CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
MAY 12, 2003
The Honorable Council of the City of Evansville met on regular session at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 12, 2003 in the City Council Chambers, Room 301 Civic Center Complex, Evansville, Indiana with President Robinson, presiding. The following business was conducted.
These minutes are not intended to be a verbatim transcript. Audiotapes of this meeting are on file in the City Clerk’s Office.
ROLL CALL:
There being nine (9) members present and zero (0) members absent and nine (9) members representing a quorum, the President declared this session of the Common Council officially opened.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Councilman Kniese led the pledge of allegiance this evening.
COUNCIL ATTORNEY
John Hamilton is Council Attorney this evening.
READING AND AMENDMENT OF MINUTES OF PRECEDING MEETING
Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the April 28, 2003 meetings of the Common Council as written?
Councilman Bagbey moved and Councilman Melcher seconded the motion that the minutes of the regular meeting of the Common Council held April 28, 2003 be approved as written. Voice vote. So ordered.
REPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS
IN YOUR MAY 2ND PACKET:
*A letter from Interim Director of the Department of Metropolitan Development
Peggy Braun regarding a Monitoring Visit by a Community Planning and Development
Representative.
*Eastview Neighborhood Association Newsletter.
*Bellemead-Bayard Parks Neighborhood Association Newsletter.
*A Schedule of Meetings in the City/County Administration Building for May 2003.
*A News Release regarding the Evansville Police Department Conducting Cultural
Awareness in Law Enforcement Training.
*A copy of a letter from the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County to
Jim Cameron.
*A News Release regarding Heavy Trash Pickup Continues to be Successful.
*Evansville Redevelopment Commission Draft Agenda for May 7, 2003 meeting.
IN YOUR MAY 9TH PACKET:
*City Council Agenda for May 12, 2003 meeting.
*Committee meeting schedule.
*Minutes from April 28, 2003 City Council Meeting.
*Ordinances G-2003-14, G-2003-15 and F-2003-9.
*Inter-department vacation studies for G-2003-13.
*An Agenda for the Board of Zoning Appeals May 15, 2003 meeting.
*A letter from IDEM.
*A Press Release from ARI (Advanced Rehabilitation Inc.)
*Notice of Public Meeting of the Evansville Capital Development Fund Advisory
Committee.
*Letters to City Council from students at USI.
ON YOUR DESK THIS EVENING:
*A memo to City Council from Michael G. Malone, President of the MBE/WBE Board.
*A Handout from Zoo Director Dan McGinn.
*A News Release regarding Mayor reacts to weekend murders.
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilman Kniese seconded the motion to receive, file and make these reports and communications a part of the minutes of the meeting. Voice vote. So ordered.
CONSENT AGENDA
FIRST READING OF ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS
ORDINANCE G-2003-14___PUBLIC WORKS BAGBEY
AN ORDINANCE TO VACATE PUBLIC WAYS OR PUBLIC PLACES WITHIN THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE, INDIANA COMMONLY KNOWN AS OAK STREET BETWEEN SE NINTH AND SE TENTH STREETS
ORDINANCE G-2003-15__ ASD (ANGERMEIER) BAGBEY
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE MUNICIPAL CODE RELATING TO THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE CENTRAL DISPATCH BOARD
ORDINANCE F-2003-9 FINANCE (ROBINSON) KNIESE
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AUTHORIZING TRANSFER OF APPROPRIATIONS WITHIN VARIOUS CITY DEPARTMENTS AND FOR ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS FROM VARIOUS CITY FUNDS
Is there a motion to adopt the Consent Agenda as written?
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilman Kniese seconded the motion to adopt the Consent Agenda as written. Voice vote. So ordered.
