1. Approval of the minutes of the regularly scheduled Town Council meeting of November 22, 2010, and Special Town Council meeting of Wednesday December 1, 2010.
2. Approval of November 2010 monthly reports for Department of Public Works, Plainfield Police Department, IT and Department of Planning and Zoning.
3. Approval Utility Billing Director's report dated December 6, 2010, Parks and Recreation Director's report dated December 9, 2010, Plainfield Fire Chief's report dated December 10,2010, Town Engineer's and Transportation Director's report dated December 12, 2010, HR Director's and Planning and Zoning Director's reports dated December 13, 2010.
4. Approval of Change Order Number 015, in the amount of $1,117.00 for relocating light switches in the sleeping quarters per the Fire Chief's report dated December 10, 2010.
5. Approval to Change Order Number 016, in the amount of $1,313.00 to provide feeder wires to the roof mounted HVAC unit per the Fire Chief's report dated December 10, 2010.
6. Approval of a contract for design and inspection services with Butler, Fairman, and Seufert Engineers in the amount not to exceed $167,200 associated with the North and South US 40 Area Drainage including rescinding the prior contract approval of May 24, 2010 per the Town Engineer's report dated December 11, 2010.
7. Approval to allow Doug Daum to farm the Town land west of Ridgeline Estates Section 4 per the terms of a land lease provided by Mr. Daum and subject to legal review of the lease per the Town Engineer's report dated December 11, 2010.
8. Approval to release $20,000 of escrowed retainage funds to Bowen Engineering associated with the Vac Truck storage building project per the Town Engineer's report dated December 11, 2010.
9. Approval for a partial release of retainage fro the Perry Road added lane project to Rieth-Riley Construction Company, Inc. in the amount of $95,400.00 per the Transportation Director's report dated December 11, 2010.
10. Approval of Change Order #2 in the amount of $41,896.00 for nine proposals for the Town Center Façade Improvement Program per the Planning and Zoning Director's report dated December 13, 2010.
11. Approval to extend Ray's Trash Service weekly residential curbside recycling and trash collection through 2011 at $2.60 per house per month for recycling and $6.60 per house per month for residential trash collection.
BID OPENING
Mr. Brandgard: We have a bid opening tonight for the US 40 Main Street Drainage Project. The first bid is from Calumet Civil Contractors, Inc., from Whitestown, Indiana.
Mr. Daniel: Calumet Contractors bid is in proper form.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. The total amount of the base bid submitted by Calumet Civil Engineering Contractors is $1,201,263.68 again that is $1,201,263.68. The amount of the alternate bid is $277,009.50 again that is $277,009.50.
The Second bid submitted by Dave O'Mara Contractor, Inc., Bloomington, Indiana.
Mr. Daniel: Dave O'Mara Contractors bid is in proper form.
Mr. Brandgard: The total amount for the base bid submitted by Dave O'Mara Contractor, Inc. is $889,837.30 again that is $889,837.30. The total amount submitted with the alternate bid one, is $261,822.40 again that is $261,822.40.
Third bid is submitted is with Fleetwood Contracting Corporation, Indianapolis.
Mr. Daniel: Fleetwood Contracting Corporation bid is in proper form.
Mr. Brandgard: The total amount for the base bid submitted by Fleetwood Contracting Corporation is $1,012,268.00 again that is $1,012,268.00. The amount submitted for alternate bid one is $288,062.00 again that is $288,062.00.
Forth bid is submitted by Gradex Incorporated, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Mr. Daniel: Gradex Incorporated bid is in proper form.
Mr. Brandgard: The total amount for the base bid submitted by Gradex Incorporated is $975,456.90 again that is $975,456.90. The total amount of the alternate one bid submitted is $234,739.75 again that is $234,739.75.
Fifth bid is submitted by John Hall Construction Incorporated, Plainfield.
Mr. Daniel: John Hall Construction, Inc bid is in proper form.
Mr. Brandgard: The total amount for the base bid submitted by John Hall Construction is $706,418.92 again that is $706,418.92. The total for the alternate bid is $199,698.55 again that is $199,698.55.
Sixth and last bid is submitted by Millenium Contractors Incorporated, Indianapolis.
Mr. Daniel: Millenium Contractors Inc. bid is in proper form.
Mr. Brandgard: The total amount for the base bid submitted by Millenium Contractors Incorporated is $927,653.89 again that is $927,653.89. The total amount of the alternate bid submitted is $315,753.11 again that is $315,753.11. I would like thank everyone who took the time to submit a bid. The engineers estimate for the base bid was $1,070,000.00 again that was $1,070,000.00. The engineers estimate for the alternate bid is $240,000.00 again that is $240,000.00. I would like to ask a bid review committee made up of Council member Kirchoff, Tim Belcher, and Dave Lahey to review the bids and come back at our next meeting with a recommendation. Thank you.
BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR
Mr. Brandgard: Is there any business from the floor this evening? Business from the floor, no one coming forward we will move onto Town Manager's report.
