City Council - Regular Meeting

We're live. All right, it's a 501 on September 8th. We'll call the city council meeting to order. Everyone's here except for two, and I'll be filling in for Roger today. I will start with the pledge. I pledge 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. Bow your heads. Yes, Lord, we come to you today just asking for your guidance and protection. Allow us to do what's best for the city and everyone in it. In your name we pray. Amen. All righty. And do we have any public comment? Nope. Then we have public hearing for 2027 budget. Anybody here to say anything on that? No, OK, just close it. OK, we'll close the public hearing for the 2027 budget. Move down two minutes for August 11th. Anybody have any comments or corrections? Seek a motion to approve. Motion by Stacy. Second by Mike. All in favor? Opposed? 3-0. Alright, then we'll move down to claims. Anybody have any comments or corrections on claims?

Yeah, like I said, this is software new for the most part. I will way were able to do things. It's a lot better. I'm not crazy about their progress report, but. That's first time we ran on the same way claims, so we're working through it. Well, yeah, both it down, so I'm glad we were able to come up with that so. Glad that help.

Motion on the claims. Motion by Stacey. Second by Mike. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes. And then that'll take us to old business. Anybody have old business?

Not necessarily old business, but the North Grove project. I've been seeing some things on Facebook with the dust.

They've been over there with water trucks. Yeah, they've been over there with water trucks the last week or so.

Okay. The complaint was made after that, so that was... Yeah, the water trucks.

I forget when they came over. When I say last week, it was sometime last week. Maybe later in the week. I can't remember, but they're over there with water trucks.

And the lady on the corner of Wilbur and Church Street

The vehicles are still piled up in the yard.

Oh, you mentioned that last time too. Yeah.

Yeah. We'll make a note first. I drove by there and there's several of them.

You said you were going to make a note. Yeah. She was off the count. Over at church? Yeah.

They're all around.

I took a look at them the other day.

Come to it. I've got them here in order.

I think I need this.

Any more business? They've started.

I think they did almost everything but the arrows. Yeah, they've got everything up there. I think they've got a stop bar or whatever in place.

that they're waiting for something to do with arrows. The engineer was going to check with them on the arrows when that would be done. It'll help out out there. Any other ones? Okay. We will move on to new business. I have a resolution. Do you have a copy of that? I got it right here. Go ahead, Chuck. Okay. Resolution 26-07, transferring money from rainy day to bond anticipation note. Chris, you want to give a rundown on it?

Yeah, so on the solar project, there was a time lag. There was a bond anticipation note that took out, I think it was a nine-month note, somewhere in the neighborhood of $909,000. Yeah. That was supposed to have been paid off a few months ago. Because tax credits hadn't come in, they extended it. The bond bank extended it. It was coming due.

We got the tax credits in in an amount of $1.4 million.

We had talked about it before, taking that money and paying off the bond. Well, we had to. It's a short term. We just need... we just need to make sure that they care that and that's what the interest in. So just, no, just need you guys to prove it on that.

I'll make a motion to approve.

Motions. Take a seat. Second. Mike, all in favor. Aye. Opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Okay. That'll take us down to resolution 2026-08. And this, um, I'll let you get a rundown on also, Chris.

OK, absolutely. So resolution 08 is. The state restrict them. You know we talked about forever. NBH has been a 5050 split 50% into unrestricted 50% and restricted. They came out and they were. I think it's called pacer rating. because our roads are in such good shape, most of our roads are in such good shape, we fall, I believe this is above a pace of rating of six with our roads. We're able to change our distribution from to 60-40, 60 into unrestricted, 40 under restricted, which helps every year since this has started. I've cut everything out of the street that I've been able to over the past, and we're still we still overspend a year, not overspend the other budget, but our budget runs more than what we bring in in revenue. So this helps.

Anybody have any questions on that one?

Seek a motion on that. Motion by Mike.

second second by stacy all in favor i suppose have you heard anything from the state on upgrades of 31 project now i i know it's project's been a lot but i don't know when last i heard they don't please don't hold me to this but it's something to do with the utility it's the utilities getting utilities new there once it's done they they've got so long to utilities have so long to

I forget who told me so that can take up to six months a year.

Yeah, I mean, yeah. At this point, what's it? So that's where that's at on that.

