The Plainfield Town Council met on Monday, November 8, 2004. In
attendance were Mr. Kirchoff, Mr. Fivecoat, Mr. Gaddie, Mr. McPhail and Mr. Brandgard.
Mr. Brandgard said before we get started Mr. Carlucci has asked
if we would pull Ordinance 25-2004 from the Consent Agenda. We will
bring that up later on in the meeting because he wants to make an
amendment to that.
CONSENT AGENDA
Approval of the Town Council minutes of the regularly
scheduled meetings of Monday, October 11, 2004 and Monday,
October 25, 2004.
Third and final readings of Ordinance No. 26-2004:
Amendments to the Plainfield Sign Ordinance and Ordinance
No. 27-2004: Amendments to the Official Zoning Map.
Approval of the October 2004 monthly reports for the
Plainfield Police Department; Plainfield Fire Department;
Town Court; Communications; Department of Planning and
Zoning and the Department of Public Works.
Approval of the Indiana Department of Transportation Local
Agreement in the amount of $4,080,000.00 in Federal Highway
Funds for the Dan Jones Road reconstruction project and
authorize Councilor Kirchoff to sign the agreement per the
Transportations Director’s Report dated November 5, 2004.
Approval of the Browning Investments request to close
Airtech Parkway just west of Six Points Road for
approximately six (6) weeks beginning November 15, 2004
through December 31, 2004 per the Transportations
Director’s Report dated November 5,2 004.
Approval to release all remaining bonds for the Westmere
Subdivision per the Town Engineer’s Report dated November
6, 2004.
Approval to develop an agreement with MetroAir Partners,
LLC for extension of water and sewer along Columbia Road
per the Town Engineer’s Report dated November 6, 2004.
Approval to authorize Schneider Engineering to begin design
work of Clarks Creek Interceptor Sewer Phase 4 serving the
proposed Plainfield High School per the Town Engineer’s
Report dated November 6, 2004.
Approval of a developer’s agreement between Plainfield and
Centex Homes for water service to the Settlement PUD and
authorize Councilor Brandgard to sign the agreement upon
the final review by the Town Attorney per the Town
Engineer’s Report dated November 6, 2004.
Upon the recommendation of Jason Castetter, Superintendent
of Public Works it is requested that Eric Stephens be hired
as a water plan operator at $13.26 per hour effective
Tuesday, November 9, 2004.
Approval of the Town Engineer’s Report dated November 6,
2004; Human Resources Director’s Report dated November 5,
2004; IT Director’s Report dated November 6, 2004; Utility
Billing Director’s Report dated November 8, 2004; Chief
Byron Anderson’s Report dated November 4, 2004 and the
Transportation Director’s Report dated November 5, 2004.
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda as read.
Second by Mr. Fivecoat. Motion carried.
BUSIENSS FROM THE FLOOR
Mr. Harold Gutzwiller, Executive Director of the Hendricks County
Economic Development Partnership said thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight to give you a real brief update of what is going on and some of the things that we have been doing and some of the things that are coming up.
As always, it is a pleasure to work with the Town of Plainfield
and share in your success that we have seen over the past four years.
We have a number of ongoing activities that we think benefit the Town
of Plainfield and the employers here. One is the ongoing Hendricks
County Roundtable that our office sponsors. It is an opportunity for
the human resources directors or plant managers and facility managers
to participate in on an ongoing basis, usually quarterly and sometimes more often than that. Most of the participants are from the Plainfield area. It is an opportunity for these folks to come together and discuss issues of mutual concern or issues that they would like to address. It is one of the few opportunities they have to sit down together in a non-competitive way to discuss issues that are important.
One of the other things that we have done over the past several
years is we have provided a wage and benefit survey for the employers
in Hendricks County. We are in the process of doing that for 2005. As
you know, we have a contract with Pathfinders International out of
Dallas, Texas to do this for us. The reason that we do that is it
provides an honest third party assessment of the wage and benefits of
employers. We ask the employers to participate. We provide them with
the forms to fill out. We never see that information. It goes directly
to Pathfinders International. That is one of the reasons that the
employers like to use it because the information is aggregated. No one
is specified in the report other than some of the companies that
participate but there is no way to tell what wages are being paid by
any individual company or what type of benefits are being provided. So,
it gives our existing employers an opportunity to see if they are being
competitive on a wage and benefits level.
The other thing that it does is for those companies who may be
looking at the Plainfield area as a place to locate it gives an honest
assessment of what they could expect they will need to pay employees in
order to be able to attract the quantity and quality of employees that
they are looking for. So, it is a good business retention tool as well
as a good attraction tool. It has been very beneficial to us over the
past number of years.
We also have a contract with Pathfinders International to do what
is considered an under-employment study. This is underway also for
2005. The wage and benefits study we try to do every 18 months or so
to keep it fresh. The under-employment study we try to do about every
two years so that the data is fresh. The under-employment study does a
couple of things. This is primarily for business attraction. As we all
know, in the past number of years Hendricks County has been blessed
with a very low under-employment rate. Typically a percentage or two
below the State average, which is a percentage or two below the
national average and right now we are somewhere in the three to 3.4%
unemployment rate. In the Town of Plainfield it is about one and a half
to two percent unemployment for the Town of Plainfield. So, in order
for us to be able to show a potential employer that the area has enough
employees we do this under the employment study. Because we know that
the vast majority of people who are hired do not come from the ranks of
the unemployed but rather come from the ranks of the employed and want
to upgrade their skills or upgrade the job that they had. So, this
report will look at the entire labor shed that Hendricks County pulls
from, which will include western Marion County, Boone, Hendricks,
Putnam and Morgan and show the number of people who are willing to
change jobs and at what level they are willing to move in order to
upgrade their wages. It also defines the type of skills that these
people have in addition to interviewing the employers talking about
what they think are good or what they think is bad about the employees
that they have. This is a critical tool for us to have when we are
meeting or talking to folks who are considering Plainfield as a
location for their new facility. Because especially when we were
looking at the Hendricks County unemployment rate of about 1.7%, our
competitors were telling people that the employees did not exist in
Hendricks County for them to locate here. But we were able, through
this third party assessment, to prove that the employees did exist. I
can tell you in a number of cases without the third party assessment we
would have not been in the running and not been able to attract some
companies to Hendricks County. We can tell people all day long that yes
you will have no problem attracting employees but without a third party
assessment to prove that we are just like everybody else trying to sell
them a bill of goods. So, we think this is a very important thing to
provide to prospective employers in the County.
We also, with the Plainfield Chamber of Commerce and the other
chambers in Hendricks County, continue to support the Small Business
Development Center. As you know, we are a primary sponsor of the SBDC
and they provide ongoing services to small businesses here in Hendricks
County. I believe they are here once a month in Plainfield at the
chamber office and will meet on an ongoing basis when the demand
requires it even more often than people have the need. As you know,
the small business community is still a primary employer in the County
as well as in Indiana. Unfortunately, it doesn’t often get the press
that it should but in the aggregate the small businesses in Indiana
still employee a vast number of people in the County. Hendricks County
might be an exception to the rule that on an ongoing basis about 80% of
new job creation is created by the small businesses. Hendricks County
is a little bit of an anomaly to that because of the success that the
County and Plainfield and the other communities have had in drawing new
employers. But it is still a substantial number of jobs created on an
ongoing basis so we are very pleased to be able to continue to do that.
