County Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. commissioners meeting welcome to the September 8th 2026 Decatur County commissioners meeting there are title six forms in the corner by the door if you would like to fill one of those out and turn it into the auditor's office if you'd please rise and Matthew will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and justice for all. And if you can remain standing, Ken Mobley is going to lead us in prayer. All right, up first is a review of the August 17th meeting minutes. I won't vote on this one since I was at home.

I just have one change, Christy. At the very end, you have the adjournment recess made by Jeremy, and Jeremy wasn't here.

He wasn't here.

That was just a... That's okay. Just type whatever. We need a second in by Brian.

Okay.

That's it. All right, thank you. I will... Move to make a motion to accept the meetings with that change.

I'll second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to claims.

I reviewed claims. I did not have any questions.

I didn't have any questions other than I did see that we are still paying Heath Dillon for the cattle. There's a $13,000 claim. Do we know any updates on that? I know it's a month-by-month just with the case, right?

I was going to say the criminal... He does.

So it's not costing us.

Matthew, why don't

You or Brenda reach out to make sure that our costs haven't gone up with Heath Dillon that way, because I know Brenda had been working with him early on. That way we can ensure that we're staying at that amount that's being posted as the bond.

It was $13,320, Matthew, was what this last month's amount was from Heath Dillon, the invoice amount.

And then we can get an update, too, just about the care and the health of the animals as well.

Yeah, do you know that the herd has increased? I don't remember how many of it they are.

Okay.

Okay. Thanks, Chad. Do we have a motion to approve? I'll make that motion.

I'll second.

All those in favor, say aye. Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to payroll for August 28, 2026 in the amount of $426,425.71. I will make a motion to approve payroll. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. All right. Tim Ortman with the Highway Department.

Good evening, gentlemen.

Good evening.

So to start off with the buyer's storage up there, we did have some questions about the bridge jumpers, et cetera. So right now they're continually shipping buyers in. They're estimated to be complete shipping them in about the 17th, 18th of this month, at which point they've got the contractor on standby. They're going to pull the bridge jumpers out, set them off to the side is what they'll do. They will actually leave with our, like, speed bumps. that them bridge jumpers sit on top of asphalt, three, four inches tall, something like that, that separates the bridge jumper from the bridge deck, they will leave them in place. The simple fact, when the supersized load comes in, first October somewhere, first couple weeks, they'll need to put the bridge jumpers back for one day to bring it in there and then remove them. So it'll go back to, it'll still be a road closed situation, open to local emergency traffic, et cetera, et cetera. So that's where that sits at. Did get notified from them today they've got some stone. It looks like maybe about 2,000 ton available. For us to do the hauling and stuff, it's 53 stone. So I've talked with Chris and stuff. It's pretty close to the amount we would need for the parking lot back or behind the pool if we go ahead and do that. So I'd almost, I mean, they want to start moving pretty quick. Like next week, start moving. We would haul it. So I'd like to have permission to just go in there and strip the tops of oil and That would be actually under an acre. We're looking at about 111 feet by about 375 feet. Parking lot is what we'd be looking at. So I'd like to have the permission to just go in there and get started.

Are you looking at the front spot and the back spot?

No, it would be the back spot is what we'd be looking at.

We've got to remove some trees up there in the front spot. Yeah, a couple trees.

I mean, that's the... Right now, I think it figures about 2,100 tons of stone, roughly eight inches thick to do that. So if there was 2,000 tons, it would basically be enough stone to do that. And we can operate, we can get moving pretty quick on that. I mean, a couple small trees take out there, some fence take out, and we can be rolling pretty quick.

So all for that sidebar, has there been any more discussion with Ferguson as far as asphalt? I know we...

Chris, I'll let you take a look, Chris. You had that conversation.

So I sent Jurgenton the, after we talked the other day, I sent them an email, and they said they needed a layout of what it was going to look like, and then it would get in the queue. So they're still.

So they're on board. They're still on board. That makes me even more of a, yes. Yeah, I talked to everyone.

