Town Council - Regular Meeting

Yes, so sorry about being delayed.

We, of course, we have a new clerk. This is Nicole Carr.

Very nice to meet you. I know you have a lot to learn and a lot to go through. Yes. So we will go over some of that stuff tonight. Some of the things that we're still working on. So I'm first, I'm going to open the hearing. It is 610. And this is for the new water ordinance rates and charges. This is ordinance number 202603. it was read at the last meeting does anyone have any questions about the updated water ordinances per the judge um we updated everything that they asked us to do and so i want to make sure i got this in the church too okay Does anyone have anything to ask or input? Before we go, this is the hearing. How long do we have to go? Anyone? Anyone? Passing? Okay, then I'm going to go ahead and close the hearing. Is it 6.01? 613, I lost my 10 minutes. Okay, we're going to go on to the voting ordinance, amending section 1 of chapter 1 entitled racing charges of article 2 and type of waterworks. Of title 5, entitled public works, transportation and facilities of Lakeville town code. This is ordinance number 20, 2603. AND I CAN CONFIRM IT WAS PUBLISHED FOR THE PUBLIC HEARING AS REQUIRED. CAN WE HAVE THE PUBLICATION? I AM GOING TO ASK FOR A MOTION TO GO AHEAD AND PASS ORDINANCE NUMBER 202603. AYE. I WANT TO MAKE A MOTION FOR THIS ORDINANCE.

YOU WANT A MOTION TO PASS?

I need a second motion to pass.

Aye. Lori Kelly, second that motion.

All those in favor? Got a roll call. Got a roll call. Aye. Lori Kelly, what is your vote?

Present. Aye.

Yes. Dean? Aye. Do I just say April Hathaway? Aye. You can also, you can just say I am also an aye. I am also an aye. We've never done that one before like this, so. Okay, let it be known that ordinance number 202603 is passed.

Is that number five on the agenda?

Yes, that was number five. Yeah, we want to get it out of the way, though.

I kind of sped through three and four together.

Yeah, it's okay. Okay, this does need to be filed in downtown. Okay, so those are some of the things to talk to Vicki about, okay?

We are going to...

Does the court have anything for us to start off with this evening? Yes. No, probably not.

No. Okay.

So usually what we will do during the meetings is we will usually go through and we will do all of the first step first, which will be APBs, the minutes and all of that sort of thing. Okay. Anything that we need, we'll do that first, get it out of the way, and then we'll go through the next departments. Okay.

And that's the kind of thing that you generally send out ahead to the council members so that they can review them ahead of time. Because otherwise you're stuck reading the minutes at the meeting. That's kind of the stuff that we already talked about.

So, and it will become normal. We'll get it. We did have minutes from 8-20-26. I read them. You did read them? Okay. Then I'm going to ask for a motion from everyone to go ahead and approve the minutes. Lori Kelly, what do you say? Aye.

All right.

You got to make a motion. Oh, yeah. I'm not used to doing the roll call thing. I'll make a motion. Okay. Thank you for the motion. Lori Kelly. I second the motion. Lori Kelly, what is your vote? Aye. I second the motion. Okay.

Yes. Aye.

And I also do I, so we're going to go ahead and OK the minutes. Sorry guys. We're in a little different situation here than we've ever. You're doing great, Lori. Thanks, how are you? OK, so here's the minutes and that's our case and sign except for Lori. So tonight we are skipping over APBs. We are still in some learning processes and needing to figure out some reports and stuff. And so on our 9-17 meeting, we will do APBs only for that during our work session. We will go ahead and vote for those. Let's see. Utilities.

uh first thing is uh the community crossing grand open for street paving for next year uh i don't know if you've had a chance to start on any of that or i have not yet okay and i don't know have you found the paperwork that i've already given jacqueline or do you need that again no i think i have everything in a file okay it okay

Okay, so it's okay. We'll get there.

The community crossings grant is super important for us because we don't receive monies for that. So we have to go through grants to fix our streets.

And that closes on the 30th. We only have until September 30th. Yeah, okay. Tower update. Right now, I think they've got all the concrete work done. We're waiting for paving, which will probably be in the next couple years, possibly. and they're doing the fencing around the tower.

Okay.

So that's where that's at right now. This Friday, we'll be having a company come in to calibrate all of our meters for the filter plant and the lift stations for their annual calibration. Also, We pretty much finished up all the brush pickup from the storms. So we tried helping everybody as most that we could of getting all their limbs and everything hauled out. So most people worked with us if they needed a truck or something or we went out and got everything picked up. So we're pretty much done with that. And the only other thing I have, I don't, this will be something for the clerk also, is I don't know if any money ever started getting transferred into the infrastructure fund. Then we need to check on that and make sure that that is getting put in there monthly or whatever we decide.

Okay.

So this is where we started a fund for future water tower, because when we came on the scene, there was nothing for us to begin to do a process for the new water tower that had to be done. Okay.

And I think that there's a memo that tells how to do it.

Yes.

So if you need that, I can forward that to you again because I think I have it in my email.

That would be wonderful. Just so that way I know where I can put it and I don't have to dig through everything to try and sort through the mess.

That's all I have.

That's all you have? Okay, we're going to go on to the lead chief.

Thank you. Our activity for August of 2026 had a total of 216 calls per service. Of that, we had 16 assists to St. Joseph County Police. Had a suspicious person on Linden Road, a domestic on New Road, traffic hazard New Road, a suspicious person on Madison Road, fighting progress Southland Avenue, crash on Shively, crash on Riley Road, harassment report Pasadena Avenue, burglary on Riley Road, domestic on telegraph port which is in riddles lake uh mental investigation pine road traffic hazard riley trail traffic hazard mulberry road traffic hazard millet road those are all right after the storm on that tuesday uh mental investigation on quinn road and a standby on new road we did assist marshall county sheriff's department with one call it was a fight in progress at the speedway and the paths and had one assist the north liberty police department uh mental in progress uh pedal drive at the meadows Took a total of eight reports, two driving while suspended, two threat reports, one non-criminal information, one property damage, one crash report, one battery. Had a total of three arrests for the month, of which one were the intimidation threats and two driving while suspended. We wrote 14 tickets for the month and two local ordinance violations. We did have a great annual, we had our Barks and Brew event. It's our first annual and had it in conjunction with Lakeville Fire Department. At the same time, they had their car show on. It was an absolute great event with everybody. We raised close to $2,000 for the not-for-profit for that. And we have begun planning for fall festival. Talk to the school. We'll get volunteer students from FFA and DECA again. And our club is already confirmed again this year for the first time.

Okay. Is there anything you want to discuss about forward enforcement?

So the only thing I would say at this point in time, there really wouldn't be a need for Jess helping out. Our busiest time is always, especially in May, where we have issues. And I have had Jess help me in the past back when he was full-time for me as well. But at the current point in time, it wouldn't be anything that would be needed with him coming.

This trailer over on Patterson Street is sitting there with no plates and lights and so on. What's the deal with that?

I believe it's the people from the chimney, so they've actually got it. I saw they had it emptied out last weekend, but it's just a small carry-along. It's not something that they're going to be able to leave on the road with, I don't know. And it's in there probably three weeks already? Two weeks, yeah, about. But yeah, they started emptying it out last week.

Okay. on the red house or the one across the street don't that be on the other okay never mind his dad's house

The one in between? Yes. Okay. I'll have to look into that. So I'm sorry. Yeah, that's not our plan, but. I mean, it's. What was it? Our plan.

Just overgrown the backyard trash. It doesn't even live there now. Okay. I will look at that tomorrow.

Are you comfortable with that or do you want to wait?

I think most of this was done before.

