The Town Council of Winona Lake, Indiana met in a regular session on Tuesday, February 23 2010, in the Town Hall at 7:00 a.m.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Joy Lohse, Sue Gooding, Jim Lancaster, Terry Howie and Randy Swanson
ABSENT: Mitch Titus, Larry Long, Jim Walmer and Retha Hicks
OTHERS PRESENT: Craig Allebach, Pete O’Connell and Paul Schmitt
Opening
Howie opened the meeting with prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Approval of minutes – Lancaster motioned to accept minutes, motion was seconded by Lohse. Minutes were approved as written.
Games: March 11 at 1, 3, 5 and 7:30 pm
March 12 at 1, 3, 5 and 7pm
March 13 at 11 am, 1, 3 and 5 pm
April 17, 8am to 11am Pancake Breakfast at the Fire Station
April 17, 9 am to noon – Town Clean Up
Howie spoke with the Solid Waste District and our clean up day is the beginning of the National Clean-Up Week. So the District is going to try and get something together for this day.
Floor Topics: There were no floor topics.
Waiver of Sewer Lien and Ordinance Violation for Yard Clean Up – Allebach presented a request from a realtor for the Town to forgive a sewer lien and 2 yard clean up liens certified against 104 15th Street. The sewer lien is in the amount of $269.26 and was recorded 2-20-07. The yard clean up liens were both recorded in 2009 for a total of $1,331. The property has a buyer. Gooding felt that it is part and parcel of buying the property. Howie commented that the Town spent money on cleaning up the property and has done so multiple times. Swanson felt that because we are trying to take positive action with the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance, that we should not forgive these liens. Gooding moved that the Council not forgive the liens against 104 15th Street and Swanson seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Update on 2010 Strategic Plan – Lancaster updated the plan from the discussion at the work session by bringing forward the 2009 “deliverable” to 2010. He wanted feed-back from the Council on the summarize update and then wanted Town leadership to accept ownership for each project. Lancaster also sent out with the plan a Project Update Form that gives a running update/accomplishment area by month. We discussed having this information on the website so people would have access to it. Howie mentioned that previously the Council has had a list that they could choose a project to work on. Howie stated that we are still dealing with 250 East and the wastewater rate. Mayor Wiggins is supposed to have the answer back from the engineering firm the first of March. Lancaster responded that this list was more to make the Council responsible beyond the day-to-day, so when the year ends we can look back at what we accomplished. Lohse stated that she felt the Strategic Plan was to keep these things in the forefront. Lancaster wants to make sure the Town is seen as an effective business partner. We need to make sure we are supporting the community businesses we currently have so that they will think about partnering with the Town with decisions they make. He would like to establish ambassadors for the Town so that we are seen as pro-active. Howie asked about the business directory that the Council had previously discussed being listed on the web-site. Allebach responded there are some businesses listed, he believes they are the Village shops and one other business has inquired about it. Gooding wanted to be sure the businesses were aware of the opportunity. She thought it would be great if the Town website could spotlight one business a month. She thought we could put the burden on the businesses to provide the information. Lancaster suggested that we could also feature a business during a Council meeting. Gooding shared about efforts by other communities to promote spending your money locally. Lancaster asked all the leadership to respond with projects that they want to promote and maybe the first meeting in March we could put out a list of projects with project “owners”. He asked for responses from everyone by Monday, March 1, and then he will have a week to put it together. He also asked everyone to take ownership of a project and rough-in what they thought the scope of the project might be. He wants everyone to look at the list and make sure nothing is missing and to insure that what we have listed is a priority. If you don’t want to lead in a project, then you can offer to be involved with it. Lancaster wanted to be sure that everyone understood if you take ownership of a project you will not be the one doing all the work. You will be the point of contact for this project.
Allebach shared with the Council that he would like to bring in the consultant to make a presentation regarding round-abouts. He thought maybe this could happen at the first meeting in April.