One last question with that. Front and back lot? So we need to work on the front at some time? We will at some time.

But they need the stone moved ASAP.

Okay, gotcha. That's what's driving this.

That's what's driving it. We can do that one immediately after, but it's just this is enough stone to do the back one.

I gotcha. Okay, all right.

That makes sense.

Okay. And are we paying for the stone?

We're not paying for the stone. We'll be doing the actual trucking. They'll load. We'll truck it.

We'll haul it. Nice. Okay.

Nice. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Good by me.

So we'll continue on there. Lawyer, they started striping 200 out there today for the parking spots. How's it look? Huh? How's it look? It's looking good. They got started on it. Yes. Okay. So they probably got about two more days. I'm guessing something like that. But yes, they got started. They got the center lines down and started on the parking spots.

Was there any – I don't know if you sent that layout. You probably did. But was there crosswalk designations or anything?

Yeah, there was one or two crosswalks. But then it's got the side crosswalk around alongside with the lineators separating it.

Thank you.

So Evergreen finished up at Chippenseal, which was part of the 25-26 community crossing grant. So they got completed. They're done. They're moved out. Are you satisfied with – Yeah, I think they did a pretty decent job. I mean, we had a little hiccup getting started, but kind of like a normal project.

But, yeah, I think they did a pretty decent job.

So hopefully get that wrapped up with billing everything six to eight weeks.

So hopefully that closes down.

So we did submit the community crossing grant. It opened up the first this month. So we submitted two applications, both of them chip and seal applications. One of them was 29.3 miles for 381,000 roughly. The other one was 24 miles for 351,000. So we usually split our application because we only get one part one. At least we got something more than nothing. This year is going to be very creative. They told us that since 1461 changed the funding mechanism to $100 million. I don't know. We'll find out. We'll cross our fingers. We know it's going to be very tight.

But we did reach $369,000 late model distribution out of that. So because we didn't receive that, we're not eligible to go back with that on the community crossing.

So we did receive that. So our asset management plan, new patient ratings, that's been completed, been done. We've not submitted because they've not opened the software up for us to submit it.

So once they open that up, we'll submit it. But we're ready to go as soon as that's done.

So bridge 131, which is on 200 south, 1050 in the county line, we've got the driveway contract all signed and that's done. The only next step will be to send RFPs out for construction inspection. So we'll start drafting our RFP, go that direction on that. Bridge 141, which is on 1000 West, they did do the geotechnical boardings investigation this week for the subsoil for the foundation stuff and design, so that has been completed as well. Bridge void project, the pumping of the polymer grout within these, we did meet with United. They came down. We met with their engineers doing it, looked at nine bridges, each individual. Everybody's satisfied this will correct the issues, so we'll be moving forward with that.

Is that a typo? Met with GSI engineers. Should that be?

No, it's actually GSI. It's a geotechnical.

Okay. So it's somebody else.

Geotechnical Stable International, I believe.

All right.

So, yeah, it's a different company. So in Castle, Colorado, we do have our tanks in. They're plumbed. So we'll actually be doing a road tomorrow, kind of a trial run. It's going to be one of the roads we double-chip seal next year. So they're going to come down there, their truck, their brain actually sprays it. So they're just going to go ahead and apply it when they come and then push it in our tanks. So that will take place tomorrow. That's what I had.

And the application, is that up on 100 West? They're going to do the application. They're going to do that one?

They're delivering with it. They're already set to do it. They're like, we'll just run down and shoot it. Like, great.

Yeah, that saves a lot of time.

Yeah, so they're going to do it. Yeah, we're still setting up to do it. But, yeah, our tank's currently plumbed, and they'll take the remainder and put it in our tank.

So you will be actually putting calcium chloride down?

Calcium chloride tomorrow. Okay, awesome. Yeah, they're supposed to be here about 1030.

I'll let that gentleman know. With your paver that you bought, you guys have been using that or been trial and error.

