Mr. Brandgard: The Plainfield Town Council meeting for Monday, July, 9 2012 is now in session.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Mr. Brandgard: I would like to ask everyone to please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
CONSENT AGENDA
Mr. Brandgard: Let the record show that everybody is in attendance and we have a quorum for conducting business. Move to consent agenda, we have a few items.
1. Approval of minutes of the regularly scheduled Town Council meeting of June 25, 2012.
2. Approval of Change Order 1 a decrease to the contract with Millennium Contractors, LLC in the amount of $47,731.94 associated with the Clarks Creek Road project, per the Transportation Director's report dated July 5, 2012.
3. Approval of a partial release of escrowed retain age funds in the amount of $36,767.00 associated with the Clarks Creek Road project to Millennium Construction, LLC per the Transportation Director's report dated July 5, 2012.
4. Approval Transportation Director's report dated July 5, 2012 and Plainfield Fire Chief's and Town Engineer's report dated July 6, 2012, and HR Director's report dated July 9, 2012.
5. Approval of June 2012 monthly reports for Town Engineer's, Utility Billing, Department of Planning and Zoning and Plainfield Police Department.
6. Approval of a contract with Whitaker Engineering in the amount of $400,500 for design of an expansion to the South Wastewater Treatment plant from 2 million gallons per day to 4 million gallons per day of treatment capacity, with funding from a combination of existing TIFF district accounts, per the Town Engineer's report dated July 6, 2012.
7. Approval of a contract with Butler, Fairman and Seufert in the amount of $81,000 for design of the Settlement Sewer and Regional Lift station, with funding initially from EDIT which will be refunded by the Ronald Reagan TIFF district at a future date, per the Town Engineer's report dated July 6, 2012.
Mr. Brandgard: Are there any additions or corrections to the consent agenda, if not I entertain a motion to approve.
Ms. Whicker: So move.
Mr. Kirchoff: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: The motion is second to approve the consent agenda; have a roll call vote please.
Mr. Bennett: Mr. Gaddie- yes
Ms. Whicker- yes
Mr. McPhail- yes
Mr. Kirchoff- yes
Mr. Brandgard- yes
Plainfield Town Council consent agenda for July 9, 2012 is adopted.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you.
Talon Stream
Mr. Brandgard: We have a report on the bid opening for the Talon Stream project.
Mr. Belcher: yes, I have a recommendation of the bids that were received to the special council meeting on July 2nd at 6:00, I appreciate you coming in for that meeting too, I wanted to say that one more time, but that allowed us to be here tonight with a recommendation and keep the project moving. John Hall Construction was the apparent low bidder the night of the bid and we received information from him that was required after the bid. Everything looks to be in order, we do have a few more items to get and things like insurance and things have to be submitted, but we are ready to recommend that the contract for the next phase of the Talon Stream remediation be ordered to John Hall Construction in the amount of $1,336,000.00.
Mr. McPhail: I would move we approve the recommendation from the bid committee and award the contract for the Talon Stream to John Hall Construction in the amount of $1,336,000.00.
Ms. Whicker: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: We have a motion is second to award the bid for the Talon Stream remediation project to John Hall Construction in the amount of $1,336,000.00, if there is no further discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye, opposed, motion carried.
Mr. Belcher: Thank you very much.
PUBLIC HEARING:
Mr. Brandgard: We have a public hearing this evening for Opus Corporation Real Property Tax Abatement. Do we have proof of publication?
Mr. Daniel: Yes we do.
Mr. Carlucci: Thank you Mr. President, Opus Development Corporation is planning to construct anywhere from a 450,000 square foot building to one that would double in size, but as of now they are talking about 450,000 square feet. Located on Reeves Road, east of State Road 267 and they would be on the south side of the road, it is the last piece of property on that roadway. It is just a little bit further than the Beckman and Dickenson building, just a little bit further to the west on the south side of the road. They have complied with all of the requirements of our tax abatement ordinance and the notice was put in the paper for what we would call a confirmatory resolution and so at this point we should open it for a public hearing.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to address the Council relative to the Opus Development Corporation Real Property Tax abatement? Again this is a public hearing for the Opus Development Corporation Real Property Tax Abatement if there is anyone that wishes to address the Council, with nobody coming forward, the public hearing is closed, thank you.
Mr. Carlucci: Thank you Mr. President.
BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR
Mr. Brandgard: Business from the floor, we have Brad DuBois from the Plainfield Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Dubois: Good evening, I am Brad DuBois, Chamber Director as you all know. I would like to come before you this evening, thanks for your time, just to talk about our Quaker Day Parade and Festival and some other things that we see going forward this year. As you know last year the festival was the first year for us, this will be the second year. It was pretty much a success last year, so we are going to try to keep that going this year. We did apply for, and this is just an informational thing for the Council just so you are aware of what we are planning to do and hopefully you will let us do. This year the festival, the dates are the 21st and 22nd of September, some of you may already know. One thing that helped us out quite a bit is we applied for and we are granted a Ted Grant from the Hendricks County Convention and Visitor's Bureau, so that is going to help with some funding. We really didn't make any changes to the parade, the parade is still going to be on the 22nd, starting at 10 A.M., I believe the route is going to continue the same. The theme this year will be “Proud to be an American” for the floats, we also have invited and we have gotten confirmation of our Grand Marshall this year, it will be Council member McPhail, and we are also going to be lucky enough to have the Plainfield High School marching band participating in this years parade, so hopefully it will turn out to be a great event. Along with that is our festival and last year was the very first year and again it was a very much success, we would like to continue that this year with a couple different venues, last year we had a little bit of trouble with one venue to the next and getting people to go from one of the next, so we kind of, we are going to try, we are proposing anyway to divide it up into two different locations, one being the Friends Meeting lawn, and the other hopefully being the Al and Jan Barker Athletic Complex. Last year we had the carnival down there, we would like to move our entertainment tent and our vendor tent down in that area also. I've been working with Clay who is unfortunately not here this evening, to hopefully make this a win win situation and we can use some of those facilities down there. With that being said, the other venue is going to be the Friends Meeting lawn, we will have the car show on Saturday starting at noon to 4, the craft fair will still be going on from 8am until 4pm. There will be some historical tours which they did that last year, we are continuing that again this year. Again down at the other venue which hopefully will be the Al and Jan Athletic Complex, we have the Jessup Carnival which I got his contract in the mail, he would like to be here the 20th, 21st, and 22nd, and conducting business on the 20th so he will probably open up for business if we can. He will actually be setting up that Monday prior. With that we also have a vendor tent which is a 60 X 90 tent at the end of one of the soccer fields which actually is the farthest east soccer field. I talked to Clay about it, we've got a contingency plan so that if there is any damage to grass or anything we set funds aside from our budget to help take care of that and re-grow that grass, hopefully that will give us plenty of time to do that, 3-4 months prior to the spring season. Outside of that we are still working out details as far as electricity down there too. There is a box just to the west of the concession stand that we are trying to find the easiest way to hopefully hook to that, I'm not sure yet, I still have Keith Hall working on that, but I will let you know as soon as I find out what can or can't be done.
Ms. Whicker: I know from there has been ongoing conversations with the clubs that use those fields, that have signed up for use of those fields, and I think the parks department has tried to work really close to them to minimize the disruption of their schedule and I knew the 21st and 22nd were carnival dates, in the same place that it was set up last year, but my understanding, I did not know that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, will that change what we have already agreed to with those leads as far as the usage of the fields?
Mr. DuBois: I don't think so, Monday and again, they did this last year, they set up on Monday or Tuesday of that week early, they didn't open they just set up their residence and their equipment on that one parking lot that runs north and south.
Ms. Whicker: Does that interfere with any traffic of them getting in or out?
Mr. DuBois: No because that entryway, you know what I apologize I actually have maps for you guys if you would like to see them.
Ms. Whicker: I just want to make sure 1. That I know I have a lot of phone calls that week and making sure that we know and everyone is informed in there organizations exactly what part of the fields are not being used. I know sometimes the head of the organization knows but perhaps not the volunteer coaches and all. Vendor tents are not the 18th, 19th, and 17th.
Mr. DuBois:
Ms. Whicker: So these people can turn around and…
Mr. DuBois: Yes absolutely that was the big thing we really worked hard on trying to get that traffic flow so that we wouldn't disrupt traffic flow and it would be easy for someone to drive in drive out and it would still be the same way it is today. We explored a couple different options, maybe even putting the tents on the asphalt but then again that would have been a little bit too destructive, 1 to the asphalt, and 2 to the traffic flow, so we kind of come up with a little different plan there and hopefully it will work, I am pretty confident that it will.
Mr. McPhail: You might add I have been serving on this committee with the Chamber and working with Clay for several months now and we work and thought we were going to use another parking lot to put tents on it, well we found out because we thought we could do that without damaging the asphalt but I guess with some of these new regulations and everything on tents they would have had to put some holes in the asphalt. Rich said I don't want any holes in the asphalt and one day we are all sitting in the meeting trying to figure out what is going on and Clay said why don't you use the soccer field over there. He's assured us that he would work a schedule out that would allow the Chamber to use that for that weekend.
Ms. Whicker: Now is this vendor tent the same size of the vendor tent that was on 40 last year by the pedestrian trial?
Mr. DuBois: It is the same size, yes; it is a 60X90.
Ms. Whicker: And that tent what day do you envision that tent going up?
Mr. DuBois: That tent will probably go up I would imagine on Thursday, the 20th. Last year we put it up the day before because they used it that Friday, so the vendors would come in somewhere around 2 or 3 on Friday.
Ms. Whicker: Then the 23rd it would be open again for play?
Mr. DuBois: 23rd, I imagine that tent is still going to be there, just because it is Sunday, and I don't think they are going to pick it up on Sunday. Hopefully, I don' know but I can find out when they plan on coming back up to get it out.
Ms. Whicker: In case they do, if it is the 24th activities just making sure that everyone is on the same page.
Mr. DuBois: Absolutely. Then finally the biggest thing that this whole project and this whole festival and parade, last year we were able to donate our proceeds to the Miracle Field, we would like to do that this year again also, so this will make a true community event hopefully for everyone and for families in general, I think it will be a good thing. I will have more details as time goes, as far as some of the logistics that we are still trying to work out and I wanted to bring it to your attention and certainly the date, I don't think we officially had announced the date yet. Do you have any other questions?
Mr. Kirchoff: I just have concern about this; first of all it was in your newsletter before we approved it.
Mr. DuBois: Yes I am going to take full responsibility for that, that is my newsletter and I should have not had that yes.
Mr. Kirchoff: And again I heard complaints from families last year that we impacted sports schedules down there, and we built that sports complex for sports versus this kind of thing. Where else did you look or where else could we consider going in the future? It is probably too late to do anything this year, but I just…
Mr. DuBois: I am certainly open to any other suggestions you might suggest, I am not sure.
Mr. Kirchoff: Even on the south, Tim is there not some acreage that we can actually stay away from the sports fields down there?
Mr. DuBois: I will certainly take a look at that, I mean obviously we want to be as low impact as possible also but still provide a good festival for the community.
Mr. Kirchoff: Did you consider other parks?
Mr. DuBois: I'm not sure what Jessup requirements are to set up those rides, I'm sure they put them in fields all the time so I don't know why they couldn't depend the amount of space available.
