Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the meeting of the Charlestown City Council. Today, September 3rd, 2025, at 6:33 p.m. We'll begin our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Everyone please 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. Thank you. Tonight's invocation will be led by Troy Daniel from the Rock Family Worship Center. Reverend Daniel. So, Gloria here, sir.

Thank you, member of council members. Let's pray. Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for your favor. We thank you for this honor it is to be at this council meeting. God, we pray special favor upon the mayor and this council members, God, that you would give them the greater wisdom, Lord, to do the work that is about them, Lord, for the betterment of this city and this people. God, your special blessing is what we pray today because the matters at hand are greater than they have been in the past. Lord, we pray God that you would give favor that would come outside of this city, those who would join with this city to help us continue the growth and the blessings that you have prepared for us. For you have a special blessing in this city and we thank you for this favor and we thank you for the favor upon this people. In Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Is being lively and recorded by Under Production Multimedia. We'll have our roll call.

Bo Bertram here. Shannon here. Ronnie Blood is absent. Ronnie Hester here. Chuck Deon here. Let the record show that Mayor Hodes and Court Treasurer Donna Cooper are present as well as both attorneys, Mr. Wilder and Mr. McCall. We have an agenda that's been provided. Entertain a motion to approve. Make a motion. Motion by Shannon Elder. Is there a second? A second. Second by Chuck Deacon. Are there any edits to the agenda? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed?

That's unanimous. You have your standing business which includes approval of your minutes from the meeting on August 4th, the current plans and the payroll allowance bucket from July 28th to August 24th. Entertain a motion to approve. Motion. Motion made by Shannon Elder. Have a second. Second. Second by Chuck Deon. Any edits or questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Any opposed? That's unanimous.

At this time, I would open the floor for public comments not related to the budget hearing. The budget hearing is a separate item on the agenda. If you had general public comments, now would be the time. Seeing none, we'll move forward through the agenda. Our legislative youth adviser was unable to be with us. I asked Bridi if there was any update I could give on her behalf. She is speaking at the National Honor Society induction tonight. So that's why she's not with us. I will say that she did a great job with the fiesta event that we had at the depot this past Sunday. That's the second year she's hosted and helped us with that event. And then she asked me to let everybody know that the girls soccer team has a double header tomorrow at 6 p.m. against Scottsburg. And she would like to encourage everyone to attend. and she wanted to make note that there is a blood drive happening I guess at the school um on Thursday as well. So at this time we have a presentation from Paige Sansone from Baker Tilly. This is our five-year Senate enrolled at impact analysis. Paige, floor is yours. Thank you. We are having some technical difficulties tonight with our um computer monitor up here. So apologies for that. It might be a uh nonvisual state of the city later, but we'll do the best we can.

No. [Music] Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. Something's wrong with the copies. They're all Yeah, it's Yeah, I am so so sorry. Um, you need some help? No worries. We can sort it out really quick. It's not a deal. have space over here. We're just going to have just a quick copies like it wasn't formulated. That's fine. It won't take us very long to um we'll just kind of talk in generalities um while they're while we're sorting that if you would like and yes, Chuck, if you want to hear me.

Um my apologies. Didn't even notice that they were messed up. Um, so I'm here to just give you a brief overview of the financial plan. We looked at your property tax supported and your local income tax supported funds and we also worked in the effects of Senate enrolled act one. So again, you'll have this hopefully afterwards to be able to look at. The first thing that we uh looked at was your fund balances and your major operating funds. So the best practice is for the general fund and really any major operating fund to have no less than two months of revenues in your cash reserves. So that would mean ending cash equal to no less than about 16 to 17% of what you spend. Um your general fund has actually averaged 27% of your dispersements over the last four years. Um so strong strong cash reserves there. Um, also to note is that your cash reserves should not be used to cover recurring costs such as payroll, health insurance, utilities. It's just like at home. If we start using our savings or we start spending more than what we bring in, we're going to be putting things on credit cards. We're going to be getting loans. So, just like here at the city, we need to make sure that our expenses match our recurring revenues that come in. So um the the ideal use of cash reserves is uh for one-time capital type of expenditures and I know the city tries to balance its budget each year with its revenue stream and that's really that helps to maintain those strong cash reserves. Okay. Now going on into the 2025 legislative changes. So the legislation restructured homestead deductions and added

additional credits. So that's one item that's going to either reduce the net assess value or signific significantly slow the growth. Um they also increased the divinus exemption threshold for business personal property and they exempted new business personal property from the investment from the 30% depreciation floor. So let me just explain that per business personal property we could we could depreciate it down to 30%. So at least there will still be some taxable value. Now it can be depreciated down to zero. So again that is going to impact your net assessed value um slowing the growth. You've experienced a lot of growth in net assessed value but we this new legislation will likely slow that growth. So if we get a slow growth in net assessed value that doesn't keep up with the growth in property tax, we will likely see an increase in property tax rates, which could also increase your circuit breaker tax credit. So those circuit breakers reduce your property tax revenue. So we could see that happening in the future. That's what this report is really showing you. How will this impact you? And so we will get to that. Um, the other item has to do with your property tax levy growth. So, as you're probably aware, your maximum property tax levy grows by a growth factor every year. That growth factor has been 4% in 2024, 2025, and this legislation limited limited it again to 4%. Had the legislation not limited that growth factor, we would have been looking to pack between five and 5 and a half% growth. Um, for years 2027 and beyond, the

growth factor is supposed to go back to being based off of kind of the change in the economy if the legislature doesn't limit it again. So, it is our hope that um by 2027 you could be um experiencing a 5% growth in your in your property tax levy, but that remains to be seen. We'll have to see if the legislature tries to limit it once again. We do have copies now. So, if you need references, great. Thank you. I'm on page number two. Two.

Yeah. And I'm just summarizing what's written in there. So, page number two. So, property tax revenue. This is where we have the new legislation impacting the city's property tax revenue starting as early as 2026. So, we are expecting that the city will receive $96,000 less in 2026 compared to what you would have received had we not had this legislation. So, no legislation baseline compared to we have this legislation, $96,000 less. 2027, $250,000 less. 2028, $629,000 less. So,

say that again.

$629,000 less. So, it does ramp up. And here's one of the reasons why it ramps up. Well, there's a couple reasons. One is that these homestead credits, these new homestead credits are phased in over a six-year period. The second reason is that this county has local income tax property tax replacement that provides a credit on taxpayers tax bills. That's going to get eliminated at the end of 2027. So that will drive up circuit breaker credits. So that's why it's jumping up in 2028. And I'm going to show you how that impacts your general fund here in a few minutes. So local income tax, this is a huge change. So local income tax, the structure that we know it today is going to expire at the end of 2027. So right now you have certified chairs, public safety, economic development, and EMS in this county. Um that is all going to expire at the end of 2027. in its place will be what is shown in that box at the bottom of page two. You as a city

right box. Yeah. Yes. This is page two. I don't know why this is so messed up. I'm so sorry. Flip. It should be front and back. Yeah, it's front and back. Yeah, I don't see page two. Page two. Oh, page two. There wasn't a page two. Okay. Everything I went through was on page two cover and then it goes to page three. Yeah, I will email a copy to correct.

