Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SYRACUSE - Syracuse town manager Matt Vigneault started his last Syracuse town council meeting Tuesday by giving everyone at the meeting a piece of candy.
Vigneault is taking a position as town manager in New Buffalo, Mich. His official duties in Syracuse will end today. He will remain on the town payroll until the end of March because he will take the 10 vacation days owed him after March 17.
Vigneault has been the town manager for the last seven years.
At the end of the meeting, Vigneault told the council, "I appreciate working with you all these years. ... I assure you it will be a nice, smooth transition (when I leave)."
Council vice-president Paul Stoelting thanked Vigneault for his work.
"If we get a chance, we'll come see your beach," Stoelting said.
The council is accepting resumes for a new town manager until March 23. Resumes are being sent to council president Bill Cutter.
In official business, Vigneault requested $12,500 for the storm drain sewer project on Pittsburgh and Baltimore streets.
The state highway is upgrading the drains under Ind. 13 from the railroad crossing to Chicago Street. In an effort to tear up the roads in that area only once, Syracuse is upgrading the drains on Pittsburgh and Baltimore that connect to the state highway.
"We think it's very important from many perspectives to do the Baltimore -ÊPittsburgh work along with the state highway department," Vigneault said.
Public Works Superintendent Kent Thielka said, "That was the whole intent of this - to only tear up this street one time."
E.V. Engineering performed the initial engineering work on the project. The engineering company went out of business and, in the process of selling out, lost the information on the sewer drains.
Greeley & Hanson, who does general engineering for Syracuse, offered to redo the work, and perform other work not done by E.V. Engineering, for an amount not to exceed $12,500.
"About $8,000 of that $12,500 needed to be done in the first task and wasn't," Vigneault told the council.
Thielka said the reason they were asking the council for the money now was because "we were afraid if we waited until next month, we'd run out of time for them to do (the engineering work)."
Greeley & Hanson will provide all engineering necessary to complete the Baltimore -ÊPittsburgh sewer project. Vigneault said their responsibilities will be to design and oversee the process of the storm sewer and implementation of those sewers into the state project.
The council approved 3-0. Councilmen not present at the meeting included Cutter and Carol Koble.
The council also approved advertising for the additional appropriation to pay the engineers. The money will be taken from the cumulative sewer fund.
All engineering work should be completed within the next 60 to 90 days, Vigneault said. Construction will begin sometime after that.
Vigneault also said he, Police Chief Bill Endler and Thielka have discussed several drive entrances along Ind. 13 they believe are unsafe. Vigneault said Endler told him a number of accidents occur on the exits and entrances because of lack of control at intersections.
The council instructed town attorney Bob Reed to draw up ordinances to place stop signs at those intersections determined to be unsafe. The ordinances will go up for approval at next month's meeting.
The council will also vote on whether to make the alley behind the town hall a one-way street. Endler and Vigneault are concerned about the safety of the narrow alley.
Councilman Barbara Carwile was appointed to the Syracuse Board of Zoning Appeals and the Kosciusko County Area Plan Commission to replace Vigneault on both boards. Stoelting will replace Vigneault as Syracuse town representative on the Syracuse-Wawasee Area Development Corp.