We have a couple of new initiatives that we think are very
exciting or have the potential of being exciting. The first of which
we have just completed Phase 2 of a business incubator study. That
study is trying to determine whether or not a small business incubator
can be self-sustainable in Hendricks County. We do have the Phase 2
report. The recommendation is to go on to Phase 3, which would include
the design of a building, financial statements, those kinds of things
to determine if it is financially feasible. We think a small business
incubator has a lot of potential in the County again going into the
small business development. But also with the potential of helping to
diversify the tax base in the County. So, our executive committee will
hear a report on that next week and determine whether or not we want to
continue with this feasibility study and move on to Phase 3. But the
first two phases of the study seem very favorable to moving on to Phase
3. So, we hope that may have an ongoing potential for Hendricks
County.
We are also hosting a job fair on November 16. This spun out of
the closing of the Galyan’s headquarters. We are working with Circle 7
and a couple of other organizations to host the job fair at Primo’s on
the 16th. It initially started out to assist only the Galyan’s
employees but it has grown beyond that. So, it will be a community
wide/region wide job fair. We have been advertising. We will advertise
heavily in the regional newspapers. The partnership is picking up that
cost of the regional newspapers. Circle 7 is picking up that cost out
of the Indianapolis Star. So, we think that has a lot of potential. I
think there are 25-30 businesses signed up at this point and time and
we think from all indications it should be a really good event.
One of the other things that we are very pleased about, and we
think it has a lot of potential, is that we have been notified that the
partnership has received a grant from the Indiana Economic Development
Council for $25,000.00 to establish a micro enterprise revolving loan
program. That will be matched by an additional $25,000.00 from the
partnership to establish this revolving loan program. Under this
program micro enterprises is defined by those businesses that range
from one person to five people. They are typically operated out of
their home or the garage or some other type of facility like that with
emphasizes given to minorities and women owned businesses and also to
those businesses who might not be eligible for your typical bank
financing. We are one of 16 organizations in the State to receive the
grant. We have not received the paperwork yet but we have received
notification of the grant award. We think it has a lot of potential
and we think it is a good introduction potentially to a business
incubator where we could foster and help companies grow and expand from
the micro enterprise possibly to an incubator and then possibly, as
they graduate from an incubator, grow into the community. So, hopefully
we are building a progression for small businesses to grow and expand
in Hendricks County.
Lastly we recently hosted another company to look at building in
Plainfield. As an ongoing basis we are always responding to inquiries
about building and the space available in Plainfield. That is an
ongoing practice and we keep Mr. Carlucci and Mr. McPhail advised of
those types of activities.
So, that is a real brief report. I would be more than happy to
answer any questions that you might have of things that I may not have covered.
Mr. Brandgard said thank you for bringing the report in. It is
good to hear what all is going on and the successes that are happening. We appreciate you taking your time and thank you.
Mr. McPhail said I attended the breakfast last week of the Kelly
School Business/Indiana University and they made the forecast, if I
remember right, and I’m waiting to get a written report, but they
indicated that the State of Indiana lacks in entrepreneurship. Does
this incubator study indicate anything relating to that?
Mr. Gutzwiller said we don’t lack entrepreneurs but what we do
lack are programs for entrepreneurs to take advantage of in order to
help them grow and expand. I think that is where we fall down. It is a
struggle for small businesses to get the financing or get the knowledge
base that they need. Quite honestly until two and a half years ago
Central Indiana’s small business development center was not receiving
funding and did not have a host. I think that is kind of an indication
that an emphasis was not placed on entrepreneurship. But it is not for
the lack of them. It is just that we have not had programs in place on
a statewide prospective to assist those folks. We have seen the
colleges and universities kind of step in from an educational
standpoint. Ball State University has an excellent entrepreneur
program. IU just stole the director of Ball State’s entrepreneurship
to go to Bloomington. So, I think the colleges and universities are
understanding that from an educational standpoint. It still leaves a
gap in the practicing entrepreneurs. I think that is one of the things
that we are trying to address from a local level is providing
assistance and putting systems in place locally that we might be able
to assist. I give the State of Indiana credit from funding the IUDC at
the rate of two million dollars to provide these micro enterprises
loans. So, I think that is a step in the right direction but I still
think the State needs to step up to the plate a little bit more and be
a little more aggressive on creating and helping small businesses to
grow and expand.
Mr. Brandgard said before we go to the Town Manager’s report I
want to revert back to the Consent Agenda. Since we did have some
third and final readings I would ask that we have a roll call vote
called.
Mr. McPhail – yes
Mr. Fivecoat – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried.
TOWN MANAGER’S REPORT
Mr. Carlucci said I just wanted to report that there were a lot
of people coming through the recreation center and I did catch part of a report on Channel 8. There seems to be a lot of activity down there.
The first item that I have has to do with Avatar. You may recall
that we had previously granted Avatar a tax abatement for a new
building at the northwest corner of the Saratoga Parkway and U.S. 40.
I received a letter from the President of Avatar, Ernie Reno who is
here for another reason tonight but not this. His plans have changed
in terms of building that new building and his letter reflects that.
Basically at this point he is withdrawing his request but since we have
already gone through that process we then have to officially adopt
another resolution to rescind the abatement and send it over to the
County. Mr. Reno and Avatar is still a big part of the community.
They are going to be moving into their new business building out there
in Saratoga shortly. He’s still in Plainfield and still calls
Plainfield home and he lives in Plainfield but it wasn’t in the works
and he is moving in a different direction. I was glad he was able to
send us this letter so that we don’t confuse the County anymore than we
normally do and basically go through the process of rescinding the
abatement, which we have done a couple of other times for various
different reasons. If I have your consent to do that, I will move
forward with that.
Mr. Brandgard asked, is there consent? Consent given.
Mr. Carlucci said I put it at the very end of my report on the
amount of grants we have had. By all measures we have had a pretty good
year in bringing other funds into the Town, which lessens the burden on
our taxpayers. So, I will go through this for the people here because
I’m proud of the Staff and the people that work on these grants. We
started adding these up after last week. We received $160,607.00 for a
Homeland Security grant for the Plainfield Fire Department. That money
is to convert our existing analog radios to digital for the 800-
megahertz system. What I didn’t put in here was $60,000.00 that we
received from the County for a Homeland Security grant for 15
additional radios. Again, for the same point of transferring those
over. For our radios that money would have had to come from somewhere
to make that switchover to the digital. So, that is less money that our
taxpayers have to pay to make that transition. The next grant that we
received is you remember a couple of Labor Days ago it rained and
wouldn’t stop raining. The damage it caused to our trail system to
areas along the creek that it scoured back at one point 35 feet in some
areas and the damage that it caused we had submitted a grant under the
United States Agricultural program for six million dollars. I will let
Mr. Belcher get into this later in his report. We didn’t receive the
six million dollars but we received notice that we would receive one
and a half million dollars for improvements along the White Lick Creek
to stabilize creeks. Although we did a lot of the work ourselves and
we stabilized a lot of the banks especially between U.S. 40 and
Friendship Gardens Park there is still a lot left to be done. We also
received Mr. Higbee’s favorite grant, the Hobbs’ tollhouse grant and we
received notice that Plainfield received $154,000.00 to preserve that
building either somewhere in that area or move it. It is a scenic
byways grant and Plainfield was the only community in Indiana to
receive one of those grants. Both of these grants were real surprises.
