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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-06-14 MINUTES OF COUNCIL JUNE 12, 2014 The Batesville City Council met in regular session on June 12, at 5:30 PM at the Municipal Building. Mayor Elumbaugh called the meeting to order. Utility Office Manager Nick Baxter gave the invocation. Upon roll call, the following council answered present; Chris Beller, Tommy Bryant, Margarett Henley, Paige Hubbard, Chris Poole, and David Shetron. Also present were the City Clerk and the City Attorney. Councilmember Fred Krug and Doug Matthews were absent. Councilmember Shetron moved to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Councilmember Bryant seconded and all voted for. Councilmember Bryant moved to approve the prepared agenda. Councilmember Henley seconded and all voted for. CITIZENS COMMENTS Mr. Kevin Kling who resides in the county at 430 Hulsey Street and Ms. Kim Wann of 208 E. Chestnut addressed the council regarding tornado sirens. Mr. Kling wanted to know why the City or County decided not to have the tornado sirens working because when bad weather comes we need sirens. Ms. Wann had the same concern and also suggested using police scanners to alert the public. Mr. Bob Carius with Main Street Batesville addressed the council and gave each one a booklet with the Revitalization Plan for Main Street Batesville. He told the council that the new striping on Main Street has been done on two blocks. He said the reviews have been mixed but are generally positive. He said citizens can call the Main Street office or post on FaceBook their opinions of the new striping. Fire Chief Brent Gleghorn addressed the council and commented on the new look of Main Street. The Chief said the Main Street Board has done a great job in their beginning plans of revitalizing downtown Batesville. OLD BUSINESS None NEW BUSINESS A) MONTHLY REPORT FROM THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT Chief Deputy Jeremy Qualls addressed the council with the Sheriff Department's monthly report. The council was given an activity report for the month of April. Mayor Elumbaugh asked the Chief if they patrol the sandbar. He said he has had some calls regarding 4-wheelers. The Chief said they do patrol the sandbar and as summer approaches they will increase their patrolling. B) RECOGNIZE MR. RICK ISLEY FOR 28 YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE BATESVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT Mayor Elumbaugh and Fire Chief Brent Gleghorn presented Mr. Rick Isley with a plaque of appreciation for his 28 years of service with the Batesville Fire Department. Chief Gleghorn said Mr. Isley was an exemplary firefighter and will be difficult to replace. Mr. Isley started as a volunteer in May of 1986, became full time in 1992 and was promoted to Captain in 2005. Both Mayor Elumbaugh and Chief Gleghorn wished Mr. Isley well in his retirement. C) RECOGNIZE MEMBERS OF THE BELIEVERS' COMMUNITY CHURCH FOR A SERVICE PROJECT. Mayor Elumbaugh recognized members of the Believers' Community Church for a community service project that their church did for the City. Several members of the church spent two weekends making 14 picnic tables for the new North Sports Complex. The Mayor presented plaques to Pastor David Insell and several church members who helped with the project. D) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION TO CONTRACT WITH OZARK MOUNTAIN POULTRY FOR THE SPONSORSHIP OF TWO SIGNS AT THE NORTH COMPLEX Councilmember Beller introduced a resolution to contract with Ozark Mountain Poultry for the sponsorship of two signs at the North Complex. Mr. Castleberry read the resolution in full. Councilmember Beller moved to adopt the resolution and Councilmember Bryant seconded. The roll call count was 6 for and 0 against. The resolution was given #2014-06-1-R. E) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE BATESVILLE ZONING DISTRICTS MAP Councilmember Bryant introduced an ordinance that will amend the Batesville Zoning District Map for the property located at 2583 North Central. The property is currently R-1 and is being rezoned to I-1. Code Enforcement Officer Chad McClure said the rezone is in compliance with our comprehensive Plan and has gone through the proper procedures for the rezone. Councilmember Bryant moved to read the ordinance by title only. Councilmember Shetron seconded and the roll call count was 6 for and 0 against. Mr. Castleberry read the ordinance by title only. Councilmember Bryant moved to further suspend the rules and waive the second and third readings. Councilmember Shetron seconded and the roll call count was 6 for and 0 against. Councilmember Shetron moved to adopt the ordinance and Councilmember Bryant seconded. The roll call count was 6 for and 0 against. The ordinance was given # 2014-06- 01. F) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE TO COMBINE ORDINANCES AND MODIFY THE FEES AND RATES CHARGED BY THE BATESVILLE WATER AND SEWER UTILITIES City Engineer Damon Johnson addressed the council to explain and answer any questions regarding the proposed utility ordinance. Mr. Johnson said one of the main parts of the proposed ordinance is to combine four old ordinances, 2009-6- 4, 2009-6-5, 2007-10-1 and 2001-2-1. Mr. Johnson said combining the ordinance makes for better understanding for employees and citizens alike. He said another change is the increase for water deposits from $80.00 to $100.00 for home owners and $80.00 to $150.00 for renters. Mr. Johnson explained to the council that of our bad debts for the utilities, approximately 75% are from renters who move around. The higher