CONSENT AGENDA
SECOND READING OF ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS
ORDINANCE G-2003-10___PUBLIC WORKS BAGBEY
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE HOUSING CODE AND REQUIRING OWNER REGISTRATION
ORDINANCE G-2003-13___PUBLIC WORKS BAGBEY
AN ORDINANCE VACATING A PUBLIC ALLEY SOUTH OF FRANKLIN STREET IN THE BLOCK BETWEEN OAKLEY STREET ON THE WEST AND EDGAR STREET ON THE EAST
ORDINANCE F-2003-7 FINANCE ROBINSON
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL APPROVING THE AMENDMENT OF THE ANNUAL ACTION PLAN AND APPROPRIATING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT, EMERGENCY SHELTER GRANT, AND HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP GRANT FUNDS
ORDINANCE F-2003-8 FINANCE (ROBINSON) KNIESE
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AUTHORIZING TRANSFER OF APPROPRIATIONS WITHIN VARIOUS CITY DEPARTMENTS AND FOR ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS FROM VARIOUS CITY FUNDS
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
PUBLIC WORKS CHAIRMAN________________________________________ BAGBEY
Councilman Bagbey: G-2003-10 will be held until June 2nd at 6:00. G-2003-13 received a do-pass.
FINANCE CHAIRMAN____________________________________________ ROBINSON
Councilwoman Robinson: Yes Mr. President your Finance Committee met on Ordinance F-2003-7, as amended, comes before you with a recommendation for a do-pass. And Ordinance F-2003-8 also comes before you with a recommendation for a do pass.
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilman Kniese seconded the motion to adopt the committee Reports and move these Ordinance to Third Reading. Voice vote. So ordered.
Council now stands at Third Reading of Zoning Ordinances, which is final action.
REGULAR AGENDA
THIRD READING OF ZONING ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS:
ORDINANCE G-2003-13___PUBLIC WORKS BAGBEY
AN ORDINANCE VACATING A PUBLIC ALLEY SOUTH OF FRANKLIN STREET IN THE BLOCK BETWEEN OAKLEY STREET ON THE WEST AND EDGAR STREET ON THE EAST
Ordinance G-2003-13 and call the roll.
ROLL CALL:
Ayes: Kniese, Bagbey, Melcher, Robinson, Koehler Walden, Watts, Angermeier, Kiefer, John.
There being nine (9) ayes and zero (0) nays, Ordinance G-2003-13 is hereby declared ADOPTED.
REGULAR AGENDA
THIRD READING OF ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS
ORDINANCE F-2003-7 (as amended) FINANCE ROBINSON
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL APPROVING THE AMENDMENT OF THE ANNUAL ACTION PLAN AND APPROPRIATING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT, EMERGENCY SHELTER GRANT, AND HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP GRANT FUNDS
Councilman Melcher: Mr. President. As everybody knows I’m associated with CAPE. So I have to have it on the record that I won’t be voting. I’ll be abstaining on CAPE this even though that has nothing to do with where I work at, but still it’s perceived that way. And so I won’t be voting on this Ordinance this evening.
President John: Thank you. May I have a motion to approve?
Ordinance F-2003-7 and call the roll.
ROLL CALL:
Ayes: Kniese, Bagbey, Robinson, Koehler Walden, Watts, Angermeier, Kiefer, John.
Abstained: Melcher
There being eight (8) ayes and zero (0) nays, and (1) abstaining, Ordinance F-2003-7, as amended, is hereby declared ADOPTED.
ORDINANCE F-2003-8 FINANCE (ROBINSON) KNIESE
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AUTHORIZING TRANSFER OF APPROPRIATIONS WITHIN VARIOUS CITY DEPARTMENTS AND FOR ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS FROM VARIOUS CITY FUNDS
Councilwoman Walden moved and Councilman Melcher seconded the motion to adopt
Ordinance F-2003-8 and call the roll.
ROLL CALL:
Ayes: Kniese,
Bagbey: As Councilman Kniese so eloquently said in the Subcommittee, “a waste of our time”, I vote aye.
Melcher, Robinson, Koehler Walden, Watts, Angermeier, Kiefer, John.
There being nine (9) ayes and zero (0) nays, Ordinance F-2003-8 is hereby declared ADOPTED.
President John: It seemed like it received more votes on its rehearing.
MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS
President John: Miscellaneous Business. We have our Zoo Director Dan McGinn here to make a short presentation this evening. I think you should, yes, he has opted for short.
President John: You do have on your desk this evening a booklet. Yes, briefly describing the proposed improvements to be made at Mesker Zoo. And Dan is here to give us a little more information and make himself available for any questions. I had asked that he keep it brief this evening since we are just receiving this information. Let Council Members have an opportunity to digest what we have received this evening, and if we have questions maybe he can come back in a month or so if Council Members desire and answer any questions that may come up after they have reviewed all of this.
