Board of Public Works - Regular Meeting

all right good morning everybody welcome to the regular meeting of the city of charlestown board of public works today is may 7th 2026 and it's 10 a.m we will begin our meeting this meeting is being live streamed by under production multimedia and we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance if you can please join Thank you. Let the record show that board members Treva Hodges and Ernie Thompson are here. Maggie Wilden is unable to be here today. We have our court treasurer Donna Humer and our attorney Perry McCall is with us as well. We have an agenda that's been provided. I will make a motion to approve.

I'll second that motion.

Second by Ernie Thompson. Any edits? None from me. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That was unanimous. We have our standing business, which includes the approval of our minutes from April 16th, 2025. Our current claims and our payroll allowance, I'll get it from April 13th to April 26th. I'll take a motion. Ernie makes a motion. I second. Any questions or edits? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Bless you, Minos. This time, will we receive any public comment from the audience? None? Okay. No public comment today. Moving into old business. None. And a packed agenda... for new business. Up first, I will call forward our Chief of Police, Eric Kruse, to introduce a new program, the Blue Envelope Program.

All right. This is the Blue Envelope Program. We got rid of this about probably almost a year ago. A community member reached out to the city asking about this, if we can somehow get this started. So me and Sergeant Alex Billings last year started researching all around the country with these types of programs. What we was finding that there was really not like a real standard for it. Everybody was doing something kind of different. And then recently this year, Bloomington and A&M PD released their Blue Info Little program. And we was able to reach out to them and they were gracious enough to send me all their information on their program. And it really felt like there's something here at Charlestown would really benefit from. So we went ahead and started working on the program to get the blue envelopes made and get the program up and running. So I send everything in. What this program would do would be they still want to come down to the police department in the lobby or ask one of our police officers for a blue envelope. And it would help drivers who have autism where they can keep all their information in one envelope. And that way in the event, likely in the event that they're pulled over, if they have contact and information on it for the officer and for the driver. So that way everybody stays safe. And it also comes with a blue envelope sticker that goes on the back of the car. So that way the officer, if they're pulling them over, they'll kind of know and have a heads up. So we believe this program will be really good in Charlestown

so i am so christine johnson was the community member who reached out a while back and i forwarded on to chief and she i want to commend you for taking quick action on this anything we can do to help keep our community safe is great i did want to christine we invited her to be here today since it was her her idea that she kind of put forward she wasn't able to be here but i did want to share with the board um her comments she said that we were able to use this information so she gave this information willingly for us to share she said My daughter Sarah is diagnosed with autism and is a new driver. She's told me more than once that the idea of being pulled over, even for something minor like a tail light, causes her real anxiety. For autistic individuals, social interactions can be challenging and encounters with law enforcement can feel especially overwhelming. When Sarah heard that Charlestown is moving forward with the Blue Envelope program, she was excited. Knowing that she can hand an officer the envelope and have them understand her needs right away has done a lot to lower her anxiety. So I want you to make sure that you heard that, that it's going to have an immediate impact on this young woman in particular, her comfort driving.

And we do want to stress that when you come to the police department to pick up an envelope, we're not going to be asking any medical information or confirming anything like that. I just got one question. How come the envelope isn't blue?

It is. It is, isn't it? It is blue. It is blue. That looks white.

No, it's just the way it looks on the screen.

Okay, I'll go along with it.

It is, in fact, blue.

It looks white here.

And there's a sticker on the car as well, too.

Yeah, so the envelope will come with a contact card where they can put emergency contact information for a trusted family member. Okay. And then a sticker for them to put on the back of their car.

But we're not keeping a record. We're not logging people's medical information.

We're not keeping a log of anyone's name to grab one.

It's just kind of a voluntary program for them to do. So I'll make a motion that we approve that. I'll second that motion. Second, Marmonie Thompson. Any other questions? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you, Chief. Next up, we had some additional work proposals that goes on to our Community Crossings Matching Grant Paving Project for this year, and I'll have Sally use the HWC Engineering here to go over both of those. Essentially, these are change orders that have come about on the project that are related to the economic development or redevelopment of the Forest Edge area, where we want to add a sidewalk section of Harrison Street and pave a portion of High Street as a part of that redevelopment. So although these will be change orders for the project, they will be paid for by the redevelopment commission. So we're not gonna be adding money on this ourselves. It'll go to the redevelopment commission at their meeting. But Sally, if you wanna go over those two change orders, that'd be great.

