The Plainfield Town Council met on Monday, October 26, 2009. In attendance were Mr. Brandgard, Ms. Whicker, Mr. Kirchoff and Mr. Gaddie.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
CONSENT AGENDA
1. Approval of the minutes of the regularly scheduled Town Council meeting of Monday, October 12, 2009.
2. Approval of the September 2009 monthly report for the Plainfield Town Court.
3. Approval of the Parks and Recreation Director's Report dated October 21, 2009, Town Engineer's and Transportation Director's Reports dated October 23, 2009 and the Human Resources Director's Report dated October 26, 2009.
4. Approval of Change Order #1 in the amount of $62,959.90 for temporary signal installations and Change Order #2 in the amount of $2,499.20 for added pavement marking and signage per INDOT requirements resulting in an increase to the contract with Gradex, Inc. for the U.S. 40 Streetscape project per the Transportation Director's Report dated October 23, 2009.
5. Approval to move forward with the appraisal and acquisition of a small triangular piece of right-of-way at the southeast corner of Reeves Road from the Indianapolis Airport Authority with Councilman Kirchoff authorized to sign on behalf of the Town establishing the value of the parcel to be acquired per the Transportation Director's Report dated October 23, 2009.
6. Approval of a contract amendment between the Town and Banning Engineering to an amount not to exceed $4,000.00 for professional services necessary to provide construction management and inspection of the White Lick Creek Bank Rehabilitation project per the Town Engineer's Report dated October 23, 2009.
7. Approval of Change Order #1 to the contract between the Town and Gradex in the amount of %3,012.70 for added work associated with the Buchanan Street sewer project per the Town Engineer's Report dated October 23, 2009.
8. Approval of Change Order #2 to the contract between the Town and Gradex in the amount of $18,514.44 for added work associated with chemical treatment of poor sub-grade material under Buchanan Street between Kentucky and Southmore Streets per the Town Engineer's Report dated October 23, 2009.
9. Approval to add one (1) paramedic from the Plainfield Fire Territory to the Plainfield Police Department's Emergency Response Team subject to review and approval of Technical Emergency Medical Support job description by the Director of Human Resources.
10. Approval of Change Order #001 to the contract between the Town and MacDougall-Pierce Construction for a deduction from the Fire Station 123 construction contract in the amount of $10,418.00 for the elimination of a bypass switch from the generator circuit per the request of Chief Byron Anderson.
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda as read. Second by Ms. Whicker. Roll call vote called.
Ms. Whicker – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
Mr. McPhail - absent
4-ayes, 0-opposed, 1-absent. Motion carried.
BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR
Mr. Richard Trivett at 608 Lakeside Drive, Plainfield said I come before the board with issues relating to stormwater management problems at 104 Spruce Street. I basically have three issues. May I approach you and give you a couple of photographs? Again, the property is 104 Spruce Avenue owned by Dorothy Matthews who is sitting out here tonight. She has owned the property since 1990. There have been several problems with the infrastructure, which is located on her property and near the property. There is an inlet in her backyard. On August 4th per the one picture there was a flooding event that caused 18 inches of water to go into her garage and into her basement. The Department of Public Works came and worked on it. One of the issues that we have is there is a maintenance easement in place but there has been no maintenance taken care of for that inlet.
The second issue is there is a huge amount of water that goes onto her property from her driveway. There are two inlets that take in approximately two to three acres of stormwater per one of those Map Quest drawings. I have delineated the watershed there. One of the storm inlets, which are located at Pickett and Spruce, is inefficient and only collects about 100 square feet of water. There is no curb but there is a valley and the water goes through the valley and comes down to 104 Spruce's driveway. As you can see from one of the photographs, there is water flowing from both sides coming down the driveway. This water goes down to her driveway and across in front of her garage and goes across her backyard and then into an inlet. This has caused severe erosion in the backyard. So, the first issue is the maintenance, which isn't getting done even though an easement was paid for and in place. The second issue is trying to correct the stormwater management. Some sort of device needs to be put in place to where the water is not going across her property or in her driveway.
The third issue has been brought up before the Town Engineer and I have spoken to the Town Manager and Dorothy has spoken for many years to both and we have not gotten any results. The last time I spoke to the Town Engineer was about a month after the flooding event that took place. As you can see, we are not anywhere close to a flood zone so there should be no reason for flooding. Tim indicated to me that he saw that there is a problem per the picture of the drainage coming in and was going to take care of it. Nothing has happened and Dorothy has had yet another meeting with him and we still have nothing. We went to the Town Manager as part of the chain of command and he said he would get back with me after he talked to Tim and it has been several weeks and we haven't heard back. So, the three issues are maintenance, corrective action and some response from the Town.
Mr. Belcher said I will respond the best that I can and Jason can fill in where I may forget something. I have talked to both the owner of the property and the gentleman that spoke at different times. There has been something done; not something visible on their property. That caused the major flooding that you see there was actually a collapse that occurred downstream at a much bigger pipe that the pipe that comes from her yard drains to. That device was replaced and immediately removed from the structure where it failed. It was something that was installed in our last major stormwater project in the Harlan Street area. It is actually a device that is required to be put into the new stormwater regulations to separate floatable debris and trash and oil out of the stormwater. So, that device was inside of a very large structure. That device failed inside of the pipe and caused this backup into Ms. Matthews' yard and that is why that August 4th flooding occurred to the level that you see there. I don't know that it ever occurred before that other than possibly the September 2003 flooding, which might have been as bad but was a nine or 11 inch event, something like that. Some things have occurred but maybe not directly on their property but what caused that August 4th event has actually been repaired already.
Jason and I have talked multiple times about this in terms of what we can do, and we would agree that there are some issues there about some of the existing inlets not collecting as much as it could. That goes back several years to a project that we did on Harlan Street, probably the first phase of the Harlan Street project, which is where we purchased the easement from this property owner and put an inlet in on her property to collect stormwater. There had already been one there before but it was going into a sanitary sewer, a combined sewer. So, the project to be put in was to replace a smaller pipe on her property with a bigger pipe and put it into a storm sewer. So, that was all in an effort to improve the drainage in that area and it did improve it but it is not perfect. I would not say that about any project; there is always going to be a rain event larger from the one that we planned and there will be flooding at times and we cannot afford to prevent every flood. But there have been major improvements down there.
