The Common Council of the City of West Lafayette, Indiana met in the Council Chambers at City Hall on April 3, 2000 at the hour of 7:30 PM.

Mayor Margerum, who presided, called the meeting to order.

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes called the roll:

PRESENT: COHEN, KEEN, MILLS, O'CALLAGHAN, SATTERLY, SPARBY,

WINDLER

The Pledge of Allegiance was repeated.

ALSO PRESENT: City Attorney Robert Bauman, Police Chief Dan Marvin, Fire Chief Ron Ford, WWTU Director Mike Darter, and City Engineer Snyder.

Councilor Sparby moved to approve the minutes of the March 2, 2000 Pre-Council Meeting and the March 6, 2000 Common Council Meeting as distributed. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

Street and Sanitation: Councilor Satterly presented this report.

Spring cleaning is taking place in the neighborhoods. All yard waste, except tree limbs, must be placed in rigid containers, not plastic bags.

Councilor Mills said the Area Plan Commission heard a request in March for primary approval of the four lot industrial subdivision for the Purdue Research Park, Phase II of 18.77 acres. There are about 80 companies in the Purdue Research Park right now with 2000 employees. That expansion is going to be a welcome addition to the City.

Public Safety: Councilor Keen presented this report.

Purdue Relations: Reports were given by two Purdue student organizations.

Dale Winger (607 University St.), President of the Purdue Grand Prix Foundation, spoke about upcoming Grand Prix activities. Josh Merrill (2340 US 52W, Lot 18) spoke about the Old Gold Student Ambassador Program. The Foundation gave $9,000 in 21 scholarships this year.

Robert Whiteman (822 Vine St.), President of the Purdue Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, spoke about student involvement with Habitat for Humanity. The Purdue Chapter began in 1989 and works with affiliates in Lafayette, and Tippecanoe, Montgomery, Clinton, Cass, Tipton, and Brown Counties. Work troops go out every Saturday and over spring break. They have enough contributions to build an entire house next year. It will be build by Purdue students.

Parks and Recreation: Councilor O'Callaghan presented this report.

Councilor O'Callaghan said the Park Board has set rates for pool admission for the coming year. The cost will be $2.50 for ages 16 and older, $2.00 for ages 5 to 15, and $2.00 for adult lap swim.

Department of Development: Councilor O'Callaghan presented this report.

Personnel: No report.

Budget and Finance: No report.

Wastewater Treatment Utility: Councilor Satterly said tonight the director of the Wastewater Treatment Utility will be making a presentation to bring everybody up-to-date as to what is ongoing and what is planned at the Wastewater Treatment Utility. The presentation will be made by Director Mike Darter.

Director Darter said what we are going to speak about tonight is some of the planning that we have done in the past and then those projects that have evolved out of that planning. First of all we used facility planning for long term capital improvement projects. It's the Wastewater Treatment Utility Facility Plan is what we generate from. Developed to help to evaluate, schedule, and coordinate various wastewater treatment plant improvements and it's a requirement of the State Revolving Loan Fund financing for these improvements.

Facility Planning was done in 1993. In the near term in 1993 for treatment plant improvements. They were scheduled in 1993 to meet compliance schedules mandated by the MPDES permit. The new requirements under the permit called for ammonia removal and dechlorination. It also addresses plant improvements beyond the discharge permit, including evaluation of the capacity of the plant, over the 20-year planning period. All the facility planning we do is for a 20-year planning period. Foundation drain disconnect program. Again, it was scheduled in 1993 to comply with an agreed order from IDEM. This was to reduce the amount of clear water entering the sewers, thereby reducing the amount of capacity increase needed in downstream sewers and lift stations and was going to be accomplished over a 5-year period.

Facility Planning - Long Term in 1993 was mid- to late 1990s. Those were in the planning stages: the North River Road lift station, the River Road interceptor, wet weather treatment facilities, and the western interceptor project.

In 1996 we amended the facility plan and generally, it was recognized that additional improvements would be required to correct deficiencies in the collection system and to address improvements needed for future combined sewer overflow (CSO) control regulations. Again, it was developed to help evaluate, schedule and coordinate these improvements and again, a requirement of the State Revolving Fund. At that point then, in the near term improvements were going to be the North River Road lift station and River Road interceptor project. The River Road interceptor project was going to be coordinated with INDOT and they, at that time, needed to obtain and clear the right-of-way for the sewer. The mid-term, which would have been the late 1990s, early 2000, we are looking at the wet weather treatment facilities project. Again, we have to wait to do this project once the interceptor has been completed. Longer term in 1996 from the facility plan amendment, again, was the western interceptor project.

So the first thing that we did from facility planning was the upgrade and renovation of the treatment plant [showing a schematic of the treatment plant] that was constructed from 1994 through 1997. The SRF loan amount at that time was $19,950,000, Engineering Design was $1,555,278, construction costs were $15,692,832, construction management was $1,037,848 for a total cost of the project of $18,285,958. That was complete and under the bid for the job.

