Town Council - Regular Meeting

This is a very important part of the process. This is a very important part of the process.

We're gonna go ahead and call to order the Avanton Council meeting of July 23rd. Please rise for the pledge.

Robert Pope.

Present.

Steve Eisenbarth.

Present.

Greg Zuzan.

Present.

Jason Puckett.

Present.

Dawn Ladin. Present.

All right. We are going to start with employee recognition. Sean?

Actually, the first thing I'm going to do is just hand out an award, a plaque of appreciation from the police department. to former town council member Bill Holland. If Bill could come on up here for a second. It's kind of a tradition through the years as our council members leave the council. The police department likes to just give out a little token of appreciation for their service to the community, but also for their support and dedication to the men and women of the Avon Police Department and Bill was no exception to that. He was here at a lot of meetings, and he was here championing for us a lot on our budgets and all of our needs, as all of you have in the past. And we just appreciate that and just want to thank you, Bill, for all of your support through the years. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Ryan, are you doing the next one?

Yes.

Sean's gonna join me as well, I think. But again, this is one of the things I really enjoy doing as the town manager. I think Sean enjoys doing it as well. Certainly we like to show some appreciation and recognition to our employees who have been here a long time. And so tonight we're gonna recognize Nate Hawk, one of our police officers. I don't have the privilege to interact a lot with some of the police officers just because I'm, you know, they're out on the streets or they're doing what they're doing. But Nate has, I've had a lot of interaction with Nate and probably because Nate is one of the kind of people that we really want to work for our town. He's thoughtful, he's compassionate. When the town does things like Employee Appreciation Week, the first email I always get is from Nate Hawk saying, thank you, I appreciate those things. So... Nate even, he sends me little notes after a podcast, which I think he may be the only person who listens to Angel in my podcast, but Nate sends me notes and says, hey, your podcast was really good this week. Just really thoughtful things that a lot of other employees don't do. So I've come to really appreciate Nate and everything he's done for the town and how thoughtful he is. And so thank you, Nate, for your 20 years here. I hope you stay for 20 more. I know you probably don't want to, and Kim will probably tell you don't, but... So thank you very much. And with that, I'll maybe let Sean say a few words and then we'll hand this off to Nate.

Well, I had a lot of nice things to say about Nate tonight until I found out that he was commenting on that podcast. That's kind of weird. I can't lie. It's kind of weird. No, seriously, though, when Nate came to our agency, I was in investigations and I was doing the background investigations. on Nate and I already knew Nate from working he worked on the road and I already knew him and uh he was at the Sheriff's Department and uh as I'm calling around checking and with all of his references and everything and I'm talking to his current employer at the time man I caught a lot of grief from a lot of different people on that department because we were stealing Nate and That's true to today. Just to reiterate what Ryan said, he's the nicest guy on the department. If you have a job where you need somebody to go be really nice, you send Nate. That's just how he is, and he's not lying. When we get finished with the budget every year, the first email I usually get is from Nate. Thank you for all the work on the budget. Thank you for, you know, getting raises or whatever it was we were able to get that year. So he's always the most gratuitous when it comes to those kind of things. He appreciates what the town's done for him, and he demonstrates it here day in and day out. When he comes in to work, he's here probably just as much as I am. He'll come in and out. Sometimes he's in uniform. He'll change his clothes. He'll be doing something else, then he's back in uniform. The guy's just always here. And I can always count on him if I need something. So, Nate, we really appreciate all your years of service. And hopefully we can get at least, I don't know, 10 more years out of you. Okay. So he won't commit to that. Come on up here. We'll negotiate that later.

I appreciate the town, everything the town has done for me. I've been very fortunate here and very blessed, and I humbly greatly appreciate that. I appreciate everything the town council has done for us the last several years with all of the raises. Obviously, money is not everything, but money helps a lot, especially when you're a father providing for his family and how costs continue to raise and go up. So it means a lot. Thank you. Thank you for the recognition. It's very nice. Of course, thank you to my family for all their love and support and putting up with me even when I'm always grumpy and sour, especially when I'm working night shift.

So you're nice at work and grumpy at home?

