PLAINFIELD TOWN COUNCIL
APRIL 11, 2011
7:00 p.m.
Mr. Brandgard: Plainfield Town Council meeting for Monday April 11, 2011 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: Let the records show we have all members in attendance. We have a short consent agenda this evening.
1. Approval of Minutes of the regularly scheduled council meetings of Monday, March 28, 2011.
2. Third and Final Readings of Ordinance No. 03-2011: Sewer Operating Budget 2011, Ordinance No. 04-2011; Stormwater Operating Budget 2011, Ordinance No. 05-2011: Water Operating Budget 2011.
3. Approval of Parks and Recreation Director's, and Transportation Director's reports dated March 8, 2011, Town Engineer's report dated March 9, 2011 and HR Director's report dated March 11, 2011.
4. Approval March 2011 monthly reports for Town Engineer, Plainfield Police Department, Department of Public Works and Utility Billing.
Are there any changes or corrections to the consent agenda?
Mr. McPhail: Mr. President, I have a couple of corrections on the minutes. Page three, there are a couple of places that Splashtacular is misspelled, this is really tough for me because I normally depend on Renea and Bill to catch these things and they weren't here at the last meeting so I had to read a little closer. On page number four, paragraph four is quoting me, I just think it is extremely important that we get this done, and the folks in the area deserves to get the drainage fixed and get those alleys fixed and this says the windows open and I think I said the window is open, it sounds a little better. Other than that I believe the other is correct. Based on those corrections I would move that we approve the consent agenda as amended.
Mr. Kirchoff: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: We have a motion is second to approve the consent agenda as amended. If there is no further discussion roll call vote please.
Mr. Bennett: Plainfield Town Council consent agenda for April 11, 2011 is adopted as amended.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you.
BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR
Mr. Brandgard: Is there any business from the floor this evening? Is there any business from the floor? Seeing no one coming forward, we will move on.
TOWN MANAGER'S REPORT
Mr. Brandgard: Town Manager's report, Vincennes University Logistics Training and Education Center.
Mr. Carlucci: Thank you Mr. President, the first item I have and it has to do with Vincennes University of Logistics Training and Education Center. It will be located somewhere in the Industrial Park; I have a fairly good idea, for later. I have provided information to the Town Council about this project including material from Vincennes University. Kent, Robin, and I have been involved in this for several months and we are recommending that we support this project in the amount of $500,000.00. These funds will be provided $100,000.00 per year for five years; it will be reimbursed on the anniversary of each year that they are located in Plainfield. So they have to go through five full years before we receive the full reimbursement. That money will come from our Economic Development Tax Fund, which is the appropriate place to use these funds because that is what their intention is. We will require a memorandum of understanding between the Town and VU. We will be able to explore discussions on this; we will seek reduced cost for training Plainfield, Guilford Township residents that might want to use the facility. They will also provide forklift and OSHA training for Town and school district employees. This facility will, as you know central Indiana is the capital of logistics in the entire country, this training center will certainly draw substantially from all of Central Indiana primarily because we have 28 million square feet out here. What is interesting is this comes on the heels of Indiana State University, locating an MBA program that is located in the Community School corporation facilities. I believe any training that we can do here locally, Vincennes University is a leader in this and the MBA program that is for those that have to work and are trying to get through school and I think these are two excellent programs and Vincennes University certainly is an outstanding institution and I would like to call to the podium Dick Helton, a lot of us know Dick from when he was the Superintendent of Schools in Avon and some of his students were also residents of the Town of Plainfield, so I would like to introduce Dick Helton, President of Vincennes University.
Mr. Helton: Thank you Rich and it is good to see all of you again and the fact is I think I know about all of you. I do have more than an acquaintance with most of you and have personally known all of you at some time or another, so this is kind of a homecoming for me. It is a pleasure to be here and I would like to introduce some people who are with me tonight who know more about logistics than I. We have Dave Tucker who is our Vice President for our Workforce Development and Community Services and he will be involved in this project and Dave, just raise your hand if you would please, or stand. We also have James Dolan who is our new Coordinator in the area and will be driving the logistics train for us here in this area. I also brought my wife tonight; I promised her dinner if she would ride with me so that is what I have to do. On a serious note, we believe this is going to be a nice addition to central Indiana. Currently in central Indiana and most of that is here. 25 million square feet of distribution and light manufacturing in central Indiana, so since that is a niche that we have at Vincennes University, that is going to be important as we look to the whole logistics and events manufacturing pieces, again that is what Vincennes University does pretty well. I didn't know this interesting little fact, that 75% of North America's population lives within one days truck drive. I didn't know that, you probably knew that here. That is an amazing statistic. This probably begs for the logistics training and other opportunities that we might be able to attract to Vincennes and this area. Wages are 14.5% higher in the logistics area than most areas. I think you will find that in the document that we have given to you. Central Indiana employees, there were 90,000 people in the logistics industry and it just goes on and on and on, and given those stats, given your numbers, given the fact that Indiana per capita, I think we are now number two and at one time, Indiana was number one, but I think Oregon might be ahead of us today, but per capita, Indiana had more advanced manufacturing jobs than any state in our Country. When you begin to look at all of these numbers and we know what that one magic word of technology, all the changes that are forth coming, it just makes good common sense that we be located here in the logistics arena and so we are looking forward to doing that and we have had a wonderful opportunity to talk with some of you during our discussion period and Rich certainly has been a major help to us. I think we are going to enjoy a nice relationship with you and certainly hope that you approve what we have been discussing now for two or three months, because I believe not only will the Town of Plainfield and Guilford Township be winners, but I think Vincennes University and the logistics industry will be winners as well. We have given you a document, I will take any questions that you might have and I have two experts sitting behind me who again know more about this than I, but we will do our very best to answer any questions that you might have in regards to the program. Timeframe, we are still hopeful being able to offer some classes yet sometime this fall. Whether that be training, or actual credit courses and we will have the opportunity to do both here, but depending on the time for build outs in this facility that we are discussing and more likely lease, probably this fall and we want to move as quickly as we can because we think this is a win, win.