The issue of the garage and the driveway is hard to explain but the driveway actually slopes down to the garage. The garage is lower than the street and that has been existence probably before Ms. Matthews bought the property because that is the way that it was constructed. So, you are already fighting that battle of gravity when the water heads down the street and down the drive and into the yard. We are trying to come up with ways to address that. I think the first time I talked to Ms. Matthews she came to my office and we talked about the grate that is in her driveway. That grate is actually on her driveway and not in the public right-of-way so we have a limited ability to do anything with that and I think she is willing to let us and maybe work on that drain a little bit but that is still something that is very touchy for us on private property to take a public piece of equipment or a public worker and put them on private property and try to maintain something. That is a very difficult situation for us and I explained all of this to her and that is why I did not respond back to Mr. Trivett because I have talked to the property owner. I didn't mean to slight him in any way so since that time Jason and I have had conservations after Ms. Matthews' visit in my office and he was working on some different things and there have been a lot of things going on in Plainfield right now. So, I don't know if it is another thing scheduled to do to try to do something different things along Spruce Street to try to lessen the amount of water that comes into her yard. We think we can do some things but that is essentially where we left it I think to try to come up with some methods to try to reduce the amount of water that might come down her driveway without getting on private property to do it. Unless I missed something I think that is where we are with it. We didn't intend to say that we wouldn't do anything or couldn't try to improve something but with all of the things that we have to work on around here this is a preexisting condition that has been there an awful long time so that is where we left it.
Mr. Jason Castetter said one thing that crossed our minds to do is at the corner of Spruce and Pickett where he is talking about is inserting a little different inlet with a vein type system to try to collect that water before it heads north towards the drive. We get a lot of water coming down Spruce and the corner of Pickett. So, that is one of the things that we discussed without creating too much harm to surrounding areas. Getting in the area of where the drain is low in her yard there are a lot of things going on right there with the sanitary sewer and the sanitary storm. The casting has been ordered to install it and it is in scheduling. With the sidewalk program and with the other construction we just haven't gotten to it but that inlet has not been on the schedule but it is ordered and it is here but we just haven't gotten to it.
Mr. Belcher said Ms. Matthews just told me that there is a drain across her drive, a grate kind of a drain, a long narrow drain that goes across and you see them sometimes in sidewalks, but she has been trying to maintain that and has maintained it to the best of her ability over the years but it is a heavy grate on top of it. She told me that she felt like when our guys came out to help on the fork when we had that major flood, that maybe one of our guys pulled it off in an attempt to try to do something that day, which it was a disaster that day. But what was happening on her property had very little to do with what was causing the flooding but Jason has been trying to quiz his guys to see if that happened. I felt like if as a Town we had touched that not knowing, that maybe we should go ahead one time and do something about that to try to open that up if she was willing to let us go on her property to do that and open that drain up for her. Then she could continue to maintain it from hereon. But it is very, very difficult for us to get across a property line and once we do that on one property where do we stop and those kinds of things. But if we had touched it or done something with it that day, that would be a reason to go in and do something for at least one event to try to clean that back up because of the extension of that one August event. That is the only thing that we have talked about that might allow her to do some more of her maintenance that she seemed willing to do. Right now it is so clogged up she said she can't get it backed open herself. I think that is pretty much everything that we talked about on that particular area over there.
Mr. Brandgard said I'm glad you brought me at least up-to-speed because I know we have been in there a couple of times trying to alleviate a drainage problem that was there when the area was built. That goes back prior to most of us in this room but I think if you think there is a possibility that we may have touched that or done something, I would say that we err on the side that we did and see if we can go in and fix it if she is agreeable to it. From what you told me when we put the catch basin in, we have a maintenance easement in there; it may not have been a problem when the catch basin was farther downstream.
Mr. Belcher said it didn't matter how open that drain was that day. That drain has about a 15 inch pipe I think coming out of it. The pipe that collapsed and closed was a 36 inch pipe much farther down Harlan. So, that whole system was surcharging. It just so happened that was the lowest point in the system and that is where it comes up first when water is actually back charging into the backyard of this property and then the whole area. So, it was a pretty serious problem but we didn't even figure out what happened until the next day.
Mr. Brandgard said I guess my concern is with the grate across the drive where does that break through?
Mr. Belcher said I believe it goes down into the same drain that we have installed back in the easement area; that is my understanding but I'm not sure. But it is a smaller pipe; maybe a two or three inch pipe coming out of the grate drain, which would provide some limited help but that doesn't mean we still wouldn't most likely want to do what Jason is thinking about doing anyway to help keep the water from getting there.
Mr. Brandgard said I agree.
Mr. Gaddie asked, how far is that from the new stormwater system?
Mr. Belcher said the part that we did this year is an extension of the same system on Harlan. That 36 inch pipe went all the way down Harlan from Pickett all the way to Carr Road. So, if you can imagine, that is how much drainage was trying to get out at the end of this 36 inch pipe when this device collapsed on the inside of the outlet. So, everything in that neighborhood was trying to get out. The supplier that supplied this material to us was no cost to the Town so they were pretty embarrassed about the failure of that device. But it didn't prevent the thing from occurring that day. So, it is all connected together.
Mr. Brandgard asked, has anything that we discussed helped your thoughts any?
Mr. Trivett said actually I knew about the hood collapsing in the 36 inch pipe. I would like to give my background. I am a civil engineer for 25 years. I'm currently unemployed. My last employment was a Senior Project Manager for a firm in New Jersey with 500 employees. I understand what Tim is saying. Yes, you don't want to go on the property. The drain he was referring was about three inches deep when it was constructed. It is at a slope which is too great to actually catch the water.
Mr. Brandgard asked, which grate?
Mr. Trivett said there is an inlet in the yard, which is a catch basin that we don't have a problem with except for the surcharge that happened. This is a trench drain. It is approximately eight inches wide and probably about six feet long. It is about three inches deep under the grate but like I said it's on a slope so when the water goes into it, it fills up and then the water just flows over the top of it as if it was a hard surface. Tim is absolutely right you don't want the Town working on our property but the solution is to put structures outside of our property right at the front of the driveway. The driveway happens to be the low spot in Pickett. If you were to put inlets at that point, even a grate inlet, as long it was 12 inches or deeper that could take that water and then hook it into the system to where the water is no longer draining down the driveway across the property causing erosion, that would solve the problem. This is an issue that we talked about. I'm not here to design a system for the Town. I want it to be as efficient cost wise. I don't know what you have in storage and that kind of thing but if we can just keep the water off the property, the easement that is there is a maintenance easement; it's not a drainage easement. If it was a drainage easement, then we would have to say okay thank you but it's not; it's a maintenance easement. So, again the two issues are we need that pipe flushed out. After that storm event as you can see it was very serious. No one has come out to flush the system and for the Department of Public Works to pretend that there isn't silt in there and debris, it is unrealistic. So, we need that to happen and we also need a solution for the drainage of the stormwater coming onto the property. Catch basins or wing catch basins, some sort of system in the right-of-way would solve the problem. Again, I'm not here to design the system.
Mr. Brandgard said I know you're not here to design a system but at the time those houses were put in there the proper drainage wasn't done. It isn't a situation that was created by the Town.
Mr. Trivett said I'm not saying it was.
Mr. Brandgard said we are going to do what we can to try and correct it. I think as far as whether there is silt or not in there not there probably is but there is probably not enough to create a problem. I think we will know when we have a large rain again and hopefully everything works as it should.
