Common Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the City of La Porte County Council meeting agenda to order. We will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance, and I'm gonna have a special guest, Lincoln Cook, do the pledge. If you could come forward here to the front and lead us in the pledge.

and justice for all.

Lincoln, great job. Thank you. Roll call. Clerk Treasurer Parthone.

Councilwoman Huffman. Here. Councilwoman Ficus. Present. Councilman Galloway. Here. Councilwoman Konejny. Present. Councilman Buchanan. Here. Councilwoman West. And Councilman Franke is absent. So we have six present, one absent.

Approval of the May 18, 2026 meeting minutes.

I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes as presented.

Second. Motion and a second. Discussion? favor aye opposed motion passes before we go to the petitions and comments of citizens obviously tragically last Friday but there's some positive news with officer John Samuelson who was shot protecting others in Michigan City Franciscan Hospital and what amazing recovery and the support from all communities all over. I mean, obviously, as you all know, we are a law and order community here in La Porte, and I just wanna take a moment on behalf of all of you and our community and the Samuelson family who have been law and order and publicly provided great service over many years, take a moment here and see continued progress for Officer Samuelson. thank you and you know i would also like to say you stood up this council started with the support of the public safety lit something that was needed for our law enforcement for firefighters and uh... you know other people can jump on the bandwagon now but you made tough votes showed true leadership to, uh, provide our law and order with what they've needed for many years and deserve. So kudos to all of you. And that's just a reminder sometimes, uh, while making the tough decisions are not easy, it's true leadership for the future of our community. And this council deserves that recognition. Petitions and comments of the citizens, Rick Ogle, please come forward.

recall 1902 indiana ave laporte i'm having a problem with speeders i do the i do the speed limit in town and i'm zoomed by all the time i'm just wondering if there's some type of apparatus that can be put up as the as a city ordinance or something to concentrate more on speeders and getting more money back from the state rather than the couple of bucks we get for what is it maybe 150 bucks we might get two or three dollars out of it i would think that that would help to alleviate a little bit of speeding

So I would, if I could, and I don't want to speak, go ahead. I want to allow for Traffic Commission President.

Would you like to come to Traffic Commission tomorrow and we can discuss it? Well, because then the chiefs will be there and they know a little bit more about like the speed signage and anything that maybe. And what time is that? It is five o'clock at the police station. We would love to see you.

I'd love to, but I think I'm still going to be on the golf course.

But as well, I want you to be aware. I'll discuss it with them.

I see where your priorities lie. Exactly.

Chief Drangmeister and new Assistant Chief Uhlman are working on, we have two new solar speed signs that should be out hopefully very soon. There are two additional ones from a grant and I agree with you because speeding is truly an issue here in our community.

I will point out Carmel tried exactly what you're proposing of setting their own speed ordinances and then writing Tickets based off their ordinance and not state statute and the courts have struck that down so I like your point of you know, if we issued our own ticket, we can't do that So if it is consistent with state law, so we can't say Oh ten miles an hour over just like the state statute We can't have our own separate ordinances for that.

So okay, and that's where we also spoke about what I believe are the automated ticket that some states have where you drive by and a computer generates a ticket to you so our officers can be used in other capacities and Indiana's been unwilling to consider that in the legislature. And I'll tell you this, Code Enforcement Bachelor and I were out today Looking at some issues with some homes and pulled up and they're happy to be on the west side, you know six officers Providing or serving a warrant and it takes quite a few officers and we just went through Friday Saying we're there, you know, we need every officer to keep each other safe while they're Breaking into a home knocking down the door and so forth and that takes away Traffic patrol and other things when they're all serving that warrant. So there's a variety of issues but speeding is a concern America I make a comment about that Rick outside of a 12 gauge.

I think isn't The county prosecutor doesn't he has get so much money to to you know, to spread around me, we've got to jump on him for something.

Fair point.

Thank you.

Wally Brath, as we speak about those public servants for years, good to see you.

Same here.

And please state your name and address for the record.

