County Council - Regular Meeting

flea collars for their ankles because the fleas bite their legs. So that's why there are flea collars in there as well. But anyhow, we are still accepting names and addresses of service members that you know, both home and abroad. We have the ability to do even more boxes. So if you know anybody, please contact me, let me know. We will be packing the boxes on Thursday, starting at 10 in the morning at the back room of the branch. And any and all help will be appreciated. We need people to help bring the items out from the storage room to be set out so we can set up an assembly line for the boxes. And if you are a good printer, we need people to help print the tags that we put on the boxes because every single item in the box has to be on the tag. So if you can help by helping to address some of those labels, it would be greatly appreciated. But we need to continue that. But also, this is our 250th anniversary of our country. Decatur County here, if this can be the very first Decatur County an issue to start along with every 4th of July. Not only do we have the parades and the fireworks and the family gatherings with friends, but if we could make this an annual tradition of our county to, along with all the fun, to remember those from our county who are away from home and need our support. So in that regard, I hope that you as a council can do something as far as an endorsement or maybe encouraging our county to make this a new tradition for Decatur County, to remember those who are willing to put their lives on the line for you and me. Do you all have any questions?

Where did you say you were gonna do the boxes at?

The branch. The branch. Yes, the branch. And we'll need help in carrying the boxes to the post office. They're gonna have an extra person on duty. The post office has been great. They're gonna have an extra person there to be able to check in the boxes in a timely manner. And also our churches have been wonderful with the donations and just people like you and me just donating because they want to support our men and women away. So we need help on Thursday. If you can help pack boxes, please come to the branch. 10 o'clock on. We'll be there all day because we won't be able to take them to the post office till after 2.30 and we'll be working all that time. So if you can come any of the time or part of the time, that's great. Do you guys have questions?

We need a proclamation drawn up to make this an annual thing.

That would be a wonderful thing.

I don't know whether it's us or the commissioners would do that, but it looks like a proclamation would be drawn up to make this an annual event for Decatur County.

Thank you.

I don't know. We'll check on it. I'll have Christy check and see what we can draw up a proclamation of some kind. You tell us the dates you want to. Wanna make it an annual thing and we'll roll something up like that and make sure it gets publicized.

I would think the month of July is Armed Forces Month. So anything we can do, I want this to be in cooperation with our celebrating our nation's birthday, but to run the whole month so that we can touch as many lives as possible.

Okay. Anybody that can help? I know she'd appreciate the help. Thank you. Anybody have any other questions? We'll see what we can do about a proclamation, though.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Cleo.

Thank you, Cleo. Sheriff Myrose. We got a substitute. My name is Grace.

for our second quarter commentary report. The spreadsheet is actually the true to date with all of our listed transactions and our ending balance that balance with our bank statement. And then this would be for April, May, and June of this year.

At $80,000, is that up, down, average?

We're a little low, but we also, our population is lower right now. We have hit some snags with commissary and our cost being a little bit higher because prices have increased on food and things like that. It'll raise again. We've paid some pretty big things out of it this year. We pay the remainder of the radios that the ARPA fund The portion that it didn't cover, we've got a couple of our contracts that were due again this year. So we've had some pretty high bills this first half of the year. But we should be pretty much through most of our big ones for the year.

Under your receipts, why do you have zero on commissary sales? I would assume that would have a number in it.

Because commissary sales goes into our commissary suite. We don't actually do commissary sales out of this account It is out of our inmate trust account and then our inmate trust account the commissary sales gets swept into this account So they're accounted for on the actual sweeps that you'll see at the end of each month or beginning of each month These disbursements are just for the things that we're buying out of the fund So the commissary sales would actually be covered in the commissary inventory because we buy it out of commissary and then we sell it, and it goes into inmate trust, and then we sweep it in every month back into the commissary account.

Any other questions from the commissary? It's pretty much cut and dry.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Ms. Faust.

Good morning. I'm here with Greensburg Community Bread of Life. We are a soup kitchen that offers free hot meals three days a week to those experiencing food insecurity. Last year we've done 29,506 meals. And, you know, I'm happy to say that my food cost for that is only about $2,000. So we've really made a big difference, I think, in Decatur County with the food rescue that we do. To date, we've rescued over 3 million pounds of food, and that's from Walmart, Aldi, just various farmers in the town or whatnot, it did not go into a landfill. It came to the soup kitchen and we repurposed it into meals. So I'm really proud that our cost is really down for food. But we are seeking 75% of our utilities cost for the year for $15,000. We projected $20,000 for utilities for the year. And I'm already a little bit over that. But we'll never be self-sufficient. We will always have to have the help and support of the community. And so that's why I'm standing here today. And people that come to the kitchen, they don't even have gas money to make it to the kitchen. Sometimes they can't even get there. you know, once a week instead of the three times a week because they don't have gas money. But I'm happy to say that right now we're in the process of reaching our neighbors in small rural towns in the community. We are making a food bus. We were granted a school bus and we have repurposed it. So I've already been to St. Paul and Westport and got their blessing. that we can come once a week and park by their shelters and offer free meals to our rural neighbors that need it. So I'm grateful that, you know, we have our drivers that deliver to people that are homebound or shut in in the city, but there's still people out in the county that just can't get to us. And you know, if, if they have a moped or something in the winter time, trying to get to the kitchen is just too hard. So, We're going to help bridge that gap a little bit. So that's why I'm here. Do you have any questions?

How many people do you currently see, like on an average?

For the year, I think last year was about 1,400. And that's, you know, of course they use this multiple times. And that is not even... what the poverty line for our town even represents because there's still that stigma of somebody else needs it. We don't need it. And also, too, it's hard for people to get in there on time. It just is. I mean, we offer a late lunch or early dinner from 3 to 5, but still it's – I mean, I could be driving home from the soup kitchen and see people walking on the side of the street that weren't there to get their meal. So yeah, they don't use what we have. But the word of mouth is everything. And the ones that come in, they'll bring other people in. We also have like a shower facility. Yesterday we gave two showers. And both of those people were on their way to a job interview. So, you know, we have that service too. And it's hot out there. They wanted to make a good impression. So, you know, we were glad to offer that.

Any other questions? Take a look at it next month. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Ms. Guidance.

