PLAINFIELD TOWN COUNCIL April 22, 2002 The Plainfield Town Council met on Monday, April 22, 2002. In attendance were Mr. Brandgard, Mr. Young, Mr. Kirchoff, Mr. Ward and Mr. McPhail. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mr. Brandgard said we have a bid opening this evening and this is the last opportunity for you to turn in a bid. Being none coming forward, that portion is closed. CONSENT AGENDA 1. 2.
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Approval of the minutes of the regular Town Council meeting of April 8, 2002. Third and Final Reading of Ordinance No. 8-2002: Rezoning from “AG” Agricultural to R-3 Single-Family Medium-Density Residential and “AG” Agricultural to R-4 Single-Family Medium-Density Residential for Precedent Residential Development and C. P. Morgan. Approval of the March, 2002 monthly reports for the Plainfield Fire Department, Town Engineer’s Report dated April 21, 2002 and the Human Resources Director’s Report dated April 22, 2002. Approval to rescind 108 Equivalent Dwelling Units (EDU’s) sewer capacity for National Creek Realty LLC for the property known as Hobbs Farm east of Raceway Road between U.S. 40 and CR200S. Approval of 85 EDU’s sewer capacity for the Precedent Company and the Meadowlark Subdivision subject to payment of $1,600.00 per EDU.
Mr. Kirchoff said I have one correction to the minutes. The second that was made for the approval of the Consent Agenda should be Mr. Ward instead of Mr. Thibo. Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve amended. Second by Mr. Ward. Motion carried.
the
Consent
Agenda
as
BID OPENING Mr. Brandgard said we have a bid opening for the Reeves Road East Reconstruction Project. Mr. Belcher said we had a small mix-up so for the record I want to make sure the Council understands that the bid advertisement still showed the Town Hall as the place for receiving bids. So, I stayed at the Town Hall until the bid time and there was no bidder there so I think everyone got the message or came in earlier than the last minute. I have a bid tab for everybody. Mr. Brandgard asked, do we have proof of publication? Mr. Daniel said yes. Mr. Brandgard said Construction Company.
the
first
bid
is
from
Angelo
Iafrate
Mr. Daniel said the Angelo bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Angelo Iafrate Construction Company is in the amount of $345,726.20. The second bid is from Calumet Asphalt Paving Company, Indianapolis. Mr. Daniel said the Calumet bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Calumet Asphalt Paving is in the amount of $289,352.90. The third bid is submitted by Fox Contractors, Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Mr. Daniel said the Fox Contractor’s bid is in proper form.
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Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Fox Contractors is $363,433.00. The fourth bid is submitted by Hunt Paving Company, Indianapolis. Mr. Daniel said the Hunt Paving bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Hunt Paving Company is $351,236.67. The fifth bid is from Milestone Contractors, Indianapolis. Mr. Daniel said the Milestone bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Milestone Contractors is $319,202.89. The sixth bid is from Rieth Riley Construction, Indianapolis. Mr. Daniel said the Rieth Riley bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Rieth Riley Construction Co. is $313,223.75. The seventh bid is from Globe Asphalt Paving, Indianapolis. Mr. Daniel said Globe Asphalt bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Globe Asphalt Paving is $318,344.75. That was all of the bids that were submitted. I would like to thank everybody who took the time to submit a bid. The engineer’s estimate for the project is $376,577.25. I would like to have a bid review committee made up of Council Member Bill Kirchoff, Mr. Tim Belcher, Mr. Don McGillem and Ben Zoberst to review the bids and come back at our next meeting with a recommendation. BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR Ms. Nancy Ahrbecker at 8108 Timberwood Ct. said first of all I would like to say thank you to Mr. Carlucci for making water available in Sycamore Estates. We love it. I’m here this evening just to tell you about a little project that I’m interested in seeing if we can get together. For the past three years I’ve been part of an organization in Indianapolis called Oasis, which is for mature adults over 55. They have a lot of exercise classes and classes on different subjects, maybe with Riley, all sorts of things, civil war historians, etc. There are all sorts of things going on. I was looking at the demographics in Plainfield for another project and I looked to see that according to the 2000 statistics there are like 2,700 people over 65 in Guilford Township alone. That is 27% of the population. I’m not even 65 yet so I know the numbers are there if the people would be interested. What I have tried to do is set up Tuesdays through the summer, the fourth Tuesdays in the summer trying to see if we can get some folks out that might be interested in putting together some kind of a senior program for the Plainfield area. I checked with Oasis and they are not interested in going any farther west even though they have a new facility coming on line in Avon. Methodist is their major underwriter there. The first meeting is just organizational information, the 30th of April, at Hummel Park at 9:00. If you know of anybody 50 and older, please tell them to come. Bring your friends and neighbors, that kind of thing. I’m just trying to see if there is going to be enough people that would be interested. Then I have May, June and July, Tuesdays at the same time scheduled for Hummel Park for ongoing discussion organization to see if we can fly. So, I have some postcards that I will pass out if you know of anybody over 50, you can give it to them. Thank you very much. Mr. Chris Holmes at 245 Avon Avenue said I want to come before the Council this evening and bring up an issue that was brought to my attention from Mr. Brown. The alley south of my house has recently been surveyed, and this issue has been brought before the Council before here recently. It has recently been surveyed and it was determined that it was mislocated in the past. Mr. Brown brought it to my attention and I guess the board decided to have it surveyed and it was determined that it was mislocated. And that it is your opinion, at least it is coming to me that it is your opinion, if it is not, please let me know, to relocate that alley where it is supposed to be via the survey. In doing this it is going to effect my property. I’m going to lose about five and a half feet of my yard and that yard is probably 20 feet so it is a pretty good chunk of my property. I had my Councilperson, Mr. McPhail come out this evening and take a look so !2
