“Boring But Important” – Task Order No. 27 and Other Projects

Important? Yes. Boring? Not to us! The Moscow City Council tackled decisions about housing and water infrastructure this week. We’re here to walk you through it and give you an update from Latah County!

Read the full transcript of the video below:

How’s it going y’all? Aiden Anderson here with the Moscow Minutes. It’s the end of the first week of February, and the city council has hit their stride with decisions about housing and water infrastructure on the table this week. Let’s get into it!

Monday’s meeting began with a report from the Moscow Arts Commission on their past year of activities. Commission chair Sonja Ford highlighted the details of the 2025 art exhibitions and events, and noted that the commission has placed two calls for public art this year at the Moscow city shop and the police station. Ford also mentioned that the commission presently has four vacancies, so if you’d like to serve our community here in Moscow with your artistic insight, now would be a great time to apply.

Councilor Scott Sumner recused himself due to a conflict of interest at the start of the next item, which was the final replat and final major PUD amendment to the Woodbury 1st addition. The Woodbury development has come up a few times over the years. This week, Mike Ray of city staff walked through the details of the final plans for the development’s first addition.

The amendments to the PUD (Planned Unit Development)  included an on-street/off street parking inventory, new permanent parking spots, and a request to deviate from city standards by installing a concrete paver sidewalk in a portion of the development. As regards the sidewalk, the city council was offered a few options: approve the exception, and let the developer do what they want with the sidewalk, approve the exception with certain construction and management requirements, or insist upon city standards for the whole thing.

Representing the developer, Levi Wintz answered questions from council about the development’s planned HOA and timeline for construction. After a recess for an unexpected medical issue, the council reconvened and Sandra Kelly put forth a motion to approve the project with the city standard sidewalk condition. This motion failed 3-2, and a second motion was made by Sage McCetich to approve the project with construction and management requirements for the concrete paver sidewalk. This motion passed 4-1, with Sandra being the dissenting vote.

We move on now to Task Order No. 27, which sounds a little imposing, and for good reason. As Evan Timar explained to the council, this item was all about replacements, improvements, and upgrades being made to the city’s water reclamation facility. These improvements need to be made periodically as city infrastructure ages, and some of this stuff has been active for over 30 years.

Task Order No. 27 focuses on work being done to the facility’s effluent filtration system (which reduces phosphorus being released into receiving waters), its dewatering system (which removes water from residual solids), and its disinfection scrubber system (which treats the air in the event of an emergency, such as a chlorine gas leak). The cost for these projects was totaled as $1,204,300, the full sum of which has already been provided for in the city’s sewer capital budget. Task Order No. 27 was approved unanimously by the Moscow City Council.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following was offered as a correction from Moscow City Councilor, Evan Holmes, regarding the information in the paragraph above.

“This amount is being spent to develop a plan for those changes. Once the plan is accepted the process will begin to get the work done – probably at a cost of 10 – 12 million dollars. A lot (most) of the revenue that funds utility services like this is collected with fees – the monthly bill sent out by the city.”

Tyler Palmer presented the last item on the agenda, which was a review of the city’s comprehensive water and sewer plans. The city contracted with HDR Engineering to provide a full review of their water and sewer systems in order to assess needs for existing issues and work to meet demands for long term growth, rehabilitation, and capacity. Tyler explained that this review is important for infrastructure maintenance as well as for state grant funding and code compliance.

Jeff Hansen and Angela Taylor, representing HDR, gave a walkthrough of their findings, reviewing existing systems, identifying deficiencies, and detailing future improvements. They highlighted the most likely areas for future growth, reaffirmed the need for the city to continue its water conservation efforts, and noted that the city might need to expand its water storage capacity going into the future. With the overview complete, the council unanimously approved the adoption of these plans.

Before I wrap up this week’s report I want to highlight one thing from Latah County. As you all might be aware, the county jail closed this past year, following some concerns about code compliance and a lack of funding for improvements. There remain questions as to what the county’s next steps should be, whether they should get funding for remodels to the existing jail or build a new facility, and how they should obtain funding for the project to begin with.

To that end, the county wants to hear from you. If you go to the county website, you can find a link to the Latah County Jail Community Survey, where you can submit your thoughts about this issue. If you see yourself as an engaged citizen, this is a good way to be engaged. One way or another, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more about this issue going forward.

As always, we’ll have the relevant links posted with this video, and if you have any questions, please reach out. I’m Aiden Anderson with the Moscow Minutes. We’ll see you next time.