Good morning, everybody. I am Michelle Guidus. I'm the director of Catch a Ride. You should have a funding request packet in front of you that was submitted in 2025. We provided over 7,700 trips for 122 individual Decatur County residents. We're currently operating three routes in Decatur County. They're staged out of here, start out of here, but are served by more routes than that. This year, we will be receiving two new small transit vehicles for Decatur County. I don't have a date yet. I haven't heard from NDOT. We received funding from Decatur County Community Foundation and Decatur County United Fund for those vehicles. So I'm pretty excited to get two new buses up this way. Our total budget for Decatur County for 2027 is just about $419,000. And we're kindly requesting $10,000 from Decatur County Council to help us meet our 100% matching requirement for our 5311 federal funding grant. We're grateful for Council's support over the years, and without it, we wouldn't be able to operate. For those in the audience who may not be aware, Catch a Ride is public transportation. We're open to anyone for any purpose, and we operate Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. And we schedule rides up to 30 days in advance first come first serve, but people can also schedule same day And we provide Non-emergency medical transportation for those individuals who have insurance that would pay for those trips They can get those rides paid for by their insurance company at no cost to them Anybody have any questions You raise your rates any We have not raised our rates lately.

I don't know, because of price of fuel? Right. You jumped a buck or 50 cents or anything?

No, we haven't. Luckily, we have... fuel card discount program that we get some reduced costs on fuel and then since the state reduced the sales tax um you know we we always budget fuel like super high because it's so it fluctuates so much for so all that was accounted for so we haven't had to increase our fares due to the um gas increase We usually budget, well, in me, I don't know what accounting does, but for my, like, when I'm doing grants for fuel and things like that, it's usually I'm planning about $3 a gallon. So we've been around that, so not too bad. I did get Decatur County United Fund had a special grant this spring, so I got $3,000 from them for fuel. So that also helps.

Any questions for Catcher High?

Great service.

We appreciate your support. Without you, we couldn't do it. So thank you.

Take a look at it next month. All right.

Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Grant proposals. Mike Snyder, EMA.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I was approached by Mr. DeBond with Duke Energy regarding about an offer for a $1,000 grant for us to use for heating relief funds for people in need in the community as part of their community resiliency drive efforts. Told Tom that we'd be glad to participate with that. Reached out to Sean with the health department to get him to help us with finding those people that would be in need of those types of items. At the time, what we were kind of looking at is the purchasing of some fans. And, you know, a thousand doesn't get a significant amount of fans, but we're also going to look at some like cooling towels and stuff that may... help people out as well. So it gives us a couple of different options and Sean's going to give me some ideas on how to reach different people that he's dealt with that may be in need of those items. Tom kind of called me on June 30th and said, jump in there and apply for it. So I did. I thought it would take a bit longer for it to all come through, but it's kind of approved and already making its way through the services. It does not require any funds from the county. There's no matching or anything available. It's just for us to get that and push that out to people in need.

Just a volunteer thing from Duke, wasn't it?

Yes.

Anybody have any questions on it? entertain a motion to approve the grant for $1,000.

I'll make that motion.

Bill makes a motion to approve. I second. Are there any seconds? Any other questions or concerns? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

All right. Thank you.

Okay. One more grant here.

We are looking to apply for a community foundation small grant in the amount of $2,000 to create a wall of change in our office, basically to recognize those participants who went above and beyond while they've been on probation and if they've made positive change and wants to get off to recognize them. So commissioners approved yesterday, passed through.

No matching or nothing. Just a $2,000 grant. Commissioner's approved it. Do we have any questions for Matt?

No.

Entertain a motion to approve.

You haven't submitted it to the foundation yet, have you?

I'll make that motion. Kenny makes a motion to approve. I'll say it.

Any seconds? Any other questions? Concerns? All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Good.

Thank you. Thanks, Matt. Erica Gunn, Tourism Board Appointment.

Good morning. I have my board member Joanne Burkhart has resigned from our board. She has about had about six months left to her term to the end of the year. Terms are two years. So I'm here to ask for a new appointment from you guys.

Do we have anybody? I haven't really checked with anybody. I know I would check with her.

I mean, I suggested Chris Noblet because I'm on his board and we need somebody to kind of represent the sports coordination side of things. But, you know, it's your appointment, so.

I have no problem. Go ahead, Rick.

I was just going to ask, how long do we have to come up with an appointment?

You have 30 days, so, I mean, if you need another 30 days, that's okay.

Does our appointment have to be in the motel or hotel realm, though?

It does not. There's one other appointment. I have another resignation, and I know the mayor is thinking about somebody in the hotel business as well.

I didn't know whether our side, because I know Joanne was put on there because of Anna's house.

We have Dominique Bancroft from the Hampton, and then we have another innkeeper from, I'm trying to think, Zane Polson is from. the Holiday Inn Express to represent hotels.

Maybe we ought to check and make sure that it doesn't have to be from the motel around.

Yeah, and that's kind of a thing with the mayor, too.

Because I think we do have one appointment from the motel around.

Mm-hmm.

Olsen?

Mm-hmm, correct. Correct. Yes, that's your other one, so. Joanne is poor health.

Not in very good health.

Correct. And Eric Rouse sold High Point Events, so they're just, yeah. No, nothing, yeah. He's moving out of county, so he has to, yeah. So it just happened to coincide.

I think it would be good to just study on it a little bit and make sure we get it. Nothing against you at all, but you've got plenty to do, I'm sure. Maybe just get a – think about a different avenue for a board member maybe or something. I don't know. Yeah. What everybody else thinks.

Well, I think we need to check and make sure it doesn't have to be from the hospitality part. Make sure we're coordinated completely. You understand what I mean? Okay.

Because we might have to be from that.

