City Council - Regular Meeting

one this evening to our city of Bedford common council meeting Stonegate Arts and Education Center 93115th Street Tuesday, April the 21st at 700 p.m. Larry, would you please lead us in prayer?

Everyone bow their heads, please. Father, as we come here this evening to guide our city, please watch over our leaders. Please watch over our citizens. Watch over our firemen and policemen and our employees of the city cuz we all want to make Bedford a better place. Watch over our country. Watch over our troops overseas. And just keep us all in your hearts and minds and and watch over us all. Pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Brad, would you lead us in the pledge? Yes, sir. 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. Calling our meeting to order. We have approval of the minutes from March the 17th which was a regular meeting. Motion to approve as presented. Mr. Lair. We have a we have a motion actually from Craig. I'm sorry. I Larry. Would you like to second? You want a second?

Sure. hurt my feelings, but All those in favor signify by I. I. Anyone opposed? All right. Old business that was just presented. There was no voting on it the last time was ordinance 7-2026 repealing and replacing chapter 51 of sewers of Bedford City Code. Misty

proposed uh 51041. Uh it was to do with reports of accidental and sludge discharges from a um industrial user. Uh IDM has required us to have immediately time frame with that within and within so many hours. We had originally had um as soon as practical. So uh that has been changed to immediately within 2 hours. And then also within that same paragraph uh if there is an internal or operating monitoring data uh indicating a pre-treatment standard is likely to be violated that the a notification on that is 24 hours. So, those are a couple of the changes that we need to do. Does the council have anything for discussion? Mayor, I would make a motion that we

approve ordinance 7-2026. I second. All those in favor signify by I. I. Anyone opposed? I would entertain a motion for a second passage. If so. So moved. Second. All those in favor signify by I. I. I. Anyone opposed? And we will address our third and final passage at our next meeting. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll move on to new business resolution 1-2026 2027 INDOT 5311 5339 transit grant authorization. Dennis,

thank you. Mayor, we are in the process of completing the federal transit and INDOT grant operating grant for 2027. And one of the documents that has to be uh submitted is this uh formal resolution signed by a city representative, in this case, Mayor Craig, that says we will indeed comply with all the stipulations uh that they present and provide transit for the public within the city limits of Bedford. So, I would ask for your consideration tonight in uh in passing this uh this resolution so we can submit our grant. Thank you.

Uh Chief, uh kind of off the subject, but you are you planning on transporting folks to the polls on May the 5th? Yes. Good. Great. Open election days. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Uh Mr. Mr. Mayor, I would move for approval of resolution 1-2026-2027. I'll second the motion. All those in favor signify by I. I. Anyone opposed? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Compliance with statement of benefit CF1 tax abatement. Justin M. Davis. Uh, Davis Property, Anytime Laundry Real Estate. Justin, you would come down to the podium, please. If you can just tell us a little bit about your abatement, if you feel like that you've done everything in your abatement that you were stated that you would do and how it's going.

Okay. Um I I feel that I've um currently we have uh three employees. I don't know what I put down on that sheet uh the original sheet, but um uh all of which are part-time employees. Uh we hope to add another one this upcoming year. Uh Thursday, we're shutting the laundry mat down to concrete the entry. um only like part of that entry is um concreted and then uh in a couple months we're going to put concrete curbs in. Um we've been um encouraged to wait just a little bit longer to pave it just because we put a lot of fill in that area. So um next year we'll pave the parking area. Um but um I don't remember exactly all the details that was put on the original form that I filled out, but okay.

It appears that you possibly listed one to five and salaries you listed at $15 an hour. That that would be correct. We're at three part-time employees. Okay. All right. Does the council have any questions? You say you had three employees now, Justin? Yes, part-time. Part time. How is business? Good. It is. Yeah. Um, so far I don't regret the decision. Any other discussion?

I do hope to uh maybe bring a laundry mat in in house. We're looking into a machine called a preso and if that be the case then we'll be able to do that inhouse. Okay. Dry cleaning. All right. Okay. All right. Good. Where you taking it now? Uh Seymour. Okay. All right. If there are no other questions, thank you. We appreciate. Hope you're doing well. Thank you. We need a motion for compliance. You want a motion for compliance? All right. I'd entertain a motion. I'll make a motion that we accept the compliance statement of benefits for Justin Davis. Second.

All those in favor signify by I. I.

Anyone opposed? All right. Compliance with statement of benefits, CF tax abatement, Charles Hinsley, EH20 properties LLC real estate improvements. Chuck, we have uh renovated the old Great Escape Theater on 2929 Great Escape Drive. Um, we've put in a full service restaurant. Um, golf simulators, arcade, um, we'll have a full service bar. Um, we're planning on starting the new building, um, before fall. Uh, it'll be another 14,000 ft² building. And uh we currently have 30 employees and we plan on adding more when we do the new building.

What's all going to be in your new building, Chuck? New building will have a skating rink in which it will be um able we be able to put uh eight pickle ball courts in there also and use it for volleyball and we'll plan on putting 12 lanes of bowling. Okay. Council have any other questions? If not, I would entertain a motion. So move. Second. Larry. All those in favor signify by I. I. I.