Dan McGinn: Sure that would be fine. Thank you Mr. President and Members of Council. First of all can I, is there a better place to put this? I mean I’d like everyone to see it and some of the people in the audience, does it make any difference to you guys? This is a large picture of what is in that packet that you have.
President John: I’d say maybe, well….just….can you see it? All right, yeah. Yeah we don’t want to exclude the audience.
Dan McGinn: Thanks.
Councilman Kiefer: Dan can you… (INAUDIBLE).
Dan McGinn: Thank you. Again I’ll try to keep this short. But the reason I’m here is really to let you folks know what has been the result of some planning that has been done on the Master Plan. I was asked by the Mayor to come up with a plan in support of a Bond issue or some type of financing to spend $17,000,000 if it was available for Zoo improvements. So we started actually in September when I went to the AZA Conference I started talked to Zoo Architects to find out who might be the best people involved. When we got the go ahead to do this project in late January we had several meetings in house. Contacted five or six of the leading Zoo Architects in the world. Spoke with them over the telephone, found out their schedules, and narrowed it to three. We invited three firms, two from Seattle and one from New Orleans to come to Evansville on their dime and give us their pitch about why they should be the person to do our Master Plan. To do plans to show how $17,000,000 in improvements can be done at the Zoo and what those improvements are. And as a result of those meetings, and the three people who visited us. We selected a gentleman by the name of Mr. Torre who is without going into a
lot of detail; he’s a world class Zoo Architect. He’s doing half a dozen zoos now. He’s an award winning man he’s unbelievable. He, as well as Jeff Deig and Walter Smith of PCI, put their lives on hold for about the past eighty days to help us get this together. So what I’d like to discuss first of all it’s the back part of your packet. It is the one that shows it’s Master Plan and it has health services complex in basically in white lettering all over it, that’s the Master Plan. Correct, and to sort of explain that, the plan and a Master Plan is nothing but a road map. It is the way Mr. Torre put it; it is the house plans that you have to have the place to start when you’re going to do only an addition first. So this gives us direction of the Zoo. So the plans start with a new west entry complex, which I’ll get to in more detail on what the $17,000,000 will buy. So we start from that part of the Zoo. We develop from there. The central road that you see on your plot around the Zoo is something that is definitely needed. It becomes the central circular course that people can traverse or the tram can traverse though out the Zoo. Each one of the areas that are designated here, tropical exhibit in South America, African Village, the Discovery Center, Asian Village in North America. Each one of those separate areas of the Zoo, building upon what we already have in the future, they become an attraction in and of themselves. So the theory is, people come into the entrance then they can use that circular drive, they can walk it, it will be level as the Zoo is built the hills are reduced, it becomes no more than a 5% grade so it’s ADA…it meets ADA requirements. And then as money becomes available different phases of Zoo renovation which….you know…somewhere in the future we develop each one of these areas separately. And the reason for that is it’s an orderly progression of Zoo construction and it also enables the rest of the Zoo to stay open while work is being done at one particular segment. So, that is just sort of the general overall roadmap. What is really important is the second map that you have. The one that about ¾ of it is this one, ¾ of it is light and the areas in dark are the areas that planned improvements with $17,000,000. And I’d like to start with a couple of small areas about a little to the right up at the top says Health Services Building. In order to properly proceed with new expansion, we have to expand our health care facilities. The Veterinary Complex is outdated as early as 1984-85 when the AZA first came here they recommended significant changes to the health care building. So we have to improve our holding and our quarantine facilities, as well as a better allocation for space that is in there. So, as part of this plan we asked Mr. Torre to allocate a certain amount of money to that so the plans call for approximately ¾ of a million dollars to expand holding, quarantine, and veterinary facilities. In addition to that you will see two red blocks and the words erosion control. Those areas are the spillways at the large dam on the 4 1/2-acre Lake Victoria. The dam itself is structurally sound, it’s solid as a rock, but the hills are so steep coming from the Amphitheater area that when rainwater comes down the hill it bypasses a natural spillway, it’s eroding our spillways. Three to four years from now that spillway will probable collapse. Now that’s not going to inundate the West Side, it’s not going to wipe out Diamond Avenue but four, five, or six feet of that lake will drain and it will absolutely be a mess. So there is a certain amount of money allocated to stop the erosion and that includes design, the erosion plan itself, and I’ve lost the lens to my cheap glasses. Steve where do you buy yours they seem to hold together?