TOWN MANAGER'S REPORT
Mr. Carlucci: Thank you Mr. President, I'd like to report on the Plan Commission meeting that took place a couple of weeks ago, just several items real quick, Nice-Pak had requested a rezoning from I-2 industrial to an I-3 industrial, the meeting was continued until the January 3rd Plan Commission meeting, the Commission would like to review permitted uses in the I-3 zoning district to determine if some of the specific uses should be deleted. This project is actually located on Airtech Parkway on the north side of Airtech right across from the Fire Station. Typically what happens when you go from a more intense limited zoning of I-2 warehouse distribution office to a district that is more intense uses which is the I-3, the Plan Commission has the authority to look at some of the uses that are allowed and by agreement with the petitioner can eliminate some of the uses that are more troubling to the Plan Commission. Development plan was approved for Gas America, it was a good public hearing, I believe most of the concerns that the neighbors had were addressed by the petitioners, this is located on US 40 and it is on the north east corner of US 40 and Vestal Road. All the buildings on the site that are currently there will be demolished and there will be a Gas America store and with that a convenience store they are also going to put in a Miami Grill which is a separate restaurant on that site. There will be no liquor sales at this location because they are next to a church. There was a development plan approved for Rainbow Childcare Center, the project is located on the south east corner of 267 and Stafford Road in the Plainfield Commerce Park. In addition the Plan Commission asked the staff to look into the status of the value place integrated center sign and have asked Mr. Daniel to sit down with the director of planning to go over the approval of that project. Finally something that is coming up at the next Plan Commission meeting, which is on January 3rd, the Plan Commission will consider development plan approval from McDonald's and this is at the US 40 and Vestal Road on the south east corner. So as you are going in to bring your children down to the ball park, you can stop there or maybe at the Miami Grill or maybe the new Subway which is open on US 40 down by the Saratoga shops. That project will be part of the Commission next month and the zoning is general commercial so the issue is strictly the development plan approval. One item I did mention that I was going to bring up at the meeting had to do with the Indianapolis Regional Transportation Council and that has to do with meeting this week there will be some voting on what the Regional Transportation Council calls the Long Range Transportation Plan. I have represented the Town of Plainfield on it for quite a while, even before we were actually officially in Regional Transportation Council in terms as our transportation funding. I sat on the Policy Committee Don McGillem, the Transportation Director sits on the Engineering Committee and the vote that will be coming up, which is important, many of you have seen the Indy Connect study for the mass transit. Normally I vote, the votes there are pretty easy, there are straight forward things approving items but this is more of a policy issue I think the Town Council may want to weigh in on. Indy Connect is a study that was basically put together by the private sector most seen in Marion County and if you go to the Indy Connect and you Google that you can see a lot of materials they have out there on that. What I am looking for is some direction on the Town Council on the Long Range Transportation Plan. We have a Council member who has been very involved in this on two separate committees and that is Mr. Kirchoff and I don't know if he wants to weigh in at all on this. It is an important vote but it is not a final vote by any stretch of the imagination. It has already been in the press that certain members of the Senate in the House are not really focusing on this issue this year and there may not be something done this year in terms of how that is going to be funded. Although it seems to be leaning towards funding using income taxes but nobody knows for sure. I know some of you have gone to those hearings on Indy Connect it is certainly a substantial program that will cost billions of dollars and certainly would impose on Mr. Kirchoff if you would want to say anything about this.
Mr. Kirchoff: I guess the first thing I would suggest is to help us think through the process we are actually talking about two separate pieces here, the legislative piece has to do with governance and I know that some of us went to Danville and heard a presentation about governance which also has something to do with the legislation. As of last week I was in a conversation, it does not look favorable for it to get any kind of attention in the upcoming legislature. We had a timeline that indicated that and we thought we had legislature that was going to carry the bill for us and that has been a rethought, and their concern was that this was not a good time, you probably saw this on the front page of the Star, this is not a good time to be asking for increased taxes. So there are ongoing debates that whether this is a good time to introduce a bill that could potentially lead to additional taxes and as of last week it was still being balanced as if it was going to get any support at all. So I paint that picture for you, that is a whole kind of different issue versus what I think you are going to be considering on Wednesday is the actual approach as to how you might provide light rail, rapid bus, local bus and all that kind and that is more of what Rich is talking about so I wanted to make sure you understood it, it is kind of two separate issues and the vote on Wednesday is more, if you go to the website and see the map of what the routes and the proposed technology to address that so if that helps or not.
Mr. Carlucci: The only concern I have is from the beginning and at least on this private course in the study that they have put together. That nobody would be forced into the governess, it would be on a County by County basis, so for example if Morgan County or Hendricks County decided to hold the referendum votes then they would be part of this whole process. That is the way that is a thin pancake that doesn't have two sides because you are voting on something that is coming down the road and we've asked them to try Lori Miser who is the Director of the MPO if she could separate those votes out, it doesn't appear that we can pull the Long Range Transportation out separately from the other things that we are approving, although we did ask. We are only one community, I was asked by Ms. Miser if I knew how the other communities were going to vote and I said no, I do not know for sure. My inclination is to at least, because I think there is another step two or three months later that will have to reconfirm this because they are not going to have all the details on the Long Range Transportation Plan this time up. I would be happy to move forward and at least vote yes for the Long Range Transportation Plan which include by the way it includes other projects of the Town. Whether we voted yes or no…go ahead.
Mr. Kirchoff: I was going to say Don or Tim do you know what some of our major projects might be in the rest of the package?
Mr. McGillem: The two added projects that we put in for the plan was the extensions from the roundabout on 600/700 that would tie into Center Street and also to the west where it would tie into where the widen sectional roadway at Glen Haven is, that is to basically extend Hadley Road all the way from 267 to west of the Glen Haven subdivisions. That project has been recommended for approval under the priority ratings that they have come up with under their scheme of prioritizing projects so that project I know is one of I think twenty-three out of seventy-seven projects that was submitted at a level to be recommended for approval for funding. The second project we submitted was the extension of Township Line Road from Dan Jones to 267 and that project has not come up to meet the level for the available funding that they have anticipated having up through the 2015 year, now that project is in the program and would be available for future funding, but it has not been approved for what they are anticipating in the funding from 2012-2015.
Mr. Carlucci: The one that was funded initially…
Mr. McGillem: The one that has been approved for funding has been approved for 2013 the extension off of 600/700.
Mr. Carlucci: So we've got out of all of the projects that are being funded in that time frame.
