CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
MAY 10, 2004
The Honorable Council of the City of Evansville met on regular session at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, May 10, 2004 in the City Council Chambers, Room 301 Civic Center Complex, Evansville, Indiana with President Bagbey presiding. The following business was conducted.
These minutes are not intended to be a verbatim transcript. Audiotapes of this meeting are on file in the City Clerk’s Office.
ROLL CALL:
There being nine (9) members present and zero (0) members absent and nine (9) members representing a quorum, the President declared this session of the Common Council officially opened.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Councilman Melcher led the pledge of allegiance this evening.
COUNCIL ATTORNEY
John Hamilton is Council Attorney this evening.
RECOGNITION OF SCHOOLS
TEEN ADVISORY COUNCIL
SERGEANT AT ARMS
This evening Officer Reed is our Sergeant at Arms.
READING AND AMENDMENT OF MINUTES
Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the April 26, 2004 meeting of the Common council as written?
Councilman Watts moved and Councilman Kniese seconded the motion that the minutes of the meeting of the Common Council held April 26, 2004 be approved as written. Voice vote. So ordered.
REPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS
IN YOUR MAY 7TH PACKET:
*Agenda for May 10, 2004 City Council Meeting.
*Committee Meeting Schedule.
*Minutes from April 26, 2004 City Council Meeting.
*Resolutions C-2004-18, C-2004-19, C-2004-20, C2004-21 and C-2004-22.
*Scheduled Meetings-Administration Building for May, 2004.
*Eastview Neighborhood Association Newsletter.
*Press Release-Weinzapfel Announces Appointment to Evansville Housing Authority.
*Press Release-Weinzapfel Appoints Two To Unification Committee.
*Area Plan Commission Memo-Comprehensive Plan Update.
*Weinzapfel Announces Dates for Traveling City Hall Program.
*A letter from Patrick Roberts (Cisco Systems) regarding the Certified Technology Park.
*A letter from M. Edward Jones (USI) regarding the Certified Technology Park.
*Letters to City Council from students.
*The Tepe Neighborhood Association Newsletter, “The Tepe Park Times.”
*A letter from David Matthews (David Matthews Associates) regarding the Certified
Technology Park.
*A letter from Jeff Lake (Downtown Evansville) regarding the Certified Technology
Park.
ON YOUR DESK THIS EVENING:
*A letter to City Council from Ashley Richardson.
*A letter to City Council from Steve Dickerson of Taylor’s Body Shop, Inc.
regarding Ordinance G-2004-6 (petition to vacate an alley bounded by S.W. Eighth, M.L. King, Jr. Blvd, Chestnut St. and Cherry St.)
*Evansville Digital Downtown.
Councilman Watts moved and Councilman Melcher seconded the motion to receive, file and make these reports and communications a part of the minutes of the meeting. Voice vote. So ordered.
CONSENT AGENDA
FIRST READING OF ORDINANCE OR RESOLUTIONS
NOTHING FILED FOR FIRST READING
CONSENT AGENDA
SECOND READING OF ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS
ORDINANCE G-2004-5 ASD (ROBINSON) JOHN
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 15.153.122 REGARDING REMOVAL OF OFF-PREMISE SIGNS
ORDINANCE F-2004-6 FINANCE JOHN
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AUTHORIZING TRANSFER OF APPROPRIATIONS AND ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS WITHIN A CITY DEPARTMENT
RESOLUTION C-2004-17 FINANCE COUNCIL AS A WHOLE
A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AMENDING RESOLUTION C-2003-17 AN ORDINANCE OF THE VANDERBURGH COUNTY INCOME TAX COUNCIL ESTABLISHING THE PERCENTAGE CREDIT ALLOWED FOR HOMESTEADS FOR 2005 AND CASTING THE VOTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE ON SAID ORDINANCE
COMMITTEE REPORTS
ASD CHAIRWOMAN ROBINSON
Robinson: Mr. President, the ASD Committee met on Ordinance G-2004-5 with a recommendation for it to go forward to the Area Plan Commission.
FINANCE CHAIRMAN JOHN
John: Mr. President your Finance Committee met this evening on Ordinance C-2004-17 and Ordinance F-2004-6 and both come forward with a Do Pass recommendation by all of the members present.
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilman Watts seconded the motion to adopt the Committee Report and move these Ordinances and Resolutions to Third Reading. Voice vote. So ordered.
There being no further motions, these Ordinances and Resolutions are hereby moved to Third Reading.
