Plymouth BOW, City Council to Meet Tonight

Posted on Author Anita Goodan
Plymouth City Building

The Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety members have quite a few items to discuss when they meet for their regular meeting tonight.

A bid will be awarded for the Richter Road water main extension project and Building Commissioner Keith Hammonds will discuss an order of action of an unsafe building at 1101 W. LaPorte Street. Police Chief David Bacon will talk about parking on the south side of Gibson Street and the members will be ratifying an executive order that restricts parking near the Mayor’s office on Garro Street and the alley. A speed limit change on Webster Avenue will also be presented to the board.

The Board of Public Works and Safety will meet at 6 p.m.

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Plymouth BOW and Council to Meet Tonight

Posted on Author Anita Goodan
Plymouth City Building

The Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety members will meet tonight where bids will be opened for the renovation of the city building.

The project includes construction of improvements and expansion of the city office at 124 N. Michigan Street including the clerk-treasurer’s office, mayor’s office, city attorney’s office and the council chambers.

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Plymouth Board of Works and Public Safety Takes Lease Proposal Under Advisement

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

Emanuel Reese submitted a proposal to the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety for his business this week.

According to Plymouth City Attorney Sean Surrisi, Reese has added new BBQ grills to his operation at Reese’s Family Ribs at 208 Water Street. He asked the city to formally lease the two parking spaces that he is currently using for his grills. Surrisi says Reese has agreed to pay $10 a month to rent the parking spaces plus semi-annual taxes, as the city-owned property becomes taxable once it is put to commercial use. He asked that the lease begin July 1.

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Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety Accepts Land Sale Proceeds

Posted on Author Anita Goodan
Mayor Mark Senter (L) accepts a check on behalf of the city from David Miller and Patty Van Vactor Wright

Representatives from Van Vactor Farms, Inc. presented the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety a check this week for their portion of the proceeds of the land sale at the techFarms site.

Patty Van Vactor Wright and David Miller presented a giant check in the amount of $111,493 for the city’s Monetary Gift Fund.

The techFarm is located on Miller Drive and Pioneer Drive on the west side of Plymouth and consists of 20 acres zoned industrial and 11.3 acres zoned as commercial land. The city helped extend infrastructure to the park in 2010 so the site is ready for development.

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Plymouth City Engineer Presents Preliminary Pavement Asset Management Plan

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

The preliminary Pavement Asset Management Plan was presented to the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety on Monday.

City Engineer Rick Gaul explained that one goal is to improve the overall weighted average ratings of existing streets. The expected pavement level of service is to maintain 50 percent of the street rating as “Good”. According to the preliminary plan, the PASER rating will be equal to or greater than eight. Those include roads that are newly paved, crack seal coated or overlaid. Anything less will be deemed fair to poor. Several other criteria will be assessed in the plan including street traffic types, street traffic volume, utilities, and right-of-ways. A final plan will be submitted at the board’s next meeting.

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Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety Discusses MOU with Plymouth Schools

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

Plymouth City Engineer Rick Gaul presented the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety members with a proposed Memorandum of Understanding from the Plymouth Community School Corporation concerning the financial guarantee that deals with drainage at the football field.

The school is applying an astroturf surface on the high school football field beginning in June. Gaul explained that the plans call for a proper draining into the city’s system with the alternate type of surface.

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Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety Approve Funding for Bridge

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

Funding for a footbridge to be built near the South Gateway Project was approved by the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety Monday night.

The $300,000 footbridge will cross the Yellow River on the south portion of the property near S. Michigan Street and Lake Street in Plymouth. The city’s share would be $90,000 which would come out of the city monetary gift fund which yields the proceeds of the sale of TechFarm property. The money is split between Vanco Development and the City of Plymouth.

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Plymouth BOW/Council to Meet Tonight

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

The Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety will meet tonight where City Engineer Rick Gaul will have several times for the board’s consideration.

A representative from the Plymouth Community School Corporation will discuss a financial guarantee memorandum of understanding for the football field turf drainage project. The Troyer Group will present a construction contract for consideration. Several work requests of projects in the city’s right-of-way will be offered including several service line installation projects and the installation of a monitoring well.

