Council - Regular Meeting

I didn't have my ball yet. I'm waiting a few extra minutes. John's on his way. He should be hearing him. Now you can get started.

Oh, thanks.

And then I looked up and I said, "Thanks." I get I'm going to go over this before well as we're starting uh visitors I don't know who came in first or whatever but we usually have no more than 15 minutes to state whatever if we have more questions we'll ask them or give a little more time but that's the way to do Man,

I was only doing Are we live? I can't tell you how fast I was doing. My hair was on fire. See, I have this, but I have three things. Okay. and the dumpster and J.

No, I did ask it.

So, go ahead. We're ready. There's one person not coming in. Okay, we're going to go ahead and start. I have the visitors on the front list. I don't know who you want to start. Me? Yes. I live here. Go ahead and come up or speak louder. Yeah, I'm on fifth in Kentucky right at the corner up there. I know they have a town hall once a month. I just want to come in and uh see a few things that are happening and what's going on in town. Um I do have one concern with my property. I bring that up now or you like to wait till the end? No, you go right ahead. You're on that. Yeah.

So, um the town apparently has underground drainage uh for gutter system. I believe that picks up the basement as well. So, depends on how your like your septic system or whatever. where I I'm on Kentucky, so I'm on the city sewer. Okay. Yeah. Are you talking about sewer or storm drain? Storm drain. Okay.

The storm drain backs up into my basement. It did it once in a year and a half I've been here. Now I starting to do it almost every day. So something changed with the flow of water. And I can combat water coming in through the walls. That's my responsibility. But when it started to come up backwards, they flooded the basement from the bottom up. I'm not sure how to combat that for you know rollover valve on it. Uh no, it's just a Which house is yours? I'm sorry.

Right on the corner of Kentucky and uh that had the big like Raymond Mars or Swinghammer. Okay. Okay. And what's your name? Victor. The last name Sacket. S A C K E T. Do you have a sound pump or anything in the basement? No, this is just a 4in terracotta tile that Okay. I fix up the drain from somewhere. They used to have the washer and dryer down there. The washer drained into that drain. So, that tells me that though it's functional for

forever. And then the gentleman that had the house before me, he is in a wheelchair, I guess. moved all that equipment upstairs. So, I saw the drain that's pretty handy. So, on the basement to go out the drain, but now it's coming backwards up the backing up. Yeah. Trying to figure out how to address that. You know, is there city maps that have that that drainage system storm drain there? I don't know where that storm drain or right on Indiana. No, Ohio and Fifth is that's the next storm drain. There isn't even a storm drain up in that area. There's a storm drain right at the edge of my property on Kentucky.

Oh, okay. Never mind. Kentucky. I don't suspect it. The best thing we could do is just run a camera down through it. You have a camera? Oh, yeah. I had a cheap one I tried and it didn't work at all. So, yeah, we can we can just do that. What's your name? Scott. Scott. I met you once before a couple times before. Yeah. Okay. Okay. He's our one man band. Yeah. Get up with Scott. Yeah. A little bit. Yep. Appreciate it. Worked through a time to do it so it's convenient. I appreciate I'm glad I came up now. Yeah. Thanks.

And and what is going on in town? If you're talking about Second Avenue, that's an all new line replacement. You know, there's several other things. This is a community building going up over there. Yeah. It'll be rented out later on. It's being donated to the town after it's done. So, that's just some things we know. Uh we're here concerning uh Red Bird Drive with the uh

store there uh the fire department purchasing uh the property directly north of the store. And uh there's going to be access going through to two more lots that will be sold for uh housing on the far north side of that. Um we were discussing how to do a maintenance uh plan on that. And then like Ashley said, as far as the storm or just like storms go, whenever they're snow, they are not necessarily open, but might need through there. Uh was wondering if like it was stated back whenever we built the store, if the town could do uh maintenance on that. I'm not asking for a paved road or anything, but if we could do uh uh grading and and snow cleanup on that, um you know, I I understand the town's funds are limited, but if we could uh get some maintenance on that.

Okay. What they do like at the doctor's office and the dentist office, they hire out small removal, but we don't do that for them, right? So, down the street. Yeah. So, the parking lot, not a big deal at all, but that street there, that easement, my concern is going forward with having the fire department back there um and having access to their to their new building. You know, me personally, I don't I don't know if we're going to be able to get that snow removal taken care of quickly. Um I don't think it should also be my responsibility to ensure that the fire department has access to their building, right? And we don't own that street. Okay.

It's a drive. No, the easement is not ours through there. The town never did incorporated or annex it in. It's I mean the ground is annexed into the town. We had to do that to get the license to the liquor store. Yeah. Yeah. It's a private drive. Private drive. It's just a private drive currently, but it's in the municipal limits of the town, but it's not it is a private

moving forward with the fire department having their building and accessing it. I know that we're working through an easement agreement at the moment. Um, but there has been some discussion about if the town would want to take that on if if bombs lookers could gift that to the town. I don't know if is the right word, but to take on Yeah. Yeah. I We'd have to get look over some We don't have enough information to make I don't think we have enough information to make a decision. I'm hearing that we're going to build a fire department or a new building. Never officially. So, I don't know. I'm not a great I'm not real sure what's what. I think we need to get together

and find out the details. you know, for the last since 2013 whenever I became chief, we started working on that project. Melanie's helped us with looking at land in the past and different things. So, it should be no surprise that we've been in the process for the last years to do that. The surprise is that we're just now finding out about it, not through the grape vine. You're now here at a meeting explaining that we're that you're planning on buying buying property. Y I mean, it's kind of like um you know, we're finding out about the best system. Now we're finding out you guys are going to do this officially. So I mean that's what we're trying to say is you need to come to us and spell out your plan so we can go forward with this.

