Town Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone.

to kind of get a little updated on where we've been, where we are, where we're going, type of a thing. Make it, you know, make it kind of quick, but it stays long and answers any questions that you have. So a little bit of, you know, we recently made a change 22nd is the exact date that we got that we got the quote from them and it had a you know 2018 about an 18 20 rate increase and we're like yeah we can't do that that's not that's not gonna fly and our agenda was to be here in early june and go through those things and i reached out to mark and mark is of coverage and all that you know so came about pretty quick wasn't exactly how I planned it to be honest with you we kind of got ahead and flow a little bit but that's that's that's kind of where we did where we ended up there so a good good outcome good outcome of the town so also put some information in there some of the things that we've done in the past year won't go through all of those you know we've done some sideways we've talked week, off my memory, I think it's the 15th, we have travelers coming out. One of the, in my estimation, and I think everybody would be in agreement, one of the issues we kind of had a little bit with ASTRO was basically communication problems, I would say, back and forth on some of the auto losses, where we stood, how they were coming along. It wasn't that they weren't going to get paid or didn't get paid, it was just how was it going, right? And so with travelers, they have an online portal that we'll give access to, and we're coming next week to go So we're going to work on that. We're going to do that next week. And in Epic, I mean, a year ago I told you about we were working on some municipal practices and what we have done there. And so we have built out more of a team in attendance tonight, right back in the background. I don't know if some of you may or may not know, So continue to have meetings, go through losses, all of those. That's real fast. I don't want to take a ton of your time. We've got a long agenda. Nobody lost insurance. August 12th. I'm gonna be an asset, I'm gonna be a resource. My cell phone number's on there.

between the differences between the two companies and just curation, but if you want the contributing factor for it. Sure, sure.

So, there, some of this is an attitude of a carrier. I mean, some carriers, that's why we have multiple carriers. And there were other carriers that are pretty aggressive. And that's where Astra has taken some of their losses as well. So if you look at their global book of business and where it came, their losses have been driven in the property market. the hardest, most interesting market. Our police officers have been, in my opinion, unfairly judged in a lot of ways. You see the video on TV, you get the 10 seconds, you don't get the five minutes, right? And so with the cases, with the number of cases that we've seen against municipalities for whatever it may be from a law enforcement standpoint. So those carriers are all over the board on pricing, and that's why we have to look at it. It's an opinion. It's their actuaries behind the scenes. The property market is softening. The law enforcement market is not. I think that the property market going forward, I think we're seeing much more of a standard, flatter market. The law enforcement is going to increase because of the amount of lawsuits.

Thank you. Anything else?

Good evening. I'm a different person. I do better than you. I brought it just in case you wanted it. Thank you. thank you guys for having me I really appreciate the opportunity to come and kind of review on some things as we're talking about budget for the next year and it kind of took an opportunity with this report it's a lot longer a lot more detailed than I normally do but one of the things that we discussed basically in our last board meeting was The things that have happened since I've taken on in December of 2019 and to where we are currently. So I wanted to highlight a few of those things that we've added, that we've done, some things that we've changed. to us. So I know you guys see our fabulous liaison sends you our financials bi-monthly when we put those out for the board meetings. So I know you guys have seen those, but I just kind of wanted to highlight a few things. 130 new members over since 2019 when we when we started. I am very proud of that. Marcia and I actually had a conversation a couple of weeks ago, and she said, our goal was always to get to 200. And she's like, now you're looking at 350. She's like, you have more members than Avon. And she's like, I think that's amazing. So pretty proud of that. But I wanted to kind of highlight what Danville. So that's on page three. So the first thing, economic development outreach. We do the business leads, property promotion, investor connections. Now I'm going to say this on speaker and it probably is going to blow up, but I'm going to tell you, I just had a data center reach out and say, Hey, we're interested in going to Danville and make a quick connection with Greg Trenet. And Greg's like, you can't have one in Daniel. You don't have this. capacity so anyway so just want to put that out there that that's not coming but um but it's great to know that they are calling us they're reaching out they're saying hey you want to come to danville um business support we do retention visits referrals education problem solving connections community events um most of our events are free and we have the opportunity to partner with year, the farmer's market, those kind of things. And then Winterland, which brings 10,000 cars. Last year, the furthest that we tracked was from Missouri that came through Winterland. So I think that's pretty Actually, I actually had an hour long conversation planned out their whole evening of going to dinner downtown Danville and then they went to Winterland and then they went to Dips. But they were coming in town for a Colts game. They were coming to town for a Colts game. And they're like, we, she Googled Christmas lights and we came up. And so she called and, um, so yeah, so they spent the whole evening here, which made me happy. Um, which a lot of our, I think there are a lot of our, our guests do that do come to Wonderland. So, all right. Um, and then workforce development, um, and I'm going to. kind of go a little bit further on those in just a minute. But the next-gen chamber, the chamber link, and the employer connections, and I'll talk about those in a minute. Digital promotion, we've increased visibility here in Danville for our events, our community assets, all of that. And then regional partnerships. Not only do we work with our chamber, we work with the other chambers, we work with

