The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/651141
A-2 Front Wednesday, March 9, 2016 The Press-Dispatch COUNCIL Continued from page 1 HEADQUARTERS PROM Siebert's Where Helping You Dress Well Has Been a Specialty, Since 1922 Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri. 9-5:30; Wed. 9-8; Sat. 9-4 www.SiebertsClothing.com for Young Women for Young Men Complete Tux Ensemble From $89.99... Guaranteed fit, of course... and $40 off suggested retail tuxedo prices through April! Prom Dresses from Blush, Rachel Allan, Milano Formals and La Femme. Free Alterations... and we welcome special orders On The Square, Jasper • 812-482-5514 Flea Market in the Community Center at Stendal, IN. Saturday, March 19, 8 am to 3 pm. Food served by the St. Peter's Lutheran Church Group, beginning with breakfast at 7:30 am EDT. Sweet rolls, sausage, biscuits, gravy and drinks. Serving throughout the day: Soups, Sandwiches, Desserts and Drinks. 50 tables rented. • • • • • • FREE ADMISSION • • • • • • By Ed Cahill Petersburg's Board of Public Works and Safety vot- ed on Monday, March 7, to spend more than $46,000 to replace two pieces of equip- ment that are currently inop- erable at the city's wastewa- ter treatment plant. On a motion by Mayor R.C. Klipsch, which was seconded by Fran Lewis, the board voted 3-0 to pur- chase a new grinder from Straeffer Pump & Supply, Inc., of Chandler, Ind., for $ 31,476.08. Prior to the vote, Klipsch told the board that the grind- er "hasn't worked for some time." "The bottom line on it is it couldn't be fixed," Klipsch said. "We have a price to re- place this ... and this is what it looks like we're going to have to do. If we can't fix this one, we have to replace it." Klipsch noted that the grinder is located at the wastewater treatment plant's headworks, where it can catch – and grind up – debris before it gets into the treatment plant. "The whole purpose of this grinder is to protect your pumps," Klipsch said. A much lengthier discus- sion was subsequently held regarding the need to re- place the wastewater treat- ment plant's recirculation sludge pump, which Klipsch said "hasn't been working for a while, either." "I don't think it's been as long, but I think it's been out six or eight months," city services manager Bri- an Davis said. According to Klipsch, Straeffer Pump and Supply, Inc., submitted two different estimates: one to repair the existing Goulds pump and one to replace it with anoth- er Goulds pump. "Their cost estimate to re- pair it was $15,850," Klipsch said. "If we bought the same exact type pump we had ... a brand new one was $29,460." In addition, Straeffer Pump and Supply, Inc., presented the city with a third option – to replace the Goulds pump with a new Aurora pump at a cost of $14,789. "We're kind of all over the place on numbers, but it seems like that new one of $14,789 was certainly the best offer we had," Klipsch said. Davis said that the Straef- fer Pump and Supply, Inc., representative told him that there would be no difficul- ties getting parts for the Au- rora pump. "That's one thing with Goulds – he's having a hard time getting the parts," Da- vis said. "He assured me it's American-made and he'd be able to get the parts for it. And he said it will hold up. He said he's sold many of them. It'd be my recommen- dation we go with the Auro- ra pump." Time, Davis added, was of the essence. "It's the recirculation pump on the digester and it's what pumps it through the heat exchanger," Davis said. "It's supposed to be at 93 degrees. Right now, we're about 60. We're losing tem- perature. We've got to get that temperature back up or we're going to lose our digester." On a motion by Lewis, seconded by John Melhiser, the board voted 3-0 to accept Davis' recommendation. Klipsch raised two oth- er wastewater-related is- sues during Monday night's meeting, starting with a dis- cussion about whether or not the city should increase the fee it charges septic tank services that dump waste into the city's wastewater treatment system. Currently, Klipsch noted, the city charges a flat rate of $40 per load. "They've got to get rid of it, so it comes to us, and we charge them $40," Klipsch said. "Well, looking at that, we realized that's proba- bly too cheap. Some places won't take it at all, and when they do, they're certainly charging more than $40." Klipsch added that, as an example, Vincennes charg- es $140. "My suggestion is, and, in fact, I'll make it in the form of a recommendation, that we raise that to at least $100," Klipsch said. Melhiser asked Klipsch to have something ready