Mr. Trivett said Tim also mentioned that the manufacturer of the hood, which I have designed and installed in many structures and Tim and I discussed, we have never heard of it collapsing before but this one collapsed, refitted it or did it without a cost to the city. Like I said 18 inches of water was in Ms. Matthews' basement and her garage. This caused mold and different things like that. Her house wasn't designed to be in a floodplain and nor is it. So, I'm not saying that the Town caused the problem but I'm saying here is someone who has been in the Town since 1990 and paying taxes and asking for help since at least 2003, six years ago and hasn't gotten any response. We just ask for some help and some feedback on what is going on and that would help.
Mr. Brandgard said as we go through this we will keep in touch.
TOWN MANAGER'S REPORT
Mr. Carlucci said under my report I'm going to initiate the discussion in terms of the proposed ordinances on the agenda tonight in terms of the sewer rate increase for the residents of the Town. I will go over them pretty quickly. We have H. J. Umbaugh here to talk about the rates. We also have Dann Pecar here and Andy Kleiman is here to talk about any of the questions you might have on the legal side of it. The last rate increase the Town of Plainfield had in the sewer department was in 2003. I would dare to say that most people from 2003 to the present have seen a lot of things increase. I just filled the car up with gas tonight and it is going up again. I have no explanation for some of that. But the Town has been very judicious in raising its sewer rates and has managed its facilities very well. The increase that we are talking about today is roughly for the average homeowner twelve cents a day. We were able to do that primarily because we added stimulus funds to help reduce the amount of the rate increase, and that was roughly 2.8 million dollars in stimulus money. We have been getting a pretty good show here lately at the Town Hall; every time they drop a pipe in there, we hold our breath a little bit but that is part of the sewer separation project that is under U.S. 40. It is pretty substantial. It is going to keep climbing up the hill not necessarily this year but they are making a pretty good progress already from what I can tell. So, that 2.8 million dollars is money that the federal government for the few times in my career as a Town Manager actually is paying for a mandate that they required. So, in addition we are also adding close to six million dollars of our own cash to reduce the amount that we have to borrow on this rate increase. Again, the increase is roughly twelve cents a day for the average homeowner.
This also eliminates the Deerpath Sewer Plant, which is located south on South Center Street. It actually turns into SR267. It is the area down there by the Highland Subdivision. It has been in our system for quite awhile. That plant is going to be decommissioned. It will be turned into a pumping station. That pumping station will pump that sewage to the South Sewage Treatment Plant. By doing that we are roughly going to save sixty thousand a day in operation in that plant because you have all of the cost of burning that plant. You have to get the sludge out of there in a year, sixty thousand a year. There will just be less activity there. It will be turned into a pumping station. The cost to permit Deerpath is usually about ten thousand dollars from IDEM to get the permit. So, we will have those less headaches.
You will see as the charts go up there that we still have, even with what we are proposing, one of the lowest sewer rates in Central Indiana. Again, it goes back to good management, judicious use of funds, good management by the Staff and good oversight by the Town Council. The reason I mention these things is because these are costs that if we continue to follow this path, we are trying to save money, and then we have more cash on hand to put towards these projects. One of these is the land application of sludge that we have been doing for the last couple of years. That is roughly saving us $180,000.00 a year. That may not seem like a lot but if you go out five years and 10 years out, the cost of bringing this to a landfill is very expensive. So, when Jason said that he would like to try that, we have a lot of land over there by the South Plant and that is a real savings to the consumers and the ratepayers.
We are also facing the same thing that every community is facing. I read some stories recently about the City of Indianapolis and what they expect their bills to be in 10 years for all of the sewer separation they have to do. It almost takes your breath away when they talk $105.00 a month or a $150.00 sewer bill for a homeowner. We have a major separation going but it pales in comparison to what other communities will have to do.
So, as we go forward is this the last rate increase the Town is going to have? Probably for several years but again this doesn't in of itself solve all the needs that we have especially with the North Sewer Plant, which is going under some renovation right now with Bowen Engineering.
One thing that Tim and I in our meetings that kind of run from one office to the other we will try to pick up some ideas on these rate increases and I think we surprised both Mel and Andy, more Andy than Mel, in that we are going to put all of our customers on the same rate. If you live north of Town, we have areas in Washington Township that are on a flat rate up there. We have the Deerpath Plant and we have the Belleville people. Everybody is going to be on the same flat rate. That will actually mean a little small increase to the Deerpath people but I think that is the goal that we have always wanted to get to is to have everybody on the same rate and I think this is really a good accomplishment so that we can treat everybody the same in that regards. So, again we have tried to look at this in different ways. We are going to eliminate one of our four plants that we have. We have the north plant, the south plant, the Belleville Plant and the Deerpath. We are going to eliminate one of those. Someday we hope to eliminate the Belleville Plant but it is working pretty well right now. It is actually working very well. When the growth necessitates some expansion, we can eliminate that plant. Our goal is to get down to two plants. Again, nobody likes to raise rates. We really struggle hard with that issue especially in this economy but I think with the amount of money, if you take the stimulus funds and our own cash of seven or eight million dollars worth of investment, this certainly doesn't strip the sewer department. We can continue to grow the department. It was interesting in my report to the Town Council describing some of the growth things that are going on in Town. Growth has not stopped. To date we already have 77 more houses, single-family permits that have been issued this year. We have had nine or 10 doubles. These doubles are not two doubles with small rooms; these are two houses stuck together. Most of that is coming from the Forest Ridge Subdivision so it is not that we aren't having growth because we are. Again, it is 12 cents a day. We haven't increased since 2003. It might be awhile before we do the next one but I think we have a pretty good handle on where we are going with this and I think we have done a good job trying to manage this.
Mr. Gaddie said on the single-family residents (inaudible).
Mr. Carlucci said that is just a flat rate for sewer.
Mr. Gaddie said (inaudible).
Mr. Carlucci said I don't look at percentages because if you were low to begin with it, anything that you do looks larger. Again, we haven't had an increase since 2003. It is a utility and we have federal mandates that we have to meet. We are going to use a combination to retire this bond issue of both stormwater fees and sewer fees; it's a combination, it's not all on the sewer side. That is why we stay away from the percentage increase because if you are so low and you increase it at all, the percentage will look high. If we would have done a little bit every year, which I think is a nice and admirable thing to do though most communities don't do it because it is better when you can focus your attention on a specific problem that you are trying to fix. We can see the affects of that right outside the window here.
Mr. Gaddie said (inaudible).
Mr. Carlucci said because we did have a water rate increase.
Mr. Gaddie said (inaudible).
Mr. Carlucci said trash yes we don't charge them for it so I guess it is pretty reasonable.
Mr. Gaddie said (inaudible).
Mr. Carlucci said but we do charge them a dollar for recycling.