I'm not sure how the – able to find out look and see that's okay make an agenda note for next meeting bring this back up again okay mr. facial

All right, good morning. So this is the follow up from the June meeting when I'd come to you guys to discuss the highway superintendent salary. If you recall, the request was to go to $70,917, which was the middle point on the Wagner Irwin Sheely. salary study that was done and provided at the we had concluded the last meeting with a request from this body to get more information as far as what our engineering costs are and then also what the what other counties are participating in this program and other things that are going on around the state with this particular incentive program from the state so I went and got some additional information I provided it to you it was on it was in front of each of you this morning when you got here so the engineering costs that we had for 2025 was $900 that was for a project that was in the It was an intersection, it was a traffic study that was done for 400 North and 700 East where that corner was reconstructed, redesigned. seems like a really low number at first when you only hear $900 for 2025. And so when I got more information on that, when it comes to the federal aid projects, the federal requirements dictate that there are two separate engineers that work on the engineering and the design of the project. What I had found and what's provided for you there is that an in-house engineer would actually be conflicted off of designing the actual project. You still have to have two separate engineers sign off on the actual drawings of the design of the project, whether that's a bridge or a road or anything like that. So we won't be avoiding any engineering costs on the federal grant side of any of the highway department work. And then when you look at, say, we're redoing a bridge, whether it's by I-beams or by box, The schematics and the specs are actually provided when that's ordered. So it comes with the actual product that we're purchasing from the vendor. And so that's the reason that our engineering costs were so low is that there's the requirement from the federal aid side and then there's also the designs that are being provided and the engineering costs that are being provided or the engineering that is being provided from the vendors for the bridge work. And so from that point on I went to get a list of all of the counties that are participating in this program across the state. For 2026, that's 33 different counties. That's actually down five from 2025. The counties that had dropped engineers in the last year from 25 to 26 are Knox, LaPorte, Madison, Monroe, and Morgan. And so once I got the list of all of the counties from the state comptroller, I went and just randomly selected counties to then dig into them and look to see how their highway department was structured, what salaries are and that kind of information. And so I had gone through and you guys have this information there in front of you. Adams, Bartholomew. Morgan, Clark, Hendricks, Wayne, Porter, Wells, Jasper. Those were the counties that I dug into. And so what I saw from a structural standpoint is that these counties are structured in a manner in which they have an engineer, a superintendent. Most of them also have assistant superintendents. Most of the salaries that you'll see there listed are around $100,000 or more. Most of them have the assistant superintendent. I think there was one that did not. You'll actually see multiple counties that have multiple engineers as well. Obviously, I don't think that's a place that we sit. But in the information that I provided to you, I provided the salaries for the engineer, the superintendent. assistant superintendent, if applicable, as well as the county budget for those listed counties. And so once I got that information off of Gateway, I then started calling counties. Now, I didn't hear back from all of them that I had called, but summaries are listed there as well in the information that I had provided to you. Based on the information that I had obtained early on, I then talked to these separate counties to actually vet or verify the information that I had received. I was able to verify the federal aid side of it, and I was also able to verify the information as far as the engineering schematics being provided from vendors for bridges, whether that's the I-beams or the boxes. So that information checked out. I was then talking with the different counties about if they had actually missed or were able to avoid engineering costs on projects. For some of them, for some of the projects, yes, they did. As a whole, though, they are still employing or contracting with engineering firms because the in-house engineer doesn't have time to do all of the engineering work. They also have to have a sign off from a separate engineer for the work that's actually being done. The largest benefit that I had heard from all of them is that if they're out in the field doing a project, the engineer has the background, the training, the experience to look at something that's being done and say, yeah, this is going to work or no, hey, we actually need to put a pause on that. Or when they get schematics in on a given project, they have that background to go back to the company and say, hey, we need to look at this again. In talking with Morgan County, you'll see that it's still listed there that they have an engineer. Their salary was $117,000. They're actually one of the counties that is not employing an engineer for 2026. The reason for that, and this was in my conversation with the assistant superintendent, Charlie, I didn't catch his last name, but Charlie's his first name. The reason that they dropped the engineer for 2026 was because they were still incurring engineering costs. They didn't think that the $117,000 salary was sufficient or that they could justify it when they were still paying engineering fees. That seems to be the consensus when you're looking at those counties. But The structure of the highway departments and then also the inability to avoid engineering costs reinstills my request of where I was at before for the $70,917. I think also when you look at what we were going to, if we bring in an engineer and we put them in the superintendent role and we're expecting them to design the work that's being done out there, I think more of their work is going to be spent at the computer rather than supervising the highway department. If we do that, then I think we actually would have to increase the salary for the assistant superintendent, possibly for the foreman's as well, because we would be shifting more responsibility, more of the burden of running the highway department to those separate individuals. I recognize that we would be in a position where we could apply for the $40,000 grant from the state for a highway engineer. But I still think at the end of the day, we don't avoid enough costs to justify a salary that's going to be. I mean, I think the average on these was right around $100,000. I'm not seeing that pan out to where we're actually saving money when last year we only spent $900 on engineering that we could avoid. No, not yet. And that part of the reason, so we, we have a number of applicants. I think it was 12. Um, so we have 12 applicants. We haven't done any of the interviews yet at this point. Um, Part of the reason, at least for me, I don't know about Gabe and Brian, but I would prefer to have a salary range here so that we can interview people. And as far as the applicants, we have applicants that have applicable experience. We have some applicants that don't. We do have, I believe it was two separate engineers who applied for the position. So we have a mix of individuals who have applicable road construction experience and also individuals that do have an engineering certification.

I was going to say, because the last two people you hired, you interviewed, and then you came to us.

Well, the last one was a snafu.

Before we go to $70,000.

Sure.

That's just my opinion.

I understand that. Does that make sense? Yeah, no, I totally understand that. Yeah, Ernie.

All across the state of Indiana, there's 92 counties. I'm sure all the counties build a lot of similar box culverts, bridges. and different projects that they do, does the state make available any pre-engineered blueprints that you can draw on that you don't have to pay an engineer to design and draw out when you go to the state and say, here's this size stream we have. This is the traffic. Here, we've got one design. Use this and use our engineering. Do they make anything like that available?

So I know that there is some literature that is available. Let me find it here. And it would be in the notes that I had provided when it comes to the, let me see if I can find it.

It seems crazy that every county has to repay engineering fees when they're pretty much building the same project.

Yep. All right, so it's under the section there that's outlined for bridge and drainage structure constructed in-house. It's the second paragraph where I note the engineering services for pile foundations, including pile size, depth, and bearing are included in the boring, and then any additional engineering that isn't provided in the literature. So I think that's exactly what you're talking about there, Ernie.

No, I'm talking about it's already engineered. You're just buying them. the blueprint from the state or they make it available to you.