Mr. Belcher came in doing the happy dance and then two days later Mr.
Higbee came in with his grant. Couple that with the $500,000.00
transportation enhancement grant for our streetscape on U.S. 40 and
also what we talked about tonight, the money for the Dan Jones Road
project, we are talking this year alone of $6,394,000.00 in grants. I
did not add that other $60,000.00 from the County’s grant. One other
item that I didn’t add in there either was next year INDOT is going to
spend about $9,000,000.00 on Quaker Boulevard, two and a half million
more than they planned because of the actions taken by the Town to make
that urban section as a rural section. Again, these types of things
sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are brilliant and depending on
who I’m talking to and the people that know me or the other Staff
members we are either smart or lucky and we are a little bit of both on
these. We were surprised but all of these grants will benefit the
residents and make Plainfield a better place to live.
Just as a reminder we are having an open house Saturday morning
at 10:00 a.m. at the community recreation center. There will be a
ribbon cutting and a lot of fun things to do, a tour of the facility
but we have the Plainfield High School Band that is going to play the
National Anthem. We have other dignitaries that we hope will be
present with us. The middle school is going to be singing God Bless
American and My Country Tis of Thee. It is really going to be a great
event but the most exciting part of this is Bobby Plump of the Milan
Indiana fame is going to be here. So, from 10:30 to 12:30 we are going
to have a three-point contest and a free throw contest for different
age groups. Anybody who participates they will pay $5.00 but they will
get a shirt for participating and any money that we raise we will use
to give scholarships to needy Plainfield residents to be able to use
those facilities. So, we thought we would combine it with a
fundraiser. Bobby Plump casts a wide shadow in Indiana and I think
that will be real exciting. He has a book out and I would suggest that
you buy that book and I’m sure he will be happy to sign it for you.
The facility is opened at 10:00 that night. That is the normal hours on
a Saturday so there will be a lot of activities down there so come on
down.
Mr. Kirchoff said in your report you indicate something about
nine o’clock.
Mr. Carlucci said nine o’clock is a reception for people that we
have invited specifically to that. That will be at night so the Council needs to be there at nine o’clock.
REPORTS
Mr. McPhail said in Mr. Gutzwiller and Mr. Carlucci’s comments
both talked about Avatar and small businesses. Mr. Stan Bassett built
a small building just west of Town with six units. We had a ribbon
cutting Saturday morning for a new chiropractor in Town. Those six
units are now all leased and three of those are brand new businesses in Plainfield similar to what Mr. Gutzwiller said about small businesses driving our economy. There are three brand new businesses that are all doing well today. The west side is growing.
Mr. Kirchoff said as I was reading the janitorial bid that you
had on the CD, there said there was a mandatory meeting that all
bidders had to attend but it says December 10 and we are awarding the
bids on the 22nd. I thought it should be November 10. So, I wandered
if we wanted to let people know, that are going to be bidders, that it is going to be next week.
Mr. Carlucci said I will have to go back and look at the legal
notice.
Mr. Kirchoff said it was the thing that we sent out to the
bidders.
Mr. Daniel said I would be more interested what was published in
the paper.
Mr. Prince said the legal notice was fine. It had the right
dates on it.
Mr. Kirchoff said I just didn’t want anybody to be upset.
Mr. Carlucci said we will have the Parks Department contact the
people to make sure that they understand that.
Mr. Prince said we opened up this morning and Don Musilli was the
first one to walk through the door. We had a group of people waiting to come in and there has been a constant people walk through. We have
several thousand people that need to have their memberships printed. Even when I left to come down here, there were quite a few people in line and the basketball courts were busy and the fitness center was busy. Probably if I had to guess, I was looking at some numbers before I came here, we probably had 300 visitors today. That is not too bad so everybody is doing a good job. I spent the last few weeks training with the young staff that we have and it is going well for us down there. I thought you might have some questions and I would answer those for you if I could.
Mr. Kirchoff said I came in this morning and worked out and the
upstairs staff was just like the pool people, very courteous, very
professional. We have one of our employees who is from Milan, Indiana. But they were very professional and helpful. I had a slight problem with the shower being backwards and before I was out of the building they were fixing it. It is just like you did outdoors, the indoors has been very professional and very courteous.
Mr. Prince said we have a lot of good kids in this community and
they all work for us.
Mr. Kirchoff said I think you should be proud of your hiring and
your interviewing process because I have just seen a good quality of
people and I think that speaks well for Mr. Prince and his staff.
Mr. Brandgard said as a side note, I wanted to let you know last
Wednesday evening we had the Ronald Reagan corridor meeting here and we utilized the recreation center for it. Tracy did a real good job of hosting and the tours went well. It was unfortunate that the people we expected to be there weren’t but that was their loss but again it was a good job.
Mr. Belcher said I did want to add to what Mr. Carlucci said this
was, as I put in my report, a little bit of a shock and surprise not
only to us but possibly to the State representatives that administered these grants. I think there was a lot of money that congress funded, two hundred and fifty million dollars nationwide for disaster relief. I had always felt when I was first advised of this, and I have to give Jeff Healey some credit, of Banning Engineering, one reason I think we did a good job is because we have good people who work for us that keep us informed. So, we looked at this program right after the flood in 2003 and I didn’t know it existed until I was informed about it. I went to the website and read it and said I think that fits Plainfield. I think that is what happened to us. So, that is when I began to put the information together and submitted it. But there is a lot of hoops to jump through and federal dollars obviously has those but 1.5 million dollars is their share and if the Town should select to use all of those funds, we would have to come up with 25% so that is half a million of our money and 1.5 million of the federal dollars plus we would have to do engineering and permitting, which is very similar to the highway program although I don’t think there is nearly as much red tape as the highway program goes.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, is it all future dollars or can we get credit
for some of the stuff that we have already done?
Mr. Belcher said a lot of things that we applied to this grant
for we have already repaired some of which we thought were real
emergencies and some of which were amenities that we couldn’t wait with the trails, etc. I don’t think they have had that question asked
before. It’s a program that if we started now and did some work, they would credit that so I think we have a logical argument for the work we have done in the Town. When I sent this letter, it was on behalf of the Township and the Town. I talked to Mr. Hickam, the Township Trustee. He had a lot of damage in this area that is owned and managed by the Township and they have done a lot of work since that flood to repair and stabilize banks. So, we informed Mr. Hickam about this last week and hopefully we can get together and try to put all of those numbers together that was spent by Plainfield and see how far into that $500,000.00 we can get of money that has already been spent. I am really hopeful that they will accept that. It is a logical argument I think but the bottom line is I think it is a program that would really help the Town, White Lick Creek being the main drainage system in our Town. We need to repair and stabilize some of the areas, Shouse landfill, Ridgeline Estates, areas that saw some severe movement of the creek bank. We have a lot of trees that are still in the creek. This program can work towards clearing those out and protecting that area. I was thrilled. My mind has been racing ever since this came in. I would like to see something from a congressman to be honest with you. Normally something like this comes down through one of your congressmen.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, is it only for municipal properties?
