Home: Meeting Minutes List: Meeting Minutes

JANUARY 27, 2003

 Mayor Sohm welcomed and thanked everyone for attending the meeting.  Ed Jensen with Divine Savior Lutheran Church gave the invocation.  The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag was said.  Mayor Sohm called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m.  In attendance were Council members Don Cundiff, Larry Hatfield, Tony Miller, Margaret Moore and James Watkins.  Tony Miller made motion to dispense with reading of 1/13/2003 regular meeting minutes. James Watkins 2^nd. Motion carried 5-0.  Don Cundiff stated there was a typographical error on page 1 and some words missing out of a sentence on page 2 that needed correcting. James Watkins made motion to approve minutes as amended. Tony Miller 2^nd. Motion carried 5-0.  Mayor Sohm announced the St. Aloysius DARE graduation was going to be January 28^th at 1:00 p.m. He also complimented Officer Faye Childers on the good job she’s done with the kids.  Mayor Sohm stated that he had received quotes from several different  Companies to prepare the EPA Storm Water Phase II Permit application. He stated that four of the smaller cities have signed contracts with HSE to do their application. He also stated that the County has narrowed their choices down to a couple but he does not feel it is necessary for the City to go along with the County in applying. He stated he does feel the Ordinance needs to be consistent with the other cities in the County.  Joe Pavoni, an engineer with Qk4 stated the EPA is requiring all cities with a certain watershed to have a plan submitted for storm water management to the State in March. He stated it will take approximately four weeks to complete the job and the City needs to select a company to do the permit. The goal is to keep the river clean.  Larry Hatfield asked if the City was required to follow the same procedures as Louisville.  Joe Pavoni answered no. Louisville was in Phase I of the process because of their population.  Larry Hatfield asked if the City would only implement the minimum requirements?  Joe Pavoni answered yes. All that was going to be looked at was minimum standards.   Mayor Sohm stated there were several areas to be addressed such as educating the public; inviting public participation; list discharge, detection and elimination; look at construction site storm water runoff control; post construction storm water management, and pollution prevention and good housekeeping for municipal operations. Those are the six things we have to outline.  Larry Hatfield asked if they were mandating that we put in storm sewers?  Mayor Sohm answered no but there will be criteria as to how we are going to keep the streams clean in our area.  Joe Pavoni stated the first step is the EPA setting standards on storm water.  Mayor Sohm stated we have five years to implement the six steps. The biggest step is to send the permit to the State and get it approved.  Larry Hatfield asked what the cost would be?  Mayor Sohm answered the State won’t charge for the permit. The cost is having the permit done. It has to include mapping showing how the water gets to the river.  Larry Hatfield stated it just looks like a way for the EPA to generate revenue.  Mayor Sohm stated the quotes he received were from Strand Associates was for $30,000 (this is going along with the County. The City’s portion would be $13,000); Presnell Engineers--$20,000; Mindel Scott & Associates--$12,700; Qk4--$12,000.  Mayor Sohm stated we would set the standards at bare minimum and let the State make them tougher if they need to be.  Margaret Moore stated she feels this is a good idea and she’s all for it. She stated we need to get this implemented as soon as possible especially for new construction.  James Watkins stated he thinks MSD has gone overboard with their requirements. He stated his company is required to send someone to a MSD class and sign off each day. He stated he feels a silt fence and retention basins are good ideas.  Public Works Foreman Jesse Walls stated that the City does not take over retention basins. He asked who would be responsible to maintain these basins?  Mayor Sohm stated he thinks that needs to be spelled out in detail.  PWF Walls asked if under the new plan the City would have to include retention basins?  City Attorney Norman Lemme answered no. The City does not have to take the retention basin but the DOW is going to expect in the long run to know how it is going to be maintained.  Mayor Sohm stated there is a possibility of grant money becoming available in the future to help implement these requirements.  Joe Pavoni stated that this gives you, as elected officials, the opportunity to sit down with citizens and see what their storm water problems are.  Mayor Sohm stated he would like to sit down with builders and developers and see what their concerns are.  James Watkins stated at the same time we need to make sure to keep retention out of streets.  Margaret Moore stated we need to address the problem of drainage in our town.  James Watkins made motion to allow Qk4 to do the permit application for the cost of $12,000. Don Cundiff 2^nd. Motion carried 5-0.  Joe Pavoni thanked the Council for their support and stated that some meetings need to be scheduled in the next couple days for the upcoming weeks.  Larry Hatfield stated we need to send developers a letter letting them know what is going on.  