Wally Brath. I live on the 700 block of Ohio Street in the port. Mayor Dermody, Clerk Treasurer Parthoon, Council Otis and members of the City Council. I'd like to make a brief statement that I would like you to consider sooner rather than later. Since Senator Bohachek and the Governor Braun are both in favor of supporting passing bills that would make cannabis legal in Indiana, I would like to implore you to pass an ordinance to prevent such businesses in the city of La Porte as the town of New Buffalo, Michigan, has done to keep them out of the city proper. If and when this is legalized, and I'm sure that it will be, Uh, we will see those establishments buy up every empty store and empty lot available in town. And it's going to look like us 39 and us 12, as you go into the city or the town of new Buffalo, I think they issued around 30, uh, permits for cannabis. and I think just about 30 of them have already built or are building at this moment. So I would implore you to look at something now rather than later and see if we can keep this from happening within our city because we sure don't want it to look like it does up in Michigan. So thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Comments? We should note that we passed an ordinance a year or so ago that Councilwoman Huffman led that prohibited smoke shops and vape shops near schools and on major highways through the city. And I would imagine that that ordinance would automatically apply, but might need some

I think we discussed this and I think it was preemptively like we can't make an ordinance for something that doesn't exist We could certainly revisit I think yeah might just be adding a couple words to that right would address that issue

But also to your point, La Porte Pantry, who's been an issue in the past, the signs, partially thanks to your ordinance, those signs are down on the side of the building and on the front. It took some pushing by code enforcement, but they're finally down and we don't need to see those back up. Paul Skiat, welcome.

Thank you.

My name is Paul Skiet. I live at 3196 North Briarleaf Court, and I am also a member of the Traffic Commission here in the city. What seems like a long time ago, I had asked Mayor Dermody to meet with me regarding the 39 North annexation, and to my surprise, I received a very, very quick yes, and we met, and I said, uh-oh, now what's gonna happen? so I went on the internet real quick and what do you do when you meet a city official or a politician for the first time and I said well you know you're probably gonna find somebody who's a bit wary because you're gonna they always think you're asking for something so the best way to approach the meeting is to ask what you can do to help and I did that with Tom I said Tom you know I'm gonna be a citizen of the community what does this community need and he specifically told me he said I need constituents that are going to say yes responsibly to development and change and I thought about that for a long time and that to me was a pretty deep thing and I still think it's pretty deep but it sits with me every day And I wanted to let this council know and everybody in front of me that I've sat through several meetings where there's been some really intense conversations with regard to development and improvement and change. I thought about that a little bit and said I want to congratulate this council and this group for your courage and your resolve in doing what you do to make those positive things happen. As a constituent, I think that everything that's been done here with regard to moving forward is very, very positive. I want to talk about something specific but I also have to preserve some confidentiality over the holidays I had occasion to meet with two families younger than me but they were born here they were raised here they went to school in high school here went to college and then left the community they have decided to move back to this area Now, once again, I can't speak for the demographics, but I can speak specifically to this situation. These two families will be bringing somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 million in annual wages to this area, and there will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 to $3.5 million in home improvement and property improvement as they come back. Once again, I don't know that these folks are representative of everybody, but they are coming back because they see things happening, and I really appreciate what this group is doing to make those things happen. Thank you.

Thank you.

Paul, thank you. Mel West.

Mayor Dermody, Council, this probably should probably be brought up in the... Mel please state your name and address my name is Mel West and this is concerning a piece of property that I own over on 401 maple Actually, what it concerns is is the neighbors who parked their car in the alley on the sidewalk So my tenants would like to know how they get a permit to park on the sidewalk or in the alley also Now I've been to city police several times I've called I've called the county who tell me it's a city police's problem. I've been over there personally and and they still park on the sidewalk and in the alley every night. So my tenants would like to know how they get a permit also to do this.

I've got this, thank you.

Councilwoman Huffman.

I said at our last meeting very publicly I absolutely detest folks that park on sidewalks and I will stop my personal vehicle and I will take photos I am the liaison for code enforcement and I will send it directly to Jeff Batchelor I did that over the weekend and it was Oh, it's not 401 Maple? That's where he lives.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But 806 is the people that park there. There's a gray Lexus SUV or a silver Lexus sitting there right now.

806 Maple. 806 Detroit. Detroit. Detroit.

yes um one of my focuses when running was was children and education protection and i think i have really helped with that with our vape ordinance and keeping those dangerous items at least out of sight out of mind with our kiddos so my summer focus is ensuring that our folks that struggle physically can get around town when they need to get around town and not have to go in the streets and around vehicles that are parked on sidewalks.

This address has got a six-car driveway. I'll take care of it.

