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HomeMy Public PortalAbout06-24-1993 5` - BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS AND SAFETY OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND. INDIANA. JUNE 24. 1993 1 The Board of Public Works and Safety of the City of Richmond, Indiana, met in regular session on Thursday, 2 June 24, 1993, in said City.Janet Hibner presided with Earnest Jarvis and Dennis Grimes in attendance. The 3 following business was had to-wit: 4 5 APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JUNE 18.1993 6 7 The minutes of the previous meeting were approved on a motion by Jarvis, second by Grimes and carried on a 8 unanimous voice vote. 9 10 APPROVAL OF CLAIMS FOR PAYMENT 11 12 Claims submitted by the City Controller for payment totaled $499,565.27, which included $39,819.70 for water 13 for the fire hydrants, also$78,550.54 to Richmond Power&Light for street lights and electricity for the City and 14 three payments of$139,349, $49,736 and $77,747 for insurance. Grimes moved to approve the claims, second 15 by Jarvis and the motion was carried by a unanimous voice vote. 16 17 REQUESTS 18 19 A. Chairperson Hibner brought before the Board a late request made by Larry Parker, business 20 manager of Richmond Civic Theatre, asking for the blocking of the alley at the rear of the building on 21 the morning of Tuesday, June 29, 1993, for the purpose of setting I-beams by Oberle & Associates 22 After asking for comments from Sgt. Janice Passmore of the Traffic Safety Division of the Richmond _ --- 23 Police Department and receiving no objection, Chairperson Hibner moved to approve the request, 24 second by Jarvis and the motion was carried by a unanimous voice vote. 25 26 CONTRACTS 27 28 A. Grimes reported that the bids for the exhaust systems for fire stations 1 through 6 received two 29 weeks ago had been reviewed by Purchasing Manager Vicki Stevens, Fire Chief James Sticco and 30 Assistant Fire Chief Joe Pierce. It was their recommendation that the bid be awarded to•Exhaustomatic 31 Inc. of Indianapolis for $58,272 which was for the electronic type nozzle. He noted that the other bid 32 received was from Russell &Geier for$72,227. Grimes moved to accept the bid of Exhaustomatic Inc. 33 as the lowest and most responsive bidder, second by Jarvis and the motion was carried by a 34 unanimous voice vote. 35 36 B. City Attorney Thomas Milligan presented the Escrow Agreement to the Board, explaining that it is 37 the last document the Board needs to authorize before the closing of the contract with Carpenter 38 Manufacturing Corporation scheduled to take place Friday, June 25, 1993. He explained that the 39 escrow agreement will be entered into Friday at the closing with U.S. Steel Carnegie Pension Trust out 40 of New York, Star Bank here in Richmond as the trustee and the Board of Works by Chairperson 41 Hibner. 42 43 Milligan said the document provides for the escrow agreement with Star Bank Indiana as trustee which 44 will receive $100,000 from the funds that will be involved at the closing for the purpose of cleaning up 45 and completing any remediation that is necessary from the environmental assessment that has been 46 performed by the seller. He added that there are actually two sources of money available for that 47 procedure, noting that there is a trust presently with Star Bank that is between the Indiana Department 48 of Environmental Management and Wayne Corporation. He said it dates back to 1983,,with assets of 49 approximately$30,700, and relates to the closure which has not yet been completed on an incinerator 50 near the facility. Hull and Associates, he said, were authorized by Wayne Corporation to proceed with 51 the cleanup of that and that money will be applied to whatever cost is involved in that particular phase. 52 Milligan said, in addition, that the $100,000 will meet any other matters that have been discovered in 53 the assessment done by Hull and Associates over the past 10 months on behalf of U.S.Steel Carnegie 54 Pension Trust, the owner. He noted that all of these environmental problems are the primary 55 responsibility of Wayne Corporation but because they are in bankruptcy the resources to pay for that 56 are not readily available. He added that Exhibit C of the agreement spells out that all those hazardous 57 materials have to be disposed of in one way or another in an environmentally sound manner. Milligan 58 added that he could recomment to the Board that the City's interests have been protected as far as the 59 environmental concerns by this agreement. 