Lind Town Council approves water projects, airport pay requests

At the regular meeting of the Lind Town Council on Nov. 11, the council approved multiple pay requests for the various ongoing projects in the town.

With Stantec representative Alan Gay not present at the meeting, Mayor Jamie Schmunk presented the reimbursement requests to the council for their approval.

The first was to request funds from the Washington State Department of Commerce grant to be released, in the amount of $3,599.30, to cover work done by Gay and Stantec for the bid process of the Well Rehabilitation project.

With the request approved unanimously by the council, Schmunk then presented the request for the Waterline Project, which totaled $3,380.34. This would cover the salaries and benefits of the town crew working on the project. Schmunk also informed the council the town crew would be ceasing work on the project until next year.

The final reimbursement request handled by the council was to professional services provided by T.O. Engineers for the planning of the Airport Lighting project. This request totaled $1,667.50. The council approved the request with Paula Bell opposing the motion.

Schmunk then informed the council that two more estimates had been received regarding power to the lights along the street in downtown Lind.

She said Colvico, the contractor working on the Airport Lighting project, would also be delivering an estimate. She was hopeful that because they already had equipment in Lind it would be more favorable than the previous two.

The council then turned its attention to claims approval, which totaled $33,027.90.

The councilmembers discussed the mayor’s request for reimbursement of meals because of late submittal forms being turned in. The town ordinance states all receipts must be turned into the town within 10 days in order for the town to reimburse meals.

However, Schmunk said she had forgotten about them because of all the work she had been doing on the budget for 2015. She asked that the council have some understanding and approve her request.

“Jamie, you were here, it’s your signature on this policy, so you should have been aware at least a little bit of what the guidelines were,” Councilmember Paula Bell said.

The council eventually did approve the claims with the meal reimbursement requests. They asked the meal reimbursement forms used by the town be updated and future receipts be turned in promptly.

With claims approved the council then turned their attention to the adoption of Resolutions 14-03 and 14-04.

Resolution 14-03 changed the dates of the town’s fiscal year from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31 to Dec. 1 through Nov. 30. The Cities Insurance Association of Washington requested the town make this change to match a date change in their bylaws.

Resolution 14-04 set the levy amount on property taxes for the town at $72,859, the same levy amount as 2014.

The meeting closed with the council agreeing to meet at 6 p.m. for an executive session before their next meeting to discuss personnel.