Sign In

Town Meeting Roundup November 15th 2018

This news article was posted 11/15/2018

Town Meeting Roundup November 15th 2018

The Town Council met for a regular meeting on November 15th at 7pm at the Eagles. Members present Dave Taylor, Tony Pearson (Vice President), Deb Wainscott (President) and Lindsay Washmuth.

Mike Kleinpeter from Kleinpeter Consulting Group held a Public Hearing for the Town's Master Plan for improving the Storm, Waste and Drinking Water systems.

A grant from OCRA is being used to fund the cost of the $50,000 plan. With the town having to pay $5,660.

OCRA has approved the plan.

RQAW revealed the list of projects under consideration:

Waste Water System

  • V Notches, Clarifier Cleaning System - Replace the iron teeth that are not securely fastened and install a cleaning system.
  • Prevent Algae Growth in Clarifiers - Add covers to reduce light.
  • Life Station Safety Improvements and General Electrical Improvements
  • Sewer Relocation at School and 12th St - Sanitary sewer running thru a storm sewer at this location.

Drinking Water System

  • Ford St Well House Renovation
  • Upgrade Water Treatment Plant Equipment - Dehumidifier needed.
  • Repair Elevated Storage Tank - Silt build up, rusting issues.
  • Replace Asbestos Cement Mains - need to locate them first.
  • Loop Water System - Loop system where it currently dead ends.
  • Water Main to Fishersburg - 12-inch water main with 8 inch branches.
  • New Well Construction

Storm Water System

  • Work on problem areas such as 3rd and John St, Central and 5th/6th St, 13th and Eerie and a few others. - Likely solution is to add bigger pipe.

Now that the Town has a plan, they can apply for an OCRA grant to help fix some of these issues. The grants are usually a 80%/20% split with the Town paying 20%.

 

Redevelopment Department

The Town Council voted in favor of creating a Redevelopment Department/Committee.

The committee will initially be composed of the Town Council but will later be formed from residents of Lapel.

The purpose of this department initially is to look at establishing Tax increment financing (TIF) districts to bring additional property tax revenue to the Town of Lapel.

By using TIF districts the Town can highlight areas that they expect to see growth, such as the SR13 corridor and capture future property tax growth from these developments.

TIF cannot be established on houses, it only applies to businesses and does not raise anyone's taxes.

The first meeting of the Redevelopment Committee will be Tuesday 20th at 6pm at Town Hall. 

 

Pleasant View Apartments

Gary Shuck (Planning) informed the Town Council of a change in plans for the Pleasant View Apartments project currently under construction. There will now likely be 4 2-inch water meters on the Pleasant View property and not a single meter in the easement as originally planned. 

There was some discussion about this and whether the Town should be responsible for restoring any damage on the property if they must dig up the meters. For example asphalt driveway/parking lot.

It is likely they will ask Pleasant View Apartments for a legal document laying out who is responsible for what in regards the location of the meters.

 

Other Stuff

  • Approved paying USDI $3,000 to loop a gas line near 300 South and at 11th and Vine St.
  • Approved buying a new gas locator tool at a cost of $4,000 the current one is broken and needs repairing, once repaired the Town will then have two.
  • Discussed replacing the Dump Truck purchased a few years ago at auction which has cost the Town a lot of money in repairs and is not as versatile as originally believed. - Pearson asked the Utility department to get prices.

 Town Meeting November 15th

 


Back