PLAINFIELD TOWN COUNCIL
September 26, 2011
7:00 p.m.

Mr. Brandgard: Plainfield Town Council meeting for Monday September 26, 2011 is now in session.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Mr. Brandgard: I would like to ask everyone to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

CONSENT AGEANDA

Mr. Brandgard: Council member Gaddie will not be in attendance this evening. We have four items on the consent agenda.

1. Approval of minutes of the regularly scheduled Town Council meeting of Monday, September 12, 2011.
2. Approval of Plainfield Fire Chief's report dated September 22, 2011, Town Engineer's report dated September 23, 2011, Transportation Director's and IT Director's reports dated September 24, 2011 and HR Director's report dated September 26, 2011.
3. Approval of August 2011 monthly reports for the Plainfield Police Department and Plainfield Fire Territory.
4. Approval of an agreement in the amount of $36,159.00 between the Town of Plainfield and Traffic Engineering, Inc to provide traffic data collection at 52 locations per the Transportation Director's report dated September 24, 2011.
Mr. Brandgard: Is changes or additions to the consent agenda?

Ms. Whicker: I make a motion that we approve as read.

Mr. McPhail: Second.

Mr. Brandgard: The motion is second to approve the consent agenda as read. If there is no further discussion, roll call votes please.

Mr. Bennett: Ms. Whicker- yes
Mr. McPhail- yes
Mr. Kirchoff- yes
Mr. Brandgard- yes
Plainfield Town Council consent agenda for September 26, 2011 is adopted.

Mr. Brandgard: Thank you.

BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR

Mr. Brandgard: Is there any business from the floor this evening?
Business from the floor? Come to the microphone please.

Mr. Ahmed: My name is Mansoor Ahmed; I own HSN Computer Solutions right down the street here at 212 East Main Street. On October 8th, we were actually hoping to get permission to hold an open cookout with games that we wanted to bring in. It is more of an all day event starting at about noon. More to publicize the businesses that are on this side of 267, we don't get a lot of publicity on this side, and my next door neighbor, from the Patient Assistance Program, we were both going to do this together. So, hopefully we can get permission to do this.

Mr. Brandgard: Can we do that in the parking lot?

Mr. Ahmed: In the parking lot yes.

Mr. Brandgard: Consent, thank you.

Mr. Ahmed: Thank you.

Mr. Brandgard: Any other business from the floor. Seeing there is none, we will go to the public hearing.

PUBLIC HEARING: Town of Plainfield 2012 Budget

Mr. Brandgard: Town of Plainfield 2012 Budget. Bennett has a short presentation on the budget.

Mr. Bennett: Thank you Mr. President and members of the Council. I believe you have a copy of my power point in front of you. Mr. President I do have a notice of the public hearing in my formally nicotine stained hands. What we are here for today Mr. President and members of the Council is the public hearing for the 2012 proposed budget for the Town of Plainfield. In a nutshell what we are proposing what the department heads and what you have seen up to this point are salaries remain the same for 2012, the Council hasn't made a change on that so we are proposing at this time that the salaries remain the same as they have been in 2011 for 2012. Proposals also to hit some highlights here on the general fund, the proposed budget will show a decrease of almost $160,000.00 in health insurance cost, and there is a proposed increase for fuel, primarily from the Police Department of about $80,000.00. The increase that you see in the motor vehicle highway fund is due to replacement of some equipment and the Parks increase is due primarily to the addition of a programmer position, and some computer replacement and maintenance items, software and hardware. The next slide will show you a breakdown of the operating funds, along with the capital funds, and again overall you are looking at less than 3 quarters and 1% increase in the total operating funds and reduction in the capital funds of just over 3%. The next slide will show that the police and fire pension funds were predominately funded by the State, and fully reimbursable by the State are showing of $113 a 25% increase, due to the additional exposure for retirements. It is not to say they are going to retire, but there is the exposure there. The local road and street front, although it has 100% increase, it is only a $50,000.00 increase, I think Jason can speak to that specifically, but he is asking for $50,000.00 over what he spent last year which was 0. The Parks and Recreation budget is a little over 8% due to the increase in the part time wages from the lazy river that is going to be coming on line and then there is some Capital purchases that I think you are aware of that we talked about in the Parks works section, playground equipment, computers, hardware and software that I mentioned earlier. So in conclusion what we are talking about is doing the same thing next year that we've done this year, so we are taking the necessary steps to build the tank reserves, make sure we achieve a balance budget which allows us to fund Capital projects as we have been doing steadily over the past five to six years, and that gives you the flexibility to plan rather than to react and make minor adjustments along the way as needed, and it also gives us the ability to absorb the negative events over time such as the circuit breakers that we have been dealing with in regards to the increased fuel cost and any potential health increases that we may have down the road. That is really all I have Mr. President and members of the Council, I'd be glad to take any questions from you or the audience.

