City Meeting - Regular Meeting

Good evening, sorry to delay everybody.

Let's go ahead and get the city council meeting for the city of Jonesboro, July 14th, 2026, called to order. We'll have a roll call, then we'll rise for the pledge, and the pledge will be led by

Gerald Greentree Knight, and then we'll say the prayer by Pastor Ken. So let's do the roll call, and then we'll do the pledge.

Clayton. Here. Gerald. Here. And Greg.

Here. All right, let's all rise, say the pledge, and do the prayer.

the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let's pray together. Gracious Father, wow, thank you for another beautiful day. And thank you for your blessing through these summer months and weeks. Thank you for your hand upon each of us and your protection as well. Lord, we lift this meeting to you tonight. We thank you for each person that's here. We pray your blessing. and your provision. We pray for wisdom for the decisions that are made and the plans that are made, and through it, help us to bring peace and prosperity to this great community. Thank you. In your son's name, amen.

Okay, we've got in front of you, we have two sets of minutes, one for the executive session, one for the June 23rd meeting. That's Go ahead and do the, if you want to, approve the minutes for June 23rd, 2026.

I make a motion we approve the meeting minutes for June 23rd, written.

I make a motion to approve the minutes for June 23rd. Roll call, please.

Clayton.

Aye.

Gerald. Aye. Ingrid.

Aye. Okay, we have the minutes for the city council meeting executive session for June 25th, 2026 in front of you for approval, if so. Okay, got a motion on the second. Roll call, please.

Clayton.

Aye.

Gerald.

Aye.

And Gray. Aye.

All right. Let's go to new business since we've been long. I don't have anything on new business. We'll go to old business. We have... Most of it will be in the... for the meeting for the...

Do we need to do anything with the insurance that we brought up last night? Or is that going to be your part? What do you mean? Didn't we postpone moving that insurance for the meeting?

No, it just automatically renews every July 1st. But if you have any objections or questions, then I will send that to you.

Ian, sorry.

If you guys want to shop around for next year, we have a whole year to look.

It didn't seem unreasonable to me.

The dogs. You guys were talking about dogs. I inherited a dog the other morning because nobody else would take it. I guess what is the procedure if somebody brings a dog up here? Should we discuss that? Should we share that information with Medina? I want to think about that.

I think we need to do something because there's a lot of, yeah, especially with the heat coming out and everything.

They're everywhere now. Well, I mean, at least we had contact with what they talked about or Marion Place, whatever. I didn't know what to do with it. So luckily somebody put it on Facebook and somebody had seen it.

I wouldn't be against discussing it at length and getting something and writing somewhere, not so much an ordinance, but something, an SOP of what we do. Do we call them? These people are going to call these people and everything, so I think it's something we need to discuss. I agree.

I think we should think seriously about these instead of the cage at the shop. We have put them in that cage, but to me, we're not doing any different than the person they just took them from. We're putting them in the cage. We do have a tarp around it for shade, but if no one picks them up, that dog's in there all night. The gates are closed. No one can get to them. I don't like putting dogs on city property without someone being able to take care of them. That's just me. You guys make that decision.

She directs everybody to you, I think, most of the time.

I kind of work... Well, I work with Kim Youngburner. She's the one that got me into all this. She's my sister's neighbor, and I used to chase her dog. But when it was... So anyway, I go through her. So... Say if you called, you got this dog, and my first question is, if it's within hours, can you take it to have it checked for a chip? I can check for a chip, but I'm available. Beth can check for a chip. And I think there's a couple other maybe here in Denver. I'm not real sure, but there's some in Gap City.

There's at least four of us.

I can't remember who all they are. Could you get those names for us? Yes.

And Gap City Police Department does have a chip reader also.

Okay.

So- Instead of us chasing everybody down, if you can take it, that would be great.

Yeah, I could have done whatever. I just didn't know where to go.

If it's after hours, then one of us would try to get to you. And then if it's like at midnight, I don't do midnight runs anymore. Reservoir runs, I don't do that anymore.

I'm in bed, so I know I'm not in trouble.