Oh, yeah. And sometimes I take it out on them. Not intentional. I apologize. I do take it home sometimes. And for my coworkers and for the town employees I work with, I work with a lot of good people, and I'm fortunate to be here again. So thank you for the recognition. I appreciate it.

so i think i've heard that the new plaques went up outside and that there might be some draw wall issues do you want to take photos or do you i'm just asking that's what i'm asking we can take a brief recess get nate his 20-year photo okay we'll go ahead and recess for a few minutes

meeting back to session and move on with the consent agenda make a motion that we approve the consent agenda including the check register for July 23rd the July 9 work session memo and the approval of minutes for the July 9th meeting as presented second Thank You Julie roll call please

Jason Puckett. Four. Don Laden.

Four.

Greg Zuzan. Four. Robert Pope. Four. Steve Eisenbarth. Four.

All right, next is public comment period. The public may comment on the agenda, which is not part of a public hearing, or on a specific matter within the council's jurisdiction. If you'd like to speak, please come forward to the podium. Make sure the green light's on and state your name and address, please.

Doug Elmore, 1335 Lorloke Drive, Avon. Last meeting at your work session, heard you guys discussing the new Civic Center and the mural and all the design and everything on that. And of course, I've not been privy to everything related to that, but I just wondered if any thought had been given since it's gonna be a shared center with the schools and stuff to actually work with the schools and the art students to have them submit drawings and submissions to use on that. And then the other submissions that aren't chosen can be hung in the lobby as decoration and give you also opportunities to have, you've mentioned changing it out, extra drawings of, well, we've got this idea and this idea, and we like all of these, and we're going to use this one this year and this one the next year. So I thought, you know, again, not privy to everything, but I thought what a great opportunity to utilize, you know, we have some fantastic students. If you ever go to Artscape and places like that, the stuff that they do probably far exceeds what we're actually having done by some people that call themselves professionals. So.

Thank you. Anyone else?

My name is Adrian Pankow. I live at 1650 South, County Road 450 East. That's just south of Prestwick, Parks of Prestwick, in an area that recently, within the last five or six years, got annexed into the town. And I know when we annexed into the town, we were annexed in agricultural zoning. And... I know that on the newest comprehensive plan that's been adopted within the last seven or eight months, that commitment to the agricultural zoning was reflected in that newest comprehensive plan. I received a note from Pulte Homes within the last two or three weeks regarding um, their intention to buy, they are currently under contract on 131 acres that neighbor, um, all of our properties that, that property has frontage on 100 South on the West side of the new middle school. And it has frontage on four 50 East, which is just, um, a quarter mile South of the new middle school West. And, um, This is not the first time we've gone through this rodeo, but I do ask that the council, which has had some turnover since we did this last time, but I do have a note that was signed back from when we first went through this and three of the members, signed to maintain the integrity of that zoning and the requirements and what the intention of that land would be. And my ultimate request is that the town council just continue to honor that commitment to keeping that land agricultural and not allowing production housing to go in there. When we did this the first time, there was only five families on that road that were raising livestock. Now there are seven. So that shows that the integrity and holding true to the zoning is working because there are people that want to live in Avon and have the convenience of everything Avon offers and also be allowed to live in an area that's agricultural. I thank you very much.

Thank you. Anyone else? All right, we'll move on to council comment and liaison reports, Steve.

Had meetings with RDC and the authority also, the commission and the authority. Nothing unusual out of the meetings, but went through and did good diligence to answer on the invoices and found things that I thought, you know, it was good. Just shows that they take time to read through and go through everything. So I was sitting in the peanut gallery this time rather on the other side of the table, but I enjoyed it. It was good listening and hearing the interaction. Our new member, Shelby, she did a great job. I thought she put some questions out there too. So that's all I've got right now.

Thank you. Greg?

A couple of things. On July 6th, Dawn and I met with Lennar Holmes. about a future project down by Gibbs Park. July 22nd, Dawn and I met with Land Reserve, which is the Mormon church, and they presented their land study on their land on Ronald Reagan, just north of IU Health on both the east and west side of the road. And then we will not be having a Planning Commission meeting on Monday because we didn't have anything to go over. So I don't know if that's a good thing or bad.