Mr. Gaddie said (inaudible).
Mr. Carlucci said when that charge comes up, when you see where we are compared to the rest of the metro area, I think it is a challenge to keep it at that point but we struggle at this because there are people on fixed incomes. There are also people out of work, not just the elderly but it is people that are not working. There are a lot of them out there. But again I think to our credit we have worked very hard at not having increases that you see in other communities and you will see that expressed pretty clearly when you see the chart go up.
Mr. Brandgard said I think you really have to commend the work that Tim has done finding other ways to fund this rather than just go with the bond issue and have a big increase. We have looked at everything that we are doing in Town where there are funds that we can pull from here and there and make this thing work.
Mr. Carlucci said Bowen Engineering is out there right now doing work on that plant. It is hard to do it this way to bid that project out as opposed to the way that we did it here, which I think we have a substantial savings doing that because it's a guaranteed energy savings project that is allowed under the statutes. I think doing it the way that we are doing it we have saved a substantial amount of money. Again, it doesn't prove to you and me but it proves to the ratepayers because that project by doing it that way I think we have saved a substantial amount.
Mr. Brandgard said I agree.
Mr. Tom Michalak with Umbaugh said I'm here tonight with Dave Frederick and we are here to talk to you about the calculations and the work that we have done with Rich and Tim on the sewer projects. I would like to take 10 minutes and kind of give you a brief overview of the two items that I handed out for you. There is an actual 30 page report and then there is a summary that is maybe 14 Power Point slides. I'm going to walk through those quickly and then after that we will open it up for any sort of discussion or questions that you may have.
So, as Rich and Tim have alluded to you tonight there are some ongoing sewer projects. A large project is a portion of an agreed order with IDEM that was signed back in 2007 and a major portion of that was some rehab work to the North Wastewater Treatment Plant to try to get it up to the standards. So, part of the project that we are proposing to finance with what we are going to talk about tonight is to address that specific piece. There are really three essentially projects that are rolled into the financing. There is the first phase of the North Wastewater Treatment Plant overall. There is a new lift station or pump station that is going to go into replace the Deerpath Wastewater Treatment Plant so that system will come off line. And then there is a stormwater drainage project for South Hills Estates that initially was proposed to be funded back in 2007 when the bond anticipation note itself was initially funded. And then it ended up getting kind of rescheduled because of the credit freeze that we kind of saw unfold last year. When the bond anticipation note was refinanced last year, that particular project had to be left out of the amount to refinance. It made it easier for us to be able to sell it for an attractive interest rate for the Town. So, what we are doing now is proposing to move that project back in queue as initially intended. The benefit of it now I guess being that we are doing it now is that you haven't had to pay interest on that borrowing over the past year. So, as you can see the current bond anticipation note matures January 1, 2010, which serves as the background on why we want to try to do all of these things together. You have the opportunity to refinance this short term note and lock in interest rates that are really pretty low. We have seen a nice cycle in the municipal interest rates over the last few months. Things kind of shot up a little bit and now they are starting to trickle back down to rates that we are kind of worried may not last very long. So, I think it is a great time to go out and refinance a piece of short term debt.
Currently as we have heard the current rates were adopted back in August of 2003 and as Rich talked about there has been quite a change in general price increases of just everything; bread cost more, milk cost more and fuel cost more. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks the general change in prices and if as a Town you would have adjusted your sewer rates just to keep up with the average annual change in the consumer price index, your current sewer bill by itself would be $33.11, which, of course, is much higher than the $25.20. And also a couple dollars higher than the actual rate those things have come out to. That is on top of having to meet your ever increasing regulatory requirements so I think it really shows that you as a Council are really working hard to try to find ways to get things done and keep the quality of life and affordability here in Plainfield.
One of the first things that we looked at, and if you are following in the actual larger report, we will kind of start towards the back on pages 24 and 25. We did an analysis of the combined sewer and stormwater cash balances at the end of August. You can see that combined there is 11.9 million dollars, almost 12 million dollars in cash that sewer and stormwater had. However, that is not all really free and clear to spend. The bond ordinances that are in place for the outstanding debt does have restrictions on how those funds are to be used. So, the suggested reserves are $6,322,000.00, which means that you have almost 5.6 million dollars, actually a little more than that, available to apply towards the project and still keep safe balances for the sewer and stormwater utility to operate. What we found is we left an allowance just for the daily operating expenses. We built in an allowance for the normal bond accruals that the ordinance requires be made. The construction fund, the amount that is out there already for BAN proceeds for ongoing projects we, of course, leave that restricted. We left what we call an improvement fund of almost 1.6 million dollars and that fund itself would be kind of the sewer line collapsed or there was some major piece of equipment that malfunctioned that needed some replacement on a short notice. Those funds are there for that. We also factored in an allowance for sort of the cash shortfall that is going to hit the combined utility related to the outside Town stormwater changes that need to be made. And then we also wanted to leave cash restricted to fund the rest of the capital budget for the sewer and stormwater utility for the year. So, all of those things have been factored in there so the excess balance that we have calculated we do feel very comfortable that it will not in any way deplete the ability of the sewer or stormwater to function.
So, to look at it graphically the 2009 bonds that we are proposing essentially you have two activities. There is a silo for project costs and there is a silo for project funding. You can see on the left hand side, the golden portion, is the construction cost and that is the direct construction of $8,311,000.00. The white color on top of that is the amount required to refinance the 9.2 million BAN plus pay the accrued interest that is due on that. So, that is almost 9.4 million. For these particular bonds because of what has happened in the credit markets we are suggesting to establish a cash funded transfer into a debt service reserve account, sort of similar to what we talked about with the water bonds, except with water you are making transfers into that to fund it. With this we would just take some of the cash that you are applying to the deal and just put it in a bank account and let it sit there. That is about 1.4 million dollars and then there are some other non-construction costs, engineering fees, legal fees and financial fees of 1.3 so we are talking a 20 million, almost a $20,500,000.00 project. We will fund that from two sources. We have calculated that there is 5.6 million of additional cash that can be applied plus the Town has already put in almost $260,000.00 just for various development costs and engineering fees to bring things to where they are. So, that would leave a balance of 14.6 million dollars to fund through the issuance of debt.
Mr. Carlucci said we did pass a resolution at the last Council meeting for reimbursements of expenses. We are not going to do that. We are not going to reimburse ourselves. We do that in case we decide if we want to do that. It is a sum cost and again it is another way of not raising the cost of the bond issue. So, we are not going to ask for the reimbursement of expenses.
Mr. Michalak said thank you Rich; that is a very important point. So, as we go through and calculate what the sewer impact on the rates will be we look at a few things but we take a revenue requirements approach to doing this. Our goal is to calculate rates to be charged that literally just cover the true cost of operating the utility. In other words there is no built-in profit factor or anything crazy like that. It is literally just what does it really cost to operate the system and that is what we want to go ahead and build in for the Town just to be able to keep things going properly.
