Common Council - Regular Meeting

and open the common council meeting. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, roll call, please. Carol Steve Beardsley, present. Isaac Chavez, present. Taylor Crrenshaw present. John Large. Robert Stevens. Clarence Woren present. Eric Woods present. Okay. Next we have the minutes from the February 9th, 2026 regular meeting.

Those would be in the paperclipipped portion of your packet. And I think you said sent a new set out, didn't you? Yes. Those are the ones that were paperclipipped. Yeah. I move we approve the minutes from February 9th, 2026. I second it. I heard Clarence and John. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Abstain. Isaac Chavez. Hi. Taylor Crrenshaw. Hi. John Large. Hi. Robert Stevens. Hi. Clarence Horen. Hi. Eric Woods. Hi.

Okay, the minutes have passed. Um, next we have public comments. I have uh two different individuals that have signed up. First one is Mary Lynn Peter. And the way we have been doing this is that you have three minutes to talk and the microphone is right up here.

Okay. I am Marilyn Peter. My husband and I, Randy, live at 653 North Main Street in Frankfurt. We are here to talk about the uh GVR Sports Hall, the nightclub that's right down the street from us. Um along along with all of our others, I'm just going to read what I wrote. It's easier to do it that way so I don't forget anything. Um along with those our neighborhood, we come here to complain about the continuous noise coming from that area. Every Saturday night when there is an event, sometimes Friday and Sunday, we have to endure the loud bass noise coming from that building. The noise continues until 3:00 a.m. Sometimes, and even later, even when an officer tells them to turn the bass down, the other music, including singing, gets turned up. So, we hear the the loud instead of the bass, the singing in the musical instruments. Calling in and complaining to dispatch has worked. Sometimes, most of the times it doesn't. We have officers that stood outside our houses and can hear the music but comment it's not that loud. Sorry. In my opinion, any noise coming from outside that building that you can hear is too loud. Um, one can walk by the Eagles Club when they're having a ban and you can't hear any music on the outside. I know a noise ordinance was put in place after several complaints a few years ago and that is the making or continuing or causing or aiding to be made or continued of any loud unnecessary unusual noises which either annoy injure endanger the comfort repose health or safety of others unless the making or continue of the noise is justified or necessary to protect life shall constitute a public nuisance and shall be unlawful. the the ordinance is not working. I don't know if they're getting fined whenever they're being called in, but I I think they just turn it up later. Sometimes their bands aren't even scheduled until 11:00 p.m. and I think that's when the noise ordinance starts

is at 11:00. Um there I know they don't have any control of when their customers leave, but they're loud cars. They're screaming, yelling all the way down the street. Their mufflers are squealing their tires. I mean, once we hear that, we know it's going to be over soon. Um, I I spoke a few years ago to Deputy Munos, and he was our go-between for me and the owner of the club. He was going to give him my phone number and vice versa, and we were going to sit down and talk. That never happened. I never heard from the owner. Last Saturday night, a neighbor called three times about it. When an officer finally showed up, he asked her if she was the one that's constantly calling in. That would be me. That is one reason I don't call in anymore. Um, before the building was under this name, it was Rigmick, which was an indoor soccer club. Sometime sometime maybe three or four years ago, it became the sport hall, which was a nightclub. None of our neighbors got anything from the zoning board that that is going to turn into a nightclub. I mean, I think most people would have said, "Hey, you got something to say?

Your time is up. I'm sorry. Oh crap. Well, I'm about done anyway. So, anyway, she'll continue on. Okay. Thank you. If anyone needs any of these papers, I got them. Okay. Thank you, Mary Lynn. Okay. Next, Becky How.

