Minutes Of The March 15, 2010 Town Council Meeting
The regular meeting of the Town Council of Clear Lake, Indiana was held at the
town hall on Monday, March 15th at 7:00 pm. Present were Council Members Bob
Lewis, George Schenkel and Barry Worl. Also present were Town Superintendent Bob
Hull, Zoning Administrator Bruce Snyder and Town Attorney Neal Blythe. There
were three citizens who signed the quest register.
President Bob Lewis called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Bob Lewis asked for a motion to approve the minutes as presented. The motion was
made by George Schenkel to accept the minutes from the February 8th meeting as
presented, seconded by Barry Worl, all in favor and the motion passed.
Financial reports were presented by the Clerk-Treasurer for the month of
February stating the beginning and ending balances for cash and investments,
receipts and disbursements for the General Fund, Garbage Fund and Sewer Fund.
This report is attached to the minutes.
Vouchers for the month of January were as follows for the following funds:
General Fund
$44,601.04
Garbage Fund
5,308.75
Sewer Fund
419,664.57
Total Amount of Vouchers $469,574.36
Warrants to be approved totaled $8,809.80
Bob Lewis asked for a motion to approve the Financial Report, vouchers and
warrants to be paid, George Schenkel made the motion to approve the reports as
presented, seconded by Barry Worl, all in favor and the motion passed.
Bob Lewis asked if the County had reimbursed the Town for the cost of the upkeep
of the Public Beach for 2009. A check has been received from the county on March
2nd for the $1,250 that was paid to Richard Metz in 2009 for picking up trash
and mowing the grass. The parks manager had called Bob Hull to ask why the
County had to reimburse the town for the expense and is it in writing? It is
unclear who made the arrangement with the County to be reimbursed for the upkeep
of the Public Beach, but it still belongs to the County. There will be further
discussion with the county about the upkeep and trash service at the Public
Beach.
REPORTS:
MARSHAL’S AND FIRE DEPARTMENT: Barry Worl reported that there was no report from
the Marshal for the month of February. It was a very quiet month. The fire
department report listed 35 calls for the month of February, one of which was to
the Town of Clear Lake for an electrical fire in a house and one to Clear Lake
Township.
There was discussion about finding another location for a dry-hydrant on the
west side of the lake. Bob Lewis asked Barry Worl to work with the Fremont Fire
Department on locating a suitable location for the hydrant.
The new police vehicle is in the barn and the marshal and deputies are working
to get the lights installed, then they will take it to have the wiring done.
Sometime in April the old vehicle will be taken to Indianapolis for auction. The
marshal still needs to have the title transferred and new plate from the license
bureau.
ZONING ADMINISTRATOR:
For the month of February there were no Improvement Location Permits issued. One
interior remodeling project was reviewed and determined that no Permit was
required.
Board of Zoning Appeals met on February 15, 2010. The Owners of Sailors Cove had
requested 9 variances of which 6 were granted and 3 were denied. The variances
will run with the land and the requirement to obtain an ILP within one year of
the granting was suspended. The BZA also overruled the decision of the Zoning
Administrator denying an ILP for property at 1126 Lake Dr. The BZA determined it
is a thru lot according to the new UDO, but the BZA did impose 2 conditions for
the issuance of an ILP.
TOWN SUPERINTENDANT – SEWER: For the month of February there were no locates
requested, no alarm calls, 10 pumps were replaced or repaired. Average flow was
31,066 gallon per day. M & C Trenching is in the process of hooking up the Larry
Tague property.
The Contingency Plan for Emergency Preparedness for the sewer has been drafted.
STREET DEPARTMENT - Bob is waiting for Angola to begin making asphalt so that he
can begin filling pot holes. M & C Trenching will begin cleaning catch basins as
the weather permits.
During the winter season, 12 tons of salt and 28 tons of sand were used on the
streets.