Mr. Belcher said actually no. There would have to be an easement
or land acquisition function in there, as I read the regulations so
far. I’m still pretty new at this particular program but I believe it
could be used for private properties given that the property owner
would supply the proper property rights and that is something that I
would have to work out with the folks that run the program to see for
sure. I know of one home in Crystal Bay actually we took these
representatives to after the flood literally that is within feet, we
think, of potentially having a problem with the creek undercutting the foundation. So, it was one of the higher priority items I thought right there along with the landfill, Broadway north and south, that is the third picture of my report. It is amazing what that creek did in the matter of one day. The Town garage, we have a lot of loss there and we need to stabilize that bank. So, I really think we can use the money if the Town Council would like me to continue to pursue it. I told them that I thought that you would but I will continue to pursue this on your behalf and the Town’s behalf and the Townships if you would like me to do so.
Mr. Brandgard said I think you have unanimous consent.
Mr. Belcher said I appreciate that and I will do so.
Mr. Brandgard said it seemed like last week every time I turned
around on the e-mail there was another grant coming in and it was
amazing for it all to show up after the election rather than before.
OLD BUSINESS
Mr. Kirchoff said I was stopped again yesterday about Glen Haven.
Is there anything new on the trail system there?
Mr. Carlucci said Mr. Daniel has the appraisals on the property
for Mr. Boles’ property. I gave it to him over the weekend and he is
going to send an offer letter out. But I asked him to let me handle it since I have been working directly with Mr. Boles and he is willing to sell. Also, Mr. Belcher and Mr. Banning have been working on a plan for the Center Friends Church property to have the right-of-way dedicated through there. If you care to see that sometime, Mr. Belcher has it in his office with what we have proposed to get through their property.
Mr. Kirchoff said I will do that because I’m going to set up a
meeting with Mr. McGillem and Mr. Belcher to talk about some other
issues so I will look at it. His question to me was do we think we can do it next year? I said I would hope by spring we would be ready to start something. Is that reasonable?
Mr. Carlucci said we also have to get some easements just west of
Center Ridge, a couple of properties there. Mr. Banning is looking at
that too so we can get this all lined up. There is the pond in Center
Ridge that has an outlet that goes under Hadley Road. We are thinking
about filling that in with a pipe. It would be cheaper than trying to
put a wood deck or something across there. We have made a lot more
progress in getting that done lately.
Mr. Isaacs said at the last meeting I had mentioned that we were
looking to add an additional person to the water and sewer-billing
department. You asked for some more information and I gave each one of you some information based on what Ms. Burgner has been able to put together in regards to the workload that we currently have and what we think it is going to be. We feel this is about 35% of what it is going to be once we totally take the billing back in house completely, dealing with the work orders and the payments and the non-pays, etc. I feel like we will need an additional person to help us be able to take care of the billing aspect of the water and sewer department and would like to move forward with filling that position should you all choose to grant that.
Mr. Kirchoff said I have a couple of questions for clarification.
As I look at number one, that is only for new work orders, which comes to 20 a day.
Mr. Isaacs said yes that is based on what we are doing now. That
is not based on what is being done by Veolia.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, are those just new work orders? You get more
than 300 calls a day don’t you?
Mr. Isaacs said on our portion but this is only a portion of it.
This is about a third of what we feel we are going to be getting.
Mr. Kirchoff said down on seven where you are talking about the
workload that has been impacted due to non-payment. Obviously that is
because you are doing it all on one day a month. As you go to the
cycle billing, you are going to smooth that out.
Mr. Isaacs said that is right. We will spread that out as we go
to the cycle billing.
Mr. Kirchoff said so that should help that.
Mr. Isaacs said that should hopefully take place by midyear next
year.
Mr. Kirchoff said in that same paragraph do you have any idea
what it cost you to go out and shut someone off and turn them back on?
Mr. Isaacs said I do not. Based on information that I have had
from my time at Cinergy we are looking somewhere in the neighborhood of around $75.00 to make a shut off and a turn on.
Mr. Kirchoff said I think you want to take a look at uping that.
You are losing money for shutting off and turning back on for $25.00.
Mr. Isaacs said I agree.
Mr. Kirchoff said I would like to take a look at what that should
be and your cost figures should tell you what that should be. But just from an economic standpoint it is costing you money to do that.
Mr. Isaacs said we can do that and bring back a proposal to
increase those charges once we make that study.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to authorize the Clerk/Treasurer to add
a utility billing clerk for the utility workload. Second by Mr.
Kirchoff. Motion carried.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Kirchoff asked, is someone going to talk about the new water
bill?
Mr. Isaacs said that is just a sample of where we are at this
point. We think we have most of the enhancements there. Ms. Burgner
has been working with the vendor who is going to be doing that. We are not sure what type of color we will be able to have with that, etc. It will be that size.
Mr. Kirchoff said there are some misspelled words in there.
Mr. Isaacs said that is preliminary. That’s not the final. That
is just to give you an idea of where we are at this point. Ms. Burgner do you have anything that you want to add to that?
Ms. Burgner said no just give me a copy. I was looking at the
format and I didn’t catch any spelling.
Mr. Isaacs said that is just very preliminary just to kind of
give you an idea of where we are at this point.
Mr. Carlucci said we have put together a public improvement
agreement between the Town of Plainfield and Premier Properties for the Metropolis development. The Metropolis development is what is now
being referred to as a life style shopping center. The beginnings of
that were started with the J.C. Penney store. That was the northwest
point of the proposed Metropolis development. We have been working on
this agreement in different forms before this current Council was
seated in 2004. As a matter of fact, one of the meetings that we have
had just prior to the new year was back in December in Mr. Daniel’s
office working on an agreement. Actually, we had even worked on this
agreement before that so to say that we are pleased to bring something that we think is workable to the Council is an understatement. The amount of time that the Staff, including Mr. Daniel, have put into this is unbelievable. Agreements like this can be a theory of physics. There is always friction before movement and then we have had a lot of friction. Now we seem to have some movement to get this done. The Metropolis development could be one of the premier shopping locations on the west side. This is something that has been in the works for quite awhile. It has had some ups and downs. One of the biggest downs was as we were moving forward on the Galyan’s headquarters making that part of that Metropolis development, Dick’s came in and bought Galyan’s. I was going over the Subway sandwich shop to go by the Galyan’s sign and see Dick’s on that sign and building took a little bit to get used to. But that in itself had a substantial impact because there were plans for a new Galyan’s store to be one of the anchors in the new Metropolis development. That, of course, threw that into limbo. Out there today they have moved forward on preparing a pad for the new Rave’s Theater. I believe it is a new 18-screen theater that is going to be there. There is one in Ft. Wayne that brings in one and a half million customers a year. That is one of the big anchors and J.C. Penney’s and as we move forward, there may be a new Dick’s Sporting Goods Store. Those will be the three main anchors of that development. We are going to divide this agreement and spend some time talking about how we came to come to this agreement. I’m going to have Mr. Belcher and Mr. McGillem talk about specifically the transportation part of the roads that the Town is committing to help get going. I’m going to talk about how the project is going to be financed from the Town’s standpoint. And then Mr. Daniel is going to specifically talk about what will be required for the Town to move forward on this project and what conditions we placed in there before the Town would start spending money out there. Mr. Belcher and Mr. McGillem will go first and then I will go next talking about the financing and then we will go with Mr. Daniel and then we will take questions.
