For approval January 10, 2011
December 20, 2010
PROCEEDINGS
LordstownVillage Council Regular Meeting
(WHEREAS, the regular meeting before the Lordstown Village Council commenced on Monday, December 20, 2010, at 7:10 p.m. and proceedings were as follows:)
(Lord's Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag)
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Thank you. Mr. Blank, call a roll, please.
MR. BLANK:Mayor Chaffee?
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Here.
MR. BLANK:Mr. Bond?
MR. BOND:Here.
MR. BLANK:Mr. Hill?
MR. HILL:Present.
MR. BLANK:Mr. McCarthy?
MR. MCCARTHY:Here.
MR. BLANK:Mr. Sullivan?
MR. SULLIVAN:Here.
MR. BLANK:Mrs. Wilson?
MRS. WILSON:Here.
MR. BLANK:Mr. Zoldan?
MR. ZOLDAN:Here.
MR. BLANK:Deputy Clerk Blank, present. Treasurer, Sharon Ebling? (NO RESPONSE — ABSENT.) Solicitor Paul Dutton?
SOLICITOR DUTTON:Present.
MR. BLANK:Police Chief Milhoan?
CHIEF MILHOAN:Here.
MR. BLANK:Fire Chief Eastham?
CHIEF EASTHAM:Here.
MR. BLANK:Street Commissioner, Dave Harrison? (NO RESPONSE — ABSENT.) (Mr. Harrison left the meeting after caucus and returned at 7:15 p.m.)
Planning and Zoning, Ron Barnhart?
MR. BARNHART:Here.
MR. BLANK:Park Superintendent, Dale Grimm? (NO RESPONSE — ABSENT.) Board of Public Affairs?
MRS. JONES:Here.
MR. BLANK:Municipal Engineer, Leslie Gordon?
MS. GORDON:Here.
MR. BLANK:Rec. Director, Marty Gibson? (NO RESPONSE — ABSENT.)
MAYOR CHAFFEE:I'll entertain a motion to excuse Mrs. Ebling, Mr. Grimm, Mr. Harrison and Mrs. Gibson.
MR. SULLIVAN:So moved.
MR. ZOLDAN:Second.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Moved by Mr. Sullivan, second by Mr. Zoldan. Discussion? (NO RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL.) All in favor?
COUNCIL:Aye.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Opposed? (NO RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL.)(VOTE: 6, AYE; 0, NAY; 0, ABSTAINED.)
I entertain a motion for the adoption of the agenda.
MR. SULLIVAN:So moved.
MR. ZOLDAN:Second.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Moved by Mr. Sullivan, second by Mr. Zoldan. Discussion? (NO RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL.) All in favor?
COUNCIL:Aye.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Opposed? (NO RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL.)(VOTE: 6, AYE; 0, NAY; 0, ABSTAINED.) Unanimous on that.
I entertain a motion for the disposal of the minutes from the regular meeting held December 6, 2010.
MR. ZOLDAN:So moved.
MR. MCCARTHY:Second.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Moved by Mr. Zoldan, second by Mr. McCarthy. Discussion? (NO RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL.) All in favor?
COUNCIL:Aye.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Opposed? (NO RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL.)(VOTE: 6, AYE; 0, NAY; 0, ABSTAINED.)
I entertain a motion for the payment of the bills that are in front of council.
MR. HILL:So moved.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Moved by Mr. Hill.
MR. BOND:Second.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Second by Mr. Bond. Discussion? (NO RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL.) All in favor?
COUNCIL:Aye.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Opposed? (NO RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL.)(VOTE: 6, AYE; 0, NAY; 0, ABSTAINED.) Unanimous on all of those.
Under the Mayor's report, I just have a few items. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. If you go back and look at where we were a year ago and where we are now, it's really been a good year for us. A lot of the uncertainty in December of 2009, we're in a lot better place in December 2010. I know that's not individually for everybody but as a village I think we're in a lot better place.
