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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-01-09 SpecialMinutes of Special Meeting of Board of Aldermen of City of Riverside, Missouri January 9, 2006 A special meeting of the Board of Aldermen of the City o f Riverside, Missouri was held in the Riverside City Hall of Riverside, Missouri on January 9, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. Those in attendance were Mayor Pro Tem Beard, Aldermen Looker, Darata, Super, Jones and Legaard. Mayor Burch, Absent. Also present were David Blackburn, City Administrator, Louise Rusick, City Clerk, Chief Greg Mills, Brent Miles, Director of Planning and Economic Development, John McClelland and Ben Prell, City Attorney's office. Fireworks Discussion Brent said the staff has tried their hardest to balance the various issues with the vendors and local residents that asked that some changes be made. Vendors came up with additional comments and the staff report was revised. Brent gave a review of the staff report (2°" draft) analysis mentioning each topic, the original analysis with the original recommendation and/or the revised recommendation listed below: • Licensing Fee- Staff recommends increasing the licensing fees to $1,500 per license, but recommends elimination the option of donation to acceptable program for clean up. • Application Period-Staff recommends setting the date for accepting applications to April 1 and that all information must be received no later than April 15 of each year. Landowner License- Staff believes that this issue can be resolved with both the landowner and the retailer are responsible for obtaining a license. • Separate Licenses- Staff recommends that each retailer be required to obtain separate licenses for each sale location. • Parking- Staff recommends increasing the number of required spaces from I S to 20 spaces. Also recommended is a minimum layout and design standard be put in place requiring parking spaces to be 9' wide and 18' long. Insurance- Staff recommends that the retailer and the land- owner submits proof of insurance in the amount of at least $2,000,000. with the City named as an additional insurer. • Bottle Rockets- Staff recommends that the sale or give away "bottle rockets" be prohibited and that the "bottle rocket" be clearly defined in the code as "A type of firework with (1) a casing size of less than one quarter inch ('/,") for the outside diameter and less than two inches (2") in length, and (2) an overall length, including stick, of less than ten and one half inches (10 '/:"). • Security Requirements- Staff recommends that each seasonal retailer is not required to have security, but if they do, this security still should meet the following requirements. - An off-duty Riverside Public Safety Office or an off-duty Platte County Sheriffs Department deputy; or - Private security guard properly and validly licensed with the City of Riverside. New Topio- Vendor Shooting of Fireworks- - Section 210.260.C.2 be revised as follows: "Within 600' on any church, hospital, asylum library, day care, medical facility, or public school; or within 300' of a permanent structure where fireworks are stored, sold or offered for sale. This revision and intent is to protect assemblies of people. - Section 210.260.C.4 be revised as follows: "Within 300' of any gasoline pump, gasoline filling station, or any non-permanent strucdue where fireworks are stored, sold or offered for sale, or within 300' of any structure which is marked according to the National Fire Protection Association's Hazardous Material Identification System as "flammable" or "water reactive". This revision is to keep the city as safe as possible. The City is currently under the IFC which has adopted the National Fire Protection Association regulations and building that hold flammable or hazardous material should be placard and the city will start enforcing this for the health, safety and welfare of the city inhabitants. Fireworks vendors comments Kurt Eckard-5100 NW High Drive commented on the below topics: and residents Licensing Fee- Wants to make sure that as will be stated by (ordinance) the extra amount for the license fee, that the city is going to be responsible for the clean up of all the streets as the predecessors may not. Landowner Issue-Does not want the landowners name on the license, but agrees it's okay for the landowner's name to be on the application, but if the city requires the landowner's name be on the license, he believes this makes the landowner a 50% partner. He is suggesting the wording be changed in the staff analysis recommendation to "not require the landowner to be on the license". Parking- Kurt wants to clarify if the smaller vendors can still be allowed to use adjoining businesses or land with a letter from the landowner stating they can do so., and if so to state this in the city codes. There are some vendors that are right at 20 spaces, but for safety reasons, they want to make sure they want to make sure they are covered in this area as well. Bottle Rockets- Kurt said the shooting of bottle rockets needs to be enforced and if the vendors are able to sell the bottle rockets, he'd lrlce to see them sold by the dozen instead of by the gross. Bream said the size of the bottle rocket has been revised as to what was in the above staff analysis report. Security- Kurt believes the owner can still maintain their own business and not have to be required to have security. Kurt asked if the bottle rockets were able to be sold this year. Mayor Pro Tem Beard said some of the changes would take effect in 2006 and some in 2007 because the city doesn't want to leave the vendors with a product they can't sell this year. Aaron Locke-4529 IVW Apache noticed the same number of unlimited permits are available. He said since the city limit's the number of permits on alcohol and wonders if the fireworks permits can be limited. For the parking issue, he wants to Imow if the city is going to look for additional parking in other places because 15-20 spaces does not accommodate the parking at most fireworks vendors and is their crosswalk instead of running