PLAINFIELD TOWN COUNCIL. July 28, 2003

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1 PLAINFIELD TOWN COUNCIL July 28, 2003 The Plainfield Town Council met on Monday, July 28, In attendance were Mr. Brandgard, Mr. Young, Mr. McPhail, Mr. Ward and Mr. Kirchoff. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mr. Brandgard said we do have several bid openings this evening. If there is somebody who hasn t turned in a bid, this is the last opportunity to do so. Being no one coming forward that is closed and I will go to the Consent Agenda. CONSENT AGENDA 1. Approval of the minutes of the Town Council meeting of Monday, July 14, Third Reading and Adoption of Ordinance No : Vandalia Annexation and Ordinance No : No Parking on South Center Street. 3. Second Reading of Ordinance No : Sewer Rate Ordinance; Ordinance : Sewer Bond Ordinance; Ordinance No : Bond Redemption Ordinance (1194 Sewer Bonds) and Ordinance No : Water Bond Ordinance. 4. Approval of contract Amendment #5 in the amount of $78, with the Schneider Corporation for design and construction inspection services for relocation of the Crystal Bay Lift Station per the Town Engineer s Report dated July 25, Acceptance of streets, water lines, sewer lines and storm sewers for Rockingham Subdivision, Section 1 per the Town Engineer s Report dated July 25, Approval of the Human Resources Director s Report dated July 28, 2003 including consent agenda items as indicated. Mr. McPhail said I would like to strike the item of the new hires for CSO officers in the Human Resources Report and discuss that under reports before we approve that. It is item number 3 in the Human Resources Report. Mr. Daniel said it is item 6 on the Consent Agenda. Mr. McPhail said it is item 6 on the Consent Agenda and item 3 in that particular report. Mr. Brandgard asked, is there consent? Consent given. Mr. Kirchoff said I have a minor change on the minutes from the last meeting. On page 2, the third paragraph up from the bottom where Mr. Lydick is talking about the First National Bank, there is a sentence that says, they are going to prevent people to cross their property. It should read, they are going to permit people to cross their property. Mr. McPhail said on page 8, the next to the last paragraph, the third sentence says, as your representative on the Hendricks County Convention and Visitors Center, it should say Bureau. Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda as amended. Second by Mr. Young. Roll call vote called. Mr. Ward yes Mr. McPhail yes Mr. Kirchoff yes Mr. Young yes Mr. Brandgard yes 5-ayes, 0-opposed, 0-absent. Motion carried. PUBLIC HEARINGS Mr. Brandgard said we have two public hearings for this evening. The first is the Opus North Corporation request for tax abatement. The! 1

2 second one would be the alley vacation. Do we have proof of publication? Mr. Daniel said yes we do. Mr. Carlucci said the first public hearing tonight is the request by Opus North Corporation to construct a 741,000 square foot warehouse distribution facility on 52 acres in the Airwest Business Park. The proposed facility could be expanded at a future date to 1,050,000 square feet. The estimated value of the proposed project, land and building, is estimated at $19,000, The building will be located on the south side of Reeves Road and to give you an idea of where it is it will be just northeast of the Balkamp Corporation. Tonight is the public hearing and I was hoping that someone was here tonight from Opus Corporation to talk about the project. We have John Cumming from Opus Corporation here. Mr. John Cumming at 8425 Woodfield Crossing Boulevard, Indianapolis said thank s for the opportunity to be here before you tonight. I m happy to have the opportunity to give you further details on our proposed development with a new 741,000 square foot warehouse distribution building located in the Airwest Business Park in Plainfield. This is a site that we have owned for several years. We have actually had some internal planning this year to start another speculative building. We have been fortunate enough to connect with a prospective tenant for the building, which is Brylane Corporation. They currently occupy in the neighborhood of about 500,000 square feet in Plainfield today. What they will be doing with this new facility is a couple of things. Fortunately for Brylane their growth is dictated that they need to grow by approximately 50% right away. So, that takes them from roughly 500,000 square feet to 745,000 square feet. The 500,000 feet that they operate is located in two separate buildings. So, they need to grow and they also need to become more efficient. This building will allow that growth and as Mr. Carlucci said, allow for future growth of an additional 300,000 square feet in the future to get them possibly over one million square feet. This is a modern warehouse distribution building with office included. It will have in the neighborhood of eight to 10 square feet of office space and 36 foot clear height and have all of the modern amenities that you see in the warehouse distribution buildings in the area. As far as car parking goes, I think it will have in the neighborhood of 270 spaces and 75 trailer spaces. And the commitment of Brylane to future growth in the area is such that the cost of the land to allow them to expand up to over a million square feet is roughly 12 acres of land. They are paying for that cost from day one because they are that optimistic about their growth in the future. This is a longterm deal. This is a tenant that has never signed more than a five-year deal in the Town of Plainfield in previous real estate deals. This would be a 12½-year lease so that is a long-term commitment along with the growth that they are planning. I would be happy to answer any questions that you have on the building. As far as timing goes our plan is to hopefully start construction right away on the building and be complete by March of Then Brylane would phase in their occupancy starting March throughout the summer so that they would fully occupy the building by September. Mr. Brandgard said this is a public hearing. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to address this with comments for or against or just comments? With no one coming forward we will close the public hearing with the Opus North Corporation request for a tax abatement. Do we have proof of publication for the vacation of the alley? Mr. Daniel said yes. Mr. Carlucci said the next public hearing, and I apologize for not getting that on the agenda but it was noticed, is the First National Bank of Cloverdale. They are requesting to vacate a public alley. Their new facility will be where the old Bank One building used to be years ago. The alley would be the first alley south across from where Old Sal s Pizza used to be. It runs all the way from Vine Street over to Center Street. They want to vacate the first part of that alley right off of Vine Street. That will obviously give them some more room to work their new facility and parking behind their new bank building.! 2