Ms. Whicker: Would training be provided during the day or would there also be evening training options?
Mr. Helton: Yes to both and typically when we talked about training and development Renea, we want to be mindful of the company's time, of the employees time, if it is a class it could be raised an evening class and we do both today. We try to cater to the company in terms of training and again that falls under Dave's supervision and he is pretty flexible on when the training programs can be offered, we just need to be.
Mr. Brandgard: This is just a clarification as in our discussions I believe you mentioned that you're charge comes from the state to go out and do this and partner with the communities.
Mr. Helton: We were given approval by the Commission of Higher Education and all program approvals come through that agency and so we were given the opportunity to do this in Central Indiana as well as our Jasper campus and also a new facility that we built in Gibson County. The numbers, when we are talking about logistics and supply chain, those numbers are staggering numbers and it is more than just getting in a truck and delivering something someplace. It is a time that's developed; it's a time that it is planned and developed until it's actually in that automobile or that piece of equipment that is being manufactured. It is just more than it used to be and so it has become a very, very sophisticated industry, and it moves us to be as sophisticated as we can be to maintain pace with that industry. That is what we are about.
(Inaudible)
Mr. Helton: We have been given permission to offer degrees in logistics, a two year degrees, yes.
Mr. McPhail: I might comment, over the past six to eight years I have been approached through the Economic Development Area of the Chamber, by at least four other institutions that wanted to bring a logistics program to Plainfield and I really believe that this program has gained success and approval because you have looked at the whole broad spectrum from the training to the degree program, where the other folks were looking at degree only and I think it is very important that we are going to be able to train people all the way through the process of logistics, and I can tell you that our logistics community is going to be excited when you are here.
Mr. Helton: We think so too, in fact, James is already at work doing some discussion with some of the area folks, so we believe that we will hit the ground running and it will be a real nice addition to this area.
Mr. McPhail: I've even had contact from these staffing agencies.
Mr. Kirchoff: That is what I was going to say, what do you think on the employment recruit and that whole process, is that part of your plans?
Mr. Helton: That will be the under the direction of Mr. Dolin who is sitting behind me.
Ms. Whicker: I think I have seen there are some openings in logistics quite a bit.
Mr. Helton: When we put the program together a couple of years back, we actually involved a pretty well known consultant and when we got ready to develop the specs for the labs that will be in this facility, Dave spent a fair amount of time in North Carolina with some people who understand this industry pretty well. We've had ongoing conversations with Conexus and so when you put all of that into the discussion; well we think we have a pretty nice plan and a pretty nice program. So we are pleased with where we are today and we are looking forward to getting started.
Mr. Kirchoff: Very good. Rich you indicated the funding from EDIT?
Mr. Carlucci: Yes, that is correct.
Mr. Brandgard: Anything else for Mr. Helton?
Mr. Bennett: I will ask one question, it seems to me that with the addition of Vincennes University and this program that this might attract other logistic firms to come to this area. Do your studies show that that is the case, might that be the case?
Mr. Helton: Well I think we always subscribe to the theory that, build it and they will come, and in many cases where I have been in the past years and even at Vincennes they have come anyway. I think in this particular instance since we are talking about a specific area, we think there is always a possibility that when you offer good programming for training and ongoing training because it is just an absolutely a must today, that helps I think when you recruit new businesses to your community. So I won't promise you they are going to be coming in but I do believe good training programs are an attraction, and as we get more and more involved in training, we are getting what I call some pretty creative things that they ask us to do. That is a good thing. I think that technology has such an impact today on what we do and whatever walk of life. The Town of Plainfield is impacted by it. I know Renea is in her classroom, it changes daily. So it just stands to reason it is going to change in industry as well, and it changes pretty quickly.
Mr. Kirchoff: Just for clarification, Plainfield ourselves has 26.9 million square feet of industrial space.
Mr. Helton: I have old data.
Mr. Kirchoff: So I will assume what is happening up at Lebanon and other places would be customers of yours as well.
Mr. Helton: I'm sure, I'm sure those change daily. Every time you put another…
Mr. Gaddie: Classroom or will some companies request that in-house training, are you looking at that or…
Mr. Helton: We already do some of that. Some prefer it that way, depending on, and sometimes it is equipment driven. It is a specific kind of equipment and we can provide the training, but often times it is equipment driven.
Mr. Brandgard: It is interesting when you talk about a logistics degree, I know we have at least one company out here that has logistics in their name and they operate, and when I used to, an old way of doing business was called traffic departments, they route the trucks and stuff like that and that is modern day logistics, and that is all they do. They have very few trucks sitting around their facility, they just route the trucks and keep them moving. That is important, I know as when I was retiring, the logistics within manufacturing was becoming more and more important to have knowledge of that, so I think that bringing that here is going to have more impact than just in the distribution business.
Mr. Helton: If we land where the site is today we are going to be very accessible from Interstate 70, and that is important to us.
Mr. Brandgard: I'm a broken record, I still want to see you bring the advance manufacturing here also.
Mr. Helton: Ok.
Mr. Brandgard: That's an important piece of the pie sort of speak that we need to have.
Mr. Helton: We are 60% career and technical. So that is part of our niche.
Mr. Brandgard: Anyone else? Ok, thank you.
Mr. Kirchoff: I guess our discussion is simply consensus to move forward with discussions? Rich what are you asking for tonight?
Mr. Carlucci: Consent to move forward with a MOU at the amounts stated and we will bring that back to the Council at a future meeting.
Mr. Brandgard: Do we have consent to move forward?
All: Yes.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you.