Mr. Kirchoff: Anderson park, and some of the other parks, I just have real reservations about using this complex for long.
Mr. DuBois: Certainly.
Mr. Brandgard: Again I wasn't aware of any sports we impacted last year because they already cleared that weekend out.
Ms. Whicker: I think in the communication they clear it with the president of the organization, but the individual communication of their coaching staff, but I think at one time they had requested once equipment was there not to have activities around the equipment even though it wasn't set up yet, I know we wanted to minimize and not impact their soccer schedule.
Mr. DuBois: I can talk to Clay about the schedule and find out what he's got.
Ms. Whicker: I know the school has offered to work with them and using Middle School fields and possibly High School fields, but this is homecoming weekend.
Mr. DuBois: This is homecoming weekend?
Ms. Whicker: Yes.
Mr. DuBois: And it is the band festival that is how we got the band. Wow, a lot of stuff going on in Plainfield. That Angels and Doves lady also wanted this weekend at one point.
Mr. McPhail: I certainly have a different opinion than Bill does, I think one weekend out of the year of all of the effort and work and the tax payers monies that has gone into this facility to use it for a community event one weekend a year seems to me like it is very appropriate. They have 52 weeks of the year to plan those activities and one weekend a year it seems to me that something that servicing the whole community, that we should be able to use this facility.
Mr. Brandgard: I think the other thing is we don't want the carnival to set up on bare ground in case there is rain. Foot traffic around that stuff tears things up let alone adding rain.
Mr. Carlucci: May I complicate this even a little more, I thought you would like that. Channel 13 has been emailing me and talking to me primarily about coming out on the 20th and setting somewhere in the Town center so they can do an election special and talk with people from the community, but this would be the day before, this would be the 20th. I haven't committed to anything, we just haven't. I haven't had the chance to really think this through and now we've got some more things we've got to deal with. Because if you are trying to set up on the 20th for the 21st and 22nd, I can't imagine that would be a big problem for them since they will be there on the 20th and they will be gone. Kind of like your direction of whether we want to do this or not, because it would be helpful to say yes or no one way or the other.
Mr. Brandgard: I wouldn't have any problem doing that, the 20th that is Thursday.
Mr. Kirchoff: Where is she wanting to do it?
Mr. Carlucci: I think they will tell them where we tell them to go, I don't mean that in a negative sense, but we can find a place for them which is safe and get people some access, and my guess they will probably send someone out to look at facilities and say ok this would be a nice spot for them to talk.
Ms. Whicker: You could suggest they come out on the 21st and they would have a lot of people to talk too.
Mr. Dubois: That would be nice exposure.
Mr. Carlucci: They specifically said they wanted to do it the 20th, the day before, but I can ask them.
Mr. Kirchoff: The Rec Center would be a good place.
Mr. McPhail: That is interesting that they want to Plainfield.
Mr. Carlucci: I will go forward.
Mr. Brandgard: Fundamentally I think it is a good thing to do.
Mr. DuBois: Are there any other issues anyone would like for me to explore further than what we have already discussed?
Ms. Whicker: Reconfirm if you could the availability of the fields to minimize what we can, because we are Indiana and there are many of the 52 weeks that we are in snow.
Mr. Brandgard: Is there any other business from the floor this evening?
TOWN MANAGER'S REPORT
Mr. Brandgard: Does the Town Manager's report.
Mr. Carlucci: No, not tonight thank you.
STAFF REPORTS
Mr. Brandgard: Staff reports, Joe anything from Planning and Zoning? Brent anything from Parks and Recreation? Anything from the Fire Department? Police Department? Public Works?
Mr. J. Castetter: I will say something. Just wanted to make Council aware, water plants with all of the news and stuff you see about water conservation things, we are doing good, all of our plants are running 100%, all of the wells are running very well, we are meeting production, towers are staying full, we continue to monitor the wells and the water levels that are in those and if conservation measures are needed, you will be the first to know, we will bring it forward, but right now we are doing really well.
Mr. McPhail: Jason could you give us an update on the plan on Department of Corrections, are we operating the plant now?
Mr. J. Castetter: Yes we are still operating the plant.
Mr. McPhail: Do we have a time table of tying that into our system?
Mr. J. Castetter: We have the ability right now to send all water through that system or through that plant in a case of an emergency. As far as a time frame of when we will decommission that plant and just say it is Plainfield water, I don't know that that time table has been reached yet, we have spent a lot of funds on rehab at Swinford and doing well studies and looking at our well fields, so that is coming down the line, I just don't think we are quite there yet.
Ms. Whicker: I had people ask that other areas asked for people to be conserving and not watering their grass, and I told them as far as the Town has not issued any…
Mr. J. Castetter: I believe the surrounding communities who have issued that, people are starting to understand the seriousness of what could be. So our residents are seeing that on the news and I think they are turning back the water a little bit as well. You see more people watering their plants and not the yard, they are taking their buckets out and watering plants.
Mr. Kirchoff: You might share with the rest of the Council the numbers you shared with me for my presentation today about capacity and some of the peaks we've had and the average peaks.
Mr. J. Castetter: Our capacity of our plants are about 9 ½ to 10 million gallons a day, our peak day in the last two weeks was 8.4 million, we are averaging around 7 to 8 million gallons a day as an average, so we have some buffer, we have some room, of course we have elevated towers and we are keeping those as full as possible all the time. So we have a million and a half maybe a little more than that as well as 2 ½ million 3 million in the air, so we have a buffer in case of an emergency fires and stuff like that. I think we are in a real good position right now.
