Redevelopment Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Already started. You got it on Cindy? I'd like to call the order for the Redevelopment Commission meeting for today, July 9th. And first thing always on the agenda is to approve the minutes from the last meeting.

I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes for June 11th, 2026 meeting. Second.

We have a motion and a second to approve the minutes. Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, the same. And motion passes. Thank you. And then our fearless leader, Ms. Lee, can lead us in what's...

Not in prayer.

We couldn't do it without you, Lisa.

I might be lost on that one. Lisa Lee, Ice Miller, serve as special counsel to the Redevelopment Commission. So we're here this morning on this particular piece to open any proposals received to a request for proposals that we put out. Just real quickly to go over the procedures that we've been through on may fourteenth this commission adopted the provisions of indiana code five dash twenty three which is required to use that statue you approved the form of request for proposals and you authorized us to publish notice of the request for proposals, which we did two times as required by 523. We did that on June 17th and June 24th. We provided an opportunity, information in that RFP for an opportunity to any responders to email us with any questions that they had on the RFP. There was a certain time to do that. We did not receive any questions. And then yesterday by noon was the deadline to provide any responses to the RFP in a sealed envelope. My understanding is we have received one, and I think you have it in front of you. So today what we're looking to do is open the RFP, announce to the public and in the minutes who responded, and then the evaluation committee will take that under advisement. The evaluation committee that we recommend, and we would like this commission to authorize them to review the proposal, is Robin Louder. Gary McDaniel, Gary Poole, and Ann Scheidler. And I would oversee that. If there is only one, then what we will do, well there is only one, so there being only one, what we will do is we will review that RFP for reasonable conformity to the request that was put out and the requirements. We will look for any terms in there such as management fee or any others that we may want to discuss with that responder. Then we will bring back to this commission. We want to make sure everybody remembers we were going to hold a special meeting on July 16th at 8 a.m. Hopefully everyone is still available for that. We will do the open door notice. I'm working with Cindy on that since it's not a regular meeting. At that meeting, the evaluation committee will bring back a recommendation whether to accept the proposal as is or if there were any negotiations with the responder, we will bring back a recommendation on what those were and how those came out. And then assuming that the commission wants to move forward with this responder, we will then publish a notice of a public hearing. that would be held, what we're looking at here, is a special meeting on August 6th. So that would be the second special meeting. That would be to hold the public hearing, make the final determination as to whether to award it or not, and if you award it, then anytime after that, we can enter into an operating agreement with that responder, okay? So with that, and in between that, we are required to, right now you do not have to, you have to disclose who responded, but you don't have to disclose any terms of the response at this time. When the evaluation committee comes back with a recommendation, we will then have to provide a written reason for the recommendation, and it won't just be because there's only one. There will be conformity, et cetera. And we have to make that explanation and that proposal available to the public for inspection if they choose to request it. before the public hearing. So in between that 10-day period, we will make that available. So that's the process.

Okay. So I'll open the proposal. I'd like to read in the record. We did receive one proposal, and the proposal submitted by the Hancock County Innovation and Education Center Is that the... Did you hear that, Cindy?

Could you hear that for the minutes? Okay.

The Hancock County Innovation and Education Center Incorporated is the respondent. And it's the stewardship plan, and there is copies.

Yeah, there were to be multiple copies, so we will...

Multiple copies and a thing in there. So that is... I'll put everything back in here for the committee. Maybe.

Everything hunky-dory.

The next action that I would request from the commission, and this is just in the minutes of voice vote, is that you authorize the evaluation committee that I gave the four names, you authorize them to evaluate the responses and bring a recommendation back to this committee.

I could entertain a motion to authorize the committee of the names that were... Robin Louder, Gary McDaniel, Gary Poole, and Ann Scheidler.

I'll make a motion that we allow that... That evaluation committee. Evaluation committee to evaluate the proposals received.

All those in favor say aye. Aye.

Excellent. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'll chat with you, Robin, afterwards. Okay.

Thanks. Lisa, one last thing. Everything from now to the end of September, the meetings we have, everything's going to meet time requirements, advertising requirements, and everything, right?

Yes.

Okay.

And we also back in just real quick on the amendments we were doing on June 11th, you authorized or you approved an amending declaratory resolution expanding your Mount Comfort North.