All right, so that last motion passed. Resolution passed. That'll take us to resolution 2026-09. This is transferring funds from Rainy Day for the purchase and installation of a A tire or garbage packer?

Yeah. So the reason I'm asking you to do this, the new garbage packer where it's a triaxial, Shane spoke with Scott with Greg Gooden, you have to put those back tires on every year because of the wear and tear. So within the budget, there's money listed in the line item. But those big tires are not cheap. No, it's going to be about $3,500 to replace these tires. Normal year, we'll be fine. This year, when last year's budgets were done, nobody anticipated diesel fuel jumping $3 a gallon. So we are going to need every dime we have in the budget to make sanitation not be in the negative this year so that's why i'm asking to do it this way okay um just curious is there anything else that would because i know we have the vehicle under warranty for everything else no tires not included but it's they've got they're covering they're covering everything else yeah tires aren't like i said we'll be good on tires next we've got them built in i mean we had 2 000 this year but the new packer didn't again shane didn't realize that we'd need tires are that much. In a normal time, last year we could have done it because there had been money. We could have moved around within the budget. We're going to be close to $20,000 over budget in diesel fuel this year. That's what I'm projecting. I'm not disagreeing right now. It has the tires. We're taking our trash to dump it at Seymour and they're on the interstate. You know, if we had a blowout or something, it's going to cost us $3,000 or $4,000 to have it prepared and towed and all that good stuff.

All right, so this is the resolution. Transfer from rainy day, $3,600 for the tires on that pattern. Seek a motion.

I'll make a motion.

Motion by Stacey. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes.

I'm ashamed to thank you.

And then that takes us to Ordinance 2026-10. And this is the wastewater standard.

Josh, do you want to cover that one? I would love to go line by line. You got to read along with me. Page 44. Finding longer than that, but the so just here is every so often the item. As far as what can be in our place for the testing and sampling, there are updates as new substances are introduced. um testing etc changes amounts so we have to periodically review and then submit item for approval so iden has generally given initial approval to our sewer use however we are also looking to adopt construction standards which will establish uniform standards for any construction projects or any entity wanting to connect to the sewer, as well as the city's wastewater standard drawings. So we have some specific standards and guidelines for new connections, especially as the construction and whatnot takes off. We want to make sure all that is done in line with what our expectations are as well as the state. So this is a combination, essentially, of those three items. So this ordinance, we're updating in exhibit A, our sewer use ordinance. Exhibit B, we're adopting those wastewater construction standards. And then in exhibit C, we'll have the connection and the standard . The other thing that IDEM was expecting us to do was a response plan. which this ordinance makes uh no doubt that has been adopted like the report now has been adopted by board of works at its new meeting they did approve and adopt the emergency response plan so several different things are ongoing here this is only first room tonight there is a fee change um under a statute there will be a public hearing at our next meeting We are adding, we are increasing the connection fee to more practically cover our costs. Right now, a lot of those connections are costing the city more than what the connection fee is. So this will increase that to $1,500. And then it also adds an inspection fee, which we currently do not charge any inspection fee. So right now, Tyler is going out and inspecting those sewer taps but there is, so it's time and money. That's where dollars are being used. That's not being recaptured. So this does create a $100 sewer tap inspection fee. So if you have any technical questions, ask your city engineer.

I was actually going to ask if they had reviewed this, if there's anything else that we needed to add.

Dave and Jeremy have been point with the item.

Okay.

So, absolutely. Jeremy's Plans on being here for the next meeting.

OK, so I think it's important that we do this and should have higher fees and establish things. So.

Yeah, I wish you would have read all of it, but.

Call me when he's done.

Yeah, no doubt I will seek motion for first reading only. Motion by Stacy. Second by Michael favor. Motion passes. OK, then that'll take us to ordinance 2026 dash 11. This is establishing a stormwater rate and also standards. For review and considerations. Is this? Josh, do you know what the requirement is? for the state to mandate this to be formed in population size?

No.

I know we've been mandated. We have? So that's why I was asking. We have to do it.

Yes. So... No.

Well, just... We meet the statutory criteria. And we were mandated three-ish years ago to do this.