3 The fire chief met with Mr. Belcher, the Town Engineer and myself late last week. We talked about what impact that might have on the fire department. When I talked to Chief Anderson recently, they told me that vacating that alley will not impair in any way their ability to fight fires in behind those buildings. When we vacate an alley, the alley is 15 feet, we vacate the alley seven and a half feet. One half goes to the north and the other half goes to the south. The property owner on both sides is First National Bank so they would get that entire alley. From the plans that we have seen they intend to decorate it and do some landscaping in that area. If you decide to go through with this, there is an ordinance on the agenda. We reserved a public utility easement through there because there are already public utilities through there. The ordinance states that they will maintain a public utility easement through there. Which means if for some reason we have to go through there some day, we wouldn t have to go back and buy it from there. But there are already electrical and other poles there. I believe Matt Whetstone is here tonight. Mr. Matt Whetstone with First National Bank said the only thing that I would add is we are already dealing with Cinergy. If you noticed, they straightened all of the other poles in Town already except for the two back there in that alley. They were just waiting to see what we did with the project so we are going to talk to Cinergy and I have already talked to them about straightening those poles right where they are. With the plans that have already been approved by the Plan Commission they can stay where they are. We were given the rightof-way through the next parking lot south. We are going to add a new parking lot on the north side behind the building. So, we are actually going to increase from 30 some to 51 parking spots now on that property. So, we will increase parking downtown a little bit to do this and we will still have through traffic on the alley where it currently stands to the west. I will answer any other questions but this has already been approved by the Plan Commission. And the State has also had to look at this project since we are a federal bank. Mr. Carlucci said one thing that I want to point out, and I think you alluded to, is that the bank will grant the Town a public access easement to the parking area to the south. So, that we will always have access across that property even though we will have to turn right and go a little bit north and go left. People can still get deliveries in that alley. I think Mr. Daniel will be working on that and bring that agreement back maybe to a future meeting. Mr. Brandgard said this is a public hearing. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to address the Council with comments either for or against or just comments relative to vacating the alley? Being no one coming forward we will close the public hearing portion of the meeting. BID OPENINGS We have two bid openings this evening. The first one is the Southwest Water Treatment Plan Water Storage Tank and Water Mains. Do we have proof of publication? Mr. Daniel said yes we do. Mr. Brandgard said the first bid is from Atlas Excavating, Inc., West Lafayette. This is Southwest Water Main, Phase I. Mr. Daniel said the Atlas Excavating bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the base bid submitted by Atlas Excavating, Inc. is in the amount of $831, The alternate bid one is in the amount of $62, The second bid is from Dave O Mara Contractor, Inc., North Vernon, Indiana. form. Mr. Daniel said the bid from Dave O Mara Contractor is in proper Mr. Brandgard said the base bid submitted by Dave O Mara is in the amount of $872, The alternate bid one is in the amount of $82, The third bid is Eagle Valley, Indianapolis.! 3

4 Mr. Daniel said the Eagle Valley, Inc. bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the base bid submitted by Eagle Valley is in the amount of $835, The alternate bid one is in the amount of $70, The fourth bid is from Infrastructure Systems, Inc. Orleans, Indiana. Mr. Daniel said on the bid from Infrastructure Systems on their financial statement the last page of that requires a signature by somebody on behalf of the corporation. And the affidavit by the corporation they provided the affidavit and it is notarized but they just missed a signature on the earlier part of the form. So, other than that the bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said I think in the past we have allowed that with the condition that if it is awarded, they have to sign it that day. Is there consent to waive that? Consent given. Mr. Daniel said the Infrastructure Systems, Inc. is in proper form otherwise. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the base bid submitted by Infrastructure Systems, Inc. is $714, The alternate bid one is in the amount of $48, The fifth bid is submitted by Mitchell and Stark Construction, Inc., Medora, Indiana. Mr. Daniel said the Mitchell & Stark bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the base bid submitted by Mitchell and Stark Construction is in the amount of $830, The alternate bid one is in the amount of $50, I would like to thank everybody that has submitted a bid for the Southwest Water Treatment Plant Phase I. The engineer s estimate for the base bid is $958, The engineer s estimate for alternate one is $57, We will have a bid review committee of Mr. Belcher, Mr. Brown, Mr. Lahey and myself and come back at the next meeting with a recommendation. The next is the bids for the 750,000-gallon ground storage tank. Do we have proof of publication? Mr. Daniel said we have proof of publication. Mr. Brandgard said the first bid is submitted by Natgun Corporation, Wakefield, Massachusetts. Mr. Daniel said Natgun Corporation s bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the base bid submitted by Natgun Corporation is $525, The second bid is submitted by Preload in New York. Mr. Daniel said the Preload, Inc. bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Preload, Inc. is $528, Again, those were the only two bids that we had received. I would like to thank those who submitted a bid for their efforts. The engineer s estimate for the 750,000-gallon ground storage tank was $ We will have the bid review committee made up of Mr. Belcher, Mr. Brown, Mr. Lahey and myself and hopefully we will have the results at the next meeting. The next bid opening is for the Plainfield Fire Department ambulance and fire pumper apparatus quint fire apparatus. Is that one vehicle? Chief Anderson said the ambulance is a separate bid. Mr. Brandgard asked, do we have proof of publication? Mr. Daniel said yes we do. Mr. Brandgard said we will go with the pumper quint bid first. The first bid is from HME, Inc., Wyoming, Michigan. For clarification we were supposed to get one bid, which would include two vehicles, a! 4

5 pumper and a quint truck. That was what was asked for. There may be some confusion somewhere but we will let the committee sort it out. The first page is a bid for one HME, Inc. Silverfox 1,500 gallon per minute fire pumper apparatus. This says, to whom it may concern attached please find our proposal per the specifications less exceptions for one HME, Inc. Silverfox 1,500 gallon per minute pumpers. The next page is a letter that again references the bid for one This one says one 2003 Silverfox 1,500 gallon per minute pumper apparatus, HME proposal. It says, attached you will find a proposal from HME, Inc. for one HME Silverfox 1,500 gallon per minute pumper. The bid for one HME Silverfox 1,500 gallon per minute stainless steel fire apparatus per the specifications less exceptions is $300, I think that is all that they have in there. The second bid is from Emergency One, Inc. form. Mr. Daniel said the Emergency One, Inc. bid is in the proper Mr. Brandgard said the bid submitted by Emergency One is a One Emergency Cyclone II Pumper with a 1,500 gallon permitted hale pump 550 series body per the enclosed specifications is $362, less $70, for trade-ins with a total bid price of $292, One Emergency One HP75 aerial on a Cyclone II chassis with a 1,500 gallon permitted hale pump per the enclosed specifications is $522, less $35, for a trade-in with a total aerial price of $487, A total bid price for both units is $780, They submitted an alternate bid, which reads one Emergency One HP75 side stacker and aerial and Cyclone chassis with a 2,000 gallon permitted hale pump per the enclosed specifications with the shelving and EMS and cabinet at the cost of $497, less the $35, for trade-in. The total alternate aerial price is $462, The next bid is submitted by Life Star Rescue, Inc., Van Wert, OH. Mr. Daniel said the bid from Life Star Rescue is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Life Star Rescue, Inc. is a bid in the amount of $507, A Seagrave custom pumper in the amount of $356, less $35, for a tradein and less $55, for the second trade-in for a total bid price for both units of $773, The fourth bid is submitted by Sutphen. Mr. Daniel said the Sutphen bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said Sutphen has submitted each bid separately. They did not combine the total. The total amount of the bid from Sutphen is one Sutphen 75-foot aerial ladder complete and delivered for a total sum of $531, There is also one Sutphen custom pumper complete and delivered for the total sum of $339, For the aerial ladder they are saying a trade-in allowance of $25, may be taken and for the custom pumper the trade-in allowance of $50, may be taken. I would like to thank everybody that submitted a bid for the pumper quints and we will have a review committee of Chief Anderson, Mr. John Archer, Mr. Mike Bennett and Mr. Mark Fisher and coordinate with myself for the next meeting if possible. Next we will go with the ambulance bids. publication for the ambulance bids? Do we have proof of Mr. Daniel said yes. Mr. Brandgard said the first bid is submitted by Marque, Inc., Goshen, Indiana. Mr. Daniel said the bid from Marque, Inc. is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Marque is $98, The second bid is submitted by Road Rescue, Constantine, MI. Mr. Daniel said the bid from Road Rescue is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Road Rescue is $114, This third bid is submitted by Life Star Rescue Braun, Van Wert, OH. Mr. Daniel said the bid from Life Star Rescue is proper form.! 5

6 Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Life Star Rescue for a Braun Raider is $101, The fourth bid is Life Star Rescue, Inc. Osage Warrior. Mr. Daniel said the Life Star Rescue Osage bid is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Life Star Rescue Osage is for $86, The fifth bid is submitted by Donley Safety. Mr. Daniel said the bid from Donley Safety is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the bid submitted by Donley Safety taking a couple of paragraphs out of their statement says, We are pleased to offer a 2003 Horton Model 453 Ambulance built to your specification and our proposal on a Ford E350 Superduty chassis for amount of $110, each. With available discounts, this price could be reduced to $105, Discounts are as follows: One, we can offer an additional $3, discount if Crawfordsville has or can obtain a Ford FIN code. Two, if Plainfield purchases both trucks from Donley, you may deduct an additional $2, So, again their bid without discounts is $110, The sixth bid is from Fire One, Merrillville, IN (Wheeled Coach Industries). Mr. Daniel said the bid submitted by Fire One is in proper form. Mr. Brandgard said the total bid submitted is $109, I would like to thank everybody who took the time to submit a bid and will have a review committee made up of Chief Anderson, Mr. Wolfe, Mr. Kershaw and Mr. Thompson with myself coordinating the review on that for the next meeting if we can do that. To the Staff the bid process is an important process. We tried to streamline this to get through it. I had a few stumbling blocks with the way this went tonight. Overall I think we have asked in the past if we have a number of bids, we would like for them to come in on the same time period rather than run them into this meeting. We have had people here with no interest in the bid process