VILLAGE OF CONSTANTINE

Regular Meeting, April 6, 2009

Council Room, 7:30 pm

NOTE: Tape problems caused some parts of the meeting to be unrecorded.

President Weiss called the Regular April 6, 2009 Meeting of the Constantine Village Council to order at 7:30PM at the Village Hall.

ROLL CALL
Present at Roll Call: Trustees Brewer, Brown, Harder, LaFluer, Mathers, Moore and President Weiss. Also present: Manager Honeysett, Fire Chief Haydon, Rental Inspector Lammott and Clerk Strawser. The pledge of allegiance followed Roll Call.

Manager Honeysett announced the death of former Village DPW employee Gene Reiff.

President Weiss announced the Village has been matched with Coloma for this year’s Mayor’s Exchange. She also invited everyone to attend the “Take Back the Night” gathering in Sturgis.

Trustee Brown read a homily attributed to Ronald Reagan.

AGENDA Motion by Brown, Seconded by Harder, to adopt the agenda as amended. Motion passed by affirmation 7 – 0. Amendments: Year-end bills (immediately following minutes) and the Fire Department Grant Writer Request under New Business.

Treasurer Strawser entered 7:38PM (from conference room, reviewing the year-end bills).

MINUTES
Motion by Brewer, Seconded by Mathers, to approve the Regular April 16, 2009 Meeting minutes as corrected. Motion passed by Roll Call 7 – 0. Corrections: Page 2, Paragraph 10, Line 3 - President Weiss said she could appoint and remove. –insert - President Weiss said she could appoint and remove with Council approval.

2008 YEAR-END BILLS
In response to Trustee LaFluer’s question, Manager Honeysett said that the $604.30 from Community Promotions was for the Downtown Brainstormers’ Plant It Party promotional merchandise to be reimbursed by the merchants and individual sales. He also said the Village would be reimbursed half of the $9,923.93 radio grant costs (for the Fire Department). In response to questions from Clerk Strawser, Manager Honeysett said Heffner’s removed trees from Cemetery and Florence Streets and removed stumps from White Pigeon and 6 th Streets.

Motion by Brewer, Seconded by Moore , to pay the bills and make the necessary transfers of $61,190,39. Motion passed by Roll Call 7 – 0.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Tim Taylor, 485 White Pigeon Road , spoke from personal experience about emergency, banking, and other concerns arising from having both a White Pigeon Street and a White Pigeon Road . He outlined the impact of changing either street name and suggested changing one of the streets in memory of Doctor Vercler, offering to pay for new street signs (signage only)

VILLAGE HALL TREE
In addition to previous reasons stated for the tree’s removal, the Council debated survivability should the tree be moved. Trustees Brown, LaFluer and Mathers raised concerns that Village policy would have prevented removal if the tree was in a resident’s right-of-way and that the majority of people contacting them favored keeping the tree. Trustee Mathers said that a former trustee had volunteered to re-route the sidewalk for $150; Manager Honeysett saying the DPW could do that if the Council so decided. Trustee Brown asked that the tree not be removed until November so that nesting birds would be gone and the boughs could be used by the Garden Club for their annual wreaths. Trustee Harder said the weather and leaf pick-up might interfere with a later removal. Trustee Brewer proposed naming the replacement flower garden in memory of Dr. Vercler. President Weiss said that the decision to remove the tree was of such importance that she called upon each trustee for their opinion prior to the vote. Included in the packet: communication from H. Scott Chiddister, Doug & Terri Kuhlman, and Rich Armisted (Three Rivers).

Motion by Harder, Seconded by Brewer, to remove the spruce tree in front of Village Hall as soon as possible. Motion passed by Roll Call 4 – 3. Voting YES: Brewer, Harder, Moore and Weiss. Voting NO: Brown, LaFluer and Mathers.

DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY BOARD
Trustee Brown expressed his displeasure that action was being proposed without following the agreed upon procedure. Manager Honeysett defended the proposed action, citing Ms. Sicard’s lack of response and saying the application form had only recently appeared in the Village newsletter. Trustees said they did not have a copy of the sent letter as stated in the memo. In response to Clerk Strawser’s questions, Manager Honeysett said the DDA met the 50% downtown property owner rules as stated in the Downtown Development Authority Act.

Motion by Weiss, Seconded by Harder, to remove Tommy Sicard from the Downtown Development Authority. Motion passed by affirmation 6 – 1. Voting YES: Brewer, Harder, LaFluer, Mathers, Moore and Weiss. Voting NO: Brown.

Motion by Harder, Seconded by Brewer, to appoint Leonard Moyer to the Downtown Development Authority. (A 4-year appointment.) Motion passed by affirmation 6 – 1. Voting YES: Brewer, Harder, LaFluer, Mathers, Moore and Weiss. Voting NO: Brown.

NEW POLICE CRUISER
Manager Honeysett praised the new police cruiser as very sharp looking, saying it would be placed in service with the high definition video recorder on April 7 th.

DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY DIRECTOR
Manager Honeysett said that the Village Manager has traditionally served as DDA Director, but that the job was too large for him, taking approximately 20 hours-a-week and therefore, he was proposing Diana Lammott be appointed to the position. He said her appointment would not cost the Village anything since some of her duties could be reassigned to other office staff, and that the DDA would pay a portion of the Director’s salary using TIFA funds. Treasurer Strawser asked if they had found the missing DDA and TIFA rules, saying they might prove useful in good decision making. Clerk Strawser expressed surprise when the Manager said they had, since she had not been so informed. Manager Honeysett said they now supposed the DDA never had bylaws, relying instead on the 2002 DDA Ordinance, and promised her a copy of all paperwork. President Weiss said that DDA President Larry Piper and board member Hoover had volunteered to serve on a committee to determine the DDA director’s duties and salary.

Motion by Weiss, Seconded by Harder, to appoint a committee to work with the DDA to work out duties and salary of a DDA Director.

Motion amended by Weiss, Seconded by Harder, to appoint the Personnel Committee to work out duties and salary of a potential DDA Director. Motion passed by affirmation 7 – 0.

DOWTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY MEETING SCHEDULE
January through April: the first Thursday of each month at 7-00AM at Village Hall. May through December: the third Thursday of each month at 7-00AM at Village Hall.

SPEED TRAILER
Rental Clerk Lammott gave a computer slide show presentation of the Speed trailer and new police cruiser, Manager Honeysett saying the speed device had sat in the police garage for nearly a year until the DPW built a trailer for about $40.00 so it could be easily moved around town. He urged citizens to suggest where to place the speed monitor.

Trustee Brown exited at 8:30PM .

PLANT IT PARTY
Manager Honeysett referred the Council to a flyer for the Downtown Brainstormers (merchants association) “Plant It Party 2009” event on April 24 th.

FIRE DEPARTMENT GRANT WRITER REQUEST
Fire Chief Haydon explained how his continued attempts to write successful grant requests led him to Ericka Kruszka, who has received all four AFG grants she sought. He hopes to receive grant funding for new turnout gear – 22 sets at as anticipated cost of $60-75,000, the 5% matching portion already figured into his 2009 budget. However, since the cost of grant writer Kruszka (approx. $40 per hour X 75 hours) was not in the budget, he was seeking approval of each entity of the Fire Board. In response to Trustee Brewer’s questions, Chief Haydon explained OSHA compliance versus Firefighter compliance.

Motion by Brewer, Seconded by Moore, to authorize Chief Haydon to hire Ericka Kruszka of Sturgis MI at a cost of $3,000, Village share to be $1,000.00 to help Chief Haydon write an Assistance to Firefighters Grant. Motion passed by Roll Call 6 – 0. (Trustee Brown absent.)

Meeting adjourned at 8:38PM