Town Council - Regular Meeting

[clears throat] 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. Welcome everyone. [clears throat] First up, we have approval. Two sets of minutes. one from the February 4th town council meeting. Any questions or comments?

Just quick note that my name is [snorts] not of that [laughter] typo. Motion to approve motion by Mr. Herby. Second by Mr. D. All in favor? All opposed. Motion carries 5. Move to approve the executive session. Motion by Mr. Herby. Second. Second by Mr. Chadam. All in favor? All post. Motion carries. 5 Z. Any public comments, Mr. Morgan? I've had no request to speak tonight, Mr. President. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

First item on the agenda tonight is the year end report from downtown Vano Partnership at school.

Good evening. Thank you for having me. As you know, I'm Tara Coburn. I'm the community and project coordinator for the Downtown Danville Partnership. Very excited to be here. I will preface. I know that our annual report is long. I'm not going through the entire thing. It does need to meet certain criteria for Indiana Main Street, which is why it is a little more extensive. So if we one more page down before I get into more of the minutia of our success and it's been great here. I do want to start with answering the main question is why downtown? Why do we care? Why do does the downtown capital partnership do what we do? And why should you care and other residents of the greater downtown care? I called out a few of these important things. The key component here, I know we've talked about the saying downtowns are the heart of the community. It is true, but there's also, you know, numbers behind it. It's not just a feeling. It's not just that it's source of community identity, but when we are investing downtown, that has a ripple effect into the investment in the greater Danville community or in any town's community. The reason why though we look at supporting the downtown partnership with other main street organizations is not just because we are focusing on downtown but we can help make a dollar go a little bit farther. Main Street America has this wonderful reinvestment ratio. This is an average reinvestment ratio. So when a when money is put into let's say a dollar is put into these main street organizations these downtown organizations they can average at a turnaround of just shy of $22 for that $1. We as partnership are not quite there yet but we are progressing and we are certainly putting more than a dollar that we receive back into downtown. So yes, we appreciate your support, but I want to make sure that

you are understanding that your support is also in investment, not just with partnership, but investment in the town as a whole. So what I know you all want to hear though is our 2025 highlights. [snorts] These are some wonderful numbers that we're pretty excited about. Just shy of 155,000 was reinvested by the partnership. Now, this is a conservative number because we know that we don't do a great job at really tracking our inind donations, sponsorships, goods. We are working on that. But this is, like I said, concerned by the journals at $54,000 invested just to downtown. And again, the idea is that that's that ripple effect that is creating and generating a larger economic drive for all the greater Danville. Just shy of $15,000 out of our budget was used to support facade grants for downtown building owners, which is an increase. We did set aside more monies this past year than we have in the past to support these downtown businesses making their businesses look great. We understand it is costly. You know, the materials are getting more expensive, but to keep that historical component that we so want to do, it costs a lot of money. Our facade grants, so it's important to know, are reimbursement grants and is capped at a dollar amount as well as 50%. So we are expecting these downtown building owners to invest their own money. And honestly, I don't think a single one of them has had a total of 50% from funded from us because it's always more expensive than what our cap is. But the idea is that we can use these facade grants to motivate people to invest in the exterior of the building so that they can look keep it looking nice. And again, that's what we use that motivation for. Beautifification project. So this

includes it can be as small as our flower pots that we do to our wonderful alley activations and the murals. Just in 2025, we invested $27,000 in these particular projects. And we were very proud to say that 85% of that funding came from grants. So that's talking about ways that we can leverage our nonprofit 501c3 status to bring in some outside outside dollars to help invest into our downtown area. Obviously, not all of our downtown work is super glamorous. Our most recent was just covering concrete work for the East LA expansion. But as I posted on social, you have to have a strong foundation and not all progress is as glamorous as other murals, but still vital important events. I know when people think of downtown Danville, that's what they think of when I started. That's what they are events. I do hope that we're learning that we are so much more than that, but events are a crucial component and they are vital not just partnership in what we do, but to help drive visits downtown, not just for event days, but for getting people down here and then wanting to return. So just over 68,000 again conservatively because the data you was only tracking cell phones and certain guidelines, those were event driven visits. Now, I did have a wonderful meeting with us at Hendricks County yesterday and they just shared with me some of their data and one of the things that stuck out to me is in 2025 downtown Dandel had separate area markup for that saw double digit growth in visitation and visitor days. This was not just for event days. This is just overall double digit is a statistically significant growth that we're seeing here. And while they are not done collecting data for all the other areas, as of right now, of the