Okay. So, I will explain what's at the bottom of page two. So, the new local income tax that I had it okay that starts in 2028. You as a municipality can adopt your own local income tax at a rate of up to 1.2%. This is brand new. You have not had the authority in the past to adopt this rate. You will need to adopt it because you will need to replace what you're not receiving in certified shares, economic development, and public safety. The county unit will be able to adopt their own at 1.2%. The county will also have the authority to adopt a fire protection and EMS local income tax at 0.4% but it's optional. I mean they can adopt it. They don't have to. If they do adopt it, that has to be distributed to fire districts, territories, um, and municipal fire departments and at their discretion also township fire departments and volunteer fire departments. But again, that's at the discretion of the county. There's going to be a non-municipal local income tax that can be adopted by the county if they are petitioned by the non-municipal units, libraries, townships, airport authorities. They can petition the county and ask them to adopt the non-municipal limits. There is a local income tax for municipalities with a population of less than 3500. The county has control over that. It can be up to 1.2% and it will be distributed by population. But again, I go back to your city can adopt your own at 1.2%. That 1.2% will not be impacted by um whatever the county adopts. So, you'll get the full 1.2 if that's what you

want. It will not be impacted by what the county adopts. No single taxpayer within the county can pay more than 2.9%. But it's very possible that somebody living within the city and outside the city can pay different rates. This is like I'm saying this is brand new, a totally new structure, but again you'll have that ability to adopt your own rate. Page three is up at the top what the structure what the current structure is. The current structure is um Clark County has adopted a total rate of 2% 1% is certified shares which is distributed to all units except schools. 21% is public safety and part of that is distributed to the county and the rest of it distributed to the municipalities. Economic development 0.25% that's also distributed to counties and municipalities. EMS is just the county but they have the authority to distri distribute it out to EMS providers. You also have that 0.5% property tax relief lit which is important because it reduces the tax bill to the taxpayers and it reduces circuit breaker credits because that credit paid by local income tax is applied to the tax bill first then the circuit breaker. So when that gets eliminated at the end of 2027 taxpayers are going to have more circuit breaker which is what's driving up your circuit breaker losses that I talked about. So moving on to circuit breaker in 2025, so this year 18% of what you levy is not collected because that's returned to the taxpayers in the form of credits. I'm on

the bottom of page three. So that's a that's a significant amount. If you turn over to page four, you can see kind of what that looks like in in a graph form. The blue is net property tax. So what you have collected and what we estimate you will collect into the future. So if you look at 2025, you are levying about $4.1 million, but you're you're only going to collect about 3.5 because 759,000 will be returned to taxpayers in the form of credits. Now, starting in 2026, your circuit breakers are going to increase and we have the added component of these new homestead credits. So, those are going to be applied to the tax bill. So, it's going to I mean, the purpose is to reduce property tax bills and and it will if the assessed value isn't growing, but there's no reason to think that assessed values will stop growing. So in 2026, we estimate that you will collect 4 million in property tax and 845,000 will be returned in the form of credits to taxpayers. Um and then you see what's happening going through 27 28 29. Yes, you're going to have a little bit of growth in property tax. Maybe not so much in 2028, but uh 2027 4.2 million. 2028 it drops to 4.1 million again because we've got that property tax relief limit going away. 2029 then growth to 4.3 million. So you are getting impacted by this legislation. Um so it's going to be important that we exercise our our revenue options um as we move forward. Um, and just for your information, throughout the entire county, 41.7 million is returned to taxpayers in the

form of credits. It's a lot of credits in this county. You only contribute to about 1.8%. So, most of these credits are coming from uh cities and towns combined. So, Jefferson and all the other cities and towns, the schools 27.3% and then tip areas about 23%. So, a lot of credits provided to taxpayers here, which is a good thing, but it also is a reduction of what you could be getting had had we not had the circuit breakers. Page number five. So, this is a chart. It's a comparison of your net assessed values. That's kind of the pink bar. And then your tax rates, which is the blue line. So, your tax rates have increased u by 4.6%. 6% since 2022. Um, but the net assessed values during that same time period have increased 45%. That's a huge increase. So, that's really been able to keep that growth in tax rates down. And it actually has provided you opportunities to get increases to your property tax and I'll talk about that in in a second. But you that growth has really been limited in the tax rate because of such a large growth in your net assess value. Growth is good because growth helps limit circuit breaker loss as well. So your net assess value right now is about 418 million and it was about 289 million back in 2022. So, you've been able because you've had so much growth, you've been able to apply to the state for levy appeals, which is asking the state to permanently increase your property tax levy due to growth. And that's very important to exercise that option because you need those additional dollars to provide services to your growing area. So, in

2024, you were able to uh get an appeal approved for 388,000 for taxes payable. This year you got 429,000 and then I'm going to speak to this in a minute, but you're eligible for another increase of almost 400,000. Oh, that's a very good opportunity for the city. Uh on page six, so we looked at just your property tax and local income tax supported funds. So those would be general local income tax economic development, local income tax public safety, and human capital development. I know you have other funds, but those are the main funds that have get most of your resources as far as revenue. So fund balances have been really pretty stable. I mean, if you look, we've got a guard rail here on this graph. So the dotted red line is the 15% floor. That's where we don't want you to fall below. The dotted green line is the 50%. You generally when you go above 50% you can start talking about using some of those funds for capital outlays, equipment, things of that nature, one-time expenses, but you've been right in between and that's really what we want to see. That that's financial stability. Um, and it's you're right between where you need to be. What usually about 20 to 30% in that range is ideal. Um, we do notice a little bit of a drop in 2025, but I see that you're utilizing uh cash reserves from capital outlays, so that's fine. It does take a turn going up. But here's why. Here's what we're assuming for this to occur is that number one, the state will approve your levy appeal request if you decide to move forward with that. That'll be an increase of 400,000 roughly. It's about 397,000. And number two, in in 2027 for

implementation in 2028, the council adopts the 1.2% local income tax. If those two things occur that I think you're going to be able to have the resources you need to provide services to your growing community. Hey, have you gotten any indication or any idea about the mood about granting those or do you know? I mean, I'm assuming that because all of Clark County is growing that there would be many other entities within the county that could apply for that as well.

Yeah. So, this is the last year that any local unit of government can apply for this type of appeal. It was eliminated in the recent legislative session. So, because of that, we we foresee many many units not only in this county but throughout the whole state applying for this appeal if they are eligible. So, if that should happen, I think two things. One is that DLGF in the past has been very critical about these appeals. I think they're going to be ultra critical this year knowing that the legislature didn't want this anymore. So, they're going to scrutinize this appeal, make sure that you need it. They've done that in the past, but it could be even more difficult this time around. It's not a given. Um, and number two, if some of these other units get also get approved for appeals, then that might mean tax rates will go up and circuit breakers can go up. Right now, this report is kind of stand alone. We don't know if those other units are going to file an appeal. They have until October 19th to do so.

Why would they not? Well, good question. Why would they not is probably because they don't want to increase the tax rate or because they don't have a sound reason to request the deal. like if they can't substantiate the need that would be a reason why they wouldn't.

