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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-09-10 MINUTES OF COUNCIL SEPTEMBER 10, 2013 The Batesville City Council met in regular session on September 10, 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; Tommy Bryant, Margarett Henley, Paige Hubbard, Davy Insell, Fred Krug, Douglas Matthews, Chris Poole, and David Shetron. Also present were the City Clerk Denise Johnston and the City Attorney Lindsey Castleberry. Councilmember Henley moved to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Councilmember Bryant seconded and all voted for. Councilmember Bryant moved to approve the prepared agenda as amended. Councilmember Insell seconded and all voted for. CITIZENS COMMENTS Ms. Katrina Rowe-Fudge of 871 Sidney Street addressed the council regarding the discussion of changing the name of one block of Sidney, between Neeley and E. Boswell Streets, to Bill Hicks Street. Ms. Fudge said four generations of her family have owned property and lived on the 800 block of Sidney. She said there are lots of people in Batesville who have done great things who could have streets named after them and she was concerned with where the council would draw the line. Mr. Jim Leonard of 505 Sidney Street addressed the council concerning the street renaming. He said renaming one block of a street would set a precedence that would be very hard to stop. He also said he could not see the advantage of renaming one block of a street. Ms. Regina Rowe-Bryant, who owns property at 881 Sidney, addressed the council and said she felt the City was acting on a "whim" and not considering all the ramifications of renaming one block of Sidney Street. She said if the council starts renaming a block here and a block there, it would mess up GPS information and run havoc on emergency services. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A) THIRD AND FINAL READING OF AN ORDINANCE TO ESTABLISH DESIGN STANDARDS FOR COMMERCIAL FACADES Councilmember Bryant moved to suspend the rules and read the third reading by title only. Councilmember Insell seconded and the roll call count was 8 for and 0 against. Mr. Castleberry read the ordinance by title only. Councilmember Bryant moved to adopt the ordinance and Councilmember Henley seconded. The roll call count was 8 for and 0 against. The ordinance was given #2013-9-1. NEW BUSINESS A) SHERIFF DEPARTMENT'S REPORT Chief Deputy Alan Cockrill addressed the council with the Sheriff Department's monthly report. He said he had visited with the Mayor about the traffic congestion at Eagle Mountain School. He said he was going to visit with the school personnel to try to find a solution. He also said his department has two persons in custody for the recent break-in at the Southside Sonic. B) MR. LARRY JONES WITH AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT UPDATE Mr. Larry Jones with the Economic Development Commission addressed the council with his monthly report. Mr. Jones said the Quorum Court accepted the low bid from Provence Construction of$533,200. for the 5,600 sq foot food distribution warehouse for Flowers Bakery. Flowers will sign a 20 year lease for the facility which will be built in the business park on White Drive. Mr. Jones said they were still pursuing a gun manufacturing company to come to our area. The last proposal was sent September 6th. Mr. Jones said they are still waiting to see if another company is going to buy out the Pilgrim's Pride plant. Pilgrim's gave their employees a 60 day "warn" notice. They will be closing on October 25th at which time 455 employees will lose theirjobs. He said to help those displaced workers, they are having a Job Fair on September 24th at UACCB. He said they were expecting 40 employers in the area to be at the fair. C) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION TO ALLOW THE MAYOR TO APPLY FOR A GIF GRANT ON BEHALF OF VITAL LINK Councilmember Bryant introduced a resolution authorizing the Mayor to apply for a GIF grant for Vital Link EMS. Ms. Karen Ryan, CEO of Vital Link, addressed the council regarding the request. Ms. Ryan said they were applying for the grant for three specific reasons, to purchase work-out equipment for their employees, resurface their parking lot and replace the flooring in one of their offices. She said the total grant request is $47,713.42. Mr. Castleberry read the resolution in full. Councilmember Bryant moved to adopt the resolution and Councilmember Shetron seconded. The roll call count was 8 for and 0 against. The resolution was given #2013-9-1-R. D) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO HEALTH BENEFITS FOR RETIRED MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES City Clerk Denise Johnston explained to the council the purpose of this proposed ordinance. Ms. Johnston said the Municipal League requires certain guidelines for retired employees to remain on the City's health insurance once retired. Those guidelines apply to all the City's that are covered under their health insurance. However, the City has the authority to amend the regulations by ordinance and the Municipal League will abide by those regulations for our City. Ms. Johnston said one of the requirements is an employee must have 20 years of service and