Be It Remembered That the Common Council of the City of Plymouth, Indiana, Met in Regular

REGULAR SESSION, COMMON COUNCIL, FEBRUARY 9, 2009

Be it Remembered that the Common Council of the City of Plymouth, Indiana, met in regular session on February 9, 2009. The meeting was held in the Council Chambers of the City Building, 124 N.

Michigan Street, Plymouth, Indiana. The meeting was called to order at 6:31 p.m.

Mayor Senter led the Pledge of Allegiance. Mike Delp offered prayer.

Senter presided for Council Members Delp, Ripley, Gardner and Neidig. City Attorney Chipman,

City Engineer Gaul and Clerk-Treasurer Hutchings were also present. Councilman Smith was absent.

Councilmen Ripley and Delp moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the last regular meeting on January 26, 2009, since they have been read and found to be in order. The motion carried.

Mayor Senter presented his State of the City address:

State of the City Address WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER 2-9-09

Good evening and thank you for this opportunity to give the State of the City address at this Common Council Meeting.

It is fair to say that this is one of the most difficult times in the history of our Nation. Perhaps not since the Great Depression has America seen such wide spread employment lay-offs, plant closings, and home foreclosures. While acknowledging that the economy worldwide is constricting, here in Plymouth things are encouraging, but not without challenges.

 We’re all in this together!

I start by thanking all of the employees of this great city. Without the leadership of department heads and the dedication of each and every employee, this city would not be in as solid a financial state as we currently enjoy. These fine public servants go above and beyond what is required to get the job done. I also want to thank the members of the city council. You confronted change from the outset when you adopted new rules on how to conduct the people’s business in these twice monthly meetings. You are conscientious, you are dedicated and above all you listen. I so much appreciate what Clerk-Treasurer Toni Hutchings does to keep the city’s finances in order. With Toni’s leadership we were able to adopt a truly balanced budget for 2009.

The year 2008 started with currents of emotions as rising waters crested just over 15 feet on January 10th, the highest level since 1985. Four weeks later we were hit again with levels at 14 feet 9 inches. Both times the city instituted an Incident Command Post to assist people impacted by this natural disaster. Other agencies such as the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the sheriff’s reserve, The Marshall County Dive Team, the Indiana State Police and the Marshall County Red Cross assisted. With the leadership of Chief Jim Cox, Marshall County EMA Director Clyde Avery and most of the city’s department heads we were able to respond to people’s needs efficiently and effectively.

 We’re all in this together

One section hard hit by the waters was the area of East Garro Street. This is one of the flood plains of Plymouth, and in response to the foresight of the previous administration making application for a grant, Congressman Joe Donnelly presented the city with a Congressional Directive of $200,000 to purchase homes in the floodplain. Federal and state red tape has slowed this process down incredibly, but I recently signed a State & Local Agreement for the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program. In conjunction with that, the city is aligned with all other Marshall County government entities to develop a pre-disaster mitigation plan by September 1st, 2009.

In the same corridor were the G & G Buildings and from April to June Jackson Services carried away tons and tons of steel, glass, bricks and wood. My goal is that later this year that open area will be expanded with the demolition of 3, perhaps 4, of the houses and the entire site dedicated as a new park within the Plymouth Parks & Recreation system. This is an ideal place for downtown festivals such as the increasingly popular Yellow River Festival, picnics and a permanent home for the Farmer’s Market, that averaged 34 booths a week this past season.

A new Plymouth Zoning Ordinance was enacted this past spring after a lot of hard work by the Plan Commission and the Common Council and plan consultant Troy Kiefer. As we have already seen, there will be times we will need to tweak the ordinance to better apply to the situations we are faced.

In May I made changes to the Board of Aviation Commissioners. I directed the new board to look at all options for the future of the Plymouth airport, including the creation of a county-wide airport authority. But we cannot do this alone. Much work lies ahead this year to build a consensus among county officials that IF indeed, general aviation, such as what takes place at the Plymouth Municipal Airport today, if that is important for ALL of Marshall County, then it should be supported by ALL of Marshall County. REGULAR SESSION, COMMON COUNCIL, FEBRUARY 9, 2009

 We’re all in this together

In the summer, the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission released 20 million dollars of assessed valuation from Tax Incremental Finance Zone #1 which in turn expanded the tax base by an equal amount for several government units in Marshall County. Experts agree the commission took a rare and bold stand for tax fairness and project discipline.