60 61 The second part of the agreement, Milligan explained, provides for the deposit of $84,000 with Star 62 Bank as trustee and that represents the money to pay the fall taxes on the property. He explained that 63 the property assessment had been reduced to$877,540 a third of the orginal assessment, and the City 64 will be paying taxes out of rent payments received. He added that this property will not be taken off the 65 tax roles because it is not being used for a governmental purpose. • I Board of Works Minutes Cont'd June 24, 1993 • Page 2 1 Milligan said he could recommend to the Board that this is appropriate to take action on this morning 2 and it represents the last of a number of documents involved in the contract.Chairperson Hibner moved 3 to approve entering into the escrow agreement, second by Jarvis and the motion was carried by a 4 unanimous voice vote. 5 6 C. Milligan told the Board that part of the agreement to purchase the facility stated that the buyer was to 7 provide a new survey prepared by Weinmiller & Associates which is a legal document for the specific 8 Wayne Corporation property.The seller is to pay the first$5,000 of the cost of the survey, which leaves 9 a balance of $1,100 for the City to pay. Chairperson Hibner moved to accept the survey, second by 10 Jarvis and the motion was carried by a unanimous voice vote. 11 12 D. Grimes reported that due to a need to update the present telephone system quotations had been 13 sought with two consulting companies responding. The two were Phillips & Associates with a quote of 14 $12,070 and Kiffin Gilbert for $6,500. Grimes moved to accept the quote from Kiffin Gilbert not to 15 exceed$6,500,second by Jarvis and the motion was carried by a unanimous voice vote. 16 17 PUBLIC COMMENTS 18 19 A. Clifford Wagner, president of Wayne County Crimestoppers Inc. and a retired businessman, told 20 Board members of a resolution passed by the Vaile Neighborhood Association May 10, 1993, to join 21 with the Vaile Neighborhood Crime Watch program to make a formal request to enforce City ordinances 22 having to do with litter, noise, curfew and barking dogs. He noted that Crimestoppers•had agreed to 23 provide administrative services necessary for a quick start to help in that area for one year. He said the 24 ordinances need to be enforced by the people we already have. 25 26 Josie Moore of 126 South 13th Street noted the problems in the area in the past, such as a dead dog 27 in the dumpster, children going through dumpsters containing feces, neighborhood kids in the alleys 28 active sexually and obtaining drugs and loud boom boxes day and night. 29 30 Bernice Murray at 224 South 13th Street said that the barking dogs are bombarding the area and she 31 felt residents are not benefitting from the enforcement of that ordinance. 32 33 Chairperson Hibner said she had asked the Richmond Police Department to respond to the curfew and 34 noise ordinance,she,as head of the Department of Law,would respond to the litter problem and Jarvis, 35 as director of the Department of Public Works,would speak on behalf of the Sanitary Division.She said 36 those in her office do address numerous complaints on a daily basis. She said 295 complaints had 37 been filed and 244 of those came to her department and included litter violations. She said tickets are 38 commonly issued for litter violations but at the same time it is her department's policy to gain 39 enforcement to clean up the litter. She said she is also interested in a clean city and tickets are issued 40 on a daily or weekly basis until the litter is cleaned up. She added that they have had very good - 41 success with that method, but as a practical matter they do void those tickets so they do not show up in 42 the City Clerk's office because she feels it is more important to have a clean city rather than collect fine 43 money. She said for that reason there may not be very many litter tickets showing that have been 44 issued. 45 46 Jarvis said the City has an ordinance prepared by the Sanitary District Attorney for the Sanitary District 47 that deals with many of these items mentioned today and that ordinance is about to be sent to the 48 Common Council for its approval. He added that it will give strength to the ordinance and will increase 49 the capability of enforcing the problems. He said his department has tried to educate and inform the 50 public about the policies and the way things are done.Jarvis said he felt many of these problems could 51 be eliminated through educating the people who live in the neighborhoods. 