Mr. Kirchoff: Wes, refresh my memory kind of how this process works and we have opportunities to modify this as new information comes in?

Mr. Bennett: That is correct Mr. Kirchoff, we will be holding the final adoption on October 24th, at that time or up until that time we can make adjustments and even after adoption of the budget we have up until the, when the 1782 notice is received in February or March to make adjustments as well. Of course additional appropriations or reductions are always on the table.

Mr. Kirchoff: As I remind the Council we do have flash point doing some research for us on market and so do we anticipate some kind of salary adjustment next year, I haven't heard anything back yet, have you?

Mr. McPhail: I am not I expect to hear from them.

Mr. Kirchoff: So our time frame essentially we are okay.

Mr. Bennett: We can adopt the budget in October and if you want to make some changes to the next years salary ordinance, we can do that and we'll just do an additional appropriation to make the change in the 1782 notice period.

Mr. Kirchoff: I'm hoping we can do that we can do something for 2012; we just don't know what that close parameter should be at this point and time. That is helpful, thank you Wes.

Mr. McPhail: Wes, do we have a final number from the County on the assessment?

Mr. Bennett: Yes we do, Mr. McPhail, we will see, I am glad you brought that up because I know the Council likes to hear about our tax rate and our assessed value as our direct impact as you know on that, we have seen a slight drop in the assessed value in some of the residential areas and commercial areas. We also saw a large drop in assessed value in one of our TIFF districts as well due to appeals. So overall we flat lined AV's this year, however with our hundred million dollar AV pass through to the rest of the tax amenities we should see a flat lined tax rate as well, so we should see a tax rate that stays the same as what we had last year.

Mr. Brandgard: Which would be for the Town, about 7.8?

Mr. Bennett: About .88 or .89

Mr. Brandgard: eighty-eight cents.

Mr. Bennett: Yes sir. That is all; I will turn it back over to you, any comments from the public, thank you.

Mr. Brandgard: Are there any comments or questions from the audience? This is a public hearing for the proposed 2012 budget for the Town of Plainfield.

Mr. Livengood: Chuck Livengood, 1229 Midnight Pass, Plainfield. Could you tell me what the bottom line total expense is? Maybe you said that but I didn't catch it.

Mr. Bennett: Mr. Livengood, the total bottom line levy that we are requesting is $14.4 million dollars. We will probably spend close to 19 million because with the cash on hand and additional revenues from other sources, but the tax levy is just over $14.4 million dollars.

Mr. Livengood: Thank you.

Mr. Bennett: You're welcome.

Mr. Brandgard: Any other questions or comments? If there are none, I will close the public hearing.
I guess we will go to the County.

Mr. Bennett: We have already done the County review, that was done two weeks ago, and that went fine; there were no additional comments from the County Council.

Mr. Brandgard: Good, thank you.

Mr. Bennett: You're welcome.

TOWN MANAGER'S REPORT

Mr. Brandgard: Town Manager's report.

Mr. Carlucci: Just briefly, we did receive information and this may have been sent to you directly, I'm not really positive enough about that, but it is about the Centennial Duke Energy, which comes up in 2012 and they have requesting for banners and that. At some future point we will tie that down a little closer and get with them about the banners, but they will be put on the buildings, in front of the buildings on both of the entrance and they are pretty substantial, but 100 years.

Mr. Brandgard: And they are temporary.

Mr. Carlucci: That is all I have.

STAFF REPORTS

Mr. Brandgard: We will go to staff reports. Chief Anderson, Chief Mitny? Joe, do you have anything from Planning and Zoning? Clay, Parks and Recreation?