Thank you for letting us talk. I'm Becky How. This is my husband, Mark. We live at 603 North Maine. Um, when we moved in, the building now known as GVR Sport Hall at 500 North Main had various occupants over the years. We did not experience significant issues. However, for the past 3 years, the current event center operations have created ongoing concerns for our neighborhood. While we appreciate community events, nearly every weekend in the spring, summer, and fall, there are large late night events with live bands, significant alcohol use. These events create excessive noise, heavy traffic, and parking congestion. Patrons often use nearby lots, and people frequently congregate outside and up and down the street until early morning, often with alcohol in hand and children present. Small buses sometimes bring in large group, aiding, adding to the congestion. Early Sunday morning on March 8th, I woke up to large bass music coming into our home. I called dispatch at 1:29. initially giving incorrect location of Jackson and Barner. I called again at 1:52 to correct it to the event center and a third time at 3:11 a.m. to report the music and possible vehicle breakins. When an off officer arrived, I was told they could hear the music but were not here for that and that it was not that loud. After explaining I had called three times, I was asked, "Are you the one who calls all the time?" We had tried to resolve concerns directly. On one occasion, Mark went inside the facility to speak with someone about the noise. The environment was very loud and no no one approached him, which caused him to feel concerned for his safety. As he left, members of a brass band continued playing while following him outside. On other occasions, he has respectfully asked for cooperation regarding the noise, but has not been

able to resolve the issue. Several neighbors share similar concerns but are afraid to speak publicly. There have also safety issues. Teenagers have been found with alcohol hiding in large hydrangeanger bushes. Significant trash is left behind after events and the business pays an elderly gentleman gentleman to clean the area each morning. Additionally, last year there was a stabbing incident directly across the street from our home in the parking lot frequently used by event attendees and an individual was jailed. Um, we ask that the council review this situation, enforce ordinances, and ensure reasonable limits that protect neighborhood safety and quality of life. Questions? Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. So, Chief Shoemaker, would you like to address their concerns? I will tell you today that Rob Bogue from building services, uh, one of the police officers, myself, went down there and and did talk with them for a while. So, uh, we are aware of the issue and are working on it. I'll have Chief Shoemaker tell you what.

All right. First of all, I apologize, uh, for Sunday morning. Um, I have already uh reached out to the supervisor of that shift. Uh, I'm extremely disappointed in our action, our lack of action at the uh establishment on Sunday. Um, the sound could be heard from the roadway and a citation uh should have been issued um to the establishment. Uh so today uh I've been working uh with the Indiana Exise Police. Um the somehow the event center was allowed an extension on March 5th granted them uh to serve alcohol uh until June 3rd of 2026. The application hasn't been filed uh since that extension on March 5th. So the local alcohol board has not uh set a meeting yet because they don't have an application. Uh we as a police department are going to speak against them having an alcohol uh permit. Uh Sunday morning a underage driver uh was arrested for an OWI and we believe that individual came from from that hall. Uh to all of you we have tried for two years uh to work with this individual uh to follow the law and to self police. we don't have enough police officers to sit down and watch this place uh the entire night. And so we tried to work with him to police himself. He has refused uh to do that. I issued him a citation myself last April. Uh and then the uh supervisor again uh just 18 days later, he received another citation. He has paid those citations um to the city clerk treasur's office, but we are already uh trending back to where we are going to continue um to get called down there. And so I have uh again met with

the excise today. Um the alcohol permit would just ban them from serving alcohol if they don't get it, but it would not prevent them from continuing to hold events. As far as the zoning, that's the question for um somebody else. But I believe at last when we studied that uh two years ago, um that building uh since it never ceased from owner to owner, I believe it's under contract. However, I don't believe that contract has been filed uh in the recorder's office as a sale. So, but we're under the assumption that the owner, a previous owner that they spoke about that had didn't have a lot of problems um then when it changed hands, it just it's still deed in that individual's uh name. So, uh we are um going to work uh to hope that the alcohol board uh does not grant uh the permit. they have not um shown that they can enforce laws uh such as underage drinking. Uh the the noise ordinance um has been um it it was effective I think for about uh 2 months after we wrote those citations. However um in the numbers we were the site the ordinance was passed in 2024 August of 20 or yeah August of 24. Um, prior to that we only had five reported noise ordinances. We've had uh complaints. We've had 10 since from that that establishment. So, the uh night shift supervisors have been given an order of zero discretion on this establishment from here on out, especially through the next 3 months uh to issue citations for the loud music uh if we can hear it uh from the sidewalk or the roadway. It's it is violation of the ordinance. So uh that's all I can really offer right now uh to you all. Um

but again the officers have been uh counseledled from Sunday morning uh for their inaction on that event uh and we'll uh it it will not happen again. Thank you. Chief maker Rob did you have anything to add to that? Yeah if you would like me to just a second.

