City of Woodburn Council Meeting Minutes 2/19/18
The meeting began at 7:00 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor Kelsey, Clerk-Treasurer Cummins, Superintendent Walls, Chief Duhamell as well as Councilmen Watts, Voirol, Gerig, Renner, and Martin were in attendance.
To start off the meeting, the mayor gave the annual State of the City Address.
POLICE CHIEF’S REPORT:
The police department needs a new water heater in the near future. The chief received an estimate but the price should be reduced as it will be installed by one of our reserve officers. The Board of Works approved this purchase on February 19th, 2018. On Saturday night, Squad 3 was damaged by falling power lines when an officer was assisting with a traffic accident.
SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT:
The well at the high school has been repaired and should be ready for use within the week. The superintendent provided the council with a graph of water consumption for a resident with a large water bill. The graph shows a spike of usage over one 24 hour period and then it seemed to go back down. After discussion, Councilman Voirol moved to adjust the sewer portion of the bill to reflect the average usage for all affected months, second by Councilman Watts, all in favor.
MAYOR’S REPORT:
The mayor informed the council that the city was turned down for the 80% federal funding towards “Warrior Road”. Councilman Watts moved to remove the Dozerwerks discussion from the table, second by Councilman Renner, all in favor. Discussion began about the extension of Hickory Street. After discussion, Councilman Watts moved to proceed with the Hickory Street extension quote previously presented by Dozerwerks in the amount of $81,500, second by Councilman Renner, all in favor.
CLERK-TREASURER’S REPORT:
The meeting minutes were presented from the February 5th meeting. After discussion, Councilman Gerig moved to accept the minutes from the meeting on February 5th as presented, second by Councilman Voirol, all in favor. Warrants were presented. After inspection, Councilman Voirol moved to pay the warrants as presented, second by Councilman Gerig, all in favor. The clerk-treasurer asked if the city wanted to see about a willingness to pay for any portion of the insurance for the Front Street drags during the summer festival. After discussion, Councilman Watts moved to pay for the insurance for that event in an amount not to exceed $500, second by Councilman Voirol, all in favor.
Councilmen’s Report:
Councilman Martin confirmed that the city did not have a registered dog tag or some type of pet registration for city animals.
AUDIENCE:
Residents who will be directly impacted by the upcoming sewer projects were invited to discuss any and all questions that they have with this process. Jeremy with Commonwealth was present to answer any questions from the audience.
Q: What will I need to pay for a sewer connection and/or inspection fee?
A: The sewer inspection fee is a part of the $1,000 sewer tap fee. This fee will be waived if the resident will connect within 120 days of the first day of the notice to connect. This connection notice will be delivered several months out from today.
Q: Is there a cost to put the main line in behind my home?
A: This cost was considered as part of the mechanical plant construction and was funded by SRF. The reason to add this part of the project to the mechanical plant construction was in an effort to lower the interest rate on the principal amount due to environmental consideration to the overall process.
Q: Is there any other costs for me to pay for?
A: The resident is responsible to decommission the septic tank (as relevant), have the county inspect afterwards, direct power to the grinder station (as relevant), and have the laterals from the home to the main line be set up. After everything is setup, the city will take care of the grinder stations going forward, but the power going out to it would be on the resident to take care of in the future.
Q: What happens to my landscaping at the end of the project?
A: At the end of the project, property will be made whole as before. This may be seasonally dependent based on the extent of the damage, but should be nominal unless discussed prior to actually occurring.
Councilman Watts moved to adjourn the meeting, second by Councilman Voirol, all in favor. Meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
City of Woodburn Council Meeting Minutes
Meeting began at 7:00 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor Kelsey, Clerk-Treasurer Cummins, Superintendent Walls, Chief Duhamell, as well as Councilmen Watts, Voirol, Gerig, Renner, and Martin were in attendance.
The mayor began the meeting with introductions of the council and then started into a discussion regarding the potential upcoming changes to the city’s sewer system in the near future. After explaining the reason for the need of the discussion for tonight, Jeremy from Commonwealth went into an in-depth walk through of where we are versus where we need to be, based on more stringent guidelines as regulated through IDEM (Indiana Department of Environmental Management). Jeremy explained the options that were available and why the City is ultimately leaning in the direction of a mechanical plant to process wastewater for the City.
To simplify the content of the discussion, I have created a Q & A format listed below to summarize the content of the meeting:
Q: When will a decision be made as to whether or not the city will proceed with a mechanical plant?
A: A public hearing is scheduled for March 6th, at which time the city anticipates a final decision.
Q: What is the cost of the mechanical plant and what will the rate impact be for residents?
A: The plant is estimated at 5.6 million and no potential rate impact was shared at this time.
Q: Will the city pursue additional communities’ wastewater in order to lower per user costs?
A: The city will consider other entities as interest and/or relevance allows.
Q: Will the final preliminary engineering report be available on the website prior to March 6th?
A: It is the intention of the city to have it available on www.cityofwoodburn.org prior to the meeting, but it will be available for inspection at the meeting if nothing else.
Q: Will the city re-purpose the current rate structure prior to this rate change?
A: At this time, the city will more than likely not reevaluate its current rate structure.
Q: Will there be any state or federal funding?
A: The city is investigating into possible funding sources to alleviate the financial burden of residents.
Q: Will this project take place on a location currently owned by the city?
A: Yes. The current lagoon site will also be the site for any replacement to the current system.
Q: How far does the city anticipate extending the sewer lines on State Road 101?
A: The city plans on extending the sewer lines north on 101 up to Love’s Travelstop.
Q: Will there be additional operation costs associated with this project?
A: With a mechanical plant, there would be additional costs in power and chemical consumption. The city would probably hire on an additional employee as well.
Q: Will the debt be in the form of a bond, and if so what length? At the end of that term, will there be any relief provided to the residents?
A: The city is exploring various available options and determining their impact. Unless a noticeable increase of users occurs, it is reasonable to suspect that the rates will not decrease at the end of the term of payment for this project.
In attendance was a superintendent from a nearby community who explained that many small communities are in similar situations as Woodburn.
There was a brief recess after which the meeting continued.
Chief’s Report: Nothing to report
Mayor’s Report: Nothing to report
Clerk-Treasurer’s Report: The meeting minutes were presented from the meeting on February 6th. Councilman Voirol moved to accept the minutes from the meeting on February 6th as presented, second by Councilman Renner. Councilmen Martin and Watts in favor. Councliman Gerig abstains. Motion carries. Warrants were presented. After inspection, Councilman Voirol moved to pay the warrants as presented, second by Councilman Gerig, all in favor. The Clerk-Treasurer shared with the Council the quote from Metalink to update the Police Station with new phones and an infrastructure to allow separate lines for their phone and fax. This total quote came to $1,637.85, with the labor cost being $800 of that total. Councilman Renner moved to pay the labor cost of the Metalink quote outside of the Police Department’s budget, second by Councilan Gerig, all in favor.
Superintendent’s Report: Nothing to report
Councilmen’s Report: Councilman Voirol asked about moving the recycling bin inside of City Hall that is filled with batteries before it is too heavy to move.
Audience: Nothing to report
Councilman Gerig moved to adjourn the meeting, second by Councilman Voirol, all present in favor. Meeting was adjourned at 8:54 p.m.