Mr. Carlucci: Thank you Mr. President. I received over the last few days, I received an email from a resident who lives in Bristol Court and it came from different places so I think where I got it from, was from you Ed, about the Town Council agenda. The gentleman wanted to know why we don't post the Council agendas on the website and that was a very good question. We have two unique features of our agenda. One is that we have the consent agenda and we went to and I don't know too many communities that use that in this area, but we use that because the consent agenda was set up as long as the Council members were reading through their materials, we would put out a consent agenda would be just one vote and then those items, now tonight four was probably the least amount we've had in a couple of years on the consent agenda. But the process also works that if one of the Council members wants something pulled off the agenda it comes off the consent agenda. But we did that because our meetings were getting longer and longer, so we went to the consent agenda. The other item that we do here that a lot of communities don't do and that really has to do with business from the floor, now you asked people to come up for business from the floor. We don't know who is coming in, or what the subject is and we have done that for years, as long as I can remember now that we have done that. The idea is there is other communities in the areas, counties, Town Council, City Councils, school districts that you have anywhere from 48 to 72 hours, you have to tell them you are going to want to be on that agenda, you can't just go into a lot of these meetings and ask to speak. We don't do that here. I think that is a real plus to have that so people feel that they can come here anytime without restriction and say what they have to say to the council members of the Town. If it is the desire of the Town Council to post the agendas we can do that. We can certainly if the Council decides they want us to do that we can do it at least 48 hours prior to the meeting and put it on the website. That is up to the Town Council if they want to do that. It may make a little more work for us, but I don't see that as a big problem either.
Mr. Brandgard: I think the other thing I want to ask to recognize, the way the rules of order for Plainfield Town Council, is we have three readings ordinances, the first reading is the introduction of it, it is not an ordinance until we introduce it. Then you have two more readings which allows the public to have an opportunity to review it and come back with comment. There are several communities that they don't have that, they have one reading. They bring it in and they read it and approve it. That is somewhat of a difference when you look at what other communities do with agendas and that, you don't know what they are doing in it and you may not understand how they operate.
Mr. Gaddie: A lot of people has asked me or emailed, like the one about the consent agenda here, described at each meeting. They would like to see that on the website, for Monday. We get it usually Saturday. Which I am amazed at how many people read it. Even some people that are not in Plainfield, they pull that up because they are interested in what their neighbors are doing. A lot of people would like to see what we are consenting too, all of the reports from the Parks Department and Engineering, a lot of them would like to see that, what we are consenting too. I've had several requests. I don't know that gentleman emailing me there, but he asked me.
Mr. Carlucci: All I saw him asking was for, I'm just going back to the email I read, that he wanted that posted on the website and what I brought to the Council here is I said I think we can do that and I think probably not do a bad job of getting what is most of what is on there.
Mr. Kirchoff: I guess I would consider as long as we listed it as a preliminary agenda, because it is subject to change up until the day of the meeting. So I think we have to be very careful of not misleading people that that is the agenda set in concrete even though it is 48 or 72 hours ahead of time. The other thing I guess, is Bill Castetter here? Bill, is there anyway for us to have that at a point in our website, that we would have a sense of how much traffic we are getting on it? I think that might give us some sense of if it is worth doing or not. Again, I just think this Council's been very open and forthright throughout all the years I've been involved in it and I just wouldn't want people to say, well you posted this, and then it got changed or the other thing is, if we start posting it and then it gets two hits a month or whatever. Is there a way for us to track that kind of traffic?
Mr. B. Castetter: Yes, we can put it out there and track anybody who comes to see that specifically. If they come in somewhere else and then happen upon that, it is a little harder to track, but if they are coming there for that purpose and going directly there I can track it.
Mr. Kirchoff: It would be interesting to see, just from the standpoint, again, we have nothing to hide here, we never have, but I don't want to be accused of putting that out there and then it getting changed, I think we should take some credit, we should feel good about the fact that we respond to citizens on a very short turn on time and so I wouldn't want to do anything that would decrease our responsiveness to citizens, that is my only concern.
Mr. McPhail: I certainly agree, because I would be very uncomfortable to put the agenda out there and anybody think that they couldn't come before this Council on a Monday night and present their case. At the Candidates night a couple of weeks ago, this issue was brought up; I interpreted a question that evening, would I support an agenda that was fixed six days before the meeting before…
Mr. Kirchoff: Six weeks.
Mr. McPhail: I thought it said six days, but anyway, before the meeting. I said I don't want an agenda fixed six minutes before the meeting. I want people to be able to come in here and be able to express themselves at anytime. So if we put something out there, I have to be comfortable enough that it is a very, very clear that preliminary and it is subject to change up until the meeting.
Mr. B. Castetter: I would like to make a comment about the freshness of the data that might or might not be on the agenda. We are preparing this data from Thursday afternoon to Friday, Saturday morning before the meeting. So that is about the freshest data we can get. If an agenda is set on the previous Monday for the next Monday, then someone is writing a report, they have to be a little more careful about, am I preparing data for that agenda or am I giving the data that happened yesterday. I think that we are getting data that happened 24-48 hours ago in those reports and I believe, it doesn't matter to me if we put the agenda out there or not to me, it's just another piece of paper with some words in it, but if we move that and set a stringent agenda we may effect peoples reports when they write it and how they write it. Just to comment from what I see.
Mr. Brandgard: And I think the other part is that you mentioned people outside the community want to know. You got to respect the fact that we are hired by the people, the tax payers of this community and I don't want to spend money to meet the needs of people outside of the community, and there is money spent in order to create these fancy programs that can be out there where you can have links to everything. So you have to be careful with where those questions come from and how we answer.
Mr. Gaddie: The people outside just said they inquired on it, they felt interested in about the Town, they wasn't asking about anything, but several people, when we get our consent agenda and the reports on Saturday, that would be for the public note, they could get it there Sunday or Monday and if there is something in there they want to see, come and ask about it they can come on Monday. Like you say it would be hard for them, they'd have to come in on Saturday to get all of this published but if you just put it on the website. A couple of people told me, so I looked at the website to see if it is interesting and they don't say they want to know anything, they just like the website. Some of those people know they come in and listen to the consent agenda and they don't have any idea what it is about or what the report is.
