SHOREHAM VILLAGE COUNCIL MEETING
January 13, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in the Village Hall
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m. by President Trapikas, followed immediately by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Roll call was taken. All present: Mr. Capua, Ms. Clarke, Mr. Cole, Mr. Keller, Mr. Lawrence, Ms. Mais, and Mr. Trapikas. Also present were Mr. Plikaitis, Mrs. Jessica Fette and Mrs. Trapikas. A quorum was declared.
Events Committee Chair, Debra Trapikas, thanked those who participated in this year’s Holiday Decorating Contest. The winners were Ted and Pam Jensen on Garden Lane. She presented them with a gift certificate from Cracker Barrel. Tim Hall, second place winner was also present.
Approval of Consent Agenda. The Building Ordinance and the Enforcement Reports were not received and were taken off the consent agenda.
Mr. Plikaitis stated the minutes of December did not show the $2000.00 deficit from additional meetings held this yearwhich had been decided at the last meeting to be moved from the Parks Budget line item. He asked the correction to be made.
Motion to approve the consent agenda items, with changes, was made by Mr. Capua. Seconded by Mr. Keller.
MOTION CARRIED
Motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting, with changes, made by Ms. Mais. Seconded by Mrs. Clarke.
MOTION CARRIED
Treasurers Report is attached to these minutes. Mr. Plikaitis would like to move some of our money around to a one month CD to get an extra $600 in interest each year. He noted that we are looking at having spent $60,000 - $70,000 less than expected for the Brown School Road project. Mr. Keller made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s report. Seconded by Ms. Mais. Unanimous approval.
MOTION CARRIED
Motion to approve the bills as read was made by Ken Keller, supported by Reneta Mais. A roll call was taken for the voting of the motion. All approved. Bills paid attached to these minutes.
MOTION CARRIED
President’s Report: Mr. Trapikas noted we had all survived our first year with this meeting. He noted we were all over taxed through the year because of the lawsuit and learning the new responsibilities of the positions elected into. He thanked everyone for their work this last year.
He noted Eagle Technologies has purchased the land at 3045 Lakeshore. It appears they do not plan to develop that parcel of land.
He noticed we need to fix the ordinances that need fixing. We have a charter which is very out of date as well. We need to make an amendment or a revision. He explained the difference between the two. A revision would mean a year of working on it and then going to the residents to vote on it. His suggestion is that we should simply do amendments as needed, and use the ordinances to bring the rest up to date. Our biggest issue in the charter is the section on elections, which is no longer valid. The council section uses a lot of outdated language as well.
Mrs. Fette said she had not researched this for villages, although she has for townships. She said this is not a small thing to do. She is going to sit down and figure out what we need to accomplish. Pete asked what the bottom line is. Is it detrimental if we don’t do anything? Jessica stated she does not know, without looking into it. Clarification would benefit the residents because it would be a document that says what it needs to say.
Mr. Trapikas asked if there was a way we could simply add clarification to the charter, which would be an amendment. Mrs. Fette thought that was possible. It was decided by the council that we need to have Mrs. Fette look at it and give us her opinion first. We will then decide what to do next. Mrs. Fette will research this to make sure we are in alignment with the state laws. She will report back to the council next month.
Mr. Trapikas stated that bringing up elected officials salaries is always a difficult thing to bring up. We are basically volunteers in a small village with a small budget. However, compared to 25 villages of our size in the State of Michigan, we are at a very low level. Nothing has changed in at least 10 years. As a legal matter, it does not affect anyone on the board right now because nothing would be effective until November. It is simply a matter of planning for the future. Mr. Plikaitis stated that he does not see anything out of line even with our small salaries because it appears almost all villages have a budget of 10% toward salaries, the very same as Shoreham Village. Mr. Trapikas stated he will advise the budget committee of this and see what they come up with.
Mr. Trapikas noted the election of officers this past year. We will have four trustee positions open this year. Mr. Lawrence’s and Ms. Mais positions do not expire until 2018, everyone else’s will expire this year.
Clerk’s Report: Mrs. Trapikas reported the Best Practices Committee is holding their meeting tomorrow at 9am in Benton Harbor in combination with the Taxpayer Valuation Group to discuss connecting communities. Friday, in Niles, anyone can attend a session at 9am about parliamentary procedures and FOIA. Anyone is invited to attend and the clerk has the information they can pick up after this meeting.
Street Commissioner Report: Mr. Plikaitis deferred to John Olson. Mr. Trapikas read the letter from John Olson regarding the home of Joan Graebill. She feels the slope of the driveway is unacceptable and has asked that it be fixed before water begins to come into her house. A topography of the house was recently taken and rebuilding the driveway was discussed but decided it could possibly replace current problems with additional problems. They will be meeting with Mrs. Graebill again to discuss resolution.
Mr. Plikaitis noted he had not called anyone to shovel the sidewalk yet, and wondered if he needs to do that now. He said it does not make sense to clear the snow for one inch. He would like guidelines on when he should call for if it is supposed to be raining on Friday, then shoveling of the sidewalks.
Park Commissioner Report: Mrs. Krystin Hanley reported the Parks Committee would like to move forward getting electricity to the pavilion. Linear Electric out of Benton Harbor had the lowest bid at $3400. She would like to use them. In order to use the funds allocated for this year, we will cut them a check before March 7 and they will cash it when the job is completed.
