HomeMy WebLinkAboutCRC-12-11-01CRC Minutes, December 12, 2001
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CARMEL REDEVELOPMENT COMMISSION Meeting, Wednesday, December 12,
2001
President Rick Roesch called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. Commission Members
present were Ron Carter, Ed Burke, Luci Snyder, constituting a quorum. John Koven
arrived at 7:08 p.m. Also present were City Councilor Wayne Wilson, Les Olds, Steve
Engelking, Karl Haas, Kelli Hahn, Stu Hirsch from the Indianapolis Star, James Bryan,
David Valinetz and Gregg Romaine from SESCO, A. Skandarajah, from Paul I Cripe,
Inc., Paul Reis, Jim Thomas from AMLI, Kimberlie Babbitt, North American
Construction Company, Inc., Ronald Renkin, The Village Cleaner. Phyllis Morrissey
present as support staff.
Agenda Order Changed
Ms. Snyder moved the agenda order be changed because of the interest in the awarding
of bids. Following a second by Mr. Burke, the motion was unanimously approved.
Demolition Bids
Mr. Olds reminded the Commission that bids were opened at the last meeting and taken
under advisement by CSO. He also noted the complications due to the large amount of
insurance coverage required. Mr. Olds talked to a number of people about the insurance
requirement, including the insurance provider for the apparent low bidder. He was
assured that the insurance is provided as required. North American’s insurance agent had
misquoted the cost, thinking it was required for a whole year, not just a single project.
This did not impact their bid on Parcel 5, but it did on Parcel 8.
Mr. Olds continued: After reviewing the bids, it is our recommendation that the bid for
Parcel 5, which includes all of the Kroger, the B shops, the Herrigan property, the
pavement, the asphalt, and taking the property when it’s all cleaned off back to hydro-
seeded surface be awarded to Brandenburg. There are a few conditions on the bid we
should be aware of. This bid is based on the fact that they would mobilize, arrive to the
site with all their equipment, start at one end and be gone in approximately four-five
weeks. That is a wonderful thing to be done. Unfortunately, we do have a problem with
the B shops and the existing lease for the paint store. Karl tells us we cannot knock it
down until it’s resolved, hopefully in January. Which means we would be asking this
contractor to tear it down in February.
We also would be asking them on the Herrigan property to help Shapiro by coming in the
very first thing and tear out the very front parking area fronting on Range Line back
leaving just enough space for one row of parking at the dry cleaners.
Ms. Snyder: They’re still going to be operating?
Mr. Olds: I don’t know that. We would also be asking them to tear the Herrigan building
down and then stop, allowing SESCO to come in and drill through the floor of the dry
cleaners to do some more verification, so they could in turn determine how much they’re
going to have to dig out around the building and haul away to a qualified dumpsite by
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qualified contractors. So it’s not quite as easy as we thought. It is our hope that you
would award the bid to Brandenburg and allow the executive director and me to sit and
negotiate with Brandenburg a reasonable schedule. Be aware there would probably be
some additional cost if we force them to mobilize, demobilize and things like that, but
hopefully we can work it out and report back to the Commission.
Ms. Snyder moved the CRC award the bid to Brandenburg. Following a second by Mr.
Burke, the motion was unanimously approved.
Parcel #8
Mr. Skandarajah, from Paul I. Cripe, Inc., reported they were recommending that North
American be awarded the bid for demolition of Parcel 8, noting they project completion
within one month.
Mr. Engelking noted there were two other communications regarding this parcel. One had
to do with the relocation of overhead electrical lines, which included an estimate from
Cinergy of the cost to convert the overhead lines to underground lines within a fifteen
foot easement on that property. This does not include other lines that might be present
that have fiber optics or cable tv or telephone lines. The estimate is $107,247 + 30%.
They haven’t refined it until they see the scope of the plan. This will end up being an
additional cost but it is not part of the demolition.
Mr. Engelking continued. We also received a communication from AMLI noting they are
interested in salvaging a truck scale in one of the buildings on Parcel 8.
Brief discussion followed.