I think it's correct. Okay. I think we will do APBs. Well, do you have anything else you would like to talk about? I'm going to write it down, okay? Okay. Okay, we're going to go ahead and look at the APD. Now, Lori hasn't seen the APD, so. Lori, we have a total for the APDs of 33,662.28, and they are all, I think, before, that were finished before the clerk, right? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, before the new clerk. Okay. Do you want us to go ahead and go forward with it, or do you want us to wait until the 17th?

Let's wait until the 17th on those, and then she can get a little more caught up, too.

Sorry.

Okay.

We'll just hold on to it. Also, I was questioning for the The contract for Jacqueline, Lori?

We need to amend Exhibit A. I don't know if we can just handwrite that in there as to what her duties were until the day she left.

Okay, so that she wouldn't wait for that time frame if she was in helping others.

Yeah, so Exhibit A needs to be filled out. We approved it, but we did not fill out what her duties were. Got it. Even if we just handwrite those in to approve that tonight so you shouldn't get paid for those last two weeks.

I do not have that contract on me.

Sorry, I should have had somebody pull that out today. Then we're going to have to hold that off until the 17th also.

Okay.

So for the 17th, let's get that pulled out and we'll fill out Exhibit A. And that way it's completely ready.

Okay. Thank you. Yep. RDC. Did we get the number eight?

Yeah. It was very brief and he said he didn't need the help right now.

Okay, well, I wanted to bring up the beer in business again. I don't know how long I've complained before, and I don't care if I sound like a complainer.

Because it's been several years this building has looked like this. Yeah.

And I think we need to do something about it. It's still in the other person's name. Well, then why is it now in your face? There's more. It's now in tax.

It's up for tax, though. But the property got transferred over to Marion Assets LLC 2020, which wasn't, that's when they did the exchange. So if we sign... tax records, that's who the property owner is.

So do we start marrying them?

Yeah, but they're not, they never paid any financial, they never paid anything for it.

So there's a...

The county was supposed to be working on that back in June to get it transferred back. Can't you put a lien against it until it's paid for? Once it goes through.

Once it goes through, but it's not through.

We have to do it to, the owner is still Victor never sold the building, but according to tax records, when they signed, they had to sign an easement for the, because the building's currently condemned and deemed a hazardous building currently at this point in time. So I worked with county to get that portion of it done. So that has a shared wall. In order for Adam Pendle to close last year, he had to sign, and that was back in 2025, he had to sign an easement for that one wall. Well, when county recorded it, They recorded it as a transfer of deed and transferred everything over to Marion Assets LLC. And the way we discovered that, myself and the building department, when we started the process of siting them, because then that was the change of ownership. So the county assessor and recorder were the ones that were supposed to get that corrected. So that's what we've done. It's back to the bank, right? Yeah, it's just the bank that foreclosed on Illinois.

so it's going to look like this until somebody buys it on a tech sale or is there something the county can do about it well that's what i've been talking about okay you know we've got a new business owner here that's in our in that building and that part of the building's not going to make hers look any better so i just

We are highly frustrated with it, and this is the hang-up is what you just heard.

Okay, well, I'm just glad somebody...

So when does it go up for sale?

September. I think tax sale is September 30th, I believe.

Probably at the end.

Yeah, I think it's September 30th.

So what does that mean? You pay the back taxes and you own the building? No.

You get a tax sale certificate, and then when we're talking... You get a tax sale certificate when you're the tax sale purchaser, and then... if nobody redeems the property for the following year after the tax sale, then you can apply to the court for a tax fee, and that takes a couple of months before it gets to you. Oh my goodness.

Yeah, they have a year to come then.

Yeah, the redemption period's a year.

Although what it seems is, at this point, logically, it seems like he's letting the building go, is what I'm...

see me but right right okay rdc rdc we put we started uh putting the wet water uh waterproofing the the cool thank you much call space underneath the barn um that's maybe as far as we get this year because some of the quotes came in are more money than what i have and yeah my uh You know, payment in June was about $60,000 less than what I was hoping to get. And so I've been reaching out to a couple different places in Indiana. Financial, they don't loan money for that kind of thing. They told me to reach out to our local government. I've already done that. And I actually called Ron Mangus today at the Indiana Bond, and I haven't heard back from him yet. Okay. That's kind of where I'm at. Okay. But I'm really anxious to get started. I know if I put it off another year, it's going to be more expensive next year. And so I'm still waiting on two more bids to come in or quotes to come in. Okay. That's where I'm at. Anything else? No.

Any meetings recently?

Yeah, we did have one. We passed our budget for next year. Okay. It's about the same as last year, but $50,000 less than what we normally have. Okay. That's about it.

Okay.

EDC? EDC? Well, we're in the process. We're going to have a budget meeting on the 21st, Monday, for the EDC. Replacing the flowers in the next couple weeks.

Okay.

Two months, we'll be pulling those out. Okay. Also, we've been in contact with Allen Edwin of trying to maybe start another housing complex just south of Morningside.

They're full. They're very interested.

When I talked to the guy, he said, let me get ahold of the guy that buys the property, the financier that buys, purchases the property. So they're all about wanting to do something. financier who buys, purchases the property. So they're all, they're all going to want to do something. So we're going to probably have to annex that part. That's one annexation. And then we're trying to annex 84 Lomer and that property itself. Okay. So we're in the process of doing that.

Welcome Esther Megan.

Yeah. She opened up a shop.

I'M EXCITED ABOUT THIS. THAT'S NICE.

APPRECIATE THAT. SO EVERYBODY, I'M EXCITED. MAYBE WHILE EDC IS, SHE COULD, YES, GO AHEAD AND ASK QUESTIONS. ONE THING, WITH THE SECURITY SYSTEM, I'M TOLD I MIGHT NEED A From the town, the city?

No, mainly not security systems, as long as you're not changing anything structurally. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Where would I go to find out about getting signage, like on the bypass, especially with Potato Creek, going to be?

You just got to call those phone numbers on the signs that you see available. There's usually a phone number on there.

People that already have billboards up.

Yeah, it's about $1,200 a year per sign. Like on the U.S. 30 for Swan Lake, it's $1,200 a sign. But you have to go through the state and have them make the sign. There's an additional, there's a charge for creating the sign the first time. Then after that, it goes to $1,200 per sign per year.

Per year, that's basically $500 a month.

You've got to get ported.

We had your best skill for it.

So, like, if Potato Creek has a sign... Mm-hmm. They have to do the same thing. Yes. All of those. Are you talking about a state sign or a billboard?

You're talking about really advertising.

Really advertising.

A billboard you would create and put it on the property, someone's property, is that what you're talking? Or are you talking to green information signs? No, she's talking about billboards. Billboards.

I'm talking about some sort of signage on the bypass that tells you about this town. You know, the potato Creek is here. You know, there's. Yeah, that sounds like a state information.

Yeah, so then who did the little signs? We paid for those.

and that's why we ended up with trying to do some of our own way finding signs like restaurants and like what was available like amenities you know towards the area because we you guys had to do those things yourself yeah okay yeah and then um

Is there money at all, like to help with my sign that's going to be going up? Is there, where do I look for that? That will be, yes. Okay. So you can take care of town money or town rights. No, just redevelopment. Oh, okay. Businesses?

Yeah. Okay. Okay.

The sign will need a permit, though. It just can't be larger than four by eight.

It's going to go right in where that sign already is. Do you know where we're talking about?

Yes, I know.

So I need a permit for that?

Yeah, just the location. Normally, that's what the sign company is. A lot of them will just contact us for it, but it just can't be bigger than four by eight, which either one of their miles probably may be. But yeah, that would be the largest that could be 32 square.

So how, what do I, how do I do that? What do I do?