Okay. Thank you. And by the way, my name's Rob Bog and I'm the building inspector, senior building inspector for the city of Frankfurt. And myself, Kevin Catherine, the fire inspector, the mayor, and Brady went down a police officer today. Uh I believe he's acting deputy chief for the moment for a little bit till officer Munos recovers. Um but we did do an inspection of that building. Uh Kevin cited probably seven or eight issues of things that we have addressed last year. Um he is going to go back down and do a reinspect in two weeks. Give him two weeks to do the repairs that are needed. Um I cited him for this is an ongoing issue um holding events without um ADA compliance um in his building as far as restrooms. I'm going to give Kevin an opportunity to work on him first and then we're going to go and address that. I'm sure you've seen the ramp that has been installed outside which is ADA compliant. Um we're trying to do the best we can. and I have went down personally on behalf of the board of works last year when this was a continuing problem and and basically sat down the road, made a phone call and said, "I'll be there in 30 minutes. It's not empty. I'm going to shut you down." And that's probably a lot of the times you've heard some squealing tires and different things like that because it didn't take them long to evacuate the building. Uh but we are back into that process already of trying along with the police department going to police that facility and we can't and unless if they lose their alcohol permit we can't that's just something that we're going to have to go

until that happens. Uh but we will do our best on behalf of the city to try to get him. I told him today, I said, "We have had this issue and we're not even through March yet, and we're already having complaints." And I said, "We're not going to we're just not going to do this again this year." So, we as far as my office um building services, we will do our best to if he does continue, we'll stay on him until things are up to code and we can do what we can do. we can find, we can shut him down. We'll try to do anything we can to make you guys's life easier if we possibly can.

Okay. To my belief, this was the first in their first event this year. Okay. A couple weeks ago, they had something going on, but I wasn't I like I said, I just don't call Hollywood just because it's the same person calling in all blah blah blah. And it's nothing. more than defying the law. It that's what it is. There seems to be a lack of respect for authority as far as I'm concerned.

Um that was addressed today. Not that it made a difference, but when you have two building inspectors, a fire inspector, the mayor of the city of Frankfurt, and a police officer, you would think that would finally show somebody that we are serious, that we are going to take this seriously, and we will address it as it continues to happen.

Can I add something? What's going to make this really bad is when them little kids played over by the funeral home. They run across the street. I have to sit out there on Saturday night on my truck tailgate and chase kids out on the street. So when they come out with parking lots, swallow the tires and fly down there. One of them don't get killed and they're very little children. They do not watch. They run all over the neighborhood. That was address that was addressed today. Also, gets killed. City will probably get sued. Somebody will get sued. Everybody get mad. They might finally break it up. is going to cost someone child's life. That's my big thing about the whole thing.

That was that was addressed today uh from fire inspector Katherine. He did address that there had been an issue several years ago where a child did get hit. Um so, you know, it has happened in the past. Is it going to happen again? There's always that possibility. Uh, but a lot of things were addressed today and I hope that by taking the mayor and all the people we did, I'm hoping that will show him that this is a serious thing. We are going to continue to address it.

I appreciate everyone working on this police and you and the mayor. We didn't know. I mean, we don't want to go through this another summer and we figure we'll start with you guys. It's not you guys. You'll tell us where to go where to go. And right right now he's he is operating under under a temporary occupancy permit. So our job we're going to work on this the rest of this week to go back and look at some dates, some issues. Uh and we will again I will go address those issues and if I can pull his occupancy permit I'll do it. I'll put a stop work order on it.

Can I ask one question? Do we know why we weren't aware that want to turn into a nightclub. That ma'am, that was way before my time. I've only been in this position for 14 months, 15 months, and I'm sure this was started way before I got in the office. So, I can only do what I can do. Well, okay. Thank you, Rob, and thank you for being here tonight. Okay. We'll move on to uh the next thing on the agenda. That's a public hearing on ordinance 26-04. and that's on an additional appropriation ordinance. So, I'm going to recess the meeting at 7:18 and uh open the public hearing.