Mr. Carlucci: If the Council will give me their consent we will get work on this and get something up and see what it looks like it.
Mr. Brandgard: They gave consent.
Mr. McPhail: Seems to me that maybe you could at least part of this thing you could put a template up there and then for like the department reports and when one comes in you can plug it in. If you've got a template for an ordinance you can plug an ordinance in. You might be able to have a template you can put up there just plug the information in and I don't know I'm not a technical guy.
Mr. Carlucci: We could start with the agenda and work our way into the more lavished if the Council seems it is important to do that. I was reading through some of the department head reports and as you know there weren't too many that is probably why I looked at it. I did notice in Tim's monthly report that we have issued 24 single family building permits this year. That doesn't mean they are all built or under construction, but we've issued that many and there was another one that was a duplex but if you saw these duplexes out in Forest Creek, these are very nice duplexes. So I thought that was interesting.
Mr. Brandgard: In fact I think the report is ahead of last years permits.
Mr. Carlucci: Another thing that Tim brought to my attention this is for Brightpoint in their new building in AllPoints, they took out a building, and they took out permit for offices for 38,000 square feet of office space. I'm having a hard time getting my arms around that much office space. But that has been estimated out in the industrial park there is probably over a million square feet of class A office space in all of these buildings and that has just added a bunch more. That is a real plus because most of these employees are usually are higher paid employees. I thought you might find those interesting. That is all I have. Thank you.
STAFF REPORTS
Mr. Brandgard: We will go to staff reports, Chief Anderson? Clay, anything happen lately?
Mr. Chafin: I've always got something happening. Thank you again for Saturday, for your participation and attendance to our grand opening ceremony. I was happy to see we estimated between 80-90 people there, despite the weather. We thought everything turned out great. One of the things I've failed to include in my report is, once again this year we are going to partner with Guilford Township and the Community Center down there and put on the annual Easter Egg Hunt here in town. We are going to do that on Saturday, April 23. It will start at 11:00 down there; Chief Anderson's bringing in the Easter Bunny on a fire truck. Then later that afternoon they will also have an underwater Easter egg hunt over at the Aquatics Center, so we have a big day of Easter activities planned for the 23rd. That is all I have, again thank you for Saturday.
Mr. McPhail: Thank you for the tent.
Mr. Gaddie: I told them in Panama City I would pick stuff up from the Miracle Field down there, and I would give you all this information and they gave me a t-shirt for you. You got their information there. I think it is nice. What you can learn from there may keep us, they've made a few mistakes but she'd be glad to help you on that. You can email her; she's got her email address in there. It is interesting everything they have done.
Mr. Chafin: Thank you Ed.
Mr. Gaddie: We get started we aren't going to have any mistakes.
Mr. Chafin: No.
Mr. Brandgard: Clay, just wanted again to thank you for putting everything together for us on Saturday morning for the dedication of the Youth Athletic Facility, it was a good turn out for the rain and I think as Rich's remarks for the rain will go away and we will have sun, well it wasn't too long after that it all broke up and I got an email that said the sun is out, but I did notice later in the afternoon there was a lot of activity down there.
Mr. Chafin: Yes, coming down here a while ago, there are soccer games and practices going on. Baseball was cancelled for tonight, it was a little too wet, but the soccer is still running.
Mr. Brandgard: Chief Mitny, anything from the Police Department?
Mr. Mitny: Just wanted the Council to know as you look through the Police Departments report. You saw that we participated in the Special Olympics fundraiser again at the Red Robin. I would like the Council to know that Lt. Jill Lees headed that again this year for us with the help of the Explorers and as our report indicated again that we were the most successful fundraiser in the State of Indiana for the Special Olympics, they've done an excellent job and I would like to publicly thank Lt. Lees and the Explorers and the rest of the officers that participated on the 26th of March.
Mr. Brandgard: Let them know from the Council we are proud of the efforts they made there. That is great.
Mr. Mitny: I will pass that along. Thank you very much.
Ms. Whicker: Maybe Lt. Lees might want to help us with our fundraiser for the Miracle Field.
Mr. Mitny: Seeing how she has a young son that is playing ball, she would probably be willing to do that; I will have her get in touch with you.
Mr. Brandgard: Bill anything from the IT world? Joe, do you have anything from Planning Zoning? Lois, do you have anything from billing?
Ms. Burgner: Just a reminder that Friday is the last day to sign up for the summer sewer program and I have put applications in your mailboxes in case you have forgotten.
Mr. Brandgard: Let me explain something, I sent a not to Wes wanting to know where it was at because I don't recall seeing anything. He politely sent it back and said it has been out on the bills and on the Waterline and I told Ginny because she put me up to it, and she said “oh” and she went and looked at the bill and yes, it is there. You need to put it in bold letters, it is hard to find.
Ms. Burgner: The space is limited on the bill, but we topped 400 today, more than last year, so we will be busy the rest of the week.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. Like I say, the error was mine, I just didn't see it. Thank you. Jason, do you have anything for Public Works? Ron, do you have anything from HR?
Mr. Lydick: I'd like to report, even though we did have the Spring Break week and several employees were out of town, we did have about 133 employees show up at one of seven meetings and we had some spouses that also showed up at the meetings and there was a lot of interaction with the presenter and felt like the people were well informed about the clinic. The first full week was last week and there are 27 20 minute segments per week and 24 of those were booked last week and then this evening before I came up here I looked at the schedule and on Monday morning we had the blood draw, which can accommodate three people and today was 100% utilization too. So there are some people out there using the clinic and this is their initial visit is forty minutes long and in order for them to get the family history. I've heard positive comments about the doctors and I have not heard any negative comments as of yet. So I feel like it is off to a good start.
Mr. McPhail: That certainly seems to be a better start than I anticipated. I don't know what everyone else thought, but that is certainly good news.
