Utilities dominate Cloverdale council's monthly meeting

Friday, November 14, 2014

CLOVERDALE -- Billing issues once again dominated the Cloverdale Town Council meeting Tuesday evening.

After receiving a letter in the mail on the status of tenants' water bills from the clerk's office, several landlords showed up to the monthly meeting to express their disdain about the possibility of having to pay a tenant's overdue bill.

"We sent out letters to the landlords this last Friday, notifying them that their tenants were delinquent in paying their bills," Cloverdale Clerk-Treasurer Cheryl Galloway said. "It was for information only and informing them that their tenants would also be getting a notice in the mail."

Galloway added that Attorney Allan Yackey had approved the letters before it was sent out and so far, the town has already had several customers that have come to pay their water bills in full, but there are a lot more to go.

"If they don't pay, we will be taking them to court," Galloway added. "If they're trying to make those payments we are trying to work with them, but I told Brittany we are going to wean away from doing that altogether, you're either going to pay it or you're not."

Council Vice President Dennis Padgett expressed his distaste of the matter, stating that this time the town is $39,000 in the hole because of its efforts to help residents by allowing them to pay their water bills in payments.

"If you can't pay the bill in whole it gets shut off," Padgett said. "The other companies don't let you pay on your light bill $10 or $20 a month. They come in here and give you $20 or $30 and cry about not being able to pay their bill and we're not shutting their water off. It's real simple, either you pay it or you shut it off. It's dragging the town into a deep hole."

Galloway advised Padgett as well as the council that the town at this time has its hands tied as several towns have been sued over shutting off residents' water resulting in several significant changes in regard to due process.

"There has to be a chain of command on how we're going to shut them off," Galloway explained. "You just can't go and shut them off -- you have to give them a notice, you have to give the landlord a notice and then you have to give them a certain amount of time to pay their bill in full."

Town Attorney Allan Yackey also noted that in the past if one was to not pay their bill the town could shut the water off. However, a federal court had found that it violated due process.

"You have to give them a sufficient period of time before you could remedy before you can take action," Yackey said. "You're considerably more handcuffed now than you were back then."

Galloway advised the council she hopes to have better news in regard to the water bill issues as soon as next month's council meeting. However, Galloway along with several landlords in Cloverdale suggested raising the water deposit to help with the issue of tenants not paying their bills. The council advised it would also discuss the matter of raising the deposit next month.

Scott Creagan of Utility Management and Construction came before the council to give a brief update on the status of several lift stations, which was previously discussed during last months meeting.

Creagan advised the council that he received a quote from BBC Pump for lift station six, which is located near the Marathon Station.

"The pump needs to be completely rebuilt from the bottom up," Creagan said. "A new pump would be $16,000, so our best bet is to go with the rebuild."

The price for the rebuilding the entire pump along with the installation, which the council approved, is $4,372.07. Creagan noted that once the pump is rebuilt and installed, the other pump, which is in the same condition or worse will be inspected by BBC Pump for another quote.

"Once all that is done lift station six will be marked off our list and will be completely up to date," Creagan added.

The council was also advised that the pump in lift station three will cost $2,678.77 with labor. Creagan noted that the pump does not need to approved at this time, however will likely need to be approved toward the end of winter.

"We can get through winter on one pump," Creagan said. "It's just something to kind of chew on. Toward the end of winter it's something we want to make sure we have that or be ready to pull the trigger on that."

Creagan also came before the council with hopes of gaining approval to hire Eco-Infrastructure Solutions of Carmel to televise the town's sewer lines.

By televising the sewer lines, the town will be able to not only see the extent of damage of its lines, but as well as inspect laterals thought out the town, inspect manholes as well as create a GIS mapping system.

"Right now we don't have a mapping system," Creagan said. "This program will show us lot lines of an area, show you which way the sewer mains are going and much more."

Creagan advised that he spoke with the town's engineer Lori Young of Curry and Associates Consulting Engineers and Architects about the execution of such a project and decided it'd be best to split the town into four quadrants.

"We won't go on to the next section until we've repaired or fixed the problems found in that area," Creagan said. "It'd be a waste of money to not repair and fix as we go."

It was noted that other companies were spoken to, but could not match the price of Eco-Infrastructure Solutions of $40 per manhole inspection and GPS mapping. Creagan noted that such things as manhole repair, pipe patching and root do not have a definite price as it depends on the extent of damage.

After a brief discussion, no motion was made to move forward with the televising of the lines and will likely be revisited during the December meeting.

"Each one is going to take a while, it's not going to be a quick thing," Creagan said. "Everything will be saved on a server. Not only will we have it on a computer saved, but he will actually give us a digital program that we can download. So, if someone did come in and delete everything for our mapping all we'd have to do is reinstall the program and everything will come up."

In other business:

* The council approved Resolution 2014-28 a supplement ordinance annexing the 5.397 acres of land (Endeavor Communications) into the town. The council also passed Resolution 2014-8 supplemental fiscal plan for voluntary annexation of Endeavor.

* The council approved raising the storm water rates from $1-$5. The change will go into effect beginning in December.

* The council approved the re-appointment of Richard Wells, Don Gedert and Rick Patel to the Putnam County Convention and Visitor Bureau board.

* During a special meeting Wednesday evening, the Cloverdale Town Council approved the termination of Superintendent of Public Works Chuck Knuff. Galloway advised that the town is looking to restructure the utilities departments as far as employees and their duties. At this time Cloverdale is looking for an interim town manager.

A special meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m.

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