Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. It's 6:00. We'll call to order the April 21st meeting of the Auburn Common Council. We'll begin with a moment of silent meditation or reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Move on to roll call. Councilman Fentum

here. Councilman Brun here. Councilman Webb here. Councilwoman Dit here. Councilman Williams is absent. Councilman Bundy here. Councilwoman Proer here. Council in front of you, you have the meeting minutes for the April 7th meeting. Move to approve as presented. Second. Okay, we have a motion to second to approve the minutes. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for question. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed.

Motion carried. Recognition of visitors. Tamara Weber, Eric Weber, Tony Krauss, Mike Payne, Nick Heiny, Jeff Jones, Jim Catarette, Aaron Minnik, Dan Gabard, and Caleb Haynes. Welcome. Is there anyone in the public that would like to address the council? Anyone in the public that would like to address the council? Hearing none, we'll move on. Clerk treasure. Good evening. Have the current vouchers for 4,939,386.98. Move to approve.

Second. We have a motion second to approve the vouchers. Any discussion? Uh, show me abstaining on number 98430 to Web Concrete Construction for $900. I'm employed by that company. Any other discussion, questions or comments? Hearing none, I'll call for a question. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carry. Thank you.

Ordinances and resolutions. Ordinance number 2026-9, an ordinance to amend the zoning map of the city of Auburn, Indiana. Summary, an ordinance to reclassify the zoning of 703 South Main Street from traditional residential district to institutional district. I move that we pass ordinance number 2026-9 on second and final reading. Second.

We have a motion, a second to pass ordinance number 2026-9 on second reading. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a question. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Post. Post carry. Congratulations. Thank you. Good luck.

Ordinance number 2026-10, an ordinance to amend the zoning map of the city of Auburn, Indiana. Summary. An ordinance to reclassify the zoning of 3375 County Road 427 from Decal County Lowdensity Residential District 2 institutional district. I move that we pass ordinance number 2026-10 on second final reading. I'll second. Hey, we have a motion second to pass ordinance 2026-10 on second reading. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for question. All in favor signify by saying I. I.

Opposed. Car. Ordinance number 2026-11. An ordinance establishing the city of Auburn's unsafe building fund. Summary. This ordinance establishes the city of Auburn's unsafe building fund. Move that we pass ordinance number 2026-11 on second. Final reading. Second. We have a motion and second to pass ordinance number 2026-11 on second reading. Any questions or discussion?

Hearing none, I'll call for question. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Post carried. Ordinance number 2026-12, an ordinance withdrawing the Auburn Municipal Electric Utility from the jurisdiction of the Indiana Utility Utility Regulatory Commission. Summary. This ordinance withdraws the Auburn Municipal Electric Utility from the State Regulatory Jurisdiction of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission pursuant to Indiana Code 8-1.5-3-9.1. I move that we pass ordinance number 2026-12 on first reading.

Second. We have a motion and a second to pass ordinance number 2026-12 on first reading. Any questions or discussion? I have a couple questions. Say we decide to leave this. That's the plan I think that's happening now. What happens with I as I'm doing more research, the more questions I continue to have about um for example, if we leave and opt out, are we still able to utilize as residents the I the OUCC? Is that continued with that or does that leave when we leave the IU RC? There will still be an oversight with that. But what kind of oversight?

They will if there's any there they will watch out for the residents. So any if you have a complaint you can file that with OUCC. We still can do that after we leave the IURC. Okay. The second check. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion? Hearing none. I'll call for a question. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carried.

Ordinance number 2026-13. An ordinance of the city of Auburn, Indiana, approving and adopting a new schedule of rates and charges for services rendered by the Auburn Municipal Electric Department. Summary. This ordinance proposes to adopt a new schedule of rates and charges for the services rendered by the Auburn Municipal Electric Department contingent upon successful opting out of the jurisdiction of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. I move that we pass ordinance number 2026-13 on first reading. Second.

And we have a motion and second to pass ordinance number 2026-13 on first reading. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none. I'll call for a question. All in favor signify by saying I. I.

Opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Thanks. Uh, moving on to reports. Under the mayor, uh, council should have received the CIP first drafts last week. Those have been sent to Baker Tilly for Thursday. Preliminary budgets will also be due by May 18th to the mayor's office and received by Baker Tilly on the 22nd. We also had add we've added four members to the mayor's youth advisory council. So, we're up to nine. So, we're one more closer uh or one away from our goal, which is great. And then on Friday, June 5th, they're doing a game out at Memorial Park. I think it's Family Feud style. And and then the youth council also collected 54 of the birthday cake kits they'll be distributing here in the next week. So, exciting stuff. Council President,

no report. plan commission. We did meet last week and um we approved the Bridgewwater or we planned to forward the Bridgewater section 7 primary plan and that I believe should be on our next agenda. So that will be coming um which will connect basically um Virginia Lane over to Morning Star Road. Um the other thing was the Auburn revitalization plan for downtown was uh forwarded um approved. So that should also be submitted I hope and ready to go at the next council meeting. Okay. Thank you. Welcome. Committees.

Nothing for tax. Nothing for ordinance and resolution. Finance Committee meets this Thursday, 9:00 am. Is there any other unfinished business to come before the council?

Any new business? General good and well for the community. I'd like to say the splash pad was just sent for routing today out at Memorial Park. So, they should be looking at that. Jim, is it next week or in two weeks? Two weeks. Uh, so that's pretty exciting. And then once that's completed, hopefully by the end of June, uh, we'll do the parking lot in late August, early September once it's completed and we get through the summer, so we don't have equipment tearing it up when we right after we put it in. So, um, and then they're doing the walk on the, uh, Veterans Memorial as we speak. And then the week of May 4th, they should be coming in to do that parking lot, too. So, that should be wrapped up by miday.

Did you find the L? Yeah, Eric's got that. Did they say when they're going to be able to cut the names into the monument?

Uh, so we are working on We've got the quote. We're going to end up putting some sort of granite panel on it. that limestone just quite wasn't uh it would have we would had to put letters that were e inch or larger and a little deeper. It would have taken up the front and the back. So, we were getting granite panels sections that will set on each section of the monuments and then they'll mount to it. Also, uh they'll have um like rubber grommets inside to allow for expansion and retraction of the stone. And uh we just got the information from the contractor today. Just waiting on their price and then we'll be working on getting some numbers. They did say the panels though are about three three months out. But we want to make sure we do it right

because I knew they made a comment about the weather had to be a certain temperature. Yeah. Yeah. It's got to be warm. Uh but we do have to order the panels. So it may be about another 90 120 days, but it's it's definitely well underway. So Okay. But it's good to wait on that because there's so many names and that's great. There's going to be so many names on it. It just wouldn't have been feasible to do with the Yeah. into the stone like initially they thought. They just got so many names. Yeah. We'll have about 75% of the back on the army one left instead of using up both the front and back side. So, it'll work out well. Anything else under the goods? Next regular council meeting is Tuesday, May 5th at 6 PM. Move to adjourn. Second.

We have a motion, a second to adjurnn. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed to adjourn.