that he would have a better understanding. I just want to make sure that before the Town goes ahead and does this that everyone fully understands it effects all of the parties involved. This came about as a result of one individual who owns property on the alley. There are four property owners and this property is a rental property. He doesn’t even live there. The three other effected parties that live on this alley do not have an interest of moving this alleyway. I just wanted to let everyone know the fact that those three parties are not interested and the party that doesn’t live there is and it is causing some heartache for the rest of us. I wanted to make sure that everyone understood that issue and make sure that all of the legal issues were lined out. My house has been there for 80 years and I’m sure the curbs that were poured there looks like they have been there for I don’t know how long but for quite awhile. It’s been there for quite awhile and I don’t see the need to move it but I’m willing to work with Mr. Brown and whatever we can do. But I just want to see if there is a better solution. Mr. Brandgard said Mr. Brown has brought that up to us and the other gentleman came in and asked about it. I know that Mr. Brown has told me that the State has it mislocated with where the entrance is. I think you used the alley to get back to your garage area. Mr. Holmes said that is correct. Mr. Brandgard said I think that is part of the problem that we have and the fact that it is mislocated is not a surprise. I think most of the surveying in the older parts of Town is not as correct as it should be due to when it was done. We have run into that before. We have to come up with a solution to keep that open so people can get back to their houses. How can we do that without effecting everybody? Part of the problem is the survey shows that it is here and running your yard into what would be the Town property where the alley goes. Then the alley is probably moved over possibly on the other side the same amount. So, that is something that we have to work out. I want to do this without displacing anymore than we have to but at the same time we need to keep it open. Sometimes we have vacated the alleys but if this is one that you use the alley to get back to your parking, we need to keep that one open. Mr. Brown said we could get a 10-foot alley in there and not have to take the extra five-foot. Ten-foot would probably get us by. We can actually do that and not have to take trees down and fences that are already there. Mr. Ward asked, what is it now? Mr. Brown said it is a 15-foot alley. Mr. Ward asked, 15-foot that is used? Mr. Brown said there is a little more than 15-foot because they have expanded out to pass along the edge of his house and Davis’ to the south along Avon Avenue. They have that whole alley, it is probably 18-foot wide and maybe 20-foot wide now. Mr. Holmes said on the west end, on the east end it is not. Mr. Brown said it is a little narrower on the east end. The east end is actually where the conflict has arisen. The west end where I live there is no problem, at least between the landowners. Mr. McPhail said Mr. Holmes called me earlier today and I had an opportunity to go by this evening and take a look at it. I looked earlier but I only looked at the east end of the alley. I hadn't looked at Avon Avenue. There is no question in my mind that our recent survey is correct because if you place the alley there, then you have equal setbacks on the two older homes, particularly facing Avon Avenue. As you go east, the fellow that has the problem with the location of the alley now, I’m guessing that home was probably built in the 60’s or early 70’s and it is actually a double. So, he needs his whole width of his property to get parking spots in there. Well, Mr. Holmes has a mature tree, I mean this alley has been there a long long time in the wrong location. So, when I left his house a little bit ago, I drove up and down the street both ways and it is kind of unique. You have the alley on the south side of his home and you go one house north and there is another alley and you go one house south and there is another alley. So, there are three alleys between two streets in that small !3
block there. I don’t know if we have any utilities or any easements that we need through that alley. But certainly if that alley was vacated and a fence put up to stop through traffic, this gentleman and his neighbor facing Avon Avenue certainly would have access from Avon Avenue and the other people would have access from Indiana Street. If you go to the east end, the fellow here that has a double and then the house north of him if you move that alley over, you are almost going to be on their deck. You would have to take the fence down. It would be impossible for three of the four homeowners to park a car in front of their garage without being in the alley. That is how close it is. I don’t know if we have any policies on vacation of alleys or whatnot but that might be a solution. I haven’t had a chance to talk to anybody but as I drove around, I didn’t realize that there was another alley and another house down both ways. There are two houses and an alley and two houses and an alley. Mr. Ward said we could maintain a utility easement in there and do exactly what Mr. McPhail was talking about. Mr. Brandgard said we have done this a lot in the recent past where I think we really like to not have the responsibility for the allies. So, if a vacation would work, we would vacate half the alley to you and half to the other person next to you. If you can agree to use it that way, that would be a good solution. Mr. McPhail said I would want to make sure that a fence or a barrier would be in place so that you wouldn’t get through traffic if we vacated it. If we don’t do that, then we are going to have liability as if the alley was still there. As far as an actual need for an alley, it doesn’t appear to me that we need one, only to get back to the garages and they could do that on both sides, couldn’t they Mr. Brown? Mr. Brown said yes. Mr. Young said I would want to voice concurrence in that this reminds me of a similar situation off of East Street that occurred a couple of years back. Property lines had been forgotten and lost and records were imperfect, surveys and utilities were lost and vacating the alley, which was clearly on the record, was the solution that really helped the entire neighborhood. Then the owners took ownership and they maintained it and took care of it so I would certainly support that. When that one came up, it was another one where the right and the wrong wasn’t as important as doing what is correct for the future. Mr. McPhail said legally there is no question in my mind that the alley has drifted south because it is right up against one of the houses. He has a nice lawn strip. I don’t know when those curbs were put in but if we could vacate that and get an agreement from the homeowners to put a barrier between them, I think I could support that. Mr. Brandgard said I know it took a long time for the engineering company to research back to try to determine where that alley was supposed to be located. Like I say, the fact that it is not where it belongs is not too surprising with the way things were done in the past. If you are willing to work with us and your neighbors to do this, we can do that. Mr. Holmes said sure. just be through Mr. Brown?
I don’t know under what forum?
Mr. Brandgard said work through Mr. Brown and if workable solution, come in and ask us to vacate the alley.
