By Nate Smith, Staff Writer
Mayor Larry Haag highlighted some of what the city has done and what it plans to do during his first State of the City speech Monday.
Haag, who gave a shorter than normal speech at 14 minutes, said the city has come far since he was elected 14 months ago.
“‘Together We Can’ was my motto during my campaign and tonight I am here to tell you that in the past 14 months, together we have,” Haag said.
The mayor recognized some of the accomplishments the city had done in the first year — the city pool, a new Long Term Control Plan for city sewers, water improvements, sidewalks for Lena Dunn, recycling and planning for I-69.
For the pool, Haag mentioned that 41 percent of the $1.2 million cost was funded through donations. The address said the pool, closed in 2008, would be open by mid-July.
Also saving taxpayer money, Haag said, was the sewer project. Instead of a $63 million plan would be a leaner $22 million plan that would harness “green” technology.
“It will allow the city to control cost and possibly get funding through stimulus dollars,” Haag said.
Some of the new items Haag discussed during the address were the cleaning of water lines at the city wells. With the cleaning, the city should get about 2 million more gallons of water. Also, the city’s largest commercial and industrial users have new meters that Haag said replace ones that were obsolete and inadequate. He said a new meter was installed at the Perdue processing plant over the weekend.
“When we finish this project, we will have the capacity for future growth,” he said. “No matter who was losing, we all deserve an accurate meter.”
Haag had several department heads speak about a new human resources program the city introduced, where managers were able to realign job duties and reduce wasted time.
“It really has made us part of a team,” Electric Department Supervisor Randy Emmons said. “It really has.”
The address came after a rare legislative defeat for Haag during the regular council meeting. The council voted 4-3 not to enact a rate increase at the electric department. The sticking issue in the ordinance was a requested $1.1 million for purchasing automated meters.
Last week, Haag announced that local excavators Boyd and Sons Construction were suing the city for $1.2 million in connection with the first part of the sewer project in 2007. No mention of the suit was made during the council meeting.
In other business:
RESOLUTIONS
Two resolutions were adopted by the council Monday. The first was the filing of an application for federal transportation stimulus dollars.
Chuck Martindale with INDOT said the state has $100,504 set aside from the stimulus package for public transportation projects, if they want it.
The dollars can go only to purchasing new equipment or fixing up facilities. Martindale said the city could purchase a new bus for about $50,000 and use the rest of the funds to renovate the transit building.
The council unanimously voted to start the process of getting the dollars.
Another unanimous resolution was for citizens to support climate change legislation by asking for a cap-and-trade system in which corporations that pollute could buy carbon credits from green technologies.
WORKFORCE
TRAINING
The council and later the Board of Public Works and Safety, voted to renew the contract with the Daviess County Economic Development Foundation for the Advanced Manufacturing Productivity Center for $50,000.
Instead of the previous two years, the council decided to give the center two installments of $25,000 instead of a lump sum.
STOP SIGN
At the end of the public works meeting, Tammy George asked the board to consider putting a stop sign at the intersection of N.W. Third and Walnut streets. George said the street is becoming dangerous due to one-way traffic ending at 11th Street.
Haag directed the police and street department to look into the situation and come to the council with a recommendation.
PUBLIC HEARING
Besides the electric rate hearing on Monday, another hearing was held between the council and public works meetings.
The hearing was a mandatory item for the sewer project. The city is trying to acquire stimulus dollars through the state Revolving Loan Fund to defray some of the $21 million cost of the sewer update.
Haag said during the meeting that since the sewer project is shovel-ready and a “green” project, the city has a good chance of getting federal stimulus funding.