Mr. Engelking noted for the record. “I was advised by Mr. Don Currise, the engineer
from Paul I. Cripe, Inc., working on putting together the demolition plan that they
proposed and put out for bid, that he had coordinated with representatives of AMLI, and
in fact at one point it was one of the things characterized to me that was holding up their
process, because it was being reviewed. And I believe I reported that at a previous CRC
meeting.”
Discussion continued. Ms. Kimberlie Babbitt, from North American Construction
Company, Inc., was present and told Mr. Thomas, from AMLI, they could have the scale.
Ms. Snyder moved the CRC award the bid to North American Construction Company,
Inc., for the demolition of Parcel 8. Following a second by Mr. Burke, the motion was
approved by a vote of four in favor.
Mr. Carter expressed disappointment in Cinergy’s apparent unwillingness to cooperate
with moving the lines, noting they have been less than helpful whenever we’ve tried to
work with them. There was general agreement from the Commission members.
Discussion followed. It was decided the President of the Commission along with the
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President of the City Council should meet with Cinergy executives to discuss this. Mr.
Engelking will let Cinergy know a meeting is wanted.
Approval of Minutes
Ms. Snyder moved the CRC approve the minutes of the November 14, 2001, meeting.
Following a second by Mr. Carter, the motion was unanimously approved.
Ms. Snyder moved the CRC approve the minutes of the November 1, 2001, meeting.
Following a second by Mr. Carter, the motion was unanimously approved.
Mayor’s Report
No Report from Mayor due to his absence.
Director’s Report
Mr. Engelking received a call from Mark Schubach referencing a hearing before the
Alcoholic Beverage Commission on January 8, 2002, at the Hamilton County Judicial
Center in the Commissioners’ room. A notice (which Mr. Engelking received in the mail)
has to be posted in the window of the Kroger building tomorrow [December 13]. Mr.
Roesch and Mr. Engelking were both asked by Mr. Schubach to attend the meeting.
Financial Report
Mr. Engelking reminded the CRC that Ms. Mielke is out of the office until mid January.
He noted a cash flow report was included with the invoices in the packets. Projected
balance at the end of the year is $2,042,428. “I believe the revenue figure there may be
understated. I don’t think Ms. Mielke included the $600,000 we have previously
anticipated receiving from the AMLI escrow. I believe it was omitted. If that were added
to it, your cash flow at the end of the year would be $2,600,000+.”
Discussion followed. Mr. Burke said he is trying to confirm what the TIF revenues will
be.
Mr. Roesch said Mayor Brainard has confirmed that President Bush signed the bill which
will include a $1,300,000 grant to Carmel which will be used for the reflecting pond.
Attorney’s Report
Mr. Haas distributed an outline of the project agreement with AMLI. This was just
finalized so there was no time to include it in the packets.
Your choices are postponing approval for a month (which postpones the receipt of the
$600,000 in escrow) or approving an outline and authorizing Rick [Roesch] to sign a
project agreement which is consistent with the outline. Of the members who responded,
two of them were in favor of approving an outline and I’d be glad to review for you what
the transaction is.
As you’ll recall, the CRC has about a million two in the acquisition of the property and it
was the goal of the CRC to recoup that money from the redevelopment project. At the
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same time we had encountered some difficulties with the wetlands on AMLI’s City
Center project and there were some delay damages. Which I must say, editorially, I
thought AMLI was very cooperative in working through with us. Part of that was that
AMLI agreed to redevelop the Old Town property, to make a $600,000 up front cash
payment and then make ground lease payments in amount which, when brought back to
that present value would be $600,000. In exchange for that, AMLI wanted to have a
preference of $500,000 so that they were able to recoup the amount of delay damages
that they had incurred on the City Center project. So this is all a very complicated way of
providing for the following: You lease the property to AMLI, you do some site work
comprised of building demolition, relocation of utility lines primarily, AMLI pays
$600,000. AMLI builds the project and from the net cash flow or the proceeds of capitol
events, the Redevelopment Commission shares, and that way recoups the remaining
$600,000 after AMLI has recouped its $500,000.
Mr. Roesch: I really see very little that’s different from what we originally voted on. It’s
just that the details have been hammered out.
Mr. Haas: I think that’s completely correct.
Mr. Roesch: I was wondering why you think we need to approve this again. Is it because
so much time has elapsed?