But anyway, so the first thing you want to do is make sure that there's a chip, okay? Because there's possibly an owner out there that can be contacted. We have the phone numbers that we can call like pet finder, anybody, the chip finder companies. And we can most of the time get a hold, if it's chipped and registered, we can get a hold of the owners and make arrangements to hold them. Now, let's say you got the dog and you can hold it until tomorrow and we can get the owners to you. That would be awesome. If you can't, then one of us would try to find a foster or put it in the cage that we have here, or with Jamie. We have ways to do that. We also have what might be posted on Facebook, because that's been a big thing that people can communicate with, what they've found, or trying to find homes for, whatever. We have private chats that we will communicate with each other. The public doesn't see it, but we do that to keep ourselves safe out there in the community so we're not putting ourselves out there and having some disgruntled owner. It's happened just recently. There's two people saying they were this dog's owner, and it was getting pretty ugly. So we communicate amongst ourselves and try to make a plan and stay in contact with you to try to find an alternative route for the dog.

Okay.

But we want to try to get see if it's chipped and registered. And that's the first thing that we'd like to try to do. And then we follow through with that. And we have a large group of rescuers now. It's unbelievable. and it's amazing that people are stepping up.

Well, let us discuss, and then somebody will get in touch with you, maybe give us some more info.

Okay, and I'll get some names and numbers.

I think Brad needs a puppy. Maybe we'll just start letting Brad take him in. Pardon me, cats. I know somebody takes cats.

So did you get that one taken care of?

Yes. Yes, the gentleman was up all night looking for it. They quit about 3 o'clock, and a young lady found it in the highway down there sitting in the road, so she brought it up here. So cute. Anita didn't want it, and I didn't really want it, but I had no choice, but yeah.

So you want to make, you know, before you give a pet to an owner, saying that they're the owner, if they could show proof, even if they got pictures, you know, everybody's got pictures, most people got pictures of their pets on their phones or whatever, you know, if they can show vet records, you know, their shot records or whatever, to show that that's their dog, that's really important.

Well, they posted before the guy came up here that they had she lost her dog and it was a picture of that dog so i you know i pretty much knew it was at that point yeah all right we tried to make sure that that's the actual owner i understand we'll get with you thank you very much thank you how about the 75 000 from the county where are we at on that well brad do you want to tell them what we did yeah so the invoice i sent the invoice to the commissioners i did get a call back from middlesworth

and timelines of when the building came down. I guess my argument would be if it was past the timeline, I think that money was originally allocated to do the electrical, which was done last summer. So, yeah. So they're willing to cut that check, it's just we have to get them in a timely manner. And a year ago. Exactly.

Does anybody have the MOU? Because that was done between the county council and...

I can look at emails. Okay. I mean, we signed contracts last July. So I think we're well within.

The mini MOU with that we had with the contractors or the MOU that we had with the commissioners? I believe it was with the commissioners. I don't know if there was one, but there's minutes.

I think we just had the minutes.

I don't know if there was an MOU signed, but there's minutes from a meeting where they approved it. For the electrical and it was done before December 31st. Of course, we'll probably have to... work hard to get those minutes because minutes aren't usually up. I have those. You do? Yes.

Okay, great. Amy kept them and she sent me the huge packet. Excellent.

Good. I don't think there was any resistance on it. From what I could tell, it was just a matter of just the formality of let's get this stuff together and we'll clear it up.

Sounded positive. Sorry, I wasn't hearing your meeting. Fifth Street, did you talk to them about this stuff over here? I did. He was supposed to be by today to pick it up. I hadn't been by to see if it was... I didn't look when I was over there. And one final thing, the radar gun, where are we at with that?

Dave is, there's funds coming from the Moose. Okay. He went there tonight, didn't he say? No, tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

He's going to go tomorrow and see how much is. We'll have a radar gun. All right. Thank you. And the church bushing was cut down.

That looks a lot better. Thank you. Because I did pull out and almost got hit there.

Too bad. I hope somebody wants that building because I'd like to give it to them. Yeah, that'd be nice.

