Call to order tonight's meeting of the Board of Public Works for September 22nd First on the agenda.
We have messages from board members. Are there any messages from the board tonight? Seeing none, we'll
move right along to title six abatements and we have a request for a continuous abatement at 1040 East
Chris Lane My name is Joe stong. I'm one of the inspectors at hand housing and neighborhood development
We issued notices violation at the property on July 29th 9 September 3rd and September 11th for overgrowth
and the violations have not been completely corrected in the correction period is lapped. So we're asking
for a continuous abatement as this property has been problematic abatement through July 31st 2027.
Thank you. Questions from the board. What might be going on with the house for the property. No the
owner has let several properties in that area go. They are vacant at this time. The registered rentals.
Yes. I just feel free to say who the ownership group is. Oh the owner is.
Jeff Jones and Penn Dragon properties. Thank you. Thanks. Is there any public comment on this item.
There's no one in council chambers but if anyone is on zoom you may use the raise hand function or the
chat. All right. Seeing none. Is there a motion. We approve the continuous abatement at 10 40 East Chris
Lane. Second.
With a motion and the second I will call the roll Roach. Hi Cox Deckard. I Caron I motion passes.
Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda are petitions and remonstrances. This is the time for the public
to make comment about anything that is not on tonight's agenda. Again if you are on zoom and would like
to make a comment on something that is not on tonight's agenda you may use the raise hand function or chat.
Okay, so we have a member of the public from our neighboring state of Illinois and Mike Millett is the
public works director for South Elgin, Illinois And he was just going to take a moment to recognize
our efforts on behalf of the APWA National Board of Directors So welcome Mike Thank You director way son
President Karen members of the board. My name is Mike blood on the region five director for the American
Public Works Association And I had the privilege of being in your chambers last week to present our
accreditation plaque to director Wason and Christine Smith and everybody of the public works parent
burn holders that were there at the time and there were several I have some comments that
Adam has that he can share with you. I would like to add those for the record, if that would serve.
And it would, if I could just like to point out a couple of stats, if you will. We have in the entire,
in all of North America, United States and Canada, we have a total of 200 and as far as there's,
234 now accredited public works agencies. And there are only two in the state of Indiana. You are the
second. The process of becoming accredited is a review of 291 policies, practices, and procedures that
are compared to industry standards. And we have a accreditation team. In this case, we had members from
Missouri and from Ohio that came and reviewed everything that your staff there had taken painstaking
efforts to produce.
and rated them and gave you a grade of 100%. So congratulations on that. Congratulations on
the accreditation. We like to say that public works accreditation is a journey. We like to emphasize
that it's a continual improvement. So you're accredited now, but things will change in two, three,
five years. And the fact that you have gone through the process of tuning your policies, procedures,
and practices towards standards as they are now,
ensures that you'll be ready to adjust to the changing conditions fairly easily. The other thing that
we find accreditation has done for agencies that have achieved it is the public works tends to be the
introverts. I've said this before. I jokingly say we're left-brained, although I don't think that's
the current standard of academia.
the introverts, the engineers, technicians, all that sort of thing. And we generally just keep our heads
down to do our job, and we don't want to get blamed for disasters. And that also tends to keep us from
not relishing in our successes and understanding that what we do matters. And what we do every day,
though lots of times it's unseen, makes a better life for residents, students, et cetera, and business
folks that are in our various communities.
the process of accreditation gets those folks involved. The accreditation team goes around, asks them,
how are you doing this task, compares to those standards I mentioned earlier and suggest changes, or
maybe you're doing it better than those standards. But people get by, and it becomes a venue for change
and for excellence in your organization. So on behalf of our President Robert Garland and Scott
Grayson who was our chief executive officer and the entire rest of the board of directors and all 34,000
members of the American Public Works Association I say congratulations to Bloomington Public Works.
Thank you Thank you so much Mike, I think I speak for my fellow board members when we say we are Extremely
grateful to have the chance to work with Adam Wason and his teams and we're very very proud of the department
for their accreditation so
Thank you so much for joining us tonight. All right. Next on the agenda we have the consent agenda which
is minutes from August 25th 2026 the appointment of Neil Tong to the tree commission resolution 2026
dash 0 4 3 solicitors license for Michael Joseph Inc. CBI Midwest.
Change orders four through 10 for Grimes Kirkwood Patterson and Rogers paving project memorandum of
understanding between the city of Bloomington Department of Public Works and Monroe County and payroll.
Are there any items that need to come off the consent agenda tonight. Seeing none. Does the board have
any questions about consent agenda. Any public comment on consent agenda tonight. All right. Is there a motion.
We approve the consent agenda for this meeting on September 22nd of 2026 I will call the roll Roche.
Hi Cox Decker. Hi Caron. I motion passes With no items of new business tonight, we will move along to
staff reports Nothing major to report today Thank you very much Let's move to approval of claims. Does
the board have any questions on claims tonight? There any public comment on claims?
None on zoom. All right. Thank you. Is there a motion? I move that we approve the claims in the amount
of one million four hundred eighty nine thousand two hundred sixty nine dollars and sixty five cents
So I will call the roll Roach by Cox Deckard. I Caron I motion passes And with nothing else on the agenda,
I will call for adjournment