Anyone opposed? Thank you, Chuck. Ordinance 9-2026 amending the zoning map reszone of property for K&J Investments LLC John Wings Boulevard at Limestone Drive from I2 to B3. Kevin,

thank you. Uh, this is a request from K&J Investments to reszone the property they own at John Williams Boulevard at Limestone Drive. The property is 5.62 acres and is known by parcel number 47061530 062.000010. Property is currently zoned I2 and they would like to reszone the property to B3 for use as a commercial space. A portion of the property is currently a section of the parking lot and the drive-thru for Culver's. Another section of the 5.62 62 acres will be the location for a new Del Taco restaurant. On March 24th, 2026, a preliminary hearing was held with the planning commission for this request and it was approved and moved to a public hearing. Prior to that public hearing, notices were sent out to adjoining property owners and advertised with local media. On April 14th, 2026, a public hearing was held with the plan commission for the request. And after discussing the request and hearing no objections from adjoining property owners, the CL planning commission approved the request for the reszone to be removed, sorry, to be moved to the city council for final approval. I now ask the council to approve the resign of parcel 470615 300062.001 from I2 to D3. Okay. Any discussion? There's no discussion. When appropriate, I'd entertain a motion.

I'll make a motion uh for the approval of ordinance 9-2026 amending the zone map to reszone property for K&J investments from B from I2 to B3. I second. I second. You're not going to make that. We got a second by Larry. All those in favor signify by I. I. Anyone opposed? I would entertain a second passage. So move, Mr. Mayor. I second. All those in favor signify by I. I. I. Anyone opposed?

Mr. here. Um, and I I was going to ask I was under the assumption cuz I I know uh when they were coming to approach the uh planning commission on this that there was some delay in figuring out the zoning situation and you guys have been pretty well and I'll allow Cole to It's okay if I ask Cole is there's some issues. Excuse me if he's going to answer. He needs to come down to the podium. You guys are put a little bit under the gun as far as trying to get this rolling. Correct. Yes, sir. That's correct. with uh banking commitments and uh training issues that we've set up. So, we'd be a little bit behind like to request if we could have a third vote tonight.

Well, I'm going to make the motion to or make a motion to suspend the rules so we could have that third vote. Okay, we have a motion to suspend the rules. Is there a second? I second. Okay. Second by Larry. All those in favor signify by I. I. Anybody opposed. Okay. Then is there a motion for a third and final passage? Some move. Second.

Second. We have motion by Heath and a second by Ryan. All those in favor signify by I. I. Anyone opposed? All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Now we have a laptop presentation. David, do you want to speak? I'm going to um introduce Pat Connor tonight. He's from Elap, which he's um he works out of the other Indiana University up north around West Lafayette. So, don't don't give him too much of a hard time, but he's got a presentation for us tonight on the on the wheel tax. So, I'll introduce Pat Connor.

Thanks, David. Appreciate the introduction there. Thank you, mayor, and the city for having me tonight. It's a it's a pleasure to be here. Um I got a long presentation. I'm going to go through it fast though and so don't don't worry if you saw the the slide deck that had maybe 30 or 40 slides in it. I'll try to get through really quickly. Um and there I think there's a couple points that I just want to hit home um that we'll spend some more time on. Um I did bring these um on the front side is what um we calculated the wheel tax and excise sir tax revenue to be for the city and then on the second page is what it is from the Lawrence County. So, this is what currently is for the Lawrence County and in the front side there's what it would be for the city if the city were to um adopt it. So, I'll go through that in detail later, but while you guys are listening um I just wanted to point that out to you there. So,

what does what does LTAP stand for?

It's good question. I got about eight slides on it and I'll sum it up in about 30 seconds. LTAP stands for local technical assistance program. So, we're a program out of Purdue University. as David said, the best university. And I got to be careful what I say down here, but um but our job is just to provide training. Um we do some research. Uh we provide resources to to local government to help maintain their transportation network better. Um so everything that we do comes we we're funded partly out of the Federal Highway Administration and then the local share the motor vehicle highway count. We have a an advisory board that AIM sits on, county commissioners, about every local entity in the state, um, AIC, INDOT, Federal Highway, um, other people from Purdue to help direct our program. Um, I say all that to say we are here as an education and training resource. Um, I've had I've done this presentation for some from some counties who insist that our, you know, we're here to lobby that you should adopt this tax. Um, because it means more money for our office. It's not the case at all. Um, I come here unbiased. My goal is to provide the education and information you need to make the best decision going forward for the community and answer any questions there. So, dealing with road funding is a lot what we do. Um, so I won't read these slides to you, but there's there's a lot there. We have training, research, innovation, safety, communications, asset management. I'm the asset management engineer. So I help collect all the pavement asset management plans to help communities apply for the community crossing expansion grant program. So I work really closely with Kathy, Macallop, and INDOT. Um, and all the changes that's happened the last couple years on that. Um so the wheel tax inside tax it is

