January 19, 2021 - Meeting Minutes

 

Due to COVID-19, this meeting was permitted by Sub.H.B.197 to be held through a conference call.  Notification was sent to the Massillon Independent, posted on the front doors, and posted on the BrewsterOhio.com website.

 

Brewster Village Council met in regular session with Mayor Chuck Hawk presiding.

 

7:00 P.M. – CALL TO ORDER

 

COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RADICH and motion carried to excuse Council Member Fox from tonight’s meeting due to illness.  The vote: All yes.

 

Council Members bowed their heads for the invocation provided by Clerk-Treasurer Kris King followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

 

Charles Hawk, Mayor

Andrew Hess, Council Member                  Thomas Hilliard, Council Member             

Brett Long, Council Member                       Sydney Radich, Council Member                              

Mike Schwab, Council Member

 

John Anthony, Solicitor                                Kris King, Clerk-Treasurer

Michael L Miller, Village Administrator

 

Mayor Chuck Hawk asked if there were any additions or deletions to the December 21, 2020 Council meeting minutes.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER SCHWAB MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RADICH and motion carried to approve the minutes as read.  The Vote: all yes.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER SCHWAB MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RADICH and motion carried to accept the bills in the amount of $ 160,020.50.  The vote: Hess, no; Hilliard, no; Long, yes; Radich, yes; Schwab, yes.  Motion carries. 

 

 

There were no guests.

ORDINANCE 03-2021:An Ordinance Authorizing the Village Administrator to Contract with GPD Engineering for Professional Services for the Integration and Programming of a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System) at the Electric Substation was given third reading.

COUNCIL MEMBER LONG MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER SCHWAB and motion carried to approve the ordinance as presented.  Council Member Hilliard asked VA Miller to explain this ordinance.  VA Miller explained this allows the Electric Department to monitor and control the substation.  It will provide reports of shortages and outages.  The hardware portion of the program has already been installed during the previous project and this is the software portion.  It will provide steps to prevent and shorten outages.  The vote: All yes.

 

Second Reading: An Ordinance Authorizing the Village Administrator to Contract with Engineering Associates for Services to Prepare Specifications and Required Bid Documents for a Brewster Electric Department Garage and a Street Department Garage.

 

First Reading:  An Ordinance Authorizing the Village Administrator to Contract with Wood Electric to Install a Back-up Generator for the Police Department.

 

First Reading:  A Resolution Granting Falcon Baseball Priority Use of the Village of Brewster Baseball and Softball Fields for the 2021 Practices and Games.

 

First Reading:  An Ordinance Authorizing Entering into an Operations and Maintenance Agreement with AMP Transmission, LLC (AMPT) for AMPT 69KV Transmission Line and Electric Substation Assets.

 

First Reading:  An Ordinance Reestablishing Quarterly Transfers from the General Fund and Quarterly Transfers from the 1% for Municipal Income Tax.

 

RESOLUTION 04-2021: First Reading:  A Resolution Amending Resolution 78-2020 Temporary Appropriations for 2021, to Include the Cares Act-State Fund and Declaring an Emergency.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER LONG MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER SCHWAB and motion carried to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings and bring the legislation forward for passage.  The vote: All yes.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER LONG MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER SCHWAB and motion carried to pass the legislation as read.  The vote: All Yes.  Council Member Hilliard asked if some of the CARES money can be moved to the Fire Operations Fund.  Clerk-Treasurer King stated a transfer cannot be made but wages could be paid for COVID related calls.

 

MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENT REPORTS:  

 

 

• AMPT – Operation and Maintenance Contract. Last summer when we sold Brewster’s transmission line and 69Kv assets, we discussed Brewster Electric Department personnel continuing to perform maintenance on the transmission line and 69Kv assets and being reimbursed by AMPT. While a draft O & M Agreement was presented, Council didn’t authorize entering into it at that time. We have been negotiating an O & M Agreement with AMPT. In additional to Maysel, both Electric Superintendent Ryan Swan and Law Director Anthony have been involved in the negotiations. On a conference call Friday January 15th, an agreement was reached, that establishes responsibilities and how Brewster will be reimbursed for its operational and maintenance efforts on the transmission line and 69Kv assets.

 

 

• Welty Cemetery-Agreement signed by all parties and is a valid contract.  I ask council to authorize me to engage a title agency to research the title issue, title insurance, and proceed with a closing of the transaction.  I will prepare the papers to send to the Ohio Department of Commerce.  I have been researching cemetery rules to offer a draft to Council that I will circulate probably next week some time.  I will work with Chuck to get that moving.