Whenever you find out which sign company you're going to use. I know, I know. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

If you want to, you can stay or you can leave. It's up to you.

Okay. And you can leave it anytime you want. Okay.

Okay. So now we're moving on to, were you done? I'm done. Thank you. Yeah.

Okay.

Fire territory. Have you had any meetings yet? So they're looking for funds to

also their deficit for their ambulance service.

So right now, currently, we pay 26% of the fire emergency money. So that equals out to around, I think it was roughly, I'm just going by roughly because I don't have the numbers in front of me right now, roughly $175,000 a year.

That's through our tax base.

So because we live in Union Township, the taxes coming off of Lakeville residents is 26% of what it is. Now, we all know that the reason why we made the fire territory is we could not afford to carry the actual fire department. So therefore, we get into that. You set the tax rates. Right now it's at 0.22 some cents per 100. We actually have, Lakeville actually has 0.33. 34 cents per 100. So we're already paying a higher tax bracket because that is what helps us run our town. So 22% of it goes to fire, okay? And the other cents go to us to run our town. So that's where we're at right now. What I have heard through the meetings, having watched the meetings, yeah. So our property tax is 0.34 cents.

I thought it was even with the township.

Yeah, 22 cents. Each of us do 22 cents. But the reason we only pay 26% is because we only have 400 and some homes. They have 1,500 homes.

But we're on the same tax base.

We're on the same tax base, but we actually pay, our people in Lakeville residents pay 34 cents, not just the 22 cents. Because that other piece of that money helps us run count. That's where we get our money through a tax base. So 22% of our taxes, okay, goes to FIRE. So can I correct you? Yes. It's 15%. 15%? Yes. Why do you think it's 15%?

Because that's what it is. It's 15%.

Not according to county, it's not. Yeah, not according to county.

But it's the buyer territories that come up with the buyer territories budget to bring themselves out of the deficit. Right, I understand.

So what we're being asked is that they want us to update our interlocal agreement They want us to raise our tax base to $0.40, but we're already at $0.34. So I don't think she may not have been aware that, yes, we pay 22%. I mean, $0.22, they have $0.22, but we also have an additional to actually run the town of Lakeville. So we're already at $0.34 on the $100. around there, roughly. I don't have everything from that, yeah. So they are getting right now like about 170, 75,000 from us per year to help run the fire.

But that's the fire. Correct. Correct. And that's what the deficit is. Correct.

Although I'm not sure why there's a deficit. When that was all accounted for and did not get brought up to us about an extra person before. But anyways, that's a whole nother topic. OK, what we want to make sure is that we're going through everything with a fine tooth comb because I don't know how comfortable we are right now with actually raising the tax base because within 24 months we could have township changes which would also end up changing fire territories. So therefore, we're just looking at everything, okay? And we just want everybody to know we are looking at it. We don't know what the decision is yet.

I have no idea what we're talking about. We ain't talking to anybody about joining the Territories.

I understand that. But what we are looking forward in the next 24 months of townships being put together When that happens, there's something that's going to change with fire territories. There's no way that it's going to stay. Lakeville's going to have their own fire territory. Green's going to have their own. There's no way that it's going to, they're going to change everything at that point. Okay. Well, we didn't make the deficit. We didn't agree with the deficit.

The fire territory did. Is that true? So the fire territory, when we voted on the third position, which would be uh one extra manpower per shift um when the budget numbers that i saw and the money was there in the budget when we voted on it yeah specifically yes and then afterwards from my understanding the money had to get moved out of that fund and then went over to township side and that's what created the deficit so where's that money the the million dollar bond that the township took correct you know or the ambulance you know

The DLGF put it in the wrong account and they had to get it out of that account. That's the numbers you're looking at. So it showed like a million dollars, whatever in that account. So that money had to come out because it didn't, that money is not for fire. That money is only for ambulance supplies and personnel. So when that money came out, what money was used for the ambulance came out of that money, but The money was taken out of that account. That puts the account in a deficit by the end of the year.

Do you realize that even this year, even if we raise tax base, it's not going to help that deficit right away? Because do you know how much we have to run this town?

No. Okay. That would be, we're running at $469,000 to run our whole town.

That's what we make. That's everything we bring. So.

So, you know, my suggestion is you guys talk after this meeting is over. Yeah. About, they have the fire territory meeting on Thursday. Right. So in all the budgets and everything's got to be done.

I have a feeling that the trustee knows how much we bring in. I have no idea. I'm sure of it. It's easily accessible. She said it's public record. It's public record. So to run our whole town yearly, that's what we make. Do you know how much the township brings in? $1.5 million.

We do not get that.

Roughly. Well, that's because, of course, it doesn't all go to fire. There's 600 and some thousand that goes to fire. The rest goes to run whatever else they need to run, whatever they need. That is incorrect. Not according to St. Joe County.

I have a question. Yes. I can ask. The million dollar bond that you took out was to help fund the ambulance and people to run. Is that correct? The ambulance, yes. Not quite. There's a shortage. Right. So are we still not under contract with ambulance in St. Joe County yet? Another year or so?

Two years.

Two years. So why are we hiring people to run our ambulance if we're still under contract?

Well, we want to take somebody else. Is that what you guys want? You guys want Southfield to come down here? Well, I don't know.

If you don't have money to pay somebody, this is public opinion.

If you don't have money to pay somebody, why do you hire?

My question is, does the County of Lakeville want union fire creditory to provide ambulance services to County of Lakeville? Absolutely.

But we also, well, it won't be this year because even if we raise taxes, you won't be getting $300,000 because we don't have $300,000.

And that's for the board on Thursday to come up with numbers.

Yeah, because we run on pennies.

Well, you can take $300,000 and give it to them and the top of them have no money to run on.

Right on. So what's being between the territory? It absolutely is. It absolutely is. But that's the reality, Travis. So just so you know, that's why we have been very hesitant to raise taxes at the moment.

So when we lost the ambulance service two years ago, why are you challenged?

No, we're not going there.

It's already gone over. The town is the one that complained the most that we didn't have an ambulance service. Now that we have an ambulance service, now the town's complaining the most. About paying for the service. I haven't heard anybody complain.

I'm giving you plain out facts that we don't have $300,000 sitting. I have no idea what you guys have. Well, look it up. It's very easy. You can't pull money out of thin air. There's no money here to give you $300,000 in 2026. There's nothing there.

That's for you and your council to talk about.

Well, I'm just letting you know the realities, Travis.

There's no reason to get mad at me.

I'm not mad.

I'm not the one who made the vote.

I'm just, I'm not mad. Okay, time out.

I'm not mad at all. Hold on.

Hold on. I have something to say here. I was still in the territory when that vote was made. But when that vote was made, we were also under the impression that it was already covered. We were given misinformation when we made that vote. You have since moved to the money that was not there. So how we can be obliged to continue with that vote after the money was taken out of the account, I don't know how that can happen.

You can't do all of the decision-making and then all of a sudden you're like, well, you need to come up with $300,000.

We were told it was there when we made that vote.

Yeah. That's where we're at. I know it's not you.

You're the fire chief. Let's move on and get the right parties involved, okay? Correct. Please. Yeah. You're going nowhere right now.

I'm not doing anything. I'm just cutting out the information so that Travis knows the information.

Can I ask one question? I remember when you started the ambulance service, you were in favor of having three people. I remember saying that that You're meeting with him? Yes. You asked him before, and he says, well, can't you use three? No, I mean, that's what I said. Right. No, you wanted four, and you said, why can't you start with three? Now you got five. No. No. We got three.

Got three. No, I respect both when we made that vote. That was, at the time, the discussion came up, and they wanted four. But your three or your four is technically either six is going to be either three guys or six guys. It's just an extra man per ship.

