Committee Minutes

MEMBERS/PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE
Monday, February 8, 1999 - 4:30 p.m.

Members present: Bakken, Bouley, Martinson

1. Application for Class IV (Food and Beverage Establishment) by TRJ
Foods, Inc. dba Fire Island Grill & Bar, 3615 Gateway Drive (Terry
and Ruth Jenson - formerly Highway Host.
It was noted that Mr. Swanson has a copy of the license applica-tion but has not approved it yet. The police department has reviewed and approved the application). Mr. Jenson reported that he held a Class 3 (beer/wine) license when he first opened the restaurant 9 years ago. Moved by Martinson and Bouley that we grant the applica-tion based upon the favorable review of the health and fire depart-ments and the city attorney. Motion carried.

2. Matter of smoking policy in City buildings.
Debbie Swanson, health department, stated they had a letter out-lining some of the information they were requested to provide, that they were unable to come up with an economic impact study that specifically supported keeping facilities allowing smoking in their facilities as an economic incentive or economic impedance to those facilities; however, she stated they did an informal survey of civic and event centers in ND and found that Minot, Bismarck and Fargo have civic centers and FargoDome that are smoke-free, Jamestown permits smoking only when requested for specific functions and the Fargo civic memorial auditorium is considered smoke-free but staff did indicate that from time to time smoking occurs in the building and were unable to discuss how their policy is enforced. She stated that the public health arguments for having a smoke-free building still stand as provided to you in the literature at last meeting. She stated that Minot and Bismarck civic auditoriums went smoke-free when their cities adopted a smoke-free policy for all their buildings, and that wasn’t done when our city buildings went smoke-free, civic auditorium was exempt for reasons of an entertainment venue.

A Memo from Bob Owens, civic auditorium manager, had been provided to the committee stating that it is the policy of the Grand Forks civic auditorium to be a smoke-free facility for all events that are open to the general public and has been in place for many years; that they do give the choice to organizations that hold an event in their building where alcohol is served, whether the renter wants their event to be smoke free or not. Smoking in the restrooms, hallways, etc. for pri-vate parties is banned. It was stated that the policy of allowing smoking in their facility for private parties or gathering where alcohol is served is so that the civic auditorium can be in direct competition with other establishments in the city that allow smoking. It was stated that the City of Grand Forks would lose a tremendous amount of revenue if they were to ban smoking in their facility for events where alcohol is served. It was also stated that if in the future all establishment in the Grand Forks/East Grand Forks areas
that hold private parties were to ban smoking, the civic auditorium
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would follow.

Martinson stated that the City should take the lead and not wait for other establishments to ban smoking, and that he understands that there might be some loss of revenue. Bouley stated that she would gowith the auditorium manager’s memo with this item, and that it’s not the smoking issue but that we would making economic issues on the auditorium and we don’t need that. Bakken raised some concern about statement that we are in direct competition with other establishments in the city, that we’re not supposed to be in direct competition with the private sector necessarily, and if actually taking business away from the private sector that isn’t our intent as a city; our intent should be that we furnish them a location to have parties if there isn’t a facility available that meets their needs, may lose some revenue from it but believes we should be taking a lead role as far as smoking goes and shouldn’t be competing against the private sector.

Mrs. Swanson stated that with respect to economic impact, it was believed that would have a very detrimental effect on restaurants in other parts of the country, when in actuality, what they found was that some revenues increased because of the population that chose those venues, know we’re looking at a different type of circumstance here where people have choices but also people choose facilities for a particular reason, that it offers that type of environment of smoke-free; and really don’t know that there is an economic impact until there is an opportunity to test it and know that those particular functions would go elsewhere. She stated that there are opportunities to educate other groups about how to improve their health and how to have a healthier event at the same time.

Mr. Shields stated that there are a number of people in town that look to the City for leadership, heard for a number of years various restaurants and other facilities that are saying, if only the city council would ban it, it would make the decision easier; and was glad to see that Wendy’s on South Washington did take that step. He stated that they are concerned about the health of the employees and impact that has on health of people who attend such an event in the center of that nature due to passive smoking.