Henry County Economic Development and some other opportunities.

So just to talk about economic development, we do the two-year-to-town, business recruitment and assistance, retention expansion, commercial property promotion. We do our public policy and community education. And then along with that, the regional collaboration with MADE. Economic Development Partnership, Henry's College Network, and then obviously the utility companies as well. We have a good partnership with Duke and Henry's College. So one of the things that we've really focused on, especially this last year, 58% of young people when they go away to college do not return home. And to me that's very concerning that we have a young And so one of the things that we talked about is workforce. That's one of our key initiatives. So this year we initiated Chamber Link Young Professionals. So it is a young professional group that we are meeting quarterly. This last quarter, they actually met with mentors and kind of did a... a round table and they switched up and so they got to meet different professionals doing different things and so we partnered them with a mentor of a professional that is currently in the area and so that's one of the things we've done the other thing that we did um we created was next gen chamber and that is for actually our high school students and the next gen the high school students are actually from Well, this next year, I think we will have TriWest and Brownsburg joining us as well. But all of the county schools are part of that. And they come to two chamber meetings that are just specifically for high school students. And then they come to three of our chamber meetings. But really just investing in the young population. We had a speaker for the first one. finance. Um, a lot of these kids are not learning about finance, business finance, um, commercial finance, but also the personal finance. So we do a lunch and lemon series and then, um, And then we're also just working on connecting to the leadership pipeline while we are working with MAID right now, Endurance College Network, because as you know, the diplomas have changed for the schools, so we're working with the schools, the diplomas, and we actually just got a $10,000 grant to give to the school for a work-based learning. All right. Obviously, you know, our community programs that we do, the Farmer's Market, Evenings in Danville, Food Trucks and Fireworks, Touch a Truck, Community Awards, Oktoberfest, and the Winterland Light Show. And then I wanted to just kind of really talk about what our priorities are for the next 12 months. So that's on page 10. We want to expand our business retention visits, improve documentation so we have better documentation of what it looks like for the businesses, what they're needing, what we need to provide. We'll continue the tour of the town. From the first one, we had three businesses that moved in from that one. I've not tracked where we're at, but I believe that we maybe have one or two offices filled at the forum from that. Strengthen prospect assistance with the town. Obviously Lisa, I get the opportunity to work with Lisa very often and I appreciate that and Mark and really want to continue to grow our lunch and learn programming, just making sure that our businesses have all the things that they need and any support that we can give them. And then we will continue our storytelling through video, through our podcast, if you've seen it, Jocelyn on the Job, which has been a very unique way of highlighting our businesses and showing what they do. Some businesses that aren't always, you know, it's easy to promote the You know, look at Square Burger, Great Burger, blah, blah, blah. You know, those are easy to promote, but trying to promote some of the different businesses that are not always easy to promote. And then standardizing reports for attendance, sponsorships, volunteer, economic development, performance, and recovery. So that's kind of where we are for what we're looking at, and I'm open to any questions.

It was fun for me. Obviously in the last couple of weeks, I finally, I mean, I knew we were growing and what did that look like? But looking at the reach that we had just in one year's time,

has been tremendous. And I had a marketing director for another company say, I would kill for these numbers. So that made me feel really good.