REGULAR AGENDA
THRID READING OF ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS
ORDINANCE F-2004-6 FINANCE JOHN
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AUTHORIZING TRANSFER OF APPROPRIATIONS AND ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS WITHIN A CITY DEPARTMENT
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilman Watts seconded the motion to adopt Ordinance F-2004-6 and call the roll.
ROLL CALL:
Ayes: Kniese, Melcher, Robinson, Koehler Walden, Watts, Jarboe, Kiefer, Bagbey.
There being nine (9) ayes and zero (0) nays, Ordinance F-2004-6, is hereby declared ADOPTED.
REGULAR AGENDA
THIRD READING OF ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION C-2004-17 FINANCE COUNCIL AS A WHOLE
A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AMENDING RESOLUTION C-2003-17 AN ORDINANCE OF THE VANDERBURGH COUNTY INCOME TAX COUNCIL ESTABLISHING THE PERCENTAGE CREDIT ALLOWED FOR HOMESTEADS FOR 2005 AND CASTING THE VOTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE ON SAID ORDINANCE
Councilwoman Walden moved and Councilman Jarboe seconded the motion to adopt Resolution C-2004-17 and call the roll.
ROLL CALL:
Ayes: Kniese, Melcher, Robinson, Koehler Walden, Watts, Jarboe, Kiefer, Bagbey.
There being nine (9) ayes and zero (0) nays, Resolution C-2004-17 , is hereby declared ADOPTED.
RESOLUTION DOCKET
RESOLUTION C-2004-18 (DOCKET) FINANCE JOHN
A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE, INDIANA AUTHORIZING THE FILING OF AN APPLICATION WITH THE INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE FOR A CERTIFIED TECHNOLOGY PARK
Bagbey: Okay, at this time I would like for Mr. Lamar and Mr. Robinson to come forward and do your presentation on Councilman John’s resolution.
Lamar: Thank you. The Certified Technology Park is actually part of the Energize Indiana Program that was adopted by the General Assembly in 2002, which is basically to establish high technology areas in Indiana for businesses that are identified in the areas designated by local Redevelopment Commissions. The eight Certified Technology Parks have been approved so far; these are the Purdue Resource Park, Anderson, Shelbyville, Hammond, Ft. Wayne, Indianapolis, Columbus, and Scottsburgh. With the resolution tonight we hope to become the ninth CTP in Indiana. The application does meet the various criteria required under the legislation and the Department of Commerce. Tonight we’d like to give you a short presentation about the Certified Technology Park and what it can mean for us. I call on Ken Robinson from Vision 2000.
K. Robinson: Thank you Gregg. I am Ken Robinson, Executive Director of Vision 2000. It is a pleasure to present to you tonight the Certified Technology Park program we’ve been working on for the last three or four years and we’ve finally brought it to this point. What I’d like to do is run through a presentation about how we got to this point and hopefully bring you up to speed on this really wonderful program for Evansville. This all started with concern that we had that we were not getting the 21st Century Research and Technology dollars that I thought Evansville, as the third largest city, ought to receive. So I wanted to look into that. Also we were getting more inquires from companies that are saying, “What are your digital capabilities of Evansville? We need to know that because we need to make site location decisions based on that information as well as a variety of other information.” We really didn’t know how to answer that. We undertook a program call the Regional High Tech Assessment Project. We hired Gather Technologies at the time to really analyze the community and help us answer those very questions. They did a lot of survey work and came up with some very interesting analyses that are really condensed in this document and you have copies of this in front of you. We did that tradition SWAT analysis. We looked at our strengths, opportunities, weakness, and threats and tried to come up with a way to move our agenda forward. I don’t want to go into every one of those items, but you can see there was quite a bit of work that went into trying to come up with a way to really enhance our image as a technology location and come up with other programs that would help us attract new jobs and new investment-utilizing technology as the method of doing that. Some of the key recommendations that came out of the high tech assessment were to establish the Digital Downtown Enterprise Zone, to bring focus to technology, establish a high tech incubator, create a high tech image, and I won’t go into all the others. Basically we looked at six other locations to try to find out what they had done in terms of bringing some focus to their technology agendas, and we tried to incorporate those into our final recommendation. So, we really came up with a plan. We decided that we needed to take a small bite out of that very large set of recommendations, and what we did was move forward with one of those ideas called the Digital Downtown Enterprise Zone. Right at the time we finished that first study, SBC came out with a Challenge Grant. They said to all of the communities in Indiana, “Make your best shot at getting one of these four technology Challenge Grants.” I came to the city and I said, “I’d like to go forward with a Digital Downtown Enterprise Zone concept.” We had an idea but we didn’t know how to flesh it out. At that time I said, “Would you the city match the $10,000 from SBC,” and they said, “yes.” So we moved forward, put the application in, and we actually won the $10,000 grant. What our objectives were with that program were really to focus in on what we can do downtown with the Digital Downtown Enterprise Zone. We were just finishing up the downtown plan. I wanted to make sure we would help implement the