Right.

The June plan commission meeting was canceled for lack of quorum or lack of agenda items. Okay. So we're going to the July meeting. So we'll be looking at a regular August meeting for your public hearing on that.

Okay.

But it'll be a regular meeting.

Okay, so we'll have the special meeting August 6th.

Yes, you have two special meetings, July 16th and August 6th.

And then we have the regular meeting.

You'll have a regular meeting, probably the, I don't know if it's the 13th. It is the 13th. August 13th.

I thought we agreed to move everything.

To the 6th?

We could, if there's enough time.

I will work on that on the timetable for the TIF. That's why I was asking.

If there's enough timetable to do all the agenda on the 6th, we'll do everything on the 6th. Perfect. Okay. All right.

I think we can work that out.

The advertising requirements.

Thank you.

All right. Very good. Mr. Poole? Please give us an update.

Good morning. You may have noticed we've driven out there. 300 North has lots of traffic interruptions right now. That project is underway. We've got utilities underway. The road hardening between 7 and 8 is also going on. We've already made it miserable out there. We're just going to do all the work at once to... Do it at once. The road hardening has been successful. As you might remember from a long time ago when 700 West kind of collapsed under the detour traffic. So we're trying to do concrete stabilization of all our subways out there in weak areas. And that's been successful. So that's underway right now.

So you'll be seeing those bills coming in for concrete, asphalt, the things that come in. That will eventually transfer to 500 north and 400 west soon.

The airport is doing some work out there to repair some of the damages from their earth overhaul that they took out of there, but we also have our own project going on, so you'll see that project begin in probably a month out there as well. It's all planned. It's going underway. It's coming a little bit under budget, so that's always good. It's been difficult with the world situation. Asphalt's been very expensive, but there's been a little bit of a reprieve recently, so we're trying to jump in on that while our opportunity's open. Operator, employee operator selection. We sort of covered that, so I'm not going to go through it again. I3 update, the agreements have sunset. They've been reaching out to the council, so the council members are aware of that. Those have sunset. They're interested in development there, so work with Randy, and some of that will be coming through the council, but keep that in mind.

So are they interested in doing the same project they were to start with?

I believe it's different, and I can't speak for them, so...

Of course, I spoke with Mark.

I won't make him come all the way up here. I believe the billing will be a little bit delayed, which is not a problem for the roundabout. If you'd like to speak to that to some extent. They've had some coordination timeline impact from CSX, I believe.

Yeah, we have bid that and awarded to Howard Companies. There are some utilities being cleared and getting that available so the contractor can start construction on it. We've got, I believe, roughly around $3 million on the RDC's capital projects plan. I will expect a smaller portion of that will be this year, the draw of that with the majority coming.

Okay. It is programmed, so that's fine. It'll just be delayed. We'll transfer that. It is not what I asked for in our appropriation yesterday doesn't have that it's because it's appropriate for this year. What will happen is that we won't spend it this year and I'll have to ask for an additional next year.

Um, so that money that's there, do we, what do we do with that money? That if it's delayed, it'll be spent next year. It's still, I'm still keeping it in the queue because I'm, I'm running it against member. Our danger year is 2031 money off that money.

We have put a lot of money into interest-bearing accounts, but we have some restrictions on what we can do with that. This money, we will not be able to move to an interest-bearing account.

Well, you know, millions of dollars.

We were very successful with some of that. We'll do it when we can. This, we won't be able to do it with. All right. No worries. Northeast Airport, we were talking about the construction out there. There's some economic development stuff going on. Randy can walk you through at some point. It's still nebulous, but we'll see if they make a... There's a vendor that's kind of active out there, and if they want to be serious about it, there'll be a formal ask on the 21st of July. So pay attention to the July 21st commissioners' meeting.

Oh, the commissioners' meeting on the 21st. It is worth noting that we went through the budget process yesterday. RDC's budget was presented... The only modification that's going through the system is the 911 center has requested help with another employee. And so right now we're kind of throwing that back through the system. With Lisa here, maybe Lisa can hear that there is a 911 center. That's a good point.