Moved by Martinson and seconded by Bakken that based on the informa-tion provided by the public health department that we recommend to the city council to consider passing an ordinance prohibiting smoking in the Grand Forks civic auditorium. The motion carried; Bouley voted against the motion.

3. Matter of street parking signs in downtown area.
Gary Christianson, Urban Development Office, stated he is also helping with the Downtown Development Authority, Central Business District Authority and River Forks, and that all of those entities
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have in the last couple years been concerned with the number of parking signs in the downtown area and with some of the problems they create. He reviewed recommendations and suggestions on policy and application and process that could be put into place to have more control over some of the special signs. He stated this has been before the city traffic engineer and is based in part on comments and recommendations he had made earlier, has reviewed this and sent a memo indicating that he agreed with it. Mr. Christiansen stated that the gist of the issues would be to limit signage in the downtown area to be no more than two sets of signs on a block (at beginning and mid-block) on each side of the block, and that if there were requests for special signs (handicapped signs, 15-minute parking, loading zones, etc.) an application process would be set up with an annual applica-tion fee or renewal fee for those. He stated that they have seen in the past that areas that have come in and asked for special signs, signs stayed there when no longer needed and no mechanism for removal; there should be more control and part of this would notify people on the block so that there would be some input to request for special signage. Chairman Bakken stated he has no problem with changing signage but doesn’t want to get into changing signs continually. John Thompson, traffic engineer, stated that the idea here is to limit the number of changes that could take place and to control those; typically the request in the past have come in year round, and get signs on top of signs, and what they are attempting to do here is to coordinate that and screen out a lot of the requests and keep downtown esthetically and less confusing. He stated they are also working on is to try to include signing in with the street lighting so that there aren’t separate posts and remove some of the clutter on the sidewalks as well. He stated it’s part of a plan by the DDC to clean up the downtown and make it more user friendly, and that's why supported it and recommended going along with the plan. It was noted that it would simplify the details as far as enforcement and provide more spaces in general downtown for customer parking. Chairman Bakken stated if they approve this wouldn’t like to see constant changes. Mr. Christianson stated there is two-hour parking signs in the general area of down-town, there has been discussion that maybe that should be changed but they wouldn’t remove the two-hour parking signs at this time as they haven’t addressed that yet as they want to see what the parking situation is really like with the other ramps and lots, and there’s feeling on businesses that we need two-hour parking now. It was noted that there’s lot of things to develop yet, and it was asked if there was opposition to this. Mr. Christianson stated that there will be some comments and concerns after the fact with regard to some of the loading zones, etc. and will handle at that time.

Moved by Bouley and Martinson to accept the street parking management strategy from the Central Business District Association.

Mr. Christianson stated he wasn’t sure if this entails some ordinance
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revisions that Mr. Swanson would have to look at. Mr. Thompson stated that the Code states that traffic enforcement will be as signed so once it goes through this committee the signs that are placed on the streets are the ones they will enforce. It was noted that a permit and/or fee might require change to the ordinance.

Committee included in their motion to approve be subject to the city attorney’s approval. Motion carried.

4. Matter of request by health department to call for bids for pur-
chase of ULV sprayer for mosquito control chemicals.
Todd Hanson, health department, reported that currently the machines they use in the back of the pickups allow them to treat the area with variety of chemicals and with machine they have in the ATV doesn’t give them the option of treatment of environmentally sensitive areas with chemicals they would like to apply, that they would like to purchase an ULV machine that would be small enough in size but adequate enough to allow them to use the arrow gun or arrow pistol, which is currently used on other machines, to treat these sensitive areas. Mr. Shields stated there are a number of areas that have sprung up such as the southend drainway that would need to be treated, around the new Middle School, along English Coulee areas, certain ball diamonds, etc. that are used by the public and make it extremely difficult to get 4-wheel drive trucks in after rain or even when wet, and all-terrain vehicle would allow that to happen with this on the back of it. He stated that the funds are budgeted in the Mosquito Control Fund to purchase this year, and are asking for approval to go out for bids for light-weight machine to do that. Mr. Hanson reported that $11,000 is budgeted for purchasing the machine and attachment, and should come in under that price. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve call for bids. Motion carried. (comm.only)

