The City of Knox has joined Hammond and LaPorte in opposing an electric rate increase proposed by NIPSCO for electric. The resolution will be sent to the State Regulatory Agency stating the reasons for the opposition.
The resolution is supporting Hammond’s lawsuit against the increase.
The Knox City Council reviewed a new Park Board Ordinance at its meeting this week.
“This was brought about when we were doing our five year plan,” said Mayor Chambers. “Our five year plan was sent to OCRA for approval and they found that our original park plan was outdated by state statute. It had to be newer than what ours was so Dave [Matsey, City Attorney] has put together this ordinance and it is almost identical to the old one. There’s very little difference. It’s right out of the state statute books.”
The Knox City Council heard a report from Mayor Rick Chambers this week on a proposal to refinance the Knox Community Center bonds.
“John Julien from Umbaugh and Associates called the other day and he had mentioned this to Jeff (Houston) and I about a year ago,” explained Mayor Chambers. “The interest rates are down. The interest rates on our current loan is 5.5% and he thinks interest rates for 2.9% could be had if we put this out for bid. This loan will be paid off in 2019. Over the length of that loan, if we can bond for 2.9%, we would save $55,000. That’s a little misleading because we have $32,000 currently in an escrow account with First Monterey Bank. So, with the expense of redoing that bond and being able to use that $32,000 now, subtract the $32,000 from the $55,000 – over the course of this loan we’d be saving $22,000.”
The Knox City Council members are currently in the process of gathering information on a Pawn Shop Ordinance and at their last meeting, they reviewed an ordinance prepared by City Attorney David Matsey. Because it was just an information item, there was not a vote to move it to first reading. Mr. Matsey said his ordinance was modeled after similar ordinances in Bloomington and Indianapolis.
A lot of times secretaries and government office workers wish they could get away from phone calls so they can get some work done. The phone calls have quieted down at Knox City Hall under an unusual circumstance.
“Our phone numbers were left out of the new phone book,” Mayor Rick Chambers told the Knox City Council. “That was because of the switch over to the computer system. I’ve gotten with the newspaper this week and they’re going to put an article in the paper listing all of the phone numbers. I’m going to have cards printed up with phone numbers and we will leave those at the Clerk’s office. We’ll pass them out to anybody who needs them.”
A discussion of a Pawn Shop Ordinance that would license and regulate pawnbrokers within the corporate limits of Knox met with objections from the owners of First Choice Pawn and Loan of Knox.
Hank Minix and Chris Firebaugh objected to a part of the proposed ordinance that would demand that pawn shops get social security numbers, serial numbers and hold purchased items during a 10 day waiting period.
Mayor Rick Chambers informed the Knox City Council this week that he is exploring ways to protect city equipment from lightning strikes.
“Jeff, Ed and I, met with the company called Flotronics, a company that engineers and designs electrical systems components to stop lightning damage,” the Mayor told the Council. “They came up with some figures at the Wastewater Plant, $12,449 and $8,295 at the Water Plant. So, it’ll be about $21,000. It’s to protect the wires so the lightning doesn’t go through the wires into the machines and it’s put on in layers, like three different layers, of protection.”
The Knox City Council recently approved the street paving schedule for this summer.
“We do have some intersections that we’re going to take care of that are in really bad shape. We’re still able to pave up to a half of a mile of streets. We used to be able to pave one mile and now we’re down to a half of a mile with the same budget,” explained Street Superintendent, Jeff Borg.
There are two other candidates running for a seat on the Knox City Council and they are unopposed in the Knox Primary Election.
Greg Matt has served for eight-and-a-half years on the Council and he says that his focus is the economy and jobs.
“In the next four years, I hope we can continue our partnership with the Starke County Economic Development Foundation and bring in more industry and more jobs,” said Matt. “Charlie’s been a great asset to us and we’ve been quite successful. A lot of that is because he had a great opportunity to bring in the rail into our Industrial Park. I’m very pro industry because that gives us a lot of employment and that’s what we would all like to see.”
The Knox City Primary Election is May 3rd and there are several candidates running unopposed for seats on the Knox City Council.
