Board of Works and Public Safety - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. What do you feel? Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat.

All right, everyone. Let's let's calm down all this excitement. Let's get very serious now and we'll begin our uh board of works meeting. Will you please stand and join me for the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nationice for all.

Can we do the roll call? Sure. Mayor Bont here. Member Newell here. Member Lewis. Member Farcus here. Member Malletto here. Did everyone have a chance to look at the minutes? And I understand we've already identified one necessary revision that said that the meeting happened in 2024, which might make things a little confusing, you know, for future readers of these minutes. Did anybody have any other corrections or things of note or any motions regard to the two different sets of minutes?

I'll make a motion to approve the revised minutes dated March the 10th, 2026. I'll second that. Have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. All right. So, our first order of business, we have the road frontage variance for Mr. uh Jason Martin. Yes. If you'd like to come up and introduce yourself or you could go to the podium or you could sit down. Either way is good. Tom, are you involved with this one or if you're available just in case, but yeah, feel free to just uh Hello. Good to see you.

Hi. Um hi, my name is Jason Martin. Um, I'm looking at a piece of property in Portage off of Leeberg and Long Common Road. Um, we're looking for a variance for a road frontage for that piece of property. Um, I talked to the board of planning and they're re they were requesting um a possible culdeac. Um and we're trying to figure out what would be the best option to mitigate a um the road frontage and access to that property due to the um off of Leeberg was a potential entrance but it goes across wetlands and also goes across a sanitary um parcel. So which isn't wouldn't be owned by myself. Um so we're looking at going off a long common which goes into a deadend uh road. Um talking to planning, they said suggested possibly doing a culde-sac. Um looking into the pricing of cul the culde-sac um for just having uh two homes onto this 67 acre parcel um wouldn't be uh uh feasible because of the cost of what a culde-sac is. just rough estimates what I looked at was anywhere between 80 to $150,000 um for a just two residents on a 67 acre parcel.

Any questions from the board?

So, it was determined um so this is a piece of property with no the only access is through a subdivision. Uh it actually deadends right there. Yes. Um, and it was determined by staff that this is a board of works action as far as frontage um requirements for a for a home. Uh, other variances are handled through BCA, but this was determined that it was a board of works. Um, I would suggest if if approved, uh, make it contingent upon, uh, staff approval of some type of turnaround because that culde-sac or a T um, we're just concerned about turnaround for emergency vehicles, plows, garbage trucks, things like that. So, did you get a map of that? Okay. You happen to have a picture some we can see?

I do. If you could bring it up, that would be great. Yeah, I emailed a bunch of stuff in there. Thank you.

Is the red section where you're looking to have this No, the the red se Sorry. The red section was a I'm looking upside down.

Yeah, sorry. The red section was what they told me was an easement to get on the property. Um but in looking into it, it was a um goes across the sanitary property and it also goes across wetlands. Um with talking to the Army Corps engineers, um they they wouldn't allow that because there is accessibility along Long Common, which is off on to the right hand side of the subdivision. Um our our concern is, you know, you guys are looking for a turnabout um for the garbage trucks, the um uh first responders and stuff like that. It currently ends at a dead end and there's no concern about the dead end currently and we're just looking at putting a private road to two residents on that property. I get where the culde-sac idea came in because they were probably thinking that's a sharp turnaround, but I understand what you're saying that we have deadend roads where emergency services have to turn around in a on a dead end road as it is. Not that we want that to be difficult for them, but

and we we stated that we would we talked to the fire department um and the police uh department. Um we said that we would have turnarounds accessible to at our property, at our homes, that there would be turnarounds there. We just wouldn't want to have a turnaround at the on our property also at our homes too. Tom, did that all sound consistent with what you guys are recommending or this recommendation? Define plans as far as locations, driveways, things like that. We can look at all of that. So,

so your recommendation, Tom, is that we grant a variance contingent on staff approval of the turnaround issues uh for city staff. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve contingent upon um the staff's um approval and of the design work of the turnaround. I'll second. So, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Thank you very much. Thank you.

All right, that gets us to Hey, a a road frontage variance. Mitch and Dwayne Lions. Is that a coincidence we have two road frontage variances on the same day, Tom? Or is that same property? Oh, same property. Okay, gotcha. Favorite properties. I gota I'm like, huh. I'm like, it must be road variance day. So approach. Sure thing. That's roughly if you could go back to the microphone to do that's okay. Thank you. Just protecting the

I apologize. We're in the C-SPAN era. So that's actually like mandated by the state. We have to have these on like recording if if you will. Okay. Um, so the this is the other part of the property that is west of the property you just were speaking of and we have similar situation where Casy Drive dead ends into the property. Um, and we're asking for variance of depending on where the houses get put because NIPCO is not answering calls right now on with what's going on. They they won't even answer any calls. Why that is, but yeah.