Mr. Haas: No. It’s because of the way we left it. That you would have the opportunity to
approve the final project agreement which is what we normally would have done. Had
we had everything worked out a week ago, I would have provided everyone with copies
of the project agreement and asked for your blessing tonight.
Mr. Roesch: I got a voice mail from Jim Thomas today stating that his last time for
cutting checks this year is the 17th.
Mr. Haas: My personal preference is to get that money in escrow by the 17th. The other
alternative is to call a special meeting to approve the final project agreement.
Further discussion followed. It was noted that earnest money was posted. Mr. Haas said
the $600,000 will go into escrow in December and come out of escrow in January or
February.
Mr. Thomas: The money cannot be released until CRC has completed their obligations on
the project (site work and vacation of internal rights-of-way).
It was noted a Phase One needed to be done on the Old Town site as soon as possible.
Ms. Snyder moved the CRC approve the AMLI purchase agreement in concept and it can
be executed in particular and move on. Following a second by Mr. Burke, the motion was
unanimously approved.
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Mr. Roesch asked that everyone let him know what needs to be done. He said a checklist
would be used to help vendors move along as quickly as possible.
Mr. Roesch asked what the status of the Lumberyard area was.
Mr. Thomas: It’s all connected. That’s why we’re frustrated… the inability to move this
thing forward. You [CRC} are sharing the income from the Lumberyard tract along with
the rest of the project.
Discussion followed. Mr. Thomas described the units and retail areas.
Discussion about the demolition of Parcel #8. Mr. Wilson noted the Street Department
has rented another building for their equipment. Mr. Carter said it is important that the
demolition be completed by the end of February because of the usage of the Monon Trail.
Ms. Snyder asked about the street vacation listed as CRC obligations in the agreement.
“Is that something the Council has to do?” She noted there would be time problems with
this. Discussion followed and it was decided it has already been done and now needs to
be activated. Mr. Roesch asked Mr. Haas to call City Attorney Doug Haney to see what
the CRC needs to do about the completion of the vacation.
Mr. Koven: I want to make a comment. We have been sitting here for a year looking at
$600,000 and we’ve moved it a couple of times. This thing [financial Report] is as
useless as a piece of toilet paper if somebody is not staying on top of this and keeping us
abreast of what’s going on. I don’t know why I had in mind it had already gone into
escrow. Normally, when you close a deal or you accept a deal, somebody enters into
something. And why their money wasn’t sitting in escrow already, waiting for somebody
to get stuff done, I have no idea. But somebody sure knew that last month we weren’t
going to have $600,000 in December and for the same reason Ed just gave, we need to
know how much COIT is going to be. This stuff is worthless. I don’t want to be sitting
here making decisions on spending money for teardowns based on money I think we
have in the bank and it’s going to be sixty days before it’s in the bank. You can’t run a
business like this.”
Mr. Roesch: That’s why it’s unfortunate that Sherry [Mielke] is out, but I think the
financial report is a very important part of this meeting. We all need to go over it, ask
questions. Ed’s doing some things to further refine, make sure that input’s in there. If any
of us see anything that should be moved, or any vendors see anything on these cash flow
projections, bring it up so we can get it in the right category. On a spreadsheet this
changes…
Mr. Koven [interrupting]: I understand that and it’s not Sherry’s fault at all. I might point
a finger at Karl. This could have been done six months ago. Tell me, what’s different here
than what we accepted back in March? Why did it take this long for us to vote on this? I
thought we’d already done this. That’s why I thought we already had money in escrow.
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Mr. Haas: That’s not entirely consistent with the [inaudible]. It is consistent with the last
presentation that was made.
Mr. Koven: But you’ve sat at every one of these meetings. And you, for one, probably the
only one, who knew we weren’t going to have $600,000 in December. I see it as your
responsibility to point that out to us.
Mr. Haas: Which I’d be willing to undertake, but I don’t receive in advance, and
generally don’t have at the meeting, copies of the financial report.
Discussion continued. Financial reports will be sent to Karl along with the rest of the
packets at the same time they are mailed to the CRC members. Mr. Olds will receive one,
too.
Mr. Olds recommended the demolition bids be broken down by parcel number in the
financial reports to avoid confusion. It was agreed that Ms. Mielke will need some
guidance on this.
