COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS

CITY OF ATTICA

April 12, 2010

 

The Common Council for the City of Attica met on the 12^th day of April at the hour of 7:00 p.m. at City Hall.  Those present:  Mr. Bill Craft, Mr. Larry Askren, Mr. Larry Grant, Mr. Dale Wilson, Mrs. Valerie Maus, Mr. Tom O’Connor, Mr. Robert Shepherd and Ms. Sharon Negele. 

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING

Mrs. Maus made a motion to approve the minutes of the March 8th Council meeting and

seconded by Mr. Askren.

 

SPECIAL PRESENTATION

Senator Phil Boots presented a Concurrent Resolution passed by the Senate and House memorializing  Mayor Swift.  His wife Monica Swift was present to accept the Resolution along with brother and sister in law Scott and Shelli Swift.   All present agreed Mayor Swift will be missed by the Community for his service, dedication and determination to make the City a better place to live and raise a family. 

 

CITIZENS PETITIONS

Mr. Lance Borst submitted an application for rezoning the property at 1114 S Brady from a classification of R-1 to a zoning classification of B-1.  Mr. Grant made a motion to refer this application to the Area Planning Commission and Mrs. Maus seconded, all ayes.  The meeting has been set for April 29, 2010 at 6:00PM.  Mr. O’Connor stated that he would arrange for the public notice to be published.

 

DEPARTMENT HEADS

Mr. Jean reported that the leak on Perry Street was the result of a leaky copper pipe and was fixed by the contractor for the Perry St. Phase II project.  Permanent pavement will be installed when Milestone is in Attica to perform annual street repair. 

Mr. Snoeberger introduced Tommy Galloway as our new Police Officer.  He also stated that he has directed his officers to continue to pursue ordinance violations on behalf of the Council and Mayor requests along with the disputed parking issues along Brady. 

Mr. Dismore reported that he has issued six new building/demolition permits and the property at 200 W Pike St. has removed the exhaust pipe from the side of the house and have attempted to clean the black soot on the side of the house.  He has also been inquiring on how to obtain the GIS program that 911 uses  that provides structure and street detail along with measuring capabilities.  He spoke with Joe Whitaker and he suggested for him to talk to the 911 director. 

 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Mr. Scott Gregory informed the Council that he has secured two private locations to place the George Hay Signs.  He also asked the Council if he could place one at the existing west entrance sign.  Council agreed that this was an acceptable request. 

Mr. Shepherd shared the monitoring results for the Downtown Façade Renovation project prepared by the Office of Community and Rural Affairs.  The letter states that the grant is complete and that they are pleased to report that after reviewing the records, no findings of program deficiency were noted.  Mr. Shepherd added that Sharon Negele was instrumental in securing this status for the City of Attica and well appreciated. 

 

 

 

NEW BUSINESS

Mr. Shepherd asked that the Council be conscious of using proper procedure when there needs to be a Police Merit Commission appointment.  His example was when Tim Quinn resigned.  The agency appointing the new board member (in this case the police department) should immediately contact the Merit Board of its newly selected appointee and the Mayor/CTO office so that it is recognized appropriately and in a timely manner.  Ms. Negele reviewed the report received by the Fountain County Auditor reporting circuit breaker credits for calendar year 2010.  The City of Attica can expect a reduction in property tax distributions of $47,489.37 (Fountain County is $363,575.79).   She then explained the process on what creates a circuit breaker credit.  Basically where there are circuit breaker credits, local government budgets are interdependent.  The school corporation, city, special taxing units and county set their rates and the sum of those tax rates is what a taxpayer pays.  If the sum is high enough over the cap (1% homeowners, 2% farmland and rental property, 3% all other) then the taxpayers are eligible for circuit breaker credit and each taxing unit receives an allocation of the loss based on their share of the tax rate.  Ms. Negele then explained that the only tool provided by the legislators to reduce the circuit breaker impact is by the County Council adopting an increase in the Local Option Income Tax (LOIT).  The objective of this tax reduces property tax so that the LOIT credit would potentially reduce the taxed value at or below the defined % limit and not create a circuit breaker.  Last year when she presented this information to the County Council there was tremendous reservation to make this change due to the economic climate and high unemployment and no change in the rate was made.  Several Council members asked what they could do?  Ms. Negele and Mr. Shepherd responded with talk to your County Council members.   

 

MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS

Mr. Shepherd reported that he had contacted Rusty Peevler with the County Highway Dept. regarding the condition of Canada Bridge road condition and he said that he would look into it.   He also would be contacting Ralph Claypool with the Railroad regarding the railroad crossing condition.

 

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to come before the Council, Mrs. Maus made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Mr. Askren all ayes.

 

                                                                        ________________________________

                                                                        Robert G. Shepherd, Mayor

ATTEST:

 

___________________________

Sharon Negele, Clerk/Treasurer