Common Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge 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 Crenshaw is absent. John Large. Robert Stevens. Present. Clarence Worthen. Present.

Eric Woods.

Present.

Okay, next we have the minutes from the June 8th, 2026 regular meeting.

If we can get better finances, we can...

We have a motion.

I move to approve minutes for June 8th. Second.

Okay. Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Aye. Isaac Chavez. Aye. John Large. Aye. Robert Stevens. Aye. Clarence Worthen.

Abstain.

Eric Woods. Aye. Okay. The minutes have passed. Next, we have public comments. We do have a public comment. We do. Okay. David Riggs, do you want to come up here?

I have a couple issues to talk about this evening, the first of which being the train that stops and cuts Frankfurt in half. I live over by the health department on Rossville Avenue, and when that train's there, you couldn't get an ambulance to my house, so the closest ambulance is now in Lafayette. And stroke or heart attack, seconds count.

I can address that real quickly. I mean, I'll just say what I can tell you about it. I've reached out to Railroad several times. I did last week and again today with them because I just keep getting complaints and complaints. So they have turned that over to the Railroad. They're aware of it. He said sometimes they bring trains in from Lafayette. That's what's called causing the holdup from, you know, ADM and out there. So I have addressed that with them and also repairing all the crosswalks.

Every railroad crossing in town.

Yes, and I have addressed that with him several times. I did again last week, and I sent him an email early this morning. I heard back from my contact there, and he's working on that.

Yeah, I was told that the city sends the railroad tickets, basically, and the railroad throws them away.

No, but I could probably have Chief Shoemaker talk about that a little bit, but go ahead.

If you raise the fine on the tickets to enough that it's out of small claims court and into big court, maybe that would change their mind about stopping out here. Because they could stop farther down the line and not cut Frankfurt in half.

I request it again today that they not do that. Can they legally be ticketed? I don't think they can. They tried that a few years ago, correct, Scott?

I don't think they'd legally be teaching it, sadly.

Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that we cannot issue citations.

And I think that the Frankfort Police Department tried that probably about eight years ago, eight, ten years ago, and they could not go anywhere with it. So we're working on it, believe you me. But I have my contacts I talk to along with we have talked to Jim Baird's office along with Todd Young's office. So I've tried different avenues.

I can pass that along now. I hear from a lot of people. Oh, yeah. And the other thing I want to speak about is data centers. That's been awful quiet for a while. They can't come into the county right now for a while, but they can still come to the city and get the property the city has, I believe, unless something's happened that I don't know about. I would like to see a moratorium because the data centers that are going up, they all say we're going to be great neighbors, and they're not. There are problems with every one of them, with people who live around it. And I don't want one in my backyard. I don't want one in Frankfurt. But I feel if there was a moratorium, I believe this is the place to bring that up, that until we actually see what they are, because they can show you drawings all over the place, and they all change. Blueprints change like crazy when you're building a house, so blueprints are going to change on a data center. And I would like to see that stopped in my city.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, David. I do have one question for you, Alicia, though. A moratorium on a data center, can that be for the city individually, or does it have to be a countywide one? Do you know?

I don't know offhand. I'd have to look. I know that other communities have done that, but I'd have to verify whether or not it has to be countywide or if it can just be the city. But I can take a look into that if you'd like me to. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Any other public comments? Okay, at this time I'm going to recess the council meeting at 7.07 and we have a public hearing on ordinance number 26-13. Anybody have any questions, comments on this? And that's the additional appropriation for the backhoe for the street department. Okay, there's no questions or concerns. I'm going to close the public hearing at 7.08 and reopen the council meeting.

I'll move to pass ordinance 2613 on second reading. Second.

Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Aye. Isaac Chavez. Aye. John Large. Aye. Robert Stevens. Aye. Clarence Worthen. Aye. Eric Woods.

Aye. Okay. Ordinance number 26-13 passes on second reading. Next, I will recess the meeting at 7-09 and open the public hearing on ordinance number 26-16. And that is an additional appropriation for the Parks Department. They had damage to a building out there. And that is the $10,000 is our deductible. So that will help cover that deductible for them. Does anybody have any questions or anything on that? Okay, I will now close the public hearing at 7.09, reopen the council meeting. Next, we have the second reading on ordinance number 26-16.

I make a motion to pass ordinance 26-16 on second reading. Second.

Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley. Aye. Isaac Chavez. Aye. John Large. Aye. Robert Stevens. Aye. Clarence Worthen.

Aye. Eric Woods. Aye. Okay. Ordinance number 26-16 passes on second reading. Next, we have ordinance number 26. Sorry. I don't even have water. 26-17. I lost my voice. 26-17.

I don't know where it went.

Do we need a motion on reading it? Yes. I move we read by title only.

Second.

So Steve was the first, and I heard, I think, Eric, okay. Ready for the...

Yes, roll call, please.

Steve Beardsley. Aye. Isaac Chavez. Aye. John Large. Aye. Robert Stevens. Aye. Clarence Worthen. Aye. Eric Woods.

Aye.

Additional appropriation ordinance number 26-17.

Do you have any questions, comments on that?

And we are scheduled to have the public hearing at the August 10th meeting.

So we can only pass first reading. Do you have a motion?

So moved.

Do I have a second? Roll call please.