Yep. You know as an incorporated business we're we're working on our end to do that. Nothing's official yet. We're still like she said working through paperwork. So it's not officially nothing's finalized. Okay. There's no official purchase yet. Hopefully within the next month we'll have that wrapped up I think. But so when do you expect to have a building sitting up there? I mean could be 20 years from now. Okay. You know, depends on funding. Yeah. We just don't know. It could be next year we get funding, you know. So we we don't know what the timing looks like. Um as far as

a road behind there or through the easement, um we're waiting on Universal Designs to finish their draft of the layout. Once they're done, we can share that. We don't have that yet to share, so we don't can't tell you what that looks like. Um, our thought is we come through Redbird Drive um with a road, maybe do like sort of a culdeac to the property he's got there or something to be able to enter on the back side of the building off of a road there.

Adam, is there have you talked to uh INDOC to see if you can get access? Yes, I'm getting to that point next. Um, so universal design is also a work with INDOT. Seems favorable. We're going to get access. Nothing set in stone that we will off the highway. Um, but we did have to purchase extra land because of the location they would they requested us to have to drive if we do get one. Wouldn't you think it'd be smarter to do an access off to 161 than it would be used Red Bird with a business sitting right there? because I'm I'm afraid that you guys exiting the fire station and somebody pulls out in front of you. I mean, this is kind of like a little bit of a recipe for disaster.

We're going to have a drive-through building, so we're going to need an in and out. And with the size of the building and the property, we're going to need two in an in and out. But what I'm saying is when you guys depart on a run. Oh, yeah. On a run, that would be my concern. 161. They're returning, we're going to come in. If you get 161, if we get 16. Okay. Okay. If we don't, then everything will go through Red B. Okay. So, I think when we and John was not on the board when this first correct when you first did Redk before

Yeah, that was Yeah. Uh I know at that time we were asked if we would pave that and make that a road and we said you know any kind of development would be on the developer and then come up with plans and then if if the town decided to do that you know you come to us with plans like usually subdivision the operator would do all of the roads and sewer and water and all that and then if sanex in the town takes over with maintenance so I mean that's not done yet. So, and and at that time, we said we weren't planning on doing that because we just couldn't afford to. So, I mean, I mean, you can bring us some paperwork and some estimates or I mean, we have no idea how far you're talking if you're talking all the way through there, how far it is, how long it is, what it, you know, because it's just an easement right now that you own, not us. Mhm.

So, you know, if you want to bring us some stuff like that so we can look at it and see, you know, because we don't have any idea what an estimated cost is. You know, right now we're very limited in what we do for paving. We've got two rock roads in Holland that still haven't been paid. I'm sorry. In Kentucky and Ohio. So, you know, it's extremely expensive to pay. So, we just have to have some look at some estimates that if we would even be willing to take it over as maintenance because once we take it over, we have to maintain it from then on. I mean, that's my feelings on Yeah. Only a good case. When would you expect to see a new building up there? I mean,

I mean, you've been working hard. Our ideal ideal timeline would be in the next three to five years. Um, of course, you know, we're relying on federal grants and things like that and right now those are not happening at all. So, so we're sort of at the at the mercy of the federal grant system at this point. That building estimated about eight months ago was 1.1 million. Just write your check. Awesome. Can you put that in minutes?

Yeah, you got it. I'm delusional with all that speed in my face. But yeah, uh you know, unfortunately things don't get cheaper. Um you know, and trying not to put the cart before the horse. That's why we haven't brought anything to the board because honestly, we don't even know if it'll happen yet. I mean, we're right. I mean, we're pretty well sure we're about 99% sure we're going to get the property, right? But as far past that as we can see, we have no timeline. So, your engineering fund firm is looking at putting water up to you and then we also have to worry about sewer. Yes. Okay.

Um and we're, you know, they're planning all that out, right? Um and as far as the road from Bob's to the property line. Um, our ideal would be when we do, excuse me, when we do grade work to have that finished to whatever specifications town would have at home. So, at least that section through our portion of the property would be covered hopefully within the green. Right. Right. Yeah. Because I think fire suppression you have to come off radian street which is 800 ft maybe something like that. Yeah.

And that's the responsibility of the property owner. So that I figured that's all in your ground. Yeah. That that should be all wrapped up in the green. Yeah. In the pricing. Okay. Okay.

Well, I said right now, you know, it's not eminent to take it over for us because we have one building so far. So, uh, you know, just bring us some ideas of what it would look like, what you would expect of us if you signed it over and we accepted it because right now we haven't sold any easements or taken any easements over. So, I mean, that's how I feel. That's I'm that's not just me. You guys got other ideas? I right now I don't see us taking it over. I think our ideal timeline for the fire department for dirt work to try and get everything leveled up for, you know, in the future. Yeah.