I want to congratulate and thank some folks. I want to congratulate and thank Judy Musser and Michele Mercer for their Holiday food drives. They're helping feed a lot of people both at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Terry Campbell, who does a great job every year with the Shop—with—a—Copy program and all our police officers and dispatchers. This year we had 15 young people that we helped. Lordstown Fabric Patchers, who put on a beautiful dinner every year and provide gifts for the children.
I know that those things can't be done without the residents and businesses that contributed to these things. We really have a lot of very generous people in our community who are always willing to help out.
I'd like to single out a young lady over at our elementary school, Hannah Emerson. If you haven't read about her, she took on the initiative of Make—a—Wish toy drive and co—opped with Yasser at the Speed Check to put a giving tree up, which, again, has been positive. When I inquired about it at the elementary, they also pointed out that they have been very active in a program called"Coins for Kids" this year with their staff and their students and a lot of the parents giving to those kind of things. I think those are great things that are missed sometimes in our community.
I want to just put on the record from myself a thank you to a couple of elected leaders on the state and national level that are leaving that I think have been very good friends to Lordstown over the years. At the national level, I think Senator Voinovich has been very good to Lordstown starting years ago when he was governor and the vision of Turnpike exits all the way through —— I think he's a dying breed in that. I think he is somebody who is willing to vote for what he thinks is right whether he's supposed to or not by the people ahead of him. I've had the pleasure of meeting him several times. I've always been impressed by his knowledge of Lordstown and the role that he's played here.
Also, I think the role that Governor Strickland played in the last four years, especially with our plant here, can't be overlooked by us. They had the vision to invest the money in the plant and make sure that it is solvent. You don't have to look very far for communities where plants closed to see what position they're in. So I want to congratulate them and thank them for what they have done for us.
Last thing is, if the piece of legislation on transit drivers passes, I do have a couple appointments under new business.
That's it for the Mayor's report. Do we have a Clerk's report?
MR. BLANK:I don't have a report, Mayor, but I'd like to thank yourself, I believe five council members, and the BPA for the luncheon that was put on today. Really appreciated it.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Thank you. Solicitor's report?
SOLICITOR DUTTON:No report.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Questions For our Solicitor? (NO RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL.)
Our Treasurer is not with us tonight. Board of Public Affairs report?
MRS. JONES:I just want to say that we'd certainly like to see the Ordinance passed this evening that ratifies our Resolutions so our folks can be paid starting January 1.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Questions for the BPA? (NO RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL.)
Mrs. Jones, I have just a quick question. I apologize. I should have asked this before. But the main differences between last year's Ordinance and this year's —— I understand the one about the temporaries —— what are the other ——
MRS. JONES:The only other thing is that when Bruce is unable to be the working superintendent and we have our labor machine operator assume those responsibilities, we're going to give him—— compensate him slightly more to take on those responsibilities.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:And the wages are the same?
MRS. JONES:The wages are the same, yes.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:And the vacations are the same?
MRS. JONES:I believe they are. The only thing we changed was ——
MR. SULLIVAN:I thought that added —— didn't that add two days to the permanent, part—time?
MR. BLANK:No.
MR. ZOLDAN:I didn't hear what you said.
MRS. JONES:No. It didn't add anything.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:I heard that discussion before and that's one of the things I didn't know.
MRS. JONES:That is one of the things I wondered, too, and then I forgot to ask. No change in vacation time.
MR. SULLIVAN:Judy had talked to him and I happened to be there and she said, "Why don't you sit in." She gave all that language and it was said they were adding two days to the vacation.
MR. BLANK:That was a dead issue, Mike. It was a dead issue the same day, later in the day.
MRS. JONES:That had nothing to do with us.
MR. SULLIVAN:But she said this is what she wanted for the permanent, part—time clerks.
MRS. JONES:Okay, well, we don't have any permanent, part—time clerks.
