LAKEPORT, Calif. – In a short Tuesday evening meeting, the Lakeport City Council approved a new two-hour parking zone that local businesses requested and gave staff the go ahead for needed water treatment equipment repairs.
Mayor Tom Engstrom was absent for the meeting, which just ran over a half hour and was presided over by Mayor Pro Tem Stacey Mattina.
City Engineer Scott Harter presented to the council the proposal for the two-hour parking zone on the east side of South Main Street between Lupoyoma and Konocti avenues.
“This is at the request of some of the business owners down there,” said Harter.
The request, made last fall, is meant to promote parking turnover to help the businesses in the area, Harter said.
The city received letters from Kimberlee Shaw, owner of Trinkets and Treasures Thrift n Gift, and chiropractor Dr. Robert Jolin asking for the parking zone.
Both Shaw and Jolin said that the employees of the nearby Shell station were using the parking in front of their businesses in the 900 block of South Main Street all day long.
In their letters, both Shaw and Jolin said those parking practices were was making it difficult for customers and clients to access their businesses.
Harter said the city’s Traffic Safety Advisory Committee reviewed the request for the two-hour parking zone and concurred with the request.
“It’s currently open, right? You can park there as long as you want?” asked Mattina. Harter said yes.
Councilman Martin Scheel asked if any Shell employees were present in the small audience. None were.
He said he had tried to contact Shell about the parking issue. He noted that it was mostly a residential area around those businesses.
“It’s going to be very restrictive on where they can park,” he said.
Councilman Kenny Parlet said of the proposal, “I think this is prudent in every way, shape and form.”
Parlet was sharply critical of the employees of one business showing “careless disregard” and making it difficult for another business by blocking parking and accessibility.
City Manager Margaret Silveira said that, similarly, about a year and a half ago city officials instituted a two-hour parking zone around city hall on Park Street in order to keep employees out of spaces for visitors to the city offices.
Parlet moved to adopt the new parking zone, which Councilman Marc Spillman seconded. The vote was 4-0.
In other business, Public Works Director Mark Brannigan asked the council to authorize $30,000 to replace carbon media within two granular activated carbon vessels at the city’s water treatment facility.
His report to the council explained that the vessels are used “to reduce or eliminate many of the taste and odor complaints that are associated with systems that treat water from Clear Lake.”
Two of the vessels are believed to be from the mid-1980s, while the other two were installed in 1999, he said.
Brannigan said the repairs were a capital expense that, because of the city’s lack of revenues, they haven’t been able to fund in the past.
Last Oct. 2, the council authorized $60,000 to replace the media within two of the vessels. The following month, the California Department of Public Health asked that the media in the newer vessels be tested, Brannigan explained in his report. The test from the 1999 vessels indicated that they too needed to be changed out.
Calgon Carbon, which received the city’s contract and began working on the job last month, found cemented gravel in the filters and a broken screen, he said.
“These repairs are pretty expensive,” said Brannigan.
The total quote for the repairs were $28,250, but Brannigan asked for $30,000 to be sure to cover the needed fixes.
“We’re only running at half the capacity,” said Brannigan.
He added, “We need to get this going as quickly as possible.”
During the discussion, Scheel asked if the contractor’s price was within reason.
Brannigan said it was, explaining that a person has to be lowered into the vessels, using oxygen and sensors for safety.
“It gets really expensive,” he said.
Parlet moved to approve the expense, with Scheel seconding and the council voting 4-0.
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