The Plainfield Town Council met on Monday, December 13, 2004. In
attendance were Mr. Kirchoff, Mr. Fivecoat, Mr. Gaddie, Mr. McPhail and Mr. Brandgard.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
CONSENT AGENDA
Approval of the Town Council minutes of the regularly
scheduled meeting of November 22, 2004.
Approval of the November 2004 Monthly Reports for the
Plainfield Fire Department, Plainfield Police Department,
Communications Department, Department of Public Works and
Department of Planning and Zoning.
Approval of the Town Engineer’s Report (including Consent
Agenda items) dated December 11, 2004, Transportation
Director’s Report dated December 11, 2004, Human Resources
Director’s Report dated December 10, 2004 and the Utility
Billing Director’s Report dated December 10, 2004.
Approval to hire Bryan Hussung as a Water Treatment Plant
Technician at the hourly rate of $13.26 per hour effective
January 3, 2005 per the recommendation of the
Superintendent of Public Works.
Approval to prepare specification and bids for a new
ambulance per the recommendation of Chief Byron Anderson
per his report dated December 8, 2004.
Mr. Kirchoff said just for clarification with Mr. Belcher in
releasing the bond monies for Glen Haven that does not put us in
jeopardy as far as streets and curb issues?
Mr. Belcher said Mr. Castetter and Mr. Carlucci and myself talked
about that. There are several bonds remaining on Glen Haven and Glen
Haven West that we held out specifically for those things. So, we tried to take care of the ones that we really didn’t need to hold for roads and that kind of things that they had taken care of.
Mr. Kirchoff said I just wanted to confirm that. With that I
would move to approve the Consent Agenda as submitted. Second by Mr.
McPhail. Motion carried.
BID AWARD: Plainfield Recreation Center Janitorial Services
Mr. Brandgard said we have a bid aware this evening for the
Plainfield Recreation Center Janitorial Services. Do we have a
recommendation?
Mr. Prince said yes. I met with Mr. Carlucci and Councilman
Gaddie the week following our last meeting. We looked at the bid
documents of the lowest bidder, Dirlam Company and found everything
acceptable. I called their references and found again everything
acceptable. It is our recommendation to award the Plainfield
Recreation Center Janitorial Services’ to the Dirlam Company doing
business as Jani King in the amount of an annual contract for
$96,270.72. We will ask to commence that contract as soon as I can get both parties to sign it and we would need somebody from the Town to sign that contract and I would recommend Councilman Gaddie.
Mr. Brandgard said you said it was an annual contract so when
does it commence?
Mr. Prince said as soon as we can get both parties to sign it. I
believe Mr. Daniel has a date to write in on this contract. I have the contract right here. I can get with Mr. Dirlam tomorrow and if Mr. Gaddie is going to be here, I can ask them to sign it tomorrow, if that is okay with the Council.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to approve the recommendation of our
bid committee and to award the bid of the Plainfield Recreation Center Janitorial Services to the Dirlam Company operating under the name of Jani King in the amount of $96,270.72 and that we authorize Councilman Gaddie to the document on behalf of the Town. Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Motion carried.
BUSIENSS FROM THE FLOOR
Mr. John Reel at 861 Highlander said I’m representing the
Plainfield Optimist Club for our annual report to you and our annual
request. Mr. Brandgard has a copy of a letter that I will give to the
rest of you later on. The first item is I really and sincerely want to thank the Town for all of the efforts that you have been putting forth. Especially to Mr. Carlucci for the attempt to find us a new home. I don’t know exactly where we stand on this so perhaps if I get through this, you might be able to give us a quick update on what area of where we are.
In the past we have made a financial request and in the past the
Council has always approved it. Last year you donated a significant
amount toward our operations. All of you probably know by now that
Cinergy has extended our contract through August 1, 2005 letting us
continue with spring baseball and spring soccer. We are not sure where we will go from there. Last year’s report I believe it was brought to our attention that one way to generate revenue was to increase our funds. We have always been reluctant to do that so with the possibility of moving our entire complex to another site I don’t believe we have any choice now but to pursue what we are going to identify as a building fund, which will this year increase significantly for us, a significant registration fee for each one of our participants. Right now we are looking at approximately $15.00 a piece. We are looking at an increase of our concession stand products and we are seeking assistance from a professional grant rider who hopefully will be able to help us in the big money area. We don’t have a date to address after August 1. We have looked into some patchwork, which would require possibly Hummel Field and school ground also as well. Hummel Field, the Township Trustee has been very cooperative in assisting us. We were going to use their softball diamonds this year for our baseball program and it was not going to be a good operation at best. So, we are kind of holding off to see what we are going to do. We are kind of holding off to see where we are going with the Town. If, indeed, the property that you are looking at would happen to materialize, we would urge the Council as quick as possible to allow someone in there to grading in the ground and seeding early April, if possible. I don’t know if that is a realistic date but we need a place to go to by mid August for our soccer program and our football. We feel that one year of seeding would be sufficient for that. It will take a good year of seasoning and work for our baseball complex.
The other portion of the amount that we are requesting our
concession stand represents approximately 40% of our revenue that we
generate from the club. So, that is the rational. If we do not have a
full-time operation in the fall, then we will cease from having any
revenue whatsoever for the possibility of a temporary concession stand. But at best that would not generate what we pick up from our official concession stand.
Again, I want to thank the Council for your support. We have a lot of kids waiting on some answers. We don’t have a hammer at all to deal with any project of this magnitude. We are at your mercy. We have talked to Mr. Carlucci and it looks like if the property would materialize, we will continue to operate the program as we are at Hummel Field with the board’s blessing. It would be a suitable operation for us to continue on. Where do we go from here?
Mr. Brandgard said as far as the annual donation we give you, we will have to wait until after the first of year when the new budget gets in here. We will take the rest of it under due consideration. We know what you are up against and we are struggling with it also. I would ask do we have an update of where we are relative to the property?
Mr. Carlucci said Mr. Daniel has ordered the offer to the property owner and the property owner’s attorney and I have not heard anything.
Mr. Daniel said I have not either.
Mr. Carlucci said we are pretty close to thinking about pushing
that panic button but not yet. We do know that we are under some time
constraints.
Mr. Reel said it is our understanding also that with the change
of the political position in the capital structure that we will be
going back to the Department of Corrections with the possibility of
having them review their last decision on not having it at the Boy’s
School. The Boy’s School would just be unbelievably ideal for us. It
is close to the Town and convenient and initially it would probably be a minimum as far as getting it underway. We could set up operations very quickly there. Thank you again. I want to say thank you especially to Mr. Carlucci.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, do you have a time frame on the Department of
Corrections issue?
Mr. Reel said I received that information recently and it was
from a third party and I just understand that there is a strong
possibility that we will be going back to the Governor’s Office.
That’s all that I know. I would hope that the Optimist Club would be
sent an invitation to join you in those negotiations.
Mr. McPhail said a couple of meetings ago we continued to talk
about another piece of property that we needed to get appraised. Have
we made any progress on that?
Mr. Carlucci said I got the warranty deed but I didn’t have time
with all of the other. We need to talk about a meeting at the end of
the year and I can bring that resolution to that meeting. I just didn’t have time with all of the ordinances and resolutions that we put on there. I needed the warranty deed from Jeff Banning and I got it but I got it later than I thought I was going to get and I didn’t have time to put another resolution together.
Mr. McPhail said I have the 29th on my calendar is that correct
for our last meeting?
Mr. Carlucci said we try to negotiate a time at the end of the
year, which works for everybody. We always put a date down but that is normally not the one that we use.
Mr. McPhail said I was checking that today. If that changes, we
need to do that tonight.
TOWN MANAGER’S REPORT
Mr. Carlucci said I have three certifications to present to the
Town Council from previous Plan Commission meetings. I, Richard A.
