The cold and snow on Monday made for a very short Veterans Day ceremony at Weston Cemetery. The crowd was much smaller than it was last year.
Because of the holiday, there were no meetings on Monday and there were a lot on Tuesday. In the morning PTABOA (Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals) met. Their first case was a homeowner who argued that his valuation was too high because a finished basement damaged in a flood in 2003 had never been restored to a finished state and that what was listed as a second deck was not a deck but flagstones. Putting the new information into the computer reduced his valuation by $15,000.
A second case involved the bowling alley in Wheatfield. It had an assessed valuation of $1,021,800 despite being purchased in 2017 for $386,000. The consultant making the case for the bowling alley tried to compare its valuation to other bowling alleys in the region and found that difficult. Bowling is a declining sport, so some of the bowling alleys that were sold recently have gone out of business. He offered $634,100 as an acceptable valuation and the assessor and the Board agreed. The issue of valuation of personal property (the equipment in the bowling alley) is still unsettled.
Family Express in Rensselaer had contested its valuation but had come to a compromise with the assessor. Walmart had also reached an agreement but has not signed it. The Board approved the agreement and if Walmart is unhappy with it, they can appeal to the State. Finally, the Board approved an exemption for 2020 for a property that the Methodist Church bought earlier this year next to its parking lot.
There were three meetings in the evening, all at City Hall. The Board of Public works approved a conditional offer made to fill a police department vacancy. It also approved a payment to Commonwealth Engineers for work through September that it has done in planning for the sewer project (lift station and extending sewer lines to unserved areas).
After the City Council approved a gas tracker decrease for October of 2¢ per hundred cubic feet, it heard a short summary of Phase 2 of the downtown revitalization project. The reason for the presentation is that City has the opportunity to apply for a grant from the State Transportation Improvement Program run by INDOT. It is a matching grant, with the state paying 80% and the City 20%. The proposal is due later this month and results will be revealed in February of 2020, but the funding will not be available until 2025. For the proposal to be filed, the City needs to sign a financial commitment letter. The amount of the ask will be $7.3 million and the City's share will be a bit more than $1.4 million. The proposal will focus on Washington Street from the bridge to Cullen and will redo street lights, sidewalks, and buried utilities. There were questions of how the City would finance its contribution and the answer was that there were several ways it could be financed: money set aside in the next five years, a bond issue, or TIF funds. The Council approved having the Mayor sign the letter.
Bids were opened for City supplies. Only Ceres Solutions bid on the gasoline and diesel fuel and there were no bids on tire repair. The bids were taken under advisement.
The Council approved a payment of $23,750 to First Group for their work in preparing the City to apply for a Community Crossings Grant for street paving. It also approved $9839 for the purchase of two cabs and a snow plow for the mules that the Park Department uses to clear snow from trails. There was brief discussion of problems with people not using trash stickers and the Council approved a motion to have the City's financial advisor look into the way fees are being charged. The implication was that perhaps $3.00 per sticker is too much and the price is causing non-compliance.
After the City Council meeting, the Rensselaer Board of Zoning Appeals met. The agenda item was a variance. The Fendig Children's Theater would like to purchase a property on Rachel Street to the south of Columbia Park for storage and perhaps a new building that would have an office and a multipurpose room. (What gets built will depend on what funds can be raised or found.) The lot is zoned residential and the proposed use is not residential but also not really commercial. The zoning ordinance does not seem to address this possible use so the Building Inspector thought that a variance would clarify the matter and allow the Children's Theater to purchase the lot. The BZA approved the variance.
The existing building will be used for storage and its ultimate fate also depends on how much money the Theater is able to raise.
Addendum: Five meetings within 24 hours may be a personal best.
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