because they are here for something else and sit for an hour as we struggle through this. Schedule this as a special meeting and on another evening where that is all that we are going to do is open the bids. We need to have some coordination between the departments as we do this. We haven t had this happen in awhile but let s try to coordinate things a little bit better please. BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR Mr. Mick Hickam, Township Trustee said I submitted a letter to the Town Manager. Guilford Township and the Township Board have acquired additional land for the park. Part of that land had the old Department of Corrections former firing range on it. We have acquired the services from a firm and a gentleman by the name of Ken Johnson from August Mack Environmental who is with me today. We found out that we can get a Phase II study from the Indiana Development Financing Authority. The only problem is they will not do it to the townships. They will do it to cities and towns and counties. I thought I would come to you and ask if you would consider helping us out in this situation. What we are asking you to do is do basically a resolution to ask for the grant. Mr. Kirchoff asked, if you apply, do you get the grant? Mr. Hickam said yes. We talked to Mr. Carlucci on it. The money would go to the Town and the Town would administer it through that way. I would give you consent to come on the property to do whatever you want to do. Mr. Johnson from August Mack Environmental said Mr. Hickam had approached us about a year ago to discuss this property. We have experience working with Fort Benjamin Harrison on their shooting ranges and with the Indiana University cleaning up their shooting ranges. We are currently under contract with that project. I took a look at what issues he had there. There have been some confirmed lead. Nothing that seems too difficult to take on but yet it is going to need some more delineation. Once that is done we will probably do some spot clean-up or plan to leave whatever is in place to show that it is not going to cause any harmful threat to human health or the environment. The first phase of that is to do an investigation. The cheapest way and! 6

7 most cost effective way is to secure funds from the Indiana Development Financing Authority. They provide grants up to $50, and requires no match so that money is just basically given to the city. If it is a competitive grant process, if they are aware of it, the check is cut to the city who puts it in a fund. In working with our project we just issue an invoice along with our final report to the city. We are exploring opportunities with the County to do additional work if it should come to that. Mr. Hickam said the County has approached me and said they have some Brownfield money to do the West Districts Auto Waste that they can help us with. We are going to ask with this Phase II to find out what needs to be done and go to the County and see what they can assist us in. So, there are some other monies that we are looking at and then the rest will be taken on by the township. Mr. McPhail asked, is all of this property in the Town limits? Mr. Hickam said all of it is. Mr. Brandgard asked, is there consent? Consent given. We will deal with the resolution at the appropriate time. Mr. Craig Brighten, Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity said I m glad to be here in front of you this evening. Earlier today I submitted a letter to the Council in appreciation for the cooperation that you have extended to Habitat for Humanity here in Plainfield. Currently one home is being constructed and under way and I invite you to take a visit up Vine Street and see what is going on there. I don t have any requests. I m just here to thank you. We will be having a fundraiser later this fall and will be asking for something then. Thank you very much. Mr. Kirchoff asked, do you hope to build again next year? Mr. Brighten said yes. There are two lots across the alley. We started on the north lot of the alley and we hope to go ahead and maintain that alley instead of vacating that alley. The two additional lots south we hope to do those early next spring. Mr. Brandgard said we are glad that we were able to do it. We have struggled in trying to give you another plot of ground that we couldn t quite get turned loose and a way to do it but we were able to do it this way. I think it is a good thing for the community and for the people involved. We appreciate your efforts. TOWN MANAGER S REPORT Mr. Carlucci said the only item I had on the Town Manager s Report had to do with the IIA Noise Study. It really is not a noise study. The airport authority is looking at reviewing and updating their existing study from a couple of years ago. I realize that there was a public meeting at the high school on the 15 th. I did not attend that because I was on vacation. August 1 st is the deadline for citizens to comment on the noise study to the consultant for the airport, which is a group out of Cincinnati. My only comment was the existing standard instrument departure is Monday through Friday but it is not Saturday and Sunday. There is really no reason that the Town couldn t request that the standard instrument departure, which tends to take the planes right now six point five miles from the end of the runway past Plainfield before they turn. It might be a good idea to ask them to extend that requirement for those nighttime operations seven days a week. There are flights that come in there when people are at home. I don t know the difference between a Monday and a Saturday in terms of that noise. It may be less on the weekends but I really don t know that because Federal Express operates all of the time. But if the Council is going to make some comments, we should have them written up and sent to the consultant for the airport. And send a copy to the airport president too. Mr. Brandgard said I think your comments are well taken. There are more Federal Express airplanes flying on the weekend where they seemed to sit on the ground over the weekend. I think your points are well taken. Mr. Kirchoff said I attended the meeting here and I have a diagram if anybody would like to see it of what the new study shows. I would say that a couple of questions that came up I really don t know! 7