Right. Right. Um, so we we are looking for a variance to um right now I think concrete driveway is is preferred, but we're looking for the length of that for two homes. One of which would be within probably a year, year and a half. The other one may or may not ever get built. Um, but we want to have that availability if in the future we want to build one. Um, so we're looking at a a gravel driveway that would go back. um wouldn't be paved, wouldn't be asphalt, and it would be a shared driveway. We've talked that over with Tom and the planning commission. Um there are instances in Portage currently where that is being done. Um and so that's what we're looking for.

Tom, is that road um I just want to make sure I know that's legally a city street. Well, let me refamiliarize myself with this one. And I apologize. I I mean I am the mayor of the city but I don't have every legal street you know versus like roadway versus rightaway you know memorized but just making sure that uh so legally this is the same situation as the one before just a different spot. There's a couple things else I would like to talk to you. Sure thing.

Are we currently allowing gravel drives? Uh, no. I mean, it's a variance from border works. Um you are uh typically only allowed concrete driveway. Yeah, the driveway. Yeah, that would be a BZ. We're looking at frontage. Yeah, this is just the frontage vote. Yeah, no problem. Yeah, sorry. Okay. Oh, nothing against your intent. It's just Yeah, that'd be a diff Sorry, that's government for you. You got to go to one board for this, one board for that. Um BCA is pretty good to work with though, so that you know, I can't promise things, but you'll have a pleasant experience. I'll talk to Haley. She'll give you fine there. So Tom, is there anything material diff materially different on this matter compared to the one we just did? No, this would just be the road frontage issue.

Okay. So So is your recommendation the same then as before? Yes. Okay. Make a motion to approve the road frontage variance for Mitch and Dwayne Lions uh contingent upon staff review and approval. A second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Did you want your uh stuff back? Thanks. Hey, no problem. Thank you. You too. Good luck.

Oh, sorry, Tom. I was like, at first I was like, what are the odds? We have so many, you know, the same.

All right, we have the opening of bids for 2026 paving and road repair.

Good morning. We have our first phase of paving for the year. We received uh two bids. Our first bid is from Milestone Contractors out of Griffith and their bid is for 1,294,97310. Our next bid is from Ruth Riley Construction out of Gary. And Ruth Riley's bid is for 1,285,242. The department would recommend that the board take these under advisement and um hopefully come back at the next meeting to award We make a motion that the uh paving 2026 paving road project repair project uh go under advisement of staff.

Uh legal staff. Yeah. Too. Usually it's Oh. Oh, just all staff. I got you. Sorry, you were right. I just messed it up. I'll second that. So, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Hi. Thank you. Thank you.

Pave roads. That's like my favorite thing to do. We have proposed uh policy manual revisions. Good morning. I've got three items that I handed out this morning that I would ask the board review. And most of these are just for clarification. I've put them in order of how they will go in the handbook. And I see the last time I was here was January of 26. So I'll update that footer and hopefully it'll be a little bit longer before I have to come back again. The first one is with the drug and alcohol policy. We currently test according to DOT regs and we're going to continue testing according to the regs. This change has more to do with the O health provider that we're currently using and just the the rapid test that they have available through their labs. I did put a note I tried to highlight what the actual change will be. So I put a note that just says all drug and alcohol testing will be um conducted in accordance with applicable DOT regs. So anytime these drugs change, we don't have to come back and update the policy. we can just um do it according to that federal law. Um so that's really the only change on this page. And then the second one is with PTO we had built in um due to what we thought was a necessity at the time kind of a mechanism for new hires to be able to have some time frontloaded to them and we found out that that um just didn't work exactly how we wanted to. So we're just the acrual rates are exactly what they were. We took sick time, vacation time, and personal time and put it together with PTO when we implemented that back in May of 25. And there was some confusion on how that was acred and

how it was implemented. So I just created a chart and it it goes basically from the first day of hire all the way through every anniversary what that acrruel will look like in accordance with PTO. Now, keep in mind this is for our non-bargaining police and fire. Our public safety is different. Um, which is I mean historically that's that's very typical, but then we have our CBAs that will also uh trump this as well. But this is the PTO policy for all of our um non-bargaining employees. And then the last page is just it has to do with the grandfathered sick bank time. Again, this was something that historically City of Portage had. They had this uh sick bank that if you didn't use it, it would go into a grandfathered sick time. And we've kind of pivoted to PTO, but we also wanted to keep the sick bank for those who had it. Just through natural attrition, it's going to go away. But it is stated very clearly in the CBAs that this time does get paid out upon separation. And it was asked that we put that one sentence in the employee handbook as well. So that's been added and that is it. Any questions or again no real policy changes just we're adding some clarification where we felt it was needed just to make it work for portage. Um, well,

