10-30-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

Home Browse Search

SPECIAL MEETING OCTOBER 30, 2013 know if you ever did, have you guys, it was in the thing, I may have missed it, what do you anticipate about Bartlett by the school and then heading south on Lafayette by the Hospital. Mayor Buttigieg: I will let Scott speak to the technical aspects. Scott Ford: (inaudible) Councilmember Dieter: Did any of the residents have concerns/comments of the increased traffic flow going by there. Scott Ford: It is not going to be that noticeable. Councilmember Dieter: How about the school corporation with increased traffic going south bound? Scott Ford: We are looking at Bartlett Street. Right now we are at the construction level, so as we go into design detail obviously we going to continue partnership. Councilmember Dieter: It’s actually a double fence because it is out there. And, also the District Representatives are under much more pressure from people like Oliver said, especially Olive & Ewing. Again, I would encourage as much as possible because I know that he has taken a lot in his District of things that have gone on and especially on Ewing Street, if there are ways to help get that project going and help him specifically, because he hasn’t receive a lot. Councilmember Oliver Davis: I would like to defer to our attorney. Could you clarify the page where the funds are for New Energy, the $350,000 for the wells. Could you clarify that? th Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand: For the benefit of the public, on October 18 the City Council sent recommendations as far as considerations for amendments and one of them included construction of wells near the former New Energy Plant over a series of discussions in collaboration with the City Administration, one of the many pages of the amended pages that were filed by Mr. Neal and his staff, including under the loss recovery fund Fund #227 on page number 737 a comment under the Smart Streets funding that there would be a reduction of $350,000 for and I am quoting “for future placement of wells near the Ethanol Plant.” So again, if you need further elaboration of that from the Controller’s Office Mr. Neal is shaking his head that he would do it, but it is in the budget. Councilmember Oliver Davis: Further elaboration Mr. Neal. Mayor Buttigieg: Just to be really quick that the idea is (inaudible) Councilmember Henry Davis Jr.: Thanks, there has been a considerable amount of construction jobs that could potentially happen if this Smart Street deal goes through. I am aware of that, I am very concerned and have been concerned for some time about local labor, and at this point and time I am going to ask and request that there may be a potential look at or a value of a project labor agreement at a level that doesn’t extend us into and including all of Southwest Michigan and not folks that are in St. Joseph County, more specifically South Bend, Indiana. Mayor Buttigieg: I appreciate that suggestion and certainly agree with local labor. Councilmember Henry Davis Jr: Is that your view/values or is that just an answer of how you think things should work. I’m not hearing like we are going to work towards that nor do it. It’s kind of like yeah. Mayor Buttigieg: We have not entered into any specifics about a potential project labor agreement. But we certainly do value and look forward to the spirit of conversation. There is no PLA written into the budget, but we are in dialogue with local labor and agree with the goal that we need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to support local labor. (inaudible)