Would it we
have
a
Mr. Nick Crews at 215 S. Mill said I have come to primarily get an update on what is going on with Vinewood and the Alexander property down there. Mr. Carlucci said I got the second appraisal on Vinewood today. I don’t know if Mr. Daniel has copies of the appraisals but I can get those copies to you. The Council has already passed a resolution to acquire the property and put the offer together. The property owner got in touch with me about two weeks ago so it seems like he might be a little eager to move forward too. Mr. Crews said I was wondering where he was coming from.
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Mr. Carlucci said well we don’t know until he gets the offer. We own the Alexander property. There is special waste in there that has to be moved before we can demolish the building. It is not very complicated stuff. There is a little asbestos on a furnace duct, etc. and some lights that have to be taken care of. What we have been trying to wait to do here is we are going to end up with about six properties that need to be demolished. I would like to do them all at the same time. We have one house on Pike Lane and will have another one soon. We have one property on Dan Jones Road plus the three buildings of Vinewood and the Alexander property. I would just like to do one bid and do them all at the same time and get them all out of there. All of those are pretty close to being done. We own the Cagle property, the Alexander property, one of the two Pike properties and will own the other one pretty soon. So, we would like to do one bid. It will save the Staff a lot of time to put one bid out to get this all the way. So, we are pretty close. Mr. Crews asked, until then what can we do about the grass? Vinewood is already 14 inches. Is there anything that we can do in the short-term to have the owner take care of the property? Mr. Ward said we will take care of it. Mr. Carlucci said we can send our standard letter out to them and we will mow it. I think we will just settle up with him at closing. Mr. Brandgard said at this point I think we will have Mr. Brown go down and take care of it. Mr. Crews said the same for the Alexander property. Are there plans to keep that closed through the duration of the summer? Mr. Carlucci said I think Mr. Brown has the key now to the gate so we can get in there and get it mowed. Mr. Crews said thank you for your efforts on both of those properties. I think ultimately it will be a real nice thing for that end of Town. Mr. Brandgard said trying to get the people together to work out the acquisition has not been the easiest to do. Mr. Crews said you mentioned three buildings for Vinewood, is that the residential building to the north of the alley? Mr. Carlucci said they have two rental units. Mr. Crews said Jim Hale indicated that he had heard some talk about Habitat for Humanity going in there, is that an option? Mr. Carlucci said I think the Council has talked about looking at that. You could probably get three houses in there comfortably without packing them too tightly and that might be a good location. TOWN MANAGER’S REPORT Mr. Carlucci said the first item that I have is the Interurban Restoration Bid Document and Waiver of Permit Fees. I have something to present to Mr. Daniel. This is the bid document but I don’t think Mr. Crowe from Ratio Architects intends you to read the whole thing. I think it is the front part with the bid requirement that he wants you to look at. If I could get the Council’s permission at once, Mr. Daniel has reviewed the document that we proceed with bids. And that we waive the building permit fees for the Town of Plainfield, for ourselves basically, so we can move forward on that Interurban building. Mr. McPhail made a motion that after Attorney Daniel has reviewed the document and it is in the proper form that we go out for bids and allow us to waive the permit fees required for restoration of the building. Second by Mr. Ward. Motion carried. Mr. Carlucci said the second item that I have has to do with the Community Recreational Center project. We are proposing to do lease bonds for that project, primarily a combination of EDIT funds and Food and Beverage Tax and some property tax, general property tax dollars for that project. To go forward we need to appoint a building corporation, which the lawyers from Dann Pecar have come up with !5
Plainfield Park Facilities Corporation or PPFC. I would recommend to the Council that John Himmelheber, Judy Underwood and Bob Cheek on that building corporation. Mr. Ward made a motion to create a building corporation called the Plainfield Park Facilities Corporation and that John Himmelheber; Judy Underwood and Bob Cheek be appointed to the Plainfield Park Facilities Corporation. Second by Mr. McPhail. Motion carried. Mr. Carlucci said the next item that I have is the Hendricks County Convention and Visitors Bureau in a letter dated April 9, 2002. There is a request that a directional sign be located at the southeast corner of Hadley Road and Cambridge Way. There is one there now that points to Chateau Thomas Winery. Mr. Higbee was kind to look through our Sign Ordinance and it indicates that all this needs is the Town Council’s approval to attach their proposed sign, which is this. This sign on a pole giving people directions to the Visitors Center on Hadley Road. Since it is in the public right-of-way they would just simply need your consent or approval. Mr. Brandgard asked, is there consent?
Consent given.