ones that they have collected, downtown has seen the most growth. You has been the only one that's seen double digit growth in business. So, our events are bringing people down and then they're coming back. And just to make sure that we're all clear, these numbers do filter out employees and business owners. So, we're not counting courthouse employees or even business owners. We are truly counting visits whether they're Daniel residents or the greater Hendricks County or county. The partnership has led or supported 16 different events and parts four shopping stroll initiatives. Why is this important to you? the bubble that we have here for logistics in particular, we are helping to facilitate outside organizations to have these events with the town and alleviating some of the work that would be typically required by town employees. So we for lack of a better word I'm the middleman between these organizations telling them helping them what they need to do what information we need to collect what type of resources they need need to have going back to the town we coordinate and work closely with Nathan and work with police etc. We figure out all of these details and cut down how much back and forth and cut down the town employees needs to spend time organizing all of that. So that's a value that we're providing to help alleviate some of the workload for our town employees. Our flagship events obviously we do other events. We do Patties on Square. We're doing evenings in Nashville downtown concerts etc. But you know Scarland Square, Christmas on Square, big ones. We were very excited to see you know over 80% increase in visits just for those events. but also we were able to fund those events 100% at sponsorships which allows us to then take money and invest it in things like our beautifification

programs or grants etc. [clears throat] Volunteer over a thousand volunteer hours that's valued at $35,000. So on a different slide I'm not pulling that number out. They actually have a company that evaluates the hourly rate for volunteers and it is state specific. So that is for Indiana. This is our board members. These are committee members. These are just general community members who are helping us do what we do. And those are in replace of employee hours that we're not having out employees doing if that's something that you know some of these initiatives are ones that you want to take over. Our fund allocation. Yes, operations is going to be a larger piece of the pie. though I would like to preface that we also cover the cost of the electrical in the alleyways and it's labeled under operations but I would also consider that under a design aspect because it's not really our electrical as for the community. One of the things though I think is really important to point out here though is the very small sliver for our marketing expenses. Marketing can be expensive. very easily spend a lot of money. We're going to, you know, we focus a lot on, and I know Vanessa mentioned that in the last meeting. We talked about organic. What can we do organically for free? Get out there and it actually be weighted more heavily because people are going to trust information that gets shared versus a paid ad. And we've done that. We've done very well. Over a million views on Facebook. We are building our Insta followers, our website, doing SEO. The idea is that we're creating content that people want to see and they want to share. Getting that word out so people know down and eventually also know Danville. You scroll down. Actually, I wasn't going to go through the whole thing, but I did want to. We're just pictures on design because pictures are worth a thousand words of some of our alley

work. Highlight that. And then before I open up to questions, I do want to just take this moment to give some thanks because I have the podium real quick. I obviously thank the council members for the support and the investment that you have done for the partnership. Brett Davis especially he is on our board. We really appreciate his time and support. Miss Lisa Turnplace she is on our board has been invaluable with her expertise and insight. Street department David and Erin I we couldn't do what we do without them with our events. Parks and Rec, Will and Jimmy, of course, evenings and Advils, Patty's Chief Hilton and his officers have been amazing with our our first Friday cruisins. Uh Mr. Barry, our work, he's helped us with our alley activations and helping give that guidance of what we need to do and what we can do. Nathan, I mentioned with our event road closure process. Madison, I mentioned her, huge help. um wonderful to work with in terms of social media but also personally I've been able to pick a brain on the historical information regarding partnership in Danville and of course Mr. Mark Warden who has offered me a lot of grace and patience when I did not put a fine print on things and was late with the quarterly reports for our contract. So with that, does anybody have any questions?

Question count. Great job. Great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next is our year from the chamber, Mr. Demo. Good evening. Uh I want to thank you all for being um patient with me. I was out of town unfortunately the last um one when we were supposed to present. So I appreciate your patience on that. Uh before I start, I kind of want to piggyback on what she talked about um and the thanks for um this community. I um have the opportunity to serve as facilitator for Indiana chamber executives from all over the state uh for a forum we do once a month talking about what's happening in our communities things you know we support each other and those kind of things and every time I talk about the support that we get not monetarily I mean we talked that but the support that we get from our town and the town offices is is it's not matched um pretty much anywhere. Um probably I would say maybe my counterparts in Planefield probably say that they do, but for the most part, no, it's not matched anywhere. Um the fact that I can walk down to Mark Morgan's office and walk in and go, "Hey, do you have a second?" And then an hour later I'm walking out. Um we're walking to Lisa um Carrie across the hall. I mean it will um it's just um not matched the collaboration um with towns and chambers across the state and so um for that I just want to say how grateful I am for that. Um so with the chamber um a lot has been the same but um we do have some new things um membership growth we're growing um as a community grows I hope that we will continue to grow um but we also are getting a lot of members outside of um