That's unusual, yeah.

It's unusual, correct.

Jason?

Nothing for me tonight.

Robert?

Nothing.

The only thing I have to add, to what Greg already mentioned is this past Tuesday night, we were at the County Government Center, Ryan and Julie and myself, it was the must meeting, which was the first meeting of all clerk treasurers and township people, towns, municipalities fire regarding the local income tax changes that are going through. And so first of, I guess, many meetings, but it really wouldn't go into effect until 2029. So lots of changes to come, I guess. All right, we'll move on to new business where we're awarding a quote for sanitary sewer at Foundation Park.

Yes, Shelby's off this week. So I told her I would handle this for her. As you guys are aware, we received notice from West Central requiring us to connect to their sanitary sewer. They had made this attempt about two years ago to force us. We were able to kind of work around those requirements, and so we were able to buy some time. West Central extended the sanitary line to be closer to the park, which then required us to connect under Indiana law. So we did, on May 19th, get an order from West Central to connect. Of course, Foundation Park is the former AJAA property. And so we began that process. We had already had some dialogue with them. And so we were working on quotes. As you guys know, we also had connected Apex Park, which is the softball fields at 625. US 36, that one was much less complicated, which is why we were able to accelerate it and get it done more quickly. As Shelby mentioned in here, one of the problems we ran into when we were looking at Foundation Park is that the septic tank is actually underneath the foundation of the building. It's actually underneath the concrete floor. So at some point when they did an expansion to the building, they extended the concrete and actually put it over top of the septic tank. And so initially there was concern that the location of the septic tank, if we actually had to remove it, that it would impact the foundation that was actually holding up the second story. So we had some difficult challenges to try to navigate that, which is why that was behind. Shelby and Tiffany actually did a great job. and coordinated with the health department and we're able to get a waiver for actually removing the septic tank the health department's going to allow them to fill it with flowable fill and leave it in place so that resolves some of our structural issues with the building itself however you guys did approve the tap fees and everything and and that was forty six thousand dollars And then we did attempt to get three quotes. We ended up only getting one. One company said they weren't interested. The other company was going to use Daystar, which is the low quote that we got because they said they didn't have the equipment to do the directional drilling that was required. They could have done some of the plumbing work, but they were going to have to use Daystar anyway. So once they found out that Daystar also had given us a price, they just said they weren't interested in providing a price. That was Hope Plumbing. Originally, we had thought this could be upwards of $200,000. So I know that the quote, the low quote from Daystar is $92,301. So although it's pricey, it's still much better than where we thought we were going to be six to eight months ago when we kind of started this process. It is the recommendation of the park staff to award the low quote to Daystar Directional Drilling for $92,301, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

What is their availability to begin the work and complete it?

They have said that they think they can have it done in mid-August. Our completion date for West Central is August 19th. Shelby and I have been communicating to West Central. We believe we can get it done or at least be started by August 19th, but we would be basically subject to Daystar's availability. They said if we can get an answer to them quickly, they may be able to start earlier in August. So we believe at least by the end of August that we'll have it in. And so we'll communicate that information to West Central and hope that based on that and reasonableness and knowing that we're working towards getting it addressed, that they wouldn't start fining us. But that is at the district manager's discretion. So we'll do everything we can. They believe they can get it done.

If it were to be passed tonight, would you notify Daystar tomorrow?

Yes. Daystar knows it's on the agenda tonight and we've already basically told them it's our expectation. It'll get approved and to please schedule it.

You had mentioned 625. What was the sewer connection fee for that? The inspection fee and I'm assuming Daystar did that install too? They did.

The connection fee was only about, it was a little over $5,000. West Central determined that that property only had one ERU, and they determined that the foundation park was nine. So that's why that connection fee was so much more expensive for EDUs, I guess, sorry. It was nine EDUs, so it was substantially more expensive.

How do they determine that? How do they calculate it? Is it just all subjective?

There was supposed to be some methodology. It was not shared with us. I believe it was based on what they said they observed for the number of uses and how many people were there and how many hours a day people were there, and that that's how they generate what that EDU is. It's not something we actually do. So they tell us what it is, and we basically have to pay it.