So part of this part of why, and this was what was conveyed to me from, let me see here, the individuals in Bartholomew, Morgan, uh, and Jasper County, that part of the reason that the engineering is included from these vendors is a liability standpoint that they actually have to show that what they're selling or what they're providing as far as service. Correct.

so that's where that information is coming from is that i guess it's a liability side of it that they're they have to show that what they're providing is sufficient for that project i just think there's something like that available to all the counties that you can go to the library and see what you're building and yep what you need and say okay it's like buying a grain bin it's all they're all free engines sure i mean yeah it just makes sense to me rather than pay each county paying an engineer a hundred and some thousand dollars but right maybe we could share an engineer sure

So I guess my request, though, is that we go ahead and if you want to authorize two potential salaries, one for an engineer, one for an individual that is not an engineer, I think that would be beneficial because it is going to elongate this process. The last one that you had referred to, Danny, was a mistake where I thought we had had that covered as far as what the request was going to be on the salary. So, yes, I did come to you late in the game there. I'm trying to avoid that here so that we can actually get somebody hired and in place instead of, you know, waiting until your next meeting in August to actually have an idea on if somebody's going to accept the position or not.

I just feel like we're going against what we did the last two hires. Okay. You interviewed and hired and then came to us.

Well, one of them... I brought it up three meetings in a row what the range was probably going to be. We talked about it three months ahead of time, month after month after month. And then, yes, they made the selection, but we were pretty clear on what the salary was probably going to be.

We still had no proof of it.

Right. But it wasn't a surprise. And it's being categorized as a surprise.

So what are we looking at approving to go up to 70,000?

So it's 63,454, if I remember the number correctly. I know it's currently 63,000. So this would be for a superintendent? Correct. And so then to 70,917, which is the middle range on the Wagner-Irwin-Sheely salary study. And again, there's no promise that that's what the actual salary is going to be. We had published it for $60,000 to $70,000, I think it was. And so again, it would be somewhere in that range. But we aren't promising that it's going to be that over $70,000 number.

Well, I don't have any problem going with the middle range dollar amount that Wagner-Sheely has told us for a superintendent. But if we interview somebody that's got an engineering degree that comes on and wants to be the superintendent but has that engineering degree but is still going to have to – we're still going to have to use an engineering – that's going to kind of be out the door on that side of it.

And that was why I said maybe we do two separate salaries, one for just a superintendent who is not an engineer, and then we save $100,000 for someone that has their engineering degree and the certifications that are required.

I don't know that I want to pay additional money for an engineering degree when we're still using outside sources to do our engineering. It doesn't seem to me like that's a good spend. It's been a hire of... Highway superintendent, let's hire a highway superintendent that can do that job. I mean, I've heard... We only spent $900 last year on engineering costs. Why would we want to do the additional salary when we're not going to gain anything? I mean, I'm looking at your notes here, and to go what Ernie asked, it says a lot of engineering information has already been completed and is available through NDOT. So some of that we already have available.

Most of the stuff they buy, they tell me it's been stamped by an engineer.

Yeah, yeah, it's all been pre-checked and all that, signed off on. So I'm not going to be in favor of hiring, having additional salary for somebody that has an engineering degree that's coming on as the superintendent of the highway. I want to see somebody come and take over the highway department.

I guess I'd rather see you spend a little more money on a superintendent.

Yeah, to get the highway department straightened around and get going and Engineering side of yeah if the state would pay is paying 40% but I don't know for our situation That's going to be anything that's going to benefit us Looking at what we're looking at now And here again, we talked about you do hire somebody has an engineering degree and they get all wrapped up in a project He's running the highway department so Just so I have it right in my mind I

if you're at 70 grand right now as your top line, and the state will provide 40 grand as a supplement to an engineer, and you have an applicant that happens to have the engineering stamp but is a really, really good people manager and all that kind of stuff, then theoretically you could go to 110. That's correct. And be at a level set, right?

Yes, that is correct.

That's where my mind goes.

Hiring the right person.

Yeah, hiring the right person is first and foremost. And I think the job is managing people and projects to a degree, but you can learn the other part. You can learn it all, but I think we've got to get a good manager, good ops type of a person.

Yeah, and I think when you look back at the last... probably four or five hires that I can think of off the top of my head. I mean, we've made some really good hires that have really done justice to the county for all of those individual departments. I think that when you look back at You know, not to toot the horns for people that we have here, but I mean, with Mike and Matthew and, you know, with what we've done over here on this side of the room, I mean, we've done some great things for all of our different departments from EMA, animal shelter.

I guess I would be willing to approve a $70,000 with the stipulation that if you do have an engineering stamp, we might be willing to allocate more to your salary.

Sure.

That would give you a range to hunt somebody.

So the question would be is if we hire somebody on as the highway superintendent with an engineering degree, will we get that 40% reimbursement?

As long as he's got an engineering degree, yeah.

It doesn't have to be job description. It doesn't qualify.

So you have to have, I think I have it in there. Let me go back.

Some of them are only getting like half.

Correct. But if he's not a slam dunk,

superintendent candidate that you really, really want that just happens to have an engineering stamp. I don't want to spend more money for an engineer.

The highway department superintendent is a top priority on this, on this deal.

So one of the requirements for one of the requirements is that they have to have a pre-qualification for bridges spanning 20 feet or more, uh, with simple features. they have to have their professional engineering license, uh, and relevant design experience for actual road work.

It doesn't really matter what the job description is, as long as they have those certifications. Yep. The only other thing that concerns me is you hire somebody in at that. I mean, I totally agree with what you were saying, Rick, but we hire somebody in at that salary and we get reimbursed from the state. And all of a sudden the state says, well, we're going to have to cut that out. We're not going to do that anymore. So we're paying an extra, you know, $50,000, whatever it is, for an engineer that we're not using that we spent $900 last year on. That's the only thing that would concern me. I mean, it's probably been around forever, but do you know how the state of Indiana is? They could turn around tomorrow and say, we're not paying that anymore.

The state had a $6 billion surplus, and they're cutting our budgets.

Yeah, so we have to be a little cautious on that side of it. I understand where you're coming from on that. Yeah. I don't know that, I kind of feel like Ernie wouldn't mind paying a little more if they have those certifications, but going clear up and getting up into the high dollar thing, I'm a little concerned about that side of it. I think we're on the right track that this superintendent is the priority in this project. So I'll make a motion that we do the median price range of $70,917, if that's what it is, and then no more than that. Then we need to take a second look at it, come back, second look at it. We can't find anybody to take it at that position. We've got a motion from Kenny.