Mr. Kirchoff: I thought those numbers were important, it helped me today as I was preparing my remarks, because I knew I would get the question about restrictions or whatever, so I had asked him for those numbers.
Mr. J. Castetter: I hope I gave you the information you needed.
Mr. Kirchoff: You did.
Mr. Brandgard: I had asked him to keep me up to speed, I had told him it is dangerous to make an assumption you don't hear anything and everything is alright, but they are monitoring it and if something happens we will deal with it at that point, so and to go along with that we started looking at how we could expand our water plants.
Mr. J. Castetter: We were concerned when we were in the 105-106 degree days because those well houses that store those motors and pumps they get rather hot as well as the electronic equipment in those, so that is what you want to be very careful of, the water is there, but as long as we can get it out of the ground with the wells and not overheating and things like that.
Mr. Brandgard: I have also asked him to look at another Town.
Mr. McPhail: Another question of thought, I know we are not running a liberty plant, what is the capacity of it?
Mr. J. Castetter: I believe it is 500-600 thousand gallons, Tim do you know? I believe it is 500 or 600 thousand.
Mr. McPhail: So there is a backup I suppose if we had too. I know the water is a little different.
Mr. J. Castetter: It would take some time to get it back up and right, you would probably need a good week probably to say we have to have that plant in operation to be up and running. We are just using that as a booster station currently, we are taking Plainfield water to the old Liberty Plant and boosting out to Liberty.
Mr. Brandgard: We are not using the Franklin either right now, that was a 400 thousand.
Mr. J. Castetter: Right, it is 400 thousand consistently right.
Mr. Brandgard: We do have some backups.
Mr. J. Castetter: Today is a good day, it's been a good couple of weeks for the water department and we look forward to continue to boost water.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. Engineering, Tim.
Mr. Belcher: I wanted to go over something I had in my report about a couple that came and talked to me, Robert and Meg Mongell, I'm not sure how to pronounce their last name. But they essentially have a septic problem their home is on Hadley Road at the corner of Williams Drive and Hadley Acres. Hadley Acres well established very nice subdivision here in Town. It is not unlike what this Council has heard before where people have come in they have a septic problem, they sit in the middle of the neighborhood, and the sewers are a distance away and in this case a thousand feet away. So it is not that they don't want to hook onto this sewer, it is the cost of their home even getting to the sewer a thousand feet away. So there are no sanitary sewers near where they live right now. The closest one is down at Hadley and Center Street essentially, or you have to go east, they are right about in the middle of Hadley Acres. This kind of problem has come up many times over my career here and this Council heard it many times, but these folks are coming to me saying they would like to solve our problem the best way we can and the ideal that they had is not a new idea but it is not something that we can use a lot, and I thought it was worthy of discussing with you before we give them some kind of ok to go this direction, but it is a system they call a small diameter grinder pump system, and I will show you a picture of one, essentially what it is you take the septic tank out, you put a small tank in the ground where the septic tank was, and the sewage flows from the house to the same location and it essentially goes into a tank with, for a lack of a better term, like a giant sump pump that is actually designed for sewage handling and it pumps out towards the street in a small diameter pipe and then along the street and this is where the Town would start to come into play here whether we want to do this or not, instead of putting a gravity sewer in which is what you typically see in new subdivisions and things, which is maybe 8-12 feet deep and you dig big trenches and tear up the yards and tear up the streets, and all of that, this is a small diameter system and it is designed to be under low pressure when the pumps kick on. So a 2” or a 1” line might serve several homes and they are put in with directional drilling machine equipment so you don't have to tear up driveways or tear up as much yard, very low destructive things so it is very suitable for currently developed areas, we have tried to stay away from them as much as we can, because the long term cost of these systems is always going to be more than a gravity system because the pump will eventually wear out and it will have to be replaced and those kinds of things. So if you run the numbers out long enough you will have a system that this is more expensive in the long run for a customer than a gravity sewer system, however the problem is you cannot build a small piece of a gravity sewer system, you can't build for one homeowner, so we have this essentially almost instrumental problem unless the Town had millions of dollars sitting there that we want to go out and build sewers in neighborhoods which is not available in a Town that is not available through agencies EPA or anybody else, there is just no grants out there. So you are looking at a very high cost gravity sewer system in an area where one person said they have a problem, and again this area is very well developed in terms of their drainage, so there may not be many problems now but over time, these systems will wear out and they will need to replace the septic system. So another benefit I think of maybe trying this solution for this neighborhood in Plainfield is that it can be built over time. In other words if another person a couple of houses down from this person comes in and they could extend this system. Again the part that is in the public right of way, I would intend that to be the Town's. The part on the private property would stay with that private property owner. We would not own those pumps; we would not own anything from the street back, that would be on the customer, their responsibility obviously, but the 2” line or whatever that 1” line that was in the public right of way, if the Town allowed this project to go forward that would be a public main. So Jason and those guys would be responsible if it got cut or broke or some kind of problem occurred with that. It is different in that we would have to maintain something we don't have a lot of and it may have a higher cost to us than the gravity sewer system, but this problem with trying to solve problems in the Town which are real problems then obviously the value of homes in Hadley Acres and all over the Town we want to maintain those and we saw what happened to Wincher Heights fifteen years ago now I think, something like that, it was outside of the Town, septic started failing, yet it was affecting the Town and it was right on our border, the values were dropping and dropping and nobody could sell anything, so we don't want to see that occur again, and this is a couple that has come to us saying hey we would like to do this with the Town, would the Town A allow us to do it, B. Would they enter into a recapture agreement, which is essentially saying that for the system that they build that is larger than for just their home, which we would determine that after this gets designed, there would be a certain cost that could be treated to other people who might want to hook on later, so they are asking would we enter into a contract to allow them to recapture some of that money. If they pay for the whole thing, could they get some of their money back if one of their neighbors hook on? That is a very reasonable request and we have done systems like this before I think two other ones, it think one in Continental Estates an individual built one, its been placed probably five or six years now, maybe more. The gentleman is an attorney which made it easy, he wrote the agreement, so we have a model and Mel reviewed it and I think we can use the same document as the model if we go this way, so we sort of have a head start if we decide to do this. But it does set us on a path that is not our typical way of doing sewers, and I thought it was worthy of talking to you. The only other thing they asked me and I told them there would probably be no way to answer this at this point but I would bring it up anyways, would the Town participate in any amount of the cost? There might be some logical places for us to participate, there is a manhole that is needed at the very end of the system where they would be connecting to our system down at Hadley Road and I think it is Oak Hill. The first road that goes into Hadley Acres, we stubbed the line across the road there, but we didn't put the manhole on at the time, because at that time we thought we'd be extending on up at that neighborhood someday so we have it there but it doesn't have a manhole, so we might want to participate in that but again, but I will wait and bring that back to you later of the specifics and see if that would be something that more of the neighborhood would use than this one individual. These folks seemed very committed to try to spend their own money; they are right at the doorstep of signing an engineering contract. They wanted to hear, I could only tell them so much from my position, I said I need to talk to the Council, but I would be supportive of this, I told them that and then let you guys discuss it tonight and then we would get back to them on whether it seemed like a positive project and we would try to partner with them to do something for their project. Let me show you real quick just what one of these looks like, an example of one companies system.