Right.

And then that is where at the time, because we saw what money we had and those monies would have been coming from that bond that was in cooperation with the town and the township to get those monies to get up the ambulance service and get that running. So we had the money and then that was both Irish and I were fully on board with that. and had said that was our only thing was why don't we just start with three right now, one per shift, and do that. And then that was what we voted on, to get that extra, to get that up and going, and then to give basically then off of if a fourth one is needed, it definitely would show itself. And that's where you could have a track record of saying, no, we couldn't respond to this many calls because we didn't have a fourth person. So that's what we voted on based upon those funds being there. which would also not deplete the funds as quickly since it would be operating in a deficit. And then, you know, later on, just like Travis had said, that's when DOJF, so then that money had to be moved to a different account. And then the fourth fireman was voted on by township, under township. So the three of them, so one position, three guys was voted on under fire territory to bring that on to get the ambulance service up and going. So that way would be a quicker response time for all the citizens of Lakeville and even surrounding support. So we wouldn't be waiting on Medic 10 or Medic 11 for half an hour. So.

And not one person on this board has complained about that ambulance.

I never said this board, I said this town.

Okay, well, you can't burn down a board for people's opinions in town. Sorry, Lori.

No, you can't say it was people in this town. They could have lived in the township, the town, or neighboring facilities. People complained. A lot of people complain. We get it all the time. You cannot specifically say that they were from the town.

So I would say in speaking for Fire Territory Board, I think the biggest, and this is what the thing I had stressed initially at the meeting, yes, the whole reason I voted in favor of that position was 100% we need it. I'm not saying, and I don't think, I haven't heard from anybody In the Community that would say that we don't we don't need that we need the ambulance service. This is something and i'll bring it up numerous times is something George had worked on for the longest time was in full favor of it a fire department and ambulance service working together and with the town. However, you know I voted on a position that was funded and then of course obviously now it's not so there's nothing you can do about that again. Currently, except moving forward and basically you know that's what I discussed the fire territory meeting is and that's what we're going to need numbers. and working with the clerk to see what we would even have as numbers and our options.

So our general fund runs on $207,000. That's our general. The other pieces of that money goes to each department and how that works. There is no surplus. There is no actual anything like that happening. So these are the things that are realities for us, and we also know that if we don't raise the taxes, it's been stated that possibly they might just leave us and leave the fire territory, but then both entities will get harmed tax-wise. That will be a much larger tax hike. It's not healthy for either one of us tax-based-wise, but... We're not done deciding things, but we just want people to know that we are thinking about it. We are figuring out what we could possibly do. All we can honestly say openly is we don't have a savings account of money sitting there to give to anyone. We have employees to pay. We have police to pay. So. It's a lot to consider even putting, especially, like I said, with the township issue where the townships becoming merged, and it's a good possibility that that's going to happen in the next 24 months. We're not sure raising the taxes at this point right now is the right thing to do because they're going to turn around and readjust everything and tax people again when those mergers take place. which could even up our property taxes even more. And these are the things that are on our plate because we have a town to run. We have roads to lay. We have water. We have sewer. Our whole goal is to make sure that the town is actually working first. And then one of the most important things for us is emergency services. I'm really tired of the banter. I'm tired of the fabricating of what town has said and what they believe and what they feel. And I think there's a lot of things that just it's being done on purpose to make sure that we're agitated about it. I'm not really happy about that. But you can't come to a town after this has all taken place after voted on that the money was there. Now the money's not there. That you cannot just come to somebody who brings in 400 and almost $500,000 and say, we need $300,000 because it's not going to work. There's nothing there to give. And you can't loan that out. It's not going to happen. So, I mean, also certain entities work differently than others. We don't follow the same as everybody else does either. We run very differently than a township does. There's a lot of Indiana code that's very different for us. Anybody else have anything else to talk about on that subject? Laurie, is there anything else you'd like to input on that? No, I think I've included more than my share. I'm not mad at all about anything. I just need people to understand.

I read the numbers last month on our annual service. Okay. 88% of the calls are for your township.

It doesn't matter. These people live in Union Township.

Well, I know that. Well, I'm just letting you guys know that 88% of the township...

The reason why... Our police coverage. We understand that. Patrick just gave a list of where he spent all his police coverage, and it was out in the township. A lot of it.

I don't mean we respond to Patrick every time he goes out.

I'm just saying that you guys have a lot of coverage from our police department that should be staying right here in Lakeville and taking care of us. There's county police that can take care of anything. I know he has an agreement with the county. But at the same time, if I need him and he's out in the county or township working, then that puts us at a... That's when you talk to Patrick about it. Well, I know. But I'm just saying, maybe we charge the township for coverage out there.

How many calls did we actually have?

Last time we had 52. No. For the...

So 32 of those calls were EMS calls. What time? I think 28 was for the county.

So 28 calls makes this 88%? No, that's for the whole year. Or since June 1st. Right.

And I get it. And we understand. We get it. We get where you're coming from. We understand what you're saying. We understand what is going on. It's just the reason that that was set up The fire territory is so that we have even taxation across the board because the town of Lakeville could not put those types of bills. You understand? Like, we are not that kind of money-making entity. We don't have 1,500 homes being taxed to give you more money. We have 1,500 of something.

Okay, so I as a taxpayer pay the exact, living in town, I pay the exact same percentage as what Irish pays living in a township. Correct. Percentage-wise, per dollar, we pay the same amount, Irish.

Correct.

Why are we, as people that live in town, going to be punished to have to pay more? Right now, we pay the exact same percentage per dollar. for our taxes. Why am I going to be punished because I live in town?

So like right now, the township pays for the invoices, 100% right now. Okay.

So it's not involved in territory at all? No.

So the territory right now does not pay nothing.

But where did that money come from from the township? It came from the taxpayers, which we pay the exact same percentage. So why am I going to be charged again to pay for emergency services.

The fire territory does not pay a dime on that bond.

I understand because it's separated as the fire territory. But I'm not talking about what the name of the entity is. I'm talking about what I pay per dollar on the value of my home versus what anybody in the township pays per value per dollar on the value of their home.

So it should be the exact same. She's saying if we raise...

And right now, actually, our people... Not if we raise, but if the town has to pay more, then the town needs to pay more money to go towards this. The township already has the money out of taxes. So if the town's giving more, then the town itself is giving more money per dollar amount of the value of their property. I don't know how to explain this. The IRS, you and I are paying the exact same percentage right now in taxes. Whether that tax money goes to the police department or the fire department, that's not for us to decide. But we're paying the exact same amount. So why is the town going to have to pay additional on top of what we already pay to provide services? We're paying the exact same amount. We're already paying the same amount. Irish and I are paying the same amount.

For fire protection.

Not for ambulance service. Ambulance service is all funded through the township.

Which is money that we paid on our tax. So are you, okay.

To a degree, yes. I don't know where our money goes at specifically to the county that we paid on. What they use that for.

So this is specific money that they want just for the ambulance. which we do support the ambulance. But the whole thing is we already paid $0.34 on the $100. Township does not because we also have a town to run. So therefore, we're also paying fire, plus we're paying town money to run a town.

So you got to understand that's why we're... You guys are paying for fire, but not ambulance service.

Correct. So... Yes, I need help to...

Are you good?

Yeah, sorry. I have alarms going off over here.

So the fact that Lakeville's in the township should cover some of that, I think, right? You know what I mean?

And it gives us a question, yes, township. Where does our tax dollars go that we pay the township? On your tax...

The $175,000 that we pay in taxes to the township for fire, somehow something needs to be done differently. What is it? We can't be the full tax funding and fully taxing. We can't be the only ones paying for the ammo. If that's what she's stating. We can't be the only ones being taxed for the ammo.