There's a I think it's critical to draw a distinction between net assess value growth because of increased assessments and actual what I call measurable growth. So in writing our appeal I have focused our appeal on actual measurable growth outside of just NAV increase. Um there's one thing for the assessor to come through and raise property values and create an assessed value growth. We have measurable growth in building permits increases and across the board it ends up being about 20% in every measurable way I could find. 20% increase in building permits, 20% increase in traffic counts, you know, those kinds of things. And so when I wrote our appeal, the narrative for it, which we will have for you at your special meeting on the 22nd, we'll have that application for you to vote on at that time submit in time for the October deadline. Um, but I tried to focus on showing those measurable things, not just the formula of our SS value going up. For what it's worth, that might contribute to why some people don't. I mean, if you ask me as a financial adviser, I would say take every opportunity that you can, but but sometimes due to re reasons, people or taxing units just don't file the appeal. Um, so moving on to the local income tax piece. I know this is not something that you have to make a decision on until 2027. In fact, the earliest you can make this decision is July 1st of 2027. But you have that ability to adopt a local income tax up to 1.2%. And if you look on page seven, the chart kind of up at the top shows you a comparison of where you are at right now. So 2025 actual, you get lit certified chairs, lit public safety, and lit economic development.

Those all total $1.8 million. In 2026, it we do see that it could go up. We've got early estimates from the Department of Local Government Finance. So, we think that'll go up to two $2 million. 2027, if growth continues like it has been, we think it'll go to 2,174. But then at the end of 27, those three local income taxes expire. You're not going to get those anymore. So, in 2028, if you adopt the 1.2%, it could generate 2,596,000. This is an early preliminary estimate. We had to estimate your adjusted gross income just within the city limits. So I think that's a piece of good news because some municipalities that we've done this calculation for that 1.2% isn't enough to cover what you're losing. Here it appears that it is and then some can get just a little bit more. So I think that's going to be important. Again, you will have until October 1st of 2027 to adopt this local income tax. And remember, you can go to the full 1.2 regardless of what the county adopts. If you add up all those new rates, it actually comes out to be 3%. But no single taxpayer can pay more than 2.9%. The county is going to have to make a decision on where to reduce. They're not going to be able to go to the max on everything, but you can. that their that decision is rest with the county to make sure that no single pack taxpayer is going to go above 2.9%. Um the next item that was part of the legislative session has to do with road funding and there there was a couple of good things that came out of of that legislation. Um, one is that right now you are required to put 50% of your state distributed motor vehicle highway

monies into restricted and 50% and non-restricted. That's the gas tax. If you meet these two qualifications uh this year, then next year starting July 1 of 2026, you can put 40% and restricted and 60% and non-restricted. So it frees up another 10% to use um on road improvements and paying salaries etc. Whereas the restrictive can only be used for reconstruction, construction and preservation of roads. It's very specific to projects. So here's the two qualifications. Your average pavement quality rating, also known as a pacer rating, has to be a minimum of six. And no more than 15% of your roads are classified as being in failed condition. So, if you meet those two qualifications, you can free up 10% of your gas taxes to be used for the normal operations of the highway department or the street department. Another piece of the legislation, um, House of Rural Acts 1461, lowers the local match obligation for municipalities with populations under 10,000. So instead of having a 25% match, you you only need a 20% match. So that would definitely apply to to your city as well.

We're about round nine at this point. We're getting close. Yeah, you're it actually um I think it goes by the 2020 census which I know that's lower. It's about 7,800 I think is what. So you I think you do qualify 2020. Yeah. 20 2020 we actually that was that's that number is circulating around but when we did our redistricting what they actually found it to be is 8,900. Okay. because there was some question about township being included rights. We're actually 8,900 we did based off of redistricting. Okay. Well, that's I don't know why that keeps showing up as low like that. Yeah, I think it's well it's on the US Census Bureau website. So, they never they didn't change it.

That's good to know. So, you're really about so that would still apply to you. So, that's good. Um you have the option of adopting a wheel tax. Um during the legislation, there was a piece of proposed legislation that said you had to adopt the wheel tax to get the community crossings grant matching monies. That was taken out, but they did kind of throw a carrot in there saying that if you do adopt the wheel tax, then you might be eligible for some extra community crossings monies. But we don't know what that extra is. We're still waiting for INDOT to provide that. It's too late to adopt it this year for next year. But I just wanted you to know that you do have that option of do of adopting a wheel tax and sir tax. You have to adopt those two taxes together. And if you adopt it at the maximum it would generate 247,000 that you can

What percent is that?

Um the maximum I think it's like $25 for the sir tax and $750 for the wheel tax if I remember correctly. It's per vehicle. I can get you that information. I can send it to the mayor. Um, but again, it's not mandatory, but you have that option. Now, the three-year growth excess levy appeal. So, you are eligible for that appeal because your average net assessed value growth over the last three years was 13.6%. Very good growth. That exceeded the statewide average by about 3%. So, you just had to exceed it by 2% to be eligible. This is the final year to file file that appeal. And again, you are eligible for $397,000. Now, I'm going to go to page 12, which is the first page of the general fund cash flow. This is on two pages just because it has so many lines. But in the interest of time, I'm just going to point out what I feel are the most important items on page 12. So, we've got an index numbering system on the left so I can identify some of the line items. And we've also highlighted a few line items as well. So, if you look up at the top on line three, circuit breakers and supplemental credits. What I have highlighted starting in 2026 are what we expect to occur with the new legislation. So you can see in 2025 your circuit breakers are about 746,000 for the general fund. We do expect those to go up to 821,000 in 2027 876,000. 2028 is when it does bump up again because of the local income tax property

tax replacement going away 1.1 million and then it'll probably level off somewhere around 1.1 million that you will not due to service breaker. Um going down to line 17 is that lit municipal over 3500 population which is you all's lit. So in 2028 if you adopt the 1.2% 2% it should bring in about 2.6 million and then just um assuming growth as you have been receiving it'll probably go up to 2.7 in 2029. So overall revenues look at line 20 I'm sorry look at 22 line 22. So your revenues in 2025 are estimated to be about 5.3 million. 2026 I mean we do see an increase. We you are getting an increase in local income tax, property tax. So they should go up to 5.9 million. This does include the appeal though. If that appeal is not approved, then you're going to be looking at four 5.3 5.4 million in revenue. So I want to make sure you understand that this does work in that appeal. assumes that ideal. Um, and then you can see the revenues going forward. They are increasing. And again, that's assuming the lit is adopted because those other lits are going to go away. Um, now we're going to drop down to the dispersement section. So, I have lines 30 and 31 highlighted because what you're currently paying for now, the expenses you're paying from lit public safety and lit economic development will have to be moved over to the general fund because that municipal lit, that new municipal lit has to be deposited in the general fund. So, those expenses are going to have to shift over to general. So yes, we are showing an increase in

budget, but we also have that new lift to help fund that increase in budget. So just if we want to look at 2026 right now, uh we have this is a your proposed budget right now is 5.3 million. We're estimating about 5.9 million in revenue. So it is a better than balance budget, but again assuming that levy appeal is approved and it's not guaranteed. So just be very um just be aware of that. I would say be cautious uh with what you're doing to the budget. You can always do an additional appropriation at the beginning of next year if that appeal is approved. Then you can add more to your budget. But I would just say be cautious because we don't know if that appeal will be approved. Going to page 13, dropping down to line 48. That's your ending fund balance. And again, it's been relatively stable. At the end of 2024, you ended with almost 1.5 million, which is 33% of your dispersements. Again, we we expect it to drop a little bit in 2025, but a lot of that is capital outlays that you have planned in your budget, which is a proper use of your cash reserves. And then going forward, it does get better. And of course, we didn't increase your budget because we don't know what you're going to do in 2026. is if the appeal is approved and you do increase your budget, then obviously it's going to utilize some of those revenues. Does anybody have any questions about general before I moved on? Move on because that's your biggest fund and covers most of your services. Um, with each one of these cash flows, we do have a chart. I'm only going to show you general and then we'll skip the other ones. You can look at those later. But page 14 has a chart of the general fund. It looks very similar to the one that we combined all of those funds. Um, very stable in between the guard rails