Joe Pavoni presented each Council Member with a handout updating the wastewater improvement projects. He went through the handout discussing the budget, the schedule, the increase in sewer rates, the SSES action items and the need for a long-term sewer master plan.  After some discussion on the increase in sewer rates Larry Hatfield asked do we know 100% that we have to have a rate increase to make a payment? Joe Pavoni answered yes. If you take a look at the revenue numbers, the $1.5 million is for the whole year. Mr. Hatfield asked if that includes the current tap on fees? Joe Pavoni answered yes. Mr. Pavoni stated he feels if we get two or three council members who are really interested in this to sit down and go through all the numbers and then decide what really needs to be done. He stated he would like to see the increase be as little as possible but you need to have enough of a rate increase to be able to pay the bill in December. Mr. Hatfield stated that the problem he has with it is that he knew in 1990 that we could not do this project up there without a rate increase. He stated the Metropolitan Sewer District takes their customers and divides the cost per house and pays for the cost and we didn’t do that.  Mr. Pavoni stated that he had talked with Dave Derrick who is working with Lebanon Junction. He stated they just completed a sewer project and their rate increase was around 15%. The reason it wasn’t 30% was they took the other amount of money they needed for debt retirement out of their occupational tax. Otherwise it would have been a 30% increase. He stated Shepherdsville is very similar to other communities who have done something in the last three years. Don Cundiff stated he did not think you could use general fund money on a sewer project. Mayor Sohm stated you can borrow from the general fund for a one time capital improvement. Mr. Hatfield stated he didn’t think so. He stated he thought sewer money had to be spent on sewer. You couldn’t subsidize water for sewer. Mr. Pavoni stated that all he was told was they used occupational tax dollars. Mayor Sohm stated yes they did. He stated it’s just the opposite. You can budget to use a certain percentage of that toward your sewer project but it can’t be on a yearly basis and it has to be a capital expenditure. Mr. Hatfield asked if he was sure of that?  Mayor Sohm stated you couldn’t do it the opposite way. You can’t take the sewer money and spend it on city. Mr. Hatfield stated he would like to make absolutely positively sure that we could do that because if that is the case you would not have to raise the people’s rates 30%. Don Cundiff and Mayor Sohm stated the City does not have the money to pay for it. Mayor Sohm stated that wouldn’t be an option. Mr. Hatfield asked if the occupational money wouldn’t be enough to offset some of this? Mr. Cundiff stated you still have a budget. Mayor Sohm stated the City would have to quit providing certain services. Mr. Pavoni stated that’s why he feels we need to have a couple working sessions in the coming weeks to discuss real numbers and explain what they are and do whatever it is we can do to keep the rates as low as possible. But we need to make some decisions and it’s time to sit down and do it. Mayor Sohm asked Mr. Hatfield to keep in mind, he mentioned the sewers in the east end, it’s a small portion of this total cost. The sewer plant itself is more than half that number and then you have another million for the SSES project and with the sewers we got the million dollar general assembly grant to help subsidize that and there is also the $2500 fee to be paid when they hook on. He stated if you look at the number that was determined when you were on the Sewer Committee and also a Council member, you all determined that $24.16 was what the rate had to be raised up to and we’re saying now it only has to be raised up to $25.65 so it’s only a $1.49 more than what was originally projected. Mayor Sohm also stated that the City is supposed to get $500,000 from the State and Federal government to help subsidize this project. But with the State and Federal Government’s current budget crisis he’s not sure if that will happen.  Mayor Sohm stated the City could hire a rate consultant to look at our rates and suggest a plan of action on what the rates should be raised to. He stated there would be a rate study meeting on Tuesday, February 4^th at 5:30 and invited the Council to attend.  Larry Hatfield stated that he could get the name of an outside firm that looked at Kentucky Turnpike’s rates and have them call the Mayor.  Mayor Sohm asked Joe Pavoni to call the State and ask them to send us information on what can and can’t be used to determine a rate increase.  Margaret Moore stated we need someone with some expertise in this matter to help determine the rate increase.  Mr. Pavoni then proceeded with his presentation. He stated that the 3 to 10 year plan really isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. He stated there are some problems with the sewer system that we know of right now and there are some decisions that need to be made about fixing those problems, which shouldn’t be made without some long-term sewer master plan update. He stated the only good thing about doing this now is that there is still 1% money available and he stated he does not think you’re never going to see 1% money again. So if there is something you wanted to do in the next couple of years with the sewers that you feel you really need to accomplish we still could get 1% dollars to do it and we could also go back to CDBG because this grant project will be done and see if we can get some grant dollars also. Mr. Pavoni stated the City is going to have to do it anyway. He suggested now is the time to proceed.  