27 Jun June 27th, 2016 Minutes
THE FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTIETH SESSION OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMAN
VILLAGE OF ALAMANCE
June 27, 2016 – 7:00 PM
Present: Mayor Tichy, Mayor Pro Tem Sharpe, Alderman Isley, Alderman Jones, Alderman Tichy and Clerk York
Absent: Alderman Crouse and Alderman Andrews
The meeting opened with a group invocation of the Lord’s Prayer.
Mayor Pro Tem Sharpe moved to approve the May 23, 2016 meeting minutes. Alderman Isley seconded the motion. The motion passed 4-0.
Public Hearing on 2016-2017 Budget Alderman Tichy moved to open the public hearing on the budget and Alderman Isley seconded. Clerk York reported that water rates were going up .09 cents and sewer rates were going up .16 cents, the sewer rates were only increased because Burlington rates increased. Audience member asked if the animal shelter would be in this year’s budget? Mayor Tichy responded it would not, the only thing for the animal shelter were the on going fees. Audience member noted that Gibsonville had opted out and wondered why? Mayor Tichy noted that Gibsonville has very few strays and opting out saved them $15,000. The smaller villages were being given a much lower rate. Alderman Tichy made motion to go out of public session and Mayor pro tem Sharpe seconded. The motion passed unanimously.
Approval of 2016-2017 Budget Mayor Tichy made a motion to approve the budget as it has been presented, Alderman Tichy made the motion to approve the 2016-2017 budget and fees as submitted and Alderman Isley seconded the motion. The motion carried 4-0.
OLD BUSINESS
Report on Cabin Pump Station Project Mark Reich said that everything is working well. The bypass equipment that we had in operation has been removed and has been functioning on its own for two weeks. We had the generator start up last week and it went very smoothly. We still need to run a power cable over to the generator, we may have a couple of other punch list items, Arnold and I are going to go and look at it, we should be getting the final bill in the next 30 days and be able to make the final payment to the contractor. We will be sure that everything on Burlington’s side, punch list wise, is taken care of as well and we should be able to move forward with many years of good service. Question from the audience, what was the additional debt that changed the scope of that project? Mr. Reich responded that we added valves that came out of the existing vault because the old ones were corroded and needed additional support by flange fitting them together so it would make it secure and last for a long time, and also we did a permanent by pass. Audience question asking if grass would be sown back, Mark responded yes it would, but it was not the best time of year to do so now. Mayor Tichy says things are looking much better, all debris is gone from construction and grass has been replaced in the back, just waiting for final inspection. Mark and Arnold will go back to check on everything to make sure its in working condition and the seeding may be three or four months from now. Mayor Tichy noted they had put retaining matter on the slopes, the straw and mesh matting.
Clerk York asked if the town wanted to do a press release. Mayor Tichy said yes to do a press release to the news papers on all the major upgrades and brought the citizens online and we’re staying ahead of things unlike some of our neighboring municipalities, go for the good PR while we can get it. The state inspector was very pleased with the job.
Sawyer Exterminating, Work on Town Hall
Mayor Tichy asks if Clerk York knew how much needed to be spent to finish the maintenance work on the Town Hall. Clerk York said he has not heard from Mike Davis so he went ahead and built in to the last budget of the year enough so that it should be able to cover whatever comes from this point forward. The line item will have enough in it to cover the rest of it. Dan askes if he (Mike) is going to cap off the exposed wires in the town hall? Clerk York says he will talk to Mr. Davis about it. Alderman Tichy said its where the light bulb was, its an exposed hole in the ground, so they will be capping the hole to make it safer.
Historic District Commission
This item was tabled, due to the absence of Sherry Ford.
Clean Up of Properties on Alamance Loop Road
Clerk York reports Mr. Haney is getting a building to put some stuff in, he’s working and making progress, I wish it was faster, but he has improved from where he was at the beginning of the process. I have not had any more complaints since we started the process, but I’m continuing to watch and ask him to get it as clean as we can get it.
