| 3/3/2010 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Bridge work to start in fall
Peggy Vlerebome
Courier Staff Writer
Work on the Madison-Milton bridge replacement probably will start a couple of months later than had been expected, with completion still likely in 2012, Mayor Tim Armstrong said Tuesday.
Armstrong, who said he is in almost daily contact with the Indiana and Kentucky transportation agencies, said that bolstering the piers, the first step in the replacement project, is likely to start in the fall instead of in the summer.
Traffic will continue to use the bridge while workers make the piers bigger to handle the wider lanes of the replacement superstructure.
Armstrong updated the City Council members about the bridge at their meeting Tuesday night.
He said he has been told that Indiana officials are waiting to release funds until they are sure Kentucky's legislature will pass a budget with the bridge project in it. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has promised that Kentucky will fund not only its share but, if necessary, Indiana's also.
The two states together received a $20 million federal stimulus grant after having applied for $95 million and agreeing to split the remaining $36 million. With the grant being so small, each state's share now is $55.5 million. Indiana officials have committed to putting up Indiana's share.
Also at the council meeting, Armstrong and council member Jim Lee sparred again over a storm water utility and fee, and over the city's storm water consultants, Stantec.
In the end, council members told Armstrong to have the Board of Works decide whether to renew Stantec's contract. The contract is between Stantec and the Board of Works, but went to the council after city attorney Jason Pattison questioned whether the city should keep Stantec if the City Council wasn't going to follow its advice.
Lee contends that Madison does not need to have a storm water utility, as recommended by Stantec because of mandates in the federal Clean Water Act enforced by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
Armstrong contends that getting into trouble with IDEM over storm water and drainage management could result in the same type of enforcement action the city faces at the wastewater treatment plant. The city is awaiting a court date where it will plead guilty to a felony indictment and pay a fine. So far, Armstrong said, the city has spent more than $700,000 for attorneys and engineers because of problems at the wastewater treatment plant, and those costs don't cover fixing the plant.
Lee said Stantec led city officials to believe they had to have a storm water utility, a fee to pay for it, and projects that go beyond what IDEM requires.
"I'm not saying Stantec has been lying to us ... but negligent in their approach to how they're handing this," Lee said.
"It gets under my skin to keep hearing ... we're under an EPA mandate," Lee said. "There's really not much mandated."
Lee read from what he called a March 2009 permit for the city from IDEM, and said the document showed "Madison is doing a lot of very good things to fulfill their responsibilities to storm water management," Lee said. One section, he said, said Madison has done erosion control and made provisions for controlling water runoff.
"We seem to be in panic," Lee said. Not jumping into having a storm water utility and instead doing the minimum required is the position he takes. "I think we're on the right track."
He added at the end of his comments, "I hope we don't think about doing something silly before we have to."
Armstrong said, "It was a permit developed by the city of Madison and consultants and sent to IDEM. It was a list of what the city would do. The city obtained the permit. They said we're not in compliance."
"Guess what - now's the due date," Armstrong said. "As long as the federal government is going to ... dictate the law, then I'm going to comply with it."
But city attorney Jason Pattison said the document Lee was referring to was not a permit, but rather the city's proposal for what it wants the permit for storm water management to say. He said the process for obtaining a permit from IDEM is for the applicant to write the permit, which then is reviewed and possibly changed by IDEM.
IDEM then determines whether the applicant is complying with the permit terms. IDEM has not yet approved or changed the city's proposed permit, he said. IDEM is due in town this summer to perform an audit of whether Madison is in compliance.
Lee has said several times that public education- one of IDEM's requirements for storm water management permit holders - is the key to being in compliance. He suggested Tuesday that the city buy rain barrels that residents could go to city hall to get for their homes.
"If I was a member of IDEM and I walked into City Hall and there was a couple of those nice containers ... That's what they mean by educating the public," Lee said.
Lee has been pushing the administration to put educational materials on the city Web site, and that will start happening next week with an Environmental Protection Agency film clip, Jenny Eggenspiller, city community development director, told the council.
Some council members said the contract with Stantec should be renewed so the consultant can be present when IDEM does its audit.
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