MR. ZOLDAN:I've just got one question. How many lawsuits—— really this is for Bruce, but it doesn't matter —— how many lawsuits is the BPA involved in?
MRS. JONES:How many lawsuits are we involved in?
MR. ZOLDAN:Yeah.
MRS. JONES:None.
MR. ZOLDAN:Okay. I just asked.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Any other questions for Mrs. Jones? (NO RESPONSE FROM COUNCIL.)
Village Engineer's report?
MS. GORDON:I submitted a report.
MAYOR CHAFFEE:Any questions for Leslie?
MR. HILL:Yeah, Leslie. Why don't you kind of let Council know how the start up went last Friday. We had a start up of Pump Station 4 and it went horribly. We'll let Leslie fill in the details.
MS. GORDON:Prior to the start up, Bruce Platt and members of the Utility Department installed some gauges on the air release valves that are on the line and the one at the pump station. And they met us there and they started up the hydrant to fill up the wet well. Once the wet well started filling, we manually turned on the pump. It kicks on at a high rate and then it drops down. The water level was maintained in the wet well, and we switched from pump one to pump two to verify they were both working —— also, prior to that, the flow meter was calibrated. Bruce had sent somebody out to make sure the flow meter was working right, so he took care of everything in advance.
The pump steadied out at 104 gallons per minute —— between 104 and 105 gallons per minute. So at that point, Tom Voldrich, who is also from CT Consultants, was out there with me to run the tests. We went out to look at the meters to get the pressure readings. When we got back to the office, we plotted the pressure, we converted the pressures and we plotted against the distance from the wet well. And what it indicated to us was that the first portion of the force main seems to be operating normally and that there's some sort of obstruction that is causing head loss from about the first air release vault to the downstream manhole.
One of the things we were hoping to do in this evaluation was see if we could isolate a portion of the force main as being obstructed so that we wouldn't have to look at the entire length of it. It appears now that we did successfully show that that first portion seems to be okay. It isn't the entire length. But that being said, about 60—some hundred feet of the force main has some type of obstruction in it that we feel is due to not the substitution of materials because the five horse power pump would have accommodated the smaller diameter force main. We feel it is due to the way it was installed.
MR. ZOLDAN:Question.
MS. GORDON:Yes.
MR. ZOLDAN:We're going to have to go on your recommendation because you are the engineers.
MS. GORDON:I understand.
MR. ZOLDAN:I want that very clear. Game time's over with —— very clear, okay. I'm asking these questions on these lawsuits for a reason.
MS. GORDON:Okay.
MR. ZOLDAN:What is your suggestion on do we dig this line up or —— we have done everything that CT has asked us to do —— because you are the professionals.
MS. GORDON:Correct.
MR. ZOLDAN:We may think we know it but truthfully we don't, okay. What is the next thing we do to get this thing straightened out? In your professional —— because you are the engineer.
MS. GORDON:Right. Well, in my opinion, that line was never accepted for use by the Village.
MR. ZOLDAN:Correct.
MS. GORDON:We've done what the contractor asked. We installed a larger pump. Their contention was that we didn't put in a big enough pump——
MR. ZOLDAN:You're correct.
MS. GORDON:At this point ——
MR. SULLIVAN:That was Marucci & Gaffney?
MS. GORDON:Correct. At this point, I would say put them on notice that we're not accepting a force main —— not accepting it as installed ——
MR. ZOLDAN:If we put them on notice that they're not doing it, what is our next step after that?
MS. GORDON:Either do a forensic investigation, which is going to show what we feel this test already showed. That is, that there's an obstruction in a portion of the pipe they installed, or you sue them.
MR. ZOLDAN:All right. Here's my question here very carefully, okay——
MS. GORDON:Okay.