Mr. Carlucci said one other item, I just bring this up because it was a rather extensive letter dated April 10, from Larry and Sue Smith who live at 517 E. Main St. To summarize their letter they live on Main Street and they are complaining about the truck traffic on U.S. 40 and the speeds. They are concerned about the damage that it is doing to their homes. I have not responded because this came after the last Council meeting. I believe that I faxed a copy over to Chief Miller. Of course, the police department can do more radar speed control over there to try to slow the trucks down but they just can’t be there all of the time, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The only other solution is to send a letter over to Crawfordsville, the District Manager over there, Elmo Gonzales, if they could lower the speed limits further. Although, as you know, the minimum anymore is a six to eightmonth process with them. But I think they need to at least see the letter with what problems we are having and see if there is anything that they might recommend. I really don’t know. It is State Highway so we don’t have a lot of control over there. I have been here actually 14 years this month and this is the first time that I have ever seen a complaint like this on U.S. 40. Unless you have any other suggestions I will contact the District Manager and see what their response might be. Mr. Brandgard said that is probably a good idea. You might contact them to let them know that the road looks like it is collapsing. At least it looks like there are soon to be potholes that are going to be in that road along the curb and side. While you are at it I think we need Chief Miller to keep an eye out to see what they are running, speed-wise. Mr. Carlucci said they have grinded out some spots on U.S. 40, are they right at the manholes? Mr. Brown said no we are away from the manholes. Mr. Brandgard said if you watch it, it looks like they are all about the same distance out to the curb, which makes me wonder when they did that boring, they may have undermined it. Mr. Brown said that is what I think because we are developing quite a few potholes on the southeast way. Mr. Carlucci said as you go by Plainfield Carpet, there is a bump there from the boring. It lifts your car up. If you are in the far right lane heading east, you can hit that and it did pull some of that material out of that road. Mr. Kirchoff asked, can you give me a sense of where this is located? Where is 517? Mr. Brown said Shaw Street. Mr. Kirchoff said just east of the funeral home. Mr. Ward said no disrespect but you should have lived there prior to building Interstate 70. Every truck going east and west came down that way. !6
Mr. Carlucci said there are times when the interstate is closed and we get a sense of what that was like and it is not a good situation. REPORTS Mr. Kirchoff said, as of Friday of this week, I will be vacating the premises of Cinergy for the second time. That Cinergy e-mail will no longer be available. I’ve been trying to make people aware of it. As I get e-mails from you, use the Town e-mail or if you want, I will give you my personal e-mail. I’m going to try one more time to retire. Mr. McPhail said I have a couple of reports. One of them I’m going to beat Mr. Young to the punch here. We both have new grandsons born this past weekend and we are both proud of that. And I’m sure he will probably make a comment when you get there but I will be going to Michigan tomorrow to see my newest grandson. I would like to report that the Chamber of Commerce continues with their downtown restoration committee. They had a very specific request from the meeting that they had last week. They seem to think that if we could get some striping on the downtown streets, U.S. 40 and the north/south streets and get some parking spots striped off, that it would help a little bit on the parking situation. I would like to pass that request on and see if maybe there isn’t something that we can do about that. I would also like to report that the Chamber had their Annual Fun and Frills Auction last Saturday night and it seemed to be very successful. I got a report that they had a nice turnout and I think they made some money. Mr. Brandgard said coming back to the stripes, could Mr. Belcher and Mr. Brown look at our paving this year or if we could get it done before the streets we control. That is another thing to give to Elmo. Mr. Carlucci said I think we can do the striping ourselves. Mr. Kirchoff said along that line my memory seems to be that we talked about maybe limiting parking on U.S. 40. Have we given any more consideration to that? Mr. Carlucci said parking is a big issue with them in a lot of different areas so we thought we would address that as we went through the downtown center planning process. That it would all be included in the parking analysis with them, a lot of different things. Instead of doing one thing just look at it all at once. Mr. Kirchoff said where I was going is if we stripe it now, we will have to come back and undo something later? Mr. Carlucci said I don’t think so. Mr. Carlucci said parking is a big issue with them in a lot of different areas so we thought we would address that as we went through the downtown center planning process. That it would all be included in the parking analysis with them, a lot of different things. Instead of doing one thing just look at it all at once. Mr. Kirchoff said where I was going is if we stripe it now, we will we have to come back and undo something later? Mr. Carlucci said I don’t think so. I think we are far enough away that those stripes will wear off by then. Ms. Mitchell said in reference to working on our ambulance billing program going back and trying to get rid of some of the large AR’s, I started with 1996 and we have resurrected some information that we need to look at the Medicaid program. We are currently not in that Medicaid program. I would like to request that Mr. Carlucci and Chief Anderson and myself be allowed to review this. And as quickly as possible try to get us into the program, because I have an open window right now back to 1996, and can pick up some money that we haven’t gotten a verbal commitment from, nothing in writing. I would like for Mr. Carlucci to guide us and someone be appointed so we can enter this program if he agrees, because I need a signature on it.
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Mr. Kirchoff said I would be happy to work with this. Mr. Brandgard said if Chief Anderson would work with Ms. Mitchell and then Mr. Kirchoff on that. Ms. Mitchell said we just need one signature to enter into the program. Mr. McPhail made a motion to appoint Bill Kirchoff as the signatory on the Medicaid request forms after they have been reviewed and are in proper form. Second by Mr. Ward. Motion carried. Ms. Mitchell said and also while we are doing the review as of April 1 the Medicare mileage rate has gone from three dollars to five dollars. I would like for us to be able to look at changing our Fee Ordinance so that I can bill five dollars per mile instead of the three dollars. Mr. Brandgard said Mr. Carlucci that is probably one that we need to come back in at the next meeting with an adjustment to our Fee Schedule. That is a significant amount. Mr. Kirchoff asked, can it be whatever the current rate is so that we don’t have to change it every time it changes? Mr. Carlucci ordinance.
said
we
could
actually
indicate
that
in
the
Mr. Daniel said whatever it is now and then it automatically changes as Medicare changes. Mr. Young said I have four items. First of all, as I indicated to you in our April 8th meeting, Chief Miller and I were invited and did attend the April 9th meeting of the Brownsburg Police Commission. We were very courteously and cordially welcomed by that group. Commissioner Graham, who conducts that meeting, wanted us to be present where they were sharing with that group a research study. It had been done by members of the Brownsburg community and the Brownsburg Police Department about the activities and the law and specifics of E911. Many times over the years you have heard me mention this as an issue that is important to Plainfield. My concern is one of fairness. Fairness for the citizens of Plainfield and citizens of the entire County and that the funds be properly used for their legally intended purpose. It was mentioned to us or brought to our attention that out of the 61,385 telephone subscribers in this County 18,552 are from the incorporated area of Plainfield. That shows that we are a significant contributor to the funding of the E911 system for the County. And yet when you go to see the benefits to our citizens, it is a little on the meager side. So, I asked the chief, with this information, what we should do with it? And he said please copy it and make certain that every Council Member has it so that in the future when we address issues of legality and fairness, you would have your own copy of the law. And you would have your own copy of current data. I was misunderstood…………(The first tape ends at this time and the second tape resumes as follows): Mr. Belcher begins with saying………started going back and looking at some pricing. They think they can leave that block in there and just drywall over it and save a little bit of money and would give it a much more similar appearance. We would have the vinyl wall covering as the rest of the room would have, I would imagine on that. So, we can explore that too and go that direction if you would like. Mr. Ward said it is money well spent. You can either do it now or later. While we are torn up we just might as well do it. Mr. McPhail asked, do we need a motion? Mr. Brandgard said I think at this point we just need to move forward with it and then make a change order on it. Mr. Belcher said with your consent the contractor is willing to work with us. He has been very open to that during the construction. As a matter of fact, I think he said that he went ahead and called the aluminum frame place and got his name in line. It is not committed yet until we say so though. So, he is willing to work with us and if you give us the authority to move, we will do that.