Um we're hoping to have some things nailed down by the end of summer so the following year we can get level. But as far as about Bobs and and paving out to that, I'm kind of like, like I said, this is this was all before I was on the board, so I'm kind of on the back end of it all, but what I understand is it was never agreed to do any paving out there. I know that they've asked they you've asked me a couple times about it. Mhm.

Yeah. Your brother-in-law um asked me about it and uh just that it with the what is that the what what is that the GIS shows that a little portion of it is in the town limits but not all of it. So I mean how can you expect us to do to do that? So I I I'm especially if you're wanting to put housing and stuff back here. I think all of it I think that the um records that we have aren't updated because it is all within the municipal limit right there. Now gsi is very confusing when you get on the gsi to see but that is right there the town corporation limits and then there was another sign here

expanded on GIS and the parcel number matches up with being incorporated. Yeah, I think it is incorporated within the town. It's all from department side as well. Yeah. Okay. I'm not going to open that can of worms about the best. So, yeah, that was 2006. Yeah. So, what's happened since then? Just to be clear, I'm not asking for anything as far as housing goes. You know, as far as that, I'm talking I'm talking the the what would be Bob's and shared to the fire station. Period. Okay. I understand the rest as far as housing goes.

Yeah. we'll just bring just get together. We'll we'll kind of hammer some stuff out and do some estimates and we'll we'll see what we could do. I mean, if if this is part of part of it, maybe we want to look at it. But I would be my concern is if we do this, then we have roads that we are planning on resurfacing this year because of water water projects that we I mean it might not be something we do this year. Oh, for sure not. you know, because we have we have to get these roads back into shape after all of our water projects.

And even after that, I'm thinking with settling and base work and all that, even to pave it, there's going to be a lot more than just surface work. Well, and with their timeline the way it is, I I don't mind uh if they're not going to be in there operating under our current agreement until they are doing construction and going back back and forth there. So, so nobody's asking you to take it over next week or anything like that. Definitely just want to start the conversation.

Yeah, I'm I'm open to that. That also uh leads me to like I need to know what you guys need from me as far as uh we are dividing that what's left up into some lots and so they would have to have easement access and you know normally the town would not take that over right I'm not yeah I'm talking about for like utilities for you know sewer water and you know just making sure that it's a possibility I guess the first thing I would say is get your get lots plotted to figure out how many you're going to have out there and how far and how far and that way we can look at

u the engineering side of it Eric popped up the side of it to see about getting uh utilities out to you water and sewage probably maybe some storm I don't know if we can do any storm drains out there can we is there anything out there not so water sewage station down below the hill.

We would have to see too if we would even be able to tap you onto our sewer since we're on an early sewer band. That's another thing, you know, with our lagoon system, we are on early warning sewer ban and have been quite some time. So that would be a question too is whether you could tap in because when we had another development earlier in the year that wanted to come in and it was several houses that would all have to be septic. Septic. Yeah. No, St. Henry would agree that off that. Huh. Is there a plan to get work through that? Uh, yeah. What is What was the latest one?

26 million. 6 million is just the same. I'll take that check from you. Okay. I'll change. It's not like that book right there is a is a Commonwealth grants that we went through for sewer possible sewer relief. SRF turned us down. OPER turned us down. We got no grant and no funding. Uh they actually said they were even looking at the regional sewer district coming down through from Honeyburg. That was 26 million or 23 million to do that

and that would be two more lift stations. So that's why there's not a development out there on BLT ground because they would all have to be separate systems. So I mean so that would be a concern also for me. you know where we're at with our sewer system u going so you're talking like half a dozen houses or something like that Jason or four max four that it's a big difference versus yeah 20 so plus like I said we have a live station down there not saying we couldn't so

yeah we don't know that we could we just have to check out everything through IBM and what we what we can manage and what we can't I don't know roll your I mean, we we really have we really struggle since we're the only lagoon system around and the state's not really crazy about lagoon systems. But and then if the state would take over, the sewer rates would be phenomenal and nobody could afford it. So that's one of the reasons why we haven't gone forward with anything because even doing a re regional sewer district.

We would have to put in se several lift stations and then we'd have to have increase our capacity out here and d we're looking at multiple million dollars. So you know and we just can't afford that. Even if we get a grant, you still have to pay 20%. 20% 26 million is a lot of money. So if you can fit four though, that's four more taxpayers. Yeah. Thank you. There you go. Just so you know, doesn't make any money. We're always on the edge with the sewer department. I just say, you know, get your plots and everything and we'll go forward with that. We'll try to be We don't have enough. Do I just deliver them to one of you or have bring them to a meeting or No, just get them to get it down here. Some kind of plan. Okay.

You can always come to one of our meetings and we can talk about it again. When they get finished, I'll bring it out. So, drawing how you want it, that kind of thing. where the easements are and who owns what so that you know we're not shooting in the dark there. So that's the best we can do but give us some kind of an idea on it and what would we would be doing and what we would be responsible for the access and also the responsibilities from then on.

