CITY OF SOUTH LYON

REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING

June 13, 2005

 

 

Mayor Doyle called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.

Mayor Doyle led those present in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

 

PRESENT:            Mayor Doyle

            Council Members: Crawford, Dryer, Schwarck, and Wallace

            City Manager Cook

Attorney Lee

City Clerk/Treasurer Zemke

Department Heads: Martin & Renwick

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

 

CM 6-1-05- APPROVAL OF MINUTES – MAY 23, 2005

 

     Motion by Schwarck, supported by Crawford

 

     To approve the minutes of the regular meeting of May 23, 2005 as written

 

VOTE:                                                                                     MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

 

APPROVAL OF MONTHLY BILLS: 

 

CM 6-2-05- APPROVAL OF MONTHLY BILLS

 

     Motion by Crawford, supported by Schwarck

 

     To approve the monthly bills as presented

 

VOTE:                                                                                     MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

 

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

 

CM 6-3-05- APPROVAL OF AGENDA

 

     Motion by Crawford, supported by Wallace

 

     To approve the agenda as presented

 

VOTE:                                                                                     MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

 

 

CITIZEN’S SUGGESTIONS

 

Councilman Wallace stated that he is surprised that we have not received complaints from residents along Hagadorn.  Rather than using the normal metal plates to cover the cuts in the road, they used plywood, which makes a very loud noise as you drive your car across them even at 5 miles per hour.  He stated hats off to those people who live on that street for bearing with us during this project.  Superintendent Renwick stated that they will begin abandoning the water main this week and clean-up after that.  The have begun working on the sidewalks.  Mayor Doyle thanked the residents in the area.  He stated that there has been a lot of activity in that area as well as the Singh Development.

 

OLD BUSINESS:

 

  1. Proposed Amendment to the budget – FY 2004-2005

 

 

City Manager Cook stated that we need to make some adjustments within the General Fund budget that deal basically with storm damage as well as an adjustment in the transportation budget based on the contract with People’s Express.  We also have an increase in the Police Department budget for increase in salary and fringe benefits for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield related to people giving up the stipen and getting back on the program.  Local Streets is being adjusted for storm damage, and Water and Sewer Operation is being adjusted for the replacement and repair of Well No. 1.

 

Councilman Wallace stated that it is good that we are in a position to be able to handle something like this.

 

Councilman Schwarck stated that he knows the crews have been around chopping the tree limbs, etc.  People are still getting some of those out there to the street and asked if we will continue to pick them up.  City Manager Cook stated that this is something we normally do.

 

Superintendent Bob Martin stated that Well #1 was installed in 1954, and the City has been operating with that as our main well since that time.  Just recently when it went down, we took a real close look at it, and it was discovered that there was a break in the casing.  We came up with a great improvement, and even though it was a sizeable amount of money, in order to replace a well such as this could have cost us over $200,000, and we did this for about $50,000.  We have a well for the next 50 years with a brand new stainless steel casing.  This is a greater output of water than we did before, which we needed because we are pumping about 3 times the amount of water than what we did during the winter months.

 

The question was asked what the old casing was made out of.   Superintendent Martin stated that it was just hardened steel.  When they went down and video taped it, they found about a 10 foot slit in the casing that literally exposed our well to the ground.  If that had caved in, we would have been drilling a whole new well.

 

Councilman Wallace asked how deep that well is.  Superintendent Martin stated that it is 151 feet.  He stated that what they did was slide a 10 inch casing into the existing 12 inch and added two more liners for the well casing, which increased the efficiency of that well.

 

Councilman Schwarck asked if we know exactly where our aquifer is.  Superintendent Martin stated that every year we do a draw down test that gives us a 20-year look.  We feel comfortable that we have at least 20 years of water even with the new development.  He stated that we are pumping a lot of water right now.  He stated that he cannot say enough about the response of all the departments last week with the power outage. He stated that they were operating on generator power for about 54 hours and everything worked the way it was supposed to.  The residents should feel very lucky.  The water and sewer departments lived off of stand-by power and nobody knew.

 

Mayor Doyle stated that all of the departments, the Police, Fire, DPW as well as Water did a great job during the storm and clean-up.

 

CM 6-4-05 – APPROVAL OF BUDGET AMENDMENT

 

      Motion by Dryer, supported by Schwarck

 

     To approve the budget amendment as presented (see attached amendment as part of these minutes)

 

VOTE:                                                                                     MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

 

  1. Needs Assessment and Site Analysis – New Police Facility

 

City Manager Cook stated that he placed this on the agenda to give Council an opportunity to look at it and have some general discussion.  He has provided some cost information as well as a debt schedule to give some idea in the event we decided to sell bonds.  We now have a range of improvements that can be done in order to provide adequate space.  This will give Council an opportunity to look at it, and we can bring this back at a future meeting.