that do business in Danville but are not ex exceptionally in Danville. Um, so businesses in Avon are coming to our chamber. Um, playing field coming to our chamber. Um, so that I'm very excited about because I feel like they're seeing also the value of our chamber. Um, but also the value of doing business here in Danville. So excited about that. Public policy and uh, advocacy. We continue to do our uh, collaboration with um, Planefield and Avon on that. And we just had our um pastries and politics a couple weeks ago. We'll have another one in April. Um we also do the town managers lunch which is always a huge hit. Um and we invite all the town managers from all over the county to participate in that economic development. Um I I hope that you see I mean we do a lot of social media on economic development. Here's what's available in our community. Those kind of things. um economic development website. And um the newest thing that we added was the tour of the town. Um and I will say that we are scheduling a uh ribbon cutting for a bu a business that went on the tour of the town that found a location and um are finally making that move. So I'm excited about that. Um there was actually some other things that came from that tour of the town which I was um surprised and excited about, but um I was able to go back and then tour one South Washington today, one North Washington today. Um I am beyond excited with the change that is coming there. So um super excited about that. Um community impact. Um we are doing a lot with the schools right now. Um we actually got a chamber group together to go in and do interviews um for the class

the business classes which was amazing. Um it was an amazing opportunity and we are actually going to start partnering with them to do some more things within the school system. Um and then uh obviously the concerts that's another community engagement thing that we do. Um and then the food trucks and fireworks. Um we partner with you guys to do that. Uh this year we had record sales for our food trucks and um that was amazing. Uh and then communication engagement. Um if you're on social media, I'm sure that you've seen Joselyn and I um on social media. Um while we do both um very serious posts, we also have um made it very engaging and uh and fun. So we are getting uh quite a bit of engagement in uh oversight on that one. So uh so 2026 goals um enhancing value of our membership. Um, as we know, um, businesses are kind of feeling a bit of a tightening right now. And so, we want to make sure that they actually are getting the full value of their membership and everything that we can do to enhance um, chamber opportunities, networking opportunities, and those kind of things um, and support for them. Um, we will continue to foster economic growth. In May, we are looking to do a second uh tour of the town. Um and so it'll be different obviously than last year's because some of the buildings that we toured last last time are no longer available. And so what's available now? Um I had the opportunity about a half hour ago to 45 minutes ago to have a conversation with a developer [snorts] um in Danville and looking at some things that they've got coming and going and super excited about that. And so, um, we've gotten some some great things. We're on the cusp of of some really big things and very excited

about, um, we will continue to work to build community. Obviously, uh, I love this community. Everyone I know loves this community, and we will continue to do whatever we can to foster um, growth, economic growth, and, um, those kind of things. So, uh, in 2025, um, we started two new programs, um, within the chamber. Um, one of the things if you ask a community, you know, you ask any kid graduated from college or high school, so where do you want to live? And they live in Danville. Nine times out of 10, they're not saying Danville, Indiana. They're saying, I want to live in Indianapolis. I want to move to Caramel. I want to live to York. Those kind of things. So we have to invest and pour into that generation. So we actually have started a young professionals group. Um it has been highly um successful so far. I'm excited to see that. But we have young people that have started businesses here that are working here that are living here. And so we want to make sure that they feel um supported within our community. Uh the next thing is we started a nextgen chamber and that I exceeded my expectations um way beyond what I ever thought and that is for juniors and seniors in high school. And that's really to introduce them to the community um to the chamber. What does the chamber do? And then also give them some insight into um whether it be entrepreneurship or business. Um we're talking with them in April on business finance and kind of going over that in personal finance when should they be opening a checking account those kind of things. Um but the

