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December 2, 2009 The Norton City Council met in regular session Wednesday, December 2, 2009, at 5:30 p.m., with Council President Donna Foley presiding. Other council members present were Jeff Otter, Toby Kuhn, Kim Snyder, Roberta Ryan and Joe Leroux. Mayor Corns was absent. Others present were Diane Stiles, Harriett Gill, Deena Wente, Pat Morel, Karen Griffiths, Rob Lawson and Darla Ellis. Motion was made by Roberta Ryan and seconded by Joe Leroux to approve the November 18, 2009, city council minutes. Vote taken. Motion carried. The following building permits were presented: Rob Lawson reported Dave Barber stated everything is moving forward with the water plant financing through USDA; the money has been obligated and reserved and they are waiting for closing instructions. Funds will be secured with bonds which USDA purchases and then the City pays USDA back. The City has used Gilmore & Bell as their bond counsel in the past. Motion was made by Roberta Ryan and seconded by Toby Kuhn to hire Gilmore & Bell as the bond counsel and move forward with the bond issue. Vote taken. Motion carried. Motion was made by Toby Kuhn and seconded by Jeff Otter to accept Dean Esslinger’s resignation from the Economic Development Board, and advertise for the position. Vote taken. Motion carried. Council President Donna Foley reported the city sales tax receipts collected in October of 2009 totaled $20,390.63 and the county sales tax receipts totaled $14,730.82 for a total of $35,121.45. The year to date total receipts in 2009 total $395,723.55. Karen Griffiths stated she will not be at the next city council meeting so if she needs to do something for the meeting, she will need to know in advance. Chief of Police Pat Morel reported on the November activity within his department. Rob Lawson reported that he and the City Clerk will meet with John Mapes of Mapes and Miller next week, to determine if the budget needs to be amended in the sewer fund; a state revolving loan fund payment received in 2007 was not paid back out until 2009 due to the fact that the pumps were not performing sufficiently. He stated the sewer fund should have sufficient funds to make the state revolving loan fund payment which is due in March of 2010. The water fund will not have sufficient funds to make the state revolving loan fund payment of $227,967, unless the USDA funding is in place before that time. Jeff Otter stated Judge Hawks had contacted him and wanted to clarify that he did not ask for a raise for himself, but was asking for a raise for his court clerk because of the work she has gotten done. Rob Lawson stated Chris Miller reported the four wells in the wellfield are producing above what we expected and so he advises to cap the well which isn’t producing sufficiently. Motion was made by Donna Foley and seconded by Jeff Otter to accept the proposal from Downey Drilling to cap well #24, contingent upon the Division of Water Resources allowing the City to keep the water rights or transferring them. This would save the City $21,784. Vote taken. Motion carried. Donna Foley reported the Utility Committee met with a business owner regarding different ways to possibly determine the sewer average for high and low users in different times of the year. The Committee will be gathering some information and reviewing this. Microcomm came out before Thanksgiving and has everything programmed at the sewer plant and it is running good. The Water plant is also running good and the water well drilling is finished. Motion was made by Toby Kuhn and seconded by Kim Snyder to waive the formal first reading of Ordinance #1594, amending the building codes and adopting the International Building Code, 2006 Edition. Vote taken. Motion carried. Motion was made by Toby Kuhn and seconded by Jeff Otter to waive the formal first reading of Ordinance #1595, amending the plumbing codes and adopting the International Plumbing Code, 2006 Edition. Vote taken. Motion carried. Motion was made by Toby Kuhn and seconded by Kim Snyder to waive the formal first reading of Ordinance #1596, amending the electrical code and adopting the National Electrical Code, 2008 Edition. Vote taken. Motion carried. Motion was made by Toby Kuhn and seconded by Kim Snyder to waive the formal first reading of Ordinance #1597, amending the dangerous and unfit structures and minimum housing code. Vote taken. Motion carried. Motion was made by Toby Kuhn and seconded by Kim Snyder to waive the formal first reading of Ordinance #1598, amending the fire code and adopting the international fire code. Vote taken. Motion carried. Motion was made by Toby Kuhn and seconded by Kim Snyder to approve the agreement with Dollar General regarding a sewer easement on the property they are purchasing on Highway 36 for their new store site. Vote taken. Motion carried. Finance Committee also discussed the cost of living adjustment and will have a recommendation at the next meeting. They are still working on contract with City Administrator and hope to have that finalized by end of the year. The Finance Committee also held a preliminary discussion concerning the City of Norton utilizing a corrections crew from the Norton Correctional Facility. Norton Community Foundation raised funds to hire a consulting group regarding keeping the Correctional Facility in Norton County. The community would lose 275 jobs if the Correctional Facility is closed. It was identified through Economic Development and the Community Foundation the potential to have a crew work for the City of Norton to strengthen the ties between the two organizations. Toby Kuhn stated the committee heard from several individuals and there was quite a bit of reluctance from the department heads regarding this issue. He said they talked about having people from other areas who utilize an inmate crew to come and talk to the City, but if the City isn’t willing to explore this any further, we shouldn’t waste these people’s time. Motion was made by Toby Kuhn and seconded by Joe Leroux for the City to continue to explore the possibility of having an inmate crew work with the City of Norton. Vote taken. Motion carried. Diane Stiles stated Betty Mickey is the Mayor of Atwood and she may be willing to talk to the City about the various things the inmate crews have done for Atwood and their Township. They have been using work crews for about 20 years. Toby Kuhn stated our work crews are about 3 years behind on sidewalk replacement requests and they may be able to do some of these projects and also help with the brick street repair. He stated the City needs to look at the costs and how everything would be handled. Joe Leroux stated he agrees regarding the importance of a potential partnership with the Correctional Facility. He stated the City needs to be open minded regarding anything that might help keep 275 jobs in our community. Motion was made by Roberta Ryan and seconded by Kim Snyder to approve Appropriating Ordinance #23 as a whole. Vote taken. Motion carried. Motion was made by Kim Snyder and seconded by Toby Kuhn to adjourn. The council meeting was adjourned at 6:10 p.m. ATTEST: City Clerk Mayor: David N. Corns
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