A GEN DA THE PORT AUSTIN VILLAGE COUNCIL REGU LA R M EETIN G M onday, A ugust 24, 2009 Call M eeting to O rder at 8:00 p.m. Pledge of A llegiance to the Flag Roll Call: Bruce, Hogan, N ichols, M urawski, Ranger, A ndreski & President Loewe AGENDA: 1. Pte. A ux Barques Police Contract 2. Bidding Process for Visitors Center 3. Zoning Inspectors Position CO RRESPO N DEN CE: PUBLIC COMMENT: CONSENT AGENDA: A pprove: A ugust 10 th, 2009 Council Minutes A cknowledge Receipt O f: July 16 th, 2009 DDA Minutes July 16 th, 2009 Planning Minutes July 2009 Monthly Police Dept. report July PA A S& WA Monthly Report PA YM EN T O F BILLS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - $ 1,679.63 ATTORNEY: DEPA RTM EN T HEA D REPO RT / REQ U EST Dick Babcock: Dale Hartsell: Clerk Report: Forestry Grant PLA N N IN G CO M M ISSIO N REPO RT: DOWN TO WN DEV ELO PM EN T A U THO RITY REPO RT:
CO M M ITTEE REPO RTS: August 24, 2009 8:00 p.m. President Loewe is a member of all Committees Finance, Grants & Insurance------------------------------------------------------------------Chair Ranger & Bruce Labor, Personnel & Police-------------------------------------------------------------------Chair Ranger & Nichols Motor Pool & Operations------------------------------------------------------------------Chair Murawski & Bruce Ordinance--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chair Nichols & A ndreski Parks & Recreation-------------------------------------------------------------------------Chair Ranger & Nichols, M urawski Press Management-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chair Nichols & Bruce Public Buildings & Grounds----------------------------------------------------------------Chair Bruce & M urawski Special Events-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chair Bruce & Nichols Streets, Sidewalk, Drains & Lighting----------------------------------------------------Chair Hogan & M urawski Waste Management---------------------------------------------------------------------------Chair Hogan & A ndreski COUNCIL MEMBERS COMMENTS: A djourn:
PORT AUSTIN VILLAGE COUNCIL MEETING 17 West State Street, Port Austin, MI 48467 MEMBERS PRESENT: Bruce, Hogan, Nichols, Murawski, Ranger, Andreski, & President Loewe MEMBERS ABSENT: EMPLOYEES PRESENT: Thomas Rapson, Dale Hartsell GUESTS PRESENT: John Upthegrove, Dwight Snelling, Mary Andreski, Sandy Fiema, Kate Hessling (tribune), Darcie Finan President Loewe called the meeting to order at 8:00 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag led by Councilmember Andreski. Roll Call was taken. Sandy Fiema was added to the agenda as #4 The police contract for Pte Aux Barques Township was presented by Ranger. The changes that were discussed at the last meeting have been made and this is the finial copy being presented. Moved Hogan, support Murawski to approve the Pte Aux Barques police contract as written. Roll call Vote: Ayes: Bruce, Hogan, Nichols, Murawski, Ranger, Andreski, And Loewe. Nays: 0 There is a recommendation from the DDA for council to proceed with the bidding process on the new Visitors Center. Loewe read through the proposed schedule. (See attached) Bruce explained that it will be publicized in three local papers and on an Internet site that covers the tristate area. There is also a recommendation from DDA to appoint Todd Gordon as the owners representative. Gordon would be the one who will contact NDG with any problems or issues during construction. Bruce said there is one rule when this goes out for bid and during construction. Any questions from bidders or the contractors need to be directed to NDG and no one else should answer the questions. This is to avoid confusion. This is very important. Discussion was had on several issues. Moved Bruce, support Murawski to accept the DDA recommendation to have NDG start the bidding process for the new Visitors Center as of 8/26/09 using the specified mediums. Roll call vote Ayes: Bruce, Hogan, Nichols, Murawski, Ranger, Andreski, and Loewe Nays: 0 Moved Nichols, support Andreski to accept the DDA recommendation to appoint Todd Gordon as the owners representative. Ayes: All The Zoning inspector s position was discussed. Mark Gembarski verbally resigned to Rapson on Friday. A letter had been presented by one of the members of the Planning Commission at their meeting Thursday. The letter was in regards to Mark but was not read because it was addressed to council. The Planning Commission forwarded it on to be presented to council. Council feels that the letter is not relevant because it is dated from a year ago. John Upthegrove was present from the Planning Commission and stated that the Commission does not have any problem with Gembarski. Much Discussion was had. Since no formal written resignation was received, personnel committee will talk to Gembarski and we will go from there. Rapson was asked to make sure it is on the agenda for next meeting. 1
