President of Council Kathy McNear called Council to order on August 15, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.

    The governmental body and those in attendance recited the pledge of allegiance. Mr. Knox gave the invocation.

    Mr. Knox took roll call. Present were Council members Danbury, Galster, Harlow, Squires, Wilson and McNear. Mr. Vanover was absent.

    The minutes of July 18, 2007 were approved with five affirmative votes with one change. Mrs. McNear said on page 8382 change “intent” to “intend”. Mrs. Harlow abstained.

    COMMITTEE AND OFFICIAL REPORTS
    Civil Service Commission – Mr. Potts stated the Civil Service Commission is in the midst of testing for the position of firefighter to develop a new eligibility list for the next one to two years. Two hundred seventy-two participants took the written exam. The top ninety will be brought back for the physical agility portion. We will also be testing and developing an eligibility list for patrol officer. We will advertise for that in early September. That will make the seventh position that we have tested for. The earlier positions were clerical.

Rules and Laws        -    no report
Public Relations        -    no report
Public Health, Safety & Welfare        -     no report

Public Works – Mr. Wilson said a pre-construction meeting for the 2007 street program was held on August 7th. Construction is expected to start the week of August 20th and be completed in late October.

Public Utilities        -    no report
   
Capital Improvements – Mr. Danbury said on the CSX grade separation Duke has begun installation of twenty-five street lights along this portion of SR 747. We have had approval of $1.3 million from OKI for additional funding. There is no change in the improvements at SR4 and Crescentville. The Kemper Road Phase 3 project is underway. This should be completed by mid October this year. SR4 continuous northbound lanes to Glensprings Stage 3 ODOT comments have been addressed and we will be doing the final design this fall. We should be completing this project in the spring of 2008. There is no change on the Crescentville Road at SR 747 project. The East Kemper Road improvement at Tri-County mall is underway and should be completed later this month. The Veteran’s Memorial project is out to bid and the bids will be open on August 23. We will be asking local businesses to help out with this project. Delhi Flower and Garden Center has agreed to donate some plant material,l and rough grading from Trend Construction has been pledged. Construction should be started by late fall and completed by early spring 2008. The Church Street parking project is out to bid and the bids should be opened August 21. The Fire Department HVAC project should be before Council on September 5 with an early September start date. The final design is underway for the widening of West Kemper Road from SR 4 to Hickory. The anticipated construction is June to September 2008. They are working with the school district to acquire the easement for this project.

Mayor Webster asked wasn’t the Crescentville Road/SR 747 intersection scheduled to happen next year?

Mr. Osborn replied no.

Mayor Webster said on the West Kemper Road project from SR 4 to Hickory you all have probably seen in the paper where the School Board voted to give us the easement that we need if we give them a Certificate of Occupancy and get off their back on the landscaping over there. I think it is disingenuous to suggest that we are being unreasonable with the school. I don’t want to start a war of words with the school. We’ve had a good relationship over the years with the school and the board. When you jeopardize the safety of children just to get your way with the City on an occupancy permit, I think it’s reaching pretty low. I get feedback from the residents that it’s not a very pretty sight over there. I know it’s been a long dry summer but I happen to have some photos of the school and in the backdrop I have the dentist office. The difference is like night and day. If they could do it the school could do it. This project we are trying to do is to help the busses making the turn in and out of Walnut Street and it will make it a safer route for the children. All the money is coming out of the City treasury so we are not losing any grants if we put it off. Let’s all hope and pray that there are no accidents at that intersection while we are waiting for the school board to get some plantings and grass to grow so they can get their Certificate of Occupancy.     

Mr. Galster said it’s not like they are not occupying the building. School is going on. This is the final certificate, the one thing the City has to hold for any development to make sure that they built it per their discussions, approved plans, etc. I guess as a resident of this community who has helped pay for that school I’m disappointed that they haven’t held their landscape contractor to a standard that I would hold someone to who is doing work on my private home. To me it’s offensive for them to say they won’t allow us to add the bus turn lane until we give them the final document that really isn’t doing anything other than reminding them that they have things to complete.

Mr. Squires stated I agree with the previous statements and to the best of my knowledge those statements are coming from some board members but not the superintendent. The superintendent is on record as saying that the City is acting very reasonable.

Mr. Danbury asked what recourse do we have?

Mayor Webster replied we don’t have any recourse. We’ll just wait it out. Somewhere along the way they will come to their senses and hopefully, with fall coming, they will do something with the landscaping and get the dead trees, if there are some, replaced and get grass seed down or sod. Hopefully, by spring things will look a lot better over there and we’ll be able to issue the permanent occupancy, and they will give us the easement. We can’t build it without their easement.

Mr. Osborn said we do have the engineering budgeted for this year as well as the right-of-way. We wouldn’t be going to construction until 2008 at the earliest. It’s not that we’re up against a hard time line to get those easements, but if it proceeds to the point that they refuse to cooperate, we do have the right to seek a quick take for the necessary easements.

Finance Committee – Mr. Wilson said Finance Committee will be meeting the week of November 26. If all goes well we will be having our budget work session December 5 and be looking at the 2008 budget.
   