Mr. Chafin: Good evening, I have just a couple of quick things that I want to talk to you about, while Tim is doing some of the dirty work over here, we have started the Park Impact Fee update and Recreation and Parks master plan. We met today with the Principal of Pros Consulting and one of the things that we have on the agenda to do, is to have him meet with focus groups or individuals to gather their input, he wants to meet with any or all of you that want to be involved. I have a sheet that I will hand out to you that kind of lists all of the dates that he has open right now. Essentially what he is going to do is, he would like to meet if you are interested, with about 12 to 15 people, key stake holders in the community, find out what you are bearing your input is on the Parks and Recreation Department, where it is, and where do you think it should go, and those types of things. So I will give that to you basically he wants 15-20 minutes of your time to sit down one on one, asking key questions and get your guidance and your input, so his name is Leon Younger, and like I said I will give you this sheet here after the meeting and let you take a peek at it. There is three or four dates listed on here, or I guess five dates, he is only going to choose one date, so if you are all available great, if not and you still want input I'm sure we can get that involved and get the questions and you can email him your information. I want to show you, I have the lazy river construction it is kind of a duck pond right now, but you can see how the river is starting to take shape, if you remember some of the photographs that kind of circled times around, and it basically it is going to be our largest pool once we get it all done, it is going to go from the competition pool edge on that southeast side all the way up to about the admissions building.

Ms. Whicker: And the current runs through there right Clay?

Mr. Chafin: That is the tube that is the picture from the slide tower. There is a two foot over date on either side, so it looks a little bigger than what the river estimated, but it is going to be 12' wide, so it is going to be significant piece. You can see those are the pillars that are going to come out and that is that the zero deck entry as you are going to come between the competition pool and the leisure pool currently. I just wanted to show you a couple pictures and give you a little update, at the end of the construction that is the pump house and that is going to have some restrooms there too. Just to give you an update, everything well, except the rain, but I expect the contractor back in another day or so and but I think they are progressing at a rate that they are on the schedule that they want to keep. We should have everything under concrete by mid December like we are intending too.

Mr. Brandgard: I was going to say by the pictures it looks like you are making really good process.

Mr. Chafin: Yes, they are going to pour basically half and half, they are going to get that south half done, while the pool contractor is working on the south half the excavators going to be continuing to dig out the north half, so you don't have a big channel exposed for an extended period of time and it gets super wet and we can't ever get it dried out, so even though it looked wet, it is not really that bad, it is just the top three or four. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them, otherwise that is all I have.

Mr. Carlucci: Clay I just want to talk a little bit about the Park Impact Fees study, but you are also looking at all of the parks, correct?

Mr. Chafin: Right, it is a complete master plan.

Mr. Carlucci: Even though there may be some people that may be selected as stake holders, there will be ample opportunity for other people at public hearings to have their input to the plan.

Mr. Chafin: In doing this process it is going to take five or six months, we will have a public hearing as you mentioned Rich, we will also do an online survey, we just had the initial meeting today to kind of go over the complete scope of the project and to get the ball rolling if you will.

Mr. Carlucci: I just wanted to make sure we didn't think the stakeholders get the input and nobody else does and we've always been really good about wanting people to have their fair say on what they like in their parks and then everybody loves the parks.

Mr. Chafin: We definitely want the public input on this as it is going to kind of, this planning is to guide us for the next ten years or so. That is all I have.

Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. Jason, do you have anything from Public Works? Ron, do you have anything from Human Resources? Tim, do you have anything from Engineering? Don, Transportation?

Mr. McGillem: Yes just to give you a little bit of a further update on the north east parkway. Wes was so kind with his staff to get me a check cut last Friday and we hand carried it down to INDOT this morning, and we had a noticed received by 1:30 today, so that turned over pretty quick, so we went ahead and met with the contractor this afternoon for some additional scheduling and you should see signs of that notice signs for that road closures going up probably Wednesday for the road closure to start next Wednesday, I think the 4th. The first phase of the contract will be the west bridge as we have always indicated, we had intended for the intersection at Smith Road to be started at the same time, however as a part of that, we have indicated that in our contract that if that was to start, we did not want it closed all winter long. So, with that being the situation and this being delayed close to 45 days here getting the contractors started this time of the year it was elected not to start the intersection, included in the second phase which will start early next spring. So this year the prime work will be the bridge on the west end, and we will be meeting with Avon schools, Plainfield schools here yet this week, hopefully if we can get them all together, plus Fire, Police and the County in order to make them aware of the closures, the time of the closures and work out schedules with them. I hope to get an article in the paper get with a Brenda here and also get into our Utility Billing as a status, but will be getting flyers out now that we've got the schedule handed out to each one of the property owners along the roadway.

Mr. Brandgard: Great. It looks like they have moved their construction trailer in late last week.