So, Kenny, you're saying that if they find an individual that's going to take $71,900, Commissioners have the opportunity to come back to the council and request that amount once they land on that amount of what it's going to take.

Based on the experience and what they're bringing, yeah.

I'll second that.

Because we may, like you said, we may find somebody that has that engineering experience and we need to pay them a little more extra money just to have that. I don't know that I want to pay them to be the engineer, but somebody overseeing those projects would be worth the money.

is in line with the draft numbers that we're seeing from Wagner right now.

Yeah, that's where we're at. That's the median range, right?

Currently, it is the median. With the revisions that are being provided, it's actually the low. Is that what you're asking?

That's not it.

It's not been approved, so that's why I'm not asking for what the new median would be. We're coming into a pretty nice facility, too.

Yeah, I'd say I'm going to run with that. If you guys don't want to do it, that's fine, but I'm going to run with that.

I've got a motion and a second. Motion by Kenny, second by Rick. Any other discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Thank you. I've got one more thing. Yes, sir. There's an ordinance, and I talked to Rick about it, about setbacks on these cornfields that are stuck out in the middle of the road. Are we going to enforce that?

Is this with the intersections where corn is out?

I mean, you really got to. There's no reason. You're basically. All of our things back. There's no reason these farmers can't do that. That needs to be looked into. In our area, there's a bunch. There's quite a few.

You have to be in the intersection to actually see down the road. I'll make sure that we start looking at it and talking to some of the farmers. I know that we had to do that. I think it was two years ago. Two or three years ago was the last time. That was the last time that we would have. And when we did it last time, we didn't go out cutting down corn stalks. We'd gotten some information out, Ernie, and talked to some farmers. And most of them went out there and voluntarily trimmed their corn stalks right at the intersection.

Yeah, it's easy to do. You just hit a button in there, because I do it every year. You shut four rows off, and you shut the next four row, and you just dock your way back, and you can see around those corners. It's just so much easier.

As it relates to the ordinance, if there is one that truly exists, and I know we've dealt with it in the past, but it's not just corn. It's the lilac bush in the corner. It's the pine tree that's in the wrong spot. There are places like that all over the county as well. Not to be the intersection. I'm pretty sure there's more.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. On to topics. Gas tax reimbursement. They're meeting today and following board approval we should get Reimbursed on gas tax in five to seven days. That's the letter that Christy gave me. So the state's going to reimburse the gas tax.

That we missed out on. They used to sell you the gas and not put the tax on. But now you've got to pay the tax and apply to get it back.

Well, they've got that tax. whatever they call it, holiday going on. So they're going to reimburse the counties now. Good. Which today they meet. We should find out in the next five to seven days.

Should get the money.

All reimbursements expected to be completed by November 1st.

That goes back into county general?

No, it goes into highway department.

Highway department.

That's gas tax. That's highway department. Okay. Must. Let's move on to must. We have to have an appointment to must made at this meeting, and they have to send a letter to Calzone here. It goes to the state board of the council, go to the DLGF,

To be honest, I wasn't sure where it needed to go when I printed it off. I was looking for that, too, and didn't see it.

We need to have a limit to must from the council, and that's for that. I don't think the state even knows where you're supposed to send it to.

Municipal Unit Strategy Task Force.

Yeah.

We have to make an appointment to that today. I have asked Ruben to be involved if that's okay with the council.

Well, somebody needs to because have you tried reading any of that stuff? I mean, if you understand it, God love you, but. I've read through that and all the stuff we get from the DLGF and the association. Nobody can understand that stuff.

I've read it all myself three or four times, and I forwarded it all to Reuben, and he's been reading on it too and trying to do his thing.

I sat down there and tried to list all the formulas, and you've got to add this, multiply that. By the time I got down, I had to go sit down because my head hurts about it.

There is a portal that Christy has that we all need to sit down and

Well, even with that, trying to understand all the, you know, they showed us that at the conference, but even trying to understand that is almost impossible.

I know.

So we're going to have to have Ruben involved in that or somebody because we can't, at least I can't understand it.

As far as the council, I've asked Ruben to come and be at the meetings. Now, everybody can be there. We just need an appointment from the council to be our representative, but everybody, it's a public meeting too. It all has to be averaged.

Well, they want all these entities to be part of that task force, and they want everybody to be unanimously decide what we're going to do with the taxes. How are you going to do that?

Well, I think it has to come back to the council for approval.

Well, it has to be unanimous amongst all the entities that are on the task force to start with. Yeah. So you're telling people how much of a percentage they're going to get, and they want more than that. They're not going to vote to have it. I just don't see it.

No, and I don't understand it. I'm not really sure who's all on the task force. I mean.

Well, it's the city, the townships, like Westport, somebody from Westport town board if you're a municipality, county. New Point's a municipality too, New Point.

Part of it. They all get distribution.

Everybody that gets distribution from the income tax. But it can only go to 2.9. That's as far high as it can go.

Yeah. But they want you to sit down, divvy up all the monies, taking it off the state of Indiana. I don't know how we're going to accomplish that.

It's supposed to have a meeting on or after August the 20th.

Yeah. Whenever possible. We're going to sit down and look at that thing and everybody's going to stare at each other going, what are we supposed to be doing here?

That's kind of the reason I asked Ribbon to be involved. That's okay. He can go through the numbers and things.

It's got to be an easier way.

I know. I just need a volunteer to be on that. Be our front man.

Everybody has to draw straws.

I think it needs to be somebody with longevity so we have a consistent voice through the process. Do what? I think it needs to be someone with longevity so we have a consistent voice through the process past January 1.

Yeah, I haven't. I just need to make an appointment this month. Are we needing an appointment?

Want me to nominate somebody?

I need volunteers, what I mean. So they can be the confused one. Because it's already confused me beyond belief.

Yeah, it's terrible. Unless you speak attorney, you don't know how to read none of that stuff.

I can tell you that it's not helpful. Yeah, I was going to say, I'm not sure.

It doesn't help. You can't read it either. So they're way above that stage then, huh? Maybe you've got to speak to the legislator to be able to understand it.

