PLAINFIELD TOWN COUNCIL
November 8, 2010
Mr. Brandgard: Plainfield Town Council meeting for Monday November 8, 2010 is now in session.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Mr. Brandgard: I would like to ask everyone to rise for the pledge of allegiance.
CONSENT AGENDA
Mr. Brandgard: We have several items on the consent agenda this evening.
1. Approval of the minutes of the regularly scheduled Town Council meeting of October 25, 2010.
2. Second Reading of Ordinance No. 16-2010: Six Points Associates, LLC Rezoning to I-2 Office Warehouse Distribution and Ordinance No. 17-2010: Ballou Annexation Ordinance.
3. Approval of October monthly reports for Department of Public Works, Department of Planning and Zoning, Plainfield Fire Territory, Utility Billing and Plainfield Police Department
4. Approval Transportation, Parks and Recreation, Town Engineer, and Plainfield Fire Chief Report dated November 5, 2010 and HR Director's report dated November 8, 2010.
5. Approval to utilize Butler, Fairman, and Suefert Engineers for inspection services associated with the Swinford Water Plant renovation in an amount not to exceed $120,000 per the Town Engineer's report dated November 5, 2010.
6. Approval to solicit quotations for clearing of the public right of way along Township Line road between Dan Jones road and US 40 per the Town Engineer's report dated November 5, 2010.
7. Approval of Change Order #1(final): for the Shady Lane South extension project resulting in an increase to the Earth Resources contract in the amount of $42,205.04 per the Transportation Director's report dated November 5, 2010.
8. Approval to release Retainage: for the Shady Lane South Extension project to Earth Resources in the amount of $27,985.00 per the Transportation Directors report dated November 5, 2010.
9. Approval of Deduct Change Order #1 in the amount of $18,729.93 with JDH Contracting Inc. for work completed on Plainfield Aquatic Facility Expansion-phase 1- parking lot improvements per the Parks and Recreation Director's report dated November 5, 2010.
Are there any changes or corrections to the consent agenda?
Ms. Whicker: I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as read.
Mr. McPhail: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: We have a motion is second to approve the consent agenda as read, can we have a roll call vote please?
Plainfield Town Council consent agenda for November 8, 2010 is adopted.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you.
BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR
Mr. Brandgard: Business from the floor, we have Mr. Al Bennett representing the Indianapolis Airport Authority.
Mr. A. Bennett: Thank you Mr. President. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. Since talking to Mr. Carlucci this afternoon, I got a verbal report from a gentleman who is with me tonight about the hangar five fires yesterday at the Indianapolis Airport. Mike Medvescek is the CEO Chief operating officer of the Indianapolis Airport. He is new in this business but he is not new to us because he has been with us several years and recently got a promotion. I asked him to come and give a report of what he had given to me this afternoon. Then I will go ahead with my report.
Mr. Medvescek: Good evening. As Mr. Bennett mentioned, I may be new to this position in the last six months as Chief Operating Officer, but I have worked with the Airport Authority for 21 years, so I've been around the airport for a while. Tonight I would like to recognize Fire Chief Anderson and his crew for their assistance yesterday at the fire. Let me give you a little back ground here. The Indianapolis Fire Department was dispatched to a hangar fire at the Comlux Hangar which is close to the old terminal building. Yesterday the call came in at 8:47 A.M. It ended up resulting in a three alarm fire. Plainfield Fire Department responded with two ladder trucks and a Battalion Chief. Ladder 121 was on the scene for four hours, ladder 122 was on the scene for three hours and twenty-three minutes. The Battalion Chief was on the scene for two hours and twenty three minutes. The Plainfield fire crew, they worked along side the airport fire fighters and other mutual aid fire fighters and they were instrumental in providing ventilation and fire fighting support. During our three alarm fire, Plainfield ended up having a two alarm fire in the middle of our time. So they were awful busy out here but they still provided us assistance with the airport. One thing we require as far as the FAA is concerned for us to keep our index up, the land planes at the Indianapolis International Airport, we have to have a certain amount of fire fighters on the scene at all times so if we have structural fire we are counting on our mutual aid folks to come in and assist. Which we have a great response from the Plainfield Fire Department. From the Airport staff, the Airport Authority Board would like to thank Chief Brian Anderson for his support from mutual aid and the close neighbors that support each other for the benefit of all. I want to thank you very much for the support. It is very important that we have that agreement and we will always support Plainfield when they call for us for any type of emergency.
Mr. Brandgard: I would like to let you know we appreciate you coming in and recognizing the Chief and the Plainfield Fire Territory for the assistance they were able to provide you and I know that is a big part of what we do in the inter local agreements that we have with the airport and surrounding communities to help and assist when necessary and we always know that if there is a problem at the airport we are going to get called. We understand that and we are there to help. But letting us know what happened and what you thought about it is great and we appreciate that.
Mr. Medvescek: Well with this tall structure we definitely needed the ladder trucks and the support. It was a very unstable building at the time.
Mr. Brandgard: I have one question and it is somewhat related but really not. I know the reports in the papers said that there were four or five executive jets in the building. Were they saved or where they destroyed?
Mr. Medvescek: There were actually three and a half jets in there; one was disassembled for a complete overhaul. The one aircraft which is a Lear jet, part of the steel structure fallen on the stabilizer on the back of the aircraft it actually didn't damage it severely. We were then able around 6:30 or 7 last evening to get a tug and get every aircraft out of the hangar and moved them to another hangar which we were helping support Comlux to keep their maintenance workers up and running. We actually removed all of their tools today we had a structural engineer come in and examine the building so that we could have access. Right now we are trying to get it secured because of all of the windows and holes, you know firemen like to chop holes in things and stick lines in.
Mr. A. Bennett: Thank you very much. I thought that it would be interesting to hear how the fire was dealt with but Comlux is kind of an unusual company that uses the Indianapolis International Airport. You have with you, this is the reason I am here tonight, a summary really kind of a synopsis of the land view study. We are down to finalizing this land view study but it is going to be a study for thirty years out. That will be finalized and approved by the Airport Authorities meeting on the third Friday of December. The first two or three pages kind of tell you the reason for the study and it is all about economic development around the airport and many miles out. Obviously we want to utilize the Interstate systems of the city and on the west side. We want to utilize Rail if it is convenient and admissible. Then the development of businesses that is basically called in the business air-tropolis, you have heard me talk about it in the past so designing this vision you can see several issues that we are going to be dealing with, besides passenger of the business growth, it will be a growth in the area of cargo as well as improving the whole effect of the airport and for the airport to be an asset for the entire central Indiana. What I want to discuss very briefly and let you know that we are keying on seven zones and those zones are in those packets that you have. Six and seven are the ones between the airport and Plainfield; seven is the conservation zone that is the large part that extends clear over to 267 which we call Quaker Boulevard. If you take a look at that map, of the seventh zone you can see there are several acres in there that are not owned by the airport. I am encouraging that their long range plan and this is the time to deal with this, I am encouraging that our plan called for convincing that acreage and for us to find room to where we can connect 267 to 67. That would bring the economic development in its own right and would probably open up other areas as well. I am supposed to receive from the engineering department of Landrum, Brown and Armstrong the consultants working on this project, I was supposed to get a plan today and I have yet to have it so I am looking for it tomorrow which I will be sharing with Mr. Carlucci and Joe as well as the County and recently Morgan County has come onboard wanting this connection and this development as well for the same reasons that we do. I don't know that I need any action from the Board tonight except for just more encouragement and speak of how you feel towards this. Joe James did tell me that the Planning Commission did have a report on this the other day and so I just thought publicly would be well to hear that we are pushing for this and now is the time to get it in the plan. Obviously we have some discussions that have been underway with Fish and Wildlife. They do admit that it is not a perfect little circle there over 2,200 acres so we think that if we have some give and take and take a look at all the land that can be useful for that habitat, Fish and Wildlife that we can have some room for the development of economic development. So that is the main purpose for me being here tonight.