if I see it right, I think the first two pages that's clarification and literally just the creation of a chart that gives I think it's fair to call the chart not even examples, but just makes it easier to explain than right having to have somebody ask their give their amount then we calculate it. The charts right here. Uh, third page, as I understand it, and I think you've said it already, this is about putting in language that's already in the contracts and has been used by the city already. I don't mean to say unofficially, but it's it's putting in writing what we've been doing.

Right. Right. And as far as the PTO, so here in portage, they don't really use an they use the anniversary date when it elevates them to a new level of acrruel, but other than that, everybody gets time in January. So there was some question, what do they get in January? And then if it's an anniversary, what do we give them later in the year? And so this just kind of breaks it down on a pr-rated basis, but it doesn't change the approval at all. So, I would just ask for approval on these three things. I think we're just taking some time to read through.

Sure. Again, the only changes are the highlighted section that I distributed. So,

I'll make a motion to approve the employee handbook changes or modifications. A second. So, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we have a special event request from an organization I've never heard of before. The Portage Youth um baseball parade. Oh, wait. Hi. I think I have seen you before.

I just have to remember to put it right side up, right? That'll help. So, um, we are the Portage Cal Ripken for the city of Portage for baseball. It's our annual opening day ceremony. May 2nd, we're asking to do our annual parade down Founders Square. Uh, we start lining up the kids over on you see on the map behind Speedway. I don't mind I don't know the roads, but the two roads right off Hamstrom. We close those off. The trucks all pull up in there and then we drive around and close off the roads. The um uh blue line if you see off central that I drew is for the drop off for the kids. So they would pull in, parents drop them off and they can pull around and exit the other way. The green is the path of the parade where they would go around and then go back to the park. Um red is the barricades that we would need so people don't turn in there to use the access when we're down there doing our parade. So, uh, it would be an 8:00 a.m. lineup and 9:00 a.m. start. Uh, I've talked to Chief. I'm going to go to the fire station. I got contacts for street sanitation to set up the barricades and make sure we can get some police cars and some fire trucks in it and be nice and loud and early to wake up Founder Square.

Did you send me an email about this? And I apologize if you did. Was there something you needed or a concern you had about some other event going on or am I mixing up your Yeah, there was something going on I thought and and and I contacted the gentleman. They're having some type of event there, but theirs is at the evening. There's no conflict. No. So, our last our last game, I believe, is at 400 p.m. and they're starting at 6:00. So, I was just worried about the traffic cuz they wanted to use our parking lot, which I said that was cool. But then I started realizing I was like May 2nd, it's opening day. I was like, "We're going to be there. You're going to be there. It's going to be a we need the parking lot." So, but they're at night. So, we we should be ended by then. So, I told him we should be cleared out and then he should be okay for his event. It's your guys' like parking lot, so to speak. So if there was an issue there, I'd work with I just want to make sure that we were caught up.

Oh yeah, we're good. We're good. He he said he's got it all under control. So we're we're good. Any other questions? I'll make a motion to approve the special event request for the Portage Park Youth Baseball opening day parade. Um just contingent upon approval with the police, fire in the streets. I'll second that. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Congratulations. Thank you. Appreciate it. Have a good day.

All right. That gets us to the claims. Did everyone have a chance to take a look at the board of work claims? I'll make a motion to approve the claim stated April 14th, 2026 in the amount of $351,631.

I'll second that. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Then I think that gets us to the uh payroll claims if you guys have had the chance to take a look. There are none. There are Oh, it's just in the agenda. Got it. My bad.

That'll get us then to the bulk appeals. Mr. Reader. Yes. Just one uh bulk item appeal today for the board to review. 2810 Edgewood. Anyone from here? 2810 Edgewood. Okay. uh residents claiming that the bulk we missed and then we picked up following week. I wish they were here to explain the situation better, but I'm asking the board to uphold it unless they have other um reasons not to. So,

I'll make a motion that we uphold the bulk charge for 2810 Edgewood. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Thank you. Any other business to come before the board? Or is there a motion to adjurnn? I'm always watching to see if Tom's got something or or Frank's got something. Oh. Ah. All right. Motion to adjurnn. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Second. We have a motion in a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I.