Carlucci, in my capacity as Secretary of the Plainfield Plan
Commission, hereby certify that the Plainfield Plan Commission held a
public hearing on Monday, December 6, 2004 on the petitioner, Browning Investments, RZ-04-010 for rezoning 2.105 acres from AG, Agricultural to I-2, Office Warehouse Distribution Industrial. The Plainfield Plan Commission voted seven to zero to make a favorable recommendation to the Plainfield Town Council to rezone property described herein on attached Exhibit “A”. I dated it the 13th day of December 2004 Richard A. Carlucci, Secretary of the Plainfield Plan Commission.
This property is located just off of Six Points Road. It is a
remnant piece of property that was zoned AG. There were some houses
there and the houses are gone. The Planning Department thought it was
best to have the property rezoned to the I-2 Zoning District. Right now there exists a big hole where those houses used to be. That is the recommendation of the Plan Commission to the Town Council. I had time to put together an ordinance that is on the agenda also. Given some of the magnitude of this I would ask that we look at each one of these individually and take a favorable or unfavorable comment on each.
Mr. Higbee said the zoning was actually R-2 to I-2 and not AG to I-2. The existing zoning district was R-2.
Mr. Carlucci said I’m sorry it is R-2.
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to accept the Plan Commission’s
recommendation to rezone real estate on Six Points Road from R-2 to I-2, Office Warehouse Distribution Industrial as described. Second by Mr. McPhail. Motion carried.
Mr. Carlucci said if the ordinance reads AG, then it should be R-
2 and I will change the ordinance also.
I, Richard A. Carlucci, in my capacity as Secretary of the
Plainfield Plan Commission, hereby certify that the Plainfield Plan
Commission held a public hearing on Monday, November 1, 2004 on the
petitioner of Republic Development, LLC PUD-04-003 for rezoning 251
acres from AG, Agricultural to PUD, Sugar Grove Farms Residential
development. The Plainfield Plan Commission voted seven to zero to make a favorable recommendation to the Plainfield Town Council to rezone the property described herein on attached Detailed Development Plan dated the 13th day of November 2004 and signed it as the Secretary of the Plan Commission.
This project is located what we know locally as the Mongan
property. It consists of 251 acres and there will be approximately 623 units in this project. This didn’t come in at one meeting and get
approved and come out at another meeting all done. I will read you
some of the dates. This was revised August 19; September 1; September
30; October 28; November 3; November 19 and December 8. They were in
several meetings and there were many revisions to this plan. We had
one meeting where the Plan Commission took an appropriate amount of
time to discuss some details at length. For example, siding and you
hate to get into the minutiae of developments, but with that kind of
development and its location on the Moon Road corridor and the number
of units, that is an important issue on how the quality of the siding
and how that will look for the people in the community.
The development is denser near Moon Road for obvious reasons and
as you go farther to the west in that project, the houses are on bigger lots and bigger houses. So, they have quite a range of houses in that development. They will have access both on Moon Road and U.S. 40. So, I would say that this project probably took as long as any project to go through. I think they had a fair hearing. There weren’t very many remonstrators to the project. There were some issues that some of the residents south of it had and I think those were resolved. If you would like some additional information, there is a representative from Banning Engineering here tonight. I will leave that up to your judgment but the recommendation is for approval. I believe I included the Staff Report as a refresher on the CD-ROM for everybody to look at but again this was subject to our residential design guidelines. I think in some cases we actually made them better for that project. It is a pretty substantial project. It is right across the Reception Diagnostic Center just south of Junior Gymnastics. So, that is the general location.
Mr. Brandgard said you may want to change your date to December
13 rather than November for the approval of your report.
Mr. Carlucci said I will go back and change all of those.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to approve the recommendation of the
Plan Commission to rezone 251 acres from AG, Agricultural to PUD known as the Sugar Grove Farm Residential Planned Unit Development. Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Motion carried.
Mr. Carlucci said I also put an ordinance on the agenda for that
to begin that process.
I, Richard A. Carlucci, in my capacity as Secretary of the
Plainfield Plan Commission hereby certify that the Plainfield Plan
Commission held a public hearing on Monday, November 1, 2004 on the
petition of the Plainfield Plan Commission for adoption of the Town of Plainfield Hendricks County Comprehensive Plan update. The Plainfield Plan Commission voted seven to zero to make a favorable recommendation to the Plainfield Town Council for adoption of the Town of Plainfield Comprehensive Plan update included herein and attached as Exhibit “A”. It is dated the 13th day of December 2004. I think Mr. Brandgard has a copy but I will present to Mr. Brandgard the Comprehensive Plan. Could Mr. Higbee give a brief description of how long we have been at this and generally what we have done on this.
Mr. Higbee said the project was instituted probably a little over
two years ago. We hired HNTB I think in October about two years ago.
It has been essentially complete for the last couple of months but we
have been making a lot of minor revisions to it. Over that period
there were three public meetings and it was at the Plan Commission
twice recently so those were also public meetings. We had a work
session recently at the Town Council as well. So, it has certainly
gotten a lot of scrutiny over a two-year period. It was slowed down a
little bit. Typically it wouldn’t take that long but I think part of
the reason was we had a variety of other projects going on that
overlapped with this in the beginning, during that first year, which
slowed it down a little bit and there were some other factors. I have
been reviewing this executive summary document over and over again to
get it as correct as it can possibly be. I think it is at a point where it can be adopted now.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, are there any significant changes from the
earlier drafts that we have had?
Mr. Higbee said there were a number of minor text changes. I
wouldn’t say that any of them were significant. In the housing section there was one page where I felt about half of the page was a little bit hard to understand. So, I had them clarify the wording a little bit in there but the jest of it was exactly the same as before so there are no real content changes.
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve the recommendation of the
Plan Commission to adopt the Town of Plainfield’s Comprehensive Plan as presented. Second by Mr. Fivecoat. Motion carried.
Mr. Carlucci said we also have a resolution for the official
adoption of that later in the meeting. I would say that if this plan,
and I believe it is as good as the 1993 plan, is as good of a roadmap
as that one was, we should have a bright future with our planning in
Town. We followed that plan pretty religiously. One thing that we
have done here is we don’t take our planning documents and then put
them on the shelf. We have been following them. The best example is
the perimeter road system of the Town. From that standpoint I’m very
happy. This will be my third Comprehensive Plan. When I got here, they were adopting in 1989 the ’89 plan, which didn’t last all that long and then we were in the ’93.
The next item I have is I have provided some information to you.
We scanned some sheets on the CD-ROM for street lighting. I indicated
on the agenda that this is really Perimeter Parkway lighting and mostly on the west side of the parkway as it continues to develop. The big piece of that is developed from Saratoga Boulevard all the way up to Township Line Road and then up to the next road to the north, which is Gibbs Road. I have Steve Smith here tonight who I worked with on this. He works for Lester Sales. We gave some options here but then I realized after talking with Mr. Isaacs that we did leave one option out. We were trying to find a pole that was both decorative and functional. There are some examples. There were three different examples of poles that we gave. None of them are cheap. We tried to come up with some functionality to it but were still decorative. We are looking at basically a 25-foot pole with some scrollwork in the arm and a 250-watt high-pressure sodium light as opposed to metal halide. Most of our lights in Town are high-pressure sodium that we offer. These corridors will probably be lit differently.
We looked at aluminum, which is very expensive but Mr. Isaacs
pointed out too that we might want to look at a fiberglass pole. I
don’t know if generally they are more or less expensive.
Mr. Isaacs said they can be comparable. I don’t know without
looking at any details. I don’t know for sure. I think it can be
comparable and I don’t know the details on this pole either. I need to look at the specs on this compared to that.
Mr. Carlucci said you could spend a lot of money on this. We
wanted it to look nice but we also wanted to have some function to it. I think with the discussions that we had metal halide wasn’t a real good option in terms of the lighting. There is a cost issue too
because if you look at every intersection in Saratoga Boulevard, usually the intersections are across from each other. But some are
offset a little bit or some areas haven’t developed but typically we
try to line up those intersections. You can be talking 15-20 poles just along that corridor from Saratoga to Hanna Road. We haven’t looked as far as going north yet. But I would just like to get your reaction to what is presented and what direction you want us to go. We can look at a fiberglass pole. Mr. Isaacs has a vast experience in electrical in his previous life at Cinergy.