 

Chief Collins asked Council to pay particular attention to the engineer’s comments about the age of the building and heating and cooling systems.  He discussed recent repairs to these systems and given the age of these buildings, it will become more and more expensive.

 

Mayor Doyle stated that we had an analysis done by our engineers as well as Bridgestone Architects.  He stated that we currently have 18 officers and we have been growing.  Chief Collins’ office is currently at the old City Hall, and we are getting to the point where we need to make plans for a new police facility.

 

Councilman Wallace stated that he did agree with having this study done.  However, he would have a problem with pursuing this much further without going to the community.  This is a big issue when you are talking about a $3.3 million venture.  He would rather the community decide.  The last survey that we did, the question was asked and it was not very favorable, instead they would rather see a fire facility on the other side of the railroad tracks.  He is very positive toward the Police Department, but he is not one that is willing to go against the wishes of the community.  It may be that we need to educate the community as to the need, but there is some hard work ahead of us.

 

City Manager Cook stated that depending on how you want to finance this, if you want to get the feedback, we can put a question on the ballot much like we did for the sewer treatment plant.  If the majority of the people vote for it, then we can proceed.  If we do that, he thinks that we need that before the end of July so we can get it on the ballot for November.  Mayor Doyle stated that he does not think that anybody would go through and do this without public input.  This is just the first step.

 

City Manager Cook stated that these are numbers that we put together to give Council an idea of the cost.  These numbers are based on the $2.4 million, not the higher end.  If you go to the higher end, we would have to factor in additional millage.

 

Discussion was held on the overcrowding at the Police Department.  Chief Collins stated that it does create some inefficiencies.

 

Councilman Wallace stated that we need another fire and emergency medical facility on the other side of the tracks.  It is possible that more than half of our population is on the other side of the tracks.  With all of the trains that cross the track, it is a problem.  He feels that we have a more broad-spectrum problem for emergency services that need to be addressed.   Chief Collins stated that the Police Department would gladly entertain the idea of a joint building.

 

Councilman Schwarck stated that he was amazed at the efficiency of our Police Department given the space.  He sated that they are operating with less than half of the space that our needs analysis says that we need.  Councilman Crawford stated that we have a dire need to increase our Police Department, and our population estimates for the next 5-10 years makes it imparitive.

 

Councilman Dryer stated that it is obvious that the need is there, but how would we pay for it is still to be determined.  He stated that the survey question asked whether people would be willing to pay another mill in taxes.  So if we can find a way to not go that high, the response may be different than what the survey showed. He stated that when he talked with the Fire Department, they indicated that traffic is a much bigger problem than getting another facility on the other side of the tracks.  He feels that we should talk to them before we decide to pursue that.

 

  1. Revised Engineering Standards

 

City Manager Cook stated that we have a recommendation from staff and our engineers to upgrade our engineering standards.  A summary has been provided.  We need to update in order to bring us into conformance with a lot of general standards that have changed over the years since we last updated in approximately 1996. 

 

Superintendent Renwick stated that a lot of this has to do with new materials, etc. that have developed over the years.

 

CM 6-5-05 – APPROVAL OF REVISED ENGINEERING STANDARDS

 

     Motion by Crawford, supported by Schwarck

 

    To approve the revised engineering standards as presented (see attached summary of revisions as part of

     these minutes)

 

VOTE:                                                                                     MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

 

NEW BUSINESS:

 

  1. Parking Lot Maintenance – City side of Administration Building – Proposal to repair – Scodeller Construction, Inc.

 

Superintendent Renwick stated that we have some large cracks in our parking lot.  If we do not take care of these now, we are going to end up replacing the lot.  We have a local company that specializes in this work, and they have provided us with a quote.  This should last us for a number of years.

 

Councilman Wallace asked if this has to do with settling where the old school used to be.  Superintendent Renwick stated that it could be, but more likely as more water gets into the cracks, it starts to create more problems.  We need to seal these to prevent that from happening.

 

Councilman Dryer asked what kind of guarantee do we have on their work.  Superintendent Renwick stated that they have always stood behind their work.  Councilman Wallace stated that these people are specialists in doing the highways all around us.  Renwick stated that they have done work for us in the past.

 

CM 6-6-05 – APPROVAL OF QUOTE

 

      Motion by Dryer, supported by Wallace

 

     To approve the quote from Scodeller Construction for parking lot maintenance in the amount of $2,221.22

 

VOTE:                                                                                     MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

 

CM 6-12-04 – ADJOURNMENT

 

     Motion by Crawford, supported by Dryer

 

     To adjourn the meeting at 7:55 p.m.

 

 

VOTE:                                                                                     MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

 

 

_______________________________                                  ________________________________

John Doyle, Jr., Mayor                                                        Julie C. Zemke, City Clerk/Treasurer