goals and objectives of the downtown plan, and I said, “Why don’t we try using technology to promote business development downtown, housing development downtown, with what we call this robust cost effective broadband high speed connectivity. Basically bringing high speed internet capabilities, data connectivity, all throughout downtown which will attract 21st Century Research and Technology dollars and then deal with the issues of the creating this high tech image that we discovered that we don’t have and we want to try to create that. We took the dollars and we used it to produce a second study called the Evansville Digital Downtown Enterprise Zone. We hired Tom Miller and Associates and InfoCom Systems, these are folks that are known throughout the state in producing these kinds of technology plans. The key elements that we looked at for downtown was the adoption of the Indiana Certified Technology Program, the Park Program, the Digital T which is the fiber backbone that you can see on this map. These are the red lines that denote where new fiber connectivity would be installed within the bounded area. We looked at creating a high tech incubator, which in all the other cities we looked at they had a high tech incubator. They were investing in themselves. They were trying to basically take ideas out of people’s garages and put them in the market place. Also, the creation of a partnership for governance model to help govern where we are going to take the technology in our community. The Certified Technology Park is the first part of the puzzle. The Certified Technology benefits are really important to this endeavor. As Gregg mentioned the State of Indiana instituted in 2001 the Certified Technology Park as part of the Energize Indiana Program. We are seizing on the opportunity to bring five million of state dollars back to Evansville. Through the benefits we can capture within the Certified Technology Park boundary, which is the green bounded areas on the map and you’ll see that in your packets, we can capture a maximum of 5 million dollars of state income tax and state sales tax. Once those two taxes reach 5 million dollars the program is over. We also have the possibility of competing for up to 4 million dollars of grant funding to help with the operation dollars of the program or help with capital needs within the bounded areas. All of those dollars flow back to the city through the Redevelopment Authority. That’s the carrot. That is why we’re doing this. To get access to that possible 9 million dollars. And we’d like to be at least one of the first ten cities in Indiana to receive that. In order to move forward we have to have partners and Ed Jones is in audience with us from USI, and USI has agreed to be one of our partners. It is in the law that you have to have university partnership to move forward, and they have been so gracious to offer us their support in helping us to move the program forward. In addition to university partnership you have to have a private sector partner and somebody willing to move into the Technology Park and Vectren’s Energy Systems Group will be moving into the area from outside. I don’t know if Rick Schach is here with us today he had another meeting, but I want to thank Vectren for agreeing to be the company to help us qualify for this Certified Technology Park. We’ve met the two major criteria. In working with the DMD staff we came up with the green bounded area which is somewhat not consistent with the Downtown Redevelopment area and in fact it doesn’t have to be. We figured that was probably the best representation of the district in downtown where you can pull in the hospital campus, the development along the Lloyd, along the river, and then up towards the Civic Center and the Centre itself. That is what we thought would be the core of the technology zone. It is within that bounded area that we will have to capture those two taxes that I mentioned. It is basically like TIFF, the money goes to the state and it comes right back to you in the form of a check. So that’s the boundary and also on the map you’ll the red lines that denote where we theoretically think the new broadband installation could occur. The blue dots, which are very hard to see along Main Street, are the new Wi-Fi spots. The high tech incubator is another component as I mentioned. We had made application to the Center For Entrepreneurial Education and Technology earlier in the year, and that is more or less our incubator program. What the seat program, as we call it, is a way for us to provide incubation space for entrepreneurs who want to take their ideas from their living rooms or garages into the market place. With the help of USI and our other partners we will be able to do that someplace in downtown. And we’re currently looking at a number of options to locate the incubator. It’s again space for technology development, educational content training with all of our partners, not only USI as the lead partner, but we are working with U of E and IVY Tech. Again it is entrepreneurial support. I hate the word braindrain; I like the word braingain. It is a real braingain opportunity. This is a way to hopefully keep some of the young folks here to give them an opportunity to take their ideas they may develop in school into the market place with a whole network of support to help them do that. The Digital T is another concept that we moved forward with. This is a concept that we saw in many other communities where they have laid fiber throughout their downtown areas to help support economic development efforts and efforts of the existing industries that are currently down there. We created the concept of the Digital T just as a concept to show wiring Main Street and Second Street, but it could be a combination of wiring options. In order to