Mr. Brandgard said while Mr. Belcher is getting set up I will add
a little bit to that. When this started moving again in late August,
we gave Premier a copy of an agreement that we thought would be fair
and cover the needs and concerns from the Town’s standpoint. In fact,
we tentatively scheduled a special meeting early in September. It
never came to be at that point and time. Shortly thereafter they came
in and gave us a presentation of where they thought they were and then gave us an agreement that mirrored that. We bounced back and forth with that for a couple of weeks. I finally told Mr. Daniel to send them a letter saying we are done unless they really want to get serious and sit down and talk. I think the agreement that we have here, although it reads a little different than the original, I believe all of the elements are covered here that we had originally plus some. As it went on, Premier Properties changed their management structure. They brought some new people in so I think Premier Properties is a better company today than it was. With that we will go on if you are ready.
Mr. Belcher said I’m going to start with the overall view and
each of you have this in front of you and this is for the folks in the
audience who don’t have a copy in front of them. But basically we have
an overall view of the project. I will have another slide for the Town
of Plainfield’s road commitments should you approve this agreement and
then the Premier road commitments should this agreement go forward.
The one thing about this project, as large as it is, I wanted to talk
about a couple of things that don’t show on this, which basically what
you see is a totally new alignment east/west across what would be
called the Gladden Farms connecting with SR267 or Quaker Boulevard and
connecting at Perry Road also just going at this initial phase to where
the office building is the former Galyan’s office. What is not shown
is the potential for this east/west road to continue to the east and
eventually connect to the Ronald Reagan Parkway. So, this east/west
road really has a lot to do with the overall transportation system of
the Town. As we go forward, that is one of the roads that we talked
about doing if this agreement goes forward. That is one reason why
because whether this mall ends up here or something else that is zoned
for general commercial. That roadway we believe in our Comprehensive
Plan is very important to the Town’s overall growth and development. We
don’t have a design on that road. We don’t know exactly where it is
going to be yet. We have property owners on either end that have to be
talked to and advised of what is going on, etc. So, I don’t want this
to be taken as a design document. It is a very good depiction of the
overall east/west corridor idea.
Some of the other pieces, Plainfield is shown in yellow, this is
a piece that will go up from that road up to Gladden Road. Gladden Road
currently dead-ends at the eastern end of it. We want to connect that
into this new road so that we would basically have a circulation loop
both for roadways and also we want to follow this water system with a
new water main, which again would not only assist with the mall’s
development but also assist with the current customer base out there.
And actually the entire customer base in Plainfield on that side of
Town, the east side of Town.
There are a lot of items in green and everything that we have
tried to show in green is what we believe the developer is going to
have to build to make this mall work. This is part of his submittal
requirements for traffic studies. Mr. McGillem has looked at those on
our behalf and we believe the intersection improvements and roadway
improvements, new roads plus additional lanes and all of these things
that are shown on here are necessary to support this size of a project.
It is certainly a regional type of draw. That is what their target is
as a region and we recognized that through the Plan Commission meetings
and everything else and Staff is that we have to look at this as a
regional mall project and assume that the interchange at I-70 has
something to do with this, the new one.
Another road that is really not highlighted on here and has been
on our plan for a long time is the northeast perimeter parkway. We are already into the design of that and it is moving forward in the federal aid process. Like most federal aid projects it is moving rather slow but it is going and eventually it will be under construction too. But that is a critical link to the Dan Jones Road traffic coming south to funnel into this facility. But it also, again, is part of our perimeter parkway system that is something that we had started talking about 15 years ago, 10 years ago. It is something that has been in there and something that we see as a very needed element.
That is really the big picture. I will let Mr. McGillem talk more
about the specifics. I will split to the next slide, the second page
and maybe Mr. McGillem can address just the Plainfield roads.
Mr. McGillem said in the agreement the Town has, as Mr. Belcher
indicated, agreed to take on the responsibility of what is in the
yellow, which essentially would be the connection from SR267 to just
east of the Galyan’s headquarters. The piece of roadway from Perry
Road to just east of Galyan’s headquarters was actually designed and
completed and is ready to go for construction right now but it did not move last fall due to getting the right-of-way and getting it
transferred and also with everything else that happened with Galyan’s and Dick’s.
But the first phase of the roadway that would be initiated and
the schedule for it would be to try to have it completed by June 15 of
next year or when Rave’s Theater is opened, whichever is the latest.
That would be from essentially Perry Road west to the new intersection
of the north/south connector and also the connection between Gladden
Road and the new east/west road and a small extension of Gladden Road.
Gladden Road right now dead ends just east of the entrance into the
Gladden Farms Apartments. So, it would be a small extension of it. That
would be the first phase that we would be committed moving forward.
The second phase, which would be from the intersection to SR267
we have basically put a time frame on it of having completed 180 days
after all right-of-way had been secured and the INDOT approvals for the
intersection at SR267. That alignment there is going to be subject to
working with the property owners west and also a significant item is
working with INDOT because we would be looking at shifting the current
Clarks Creek Road intersection moving it north to approximately
probably about 800-900 feet north of the existing Clarks Creek
intersection. That would be the extent of the participation under this
agreement by the Town on the Metropolis.
The green that we see here would be the responsibility of the
developer. Essentially on Perry Road there is an intersection, which
is referenced as “B” in the agreement and that intersection is the
existing intersection with Penney’s and Target. That intersection would
be signalized and there would need to be at the same time a median
treatment modified between U.S. 40 and that intersection. That would be
the responsibility if the developer.
The second intersection that would be modified would be
intersection “D”, which essentially is the south intersection of
Penney’s at the current time. That intersection would be modified to
also modify the Plainfield Commons Drive, which now comes in south of
that intersection for the Plainfield Commons Drive to line up with the
Penney’s drive and it would be either signaled or a roundabout, some
type of intersection modification expansion at that point.
The third intersection that would be part of the mall is
identified as intersection “E” in the agreement and that would be the
main intersection on Perry Road to the mall. We would anticipate that
to be a signalized intersection.
The last intersection, which is identified as “F” will be the
developer’s responsibility. It will not be done initially until the
final phase of the mall, which would include the south anchor, which
would be identified, which is not in the current planning at this time but whenever that fourth anchor comes in, the developer would be
required to put that intersection in at that time.
The other green would be the main entry route/feature to Perry
Road directly into the Rave’s Theater. The connection from that down
south to the Gladden Road intersection and also a connection northwest up to the U.S. 40, that would be all the developer’s responsibility.