The next project was the foundation drain disconnect program. That was constructed from 1993 to 1999. We had 380 of 384 homes disconnected with a disconnection cost of $1,478,936.17. Collector sewers totaled in an amount of $725,024.44 for a total cost of the disconnect of $2,203,960.61. The average disconnect for a home was $3,851.40. The average cost for the disconnect, including collector sewer, $5,739.48. Again, that was completed. I might point out that when we had this study done early on, the disconnection program was the program that was going to be the most expensive program. When reality came, it was, again, the cheapest of the three alternatives that we had. So it was a good selection that the City had made.

The North River Road lift station is the next project that we undertook. It was constructed from 1998 to 1999. The SRF loan amount, this is the remainder of the loan that we had from the first loan activity, was $1,664,042. The utility through its revenues contributed another $625,000; design costs, $240,860; construction, $2,029,077; construction management, $259,965 for a total cost of $2,289,042. Again, this was completed under the bid.

The next project that we are undertaking is the River Road interceptor project. We have this in three different phases. The first phase would be, generally, from Robinson Street south to the wastewater plant. It is 5,230 feet of pipe ranging from sizes 12-inch to 78-inch with 31 structures. The design flows of this sewer: from Quincey to Wood is 93 million gallons a day, from Wood to the wastewater plant, it's 136 million gallons a day.

This project, phase I, was started in February of 1999. It's currently at a 95% completion level. The engineering design was $555,222; construction to this point in time, $1,366,288; the construction management to this point billed is $10,524. The total cost to date is $1,932,034.

Phase II of this project, which we are getting ready to let the bids. This project runs from Robinson Street, which is right here [pointing to map on slide] north, just north of Dehart. It also includes a new influent sewer at the plant and a new discharge line, new outfall for the plant. This consists of 2,786 feet of pipe ranging in sizes from 30-inch to 78-inch with 10 different structures. The design flow, influent flow to the plant would be 22.5 million gallons and the outfall, 117.7 million gallons a day. Again, this project [pointing to map on slide] we've got the new influent sewer. Here's the railroad bridge. We've got an influent sewer here. We'll have a new piece of pipe coming across the drainage ditch and the new outfall to the river. It was bid on March 21 of this year. The apparent low bid: $1,678,805. It's construction time is 150 days from the Notice to Proceed for substantial completion. The construction time is 180 days from Notice to Proceed to final completion.

There is another phase to this project. It was a three phase project. It is the Levee lift station that is located, generally speaking, next door to the Speedway station on State Street. It consists of a wet well mounted lift station with back-up power, 1,100 feet of 8-inch ductile iron pipe force main. A design average flow of 286,500 gallons a day. Tentative bid date for this is May of this year.

We have other projects now that are into the mid-term of the 1996 planning: the wet weather treatment facility project. This is sized to handle peak flow rates resulting from typical storms. Peak flow rates in excess of the wastewater capacity of 22.5 mgd will flow to the wet weather treatment. CSO control strategy includes requirements that CSO control plans be expandable. What we have done with that then, the River Road interceptor was designed to deliver 98% of the wet weather volume to the site of the wet weather treatment facilities annually. The reason we have a higher delivery rate on the pipe is because it is underneath the state highway and we don't have the ability to go back in and enlarge that pipe once the highway goes over the top of it. So we sized it a little bigger for future needs. The most cost effective alternative is to construct the vortex treatment system designed to collect and treat all flow from a 0.6 inch storm. The pipe will handle a storm of 1.39 inch, so it is oversized somewhat. At the 0.6 inch storms, this would cut the total annual untreated overflow duration from 484 hours to 20 hours or 96% reduction. Estimated construction cost of these facilities is $4,175,000. Target initiation and completion dates for this: planning will occur from July, 2000 to October, 2000; design, October, 2000 to April, 2001; construction, May, 2001 through December, 2001.

Now those are generally the capital improvement projects that we use State Revolving Funding for. I will go through some local capital improvement projects that we handled in 1999 and projected projects we have for the year 2000. The disconnect program was budgeted at $200,000 and we expended $99,420. We did no lift station improvement work. Facility improvements, you can see the different items we did: a printer, handrail, grit chutes, lab window. We expended $6,313 of the budgeted $100,000. Collection system improvements: we finished up paying off work done on the North River Road lift station, we installed flow meters on some lift stations, we TV'd the Happy Hollow interceptor, we had an emergency repair that we had to do on one of the lines in Happy Hollow, we built and installed a lift station in Westport, built and installed a small grinder station for the Celery Bog Park, and did some GIS work. Total expenditure was $442,545.