Planning Commission – Mr. Galster stated Planning Commission met last night. The first item was final development plan approval for the offices at Glenview, 250 West Sharon Road. Mr. Danbury had a question at the last meeting about the setbacks and parking on that site. It is twenty-eight feet from the existing curb to the beginning of the parking lot and ninety feet from the curb to the building, ten feet from the right-of-way to the parking lot, seventy-nine feet from the right-of-way to the building. They came back this month with only a single driveway and redid their landscape plan. There was a covenant we were looking for and also a shortfall of thirty-five inches in their tree replacement plan. Through a compromise they are going to donate them to the school. That was approved 6-0. The next item was EFIS approval on the front of Staples. The owner asked to have it tabled and it was. John Morrell requested an addition of 38,000 square feet. This was concept plan discussion. The expansion was received well. A wall sign for Riley’s Restaurant was requested to go on the tower at Springdale Town Center. Given the fact that he has 5,000 square feet plus a bakery, the majority of Planning Commission thought it was appropriate to give the recognition on the tower. That was approved 6-0. There was an amendment to the motion to approve it that said if Riley’s left and someone else wanted to go into that space, they would need to have a minimum of 4,000 square feet to have a sign on the tower. That was approved 5-1.

Mr. Danbury asked is John Morrell adding head count?

Mr. Galster replied I’m not sure at this point.

Mr. Wilson stated a while back we were concerned about the smell at John Morrell. What’s the additional 38,000 square feet going to do to the environment?

Mr. Galster responded I don’t know that the smell does anything to the environment. The existing smell smells like you came through a giant hot dog stand if you went into Best Buy. In general, the addition is more for a packaging type facility. I don’t know that there is any additional manufacturing process that happens in that or not. I know there are some air flow issues that need to be screened from the public right-of-way but what the actual process is we didn’t get into at this point.
   
Board of Zoning Appeals        - meet next week    
Board of Health        - no report

Veteran’s Memorial Committee – Mr. Wilson reported the committee has decided to postpone the golf tournament until June 2008.

O-K-I – Mr. Knox stated I attended the OKI meeting last Thursday. The most significant thing that happened is that Springdale was a leading recipient of the funds we requested to complete the underpass at SR 747. Before that something unusual happened. Originally of the fifteen people who applied for funds, the top five got the funds. The top five decided that might not be the best way to go about it and they looked at it again so that the top ten could get the money. When that came to the ICC meeting the first person who spoke up in favor of it was Mr. Osborn. The OKI board thinks very highly of Mr. Osborn and they gave him just credit for that. It was a good day for Springdale in a lot of ways.
   
Mayor’s Report – Mayor Webster said the underpass cost is down to $875,000 assuming the worst case with the right-of-way still being negotiated.

Mayor Webster reported that a Cruise In will be held August 25 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The yard sale was the biggest we’ve had. And the Taste of Springdale will be September 15.
   
Clerk of Council/Finance Director – Mr. Knox stated apparently some of the rental agents are telling prospective renters that they don’t have to pay Springdale taxes because they are renters. We’re taking steps to straighten this out but I would like the television audience to know that if someone lives inside the boundaries of Springdale, you are a Springdale resident. If you register with the Board of Elections you have the right to vote but since you are in Springdale and share in the many benefits of living here, you should be paying your taxes to Springdale.
   
Administrator’s Report         -     no report   
Law Director’s Report (Ken Schneider)        -     no report   
Engineer’s Report (Don Shvegzda)        -     no report

    COMMUNICATIONS                     -     none

    COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE          -    none
    ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS

ORDINANCE NO. 41-2007 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH CDS ASSOCIATES, INC., TO PERFORM DESIGN SERVICES TO DEVELOP FINAL PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS TO ADD A SECOND SR 4 SOUTHBOUND LANE AT THE I-275 OFF-RAMP AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY”

Mr. Squires made a motion to adopt and Mr. Wilson seconded.

    Mr. Osborn said this is a 2008 construction project. We are budgeted this year to do the engineering. We have budgeted $40,000 and the projected cost now is $54,500. In addition to the $47,300 covered in your ordinance, we have previously issued a PO for $7,200 for survey work in preparation for the design. We have a current estimated construction cost of $330,000 and we anticipate applying for LTIP funds at sixty percent LTIP and forty percent local.

    Ordinance 41-2007 passed with six affirmative votes.
   
OLD BUSINESS                             -     none

    NEW BUSINESS                             -     none

    MEETINGS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

    Board of Zoning Appeals                 -     August 21

    Mr. Osborn said there will be several ordinances at the next meeting related to recent bid openings.

    Mr. Knox said we will have legislation at the September 5th meeting that has to do with the Pictoria Towers agreement we have in place with the Port Authority. We would have had it at this meeting; however, the people in charge over there have not responded and performed in accordance with the agreement that was worked out. If they don’t step up and do something they are automatically on line to pay 100 percent of what is due at the end of this year. I must compliment Ms Weimer and Mr. Schneider for things like that being in the agreement. Mr. Williams has been in contact with the Port Authority. The City has no liability in this case.
   
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE        -      none

Mr. Danbury made a motion that Council go into executive session as a meeting of the whole to discuss personnel issues. Mr. Galster seconded. The motion passed with six affirmative votes.

Council went into executive session at 7:34 p.m. and reconvened at 8:00 p.m.

UPDATE ON LEGISLATION STILL IN DEVELOPMENT    -    none        

RECAP OF LEGISLATIVE ITEMS REQUESTED       

Pictoria Towers                         -     September 5

Council adjourned at 8:02 p.m.

                        Respectfully submitted,



                        Edward F. Knox
                        Clerk of Council/Finance Director

Minutes Approved:

Kathy McNear, President of Council



__________________________, 2007



       

City of Springdale Council



    August 15    2007