students that are involved in it we it's with um Danville Cascade Playingfield and Avon. And the first one that we had, we had uh we have about 52 students that are part of it. And uh Jordan Yant uh came and talked about entrepreneurship and kind of talked about his journey. And then we opened it up for questions. And I thought, okay, we're going to hear crickets. I'm sitting back here trying to think of some cool questions to ask. We ran out of time because these students were engaged and asking phenomenal questions. not [clears throat] just surface questions. So, um excited to see that and the growth of our future there. Um finally, um the last thing I want to talk about and highlight, uh as you know, the uh chamber and community awards are one of my favorite events of the year. And it's always frustrated me that we get maybe 400 people at this and I'm like, this is not a community event. and I want it to be a community event. So this year we are changing up the community awards and we are doing October Fest October 3rd. Um we are partnering with the parks department and we are super excited about that. We will have pa bands, we will have food trucks and we will have a lot of fun. Um and then in the interim in the middle of bands we will be announcing the community awards. So, it will be a community awards, but it will will be a community awards, but it will be a um huge um community event is our be a um huge um community event is our goal. So, with that, I you've got all goal. So, with that, I you've got all the numbers and figures in front of you, the numbers and figures in front of you, and I'm happy to answer any of those and I'm happy to answer any of those questions, but I just kind of wanted to questions, but I just kind of wanted to highlight just a couple of things. highlight just a couple of things. Any questions? Any questions?

Question. Question. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'd just make a comment on on Thank you. I'd just make a comment on on both downtown as well as chamber So, it both downtown as well as chamber Uh both of these organizations are I think uh extremely valuable in maintaining promoting the [snorts] uh vitality of the square. Although you might have slightly different missions uh working together with the town and partnerships uh I I think is invaluable for for the future of the square. So I appreciate very much for both of you. Thank you very much. Thank you. And you are still up.

Okay. I was gonna say, do you have anything to say? I can go sit down if you want to chair. All right. Farmers market. So farmers market. Um, ironically, Madison shared with me our numbers. And how many did you say on average do we have on Saturdays?

About a thousand. Um, so um, which I had no idea because we've never kept track. I've never sat out there with a counter and um but I can always tell you that my vendors say it's the best farmers market that they go to. So that always makes me happy. Um but I'm asking for road closure for the farmers market for 2026 this year. Um a couple of changes. One, uh we are opening a week earlier. Um, so we will be opening the first weekend of May, May 2nd, and we will actually stay open through um the end of September. So, one of the things that I'm asking for is that also we change up for this September 12th that is fair on the square. And [clears throat] so, um, our vendors have asked for a separate location. So, we initially um when I we met the other day um with the town, we talked about doing this front parking lot and then they're like, "Hey, why don't we close down Wayne Street um right here outside um for that morning." So, they'll still be able to access all the parking lots, those kind of things, but it'll be right there. Plus, it'll be easier for some of my farmers with their trailers um to get in and out versus trying to get around the circle. So, um, with that, that's what I'm requesting is the road closure for the Saturday mornings. Um, one couple of changes that we are making is that, um, David and I talked about the signs. Um, we have the no parking signs and it says no parking after 6:00 a.m. We are changing that and it will say Saturday 6:00 a.m. to 100 p.m. Um, because I was actually at Frank's one night last year on Friday night and they're like, there's just no place to park. And I'm like, oh my god, there were so many parking spots out there. What are you talking about? And then it hit me. I'm like, oh my gosh, they say no parking after 6:00 a.m. Um, so that is one of the changes that we

are making this year. Mr. President, I'd recommend uh on the motion and the vote that we deal with all of the closures with the exception of September 12th and then it be isolated in a motion of its own for Wayne Street. Any question discussion? Kelly, is there any talk on the September 12 square extend maybe some of the farmers market hours?

So, a lot of my vendor there's I will say we have a limited number of vendors over here because a lot of the vendors choose to be part of fair on the square. Um, but some of my produce vendors do not like to sit out that long. Um, they're like by the time the afternoon comes they're getting wolted and then they're just looking at produce that's, you know, that kind of a thing. Um and so so yes, so they they all have the opportunity and I share the information with them with triricappa for them to participate in that. But this is just for the vendors that will not be participating in the fairness square.

You okay with all this? What about Mr. All right? So this is all signed up.

I'll move to approve the farmers market event dates closures for every day except for September 12th. Motion by Mr. Herby. Second. Second by Mr. Do. All in favor? I. All opposed. Motion carries 5. Thank you very much. you could go ahead and do the September 12th day two, please. [laughter] Uh, I'll move to approve the road closure for the farmers market on September 12th, which includes Wayne Street. Yes. Second, Mr. Herby second. All in favor?

All motion carries 5. Thank you very Thank you. Next up, super voluntary annexation. Mr. May,

good evening, council. Uh, what you have before you is a super voluntary annex station for property located on East Main Street. Uh, this is just west of Bridge Avenue. Um, it's on the south side of the road. Um, it's approximately 68 acres. A couple of weeks we or a couple weeks ago, we introduced this annexation. Um the petitioner is wanting to connect to water and wastewater for future development of that site. Um it is a public hearing and I do believe that the petitioner's representative is in the audience if you have additional questions.

