SEQUIM –– The City Council has authorized City Manager Steve Burkett to purchase a strip of land for a future road on the south side of Carrie Blake Park.
The city would use road, water and sewer funds to pay for the $13,050 acquisition of the land from the Blake family.
Public Works Director Paul Haines said the land just south of the softball fields’ outfield fences would be held by the city for future installation of a road and installation of utilities to connect Blake Avenue with Rhodefer Road.
The council in the meeting Monday night also unanimously approved an agreement to buy wholesale water from the Clallam County Public Utility District to serve a new development at the Eagle Crest Subdivision at the base of Bell Hill in the south city.
Haines said the city agreed to provide water to the subdivision in 2007 once water and sewer lines were completed by the developer.
A pump station needed to get city water to the development was not built before the initial developer went bankrupt.
The development went into receivership and was purchased by Green Crow Corp.
Haines said Green Crow has agreed to install a line to tap into the PUD water main that runs near the development, which makes the pump station no longer necessary.
The average monthly bill for residential water in Sequim is $27.63. The city will buy PUD water at an equivalent rate of $17.85 per month.
Also, the council unanimously agreed to hire a new technician for its information technology department and fill a three-year position that would manage the city’s stormwater needs.
A report from consulting firm Presidio delivered to the council last month recommended the city add to its IT staff in order to provide sufficient maintenance of the city’s communications network.
Elray Konkel, administrative services director, said the new employee will cost the city $59,500 annually, a figure he said likely could be paid out of his department’s 2013 budget.
The water manager would oversee the city’s stormwater management plan.
Haines said as Sequim’s population grows, it also comes nearer to state requirements that it have a stormwater retention system in place.
The new employee, estimated to cost the city $100,000 in annual salary and benefits, will develop that plan for the next three years, as well as design stormwater management infrastructure.
Haines said having a city employee develop the plan would give the city a more thorough level of understanding than hiring a consultant.
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