And... So like today, especially to ask questions, there's a home on Gooden Drive down where I think Lisa Webster, one of the new homes that was built over there. Jeremy had pictures today or from the other day when it's been dry and there's still water kind of out in the road. The only way to run that is to run that down Gooden Drive and down in behind the apartments down to the creek. And he said, you know, we have to have a contractor that's going to cost them somewhere in the neighborhood of about $80,000 for just for that one. So the idea behind this is, I know like Oprah's got a thing coming out, you know, for the grant, which is $750,000 with a match, which is great, but you have to have, you have to have this in place to even qualify. Yeah, Scottsburg was able to receive that.

I mean, and they just got theirs in place. at the end of last year um so but you have to show that you know that you're taking some um objective approach to helping yourself fix the problem so but yeah this is a big step in that direction to hopefully put us in line so i mean it's all over we've got things all over the city that we we've got addressing one of the things that i believe jeremy had mentioned is

with this in place, maybe you're able to bond because you're able to make the payment, because you're generating this revenue every year, and you're able to fix a lot of these problems right off the bat in this paperwork.

Do you think we need more aggressive grants as well to complement the efforts that we're putting in? Or who reviews the grants even after they're written, before they're submitted? Do you have anyone currently reviewing?

I mean, river hills is who takes care of our grants yeah i mean jeremy i mean they work i know on like community crossings they work hand in hand with heritage jeremy does all the leg work work jeremy and dave they do all the leg work for the for that grant and you know they give you the numbers they give you right they what you need and then they just river hills kind of fills in the blank they i mean they just

All right, Grant. I don't know.

No, so yeah, I mean, that's, but like Heritage does all the legwork on that stuff.

Okay, so they review it?

They review it, yes. Yes, they're involved from the start.

That was my only thing.

Yes.

If it's being reviewed before.

Yes, like on anything like that, Heritage is reviewing it and going over it. And Jeremy, they're doing a good job with that, in my opinion.

All right, good deal. I just wanted to make sure that at least somebody with city representations.

Yeah, absolutely.

Oh, no, absolutely. So we don't have a say on whether or not we do it. We can make adjustments if there's anything you see that you want to tweak, but we pretty much have to do it.

What did you say we're going to do, zero point five increases at one point?

Five dollar increase. That would be on the factors. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean again, nobody's in favor of raising that, but.

This is one of the many things is being passed down from the state level.

Well, they said some years back, wasn't it? That was going to be the situation in many areas.

And then oversight on it. We were wondering on that board of work. I just didn't want to have to make a whole separate board.

There is a whole separate board established that is essentially the board that sets boards, basically how sewer works.

Okay. Sounds good. All right. Anybody have any questions or alterations? Seek a motion for approving this ordinance. Motion by Mike. Stacey seconds. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes.

On that one, likewise, we'll be second reading in a public hearing at the October meeting.

So that's first reading only? First reading only. All righty. That's all the ordinances I have. Yeah. I think we just doubled the ordinances for the year, the one meeting. Pretty close. Yeah. Anybody have any other new business?

No. Okay.

All right. We will, unless you guys have anything.

No, unless I have this. I need you three. Make sure you're three here next month, next month's meeting. Budget. That's budget. 13th. It's the week after fall break. It's the week after fall break. Yeah, I'd like to because Joe, I know Joe can't vote on it. And so Brandon, I talked to him. So I think, you know, he'll be here. But just to make sure we've got a quorum because that causes a whole lot of headaches. Oh, last thing. Sorry. The must-meet. I don't know. If you had a chance to watch it, it was online. It went really well. I believe the county's on board with us and Scottsburg all going in together. It's the most beneficial. As I stated to you earlier, if we were going on our own, even at the full 1.2%, We're going to be about $30,000 shy. But that's a drop in the bucket compared to what the other two are. They're close to a million. That's harder to make up. And tax rate wise, it's best for the citizens. I'll let you know in the next schedule. That's the last one went really well and I feel like the county, Joe was there, Roger was there. I feel like the county representative, I think the county is on the same page as the rest of us. It's what's best for everybody. Again, there's a lot that can happen in this timeframe. This is just a guideline this year for these meetings. nothing happens the next year than in 2028 is when everybody has to adopt what they're going to do. 2029, you start receiving, start collecting funds. You'll start receiving the funds in 2030. Long rollout. It's a treat.

So that's all I have. Thank you for your time. Anybody have anything else? I'll seek a motion to adjourn.

Motion and second.

All in favor? Motion passes.