Mr. McGillem: Right they estimated for that time frame they would have fifty-seven million dollars available for funding these initial projects.
Mr. Carlucci: This does not include, well this does and does not, Township Line Road which are going from Perry Road over to Dan Jones that is already covered, part of the project on Hadley Road was what they call CMAC, Congestion Management Area Project and then we've got to fill in a couple different sides of that project so the timing is kind of interesting scenario there because we can be starting one year completing a part of a project and starting another year another part. But at least 40 will be open. My approach Wednesday will be to vote yes subject to that the referendum will be by individual County and…
Mr. Kirchoff: Rich that is not part of what you are voting on Wednesday. The Governors piece is not part of that. You are only voting on the plan and the technologies you recommended. It is two separate things. My point there is I think we need to get together again as elected officials and talk about that whole Governess piece because I heard great concerns about that and I guess I think things too simply, the way I look at that is the first question we should ask ourselves is do we think Central Indiana needs mass transit? If we said yes we do think there aught to be mass transit then the next question is do we want to be involved? And if that answer is no then someone else will make the decisions for us. If the answer is yes then we aught to be at the table then the question is what should it look like, so that is a whole different piece than what you are going to be considering on Wednesday.
Mr. Brandgard: I'm going to say a couple of things here. One, voting on the mass transit plan per say should not be attached to voting for projects for communities on their transportation. I think that's going back the carrot in front of the horse, the thing is if you vote no you don't get your projects if you vote yes you get socked with a bunch of costs that may not benefit you. I'm not sure I like this process.
Mr. Kirchoff: If you don't all at the end, if you chose not to be part of mass transit then you do not have any of the costs because you don't get any of the benefits.
Mr. Brandgard: Ok, you brought up the other point. When you look at that plan, that plan is designed to help Indianapolis, if you look at the plan and they talk about stations and the economic development around stations. There are no stations in that plan for Hendricks County. It is designed to move people from the north into the city and at the moment we don't relatively have any major problem moving people in and out of the city. Their initial statement for meeting mass transit is Indianapolis is the only city in the top 100 that doesn't have mass transit, and excuse me that is no reason to have one or not to have mass transit. The decision that's got to be made is why and when you need it, they hold up Denver and they hold up Portland, Oregon and I was out in Portland, Oregon when they opened up their last session and all I heard was people crying because of what it is going to cost them in taxes for it. In my view there is a lot to be done there, this is put together by the private sector so it is supposed to be Government to Government but it is all based on Government funding and from my view we are so tight on funding for what we want to do here, how can we support that? I think the numbers I heard it something like eight or nine million dollars a year coming out of Hendricks County to support that. I can tell you, Hendricks County can build one heck of a bus transportation system for eight or nine million dollars a year to meet up with the Marion County side of it so if we have to vote yes to get the funding that we need then I suppose we have too, but they have not done enough to convince me.
Mr. Kirchoff: You all did ask to have those separated and I think Lori went to the Federal Highway (inaudible) something and said it could not be separated. It is all transportation dollars.
Mr. Brandgard: That is what I am afraid of. In order to do that it is going to suck our road money in to pay for it. Because the first blush they had on that plan, they pointed the projects in Plainfield; they said you don't need that. We will use that money for transportation and excuse me they don't ever come out to Plainfield to see what our needs are. They haven't been to Hendricks County to see what our transportation needs are, I asked them. You say the benefit is there, ok give me the detail.
Mr. Carlucci: I am confident that on Wednesday there will be a vote that will be positive to move this forward because if you look at just the whole area, yeah you got Hamilton County, it is not just about whether it is going if we vote no, or if we vote yes it is probably this section is going to move forward because the numbers aren't there to be negative about it in my estimation. Even if I did vote no on our plan it doesn't mean it knocks out our projects, those are still there. They went through the rating system and we went through the process from that standpoint.
Mr. Brandgard: I am looking for future projects.
Mr. Carlucci: And these issues are far from being resolved because we are just at the very beginning, we are not anywhere near.
Mr. Brandgard: If you are moving ahead with a concept plan subject to change and revision that is good.
Mr. McPhail: I really think that we have to be open minded about the future and mass transit in the metropolitan area. But the plan that I've seen, I can't support a big project that provides a north south rail system and lets us depend on bus service because I don't think the general public is going to support a bus program. We've seen that fail. We have seen that fail where they need the service a lot worse than we do, north and south and the only time it functioned properly at all was when it was subsidized way beyond what was anything reasonably. And when it came time for people to pay a reasonable cost they won't use it. But I do think we have to be open minded about the future and how we are going to handle traffic in the future. I don't know what the answer is.
Mr. Brandgard: Well, part of it that bothers me really is, no where in the conversations I've had, have they recognized the fifteen thousand people a day that come to work in Plainfield.
Mr. Kirchoff: We call that a reverse community and that is one of the aspects they are trying to address is…
Mr. Brandgard: Well they didn't initially. I'd say vote for it but…
Mr. Carlucci: And they do show a people mover on 40 and I don't think it is unreasonable to think they couldn't be extended further in other areas either over to the airport or out to the industrial parks or something along that line.
Mr. McPhail: The things that concerns me is that if I understand the way you are telling me that the federal dollars are all going to be put into one pile and this is part of it, am I correct? So we could be taking traditional dollars for traditional projects and applying those to something that we are not going to get any benefit.
Mr. Kirchoff: However those will go through the same committee that Rich is sitting on Wednesday, so he will have a chance to review all of those projects as they come to the table. I turned to you earlier when I saw the early draft about our projects out here but I was reminded, Rich said something on the committee that makes the final decisions anyways.