make that happen we need the partnership of SBC, and we are working with that. Dave Hanson is here tonight. SIGECOM and other broadband providers that we have been talking to as well, to be part of the partnership that we need to form to form the Digital T concept. I refer back to the same map with the red lines to note the possible location of an imbedded or buried fiber network. Ultimately we don’t know what it may look like. It may be actually using existing network that is already out there, but we may have to have some new build. We’ve put a concept call a Carrier Hotel into our plan, which is really where all those providers I talked about before, SBC, SIGECOM, and possibly Insight and others, could come into a physical facility and put their racks and bring their services into the digital downtown. From that point we would then build our system from that Carrier Hotel location. It is basically a way for us to reduce cost in time and money to the end user to bring them broadband services because there have been lots of complaints in other communities that it takes forever to get hooked up. We don’t want that in Evansville. We want to try to make that as seamless as possible and to provide them the most cost effective and robust services. The last thing I want to talk about is Wi-Fi. This is a real opportunity. In March the President of SBC Midwest came down announced that they were bringing Wi-Fi to Evansville. I’ll tell you honestly, we weren’t even on the radar screen when I heard about the 9,000 spots they were going to have throughout the country. I called David and asked him to look into it and they said they hadn’t thought about Evansville, and I asked to show them the reports that we did. And they came back and said that we have something that they are interested in and agreed to bring that Wi-Fi to Evansville. Currently it is being installed in Main Street and the two downtown hotels, the Centre has it, the airport will have it, Roberts Stadium is being looked at, the Civic Center will be looked at. It is coming. The last thing that I think is one of the most important pieces is partnership and governance. We can’t do this in a vacuum. This has to be done as a partnership. What we’re looking at, I think it is part of the resolution, is to create this partnership between public and private to coordinate all local technology initiatives that they want to coordinate, to oversee downtown telecommunications efforts, such as we’re talking about, and there is really no form in Evansville to discuss new technology needs. They’ll call me or they’ll call the Chamber, but we need to have a group to be able to represent what Evansville wants as a community, so that as new ideas come up, and they are going to be coming fast and furious, they have a place to go, somebody to say, “yeah we like that, or no we want to go in a different direction.” The Redevelopment Commission is the entity that spends the money. By law they are the ones who receive the dollars, and they will spend those dollars. We need somebody to advise them on the best way to spend those dollars and to represent the community, oversee the high tech incubator, and then be a point of contact for any state or national initiatives that we want to become a part of. Basically our goal is to improve the marketability of downtown using technology. We want to maximize high paying jobs and investment throughout the region. We only have one downtown. Evansville is the central downtown when you think of this region. We need to really enhance it and make it as good as we can. So with that those are the pieces of the puzzle, and we want to bring the partnership and governance to tie it all together. With that, I thank you very much.
Kiefer: Thank you Mr. President. Ken I have a couple of questions, and I ask you to forgive me for not understanding all of the terminology. Can you explain to me a little bit more what is Wi-Fi? What does that allow a company to do? I guess I don’t understand when you talk about Wi-Fi and broadband, what does that do for a business as opposed to calling SIGECOM and asking to get hooked up to the internet?
K. Robinson: Let me maybe do that by introducing a couple of speakers who also want to add in. Dave Hanson is from SBC who can probably answer that better than me because he sells those services. From my perspective is that Wi-Fi is just a different form of communications technology of broadband technology. It is something that really expands the market for those who want to have a total mobile access versus having being tied to a wire.
Kiefer: Okay, so it’s wireless.
K. Robinson: It’s all wireless. Wi-Fi is Wireless Fidelity. It’s wireless technology; its 80211B which is the number that you look for on the modem card.
Kiefer: Okay, when you said wireless that makes more sense to me now. When you mentioned earlier that one of the goals is bringing in these high wage jobs, do you have some examples of types of businesses?
K. Robinson: Well, we looked at all the clusters of technology that are already downtown. It is really interesting when you start to really analyze underadvanced computing. You’ve got advanced microelectronics, SYSCO-systems here, and IBM is downtown. I’m giving you examples of who’s already here, you can just think of others that might want to be around who’s already here. You go into new media and communications. The are technology companies who use technology to do their jobs. I can go all down the list of financial services; the banks, card management, RSC is another good example. They need large pipes to move lots of data because they are analyzing information that is not voiced. They are analyzing video or animation and they need large capabilities to accomplish that. That is what we are trying to help them with.
Kiefer: Thank you.