and then going up if if you get those additional revenues. Page 15 is the lit economic development. So, what I really want you to notice on this page is in 2028 and 2029, there's no revenues and no expenses. Again, expenses will need to be shifted to general, and you're just not going to get this type of lip anymore. We do anticipate that you will have an ending cash balance at the end of 2027 of 833,000. You may continue to use that cash balance. Uh we recommend that you use it for one-time expenditures until it runs out. Like capital items, um you will not be able to transfer this anywhere. You'll just have to use the remaining balance until it runs out. Page 17 is the lit public safety. Same sort of situation. 2028 and 2029. No revenues, no expenses. Those expenses will move to general. Again, we do anticipate you will have a little bit of a cash reserve at the end, about 241,000. Again, utilize it until it runs out. and for one-time purchases would be the recommendation. Page 19 is your cumulative capital development fund. Um, this is a fund that you created in 2025. So, you exercised a very good option because this fund is outside the levy limits. So, this was new revenue for the city that can be used for anything, not just capital. This fund is unlimited use. It's just like your general fund. Even though it's called King Capital Development, you can use it for anything. So, the rate has been phased in or will be phased in. So, in 2025, the rate on this fund is 0.0167.

2026, it'll be 0.0333 and then by the time you get to 2027, it will go to the max of 5. Um, so that's going to generate for you almost $200,000 a year once it gets up to that max. And when we actually adopted that, we restricted that publicly for public safes and stuff like that.

And that's completely fine. And you would have the options sometime in the future if you wanted it wanted to to reestablish it to no restrictions. So just so you know that you have that ability, but yeah, that's perfect. Public safety. So, we do um at least based on our estimates in 2025, I think you're going to be a little bit short if you try to spend everything that's budgeted. And then 2026, we anticipate uh 125,000 in receipts, but your budget, as it stands right now, is $170,000. So, you may need to work to get that down to the $125,000 range. Um the next two pages or three pages I guess from 21 to 2023 is your tiff. We did work in the impacts of the legislation. I'm not going to go through that unless you really want to or that's just something you can kind of look at later since it doesn't really affect your main operating funds. And then the last page, page 24, is the schedule of your outstanding debt. It's always good to be able to see what all the debt issues you have outstanding. Most of your debt is funded with TIP revenue, which is a good use of that revenue. The police station, I believe, is funded with um the public safety local income tax, which will just be shifted over to the general fund. And then you have a wastewater uh outstanding debt. So, I know that's pretty fast. And again, my sincerest apologies for the mix up on the copies. We roll with it.

I have no idea how that happened and I I do apologize. Okay, figure that out. I will email. I know that was a lot of information so please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

All right. At this time we have Are we able to PowerPoint up? Okay. So, at this time I do have um a brief state of the city that we would like to do as we talk about the budget. and then I'll go in detail about the the budget itself. Um the city has been in a in a strong financial position prior to this legislation. It's a testament to us all working together as council and court treasurer and mayor to fit within those guard rails of saving enough money at the end of the year, spending very frugally in the year and then using that surplus at the end to provide services as needed for the residents or capital outlays for our residents. And it's had us in that good position where we haven't saved so much that we're acting like a bank. We're actually spending the money on our residents, but we're in that healthy position. Um, as far as where we are right now, you can advance to the next two kind of go through where we are at present and some of the things that have happened over the last year. Um, you can advance. So, we've added some things. And of course, you know, in 2023, we were able to open the playground, the complete compatibility playground at Greenway Park. But since that time, we've also done some additional enhancements at Greenway Park. Many of these are direct feedback from residents and I think that's what is wonderful about Charles Town is that people know that they can ask us directly for things that they've identified that they need and we we work those in as we can. So, we completed the creek bank stabilization and preserved the gazebo that the Doug uh or not Doug Steve Doug coin pavilion. It was Doug Doug coin pavilion. Um little things that and these are the things that add up. Okay, we added a water bottle station at the concession stand. You'd be amazed at how happy people are that they have a water bottle filling station at the concession stand and umbrellas to provide shade in the playground. Um direct community feedback. We added a gaga ball pit which is very popular. Uh we built a shade cover with the bench at

the basketball court again based on direct community feedback. And we've recently or in the process of almost completing some repairs on our dog park that needed to happen as well for the depot and the family activities park. We had completed the master plan for that that will be presented at the redevelopment commission meeting in October. We had great public feedback from that. And if you recall, we received a $250,000 so in tourism bond reduction grant to make improvements there. Based on feedback that we received, and I'm not trying to spoil things for the redevelopment commission's presentation, but based on feedback, we are looking at using that money to build a basketball court there at the activities park, which is something that's missing from the activities park. Uh it'll be inside the fence with some bleacher style seating around or wall style seating around it. And then outside the fence we're going to add two pickle ball courts for use in a more central location. And Don is very excited about that.

Yay. Um and that will use that money. So essentially the way that works is our bond payment is about 250,000 a year. So we pay our bond payment with this money and then we kind of have that money that we would have spent on the bond payment to make these improvements. We also were awarded a $4,000 Indiana Arts Commission grant for new sound equipment. Um, we often have vans. We try to focus on young bands, teenager bands down at the depot. And we were awarded a $4,000 Indiana Arts Commission grant thanks largely to the work of Brian Smith, our media director, who chased that grant um to buy that equipment. And we are um we also have been awarded the Rotary Club a $4,500 grant to build a better stage down there. So we will have a actual performance space for them with good sound equipment at the depot. And it's important to note that when people see these kinds of projects happening, yes, we are still facing budget trials, this is money that can only be spent on these things because they were grant funds. So um that's how we make those decisions. You can advance. We've had several noticeable downtown enhancements over the past year and we continue these programs. We have our facade grant program. Since 2021, we've had a total investment of 482,000 in facade grant improvements and only 173,000 of that was city investment. That's a return on investment of 74% private investment and 26% city investment. We've had 18 total awards on that program and it is a rolling program that's available every year. The goal for this, of course, is to help modernize, update, and improve the downtown area or any businesses really throughout the city. If you look out on the square right now, we're adding some upgrades to our square simply for the light show. That little picket fence will not stay up all year round, but it will provide a nice new element for our Christmas light show. That was largely thanks to our title sponsor this year, which we've already secured for