Mr. Brandgard: Well my fear is from experience if this gets approved and going, it will need money so bad we will never see any money for our needs. It will all go to make that successful, anyways…
Mr. McGillem: I think we are going to catch it from a funding in the future if it goes there is a significant amount of the Federal Highway Funds that comes to the MPO that is projected to towards a piece of the funding of the mass transit, so lets take the fifty-five million dollars that I was talking about that they assign projects to for the period from 2013-2015, if you took twenty million out of that to go to mass transit you are down to thirty-seven million dollars and then instead of 27 projects funded in that two year period, you might only have ten to fifteen projects. So your competition for the funds is available coming in for the local surface projects is going to be competing with a big chunk of that going to the mass transit. I think this is where we are going to feel the impact.
Mr. Kirchoff: But again, Rich said something on the committee that makes those judgment calls. He could come back to us and say…
Mr. McGillem: I think at this stage at what they are asking for approval, but I think as you go into the legislative end of it the approval of it, or as I understood it there is going to be a form that says this in the overall funding for the mass transit there is a percentage of that that will come out of the Federal Funds going to the MPO.
Mr. Kirchoff: None of that has been determined.
Mr. Brandgard: The other thing regarding transit, I find highly interesting that they don't see how they can be done on a private basis. But yet you've got the person who started the bus line up in Chicago, that has been very successful with it and I say here in Indianapolis and now I see where Trailways is starting up the same line at the same pricing points, so I guess that tells me it can be done.
Mr. Carlucci: Well we will move it along on Wednesday. As I get older I don't know if I will be around to be on that first train ride. On a different note I wanted to compliment all of the employees of Town Hall, including everyone that works in here. We have gathered donated food, we've got some information on people who have donated food for families for the St. Mark's Pantry, but the Town Hall's staff adopted two children from Central Elementary and we had more than $300.00 in donations. The presents were delivered today to the school and whatever money that was left over was put into a little debit card for them, but I just wanted to acknowledge that in front of the Council the efforts. They were smart not to let me wrap any of those presents, but they were all wrapped and taken over and it may be something that you don't know that takes place here, but I want the department heads who are in the Town Hall to thank their employees for their efforts and it will make two young boys very happy that they have something under the tree. And then St. Mark's gets a great amount of food but we are still collecting some in case you want to drop some by, we've got a box out here and I think we have one down at the Rec Center. I just wanted to mention that it certainly makes you feel good about yourself if you are helping someone else and there is nothing wrong with feeling good about something that you did nice for someone else. Thank you and that is all I have for tonight.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. Again we need to recognize as Rich did of the Town staff and employees for taking on that initiative and congratulate them and thank you on behalf of the Council.
Mr. Carlucci: I do want to mention there is other departments that do different things, I'm sure that each department has what they do.
STAFF REPORTS
Mr. Brandgard: We will go to staff reports and I just want to start out by mentioning the fact there is one staff member here that was missing. Jason from Public Works and I would like to congratulate him and his people for the job they do when it snows and they did a good job over the weekend, keeping the roads open and safe. Just want to make sure that is in the record and I am sure it will get passed on too.
Lois, do you have anything from billing? Joe, do you have anything from planning? Chief Mitny, anything from the Police Department?
Mr. Mitny: Every year the Police Department takes requests for needy families in the community and they are not here to hear this but I would like to give a special thanks to Betsy Krieger and Lt. Jill Lees, they got to talk to the families and see what their needs are and through donations at the Police Department receive throughout the year, they go out and they shop and wrap the presents up and they take it to the families. So it is kind of a fun time around the department because we have presents laying around and wrapping paper and it kind of gets everyone in the mood. It is like what Rich said, it is nice to see everyone kind of drop something off, and even the guys will bring a toy in every now and then and try to help out. That is what we are doing at the Police Department.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you and the community thanks you. Bill, do you have anything from IT? Clay, parks?
Mr. Chafin: Good evening. In the report that I submitted there was a letter from the American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Plainfield, each year they come to us and ask us for a room at the Rec Center to do their annual kick off event and so that letter was in this report for your consent to provide them with a room on January 27th, so if you have any questions I can answer. It is usually in the evening for less than four hours and they will have a kick off event.
Mr. Brandgard: First question is, do you have a room available.
Mr. Chafin: Yes.
Mr. Kirchoff: We've done that before.
Mr. Chafin: Yes.
Ms. Whicker: This isn't for the entire Town; it's just giving them the information for the teams to come?
Mr. Chafin: Yes, just a kickoff.
Mr. McPhail: Is that their kickoff meeting for Countywide?
Mr. Chafin: Just for Plainfield.
Mr. McPhail: I know they operate all over the County.
Mr. Chafin: I think the letter said they have thirty in the County.
Ms. Whicker: The closest walk site?
Mr. Chafin: That I don't know for sure.
Mr. Brandgard: They walk at the High School.
Mr. McPhail: Didn't they do it at Metropolis last year?
Mr. Brandgard: The year before they did. They may have last year too.
Mr. Chafin: I will let them know that you've allowed them to have that room. Also in the report for your review, was the property of agreement that we have with all of the youth organizations highlighted in yellow are some of the minor changes that we made to clear up some details that we've come across this year. If you have any input, what I will like to do then is present it at the next Council meeting on the consent agenda for approval on the 2011 year.
Mr. Kirchoff: I had a brief conversation with Clay ahead of time. I scanned it and I didn't see it and I just wondered if we didn't want to put something in there, remember we had an issue about the little league wanting to charge admission for tournament fees or something. So I wondered if we wanted to formalize that in the document itself about it.
Mr. Chafin: Yes, last year when they had tournaments because of the tournament fee they were trying to re-coop some money and they were charged basically a gate fee or a fee for vehicles to get in. Well because all of our fields are in public parks, we said, no you can't do that, if you wanted to you can have a donation bucket of some sort maybe at your concession stand to try to help offset some of those costs. We didn't include that in the agreement but we can make a statement…
Mr. Kirchoff: If it's been handled its ok, I just thought if it should be in writing someplace this is probably the document it should be located.