it's b it's two different taxes. So that's we call it low hut in our office local option highway user taxes. We'll throw another confusing acronym out there but sometimes low hut is easier to say than wheel tax and excise sir tax. We'll go through those and what they are here in a second. Um but it was originally passed in 1980 um by our state legislators to help provide local communities with another another way to help fund their highway departments. Um in 2016 they changed uh or added language to the statutes for municipalities to be able to adopt the wheel tax and excise sir tax. Um here's some other changes to the law um over the last few years uh which anything on here to highlight 2017. So when they originally adopted in 201610 it's probably hard to read there. Looks like the formatting got out a little tweaked out of balance there. Um but they said municipalities with a population greater than 10,000 have the ability to adopt the wheel tax, next size tax, and then the next year they changed it to communities with population of 5,000 um to were able to to pass it. Um but more recently this last year um where it's become more and more um I've done this presentation a dozen times over the last year because of what came out of house bill 1461 which was passed by state legislature last year that tied community cross expansion grant program to the wheel tax and excise sir tax. So um I think I have some more slides on this later but I'll just go through it right now and then I can skim over it later. But the community crossing expansion grant program that everybody's familiar with, if you guys are f, you know, I'm not sure how familiar you are with it, but it has been about a $250 million a year program that cities like Bedford and and Lawrence County can apply for. And there's usually been enough money in

that pot of money to be able to give every community almost what they ask for. So, it hasn't been super competitive. Um but this last year in 2025, they changed that program to where now um instead of $250 million going to the grant program that you're familiar with, it's now $100 million um into the grant program. So it's going to be less than half or more than half of what it was before. Um and so it's going to become much more competitive. Not every community is going to be able to get um awarded um the grant funds that they apply for. um you do not need the wheel tax, excise sir tax to be able to apply for the competitive grant. Um but the other part the part that they changed or added is this what they call the lane mile direct distribution. So they project that to be 80 to $90 million every year. There's a lot of variables that go into that like one being there's $50 million set aside for Marian County Indianapolis. um if they can match that with $50 million. If they can't, that $50 million will go into the lane mile direct distribution and and increase that significantly more. Um but assuming Indianapolis and Marian County come up with the $50 million match, um they'll get their $50 million. I'll leave about $80 to $90 million next year um for the lane mile direct distribution. To get that lane mile direct distribution, you must have the wheel tax and excise sir tax. And just because Lawrence County has it doesn't make Bedford qualify for that. So every community has to have their own wheel tax sir tax to be able to get that direct funding. Um I have numbers calculated on what that would be for the city later. I can't remember off the top of my head um what it would be, but what that would be say say it's $100,000. I feel like it was somewhere in that ballpark. That would mean the city of Bedford would not have to apply for that. And every year if you keep up

with your asset management plan, you'll get that $100,000 direct distribution um to the city. And then currently INDOT um says there's a a million dollar the threshold's a million right now. Couple years ago was $ 1.5 million. It may go lower, but right now it's a million dollar stays at a million. And let's say the city of Beford gets $100,000 from the lane mile direct distribution. then they could apply for the comp the other $900,000 out of the grant program. So it's a just a a no application direct distribution. The other big change this year so before this year um they call so what what you see on the slide there is what we call stacked and unstacked. So if the county had the wheel tax and excise sir tax and then say the city of Bedford adopted it then the residents of the city of Bedford would have to pay that twice. Um so all the communities that have adopted the wheel tax and s and exciser tax before this year um those residents are paying twice. Um going forward this where Beedford would fall in um they took that away. So now the city of the res the residents of the city of Bedford would only have to pay um the city of Bedford wheel tax and exceller tax and whatever rates you set those at. If you put them at the county's rates then there would be no change to what the city residents would be paying for the low hut. So now you know why we call it low hut and not wheel tax. Um so so there on the right side of the screen there the unstacked that's where Bford would fall. I put the other one on there just to to show the difference and the change in legislation that happened just this year. Um I and I threw this slide in there too. Um I think we're past the point of

no return on this. So I'll just skim through this real quick, but there was so the September 1st date that you see there on the right is the typical date that the wheel tax has to be adopted by in order for it to go into effect the next calendar year. We re we renew our vehicles on a calendar year basis. Um so it starts January 1 and in order for that to start January 1, you have to have your ordinance adopted and sent into the state by September 1st. This year they got a one-time um aotment. If you had it done by May 1st, then you would get the lane mile direct distribution for this year. Um but it's pro I think timewise you have to have it publicly announced. So, so many days ahead of time in order to pass that ordinance to where I think you guys you could you could double check on that, but um I think we're we're getting close to the limit there. So, um so I think Bedford would be out of it for this year, but if you guys were to adopt it before September 1st of this year, then you get the lane mile direct distribution next year and start collecting the wheel tax January 1st of 2027. um how it's implemented. Like so like I said, it's two different taxes. You have to have both of them. Um they're kind of married together. You can't have one without the other. Um you have to adopt them concurrently. If you want to rescend it, you have to rescend them both. Um so you can't have one without the other. Um so the the what the two are so there on the left the municipal um the certax excise sir tax is your passenger vehicles your pickup trucks less than 11,000 lb motorcycles mopeds trailers less than 9,000 lb um that's the excise sir tax

