DECISIONS, DECISIONS

The City Council will hear two different options tonight concerning the sewer rate increase.

• Plan 1 calls for an increase of 18% now and 17-21% in 2012. This plan uses $700,000.00 from EDIT and Riverboat funds for the next 20 years.
• Plan 2 calls for an increase of 23% now and 20% in 2012 and does not include the $700,000.00 from EDIT and Riverboat.

Mayor England first supported Plan 1 but changed his mind when he realized that EDIT and Riverboat might be needed to complete the Greenway project and the new Little League Complex.

I have expressed many times that I don't want to tie up EDIT for 20 years so I'm not in favor of either of these plans. We'll just have to wait and see what the council decides.

The Sewer meeting begins at 4:30 and the Council workshop begins at 6:00.

UPDATE: DANIEL SUDDEATH SAID THE SEWER MEETING HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

TAP IN FEES IN LINDEN MEADOWS

Yesterday's Tribune had an article about Linden Meadows.

It seems the Sewer Board wants to waive the tap in fees for three homes at $1,650.00 each. This was per the request of Carl Malysz because he does not think the homeowners should be penalized.

Although I agree that the homeowners should not be forced to pay these fees that Community Housing defaulted on, I think these fees should be added to the cost of the property and the new owner pick them up.

If a developer is interested in purchasing the property, $4,950.00 would not be a deal breaker.
They would already be obligated for the tap in fees for future homes at $1,800.00 each.

That way the city does not lose any more money and the current homeowners are not forced to pay another fee after all of the problems they have had to endure the last few years.

ALTERNATIVE TO THE ALTERNATIVES

I have been reading all of the information from blogs to the Tribune and everything I can find about the sewer rate increases and all of the "Alternative" plans. Instead of trying to weigh the pros and cons of each, I have decided to come up with one myself.

• Take out the loan offered by SRL for the 7.4 million dollars.
• Slash the annual budget by 1 million.
• Collect all outstanding sewer bills, no exceptions.
• Remove the 5-2 ratio and have individuals and developers pay the same rate.
• Do not lower the rate per unit on high volume customers.
• Remove the minimum of $10.08 and charge everyone according to usage.
• Use TIF funds when ever possible to pay for equipment.
• Charge impact fees and collect all other fees from developers where applicable.
• After all of these steps have been taken, raise the sewer rate to cover the costs.

I did not list a particular rate increase percentage because I don't know if it would be 10%, 20% or whatever. I tried to find the most reasonable aspects from each plan and combine them into one. Now, before you start the barrage of comments, I admit that I am not a CPA, and really do not know much about all of this but this is what I came up with.

I yield the floor to my learned friends.

TIME OUT

I will be taking a mini vacation for the next few days. Hopefully, there will not be a computer anywhere in sight.

Everyone have a great weekend and enjoy this beautiful spring weather.

See you next week.

ALL TALK AND NO ACTION

There is not much to report about the city council meeting tonight. The meeting lasted from 7:30 to 10:00 and virtually nothing was accomplished.

Everyone was tired of discussing the sewer rate increase and there was a lack of good information. To solve this problem the council decided to meet every day next week from Tuesday through Friday at 6:00. If the meeting room is not available another and smaller room will be used. These will be open to the public if space is available.

Mrs. Benedetti vowed to meet every night until a solution is found.

A DOWNTOWN PLAZA HERE? REALLY?

I just re-read Chris Morris' Tribune article about Jack Bobo's bid to purchase land downtown to build a new plaza aka. Scribner Place Phase II.

I know the plans included a parking garage but nothing was mentioned this time about the city kicking in $12,000,000 to make it happen. Maybe Mr. Bobo and Mainland Properties LLC realized New Albany didn't have that kind of cash lying around.

Mr. Malysz promised to go over the plans "with a fine tooth comb", but it still makes me wonder why a company would want to invest over a million dollars here and now. Do they know something the rest of us don't?

At any rate the thought of a massive building project with all the jobs that would come with it sounds like a dream come true to me. I just hope they can work things out with the EPA.

TO FLUSH OR NOT TO FLUSH

Tonight's meeting lasted about 2 1/2 hours with a lot of talk and not much progress.

I was not present for the sewer board meeting at 4:00 but the main topics were briefly explained in the 6:00 meeting with the City Council. All of the council members were present and everyone expressed their opinion. Some more loudly than others.

At the beginning; Mr. Malysz discussed a memo from the Mayor which stated that the Administration is in the process of talking with EMC about terminating their contract as soon as possible instead of letting it continue until 2012. Mr. Ceasar suggested that a Sewer Board member and a Council member be included in these meetings so everyone can stay updated on the progress. Mr. Malysz seemed to agree.

Mr. Skomp of Crowe Horwath kept telling the council that time is running out and the city needs to act now! He and Mr. Fifer, sewer board attorney, kept stating that the city is in dire straits and we need to accept the offer from SRF (State Revolving Financing). In essence the state is offering to re-negotiate our bond interest rate from around 3.9% to 2.5%. He said if we don't hurry and sign the agreement the EPA will take over our sewer utility and charge whatever rate they want. Scary stuff.