So, there are really three things that we want to fund with this. The first is the daily operating expenses so your salaries, your power bills and chemicals. What we did is we took the 2009 budget and we adjusted it for the cost savings of eliminating the Deerpath Plant. The cost savings is based on the operator contract going away and I think actually it is readjusted for some additional power cost related to the new pumping equipment that will go there. We fully expect that there could potentially be a greater savings to the Town for taking the plant off line but those are hard to establish because it is difficult to be able to see how much time and how many resources have gone into replacing some of the old failing equipment. That is a hard thing to quantify and we sort of left that alone for rate purposes to make sure that if you do have additional savings and you likely will, you won't be depending on those to be able to meet your obligations now.
The second piece that you have to fund then with your rates and charges is you have to be able to make the annual debt service payments, the principal and interest on the outstanding bonds. There are currently three bond issues out there now that the Town is paying on and this, of course, would be a fourth. And third and finally we need to make sure that we have built in a reasonable replacement for annual replacements and improvements for the Town so that you have the ability to be able to pay for new sewer lines that need rehab or purchase new trucks when they need to. The way that we have calculated the report is there are two scenarios presented. There is Alternative “A” where we focused on sort of a recommended level for bond coverage to meet your bond ordinance requirements. And then Alternative “B” has about a half million dollar more a year of capital projects that have been identified and could be funded if the Town chose to do so. However, Alternative “A” that is presented will let you fund about two-thirds of the capital projects that are identified on page 10 just through rates and charges. So, Tim and Rich felt pretty comfortable that they could work with that and they frankly felt it was a good way to demonstrate that the Town has really worked hard to try to conserve and work within its own boundaries.
So, once we calculated the revenue requirements then we look at the annual revenues and with that we, of course, adjust for any known changes that have come into the system. So, we take a look at the customer growth trends and we have normalized the annual revenues to give you a credit for new customers that have connected. We have updated this to reflect the loss of revenues from the outside Town stormwater fees and then the impact, minor though that it is, of converting the Deerpath ratepayers now reducing their rate down to the normal in Town rates. As part of our analysis we assume that the stormwater fees are not going to be adjusted as part of this transaction. So, as we talk about adjustment it literally is just to the sewer portion of the bill. We give the Town credit for reoccurring revenues from other sources other than sewer bills. There are always going to be some miscellaneous income type things that come in. We, of course, take those into account. And then we have calculated interest income to be conservative on what we estimate the cash balances will be after this transaction happens assuming that the cash applied is in fact applied.
To look at it graphically this is where it all comes together. The left hand column is those revenue requirements. You can see you have your operating expenses of $4,652,000.00. You have the darker green at $1,126,000.00, which is the annual debt service on the three outstanding bonds. We are talking about adding the yellow layer of debt service so it is about $1,077,000.00 a year and then your allowance for replacements is about $770,000.00. So, the total is the $7,626,000.00 that the sewer needs to be able to function. The right hand side is, of course, the available revenues. The sewer collections are the loin share of that. That is $4,631,000.00 and the stormwater collections are $1,869,000.00. You have the miscellaneous other revenues that we talked about of about $410,000.00 but that means in order for us to meet that 7.6 million goal we need to have an extra $716,000.00 and that becomes the rate shortfall that we need to adjust the rates to address.
So, when we look in terms of the actual bills themselves, what does this change mean for people? There are really two ways that we look at this. The first one would be just the absolute lowest bill you could possibly have would be the base charge by itself. Presently including the stormwater fee your sewer and stormwater customers pay $8.20 a month. We are proposing to increase that to $8.83, which is a sixty-three cent per month charge for the minimum base charge. However, most of the residents of Plainfield actually have consumption so our study showed that 6,000 gallons is a pretty typical bill. What will happen is currently that ratepayer pays $29.20 including the stormwater fee. That number will increase to $33.01 so what we are really talking about is a real increase of $3.81 a month to the typical sewer ratepayer or as Rich mentioned it is about 12 cents a day. So, where will that put Plainfield in comparison to communities around? You can see we have worked up a brief survey of local neighboring communities and you can see Plainfield presently at $25.20, which is a reasonable rate. Even if you execute a proposed adjustment, you still end up at $29.01, which is still on the very lower end of things. So, I think again it speaks to good policy and a proactive management of the utilities.
Mr. Bennett said the difference between the $4.00 is the stormwater.
Mr. Michalak said yes; for comparison purposes here we left the $4.00 out because each community deals with their own stormwater differently. It could be rolled into a tax rate; it could be on the utility bills or maybe they just haven't gotten around to doing that yet. But then combined because, of course, as I think Ed pointed out you do have water, sewer and stormwater together the current minimum monthly bill for a ratepayer is $16.77. We are talking about increasing that sixty-three cents a month to $17.40 or for the typical user excluding taxes currently they are at $49.93 and that $3.81 cent increase per sewer would push the combined bill up to $53.74. Still in the grand scheme of local communities it is still extremely reasonable for the sort of service that is provided. With that I'm finished with my comments and my introduction to the report and I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, Rich where is the 2.8 million stimulus dollars on this chart? Would they not be in here?
Mr. Carlucci said (inaudible).
Mr. Michalak said my understanding of the 2.8 million is that it was a project that was slated for sewer to do as part of the sewer separation but it has been funded through some stimulus dollars that were acquired.
Mr. Kirchoff said I misunderstood; I put two and two together and got five. I thought you said the 2.8 was going to be included in this calculation.
Mr. Carlucci said my approach is that some of that money offsets an even more of an increase that we would have had. There are ordinances on the agenda tonight and there is a public hearing scheduled the first meeting in November. Those notices were sent to the paper. I don't know if Mel or Andy has anything that they would want to say from their end.
Mr. Daniel said no I think they did a good job and we will go through our public hearing and take public comments at that time and proceed from there.
Mr. Brandgard asked, the public hearing is at what time?
Mr. Carlucci said it will be during the Council meeting.
STAFF REPORTS
Mr. Jason Castetter said I have a few reports one of which I hope you have had a chance to drive down South Center Street and see the new roof on the DPW garage. It is coming up rather quickly and it looks a lot better coming around that curve now. They are moving along pretty good. It should be nearing completion by the end of this week with shingles and some metal coming in shortly.
I brought a couple of folks with me tonight regarding the other two reports, Patty Seymour and Shannon Swan our project coordinator. They are going to talk about a couple of projects that we have done recycling and show you our efforts on that. We had our heavy trash pickup and Patty has some reports on that and Shannon has some good news from INDEM on the wood chipper recycling.