Mr. Chafin: No entry or gate fee will be allowed? I will add that in there and I will send it to Mel for his review this week. Is there any other suggestions, comments? Ok, that is all I have, thank you.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. Ron, do you have anything from HR?
Mr. Lydick: Mr. President and Council members. I received two emails today from Mel Daniel on our sharing agreement with the Central Indiana School Employees Insurance Trust, and there are about two pages of questions and concerns, so I've been communicating with Jim Swartz, from Mel's office and he has continued to work on these documents and so hopefully he will have something for us by December 21st. Also our current salary ordinance expires on December 26th of this year and a salary ordinance must be passed before elected officials before the end of the year and of course the elected officials include a Judge, Clerk Treasurer, and the Council members. As far as other employees there is no State requirement that the salary has to be done by December 31st. Those salaries can be changed during the year whereas the elected official's salaries can not be changed during the year. So I was seeking some guidance as to how I should go about preparing the salary ordinance for 2011.
Mr. Kirchoff: I was surprised you asked, because I thought we agreed at budget time, due to the 26% increase in healthcare costs we would not doing any salary increases for 2011.
Ms. Whicker: I just remember when talking about an increase last year it was we…do we do it across the board, do we do a lump sum and knowing in the future in the next couple of years that that was something we might do last year. (Inaudible)
Mr. Kirchoff: My recollection of it that way Ron, one option that we had was with us getting a 26% increase in health benefits, one option that we had was to ask the employees to pick up some of that and we said because we weren't getting a salary increase we didn't think we should ask them to pick up an additional…you remember that conversation? Every since budget time, I've been under the understanding that we would not. It may be that my memory isn't what it used to be.
Mr. McPhail: Certainly the issue with the five of us, Clerk Treasurer and the Judge, are effected obviously I don't think it is appropriate for the Council to vote themselves an increase under the circumstances and the other two positions I personally just don't feel comfortable doing that based on the situation we are facing.
Mr. Lydick: So am I hearing you say there will not even be any possibilities during the year next year? Because the reason why I am asking that, we do have a few positions that do not have a range on their salaries and so I guess even if they don't have a range that salary could be amended at the range at the necessary time.
Mr. Kirchoff: We have people that are not in the range?
Mr. Lydick: Yes, for example our probationary employees all start out as a certain rate and they stay at that rate for the entire probationary period so there are no increases during that probationary period so we don't put in a range, I have in the past put in a range for that. For example lets say that a probationary Fire Fighter makes $35,000.00, if you wanted to give them, let's say comes July and something happens the Council decides they want to give some money, well the salary ordinance will have to be amended in order to provide a wage for those probationary people, whereas if you have a range then all you have to do is vote for the amount of the increase.
Mr. Brandgard: Proposed increase would be if we would want to increase probation.
Mr. Carlucci: I think we've got a sense of the Council.
Mr. McPhail: I think if we ran into an issue during the year where we thought we had an issue that needed to be addressed we could do that and amend it.
Mr. Brandgard: I personally think that so far that the elected official goes, in the times we are in now, we aught not to be increasing ours but as far as the employees go I'm not so sure that we shouldn't, but I do think we need to wait and see what budget approval we get before we make any decisions one way or the other. I mean we submitted our budget to the State but we haven't gotten the approvals back, and without knowing that I can't suggest that we increase salaries. I mean the key thing we are trying to do is make sure we don't have to decrease the workforce. And as far as looking forward as making commitments, may cause us problems later on due to revenue, I mean I would look at the lump sum payment rather than in the wage structure per say. We don't know from one year to the next how much funding we are going to have, especially until this whole situation gets settled down which is going to take several years.
Chief Anderson, Fire Department?
Mr. Anderson: We participate in Project Angel; we pick up point for the applications, and a drop off point for donations. We us our backup ambulance and help distribute the donated items that are identified for the families in Plainfield areas. Some years that is several families, and we've been doing that for several years.
Mr. Brandgard: That is good, thank you.
Tim, do you have anything from engineering?
Mr. Belcher: A couple of items, the first I told you in my report I would update you on the Water Tower Project, we had a progress meeting today and the latest information, that project, you had some insight for the tag painting that was not finished the last couple of coats, literally about three hours of painting before the temperature started dropping so that has been delayed in terms of getting the painting done on the inside of the tank. It is only critical on filling that tank is where we want to be eventually. So now we are waiting for forty degree temperatures and things like that so as the project is progressing in January they will start putting the slab inside the tank where the booster station will then go and by mid January and then by the end of January we actually would hope that they would be ready to start things up. But then again the painting is kind of a controlling factor so we have asked them about…
Mr. Kirchoff: How long does it have to be forty degrees?