be at least 55 years old in order to remain on the health plan once retired. She said the Utility Department has an employee who has joined the DROP plan and will be forced to retire within 7 years. At the time of his retirement, he will have over 20 years but will not be 55 years. Therefore, the proposed ordinance will add to the requirements allowing an employee with over 27 years of service to retire at any age and remain on the plan if they so choose. She also told the council that if the employee chooses to stay on the health plan, the employee is responsible for the total premiums. Also, once the employee reaches age 65 and is eligible for Medicare, they will no longer be eligible for the City's health plan. Councilmember Shetron recommended that we table the ordinance until the new health care exchange guidelines are released in October to make sure we don't adopt anything that will be in conflict with the new guidelines. E) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION TO CONTRACT WITH STONEBRIDGE CONSTRUCTION TO CONSTRUCT T-BALL FIELDS AT THE NORTH COMPLEX Councilmember Shetron introduced a resolution to accept the low bid and enter into a contract with Stonebridge Construction, LLC for the construction of 3 T-Ball fields at the North Complex. Mr. Castleberry read the resolution in full. Councilmember Matthews moved to adopt the resolution and Councilmember Bryant seconded. The roll call count was 8 for and 0 against. The resolution was given #2013-9-2-R. F) ENGINEER'S REPORT Mr. Damon Johnson, City Engineer, addressed the council with his engineer's report. Mr. Johnson said the Golden Overpass will be closed Thursday to start routine maintenance on the bridge. He said Beverly Construction will be doing the repairs and the bridge will be closed for several days. G) REVIEW PAID BILLS REPORT The council was given a copy of the August, 2013 paid bills report for review. MAYOR COMMENTS Mayor Elumbaugh asked for out of state travel approval for Marty Thompson and Don Martin to attend a traffic light workshop. The class is in Decatur, AL on September 24-26 and will cost approximately $1,600.00. Councilmember Bryant moved to approve the out of state travel. Councilmember Shetron seconded and all voted for. The Mayor also asked for out of state travel for him to attend the National League of Cities conference this year in Seattle, WA. The conference is scheduled for November 13-16. Councilmember Bryant moved to approve the out of state travel for the Mayor and Councilmember Matthews seconded. All voted for. Mayor Elumbaugh told the council that bids were opened for new leases on two residential sanitation trucks and one commercial sanitation truck. The current leases will be up in January and March of 2014. We only received one bid for the vehicles. Truck Component Services gave a bid of$263,850.00 for the two residential trucks and $219,544.00 for the commercial truck. The Mayor said the sanitation supervisor Marty Thompson reviewed the bids and recommended that they be accepted. Councilmember Shetron moved to accept the bids from Truck Component Services. Councilmember Matthews seconded and all voted for. LIAISON REPORTS Councilmember Henley said she attended a Cemetery Committee meeting and would like to inform those who own cemetery spaces at Oaklawn and pay for annual upkeep, their 2013 bills are currently being processed and mailed. She said the department plans to change the billing cycle next year to around March and the following year to January. COUNCIL COMMENTS Councilmember Henley said she has had a request for a street light on Juniper. Currently the homeowner at the end of Juniper Street is paying for a night watcher. She said there is a pole across the street and she would like the city to place a light on the pole so she can do away with her night watcher. Councilmember Bryant said the City usually places a street light at every intersection. In the old part of town, that is about every 300 feet. In the newer parts of town the intersections are about 420 feet apart. There is a street light at the nearest intersection to the proposed light at about 220 feet from the night watcher. The council said they would go by and look at the proposed site and discuss it at the next meeting. Ms. Henley also said she has had several calls about the large amount of brush piles around town. She said she is aware that the summer storms and both of the chipper trucks having been out of service several times has put them behind on picking up the brush. She asked if there was anything they could do to try to get most of the brush picked up before the Water Carnival next weekend. The Mayor said he would visit with the sanitation supervisor about the excessive brush. Councilmember Poole said he wanted to remind everyone about the Movies in the Park this Saturday night and encouraged everyone to bring the family out for an evening in our park. Councilmember Shetron asked the Mayor to contact the resource officer at Central School and discuss ways to help with the traffic issues at the school. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, Councilmember Matthews moved that the meeting be adjourned. Councilmember Bryant seconded and all voted for. RICK ELUMBAUGH, MAYOR DENISE M. JOHNSTON, CITY CLERK