No, I don't think they do either. I really don't. The employer can't explain it all. They're in trouble. Because I've done read his, what he put out three times. Yeah, I'd look up. I can't make any details of it either. The property tax I understand, but the local income tax deal, I don't think he understands.

Well, they keep changing it all the time.

They keep changing it. Well, they change the rules right in the middle or up midstream. Now it don't go into effect until 28, is that right? It's going to be in 27, now 28. Probably 29 or 30 now before it ever does anything.

Don't be looking down here.

Come on, Kenny. We can all be there. I just need somebody that's a front man.

If Ruben's going to be there, I'll be in for that. But other than that, if I had to.

I got Ruben involved. If that's okay with everybody.

I can go to those meetings and be the dumbest guy in the room. I don't care.

I'll tell him. I mean, you have to figure out a time you're going to meet.

Somebody's going to have to be there to figure it out.

And it has to be advertised because it's open to the public.

I make motion we have Kenny be our rep. Motion by.

30th second by Ashley for must rep being Kenny Hooten. Any other? You want to yell about anything else?

No, I think I'm good.

Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed to that? Okay. Thanks. Appreciate that.

I won't be smarter after the meeting than I was when I went in there.

Okay. Kenny, as these meetings start coming online, make sure everybody up and down the chain knows when they're going to be, as Danny said, everybody can be there. Yeah. Yeah. Make sure we do a good job communicating when those are going to be.

Yeah. They have to be advertised too. The public is public is open to the public on all of it. I guess what God is not an executive or anything like that has to be everybody that wants to attend can attend.

So I wonder who, who's like the County, um, the municipalities, the city, and all those guys have to have somebody elected, too. I wonder how we're going to communicate.

I think if you read that, I believe it has to be their budgetary people, like the city clerk, treasurer. I think it has to be them and a treasurer from the other municipality. Did I read that right, Christy?

Right. I think there's been some auditor emails going around, and... There's been a couple of auditors that have reached out to put this committee together, so I'll read this.

So are you going to let me know what all is going on?

I will. I'll reach out to all of you.

Okay.

I will.

That was my question. I don't know who.

Just let us all know what's going on. Okay.

Okay.

Okay. Last thing on the list is a fair committee appointment. I need somebody for that one.

Is that taking your position? I'm done.

I'll nominate Bill Metz.

That's exactly what I was going to do. I've already did this long enough.

I'm done.

Well, that leaves you, Rick.

Hell, it does. I'm happy to help. I don't know what the fair committee appointments are. requires, but I'm more in line of helping. And to your point, I've put in a lot of time. Near as many as I have. Well, maybe not. Does that have to be a council member?

Yeah.

Is it a one-year? It's a one-year. It's every year you get reappointed, right? This was my 16th year, yeah, so I'm done.

But it's a one-year stint, though, right?

It's a one-year stint.

So...

That's reappointment every year.

Okay, if it's one year only, I'll do it.

You just heard what happened to Danny. He said one year.

Well, I know, but my lovely wife will make sure that this is a one-year only appointment. In fact, I'm going to throw something through the door before I walk in.

Well, we've got new members coming on next year. I know we are.

If you'll do it for a year, that would be awesome.

and that can be filled after the new members. You need to hang in and help. I'll be around.

I'll make a motion we nominate Rick Nobby.

Motion from Kenny.

I'll second.

Ernie seconds. Any other questions? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Nay.

Thanks, Rick. Okay.

It's not that bad.

Okay anybody else got anything for us? Yep go ahead.

Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Chris. I just want to give you guys a quick update on almost year-to-date sports complex. This goes through June 30th. We have had one other tournament this past weekend since then, so this isn't on this updated graphic, but you would have... Two sheets in front of you. Top one is 2025 total numbers, and the second one is 2026 year-to-date. As you can see, in 2025 total, we did just over $112,000 net profit in 2025. 2026, so far through June 30th, we've done just under $114,000 so far. We're just over the halfway point, so we still do have 14 tournaments remaining this year. Also, you'll see the real big number, you know, as we did last year in direct spending, which was, you know, families coming in, not including hotels. So this is restaurants, retail, entertainment was $3.2 million last year. Year to date, we've done $6.4 million already this year in economic impact. Then also 84,000 visits this year so far to the sports complex with about 37,000 of those being more than 50 miles to the complex this year. Again, we've done, you know, just over 15,000 in sponsorships as well this year with room to grow there as well going forward. But, yeah, just a little, you know, update for you guys about halfway through. Obviously, end of the season we'll come to you guys with, you know, total what this year looks like but clearly good thing for you know the community and um we'll say rec league this year we had just under 600 kids in our rec league this year which we thought was pretty good turnout um we did we were able to fortunately lower cost than what was previously uh They were able to pay, and we were able to offset all of our jersey costs with sponsors. We didn't make a ton on rec league. Actually, we broke even on rec league, but obviously for our community, we want to keep that as low cost as possible. And fortunately, we were able to do that this year. So just a quick update for you guys, and appreciate all your guys' support and everything.

I think the rec league means more than what a lot of people think because when you start playing in those travel league tournaments, You're spending big, big money. And if you can provide your kids with some recreation without it, that's a great thing. Is there any projections that you keep track of right now as far as what kind of maintenance money is going to take and a time projection on when turf's going to have to be redone and what that's going to amount to? uh the park board aware of all that yep so so the council will have plenty of notice to how many millions of dollars we need in the future to keep these at a level that we currently have them

So I will tell you, so last night at our park board meeting, I went through an update with them as well. These same numbers with some additional on how we are doing things as far as our finances. So we do from each tournament, regardless of how big, how small, you know, we built our cash reserves pretty significant. We do have from each term, we put $3,500 in the capital reserve fund. Turf replacement, you're looking at about 10 years from now, nine to 10 years. At $3,500 at an average of 30 tournaments per year, which is what we have scheduled for the next five years. And we do, USAA does wanna renew the contract with us. We are looking at negotiating and doing, different how much we're getting paid, stuff like that. We are renegotiating that. But that $3,500 going forward 10 years would be just over a million dollars, what would be in that capital reserve fund. You're looking at probably about an $800,000 or $900,000 replacement cost. So we should be able to fund that totally from our yeah our tournaments um all of our concessions money all of we do put 10 of sponsorships also in that capital reserve fund um but everything else just totally goes back into operating cost and reinvesting back into the facility and trying to keep things as low cost as we can for our community like rec league and stuff like that i guess i would like to see it budget time we see their budget that they present i guess i would like to see the pool be separated out of that and show

what your expenses are, what your incomes are, like line items, so we can kind of, I mean, this is good, this looks good and everything, but to make really good decisions, I think we need to have numbers separate.