Mr. McGillem: Did move a construction trailer in, and I think it was last Friday and I am trying to get it hooked up, that was kind of a surprised that they went ahead and did that before they had the notice to proceed, but they at least got that in. .

Mr. McPhail: So next Wednesday I am going to have to retrain my vehicle not to go east, it automatically goes that way.

Mr. Brandgard: Did I miss any staff?

OLD BUSINESS

Mr. Brandgard: Kent, old business?

Mr. McPhail: I just have one item Mr. President, I want to remind everyone that the Quaker Day Festival and parade is this weekend and the weather forecast is mid to high 60's and sunshine, so we are praying for dry weather. If everybody remembers, we were experiencing a drought last year until about the time the parade started, the rain came, so we hope it gets out of its system tomorrow.

Ms. Whicker: No old business.

Mr. Daniel: Just one item Mr. President the 140 S. Mill Street property, you may recall they we have been working on that issue for quite some time, the court has entered a final judgment on that, that has been recorded, the Town now is a owner of that property.

Mr. Brandgard: Good, thank you.

Mr. Bennett: No old business.

NEW BUSINESS

Mr. McPhail: Mr. President, I would believe after all of the difficulty we've had a 147 South Mill Street and the problems that it has caused in the neighborhood, that we instruct staff to have at having those two buildings removed from that site as soon as possible.

Mr. Kirchoff: No need for training facility or anything Byron?

(Inaudible)

Mr. Brandgard: I'm not so sure I would want them to go in there. Chief Mitny, do you have any use for training?

(Inaudible)

Mr. Brandgard: We had a motion.

Mr. McPhail: I would make that as a motion to instruct staff and remove as soon as possible.

Mr. Kirchoff: Second.

Mr. Brandgard: We have a motion is second to instruct the staff to remove the buildings from 140 South Mill Street as soon as possible. If there is no further discussion all those in favor signify by aye, opposed, motion carried. Thank you.

Mr. McPhail: That is good, that has weighed on my mind for several years now with that house being abandoned and that old garage in the back, it's been a blight in that neighborhood and I am sure the neighbors will certainly appreciate it when we get it cleaned up. Thank you, Mel for all your perseverance.

Mr. Daniel: It took a while, but it's done.

Mr. McPhail: That is all I have.

Mr. Kirchoff: I have one, I got a haircut this morning downtown and they were asking where we stood on Streetscape as far as, how close we were to have everything done, and the two issues they asked about, some signage that indicates where our municipal parking is, and I didn't know where we were, or what we had planned in that, and then secondly, I remember us having a conversation and I can't remember the jest of it about resurfacing that one lot over there.

Mr. Bennett: The east side?

Mr. Kirchoff: Yes, the east side of it. I told them I would bring it to the Council tonight and I know that we had some conversation on that but I didn't know what Joe, Tim, Don, or who to talk about signage, what they are saying is that people say we can't come downtown because there is no place to park, which we know is not true and so they are saying if there is somewhere for us to put a directional signage up that would be advantageous.

Mr. Belcher: I will let Councilman McPhail handle the question on the directional signs, but quickly on the parking lot, Mr. Gaddie brought it up a few meetings ago about not just the existing parking but the grass area that is not yet developed or the lot back there, so I've got Banning Engineering locating a proposal for us to consider to develop that both with a repave. There is a lot of things going on there drainage wise with that lot that we could do a lot better with, so I am having them look at it that way and come back to you with a proposal.

Mr. Kirchoff: I remember it coming up, but I couldn't remember the jest of the conversation.

Mr. McPhail: I will let Don answer the other question.

Mr. McGillem: As far as the parking, we are currently and hopefully going to be out and put up this week, the first set of banners for going on the light posts downtown, and one of the banners or a couple of the banners associated with parking, identifying parking at Vine Street also parking designation for coming up Center Street getting to the lot off of Center Street, and also for the lot associated, the old Fire Station lot, so those are going to be built into said banners that will sit on the light standard right now at the intersection.

Mr. Kirchoff: Good, that is all I have.

Mr. McPhail: The latest email I received this afternoon is that Jason's crew will be putting those up on Thursday.

Mr. Brandgard: Good.

Mr. Bennett: The only thing I have in new business Mr. President is the tentatively scheduled for Thursday November 3rd at 5:30, a 2012 Utility Budget work session, I just wanted to check with Council to see if that date is still good and I've started the ball rolling at least internally for Jason and I, and Tim, and my staff, Patty and Lois to target that date for completion so that we can be prepared.

Mr. McPhail: 5:30?