Yeah. I I have no intention of you taking care of anything as far as the housing goes, but I'd just like to see uh you know, with with one house feeding off of it now, the the liquor store and uh hopefully the fire department getting a nice building there that it would be nice to incorporate that in what the town does as far as the personal uh property that's back there. Uh yeah, I don't see no need for you to uh take And we're not saying that it would never be taken over. What's that? And not saying that it would never be taken over. Yes. Once we looked at the cost and what the income would be versus that, you know,

because roads are, you know, roads are expensive and if you're putting a we're putting a a non-existing road there, you're looking at a lot of money, right? Lot of money. Yeah. Just doing just reservicing Iowa Street, which was two blocks, $70,000. Two blocks and that was our existing road. So yeah, and I think we spend around $130,000 a year on roads, although I know it doesn't look like it, but that's that's what we've got. We work within our budget there. So, but yeah, give us some information so that I said Ters have to have a pay. Everybody have to have a pay cut, just so y'all know.

Including. Okay, have I answered your questions? Best of my knowledge. Uh I was also going to say that uh as far as the uh residential property on the north side, there's a a good chance that I'm not even going to use the easement there because residential can get access off 161. Yeah. Very cheaply, too. Like 60 some odd dollars. Business is $250,000. Yeah. That is, you know, I don't It's a super two. I We fought that. John fought it. I fought it. We have discussed and discussed and tried to get that as an unrestricted highway instead of restricted highway because it's super tube.

I mean, you talk about an extra lane there anyway. You wouldn't have to add that much extra, but so far they've turned it down every time. That's why the Dollar General is where the Dollar General is. So, it's best we could use. Okay. You're on the SS 4A. So, why don't you wait? We're going to come up to that pre- Amy.

Yeah. I want to So Amy Gibbon Brock from the county clerk's office. We have an election coming this year. It's called the midterms. I'm always looking for poll workers. I like to find pole workers close to the voting locations. So if anybody would like to volunteer to be a pole worker, we'll train you and pay you. Or if you know someone that might be interested, please send them my way. Um, we will still vote at the at the the Methodist church. Uh, I'm excited to see when your community building might get done because I always soon

conversation of not voting in a church that's reviewed every year and the numbers outweigh the reasoning that of people that show up to vote. So, I don't look for that to go away. U, but when your community building gets open, that would be a phenomenal solution to that conversation. So, um, pole workers is my my ask. So, if anybody knows somebody that wants to be a pole worker, send them my way and I'll give them all the information. You need both. You all of them, clerks, judges.

Yeah, we have there's generally five people that we would have as pull workers. Um, at that site, we have an inspector, two clerks, and two judges. And it's bipartisan. Uh, so we would look for three Republicans and two Democrats. But anybody that wants to be a pole worker, send them my way. and I will have a good conversation with them. There's other polling locations. If if for some reason we get full in Holland, we can always see what we need in Huntingburg. So anyway, just wanted to go on record asking for pole workers from the community. Uh I I hate to ask pole workers is is hard because they start at five o'clock in the morning and if if I can't find anybody that's in the community then I'm asking somebody to drive farther away at 4:30 or 4 in the morning to get here. So um it's really important to me to find poll workers close to that voting location one because it's your neighbors generally that you're seeing when you show up at that polling place and it's nicer if you know the people that are working there. So,

and they've also been able to split up judges and clerks into half days. Not not inspectors, but yeah, we we limit that. Not we don't want all of the positions uh splitting half days. Um but we we're open to half day workers. That last year was the first time I ever saw half day workers and I thought what that you know coming from 5 to 12 and then 12 to 6. That's still a long day. It's a long day. It's still a long day, but we and uh I this is just my guess. I'm guessing this will be done by June or July because they'll want to have it for the Sunday in the park if at all possible. Well, maybe for the fall election.

For the fall elections is and I'm not saying May it won't be open. I mean, they're really hammering it. So, we're pretty set for what we have to do in May at this point. We've turned in what we're doing to the state, but we can always discuss that. Yeah, I I would I that's just my guess that they're pushing to get it done by the time we do Sunday in the park because it would be open with air conditioning bathrooms, kitchen. It's got a full kitchen and two separate bathrooms with three stalls in each. So, I mean it's I think the main floor area he says 162 people seat I'm going to say 140 maybe and it will have tables and chairs in that. So, it'll be ADA approved. Yes. Yeah. Entrance and

all of it. have the sidewalks. Um, and I have a side entrance, front entrance, and a back entrance. Nice. And everything down the main floor, um, the only thing going up the steps would be storage. So, everything upstairs would be storage, but everything downstairs will be wide open. You can actually walk in there now and see what it's going to look like. It looks like it's going to be very nice. Yeah. So, thank you for letting me speak. Oh, yes. Thank you. Thank you for your service because you've been there a long time and you do a great job on the master board. I have never yet had somebody like really it really has been good. Good.

Anybody else? I don't think we have any other visitors. We're going to go ahead with the minutes. Have everybody read the minutes?

I don't have any changes on this. I don't know if anybody else does. If not, I'd make a motion that we accept. Okay. All in favor?