One thing you might bring up, Bob, or I can with Street, when we pulled the west side of all that brush down, that door there does not have, there is no door. Oh, I know. It's straight into the church now.

Yeah, I saw it.

I noticed it that day. We need to board that up. Someone else is going to board that up. But that church is wide open now.

Speaking of boarding up, we're going to have to do something at 435 before the river rally. The windows are broken out and everything. So we need to discuss that. Can we call 1-800-BOARD-UP? They're done.

They're not here anymore. Are you serious? I got a thing in the mail two meetings ago at the fire station that Fort Wayne is getting. There is one out of Indy, but it's a whole different company, and I don't know if they'll come this far.

Yeah, I thought it was a joke. It was really funny.

No, there is one called what they do. They actually come all the way from Fort Wayne here, and they do it for free.

I thought we said Quentin out with a hemorrhage.

No. They'll actually come, but sometimes you've got to wait almost an hour on scene for them, but they're coming from Fort Wayne, and they'll send as many boards, the guys to board it up, everything.

What about regionalization? Any more discussion?

I've got something today. I will forward that. When the meeting's over, you'll have your e-mail. from the city emailing me out. It's a proposal.

Yeah, it's very scope. Thank you. Very, very good news. Car for sale. Anybody wants it? I know last time they claimed that we didn't put it out there, but I saw it on Facebook.

I put it on Facebook. I sent it to the paper. I know that.

It'd be a great derby car.

It'd be a great derby car.

It's an absolutely great place.

Anything else on business? I don't know.

That's for sure. I'm telling you.

We've looked it up both ways. Some people say it's an alley. Some people say it's the drive going back to their garages. I don't know. We'd have to look it up on either the county side or see if it's a legal alley.

There's neighbors disputing it. So that's why I don't go out there. Somebody wanted it cleaned up with our new machine, and the other people didn't want it, so I sent it down to clean up the alley. I say it's an alley.

Brad's going to tell me in about 30 seconds. Some maps show it as 8th Street. Yeah, it is. So, I mean, I don't see how it could be anything other than at least an alley. It has to be at least an alley.

Yeah, because Eighth Street's farther down.

Have they contacted you, Gerald? Or are you just sort of fighting them?

Well, yeah, we've been going with the neighborhood. Yeah, I would say if anything, an alley, if not, like I said, I know, I think it's like the second or third house down from quarter.

Their house is on 7th, but their garage and everything is on the other side of that alley, whatever it is. And I know we've got called there before because of burning, but it's legal. He's got one of the outside burners that he burns the wood in. It just smokes a lot. So, yeah, I don't know on the maps if it's considered an alley. I don't think it can be 8th Street because the community building has a 700 block address. Yeah. So 8th Street's got to be a little bit farther down.

GIS is showing it as 8th Street. Rolling. So at least it is now. I mean, it's at least it, right.

So we'll cut right behind your house and put that there, okay? Is that all right? You want to go ahead and extend that? Yeah. Anything else? No. All right. Anything from the board? Otherwise, we'll move on.

Movies in the Park. Yes. You got that? Yeah.

I've got that. I'll bring that up at the end.

Wiffle Ball.

Wiffle Ball, yeah. We need some Wiffle Ball teams from Fairmount over here.

George, you playing? Oh, no, sir. George doesn't play. I'll be on your team. I mean, I'm sure we'd do well.

Let's go ahead and move to Board of Public Work Safety and get Brad going here. He's got a lot for us to listen to.

Good evening. Just the water project update. We did have a meeting with SRF a few weeks back, basically just some paperwork that we need to submit to get that closed out. We did get the water tower gate fixed, and there were some punch list items that all seemed to be completed. As I mentioned to the Board of Works, there are some items that come up. weekly at the plant, whether it's a hatch that's leaking or a dehumidifier that's breaking, which I hear that. I get the calls on that, which that's fine. That's my job. I just want to let you guys know that at some point that becomes a warranty issue versus just contractor items. So either way, those items will be resolved.

And they have been. So when should you stop being called? It's a serious question. You're a nice guy, but seriously.