Equipment replacement, we budgeted $90,000 a year last year. We expended $8,644 for a computer monitor, an incubator, and general PCs around the Wastewater facility. We budgeted $785,000 and we expended $556,922.

Local capital improvement projects for this year: facility improvements of $100,000. We budgeted in for a screenings washer. We've got two roofs that we need to replace. We've got doors on a building that need to be replaced, and a solids analyzer at $17,000 for a total of $100,000 in facility improvements.

Collection systems improvements: we budgeted $595,000. These are projected costs that we will incur: for work on Brown Street, $489,297; Roebuck, $22,890; Wabash Landing, $214,024. Generally, this is for installation of storm and sanitary sewers on those two roads and the Wabash Landing site. The equipment replacement, again, at this point in time, we've budgeted $90,000. To date, we'll have chemical tanks that will need to be replaced at $25,000 and a new muffle furnace for the lab at $2,500. We budgeted, again, $785,000. Projected expenditures will be $916,211. You look at a two-year summary, from 1999-2000, we budgeted $1,570,000 and expected to expend $1,473,133.

The Happy Hollow interceptor rehabilitation project is a project that evolved from the TVing of the Happy Hollow interceptor. In last year's local capital improvement, generally it's this area right here [pointing to map on slide], runs from Salisbury down to Happy Hollow Road and there is another little leg that comes off Indian Trail that runs down through Happy Hollow. The targeted initiation and completion dates: we'll have planning on this to rehabilitate this sewer, January, 2000 to July, 2000; design on this will be from July, 2000 to December, 2000; the construction to begin May, 2001 and end December, 2001. Estimated cost for this will be the planning at $75,000, design at $625,000, construction at $4,000,000, for a total expenditure of $4,700,000. This will be funded, generally, from an SRF loan to pay for the rehabilitation of that sewer going through the Happy Hollow Park.

With that, that gives you some idea of how we plan at the utility to do capital improvement projects, not only from funded sources from the State, but also sources from within the utility. Are there any questions?

Councilor Sparby said Mike, I had a question. Your 1999 permit, does it include the wet weather treatment facility in it?

WWTU Director Darter said yes.

Councilor Sparby said and what was the projected date? I know before you had told us that you had until 2015 to finish that project.

WWTU Director Darter said yes, now with the new permit that came through, that is in the permit for wet weather treatment. It is considered under the long term CSO control plan that the City has developed and part and parcel of that long term plan is wet weather treatment.

Councilor Sparby said so is 2015 still a viable date?

WWTU Director Darter said no, you saw the dates where wet weather treatment was going to be built.

Councilor Sparby said but when are you required to have it done by?

WWTU Director Darter said we are required to have that done in a timely manner from the State. They don't give me a date that says you have to have it done by February 15 of the year 2003. The most opportune time to put this in would be once the interceptor is online to where we can start handling those flows that will be generated. The flows will be greater than what currently come down to the plant. The time to put that in would be once that interceptor is completed.

Mayor Margerum said as you can see, Mike does an excellent job of planning and because of the cost and complexity of all of these projects, it does require multi-year planning and multi-year financing, so I think he is to be commended for his foresightedness and also his ability to get things done and to move ahead with all these projects. Any other questions?

Councilor Mills said I do have one, Mike. So when you say that the best time for that to come into the wet weather treatment thing, is when the River Road interceptor is done. So that is late 2000?

WWTU Director Darter said the River Road interceptor should be completed at the end of this year.

Mayor Margerum said thank you very much. This is kind of background for the ordinance in which we will look at setting the Wastewater Treatment Utility rates.

REPORT OF THE APC REPRESENTATIVE: Councilor Mills said I will have nothing right now, Mayor, I'll wait until we get to the Ordinance No. 9-00.

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: No reports.

Mayor Margerum said I would point out the Neighborhood Summit which will be April 15 at Sunnyside Middle School. This is a joint project with Lafayette to help those neighborhoods who are already doing planning and to give the new neighborhoods that are working to improve their neighborhoods. So it is a summit of all those groups. Judy O'Bannon will be the speaker. She has been a longtime advocate of Main Street projects and was very active in her own neighborhood organization in Indianapolis. She is a very inspiring speaker. Our Community Development office has been very active in this Neighborhood Summit and I think we can all learn from each other how to improve the neighborhoods in both cities.

Councilor Mills said I attended the Neighborhood Summit last year and it was 8:00 until 1:00. This year it is longer, 8:00 to 4:00. It was extremely worthwhile last year. A huge turnout of people in all the neighborhoods throughout the County. I'm sure it is going to be another great Summit this year.

FINANCIAL REPORT: Councilor Sparby moved that the financial report be approved as distributed. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen and passed viva-voce.

Ordinance No. 15-99 (Third Amended) An Ordinance to Annex Certain Lands Into the City of West Lafayette (Greenwalt) (Prepared by the City Attorney) Councilor Sparby read the ordinance and moved that Ordinance No. 15-99 (Third Amended) be passed on second and final reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

There was no discussion.