Any questions? Not I will open a public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak please come forward. Seeing none public hearing is closed. Thank you. Thank you. Next up schedule, Mr. Ly.

All right. So, it's that fun time of year where we get to uh I think raise fees and add fees pretty much. Uh not many things go down. Um so, in front of you, a lot of pages to read go over. Everything in yellow is the changes. Um, I think Mark maybe sent you the previous ones as well. Um, yeah, I if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer, but the department heads probably are going to be able to answer everything except the park ones better than me. [cough and clears throat] But I can try to help. And this is the first rate. No, I saw all of the uh all the ones in yellow are from fire. I did have a discussion with Chief Duncan earlier today. You just indicated those are all updates. They're not I think I understood it correctly. Those are not new fee charges. They're just updates to kind of get it in in sync with the current current environment.

Yeah, I think some of his were rounding. I think they were kind of odd numbers. And then so there were I think eight or nine tabs in there. So each tab was a department and what they wanted. Took us a long time to do this initially, but now it's pretty smooth on how we're doing it. And if uh questions to streamline it, well, I just copied the whole thing and then posted it in here. So, okay. There's no tabs. Oh, there's no tabs. Okay. Got [laughter] any questions, comments on the fee schedule? Excellent.

Thank you. Thank you. Next up is stop. Mr. Yeah, excuse [clears throat] me. With the help of Barry, we've been trying to replace the stop light at I think you guys call it Main Street. Certain still give you some of the names, but uh problem with it is is that it's so out of date and it's um if it breaks on us now, nothing they don't make parts for it. There's nothing you can do. So, it's not the whole stop light. It's just the guts of the stop light. It'll add some sensors because I guess there's a problem with that light of an evening. You can sit there forever. It won't change. Now, it will when this is done, it'll sense traffic cars so it actually changes. So people not just sitting there watching nothing go by and waiting waiting just kind of round the corn ticket order. But yeah, that's what all it is. It's just the other one will be eventually probably the same thing with this one. Barry helped get this price. I was looking to another company. We weren't even really talking about it. So it's kind of worked out good that we were both thinking about it. So his came through and the other one never did. So it's perfect.

No questions. I don't think it's really anything to worry about that the the expiration dates on these quotes are just past I can't imagine that they'll come back with any any gra but it's just not I'm sure we have them updated with something I think we'll bring it back to answer this one I think this one has a camera on it too so if there's ever an accident or something

and if we ever want to do a traffic study there's a lot of stuff you can do with this but we don't know the traffic study would be that great. She paid for the soft and only [laughter] but I mean there's a lot it's upgrade everything safer move to approve the expenditure request the motion by Mr. Herby second by Shadow. All in favor? All oppose. Motion carries 5. Thank you very much. Last item on the agenda is not Miss B and Mr. Morgan.

Yes. So, um I know there was some questions about the certification pay on the three utility budgets for 2026 that was presented from Review Financial. They have listed on there how many people would get those based on conversations with the utilities and myself during one of the meetings last year. Uh and then in the column of the proposed 26 budget, they have the dollar amount. I know there was some concern about stacking and I don't I don't personally see that. U water and wastewater is at 4750 for the whole year. So that's not just one person, that's just the whole department. And then they have 7754. So I I just wanted to bring that to your attention and let you know that um where does where does this what level does this start at Gary as far as employee wise? Uh so my understanding when we met with 3D financial with utilities um they were wanting certification pay and so they they re asked the utilities what certifications people currently had. They told Financial that they went and then created this. So my understanding it was for whoever had a certification at that time.

That is not the way I remember it. Uh my understanding is I thought we were trying to encourage um people to improve their career and go out and get this new certification maybe move up the ladder is nothing against Mary. It's just not the way or any of the other department. It's just not the way I thought that we set this up. Um you know my department heads already have these qualifications and that's why they're the department heads. That's why they get paid more than the regular employees. So that that was my understanding of it when we did it and I don't know everybody else's take I go back and forth on the department heads but u you know personally like to would have discussion about this tonight but I I I would personally like a little more time to dive in and look at we we've relied on to kind of put the numbers and everything together right now I would like to do a little bit more research on my ends with the the communities around us. I know there's a couple others that are really thorough and detailed and I think it will provide a little insight as far as what what the the kind of going and who qualifies for for the area to make sure we're not way off base here.