So, Lisa, the council yesterday, they appropriated, but this group would have to spend it, $110,000 to pay for a 911 operator for this area, this TIF area. That would be an operational expense, but it's law enforcement. Is that something that this group can spend money on, or what does that have to look like? I know I've got you on the spot here, but...

Yes, police is...

Yes, we are paying operational police expense now and fire.

Then yes. Okay. Yeah, 911 is still under the same auspices.

Yeah, that's what we concerned about.

And so it's going back through the system and the commissioners will... We'll hear what they've already heard at once, I think, but the commissioners will hear it again or whatever, and it'll come back to the RDC for us to fund that. But the council has appropriated it already into the budget.

So this group will have to debate that here at some point if they want to pay those expenses sometime prior to the end of this year. It's the 2027 budget. Yeah, you have the ability to do it now. You don't have the obligation to do it. Yeah. Also, your stipend was put in there. And also, we've committed $455,000 to the sheriff. He's spending $300-some thousand on operational right now. The rest on equipment, I've kept in there as a placeholder. But there might be an additional ask or an ask to transfer some of those funds in case they get a, I don't speak for them, a... in case someone volunteers or wants to, or is voluntold to be a school resource officer. Is that the correct term?

School resource officer that so keep in mind that might come up in the future as well Yeah, so the school resource officer will initially be hired through the Sheriff's Department paid out of the RDC, but then amplify will reimburse the reimburse the RDC probably through that line item for the school so it might become a net zero item but we might have to set up the RDC and for the

It's kind of like some of my grants where we appropriate money, we spend it, then it comes back.

It is the best way to secure that structure in our county is to have the Sheriff's Department basically all involved.

But again, you have a few months to get that settled.

Yeah. And... I was trying to think there may be one other thing. The stipend, the 911, and the school resource officer were the three things.

What's the stipend for?

Our consultant. The way that the consultants and the stipends get, it has to be paid through a stipend. It can't be paid through one or the other, the consultant.

State Board of Accounts.

It's Lisa wants to keep me out of jail.

Accounts is telling us how we can pay.

If I'm incarcerated, my work's more difficult. It's harder to make the meetings.

I'll tell you what they told me when I was auditor. We'll bring you cookies.

I'll try to avoid that look, but Brad's got an outfit for me if I get down there. You can come visit me. We can have breakfast. That's all I have.

Okay. I believe Ms. Brooks is here. The TIF districts and all of that will be completed prior to any... in any of those areas prior to any future presentations from companies, right? I don't know that.

I believe that would be the way. I don't believe they're that fast, but I can't say that for sure. I believe if a company is serious about that particular area, that they'll probably present at the 31st of August saying they're interested officially. All right, it's like Randy. There's like 20 people interested right now in all sorts of stuff. There's all this talk. Just one has become a little more serious. I'm just trying to give you a little heads up.

Was I-3 warehouses?

Say again. Yeah, I-3 was warehouses. Okay. So to answer that question, I don't know. Okay. That's a solid I don't know.

I hope maybe if we go with them again that they will help with that roundabout like they said originally. Okay.

This is well those requirement. I put upon them right this is the 500 West Interstate 70 project right correct 500 West and and 300 North right the dead end My option B is gonna cost us money or at least 20% of it, right? Right, but we've my option B's not necessarily more That money's out of the system now or is it still in the system somewhere that you were gonna spend on that roundabout and

In all the excitement the last few days, I don't know. Let's look.

Of course, there's still a ways away, even if it all comes back to... We were going to do that in relationship to traffic, and it's a long ways from having a traffic impact.

It's not in there now.

Okay. But it's a long ways from having a traffic impact at this point. And if we have to renegotiate that, we may renegotiate that.

Yeah, their agreement sunset, so their expense was removed.

It is not, you know me. Let me ask you a question on that is, do you believe, because I had doubts, whether it's warranted to spend the funds to create a roundabout in that area just for that one warehouse?

They're changing the nature of it. I haven't looked at the traffic data of the nature of their, it depends on the amount of cars and semi-trucks. All right. So we use MUTCD and AASHTO for our standard. Those tables are written in blood. We've studied when people have a certain amount of accidents and deaths, certain amounts of traffic. I know. And when it crosses a threshold, in this case, it'll be a level of service D. So it's A through F. If it gets below D, I'm going to be, as the county engineer, saying this development is unsafe for the public.