Do you want to talk on that? This is the additional appropriation for ARPA and opioid funds which require us to appropriate these funds before they can be spent out out of our budget. Is there any other comments or questions?

The ARPA funds are committed um they were required to be committed by December 31st of 2024 and they do have to be spent by December 31st of this year. And the opioid funds um have it typically been uh spent by committee between the mayor and the county. They've combined funds and shared those resources with the appropriate groups that deal with opioid related services in the community. And that's our fund balance currently in those funds.

That's correct. Okay. Does anyone have any questions? Okay, I'll close the public hearing and reopen the council meeting at 7:20. Um, this is for ordinance number 26-04 on second reading. I'll move to pass ordinance 2604 on second reading. Second. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Hi. Isaac Chavez. Hi. Taylor Krenshaw. Hi. John Large. Hi. Robert Stevens. Hi. Clarence Warren. Hi. Eric Woods.

Okay. Ordinance number 26-04 passes on second reading. Uh, next I will recess the council meeting again at 7:22 and this is a public hearing on ordinance number 26-05 which is an ordinance amending ordinance establishing procedures and fees for trash collection and disposal of garbage and waste. Would you like me to speak on that? Yes. Would you please?

Yes. This is the ordinance that would increase the trash fees um $2 per year um or $2 every two years, I think. Um and this would uh allow the trash uh the street department to have the funds to purchase new equipment that is needed.

And I might just mention that your trash fee is strictly for sanitation. That's for the the to run that part of it. so that your trash can be picked up. We do recycling also branches, leaf collection, all of that. It's not funded by any property tax or any other money. It is funded strictly by this trash fee. Does anybody have anything else on that? Okay. At 7:22, I will close the public hearing and reopen the council meeting on ordinance number 26-05. And this is second reading. I'd like to make a motion we pass ordinance number 2605 on second reading. Second.

Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley, hi. Isaac Chavez. Hi. Taylor Krenshaw. Hi. John Large. Hi. Robert Stevens. Hi. Clarence Warn. Hi. Eric Woods. Hi. Okay. Ordinance number 26-05 passes on second reading. Uh, next we have ordinance number 266 and this is on first reading. Um, Alicia, I may have you talk to us a little bit about that.

Sure. So, this ordinance, what the um purpose of this ordinance is is to change the bulk item rates for items that are picked up by the street department and items that are dropped off at the street department. Um, it increases those rates and then it also provides for trailers um and a rate for that. Presently, there is no rate for if someone brings a trailer full of bulk items or anything like that. It also provides for recycling um that uh users of recycling of the recycling program would have to have their items in bags or they would have to be in um bins of some sort so that they couldn't just blow all over the city. A lot of times what happens is people will put their recyclables out the night before and then we'll have a storm and the next thing you know the recyclables are everywhere. So the goal is to try and get the recyclables to be picked up by the street department and not blow everywhere. So they would need to be in bags or they would need to be in totes. Um they cannot be in the trash toers. They'd have to have a separate tote for that. Um and it also provides that we don't pick up glass anymore.

Now is this the one you talked about both readings or no? No, this is this one would just be first reading unless the council wanted to pass it on both. And this is currently table Um, yes, that was tabled from last meeting. We tabled it because Brian and I wanted to make some amendments to it before the council considered it. So, we'd have to start with a motion to read it by title only or its entirety. We read ordinance 2606 by title only. Second. I heard Councilman Stevens. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Hi Isaac Chavez. Hi Taylor Crrenshaw. Hi John Large. Hi Robert Stevens. Hi

Clarence Warren. Hi Eric Woods. Hi Common Council City of Frankfurt Indiana. Ordinance number 26-06. An ordinance amending ordinance establishing procedures and fees for trash collection and disposal of garbage and waste. Could I have a motion to either suspend the rules or pass it on first reading? So, you think it's going to be urgent enough to suspend the rules forward? I don't believe so. Do we have to have a public hearing on this?

