Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the regular meeting of the city of Charlestown common council. It's December 1st, 2025, 6:30 p.m. We'll begin our meeting with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. As the record show, this meeting is being live streamed by Under Production Multimedia. Tonight for our invocation, I'd like to invite for Pastor Neland Mlullen from the North Charletown Church of God. Good evening.

Thank you. We pray this in prayer. Lord God, we thank you tonight, Lord, for this uh time together. We thank you, Lord, for this meeting. We pray, God, you'd be with each and every person here tonight. We know that your word tells us that again there's safety, the multitude of council and I just pray that you give wisdom and directions. I thank you for this city and I thank you Lord for the again the Christmas spirit and Lord let that come through the whole whole time of this month of December. Bless this time here together for these folks and Lord let your light shine through all of them in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Have a good day. Thank you. Have our roll call. The virtual here. Ronnie Ble here. Shannon El here.

Brian He's unable to be with us. Let the record show Mayor Hodgees is present as well as deputy court treasurer Heather Heather, sorry. Deborah L, I was just talking about her and that's my morning. And then the attorneys, our attorneys are here, Perry McCall and Michael Wner. We have an agenda that's been provided. I just need to make one small item change under item C for new business. I need to add the 2026 meeting schedule. I did go ahead and formally adopt that at this meeting. So with that change, I would entertain a motion to approve. Make a motion. Motion by Ronnie Leven. Second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any other edits? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? That's unanimous. You have your minutes and claims and your payroll allowance docket from October 27th to November 23rd. Motion to approve. I make a motion. Motion by Ron Loans. Second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions on any of those documents? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. I don't think anyone signed up for public comment. We have Mercedi with us to give us our last legislative youth advisor update of the year. Anyway, hard to believe. I know. Hi. How's everybody? Great. How are you?

All right. Well, we're proud to announce that the winter sports season has officially started at CHS. For match scheduling, we would like everyone to go to the CHSWP page for swim, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls wrestling, and oh, we would also like to congratulate um Lady Pirate basketball senior Natalie Gagnon for her commitment to Lincoln Land. We would also like to announce that tomorrow there is a pirate basketball game facing Silver Creek at Silver Creek and it starts at 7:30. We would also like to congratulate Pirate baseball seniors Lex Rose and Andrew Farble for their commitment to IU Columbus. And lastly, we would like to give a shout out to the swim team. They had their first meet against Seymour with the 50 free PR for Railen, Shay, Chloe, and Thaddius and OP. 100 free PR for Anna, Shay, Chloe, Wyatt, and Cooper. 200 free PR for Noah J. 100 fly PR for Noah P. And lastly, a 100 breast for Rayland, Hannah, and East. So, thank you so much.

And our cheer team, if I'm not mistaken, our cheer team did, I think the one state, one state. Yes, all teams I think. Really big accomplishment. Yes. Awesome. Very good. Thank you for saying. Thank you. uh for my comments. Um we I'm happy to let you know that we did get our levy appeal. Not in the full amount.

So, it's okay. I mean, we're going to start with the good news and kind of back up from there a little bit. Um we're going to be able to make it work. Deborah and Heather, you know, they put their heads together and we'll be fine. But, um it was a very complicated order from the DTF. It's not something we're used to seeing. Um they usually give an order that either approves it or denies it. Um, this was a little bit wonky. They are deducting. So, we were approved, we qualify for, I think about, we qualify for $396,741 through some interesting math, predictive math, through some interesting predictive math that the DLGF did um, based on what they think that we are going to get from income tax revenue. That's two years out. um they've decided to reduce that amount for the first year by 20,000. So for 2026, we're actually going to receive $376,59. But then they reduced it further for 2027. So the permanent levy amount beginning in 2027 becomes $283,525. So they ultimately did a $90,000 reduction from what we qualified for because through their predictive math they think that we're going to make up that difference in the income tax revenue portion that we received from the county income tax. This is before the 2028 income tax change. So it was a very interesting order, but I did pass it along to um our financial analyst and she said that um several of the communities are already getting denied. So we should be very happy with what we got and remember that's the last time we can ever apply for that besides our current legislation. So we did get it. The even better news is that um because of our growth, we did not see a rise in our tax

rate because of this. It actually our tax rate will be lower this year than it was last year. So for 2025, our tax rate including the QCAP fund that we adopted was 1. 069 for 2026. We got our form back yesterday or today yesterday or Sunday. We got our form back for the DGF today and our final tax rate for 2026 will be.9944. So we see a significant reduction in our municipal tax rate. And as I remember when we adopted the CCMG, I had a had really good reason to believe this would happen that even though we were adopting it and you might see that slight increase that first year that over time it would go down and that's that's the trend we're seeing. So overall the tax rate is coming down um even with the adoption of that CC fund. So that's my update. Um many I saw many of you at light up. Good to see you. We had a huge crowd. It was cold. Everything went off well. Kudos to the staff now. They work so hard um getting everything up. They really do. And this year they did it without working overtime and that's huge. Um we told them they couldn't do overtime because they needed to save the money and they dug deep and they not only accomplished their regular daytime jobs, they just hustled. They not only did their regular daytime jobs, they got all the Christmas decorations up in time for for light to go off. So, if you see them or you talk to them or you can message them, please um give them a kudos. We were actually able to save enough where we were able to give them their annual gift cards um for JC Store for dinner and their usual uh $250 bonuses. So, we did that last Friday or Friday before last. So, um just make you know you see the staff tell them to talk this year. They hustled. Okay. At this time, I'll open it up for council comments. I I just was going to bring up that light up was amazing. I thought it

