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HomeMy WebLinkAbout00102 minutes of this meeting you will notice that the members of(Bills and Claims continued) CLAIMS NOT APPROVED BY FINANCE COMMITTEE. Claim of Jas. T. Fullerton: The claim of James T. Fullerton for purported damages growing out of an auto accident, was presented and read, as follows: The Mayor and Council, Port Townsend, Wash., Sept. 26th, 1931 Port Townsend, Wash. Gentlemens- �� Owing to the criminal negligence of the street department in not putting a rod flag or dangersigs on a pile of loose gravel at the foot of Washington Street, my car upset while going at low speed. INI I have been laid up since August 23rd and caused great suffering but I dont want to oblige the city, now ova whelmed with debt, to have to send to Seattle to get an attorney to defend another damage suit and so make ' this offer, without prejudice to a personal injury suit. If the Council will pay for the repairs, about 060.00, to my oar I will waive a personal injury suit rather than put the taxpayers to more expense. Yours truly, Jounce T. Fullerton. �I Mayor recommends rejection. Mayor Bangerter asked that it be made of record thnt he recommended the irejection of the said claim. Claim Releoteds It was moved by Councilman Smith and seconded by Councilmen Lammers that the said olai be rejected. Motion declared carried, and the City Clerk was directed to so notify the olnimant. CLAIM OF ROYAL INSURANCE CO. Mrs. H. E. Dobbs, City Treasurer, filed the following latter from the Royal Insurance Company, relative to indemnity paid account lost interest coupons, with the request that it be presented to the Council and the same was read to the City Council, to -wits City Treasurer, San Francisco, Calif., September 23rd, 1931 Port Townsend, Washington. Dear Sirs - we have for acknowledgement your reply to our letter of September 2nd, inquiring as to the steps necessary to obtain reissue of Interest Coupon $7 from the Port Townsend Municipal Water Works Extension ICIBeads 1927 5p�'R, Noe. 345 to 354 inclusive and 360 to 363 inclusive, a total of fourteen coupons valued at $27.50 each. These coupons were lost in a sail robbery which occurred on July 2nd, 1931, and we hold subro II gction from the State Treasurer of the State of Washington on account of payment made by us in the amount of $386.00 under our Registered Mail Policy No. RM 1109 Advice No. 31298. We enclose herewith a "pro forma" Indemnity Bond for your consideration. Kindly notify us at your convenience if this bond is in proper form and amount; if it is not satisfactory please advise us of an; 1 amendments necessary to meet with your requirements, when we will immediately take steps to have a satisfac- tory bond issued so that we may obtain a reissue of the loot coupons. j Awaiting ,our advices in connection with this, we are, Yours very truly, John V. Bunbury, Marine Underwriter. I Notify Claimant. City Attorney Scott advised the Council that the claim was not in form for the Counoi: to consider, and it was moved by Councilmen Starrett and seconded by Councilman Lammers that the City Clerk be instructed to write the Royal Insurance Compnny and advise them that their claim must set forth all the facts in the case and that the Indemnity Bond should refer directly to the facts set forth in the claim. Motion declared carried. Peach Arrives: Councilmen S. V. Peach arrived at this time and took his seat in the Council. NATIONAL PAPER PRODUCTS COMPANY CLAIM: The claim of the National Paper Products Company, for payments made for purported extra costs in rele- tion to logging across the City's Pipe Line Right-of-way, was next presented end reed as follows, to -wits Port Townsend City Council, Port Townsend, Washington, Sept. 22, 1931 Port Townsend, Washington. Gentlemens Referring to the matter of reimbursing the National Paper Products Company the sum of $10,375, rop- resenting amount advanced by the Paper Company to the Chas. R. McCormick Lumber Company to protect the City of Port Townsend pipe line from damage since same was not constructed in accordance with the terms of the City's easement through the McCormick property. All of you are familiar with the details concerning the above, but for your information will again briefly outline the history of the matter. First of Ail, let me quote from the City's caserent of April 24, 1928 with the Chas. R. McCormick Lumber Company, wherein the latter granted to the City of Part Townsend a perpetual easement to lay and main- tain a pipe lino for the transportation of water over and across certain land of the McCormick Lumber Company The third paragraph of this easement states as follows, "The grantee agrees that the pipe line shall be buried during the entire length of the easement herein granted to such a depth as will protect the pipe line against all damage because of the logging operations of the grantor, or resulting from any other cause, and as will insure that there shall be no interference or obstruction to the logging operations of the grantor, in, upon, or adjacent to the thirty foot strip." As you gentlemen are aware, for reasons known to you the pipe line visa not buried in accordance with the terms of your easement. To further comment on this, 10L me also quote from Mr. J. 0. Boar's report of December 14, 1928 relative to "Operation and Maintenance Instructions of the Port Te:tmsend Pipe Line." report Mr. Bear states as follows, On page 13 of this "The portion located through the McCormick holdings between station 820 and 980 in the writer's greatest disappointment in the location of the line and he can only any that the route finally selected traverses lose land scheduled to be logged off then any other ponaible location. In the virgin forest the humus and forest debris forme a mat several feet deep and underlying it is hardpan and rock very expensive to excavate. The average depth of excavation or. the upper side is not less than five feet and only in very isolated points Ri Se r�Miki TT'+j1JiP.� 4Z • xY s b r II�� •,s;'nr;:�l•Lxxh« .a..3f�� a w}•,. 