Mr. Kirchoff said my Cinergy background predisposes me to
consistency and standardization. Those don’t turn me on at all. I
think you are spending a lot of money. Our history has been trying to
have some standardization so that you don’t have a lot of different
inventory out there and try to maintain that.
Mr. Brandgard said I agree with that too. That is why we are
trying to set a standard to get the consistency as we move forward.
Mr. Carlucci said this is not neighborhood lighting. This is
corridor lighting.
Mr. Kirchoff said I understand that. Another reason I just don’t
see that going on at the Perimeter Parkway.
Mr. Carlucci asked, do you have any ideas?
Mr. Brandgard said we need to look at the fiberglass from a cost
standpoint but again we are trying to set a theme on the major
thoroughfares through Town.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, what is on Perry?
Mr. Brandgard said at the moment we have aluminum poles.
Mr. Carlucci said we were looking at the pole that we came up
with at the Perimeter Parkway was going to be different than what we
were going to do on U.S. 40. We didn’t even address that issue. We
wouldn’t recommend that for U.S. 40. We were only talking about the
Perimeter Parkway around the Town, which is our lights, which we can
place them where we want but when we start putting them on the U.S.
Highway, we fall under the State’s guidelines in terms of how many you have to have. This may or may not work for that but we weren’t even looking at this as the way that we would light U.S. 40.
Mr. Isaacs said I’m sure Mr. Smith has other lights too that is
something different than what you are looking at there but there are a variety of options and all of them have some good features and all of them have some negative sides to them as well. There are a variety of different designs and styles that can be used there. If you are
looking at Highway 40 to match those on the Perimeter, then you can do that as well. The cost issue is probably going to be greater.
Mr. Carlucci said I would suggest one or two other Council
members, along with Mr. Isaacs, help me try to come up with some
consensus on what we need to do here. Otherwise, I’m bringing in
something that I thought was functional and not overly decorative.
Cinergy is not going to stock these poles and it is unlikely that
Hendricks Power would either. So, we would end up owning them and
contracting out someone maintaining them like we do on the poles alongStafford Road east of Quaker Boulevard. Those are all our poles. We got those with the federal grant and we maintain them and they don’t seem to have been too much of a burden having a contractor coming out to do that.
Mr. Isaacs said we do know the current poles that are on U.S. 40
are no longer replaceable. So, once those are damaged and gone we will have to replace those with something different. Cinergy is not going to be able to replace those any longer.
Mr. McPhail said it has been several months ago but didn’t we get
some information from Cinergy that they really were not interested in
furnishing decorative poles? We are probably going to end up owning
our own poles in any case. I think we need a master theme whether they are different on Perimeter Parkway than they are on U.S. 40 and Quaker Boulevard. There has to be a theme that all blends together. I would hate to make a step forward in one area when we are having that whole plan together and I don’t know what it is going to take to do that.
Mr. Isaacs said whatever you choose you need to select something
that everyone is comfortable with and will have the ability to replace them for many years down the road. I’m sure Mr. Smith as well as some others can present a different package of a different type of pole and lighting, etc. that could be looked at as a group and a collective decision made there to which would suit the Town’s needs the best.
Mr. Brandgard said I would like to see, if possible, an example
of whatever light we choose in operation to see what kind of light it
puts out and spacing it. Friday night, which was kind of a bad night
because it was rainy, but on 116th Street east of 69 at Fishers they
have those decorative lights. The way they are spaced I would be
happier if there weren’t any lights out there.
Mr. Carlucci said they also turn them sideways. You can turn it
this way or this way and they turn them sideways. I think those are
high-pressure metal halide. They are pretty bright.
Mr. Brandgard said it created more problems than if they weren’t
there as far as I was concerned especially when it was rainy. So,
there are some issues that we need to look at relative to spacing.
Mr. Kirchoff said we need to do this right rather than quick.
Mr. Brandgard said the only reason there is a quickness to it,
especially on Saratoga, is we have been waiting eight years.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, Mr. McGillem do you have any experience in
this?
Mr. McGillem said the federal standards for lighting are pretty
tough on spacing, etc.
Mr. Carlucci said INDOT when we put these lights out here along
in front of Cinergy, and, of course, on Quaker Boulevard you had to
present them the photometric plan and they looked at it. They said no
you need more lights so I think the ones out on Quaker Boulevard are
400-watt high-pressure sodium and the other ones are maybe 250. They
don’t pay for it and they don’t spend a dime on it but they can tell
you how they want them to be on the roadway. You can either be totally
in the dark or look like daytime but that’s about it.
Mr. McPhail asked, has the Ronald Reagan Parkway group addressed
that?
Mr. Kirchoff asked, have we Dave?
Dave said we are in the process of coming out with some text on
the different features.
Mr. Brandgard said I don’t think they have gone deep enough to
answer the questions that we are looking at here yet with it.
Mr. McPhail said that is going to be part of our plan. We want
it to blend in with what we are doing don’t we?
Mr. Brandgard said it all depends. I’m saying that the Ronald
Reagan steering committee is going to establish what the lighting is on that whole corridor. We may want to use the same thing when we do the Town or not.
Mr. Carlucci said that is interesting because most of the County,
a lot of the corridors in the County, don’t do street lighting. As a
matter of fact, as far as I know, Avon doesn’t do any street lighting. There is a big gap between Avon and somewhere else.
Mr. Brandgard said we will want that lit when it comes through
there.
Mr. Carlucci said maybe with Mr. Isaacs’ help and Mr. Kirchoff if
you want to help out and with Mr. McGillem we can try to see what we
can come up with. If you get something very restrictive and very
unique, it may not be around for a long time. They change things over. So, it is a pretty good balancing act to come up with the right light that is functional and can get them down the road. How long is long I don’t know because Cinergy said they are not going to take care of these anymore. I’m assuming they are the ones downtown, the older lights.
Mr. Isaacs said the cast iron poles that are no longer
replaceable. They don’t have anything to match it with.
Mr. Brandgard asked, they are aluminum aren’t they?
Mr. Isaacs said not the old ones.
Mr. Carlucci said the older ones have the higher arms that come
out and over. The other ones are aluminum that are on either side of
the Town.
Mr. Isaacs said the aluminum poles are being used mainly today.
Mr. McPhail said Cinergy lost a pole today in front of Al’s
Donuts. They brought our Christmas decorations over and told us the
pole was down, bracket and all. And they haven’t replaced it so I
don’t know what is going on.
Mr. Carlucci said we will get together and work on this some
more.
I was looking at the agenda and my computer has another item on
the Consent Agenda and that was to approve the 2005 meeting calendar.
You have a copy of it and I have checked it at least three times. From what I can see it is a fair representation of our meetings for 2005. If I can get your approval of that, we can send it to the press. It also has the holiday schedule on the back too.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to approve the 2005 meeting calendar as
presented. Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Motion carried.
Mr. Carlucci said in my report to the Council I mentioned that
the Town Manager of Avon indicated that they would like to continue our meeting that was interrupted by tornado warnings. They are either
suggesting Thursday, January 13 or Thursday, January 27. I think we met up there the last time at 6:00 p.m. So, if you want to think about it or pick one, let me know. (The meeting was scheduled the 13th at 6:00 p.m.)
This may or may not be Gus Pearcy’s last meeting. He is leaving
the Flyer and moving onto bigger and better things. He is returning to college at Indiana State. I have always appreciated how he has covered the Town.
REPORTS
Mr. Fivecoat said we had a tour of the treatment plant the other
day. Mr. Whitaker set up the tour for all of us. Mr. McPhail and Mr.
Castetter made it and Mr. Gaddie and myself and Mr. Belcher. We had an enjoyable afternoon and got to tour the treatment plant. They are
making a lot of progress out there.
Mr. Brandgard said it is hard to tell from just looking at it.
There is a lot of stuff in the ground but it doesn’t look like it is
doing anything.
Mr. Fivecoat said it is coming out of the ground now. They say
it will be June when they are ready.