Mr. Brandgard: Al, I applaud you, your efforts on this, as you know this has been an issue with Plainfield and Guilford Township for quite sometime, the amount of land that is out of use for the lack of a better word and if there is some way that we can help and work with you to condense the green areas on the map and get them more continuance with each other it should open up other land and then a way to bring 267 down through there to 67, that would work.
Mr. A. Bennett: I think you are exactly right it is going to be a big undertaking but now is the time to do it. Now is the time to try and deal with that issue. All sides of the airport are being evaluated. You take a look at the other side look clear over on 465 where Park Fletcher is on the other side of 465, perhaps Park Fletcher could be expanded right into what we now know as part of the old parking areas of the old terminal. So there are a lot of things on the table that we want to utilize and make sure that we take full advantage of this.
Mr. Kirchoff: Al, I mentioned to Joe at the Plan Commission meeting that we need to get Don involved because in updating our transportation plan we had some ideas about how to get through there. He might want to revisit that with you. Particularly if we could decrease some of the acreage down there, we did look at alternatives correct Don, if you could do that we've already have some thoughts of how we would like to get through there am I speaking correctly Don?
Mr. A. Bennett: I'd be glad too.
Ms. Whicker: Currently Rich I think has gone to some of your meetings with the…
Mr. A. Bennett: Yes, several here have attended our meetings. It is appreciated.
Ms. Whicker: Those are ongoing, they aren't monthly are they, are they quarterly?
Mr. A. Bennett: Some of them are monthly. They are now split up in committees. There are almost five hundred people involved throughout Central Indiana in this study. There are a lot of committees that have an effect on let's say one committee is just logistics of dealing with the logistics issues of a large airport and so forth. So yes we have had good attendance and good input.
Mr. Carlucci: You are running two committees, you go to the regular larger committee meeting which is a lot of people are in those meetings from all around the metro area. But Al has established a separate Hendricks County committee, now we've met now three times maybe for issues not only here but also the old Speedway airport property. So we are engaged in all of those issues at the same time. So some of us are going to, I don't know, I've probably been to three of those separate land view committees just for Hendricks County. I've been to every one of the meetings that they have held at the Airport Authority for the major role. Lucky me, they decided I would be the leader of a conference call on reliever airports, which I have little or no knowledge of but I was willing to do it. They said I signed something, I'm not really sure that I did. That was also worth discussing and then they did that with some of the other committees too. But Al's been keeping everybody's feet to the fire about this land in Guilford Township.
Mr. A. Bennett: Speedway Airport is between Brownsburg and Avon; both of those Towns are interested. The property is split in the middle and divided by the Ronald Reagan Parkway in that area. So it is a location that will be developed someday and it has been for sale for years. It has been for sale since the airport moved from Speedway.
Mr. McPhail: I would like to comment in addition to the land use study that we have had several meetings we also have a quarterly meeting for the airports boards yesterday to discuss issues between Plainfield and the airport. They always end up involving land uses also don't they?
Mr. A. Bennett: That is kind of the way the airport does it. I did give you a copy of a press release that came out today in regards to the fire, I forgot to mention that. Thank you for your time.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you, we appreciate it. Is there any other business from the floor this evening? No further business from the floor, we will go to the Town Manager's report.
TOWN MANAGER'S REPORT
Mr. Carlucci: Again Mr. President, I believe you have a certification of the Secretary of the Plainfield Plan Commission that was in your folders. Basically the Plan Commission, this came up a couple of meetings ago, I believe it was at a Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. It had to do with Child Care Centers and we have some Child Care Centers in Town are located in general commercial or industrial districts right now. One good example is on Stanley Road and the one that is over by that has been started up again by the Marsh Supermarket. Our ordinance was basically in our zoning ordinance, they were coming for a child care center where the development if you were at the Crane Bank, you go the opposite side of the road, there is going to be a child care center there and they were trying to get a use variance to do that which is really the wrong approach. From that Board of Zoning Appeals meeting, we brought this back to the Plan Commission, now it is going to the Town Council about where these child care centers can be located. So when you go through that ordinance it has in there specifically what parts are being amended to allow the child care centers. I don't know, Joe, if you want to add anymore to that but it basically goes through most of that amendment especially that is in the ordinance it has to do with the child care center. There is a separate category on corridor lighting as our beloved Town Engineer and Transportation Director are putting up LED lights which are the whitish kind of light versus what we have out there today. So that will be amended to allow that as corridor lighting for the Town of Plainfield because otherwise it wouldn't be under our ordinance. If you have any questions about the child care I will be glad to have Joe come up and respond to any questions if you have them. I wanted to present this certification to you. So that is what is presented from the Plan Commission meeting that was held on Monday November 1st and that is the recommendation of the Plan Commission to the Town Council.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. With that I entertain a motion to approve the recommendation from the Plan Commission.
Mr. McPhail: Mr. President, I move that we accept the recommendation from the Plan Commission and approve the ordinance changes for child care and corridor lighting, ordinance no. 18-2010. I move that we accept the recommendation from the Plan Commission.
Ms. Whicker: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: We have a motion is second to approve the recommendations from the Plan Commission that reads be advised pursuant to Indiana Code 36-7-4-600 on Monday November 1, 2010 the Town of Plainfield Plan Commission gave a favorable recommendation to a proposal to amend the Town of Plainfield zoning ordinance TA-01-03 amending article 2.11A general commercial article 2.12 A1 and A2 research office industrial 2.13A1 and A2 office warehouse distribution article 2.14A1 and 2.14A2 light manufacturing and article 5.56C development plan Gateway Corridor. The Plan Commission hereby certifies set proposal to amend the Plainfield zoning ordinance to view with your consideration with a favorable recommendation. A copy of the proposal to amend the Town zoning ordinance is attached to the certificate exhibit A dated this 8th day of November 2010.
We have a motion and a second all those in favor signify by aye, opposed, motion carried. Thank you.
Mr. Carlucci: I sent all of you a letter from Dennis Gibb who is in the process of putting together a new business on Main Street. Called Gear Up Cyclery, it is going to be located where the old Christian Bookstore used to be and Dennis has been looking for a location for at least a year for this bicycle shop and it would be sales and service that type of shop. He would like the Town Council to consider a drop off zone for right at their west door on North Center Street and right now if anybody, I look at that building almost daily from where I sit and this would be a 15 minute area for drop off and deliveries and then would need to go out. As it is, he moved the signs up that were up there that said no parking as we've learned Fed Ex and the other services they don't pay too much attention and park there. It looks like that we have a new business that is going to put down roots in the Town Center, that is what we hope that we can get more of these in the Town Center with all the improvements that are being made and he would like the Council to consider a 15 minute area there where people can drop off their bikes, pick up bikes, and then go on their way. I talked to Don about this but that area is pretty wide through there, but might see if there is anything that would be a concern before we commit to Mr. Gibbs that there would be a loading zone in that location.
Mr. Brandgard: You already answered my comment; there will be vehicles parking there already. I think if you got a business deliveries are very important and we have to provide a way for that to happen, provide on streets a 15 minute loading area is probably not a bad thing to do subject to review by Don and the Police Department and make sure it works.
Ms. Whicker: In bigger cities I've seen no parking except for authorized vehicles, but if you have that 15 minute parking sometimes the citizens will take their dog and run in and get some handmade treats or I'll go and then maybe that 15 minute gets abused and who is going to keep track of that, It just kind of opens up that area for parking when we just are trying to enhance and better that. I'm not sure obviously if that business is expecting a delivery or if Fed Ex or UPS or whoever is making those deliveries, but are there things such as for approved vehicle or authorized vehicles instead of just allowing that as a parking for a shopper that is going to drop their dog off to be groomed.
Mr. Brandgard: This is a thought on that, if the sign reads 15 minute drop off and pick up you've kind of limited to what it is and I think you can probably even go further on the sign and say what kind of drop off and pick up you are talking about. I see that no parking except for authorized vehicles, but who authorizes the vehicles?