And that's the second option there, I think, is to dissolve the fire territory.

If we do that, the taxes rocket on both ends.

For one year, and then rejoin, but merge EMS in with that. So then you have fire and EMS.

Do you want your taxes to go up now, or do you want your taxes to be split from them, and it be different like that, and then we end up with... Well, we have a deficit now. Well, that was not something that we created. That was not something that was approved. Patrick, do you have to re-explain that again now? But you okayed, those monies were okayed.

The monies were in the fund.

The monies were in the fund, therefore they voted on that being said. So now you come back, not you, but the township comes back and says, oh, We don't have enough money to cover it. You need to give us $300,000. That's not how that works.

Thursday's meeting, it's an open meeting.

Yeah. I won't be there.

No.

Because she knows exactly what she's doing.

So who is going to be there from your board? Patrick, will you be there? I mean, God, no.

No.

I will not be there. We have, listen, this is little town of Lakeville.

Yeah.

We need to all get along.

Because I really can tell you that I'm seriously, I, we didn't start this.

So why don't we all talk about this today? I've tried. You have heard me.

Listen, you've heard me for months. You've heard me for months. The last time I heard that, the next day, we had an appeal filed against me.

So we all need to get along, and we all need to talk this stuff out.

We're getting along. We can talk until we're blue in the face, and it's going to come back and kick us.

You want to get along? Stop separating. We had X amount of calls to the town, X amount to the territory. Stop separating us. Does Pat do the police separate us? No. You are the ones who separate us. You put us in a different category.

We have a wonderful relationship with the township within yourself. We had a great relationship. We had a wonderful time. Well, listen, we're not doing anything wrong.

I understand, April. I'm going down to see Ron on Thursday. We're going to get the right people. This is ridiculous.

To do what?

I'll take care of it. Let me work on it.

Because I wanted to get along through all of this. I have been the civil one through the whole thing. I'm not angry.

I'm just stating the facts. There's no money to give you.

There's no money to give you. If you have heard me for months and months, you know exactly how I feel. But I cannot stop what is happening on that side. There's nothing we can do except give her what she wants to make her stop doing the stuff that she has done to the town. That's how I feel at this point. It shouldn't be that way. It shouldn't be that way. We had a great relationship with the township. It is what it is. And we worked super hard to have a good relationship with the township. We worked super hard with them. I'm not angry. I don't think there should be signs. I just think that somebody needs to actually listen to us for once and understand where we're coming from. Because I don't think there is that at this point. I think there's refusal of that, actually. I do not think that they even consider that we're actually running a town on very little money. I don't think they understand why the tax base was set up the way it was to begin with. I believe there's a lot of misleading going on. I believe there's a lot of things that are, Lakeville said this, Lakeville said that, and it's unfabricated. I feel that there are a lot of things that are very frustrating. And I have done all I can to be very calm and to handle things civilly. We're all tired of it, Irish. All of us. Because when we talk, It turns around and gives us other issues.

So when you guys decide to have a conversation with everybody in the same room, it's not going to get fixed?

She's been here several times. Can I put my two cents in? I know I'm just the peon here. Honestly, I wouldn't mind my taxes going up knowing that I have an ambulance that's going to come to my house if something happens to me, my husband, my four kids. Instead of waiting on medic five to come. That's the life of that. They're just around the corner. I agree. We all need to get along because this not only benefits us as a town to have them here, it benefits the whole township.

Okay, but by getting along, you say we do not voice our opinions.

I am not saying that. I'm saying we need to get along. We need to sit together. We agree whether we want to or not. And we need to sit down and look at things. They're not asking for us to write a check for $300,000 today. It's going to take time. But we also have to give it time to work it out so that way we can still benefit from it. the fire territory from the ambulance.

We agree with having the ambulance. No one has ever said that we did not. We agree with wanting to get along. It is not us that's creating the issue. We agree on all of those factors. And frankly, I'm tired of being all about Lakeville's issue when it's really not. I'm over it.

The words that I said. You don't need to have a joint meeting all together. And talk about what? What we're talking about right now. So what you're talking?

Listen, no, no, we're not going to do that. We're not going to do it.

So once you guys figure it out, I'll come back. Thanks, Travis.

Thank you for your time. There's a lot of manipulation going around and I'm over it. Irish. Irish. I will always be friendly and kind to people and I always treat them well. But if no one wants to hear or listen to anything that we have to say or how we feel or what the struggle is for us on this end of things with the type of income that we have coming in. I get what you're trying to do. I have been the civil one. I have been the one that has been the peacemaker for two years. I have been the one that is the one that gets talked to. because other people are not getting along because it creates the stuff. This is the same stuff we did in 1969 when we put in the amble. 1969, 67, 69, whatever year that was, when they created the ambulance department, we had the same issues, the same problems. When we went in and came into office, we went directly to the township and said, look, we don't agree with this weird vibe that has been going on for 50 years. 50 years of people arguing over township and town. We went in and we had a great relationship with them. That ended two years ago. We have been friendly. We have tried our best to do what we can as a town to cover our butts also to do the things that we need to do. We have been considerate. We have not been awful to people, even though there are times where that was very difficult because of how we were being treated. And I'm tired of fabricating and manipulating. There's a lot of that going on, and I'm very disappointed about it. And that's the only thing that upsets me, truthfully, about this whole thing, is manipulating people on what's actually happening, what's actually going on, There's a lot of that. It's unfortunate. I don't like it. It's not me as a person. It's not me naturally. It's very difficult for me to have uncomfortable conversations like this. I full heartedly support the ambulance being here. But it's not that easy for us to come up with $300,000.

So it's a problem. It's a problem. So And we all work together to see what we can. I'm just, I'm not pointing.

I would love to work that out, but I have a feeling it will be one sided and what someone else.

We're assuming, right?

That's been the experience.

Well, let's, let's maybe things will change. Let's take another shot at it. This is called. Wow.

Well, there's a lot of manipulation on a lot of... He has to work with her all the time, them, her, whoever, the boards, whoever, by her territory. I understand because this is his every day. He's going to be upset because they need certain things. And we're frustrated because we don't have that kind of money to do what needs to be done. Because that's the reality of it. We're upset because we don't have that. And in order to do that, we have to tax everyone. And we already paid 0.34 per 100. So if we tax and raise it another 20 to make it 40 or 15 cents, however you want to go in there, 17 cents and whatever, we'll be paying over 50 cents on the 100. And then if they decide to break merge into townships, okay, there'll be another taxation coming because they're gonna need to split all that money up between all of those, however they make it work, right? It's almost a done deal. St. John County has, it's a done deal. We're just waiting. But you're talking within 24 months. Now, I think a lot of people are hurt money-wise, right? They already are upset that their tax, property taxes have gone up so much I logically say, yes, do it. But we can't just flippantly go out and do it without more conversations and thinking it through and not making panic decisions, not making decisions based on what other people demand of us.

And the way I look at it, it's a business. And if you don't have the money to pay employees, you don't hire them.

Well, there was a reason why they continue to have three people on staff.

There's no money there to pay. There was a reason.

