Jasper Council: New lawsuit over wage decision

The City of Jasper and Storm Water Board are facing a second lawsuit brought against them by the trades union over as storm water project on Worrell Drive.

According to City Attorney Renee Kabrick, the judge gave the Southwest Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council two weeks to determine their course of action in regards to an injunction they filed against the city and storm water board at a pretrial meeting last Wednesday. The injunction was filed after a wage determination committee voted in January to use non-union wages on the Worrell Drive project.

Since the storm water board had rescinded the decision and held a new wage determination hearing, according to Kabrick, the lawsuit was moot. Kabrick did received word from the plaintiffs that the lawsuit against the city based on the January wage determination hearing had been dropped. But, since the second wage determination hearing held in March resulted in the same decision of using the non-union rates on the storm water, the trades union would file a second injunction against the city and board.

Here is a story on that wage determination decision.

In the meantime, the general assembly has passed House Bill 1019 to repeal the common construction wage law. The bill is waiting to be signed by the Gov. Mike Pence who has already stated he would do so. It would go into effect in July 1.

Kabrick advised the council the city would move forward with bidding on projects without the consideration of a wage scale until the decision on the common wage law is complete.

The storm water lawsuit may impact any projects requiring a wage determination hearing — those that are expected to cost over $350,000 — between now and when the repeal of the law takes place.

The city could wait until the repeal of the law was complete to move forward with the project but this would likely push the project out of this year’s construction season. The Storm Water Board will likely make a decision on their response to the lawsuit at the next meeting scheduled for May 11 at 8 a.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 610 Main Street.

Water Rate Increase 

Monday night, the Jasper Utility Service Board voted to approve the recommendation by the utility service board to increase water rates to Jasper customers by 17 percent — an increase of around $6.00 per month for the average residential customer.

The Jasper Common Council approved the rate increase on the first reading. Next will be a public hearing followed by a 2nd and 3rd readings and adoption. If passed by the council, the rate increase would go into effect on customers’ July bills, which would be due in August.

Fiber update

Andy Brelage, Digital and Enterprise Sales Representative of Smithville Communications, gave an update on the fiber optic project.

Brelage says that they are done with the installation of fiber in eight out of nine municipal locations. Once completed, Smithville will activate the new network, which will also serve as a transmission line for a new phone system.

As for the development of a fiber optic system to the residents and businesses in the city, Brelage says, “Things are progressing very nicely.”

The company is mapping the routes of the main trunks for the fiber optic system that will bring up to 1 gigabit connectivity to the city. They are also completing permitting with the Indiana Department of Transportation and the City of Jasper.

According to Brelage, the right-of-ways need to be secured and that the fiber will run both on utility poles and underground as necessary.

He encouraged interested residential customers to go to jasper.smithville.com to sign up for email updates. The rollouts will begin in 2016.

Tax abatements

Also in the meeting the council found four companies in compliance with their tax abatement form CF-1 requirements.

Kimball Hospitality, Kimball Office, Indiana Furniture and Jasper Engines all passed. The motion for Stens Corporation was tabled until next month, so that they could supply additional information to make sure they are in compliance.

The council also took the following actions.

-Passed an amendment to the zoning ordinance to change the zoning from R-2 and R-3 to Planned Unit Development for the 30th Street Park and Victory Villa O. Eckerle’s’ 6th Addition. The ordinance allows the city to sell the property to a bidder to develop it for housing. The neighbors next to the property asked the city to reserve 100 foot of the wooded area as a buffer so that development will not adjoin directly to their property.

-Passed an ordinance establishing a membership fee schedule for the new Bark Park at Gutzweiler Park.

-Passed Resolution 2015-4 that allows the city to reimburse the Economic Development Income Tax fund with money from the Riverboat fund to cover the cost of the engineering study on the Hoosier Desk building. Story on that decision here.

Matt Crane contributed to this report.