Ms. Whicker: I just think that it opens itself up to citizens wanting to park there and then parking there when the delivery comes; someone is parked there when the delivery arrives.
Mr. McPhail: I'd certainly if there is room to do it I'd support it but I think it aught to be identified as a loading zone only. Not a 15 minute parking but a loading zone and if you've got somebody making a delivery they've got a right to be there if they are not making a delivery or making a pick up they don't have a right to be there.
Mr. McGillem: Dennis has talked to me about this and I suggested to Dennis to submit the letter to the Council for action. What I indicated to Dennis is my concern is 15 minute parking can mean all day parking as long as you've got one after the other. So we continued, we just took parking off of that a few years ago in order to get the left turn lane in there and depending on how you utilize 15 minutes parking like Renae was talking, we have got to especially during the peak hours left turn, if you've got left turns backing up and you go through traffic backing up and you have a 15 minute parking in this slot you have got cars turning and going northbound backing up into US 40 because there is no way there is enough width to get around in that particular location. So I guess my thoughts was and I haven't had a chance to talk to Jeff but looking at the thing and if we are going to do something I think the drop off should not allow to be occurring during peak hours in the morning and in the afternoon. I think what he is looking at is anybody that is wanting to come in and pick up a new bike can stop there and load it up anybody wanting to drop off a bike for servicing it is not just UPS, it is not just Federal Express delivery, it gets extended out to the public. But like I say 15 minute parking can end up with all day parking. So I think we need to take a look at what we are doing or we could have cars backing up into US40.
Mr. Kirchoff: Plus it would help if you give us the schematic of where you are talking about and relationship for the lanes and all of that. He is thinking of customers as well, I was thinking where, duration, and all the things we discussed tonight but I think seeing a schematic of that would be advantageous.
Mr. Brandgard: I have to agree with Don. In the high volume times you can't do it there but I was thinking more of your UPS type deliveries or even it might get into when you initially open up a business and somebody is delivering the bicycles and stuff. For a customer drop off I can't go with that.
Ms. Whicker: I can't wait for those orange and white barrels to be gone and that road to be open and I know that everyone is right there with us. But using that intersection and those roads ten to twelve times a day, I just hate to see some type of permanent parking or even though it is not permanent but it could possibly be then to bottle necking it.
Mr. Brandgard: One of the things that concerns me, and I've seen it and it happened to be UPS trucks. Especially on South Center there at the light, they will have trucks on the sidewalk. We need to be ticketing those when they do it. We got to figure out someway to make these people understand the streets are for vehicles we are not Europe where you park cars on the sidewalk. There are other alternatives they may just have to walk a little bit.
Ms. Whicker: I think there are probably just a few drivers with those companies that have the same routes around.
Mr. Carlucci: Thanks Mr. President that is all I have this evening. Thank you.
STAFF REPORTS
Mr. Brandgard: We will go to staff reports and I will start with Nate for Parks and Recreation.
Mr. Thorne: Good evening, the only item I have tonight is a reminder of our work session on Thursday November 18th at 6PM at the Rec Center. If there is any issues that you would prefer we give you some information about to let us know so we can be prepared.
Mr. Brandgard: Joe do you have anything from Zoning and Planning?
Mr. James: Good evening, I just wanted to see if you had a chance to look at the Diner relocation study and if there is anything we missed or anything we to add.
Ms. Whicker: Can you just specify again, the grant has paid the money for this study. As a Town we have not put any money into the possibility of this relocation, correct?
Mr. James: That is correct. The study was paid for and we have not committed any funding for any type of relocation.
Mr. Kirchoff: What kind of funding were you thinking about for the relocation?
Mr. James: We don't know yet at the final draft they will give us cost estimates.
Mr. Kirchoff: I have real reservations about spending any public dollars to relocate.
Mr. James: One idea is through the internet fundraising to be an option to pay for the relocation.
Mr. McPhail: Have you seen any cost estimates at all Joe?
Mr. James: No, not yet.
Mr. Brandgard: That is the purpose of the study.
Mr. James: Once I get those estimates I will be sure to pass them along.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. Chief Mitny do you have anything for the Plainfield Police Department? Chief Anderson, anything for the Fire Department?
Mr. Anderson: I just have one item to show you tonight. Two gentlemen in this photo here the gentleman on the left is our fire fighter Roger Harris, he is one of our long time fire fighters, he's been with us for twenty years or more, the gentleman on his right is his son, Jacob Harris. The display case they are holding in this picture is here on the table. Roger's son Lance Corporal Harris recently returned from Afghanistan. Roger had contacted me two weeks ago and said his son wanted to present us a flag that had flown over his base in Afghanistan and would we accept it, and I said absolutely. So last Wednesday Lance Corporal Harris and his father showed up to present the flag to us and I thought I would read the dedication that is on the display. The dedication reads “So that all shall know this flag was flown side by side in the face of the enemy. Illuminated by the dark by the light of justice, and bears witness to the counter insurgency conducted in Laghman Province against the terrorist forces threatening the freedom of the United States of America and the World. It was flown on 16, September 2010 at Forward Operating Base, Mehtar Lam, Afghanistan, dedicated to Plainfield Fire Department, presented by 1st Battalion 102nd Infantry Regiment “Stand Forth””. With pride and honor we accepted this flag and we will find an appropriate place to display this flag. I do not know Jacob Harris but I did spend a few minutes with him that day. I asked him so what compelled you to do this? He said he is very proud of his country, he is very proud of his father, and he is very proud of Plainfield Fire. So he took the necessary steps with his base commander to provide a flag to fly over his operating base on September 16th and that flag is in this display case sitting here. It was humbling to receive that. We thanked him repeatedly because we think his service is a step above ours. I thought it was appropriate to bring that in and show you. (Everyone clapping) so we had the entire B shift that was on that day and everyone shook his hand.
Mr. Brandgard: When Chief Anderson told me about this Thursday, I asked him to bring it in this evening and also the pictures and show up on the screen so everyone can see it. Again, we need to extend our humble thanks to the Marine Corp and those who serve there for the protection they provide. And for him to provide and think about that is an exceptional person. I've been around Marine's longer to know they are exceptional people. This is humble and appreciated.
Mr. Kirchoff: It would be appropriate for Council to acknowledge that Marine and get back to him.
Ms. Whicker: We could get Jacob's address.
Mr. W. Bennett: Where is he stationed Chief?
(Inaudible)
Mr. Brandgard: He's just passing through, coming home on leave or something.
Mr. Kirchoff: Rich if you could draft something for us?
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. Bill, do you have anything from IT? Jason, do you have anything from public works?
Mr. J. Castetter: Good evening I have a few items. One of which it is that time of year of going out for ground maintenance for next year, 2011. So I would like Councils consent to receive quotes to get that on display.
Mr. Brandgard: Consent.
Mr. J. Castetter: Thank you, I appreciate it. At the last Council meeting it was mentioned about some low pressures out at the Nottinghill subdivision. I think I forwarded to a couple of you an email I received regarding some pressure testing that took place last Thursday and Friday with the new hydrant pressure loggers and I will finish forwarding those to the ones that did not receive that. But the pressures showed, exactly what we expected, they were ranging around 40 to 50 pounds of pressure. The average of course being 45 and that is what we expected. This was Thursday and Friday so there was no irrigating taking place at this time. That may play a role and we are also going to monitor Moon Road and another place in Saratoga as well as Moon Road and Hadley to see if we have any pressure drops coming from the south water treatment plant. So we will be monitoring that as we go forward. As I learn more, I will report that. As of now it appears that Nottinghill is the calculations of what it will be and it is holding true. That is what they should have is about 45 pounds of pressure.
Mr. Kirchoff: Being a resident out there Don, do you experience any of that?