Mr. Kirchoff said we continue to meet, if not monthly
periodically, with the school corporation and their engineering firm.
It was last week that we had a meeting here and as you know, one of the things that has really been a plus in this is the opportunity to sit around the table and talk about this. It is their project but we needed to be at the table as they made certain considerations. Last week, to give you an example, we met up here to talk about where we were on the issues as far as the site because they are still doing the site design. At the table was six different firms or entities represented. Schmidt and Associates, which is the architect for the school, Schneider was represented here because we were talking about the sewer, etc. We had Edwards and Kelsey who are doing a lot of the street design for us. We had Butler Fairman and their efforts because of what we are doing on Hadley Road. We had Banning Engineering because they are taking the lead with the school and we were there. It was neat to sit back and see the cooperation, the collaboration, “have you thought about this”? And the interlocal agreement that we drafted is working. We may be coming in here soon with an addendum to that. I just wanted you to know that it is working.
Mr. Belcher said I’m very pleased. It seems like we are way
ahead on a project that doesn’t open until 2008 but we really aren’t.
The firms are all working together, which I’m real pleased about.
Sharing information, etc. has to be done to make all of this fit
together. So, they are doing it and I think it is all going real well.
Mr. Kirchoff said I want to thank Schneider and BFS because their
representatives are equal players and really adding to this. They are
exchanging electronic files, taking ownership but it is just
encouraging seeing that kind of thing happen. That is what we wanted in the first place but I wanted you all to know that it is really working.
It was in November that we received a request to name the new
street. There is going to be a street that goes north from Hadley Road up to on the school site and ties into Reeves Road. The school had contacted us about calling that Red Pride Drive. They have asked if the Council would consider honoring their request so that they could be located on Red Pride Drive. As we have gotten into this and we start talking about delivers, a lot of companies will not have any idea where Red Pride Drive is. So, I think they had talked to Mr. Higbee, the 1701 Reeves Road, and what they would like to do is maintain that 1701 Reeves Road for construction purposes but they would like for us to go ahead and let them know that we would honor their request that the new north/south road be called Red Pride Drive. Eventually that will be their address. So, it is a little bit of a twist that we are facing here but that is their request to us. They would like to maintain 1701 Reeves Road for construction purposes but the high school will be addressed as Red Pride Drive, if that is what we would approve.
Mr. Carlucci said I think that will be in the addendum that you
are working on.
Mr. Brandgard asked, is there consent? Consent given.
Mr. McPhail said my only concern as we move forward the road plan
when we get north of the school, it is going to be Southfield Drive.
Mr. Kirchoff said it will be Reeves Road. Southfield Drive is
east of there. Southfield Drive is on the other side of the creek.
That is what we talked to them about. We didn’t want to call it
Southfield Drive because we anticipate Southfield Drive to actually run south of Reeves and parallel Red Pride Drive sometime in the future.
Mr. McPhail said you mean east of Red Pride Drive.
Mr. Kirchoff said yes it would parallel it. When we talked about
that, we said we want to maintain the capability of having Southfield
Drive all the way from where it is now. We don’t want it to go all the way to Hadley but we think it could all go south of Reeves and parallel Red Pride Drive. We said you need to think of something different there.
Mr. Daniel said we are scheduled this Friday at 9:00 a.m. to close on the Belleville Conservancy District project.
Chief Brinker said first I would like to report that the Tiburon
Records Management System and Computerated Dispatch is set to go on
line. I’m still hoping for a January start date for that. That will be the record system that ties us in with the Marion County records and CAD. We are all getting excited and nervous with that but things are really going well with it.
Also, tonight there are two resolutions in regards to the
intergovernmental cooperation agreement for dispatching services with
the Town of Avon and the Washington Township Fire Department. Before
you go to those I would be willing to answer any questions or talk
about that any way that you would like.
Mr. Carlucci said maybe you would like the history of how this
unfolded.
Chief Brinker said four years ago we implemented the 800 radio
system with the police and fire. In that we were able to get a dispatch center with the new police station that fortunately was built for the future. We have been working the last two years and especially the last six months very heavily with outside agencies in hopes of bringing them into the 800-Megahurtz system. It helps to strengthen our position of law enforcement and fire protection for the County and for the citizens around us by being able to talk to those agencies that we work closest with. We are very fortunate in the last six months that negotiations with Avon and their desire to become part of that system have led us to the opportunity to make this agreement. In short the agreement basically is for a grand total of $210,000.00 for dispatching services for the year 2005. That is going to be split three ways between the Avon Police Department, the Washington Township Fire Department and funds due to the emergency 911 fund presented by the County commissioners. With that money we will fill four new dispatcher positions that will basically give us dispatchers on duty at any one time. This again will help us to provide better call service and a better response and with the addition of the Tiburon system the squad cars, the fire trucks will all see on a computer screen everything that is going on in the dispatch center as far as where the run is, what the run is and what type of response the police or fire would make on that kind of a run. With this agreement we truly believe this kind of a change is going to be a benefit, not only to Plainfield, but it is going to provide excellent service for the residents of Avon and Washington Township and it is going to help us probably get a lot closer to our grand hope of having a 800 radio system throughout the County.
Mr. Carlucci said I believe that you are still working with
volunteer departments in the Liberty Township.
Chief Brinker said we are very close with Liberty Township and
the Clayton Police Department in bringing them on board. This project
here is fairly major with Avon and the people in Liberty Township and
Clayton are ready to go. We have told them that as soon as we are able to make sure this is a good program that is going to work, we are ready to start negotiating again with them. Mr. Carlucci had mentioned to me that we should talk with Mooresville and the day that he told me that I got a call from the chief in Mooresville who wanted to sit down and have lunch so that is on the way too. We are very fortunate that we built a very excellent system. We have continued to keep it up and the Town of Plainfield have been the envy as far as this goes. We are just happy to be able to help the others get involved and get going.
Mr. Carlucci said one approach that we took here is that, for
example, the Settlement project, which is coming right down to the
Township Line Road is in the Town of Avon. We were concerned about what was best for us and what was best for us is a way that we could
communicate with our neighboring communities. It was becoming inherently more of a problem. It was maybe a little less of a problem with the fire department but more of a problem with the police departments so that they could talk with each other. It seems like it was more than a year ago in talking with Chief Ritorto and Town Manager Mr. Klein and we said we need to do something because it is important that we be able to communicate. We can communicate with Wayne Township, Decatur Township and the City of Indianapolis is on the 800- Megahurtz. But it was becoming more of a problem when these problems crossed inter-jurisdictional lines. Our focus was to get them on the same system and the way that we could do that quickly. Washington Township is the most popular township in the County. So, we were able to do something that will make it better for us. I’m not suggesting that we go down to Mooresville and do this with them. What we want to talk to Mooresville about is how can we get you to the point where we can talk to you too and not to do their dispatching because we can overload ourselves here. But at what point can we get them to that point? They may or may not have to wait for Morgan County to do it but again we are faced with the same problem with them. We have to be able to communicate with each other. That was really our direction. Centralized dispatching is an issue that we can debate for a few years and we are still be no closer talking to each other or we can do it this way and move forward.
Chief Brinker said I think we are also establishing plans for
centralized dispatching. I’m extremely in favor of centralized
dispatching. I have said that but with this condition that we are all
on the same exact radio system and the same record system. It does not matter that the dispatchers are sitting in the same room sitting side by side or sitting in Plainfield and Brownsburg. If we are all using the same equipment and the same standards and following the same procedures, that is centralized dispatching. I think before we would ever want to go much further than that it would be the way that we would want to see things started. I’m very proud and we have the best dispatch center and the best policies and the best equipment. We would very much love to have everyone catch up with us and that is what we are doing is trying to help them in that direction. Rather than trying to tell them what to do we are telling them here are ways that you can come to where we are now. We are not asking them all to come and join us in our building as opposed to joining us in the way that we are doing business.
Mr. Carlucci said we have the best-trained people and the best
people over there too. It is going to be difficult for everybody,
especially the communications and Ms. Holland because of the short turn around, but with Mr. Lydick’s help in getting people hired over there and going forward I think this is actually what is better for
Plainfield. The fact that it helps Avon that is fine but it is also
better for Plainfield to work this way.