8 the answer to. There was a lot of consternation that the airlines are really not following patterns as established. Who is really supposed to be monitoring that and who could issue fines? Mr. Carlucci said I can t remember the year of the last study off the top of my head. It has been about four years ago. At that time the airport authority, and BAA is their manager on this, was going to put in electronic equipment where they can actually see where these planes are going. They have not done that yet. It is in the budget for this year to put that equipment in. It is sophisticated equipment. When September 11 happened, it changed a lot of their priorities very quickly out at the airport. However, that should have been done at least by now in my opinion but it is not in. I understand that the money is budgeted and they have selected a system. That way they can track these planes and know exactly who is in there and who is not. They will admit to you, the airport has and I have received s on this confirming it from someone at the airport, that they turn before they should. What they have always told us, as we went through these studies, is that there is no fine anywhere in the country. They cannot fine the airline for not staying on that standard instrument departure. However, the FAA can take action against the pilots for veering from that but there are no fines at least in this country in terms if they vary off that path. Like I said, my concern was I thought that system was already in place. When I found out it wasn t, I was curious to why it would take so long. Mr. Kirchoff asked, can we put it in a letter urging them that we would like to see that done this year? Mr. Carlucci said yes. I think they need to be encouraged to get that done so that they can measure that. It is hard to eyeball that at times because if you look from a distance, they look like they are where they shouldn t be and you drive out there and they are not anywhere close. On the other hand, I have people I know in that area that call and say they are off track and are turning too soon. They really should be a mile to a mile and a half past the I-70/SR267 interchange before they start making those turns. The turns are what creates the noise. Mr. Kirchoff said at the meeting, if I remember, they said that six and a half miles is where SR267 intersects with South Center Street. Mr. Carlucci said that is where they start to make their turns. Mr. Kirchoff said it is obvious that they are not following that. Mr. Carlucci said they are not doing it. If the Council gives consent, I will put a letter together and I will make sure that Mr. Daniel reviews it and we will make sure that we get it to them on time. And authorize the Council President to sign the letter. Mr. Young said I certainly endorse the initiative as I have the investment in consultants and everything that we have done as an initiative to try to improve the quality of life in this community that is impacted by the airport. The one thing that I recall is that in terms of interpretation I listened very carefully to what our Town Manager said. And what the pilots were interpreting was the six and half miles started from the end of the runway. But it was from the start of the runway rather than at the end of the runway. So, in our letter if we could clarify that our interpretation is that the six and a half miles is from the Plainfield end of the runway and not from the start, I would appreciate that clarification. So, that we can have an understanding between the airport authority and the pilots and the community. Mr. Carlucci said it is usually called 6.5 miles DME, which means the take off end of the runway. That has always been the interpretation by the airport and I think that was our understanding. Mr. Kirchoff said and that is what they said that night at the meeting. Mr. Young asked, it is understood then generally that it is going to be from the take off end?! 8

9 Mr. Carlucci said yes. When I said start, I did not mean to mislead you but when I said the end of the runway, I meant the other end and not this end. REPORTS Mr. Brandgard asked, is there consent? Consent given. Mr. McPhail said I want to give you a quick report on the progress on the recreational center. We received a couple of loads of steel today. They have about two days of work to do on the south end. They have a little bit on the north end of the main building that will allow the rest of the roof to go on that part of the building. Then after that they will start erecting the aquatic center. It is my understanding that there are still a few pieces of steel that are not on site. I believe we can begin erection and hopefully finish the steel project in the near future. The second item that I have is I reported at the last meeting that referencing the Convention Visitors Bureau one of our County commissioners had indicated that he would solicit a State Legislation change to take part of those funds that are currently being used to promote tourism in the County. It is my understanding that there is a joint meeting between the commissioners and the Council on Wednesday of this week and that item will be on the agenda. As your representative from the Town of Plainfield, I believe that it is in the best interest that we take a stand on this issue. And support the bureau and the promotion of tourism and would request that this Council send to the executive director of the Convention Visitors Bureau a letter of support. Mr. Brandgard asked, is there consent? Consent given. Mr. McPhail said later on the agenda tonight we have the ordinance for the new sewer rates that we are working on. It has been suggested to me that it might be prudent to have a public meeting prior to the final reading of that ordinance. So, that if any citizens had any questions, we might be able to answer those prior to that. We have on August 7 a final public meeting scheduled for the Comprehensive Plan. I might suggest that prior to that meeting we be available for an open house discussion for anybody that might want to come in and discuss the sewer rates and be able to present that to the general public. I don t know what the rest of you think about that. After 10 years of no increases, and this new ordinance is significant in an increase in terms of dollars, that it might be prudent to give the general public a chance to come in and get more information. I don t know if that makes sense to anybody else but the fact that we have a meeting scheduled we might be able to get people in at 5:30 or 6:00 prior to the 7:00 meeting for the comp