Mr. McGillem: As I have indicated to Jason there are times when my wife says that she can't run two sprinklers, one on each side of the house. But everybody else across the street and down the street is running sprinklers at the same time. So that doesn't surprise me. I have not noticed any and we had a Home Owner's Association meeting Last Thursday and this turned out to be a significant conversation and I tried to indicate in the Home Owner's Association just what Jason was saying, that the pressures that some of them said that they were getting peaks, 98 pounds was physically impossible to achieve so they were saying they were getting readings all the way from 28 pounds to 98 pounds and found a little more where that was coming from but I indicated to the association last Thursday night that based on our calculations that we should be getting somewhere in the 40-50 pound range which is pretty much what Jason is picking up on right now. But we are on the end, you can tell if it's a heavy water down south of us or a lot of activity or a time when everyone is taking showers that we lose some pressure but I haven't noticed it to be a problem but some of the others are saying they were.
Mr. Brandgard: This is a comment relative to irrigation systems. We are recommended to water early morning. When I run mine, I run it about 4:00 and it will run in various zones about three hours. But if I let it run till 8:00 or something, I am in trouble in the house because there is not enough pressure in the house. They will drop pressure especially if you have a lot of people at the same time. I know my neighbor can run them and I can see a difference. They do create a problem because you are dumping a lot of water out of the system and if everybody is doing it at the same time I would probably expect to see some issues.
Mr. McGillem: We had several new houses with sod this summer and with the dryness that we had, needless to say they have been running sprinklers quite heavy. Being on a dead end there is a time that you are going to get it. We are on the far north end.
Mr. J. Castetter: Like to mention that we do like to give people the opportunity to water and irrigate their grass, but we are supposed to deliver them domestic water for consumption as well as fire protection. Friday we completed a fire flow test out there as well. That is one of their questions that they had, the pressures out there if they had to fight a fire. It flowed at 800 gallons a minute at 27psi and I think that is more than enough to put out a fire. We always try to keep a minimum pressure by WW standards at 20 pounds, we are above that. Like I said we are going to continue to monitor that and see. The third item I had we discussed at the last Council meeting a part time position for DPW. I'm not ready to give you anymore information other than I would like another two weeks to complete my evaluation and get the numbers that I want. Spend a little time with Ron and get some numbers from him as well before I move forward and do anything there. I will definitely have something for you at the next Council meeting. That is all I have.
Mr. Gaddie: Jason, I have a couple people on Brookside that have (inaudible) have you been flushing anything different down there around Brookside?
Mr. J. Castetter: We've had some discolored water here and we have been out doing some spot flushing out there. Nothing significant should have been an issue we've done flushing in July.
Mr. Gaddie: The water looked clearer than the taste.
Mr. J. Castetter: We haven't done anything different. I mean there has been some operation; there have been some valves and a change of flow which can change the direction of flow that can pick up different material that is inside the water main. But we haven't changed our chemical usage.
Mr. Gaddie: I was going to mention something to you earlier when you were talking about street lights. There is one on Buchannan Street with a (inaudible) people walking on it. Trouble is people walking on it, I've seen them more than once wearing dark clothes and can't see them and somebody made the comment the other day “Jason said the other day they was having trouble of not getting them out (inaudible).
Mr. J. Castetter: What we've done is starting to compile the problems that we are getting from the lights and my secretary does a good job trying to coordinate with those with Duke and pass the information along. But I believe now we have a contact person that we can get those lights addressed sooner and we can contact him and say this is the light and they will pass it on down the chain. Before we were calling the 1-800 number just as a residents would and you get put on hold and you got to go through that chain. Now we have a direct contact and we can address that and pass it on. I don't know that any of the lights that we have recorded have been fixed as of yet but we are moving in the right direction because there is a lot of them out there that are out right now and we are trying to get them addressed.
Mr. Kirchoff: I shared with Don the other day if we don't get them fixed in a reasonable time they (inaudible) does provide for an outage credit per light. So we should not be (inaudible).
Mr. J. Castetter: So we also aught to be documenting when those lights are out with the calls we get.
Mr. Kirchoff: Absolutely, but there is provisions for outage credit when they do not replace the light right away.
Mr. J. Castetter: As long as we have our own street lights that we contend with from time to time going out and we recently lost our contractor that was performing those duties, he sold his bucket truck so Don and I have had some conversation with getting that contract and getting someone out there to service our lights as well and so forth.
Mr. Kirchoff: I would be happy to give you a contact name for another source.
Mr. Brandgard: Ed, give Jason the name and address of the people whose water, having that he can go out and get samples and check it.
Mr. Gaddie: He said it looks good but he said it's just got a funny taste. I will get you the address.
Mr. J. Castetter: Yes, if someone has discolored water and it gets on their laundry and we have a detergent they can take the iron out as long as they don't dry them first.
Mr. Gaddie: It wasn't discolored or anything but I will double check with him and get you his address.
Mr. Brandgard: The other thing, it is not so much you but talking about street lights, I don't know if you've noticed it Rich but on Stafford Road where the ditch goes along behind the house and under Stafford Road there used to be a light there. It either hasn't worked for months or it is gone and I think it is gone.
Mr. J. Castetter: It has possibly been moved when they came to clear that right of way.
Mr. Brandgard: I have no idea, but if they did they aught to be letting us know what they are doing.
Mr. J. Castetter: I recall that light being there.
Mr. Brandgard: It is awful dark down through there with that one missing.
Mr. J. Castetter: I think we are in the process of trying to get a copy of their map of where there street lights are at so that way we can help identify the information like the lights out attached with a number, their GIS system so we can quickly respond. That is their first question to us is well what is the pole number? That is what we are doing to get more information.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. Ron, do you have anything from HR?
Mr. Lydick: Thank you Mr. President. Last meeting there was interest in changing our health insurance policy to not include spouses as a primary participants in our health plan, but if they had group health insurance available that they would have to enroll in that group health insurance and they would be on our plan as secondary. As of Friday when I did my report I had not received any information about that but I did get a response today and so I will briefly describe some of the things that you will need to take into consideration and one issue is with the health care reform act. There are some rules about their plan is currently a grandfathered plan, and I mean a grandfathered plan, there are some provisions of the new healthcare reform act that you would not have to abide by. As you have expressed before, I think that when our next plan year comes around if you are thinking about making some of these changes that you have suggested then we will be losing that grandfathered status for our plan and so if we are going to lose it for those other reasons then I don't think that is a major obstacle but I just want you to realize that if we do this that it is potentially going to cause you to lose your grandfathered status. The second issue is the fact if you are only taking the new employees and if you hire new employees that are on the lower end of the pay scale then it can become discriminatory as far as the highly compensated people. For example, if we hire 20 employees and all 20 of them are entry level employees and we say that their spouse cannot be on our health plan then we are in fact discriminating against them and the highly compensated people because we are not hiring any highly compensated people they would be gaining an advantage that the others wouldn't. This is an IRS regulation and so I guess the thing of it is, the highly compensated has to be the top 25% of employees and so you would have to hire just as many in the top 25% as you do in the bottom 75%.
Mr. Kirchoff: Number wise or percentage?
Mr. Lydick: Percentage wise. In other words if you were to hire twenty people, five of them would have to be in the highly compensative area in order not to be discriminated. For our Town that would be fifty-six employees would be in the highly compensated, but because we are (inaudible) a lot of our highly compensated people reach that area by promotion. We really do not hire that many at that level. For example we have fifty-six people that are in the highly compensated area, only seventeen of them would probably ever be replaced by new hires. The other thirty-nine would actually be promoted up to that higher compensated area. Well there is a couple ways around that. One is for the first three years you don't have to count new hires in the formula for determining the higher compensated people, so we could do this program for three years, not include those spouses on the insurance program but at the end of the three years you had to do one of two things. One is you could let all those spouses into the plan without being on their primary employers plan or you could say every bodies spouse is now forbidden to be on the plan, so that would give all of our current employees three years to get ready to address this.
Mr. Brandgard: Which is the normal way, if you are going that direction is the normal way of going.