Mr. Fivecoat said centralized dispatch has been talked about in
this County since 1970.
Mr. Carlucci said I think what Chief Brinker said is exactly
right, as long as we are on the same 800-Megahurtz, the same computers, the same software, it functions that way anyway.
Chi Brinker said if you build one building that is large enough
for all dispatchers in Hendricks County to come into, you have to build two. Because in the event of an emergency you have to have a second place to go. Right now if you continue to operate three to four individual dispatch centers and one is down, you can quickly move people to one of those other three and still conduct business
especially if we are all on the same system.
Mr. Kirchoff said if a taxpayer stopped me on the street, can we
assure them that we are not subsidizing neighboring communities?
Chief Brinker said to give an explanation of that the numbers
that were used to come up with the agreement that we proposed was
basically to cover the cost of four dispatcher’s salaries; benefits
that we anticipate those expenses and overtime costs for the necessary training and covering shifts for vacation and sickness and leave time. We had that added in as well. There was a remainder above and beyond those costs as opposed to what we had agreed with them on. Mr. McPhail and I sat down and determined that was within the exact same ratio with what the Town currently spends in regards to the number of dispatchers currently hired and the cost of operations of the center. So, it’s not like we asked them for too much money and it is within the same settings that we had set previously. It is definitely not subsidized and not over-charging either one. It is a very fair agreement.
Mr. Prince said I just wanted to report to you tonight that we
are still learning our software and learning how to abstract data from it. I thought you might be interested that at the close of business yesterday we had 12,235 guests that had used the recreation center as of the 12th at closing. We have 3,124 members right now for the Plainfield Recreation and Aquatic Center.
Mr. Lydick said you never know what you are going to face when you come to work especially on a Monday morning. I was really shocked this morning when I came to work and found out that tonight is Mr. Higbee’s last night at a Town Council meeting. He has turned in his resignation for the Town of Plainfield. So, it is a city in
Tennessee’s gain and our loss that Mr. Higbee has resigned. So, I want to express our appreciation for all of the work that he has done in the last six years that he has worked for the Town of Plainfield.
The Salary Ordinance has been prepared and you have received a
copy of that in advance. So, you have had some opportunities to review it. We had two or three major goals that we were trying to accomplish with this Salary Ordinance. It turned out that every non-elected official is receiving 1.75% increase and then there are some positions within the Town that over the years we have kind of gotten eschewed. Before I came to the Town of Plainfield just every year they gave a certain percentage rate. So, this resulted in some wide discrepancies in salaries. The fire and police departments, the difference in ranks was not a very large amount of money. So, over the last four years we have been trying to improve on that. With this particular Salary Ordinance with the police department we got the difference in ranks to almost $1,800.00. With the fire department we were able to get the spread in the ranks up to $2,000.00. Actually it is $2,009.28. So, obviously that increased the cost of the salary increases considerably. And then the clerical people have never had their salaries evaluated since 1999 so basically all of the clerical people have received the three to three and a half percent that you have given over the years. So, we took a look at the various job descriptions for the clerical people and took into consideration how much public contact they had and tried to accommodate so that positions that required a certain level of responsibilities and a certain level of customer contact got approximately the same amount of money. As you look through that, you can find some of those increases are larger percentage wise than some of the others.
So, that is basically the goals that we have set out. You will
notice that I also provided you with two alternatives. The only
difference between alternative one and alternative two is alternative
two as one more position on it than what alternative one does.
When you have employees that have been with the Town for several
years, and, of course, whenever you give three, four and five percent
increases every year, these salaries grow quite large. For that person that is holding that position they are worth that amount of money because of the experience that they have on their skills. But as far as the position itself it is getting priced too high. So, we came up with an alternative way of figuring the salaries for those four or five people, whichever one you happen to choose. For this particular year those people would still get the 2.75% increase in salary. It is just the hourly rate or the salary rate would only increase one percent and then the difference between one percent and 2.75% would be paid as a lump sum amount. I suggest that we include that lump sum amount with the longevity paycheck. That is a good opportunity to do it. In other words we would pay half of the lump sum amount in January and the other half of the lump sum in July.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, is that the way that you do longevity?
Mr. Lydick said yes.
Mr. Kirchoff said if you did the longevity in one lump sum in
January, you might as well add this in as well.
Mr. Lydick said the employees that receive less than $1,000.00
get all of it in January. Those employees that receive $1,000.00 or
more in longevity pay get half in January and half in July. All of
these people would qualify for the split amount.
Mr. Kirchoff said if I could talk about alternative two the
spreadsheet that you gave us, I believe the last column is understated by the lump sum amount. I don’t believe the lump sum was added to the annual wage because you show the 2005 annual wage and the compensation being the same.
Mr. Lydick said that is correct.
Mr. Kirchoff said we should add the lump sum to that for their
total compensation.
Mr. Lydick said going back to the 2004 wage if you take that
times 2.75%, you get the 2005 annual wage. But you will notice the
alternative hourly rate is thirty-one cents less.
Mr. Kirchoff said twenty-eight cents on the first line.
Mr. Lydick said I’m sorry I’m on the fourth one. Which line were
you talking about again?
Mr. Kirchoff said any of those.
Mr. Lydick said the 2005 annual wage column is the 2004 annual
wage times 1.0275.
Mr. Kirchoff said let’s take the first one at sixteen zero seven
if I take that times twenty eighty and add the five eighty-two forty,
it comes to that?
Mr. Lydick said I hope it does. That’s my intent. The sixteen
zero seven times 2,080 hours plus the five eighty-two forty should
equal the 2005 total compensation.
Mr. Kirchoff said if I could speak to that briefly for the two
new Council members, this was something that raised its head last year. The department heads had some concerns about market value, about peer relativity, etc. We did some analysis and Mr. Lydick ran the highest to the lowest and put a spreadsheet together. That is when it was pointed out to us that we had some people that were really out of sync with their department. We kind of chewed on it last year and didn’t do anything and I commend Mr. Lydick for doing this this year because I think we have to slow some of this distortion down or it is going to get worse. This is one of the things that we have seen other places use so you still give them some increase on the base but then you go ahead and pay the rest of it in a lump sum. So, you have slowed down the base pay distortion that we have had over the years. It is going to take us probably a couple of three years doing this to get the people back in line but I commend you for doing this Mr. Lydick because it is the right thing to do.
Mr. McPhail said I agree. We have worked hard on the other end
to bring them up and then we let some out of balance on the high end
and yet you don’t want to penalize those folks but you don’t want to
keep compounding the problem, which is what we have been doing.
Mr. Lydick said when you go a straight percentage, it does
compound the problem in the future.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, who advises employees of their salaries?
Mr. Lydick said the department heads.
Mr. Kirchoff said I would hope that we could help couch them
about the philosophy of this.
Mr. Lydick said I think with those five or six people that I
would be involved with that also.
Mr. Kirchoff said and that this may not be the only time that it
happens.
Mr. Brandgard said if it happens here, it will happen from here
on.
Mr. Kirchoff said for some period of time. I know you have taken
the lead on this but I know in the past the department heads have had
some conversations but are you generally comfortable with what you are seeing here? Have you had sufficient input that you feel like you can look your people in the eye and support this?
Mr. Lydick said they all said they wanted more.
Mr. Kirchoff said we wish we had more but times are tough. I saw
some numbers change from the last time to this time. I think it is
important that as we go through this I think Mr. Lydick takes the lead but I really think the department heads have a chance to give input because it shouldn’t be done in a vacuum. It’s not a perfect world and we have limited resources but conceptually I think it would be wrong if we don’t get your input. You are the people that live with your people everyday. I think it is important that we have a team approach to salaries.
Mr. Lydick said the Council gave me the guideline of trying not
to increase the cost more than 3.5%. When I got finished, I was down
to less than $20.00 per employee of reaching my 3.5%. So, I didn’t go
over.
Mr. McPhail said we have this on our ordinance readings. When do
we need to do the third reading?