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Mr. Brandgard asked, is there consent?
Consent given.
Mr. Young said before you move onto another topic I would like to revisit that project. I’m very pleased with the way that is coming together. There was a lot of thoughtful effort by a number of people to get us to this point. This is an old issue that I really feel deserves reexamination. When the building was built in its current form, the perceived front entrance and all of that was the signage along U.S. 40 was dated. It tells the date of the original building and I think it would be a very appropriate matter to look at signage along U.S. 40 near the Main Street/Center Street end of the building. There are many appropriate spots where signage would be stylish and represent the importance of the building to the community. Also, signage on the main entrance to the building, which is on the north side, were issues that were mentioned to Sebree at the time and they were interested in moving onto other things. But I’ve looked at it as to the appropriateness and I think like taking care of structural issues you are looking at right now that proper presentation of the building is also important. So, that the citizens of the community know without question what it is and it is their building. So, I thought I would at least mention it again because there are many people that can put together something that would be dignified and nice and properly placed on the building. Mr. Belcher said we will get that out and try to bring it to the surface and try to get a little more attention than it has thus far and I will bring something back to you. The next item is in reference to the GIS System, the Geographic Information System Project. A group consisting of Staff and some of the community got together and planned a PowerPoint presentation with our consultant and the group that put it together. But it was long enough that it was better to do it in a work session. Today Mr. Carlucci and I met with our rate consultant again on the water plant. From the last work session they went out and did some work for us and they would also like to get back with us. I think Mr. Carlucci and I thought it was time to bring that information back to you too. Whenever you would like to, we could certainly make it a valuable evening and take a little bit longer than normal Council session could handle. Mr. Brandgard asked, do you have any suggestions? Mr. Belcher said no. I know we have three weeks between the next Council meeting but I don’t know if there are any free weeks in there or not. The Plan Commission is the 6th. I’m willing to come whenever you are willing. Mr. Carlucci said Mr. Daniel pointed out that we have a fifth Monday coming up. Mr. Brandgard said April 29. Mr. Belcher said April 29 would be good as far as I’m concerned. Mr. McPhail said I try to keep Mondays opened. Mr. Carlucci said we could do it here at 6:00 p.m. Mr. Kirchoff asked, is there anything that we need to review beforehand? Mr. Belcher said no. Mr. Carlucci on the water plant issue did you want to get information out ahead of that meeting or wait until that meeting and have Umbaugh go through that at the time? Mr. Carlucci said no, it is Monday anyway. Mr. Belcher said I think the GIS presentation is pretty much self-explanatory. Mr. Carlucci said what we reviewed today was the cost of service and the rate structure. They were able to get that on an Excel file. Mr. Belcher said thank you for that. I appreciate that. two real important projects I think going there.
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They are
The last item I have I will give the floor to Cecil Whitaker but we have been working on the South Wastewater Treatment Plant. Again, to keep that project moving on schedule we wanted to bring to you pretty much an update, a status report of where we are. A master plan has been done as we started out for the whole site to get up to twentyfive million gallons a day, which would be someday in the future. Maybe not as far as we think sometimes as fast as things grow around here. That would be one goal of our plan is to show how the whole thing would fit together someday. We began the project two or three years ago thinking we were going to start with one million gallons per day. Well, as we have gotten into this process and see the efficiencies of some of the systems that we are going to use here, we would like to propose this evening that we look at two million gallons per day. With that comes some financial issues and Mr. Whitaker is going to explain those to you so that you can decide or consider that tonight. So, with that I will give the floor to Mr. Whitaker. Mr. Cecil Whitaker said I have a copy of all of the drawings that I’m going to be presenting this evening. I will try to take them in order. Just to go over briefly back through the goals we wanted to achieve with the master plan from the very beginning there was recognition that there were tremendous wastewater needs, not only now, but in the future. We spent time in 1999 to go through the process of analyzing the site, the configuration of the site and making sure it fit with all of the alternatives. The last drawing that you have on the back was that original layout. I would like to just touch on it briefly before I get started. On that last sketch you will notice that there are a number of structures there that are disconnected. That represents the type of wastewater systems that were generally used and very common a couple of three years ago. They still are but one of the things that we undertook in conjunction with the Staff was to try to find a way to select equipment units that made use of common wall construction that had a smaller footprint. And that were basically technologically sound but more on the cutting edge. I think what we are presenting tonight will demonstrate that. And we will also investigate some of the alternatives that we did not select to show you the impact of what we have been able to do with this selection. The first drawing that you will look at is the footprint of a 25MGD plant with the equipment that we have proposed. If you want to compare that to the last page, you will see that we have really come through with reducing the footprint. We have done it two ways. One of which, is going with common wall construction. The second way is we took the tank deeper. The tanks are actually about eight-foot deeper than normal or previous construction for two reasons. One, you get better efficiency on the concrete but also the aeration process works better in deeper tanks. So, what we did is we selected the tank, which gave the best treatment process for the amount of air that we were reducing. That allowed us to do that. The second thing that I think was very important in here is we eliminated a lot of yard piping. If you remember when we looked at the original plan, we had to set up and set aside a fairly large area for large standard piping to connect all of the units. By going to a common wall construction we have eliminated a lot of the piping and also reduced the quantity of the piping. The trade-off for that is the initial equipment will be more expensive but it is also a higher quality construction. The plant that we originally started considering back in 1999 had a number of painted treatment unit components. Every component that we are proposing for this plant is either stainless steel or PVC. We are not going to be having to paint these units in the future so that was another consideration that we went through. We made sure and satisfied ourselves that there is plenty of space. There is room for future buildings. The red “x’s” in here indicate units presently considered. There is one small error under the grid chamber, which is this structure right here. Somehow that got crosshatched. It was not supposed to. But the components currently being considered for a two MGD plant are the ones that are crosshatched. And also the ones that are double crosshatched with this other pattern, which represents the additional tanks that would be needed to go from one MGD to two MGD. Just from that I think you can see that the cost to build the second MGD is about only 60% of the cost to build the first MGD. Now it is still dollars but I think once you get the process started and you start using the common wall construction and some of the things are already in place with the first one, the cost per gallon drops significantly. So, this is the footprint and this is the proposed layout that we would use. We have retained, whereever possible, the existing woods that would allow for screening. Where the woods does not exist we are proposing berms. If you remember, we acquired an !10