Mr. Lydick: So after the three years you would either let everybody in or take everybody out or you would do the testing, but I don't think that we would be able to pass a test because we don't really hire that many higher compensated people. Then if you want to go through with eliminating the spouses of the new hirers, then these are the considerations that you will have to make. Do you want to do it for just three years or do you want to change your mind and do it for all the employees or do it for all the employees after three years or after the three years let the new employee's spouses join too? I know you are not making a decision tonight but I just wanted to get you this information tonight and give you a chance to preliminarily ask any questions you might have and to ponder this and decide at some future time which way you want to go.
Mr. McPhail: How do they calculate the discrimination?
Mr. Lydick: It is based upon the compensation, in other words the top 25% of your employees, whatever that salary range would be; let's say that if 25% of our employees are making $55,000.00 or more, then you would have to hire just as many people in the $55,000.00 and above as what you do below proportionately. In an average it has to be at least 25% of the new hires would have to be higher compensative area. Basically the only employees that we hire would be like the department heads and the assistant department heads are the ones that are the 25%.
Mr. Brandgard: To me it sounds something the same way like with your 401K programs, and again your corporate area if you are held to put so much in based upon the higher groups put in or don't put in so it is basically the same thing. It is an IRS…
Mr. Kirchoff: We ran into that at Cinergy they had to run tests again so that you didn't discriminate and there were times that the highly compensated employees were capped on what they could contribute because we were (inaudible).
Mr. Lydick: The penalty for not meeting the test is that the highly compensated people didn't have to pay taxes on their benefits.
Mr. McPhail: How are these automotive companies with two tier wage systems now getting or are they not getting penalized?
Mr. Kirchoff: New employees are offered a different benefit package.
Mr. McPhail: Absolutely, entirely different, are they being excluded from this?
Mr. Lydick: I don't know what their business does.
Mr. McPhail: My gut feel is that they are being excluded from the same things that we have to meet. There are certainly two tier wage packages, benefit packages, and everything else particularly now in the automotive. My guess is they are not paying penalties for that either.
Mr. Lydick: We have what we call probationary status for the first year but then they are still eligible for benefits after thirty days. With the new healthcare reform act ninety days would be the longest period of time that you could have for a waiting period.
Mr. Kirchoff: We talked about getting a group of employees together to study our benefits package, are we there yet? To me, that would be another one of those things that they would look at for us.
Mr. Lydick: I didn't know if this is an issue that you wanted to address before our anniversary year or would this be one of the changes that you make when we…the plan can be amended at any time, if you want to amend it now or at the plan year end.
Mr. Brandgard: When is the plan year end?
Mr. Lydick: July 1st.
Mr. Kirchoff: To me, I'd like to look at this realistically as much as possible. It saves the employees too going in to explain to one new plan or whatever changes we make or whatever let them say well I think we are going to do this…I prefer a realistic approach myself.
Mr. Lydick: Thank you.
Mr. Brandgard: Sounds like we need another work session. Tim do you have anything from engineering?
Mr. Belcher: First item if you allow me I want to talk about a resolution that is on the agenda a little later on, regarding a SRF document. What that is about is called the SRF loan program and it is a PER acceptance resolution PER means preliminary engineering report, this is a preliminary engineering report on the project that we hope to do with SRF funding and within this document essentially is in the plans for the drainage work we want to do just north of US40 and east of Avon Avenue. It involves Indiana Street, Eastern, Pickett, Spruce, and Spring St. in that area, it goes back to a resident who came in there sometime ago and had a flooding problem back when it rained I think a couple of years ago. It was on Eastern and it was really where the serious problems was at and we began to look at how we could solve that and US 40 was a big component of that, that big storm pipe that went down the middle of 40, we still have pipes to each of these streets during that project and we always knew we wanted to come back and do this. Then SRF, we submitted this document back in March of '08 I think it was as part of the Buchannan Street project I believe it was. We included Buchannan and this work and US 40 was in one big preliminary engineering report because they were calling for projects at that time you might recall the stimulus was out there and they were trying to find projects throughout the State and we were more than welcome to submit those, they didn't approve at that time and so it sat up there and so we said its up there and maybe we will get some luck there and well about six months ago we got a call from them in an email and said are you still interested in doing this project and we said well yes part of it is done, Buchannan is finished so that is sort of off the table but the US 40 work was still under construction and it is and also the work coming of 40 we would certainly like to have funding for that so they being the SRF folks were very cooperative and again they are I think being creative about trying to get dollars out the door to the communities which is their job and I'm happy to see that the State is doing that so I really welcome that sort of a collaborative effort to find ways to solve problems, and this report is about how we can go in that area and solve the problems. Separate some of our sewers in that area that are not yet separated and our goals with this project are on a parallel track with the DOC utility deal that we are working on too. We hope to combine financing, that financing being completely, I guess almost grant related. This would be a loan, this would be a small part of a bigger financing package and again save money and we think if we can put all of these together and head towards the end of the year and have one financing package so getting this PER acceptance resolution tonight, essentially it says that the Council has allowed me to conduct a public hearing, which we did a week or so ago, no one attended from the neighborhood but the legal notices you put in, people don't read them so we probably will go back and do some more direct notice to people and just have a public meeting and invite them in and show them what we are planning to do. But essentially it is a drainage project that most everybody will be excited to see as they are suffering from some poor drainage in that area and we are not inquiring any land we are doing this all within the public rights of it. That is what that resolution is about and I wanted to answer any questions that you might have and I tried or thought about sending you the PER document and then thought again about that first of all the file was so large and second because I thought I could explain it better to you so I can answer any questions. Essentially it is a drainage project and it will separate that area of Town on sewers or combine sewers.
Mr. Brandgard: Is there any questions? I'm comfortable with it.
Mr. Belcher: Thank you very much for your time. The next item I had delivered to Robin right before the meeting as I delivered a sealed proposal for the water works improvements that we are conducting or hoping to conduct through the energy savings code section of the Indiana code, Bowen has now presented this proposal and it should have in it the proposal on top and then a guaranteed maximum price for the projects we are considering right now. The projects would include the Swinford Park water plant upgrade which is the majority of the work that we are looking at here, but there were some other projects that we had already had in the water bond issue, I guess it would just be last year that we completed that, but we wanted also to get done would be the cargo booster station which we have already applied for grant funding for that and the 267 water tower needs what they call an altitude valve and then the southwest water plant we have some valves we'd like to replace down there. So this number that would be on this proposal and then the contract which is attached will include those four components to those two water improvements to the Town so when we went out for this request of proposals, we evaluated these vendors who qualified to this code section, and Bowen was one that we selected and then we actually Jason and I, met with them via teleconference last week to really define the scope far enough that it is still a design build contract if we find the enough it is defined in this contract, so that we know what we are going to get and we know what they are pricing and they are confident they can give us this guaranteed maximum price if we are willing to accept it. The contract that is attached I haven't reviewed it yet, it is like the one Mel's firm did for us for the first project and the second project. So essentially we are using a similar format that we used on the past contract. In my report I this forward in hope that because of the Swinford plant and the acquisition the filters and the major equipment pieces are very time sensitive that if you would be willing to allow after an understanding of what this project is to approve this project subject to Mel's review and something getting all the financing together that we could inform them of that as early as tomorrow so that we could begin to move down this path of actually acquiring equipment and things like that, the goal again was Swinford and it is to have the project substantially complete in the middle of June and no later because of our peak days of water demand are July 4th, July 5th, and that time period so we are at a time now where we could actually shut the plant down and work on it and take advantage of that time frame and they would love to begin working on it as soon as possible and so I am asking for a lot this evening but essentially the bottom line is approval to hire Bowen, for the guaranteed maximum price and then to get started on the project, you know we have done this on a previous project too, up to a limited notice for seen amount of a million dollars of the total contract combined. Then again that would just be for major equipment that they would have with that extra security from us that said yes go ahead and that they can get those orders in. We wouldn't spend that money for a few months or so but anyways that's a lot to go through but essentially that is what we are trying to do using this contracting method to design, build, and type up contract and to allow us to actually get completed with a project mid June of next year before our major water demand starts up again. I would be glad to answer any questions I can and again I know there is a lot here.