Councilman Bagbey: CVS, Walgreen’s.
Dan McGinn: Screw fell out of it.
Councilman Bagbey: (INAUDIBLE).
Dan McGinn: No, I’m fine I can just one eye. I gave Joe my amount so I don’t have the exact amount. Seems like its $117,000 is allocated to fix the erosion and the drainage problems. So the plan is to do that in…..Thanks BJ.
Councilman Kiefer: Yeah, $117,000.
Dan McGinn: $117,000 and so that will fix a couple of things that….they are not glamorous but they are needed in order to have proper Zoo expansion. Also to eliminate worries about loosing that spillway and wiping out our vet building, it would be a mess.
Councilman Watts: And that’s total on both erosion problems $117,000?
Dan McGinn: That is on….. yes.
Councilman Watts: Or $117,000 each?
Dan McGinn: No, that’s the total. That’s the total area. So that’s the part that is not real exciting, the exciting part comes in with the new entry complex. The cover of this booklet shows artists rendering. That is based on a picture that we found after going through all of the historical Evansville books we could find in the library and the book stores. That’s an actual building that was on Indiana Street in 1907, it was an orphanage. But we asked Mr. Torre to come up with something that really did a lot of things. We want it to fit into the neighborhood. We wanted it to be timeless architecture. When I think of timeless architecture I think of Bosse High School and Washington Middle School, you know, a hundred years from now those buildings…they’re nice. The old Courthouse, the old Post Office, I mean those buildings are a hundred years old and they look wonderful. So this is Victorian type of architecture. It’s 15,000 square feet of building. And there’s also an entry area with Q-lines or ticket check-in lines that will eliminate the mess that we have when we have 12 to 15 hundred people on Zoo grounds trying to funnel into the…what looks like a guard house at Pendelton. You’ve been to Pendelton, you’ve been to Penelton it looks just like it. You know, we put a little bamboo on it. So the complex itself, the front complex, calls for the leveling of the Amphitheater parking lot to the level of Mesker Park Drive. And also around the corner and that is to have additional beautiful landscaping. It’s to eliminate hills and it’s to provide approximately 150 to 175 additional parking places. We now have 138 parking places. This will be 100, again it depends on once we get into the detail of the design and how much landscaping. But 150 minimum new parking places in this area. There’s also room on this side of the Zoo for overflow parking. There’s a huge gravel lot on the other side of the Amphitheater. There’s one across the street at the golf course. Not the golf course lots itself but near that red building that the Zoo does own. So the overflow parking, there’s plenty of room for it there. We also will still have available the 138 spaces that we have on Saint Joe Avenue. We also…we already have wire there, we have fiber optics, we have point of sale system there so that will help. So we will eliminate a lot of our parking problems. The building itself is needed for a lot of reasons. One: the plans call for 2,600 square feet of food service. And that includes tables and chairs and the restaurant type equipment. It also calls for a 2,600 square foot gift shop. The more retail space the more gift shop the better revenue opportunities that you do have. It also calls for the offices to be consolidated on the second floor of that building including a conference room that overlooks the Zoo. The Conference Room can also be used for, not party’s, but it can be rented out for events and that type of thing. Again it’s needed. Right now we are victims of our own success we’ve
paralyzed the golf course, we’ve paralyzed the West Side when we have events. We have more than 1,500 people we have to find, scramble, take a cash box up to the old gate, open that up, keep people up there so they can get through the old gate with their strollers. So the need is there for a new entry complex. The third floor of this !5,000 square foot building is only roughed in. It will be used for storage, future development.