They make assumptions that may not be real, though. They could, yes. You can buy the AJAA part. There's nobody there during the day. What about Daystar's cost for 625? How much do they charge for that? I mean, what you have is you have a captive contractor that works hand-in-hand with the WCCD, and they both control whatever's out there. I mean, we don't have a leg to stand on. However, when they owe us money, We have to go and file lien waivers and sue them and everything else. I don't understand how they want us to be a good neighbor, and they're the opposite for us. And so I don't get it. I mean, in my opinion, there's no logic. You got the same company that does this day in, day out. We just did it over here. They didn't want a grease trap. They say, because we sell hot dogs and hamburgers, we got to put a grease trap in. Grease traps are for restaurants, not for an AJAA athletic facility that is used, I'll say 180 days a year. But yet they control what they want and it may not be i i don't know i just i have a bad taste in my mouth with the wccd greg i'm going to echo about the same of what you feel because here we have a government agency

demanding, that demand letter, when I read that, it's just sobering. Like, here they're demanding from another government agency at our taxpayers' expense. You know, we're all up here to help taxpayers, but we're stuck on this situation because you have a government agency demanding that this agency perform or pay thousands of dollars in fines. And It's very sad that you have government agencies doing that. And I think we need to do everything we can to cooperate and try to work with these guys. I mean, I know that's a hard one because when someone does this, it builds bad blood. So we will have to really suck it up and do the best we can to try to work with them until things change.

Frank, can you speak to what the fine is? if it's not done by the completion date. I know that we, they had given us some notification of what it would be for Apex. Would it be the same?

Yeah, it's, my understanding is it's in the state statute and it's $1,000 a day. And so I think the last notice we got on Apex was that they were going to fine us $20,000. I haven't seen anything on that. I intended to, we communicated the schedule to Mr., to the district manager and There was some hope that he would potentially waive those fees as a result of us, again, doing the best we could to meet the timeline. The only reason we didn't meet the timeline was because the contractor couldn't get out to do it. And this one would be a similar situation, but again, we do have to try to work that out and see. My understanding is it's at the discretion of the district manager if he wants to attempt to collect it from us or not, so.

I just hope that he would do that because it's our taxpayers that are hurting on all this. I mean, we're up here making a decision that we have to make to force it through with a contractor that they control, quite honestly. It doesn't smell well, but it's something we have to do just to stop the bleeding so taxpayers don't have to pay more. I mean, that's how strong I feel about it. I think the rest of you feel that way, but you're just biting your tongue. But, you know, it's a sad situation. It really is.

That's all I got to say. The reality of it is, based on the statute, is they can build their line to within 300 feet of your property and you are forced to sign on.

That doesn't make any sense.

The other thing is we've written off liens on them of over $22,000. We've got liens out there for our sanitation. We've got liens out there. It's only $949, but you do that four times a year, that's just under four grand. We're going to keep going and keep going. Like you say, it doesn't smell right, but then again, that's the WCCD, it's a sewer utility, I get it.

I guess I did want to say one thing. Daystar works for the town as well and has done a lot of water connections. They're the ones who have actually helped us get the Raceway and 100 North project going. I know you guys are frustrated, but I wouldn't put that at Daystar's feet. Daystar has been, they work for the town too. They do storm work for us and they do sanitary and water work for us. And they've done always, they've always been honest and have done a good job for us. So I would just, please don't, I know you guys are frustrated, but I wouldn't lump Daystar in as part of that. We have a relationship with them as well, right?

Is there a way to, because we don't have fines involved with the roundabout, Could we move them over to foundation to get that done to potentially not have any fines?

Yeah, they're done at Raceway now. So they're gone somewhere else. But we had that conversation with them. They've told us they have two jobs. They have a job in Westfield and they have ours. And they said, depending on, they said they'd know in the next couple of days, if the Westfield job doesn't go, they said they'd be out here sooner to come do ours. So they're aware of that and they're trying to accommodate us and try to meet at the timeline as well.

Dan, is there a time limit on when they have to issue a letter of demand on the fines? Or is it just going to hang out in perpetuity?

