Developer seeking funds for complex project

Vandalia officials should have a better idea within the next few days whether the proposed $300 million sports and entertainment complex project will move forward.

JoAnn Givens, the city’s director of economic development and tourism, told the city council on Monday that Kenneth Bardwell, who heads up the Michigan-based group planning to build the complex, is in New York trying to finalize financing for the project.

Givens said Bardwell arrived in New York late last week and plans to be there through the end of this week. During his trip, she said, Bardwell is meeting with “his lender and several potential investors."

Bardwell heads up Motown Technology and Sports Facility Inc., which wants to build a complex on the city’s west side that would include a 9,000-seat arena, IMAX theater, surf wave pool, hockey and indoor soccer facilities, a 300-room hotel and bicycle manufacturing city.

Through an agreement signed last week, the city is offering Motown 150 acres of land south of the city’s western Interstate 70 interchange, south of Wal-Mart and Vandalia Commons.

The city is also offering the group sales tax and property tax incentives, which would kick in once construction gets under way.

Also at Monday’s meeting, Mayor Rick Gottman announced that Wal-Mart is requesting a liquor license.

Gottman said he received a letter from Wal-Mart attorneys in which the company states its request for a license that would allow for the sale of package liquor at the Vandalia Supercenter.

Gottman announced receipt of the letter at the meeting to inform city residents of the request, as a way of letting them know that the matter will be discussed at the council’s June 15 meeting.

Residents will have the opportunity to voice their opinions on the request at that meeting.

Currently, liquor may be sold only at liquor stores and bars.

Responding to a question by Alderman Chad Feldpouch, Gottman said that grocery and convenience stores have requested liquor licenses in the past. The council has chosen in recent years not to open up liquor sales at those businesses.

Under statute, the council sets the number of liquor licenses available. It is up to the mayor, as the city’s liquor commissioner, whether to grant an application for a liquor license.

In other action, the council approved new employment agreements for city officials and department heads.

The council OK’d agreements for: Jimmy Morani, city administrator; Keith Meadows, code official; Larry Eason, chief of police; John Moyer, director of public works; Tom Henrichsmeyer, assistant director of public works; Martin Huskey, water plant superintendent; Mark Augenstein, waterwater plant superintendent; and David Wodtka, cemetery sexton.

All of those agreements are for four years with the exception of the one for Meadows.

Meadows’ agreement is for one year, due to the fact that the city has reworked his job description. In addition to continue serving as a part-time employee of the Vandalia Fire Department and part-time code enforcement official, Meadows will now begin serving as the city’s building official.

Morani said that Meadows is taking over the building issues that were formerly handled by a building official.

He said that Meadows will be taking some training to become better educated on building issues. As he settles into that position, the city will hire Tim Grobengeiser, who has an engineering degree, on an as-needed basis to assist with such matters as building inspections.

At the end of Meadows’ new contract, the city will evaluate the combination of duties into one position.

The agreements call for 3.5-percent increases for everyone except Morani, Eason and Henrichsmeyer.

Morani is receiving a 10-percent pay hike, Eason is getting a 9.3-percent increase and Henrichsmeyer’s increase was set at 5 percent.

Morani said those three increases were negotiated with the city council and were based on such factors as the salaries paid to similar positions in other communities and performance.

He also said that Eason’s pay increase takes into account the fact that the city is not providing him with health insurance.

Morani said factors included in his contract include experience and the master’s degree that he has earned. Also taken into account is the fact that he does not receive some of the same types of benefits as those given to administrators in other communities.

And, he said, the council considered the pay scale of his predecessor, Ron Neibert.

In addition to approving those employment agreements, the council voted to extend Givens’ current contract by two weeks. The council is planning to act on a new contract at its June 15 meeting.

Morani said the council is taking extra time with Givens’ contract to deal with “a few unresolved issues.”

Also at the meeting:

• About two months after awarding the bid for the construction of a city cemetery building, the council voted to rejected all bids and rebid the project.

The council’s action came about after an issue on the contract with Johannes Construction, the Centralia firm that was awarded the bid in April.

Morani said that after the bid was awarded, city officials realized that the contract did not include a liquidated damages clause that stipulated a reduction in the final costs if the building is not completed within a stipulated number of days.

He estimated that the amount set for liquidated damages is about $5,000.

Morani explained that the city contacted the project superintendent about adding the clause, and that the superintendent approved the clause in an e-mail.

Then, he said, the company owner rejected its addition after receiving the written contract.

With Gottman and several aldermen expressing concern about the company rejecting the alteration of the contract after the project superintendent OK’d it, the council agreed that it was best to start over with the bidding process.

Alderman Chad Feldpouch said, “I recommend that we throw it (Johannes’ bid) and rebid it.”

Alderman Larry Cable added, “I think it would be worth it.”

Johannes’ bid of $84,000 is $1,000 below the engineer’s estimate for the project, and was about $12,000 below the next-lowest bid.

• The council approved the hiring of Rob Schukar as the Vandalia Lake manager.

Schukar succeeds Chuck Ruot, who is retiring after 23 years in the position.

The council approved Schukar’s hiring in a 6-1 vote, with Cable casting the dissenting vote. Jerry Swarm, Larry Bennett, Bret Brosman, Lisa McNutt, Feldpouch and Dean Black voted to OK the hiring, and Mike Hobler, who is chairman of the lake committee, was not at the meeting.

Cable said, “I personally would like to talk to the other two (candidates).”

• The council voted to send to the planning commission an ordinance amendment that would allow tattoo establishments through special use permits in the commercial and light industrial zoning classifications.

The council’s is recommending a $75 permit fee and the establishment of three tattoo licenses. Three local businesses have requested such a license.

• The council approved a resolution that calls for the city to take over the maintenance of Banker Boulevard, the new road constructed east of the First National Bank’s Financial Center.

Because the city accepted the maintenance of the road earlier than is its practice, the bank has provided a $21,369 maintenance bond to cover any work needed prior to the one-year anniversary of its construction.

• The council approved the issuance of a new Vandalia Lake lot, No. 119, to Roger K. Smith of Brownstown.

• The council agreed to consider adding some additional storm sewer inlets to the downtown infrastructure improvements project.

Lorne Jackson of HMG Engineers and Moyer are asking that the new inlets along Fifth Street be added to the project, because the existing inlets are made of different types of materials, and many of them are deteriorating.

The city will ask the project contractor, Hank’s Excavating and Landscaping, to submit a price for the new estimates. The council will then decide whether to accept that price.

Jackson estimated that the additional work would cost about $15,000. “Anything more than that would be too high,” he said.

• Jackson gave a report on the downtown project, saying that the storm sewer work along Fifth and Sixth streets is “mostly completed.”

He said work on Gallatin Street between Sixth and Seventh streets is under way. Work in that block, he said, should be completed by mid- to late-August.

At that point, workers would move east one block.

Vandalia Main Street Program Manager Dana Whiteman told the council that Main Street’s design committee is meeting this week to discuss issues related to the project.

The biggest issue, she said, will be having signage erected that directs motorists to parking locations for downtown businesses.

• The council approved an ordinance amendment to rename some council committees.

The streets and sewers committee is now the streets committee, and the water and disposal plants committee is now the water and sewer committee. The police, fire and ESDA committee is now the public safety committee, and the cemetery and landfill committee is now just the cemetery committee.