for the board to look at when it meets on Monday, March 21. The second wastewa- ter-related issue raised by Klipsch concerned increas- ing the fee the city charges to clean out clogged sewer lines on private property. "Somebody will have a sewer problem, we take the sewer jet out and we will clean that line out for them," Klipsch said. "We have them sign a waiver understanding that that's their property; we take care of the main." Currently, the city charg- es $25 to provide the ser- vice. "We're not even covering our costs," Klipsch said. Davis added that he also wanted to rewrite the poli- cy and require that the city's T V camera be used to identi- fy the source of the blocked sewer line. "I don't think it's right for us to go, clean it out for $25, and, six months later, go back and clean out their problem when roots keep growing in, or whatever it could be," Davis said. Klipsch agreed. "The problem's on you," Klipsch said. "It's on your property. We'll come out there and we'll help you identify what it is, and if you don't do anything to fix it, we've got to come back and do it again. That's why he wants to take a picture of it and identify what the prob- lem is, and let them hire a private contractor to fix it." "I think we ought to just not do it at all," Melhiser said. "But if we're going to do it, we can't send two peo- ple out there and spend an hour for $25. We have to cov- er our costs." "It's costing us money, and if that's the case, it costs everybody money," Klipsch said. "So we're reviewing this one. So you might think about that one." "That is really going over and beyond the duties of the city," Melhiser said. "Way beyond," Klipsch added. In an unrelated matter, Po- lice Chief Chuck Baumgart noted that a local couple had recently donated $1,000 to the Petersburg Police De- partment. "That was very nice of them, and I would like to thank them, anonymously," Baumgart said. Petersburg board discusses sewer issues Council President Greg Willis said, "I personal- ly get phone calls from the judge and prosecutor about where we are with a partic- ular prisoner and health sit- uation. We don't necessari- ly bring that up at a public meeting, but they do a good job of working on that." Councilman eventual- ly voted 7-0 to approve an additional appropriation of $28,000 from Refuge Reve- nue Sharing to play the first year of lease payments on the two new vehicles. They will work out how to pay the second year's lease payment later. "I see what happened and I guess the bigger question is how do we keep this from happening again? " asked Councilman Joe Sutton. "I want to make sure it doesn't happen again also," said Britton. Councilman Max Elliott asked if all the officehold- ers get a copy of the budget. Elliott was told they do, but these funds weren't in the sheriff's budget. Because of the public safe- ty local income tax passed by the council late last year, the traditional sheriff's bud- get was split up, with several parts of the sheriff and EMS budget being funded by the Public Safety taxes. Harris asked Auditor Ron Wilson if his office just looked at the wrong line. "I don't want to get into that, because there are on- ly two people in my office who can answer that ques- tion and no one remembers being asked that question," said Wilson. "I'm not disputing that. But we didn't just pull this amount out of thin air," said Britton. He said his office was checking on what was avail- able to see how many vehi- cles they could buy this year. It was suggested in the future, instead of doing this type of check by phone, it be done by email, so there would be a "paper trail." COUNCIL APPROVES $75,000 FOR THREE TRUCKS Councilmen voted 5 -2 to approve a $75,000 additional appropriation from the Solid Waste District funds to pur- chase three pickup trucks. Solid Waste agreed to give one to the Town of Winslow, one to the City of Petersburg and one to the Pike County Highway Department. "I have dealt with this for more than 20 years. This sounds good, spread- ing trucks around the coun- ty, but this isn't really what the money is supposed to be used for," said Sutton. He said revenue is from tipping fees at the Advanced Disposal landfill near Au- gusta. Sutton said the money was supposed to be used for ed- ucation and implementation of the county's long range plan. Sutton said part of the plan is to use it to handle re- cyclables. He said it would be nice to manage the coun- ty's recyclables instead of just collecting them and pay- ing someone to take them, when they might be able to get a recycling plant in the county or contract with