The Ellettsville, Indiana, Town Council met in regular session at 7:30 PM, Monday, February 24, 2003 at the Town Hall. David Sorokoty called the meeting to order and Ray Freetage led in prayer. Lisa Combs-Creech led in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Roll Call
David Sorokoty asked for roll call of the Council Members. Members present were David Sorokoty, President; David Drake, Vice-President; Lisa Combs-Creech, Geraldine McIntyre and Ray Freetage. Also present were Sandra Hash, Clerk-Treasurer and Mike Spencer, Attorney.
Supervisors Present Jim Davis, Jim Ragle, Jeff Farmer and Ron McGlocklin.
Announcement: A Democrat is still needed to fill a seat on the Board of Zoning
Appeals
Approval of Minutes of
the regular meeting on February 10, 2003
Lisa Combs-Creech moved to approve the minutes. Ray Freetage seconded. Motion carried.
Action to pay Accounts
Payable Vouchers
Geraldine McIntyre moved to approve the accounts payable vouchers. Lisa Combs-Creech seconded. Motion carried.
Proclamations
Proclaim March as American Red
Cross Month
David Drake read the proclamation in its
entirety. Geraldine McIntyre moved to
adopt the proclamation making the month of March American Red Cross Month. Ray Freetage seconded. Motion carried. David Sorokoty presented Ed Vande Sande of the American Red Cross
with the proclamation.
Mr. Vande Sande thanked the Town Council
for the proclamation saying that he had worked closely with the Town during the
tornado disaster back in September and appreciated what this proclamation
means. He continued by saying how
important a role the Red Cross has had since its charter in January of
1905. It is the communications link
between the Families and the Service member.
The Red Cross is dedicated to provide emergency services to our armed
forces and it is essential as a community and a country that we support our men
and women in uniforms. He said the
American Red Cross is not a governmental agency although chartered by the
Federal Government it is a volunteer agency that is completely supported by the
American people terming the Red Cross as “a gift to Americans from Americans”.
He invited everyone to join him for the
kick off of the American Red Cross Month at the College Mall on March 8th,
2003.
Proclaim the week of March 2-8
as Severe Weather Awareness Week
Ray Freetage read the proclamation in its
entirety and moved to approve the proclamation making the week of March 2-8
Severe Weather Awareness Week. Lisa
Combs-Creech seconded. Motion carried. David Sorokoty presented Monroe County
Emergency Management Director John Hooker III with the proclamation. Mr. Hooker thanked the Council for assisting
Monroe County Emergency Management for getting the word out about the 25th
annual statewide Awareness Week. There
will be a statewide tornado exercise on March 5th, 2003 once in the
afternoon and once in the evening that will last for five minutes each. The
afternoon drill would be between 2-2:30 p.m. to benefit the businesses and
schools teaching children safety measures to take during a tornado. The evening drill would be between 7-7:30
p.m. to benefit families giving them opportunities to interact and
practice safety planning in the case of a
tornado disaster at home. He handed out
information packets with disaster definitions and tornado safety tips to the
Council. Monroe County is a storm ready
community thanks to our warning systems and dispatchers. A lot of lives were saved on September 20th,
2002 because of our preparedness.
New Business
Jason Schunn – Eagle Scout
Project
Jeff Schunn, assistant Scout master with
troop #119 and Jason’s father explained that a project is conceived, developed
and pre approved in order for the Eagle Scout candidate to acquire the status
of an Eagle Scout. Jason Schunn
explained his project. He would like to
replace and repair the sidewalks at Memorial Park for the Town. Making it safer for the Veterans and also
adding a wheelchair ramp. The project
would be started in April and take four Saturdays. Jason and his fellow
Scouts would provide all of the labor but requested the Town purchase
the materials and haul off the old debris.
The cost of concrete would be $592.00, Mesh $86.00, River Rock $18.00
and lumber (the Town has access to lumber) for a total of $696.00. Jim Ragle
agreed to haul away the debris. The
Council thought it was a worthwhile project that would benefit the Town but at
Darlyne’s request deferred Jason to the Parks Board. The Parks Board meets on the first Monday of each month at 7:00
p. m. Sandra Hash suggested the Parks
Board review the project first and if they need funding to come back to the
Council. The David Sorokoty agreed that
this project is a Parks Board issue.