I mean, I guess at substantial completion, which we're at that point. Okay. And I don't mind. I mean, sometimes the guys can't get a hold of Artesian, and I have a direct line to them. So, I mean, I don't mind helping out. I mean, it's still, at the end of the day, it's still my baby, so I want to make sure that things are done and everyone's happy. But technically, we should be moving away from it. At some point, it becomes a warranty item. Let's see. We talked about a speed sign. I contacted LTAP. They were busy. That thing's been reserved. So once one becomes available, they'll deliver it to us. But in the meantime, There are signs out there that are available. I found out that the CCMG grant does allow for that to be purchased as part of the grant. They're around $4,000. It's a fixed sign, so it wouldn't mount on a pole. A question came up whether that thing can be moved. It could. If you had multiple poles throughout town, you could certainly relocate that. It's battery or solar, and I think Battery, solar operated. On Water Street?

Yes, the main two. I'd like to see us do it. Now, let me ask them a question. Does it have to be where the paving's at? Since it's CMG, does it have to be on that road that we're paving? No. Okay, good. That's a good answer. Good.

Well, I love CMG schools. Just a request, if we do this or think about we're going to do it, like he said, multiple poles would be easier than trying to pull a pole out with that, moving it, because every time you move that pole, you've got to call a locate in, and a locate takes 48 hours because it's not considered an emergency. Someone hasn't lost water. Someone hasn't lost electric. So if you're going to pull that pole every time you move it, You're going to have a two-day span that you have to let them locate that before we can put it back in the ground. So if you could think of five, six places, whatever, we could put a post in and then just move the sign to that post.

We'll concentrate on Water Street first, and then we'll see where it goes. And if it doesn't help, we'll see where it's at. But something with CCMG, because that's coming up September 1st.

I don't want to be on Brad's part, but other discussion, are we

certain that 10th street is going to be the reroute point 22 is closed that might be if we're doing one we might as well do two and one should go there that brings up another item um with that project coming up we did talk to endot fort wayne they want us to submit um what would be the detour route to get that on file where when because ultimately what's going to happen is that roads that road The bridge is going to be shut down from time to time, and they're going to be rerouted through Jonesboro. So we need to make sure that route is on file and that we document, take pictures, videotape it, and make sure if there's any damage that we would be reimbursing that.

So what is the route? Are you talking coming down Main Street, 9 to 10?

Yeah.

So why couldn't I? Stupid question, but like, maybe it's too late, but why wouldn't it be 38th Street to 500 or something? It doesn't seem like, if I was trying to get to the east side of Gas City and the bridge was closed and I was coming from Marion, I would not go down Jonesboro and 10th Street. I would go 38th Street to 500 or 38th Street to 400 or something. Why?

You use the word term local. And they're basically talking about the people that live in Gas City getting back. That's what I was told. That's why they ran it that way. It's basically for people that's a local. For the Gas City people. But that's not going to happen. You're going to see people come from Kokomo that's going to figure out eventually that's going to be the easiest way to get out.

But has Mill Township been involved in these meetings? They were last time. OK. So do they have an alternate?

No. I mean, 37 to 38th Street back down seems more natural to me.

See, for semis, it'll be set up that way because DOT says semi-traffic, state road to state road. It's your local traffic that's going to try to find the shortcuts. But I guarantee you we're going to have semi-crosses.

The route is 26. Truck drivers, that's going to be on 26. Right down here, they're going to do the shortest route. Right down 60. This way or that way.

They do that.

It's something you guys are going to have to do. We're going to videotape and do a lot of stuff before they do this. But you guys will improve the... if there is an approval of the local traffic, but I don't think it's, I think it's already done. I think you set up a toll. You got in the state, you pretty much set up all that, Brad. I'm going to ask you to do a speeding thing, people that can come here and pay us instead of paying the speeding violations during that time, but that's, no. Anyway, go ahead, Brad, I'm sorry.