Ordinance No. 15-99 (Third Amended) passed second and final reading, 7-0.

Ordinance No. 27-99 An Ordinance to Annex Certain Lands Into the City of West Lafayette (Calvary Baptist Church) (Prepared by the City Attorney) Councilor Sparby read the ordinance and moved that Ordinance No. 27-99 be passed on second and final reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

There was no discussion.

Ordinance No. 27-99 passed second and final reading, 7-0.

Ordinance No. 7-00 An Ordinance to Establish Certain Fees for the Copying of Records and Other Services (Prepared by the City Attorney) Councilor Sparby read the ordinance and moved that Ordinance No. 7-00 be passed on second and final reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

There was no discussion.

Ordinance No. 7-00 passed second and final reading, 7-0.

Ordinance No. 8-00 An Additional Appropriation (Fire Department) (Prepared by the Clerk-Treasurer) Councilor Sparby read the ordinance and moved that Ordinance No. 8-00 be passed on first reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

Mayor Margerum said as you can see these were donated by public spirited companies and they will be used for education. We thank them for their contributions. This will be on first reading and then we will have a public hearing at the next meeting.

There was no discussion.

Ordinance No. 8-00 passed first reading, 7-0.

Ordinance No. 9-00 An Ordinance Amending Chapters 1, 3, and 4 of Ordinance No. 32-97 Being the Unified Zoning Ordinance of Tippecanoe County (Submitted by the Area Plan Commission) Councilor Sparby read the ordinance by title only and moved that Ordinance No. 9-00 be passed on first and only reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Satterly.

Councilor Mills said this is an ordinance to modify six sections of Chapters 1, 3, and 4 of the New Unified Zoning Ordinance describing and defining accessory uses and making distinctions between accessory uses, structures, and buildings. The other section clarifies distinctions between breeding and boarding kennels. This passed the Area Plan Commission, 12-0.

Councilor Keen said on the number of aggregate animals that are allowed, we are talking that in Battleground, Dayton, and Clarks Hill. For a residence they are going to be allowed to have an aggregate of up to four dogs or cats, or whatever combination thereof. Is that what this it about?

Councilor Mills said that is right.

Mayor Margerum said that just applies to those areas.

There was no further discussion.

Ordinance No. 9-00 passed first and only reading, 7-0.

Ordinance No. 10-00 An Ordinance to Set Wastewater Treatment Utility Rates (Prepared by the City Attorney) Councilor Sparby read the ordinance and moved that Ordinance No. 10-00 be passed on first reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor O'Callaghan.

Mayor Margerum said last month you heard the presentation by our financial advisor concerning the rates and charges and how it was arrived at. Today, Mr. Darter presented to you all of the required changes and the ones that have been completed already and the ones that will be completed in the future. So this utility rate structure is proposed to do those projects that you have heard about and, also of course, to repay the State Revolving Loan Fund projects which are 20 years. This is the first reading of this ordinance to set the Wastewater Treatment Utility rates.

Councilor Sparby said we discussed this a little at our Pre-Council Meeting last Thursday and Councilor Satterly had requested that Umbaugh run some different scenarios. One of the requirements the City has is to have 125% debt coverage to ensure that we are in compliance with our bonds. In that first scenario that was run, we have sufficient funds based on the projections that Umbaugh did to not have a rate increase until January of 2002. Given the fact that we have the vehicle in place for the Council to review the rates annually, I think this increase is premature and that I would recommend that my fellow Councilors vote against it and that we reconsider this next year when we do our annual review. I just have some historical figures I would like to show. [Councilor Sparby moved to the overhead projector.] In 1996, when we reviewed the rates, the red line, just to explain this to you, is showing what our actual sewage rates are through 1999. When Umbaugh and Associates addressed the Council in 1996, they said that in order to meet our requirements that we would have to have a 12.5% increase from 1996 to 1997 and we would have to have an additional 8% increase from 1998 to 1999. We have not had to do that because we review the rates annually. We have been able to hold the rates down. Umbaugh again came back in 1997 when we looked at the rates. They had two different scenarios that they had given us. They said that we could take a 5% increase in 1997 and 1998 and then in 2000 we would have to have a 18.5% increase. Or if we chose not to have any increases from 1997 through 1999, then in 2000 we would have to have a 33% increase. Once again, we have not had to do this. In 1998, they came back and told us we were going to have to have a 17% increase from 2000 to 2001 in order to maintain our debt service coverage that we are required to. Again, they were incorrect in what they gave us.

