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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAAC Min 2000-01-18 . . . CITY OF SEAL BEACH Archaeological Advisory Committee Minutes January 19, 2000 The meeting of the Archaeological Advisory Committee (AAC) was called to order at 5:50 p.m. on Wednesday, January 19,2000. The meeting was held in the City Council Chambers.! I. Call to Order ll. Roll Call Acting Chairperson Willey Members Fitzpatrick and Vesely Members Basch and Eigenbrod Present: Absent: Also Present: Department of Development Services Lee Whittenberg, Director Mr. Whittenberg stated that he had received a telephone call from Joyce Basch indicating that she would not be in attendance at tonight's meeting He stated that he had not heard from Jake Eigenbrod. Mr. Whittenberg recommended that a motion be made to excuse Member Basch. MOTION by Vesely; SECOND by Fitzpatrick to excuse Member Basch from tonight's meeting. MOTION CARRIED: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ill. Approval of Agenda 3-0-2 Fitzpatrick, Vesely, and Willey None Basch and Eigenbrod MOTION by Vesely; SECOND by Fitzpatrick to approve the Agenda as presented. MOTION CARRIED: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: 3-0-2 Fitzpatrick, Vesely, and Willey None Basch and Eigenbrod 1 These Minutes were transcribed from audiotape of the meeting. 1 City of Seal Beach Archaeological Advisory CommIttee Meetmg Minutes of January 19, 2000 . IV. Introduction of New Member Acting Chairperson Willey announced that the introduction of the new member could not take place, as Member Eigenbrod was not present. v. Oral Communications . Ms. Lisa Bosalet, Cultural Resources Coordinator for the Naval Weapons Station (NWS), reported on the effort to obtain funding to replace the NWS fire station. She stated that the current fire station was too small, and space is needed to accommodate female fire fighters She provided a diagram of the NWS grounds and indicated one of several proposed sites for the fire station. Ms. Bosalet stated that another option was to temporarily move the firemen out while demolishing and rebuilding on the current site, which she stated would be quite expensive. She noted that another proposed site was across the street. She stated that more information on this project would be provided to the members of the AAC indicating the preferred alternative site for the new fire station, which lies within the boundary of a significant archaeological site. She indicated that this site had previously been developed, however, there has been a lot of archaeological work within this area. She said that the NWS would be completing an Environmental Assessment and doing the archaeological work up front. She noted that at this point in time the NWS was not proposing to have any archaeological work done in this area since they had already compiled a lot of information on this area already. Ms. Bosalet stated that it was important to provide this information to the AAC as the NWS was hoping to acquire funding for this project by next year. She stated that the proposed mitigation would be for monitoring during the construction phase She said that no human remains or pottery had been found in this area, only shells. Member Fitzpatrick asked how this area was determined to be an area of concern. Ms. Bosalet responded that between 1991 and 1997 there was an extensive amount of evaluation work done in this area using standard tests. She said that they knew that there was a concentration in this area to begin with, so the study began in this area and worked outward. Member Vesely asked if the project was proposed prior to, during, or after the demolition of Buildings 206 and 26. He wanted to know if this would be a quicker project. Ms. Bosalet responded that she could not say. She said that it was funded this year and would start before the Bldg. 206 project. Mr. Whittenberg commented that he was sure there would be some kind of environmental document prepared and circulated for comment. Ms. Bosalet responded that the environmental assessment, particularly 106, which addresses cultural resources, would be what the AAC would be most interested in. Member Fitzpatrick asked if the primary reason for the proposed new fire station was to accommodate women. Ms Bosalet responded that this was just one reason. She said that the building was in need of updating, as it is not a state-of-the-art facility. She stated that because this was an emergency facility, the work must be completed in a timely manner, in order to have the fire services available as soon as possible. Mr. Whittenberg asked if this was the original station that was constructed back in the 1940's. Ms. Bosalet responded that it was. . 