Christmas, which HWC Engineering claimed that sponsorship. you can advance. We've been systematically working to improve pedestrian access to the downtown area. This is especially important with the apartment growth that we've seen and the density that we have. So, we have completed a section of High Street, uh the shorter section of High Street. Um and we improved Water Street. We have this year the other section, the long section of High Street from Market out to the middle school. Um that is slated to be repaired as well paved and repair sidewalks replaced for ADA compliance. And there's also some improvements being made on the other side over here by Harrison and Addison. You can advance. Lifespring Health Systems is complete and open. They did a complete facade improvement and internal renovation of that building and it's looking good. They've been a good community partner allowing us to use their parking lot for a lot of our festivals. And we were able with the help of the redevelopment commission to upgrade the arts enrichment center. If you have not had a chance to go by and see those upgrades, I highly recommend checking them out. It is an absolutely beautiful space and we've had a large uptick in um requests for reservations and events at that space since that renovation. you can advance [Music] retail and commercial growth. We are now have two areas that are completely full and that's good. In 2020, 33% of our commercial space was vacant. So for perspective, we are now reaching capacity at some of our locations. So the new building that was put in at the corner of park and market now has completion with rehab joining them. And with the additions of Jersey Mike and Pharaoh Foot and Ankle, the shopping center there by the JC store is also at capacity. That's the first time that's happened in at least a decade. Um there are potential improvements along other

commercial and retail that we'll go into a little bit later in the what's to come presentation part. You can advance. It's not just the city that's been making improvements. We've I've always said that when you start in one area, the others tend to flow and follow and keep along. And I'm happy to say that we were able to open the Charletown Elementary School this year. It's a beautiful facility. Many of you were there um or seen it. And the library also completed their renovation. Highly recommend checking it out if you haven't seen it. They have an absolutely wonderful new meeting space that they've created there at the library. It's the vibe right now. Re-energized. You can advance. Our current state of housing is that we are building a lot. I mean we is in the community, not the city. Um, you can see there the numbers of building permits. We are hovering pretty consistently around the 200 range and there's an aster by that last one because we still have a few months to go and it looks like we're going to surpass at this rate what we did last year yet again. You can advance. When it comes to single family housing, we have several neighborhoods currently still under development. Um, Skipper Bridge did break ground. They pulled 90 permits right away. So, a third of their permits have already been pulled and they are building those homes now. Danbury Oaks continues to build out. Southern Commons, Charlestown Landing, Springville and Jackson Way, Aspen Meadows has broken ground and built and completed several houses. The Level Street Town Homes are under construction. Heritage Place continues to build out and we have a requested annexation um of a voluntary annexation of another neighborhood of 150 homes um that you'll be considering in upcoming meetings. you can advance. We have several multif family units that have come online. Of course, you've seen these are in construction. They are now leasing. I've heard that Charles Town flats is already the third least um that they were leasing that quickly. Um Forest Edge is leasing in their first phase, which is the phase down on 62.

They have a few things they have to button up on the larger kind of U-shaped part of their building, but they're finishing those up as well. U for a total of 176 units at the flats and 28 units at Forest Edge. We also continue to see some expansion of other types of multifamily, notably the duplexes that were built on the corner of Monroe and Fulkerson and Parkside Trace continues to expand their apartment options as well. The density in that area is critical. I recently met with um a developer if you want to talk briefly about retail and commercial. Uh the lot down by Valero has been sold and as it's underdeveloped there are two places that one has signed a lease and one is looking still 90% there on a lease. They're both restaurants. And then a third person came to meet and he gave me permission to say this. did not give me permission to say the name of his his business, but he did say that I have permission to say that the only reason that he is looking at Charles Town is because of these apartments and the traffic at that intersection is the growth at Riveridge jobs and the residential density that's happening at that corner. That's why he's looking at Charles Town right now. Um, and he sees it booming. So hopefully he'll sign that lease and we can make an announcement about that company soon as well. you can advance. Industrial growth continues to to move right along. The Cheesecake Factory, I should have added to that. It's the factory, not the restaurant. Um, still plans to break ground. They had anticipated doing so in August this month. But they keep making a few design changes and that sets them back with the state, but it's my understanding that they are almost there. They're getting things buttoned up and they will be in that very front lot off of Miami Trail in 62 in front of where you see the US Census Bureau and CTDI right now with a long rectangular lot there right up front. Um so when you come into Charles Town hopefully you'll smell cheesecake and have that national brand right there um on the front side of the building. CTVI is fully operational. They employ 650 people and the US Census Bureau is

moving right along with their construction and hope to have um operations up by mid or by last quarter next year with another 650 people. Van Trust is building a speculative building there on the corner of Miami Trail. That's the one closest to the highway that you see. They are talking to some tenants and if they secure that tenant that would be approximately 200 to 250 jobs as well. you can advance. Shadow Lake continues to to move right along. Uh, US Capital buildings are making their investments. They've got one a little bit further along than the other, but they're they do not have a tenant secured that they have shared with us. However, based on their conversations, we think that they are in the talks with someone pretty seriously. With all of this growth there in River Ridge and Shadow Lake, our rough numbers show approximate increase of jobs of 2,000. So approximately 17 anywhere between 17 and 20% of our existing population in work time population at that site. That's why those infrastructure improvements were so critical. The opening of Christianity Parkway, the green team intersection there at Lewis Parkway, and the upgrades that they're making right now to 362. Moving right along, let's talk about Christianity Parkway. Um it is officially open. You can advance this one. It's officially open and hopefully people are starting to use it and not the Hux parking lot um to cut through to navigate. This offers excellent access to High Jackson. So for our residents that live on Jordan Drive, Wood Farms up in the older section of High Street near the middle school um and of course into the industrial parks on the entrance to the industrial park. It's much safer than the Pike Street. I understand that the bike street closure again is a shock to some people, but this is a much safer way to get in and out of that industrial park and it's part of the enhancements that we've been making to help with the flow of traffic in the city as we realize this growth. Next up, we can talk about where we were

headed in the future and how that looks different under Senate Bill one. Next one. Shadow Lake is continuing to progress with their commercial and residential. Um they are aggressively pursuing commercial. I think originally they anticipated slowing down their commercial until they had some of industrial built. However, with the growth that's happening as quickly as the job growth at River Ridge, they realized there's a need for those auxiliary services that the River Ridge Commerce Center does not supply. restaurant services, you know, things like um minute clinics or eye doctors or those kinds of quick service and food options for people. So, they are aggressively pursuing the commercial side and they will be moving forward with more residential. You can move on with their shadow work farm single and multif family homes. That's already been all approved. Just waiting for them to progress through with their plans for that. Next, here's where things get a little bit difficult. We had some amazing park expansions planned prior to this new legislation, and those are those are on hold now. Um, as you know, the River Ridge Development um authority had donated about 106 acres several years ago. Of course, we had Shadow Lake Park, which is about 70 acres, and then the Ricky land donation behind the dog park. I'll talk about Shadow Lake Park. We had every intention of starting phase one at Shadow Lake Park this year. In fact, I had a rough quote from a local contractor to install that 1.5 mile walking trail because that was phase one and we had to put that on hold. Um, it was our anticipation that we would complete phase one in 2025 and then start working towards the actual design of phase two, which would have been the

civic center and the athletic courts in 2026, hopefully completion construction sometime in 2028. The reality is that we do have to be extremely conservative right now. And even if our tiff revenues were realized now from the development at Shadow Lake where we could take on that debt and build, it's about a $23 million project for phase one and phase two. Assuming that we could build that with the operations hits that we are taking over the next three or four years until we realize how this settles out and we get through this lit change operationally, it doesn't make sense because we have two full-time park staff. we could not manage those properties operationally. So, we have to make those tough decisions to say we're going to have to hold off on that until we're in a better financial position. It's not never. It's just not right now. Likewise, we had planned for the Rick Wheeler land donation behind the dog park to extend the trail that goes behind the dog park into the woods there as a natural walking path and a 18hole disc golf course. Disc golf was one of the things that came out in our parks master plan that was kind of surprising. We had a large group of people who were very interested in disc golf. We do have the ability to install a shorter course, a beginner course in Greenway Park and we've had some meetings, the parks team and I with some disc golf designers and players and they have helped us map out a way to install a five basket course in Greenway so that people can at least get what they call putting practice on the disc golf. you'll have to forgive me, but putting practice with disc golf. Um, and also introduce people to the sports so that later when we are able to build that out, we can have a really nice 18hole course one day. We were donated um four or five baskets um from from the school system actually. So, we we already kind of have a start for that and that's very little cost on