41 y. t_0ct 6th31 continued made lose, and then only at vertical curves when the minimum •Sane problem, The top soil, a mesa of vegetable matter l� seVap+.table material could only be secured by stripping this top ke coatinea of the right of way. Even if the expendi- ture"' "l�6- /f •"cause trees would have to be undermined or felled and gru _ � °,� -y The irimiunta logging operations and the City and Mc- Cormick Q, re en t� eke wrFon t oifi aroa e o go . The a 's • +mmunication with the force" of the McCormick Lumber Compan�\ 1''•.,;crous trees in the immediate vicinity of the pipe line are to 'pip ;� '`'•.,.Aria. At the latter points fore and aft roads or roll ways will yS� / o o? ''•.,..pe line. ' It is the writer's o inion that the protection work w�� Ilj b orations will a far less az "naive than bur ing the p c ne o v safe p Q �S' _,ore egg ng w be done nd 4-stified tF7e type of construction t s4 O^^ °p Mr. Beams prophecy p v7p '/ 1Tor in the latter part of 1929 despite the cooperation of our pipe line maintenance force" ,nos of the Chas. R. McCormick Lumber Company. the ltenber people, in logging approximately fourr 0 ,c of log" across the pipe lino, broke and damaged same some nine- teen times. The Paper Company C' Ar as repaired and rebuilt the pipe and baokfill each time. About November of 1929 we were informed by the Chas. R. McCormick Lumber Company that they still had approximately 7,100,000 foot of lumbar to log across the pipe lino and that the situation of this timber was such that unless the lumber company went bb additional expense it would not be possible for them to to log thin area without not only severely damaging the pipe line, but possibly completely destroying it. This extreme situation brought the entire matter to a head and McCormick's, investigating the terms of the City's easement, advised that unless we reimburse them for their extra cost of logging, they would not be responsible for damage to the City's pipe line since same had not been laid in accordance with the ease- ment granted. If wo protested their damaging the pipe line they would void the easement since terms of same had not been followed in the construction of the pipe line. 'McCormick's estimate of the additional expense of their logging so as not to damage the pipe line a- mounted to $19,115.00. Details of this are given in a report dated November 220 1929, prepared by Mr. P.E. Freydig, Logging Manager of the McCormick interests, which is attached. (Exhibit "A"). Immediately we began to investigate McCormick's stand, calling on our legal forces for opinions, as well as the heads of our mm logging operations on the Columbia River, Mr. Demean and Mr. Stamm, for their advice in the matter. Our attorneys advised that McCormick's were justified in their stand and that the only way to prevent their destroying the pipe line was to reimburse them for the additional expense involved to protect the line. The next thing was to thoroughly chock McCormick's estimate of what their additional cost of logging would be to protect the line. Our logging experts, Mr. Doman and Mr. Stamm, made two tripe to the area in ques- tion and after conference with Mr. Froydig, worked out a plan whereby the cost of protecting the pipe line was reduced from $19,115.00 to $10,375.00. During the period of negotiations all facto of the matter were given by the writer to both Mr. Sadler City Engineer, and Mr. Lammors, chairman of the Tinter Committee. By the first week in March,of 1930 we had worked out with the McCormick Lumber Company the details of protecting the pipe line, which would oodt not more than $10,375.00. Before executing this agreement with the Me Cormick Lumber Company, the writer on Marc 15, 1930, seat a copy of proposed agreement to Mr. Sadler so that he might present same to the City Council at the next forthcoming mooting; copy of this letter is attached. (See Exhibit "B"). For some reason or other the city did not take prompt action on the matter. The writer was also fur- ther informed that the city had no funds available with which to reimburse the McCormick Lumber Company, and that the City looked to the Paper Company for help in the matter. Since the McCormick Lumber Company were immediately beginning their logging operations, the matter was acute and something had to be done immediate- ly. Accordingly we signed the agreement the week following with the McCormick Lumber Company, (see Exhibit "C" attached), fully trusting that the City of Port Townsend would recognise its responsibility in the mat- ter and reimburse us for the amount invlovad whenever such funds were available. On April 15th, 1930 the writer again reminded Mr. Sadler of the matter and asked for a report on what action was taken (sea Exhibit "D"). Mr. Sadler replied to this letter on April 16th to the effect that the matter was taken up with the City Council two weeks ago and referred to the Water Committee with the under- standing that they were to have a conference with the writer (Exhibit "E"). On April 16th the writer also received a letter from Mr. Christian, suggesting that he attend the regul session of the Council to further discuss the matter (Exhibit "F"). Accordingly, on May 20, 1930, the writer attended the regular meeting of the City Council and covered all points of the matter, By referring to the minutes of this meeting you will notice that the members of the Council unanimously voted to adopt a resolution whereby we would be reimbursed for the $10,375.00 when- ever said amount was available. However, your City Attorney, Mr. Scott decreed that such a resolution was not'in accordance with legal procedure and therefore he could not allow the City Council to be bound by such a resolution. Since that time until today the matter has been consistently brought to your .attention and we have been attempting to work out proper presentation of the matter so that same would be made in accordance with legal procedure acceptable to Mr. Scott. Within the past month Mr. Scott has been in conference with oar attorneys in Seattle on the proper way of presenting the matter to the city. Accordingly, at Mr. Scott': suggestion, we are therefore enclosing a formal claim against the City of Port Townsend for the $10,375.00 involved. This has been prepared wholly in accordance with Mr. Scott': recommendation and we trust will warrant definite action by the City Council. Said claim is attached (ace Exhibit "G"). Also you will notice that copy of agreement with the McCor- mick Lumber Company has been receipted by them (Exhibit "C"], as recognition of the fact that the Paper Com- pany has paid them in full the $10,375.00 involved. Thanking you for your consideration of this matter and awaiting your further advice:, we aro, Yours very truly, NATIONAL PAPER PRODUCTS COMPANY A. B. Lowenstein, Resident Manager.