Mr. Belcher: Three hours, essentially the steel has to get up to that temperature as I understand it which again moving crews in and planning for that. Apparently they did everything they possibly could except move heat into the facility, we asked them today actually a price to bring heat in to do that, because what would happen is instead of starting in April, we might be able to start at the end of February with filling and disinfection. That has a lot to do with some of the other projects going on, the Carr Road Booster Station, when that could be taken off line for the repairs we have planned for that. So the contractor is working on that now, but again, doing a good job and they are way ahead of their construction schedule, they are not required to be done until May or June, but we are trying to get our tower and booster inline before that if we can at a reasonable price. So again I'm real pleased with this contractor, with the quality of work and the progress, but it seems like it's been going on for a long time but essentially it's ahead of schedule. Next item, I wanted to update the Council members and I think Wes and those who aren't in the Plan Commission, we had a report from Brock Ridgeway with Eagle Ridge Engineering about the status of our sidewalk trail planning effort and I am going to try to condense it a little bit more and I will answer as many questions as I can but I would rather preserve Brock's time for other meetings we are going to have and have him come here in Plainfield. While we were doing this whole project, this is a plan we put together a few years ago that we essentially almost built out, it shows a lot of the major trail ways that we had planned to build and then we went out for a bond issue a few years ago and we constructed I think most all of what is on that map, so that progressed the trail side of that pretty far. Currently with all of that you all know, we were also doing sidewalk replacements, Center Street and some of the older parts of town where the repairs and we did some great things with that. So I think with those things going on at the same time lead to residents calling and saying I love this, when are you going to be at my house and that kind of stuff and we were trying to focus on main quarters and things like that, but it really brought to the forefront an issue that we have never done, this integrated of a plan and we realized we needed to do it. So you allowed us to hire Brock and I can tell you he is doing a fantastic job for us on this, pulling staff members together and trying to get involvement sort of from surrounding areas that might link into our system and come up with sort of a program of how we might put together a plan. So we completed all the initial steps for this which included surveying sort of on the ground what we have out there inventory wise for sidewalks for trails, handicap ramps, all of the things that make up the components of a good pedestrian system and so that has been done and been done in a way that can be put into our GIS system so that we can then use that data in the future when we do more planning and have the detail we need to actually put numbers to the plan so essentially that real heavy lifting was done through the summer about July or August I think we started and Schneider was a subcontract to Eagle Ridge and he adapted a great job managing that work for us and getting that done and that data collected so we got all that data and we now have another map (inaudible). This map is what's now come out some of the work of the staff being together, the consultant to his expertise, obviously it is a very scale map here, I hope you have a chance to go down and look at some of the detail on it. I think I sent that on part of my report so you will have it. This is again the current status or picture of what we think the program could look like, but again we have not got public input, that is our next phase, we would like to bring the public in, we talked today about maybe having a meeting January 20th, that week or sometime and try to bring the public in open house style to expose this as much as we can and get their comments and Renea had a great idea about using our website to try to gain information from anybody that would be willing to give us information regarding how they feel about this plan, but what one of the greatest things that I think Brock has brought to the table here on this, sort of breaking this down into three parts, we've got trails which we all think of as Vandalia where you can ride a bike, you can walk you can run it is essentially handles all of the different things you can think of in terms as recreational on a walkway. Then that and we have a name now the primary system, those are bigger trails and mainly asphalt and they have a lot of uses and almost anybody could use those. Then the secondary group of trails or walks might be something like you see on 40 wider walks they are very capable for people walking on but you wouldn't necessarily attract bicyclers there. They will be there but they are not necessarily drawn or put it on the ground for bicyclers to be there, but they do get you to the primary system so they are very good for moving people around the Town to the parks and things like that but they are not the most recreational type. Riding on 40 or walking on 40 is just not as much fun as being on White Lick Creek. You have a different kind of need or a different use for that secondary group of trails. Then the third large group is tertiary group we called it but essentially it might be the ones in front of anyone's house, certainly in all the new neighborhoods we have, it is required by our subdivision patrol ordinance, we obviously have older neighborhoods that were developed without sidewalks. This program was never intended to try and build walks for every house in Town that is not the intent, our goal is to try to get everybody connected to the trail system and so they can get to the parks, Rec Center or whatever. So just because you don't have a walk in front of your house with this plan I don't think will say you are going to have one, there could be certain neighborhoods that it will be wise to put one but that may be based to the traffic on the road or some other factor that would call for a sidewalk to be there. Buchanan is probably the best example, we didn't have a sidewalk on Buchanan but you allowed us to put one in and you could see it is more of a secondary feel to it, it takes people a long distance but it gets them off a heavy traffic road. So we may find other roads like that around Town as we go through this planning process, I think it would be very good to add walks to but as you get down in the neighborhoods, quite frankly I've walked a lot of neighborhoods in Town and you can walk on the street and not see a car for an hour, certain times of the day you wouldn't want to do that but basically some areas of Town it doesn't need sidewalks or because of the way the neighborhoods developed, there is parking spaces, and things that really couldn't practically put a walk in anymore without changing the entire neighborhood so there is some areas we don't put walks in. The idea of connecting people to the secondary system and that connects them to the primary and so we have these categories that we can start to break down our whole program that is what we are really trying to do here and again we are right at the step now that we sort of put on the map where we think would be a logical program. A couple of things that came out of this first sort of stab at this on the draft map here was the primary route we always thought that would be following the major route around the Town a perfect parkway but as Brock got into this and he realized on the east side of Town where you have all the businesses, we do want the walks on Perry Road but there is really no residents there, reality is people will going through the middle of Town where all the people live, that is where you really want to focus on our primary kind of trail. You would want to look at the colors and key there, it is hard to see on this map but essentially as you come down Perry Road once you get by the mall and things, really you are going to be moving into the Town where people live as opposed to around the big heavy roadways with trucks and all that kind of stuff. Really