And while you're looking at the budget, if you have any questions on it, while I pass this down, I will make a few notations on the budget if you don't mind. I live and breathe budget that um we have everybody here knows center point has gone really high with the rates. Um everything in town has also tripled. So uh we're already at 61% of what our budget was for electricity the second month of the second month of the year. So, we're going to have to tighten up on some of that stuff. Not only general uh the park, I mean, the park cost $20,000 in budget this year. We still be able to function within budget, but it'll cost us 14,000 for electric instead of seven this year. So, just since December, I was looking back at everything the past two days. Uh everything has doubled.

All of our counts have doubled just since December. It has not even February's kick in hasn't got we had another rate increase in February was uh say I thought they asked for 11% I don't know if they got 11% but there was another kicked in the end of February so we haven't even seen those yet I think 11 I think that did kick in 11% from yeah that's so like I said that is one thing I am making note on the budget if you and we can take this thousand from MBH if we don't write it out of there. We're riding it out of electric. We can go ahead and transfer that into the electric.

Yeah, I'll pay it out of MBHG fun. Uh yeah, everything is extremely high. I had a stroke when I saw the part. So, but other than that, everything's going well. We've been paying several already out of um our loan from National Rural Water. This we're on our second second one. We've already made payment. March. We came out at least the third one. Everything's doing really well there. We're staying on budget. I should not say that now. Yeah, you ruined it.

I ruined it. But anyway, in the other comment on the budget, I will say that happy tales. We got a $100 donation for that. Even though I told them we were not running that, I I mean I keep it updated out there, but we don't actively go pick up strays. Well, we do, but it's not advertised. Um, I would like to send that $100 to Dwood from the town if we put it in happy tailed. I had told the church, the church gave it to us and I really appreciate Methodist Church doing that. They're very generous with us. Um, but we're going to send that to Dogwood to help people that cannot afford their bed bills and plus all the strays that are picked up here. Generally the sheriff's takes them to Donwood and hopefully they won't close because it'll cost the counties a lot more than it is right now. So that's the two items I had on there. Does anybody else have any Oh, and also it shows here what we have for roads is by around 130,000 again already. So that's about what we have last year. Um and we are okaying the vouchers. So the fire truck will go up $1,500. Tonight we're all paying the $1,500.

It was already put in. Okay. Is it? Yeah. Okay. It's already in this one even though we have It should be because I put it in two weeks ago. All right. So then it's current. Yes. Okay. And that is volunteer fire truck 255 26 what we do anybody have any other questions on budget there I make a motion we accept the budget as presented.

I'll second John. Go ahead. All in favor and vouchers you have like just for the our lights at the park just for the and they're all LED this year. I thought, man, we're going to get a break. Our bill there was already well over $1,000 and it's probably going to be more.

Well, and you know, the only thing we've thought about and we just got brand new lights. I hate to turn every other one on, you know, and shut each because it's so nice for safety. I mean, so lit up, but we can work within our budget, but the town has a set budget, too, you know, and that's we're going to have to move some money, right?

Yeah. Yeah. No kidding. So, I make a motion that we accept the vouchers as presented. I second. All in favor? I today. Can't find my agenda. I must have handed it down.

Do what? My agenda. I think I handed it down. You have on your I just Okay. Uh SS4A update, you're on, Eric.

Yeah. So all we've got so as part of your SS4A grant um because we did the comprehensive safety action plan that um the town's already adopted but that also included evaluating uh ordinances uh specifically as it related to uh safety both for vehicular and pedestrian traffic as well. So um we've gone through those ordinances made various updates to them um referencing in uh INDOT standards and some other things. So, I think we're at a point tonight where if you guys wanted to consider um when adopting that updated ordinance, we do have that prepared for you. Taylor's been through it as well. So, that was really all I've got tonight.

Since there was one minor change, do we have to twice or waver to I think it was 04. Yeah. Um I think five. Oh, this is five. Yeah, there's a fee change. I would go ahead and advertise just that 704 so we can I can get the ordinance drafted for signature um so that we can publish that after and then at the next meeting we could sign it. We'll sign and then I'll publish and then it'll be adopted after.

I mean I I am fine with that. I think everything looks good. I went through the whole thing and I only fell asleep twice. When I woke up, I continued. Um, like I said, I think there's only the one with the fee in it. That was the only change, basic change we had. Uh, for those that don't know it, this SS4A is a sidewalk study that we got money for and we are just finishing it up, getting close to considering a construction grant. So, that's where we're at right now. We're in the final stage and that would be coming on the south side of Main Street. That's that was the project selected by the people in Holland in a survey. So that's there as you if you ever walk up the south side of well you usually don't you walk in the street because

are the best right? Yes. Absolutely. Especially the manhole.

Yeah. So, I think that's all we have with that. I have added this. This is a siren inspection. The only one I could find recently was 2019 that we paid federal and that was at $450. I could not find an invoice anywhere that we did it last year. We didn't Okay. I couldn't find anything anywhere. I went through 20 25 24 I found 2019 but I didn't find any others but federal uh field services has sent us a preventive maintenance inspection agreement for our warning siren. The one in 2019 was $450. This one is $500. Um it it tells you what they're going to do here. There's a whole list of them here on the inspection conduits, weather seals, electrical connections, and all of that for siren system. Yes.