Mr. Brandgard: I have discussed this with Tim sometime ago, I have seen some of these things that you get in the mail, and you go down and listen to their sales pitch and you can 3 nights and 3 days, I went to one around the lake and all the homes there it is what they had.
Mr. Belcher: It is very often used round lakes and things as a matter of fact I think initially it is where this design idea came from, because building around a lake is almost impossible with a gravity sewer, you've got multiple giant pump stations.
Mr. Brandgard: You look like a pretty good way of not doing the gravity system. Sometimes it is fairly difficult.
Mr. Belcher: This is essentially what would be out in the yard, there would be different sizes of these tanks and there are obviously up sides and down sides to any solution, this is a mechanical piece of equipment, it could fail, somebody could put something in there that is not going to handle and cause it to be clogged and they have to make a call to their plumber to come and fix it, but they have come a long way. These things started being designed a long time ago when UPA was in the grant business and they funded some of these as an innovated technology, and then over the years these companies have really gotten much better at it. I think this is one of the better companies and they have been established a long time. That sort of shows you the setup, so unlike a gravity system, these are all pumps that are pumping into a small line out here and so normally you wouldn't have more pumps pumping into a single line, so it creates a pressure so the design is based on the pressure that if more than one pump is pumping at a time you are obviously going to work against each other, so they have to design them with certain assumptions of how many may be on at a certain time and how long and the tanks that are in the ground store a certain amount of fluid so that if the power goes out for example, another disadvantage, you have a power outage, you don't have service, you have a certain amount of service, but you would have to be more conservative in how you used it until the power was reestablished. There are all of these ups and downs to any kind of system, that is why gravity is so popular, it doesn't usually fail, but you will get a root and things like that in a line too of a sewer, so…
Mr. Gaddie: Will it have a check valve or something like that?
Mr. Belcher: Yes they will have to have a check valve and we would want to design something right here with this pipe here and run the public right of way, right at that public right of way crossing, so anything that we draw a real clear line, this is the Town's from here to here, this is yours from here back so it is very clear to everybody what was owned and operated and by who, because if we got a call we would begin like we do now and we would make sure our mains are working, if they are working, we tell the customer that it is from their side, so it would be very similar in that respect to how we do things now. It would be a different system. This panel is usually set on the back of the house or something, it has a high alarm. There is a little education for the people who buy these systems that if that alarm goes off what to do in terms of going out pressing the button and make sure it stops. That is what it looks like installed, so that again is at the ground surface. They are not new, but they would be new to us and again the Hadley Acres area on the north side of the road probably has 50-60 homes maybe, we would want to design this if we go forward, but whatever they put in could be extended to the greatest amount so the whole area could eventually be served which would be an advantage to this couple because they might get their money back if more people hook on and again if we are going to do this and the Town is going to allow this pipe to be in our right of way, then it needs to benefit the whole area not just for one couple. So that is really where this is at, their facing a pretty large bill just getting started in designing it, but they are ready to do that but without talking to you about it first and seeing if you had at least a general agreement that we could go this direction and work with them through this problem. I didn't want to advise them to do anything else right now until then.
Ms. Whicker: I know the Mongell family have been experiencing this problem for over 20 years now and I know they have looked at many different alternatives, and even considered when that construction was going in with the road different options of what they could do, but it is really hindered what they would be able to do, but it is that whole neighborhood, but nobody in that neighborhood has ever come asking…
Mr. Belcher: Nobody has come to us yet, that is the thing about these problems, you just never know if they are out there until something really stops and then people have no other option and in my experience in my position and hearing of others going to the County Health, is that they are very unwilling to grant repair permits on septic now and I guess I understand why, so they have a difficult, they couldn't replace the system, I don't think they just go out and replace the septic as it is today. The regulations have changed so much that that option is not on the table anymore as far as I think the County Heath is concerned, so that puts them in a very difficult position if they have a repair to do.
Ms. Whicker: And I believe with Mr. Mongell being an engineer, he's probably lets find a solution and propose to the Town.
Mr. Brandgard: I know these systems work, I know they are used, in an area that is already built up that doesn't sewer service, this is pretty good option in my mind, not only for the home owner but for the Town to not have to tear everything up to put sewers in.