You can sit down and talk all day long, but we can't produce money. We don't have, there was a reason why the fire territory was made. There was a reason why the ambulance and the fire were separate. There were reasons of that. Now I don't necessarily agree with that. It's very antiquated. Okay. Like, Most of the time now you see ambulances are in with the fires. Everything is... But we have to work hard at this one and make sure it's right when we do it. Because if we don't, it will be catastrophic for us financially. For everyone. Because it's not going to Quick, we still have, I mean, the way that the percentages of everything are going up and going up, I don't know about the tax, the property tax. What we're seeing now was outrageous this last time around for people. So you've got to understand, I'm not angry with anyone other than the situation. I know I don't like the fabricating that goes on and I don't like the things that are being said that are untrue and that we don't care. And that we just, it's just not, that's not true. That is not something that has ever been talked about. That is not something that has ever been verbalized. And that's absolutely not true. And it needs to stop the other side. Ashley needs to listen to us for once. Because if they split from us and divorce us on that fire, it's going to hurt both of us. Financially, in general, people's taxes. Not going to be good. You can say that. Well, we'll just charge you. We'll just charge you then. Well, if we don't have the money to give you $300,000, where are you going to pull out the money for an agreement? On people who are already paying township taxes. So, there's a lot to think about.

It's been two years of ridiculous.

It's uncalled for.

Do we have any volunteers left at our fire department anymore? No. Three. Three, that's it? No. So, I mean, the last two years we've lost an ambulance service. It's a lot. And basically our volunteer fire department. It's a lot.

Maybe I'll show up since everybody wants to talk. It's a lot. So let me give you some facts here real quick on what you were talking about. You give 15%. I can give you the exact numbers, and I'm surprised your lawyer does not present you these numbers, but I will, okay? And you say that I'm a problem. That is not. The reason that you were petitioned the day after on the water was because it wasn't road-corrected. So I'm sorry.

You didn't have to do it that way, Kelly. You could have talked to us, but you didn't. You know, you want us to give you free water. That is what the reality is. And we have actually talked about... We called every small town and all of them charged their fire for water.

Not when you're part of the territory. We can call Josh right now who's on board and water board. We can go on and talk to him if you want to right now.

It doesn't matter because you know what? It's going to cost you more for ambulance service than it is for us to have paid mutual water. And the sad thing of it is... Exactly. The sad thing of the whole thing is that you're so petty when you can take a 30% loss on water. And we looked at your bonds. But to go back to what the facts are, you bring $38,303 of assessed values to our 215. So if you take those percentages, that's 15% that your assessed values bring into the territory. That's where that came from. You do not pay the same tax rates as what Irish does because you're not paying back into our assets. So when you pay into a township tax, you are paying for township assistance, you're paying for the cemeteries and the general fund, but you're not paying into the other things. So when we took the bond for the ambulance, we took that under the township funding, which is assets. It does not get taxed back to you as a town person. So that needs to be clarified. You're not paying into the ambulance. Okay. We understand that at this point. okay but i and another thing i want to make sure i've never once said that i'm coming to you and asking you for three hundred thousand dollars i said that there was a deficit and what people need to also understand is is that even though we might get a nine hundred and seventy thousand dollar budget we might only bring in of that seven hundred and i think this year when we do our levies we're appropriated for 730 000 they take 175 000 right off the top of that so we're already taking a shortfall of the 175 000 so we're not getting this big lump sum to do this budget that's where your boards came in they started looking at these budgets they knew what it was going to take to um put two full-time people and one part-time person on at the very beginning of the year they over budgeted so i've been doing a lot of um And, I mean, if Travis was here, he could tell you. We've been doing a lot of cutbacks that how do we fund this third and fourth position? And I would have said this as a fire territory, because I didn't know it was going to be such a big issue tonight. I thought, oh, we were coming here for decision one.

Everybody seems to want to talk about it.

Well, and that's the funny thing, because, like, I would have came here and we could have had a good thing. What irritates me the most is when we have board members that are not present that will sit and say that they were not part of spewing the things out there on Facebook. When I have a staff this thick of how many times she was against the fire department and our services over there. And that's sad. And I thought that we had put that behind us because we just all had tensions in the air. And here we are.

But why are you bringing it up again?

Because you brought it up in a meeting that I wasn't here. I didn't say anything about you not being there. You just said that I am the issue. But anyways, I'm going to cast that, because honestly, this is not a personal issue. Okay? No, no.

This is not a personal issue. Those words do not come from my mouth.

I'm not arguing with you, Lori. I also know that April is saying that I'm the difficult one, that if you can't control the person over here. Listen, I listened to the whole meeting from home. Okay? I know what was said here. We can go back and replay. I don't care if you know what's said here.

I said it in an open meeting. Because I listened to what I said.

Here's the thing. Whenever you come to one of my meetings, I will at least sit there with the actual facts. And you're saying that you give 27%? According to the county, we give 26%. You give 26%? percent for the whole township, but when it comes to the territory, when you look at the assessed values, it is 15% what you bring in. You bring $102,000. You do not bring in $175,000.

We run on three to four hundred thousand, three to five, almost $400,000 to $500,000.

Yes, and you also only have three square miles that you have.

It doesn't matter.

We also have water, sewer. Did you not, because I used to be a town... owner did you not receive double the bills because you're you uh we're not bringing them on that's not true that is not true you know i i pay that's the kind of stuff okay i pay the assistance bills they used to be about the 86 a month now on the average we have a water bond what do you expect well we have a township okay well you're the one that decided to change the ambulance Do you not want it? So here's the question. What was wrong with the ambulance? What was wrong with the ambulance for no effects? They did not provide the 24-7 coverage. Also, North Township was going into their own territory and taking that portion of the ambulance. That's what was wrong with it. Okay, stop.

We know where we're at. We wanted it out in public that we are talking about it, okay? So that you know that we're not just like not... talking about it that we're not talking about what needs to be done not talking about it we have had a lot of issues in the hospital several several several several times we are behind on a lot of things okay we understand it's important but that's also a factor in this also so i can't make the sole decisions for this town are you facing your decisions for this town

All of the residents of this town because you can't have your full board present to make decisions?

No, absolutely not. What I'm saying is the other person is still on the board and still has to be taken into consideration also. Also, the public. The feedback. The over and over. Which, of course, we don't like the drama. Either side doesn't like the drama. None of us like it. But this stems from a while back. And you know, we've already tried to hash it out and try to go through it. I'm over it too, Ellie. Okay? I'm over it. I'm over it.

Because you know what? I came in to try to provide a fair first response for everyone. And you know what? If you were to sit in my inner circle, I have said to these firemen, even though we have people stand out on the... I mean, we have had people stand out and yell at our firemen to... spew and i'm just like just continue to do your job just continue to do your job we all realize that there are particular people that want to throw it all back on me i am sorry i am sorry that i saw this as a business and that i needed to provide a service that is my number one responsibility to this community is to provide them the best first response. And it isn't that Lakeville Inc. could not provide it, but they were not there. When we can cut our response times down. I'm well past the volunteer. No, but I'm just saying, we have to get past it. If you were to bring some of the volunteers that have now come on staff, they appreciate what we're doing over there. And we've heard the cry for the ambulance.

I think we're more likely I would like to respectfully ask you to respect us as a board when you're talking about these things over at your board meetings. There's things on how it is said that I think you need to be sensitive in the fact that there are good people over here also, and I'm just going to put it out there and leave it. Because it's not that we don't want an ambulance. That has nothing to do with it. I have never once said in my board meeting that you don't want an ambulance. What we want, you're going to put all of this ambulance issue on our shoulders, meaning If it doesn't work, then it's all the town of Lakeville's fault. We're not going to carry that burden because there's two sides to this.

No, I watch those meetings. Oh, I watch them too. You know what? I'm there at those meetings and I also watch your meetings. But I have never once, what I have said from a business standpoint, from a business standpoint, you run a business, we run a business over here, that we cannot just continue to give a service that's not being paid for. Whatever Addison Township wanted. And I understand what she's saying. I don't know why the police goes out to the county. Okay? They do. And good for them for going out there. I usually have county police. Whenever I have somebody come to my house. You can't keep dividing it.

Can I say something?

You know where the divide is?

As a sewer engineer.

