Agreement mainly for commercial developments, doesn’t include inspections
CHENEY — City Council members approved an interlocal agreement at their Feb. 23 meeting with the city of Liberty Lake to provide that Spokane Valley jurisdiction with building plan review services for the rest of this year. Those services include “identifying items for correction, correspondence with building permit applicants and design professionals and determining whether plans are acceptable for permit issuance.”
The agreement pays Cheney 10% of building plan review fees assessed by Liberty Lake according to their fee schedule. The agreement ends on Dec. 31, 2021 unless an extension is agreed to by both parties.
Public Works Director Todd Ableman said the agreement mainly covers commercial development, something Liberty Lake is experiencing a lot of currently and needs plan review services while they engage in the hiring process for an individual to perform that work in house. Ableman added the contract won’t require Cheney personnel to handle any inspections as Liberty Lake has personnel to handle those.
Also at the Feb. 23 meeting, the council approved a resolution accepting a recommendation from the Public Works Committee to begin negotiations with Apollo Solutions on a performance-based contract to design-build a photovoltaic solar array alternative energy source at the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
The city received two responses in their request for proposals – one from Apollo Solutions and the other from McKinstry. At the Feb. 9 council meeting, Ableman requested the help of the Public Works Committee in evaluating and score both contracts, with Apollo receiving 286 points out of a possible 300 and McKinstry 278 points.
The contract will ask Apollo to take a look at what such a facility would cost to install, how much of a payback on energy savings the city might realize from the facility along with managing the design/installation contract and write grants to pay for the project.
Council also approved a $76,123.28 contract with Stella-Jones Corporation for the purchase of 109 power poles by the Light Department. Director Steve Marx said the department historically purchases 50 poles and uses 50 poles annually, but did not buy any poles in 2020 while using 60-6 poles, depleting their inventory.
The poles range in size from 30-feet tall to 60-feet, and in price from $337 per Class 4 30-foot pole to $1,338 per Class 2 60-foot pole. Stella-Jones Corporation was the sole responsive bidder on the contract.
“Any time we get a single bid I always want to know whether that bid is in the ballpark or not,” Councilman John Taves asked Marx. “Do we think it is?”
Marx said foreman Travis Billigmeier said the city is typically spending between $70,000 -- $90,000 a year on pole contracts, depending on the size of the order.
“This one seems to be a little bit better because we’re doing 109 poles,” Marx said. “This was his (Billigmeier) order and he felt comfortable with it.”
Council also approved a resolution updating its public records policy, and two ordinances adopting revisions to the city’s building and fire codes, incorporation revisions from the state that replace 2015 international codes with 2018 international codes for both.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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