 

Council Member Schwab stated Council had a committee meeting tonight concerning possible 60 AMP electric systems in some Village electric customer's houses.   He asked if the Village has any liability if these possible installations would prove to be hazardous?  Solicitor Anthony advised he would review the Village Electric regulations, ask questions of the VA for background, and provide a report as to any liability at the next Council meeting.

COMMUNICATIONS: 

Nothing to report.

VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR: Mike Miller

Council received the Village Administrator’s report last week to review.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER HESS and motion carried to accept the VA’s January 19, 2020 report as written and emailed to Council and to enter it into the record of tonight’s Council meeting.  The vote: All yes.

 

Administrator’s report for period 1/5/2021 thru 1/19/2021:

 

• Fire Station Addition – Progress. Construction has wrapped up. Final walk throughs are being completed.

 

Ø  Fire Station Addition – General Change Orders. No more general change orders.

 

• Fire Department Addition – Plumbing & HVAC Change Orders. No changes since last meeting.

 

Ø  Fire Department Addition – Electric Change Orders. No electric change orderssince last meeting. 

 

• Fire Station Addition – Phones. Phones are scheduled to be installed on January 18^th. As indicated before, it was an issue that we weren’t aware of prior to beginning transition to the new Fire Department Addition. 

• Fire Station Addition – Changes Orders & Overall Budget. No changes since last meeting. At this point, the overall cost status is essentially the same as last meeting. Theoverall perspective of where we stand with the Fire Addition Budget:

 

• Original contracts for General, Electric, and Plumbing/HVAC amounted to $1,479,348.
• General change orders to date amount to $131,603.92.
• Plumbing/HVAC change orders to date amount to $3,023.00.
• Electric change orders to date amount to $21,723.89 with the additional $6,158.39.
• Total cost including change orders to this point brings us to $1,635,698.81 with the additional $6,158.39. We are 10.6% over the original award.

 

• Jefferson Ave Sanitary Sewer Replacement Project. Construction activities continue for the Jefferson Ave Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project. Central Allied has 300 days to complete the project. 7th Street was closed beginning the week of January 11th so that the sewer line could be installed across 7th Street. It is slated to be reopened January 18^th.

 

Thrasher is now fully on board to process pay submittals, review submittals and change orders, and perform inspection as needed.

 

• Generator for Police Department. I now have two (2) quotes for installing the Police Department Back-up Generator (old Village Hall/FD Generator). The low bid is Wood Electric at $23,500. I requested a bid from another contractor but received no response.

 

Installation of the back-up generator will assure continued operations of the Police Department in the event of a power failure. It can only serve the Police Department. The current configuration is two meters/panels – one at the PD and one at Street. Code and safety considerations don’t allow us to mix.

The plan LONG TERM is to if/when a new Street Department Building is constructed, to feed the last 3 Street bays from that structure/service, and then split the PD bays portion back over to the PD/Generator. My thought is rather than full blown additional back-up generator for the new Street Department get battery back-up garage door openers so we can get equipment out, with something much smaller for lights etc. (like a home Generac). Much less expensive.

An Ordinance has been drafted and is slated to be given a first reading at Council’s January 19^th Meeting awarded a contract to Wood Electric.

Electric Substation – SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System).  In February of 2020 I informed Council that during the preliminary engineering phase of the project, the Village chose to include SCADA hardware in the new control house. This was deemed the most efficient and expedient course of action based on the Village’s ultimate desire to install a SCADA system. It would potentially cost more to add SCADA hardware after completion of the Electric Substation Upgrade/Expansion Project. SCADA allows the Village to be much more efficient process to supervise and manage our distribution system. Preliminary engineering work was completed. SCADA hardware was included in the bids for the Electric Substation Upgrade/Expansion Project, and installation and wiring of the SCADA hardware in the control house was completed as part of the Substation Upgrade/Expansion.

 

Adding the new SCADA hardware required the following SCADA related preliminary engineering work:

 

 

The SCADA work was separately tracked under Task 300 on GPD P/N 2018040.01. Because the SCADA might be a cost that AMP Transmission may reimburse a portion of at some point as part of the 69 kV Asset Purchase, and so that there is less confusion, we entered into separate agreement with GPD in an amount not to exceed $16,000.

 

However, the original project scope with GPD for engineering of the Electric Substation Upgrade/Expansion Project did not include engineering of the accompanying software/programming of a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System). The original scope included only connection of new equipment alarms to the existing ANTX (Auto text alarm system).

