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BY PHIL WIELAND
pwieland@nwitimes.com
219.462.5151 | Tuesday, January 11, 2005 | (No comments posted.)
VALPARAISO | Utilities, Tasers and tax abatements highlighted the council's agenda Monday.
The Council approved an ordinance creating the Valparaiso City Utilities Board to oversee operations of the sewer utility and the Water Department. The board will consist of the five-member board that previously operated the Water Department only.
Utility Director John Hardwick said the name of the board was changed from the Valparaiso Utility Board so people would not confuse the VU initials with Valparaiso University.
"The concept of a utility board is very important," Mayor Jon Costas said. "They will be able to focus on the details and look long term."
It will take a full year for the transition to be complete. Clerk-Treasurer Sharon Swihart said she and Hardwick will go to Indianapolis to meet with the State Board of Accounts next month to discuss the transition to make sure it is done properly and there is a paper trail for things now done by her office for the Sewer Department that will be turned over to the new Utilities Board.
Swihart said she will continue to pay salaries and benefits to Sewer Department employees in 2005, but the Utilities Board will take over paying other bills in April. The Sewer Department's revenue will begin going to the Utilities Board at that time, and Swihart will bill the board for the benefits and salaries for the rest of the year and until the 2006 budget goes into effect.
"There are a number of things to work through - benefits, policies and procedures," Hardwick said. "A key issue will be pension plans because they have different plans."
Many of the sewer utility employees are vested in the state's Public Employees Retirement Fund. Swihart said it could take a visit with the retirement fund office to make sure those employees don't lose any of their retirement benefits in the change.
On the Tasers, Police Chief Michael Brickner said he will be ordering 14 of them today after receiving a $10,000 donation from Urschel Laboratories Inc. Rick Urschel was at the meeting for the announcement, and Brickner said the gift means almost half the patrol division will have the devices, which are capable of immobilizing potentially violent suspects with an electric shock.
Brickner said he didn't know how long it would take for the Tasers to be delivered. Two Valparaiso officers who also are members of the county's Special Weapons and Tactics unit already are equipped with Tasers.
The tax abatement went to UGN Inc., which makes insulation for cars, for the purchase of $2.95 million in equipment the company is buying to produce a lighter version of the insulation that is expected to be attractive to car manufacturers in the near future.
Redevelopment Director William Hanna said UGN plans to consolidate its operation, part of which is in Tennessee, at the Valparaiso plant and eventually add 100 jobs, 75 of which would be filled by city residents. The equipment is the first of three phases of the consolidation, and the next two will be a total $7 million investment.
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