plan. And have two or three teams available to discuss with any citizens the proposed increase. Mr. Brandgard said it sounds like an excellent idea. Mr. McPhail said maybe we could coordinate in some way to get that information out. It is difficult to get people to read public notices. Maybe we could get some kind of news article or something to do that and promote that. Mr. Carlucci said the meeting on the comp plan is not a public hearing per se. It is just a public input session on just some of the parts that we have done, not everything, but part of what we have been working on to get people s input. There will be more public input meetings and a public hearing later on. But we have gone so far that we thought maybe we should get some public input before we move on a little bit further. So, maybe having one at 6:00 and the other one at 7:00 would work. Mr. Brandgard asked, is there consent? Consent given. Mr. McPhail said the only other item that I have is there was an article in today s Flyer about the Plainfield Sports Center closing. I think the article was pretty accurate in the information that I have. I have not had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Rhoades but I did speak to Eric Benedict who is the manager of the fitness center part. I was a little bit disappointed that he feels like our recreation center has caused him to lose enough business to close his business. The recreation center isn t opened and we haven t had any customers at this point and time. Certainly prior to my joining this Council the! 9

10 recreation center was planned and has been planned for a long time and certainly before Mr. Rhoades opened his Sports Center. So, it is a little disappointing to hear a businessman feel like that our Town is not business friendly. It is certainly a project that has been on the books for a long time. We have had two other fitness centers open up since he has. Gold s Gym has come to Town and there is a lady s fitness group, Curves, that has even relocated into a better facility. So, those two places opened and we also have an ex-partner or partner who was involved in the Sports Center that has leased the Galyan s building north of where the simulator was located. They have put three basketball courts in there and it is my understanding that they plan to have a fitness center and basketball courts there. I think there is a lot more involved in his business decision than our recreation center and I just wanted to report to you what I know about that. Mr. Brandgard said I appreciate that. I know to me the biggest comment is we are sorry to see his business is closing but to blame it on the recreation center that is not opened and probably won t be opened until next spring is kind of a far-fetched statement. But nonetheless he can say what he wants. The fact that we have other ones opened and seem to be viable says a lot for the fitness of the community. With that I appreciate your comments. Mr. McPhail said I just have one other quick item. I think two meetings ago I reported that I attended a Hendricks County Plan Commission meeting. They were discussing the Crossman development in Washington Township. They have a workshop scheduled for tomorrow evening, the 29 th at 7:00 p.m. I will tell you what the notice said that was sent to me. It said there will be a workshop held on July 29, 2003 at 6:30 p.m. with the Town of Avon and the Town of Plainfield regarding commercial/industrial development in Washington Township. This is not a public hearing but is a public meeting. I received an e- mail saying that it was 7:00 instead of 6:30. We have a budget meeting scheduled for tomorrow. I think we should have somebody represent us. I don t know if our Town Manager has found anybody to do that or not. Mr. Carlucci said probably the only one that would be available would either be the Town Engineer or Mr. McGillem. Mr. Belcher said I m coming to the budget meeting unless you direct me to go somewhere else. Mr. McPhail said I feel that it is pretty important that we have somebody represent us there. Mr. Brandgard said our biggest issue with that are the roads. If Mr. McGillem could see fit to do that for us, it would certainly be appreciated. Mr. Kirchoff said I m asking for some guidance. I need for Mr. Belcher and Mr. McGillem to help me here. It has been a couple of weeks ago that we had a meeting with the developer of Plainfield Marketplace on transportation. We talked about the route for the new east/west road. We talked a little bit about the location of the one coming off of U.S.40. There were discussions about who was going to build what and who was going to do the engineering, etc. Other issues came up that apparently were discussed at meetings that we were not involved with. Mr. McPhail came in when we were about done. We got to a point that we have to be careful with too many Council members being in a meeting that we don t get whatever the law is, the open door policy. I m not sure but he requested if there was some way to have a work session or something to sit down and hammer some of these things out. I m not sure the best way to go with it but there seemed to be some sense of need and urgency to get the issues on the table and all of the people in the room that needed to be in the room. Mr. Carlucci said the one thing that we have been consumed with over the past few weeks is trying to get everything done on the Galyan s project. They are about ready to sell the bonds. There is a bond agreement and I think all of that is finally done. But it has consumed a lot of the Staff s time and a couple of the Council member s time trying to get that to this point. And what took some time also had to do with the Shoe Carnival building. We spent numerous days on that and how that would be handled. So, typically what we do is we try to get together with our consultants, which is H. J. Umbaugh and Loren Mathis and Dan Pecar and you would be part of that meeting. We discuss the issues with Mr. White there and then we come back. If we have to make a presentation to the Council and have another work session, that! 10