Mr. Roesch said he had been contemplating if the CRC should hire a professional outside
firm to handle our finances on an ongoing basis.
Mr. Carter said, “As much as we discuss our finances and as important as our cash flow is
to us, we have probably sold ourselves short by excluding Ms. Mielke from these
meetings. There’s so much goes on, back and forth, that Sherry would benefit from by
hearing firsthand. There are questions that we ask every meeting that she could probably
answer right away. We ought to say she should be back in the meetings. Our cash flow is
very crucial.”
Mr. Roesch: We were trying to address the expense of having Sherry at these meetings.
Mr. Carter: The expense of having Sherry at these meetings if we had that $600,000 into
our cash flow a month or two ago would more than likely have been covered for the next
year and a half through the interest we might have gained.
Mr. Roesch: That’s a good point. Is there any way of adjusting Sherry’s schedule so she
can attend this without incurring overtime during the day?
Mr. Engelking: That would be up to the Mayor to decide whether he wants to not have
her during the day on the other projects that she does. This is not the only thing she works
on for him. I’ll talk to him about that. Whether she has to attend special meetings would
be predicted by whether or not you’re going to talk about cash flow.
Architect’s Report
Mr. Olds: I included in your packets a listing of what we’re currently working on.
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At the last meeting we discussed making revisions to the reflecting pond. We also
requested those City workers who would be responsible for maintenance of the pond take
a look at the documents and offer input. Mr. Engelking then set up a meeting.
In terms of looking at our documents they had a series of recommendations, most of
which were easy to have done, except for the last item. The request from them was that
they wanted to see all the water in the reflecting pond filtered. This was never our intent.
It was to collect surface rain water, act as a partial retention, and drain off the excess
from the storm water system. Due to the very size of the pond and its depth, the volume
of water to be filtered was almost insurmountable. It could be done, but it would require a
lot of changes. They then came back and made the suggestion that the whole pond just be
two feet deep.
Mr. Olds: We dug the pond out to get fill material to fill the balance of the site. They
asked that we just go back and fill it in. Ms. Weese said there would be a lot of free fill
dirt available in the spring. So we looked at it. The cost of bringing in the fill, putting a
concrete bottom across it, and putting in a filtration system in, which means around the
entire perimeter, we’d have drains to clean, would add about $300,000 to the project. Plus
the ongoing maintenance of the sand filtering system.
Mr. Olds: After much discussion, we decided we would offer to take in an alternate bid.
Discussion [by CRC members] followed at length. The aesthetic differences between this
reflecting pond and the pond south of City Hall were discussed.
It was estimated that the cost for chemicals for the ten foot version would be
approximately $10,000 per year.
Mr. Olds said there was another option: changing the depth and putting additional
concrete in place of the rubber. The upcharge for this is estimated at $100,000.
Question was asked about whether it would need to be fenced for safety reasons. No
definite answer was given, but it was noted it is a retention pond, not a swimming pool.
Mr. Olds: The bids have to be “out on the street” no later than the first of next week in
order to have the bids opened at the January 9 meeting. We have the documents ready to
go, including with alternates.
It was decided the bids would be put out with the alternatives. The ice skating option is
still included.
Financial comparison for maintenance needs to be available for the different reflecting
pond proposals. Mr. Engelking will gather that information. The maintenance info will be
sent out ahead of the January meeting to give everyone time to study it and ask questions.
Discussion continued.
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Mr. Olds noted they will have a pre-bid conference and be able to talk to potential
bidders, giving them updated information. We can also issue an addendum during the
process.
Carmel Rotary Plaza
The top rail was delivered but was built incorrectly so will have to be redone. The
plaques are made but have not yet been shipped.
Master Plan
CSO is in the process of updating the master plan, at the Commission’s direction., and
defining the perimeter boundaries. We’ve had initial meetings with Mike Hollibaugh and
Kelli Hahn [Department of Community Services] regarding the limits. Working together
we will develop a new map that will have the boundary line limits that the Commission
controls and will be responsible for, their “area of influence”.
Mr. Roesch: And we may want to turn that into zoning.
Mr. Olds: We are working on that and will be reporting back as it develops.