our part to have our crew install those. Um we can do that internally. It's very low cost. So, that's something we do want to move forward with. We just have to wait on the larger one. As far as the land donation down um Charlestown Landing Road, we are in some ways moving forward with potential for that land donation in laying the groundwork to make it happen. We are talking with Riveridge Development Authority about working with the Department of Natural Resources to build that roadway. Um DMR approached us a while back about wanting to move the entrance to the state park off of that road because it would take people to the main office building there rather than have them wind all the way through the park and it would be safer with Skipper Ridge going in on the highway to have them come in at a signalized intersection. that the road has to be built and development authority recently authorized some surveying of that road to to move that that intersection would be receiving an additional 350 to 400,000 people a year if that happens because that's the park count right now. So that roadway needs to be improved first. We also met with Congresswoman Erin Hchin last October almost a year and applied for community funding through the federal government to remove the blight of the quanet huts to address that issue. We've asked for $4 million from the federal government to assist with that. Um, for me, it's a fair ask because I feel like the federal government owes Charles Town for what they left there at the ammunition plant by walking away and leaving that as the public works facility. But frankly, we can't develop that into anything recreationally unless we get that cleaned up. And so that's our current status of where we know. We know that the money, the appropriation has passed the House. It goes to the US Senate next. um watching that process as it goes through. Of course, hopefully we'll be able to celebrate and I'll let you know as soon as we know anything on that. So, some of the things that we've been wanting to do a little bit on hold.

Okay. Um we are there are some projects like I said where funding had already been set aside um or we had plans or we had matching grants or or grantbacked funding where we need to move the the project along and the commons is one of those projects. So this would be out here on the square where the redevelopment commission acquired the old YMCA building that used to be there and we are moving forward with um looking at opportunities to build a stage there with an event lawn. Ultimately, this saves the money, the city money in our festivals because we no longer have to rent a stage, which is about a $10,000 cost for a two-day festival. So, um the redevelopment commission had a meeting on that last night and they've authorized the team to move forward in looking at other additional funding um opportunities for that. But that is a grant back, a partially grantbacked um and crowdsourced bill that you will hopefully start to see. I'd love to have it done by June 1st next year so we can have founders stay there. Um, that would be great. We can move on. Other improvements. The redevelopment commission also had previously acquired the H&R block property and they just approved bids to demolish the building and build an accessible parking lot. This is the closest that we can build an accessible parking lot that will feed into our accessible playground. And so that's that's what's planned to go there. You should see that work starting today. The bid has been awarded and authorized. Other upcoming would be downtown enhancements. With the addition of Forest Edge, we had to do some infrastructure improvements. Um there were drainage improvements, utility line relocations, and we're also making some street improvements there to Green Alley, Harrison Street, and Madison Street, including sidewalks and street repairs, so that the people who are living there, the people who live in that neighborhood have an easier flow of traffic, not overwhelmed by the new residents, and also that they have safe pedestrian access up to the downtown

area for the various shops and things moving up here. Okay, moving forward. We've also maintained our infrastructure improvements. I'm happy to say that the water reclamation plant is on schedule to come online in October, just next month. Uh they are moving right along. We've been able to stay pace contracting has stayed on schedule with that plant build. They will bring the new plant online in October and begin the demolishing of the old structures and that will go through the spring into the summer. Um and so far we've barely dipped into our contingency with that project. We are right on budget so things are going very well. We're also moving along with the highway 62 lift station um move. We had to as a part of the development agreement we needed to we were under an agreed order with IDM to change that lift station out um and address some overflows there. So we're building a larger lift station capability across the highway on 62. And later tonight I have an amendment to the to the build operate transfer agreement that you have um already awarded um and I'll explain at that time if that project is moving along. We also have completed the preliminary engineering report to address the expansion of Spring Street lift station looking at a possible regional pump station and hopefully we'll have a guaranteed maximum price soon on what that would cost to that would be coming through the sewer board with a potential partnership with redevelopment commission and the research development authority to get that done. We've of course made some transportation improvements. Um, I've already mentioned Christianity Parkway, but we also updated our uh transportation safety. That should say plan, not plant. Somebody threw in an extra tea. Um, that would be me. I threw in an extra. Um, we have a safety plan that was done. We only paid $600 for that. That would have been a $30,000 investment if not for the help of the Kipa organization, which is a regional transportation authority. So, we had a very low cost on that. And what it did was it allowed us to have community feedback um with a very with an

interactive map where people could highlight areas in the city that they thought needed attention. And then the safety plan crew came out and evaluated traffic counts, traffic flow at those locations. And so we have identified some of the areas that we need to make improvements at and some of the ways to do that with schools and heavy pedestrian areas being some of the first and foremost. Of course, one of our biggest challenges as a city is that some of the roads that need the most improvements still don't belong to us, being Highway 3, Highway 62, and of course, County Road 403. Um, I have confirmed with the county that, of course, the roundabout is in process there at Stacy, and I have confirmed with the county that they have awarded the design contract for an intersection improvement at Bethany as well. It will be a traffic signal for the time being while they evaluate the potential for a roundabout. But if they do decide to go with the roundabout there, it would not be constructed until probably 2030 or 2031. Uh we have shared that safety plan with those other agencies as well. So that is the short PowerPoint that I had for you as far as those updates. And I wanted to give you that update of what we're where we've been going, how we've been spending money, what are the big projects, and where we're moving as we moved into discussing what's going on with the budget and the the Senate enrolled act one impacts. Senate enrolled one Senate enrolled act one impacts include the possibility of changes to our parks and incident schedule, and you'll see that reflected in the budget. When we're talking about funding the city, we have to fund our essential services first and our wants and desires second. So, we have shifted a lot of the park's budget to cover losses in other areas that we're experiencing because of these larger circuit breaker losses. Um, and to keep our police department whole. The police department's the only department

that actually grew in funding um this year. We also then also might see limited overtime availability. So, what does this translate to? We will have to watch very carefully the city's overtime budget next year because there will be very little flexibility with this budget. We are accustomed to smart money management in this city where we usually save anywhere between $250 and $350,000 every year because we're very frugal. That gives us a cushion so that if we have an event like January of this year where we're snowed under for two weeks, we have the overtime capability to dig us out. That looks very different next year when we do not have that legal room. So, we will have to watch very carefully. That might mean that if we have a big snow event, culde-sacs and side roads don't get done um because we have to make sure that first responders get through on main highways first. So, our residents may see that reflected. I hope not. But that's the very real outcome of this legislation. It also means that some of our parks projects, as I mentioned, will be placed on hold. This is a horrible time for this legislation for us. We just completed our survey for our um strategic plan moving forward for the next 10 years. And some of the mo most of the requested items for that were parks related, parks and recreation related. People don't want us to just provide infrastructure. That is of course critical. They want public safety. They want infrastructure. But what our residents have come to expect and appreciate about Charles Town are those little things that make our place feel like home. Those events on the square, um the programming that we do, the parks improvements, all of those are at risk. Sidewalk projects, we've been making a concentrated effort to work on sidewalks and pedestrian access. I had on schedule next year to have Thompson Street completed. There are sections of Thompson Street that have never had sidewalks and there's a lot of pedestrian access that comes up down through Thompson Street or to have it repaired with ADA. We've also been