Ms. Patty Seymour said I'm just going to give you a summary of our heavy trash event that we held on October 10th and the 17th. We collected a total of seven 30 yard dumpsters from both days, the 10th and 17th. We collected metals on the 10th of 2,500 pounds. We are still waiting on the numbers from the 17th. We also had disposal alternative organizations in on both days. They are an organization that comes in and takes appliances and electronics and metals even and different equipment for recycling. They collected over 107 items of appliances and 71 items of electronic equipment and seven items for lawn equipment. So, that cuts down on our waste that we go to the landfill and on our dumpster cost as well. And they are able to recycle that and even resell some of that. They provide that service to us for free so we just pass that onto the residents.
On the 10th Hendricks County Solid Waste Management District was here and also collected appliances, which is a program that they do every year four times a year in each community Brownsburg, Danville, Avon and Plainfield. And on the 10th they collected a little over 11,000 pounds of appliances, 7,400 pounds of electronic equipment, 7,715 pounds of tires and over 28,000 pounds of hazardous household waste. They are able to dispose of those properly so we are just getting all of that stuff in and trying to dispose of it properly instead of homeowners dumping it down our sewers and storm drains and polluting our soils as well. In the past on average we usually collect about 18-20-30 yard dumpsters and we just had seven this time so we have drastically reduced the amount of waste that we are sending to the landfill and are able to recycle a lot of the stuff that we get. I think it is a good program.
Mr. Brandgard said I hope that indicates that everybody is pretty much cleaned up.
Ms. Seymour said until spring when we have another big event.
Mr. Brandgard said thank you for the report and thank you for taking care of that and making sure that it happens. You can tell it is an important part of what we do in the community.
Mr. Castetter said Patty did a great job coordinating between our heavy trash day and the tox-a-way day. Last Saturday was rather busy at South Center Street and Longfellow with all of the traffic going both directions.
Mr. Shannon Swan said I don't know how much you know about us receiving a grant last year for a wood chipper. We actually received two grants. The first was from IDEM, their recycling grant program and what they do is they give funds to municipalities to fund programs, equipment and education awareness of recycling. Then we also received another grant from the Hendricks County Solid Waste Management to put towards that wood chipper. We received the wood chipper in February of 2009 and part of the IDEM grant they have to do a site visit six months after the grant money has been issued to pretty much see what you are doing with the money or equipment or whatever you have asked for. Then another one a year after the grant money has been received. On October 14th Alan Melvin from IDEM came out for a site visit and I was just going to kind of go over some of the things that he looked at that we introduced to him and showed him.
The purpose for us asking for the wood chipper is we were trying to reduce the yard waste and treatable debris after storm events, etc. We were trying to reduce the amount that we take as DPW to the yard waste recycling site. So, he came out. We have been mixing tree debris, organic vegetation, things that we do on our Town properties, the maintenance and upkeep. We have been taking it to the compost site at the South Waste Treatment Plant along with the leaves that we collect in the fall. So, I took him out there and we had two DPW employees out there with the wood chipper. Jason Fisher and Robert Rucker demonstrated the wood chipper for him and showed him how quickly we can clear streets with it now instead of loading it into a truck and hauling it down to the site and hoping that it is opened. If it is not, we have to keep it at our site until it does open. So, we showed him how it was used, we showed him our compost sites and we went over all of the safety features of the wood chipper. The guys demonstrated the safety bar; there is a knee bar in case you get stuck in a tree and you can turn it off immediately so that there are no accidents.
Some of the comments after we gave him our presentation and demonstrated everything is he was extremely pleased with the compost site. He could tell the difference from like last year's leaves and the compost that we have made last year compared to the wood chips and stuff that we have added to this year that we are composting. He suggested that we use our Class “A” sludge in it too. We planned to put it in the parks. We are making mulch so we can use it as erosion control measures around Town properties. But he was very, very pleased with that. He was pleased with how well the guys knew how to use the machine and how well they have been trained on it. I went over our O&M database and how we maintain our equipment. He was ecstatic at the fact that we know when we are maintaining it. I can tell him what day the last maintenance on it was done. He said that there are many towns that just kind of use it and it is helter-skelter. We have logged 22 hours on it. As of right now we have 27 yards of recycled material that we have created from this wood chipper. Some of the other things that he mentioned were the way that the site was maintained and how clean it was and how we kept everything separate.
And then the grant currently is suspended but we were talking about some other recycling things and I explained to him how we wanted to get a screener to collect the sand that we collect from our street sweeper. We would like to get a screener and start shifting that out and recycling the sand. He strongly suggested that when the grant opens up again, that we apply for that as well because he was very pleased.
As we were driving through the Town on his site visit, he noticed all of the recycled bins out and his actual comment is “the Town of Plainfield really gives recycling”. He said he really appreciated seeing all of these recycling bins. Of course, Center Street everybody has a recycling bin out and he was very, very impressed with our Town and our efforts.
Another thing when we went to the South Waste Water Treatment Plant, we have taken the asphalt millings and laid them in our drive and he said that was an ingenious way to recycle asphalt. He was very, very impressed with that as well. I would be happy to answer any questions.
Mr. Brandgard said it's a great report and I'm glad you brought that to us because these are things that we really need to know. The press is here and they can pass some of that onto the community also but I think we stress recycling and doing our part to keep things clean and get waste where it belongs. This is what your report shows that we are doing the right things. Thank you.
Mr. Castetter said as you can see in Shannon's report she is wearing a couple of different hats for me as a project coordinator, DPW secretary now that Helen is retired and grant specialist now. She is doing a wonderful job and that's all that I have.
Mr. Lydick said in August I reported on the Consent Agenda that Security Mutual who has our life insurance/short term disability and long term disability insurance policies we are going to have a rate hold for the next two years. Lee Hunt is the broker on this particular policy and even though we have a rate hold he decided to go ahead and shop the market and find out what else is out there. He found out that Sun Life was interested in our business and had decreased the rates. So, Sun Life came and gave a proposal to me and the benefits were very similar. They didn't match 100% but they are very close but their savings were quite significant. So, while I was thinking about that Mr. Hunt called up Security Mutual and said that Sun Life had come out with a different quote and that they had lowered their short term expenses by six cents per ten dollars worth of benefits and long term by 11 cents per 100 dollars. But it was about a $5,000.00 difference between the Security Mutual and the Sun Life proposal where Security Mutual was $5,000.00 higher. So, they wanted me to say that they got close to the bid and they wanted me to go ahead and sign a letter that we would accept their rates. I told Mr. Hunt that I felt like I needed to come up with a justification for spending that extra money and that I would get with him later on. So, in the meantime Mr. Hunt goes back to Sun Life and says it looks like the Town of Plainfield is going to stay with Security Mutual because it came very close to your bid. So, then Sun Life came back with a lower rate yet so obviously we are way ahead. So, I told Mr. Hunt that the Town of Plainfield would be moving to Sun Life assuming that the Town Council approved it. So, he went back and told Security Mutual that they were out and the Town is going to go with Sun Life. Security Mutual says that they really want to maintain the Town of Plainfield as a client so we will match anything that Sun Life has put out there. So, not only did they decrease their life insurance rates but they also decreased the short and long term disability rates to match Sun Life. So, I signed a letter last week saying that we would accept those rates with the Town Council's approval. Then I got a letter from Security Mutual today that said the rates were firm like I said they would be but they were going to take away the cost of living adjustment that they were going to have in our policy and that it was going to be a non-contributory policy, which means that the Town is going to pay the entire cost. So, I called Mr. Hunt and said this is not going to be acceptable if you put that in there so he called me back late this afternoon and said that I should have a letter tomorrow reinstating the cost of living benefits and the fact that it will be contributory. In other words the employees still pay. So, as a result since August I have saved you a measly $22,000.00 in insurance premiums for life insurance, short term disability and long term disability. The rates were in the report and on the Consent Agenda you did accept those rates.
