Town Council Minutes - 09-23-02
Robert Majdak called the regular meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
A motion was made by Greg Baumgartner to approve the minutes for September 9th, 2002. The motion was seconded by Max Miller and carried by a voice vote.
• Resident Julie Senger who lives at 217 Travis Court was present to ask the Council if the Town had any ordinances prohibiting a resident from digging a well to supply water for watering lawns. The Council informed Mrs. Senger that the Town had no such ordinances and gave her permission to dig a well as long as she didn’t connect to the Town water system.
I. Park
• Park Board President Lee Nisley would like to inform the Council that
he will be spending $3,488.00 on new trees for the Park. The trees will form
a barrier between the Park and the new Forest River plant. The Clerk/Treasurer
received information on (2) different grants that could be applied for to purchase
more trees. The Clerk/Treasurer called Park President Lee Nisley and both agreed
that the Park should apply for the grants.
II. Water Superintendent
• Monthly reports-See attached
• Discuss demolition of the old water tower. Council President Robert
Majdak reported on the progress of demolishing the old water tower. After a
meeting on August 11th 2002 with Mark Grady General Manager of Quality
Cablevision it was decided to push the project back until spring, as Quality
Cablevision needs more time to find an alternate plan for the satellite
dish on the old tower. Quality Cablevision
also has licensing issues. Superintendent Ben Eldridge was instructed to call
Iseler Demolition and reschedule the date to demolish the tower. Iseler Demolition
asked that the Town move on the decision to give them the contract and they
would leave the cost as quoted. Council President Robert Majdak signed the contract.
• Discuss increasing monies going into improvement fund. The Clerk/Treasurer
called the State Board of Finances and
asked what procedures the Town needs to do to move monies to the Improvement
Fund. Charlie Pride informed the Clerk/Treasurer Wanda Chupp that the Town needed
an ordinance stated as such. The Clerk/Treasurer checked our water and sewer
ordinances and they both state that any excess after normal operations can be
transferred to the Improvement Fund. The Clerk/Treasurer then called H.J.
Umbaugh and they wanted $2,500.00 per utility to calculate the amount in
excess each month. The Clerk/Treasurer then talked to Branden Beachy and decided
that she and the Deputy Clerk could figure out the amount to move each month.
The Clerk/Treasurer then call H.J. Umbaugh
back and Steve Carter agreed to look over the numbers and confirm the amount
to be move to the Improvement Fund at no cost. The Clerk/Treasurer will report
back at the next meeting as to the amounts decided.
• A police report was sent to the Town’s liability insurance company
because a gentleman had hit one of our fire hydrants and did damage. This is
just a precaution, but necessary if his insurance doesn’t pay or he doesn’t
have insurance.
• Superintendent Eldridge asks the Clerk/Treasurer to inform the Council
and the Goshen News that he would be
flushing hydrants on Wednesday October 2nd and Thursday October 3rd 2002. Notices
will be posted in (3) places in Town and be printed on the water bills.
III. Wastewater Superintendent
• Monthly report-See attached
• Discuss purchase of a new scale for the wastewater department. Not enough
information was provided by Superintendent Eldridge so the Council decided to
give Council President Robert Majdak permission to contact Superintendent Eldridge
about his options and try to encourage him to purchase the cheaper scale. Greg
Baumgartner made the motion to allow Superintendent Eldridge to spend up to
$2,275.00 on a scale Robert Majdak seconded and motion was carried by a voice
vote.
• Discuss increasing monies going into improvement fund. See the above
response to water improvement fund.
IV. Maintenance Director
• Review work orders. Work order #1070 was done the second week of June
per Maintenance Director Abe Beachy. Work order #1075 was cancelled by Superintendent
Eldridge and work order #1106 was done by Middlebury Septic on August 8th, 2002.
All work orders are complete at this time.
• Council President Robert Majdak asked Maintenance Director Abe Beachy
if he had heard from Beer & Slabaugh about the Larimer water runoff project.
Director Beachy said that they came through Town last week and Director Beachy
wasn’t in Town so they missed each other. Director Beachy told the Council
that he would get with Beer & Slabaugh as soon as he could and report back.
V. Marshal
VI. Clerk/Treasurer
• Discuss tax restructuring effect on our TIF district. The Clerk/Treasurer
presented the Council with a report from Bingham McHale on how the restructuring
affects the TIF district. After discussing the report the Council felt they
still needed more information, so the Clerk/Treasurer was to get more information
and report back to the Council the next scheduled meeting.
• The Clerk/Treasurer presented the Council with two (2) old water/sewer
accounts that she can not get forwarding addresses on to collect the bill. The
accounts are as follows:
Name Account # Amount due Delinquent Date
Lalo Ortega 00-00036-01-8 $84.73 04-28-97
Charles Lamb 00-00037-01-9 $36.72 02-14-01
Robert Majdak made the motion to write off the two above accounts Greg Baumgartner
seconded and motion was carried by a voice vote.
• Discuss and review the procedure for sending delinquent letters to residents.
A letter was sent to the Clerk/Treasurer by resident Vickie Archer stating that
she didn’t receive her letter until the same day her water was shut off.
After investigating the situation the Council concluded that her letter was
sent somewhere else and was the responsibility of the Post office. A complaint
was also made about the delinquent letter being hard to understand, so with
the input of the Council the Clerk/Treasurer change the delinquent letter to
make it easier to understand. See sample. The Council felt after reviewing all
the evidence of this problem the resident is responsible for paying the $13.00
disconnect and $13.00 reconnect fees.
• A register letter was sent to resident Kirk Martin as he is 60 days
late on July’s water and sewer bill and 30 days late on August’s
bill. I have received word that the mortgage company has foreclosed on the property.
I wanted to give Mr. Martin a chance to pay the bill before putting a lien on
the property for the sewer portion of the bill.
VII. New Business
• Council President Robert Majdak informed the Council that he had a meeting
with Marshal Hathaway and went over some changes that needed to be made with
the new security system. One sensor needed relocated at the wastewater plant
and a few wires need tuckedin. Other than that the system meets and exceeds
the type of protection the Town needed per President Majdak. Council member
Greg Baumgartner asked Maintenance Director Abe Beachy if the procedures and
contact list are in place for alarm system at the new lift station. Director
Beachy answered “yes”.
Max Miller made the motion to pay bills. The motion was seconded by Robert
Majdak and was carried by a voice vote.