Todd Stevenson, Monroe County Highway Department Drainage Engineer –
Informed the Council of a required project the Town will be participating in
called Rule 13 Storm Water Quality
Mr. Stevenson has been involved with Indiana Department of
Environmental Management and this project for approximately a year and a
half. He gave a presentation on Rule 13
about improving storm water quality in urbanized areas. Rule 13 comes from the National Pollution
Discharge Elimination System program, which is the same thing as phase II of
the Clean Water Act. This deals with
non-point source pollution, which is anything in storm water that is not water
and does not come from point sources such as water treatment plants, etc. Examples of non-point source pollutants are
household wastes, gasoline, insecticides, etc.
His interpretation of Rule 13 is about keeping the roads, parking lots,
driveways, lawns and ditches clean instead of letting rainfall clean them for
us so we can improve stream water quality.
Monitoring storm water quality is difficult because many variables have
to be considered such as when rainfall is collected, what season collected,
time frame collected, how frequent rainfall has occurred during a certain time
frame collected, etc. Therefore the
most effective way to monitor it is to first identify pollutants then eliminate
them when possible.
He explained the term MS4, which is used in the Clean Water Act, is by
definition a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System. There are five MS4 entities in our area including unincorporated
Monroe County, Ellettsville, Bloomington, Indiana University and Ivy Tech. He suggested the MS4 operators set good
examples for the public on pollution prevention as well as educating and
providing opportunities for participation from all age groups. Failing septic systems should also be
addressed. The public should have
access to household hazardous waste disposal sites. Sediment at construction sites should be controlled better during
construction and long term.
Programmatic Indicators need to be developed and used as yardsticks to
show determine a baseline and to help decide whether preventive measures being
practiced are effective. After the
indicator is decided then goals that are attainable need to be set and worked
toward which are termed as Measurable Goals.
We also need to keep the Indiana Department of Environmental Management
better informed by reporting details of projects and cost. According
to the Environmental Protection Agency the deadline for the Storm Water
Quality Management Plan is due by March 10th; however, IDEM has
determined implementation deadlines and broken the project down into
sections. The first section is The
Notice of Intent and Budget, which is due in October of 2003, a Baseline
Characterization is due in March of 2004 and the last section is Programmatic
Indicators and Measurable Goals, which is due in October of 2004. There is a storm quality group that meets
and encouraged everyone to get involved.
The next meeting will be on March 4th, 2003 at 8:00 a. m. in
the Courthouse, 3rd floor meeting room. He closed by saying that Rule 13 is currently going before the
Water Pollution Control Board on March 12th for final adoption and
that a copy of Rule 13 can be obtained online.
A discussion with a question and answer session followed the presentation.
Geraldine McIntyre, Town
Council Board Member and Board Member of the Monroe County Solid Waste
suggested Ellettsville citizens taking household hazardous waste products to
the Monroe County Solid Waste Facility on south Walnut Street, also that every
Spring, during March, a van from the Solid Waste collects these household
hazards including old paint and disposes of them.
David Sorokoty questioned
who Ellettsville would be working with and about the website workshops.
Ray Freetage stated what
we basically need to do is get a plan for cleaner storm water in place and get
it right the first time, so when IDEM accesses the progress the plan follows
the basic idea and we won’t have to re-write it or get stiffer rules that may
not be suitable for our Town.
Lisa Combs-Creech asked
if there are guidelines or a model that can be followed so we have some sort of
structure to develop a plan for Ellettsville.
She said if we put this plan in place then the Building Inspector should
be involved with construction site erosion.
Rick Coppock has been
attending the meetings and said each Developer must have an erosion control
plan that is approved by IDEM before getting a construction permit.
Mr. Stevenson encouraged
everyone to work together and said David should check the website often to keep
informed of workshops. A lot of
websites are available with examples of how to educate and encourage the public
on this issue. An urbanized area
consists of at least 500 people per square mile and each area should have a MS4
operator because I. D. E. M. wants to have a responsible contact person. MS4 operators can form their own plan and
suggested possibly creating an erosion control ordinance. The goal is to clean up streams so the
public can use them to swim and fish in.
The steps to improve storm water quality need to be followed or I. D. E.
M. will make stiffer requirements and it would be the entity that would impose
the fines. There aren’t definite
guidelines set yet due to the State being in a fiscal crisis and only has a
couple of people working on this project but they say they should have them
soon. Has encouraged working closely
with IDEM and not view them as just a regulatory office.