Yeah, but when we originally negotiated I-3, none of that information was... The council was pressuring them, and some of the council members at that time said this would be a good idea. It wasn't based on traffic flow or anything. I mean, I was in those negotiations. That's correct. We never once heard anything.

I haven't looked at the new development, so I don't know if there's anything.

It's a $3 million to $5 million expense. Yes. And they were only going to pay 20%, 30% of it? or 50% of it? They were going to pay $875,000 of it. Okay. So that's what I'm saying. If it's a three to $5 million expense, I'm going to pay 20% of it. We need to have the hard data to tell us that that's what we really need to do. Yes.

As right now it's out. It's not in there. Okay. So for me to put it back in, my recommendation was like, I have to see what type of development it is and do the traffic analysis. It's not a perfect world, Gary. Oh, I just, I'm like seeing the matrix right now. No, I'm joking. It's, but yeah, we, we don't know yet. We, if they come forward to something formal, then we'll analyze it then. Okay. All right.

Well, and I'll be there in the negotiation with the council again if that happens, and we'll have those figures before we make certain decisions on that type of negotiation.

Wargaming it, if I were their engineer, I would do a right to build and go that way. The abatement's not worth the roundabout cost. I would forego the roundabout.

They don't have to come back to us.

They do not. They don't have to go back to the council.

No, they don't.

They never did.

Nope.

The cost of the money they would save on abatement would be less than the money of that roundabout. It's a business decision at that point.

Thank you. Anything? Ms. Brooks.

Just a small update. I-3 is on the technical committee agenda for August. I'm here today to request reimbursement of legal expenses related to economic development projects. Do you all have the paperwork in front of you?

This is it here. I didn't print all those, that huge packet for everyone. I have invoices here if we need to pull anything up.

Are there enough copies there?

There's this one for them to look at. I can pull it. No, the numbers here, I'm familiar with it.

No worries. Okay.

Holder. The sheet in July, the word document.

Okay so what in the past I can't speak for the commissioners but I've spoken with the commissioners in the past in with the council commissioners has stated that because we got caught red-handed at the last time we had projects come into the TIF area and we had to pay county money for legal fees. And so if it's in the TIF area and it's legal fees on projects that the county has to work on, then it's... It's basically an expense of the RDC. And so my understanding is as long as Kayla can provide the documentation that Gary and Cindy need to pay the things and everything, we can okay those expenses. And I'm sure Lisa, that's acceptable. We do know we get into these big projects. People come in, they request big things. And I think one of the last projects was $60,000 to $80,000 that we took out of county money. And it should fall under the auspices of the area because this is one of the expenses of the area. I'm pressuring the commissioners to be better in their negotiations. With the projects, if we have to outlay a lot of money for stuff like this, they should be able to recoup some of that money from the projects that they're working on. You know what I mean?

Kayla, the data center ordinance doesn't add up, that line item.

I know. So that's a mix of hours and dollars, but I've already got the correction figured, actually. So it was the hours times $250 an hour. So for $350 stays $350, and then I must have gotten sidetracked halfway through this. The 4.7 times $250 would be $1,175. The 30.45 times 250 would be 7612.50, and it all adds up to $9,137.50.

And this all is really just for the legal fees of Murlock? Yes. That's all these are? Yes. What is your annual budget for attorney advisement for the planning? $80,000.

Yeah, it's not real big.

It doesn't go very far.

The whole county. So we have to stay on top of this. And I don't think we've increased it quite a bit.

OK. How many of these four jobs are moving forward?

Just the data center committee and ordinance.

So the I-3 rezone is not happening, or we don't know yet?

It did happen. So the rezone back to ag on half of their property happened, yes.

All I was wondering is if we could still have an opportunity to recoup some of the costs if the projects still need to get favorable permitting. I see what I'm saying. Can you pass it through as an additional permit fee?

The... Truck parking is still in litigation. I don't know if that's something that could be figured up there. I'm not really sure about that. The power plant was more of a working with the state to make sure that we were all on the same page about what happened where in the county, home rule and everything. But yeah, most of them are legal fees kind of for defensive purposes, I would say. Yes.