great that we connected all the sidewalks along Perry but terms of our primary system that is probably not what we are going to call it or attract people to that. So again on the west side and the south side that still may follow Moon Road/Hadley Road because you are going to have neighborhoods on both sides as that area develops. As you go through Saratoga you have a nice trail on Saratoga Parkway and those types of things. But east to west on the north side of Town by Vandalia has become the northern most piece of our primary trail where I think most of the people utilize our trail system, Township Line Road will have walks on it, no question about that but is not where people are going to want to go to be on a bike or on a trail, it is going to be along Vandalia's. That is sort of how getting around the Town the primary system looks, going through the middle of Town, another thing that fell out of this is we sort of known and we talked about it in a prior meeting is Stafford Road and the middle school came up, well that is in this program is a primary part of the system and as we've thought about it, it goes in the majority of the community where people live, so it goes by the library, the churches so it really makes a lot of sense between Center Street, Friendship Gardens and the other trail and say 267 where you can get to a tunnel but that would be developed as the primary use of our system so that is sort of an exciting thing that dropped out, there is a lot of ideas that could come out of it and how it was to be done because we have really wide pavement and maybe we could do that without widening the road, we would bring the road in and put the trail out there and not effect people's homes and that kind of thing. It would actually make the homes look more like a residential feel than the big wide pavement there so a lot of ideas that will come out of that. Similarly Simons going north and south, as a primary trail systems, there is a lot of width in that pavement too to go pass the churches to the north and again you connect to Buchanan and then maybe go down to Carr and go up Carr and star skirts the neighborhood and it really has few walks in it. So you can see how it fits together now and it sort of begins to make a lot of sense on that primary backbone of our system but these again are the main components of what we talked about so far, and even the things about the crossing that we talked about at the middle school, I think that will come out of this as we get into more detail and there will be other crosses we haven't thought about yet that we can talk about later. So I guess without going too much further, that is really in a nut shell where we come from and where we are at on this, if you would like to have the public input now and see what comes in from that and then modify and adjust as we get comments from the residents that are interested enough to give us that input or give us, we'd really like to try to have that. We will try to get out into other places like the school and draw a limit to the conversation about routes around schools and things like that and then ultimately when I see an end is that we would have a list of projects and unfortunately you will have to put a value on those and they are going to be all of them together like our twenty year road plan and very expensive but as you start breaking them down into and decide what projects or major trail projects or safe routes the school projects you will end up taking your priorities in and doing what makes sense to and what to do first. All the way back to the very first question we are getting from residents “when are we going to be there”. I can't answer that, I think when we get done I think we will be able to answer that and with some great confidence in why we are doing it this way and why is it going to be five years or seven years, well then we can explain the logic behind it, but if there is those kinds of questions. But that is where we are at, believe it or not that's abbreviated but that is where we are at on this program and I'd like to answer any questions that you might have now and certainly along the way drop an email to me or Brock and we would be glad to get back with you.
Ms. Whicker: I think it was a good idea, Rich had mentioned about possibly putting something about it or feedback or input in the Waterline and if possible who do we get a hold of for the neighborhood association, or it is just nice to know the concerns that are out there and when the citizens feel like they are a part of the plan, they don't possibly feel that the whole community won't be invading their privacy and walk in through their yard but if they feel that they are a part of the input session. I don't know how the Plan Commission gets in touch with neighborhood associations but…
Mr. Belcher: I'm not sure either but we can make an attempt from now and the meeting.
Ms. Whicker: Maybe electronically or possibly just to let them know that there is a place for them to view it and for them to put their input.
Mr. Belcher: I would like to have the meeting plus have another place for them to go if they can't make the meeting like you had suggested like on the website.
Ms. Whicker: I think Clay made a really good point though that at the first of the year having it on display that is a really busy time with singing up with new memberships and already having up there what we want to with the proposed park and all that. I'm sure part time people are getting a lot of questions and we want to improve the customer service with people coming in the Rec Center too. It might not be an appropriate time for a lot of questions and answers.
Mr. Belcher: Yeah, we need to make it easy for them to get what they need without having to ask the staff and without having to train a lot of staff. It could be that we have more than one public hearing. There is nothing that requires us to have just one if we have a lot of input with the first one and if we don't have a lot of input I'd say we can always try again and try to have another one and draw…I know Rich and I, last time we did the first plan you saw, I think I spoke at a scout meeting one night and a lot of different things ended up where parents and kids were together and we were able to just go and talk to them. It was actually one of the more fun kind of things you can do because people like talking about trails, they really enjoy them and being part of the planning process so anything we can do to encourage people to come to make the plan better and we can obviously break that map down into a lot of pieces or small pieces so we can have folks not looking at the whole thing unless they want too. They are going to be first interested in their neighborhood then they are going to be interested in the whole thing with the opportunities there.
Mr. Brandgard: While we are doing this are we getting the sidewalk inventory? I mean as far as conditions?
Mr. Belcher: Yes, the inventory we did have both condition and ramp conditions whether they existed or not, so we have some issues as far as ADA that we have to be able as a Town to respond to, so this plan will also cover that issue for us and we will have an all inclusive kind of program when we are done, that we can also budget again having an understanding of our costs and priorities on what we would budget. We are probably looking at April or May completion if everything goes as planned, I mean a plan that will be finalized and I think it would become part of the comp plan which it would go to the Plan Commission first possibly and Town Council second but amending that into the comp plan will allow you the ability to require new development where we have shown the major corridor that they would have to commit to giving up the right of way for building a piece of trail. So that is a long term goal. That is all I have on that unless you have any questions. The only thing I wanted to say Jason started the sharing of the part time employee, again thank you for that approval, the employee certainly appreciated that and it is working out so far really well, with the snow storm, we had somebody down there helping answer the calls and things. We are still working with the schedule but so far so good and I think it's been very positive.
Mr. Brandgard: Great. Thank you. Don, is there anything from transportation?