Thank you.

Well, thank you and good evening St. Potter and Town Council members. Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you tonight. I also do want to thank you for your continued partnership with the Downtown Danville Partnership. So you need to receive the copy of our year-to-date financials through June and our 2025 financial statements. Instead of walking through those, I would rather like to spend a few minutes just talking about why we are requesting the town's continued investment of $80,000 for 2027, how those funds are used, and the return that that investment really provides for our community. So the Downtown Dandle Partnership exists for one purpose, and that's to preserve, promote, and strengthen the historic downtown As the town has committed to making Danville a great place to spend an hour or a lifetime, the partnership is working alongside the town to really make that happen in our in different ways. The partnership is the only organization whose sole focus is the historic downtown. We really serve as that connector between the town, local businesses, property owners, nonprofits, volunteers, and residents. We help turn the ideas that the community has into projects, partnerships, and improvements that otherwise might never happen. So this evening, we are requesting that the town's continued investment for 2027. We believe that the Downtown Dandle Partnership is uniquely positioned to maximize that investment by leveraging it with grants and sponsorships, private donations or volunteer engagement and community partnerships that help multiply that impact in our downtown area. I also do wanna emphasize, we are not requesting any increase in funding. We're requesting the same investment that the town has made in recent years. However, we do believe that we're delivering more value with those same dollars than we ever have before. We're coordinating more programming, supporting more community events, and pursuing more outside funding than we have in the past, all while operating with that same annual investment. So how is that 80,000 actually used? So part of it is invested directly back into the community. Last year, more than $14,000 was awarded through our facade grant program to help businesses in the historic area improve their buildings and invest in downtown. About 12,000 of that supported the evenings community program that brings both residents and visitors to our downtown area, really supporting the economic vitality of Danville. And the remaining funds provide something that's just as important and that's our capacity. So they support the staff position that's dedicated organizing events, meeting with our business owners, managing our beautification projects, and building partnerships across the community. We have an amazing working board of business owners and community leaders who dedicate hours every week to making this happen. In 2025 alone, our volunteer hours were 1,132 hours committed to GDP events and volunteer work. So without that capacity, a lot of the projects that we do simply wouldn't happen. And that's not because there aren't people who don't care, but because there's not an organization that exists to coordinate that work outside of the partnership. And we are seeing those results already. So the town's investment has helped create the downtown alley activations. that have transformed those underused spaces in the southeast and west alleys into those community gathering places now. It's supported the continued growth of our first Friday cruisings, the Patty's Day Pub Crawl, the Scares on the Square and Christmas on the Square events. The Scares on the Square last year resulted in an 80% increase in downtown visits, and the Christmas on the Square saw an 88% increase in downtown visits. So we are seeking that, to do that. And then we also partner with the community to help get new events off the ground, like Port Chess, which is in its second year, and then Emerge Mural Fest that is coming up later this year. All these things drive our visits to the downtown area and support that economic vitality, because it brings both residents and visitors to the downtown area. Last year, there were 68.4 thousand events and bring those events to the downtown area in those 16 events that Dan, that DDP supported. So our long-term goal, again, is not to become more dependent on the town's investment, but instead it's the opposite. We want to continue growing our sponsorships, our grants, while continuing to expand the impacts that we have in our historic area. We really see the town's investment as this catalyst that can allow us to attract additional resources into our community. And as we know, Hendricks County is growing, and as it continues to grow with us as the county seat at the center, we attract not only Danville residents, but we bring in people from across our county to our area. And preserving the character, accessibility, and that economic vitality of our historic downtown Danville is only going to continue to be more important And we are committed to ensuring that the downtown Danville really truly remains the heart of our community for generations. So thank you again for your partnership and time to share with you, and we'd be happy to answer any questions that you guys have.

Thank you. Yes, this was introduced at the last council meeting by Lisa regarding some omissions that were forgotten Thank you. Thank you. Ordinance 8-2026. Additional appropriation, Ms. Loughlin.

Yes, this is, this was going to be presented at the last meeting, but it was at my federal conference. This is to take care of several different appropriations that need to be corrected before the end of the year.