was really nice. It was a good crowd and I thought the PR with the news gave us a really good pat on the back too. So that guy I watched him interview people and he laughed and smiled and had a good time. So he was enjoying himself too. So it was a really nice nice event for the city. Great job city workers and everyone who was involved. You knew someone very well who was in I do knew someone who's in I did okay. You did a great job. But that's not what I'm saying. I know you're not obviously he did a great job. You should be proud.

And just an interesting side note, while we were standing there, there was a family that uh live in l and they're building else. And she came up and asked a couple of kids that were around me, um, hey, are you going to college? You go to high school and they said we high school. So they started asking them all kinds of questions. And by the time, uh, she left, she said, this has just been a wonderful experience, a wonderful day. and I've had a great time here in Charleston Town line up and thank you all for sharing all the good information about Charleston.

So, it was a nice blessing and uh to see somebody who's moving in, excited about moving into town and the kids said great things about the school. So, you know, um obviously things were going right at the high school for them to tell other teenagers that they like the school and they enjoyed it. So, it was a it was a good night listening to those kids talk to those um that panel. Good. I love it. Any other updates from council? It was good to see others come out in different communities. Yeah. Um I mean this event um it's really growing. It really is. And um I've seen people that that I knew from other communities come out and I've heard a lot of comments u people say this is like a Hallmark movie.

Well, you know the Hallmark channel actually liked one of Brian's posts by the way. like the official Hallmark Times channel reacted to one of Brian Smith's posts on Facebook that he did from the city page. So fingers crossed maybe we'll get a movie here. That family I was talking to said the Hallmark movie, but they mentioned certain city in a Hallmark movie. Oh. And they had really narrowed down to what the city was. I didn't know what it was, but they was really happy.

That's cool. Well, we had um letters to Santa in our inbox um at the family activities park from Louisville, Georgetown, Madison, Jeffersonville, of course, a lot from Charles Town. I think Georgetown and Madison were probably the two furthest so far, but we'll we'll get more before the year's out. So, it's good. All right. Um moving into our old business, then we have the second and final reading ordinance 2025 20. This is the tree ordinance. So, um, I have an update. Since we first passed this reading, one of the things that we were doing this tree ordinance for was because we were applying for a tree a grant, um, a DNR grant to get funds to plant trees in our public spaces. And we won. We get a $5,000 grant um to plant trees. And that's been important because we're trying to provide as much natural shade over our playgrounds as possible. Um, and it's a long payoff waiting for the tree to grow, but ultimately it's a good thing to do for the community. It also reduces heat in the community and just overall makes it better community health. So, one of the requirements was that we have a tree ordinance. The nuts and bolts of this ordinance are that it covers trees in our public areas only with the exception of defining what nuisance trees are. So, this helps us on private property be able to um identify what nuisance trees are. And those are trees that would harm or be potentially harmful to others with disease trees, dangerous limbs, that kind of stuff that could fall into public ways or other properties um and cause damage. So, that's the nuts and bolts of this ordinance. And with that, I would open it up for a motion.

I make a motion to approve. Ronnie Leven makes the motion. I'll second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions on this one? Hearing? None. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? And that's unanimous. The next one up under new business is ordinance 2025 21. This is an ordinance that amends the 20259 sewer capacity fees. Um there are two notable changes in this. We are not changing the dollar amount of the capacity fees. already did that earlier this year. Um, the two significant changes uh other than cleaning up some of the language to make it uh more clear with our existing rate and our policies. It clarifies that if you have paid your tap fee under item C, um, under number five, item C, if you previously paid a tap in fee and it's been five years from the original date of payment and you haven't used your tap in that time, then you your tap expires. You have to reup you have to repay. The reason for that is as we are when they pay a tap fee, when they get granted that capacity and they pay the tap fee, we're basically holding that capacity for that customer. And if after 5 years they have not used that capacity, it's reasonable to reopen that capacity as part of our available system. So maybe they're not going to build, maybe they change their mind. We just need some system to keep up with what our available capacity is. And so with the feedback of Tim Crawford, our wastewater director, he said this fiveyear mark is a good mark to go off of. So it establishes that. And then item E in that area, it also establishes a procedure for abandoned taps or abandoned properties that are residential only and coming back onto the system. This has been an issue with some of the blighted properties around town that have been abandoned for a period of time where they've had no flow

