Huntingburg Council: Fourth Street water main to be completed in about 2 weeks
In a bit of good news, the Fourth Street Water Main project is running a bit ahead of schedule and should be completed by the end of the first full week of June.
During the utility updates, Water Superintendent Gregg Miller announced that the 4th Street Water Main replacement project is proceeding a little bit ahead of schedule despite some hiccups.
One hiccup occurred when Ferpal Construction notified the city they could not perform the relining of the water main on Washington Street under the railroad tracks as previously determined. This was due to a ninety degree turn in the old water main. The City of Huntingburg will have to address the problem on their own in the future.
Also last night:
As part of the Stellar group of projects, the Market Street Park is a significant part of revitalizing the downtown Huntingburg 4th Street corridor.
The city was told by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs that the second hearing on the Maple Street Park must be held to satisfy the requirements of the application. Also, due to the significant Latino population in Huntingburg (over 5 percent), the public notice on the hearing must be in both English and Spanish.
The hearing will be held on Tuesday, June 14 at 7 p.m. at the Huntingburg City Council Chambers.
Telephone and Data
Mayor Spinner presented the council with a new customer service agreement for city telephone and data services from Fullnet.
The city worked with Matrix Integration to replace the current provider, Windstream of Evansville, since Matrix had been involved with the city in choosing Windstream previously. The city is seeking a new provider due to a significant increase in cost for the services. Windstream informed the city the cost would increase $1,200 due to equipment fees the company would be incorporating.
According to Spinner, he contacted several companies to obtain quotes. Contractors invited to bid were PSC, Frontier and Fullnet.
PSC informed the city that they could not service the city at the present time. Frontier missed the deadline to submit a proposal and when it did arrive it was significantly higher.
That left Fullnet as the last contractor to submit a bid that the council could consider.
The council approved a one year contract to reexamine services offered by competing companies in the future.
The city was paying around $750.00 per month for Windstream’s services. The new increased price from Windstream was $1,957.00 per month. Fullnet’s cost for the same service is $539.00 per month.
The city has to pay installation and set-up fees of $4,200.00 to Matrix and Fullnet.
Certificate of Occupancy
The council returned to their discussion from the last meeting on the certificate of occupancy issue.
Ben Miller from Morley and Associates, Ed Cole from Dubois Strong and Paul Lake with Huntingburg were at the meeting to help answer additional questions.
During the discussions a clarification was made that the certification requirements only applies to new construction and an increase in the footprint of a structure.
After a few minutes of questions and discussion, the council passed ordinance 2016-17, which amends the Huntingburg Municipal code. The State of Indiana Fire Preventing and Building Codes Department will have to approve the ordinance before it becomes law. They have 90 days to get that accomplished.
The council also took the following actions:
-Passed a proposal to enter into a contract with VS Engineering of Evansville for $39,600 to provide services for the site survey on the 4th Street Heritage Trail project.
-Heard Water Superintendent Gregg Miller will step down as the Department Superintendent. Miller stated that he wanted to only be the Chief Operator at the Water Plant. “I feel that’s where I need to be.” he told the council. The council accepted his resignation and reassignment back to chief operator. Mayor Spinner announced they would not seek a replacement Water Superintendent until the major projects are completed. Spinner asked Miller to remain available to assist as needed on the water distribution side. He added that Gary Meyerholtz would be stepping up to help facilitate operations in the Water Department until the city determined that the time was right to search for a new Water Superintendent.
-Heard the solar park was coming along. The frames housing the panels had been delivered to the site and the panels should be delivered in the next two weeks.