Mr. Gaddie: You estimated costs of a million dollars?
Mr. Belcher: I think it is going to be closer to four million dollars, a million dollars would be about the cost of the filters and the major pumps that we need to order that are such long lead items that if they are not ordered soon we would not get them in time to finish our project by June so based on the conversations we had, I'm expecting to be south of four million dollars for all just described. It is a lot of money again what we are getting out of this essentially is a major piece of equipment is Swinford has four filters in it. Those four filters two of them I think are fifty's era and two of them are seventies late seventies and quite frankly the older ones are in better shape than the newer ones so they are literally splitting and breaking and we can't even run the plant at this rate of capacity when we need it that is how bad these are.
Mr. Brandgard: The metal is so bad you can't weld to repair anything.
Mr. Belcher: So what this scope would have in it would essentially we would keep the same structure we add on just a tad of structure on one side of the pumps and things. Put four new filters in the same holes that are in the back of that building now but new. The other things about this plant/project that are really great we will be running a recycling line from the back wash of this plant over to our tank we already own with Anderson. So you are saving energy by recycling the water and we are going to put more pumps and motors in that would also save power. I believe that they have estimated part of this contract $50,000.00 per year of energy savings alone that the Town would accrue from this investment so the fact that we get back ¾ of the plant capacity is nothing small either, think about having a three million gallon plant and you are only using a half million gallons a day capacity. We are really losing a lot right there and as you saw in my report we have a customer that certainly is expanding and would like more capacity from us and we certainly would like to sell it to him to the public and create it.
Mr. Kirchoff: Tim your estimated energy savings are at present rates.
Mr. Belcher: Yes.
Mr. Kirchoff: And we know what is going to happen there so they are understated.
Mr. Belcher: I know they try, I know Bowen tries to be very conservative in their statements and I was using their numbers. The other thing that we implemented in this project should it go forward is the…we are changing the entire backwash system so it uses less water to backwash and it creates less suet. So we save on both ends. Those savings aren't even calculated in here so again it goes back to the Town in savings and our rate payers except for the long hall. The efficiencies the Carr Road booster stations in here, efficiency gains there, it certainly operation and maintenance costs so that would be really high and so we would be taking care of that problem and so yeah there is a lot of money being spent but I think that the wisdom of spending it right now is very good because again we have customers that want to buy it and we certainly don't want to build it too soon. We have a customer that is expanding right now and it is good to see that and if we can meet the schedule I think we will be ahead of the demand we have for our customers and expansions.
Mr. Carlucci: One customer you are talking about has put a good down payment on this project because it is close to a million dollars.
Mr. W. Bennett: Can you touch real briefly Tim on how you are going to pay for it?
Mr. Belcher: I have some ideas but the capacity fee payments that Niagra has made and other connectors to our system, they pay for capacity they then have to be replaced so this is an example of that. I feel like the capacity fees would be a large part of that. I think the capacity fee fund has a million dollars already in it. The water operating fund also has funds built into it from the last rate increase that were for capital improvements and again because we have sold more water than we anticipated when that rate was established its actually increased the balance I believe in that fund to the point where I believe we can fund this project partially out of water operating, partially out of the connection fees, and I have an idea that I haven't proposed to the Council yet but something I would like to propose later just to possibly use some edit funds and some of the TIF district funds to essentially pay back the water utility for some of the incentives that have been offered to get companies to come in. So if we have incentive to get companies like Niagra in it seems like an edit expense in a way so if the capacity fee was reduced which we have done that before as an incentive and it was a big incentive to get them here to take that and say maybe edit should fund that other half of the capacity fee back to the water utility which then just puts it back in the capacity so for all of the different customers we have.
Mr. Kirchoff: So have we not put a total financing package together for this project?
Mr. Belcher: Well what I have done was looked at the last rate study that we did and within those figures there was already a balance available for the funds that I think this contract is going to be asking for, they are already there within what was studied for us. Since that time Niagra has come in and had given us almost a million dollars of fees just for the one connector and we have sold more water. So I am going north in the gut level because I hadn't really come to the Council and gotten an approved plan but the last rate study had that in there.
Mr. Kirchoff: So committing to this tonight does that commit us to the total project?
Mr. Belcher: I don't think so, I don't think so until Mel reviews the contract and the Council signs it, we really aren't committing to anything but I think what they are asking for is the ok to go forward knowing that the Council is committed to the project knowing that we have done this contract before and that the contract form probably will define it. I know that is the hardest part about this time. Normally we would have the contract two or three weeks later, we'd come back and we'd say we are ready to go forward and again because of the nature of trying to get done by June, I'm asking a little bit more tonight than I typically do.
Mr. Kirchoff: Conceptually I can concur I guess I would like to see a little more definitive financing plan, I think the dollars are there but if you could do that, I guess that would help my comfort. I don't know if anybody else is there or not. I'm not as close to it as some of you are, but just a sense of where would the dollars come from.
Mr. Carlucci: We can have that to you by the next meeting. I don't think that is a problem.
Mr. Belcher: I actually have it now but I wanted to go through Rich.
Mr. Kirchoff: I understand that, but do you see where I am coming from?
Mr. Belcher: Yes, absolutely.
Mr. Carlucci: We are trying to avoid a rate increase and I think we can do that and that is our goal.
Mr. Belcher: I've done enough to know that the funds are there, the question is whether you would be willing to allocate them out of different.
Mr. W. Bennett: Bill, that was one reason for my question is to bring that out on the table because this financing through EDIT and through the TIF's are a little bit different than done in the past. However, I feel as Tim does and I will let Rich speak for himself, I think I feel as Tim does and if this TIF money, this EDIT money and especially the TIF money this project directly serves TIF and will tie in the TIF area. That is a very strong justification for using that money.
Mr. Belcher: Before we leave that, just so you know how for later when I revise this to you, what I did was I took the TIF districts, the area of those districts, compared to the area of our Town and took a percentage. So essentially there percentage they won't pay anymore or less of the percentage of the rest of the Town the districts wouldn't. Essentially that funding plus the EDIT plus the water capacity fees and then the operating fund would have multiple abilities to fund this but certainly those are policy matters I have to get it to you before you can approve it. That is where we are at.
Mr. Kirchoff: I just think having the sense of philosophy, the thought process and the funds available will help my comfort.
Mr. Brandgard: I think part of it is to the Swinford/Anderson filter upgrade. That is a must and that is most of the cost.
Mr. Kirchoff: I don't disagree, I just…
Mr. Belcher: That is the one piece I didn't get here before now that I wish I would have, but I can certainly get it out to you tomorrow but again I've only had time to talk to Wes and Rich about it in detail and make sure they were ok with it too before I did that and so I held up on that. Again the only thing and I don't know, I don't want to push this because if it is pushed in too much we will just wait until next meeting. Allowing Bowen to go forward with some level of confidence and with that one million dollar limited amount that money is in the connection fee only.
Mr. Kirchoff: I think we can do that tonight I just would like to (inaudible, mic was moved). I just wanted to ask what you need tonight and what should we do tonight to move…
Mr. Daniel: Can they go ahead and do that and if there is any hold up or whatever else they can cancel those orders, is the Town locked in?
Mr. Belcher: I think what would probably happen is there might be some kind of restocking fee, they are not going to manufacture anything in two weeks, what happens is there will be a purchase order issued by Bowen to these companies and they would get it into the sequence of the manufacturer and that is what we are trying to maintain. So if we can do that within two weeks and come back, that is what will happen.
Mr. Kirchoff: I'm comfortable with that. What do we need to do tonight?
Mr. Brandgard: But will they be able to proceed without us approving this?
Mr. Belcher: I'm not sure that they would. They probably could but if the Council approves the contract subject to Mel's review and full financing then it will be a question of…
Mr. McPhail: The contract covers a lot more than they thought. The filter is the critical time though. We could certainly, for some reason if we couldn't finance the rest of it we could reduce the scope of that contract.