going through the wastewater line. And without knowing the status of that line, the health of that line, without having flow through that line, there's a greater potential for damage to it, um, and for damage to our collection system. So, previously residential properties would have to pay a brand new tap. We had a couple of people that are rehabbing abandoned blinded properties that has said this is almost prohibitive for them to be able to do that because it's so expensive. So we talked it over with Tim the wastewater operator and the recommended in this ordinance what's recommended is that if it is a residential property only doesn't apply for multif family it doesn't apply for commercial and it's been more than 6 months where there's been no flow coming through the line and in order to reconnect they would have to pay a $70 reconnect fee a $30 inspection fee and they need to provide certification from a licensed the plumber that the line has been televised from the tap to the home and that it's free of any defect. Um that would allow them then to bring that back online without having to pay the $3,100 tapping fee. So those are the two significant changes to this ordinance. With that I open a motion

motion by Brian Hester. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions on this?

I was just going to say I think that's great uh some great changes. Um, we have homes sitting up there that probably need to be rehabbed and um, a lot of these guys are working on very little profit margin and sometimes they're not making any money at all. And if we throw a $3,100 tap on it, they're probably losing money. So, why would they do it? So, I think it's a great thing for the city to be able to get these homes rehab and continue to improve our city's growth and just safety and all that. Great move. I think this is a great call. We are seeing quite a few rehab of of older properties coming through. Um, and just trying to help people help people understand that when it's been vacant for a while, depending on what level of work they're doing, they still have to get a building permit. This is a more it's designed to be a more gentle way to bring back on without having to pay a license too heavily, but by not having the city take on any additional liability um for that tab. So, all right. Any other questions or discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? No unanimous. [clears throat] Um, can we get a point of clarification from our attorneys? Um, to pass on second reading, must there be the full membership of the or is it just the unanimous vote of those that are here for the unanimous vote on the second. Thank you. So, knowing that, I would request that we suspend the rules and pass this on second reading. So, we do have a couple of builders that are waiting in the wings to move this forward and get their permit. Um, and I really don't want to continue to hold them up through another month. Um, especially leading to ones that might be more difficult for them to do the work. So, with that, I would entertain a motion to suspend the rules. Make a motion. Have a motion by Ryan Leens. Second.

Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions on that procedure? Hearing none. All in favor of suspending the rules and entertaining on second vote, please say I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. So then I'll call for second and final reading of 2025 21 the amended capacity fee ordinance. Can I get a motion? Make a motion. Motion by Shannon Elder. Second. Second by Ronnie Blevens. Any questions hearing? None. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Thank you all.

Our final ordinance for the night is 202522. As is custom at the end of the year. This is our transfer of appropriations for various departments. What this is is towards the end of the year within the same department. So for instance, you'll look at from mayor's health insurance to mayor's city promotions for instance, we are we can move funds within that same fund category with a simple vote in the council rather than having to loop it across funds and have to advertise um in the paper. So, this is just shoring up certain funds that maybe it had a greater expense than they expected, like the police vehicle maintenance um and making sure they have the money in them before the end to close them out. So, you've got uh mayor's health insurance moving to Mayor City Promotions and $5,000 that was used to pay for the staff gifts for the holidays. Um police health insurance moving to police vehicle fuel 7,000. Police health insurance moving to police vehicle maintenance of 35,700. City maintenance health insurance moving to city maintenance utilities around 115,000. City maintenance health insurance to city maintenance repairs maintenance 25,000. Local roads and streets from sidewalks to bridge 6,579. And then from sanitation salaries to the landfill cost 15,000. From salaries to postage 8,000. From salaries to property insurance 2,98. And from sanitation salaries to repairs and maintenance of 15,000. That entertain motion to approve.

I'll make a motion. Motion by Ryan Levens. Second. Second by Shannon Elder. Any questions on that? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose? Since that is unanimous, I would ask that we suspend the rules in anticipation of passing this on second reading tonight. All right. I heard Brian or Mr. Second Ryan Levens. Any questions on the procedure? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Calling for the second final reading of 2025 OR22 on the transfer of appropriations. We have a motion. Motion. Motion by Shannon Elder. Second. Second by Ronnie. Any final questions? Hearing? None. All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. And then the last item is establishing your 2026 meeting schedule. I under the assumption that we like the first Monday of every month. It's been that way for quite a while with the exception of some holidays. Well, except for some um we understand that sometimes there is the need to reschedule. We need to take those um as they come about. But in general, yes, we we do it on the first Monday of every month at 6:30. Just need a motion. We'll make that official. Motion by Shannon. Second. Second by Ryan Levens. All in favor say I. I.

That is. We'll set that and then like I said if we need to make a change we can always bring that up in the meeting and make that change and make the announcement. Just have to remember we have to have 48 hours um business hours to make this. All right that is all we had unless there's anything from our attorneys other than Deborah who want you to sign everything. Somebody's got to make a motion to adjurnn. Ah make that motion. All right. Tonight it is Brian Hester. We have a second by all in favor say I. Hi. All right, that was unanimous. Thank you all. Merry Christmas.