11 is normally the way that we would do it. The reason that we haven t gone that far is because Staff has just been tied up on this project. Mr. Kirchoff said there were even questions about the road north of Galyan s about engineering design, elevation, etc. and I was in no position to respond to that not knowing what commitments had been made or not made. Mr. Carlucci said the meeting that we would have with Mr. Pecar and Mr. Daniel s firm and H. J. Umbaugh and Mr. White would be out of Mr. Pecar s office. We go over the issues. We try to understand what monies are available because really what is driving the issue is what is available because you can just do so much. The developer has priorities and the Town has priorities and we have to tie those two in somehow. Again I think we are real close to this. We have one more meeting of the Economic Development Commission and the Redevelopment Commission that we are setting up. Once that is done those bonds will be sold because they are ready to be sold right now. But that couldn t happen because there was a deadline that Mr. White had to close the loan for the Galyan s project on June 15. We are a few weeks past June 15 but again he moves at a different speed and at a different level. But I think the next thing that we normally would do is get that meeting together and sit down and hash it out. If we can t work something out, we bring it back to the full Council. Mr. Daniel said I have been communicating with Mr. & Mrs. Elmore up on Pike Lane on the north side. If you will recall, we bought those properties east of Mr. & Mrs. Elmore. They are right on the corner of Vestal Road on the northeast corner where the road turns. We had contacted them earlier when we were talking about all of those Pike Lane properties. At that time they indicated that they were really not interested in selling their property. Then Mrs. Elmore called me a couple of weeks ago and said they might be after all. I told her the first step was to get some appraisals and they were willing to retain a competent appraiser. That is one of the two that the Town appoints so they have contacted Jack Lawson and I contacted Mark Keutzer. There is a resolution for the Town Council that you have seen in your materials. The Town is not obligated through that resolution to buy that property at all. It is the first step in determining what the appraisers say the value of the property is. Depending on what the Council wants to do the Town can then go from there. At least we will get a value established for that property. They are satisfied with that and I told them that the resolution would be presented to the Council tonight. Ms. Mitchell said from the last meeting I m still working on the Centrex agreement. Mr. Kirchoff asked, do you still have August 1 st deadline? Ms. Mitchell said it is July 31 st. Mr. Young said on the Elmore property I appreciate the sensitivity of the Town Manager. There are some properties in the surrounding area, one of them being a Brownfield resolution, the second one is the Shouse Landfill, which is the Elmore property. Some gifts are not really heaven sent. So, we want to make certain that as we move forward, that we retain that sensitivity that we don t buy an EPA problem. So, I appreciated the fact that the concern was not forgotten. In the fourth quarter of 2002 the prosecutor of Hendricks County suspended the United Drug Task Force because of some opportunities to improve its effectiveness and reassign some duties and refocus the activity. It had been a successful program but it was a logical time in her view to do that. At that time Chief Miller had commissioned the Plainfield Board of Police Commissioners to the fact that this was a good time for Plainfield to review our involvement. So, the President of the Commissioners, Jack Burlison and Ted Parker and Ed Daum who are our Board of Police Commissioners, who happen to be with us tonight, have worked with the new chief, Chief Brinker. And analyzed a number of options on how we would move forward in cooperating as a community on the United Drug Task Force. At this time I would like to turn my section of the report over to Chief Brinker to make a presentation on the United Drug Task Force. Chief Brinker said what we wanted to do is first we sat down as a group and we started focusing on what was the major goal regarding our drug enforcement. Number one we found was to remove drugs from the! 11

12 Plainfield area and arrest those responsible for the sells. And to educate merchants on how to bring about prevention and educate the public on the dangers. We were very fortunate in that we have looked at the different things that we have done in the past with the Drug Task Force when it was originally put together. It served the major purpose of one officer from each of the four major departments in Hendricks County coming together and working on major drug dealers. It was successful in doing that and it has been successful. We believe that now we need to take a hard look at what the next step is in regards to that. This is a meth lab that we arrested here in Plainfield ourselves. It is a little hard to tell but the cursor up here across the top are starter fluid cans. We have some denaturalized alcohol and some camp fuel. These are the chemicals that are stolen from the farmers that are used to help cook the meth. As these officers come across these types of labs in making an arrest, not only do you have the danger of somebody that has the drugs, they are cooking the drugs at that time, but you are also dealing with a hazardous materials event once you have something like this come up. There has been an increase of meth arrests from 27 to 79 in a 12- month period, which represents a 129% increase over that 12-month period. Drug charges for the year previous was 83 up to 98 for an 18% percent increase, which brings us to a 60.91% increase when you compare it to the number of total arrests per week. These numbers are high and it is a good thing in that we are finding quite of this going on. Can we find a little more if we had more intelligence, if we had somebody else out there? That was the plan and that was the idea that we had come up with. We looked at three major areas when we were discussing the number of officers that were needed to do it. We believed that it would take three of our officers to put on a good task force for the Town of Plainfield. We looked at what to do with two officers and what to do with just the one that we were currently using. With the office location we looked at using the United Drug Task Force as we are now. We looked at the Speedway Drug Task Force and we looked at using our own office at the headquarters and we also looked at putting ourselves up in an office somewhere off site. That was our number