Mr. Brandgard said just let me say it's not a measly $22,000.00.
Mr. Kirchoff said all dollars are green aren't they?
Mr. Brandgard said this is a case where the market has worked as it ought to. It is amazing when it is in the insurance business but with that said I want to commend you for sticking with it and also Mr. Hunt for working on our behalf. Twenty-two thousand dollars is not insignificant but it sends a message to a lot of people.
Mr. Carlucci asked, can you tell a little bit about working with the school system on the clinic?
Mr. Lydick said the school system has selected Novia as their manager for their on site medical clinic. That is the same organization that we have had a couple of meetings with, the Town Council has had a couple of meetings with. When I talked to Mr. Wolfe the last time, he said that they are anticipating getting their clinic opened during the month of November and once they get that opened they will be discussing a contract with the Town of Plainfield as to how we can participate on the on site medical clinic.
Mr. Carlucci said do you want to give a brief reason why we think we can save money on our insurance; just give a real brief explanation.
Mr. Lydick said there is a big mark up in medical services and whenever lab work is done, the lab work is a lot more expensive when you go through a regular lab. So, you are going to save money there but one of the big savings is that hopefully because we will not be charging the employees to visit the clinic that they will go there and get an annual exam. And find out maybe some illnesses that they may be having or disease they may have before it becomes a significant disease and then become proactive in curing things before they become very expensive.
Mr. Belcher said in my report I did talk about Buchanan Street. They were able to pave Saturday so that section of road where we had real problems and the project got held up for a week when we tried to decide how to treat that sub grade it got done and there is pavement down there. So, Gradex has done a good job I think responding to problems. We are going to have our fair share of change orders. There's three miles of pipe in the ground and a hundred and some year old town it is going to happen but for the most part they kept moving forward so that is really a good thing. The cost of having that road out all winter long I just know how the residents would have stood it or us as far as having to maintain that road. So, it is good to see some pavement down there. They will be closing the holiday probably starting tomorrow. The last bit of pipe needs to go in the ground on that job so from then we will hopefully be moving towards completing this thing by the end of the year.
Mr. Brandgard said I hope we put plenty of notice out that the intersection at Buchanan turns north and south for the holiday and the people know that because that funnels a lot of people from a lot of area down there to light out on U.S. 40. There are people who come up on Elm and cut over to go out that way.
Mr. Belcher said I know we have been trying. I know we have communicated with the schools as much as we can. I don't know if we put the signs up out there because we have so many things going on right now. We are trying to notice the Center Street closure too so I don't know that we got those out. We have been letting people know the best that we can and they have been working right there close.
Mr. Brandgard said I've been watching it and I know it's coming.
Mr. Belcher said the second item just came in today but involves the water tower project, the northeast water tower. Landmark Structures, Inc. is building that tower for us and this is an SRF project, State Revolving Loan Fund project; not our typical kind of project where we do a bond issue and the funds come to Wes and we write purchase orders and all of that. So, they submitted their first payment estimate today and I told them I would bring that forward to you. It is an unusual procedure; we are going to try to do this a different way in the future but if you would be willing to, this would allow us to take the first payment estimate and allow me to request your approval of this progress estimate. So, that we can then carry that through the procedures that we have to go through to get a reimbursement on this through the State. I think they would really appreciate it. They have done a good job so far but project estimate number one for Landmark Structures is in the amount of $280,170.00 with a retainage in the amount of $31,130.00. So, those would be the two checks that I believe we can get reimbursement for. We wouldn't be writing checks but with your approval we could process the claims and do what we need to do to get those things paid to this contractor.
Mr. Brandgard asked, is it Change Order #1?
Mr. Belcher said it is actually a payment request; payment request number one so they have the foundation in out there and they have the site cleared and there is a lot of concrete that you can't see that is below ground out there right now. But this would be their first progress estimate for the work that they have done since the start of the job.
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve the first payment request number one of $280,170.00 to Landmark and $31,130.00 for the retainage account for the Northeast Water Tower. Second by Ms. Whicker. None opposed. Motion carried.
Mr. Carlucci said they hired two local contractors to work on that site. One was John Hall that did some concrete work and then Matthews did a lot of clearing. So, there is some good spinoff there. I don't know if they will be doing more but I know that they did some on that project. So, that is good because I'm glad they used two local guys to do the work.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, how is the modified schedule? Are you getting any feedback?
Mr. Belcher said we have had no complaints from the residents in that area so far so Landmark seems to be pretty sensitive to the neighbors.
Mr. Brandgard asked, do you have an update of the Plainfield building code?
Mr. Belcher said I wanted to make sure you had that in your hands. It is out today but I can possibly bring it back to the next meeting if you have a chance to look at it. There are some suggested changes. I had them putting in some codes that the State has now adopted that should the Town adopt and Ed had a summary of that that I have tried to get in my report so that you could see it and have time to look at it.
Mr. Kirchoff said you mentioned it was going to happen but I didn't see anything.
Mr. Belcher said I will make sure it gets out to you then this week.
Mr. Brandgard said in your report you had Change Order Number One for (inaudible).
Mr. Belcher said I will make sure that gets out to you. I think it is also at the State now building commission for their current review but I will make sure everybody gets it.
Mr. Brandgard said make sure we get it and also Mel can review it. It is bringing us up to code so we need to do it.
Mr. McGillem said just an update on the Center Street (inaudible). As indicated in the report and as I'm sure you know the storm sewer is going in (inaudible). The guys are doing a great job out there. We are (inaudible) closing the (inaudible) in order to cut the storm sewer across that intersection. (Inaudible). However, you never know what we are running into (inaudible). Right now we are hoping to get across one day. It is working out pretty good. I was (inaudible) this afternoon and Thursday they are out of school, no buses that day (inaudible) but there will be also probably some (inaudible) the existing waterline that crosses U.S. 40 right in the middle of where the stormwater goes. They will be taking out the far east lane starting tomorrow and (inaudible). Center Street will still be opened tomorrow and Wednesday but it will be (inaudible). Traffic from the north will be able to access U.S. 40 (inaudible).
