Lapel Town Council Special Meeting

September 30, 2021 @ 6:30pm

Lapel Town Hall

In person attendance was Chad Blake, Teresa Retherford, Lindsay Washmuth, Paula Lee, and Kourtney Krabbe. Attending virtually was Tom Marvel, and town attorney Jeff Graham. The public could attend tonight’s meeting either in person at the Lapel Town Hall or virtually using the GoTo Meeting link provided on the Town’s Facebook page.

Blake opened the meeting to public comment for anything that was not already on the agenda. Neither anyone in person, or online had public comment.

Award of OCRA Project Contractor: Blake stated that the Town’s engineers, CommonWealth Engineers, has reviewed the bids that were received, and one of their representative’s, Sara Wittig, is here tonight with their recommendation. Wittig stated that after review the apparent low, responsive, responsible bidders on September 16^th meeting did submit all proper paperwork. Therefore CommonWealth recommends Thieneman Construction, Inc. for Division “A” which includes the base bid, additive alternates 2&3, and the deductive alternate for a grand total of $1,992,000. CommonWealth recommends Atlas Excavating, Inc. for Division “B” which includes the base bid, and mandatory alternate 1 for a grand total of $2,181,663.

A motion accept CommonWealth Engineers recommendation letter as is contingent on upon from SRF & OCRA was made by Retherford, 2^nd by Blake; all voted yes.

A motion to approve the Front-End Document Certification was made by Blake, 2^nd by Washmuth; all voted yes.

Kimley-Horn Update: Blake stated the Council needed to discuss the current state of the CCMG 2020-2 project. As of today, DC Construction is about 20-30% complete, and only has 9 days remaining before the substantial completion date per the existing contract. Blake reached out to the Town’s INDOT representative to explain the current situation. Blake was told CCMG projects are not required to meet INDOT specifications, but they do have to be awarded to an INDOT pre-qualified contractor. Blake stated at the end of the day he wants to make sure the roads ride smoothly, and do not hold water as that can be the quickest way to deteriorate a road. Per the last meeting with DC Construction on 9/22/2021, DC believes they can provide road work that rides well and does not hold water, if the Town does not require them to meet INDOT standards. Drew Wolfred with Kimley-Horn stated that as long as DC Construction works with Kimley-Horn and the inspector throughout the remainder of the project, he believes it will be okay not to hold DC to the INDOT standards that is in the contract. Attorney Jeff Graham will work with the Town and Wolfred to make an amendment to the contract with DC Construction. This amendment will be provided at the next meeting with DC Construction on 10/6/2021. Wolfred stated that DC Construction has also asked for a couple of extensions for the change orders. A seven day extension for change order #1, a seven day extension for change order #2, and a fourteen day extension for change order #3. Blake recommends only accepting the fourteen day extension for change order #3, as change order #1 is already complete and change order #2 shouldn’t take more than one day at most to complete. No motions needed to be made tonight.

New Focus HR: On September 16^th the Council voted to start the process with New Focus HR to help with job descriptions & pay scales. Tonight Lee presented to the Council the proposal/agreement for services provided by New Focus HR. There are three projects within the agreement.

Project #1  The Design & Development of Legally Compliant Job Descriptions	Consulting fee of $150/hour
Project #2 The Completion of a Competitive Market Analysis	Consulting fee of $18,000 (fixed rate fee)
Project #3 The Development of a Salary Administration Plan	Consulting fee of $6,000 (fixed rate fee)

 

A motion to approve the agreement for services for all three projects provided by New Focus HR was made by Marvel, 2^nd by Retherford; all voted yes.

October 1, 2021: Lee stated that Krabbe received approval from Madison County & Indiana Archive to destroy certain records that have been audited, and kept for their required amount of time. So Friday October 1^st Town Hall will be closed so that Lee & Krabbe can work in the basements of both Town Hall & the Police Department (the old Town Hall), to gather the appropriate records for destruction.

ILMCT Conference: Lee & Krabbe submitted a small purchase request in the amount of $1,457.20 to attend the ILMCT Conference November 7^th-11^th. During this time Lapel Town Hall will be closed the 8^th-11^th for conference, and the 12^th for Veteran’s Day. Town Hall will be open Friday the 13^th. A motion to allow Lee & Krabbe to attend the ILMCT Conference November 7^th-11^th was made by Washmuth, 2^nd by Marvel; all voted yes.

Invoice Cloud: Lee asked Graham for a status update on the legal approval of the contract with Invoice Cloud. Graham stated the Council could authorize the approval of the contract pending full legal review which would be provided in the upcoming days. A motion to approve Invoice Cloud contract pending full legal review was made by Blake, 2^nd by Retherford; all voted yes. 

Trick-or-Treat: Krabbe spoke to Chief Naselroad earlier this week and as long as Council agrees, Chief would like for trick-or-treating to take place on Sunday 10/31/2021 from 5pm to 8pm. There were no objections to these hours.

Natural Gas: Lee provided the Council with information from Ron Ragan regarding the upcoming winter’s gas prices, which as of right now, they are looking to be high. This time the prices are not high due to a frozen pipe, they are high due to the current coronavirus pandemic. Ron Ragan would like Paula Lee, Chad Blake, and one other member that would like to join, to meet Ragan in Pittsboro, IN on October 22^nd for a meeting to discuss purchasing gas from Citizens Energy. Blake stated there is a possibility to have Citizens Energy become the Town’s natural gas supplier but the two things that are holding that back is the Town’s current contracts with Utility Gas Management, and Panhandle Transportation. Blake asked Graham to look into those two contracts to see if there is a way of getting out of them early. Washmuth asked Lee & Krabbe to post something to Facebook, or get word out that residents need to prepare now for higher gas prices. Residents may need to look into electric blankets, electric heaters, or just making sure the annual maintenance to winterize your home is done properly. No action needed to be taken as this was just informational.

Being nothing further to discuss, meeting was adjourned.

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