And then it also tells us any repairs as needed, discovering during the preventive maintenance inspection process that takes less than 15 minutes and is less than $10. I would say that might be a nail, but maybe not uh would be done at that time. Otherwise, anything that exceeds those perimeters and not covered, an estimate would be sent to us on anything we need to do. That's part of that. So, we I need to know if anybody if we want to go ahead and do that. I mean, I personally like to see the alarms inspected. That's why I kept looking back because I thought, man, I know I have one from 2019, but I couldn't find any other agreements. And I so I called emergency management. She said, "No, they they usually do them, but she didn't know if we had done it or not."

You know, minimum they just like the car about every five years batteries need to be replaced. Well, this says annually and I thought, well, I know we're going to get one last year and that would be for both sirens. Yeah. So, I mean, I think it's in favor of it pretty much. So, public safety. So when you get done reading it, then we can make a motion on it. Question is that 500 per soldering or that's for both. For both. That's for both.

And like I said, that includes anything that's 15 minutes or less than under $10 that go ahead and do, you know, I I don't really know anything that would be under $10 that I can think of. a staple, an ale maybe, but and I don't I would prefer to send us an estimate rather than do it without an estimate. So, I will make a motion that we sign this agreement with federal. I second. All in favor?

I would you mind anything to them? Thank you. Uh water projects update. That's you, Scott.

The uh the line is in on Second Avenue. It's charged. I took my first sample today. I'll take my second one tomorrow. Uh as soon as those two samples pass, we'll start switching everybody over to the new line. So I would say hopefully in the next week and a half or so this weather holds out should be finished.

And for those that you don't know what why we did Second Avenue, we that was all AC lines. We also replaced all of the fire hydrants on there and they're about 14,000 a piece. Um and then they'll have the service lines that need to be pulled through will be pulled through. new some new ones have to be added. But yeah, and we had a few issues with it supposed to be 6 in on Kentucky and it was 4 inch wide. I don't know. But that's why we did Second Avenue and it was it's going to be about 125,000 just for that. Some of it was bored in, some of it was dug in. So, um, we've been doing these projects. They're all proactive projects. about $260,000 for him. So Scott's been in the lead. He's picked out the ones that are needed and we're moving on. So he's done a good job. I say he needs a standing ovation, but

absolutely. I was going to boo.

Well, that's not very nice. Taylor, if you would like to read a the AES statement. Yes. So, as it has done in the past, the Holland Town Council wishes to address questions concerning the proposed AES solar project and the town's involvement in halting or slowing down progression of that project. Um, as many members of the public are aware, the AES solar project and its proposed battery energy storage system are located outside the town's municipal boundaries because the town does not have a plan commission or vote board of zoning appeals and is therefore not legally able to exercise extr territorial jurisdiction outside the town's municipal limits. It does not have the legal authority over the proposed sighting or approval of this project. While the town has made every reasonable effort within its authority to slow to slow and show its opposition to the project's placement, including enactment of a resolution detailing the town's stance on the project, which resolution has been provided to the Dubo County Board of Commissioners. The Hollandtown Council is not the entity with jurisdiction to continue pursuing opposition. Any further action will need to be taken by the appropriate county or regulatory bodies that have the authority over property outside town limits. And those of you who don't know, John has really done a lot on this AES. It's been sold to Black Rockck now. Um, it's outside of town. It's a huge solar project with batteries. We were not happy about it, but we can't do anything more about it, but John has pursued it and done a lot of work on it. We're not abandoning the people. It's just we've done everything we can legally.

Legally. Yeah. So, that's why we have the statement. Now, we're talking about paving. Do we want to get together sometime to do the roads? What we want to do? We'd like to get that in. I'd like to talk to Kies and what was the other one? I can't remember. Rudolph. And then there's one in Newberg. The new one in Newberg. And he's seen some of their work and it's really really good. Yeah. So when we get some idea of where we want to go with the paving, you know, we would like to get a couple quotes. So, we need to get together and, you know, get some ideas on where we want to pave that.

And and for those of you that are bouncing over this over here by by the community center, that is going to be paved or fixed whenever the asphalt company's open. And there will be some parking along the side and along the backside. We did back the building up a little bit because it was really close to the cows. So, we kind of backed it up a little bit. Not the real cows, the plastic ones.

Cows aesthetically more pleasing and moved a little closer to the front. So, um it gave it a little bit more room there. So, but that that it will be fixed. It's just And we did that project because that was all bad lines and with the new community center coming in, that was about a $35,000 project. We needed to replace those lines and make sure we had no bad ones. That that's part of our removing the AC lines as many as possible and you know replacing anything that needs to be done because with them probably having sprinkler system and all that once that's all in we didn't want to have to tear it up again. So that's why we went ahead and did it and replaced another one with that one. So

question is there any how far will we'll be with curves and go on that street any time next 20 years don't count on it there'll be some paving involved with yeah some of it want to fix something up then have to tear it up redo it spend more money than actually next week right and we're not done Steve hasn't told us exactly you know whether there's going to be anything there'll be parking along that way there'll be parking along this side and this side. So that will be repaved basically because it's been torn up with rock and all that. Um but

but it will it will change the flow water down through the area. So So it might might affect different things. I mean have a have a smooth area rather than grass to and settling and all that you know and it is going to be landscape with sidewalks to the building. So, you know, we don't really until that's done, we won't really be able to judge what we can and cannot do. One more real quick question. You talked about the sidewalks. That grant is that a federal grant or state grant? That's a federal grant.