and the rates for those are a minimum of $7.50 50 up to a maximum of $25. Um, rates may vary between the different classes. So, you could set the trailers at a at the minimum rate and the cars and trucks and motorcycles at a higher rate are all different rates in there. And then the wheel tax is the um like semi-truckss, semi-trailers, buses, RVs, um those type of vehicles. And those rates range from a minimum of $5 up to a maximum of $40. And again, those rates can vary between vehicle classes um as well. Um so every vehicle pays one or the other. No vehicle pays both of them. Um and it's not a per wheel fee, you know, it is a per registration fee. So it's kind of a mis misleading name to the wheel tax. A lot of people say, "Well, we have 18 wheels on our semi, you know, on our semis. Do they have to pay that 18 times?" No, it's one per registration. Um, wheel tax is a per play. Yeah, there it is. I got ahead of myself. Wheel tax is a per plate. It's per registration. Um, there's some exemptions. Um, vehicles owned by the state, owned by the state agency, owned by the political subdivision. So, if they're owned by by the city of Bedford, you would not have to pay it. School buses owned by the city would not have to pay it. And church buses and funeral um vehicles are all exempted. All other vehicles, I get the question a lot of time, well, you know, when we do this for counties, maybe maybe it's not such a thing here in the city, but like they want to exempt their farm vehicles and like what? You can't do that. It has to be at least at the minimum if it's not one of those vehicle classifications there. Um the effective date I mentioned is September 1st. That's for um adopting it

or rescending. It has to be done by September 1st and sent into the state by then. Um and here I just added this slide and uh this is not required, but I've learned that this is a best practice is to co coordinate with the BMV ahead of time. Um, Tamatha Cooper, I work with her quite a bit and um, and there was like one county last year that went through this and passed it and adopted it and they didn't include all the different vehicle types. So, the BMV rejected it and it was at the last minute. So, they got kind of kicked out to go back and revise their ordinance and go through that process again. She's offered just, you know, have them send it to me. We'll go through it. And I think I sent David um a spreadsheet that they have that has all the different vehicle classifications on there. So when you're developing your ordinance, if you guys decide to go that way, um follow that spreadsheet and all those vehicle classifications on there and assign dollar amounts to each one of those vehicle classifications. Um and then after you adopt it, um you'd have to send your approved asset management plan letter and your ordinance. Both of those are the two requirements um to the Bureau of Mo Motor Vehicles. And it also says the Indiana Department of Revenue. Um but really from what I've spoken with them um it's really the BMV. If you send that to them, BMV sends it to the Department of Revenue, but based on statute, it says both of them on there. I can give some more guidel or or I can help you out with that as well. Um, this is basically says the BMV does all the work. They collect it. Well, all the work. You guys do the work in passing the ordinance. Um, but the BMV does all the work in collecting the the revenue. They keep 15 cents per per plate, you know, per per

registration. The rest of that money comes directly to the city. So, if you guys adopt it at $25, this B&B keeps 15 and the other $24.85 85 cents comes directly to the city to be used in the highway or the street department and that money comes in directly from the comproller um on a daily or weekly basis. So it comes in pretty pretty frequently. Um how the funds can be used. It says a county, city or town may only use the cert tax revenues it receives to construct, reconstruct, repair or maintain the streets and roads under it jurisdiction. So, it goes to the street department to help um fund the paving projects um and other work that they do. Um this slide just kind of I I I almost took this slide out, but I wanted to show that, you know, at last year there were 16 municipalities that have adopted it. So far, as of date, um there's 36 that have adopted it. So more and more cities are are adopting this wheel tax and excise sir tax to help um to get the lane mile direct distribution I think is is the main um emphasis there and there's 12 more counties that adopted it this last year as well. Um the estimates there you have in front of you. So this is where the slides differ than what I changed these. When I first came up with the slides, I looked at what Lawrence County had adopted and I thought it said $25 for every vehicle. Um, but I was mistaken. Um, the trailers are set at the minimum rates. So, the original ordinance by the county said trailers are at $5. Um, but since 2005 when that ordinance was passed by the county, they moved some of those trailer classifications up to the exciser tax category. Um, so that minimum is $7.50.

So that's what you'll see there on your on your adjusted calculations there. So looking down at those calculations, I'll just get down to that. Yeah. So the numbers are a little different from what you see on the screen there. That was based on the original. Um but I if if the city were to match what the county had $25 across the board and then 7 you know the minimum rates for the the trailers um the revenue for the city would be about $332,000 coming into the city. Um, and then what's not on the slide if and just to compare that to if you flip the page over to what the Lawrence County calculations have, um, you can see that the city is getting around $200,000 a year. These are estimate. I didn't get these confirmed by the controllers's office or, you know, the city clerk um, to verify this, but from our numbers, it's about $200,000 a year um, that you guys get from the county wheel tax. So, if you guys were to adopt your own, instead of getting $200,000, the city would be getting, depending on what rate you set it at, anywhere between, you know, um the minimum there on the left is $100,000. The maximum is $364,000. Um but with the lower trail uh trailers and the lower rates for the excise sir tags, we'd be at $332,000 based on these estimates. and I can help if you want to change those numbers at all and see what those actual estimates would be. I'm happy to help with that as well or even send you the spreadsheet that we use to calculate this. Um, this is just shows on your example of a vehicle registration there, that blue box up there, the municipal wheels insert tax, this is what it would show up on on your vehicle registrations, whatever that that rate was $25, you'd see $25 in there.