In July, the City changed the process of bidding health care insurance for city employees. The engagement of a broker brought a net savings of over $111,000 in health care premiums for 2009, with additional guaranteed savings for 2010. That allowed us to take a portion of those savings and invest in the health of our employees with a wellness screening and year long information program that begins tomorrow. The objective, of course, is to build upon the health of our workforce. Healthy employees make for contented and more productive employees.

Last spring the City of Plymouth was able to issue a bond that raised sewer rates minimally. This action assisted the city in funding the Combined Sewer Overflow on East Jefferson, two lift stations and an expansion to the Waste-water treatment office and laboratory areas.

The water department began city-wide unidirectional flushing in July and that was completed in September. The Water Department also began the change-over from remote meter reading to radio meter reading in 2008.

In the fall I appointed the Crossroads Task Force to look at the process and cost a developer goes through in making Plymouth grow—a new hotel on north Michigan Street is but one example…Aero Safety consolidation is another. How can tax abatements and other economic development tools be used more effectively for the intended purpose of expanding existing enterprises in our city, or attracting entirely new entrepreneurs? Next month the task force will make recommendations to streamline the process for growth. I am anxious to study how the best among them may be implemented.

Speaking of economic development, on January 1st the city permanently withdrew from the Plymouth Economic Development Corporation. Instead, we have been, and will continue to concentrate our economic development efforts through alliance with our community partners at the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation.

Working with the T2 Committee, we will be looking at the groundbreaking of the Community Resource Center on West Jefferson as well as great strides toward the Tech Farm and Tech Park. C-Spine is up and running on Miller Drive and later this spring they will have a ribbon cutting.

With $500,000 from INDOT that was announced last week, we will see the beginning of changes to North Oak Drive putting safety first to retail customers and motorists in that area.

In January I put together an Anti-Meth Committee to look at this problem that does not seem to be going away. With members from law enforcement, rehabilitation, prosecutor, probation and city residents we must keep this dialogue going and teach the citizens of Plymouth and Marshall County about this drug that has a strangle hold on some members of our society.

Later in the Spring I want to be involved with Heart and Hands to study the Hispanic situation as well. I still believe we can do a better job in sharing each other’s cultures and assisting the Hispanic Community to understand what this city, this state and this nation are all about.

State and national pundits have been telling us for quite awhile that the 2007 municipal elections and 2008 national elections were all about CHANGE. In 2007, some of you council members defeated long term incumbents. Clearly, the voters wanted change. Change in the way our local government operated was the demand of the electorate. The last several minutes have been spent describing many of our efforts at change during the first year in office.

Perhaps nothing more representative of this effort is personified in how we go about picking up and paying for trash and recycling services. I commend the Council for its commitment, after taking another hard look at the numbers, to tweak the specifications and seek new bids for contracting the service to a private trash hauler. With the goal of awarding a contract this summer, and making the change this fall, I am confident that we can work together and tell this story. We are all in this together, and together we will successfully address the concerns that have been raised as we transition trash pick up from a government function, to one in which the private sector is eminently more able to achieve efficiencies beyond our resources.

As your mayor, I am confident we will meet these challenges and more with the ingenuity and adaptability that characterizes us as Hoosiers.

Author George Will once said, “The future has a way of arriving unannounced!” Ladies and gentlemen, the future is knocking on the door of Plymouth, Indiana and together, as one, we will answer. REGULAR SESSION, COMMON COUNCIL, FEBRUARY 9, 2009

Councilman Neidig said that he would like to begin the process for setting up the council committee for reviewing the trash bid specifications.

Councilman Delp moved to appoint Councilmen Neidig, Ripley and himself to be on the committee and for Street Superintendent Marquardt, Marshall County Solid Waste Director Mike Good and City Attorney Chipman to supply needed information. Councilman Neidig seconded the motion. The motion carried.

City Attorney Chipman noted that the meetings will be open to the public and the media will receive ample notice of the meetings.

Audience Member Wilson Gerrard asked that the city council look into the possibility of leasing the airport out.

Councilmen Ripley and Delp moved and seconded to accept the following communications:

Minutes of the Water Works Board of Trustees of January 26, 2009; Minutes of the Sanitary Board of

Trustees of January 26, 2009; the Minutes of the Board of Public Works & Safety of January 26, 2009;

Minutes of the Redevelopment Commission of January 20, 2009; Minutes of the Plan Commission of

February 3, 2009; and Financial Reports from the Clerk-Treasurer for January 2009. The motion carried.

There being no further business to discuss, Councilmen Neidig and Ripley moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried and the meeting was declared adjourned at 6:40 p.m.

S/Toni L. Hutchings, IAMC/CMC/CPFA Clerk-Treasurer APPROVED

S/Mark Senter, Mayor