additional 50-75 feet along the portion of this boundary line because of some setback issues from the Visitors Center and we were to evaluate that. We actually don’t have to have that but I’m going to recommend obtaining it for the benefit of the developer. This way we can control all of the screening for his future development south of here. Also, we moved the tanks a greater distance from the property line. It is not required by regulation but I think in everybody’s interest the Town should control that street and should have that additional buffer on the site. There was a commitment made I think by the Town that would get back with the original owner of the property once this information was available. I would recommend that the Town advise him that for screening purposes and for additional setback the Town would like to retain and will retain that strip along there. And control the buffer so that will always be in place and properly maintained. So, this is the one that we would be recommending. This is the plan that we will also be taking to the Plan Commission for approval. I think there are some issues in terms of which Plan Commission that should go to. And I think it is similar to the water treatment plant. I know that you can do an annexation of this property and actually bring it into the Town even though it is not contiguous because it is a wastewater treatment facility. I will defer to Mr. Daniel on that but I think a decision needs to be made on that shortly so that we can get the process started with the appropriate Plan Commission. So, that explains the first one. The next ones I’m going through are for comparison. This is an oxidation ditch approach of twenty-five million gallons. I think you can see that if the footprint is not as efficient, it still fits the site but it’s footprint is not nearly as efficient as the units that we selected. The next one, Exhibit C, is a standard aeration system with rectangular clarifiers. You will see the footprint is very much the same but I would say to you that the clarifiers are not nearly as good. These are clarifiers that have gears, sprockets, baffles, a lot of submerged equipment that is not stainless steel, that the tanks must be drainage to fix them. It has bearings and things like that and the units themselves are not efficient. So, the footprint is the same but the units are not up to the same standards as we are proposing. The final exhibit, Exhibit D, basically is a plant that uses as much common wall construction as possible but retains the circular clarifiers. This looks much more like what was originally conceived back in 1999. Still a treatment plant that would certainly treat the waste and meet your limits but it would cost more to construction. It, obviously, uses up more of the site. It is a footprint that is not as efficient. In conclusion there has been a lot of time and effort looking and evaluating equipment. There were interviews and I think the status reports have communicated that the steps have gone through. We have also spent additional time looking at the two million gallon per day option. We recognized the next million might not cost nearly as much per gallon as the first million. There are some dollar figures that I need to get with Mr. McPhail and Mr. Belcher. Mr. Brown was part of all of those meetings and we have looked at some of these units simply based on his experience and the Town’s experience on their current plant. One of things that we wanted to accomplish from the very beginning was to start with a clean slate and not be committed to any process that we have currently been using but look at the best process now. We certainly feel and I think Mr. McPhail and Staff feels that we have found that process for some of the reasons that I have stated. So, that is the update. I think in terms of our preliminary design phase this basically represents the finished product and certainly all of the background information that went into generating these layouts, which are provided to the Town and can be retained in the Town’s records. I would be happy to entertain any questions. Mr. Brandgard said I think it is a good plan. Again, entering into this on a clean slate allowed us to look at what is new and different out there and is more amenable to our needs, one of which is space. Mr. Whitaker said it is a very simple process to operate based on what Mr. Brown saw. Mr. McPhail said this is as free of maintenance that there is out there. Mr. Whitaker talked about stainless and PVC, there is hardly any PVC that the sunlight hits. There were some questions that we had !11
early on but by the time that we got to the plant they had already recognized that and extended the stainless down into the water to make sure the PVC wasn’t getting the sunrays, etc. When you can send a man out there and he can actually pull one of these units up out of the water by hand and service it and put it back down opposed to shutting a plant down and taking a bunch of moving parts out, there is no comparison. Mr. Whitaker said almost every single component can be replaced on an emergency basis by a local supplier of stainless steel or PVC. Mr. Belcher said I think you are also putting the Town in a position to respond much quicker than it ever could in the past. New industry or something might come that we don’t know is coming and we need capacity quickly. This type of technology is going to make it much easier to respond without building too much too quick. We will be in a better position than we have ever been in this area. Mr. Whitaker said we are already in the design of the units. I think what we have determined, as far as what we are doing, the one MGD and the two MGD we are moving ahead, based on our conversations, telling the equipment supplier to think two MGD. At least we will build the concrete and then just maybe not purchase the equipment immediately up front but that when that is needed, that equipment is already designed. We have the shop drawings available and they could easily be installed very quickly. That is kind of the thinking. We are not slowing the process down at all but there is going to come a time very shortly where that decision, one or two, will need to be made. I think we will be there certainly in the next 30 days. Mr. McPhail said we will have solid numbers by then. Mr. Young said just to go on the record Mr. President I would think that it would be well worth our interests, and this may have been discussed more than once in the past, that we go ahead and annex this site into the Town. Mr. Brandgard said we probably should do the same with the new water site also. Mr. Young said I certainly agree. OLD BUSINESS Mr. Kirchoff said Mr. Al Barker is back in Town and he advised me that he has a pretty extensive history prepared by a Cinergy retiree on the Interurban that he is going to get to me. I will try to see what kind of pictures or information that they might share with the Town. Mr. Dykes who was our Fire Prevention Supervisor for years and years was a real Interurban enthusiast and he has written this history and Mr. Barker has it and he said he would get it to me. Mr. McPhail said it seems to me that when reconstructed the Town parking lot behind the Town Hall, we had some in-depth discussion about the lot that we have to the east between Center and Vine Street and we only own a portion of that. During the meetings with the downtown restoration committee I have had a couple of opportunities to talk to Linda Palmer who owns the eastern part of that parking lot. I approached her the first meeting and asked her if she would be interested in selling it to us. She didn’t want to discuss it at all and at the last meeting she came forward and said I think I probably would be interested as long as I know that it is going to remain parking. I have asked Mr. Brown if he could take a look at that design-wise and give us a cost estimate maybe within the next 30 days of what it might cost to do that whole lot like the one that we have done behind the Town Hall. I would request tonight that we have our Town Manager get some appraisals on that property so that if it does become available, we can proceed. I think it would be very important for us to be able to do that and clean that all up and do it like that we did the other. I know that we had some real interest in that some time back and would hope that we would want this to go forward. Mr. Ward asked, how much does she own? Mr. McPhail said we own behind Timothy’s and over to the first alley and she owns the rest of it. We closed the north/south alley between the two buildings and while he is doing the design I requested that Mr. Brown make that a pedestrian walkway and put some lighting in !12
there. We don’t need anything real estimates is all that we would need.
