Facing public dissent, Jasper Council slows Courthouse Square Renovation Plans

The Jasper Common Council decided to slow the Courthouse Square Redevelopment Project down a bit at Wednesday’s regular meeting.

A snag appeared as Councilman John Bell, who also serves as president of the Jasper Redevelopment Commission, reviewed a portion of an ordinance that would allocate about $400,000 to cover Phase II costs of the project.

Bell told the council the redevelopment commission approved paying $350,500 to Rundell Ernstberger Associates to complete Phase II of the Courthouse Square project. He listed geo-technical surveys, architectural design and engineering, community outreach efforts, bid package creation and bid review as part of the Phase II services offered by Rundell Ernstberger.

That amount increased to $400,000 to cover other costs that were associated with applying for a $1 million matching grant through the Indiana Department of Transportation in addition to the Phase II contract.

Bell explained the redevelopment commission’s goal is to have Phase II completed in time to start construction on the square by March of 2017. Rundell Ernstberger said Phase II would take about eight months to complete but to meet the March deadline, the Jasper Redevelopment Commission was pushing for Phase II to be done in six months.

Those efforts were stymied by several council members’ concerns about the cost of the project recently revealed to be between $4.3 and $5.9 million. The revealed design including the use of pavers on the sidewalks and roads around the courthouse and the ancillary streets and alleys surrounding the square as well as a reduction in parking spaces has met resistance from the public as well.

“I think everybody has received plenty of feedback from the community regarding this,” Councilman Kevin Manley said.

Manley said the project was originally an infrastructure project with the idea when things were put back together, there would be renovations to the courthouse square. Those renovations were expected to cost around $4 million according to early estimates by CityVisions who completed the conceptual designs in 2013.

“I don’t think we can disregard the input we are getting from the public,” Councilman Dave Hurst said. “I have heard a lot of things, I have spoken to a lot of people and I have gotten a lot of emails and a lot of phone calls. I can say that nobody is impressed with what’s going on.”

A committee chose the design presented to the public recently. That committee included council members Earl Schmitt and John Bell, Director of Community Development /Planning Darla Blazey, City Attorney Renee Kabrick, City Engineer Chad Hurm, Mayor’s Assistant Lisa Bower, Redevelopment Commission member Andrew Seger, Dubois County Councilman Craig Greulich, president of Greater Downtown Jasper Business Association Ann Knies, Greater Downtown Jasper Business Association Rachel Siebert and Pete Andriot, Principal, Rundell Ernstberger Associates. It was the final choice of several variations that included simply fixing the infrastructure and returning the square to its current state.

Councilman Schmitt agreed with Hurst and Manley but added he was concerned about the library and arts collaboration. “I would also like to see if the Cultural Center passes,” he said. “If the cultural center does not pass that referendum, is there a need to enhance the downtown?”

The Jasper Public Library will be asking the public to fund construction of a new library at the former Hoosier Desk property at the corner of Mill and Third streets on the November ballot. In conjunction with this, the Jasper Community Arts Commission is seeking to create a downtown presence in the same space as a collaborative effort. If the library’s referendum does not pass, the Jasper Community Arts Commission portion will likely not occur either.

Bell said the downtown design was not finalized and alternatives could be added to the bid packages. He said that the city would know whether the referendum passed before ever going to bid on the downtown project. He urged council members to consider allocating the $400,000 to allow Rundell Ernstberger to continue the design of the courthouse square to allow the project to continue to advance. He repeatedly told the council the outcome would be the same but only slowed if they failed to approve the funding.

He pointed out that the council learned from CityVisions that the project could surpass $4 million but with the added infrastructure work on an aged water and storm sewer, the $4 million would not likely cover all the aesthetic elements of the project.

“The council wanted the RDC [redevelopment commission] to lead this project under the agreement the project cost from the city standpoint was going to be $4 million,” Bell said. “The total cost could be $6 million but the ask and the scope of work from what the council gave the RDC, the $4 million hasn’t changed. We have the gap obviously between four [million dollars] and six [million dollars] but we haven’t finalized the design of the plan yet.”

Manley said that no one was suggesting they back away from the original $4 million figure agreed upon. “What I am saying is the cost of the project is considerably higher because of all the pavers out there and that’s the feedback I have received from a lot of people. They don’t like that. They don’t think it is a smart thing for us to do,” he said. “To go into Phase II, that concerns me. I would like to spend a little more time on Phase I so we can see what it is going to look like.”

The ordinance covering the funding allocation received a motion from Bell and a second from Councilman Dean Vonderheide for consideration but then stalled as the discussion continued. Bell and Vonderheide agreed the $4 million amount had already been agreed upon by the council although the funding to complete the project had not been finalized.

The new Jasper LEADs fundraising campaign as well as other potential grants were discussed briefly to cover the gap but Bell continued to push for passage of the funding to complete the designs. During the Phase II process, the public would have more opportunities for input into the design features as they were finalized but, according to Bell, Rundell Ernstberger had already completed the Phase I portion of their contract and the funding was necessary to continue the process.

Councilwoman Nancy Eckerle agreed that several questions remained unanswered. She said that since the project wasn’t a pressing issue and the utilities were not necessarily prepared to begin the utility work, it would be okay to review the next steps before allocating the money.

Councilman Greg Schnarr asked if a portion of Phase II could be funded rather than the full amount. Several council members agreed this could be a good option to allow work to continue while they further reviewed the process and took public input.

Mayor Terry Seitz, seeing there was some consensus on the ordinance, suggested that Bell could rescind his original motion or amend it to change the funding for Phase II if the council chose to do so. Bell was resigned to the original amount and chose not to amend the motion. With Vonderheide and Bell the lone supporters of the ordinance, the ordinance failed to pass as originally written allocating $400,000 for Phase II.

Schnarr then made a motion and amended the ordinance to allocate only $150,000 to the Phase II portion to pay for the design, community outreach and necessary geo-technical surveys. This will likely require the redevelopment commission to return to the council to fund the rest of the Phase II planning.

A portion of this would also be used for fees to apply for the $1 million matching grant from the state.

The vote swung in the opposite direction with Councilmen Bell and Hurst voting nay albeit for very different reasons. Hurst was in support of further planning before proceeding with Phase II. Bell was seeking the full funding for Phase II to continue.

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Attached to the ordinance were several other allocations that included $100,000 for the new rescue unit for the Jasper Volunteer Fire Department. The bids for the new truck came in higher than expected and greater than the $500,000 listed as a capital expenditure for 2016.

Also included was $1 million for the matching funds for the Courthouse Square Renovation project. This was necessary to seek the $1 million in funds from INDOT.

The council also:

-Directed the Utility Service Board to consider a stuffer in utility billing to inform customers of utility emergency numbers. This came about from Councilman Hurst who said he had trouble finding the after-hours number for the water department last Sunday when a water main broke at Wildcat Court. The USB had originally directed Hurst to look in the phone book (Who uses those anymore?) but he reported the number was not included in the recent edition put out by Frontier Communications. Councilman Bell said the city could maybe consider a refrigerator magnet to send out with utility bills.

-Appointed Adam Auffart to replace Derick Smith on the Utility Service Board. Auffart will serve the remainder of Smith’s term which would have ended Dec. 31, 2016.