The next thing that you see here, you’ll notice that kind of a fan shaped coming out of the back of this building that’s 25,000 square feet of hard surface, that’s the Orientation Plaza. The designs and the dollars allocated to this in this preliminary budget include what are called dry fountains. It’s lots of space around there to have picnic tables, chairs, have events, benches, rent it out, use the kitchen facilities for catering. And the restrooms are close. It’s a place where you start your Zoo visit it’s where you catch the tram, it’s where you decide where you are going where you see the signs, the graphics, and your general orientation of the Zoo. It is again part of the purpose of why we wanted to meet with Mr. Torre and wanted to use him. We want to increase the visitor’s experience. We want them to know when they come to the Zoo that they are getting their monies worth. This Orientation Plaza with the nighttime lights that’s lights on the fountains at night gets us to our second purpose, which is to increase revenue opportunities. So the opportunity is there for nighttime events, nighttime rentals, in addition to a place for the giant puppets that we have at Halloween. The Scooby Doo who was there, it’s a place to have events. The next area of this you’ll see three look like rectangles that are….those are glass. This is a 15,000 square foot of a South American Rain Forrest. It is in the hilly part of the Zoo and it’s not going to be a steep drop. This is a series of inter connecting roads switchbacks. The buildings are separate but they are connected. So the theory is you go from the treetops of the rain forest to the middle area to the floors. This…the 10,000 square foot of this area is budgeted at $400 a square foot. $400 a square foot is world class Zoo exhibit. This is the same amount of money that was spent on the rain forest. This is waterfalls, this is rockwork, this is trees. The fact that it is South America opens up the opportunities; there are 75 or 80 species of monkeys. We will put as many as we can in there. When we’re doing the design we’ll have as many types of animals as we can in this Zoo. There are giant snakes; there are various alligator type things. There’s an Oronocal Crocodile, there are Keyman’s which are like alligators. There are fuzzy mammals that live in this area including jaguars, ocelots, jacaranda. There are some prehistoric looking mammals called Giant Brazilian Tapers. There are hundreds of species of animals, we will consider all of them during the design phase of this to try to get it to flow so you are convinced you are in a piece of the South American Rain Forest. By doing a rain forest theme whether than just X-animal, we can spend this money and have dozens of species of animals as opposed (INAUDIBLE). And that leads us to another reason why we wanted it to be a rain forest. Nobody comes to the Zoo in December, January and February it’s too cold. This increases our season. This is a place to go in the wintertime. It’s a marketing opportunity, come to the tropics, you know, 4 below zero, it’s 75 in the jungle. And so again, additional marketing opportunities, opportunity to extend our seasons. The area next to the rain forest, I’m sorry, in addition to the 10,000 square feet there’s 5,000 square feet of holding area and then there’s 8 or 10,000 square feet of outside exhibit where animals can come in and out during the summer. So it’s a complex, it’s what’s called an emersion experience; you are in South America you’re not just looking at an animal. So it’s a great concept. The area that’s called the interim meadow on your charts that’s where we put the stuff we take off the parking lot. We’re going to fill a lake that we have there which really right now has one swan that belongs to us and then however many hundreds of ducks and geese want to come in and eat their food during the wintertime. The interim meadow or the meadow, we’re calling it interim because it should be over on the
other side of the Zoo somewhere down the road. But in the meantime that meadow will be there for overnight campers, its part of our Zoo Camp, it will be another place where we can have…..
What that was…..most pleasant afternoons I’ve spent was a little Zoo in Florida, Central Florida Zoo, just outside of Orlando. They have a big park area and they have concerts in the park, it brings people in. So picture this as a rolling grass meadow, it’s where the kids can run and they can play. We might even entertain picnics if we can work it out with our concessionaire. But it’s a pretty place, a quiet place, a peaceful place, and again it has lots of opportunity. We could put a tent up in there, we can again a great spot to pitch that tent for the corporate picnics and the family picnics that we have out there. So again, it is also a way to reduce the costs of hauling away the stuff that we take off when we leveled the front parking lot, and we use it on Zoo grounds. The next phase that we go to, and you’ll see the red lines, that’s the start of this inter-loop that I was telling you about. This is where the grade is only 5 degrees then. It’s a leisurely stroll over to what is going to be the start of African improvements. For those of you that have been to the Zoo if you stand where the bumper boats are, the Monkey Ship, you notice the ….we call it the erosion exhibit, we’re one of the few Zoo’s that has one, we’re not real proud of it. The neighbors, I’m sure, have some great topsoil that came off there. We want to do two things, we want to eliminate that significant erosion problem, that significant drainage problem. We also want to give a new home to our lions. So as you come down that road when you leave the South American area you take a gradual walk and you enter the African Complex. Now this is were when we are doing the design work we had to keep cutting, and cutting, and cutting. You know what was a $2,000,000 Central African Village may now be just something to let you know you are in Africa. We took away from the theme because we want to have a view from that road area where you are looking up when you first enter. And you’ll see the hoof stock, which are grazing on the plains, we’ll put some antelope that we already have, and different antelope in there, but overlooking this at the top is the new lion exhibit. The lions are looking down at this plain just like they do in the wild. Then you can wander on around the path, around the red line depending on how much money is available, how much of the contingency is available, how much the definite detailed design plans cost for the exhibit, the meadow and the rain forest exhibit, that’s where we start doing additional things to Africa. So it’s a possibility, we’d like to have a mere cat exhibit in there. We’d like to have our warthogs there, we have a mating pair now, baby warthogs are so ugly they are the coolest things and they are ET ugly. They are neat. So those are the plans. We stop where the old lion exhibit is now. That’s where we run out of money. So, I hope that I tried to talk as fast as I could but there’s a lot here. I mean it’s….. there’s a lot here, it’s amazing what they’ve done with these dollars. So be happy to answer any questions and, as Mr. John said, I’d be happy to come back after you’ve had an opportunity to review this and answer any questions.