Mr. W. Bennett: Yes because the million dollars has already covered.
Mr. McPhail: We know we can cover the filters.
Mr. W. Bennett: Correct.
Mr. Kirchoff: Would it make sense to make a motion to approve the proposal from Bowen subject to review and approval of a final funding package? So I will so move.
Ms. Whicker: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: Hold that for a second I haven't given you the key number yet. The guaranteed savings contract proposal for Swinford Anderson Water Treatment Plant filter upgrade Carr Road filter pump replacement State Road 267 water tower and altitude valve southwest water treatment valves equipment only is $3,700,000.00 and it is not to exceed that.
Mr. Kirchoff: Motion stands.
Mr. Brandgard: We have a motion and a second to approve this subject to Council review and the approval of funding for this. Did your motion also consider the limited notice to proceed not to exceed a million dollars? So with that, all those in favor signify by aye, opposed, motion carried.
Mr. Belcher: I really appreciate that I think that will make next summer go really well. Thank you very much.
Mr. Brandgard: It will make feel better. Don, do you have anything from transportation?
Mr. McGillem: Just a few updates from my review on field contracts on the contracts this morning to go with my report. The Metropolis Parkway extension supposedly the contractor's going to be out there striping tomorrow. If it gets striped tomorrow we are done we can open that section up. We've just been trying to keep traffic off of it until we got the striping completed.
Mr. Brandgard: As a comment to that I went by there this afternoon and it looked to me that they were either chalk marking where the striping is going or just the paint marks on the road. So they were getting ready to do it.
Mr. McGillem: They were probably doing layout and they will be out in the morning.
Mr. Kirchoff: How will we let people know it is good to go?
Mr. McGillem: From my experience so far we drop the gates and they start flowing. We had to put the gates back up because we had barrels and they were already using the thing. Shady Lane North, I was out there this morning, they were finishing the binder today, the final surface tomorrow so all the paving will be completed on Shady Lane. They do have to come back a concrete crew will be back in on Wednesday, they have sidewalks and a couple other drives to put in, they will be finishing it up so, pretty much we expect by the end of this week Shady Lane to be finished with exception with a few minor. Pavement striping it is the same pavement striping contractor that we got on Metropolis and he has assured us that he had ordered adequate materials to get right on Shady Lane. So I would expect definitely by the end of next week pretty much everything on Shady Lane being finished and ready to open to traffic. So downtown we got them working on all ends, right now they started putting the railing back up on the south side today. Lighting standards will probably start going up I'd guess next week we are going to try to get everything up behind the curb, and so forth before we do the final paving, final surface and that is scheduled either the week of Thanksgiving or the week before. By the end of this month will pretty much be wrapping up most of everything other than the final landscape planning in the planters which will not take place until next spring? I've been hesitating in putting it in the report but since we have in Tim's report the request for going out for quotes on Township Line Road, I hope to get a few barrels down, cones down before drop everything on but right now we are scheduled to go to bid, it will be through INDOT just like US 40 with federal funds in it but we are at the current time on a March 11th bid for Township Line Road for reconstructing from Dan Jones East all the way around to essentially where it ties in to the five lane section at US 40. We want to get as indicated in Tim's report a jump on clearing on all the right way, we got one parcel working on and finishing up the (inaudible) appraisals the appraisers have been assigned for one parcel. I would hope though within the next few weeks we will get the results and get to post them and that covers all the right of way that we need on Township Line Road and we would like to get that advance clearing so we can get the utilities working so that if we bid the project on March 11th, we would like to be able to start the replacement reconstruction of the bridge on the west end and also the east end, Smith Road round a bout and the east end or since we've got Shady Lane as an escape route for everybody to get in and out. That will probably be a good two year project over there so that will be the next one we push for.
Mr. Brandgard: I did notice the surveying right of way stakes out along there over the weekend.
Mr. Kirchoff: Don on the 40 project, when will some of these sites now be re opened?
Mr. McGillem: The side streets that we have closed right now Vine Street, East Street, Mill Street, the concrete is in on all of them, we haven't got it in on Mill Street yet and the next phase of it will be putting the paver bricks in which goes in between the concrete panels through the crosswalks. To answer your question of when they will be open, I would hope within the next two weeks everything would be open.
Mr. Kirchoff: Thank you.
Mr. Carlucci: Talking about Shady Lane North, you didn't mention the trail, what is the status of that?
Mr. McGillem: We put up concrete barriers on each end to keep anybody from going through. I think they've got it all connected. We do not have the supports for the overhead sign markings and the flashers that go on it. We are expecting those to come in within the next few weeks. If we are ready to open Shady Lane we talked out there this morning, we would go ahead, we will have the advance crossing signs up we will have the panel bar crossing marking, pavement markings on the pavement and we will go ahead and put up some temporary signage with flashers at the walkway while we are getting the rest of them open.
Mr. Carlucci: They will probably be busier on the weekends because at 5:30 now it gets pretty dark outside anyway. Thank you Don.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. From the staff did I get everybody? Thank you.
OLD BUSINESS
Mr. Brandgard: Old business?
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Brandgard: New business?
Ms. Whicker: We hope to at the work session hope to set a date and get some feedback from the Governor for our grand opening in the spring. Bring your calendar so we can schedule that soon.
Mr. Kirchoff: I wanted to check the calendar for the rest of the year, typically the last meeting in December we have moved but looking at the calendar for December this year it is on Monday the 27th, I assume there is no need to move that meeting is there?
Mr. Daniel: I show a Town Council meeting on the 29th.
(Inaudible, coming from the audience)
Mr. Kirchoff: So that answers my question for that.
Mr. Brandgard: Before you leave that, let's set the time. We usually go at 5 or 6:00 if everybody can be here. Ed, are you going to be here?
Mr. Gaddie: I think so.
Mr. Brandgard: There will be three of us as far as I know. If not we will have to change it.
Mr. McPhail: I will know by the next meeting.
Mr. Kirchoff: That will be good because I am trying to decide when to have (inaudible).
Mr. Brandgard: Let's shoot for 5:00 on Wednesday the 29th.
Mr. Kirchoff: Then do we have a sense of when we would be ready, what kind of work sessions, Don, do we typically do March or April for transportation?
Mr. McGillem: March.
Mr. Kirchoff: We normally do the third Thursday, is that still?
Mr. Brandgard: The 17th.
Mr. Kirchoff: Still the 17th, ok. I'm trying to plan some travel here. Then if we do something in January or February I will probably be asking to move till later in the month if I need to be in attendance but that helps me out just for the standpoint of some travel plans. Thank you, I think that is all I have.
Mr. Brandgard: I just wanted to bring up one thing, I had a call from Bonnie Kenny, relative to a cross walk there at the middle school from the housing area on the north side of the Stafford Road. Apparently there must be several of the children that are going over to the middle school and as I drive by there, on the side there's around that addition there is sidewalks in front of it, but if you are going to walk, people have to walk across the south side of the street to get the sidewalks to go anywhere. We probably aught to indicate a crossing along there somewhere, I think she was indicating the flashing lights, I don't know if it warrants that or not.
Mr. Carlucci: I already asked Don to look at this; it has been brought this up many years ago when it was the high school.
Ms. Whicker: A lot of those kids go to the library after school because their parents are working.
Mr. Carlucci: The thing you got to consider you've got lots of things going on is early morning. I don't have to do this anymore but I remember having to go to the old middle school and drop the kids off. You are already in a 20 M.P.H. speed zone down there hopefully it is something that Don's going to have to look at.
Mr. W. Bennett: It is 25 now.
Mr. Carlucci: The big problem is how they are dropping these kids off in the morning; some of these kids can't get through there. I don't know, I'm not down there early enough to tell. Those cars are lining up and they are filing into the east side of the school.
Mr. Brandgard: I would suppose they are finding their way across now but I'd feel better if it was defined.
Mr. Kirchoff: Chief why don't you come up and share with us.