Mayor Sohm asked if some of the money we have left as contingency could be used to cover the $22,000 cost? Mr. Pavoni stated he did not know if you could use construction dollars for that. He would have to ask the State. Mr. Pavoni stated we will have dollars left over as of right now and if you don’t use those dollars you basically give it back to the state and your principal and interest payments get to be a little bit less.   Mayor Sohm asked if we wait until this project is over and then spend the $22,000 to look at the Facilities Plan would we have to start all over the process of borrowing money through the KIA? Mr. Pavoni stated you are going to have to anyway. This is a specific loan amount so you’re going to have to go back and do another Fund A loan application.  Wastewater Treatment Plant Superintendent Mike Schroeder stated he feels if the City had one engineer to look at the plans that would help alleviate problems.  Mayor Sohm stated WWTPS Mike Schroeder and PWF Jesse Walls have done a wonderful job in getting the 56 manholes that were first priority repaired ahead of schedule.  There was no report from the Historical Committee or Transportation/Beautification Committee.  James Watkins made motion to pay January bills. Tony Miller 2^nd. Motion carried 4-0-1 (Margaret Moore abstained).  Planning Commission Appointee Ben Robards reported there was nothing new for Shepherdsville.   Don Cundiff asked Mr. Robards if he had been able to get the information copied that the Planning Commission has been working on? Mr. Robards stated there was a lot of information to copy and that he would bring it by City Hall for copies to be made.  Fire Chief Robbie Spriggs stated that the transition was going pretty well. He reported that Terry Whittaker has been named Assistant Chief, Bill Hamlin had been named 2^nd Assistant Chief and Brad Whittaker had been named Captain.  Mayor Sohm asked Chief Spriggs to get an updated roster to the Council as soon as he could. Chief Spriggs stated that he would do that as soon as possible. He stated there were 27 people on the roster with 5 floaters. He also reported that interviews for the training officer were being set up.  Police Chief Ron Morris stated that an article recently appeared in the Courier Journal about law enforcement in Bullitt County. He stated he wanted to assure everyone that he is working diligently and very hard to better the job police are doing in Shepherdsville.  Tony Miller stated we need to look further into the Paroquet Springs beautification project. He also stated that he had been speaking with Benny Hadley and Mr. Hadley had suggested the City get with the County and other cities and get one building and electrical code officer. He also suggested establishing a countywide code for all cities to follow.  Mayor Sohm asked PWF Jesse Walls to call Mount Washington and the County and get a copy of their design standards.  Don Cundiff asked if there was going to be a meeting of the Recreation Committee to view the park plan? Mayor Sohm answered yes. He hoped to schedule one soon.  Larry Hatfield stated that several employees had asked him to inquire about the mistake made in deductions for Social Security. Mayor Sohm stated that the mistake was made in deducting social security and Medicare from retirement payments. City Clerk Tammy Owen stated that Tonya Taylor had written to the Social Security Administration regarding this matter and to her knowledge the City had not received a reply as yet. Mr. Hatfield asked the City Clerk to research this further.  Mr. Hatfield also stated that 2M Tractor would like to hook up to the sewer system. Mayor Sohm stated this had already been engineered.  Mr. Hatfield asked PWF Walls why they couldn’t hook up? He asked him to check and see if it’s possible and why they went under the road?  Margaret Moore stated she would like to thank PWF Walls and his employees for the good job they have done on snow removal.  Ms. Moore stated if we don’t have a code enforcement officer to enforce ordinances and we have ordinances why aren’t we enforcing them? She stated if you drive down Grandview you could see the problem. She also stated there are ten cars on the lot between 1^st Bank and the ceramic shop. She also stated there are still cars blocking the sidewalk at the car lot on Highway 61. She stated she feels the city is going down.  Mayor Sohm stated he feels there are some problems in the City but overall it is much better. He asked Ms. Moore to get a list of her concerns to City Hall and a letter would be sent out asking that the problems be fixed.  Don Cundiff stated he agrees with Ms. Moore that the City needs a code enforcement officer. He feels if we can budget for a code enforcement officer in the next budget that will be okay.  Larry Hatfield made motion to adjourn. James Watkins 2^nd. Motion carried 5-0. Meeting adjourned at 8:54 p.m. 

APPROVED:                                             ATTEST:

 Joseph G. Sohm, Mayor                           Tammy Owen, City Clerk