One of those candidates is Linda Berndt, who has served on the Council for 16 years, and she is running for the At-Large seat on the Council. She was asked what she thinks will be a challenge for the Council in the next four years.
The City of Knox Primary Election is less than a week away. Donald Kring, a Democrat, is unopposed in his District for a seat on the Knox City Council. He talks about what his main focus will be if elected into office in the November Election.
“I’ve been listening to the people in our community and it seems that unemployment is a big concern,” he said. “By working with the local businesses, as well as other City Council members, we can bring back lost jobs. I will work hard to bring new business, big or small, to our City.”
Robert Shireman is running for a seat on the Knox City Council in the Primary Election on May 3rd.
Robert talked with WKVI news about what he would like to see done to improve the City over the next four years.
With just a few days left before the spring Primary Election in Knox, the candidates are out trying to get their message across to the voters.
Ron Parker is a Democrat City Councilman, and he stopped by WKVI recently to talk about his campaign. Parker first talked about the accomplishments of the Council.
“One of the things that we have seen is improvements in our Knox Industrial Park,” stated Parker. “With Charlie Weaver from the Starke County Economic Development Foundation, we’ve seen some major moves there and we’re going to see another major move and that is J.W. Hicks. They’re going to move their Corporate Headquarters here. That’s a big deal.”
The Knox City Council got good news this week from Clerk-Treasurer, Jeff Houston. The Worker’s Comp Insurance has dropped $6,000. Houston said the carrier explained the reduction was because the loss rate has dropped. Knox has been attempting to get out of the high risk pool, and as Houston said, “It looks like we’re becoming successful.”
In other news:
It appears that Knox City records are taking up a lot of space at City Hall.
An agreement between the City of Knox and Dean Wells has been reached on a building owned by Mr. Wells across from City Hall. Originally, Mr. Wells had offered the building and adjoining parking area to the City for $125,000. After securing two appraisals on the property, it was determined the City could offer no more than the average of the two which was $103,250. Mayor Rick Chambers announced that Mr. Wells would accept that price.
James Hicks, accompanied by his son Brian, Josh Deal and Starke County Economic Development Foundation Director, Charles Weaver, attended the Knox City Council meeting Tuesday night. Hicks, the owner of JW Hicks, Inc., which includes a plant in Knox, came before the Council to announce plans for a 110,000 square foot addition to the Knox facility. Continue reading
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers told the Knox City Council this week that the first appraisal on the Dean Wells property across from City Hall has been received.
“It was appraised at $110,000 and where do you want to go from here?” Mayor Chambers asked the Council. “We need two appraisals, that’s required by the State. We can offer the average of the two. I have another appraiser lined up, so if we want to continue with this, we need a motion to obtain a second appraisal.”
The Knox City Council received disturbing news this week. The emergency sirens that alert residents in the north side of the city do not work.
“The board that operates that siren got hit by lightning at some point in time this summer and we didn’t know it until they did a test this past week and the siren did not go off,” said Knox Mayor, Rick Chambers. “Clint got the radio repairman over here to look at that and he showed us the board that is burned up. The board is $2,700 which is a big enough problem in itself, but by the end of 2012, all the frequencies are going to change. The frequency that operates that siren will no longer be allowed and we could put in the new frequency now, but the County is still operating on the old frequency. Until they update, we can’t update.”
Knox City Attorney, David Matsey, discussed credit card usage at the Knox City Council’s meeting this week. Matsey said he is working on two ordinance drafts that would cover credit card use by the City and accepting credit cards for the payment of water and sewer bills.
Mayor Rick Chambers updated the Knox City Council members on the possible resumption of water discharge from the Indiana Fine Blanking (MPI) Plant in Knox into the City Wastewater Treatment Plant.
MPI has to treat the metals it produces so no rust will appear on the finished product. A soap is used in the water treatment to clean the metal. When it was discharged into the Knox Wastewater Treatment Plant, it was interfering with the plant’s equipment. According to Wastewater Superintendent, Kelly Clemons, the size of the plant and its equipment made it impossible to handle the discharge.