2 . . . City of Seal Beach Archaeological AdVISOry Committee Meeting Minutes of January 19, 2000 VI. Consent Calendar 1. RECEIVE AND FILE Letter dated December 8, 1999, from Archaeological Advisory Committee, City of Seal Beach to Naval Weapons Station, Seal Beach re: "Draft Final Historic Properties Evaluation Plan/or Sites 30-001502, 30-001503, and 30-001504, Naval Weapons Support Facility, Seal Beach, California. JJ 2. RECEIVE AND FILE Letter dated January 10, 2000, from City of Seal Beach to California Public Utilities Commission re: City of Seal Beach Comments re: "Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report - Bolsa Chica Water Transmission Line and Wastewater Service Project, Southern California Water Company (Application Nos. 98-11-003 and 98-11-015). JJ MOTION by Vesely; SECOND by Fitzpatrick to approve the Consent Calendar as presented. MOTION CARRIED: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: 3-0-2 Fitzpatrick, Vesely, and Willey None Basch and Eigenbrod VB. Scheduled Matters 3. Approval of Minutes of December 8, 1999. Recommendation: Approve Minutes with any corrections determined appropriate. MOTION by Fitzpatrick; SECOND by Vesely to approve the Minutes as presented. MOTION CARRIED: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: 3-0-2 Fitzpatrick, Vesely, and Willey None Basch and Eigenbrod 4. APPRO V AL OF COMMENT LETTER RE: "Focused Site Inspection Phase II Work Plan - Field Sampling Plan, Archaeological Clearance Request, JJ prepared by Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, dated December 28, 1999. Recommendation: Authorize the Chairperson to sign the proposed comment letter with any amendments determined appropriate by the Committee. Receive and File subject report. Mr. Whittenberg commented that this documentation was received from the Navy. He said that Staff had focused on the review of two separate discovery plans that the Navy had submitted describing how they were proposing to monitor activities at the two sites involved to ensure that 3 City of Seal Beach Archaeological Advisory CommIttee Meetmg Mmutes of January 19, 2000 . any cultural resource issues that arose during the construction or evaluation of these areas were properly monitored. Acting Chairperson Willey stated that based upon the information in the report, it appeared that several teams would be completing various samplings concurrently rather than in a sequential manner. She asked Ms. Bosalet to clarify this. Ms. Bosalet apologized if her letter gave the impression that there would be on-site full-time monitoring at both sampling efforts. She said that the reason that the NWS had provided two different discovery plans was because Site 73, the water tower project site, is at a known archeological site. She said that there would be full-time monitoring by an archaeologist or a Native American at this location. She stated that at the other sampling sites the NWS would be providing worker training, since at this point the entire installation has been surveyed. She clarified that on the second discovery plan there would be 13 sampling points, which would be every other site other than the water tower, where worker training will be provided, with on-call monitors for any potential discoveries. Ms. Bosalet stated that this would be more than adequate for these sites. . Acting Chairperson Willey asked if there would be any chance of having one group do the water tower while having the archaeologist and Native American monitor present at the same time. Ms. Bosalet responded that this was possible but she was not sure of the timing schedule. She said that the NWS wanted to get started as soon as possible. She indicated that the work at the water tower was relatively simple sampling, as they would simply be going in and doing soil samples at two depths at each site, as opposed to other sites where more extensive work would be done. She said that the archaeologist assigned to the project is local, therefore, a rapid response time is expected. Member Vesely asked if the different projects would be contracted to different contractors. Ms. Bosalet responded that she was not sure but assumed that they would probably use contractors that have worked at the NWS before. Member Vesely asked how extensive the worker training would be and if AAC members would be eligible to participate, as he was interested in attending. Ms. Bosalet responded that this would not be a problem and the AAC members could be sent advance notification of the training dates. Mr. Whittenberg noted that a comment to this effect could be included in the letter. He also stated that a comment could be included in the letter regarding attempting as much as possible to coordinate the field work so that if there is a situation on the secondary sites, the archaeologist for the water tower project would be on site and would be able to respond quickly. Acting Chairperson Willey stated that perhaps a comment could be included to the effect that the AAC would be more comfortable if the fieldwork were coordinated in this way. MOTION by Fitzpatrick; SECOND by Vesely to Authorize the Acting Chairperson to sign the proposed comment letter with the amendments suggested by Mr. Whittenberg. Receive and File subject report. . MOTION CARRIED: 3 - 0 - 2 AYES: Fitzpatrick, Vesely, and Willey NOES: None 4 ~. . I . . . . City of Seal Beach Archaeological AdvISOry CommIttee Meetmg Minutes of January 19, 2000 ABSENT: Basch and Eigenbrod VllI. Committee Concerns None. IX. Staff Concerns Mr. Whittenberg indicated that the next scheduled meeting date was February 9, 2000. He stated that he did not currently have any items for that meeting. Acting Chairperson Willey reported that she would be out of town on that date. Mr. Whittenberg stated that Staff would consider scheduling the meeting for another date in February. x. Adjournment There being no objections, Acting Chairperson Willey adjourned the meeting at 6: 17 p. m. to a meeting date to be specified later. ~~ k~cV~ Acting Chairperson, Archaeological Advisory Committee Respectfully Submitted, C\ ~"-....t\......^ ~~ _ Carmen Alvarez, Executive Secre~ Planning Department APPRO V AL The Archaeological Advisory Committee on Ara./L S , 2000 approved the Minutes of the January 19, 2000 meetin~ 5