Thank you, Mel. finally uh... i asked and we've all heard we've all seen we know what happened uh... with uh... the number of trees that need to be removed from our community we saw what the federal government uh... has done with the tree grant but the community in many instances still one trees down no matter what the federal government they get a pass the state get a pass they want us to uh... still bring trees down we had a tragic accident uh... happened just outside the city limits uh... in the county Our clerk treasurer has been phenomenal at trying to scrape through some dollars to say, hey, how do we address this tree situation? It's frustrating that we have to spend these dollars to remove trees that need to come down, especially when Other communities didn't lose the grant, and I thought it would be great, thanks to Courtney's hard work, that Phil Graff, our arborist, come forward and give a brief summary of what's happening from a tree perspective. So Phil, welcome, and please state your name and address for the record.

I'm Phil Graff, Contract City Forester. I live at 4996 North 425 East in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. So I'm not a resident of La Porte. But I've been your Contract City Forester since 2022. Started working in La Porte in 2019 when we did your original tree inventory. I was hired as City Forester in 2022, and in 2023, Tucker King and I began working on securing federal grant money that stemmed through the Inflation Reduction Act and then down through the U.S. Forest Service. We were awarded that grant. We were one of two Indiana communities that got direct funding in the first round. It was us and Michigan City. At that time, we were given a pass-through agent to work with, and we were given a... 501c3 organization out of Washington, DC.

And this was given by the federal government, not by us.

Yes, that was by the federal government. Because we were one of two communities that got direct funded, they assigned us a pass-through agent who was then defunded. The reason we were defunded of our million-dollar grant was not because of politics. It wasn't because of anything that had to do with the city. It wasn't because of anything that we did. It truly was random. It truly was bad luck. I'm not one to usually blame anything on luck or coincidence, but in this case, it is the case. So... When we first were awarded the grant, the first thing we did was update the tree inventory because it was five years old. So we went through on a stem by stem basis and identified 5,574 trees in the city of La Porte. A little bit over 900 of those trees were recommended for removal. That came out to be 17% of your tree population. 17% of the tree population was recommended for removal. We have here in the city, it's predominantly made up of maples, of course, we're the maple city, we know that. A lot of them are aging maples that are in poor condition. Aside from that, we also identified 650 trees that didn't need to be removed to mitigate any potential risk but pruned due to structural defect of the tree, dead limbs, broken and hanging limbs. limbs close to utility wires over home, so on and so forth. That is another 15% of the population. So we're over 30% of the tree population in the city needs to be taken care of to mitigate risks. Of course it was a huge obstacle having our, we got a million dollar grant for this, and that's a huge obstacle to try to overcome. I can also tell you that working with lots of municipal entities across Illinois and Indiana for the last over 30 years, this is the only community I've ever seen this happen to. It had been threatened, but this was the only instance that I've seen get to this magnitude. So I know that you guys know it's important. I know that you've been following some of the reports that I've been providing to the mayor and to the city. But I want to be here on record just to tell you that we're going to have to do what we can. Whatever funding we get, however little will help, too much, there's not going to be too much. I mean, the million dollars we could have spent and still had issues to deal with, and we will going forward. So at some point it's going to be important to... try to weave this into our maintenance budget somehow because it's not a problem that fixes itself, it's not a problem that goes away and it potentially is just going to get worse and we'll have more claims and hopefully we'll be able to avoid any serious catastrophes. So I've been working closely with Mayor Tom and with Tucker to try to seek alternative sources for funding for any grant money that's out there, whatever we can, and we're gonna continue to do that. But we will, of course, when the time comes, need the support of this council.

And also, if you would share we were ready to go we are ready to go and many communities that received tree funding and i know you don't want to say this but i'll say it you know have been sitting on funds and haven't used those funds and they're still sitting on them not moving plans forward while we are struggling here uh... with if it wasn't for the clerk treasurer we'd be uh... further have further issues further struggles and so Phil has been kind enough to try to work with other communities to move their money to us. We haven't been able to be successful. And then we also have 135 trees that I believe the majority of them need to be removed. But NIPSCO, we are waiting on NIPSCO to trim 135 off the wires, correct?

So that they can be dealt with? Yes. With conventional tree crew line clearance is a whole different animal than tree removal companies So we're gonna need assistance for them as well. That's correct. I

So with that, I wanted to make sure, if you had any questions, I know you hear about trees all the time. Phil has been phenomenal, Tucker King has been. They've put in hours of work, and I know you hear, oh, just take that tree down. The average cost of a tree is what, $1,500, $1,200 a tree?

possibly more in here there's it's probably more we'll find out if we ever get the opportunity to get bids again so

I just want to say thank you for everything that you do, because I know that's an overwhelming task. We just had our park board meeting, and Mark Schreiber said that a tree came down in Lindewald Park that wasn't even on our list of trees that need to be taken down. So just because you have a list, that doesn't mean that others aren't going to happen because of all the storms we've had, the winds, like Mother Nature. So thanks for everything that you do. You're welcome. Thank you.