Um, we probably should since we're amending the bulk trash rates, um, the fees. Usually, what I recommend is if we're changing the fees, we do have a public hearing just so that way the public can be aware and, um, it's published in the newspaper. So, we really can't pass it on. I'm opposed it too. So we Yeah. Yeah. We And we traditionally I agree. Yep. I'd like to make I'd like to make a motion we pass ordinance number 2606 on first reading. Oh, is that 06 or 07? 06. 06. I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm sorry. Did Was there a second? I didn't hear one. Second. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Hi. Isaac Chavez. Hi.

Taylor Krenshaw. Hi. John Large. Hi, Robert Stevens. Hi, Clarence Warren. Hi, Eric Woods. Hi. Okay. Ordinance number 26-06. Passes on first reading. Uh, next we have ordinance number 26-07. This is first reading. Uh, did you want to Is this one you talk about? Yes.

Um, this ordinance. So, last meeting we passed an ordinance annexing Tad Rentals. It was later brought to our attention that the legal description they had provided to us was incorrect and needed to be corrected. So, we have to re pass the ordinance to have the correct legal description so that we can get it recorded when this is completed. I would ask if possible if we could pass this on first and second reading tonight simply because it was already passed and we're just amending the legal description and that's the only thing that changed in this ordinance. So moved. Second. Do we need to read it by title? We we need to read it by title only. Read it by title only. Yeah. Title only. Second. Thank you.

Roll call. Steve Beardsley. Hi. Isaac Chavez. Hi. Taylor Crrenshaw. Hi. John Large. Hi. Robert Stevens. Hi. Clarence Woren. Hi. Eric Woods. Hi. Now we need to suspend the rules. First we need to hear it on title only there. She has to read the title and then we can suspend the rules.

Common Council, City of Frankfurt, Indiana. Ordinance number 26-07. An ordinance amending ordinance 26-01. An ordinance annexing certain territory to the city of Frankfurt, Indiana, placing the same within the corporate boundaries thereof, and making the same a part of the city of Frankfurt, Indiana. Tad Rentals. Now the rules to suspend the rules. I wish to suspend the rules. Second. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Hi. Isaac Chavez. Hi. Taylor Krenshaw. Hi. John Large. Robert Stevens. Hi. Clarence Warren. Hi. Eric Woods.

Hi. And and the clarification, this is the the the zoning, I mean the the annexation out by the schools, right? Correct. Yes. Yep. That's the one we just passed. Just to make that correct. Y Okay. Thank you. Okay. Now, I do need a motion to pass it on. I'll make that motion to pass ordinance 2607 on first and second reading. I'll second. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Hi. Isaac Chavez. Hi. Taylor Krenshaw. Hi. John Large. Hi. Robert Stevens. Clarence Woren. Hi. Eric Woods. Hi.

Okay. Ordinance number 26-07 passes on first and second reading. Uh next, and I think that you all had it in your packet as well, is the NHK uh fiscal plan along with the petition. And I'm going to have Alicia explain that to you. So NH NHK when they created their new facility, they needed fire protection and they entered into an agreement with the city of Frankfurt to provide that fire protection. That agreement provided that after a certain time frame, which has now elapsed, the city of Frankfurt could voluntarily annex the um NHK facility into the city of Frankfurt. And that that agreement served as a petition to do so. So, we have the petition before us tonight. The process to get this annexed uh if you if you so choose would be that we would um have the petition in front of us tonight on March 18th. I would need direction to publish a notice of public hearing so that we could have a public hearing on the fiscal plan. We would then have a meeting on either April 7th or April 8th based on the timelines provided by state statute to have that public hearing. At that meeting, we would approve the annexation ordinance on first reading if it pleased to the council and we would approve the fiscal plan. And then after we have done that, the earliest we could approve the ordinance on second reading would be April 23rd. And the next council meeting is May 11th. So we could wait until May 11th to do that, but the earliest we could do it would be April 23rd. So what I'm seeking tonight is uh a motion to uh move forward with the annexation and publish notice of public hearing in the newspaper for either um April 7th or April 8th and we would have to have a special meeting.

