Cloverdale council discusses utilities, parking, revitalizing

CLOVERDALE -- The Cloverdale Town Council held its monthly meeting Tuesday evening, discussing such issues as utilities, parking and town revitalization.

Utility Manager Rich Saucerman updated the board on the status of Cool Evening and Lazy River roads, which have had drainage issues for several months.

Saucerman will soon be looking at purchasing two catch basins, which will cost around $1,000 or all of the budgeted funds for the project. However, the council decided to raise Saucerman's budget for the project to $2,000 to cover all costs.

"I met with Russell Monnett and we're going to be near $1,000 to pour two catch basins with concrete before we frame them up," explained Saucerman. "The only thing is, is my limit is $1,000 and we might be getting over $1,000 with the pipe and those catch basins."

Don Gedert will also be helping with purchasing some of the pipe, which will help with some of the cost.

The project will include 10 sections and 200 feet of pipe along with the two catch basins.

Saucerman also informed the board that the owner of the Value Market fixed its drainage and entrance issues. It was advised that the town will now have to do some ditching, starting at Stardust Road.

"All the way from the hotel it's not really directing the water down the road," said Saucerman. "He cleaned out his culverts and now they're a little lower than the others."

Finally, Saucerman informed the council that hydrant flushing will be done either before or after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Building Inspector Mark Cassida spoke to the council on several housing situations, which he deemed unsafe.

He noted the property at 911 N. Main St. has been sent a letter to remove the construction front as soon as possible. The property owner has until Nov. 26 to respond. If he does not comply, Town Attorney Alan Yackey will move forward with it.

If all goes well Cassida will have a form for the council to sign deeming the property at 35 E. Bonne St. unsafe. It is the hope of town officials to demolish the property.

He also informed the council that the dog he had found in an abandoned garage last month has been adopted by the Carmel Police Department and will soon be trained as a drug dog.

The council finally moved forward with several of the parking restriction projects that have been ongoing for the past several months.

The council passed Ordinance 2012-7 Stop Sign and Penalty, which documents and sets out all of the stop signs that physically exist, as the council could not previously find an ordinance for them. Also, Ordinance 2012-8 Restricted Parking, was signed by the council, which lays out the new parking zones and truck parking.

Yackey also introduced ordinance 2012-9 Adopting the Codification, which is required by state law.

Former town council member Cathy Tipton came before the council to ask for approval to continue with Hyett Palma to develop a five-year plan to revitalize the town.

In a previous meeting, town president Don Sublett had decided to stop the project, which was started back in 2011, in hopes of getting back the $15,000 that was invested.

"All the surveys have been completed by the businesses," explained Tipton. "In the April meeting, in the minutes that I received from Cheryl, a portion of the board or you, someone had said they were going to look at getting the $15,000 back.

"So, at that point I had stopped doing work. I did talk to Deloris from Hyett Palma and she said if we were going to move forward I would have to work with IACT, but since you had requested to think about getting the money back, I've had no contact with them."

Tipton said the project could be moved forward, but she needed the OK from the council to do so. The town will not be receiving any money from this project, as it is to see what could happen five years down the road and how the town can be developed.

"It's basically just a working survey," Tipton said. "There's no money that will be transpired or involved for the town to receive. There is a lot of documents and a lot of work that has been done and needs to continue to be done."

The council agreed to move forward with the project as well as help Tipton out as much as possible.

Finally, the town discussed potential places for a new parking lot. In the past the council has looked at the location of Logan and Lafayette streets and will continue to explore more options.

As it stands now, the Main Street group currently owns the location, but still owes money on it. The organization expressed interest in potentially leasing the property to the town, however the council decided to table the item till a later date.

The Cloverdale Town Council will be holding a safety board meeting on Friday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.