fancy,
just
some
good
cost
Ms. Mitchell said I’m still on hold for an ambulance billing package and I’m not sure what I need to do to get the review going to see what we need to do. Mr. Brandgard asked, what did you ask us to do? Ms. Mitchell said at the last meeting I asked to be able to enter into the contract with that company. The discussion was that we needed to look into what Medicare was doing before we put the money into the billing package. To the best of my knowledge we haven’t gone anywhere. Mr. Brandgard asked, have we looked into what Medicare is doing? Ms. Mitchell said I thought Mr. Carlucci was going to write a letter but maybe I misunderstood. Mr. Brandgard said we will go back and revisit it. Mr. Young said in my ward of Town there was a report by neighbors of residential property being used allegedly as a business site. This was brought to the attention for those homeowners to Town working management and they have actively followed up on this and have reported back on a fairly routine basis and are taking action. Those of you who have the duties on the Plan Commission may see it in the near future. I certainly feel that everything is flowing the way that it should and I want to thank everyone and it is appreciated by those neighbors. They reported that to me so I thought it was important that I relay those positive comments that when people inappropriately use residential neighborhoods that we need to pursue to make certain that everything is done correctly. Mr. Daniel said I talked to Mr. McGillem and as you know, we acquired the Cagle property, the second property south along Dan Jones Road and CR300S. In the mean time the Thomas property, which is the one right on the corner seem to be somewhat interested in seeing if something can be worked out with the Town. The first thing that we have to do is get appraisals. This just occurred today. I prepared a resolution for the Town appointing two appraisers for that property if the Town is willing to go forward in going ahead and appointing appraisals and see where that leaves us as far as trying to acquire that Thomas property. So, subject to placing the next resolution number on this resolution if the Town is willing to do that, this appoints Todd Callen and Mark Keutzer as appraisers. Mr. McPhail made a motion to approve Plainfield Town Council Resolution No. 2002-10, a resolution confirming interest by the Town to purchase real estate for public purposes. Second by Kirchoff. Roll call vote called. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr.
Ward – yes Kirchoff – yes McPhail – yes Young – yes Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent.
Motion carried.
Mr. McPhail said I continually get a call or two a week about Plainfield Ready Mix on Carr Road keeping mud and debris on Carr Road. It is just continually. I don’t know how to approach that. I’m sure we have some kind of ordinance. How do we enforce it? Do we have to sit there everyday and write them tickets or what? It is really a problem. They track that road up everyday and in talking with Staff they even make messes in other parts of the Town. They are not being a very good corporate citizen I don’t believe. I need some help in how to follow up on that or how to respond to constituents when I get that phone call, what are you going to do? Mr. Brandgard said I think it goes back to the same thing where the construction areas were. We really need to have an ordinance requiring the vehicles to be clean when they come onto public streets. If nothing else, we know mud on wet pavement is a lot slicker than just water.
