Council Minutes

REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING

MILFORD CIVIC CENTER

 

President Nader called the meeting to order in the Milford Civic Center at 7:30 p.m. President Nader led the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

PRESENT

 

President Thomas Nader; Councilmembers Michael Glagola, Elizabeth Heer, James Kovach, Theresa Rusas, Kevin Ziegler

 

ALSO PRESENT

 

Arthur Shufflebarger, Village Manager; Thomas Connelly, Legal Counsel; Becky Jacques, Village Treasurer/Finance Director; Robert Calley, DPS Director; Harley Maxwell, DPS Employee; Wayne Walli, Police Chief; Karen Worrell, Planning Commissioner & ZBA Boardmember; Timothy Juidici, ZBA Boardmember; Larry Waligora, Fire Chief; Cindy Dagenhardt, Township Treasurer

 

APPROVE CONSENT AGENDA

 

CM-09-161-08 Heer moved, Rusas seconded, to approve the consent agenda of September 15, 2008 as presented. Motion CARRIED

 

General	$55,478.42
Major Street Fund	3,033.63
Local Street Fund	3,694.02
Police Fund	6,176.15
Parking Fund	166.87
Downtown Development Authority Fund	297.40
Senior Citizens Fund	18.92
Water/Wastewater Fund	167,738.57
Escrow Fund	3,950.00
Total	$240,553.88

APPROVE REGULAR AGENDA

 

CM-09-162-08 Heer moved, Rusas seconded, to approve the September 15, 2008 regular agenda as revised. Motion CARRIED

 

PRESENTATION

 

Ms. Dagenhardt presented to Council a final rendition of the proposed new fire station. She said the ballot language is prepared for the November election and if approved they will continue to move forward with the approval process.

 

Stacey Peterson, Architect, CDPA Architects, was also present and explained to Council that the sketch submitted from Village Planning Commission Chairman, John Heidt, reduced the amount of parkland needed for the new station to only 5’. He said the general idea was well received by the Township and Fire Department. He explained that they would be re-using the existing building for administrative purposes and that the design of the overall building is intended to have a downtown theme that would be appropriate for the community.

 

Mr. Shufflebarger said that the proposed plan had been reviewed by DDA Director, Ann Barnette and the Downtown Development Authority and it is his understanding that they like it.

 

Councilmember Heer said she appreciated that only 5’ of parkland would be used to construct the fire station.

 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

 

CM-09-163-08 Glagola moved, Kostin seconded, to approve the low bid of Summit Transport for $318,848.00. Motion CARRIED

 

DISCUSSION

 

Councilmember Kovach asked if Mr. Shufflebarger could review the emails.

 

Mr. Shufflebarger explained that there were four bid re-submittals for the Bike Trail 9/9/08. He said that those present understood at the time of the opening as did he, that the low bidder was Commerce Construction. He explained however, that once the bids were given to Wade Trim to calculate the tabulations proved that Summit Transport was in fact the low bidder with the cost of $318,848.00. He explained that Summit Transport had apparently missed changing the bottom line number from their previous submission to the new total.

 

Donna Yaroch, with Commerce Construction was present and stated that she felt that the re-bid was not handled properly. She said the bid tabulation from Wade Trim indicates that there are two errors with the figures from Commerce Construction when there was not. She asked whether or not the tabulation provided by Wade Trim was accurate.

 

Joe Riccardi with San Mario Excavating was present and said he also felt that the re-bid was not handled properly. He said he received a copy of the bid tabulation and that a couple of the pages including the signature page were missing. He said as a resident he didn’t understand why the project was not “let” with the State of Michigan as one larger job to save both the Township and Village money.

 

President Nader explained that the Village portion of the project is funded by monies received from fund raising while the Township had a millage approved to fund their portion of the project. Both projects were from separate state grants.

 

Shawn Morrisse with Summit Transport was present and said that the bid amount was simply a clerical error in that the previous bid amount of $343,828.00 was not changed to the revised amount of $318,848.00. He said that all his numbers within the bid document were correct, just that the total was not revised to the new amount. He said that his signature was on the re-bid submission.

 

Robert Navetta, 2929 Wildemere, was present and asked for a response to Ms. Yaroch’s question about the errors of on the bid tabulation.

 

Mr. Shufflebarger said that he did not recheck the bid tabulations. He said if it is believed that an error was made he would look at the bid tab and see if it would have affected the totals.

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

Mr. Shufflebarger explained that primary funding for the Peters Road Bridge project comes from the Major Roads Fund. He said it is projected to be $28,181.04 short of the projected cost and will have to be made up in some manner. He said he is suggesting that two amendments be specifically made to the Major Roads Fund with a suggestion that there be a delay of the street line painting from mid June to after July 1, 2009. Mr. Shufflebarger said he would recommend to move forward with the Crack Sealing project which is on the agenda for approval and to consider the necessity of staining the bridge paneling. He said the $28,181.04 is the Village portion of the bridge project. Mr. Shufflebarger said waiting to stain the bridge would not have an adverse affect on the bridge.