Federal Okay. Uh will the federal grant uh will the sidewalks move around the telephone poles or the telephone move from the sidewalk? I know. Everybody just right now when you're talking over here, not Well, we're not doing yours yet. Bump their head right into I helped him up. He was okay to put their phones where they want. Well, and that it is an issue, especially on Meridian. You know, there's telephone poles all all Why they were how that worked. It's a new ordinance that you can't do that any way are we allowed to do that ever again.

Some of some of them were grandfathered, but Yeah. Yeah, they get knocked off. We're not going to put telephone poles in the middle of the sidewalks anymore or the sidewalks around the telephone pole. How whatever chicken or the egg, that kind of thing. But yeah, that's in the ordinance, the safety ordinance. We do not do that. So, that's good. And I already addressed the electric bills. I do have a dumpster update for all you that care. Dumpster. Dumpster.

Yeah, the town dumpster right now. Downey Lincoln said they are going to do a final measure out at the lagoons and it will you know where the dog pins the kennels are. When you first immediately come in it will be on that side which would be the south side of the road to the maintenance of it. It will be a little bit longer than the one up here because it's not as wide. It's 55 instead of 60. So it'll be a little longer with dumpsters on both sides.

Um then we'll put up the fencing and all that. So and they're only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays. So kids first said there was so much traffic it was semis but actually Mike Luchar did call me and tell me he figured within 3 to six months they would be done because they're redging it with a different company and all that. So there won't be that semi traffic out there which it's not a lot as much as it was. So you know but that is where they are planning on doing it as of right now if the space is right. We wanted to keep it in Holland. Could not find any place else. And I just we thought about John's sideyard. That was big. Yeah. You searched for about 30 seconds.

You know, they had talked about the creamer and all, well, that's residential. You know, there was just no good way around it. And then the last suggestion when they were talking about going over to the airport, well, that's not in Holland. So, we we want to keep it in Holland as much as we possibly can. and and is why uh there's the old water plant out there. Is is that not convincing to do that? No, there's way too much drainage problems and clearing and all that. They looked at that. They did. That would be perfect. Yeah. Well, actually, I think the lagoon's perfect, but don't ask God. But now, are they going to buy are they going to buy the land from They will lease it, and they are still working on a lease agreement. Yes.

They were wanting to buy property. That was the thing. They wanted to buy because they leased up here and then the lease got pulled out from under them and they had a couple other places that the leases got pulled out. So they were looking to buy crown but they can't find anything. So they will work out a lease agreement with the town and you know I mean to me it's a win-win for the town because we keep it here and it you know it's the best we can do. Um I do have we did talk about the the water tower maintenance agreements. Uh we did get a second estimate from Windest Maintenance Coding. Uh the total amount would be about 23,000 for both tanks. There's a couple of uh safety issues with both of them. The ladders weren't attached properly at the top. They're loose. The cables on them are bent. One of them was bent from wind. Even the new ones, there's there's about six $6,900 worth of repairs for the send tower. Um, and then also if we pressure wash it, it' be an extra four. And the scope work for the 2,000galon elevated tower went from 159,000 down to 16. So that was a pretty good deal. Um, most of that is also in replacing the cable ladders and putting safety devices on them, putting all of the OSHA confirmed spaces signs, uh, locking the top, grounding the tank. The only one we will maybe put off until what? August of July is perform a dry inspection and sanitize it because it's got a couple of inches about three inches of sediment in both sides of the bowl. It's been seven years since we we did it. So, that will be scheduled whenever it's time for whenever it's good to take it offline because we'll have the pressure pumps and that kind of stuff. So it's an ordeal to dry drop and at that time we'll talk to everybody that know that uses a lot of water like the dairy and

that so that they know when it's going to happen. You did an excellent job the last time and I know you're sweating bullets but you did it. You did. So that means you can do it again. Water. So I don't know if we want to consider signing this. It would come out of the water money with us staying on budget. We do have enough to do it. It's just whether we want to okay it or not. I say we go ahead and okay it need to make a motion to accept. Now the only thing I ask now are we do adding the pressure wash exterior or not?

What is that? That's another on He's saying yes. The reason why they want to pressure wash the exterior and the catwalk down with biodegradable detergent at 35,000 minimum PSI is because there is some mold collections on the outside of the tank and under the catwalk and underneath the bowl. Pressure washing it will extend the life of the paint. So that was something that was added on. So that was added that tax will be 11 11,000 150

right with that. Yeah. So, you know, we're looking around 25 23 to 27,000 to get them through another seven five to seven. Yes, I think we we do that. I just want to make note that we're signing on for all sign on for I will let them know tomorrow. Oh, yeah. Sorry. I You made a motion. Can I say all in favor? Hi. Well, I added I forgot to add the You're going to yell car washing. Yeah. Just because you got to come in late doesn't mean Yeah. You dealt with the BA like I did today, you'd be happy.