Mr. Kirchoff said it is one reading.
Mr. Carlucci said the Salary Ordinance is only one reading.
Mr. Brandgard said the ordinance that we have here to approve
reflects our discussion.
Mr. McPhail said I thought it had to go through three readings.
The only other question that I might have is we do have one elected
official on here that there is no increase in here. Mr. Lydick and I
discussed this and had some conversation. That is our Clerk/Treasurer. The issue that is of major concern to me is once you establish the salary for the Clerk/Treasurer it can never go down based on the State law. This Salary Ordinance does not address any increase for that position.
Mr. Lydick said if you want to increase that position, it must be
done before you vote because with an elected official, as far as the
Clerk/Treasurer, it can never go down but once you vote for 2005 it
cannot go up in 2005 either. Whatever you vote for sticks for 2005 and you can’t change it later.
Mr. Kirchoff said I asked what a three-percent increase would do
and I believe Mr. McPhail says fifty-one eight. Does the ordinance
include alternative one or two?
Mr. Lydick said you will have to specify it. The actual ordinance
itself does not include alternative one or alternative two. You will
have to specify which one that you want to use. That would just
supersede what the Salary Ordinance said.
Mr. Jason Castetter said I did not see the Department of Public
Works on the Consent Agenda so I would just like to see if everybody
got that.
Mr. Brandgard said yes.
Mr. Castetter said on November 23 I accepted quotes for the next
year’s ground services. I received three quotes. After reviewing the
quotes and doing a reference check on the low quote that came in I
recommend that Holzknecht Enterprises be awarded a one-year contract
for the exterior ground maintenance in the amount of $47,052.69.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, is that all that your motion covers?
Mr. Castetter said the snow removal is not included in that
quote. It is done hourly. The hourly rate for snow removal is $75.00
and for salt and ice melt for sidewalks is $20.00.
Mr. McPhail asked, $20.00 a bag?
Mr. Castetter said yes.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to approve the recommendation of the
Superintendent of Public Works and award the maintenance contract to
Holzknecht Enterprises for the amount of $47,052.69 for the exterior
ground services for one year. And that the snow removal rate be set at $75.00 an hour and the ice melt at $20.00 a bag. Second by Mr.
Fivecoat.
Mr. Castetter said I might add too that this contract starts
April 1 and carries through. We will be using the current company
through the snow season of this year.
Mr. Brandgard said if there is no further discussion all those in
favor signify by aye. None opposed. Motion carried.
Mr. McGillem said the only thing additional that I have above the
report is I indicated in the report that the interchange, Six Points
Road was supposed to be opened this coming weekend. I was informed
today by INDOT that it may be opened Thursday. That was a casual
remark in the way that we have been getting information. We might not
know until it is on TV. We were out there today after lunch and they
didn’t have the signal on yet and I was contacted pertaining to the
signal today. That was who I was talking to and they said there was
going to be a big ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday.
Mr. Carlucci said INDOT called Mr. McGillem up and said we need
to know how you want the timing and he said why because it is not our
signal. We didn’t put it in and INDOT is trying to figure out how that signal got there. We asked pretty specific questions. We asked them at that meeting we had at the police headquarters building if we were going to have to maintain that ramp area and they said absolutely not. I asked that at least twice. Of course, they asked us about maintaining the ramp and we said we didn’t have to maintain the ramp, it’s not our ramp.
Mr. McGillem said they are trying to figure out who is going to
clear off the snow on the north/south segment of the interchange.
Mr. Carlucci said one of our police cars is blocking off Six
Points Road as you go south because they were actually working on those signals and they had to keep that intersection closed. That was right after lunch. I went back and I had to turn around and go back the other way.
Mr. McGillem said normally they were required to flash for three
days. That’s why I think maybe Thursday might be a realistic day. It
may be Thursday or it may be this weekend but it is getting close.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, do you know if they have any kind of
immediate plan?
Mr. McGillem said I will see what I can find out.
Mr. Belcher said first I wanted to ask if you received the
building report or not. I don’t think I attached that to my file. If
you got it, fine. If not, I have a hard copy here and I could send you the electronic one at the next meeting.
Mr. Brandgard said I did not get one.
Mr. Belcher said summarizing the year quickly there were 379
single-family home permits so far in the Town, which is 132 additional over last year. Last year was not a slow year so it has gone from fast to faster. It has been a good year and that is just through November. That is just one indicator. There are a lot of other things going on but it has been a pretty busy year for the building department.
Mr. Kirchoff said that is a 50% increase.
Mr. Brandgard said 58%.
Mr. Belcher said that is a year that was not slow from the
previous year. I think a lot had to do with Raceway Road. Those
projects are extremely high growth in terms of rates of permits coming in, groups of five and ten at a time, that kind of thing. Lots of things really took off, Saratoga, Paddock and some mixture of housing has taken place. It has been a very effective year.
I will make sure that you get the electronic one at the next meeting.
The Erosion Control ordinance, I did attach. It is still in a
draft form. I talked to Mr. Carlucci late today and rather than having Ordinance 32-2004 we thought we would wait and make it number one in 2005 rather than introducing it tonight. I wanted Mr. Daniel to have time to look through this too but with everything else going on I haven’t had a chance to talk to him about it. So, it is in a
relatively draft form. In essence what we are doing is stepping into a very big job that the State is passing off to us as they often do a lot of times. Just to give you a sense of what is going on we had a two hour and 15 minute pre-construction meeting with the Wal-Mart folks, their contractors. They came in the door and they mentioned it first. We bring it up at our pre-construction meetings all of the time but their contractors brought it up. So, the owners like Wal-Mart who work over all of the country are seeing this kind of high regulation storm water runoff and things like that. I think we spent an hour of the two hours talking about that. It is not a bad thing at all but the amount of effort that is going to go into this area is going to change dramatically in the next year, Plainfield and other areas of our size. So, what has happened in the bigger cities is coming to the small towns.
Mr. Kirchoff said I didn’t have a chance to read it all but the
reason for it is it because it is mandated?
Mr. Belcher said yes.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, have we estimated our load on our
administrative?
Mr. Belcher said we are actually just beginning to get a feel.
That is why this ordinance actually refers out to the fee structure in another ordinance because we are still trying to figure out how exactly we would charge for a plan review inspection, all the things that we have to do to administer this program. Also, this is under the umbrella of the bigger program that we have already talked about, which is the storm water utility and what they call the MS4. So, this is only one component of that. We are trying to deal with it as a complete package but this is one area.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, did anybody consider impact on the public?
Mr. Belcher said the folks like Wal-Mart can afford to spend a
lot of money on this issue. It is going to be a lot harder as we go
down to the smaller projects when the efforts are still going to have
to be very large. When you get a one-inch rain or a two-inch rain and
the record keeping and the things like that that have to be done is
tremendous. Unfortunately, we find ourselves in so many programs the
State is going to be looking at us and saying why aren’t you doing
that? So, it is going to be difficult. The school project will be
another extremely difficult and large project. It’s going to fall
under this law anyway whether we have the ordinance or not. But it puts us in a position on having to work with the school early on trying to make sure we have the curve on it. A lot of resources are going to be committed to this effort. It is not all bad but there is a tremendous change coming.
Mr. Carlucci said I didn’t know if you saw the article by the
County surveyor talking about this. Dave Gaston is dealing with the
same thing. A couple of comments that I thought was pretty interesting is he said I never counted on this when I ran for the County Surveyor. Secondly, they apparently have a structure where they have to go through a committee at the County to recommend hiring new employees. I don’t know what the end result of that will be but that was what was in the article in the paper. He is dealing with the same MS4 and the erosion control and all of that. Mr. Belcher was showing me what they were doing on Dan Jones Road, just the storm inlets. They are changing pretty dramatically to where you are having specialized inlets coming in. One is a gravity spinner so the water will go another way but this is the type of thing, as we go on, that we are going to have to incorporate in every new development and it is a cost.
Mr. Belcher said there is the hard cost like that and then the
administrative cost of making others do it and making sure that they do it correctly.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, what kind of publicity, what kind of
educational plan, is there out there?