 

I have been negotiating with GPD for the engineering of the accompanying software/programming of a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System). GPD has provided a proposal to perform the engineering necessary to program, commission and place into service our Orion SCADA system hardware at Southside Substation in an amount of $69,500.

 

• 2021 Paving Program.I have provided background for the upcoming Finance and Streets, Alleys, Curbs, Storm Sewers, & Sidewalks Committee Meetings on the 2021 Paving Program. The Clerk-Treasurer has indicated that:
• we have in the paving fund approximately $72,000.
• we will have another projected/approximate amount of $160,000 in the paving fund by July 1^st, 2021.
• TOTAL projected amount for 2021 Paving Program of $232,000

 

Council passed an Ordinance at the Monday January 4^th Council Meeting. I have received an updated PCR from Thrasher, and I am working on finalizing the Paving Specifications prior to advertising for bids. I will not be able to place the first advertisement until after February 5^th.

 

I previously provided background for the upcoming Finance and Streets, Alleys, Curbs, Storm Sewers, & Sidewalks Committee Meetings on the 2021 Paving Program. The PRELIMINARY list of streets for 2021, using Pavement Condition Ratings (PCRs) from 2017 and PCRs from 2020, was:

 

Street	From	To
2nd Street SE	Jefferson	East Terminus
Main Street SE	Wabash	Cleveland
Jefferson Ave SE	5th	7th
5th Street SE	Cleveland	Jefferson
5th Street SE	Wabash	Cleveland
1st Street SW	Grant	Lincoln
Grant Ave SW	2nd	1st
2nd Street SW	Wabash	McKinley
McKinley Ave SW	2nd	North terminus
Chestnut	1200 feet +/-

 

 

 

The separate list in the table below the main list were the potential streets to be added, within the budget constraints of course:

 

Street	From	To
Harmon Street NE	Wabash	Mohican
Tuscarawas Ave NW	Pinewood	Chestnut
Superior Street NE	Wabash	Mohican
6th Street SW	McKinley	Washington
McKinley Ave SW	Main	2nd

 

I have had Thrasher re-rate the Village streets. I have been reviewing them with Street Superintendent Rick Patterson. The NEW tentative list to be included in the Bid Specifications are:

Street	From	To	Estimated Cost	Running Total
Chestnut NW	Muffly	Drive to south (660 feet)	$18,000
Main Street SE	Wabash	Cleveland	$42,976.50
2nd Street SW	Wabash	McKinley	$29,000
Grant Ave SW	2nd	1st	$8,190
McKinley SW	Bimeler	7th Street	$24,024
2nd Street SE	Jefferson	East Terminus	$32,524
Harmon Ave NE			$32,875.50	$187,590
Chestnut NW	Drive to south	East to just before 13415 (970 feet)	$27,000	$214,590
McKinley Ave SW	2nd	North terminus	$14,938	$229,528

 

      There are some changes from the last listing I provided Council in my January 4^th VA Report:

 

• 1^st Street from Grant to Lincoln has been REMOVED because of higher rating.
• 2^nd Street from Wabash to McKinley remains on, even though it isn’t rated quite as low as others because we tore it up installing storm sewer, need to reinstall curb and gutter, and it doesn’t make sense to “patch it in” as opposed to getting the entire segment completed.
• 2^nd Street SE from Jefferson to east terminus remains on the list because it is completing a street we began last year.
• Jefferson Ave SE from 5th to 7th and 5th Street SE from Cleveland to Jefferson have been REMOVED because they will be paved (Jefferson completely rebuilt) as part of the Jefferson Sanitary Sewer Project.
• 5th Street SE from Wabash to Cleveland has been REMOVED because it isn’t rated as low as we thought it would.
• McKinley from Bimeler to 7^th was ADDED because of its low PCR rating.
• Harmon moved to main list.
• Additional section of Chestnut as potential addition. Chestnut is worst rated Street, BUT not a lot of traffic and NO residents on road. Based on failures last couple of years to get it on MRF list, not much chance outside funding coming.
• McKinley SW from 2^nd to north terminus (Park) which includes curb and gutter as LAST add on, which I am suggesting so that we can tie neighborhood into Park per suggestion of Comprehensive Plan. Putting it as a potential add on means it won’t be done UNTIL we get bids and know cost AND Council votes to add it on.

 

      Estimates will be firmed up by Engineer – we must have engineer’s estimate to bid. When I get

it I will pass it on to Council.