Mr. Belcher: Yes, I would say the large percentage of our cost in any of our sewer projects has been restoration of streets and things like that. This area has really nice streets, some areas don't have streets much to begin with, so you are not really hurting much, you are fixing streets, but in this case you would be hurting some nice streets and a nice area that is already built up and all that.
Mr. Brandgard: This experiment is sometimes not a good term, but this looks to me like a good place to try it and see how it works.
Mr. Belcher: I thought that too, sort of a pilot program, this is the first one within Plainfield that we would be trying and it puts it in front of 8-10 homes almost immediately to see how many it appeals too.
Mr. Kirchoff: How do we plan for the unknown, if we are going to have 1 or 50 homes down there? How do you do that on the front end.
Mr. Belcher: It is a function of the design and these systems are very versatile in that amount.
Mr. Kirchoff: Would we need to anticipate what…
Mr. Belcher: We have no problem with what we have down at the corner, so the line that is coming from their house in the public right of way getting to our sewer there is no question we could serve that whole area. We've already done that planning and the sizes we have down stream.
Mr. Brandgard: If we are going to allow one in there and design it for what they need, we need to look at it from a Town's standpoint making sure how to serve the whole area.
Mr. Belcher: I absolutely agree that is exactly what I told them that we have to look at it from a whole.
Mr. Kirchoff: My question, I'm not smart enough to think how to do that, but I assume there are some kind of engineering standards or something?
Mr. Belcher: Yes that is the way this would be done and that is why it involves the Town because it is our right of way plus the pipe that goes in our right of way will be designed for the whole area not just for this couple. So that is where that recoupment would come from too because if they make it bigger, that is what we are saying we ok will let you recapture that if other people hook on because you made it larger and spent more money.
Mr. Bennett: Hadley Acres has 120 plus lots.
Mr. Belcher: From both north and south?
Mr. Bennett: I'm lot 119.
Mr. Belcher: So from Hawthorn Ridge north, that is all Hadley Acres and none of it had sewer when it was developed, good drainage, but no sewer.
Mr. Kirchoff: There is a subdivision then north of there, but there is sewer on Reeves isn't there?
Mr. Belcher: Actually there is sewer that we extended gravity with the storm sewers we just constructed and so there will be connection points but you still have the same thing here, you have people 1,000 feet away.
Mr. Kirchoff: But my point is we don't have, it could go to the north and this will come to the south is where I'm going with this.
Mr. Belcher: Yes, that is exactly the process we want to go through is to look at everything from, really from Reeves on down to where you are at and make sure that all of it is inclusive and then get them a solution that will work for them and if they are ready to go, that is one of the things I like about this solution, it is a 3 or 4 million dollar project it would take forever to get done if we were going to try to do this as gravity sewer. It is an individualized project that we look at a larger area and we get it done a lot quicker and maybe it starts building over time. As a pilot, I think it would be a great area to try, it is right in the heart of the Town sort of as far as residential area south of here and if it works it will be a great thing.
Mr. Brandgard: If it works here is will work at South Hills.
Mr. Belcher: Right.
Mr. Gaddie: We got a couple like this out west there on 40.
Mr. Belcher: Yes, I think there maybe other applications for it, but we find out after.
Mr. Gaddie: They pump down to the lift station out there.
Mr. Belcher: I think those businesses, I think, Mr. Hines when he was alive, I think he extended a line all the way down by gravity; he did that ton his own with his business.
Mr. Bennett: Tim these are most of the septic systems are in the back yards and so this one would be designed to pump it around the house to the front?
Mr. Belcher: Yes because the lines don't have to be very deep, 4 or 5 feet deep, just below the frost line it is essentially they will probably use the line going out to the septic tank, get rid of that tank because you don't want anything leaking and burning the pump out. Put a new tank right there and just run around the house to the front and it won't be a large trench or anything like that, it will be a shallow trench.
Mr. Bennett: How would we bill from that?
Mr. Belcher: If they are not on water they will be a flat rate customer, and if they are on water it would be just like any other sewer customer so their bill would be the same.
Mr. McPhail: I know the Town of Monrovia put a system in here years ago and it is at least 90% right of way.
Mr. Belcher: Oh really, I didn't know that.
Mr. McPhail: They didn't put hardly any gravity in; they didn't have any place to take it.
Mr. Belcher: That would be a good place to…
Mr. Brandgard: Where is that?
Mr. McPhail: Monrovia, as far as I know 90% of their systems are like this and as far as I know it is working alright. We saw an island up at Lake Erie remember when we were looking at plans?
Mr. Belcher: That is right; in that case the community even owned all of these pumps which was a nightmare to me. I think Jason would run over me with his truck or something if we wanted to do that. Individuals who are willing to take care of these things, I think they are very dependable and an individual who takes care of it doesn't have a lot of problems.
Mr. McPhail: One bad thought that came to my mind, if this forced main that is going down the right of way once it comes out of the house, it seems to me it might be worth looking at the cost of that and if we could afford to put that in there rather than trying to manage a recoupment agreement for so many years down the road.
Ms. Whicker: I agree.
Mr. Belcher: I guess once we have a design and that is their next step, once they get a design in place then we could have information for you to make a decision on that if you wanted or how much you might want to participate. But any inkling that you are willing to go along with I think they would really appreciate it and then they would know they can go forward with some confidence that the system could work, even if they have to pay for it all themselves, which they may understand it may be 100% on them, they understand that.
Mr. McPhail: I think we are going to see more of this in the next few years because obviously septic systems are not repairable and lots are not big enough to put new ones in and…
Mr. Kirchoff: Do we have any water customers down there?