And then there is an additional proposed signalized intersection,
if INDOT would approve it, which is identified “C” on U.S. 40, which is the current Penney’s entrance onto U.S. 40 at the McDonald’s. If that is approved by INDOT, that would be the developer’s responsibility.
The developer’s responsibility right now is all scheduled and
would need to be done before the opening of Rave’s Theater. The
intersection on U.S. 40, of course, they are all subject to INDOT
review and approval.
Mr. Belcher said there are other things going on out there that
the Council is aware of, agreements that we have already signed that
would affect positively on what is going on out here. That is Clarks
Creek Road, the intersection of U.S. 40, is going to be widened next
year as part of the agreement on the improvements out there back to a
certain point on Clarks Creek Road. Gladden Road would hit there. It
actually doesn’t have a gap, everybody knows that, if you live here,
but that would go up to U.S. 40. Now you would have a signal to get out on U.S. 40. That is through another agreement and then Shady Lane we have a goal of getting that connected through to U.S. 40, which would be another signalized section. All of these things are positive in nature as far as handling traffic in this project. So, we think we have identified everything that needs to be done to make this work. This is just a way to get it built and to fund it.
Mr. Brandgard said looking at the additional signals on U.S. 40
unless we have changed our position I have told them that the Town will not support them in those signals going to INDOT.
Mr. Fivecoat said it puts seven lights on SR267 to Perry Road and
I don’t want to become Kokomo.
Mr. Brandgard said I just wanted to mention that because we have
had running verbal discussion over those lights for a year. I finally
told them we will not support them when they go to INDOT for those
lights. If they want to move a light, we may consider working with
them on that but again it depends on what that is. We don’t want to
add any more lights out there.
Mr. Belcher said not to change the position that you are speaking
of but I do know that INDOT has begun a project and is bidding it yet
this year on radio controlling the signals on U.S. 40. The problem that we all experience we believe is because they are all on fixed time and not really talking to each other. That could make an improvement but until we saw it I wouldn’t change your position.
Mr. McGillem said INDOT is going to be looking very hard at any
request that goes on U.S. 40. Their wireless interconnect is being bid I think November 16 and is to be completed by June of next year.
Essentially it will interconnect all of the signals on U.S. 40 all the way from Saratoga to Raceway Road through that system. But as part of that interconnect system one of the things the wireless interconnect does for a fixed timing signal progression you really need a very standard spacing, a consistent spacing, on the signals and ideally they need to be at least somewhere in the range of about a half of mile apiece. But the interconnect should help a lot with the signals out on U.S. 40.
Mr. Fivecoat asked, on the overview where is the Stout’s property
located?
Mr. Belcher said they actually sort of blurred out the line on
this particular exhibit but this road is shown basically down the
middle of that, which we have said all along that is not the position
that we would take until after talking to property owners, etc. Again, that is why I wanted to make sure on the record that this is not a design. We have not even seen the design study for the piece from SR267 to that first intersection. That is a key piece of the design.
Mr. Fivecoat said I couldn’t support it if it went through the
middle of that property.
Mr. Belcher said we are fully on the same page with you on that.
Mr. Brandgard said that is another issue that we have fully
explained to them that we are not in favor of splitting that property.
Mr. Kirchoff said that is our call anyway.
Mr. Belcher said that is one reason that we really believe that
the whole piece should be under our control as far as design and
construction.
Mr. McGillem said that is one thing that it is dictating also the
shifting of the existing Clarks Creek Road section farther north in
order to avoid splitting the property.
Mr. Carlucci said just for clarification all of the areas marked
in green we already have bonds on from Premier, performance bonds on
almost all of that don’t we?
Mr. Belcher said I believe so with the exception of possibly the
intersection going to U.S. 40. Everything on Perry Road we have bonds
for and basically what we believe was just necessary to support only
the Rave’s Theater, which is just about everything in green.
Mr. Carlucci said there is always the issue when you are dealing
with developments this size is that the developer would like the Town
to pick up all of the costs and the towns resist that kind of
development and we have a funding mechanism that we have been very
successful with in Plainfield. But we use it when we think the roads
that we are planning to contribute towards have a substantial benefit
to all of the residents of the Town and not just a particular
developer. The best example of that is Perry Road from Stafford Road to U.S. 40. That road, the developer, which was Premier Properties, built two lanes of a four-lane section and we built the other two lanes using what we call a tax increment-financing district to do that.
I don’t know about everybody else but I think there are a lot of
people using that road that are not necessarily stopping at U.S. 40 and
shopping at Wal-Mart. It is a road that has served the community very
well. It is not an exact test when you do this. Certainly we think
that having the Metropolis life style center is important to the Town
because you will have one opportunity to be able to do a development
like this in a generation. If it is not going to happen here, it may as
well happen somewhere else. We are more practical than to deal with
fear in situations like this. Developers will tell you anything to
kind of move you along but in our own analysis the reason for looking
at this project and contributing toward some of the roads is because we
think this is something that would benefit the community. That it will
help the shopping in our community. Premier has already done a lot of
development in that area. I can tell you that my wife and I spend a
little time down in Greenwood anymore because we do all of our shopping
here. This will continue this pattern of keeping people in the
community.
But we do have an existing tax increment-financing district out
in that area that already covers this project. We have other bonds
outstanding and I will try to give a short history of how the TIF
works. If you take a vacant piece of ground out there, there is nothing
on it, the assessed value of that property is the land. So, what a TIF
district does, which it already has done, is it has frozen the
assessments on that property and what the value of the existing land
is. Any improvements that are built on that will be assessed as
construction. The new money that is generated that would normally go
to the Town of Plainfield, Guilford Township, Plainfield Schools, the
County and the library is kept in that TIF district to be used to make
these types of improvements. The money could be substantial but so is
the cost of bonding and building roads. One thing that has changed in
the last few years is the school districts, because the way that they
are funding schools, if the money would have gone to the Plainfield
schools at 100% whatever their tax rate was, what that would have
generated at 100%, 40% has been taken off so the school’s portion is
60% of what normally would go to them stays in the district. So, you
have less flexibly there. You have less money coming into the
district. We have been fortunate that the State made those changes but
it has been a challenge in Plainfield and around the State to
accommodate those changes with less money coming into the TIF district.
So, the plan is to use tax increment and financing funds to build the
roads in yellow. To do that I will tell you that when Premier
Properties is committed to building in this agreement, at a minimum, a
450,000 square feet of buildings. Now we did let them include the J.C.
Penney as part of that. That is inclusive in that total square footage
and we will recapture that in the TIF district, which is already in
there anyway. So, we will capture that money and they have to break
ground. For 450,000 square feet that is one of the conditions,
however, the TIF district from the time a building is built, if you
build a new house, depending on the time of the year, you probably
won’t pay taxes the next year but the year after. It is the same thing
on the TIF district. They can build something. The assessment cycle is
what is important here so between us paying for that roadway the
building starts and the money comes in here. So, it would be two years.