K. Robinson: If I may, I’d like to introduce Ed Jones with USI who wanted to say a few words and then David Hanson with SBC, and I’d be glad to answer any questions after that.
Jones: Thank you Ken, good evening. As Ken said I am Ed Jones from the University of Southern Indiana. USI is the higher education partner in the Certified Technology Park application process. Several USI faculty members in the School of Business and I have worked with the Steering Committee in developing the concept for the Park and in preparing the application. We at the University are quite excited about the prospect of a Certified Technology Park in downtown Evansville. We think it will be an important economic development engine for the region, and it will be a major highlight in help to revitalize and marketing downtown Evansville. USI plans to be an active partner in the Park’s incubator, and in providing on-site education and training programs related to technology development in applications as well as small business development and entrepreneurial education. We expect to involve USI faculty, especially faculty from the schools of Business and Engineering, in consulting the applied research activities at the incubator and also to involve students from those two schools in co-ops, internships, and service running opportunities not only at the incubator but at other locations within the park boundaries. Again, let me state the University’s enthusiasm for this. We appreciate the leadership Mayor Weinzapfel has shown with this, and also the leadership of Ken Robinson of Vision 2000 and the other members of the Steering Committee, and especially for the leadership of Vectren in becoming the industry partner who helped to make this application possible. On behalf of President Hoops and the rest of the USI community, we encourage the support of the Council for this project. I thank you for your time and would be happy to answer questions you may have.
Bagbey: Does anyone have any questions? Thank you sir very much. I appreciate it.
Hanson: Thank you. My name is David Hanson I work with SBC. We just wanted to come forward and show our support for the Certified Technology Park and also for all that is being done as far as technology in the downtown area. If we look at the growth and development from a company standpoint, there is no doubt in our minds that the growth is going to be in the data area. That is why Joe’s question about voice versus data is very important. Over fifty-percent of the traffic on our network nation wide is data traffic today. It used to be voice. We used to be the phone company. That’s not the case any more. It is growing much more rapidly in the data area than it is the voice area. Wi-Fi is really broadband wireless internet connections, which means I can send large volumes of data back and forth. One of the studies that Ken referred to earlier pointed out that the perception of Evansville was low-tech area, that we did not have the network here in the area as far as people’s perceptions are concerned. Wi-Fi is probably going to help us start to change that perception. It is not an accurate statement or perception, but if it’s actually out there then that is what we have to work for and try to overcome. That is why we are very much in favor of Ken’s proposal, the Certified Technology Park, and what we think that it is going to bring for us in the future. Thank you very much.
Bagbey: Thank you. Does anyone on council have any questions?
K. Robinson: If there aren’t any other questions, I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to work with you. I know Steve and I have talked many years about the Wi-Fi and I think we are finally getting there.
Bagbey: If I could take this opportunity to share with you, and I’ve never talked to you about this, but in my job three years ago we put in the top-of-line security system in Mater Dei and Memorial. Had we had the Wi-Fi, and that is the way our system is designed, to be totally wireless and to be right into all public safety vehicles, even into the Mayor’s office, into the Clerk’s office, etc. When I started reading and hearing about it, I know Steve has been in contact with you for a number of years over it, I didn’t know until I saw your press release in March that we were even going that way. Our company, our vendor, out of Nashville thought that in Evansville it would be fifteen years before they thought they’d see Wi-Fi in our market. So, this will cause, as soon as you guys get up and running to speed, it will cause us to do some modification to our system, which will take us into our 22nd Century and I really appreciate it. Thank you.
K. Robinson: Thank you.
Kniese: Mr. President can I ask a couple of questions?
Bagbey: Sure.
Kniese: Thank you. Ken I had just a couple of questions on the Certified Technology Park agreement and the application. I’m not even sure if you’re the person I should direct that to or is there somebody I call? There are just some minor questions I had.
K. Robinson: Gregg and I are both pretty familiar with it, we’d be glad to help you.
Kniese: Okay, this will be brief. I just had a couple of questions when I reviewed the application there’s a reference under the Number Nine under the Certified Technology Park agreement the Certified Technology Park fund, and nine D. describes establishment augmentation or restoration of the debt-service reserve for obligations described in Three. Is that just a misprint and that should be, “described in letter C?” I looked through Three and I couldn’t find it anywhere. It would be on Page Three at the very bottom.
K. Robinson: We received this document from the Department of Commerce. We’re going to have to probably talk to their legal counsel to clarify this.
Lamar: This is their agreement.
Kniese: It just says described in Three and I didn’t find a Three that described anything that has to with debt-service or anything. So I was hoping somebody could give me some direction.