deposit will help offset that issue. The new ordinance also addresses multiple units that share one meter and has an annual 3% rate increase to be effective January 1St of every year. Councilmember Bryant moved to suspend the rules and read the ordinance by title only. Councilmember Henley seconded and the roll call count was 6 for and 0 against. Mayor Elumbaugh said the ordinance will be placed on the next meetings agenda for the second reading. G) EXECUTIVE SESSION Councilmember Bryant moved to go into executive session and Councilmember Beller seconded. All voted for. Upon returning from Executive Session, Councilmember Bryant moved to reappoint Ms. Carma Osborn and Mr. Steven Lewis to the Planning Commission. Councilmember Shetron seconded and all voted for. Both terms will expire June 10, 2019. Councilmember Shetron moved to reappoint Mr. Andy Walmsley to the Parks and Recreation Commission. Councilmember Henley seconded and all voted for except Councilmember Beller who abstained. Mr. Walmsley's term will expire May 10, 2019. Councilmember Beller moved to appoint Mr. Woody Castleberry to the Industrial Development Commission. Councilmember Shetron seconded and all voted for. Mr. Castleberry's commission expires March, 2016. H) ENGINEER'S REPORT City Engineer Damon Johnson addressed the council with his monthly report. Mr. Johnson said he had two out of state travels that need to be approved. Wastewater Treatment employee Mr. Michael McDaniel has his annual pre- treatment training in Ft. Worth, Texas and Utility Construction Supervisor Red Davis has been invited by Vermeer to visit the plant that manufactures the new trencher that the City just purchased. Vermeer will be funding the trip. Councilmember Shetron moved to approve both out of state travels and Councilmember Bryant seconded. All voted for. Mr. Johnson said as far as City projects, the large amounts of rain the City has received lately has slowed down several of the projects and as soon as the ground dries up, things will start up again. He said the construction crew is trying to replace several water and sewer lines on the streets that are planned for overlays this summer. Mr. Johnson said he is working diligently with FEMA for the damages we received during the April 27th floods. He said there was probably about $250,000.00 in damages. 1) PAID BILLS REPORT The council was given a copy of the May. 2014 paid bills report for review. MAYOR COMMENTS Mayor Elumbaugh said the recently formed Softball Commission has met once to gather information on how to possibly solve the lack of softball fields at the North Complex. Another meeting is scheduled for June 23rd at 5:30 at the North Complex. The council was informed of a fixed asset disposal. Water Treatment Plant sold a John Deere F-735 Mower on GovDeals for$3,290.76. Mayor Elumbaugh told the council that the health insurance rates are increasing July 1St. The council discussed several different options of how to handle the increase. After a lengthy discussion Councilmember Bryant moved to pass a small portion of the increase along to the employees with dependant coverage starting with the August premium and for the City to pay all of the increase for July. Councilmember Hubbard seconded and all voted for. The Mayor said health care costs are getting increasingly higher and a huge burden on the City's budget. He asked for a committee to study options to help with the cost to the City while still looking out for our employees. He said he will also get several employees to serve on the committee. Councilmembers Poole, Shetron and Henley volunteered to serve on the committee. The Mayor said he would like a round table discussion among the council to talk about the recent issue regarding tornado sirens. Councilmember Bryant gave a brief history on how the sirens came about. He said that originally there were 24 sirens in the county with 8 being inside the City limits of Batesville. Fire Chief Brent Gleghorn also addressed the council and told them that he had talked to several venders today trying to get a feel on how much it would cost to either repair or replace the current sirens. He said that all the sirens are owned by the County so the first order of business would be for the County to give the City the sirens that are in our jurisdiction. The council also discussed the current system used by the City, AlertXpress, that notifies citizens either by land line and or by cell service when an emergency exists. The good thing about AlertXpress is you get notifications for not only tornados but for severe thunderstorms, flash floods, burn bans, amber alerts or any other emergency that could arise. The service is free to the public but only approximately 10% of the county is signed up to receive the notices and they are sometimes not very timely. No one received a notice for the last Friday's EF1 tornado because it actually formed in Batesville and the national weather service had not put out a warning for our area. They also discussed the fact that sirens are only meant to notify people who are outside. The sirens are not loud enough for someone inside their homes to hear and certainly would not wake anyone who was asleep. The best scenario is to have both systems, a siren alert and phone notification. The Mayor said they would continue the discussion and try to have more information with costs regarding the sirens at a future meeting. LIAISON REPORTS None COUNCIL COMMENTS None ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, Councilmember Bryant moved that the meeting be adjourned. Councilmember Henley seconded and all voted for. RICK ELUMBAUGH, MAYOR DENISE M. JOHNSTON, CITY CLERK