This is a copy of the current proposal that the Council is being asked to look at tonight. It includes 5% increases for the next three years. We have sufficient funding available now that we do not need an increase this year. We have the vehicle, as I said, in place that we can review this next year and if we do need an increase next year, to maintain our 125% debt coverage, we can address that issue at that time to have rates effective in July of 2001. We have a very transient community. I feel it is very unfair that we try to set our rates high early and have people pay for things that are down the future that they will never be able to utilize. Mr. Darter has done an excellent job of budgeting. He sat here and told us that in 1999, on his capital projects, that he was almost a quarter of a million dollars under what he budgeted. I just think that this is being a little aggressive in our Wastewater Treatment increases. It is just like a tax. A user fee is a tax on the citizens also. I know there are a lot of students in this community, people that are on fixed incomes. They don't have the luxury of paying increased fees just so that we can continue increasing our retained revenues in the Wastewater Treatment. Thank you.

Councilor Satterly said under the proposal that Umbaugh has come up with, he gave an example of a person or a family at a 5,000 gallon per month usage, and the rate for July 1, 1999 was $13.35. Then with a 5% increase on July 1, 2000, that would go to $14.00. Then on July 1, 2001 go to $14.70. Then July 12, 2002, it would be $15.45. That is assuming that 5% increase for the next three years. Under scenario one, which I asked Mike to ask Umbaugh to develop, again using that same 5,000 gallon per month consumption or usage, we could maintain our 125% debt service coverage with a 0% increase for July 1, 2000 and a 0% increase 2001. That means that the rate paid in this example would be $13.35 for July 1, 1999, $13.35 for July 1, 2000, $13.35 for July 1, 2001, and then in order to maintain that 125% debt coverage ration, we would have to have a 12.7% increase effective January 1, 2002. That would make the rate for July 2002 at $15.05, which would be under the $15.45 that was recommended with a 5% increase for each of the three years. Both cases assume that 30% increase in flow from Purdue and we are still maintaining what our debt service requirements are. So I don't see the necessity, and I would agree with Councilor Sparby, that I don't see a need for increasing the sewer rate at this point in time because we do revisit this possibility of increasing the rates each year. So I would support the case of having no increase for this coming year.

Councilor O'Callaghan said the thing that would concern me with that would be the unknown about the flow from Purdue and also considering the projects that Mr. Darter outlined are not that far in the future. The River Road interceptor already starting and the Phase II and III coming on line, the wet water treatment facility coming on line in a much sooner time frame than 2015 for construction to start, even 2001. I really appreciate the fact that in the past that we have looked at things ahead of time and so that we are not doing it at crunch time. We have been a leader in the combined sewer overflow and this is just another example of looking at things ahead of time and planning for them. So I would support the resolution as presented by our financial advisor.

Councilor Satterly said Madam Mayor, may I ask Mike [Darter], I believe all of these improvements are included in the budget.

WWTU Director Darter said which improvements are we speaking of?

Councilor Satterly said the ones that Councilor O'Callaghan was naming.

WWTU Director Darter said the wet weather treatment and the Happy Hollow interceptor have been forecasted into the Umbaugh report that you received this year, yes.

Councilor Satterly said so those are included in the estimates.

Councilor O'Callaghan said in the Umbaugh report that does recommend the 5% increase this year.

WWTU Director Darter said that is correct.

Councilor Sparby said it is included in both scenarios.

Councilor Satterly said both scenarios include all projects.

WWTU Director Darter said the only thing the scenarios looked at was holding the 125% debt service coverage and the changes in revenue. Everything else stayed the same.

Councilor Sparby said Mr. Darter, while you are up here, we've had three months of history, have you seen a decrease in the increase that Purdue had last year?

WWTU Director Darter said currently, no.

Councilor Satterly said we are still tracking.

Councilor Sparby said I would also like to just point out that the report done by Umbaugh does not include any growth to the City and it assumes a 4.5% interest rate, which in this current economy is extremely conservative.

Councilor Keen said I would just like to agree with Councilor Sparby and Councilor Satterly on this issue. One of the interesting things that I've noticed in the ordinance itself is in paragraph 10 on the first page. It does say that these increases would be sufficient to meet the current projected financial requirements of the utility, however, it doesn't say that it is necessary. It says it would be sufficient. I think that is a terminology. I would like to know what would be absolutely necessary. It doesn't appear that the increases are absolutely necessary. I think it boils down to a point of do I want to use my money for the next two years or do I want to let the City use it for the next two years? I would say that I would not be in favor of this.

Mayor Margerum said I would like to just point out a few things that the Municipal Price Index is running 3% a year as of the last month. The increase in petroleum, gas prices, of course are not figured into this. So those are several big unknowns. One of the reasons that we have been able to come in under budget is because of the management of the utility. However, there is nothing that good management can do if there is a major break and much of the excess or the reserve is there as kind of insurance, in case there is a major break and you can't wait to have an additional appropriation, well not that we have to have an additional appropriation, but have to have an additional rate increase. Do remember, too, that the rate increase begins in July, so the full impact of the money collected doesn't occur until the very end of that period, because is just starts there. Those people who were here earlier were the ones that contributed towards the forward planning that has been done so far and so those that are living here now, at this time, then contribute to the upgrading of the plant in the future. So I think that is why we wanted to show this long term planning is that everybody contributes, whether they were owners earlier or whether they are ones that are here now.