Pylon Sign
Mr. Olds had different proposals for the size of the sign. Mr. Olds would like to meet
with Mr. Thomas to have him review the ideas and then report back to the Commission at
the next meeting with AMLI’s comments and let the Commission make a decision based
on that information.
Shapiro’s Drainage
Mr. Olds met with Ms. Weese, City Engineer, along with SESCO representatives to
review the drainage on the Shapiro parcel. The design by Rowland is collecting the storm
water on the site with underground piping and piping over to the northwest corner of the
property where it was anticipated they would tie into an existing 36” stormwater line that
runs east to west.
Mr. Weese’s concern was they are having some flooding on the other side of the fire
department drive adjacent to the bank. She’s concerned the system is somewhat
overloaded and that the taking of Shapiro’s water also will add to the problem.
Mr. Olds continued: We pointed out that in the master drainage plan it was the intent to
have on Parcel #5, adjacent to the area of the Monon Trail, the underground storm water
detention system. It would be put in once Parcel #5 was sold to take care of that parcel’s
surface drainage and also some of the public land, where the museum building and
performing arts center would be located. We had originally had an estimate for that of
$300,000-$350,000. It was our thought that Shapiro’s drainage could be brought over put
in a depression we dug in the area then take a pipe from that depression and run it off
back to the 36” line. There are a number of issues raised by Shapiro’s engineer and Ms.
Weese: the depth of the depression area, possibility of having some underground storm
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water detention placed on Shapiro’s property along the fire department drive. The
thought being that if Shapiro’s detention was in that area, the detention we proposed
would be reduced in size. That detention area is estimated to cost $75,000 to $100,000. If
that is approved, it would be done by Shapiro’s contractors, not the CRC under the public
bidding rule. These different options will be presented at the Technical Advisory Meeting
[on December 19].
For clarification, Mr. Olds noted the master plan calls for the detention area to be under
where the Kroger building sits.
Costs for this were discussed. It was noted the costs were considerably less if Shapiro’s
did it, rather than the CRC.
This detention area would also serve to relieve the problems near the Fire Department,
Police Department and the bank.
Mr. Koven and Ms. Snyder both wanted to know why this is a CRC problem and not a
City problem. Ms. Snyder noted the Police have had a major claim against an insurance
company and it was denied, so the issue needs to be addressed, because it will happen
again.
Mr. Koven: I don’t see it being a CRC problem since it was there prior to the CRC.
Mr. Roesch: It’s hard to delineate; we have to do it for Shapiro’s, but essentially in the
whole thing we have to take that water, too.
Mr. Olds: A lot of that water was flowing on the grass area and being absorbed in the
ground.
Mr. Roesch: We probably should ask the City to bear the part of the costs. I’m not sure
even what amount to ask for.
Mr. Olds: We should know that amount in about a week. Shapiro’s engineer and the City
Engineer will be running some calculations.
Mr. Roesch asked for CRC permission to spend up to $100,000 for this module so we can
prepare for this TAC and seek reimbursement for part of it from the City.
Mr. Koven: Who missed this in the first place? How much more of this is there going to
be? Now all of a sudden we’ve got another problem. This water problem didn’t just
happen.
Mr. Roesch: We’ve always been aware we were going to create water and the solution in
one fell swoop was $300,000.
Mr. Koven: But isn’t that a problem that the City already had?
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Mr. Olds: We were not even aware of that problem till this morning.
Mr. Roesch: What I’m saying is from a cash flow standpoint it makes sense to do it
modularly. Then as we sell something else we can add on to it with this type of
technology.
Mr. Olds: The way we looked at it when it first became an issue, it was always the feeling
of CSO, drain you water to that point and then cut a ditch as a temporary storm water
drainage. That could be done for pennies, insignificant. But it was a temporary solution.
To us we understood the money problem. If we had thought that would not be acceptable
then we would have said you need to start the building of the major storm water retention
underground system for Parcel #5. It was never our intent to start that at this point. It was
only meant to start that once all of Parcel #5 was sold and there were adequate funds to
take care of it. But even if all of Parcel #5 was sold, maybe we didn’t need that much.
Maybe we store some of that water on the roofs and meter the runoff. There are a number
of other options that could occur and we were just holding back as long as we could. The
digging of the hole is still an option, not really liked by the City Engineer, but still an
option.