52 53 Councilmember Jane Brookbank, in whose district the Vaile Neighborhood Association is, noted that in 54 the Starr Neighborhood they literally tattle on each other and they are learning from each other. She 55 said it is a process of education, knowing that the neighbors are not going to tolerate such things as 56 ordinance violations. 57 58 Chairperson Hibner elaborated on the complaint procedure, noting that her office had received a 59 number of complaints from the Vaile Neighborhood area. She said those who call her office are asked 60 to give their names and addresses because it is difficult to investigate complaints without identification. 61 She said after the complaint has been resolved her office does send a letter telling what was done.She 62 encouraged citizens to report their problems. Jarvis said one of the biggest problems his department 63 faces is when someone moves, instead of calling his department and paying $5 for the rental of one of 64 the big "tubs" specifically designed to hold a large amount of items, they merely throw it into the alley 65 creating a big mess and bringing complaints.He said that information has been published constantly Board of Works Minutes Cont'd June 24 Page 3 1 and has been talked about regularly but most citizens do not call and spend $5 for the large container. 2 He added that the tubs are also available to those who want to trim their trees. 3 4 Major Farmer reported that the Richmond Police Department struggled with the barking dog ordinance 5 for several years and a few years ago when the city codes were recodified someone involuntarily 6 omitted the violation which stated that the officer had to witness the dog barking before the owner could 7 be cited. He added that it presented problems. The newly adopted ordinance, he said, deals with the 8 situation in a better way. He said the citation has been redesigned so that the complaintant can co-sign 9 the ticket with the officer, adding that you have to have that person's cooperation or the officer can't do 10 anything with it. 11 12 Enforcing the noise ordinance is not a simple matter according to Major Farmer. He said the ordinance 13 addresses decibel levels and that means getting a reading on a decimeter to enforce it. He said the 14 decimeter is broken and it is extremely difficult to find any company who is able to repair it. He said 15 loud parties are easy compared to those carrying boom boxes. His department uses the state statute 16 on disorderly conduct in those cases. He said many citizens have police scanners nowadays and they 17 know when the police are coming before they get there. He said getting license numbers on cars with 18 loud radios helps and so do video cameras. He added that his officers can't do the enforcement all by 19 themselves, adding that it takes working as a team to make a safer community. 20 21 In talking about the curfew hours, Major Farmer said the state statute differs from the city ordinance in a 22 few areas. He said his officers lecture and release a child guilty of curfew violation and he or she goes 23 home with a parent that night. He said the Police Department cannot detain a child. 24 25 B. A request made by Fire Chief James Sticco was read by Jarvis. He asked for the Board's approval 26 for a water party at Townsend Center at 1:30 p.m.today. Jarvis so moved, second by Grimes and the 27 motion was carried by a unanimous voice vote. 28 29 PUBLIC COMMENTS 30 31 Russell Culbertson of 420 Henley Road South requested the Board look into placing a sign on the east side of 32 the road to slow down northbound traffic. He said traffic had seemed to increase lately and he had found it nearly 33 impossible to make a left hand turn out of his drive and head north. He added that there is only one stop on 34 Henley Road and that is at South L Street.Sgt.Janice Passmore of the Traffic Safety Division said she would be 35 glad to check the area and make a recommendation based on her findings. She noted that there had been a 36 three-way stop at Reeveston and Henley Roads a few years ago. 37 38 ADJOURNMENT 39 40 There being no further business,on a motion duly made,seconded and passed the meeting was adjourned. - 41 42 43 44 45 - 46 47 48 49 Janet Hibner,Chairperson 50 51 52 53 54 ATTEST: 55 Norma Carnes, City Clerk 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65