 

President Nader asked where the overages came from.

 

Mr. Shufflebarger said construction engineering cost were primarily the major part of the overage which occurred from the beginning, winter delays as well as from the rubble found under the water.

 

Councilmember Kovach asked how much money has been spent from the Major Roads Fund for the bridge and asked if it is permissible to spend that money on Peters Road Bridge.

 

Village Treasurer, Becky Jacques, reported that $538,000, has been spent so far which included the preliminary bridge design and engineering construction.

 

Mr. Shufflebarger said it was permissible to spend money from the Major Roads fund for the bridge.

 

Councilmember Ziegler asked what would happen if Council didn’t approve the request.

 

Mr. Shufflebarger said there would be no place to pull the funds from and that most likely we would be foreclosed on.

 

CM-09-164-08 Rusas moved, Glagola seconded, to amend the Major Roads budget to transfer $9,875 of General Administration expense to the General Fund. Amend the Major Roads budget to transfer $13,500 of Downtown maintenance expense to the General Fund and authorize the delay of street line painting expense of $13,000 from June 2009 to July 2009 delaying it into the 2009-2010 Major Roads budget year.

Yes – Heer, Nader, Kostin, Rusas, Glagola, Ziegler

No – Kovach Motion CARRIED

 

CM-09-165-08 Rusas moved, Heer seconded, to approve the crack seal bid of Scodeller Construction for $29,640.00 Motion CARRIED

 

Mr. Shufflebarger reviewed his memo dated 9/10/08 (on file at Village office), in which he explained the costs involved in re-aligning River Street.

 

CM-09-166-08 Glagola moved, Rusas seconded, to extend the curb to the west for the cost of $4,884.00, and approve $6,732.00 for the relocation of the 15’ driveway centered upon the road right-of-way not to exceed the amount of $11,616.00.

 

DISCUSSION

 

Frank Ellias, 5777 W. Maple Road, W. Bloomfield, attorney for Mr. and Mrs. Nader was present and stated that there were numerous reasons the re-alignment should not be approved stating that the existing road has serviced River St. since 1839. Improving the road is not necessary for the Nader or Lewis residence and would only benefit the Worrell residence who will then have more convenient parking. He said it was not proper to spend Village money to improve parking for a resident who has created their own parking problem. He said as far as creating an easier approach for school busses off of Huron, they are not aware of any complaints from Huron Valley schools regarding the approach. He said if it is found improving the approach for the school bus is necessary, there are much less expensive ways to accomplish the same goal. He said there is no legitimate reason to improve the road and if Council approves the project, its actions would be unfair to the Naders, as the proposed road would bring traffic within 10’ of their residence. Mr. Ellias suggest the three neighbors along with the Village Manager, and Village attorney meet to discuss an alternative solution.

 

Scott Lewis, 224 W. Huron and Karen Worrell, 815 N Union, were both present and said that they would not be willing to meet because each time in the past they have tried to meet, Mr. Nader left the meeting.

 

Councilmember Kovach called the question.

 

Yes – Kovach, Kostin, Rusas, Glagola, Ziegler, Heer

No – Nader Motion CARRIED

 

CM-09-167-08 Kovach moved, Kostin seconded, to accept Larry Martin’s resignation from Planning Commission. Motion CARRIED

 

CM-09-168-08 Kostin moved, Kovach seconded, to appoint Timothy Juidici to fill the Planning Commission vacancy, term to expire 6/09. Motion CARRIED

 

CM-09-169-08 Kovach moved, Kostin seconded, to appoint Kenneth Vance to fill the ZBA Boardmember vacancy, term to expire 6/11. Motion CARRIED

 

Councilmember Kovach asked why we would accept a bid higher than the lower bid amount.

 

Chief Walli explained that the installation procedure is different from one company to another and that the materials provided by Spirit Roofing will have the readiness for a future green roof tray system. He said the funds to pay for the roof will come from the building maintenance fund which has a budget of $30,000.

 

CM-09-170-08 Kovach moved, Glagola seconded, to accept the bid from Spirit Roofing of Brighton for the amount of $25,000. Motion CARRIED

 

CALL TO THE PUBLIC

 

Nader asked if there was anyone who wished to address Council on an item that was not on the agenda.

 

There was no input from the Public.

 

MANAGER’S REPORT

 

Mr. Shufflebarger informed the Councilmembers that the Department of Public Service has successfully completed their first full 10 hour work day. He said it was determined by DPS Director, Robert Calley, that during the fall months, funds spent on employee overtime pay could be saved by working a 10 hour work day four days a week, with Friday’s off. He explained that this would be a four week evaluation period with the possibility of an additional four weeks following.

 

COUNCILMEMBERS REMARKS

 

Councilmember Rusas said that she was again approached by a neighbor who wanted to know if there is anything the Village could do to get the utility companies to update their service so power outages happen less frequently.

 

ADJOURN

 

The meeting was adjourned at 9:17 p.m.

 

Nancy Scott, CMC

Milford Village Deputy Clerk