Sure. Change order number one from Lips Paving is for the construction of a sidewalk on Harrison Street from Main Street to Green Alley on the north side of the street. It is a five foot wide sidewalk with curb ramps and it will be constructed to ADA and NDOT standards and specifications. This change order is for $39,961 and I'm asking for the Board of Works approval of this contract to live, or this change order to live saving pending the approval of payment by the Redevelopment Commission. Okay, you can do both at once if you want. Okay. Change order number two is, and I have a photo, so I want to see exactly where this is. Change order number two is paving that section of High Street to help with stormwater runoff. And the change order amount is for $17,857 even. So that was 39, do that again. 39, 961. And 17, 857. So I will entertain a motion to approve

the change order of $39,961 to add sidewalks on that stretch of Harrison Street, and $17,857 to pave that portion of High Street pending the approval of the funding through the Redevelopment Commission. I'll make that motion. Motion by Arnie Thompson. I second. Any questions on that? All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Touching animals. Thank you, Sally. Thank you. Up next, I... As you know, we've been trying to work on our public arts and we've had a lot of success with, you know, the painting and the stairwell. We have the painted picnic table project we do. We did the mural last year on the side of the concession stand at Greenway. And for years, I've been talking to Donna about potentially doing a mural on the side of City Hall here on Main Street, because there's a lot of pedestrian traffic that comes up through there. You've got the Venro venue there where they're having events. And we've been trying to decide what that should look like. And recently, a community member who was a very active member on the beautification committee for a number of years, Pat Little, reached out and had a fantastic idea about doing some wings. You've seen probably places where people will paint wings, where people can stand at the wings and have selfies or pictures or whatever. Currently creates an interactive art feature. And so we reached out to a muralist to get a quote. So Olivia, she goes by Lily, mostly with fine line artistry, came out on site and visited with us and has entered a proposal, submitted a proposal for a service here in a not to exceed amount of $7,980. And this would be to paint a mural on the side of City Hall here on that Main Street side that would include flowers and the phrase, I think the phrase is, what is it? Good things grow here or something like that. Yeah. Good things grow here. And then the interactive butterfly wings, one for like for children kind of download and one for possible adults who look really nice. We think, and Lily has, um, she's got an extensive resume of doing mural proposals, uh, or different murals at different places. We've checked her out, Donna scoped her out, I scoped her out, and she's very talented. So that, not to exceed the amount of $7,980. And Perry, I just want to make sure that because this is a service and it's that amount, we don't have to do sealed bids or anything like that. This is a specific service that we're targeting. In the amount, yeah. We're good, okay. So I would recommend that we authorize her to move forward with that. She thinks that she can get this done before Founders. day as well so that would be really nice to have all the crowd up here and have that have that done if we get it approved i'll say all right so i'll make the motion or any seconds any questions on that all in favor say aye aye aye that's unanimous so i'll let lily know that and don will get her uh w9 and all that stuff um okay and i know you need that yeah so i'll put it down on it for 19. She was waiting until we got the approval before she submitted anything like that. All right. Next up, the lit analysis scope. So I reached out to our financial analyst, Baker Tilly, because as you know, with the Senate enrolled like one for 2025, we are experiencing some interesting budgetary challenges but on top of that this year in 2026 general assembly session they passed a new update to that legislation for 2025 that delays the adoption of local income tax changes until 2029 adopted 28 and in the meantime they also are requesting that cities connect with the county council and have joint meetings where we discuss what it would look like if we were to do a county-wide global income tax rather than the municipal-based income tax. In order for us to fully understand what the impact would be for the city and get the best coverage for the city, we need to update our financial projections for that LIT analysis, the local income tax analysis. What kind of revenue do we think we're gonna get if we were to adopt our own local versus sharing with the county? So I asked them to provide that analysis and they submitted it over an engagement letter for providing an analysis that's not to exceed $4,500. This will be paid for out of our allocated financial services from our budget, and I need a motion to authorize them to start that work.

I'll make that motion.

Motion by Arne Thompson. I second. Any questions on that? Donna, did that summarize that? I mean, is that your understanding of all that as well? Yes, absolutely. Okay, good. So all in favor say aye. Aye. I am a unanimous. Drainage repair quotes. Tubby's not here for this, so I'll go over these. We had a resident, several residents that live in the Ashley Springs neighborhood reach out about some stormwater drainage. Tony and Tubby, our MS4 team, to investigate that. And the city does need to step in here and do some mitigation of this area. So we got three quotes on filling this in. This is around the headwall, the headwall of Sunset Lakeland, Ashley Springs neighborhood. So we had a quote from Group One Excavating G1 Dirt LLC. in the amount of 6,800. This is all out with your packet. We had a quote from Bill Broughton excavating for $12,506.04. And we had a quote from Hoosier Dirt Works in the amount of 6,200. So the staff recommendation here is to go with the Hoosier Dirt Works quote of $6,200 being the lowest responsible responsive bidder on that. So I would need a motion to approve. I'll make that motion. Motion by Arnie Thompson. I will second. Any questions on that? All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That is unanimous. And of course that will be paid for out of our existing... drainage allocation appropriation. I just went back one too far. Hold on, let me get back in today's meeting. There, all right. Parks Department. We have two contracts, looks like for Paul Boggs Band. Carrie Batchel and Mark Sturge will present those.