Reports from Supervisors:
O’Connell – was asked by Howie if he had a list of road projects for the Council. O’Connell responded that he will have the information by the next Council meeting. Howie asked if they could have the information prior to the meeting. He also asked about the infiltration work. O’Connell responded that there are still some residents that need to be contacted and disconnect storm drainage or other non-sewage flow from the wastewater system. The Street Department will be working on this as soon as the weather breaks. The manholes that are under grass in resident’s yards have to be raised and the rings that are used to accomplish this are very expensive. He just learned about new parts that would work in this situation and be less costly and easier to work with. Howie asked about videos of the sewer at Muirfield. He asked O’Connell to look at them. There is concern about the lines through the golf course and where they drain to. Gooding asked about the work in front of the Street Department and O’Connell responded that street caved in because of a storm drain line. The line is broken because when it was installed the work was not done properly.
Schmitt – shared that the Department had taken applications for a reserve position that was open and selected someone to fill that position. Schmitt will have a bio on this young man to the Council before the next meeting. He is bi-lingual and will be a good addition to the department.
Schmitt also report that he and Allebach have been working on a Nixel Public Safety Project. He thought it could be used to get information out about the Town. It is a free service that we can email, text message and also use our website for this. You can put out public announcements: public safety, missing child alerts and events. It is a more immediate notification and the Police and Fire could use this service as well as the Town. We can put the link on our website. Gooding asked if we could send out notification to neighborhood associations and Schmitt responded we would have to have a data base for that and notices could go out as a text or email. Gooding also talked about employees posting face book pages regarding the Town and felt there is a need to have a policy in place regarding this. Mike Foster updates the Police Department website and twitters, so Allebach could work with him regarding these issues. The Twitter and Facebook link are on the Town website.
Lohse – wanted to do a welcome for SYM Financial and so a card was signed by the Council. She asked the Council if they would like her to continue to send out a skeletal with suggestions for articles and who would write the article for out newsletter. She asked the Council to let her know if there were topics they are passionate about. Her goal is to have the newsletter go out before the April 17th events – hopefully the first week in April. The Parks Department had a really great year in 2009 and Lohse would like to think it is due to the increased communication. Holly Hummitch is working her summer programs and information will be included in the newsletter. Lancaster asked if there will be an Easter event and Allebach responded that Holly is working towards March 27th.
Allebach – is waiting on Walmer regarding moving ahead with Stonehenge. We received feedback from MACOG regarding the stimulus projects and will be meeting with Larry Long regarding this. Allebach asked if there was any input from the Council regarding the off duty section of the Police policies. If the Council would send their thoughts to Allebach, he will get them to Walmer. He also needs any changes on the Neighborhood Preservation so Walmer can review it and get it back to the Plan Commission. Jerry Nelson asked if the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance information could be posted on the website. Lancaster asked if Allebach could post items like this on the website even if they are not complete. Nelson felt that the ordinance affects so many people and it should be posted. He also felt there was an issue with the public not being aware that they are in violation of Town ordinances. Lancaster suggested the Council should attend the next Plan Commission meeting. This board has spent a lot of time on this ordinance based on what Dick Leaf has asked for. Howie stated that there is an issue with venting a furnace out the side of you home as opposed to venting up and so we do have things that can cause problems in the ordinance. Gooding asked Nelson and Brent Wilcoxson to look at the ordinance and give feedback to the Council.
Howie – reported attending the legislative update. He asked about the Eagle Scouts and Allebach responded that they should be in the next Council meeting. Howie shared that there is now a drive up mailbox and he thanked Wilcoxson for providing the space for the box. He also reported changes with the Post Office regarding the carriers will come out of Warsaw. He wondered if our post office will be closed eventually and wanted people to let it be known that we don’t want our post office closed. The Council talked about doing a letter to Congressman Souder if this seems eminent.
Lohse motioned to adjourn and Gooding seconded.
Meeting was adjourned
_________________________ ___________________________
TERRY HOWIE RETHA S. HICKS
PRESIDENT CLERK-TREASURER