Yep, yep. How's it going? It's going good. It really is amazing. You guys kind of got it dialed in, figured out? I think so. I mean, we have a hiccup here and there, but all in all, I've been very pleased with the guys and what they're doing.

Okay.

So we've actually been running a road widener. So we actually did do last week 350 West with bike top last fall. We went out and put stone shoulders on it, getting the kinks.

Yeah.

Yep. Yeah, so we got that done. Some of the places we had storm damage, Warshall and Side Road, Warshall, we've been going around touching them up with it. Okay, good. Yeah.

All right. Good deal.

All right. Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

All right, up next we have on the agenda Sheriff Bill Myros. He wasn't able to be here tonight, but the topic is Kevin Rohrer's retiring. The request was going to be that with Kevin's retirement that we allow the Sheriff's Department to gift him the duty weapon, the handgun, that he had been carrying as a law enforcement officer for his career with the Sheriff's Department. I know we had done this last year with someone else.

I thought we already approved that. one of the meetings before he came and asked if we if we would do that this is a different one this is the Kevin so all those in favor say aye aye those opposed motion carries up next on the

looks like Decatur County Ordinance 2026-15 It's a request to rezone 6.04 acres from A1 to I1 zoning classification to operate a light industrial office and warehouse. It's located in Jackson Township by Trevor Stapp. First Stapp Holdings LLC. We had seven members present, two absent, all present from the APC voted in favor. None of the members voted against the petition. The address is 12,040 South County Road, 800 West, Westport. 12,040 South County Road, 800 West.

into sardinia huh that's that curve going into sardinia yeah that was originally put in a seed seed operation yeah seed operation okay that makes sense i would uh make a motion to accept that a second all those in favor say aye aye those opposed motion carries

I'll give an update here since Doug's not here to give me an update on the comp plan. We had a comprehensive plan steering committee meeting last Thursday to discuss the public feedback from the draft copy of the published. So we took the feedback that we had received from the community, discussed the feedback that we had received, and tried to change some of the language that was in the comprehensive to reflect some of the community sentiment. Two and a half hours on about two lines of the draft comp plan. I think it's better, I think it's more capturing of what the community is looking for. I'm still waiting on getting the exact revision at this point, but it'll be rolled out again after that. So the wording that was discussed the most was discouraged but not prohibited. That was the portion that was, I think, probably discussed the absolute most. And then we also went back and we were referencing the current, the 2017 comp plan and the wording that was used in that one. And from the 2017 plan, we adopted the current comprehensive plan review, the draft that was put out for public comment, we had adopted a sentence from that 2017 comp plan that says the county does not support development of alternative but not prohibited section. The group came up with alternative energy sources or generally discouraged So the process is then that it's going to be sent to the APC for their comment, potentially sent back to the steering committee, and then sent to If it has to go back to the steering committee again, it goes back to the steering committee again. Our deadline on the grant is the end of 2026. So there's still time to keep working on this. We spent a lot of time discussing it last meeting and a lot of input from the members. So again, if you have comments, let us know. Mike Snyder, EMA.

So earlier this year you had me we knew that our contract was going to need to be revised for the maintenance of the county's generators for our various facilities believers approximately 10 of them I think and went out and sought three quotes for that. And I provide you with copies of those. And our lowest quote, come in for the maintenance at $7,775. And that would be for a three-year contract. I believe that's per year for a three-year contract.

And part of this... Part of this fiscal part of this is that ARPA, there were still funds left over from EMA when they were given funds, and it has to be used up before the end of 2026 when they purchased the new generators, so this still falls under that umbrella of generators, and I think it was around $10,000, $10,030 that EMA still had in their ARPA fund, so this will come out of that fund to pay for this maintenance contract.

I believe that what's left now, because we've also paid some generator repairs, but this would still cover the biggest majority of that.