Yeah.

I think the passion is wonderful. I think a lot of people care about what we're doing, but I think we're not solving anything tonight. I think it'd be better maybe just to everybody say 30 seconds, but then maybe... It's on our... Maybe we should just... Nothing against Natal or the district or anything, but I don't think this is productive, and I think there are two good people sitting here collectively to have this type of discussion. So that's just coming from a sewer engineer.

I had no intent to come to this meeting tonight, but nothing is more frustrating, and I think Lori can admit this because she's not here, is when your name is getting thrown out there and you're just sitting at home going, how did my name get thrown into this one?

People want to say why we're not getting along. We all know it's personality somewhere along the line that started all of this. I didn't have anything. I didn't have much part of that, but we have got to learn. You have got to also understand that we have certain things that we have to do and we have certain things money wise that we're responsible for. And when it comes to the water, OK, for instance, which, by the way, we have brought up the fact that maybe we should consider about free trading water. Laurie, is that right?

Yeah, that's what we used to do with Volunteer Inc. We had a separate contract to give them free training water, and that's actually something that we have been in discussion with. So we're trying to give what we can.

So these are things that are on our minds.

But we would like to bring something to the table, and that would be one of the things we could bring to the table under a separate contract.

where that basically would be an agreement with the training water. It would basically, yeah, you still turn in the slips and tell us how much you're using, and then we account for that.

Well, one thing I do want to clarify is when you hear, and I make this very clear in our meetings, it's recommended from the state level that if we were to ever appeal for any higher tax levies that we have to divorce but remarry. And so I'm very cautious when I say that because I'm not saying oh, we're divorcing you and we're not bringing you back. We have to do it because of new legislation. So I don't know if that's been misheard, but it's never been said that we're just going to divorce you and not bring you back.

But how do you feel like if we did not enter back in as a fire territory, the amount then it can hurt us like tax-wise on both sides. It's not just us that would be hurt by that. It would also be township people.

But our intent isn't that you wouldn't come back. Now, if you chose not to come back in, then you would, as a municipality, have to provide sort of fire protection, and we would provide fire protection.

Those are things that should have been thrown out a long time ago because you know so many people have been running through towns saying whatever they believe and think and say. And we, I think we need to do more where we do town and township meetings in general together. I'm not going to lie on that where it is all of us together at once. I don't know what you would call that, but they're just generally called joint meetings, joint meetings, whatever, because I'm over it. And we're, doing what we can with the small amount of money we have and the small amount of people we have at this point. So just know that we did pass through that ordinance tonight is that with everything that the judge had recommended us change on it. So are we good at the moment?

I've been fine. I mean, honestly, I've been fine, but you've said that from the beginning. So what's, what's good is I can walk out of here and I can be fine. And then it's, oh, somebody has texted somebody else about something and it's just like, but no, as far as the water, I mean, I told him this, me and I was just talking because he knows somebody downstate and I said, you know, it's costing us more to take it legally than it is to just pay it.

Well, just like the water ordinance thing cost us way more than the water bills were.

And I said, you know, originally, It should have just been an agreement that we could have all came to the table and said, what can we agree to do? But it felt like it was more of a, as the fireman said, why would they want to, why would they charge us for training water when it can better us, when it can better serve them? And I'm like, I don't know. At this point, just pay it. And then the other question was just that some of the charges, I mean, I was working with Cindy on, Just something with a different charge. Okay.

And now? Well, we're completely off of the whole $300,000 right now for shortfall. Wow. I mean, that's just water. But when the fire chief comes in and says, what are you going to do about this shortfall? He's looking at us, expecting us to give him money. So that's the problem right there.

And I'm sorry, I was not part of that conversation with you.

I mean, I know at your meetings, because I've listened to those meetings too, at the Fire Territory meetings, and the same thing was said. Ryan Schaefer sat right there and looked at tattoos and said, what are you going to do about the shortfall? And it's like the town's fault that we don't have Lenny.

Well, he was there representing the town of Lakeville though.

He sits on the Fire Territory as the Lakeville representative. So Ryan sat right there and looked at it and said, what are you going to do about it? And so what kind of response would you expect from us? I can't speak for Ryan.

And what about the five minutes per person? Too late for that, Dean.

Have you signed? Have you run in? Have you signed in? I will, yes.

OK, thank you very much.

We've had limits on public comment listed on the agenda for a very long time, and in my experience, I've never maybe one time attempted to enforce them. I can't sit here and say, well, we got to do it right now, or I just said it just one time. Either you're going to do it at all your meetings, and I'm going to have to be the traffic cop because you guys won't support it, or not.

Can we get to some DSG stuff? No, Sam, no.

But I do know that my also prime responsibility is this top. So we have to also think about that part too. Yes, it's a lot.

So why doesn't the top board go back and take their position back and serve two numbers on the 1031? Then you're face to face. Then you're face to face instead of.

Because I was doing it for 10 years.

I didn't take an oath to be on the fire territory.

Do you not want to be on the fire territory?

I was there. I was there for 10 years.

I think it's fresh people that need to be doing it. I can't do everything.

It's not always been a board member that sat on the board territory, because I have sat on it before, too.

I don't think there has been a board. There's always been one member and somebody else.

Right. When I first came on, it was two totally different people that were not board members.

I hooked up to too many wires to be there.

That's fair. Are you ready? Yes. We're going to end this meeting. We've got a couple things from DOC.

Oh, you're here for some reason? We have 11, 12, 13, 14.

I always enjoy the dialogue.

Well, he kind of gave the update on that water tower, so... Well, but it's... We needed to find out about Jacqueline not signing. What we have to do to make sure. So we have...

NO, YOU'RE GOING TO KNOW MORE THAN I DO. SO THE WATER TOWER IS A LITTLE BIT OF A DIFFERENT ANIMAL BECAUSE THE TOWN WAS VERY FORTUNATE THEY WERE ABLE TO SECURE A MILLION DOLLARS FROM THE COUNTY THROUGH THE ARP FUNDING AND THEN $4 MILLION FROM THE STATE IN GRANT MONEY AND THEN THEY HAVE A VERY LOW INTEREST RATE LOAN THROUGH THE INDIANA FINANCE AUTHORITY, SO IT WORKED OUT REALLY WELL, GOOD TIMING. and but but there's monthly bills that have to be paid and it goes you know they get approved by the board go through the finance authority so there's a whole process with that exactly off on those things now you're fortunate enough to to be able to get that all we can do is put together a memo um and provide it to the board and and to you to kind of document the steps that are involved and then we'd be happy to sit down and It's different. Once you do it a couple times, it'll be fine, but it's different than anything else you're going to encounter. Okay.

He's not wrong. It is weird.

Hopefully, we're getting down to the last few months.

It'll go on a little bit next year because the projects came in under budget, so we're able to do some other work on that associated specifically with that type of work. They roll on until next year, but we're happy to sit down and

buy a home where we can so perfect because i believe it and you can always ask me stuff if you don't i mean i'm not going to be knowing the ins and outs of internal procedural stuff but anything else i'll tell you if it's not in my area i'll be going to ask okay i think that's all i got i think andy spoke right pretty much later so i've been there over then i'm

Usually on site. If not, we've got someone named Ryan who's also out there. I guess that's a great point. He's also with DLZ.

Yeah, he's a construction engineer. So he is here frequently periodically watching the construction and that. So he's kind of our eyes and ears on any little bit of some town engineers. So I work with DLZ as well. And then we'll give you all the information and that stuff now. We'll give you it all in the memo and in our contact information. Okay. So.

And he's a pretty cool guy.

He does email.

He leads us through a lot of important things. For a sewer engineer. Thank you. Anyone else? Seriously?