across the street as safety is still an issue. Aaron says the times to start shooting and stop needs to be enforced Brenda Teters-2214 NW Homestead Road commented on bottle rockets said she had seen the test run, but knows dte bottle rocket will never bum a house down as they go out to quick. Brenda said when she was on the board, the board cut We sales from a dozen to a gross and she tried to tell the board this encouraged the kids to shoot twelve times more; it needs to go back shooting a dozen. Brenda says if the board eliminates the sale of bottle rockets, this will not eliminate the shooting; this will cause them to be sold by the case. She believes it's not the bottle rocket problem; it's the enforcement by Riverside Public Safety. She said if she was a landowner she would not want to be responsible for that firework's persons license. She believes the landowner be on the application, not on the license. As far as the new topic on the shooting of fireworks, that's no difference than it's ever been. She says FaU Festival is at the wrong time of year and the city should capitalize on all the people that are in the city during fireworks season. Joe Digiovanni-Believes the shooting of the bottle rockets needs to be enforced for the law that is already in placed. The State of Missouri has an excellent safety record across the nation. Riverside is one of the safest cities in the state and Jce thinks this is the conscientious effort of the city and the vendors working together. The residents that were originally opposed to fireworks said they had a petition that never materialized and he hasn't seen it. Jce said he fumed in a petition with 320 active Riverside voters and over 50 businesses that were in favor of the sale of fireworks. He believes the residents are overwhelmingly in favor of the sale of fireworks. He does believe taking away the sale of bottle rockets business will be lost. Joe says he carries his own insurance fora $1,000,000. liability policy with a $2,000,000. aggregate. His insurance agent asked if this was sufficient or was this going to have to be a $2,000,000 policy. Pro Tem Beard said this will be investigated and the state requires the city to have $2.2 million and the city rounded it off to a $2,000,000.00 requirement. Gloria Hickman, 416 NW Woodland said house in Indian Hilis did burn and shooting of bottle rockets were the cause. Gloria said she thinks the board listens to the vendors more than to the resides. She wishes the shooting times were limited. Mike Koska, 2421 NW Vivion Road said maybe the time could be set at March I S to April 15m, move the time back 2 weeks would be fine. He advised the city's attorney to call the Insurance Director to be called and see if other programs instead of flammables solids that's in temps of combustibles that blow up having an insurance program in the city he doesn't feel one person can be picked on one consumer product over another, that's guaranteed by the federal government. Mr. Koska's attorney, Collins was with him at the meeting and he will seek economic relief in court when Mr. Koska believes the city is using "prohibition." He said they do have relief under the law on "Prohibition". Mr. Koska said bottle rockets are a consumer product and agrees with the shooting time. Mr. Koska said the insurance amount is illegal and "Prohibition" is the main word. Other areas sell products, combustibles and people don't have to have insurance and he's asking the attorney's meek Lou Ann Layton-4925 NW High drive thinks the time limit for shooting should be changed by maybe a couple of weeks. Mayor Pro Tem Beard said a lot of time was spent to come up wit a reasonable answer to the fireworks situation. Legally, the city cannot limit licenses unless it goes to a lottery system and this is not feasible. There aze some things the city cannot impose. The city wants to make sure they know who is "setting up" on whose property. The staffrecommended more parlong. The city will spend $500 from the license foes received to have clean up done. The matter of the insurance requirement is left up to the attorney's to work out. The board tried to come to an agreement on bottle rockets. There will be a new ordinance regarding the private security license from public safety including armed and unarmed security and there will be an amoral fee for a company license for security services. The Boazd of Aldermen will come to an agreement and there shall be an ordinance at the January 17m meeting for consideration. Phyllis Reece-4551 IVW High Drive said the times to stazt shooting and stop shooting should be enforced. Irene Paulhe-4700 Petronella Lane said she's bin a long time opposed to the length of time of shooting and said the shooting should stop at 1 a.m. Skip Clinton-River Roll Skate Rink-4720 IVVV Gateway agrees there needs to be a time limit on shooting and he believes it's the residents shooting after hours, not the vendors. Harold Snoderley-4522 NW Apache asked, "Why doesn't the city eliminate fireworks in the residential azeas7" Mayor Pro Tem beard said if a formal complaint is made, it will be enforced. Mark Jansen-1 Chevy Duty Drive said the shooting of bottle rockets needs to be enforced. Recess A brief recess was called at 7:55 p.m Reconvened Mayor Pro Tem Beard and all Aldermen responded to roll call and the meeting reconvened at 8:15 p.m. Motion for Closed Alderman Darata moved that the meeting go into closed session, pursuant to Session at 8:50 p.m. RSMo 610.021(1) legal issues with the City Attorney, seconded by Alderman Super, and the vote was: Aldermen Beard, Darata, Jones, Super, Looker and Legaazd. Motion carries. Motion for Open Alderman Beard moved that the meeting go into open session, seconded by Session at 9:15 p.m. Alderman Legaard, and the vote was: Aye: Alderman Jones, Beard, Super, Darata, Looker and Legaazd. Motion carries. Feral Cat Discussion It was mentioned to place in the next newsletter about chips placed on the cats aren't compatible with all scanners and the city would like a twenty-fow hour hold on the cats before being turned lose. Adjournment By unanimous decision, the meeting adjourned at 9:16 p.m.