Okay. Is there anything that defines what service needs to be done?

yes so each one each individual quote should have the details of what they're performing and the rate at which they are providing like for me because like what i have here just but you included when you for when you when you did like the rfp when you requested the the bids you had an actual spec mostly what we required was uh inspection twice a year a spring and fall or summer winter however that broke down usually in the spring and then again in the winter and that would uh perform a routine maintenance such as the oil changes the various different things that they inspect and look at and double check airfield out in the rfp that was kind of your expectations Yes, that was emailed back and forth to them of, you know, we want twice a year checks, and we'd also want to know what the hourly rate would be when there's a problem that comes up and we have to have you come out and look at it.

Perfect. So I know, I mean, I don't see a grand total.

Which one was the lowest you said?

The lowest one was Genset. Yes. Of the other two, the one you'll have to do some cross-checking of things to actually total it out, but I have those numbers here if you'd like those as well.

Yeah, please.

Okay. So we had Genset, we had D&E Mechanical, and we had Lorem Electrical. Lorem Electrical had a base of 14,615, and then with load tests on part of the generators, that would come to 10,500. extra, and then another 500 for the smaller generators, bringing, if I have calculated that correctly, up to 25,615. D&E Mechanical was the next one, and their total, roughly the same, approximately the same metrics, come up to 29,044.

What was their base? Did they have, like, a base that they bid? I'm looking at something comparable to Genset. Obviously, you said Loram's was, you know, 10, what was it?

25.

No, but the initial piece was 14.

Oh, the initial piece was 14.

Yeah, so it's still clear delineation. All right. Right.

Then our last one there with Genset. They say they do the load tests. I know that from what I have seen of what they have tested, it certainly sounds like they're doing the load test because it runs wide open. But their quote was significantly much lower, 7,775. And they have been a pretty responsive company to work with. While not extremely local, they're not super far away, and they've been very responsive, keeping in mind that it's public safety operations, most of that.

I would make a motion to approve GENSET to take care of the generator maintenance for 2027. I'll second that motion.

All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion carries.

Thanks, Mike. Thanks. One other point, quick point of information. This week, we will be going live with our new mass notification system. Just got a couple more things to tweak with the system to make sure everything's going correctly, and we'll be opening that up, I anticipate, by Friday at the latest, but looking more like Wednesday or Thursday, so...

It's tomorrow or the next day.

So yeah, I've started to make up flyers. I gave you all copies of what those informational things are going to look like and a tentative rough draft of my media release. I sent some emails out this afternoon to media partners and telling them, hey, we'd like to...

Okay, so if I was signed up for – the previous was Code Red. Correct. I was signed up to Code Red. Will I be automatically into Decatur County Notify now, or do I need to re-sign up?

You'll need to re-sign it. The two systems are completely different systems. And what information come left over from Code Red is extremely fragmented. So we were not, upon inspecting that and looking at that, And we could only get a small portion of it out there because of their technical difficulties.

All right. So that's just something that people need to know. If you were signed up for Code Red, you need to sign up for Decatur County. Notify now.

Yep. And we will have all that information coming out here by the end of the week.

Very good. Thanks, Mike. Thank you, Mike.

Thank you.

Up next, we have the Sand Creek Advisory Board appointment. I think you guys had announced that at the last meeting when I wasn't here. We did. I have not received any information. I don't think anybody's here this evening that's looking to be appointed to Sand Creek. Township Advisory Board so we will put this off for two more weeks if you're interested in being on the Sand Creek Township Advisory Board please get a hold of one of the commissioners or someone let us know that way we can appoint you to the Township Advisory Board up next we have the The Greensburg-Decatur County Public Library has an opening on their board, and we've received a letter from the library director, Brenda Campbell, that Pam Thackeray is interested in serving on the board of trustees. So I will make a motion that we approve Pam Thackeray to the library board of trustees.