STREET SIGNS - The Federal Highway Administrator is requiring every city, town
and county in the country to upgrade their signage and keep that signage
up-to-date by 2015. It would be a good time to begin renaming some of the
streets around the lake to help eliminate some of the confusion for emergency
calls to the lake and public information. Steuben County would like street names
inside the town boundaries rather than county road numbers. We could begin with
CO. 850 between Outer Drive and Lake Drive. There are no houses on that street
all we need is a name.
GARBAGE: There were two small claims in court on March 9th, 2010, but neither
party made an appearance. There will be follow-up in two weeks.
Auto-draw is being offered this year for the Garbage fee. A new form needs to be
filled out by the first of May to set-up the account with the bank and have
approval finalized by July 16th.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
Litigation update, April 12th is the deadline for moving forward with the
“action to compel” property owners who have not connected to the town’s sewer
system. This will be discussed at the next Council Meeting.
On the Inverse Condemnation lawsuit, there was a hearing on March 5th. Mr.
Hoagland has presented the surveys requested by Judge Wheat and the Judge has
now solicited appraisers from the area to appraise the area that the inverse
condemnation is alleged to have been affected. The trial is scheduled for this
year.
The second case is the Zoning Administrators Fence Case. Mr. Hoagland has filed
two motions: one to have the court dismiss the case and the second to have the
Town’s attorneys removed from the case because of a conflict of interest because
of the Lehman lawsuit. The two motions will be heard in about two weeks. A
meeting will be scheduled with Andrew Kruse, Mr. Hoagland's attorney to resolve
this case if there is an offer from Mr. Hoagland.
NEW BUSINESS:
ORDINANCE 2010-03: 1st READING AN ORDIANCE AMENDING A PORTION OF THE CLEAR LAKE
ZONING MAP
Bob Lewis stated that the council can accept the recommendation from the Plan
Commission as written, reject the amendment or send it back to the Plan
Commission with changed. This ordinance is to rezone property belonging to
Larrol B and Joann L. Cutshall and property belonging to Janet D. Zachrich,
Trustee of Revocable Trust from Conservancy to Lake Accessory.
Bob Lewis read the Ordinance in its entirety and asked for a motion to accept
the motion. George Schenkel made a motion to accept Ordinance 2010-03, seconded
by Barry Worl and the motion was accepted as read.
The town is in the process of deeding over to the Clear Lake Land Conservancy
the Clear Lake Park between 512 and 518 Lake Drive along the inlet from Lake
Anne and the Hanna Preserve, along the east side of the lake. The Clear Lake
Park survey has not been completed yet and the Hanna Preserve property needs
further investigation. Over the years the access to the Hanna Property has been
deeded over to property owners from the town and from property owner to property
owner. The state of Indiana says that you can not have a property that is land
locked without access. The attorney for the Conservancy is working with Goodale
Abstract Co. to find the root property and determine access to the property.
There is a possibility of current property owners giving access to the Hanna
property. The town is paying for one-half of the survey fees with the
Conservancy.
A review is being made of all the Town’s ordinances to see which ones are
pertinent today and which ones need to be revised or deleted. The Council would
also like to see if the town can have one ordinance that contains all of the
fees for the town, not including the fees in the UDO or Sewer. Many of the
ordinances are obsolete and need to be removed. After review the ordinances will
be sent to American Legal for codification.
The subject of staggered Council seats was also discussed. If the Town is going
to have staggered seats an ordinance needs to be adopted in the year prior to a
Municipal election.
There was also discussion on having only registered voters in each Ward vote for
their Ward representative instead of every registered voter in the Town vote for
each Ward representative or doing away with all Wards and having only At-Large
council members. It was suggested that the community be consulted on this issue.
Bob Lewis asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:40 pm, Barry Worl made
the motion to adjourn it was seconded by George Schenkel and the motion passed.
Robert E. Lewis, Council President
Kay A. Kummer, Clerk-Treasurer
Comments from those in attendance:
Jerry McArdle brought up the issue of the Census and the town could get
additional revenue if property owners would fill out and return their census.
Leo Helmuth brought up the assessed values of properties on the lake and asked
if the Council could get involved with getting the values reduced. There was
much discussion and it was determined that it is the responsibility of the
property owner to appeal the assessed value to the County Assessor.