K. Robinson: It maybe actually Three on the first page, which refers to exhibit A. which is the meets and bounds of the district. It is that green bounded area. I believe that is what it will ultimately come back to.
Kniese: I knew that was the legal description, but when it referred to debt-service and reserve obligations…
K. Robinson: I think within that bounded area, The Redevelopment Authority has the authority to use the dollars for debt-service.
Kniese: And I know that there was in the application where it talks about on Page Eighteen funding $200,000 for the construction of the fiber optic network. Is that expected to come from a public/private partnership that includes the City of Evansville, it is on Page Eighteen? I was curious as far as the dollar amount expected from the City.
K. Robinson: Let me address that. We look at this as a partnership so we are going to use the private side as much as possible to raise the funds to initiate whatever the ultimate recommendations will become to either build out the network, to expand the Wi-Fi, or to build out the incubator itself. These were cost estimates that we had put together for the purpose of this application. We have access to the grant, if we get approval, then we have access for the 4 million dollars of grants, 2 million of which is capital and 2 million is operating. What we were hoping to do was to raise enough match, the first year of the match on the capital is fifty-percent, so we are going to have find fifty-percent of whatever number we ultimately want to go after in capital. We will make every effort to go to our private partner to raise that, but if there is a gap on the fifty-percent match we will come to the City and ask for that.
Kniese: That is where I was coming from. I was trying to anticipate what that amount would be so we would know budget wise what we have available to lend.
K. Robinson: I cannot tell you what ultimately you’re exposure is, but I can tell you that we’re bound and determined to make this a partnership effort and not expect the City to come up with the entire fifty-percent of anything.
Kniese: One other question. On Page Twenty in that same application, the first bullet point, it says, “secure $1.43 million to finance the construction of the seat and provide operational funds for the first year, complete by June 2004,” would that be a part of what the City would participate in?
K. Robinson: Actually that was a number that was derived when we were one of the finalists in the application for the Aztar money. We had already developed the application using the seat as the basis and then integrated those numbers in there. We will have to go through the same grant process to achieve those dollars hopefully through the state grant process and raising some local dollars. The answer is no we wouldn’t be coming to the City for all of that.
Kniese: Okay, thank you. I appreciate that very much.
Bagbey: Any other questions?
Is there a motion to adopt Resolution C-2004-18?
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilwoman Walden seconded the motion to adopt Resolution C-2004-18. Voice Vote. So Ordered.
There being nine (9) ayes and zero (0) nays, Resolution C-2004-18 is hereby declared ADOPTED.
RESOLTUION DOCKET
RESOLUTION C-2004-19 (DOCKET) ROBINSON
A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF FEDERAL FUNDS FOR STUDY, ENGINEERING, AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON TRAFFIC IMPROVEMENTS IN DOWNTOWN EVANSVILLE
Bagbey: Councilwoman Robinson.
Robinson: Mr. President, I filed this resolution in support of the federal funds to the tune of 1 million dollars for study, engineering, and recommendation of traffic improvement in downtown Evansville. This is where the Mayor went to Washington D.C. and lobbied on this and I am just asking for support tonight. That is my district and I think that we need to study the traffic patterns.
Bagbey: Are there questions?
Is there a motion to adopt Resolution C-2004-19?
Councilman Watts moved and Councilman John seconded the motion to adopt Resolution C-2004-19. Voice Vote. So Ordered.
There being nine (9) ayes and zero (0) nays, Resolution C-2004-19 is hereby declared ADOPTED.
RESOLUTION DOCKET
RESOLUTION C-2004-20 (DOCKET) BAGBEY
A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF FEDERAL FUNDS FOR A CERTIFIED TECHNOLOGY PARK IN EVANSVILLE
Bagbey: This is the piggyback to Resolution C-2004-18. This is the actual follow up in asking the Department of Commerce for a total of 15 million dollars; 5 million for the initial cost of the business technology incubator and 10 million to assist in the first ten years of the operation. You may ask yourself, “what are the chances?” probably slim and none, but you don’t know until you ask. And this also follows up what Mayor Weinzapfel had been doing in Washington D.C. So at this time I would like to have your support on this resolution.
Is there a motion to adopt Resolution C-2004-20?
Councilman Jarboe moved and Councilman Watts seconded the motion to adopt Resolution C-2004-20. Voice Vote. So Ordered.
There being nine (9) ayes and zero (0) nays, Resolution C-2004-20 is hereby declared ADOPTED.
