people how the code is written. He stated that developers are not going to spend money like the City requires. Therefore, he asked for the Ordinance to be changed. He stated that this is the strictest code he has seen.
Councilman Jones stated his concern is that we have consistency. We can’t do anything about the past but our citizens come first. It looks to me like there is more gray area then he realized.
Hickman stated that his concern is the safety for the citizens and his firefighters. It is important to him to err on the side of safety and that is what he is going to do.
Grubbs asked if he had a problem with adopting the International Fire Code.
Hickman stated he did not have a problem but he would need to look at all of that.
Grubbs stated that ODEQ requires you to meet the fire flows.
He also talked about adopting the Fire Code and thinks that would solve some of the concerns. It would take to 400 feet on hose lay and 600 feet residential.
Hickmanstated that he does not want the hydrants to be 1200 feet apart. It wouldn’t do him any good. He explained how long it would take him to get water to the truck.
Grubbs stated that things he has run across looking at our code the International Fire Code would solve some of these issues. We just have the strictest code that he has seen.
Hickman stated that the fire code is the minimum requirements. You can go above but not below that.
Bowers stated that her parents home burned down a year ago in June so she is all for a strong code.
Jones asked once get hoses hooked up to the truck is there other hoses.
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Hickman said yes, there are attack hoses and they are 200 feet and he explained further.
Mayor Adams asked in situations where there are no fire hydrants if something happened you would have to rely on your tanker truck. How many gallons of water does it hold?
Hickman stated there is 2000 gallons on the truck but you could go through 1,000 gallons a minute.
Hagan stated that we should keep consistency and apparently we are far from it. She did not want to mess with the 300 foot requirement. She thinks we need that for the protection of everyone.
Adams stated that there was lax in prior enforcement and recently those enforcements have stiffened up so he asked Rutledge to address that.
City Manager Rutledge stated that he did not understand how Copper Creek, Rancho Addition and Blue Haven were built without fire hydrants. He stated that Blue Haven does have a pond but no fire hydrants. He stated he hated to think how the fire department would fight a fire in those areas.
He talked about having two Community Development Directors since he has been here so he did not know what transpired during that time.
Rutledge stated thatwe now have a different level of expertise with Robert Coleman, the Community Development Director and Carl Hickman, Fire Chief. We strive to do better every day and do what is best for the citizens. We want to encourage development in a proper way.
Mayor Adams asked the City Attorney if he could allow citizens to speak to Council on this issue although there is no public hearing on this agenda item.
The City Attorney stated that as Chairman of the meeting it was his prerogative to allow anyone to speak.
Council agreed to allow others to speak.
Joe Anderson and Robert Crout spoke to Council regarding their issues on the 300 foot requirement.
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Anderson stated that 916 S. Clear Springs is where he would like to build his home. He talked about the requirements to place a fire hydrant. He stated he would put a fire hydrant in if he has to but he would like to see some history of homes that have burned because there were no fire hydrants within 300 feet of the home.
He stated that he is glad the City wants to protect him but he thinks it is adequate with the fire hydrants being where they are now. He would like the ordinance eased if possible.
Robert Crout also spoke to Council and he remembered the 600 feet policy that was approved. He stated it was to make everything consistent and it was sent to all engineers and developers and up until recently that is what we have gone by in the design of our water system.
He stated that things have changed recently and prior to this the code might be the same but the policy we have been doing has been different. He talked about it costing him $17,000 to put in two extra fire hydrants in the development he is currently working on and he explained further.
Crout stated that the City needs to change the ordinance and make it reasonable.
Grubbs stated again that he brought this forward as a benefit to the developers of this community. He in no way wants to make safety an issue. He stated that he is asking Council to fix something that he makes money on. He strongly disagrees with what we are doing now. It is ridiculous that we are putting fire hydrants across the street from each other. He stated that he would strongly recommend that we move forward with the Fire Chief looking into the International Fire Code.
Mayor Adams stated that the Chief himself stated that there needs to be clarification and he also thinks this should be looked at by our Chief.