Any questions on that at all? Like I said, we'll submit that local route and get it documented with the states. The other thing, the sanitary sewer extension and annexation, we did come in 18th out of 107. We're favorable. It's a favorable... So we're going to get money. It's just a matter of how much. We should know. Ken was saying the 15th of July, which is tomorrow. Certainly by the end of the week, we'll know what incentives we get for that. What happens is... There may be one through 17, there may be some projects that drop out, so we've made a bump there.

So that's both west and south? Yes.

We're getting something, it's just a matter of knowing what we're going to get, so that's good. And then we're working on a new library project, and that would be here in the downtown at 501, am I right on that? I keep saying that. 401. 401, sorry. 401 Main Street. So I'm going to put together some, I've got some preliminary things. I just got to put everything together and get you some budget costs on that. But we're looking at a patronocity grant and possibly an okra grant. But we'll know more in the next month or two. We're still kind of working on that. That's all I have, Mayor. Do you have anything? Gentlemen, do you have anything?

Have you seen the water standing in the road on Water Street?

I did. I was down the last time. So we didn't add any extra inlets on that street. What we may need to do is add an extra inlet or two at that location. It looks like basically the area where the water's entering is the restriction. Yeah, I was down there. It's coming from both directions. It was a pretty considerable amount of rainfall that we got in a short period of time. So originally, just so you know, the utilities are kind of tied our hands because there's utilities, there's a water main right there. But what we can do is We need to open that up and get a more area drain, if that makes sense. Yeah, exactly. The pipe's good, but it's the drain at the curve itself. Yeah, we're working on that.

I'm just afraid somebody's going to hydroplane you there, and that's not going to be a good thing.

I want to comment I got tonight is what Greg already brought up is the movie in the park. We have Whiffleball in the park. It's a big weekend at that park. We have Eastview Wesleyan Church with our bounce house in the park. So show up. First 30 people buy a soda. I'm buying popcorn for them. So if you go down here to buy a soda, you get a free bag of popcorn. I'm buying it. So maybe somebody will show up and see it in my wallet and open it up for her once.

So they are doing the bounce house? Right. Free bounce house? Yeah, two of them. Okay, I'll put something out. Yeah, two of them. What time do you think they'll start?

I don't know what they've set up. 7.30, I think. Yeah.

That's what the young lady said.

Okay. So they do start at 7.30, okay.

Sounds good to me.

How big of a bag of popcorn are you buying? For you? I'll buy two for you.

The beer truck will be down there also. Huh? I forgot to say that. The beer truck. The Gassidy Brewing Company will be down there.

They're with them all. We know where you'll be buying. I can't do that. Anyway. All right. Click Treasurer. Brittany Council. What do you have?

Audit.

Just the audit, guys. She's working hard on it. You hear her swearing every once in a while. It's legit. Mr. Request, none. Attorney, do you have anything to add? Nothing to add. Well, we can discuss the real estate in the next meeting. Special committees, I am looking at getting a jungle park board back together. and have a meet because we need some, I need to get it going again. And Rob's been doing a lot down there and helping me, but I need more people. So don't raise your hand if you don't want to help me out, but we've got to get a heart for it. We've got to get some interest down there and have some other people do things. I've been warned that I try to do everything myself too much, so I need to delegate. Not you. You can stay out. You do so many wonderful things for this city. Greg, we can't thank you enough. Anyway. I'd like to shout out to the ladies about the dogs. Thank you very much for the pets, not dogs, they're pets. I don't like them. I was a mailman for a long time. Approval of claims. General fund for the city of Jonesboro in the amount of $249, 667. $249,667 for your approval.

And then I have, before June 30th of every year, I have to make sure that all the credit card payments that go on the utility clearing are cleared out.

Second. Okay, we got a motion and a second to approve the claims for the City of Jonesville-Gerald Fund. Roll call, please.

Clayton. Yes. Gerald. Aye. And Gray.

Aye. Public comments or questions? Seeing none, we'll move on. Comments from the council or questions?

Thanks for everything. Thanks for your work on the audit. Let us know if we can help. Let me know as the new internal controls guy how I can help. All right.

If nothing else, we'll adjourn here and we'll reconvene in one minute for the redevelopment committee. So if you want to hang around and listen to redevelopment boring stuff.