Mr. Lydick: Since some of the meetings were on Thursday and Friday before the clinic opened on Monday and then all of the appointments were taken on Monday and that gave some good indication that they are anxious or excited about that program.
Ms. Whicker: I have a question for you Ron, you have mentioned in your report that seven employees had stated that they are not willing to terminate their primary care, but in the training, just double checking, the employees understood or was told that it wouldn't have to replace their primary care giver, correct.
Mr. Lydick: They were told that yes.
Ms. Whicker: And that it could be used in a way as a pharmacy or to come in, they can take their prescriptions from their primary care doctor to go to the clinic?
Mr. Lydick: No they can not. In other words this is not a pharmacy and it is not a lab and so all of the prescriptions have to be dispensed by one of the doctors in the clinic. What they can do, and what they was instructed, if they go to their primary care physicians and receive a prescription to bring that prescription into that appointment and talk it over with the clinic physician agrees with plan of care then they will go ahead and fill the prescription. But they will not fill it without an appointment.
Ms. Whicker: These particular segments are just for Town employees only?
Mr. Lydick: There is 9 hours a week and it is only for Town of Plainfield employees. Yes, anybody that is on the Town of Plainfield's health plan.
Ms. Whicker: And it is possible to have a copy of their visit upon request faxed or sent to their primary caregiver, is that correct?
Mr. Lydick: That is correct.
Ms. Whicker: But it would have to be requested, it doesn't automatically go?
Mr. Lydick: That is correct.
Mr. Brandgard: Ron, I am amazed that the activity was so high so quick and that shows you that we must have hit a raw nerve somewhere and it is a need. I think this is good.
Mr. Lydick: From the feedback that I've been getting, is some of them say I don't have a family physician, and so this gives me an opportunity to develop a relationship with someone instead of going to the immediate care centers all the time. Thank you.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. Tim, do you have anything from Engineering? Don, do you have anything from Transportation?
Mr. McGillem: Not a whole lot, but we are slowly getting started back. I indicated in the report that the landscapers should be in, they were in today planting trees; they should be through on the Streetscape planting the trees possibly by tomorrow evening, Wednesday, at which time they will go directly into planting the plants in the planners. So I am expecting by the end of this week, first of next week pretty much all of the landscape planting will be done, with the possible exception of the finished sod which is not cut out of the field, so needless to say at this time. They will be dragging probably the sod around the first or middle of May. Finishing the concrete up, section sidewalk Reith Riley was in today even with the rain, they are suppose dot have crew tomorrow and hopefully by the end of the week most of the remaining concrete will be done, which has to be done before they bring the asphalt crews in and finish the asphalt. So it is coming together, there has been some good weather out here, like last week, we thought they should have been in but they were just getting the plants out of the field and getting them in and shifted and so forth. But I think everything is pretty well straightened up right now. North East Perimeter Parkway, Township Line Road, Vectren is working, they've been working last week, and they are probably looking at about five to six weeks of getting total relocation of the gas lines throughout the project. We worked with Ralph Dunkin last week, the donkey farm. The fence needed to be pulled back, which no problem with them; we had to get a temporary fence up, which in order to get Vectren and Duke Energy crew that was done. So there is activity back there in getting the relocation work done. AT&T supposed to be in with hook up, relocation was supposed to have been in today, but they've indicated it will be this week, they've got about two or three weeks. Duke is scheduled to start up with the relocation of (inaudible). Things are moving we will be seeing some activity.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you. I think I covered all of the staff.
OLD BUSINESS
Mr. Brandgard: Kent, old business.
Mr. McPhail: No old business.
Mr. Bennett: I just have one item, the work session schedule; the Parks Work Session is the 21st, I think I originally misguided the Council in regards to that date, April 21st at 6:00, at the Rec Center. That will be our Parks work session. We originally scheduled May 19th as our Human Resources work session, and that has been rescheduled and I think the consensus was the 26th of May would work for everyone; it would be May 26th at 6:00 here at the Town Hall. Then June 15th, we still have Fire Territory work session that date stayed the same. The only other change would be July 12th budget work session was moved to the 14th at the same time if that is agreeable for everyone. The 13th would be 9:00 to noon; the 14th would be from 1:00 to 4:00.
Ms. Whicker: The 13th is 9:00 to noon?
Mr. Bennett: That is what I originally had.
Ms. Whicker: I have a (inaudible).
Mr. Bennett: We can keep it 1:00-4:00.
Mr. Kirchoff: I have it at 1:00-4:00.
Mr. Bennett: Keep it from 1:00-4:00; we are going to do 1:00-4:00 on both days, 13th and 14th 1:00-4:00, and I will send this out tomorrow to all of the Council members with the adjustments. Then the only other thing is still the November 3rd Utility budget for 2012 at 5:30 at the Town Hall. That is all I have.
Mr. Brandgard: Ed?
Mr. Gaddie: No old business.
Mr. Brandgard: I have one I am going to bring up, and refer to Tim and or Jason on the Swinford Water Plant. I know we've met some significant progress there with getting the filters in and I believe we are filtering in the media and they've got the wall brick up, you might bring us up to speed.