Act 3 is going to come back, may come back again, it may not. They may not have any choice in what they do, but we may.

I'll make a motion to approve the reimbursable of legal fees to the planning department in the amount of $17,337.50. I'll second it.

All right, we have a motion and a second on the table. In no further discussion, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed the same. And thank you. Motion passes. Thanks, Kayla. Appreciate you coming in.

Thanks. Get with Cindy after the meeting. That'll come from 4624, the fund 4624. I don't know if she'll have to assemble an actual invoice for the next month's thing or not for that. We'll talk afterwards. But she may need to deal with Debra and make sure, does she need to assemble an invoice for us or not to do that?

I expect this to be kind of ongoing. Yes. It'll look like a regular bill. Whatever Debra and everybody sets up. Thank you. Okay, so next on the agenda, we need to ratify the annual information for the continuing disclosure compliance for fiscal year ending 12-31 of 25. So. I came over and signed that. Last week. Okay. And that was the stuff, that was all for 2025 though, right? Okay.

Do we need a motion on that?

Do we need a motion on that? It had a deadline on it.

It's up to you what you want to do.

But that's just the disclosure, the fiscal disclosure stuff for the state, right?

Right, that's what it was sent to.

Go ahead, please.

I didn't prepare that, but ratifying an action... You could have done it in the first place, so you should probably have a motion and a second.

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Thanks.

I'll make a motion to approve the ratify annual information for continuing disclosure compliance fiscal year ended 12-31-2025. Second.

We have a motion and a second on the table. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed the same. And... We are ratified. We are ratified. So we need to approve the invoices while Gary is here. Any questions on any invoices? If none, I will entertain a motion.

Motion to approve the invoices and the total $276,343.78. Second it.

We have a motion and a second to approve the invoices for $276,243.78. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed the same and motion passes. Thank you. I see we have a special guest in the audience. Dr. Parker.

Do you want to approach or Gary can tell us what... You know, I do, not for what we're talking about because I'm pushing that, but I do, I wouldn't mind taking less than 30 seconds.

No, go ahead, please. Thank you. The time is yours.

Okay. I've just sent the commissioners and of course I've copied Gary and the county superintendents a process for future requests that the Hancock County Career Center might make. So we're not in a hurry for that. That's 2027. We are incredibly grateful to you and our county leaders. When I look back at this, we've been spending four years ramping up to our career center, our collaborative career center that our county has never had. And for you to let us use Amplify Hancock is just enormous. We're very grateful. I just spoke with Stan Wilkinson yesterday, and he's looking at starting with 450 students. Our goal from four years ago was 400, because we needed to scale it. And we've exceeded the goal, and I just can't tell you how grateful we are. And I wanted to take the opportunity to say that.

We appreciate everything all of you did to get this.

Yeah, it couldn't have happened without all the superintendents actually getting together.

But we also understand that it wouldn't happen without your support. It was a great community effort.

My time on the school board, the superintendents wouldn't even sit in the same room together.

Yeah, we're aligning our calendars. We're doing a great job collaborating.

The only time I went to Mount Vernon was for a legislator update, and I got sapped with a... thing from the DLGF because they didn't advertise it as a meeting or something, so we never went back. So it was like, it was a hard time back then, but it really amazed me when everybody said, oh yeah, we can all get together, we can figure this out, and we can make it work, so...

Well, I just wanted to say, and I'll leave you alone to let you do your business. We're very grateful, but we're also incredibly excited. This is crazy cool.

We're excited, too, for you.

And then in our, you still have our budget and everything is still, and everything was approved again yesterday, and everything is still going on. So thank you, Dr. Parker.

Thank you. Thank you.

Or do we need more public comment?

Do we need any more public comment? Randy, you're here for a reason. Are you just here to make sure that we do everything right?

Checking up on this.

Okay.

These are attorney backups.

Okay. Thank you for staying, Lisa, for the whole meeting.

do the timetable and we can do August 6th for all your actions. Good.

Good. Well, we'll make it one meeting that month. So everybody please be back here on the 16th of July, 8 o'clock, and then on the 6th of August, please. And then we'll be back to normal stuff in September. I had a motion to adjourn, but I didn't hear a second.

Second.

We have a motion to second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. We are adjourned. You may resign.