Mr. Roesch: I think her feeling is if you do it on a modular basis, it’s a better final
solution.
Mr. Olds: And it also solves the existing City’s problem. The pit doesn’t address those
problems.
Mr. Carter: If the City kicks in, let’s say half of it, our cash flow might be enhanced by
$50,000.
Discussion continued about what portion the City should pay.
Ms. Hahn: For TAC purposes, it is not necessary for you to decide how much money you
will be spending, or how the “partnership” might work. They can approve it contingent
on solving any drainage problems.
It was decided to relook at this at the January 9, 2002, meeting in hopes of having better
numbers.
Ms. Snyder and Mr. Burke are meeting with Rowland Design tomorrow [December 13].
Approval of Invoices
Copies of the invoices were distributed with the packets. Mr. Burke asked for
clarification on the Eden Enterprises invoice. Mr. Olds said it was for Rotary Plaza and
they will have one more payment due after the work is all completed satisfactorily. Mr.
Roesch noted some of that money will be reimbursed by the Carmel Rotary. They have
been invoiced.
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The Barnes & Thornburg invoice was discussed. This appears to be an invoice they tried
to submit earlier this year. CRC did not approve Barnes & Thornburg to work on the
Duke Weeks project. We are to approve any invoices prior to submitting them to Duke
Weeks so we protect their interest.
The Commission members were all in agreement that CRC was not responsible for this
invoice nor is Duke Weeks.
Ms. Snyder moved to approve the invoices excluding the Barnes & Thornburg invoice of
$4,160.50, leaving a total of $115,484.68. Following a second by Mr. Burke, the motion
was unanimously approved.
Old Business
Mr. Roesch: SESCO will be meeting with IDEM tomorrow, having preliminary
discussions for approval of the mediation plan. I’ve also asked for a budget from them.
Mr. Bryan: Our meeting tomorrow is an initial meeting to present to them the addendum
phase of the delineation project that’s been completed. Final copies were given to Rick.
This gives us the foundation to begin to work with them, to get their approval of the site
characterization and to allow us to move on and put together a work plan that they would
approve. Once that’s done, then we can design the system and we can have costs assigned
to it. Without completion of this document there’s no value in meeting with them.
Mr. Roesch: Tomorrow is the beginning of the process. We are obligated to do this with
them by December 24th.
Mr. Bryan: There is no plan yet. Until IDEM accepts our site characterization, we can’t
prepare a plan. It would be a waste of our time and your money. Without a doubt those
folks are going to come back and want to look at some other areas.
Mr. Haas: What you’re saying is, you have to agree with IDEM on what the problem is.
The second step is agreeing on what the solution is.
Mr. Bryan agreed and said they would be pushing them because it has become obvious of
the urgency because of the construction and sale of property. The person assigned to it
now has been very cooperative and responsive.
It was noted that the contamination goes over into the Muldoon’s area also. Mr. Bryan
said SESCO had enough now to go to IDEM and find out how much further they wanted
us to go. Mr. Romaine indicated IDEM would probably want further tests conducted,
noting it is advantageous that the CRC controls all this property.
Discussion followed about the size of the plume. A temporary fence will set aside the
“clean” area for Shapiro’s building site.
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Mr. Bryan: In November you approved us looking at a larger area. We have completed
that report. Copies are available. There is an area behind Sherwin Williams of a recorded
hazardous waste creation where they filed and got a record number. This was followed up
on because it was information needed given the pending lawsuit.
Mr. Koven asked what the date of the incident was. Mr. Bryan said it was August 14,
1998. Mr. Koven noted it was after we owned it and then asked if we were notified of the
incident. “Wouldn’t they have an obligation to notify us as the landlord? And they
didn’t?” This was confirmed by Mr. Haas.
Mr. Bryan: There was a fuel oil spill, rather a large one, by the Kroger dock area, in 1991,
prior to your purchase. It does appear in the Phase I.
Mr. Romaine: It was reported as it should have been. Our concern with the Sherwin
Williams incident is that they lost about 220 pounds or maybe a little bit less of product.
Normally, any time you lose 100 pounds of product or more on the ground, it should have
been reported. It did not turn up anywhere in the state’s spill reports, but it did appear on
the federal hazardous waste notification. So there’s a real disparity and we don’t know
why that occurred.