Um and and we're talking we got a a request from the Holland Kuanas Club for Junior Achievement. Uh every year they have two classes at every grade level. Normally they have quantis people that run it, business people that run it. I'm sure Julie's done it a few times and I know that Amy's done it. They go into the classroom, they explain what goes on and how what's what their part of the job is. Kind of help young kids understand where the job market is and what they do and what their jobs are. They are asking for a donation. They ask all and we have never given to them. So, um I'm just brought it up. That's it.

Yeah. that came in as a request for donation. They asked all the businesses to give to it and this is the first time that we have gotten a request. So if you want to read over that and haters in fire department, I'm waiting on my second estimate. So we didn't ignore it. We just got second estimate. Like I think Brian mentioned last month it's we're about out of the the cold snap so it's not pressing. Yeah, there for a while was a little bit pressing

and I think the other the would be smaller than the ones that are in there.

So whatever you guys think. I mean, I'm okay with whatever you guys think. We have,00 we had 1,200 and what we normally donate to the fall festival Christmas program, uh, we donated towards that house line and postprome, but that's next year usually, isn't it? Or is it this year? No, that's this year. That's this year. Okay. Postprom usually the fall festival we donate towards. Uh we did give um $455 out of it for minding soul. So you know we're looking at around $800 500 500 total but I I think we have so much in opioid funds. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So I from that okay so I think the 455 came out of one the balance came out of the other one. So anyway, we're around $800 if you figure all of those for promotional and we have a 1,200 promotional. So if you want to give a little something, if you don't, that's fine. Whatever. I think I think it would be good. Couple hundred maybe or something. Yeah, couple 200. You're making a motion for 200 for Junior achievement. Okay. I would you second motion. All in favor? I Okay, I tomorrow we have Kana South. Okay, I think that's all I have. Do you have anything?

I did, but I'm not I'm not Taylor get anybody else have any comments? Go ahead.

Uh, so, uh, got a couple updates from the fire department. Um, so one, uh, we got our ISO results back. I don't know if they have those to you as well, but there's some copies for you. Um, so effective June 1st will be classified as ISO 5. So in the last 10 years, we've been able to go from a seven to five, which will help improve uh, you know, potentially improve uh, insurance rates for people in the area. Um, so we'll start advertising that here in the next few weeks because we, excuse me, we'll get a lot of calls from insurance companies to update policies and stuff there.

Now, some give you extra and some don't. Some is 10 and under. Some of it's five is better. If you hit five, you get another deal.

So, you know, and big thanks to the town because, uh, Scott was able with the information he's collected and the work he does, he was able to get us over from that six to the five. Um, I think it was like a 3% improvement uh on the on the water park. So, that's that's awesome for us and and you as well. Um, also uh fire truck. Um, we did get a $10,000 grant towards that refurbishment project from the community foundation. Um, so, uh, we stuck that in an IRA a Roth to try and make some money until we can get moving on that project. So, we got that for the for the town. Um, as far as, uh, you know, grants go, um, John and I have had some talks on grants on that side of things. Just an update there for the year we've applied for, minus the building side, about $75,000 in grants for updating equipment and some new equipment with uh, obviously the EV stuff happening and the the battery storage stuff happening. um you know trying to get prepared for that kind of activity.

The best is going to be an easy getting prep for that. You just can't go do nothing. Yeah. So let's just put that out. Stand there and watch it burn it there. There's equipment updates we still got to do for that, you know. So anyways, I'm not going to get too deep into that. But from that that's all I got from the fire department side of things. Has uh has emergency management system got with you at all about training because we're supposed to be training prior to start and then at the end not that I'm aware of they may have got he's on the sick sick end of things this evening

got the got Doug. Okay. Yeah they they may have. I just have I think Jessica was looking into a be your best for me also. Okay. They just came open. Yes. Yeah, they just came open. We had an executive board meeting. She gave me a couple options. I looked also. There's two new ones coming open on USA grants that aren't here yet, but okay.

Are coming. So, she's on the lookout. Yeah, you know, like like we sort of mentioned earlier, grants are hard to get and and what what is available for volunteer fire departments are they're not offering for vehicles or anything like that. So, and a small amount of window for you to get the information out. You usually get about three weeks and that's about it. So, once you find out about it, you look at you're like tomorrow's the deadline. Great. So, yeah, we're we're trying to, you know, to find whatever we can. I know John's been working on as well. So just join up that project line.

Yeah. And the refurbishment is really if we can get some if they give you some of these grants are like for equipment upgrade. That's that's an equipment upgrade. Right. It's not a truck. It's an equipment upgrade. Yep. And that's what I told Jessica to look into more than anything because the truck ones are hard fewer and harder to clean. Yeah. To find. Yeah. Like you mentioned with all everything else, nothing's getting cheaper. So it's drying up too. You know, a lot of the driving for a truck to drive around once in a while. Yeah, we do. I think one of them just got 110,000 for equipment. It was just given P County. Yeah, maybe. Just got a 10 $110,000 grant.

See that we could we're right there. Yeah. With money. Of course, with grants, there's always your match money, but you know, you can work within that. Y sounds good. Thank you. Do you have anything? I don't know if you've met our officer. Hopefully, you'll never meet him. Okay, with that, I will entertain him. to make a second. All in favor? Thanks, guys.

I'd like to recorded that I've been in the same room with Vicki for over an hour. The first time it's ever happened. Ber.