ORC Report The actual startup of the pump was 06/06/16, so its been in service 20 days. THM HA5 that bill has passed. The water leak has not we spent several early mornings looking for has not been found yet. We thought we found it on Aramanche Dr, but it was just someone trying to keep their grass green and really watering it, so their bill is going to be high. They have found another leak at 4418 NC 62, that he and Jerry Warren are going to look at some time in the next week. The water system burnout happened today, we have flushed a little over 60 thousand gallons to bring all the chlorine through the system, everything is really good and chlorinated right now, its right around 2 1⁄2 to 3 parts in the whole system. You may be smelling some chlorine in the water but that’s the biggest thing you’ll get. This will continue till august the first, and we’ll switch back, so we’ll be on this for a little over a month. Alderman Isley said, so we’re changing chemicals from chloramine back to chlorine? Arnold explained that they do what is called a burnout. We’ve been on chloramine which they add ammonia to so you’ll use less chlorine, so when they take the ammonia out you go full chlorine, and they call it a burnout, for about a month. they do this about every two years. We were not seeing any problems but I think they were in other areas, its just something we do every once in a while. Alderman Isley asked if this could be the cause for some dingy water and Arnold said that that was possible or there might be some air is in the system. Alderman Isley said some other people on Facebook had complained about the water, and Arnold said it could be because they’re flushing right now. Arnold said it could also be because he was switching valves in the night looking for the leak, but it should be good and flushed now, because they flushed a lot of water today. Alderman Isley asked if we should let people know when Arnold is doing testing, because he received a lot of questions Saturday. Mayor Tichy said they had sent out a letter letting people know they were testing and there may be disruptions for the month . Mayor Tichy asked if they had any problems with the syphon? Arnold responded no, they’re dumping the basket about once a month, its catching a little more than he would like to see but they’re dealing with it.
NEW BUSINESS
Clerk York passed out new ordinance signs for everyone. Mayor Tichy asked if the signs had the change he requested? Clerk York replied no because it is printed from a PDF, but we will change it. Mayor Tichy said when I read it the only change I had with the discharge ordinance was that it said Alamance Fire Dept, not E.M. Holt.
Clerk York introduced Josh Johnson from William Cramen King is here to talk about the ordinance. Josh said this is the second time this ordinance has been to the Village of Alamance, this was originally dealt with 4 years ago as part of the new development ordinance, by Jordan lake, for the state of Jordan lake rules. There was a discharge ordnance the way that I simply explain it is that it makes what we all think of as water pollution illegal. I think on page 12-36, theres a list of water usage discharges that are still legal, water line flushing, fire fighting, residential car washing, all of those are included. Most people aren’t aware that when you flush paint in the storm drains, it goes straight into the creek not the treatment plants, its to make the obvious water pollutants illegal. It’s a pretty straight forward ordnance as the mayor said, when you copy search for things sometimes you need to change everywhere that it should say a certain place to Alamance, ive circled that change on mine, also theres a change on 12-35 with the storm water administrator, it shall be the village clerk, rather than the village manager. The section numbers, I don’t know if the section numbers are still correct or not, I haven’t talked to ben about that, I don’t know where it’ll fit in your current ordinance. Clerk York said it was fine, things weren’t really sectioned off anyway. Mayor Tichy asked if this complied with what the state wants them to do. Johnson replied yes, we just kept putting it off because when the new development ordnance got delayed and delayed, then with the last delay it kind of left it out there that at some point and time you’ll have to do it, if you can get a date. Last year the state requested that Alamance and the town of ossippe were the only ones who were in that boat, so can you go ahead and pass that since you were supposed to several years ago. Alderman Jones asked if the highlights of the most illicit discharges could be hit. Johnson said the most common ones are paint in storm drains, oil in storm drains, or houses with basements that have sinks or washing machines will straight pipe it out to the creeks, instead of it going in to the sewer. Those are the most common ones that we’ve seen. Its really one of those complaint driven things anyway. Another one is people who have private little pumps, a pressure sewer, from the sewer to their house and they for whatever reason didn’t feel like repairing their pumps so now it pumps sewer out into the ditch. We’ve had 2 or 3 of those in a couple places. Which is illegal to do that, but without the ordinance you cant enforce that. The county is supposed to have the same ordinance. The penalty is max $25,000 a day for violation. Realistically, the penalty is that you have to eliminate the connection and then payment to cover the remediation cost, or to remediate the damages. It becomes awful hard, from a legal standpoint to access someone for a cost you did not incure. Mayor Tichy made a motion to approve this, second by Mayor Pro Tem Sharpe, motion carries 4-0.
OTHER BUSINESS
Mayor Tichy asked Clerk York about the part time position, Clerk York responded that he had spoken with Mrs. Bowden and she is very interested and she would be willing to do it. I also had a lady who was getting a water application mention that if there was something open she had experience if the town ever had a need for something. At this point if sue is interested do we want to advertise it or are we required to advertise the position? Attorney Koonts said I didn’t look at what the Town’s handbook says regarding hiring practices. Is the Town required to advertise every position that comes up? He asked how many hours per week the position would be for. Clerk York responded that it would be for 10 hours per week. Attorney Koonts said the normal practice is that you would at least post it, and put it as a public notice. Clerk York agreed, and suggested it be put in the newsletter. Attorney Koonts suggested it be put as a public notice, but you are not required to run an add or anything, just post it where you post your notices and the newsletter would be a great place to do that. Just set a time period for a cut off. The board hopes to have resumes and letters of interest to review by the next board meeting.