Well, there is some timetable, but I don't recall what that is. I do represent one sanitary utility, but I would think you usually know pretty quickly.

But I'll find out for you. and see what that is. We should get some clarification on that before.

Yes, if you guys approve this tonight, I will send an update to West Central Conservancy District and let them know you guys have approved it. I will also, in that email, I'll ask for them to waive the fines that we had on Apex Park, and then I'll let you guys know the outcome of that response.

So, what fund are we going to get this money from seeing we haven't budgeted this food and beverage.

Any more discussion or questions if not, we'll entertain a motion.

We need to make a motion for you to be able to distribute those things. um dan do i need to include for the clerk treasurer to be able to pay those funds out no i think we just paid on the next okay i'll make a motion that we award the quote today star directional drilling and the amount of ninety two thousand three hundred one dollars as presented second jimmy roll call please jason bucket four robert pope four greg susan

Next is an introduction of ordinance 2026-10 authorizing bond series 2026-B for the Lennar Hoppe II.

This ordinance is your bond ordinance for phase two of the eastern gray Lennar project, if you recall, you did a developer and bond for Lennar in phase one to help with infrastructure for that development. This is the next step. And so this ordinance authorizes the issuance of the bond and also establishes a variety of guardrails for the issuance and also approves a couple of other documents which are in your packet that I'll speak to about. So again, your Economic Development Commission has made a study and a finding that the issuance of this would further the economic development in the community and be in the best interest of your citizens. The money in this issuance would be used for roads, sidewalks, water, sanitary sewers, stormwater, and other necessary infrastructure for this part of the development. And it's anticipated to result in approximately $18.1 million of improvements in the three phases. This is phase two. If you look at page two of the ordinance, you can see that the adoption of the ordinance on second reading would authorize the issuance of what we're calling the Economic Development Revenue Bond Series 2026B of the Lennar Project. You issued... the A bonds last fall. And so this is the next step of what we call the HOPA II allocation area bonds. You would be also finding that the bonds would need to be secured by a trust indenture, as you commonly see, so that we can have some regulation over how the bonds get paid. And the proceeds would be limited. It would have to be used on this project, could not be used for any other purpose. On page three, you'll see in section two also that this ordinance approves the first supplemental financing and covenant agreements. And again, this is a supplemental because you already have a financing agreement in place on this project with the company. So this just essentially updates it and says those are going to be the same. So it would do that. It would also improve the trust indenture, which is also a supplement. So we're piggybacking on the prior indenture. It indicates that the maximum amount of this bond series would be $5,350,000, and that those would be paid in no longer than 25 years. They do have an optional and mandatory redemption options there at the bottom of page three. On page four, you'll see that the ordinance authorizes the Clerk-Treasurer and the County Council President to sell the bonds and to sign documents that would do that. And I know it's blank in your draft document, but I know that the maximum interest, I believe, is 8%, although the market is generally below that. Right now, probably 66.5% is what our underwriter thinks, but that's a market-controlled thing. If you go to page five, you will see there that the... The proposed trustee is Argent Institutional Trust Company, and that is who the money would be paid to. Claims for construction would be sent to the trustee then, and so the trustee serves that purpose. the financing agreement was also provided to you. And again, I would note that this is the document which limits the use of the money, otherwise pretty standard that you're used to seeing. And then the indenture, which is like the mortgage, uh, on the transaction. Again, very standard, um, uh, terms. Again, this, this makes, uh, this, this puts someone else in the middle to make sure everything gets done in the right way. And, um, Again, I find nothing really, uh, uncommon in here to point out to you, but I'll be happy to answer any questions about the bond, the finance agreement, or your, um, indenture. And as you know, we're working with, with Heather from base Miller on this, uh, along with your normal team of underwriters and financial advisors with Greg gear toss. This is first reading.

So this will be the last of the bonds then for that project.

No, the second of three for the HOPA part. And there may be others down the road, but this is just on this one part. The second phase of three.

And is this a developer-backed bond?

Yes, it is. The company will be buying the bonds, which is great for us.

So the A bond was $3,825,000. You're saying the B series is going to be $5,350,000. Is it a larger section?