President John: And I hope you do and I hope this does generate some questions on Council. I’d just like to say a couple of things. I hope we’ve learned from our past mistakes and you know this is….you’ve got to start somewhere and I guess this is a starting place. You’ve got your proposed design and now you are presenting this to Council, but there are a lot of steps that have to be taken before this becomes a reality. Some of which are possibly the petitioning process which allows the taxpayers of the County to decide whether or not this is a project they want to support. Moody’s, and Standards and Poor coming in and rating us as far as what kind of interest rate we can get on our bonds and the financial position of the city at the time that it is to issue the bonds. I hope we don’t go out and design this whole project before all the monies.
Dan McGinn: There’s no money available to design now.
President John: Well, I mean with an anticipatory note or any kind of funding when it’s not absolutely positive or sure that this project is going to go forward. We hope that it does but there are so many things that could happen that I would hate to spend….. And I am a little concerned about the design and contingency estimates. It looks like there are between 30 and 40%.
Dan McGinn: The design, which includes architectural fees, engineering fees, and project management fees are 14%, that’s a 14% rate. PCI and Torre have already talked that Torre’s rates are 14, PCI’s are 10 the difference will be management fees included in the 14% total. There is another up to 3%, which out of pocket expenses. I mean they were very up front with that, you know, the times he has to come in that aren’t budgeted. Design drawings alone will run 250 to 300 pages, 40 to 50 of those for contracting so another 3%. The contingency basically is money that is not allocated, you know, it’s…..
President John: I’m familiar with that.
Dan McGinn: Yeah, once we get into the detail design, you know, one of them is we know where a sewer is, we don’t know where it goes, if it’s torn up and blocked it’s another 122,000, so that’s part of the contingency, and the rest is actual cost.
President John: But, for example on your first building addition, additional holding and quarantine it’s strictly design as 20% and site work, design for the site work is 17% so maybe those are things that maybe sit down and negotiate or at least shop.
Dan McGinn: Okay. Well it’s my understand…..Torre and PCI I mean these are really good faith estimates on what prevailing wages are and what they believe they can build this for.
President John: Well, I recall the criticism that the County went through and I think they came back with a somewhere between 12 and 15% for all of those services that you just described on building their new jail. And, I think everybody had their arms up, oh we can’t afford to pay that much. So I just want to make sure whatever we’re paying is standard in the industry.
Dan McGinn: I’ve checked them all. It’s 13 to 15% for the ones we’ve talked to.
President John: Members of Council have questions?
Councilman Melcher: Now our old plan and I’ve asked the Mayor the last two years if we were update on the plan and he kept saying yes. Can we throw that away now because this is a whole different plan from the plan we paid all the money for, for the first one?
Dan McGinn: Yes, that plan…I’ll tell you a little bit about that plan, that has some numbers in there that there’s a Polar Bear Exhibit in that plan, 3.2 million dollars, I think. Torre Design is building a Polar Bear Exhibit in the Memphis Zoo right now. The filtration equipment, the saltwater equipment alone is 4.2 million. When that plan was done there was no requirement for saltwater for polar bears, seals, and that type of thing so….