I would just like to toss it out there. I've been back and forth with Kerry.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have been able to get the answers per se that I'm kind of learning clarity better yet on some of this. And so my suggestion or recommendation would be to see if you guys are agreeable to table this until next meeting and then give us time to iron out some of those details. I've got nothing to say. That's what I don't know.

This process of Jim Digital Corporations is new for this year where we have to advertise it on the DLGF's website instead of in the newspaper. So I don't know what happens if we don't.

we did post this on

Yeah, I would defer to legal. But at the same time, the new statute, you have to advertise it 14 days prior. So to do it at your next meeting, if we did have to re-advertise, we'd have to do it today. So I'm not sure with tabling, if that date and tabling the approval still meets the advertisement. That's something we can check on.

if that's the case the september 2nd meeting is going to be busy because i don't think we can meet the deadline for the uh 19th and not with a 14-day window let's carry and get it on there tonight without getting into the end

that question is how many folks do we really have an option on whether to approve or not but the money's already gone for example uh the person of property uh i'm assuming that that would be property on 200 east that's correct uh just a question why don't we why don't we do the additional appropriation at the time we approve them but

It's a procedure that I think we should undertake.

I'm just curious of how many of these additional requests are money that's already out the door or contractually committed to be out the door

yeah the simple part for me is I didn't know we needed more money otherwise I've asked for appropriation I just came and asked for the building so I do know there's specific timelines that had to

I believe there's only about two or three, and one of them being with property that's been spent that's not already, nothing else is in jeopardy.

So do we need a vote to, for example, the next meeting, or can we just read that with consensus?

We need to deal with consensus.

undertaking this committee good evening what you have before you tonight is a uh introduction of an annexation superluminary station uh this involves two pieces of property um it actually is part of the glanton trail and i have an appointment that is still in the county's jurisdiction so we needed to move forward with getting this annexed into the town any questions

project it's a small project it is the north alley um we are in coordination with two A couple of points to bring up. The project schedule is on Exhibit B, I believe, or D. So if you want to know what the schedule looks like, it's in there. The budget is on Exhibit G. So if you have questions about that, I did give you some updated estimates, the quotes that physically came to this number. I did give those to you because they actually came down by about $10,000 from the original This project originally was going through the RDC. The legal counsel recommended that we make this a town and build project. So this feels like it's been going on for a long time. So we're ready to get started. This kind of coincides with some work that we're doing on the square for the street light. The electrical plan is part of that on here. That's really about it.

Okay.

Okay. now entertain a motion i'll make a motion that we have agreed to our power application second motion we're going to get them talking about it for herbie all in favor aye all opposed motion carries 4-0 thank you mr president i have just a bit of with mr lawson if you don't mind uh there is anything that we have proposed here delaying any operation

a portion of the sidewalk or the retaining wall on the 14th. They want us to be there the 17th. We were there too late, doing some pre-track work. So we're staying on top of it because we want that to look nice in the data. So yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, Ways to Harder, some update.

Yeah, this is just an update and I did give you some paperwork. I apologize to Mark that I wasn't ready for the packet, that's probably not used to see it. So there will be some interesting responses to the project, but it is a necessary thing. This is something we need to do. Manhole inspections start on the 10th.

The handouts will go out the 13th and 14th, and if you have those door hangers, if you have any orderly needs changed, if you can get that to anybody by the 10th, that would be great. And then the 17th

We're excited to get this project started.

discussing that only at the letter we got on Friday to notify all those who are putting on the VLT. Then sometime later we'll have interviews and there we'll pick a construction management team and an architect, an architectural firm that will put us in the scoping and that'll get us to a point scoping to get a, instead of me standing here saying, Hey, I think it's going to be between five and $600 a square foot. I need 18,000 square foot warehouse. I'll be able to bring the plan to, this is what we're wanting to build. This is what it looks like. This is what it costs. The cost not to exceed. And Patrick from Marks is phenomenal. He's got a ton of knowledge. So he's going to help push us along. before and he sits in on the meetings and he'd read with him as the tech lens for not one member of the board or the committee thank you thank you

Lacey, Barry Lofton, Rick Duncan, and myself. And I have not started anything because I just got back from European relations. I will be doing the same thing and very similar to what Chief Duncan just told me to explain to you, but we're just a little bit behind. Question.