Other comments? Thank you, Phil. You're welcome. Have a great night. You too. Standing committee reports. Councilwoman Huffman.

The Sustainability Commission met on Tuesday, May 26th, 2026 in council chambers. The commission is working with the city in the development of a comprehensive plan to repair, update, and add EV charging stations around the city. With summer right around the corner, most residents of La Porte will enjoy Pine or Stone Lake at some point in the coming months. The La Porte Lake Association is responsible for ensuring the lakes remain clean and free of milfoil, which spreads quickly and will make swimming and boating difficult if overgrown. The Laporte Lake Association is donation based. So if you are interested in donating and becoming a member, please visit Laporte Lake Association dot com. You do not have to reside on the waterfront to be a member. An annual family membership is $50 and an annual business membership is $150. The next Sustainability Commission meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026 in council chambers at 4 p.m..

Councilwoman Ficus.

Traffic Commission as we heard meets tomorrow 5 p.m. at the police station. Then Park Board met on May 20th. Larson Danielson will be overseeing the installation of the new lift at the Civic Auditorium. The installation may take up to 12 weeks to complete, but it will finally be underway. The Park Department will now have a picnic table delivery fee for any non-city event. The new delivery fee will be $10 per table. It has been two and a half to three decades since there has been a fee, but with gas prices and all the work that's involved with delivering and picking up the tables, the need to reinstate the fee is warranted. Permission was given for Lake Fest to have extended park hours, parking overnight, and parking off of the roadways. Lake Fest will be taking place July 24th through July 26th. Permission was also given for the Guardian Writers Music Festival to allow extended hours and parking off of roadways. Their event will be held August 29th. Tour de la Porte, being held August 21st through the 23rd in Soldiers Memorial Park, was given permission for parking off of roadways. The board also unanimously approved that with Independence Day falling on a Saturday, half of the park department's full-time people will take off on July 3rd, and the other half will have July 6th off as their holiday. And then the annual fireworks show will be held on July 3rd at Fox Park, thanks to the generosity of the LaPorte Convention and Visitors Bureau and Visit Michigan City LaPorte. Along with that, the band, the 1985, will be playing two sets, One before the fireworks and one after. There will be food trucks and a beer garden as well. End of report.

Councilman Galloway.

This Saturday, June the 6th at 2 o'clock is a brick dedication by the Park Department. That's all I got. Councilwoman West.

The next Fire Merit Commission meeting will be Wednesday, June 3rd at 6.30 at Fire Station Number 1 on 18th Street. And the next bid board meeting will be held on Monday, June 8th at 5 o'clock in city chambers. And the next UEA meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 17th at 4 p.m. in city chambers.

Councilman Buchanan. Nothing to report, Steve. Councilwoman Konejny.

The airport authority will meet next Wednesday at the airport at 5.15, and that's June 10th.

Second and final reading, Councilwoman West.

Your Honor, I move to read an ordinance for the second time by title only.

Second.

Motion and a second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Councilwoman West.

An ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance of the City of LaPorte, Indiana as enacted August 21, 2017, which is a part of Chapter 82 of the Municipal Code of the City of LaPorte by amending the official zone map that are a part of the zoning ordinance in order to rezone one parcel or real estate in the City of LaPorte.

Craig Phillips. Good evening. Good evening.

This request is a request to rezone one parcel of land from R1B single family residential to M1 light industrial. It was presented to you at the last meeting. Basically, it's a property that's intended to be part of the overall campus of the Microsoft data center campus. This does come to you from the plan commission with a do pass recommendation unanimous unanimous do pass recommendation And is consistent with the conference and plan Primarily due to its location on major roadways and the availability of major utilities available to the site among others And with that I'm happy to answer any questions that you have about this comments or questions Motion to approve

So moved.

Motion and a second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Introduction of an ordinance. Councilwoman Ficus.

I move to introduce an ordinance read for the first time in its entirety. Second.

Motion and a second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Councilwoman Ficus.