And then yeah, we already kind of talked about the the lane mile direct distribution. Um there's where Yeah. So um 80 there's a couple different variables and it it's been kind of tricky to to nail down what like each city or county would get in that lane mile direct distribution. Um because it's one pot of money and the more people that adopt a wheel tax and exciser tax would distribute that money out more. So, um, those ranges vary between if every city and town and county adopted the wheel tax versus the ones that have it as of today. So, that if if the pot of money that was available was $80 million next year, next June 30th, um, City Beer would be looking at getting somewhere between 95,000 and $133,000. If it's $90 million, that range would be at a minimum $106,000 up to maybe $150,000. Um, so there's a lot of different variables that go in there, but kind of gives you a range on what that expected revenue would be. And of course, if Indianapolis wasn't able to match their $50 million, that would go up about 50% more. So closer 150,000 to $200,000 in there. So this is just shows the fiscal impact statement that I used to estimate the 80 to million 80 to90 million for next year. And what else do I have on here? I think I've gone through all that. I'll leave that questions right there and happy to take any questions that you guys may have. And ladies, we have

Patrick, I just want to and I think you laid it out pretty clearly, but I feel like it's the most important thing and it needs to be reiterated. If we were to do this, just to clarify, there wouldn't be a double tax on any of our citizens, it just be transferring the tax they're currently paying to the county to the city. Yep. And if we keep the same rates, nothing would nothing changes from the resident's point of view. If if you do the same rates, yeah, the only change of Lawrence County would get less revenue from their wheel tax because now it would all be coming to the city

and the city by your estimations here if we kept the same rates would get more money than what the county's currently giving it out to us then. Thank you. And the reason for that is the county wheel tax comes into the county and since Lawrence County is less than 50,000 person population, the way they distribute that money is 80% based on lane mileage and 20% based on population. So you see a little bit more of that money going towards the county in those counties. If the county population is greater than 50,000, it's rated like 60% based on mileage and 40% based on population. So there probably wouldn't be a huge difference in that case if Lawrence County was above population of 50,000. But since you guys are less than 50,000 um financially, you know, the city is bringing in more money and the county's getting a bigger portion of that. So

what is the cost to pave one mile of city streets? Just one. When you say pave, are we talking mill and overlay? We're talking about reconstruction. I mean, there's a wide range overlay mill and overlay. Uh, I'm not sure. David, help me out here if you got good numbers, but I mean, a mile of roadway is $20,000 per mile. No, I I I would block I mean, to do a mile, you're probably in the $250,000 range per mile.

Maybe $1 150 to $250,000 range. roads we do, some roads we do are only 20 foot wide, 20 foot wide and we've got part of J Street 47 or 50 ft, you know, and so it all there's no good way of cash in the road. It depends on a lot. Yep. Counties are always

they are they're more more consistent in their cities are all over the board there. You got utilities, you got storm water, you got manholes to go around. And it cost us more to pay, David, because most of our streets we mill because the curbs and we don't get so that that with the county usually just lays and goes. And I mean, again, obviously we're all imagine selfishly from being citizens and council members of the city here are a little biased towards the city, but simple fact is getting more road traffic than anywhere else in the county anyway. So I mean to me it makes more sense that you know we are getting the bigger share of the pie in that front from my perspective. But

well that's as far as in advising the public. I mean granted Heath from the standpoint we're going to receive more funding if we adopt the wheel tax. But then other than this money here then we're also talking about the lane miles. Correct. Which which is going to be added again on top of that. So, our citizens, I would think, would be very pleased for us to do this because we're going to be able to do a lot more for our streets in the city, uh, which will benefit all of our city residents. So, yeah. Yeah. If you add in the lane mile direct distribution and the difference, you know, $230, $250,000 increase with no additional cost to the residents. Correct.

Yes. Okay. Does board have any other questions or concerns? If not, we greatly appreciate you coming down and giving us this information. My pleasure. Moving on, we have resolution 2-2026, resolution authorizing transfer of funds, RDC public safety reimbursement. Lily.

Yeah. In October of 2025, the RDC board approved the reimbursement of the police officers and the firefighter stipens. The res this resolution will satisfy the state board of accounts um requirements because it's changing from one fund to another fund. Um, it will be done in June and December and it's not to exceed the $220,000. So, this resolution will approve that. Make a motion we approve resolution resolution 2-2026. Second. All those in favor signify by I.

I. Anyone opposed? Thank you. To resolution 3-2026. Resolution authorizing transfer of funds RDC economic development Billy. Okay. In December of 2025, the RDC board approved the quarterly reimbursements of 35% of the salaries of the director of business community development and the plan commissioner plus benefits. Um and it's not to exceed $79,800. This resolution will satisfy the state board of accounts requirements. I'll make the motion to approve resolution 3-2026.

Second. All those in favor signify by I. I. Anyone opposed? Thank you. All right. Now we have Stogate Arts and Education Center update. Linda,

you should have all received the handout that we we provided. Uh just uh first off the first quarter of uh of this year for Stonegate we revenue update uh we've done very well the first quarter if you look at the top page uh on our uh projected uh revenue for just building rental uh we went from 8,000 to last year this time to uh revenue of 17,000 a little over 17,000. Um so uh our total revenue for this quarter compared to last year is about $8,000 in increase from last year and so we're pleased with that. The the Stonegate board continues to review our rate sheet. We did uh at the last board meeting make some some further adjustments on the rates and increase the rate for using the black box here and for the micro offices outside this uh the Briner Hall. We raised the rate on that. Um any questions about our revenue before I jump in? the the rental jump in revenue is that from new customers just more used is that from the rate changes make sure