Mr. Belcher said that is one of the components of the plan is
education and outreach that we have to develop in our plan to get that word out. We are talking about maybe partnering with the County and using our Water Line and newsletters, etc. to try to educate people. The majority of people will be those actually that want to build a home or do something like that but we have to educate builders who build maybe 10 homes a year. The C.P. Morgan’s of the world know about this and they can have a staff that can do this like Wal-Mart but I think the hard ones will always be the smaller operators who are not used to the administrative load like us. We have a small staff and we need to figure out how to administer this without having lots of staff.
Mr. Fivecoat said the paperwork is tremendous for the developer.
Mr. Kirchoff said that is why I brought up the impact on the
public because I didn’t get very far into it and I couldn’t believe it.
Mr. Belcher said it is tremendous and it doesn’t include Mr.
Castetter’s future staff that has to clean these devices out and track the amount of material that they took out. It’s not bad. I’m not saying that it’s not a good thing to take out oil, etc. The goals are good but some of the administrative side is going to be hard to show people that it is a good thing that it cost so much.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, is there any sense of any software that is
out there that would help us with this?
Mr. Bill Castetter said (inaudible).
Mr. Kirchoff said we can’t do this by paper surely.
[Tape one concluded at this point and time and resumed on tape
two as follows with Mr. Belcher speaking.]
…………that is one of the parts of the program. This is one
component, this Erosion Control Ordinance is one of the whole.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, is there a deadline that we have to adopt
this?
Mr. Belcher said we are supposed to take over the program about
mid to late January, at the end of January, this component of it. We
already have our plans submitted, etc. IDEM has been dragging their
feet a little bit partly because of the administration change and
partly because of other reasons. It basically looks like the end of
January the smaller communities are going to have to have this in
place. The Erosion Control Ordinance does exist in Plainfield. Rule 5
is in the State law. It is already there but we have no way to enforce it without an ordinance.
Mr. Whitaker said I think the good news for the Town is your GIS
system is a great platform and there are programs out there that are
right on top of your GIS system that can keep all of this record
keeping. When they do a clean, it automatically records it. Obviously, that is the next generation on the GIS system but it is there and waiting and available and can be figured to support this also. I think that is good news in terms of the GIS system that you are going to be putting on line.
Mr. Kirchoff said it would be good to have a status report on
where we are on the GIS sometime.
Mr. Belcher said Mr. Whitaker and I talked about that last week
and we are working on that now because I thought the same thing last
week. Where I was last on that with the guys that I work with at
Schneider was asking them to come up with an idea of the maintenance
cost and each of the layers that we have developed and who would be
responsible in the Town. And would we contract out that layer and try
to come up with an annual budget for maintaining this machine that we
are buying basically.
Mr. Kirchoff said I would be curious to see how the other
departments are benefiting from it or not. We have had that kind of
conversation but it would be good to have a status report because I
think that maybe Mr. Fivecoat and Mr. Gaddie hasn’t even seen yet.
Mr. Whitaker asked, did you want to do that before the end of the
year or right after the first of the year?
Mr. Kirchoff said I made myself a note at the next meeting to
ask. I won’t wait until the next meeting now but I think it would be
very healthy for us to have a sense of that. We blessed it and we said it is going to be a tool that we are going to use so we ought to know where we are.
Mr. Brandgard said after the first of the year would be fine.
Mr. Whitaker asked, in addition to having a GIS presentation
would you like to see a short presentation on some of the available
software that might be able to answer the questions at a future date?
We would be happy to do that as well. We could set up software running on your GIS system that we can pick out a place in Plainfield and show you how that might work.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, would we do that here or should it be at one
of your offices?
Mr. Whitaker said either place. With our system set up we could
actually access our server through the Avon office right here in this
room. If not, we could schedule it at someplace else.
Mr. Kirchoff said I think a life demonstration would be a plus.
Mr. Whitaker said we will plan on making an updated presentation.
If we can get an example of the software to run on that in that
particular area, we will try to throw that in as well. I will get back with you before the end of the week to see what we can do, if that makes sense.
Mr. Kirchoff said after the first of the year is fine. It just
led into me asking that because it is something that we all knew that
we really needed.
Mr. Belcher said on the erosion control I’m not sure it takes any
action tonight other than letting you know we want to bring it forward in the first meeting of January and hopefully be done by the end of January.
The second item has to do with remodeling the building here and
trying to create some permanent space for Mr. Bill Castetter. We love
having him in the building and we would like to make him more
comfortable. This is a drawing that Sebree put together for us in
trying to remodel the engineering side within the walls that we have.
Nothing would make me happier to push that back wall out a little bit
but I think that is another project for another time. For the current
year in trying to get Mr. Castetter some space to have a place to put
things that he is working on, and he has a tremendous amount of
equipment that he needs to work on, this is a place that he could do
that I think. It is probably not everything that we would like to have but it gives him a better space. We still have a conference room. It gets a little smaller. We will have to have more conferences up here. Sometimes we have more people and this room gives us that ability to do that and we have the other conference room downstairs we can use. So, even though this gets quite a bit smaller in our current conference area it could still be usable for it.
Mr. Kirchoff said as I looked at the wall that you were creating
to create your hallway, it appeared to be on the west side of that
post. I wondered if you could gain some space for Mr. Castetter’s area in the conference room by moving it to the east side of the post?
Mr. Belcher said the one thing that we were doing there is we are
trying to maintain a space for those maps that would be outside the
conference room area.
Mr. Kirchoff said in lieu of the conversation that we just had
would we consider this a stop gap until we know what kind of impact it is going to have on staffing as we go forward with the rest?
Mr. Belcher said yes. Moving back and taking two parking spaces,
those kinds of things you could do with this building or going up
possibly in this other floor. But that is a much bigger project that
may take us a year or two to develop.
Mr. Fivecoat said where you have Bret’s office now couldn’t there
be a wall across there and put a door? When he is in there trying to
work with people walking in and out of that door, that is distracting. I know it is distractive to Mr. Castetter the way his is set up without a door there.
Mr. Belcher said that would be a great idea.
Mr. Fivecoat said to close that office for him because that is
distracting if you are trying to do paperwork, etc.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, which would be the best place to put him
then? Would it be better to move him to the back to perhaps a smaller
area and have a little larger conference room? Does Mr. Castetter need a larger room than Bret does?
Mr. Belcher said we know we need the conference room down here
and access is important for a lot of the meetings that are not planned and residents coming in, etc. We can look at that. We will make some slight changes and come back to you. We can still make it a winter project. I was hoping that we could move forward and get it done this winter and be on our way when it really hits in the spring and be done with it.
OLD BUSINESS
Mr. Isaacs said about six weeks ago or so you gave approval for
us to add a position in the billing area. After running the ads and
reviewing the applications that came in and interviewing six people we are ready to make a recommendation to bring another person on. The
beginning salary would be $12.00. The individual that we have selected is Denise Gadshien so we would like to move forward with that with your approval.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to approve the hiring of Denise Glachen
with the start date of January 3, 2005 as a clerk in the utility
billing office. Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Motion carried.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. McPhail said as we are getting ready to move into the new
year I don’t know what our plans are for the next extension of our
pathway system. My ward happens to be on the northeast side of Town.
There is no place in my ward that we have a park or pathway system or
anything else. I would like to see my ward connected this next year in the pathway system.
Mr. Brandgard said right after the first of the year we need to
have an update of where we are with the greenway system. We ought to be about ready to do that I would think.
Mr. Carlucci said I think we are but part of it is federal and
part of it is our own. You can’t do part of it without the other part. That is our problem. We can’t pave something and then stop but we will get you an update by the first of the year. It might be a good idea to have a short work session on that because they are also doing survey work out west on that three-mile extension of Vandalia.
Mr. Kirchoff said plus we laid some foundation as we purchased
that property up there that will probably have a trailhead.
Mr. McPhail said I think it would be pretty easy to get most of
it up through there but I don’t know what happens when we start getting down to the old Town Center area.