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Mr. Carlucci said Mr. Brown did send them a letter and I have talked to Chief Miller because I’m getting the calls too. That ordinance allows us to issue a ticket to them and bring them into the Town Court every time they leave that property. I really don’t know what has changed since recently we never had that problem before. I don’t know if it has changed ownership or something but it was never this bad before. I don’t know what has really changed. Mr. Brown said it has gotten worse. Over the past seven or eight months we have had about a foot of build-up on the edge of the road where they have thrown so much mud on there. We trimmed that down and cleaned it up last week but I did send them a letter as Mr. Carlucci said with a copy of the ordinance. I asked them to please comply, etc. Mr. Carlucci said Chief Miller indicated that they were going to do extra enforcement there on that. I just think if you do it enough, they will get tired of paying the fine and the court costs. Then we can go that route. They have been warned. Mr. Brandgard said the other thing is they really don’t like to stop those trucks when they have a load of concrete either. Mr. McPhail said you would think a concrete company would have some concrete drives on their property but they don’t. They have probably dumped enough on empty lots around to pave their lot. Mr. Brandgard said in the same light last fall an asphalt company looked like they dropped a lot of hot tar or asphalt on U.S. 40 after it had been repaved and also down Perry Road. And I noticed recently I think coming out onto Quaker Boulevard there is concrete where it has dropped out of the trucks. It is probably something that we need to keep an eye on. They are cutting corners. Mr. Carlucci said at the intersection of Carr and U.S. 40 there is a permanent bump there where their concrete spilled out of a truck. You can’t do anything with that. You basically would have to jackhammer it out and repave. NEW BUSINESS Mr. Daniel said I met with the Summit Construction people on our Construction Management Contract. I had a nice meeting with them last week and made some revisions. I e-mailed those over to Summit and they sent over what was primarily the view word revisions, etc., different than what you had in your materials. It did not change the content. It just cleaned up a couple of places where there should have been a plural and it was singular, etc. I have the contract with Construction Manager with me tonight. They are interested in getting started and it just requires that the Town Council appoint someone to approve that, if you are ready to approve that tonight. I think it would also be a good idea to appoint a Council Member as a liaison to work with the Construction Manager so if they need to get a hold of somebody, they have a Town Council Member’s name to have contact. Mr. Young said on this contract we have had work sessions on the Construction Manager form of construction and I certainly have been on record as being in favor of this. We are assigning them, not only the responsibility, but we are giving them a lot of discretionary authority. In looking at handling many projects over the past 40 years personally using the CM approach one thing that I have learned from experience is that one of the benefits that you can gain with a CM is time and another one is a certain degree of efficiency. But I found that there is a percentage of work that is bid work and then there is a percentage where the CM just picks someone to handle small details. Since they are not the constructor they can pick up labor to finish certain tasks to keep the project flowing properly. I have normally found that if non-bid sections exceed anything approaching seven percent or more, that then the project actually suffers under this type of system. With this document I was looking to see if there was any work that fell outside the bid work and I didn’t find any discussion. Is 100% of this project bid? Mr. Daniel said I could be wrong but I think there is a provision in there for them to supervise any work that the Town is able to do where they can provide the labor to do that work. pool?
Mr. Young asked, do you mean for the Town to operate as the labor
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Mr. Daniel said yes. Mr. Young said that is good. I read through it carefully because what I found is if it is somewhere below seven-percent, just from past experience, things really flow well and there is no evidence of even looking aside for improprieties or mishandling of the responsibility. If it gets 10% or greater, I have found that then suddenly the percentage of non-bid verses the percentage of bid there are always little questions. Being responsible for a project of this magnitude I think that there should be some type of rules of the game that we really control how much non-bid work is allowed by the Construction Manager. And doing it on a dollar amount or a percent basis would be suggested at this time just on my own personal experience in handling these types of things. Mr. Carlucci said one thing that controls all of that, private verses the public sector, is if it gets above a certain dollar, we have to bid it out anyway. Mr. Young said in the public sector they have raised the dollar amount where there is no control. It is pretty substantial. Mr. Carlucci said in this last session they tried to raise it even more and they stopped it. Mr. Daniel said, of course, there are two schedules on the back of this that have yet to be filled out. But so that we can move forward with this I think this needs to be subject to whatever Council Member who is appointed liaison the authority to complete the schedules that are attached in the back. And fill in the completion date and any other minor revisions that need to be made as we go along with the project to finalize this document. This is a major piece of work and I have every reason to believe that it is possible within the next 30 days that there will be something that needs to be revised a little bit. I have been over this document several times. I’m sure there will be things come up that we will look at this and add something again probably. Mr. McPhail said I certainly feel we need to move forward. Mr. Brandgard asked, are you comfortable with where we are? Mr. McPhail said yes. Mr. Young said in the language, this was by no means meant to hold up the process at all. But there is language here that clearly says that the Construction Manager and the Town can resolve issues as they come along because we can’t foresee everything in a set of blueprints and a set of specifications. So, at that time they can make judgments. My point is here at the start before we fire the gun and say go that we establish some ground rules that we would really like to keep control of how much is bid and how much is not bid and knowing that is important. It is not meant to hold up the process but sort of give a little bit of guidance from experience. When these come up, be mindful of the fact that sometimes in the fervor of wanting to beat weather or beat equipment arriving on time that it is expedient sometimes to not bid the work. And do something that is convenient and yet we have a very large financial responsibility for many decades to our community about this. So, sometimes we need to temper that fervor with a little bit of good judgment to say that we have too much work out there that is not bid and let’s take the time to get a couple of more bids. Mr. Brandgard said with that we do need to appoint a liaison from the Council to work with the manager and also that liaison ought to be one to go through this and sign the documents related to it. Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve this contract with Summit Construction and that the liaison and also the person authorized to sign the document would be Mr. McPhail. Second by Mr. Ward. Motion carried. PROCLAMATIONS Whereas, historic preservation is an effective tool for managing growth, revitalizing neighborhoods, fostering local pride and maintaining community character while enhancing livability; and !15
Whereas, historic preservation is relevant for communities across the nation, both urban and rural and for Americans of all ages, all walks of life and all ethnic background; and Whereas, it is important to celebrate the role of history in our lives and the contributions made by dedicated individuals in helping to preserve the tangible aspects of the heritage that has shaped us as a people; and Whereas, preserving the spirit of place is the theme for National Historic Preservation Week, 2002 co-sponsored by the Plainfield Guilford Township Public Library and National Trust for Historic Preservation; and Whereas, Friends of the Plainfield Guilford Township Public Library are sponsoring a Spring History Tour of Plainfield homes and structures on Saturday, May 11, 2002; Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Plainfield Town Council does hereby proclaim May 12 through the 18th, 2002 as National Preservation Week. And call upon the people of Plainfield to join our fellow citizens across the United States in recognizing and participating in this special observance. Passed and adopted by the undersigned Town Council of the Town of Plainfield, Indiana on this 22nd day of April, 2002. Mr. Ward made a motion to approve the Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Roll call vote called. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr.
proclamation
as
read.
Ward – yes Kirchoff – yes McPhail – yes Young – yes Brandgard – yes
5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent.
Motion carried.
ADJOURNMENT Mr. McPhail made a motion to sign the necessary documents and adjourn. Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned.
_________________________________ Robin G. Brandgard, President
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