a little bit from the rate changes the increase in customers but the jump if you look at Benson's University that 7596 about 2,000 of that is uh uh for the clinical med uh credentialed medical assistant class that we get a partial payment but the rest of that is uh funds from uh uh they're doing training for General Motors for the skilled trades and I'm getting ready to invoice them another 2600 here for this month. So, um they've um normally just history we used to build General Motors and it take up to two years to get paid. So, we scratched that and so now uh their uh training provider pays us directly rather than deal with General Motors. So, we get paid in a timely manner. We went I think they owed us $13,000. Took two years to collect it way back. So that that's a never again. So learned um some building updates and this uh the growth council made a connection for us with Trilogy Health and they are looking to maybe uh and I think Ryan may have a connection with this uh look at uh making Stonegate a regional training hub for their their employees. uh they partner with a nursing school out of uh New York and they would be training uh their uh employees C CNAs, LPNs and RNs and and uh uh we would be the site I um they would be basically buying out two classrooms on on the third floor and it um we're kind of excited be a boost for Stonegate but also for our community and I don't know if Dan wants to say something about that. I don't know. Um but uh we're looking forward next steps will be uh um the school nursing uh approving us as a site but I don't think that'll be a problem. We're approved by uh IvyTech and and Ben Simmons

University so it shouldn't be a problem. Indiana Digital Learning um uh they that's one of the virtual schools that's been here for I think four years. uh they just bought bought um um uh reserved uh additional classrooms for 2027, an increase of an additional $3,000. So they're going from 6,000 to 9,000 for 2027. And that's a direct result of the increase in uh students going to virtual schools as well. So um grant submitted you some of this the same the new grant I submitted uh was the ready 2.0 O arts and culture grant. The Lily endowment gave the state $60 million for arts programs and um they told us to think pie in the sky. So uh some of this is a match but we're requesting specifically out of that grant about 191,000. That grant is over 30 months two and a half years. So, and uh in that grant, I've asked for uh monies to cover our uh admin our uh utilities 15% of my salary and uh increase janitorial coverage and things of that nature and also some equipment to upgrade the uh the black box here so we that we can uh u continue to expand what we do with the arts. So, um, any questions? No one cares. I'll go on. Uh, just arts update. Uh, we, um, you I passed out a flyer here at, uh, before the meeting started. Our, uh, second lunch with the arts will be Friday, May 8th, and, uh, featured will be the, um, Nostalgia Band quartet. So have you can go online and uh um um buy your tickets and uh would like for you to do that. We will also have lunch with the arts a July and

it'll be of many version of the home of the brave production. Uh I don't have the specifics on that yet. Programs and classes. Kids camp. We will be having kids camp but we are not going to partner with IvyTech this summer. Uh we we're going to go independent of IvyTech primarily so that we can lower the cost. They the the cost last year they they bumped it up to 125 and they wanted to up additional this year and our advisory group said no. And all the instructors the local art teachers and and they said you know let's not do that. So we are going to be able to um provide it uh uh arts classes for under $100 per kid per week is our plan. So, um um um we should Stonegate should uh make a little money, but also would be much more affordable for families in the community. So, um you get above $100, that's really tough for our families to be able to afford in this community, uh especially if they have multiple kids. Um you you will also see this fall we uh North Lawrence is uh loaning us they may not get returned but some guitars and we will offer introduction to guitar and then we're with Andrea we we hope to offer introduction to violin classes uh in the fall as well something new um for our community um we uh um with the um advent of the lunch with the arts we uh are using a new service called Ludus which you can go online and reg buy buy your tickets and and we will be using that new service uh for registration for our classes and everything that um kind of gives you background there collaborations we continue to work with the school of public health and to check in and check up we uh they are here once uh a month on a Friday this Friday they'll be here for a couple hours and

any uh organization nonprofit or business that's uh needing help with writing a grant or a project or they need some help with something, they are here to offer technical assistance. And uh we've been a the first call out meeting we had about 30 representatives from different organizations across the community. We're average about six different organizations that come dropping in to check out check in and check up um uh each month. So, it's been pretty good, I think. Um and then uh the growth council and stonegate will be partnering with uh Indiana Wesling University to uh offer a uh a lunch program on a AI uh and uh that's to be um we haven't determined a date where I think we're supposed to have a Zoom call here in a couple weeks to work out the details on that. So um so and community engagements pretty much the same. um the media update on uh YouTube. Uh we will be restarting the Veterans History Project video series uh that'll be uh launching here in in a few weeks. Brad may know the start date on that. I didn't have the start date. Um I don't know. Um couple things in workforce development. Uh um working with the North Lawrence Career Center. We have a a young lady, a intern who uh was at place aside, had a shoulder injury and can't continue. So, she's our intern for the rest of the school year and we've been putting her to work. And then work one, they have a uh employment program training program for those uh I think 16 to 24 where they'll place them with an employer and pay their salary rate and cover the u workman's comp to give that that individual some experience. So, we had a gentleman to start with us last week. he's doing very well in um working with on janitorial uh activities. So, and then uh last year,

you know, we partnered with Indiana Westland to do offer the leadership by design class for supervisors and we are going to offer that again for employers and a tenative start date is July the 24th. Um uh H Highleberg has already committed for three uh participants uh but we're we'll be marking that in the next few weeks as well. So any questions? No one cares. Okay. All right. Thank you, Linda, for the update.