I'll second that.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you to the folks that are willing to be on these boards and help projects that these different organizations do. Up next, we have the Park Road project. We had received some communications from USI that we just needed to get some information out that there's a legal notice of planned improvement. The Decatur County Board of Commissioners, City of Greensburg, with funding from the Federal Highway Administration and oversight by the Indiana Department of Transportation are developing plans for phase one and phase two of the reconstruction of Park Road. and the City of Greensburg, Indiana, Decatur County. Phase one of the project is sponsored by Decatur County and begins at County Road 200 West, extending to Greensburg City Limits at County Road 150 West. And phase two is sponsored by the City of Greensburg and begins at Greensburg City Limits at County Road 150 West, extending extending approximately 0.047 mile east of Weatherby Court within Greensburg city limits. with Patty Hensley. All interested persons may request a public hearing, be held, or express their concerns by submitting comments to the attention of Courtney Haverbush. Her phone number, 513-917-0331.

Her address is also available, and her email here at the courthouse. So please direct comments, questions to her.

Up next, we have the RFP for the annex.

Just going back to that Park Road project, my understanding is those properties that are affected by the Park Road project should be receiving letters from USI, the engineering company, that this is all taking place.

I think that they've been in contact with most of those. of discussions about the project and the current designs and the effect that the project would have on their property. OK.

The annex RFP that was published in the Daily News on August 25th and September 2nd, we have currently seven parties that are interested. I have not received any documentation back from any of those parties, and that is due on September 11th. So once we get those back, that will set in motion some talks between us working on the report. Request for proposals and quotations.

Okay, so that's where we're at Yes close business on Friday We have a use of facilities City of Greensburg is requesting to use the courthouse restrooms. There's going to be a train visit to downtown Greensburg on September 26 The hours will be 11 to 4. I think we've actually done this in the past, and Brian was kind enough to monitor, be the whole monitor for the... We have a varsity and a JV, or just... All right. All right, I'll make a motion that we approve the use of the restrooms on the first floor. I second that. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Up next, Tree City Brewing requests the use of Rebecca Park on October 10th, 2026 from 2 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. They are going to have a stage on the lawn, I guess. Looks like it's similar to the concert series with live music, food and beverages, and electricity will be needed. They will be serving alcohol and will get a DORA permit. I see a certificate of insurance here. Looks good. Yeah, it's the million dollar policy.

I would make a motion to approve the Tree City Brew Free Concert.

I'll second that. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. The Boy Scouts would like to use the grandstand area at the fairgrounds like they did last year to shoot off their bottle rocket projects. They're asking for the Fridays in October. If you remember last year, they had one or two different Fridays rained out, and so they're just asking for the Fridays. It's only going to be one day, but they just want all of the Fridays in October for the grandstands just to shoot it off there in the grass.

I would make a motion to approve the abuse facilities for the Boy Scouts.

I'll second that. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. I have the contract here that we previously discussed and approved for the signage at the fairgrounds on the water tank. I'm guessing everybody's seen it at this point, but we are very grateful to Obermeyer Agri Group and the Obermeyers for their generous donation to the fairgrounds ready project. And so at this point, I would just be making a motion to authorize my signature to the contract. No second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries.

Is that all that business?

I have one more thing. Christy, can you email me a copy so that I can send that over to them? One thing I just wanted to remind everyone of talks away day is this coming weekend. It is not going to be the same as talks away, uh, has been, it is actually only going to be tires. So it will not be your household waste, your electronics, your light bulbs, your paints. Um, the reason for that is that Decatur county solid waste is going to be opening a new permanent facility later this year where we will be accepting those different materials weekly. They will be open multiple times a week to be accepting of recycling and other hazardous household waste. But the Tox Away Day is only going to be a tire day this coming Saturday. Last bit of business, Chad, we had been contacted by Leanne with communications that there was a request for information and a requested sign off for that information relating to the vehicle that was on the frozen pond last winter.

