Board of Works Meeting Minutes - 8/18/08
August 18, 2008 10:00 A.M.
The Pledge of Allegiance was given by all in attendance.
Prayer was given by Bobby York.
Mayor Small opened the Board of Works and Safety meeting
Director England moved to approve all payroll, city, water and sewer claims dated 8/11/08 to 8/ 18/08.
Attorney Copenhaver: second, Mayor Small: aye - Aye vote: 3-0
Agenda:
Director England announced that there was a lady in the audience who has a dream and wanted the City to become a part of it.
Mrs. Sharon J. Ray, 2909 Brentwood Rd., stated that she has had a dream for a long time, pertaining to dogs. She said she wanted to ask on behalf of the Human and Dog
owners of New Castle to obtain a piece of land in Baker Park. She said this area, east of the high school and south of the former girls baseball diamonds, is never in use and would be the prefect area where owners can take their dogs to play. The owners would have to pay $50.00 per year to have this privilege, prove the dogs have had all shots and either be spaded or neutered and have a license. A dog park is not a right, it is a privilege and healthy for the animals. There would be no taxes involved on this park. All owners would be responsible for the care of their dog and the clean up after them. No aggressive animals will be allowed in this park. There is a release of liability that will have to be signed. Mrs. Ray said that her request was that the City allow this area for the dogs. Mrs. Ray said that the Animal Shelter and Humane Society is aboard with this and the funding will come from fund raisers to put up fencing, lights and water. Mrs. Ray gave a listing of cities in the State of Indiana who have these dog parks.
Linda Bir-Conn, director of the Animal Shelter, stated that this had been discussed several years ago but the land could not be purchased. She said that the animal shelter will furnish the doggie pick up bags, have staff available to check to see if clean ups are missed and take on full responsibility of what is going on in the park. Mrs. Conn said that there is water available close to the area and asked that the city help get it to the site and electricity for the gating.
Director England stated that another meeting would be set to discuss this further. He said Mrs. Ray was giving out information today and asking the city for support.
Director England stated that bids were presented to the Board in a previous meeting, bidding on the Sewer Extension Project at the South Industrial Park.
Keith Bryant, United Consulting, came forth and announced that a large part of this will be paid for by a Stag Grant. The City's portion will come from bond sales. Mr. Bryant said that the apparent low bidder was Pritchett's Backhoe Service, a local company, bidding $325,477.00. They were about 6.6 % lower than the second bidder and 10.7 % lower than the highest estimate. Mr. Bryant recommended that Pritchett's Backhoe Service be awarded the contract.
Director England made the motion to approve the recommendation of United Consulting, The Board award the bid to Pritchett's Backhoe Service, LLC, in the amount of $325,477.00. Attorney Copenhaver: second, Mayor Small: aye, Aye vote: 3-0
Mr. Bryant asked that a motion be allowed for the Mayor to execute any agreements and documents relative to the project. A Notice of Award will be signed and sent to Pritchett's Backhoe Service. After all documents are signed, a pre-construction meeting will be held and specifics of the project will be discussed.
Attorney Copenhaver made the motion. Director England; second, Mayor Small: aye, Aye vote; 3-0
Director England made the motion to approve #6 payment to Oberle and Associates, the sum of #13,962.00 for the bath house site work, at the pool. Attorney Copenhaver; second, Mayor Small: aye, Aye vote: 3-0
Director England made the motion that the Water Pollution Control Plant be allowed to hire Christine Hall as a licensed Pretreatment Coordinator at the Wastewater Department. Randy Hamilton, Superintendent, explained the duties of this position. Director England said that this position has been advertised and several applications were received. He said he recommended that the Board approve an agreement with Christine Hall to perform these services. This will be by contract in the amount of $18.00 per hour. Her hours will not exceed 30 hours per week.
Director England moved to approve the contract with Christine Hall as Pretreatment Coordinator
Attorney Copenhaver stated that this is not a new position. He said we have had similar contracts like this in the past. IDEM requires pretreatment enforcement.
Attorney Copenhaver: second, Mayor Small: aye Aye vote; 3-0.
Director England said there had been a field check at the Water plant and several items were given to the Superintendent to be addressed. One item had to do with painting of the filters at the water plant. He said that Superintendent Beach solicited quotes from several firms of what the cost would be to have the filters stripped and painted. He received three quotes and then asked TRIAD Engineering to give a recommendation and they recommended American Clean and Seal, the lowest quote, $64,200.00 to repair the 8 filters.
Director England made the motion to approve this recommendation and award the contract to American Clean and Seal. Attorney Copenhaver; second, Mayor Small: aye Aye vote: 3-0
Director England said as a matter of information, another item in that report was the well heads. Jim McNulty, representative of the American Clean and Seal, appeared before the Board stating that he had approached Mr. Beach about the city's Wellhead Protection program. He gave an update on the program and said the documents had to be resubmitted to IDEM.
Director England moved to approve the hiring of Chris Hartgrove as an EMT. Attorney Copenhaver: second, Mayor Small: aye Aye vote: 3-0
Cemetery Superintendent Hacker announced that the Cemetery had a theft over the weekend. A listing will be given to the insurance company.
Water Pollution Control Superintendent Hamilton announced that the department was still working on sinkholes.
Mayor Small said that the City is still under an Emergency. Attorney Copenhaver made the motion that the Emergency condition no longer exists. Director England: second, Mayor Small: aye Aye vote: 3-0
Public concerns:
Eddie Hager, appeared before the Board asking about the park benches.
Attorney Copenhaver said he had check on some of the benches. He said they were being used not as benches, but as signs. He said to deal with them, we could use our sign ordinance. If they don't meet our sign ordinance, in the right a way or don't meet size requirements, then we could do something. Attorney Copenhaver said he does have a phone number and name and they should be contacted first, assuming they are violating the sign ordinance.
Eddie Hager appeared to make complaints about LOWE Park. He said the landscaping is not being kept up, graffiti on the shelter house, the mulching has not been kept up and the weeds in the flower beds were taller than him, and he wants the light replaced that was broken, next to the shelter house. He said the appreciate the picnic tables, the trash cans, the mowing, but if they could just pay attention to the weeds along the fence and flowerbeds, and don't paint over the graffiti.
Park Superintendent Ayers said we maintain the inside of the park. We didn't paint over the graffiti. He said as for the flower beds, Westminister has always maintained them. He said if the city was to maintain that park, they were never told other than mowing.
Mr. Hager said that when the parking lot was put in, in gravel, was suppose to be paved out of the paving budget the following year. This was built to be handicapped accessible from the parking lot and now we have about an 18 inch curb to climb before they can get into the park. So, we need gravel brought in and paved. It was never suppose to be gravel, it was to be black topped.
Mr. Hager asked about sidewalks in front of Stonegate Center. He said he spoke with the engineer about putting them in. He referred him to the project manager of INDOT in Greenfield. They said if we get the city to take on one-half of the responsibility and the other half to the property owner, there is a good chance that they would add that to the reconstruction. He said the State would install and pay for the installation. It would be up to the city to take on the responsibility of half ownership and maintenance.
Director England moved for adjournment. Attorney Copenhaver: second