Mr. Belcher: It is going real well, Bowen Construction is staying right on schedule as they proposed when we started is to be done and operating before June 15th of this year, which it is no small thing that we started in the fall of last year and have this project started, built, and operating by June 15th. Everything has gone very well so far. On the website we have at least an example of one of the filters being put in the building and in the amount of preplanning that this contractor goes through before a major event like that, it shows when you can watch them work, because everybody has a job to do and all of the materials are there, everything is in the right place, it's done safely, everyone has the right equipment, right down to the straps that they had to pick up this equipment, they were new, they weren't used. They looked at everything they were going to do with that event and it is a pleasure to work with a company like that because that is what we want out of our project, we want it done right, we want it done safely and done on time and that is essentially what they are doing for us. Again setting those four filters in that building, the existing building was no small task and they did it. I think they had planned for a day and it took them a half a day. So again those savings also in this type of contracting comes back to the Town. The way when we get done with it, guaranteed maximum pricing and with open book pricing, the labor that it takes to do the project is what we get charged up to that maximum and if it costs less then those dollars and savings come back to us. So when you see an efficient piece of work going on like that, you know the crews done this in many ways not just financially but in a way that they conduct themselves and the way they have kept the site clean and interacted with the parks and giving us plenty of warning about when they are going to have trucks in there and out of there. I've noticed personally the trucks going extremely slow, which they should be coming in and out of that park, even if it is not open, it is not a highway, it's a park and they've been respecting our rules and things in the parks. Again progress has been very good on the job, we are still very hopeful for June 15th and think we may be a little bit ahead of that possibly. There are two other components to that project under that umbrella of the project was the putting in an altitude valve at the existing water tower on 267, which helps with all of our towers that are interacting, that valve needs to be put in. So that is in a job and they are progressing with that well also. There is also work at the Carr Road booster station that will be done again in sequence and then in coordination with our other project that is getting done, the north east water tower being done and operating is important for the other parts to this system to work so we are able to coordinate all of that together with Bowen. So it is going really well, and again financially we are in great shape on the cost of the project and very pleased with how it has progressed so far. So I think we got another word on the other project that we did, I think there having an American Concrete Institute in Indiana's in our waste water project that Bowen did was also given an award through that organization. More of a contractor award essentially within the industry but that is no small thing either, that the type of concrete that they did there for us has been an honor to recognize. We might be it is like the other award that we got, there are three or four projects that are competing for a major award, which we don't get till Wednesday if we got that. So very pleased the way things are going with that contract.
Mr. Carlucci: Tim, if you could talk a little bit about the cost of the Swinford Plant project, and how that was funded. Because as a substantial investment and we did not raise the water rates to do that.
Mr. Belcher: The way that project was funded and we did not have to go out and borrow money to do that project, over the years the Town has grown and as people has connected to our system there, charged a connection fee, for new development it comes in and connects onto our water system just as they are the sewer, and those funds are accumulated over time and plus with the budgeting that is done within all of the departments and I think we are doing an extremely good job with that right now, that funds are also set aside for what we know will eventually set aside for what we already know will eventually wear out and the Swinford Water Plant was one that we knew had some age on it and was going to need some improvement at some point like any major equipment it wears out and so money had been set aside, money from growth had been put into the same pool of funds and we also used Economic Development funds, the TIF districts in the areas that essentially uses some of the water so we used proportionate funds from those areas and we were able to come up with a financing plan, and essentially we had to go back to the rate payers to do it. Over three million dollar project, financed with funds on hand that were accumulated over time through development and growth is benefiting again the customer base. Even extremely beneficial part of this is we went from a plant that essentially was producing say three million gallon per day, that because of its age, and just the wearing out of that plant was only producing half a million gallons a day reliably will produce four million gallons a day when we are done. So we are going from half a million gallons a day to four million gallons a day, three million dollars and we didn't raise rates. I think that is success anyway I can imagine it, and being done from last October and November essentially until June. It has come together very nicely at the right time, again you don't want to do anything like this too early and then you don't want wait too late, so I think we hit it just right. Again those new gallons per day at capacity, we hope to sell to others in the future that can go into that fund and go back into the utility and keep our rates lower.
Mr. McPhail: Tim while we are talking about water, a few months ago you were investigating this on the northwest side about the pressure and that sort of thing, have you been able to isolate anything there? Come up with a plan to maybe stabilize that?
Mr. Belcher: We haven't yet, I guess we determine that a lot of the readings that we were getting from the residents in that area were readings that were on the customers side of the meter and they were getting false readings in terms of the pressure that they might have thought that they had sometime at the past, say 90 pounds of pressure something like that. Our system does not produce that kind of pressure in that area and never did, and quite frankly, couldn't. We did get at least that much investigated, Jason bought some pressure reading gauges that could be put on hydrants so that we could read it over time and we've watched the fluctuations over a few days and weeks and essentially we determined that our system was operating properly in that area. And we do have the water we need for fire protection and those kinds of things. But it is growth related part of what the issue is the folks at the very northern highest point in our system in the northwest are beginning to see some of the pressure reductions during high demand times. That again is something that we do want to address, we do have some ideas about relocating some existing stations that we own at Franklin Park that is one potential thing that we may be able to do. We haven't proceeded on that part yet, we think that is a very viable option and a very low cost to the Town. So essentially to buy us some more time, as we grow to the northwest, we think another tank will be necessary out there at some point in the future, it is not quite justify the expense of that for the growth in that area so it is a balancing act between our master plan and the knowing what we need to do in the future and what we need to get through the interim. But we will continue to look at that this year as the sprinkler systems start to come on and the lawn arrogation starts to happen again, I think that is really what we are seeing. People are noticing that a little bit more and quite frankly some people's arrogation systems, they don't realize they need maintenance and over time like anything they get minerals in them and they don't operate the same as when they were brand new. So a little bit on our side and maybe a little bit on their side that we have to be aware of.
Mr. Gaddie: Some area looped out there; doesn't that help you if you have a loop?
Mr. Belcher: It does, if the loop is a different pressure, but right now that area is all in the same pressure it is very far out on the northwest end. So there is no way to loop it back or to make any additional loops right now, but we know that will happen when that curves there will be another loop across there. Ultimately 300 South has a main on it that would go across 267 and come back all the way to Saratoga from the north. That would be another potential project that we could do to bring more pressure and flow from the north, and it is in the master plan too. At one time we had a major project working on the northwest, 300 acres up there that would have caused that to occur, to when those two things come together. Well it didn't happen so we are back to the interim on how to get by. But we will continue to pursue that and hopefully find a right balance between spending our funds and make sure the folks have the service they need.
Mr. Kirchoff: I have one question, I notice residents of South Hills in the audience tonight can you share the results of when we had the Community meetings down there about water and sewer extension in that area?