Mr. Belcher: No, there is no water in the neighborhood other than maybe right on Hadley maybe a few, because the main is on Hadley Road, then south there is a few customers, we went through part of Hadley Acres to the south. I think even the draught oddly people have got a lot more problems with their laterals, the fingers, the trees are looking for the any kind of moisture they can find and we are probably going to have more problems like this. It all boils down to a financial problem initially. But at least these folks are coming in and saying we want to fund this, can the Town be a part of it, and I think I appreciate that they have that view of the problem.
Mr. Brandgard: I think the answer is you have consent.
Mr. Belcher: I will get with them and get them started and get back to you in a month or so with more ideas. Thank you very much.
Mr. Brandgard: Transportation
Mr. McGillem: Not a whole lot more, just an update from my report that I sent out to you, I was out on the project this afternoon, second lift the asphalt is done all the way from the Smith Road round-a-bout to the east bridge. They are ready to start curbs probably tomorrow or the next day they will be putting curbs in that section. Rich Contractors started the piling is driven on the west indent so they will continue the pilings until they get those all done. Everything is moving forward, finishing up the sidewalks on the round-a-bout, once we get the concrete work done there they will be ready to finish up the grating prepare for the landscaping that is going in on the pavement striping and I think we are going to be in good shape for getting it open by the end of the month as we have indicated.
Mr. Brandgard: Good, thank you. You probably heard the story, but this morning Ralph Dunkin told me that yesterday somebody flew down there around the barriers and down, they were doing that but the bridge was there so they were shooting across the bridge and going up the other side. The bridge is not there anymore, plus they started putting footage in for the walk. He got down there and he couldn't go any further so he turned around and tearing up and down around and out. Kind of one of those deals I screwed up so now I'm mad at the world. I just say it is amazing to me the height of stupidity there is. Just a comment.
Mr. McGillem: I was hoping someone like that would end up with their nose down in that foundation.
Mr. Brandgard: Give them time. They do it at night that could happen.
Mr. McPhail: The sidewalks are nice; I walked down there this morning. That is the first I heard of them driving, I don't know if they have driven the last few days, but as hot as it was I wasn't outside much last week.
Mr. McGillem: I think they just set up to driving pilings last Friday and they were finishing the steel pilings on the west side today. I am not sure if they will jump to the east side on the piling before they start the actual foundations and the MSE wall on the west side are not, but the bridge contractor is intending to get out there, he is pretty much on schedule but the roadway contractor, this weather he has really been able to jump ahead on the roadway section east of the bridge. So the bridge contractor willing to show him that he can catch up to him so I think it will start moving pretty good.
Mr. Brandgard: When do you expect to start putting that wall up?
Mr. McGillem: I would say by the end of this week or first of next week.
Mr. Brandgard: I want to get down to see it when they put that in. Did I miss any of the staff?
OLD BUSINESS
Mr. Brandgard: Old business, Kent? Renea? Bill?
Mr. Kirchoff: I think this is under old business, two or three meetings ago I asked Ron about the proposal we had gotten earlier in the year from Flashpoint to do an update of our compensation analysis and he has gotten back with them and they are recommending that we go ahead and do a study, I am not sure where the rest of the Council is, have we talked about that at all on their latest proposal? They forwarded it to me, basically, let me just give you highlights, they will meet with the managers to clarify rolls of department heads and understand job descriptions and gain input, because what we hope to do is compare only about 55% of the jobs versus the big one we did before. Then do an analysis and come back to us and give us a sense of where we are, and I think a number of communities were thought where were and had to slow down things. But I think it is healthy for us to know where we are because as Ron and I talked I think it would be a shame for all of the work we put into this not to know where we are and be behind the eight ball and have to try to play catch up again. So with that being said, they have given us a proposal to do this bench marking study yet this year to total $28,080.00.
Ms. Whicker: How do they determine what 55% of positions are analyzed?
Mr. Kirchoff: They are going to meet with the department heads to try to get their input as to those jobs that they would like to make sure that they are benchmarked. It is going to be more department head input in this one than we had before. Last one was so broad and so it is going to give department heads a chance to say I've got concerns about this, this, or that and then come back and if it is greater that 55% then they will probably have to make some kind of judgment call, but they really do want to be involved with the department heads this time.
Mr. Brandgard: I think with what they are proposing is kind of normal on a big curve, it is like doing inventory, you don't always count everything, you count everything once then you do spot checks and classify this as a spot check to see if the numbers we had are still valid or not, or how far off they are.
Ms. Whicker: And that study includes their presentation to us as well.
Mr. McPhail: I certainly think we need to move forward with that, I don't want to get behind on this, we have too much effort and work in it and I still want us to move forward on paper performance and we've got to make sure that when we start looking at those things that we keep everything up to date.
Mr. Kirchoff: As a matter of fact as you mention that one of the emails that I got from Krista, she was thinking we were closer to being ready for paper performance than she anticipated so I think that will give us some idea of how close we are.
Mr. Brandgard: Good.
Mr. Kirchoff: With that being the case I would move that we approve the contract with Flashpoint for 28,080.00.
Mr. McPhail: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: The motion is second to approve the contract with flashpoint for $28,080.00 again that is $28,080.00, if there is no further discussion all those in favor signify by aye, opposed, motion carried, and thank you.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. McPhail: It is not new business, I guess but I would like to commend the Fire Department and Police Department and everybody else that was involved with the fireworks, we had a great event and they made a good call.
Mr. Brandgard: I sent an email to both the chiefs and to let their people know they did a bang up job on the 4th and I think we need to send a message to the Township again to thanking them for providing a 4th of July celebration for the Town.
Mr. Kirchoff: I'm curious, was the crowd up or down because we were about the only community around doing it?