Okay, here goes. An ordinance establishing an honorary naming of Holcomb Street to Hammond Gray Way, whereas the Traffic Commission, after due consideration, has recommended to the Common Council of the City of LaPorte to establish that Holcomb Street be designated as an honorary street known as Hammond Gray Way. Now, therefore, be it, and it is hereby ordained by the Common Council of the City of LaPorte, Indiana, that Section 1, Hammond Gray, who was born on June 1st, 1896 in La Porte, entered the army at Fort Benjamin Harrison at the first officer's camp on May 15th, 1917 and was commissioned a second lieutenant. Gray went overseas with the American Expeditionary Force in September 1917 and was assigned to Company C, 9th Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division. Acting as a regimental intelligence officer, he repeatedly carried important orders to the front lines through heavy fire. On July 19th, 1918, German artillery was tearing up the contested ground in huge gulps and Gray was having difficulty advancing his column of the soldiers. Gray died on July 20th, 1918 at the age of 22 after being wounded in action in the Battle of Siswan. His body was returned to La Porte and buried with full military honors by members of American Legion Hammond Gray Post 83 on January 16th, 1921. His awards include the Croix de Guerre, with two Silver Stars, Croix de Guerre with Palm, Presidential Unit Citation, Brest, France, French Forager, Purple Heart, World War I Victory Medal with Silver Star, and Battle Clasps for Sassouan and Vaux. Section 2, in honor of his legacy in the City of La Porte and his service to our great country, the City of La Porte establishes the Honorary Road designation and establishes Holcomb Street to now be an honorary street known as Hammond Gray Way.

of ordinance I would like to call up Susan Levenhagen she was the one that actually brought it to traffic commission so if you guys have any questions or she can speak a little Susan please come forward by the way Susan Levenhagen did a unbelievable job thank you at the Memorial Day service with your leadership thank you thank you good evening so Oh, please state your name and address for the record.

Oh, yes, Susan Levin-Hagen. I live at 904 Pennsylvania Avenue in La Porte. So Congress, Ms. Spikas has actually said much of what I was going to say about him, and just so that everybody else knew the significance of asking for this honor for him. So when I have a question about the city of La Porte or the mayor, I contact Annette Loeffler. so I asked her who do I talk to about honorary street signs and she directed me to Carol Ficus. Carol said I should attend and bring it up to the City of La Porte Traffic Commission meeting. I told them all about Hammond Gray and gave them handouts to review later. The Traffic Commission helped me through the process and was very encouraging and supportive. My deepest thanks to Annette, Carol and the members of the Traffic Commission for helping me to make this happen. One other thing I would like to mention that has not already been said is that today is actually the 130th anniversary of Hammond's birth. He was born on June the 1st. So I wanted to put that out to you as well. So in closing, I would like to say thank you to the City Common Council, the Traffic Commission, and the Mayor's Office for granting this tribute, this ordinance to be reviewed for a place of honor for Hammond Gray. Thank you.

Questions for Susan?

Thank you. I was responsible for drafting this, and I actually kept it PG. Germans didn't have a good time with Mr. Gray. He was pretty harsh on them in representing our country. So this is pretty PC of what he did for our country.

And Holcomb Street was chosen because it's near the American Legion. Correct.

Okay, no other comments? This will move to for second reading on June 15th. Ms. Huffman.

Yes, thank you. I would actually like to make a motion to suspend the rules and see if we can pass this ordinance this evening.

Second. I have a motion and a second to suspend the rules. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The rules are suspended. Do I have a? Read it for the second time. Read it, yes, by title only, reading for a second time.

Okay, I move to read an ordinance for the second time by title only. Second.

Motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Councilwoman Ficus.

An ordinance establishing an honorary naming of Holcomb Street to Hammond Gray Way.

Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Comments?

Happy heavenly birthday.

Yes, absolutely.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Susan, thank you.

Beautiful.

Introduction of a resolution that can pass this evening to transfer funds Councilman Galloway your honor.

I like to make a Motion to read this resolution one and only time second I

Motion and a second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Councilman Galloway.