Mr. McGillem: Well, I'm happy to report that all the barrels are down through Town. This time last year we had south half of 40 tore up and trying to winterize the project going in to try and get us through the winter. This year we did get INDOT to agree to let us go ahead and open up all of the lanes even though we didn't have the final signals up but to open up under the temporary signals which had been a problem initially but they agreed and let us go ahead under the existing signal. We do intend in our electrical contractor if the weather will let up just a little bit to go ahead and proceed to getting the signals up yet this year or the first of the year and get all the lighting standards up and get lighting on. Don't know about you all but Saturday night driving in the rain through Town with the temporary striping that we've got which is a light coat of paint and with no lighting it is, the pavement markings leave a lot to be desired so I am hoping that we get the signals up or the lighting up that will help out a lot and the pavement striping that we do have down is temporary and to be very honest with you, we kind of hope it does get worn off by next spring because it will allow getting the final pavement marking down much easier. Probably the biggest there is a little bit of concrete is not going to get done till spring and there is the brick pavers the corners out here at Center Street they are supposed to be getting those in and getting pretty much the pavers finished out and of course you can't do anything in this weather but if the cold weather really does not hurt us in moving in that direction keeping those items going and for the most part all of the paving is done and a little bit of surface on the north side of West Street, that is pretty much it, we've got to come back and do a little bit of work on Avon Avenue because they didn't get the concrete drive in at the Marathon on Avon Avenue and we got a little bit of clogging and water will drain out but it is drains out pretty slow. There are a few things that didn't get done that we would like to have done. Essentially it is open, what you see out there is what we are going to have as far as pavement and configuration that goes on and of course all the planning will be done in the spring also. So I think even though the winter jumped in on us a lot worse than what we normally expect this time of year. It was good that we were able to get everything open to traffic. I will say that I ordered to justify a couple more years with Tim, we are starting right after the first of the year taking quotes tomorrow on clearing of the right of way and getting the trees down and everything on Township Line Road from Dan Jones East around to Perry, want to get those down in advance as we discussed with you earlier on hoping to get the utilities started early. We are right now if we got documents that we are trying to get in the end of the week I think that sets us up for an April wedding instead of March; it's hard to weigh in this far in advance but we will looking into at least March on Township Line Road. That is going to be a two year project its self. By the time we got the bridge down, the roadway, the fazing around the roundabout so forth and so forth, it will be a two season project, like I say that pretty well gets me through with my commitments with Tim. Other than that we will get through the winter and be ready to start another one.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you Don and I have to say it was a unique treat when I was coming from the east heading west on Main Street crossed Carr Road and saw where you look down a little bit and it looked good with everything open.
I didn't miss anybody from the staff did I?
OLD BUSINESS
Mr. Brandgard: Old business.
Ms. Whicker: I looked on my calendar and we had discussed something about the 21st and 22nd and I'm not sure what but do we have enough information to finalize that?
Mr. Kirchoff: 21st will work, so the 21st at 5:00 p.m. is what we tentatively set.
Ms. Whicker: Is it still tentative or?
Mr. Kirchoff: The only old business that I have left on my list here is a thank you from the lady for the stop signs on South Center Street Trail, they do look good and I'm hoping people will observe that they are up and it is a good effort to try, so thank you.
Mr. Gaddie: Just a couple of questions not really I'm looking down here on number ten, the change order number two $41,000 plus, I was kind of curious I printed off about twenty pages and I didn't see nothing of what that covered.
Mr. James: It has three major costs to it for three buildings.
Mr. Gaddie: Yeah well I printed it of and I thought that was what it was, I didn't add them up.
Mr. James: The forth major cost in there was just a combination of little things for all the buildings.
Mr. Gaddie: That is the only thing I have. There might be one other thing, change the light switch was $1,000 for the Fire Station, I don't know if they have to move a wall or what?
Mr. Anderson: There were light switches in the second floor bunk room, there are five rooms where they had light switches in one location, so we had them move the light switches.
Mr. Gaddie: Moving a switch for a $1,000.00 seems high.
Mr. Anderson: There were five switches; they had them in the hallways.
Mr. Gaddie: Ok, thank you.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Brandgard: Kent, new business?
Mr. McPhail: Mr. President, just one really quick item I was notified today that the Clark building on Airwest Blvd a 60,000 square foot building was sold to a company in Indianapolis and they will be opening up a facility in Plainfield. The name of the company is Dunkin Supply, they are a wholesaler in air conditioning and heating components and I just thought that was good news for Plainfield. About an 85 year old locally owned company and they have some ties to Hendricks County so I just thought I would pass that on.
Mr. Brandgard: That is good news. Thank you.
Mr. Bennett: Mr. President I think in part of my report on the 21st, I am recommending a joint meeting with the Township, that was part of my report, I did confirm that day with at least two of the Township Board members that they would be here on the 21st and I am waiting to hear from the 3rd. It looks like it will move forward if there is any questions about that. That is all I have.
RESOLUTIONS
Mr. Brandgard: We have one resolution 2010-26: Transfer of Appropriation Resolution.
Mr. Bennett: Mr. President this is a typical resolution we do at this time of year to reconcile some of the budgets, I will be glad to answer any specific questions. I will probably have another one of these on the 21st. We will not need any additional preparations, I do want to thank the staff on the departments for their work on this at this time of year, they put a lot of work into this and all our budgets are going to be coming in at or under budget and so we are in good shape from the budget standpoint and this was more of just a housekeeping resolution.
Mr. McPhail: Good news.
Mr. Brandgard: Good news.
Mr. McPhail: Mr. President, I move we approve resolution 2010-26.
Ms. Whicker: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: We have a motion and a second to approve the resolution number 2010-26 transfer of appropriation resolution. If there is no further discussion roll call vote please.
Ms. Whicker- yes
Mr. Gaddie- yes
Mr. Kirchoff- yes
Mr. McPhail- yes
Mr. Brandgard- yes
Plainfield Town Council resolution 2010-26 is adopted.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. We have already discussed our next meeting and the last meeting of the year would be on December 21st at 5:00 p.m. Is there anything else to come before the Council?
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. Brandgard: I will entertain a motion to sign the documents requiring signature and adjourn.
Mr. McPhail: So move.
Ms. Whicker: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: All those in favor signify by saying aye, opposed, motion carried, and thank you.