5. Applications for gaming permits:
a) Winship School PTO - bingo/raffle 3/16/99
b) Grand Forks Public Schools, GAAP (German American Partnership
Program/Central High School - raffle 5/10/99
It was noted these applications have been reviewed and approved
by the city attorney. Moved by Bouley and Martinson that these applications be approved. Motion carried. (comm. only)

c) Red River Valley Dist. Soc. of Rad. Techs. (Altru Hospital -
calendar raffle 4/01-4/30/99 (public spirited group)
d) UND Foundation - raffle 2/26/99 (approved if it does not have
site auth. and it does not)
e) UND School of Law Moot Court Assn. - raffle 3/15/99 (public
spirited group)
It was noted that these applications have been reviewed and approved by the city attorney with c) and e) approved contingent upon adoption of resolution recognizing them as public spirited

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organizations. Moved by Bouley and Martinson to approve adoption of resolution recognizing c) and e) as a public spirited organization and to approve the applications for permits. Motion carried. (comm.only)

6. Matter of radios for fire department.
Deputy Chief O’Neill apologized for not having something on paper for the committee today, and asked for discussion, that he does not have a contract prepared that they would like to enter into with Stone's, did have a meeting this past week attended by Ron Farder, police department; Pete Eggiman, PSAP; John Thompson, Engineering; Chairman Bakken; and that Jim Campbell notified but could not attend but didn’t have problem with what they discussed. He stated that Chairman Bakken asked that they look into how many radios in use in the city, direction of radios heading in the city.

John Thompson distributed copy of city-wide radio inventory for the committee, that most have been VHF radios and total 26 VHF bases, 180 VHF mobile and 97 VHF portable radios for a total of 303 VHF radios; and under telemetry UHF radios 69 which are radios that actually monitor or signal equipment (sirens, water towers, report back levels at the site, lift station and are non-voice radios); 115 trunked 800 megahertz radios and are high band and newer type of radio, and that’s what the fire department has been testing for the past 2 months; and information on cell (73) and 54 pagers. He stated they now have about 16% of radios committed to 800 trunking, and adding in the fire department who have expressed a desire to do that and if were to go into the 800, about 27.5% of city radios would be migrated into the 800 trunked system and currently continuing to evaluate whether a good idea for the entire city, but having looked at the fire department, still thinks that’s a better option than what they have now for numbers they’ve been given.

Dep. Chief O’Neill stated he had discussed with rep. of Stone’s com-munication from one 800 group to another group, and the radios they would obtain in a trade would be able to talk with radios in another 800 grouping (with exception of public transportation); one group talk to another group, just a matter of programming; looking at about $500 to reprogram radios. He stated he believes with Mr. Thompson that if the City were to decide to set up their own backbone, these radios they wish to purchase could be part of that group, with exception of going with a different vendor, like GE, etc. but still have valuable equipment that could trade in at that time just as trade in VHF as have now. He stated they had good communication this weekend during the fire and he’s more strongly committed to switching to 800 at this point. He stated he would like direction from public safety to look into entering into a contract with Stone’s; can still bring that contract back before this committee in 2 weeks for approval if that’s their direction.

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Chairman Bakken stated that with information and amount of money
that is involved would like to have fire department go ahead with this, but don’t want this to be viewed as necessarily going towards the city-wide Motorola system. He stated they will have to look into whatever it is that the City wants to use in the future and not as indication that’s direction going to go; that police are waiting on some reports from Bismarck on state-wide system.

Dep. Chief O’Neill stated he understands 800 can actually penetrate concrete, brick, glass for short distance better than VHF frequency and for that reason can get out of the basements of buildings or heavy materials, won’t carry as far the signal but are able to communicate with vehicles which are normally parked right outside and for them is their major need, and haven’t always been able to do that with VHF
and 800 has performed better at this point for them than VHF. He stated it also enables them to have more channels so when have a training session at the same time as an emergency, would be able to continue on with the training session while have emergency, and can also get off the same channel that central dispatch actually monitors all the time.

