02-26-18 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING February 26, 2018 Joseph County. There is also an online forum on the St. Joseph County website on their front page and you can fill out that report online. It is important we get all those numbers as we would like to understand the full magnitude of the issues so that as we apply for disaster relief, we can include that in the application. Again, that number is 574-235-9378. Mr. Horvath went on, As you know, the Governor declared this a disaster area and that allows us to be in line for potential Federal funds. In 2016 when we had major issues,we had SBA loans and grants and we anticipate something similar to that happening. That will all be handled through the EMA Office. Engineering will continue assessing the condition of the roads as the water recedes. We have no cost estimates yet on the repairs to the damage. We will be getting those over the next couple of weeks. The Streets Department continues to clean the roads and the Sewers Department are cleaning the catch basins and inlets to prepare for any other storm events to be sure we are ready if that happens. In addition to that, I would like to mention that Solid Waste has started an amnesty period. For any flood damage you may have you can call 311 for special pick-up and we will pick up as much trash as they have free of charge. Finally and along with all of this, although it may not seem like it,the Streets Department has been incredibly busy trying to fill potholes. I've never experienced them as bad as this year but we've had six (6) crews out almost around the clock. They will continue to patch until we get caught up which will probably be around the end of the week. Councilmember Karen White stated, Thank you for all of the work the Administration and the crews have done. I'm glad you addressed potholes. Thank you for the work that you do. Mr. Horvath replied, Thank you. I will say, it was refreshing to see that in tough times people do come together. It was great to see Congress people, Senators and the Government all coming together. The interactions between all the City Departments, the County and the State were all great. It is a great testament to everyone coming together. Councilmember Gavin Ferlic stated, Thank you to you and your team. Councilmember John Voorde stated, Thank you. Councilmember Oliver Davis stated,Thank you and great job on what you all are doing. What can be done for the City, if anything,to help residents with flood insurance? Mr. Horvath replied, I am not well-versed on private insurance for flood areas. That is something we can look into and maybe have our Legal Department look at options for residents. I think if they are in those areas I believe it is more Federal but I'm really not familiar with that process. One (1)thing I will say is we worked really hard to keep Bowman Creek running. That prevented a lot of damage from happening upstream. Councilmember Oliver Davis followed up,Now,not all of our streets are City streets. I noticed on Sunday that there were some State vehicles patching those roads. Is there any way for our streets that are owned by the State to be fixed a little earlier? We were out there but I didn't see many State vehicles out there. Mr. Horvath replied, We'll be sure we do a better job of calling them a little earlier. When we called them they did get out there. They've had four(4) crews on the State Road 23/Eddy/Sample area. That is the best thing we can do is to make sure we are communicating with them and letting them know what is going on. Councilmember Dr. David Varner stated, You've earned a lot of appreciation for the work that you've done but I hope you find the time in your busy schedule to relay that to the folks on your staff and the folks on the street because they probably don't hear anything from us very often. When something like this happens,they respond and we appreciate that. Mr. Horvath replied, Absolutely and I appreciate you saying that because I think that is often overlooked and they are the ones that are there. They are the people on the ground doing the work in the middle of the night. Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, That was my thought. Out my door and out my window, twenty-four (24) hours in any direction you saw City workers circulating. Deep gratitude to the folks on the ground and to you and your leadership as well as the Mayor. I think we did an 3