Mr. Isaacs said I will probably need preliminary approval to do
so in case our meeting is later in the month and I need to do it before the end of the year.
Mr. Kirchoff said we will meet before the end of the year.
Mr. Isaacs said I may need to do it before the next meeting and I
may not need to do it at all if the distribution is made before the end of the year. It’s suppose to be made but I’m not sure it will be or not. It is going to be close.
Mr. Kirchoff said Mr. Daniel suggested that we authorize the
President of the Town Council to authorize that if the need would arise between now and the 29th. I will make that as a motion. Second by Mr. McPhail. Motion carried.
Mr. Carlucci said the Rotary Club did go out and clean up
Stafford Road as part of a community service project east of Quaker
Boulevard. The person leading this was Greg Black, a Danville attorney who has an office in Town. He claims there were at least 92 pounds of debris that they collected. They have talked about that and I appreciate them going out.
Mr. Brandgard said it is appreciated. Mr. Carlucci tried to
convene the Plainfield Redevelopment Authority and couldn’t because of a lack of a quorum so there are some appointments that we need to make.
Mr. Carlucci said there is a Redevelopment Commission, which we
have and we have five members on that. We are trying to get a joint
meeting of the Redevelopment Commission but for the purposes of trying to fund the infrastructure on the high school project we have to reconstitute our redevelopment authority. That is one of our
mechanisms that we have to go through by State law to do this kind of
bond issue. It is a three-member commission. They are appointed for
three years and they have to be sworn in but basically they are the
funding arm just like the building corporations are for the schools.
This is our funding arm for that project. So, I have been able to at
least secure two names for Mr. Brandgard to recommend to the Council
and we still need a third. I think we will get that at the next meeting but at least if I can get these two names approved, we are having a meeting coming up here a week from today to get going on that process. We have to keep pace with the school or we are kind of in trouble one way or the other. But I wanted to give you that explanation. We have a Redevelopment Commission but we also need to reconstitute this redevelopment authority for this project.
Mr. Brandgard said the two names that I would like to put out is
Tony Perona and Max Hetrick from Lincoln Bank.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, does Mr. Perona do business with us and the
schools? Is there any problem there?
Mr. Carlucci said there is no financial conflict at all. They
don’t get paid.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to appoint Tony Perona and Max Hetrick
to the Plainfield Redevelopment Commission for a three-year term.
Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Motion carried.
RESOLUTIONS
Mr. McPhail made a motion to approve Resolution No. 2004-32. An
Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement for Dispatching Services for
the Town of Avon subject to review by counsel.
Mr. Daniel said the only thing that I need to review is the
contract itself and not the resolution.
Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Roll call vote called.
Mr. McPhail – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Fivecoat – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried.
Mr. Fivecoat made a motion to approve Resolution No. 2004-33. An
Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement for Dispatching Services for
the Washington Township Fire Department. Second by Mr. McPhail. Roll
call vote called.
Mr. McPhail – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Fivecoat – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to approve Resolution No. 2004-34:
Adoption of the Update of the Plainfield Comprehensive Plan. Second byMr. Fivecoat. Roll call vote called.
Mr. McPhail – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Fivecoat – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried.
Mr. Brandgard said the next resolution is No. 2004-35, the
conveyance of right-of-way from the Town of Plainfield and the Indiana Department of Transportation for property along Stanley Road.
Mr. Kirchoff said I would ask if there are any questions on this
because this has been a convoluted process. Mr. McGillem could speak
to it if you wanted to know anything. Being no questions asked Mr.
Kirchoff made a motion to approve Resolution No. 2004-35: Conveyance of Right-of-Way from the Town of Plainfield to the Indiana Department of Transportation for property along Stanley Road. Second by Mr. McPhail. Roll call vote called.
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 28-2004 with
two amendments. The Clerk/Treasurer’s salary to be $51,800.00 and that we approve alternate number two. An ordinance for the 2005 Salary Ordinance. Second by Mr. McPhail.
Mr. Lydick said the Salary Ordinance, as printed, did not include
any automatic increases for the part-time seasonal employees.
Mr. Brandgard said in the past we haven’t necessarily given them
an increase.
Mr. McPhail said I think they can bring the individuals in for an
increase can’t they?
Mr. Kirchoff said if it gets to be a problem, I assume that
department heads can come to us and say they are having some challenges and we can address it at that time. Otherwise I would leave it as is.
Mr. Brandgard said I agree.
Mr. Kirchoff said Mr. Daniel said that it should be to approve
and adopt Ordinance No. 28-2004. Second by Mr. McPhail. Roll call
vote called.
Mr. McPhail – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Fivecoat – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried.
Mr. Fivecoat made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 29-2004 on
its second reading. An ordinance for regulating tampering of the water system. Second by Mr. McPhail. Roll call vote called.
Mr. McPhail – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Fivecoat – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried.
Mr. Daniel said I didn’t know if you wanted to have that enforced
by January 1 or not or whether it matters.
Mr. Isaacs said it would be nice if we could move forward.
Mr. McPhail said if Mr. Carlucci could get these three ordinances
on the agenda for the next meeting, we could have the second and third adoption at the next meeting. If anybody would happen to have a
question, it would give them one meeting to do it. I would like to get all three of these done before the end of the year.
Mr. Brandgard said I agree.
Mr. Kirchoff said I had a question on the tampering one. On the
electric side you can get like triple damages. I wasn’t sure how
specific we were on what damages we were trying to get. There is a
pretty stringent State law out there on theft.
Mr. Isaacs said I think the only damages we can collect is the
damages to the facility itself.
Mr. Kirchoff said I can get you some background about what we
have done on the electric side. Obviously, you are breaking the law
here and can trouble some of this stuff and really penalize it. I would be happy to do some research for you and bring it back at the next meeting. I used to run energy theft and that is some of the stuff that I used to do so I will research that.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 30-2004 on its
first reading. An ordinance for the rezoning of real estate for
Browning Investments from R-2, Single Family Residential to I-2, Office Warehouse Distribution Industrial. Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Roll call vote called.
Mr. McPhail – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Fivecoat – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried.
Mr. Fivecoat made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 31-2004 on
its first reading. An ordinance for the rezoning of real estate for
Republic Development, Inc. from AG, Agricultural to PUD, Sugar Grove
Farms Residential Planned Unit Development. Second by Mr. McPhail. Roll call vote called.
Mr. McPhail – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Fivecoat – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
Mr. Fivecoat said I was looking at our website this last week and
it still has the Council members as under new construction. We have
been on a year and we are still not on it. I notice that we are paying monthly.
Mr. Brandgard asked, do we have an update on where we are as far
as the Plainfield website goes?
Mr. Bill Castetter said anyone who gives us data we put it out
there. So, wherever the data is and I get it it gets on the website.
I don’t know where it is. If you have a picture that you would like to have out there, bring it to me and we will get it out. We update on a daily basis.
Mr. Brandgard said for a while we were in the process of moving
it.
Mr. Castetter said it is across the street and we have access to
it and it is being updated on a daily basis. We just need your data.
Mr. Carlucci said Avatar has been requesting the last couple of
weeks to get together and talk about that. They see the same thing.
On top of that they did some work for us on the parks website. I will
have Mr. Castetter coordinate that with Mr. Reno at Avatar and get them in here and get it updated.
Mr. Brandgard said we need to get it updated. I know we were held
up because we were trying to get it moved. I know I found some things
in there when I was in it the last time, that were bad references.
Mr. Kirchoff said I know we had the announcement earlier but I
would think from the Council’s standpoint I certainly want to thank Mr. Higbee for his six years here. If you look at the numbers of what is happening in the last six years, a lot is going on and Mr. Higbee we appreciate your efforts and all of your hard work and we wish you well.
Mr. Higbee said I want to thank you all too. This has been a
great opportunity. Not many communities around this area would compare to Plainfield as far as I’m concerned and provide the kind of career experience that I have had here that has made it possible for me to do this. I want to thank you all.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to sign the necessary documents and
adjourn. Second by Mr. McPhail. Motion carried.