one item as we found it. Then again regarding seizures and forfeitures the one thing that we really emphasized is it shouldn t be thought of as a moneymaking project. Because we already knew ahead of time that even if we made the arrest and there were seizures available, that pretty much that money is controlled through the prosecutor s office. So, it wasn t going to be a situation where we were going to go out and make a lot of money at it. We were wanting to take the drugs off the street and get the dealers out of the way. Lt. Weber s drug activity for the last three months said 12 purchases of cocaine, eight cases of marijuana, five methamphetamine, one diazepam and the most amazing part was all of that was right here in Town in the last three months. Again, when we reviewed the options, we looked at what it would cost to do our own unit, our own unit off site, and just have two officers over at the Drug Task Force. The difference is the expense of not having to buy equipment that we don t already have. And paying for the off site location. What we proposed was not three officers but for now two and not off site but with the Drug Task Force. It is politically correct. We are staying and working with these people but yet it is the next step. Mr. Jim Bryan was here. I think everybody had an opportunity to meet him earlier. The good news is he got called out because they are busy. Unfortunately, he couldn t speak with us. We had presented this to you saying that the officer salaries and benefits would be around $50, We needed a car, cell phone and overtime. Mr. Bryan said they will take care of that for our second officer. All we need to do is send the officer over there. Mr. Kirchoff asked, take care of which? Chief Brinker said they will provide the vehicle, the cell phone and the overtime. The way that we are able to go about that without a major cost to the Drug Task Force is that the State Police are not apparently going to send anyone back. If they do, it is not going to be for a long time. And with the success that they have had of late they felt that they could incur this. The commissioners have spent a great deal of time on this. I have been fortunate to be with them during the last few months looking over all of these options. Our proposal again is that we use two of our Plainfield Police Officers! 12

13 with the United Drug Task Force and keep them here in the Town of Plainfield but yet being able to assist the other agencies. And having them being able to assist us when arrests are made here in Town. While at the same time taking that first step, the big step, of doing whatever it is that it takes in order to make the drug problem the best that we can to take care of it. And make the prevention go as it can. We are very fortunate in this Town with the help that we get through the merchants and their knowledge of what to look for. As they are calling us, we are being able to make some of these arrests. The next step will be better intelligence by being able to be out there a little bit more. If you have any questions, I have the commissioners and Lt. Weber is here. Our hope tonight was to have you review this plan. We have spent all of the time coming up with this part. If you were inclined to do so, we would hope that now we can start moving forward in this direction if that is your wish. Mr. Carlucci asked, did you send this information to the Council before tonight s meeting? Chief Brinker said yes. Mr. Carlucci said for clarification they have in their budget two new police officers for this year, which they have delayed hiring because of our questions on the budget and assessments, etc. This position is a new position for the department not coming out of the existing patrol staff that he has. It is one additional officer for the balance of this year. Chief Brinker said what we are here to do tonight first is we would like to sell this program. We would like to take the next step in sending a second officer to the United Drug Task Force. If that is what we want to do to move forward, we would like to replace the officer on the street. Rather than go from 19 patrol officers on the street to 18 we would like to make sure that is funded in one way or another. Mr. Kirchoff asked, do we have budget dollars to do it? Chief Brinker said we have looked at that and we have had some discussion in regards to that. Mr. Carlucci and I have looked at that but we would like to take a closer look at that. Mr. Carlucci said I think what happens is we had so many openings this year that we haven t been able to fill. In terms of those numbers there is money available. By the time the new officer would come on you are getting later in the year anyway. So, you are looking at maybe funding it for three months out of this year. Normally nobody likes to hire a new officer in mid year but given the fact that we have had so many openings and that they did not hire those officers right away, the two new officers that they were budgeted for, so there is probably money available that way to fund it. Chief Brinker said that was our intent to make the presentation for the funding from that direction. Mr. Brandgard said I think the first step is do we agree with the concept? Mr. Young said to recap in a layman s term since I have listened to the deliberations of these professionals as they have gone through this and the citizen advisory is that they have taken a very global approach. They have looked in the past while the United Drug Task Force was successful. It wasn t necessarily successful for Plainfield. I mean they may be in Putnam County and our officer may be in Greencastle removing drugs from De Pauw University while there is activity here. So, the focus has been taking care of Plainfield so that Plainfield is not forgotten in this process. They looked at it more globally should we go it alone? Should we align ourselves with another agency? There were several so that could have been done. Or should we stay with the United Drug Task Force under a new set of rules and new commitments? So, it was a very sober activity to take care of this community. So, it was not a trivial decision. I think the chief has done a fantastic job in recapping months of work. This plan is endorsed by your Board of Police Commissioners and is being presented to you as a fresh approach to an activity that is now netting up to three meth labs a week in Plainfield. Chief Brinker said that is absolutely right.! 13