Resolution number R15-2026. Resolution to transfer funds within the 2026 budgets. Where are, whereas. There are additional monies needed in certain line items in the 2026 budgets in order to pay for essential services and obligations. Therefore, be it in here, It is hereby resolved by the Common Council of the City of La Porte, Indiana, that the following transfer is to be made within the following budgets for the year 2026. General, engineering to code enforcement. From 1101-306-111 salaries to 1101-318-111 salaries, $29,300. $29,930. From 1101-306-365, leased rental payments, to 1101-318-365, lease rental payments, $6,010.25. Engineering Department, 1101-306, from 111 salaries to 312 engineering services, $102,151.71. Total general fund transfer, TIF 1, downtown, 4445-701, from 111 land to 350 professional services, $80,000. From 421 Infrastructures to 315 Professional Services, $50,000. Total TIF one downtown, $130,000. I do believe that's it. Whoa, yeah, whoa, whoa, yep, that's it.

so we had some changes since the 2026 budgets went in place between engineering and code enforcement those are the general fund transfers and then the RDC voted on these transfers I included all those in your in your council packet that was a request from RDC as well do I have a motion to approve so moved second discussion all in favor aye opposed

Motion passes. I would also like to say, you know, just as a reminder, and there's the little things in life that are important, but all of you that commit yourself to the community and the clerk treasurer here this evening, Cole Parthoon made contact at his little league game this evening and she is here and those are the little things that Because all of you including the clerk treasurer love this community that they're willing to give up certain things that you can't Repeat so I mean, hopefully he repeats hitting the ball more contact And then as well many of you have been involved with the announcement that YMCA is looking for a new facility and that will be phenomenal and I think it's just important though and that, at least from my perspective, that the current building has the opportunity to provide affordable senior living as a possibility, where it can be local, it can be walkable, so forth. So I think that could be a really neat thing. And Laporte, as a Y kid myself, Laporte's ready for a new facility. mayor i'm gonna say something my father and them they got out of school they lived at the y they had apartments oh yes that's the way it was i think i remember that because when we were young we used to knock on his dad's door and then run down the stairs man when you were young you weren't even thought of buddy i'll tell you that now other comments miss west

I don't have a comment, but I have something I want to bring up.

Please.

Your Honor, I move to untable the fire station building corporation appointments. Second.

Motion and a second to untable.

Burt Cook thinks it's a different adjective, but it's sufficient.

You know, it's funny. I thought that before, too, but I'm sitting here scrambling in my mind going, I don't think it's supposed to be untable. It's supposed to be something else. Remove from the table. Remove from the table. There you go.

So I do have a motion and a second to remove from the table. All in favor?

Aye.

Councilwoman West.

Your Honor and Counsel, I move to appoint Dennis Keveston to the Fire Station Building Corporation, and we are waiting on two other individuals for their responses to fill the other two appointments. But as of right now, I would like to appoint Dennis Keveston.

Do I have a motion and a second? Any comments about Dennis that you'd like to add?

He's a longtime prosecutor, lives right down, not too far from here.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion passes. And I know Ms. West, as the public is here, something that you're considering that has been an issue, I don't know if you want to share, but you're encouraging public

discussion regarding construction especially along the lakes i don't know if that's something you want to share but i think it's a a good public discussion absolutely yes um will definitely need to be addressed we just have some situations out on along our lakes where property owners are building um their homes, taking homes down, building a new home, and they're staying under code, but they're also obstructing views of owners behind them, so they're now losing their lake views. And for me, I don't think that is right, so we definitely need to revisit that to make sure that that doesn't happen to our residents that are here. 365 days a year, spend their money here, and they bought their home for the Lakeview, not for the home itself, and so it needs to be addressed as we move forward.

And if realtors, builders, individuals have questions, comments, they can email you? Absolutely. That email address?

Oh boy, jwest at cityoflapportin.gov. Absolutely or call me 2 1 9 6 0 8 1 8 4 9 and it's something that like I said We need to address because if no one's behind you then that's that's a different story But I don't think it's right to take the view of someone who has purchased that home for the Lakeview Other comments

Mayor, I was after dinner last week. We went for a ride afterwards with our little guy and ended up at Kessling Park, and all the baseball fields were filled, games going on, and there was a parent versus kid baseball game going on. Bases loaded, and our clerk treasurer came up to bat.

Sacked fly.

I was hoping for a home run, but she did get a hit. She scored a run.

Yeah.

Love that But it that it was packed though. I mean every field there's games going on.

It was it was pretty cool to see Here I have a comment mr. Galloway, this is Wow For your long report I have to say Wow Yeah And then make a motion to adjourn. She knows what I'm talking about.

Do I have a second?

Second.

And by the way, I didn't see, I forgot Mr. Jakowiak is here and he was the one that led the warrant today. And just a reminder, every day they're putting their life in danger to keep our community safe. So thank you and all the police officers. With that, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?