Alright, so I sent you guys an email with kind of the update from actual VS, which is just giving you the verbal update on things. So we're in design phase where the main thing is the design for the bridge. We got the ready grant for a million dollars, so that's our focus project first because it's the thing that requires the most studies, it's the most legwork of the project.

They're still working on the other pieces, but that

We're working on easements for the trail placement as well. So reaching out to the billboard of property owners there.

We're trying to negotiate.

We're going to go a little bit north, but it'll be easier to work with the billboard owners. So we're looking to follow that path. He actually reached out and they're in negotiations right now. We're spotting utilities. Thank you, Barry and his crew. They spotted utilities for us. And then I'm working on a meeting with Dr. Kennedy at the hospital, but they have a plan to put in a trail, so we're trying to work together to minimize the impact, but also make sure that we're following the same path and maybe we can do it all at the same time. So we're trying to secure some dollars at the same time. Setting up a meeting with county commissioners.

I'm still pushing forward with trying to get the county to help with the trail, because a lot of their users will be on the trail.

So I'm looking for five support letters from the entities that are around, and then I'm going to meet with Mr. Dawes, probably, and then the rest of the commissioners at a meeting. So that's the plan there. Hopefully that will be done within the next moment. You want to go, Will? Also, I just put together in early or late winter. So hoping that pushes forward, but everything kind of hinges on the parties and the easements and all those things. So it's moving forward, it's just slow.

So I got any questions?

It made me look at a different strategy. We did get denied the NPO grant, and we didn't score very well on the grant.

And so we do have some safety issues on it, which helped us. But still, building a new road is not usually what happens.

looking at interceptions first and improving our way towards there because we could still get MPO funds for like Lincoln and Mac. some other ways to try to fund it. So I'm hoping that David comes up with some ideas or some avenues where I can kind of look at and see where we can go from there. But right now it's just kind of slow for sure.

Yeah, the problem is

New roads are hard to build without funding. Question?

How does that fit in, Will, with the ThruFair plan that's coming up for discussion, not completely, but just in terms of priorities, that project versus some of the things that are proposed in the...

A, as they come in for those projects because they're making the impact. And I think some of those areas are hard because there's not gonna be a lot of development in that area. So that makes it a lot harder to make sense to something coming in for us to use the dollars for that. But there's some funding that we've looked at as some, it's not really developer fees, but more infrastructure fees that some of the other communities do. We talked about road impact fee. it later on, because what we were looking at with the plan with MPO was six years out anyway. So, I mean, if we start saving and we implemented one of those things, maybe we could actually afford that down payment on it, or maybe we bonded, you know, we'd have that payment that we had coming in that we could just pay, you know, use the impact fees to pay down the bond of

Because we do have a lot of projects on the list. What's the status of, there's some talk about a traffic light at 39 in Lincoln. I think it was.

No, they're talking about making it a four-way.

It was already supposed to happen. It was supposed to be this month. Yeah, it was this month. Thank you.

So I come for you. share traffic study be done that outlines the outlines legal and technical basis for this decision i did get a price on this the estimated cost for a study is seven thousand eight hundred dollars okay so that's really the guy's decision on this we have currently we have a If it's button activated, we can upgrade that if we can.

Or if you guys want to pay for the traffic study, we can do that as well. Or you can say no.

That's by the schools. The schools need to do that.

I kind of have a different view. I'm kind of a doctor.

I'm kind of good at heroin.

I'm kind of good at heroin. I'm kind of good at heroin. I'm kind of good at heroin.

I'm kind of good at heroin.

in that area. It stops on in that area if we back up Maggie, but unbelievably, Clear Creek already has a traffic problem at school time that is just, traffic in that area would go nowhere if it stops actually there.

Can't say I'm in favor of paying for a traffic station. I'm going to stop saying you will have a bad one.

times throughout the day during school operating hours. So what happens to the flow of traffic the rest of the year and the rest of the time today, that's kind of where I'm going with it. If they're willing to pay for a traffic study and it shows the justification, then by all means we can ship them and figure out the stop signs. lighting i know there's something in the works for grown books currently uh and i i'm just kind of had a struggle to try to justify this traffic study i'm not saying that you know safety is not important uh but if they feel the need then we can get they can get some crossing waters out there for the time being this was kind of my thought process

that's very important.

