20/20 Vision is what I’m dubbing my attempts to get Culver on track for a new Comprehensive Plan. Judging from the last one which has taken a little over 10 years to revise, shooting for a plan that would lay out goals for completion by the year 2020 seems like the place to start.
I’ve been pushing for this for a while. (See here as well as a couple of other times.) At the September Culver Plan Commission meeting I was rewarded punished for my diligent nagging by being appointed to a committee of one to look into it. Hopefully this will be expanded to a larger group in the future, but I was asked to get things moving.
Marshall County is holding another Community Conversation this November 16th at Swan Lake Resort. This year’s conversation is titled 21st Century Workforce Readiness – Education, Industry and Workforce Development: The Ties that Bind. Everyone is encouraged to participate. Below is the announcement flyer and a registration form. Join the Conversation!!!
This Monday I was asked to serve as ABC’s (Associated Builders and Contractors) representative at a Common Wage Hearing in Warsaw. The Hearing covered three sewer projects for the City of Warsaw and was held at the Kosciusko County Courthouse. This is the first Wage Hearing that I have attended since the Law changed on July 1. As of that date the five member panel no longer includes a representative appointed by the Governor’s Office but now has a member appointed by ABC. There are a couple of other changes to the Law. One is that a Wage Hearing is good for any other projects going forward for a period of three months providing that all of the wage classes named in the hearing cover the following projects. (This should reduce the number of Hearings required). The second item is a change in the project cost threshold from $150,000 to $250,000. Unfortunately due to a language error, the $250,000 threshold does not apply until January 1, 2012 and the language error caused all Hearings for the remainder of 2011 to have no threshold, i.e., any project must pay the common wage and have a hearing to set that wage.
Don Scearce
In some ways it was apropos that I took this position as I was filling the shoes of Don Scearce. Don was a personal friend as well as a business associate for many years. I worked briefly in his office as a draftsman after college and I have a continuing relationship with his office, Scearce Rudisel Architects, to this day. Don was a staunch supporter of Merit Shop and served on countless Wage Hearings such as this striving to do the best he could for his community through these Common Wage Hearings. Unfortunately Don passed away last year. (Obituary)
The City of Warsaw and Kosciusko County have a long history of supporting ABC wages on their projects. Of the 231 construction businesses in the County, only three are signatory to unions. Since 2008 there have been 37 hearings and at 33 hearings the ABC rates were adopted. This makes the County very pro Merit Shop regardless of whether the companies are affiliated with ABC or not. The representative for the AFL/CIO brought several documents to present including a folder of affidavits from workers showing their wage rates. Unfortunately it appeared that many of those workers were not actually working in Kosciusko County though that was the implication. I also noted a significant number of the ones that I glanced through that were below the rates requested in their submission. Their submission was also heavy highway rather than providing rates across all classifications. It was not clear why they did not provide the complete list of rates but had that list been adopted, additional hearings would have been required if another building project came up.
The ABC Wages passed on a vote of 3 to 1 with the chair abstaining. Even though these projects are outside of our scope of work I still felt good about doing what I could to get the best rates for the City of Warsaw.
While I still believe that the best legislation would be a repeal of the Common Wage requirements, the changes to the new Law helped to promote competition and lower project costs for all of us. Once the $250,000 threshold is in place that will also help improve the situation Our Senators and Representatives should be commended for making this change and should be encouraged to continue the trend towards no common wage requirements.
Tuesday night was the regular meeting of the Culver Plan Commission. The only agenda item was a replatting of the Rhodes property, combining several lots into one. This passed with little question.
Under “Public Input”, John Zehner presented his plans to change the use of the Ten Spot to a restaurant and motel. The presentation wasn’t required, but was more of a courtesy, keeping the Plan Commission apprised of the change in use. The Plan Commission also supported this proposal.
I took the opportunity to plant some seeds regarding the development on the south side of Culver, basically outlining the thoughts I had previously presented here. I was pleased that the Plan Commission was fairly receptive. They agreed to consider most of what I suggested. I truly think this is an opportunity for the Town to get out in front of some issues and encourage the type of development they would like to see. They are considering forming a subcommittee to look into this with the idea that the subcommittee would try and form community partnerships and foster buy-in. All in all a very positive evening!
Last Week the Plymouth Industrial Development Corporation (PIDCO) held their annual meeting, the highlight of which was the presentation by Stu Summers on their Destination Downtown initiative to invigorate Plymouth’s Core. (They also discussed how horrible the existing PIDCO website is. Ugh!)
The main thing I took from the presentation was PIDCO’s desire to learn from other communities and capitalize on their successes. They spent time in Valporaiso and developed a non-competitive relationship where the two communities can share ideas and successes going forward. I hope they continue this spirit of cooperation and foster relationships with other nearby communities such as Warsaw and Rochester. This is similar to the initiatives taken by the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) in their efforts to form relationships with surrounding counties. “A rising tide lifts all boats” is an aphorism that can be applied to the economic successes of our towns, cities, counties and regions.
They also took the opportunity to honor Brent Martin who has often been the main impetus in bringing their projects to fruition. It is unclear who is in line to step up to this challenge on the new PIDCO board, but it is clear that they will have big shoes to fill.
20/20 Vision is what I’m dubbing my attempts to get Culver on track for a new Comprehensive Plan. Judging from the last one which has taken a little over 10 years to revise, shooting for a plan that would lay out goals for completion by the year 2020 seems like the place to start.
This Monday I was asked to serve as ABC’s (