That's my take. So So does this um I guess I would ask this to vary. I guess it's I mean this falls under his kind of department waste water water storm. Is there is there any more clarification Barry that you can bring to this for us because I'm kind of on the same page with Brett, but I mean I'd like to look into this. I know you and I have had some conversations about this pretty in depth, but I'd like to I'd like to get your take and find out. Hey, can could you clear some of this mud up that's sitting in front of us?

Yeah, I think that originally there there wasn't talk of stacking. These these were tiered. Um, and just to to comment on the Greg's comment that he had, it's intended for employee retention. This is a way for any employee to get certifications. that this is the way this was intended originally to be is that anybody could get these certifications but it was based on incentivizing the position so we would have employed retention the numbers were put together by rei I don't know how they came up with those dollar amounts um but the intention was to do that but to for more clarification I think the timing of how you get those who gets those and whether they stack or not can be clarified and I think that diving in what other communities are doing. I think we're going to find that we're not far off on the numbers. How we implement it and how we distribute those dollars is is another story that we need more detail on. And I think, you know, we can use other municipalities to see how they do those things. So, we're somewhat in line. A lot of this goes back to even the police department losing employees. They have rankings that get paid. These are certifications that qualified professional individuals that carry a certification to serve water, sewer, and storm water. The these are these are specialized certifications that aren't across the board, but that is another reason why the CDL license was added to this to so that we could cover everybody on on the general side as well as public safety. So, that was the intent was to to for employee retention. And I'll add one thing. when we start getting these positions so closely together in money, there's no reason for an employee to step up and take more responsibility. So with that point, I I just want to say that, you know, the separation is required because an assistant superintendent gets all these incentives, they get overtime,

really there's no reason for them to step up and be a superintendent if they're that much close in salary. So just my opinion um but that's really the intent was that these were across the board for incentivizing being employed. Thank you. I have reached out to um the listister for the clerk treasures and I did hear back from three different towns on what they have as their wording. So I can just supply that to you guys for Chris. She does have I talked to Carrie today. She does have a town that I've never heard of and I've been in India many years when you travel the state. I don't even know where it's at.

I'm going to butcher it's Russa. Yes. Sounds like it's north to reach out to us on something. I mean I I love them to that we're trying to reach out and help us out.

Um I kind of go back on Greg's statement too. I I kind of remember it the same way Greg does, but I also remember it in the fact that these these were supposed to be set up one to give them incentives to move up the ladder because at the end of the day, not everybody's going to be in the same position forever. So once they have these as they move up the ladder, that gives us the choices of who's going to be next in line. And and I think that's a make sure they're qualified. And at the end of the day, their qualifications is what we're looking at when we want to move them after one bar decides to promote her or however it happens at department head does that. We've got to be able to have that qualification.

My my comments uh I would agree essentially with what Mr. we said at the beginning uh advising when we went into this uh I would say I am very supportive of the idea of of some certification pay my difficulty is I I don't have the ability the technical knowledge the ability to judge the value of it u but I do have some questions on basically who should get it uh let's just assume hypothetically that uh there are four people in the storm department and we do need one of them to have the grade four certification. But what if all four of them get it? Do we do we give all four of them that certification when we only need one of them that has that level? I don't know the answer to that, but that's questions I have. Um, and if we don't kind of clarify who gets it, uh, let's say Miss Henderson goes out and gets a class A CDL. You know, I think we need to clarify who gets these. So, my thinking is I'm I'm fully supportive of it. I think we need to move forward with it, but I think we need a lot of clarification on who gets it. Uh my initial thought is I'm inclined to say at this point that department department heads should not because I think it should be built into their their criteria for the job. But I'm open to I'm open to hearing opposing views on that but that's my current thinking. Um in terms of the stocking when I look at this grade one through four operator certification I don't know what those mean. I don't know what that entails. Uh, but if if getting grade one is worth $1,000, is getting grade four on top of grade three worth two and a half times that much? I mean, it seems like the stacking adds a lot. Uh, if we stack it, that that adds a lot. I I think we need to go

back and [clears throat] clarify exactly who gets it, what do we really need, who gets it, uh and and uh get a little better understanding of it. I'm, as I say, I'm all in favor of moving forward with some form of certification pay, but I just don't think we're prepared to deal with it tonight. One thing that I can [clears throat] recommend is that uh as we're reviewing these uh criteria u there's the fiscal component clearly because obviously we're talking about money but I also think there is the uh some relevance in putting it into our policy handbook. That way it spells it out exactly who gets these u and who doesn't to answer your questions. That way it's in black and white. Here it is. If there's a change, it becomes it comes before you guys. Um you're you have that again the fiscal component. I'm not touching that. I don't have any desire to touch that. Uh but what I do want is is that that we put in clarification and uh get our HR director, get the treasur's office and and work this through. And I think there's a lot of models out there. Jerry and I have talked Will and I have talked about uh doing a grading system that like what the county has done over the years where uh we now have u every position is graded so that now you know exactly this is what this deserves. This is how this is moves up in the world. Um, I think there's this is a time for us uh to grow with our current growth, if I can say that right, is that uh we have an opportunity to try and fix some problems um that that we can address in the future that hopefully long term uh will help us in situations like this where we don't have to keep coming back to you or whatever the case may be. So if we if we went to this grading system that you just mentioned, for