It is, but we don't know how much will be spent. The bond order just establishes the maximum amount to be issued, and if the actual project costs more, a million dollars less, for example, then the funds that remain are used for phase three. So there are provisions in the documents which address this very issue about what if it costs less. And so what we have now are estimates for what the infrastructure will cost. The bond order merely establishes the maximum amount of the issuance. The actual issuance could be a little less, can't be more. It could be $5 million, for example. And then we might only have construction claims of $4.5 million. But the way it's set up, there is a linkage between these three phases and the financing side, which was important to the town. And really, Charlie Joyce, Greg Geritas, and Heather have done a great job protecting us here so that they can only be used. But if the construction costs are not that much, we roll that into the next phase, which then would reduce the phase three bond. Good question.

Were we lucky enough to have any left over from A, Brian?

We may have. Honestly, I don't remember. I could go back and look for you and get you an answer.

One thing on page two of your ordinance, at the very top, the dollar amount is incorrect. I noted that too, Greg.

It's correct elsewhere, but you're right. I didn't draft the ordinance, but I take full responsibility.

Probably the clerk treasurer probably did that section.

Good luck.

Okay, that's enough. If there are no more questions, we'll consider ordinance 2026-10 as introduced. And we'll move on to legal counsel report.

I just have a couple things to report to you. One, that the briefing has been completed in the West Central case, speaking of our relationship with West Central, and that matter is now in front of the Court of Appeals. We do not know yet whether there will be an oral argument or the Court will decide on its own. We also don't know when, but the briefing has now been completed, and so the matter is in the Court's hands. The second thing that I will note is that new laws took effect July 1st, and we mentioned this in your training, but in the second half of the year, you're going to see a couple ordinances come to you that just put those policies into effect that we're required to have. So we'll be working with your staff on those things. And I know that Nate said it. I wish Nate were still here, but I um on behalf of anti we uh we we spent a lot of time with not just you guys but your department heads and we we do enjoy working with your department heads although they work hard sometimes but uh but but i've had recently we've been working with nate um a little bit on some matters and uh but you do have great people that are employed by the town uh they make our job easier and we appreciate that too thank you

Another opportunity for public comment.

John Taylor, 1610 Reeves Road.

Does that ring a bell for anybody?

Representing the Henry Scott Economic Development Partnership, we have moved our offices. So 1610 Reeves Road, which is made at Plainfield. We moved in last Friday. We'd like for you to come by sometime. We're there 8 to 4, 30 Monday through Friday and sometimes a little later. Additionally, we want to let you know that our organization has hired a new executive director, which may not be important to you, but it's really important to me. She'll start August 10th. I would like to see if we could bring her by to your meeting here on the 13th and introduce her to you. Part of her background is she was 13 years with the Simon Property Group in charge of their real estate across the country, buying, selling, looking at, understanding. So she's got a lot of background. She worked in economic development up in Fishers, Indiana. So I'm excited. I want to bring her in so you can all have a chance to meet her. So if I could get on your schedule for the 13th of August. Thank you.

Thank you. Council comment? Oh, I'm sorry.

Adrian Pankow, 1650 South, County Road 450 East. I may have misunderstood, but I thought I heard the word Gibbs and Lennar in the same sentence or side by side. when I saw the development going on over there, I guess I just thought it was an extension of the park. Is that not the case?

That is the development of the park. Yeah, this is just something else.

It just happens to be out in that quadrant. Okay, so that's not residential?

No.

Okay, all right.

That's the extension of the park.

Okay, thank you very much.

Anyone else? All right, council comment.

I have nothing.

I would just say that 4-H fair is going on, and if people haven't been out there, get an opportunity, you should go out and participate. Brian, council calendar.

Yeah, congratulations, you guys survived. You get an extra week off because of the five weeks in July, so... Don't get confused. We have two weeks in between before we have a council meeting. So three weeks from today is our next council meeting, which is August 13th. You do have a work session at 5.30 to do your favorite thing. Greg Garrett will also be there to talk about budget. So it should be an exciting meeting on the 13th. So we'll see you then. Regular scheduled meeting at 7 p.m.

Thank you. Meeting adjourned.