City Council 08-24-2015

The meeting Monday night was short but had a lot of items. First up was a request from the Eagles to close part of Harrison on Sept 12 for a fish fry, part of the Little Cousin Jasper Festival. Next the block of Van Rensselaer in front of city hall was closed for Oktoberfest--apparently approval had already been given to close if for Little Cousin Jasper.

Approval was given to allow the utility office to keep up to $100 (from $50) in their cash drawers. (That change required a city ordinance.) An ordinance to increase salaries of city employees by 2% for 2016 was approved. The Council approved the bid of Grimmer Construction to install the water main from the fairgrounds to the I-65 intersection. The base bid was just a bit over $1 million. The pipe will be plastic rather than steel--apparently the road salt along highways corrodes steel water mains.

The Council approved, with one nay vote, the purchase of a new truck by the electrical department. It will cost $32,858 and will be purchased from Gutwein Motors. The Council also approved an upgrade to the city's website for $5250. The current one seems not to work well on mobile devices. It will be upgraded from V5 to V6 (and I have no idea what that means).

A list of streets that may be resurfaced has been completed and the council approved the advertising for street resurfacing. How many of the streets on the list will be resurfaced will depend on the bids. The contract between the city and TV Cable still has not been finalized by the attorneys. The mayor said that a letter from IMPA suggested that the city adopt a policy for net metering or what it will do if someone who installs solar panels or a windmill wants to sell surplus power to the city. That item will be addressed at a future meeting.

There is a conflict that complicates the line-up of the Little Cousin Jasper Parade. For the past few years the entries to the parade have assembled on the streets around what was the old Monnett School. However, this year there will be soccer games on the Monnett fields at the same time the parade should be lining up.  The police chief and Councilman Watson were given the task to figure out a solution.

Paving on the Cullen Street rail crossing should be done Wednesday or Thursday. By the end of the week the new road in the Drexel Industrial Park should be open.

The Council scheduled a special budget meeting for September 2 at 4:00. They need to cut $533 from the proposed budget.  There were concerns raised about engine braking in town. Weston Cemetery is almost finishing plotting 800 new lots in the north addition to the cemetery. The gas department continues to work on line extensions. On the 26th there will be a pre-bid meeting for the new storm water treatment plant.

All that and the meeting took less than forty minutes.