There's a few more things on the agenda.

So our fall, oh, do we want to talk about the laptop? Do we want to have a laptop ordinance to work from home with Keystone for the new clerk?

I just want to look at what the legalities are on having a laptop with the town's confidential information. Do we need an ordinance for that?

I will share Cindy's opinion. She's not comfortable with it. She has told me that herself.

What's legal on it?

I mean, as long as the town has a specific remote works policy and there's procedures in place for security, it's not illegal for town employees to work from home. I mean, that's just what it is. The specifics of how you want to go about doing that to comply with cybersecurity insurance and stuff is kind of We'd have to talk to them about what they would require, but it would be just another like workplace policy, essentially allowing remote work and under what terms.

Okay. And I'm not saying that Cindy has to work from home. I'm talking to me. I work a full-time job that I am not quitting because I was appointed to this position. So if I am not reelected and I quit my job, then. Right. where are you going to get your money to be able to fund? Right. Because I'm not having taxes at that point.

We just need to make sure that we have everything covered.

I'm not comfortable with third-person information going out of the office. Oh, that's what I'm saying.

Oh, you mean like the utility stuff? Or anything. Anybody that receives a paycheck. All their personal information.

So I guess my question is, I work for St. Joe. Regional medical center. I know. And I am remote. So I work at my house. I don't have, I have some pretty good security because if I let any of my patients information out, that's me.

Well, I think that's where the cyber, the protection comes in. The cyber protection. I'm just sharing Cindy's opinion. Right. And that's, And that's fine because it's never been done. And that's probably where that comes into play also. Because we're so used to the last 50 years having somebody that works in the daytime and works the day position. We're not used to all of that. So we'll talk more about this and find out what we need to do.

I would say the first thing you want to do is reach out to your insurer and ask them if they have any specific requirements for remote work policy for cybersecurity insurance. I think that would be the first step. Want to check into that?

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

We just want to make sure everyone's protected, us or everyone.

Sign contract for Jacqueline.

We talked about that earlier. We don't have the contract at the moment. So on the 17th, we're going to talk about that. I'll talk to you more about that. Okay. We have to make sure she gets paid for that time frame that she was here covering. We just need to fill out. Like doing payroll, doing like all of that.

I think she was still getting paid.

No, she's missing two weeks. There's like two weeks downtime, I think.

Yeah. Okay. I'll have to look through there and see. But I'm pretty sure she was done on what?

The 31st of July.

What was that? 31st of July. I think we owe her for the first two weeks of August. Yeah.

Okay. It wasn't very long. Next fall festival is 1010. Lori's words were all hands on deck. Halloween is on Saturday, the 31st. Haunted Woods, Trick or Treat is also 5 to 7.

Well, we need to vote on that time, day, and hours.

Why don't we vote every year when it's the same every year?

I would like to ask for a motion to keep it the same until further notice.

I will second that.

I need a motion.

Oh, I will make a motion. I second it.

Great. All those in favor? Aye.

You got a roll call vote, guys. April? Oh, Lori, what do you say? Aye. Yes.

Dean?

April?

Aye. Yes.

I also say aye.

So now we don't have to vote on it again on this region.

Reminder about budgets. Make sure it gets turned into the clerk and us so that we have them to look at.

Go from there.

Most of you probably have your budgets done because we are behind because usually we do it in the summer. But there was a lot of change in July because of the clerk.

When we do budgets, let's not forget about the... I would like to discuss bringing the board up to a table that would be a little more equivalent with some of our surrounding areas. We make less than half of what our surrounding areas make. So I would just like to look into that when we do budgets and not leave the board out of the budgets like we have in the past.

Agreed. We are considerably under most places. Which is always, and we've always done that just because we felt that that was what we should do.

Work like I do. I tell them to.

Half the time we feel like that's what ours is too. Anyways, anybody else have anything before we close? Do you have anything else you want to talk about or ask her? on your mind? No, just the laptop thing was a big thing. Yeah, check into that and then get back to us and let us know.

So, really quick. Once she has all that figured out, she does need to look for a computer. She does have some quotes. Can we... Look at her.

She's already prepared.

Yeah, can we vote and agree to give her an off as to what her maximum amount should be to... We'll go ahead and purchase one. Can we go ahead and vote on that so she can get started?

Do you make numbers for us?

I'm curious if she works from home. Will you ever be in the office?

Yes, yes.

Just so that way, like tonight with the board meeting, she's... We have lots of questions a lot of times during the day.

Yeah.

I mean, Cindy will be here too, but Cindy's not being paid to cut checks and all that stuff.

Right. Well, she is right now because it's not her job description is what I'm saying. Okay.

I'm just wondering when will you be in the office available to talk to?

What will they know if you're in the office? Are you going to have set times in the office that you come during the week?

So Fridays, every other Friday, I'll either be here from 8 to noon or I'll be here from about 1245 until I go home. Because, or it's going to be an evening.

Will those be new office hours then? No, because Cindy will still be here during, she doesn't work on Fridays.

Right. But I'm not working to collect, like, you guys can come in and see me on Fridays, but the office technically isn't going to be open because the office hours. To public. To public. Yeah.

Do you guys have, do you have a key to get in or do you have? Yeah. Yeah. You're part of town. So if you have to get in and she's here, then she's here. But will you post it, kind of give us a general idea in writing, like what your hours might be? I think that's more what she was asking than anything.

What I do, checks need to be cut every Monday to return.

I mean, if you give me a list of what needs to be done, I'll also come in over the weekend. and get stuff done too. But like I said, I have a full-time job on top of this that I am technically only have to work one hour a year in this position. I know that.

I'm doing what I can to support my family.

and still help the town of Lakeville run. Yeah, thank you.

We appreciate that.

Thank you for stepping forward on that, by the way. Okay. I don't think I have any that are over, like I have two of them that I found that were $699.99. Those are the two most. $700 cap.

$700 cap, you'd be good with that.

With tax, that's probably going to be more than that.

Yeah, add more for tax and delivery.

Yeah, and depending on what the software is that she needs to load on it, although that might qualify separately, I don't think so.

Okay, so what is a good amount to cap it off at that we can vote on so we can go forward with this?

I think there's lots of software that, you know.

I understand that. But do we have an idea of what that is?

So check out some of those and give an idea.

So I would say hardware, probably $800. What? Oh, yeah, duh. Yeah. I'm so tired.

Wait a second. That is, yeah.

You guys have no idea.

$700 laptop, and it's going to cost another $700. We're looking at $14. Should we just cap it at $2 so she's got everything she needs so that way she can get started?

And I'm not asking for the most expensive laptop. I'm asking for the one that has memory. Yeah.

We don't need to go with the cheapest one just because it's the cheapest either.

Right, right. Lori, if you want to set the amount, we'll agree to whatever you decide.

Just in case, can we go ahead and get what she needs?

As long as insurance is called and everything's taken care of on that end. Sure.

To cover everything. Okay. Yes. I'm going to make a motion to go ahead and okay $2,000 for her to cover whatever she needs for a computer and everything else that goes along with that. Compliant with insurance. Compliant with insurance.

I will make that motion.

One second.

Lori Kelly.

Lori Kelly, would you vote yes or no? Yes. Dean, do you vote yes? April votes yes also. So you got $2,000 to work with. Let us know, okay? I'll spend it.

Yeah. Are you in the town floor? Do you know that?

Yes. Okay. Is there anything else we need to talk about before we go?

I don't think so. I don't have anything. I'm going to talk with Vicki. and see when she can come help me.

Good. She's good. She's been doing it for a very long time. Yeah. Okay, then I'm going to close the meeting. What does that say? 751. At 751. Thanks, guys.

Bye, Lori. Get better.