request I mean I have on my desk upstairs a list of at least eight sidewalk repair projects that have come over the last month where people are asking us to take action there. We get requests for sidewalks on streets like Level Street and we still need to finish out Monroe Street in sections. I mean, sidewalk work is ongoing, but it is incredibly expensive. The sidewalk work we did on Otter Street last year was $350,000 and that was just from Monroe to main cross. So, it's a very expensive um undertaking and we try to chip away at it as we can, but some of those projects will be slowed down. Some of those targeted areas we had hoped to complete will not get completed until we figure out the overall impact of this legislation. It could also mean a delay of repairs and maintenance. Um, if someone is out at one of our parks and they find a piece of equipment broken, they one slide could be as much as $10,000. And without the wiggle room that we are used to having with making some of those repairs, um, we've had to slice some of those budgets. And so, it's a very different world. Um, we will obviously prioritize as things happen, but that in reality is what this translate to look like. As far as the city's budget for this year and the growth that we've experienced, um I did run some numbers just so that we could understand some things that are that are happening. In addition to having our budget cut with this legislation, there are some things that have been going up. Our expenses continue to go up. Just like household expenses, our utility costs are increasing at least 10%. We expect to see another 25% increase in insurance. the PERF for our police department went up substantially over 20%. Um we continue to see increased costs in materials. Um work that would have cost maybe 50,000 two years ago is almost double that these days and with our revenue going down it it certainly

presents challenges. However, we have been able to take reasonable care of our employees along the way. I went back and looked over of the five-year growth. So from 2020 to 2025 um in 2020 we had 49 employees including police officers. In 2025 we have 53 and two of those were police officers since that time. So we haven't grown exceptionally large on staff. Um but we have been able to increase our average hourly wage. So, our average hourly wage rate has gone from $17.54 in 2020 to $25.36, which surpasses the Clark County average. The average wage in 2025 for Clark County is 25 to 09. So, we are at we are meeting the average wage for Clark County. Now, for our employees, that does not include the police department factored into that because of the for the hourly wage element with true hourly wage. Theirs is different because of longevity and all that. Um, however, we've So, that means we've seen an average wage increase of 45% since 2020. Um, I'm sorry, Clark County average wage is 24.89 an hour. So, we are um ahead of Clark County average wage. Our police base pay in 2020 was 43,284. In 2025 is 60,000. So, the police officer base pay rate has seen a 31% increase since 2020. I say these things because we have to take care of our employees. Um, we have to take care of our employees because um, for practical reasons, it's more expensive to hire new ones than it is to keep the ones we have and because the ones we have are pretty stellar. Um, they do go above and beyond on a daily basis to take care of this city. And so that leads to the conversation about the budget. I am grateful this year um, that I can say confidently and happily that this

has been a team endeavor. This has been a challenging budget to write, the most challenging budget I've had to work with. But thanks to the help of Donna and her outstanding staff, um, specifically Heather and Deborah, they are beyond compared.

Amazing. Um, and thanks to the help of other council members, feedback from all of you, but especially a meeting that I've been able to have with Chuck Deon and Brian Hester and Donna, we have worked together as a team to come up with a budget that hurts in some places, but takes care of the things that we think need to happen. It is a conservative budget. It is a balanced budget, and we will move forward with this. There might be some small changes in line items between tonight and the um next meeting before you adopt it. But I want to go through the changes in the budget and and draw your attention to some of the items here in one of the significant things that happened with the budget is that last year we had to track it for 53 pays and this year we had to factor it for 52. You'll see cuts in almost all departments, the mayor, the council, parks departments most significantly, and city maintenance. This budget includes a 2% raise for all staff and police department face pay, no raise for elected officials. This budget also includes the addition of a 19th police officer to our staff, much needed for our population growth and to reduce the burden of overtime on our police department. So, if you go through page by page and go to the um you can see the the initial of the general fund revenues listed there itemized under the mayor's budget. You see the reduction of $15,000. Um we were able with the help of the team that gathered to allocate the $5,000 I thought it was going to have to cut out of the promotional fund back in Chuck. Thank you. Um, Chuck in particular was committed to putting that money back in. I want to make a note that that promotional fund is not for my benefit. That promotional

fund is there and we only use it for providing lunchons for staff where we have people in and hear what's happening in the department um as employee recognition for jobs well done. And at the end of the year, we show our appreciation and our support of our employees and their families by buying them a modest $50 gift card to the JC store. So they can buy a dinner, family dinner for their families, anytime between Thanksgiving and the end of the year that they choose. It's not a lot, but it's something that we were going to have to cut um if not for moving some things over to the edit fund temporarily for for the next year. So uh under the court treasures budget we've seen a reduction of 7800 wages council budget some notable things here um we have reduced the financial advisor based and a lot of these were Donna staff looking at trends and saying well we didn't spend that so we can cut that so we've reduced it by 5,000 to 20,000 um I will say this Mr. Wilder, thank you for your prudent service to the city. Um, thanks to the council's decision and the way that you bill, we're able to cut $20,000 off of what we previously had allocated for council attorney. So, we are saving significantly there. Uh, we also cut the council's promotion, the 2000 subscription and dues, we didn't need as much. So, that's a $10,000 reduction. Here's where it hurts. We removed the line item for the fireworks or drone show. Um, we have two big festivals and then Christmas. We have three big expenses for festivals in the city every year and our city loves it. Founders Day in June, community days in September and Christmas. Of course, most of those expenses are covered by sponsorships. For each of those events, we usually end up with anywhere between 20 to $25,000 for those events to cover them. But we do always allocate $15,000 to cover the fireworks or uh the drone show. This looks a little different next year. More than likely, we will try to

shift resources and have a larger traditional founders day festival and reduce community days to a smaller maybe the food truck challenge style. It saves us money overall and we will be looking for sponsors because without that these things just simply won't happen. We also were able to cut out the $51,000 vehicle lease payment for um a significant reduction in the council budget. The police budget, as I mentioned, is the only one that goes up. You will see some line items moved over to the CCD fund. Notably, the administrative staff and the ammunition were moved to the CCD, but they saw an increase based on the 2% base pay increase as well as the addition of the 19th police officer. Parks department took the biggest hit. Parks department is being reduced by $147,000. This is a 25% reduction in our parks budget. This is the one that's the hardest to stomach. I understand council that there are some people who would say, "Well, it's just parks. You need to fund your public safety. You need to fund your roads." I 100% agree that public safety is our top priority. It's always our biggest expense and it is our highest liability but also greatest resource. Maintaining roads, all those things are very important. But the reality of Senate Bill One is that if things don't get better, if the legislature doesn't fix some of the problems with this legislation, then our residents may have to rethink what they expect out of their city government. They This translates to fewer festivals. This translates to the need for greater sponsorship. This translates to the need for more commitment from volunteers. And this translates to potential for

having to charge more and reduce our parks hours because what it's affected by this is staff. We scrapped the position that we've been holding on to all year. We were going to hire another full-time parks manager and we decided not to hire that position because we needed the money to fund our critical services. Planning and zoning sees a reduction as well. um about $3,000 mainly in some small things like grass cutting. Our crew is picking that that burden up um on some of those items. City maintenance sees a reduction of $71,000. Some of this was achieved by moving um a couple of the salaries over to different areas. So, we had a worker who was in city maintenance that were actually able does more worker sanitation were able to move over to sanitation. It's not a drastic cut in what they're actually having to do. It mainly was reflected in salaries. I want to make a note we are not laying off anyone at this point. No one's losing their jobs at this point and they will see a 2% increase in their in their salaries. So that kind of covers the the rest of the sheets are just your miscellaneous revenues and that covers um the nuts and bolts of the budget that's been presented. This is different than the one that I gave you in August. And again, much of that credit goes to the teamwork that was put in um with all of you providing feedback along the way. some of you just by phone or text to me directly and then others of course um Chuck Brian and Don and I having a meeting um and it's a testament to the city. So the message to the community is this. These are challenging times. We are growing. Previously to this point, we've been thriving. We're seeing all the new things that people want to see. parks, recreation, infrastructure improvements, maintenance, community building events, new businesses, the arrival of new restaurants are on the way. We are seeing these things and it feels like the rug is being ripped out from under us.