Pete Eggiman stated he doesn’t see downside to it. Dep.Chief O’Neill stated it’s not a commitment by the City to go to an 800 system, just their department that would like to do something. Lt. Kirby of police department stated they support the needs of the fire department and appears that this type of system meets their needs, and would express that they do have concerns that there are some differences in needs between the two agencies.

Chairman Bakken stated that’s going to be their intent to allow the fire department to go ahead with this but are also going to take their time and look into a city-wide communications system and also to look into what the State’s going to bring forward at that time, and may all get combined into something at one point, goal has to be that they need a city-wide system so fire, police, etc. during emergencies can communicate. Dep. Chief O’Neill stated that they’ve determined that they don’t want to sign any long term contracts, and are looking at a one-year or year to year contract system.

Lt. Kirby stated their primary concern is that their needs are dif-ferent, don’t need to speak from the outside of a building or inside of a building to a squad car, but need to make sure their officers are capable of speaking from any given location in the city on a portable radio to any other given location in the city, and as he understands the 800 megahertz technology is that there’s some expense related to that, not that it’s impossible to do, but not as simple as the needs of the fire department in that perspective. He stated they are asking that as they move forward on this, that Lt. Farder be involved so that
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any glitches on the police department’s side can be addressed, they have needs to make sure they are able to communicate with other agencies in the immediate area whether they be in an 800 system or in current type of technology and need to make sure they’re able to accommodate a couple of special channels that they have that have unique uses, that they support moving forward, but just ask that it be done slowly and with full consideration to the needs of all agencies, but most certainly to the police department’s specific needs.

Dep. Chief O’Neill clarified funding, that the $500 is only to add the channel to the 800 that they are proposing, the initial startup on this would be approx. $26-30,000 - that $16,000 would be spent upfront for the installation and removal of the VHF, and approx. $10,000/yr. for both maintenance contract and tower rental. He stated that now they are spending about $5,000/yr. for maintenance on current VHF, so this will double maintenance on radios; and understanding this test if choose not to move to the 800, they will remove the 800 with no expense to City at all.

Committee asked the fire department to give direction and to bring back in 2 weeks.

Chairman Bakken stated they would like direction to go to the Mayor to set up a task force for city-wide communications system, and in two weeks would like a response on that also.

7. Martinson presented matter of concern of new medians coming off Washington on 17th and 24th Avenue, that he had seen after a heavy snow, a car that bounced off the median, and asked if there was possibility that medians could be reflectorized with small upright for about 4 ft. and asked Mr. Thompson to look into this. Pete O’Neill stated that there was problem with median on 24th Ave. S., people turning east off Washington and going to the left side all the time and could have an accident. Mr. Thompson stted the problem is that there are narrow medians and if put signs on them they’ll damage their vehicles by hitting the signs and will be maintaining them; he stated that road not completed and once turned back to the City, they normally go in and put reflectors in, but DOT resists putting them up.

Chairman Bakken expressed concerrn of re. exiting out of Best where Right Turn Only sign installed, drivers still going left and straight ahead, and perhaps need enforcement there to get people used to this. Bakken stated right turn works well with people turning right but some days have traffic lined all the way to the mall as have someone trying to turn left, need to draw attention to Right Turn Only sign, or perhaps give a few tickets at the corner. Mr. Thompson stated solutions are to close that access at Best and to put median all the way across and not allow cross traffic at 29th, and make both Right Turn Only signs; but if were to close median, the problem would jump
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to the new Sears entrance and/or condominiums. Committee stated they would let Mr. Thompson and police department work together on this. Lt. Kirby stated he would pass this information onto the shifts.

Moved by Martinson and Bouley that we adjourn; meeting adjourned at 5:25 p.m.

Alice Fontaine
City Clerk

Dated: 2/10/99