Mr. Mitny: That is one of the school zones that the traffic guys hit hard almost everyday. They will be there early in the morning so I can have them kind of survey the situation so that if the kids are having issues getting through traffic but I don't think we are going to get traffic going much slower.
Ms. Whicker: Are you saying crossing by Stafford?
Mr. Brandgard: Across Stafford.
Ms. Whicker: Typically Mr. Wilhelm and a helper are encouraging all of the parents to pull all the way forward and when they are there and which they have been this year everyday there is no bottle necking out on Stafford.
Mr. Mitny: I actually went through there this morning and I seen that this morning. The traffic guys haven't said anything to me about having any issues with the traffic flow in and out of the school.
Mr. Kirchoff: They are using that east drive in and drop off and so they do have enough flow.
Mr. Brandgard: I drove up Stanley today and we've got numerous crosswalks along there and I think at a minimum we aught to have a crosswalk there.
Mr. Carlucci: This is what I tried to explain, just because we put two stripes on there, and people walk across it, it is a whole lot different than a cross walk with lights situation. We paint those all over the place, mostly people already know but kids never do. If we just put a cross walk out there these kids are no safer than they were without it.
Mr. Kirchoff: They don't have crossing guards out there do they?
Mr. McGillem: I've been out there looking at it since Rich brought it up and I think then I have talked with Jason because Jason goes through there a lot in the morning trying to drop off kids getting in there. I've looked at if you put it across there should it be on the east side of Teakwood or on the west side of Teakwood going across Stafford Road in there and the biggest problem I see is in the morning you've got cars going in and out in every direction. Basically you've got traffic stacking up out into Stafford Road along where the old school busses used to stack up for the Kindergarten all down along the front. You've got the four lanes of traffic on Stafford both east and west, you have got traffic trying to come out of the school onto Stafford Road either turning east and west and you've got traffic coming out of Teakwood trying to turn east and west and all of them are combating a lot of traffic at that intersection. I don't know where you would direct just the kids but it is a terrible place for kids to be trying to evaluate all of the alternative movements that is taking place to get across at that intersection. I don't know if you have been out there and you've seen people trying once they drop the kids off and coming back out, if they are not turning to the east, they are taking the chances to get out turning to the west. So even though we got the speed down low it is just so many different types of movements that is taking place and to encourage kids into that mix out into the street. My initial thought is just not a very good place to go across.
Mr. Brandgard: I agree with you but I guess I look at it from a standpoint; you are not encouraging the kids to go out there because they are already finding their way across.
Ms. Whicker: It is only ten minutes a day.
Mr. Brandgard: But what I am saying is that they are defining their way across in that traffic. In my mind it would be better if we had a defined crossing for them and that people understand that is a crosswalk.
Mr. Kirchoff: Ultimately kids are crossing up at the top of the hill before they get down the hill. That would be my assumption. If they were going to the library, they would stay on the south side…
Mr. Carlucci: You can say the same thing after school; they are all on that side of the street.
Ms. Whicker: There is a crosswalk I believe at Longfellow which is west of the school. There is a crosswalk there.
Mr. Brandgard: But there is not a sidewalk.
Mr. Mitny: The sidewalk stops at the cemetery.
Mr. Brandgard: I was going to say that the west end of the sidewalk to put a cross there.
Mr. McGillem: That is what Jason and I was talking about if we was going to put one there and is going to encourage it in that location, now whether the kids would walk down there and cross at that location, a typical kid like Robin indicated as an imaginable instinct if they are on their own would dart across wherever they can at the closest spot and that is probably going to be at Teakwood. I don't know, maybe your officer could kind of keep an eye out maybe to see what kind of pedestrian traffic we are getting across there in the mornings and to see what we are talking about and where they are crossing to get a little bit of a better idea.
Mr. Mitny: It's both times going to school or coming home from school. There is just a lot of movement at the front of that school. There again, I guess probably an interesting to see how many kids we are actually dealing with that try to cross that.
Mr. Kirchoff: When we opened the new high school and new elementary we had meetings with the school, the administration and we talked about traffic flow and we worked real hard at that, maybe we should revisit with them as well. Because we did, we worked so hard and we had never a reason to meet again.
Mr. Brandgard: I've commented several times, there is more traffic at that middle school than you ever had at the high school down there.
Ms. Whicker: They don't drive, and they have a smaller window to be there when the doors are unlocked.
Mr. James: This would be a good time to bring up the Safe Routes School Program, it is a program that INDOT and the Indiana Health Department are promoting to provide funding for like crossing guards and cross walks, amber lights and things like that at crossings. I went to a seminar last month that Indianapolis had on this so this might be a good time to take a comprehensive look at all school routes and I know we are having the sidewalk meeting Friday and I would suggest getting the school corporation involved and see where there are some issues for school crossings and things like this. Maybe we can come up with a plan where we can go after the funding to pay for it.
Mr. Kirchoff: I think Brentwood only went with a temporary fix, they never did permanently, aren't those still temporary concrete barriers to create some of their traffic flow changes?
Mr. Brandgard: No, they got it done.
Mr. James: It is to go by a healthier lifestyle by getting kids to walk and then to reduce the traffic conflicts and people driving their kids to school, anybody know what it costs to run a school bus for a year? It costs $30,000.00. Maybe reduce some of the school busses too.
Mr. Carlucci: I know there were some grants just issued last week on those Safe Routes to School Projects. We aught to look into that but we also need to figure this one out.
Mr. Kirchoff: When we were getting ready for the new high school and we were looking at the different traffic flows of different places, I know I am old fashion, my kids used to get upset with me because I wouldn't drive them to school, but I am blown away by the number of parents that drive their kids to school. It is unbelievable.
Mr. Brandgard: They drive them two blocks.
Ms. Whicker: You know parents get the message harvest your children's DNA and they swab them, might be missing, Amber alert, you know they are trying to teach parents to have caution and then that just builds a protective barrier I believe and then even the kids in school are saying no to strangers and they are taught this and it is just a different generation of parents and then not letting them ok, they are on their bike and they will be home in a couple of hours. They are very restricted on where they go compared to 20-30 years ago.
Mr. James: It is called helicopter parents, hovering over their kids. But one of the obstacles is getting the school corporations convinced to allow the kids to walk to school or bike to school because they are concerned about the liability issues. From what I've heard the school corporation is not liable once the student leaves the front door.
Mr. Kirchoff: I like your suggestion to have the school corporation at the table.
Mr. Brandgard: I thank everybody for a very spirited-interesting conversation on this; I thought I was just asking for somebody to look at it. This is something we need to look at and I look at it somewhat more than just the kids because we've brought all the areas into the trail system but that one they got a sidewalk on their side of the street and there is no crossing over to the other side where the main sidewalk is. That is a busy road and having it defined doesn't mean that anybody is going to pay any attention to it, but on the other hand you are more aped to drop down to 25M.P.H. and I see a car turn off Center Street onto Stafford and before I pass the school they are on my bumper.
RESOLUTIONS
Mr. Brandgard: Resolutions, we have one resolution number 2010-23: SRF Loan Program Acceptance Resolution. I entertain a motion to accept said resolution.
Mr. Kirchoff: So move.
Ms. Whicker: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: We have a motion and a second to approve resolution number 2010-23: the SRF Loan Program Acceptance Resolution. Again if there is no further discussion a roll call votes please.
Resolution number 2010-23 is adopted.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you.
ORDINANCES
Mr. Brandgard: We also have one ordinance for its first reading; it is ordinance number 18-2010 Child Care and Corridor Street Lighting Amendments.
Mr. McPhail: I move we approve ordinance number 18-2010 for first reading.
Ms. Whicker: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: I have a motion and a second to approve the first reading of ordinance number 18-2010, child care and corridor street lighting amendments. Again if there is no further discussion, a roll call votes please.
First reading of ordinance number 18-2010 is approved.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. Brandgard: If there is nothing else to come before the Council this evening I 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 aye, opposed, motion carried. Thank you.