Councilman Melcher: I was just saying we could throw….that book is about this thick we could throw all that away because we’re on this one now.
Dan McGinn: Well that one…there’s still parts of that that could be done, seriously there are parts of that, this is only the start of this.
Councilman Melcher: No, no, I understand but, you know, we’re looking at a bond….you’re looking maybe at doing like we were just talking 17,000,000 or whatever. So there’s also they were wanting a big restaurant in that building to bring in a lot of revenue and is that scrapped now?
Dan McGinn: Well, I mean maybe somebody else can make a decision once I’m gone whenever that is. I don’t believe we should be in the restaurant business.
Councilman Melcher: I’m not saying we were, I’m just saying that was supposedly done by the experts also.
Dan McGinn: I don’t want to say anything bad about those guys, they won some sort of award, but I don’t think they’d ever done a Zoo Master Plan before that is what I had had. And I don’t think their figures were realistic. I mean this man’s been on the loose since ’78.
Councilman Melcher: No I’m okay.
President John: Any other questions by Members of Council? If not thank you very much Dan.
Good job.
Dan McGinn: Thanks.
President John: And if any Member of Council has questions in the next few weeks you’ll contact Alberta and maybe we can set up a time for you to come back. Good job.
Dan McGinn: I’m at your disposal.
President John: Thank you. Next under Miscellaneous we have Wayne Crowe with Washington Court to talk to us a little bit about mixed income housing. Good evening.
Wayne Crowe: Good evening Council President John and Councilwomen and Councilmen. I’d sent all of you an invitation to our Hundred Homes Initiative but I’m sorry that none of you could make it. Through the initiative, our goal is to….is to….the first step in our strategy for joining with local organizations, company’s, individuals, and the community, and a community effort for revitalizing troubled neighborhoods in Evansville’s Center City. WCRC is committee to providing affordable decent housing while at the same time cleaning neighborhoods making them both safe and attractive. As Evansville continues to grow and expand and flourish the near downtown neighborhoods have floundered in neglect and despair. A drive through that was once the heart of Evansville reveals hundreds of neglected houses and properties. Washington Court Redevelopment Corporation’s mission is to instill new life into that Center City area rehabilitating and revitalizing. We seek four million and a combination of public, private grants, loans, mortgages and new income tax credits combined with money WCRC will invest itself. The funds will assist low-income families find safe and affordable housing as well as revitalizing brownstone apartments such as the Rozenkrantz that we presently own. The end result of our efforts will benefit Evansville’s community. Besides revitalizing these troubled neighborhoods
will promote homeownership, strengthen the neighborhood and organizations and their leadership and increase positive citizen engagements something that we’ve not seen in the past. As well, we’ll create jobs and business opportunities. Presently in our targeted area WCRC owns twenty vacant lots, 10 single families, and seven multi-family properties. We think it’s a worthy endeavor, we hope to in sometime in the near future come back with you to this Council with a plan and look for funding. We just wanted to come here and enlighten you today and I appreciate your time.
President John: Well Wayne, I apologize for being unable to attend. I guess I wasn’t to good on a RSVP and I’m usually pretty good at that. How will this inter phase with what Connie was talking about today or can it?
Wayne Crowe: Oh, I think it can and in fact I was glad to hear Councilwoman Robinson talk about allocating a million dollars for the Housing Plan. As you know others like Reverend Adrian Brooks, ECHO, and others are busy in various communities throughout the Evansville area working to revitalize neighborhoods. One of the things that we’ve looked at is the Fall Creek model and then it was interesting to see a city like Owensboro that’s renovating 56 homes. If they can renovate 56 new homes, or build 56 new homes then surely we can do a hundred. We see that as a positive step but again, you know, most of our homes were the old city program CHOICE we acquired them from CHOICE we have mortgages on them in the form of a million dollars. We pay close to $8,000 a month to service those mortgages. So we view it with all the competition with grants we view it you know going after more tax credits, bringing in investors. And we’ve talked to a lot of builders like Lowell and others to attract them to the area, because we feel that looking at the Fall Creek model where they attracted eight private builders and let them bid on the properties with the City providing a lot of infrastructure using tax credits, using a lot of HUD monies that they were able to get it off the ground. To think that the city is going to be able to fund the whole ball of wax is a big mistake. While we view the city having a responsibility of helping rebuild these neighborhoods because they are distressed. We’ve relocated poverty from one area to another with the Walnut Street corridor. If we don’t start taking measures to rebuild these neighborhoods we will start seeing a lot more homeless in these areas.