So moved. Second. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. I. Isaac Chavez. Hi Taylor Krenshaw. Hi John Large. Hi Robert Stevens. Hi Clarence Warn. Hi Eric Woods. Hi. And then we need to decide whether we want the special meeting to be on the 7th or on the 8th of April. I don't have my phone. What days are those? Um that would be a Tuesday or Wednesday. You said April 7th or April 8th. Yes. Well, I know at have a busy meeting.

We could do it after. What time? 5:30. 5:30. Either one will work for me. I'm good. I'm good. Either way. Yeah. April 8th would work best for me. 8th would work best for you. But what time would we have that? That's up to you all. It would realistically probably be like 6 o'clock cuz I won't get home until probably 6:30 or 7 on Wednesday. Tuesday I'm I'm good 79 6:30 time wise we could do 6:30 6:30 April 8. Would you be here by 6:30?

I could try. He'll be close. As long as we have a quorum, we'd be fine. So, can can it be attended uh virtually? Yes, we just can't have over half of the members attend virtually. When is this going to be? April 8th is what's being proposed. And that's public hearing and first reading. Uh yes, that would be public hearing and first reading. Okay. At 6:30. April 8th. Okay. I will get that published in the newspaper. Um and then we'll have to notice the special meeting, Carol, just to the press. And then um we've already got the fiscal plan and everything. So I'll have the ordinance ready to go and the resolution um approving the fiscal plan. Okay. And all that can take place on the 8th at 6:30. Okay. Is everybody okay with that?

Yes. All right. Cl Okay. Thank you. Um Okay. Do you have a CF1 tonight for us, Carol, from Frankfurt Medical Office? We do have one CF1 brought to us by attorney Jay Moore for the Frankfurt medical office facility. Is anyone here to represent this group? I I haven't heard from anyone. Have you heard? I have not heard from anyone. This one has significant reductions from the SB1 original proclamation. I mean, we all know that was a reduction of services out there. So,

I think we gave him a pass last year. I think we did. Um, is do we have by any chance the record on how many years is left on this abatement? We can find out. Started in 17. Yeah. I can't remember how long it was. I mean, it's got to be about over, but I would think do we have enough time if we table it? I believe it has to be done by May. So, we should be fine. Okay. In that situation, I think I would move to table this until we have a little bit more information and then see if Jay wants to uh, you know, come represent his client.

I agree. Me, too. I I will not note that um a year ago we did this based on that that uh the tenant that was using it was pulling out and since then um with them has has been increasing the amount of stuff and and given the kind of medical desert we kind of be have been finding ourselves in. If we can find way to continue to encourage them, I sure would like to see that continue to grow too. But again, it also needs to to to meet the qualifications. So, did you make the motion to table? Yeah. To table. Second. Second. John, it was done. Who? Roll call.

Steve Beardsley. Hi, Isaac Chavez. Hi, Taylor Crrenshaw. Hi, John Large. Robert Stevens. Hi, Clarence Warren. Hi, Eric Woods. Okay. Okay. Um, just one more thing that I have under new business is we need an economic development commission member. Um, Michael Bright was the last one. He was appointed for a two-year term. Of course, he's no longer here, but we need a council appointment. It's a council appointment, a a county appointment, and a mayor appointment, I believe. What's the board? Go ahead. It's the economic development commission. commission

and they don't really have a lot of meetings. I think they just meet once a year to appoint a president and a vice president and a secretary treasurer and that's well they do they're required because we have a redevelopment commission but they don't really do a whole lot. They don't have okay if you need I can I'll volunteer. Do they report to the state? there was some reason why we might I'd have to have to do once a year which REI prepares the state reporting so that the council the commission doesn't do it. So, Robert Joe said he would take that. Does anybody you want to do you want to do it by consensus then? Or

is it Oh, yeah. How's the nomination? Well, all right. I mean, nominated nominate. He nominated himself. It's okay. Don't matter me. I mean, okay. So, we got you down. Who's it going to be? Huh? What? Who's it going to be? Robert Jones. Robert. Okay. I I'm still looking for a member. So, I actually still deal with Kimberly issues easy to work with.

That's what people disagree.

So, is that everybody in favor? Consensus. Consensus. Okay. Does anybody have anything else? Congrats, Joe. Yeah. Okay. Okay, I'll take the motion.