Mr. Lawrence wanted to know if we were going to allow residents to use electricity. It was explained to all that there will be lock boxes and the electricity would only be used for village events. Ms. Mais moved to accept the Linear Electrical bid not to exceed $3400.00. Mr. Lawrence seconded.
MOTION CARRIED
Mrs. Hanley noted she is in the midst of trying to get bids for tree trimming, etc. She also mentioned people were parking in the Open Space area and the committee would like to put up an extension of the fence to keep them out. She hopes to have bids before the next board meeting. In order to standardize all meetings, she noted the Parks Committee will meet on the Monday before each council meeting at the Village Hall at 7:30 p.m.
Building Enforcement Report: Jerry Jones reported on permits in the village for the year. Ken Bates reported there were no official activities in the past month, in fact, only two violations were made this year. He is glad to see we are working on our ordinances as this will help in his performance of his job.
Water/Sewer Authority. There is a leak in the pipe in the Township. They are replacing the line in the township, near Papa Vino’s. They have asked us to replace a portion of our pipe as well because it is corroded. Engineers will be looking at it and making a recommendation.
Twin Cats: They are redesigning the Mitigation Committee and the Rural Task Force. The focus will now be on reduced air pollution. Programs are being put in place to help with funding. He said we were not eligible for the funding. We asked him to check that out because we are within the limits of population size to qualify. There is about $598,000 available for Berrien County over the next four years to eliminate air pollution. There is a new program called “Street Smart” to get funding to help with connecting our village with the township by putting in sidewalks in the village. Funding is on a limited basis. We need to apply for this grant. Mr. Lawrence will get us information on this. John Olson will get us additional information as well.
Events Committee: A meeting is scheduled for January 27 at the Village Hall at 7:30 pm. Plans for the New Year will be addressed at this meeting.
Appeal Committee: The committee had been charged with review of the Bob Clarke appeal on the Kay Manufacturing signage. They felt this was not something they could rule on. Mrs. Fette looked at the procedure and noted the first requirement is that an appeal must be based on a decision made by Jerry Jones. It must be determined whether or not Jerry made a decision on the appeal. Jessica does not believe he made the decision because a change of the cabinet did not require a permit. Appeals must be filed within 60 days. The Kay sign has been there for three years. Therefore it is not appealable in her opinion.
Mr. Capua made a motion to accept the recommendation of the Village Attorney. Mr. Cole seconded the motion. Mrs. Clarke was instructed to recuse herself from this issue. A vote was taken and was unanimous in approval (without a vote issued by Mrs. Clarke) of the motion.
MOTION CARRIES
Ordinance Review: The Clerk stated how important it is to have ordinances that are current and have a definite means to enforce them. Because so many of our ordinances do not have means to enforce them, Mrs. Fette said she would write a general provision to apply to all ordinances that can be put in the beginning of the manual. It was decided that all of the council would work in teams of two people to review each ordinance. Mrs. Trapikas will send out two ordinances per month per team of two for review to the following teams: Capua and LawrenceMais and Clarke; Mr. Trapikas, Mrs. Trapikas and Plikaitis, Cole and Keller.
Mr. Trapikas recommended the budget committee for 2016-17 be as follows: Mr. Plikaitis, Chairman. Budget Committee Members: Mrs. Clarke, Mr. Keller, Mrs. Trapikas, and Mr. Matt Hanley who is not an officer or trustee of the council. Ms. Mais made the motion to approve the budget committee with a second by Mr. Lawrence. Approved unanimously.
MOTION CARRIED
Mr. Plikaitis scheduled the first meeting for Wednesday, January 20 at the Village Hall at 7:00 p.m.
NEW BUSINESS: A gas contract had been sent out to the committee previously. Mr. Keller motioned to approve with a second by Mr. Lawrence.
MOTION CARRIED
Mr. Plikaitis asked that we revise our Village Investment Strategy to take half of it and put into two 30-day CD’s fifteen days apart which allows us to always have plenty of money available while the other half is making money for the Village. Mr. Cole made a motion to approve the Village Investment Strategy as discussed by the Treasurer. Mr. Capua seconded.
MOTION CARRIED
Street Light lanterns need to be replaced. Mr. Plikaitis has been trying to find out how this is done. He did find that the Fireplace Shoppe on Red Arrow is where we buy the parts for the lanterns. The lamps need to be replaced occasionally, usually at the same time as the mantles are being changed. Glass is also washed at that time. Mr. Plikaitis will call the Fireplace Shoppe and see if they will replace the mantles for us.
Ms. Mais suggested that ordinances regarding the Park should be reviewed by the Parks Commissioner and then reviewed by the Council. She suggested the same for the Streets Administrator and any other ordinance with following under a committee head. Everyone agreed that was a great idea.
Mrs. Mais also said she would like to see a Hot Spot or Wi-Fi into the village hall. She wanted to know if Mr. Plikaitis could check into it. He said he would look into Verizon.
There being no other new business before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 8:49 p.m.
The next meeting will be Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in the Village Hall. Also, there is Joint meeting with the Planning Commission regarding the DRAFT Master Plan scheduled for Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.
APPROVED: ______Date: ______