Yeah.

Maintenance costs, stuff like that.

Yeah, for sure. And this year, so we will know, better and for we'll know in 28 kind of what that looks like because or i guess it would be the 27 year we would know because 25 you looked at we ran 90 of those tournaments were on four diamonds you know and then this year this is the first full year we'll have running on eight diamonds so we'll have a better idea in 27 of what that looks like on a total maintenance cost i do want to compliment you i've got great kids playing in the county leagues or city leagues

And the diamonds were very available to them, which makes it nice. I mean, that's kind of a question, would it be available for local kids, and I think it was.

Thank you. This is probably not a discussion for here, but I'm going to make it one again. When we were out on the rec leagues, and it doesn't get dark until 9.30, and you've got the lights on, diamonds, one and two,

four maybe or something like that i don't know the numbers um do they come on automatically or does some parent decide to flip a switch what's the deal so with that typically we tried um we had some stuff from our umpires um typically when about 8 30 um was when we were flipping on because of shadows coming down the way the sun was and we that was coming from umpires so we try to

It'd be interesting to know what that costs when that meter's spinning, that you can tell the umpire to do his best. I mean, it's a rec league, right? I mean, it is.

I mean, it's nobody.

Well, I shouldn't say nobody. They will complain. I just found that really odd because an old 68-year-old guy could have umpired that game without the lights.

I understand. It's like at a tournament when the tournament weekends do.

And I could see it during the tournament because somebody's paying big bucks to do the tournament. They're coming a long way to do the tournament. I get it to a degree. But for rec league and it's as light at 7.30 as it is when it's 5.30, I mean, I get the shadow part too. This was in the morning. Was it?

Mm-hmm.

Anyway, just my two cents.

What's worth? Looks like you're going to get as many tournaments next year. Yeah, we do.

We've already got for the next, well, it's still 2030. We've got at least 30 scheduled until 2030.

Good, because I've seen Bartholomew County is putting all them in.

They just put in six turf.

Yeah, I was going to say, I didn't know whether they were cutting into any of them.

So we're actually working U-triple-S-A, some of the bigger ones. We're working side-by-side with them where they'll have some, you know, tournaments are bigger, and we'll take some and they'll take some. Great.

You did a good job.

I appreciate it.

Two questions before you walk away. Did you get your restrooms and your other concessions sent and finished?

I guess that's a no. I guess that's a no.

Okay. Well, I don't want to rub any photos on that. I'll just take it for what it is. So the $6.4 million, the economic impact, how do you know that?

So we work in conjunction with tourism in this, and they have some software and work with Hamilton County that is able to track all that.

That's a fabulous-looking number. I just hope it's a little more close, but that's a big impact for Decatur County. I know we were at – I forget what restaurant we were at. Teresa asked the waitress if they had gotten busy when the tournaments were on. They said, yeah, they love the tournaments when they come to town.

I will say Culver's actually – earlier this year we had a huge – it was about 100 teams. They ran out of food. Culver's did, so.

Wings and rings came pretty close. Yeah, yeah. A couple times.

You've got to go to base. Okay.

Thanks, Chris.

Thank you.

Yeah, boss? You know I catch the dickens, Brian. We have transfers we've got to do.

I don't know if that was the last time, but...

We were approved, the region was approved for the extra million dollars for blight removal. So what we're going to do from a Decatur County standpoint is get with the incorporated towns, you know, with the idea that's some of the lower hanging fruit to attack blight in New Point, Westport, St. Paul, Greensburg, and Millhausen, that's right. But we were, the region was approved for an extra million dollars to help tackle that, so that's great. And I will say, just to make it quick, we've had a lot more interest, particularly out in Veterans Way, for retail and housing. And you better believe that we have those numbers in front of those folks because we add that many people to our population on the weekends and that many shoppers, that much extra expenditure going on over the weekend. It makes a big difference. It makes up for if our population looks too small, our traffic counts aren't enough. Those kind of events can put us over the top for recruiting some larger-scale retails and stuff, which we're planning for. So just keep that in mind as, you know, on the economic front.

Okay, I guess we missed some business. Wasn't that the agenda? Additional. We've got an additional here for get through the telephone line. from Sheriff FICA to telephone, $6,000.

I'll make a motion to do the transfer.

Bill makes a motion to approve a transfer. I'll second. Ashley seconds. Any other questions? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, I've got three additionals here. Got approved in the transfers, right? These are transfers?

I think I've seen all of those too.

I'll make a motion to approve the insurance transfers.

Ashley makes a motion to approve the insurance transfers. Second. Any seconds? Any other questions? It's a quarterly transfer. Comes in every quarter. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Okay.

We've got three additionals here. County General. Yeah, there's four. Request for $52 EMA office for activity supplies.

I'll make a motion to approve it.

Okay, Bill makes a motion to approve $52.

I'll second it.

Rick seconds. Any other questions? All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? I'm not trying to rush through these, but we're going to. Okay, IT networking, $44,902. I think we approved that. We get half that back from the city, correct?

Yes.

Really, it will only be $22,451 or something like that.

Yes.

I think we approved that last week. Just going through the preliminaries now. I'll entertain a motion to approve that. Ashley makes a motion to approve.

I'll second. Kenny seconds.

Any other questions? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Got one for County General for $2 million for the pool.

So we realized that we had never done the additional. You guys approved it.

Does he need it all? I don't because when I'm We're going to take it out of an interest-bearing account and put it into an account. It's only going to be taken out if it's needed, right?

No, it's still – the way we – sorry. The way we're doing it, I think we had question on that. Do we move it from here to here? But if it's going into county general, it's still drawing interest. Okay. It's in the big fund that does.

So it's up to $2 million.

Up to $2 million.

Okay.

So I just didn't want to take it out of $2 million out of drawn interest.

Are they going to pay some of this back to us? Is that the plan?