Councilor Sparby said I would also like to point out that what the retained earnings were at the end of 1999. Take into consideration that does not cover our debt service or replacement allowance and capital projects, and our debt service reserve, but it was $10.7 million at the end of 1999.

Mayor Margerum said would you explain where you got the retained earnings.

Councilor Sparby said off of Mr. Umbaugh's report.

Mayor Margerum said does that include some of the bond ordinance requires certain . . .

Councilor Sparby said I said it didn't cover . . .

Mayor Margerum said that isn't really retained earnings, but that is required by the bond ordinance for replacement equipment and for all these other things and debt service reserves.

Councilor Sparby said I believe I stated that, yes.

Mayor Margerum said so they are not retained earnings.

Councilor Mills said have we heard any more about the changes being discussed at the State level with the State Revolving Funds? We were told earlier that they were considering changing the way those State Revolving Funds are allocated and that the zero interest in the first year of the loan might disappear this year. So we would have more loan to pay back immediately.

Mayor Margerum said yes, I was at a State meeting which this was discussed. Rather than raise interest rates, which are now 3%, they are talking about doing away with the first two years of interest free. It has not been finalized.

Councilor Mills said so that is another unknown.

Councilor Satterly said did Umbaugh take that into consideration?

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes said yes he did. I think you see the interest coming in on this. Isn't that so, Mike? Yes, he turned on the interest with the bond draw down.

Councilor Cohen said the big unknown for me is what will be the usage of Purdue. We are only supposing that at the moment. If that usage should go down, I think that changes everything for us. I would rather see us pass this this year, and then maybe the next year, when we have more statistics about what Purdue is doing in the water usage.

Councilor Sparby said I would just like to point out to Councilor Cohen that we can readdress this issue at any time we choose and that if we have a 5% increase go into effective, our debt service coverage will be almost 163% and we are only required to have 125%. So I would prefer that we not have an increase at this time. We have the ordinance set so it does ensure that based on the current projections that we do need that 125% debt service coverage and also realizing that if there is a change, that the Council can go in at any time and revise those rates as needed.

Councilor O'Callaghan said but that scenario, too, with not having the increase from Purdue, that does take a 2.5% increase in 2000 to maintain that 125% and you are talking about 0%.

Councilor Sparby said one-fourth of the year has passed and that increase from Purdue is still in effect. Councilor Sparby said Madam Mayor, I would like to make a motion that Ordinance No. 10-00 be sent to committee for revision. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen.

Mayor Margerum said is there any discussion on taking that back to committee?

Councilor O'Callaghan said I guess I feel like we've heard enough information. We've had presentations by Umbaugh and by Mr. Darter, and I'm ready to vote on it the way it is now.

Mayor Margerum said I would remind you, it amounts to about 65 cents per month. That's what this increase would entail. Do you want to vote on the amendment to send it back to committee?

Councilor Satterly said call for the question.

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes said this is the motion to refer it to committee.

The motion to refer Ordinance No. 10-00 to committee failed, 3-4.

Mayor Margerum said are you ready to vote on Ordinance No. 10-00, as proposed? This is the first reading. The second reading would be next month.

There was no further discussion.

Ordinance No. 10-00 passed first reading, 4-3.

Resolution No. 7-00 A Resolution Requesting the Transfer of Funds (Clerk-Treasurer) ((Prepared by the Clerk-Treasurer) Councilor Sparby read the resolution and moved that Resolution No. 7-00 be passed on first and only reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Mills.

Mayor Margerum said this is on sale of recyclables, excavation permits, and vending machine sales.

There was no discussion.

Resolution No. 7-00 passed first and only reading, 7-0.

Resolution No. 8-00 A Resolution Authorizing the Filing of an Application With the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, for Community Development Block Grant Funds, as provided in Title I of the Community Development Act of 1974, as Amended (Submitted by Department of Development) Councilor Sparby read the resolution and moved that Resolution No. 8-00 be passed on first and only reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Satterly.

Mayor Margerum said this is filing for the application. Next month we will submit the budget. There was a hearing last Tuesday, some of you were there, in which the one-year plan and the five-year housing plan, which is done in conjunction with Lafayette, were discussed and presented. This resolution just authorizes the filing. Then next month we will have the budget.

Councilor O'Callaghan said you might note that is $505,000.

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes said I would like to make a comment that Councilor Sparby and Councilor Satterly, I need you to sign the original resolution before you leave tonight please.

There was no discussion.

Resolution No. 8-00 passed first and only reading, 7-0.