MR. ZOLDAN:—— follow me. If they say, "Well, no, we don't think that's it." Or if they say, "Okay, we will" —— and I'm saying if they say —— "We will dig it up." Do we have the option —— do we have to bid out that project or do we say, "Okay, you dig it up"? If that's not the problem, then they're going to say they want paid for it, which I can accept. So the question is, if they dig it up—— listen to what I'm saying to you, please —— and there is nothing wrong with that section, who pays the damage? We're going to talk about $300,000 here —— about. I didn't say exactly. Who is going to pay the damage? Let's say it's dug up and it's installed right, there's nothing wrong, who would pay that money then?
MS. GORDON:Well, are you asking if they just dug it up and exposed it or dug it up, took it out and put in a pipe the way it was originally designed?
MR. ZOLDAN:What I'm saying is, if they dig it up and they expose it, can they tell the problem? If they dug it up and you were out there as engineers and you looked at it and say, "Hey, it's going like this" (Indicating) this is the problem —— now this is exaggerating. I want that clear —— this is the problem. If they dug it up and you saw the pipe was going like this here (indicating), you say, "Well, there's nothing wrong with the pipe." Then after they dug it up and you say, "Gee, there's nothing wrong with the pipe"—— which is legitimate —— and they covered it back up, who would pay for the repair on that? Who would pay for the labor on that? This is something we have to know before we walk into it.
Before —— let me help you out, okay—— before everything was done nobody knew —— and I'm not blaming anybody. I want that cleared right now —— nobody knew what was going on, unfortunately, okay —— and I said nobody. Now, we have a council—— and I got to tell you the truth. We've all been working —— including —— I've got to tell you the truth, the Water Department. Bruce, you have been absolutely phenomenal. We've had problems; we've called. You have been Johnny—on—the—Spot. That's the cooperation we have had with everybody. Now we're going to get this thing straightened out. And it's everybody, not one person.
If —— I guess this is probably more of a legal question to Paul than us —— if we don't have to bid it out, that's one thing. But if we do it and we don't bid it out, we might have a problem. I suppose, Paul, you're the one —— and I don't want you to answer now. From now on when you have questions asked, take two weeks to think it over. We're tired of these damn lawsuits. I really am. And I'm saying this council, okay? What I'm saying to you is, if it's dug up and it's okay, nothing is wrong with it, who pays the money on this?
MS. GORDON:If the Village says to the contractor, you need to fix this because it's our opinion based on our engineer that this is a construction issue and that they want to turn around and present something to say, no, it's not, it's something else, then let them present it. They haven't done that——
MR. ZOLDAN:All right. So if they say, "No. It's not our problem" then you're recommending we bid it out and get it dug out ——
MR. HILL:Stanley, can I say something——
MRS. WILSON:You're the chairman ——
MR. HILL:Why don't you get the questions in writing to her and to Paul because you said you don't want to put Paul on the spot. You're doing the same thing to her right now. So get the questions to her and then we'll call a Utility meeting and everybody on council can come. Putting her on the spot ——
MR. ZOLDAN:I have no problem with what you're saying. How about the question I have —— and he's right. Let's put it in writing. You can research it because you are excellent. Every time I have asked a question, it's been on that computer the next day. I have no problem with you, Leslie. I really don't.
MR. HILL:Stanley, get her the question.
MR. ZOLDAN:The question is simple. If Marucci & Gaffney, they're the ones I guess. If they say, "No. We're not digging it up" then what do we do? I'm sure you'll confer with Paul on this and I understand that. Do we have to bid that out? Is it our nickel? And then again we have to add that on to the lawsuit. Or if they say, "Look. We'll dig it up, but if it's not our problem, we expect to get reimbursed for our labor."
MR. HILL:Stanley, give it to her in writing. Think it out and give it to her in writing and give her a week or so to get back to you. You can sit there —— give it to her in writing and just make sure it's legible. That's it and she'll get you an answer.
MR. ZOLDAN:Okay. We can do that.
MS. GORDON:Okay.
MR. ZOLDAN:We're not working in the blind no more. Those days are gone.