Yeah, so we were contacted actually a long while ago on a normal Access to Public Records Act request for the audio and call sheet for this incident back in January 25th of 2026, which has been fulfilled. This media company based out of London is pursuing some type of documentary, so they have requested a licensing material release, and I've reviewed it. In my role of looking at it from the eye of making sure we're covered, I have lots of problems with it, none which would likely materialize into an actual problem, but the list of my problems with the document as drafted is It identifies Decatur County Communications as the licensor, which is probably not the appropriate entity. It's more than likely the Board of Commissioners that would be the actual licensor of the materials. So we would need to make that change They have requested an irrevocable right to our material which I think is a general rule I would never give anybody an irrevocable right in anything I owned Because there's always something that could happen that would lead you guys to want to revoke that So I would suggest that as a change There's a general vagueness to this that bothers me because while we are the holder of the information, it involves a member of our community, the public at large, who was a good Samaritan witness that called this in. We don't have the ability to give them authority for his name and likeness rights in the documentary. And it involves Greensburg Police Department, which also we do not have that power over. uh... it was forward to the city and the mayor gave a response that ignored or didn't understand the question so I'm not satisfied that the city would fight it but I definitely am not satisfied that they have granted their permission to use the names of their officers and the information that I would think this company would need before submitting all of this into a documentary so it either needs to be changed significantly to address that issue or sent back to them in a rejection until they acquire the appropriate sign-offs from the people within the recordings themselves. And so I've scratched out a bunch of proposed language, but until we decide which is more appropriate way to respond to this, I haven't formally drafted anything. And then the final piece is just a layer of protection. Since this is a foreign company, I think we would want to add a choice of law, jurisdiction, and venue provision that says, this is an Indiana, Decatur County issue. This is our information. If there's any dispute arising out of that, it happens here, not somewhere else, different country entirely. So it's only a one-page document. And I've probably marked up half of it now because I just I'm not comfortable with it, even though I can say that I don't think this is a bad thing for our community, and I don't think there's any bad intentions, but that's not what my job is to think about intentions. So looking at it from my perspective, I have a lot of problems with what is otherwise probably a normal situation. So it's up to you guys as to how you want to proceed from here. Those are my issues, and you can tell me what you want me to do with it.

I would lean towards rejecting until any of those concerns are cured.

All right. And if it was the parties involved that were asking for this to do this to help with the documentary, I think I would feel better about that, too. But being that it's – I mean, there's not much information in what you have, you know, as far as to what's being done. And so that gives me an uncomfortable feeling to then – somehow rights get misconstrued or what they think they're allowed to do and then it looks like it came from us and I don't want that. Somebody in the community who didn't want that to then have that happen to them.

Right. And a lot of my concerns are little easy things, but the primary concern would be the Good Samaritan identified in the recording who may or may not want to be a part of this and may or may not want his name and all of this out there in a documentary. You know, to a certain extent, GPD isn't as big of a problem, but I think the city should be responsible for sorting that out, not us.

I would agree with that. Yeah, me personally, I don't have any appetite for proving that without more information.

All right. So I will follow up with the people I need to address those issues, and then if we get that resolved, I will draft up some edits to resolve these simpler issues, but not until we know the bigger issue has been solved. Very good.

That's what I have on my list.

Tim, can you come back up for one thing? I had reached out to you a few weeks ago about the Westport covered bridge. Yes. So I got a little bit more information, wanted to see what the best way to proceed is. So we had cameras up, or not we, sorry, Westport had cameras up covering the bridge. They went through quite a long time with not seeing anything happen there. I don't know, somebody watched them take the cameras down, but then as soon as they took the cameras down, that's when the problem started again. So we're getting graffiti on the bridge, and obviously, you know, that is something that is in our inventory. So I reached out to Tim for that. It is our structure. It's obviously a piece of historic as well, so a historic site. So I think we need to do something to eliminate the graffiti. It just looks really poor. I don't think it's a good look for us. You said that there had been times in the past, I think, where we've had to cover it up before, is that right?

We've covered it up before. Sometimes it's not real deep. We're going to pressure washer. We basically pressure wash it. A lot of times it don't remove all the paint, but makes it where it's not legible.

To a certain degree, it phases out a lot.