 

• AMPT – Operation and Maintenance Contract. Last summer when we sold Brewster’s transmission line and 69Kv assets, we discussed Brewster Electric Department personnel continuing to perform maintenance on the transmission line and 69Kv assets and being reimbursed by AMPT. While a draft O & M Agreement was presented, Council didn’t authorize entering into it at that time. We have been negotiating an O & M Agreement with AMPT. In additional to Maysel, both Electric Superintendent Ryan Swan and Law Director Anthony have been involved in the negotiations. On a conference call Friday January 15^th, an agreement was reached, that establishes responsibilities and how Brewster will be reimbursed for its operational and maintenance efforts on the transmission line and 69Kv assets.

 

• SRTS – Right-of-Way Acquisition. We have received authorization from ODOT to proceed with right-of-way acquisition. OR Colan will begin contacting property owners on the Village’s behalf.

 

• Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI). The AMI Project continues to move forward. The base station has been delivered and installation has begun. Core and Main, the company that was awarded the Village’s AMI Meter Project, indicated that within a couple of weeks the antenna/receiver and other infrastructure necessary to support the AMI Meters will be in place. The Electric Department can soon begin installation. Letters are going out to all customers to inform them of the AMI upgrade. The contract amendment (“change order”) can be signed January 20^th, 2021, so we will start getting delivery of the water meter attachments after that date.

 

• Efficiency Smart – Rebates. Heating and cooling make up the largest portion of the average household’s energy bill. Efficiency Smart offers rebates on products that can help you save on these costs, including a $750 rebate on cold climate air source heat pumps and a $100 rebate on air source heat pumps. Visit www.efficiencysmart.org/brewster-ohio and select “Home Energy Rebates” or call 877-889-3777 for more information on available rebates.

 

• Efficiency Smart – “Buy Local” Program. The “Buy Local” program has been extended from 9/30 to 11/30.  Brochures are available.

 

• Efficiency Smart - Advanced Thermostat.  Save up to an additional $70 off the purchase of an Advanced Thermostat! Visit Efficiency Smart’s Online Savings store at www.efi.org/efficiencysmart for special Black Friday pricing and free shipping on advanced thermostats between 11/13 – 12/1. Call Efficiency Smart at 877-889-3777 for more information.

• Efficiency Smart – “Trivia Tuesdays”. Efficiency Smart is running called “Trivia Tuesdays”.  Each Tuesday in November, Efficiency Smart will post a new energy efficiency trivia question on its Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/EfficiencySmart . Those who answer correctly will be entered to win a $25 promo code redeemable on our Online Savings store. https://www.efficiencysmart.org/online-savings   Efficiency Smart will randomly select one winner each week, so residents can participate each week for more chances to win. Efficiency Smart is asking for our help increasing awareness of the contest by sharing Trivia Tuesday information.

 

Council Member Hilliard thought that we weren’t doing the upkeep on the new substation.  VA Miller stated we get paid for any work we perform.  He stated that it is better that we do the maintenance which allows up to keep a closer eye on the equipment and operations.  It is also financially beneficial.  AMPT is adding a $17 million line into our substation.

 

Council Member Hilliard asked if the generator being installed at the Police Department is the old one from the Fire Station.  He questioned whether it was needed when we didn’t have a generator there in the past.  VA Miller stated it would provide power in case of an outage or disaster such as a tornado. 

VA Miller added the following to his report:

• Jefferson Project:  7^th Street will need to be closed through this Friday due to the depth of the work and not wanting the heavy trucks driving over it yet.
• 3 bat houses have been provided by Cole Tucker as part of an Eagle Scout project.

 

 

1.      Fire Pay = $ 2822.59 January 22^nd Payroll.

 

Council Member Hilliard was contacted about roosters, chickens, and ducks at a residence.  The police took care of the situation.

 

COMMITTEES or COUNCIL REPORTS: The Goal of any committee meeting is to discuss an issue or proposal and to provide, by a consensus of the committee members, ONE recommendation to Council

Council Member Schwab reported on a Finance Committee meeting this evening to discuss 60 AMP services in the Village and the purchase of a V-Box to spread salt.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER SCHWAB MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER LONG and motion carried to approve the employment of a title agency by the Solicitor for the Welty Cemetery acquisition.  The vote: All yes.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER SCHWAB MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD and motion carried approve Fire Pay in the amount of $ 2822.59 from the Fire Operations Fund.  The vote: All yes.

 

Council Member Hilliard asked if the Temporary Appropriation Resolution passed.  Clerk-Treasurer King replied that it had.

 

COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER RADICH and motion carried to adjourn the meeting at 7:39 pm. The vote: All yes.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,