Great job. Families Forever Update and request consideration for allocation of $20,000 in restricted opioid funds. John,

good evening folks. Thank you. On behalf of our board president, Jonathan George, we appreciate this opportunity to speak to you tonight about the services we provide. Uh in the letter that I wrote, you'll see that we've been around for 20 years now and providing services to the community. Um, our services are entirely free. While that's great for the community, it presents some substantial challenges in ongoing operations, but for 20 years, we've gotten creative in in sustaining that. Um, but this evening, we're here to request uh $20,000 in restricted opioid funds to support our services that focus on drug and alcohol assessments as well as case management to adults from our community who are needing additional support. We partner with those from criminal justice as well as those who walk in off the street and those individuals with limited resources. Um we do serve a unique population. Given that our services are free. Many people have health insurance, others do not. And even if they have health insurance doesn't mean that they can afford the cost of things like assessments which we provide. Over the past year, per quarter, on average, we've served 93 individuals through case management services. Uh 50 individuals are often uh referred to us during a period of 3 months, and we have an average of 16 individuals completing substance use counseling each quarter. We are a small organization, but the money that we're looking for uh will provide upwards of 600 hours of services directly to the community and we are not seeking any cost for overhead or admin fees. It's solely for direct services and we are located in the little white house behind St. Vincent Don or ICFR.

Thank you, John. The board have any questions? Billy, do you recall in 24 was the last time that we provided any opioid restricted funds for this group? I do believe I think so. We looked that up. Yes. You have provided funds in the past. It was in 24. We didn't do anything last year. So, just for information. So, can you just briefly describe the, you know, assessment case management process like what that exactly? Our assessments are explicitly related to drug and alcohol use. Right. Um, often times we get referrals from probation for those assessments.

Um, case management is often times involving uh goals, goal and treatment planning based off of the assessment, helping people to get their life back on track, helping them to uh deal with the different stages of change associated with substance use and recovery. Uh, leveraging community assets and resources to ultimately improve their quality of life.

How many children do you assist with this program? We do not directly for what I'm seeking here. We do not directly serve children. Um however in the other services through families forever we do support children through our truency prevention programs uh through our mentoring programs and we also run space to a treatment provider um Twin Springs Counseling uh that provides counseling to children and we also have a partnership with IU School of Social Work to provide practicum placements with uh MSW students in partnership with our local schools. Okay. Any other discussion or if there's a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I move that we grant $20,000 from the restricted opioid fund to families forever. Second. All those in favor signify by I. I. Anyone opposed? I abstain. Craig abstains. Okay. All right. Thank you, John. Thank you. Thank you. Update 2026 O housing program grant funding adjustment. Sarah,

good evening. So, last month I requested the council approval for what we believe was the appropriate match to secure the the full $350,000 municipal award for the owner occupied rehabilitation program with OKRA. Since then, we've learned that there's been a change to the program requirements. Instead of a 10% match on the grant award, Ochre now requires a 10% match of the total project cost. When you add the $350,000 award plus the $35,000, the total project cost is $385,000, which means that our contribution is actually 38,500. So I'm asking for the additional 3,500.

So So the ask is if you wish to approve this and then we have to go through the application process. Correct. You might hit touch base on that a little bit how that will work for this year.

Sure. So there's there's two open cycles, one in June and one in October. And so we were hoping to apply for the June cycle and if for some reason we're not awarded then we could apply again in October. So that money does not go into the program unless we're actually awarded. And also I wanted to follow up Councilman Griffith. You had asked a question last month about if there was ever a city that did the match but didn't get the full award. And um I spoke with Johnny Concincaid who is our Oakra representative. He said that that's not the case. So um as long as we hit the minimum, we would get the 350,000.

Okay. All right. So that's a little bit how the program works. We might not get either one of them is a possibility, but if the council's in agreement, we would like to approve this cuz the outreach from the citizens last time we did this, as we talked about before, was was huge. Was right. I think we had 107 that were interested and then um 17 we were able to help with the last award. So, this would put us in a position to help more homeowners. Yeah. Okay. Any questions or discussion? Mr. Mayor, I move to allocate the additional $3,500 for a total of $38,500 for this application. Okay, I second.

All right, first and all those in favor signify by I. I. Anyone opposed? Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Okay, so all of you received a handout. Uh Mr. Flynn Street Commissioner met with a Amanda Patton. That is the individual reference to the packet on the raccoons that you received. Uh and David, if you want to comment, you met with her and spoke with her. If you want to have any discussion on her input, uh my plan on this is to give you the information so that you can review it and then we can decide where we want to go from there. I think she is requesting to come and talk to the the council if possible uh so that she can relay her interest.

She would she would like to um this is would be a change of our ordinance though to allow captivity of a of a wild animal in the city of Bedford. I guess DNR allows this with the proper credentials um in the state. Um some cities specifically, you know, don't allow this. some cities do allow it. Um, so I I just met with her and gathered the information and told her that I would give it to the mayor and he could present it to see where you wanted to go with it from there.

Okay. And I had one question that uh we refer to cats and dogs basically in the city and that is something that these amp if these animals are running them large that we can see about picking up. But if a raccoon was in that category, is that something that you would pick up if it was loose running around town?