Good morning. Good morning.

All right, so we have a couple contracts for the Paul Boggs Band. The first one we're gonna do is for june 18th this will be for our family fun night we'll put them down in the depot um i have their contract their w-9 their workers comp waiver and the invoice i've already sent to deborah so that cost for that will be 600 and then they also have the same thing contract w-9 insurance and everything this one will be for november 5th we always get them for the senior dinner so it will Well, we serve the seniors food, and then we also bring in the ball box, which they really like. And the cost for that one is 600 as well. You're paying for those out of? These will come out of our revenue for both of those. Well, I'm sorry. The one for June, that'll be founders because that's sponsorship. And then the one for November will come out of our revenue.

All right. I'll make a motion to approve those. I'll second. Secretary Thompson, any questions on those? All in favor, say aye. Aye. That's unanimous. And then are you doing the Maurice Ball contract? Yes.

So this one is for Maurice Ball. We hired him last year, but unfortunately we didn't get to see what he could do because the rain canceled our founders for last year. I guess it would have been community days. So we're going to use him this year on the June, I think he is, the June 20th. So he'll be here from noon to four to kind of fill the space before all the bands start, all the vendors and everything out there, play some music and different things. And so he'll be here from noon to four on June 20th for 650. I have his contract, his W-9, and insurance waiver. And that's, again, covered by sponsorship? Correct, yeah. This will be founders as well.

Okay, so I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second that. Secretary Thompson, any questions on that? All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye, that's the end of this hearing. All right, thank you. All right, up next, I had a visit last week from a resident, Crystal Flynn was her name, And she has interest in leading a volunteer effort to construct and maintain a community garden out there at the land at Shadow Lake that was just opened for the first phase. And she will 100% take responsibility for maintaining it. She said it doesn't have to be a food garden. It can be a pollinator garden. You know, she wants to basically coordinate volunteers, and I told her that Brian, our media director, could send out an email once it's approved to call for volunteers that would want to connect with her. But for legal reasons, and since it is on city property, I thought it best for us to get approval from the board for her to tackle that. Perry, we would want to make sure, I think that we have from you a volunteer waiver that you've already provided. We would, of course, make sure that every volunteer that wants to come out on that site would fill out that waiver, and we would keep that on file. Do you see any other issues with allowing them to construct and maintain community garden out there right now? I don't think so. And she'll be in touch with us and coordinate that, but I just wanted to make sure we were giving her approval on that. And since the land isn't developed yet, it won't be developed for quite some time based on our finances from the state, it's a good use to get people out there and working on the site. I'll second. Any questions on that?

I'll make a motion that Toby has to help.

Toby will, in fact. He'll probably be the one that tills it up. He's usually the one that tills things up for us, so we'll send him out there. All right. All in favor say aye.

Aye. That's unanimous. Thank you. And then I think Heather Shrimp, our deputy clerk, slash HR extraordinaire,

was going to present the BMS renewals for COBRA and POV. We can do those in one motion, I believe.

So I have two items. The first one is the BMS premium only plan renewal. The cost is $150. BMS creates the document required by the IRS to make pre-tax contributions for our health plans. The other document is the renewal of our health reimbursement arrangement. The plan is staying exactly the same. The renewal cost is $150, and then we pay $4.50 a month per participant. But the plan structure is going to stay the same. This cost shares with the employees for their out-of-pocket medical expenses for a maximum reimbursement, depending on what plan coverage the employee has. Great. All right. I'll make a motion to approve this. I'll second.

All right. Thompson seconds. Any questions? All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you, Heather. And then we did have two, sorry, two claims that Donna called for me. Make sure we get these paid. This is a standing contract. This is the one that we had contracts for already. We just need to get the claims in there. So we need to get these approved. This is for our cleaning contracts at the police department and then at the Arts Enrichment Center. So again, it's an existing contract. They sent the claim over kind of late and didn't make it into the packet. The invoice amount for the A&E for breathe easy cleaning is $625. And then the one for the police department also for breathe easy cleaning is $1,200. So we just need to make a motion to approve those claims. I'll make that motion. Ernie Thompson makes the motion. I second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That is unanimous. It's executed for her. Perry, was there anything else we needed to do on your account? That long pause makes me nervous. It already takes a long pause.

We're going to be here a while. Before we adjourn, we're having a National Day of Prayer on the square. I know a young lady is going to sing the National Anthem, so I'll definitely be there.

That literally would have to be your granddaughter, wouldn't it?

Somebody said it was. They are having a concert tonight, too, at 630.

At?

The middle school.

At the middle school? Yeah, 630. Awesome. All right, so everybody can hang around for an actual day of prayer out there on the square. Donna, do you have anything else for us as the signatures?

We'll take a motion. We adjourn.

All right, we have a motion to adjourn. I will second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye, we are adjourned. Thank you all for being here today.