Steve Beardsley. Aye. Isaac Chavez. Aye. John Large. Aye. Robert Stephens. Aye. Clarence Worthen. Aye. Eric Woods.

Aye. Okay, ordinance number 26-17 passes on first reading. Next we have ordinance number 26-18. And this is on first reading.

I'll move to read Ordinance 2618 by title only. Second.

Roll call, please. Steve Beardsley.

Aye.

Isaac Chavez. Aye. John Large. Aye. Robert Stevens. Aye. Clarence Worthen. Aye. Eric Woods.

Aye.

Common Council, City of Frankfort, Indiana, Ordinance Number 26-18, an ordinance establishing a wheel tax and a motor vehicle excise surtax for the City of Frankfort, Indiana.

So my recommendation would be that we pass this on first reading only, and then we pass it on second reading in August. We have to get it passed by September, so that gives us time to do that. I did reach out to the Indiana BMV, and I did get them to clear this, that this format is okay. There's still a couple of other steps that we have to get a letter regarding TAMP and a bunch of other things. So I will get those together. I just got the clearance from the BMV for Friday, so right before our meeting and then I'll get that together and then we can pass it on second reading once we've got everything compiled.

And just for clarification, this will not cost Frankfort citizens anymore. It will just be a redistribution of this tax.

Correct. So the way that the wheel tax and the excise tax works is that right now the county is collecting it. So this will redistribute those taxes that are already collected by the county and put them into the city's budget as opposed to the county budget.

Okay.

So do I have a motion?

Motion made.

Second?

Second.

Roll call, please.

Steve Beardsley. Aye. Isaac Chavez. Aye. John Large. Aye. Robert Stevens. Aye. Clarence Worthen. Aye. Eric Woods. Aye.

Okay. Ordinance number 26-18 passes on first reading. Next, we have unfinished business. Does anybody have anything? Okay, next we have new business and we have a right of refusal. Alicia, can you talk to us about that?

Yes, so the Creekside Music building is up for sale. The city had a right of first refusal on that building previously for the owner who is selling it. We reached out to the buyer and they indicated that they would be willing to do a right of first refusal on similar terms that the present owner of Creekside Music did if we were to release the right of first refusal. So I've got three documents for you. First, I've got the release of the right of first refusal. Then I've got the right of first refusal and then a memorandum of right of first refusal. The terms of the right of first refusal is that they would grant us a right of first refusal for 10 years after they receive the title to the real estate. They did ask that they give us a period of seven days to... let them know if we're going to take action on that right of first refusal. So they have to provide that notice in writing, and then we would have seven days to act on that, excluding weekends and holidays. They wanted to put a timeframe on when we could respond because the one that we have right now is open-ended. So I did put that in there. I think that's reasonable. And then essentially the rest of the terms just say that we will record a memorandum that it's good for 10 years. If a sale does not go through, then that... Right of first refusal remains in effect. If they're going to sell it to a third party and then that sale doesn't go through, then it would remain in effect. And then we will do a memorandum of right of first refusal that will be recorded with the recorder's office so that the public is aware that that is in place. So they did indicate, I sent them a copy of the documents and they said that they were comfortable with them and they would be willing to sign those if you all are willing to approve them.

Can this all be done with one motion?

Yes. Essentially what I would recommend the motion to be that you approve the right of first refusal and memorandum of right of first refusal and would instruct the mayor to sign those documents and to sign the release after the right of first refusal is signed by the purchaser.

So moved.

I was still writing. Did you get that? I got most of it. Sorry, I talk fast. Steve Beardsley.

Aye.

Isaac Chavez. Aye. John Large. Aye. Robert Stevens. Aye. Clarence Worthen. Aye. Eric Woods. Aye.

Okay, motion passes. Do we have anything else this evening? We do have Kimberly Black. Oh, hi, Kim. Would you like to come up and speak to us? Yes.

So I forgot to put this on the agenda, so it's not Carol, it's me today. Over the last couple of agendas, there has been a Vision Zero resolution, and you all asked for me to come back with how many fatal crashes we've had. This is in conjunction with the SS4A report. plan that we're putting in place. So tonight is just a conversation. So that way in August, Alicia can put in what we would like the resolution to have as far as a decrease in hopefully crashes and fatalities. American Structure Point, who is our firm that's worked with Um, us on the zero or vision zero resolution, um, said over the last five years, this is data that they've collected and we've had five fatal crashes. Um, it's my recommendation to the council to put in verbiage of a 50% over the next 10 years. Um, it was their recommendation as well, seeing as we have new annexed area, new I-65 in that jurisdiction and, um, uh, That was kind of their recommendation to all of you. So happy to answer questions, have conversations so that Alicia has a direction for our next council meeting. Alicia, is there anything else that you want to kind of?

No, I think you pretty much covered it. I mean, we've talked about this for a couple of months. We have to do a Vision Zero policy in order to facilitate that grant process. So that's a requirement. So it's just a matter of determining what our goal is for that.

Anybody have any other questions, comments?

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. So just to clarify, we want 50% over 10 years, correct? Yes. That's the consensus. Great. I will have that ready for the next meeting.

Okay. Thank you. Is there anything else this evening?

Okay.

Motion made. Second.

Okay. Thank you, everyone, for being here.