Mr. Kirchoff asked, how far south will it be closed?
Mr. McGillem said it will just be closed at the intersection. We will mostly mark at Stafford Road (inaudible). We are going ahead tomorrow and putting up (inaudible).
Mr. Brandgard said I was glad to see that hit that material we didn't know was in the road by the Dairy Queen area. Are we taking it out as we go through there or are we taking out the old stuff rather then barreling through and leaving it hanging there?
Mr. McGillem said we are taking it out. We are running into a lot of surprises. The old concrete (inaudible).
Mr. Brandgard said when you see that happening, you understand why when it rains, you see all of this dirt percolating up through the road.
Mr. Kirchoff said it's probably why we have had problems on east then because the sub base is gone.
Mr. Albertson said the fire station is progressing fairly well. We have had some issues with erosion control and compliance. We have had meetings with MacDougall-Pierce. Those have currently been resolved. They were mildly hesitant but they are complying now and we are back under construction. It has been kind of a wild week but it has all been taken care of.
Mr. Brandgard said a stop order was put out on that project because of the environmental erosion controls that were being followed. When I found that out, my reaction was great. My reaction is anything that the Town requires we need to be following that even better than what we require other people to do. So, again I want to say thank you for that being done. I think we got their attention and they will start doing what needs to be done.
OLD BUSINESS
Mr. Kirchoff said I wondered if we had started the extra patrols on Hadley and Center and have we had any actions or activity?
Chief Mitny said (inaudible).
Mr. Kirchoff said because I haven't seen anybody down there and I was just curious if we had any luck.
Mr. Carlucci said they are going to pour the concrete on the bridge deck tomorrow on U.S. 40. They actually took the equipment and lifted it by the crane and put it on there. At least that is a positive sign. There is supposed to be a little rain tomorrow but they are not concerned about that. The iron workers were out there cleaning up so they can pour that concrete.
Mr. Gaddie said a suggestion for a traffic problem (inaudible) when people are driving westbound in the evening, if you get one car turning left, it stops everything. (Inaudible).
Mr. Carlucci said I have noticed increased traffic back here. It scares me because I'm backing up and they are coming through there pretty quick.
Mr. Brandgard asked, can we use traffic bumps or create some in our parking lot to maybe try and slow it down on a temporary basis?
Mr. Castetter said we had some temporary speed bumps back there once before and I think they were taken out during the wintertime but it is something that we can reinstall on a temporary basis.
Mr. Brandgard said it may be a good thing for safety. People use that parking lot anyway but they go through pretty fast.
Mr. Castetter said I will take care of it for you.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Bennett said I think the Council is very familiar with the recent court decision that it was determined that it is inappropriate for cities or towns to bill stormwater fees to those that are outside their jurisdictions. So, with that Lois and her staff have finished the process of calculating and issuing credits to our stormwater customers who are outside the Town. That process has taken place and the credit balances have been applied to those folks on their utility bills and they will be using that credit up each month even though they are still get a bill with a credit balance. They will be using that up but we have also started the process of calculating and initiating refund checks to those previous customers, the customers who are no longer part of the system or who have moved and so forth. We are going to be sending out checks along with a brief explanation to those previous customers and that process is ongoing.
Mr. Gaddie said (inaudible).
Mr. Bennett said the liens will be released and their money will be refunded.
Mr. Kirchoff said the people outside the Town you are just cutting checks for them if they are not a water or sewer customer.
Mr. Bennett said if they are a former customer. If they are still a current customer, we have applied credits.
Mr. Brandgard said I just wanted to make an announcement that on Wednesday the president of Brightpoint is going to leave his home in Carmel and run down Meridian Street and around the circle to Washington Street, down Washington Street to his office on Airtech as part of the United Way fund raising. So, with that I had asked Chief Mitny if he would provide an escort when they hit the Town limits and he will do that and we anticipate that he will get here somewhere around three o'clock.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, how many miles is that?
Mr. Brandgard said 30 I think. With that anybody that can be at the Brightpoint office on Airtech around that time would be appreciated to show our support for not only him but for United Way.
RESOLUTIONS
Mr. Bennett said Resolution No. 2009-25 is basically a cleanup resolution for some additional appropriations.
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve Resolution No. 2009-25: Additional Appropriations Multiple Funds. Second by Ms. Whicker. Roll call vote called.
Ms. Whicker – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
Mr. McPhail – absent
4-ayes, 0-opposed, 1-absent. Motion carried.
ORDINANCES
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 30-2009 on its first reading. An ordinance for the Wholesale Water Rate Ordinance. Second by Ms. Whicker. Roll call vote called.
Ms. Whicker – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
Mr. McPhail – absent
4-ayes, 0-opposed, 1-absent. Motion carried.
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 31-2009 on its first reading. An ordinance for the Sewer Bond Ordinance. Second by Mr. Gaddie. Roll call vote called.
Ms. Whicker – yes
Mr. Gaddie – yes
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
Mr. McPhail – absent
4-ayes, 0-opposed, 1-absent. Motion carried.
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 32-2009 on its first reading. An ordinance for the Sewer Rate Ordinance. Second by Mr. Gaddie.
Mr. Brandgard said we have a motion and a second on Ordinance No. 32-2009. Can I have a roll call vote called please.
Mr. Gaddie said I have a little discussion. We have a public hearing; is that on these ordinances that we are reading?
Mr. Brandgard said yes at the next meeting.
Mr. Gaddie said I thought we had a public hearing before we did the ordinance.
Mr. Brandgard said we usually have the first reading and then we schedule the public hearing.
Mr. Gaddie said I was going over the 12 pages and we didn't get it until today. It looks like we have something passing that we don't really………
Mr. Carlucci said we aren't passing it; we will pick it up over the weekend.
Mr. Gaddie said one day to read 12 pages. I was thinking (inaudible) we start reading these ordinances; one that is this complicated.
Mr. Daniel said it will go through two more readings.
Mr. Carlucci said the rate ordinance is a little bit different than the bond. The bond has all of the technicalities and if you want to spend time on that, you will have to take a week off and go somewhere because it is tough stuff to get through.
Mr. Gaddie said I understand.
Mr. Carlucci said but the rate ordinance is a little more straightforward in terms you will get the chart and the bottom line is still the same.
Mr. Brandgard said if there is no further discussion, can we have a roll call vote called please.
Ms. Whicker – yes
Mr. Gaddie – no
Mr. Kirchoff – yes
Mr. Brandgard – yes
Mr. McPhail – absent
3-ayes, 1-opposed, 1-absent. Motion carried.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
Mr. Brandgard said I want to wish everybody a safe Halloween on Saturday evening.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to sign the necessary documents and adjourn. Second by Mr. Gaddie. Motion carried.