But thanks to the teamwork of this group, we are resilient and we've written a budget that is balanced, that is conservative, and we will move forward. I described this yesterday to someone as trying to pin the tail in a bumblebee because that's what it feels like. The numbers we received from Baker Tilly were better than what we've received from the DLGF. The DGF has us facing D, am I right, a $1.2 million cut to our circuit breaker loss and Baker Chile has a little over 800,000. We're going with the more extreme. We were following the path of the 1.2. That's the safest way to go. because we won't know if we get that levy appeal until December. We won't know the true circuit breaker impact until next April. And so we are moving forward cautiously, conservatively, but we're moving forward. Are there any questions I can answer for you at this time? I realize it's a long meeting. has a lot to say. We have our first reading on this tonight is not the adoption, but we um we will move forward with this and there may be some line item changes, but the levy itself will not change. At this point, I would open it up for council comments.

I I was going to say most people don't realize the work that you and Donna and her crew put in. I mean, dealing with these numbers, pushing numbers around, making things balance, it's a major chore. And to get this to balance, but the economic times we're in is pretty impressive. And I just want to say I applaud you for and the crew for doing what you did. And Chuck stepped in and did a lot of work on this, too. And I appreciate Chuck, too. Um, I just want to say thank you yourself, your team, Donna and her team for allowing me to come in, ask questions. Second year budget, don't know a lot. Uh, Eric, thank you. Appreciate everything. He opens the door and lets me come in. I talk to him. I talk to other officers, talk to people throughout the city. And you know I told I told you lot worked with a lot of people and it really means a lot to see what they do to see how hard they work to see them getting grants to putting money that towards things that we don't need to pay for you know that saves us in other ways. So seeing them and their hard work go forward, thank you for uh allowing that to happen and working together with us and everybody works together and I mean everybody get something out of it. So I appreciate it.

All right. So at this time we will officially open the public hearing on the budget. This is the advertised public hearing. The U adopted budget for this year the um would be 5,38,288 on the general fund. Um, local income tax 338,228, police pension 163,920, local road and street 165,390, motor vehicle highway 342,264, QAP the SIG tax 11,438, the QCAP development fund 170,528 and sanitation which is a feebased not a tax rate fee based service sanitation 929,766 for a total full adopted budget across all funds of southern mainly $429,822. If you would like to make public comment during the public hearing, it is now officially open. You can just come forward, state your name and address, and make your comment on the budget. Closing once, twice. All right, I will officially close the hearing for the budget uh for the 2026 budget and we will move through the rest of our agenda. No business straight to new business. So, this will be the first reading of 2025 12, which is the budget for 2026. I think I've said enough about the budget. So, I just need a motion.

I'll make a motion we move forward with uh the new budget. All right, got a motion from Chuck Deon. Is there a second? A second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I. Any opposed? That's unanimously approved on first reading. This will come back to you at your October meeting, not at your special meeting on the 22nd, but of September, but your October meeting for final reading. Up next, you have an ordinance 202513 on the golf cart. So, let me explain. When you pass the golf cart ordinance before, thank you. Um, thank you, Paige.

Thank you. um we did not have a penalty in there for non-compliance and so this amendment adds that penalty. It says there shall be a fine of $250 for any violations of the previous ordinance essentially. So you're voting to amend that ordinance u that you previously adopted which was 216. I need a motion to approve. Motion by Brian Hester second

second by Shannon Elder. Any questions hearing? None. All in favor say I. Any opposed? That unanimous. So, we'll bring that around for second reading at your next meeting. You have an appropriation reduction. Um, Donna, did you want to explain what this one was for? I remember it was administrative.

Yes. um on the CCD levy we submitted it to the DOJ and it was an estimated amount that we came up with and they said that we had to cut it 15,000 less and that was their recommendation was to do an appropriation reduction and that amount is included the reduction is included with budget amount so it doesn't affect the budget at all okay so do we have a motion to approve make a move motion by Second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions on that? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? That uns. And then um Tony can explain if you have any questions, but we had received you received a letter of disapproval for a falling drugs zoning change. Tony, did you want to briefly explain that to the the process to the council for that? Good evening board. What we had on July the 14th, we had a hearing in front of the plan commission for a uh zoning change to plan unit development on Bowling Drive. Uh we heard both sides of the story. Um took a vote and we decided to disapprove recommended disapproval to this board. U there was a lot of issues that this weren't clearly affected or discussed. So our recommendation was for the board disapproval.

So the council has the option to either approve the zoning despite the recommendation or to accept the disapproval. And in your motion, I just need you to say which you are making the motion for. I make the motion to accept the disapproval from the or the zoning change. Okay. So, Brian Hester makes a motion to accept the disapproval. Second. Chuck Deon seconds. Are there any questions? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. That's Thank you. Thank you.

And then the final thing is only one vote as well. So, previously you had awarded a vote operate transfer project for the highway 62 lift station um construction. In that time as they were looking at locating the force man that goes from that highway 62 up to the plant, the most expedient and least expensive route goes through some commercial property that is on 62 there kind of next to like where the medical facility is off of off of the Grace Avenue. There's there would be a road that would connect through there's a stub for it over by the medical office that Wilson.

Yeah. So right there in that line. So basically the developers of that land, the owners of that land have agreed to give the city access to run that at no additional cost if we would lay the road. And so the redevelopment commission worked out an agreement with them to do that, but that requires a change in the bill operate transfer agreement. This does not impact the cost from the sewer or from the council. This is this amendment is funded entirely by redevelopment dollars. um in the amount it's amended um in addition 88,430 making the total amended amount 3,834,825 but that difference is covered 100% for redevelopment redevelopment sends along their recommendation Chuck if you want to speak on that you can as

this is something that uh Tim had talked about and said this would be the absolute easiest route it's a lot lot easier if you needed to work on later in the future uh as far as the force main everything is it's just much easier access easier route u straighter line everything about it was a whole lot better so we took 10 Tim 10's recommendation on that it's it's not going to affect future commercial properties no it'll be it'll be on the e of that road

they needed a road to access that commercial property and so what happens is the redevelopment commission has has worked out a development agreement with them whereby by as they develop that property, they will build the road. Um, and the sewer line will go in the center of that road just like everywhere else. Good. All right. Do we have a motion to approve that amendment? I'll make a motion. Motion by Chuck Heaton. Second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions? All in favor say I. I. That is approved. That only means one thing, ladies and gentlemen. We have a motion to chairman. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Shannon Elder. All German say I. I.

We are. Please sign before you leave. I know you want to get out of here. Do I have time after?