Resolution No. 9-00 A Joint Resolution That the Tippecanoe County Area Plan Commission Authorize Its Staff to Prepare a Land Use Plan for Wabash Township Adjacent to the City of West Lafayette (Submitted by the Mayor) Councilor Sparby read the resolution and moved that Resolution No. 9-00 be passed on first and only reading and the vote be by roll call. Motion was seconded by Councilor Satterly.

Mayor Margerum said this resolution was prepared in conjunction with the Tippecanoe County Board of Commissioners. I understand they passed that this morning at their meeting. I think this grew out of some concerns of Area Plan Commission. I know the local planning groups and the people in the Wabash Township area have been concerned, as the City. We need some guidelines for orderly growth. We had carried on discussions earlier in terms of cooperative effort between West Lafayette and Wabash Township. We think this would be a real step to begin a public discussion on how growth should occur at the edges of the City and in the unincorporated areas. Does Council have anything they want to say?

Councilor Mills said I'll just add that, I think in the last few months here I have mentioned a number rezones and developments that have come before the Area Plan Commission west and north of us. It is a tremendous area of growth and so I think it is critical that we push this plan forward now before any more development occurs.

Councilor Cohen said it's been a long time coming.

Councilor Windler said one thing I would like to add, especially for some of the students present, because this will interest them, a lot of the developments that have been discussed and talked about have been student area developments. I would like to encourage that when people plan this, that they keep the students in mind. We do have a transient population yes, but it seems to be growing over time, over the last number of years. Just for those that participate, keep in mind that this population may be growing and it has elected and appointed and local planning groups. We may want to include Purdue in this, as well, so that we can have an idea of, if we are going to have continued student growth in our population. So that is something we ought to consider and we need to include.

Councilor O'Callaghan said at the Commissioners meeting this morning, quite a few people spoke in favor of the resolution.

Mayor Margerum said is there anyone who would like to speak in the audience at the present time?

Patricia Mason (Wabash Township Trustee) said I have been the elected official in the township for quite a while now. I was, believe it or not, I am here to encourage you to pass this plan, but I would like you to consider adding a few more statements to it. I was not able to take a look at the resolution. The Mayor had mailed it to me, but I wasn't able to look at it until Thursday and it was too late to get to your Pre-Council meeting to ask you to make a few modifications in it. The people in Wabash Township have been concerned about planning for the last, directly, for the last six years. A group named Focus on the Future about unincorporated Wabash Township was formed. One of the things they noticed first of all was that there was a lack of planning. They tried to get involved and are pretty much recognized by the Area Plan Commission as a group of people that would like some input into this. If the APC is directed to formulate an adopted plan, or an updated plan for the township, I think that it needs to be imperative that local and appointed officials of the township. That wording is not in that last paragraph. It says "elected, appointed, and local planning groups." I don't know of any elected planning groups in Wabash Township. I would like "elected and appointed officials."

Mayor Margerum said that was just an omission.

City Attorney Bauman said I thought this came from the APC.

Mayor Margerum said this was the one that was passed, but that was the intent, elected and appointed officials.

Ms. Mason said because the people who provide the infrastructure, such as fire service, need to be involved in that planning, as well as members of the Township Board or the Township Trustee or the Township Assessor.

Mayor Margerum said if you could add that, because that was the intent of this and whether it got dropped between here and the County Commissioners, I don't know.

Councilor Sparby said can I just clarify that that would read then "That the study should include the participation of elected and appointed officials and local planning groups."

Ms. Mason said OK, that I think would clarify that.

Councilor Keen said do we need a motion for that?

Ms. Mason said well, I'm not done yet. I have a couple other comments, sorry. The other thing is, Councilor Mills mentioned, there is a tremendous amount of rezoning going on right now. I think there have been, according to Mr. Cleavenger a couple of weeks ago, said that there were approximately 2,000 new housing units that had been approved in Wabash Township for rezoning in the last two months, since the beginning of January, which is a tremendous number. Unless there is a halt until the plan is in place, we're just going to have a hodge-podge of things and there is not going to be any land left to plan for in the next five or six years to address with the plan because we're just getting this R3 here, R2 here, R1 here, R1B, and it just doesn't seem to have any plan. So I encourage you to recommend that there be some sort of halt to it until we get a plan into effect and I think that would encourage the APC to work on this a bit faster. The other thing is that once the plan is in place, I think that the elected officials should be required to follow the plan. What's the use of having a plan if you are not going to follow it? And it appears that the people who make the final statements on these, namely the County Commissioners, don't necessarily have to follow what the plan is or the Area Plan Commission, because we know what happened in the City of Lafayette. A neighborhood group worked to develop a plan, and they worked for several years, and now someone wants to have a rezoning within that plan, I think it's for an attorney's office and all of a sudden the plan is out the door. So I think that there should be a big effort to follow the plan that we are going to spend all this time and all of these people involved with it, I think that you need to look at making sure that the plan is a good one. If you get enough people involved with it, I think that will be the case. I would recommend that you pass that, but I'd like to see you add a little bit more to it maybe. Thank you.