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Plymouth BOW Awards Bids for Spring Projects

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

The Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety awarded bids for spring projects this week.

Walsh and Kelly out of South Bend will be doing the street and sidewalk projects. The bid of $431,432.25 was the lowest submitted bid that met all of the project specifications as reviewed by City Attorney Sean Surrisi and City Engineer Rick Gaul. Four companies provided bids for the projects which include: Jefferson from the Yellow River Bridge to Kingston, Plum Street from Washington to Jackson, PIDCO Drive from Jim Neu to Oak Road, and Markley from Shamrock to Western.

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Outdoor Project to Start Soon at the Rees Theater

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

Outside work at the Rees Theater in Plymouth will be starting soon.

The Wythougan Valley Preservation Council members presented a request to the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety this week asking to block off a few parking spaces on Michigan and LaPorte Streets for a portion of the work. While the board members approved that request, the preservation council members will need to present a similar request to the Indiana Department of Transportation as Michigan Street is considered a state highway.

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Plymouth BOW Ratifies Designation of Underground or Buried Utilities Area

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter signed an executive order at the end of April that restricts the placement of small wireless devices and the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety took further action on that document.

City Attorney Sean Surrisi said a state law passed in the final days of the General Assembly broadens access to government-owned right-of-way for the placement of cell phone antennae on poles of 50 feet or less. There was a provision in the law that the city wouldn’t have any review process over the location of those poles unless it is in a designated area for underground utilities.

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Plymouth BOW/Council to Meet Tonight

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

The Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety members will award bids and ratify an executive order when they meet tonight.

Bids were opened for microsurfacing projects and the street and sidewalk projects at the last meeting. City Engineer Rick Gaul asked to take those bids under advisement until tonight’s meeting to make sure all of the paperwork is in line with specifications.

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Bids Opened and Quotes Submitted for Projects during Plymouth BOW Meeting

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

A quote will be considered for the microsurface project this spring in the City of Plymouth.

One bid was received for the project which was opened by City Attorney Sean Surrisi during the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety meeting last week. The single quote of $415,972.78 was submitted by Pavement Solutions, Inc in Middletown, Indiana. City Engineer Rick Gaul explained that there aren’t too many companies close around that can complete the project. He found 11 companies and contacted four of them that were within 200 miles. Two companies attended the pre-bid meeting.

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Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety Approves Police Department Requests

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

A retiring police officer will leave the Plymouth Police Department with his service weapon.

The Plymouth Board of Public Works this week approved a resolution to deem the officer’s handgun as surplus property to the police department. With that unanimous approval, the weapon can be released from the department’s inventory to the officer when he is prepared to leave office.

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Bid Awarded for Traffic Signal project

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

The Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety members approved a bid to get a traffic signal project started.

City Engineer Rick Gaul asked for the approval of a contract submitted by Michiana Contracting as they produced the low bid for the installation of a traffic signal at the intersection of Oakhill, Soice and Michigan Streets near Webster Elementary School. He reminded the board that another bid received from another company did not provide all of the required information needed in the bid packet.

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Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety Approves Sewer Equipment Purchase

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

The purchase of a combination sewer cleaner was discussed by the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety this week.

Utility Superintendent Donnie Davidson told the board that the department has held off on purchasing the equipment for about five years to collect the funds for the expenditure. Davidson said $400,000 is budgeted for the purchase this year.

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Plymouth BOW and City Council to Meet Tonight

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

The Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety members will award a bid for the Oakhill/Soice at Michigan Street intersection signalization improvements when they meet tonight. The board also expects to open quotes for the Ledyard Plant roof replacement project.

City Attorney Sean Surrisi will present a resolution designating a handgun as surplus property of the Plymouth Police Department and authorize its transfer to a retiring police officer.

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Plymouth City Council Approves Firefighter/Paramedics Salary Increase

Posted on Author Anita Goodan

Plymouth Fire Chief Rod Miller and council member Don Ecker, Jr. presented information to the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety and the Plymouth City Council members Monday night about the need for more full-time firefighters and paramedics.

Chief Miller said he’s having trouble maintaining staff members. Pay for full-time firefighters is not competitive with surrounding communities to entice personnel to stay. Information given to the board showed Plymouth as one of the lowest paying fire departments in the area.

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