David Sorokoty thanked
Mr. Stevenson for informing the Council.
Contract with Cintas
Sandra Hash explained the Street and Utility Department had expressed
some dissatisfaction with Cintas, the current supplier, so she asked for new
uniform options and three companies submitted proposals all very reasonable. However, it would have cost the Town to get
out of the current contract with Cintas and they addressed the problems giving
us a better price than before. Sandra,
Cintas and the
respective Departments met and negotiated a new contract. It is for 3 years at a 40% savings. After the contract is signed all the guys
will be fitted for new uniforms opting to have blue jeans instead of the other
work pants. It will cost Cintas over
$5,000 to fit everyone in all new uniforms.
Two years is the life of the garment then they will be replaced. If Cintas fails to fill our needs and
correct the concerns expressed then they will dismiss us from the contract
without a cost to the Town. Cintas has
a local distribution center. The other two companies are not. Geraldine McIntyre moved to approve the
contract with Cintas. Lisa Combs-Creech
seconded. Motion carried.
Privilege of the Floor
Ed Bitner stated he was pleasantly surprised by how many people
watch the meetings on CATS. Referencing
his speech at the last Council meeting he explained that when he has a topic to
discuss he does the research first but reiterated that he is interrupted
frequently which causes more confusion than intended. Thanked Jim Ragle for the Street
Department’s fine job on snow removal.
Lastly he offered a copy of the Roberts Rules of order for meetings.
Supervisor’s comments
Jim Davis explained
that Deputy Chief Mike Cornman is in need of a new vehicle because the current
car Mike is driving is in need of repair.
He requested the Council approve the purchase of a 2000 model Ford Crown
Victoria with 46,000 miles. The money
has already been budgeted for this year in the CB & E Fund. David Drake made a motion to approve the
purchase of the used car to replace the Deputy Chief’s last vehicle. Geraldine McIntyre seconded. Motion carried.
Ron McGlocklin
presented and explained the Police Department’s 2002 annual report. Some of the incidents they deal with are
accident reports, personal injury reports, property damage, fatalities, parking
tickets, warnings and citations. The
total case reports for 2002 was 554, total incident reports filed was 4,832,
the total gun permits requested was 35, VIN checks requested was 23 and total
police and accident reports requested was 79.
The report showed a comparison of 2002 to 2001.
David Sorokoty commended
the Police Department for their fine work throughout the year and thanked Ron
for the more detailed report this year.
Geraldine McIntyre asked
when the 2 surplus police cars be put up for bid?
Ron McGlocklin replied in the spring. The Reserves
may sell their car also and then they will sell all 3 cars at the same
time. The Spencer Police Department is
interested in purchasing one of the cars for their Reserves. He asked the Council to consider selling
them one out right at a set price.
Lisa Combs-Creech, Health Officer requested the Town recognize Veteran’s Day officially by either
creating an ordinance to make it an additional paid Holiday or she suggested
taking Veteran’s Day for a Town Holiday instead of Columbus Day.
She suggested a ticketing / fines system for weeds and trash instead of
sending out expensive certified letters which cost $4.42 each.
She congratulated St. John’s Church for receiving a certificate from
the Monroe County Commissioners for their help during the tornado
disaster.
Ray Freetage met with Ron McGlocklin and they are
considering a new evaluation form for the Police Department as well as
discussing ideas for a new building for the Department.
Geraldine McIntyre
informed the Council that she hopes to have more information with Rick
Coppock’s help on the road for the Senior Citizens at the next meeting. She thanked Jim Ragle and his crew for their
good job on snow removal.
David Drake thanked
Jim Ragle and his crew also.
David Sorokoty
announced there will be a special session at the Town Hall on Thursday at 6:30
p. m. and requested the Supervisors as well as the Council members attend. Also thanked the Street Department for their
hard work and congratulated the Edgewood High School girls basketball team
along with Jeff Farmer, assistant coach for winning the sectionals.
Adjournment
David Sorokoty asked
for a motion to adjourn. Ray Freetage
moved to adjourn. David Drake
seconded. Motion carried. Meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:55
p. m.
_____________________________ __________________________
David Sorokoty, President David Drake, Vice President
_____________________________ __________________________
Lisa Combs-Creech Ray Freetage
_____________________________ __________________________
Geraldine McIntyre Sandra C. Hash, Clerk-Treasurer