Sandy Fiema was present to talk to council about the property next to where she is living right now on Spring Street. It is the end of Garfield Street and half of it belongs to her neighbor but the other half is still shown as the street. She is asking for ownership of the other half as a private resident. She would like to use the property to grow flowers and then sell them to benefit nonprofit organizations such as the Johnny Burke foundation. Discussion was had on how she would be able to sell flowers from a residential property. Building and Grounds will look into the situation and bring something back later. Correspondence: Rapson has received a letter from the Thumb Area Offshore Challenge Fishing Tournament thanking the Village for their support of the tournament. Rapson has also received a letter about a Heritage Route Conference. It is not a meeting pertaining to our section of Heritage Route just information about the routes and benefits. Joyce Stanek has said she will be attending. If anyone else is interested Rapson has the information. Public Comment: None Moved Bruce, support Hogan to approve the consent agenda. Ayes: All Ranger has a question on the bills. Do we really need the Pitney Bowes postage machine? It seems like $267 a quarter is a lot just to have the machine. Ranger will look at the contract we have with them and investigate the situation. Moved Bruce, support Hogan to pay the bills in the amount of $ 1,679.63 Ayes: All Department head report/requests: Dick: Babcock was not present. The DPW crew has been preparing the Gallup Park Playscape project area. We are starting the community build on Thursday at 8am. People needed. Dale: Everything is good. Hartsell offered to take over the Zoning Inspectors position if a temporary person was needed. Hartsell is happy with the Pte Aux Barques contract. Clerk: Rapson reported that he looked into the Forestry Grant and discovered based on the requirements that the Village would only be eligible to apply for $1,000. After talking to Howard at NDG he decided that it was not cost effective to pursue it at this time. Loewe said that that we are continuing to lose trees in town and it needs to be addressed. Rapson said he is willing to help plant trees in town. Rapson also stated that he had talked with the personnel committee about the upcoming Community Build. Rapson would like to work the community build both Thursday and Friday and Nienaltowski would like to work Friday. That would mean the office would be closed on Friday. He would post a sign with the information on where they were and list his Cell # for urgent matters. He is asking if this is alright with the council. Council agreed that this would be alright. DDA: Finance is looking good. Committee Reports: Parks and Rec.: Ranger is still waiting to hear if this group can help with the tennis courts. 2
Special Events: Several events coming up in the next two weeks. Be sure to check them out. Pirates on the Great Lakes August 29, 30, PACP Great Event August 30, Art in the Park Labor Day weekend, Fiber Arts Fair September 5, 6 Streets: Hogan talked with MDOT about the parking problems in town. We can paint parking spots on the trunk lines but no handicap spots. Craig from MDOT said he will help with the layout of the spots. Hogan also discussed the area between the Kayak shop and the light. An option we may want to look into is doing no parking on that side and purchasing the vacant lot next to the bakery and turning that into a parking lot. Much discussion was had. Hogan also asked if Rapson had called Zimmerman to see if he had a set of electrical plans for the streetscape. He has not called him yet. Hogan asked that he get right on that so he can get to work on the switches. We need a set of as built plans. Council Member Comments: Hogan: Come to the great Event, tickets still left Bruce: Needs a great Event ticket. Murawski: See you at the Great Event Nichols: John Pridnia and Tony Loewe did a very nice job at Ron Wyatt s memorial service. Ranger: Nienaltowski and Rapson are doing a great job. Moved Bruce, support Hogan; Meeting Adjourned at 9:11 p.m. Clerk Certification I, the undersigned, Thomas Rapson, the duly qualified and appointed Clerk for the Village of Port Austin Huron County, Michigan, DO HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing is a true and complete copy of certain proceedings taken by the Village of Port Austin at a regular board meeting conducted on the day of 2009, Thomas Rapson, Village Clerk 3