Grimm announces new meeting structure

SANDPOINT — Mayor Jeremy Grimm announced at Wednesday’s council meeting that he hopes to start each meeting with department head reports.

“[This] will be an opportunity for council to interact directly with the very capable staff we have, unfiltered, to hear directly what is happening in the city,” Grimm said.  

Based on this new structure, those with significant responsibilities in the city will give their staff reports before public comment. They will offer a short introduction and talk about projects they are working on and projects that will be tackled in the near future. 

Grimm said one of his goals with staff reports is to make sure the public understands what projects are currently in the works, and inform the community on interesting incidents that the citizens might be seeking more information on. 

Wednesday, the presentations started with street supervisor Chet Jackman, who gave an update on plowing progress within the city. 

Cheryl Hughes, grants, contracts, and procurement manager, gave a brief summary of her role saying that she assists in grant applications and manages contract management. 

Brandon Staglund, civil engineer, spoke on his role working with stormwater and sewage, and advising on other projects covered by construction managers.  

“A couple of the long-term things I’m working on right now are developing engineering standards for the city,” he said. “We don’t really have standard drawings for stuff like curb or water service connections, sewer service connections. I also have a couple minor stormwater and sidewalk type code updates that I would like to present at some point.” 

Amy Tweetin, city planner, discussed her work with the Planning and Zoning Commission and her role in developing plans.   

“We did receive a building permit for the first building for the Tribute, which is that mixed-use development on North Boyer north of Super 1,” she said. “So that’s going to be in and starting its review process.”

She also said a six-townhouse plot development on the corner of Third and Lake is in the review process.  

Tweetin mentioned that she will be working with the Development Impact Advisory Committee looking at extending fees. In the near future, she also expects to work on reports that cover the status of ADUs and short-term rentals in the city. 

Construction managers Holly Ellis and Eric Bush shared that they work on capital projects and construction projects within the city. Current focuses include a Great Northern realignment project, sidewalk improvement projects, and a wastewater mainline improvement between Ruth and Boyer avenues. 

Lance Brace, administrative lead for the IT department, and Adam Skoog, primary technical lead, noted some accomplishments they have achieved during their year with the IT department, including successfully offboarding the original management services provider and providing internal IT services bringing that support back in house for the city. They also consolidated and lowered the overall IT cost for the city, increased security and resolved and assisted in over 2,000 IT services, issues, or projects. 

“Adam and I took over for the previous MSP which is the management services provider that handled all the IT services for the city of Sandpoint last year in January,” Brace said.

Maeve Nevins-Lavtar, parks planning and development manager, talked about the hats she wears in her position. She is also considered the urban forester and the invasive weed coordinator. Her main project currently is the Travers Park inclusive playground and splash pad, which includes the management of six contracts. 

“When I started here in the fall of 2021 the parks planning budget and capital improvement budget was just under a million dollars,” she said, “Since I’ve been here I’ve been able to be part of the team that has brought [the budget] to $9.823 million for Travers alone and that doesn’t include the nearly half million that’s been invested in the watershed.”

Police Chief Corey Coon introduced himself and his staff, recognizing the many years of service his staff has contributed to their work. He also spoke on the warming center the city made available at the lobby of the police department during the cold temperatures last week. 

“We ended up having one individual,” Coon said. “I know there is a lot of concern about the lack of facilities opening up. Just a quick overview, historically a lot of churches and organizations will open their doors in those times. We usually don’t get a lot of people that come out and participate so it’s a lot of effort that goes in from some of the community members to open those warming [stations]. This time, I think, is the first time since I’ve been here that we actually had somebody come in. Somebody ended up at the hospital with some frostbite and they wanted a place to stay and warm up overnight so we actually picked them up and brought them down here. They did use our facilities for one night which was good. We did have that opportunity to serve.”

Rich Buday, water treatment supervisor, finished off the reports talking about the city’s two treatment plants. His team recently ordered two standby generators. 

“In the next year or so I’ll probably be in front of you asking you for your support to get those generators landed and get the provisions made to wire those generators into the treatment plants,” he said.