example, to achieve grade three might require a level two certification or some criteria of that nature. So it's kind of built into the program. I didn't work under the system, so I'm not real sure.

So when we did went to a grading system at the county, um they looked at every job description we had and they graded those job descriptions. So you'd have to have it in the job description, you know, what the requirements are. And then they came back with a grading system and then they made us a wage scale based off that grading system. And then you just moved forward with it based on your races. You just incorporated the raises. The grades stayed the same. And then if you had a new position you wanted to create, you would send that to them for them to look at that one and grade it for you. And if I recall that was a about multiple year process hire the company and start going through it cost about I think it cost the county a little over $30,000 when we did that the first person

but but we could really answer a lot of questions. Uh one obviously is the grading system. Two is the it would be more of a salary survey or study than we've done in the years past and actually go in depth. uh to see where we are. So again, I'm just giving you my opinion on this. I I don't know, Carrie, do we need a decision tonight on any of this? I like I said, I think it's nothing that we can't put off to the next. Um but if whenever you approve it or whatever you decide to do, we can always back pay the people and get them caught up.

Yeah. is something that u in the 20 minutes of research that I've done thus far, you know, we're talking about an annual amount here, whatever that looks like, it looks like the the two examples that I have quickly looked at are are just dollar amounts added per hour, right? So, you're talking benefits overtime. I mean, that could that could skyrocket exponentially. We're talking a flat amount. So, yes, I would like to do a little bit more uh digging on the back end, but I guess Dave, to your point, there's coming from the utility world, there's a ton of value in having individuals, multiple individuals in house that are certified and understanding what we're talking about and dealing with being able to catch problems ahead of time and being able to have more collaborative discussion um I guess in house. In my mind, there's that's a ton of benefits to it, I guess. So,

and it broadens your promotion pool and I think that's an important aspect of this. Um, you know, none of us are going to be here forever. I know you'd like to think I would be, but I'm not. Um so it is important so that for water wastewater storm water whatever the case may be that it allows a promotionary process within you know too many times we're reaching out because nobody has those certifications and we don't want we'd like to be able to promote from within if that person fits the bill and can meet those criteria and so I think that's another positive to try and offer them that incentive to to go take those classes. The other thing since we are tableabling this, one of the other issues that I had uh wanted to raise, I've got a couple of the department heads that want to create a another layer within their organization. Um, and Dave is in team leader or is it

I think team crew leader team or crew leader. I don't know what we're going to run with the verbiage on that and I know Matt has shown some interest in it as well. Um, so again, it's something I'd like you guys to think about because there's no sense in us moving forward with it if it's not something you're interested when we obviously we're going to have to make an amendment to the salary ordinance. Uh, so if we're going to do it, we might as well do it all at one shot. So if you could think about that for the next meeting as well, I greatly appreciate it. Uh, if you have questions on the positions, I know Matt and Dave would be happy to answer. I can do the best I can. Thank you very much.

We have a motion table. Uh, I don't think does this require a motion. We just up for consensus. So I don't Here we go. Thank you. I do have a question on the cell phone. Um refresh me uh chief health on what we do with police. I know we did something uh special for police last year. Just refresh me on that. Would you please?

Sure. So we had some legal issues where before we use our personal cell phones and the town would provide us with a cell phone stipen. Some issues come up with our cell phones maybe being taken for court for evidence. So we didn't want to do that. We took our stipens that you guys offered us and we took that money rolled it into the plant where we actually had cell phones provided for the town. So that way the officers can use their work cell phones for work and take photos and everything like that. I think it's taken as evidence. That's what I remember. Thank Thank you. I appreciate it. Uh I do have a further question on on why $3847 per pay for fire admin people. Uh I thought when we discussed this a year or so ago that that we kind of agreed that $20 per pay was sufficient for all personnel. Uh and I see this 38.47 47 for each full-time administrative employee and fire. Uh I did have a brief discussion with uh fire chief this afternoon on this. Uh I am not going to try to relate what he said because I fear I might miss represent. So I prefer to defer that when he's here so he can say the words himself. But I I I question $ 38 to $147. And I maybe this is not a fair comparison, but I pay $30 a month for unlimited phone, text, internet, everything. $30 a month. So why should fire get $3847 every two weeks? I don't understand it. Uh fire chief did tell me that this is what it has been. that's just to carry forward. And I said, "Well, that's fine. I don't remember it that way, but I still don't like it." So,