Clerk York said he is planning to be off for the week of the 17-23, to attend an important gathering in Cleveland. Mayor Tichy asked if Judy was available for that time? Clerk York said he would call her but he wasn’t sure she was available, but if she is that would great. Mayor Tichy asked if it was in July that Clerk York would be off, Clerk York responded yes, he would leave Saturday the 16 and be back late Friday the 22nd. The main things are making sure the deposits are done every day along with the water testing. There is only one test for the water that week because they are doing the burnout, it would be the chlorine test, there’s no ph. or ammonia or any of that, it’s just one test for free chlorine which is very easy to do, I could show somebody how to do that. Mayor Tichy said he could do the water testing that week. Clerk York said he could set it up so that if someone needed a building permit or something they could come in next week and get it on Monday. Other than that, we just need to be covered in case any emergency happened, that I can handle, because we’ll have all the maps incase somebody needs to get to the water system. Robs aware, Jerrys aware, and I’ll still have my phone with me in case something happens I can get in touch with or call the right people. Mayor Tichy asked for a full contact list to be made up for all the board members, so that if we need to cover anything at least we’ll have the right numbers. Discussion ensued regarding the office not being left empty, Mayor Tichy felt like they could cover the office sufficiently. There was some discussion about hiring a temp from an agency, but that was not pursued. Clerk York said he would check with Judy again about filling in, but if she can’t, clerk York will lay out what needs to be done. It was then suggested that emergency contact information be placed on the door, and perhaps some of the other county clerks could receive calls if it were necessary, or an emergency situation. The biggest issue was collecting the water payments from the drop box, which Mayor Tichy or one of the finance officers could do that. If any water applications were needed Clerk York could email them out, if someone could let him know. He would also be able to take calls if necessary. Building permits would be the only thing that would have to wait till the next week. Mayor Tichy will check messages each day. Clerk York can arrange for meters to be read for new move ins, if someone will let him know. Clerk York said USIC will be starting on Wednesday, receiving tickets and doing locating. Mayor Tichy asked about chamber membership renewal, Clerk York said last year’s fee was about $230.00, and he assumed they would want to renew for this year. There is also a fund to contribute to for economic development, that we contributed to last year. It amounts to about a dollar per person in the town’s population, which came to about $1,000. Clerk York asked if the Village would be interested in doing the same thing again this year? Mayor Tichy said yes to the renewal and contribution.
Financial Report
Clerk York reviewed how line items are laid out for the board. Clerk York added $4000.00 to building maintenance to cover any last bills. $1500.00 for utilities, electric and town hall water bill are usually the two things on that line item for general fund. Water and sewer fund total line item, $63,000.00. Since there are only three more days left in the fiscal year he cut down some of the line items because he knew it wouldn’t be spent. AldermanTichy made a motion to pass the budget amendment and it was seconded by Alderman Isley. The motion passed 4-0.
Clerk York noted that Carter Bank will no longer take public fund cd’s due to the high risk for them, and being over extended in that area. Clerk York has moved the cd that matured on the 28th to Wells Fargo. He is looking at quotes from other banks to move the cd that will mature in July.
Clerk York stated that for the general fund the total amount of cash on hand was approximately two million dollars. There is $280,000 in the water/sewer fund. Theres aprox. $42,800.00 left in the syphon fund, that’s after application for payment number nine. There is still one last payment to make and it should be sufficiently covered. Alderman Tichy asked Mark if he had a chance to look at the storm drains he had sent him pictures of? Mark has looked at them but does not have a quote on it yet. Mark gave an update on testing, some of the sewer has been tested but not all due to testing equipment failing. What had been tested at that point had passed. There are still man holes to be tested. All the sewer lines were air tested, except the ones going across the creek. They have pressure tested the water lines, though they have not done the BT on it yet.
There was talk of whether or not cul-de-sacs would be put in the new subdivision. Mark was unsure what the plan was at this point. There could be environmental risks to try to widen the road by 5 feet. There were questions as to whether or not another access point would be added to the development, but no answers as of yet. The subdivision is need of an emergency access, but there seem to be no good options, as they have essentially land locked themselves. Mark suggested if they could find some vacant property or buy someone else’s house would be the best option for a second access point. Alderman asked if stop signs would be added to Heritage Glen? Mark felt sure they could be added.
The issue of using a golf cart was brought up. Though there is no precedent on it. It needs to be looked into due to the fact that the meter reader uses one, and a subcontractor, who read meters before for the Village, quit after being told he couldn’t drive it for that purpose.
Mayor Pro Tem Sharpe brought up the need to replace the lights on the Village of Alamance sign. Mayor Tichy noted it would be addressed.
There was no other business.
Public Comment
There was no public comment.