I would not think so. Um, we normally do not do that now. And um, we we stopped that because that was a vast m a lot of our calls were were collecting skunks and raccoons and possums and and everything else and bats. Um, we've done a variety of animals in the past, but we had chosen not to do that anymore. But, but if we change our ordinance and then that may be something that's my point. If we change our

still would not be a domesticated animal. So, I don't know how you would interpret that. So, there's whenever we look at this, there's quite a bit to consider as to how we want to actually address this. So, that's why I want to give you the information. There's quite a bit there. this next 3 weeks or whatever, you can kind of review it, see where you're at with it, and then we'll pick it up at our next meeting and go from there. All right. Thank you, David. Also, for the council's information, uh, every all the council members are aware that we did apply through the state for a a food and beverage tax, and everyone is familiar that that did take place. Uh the state did pass that. So and of course I guess for the public uh we've not acted on this yet as far as any tax. It has been approved by the state. Uh council is reviewing the legal side of it before we see what we're going to do to see exactly how this money can be utilized. uh as far as to in a lot of areas being used in some of our city revenue spots that then we can take that revenue and put back into the general fund from the standpoint of in 2018. Uh we all know that we're going to see substantial cuts in property taxes and we're still not sure exactly what's going to happen to Lyft. So, we're trying to be proactive uh and be prepared to have an option to do something depending on how much our revenue drops to be able to increase our revenue if it's something that we wish to do or at some point in time if we decide that we're going to cut services. So, this is something that the council is going to continue to work on uh to give us some answers on how these funds can specifically be spent. Uh we worked with Baker Tilly on some of this and they referred that aspect of it back to

legal counsel uh as far as interpreting the law exactly what we can spend some of this money on. So that is is in the works. We're working on that. Uh I talked to RDC briefly today. Uh we have some of our tiff areas that in working on this some of our our new areas limestone edge waws uh possibly del tacos some of these places that even though they're in a tiff district we can reset that tiff on those certain areas. They're continuing to work on that and they anticipate having some documents ready for our our next meeting for us to look at to see if we want to take action or not. So what that will do on some of these specific properties where the existing tiff would be running out in say 25 years or whatever 20 years these would have a new start date for today. So they would extend past what the original tiff would expire which would just be additional income for the city. So we're also continuing to work on that. Uh Misty and I met with a gentleman today talking about the wells uh for our water. We're continuing to work on that. We met with him and got a lot of information. He was very uh involved in the wells that were put in for some of our neighboring areas down by the river. Uh so we went over a lot of information with him and we're still working on that aspect to kind of see where this takes us uh to look at that option as floor as as to the the water wells. Uh we're continuing to work on a a city flag. We're getting close to wrapping that up. I've talked with some of the council members on that. Uh I anticipate hopefully and will would be an ordinance or resolution I'm assuming

resolution

resolution uh that would go through the council whenever we adopt a city flag. Uh and that's something that I'm really looking forward to from the standpoint of all these years that the city of Bedford's never had a city flag and I think that's something that really should be very important to our city. So that's a few things going on. One other thing we're working on, and I encourage the council if they have any input uh on our I've referred to this many times as our our new council chambers, but I I think at this point in time, I'm looking and looking for input to have a different name for this because as I we stop and look at this uh it will be used for council chambers, but with what's taking place with social media, this is going to house all of our meetings basically for every city department. Our police pension board, fire pension board, parks department, uh planning and zoning, any board that we have is going to be operating out of this building. So, we're looking at different names, whether if it's the Bedford Conference Hall, Bedford Meeting Hall, uh we're looking at some different names on that to see what we're going to come up with. Uh we're also in the process uh things kind of pile up at times trying to get things done. So uh we're working on trying to get the estimates to go ahead and have the front of this building powerwashed and cleaned up uh like we have some of our other buildings before we put any additional signage on it. Uh which I think is very important that we do. Uh so we've got a lot going on in the city from that standpoint. Uh and we'll continue to work on these to get these across the finish line and get them done. The the meeting hall uh is

moving right along. I anticipate we will have our May meeting here and I anticipate unless something happens that we will be in our new facility for our June meetings and I'm very excited to get there uh to say the least. So hopefully we'll get that taken care of and get it lined up and get it going. So that's all I have. Uh council have anything else for comment?

Is the How's the pool welcome here? Are we going to be ready for Memorial Day to be open? And Larry, I I can't remember. Uh I was at the park board meeting today that was here and Jimmy announced the date that they were going to open. Uh he said everything was on track for them to open. So, they're actually getting ready to do some painting over there and getting some things in order to get ready to open, but I I don't want to specifically say the date that he said. No. Okay.

But, yeah, that's in the works. Out at Otis, they have also been working on the the water issue out there going under the road that goes up to the top of the hill. I'm sure a lot of things have been out there and probably seen that. Uh they've got a lot of that piping in. So, we're still working on that. Once all that piping is in, then we're going to address that road going up there for safety reasons as to if we're going to move it over a little bit and specifically what we're going to do to make it a little bit safer for people to drive on. So, with that being said, if no one has anything else, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. I make a motion to adjurnn. I second.

All those in favor signify by I. I. Anyone opposed? Stand adjourned. Thank you.