I I will say on that in 2025, they did receive $20. Okay. And it was all full-time employees, but since they've gone to a territory, their territory board approved their budget. Well, actually it was sent to the DLGF to become a territory and they approved that budget with his $6,000 for cell phone stipen. And then in his salary sheet, it has the six top people in administration getting that $1,000, which is 3847 a pay period. And so that was approved by the territory board and then it came here during our budget. It wasn't a separate line. It doesn't become a separate line until we talk about the salary ordinance.

That that is very inconsistent with what I thought Chief Duncan told me this afternoon because he what I thought sure he said this afternoon was this is the way it's been for years and you're saying it's new this year. 23 and 24 the department heads got 30 3847 or 3846 of pay and then the lower staff got a lower amount a lower amount and then last year we changed it to where everybody got $20 pay. That's what I thought. Yeah, but that was just for 25.

I I guess we as an open question, but I I don't understand why the fire administrated people should get almost triple what everybody else gets. Anything else? Moving along. Um, I guess we're down to uh council comments. M. Morgan.

Well, I'd like to thank the uh partnership and the chamber for the kind words. I promise I did not pay them for those uh attributes, so I do, but I do appreciate it. Um again uh um I I just I can't stress enough uh with the p last two meetings uh that how much you've got to see what we do, what these department heads do. Uh it's exciting. Uh we've got so much going on in this town right now. Uh and it's great to have the leadership that we have. They're just unbelievably I'm expecting some new things to come up that um we're going to challenge them. uh we're going to re [snorts] revisit uh some of their um uh future budgets and we're going to we're going to look at again what's happening within the count or the legislature and uh hopefully we'll come back and surprise y'all at some

Thank you. Thank you. Uh as you can see when we came in the new locks are coming in. So bear with me for the next two weeks while we try to work out the bugs. Uh hopefully it'll be a smooth transition. I already have everything programmed, but there always are some hitches. So, um just hold on and we'll we'll get there. Mr. Young, anything? No, sir. Mr. Gerald? Nope. Pu appreciate everything everybody does. Um special shout out to to Madison and the social district. [clears throat]

soft opening, but really excited to have that officially up and running. And thanks to the street department for helping get signs up with that. I'm excited. I think all the other business owners are excited for that as well. And it's nice to be able to offer that experience, I guess, downtown. So,

um, very much same thing. I just wanted to thank all department heads and stuff for everything that they do dayto-day basis. smart people that get out there and get it. Um, I've had a conversation in the last couple weeks that I've thrown over to Barry company wants to come to Danville and uh I think it'll be a good thing. I think some things got to get worked out from what I understand. I think there's some good things with that. Also being police leazison, keep the people of Beach Grove in your thoughts. I know chief back there, our guys are out there every night doing this. Mark's done it at night. He knows what they go through. So that's not the easiest job in the world. I think it is. Something like this can happen. So just keep our guys in your thoughts and prayers and people reach out.

Men, I'm sorry I didn't call on you. You got any comments?

Okay. Uh all I would add is uh uh House Bill uh 101 has some features in it that would not be particularly attractive for our little municipality. Uh I did send a note to uh Senator Clark, Representative Stirwald at Thompson. Uh, I got an immediate response from Senator Clark that said, uh, there were some features in it that were concerning to him and he would oppose those features, but he didn't specify what they were. So, I'm hoping they're the same features that we think are [laughter] unattractive. Uh, I I also got a a fairly quick response from Representative Stirwald who uh who singled out his opposition to the uh uh alternative dwelling unit features in it. and said he would definitely oppose any bill that had that in it. Uh disappointed I did not hear from Representative Thompson. Uh with that uh claim docket. Move to approve the claim docket. The amount is 629,169.52. Motion by Mr. Irby. Second.

Second by Mr. Chad. All in favor? All opposed. Motion carry 50. Payroll dockage. Move to approve payroll docket by Mr. Herby. Second. Second by Mr. job. All in favor? All opposed. Motion carry 5. Motion tojourn to Mr. Gerald, second by Mr. Shannon. All in favor? I meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. That's you.