RESOLUTION DOCKET
RESOLUTION C-2004-21 (DOCKET) WATTS
A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF FEDERAL FUNDS FOR THE INTERCHANGE AT THE INTERSECTION OF FULTON AVENUE AND THE LLOYD EXPRESSWAY
Watts: This Resolution we are encouraging the state to go ahead and expend the 7 million dollars that we need for land acquisition and design when we get the project up. It proposed for 2008, and they predict this for 2007. They are going to take a year off of the start of the project.
Kiefer: B.J. did you say it would take a year off or add a year?
Watts: Take a year off. We would go from starting at 2008 to starting to at 2007 potentially.
Kiefer: I’m all in favor of it.
Melcher: This is a project that the Evansville Urban Transportation Study started a couple of years ago. We worked with INDOT. Ryan Nicholas asked us if there was anything else we’d like to have and we said, “Yeah, we’d like to have an intersection at Fulton. We’d like to see no stop lights all the way out to Red Bank.” INDOT hired a couple of consultants to look at, so this is a project. I know Curt has worked on this also, about the intersection with SIGECOM, that building. So we have been working on this for a long time. So this is something I’m kind of glad that we’re trying to see move forward because there was talk at one time that the City was going to start putting some money back, but we never have this kind of money to put back to pre-buy land. So I’m in support of this resolution this evening.
Is there a motion to adopt Resolution C-2004-21?
Councilman Kiefer moved and Councilman Melcher seconded the motion to adopt Resolution C-2004-21. Voice Vote. So Ordered.
RESOLUTION
RESOLUTION C-2004-22 (DOCKET) KNIESE
A RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT A STUDY OF THE STREET PATTERNS IN DOWNTOWN EVANSVILLE
Kniese: Thank you. I’ve been working for some time with members of the Governmental Affairs Committee and Transportation Committee for the Evansville Chamber of Commerce. Also, having worked downtown for almost twenty years kind of living through the street patterns as they are right now. This is going to be very similar to Councilwoman Robinson’s Resolution C-2004-19. This also does point out some safety concerns that are trying to be addressed. We are looking at the goal to provide a user-friendlier street network, proper signage to direct traffic flow throughout the downtown Evansville. I think this would really be a benefit to the City. I did a little research and I couldn’t find an actual analysis or something that would spell out what the impact would be on the downtown pattern, but most of the things that I found were part of a downtown master plan. I think kind of a more in-depth analysis of the street patterns as well as signage for downtown would be very beneficial. There are certain areas that would be part of that for example, the Lloyd Expressway and First Avenue, Main Street and Fulton interchange would probably have the Indiana Department of Transportation involved with those. This is something I think that needs to be done. My hope is, if we get to a point where we have a plan that really has some teeth to it, that we feel it is worth the time and effort, and that we also push to implement those ideas and not just be a study that sits on the shelf carries dust. I’m hoping that the funding that Councilwoman Robinson had mentioned earlier would definitely come our way and together we can move this forward and make downtown safer and more user friendly for business and hopefully new residential housing downtown as well. So I would ask for everybody on City Council to approve this, and I’ll be glad to answer any questions you may have.
Bagbey: Any questions?
Melcher: No, but I could add to Jeff’s. This is something that some of us have been trying to do under three different administrations now, this is the third administration. Like Jeff said, there have been two master plans. The 1995 master plan said the same thing. Lloyd’s master plan said the same thing about signage and eliminating one-way streets. One-way streets are limiting ways to get rid of cars of fast. We don’t have any cars to get rid of fast. So we’d like to have that problem. And if you know that Sycamore is two-way, one-way, and then two-way again that is some of the confusion. For me to get to here from where I work at I’ve got to get on Sycamore three times to get here. One thing we will have challenges on is that when they built the Lloyd there are some grievance with INDOT about how to get off so that First Avenue works the way Third Street works and the way Fifth Street works. It just needs to be looked at. If you talk about signs, on Main Street all the signs on the Lloyd take you to north Main. That doesn’t take you downtown because they can’t. There is only one sign, and that’s when you’re coming from the West getting off, that’s about a two by one-foot sign on a pole saying downtown. It doesn’t say anything about Main Street. It’s tough. There is a lot of people that go into Old National Bank on North Main thinking that is the main bank because they are wanting to go down town, but they think that is where they are going when they get on the Lloyd. So I would support this Resolution. I think it is something that has been needed for a long time.
Bagbey: Anyone else?
Is there a motion to adopt Resolution C-2004-22?
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilwoman Walden seconded the motion to adopt Resolution C-2004-22. Voice Vote. So Ordered.
MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS
Bagbey: We’ve already had Certified Technology presentation, I appreciate that. Anyone else have any comments under miscellaneous?
Jarboe: Mr. President. Two weeks ago this council passed a Resolution basically encouraging large corporations that do business in Evansville to be good corporate and good community citizens for Evansville. I found it kind of funny that the store that namely mentioned, Wal-Mart was in the paper twice within the last week. The one about the unions bump up Wal-Mart protest, the one that really got me was that “Super Wal-Mart site runs off our inspectors,” basically what they story said was that the inspectors had to put a stop-work order on them. And I guess I would question if this corporation is being a good corporate and good community partner. When they refused to allow inspectors onto the site, and they won’t let inspectors come on because the superintendent isn’t there, I guess I have a concern knowing that there will be additional stores built within this community. I would hope that as of now that Wal-Mart would take into consideration the feelings of this community. That we do want them to be good corporate partners and follow the laws that are on the books. That being said, I hope that we don’t run into anything else like this. And if so, then maybe this council would need to look at possibly re-looking at once they build within the city again, looking at stronger enforcement and stronger penalties for those businesses that don’t follow and play by the rules. Thank you.
Bagbey: Thank you. Anyone else?
Walden: I have some letters, and Madam Clerk I would ask if you would please see that these are delivered to the Mayor. Mayor Weinzapfel was kind enough to speak to the second grade at Stringtown Elementary, and aren’t they cute. The kids wrote some letters to thank him. And if I may, Mr. President, I’d like to read one of them it says, “Dear Mayor Weinzapfel, I wanted you to know I thought what you said was funny.” I don’t remember what he said, but he entertained the second grade. “I was thinking that maybe you could come to our school again and give a speech. I never felt I was going to see the mayor of our city before. Well anyway, it was great seeing you in person. Your friend, Haley.” So, hopefully the Mayor will enjoy this and it was much appreciated. My daughter is a second grader at Stringtown, so we did appreciate him coming.
Bagbey: Great. Anyone else? I would like to state something about the traveling City Hall meetings that the Mayor has pledged in his campaign and is undertaking. I, B.J. they are going to your school on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.? If you haven’t attended, I encourage you to go it’s not that long and it’s kind of interesting. And I’ll be back on Thursday. In 1991 when I ran for City Council in the Second Ward, I was absolutely shocked that I had city resident who didn’t have running water. I was also shocked that we didn’t have sewers. I had to fight Frank McDonald, I had to fight Russ Lloyd, and it took Leigh Ann Beswick, who lives on Culverson Avenue, coming to Fairlawn Grade School and talking directly to the Mayor of the City of Evansville. And Jonathan knew that I had areas in the Second that did not have city water, that he was soon horrified after Jim Cameron got in and investigating that there are maps that show throughout my ward lack of water and a lack of sanitary sewers. I would just like to publicly, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart and not in a partisan way, I would like to thank Jonathan Weinzapfel for listening to Leigh Ann Beswick. For moving and acting on it so quickly, which was something I couldn’t get done in twelve years. I also would like to publicly share with you a remark that the Mayor made to me over a telephone conversation when I was thanking him for this. He said, “Bags, there is no residence in this city that should not have water and running sewers. This is inexcusable.” So, with that, tip the hat Mayor, and thank you very much from the President of the Council. Anything else?
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
ASD CHAIRWOMAN ROBINSON
Robinson: Nothing scheduled at this time Mr. President.
FINANCE CHAIRMAN JOHN
John: Nothing scheduled.
PUBLIC WORKS CHAIRMAN MELCHER
Melcher: Yes, Ordinance G-2004-6 is scheduled to be heard on May 17, 2004 at 5:20 p.m. Everybody should have a letter on your desk from Taylor’s Body Shop asking for it to be held on the twenty-fourth. All the Public Hearing Notices have gone out, so we will open up the meeting at 5:20 p.m. next week, and I’m going to try to get with Taylor and the others to see about postponing it to the other. But, just in case it is a scheduled hearing. We’ll start the hearing, if it works out fine, if it doesn’t work out we’ll continue it on to the following week and we’ll make our announcements then.
Bagbey: Councilman Watts will be in my chair next week. I guess I need to ask permission from a couple of people in the community whether or not I can miss a council meeting, right? I’ll be in Charleston, South Carolina for a wedding.
ADJOURNMENT:
Councilman Jarboe moved and Councilman Watts seconded the motion to adjourn. Voice Vote. So Ordered. Meeting adjourned at 6:40 p.m.
PRESIDING OFFICER
CITY CLERK