Mayor Margerum asked if there are any others who would like to speak?

Fritz Cohen of 2102 Old Oak Dr. in Wabash Township. I see Councilman Cohen is grinning from ear to ear because he probably thinks I'm going to have a long winded dissertation here. And I don't know if that's true, I don't know how he could possibly arrive at that. But since he had no reports at all, I'm going to use his time. I just want to say that the Mayor is to be commended for initiating this effort. It is not only timely, to those of us who live out there feel it is absolutely urgent. The reasons for it obviously have not just materialized over night, they have been going on for some time. I am certain that you will find the residents of Wabash Township willing and able to help in any way that they can. If there is anything that I would like urge on you is to do this as rapidly as possible before the proverbial barn is locked and all the horses are gone. Thank you very much.

Mayor Margerum said thank you. I would mention that we did try this about five or six years ago and the Commissioners were not ready at that time to do this. So I do agree that the time is of the essence.

Clerk-Treasurer Rhodes said actually, it was 1992.

Councilor O'Callaghan said I guess I might clarify that it would be the staff of APC that would be doing this. It would not be the West Lafayette staff.

Mayor Margerum said yes. The lead agency would be the Area Plan staff and it would involve citizen participation.

City Attorney Bauman said the Area Plan staff facilitates it, but I think the big driving force behind these studies, at least as they've been done in other areas of the County, such as Lafayette, are the neighborhood groups and the citizen participation.

Councilor O'Callaghan said Sally [Lee] did explain a process this morning that would probably be followed.

Mayor Margerum said I would certainly agree, we would hope that the elected officials would follow the plan, but I'm not sure that we can require it. We can urge that to happen. I think the more participation there is, the more likely that will be to happen.

Councilor O'Callaghan said and the same thing about putting the halt on rezones until the plan is placed. We really can't change this document, as it comes from the Area Plan Commission. We can just vote it up or down the way it came to us.

Mayor Margerum said well actually, this is a joint resolution that they approved of, so I think we should probably should leave the wording. If you would consent to have elected and appointed officials because that was the intent in this.

Councilor Sparby said I was going to make a formal amendment that in the paragraph below where is says "Wabash Township adjacent to the City of West Lafayette," that between the words elected and appointed the comma be removed and the word "and" be included. Following appointed it says officials. So it would read "participation of elected and appointed officials and local planning groups." Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen and the vote was AYE.

Resolution No. 9-00 (Amended) passed first and only reading, 7-0.

Mayor Margerum said she would send a letter along urging that this be done as quickly as possible. Thank you all very much.

Councilor Sparby said Madam Mayor I would just like to acknowledge one thing that since the start of the year there has been one member of the City government that has retired, or City employee that was visible in the community and we have another pending retirement, that being Police Officer Andy McCormick, who has retired, and then Larry Heath's retirement, who is our parking enforcement officer. I know he has been very much appreciated by a lot of the people down in the Hills and Dales area.

Councilor Mills said and New Chauncey.

Councilor Sparby said assisting them with some of their problems they've had down there.

Mayor Margerum said thank you, we'll include a message to them to that affect.

Councilor O'Callaghan said April is Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention and Awareness month. Mayor Margerum and Mayor Heath proclaimed it such last evening. I have some extra blue ribbons if anybody wants to wear them. The blue ribbon is the symbol of awareness of child abuse and neglect prevention.

Ben Partridge (111 1/2 N. Chauncey Avenue) identified himself as a junior at Purdue University, spoke on behalf of the Purdue Students Against Sweatshops. He also had a petition to encourage President Beering to join the Worker Rights Consortium, which has been signed by over 900 students and community members. The petition has been unanimously supported by Purdue Student Government, Purdue College Democrats, the Steel Workers of America, Plasters and Cement Masons, the West Lafayette Northwestern Central Labor Council, other labor groups, other community groups including St. Toms and Wesley Foundation and Hillel Foundation, other student groups such as the Panhellenic Council and many others.

Frank Rosenthal, [2856 Ashland] who identified himself as a faculty member of Purdue's School of Health Sciences, spoke in support of the Students Against Sweatshops.

Councilor Mills said the New Chauncey neighborhood will have their first workshop on Saturday at Happy Hollow School at 9:00 for looking at the zoning of our neighborhood as part of the New Unified Zoning Ordinance process to look at zoning in all the neighborhoods in the County. That is this Saturday at 9:00, Happy Hollow School.

There being no further business at this time, Councilor Sparby moved for adjournment. Motion was seconded by Councilor Keen and passed viva-voce. The time being 9:10 P.M.

Office of the Clerk-TreasurerJudy Rhodes