Mr. Belcher: I can't share the details, I should have done that, sorry I didn't get that done before now, but we did get responses, many which were negative in that they didn't want to have any, they didn't want to spend the funds for the water sewer utility to go in there. So there was no overwhelming response to bring the utilities in, we did have some that absolutely wanted it and willing to pay what it took to get it there, and like any project like this, that is typically what we find, that you will have ten people that maybe doesn't want anything to do with it, they don't have a problem and that they don't want to be a part of it, so it puts the Town in the position of either having to decide to fund that out of revenues from other customers or wait until more people are essentially on board for the project. That is really where we are at right now. I think there is not an overwhelming response to bring those utilities in. Now what we are doing, even though we know that right now it not be that response, the phase two project you approved for the drainage is part of that project and the scope will be continuing the sanitary sewer with the storm drainage. Because we are going to go through the same area, so we will essentially be off loading some of those costs that in the earlier meetings we had, bringing that up to the back of the subdivision and that will reduce the cost for those residents if in fact we go forward in the future, because that cost will already be sunk into the project and it is much more efficient to do it now because of the construction going on. We are not forgetting about it, we are moving forward but we are again sort of being back to balancing when there is not a big push for the utilities other than a handful of how far we go. One that came to mind just recently, Sycamore Estates for several years we had the same problem we had pockets of people that really needed water bad and they couldn't get it and drilled up the wells and another neighborhood got plenty of water so we were prepared to put water in but we weren't going to fund it. Then the airport stepped in and is still stepping in today putting in $4,000.00 per house for each water customer who takes the airports deal. The airport had something to sell essentially an air easement and that is how that project got over the hump and $4,000.00 per house was placed in the $5,000.00 charge for the water system so the resident pays $1,000.00 and the airport is paying $4,000.00. So that was very successful obviously. So it really comes down to that same issue with every project like this is how much are people willing to pay and then how big of a group is willing to…
Mr. Kirchoff: Did you see the same kind of result, the same kind of opinions of water versus sewer?
Mr. Belcher: Seems like sewer is looked upon, unless someone is trying to expand their house and run into the problems that you have trying to expand with a septic, they don't understand the difficulties until they try to add a room or something. Those people who have tried to add a room are very supportive of the sewer. Those who don't want to do that or don't have a problem with sewer so they are more interested in the water. I suppose we could switch the projects, we didn't approach it that way, do water instead of sewer and maybe try going at it that way. The difficulty I saw there was the roads would be destroyed either way because again they are not super now, if you put a lot of heavy traffic into building a water main you might have problems with rebuilding roads and so ideally it would be like we've done other projects, we have gone in and done everything at once and finished it and the streets at one time. But that is the most expensive way to do it but it is the longest lasting. We could resurvey the neighborhood again and see if there is any new interest that is the other thing we can go back out and see if we have more interest now, it is not that difficult to do.
Mr. Brandgard: Probably would be a good idea, I remember we were putting sewer and water into a neighborhood partially under the Barrett Law and we had one street, especially the gentleman at the end of the street said he didn't need water because his well was good, so we didn't put water down there and three months later he was in wanting water because his well went bad. So it is one of those things nobody can predict.
Mr. Belcher: A lot of people would go ahead and pay to have the water brought in even if they do have a good well. They see the value in that later on if they want to sell or if the well does go bad in the middle of winter. I will work on that then, maybe go back and try to get a new result on how many people might be interested and see where that goes if that is the Council's wish I will do that.
Mr. Carlucci: Of course Indiana law has interesting ways of doing this, you can put the waterline in that whole area right there, and you can't force people on the water. You can force people onto a sewer system. Neither one of these is a good option, nobody likes to be forced to do anything, and the rate payers with water and sewer utilities they had to pay for theirs when it was put in and they don't want their neighbor to get it. So it is kind of a balancing act.
Mr. Belcher: Jason and I have even explored the idea of going a smaller diameter of mains for less cost. It doesn't provide the same fire protection well then now we are reducing our standards, so we don't want anywhere in Plainfield not to have the same service.
Mr. Kirchoff: Did you say you have less than 50% (inaudible).
Mr. Belcher: I believe so, yes in terms of the overall result. I will confirm that and I will get an email out of what it actually was. And I will start working towards another survey to see if we get better results.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Brandgard: Kent, new business.
Mr. McPhail: Mr. President I do have one item, I think back on March 29th I emailed to all of you a report I had put together on a quality of life community indicators program for Hendricks County. I hope everybody got that. Over the last several months I've attended several meetings. This is an initiative that started with the Hendricks County Plan Commission and it is a program they looked at and certainly Robin's done a lot of research on that. It is a program where you go out and measure different aspects of your community, different indicators and then put together a program if you find someplace where you have a deficiency or you think you have a deficiency, try to put together a program to improve that and certainly identify strengths and how you continue to strengthen those to make your community a better place to live. They have proposed to do a County Wide Initiative Program and when I first started looking at the thing, I thought it would really provide some tools for Economic Development immediately to go out and say to the rest of the world these are the things that are great about our community, and this is how we compare to other communities. That is not what the program will do, but it will measure within and you know they have gotten a lot of support from different organizations throughout the County to do that, and they just recently and I think I forwarded an email to you where all of the school corporations have signed on. My position, I finally kept telling them I needed know more and more and more, and so Rich, Joe, and I did attend a presentation by the company they are proposing to use to do this. I do think we've got some clarification but I think I covered that in my report, so I think this is an issue where we need to partner with the County and try to get this project off and started and participate in it and make sure we get the right indicators that were measuring and that type of thing will do us some good, and if the program is successful then I think we aught to continue to support. Many times in the past we've been the leader in County wide initiatives. I don't think this is an issue where we want to be a leader, I think we want to be a team player and I would like to see us participate, provide some funding and give it a shot and see if it provides good data for us to improve our community.