Mr. Bennett: Yes, November 3rd that is a Thursday evening at 5:30, is that still good for everyone? That's all I have, thank you.

Ms. Whicker: Thank you for confirming that Wes, I had it at 6:00.

Mr. Carlucci: This item of new business is that given the amount of traffic out on US 40 right now, I will pray for our crew that are out there putting up those banners and I hope they are very safe out there when you do it because there is a lot of traffic out there because of the Interstate 70 construction.

Mr. Kirchoff: Along that line too Jason, you might want to be sensitive to the time of day, apparently we had some others that were frustrated with us and putting the banner up for Quaker Day, we picked the morning when they were trying to get their kids to school and they had apparently some kind of a backup, so you might want to be sensitive to that. I guess like 8:30 or 8:45 of the morning they were trying to get kids to school and so they commented to me why did we pick that time?

Ms. Whicker: Speaking of timing and traffic, although I passed my old business, going north on Center Street anywhere between 3 and 6 P.M. the traffic has been backing up to south of South Street. I think with all of the left hand turns and I don't know if that is the additional traffic on 40 due to the construction on 70, but is there anything that we can do temporarily to increase the time on that left turn lane, or is that through INDOT that has the timing of the stop?

Mr. McGillem: That is through INDOT and right now we are not getting any consideration for added time anywhere, I was just a part of a meeting today with the contractor at INDOT on the closure of Township Line Road, we are going to be increasing considerably the number of left turns on southbound Dan Jones at 40. We are going to talk with INDOT traffic to see if we can get more time there. I doubt if we will get more time there with that, my next move is to see if they will at least allow us at Dan Jones to create a southbound double left which will mean we can split the phasing, which we won't get any more time, but we will get more cars through on a left turn. But with the amount of traffic right now on 40, and I think a lot of it, the added traffic is coming all the way straight across Stafford Road from the I-70 congestion they are getting off of Ronald Reagan and coming all the way across Stafford Road and coming up Center Street, which is adding volume at that place. So far we are not getting much consideration from INDOT on the north south timing.

Mr. Brandgard: A comment on Dan Jones, I come from the south wanting to make a left turn to come down into Town. You are lucky to get three cars in that light. I don't know it looks like a hundred cars coming through from the north. It's way out.

Mr. McGillem: I think the split phasing will help your cycle also because if we could get them to go to double left turns there and split phasing, then you've got the left turn for a full cycle on the south side. It is a short cycle, I agree. We are having significant problems; I've talked with INDOT and on trying to get additional south times, especially out here at Center Street. They are not budging on that much right now. Brad indicated that we are looking at November 22nd of the contractor being completed out on I-70, so we've got a couple of months. They are hoping probably within the next two weeks they are going to be shifting the traffic on 70 to the outside lanes, blocking off the inside lanes. When they do that the outside lanes they will be able to run 2 lanes instead of 1 lane so that should help in decreasing. He indicated today that could possibly be taken place here in the next few days.

Mr. Brandgard: I was told this morning by State Policeman that runs out there that what he understands what they are doing out there is just preliminary, they are trying to get the road ready for paving and then they won't pave until next year.

Mr. McGillem: They are supposed to have it fully paved, they are supposed to have everything fully paved by the November 22nd, they will not have final stripping, the only thing they are supposed to be doing next year, next spring would be the final pavement stripping and the seeding of any vegetation and so forth, but November 20th, it is supposed to be fully paved under their contract.

Mr. Brandgard: That is good.

RESOLUTIONS

Mr. Brandgard: There are no resolutions this evening.

ORDINANCES

Mr. Brandgard: One ordinance, first reading of ordinance number 11-2011: Wyatt Rezoning I-2 Industrial.

Mr. Kirchoff: So move.

Mr. McPhail: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: Motion is second to approve the first reading of ordinance number 11-2011; Wyatt rezoning I-2, if there is no further discussion, roll call vote please.

Mr. Bennett: Ms. Whicker- yes
Mr. McPhail- yes
Mr. Kirchoff- yes
Mr. Brandgard- yes
Plainfield Town Council ordinance number 11-2011 first reading is approved.

COUNCIL COMMENTS

Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. I don't believe we have any other business to come before the Council? I will entertain a motion to sign the documents requiring a signature and adjourn.

Mr. Kirchoff: So move.

Ms. Whicker: Second.

Mr. Brandgard: All those in favor signify by saying aye, opposed, motion carries, and thank you.
PROCLAMATIONS