We're supposed to get some of the revenues of it. We get paid back as far as I know.

Dave, so this is my understanding. I know, Christy, you have had more conversations with Dave on this topic than I have. So Gabe had a meeting. Were you involved with a meeting with Tammy Winning? So I think that they have raised, what was it, like $4.2 or $4.3 million in that ballpark for the pool. And some of them, my understanding is that they're pledges that will be coming in over time. This money is what would be used to move the project forward, similar to what we did on the fairgrounds where we were using it to keep going forward. And then we're going to get paid back on the tail end of that, I think, is what the plan is.

When they get the pledges come in, it'll come back to the county general.

Right.

That's the way I understood it, too. This stays in county general.

It does. It's just used as needed. That's why we're just now doing it. There's a lot of back and forth on what was the best way to do it, to do this.

I just didn't want to move to a pool account and it's not drawing any interest. Yeah, no. Two million bucks drawn interest, you know, it's...

It's a sizable amount. Does that make sense? Yeah, that's a sizable amount for interest bearing.

You made the statement that the foundation has raised four plus million. I'm not sure it has raised that much money.

If that's how, if that's how I say, okay, it's, it's not just the foundation, obviously. I mean, they're, they're the, they're the ones that are holding the funds that are coming in. Um, and so it wasn't just the foundation. Yep. Yep. Yeah. If that's, if that's how I stated it, then no, we, we need to be clear because the money was coming from other sources than just the foundation. Yep.

So this stays in.

So here's a better way for me to say this, though, is we're not moving money. We're not moving money anywhere in the bank accounts. It's still earning interest. All you're doing is approving the appropriation to be used out of, yes.

Good enough. Okay, very good. Good enough.

Okay, we already approved it, so I'll entertain a motion to approve the $2 million for the pool.

I like that motion.

Bill makes a motion.

I'll second.

Ashley seconds. Any other questions? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? $2,000 from ARPA. I guess they were short on the radio money. Is that the way I'm reading this?

So, yes, that was my, I looked at it and said 67,000, and I typed 65,000 when I advertised. So that's, we had to do it for the additional 2,000.

You get reprimanded for stuff like that.

We don't pay for advertising anymore. It's all down on Gateway, so we save money there.

Let's make a motion to approve that. Kenny makes a motion to approve.

I'll second.

Ashley seconds. Any other questions for Christy down there? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Danny, I do have a request.

Go right ahead.

On that $2 million that would it be possible to show a paper trail on that, how that's paid out and when it's paid back? I would think it would be okay. A lot of times that stuff gets paid out and I don't ever see it come back.

Me too. I have the same question on the third round. We've never really seen a paper trail on it.

That's wrong. I mean the total.

How much you took out of that? We paid I know that on the fairgrounds project when I came to you guys, what was that, four months ago, something like that, three, four months ago?

We had discussed how much had actually come out of EDIT, where the donation campaign was at for the fundraising. And then as far as paper trail goes, all of it runs through the auditor's office for all of the payments, all of the pay apps that are coming in. And so up to yesterday, all of the funding had been through edit and through the ready program. And so yesterday was authorization of $212,000 on a pay app. It was, I don't remember the exact number that was left over from the ready funding. It was 4,000 something. And so this will be the first draw off of the fundraising campaign funds that are held at the community foundation. there was and I don't have this exact number earning. Um so there was like 600 and some thousand dollars that was currently at the community foundation. So 208,207,000 something like that will be pulled off of those funds and then we will have the additional money coming in through donations and pledges. Um the fairgrounds project has 110 or 115,000 left on the total project. And so then any funds that are left over will be directed from the foundation back to the county. And that will be the same as the additional funds that will be coming in with all of the pledges for the next two to five years, two to four years, depending on what the individuals that made the donations had elected to.

Just FYI, if you want to let Gabe or Brian know, that last count, I think I'll have my number pretty close, there was about $121,000 remaining from Lily that could go to match. So if somebody would want to donate $121,000 to the pool, there would be that much available to go back in and increase that amount.

Very good.

Anyone else have anything for the council? Go right ahead.

Thanks for giving me a little space for the fair. I talked to at least 30 plus veterans. Most of them had no idea I even existed, that my office existed, or knew anything about the new property taxes. So it was great. I would say I probably got 15 of them has already called me and scheduled times to come in to work on those. The last thing, I just want to touch base with what Cleo had talked about. Her and I talked briefly before she was working on all of this, and if we're looking at some kind of proclamation or something that we're trying to do as a county, I would also just add this into that. Being a former command sergeant major who deployed a battalion, of soldiers, the last thing that we want to do is give out names and addresses specifically for those soldiers. And the reason why is not to protect the soldier, but it's to protect the spouse of the soldier because we have people who will grab those names and the next thing they know they're being bombarded by people who do not have the best interest of that dependent. So if we do that, I just caution that we make sure that we are very, very sensitive of that information because it can have devastating effects on our dependents that are staying behind. And I only say that because I've seen it happen with the deployment that I was on that we had spouses taken very advantage of. and it's critical. The second piece of that is, again, bringing back on my experience, It's the who, why, and how, and where. Those troop movements things are classified. And by divulging that, we put our troops at risk. So we just ask that we are very, very careful when we want to develop that. Just from my experience of the 36 years that I've served and deployed three different times, it's very, very critical that we understand that when we start trying to put out potential information. I had talked to Cleo about that and stressed that very, very much because it can put people at risk. So as we do something like that, just make sure we take that into consideration to protect our dependents and citizens of Decatur County.

Because you are so experienced in all of this, would you be willing to make the first draft of the proclamation?

I will sit down with people and help with the input for that just because I know that it is critical. It's not as bad for the active duty components because they're at a base and they are taken care of from those bases. It's the National Guard soldiers, our soldiers, our citizen soldiers that are at the most risk because let's face it, we tried to keep information as tight as we can, but there's this thing called social media. and the soldier would tell his wife and the next thing you know it is out for everywhere that that tells exactly when we are leaving texas to go to iraq and that's very sensitive information what what we did um when i was the senior enlisted guy when we deployed our battalion we gave one address and it was to our headquarters unit we got care packages in like crazy and we had our our headquarters unit then distribute them to the soldiers They're still getting the same kinds of stuff, but we're protecting the identity of our dependents is what we try to do All those in favor