President Weiss called the Regular March 1, 2010 meeting of the Constantine Village Council to order at 7:30PM at Village Hall.

ROLL CALL

Present at Roll Call: Trustees Brewer, Brown, Harder, LaFluer, Mathers, Moore and Weiss.

Also present: Manager Honeysett, Treasurer Strawser, Administrative Assistant Lammott and Clerk Strawser. The pledge of allegiance followed Roll Call.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Motion by Mathers, Seconded by Moore, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion passed by Roll Call 7 – 0. Voting YES: Brewer, Brown, Harder, LaFluer, Mathers, Moore and Weiss. Amended: remove VIII. New Business C. SAAC. (Trustee Brown asked that the Sturgis Area Ambulance Committee agenda item be removed until he could present a written report.)

MINUTES

Motion by Brown, Seconded by LaFluer, to approve the Regular February 15, 2010 meeting minutes as corrected. Motion passed by Roll Call 7 – 0. Voting YES: Brewer, Brown, Harder, LaFluer, Mathers, Moore and Weiss.

Corrections: Page 1, Paragraph 3, Line 2 – strike and insert: Also present: Manager Honeysett, Treasurer Strawser and Police Chief Bedell Administrative Assistant Lammott. Page 2, Paragraph 5, Line 4 – strike and insert: Two bids have been received and the fire board approved ordering twofour new SCBAs which were ordered from Argus-Haxco at a cost of $17,964 and should arrive in about three weeks.

NEWSLETTER PRINTING OF MINUTES

Motion by Brewer, Seconded by Moore, to approve the abridged version of the Regular February 15, 2010 meeting minutes as corrected. Motion passed by Roll Call 7 – 0. Voting YES: Brewer, Brown, Harder, LaFluer, Mathers, Moore and Weiss.

PAYMENT OF BILLS – THREE RIVERS SEWER BILL

Manager Honeysett said the error in the last TR Clean Water Plant invoice has been corrected.

Motion by Brown, Seconded by Mathers, to pay the City of Three Rivers Invoice totaling $44,648.11 (for December 2009 sewer usage). Motion passed by Roll Call 7 – 0. Voting YES: Brewer, Brown, Harder, LaFluer, Mathers, Moore and Weiss.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

No one rose to speak.

ORDINANCE CODIFICATION

Elen Fox of Municipal Code presented her company’s proposal and answered questions. She explained how the legal and technical aspects of codification make in-house production unviable. When asked for a recommendation, Clerk Strawser urged the council to review the data and visit the companies’ websites, saying the information/ figures spoke for themselves.

Motion by Brown, Seconded by LaFluer, to authorize acceptance of Municipal Code’s codification update proposal not to exceed $1,200.00, plus annual supplementation fees and web posting. Motion passed by Roll Call 5 – 2. Voting YES: Brewer, Brown, Harder, LaFluer and Moore. Voting NO: Mathers and Weiss.

MICHIGAN NATURAL RESOURCES TRUST FUND (MNRTF) GRANT APPLICATION

Manager Honeysett, President Weiss and Trustee Mathers spoke in favor of the continuing the attempt to receive a matching grant for the installation of an asphalt path, LifeTrail exercise stations, Born to Learn system, and conversion of the skateboard park to a basketball court, saying the expenditures will be offset by attracting visitor dollars and corporations to the area with the quality of life improvements. Treasurer Strawser and Trustee Brown spoke against the project citing the current fiscal concerns and lack of concrete 2010 budget figures, correcting claims that in-kind costs (30% of the project) were not actual costs.

Motion by Mathers, Seconded by Harder, to authorize the Village Manager to proceed with the MNRTF Grant application submission. Motion passed by Roll Call 4 – 3. Voting YES: Harder, Mathers, Moore and Weiss. Voting NO: Brewer, Brown and LaFluer.

SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL – UPDATE

Manager Honeysett said a second community meeting is scheduled for March 24 at 5:00PM (refreshments), 5:30PM (presentation) at the Constantine High School as Constantine Public Schools proceed to seek the Safe Routes School Grant.

REXAM

Manager Honeysett said that while the Village will be hurt by the Rexam closing, he is optimistic that the positive aspects of the area and all the economic development agencies working to market the facility will help to attract a replacement business.

Adjourned meeting at 8:30PM.

Ruth Strawser

Village Clerk