I usually choose that as a first option because it gets back to the wood versus just a white or black blob painted in there covering stuff up. But sometimes, you know, yeah, it requires just going in there and paint and paint over top of it. That's not really a good choice either because then they just get a different car and it shows out. But yeah, but I mean, we can address it a couple of different ways.

So yeah, I mean, you want us to try it and try to eliminate what we can.

Is there something that's offensive that's really need to get more detail than others?

No, I think it's just overall. You know, it's kind of grown. And my suggestion to Westport is going to be to ask to put the cameras back up. You know, just obviously it was working. You know, are you really going to catch somebody at night anyway? You know, that's – but it worked. I think we need to get back to it, but it's looked pretty bad. And I know there's definitely some concern in the community.

Go down there and see what we can do to address it before we get carried away taking any drastic steps. Okay. See what we can do to pressure wash over it.

Good. Thank you. Thank you, Tim. Anything else, gentlemen?

I did speak with Matthew earlier this week about the animal center, and he's working on getting some blueprints, some drawings, some things put together. I think that we talked about this and talked about this, and I think we need to take some action on it. So I've been working with him about – Moving forward with maybe even here in the future, in the next month or two, getting some quotes, putting an RFP out, and look at maybe some quotes and costs of what a shelter would look like.

From the long-range planning meeting last Friday, that topic had come up, and I had told Ashley to pull together a list. of the must-haves and the wants so that we can start looking at those things in a shelter with the different blueprints that we have so that we can have an idea so that we can then move down that road for how much it's going to cost and then also the availability of the different grant funding that's available.

Yeah, that's one of the things we did talk about is funding options.

That way we know roughly how much something's going to cost for AND THEN HOW MUCH GRANT FUNDING IS AVAILABLE. THAT WAY WE CAN MAKE A DECISION BETWEEN LONG-RANGE PLANNING AND THE COUNCIL AND THIS GROUP WHEN THAT PROJECT IS VIABLE.

I LIKE IT. AND MATTHEW AND I DID MEET WITH THE DECADER COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION. my understanding as if i reached out to him earlier that the board did approve that fund um so it would be much like the other projects that we've done we would be able to use the community foundation for their small fee that goes back into their it goes back into the community anyway um but use them as the is kind of the base you know for all the fundraising so that was approved very good um it looks like next monday and tuesday i'm going to be in a jury trial

I'm sorry, the next commissioner's meeting, not next Monday. Okay, I was going to say. The next commissioner's meeting on the 21st and 22nd. We've already passed the final pretrial conference dates and jury comments have been sent out at this point.

So it looks like this one's going to trial.

Brian, anything from the EDC? No? How about Parks? We got anything from Parks, Chris?

Just a couple quick things.

Nine tournaments left this year. One, obviously, this weekend and going through that first weekend in November. And then we do have our Trick or Treat in the Park scheduled for October 24th, which is at the City Park. So there will be a tournament out there that weekend as well.

So that will probably be a zoo.

Even more than normal that weekend. So other than that, that's about it. We do start women's volleyball next week as well.

What time is the Halloween?

Two to four.

