09/19/2011 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council Monday, September 19, 2011 Page 4 PLANNING DEVELOPMENT - Ted Esborn Mr. Esborn would like to make a couple points about the Resolution that is on the agenda this evening for the State Issue I Infrastructure Bond Program. This is the program through which in 2007 we funded the Beta and Raleigh realignment, the work on Seneca and the Thornapple Pump Station. We have had projects go through this program before. It's a very short window that the Planning Commission gives for this. We have a inonth from when they roll it out to when applications are due. This is the first time we have applied since 2007. We are moving to get everything together. It mentions on the agenda that this is Phase I. We list Eastgate, Meadowood, Ravine, Thornapple, Robley and a portion of Wilson Mills. Phase I is projected just to be Eastgate and Meadowood. As of this moment, we are intending just to apply for funding to install sanitary sewers on those two streets. I also want to stress that this Resolution does not involve any expenditure. If we are awarded the grant, there will be a Grant Agreement that is put together in the suinmer of 2012. This really is just a formality of the application. There will be another agreement if we are awarded the grant. To supplement what Ted was saying, Mayor Rinker added, we have tried every time we have done this to make sure that the amount each resident would pay is comparable across the community. The variable is always the scope of the work and the extent of the work that has to be performed. So the scope is not just the number of houses that would be hooked up but the nature of the terrain. In our community, a lot of areas where there's bedrock which adds costs, we have found every time we have gone out on this particular neighborhood that that has been a problem. For the number of units that we can hook up, the way it's scored, State Issue I is often very challenging because it looks to who ultimately benefits from it. On the other hand, we are under ongoing regulatory mandates to improve water quality. So we are kind of caught between two different regulatory factors. At the end of the day, every time we have done this, and this is going to be no exception, we try to balance those competing factors so that individual residents end up at about the same point and the combination of grants, contribution from the Village, assessments, loan components, that this all equal out. Again, the real challenge is, in the marketplace it becomes harder to find cost efficiencies in order to make it equal for residents across the board. Ron has already looked at how we can break out a per unit cost looking at inflationary factors since really the mid `90's and beyond that, Tom, John and Doug, collectively are trying to make sure that we spec this in a way that will be as advantageous as we can in the scoring system that they provide to DOPWIC. ADMIIVISTRATION - Diane Wolgamuth There was no report. STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS: Activities Committee - Mrs. Mills reported that the Committee met on September 7th. At that time, we reviewed the 4th of July Celebration and the Summer Concerts. The consensus is that we should have mostly big band sounds at these concerts. Up and coming events are the Santa