JACKSON CENTER — Jackson Center’s village council met in regular session, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m.
During the meeting, council members discussed the possibility of a new railroad crossing at Hamer Street.
Administrator Bruce Metz informed council that he met with C & M Properties and they are looking into expanding the Hudson Lake Subdivision farther to the south. C & M Properties also wanted to talk about a railroad crossing at Hamer Street. Metz stated the railroad says that for Jackson Center to get a crossing, the village will need to give up a crossing.
The village will have to look at all of its crossings and see if any of them are worth giving up and see if they can be given up. There are currently crossings at Washington, Jackson, College, Pike (state Route 274) and Davis streets for a total of five crossings. Metz said the village currently pays $3,661.14 each year for the underground, 12-inch water and sewer pipes that run under the state Route 65 railroad crossing on the north side of the village. These amounts seem to go up 5 to 6 percent every year. Also, this year, the village paid $2,200 for borings that were made underneath College, Davis and Hamer streets for water lines. The annual fee going forward on these three bores will be $479 each, with a percentage increase each year.
Council members questioned what that money was used for, since it is not used for maintaining the easements or crossings. Metz told the council the only thing the railroad does is spray for weeds once a year and that receiving the new crossing will probably be a six-month process with a fee to apply. Council members were not sure if there was a crossing that could be eliminated at this time.
C & M Properties will need to meet with a property owner to see if it can get a right of way for the property between the subdivision and the railroad.
Fire Chief Jerry Davis reported that the fire department will have a Careflight landing zone training at the Legion, Sept. 30, from 9 to 11 a.m. It will be an hour of classroom work and then an hour with the helicopter. The department had Jaws of Life training last month with cars donated by Honda.
The fire department has been working on the Insurance Service Office testing for some time now. Davis stated that the village ISO rating is a 4 and the Jackson Township ISO rating is a 9. Davis said this has been a long process as they have had to measure all of the ponds, find out the water capacity, get signatures from all of the homeowners and submit all of the data. Kettlersville did the same test 10 years ago and was able to save their homeowners about $100 a month on their homeowners insurance just from dropping from a rating of 9 to a 7. Jackson Center has been able to use a lot of those numbers regarding the water supply for the tankers, because none of the tankers has changed in that 10-year time frame.
Davis said all of the paperwork has been submitted to the main office in New Jersey and results should be back around March.
Davis also noted that Alexis Shady started her fire classes and is trying to obtain the Level One Firefighter certification. She has also started EMT school. Shady will be the first female in Jackson Center’s Fire Department.
The council also read a resolution to accept the amounts and rates as determined by the budget commission and authorizing the necessary tax levies for the second time. This is an annual action. For the fiscal year 2018, the Shelby County Auditor is estimating that the Village will receive $44,472 for the Inside 10 Mill Limitation levy at a rate of 2.0 mills.
Also, for the fiscal year 2018, the Shelby County auditor is estimating that the village will receive $43,559 for the Outside 10 Mill Limitation levy at a rate of 2.0 mills, that was passed by voters in November 2013.
Metz informed the council of the status of operations within the village and what he has been working on, including:
• The striping on Davis, Linden and South streets was completed, Sept. 9. There is some curb to paint yet and signage to permanently install; otherwise, this project is complete.
• The street lights will be put up at the school when more of the materials are in; hopefully that will be started this week.
• Service has been finished at the Verizon Tower site. It is now live with electric. They are waiting for the tower to be delivered. The tower comes in two pieces, and they put it together. After it gets here, they say it will probably be a month and a half to put up. Metz said the only problem is that the bottom half of the tower is in Texas, and they don’t know when it is going to get here.
• NK Telco electric service was expected to be completed the week of Sept. 11.
• The Reclamite was finished at the park and that has been striped and completed.
• Detention pond was seeded, Sept. 8. The pump is being sized and will be installed, and then this project will be complete. The detention portion that will go away by itself is 2.4 million gallons and the retention part remaining to be pumped is 2.1 million, so it will hold 4.5 million gallons, and Metz says he hopes he never sees it full.
• Metz recieved the notice to proceed at the solar field and will be moving in this week. Workers will have to do some tile work, and they will have to take some trees down and clean up some fence rows. They are not allowed to do the trees until after Oct. 1, because of the migration of the Indiana bat.
• Work progresses on the irrigation of the soccer field at the new park. There should still be plenty of time to get it in yet this year.
• Metz requested that the Wage and Benefits Committee meet before the next council meeting. The meeting was scheduled Sept. 18 at 7 p.m.
The next Jackson Center council will be Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers.