So, what we required the developer to do is that we will bid out the
project. It will be a publicly bid project. We will then require him to
put in a bank account or they can use a letter of credit to support us
while we wait for the TIF funds to come in. The one thing that we
didn’t want to do is to amortize interest to cover it because that is
expensive to do. We didn’t want to do that either because it adds to
the total cost of the bond issue. So, we are doing what we have always
done with these TIF districts. We are putting the burden on the
developer to create the buildings and the assessed values to pay off
those improvements. The way that this is set up is if he does not do
that, he is going to continue that letter of credit for quite awhile.
We will use that letter of credit to pay off the bond issue until such
time and then at such time the TIF starts coming in we will reimburse
him for those costs. But at no time under this agreement will he
control the design of the development or the bidding of this project.
That will be under the control of the Town. There are some conditions
in there before we even begin the TIF district funding.
So, we believe as you go through this agreement that we have
protected the Town. We are requiring the developer to put up the money for the road in anticipation of future TIF payments and when those come in, we will reimburse the developer for the cost that he has funded for the Town. If he is successful and puts up 450,000 square feet or more, he will get his money back sooner. If he doesn’t, he will be helping us pay off those bonds for quite awhile. That is the plan that has been successful in Plainfield in the past. We have four TIF districts in the Town. One is fairly new but the other three have been around for a while. They have improved the SR267 corridor, the I-70 and SR267 interchanges, another TIF district and the U.S. 40 TIF district seems to be the most active ones. They have all been successful. The Town has benefited and in no time have we put the taxpayers of this community at any risk on those bonds. As a matter of fact, there is only one bond issue and TIF district that is backed with property taxes and that is the police headquarters building because it is our building. The other bonds that we have done, especially like the U.S. 40 project, the U.S. 40 TIF district, we have not jacked up the property taxes. We have based it on the revenues generated from the TIF district. With that Mr. Daniel is going to tell you some conditions, in which all of this will start. None of this that we have talked about will start until certain conditions are met.
Mr. Daniel said this is a very good agreement under the
circumstances but one thing that the Town wanted to make certain is
that there is some key provisions in here before any of this agreement comes into effective that certain things are accomplished. They are in brief as follows:
You heard Mr. Carlucci talk about the Rave’s Theater
requirements that Premier must have an executed lease for
the Rave’s Theater and a new Dick’s Sporting Goods store to
construct facilities at the Metropolis’ premises before
this agreement is effective.
H.J. Umbaugh does all of the Town’s financial planning as
far as TIF bonds and bonds in general, etc. The second
thing in the agreement that is required to make it
effective is that H.J. Umbaugh after they do their analysis
must confirm that the TIF revenues are adequate and provide
an adequate revenue stream to pay off the bonds and to make
the Town’s portion of this work.
There have been indications that there have been at times
liens placed on some of the facilities or some of the
properties and buildings that have been built out there.
There is a requirement that the property must be free of
all liens once again before the Town is going to go forward
on this agreement.
You read about this in the paper off and on, although the
Galyan’s quarters building was a separate deal as far as
the Town was concerned, a long time ago there was a
substantial project agreement that was negotiated on that.
You may recall reading in the paper that in the event those
jobs were not there or it ceased to become a corporate
headquarters, there was a claw-back provision in there that
the Town was to get $7,000,000.00 back, taxpayer money,
that they had put into that project for the corporate
headquarters and in return for a substantial number of
high-paying jobs. The jobs are leaving. It is not going to
be a corporate headquarters and even though that was a
separate project this agreement, once again, before the
Town is obligated to go forward requires that $7,000,000.00
be paid in full back to Town in accordance with the project
agreement.
That makes this a pretty strong agreement for the Town. I think
it would really be a good situation. If you have any questions, I
would be glad to answer them.
Mr. Mitchell Haase at 360 Andrew Boulevard said the only question
that I have is if you have to have a letter of credit from a bank, and
we understand his financial situation has been rocky in the past, what
happens if he gets rockier in the future, where is that letter of
credit if he is not able to support that letter of credit from the
bank? What happens in this agreement?
Mr. Daniel said to begin with to the extent that he puts cash up
obviously he would need a letter of credit and they are doing
construction financing and the belief is that they will probably have
enough out of construction financing to put the cash up and not even
use the letter of credit. In the event that they don’t they are allowed
to put up a letter of credit but it will be a irrevocable letter of
credit that must stay there unless it is released by the Town. So, it
is not something that he can pull in or out. When he puts that up, it
is there to make those payments for the Town. It is not something that
he can withdraw without the Town receiving money in return for letting
him reduce that or withdraw part of it.
Mr. Fivecoat said I have studied this document over and over and
I have also done some investigating on my own. I didn’t get a chance
today to contact the Treasurers Office but I know as of last week
Premier Properties or REFFCO company has not paid their taxes that is
new on that property out there. I can’t support this with them owing
taxes and haven’t paid them. I can’t go into an agreement with this.
Mr. Brandgard said I think that is one of the reasons that we put
that “proof of improvements are free of all liens.” If you haven’t
paid your taxes, that is a lien. Until that is paid this does not go
into effect to cover that instance or if there is a lien with another
business on it.
Mr. Fivecoat said the last document that we had when we had our
special meeting and had to cancel it before we even had that meeting
they were trying to change this document or that document. They were
making phone calls to our engineer wanting to change it prior to us
even okaying it. Where it says in here that “the approval by the Town
Engineer or at his discretion taken to the Town Council.” I would like
to see if there is any change in this project that it must come before
the Council only because this is an important document and I think we
need to make any changes to it.
Mr. Brandgard said I think the reason that we have that in there
is we only meet twice a month. As a businessperson, sometimes you need to move things and you can’t wait. That is why we put that in there at the discretion of the Town Engineer. If it is something large, he is not going to approve it, he is going to bring it in to us. That is why it is written that way. Obviously, they wanted everything to come in and be approved by the Town Engineer.
Mr. Fivecoat said I feel with the dealings that we have had with
these individuals before and they keep changing and they keep changing and the promises are there and they are never met. I just would rather see the approval of the Council on any changes of this order.
Mr. Brandgard said this will come to the Plan Commission and be
approved through the Plan Commission, the layout and everything like
that, which is basically what we would be dealing with from the Town
Engineer standpoint, the road, the infrastructure side of it. So,
again anything major that would change would have to come through the
Plan Commission anyway.
Mr. Carlucci said if they are building roads and they want to
make a change in that road as opposed to waiting two weeks, we give Mr. Belcher the authority to make changes. I can guarantee you that if there is a change out in the field that looks pretty substantial, he is just going to bring it to the Council anyway. That doesn’t allow any of the rest of this agreement to be changed at all. It only refers to when construction begins on the roads. Mr. Belcher has no authority to change the rest of the agreement or would want that.
Mr. Fivecoat said I understand that but I’m just trying to
protect the Town. That’s what I’m looking at is for the citizens.
Mr. Brandgard said on the other side of the coin as I have
mentioned in the past, Mr. Chris White is somewhat difficult to deal
with sometimes but he has produced what he says he is going to produce to the Town’s standards. Obviously, he has had some financial problems but I think other than the tax thing he has cleared up everything else. I’m not sure where the tax thing is at the moment.
Mr. Fivecoat said like I said I meant to check today but I ran out of time.