Mr. Mitny: It was a little tough to tell this year, because of the heat everybody stayed home as long as they could. We had a pretty big influx there at the last. The west side of the park was packed, Rich was over on that side of the park and that was the side that they had the entertainment on, there was some food vendors over there, they had a pretty good layout. The heat was pretty horrendous until the sun started to go down. I know the middle school was loaded; we had trouble controlling the parking on the side of the roads because like I said everyone was coming at the last minute just trying to find a place to park to see the fireworks and go. I haven't' had a chance to talk to Chuck to see what he thought the numbers were, I think we probably had a little bit better than average crowd, but it was just the way they showed up.
Mr. Kirchoff: I happened to drive through the Barker Complex and I was shocked at the number of people that were down there. The parking lots were almost full, it was amazing. I drove through not expecting that to be the case.
Mr. Mitny: We had people everywhere.
Mr. Kirchoff: That looked like a favorite for people to use.
Mr. Mitny: The park had very large signs up for us this year, we had no violations of fireworks ban inside the park, the crowd was very well behaved for the heat, we had no incidence at all even with the traffic leaving, we had a few incidents on Center Street this year that we hadn't had in the past, we had an accident and got a vehicle that broke down, it was very minor accident and we were able to get it off the side of the road, but it slowed traffic and I didn't get yelled at once. But I think it was a really good crowd this year.
Mr. McPhail: I know I worked at the middle school and went over to Swinford Park, the middle school lot and Swinford had all the cars it could hold.
Mr. Brandgard: I was up at the Anderson's when we leave it is usually a pretty difficult time getting out on Center Street, I waited a half an hour after the fireworks were over and Center Street was clear, they did a good job of clearing everything out, better than normal.
Mr. Gaddie: I seen a lot of people walking from south side of Town, riding bikes getting on the trail just to get out of there. Getting there was no problem. I think Mooresville had theirs about a half hour before ours.
Mr. Kirchoff: Fifteen minutes. I was at an advantage point when it started going off and I thought I didn't think Hummel Park was that far away, come to find out we watched Mooresville so we got two for the price of one.
Mr. Gaddie: I was thinking they weren't very high, and then all of a sudden boom.
Ms. Whicker: Just a reminder we have our work session Friday as 7:30 at the Aquatic Center.
Mr. Brandgard: Again that is A.M.
Mr. Carlucci: I noticed that the new message board up at Al and Jan Barker Complex is operational. It is just the same message back and forth.
RESOLUTIONS
Mr. Brandgard: We have one resolution this evening; it is resolution number 2012-18: Confirmatory Resolution Opus Development Corporation Real Property Tax Abatement.
Mr. McPhail: I move we approve.
Mr. Kirchoff: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: The motion is second to approve the reading of resolution number 2012-18, if there is no further discussion we have a roll call vote please.
Mr. Bennett: Mr. Gaddie- yes
Ms. Whicker- yes
Mr. McPhail- yes
Mr. Kirchoff- yes
Mr. Brandgard- yes
Plainfield Town Council resolution number 2012-18 is adopted.
ORDINANCES
Mr. Brandgard: We also have one ordinance for its first reading. Ordinance number 11-2012: Regarding removal of weeds and rank vegetation.
Mr. McPhail: I move we approve the first reading.
Mr. Kirchoff: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: The motion is second to approve the first reading of ordinance number 11-2012: Regarding Removal of Weeds and Rank Vegetation, if there is no further discussion roll call vote please.
Mr. Bennett: Mr. Gaddie- yes
Ms. Whicker- yes
Mr. McPhail- yes
Mr. Kirchoff- yes
Mr. Brandgard- yes
First reading of Plainfield Town Council Ordinance 11-2012 is approved.
Mr. Daniel: Mr. President I might, even though we are not getting any rain and nothing is growing very much, this ordinance was revised because of the State Legislatures issue dealing with multiple notices, so it might be worthwhile if the Council would consider going ahead and doing second and third adoption because obviously a weed ordinance is fairly important to be in force at this time of year even without rain.
The significant change here is it allows the Town by the amount of notice we give, we give one notice but that notice indicates if you continue to not mow, we are going to mow and bill you, and we don't have to keep giving initial notices, every time we go out and mow is all it does.
Ms. Whicker: Thank you for that clarification. So I can make a motion to suspend the rules to have the second reading of ordinance number 11-2012, and third.
Mr. McPhail: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: We have a motion and a second to suspend the rules to allow the second and third reading and adoption of ordinance number 11-2012, if there is no further discussion roll call vote please.
Mr. Bennett: Mr. Gaddie- yes
Ms. Whicker- yes
Mr. McPhail- yes
Mr. Kirchoff- yes
Mr. Brandgard- yes
The rules have been suspended to allow for the second and third reading of ordinance 11-2012.
Mr. McPhail: I would move we approve the second reading of ordinance number 11-2012.
Ms. Whicker: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: The motion is second to approve the second reading of ordinance number 11-2012. If there is no further discussion roll call vote please.
Mr. Bennett: Mr. Gaddie- yes
Ms. Whicker- yes
Mr. McPhail- yes
Mr. Kirchoff- yes
Mr. Brandgard- yes
Second reading of Town Council ordinance number 11-2012 is approved.
Mr. Brandgard: Third reading and adoption.
Mr. Kirchoff: So move.
Mr. McPhail: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: The motion is second to have the third reading and adoption of ordinance of 11-2012 regarding removal of weeds and rank vegetation, if there is no further discussion, roll call vote please.
Mr. Bennett: Mr. Gaddie- yes
Ms. Whicker- yes
Mr. McPhail- yes
Mr. Kirchoff- yes
Mr. Brandgard- yes
Third reading and adoption of Town Council ordinance number 11-2012 is adopted.