I guess those are the factors in my process.

I'm just going to piggyback on what Mr. Dodd just said not long ago. The town recently paid for lighting along Lincoln Street, which if the school is a real beneficiary of that, as Brett pointed out, we funded the Henry County I guess I lean a little bit on the no side, although I, you know, the safety of the kids is certainly a true gift for RDA.

Second.

Second.

making a small portion available Is that correct?

Yeah, that's correct. Having your own will tax will prioritize you during the CCMG process of the grant match.

So, like I said, it's up to you guys. I know there's a lot of discussion on some of the citizens that said that, you know, we're going to be double-debted. Danville's not doing that. I can't speak the same for the other communities that surround us, but I can tell you that Danville, that's not our intent.

wanting what is already being done and not asking for anything additional.

But it does, again, it does make us eligible for additional CCMG money, which even $20,000

Yeah, I guess just for clarity's sake, I'm not sure how many people are here specifically for this or how many people will be listening online, but just to reiterate, this tax is already being paid. Right now, it is all going to Enterscan. The town plans to establish this on May us instead of to the county. The county has been giving disbursements at their leisure, right? So based off these projections, we actually anticipate getting monies that we currently do not have access or meet the criteria to the platform. Additionally, to Mark's point earlier in my discussion with him, those funds will ultimately come back into the town. So the additional monies that's coming in, we obviously plan on using towards road improvements. So I really don't see this taxing right we are simply changing where it's been going and establishing on behalf of danville and see nothing but benefits from my standpoint even the amount that we're going to get that strong is probably nowhere near what some of our neighborhood communities get but we're willing to say hey we can use that for the time we're able to do

Two times more. I think that's very accurate. I checked today.

Avon passed this a year So they maxed out on both categories on top of the county. So I'm all in. I say go for it.

Matt, did you have anything you wanted to add to that?

I would say one point of clarification, just because I've been asked this a lot lately, is that the tax is on the vehicle itself and not per wheel. I think some old statute and the new statute has created some confusion, but it is per vehicle, not per wheel.

So tonight I am presenting the first look at the 2027 budget. I've given you your binders. In the binder is the different departments with the budgets that they've given to us. The very last tab is reports, which is the total of the funds for all the departments. I have been posted that Matt can help us with if we have questions. But it does include the impact of Senate Enrollment Act 1 for 2027, the projected revenues that are on there, the requests from the departments. This includes the current salary raise of $3.5 million. five percent raise for the fire department employees this also includes a nine percent increase in inch medical insurance but obviously you'll need to decide if you want that to be passed to the employee or do you want that to come to town um i don't know that it's going to be that high but that's what our insurance is telling us to use for budget we should know by the end of the month if that's going to be an accurate number

I would expect it may be 50% less.

I will note on the fire, 5% of the grease load has not been decided yet.

I think you presented several options, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. So I just wanted to make that clarification. Nothing has been decided for fire.

My goal is to keep it consistent. And this also includes two control officers for the police department. nine firefighters, a part-time inspector for the fire department, a computer IT technician, and a building maintenance person for the town.

So it shows all the new positions. Similar to that, the nine firefighters have not been reported in some of the territories where the board received them. What do you think of that decision? Thank you.

You spit in your blood, babe. Second thing is, I'm sure you've all received emails, the AIM Ideas Summit our attorney to attend and we've paid for attorneys in the years past and so i've told them that i'd be happy to make sure that we accounted for that so again just please contact me thank you thank you have nothing thank you thank you guys nothing

related to the storms last weekend. Four plus inches in a day that is sure to cause issues. I heard this hour go by. Appreciate what you've got to do. Water, race water. I'm sure you have your slams. So I just want to say recognize the prime weather, the service you've got to be putting in. And while I'm on that, I'd just like to thank all of the public safety. In case there's anybody else, I'm just going to go on because it did fall in front of the town hall. service on those two events. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.