Mr. Gaddie asked, have we had any cost for the initial step for
us to put the road in?
Mr. Kirchoff said we have estimates of all the various pieces.
We have had those for some period of time.
Mr. McGillem said for the areas that we have in yellow we are
looking at probably in the neighborhood of five million dollars.
Mr. Carlucci said I might point out too that the $7,000,000.00
claw-back is really split between Galyan’s, now Dick’s, and Premier
Properties. Except for this agreement, we have kept those items
separate. The Council has specifically said that the $7,000,000.00
goes back to the Town. It is up to the Council to decide where that
money will be spent later. At no time did we commit any of those funds to that project. As a matter of fact, I don’t suggest that it would ever be a good idea. We have already committed funds to that area once so those funds can be reprogrammed into infrastructure. It’s one-time money for infrastructure agreements around the Town but we are going to fund this through a TIF district and not with those funds.
Mr. McPhail said I think all models that Umbaugh has been able to
run for us certainly indicates that the TIF will finance that road
construction without any problems.
Mr. Carlucci said, for example, you have added some more stores
out there. Shoe Carnival moved. You took down a Burger King that was
under-assessed because it was vacant.
Mr. Fivecoat said I haven’t seen the Umbaugh report. I have no
knowledge of that.
Mr. McPhail said one comment I would like to make is I talk with
all of the business people that are out there now and our restaurants, Applebee’s, Chili’s, in particular, two chain restaurants that are under-performing based on restaurants in similar areas. It is not the peak meal hours that they are under-performing. It is those later hours and earlier hours where we don’t have anything to bring people in to spend a lot of time. This theater and additional shopping will certainly help support all of the other businesses out there. They aren’t losing money or they wouldn’t be there but their performance numbers are typically lower than even those in Avon because there are more attractions along U.S. 36 to bring those shoppers in for a longer period of time and they spend more money. The restaurants out there, Culver’s, Chili’s, Applebee’s, etc. are really looking forward to seeing a menu like the theater that brings people in because they certainly believe that will support their businesses. From the community standpoint I continue to get asked when are we going to get more restaurants? When are we going to get more shopping? The ladies in Plainfield want one more notch of a department store out there. I really think that we have the opportunity to provide that overall. I think Premier Properties, as best as I can tell in dealings that I have had, have been able to overcome the difficulties that they have had. They seem to have some infusion of capital that will allow them to move forward with this project. They have a lot at risk too. All of those other businesses out there they have a major investment in. I don’t think they are moving forward with something that they are not able to do at this point and time. I feel like they have their act together. They have made some changes and they went through a period of time that was difficult for them and difficult for us because it put pressure back on the community, when you see a developer that has liens against a project.
Mr. Brandgard said we have had a lot of discussion with them over
that fact and they keep saying that they need the agreement to close on their financing, which I think is probably correct. Whoever is
financing it has to know what the infrastructure is going to be and a commitment to go do it. At the same time we don’t want to have an
agreement out there without getting these other things taken care of first. So, by writing under the effectiveness side to cover all the major concerns we had with it and still allow them to have an agreement to close on their financing, which will probably clear up some of this once they get a bigger infusement of money.
Mr. Carlucci said I would like to point out one more thing here
that I was not real clear on but on page six of the agreement the first paragraph, the last sentence says, “The Town shall issue TIF bonds for such reimbursement only upon occurrence of all of the following events:” One I mentioned that they had to take out permits for 450,000 square feet inclusive of the J.C. Penney’s. Two is evidence satisfactory to the Town of construction loan financing available to Premier Properties for the completion of the phase one roads and Metropolis phase one. And then third, commencement of construction of phase one roads and Metropolis phase one. All of those things have to be done before we even begin. It is a timing issue. We will move forward on getting our TIF bonds ready to go. We won’t issue those TIF bonds until those items are done. And then you get what Mr. Daniel went over on “N”, which is on page seven, all of those conditions that were also placed as a condition to that. The liens out there in the public domain in that project is a direct result of what we put in this agreement. It was some efforts of some Council members that we knew that the liens were out there. So, the Town did know ahead of time that they were there and that, of course, dictates how you write an agreement like this. It is as much as we can do to protect the Town on any agreement that we have ever put together.
Mr. Gaddie asked, what is the status of Dick’s Sporting Goods?
Have we progressed any on the Galyan’s headquarters, the agreement
there? What is the status with them? Are we working with them?
Mr. Carlucci said I know what you are asking and it gets so
complicated here and I think you hit on the key point. Mr. White was
working with Dick’s on a new store so he is also negotiating with them on getting released from the lease they have, a long-term lease that Dick’s has on that building. I think in the long run having Dick’s off that lease is positive because you have to get them out of there. They weren’t paying very much and they could put anybody in there that maybe the Town would not be satisfied with. The bottom line is the building has never been owned by the Town of Plainfield. Our money was there to reduce the lease cost to Galyan’s. So, the reason that Mr. White gets to pay it, and I don’t know how he has worked that out, because he is negotiating with…………
[Tape one concluded at this point and time and resumed as follows
with Mr. Carlucci speaking:]
…………he has negotiated with them with the new Dick’s store. He had
an agreement with Galyan’s to build a new store. So, that is what he
is trying to do to get another anchor in there. But again you are
right that money will come back. And once that money comes back the
agreement is over with. We have no more interest in what they do with
the building. We have an interest in what they do with the building
and we will do everything we can to help them bring in good jobs but in terms of financially we don’t.
Mr. Daniel said they paid off their financial interest to the
Town.
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve the public improvement
agreement between the Town of Plainfield and Premier Properties, USA,
Inc. as presented this evening with Mr. Brandgard authorized to sign
it. Second by Mr. McPhail. Roll call vote called.
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Fivecoat – yes
Mr. McPhail – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 25-2004 on its
third reading and adoption. An ordinance establishing “no parking” on
Southfield Drive and Stanley Road. Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Roll call
vote called.
Mr. McPhail – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Fivecoat – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
Mr. Fivecoat asked, did we approve Mr. Jason Castetter’s trucks?
Mr. Carlucci said you don’t have to approve them. The quotes for
the three vehicles were under $50,000.00 so Mr. Castetter was in a
hurry to get people moving and I authorized him to go ahead but I did
want you to see the cost. They were purchased from Andy Mohr Ford.
Mr. Brandgard said last Tuesday Mr. Castetter took me around to
the water plants and waste treatment plants. When we got back, the
three trucks were sitting there. They moved quick.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 25-2004 on its
third reading and adoption. An ordinance establishing “no parking” on
Southfield Drive and Stanley Road. Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Roll call
vote called.
Mr. McPhail – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Fivecoat – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
Mr. Fivecoat asked, did we approve Mr. Jason Castetter’s trucks?
Mr. Carlucci said you don’t have to approve them. The quotes for
the three vehicles were under $50,000.00 so Mr. Castetter was in a
hurry to get people moving and I authorized him to go ahead but I did
want you to see the cost. They were purchased from Andy Mohr Ford.
Mr. Brandgard said last Tuesday Mr. Castetter took me around to
the water plants and waste treatment plants. When we got back, the
three trucks were sitting there. They moved quick.
