City moves money

The Portland City Council did some money managing Monday evening.
Council members Bill Gibson, Kip Robinette, Judy Aker, Mark Hedges, Michael Brewster and Donald Gillespie approved a number of ordinances and a resolution, which will establish three new funds and move money into a couple of other ones.
The council, absent member Kent McClung, approved ordinances establishing a blight elimination fund, RL Turner retainage fund and criminal investigation fund.
The blight elimination fund will be used to match an Indiana Hardest Hit Fund Blight Elimination Grant that has been awarded to the city.
“This is something we have to set up when we get funds from the state,” said Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman.
The city is putting up $10,500 in a local match, while the state is providing $126,000. The money will be used to demolish blighted properties and prepare them to be resold.
The RL Turner retainage fund will hold money required under a construction contract with RL Turner for the Portland Water Park.
The criminal investigation fund was set up to receive donations from the public, which would go toward helping with criminal investigations.
“This (fund) is just for donations,” said Mickey Pensinger, city clerk-treasurer, mentioning that the money could be used for buy money in investigations and to pay confidential informants.
“If someone from the public wants to come forward and donate, that would be welcome,” Geesaman said.
The council also did some money moving, transferring $45,000 from the city’s Parks Temporary Salary Fund to its Capitol Outlay Fund. The money, which would usually be used to pay employees at Portland Pool, will now be used to renovate the restrooms near the softball diamonds at Portland Memorial Park.
The council also approved an ordinance that would move $94,085.32 appropriated for the Lafayette Street extension project back into the Cumulative Capitol Development fund. The money was originally appropriated to pay Schneider Corporation for their work on the project, but the project came in under budget, allowing the council members to return the money to the city’s fund.
In other business, council members:
•Heard flooding concerns from Randy Smith, 421 W. Race St., Portland. Smith said that despite road closed signs, vehicle were still “flying down” his road, making the flooding worse.
“The property damage was pretty good down there,” he said.
He asked the city to put up barricades on the street during flooding instead of just putting up the signs.
“When you block it, block it,” he said.
He also mentioned that some residents need sandbags earlier than they are available and that residents need easier ways to dispose of the sandbags once they’ve been used.
•Heard the mayor’s report from Geesaman, who also spoke about flooding issues. He said Portland Board of Works had been working on a study, which showed that the Miller Branch — which belongs to the county — has been the biggest cause of downtown flooding. He discussed possible solutions to the flooding problems and thanked the volunteers who helped fill and distribute sandbags.
He reminded council members that Stars in the Parks will begin at 6:30 p.m. July 16 and encouraged community members to attend the event.
He said the city’s website has been completely updated and that city employee email addresses will be changing over the next few weeks. He said the current extension — @embarqmail.com — will be changing to @thecityofportland.net in order to match the domain name of the city’s website.
•Approved a five-year, $1.5 million tax abatement for Fort Recovery Industries. The abatement was discussed at June’s council meeting and forwarded to the Portland Tax Abatement Committee. Bill Bradley said the committee advised approving the abatement.
•Heard council comments from Gibson, who noted a number of intersection blockages, mentioning intersections at Lincoln and Ben Hawkins streets and Meridian and Lafayette streets, among others.
He also reminded council members that Portland’s annual bike show will take place July 17 to 20 and that yard sales could be held that week without a permit.
•Approved an alcohol permit for Midwest Pet Refuge for an event to be held Sept. 12 at Hudson Family Park. Rachelle Haughn, representing Midwest Pet Refuge, said activities would begin about 9 a.m. and continue until about 11 p.m.