I feel that we are being rushed but then I remember that the firm of Crowe Horwath was hired by "us" and so their loyalty should be to us. In other words they should have our best interest at heart.

There were nine citizens who spoke at the podium with various messages:

David Andrews from Georgetown said that the New Albany Council has a difficult job setting rates for citizens who vote for them, and added that Georgetown has committed to the 36% rate increase.

Cat McDaniel, a 30 year New Albany resident and businessman said that the city is delaying in fixing the problem because it is cheaper to hire a consultant. He added that previous councils did not make the hard decisions and raise rates gradually.

Nancy Morton a resident in the County Line Rd. area said that she and her neighbors have cut back as much as possible.

Vicki Denhart, a New Albany resident, asked Mr. Skomp where his company got their numbers for their report. He replied that they did a review but not a full audit because it was not necessary. She added that EDIT and TIF funds should be used, and that a forensic audit was needed. She also stated that tap in fees and permit fees should be raised so the developers would pay their fair share.

Steve Schmeltz said he always complied with rate increases and purchased necessary sump pumps, etc. but this rate is just ridiculous. He asked where the funds had gone, and that millions of dollars had gone for naught.

Marilyn White, a resident of Powder House Lane, was confused because she pays her water bill to Edwardsville and her sewer bill to New Albany. She also has a flat rate rather than a rate based on consumption. Mr. Fifer and the sewer board promised to look into the matter.

Kay Hartman owns apartment houses in New Albany and said that if she ran her business like the city officials run New Albany she would have been out of business years ago.

Greg Reitz questioned why a household of three people would have a $70.00 sewer bill.

These people are just examples of the population and how distraught everyone is.

I don't want my sewer bill raised either, but I don't think EDIT should be used to pay to keep the rates from being raised. That would unfairly raise the rate for the taxpayers and not the businesses. Kroger, Walmart, Target, Kmart etc. do not pay EDIT. Taxpayers may lose their jobs and therefore EDIT would go down but these big stores are here to stay. Let's let them pay their fair share of the sewer bill. Yes, I know the fee would be passed on to the shoppers, but we can control how much we shop but we can't control how much of our taxes go to pay for sewer bills. I also agree that tap in fees should be raised. Yes I know the developers will pass this along to the home buyer but everything else is included in the price of a home, such as materials, so the price of a new home may be affected but not by a great amount.

Bottom line, the residents of New Albany and the fringe areas are doing the best they can. People can only cut back so far.

STATE TROOPERS ON MARKET STREET

There was a discussion started on the last posting about the Tribune article concerning Indiana State Troopers patrolling downtown New Albany.

For the record I believe that anyone who drinks or uses any drug that hinders their ability and drives deserves to be pulled over and dealt with according to the law. And I do not believe anyone is above the law.

I can't help but wonder why the State Troopers find it necessary to patrol the streets downtown. In my opinion it makes it appear that our City Police are not doing their job. That bothers me a lot. I know our local police are patrolling all areas of New Albany, I see them all of the time. I know the Chief said he appreciated their help but frankly I think the State Police are better utilized patrolling the expressways and areas outside of the city.

And I feel that patrons of Studios and other downtown establishments may feel that they are being targeted. Even if a person has not been drinking the sight of a police car following them makes them feel very uneasy. I'm sure we all have had this feeling.

We are trying to build our downtown and we need patrons of our establishments. I wish the State Troopers would patrol the areas outside of the city and let our local police do their job.

SHORT BUT NOT SO SWEET

There were only two items on the agenda tonight, so our city council meeting only lasted about 40 minutes.

The items in question were: G-10-02 Ordinance Establishing a Full-Time Common Council Attorney. There was quite a bit of discussion both pro and con. Mr. Coffey and Mr. Price both stated that they had nothing against the candidate but with the city budget in the condition it is they did not see a need for a full time attorney at this time.

Mr. Gonder did not believe that the city was served by a part time attorney. He mentioned all of the questions about the sewers, cleaning up the ordinance book, and people questioning our local government's integrity. He added that there is a need to search out ways to utilize the attorney.

The ordinance was voted down 5-4 with Mr. Coffey, Mr. Price, Mr. McLaughlin, Mr. Gahan, and Mr. Zurschmeide voting against.

The second agenda item was R-10-06 Resolution To Purchase Garbage Lids, and Lid Replacements along with Installation of New Lids From The Riverboat Fund. Mr. Malysz said the Mayor had requested this item be added to the agenda. There was discussion on this issue also but after establishing that the city owns these cans and is obligated to maintain them the resolution passed with a show of hands.

During the comments from the city officials, Mr. Malysz mentioned that the Mayor is interested in re-establishing a Human Rights Commission since there have been a few issues in the past couple of years that would warrant such. Sounds like an interesting idea to me.