a surrounding county's recy- clable facilities. "I hate to see our excess money in this fund go to de- pletable assets when we can use it for something long term." Harris asked Councilman Mangin, who serves on the Solid Waste District Board, about the request. Mangin said the board voted 5 -1 to purchase the trucks with their excess funding and he was the one who voted against it. "But it was the wish of the district and I signed off on it," said Mangin. Mangin said the goal of the Solid Waste District is to recycle. "We are one of the few counties in the area that doesn't have recycle." He said right now the county just collects and sep- arates the recyclables and pays someone to take them. Eventually, Councilman Troutman moved to approve the request. It was second- ed by Elliott and passed by a 5 -2 vote, with Councilmen Harris and Sutton voting against it. In other business, the county voted to approve an additional appropriation from EDIT funds to have 63 cornerstones located in Pike County. It is an ongo- ing process. Surveyor Rich Williams said the county has about 3,000 cornerstones and they are supposed to re- locate five percent of them each year. Councilmen also ap- proved a $ 30,000 appropria- tion from the County High- way fund to purchase cul- verts. "We requested this from the Highway funds instead of the Cumulative Bridge Fund," said Highway De- partment superintendent Roger Ham. The Cumulative Bridge Fund has been depleted. Jefferson Township re- quested $50,000 to help purchase a new fire truck. Paul Bastin, with Township Fire Board, told the coun- cil the funds were coming from the fire district's bud- get and not from the county. He said they had a balance of $440,000 in their budget. Council president Greg Willis asked about what the fire district's balance was on January 1, 2015, and January 1, 2016. He was told they had about $ 30,000 more this year than last year. Chris Young explained the new truck was replacing a 20 -year-old truck, which had been sold to Spurgeon. He said Spurgeon was re- placing a truck that was a 1970's model. It was approved by a 7-0 vote. The next council meet- ing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 12 in the courthouse auditorium. By Andy Heuring A former Petersburg man was arrested on alcohol re- lated charges after police were notified by a motor- ist of a pickup truck hitting a utility pole on Main St., Petersburg, early Saturday morning. Marvin Keith Manning, 52, of 3066 Paradise Circle, Newburgh, was arrested on charges of leaving the scene of an accident and operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Petersburg Police Cpl. Kyle Mills said he was stopped by a motorist at about 4:30 a.m. and told they had just seen a white Ford F-150 pickup hit a pole on Main St. Cpl. Mills said he saw Manning getting out of the driver's side of the truck, walk around to the passen- ger side of the truck and open its door. According to Cpl. Mills, Manning then looked at him, closed the truck door, started running north to- wards Seventh St. then west on Seventh St., before Man- ning caught up to him. Pike County Deputy Sher- iff Buck Seger said he ar- rived and saw Cpl. Mills with Manning. Deputy Seger said Manning told him he had gone to Friends to cele- brate Pike Central winning the sectional. According to Deputy Seger's report, Manning said he had pulled over to urinate. He denied hav- ing an accident. However, Seger said Manning's truck, a nearby utility pole and stop sign were damaged, and there were fresh tire marks on the curb. Manning was transport- ed to the Pike County Jail, where he failed field sobri- ety tests and tested 0.15 per- cent for blood alcohol con- tent. The legal limit in Indi- ana is 0.08 percent. Manning arrested for OVWI after striking utility pole We're not afraid to shed some light on the truth. Subscribe Today! 812-354-8500 Pike Central performing "South Pacific" Kaylee Gray, who plays Nurse Nellie Forbush, sings "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" during a practice of Pike Central's performance of "South Pacific." There will be two shows of "South Pacific" this weekend: 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $8 each and can be pur- chased by calling 812-354-8478 or 812-354-8911. Other well-known songs from "South Pacific" in- clude: "There is Nothing Like a Dame," "I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy" and "Younger Than Spring- time." The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is set on the South Pacific Island during World War II. See additional photos on page A-10.ww