President John: I would like to compliment you on your hard work, and hopefully at some point in time we will be able to help with your goal.
Wayne Crowe: I appreciate it.
Councilman Melcher: I think that Gail has told you that I probably wouldn’t be there that day. You said tax credit deals a couple of times, is this going to be different profit groups or non profit groups, or are you guys going to do tax credit deals?
Wayne Crowe: That’s open, we are looking for a collaborative effort. We don’t think that Washington Court can do everything itself.
Councilman Melcher: Well, that’s what I was asking. They only have one or two rounds a year.
Wayne Crowe: Right, and one of the things that we do have in that area, we are responsible for the Washington Court Apartments and then we have at 6th and Chandler we have the
Rosenkrantz Apartments which are brownstone that has 15 units. We would have the same type of partnership there that we have with mental health. We would service the lowest of the low income, which would be special needs residents that don’t have services. So, with that project, that would be something that we would be looking at with tax credits for. However, County Council person Royce Sutton who said he was coming to the meeting not as a County person, but as a banker. He has been talking about new income tax credits, which we saw at work today in Owensboro in helping to develop homes. One of the things is that we’re are going to look at the financial institutions, because we have mortgages at two banks. We have mortgages at Old National for the Washington Court Apartments, which is a half of a million dollars worth of mortgages. And the Choice Homes, which we acquired from the city which is a million dollars worth of mortgages. We presently have funds invested at Integra so we are hoping to bring Integra on board as well. We plan to be looking heavily at the banks. If the only way that we can do this is through tax credits, mortgages, and whatever limited funding to assist us with infrastructure. We look at the sewers, we look at the sidewalks in the areas that we want to do. And the experts that we’ve had in town from Fall Creek and other places and they have told us as we saw today in the newspaper again. You know you’ve got to block for block to show the community that we really mean business. What CHOISE did before was to scatter houses all over the city. That doesn’t have an immediate impact on any community. All it does is scatter houses and your responsibility. I have over 30 lots that I have to maintain or weed control comes after me. These are non-buildable lots but we had to acquire them. So this is money that’s going out from a not for profit that can’t afford it, to take care of portions of the city that we can never build on. So, we’ve got some real dilemmas, we’ve got some real problems that we have to work out and we have some funding issues that we need to look at to survive for the corporation. We don’t feel that the city is going to be better off without Washington Court. We feel that the city will be better off with us. Someone has to lead the charge and at this point, no one has stepped up to the plate to do that.
President John: Are there any other questions for Mr. Crowe?
Councilwoman Robinson: You might want to get in contact with DMD and see .. I think that they are soliciting proposals for the Housing Trust Fund. It looks like, from what you’re talking about, that you would be eligible for funds from the Housing Trust Fund.
Wayne Crowe: In fact, I have a 9:00 appointment with Peggy Braun on Wednesday of this week.
President John: Great. Good luck.
Wayne Crowe: Thank you very much.
President John: Any other items to come under Miscellaneous by Members of Council?
Committee Reports, Finance Chairman.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
FINANCE CHAIRMAN____________________________________ ROBINSON
Mr. President your Finance Committee will meet May 19th on Ordinance F-2003-9 at 6:00 p.m. I will not be in attendance that night. Could you handle that for me Please?
President John: I will do that. ASD Chairman Councilman Angermeier.
ASD CHAIRMAN_______________________________________________ ANGERMEIER
Nothing to report at this time.
PUBLIC WORKS CHAIRMAN_________________________________________ BAGBEY
G-2003-14 at 6:15 and 2003-15 according to my records at 6:10 on May 19th.
President John: Thank you. With that we’ll accept a motion to adjourn
ADJOURNMENT:
Councilwoman Robinson moved and Councilman Bagbey seconded the motion to adjourn. Voice Vote. So Ordered. Meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m.
PRESIDING OFFICER
CITY CLERK