to four on the 24th yeah yep and that'll be we're starting our big social media campaign marketing campaign for that as well ken how about things at the veterans office there for you so the qr code will now work the decatur county's uh website is now back online uh chris just scanned it and it works it's a good thing Real quick, at the next commissioner's meeting, Ron Higgins, the district service officer that I report to, will be coming to do his biannual little update to you guys. And I just texted him just a few minutes ago and trying to make sure that he brings information some statistics with him so that way you'll see exactly what we're doing and how things are rolling for us i did take a look at uh... the twenty twenty five numbers i think last year uh... a lot of folks don't know this but as far as of veterans receiving their compensation uh... last year i briefly read about six point four six point five million dollars that comes into the veterans of our county We're up to 6.6, and that's even before I came on. I would really love to be able to give to you some numbers that shows the difference. When I came on, hoping to be able to do that, but I know we are talking about Veterans Affairs, and sometimes they're a little bit behind. I also had the opportunity to sit down with the foundation to start looking over Veterans Day, what we were going to plan on doing. The American Legion is doing stuff on Veterans Day. We are actually, and so is the foundation. So the foundation and I are teaming up and we're going to do an event over at the Annex building. We actually had talked to Brady Domingo. We're actually going to video our veterans coming in and just go, hey, your name, branch of service, how many years did you do and what neat thing happened while you were in service. because I think we're losing some of these really important stories that our veterans could have, and then I want to get Bill involved with that to maybe let him view that and see if there's anything that he would like to write up. But I think that's going to be a great thing. The Veterans Day Parade, that is a topic of conversation. The American Legion wants no part of it. They're saying they're not doing anything on the Saturday. We could use their building if we want, but they are absolutely not doing anything. Anything as far as the parade so we've had conversations about it about you know it is in the middle of November Is it going to be cold is it going to be what kind of weather we're going to have? One of the ideas we came up with and I've already reached out to the high school Greensburg high school is trying to see if they would do a Veterans Day basketball uh during one of their basketball games and do a veterans appreciation night we're trying to do it when it's the greensburg and north decatur are playing so that way it's really an all-county thing south we'll get the south to come up as we can but to do that you know having a time where one it's indoors climate controlled and i think we can have a better turnout for the veterans appreciation so we're in conversation of that and hopefully we'll be able to make that happen because i think that would really be cool And then the last thing I wanna just say that during the fair, I had the opportunity to talk to the Boy Scouts and there's also a group called Trail Life, sort of a Christian organization of the Boy Scouts. And I sort of challenged them that, hey, I would love to get them involved in some of their activities of flag folding and honors and things like that. And I've actually got a commitment from both of them that they would actually help us or help me when we go and change all the flags in the county for the courthouse and over at the annex building to come over, help me take them down, fold them properly, and then storm. So that could be one of their badges or merits that they can do. So trying to get the those young folks involved into being able to show pride with our veterans as well. And other than that, that's all.

Okay, the parade, the 14th or the 8th? Before or after?

It would be after the 14th. So it would be Saturday the 14th. Yes, it would be after Veterans Day. We thought that would be a better one because then we can sort of advertise it even while we're on Veterans Day when we have it at the foundation group and coming together.

I think the last couple years it's been the Saturday after.

instead of on the 11th yeah so that's what we were planning the 14th for the parade but uh again we're trying to figure out if is that a viable even event anymore or do we say hey let's do something where it's indoors and we can get more of a population because everybody likes to come out and see high school basketball um so maybe able to get a bigger bigger turnout for that so just an option for us okay you brought up a good point about the videos and losing

you know, some of those stories and stuff. And I don't know if they'll have the time at this event, Is that something we've ever done before, like giving them the opportunity to tell some stories and compile that?

Last year I got to the event over here with the foundation, first time that I was, and we didn't do anything. They write on paper a couple things, but, you know, those don't go really anywhere. But capturing them in a video and to be able to group it into, you know, just a little segment I think would be fantastic. And it could be a historical document. I mean... That's kind of what I was thinking. What would it be if I can grab our World War II veteran that lives in Westport and have just a simple conversation with him, or our Vietnam veterans that are here, or Korean veterans that have seen some stuff that, and or just changes, you know? I think we had a guy that was part of Iwo Jima, What a story that could be. So I think there's some really cool stories out there. I'm sure I can pull one out after 36 years. I'm sure I can find a story somewhere that I've went through as well. But I think it's just a great opportunity to be able to hear the stories of our veterans and what they've done.

If you need any help with that, let me know. I think it's very interesting. I think it's a good idea to try to maybe make longer videos. Or if there's some participants that want to do... either that volunteer to tell a story and be able to compile those, I think that would be a really good thing for us to have. Yeah, thanks.

All right. Tim, nothing else? All right. Mike, you may. Carla, communications. Matthew, animal shelter? No? All right. I'll entertain a motion to recess.