Mr. Bryan: There was another dry cleaners between the Kroger dock and the Sherwin
Williams area. We have no reason to believe that there was any issue. It’s just a matter
we wanted to make you aware it was there. It was a plant, not just a store front. (This was
confirmed by Mr. Wilson.)
Mr. Roesch asked Mr. Haas: Do we need to take samples at the Sherwin Williams spill
site?
Mr. Haas: Yes, trial will be in January. As far as the samples, that depends on what
SESCO finds about the spill arena.
Mr. Romaine: There is nothing else to be found in the Sherwin Williams area. The trail is
a dead end. So you can turn to your tenant and say, “Produce for us.” or you can do a
further search in the soil.
It would take a week to further test the area, which would entail all three areas, Kroger
dock, dry cleaners and Sherwin Williams because it’s such a concentrated area. The dock
needs to be cleaned out.
Mr. Haas recommended SESCO goes ahead and takes samples. At the same time, we
demand from Sherwin Williams information about what they’ve done. The second course
of action is we make that demand and see what SW comes back with which gives
SESCO some additional information or not. Then decide whether to proceed with the
samples.
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Mr. Bryan said it would be $14,000-15,000 to take the samples and test them. It would be
recoverable if anything appears. The compounds would be identifiable depending on
what products the businesses handled.
Mr. Carter asked about making a motion. [Restated below.]
Further discussion followed. Mr. Engelking will coordinate the removal of the debris
from the Kroger dock asap.
Mr. Koven: I agree with Ron, but what’s our probability of any recovery? Do we have a
recourse to Kroger even after all this time.
Mr. Haas: Yes. And with regard to Sherwin Williams we have double recourse.
Mr. Carter restated his motion. He moved the CRC approved up to $15,000 for the
further testing at the three sites (Kroger, Sherwin Williams, and Crown Cleaners) and
simultaneously have Mr. Haas send a letter to Sherwin Williams demanding any
information regarding the contamination of the site and have Mr. Haas also find out who
the corporate ownership of Crown Cleaners was.
Following a second by Mr. Burke, the motion was unanimously approved.
Mr. Bryan brought up another concern. There are barrels of unmarked fluid behind the
Goodyear building which should be investigated sometime before it is bought or sold. A
Phase II should be done.
Mr. Bryan submitted SESCO’s proposed budget to Mr. Engelking, stating there are two
fee scenarios, the difference being the type of insurance recovery process. It’s all
recoverable in our opinion. Basically the issue at hand is the timing of the recoverability
so you can plan your cash flow. You shouldn’t be out of pocket unless there are issues we
are not aware of. Under one scenario you would be reimbursed as your expenses occur.
Mr. Bryan explained further details of the budget.
Mr. Romaine: Scenario A entails that the CRC would actually be an insured and has the
direct rights to proceed on the policy. Mr. Haas is researching, trying to determine if the
CRC, as landlord, would be named as insured as any landlord would normally be. That is
they would have the right to go against the insurance policy and have its costs covered
immediately. It is wholly dependent on who’s named as insured under Mr. Renken’s
policy or he could assign his interests.
Mr. Carter: Does SESCO hire the legal representation rather than Karl choosing the
representation?
Mr. Romaine: There’s nothing sacred about that. This is a person we’ve worked with and
we trust. His name is Matthew Cockrell. He works out of Chicago and has Indiana roots.
You’ve not been charged any attorney fees at this point.
CRC Minutes, December 12, 2001
14
Mr. Haas: No one has been retained yet.
Discussion continued.
Mr. Bryan noted there is also an option of arranging bridging financing through the State
of Indiana in which there is a 20% forgiveness portion.
Mr. Koven: Have we now seen an insurance policy? Isn’t there a maximum limit to a
policy like this.?
Mr. Haas: We have demanded to see a policy at the end of last week, with a deadline of
ten days.
The possibility of going after Herrigans was mentioned. Mr. Snyder said, “Their attorney
will contend we waived our rights [when we didn’t require a Phase I at the time of
purchase].”
Adjournment
Ms. Snyder moved the meeting be adjourned. Following a second by Mr. Carter, the
motion was unanimously approved.