Mr. Brandgard: It was initially presented to me as an Economic Development piece then the more I looked at that I said now this has nothing to do with Economic Development. On the other hand, surveying key indicators is not a bad thing to do to see where you are at. Not so much with other areas to see where you are at and to see what needs to be improvement and I think to me what I have seen is that is the area that we are kind of lacking, we do this study and then what are we going to do with it? I haven't seen a good answer on that but on the other hand, I think it is probably a good thing to do and then we will worry about what we are going to do with it once we get there. I look at it, it's somewhat like we do with our comprehensive plan, where we go out and send surveys out to the community to see what they want, what the community wants and have various meetings on it and we do the comprehensive plan and we try to incorporate that in it and I think over the years one of the biggest things was having a swimming pool in the Town. We are finally able to accomplish that and we probably wouldn't have had much effort into doing it if we didn't know really that that is what the community was wanting. Again, where I was reluctant to sign onto it, I think I am prepared to sign onto it.
Ms. Whicker: Kent, what is there method of information gathered?
Mr. McPhail: The company that they hire will go out and gather and compile the information that they are directed by the steering committee. A lot of information is out there; it is just getting it together and putting it together. Graduation rates are a big issue they talk about, school lunch and things like that. Those are things I think that we'd have to have some input on to make sure we are measuring things that are valuable to us that can come back and give us a result.
Mr. Kirchoff: My first question is do you have a good sense of what the indicators will be? What are we looking to measure?
Mr. Brandgard: I think the answer to that that is up to the local committee to make that decision. When I looked at what a city in Florida was using is the metrics they were tracking those school graduation rates, the water usage, how much trash you are recycling, and various metrics that again the local area can determine what it is you want to track. But my concern is once you get that done, what are you going to do with it? Is it just another study? It is one of those things, once you start it; you got to keep doing it every year or every two years in order to see if you are making improvements.
Ms. Whicker: Are they on board with the rest of the Town's around Hendricks County?
Mr. McPhail: It is my understanding; yes they have a commitment from Avon, Brownsburg, and Danville. I don't know Rich have you heard anymore?
Mr. Carlucci: What I haven't heard is what the dollar amount is going to be for the individual communities.
Mr. McPhail: I've suggested an amount that we contribute and if they don't get enough money to do it, I'm not willing to go beyond that because I think that in my estimation, we should be able to do that. There are other organizations out there that are going to benefit by getting the information, I think they should support it. Now the schools have all said they don't have any funds available to support it. One thing that struck me in having conversations and this was with a person with another organizations promoting this, I said we are proud of our community, our roads, our parks, our trails, our systems, she said yes but what are people outside of your Town think about your Town? And that is one thing on a survey, we will ask people outside of Plainfield what they think about those issues and I think that is important that we know that we are not in a cocoon and how does the rest of the community as a whole feel about Plainfield and how we handle our roads, parks, trails, schools, and all of those other things.
Ms. Whicker: So they have not asked for a specific amount.
Mr. McPhail: No they haven't.
Mr. Brandgard: And I don't believe the Towns that have signed up for it have pledged an amount either. They just said that they would support the process.
Mr. McPhail: Chris Carter is here for Economic Development, I don't know Chris do you have any idea how much funds are a good for this? Seems to me, did they tell us that morning or did I hear that at another meeting they raised $50,000.00 or something?
Mr. Carlucci: Whatever I say will probably be wrong, only because I don't know the numbers, I don't even remember hearing any numbers specifically. My only focus would be what is the amount they expect out of the Town of Plainfield? And I never heard that number in the couple of meetings that I've been too.
Mr. McPhail: I don't think anybody ever gave me a number of what they expect. I suggested $5,000.00.
Mr. Brandgard: To me I would be comfortable letting them know we support the process and principal, the concept and principal. But there are some details that need to be worked out as far as a monetary contribution. Most of the areas that are doing this, it is funded outside of the public sector. Which is kind of where it aught to be, but it might take the public sector to get it kicked off. The private sector is the one that is going to benefit most from the results.
Mr. McPhail: My interpretation of what I heard is going to cost somewhere around $60,000.00 to $80,000.00 the first year. There was a $100,000.00 number out there but that included a lot of printed reports at the end and all of us at least talked about part of it and indicated that we can put that out there electronically, we don't have to have all of that expensive printing stuff. I think the numbers between 60 and 80 and that is just a guess and I think it depends on how many indicators they want to study too.
Mr. Brandgard: Again my feeling at this time we just send a letter of support and the details to be worked out.
Mr. McPhail: That would certainly I think keep the ball moving.
Mr. Brandgard: Consent to move forward that way?
All: yes
Mr. McPhail: That is all I had under new business.
Mr. Brandgard: Thank you.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
Mr. Brandgard: Is there anything else to come before the Council?
Ms. Whicker: Just a quick clarification, the breakfast April 23rd for the Youth Athletic Complex, given by the Kiwanis, I believe it is from 7:00-11:00, and isn't the Easter Egg hunt at 11:00?
Mr. Chafin: Yes, so you can go get your belly full with pancakes and then run after eggs. It is at the Rec Center.
Ms. Whicker: So how are we advertising that breakfast, is the Optimist also going in like the last time?
Mr. Chafin: Yes, they are going to supply volunteers to bus tables to serve and things like that. We have a banner up on the website and we've printed some flyers off and put them in the Rec Center and we have also sent them to the Optimist Club and forwarded it to their coaches and parents who are in the soccer and baseball leagues. All the benefits are going towards the Miracle Field.
Ms. Whicker: And the cost is $5.00 a person?
Mr. Chafin: It is free but we recommend donations of $6.00. Thank you, I just wanted to get that in, I saw it was the same day.
Mr. Brandgard: Is there anything else?
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. Kirchoff: I move we adjourn.
Mr. McPhail: Second.
Mr. Brandgard: The motion is second to adjourn, all those in favor signify by saying aye, opposed, motion carried. Thank you.